Done last week (20170108Su - 14Sa)

[mdlbear]

(Just as an aside, I note the fact that I think it necessary to put a question mark after my mood whenever it's "ok" or better. This says something about me, but I have no idea what.)

The week was bracketed by two excellent celebration meals -- brunch at Salty's last Sunday to celebrate Colleen and my anniversary, and dinner at 13 Coins to celebrate N's birthday.

Within those brackets were car problems. Our new van ran out of gas while parked on a hill; we have not been successful in restarting it, so it's going to require towing. That's complicated by the fact that there's a car parked in front of it that hasn't moved in weeks, so that will require knocking on the owners' door and talking to them. Our old van needs to have its right rear tire replaced -- that's scheduled for Monday. I do have to give myself credit for making the call, but mostly I just want to crawl into a hole and hide.

One of the guinea pigs died. We've had them for almost five years; she apparently passed quietly in her sleep after a day or two of lethargy. Poor little critter.

Moderately productive at work. Less so at home.

Notes & links:

0108Su
  * up 6ish; W=205.6; shower, laundry, dishes
  : (guinea pig) Marieke died during the night.  So sad, but she was nearly
    five years old; 4-6 is typical.  The other two are ok for the moment.
  * 11:30 Brunch at Salty's with -G and- N
    We had a delightful time.  Lots of good talk, a lot of it about houses.  
  @ Hide Away Desk Bed | Wilding Wallbeds Their power beds are especially cool, but
    too pricey for us.  Still, a Murphy bed looks like a good option for me and Colleen.
  @ Tiny Houses | MODS International (shipping containers - lovely)
  % 15:15 P=147/87
  * Gradually converting as many of my home page links as possible to https.
    Most of the top section done; linkedin and livejournal are among the hold-outs.
  @ Classic Collection — Cubicco USA unfortunately they "only work with developers
    building 10 or more units in a planned community setting".  Nice looking, though.
  * 15min:  puttering with paper sorting, books.
  # 6:26 grumph: haven't done the weekly post yet.  Well, there's time...
  % I've been spending a lot more time in the Rainbow Room with Colleen.  In
    part this is because it's warmer than the Great Room, but it's also
    friendlier.  It's about the size of the central room we're planning for
    the downsize, too.

0109Mo
  * Up 6:15; W=204.8; laundry, dishes
  @ Opposition in the Age of Gish Gallops – Jonathan Crowe (siderea)
  * clean out and reassemble the shop-vac.
  @ Professor Pete’s Eclipse watching guide: peteralway
  : Emmy here overnight for am doctor's apt.
  
0110Tu
  * up 6:15; W=204.6; laundry, dishes
  ~ C - UNW -> I stupidly forgot to tell G that C needed the van.
  $ $15 CD sale to Alex K. at work.
  @ Begin The Trump Resistance Plan Before It’s Too Late - BillMoyers.com
  @ How Much Equity Do You Need for a Reverse Mortgage? | Sapling.com
    " For most reverse mortgages, you have to have at least 40 percent equity in 
      your home to qualify. "  ... so we wouldn't.  Not that we'd want to.

0111We
  * Up 6:30; W=205.4; laundry, dishes

0112Th
  * up 6:25; W=206; laundry
  : Rosie out of gas; van developed a flat on I90 (G called)
  * write check for G' to pickup Fr
  : rebooted Nova and found that the mirror drive is screwed up somehow.  Grump.  And
    because it's Ubuntu with Gnome, it keeps trying to mount it.  And it apparently tried
    to boot from it, which kind of makes sense since it's currently in the USB cradle.
  % This is not shaping up to be a good day.
  $ $15 CD sold to Dharni at work

0113Fr
  * up 5ish; W=206.6; laundry
  * large team lunch at Lunchbox Lab, at $A's expense.  But it meant I wasn't all that
    hungry at dinner time.  Not really a problem.
  @ ysabetwordsmith | Coping with Stressful Situations
    Everything Is Awful and I’m Not Okay: questions to ask before giving up 
    21 Things Everybody Should Collect And Keep For Their Emotional First Aid Kit
    (many of those don't feel like they would work for me; possibly because stress,
     alexithymia, and chronic depression don't fit the standard "emotional crisis" model)
  % 10pm bath -- helps with both pain and sleeping; need to remember to take more.  The
    reason I usually don't is that I don't want to go upstairs early.

0114Sa
  * Up 6:45; W=205.6; laundry, dishes
  @ Neanderthals Were People, Too - The New York Times (amaebi)
  @ A Smog-Inspired Poem Goes Viral In China: Lung Cancer Is The Narrator : NPR 
    (Chinese lung cancer poeticizes in English - Bits of my life)
  * Tire's scheduled for Monday; Rosie is close--G has gone to get STP, since it's quite
    possibly water in the line.  -> nope.
  * PAY AX
  * 13 Coins for N's birthday dinner.  N observed that I paid for both this and our
    anniversary dinner, but...

Comments

[amaebi]

I'm so glad you could enjoy some good feeling this last week! Long may it wave!

[mdlbear]

Thanks!

I had to think for a bit before I figured out that you probably meant the two celebrations that sandwiched the rest of the week. Kind of like baloney and processed cheese food on rye.

(Seriously -- they call it "processed cheese food" on the package. Must be what processed cheese eats for lunch.)

[madfilkentist]

Sorry to hear about the loss of your guinea pig. That's the trouble with short-lived pets.

[mdlbear]

Thanks.

Van fuel problems

[markc1957]

Steve,

One possibility I can think of for the problem you've described is that the fuel line check valve, which Honda calls a 3 way fuel valve, may have decided to pack it in. It's a part that lists around $21, and is fairly easy to access near the intake manifold. You know as well as I do that unless you've found a mechanic you really trust, most of them will do their best to rob you blind on what should be a simple repair.

Best regards, Mark Christianson

Re: Van fuel problems

[mdlbear]

Thanks.

The dealer we bought it from said to have it towed to their place and they'd do whatever it took to fix it. So we did; haven't heard from them yet, but expect to in the next day or two.

[kellan_the_tabby]

Oohh, you're doing what looks to me like a bullet journal? Only online. Thaaaaaat's cool.

[mdlbear]

Pretty much, although there's a lot more information in it. There's a legend somewhere, but I haven't posted it recently. Ought to do that.

o is an open bullet, * is a filled in one, & is something unplanned but done anyway, x is a crossed-out bullet, ~ is something that didn't go as planned, and . is something in progress.

Then there are the other ones: % is an observation about myself, : is an observation about something or someone else, # is something meta about the journal, and ! is an emotion that I recognize either at the time or just after. % and ! are there because I have alexithymia.

The others were originally meant as an accountability thing, since I also procrastinate a lot. But I switched to posting only after the fact because that way I get feedback and encouragement instead of being called to account. It sort of works.

[kellan_the_tabby]

I like it. :) & thanks for the explanation.

[mdlbear]

You're welcome. I definitely ought to write that up -- It's been several years since the last time, and it's evolved since then.

[kellan_the_tabby]

That'd be awesome -- I do a bullet journal myself, & I'm always looking for new ideas.

[alatefeline]

Huh so apparently the note-taking style I developed in high school because nobody would tell me an EFFICIENT way to take only the useful notes, and then modified to use for school job notes and to-do lists / other lists about myself, is basically like a bullet journal.

Go figure.

I use a lot of symbols, a bit inconsistently, but it means I can get a paragraph or so of important information that I'll remember in context but not in detail down to something like this:

[ ] [ ] car \/: O trsh, O stf, O flor; O dblok, O gas, O ?b'rak, O ??wash; O epack1,...; O conpak, O sched wS, O txt SCNG,

which is a checklist of things to do or maybe do that are related to tidying, maintaining, and packing the car before driving to Seattle next week. Only it would be handwritten in my terribad handwriting and I'd use cross-outs, wavy-cross outs, underlines, check marks, question marks, circling, etc as I worked through it. For some reason, I actually write longer in type, possibly because having the ability to use as much spacing as I need instead of trying to fit writing to the paper encourages me to leave white space so I can pick things out.

In handwriting, I tend to drop phonetically pointless letters and use lots of symbols from a weird mix of high school English and science classes, plus odds and ends from college and various fictional sources and doodling, to stand for whole words; up arrow for 'increase', down arrow for 'decrease', and delta for change are three of my favorites. I also use a little spiral, doodles of faces, different shaped tickyboxes for different rounds of ticking things off, +/- for a three-level rating system, and more. It's very personalized and I don't expect anyone who isn't a cryptographer or an experience teacher to read it.

So, yeah.

[kellan_the_tabby]

oohhh *schwinks ideas, runs away with em*

[mdlbear]

https://mdlbear.dreamwidth.org/1587855.html posted

[alatefeline]

Yay!