mdlbear | Done this week (20170423Su

It's been a long month this last week.

We are very close to buying the house on Whidbey Island. Just a couple of things we have to check.
As of Friday, I am officially a Retired Person. (I've been a member of the AARP for 20 years. It's still weird.
I had a couple of panic attacks. The fact that I know what they are, how they work, and how to deal with them is helpful, but they're still something of an ordeal.

I had a very nice send-off party from the team at work; another team member was moving to another team, so it was a combined affair, and of course combined with the weekly Friday "Beer 30". I will miss those people. Naomi was able to come up for the party, so we were able to do a little singing (set list in the notes). Damned good thing, too -- I had greatly underestimated the amount of stuff I would be bringing home. I would have had to call a cab.

For some reason I'm not seeing all that many events this week outside the house-related stuff. Oh, well. Maybe that's enough.

Notes & links:

0423Su
* awake 4ish
% severe anxiety? panic? attack. Clung to Ticia.
* up 7:30ish; W=197.8;
@ FB review, which appears to be the only way of directly contaction $BMC
1. If your call center's response to a report of a broken elevator is "call the fire
department", you have a problem.
2. If the company that does emergency maintenance has someone "on call" but you've
never heard of an SLA, you have a problem.
3. If the only contact information you have on your website is a phone number and a
facebook ID, then things like the way your call center handles a broken elevator
that might otherwise result in an emailed suggestion are going to end up making
you look very stupid in public.
@ Rocket stove - Wikipedia
Beverage-can stove
Build a Rocket Stove for Home Heating | IWillTry.org
@ 5 low-tech innovations making a difference in the developing world | MNN
@ Stonekettle Station: A Few Thoughts on Religion (from 2014)
: Call from Rick Weiss to Colleen - apparently it's only a short walk from their place.
@ Google Maps link
* Went to Doria - the Italian restaurant next door - for dinner. Excellent. But their
door sill is so high that Colleen's scooter got stuck on it. Worth the
inconvenience. We had their family-style "tasting menu" - some appetizers, four
different pastas, and chicken marsala. Yum.
: My phone almost certainly needs a new battery. An overnight charge doesn't make it to
evening without a boost. -> ordered
@ Senior Services of Island County
@ eWheels 3-Wheel Scooter in Purple Colleen wants one. Because purple.
% With the info from Rick and Tess, I'm suddenly feeling a lot more comfortable and less
anxious.
* Transfer enough money into the checking account to handle both the earnest money
(which I have to wire tomorrow) and the estimated income tax (which I wrote a check
for and hasn't cleared yet.

0424Mo
* up 4:30; W=200;
forgot to take morning meds. That seems to happen a lot when I get up before 6
@ siderea | [tech] Three Awesome Hacks (and a Bonus Awesome Hack)
* wire earnest money to escrow agent * ensure enough in account to handle tax as well
* marriage certificate ordered (for C's spousal social security payments)
: call from someone at B-T. They're having a meeting tomorrow about this; they're
apparently taking it seriously.
* Accepted SewerFriendly's bid; signed 35R accepting offer for 37th Ave.
Putting SF's bill on the Amex card -- won't have to paid until June.
% 9ish sleepy.
! mood very volatile the last couple of days.
@ What is pi? (and while we're at it, what is e?) - Affine Mess - Quora
: Restrictions around the well on Whidbey. N. remains optimistic; I'm scared
! anxiety attack.

0425Tu
* up 5:30ish; W=199;
* Went to replace WLAN card on Raven, and found that the card I'd bought -- used -- had
solder on it and wouldn't fit. Raven also doesn't have it in the place where the
manual said it would be, but in the WAN slot. Hmm.
-> works perfectly in Cygnus, however. But Cygnus's card doesn't work in Raven. :(
@ How you could use GalliumOS to "penguinize" a Chromebook | Opensource.com
Only problem with a chromebook is the keyboard.
* 9:30 downstairs to meet Naomi for island cruise
* pleasant visit with Rick and Tess.
: The water restrictions are liveable - we'll just keep the tiny off the grid.
: N suggested Skybird Nest as a possible name for the new house
* Inspection. A couple of problems - garage roof, and gravel piled around the skirting,
which isn't able to take the the load.
: assuming we can get to agreement about the problems, this will work.
: the buyers of RE have accepted our counter-offer, so that's on. The sewer work is
scheduled for May 15th.
* Pick up kids; get take-out from Snappy Dragon.
* Practice with Naomi for Friday
* Tried, unsuccessfully, to figure out why Colleen's gmail app doesn't have the tabbed
categories that mine does.

0426We
* Up 5:50; W=198;
& discovered that I'd forgotten to load my drugs last night as I usually do.
* finally found the problem with Colleen's gmail app:
" Note: You won't see an option to change your "Inbox categories" if you only use the
Primary category on your computer. " (Add or remove inbox categories & tabs in Gmail - Android - Gmail Help)
That, or she has more than 250,000 messages in her inbox.
% left side of my neck has been hurting all day. I'm guessing it's the shoulder bag I
was wearing all day yesterday instead of my backpack. Trapezius, of course. Possibly
chair arm.
* Stock sale has hit my checking account. So has my first IRA distribution. Need to
make sure to set up withholding on that!
& Several good conversations: John and others.
@ Making reliable distributed systems in the presence of software errors
erlang and supervisor trees for fast-fail error handling.
* Replaced the battery on my phone. We'll see whether that helps.
% think I found the (or a) trigger point on my left trapezius.

0427Th
* up 6:24; W=198.8;
* 1200 dentist - bite guard
& several good conversations. Notably Albert, Matt, and Shrey.
Several people have said they will catch up with me at the party
* Packed up a few things to take home
% I will deeply miss being surrounded with brilliant people.
@ mdlbear | Thankful Thursday
% Trapezius not hurting noticably (0.5?) after naproxen yesterday evening and this am
* entered new scripting for Rambling Silver Rose

0428Fr
* up 6ish; W=198.8;
% Bite guard seems to have done its thing! No tooth pain this morning.
% waffled for altogether too long about whether to take the duffle or Rolly. Settled on
Rolly, but that was probably a mistake in light of how much stuff I had to take home.
The fact that I dragged along the entire LgF notebook contributed to the problem.
Unimportant, since N. was there with Rosie.
* set up autoload on my Orca card. Had been on one of the old credit cards.
* Call to Whidbey Island Conservation District - spoke with Karen Bishop. Will get back
to me Monday.
* Retirement party shared with (principal engineer) Jason, who is moving to a new group.
* retirement concert. N shortened it because people were leaving. The remaining
audience was very attentive, though.
Fox
Rosie - new scripting
The Bears
World Inside the Crystal
# October country
# Lord of the Buffalo
# Gentle Arms of Eden
# Ship of Stone
Lockkeeper
& was encouraged to keep my bus pass. No telling whether it will still work on Monday.
l-band radio, but it's not as pressing now.
y % I am now officially a Retired Person. Weird.
* N is staying the night, after going down to RE to feed the cats, pick up the kids, and
take them to M+J's. I would *not* have been able to get everything home on the bus.
% 8:30 Sleepy. N said "you've had an emotionally exhausting day." I really hadn't
accounted for that being a thing.

0429Sa
: Alarm went off at 7:00 as usual. I like having the mornings, but I should probably
get rid of the 6:00 and 6:15. Ticia still woke me around 4, I think.
* up 7:15; W=198.8; cuddle
* parking for Rosie has to be paid at 8am
: so apparently the reason Raven wasn't connecting to WiFi was that I had a typo in the
password. :P Still want a dual-band radio, but it's not as pressing now.
: N is leaving a change of clothes and a set of sheets up here.
@ ysabetwordsmith | Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: "Party Monitor Kit"
~ family expedition to Whidbey for dinner -> Bremerton. an hour each way on the ferry,
apparently. Very nice trip, though; whole family together, ferry, Anthony's (good
fish), Coldstone, ferry back. Mostly phone, but there's a fair amount I can do here
as well.
% apparently just a couple of hours with my purse -- which isn't all that heavy -- on my
shoulder instead of in a backpack are enough to make my trapezius complain.
Fortunately I was sitting next to N. on the way home. She agrees. Backpack. Always.
: On the way back N noticed the affirmations on my screen background. Do I need to
expand that?
@ Susan Cain Quiet Spaces - Steelcase (ysabetwordsmith | Workspace for Introverts)
-> I can design my own work space now! Hmm.

0439Su
& Awake 4:30 cleanup
* up 7:30; W=200.6; breakfast, shower, walk
@ ysabetwordsmith | Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: "Emotional First Aid"
@ This is what protest sounds like - CNN.com f(filk)
: Facebook doesn't seem to have any way of specifying "retired" as a workplace.
* 10:05-10:40 walk up Roosevelt to 56th or so. Should start tracking again.
* updated LinkedIn & FB profiles to Retired + HSX. Updated note to headhunters on
LinkedIn.
: The apartment seems to have acquired a couple of cardboard boxes that serve as
temporary tables or other supports. -> Consider replacing the empty ones with boxes
from the "to be podded" stack in the entryway; those are not going anywhere soon.
& Wikipedia dive into fonts, starting from Imgur, cat macros, and the Impact typeface.
: Washed Ticia's towel yesterday after it had been used to wipe up a spill; she is now
curled up contenedly in her box.
* Laundry done (two loads);
* Trip to TJ's for feta, butter, a sourdough baguette, black+white cookies, etc. The
feta and butter were the only items actually requested by Colleen.