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Entry tags:
- done,
- links,
- move,
- retirement
Done this month (20170501Mo - 06Sa)
So. My first full week of retirement. I want to say I haven't gotten much done, but in fact I seem to have been fairly busy. I've done some work required for selling the old house, and quite a lot of research and discussion around whether we can live the way we want to in the new one. I've taken several walks, including a few st/rolls with Colleen. I've ordered and installed a new keyboard for Cygnus, my main computer. I've started catching up on my reading -- back issues of Science and Linux Weekly News. Pulled out my guitar a couple of times for noodling. I haven't had any panic attacks.
It still doesn't feel like all that much. Apparently I was well on my way to burnout, judging by the amount of pleasure reading I haven't been doing -- I hadn't read LWN since the beginning of the year -- plus the amount of other stuff I haven't been doing. Although one could easily argue that most of that is due to my hatred (fear?) of paperwork.
There is an enormous amount of paperwork (including bill-paying) that still needs doing, and I'm having a lot of trouble getting started on the projects I want to do. But there is, presumably, time.
This coming week will be busy -- Naomi and the kids are moving out of the Seattle house, and I'm still needed to help pack up the garage. Sometime this week we should hear back from the seller about our inspection response; if they accept that it will take a big load off all of us.
I still worry.
0501Mo
* up 5am; W=202.6;
% 5:58 headache, general malaise. Should I go back to bed?
* call post office to find out why nothing has been arriving at RE 800-275-8777
Confirmation # CA132945229
* Submit change of address for Colleen
* call Travis about earthquake straps for water heater -> tomorrow between 10 and 2
% feeling a bit lightheaded(?) Subtle, and not really familiar. Will try hydrating.
* ordered new keyboard for Cygnus. This is ridiculous.
: Anita Brown called to set up an appointment.
* Walgreens for wipes, pantsu, hair stuff; Petco for cat litter and piggie bedding
% to Petco and back is .6 miles; I'm seriously out of shape
* reconnect with Karen Bishop @ conservation district re: goats
-> email received about 1:38; they'll help us write the large animal management plan.
@ LaTeX - Wikibooks, open books for an open world
: Turns out the makelink extension has a keyboard shortcut: ^l
* address changes: Schwab, Carleton, UW Medicine, Firestone
* pay: * mortgage * Amex (7,697.14) * utilities (RE) * rent
Amex not due, but I'll get hit with another big one when the sewer work completes.
* transfer money to BECU accounts and savings accounts
0502Tu
& Awake 4am
* up 7am; W=200.6;
* down to N's after picking up diatomaceous earth for the ants, and a strap kit for the
water heater. Hopefully Travis will come down and do the water heater, but I'm not
all that hopefull.
* Went and put shims behind the water heater. Might have installed the straps, but I
didn't have a stud finder. Suspect that there may be no convenient studs on the side
facing the old basement wall.
% sitting with N listening to an album of Pete Seeger singing children's songs.
Birds Beasts Bugs and Fishes Little and Big
Much discussion about options and requirements for the Whidbey Island house.
@ Scratch - Imagine, Program, Share
programming language for kids. Graphical, drag+drop
* I've been reading Science on a fairly regular basis lately. I'm caught up on what's
arrived since we moved to the apartment with the exception of the latest, which I'm
working on now.
* Request for estimate sent to the two septic system companies N found.
0503We
* up 6:36; W=201.8
: Travis never showed up yesterday; I'll have to go down there and do what I can.
* called AAAS MemberCentral support. Apparently you can't look up your account, even by
member number, unless you have an email address on file. And the CS rep couldn't set
my email address. He'll escalate it to tech support. I'm skeptical.
* pay Comcast. Autopay? not worth it. Paid from UB account
* 3pm out for st/roll: Down University Way to somewhere around 42nd street.
-> 4:30 home.
: Septic system still a bit up in the air. Not horribly expensive, 5-15K, but the lot
might not support a second system. Contingency plan: incinerating toilet and grey
water irrigation system (would have to check on legality; they're ok in CA)
: Water question resolved: we can use it for an ADU provided it's for immediate family
and not rented out.
0504Th Star Wars Day
* up 6:30; W=200.2;
* Took a look at greywater regulations. Doesn't look like Island County has any local
restrictions, so Greywater Reuse :: Washington State Department of Health applies.
"dark greywater" from kitchen sinks and dishwashers has to be handled differently.
Unfortunately,
" The use of a greywater irrigation system does not serve as an alternative to an
approved on-site sewage system or connection to an approved public sewer. Greywater
irrigation systems designed and installed under Chapter 246-274 WAC are intended for
temporary, seasonal use. Diversion valves that redirect greywater to the permanent
sewage treatment system are required on all greywater irrigation systems. "
A bit of a risk, but one we can afford to take.
% started getting a headache halfway into my 3rd or 4th cup of coffee. Dumped the rest
& some browsing around in the emacs manual. Originally from a search for the error
message "X selection not available in this frame" -- which isn't anywhere online, but
presumably is there because mouse events are passed to emacs as characters when the
terminal is in raw mode.
x N coming up shortly after noon -> appointment at Cortiva cancelled; in pain
@ Backblaze::Cloud Storage Pricing Comparison: Amazon S3 vs Azure vs B2
.005/GB/mo, which works out to $5/TB/month. Not bad. However, there is also
unlimited Mac or PC backups for $3.96/month; could work with Whitewood.
: Severe thunderstorm warning. Knocked out the elevator. Damned good thing we hadn't
gone out for a walk.
: AAAS never got back to me, but the account setup worked this time.
updated profile info, mailing and billing addresses. (No option to make them the
same; not the greatest user experience.)
@ reading info file for Org mode for Emacs
Looks potentially useful, though it's not compatible with to.do files. Could be a win
for things like recording projects or, for that matter, any kind of projects.
: there are separable minor modes that would work with to.do
0505Fr Cinco de Mayo
* up 5:45; W=200.8;
@ drewslist membership was approved.
Odd thing. It's a mailing list, but there are no archives. Things get reposted. I'm
pretty sure that if Drew wanted an archive he'd have one, but it's kind of
frustrating. Still, just because there isn't one on the web doesn't mean I can't set
up a local one.
: gmail is a lousy mailing-list reader. What one would really like to do is open each
message in a browser tab. It also truncates long messages, at which point you _can_
middle-click a link and see the whole thing in a tab. Annoying.
-> look into using IMAP and a client like Evolution. Or gnus. May take a while to
find one that works the way I want it to.
Emacs as email client with offlineimap and mu4e on OS X // KG ?
mu4e: an E-mail Client for Emacs | Wenshan's Blog
: elevator still out
@ whidbeyisland.us - Whidbey Island Events, Festivals, Lodging, Lifestyle and More
@ whidbeylocal.com - Whidbey Island - Search Everything Whidbey Island - Yabsta
@ Home | South Whidbey Record
@ Community Center | Whidbey Telecom
* Short walk - down to 47th on Brooklyn and back via University. Scoped out TrueValue
& clicking on a lot of math videos, including some on Graham's Number, starting from a
Star Wars/Beatles mash-up. (via FB, of course)
0506Sa
* up 6:45ish; W=201.4; Shower
@ A UCLA study shows there could be a cure for Alzheimer's disease (thnidu)
@ mkj/dropbear: Dropbear SSH. This is the official git mirror.
-> wikipedia dive into both critters and software
@ Keyboard removal and installation - Thinkpad X100e and X120e
% accomplished. Got the keyboard on Cygnus replaced and working. Had to go out for a
set of jewelers' screwdrivers, and one screw was kind of mangled. The least obvious
part was taking the hard drive out, because the screws that hold the carrier in
place go into the keyboard!
* To Farmers' Market (on University N of 50th) with Colleen.
~ research piano movers
% I like Raven a lot, but its a little too big for the laptop table, and the off-center
keyboard is disconcerting. Same number of pixels as Cygnus, so the main advantage is
the larger print size.
* Dinner at Cedars. Their Indian is much better than their Greek. We took quite a bit
home, from a dinner consisting of three appetizer plates and garlic naan.
: For some reason Raven isn't letting me see the SD card after it's mounted. Weird.
Will probably need a full, clean install. (The disk came from Cygnus, so it's been
through several years worth of upgrades.) Making the parent directory world readable
works but leaves other users able to see the card. Weird.
-> fixed with sudo rmdir /media/steve; next automount recreated it with the right ACL
* Redeemed the gift card I got from the team at the retirement party.
* Back to Cygnus; fits much better on the laptop table. It also feels a bt thinner,
even though it doesn't look like it.
: As it turns out, BioBags are water soluble. Not sure why we never (well, hardly
ever!) had trouble at RE; a large number of paper towels probably helped.
@ ownCloud.org Interesting, but it's PHP, AGPL, and
uses server-side encryption. Dreamhost DreamObjects can be used as owncloud external
storage (because it's basically S3) So can backblaze. Owncloud might be useful
on an intranet, with backblaze backup.
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In addition, Colleen wants a garden, Naomi wants goats, and one of N's kids (human!) wants to be home-schooled because he doesn't think middle school, which he starts next fall, will be challenging enough to keep him from being bored. He's almost certainly right; he's smarter than me and I remember what junior high was like.