M O V I N G Today is box city day, where I take all the boxes and I make them into a city. Tomorrow is moving truck day, where we take all the boxes and we put them in a truck. Friday is VA day, where we take the truck and we drive it down south. Then we take the boxes out and we are back to box city day. Next there will be CATURDAY, where we come back and I pack up the cats and I drive south again. Thankfully we still have the lease until 9/30 so NO, I have not packed up 100% of my stuff. I feel like I've got a very solid 90% though. Things that are left are things like free weights, paintings on walls, spices, cutlery, some of the records. I'm planning to be back for Labor Day weekend to pack up a big carload. IT'S MY LIFE AND IT'S EXCITING AND ONCE I MOVE TO RICHMOND I'M GETTING A BIKE AND I'M NOT GOING TO DRIVE ANYWHERE UNTIL THEY MAKE ME GO BACK TO WORK!!! (Maybe.) I have a lot of plans for my brand new life. I am excited. Last night I dreamed about someone whom I'd loved very much. And in my dream, he loved me back and in front of our friends. Once I move to VA there is nothing stopping me: the Pursuit of Twue Wuv. Can't hide from it anymore... Can you get to that?
Best of luck! Just moved two weeks ago to a new apartment as well, and still unpacking. Gonna echo g5w here, best not leave anything until the very last week since there is always stuff that you forget about, and it always takes up more space than you originally expect.
There's a lot I could bitch about right now, but I just hope you're doing okay OftenBen.
House Well, the final bit is done (of the things we paid other people to do). The garage door was just installed (like, finished 15 minutes ago). It looks good; much better than the cheap second-hand door I half-installed ten years ago. It feels good to see so much progress on the house that didn't require me to do the work. Now it is my turn to get back to the grindstone and accomplish some projects. Middle Child Found out last week that middle-child's husband is being transferred to Chicago. They leave sometime next month. I am excited for her. She really needs to get out and see more of the world. Also it will give her more clearly defined separation from my wife and I. This is killing my wife, but I know it is what is best for our daughter. As a going away present, I build a bookshelf for my grandson. It was the first piece of furniture that I have built. I am not happy with the result, but it isn't terrible. Hopefully I can build something better during the fall and present it for Christmas. Youngest Local High School has decided on a hybrid plan for classes for the Fall semester. Two days in school, two days home, rotating pattern. Looks like they will stay in same classroom all day and the teachers will move between classrooms. This at least minimizes the student interactions. We'll see how it goes. Oldest Oldest child lost power at his apartment for five days because of Isaias. He and his girlfriend and her other boyfriend came and used the shower each day, but preferred to go home rather than stay with us. My wife was overjoyed by the chaos of having the three of them and their two dogs. She really does thrive on a full house, where I require copious amounts of solitude. Work I am so blessed that my job has allowed me to work remote since end of March. Right now they are "allowing" people to voluntarily work from the office one day a week. There are a lot of staff that have been asking for that. I get it. They have spouses and kids and what not at home and don't feel they can focus on their work and be productive. If more than just the three of us lived here, I would certainly feel the same way. But, right now, I am enjoying the lack of commute and the ability to get laundry done during the day. We may be returning to the office full-time sometime in October, but the agency is still figuring things out. They won't reopen until they have a solid plan in place and staff have bought into it. Overall, life is good. Sometimes I have to remind myself.
WORK I've been approached by a shit-hot software security company to potentially become a tech writer for them. It's early days, but they approached me because someone inside the company knows me, and they weigh internal referrals VERY highly. California company. Remote work. Writing for a living, still. And a career path. This is really interesting to me right now because my current job is totally stagnant. If schools don't re-open immediately, I see layoffs by Christmas. (Schools are a LARGE part of our government contracting business.) I've got less than 8 hours of real work to do each week, and am spending most of my time in my woodshop making things, rather than writing government contracts, because those people aren't working right now. My boss knows about my workload, and he and I have plans to grow my role in the new year. But I'm not sure this is going to last that long. I've done 3 peoples' jobs at my company for four years now, and everyone is pretty happy with me getting a break while things are slow. "That's ok man! You've earned it!" I'm also thinking the new role is going to get me into the salary range I should be in, for the type of work I do. I'm happy making $100k/year right now, because that's an ample amount of money for me and my wife to live on. But people doing a similar job are making $20k more than I am. And, once you settle for less-than-market-value, it is hard to regain that footing. This new company - being an established Silicon Valley tech company, at the top of its game, in security - should be able to make up that difference pretty easily, and get me into the "commensurate wage" range. Which, as I am looking towards retirement in the next 15 years or so, adds up. Who knows? The world is kinda upside down, and I'm not sure how things work anymore, honestly. PERSONAL My niece is headed off to school in Florida, where her roommates tell her not to worry about the COVID test she needs to take... she can get a fake negative-COVID test for like $10. But she's 19 and invincible (as we all were at 19) and there just isn't a way to impress upon her what a lifetime of odd blood, lung, and liver problems would be like, even if she fully "recovers" from a bout of COVID. Especially for someone who wants to be a marine biologist and diver. (Some blood and lung conditions disqualify you from becoming a diver.) She's a super smart kid. Top of her class, with honors. Going into science. Unfortunately, I think all of these factors cannot protect her from Florida, and she will lose the one thing she wants to do most in this world: work underwater. Just because she decided to start school this year, instead of taking some time to let the pandemic run its course. ... sigh ... I'm gonna go out to my shop and stain the plant stands I made for my wife. They are 80 inches tall, 4 feet wide, and 22 inches deep. She has a LOT of plants.
I'm not saying scare her, but I say maybe impress upon her that health problems add up over time. Say, she gets the Covid in her twenties and gets heart and lung problems from it. Then in her thirties, she gets in a car wreck and gets back problems from it. Then in her fifties, arthritis is starting in. By the time she's hitting her sixties, she has chronic heart and lung problems, chronic back pain, and arthritis. It's why we work so hard to take care of our bodies, to reduce the number of problems we have.But she's 19 and invincible (as we all were at 19) and there just isn't a way to impress upon her what a lifetime of odd blood, lung, and liver problems would be like, even if she fully "recovers" from a bout of COVID.
Yeah... WE know that, because we are old. But you can't impress upon a young person what their actions will mean for them later in life. They simply aren't wired that way. Yet. I am going to bring up the diving thing to her. If she can't dive ever again even before she graduates from college... THAT could have the type of meaningful impact that could get through.
Nature I can’t imagine the amount of patience and dedication it would require to be a mama bear of four cubs. I really can’t. History and People I think it’d be kind of awesome if we brought back #todayinhistory. I was reading up on Leprosy the other day, cause I’m weird like that, when I discovered Alice Ball was born on July 24th, recent enough to be relevant, but I was a few days too late to post. I think if anyone deserves a bit of recognition, she should be up there. Not only did she come up with one of the most potent treatments for Leprosy, she was at the very beginning of what seemed to be a very promising career before she tragically suffered an early death. It’s sad, cause you can only begin to wonder what other amazing things she might have been able to accomplish. Job Hunting Dropped off the job application to the garden center the other day. Not the awesome one, but the one that was actively hiring. The conversation with the hiring manager was going really well, I had my A game and everything, until heavy lifting came up. They shut me out and the conversation was over and done with in less than ten seconds after. No lie. Honestly, I'm pretty certain I dodged a bullet there, cause not only would I not want someone with such a non-charitable attitude as my boss, on the drive home as I was going through things in my head about the place, I realized there's some pretty sketchy things there. So it's all for the best. I'm too good to work for goons. Music One of my buds and their best bud is really getting into Americana music. They've discovered "good country" music, stuff that's not my jam, but definitely isn't of the variety you hear on mainstream commercial radio. I said "if you ever want suggestions, hit me up, I have countless ones." I'm not gonna push anything on them though. I remember when I was in my early twenties, the year I discovered Against Me!, Mississippi John Hurt, Old Crow Medicine Show, and tons of others. It forever changed my taste in music, and oddly enough, I think worldview a bit. Thing is though, it was all through exploration and "OH WOW!" moments of discovery. I think if someone was standing over my shoulder just feeding me albums, the outcome would have been much different. I don't want to rob those two of the opportunity of those "OH WOW" moments. I think this is gonna be one of those weeks that don't really feel like they'll ever end. Stay strong, Hubski. Stay beautiful and safe too.
Must be something in the air. The other day I texted a friend seeing if they wanted to chat on the phone for a bit, they turned me down saying they didn't sleep well and wanted to spare me their wrathful mood. I told them I'd be there if they changed their mind, but no, no call.
I've had a glorious day (and a glorious week now that I think about it). Weather was great today, I've been in a such a good mood it's almost euphoric. Went to work in our new free office, in another neighbourhood and it reminded me how much I like it here in Montreal. Finally got the banking stuff for our non-profit unstuck - so we can now send and receive payments online! I feel we're finally getting somewhere with organizing/cleaning the mess the basement was. My mother's birthday last Monday was awesome, loving, heartfelt and without any family drama! Drove there after a 3 day reunion weekend with the epic crew of the first (and only) festival we did this year, back in February in Florida. Will try to surf this wave of good vibes as long as it lasts, it's like there is this perfect balance between fun and productivity right now :) Here's to enjoying it before life throws in the next wrench!
Research I finished a draft of that big survey paper that's been eating me alive for the past several months. Now it's all in my advisor's hands until she takes the time to make edits to it. It's nice to be done with a big task that does not help me graduate. The other local PhD student is no longer doing research in our group, which is more than okay with me. He did not really understand things well, but also didn't ask questions or really talk to me at all, so delegating tasks to him never went well. Oddly enough, I think his intolerant views towards trans people led to him feeling uncomfortable in the lab, but, y'know, that's not really my problem to fix. Next up I need to start getting my ducks in a row for my comprehensive exam. Life Today the truck goes in to the shop for front brakes and wheel bearings and I'm...anxious about it? I should have been socialized different as a kid, maybe, because I have always developed emotional attachments to the machines in my life. Not sure what to make of that. Sunday is our 9th anniversary. We are such different people now than we were when we got married, but we've grown together and it sure seems like we're going to keep that up. I think we are going to do something sexy like tidying and organizing a couple of rooms in the house so my wife has a desk to work at and the basement becomes less my space and more our space. And cook some good food together.
Update from Melbourne. Shit's still fucked.