Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Spent a chunk of yesterday finally getting all four tires replaced on the Mini. The local place was a lot friendlier than BJ’s, and apparently NTB is now Mavis, though the signage (and online) hasn’t caught up yet. Popped by the local carwash on the way back from picking up the car, so the beast looks (and drives) much nicer now.

Continuing to slowly build my running back up on the treadmill.

Up far too early this morning after Benjamin (male cat) decided to puke, twice, in the hallway outside our bedroom. Found it without stepping in it (yay?) and got it all cleaned up. Very grateful that I thought to stash some paper towels under the sink in the bathroom off that hallway so I didn’t have to go downstairs for some.

A good chunk of my office flooded last week. There’s a ledge outside the windows of about 2/3 of the offices (including mine) where water got backed up and came in though the walls. Nothing personal of anyone’s was damaged, and very few official documents were dampened since most of that is electronic now so there was only like one box on the floor in the suite (unlike a flood in my old office that was a nightmare of drying out old paper). While facilities swung into action while the flood was still ongoing thanks to one of our employees alerting them, it apparently still smells according to the few people who’ve braved the place, and they’re going to have to do all sorts of remediation. So who knows if I’ll be going back in immediately after labor day or not? That’s tentatively the plan since the local Metro stations reopen after that weekend, but not if they’re still dealing with walls and carpet and what not.

I was cleaning up some stuff in our entry hallway, putting away bits from having a smart lock installed last week, replacing a battery in a running accessory, and in doing so I had to go into the drawers in our little hall table, which I apparently need to do more often. Found the battery I needed, put the lock bits away, but also found some netting for a bike basket that I’d been looking for (should’ve been with the bike accessories, but why would I be consistent?), and then dug up one of the first, homemade masks we made out of a T-shirt at the beginning of the pandemic. It makes sense that it was in the entry hallway table, since you’d need them to outside, but what a throwback.

Not the shopping day I’d planned for, but hey. Started out early, with a 9am appointment at BJs to replace the front tires, because one of them has a giant bulge and a slow air leak. Get there ten minutes early, doors are closed. They finally bother to open at 9:25 (after calling the main desk twice to see where they were), get to the counter, they don’t have the tires I preordered and prepaid for. Then it was into the main club for a refund, because at that point I was done with them. Appointment made for another place Wednesday morning, and I’ll call Tuesday night to doublecheck that they have the tires.

So then it was on to get some food and planned haircuts. While eat we decided the husband needed some more shirts, so we picked the closer of the malls and headed there for wandering and shopping. I picked up grooming supplies, and he got a bunch of shirts. Ah, married life. Heh. Book shopping next, then a late lunch and gas for the car. The tire held up well, thankfully, and I didn’t have to reinflate it while we were out (I keep a pump in the car normally anyway).

Ran twice this week, very basic run/walk workouts on the treadmill, but the first such since covid last month. The fatigue is finally gone, thank heavens. Blood pressure is still higher than anyone would like, but some regular exercise should start to help with that, or at least keep it from getting worse. I’d really prefer not to go on drugs for that; I resent the allergy and reflux medications as is, so the thought of adding more just makes me grumpier. *phhhbbbbtttt*

Off to a brunch showing of Margaritaville at a local(ish) dinner theater tomorrow. Should be a hoot. I have a nice Hawaiian shirt with flamingoes on it for the occasion, and the husband has something similarly loud. We’re meeting friends for it, which will be nice as we’ll have a four-top table for the group, and no strangers to try and make awkward conversation with. Final show of this run, which is always fun to see.

We had the Mini’s windshield replaced back in June, after a particularly large pothole on Route 50 jarred the car badly enough to cause a large crack to develop. And then I kept forgetting to re-coat the new window with Rain-X. I prefer having that on the windows because I find it easier to see out of them, and you can run the wipers less; at highway speeds the water wicks off on its own, and I find wipers distracting. Personal preference, your mileage may vary. Last night we went out to dinner and it was pouring, reminding me again that I hadn’t done the windows. So this morning while coffee was brewing I ran downstairs and finally cleaned and Rain-X’d the suckers. Now watch me not need to go out during any rain any time soon. Which is fine, because I’m prepared now.

Yesterday we found out a friend of ours has been on meth for several years now, when he called about some not-so-smart decisions he’d made the past week and finally confessed that he’d been using. Ugh. I have a lot of sympathy, and a lot of wanting to smack him upside the head. Nasty stuff. Does explain some of the mood swings and workaholism. What a mess.

Knitting on the latest scarf is proceeding apace. I’m on color number two of four. I made the first block a few inches too long, but whatevs. I thought about just extending the others, but that would make the whole thing an extra foot long versus an extra three inches, so no thanks. And I successfully managed not to buy more yarn at the yarn store yesterday for the local men’s knitting group. I did buy another project bag, but no more yarn.

We had a couple power blips during storms the last two nights. Yesterday morning woke up and the stairway lights were not on, though it was well past the time when they should’ve automatically turned on. By way of background, we’re in a townhouse, or as the husband puts it, a giant staircase with rooms attached. A giant staircase with no windows, I would add, save at the very top, so it’s very dark without lights on. I was an early adopter of Philips Hue lighting, and Amazon Echo devices, so we have automated lights all over the house. It’s nice for things like the front porch and driveway (lights on at sunset, off at sunrise), and a couple floors of the central staircase (on at 6am-ish, brighter at sunrise, dimmer at sunset, off at 10:30; mainly so we don’t trip over a cat in the dark), and definitely for turning on/off and adjusting brightness via the voice controls. We particularly use the dimming feature on most lights as we rarely need them at 100%, unless we have company or workers in the house. Not difficult to set up, but also aging somewhat as we’ve had the basics of it since we lived in DC, and brought that with us to MD when we moved in 2020.

So yesterday morning nothing is on. Check the app, it’s showing none of the lights are connecting. Google that, lots of reddit threads, try several things like turning lights off and on, cycling the hub, etc. Eventually I just unplugged the hub and left it off for a few hours while I did other things. Plug it back in, leave it alone for a bit, go back into the app and see that the lights are slowly reconnecting, so let it be (after turning the staircase on; again, don’t want to trip on a cat, but also don’t want the lights at 100% as that’s way too bright). Eventually everything connects back and I can control it all, but one of the things reddit had me try zapped all my preset routines so I had to remember how all of those were set up and reestablish them. I was grateful it all came back; the idea of having to replace the hub was obnoxious.

Otherwise I’m slowly recovering from the covid bout. Still a little extra snot going on, and a little fatigued, but getting better. Feels like the end of a nasty head cold at this point. Grateful that I never lost my sense of smell. We’re off to get covid-delayed haircuts this morning, and hopefully catch at least the Barbie movie, and maybe Oppenheimer as well, depending on my energy levels.

Afrin for the win, for sleep. I can’t do sleeping formula cold stuff, because my body always ends up fighting the sleepy part, and I sleep worse than if I’d just taken regular medication. The nasal spray, which can be used for a maximum of three days before you get a rebound effect and get even worse sinus grossness, is a good temporary “clear these up so I can sleep through the night while breathing through my nose” option. And it worked like a charm. First decent sleep in days. I still want a nap, but I think that’s just overall feeling run down from the virus now and not lack of sleep.

Apparently after taking paxlovid you can get a covid rebound, which is related to the standard doses sometimes not being quite enough drug to completely knock the thing out. Very annoying. After feeling much better over the weekend, Sunday night my sinuses clogged right back up and I’ve slept for shit the last two nights. It’s been so long since I’ve even had a head cold (thank you working from home) that I lacked most of my usual arsenal for dealing with sinus pressure. Getting some afrin spray tonight so hopefully sleeping through the night will be easier tonight. Add to this the fact that Metro has closed all of our local stations for six weeks. While I can work from home, the husband cannot, so I’m the morning shuttle to the closest Orange line station. Easy enough to do, but it does mean getting up a little earlier. At least he doesn’t have to switch trains with this arrangement.

Welp, I finally got caught by covid. Started coming down with what I thought were really bad reflux symptoms on Thursday, but those morphed into full on cold/flu-like stuff on Friday. Took an at home test this morning and it hadn’t even finished 3 minutes of the 15 that you have to let it sit before it was showing a positive result. I blame the Metro commute to the office on Wednesday. Heaven willing I didn’t pass it to any co-workers. The husband just tested negative, so here’s hoping that masking and kicking him out of the house for a good chunk of the weekend will keep him from getting it. Yuck.

As the random little indie comedy group from Australia says, I always get into stuff, just when it’s finished being cool.

I think half the fun of home ownership is the little things that have to be taken care of. For example, one of the GFCI receptacles in the kitchen died sometime yesterday. There are two in there, and one died about two years ago. They’re original to the house (2010), so it’s unsurprising that they’re wearing out now, but it’s always a surprise. Had to look up the electrician we used last time, and they’re now scheduled to come out middle of next week to replace it (as I told them, inconvenience, not emergency, so I was fine with whatever they had). In the meantime the toaster oven has been moved from one plug to another, and I’ll move the electric can opener if we need to open anything. The kitchen Echo has been relocated temporarily to the island, and I’m debating whether to move the coffee maker or just stick to french press for the next week or so. The funny thing is that I’d bought some beans on a lark yesterday before knowing the GFCI was dead, so I had fresh ones for this morning. Maybe the keurig sensed them and killed the GFCI out of spite. That or Amazon decided I wasn’t spending enough and hoped I’d use them to book an electrician.

Today was a catch up day for work, especially catching up to a couple of thorny things where I needed time to sit down and actually be able to read up on 1) what the problem was; and 2) potential solutions. The craziness of email and meetings do not lend themselves to lengthy consideration, so was nice to have time to actually sit and ruminate on a couple problems, as well as coming up with the solutions.

We installed some new accent lights on the Ikea bookshelves in our respective offices, and now I feel the need to reorganize said bookshelves, at least the ones in my office, to make them a bit less cluttered. Since that’s my usual video conferencing background I like to have it clean but fun (books, legos, pop vinyls, and other toys abound). I always get nice comments on how much fun it is to see all of the toys, but I think it needs a bit of curating at the moment. And more storage space for some of it.