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

I alternate between really bored and really excited about projects at work. There are two long-term things on the desk that I absolutely dread working on because they’re just terribly dull, complicated, and seemingly never-ending. Then there are some more fun projects that I keep trying to get to, that are equally important as the other two dull ones, but which never seem to be able to come to the top of the stack, despite ongoing talks with various folks about the status thereof. I need to just knuckle down and kill off the dreaded tasks, but they always manage to sap my will to live.

And they wonder why I don’t want to be a manager.

Did finally manage to motivate myself to hit the grocery store and pick up a few foodstuffs on the way home. Had meant to yesterday, but came directly home, had something simple from the cupboard, and crashed semi-early after doing a couple of things around the house. Slept really, really well, and really, really late (for me), but needed the catch-up from the weekend and the return to work.

Haven’t touched the uberlist yet for this upcoming year. I’ve thought about it some, but not put thought to file just yet. Soon. Oh, and I’m debating a change in my normal new year’s day routine. Normally I go on a run, commemorating my return to running from 2000 after having mono. Just me, no electronic devices, no watch, nada. Just a run. But this year my club is having a ride that morning at 10, and I think I want to go do that. I joined the club so I’d have folks to train with, and part of moving down to Southwest was to get over to Hains Point and practice with them, but I’ve not really taken advantage of the proximity like I had intended to, so I’m thinking it’s time to get out and practice with them. Still could run, but I suspect a slightly more social beginning to the year should be in order.

While home at lunch, I went by the office, asked to swap out my pedestrian fob for one of the car gate radio fobs. Had to fill out a piece of paper, but they gave it to me, no charge. Was quite nice to be able to bike onto the property this evening without stopping. Go squeeky wheel.

Rest of the afternoon was slightly crazy, work-wise, but bearable. Got my monthly haircut (she went even shorter than usual, looks good), then biked back downtown to swim for an hour. Did not have to time to make soup as I’d hoped, but the ingredients will keep until tomorrow, post-gym (with no haircut to take up the extra time). Or perhaps until the weekend when I can take an afternoon to simmer it down nicely. Hmm…

Managed to forget my wallet this morning (d’oh!), which wouldn’t be a big deal, but my monthly haircut is this evening, so I kind of needed it. So, told my team leader I was headed out for lunch today (I normally work through lunch at my desk), and biked back home. Much nicer than doing a veggie burger at work, and it’s nice to come back and check email on a real computer (as opposed to my cell phone). Hopefully the pasta will be done shortly and then it’s back up the hill to try and fix a (hopefully not too) big goof by one of our program offices with regards to their budget. Fun, fun. One of those times when I actually have to put to paper all of the ‘truths’ that folks ‘know’ about how the federal budget gets executed, which means some folks are not going to be happy…

I’m a tad worried about Mom’s memory.

She’s been paranoid for years now about getting alzheimer’s, which I think unlikely, but she has been showing signs of “chemo brain” as she calls it (a diminishment of mental capacities after chemo). The most notable thing is that she repeats anecdotes a couple of times within the same conversation. It’s not every conversation, but it’s enough that I’ve started noticing it. Now, I’m not one to talk but so much about repeating the same story to someone, but I at least separate my tellings by a day or so. Doing it in the same conversation is a bit different, like she’s losing short term memory. Will have to discretely mention it to Dad and see if he’s noticed it as well.

Hated, hated, hated driving. It’s loud, it’s boring, and I do not see how people do it on a regular basis. I am so glad I moved a mile and a quarter from work so I can walk or bike. Multi-hour commutes just blow my mind. That’s inhumane, IMNSHO. Didn’t help that the nimrod who rented the car before me smoked in it, using the center console as the ash tray (which the rental car place missed). The only good thing there was it allowed me to ID the sweet smell that occasionally comes out of my air units – I suspect now that the previous owner might have smoked. Not a biggie, it’s not come out in a while, but it was there when I first moved in and had to run the air units.

Speaking of the air units, I’ve asked the building operations guy if there would be issues with installing some programmable thermostats in my apartment. Tired of trying to remember to adjust the heat (which means it usually stays just a trifle cool).

Picked up oodles of veggies this evening to make soup tomorrow. And oatmeal. And other stuff. This after I was too lazy to change out of the shirt I biked home in this evening (I did switch out of the tights in favor of jeans). In this weather I don’t even break a sweat biking home (it’s <10 minutes to home – downhill), and this shirt’s comfortable, so what the heck. Did sit down and pay bills, which was needed, as well as arranging for some other errands I needed to get done. Productive evening, if not the most exciting.

Too much to write about right now, and no time to do it. Will attempt to get more thoughts to ‘paper’ here in the next couple of days.

Good lunch today with RNJTM at his place of employment. This after getting rid of the rental car and somehow managing to get into my BGA, deposit a check in the ATM (I bank at the BGA’s credit union), replace my lost badge, drop off two bags of candy in my office, go to the bathroom and leave, all without seeing any of my co-workers.

Came home, napped, got in a run (first exercise in two weeks – damned cold). Found out the internet was down, watched them release a squirrel who’d gotten into our lobby (yay for the exterminator [who regularly comes in on Mondays] having a live-capture trap), cleaned some, then off to dinner with MG, who is now trying to fix his ailing laptop in the other room since the internet is now back up. Oh, and managed to register for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler (third time’s the charm?). Next step, planning how to approach the race this year.

Lots of thoughts about the family, Mom’s memory, driving, etc., but for now I really, really just want to get to sleep.

I think I’m going to have to do a smack-down letter for the board at the cult co-op. We’ve put in a perimeter fence. It is finally going on-line this week (after starting construction May of last year). So, yes, I will be living in a gated community. Mainly this was because of the foot traffic that used the property as a cut-through to get to and from the Metro, some of which preyed on members who lived in the property, many of whom were loud and obnoxious when crossing.

Anyway, because I don’t have a car (there are not enough parking spots for each resident to have one), and because I don’t rent one of our few parking spaces, I don’t qualify (to the board) for one of the fobs that will open the parking lot gates via a radio signal, I only get a fob that opens the pedestrian gates. Never mind that I might have cause to enter in someone else’s car, or a rental car, or even, heaven forfend, ride up on my bicycle. Because I don’t own a car, I somehow don’t need the fob that opens the car gates. This royally pisses me off. I have just as much right to access any part of the property (since it is a co-op, and therefore is all owned in common by the corporation) as anyone who has a car. And, frankly, I’m miffed that I’m not going to be able to roll onto the grounds with my bike, as I can now. Instead I’ll have to get off the bike, haul the bike up onto the curb, wrestle the door open, hold it open with the bike in hand, get inside before it closes on me, and then hop back on and ride up to the building. Not so keen on that idea. So I’m going to fuss, and hopefully get one of the damned car fobs for my bike.

Got up this morning totally Mr. Cranky Pants. Did not want to get up, did not want to go run, did not want to see anyone, did not want to do anything. Sat around, pouted, read the paper (they’ve been delivering it regularly since Tuesday), pouted some more, and was generally in a horrible mood. Was feeling like I’m tired of training for the marathon, I’m tired of feeling like I waste an entire weekend day doing the long runs, and a lot of, “Why am I doing this if it’s not fun?” Of course, I do it because it is fun, I do enjoy it, it’s just that I was feeling a total lack of motivation this morning. Was also missing MG, who’s been away for work this week. And, as I said, just feeling a big dose of the blahs. Must’ve had something physical going on as well, stress-wise, this week, because my eczema’s flared up as well.

Thankfully around mid-afternoon I snapped out of it as I did massive amounts of floor cleaning (yay swiffer wet), did laundry, even ironed (which is a measure of how blah I’d been feeling – I never iron). Feel much better now. MG’s headed back to town tonight, and will wander over. In the mean time I’ve lit a bunch of candles, popped in a movie, turned the lights off and am relaxing. It’s not quite meditation, but it’s much more restful than I’ve been of late. Hopefully the long run tomorrow will be better for excising Mr. Cranky Pants from my system.

In other news™, I had an unexpected surprise yesterday when I pulled up my leave and earnings statement. Evidently the beginning of the month was an anniversary at work because I went up a step for the paycheck that hits next week. Extra money is always nice, especially unexpected extra money. Oh, and my parents now know about the new neice/nephew, speaking of expectations, and also that my brother will be teaching sixth grade starting in the next week or so. Good news all around (which made the attack of the cranky pants all the more bizarre).

It appears that I wasn’t the only one, but yesterday evening was just one extended freak-out. After the plane stuff in the afternoon, my little brain decided it would be a good time to start stressing over pretty much anything and everything that it could, leading to absolutely no sleep until I finally hopped back out of bed at 1-something (I think), gave myself a reality check, and went back to bed.

Slept really, really poorly, so called in to work (that’s why they give us sick leave!), went back to bed until about noon, then got up and was a total slug.  The most productive thing I’ve done all day was read the paper, once I finally realized delivery had started today (I ordered a subscription to the newspaper earlier this week; how retro). Oh, and registering my DS games with Nintendo. Whee. Hopefully I’ll sleep better tonight, but there are times when it would be nice to just be able to turn off the lizard brain and stop it from freaking out, especially when I realize it’s completely off-base and freaking out for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

In Other News™, the cult co-op has put together a committee to pick a new general manager. We’ve finally driven the latest one nuts enough that she’s quit, though she thankfully has given us to the end of the calendar year to find a replacement. I think this means #7 in 6 years or something like that. Fun! I was asked to be on the search committee, and said yes; the list of folks on the committee was distributed today by the management and I’m on it. Will be interesting to see how this goes. For those of you in properties with property managers, what would you want to know from a candidate for the position?

I love to wear watches. I am, by nature, a time/clock watcher. I have clocks all over the house (I can see five from where I’m sitting, including the ones on both computers), and I love having one of the little buggers on my wrist.

Except when it’s quiet and I can hear it ticking.

Was sitting here reading, nice and peaceful, when suddenly all I could hear was the watch ticking. I wiggled it around so it was facing away from me, no good. Moved my arm further away, still no good. Had to take it off and leave it in the other room. As much as I love my watch, the noise it makes when I’m trying to enjoy the quiet is just Too Much.

I’ve been avoiding my gym for a couple months now. I know, I know, bad fag. But with a pool at my disposal that was outside in the nice open air for the summer, why go swim inside? Thankfully my locker was still locked, my shoes were still inside, and all was right with the world.

There had been a bit of a scare a couple months ago that they were going to close the pool, but they had a huge outpouring of protest from the members, and instead had the members meet with them and suggest ways to make it all work for them. My montly dues will go up in November, but I’m okay with that, it’s not that large an increase. And I’ve now offset it by discarding my membership in the gym at work. When thinking over stuff, finances, etc., I realized that I had originally joined the gym at work so I’d have access to the showers for when I biked down from my old apartment. Now that I’m a mere 10 minutes away, there’s no need for it, so why pay? So I emptied out that locker today (more shoes – oy), cancelled it, reassured the poor guy at the desk that I had nothing against them, but that I didn’t need it now that I’d moved and that I needed my other gym with the pool more (as a triathlete). If I feel the need for a treadmill I can join the little fitness center here at the cult co-op for a third of what the work gym was costing me.

Speaking of the cult co-op, I had asked the general manager last week if I could get an extra door fob (for the towers) as well as an extra gate fob (for the outer gates) since the instructions for the gates allowed us to get an extra gate fob. She finally replied with the answer that I’d have to petition the board for one and they’d approve/disapprove it. Yeah, I don’t think so. I’ve asked, with a cc to the board president and the head of our security committee, whether we have an accounting of all the outstanding fobs and proof that they were all asked for and approved by the board (I’m certain the answer is no). Not going to let this one go – I want the extra fob because I want MG to be able to get in without having to either go down to get him or making him “sign in” at the front desk in the other building. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.