The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

[feyngirl]

Feyngirl! Good to see you again. Congrats on finishing editing, and the new aquarium! We had an aquarium when I was a kid and it was a lot of fun. I wouldn't mind having one again in the future.


I spent the majority of yesterday with body aches from my booster shot, but like any vaccine that gives me such symptoms, I hit a certain point in the evening where, very suddenly, I felt better. After a good night's sleep, all aches are gone. Now I just wait for the arm soreness and a couple swollen lymph nodes to go away (the exact same symptoms I got with my second vaccine shot). Given that I heard a fellow patient who was older than me say her arm got so sore that she couldn't lift it for a day and a half, mine is pretty mild and more than tolerable.

The fish are very relaxing to watch, especially the bamboo shrimp which seem permanently confused with life. They constantly walk backwards, fall off things and panic, apparently forgetting that
1) they're in water so falling off things isn't dangerous
2) they can swim

Sorry to hear about the booster pains. I got flu and the booster at the same time, and the combination of mild flu symptoms plus sore arm was not fun.

Brightdreamer, totally agree maintenance can be a pain, especially with goldfish which are pretty messy creatures! Probably not something you want to land in your lap with no warning.

Today I am going to enjoy wearing my big new winter jumper. The clothes moths in our house have become so destructive I just can't wear wool anymore, and I was really excited to find a nice jumper with no wool in it.

 

[Friendly Frog]

Aren't bamboo shrimp saline species? I never tried a salt water tank before, always heard it was far more difficult than sweet water tanks. We have about seven of those. My dad is a fan.

 

[feyngirl]

Aren't bamboo shrimp saline species? I never tried a salt water tank before, always heard it was far more difficult than sweet water tanks. We have about seven of those. My dad is a fan.

They're a freshwater species, but need brackish water to breed (and I'm not trying to breed them). I'm definitely not up to a salt water tank! It sounds horrendously complicated.

Seven tanks sounds like a lot of work! Hope you get to have the relaxation of watching them without having to do the maintenance.

 

[MaeZe]

The fish are very relaxing to watch, especially the bamboo shrimp which seem permanently confused with life. They constantly walk backwards, fall off things and panic, apparently forgetting that
1) they're in water so falling off things isn't dangerous
2) they can swim

 

[Brightdreamer]

In the uncle's defense, his idea of "owning a fish" was probably the same as many people's idea: a low-to-no-maintenance thing that you drop in a little bowl and they swim around and you feed them once in a while, and at some point they stop swimming and you empty the bowl and put a plant there instead. But we figured we ought to try doing it "right", so we went by the fish store and got a starter setup... and some time in there the sibling got a job with Petco, and things snowballed from there for several years.

And it's Sunday morning, foggy again. Got a tickle of throat and nose scunge, dang it. Better be gone by Tuesday morning, is all I'm sayin'...

Plans for today are minimal, barring family interference. Closing in on the end of a very good paperback; if I put off Expanse rewatching and site stuff and such and dive in I might be able to finish today. But I also want to get back to rewatching S6 of Expanse, and eventually kicking over to clear S3/final season of Lost in Space over on Netflix... and one of these days I need to get stuff together for tax filing, but I'm pretty sure this is not the weekend for that.

--

Later the same Sunday, and it's still foggy. (There's an air stagnation warning in effect; wonder if scungy air is related to scungy throat.) So far, I've caught up on some site stuff, written some checks for Mom (she still will not write a check herself; anxiety Issues about messing up), washed some dishes, consumed lunch, placed an Amazon order, and rewatched an Expanse ep. Really need to get exercising, but sibling is trying to get sleep in before her graveyard shift tonight, so that's my excuse for procrastinating there. And eventually I ought to start roast for dinner. Think I'll get back to reading in the meantime...

 

[Friendly Frog]

Seven tanks sounds like a lot of work! Hope you get to have the relaxation of watching them without having to do the maintenance.

Ah. Alas.

Like with almost all my dad's hobbies things usually get out of hand maintenance-wise so since a few years I do all the internal cleaning and keep the plants manageable, he does the feeding and the actual filter cleaning. Mom occassionally does the admiring and hinting when things are starting to look shoddy.

But when the tanks are clean, they're a sight to behold. Which is really why I put up with it. (Although dad managed to get two of his little tanks infected with DUCKWEED and I am at a loss HOOOOW, but it's a frigging pain to try and eradicate. Not helped by the fact that he has been promising to rebuild those tanks light covers for years and still hasn't and some of them are litterally falling apart when you handle them. Which is why I have failed to eradicte the aforementioned duckweed. And it doesn't need saying it's me trying it, not him.)

But if the tanks are at their best, they're a sure hit with all kids visiting. The big one down stairs being the size of a bathtub does help. Makes it worth it.

It's just that our fish either hate the plants and love nothing more than to tear them up so the leaves clog up the filter inlet, or hate each other and you end up with the majority of mangled, neurotic fish.

I have a small tank in my room (the prettiest of the lot, as a matter of pride) and dad got me a bunch of bootias: nice pink-and-black ground feeders. And you think, aww, they're so cute and gentle. Ha. Ha. NOT. The biggest one hounded all the others bar the last one to death. I relocated the last one to a different tank to save its life and you think the big bully is satisfied? Nope! He remembers he's a schooling fish and he's suddenly all alone (fishbrain!) and equally sudden scared to death and now hides away in the leaves ALL day and night. I know I should get him new company but whether I can stop him from killing them all as well...

I have been wondering whether I should switch eventually my tank to axelotls because axelotls are cool but I'm unsure whether the tank suffices. I haven't really looked into it because to be honest mostly I'm scared that axelotls turn out to be even bigger bastards and I like newts and rather not have that illusion shattered as well...

Sadly, I've never seen bamboo shrimp yet at the shop, so maybe I should keep them in mind. Unless they have 'orrible canibalistic tendencies or something? (And if they don't, I won't rule out they'll develop them just here especially for me, I bet...)

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for duckweed!

And it's Sunday evening. Still foggy out there. (One more thing for sibling to complain about, on top of having nothing she wants to take for lunch despite having had four days to come up with something, and her shoulder being sore, and... and... Oh, I so hope she's off graveyard soon. There's a rumor the store may just eliminate graveyard and shut down overnight because staffing's already so thin. Would be very inconvenient for people picking up meds, especially after ER visits (which never happen at convenient times), but would be great for very-much-not-night-person sibling...)

Once again, transcription's anemic to nonexistent. Giving it about ten more minutes, then calling it quits. And I won't be able to try on Monday night because I have the Tuesday morning from heck lined up - not one, but two separate drives up to the hospital, including one at dawn-o-clock for Dad's INR - and need to be feigning sleep sooner than usual.

Mergh...

--

Monday, late morning, still foggy out there. Probably should fire up the ol' air cleaner, what with the air stagnation warning still in effect. But that would require moving the TBR overflow off the air cleaner, which requires effort.

I have been promised no store trip today, because I'll be spending so much of tomorrow in a car, but I keep expecting that promise to be broken. Meanwhile, not much on the agenda, save trying to wring story ideas out of the limp and tattered dishrag that is my brain these days.

--

Aaand so much for no store trip today. Sibling had a Bad Night last night (long story of really crud planning on management's part, if you ask me, but she takes it personally when she can't do things even when it's been made impossible), and the long and short of it is that Mom and I had to go out to buy stuff today to stave off more meltdowny stuff. And I expect we'll be sniped at for it anyway.

At least I got lunch out of the deal.

And dessert, because Mom and I were evil and bought a bakery pack of Nanaimo bars for ourselves; after dealing with meltdowns, we figure we're owed something...

In a bit I need to trek down the road to retrieve the recycle bin - they were late and didn't pick up until this morning, so I decided to wait to fetch it until mail was more likely to be there and I could kill two proverbial birds with one stone.

And I keep thinking I'm creeping up on a Sisyphus idea, but then I make eye contact and it bolts into deeper woods...

 

[feyngirl]

In the uncle's defense, his idea of "owning a fish" was probably the same as many people's idea: a low-to-no-maintenance thing that you drop in a little bowl and they swim around and you feed them once in a while, and at some point they stop swimming and you empty the bowl and put a plant there instead. But we figured we ought to try doing it "right", so we went by the fish store and got a starter setup... and some time in there the sibling got a job with Petco, and things snowballed from there for several years.

Yes, expectations have really changed over the years (and with other pets too, not just fish). At least your sibling got a job out of it! Hope that they get off the night shift soon and have the chance to destress a bit.

But when the tanks are clean, they're a sight to behold. Which is really why I put up with it. (Although dad managed to get two of his little tanks infected with DUCKWEED and I am at a loss HOOOOW, but it's a frigging pain to try and eradicate. Not helped by the fact that he has been promising to rebuild those tanks light covers for years and still hasn't and some of them are litterally falling apart when you handle them. Which is why I have failed to eradicte the aforementioned duckweed. And it doesn't need saying it's me trying it, not him.)

I can imagine! They must look gorgeous. Also I have duckweed (I mean DUCKWEED) somehow, definitely didn't buy it. I am trying to eradicate it but my husband hates killing any plants and so I think is trying to save it...

I have a small tank in my room (the prettiest of the lot, as a matter of pride) and dad got me a bunch of bootias: nice pink-and-black ground feeders. And you think, aww, they're so cute and gentle. Ha. Ha. NOT. The biggest one hounded all the others bar the last one to death. I relocated the last one to a different tank to save its life and you think the big bully is satisfied? Nope! He remembers he's a schooling fish and he's suddenly all alone (fishbrain!) and equally sudden scared to death and now hides away in the leaves ALL day and night. I know I should get him new company but whether I can stop him from killing them all as well...

I was shocked by this too, I assumed that when people say fish are 'peaceful' they mean get along all the time, whereas it actually seems to mean 'moderately unlikely to kill each other'. Seeing fights break out among your fish when you'd been assured they were a very peaceful species feels a bit like being assured someone is a good person to be invited to a group, and then finding out over beers the only thing that meant is they weren't literally Hitler.

But! Bamboo shrimp are genuinely peaceful, because they have no way to attack anything else. Their mouths are tiny, they have soft fans for hands, and their legs are too weak to do any damage (not that they seem to want to). At least in our tanks they just drift through life in a state of peaceful confusion. I guess that's why I like them.

Axolotls sound amazing but also really sensitive and delicate. So much so I feel they should be the subject of a B-movie about bloodthirsty axolotls attacking everything in their path, along the lines of Black Sheep.

Anyway, away from aquariums had a quiet weekend and thank goodness because teaching has started and it's manic. Trying to whip my query into shape and feel like I'm not quite getting there. At least there's Burn's night tomorrow to look forward to!

 

[Brightdreamer]

The current job has nothing to do with the pet store thing, but for a while she was bringing home fish from work... and gerbils, and rats, and ferrets, and chincillas... and six dumped kittens and a dumped dog... and a parrot that's still with us... (Current job is at a drug store.)

And it's Monday evening. Winding down the day by hiding out in my room. Sibling couldn't get much sleep; her shoulder's hurting her, and the manager isn't telling her what she needs to do her job, and the night guy's next to useless. (She can't access locked things if the keys are locked up and nobody will tell her where the keys are or how to get them. And last night they were doing the floors and blocked access to the bathrooms for over half the night, and the stink of ammonia nearly did her in... think they may be doing the other half tonight, and blocking access to a bunch more things she'll probably need... so Mom and I will get to hear all about that tomorrow, I'm sure.)

Trying to decide if I want to look at transcription, though TBH I'm really feeling that side gig has run its course; I either need to find another outfit to go through or just give it up as no longer worth my time and effort, 'cause I just can't seem to land any gigs when I have the time to actually check.

 

[Niniva]

*waves hello*

I've been off the grid since before the server update. My energy level reached the point that an edit now takes 6 weeks instead of 4. Then in June my hubby died. But any time I send someone this way, I check in here.

I'm doing well, despite everything.

So... How is everyone? I've missed you guys.

Edited to add: Reaction Score? Not reputation?
Do we like this change?

 

[Brightdreamer]

*waves back*

The reaction score is what it is; with the tradeoff being a more stable server, I'll take it.

Windin' down the day. Actually saw some doable transcription things, but the moment I was about to take one Mom decided to fire up the vacuum, so I took the hint and didn't bother.

And tomorrow I have to be up at dawn (or a bit before) to get Dad to his INR recheck. I hope to heck it's in the good range, dang it... I do not want to have to keep doing this every two weeks.

Might squeeze in another Expanse ep, then attempt some quick spitballing and trudge bedward. Or I might just cut to the spitballing so I don't keep watching to clock to be sure I have enough time.

Dang it...

 

[MaeZe]

*waves hello*
... Then in June my hubby died. ..

I'm so sorry to hear that. I'm glad you are doing well.

 

[Friendly Frog]

I can imagine! They must look gorgeous. Also I have duckweed (I mean DUCKWEED) somehow, definitely didn't buy it. I am trying to eradicate it but my husband hates killing any plants and so I think is trying to save it...

Well, now I do feel a little better about the duckweed thing.

What is it with men and undue attachments to plants?My dad and I have had an ongoing discussion about the water plants in the tanks for years now. He thinks there can never be enough waterplants, I say that the moment you can no longer see your fish and they've got no room to turn without brushing plants you have, in fact, too many plants. I keep thinning the number of plants in the tanks and he keeps on adding them back when my back's turned. (One time he even went and got them back off the compost heap, I ask you.)

On top of that he has fitted most tanks with plant growing lights, so the water plants grow like whoa. Except for the biggest tank where the plant-hating fish live.

We've gotten to the space where I take out more plants than I intend because I know he'll add some again so we end up with a manageable level of foliage.

I did put my foot down when he had three different old tanks filled with left-over plants he couldn't part with. Not all plant species can survive without being anchored and without lights so after two hot summers with (mosquito-riddled!) tanks full of stinky, rotting plants (which I had to toss eventually, not him) I put in a quotum on one tank for left-over plants only.

I was shocked by this too, I assumed that when people say fish are 'peaceful' they mean get along all the time, whereas it actually seems to mean 'moderately unlikely to kill each other'. Seeing fights break out among your fish when you'd been assured they were a very peaceful species feels a bit like being assured someone is a good person to be invited to a group, and then finding out over beers the only thing that meant is they weren't literally Hitler.

Exactly!

But! Bamboo shrimp are genuinely peaceful, because they have no way to attack anything else. Their mouths are tiny, they have soft fans for hands, and their legs are too weak to do any damage (not that they seem to want to). At least in our tanks they just drift through life in a state of peaceful confusion. I guess that's why I like them.

Aww. That's sounds lovely indeed.

Hope you had a nice weekend!

Axolotls sound amazing but also really sensitive and delicate. So much so I feel they should be the subject of a B-movie about bloodthirsty axolotls attacking everything in their path, along the lines of Black Sheep.

Inorite? Amphibians are horribly underrepresented in monster B-movies. I remember that one movie named 'Frogs' that had exactly ONE frog, then some toads but mostly alligators and snakes. And not an axelotl in sight!

I think the amphibians should fire their agent...

And it's Monday evening. Winding down the day by hiding out in my room. Sibling couldn't get much sleep; her shoulder's hurting her, and the manager isn't telling her what she needs to do her job, and the night guy's next to useless.

Sounds like the job may be partly responsible for why they can't find/keep staff. Basic training and equipment is a low bar.

But oof, it must be annoying to hear it all the time.

*waves hello*

Nice to see you again, Niniva!

I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Actually, the reason the store was understaffed enough for emergency hiring procedures was a previous manager got a job with a rival drug store chain, then came back and poached most of the staff to follow them. At the time, the sibling wondered why they'd want to drive all the way downtown, where they even have to pay for parking at their own jobs... Starting to wonder myself how soon is too soon for her to start looking around now that she's back in the employment game, as this outfit isn't the only one desperate for employees and none of them are open overnight (so graveyard wouldn't even be an issue)...

Anyway, 'tis Tuesday morning, and I think it's still foggy out there but be danged if I can see squat out the window because dark is dark. Headin' off soonish for the INR check, so I need to load up my book and my Kindle for the wait. On the plus side, I'll be out of the house when the sibling gets home, so I won't have to hear that. (Oooh, I hope she gets some sleep today. Sleep usually helps, says the person who only got spotty rest last night herself...)

 

[E.F.B.]

Enjoying all the fish tank stories. When we had our tank, we had guppies, neons, and... I can't remember what the others were called. All genuinely peaceful, except I think the bigger guppies occasionally ate the baby ones. We also attempted fan tail guppies at one point, bought three from Walmart (probably our big mistake... we got all our other fish from PetSmart and they survived), but two died on the way home and though we got the little orange one in the tank, it died three days later. Poor Tangerine... Never bought fish from Walmart again and I don't even think our local ones sell them anymore. Probably a reason why.

Don't remember the neons and forgotten other fish variety having much personality, but there was one guppy we named Bubbles because it liked to swim into the bubbles from the aerator and float up like an amusement ride. There was also a weird incident where we were cleaning the area around the tank and found one of the adult guppies dead OUTSIDE the tank, having laying in a paper "ark of the covenant" I'd made in Sunday School as a kid. We never did figure out how it got out of the tank. All I can think is maybe it got blown out by the aerator. Or jumped? But that still would have been a pretty big leap for such a little fish and no other fish ever got out.


ION: The small generator we couldn't cancel arrived yesterday. Dad is still determined it would somehow damage the house wiring just to charge it, so we have to haul it to the store later this week to return it.

On Friday, Mom finally got into the ENT to address her perma-stuffed up nose that wasn't responding to saline or the typical decongestant meds anymore. ENT was able to clean out the yuck (really glad I was outside in the car...) and determined it's a fungal infection with secondary bacterial infection going on. Mom can now officially breathe again and the new treatments she was given are working to keep her nose clear. We're just glad she can sleep and breathe at the same time again as lack of sleep was getting to be a major problem.

Nowhere to go today, so I'm just trying to see how far I can get on that beta read (getting close to the end!) and continue rewriting the beginning of IDTC.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for clean nostrils!

Boo for wiring anxiety!

Past noon, waiting in the fog for Mom to get blood drawn (she has an appointment coming up and figured she would just do that after PT, but they have staffing Issues today so it'll be a while.) At least I got reading time in. Finished a good one, but the Kindle title I just started is meh. May DNF.

--

And it's closing in on 3 PM, finally home. That took way too long... (They told Mom a 45-minute delay on blood draw. It was 90 and change... then we had to hit two stores on the way home because the first didn't have what we needed. On the plus side, a bowl of hot chicken pot pie soup from Potbelly makes a very, very good lunch...)

Mergh...

When relatives shut up in the other room, I need to write up my book review of the book I finished during the long, long, loooong wait.

--

Aaand now there's an Issue with the job. Long story involving the guy who recruited her doing something wrong, so they may be auto-rejecting her application for actual employment even though she's worked for them for a month.

If there's someone who needs punching I'm going to punch them. They've put her through heck already, with graveyard and sticking her in that store for two nights in a row choking on ammonia from cleaning fumes, and if they don't hire her after telling her they were going to hire her because corporate's being a rhymes-with-snitch...

--

And it's Wednesday morning, not quite as foggy, and about to head out the door to work.

Latest update in the Sibling Job Saga is that someone effed up a bunch of stuff while the store manager was busy with a personal emergency, so the sibling isn't the only one dealing with this. The manager is Very Not Happy with that someone. In any event, store manager is doing something that hopefully will untangle the knot.

By a weird coincidence, by having to stay a little late to do stuff related to that, she missed a major road shutdown that would've screwed up her drive home.

--

Wednesday evening, and on the way home from work I saw the sun for the first time in days. Only for maybe half a minute, then the fog closed in again, but nice to know it's still up there, despite all evidence to the contrary...

Mom's decided to make this a yelly evening. Budget stuff, then med ordering, then freaking out about verification codes for med ordering, then just deciding to call it in tomorrow after dragging me into the debacle...

So much for trying to write tonight. Still nothin' moving on Sisyphus, and this ain't helpin'...

 

[E.F.B.]

Yay sun, even briefly! Boo yelly relatives.

Morning, Cantina. Yesterday, we got the mini generator returned to the store. Thankfully they had a young, male employee available to come get it out of the car because that thing was heavy. The return process was blessedly easy, and we got fully refunded.

The other doings of the day were getting my dental cleaning done. It was supposed to be in December, but got pushed back to January when the dentist had a child care emergency. The good news is, zero cavities and the hygienist and I get along really well and always enjoy talking (when there aren't dental implements in my mouth. ) We exchange writing and dentistry news, LOL.

The vaguely annoying news was that the dentist herself, after doing the final check and looking at the x-rays, declared that I have dental indications that I *might* have sleep apnea. My dad and quite a few of his family have sleep apnea (not the least because they're all severely obese...) so I've long been aware of the genetic possibility that I could develop it. At first, I went along with getting set up for an at-home sleep test, but then the woman behind the front desk who specializes in getting people set up for this stuff is asking me this long, long, list of screening questions about do I fall asleep in these different circumstances, wake up feeling like I'm choking/short of breath, wake up with headaches, etc, and my answer to all of them was no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. On top of that, I've lived with my parents my whole life with my room right across from theirs, so they know how I sleep, and both of them were like, what the heck, you don't have sleep apnea.

We waited until I got the message from the sleep test company about how much this whole thing was going to cost and even with my insurance, it's $95 to have a telehealth call with a doctor to talk about your symptoms, and then $200+ for the test itself. It was at that point I got more annoyed than I already was because I am NOT paying $95 to talk to a doctor to answer NO to the long list of question AGAIN only to be told to do the $200+ test anyway because it'll put money in this person's pocket. So I declined testing. I'm well aware from my father's experience what all the symptoms are like. If I ever have any, of course I'll get tested and treated as necessary, no matter the cost. But for now, I've always been grateful to be a good sleeper and there's no evidence to believe I have sleep apnea at this point in time. I'll certainly do everything I can to not end up as obese as my dad and his family, which again, is a huge part of the reason they all have apnea.

My dentist is great at her job when it comes to fixing teeth, but truly, I think she gets paid to recommend her patients to certain companies if there's a possibility they *might* need certain treatments. She's tried to push the apnea test on my mom too because my mom has "a small throat" and therefore *might* have sleep apnea, but that's another instance where my mom doesn't have any of the symptoms so she told her (kindly, but firmly) to stop pushing it. Guess I'll have to do that from now on, too.

Tl;dr: My dentist tried to push an expensive at-home sleep apnea test on me because of the shape of my mouth, but I have ZERO of the symptoms and declined testing. But the situation just really annoyed me.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for clean teeth!

Boo for upselling!

'Tis Thursday afternoon, pushing into evening, and we finally have sunshine.

The Sibling Job Saga finally seems to be resolved with a formal offer of employment, already accepted. I expected it to take longer, TBH, but at least (knock once more on particle board, plywood, etc.) she is now employed. Next step: eventually moving off graveyard. But small steps. For now, we'll take this victory.

And speaking of employment, today marked my 15th anniversary at the library shipping center. Fifteen years of being unable to find another job, basically... meh. I know I really shouldn't complain, but... yeah. Shouldn't complain. Could be worse. Stagnation is good and all that.

Mergh...

Just got two reviews posted. Technically, I finished one last night and the other at work (audiobook) today, but I was too lazy to write the review of the first one this morning.

So that's done.

Now I suppose I ought to get dinner started.

Whee.

--

Thursday evening, and may fire up a video game as white noise to see if I can get Sisyphus ideas to spark. (Might or might not have a blurry thing at the outer limits of the binoculars, but it could be grit on the lens.)

Mom talked to her sister today, and apparently the assistant manager at her store (different chain/store than my sibling's) is basically in the middle of a mental breakdown. She's shouted and cursed at customers and shoplifters (store policy is to not do anything). The other day, the woman physically attacked someone with an umbrella and chased them out. Works until you come up against someone with a knife or a gun... and the way that assistant manager is deteriorating, I half-expect her to be the one who turns up armed... Really hope my aunt isn't there that day.

And I entered my 15-year "bonus" (an Amazon gift card), so I can buy myself a book maybe. Good times...

 

[Friendly Frog]

There was also a weird incident where we were cleaning the area around the tank and found one of the adult guppies dead OUTSIDE the tank, having laying in a paper "ark of the covenant" I'd made in Sunday School as a kid. We never did figure out how it got out of the tank. All I can think is maybe it got blown out by the aerator. Or jumped? But that still would have been a pretty big leap for such a little fish and no other fish ever got out.

They can jump surprisingly well. Mostly only happens with ours if they're chased by other fish or when you're trying to catch one in a net. Since one such incident of finding a fish mummy outside the tanks long time ago most of our tanks have had glass or plexiglass plates over the water to prevent them smashing into the lights or landing outside the tank.

ION: The small generator we couldn't cancel arrived yesterday. Dad is still determined it would somehow damage the house wiring just to charge it, so we have to haul it to the store later this week to return it.

It's a pity you had to return it. Personally I would have been tempted to put in the back of the garage for emergencies. But ah, you can't reason with anxieties.

So it's a good thing the return went smoothly.

We waited until I got the message from the sleep test company about how much this whole thing was going to cost and even with my insurance, it's $95 to have a telehealth call with a doctor to talk about your symptoms, and then $200+ for the test itself. It was at that point I got more annoyed than I already was because I am NOT paying $95 to talk to a doctor to answer NO to the long list of question AGAIN only to be told to do the $200+ test anyway because it'll put money in this person's pocket.

That's so annoying. It's one thing to suggest unnecessary medical testing, it's another if they are so expensive. And in the meantime people who probably do need these testing have to get behind you on the waiting list.

The Sibling Job Saga finally seems to be resolved with a formal offer of employment, already accepted. I expected it to take longer, TBH, but at least (knock once more on particle board, plywood, etc.) she is now employed. Next step: eventually moving off graveyard. But small steps. For now, we'll take this victory.

Yay for a quick resolution and Sibling keeping the job!

And speaking of employment, today marked my 15th anniversary at the library shipping center. Fifteen years of being unable to find another job, basically... meh. I know I really shouldn't complain, but... yeah. Shouldn't complain. Could be worse. Stagnation is good and all that.

Stagnation with a job is still preferable to stagnation without a job, take it from the one who really should get out of her own personal stagnation...

 

[Brightdreamer]

Friday morning, and it froze overnight, enough that I had to hustle around the house to replace a couple frozen humm feeders (while being cursed at roundly by angry humms) before breakfast. That was not in the weather reports, dang it... light frost if anything, not hard enough to turn sugar water to ice blocks.

And then my morning shower was delayed by Dad camping out in the upstairs bathroom. (We aren't letting him go downstairs anymore; we're hopeful he can go eventually, but since the foot infection Issue he's been a bit wobbly on his feet. Mom especially doesn't want him going up or down stairs without someone to supervise, and we can't trust him to comprehend the reason to wait for someone else to be around to traverse the staircase, so it's a blanket "No Stairs" rule.)

Gonna be one of those days, I suspect...

Mergh...

 

[Cobalt Jade]

Mom talked to her sister today, and apparently the assistant manager at her store (different chain/store than my sibling's) is basically in the middle of a mental breakdown. She's shouted and cursed at customers and shoplifters (store policy is to not do anything). The other day, the woman physically attacked someone with an umbrella and chased them out.

If that store is anything like my store, that is not unusual at all. I think everyone working face-to-face with the public in my place has broken at least once, and most multiple times. Theft is really, really bad and what's worse is that most shoplifters don't even TRY to hide it and when caught go on about profiling and "you can't do anything to me" and the like, because store policy is for regular workers not to interfere; we are supposed to call LP (loss prevention.) Loss prevention can not physically touch perpetrators in the store, can only harass them, but can confront more forcefully outside or chase them down. So by default, the ideal situation to stop a shoplifter is for several employees to gang up on them, surrounding them and harassing them verbally which usually works because of the sheer intimidation factor. Everyone gets worked up and starts screaming. It's not a calm situation at all, but chaotic, and everyone feels slightly ashamed afterwards. I would estimate this happens at least once a day.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Oh, the shoplifting situaton's gotten way out of hand around here, I'll agree; it's bent over far too far the other way. Violently confronting people solo, especially for the sake of a company that doesn't care about exposing employees to potentially violent situations in the first place, and thus exposing oneself and one's fellow employees and other customers to the potential for escalating repercussions if an umbrella fails to stop a bullet, however...

But maybe that's just me.

Friday afternoon, and work was a thing that existed. Slowly catching up, and there are two new hires starting soonish. I can almost guarantee at least one will be gone by summer, because that's the way it always works.

Started an audiobook that I'm on the fence about continuing. It's considered a bit of a classic, but it's meandering terribly and the sexism's really starting to grate on me (even given that it's a classic, which is quite often synonymous with "cringe on at least one level")...

On the plus side, may be sidling up to a Sisyphus starter, but it has the potential to go darker than the request. May have to start it anyway, 'cause it's almost February and I'm dyin' here...

Eh, well. Meanwhile, got a roast roastifying in the pressure cooker, which gives me a little time to poke at some site stuff before vegetables need to be added.

--

And now there's an Issue with the background check on the sibling's job suddenly not registering as completed (even though it was completed, she has the e-mail to prove it was completed, and the manager knows it was completed). I think something got effed up with the re-application process and she has to fill something out again, but...

I have never seen such a back-and-forth of unbelievable luck, good and bad, in such quick succession.

I am also about ready to punch each and every person at this outfit, up to and including the CEO, directly in the face for putting her (and the family) through this. (Yes, meltdown is occurring. Yes, it's a bad 'un.)

(ETA - Background check recheck application off and away, after more melting down related to her verge-of-crashing laptop and increasingly obsolete off-brand browser... she passed the first one, should pass the second one, but dear gods and devils and all entities above, below, between, and beyond, can this be the last major drama associated with her gaining employment? Mom's almost melting down herself from secondhand stress...)

--

Saturday afternoon, overcast, and haven't really done much with my day. Got my site ready to go for its month-end update (barring finishing anything by the 31st, which I'm pretty sure isn't going to happen), so that's done. Finally got the weekly room stuff dealt with. Poked about in a white noise video game for a while as I circle that Sisyphus idea (stop skewing dark, dang it, brain!). May do that again. At some point, I need to fetch mail and get dinner started. Oh, the thrills...

And no word from sibling all day, so hopefully nothing else has imploded yet (knock on plywood).

(ETA: She got a call from the store, which gave Mom and I collective heart attacks, but they were scheduling her for an extra shift. We're taking that as a sign that the background check is either a done deal or a nonissue. Of course, she's spiraling about extra work and no sleep... can't win with her, really...)

--

Sunday evening, went from cloudy to rainy on and off, and no reason to waste a perfectly good run-on thread for a non-event day...

Eyeballing that Sisyphus idea, getting a better idea of what it's about, but still too soon to set down words, even though I guarantee it won't go down the way I think it'll go down. They never do. Been Titan Questing as white noise for brainstorming in the meantime. (See? It's not wasting time in an old video game if it's brainstorming for Sisyphus! There's a deadline and everything, so it's for-realsies writing!) And keeping an eye on the transcription site, though I'm really starting to think about throwing in the towel altogether. It's been a few weeks since I found anything remotely doable when I'm available to transcribe. Either I need to push harder for more "don't interrupt me, dang it! And make your own frellin' dinner once in a while!" time, or I need to look elsewhere for extra income.

--

Monday afternoon at the Thread Post Conservation Society's unofficial headquarters, and it's sunny out there. Got shopping dealt with, so that's done. (Going with sandwiches for dinner, because it's the laziest option I could come up with at the time.) And I hit the mother lode of Mountain Dew Zero, which is a minor victory but my own...

Aside from shopping and updating the site for the end of the month, not really doing anything but contemplating Sisyphus; hoping to get a start on that tonight or tomorrow, relatives pending. Fingers crossed I can keep it short and relevant...

And, yes, I'm prodding characters through Titan Quest whilst I contemplate. White noise...

--

And Monday evening, and finally landed myself a quick transcription job. Not even nine bucks, but hey, that's better than nothin'...

Still mulling Sisyphus, so I may wait until tomorrow to set down words. Keep waffling on how I want to start, even knowing that I can and probably will change it once I reach the end and figure out what the frell I'm writing anyway...

 

[Friendly Frog]

The shoplifting was one of the things I will not miss at all after we had to close the family shop in '20.

I've been finding it hard to focus lately. I really should start some long-term planning to get a grip again on my life. But inertia is such a powerful force and it's a drag to get anything started that aren't indoor short-term projects.

And I realise that since the start of the pandemic I have sorted and arranged so many drawers and cupboards that I'm actually running out. There never is a shortage of other short-term projects but the vast majority of that is repair and damage control and I think that's what's starting to get to me. There aren't enough things that are creative and new. But I just can't focus.

I stopped looking for social hobbies. Last two times I made plans in that direction we first got an pandemic and then an even bigger one. So nope, not jinxing that again.

I did have tentatively started to do my agility exercises again in the mornings. Last time I managed to stay going for 8 months before it petered out. It's nice to notice I haven't lost all my won agility over the last months of inaction. Still happy I can touch the floor even though it's not with a flat hand anymore.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for inertia! And boy, do I feel that... hard to get out of the hole when it takes more energy and focus to climb than dig...

Tuesday morning, and heading out soon. Yes, again. Mom has lost her debit card (and possibly her new insurance card), so we need to go down to the credit union to get a new one issued because she can't get the online log in to work right (and refuses to ask about that, too, even though it's an ongoing problem she likes to yell about occasionally). So that's another hole through a day when I'd hoped to get a start on Sisyphus.

I see what kind of month you're setting up, and right back at ya, February...

On the plus side, apparently sibling's official permanent employee status has been confirmed by official means, so even though this will mean no end to grumbling and whining about how she's now "trapped here forever", it's at least a step out of the hole for her. (She stayed late after graveyard to finish a reset on one aisle, and apparently the manager was almost in tears because they liked what she'd done and it had been a mess for so long.)

Oh, dear gods, the phone is ringing... what fresh hell is this, February? (Phew, just a hang up...)

--

Later the same Tuesday, and lest one be left in suspense, Mom did get a new card. Surprisingly hassle-free. Now I'm eating lunch and about to watch something, then I'll probably game a bit to settle the brain. Writing will likely not occur until after dinner. Assuming it occurs. (Writing, that is. Dinner will occur, I guarantee, lest I want everyone yelling at me.)

 

[RunForPresentense]

Hullo Cantina and happy February—I have no idea what February did to January but I think it was timey wimey, and there’s no one in a bow tie so far to fix this.

I believe I’ve been snowed in twice since I last posted, and I’ve missed so much talk of fish tanks (which I knew absolutely nothing about before, thanks for clarifying that for me.)

Groovy pickin back up agility training, FriendlyFrog—sounds awesome! I recently picked up a daily (short!) ab habit to complement the spinning/ weight lifting stuff I do. I really get a lot out of the moldable-clay-responds-daily-effort thing about exercise. It’s very grounding, in both habit and the ability to tell myself positive denial stories aiming for long term growth. Definitely leaning on that ability about my writing recently! Just keep swimming, eh?

Hope you got in the swing of things BD!

By the way, what’re some of your favorite things to do in AW? I’m still figuring things out and so far, scrolling through this thread, and hanging out in Share Your Work are my principle activities. Have any recommendations??