Recent Entries

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Furnace: Running

Entry tags:

Is it OCTOBER?

<rant>
Seriously. WTF year? lol... So I'm feeling progressively better the last couple of months. Too bad Summer was basically over by the time I really felt like myself again, and I'm still not 100%. Bleh. But things are progressing. We actually got the yard decorated for Samhain and Beggars' Night, and plan to participate for the first time in two years. Last year I was on fire from one end of my digestive tract to the other, so I wasn't up to it at all. I think I already whinged about that quite a bit at the time, so I won't get into it. The year before we were no way going to do it because little kids are germ factories and none of us wanted CoViD-19 and Vaccines wouldn't actually be available to the public until sometime in December of 2020 as I recall. I think Beggars' Night ended up being cancelled that year anyway because of that. So I'm looking forward to dressing up in my dragon PJ's or may be My Leopard PJs... I haven't decided. Maybe I'll do something else, but I better get on with deciding, because it is coming damn fast now. lol! Sunday I will probably spend most of my day carving my pumpkins, of which I have only two at the moment. The small Kroger on my way home didn't have ANY, but the big boxes were also stacked with milk crates, so I don't think they actually had that many to begin with. I wanted at least half a dozen more to set up a little parade of Jack-O-Lanterns in the area of the yard that doesn't have spider webs. I hope I can find some tomorrow. The later it gets, the more likely I'll find none and just get to carve the two white ones that I have, or else get more white ones.

So generally speaking, I'm feeling more like myself. I'm finally off the Omeprazole. My new (well not so new now.) GI doctor had me switch back over to Famotidine with a week overlap and then gradually reduce my dosage of that until I could just use it as needed. I'm down to 10 mg/day from 40mg/day. I could probably drop it now, but I want to just wait another week or two. I don't want the holiday or my birthday ruined by fire in my gullet. lol

Earlier this summer I got to go see Duran Duran in Columbus with the same friends plus one I saw them with at the Fraze in 2006. They were great as usual. I hope I get to see them again sooner than 14 years from now. lol Earlier in the year after I'd already bought my ticket, I was really terrified that I'd be too sick to go. Thankfully, things were getting better by the time it came around time to go. We had a blast.

In other news, I've spent the last few days laying out the next chapter of Chasing the Trail. Chapter 19... This story was originally just meant to be a winter holiday story but it's taken me so long to write it that it's been many winter holidays gone by trying to get to this one and the story itself I just realised is only on Day 6... and here I was worrying that Ed was still going to be in too bad of shape to go to any of the parties or have any fun because I was taking so long. But now... It's fine. He'll get to go to the BIG one, and Mustang's 'Little" one, and I think a housewarming party is probably in order too. More likely not enough for them to plan anything formal. Probably just a few of their friends for drinks and snacks and laughs. But that' not this chapter. Today in the story is Moving Day... so that's what I'm working on. I wish I were more organized. lol. I have plans though. Just you wait.

Seriously? It's bedtime already? WTF DAY? (I'll tell you wtf... I slept past noon (day off) because I was too lazy to get my ass out of bed. I actually got a lot of things done, including altering 3 pairs of pants that I've put off doing all year because I felt to shitty to do it, prepping giant meatloaf and mashed potatoes for a holiday carry in on Friday, so Yah... It's bedtime. Night night!
</rant>

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Cicada Song

Entry tags:

semagic

So does this still work?

I seem to recall that I was able to finally get Semagic to work with DreamWidth. Let's test it out. Did it work?

Edit: Yes. Yes it did. Don't ask me how, I don't remember what I did to make it work. lol I hope I don't ever have to figure it out again.

Current Mood: optimistic
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Cicada Song

Entry tags:

Well, here we are nearly 4 months later

So, if you don't know this about me... I don't really spend a lot of time on my computer in Summer anymore. Generally speaking, I have other things that I want to do than sit on my ass in front of a computer. What this ends up meaning is that I don't write much in Summer either.

My activities have been different this year, because I haven't been feeling exactly stellar most of the year due to (probably stress induced) GERD. I'm doing better now. I had an upper endoscopy in which the doctor stretched a stricture. After the procedure I was really sick for two weeks and missed three weeks of work because it took me another week to get my strength back. GI doc thinks that I probably had a GI tract infection, backed up by the fact that the morning of the procedure I had some low belly pain which I mentioned to them, but I though it was just a little IBS due to being pretty nervous about my procedure. She said if that was the case, probably being inflated for the procedure might have just aggravated an already unpleasant bug. Also, my meds had recently been changed and turned out to be less effective so I was feeling worse instead of better. Went back to the original med, got the infection resolved and now things are going better and I feel more like myself except I still have to take a damned pill every morning, which I don't like. >_<

The good news is that as unwell as I have felt for the last 9 or 10 months, tests have verified that there is nothing seriously wrong. Just uncomfortable, and nerve wracking (and the nerve wracking part has probably contributed to how bad I've felt, and having those fears laid to rest is probably also going a long way towards me feeling more like myself, since this was probably stress induced in the first place.

Now Summer is almost over and I haven't accomplished much that I wanted to, but at least I'm feeling like myself the majority of my days. YAY! I didn't get the house painted. Can't really afford it right now. Next year for sure. My brother's estate will settle from probate pretty soon, and I'll have a little inheritance most likely so next year I'll probably just some of it to hire professionals instead of us doing it ourselves. Wanted to fix the gutters as well, which I could normally do myself, but haven't felt well enough to invest myself in a project like that. I wanted to start building my tiny house on the trailer I inherited from my brother. I totally planned to do that this summer, but I really didn't start feeling like myself again until maybe 3 weeks ago, so I'll make plans to start that as soon as the weather is nice enough next spring rather than start now, and have it sit half finished through Winter. Nope. Seems stupid to do that.

This weekend I'm going to go see Duran Duran. I'm excited about that, and also about getting to go with my friend who lives too far away to visit often, so I haven't seen him in quite a few months now. YAY! Music Festival type thing.

I managed to get the Irish Session going again at our local Irish Pub which is also awesome, but it's slow going because it's been two years, and now it's on a different day, and some of the original gang aren't as available as they would have been if I'd managed to get it on the same day we always played. But it's happening. Slowly but surely we're getting a group of regulars to come and play with us, and relearning the songs and tunes based on who knows what.

Now I think I'll try to spend a little time writing, since I'm up here in the Creation Room, windows open, and pleasant weather, cicadas singing outside. I'll try to speak more regularly now. We'll see. I do go long stretches. lol

Spring Cleaning: Outside

Oh man I got SO much done today. Started off with mowing the front lawn as planned, but then while sweeping, went onto the sidewalk to sweep, and discovered that there was a LOT of dead leaf buildup on the sidewalk outside the front fence, so I dug all that up, and put the mud/leaf sludge/mulch around my big maple in the front yard in places where the root system starts to spread out past the trunk of the tree, so that filled in some holes and places that it is really hard to get the reel mower. The plan for this year is to dig out and mulch in a semi-oval around that tree anyway, all the way to the fence line, so that mowing around the tree is less of a pain in the ass. So, surprisingly there was enough dug off the sidewalk to actually go all the way around to the area we planned to start around the trunk, to out about a foot. It's a good start to the project, and we don't really need (or would even have the ability) to dig out that area. Ultimately on the house side of the tree where the rounded part of the semi oval will be is going to come out about 3 feet from the trunk, and any digging down will probably only be around that outer perimiter on the yard side. I will probably hammer some border along the fence as the fence comes right up to the city sidewalk.This will help prevent the mulch/dirt from leaking out onto the sidewalk when it rains. My neighbor has the same problem with his yard where they have gunk/buildup from winter on the sidewalk. Since he also likes to keep a nice trim lawn in front, I asked him if when he gets to it if we can have the gunk. They were happy to agree, as it will save them having to bag it up and drag it to the alley. They also plan to do it on Wednesday, which is convenient since that's my next day off and I'll be able to collect it from them. Maybe I better buy a little wagon or wheel barrow. Lol.

The next part of that project is going to be researching some flowering plants that enjoy shady conditions in summer. In fall, I'll probably also plant some crocus, narcissus, hyacinth, and maybe some tulip bulbs, since they are active and generally finished by the time the tree really leafs out. I'll probably also transfer some of my ires into that area too, since these particular ones are also generally finished blooming by the time the tree is casting much shade and my main flowerbed has a surplus that needs to have the tubers split off from them. I wanted to do this last year, but also nearly broke my ankle in late Summer, then of course my brother died at the beginning of October, and that pretty much put everything in the world beyond work out of my reach for a while. Plus some other annoying things that I'll stick under a cut if you don't want to read about my stupid health problem.

So all that sweeping and cleaning progressed it's way onto the porch... Got both the Mighty Mite out there, and the Hoover Upright. Threw out the old Church chairs, and window frames that were supposed to be picked up by someone when we got our new windows five years ago who never did, and cleaned and scrubbed and vacuumed the hell out of it... sucked up 8 spiders that I counted into the Mighty Mite, sprayed some big killer on some dirt and sucked that up in there too, but ultimately changed the bag anyway! lol. SO MUCH BETTER cleared like that. Vacuumed all the cobwebs and spider junk off all the remaining furniture, and out of corners and then used the Hoover upright to vacuum the porch rug a second time since it is more powerful, and can get deeper dirt out of it, though I realize it will never REALLY be clean again! Lol... It's clean enough for the porch.

Other project for this year hopefully include finally painting the stucco part of the house, painting the wood of the remaining porch furniture, and the floor of the porch itself and the front steps as well, though the front steps will have sand added into the paint for better grip. We also need to get someone to repair the gutters the roofer was supposed to repair last year but didn't, and in fact damaged instead. Ugh. Wednesday we are getting a new water heater because the one we have is leaking and thus will before very much longer fail altogether. I want to replace the front walk into one that I won't almost break my ankle on again if I have enough money this year. We'll see. Trying to get a quote from the guy who did my neighbor's, but I'm not actually sure if I want him to do it, now that I see how G--'s kind of goes downhill into the middle of his yard and then back uphill to the sidewalk, when the yard should be essentially flat. It looks kind of weird. Also, I have already had some volunteers who said they will dig up my sidewalk for me, and possibly build me a new one utilizing the smashed concrete of the original walk as the 'gravel' part of the foundation for a new one.. For that matter, I already have the knowledge to create a new walk myself that way too.

( Cut for stupid and annoying health issue )

Current Mood: bitchy
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Furnace Running

Entry tags:

family,
wtf?

Can Someone Please Explain How This Makes Sense?

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Furnace Running

Entry tags:

family,
shoes

Shoes for Mommy

Today we went to visit my Mommy. A couple of days ago she talked about her visit with "The Foot Doctor" and told me that he said she needs to go up a shoe size because she doesn't have enough room in her toe box and it's making her toes sore. She's 91, so you know she's got other issues as well. He gave her a name of what was going on with her feet but she doesn't hear well, and couldn't remember what he said other than it started with V. Well, she also said the same word was on my brother's death certificate, and on her heart doctor's door. So in a moment, I figured out it was vascular, as in cardiovascular, or heart and vascular (in the case of her heart doctor's door). So it's probably some sort of venous vascular disease, given that her feet have a lot of spider veins and resulting discoloration.

Anyway, today after we got back from dinner, I sat with her and talked to her about it, and she showed me her feet. She banged her left one getting into her sister's car. She said it was because she had to ride in the back seat and it was too small to get her long legs in. This is probably true. She can get into the front seat of my Fit just fine, but the way the Fit is laid out, the front door is almost as long as you'd expect on a coup, and I always have the front seat in a pretty far back position for her comfort. But she does pretty much get herself sitting, and then pulls her legs in without really bending them very much. Then once both feet are in, she just kind of ooches her bottom into the middle of the seat and leaves her feet tucked almost against the side of the footwell near the door. So she has a booboo on her outer ankle bone and of course at 91 she's slower to heal. She also had him looking at an injury to her big toe and that's the one he told her she needs a bigger shoe. Apparently, her shoe is causing pain around her toenail.

So we sat and I showed her a shoe I found that is designed so that she can just step into it, but which will stay on once her foot is settled. I'd talked to her about them on the phone, and sent her a link. I told her then that they're expensive, but the reviews are pretty good. I picked one that I feel like looks the most like the kinds of sneakers she typically wears. So today I showed them to her. She seemed to like them, and was able to see the video of how they work well enough to have a positive reaction. I showed her the same shoe in several colors, and then asked her what color she liked the best. Well... now she hems and haws about it. "Well... probably black I guess..." I can tell that she is not that excited about black shoes. and then she told me she wasn't even sure what size she was wearing because New Balance Shoes are inconsistent with industry standard sizing, and she had been just going and trying on shoes until she found a comfortable size.

I let it go for a while, and we watched Jameson play with his magnetic building set. In a little bit though, Mommy got up and came back with a pair of shoes. She said that she'd bought these after the visit with "The Foot Doctor™" (I know he's a podiatrist CoM that's just what she always calls him). He had tied them for her so she could slip them on and off, but surprise! She can't get them on right even with a shoe horn because the tongue isn't properly secured. But we did get her biggest foot into a shoe, and I got a feel of where her toe is. For her, her big toe is longer than the rest. She has a NORMAL foot, which looks really strange to me with my Morton's Toe foot lol. So to me it seems like her big toe is still pretty close to the front of the shoe. So we'll just say she does not have pretty feet now, and she needs shoes that don't make them feel worse.

So I explored the difference in sizing and came back to the page with the shoe's we'd been looking at and asked her. "Which would you rather have? Black? or Purple?" And she then says "Well, Black goes with about everything, but I've got black shoes already." So pressed ever so slightly, she admits freely that she'd rather have purple. So without further ado, they go straight into the shopping cart, I let her watch me find a 15% off coupon to save a little money and then pay for them myself to be delivered to her house in a few days. Now I knew she wanted them when she saw them, because otherwise she would have just shut me down. She wouldn't have talked about not being sure the right size to get, and wouldn't have got up and brought me her new shoes that she can barely get on by herself. So I didn't feel bad at all about just ordering them, even though I did not go as far asking her permission "Can I order these for you?" Nope. No reason to give an opportunity for a denial. She needs them. I can afford them. I might not spend $109 on a pair of shoes for myself, but for my mom, they'll probably last the rest of her life, and it if means she can get her shoes on and off by herself for a while longer and still wear normal shoes like she wants, that's even better. That she gets purple shoes like she wants instead of "goes with about everything" shoes she doesn't really care for outside of perceived practicality, that's just bonus. Besides most of her clothes will go with purple shoes since she has tons of purple stuff, and green stuff, and other colors purple will work well with.

She tried to get me to let her pay me back for them. I declined. She'll probably still find a way to pay me back for them. We already know that we are not allowed to ever pay for dinner when we go out. She will fight us for the bill. lol. She literally jerked a bill out of my daughter's hand when she tried to pick it up off the table when we took her out for her birthday. She's getting to the point where she can't see the pin pad when she uses her card at Five Guys and Fries though... so since it's a favorite I can see me or my daughter being able to get one of our cards in first pretty soon, and maybe that will get her used the idea. She always let my brother pay when he joined us. So... Lol

Anyway. That's my story of how I bought my mom a new pair of shoes.

We'll talk about the walker she has that she ought to be using but says she thought she had one with wheels... and the tripod one WITH wheels she has in the garage that she says is not a walker later. For now, in that case I'll buy her a set of wheels and skis for the walker she has and see if I can get her to use it when she's out.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Storm

Entry tags:

dreamwidth

Oohhh... Test Time

So this is a test of Semagic logged into Dreamwidth. I have been trying to figure out how to do this for pretty much since I switched over due to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. If this works that will mean 100% satisfaction with the change as this was the last holdout, (not being able to post using a client.

IF this post goes up successfully it will be due to following THESE instructions to get a 16 digit API Key

To login:
In the file menu select server settings.

Fill in as shown using 16 digit API as password tap OK

Tap Login.

So now this post has taken ten times as long, but I wanted to document the steps while I remembered them in case it works lol. Which I think it will... about to find out.

Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Some Thumpity Thump DJ music coming from my neighbor's house.

Entry tags:

Donation Completed and other stuff I didn't want to do, and stuff I did want too.

Today, I finally got my brothers clothes donated. It took a minute because I wanted them to go to a service that would help veterans. Neither of us served, but our father was a Korean War era army veteran who served in Munich during the Korean War. Fortunate for us, as it increased both of our chances to have him as a father exponentially as he was spared (at the last minute from what I understand. His platoon was slated for Korea, but at the last minute a runner came onboard the ship with new orders and they went to Germany to serve in the restoration.) I felt like my brother would have like having his clothes got to help vets.

These four boxes have sat in my living room since January when I went over to his house and packed them up. I finally found a number for Vietnam Veterans of America that was supposed to service my area, that someone answered and advised me that they didn't, but when I ask if there was someplace that I could just drop them off, she gave me an address, and we immediately loaded Jana's car and took them over. So yay. that's done.

Also, my Windshield got broken in a windstorm last Wednesday night... Safelite (usually so quick) didnt' come until Monday and then the glass they loaded the technician with was BROKEN... so he put me off almost another week until Friday and asked me if that would be CONVENIENT???... I was livid. Not with him per say, but the fact that they did not have another windshield in stock for my car. This car is extremely popular in this area, and the windshield for it ranges 5 years worth of these little cars running around all over the place here. I see them ALL THE TIME. So why would you not have these in stock as the norm? You wanna tell me that nobody with a 2009-2014 Fit ever breaks their windshield? UGh... So Missed work Thursday dealing with getting that started. Took a personal day Monday to be there to the windshield technician got a ride to work Friday and Saturday (miserable... no place to eat my lunch but in the pokey break room. No place to sit outside... no car to sit in for lunch). The technician said it was safe to drive, so I did drive to work Tuesday and will tomorrow, but now on top of trying to see through a spidered windshield, the weather is foul and rainy because Ohio in April. AND I will have to burn ANOTHER personal day on Friday to hopefully actually get a new glass for my windshield. UGH.

So that's been my life this week.

Oh wait. Our Irish Session... After three days of arguing about it last week (from about 3 people who don't like the Pub setting of our Irish Session that started at The Dublin Pub and has only not been there because of this pandemic shutting the world down. After all the arguing and negation and eventually this trio actually casting aspersions against the pub, *I* gained an advocate who is WAY more connected with the Irish Session and Contradance community than I am or for that matter any of the annoying trio/quad. With his help, the Session is RE-Established at the Pub where it started, just on a new day, so we had a GREAT planning session on Monday, and even played a little music. First OFFICIAL session next Monday. So in all that obnoxiousness, some good stuff happened too. lol

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Outside noises through the open window

Entry tags:

chasing the trail

Chasing the Trail - Chapter 18: What if? POSTED!

Finally. Holy cow though. That was hard. I'm glad I spent some time reading through and checking everything over again though. I had left some notes in it, and didn't remember to put in a small but important part of a conversation. And missed a time/date stamp too... But it's posted now.

Here's the linkies.

An Archive Of Our Own (original)

Fanfiction.net (dumbed down for childish rulez there.)

Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Just my past bedtime alarm going off every 5 minutes!!

Entry tags:

Chasing the Trail - Chapter 18: What if?

Oh my sweet Goddess! I think this thing is finally finished. It's past bedtime an I don't have time to post it tonight. Expect it tomorrow. Holy cow that was hard to write. lol. I knew exactly what was supposed to happen and in the right order too, but link all together really did not want to happen easily

Current Mood: excited
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Celtic sounding music from a game in the background, lol

Entry tags:

import,
livejournal

SUCCESS!!!!

Guys... I don't believe it, but I decided to try one more time to import, and my LiveJournal imported. All the way back to my very first LJ post in 2003 "I am Broccoli of Borg". Holy COW! I didn't think it was going to work. Even my comments imported. When it said it was successful SO QUICKLY I was sure it was some kind of mistake, but it continued to process the comments and the almost as quickly that was ALSO imported. HOLY WOW COW! I'm so happy that it worked. I was sure it was going to be blocked forever. The few days where I was posting to both places, it actually just slotted the LJ entries in the right place on DW like they'd always been there.

I wonder if there's a way to use my custom mood themes here. I'm really delighted and if I can just figure out the CSS to make my Journal layout right, it'll be perfect. It looks and feels just like LJ without the weird stuff they added over the last few years, and without the Russian Oligarchy owning it.

YAY!

Freaking YAY!!!

(I'll crosspost to LJ and add some stuff here)

Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: It's quiet here: Past Bedtime

Entry tags:

The Starship Vaporous Oceanus

Given I was reminded yesterday morning by FxcxBook that I had a dream a year ago in which I was searching for a starship named The Vaporous Oceanus, it occurred to me (again) that my brain has a story in it that it wants to tell about this ship. A long time ago (and I mean LO-O-O-ONG time ago) I started writing a story or play. I feel like I started to write it as a play at a time when my friends and I were still making up stories to act out. It was a little more advanced than 'playing pretend'. We were older than that, but probably early on in High School. So this is a while back for sure. But the story was about a starship captain and her crew, but I don't think I ever decided on a name for her ship. So the reminder of the dream of which I remember NOTHING except the name of the ship which I wrote down, and at the time if I'd remembered anything else other than that I was searching for it, and what it's name was I would have written that down too. So I wonder now if The Vaporous Oceanus was Raelyn Centurian's ship. Hmm... I'll have to explore that further when I have some time to jot some notes and dig through my old writing journals to see if I can find the sketch I was writing at the time.

Current Mood: sad
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Ears: Ringin

Entry tags:

Imports and Exports

I guess it's needless to say that given LiveJournal is now a Russian owned and Russian run company, many of us in the west are concerned given the current situation, that we may very well find ourselves unable to access our LiveJournals. I HOPE it doesn't come to that, but it's something that is on our minds.

Given that concern, I made a DreamWidth account and thought I could use it as a backup since Semagic is supposed to work with both and it's supposed to be possible to cross-post from DW to LJ (It's not anymore btw. at least not at present.) It's also supposed to be possible to import your entire LJ into DW. This was working for some as of posts I saw on Feb 2 (I think). So yesterday I started trying to do that.

Well given that LJ my journal import into DW as a safety measure has failed (though I was able to import my tags and userpix and other things... just not entries. I have used the tool provided to download all of the CSV files. I copied them into another folder and converted them to HTML files. (done by changing the extension to html... go figure.)

The CSV file opens with Excel.
The HTML file opens with a browser into a more or less readable format. There's a little bit of formatting weirdos that act as the headers of the entry. No comments included though, alas, but at least the entries are preserved in some way. Maybe DW will figure out a way to import from CSV or HTML.

It seems that you can also get an XML file, I downloaded one... and it seems like I was able to look at it in the browser, but it's coded. It's still readable. I feel like the first time I opened it with Firefox it followed the code and somewhat formatted it into a readable... well I don't remember. Maybe it wasn't. It's bedtime though, so I'll fiddle with it after work tomorrow.

It's kind of been a pain in the behind, but at least I have the files and they're reasonably organized and file coded by date. If anyone else is looking at this problem and feeling this way. I hope this is helpful.

My name is the same on DreamWidth if you want to add me to your circle when you get there or if you're already there. It's pretty nice. The platform has the feel of LJ back in the days before they started adding stupid 'features' to try to make it more like FxcxBook and less like a blog. So there's that. I haven't dug into the code of the layouts yet. I need to find a clean CSS of something so I can plug things into it. So at present, though I loaded the CSS from my Spring Argyle layout, it's not displaying correctly. Sorry. but I'm visible. That's what's important.

Now it's really and truly bedtime. Nighty night.

Current Mood: blah
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Furnace: Running

Entry tags:

new things

Ok. So....

My layout is NOT displaying properly at present, but I'm not going to go down that whole ADHD rabbit hole to try to fix it because I have a Teams Meeting in the morning and can't stay up until 6am until figure out the CSS perfectly. So it'll have to stay weird for now, and I'll fix it later. lol

Here's a picture of Goblin in his new box.

Current Mood: anxious
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Furnace: Running

Entry tags:

test

Test Subject Underway

This is a test. Lemme put some lorem ipsum in here until I have this working the way I want it.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

Lorem
ipsum
- dolor
- sit
amet

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Furnace: Running

Entry tags:

pets

Goblin's New Box

Seems like he's accepted his new box as he has pretty much been sitting in it nonstop since I brought it up here and showed it to him. lol. The important thing is that at present, he is staying OUT of my scrap fabric box.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Talisman by Medwyn Goodall from Medicine Woman

Entry tags:

pets

Goblin loves the blue dot

Cats! lol. You know, people think they are dumb animals, but they are not. When I got a pair of computer glasses from Zenni, they sent a special blue laser pointer to demonstrate their special brand of anti-blue light coating. So Goblin is the only cat who comes up here to the attic with any regularity. So he has got to experience the fun of chasing a dot on the floor. At first he didn't quite make the connection of the dot with me. But he very quickly figured out that I somehow created it for him to play with. Now he comes up here and BEGS me to make it appear. I just did a quick test to see if he also made the connection with the actual laser cylinder by picking it up and fiddling with it (but not turning it on). He totally understands that this is where the blue dot comes from and that I control it. lol. He was in my face immediately upon seeing me pick it up. I showed it to him and he rubbed his face on it and begged me to play with him.

Of course, he really pounds his murder mittens down on the dot trying to catch it, so it sounds like a herd of elephants up here when he's chasing it. So I only played for about 30 seconds because

marynachaotica is in bed as she is not the night owl that I am. This cat though. He's such a character. So now he knows I put the device away, but he's pretending to hunt anyway. Here he is at my side again asking for the dot. He's not going to get the dot any more tonight. Sorry Goblin!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Furnace: Running

Entry tags:

problems

Power Outage?

So... as the title implies, our power went out just before 6 am. I know this because it blinked back on twice. The first time, my phone came on (at a point where I was turned towards it and my face was probably only a foot and a half away from it because of how I was lying, and the screen was facing me) and the light woke me up... then because I was asleep, I was confused about what was happening and after a few seconds of not being touched my phone turned off again. So at that point I was awake enough to realize that my phone had come on. I sat up, and picked it up to figure out why it would have done that. Of course it's dark again in the room, right? So just as I start to activate my phone screen the my main room light flashes on SUPER BRIGHT (because it was dark and it was sudden. I'm sure it was just the normal amount. lol.) for about half a second and then goes out again. So if anyone in California heard me yell "WHAT THE HELL??" in the middle of the night. I appologize for waking you.

It was at this point that I realized that not only was it dark. it was UNUSUALLY dark, so I peered out the window and realised that all the neighbor's lights were out and all the street lights and the whole block... and then realized that it looked like the whole neighborhood was out. So I went to the power company's website and sure enough. They were aware of a power outage. I reported for my area and decided to go back to sleep since it was estimated that it would be restored within the hour. Just at that moment EVERY SMART LIGHT IN THE HOUSE turned on. Power was restored, but the Alexas were rebooting. Then they couldn't connect to the Internet because the router wasn't finished booting yet. So because they couldn't connect to the Internet, apparently they also couldn't turn off light bulbs? Inside the house? Makes no sense. So I had to load the app and turn them off myself, after which I went to bed with no apparent wear and tear, other than that I slept only intermittently the rest of my sleep cycle, which was annoying.

And that's my story for today.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: A guy doing a paint pour video

Entry tags:

Mini Vacation! Ranting lol

So... I scheduled a week of vacation because honestly I need an F-ing break. lol. But I expected to be finished with the spring reset before I went, and it's NOT DONE after a WHOLE MONTH. Why? because a) it's HUGE, and b) right after we started working on it 5 people were out with freaking COVID (or in a couple of cases a couple of people were out pretending they didn't have Covid and refusing to test to prove it), one of those 5 was my primary help with the reset. The other person helping had a mini-vacation for her birthday over the long weekend and then was so behind on her regular duties that she has never been able to get back to the reset she was supposed to be helping with.

( Some more words under here. )

So YAY! Things!

This was way longer than I expected

Current Mood: melancholy
Current Location: The Creation Room, Adena House, Walnut Hills, Dayton
Current Music: Quiet. It's just the song of the furnace

Entry tags:

family

Happy Birthday across the Veil Daddy

Today would have been my dad's 92nd birthday. He's already long since gone now. He died 10 days after his 78th birthday. Hard to believe it's been almost 14 years now. I hope Roger is hanging out with him now. Dad served in Munich during the Korean War. His platoon had been slated to go to Korea as well, but at the last minute a runner came aboard their ship with new orders and they all went to Germany instead. I told him once that I felt lucky that he'd gone to Germany instead of Korea because otherwise, I might not have had the opportunity to have him as a father. He told me that it wasn't that lucky as the guys in Germany during the restoration didn't get promoted as fast as the guys fighting in Korea, and the lower officers and enlisted men ended up doing more of the higher officers' work. Dad was enlisted, but he was the one doing all of the Lieutenant's actual work, including scheduling teams and such things, because the Lieutenant couldn't do it competently apparently. I still consider it lucky in my case, and I'm sure my brother would have agreed with me. I couldn't have asked for a better pair of parents.

He and Mom kept up a correspondence the whole time he was away, during which they came to an understanding that when he returned from his tour of duty, they would marry, which they did and were married for nearly 55 years. After Dad passed through the veil, mom compiled all their letters that she could find and gave copies to both of us kids. They are very sweet. When Roger passed through, Lexxie kept his copy of those letters. I hadn't known that she didn't get a copy. Somehow I thought she had. Mom told her she could make her a copy of her own, because Roger's copy was 14 years old, but she wanted Roger's copy, and honestly it was pristine. He took very good care of it.

Dad retired from Kroger as a store manager, and then went back to school and started a whole different career, which he also retired from. So when they both retired, Mom and Dad each had 2 full retirements saved, as well as their IRA's, so they were able to travel and have a vacation home in Arizona which they enjoyed a lot until Dad got sick. They both had such an amazing work ethic, and lived frugally so they could save for the future, and still managed to plan fun vacations and and weekend camping trips for us. My brother wrote the most beautiful eulogy for our Dad and he talked about the work ethic we learned, and the vacations, and the camping trips we went on, and hunting with Dad (I didn't get to do that, but Roger continued to be and avid hunter the rest of his life.

I miss that old man. 14 years later, I still hear him in my head when I'm weighing a decision, or see him driving by in a car or a pickup truck and have to do a double take. Lol. Now, I see my brother sometimes too. I hope he and Dad are hanging out together right now, remembering the good times. I wish Dad had lived long enough to meet Jameson.

Happy Birthday, Dad