glitch25

So how are you?

We're managing. Learning to live this new reality we all have where being a home is the preference most of the time.

Just as the writing on the wall was starting to appear, we took the opportunity to excavate what was supposed to be a home office that was still housing many unpacked boxes, and we got in into shape very quickly. I've been pretty happy about that. Most of the house has been home full time. I am required to be at work periodically due to the nature of my job, and another roommate is working retail. We'll see with the latest hunker down order if her stores stay open.

Last night, we got the official order from the Governor to stay home. It sounds like non-essential businesses would be asked to close. We had mostly been doing that already, so it feels like less of a change. We're trying to help local restaurants out with the more than occasional take-out order as we can. I'm sure it's not much, but hopefully it helps some.

Grocery shopping hasn't been too bad so far. Most of the things we need we've been able to find besides toilet paper, though even for that, we managed to get a pack recently by hitting the restock at the right time. I have realized that we do need to do a better job of thinking about storage in the pantry and looking towards more long-term needs. My inner prepper has been ashamed of me, and I need to lean into my dalliance with Mormonism and get us in a better spot soon. People in the shops seem to be doing a good job of keeping apart. We all look a little shell-shocked both from the situation and the fact that the store looks like snow day x100. I imagine that will continue to be the sitch for a while.

I'm told that the rumor is that at least our state will reach peak around April 7th. Should be interesting what that ends up looking like. Numb-nuts is saying he wants the country to be back to normal the following weekend. Yeah.. fuck him. People of all political affiliations that have been more sensible still haven't gotten it through their thick heads what it is going to take to oust him. So he won't be. People will die and worse will come, and the followers that enable him will proudly stand on their beliefs as they burn to death. Folks don't know what to do with that.

I know the extroverts of the family have been having a time of it. Thankfully, technology has helped some with that with various virtual meetups and gatherings. I even reinstalled Marco Polo myself to send along some video messages to folks. I don't need the social interaction nearly as much, but even I have noticed that I need more than I've been getting. It's interesting. I imagine we learn a lot about ourselves in a crisis.

Beyond all that, I'm getting an amazing amount of stuff done at home. And not just work. :-) My closet has had boxes of unpacked clothes and other soft goods that we hadn't worked where to put, so I got them unpacked, washed, folded, and now finding out what we're keeping and what we're donating. I've dug fairly deep into my clothes and have sorted out the stuff I probably will never wear again, and got it ready to donate. The floor of my closet, formerly filled with boxes and in some cases miscellaneous clothes is now completely visible. I'm also getting ready to put up two new pan hanging racks in the kitchen that we've desperately needed. I've been working on some house related technology projects. And I did the last-freeze rose pruning, and I weeded the front flower bed and got my daisies ready to shine. And I'm pleased to note that the lilies I planted last year are coming back as well as the mixed columbine. Hoping to see good things this year in that bed, and we have plans to clear out the south shade bed, and I've got plans for that one too. The one thing that has been obvious about nature lately is that Spring stops for no-one and no thing. The cherry trees have been going crazy and everything else is shooting up. Looking forward to seeing things continue.

Musically, I've been getting in practice time with my bass nearly every day. My wrist had finally healed enough that I need to make some time for piano too. I recently picked up Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas sheet music book, and hope to have one or two under my belt and memorized the next time around. I have some other fun stuff to do, and I hope to make some time to for a little free form composition and playful time.

Beyond that, just doing what we can to keep moving and carrying on. Hope you and yours are doing well. Hope to see you on the virtual side in the meantime, and please take care of yourselves. *hugs*

I keep meaning to post. But some days I just feel like I lack the motivation to throw together just a small update.. I forget that it ultimately doesn't matter.. I don't need to collect a lot of things to make it a "better post". This is here for me to do with it as I will. And I should will better things for myself.

That said, lots of little things, since I've been remiss in posting them as they come to me.

Home automation progresses. I use OpenHAB running on a Raspberry Pi with a Zwave controller, and I'm able to control a lot of the lighting in our personal areas via an internal web interface. Never been big on the completely-remote-cloud idea of having that kind of control, but I figure I can VPN into the house and do that sort of thing if I like. I just finally got my overhead light working in my bedroom. It is a silly thing, but there is something to be said for being able to turn off your light without getting out of bed. I've also been working on some All-Off macros that allow us to turn off all the area lights with one button. That is kinda nice when you're running out the door. I'm getting ready to venture into IoT, but I need to build out the routing and firewall exceptions to allow those things to work on our guest network without running the risk of data leaking into or from our private network. More stuff to do.

Along the lines of our network, I finally did get a guest network built working on an independent and segregated VLAN allowing us to offer internet access to visitors as needed. It is where all the IoT crap will live as well. And I recently expanded yet again our 5ghz footprint by installing another access point in the basement. Ubiquity really makes it easy, and the locally run controller makes it fun to monitor and manage. Feels good to have rock-solid throughput all throughout the house, and to be able to have segregated access. I am happy with the products and really thrilled with the ease to set up.

I, my two sweeties, and lots of other friends and folks have joined a musical accountability group on Facebook where we have committed to practicing our craft for a given time allotment per day. It has helped me with motivation, and given me a way to focus my needs, musically. I've decided it's time to finally learn another Gershwin Prelude (Number 1), and I have some other things I'm working on as well on piano. I've also been working more on bass, and as soon as space allows, there will be a drum set to contend with. :-)

Epiphany has passed.. And the tree and decorations are still up. I suspect they will remain that way until closer to my birthday. I've really enjoyed having it up, and I'm going to miss it significantly. I may consider making alternate holiday-relevant decorating arrangements as we go throughout the year.

Along with the timing, I think some of the next big house plans will be to appropriately trim and deal with the yard. The poor roses have gone without care, and the poor rhodie next to the house has turned into an unhappy tree. We also discovered some leaks on the deck that we need to address, and it would be good to get things better organized out there.

Still plenty to do inside. I've been making efforts to chip away at the remaining box piles. We've mostly entered the phase where most of the day-to-day stuff is unpacked and in use, but still finding the not-often-used things still squirreled away, and trying to figure out where we left them. I think we're on the cusp of a major kitchen initiative as well to both consolidate and review our combined bounty and decide if we're storing or purging. And there are still lots of boxes scattered about that we have to make decisions about. The entry room that leads to our bedrooms is still rather cluttered, and we're going to be working towards making that a better place to hang out and to have some space to exist. And then there is the art room.... and the basement....

Speaking of the basement, my previous budgeting efforts have netted us a tidy sum with which to replace our old couches that have found their way into our second family room in the basement. The plan will be to replace two with a sectional. I'm looking forward to having the space be more friendly to guests, and have plans for movie nights! Stay tuned!

Lessee.... Music accountability group aside, I'm still mostly viewing Facebook from a distance.. I am occasionally participating on friend's posts, but generally only posting content here, on Twitter, and on Instagram. I've had some additional tugs towards MeWe recently, but I think some of what I'm avoiding is the overall format of how Facebook does social media, and MeWe is a good clone, which makes MeWe unappealing in that way. I may post this post on Facebook in effort to remind folks to come on over to the dark side here.

Health wise, things seem mostly ok. I finally got my insurance settled out from the new job, and got a physical squared away. I still need to finish up some of the routing labwork, but things seem to be mostly ok. Winter weather has dried me out again, and my hands are on their unending peel. Lotion is helping some. I'm also using that liquid skin product to make sure I keep cuts and splits handled. My usual callouses and splits get much worse in winter, and I'm hoping to make it better this time around. Still dealing with lots of sniffles and congestion on a somewhat regular basis. I'm reasonably convinced that I've finally lost my immunity to the local vegetation and my body seems rather content to ride the wave of irritation on it. Still happy that my sinus headaches are few and mild in general. I've also been considering a food sensitivity fast in efforts to see if I'm finding issues with anything. My body has been less than fond of something lately, and I'm hoping to narrow down what it might be. Also hoping to make some efforts to stretch and tone my bod. I'm reminded daily of how poorly I take care of that part of myself, and I'm hoping that some efforts towards that will yield tangible results.

Overall, lots of stress from work. Hoping to make some adjustments to make that easier. Other holiday related stresses that hopefully will dissipate now that we're coming out of it. Also trying to find ways to relax and be present in the world. And to meditate or at least to step outside the usual grind long enough to find some peace.

Coming up on 47 next month. Chugging along. :-)

How are things for you?