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The week, otherwise, was also a whole lot
Jul. 31st, 2023 10:55 amAs I shared in a restricted post, we got the certificate of approval for the rental cottage and that really is the biggest thing of the week. The tenant is over there gleefully setting things on shelves, and using the backyard gazebo as a staging area, which is all nice to see. And I'm labeling all my posts on this topic "ant farm" because we've been joking about ants for quite a while now... ten ants, you know. The infestation is now complete. And also, well, I've been feeling really good about providing places for people to live on a steady budget! There are people who object on principle somehow, but I don't get it. Buying isn't right for everyone, and we're being nice to our ants.
As a bonus I got to feel physically competent, between installing monkey bars in my ceiling (finally -- I really wish I'd done this in 2020) and installing the handles on cabinets in the cottage. The bars are firmly in the middle of the ceiling joists and, while I'm not inverting on them yet and don't even really have plans to, they feel quite solid.
Work? Well, no giant email catch-up happened, but I moved two big chunks of my project forward and that wasn't entirely displeasing. I didn't mind one of then keeping me up pretty late one night. It's so unfair that sometimes it's stressful to do something and sometimes it's stressful to not be able to do something, when it's the same thing!
On Friday we saw Oppenheimer... and yes I was thoroughly delighted by the entire Barbenheimer phenonenon, and may have ordered a T-shirt that says "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" in pink Barbie font. Beyond that, I have a long-ago connection to Los Alamos, as I spent three summers there in the 90s, so of course I wanted to see Oppenheimer. It was gorgeous, and interesting, and free of the bomb-porn it easily could have become, and it needed subtitles on. Maybe I can watch it again at Blue-Green Street sometime, and actually understand all the dialogue.
The end of the week got really active at my house, with neighbors moving out on Friday and on Saturday. We went through the basement with them all and identified mystery items, including a TV that needs to go to the DPW and an entire bike that I guess was left years ago by a prior tenant. (Ten minutes on the curb got rid of that. Who are the bikenappers and how do they get their info so fast?) The first floor left us a big box of liquor that the movers wouldn't take, which I guess counts as payment for disposing properly of their cruft. We gave most of that away too but not all of it, and it's in a nice plastic bin that I'm happy to keep and use for Christmas stuff. Then on Sunday, three of us went through the basement taking everything OUT that we could find, sorting it into electronic/hazardous/normal waste, breaking down boxes for recycling, and claiming one or two things. The basement is now the cleanest and best-understood that it's been in 12 years. Oh, and I put unit numbers on the single-unit storage doors.
I also really wanted to clean up my own damn condo. Life was starting to be plagued by too many tiny things out of place, giving me the feeling of scum spreading over the surfaces, plus the discomfort of not having seen my favorite set of keys in about two weeks and not being able to find sunglasses. I found both, along with putting away a bunch of earrings and pens and items of clothing, and then the bug got into a cleaning mood too and attacked our "utility closet" and furnace closet with the shop-vac. I also ordered more Tiles, more powerful ones this time, to replace the dead one on the lost keys, and a few other small comfort things. (That was on Sunday before the big basement attack).
You'd think this is all quite enough for one week, but wait, there's one more thing -- last night I finally finished How Not To Die, which took a few weeks and was only sometimes fun. And that MEANS, readers, that, by the rules of my current attempt to read down the physical to-read shelf, I get to read a fiction book next! Plus, the single most daunting read is behind me.
Today is Monday, and everyone goes back to work, including the squirrel who took the last four weeks off to deal with a case of burnout. The bug is also working again; I think that actually started the week before last, when the last company he contracted with had suddenly already started the work slated for his potential next contract, but still wanted him back. Everyone mentioned in this paragraph is very "I'm going to do it right this time, and keep some balance and not work in the evenings". Except me. I clawed my way out of a lot of holes and projects and backlogs over the last week, but not work, and work is what I hope is next.
I am feeling way the fuck better than I was a week ago. Much more unstuck.
As a bonus I got to feel physically competent, between installing monkey bars in my ceiling (finally -- I really wish I'd done this in 2020) and installing the handles on cabinets in the cottage. The bars are firmly in the middle of the ceiling joists and, while I'm not inverting on them yet and don't even really have plans to, they feel quite solid.
Work? Well, no giant email catch-up happened, but I moved two big chunks of my project forward and that wasn't entirely displeasing. I didn't mind one of then keeping me up pretty late one night. It's so unfair that sometimes it's stressful to do something and sometimes it's stressful to not be able to do something, when it's the same thing!
On Friday we saw Oppenheimer... and yes I was thoroughly delighted by the entire Barbenheimer phenonenon, and may have ordered a T-shirt that says "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" in pink Barbie font. Beyond that, I have a long-ago connection to Los Alamos, as I spent three summers there in the 90s, so of course I wanted to see Oppenheimer. It was gorgeous, and interesting, and free of the bomb-porn it easily could have become, and it needed subtitles on. Maybe I can watch it again at Blue-Green Street sometime, and actually understand all the dialogue.
The end of the week got really active at my house, with neighbors moving out on Friday and on Saturday. We went through the basement with them all and identified mystery items, including a TV that needs to go to the DPW and an entire bike that I guess was left years ago by a prior tenant. (Ten minutes on the curb got rid of that. Who are the bikenappers and how do they get their info so fast?) The first floor left us a big box of liquor that the movers wouldn't take, which I guess counts as payment for disposing properly of their cruft. We gave most of that away too but not all of it, and it's in a nice plastic bin that I'm happy to keep and use for Christmas stuff. Then on Sunday, three of us went through the basement taking everything OUT that we could find, sorting it into electronic/hazardous/normal waste, breaking down boxes for recycling, and claiming one or two things. The basement is now the cleanest and best-understood that it's been in 12 years. Oh, and I put unit numbers on the single-unit storage doors.
I also really wanted to clean up my own damn condo. Life was starting to be plagued by too many tiny things out of place, giving me the feeling of scum spreading over the surfaces, plus the discomfort of not having seen my favorite set of keys in about two weeks and not being able to find sunglasses. I found both, along with putting away a bunch of earrings and pens and items of clothing, and then the bug got into a cleaning mood too and attacked our "utility closet" and furnace closet with the shop-vac. I also ordered more Tiles, more powerful ones this time, to replace the dead one on the lost keys, and a few other small comfort things. (That was on Sunday before the big basement attack).
You'd think this is all quite enough for one week, but wait, there's one more thing -- last night I finally finished How Not To Die, which took a few weeks and was only sometimes fun. And that MEANS, readers, that, by the rules of my current attempt to read down the physical to-read shelf, I get to read a fiction book next! Plus, the single most daunting read is behind me.
Today is Monday, and everyone goes back to work, including the squirrel who took the last four weeks off to deal with a case of burnout. The bug is also working again; I think that actually started the week before last, when the last company he contracted with had suddenly already started the work slated for his potential next contract, but still wanted him back. Everyone mentioned in this paragraph is very "I'm going to do it right this time, and keep some balance and not work in the evenings". Except me. I clawed my way out of a lot of holes and projects and backlogs over the last week, but not work, and work is what I hope is next.
I am feeling way the fuck better than I was a week ago. Much more unstuck.
