So I took a month off….

I took a month off from blogging. Stuff happened. But life gets hectic, and there were times when I was writing here just for the sake of writing:

• Bought some new feet. Went with Sketchers all the way. Hey, they fit, and my feet aren’t protesting.
• Christmas came and went. My older sister drew my name, and I told her ‘cheap and tacky’. She gave me a Seattle Kraken hat. And 8 cans of SPAM. And I’ve already eaten one of them…
• Stopped ordering Domino’s pizza. All it takes is one botched delivery order, and a we’re already closed attitude…
• There were some issues at work. We were shorthanded, and most of it fell on me. Not going to say anymore about this, but I will say that the Manager does read his email, and I did come very close to summarily resigning….

Arbery Verdict In…

Not necessarily guilty as charged for all three parties. But enough guilty verdicts, especially on the murder charges, to insure that these 3 good ol’ boys remain in prison for life. At the most Arbery was guilty of criminal trespass. In fact, as a police officer testified he would’ve just received a warning. At the most it would’ve been a citation. Not a capital offense.

We’ve got a long way to go to combat institutional racism in this country. This is only a step. We have much to go…

Day 1 of 3….

Because of the way my work schedule is written, I have three days off this week. My normal weekend, plus the overnight shift is not coming in on Wednesday night (because Thanksgiving), means I get a three day weekend.

Now let’s see if I can go this entire ‘weekend’ without f*cking up my computer….

All Done!

Just finished the last of my Christmas shopping. Normally I put it off till the very last weekend before Christmas (just to make it a more sporting experience), but lessons learned from working in retail tell me to get it done now, and not have that stress right before Christmas. Besides with shipping and supply chain issues, it’s better this way…

It packs a wallop!

Like I last posted, I got my COVID booster on Tuesday. Got it at 11. By midnight, the fever was so bad that I went to bed (which for me is in the middle of the day). I was feeling like I was run over by a freight train. When I got up, it took me over and hour just to put pants on. And Even though I was miserable, I still had to trek to Wally World to get a vial of insulin. I was feeling slightly better (like I was run over by a semi instead of a freight train). Some more sleep, and I’m almost back to normal. The COVID vaccine packs a wallop. But actually having COVID packs an even bigger one and is more likely to kill me than actually getting it.

And I also got my flu shot at the same as well. Between these two shots, mask wearing and distancing, I hope not to get sick this winter.

No More WiFi Problems. I Hope...

Got a COVID booster today. I fall under the recommended categories for a booster (yay Type I diabetes). And I also got a flu shot as well. Between the two sets of Mind-Control chips, I shouldn't have any problems with the Wi-Fi...

And more importantly, I shouldn't get COVID or the flu. I hope... 

Not coming in to work tonight….

I normally work Sunday nights. I’m not coming in tonight though. A few weeks ago, I booked it for paid time off. And management actually approved it. So, I’m sitting on a 4-day weekend. It’s actually going to be just a two day weekend. I’m getting my COVID booster Tuesday, and I’ll probably need the last two nights to get over that….

Yet another lazy day off….

After the near fiasco last night trying to wash my clothes (waterproof hose tape has been ordered), I told my roommate brother that I would be replacing the entire roll of paper towels I used. And I need some more garbage bags. Which means an errand. That I don’t want to run on my day off. Hello Target run. Hello delivery. So, I’m having my errand delivered.

In a totally unrelated story, it’s open enrollment at work. Did mine this morning. Hello 401k. And company stock purchase plan…

About that last post….

I said that with some creative application of capillary action and paper towels, I could use mother’s old portable washing machine. Tonight, I tried washing another load. And I found the leak. The drain hose has split. Ok. While using an entire roll of paper towels to clean up the mess, it occurred to me that there is waterproof hose tape available. So I ordered a roll off of Spamazon. It arrives Wednesday. Hopefully it’ll work. It’s really hard to find quarters anymore…

It’s been a while. So it’s catch-up time….

It’s been a while since I wrote here. Here’s what has been happening in no particular order:

• Rebuilt my system again. Just to turn telemetry back on, so I could get back on the release candidate channel, just so I can run Windows 10 21H2.
• Replaced my webcam. Got a Logitech C920s. I had a webcam before, but I needed an upgrade. I had to get an HD camera. And I was concerned about privacy. With my old one, I simply turned it around, so if you could hack it, you’d only see a wall, and possibly some cords. This one comes with a privacy shutter. And also with the built in stereo microphones (that connect through the usb cable), I can disconnect my microphone and declutter the mess behind the tower.
• I took down my old microphone (see the last bullet point). I had it for 20 years.This was the last component of my first computer that I bought (the old Gateway PIII 866 megahertz).
• I started using our portable washing machine. We inherited it when Mother passed away, and we used for 3 years until one night when I did a load of laundry, and was greeted by a pretty good sized puddle of water in the kitchen. A leak. I used the apartment complex provided laundry facilities since then, but only 4 washer/dryer sets for the entire complex, plus the fact that metallic tinder circles are in short supply due to Covid. Add and increase in the cost per load, plus the fact that currently two of the washers are down, and I have to choice. But with a few paper towels, a Tupperware container, and a knowledge of capillary action, I can minimize the leak.
• I get my Covid booster next week. I got vaccinated in March. I actually had it in February. Given my chronic health condition (type I diabetes) and a high risk work environment, it is a no-brainer for me. Hopefully I can get a flu shot as well…

Another Major Accomplishment This Weekend…

The other thing I’ve done on my weekend, aside from the previously mentioned attempt at Windows 11, was a big one.

I finally finished all the Captain Underpants series on Netflix.

Truth, Justice, and All That Is Preshrunk And Cottony…

So I tried it…

Like I said last night, Windows 11 is out. I gave into temptation tonight and downloaded the Upgrade Assistant (not linking it here, but I trust that your Google-Fu  is strong. I upgraded to Windows 11. I was impressed with it. I was holding off on it while I waited for the official drivers to drop from  AMD mainly. When I last checked, it was the same drivers for Windows 11 as for Windows 10. So I bit. It took a couple of hours to download and install. And while it was stable, it just didn’t feel quite ready. So I went back to Windows 10. Which was an even quicker rollback than the upgrade. Though I was only on Windows 11 for 20 minutes. At the most.

Activation wise, it was quick and painless. So I guess I have a valid Win11 license for when the time comes to make the final jump to it. But I can’t quite let go of my Windows 10 live tiles, or how I’ve arranged my start menu. So while I made my first step to Win11, I’ll stick with WIn10 for now…

T-Mobile still sucks.

9 1/2 years ago, I switched from T-Mobile to Sprint. Basically an upgrade gone terribly wrong. Read about it here. I’ve had the occasional issue with Sprint, but that last two times I upgraded my phone went without a hitch….

T-Mobile bought Sprint. So the last upgrades for both phone lines involved swapping out SIM cards. No Issues there. Then in August when I f*cked up my tower and had to basically build a whole new computer, I thought that a new tablet would be in order. So I fired up the My Sprint app and ordered a new tablet and added a third line for it. The phone number for it was reserved and the tablet was shipped. Overnight (Sprint was really good at getting equipment out to you. Usually overnight). So I tired to activate it. Unable to do so online. I log on to chat. Unable to activate it. About this time I decide to return it. But nobody online wanted to. Kept bouncing me around from agent to agent, and ultimately being told to call customer service. Which I’m not having any of. I’ve been lied to enough that all correspondence will be in writing from now on with t-mobile. But alas I had to call. And one last time they were unable to activate it. So finally they agree to return it, and send me a label. So I UPS it back and it was recieved. I got my statement a couple of weeks ago, and guess who’s still getting billed for the table that has already been returned?

T-Mobile still sucks…

Windows 11 is out….

Windows 11 is now out. It’s going to be a rolling release, so you shouldn’t be automatically upgraded yet. If your Google-Fu is strong then you can figure out how to manually download it if you want to try it now. I’m holding off at least until my device manufacturers publish current drivers for it. I may try it down the road, but my system currently works, and I’m trying not to fix that which isn’t broke.

Fixed it….

Pulled my soon to be dead drive out. Repurposed one of my external backup drives to be my ‘documents’ drive, and put it back in the tower. Then did a system rebuild and reinstalled everything. Which I’ve just finished…. The other external backup drive is now just the back up drive (which I only need one now that I’ve consolidated folders).

Now let’s see how long this lasts. Windows 11 is coming out is a week or so. But I’m going to hold off on it. Everything works now, and if it works, don’t try to fix it. And more importantly, I want to see if drivers are published first…

It’s dead, Jim….

So after my last post about my hard drive failing, I decided to do a full format of it. Not the quick format. It took almost 18 hours. Then I ran a chkdsk, and it still has bad blocks. So, the hard drive is failing. I can’t afford to replace it yet, and I don’t want to take apart my tower to pull it out. So, like I posted previously, I’m abandoning it in place. I have plenty of space on my other drives, so the world’s not going to end right away….

This is fun….

Ok, another entry will be forthcoming about why I didn’t make it to work Sunday night. But this is a different story. If you remember this past spring, I replaced my 2 4tb hard drives with 2 8tb hard drives. And this past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed issues with one of them. File system errors. the inability to open folders. Ran a chkdsk and everything seemed to be fixed. So I continued to use it. And I noticed more errors. So I decided that it needed a format. Which is why I rebuilt my system last week. And this morning, as I set up my virtual machines, I still noticed the hard drive was giving me errors. So I need to either run a surface scan, or my hard drive is failing. If it’s the worst case scanario, I can’t afford to replace it, and I won’t be able to for a while. But I have plenty of space on my other drives, so for now this drive is going to be ‘abandoned in place’.  Eventually I may fix it, but until then, the world still goes around.

Do not panic.

20 Years Ago...

 20 Years ago, I woke up and saw the second tower get hit. Got out the door, got on the bus to work, and both towers collapsed while on the bus. Got to work right as the last plane crashed. 20 minutes later, everything closed. I'm not going to go into the details (if your Google-Fu is strong, you can rehash what happened).

I will remember the events of that day. By conducting my business as usual today. We must never forget that day. That day 2977 people died for freedom. And I will commemorate them by being free...

A tinge of regret…

So, after I f*cked my computer a couple of weeks ago, I had to order a bunch of parts for it. Enough parts that it would seem like I was getting a new computer. So I also bought a new Windows 10 license (an OEM one, since I built this myself).

Fast forward to Monday night, when I realized that one of my hard drives was giving me errors, and as part of the repair process I formatted it. And since a third of my software was installed on it, I thought it easier to nuke the whole system from orbit. A couple of missteps and restarts later, I got it installed to the point that I could link my local account with my Microsoft account. And then I realized that I didn’t need to buy that OEM license, because it still activated with the original product key that I used when I first built my computer.

So, Microsoft realizes that this is still the same computer. And I didn’t need to buy the OEM license. Oh well. I can’t return it since I’ve already used it. I guess this counts as a ‘lesson learned.’ Don’t buy it unless you absolutely need it…

Purging the desk….

After I added the second monitor, I had to clean the desk a little bit. Just a general de-cluttering. For the past 7 years, there has been some sort of coffeemaker on my desk. First there was the 4 cup minimaker. And then a couple of years ago I got a full sized one that could also do k-cups. I never really brewed the full-sized pot (something to do with it being plugged into the same circuit as the computer and the AC and tripping the breaker in my brother’s room). And today, I realized that I don’t need my stash of tea in my room anymore. So that’s out in the kitchen now. And I’ve just now taken down the TV tray that sat right beside me. I can pull it back out if I need the laptop again, but until then my room doesn’t need the clutter….

Another Two Headed Monster….

The last part of my computer arrived last week. After initially deciding that I wasn’t going to go through it, I decided that indeed I was going to add a second monitor. So I ordered a second ASUS 27 inch monitor. And while it was shipping, I realized that my desk was too small for 2 27” monitors. At least on their normal stands. Fortunately, they both have the screw holes to be wall mountable, and there are dual monitor stands that compatible with that. Of course I pulled the trigger. And then it occurred to me that I might not have the right screws, so in a panic, I ordered them from Spamazon (I actually ordered two since I was setting up two monitors). It turns out that the stand even included the screws and the wrenches to install everything. So I set everything up. Nothing is going to fall over now since the monitors are screwed to the stand and the stand is clamped to the desk.

After all that, just a few settings adjustments, and for the fist time since 2014, I have a two headed monster…

So I had a tablet….

A couple of weeks ago when I screwed up my computer. Enough that I had to practically replace it (enough hardware replacement that I had to buy a new Windows 10 license). I also decided to order a new tablet, so when I needed something I wouldn’t have spend 6 hours patching and upgrading the laptop before I use it. It was delivered right away, but because of work, I couldn’t activate it. So I went to an online chat, and they couldn’t activate it, and told me to call sales. Which really pissed me off. It seemed like I was being bounced around. Now if they were professionally handing me off to somebody else, I would’ve been ok with that. But they were telling me to call someone. To do legwork that they ought to have done themselves. So in frustration I took it to Twitter and pointed out how T-Mobile has piss poor customer service. And that went nowhere. Went back to chat tried it again, and this time after it was unable to activate it, I said I wanted to return it. I had to explicitly explain ‘3 strikes, you’re out’. Another phone call and I finally got the operator to understand that it was coming back (I’m not paying $200 for a Wi-Fi only tablet). So, yesterday I finally got it into UPS to begin it’s journey back.

As a side note, both Sprint and T-Mobile have really piss-poor customer service. This wasn’t the first time I’ve been treated like crap:

• There was my first attempt to upgrade to the HTC Sensation 4G on T-Mobile. They decided to pull a bait-and-switch on my plans. And when I returned the phones, my brother’s line lost all data. So we went to Sprint.
• And really with Sprint, there only two time when I was able to activate my new phone without any issues. There was my first phone (the HTC EVO 3D) and my Samsung Galaxy Note 9. Oh, and my current phone. But the HTC One M7 I had to go to a physical store to activate it. The HTC One M8 I had to reach out on social media. The HTC 10 I had to chew them out on Twitter for 7 hours because they chose to bring down there entire website until my brother came home, and I could call from his phone.
• And speaking of the HTC 10. There was the first I ordered it. I requested in store pick up and activation. And the employee was an ass. I just walked out. Sent Sprint and EECB, and even they couldn’t cancel my order…

And now we can add my attempt at adding a tablet to it. I paid full price for it, and added a line for it. And even after paying for it, they still couldn’t activate it. T-Mobile=Sprint=Piss-Poor customer service…

Hello World! Well, Sorta…

Hello World. As you might be able to tell, my replacement motherboard arrived Monday. And I installed it Monday night. Wasn’t quite as difficult as the first time when I built it. The most difficult part was cleaning the thermal paste off the processor (on a side note, it occurred to me Sunday night that I might not have any, so I placed a pickup order for it from Worst Buy when I was on the bus to work. When I got home, I saw the extra tube I had from the last time I installed my processor, and so I’m not going to pick it up, and it will be automatically refunded to me after a week).

Going by the rule that if I need to replace it, then I’m going to upgrade it I went from a X370 chipset to a X570 chipset. And also I needed to quit Windows 7 cold turkey. Every time I try it, I have to wipe and reinstall everything. And the last time I tried it, I couldn’t even boot the system into BIOS. And the X570 is definitely not compatible with it. So this way, I’ll have to stay on Windows 10.  I also suspected my SSD boot drive was kapoot as well. So I upgraded that. I was going to go with a PCI 4x4 m.2 SSD (use your Google-Fu to figure that out if you have to), but I realized that my processor (still running a Ryzen 7 2700X) didn’t support PCIE 4, so I ordered another PCIE 3x4. But I did upgrade to a 2TB drive. And I still have my 3 8tb HDD’s.

The RAM, video cards and DVD drives remained the same. Yes, if I have to replace it, I’ll upgrade it. But then again, if it works, then don’t try to fix it…

Software-wise I bought an OEM license for Windows. I figure if I’m replacing the motherboard, then Microsoft thinks that I’m getting a brand new computer (remember I replaced the processor last year). Went with the OEM license because I’m building it myself, and I’m my own tech support. The one thing that did surprise me is that I was able to install both Nero and CyberLink without any issues.Probably because they apparently activate when I use them, and I never did…

Well, let’s see how long this lasts…

The Last Day Of My Vacation…

I was going to stay up all night, and force-reset my circadian rhythm to my work schedule. But then I realized I had a UPS delivery coming today (the tablet I ordered yesterday). And then I finally did something that I had thinking about for a while. I ordered a second monitor. This means of course that my coffee maker will be coming out to the kitchen. Or to the closet. My brother has his coffeemaker in the kitchen right now, and I’m not going to argue with him. I’m still waiting for my motherboard to ship (scheduled to arrived on Monday).Today is the last day of my vacation. At 6 tonight, my alarm goes off and I return to work. I only have a three day work week to ease back into the daily grind (I took three vacation days, added them to my normal weekend to get 5 days off).

I really didn’t do much on my vacation. Went up to Federal Way on Wednesday, and while I drank my tea with my former boss, he said that he was going to train me for an emergency back-up at his new store (not to be disclosed yet). I know it’s a good thing not to burn your bridges, but I’ve already worked the equations, and this where location counts. I just can’t make it to his new location. But then again, this could be an opportunity…

Well, I did do something important: sleep. Late at night, with my computer f*cked up, I decided to take a 4 hour nap. And then another 4 hour nap in the afternoon, and I was good to go. And I had day light available to do stuff. And watch TV without having to DVR…

Yet Another Vacation Update….

Looking at the specs for my forthcoming motherboard (based on the AMD X570 chipset), I realized that my current processor (Ryzen 7 2700X) does not yet support PCIE 4x4 SSDs (use your Google-Fu if you can’t understand what I just wrote). I’ve already ordered and already received a PCIE 4x4 drive, thinking that I’d upgrade. Since this was my mistake I’m not going to return it (No need to hold the eBay merchant responsible for me not looking at the details). I’ll just hold until I upgrade my processor.

Having said that, I do have concerns about carrying over my old PICE 3x4 SSD that I was using with the old motherboard. It might have failed, and there is one other concern: a heatsink. The new motherboard has a heatsink specifically for the m.2 drives. And my old SSD already has a heatsink on it, and I don’t want to deal with peeling it off.

So, I just ordered a new one. This time I’m going from a 1 TB to a 2TB. And both m.2 slots are fully compatible with PCIE 3x4 as well. So, when I can afford a new processor, I can still use it. In addition to my 3 8TB old skool hard drives.

Another concern is a lack of wi-fi on the motherboard. Fortunately, the literature prominently mentioned that it had a slot for the same Intel wi-fi card. So it has been ordered and recieved already…

Today on my vacation will be a trip to Wally World. I need insulin. And there will be an attempt to reset my circadian rhythm back to something compatible with work. Basically no more 4 hour naps….

More Poor Judgement on my part

After messing my computer royally Monday morning, thought there has to be an easier to get online without pulling the laptop and spending 4hours to bring it up to date. And then I thought: A tablet! Yes, I’ve gone down that road before. And I’ve also had a USB modem before. But I decided it’s time to get a tablet again. I ordered a Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite. I’m going for top of the line. And I’m not going with the installment plan (only $200. I paid for it up front). The data plan was only $20 a month. It’s nice to have something bigger than my phone to get on online and not be dependent on Comcast (there have been past concerns with them flaking out).

Also latest Vacation Update. It’s payday. Nothing much. Paid all my bills….

Vacation: Day 4

I know last night I said it was stream and chill. It was more less streaming and more chilling. I went to bed. Set my alarm for 4 hours and got up early in the morning. Went up to Federal Way. Met my former boss at Mrs. Fields. He offered lunch (it was/is my birthday). I settled for just a cup of tea. Mainly because my brother offered dinner, and I decided a taco bar would be good (hey, it’s Taco Tuesday somewhere). Got home from, and was greeted by 3 deliveries at my door (replacement parts for my computer). Now all I need is my new motherboard, scheduled to arrive soon. Took a brief nap, and then woke up to be told by my brother that he forgot to buy meat for tacos. No big deal. I know I can make some microwave nachos with what we have (I did place a grocery order when I got home Sunday). But he suggested Ubering Mexican. Ok, I can always go for arroz con pollo. It was good. I think tonight it will be another 4 hour nap, and then enjoy some more of that yellow thing in the sky.

And there were also all the birthday wishes on Facebook. I tried to reply to each one with a unique response to each one (note to my youngest brother: What has 9 arms and sucks?).

Vacation: Report

If you’re keeping score, well I fucked up my computer Sunday night/Monday morning. I’ve already replacement parts (mainly the motherboard). Realistically, I’m just replacing the motherboard, but this means getting a new Windows 10 license. So as far as Microsoft is concerned it’s a new computer.

Last night, I pulled the Tower out and pulled out all 3 hard drives. Plugged them into my media center tower (via a usb enclosure) and they’re still operable. So, back into the tower they go. I then decided that there was nothing on TV, so I went to bed and took a 4 hour nap. Got up with a headache. Drank an energy drink (I had a caffeine withdrawal headache) and my headache progressed to nausea. And 20 minutes later, it came back up. 2 cups of tea settled my headache down (and my stomach). Watched some cricket (The Hundred). And then I went to bed for another four hours. Tonight, I got up early and did laundry. The agenda today will be watch TV and stream & chill).

During the past two days, I've also been doing maintenance on the laptop. It’s slower than molasses, but I’ve managed to get it updated and patched (all the way to 21h1). I think in the not so far future there’s going to be a laptop rebuild. But I’ll hold off on it for now….

Almost forgot…

I almost forgot that I still have a laptop. Drawback is that it’s been a couple of months since I even turned it on, and so it’ll be a few hours before I can use it without it being slower than molasses. But It’s another working computer….

Back to the drawing board….

Decided to give Windows 7 a chance this morning on my tower. After about 20 minutes, I realized the error of my ways. So I put my Windows 10 drive in and rebooted. And nothing. Can’t even get it to load the boot loader screen. Nor can I get it to flash the BIOS. My birthday is coming up this week (the main reason why I went on vacation), and so I decided it’s time for a new computer. I plan salvaging as much of the parts of the old one that I can, so I’m just buying a new motherboard, a Windows 10 copy (and this time it’s an OEM copy since I’m building my own from now on). And a new SSD (if I didn’t fry this one, I’ll put it in as well….).

But this royally sucks, that I’m on vacation, and I don’t have my computer anymore. It’s a good thing I still have my previous tower….

Vacation: Commence

So, a few weeks ago, I booked Wednesday and Thursday night off for vacation. As is an actual vacation, and not burning vacation time because I had to call out (which my employer strongly discourages, btw). A couple of days later, I realized that my overnight manager had approved it. So after thanking him, I told him that I was also going to book Sunday night, and give myself a 5 day weekend. Which he approved. And so today rolled around. I got home from work. I’ve already ordered pizza. And placed my grocery orders with Wally World and Target (I’m lazy. I’ll pay the delivery fee just to avoid lugging everything on the bus).

So my vacation has started. I shall try to do as little as possible till Friday night.

I do have to admit that I have the best of timing. Last week there was a transformer blowout (possibly due to a collision), and we were without power for 2 hours. Last night I heard that tonight was going to be a scheduled outage for maintenance from 11pm to 6 am. Work must go on. The overnight manager has already said that headband flashlights will be issued to everyone, and work will continue. But I get to avoid the shit-show….

Hello Stranger…

Yes, it’s been a while. Sorry…

A couple of weeks ago, there was a standoff involving the police and my next door neighbor. Not going to go into details to preserve  privacy/due process of law, but I do have questions about the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. Like why where they still setting off a flash-bang right outside my door after the suspect had peacefully given himself up? Just when I think I could finally trust cops again. Oh well. I’ll just stick with the no longer bothering to call 911 anymore. I fear the conduct of the law enforcement officials more than I fear the criminals…

My vacation starts next week. More on that later.

India and England tried playing a Test match. The English weather won.

Bought some new feet Monday from Famous Footwear. Yes, a few years ago I said I was done with them, but I have less issues with my feet if I wear Columbia’s and they have the best deal.

We’ve been out of hot water for the past week and a half. And it’ll be about another week before it’s restored. Take my advice: do not rent or lease from Pacific Rim Property Management. More on that later…

Taking a pledge….

There will be no comments on Jeff Bezos’ recent trip yesterday. Nor will there be any comments about what his rocket ship looks like, or whether or not the designer[s] have the surname of Johnson. Even if he is one….

An adventure journeying by bus….

Actually, this should be titled ‘An adventure trying to journey by bus. I have signed up for text notifications for all the Pierce Transit/Sound Transit routes that I normally take. This saves a lot of frustration when there’s a missed trip (which happens a lot more due to covid)…

So my work week last week:

• Wednesday was normal. Buses ran. There were a couple of missed trips, but not the trips that I took.
• Thursday, the bus I needed to take was a missed trip. And because at the time my bus ran, I couldn’t take the earlier bus, and the next bus was an hour later. So, I was going to be an hour late. I called in late to work, and I facebooked a co-worker who took the same bus (because I’m nice, and I don’t want her waiting an hour for a bus that wouldn’t arrive). So the late bus comes. I board. And later on she boards, and then she gets the driver to call ahead and get our connecting bus to wait for us. So we make the connection and we end up being on time. And I caught a hard time from my boss because I wasn’t late at all….
• Friday night, they ran. I was able to make all my connections and got to work on time.
• Saturday night, I saw the missed trip text for the 8:35 bus. Having just woken up, and not really reading my texts, I thought that the bus was again an hour late, so I called in late, and went out to catch the bus an hour later. Which didn’t show up (because it was the missed trip). So, I ended taking an Uber. Cost me close to $40+. But I made it to work. On time. I promised my boss that I would put a lot more effort into being late from now on.
• Sunday night I just ignored my text messages and went to the bus stop on time. And caught the bus. This day’s missed trip alert was for the trip right before mine.

I suppose I could’ve just called out on a couple of these days and burned my vacation time if it wasn’t for the fact that they are cracking down on attendance at work. And I prefer having a job to looking for a job. But the real reason is that I’ve already booked my vacation in August, and that’s going to use up my vacation time.

BTW, my vacation request was approved…

An anniversary of sorts yesterday….

Four years ago yesterday, Home Depot fired me. Yes, it still hurts. It is never a pleasant experience to be called into the office, told your employment is being terminated, and asked to leave the facility. But you also have to move on. I had an interview and a job offer from my current employer in three weeks (but that’s another post). It may be hard to bounce back, but you have to. Yes, my current job has a two+ hour bus ride each way (whereas I had a 20 minute walk before). But I feel like I fit in better where I’m at here than at my previous job. When I was at my first location, I fit in pretty well (I’m still friends with many of my co-workers there). But when I transferred, the ‘read’ I got of the situation in hindsight was that I wasn’t really welcome (it actually took the intervention of somebody form the district office to get them to take my transfer request seriously). In fact, it was because my transfer was forced on them probably put a bullseye on my back, and the first mistake I made was the only opportunity they needed to fire me). Hindsight is always 20/20.

And again, after I complained on this blog…

And again after I complained on this blog, the issue is fixed. Somebody at Google must read this blog.

In case you’re wondering why I wiped my drive and started over from scratch, I made a couple of BIOS changes (actually it’s now called UEFI), to make sure TPM is enabled. Apparently Windows 11  is coming out, and I wanted to make sure my system will be ready to run it. Good news is that it will. That's a good thing since I can’t afford to build another computer…

The games continue….

Wiped the tower. While reinstalling Open Live Writer, I logged in to Google. And it can no longer download my blog layout. Logged into blogger (via Chrome), and again I couldn’t even edit my layout or my blog’s theme (I got a ‘405’ error). And when I went to the URL of this blog just to view it, I was greeted with a captcha challenge.

I’ve been on blogger for over 15 years. And the games are still being played. Perhaps it’s time I moved my eggs into a different basket…

I won a bet recently…

Had a bet with the now former owner of the Mrs. Fields about the winner of the World Test Championship. If India won, I’d buy the coffee on my next visit. If New Zealand won, he’d buy. New Zealand won. India came in third. But the English weather came in second place (two days were rained out).

So I won a bet. But since I had paid for the coffee on Tuesday, I told him to buy his wife a coffee instead….

So an opportunity came up last week…

I told a couple of friends that the Mrs Fields had closed, and one of them replied that they had an opening. So I put my hat into the ring. And last Friday, I got a phone call. The talk was for a closing position, but he closed at the same time I started my work, but he told me I could change my start time and ride my bike. Not thinking about it, I thought it was cool. And so that ‘night’ (remember I sleep during the day) I got my bike ready. Then I went to bed. Somewhere during the day, I realized the distances involved. 85+ blocks. No go for my bike. A quick look at Google Maps showed that there was a nearby bus stop. And the Metro route that serves it has 24/7 service. But to make the connection to my other job would still involve connecting to Pierce Transit, and they essentially shut down at 10pm. So it’s still a no go. Ultimately it boils down to the logistics aren’t there. And I cant just quit my current job for it, either.

And the final nail in the coffin was that I did talk to management about if I could shift my schedule an hour (just for the sake of due diligence). And I was told that they are unable to change the schedules at this time (basically everyone on the overnight shift needs to have the same schedule).I haven’t said anything about this, as I feel it would be beating a dead horse, and I don’t want to inflame the situation any further…

So an opportunity came up last week. And I had to pass on it…

It’s fixed…

I think somebody from Google is reading the blog. After I was b*tching in the last post about how something on the backend of Blogger was fuckered up, suddenly Open Live Writer is able to download the theme of this blog, so I can see what my posts look like somewhat before I publish them…

Cleaning up a little bit….

If you see some items missing from my blog, it’s because I’m having issues with it. For some reason, I can’t edit my blog’s theme anymore. I’ve left it unchanged for years (if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it). But now all of the sudden, when I set up Open Live Writer, it won’t download the blog’s theme. And when I log into blogger to see if I can edit it, I get a 405 error, or Google flags me as a robot, and I get captchas ad nauseum. I can’t even load one of the stock templates from Blogger’s own website!

I’ve tried everything I know to troubleshoot it, but it seems there’s something on Google’s end that’s fucked up. I took down some of the elements that were returning 405 errors, but I’m still having issues….

Feeling kinda lazy tonight…

So, for those of who don’t know, I acquired one of the store computers from then the Mrs Fields closed a couple of weeks ago. It was missing a hard drive, and a dvd drive. I had a few spare hard drives floating around, and a dvd drive is dirt cheap. So I ordered one on Spamazon. It arrived, and I realized I needed a bracket to install it, and so I ordered it from eBay. It arrived yesterday. It doesn’t quite fit, but I can make it work (I’m not putting that much effort into this, as it’s a 10+ year old computer). (Edit: I think I just found the right bracket on Spamazon. Ordered used).

So, as it stands, I can install an OS on it and start using it (it still has the sticker on it with the Windows 7 serial number), and I can download the drivers for it from the manufacturer. But I’m just lazy. Besides, I really don’t need to. If I need to run Windows XP, Windows ME, Or even Windows 7, I can run it in VMWare on my current Tower…

So what all happened last night….

Last night, I got up. Shaved. Showered. Got dressed and headed out to the bus stop. When I got there, another woman arrived at the bus stop, and she was drinking. I could smell the alcohol through my mask (I’m fully vaccinated, and a Covid survivor, but Pierce Transit still requires masks as it’s a federal mandate and not really worth the argument). And she was having a heated argument with the voices in head, and losing the same. So the bus arrives, and I think the driver’s going to deny her service (being intoxicated on the bus=not cool with Pierce Transit). And then the driver tells me that he’s full, I need to catch the next bus. And then he slams the door in my face and drives off.

If I caught the next bus I’d be an hour late at work. And that’s if I was able to catch it. My apartment is only 10-15 minutes from the beginning of the bus route and if it’s full by the time it gets to me, then there’s a better than average chance that it’ll be full the next trip. So I called out. I know I’m already treading on thin ice, but I can’t afford the Uber to downtown Tacoma. And it’s not really worth the worry.

But I did send an EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) to the Pierce Transit board of commissioners, asking them how am I supposed to get to work if the bus service is unreliable. And why was somebody who was intoxicated (and possibly having an open container) given preferential treatment?

And so it ends…

Meanwhile at Mrs. Fields, the store owner has decided to pursue opportunities elsewhere (not to be discussed here at this time. Maybe in a future post). At first he tried to sell the store, but there were no serious takers. I was seriously thinking about buying it myself (confession: back when I was working for him exclusively, my dream was to own my own store). But there were no takers. And so about a month ago, the decision was made to close. And today was the last day….

I have now officially lost my second job. Financially it won’t set me back at all (after all, I still have a full-time primary job). And I’ve already been offered a position at his next opportunity. But owing to the distances involved, I don’t know if I can accept it.

And so Mrs. Fields closed today. I have taken down the store’s Facebook page. Today ends over 26 years of working for Mrs. Fields in some form or another. It started in April of 1995 at The Original Cookie Company in the South Hill Mall. About a year later that company merged with Mrs. Fields. And then they bought a couple of other concepts. I’ve worked in the South Hill Mall, the Tacoma Mall, the Westlake Center, the SeaTac Mall (now the Commons At Federal Way), the Kitsap Mall, and precisely two hours at Southcenter. And with the possible exception of one PretzelMaker at the Kitsap Mall, they’ve all closed. Shopping malls are in a serious decline. For many years, they used to be my livelyhood. But the only constant in this is that it’ll change. And like it or not, you have to move on….

So a pipeline got taken down…

So a pipeline got taken down by a ransomware attack. And people are panic-buying gasoline, which is making things worse than they need to… This is mainly affecting the East coast. I don’t think we’ll be affected here on the west coast.

But as for ransomware attacks, I think I’m pretty safe from that. I hope. I have backups. And they’re physically disconnected from my computer until they’re needed. You can’t hack it if it’s turned off….

Still signed in, after all these years…

So, I did a recent security audit on my Google account. Found out I was still signed into my Google account on my old HTC 10 and HTC One (M8) phones. I could remotely sign out on my HTC 10, but there wasn’t a way to sign out of the other one. But there was another way to delete my account information. I just factory reset both phones. Actually I booted phones into recovery (remember, I had rooted these), and deleted everything. And they’ve gone into The Drawer. I haven’t used one in over 2 years, and the other in over 4 years.

And I just wiped my Samsung Galaxy Note 9, too. And it too has gone into The Drawer…

Mother's Day Today....

Today is Mother's Day. May Barbara Bryant spend all eternity frolicking in the Beer Volcano and Stripper Factory. Ramen.

Happy Mother's Day, if applicable... 

All done

So, a couple of weeks ago, my computer’s power supply went south, and I had to replace it. And while I was replacing it, I replaced upgraded two of my hard drives. So, now I have 4 hard drives: 1 ssd, and 3 hard drives. My computer now has a total of 25 tb of storage. Anyway, because of the drive replacements, and all the data being moved around, I ended up doing a system wipe. Completely. Meaning  I used the ‘clean’ command from the command prompt. Between my Epic Games, Amazon Prime Games, and Steam Games I think I downloaded about 3 terabytes’ worth of crap. Then I had to redownload my GOG, Origin, and Ubisoft games (these I normally keep archived on another drive, but the drive got wiped).

But it’s all done. I just have to keep reminding myself that my hardware is permanently incompatible with Windows 7, and every time I’ve tried it has lasted for 12 hours at the most. And then I’m back to square 1. Although I’m getting better at rebuilding my system. I’m now down to a week and a half. It used to take me just 2 1/2 days to do it. With 2 different versions of Windows even. But then again, I only had 2 30 gb hard drives at the time, too….

#Ipickedaheckuvatimetoquitdrinking

It is now Cinco de Mayo. A minor Mexican holiday. Where a battle is commemorated that the Mexicans won (in a war with the French that they eventually lost). The actually Mexican independence day commemorates the Grito de Dolores on September 16. It is celebrated more in the US than in Mexico.

So, most of us here will be eating tacos (most likely the Taco Bell version not the authentic Mexican ones) and drinking Corona (founded by German immigrants, and therefor more closely related to Budweiser than Mexico), not realizing that it’s not really that big of a holiday.It is more known for it’s historical significance in Mexico….

On my Grandpa’s dairy farm, he had a steer named Cinco de Mayo, because he was born on Cinco de Mayo. He was friendly. But my father was in the Army at the time, and he got posted to Germany, and so off to Europe we went. At Cinco de Mayo (the steer) became meatloaf…

Fully Vaccinated Now

Two weeks ago yesterday, I got my second dose of the Pfizer Covid vaccine. So I’m now fully vaccinated. But still, wear a mask. Stay 6 feet apart. Wash your hands. We can fully reopen if we all do our part…

Hello World, Kinda Sorta…..

I wrote a while back about my computer’s power supply going south. Ordered a new one off of Ebay. And it was shipped from Newegg. Not that I mind. Anyway I got a Rosewill 1000 Watt Gaming Computer Power Supply 80 Plus Bronze PSU Glacier 1000M (an upgrade from my 750 Watt power supply). And since I was going to be pulling open my tower, I decided it was time to retire my 4tb hard drive (I bought 1 in 2015, and the other I bought in 2019, but it was already used). So I replace them with 2 Toshiba X300 HDWR180XZSTA 8 tb hard drives. Which means that my main tower now has a total of 25 tb of storage space. My first computer only had 30 gb and that was a $150 upgrade….

So Rosewill/Newegg shipped the power supply via UPS. I ordered the hard drives in 2 separate orders from Newegg, and they were shipped via OnTrac. They were due to arrive last Wednesday by the end of business. I had to work that night. I left the house at 7:30 pm, and they still hadn’t arrived. Tracking the shipments, I noticed that they were both delivered, one at 9:30pm and 1 at 10:11pm. After my roommate had gone to bed. So 1 package was left out overnight. The other one that was supposed to have been delivered at 10:11 never showed up. OnTrac was of course no help at all (I previously had issues with them on a couple of orders from Spamazon, and they are not the best). Contacted Newegg, and they immediately filed a claim for a lost package, and I thought that was the end of it. After a couple of weeks if I was lucky, I would get my money back. 2 days after I was supposed to receive it, it showed up at my door. Newegg did offer me a discount on a future order for my trouble, and they will be lodging a complaint with OnTrac. Never underestimate Newegg’s customer service.

So, I put everything into my computer this weekend, and I then wiped everything. Which is where I am now. Reinstalling everything. This is going to take a while, but through the magic of symlinks I can now move a lot of stuff off my 1tb ssd…

Hello World. Once again. Sorta…

On police reform...

We as Americans have a problem with the police. Systemic racism. Corruption. The Thin Blue Line. A lot of people no longer trust the police. I'm one of them. The last time I had to call 911, it took over 20 minutes for the officers to respond, and even then they disregarded the description I have the dispatcher and just arbitrarily accosted the first black man they saw at 10th and Commerce (waiting for the bus while black is a crime apparently).

There have been calls to refund the police. I don't think that's the best idea. It's seems more like a knee jerk reaction. The police may be a festering cesspool of corruption, but they're still a vital service to society. What we need it's a disciplined police force. And that needs to start from the beginning. The standards to be a police officer need to be raised. The job is tough, but we need to raise the bar even higher. Before actually training to be a police officer, let each candidate go through Marine Corps boot camp. And let the drill instructors wash them out at will. 

And once they get their badge, the standards still need to be kept high. If they're going to have power over life and death, then they need to be held to a higher standard of behavior. Police officers ought to be in greater fear of internal affairs than any thug they may face on the street. And the police department should not be a union shop. Far too often, officers' unions are used to stand in the way accountability for misconduct.

As a society, we face a problem of systemic racism, corruption, and general lack of accountability from the police. And the leadership needs to from a pair... 

Chauvin is guilty….

I make it a point to not comment on pending criminal cases. Even the most vile of criminals deserve to be treated fairly by the law, and I prefer to let the jurors called to serve make the call as to guilt or innocence….

But  having said that, Chauvin had his day in court. He had his trial. And he was found guilty in a court of law. I will not glory in the verdict, nor will I gloat over it. George Floyd is still gone, and finding one cop guilty of killing him will not bring him back.

But, this can be a start. A start towards police accountability. A start towards the police viewing everybody they see as citizens with rights, and not as being beneath the protection of the law.

Chauvin guilty. This is only the beginning….

Feeling kinda lazy today…

It’s my weekend. Actually the middle of it. Main tower is out of order (see the last few posts in this blog for all the details). So I’m typing this up on my TV (remember my previous tower was repurposed as my Blu-Ray drive/media center, and hooked up to my TV). And because I have a TV tuner hooked up to my second tower, I can watch TV on my TV (yes, I can switch the input to my cable box, but there’s no fun in that).

Anyway, I’m doing my best to stay at home today. I’m having my Target run delivered. I’ve already made my only (hopefully) run to the grocery store.

The past weekend, the sun came out. Really bright and sunny. And since I have a western facing bedroom window, and I have to sleep during the day, this means that the air conditioner is back up and running. I don’t have my main computer, but my room is still cool…

if I'm going to do one, then...

After ordering a new power supply, and a replacement hard drive, I thought why not replace both 4tb hard drive. They're both pretty old (one I bought new in 2015, and the other was already used when I got it). So I ordered a second 8tb drive while I was at lunch this morning at work. They both should arrive at the same time.

If it's not the power supply, I'm going to be teed off... 

Know what?

If I'm going to have to crack open the tower to replace the power supply, when why not upgrade a hard drive? That has been ordered, too... 

Will this just sucks...

Get home from work, go to turn the computer on. And nothing. No light on the tower. No fans running. Nothing. It appears as my power supply has failed. Oh well. Replacement had been ordered. It should arrive Friday... 

About every 3 years or so….

Feeling much better than last night. Still, I called out from work while get over the tail end of the side effects of Tuesday’s shot. At one time last night, I was temping at 100.1. At 4 am, I decided to go to bed and sleep it off (for those of you keeping score at home, I work overnights, and I sleep during the day. Most of the time). And sleep I did. Aside from a couple of bathroom breaks, and 1 insulin shot, I slept for 12 hours.

But enough about my Covid shot. Sunday morning on the way home from work I paid both the cable bill and the phone bill. And in celebration, I ordered pizza. And I promptly spill blue cheese dressing on my keyboard. No worries. I pried the keys off to wipe them off, but the spacebar wasn’t working right afterward. So I ordered one from Newegg. The exact same model, so I could just plug it in and go. And it just occured to me and three years and change before, I had to replace my keyboard (this time I spilled coffee on it). And three years or so before that, I replaced the keyboard with one from Spamazon. They have all been the same model (Logitech Wave 350). And they’ve all outlasted the batteries that were installed in them…

Side effects are setting in…

I got my second Covid shot yesterday.I knew there were going to be side effects. And they’re here. Started out with aches and pains, and now the fever is kicking in. Oh, and my arm is sore, too. It’s my night off. And I think I’m going to call out tomorrow, as well. But a couple of sick days are better than I two+ week leave of absence because you actually have Covid.

But I gladly do it if it will help us open up again….

Got my second shot today...

Got my second Covid shot today. I got the Pfizer vaccine. A small step that I'll gladly take to end this pandemic.... 

So about two weeks in my new phone....

And I've pretty much moved in. There are a couple of options for rooting it, but I'm not going to. If it ain't broke, then don't try to fix it. Eventually, I may do it, but for now I'll just wait and see...

Later on this morning, I go in to get my second Covid shot. I anticipate side effects. But it won't be as bad as actually having Covid, abs it'll be one more step toward being able to open up again.

IPL has started. And the Royal Challengers Bangalore won the first match. The best for my favorite sports team to win is for me to be too busy to watch the game...

And for those of you who are fasting for the next lunar month or so, I bid you Ramadan Mubarak... 

Got a new phone last week…

Ok, so last Wednesday night, I was perusing the Sprint website (yes I know the web link is to the T-Mobile website, because of mergers and all….), and my line was eligible for an upgrade (one of the things I did with my economic stimulus was to pay off my Galaxy Note 9). And I was looking around I was intrigued by the Motorola RAZR 5G. I remember when the original one came out in 2005 (in fact in 2008, I had a used MotoRIZR Z3, but it wasn't the flip phone). I finally decided that I wanted a flip phone, so I went for it. Arrived the next day, and activation was surprisingly painless (I remember the issues I had awhile back when I got my HTC 10). This there was something different. Sprint/T-Mobile have been wanting me to switch the SIM cards of our phones since the merger, and my new phone had a Sprint SIM card in it, but it came with a T-Mobile SIM card, with instructions to key in the T-Mobile card number during the activation process. And after activation, I switched out the SIM card.

So after activation, my phone now says it’s on the T-Mobile network. I still use the My Sprint app to pay my bill (and to order upgrades). But the phone has a mix of T-Mobile and Sprint apps on it.

Now on the to phone. It appears to mainly have a stock Google interface (for example, for email it uses the Gmail app instead of it’s own email app. And there are no buttons on the phone. It is all done with gestures. There have been a lot of comments online critical of the camera, but with this camera, I was able to wirelessly deposit my roommate’s rent check, when I was never able to do it via the Galaxy Note 9.

While it is possible to unlock the bootloader and root the phone, I’m not going to yet. If it isn’t broke then don’t try to fix it. And something tells me to keep the phone under warranty from the get go (when you unlock the pone, you void the warranty, irregardless of what broke it).

So far, I like the new phone. I think it’s a keeper…

Didn’t go to work last night….

So I didn’t go to work last night. Didn’t even call in. A couple of weeks ago, I requested the day off, and management actually approved it…..

Covid shat that I got last Tuesday gave me a fever Wednesday. I slept most of it off, and called out Wednesday night (who wants to go to work sick?). My arm is no longer sore. But the side effects fo the vaccine are still better than actually getting Covid….

Arm is a little sore…

So last week, governor Inslee expanded eligibility for the Covid-19 vaccine, and I became eligible. Having had it, and not desiring to go through it again, I signed up as soon as I found out. I got my first shot yesterday, and I have an appointment already for my second shot. I’m getting the Pfizer vaccine. Personally, I don’t think I need it since I’ve already had it, but the scientists who no more about this than I do recommend it, and I want to personally set an example and end the restrictions as soon as possible.

And my arm is sore. But I hear it’ll be worse after the second shot. And let me tell you, a sore arm still feels a lot better than having Covid….

An empty inbox and other things…

After I tested positive for Covid last month, I was over the symptom a week after the test (I had been sick for about a week prior to getting tested). But personnel at work said that it was a mandatory 2 weeks out from the positive test (and it was also insisted that this was a paid leave of absence). But, two weeks to the day after getting the positive results, I was back at work. And my feet were protesting the fact that I had to wear shoes. Plantar fasciitis and athlete’s foot together are almost just as bad as Covid (but still wear a mask and stay 6 foot apart. You do not want to get Covid). But after 3 days, my feet stopped protesting, and I need to replace my 4 pairs of shoes…

So they passed a stimulus package in recent time. And I got my $1400 stimulus check at about 1:30 this morning. And I paid my bills. All of them. I usually keep my current statements in my inbox as a reminder of what needs to be paid, and so I cleared out my inbox as I paid them. And I even paid off my phone (wasn’t going to happen until July, but Sprint did have an option to pay off the entire remaining balance, so I did).

So I’ve got and spent most (if not all my stimulus money). But my bills are taken care of, and I still have my regular paycheck, complete with a quarterly bonus. Which is a good thing, since while it was insisted that I was going to be paid for my 2 weeks, I was actually paid for less than 3 days. I should scream bloody murder at work about it, but experience has also taught me that retaliation does routinely happen. And I’m just going to take the high road…

Two days to go….

I just informed work that I plan to return to work Thursday night. I hope for the best…

Ventured outside today

I ventured outside today. Twice. The first time was when I broke down, and took out some garbage. But still, I put my mask and my shoes on. On ubereats today, Whoppers were 50% off. And so my brother and I had Burger King for lunch. And I ordered an extra one for supper later on tonight. But I needed a beverage to wash it down. And so, another trip to 7-11 for a diet pepsi (normally I’m a Coke drinker, but sometimes you want something different).

After my second trip out today, the thermometer that my brother had ordered arrived. It’s official, no fever. I look forward to returning to work this week. Probably later than sooner, but I’ll be at work….

Render Unto Ceaser, 2021 Edition

First of all, I’m pretty much over all of the Covid symptons. I even wrote personnel at work, and let them know that I can return to work. However their rule is 2 weeks’ LOA from the date of the positive test. So I have until next week before I can even entertain the thought of returning to work. And I’m totally broke since during a moment of lucidity during my illness, I logged in and paid my bills.

Tonight, while drinking my first cup of coffee in two weeks (surprisingly sleep can be a good substitute for caffeine), I realized that I had all my tax forms in order. So, off to credit karma, and I filed. The IRS has already accepted my return, and I’m getting a refund. At least it’s taken care of for another year.

It all started a couple of weeks ago…

A couple of Wednesdays ago, I was on my way to work. And I started felling the standard body aches and pains. At work, we have to go through a brief health screening before we can start our shifts, and body aches and pains are one of the specific symptoms we were asked about. I answered truthfully, and asked for a member of management. He decided that since I had only one symptom, he’d personally clear me to work that night, or I could go home. I chose to go home (mainly because I have no way of getting home from 11 pm to 6 am). The next day, I received a phone call from personnel, and it was decided that if I wasn’t getting worse, then I’d come to work. Which I then did for two more days.

Then Saturday came. With all the snow that we had received, I had made arrangements to carpool with my boss to work. Well, the roads were so bad that my boss had called out, and I decided that if he’s calling out, then there’s no point in me coming to work. At this time the body aches and pains were getting worse, and a fever was developing. I knew that I had caught something, but I still thought it was simple cold.

Then Sunday night came. I was really miserable. Fever. And the body aches and pains were the worst I’ve ever felt. But my boss was able to drive, so I went to work and went to the same health screening. I had a fever of 103+. Anything over 100 and you’re supposed to be sent home, no ifs ands or buts. But my boss said that it was because I was in a well-heated suv. So, with some fanning, and waiting I went from a go-home fever of 103+ to a I-can-work-just-barely 99.7. And so I had to work. And I was miserable that night. And the next morning when I went home, I was barely able to keep myself from barfing on the on the bus ride home (but right when I got off the final bus stop, yeah I tried to hurl it…).

Monday and Tuesday (of last week) were my days off of the week. So I stayed home and suffered. Still had the 100+ fever. Tuesday night, I launched an e-visit with Kaiser Permanente (my health insurance provider), described my symptoms, and was invited to get a Covid test. Which I did Wednesday morning. Personnel had also put me on a 10 day LOA (since I had also told them that I was getting worse.

So come 4:30 Thursday morning, and log in to Kaiser, and my results are in. And I’m positive. I have Covid. Personnel put me on an immediate 2 week paid loa with explicit directions not to go anywhere near work until I'm clear of the fever.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I basically slept though everything. I only got up to take insulin, ibuprofen, or to puke. I found that setting a 4 hour countdown timer on my phone really helps with not going too far between insulin shots (I am after all still a diabetic).

Sunday, I started ‘coming around’, but I slept through most of it. Monday, I started eating solid food again, and surprisingly, I still have a sense of taste and smell. Yesterday, I ordered teriyaki, and kept it down.

I’m still sleeping a lot. But that’s because I’m sick, and that’s how my body heals itself. My brother (who has since tested negative) has ordered a thermometer, so we can see if I’m officially free of the fever….

D’oh!

So last week at work, I decided I needed some time off. So I pulled the app on my phone, selected the dates and put in the vacation requests. My intent was to make a normal 2 day weekend a 4 day one, and I had attempted to book it a month in advance. Earlier this week, I got a pop up notice that one of my vacation day requests had been approved. But when I took a closer look, one of the days I put in for was last week, a day that I had already worked.

So, I guess I’m getting an extra day’s pay on my next check. Though I fell like I’ve wasted a vacation day…

Visited Dad Yesterday….

With Grandma Bryant passing away last Sunday, I became eligible for bereavement leave from work. Due to Covid-19 there really wasn’t a funeral, but she was laid to rest this past Saturday, so no funeral is anticipated at this time. Read her obituary here. But like I said this qualifies for bereavement leave from work. So, I took it this week. And it was time to visit Dad:

After verifying with my boss that I in fact could take bereavement, I called out Sunday night. Went to bed late and slept in till 1am Monday morning. I was trying to reset my circadian rhythm to a normal day/night cycle. My main agenda on Monday was two-fold: visit Mrs. Fields and get my bike ready. Really, all I could to was to put more air in the tires and oil the chain. I do need to get it to the shop to have the rear cassette looked at (and it needs tuning). But I was able to stay up till 7 pm Monday night.

Tuesday (yesterday) got up at 4am. Really bad headache. 2 cups of coffee later, headache is gone. Looking at the time tables for Pierce Transit, I had enough time (and quarters) to do my laundry before I left. So, after washing my clothes, I grabbed my bike and left. I took my bike so I could ride the 2 miles for so from the last bus stop to Dad’s house, and I didn’t know what his driving status was given his strokes he had in 2017. Good call.

So I get to Dad’s house. The consensus is that I’m getting the living room couch. I should point out that I had no input in the matter. Now I need to figure out how to dispose of my old couch. There are lots of items of cow memorabilia to disperse. I think an estate sale is forthcoming. I found out that Trouble (his cat) went over the Rainbow Bridge. But, he already has another cat, though I really didn’t have the chance to introduce myself. While I was there, I sat down to his laptop and recovered his Windows logon password (and his Outlook passwords). I was also able to reset his Facebook password, though he’s still locked out of his account until they can verify his identity. We tried it with the laptop’s webcam and his driver’s license, and it was a lost cause. I was going to stay until 5, but I decided to leave at 3, so I can ride back to the bus stop in day light. And I made it home by 5. I was going to help him get stuff organized, but I ended up just talking to him. It’s going to take more than three days’ worth of bereavement leave (and my two day weekend) to get him packed up and the house cleared out. There are still too many unknowns for now.

I’m not going back to work until Friday night. And I’ve learned that it’s not really worth it to force reset my circadian rhythm just for one visit. And it’s better to just walk it from the bus stop to Dad’s house (I just need to give myself more time)….

Hail to the Chief…

Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President. Hey Cheetos-Face: You’re still fired. There was the standard and well-needed call for unity. Although to be honest, I fell asleep through the speech.Cheetos-Face came in saying he was going to drain the swamp. He left us a cesspool. But enough about the predecessor, Biden has much on his plate. But now, the damage of the past 4 years can be undone…

Yes, I know it’s been a while….

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written here. Sometimes, Life just gets in the way sometimes. Or I sit down to write something, and nothing comes out. Or I look out the window, and so much is happening and I don’t know where to begin.

So last week, Congress finally certified the Electoral College voting. Biden will be the next President. Cheetos-Face apparently had other ideas, and I think he’ll find out pretty soon that inciting a riot in CAPITOL building will not be a good thing for your political career.

But this is not about the drama in Washington DC, and all the talk about sedition and insurrection (here’s a clue. The election is over. Power will change hands on January 20, and you’ll have another change to change in 4 years). This is about something even more personal (at least to me):

In September, Grandma turned 95. There were phone calls (I was one of them), and visitors. And afterwards, the decline started. I think it was mainly due to age. There were a couple of falls. And soon after Christmas, she ended up in the hospital. The initial talk was to release her into a rehab facility,but her decline continued, and in the end, it was decided to send her home, and let nature run its course (that last part my father did not tell me, but the writing was on the wall). So, she came home from the hospital yesterday (Sunday). And Sunday afternoon, surrounded by family, Dorothy Bryant slipped off this mortal coil. I found out about this while checking my Facebook feed. And I called Dad to confirm it. There is grief. But her suffering is now over. My father, who was her caretaker for the past 25 years, can finally retire.

This past week at work, I was plagued with the urge to call out Sunday night. I didn’t have a specific reason too. But when I got home Sunday morning and checked how much sick time I had available (and I had enough to cover my shift), I decided to pull the trigger, and take a sick day for mental health (the week at work had been particularly stressful, too). So I called out, and put in a request to use my sick time. And then I turned on my computer and found out. Had I not called out, I would’ve found out while I was on the bus to work. And I most likely would’ve tried to work through it. Not a good proposition. I guess it was foreboding, but it was a good thing I heeded it…

Grandma, you will be missed.