Re: Re: Hassles At Work
By: Nancy Backus to Damon A. Getsman on Sat Jun 20 2015 17:50:34

We're going to go and witness our first Aikido lesson tomorrow, and

How did that go...? Did you get there...?

Loki got there first. We were supposed to go in and view the session, but it turns out they have a family day. Sensei stated that'd probably be the best day for us to show up, and it was on a Saturday. So we waited a few more days, but I then realized that I'd either forgotten or had never heard what exact time it was supposed to be at. During this time, our sink plugged, as I believe I mentioned before, jeopardizing the funding. It's at a nexus where the issue should be the landlord's, and not ours; the problem is that we're unable to let the landlord in because he'd immediately figure out that there are more people staying here, and this would be bad for us all at this juncture.
Anyway, so the money would've been available, because I had the only cash on me at the time of this small disaster. Which is just as well, because the Aikido sensei never got back to us regarding when the time was supposed to be. This place is allegedly the best in Portland for Aikido, and I really want to go there, but I _did_ put in two phone calls last week to him to find out that time and never got a callback. That kind of makes me wonder...
Either way I'll be going in to verify what time the family session is that we'll get to [complimentarily] witness and take part in sometime later this week. Soon enough the next paycheck will be in, so hopefully there will be enough funds to make up whatever the plumber is going to cost us. It'd be really nice to be able to use the kitchen normally again, too. :P

It does. I mean Free Geek isn't the opportunity for help like

Would that be a place that you could get some sort of portable computer that you could take along while supervising the kid's activities...?

Unfortunately not really. I think I found another community center that we'll be able to check out being as the Y around here is way too far away to be practical, though. Planning on trying to check that out later today or early tomorrow.

Anyone can have a brain block at times... ;) Sometimes it just needs renewing... :)

Yeah, especially after that much time. My skills are coming back on the work stuff quick, but that doesn't entirely make up for the part about how I've got a rather different skillset from my partner's. Hopefully I get a chance to brush up more on the stuff he knows and learn that a little better myself. I've finally gotten back into Algorithms I on kickstarter now, at least. That'll help my ability and give me a little more practice working with some of the concepts that he knows a lot better than I do.

couple of days. My roommate has had a fever of 101.5+ _with_

Hopefully it didn't get to that for you...?

Nope. I caught the initial influenza, and somehow (through the grace of Loki) managed to avoid the strep that both my roommate and my son were down with so badly. That's really odd for me, but now that I've got my resting pulse down below 65, and a lot of practice eating better, maybe my immune system is finally catching up to the Portland virii a little bit better. :) I was just sitting here waiting for everyone to get better and wondering why the world was blowing up in my face at the same time. Heh.

It may have helped that in some ways you saw it coming, and may have
been (even unconciously) preparing yourself for the event... and knowing that it really was the kindest thing to do for the kitty... even with
the loss...

Yeah I knew that it was going to end poorly, most probably, at least a couple of years ago (when I was still in my apartment in Bismarck, ND, prior to ever moving to Minot, ND). People used to think I was nuts for crying about it, when I'd identified that it was cancer by the smell, but vindication sadly came. :P I think it was a lot easier because I was grieving for a long time before hand. Not that the actual incident of it happening was all flower petals and rosewater, but it probably did make it a lot easier, yeah.

Still working on catching up here; had a lot going on the past few days and a weird brainblock where I just had to take some time away from correspondence. Stay tuned!

-D
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Quoting Damon A. Getsman to Nancy Backus on 23-Jun-2015 10:37 <=-

We're going to go and witness our first Aikido lesson tomorrow, and

How did that go...? Did you get there...?

Loki got there first. We were supposed to go in and view the
session, but it turns out they have a family day. Sensei stated that'd probably be the best day for us to show up, and it was on a Saturday.
So we waited a few more days, but I then realized that I'd either forgotten or had never heard what exact time it was supposed to be at.

Maybe he just assumed you'd know, or be able to find out from somewhere
else... ;)

During this time, our sink plugged, as I believe I mentioned before, jeopardizing the funding. It's at a nexus where the issue should be
the landlord's, and not ours; the problem is that we're unable to let
the landlord in because he'd immediately figure out that there are more people staying here, and this would be bad for us all at this juncture. Anyway, so the money would've been available, because I had the only
cash on me at the time of this small disaster. Which is just as well,

Sink fixed now...?

because the Aikido sensei never got back to us regarding when the time was supposed to be. This place is allegedly the best in Portland for Aikido, and I really want to go there, but I _did_ put in two phone
calls last week to him to find out that time and never got a callback. That kind of makes me wonder... Either way I'll be going in to verify what time the family session is that we'll get to [complimentarily] witness and take part in sometime later this week.

Could just be super busy, or not too organized at the administration
level, or his voicemail doesn't work right... Sometimes in person works
best for things anyway... :)

Soon enough the next paycheck will be in, so hopefully there will be enough funds to make up whatever the plumber is going to cost us. It'd be really nice to be able to use the kitchen normally again, too. :P

Hopefully all fixed now... :)

I think I found another community center that we'll be able to check out being as the Y around here is way too far away to be practical, though. Planning on trying to check that out later today or early tomorrow.

Did that work out...? Close enough to get to, and all...?

Anyone can have a brain block at times... ;) Sometimes it just needs
renewing... :)

Yeah, especially after that much time. My skills are coming back on
the work stuff quick, but that doesn't entirely make up for the part about how I've got a rather different skillset from my partner's. Hopefully I get a chance to brush up more on the stuff he knows and
learn that a little better myself. I've finally gotten back into Algorithms I on kickstarter now, at least. That'll help my ability and give me a little more practice working with some of the concepts that
he knows a lot better than I do.

Sounds like a reasonable thing... :) And it doesn't hurt to have complementary skills when working on a project... I'm sure that you have
some skills that he doesn't... :)

couple of days. My roommate has had a fever of 101.5+ _with_

Hopefully it didn't get to that for you...?

Nope. I caught the initial influenza, and somehow (through the
grace of Loki) managed to avoid the strep that both my roommate and my son were down with so badly. That's really odd for me, but now that
I've got my resting pulse down below 65, and a lot of practice eating better, maybe my immune system is finally catching up to the Portland virii a little bit better. :) I was just sitting here waiting for everyone to get better and wondering why the world was blowing up in my face at the same time. Heh.

Always helps to have someone not sick to take care of the others, too.. ;)

It may have helped that in some ways you saw it coming, and may have
been (even unconciously) preparing yourself for the event... and
knowing that it really was the kindest thing to do for the kitty...
even with the loss...

Yeah I knew that it was going to end poorly, most probably, at least
a couple of years ago (when I was still in my apartment in Bismarck,
ND, prior to ever moving to Minot, ND). People used to think I was
nuts for crying about it, when I'd identified that it was cancer by the smell, but vindication sadly came. :P I think it was a lot easier because I was grieving for a long time before hand. Not that the
actual incident of it happening was all flower petals and rosewater,
but it probably did make it a lot easier, yeah.

Preparation generally helps... but the loss still hurts when it's
finalized... Just because one knows what's coming down doesn't make one
like it any more.... Sounds like you were fortunate to have the kitty
for as long as you did, actually.. :)

Still working on catching up here; had a lot going on the past few
days and a weird brainblock where I just had to take some time away
from correspondence. Stay tuned!

Understood... and I'm slowly doing some catchup... maybe I'll be up to
date before I take off for 2 weeks away from access to Fido... ;) But
as that's the end of this week, and things are still rather crazy, we'll
just have to wait and see... ;)

ttyl neb

... Have you thanked your sysop today?

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Re: Re: Aikido, kids activities, kittie
By: Nancy Backus to Damon A. Getsman on Mon Jun 29 2015 18:11:16

Maybe he just assumed you'd know, or be able to find out from somewhere else... ;)

Yeah I'm trying to give the sensei the benefit of the doubt. He seemed like the friendliest one that I've met around here so far. Plus he's the only fulltime Aikido dude in Portland (at least from what he says). Seems super friendly, really good with kids (with ones of his own, also), and I'm still planning on going with him. Still, I checked on all of the websites and everything. Would've been really nice to have gotten that callback.

Sink fixed now...?

Finally, praise be to all of the dieties that there may be. There is still a large amount of disarray where the kitchen was all torn apart to give them access, and there was a hell of a scare that the landlord would appear to micromanage things, as per his style, while the plumber was here. The clot was quite aways out, so it was definitely his responsibility, and didn't end up coming out of our dime, but the stress... Ugh. Especially in having to hide everything that made it look like there were too many tenants here. Still recovering from that complete ragtag compression of all of my worldly goods into the different closets and under some pieces of furniture around here.

Could just be super busy, or not too organized at the administration level, or his voicemail doesn't work right... Sometimes in person works best for things anyway... :)

Yeah. Like I said, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. I'm going to go in and see him again tomorrow, when he's got a standard session, and just start myself right away (if I can pull the cash together) and then probably get Deschain started right away, too, or else maybe wait for the family session on Sunday a week from today if he's more comfortable with that.

be enough funds to make up whatever the plumber is going to cost
us. It'd be really nice to be able to use the kitchen normally
again, too. :P

Hopefully all fixed now... :)

Yeah. Just need to carve through the mountains of backlogged, and somewhat toxic (due to NaOH), dishes and other cookwares. Then I need a day when this place is somewhat vacated to pull out all of my crap from the closets and the other stash spots so that I can get it all staged again to be replanted in areas where it'll stay folded and otherwise organized. It was a pretty major upset, having to hide 2/3 of the belongings in a 1 bedroom apartment occupied by three people. Wouldn't recommend it. The kitchen, at least, is slowly returning to functionality, though.

I think I found another community center that we'll be able to

Did that work out...? Close enough to get to, and all...?

Didn't happen yet due to other crap. I tried getting him out to some closer locations and none of them worked out, so I've still definitely got to go there. In fact *puts reminder in calendar for tomorrow* now I won't forget. ;)

Sounds like a reasonable thing... :) And it doesn't hurt to have complementary skills when working on a project... I'm sure that you have some skills that he doesn't... :)

Oh, I do. It's always good when he points that out, also, because my own insecurity on the issue of employment in this field really shoots me in the foot sometimes. It's hard to maintain that "I'm not worthy," mentality when I find a bug that the experienced guy has been banging his head against the cinderblocks with for a few hours after taking a brief glimpse at the code, though. ;) We've got pretty complimentary skill sets, and it's handy. Unfortunately right now we're both down these coding rabbitholes that've got us buried in the same stuff. Then again, that means it's my time to learn. He's doing a little bit of double time teaching me what I'd forgotten about PHP and learning all about the OO support that it added that I'd never learned before. So I'm happy with it. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed as far as his levels of motivation staying up. ;)

Always helps to have someone not sick to take care of the others, too.. ;)

Sh! Don't tell them I'm well!

Preparation generally helps... but the loss still hurts when it's finalized... Just because one knows what's coming down doesn't make one like it any more.... Sounds like you were fortunate to have the kitty
for as long as you did, actually.. :)

I was, very much. I certainly won't forget that. I say it about several different things, so maybe it comes across as just a cliche that I use sometimes, but there are large chunks of my life where I don't know if I would've been able to make it through without that cat (or his brother, before his early loss). I actually wrote up a whole series of messages on my local boards about the different adventures that I had with those cats... Maybe sometime I'll cross post those to international, or something. They're windy and long, but I don't think that they're too badly written, and it goes into serious depth on some of the different bits of history with them that I alluded to in different messages over the months/years that I've been here.

Understood... and I'm slowly doing some catchup... maybe I'll be up to date before I take off for 2 weeks away from access to Fido... ;) But
as that's the end of this week, and things are still rather crazy, we'll just have to wait and see... ;)

I had to take a little bit of time off as well. Had a little med change that hasn't been throwing me for one of my major loops, but it's made things a little bit more stressful. So basically, when I haven't been using the computer for work lately, I've been spending a lot more time disconnected. Trying to do more things with my son around here, too, since it seems like the ones outdoors have, at least in the general vicinity, all been pre-sabotaged by Loki. :) Good things to be doing though, I think.
Best wishes.

-D
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