The Adventurers of the Lucky Vale X

[Sciread77]

I mowed the lawn! It’s been raining every day until today. I tried to mow on Tuesday but it ended up raining, and it has been so high I wasn’t able to go fast. But it’s supposed to rain and thunderstorm for about the best 8 days so I set the mower on the highest setting, then mowed again on a medium setting. 
 

I also did 70 hours worth of work today. 
 

It makes no sense, but that’s the deal. 

[Ann of Owlshire]

7 hours ago, Sciread77 said:

It is, in my opinion, the most important strength for quality of life. And since I want to be able to play with and carry my tiny (and not so tiny) humans and feel healthy it’s definitely what I do! Everything else is gravy. 

 

Indeed. I also have some of the body feelings. I’m petite, but very pear shaped. I’ve learned to live with my big short arms and my big short thighs. I will never be Kate Moss no matter what I do, and that’s okay. This body has given birth, it has carried a big heavy boy (and will continue to do so as long as he lets me, although right now he doesn’t :P), it can carry the big heavy boxes that the delivery men give me disbelievingly.... it can take me walking for miles and miles and miles without complaint. That’s what I need it to do and it does it in the shape it was given.

[Sciread77]

3 hours ago, Ann of Vries said:

 

Indeed. I also have some of the body feelings. I’m petite, but very pear shaped. I’ve learned to live with my big short arms and my big short thighs. I will never be Kate Moss no matter what I do, and that’s okay. This body has given birth, it has carried a big heavy boy (and will continue to do so as long as he lets me, although right now he doesn’t :P), it can carry the big heavy boxes that the delivery men give me disbelievingly.... it can take me walking for miles and miles and miles without complaint. That’s what I need it to do and it does it in the shape it was given.

Exactly! I’m slightly above average in height with a medium build. I always cared about function but I had some body dysmorphia as well, especially during my final growing years. I made some pretty awful dietary choices and between those and the utter lack of sleep from several manic episodes I probably lost 1-2 inches in height growth (I’m tied with one uncle for shortest male in my family). 
 

My biggest body image change came when I was diagnosed with the arthritis. That’s when I shifted focus away from how I look towards how I function. I won’t say it disappeared overnight but the diagnosis came right as we were planning to start our family. I walked with a cane and feared I wouldn’t be able to even carry the baby. That fear way overshadowed the unhealthy image stuff and helped bring a new perspective. 
 

[Sciread77]

I went into public yesterday. To Home Depot so I could get a carpet machine. 
 

I did not like it. But the calculus had changed and it will likely result in me making more of the runs into the world.  

[Sciread77]

So voles have moved into our yard and are tunneling through. I’ve now seen the dachshund in action and it’s breathtaking. He’s this little 12-pound sausage dog with thunder paws. But he’ll catch a scent, dig for maybe 2 seconds, kill, and eat ANYTHING he finds under the ground. It really is shocking. Our sheltie (who now lives with my parents) killed moles and voles too. But she would bark at it for 10 minutes, dig for 10 minutes, and only then kill them. This little guy’s level of efficiency almost disconcerting lol. 
 

Only problem is it makes his breath smell really bad. And he’s a licker.

[Stronkey Kong]

11 hours ago, Sciread77 said:

So voles have moved into our yard and are tunneling through. I’ve now seen the dachshund in action and it’s breathtaking. He’s this little 12-pound sausage dog with thunder paws. But he’ll catch a scent, dig for maybe 2 seconds, kill, and eat ANYTHING he finds under the ground. It really is shocking. Our sheltie (who now lives with my parents) killed moles and voles too. But she would bark at it for 10 minutes, dig for 10 minutes, and only then kill them. This little guy’s level of efficiency almost disconcerting lol. 
 

Only problem is it makes his breath smell really bad. And he’s a licker.

 

I mean they were bred for hunting badgers. They are meant to fearlessly dig into burrows with a ferociously cranky mustelid with claws and teeth... as bait to coax them out... but that still requires... spirit?

 

Bad breath might be their one defense against the badger.

 

Licking faces is redemptive to their human overlords.

[Sciread77]

1 hour ago, Chris Tarly said:

 

I mean they were bred for hunting badgers. They are meant to fearlessly dig into burrows with a ferociously cranky mustelid with claws and teeth... as bait to coax them out... but that still requires... spirit?

 

Bad breath might be their one defense against the badger.

 

Licking faces is redemptive to their human overlords.

It’s true. This one is a miniature further bred to be smaller and to hunt the rabbits, moles, voles, and snakes. He’s ferocious. I’ve seen him kill rabbits, squirrels, birds, and now voles that have made it into the yard. Proud of the lottle
 

It’s funny how incredibly effective breeding can be when focused on health and function as opposed to cosmetics.  

Also, yes, I did just go outside and yell at a thunderstorm for being “too loud” at the request of my 2-year-old, Bo Peep. 
 

[Sciread77]

A couple of days ago, a close childhood friend of mine came out to me as trans. It was a very emotional experience for me for a number of reasons. 
 

 

 

I believe I have lamented previously about my first experience of a friend, F, doing this. I was young and ignorant, had no idea what was going on, and while I didn’t exactly even talk to that friend about it, she never trusted me to discuss it directly and tragically died of a drug overdose in our early 20s. During those times I was highly religious and involved in churches that judged “deviance” harshly. I never got WHY that was a big deal. But I also didn’t make anyone around me feel supported, or give them reason to trust me. 
 

My eyes were massively opened when I dated a girl who also liked girls in high school, and I learned that a lot of my favourite people identified as LGBTQ but were afraid to tell me because of my strong religious associations and the fact that I probably came off more judging than loving. Worse, I was strongly judgmental about drug use; not that I am hugely supportive of that in and of itself, but that was, in my mind, why F and and grew apart. It still kills me a little to think that she died feeling alone and unloved. I think about it a lot on bad days. 
 

I know you don’t have to necessarily atone for such mistakes, and in any case there’s no long anything I can do to help F. But I HAVE vowed to never make that mistake again, and indeed work hard to love and support my friends and anyone I meet. Thus far, it has meant a lot of support for Jessie’s students and more peripheral acquaintances or coworkers. 

Quite recently, during the lockdown, my friend J had an epiphany. It’s mostly been secret thus far and is quite in the infancy. Her wife is supportive and I’m the first of the childhood friends that she entrusted with this knowledge. It really makes sense, and comes as no real surprise to me even if I wasn’t necessarily expecting it. I’m excited for her, proud of her, and 100% here to support in any way I can. It’s kinda cool, too, because during our talks she gave me permission to ask questions I normally wouldn’t since she knows me and doesn’t mind sharing her thoughts and feelings. And understands she can always tell me to shove it lol. The fact that she trusts me like this makes me feel like I have grown in a real and tangible way. And in a way, part of me feels released from about 15 years of guilt and second-guessing myself. 
 

Not gonna lie, though. Part of me is also really a caress and really wants to fight. It’s fuel to the fire. There’s been so much more violence towards the trans community. This is a person I care deeply about and who I’ve already almost lost to cancer. I was best man at the wedding. The thought of her being exposed to that is enraging and terrifying. 


When we were kids and in Boy Scouts, she was an almost constant victim of the older kids. Nobody really messed with me directly, and they avoided doing things in front of me (I know where Woody gets his overdeveloped sense of justice) but they relentlessly harassed her and focused on her femininity. Kids at school did the same thing to the point that her parents sent her to another school. So that part of me is primed for a fight.
 

Yeah, she always had an ego and a talent for needling people. But that was a different level than the generalized “you aren’t one of us” bullying she experienced. 
 

That’s enough of that for now. It’s cathartic and ultimately I’m excited. 

 

 

 

I’m coming down off of caffeine. So I’m also a more emotional and irritable as well as tired. But one can’t go on 10+ cups of regular coffee forever. 
 

Yesterday was largely shot. My work laptop cord died and I had to go into the office to get a new one. I originally was gonna grab my docking port and monitors while up there and just use that, but the docking port was dead too. So I got a whole new setup. I’m more efficient at home now but it took 3/4 of my day filling out paperwork and transporting it back. I screwed up some setting so the docking port doesn’t charge but at least I can work with my big dual monitors now and that will help substantially. 
 

I’ve been greasing the groove with pushups and pull-ups lately. I’d otherwise plateaued from training so I’m pulling back and only doing what is easy several times a day. It’s convenient since I have a pull-up bar across the room. I started last week with 1-2 at a time feeling easy and now 3 are feeling easy. I’m going to do this for a while and hopefully break through the plateau. Then I’m going to do a push-pull workout combined with a simple lower body workout. And since our new people at work are about to be officially added to the team on a full basis, I should have more time and be less overwhelmed. 
 

I really want to get past the body weight plateau I hit. I’m still sitting toward the bottom of my goals. I’m officially not going for that job anymore, in no small part due to COVID-19 screwing up my timing and the fact that I’m not going to leave my family for several months while I go get exposed living in close quarters for training and then relocate, all leaving Jessie to handle almost 100% of the relocating and childcare during a pandemic. But I was motivated by it like nothing else. I’m not going to train exclusively for it, and will probably drop the situps entirely except as a general fitness test, but I do want to use it as a bar of sorts and I want to be able to do well on it. That’ll include continuing to run as well. 
 

I haven’t pulled together the overall look of my program yet but I’m thinking that I’ll return to trimming training with sprints and a focus on running 2 mile races as well as adding perhaps some yoga. My long time freezing up has reversed with being more active but I need more focused increases to my flexibility. I was never super limber but I wasn’t bad as a wrestling coach and at least didn’t feel like regular movements would break me. 

[Snarkyfishguts]

On 5/24/2020 at 10:16 PM, Sciread77 said:

It’s true. This one is a miniature further bred to be smaller and to hunt the rabbits, moles, voles, and snakes. He’s ferocious. I’ve seen him kill rabbits, squirrels, birds, and now voles that have made it into the yard. Proud of the lottle
 

It’s funny how incredibly effective breeding can be when focused on health and function as opposed to cosmetics.  

Also, yes, I did just go outside and yell at a thunderstorm for being “too loud” at the request of my 2-year-old, Bo Peep. 
 

I need a daschund. So many chipmunks. Lol

[Sciread77]

4 minutes ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

I need a daschund. So many chipmunks. Lol

My Daschund just heard “snacks” right there 

[Sciread77]

I spent the first hour of my day drinking coffee, snuggling my Daschund boy, and posting in here. It was a good start. 
 

I have my full desk setup from work and it has made things so very much better. I’m still stressed as all gets out but apparently the new people (about 30% of our team) didn’t really get trained and haven’t been working much all this time? Not their fault of course since they’re the new ones but, management, what gives? The rest of us have been drowning and we couldn’t spare someone from management or redivide work for an experienced person to do the training? It’s a 2-week training and on boarding program. These people all joined between January and February. I know other stuff has been going on but jeez. 
 

I applied for a part-time adjunct professor position or two last night. I don’t really want to work MORE, but I need a change. (See a trend?) I miss teaching. Teaching and interacting with students would be a great change of pace. Even if online. 

[Sciread77]

So turns out my parents have been taking some unnecessary health risks. Which is frustrating because they’ve possibly been exposed, and they see my sister and her family all the time. So suddenly, they can’t come over for Woody’s birthday party, an  outdoor deal we were going to make similar to Rex’s party with the parade and some cake for close family. Only much more socially distanced because we were anxious for two weeks after that. Which only happened because everyone had seriously limited possible exposures. I’d probably be less upset if this wasn’t 1. Right after the gigantic stupid party in the Ozarks and 2. Something I had to find out because her (also not socially distancing or mask-wearing) friend posted pictures of the activities on Facebook. I mean, doesn’t really help the trust in the relationship when she swears up and down she’s following protocols and gets on others when they don’t and then you see this. 
 

Mostly I hope Woody isn’t super upset about yet another thing COVID-19 ruined. He was super sad today because he can’t see his classmates and though during the last bit of school he enjoyed the zoom meetings, he said they were stupid and he missed his friends today. Poor guy. It’s a lot for a not-quite-7 year old to swallow. 
 

On a positive note, we played some DND last night. Woody loves it. I’m doing a short precursor to the 5E intro box, the Lost Mines of Phandelever, which we started a year and a half ago but stalled because his godfather moved an hour away. We’re going to restart it with Rex. I’m not sure if I’m DMing or Jessie. Doesn’t really matter. I enjoy DMing and playing. Last night I introduced him to my elven wizard. It’s been a long time since I’ve played an elf and I’ve never played a wizard, not a once, in all my years of DnDing. I love dwarves. There’s just something about them that draws me (though it isn’t their generally lawful nature!)

 

We painted most of the deck today. It is an arduous task in the hot sun, but needed to be done. The steps still need to be painted as well as a bit of the railing but I think we can get it done before the heat of the day tomorrow. I’m the only one who didn’t get some kind of sunburn so we gotta be careful. 
 

Oh, and while we were painting my phone fell in the paint. When I took the cover off, turns out the phone was shattered. It still works but it’s been dropping calls like no other for a while and I bet that it’s been damaged. So we’re probably going to get a new phone for me very soon. I was hoping to hang onto this one longer but I’m not excited about those glass shards. 

[Sciread77]

My madre and I had The Talk. She said she regretted it after the fact and realized it was very dangerous. She’s grounded from social events and once she starts going again she is only allowed to go with a chaperone (my padre) who will ruthlessly enforce social distancing protocols. 
 

Also, she agreed to respond better to texts and phone calls. 
 

Sometimes, getting older is WEIRD. 

[Sciread77]

In other news, Rex officially made his DND character today. Finally. He’s a blue Dragonborn Barbarian with skills leaning awfully hard towards Druid multiclassing. He has two hand axes and leather clothes (but not actual armor because he’s a barbarian).

 

So we’ve got a human fighter, an elven wizard, and a Dragonborn barbarian. This is gonna be interesting. 

[Sciread77]

It’s been a rough few days. My heart aches. I feel a mixture of hope and fear. I’m not on the front lines of anything. It’s still foolish for me to go into public at all. I wish I knew how to do something to fix things. 
 

That’s both the advantage and disadvantage of homesteading, I guess. It’s great to increase independence from the world but I don’t want to be totally isolated, either. And I feel a duty to help in some way given people I care about are out there in numerous capacities. 
 

 

 

[Sciread77]

So I’m feeling pretty bummed today about the job I was training for. 1. Something went very wrong the day of. 2. I am more than just a little  able to hit the PT points needed now. 3. It’s basically too late because due to a combination of COVID-19, the backlog on the mental health examinations, and the fact that I’ll age out this year means I had one shot in March and even then I still might have timed out. 
 

That isn’t to say this wasn’t for the best. If I’d passed in March there’s a good chance I’d be in the middle of the half a year of training right now, leaving Jessie alone with the kids to prepare our house for sale and to get ready to move who knows where during the worst pandemic in a century. Plus me being a high risk case. I’d be utterly freaking out. 
 

But it’s still hard to think about not passing in March, especially since it was a job I’ve wanted for many years and the pandemic sort of wiped out everything else I had on the back burner in case it didn’t go through. It was a job where I could have made a difference and that I’ve acquired years of experience preparing for. I wish I could do it here without having to move. I wish I could do something similar. It is the sort of thing that I could use to have a seriously positive effect on the turmoil in our country, although it would likely be frustrating right now too. 
 

I’m just talking through a whole boxcar of emotions that have been building. On one hand, I’d like to have my own homestead, be self sufficient, and left alone. On the other hand, I want to live a meaningful life and leave the world a better place than I found it, or at least have a positive effect. I mean, if I’m going to have a job that makes me feel dead inside, it’d at least be nice to be compensated in a way that letS us actually get ahead. 
 

I’m feeling disappointed in a way I’m not sure I ever felt. I’m still moving on and focusing my efforts. But I don’t want to ignore these feelings and end up with a midlife crisis in a few years, either. 

 

[Lara]

I'm really sorry about the job.

I'm not sure I understood everything: is it impossible for you to apply again later? When you say you'll "age out" this year, that means you can no longer apply to it because of your age? (it's the first time I hear that expression).

[Sciread77]

4 hours ago, zenLara said:

I'm really sorry about the job.

I'm not sure I understood everything: is it impossible for you to apply again later? When you say you'll "age out" this year, that means you can no longer apply to it because of your age? (it's the first time I hear that expression).

Thanks.

 

Yeah, there is an upper age limit for starting that particular kind of career, as well as forced retirement. You can technically get some extra time by being a veteran (I’m not) or already working for them in a different capacity (I don’t, and we couldn’t financially swing one of the other entry level jobs). Which leaves me where I am today. 
 

The good news on that front is that I thought of some ways to apply my skills and maybe take some things in a similar but different direction. We’ll see, I suppose. I have a need to do work that is challenging in more than just the slog of volume. 
 

Another job that was on hold was cancelled yesterday. The manager called me to apologize. 
 

Bo Peep hasn’t been falling asleep until about 10:30 for the last several nights. I’m increasingly tired and I worry that I’m too cranky. 
 

Bleck. Let’s talk about what is going right. The last two days we’ve had some of our blueberries and strawberries start to produce. The strawberries are pretty tiny, but that’s probably the species. They are by far the best strawberries I’ve ever eaten. It was difficult to harvest them, though, because Bo Peep helped and she took a bite out of roughly half of them lol. 
 

Today we’re doing more garden work. We have to get tomato cages, more deer netting, soil, and mulch to finish up soon as well as something to combat the aphids that started attacking our peppers and other plants. 
 

On the physical side of things, I’m doing a push-pull body weight workout for the upper body. This consists of various pull ups and chin ups as well as various pushups. Day one I do the goal number (currently 26 pull-ups and 150 push-ups) in as few sets as possible, day two I do the same number spread out over the course of a day, and day three I rest. Sometimes I’ll add a day 4 of rest depending on how I feel. On the Lower body side I am working on mobility. Deep squats and Alfredson Protocol negative calf raises with my knee straight, at 45 degrees, and at 90 degrees. I’m definitely seeing progress. The deep squat is now something I can do without holding onto a wall again. Pull-ups I haven’t changed my max (it’s still at 5) but instead of being basically done I can do another 5 after a minute of rest. I haven’t really gone and done a push up test in a while but I feel pretty good about them. 

 

[Sciread77]

So, in the meeting yesterday it turns out that they finally ran the numbers and, like I expected and voiced, my team was doing at least twice the work that the other teams were doing due to our international responsibilities. And within my group, myself and one other person accounted for more than half the actual accomplished work. 
 

Story of my life. 
 

The good news is that they have acknowledged this at multiple levels of management and are now, finally, actually taking steps to fix it. I still have a massive backlog of less time critical work, but I should be able to muscle my way through it in the next couple of weeks and then go back to more of the life I had back in January, only at home. 

Our strawberries are disappearing. On a completely unrelated note, 2-year-old Bo Peep has figured out how to climb over the fence leading to the bushes. And had some sort of strange red substance on her hands and mouth. And wasn’t hungry for lunch lol. 
 

We bought 9 tomato cages and need 6 more. We had an aphid invasion and they were killing our pepper plants. I’ve been painstakingly removing them by hand every day and the peppers are recovering. I have some cedar mulch to put down tonight too, to help keep them away. 
 

We finally have most of the stuff we need to plant our watermelon, broccoli, spinach, and pumpkin patch. Some is late and may not work but it’s been crazy. We’ll see how it goes. I need more deer netting but we should have everything in the ground by this weekend. Half of it is started in our kitchen already, too. I’m really excited to have our own pumpkin patch this year. 
 

 

[Stronkey Kong]

6 hours ago, Sciread77 said:

 

Our strawberries are disappearing. On a completely unrelated note, 2-year-old Bo Peep has figured out how to climb over the fence leading to the bushes. And had some sort of strange red substance on her hands and mouth. And wasn’t hungry for lunch lol. 
 

 

 

Oh no!

 

But I guess it's exciting to see kids grow up and gain new physical abilities. But, red substance, loss of appetite... maybe a trip to the pediatrician is needed. XD 

[Ann of Owlshire]

I love your garden updates!

[Sciread77]

5 hours ago, Chris Tarly said:

 

Oh no!

 

But I guess it's exciting to see kids grow up and gain new physical abilities. But, red substance, loss of appetite... maybe a trip to the pediatrician is needed. XD 

Lol. She is constantly gaining new physical abilities. I love how much trouble she’ll go through to steal fruits and vegetables. 
 

I’m kinda dying here though. She was up until 12:15 am just chattering away. Loudly talking to and for her dolls and action figures and cars that she’s collected in her bed. Super cute but exhausting lol. 
 

1 hour ago, Ann of Vries said:

I love your garden updates!

 

Thanks! I think I owe you some pictures. Especially since we’re adding our last garden areas this weekend (barring calamity). I love making the garden updates.  Gardening has been terribly therapeutic for me over the last 3 months especially!

 

I’m a bit worried about one of my cherry trees. The deer really went to town on it and it’s been slow to recover. I’m also getting Apple rust fungus on the Apple trees, which is probably also being hosted by the next door neighbor’s large juniper tree about 8 meters from my tree line. They’ve been trying to establish an Apple tree or two for years and have been having a hard time of it, and that may be why. I’m going to mention it to them. I don’t really want to use pesticides if I can avoid it but I’m getting some copper sulfate for that and the white powdery mildew that is killing my middle holly bush/tree in the front. I don’t want to just let my plants die or weaken unnecessary. 
 

Only found a single aphid yesterday in the garden. So manual removal and the cedar mulch seem to be working. 
 

 

 

[Ann of Owlshire]

3 hours ago, Sciread77 said:

Lol. She is constantly gaining new physical abilities. I love how much trouble she’ll go through to steal fruits and vegetables. 

 

I’m sure it’ll probably annoy me when it actually happens, but the idea of having a garden/berry patch that Enting recognizes the plants and grazes on while he’s out playing has been one of my fantasies of having a small holding again. (But he better save some for us!)

 

My sympathies on the late toddler nights, I am quite currently and intimately familiar with them. 

 

 

[Sciread77]

1 hour ago, Ann of Vries said:

 

I’m sure it’ll probably annoy me when it actually happens, but the idea of having a garden/berry patch that Enting recognizes the plants and grazes on while he’s out playing has been one of my fantasies of having a small holding again. (But he better save some for us!)

 

 

It’s super cute. She’s getting all of them right now but once the fruit harvest matures it won’t be any kind of problem. We planted with this (and our kids inviting neighbor kids over for a snack) in mind. 

 

1 hour ago, Ann of Vries said:

My sympathies on the late toddler nights, I am quite currently and intimately familiar with them. 

 

 

 

She’d been going to sleep between 7:30 and 8 pm like clockwork and then about a week ago she’s suddenly up all night! Things can change so quickly with the little ones. 

[Ann of Owlshire]

15 minutes ago, Sciread77 said:

She’d been going to sleep between 7:30 and 8 pm like clockwork and then about a week ago she’s suddenly up all night! Things can change so quickly with the little ones. 

 

Does she still nap? Our conclusion has been that Enting is in dropping his nap transition. If he naps, he’ll be up late (13 hours + nap length from wake-up). If he doesn’t nap, he’s usually down approx 13 hours after wake up. We don’t force it one way or another and it switches every 2-3 days (naps 2-3 days, doesn’t nap 2-3 days), but it’s helped us learn what to expect.