[juliebarkley]

On 1/11/2023 at 1:44 AM, Scaly Freak said:

Illusion knitting makes me almost want to take up knitting as a hobby. That's awesome.

You can do many fun tricks with knitting. The only downside with illusion knitting is that you are bound to your pattern PDF. There are no repeats to memorize.

 

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Bashed away a little at the backup system. I have a good feel for how it should work, what it's trying to do, and how my systems are interacting with it. There is one last thing to try before calling this a defeat, but I won't get to do that until Tuesday. So this project is on hiatus until then.

 

My other one-time thing was to put a solid bottom in my shopping trolley using an old cardboard box. The bottom was not rigid at all, and it was a pain. Anything irregularly shaped (which is everything) would push between the bars of the frame and cause the fabric to sag. This pulls the Velcro off the frame, making it sag more, to the point where it can drag on the ground. Not good. I shall test this new improved version out tomorrow when I go shopping. Then I will know if I need to permanently sew the Velcro closed to prevent it coming undone when it shouldn't.

[juliebarkley]

I will need to put an extender of sorts on the velcro portion of the shopping trolley, probably with a button attachment of some kind. It simply does not appear long enough to stay done up while the bottom rests on the frame, and will keep coming undone until modified. But the newly installed bottom works well!

 

Today was an adventure with a very new driver. We were going to visit a new board game cafe in a nearby town we had never visited before, so the roads were unfamiliar. On the way down, we hit a VERY sharp turn that was completely unmarked, and both almost skidded out and almost missed failed to stop before the intersection right after it. On the way back, we got to navigate in freezing rain with only one headlight (and that on the passenger side) on roads with no streetlights. (At least everyone else was going slow too.) Trial by fire for the poor learner driver, who got us both home in one piece.

 

My one-time task was finally mailing a package back to a company, which is also the last step to unsubscribing from their service. It had been waiting on one piece of information, which I finally tracked down. (Turns out it was on the mailing label on the outside of the box, rather than in the regular documentation. 🤦‍♀️) Glad to have that over and done!

[Mistr]

Your scarf is amazing!

 

That must have taken a lot of attention and record keeping. You cannot tell where you are in the pattern just by looking at what you have already knit.

 

I am glad that you and your young driver got home safely. That sounds like a scary trip both directions.

[juliebarkley]

10 hours ago, Mistr said:

Your scarf is amazing!

 

That must have taken a lot of attention and record keeping. You cannot tell where you are in the pattern just by looking at what you have already knit.

 

I am glad that you and your young driver got home safely. That sounds like a scary trip both directions.

It is a gift, so I hope the recipient thinks so, too!

 

Neither actually. I left the PDF open on my computer and used the Dock as a cutoff point. The stripe above that was the active stripe. Then scroll up to the next one. Also made my internet window a little shorter than usual, so that if it was on top, only those two lines of the chart were visible. It worked very well. I only had one instance where I the chart must have been moved by mistake. And you are right, illusion knitting is really challenging to look at when you need to figure out where you are in the pattern.

 

Indeed it was.

 

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About all I did for one-time actions today was unsubscribe from some email lists and YouTube subscriptions. I have an idea for another thing, but it needs one of those plugs that can be programmed to turn on and off at specific times, and I do not own one of those (yet...). I need to do a little research, I think.

[juliebarkley]

It was a busy day and I got a lot done, but unfortunately none of the things I got done were one-time tasks. I did, however, come up with a bunch of them for future days and jot them down. But otherwise there is not much to report for today.

[juliebarkley]

My one-time task for the day was to make an asset allocation. I had made this out to be a big complicated thing in my head. But I've read a LOT of personal finance stuff over the years, so I knew what I wanted when I saw it. It was really more of a quick google, a "yes, that sounds about like what I want - oh wait, I'll tweak it to add that", and done. Picking out the stuff to fill it will take longer, but I can now move on to the execution stage because I HAVE A PLAN, and that feels good.

 

Feeling surprisingly energetic for it being midnight, so I shall be working on my todo list and trying to get rid of more items as well.

[Jean]

Man, I love execution stage. Congrats on getting on on your plan.

 

Edit: also, in case it matters, asset allocations and investing are meant to be simple (but not necessarily easy). Don't let any investing guru tell you otherwise.

[juliebarkley]

7 hours ago, Jean said:

Man, I love execution stage. Congrats on getting on on your plan.

 

Edit: also, in case it matters, asset allocations and investing are meant to be simple (but not necessarily easy). Don't let any investing guru tell you otherwise.

The execution stage is fun, but the analysis paralysis can be a killer, especially if you are the kind of person who enjoys information-gathering a little too much. I'm going to build an elaborate system for selecting and evaluating things at some point, and I'll have great fun doing it. But I've wasted enough time on that sort of thing in the past and then left money sitting, so first I need to pick out good-enough things that fit my plan, make it happen, and have my fun later.

 

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My one-time task today solves a regular source of annoyance, so I am quite pleased with it.

 

My cat spends nearly all of her time in my bedroom. Due to noise from other parts of the house, I try to keep the door as closed as I can. The cat will demand to be in (or out) the second the door is closed, so it has to be kept slightly ajar. But what with people walking past, air pressure from the heating system, and just general movement, the door sometimes wanders into a not-latched, but not-open-enough-that-the-cat-can-operate-it position. When this happens, she will try to scratch the carpet next to the door instead of pawing at the door (said carpet is in a sorry state), and then I have to go and rescue her. Day or night. It's annoying.

 

So today, I researched the problem, and I found two possible things to try. The first suggestion, foam children's finger guards like this, would work, but if I could do it without spending any money, even better. The second suggestion was to put a small piece of foam on the hinge side of the frame, so that it could still be closed if need be, but would provide enough resistance that it would stay slightly open, and be almost invisible to boot. Perfect! I couldn't find any appropriate foam (they suggesting carpet underlay; I thought a makeup sponge would be perfect), but I had some knitting sample squares from when I was learning to knit that are just the right size. And it works! I didn't even need to pin it up; just tucked it into the gap at floor level and I don't think it's going anywhere. The cat will be a happy camper. And so will I, since I no longer have to worry about getting up in the night to let her out.

[juliebarkley]

Was boring today and my only one-time action was to unsub from a few more email lists.

[juliebarkley]

It's been a crappy day and I'm just plain worn out. Moved money. It's all I had the energy for.

[juliebarkley]

Unsubbed some more things, set up a weekly work schedule (don't want to count that as my one-time thing because it might not take, but I hope it does), and now I'm going to sit down and sew some bags to hold small items - a project that is very boring but much needed.

[juliebarkley]

Not a lot accomplished today. I may try to knock out something small, fast, and easy. But I do have kind of a funny story.

 

My son dropped by to pick me up from work today. He came into the library very briefly, about two minutes before closing - right about when we try to hide our "get OUT!" faces from customers. He poked around a bit, left right at closing, and I joined him outside once the closing procedures were done. It was snowing a bit and he's a new driver, so I tried not to distract him as we left.

 

A few minutes into the trip, we heard a chirp/squeaking noise. At first I thought it was my phone (I have an alarm that sounds like a bird chirping), but it kept coming back. It was hard to hear clearly over the music, but we figured there had to be a mouse in the car, probably in the glove compartment. I prepared not to flinch should the mouse run over my feet at this point. I pull out my phone and try to turn on the flashlight but fail. (We had a "flashlight" talk when we got home. 😅) He started telling me to open the glove compartment, and I argue back that if I can't see into it there's no point, it'll let the mouse get out into the main car, and anyway we should be on the side of the road to shoo it out if that's what we're doing ... when he realizes. The squeak. He can control it. It is from his wet shoe on the gas pedal. 😄

[DoubleTrouble]

That scarf is so cool

Briliiant solution to the door problem

[juliebarkley]

12 hours ago, DoubleTrouble said:

That scarf is so cool

Briliiant solution to the door problem

I think the recipient thought so too.

 

It's working really well. Definitely recommend if you have cats that don't let you close doors.

 

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My one-time action today was to order some smart plugs. I have a little indoor fountain that I got for Christmas (to help out with a habit, actually), and I keep forgetting to plug it in when I wake up, or unplug it when I go to bed. I would like to pass this remembering off to an electronic pet plug. We have a lamp downstairs that often gets left on too, and I'm sure there will be other use cases, so I got four.

 

Below the spoiler I complain about my shoulder.

Spoiler

I booked an appointment for my shoulder (and some other things) early in this challenge, but it is a three week wait for appointments these days and the waiting is starting to get to me. I believe that whatever I've done to the tendons/connective bits in the shoulder has started interacting (more) with my cubital nerve, which I've had problems with in the past. I'm also getting frequent throbbing when I do nothing, mostly in the upper arm but sometimes in the elbow or even the wrist. My range of motion seems to be shrinking too. And I'm having more bad nights where I spend significant time trying and often failing to find a pain-free position, which means I wake up not only underslept but with everything already irritated and easier than usual to injure.

 

But the part that I'm finding the hardest is the anxiety about it. I don't know if I'm making it worse when it hurts, so I try hard to avoid making it hurt not just to avoid pain, but to avoid further damage. Trouble is, there are a lot of things that can trigger it, sometimes the things that cause pain can be unpredictable, and it feels like it's more and more things every day. (Today, reaching forward slightly to type a password was enough. ) So I am spending a lot of mental energy monitoring all of my motions, trying to anticipate and correct what could cause pain so that I don't possibly do myself permanent damage. It's. Exhausting.

 

I also really miss exercise. Somehow I can still do pushups, so I've kept up that habit, but I feel very limited. Anything that might involve an arm movement that's not controlled and intentional, such as correcting my balance or bouncing, is right out and has been for quite a while. I can't reach over my head, behind my back, inward and down, can't get to the very end range of full extension if there's any weight there. I don't think I can even trust a basic reaching forward motion. Really hoping physio (I am assuming that I will need it) will help me recover my normal range. If nothing else, it's getting hard to put on and take off upper body clothing, and that's no fun.

 

[juliebarkley]

It was my birthday today, so I was lazy and mostly just played games all day.

 

I did attempt to get my backup system working with my borrowed USB hub, but alas. I think I will need to purchase a new Airport-Extreme equivalent thing and hope that that will work. I also did some small unsubscribe things, and those small unsubscribe things I've been doing on the less exciting days are now noticeably adding up.

 

Need to get back on the short story wagon. The last author needed file transfers, and because I had left the drive they were on near the cursed backup system, I had avoided going into that area, noticing it, and being reminded. I have it now, so back to reading!

[juliebarkley]

I was woken up much earlier than I wanted to be by phone calls from the public health unit. My son had been turned away from his school vaccinations because the new township we live in didn't have the necessary records. Since he was homeschooled, he had gotten all of his immunizations done at the doctor's, and they were never automatically entered into the system. If they gave me little papers as a record, I lost them long ago. I had tried to get the records from the doctor before the clinic came to the school, but the receptionist was dismissive and pawned me off to a website with no info (the receptionists at my doctor are consistently rude). However, this phone call was much more productive - the doctor had faxed her a record of the shots within a day or two of her request, and she just needed to know why there were no records from before he was five. Since that was while we were living abroad and I actually had those records, I promised to take a picture of them and email them back. And I did. Eventually.

 

The book they were recorded in was not where I had expected, and I went through all of my piles of paper in an effort to find it. In fact, I went through most of my piles, and my filed items, twice or more. And this reinforced how frickin' much paper I have in useless piles, how I do not want these piles, and how I will have these piles forever unless I do something about them. So I spent a couple of hours sorting. Sent a little pile off to the recycling, filed some, and set a few as things to check tomorrow. It's a dent, anyway. And since this is a task I hate doing, so my brain will try to convince me on every single paper that thinking about this is too hard and I should do this some other time, I'm trying to celebrate what I did rather than look at what's left to do.

[KB Girl]

Happy birthday Julie! 

 

Sorry I'm so late replying to this, but that scarf you made is amazing! Is it the same inscriptions as the one ring? 

[Mistr]

Happy Birthday!

 

Good for you on going through old papers and dealing with filing and recycling some of them. I have piles like that too.

 

Spoiler

I hope your physio gives you treatments and exercises that make your shoulder feel better and start healing. Limited mobility and pain are awful.

 

[juliebarkley]

8 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Happy birthday Julie! 

 

Sorry I'm so late replying to this, but that scarf you made is amazing! Is it the same inscriptions as the one ring? 

Thanks! It's the first half of the inscription on the One Ring: "One Ring to rule them all; One Ring to find them". I saw one (non-illusion) scarf with the entire verse, but it was done in fingering weight yarn and was still like seven feet long (and double-knit too!), and that was just way more commitment than I was willing to take on to get all of the verses.

 

7 hours ago, Mistr said:

Happy Birthday!

 

Good for you on going through old papers and dealing with filing and recycling some of them. I have piles like that too.

Thanks!

 

They need to die. But I keep adding things to them. I added a couple of folders out of my file box when I was searching through it, when I realized I didn't need easy access to those files and might not need them at all. I'm hoping the trend is in the right direction though.

 

7 hours ago, Mistr said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I hope your physio gives you treatments and exercises that make your shoulder feel better and start healing. Limited mobility and pain are awful.

 

 

Spoiler

I hope so too, because you are correct - they really do suck. The pain has been less the last couple of days, so that has been a blessing.

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I did not do a one-time task today. Instead, I reconnected with my volunteer organization. I had two conversations with lovely people who mostly just needed someone to listen to them and believe them. I'm so glad that I was able to provide that for them. I literally still have tears in my eyes. It was absolutely worth it.

[juliebarkley]

One-time task involved moving more money today. This is such a slow process when you have to work within the daily transfer limits and don't remember to do it every day. Still a few more to do, but the end is in sight.

 

Otherwise, it was a weird up-and-down day.

 

On the up, we got a delivery at work of a large red package that was approximately a four foot cube. We were expecting this package, but didn't know it would be so big and frankly, fabulous. Inside was a giant Dog Man costume just like this one:

SO COOL. Scholastic really came through for us. So I got to dress up my coworker, and we both surprised my boss on her arrival. This was great fun. And I learned some cool history facts while making a Black History Month display too. So I was pretty happy when I left work.

 

I left work into a freaking blizzard though. Took forever to get home, visibility was garbage. It was pretty scary. Then, as soon as I got home, I found out some news that made me sad, and angry, and frustrated, and other feels as I tried to make sense of it. I've never written a person off and purposely cut them out of any future contact or role in my life. I am struggling with this, but I feel like that's my only option now.

 

So yeah. It's been a bit of a weird day.

[Mistr]

My sympathy on the emotional roller-coaster day.

 

It is always difficult when someone does things that show they are a serious problem to others. More so when it is someone you care about. Sadly, there are times when the best course of action is to Stay Away. If they do not want to change, all you can do is limit the potential damage to yourself.

[juliebarkley]

12 hours ago, Mistr said:

My sympathy on the emotional roller-coaster day.

 

It is always difficult when someone does things that show they are a serious problem to others. More so when it is someone you care about. Sadly, there are times when the best course of action is to Stay Away. If they do not want to change, all you can do is limit the potential damage to yourself.

Thanks. It's a sad situation on many levels and your description isn't a great match to its realities, but I appreciate the support and sentiment behind it. Seeking, or accepting, contact with this person would absolutely be the wrong choice for me.

 

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I will be doing a bunch of small one-time tasks - getting rid of a a paper or two, reconnecting some devices to wifi, finishing up (hopefully!) the pouches I was making. (I don't sew much. This project has been like a weird bit of floppy origami.) And steeling myself up for my task tomorrow, where I have to make phone calls. Not looking forward to it, but I will be happy when it is over!

[Scaly Freak]

9 minutes ago, juliebarkley said:

Thanks. It's a sad situation on many levels and your description isn't a great match to its realities, but I appreciate the support and sentiment behind it. Seeking, or accepting, contact with this person would absolutely be the wrong choice for me.

 

Meaning you need to make the right choice, no matter how painful or complicated that might be. Which probably sucks, because no matter how right, or how wise, it's never easy.

[juliebarkley]

23 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

Meaning you need to make the right choice, no matter how painful or complicated that might be. Which probably sucks, because no matter how right, or how wise, it's never easy.

Yeah. I can understand someone making the opposite decision. I just know myself well enough to know I shouldn't.

 

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As mentioned yesterday, my one-time task was to make a phone call that I have been putting off for easily over a year now. It was not at all as bad as I had mentally made it out to be (of course). Didn't even spend any time on hold. And I was very pleased with the price of Skype international calling - 25 minutes on the phone cost me all of 87 cents. So that's the first step of that project done. I think I'll need to make another international call before I'm done, but that seems less scary now that I know how to do it.

 

I was on a bit of a high after that, so I tackled the pile of papers again. Made decisions about some that had been around for more than 15 years, almost always to the recycling. Quite happy to see the last of some of them, as they weren't just filing or similar but things I had considered chasing up. It felt good to say no, let them go, and free up that little bit of brain space they filled with "someday I should".

[juliebarkley]

Just little things. A couple of papers to the recycle. Set up my new smart plug, which arrived today. Got my less-used devices connected to the internet. Oh, and on one, troubleshooted serious problems so I could use it for business again. That took almost three hours, so I guess it was a biggish thing that makes things permanently better. Well, there you go. That's my thing for the day. It sure did feel good (and was a relief!) to get it working again.