[Artemis Prime]

I'm sorry. It is frustrating when projects do not go as planned.

[sylph]

I FIXED IT!!

Woo! I was up way later than I should have been yesterday, but with some creative and judicious seam ripping, replacement of one pattern piece, and some re-thinking of techniques, I salvaged it! I have one more piece to attach today and it will be done when we leave for the thing this afternoon. It is not 100% perfect, but it's damn close and will be more than wearable.

 

I am so relieved.

[Artemis Prime]

Nicely done!

[Cheetah]

On 10/3/2024 at 8:39 AM, sylph said:

Woo! I

Yay!  Good work!

[Mad Hatter]

On 10/3/2024 at 2:39 PM, sylph said:

I am so relieved.

I bet! Congrats on finishing the project!

 

But, ahem, where are the gym updates?

[sylph]

Thanks for asking!

 

 

Gym updates have been supplanted by hurricane nonsense, con crud, and whatever other things have been occupying 100% of my bandwidth.

Mostly, this challenge has been a bust.

We will try again next time.

[Laghail]

56 minutes ago, sylph said:

Gym updates have been supplanted by hurricane nonsense, con crud, and whatever other things have been occupying 100% of my bandwidth.

Mostly, this challenge has been a bust.

We will try again next time.

 

Is it a bust or was it commandeered into hurricane survival efforts?

[sylph]

58 minutes ago, Laghail said:

 

Is it a bust or was it commandeered into hurricane survival efforts?

It was busted pre-hurricane(s) but Helene and now Milton smashed it into irreparable pieces. So, both?

 

 

On the plus side, Milton seems to be slightly  less gnarly for my area.

I'm feeling for Sarasota, right now, though. They are going to get some ridiculous surge.

[Snarkyfishguts]

Glad you are safe! Do stay safe ?

[Mad Hatter]

13 hours ago, sylph said:

Thanks for asking!

 

 

Gym updates have been supplanted by hurricane nonsense, con crud, and whatever other things have been occupying 100% of my bandwidth.

Mostly, this challenge has been a bust.

We will try again next time.

Booo stupid hurricanes getting in the way of challenges. ? 

 

But I wouldn't say it's been a bust, you did really well with the gym for the first few weeks before life got in the way!

[sylph]

So, Milton was ENTIRELY gnarly.

 

But, we are safe.

Cats are safe

House is essentially fine

 

More updates once basic utilities are restored.

[Artemis Prime]

Thank you for the update. Glad you are safe.

[sylph]

We now have power

We now have water (though on a boil water notice for a few more days)

We do not have internet (despite Spectrum telling us we do) but Verizon is giving unlimited data for the next couple weeks so phone-as-a-hotspot means we can access the outside world.

 

My parents also have their power back and they came through unscathed.

 

The last couple days have been day-long exercises in debris removal. Our neighbors also had a tree come down so between us, we're doing a lot of chainsawing and hauling and trimming and toting and heaving. They are good neighbors and we are happy to help them and also grateful for their help.

 

The main trunks of their down tree and ours are basically all that's left to remove.

We lost half a dozen screens off the lanai and it'll be a few weeks before our screen guy can get to us (since EVERYONE has screens out).

 

 

Today is my birthday. Things could be worse.

[Artemis Prime]

Happy Birthday! I am glad that you have power and water and data and good, helpful neighbors and that your parents are unscathed. All in all, very good news.

[sylph]

The last three days have been non-stop.

From waiting out the (very) long storm, to power outage, to boil water notice, to no internet service (that one's still ongoing)

And all the physical work afterward--clearing debris, raking twigs and leaves, hacking up branches and limbs and actual trees

Scrambling for service providers and vendors to do the things that we can't

Updating those that care about us

Getting updates from family also affected

 

 

I woke up this morning hours before sunrise, with my brain already racing to plan decide which crisis to manage or phone calls to make...and then I realized there weren't any.

There are still flooded areas, washed away roads, and a multitude of people without power in my area and across the state.

But those are not my responsibility.

 

Now we wait. We breathe. We try to support those that need it.

 

 

The Gulf and Atlantic are currently, blessedly, calm. Would that they stay that way through the end of the season.

A cold front is coming.

[Snarkyfishguts]

Oh! HAPPY BIRTHDAY

[Emma]

[Mad Hatter]

Happy birthday!

 

Glad things have calmed down and that you're ok.

[sylph]

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone   Not really how I'd choose to spend it, but there are worse things.

 

Our internet is back (yay! Just in time to go back to work tomorrow...) and hopefully the boil water notice will be lifted either today or tomorrow.

Life is essentially back to normal(?) in many ways for my immediate day-to-day routines.

We got notification that there is FEMA funding for debris removal, so the giant stacks of dead trees, trunks, limbs, branches, sticks, and leaves currently dotting my neighborhood will be hauled away without us having to break them down further and bundle them for the gradual removal by our usual garbage removal. Note that I didn't say bricks, lumber, shingles, furniture, etc. My area's damage to homes was minimal. Just trees. Grateful.

 

I'm still fighting the remnants of ConCrud, so that's been a background stressor overlaid on this entire thing. It's meant that I've been relying on NSAIDs and cough syrup and when I'm not coughing  I'm sleeping like the dead for 10-11 hours per night, when usually 6-7 is my norm. Apparently I need the rest. Add on all the physical activity that came with debris clean up and there you go.

 

 

 

I was doing some ruminating this morning and while this was a stressful event:

1. I have reinforced in my own mind that I am good in the aftermath of a crisis. Yes, it sucks, but we also have to get on with it. Work the problem. Take the next step, do the next thing, make the next call. I am good at this.
2. I appreciate my neighbors. It is a small subdivision (20 houses) and most folks keep to themselves most of the time but a saw probably a dozen folks out and about, working, commiserating, checking in, assisting. I'm not usually one who feels the need for community, but I appreciate these people.
3. Conversely to #1, I'm having a tough time shifting out of crisis mode. Relax already. Once the boil water notice is lifted, I'll have one less thing to think about and perhaps this will fade more quickly.
4. Also, not me compulsively checking the NHC website multiple times in a morning to make sure there's nothing new brewing. This will take some time.

 

 

Anyway, 7/22 I think is where I wound up. Not even a third of my goal. But that's okay. What started as a 'workout 3 x/week' challenge turned into definitely not that, but we take life as it comes and do what we can when we can. What other option is there, really?

 

See you next challenge, friends.

[sylph]

Since the new challenge won't be posted for a bit, perhaps some brainstorming and/or miscellaneous thoughts.

• I (still) would like to lift more regularly. How do I make time for this? Ideas welcome, though please don't feel bad if I don't implement them.
  • The weather is breaking/has broken so highs are in the 80Fs (some days even 70Fs), which means less sweaty, which is good. However, the time between sunrise/sunset is shrinking which means more darkness. One of these is good for being in the garage, one is less good.
     
• Post-hurricane yard clean up shows that my work capacity is reasonable, though leads to sitting like a bump on a log afterward. Even if I'm not as strong as I'd like to be, at least I have a decent reserve battery. I'd like to maintain this. Near daily walks when I can manage them is good. Again see lower temps/less sweaty as a positive here. Yoga may or may not be a good idea in order to maintain some flexibility, mobility, general non-cranky movement ability.
   
• Weight overall is fine. I got on the scale the other day as we were attempting to weigh a box and even late in the day, fully dressed, I did not hate the number on the scale.
  • I look softer than I want to, though, which means I want more muscle/less fat. See first bullet. Also, increase protein? I'm not tracking but I know I'm not doing a great job here.
     
• A couple sewing commissions are on the horizon. There are also a couple of projects I would like to make for myself.
   
• Home organization continues to elude. Hubs and I have been talking about storage cabinets/additional pantry furniture essentially since we moved into this house almost 4 years ago. We have yet to find the Right And Perfect Solution. At this point, perhaps we need the Mostly Fine Solution. If we can find something, it will get a bunch of stuff off the floor of the sewing room and help reduce the overall clutter in the house.
   
• A former colleague has reached out about a possible professional opportunity. Early days, but I'm keeping an open mind. No use blocking the road before you know what the destination might be.

[Artemis Prime]

9 minutes ago, sylph said:

Ideas welcome, though please don't feel bad if I don't implement them

I will not feel bad at all if you don't implement this, but what if you did smaller, daily workouts instead of shooting for x workouts per week? It means shorter workouts, so making the most time of your windows as they are shrinking (and less time to be sweaty when that's an issue) and might be easier as a daily groove, once you've established it, than a sometimes yes, sometimes no thing.

 

11 minutes ago, sylph said:

We have yet to find the Right And Perfect Solution. At this point, perhaps we need the Mostly Fine Solution.

Mostly Fine and set up is infinitely better than Right And Perfect and nonexistent.

 

11 minutes ago, sylph said:

A former colleague has reached out about a possible professional opportunity. Early days, but I'm keeping an open mind. No use blocking the road before you know what the destination might be.

This sounds exciting! No matter what comes of it, exploring opportunities is always fun.

[sylph]

1 hour ago, Artemis Prime said:

I will not feel bad at all if you don't implement this, but what if you did smaller, daily workouts instead of shooting for x workouts per week? It means shorter workouts, so making the most time of your windows as they are shrinking (and less time to be sweaty when that's an issue) and might be easier as a daily groove, once you've established it, than a sometimes yes, sometimes no thing.

I was thinking something similar, actually. I mean, my workouts were already pretty short (20 mins), but trying to get them in on particular days was apparently an issue.

Perhaps a daily ritual will actually be easier.

 

Ideally I'd like to get "regular" (whatever that means)

lifting

walking

yoga

 

Walking seems easiest, since I can go at whatever pace, go for however long and don't feel the need to change into special walking clothes.

Yoga, mostly ditto, though some outfits do not lend themselves well to certain yoga poses.

 

Lifting feels like the biggest barrier to entry for me, though I think it's mostly mental.

All of my lifting history has been change clothes, go to gym, workout for an hour, come home, take shower. When in reality at any time I could go out to the garage, do a set of something and come back inside. I want the hour long, dedicated, special clothes, feel-like-I-did-a-thing workout, but apparently I'm just not doing it, so maybe I can convince myself to want something else.

[Artemis Prime]

10 minutes ago, sylph said:

Ideally I'd like to get "regular" (whatever that means)

I'm sensing a fiber-based challenge for you next time. 

[sylph]

54 minutes ago, Artemis Prime said:

I'm sensing a fiber-based challenge for you next time. 

Bwahahaha!

 

Not that kind of regular.

[sylph]

Got a walk in this morning. Partially for just getting moving, partially to assess any progress in debris clean up/storm aftermath. FEMA crews are supposed to start picking up some of the big debris around the county today, but apparently they are not starting here.