[Mistr]

On 9/22/2024 at 2:33 AM, Mad Hatter said:

I love that you have elderly friends. I feel it's quite unusual to have friends across generations these days.

 

This particular friend is the widow of a friend who ran a RPG that Dumbledore played in for years. We would go over to their house for special events and the occasional holiday. She moved to California to be close to her sister after her husband died. I have other older friends in spinning and aikido.

 

On 9/22/2024 at 2:33 AM, Mad Hatter said:

Sounds contradictory no? Do you at least feel more recharged to deal with the shadows?

 

Yes, I think so. Saturday I was not able to face much. Sunday I had the energy to repot a plant and a cutting that has been sitting by the kitchen sink for months. I also cleaned the downstairs bathroom. That is technically Dumbledore's responsibility, but he will be busy with other things this week. It really needed it. 

 

On 9/22/2024 at 4:42 AM, Harriet said:

What do you find people your own age are like, mostly? 

 

Some of them are fine. In my experience, people show their true colors over time. Some people are active in the community, some go on adventures, while others are still griping about the same things that they complained about 20 years ago. I want to be around people who are actively pursuing doing interesting things with their lives. That is not an age-dependent qualification.

[Heidi]

space

 

 

 

On 9/19/2024 at 5:40 PM, Mistr said:

My brain won't let me be happy about doing them while it is worried about other things. I have been pretty good about sitting zen and squeaking by on getting enough sleep. Logging is lagging as my anxiety flares up. I think I don't want to admit that I am not doing what I said I wanted to do.

I 100% understand this and also agree that this is the root of the problem. I also get very judgemental with myself sometimes, not wanting to admit that I haven't done the things I "should" have done (and my inner-talk gets a bit nasty sometimes and says "should have already done,") and end up avoiding the whole mess just becuase it's difficult and onerous and intimidating. I'm very proud of you for finding the tax things after procrastinating only a day -- this is pretty badass, in my opinion, especially coming back from a trip. Re-entry is hard.

 

On 9/19/2024 at 5:40 PM, Mistr said:

I let myself get distracted with Facebook until it was too late to make it to class.

I do stuff like this all the time, and then not only have I managed to oopsies!! find a way to avoid doing what I didn't want to do (that usually involves leaving the house), I also manage to put myself down about it, both with what I chose to eat up the time and for not doing what I had planned. I hope you are giving yourself a ton of compassion. When I come back after a day of out-and-abouting or an evening football game extroversion overload, I am usually only fit to stare at a screen and not move for several hours. This is okay, and if that's what I need, then so be it. The sky will not fall and I am not any less of a worthwhile human being (I have to remind myself of this often). I think that having a day or two in yoga clothes without yoga and scrolling instead of aikido or any other class is absolutely fine, and probably restorative. As evidence, I submit to the court that the sky did not, in fact, fall.   See below:

5 minutes ago, Mistr said:

This week we have 3-5 people out for events and trainings and we still have enough people to cover our workload.

❤️ 

I really like this for you.

On 9/19/2024 at 5:40 PM, Mistr said:

did a bunch of second choice things as I avoided what I was supposed to do. I got the kitchen sink scrubbed, the laundry done and cleaned the floors upstairs. All of these things certainly needed to be done, but not that day.

I have the world's cleanest house and most organized closets when I have a paper due.  

I completely understand about a four day trip being wonderful and also exactly what you don't need. I have been there. Sending compassion and solidarity.

 

I hope all goes well for Dumbledore's space and things. I don't envy him the triage part; I agree with your assessment that the grunt work is fine, but triage is exhausting.

 

The cacti are just as cute as can be! Was the one with the boring repetitious leaves the white one with spiky fronds or the orange one with round lobes?

I think there's something to this mental itch you're having lately: I think you are craving a sense of completion and order. You have so many things in progress, especially projects without definitive end points that it only seems reasonabl to fixate on things that you can square off and shore up and deem Officially Finished.

 

I hope you have a good week.

Sending lots of yoga-clothes-without-the-yoga restoration energy your way. 

 

 

[Mistr]

Yesterday was quite the day.

 

I had a quiet time at work in the morning before launching into the disaster recovery project.

 

Dumbledore came home from Costco with four plastic shelving units. I had purchased plastic storage boxes with lids when they were on sale a month ago. The idea was for Dumbledore to use them to sort his stuff. Those all got drafted for the rescue project. I was happy to discover that we had three sets of plastic shoe covers in the closet, plus Dumbledore's heavy-duty galoshes. I grabbed a roll of trash bags and a box of nitrile gloves and we headed out.

 

First stop was to the storage locker where we set up the plastic shelving. We had fun doing that together. Definitely a project that was easier with two people. Next we picked up the rental truck and headed to the office building. There were a bunch of people there from the management company working on clearing out junk and doing repairs, plus people from the other ground floor offices to get their stuff.

 

I was really glad we brought the shoe covers. The water was drained from the building, but the carpet was saturated like a sponge and squished when walked on. Everything on the floor was covered in tan mud. Apparently a lot of sand and silt came in with the water. Luckily for us, a great deal of the stuff in the office was packed in boxes and up on shelves. The bottom two shelves got soaked and most of that stuff had to be thrown out. Dumbledore had taken precautions not to put important thing on the bottom because he was concerned about possible water problems. There have been enough torrential rain incidents in the last few years that getting a few inches of water was a serious threat. No one expected knee-deep water.

 

We decided to start with the easier task of moving the things that were already packed. We have a moving dolly, which helped tremendously. Each load had four boxes. Some were books and papers, some were lead miniatures. Modern gaming miniatures are made with other metals or plastic, but old ones were all lead. We joked that we were doing circuit laps. First Dumbledore did squats (to load the dolly), then we did our steps (up the ramp to the parking lot and then across to the truck), then I did squats (to unload the dolly) while Dumbledore did farmer's carries and squats (to stack boxes in the truck). It took a couple hours to get the easy part done. Elf came over with paper towels, disinfectant cleaning spray and bottled water. We cleaned off a table and Dumbledore started doing triage on the partly soaked boxes. Elf and I hauled out bags and bags of soaked paper. Elf looked relieved when I sent them to the office supply store for more cardboard boxes. They were already tired from wheeling Clio all over the hospital complex for an appointment. They got back with boxes and then took off.

 

Thankfully, other friends came over after work to help. Much packing and sorting keep from toss. The things that were wet and salvageable were packed in the plastic boxes. Two sets of metal shelving were completely cleared and the shelves disassembled enough to transport. It was after 9pm before four of us took the truck to the storage unit while the other two went to get dinner and let their dog out. It only took us two trips to unload the truck. The storage unit that looked so generous in the morning now looks nearly full. Part of the problem is that we did not want to stack the boxes too high because damp cardboard is not strong. Dumbledore and I will need to move half the boxes to get the shelving from the office in place. Right now the shelving is in my driveway waiting to get the mud washed off it.

 

At that point I was starving and so was one of our friends. Dumbledore was too single-minded to want to stop for food. I went to McDonald's with said friend where we got food for us and Dumbledore. I gotta say, a McChicken never tasted so good. After that I called time and gave one of the helpers a ride home. The others were still at it until after 11pm. I gave thanks to my past self for scheduling myself to start at 9am today. 

 

Dumbledore has the truck for another day. He is planning on spending all day working on the last 10%. He told me he will need my help when I get done with work. I hope that means we will be moving shelving into the storage locker. That will be physical labor, but not the challenge of getting odd-shaped things packed for indefinite-term storage. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[Mad Hatter]

That is indeed quite the day! Hard work for sure but at least it's satisfying when completed. And makes any food taste delicious. ?

[RES]

23 hours ago, Mistr said:

Dumbledore had taken precautions not to put important thing on the bottom because he was concerned about possible water problems. There have been enough torrential rain incidents in the last few years that getting a few inches of water was a serious threat. No one expected knee-deep water.

Was very happy to read this, when I read the first part I feared the worst!

 

[Heidi]

I hope the labor of the day put the finishing touches on what was clearly a Big Job, and unexpected.

I’m glad you had help along the way.

I 100% understand about the amazingness of McChicken after an extended work session! Good for you for calling time and getting food.

May you rest well tonight and may all the things dry out.

?

[Mistr]

After-action summary

 

Tuesday evening went late again with moving. I met Hermes at the office while Dumbledore and Hermes' partner worked in the storage unit. Hermes and I took apart part of a four-section shelving unit. That made a single shelf unit, a two-unit section and a pile of shelves. This makes it small enough to fit through doors and in the truck. At that point Hermes' was exhausted and took off.

 

Dumbledore and Hermes' partner got back with the truck at the same time. We loaded fragile things into her car and the shelving and last big things into the truck. I strained my knee trying to climb into the truck while carrying a folding table. ?

 

I was dreading another day of working without enough sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night I decided to call in sick. Between my knee hurting and having coffee earlier in the day, I did not get to sleep until after 2am. That was a good choice.

 

Me taking the day off let us get everything done. Dumbledore was still in crisis-management mode. He has PTSD from past work disaster situations. He was dealing with it quite well, considering that.

 

I spent the morning washing mud off the single-wide shelving unit and the tables, while Dumbledore went to the office and loaded the last things into his car. He got the satisfaction of being the first of the ground floor tenants fully moved out of the building. We took the shelving unit to the storage locker and returned the truck. Dumbledore and the friends helping yesterday had already put the other shelves in place along the walls and filled them with boxes. That gave room to move and made it look organized instead of overwhelming. There was just room for the last single shelving unit. The double-wide unit will go somewhere in our garage.

 

I suggested we go out to lunch to celebrate, but Dumbledore had a meeting first. That let me take a much-needed nap. ?

 

I got a lot of things done after our late lunch.

• Planted the irises that I bought at the farmer's market back in June
• Raked up the trimmings from the bushes that have been sitting around the yard for three weeks
• Took the finished compost out of the rotary compost bin and put them in the raised bed.
• Put dry grass clippings in the now empty side of the compost bin.
• Emptied the kitchen compost pail into the bin with the grass.
• Cleaned the kitchen compost pail.
• Cleaned the galoshes.
• Cleaned two rolling carts, the second folding table and the double-wide shelving unit.
• Hosed off the front porch, which had dirt from the irises (as well as the muddy shelving units).

That took me until sunset. I sat zen and went to bed early. Thanks to arnica gel and ibuprofen, my knee is much better and I got 8.5 hours of sleep.

 

It turned out to be good that I got all the office stuff clean. Dumbledore and a friend spent the evening organizing at the storage unit. They came back with all the damp-but-salvageable stuff. It is now on the table and carts in our garage.  

 

[Mad Hatter]

2 hours ago, Mistr said:

I suggested we go out to lunch to celebrate, but Dumbledore had a meeting first. That let me take a much-needed nap. ?

Celebration nap also sounds great! ?

 

2 hours ago, Mistr said:

got a lot of things done after our late lunch.

I'm exhausted just reading the list.

[Heidi]

5 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I'm exhausted just reading the list.

I am too!
That’s a very impressive list.

I hope you rest well tonight and have wonderful food and all the space and companionship or solitude you need.

You really did a whole season’s worth of work this afternoon.

[RES]

Wow, what a full day(s) so happy you all were able to come together and get it all done, as well as you being able to get some sleep!

[Sovalis]

You're amazing, Mistr. Wow. 

 

Glad your knee is feeling better. ❤️ 

[Harriet]

That's a lot of work. Is your knee okay now?

[Mistr]

10 hours ago, Harriet said:

That's a lot of work. Is your knee okay now?

 

My knee is much better. I did knee exercises this morning and there were no twinges. Dumbledore and I took a long walk on Saturday and it was fine until the last couple blocks. I think I am back to the usual quest of working on strengthening the muscles around the knee and increasing the range of motion.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

 

I was wrong about the clean up being done on Wednesday. Thursday evening I helped Dumbledore and Hermes spread out damp things that had been rescued. My sweater drying rack was put to good use. We set up the downstairs bedroom with a fan and the dehumidifier and racks of stuff everywhere. More stuff was out on a folding table in the garage - also with a fan blowing on it.

 

Friday and Saturday I was able to go to aikido and do more normal things. Sunday I went to zen, then worked on clean up some more. We still had a shelving unit sitting on the front entry in need of a home. It is 72 in wide and about 70 inches tall (1.8m x 1.78m). Dumbledore and I had different ideas of where it could go in the garage. Mine involved less moving of stuff and I was willing to make it happen, so that's what we did. Here is how I managed this 16-square exercise.

1. Move boxes in the downstairs closet to open up floor space. Luckily the boxes don't belong there, they were just stashed in the closet as part of the office rescue materials.
2. Move stuff off the dresser in the garage. Some is in my trunk to go to the charity shop, some is on a different pile in the garage.
3. Clean off the antique dresser. Thankfully it was empty. No mice discovered.
4. Move other garage stuff out onto the driveway to clear a path.
5. Move the dresser into the downstairs closet (a walk-in) with Elf's assistance.
6. Rearrange tools on the wall of the garage so they will still be accessible with the shelving unit in place.
7. Sweep the garage floor and raised blocks where the shelving unit will go.
8. Verify that there is enough clearance between the blocks and the garage door track (just barely!)
9. Move the shelving unit into the garage with Elf's assistance.
10. Find places for garage stuff that got moved.
11. Put flower pots back in place on the front porch, water them and hose down the porch.

The big advantage of this move in the game is that the shelving unit can be used to sort boxes in the garage. Dumbledore was excited about the opportunity to get at boxes that have been stacked since we moved in. He is not actually going to have time to do that until November, but it is still encouraging.

 

I spent the rest of Sunday afternoon packing up now-dry things into boxes. Dumbledore has a few days at home before he has to travel for work for the next two weeks. I am not planning on him having time to do any household stuff because he lost a week of productive work time last week. I think all the office rescue tasks are at a point where things can wait until he gets back. I really want him to calm down from crisis mode. He was triggered this morning because I opened the windows and the dew scent reminded him of working in the soggy office. ?

 

[Mistr]

Today I did knee exercises and 10 minutes of rowing on my lunch break.

 

I looked at my likelihood of doing exercise after work compared to doing zen after work. I am fine with sitting zen in the evening. I say I will exercise later, but I never do. Points for getting it done.

 

This is the first rowing I have done in months. I was tired after 10 minutes. I wasn't even going fast. That is further proof that I need to do more cardio.

 

Yesterday evening I did not do anything on my list. I got home, sat down and re-read a novel. I think I hit my limit for doing useful stuff with no personal down time. Hopefully I will be able to tackle more of the list tonight.

[Mistr]

Tuesday - what I really did:

• Exercised at lunch
• stopped at the grocery store on the way home to get an essential ingredient (potatoes) and stuff other people wanted
• started a load of laundry
• started the dishwasher
• chopped vegetables for making pot roast
• put chicken breasts in brine
• washed fruit to take for lunch
• chopped peppers so people might actually eat them for snacks
• cleaned up after myself in the kitchen
• brought in the houseplants from the back porch because the weather has finally turned autumnal

Did not sit zen. I was still trying to get everything squared away when Dumbledore got home from gaming at 9:45pm and needed my help. I got to bed nearly on time, then could not fall asleep. Grrrrrr.

 

No caffeine for me today. I thought the tea yesterday would be fine. Wrong.

 

This morning I did core yoga and got the pot roast seared and in the crock pot. Work has been pretty good so far. I have to go to a grocery store again at lunchtime because Cleo ate most of the lettuce mix last night. I should have picked up more. There was just enough for one generous salad. I want to encourage Cleo to eat vegetables, so I told her it was fine when she asked.

 

I will see how I am doing when it is time for aikido tonight. I am feeling a strange mixture of energetic and grumpy.

 

[Mistr]

I think I am still feeling the aftereffects of the crisis office move last week. My heart goes out to the people hit by the hurricane. At least we had lovely weather for moving and the flood was confined to just the one building. They have to deal with no power, mud everywhere and all the people around them in crisis at the same time. I have heard from my grad school girlfriend who lives in Ashville. She and her family are safe and their house was not damaged. She shared pictures of mature trees down blocking roads. Her neighbors have banded together to cook and help each other out.

 

I was able to do a lot more yesterday than I expected.

• zen at lunchtime, due to a large donation of leftover pizza by the team across the hall.
• dropped stuff off at the charity shop on the way to the dojo.
• aikido
• grocery store on the way home from aikido for two more essential things plus the thing I could not find on Monday

I was happy to find pot roast waiting for me when I got home. I just had some of the broth along with fresh bread (from the grocery store) and butter.

 

I am looking forward to taking a three-day weekend. When I scheduled the time off, I was planning on doing aikido Friday through Sunday. I figured I would need Monday to get caught up on regular chores. Now I am only planning on going to the seminar on Friday evening. The Saturday and Sunday classes are in the north suburbs of Milwaukee, 1.5 hours away. The original plan included getting a hotel room Saturday night to save driving time. Between feeling pressed for time and money, I decided to cut back.

 

I have two invitations to do stuff in town on Saturday. Dumbledore will be out of town for 10 days, so I will need to take care of all the chores. The upside is that I can do whatever I want without needing to coordinate.

 

 

[Heidi]

On 10/1/2024 at 5:07 PM, Mistr said:

This is the first rowing I have done in months. I was tired after 10 minutes. I wasn't even going fast. That is further proof that I need to do more cardio

I sat down at the rowing machine for the first time in months -- nearly a year -- and could barely do five minutes. 

I am impressed that you did ten.

Also, you're inspiring me to add at least a few minutes of rowing back into the routine, even if it's not every gym visit.

 

On 10/1/2024 at 5:07 PM, Mistr said:

I got home, sat down and re-read a novel.

I am really glad you did this.

I have been watching the office-crisis and regular list take over your whole reality, and I'm glad you had an evening of enjoyable down time. More of this, more often.  

 

On 10/3/2024 at 1:10 PM, Mistr said:

Between feeling pressed for time and money, I decided to cut back.

 

#DruidApproved

 

I hope you enjoyed your weekend. 

 

 

[Heidi]

Dropping in to say hi.

I hope you had a good, restful week.

[Mistr]

Hiya!

 

This week has been much calmer. Details below.

 

On the challenge front:

- Sleep mostly okay

- Zen mostly okay

- Logging is a slog. I got more than two weeks behind and am trying to get caught up. I'm glad I wrote some reports here to help remember what I did.

 

Last week in review

 

Friday I did two hours of aikido with a 7th dan instructor from Japan. He used to come every year in the before times. This is his first visit to the US post-pandemic. He is one of my all-time favorite instructors.

 

It was a great class. My brain was full and my hips were complaining after two hours. It was nearly 11 by the time I got home. I knew I was not going to have the energy to get up early and drive two hours to go to the Saturday classes.

 

Saturday morning I took a load of stuff to the city recycling center. This got rid of a big pile of cardboard boxes, styrofoam containers and random metal stuff that had been accumulating. That was tremendously satisfying. It feels really good to have two clear (and swept clean!) paths through the piles of boxes in the garage. 

In the afternoon I got together with my BFF. We went to an art exhibit at the new Textile Arts Center (at her suggestion ). Then we went to a new microbrewery that features beer  made without hops. We did two flights and tasted all eight beers that they had on tap. They ranged from okay-but-not-to-my-taste to really good. I would be happy to go there again. 

 

Sunday I went to the farmer's market and did chores around the house. This is where I miss being current on logging because I know I did more than I can remember at the moment. I know I cleaned the bathtub, did laundry and washed the extra shelves from the disassembled shelving units. I did 

 

Monday I had the day off from work. I set this up thinking that I would have done aikido all weekend. I woke up feeling good and hoped I could get back to what used to be my normal level of productivity. I did indeed get a lot done, although it was not all sunshine and rainbows.

 

Cooking was the major focus. In the morning I made kale with bacon, banana bread and oatmeal/raisin/date cookies. I also baked sweet potatoes while I had the oven going. I made a mess in the kitchen. Only partly because the mixer was still set on medium when I added the flour to the banana bread batter. Cooking was followed by washing dishes. After a break, I set up the grill to batch cook chicken breasts. While the charcoal was starting and the chicken was cooking, I mowed the front lawn. Mowing had been on the to-do list for over a month. Luckily it only rained once over that time, so the grass did not get any longer. You know how they say that you should mow your lawn with the mulching setting instead of raking leaves - that does not work with our mower. The leaves just sit there on the grass.

 

I intended to get done with grilling and mowing in time to go to aikido, but did not quite make it. So I did more cooking. I cooked the green beans from the farmers market and had a nice dinner. Bonus points for getting all the fresh veggies cooked the day after bringing them home. After dinner I worked on balancing checkbooks and paid bills. 

 

Tuesday - after work I went to sit zen with our sanga at the meditation center. There were only three of us, so I was glad I went. My hips were much happier than earlier in the week.

 

Wednesday - went to aikido after work. It was a struggle to get through a 1.5hour class. My brain was full by the end and I was struggling to do what sensei was demonstrating. My hips and knees were complaining all night afterwards. I think that was probably something I ate, not from exercise. I wish I had a likely culprit to omit from my diet.

 

More later. Today got really busy at work.

 

[Harriet]

Textile arts exhibition sounds amazing! What sort of things did they have on display?

[Mad Hatter]

Oh wow, you’ve been busy! Glad to see lots of fun things on the list this weekend. ?

[Heidi]

So many positive things!

Sorry to hear about the hips and knees. I’m wondering if they are just feeling the sustained effort — helping with the clean out and hauling and toting take a toll as much as aikido, so maybe they are just grumbling a bit from use?

 

Getting to have class with a favorite instructor after many years away sounds wonderful.

I hope you have a beautiful weekend.

[Mistr]

15 hours ago, Harriet said:

Textile arts exhibition sounds amazing! What sort of things did they have on display?

 

The items were all by members of the organization. Quite a range from quilting to clothing to three dimensional art pieces. I recognized a piece as being created by a member of my spinning group, even before I read the note with her name. Her piece is a shoulder wrap made from woven hexagons in warm neutral shades. You can see some examples here.

 

Thursday evening I had a quiet hour at a coffeeshop. I thought one of my friends was having a book release party, but I misread the date. At least I enjoyed some quiet time with a cup of hot cider.

 

Friday I finished up work only half an hour late and headed to the dojo. There were only three of us and the instructor. That seems to be happening a lot lately. It was a good class. One of the people is preparing for his sandan test. He asked to review some of the boken katas. I learned all of them for my nidan test, so I was working on picking up fine points.

 

I left after an hour of class to go to the real book launch party. When I got there (15 minutes after the announced start time) it was just my friend the author, her husband, and one other person. More people trickled in. As promised, there was a fancy cake decorated to match the cover of her new book. Because there were so few people, we actually talked with each other. After talking for a while, I discovered that one of the people works at the same place I do. She laughed and laughed, then asked me questions. I made a connection with a person who just bought a loom and is a fairly new spinner. New enough to be bringing home free fleeces. We talked about getting together for craft work days.

 

I am usually uncomfortable in situations where I know only one person. I was delightedly surprised to connect with new people and have a great time. The coffeehouse staff had mopped the floor and were playing "Closing Time" on the stereo when we left.

 

Today I took the whole day to do things I want to do. This turned out to be a mix of cleaning and playing phone games to avoid my log book. I don't quite understand why I am avoiding it so hard. Now I am going to use my notes here to get it DONE.

[Mistr]

Done!

 

Finally up to date on logging. This is going to stay a goal for next challenge. Maybe I can find my brain too.

[Harriet]

9 hours ago, Mistr said:

 

The items were all by members of the organization. Quite a range from quilting to clothing to three dimensional art pieces. I recognized a piece as being created by a member of my spinning group, even before I read the note with her name. Her piece is a shoulder wrap made from woven hexagons in warm neutral shades. You can see some examples here.

 

 

Amazing! I want the moon artwork! And the "woods walk, looking down".