Sunday, November 10, 2024

bits and bobs

 Got up this morning and did the dishes, some laundry, gave Charlotte a bath.  Several of the animals were commenting on how the dog blankets smelled like Daphne still, Loki was curled up in one for a good while today (he's a cat), but Sweetie gave herself 'a sad' as Mark said, and I gave her a new blanket and we washed the ones that were in front of the heater.  I had not felt Daphne was healthy enough to be lifted in and out of the big bathtub the past week - and thus, Charlotte hadn't gotten a bath, either, as we usually did them at the same time.  So, she needed one and got it today, while it is still warm enough to not be freezing afterwards.  Then I played a few too hours too many of the Sims game that I finally got working again with the update packs on my computer.  Not sure how to categorize this, but playing games is one of those upside-down curves for me - it's fun to a point and then well, I know that time could be used better somewhere else and I feel like I've wasted time with nothing to show for it... and the Sims is doubly so on that, because of all of the household tasks the Sims get either annoyed at or happy about finishing... it's kind of like a box within a box effect.  

It's mixed feelings - - I'm having a 'fun leisure' day in real life, but using it playing a game, which 'gets nothing done'.  I get annoyed that the Sim on my screen is 'making progress' but I have wasted four hours that was supposed to be fun, and maybe it was, maybe it just kept me from doing other things I should have done.  Should I have cleaned?  Should I have baked?  Should I have learned Japanese for an extra hour?   It was a bit too easy to do the game for the extended period of time that could have done many things in real life otherwise.  The game was lower-energy expenditure than many of those things, but that is only a benefit when I consider something like I could overwork my muscles cleaning or etc. instead of resting.  And for being lower-energy, it is almost zero output.  And this is why I rarely play games that are more than a few rounds of Tetris or Duolingo.  Duolingo IS a game, but I do feel that perhaps I get something out of it that I can bring elsewhere, in translating the languages.  Whether or not my Sim learned how to make food without burning their house down is not an accomplishment that transfers much.  Mark and I have talked about that is something that was hard on our generation and that the younger generations don't have it as much - we were taught 'if you're having fun, something has to be wrong' and also lots of pressure put on productivity and 'monetizing time and hobbies'.

I did do some Japanese language learning.  And I already hurt from 'something' the past few days that I haven't put my finger on.  Not sure if it is sitting in my chair wrong playing the game, sleeping in, much grocery-shopping on Friday, climbing the stairs, the rainy weather outside or the postal route coming back at me from yesterday - but my hips definitely hurt today as well.  I did the yoga routine two nights in a row but skipped last night because I had already done so much on the postal route.  I've stretched a little today, and have climbed the stairs many many times of course, but I told Mark 'It's like I'm getting old'... one definite thing about hyper mobility is that you benefit most from variety of movement.  And, counter-intuitively perhaps, repetitive things, even 'sedentary' things like sitting slumped in a chair wrong or tensioning your leg muscles constantly while sitting forward, all of that adds up in weird ways.  

The yoga type is 'restorative' or 'vinyasa 'flow'', style - for spine and flexibility.

Friday, November 08, 2024

goodbye to Daphne

 

 


She was born in the summer of 2012, and she has been such a good girl - spent her life here with her mom Nova (who passed a few years ago at 13), sisters Sweetie and Minerva and took Charlotte on as her 'puppy' as well when we adopted her (even though Charlotte was two years old, still 'a puppy'.

She was partially deaf - and could howl so loudly and high-pitched that people in the next county probably covered their ears.  The UPS and post men had a hard time as she would get so involved barking at them, often with her eyes closed, that she had no idea to get out of the way of their cars.  Just the other day Mark said she was barking at the UPS man and now we sort of think she had a stroke, and maybe a series of them, although at the time it was just a bit off her usual behavior.  She laid down in the yard to bark at them (not usual) and she couldn't quite howl or bark  with her usual voice even when I got home from work.  She's been 'halfway down' since the UPS delivery day, but she has bounced back and forth from almost her usual self a few times.  

She was sitting in the sun a few days ago with the Lyffan Manx cat and they were having a very good time together.  Back when Daphne was a puppy, we had a Manx cat named Mouse, and she used to follow her all around the road - we called  her Sergeant Mouse walking her pups.  When Minerva got lost in the snow and the thickets at two months old or so - for about two days, and we could NOT find her, we were so worried - it was Daphne that kept insisting on going out every few hours and she eventually brought her home.  It was a bit like a miracle - but she didn't give up.   She also really liked our goats - was heartbroken when our first one Kitty goat passed on at eight - was very upset the next one we got didn't like dogs (we gave that one to another farm, because she really didn't like dogs and wasn't happy either), and spent a lot of time with Melody, our blind goat.  They didn't get along as well as she did with Kitty, but still, they enjoyed each other.


 

We let Daphne out the garage door when she had a bad stumble on the stairs, four days ago maybe? where I had to pick her up and bring her up the rest of the way (she has always had sporadic trouble with that one back leg tendon).  We went to get her back out of the yard and she had fallen into a little hollow on the side of the road and couldn't get back up - Esme and I brought her back in the house and she was better again later.  The next day she seemed fine, and then the rainy weather started up, and she was arthritic and down again.  She went and in and out of the house with assistance a few days during the rain and was enjoying laying in front of the heater with other dogs and cats.  She would say she couldn't get up to go out with the other dogs, and we carried her outside, but then she could walk back into the house afterwards and ask for a treat, but then a few hours later she was again unable to get up again without assistance...

All a prime example of Bluetick coonhound stubbornness, which her mother was 100% bluetick.  Her dad was Catahoula leopard hound and lab.  Today she couldn't get up in the morning.  We carried her out to the yard and she could barely stand.  She went to lay down under the tree where she had the other day.  Mark came back to fetch her up and bring her inside and he said she walked a few steps under the big tree and fell over and was gone within a few minutes.  Her grandmother Misha had a massive stroke, as well, at 17, which we wondered if maybe Misha had had other strokes before that one.  Daphne was 12 (and a half, since she was born in the summer)

We will miss her greatly, the two-legged and the four legged family members alike.



at a year old


at a few months old


Wednesday, November 06, 2024

bits

 It's been three years since I started using Duolingo every day on my PC profile.  I did mostly Japanese today on there, and did Welsh and French on my phone profile (only what.. 6 months there?).  Doing well with the budget - had two months of good data to sort through and did some of that last night, while holding my elderly little cat in my lap because it was raining and she was cold.  Mark and I had been reading a news article about what other people's average costs for housing, electricity, groceries etc are - and wow, most of the country is so high no wonder everyone else is as worried about the economy.  

Our 'household costs' are really low compared to the people posting in that article, and even so, we were having trouble paying our bills each month and it was getting worse and worse - but that was with only a part-time job for one person (As many hours as they would give me, which sometimes wasn't much, other times was nearly full-time... but lately, the full-timers were working every hour they could get and all the part-timers were getting very few hours), and now I have a full time job AND a part-time job (but less hours on the part-time than before, because of the full-time schedule).  With me now working two jobs  we're finally getting it back in order.  I have no idea how anyone else is making ends meet at these rates, and with rent going absolutely insane that I see in people's Facebook posts, in the newspaper etc etc....  Our insurance went up five times this year, by leaps and bounds, house and auto, but mostly house.  The electric is now about 150% what it was last year, and that is still with levelized billing - it is just more expensive.  The insurance and the electric are the two things I can't fill out what to expect to have to pay until they arrive, because they keep going up.  We are very conservative on our groceries, buy generic and the best deal we can for quantities and cook at home almost 100% of the time and even so our average grocery bill for the month is notably more now than last year - it is almost 125% from a price I had written down a year or so ago.  Being a spreadsheet and numbers geek, even sporadically, gives some insights.  AND I KNOW that the amount of food, quantities etc. we were buying overall when I had captured that 'before' price was actually more than what we are getting for this price now - so, higher prices, less quality/quantity at the same time.  So, yea.. I know exactly why everyone has voted on the economy this presidential election. 

Work is moving to 12 hour shifts, 7 day factory operation - which they didn't want to do, but the upper bosses out of state say it is necessary.  It doesn't affect my schedule, being in the office - but I can feel the mood change.  People have kids, and other schedules in the house to worry about meeting up with to get things done, etc.  Even with expansion and raises coming, hopefully - if every thing keeps going well - 12 hour shifts of a hot, physical job is a hard thing to do when you had been previously doing 8.  And a lot of people don't have ways to get their kids to school or back home etc, a few of them don't even have their own car but share rides with family and other workers.

Just working six days a week at two jobs myself, even though one of them isn't as phsyical, does get to be wearing me down some.  I am up so early every morning whether I really want to be or not, even on Sundays - and have a hard time getting to bed at a decent hour at the same time unless I do languages and then crash immediately after dinner.  And I am bringing my lunches and they are not always exactly healthy, but I'm working on that - canned soup or ramen noodles, instant oatmeal, bananas, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bowls of hot tea and thermos of coffee etc.  I am still doing the post office delivery route on Saturday - not doing the Sunday packages but letting the other part-timers split that and taking that one day off every week.  The physical nature of the office job is entirely different, walking some, sweeping, cleaning things - but also a lot of sitting in a chair typing and answering phone, copying, scanning etc.  It is a different thing on the body.  I finally got down on my yoga mat again tonight after putting it off for a while.  I can feel I haven't been moving these muscles the same way as the postal route did - and that I've been sitting more, and that I've been driving different vehicles again.  I got through the routine and cracked out my lower back, but I need to get flexibility back.

Our Daphne dog is 13 or 14 years old?  Even last year she was quite spry and running around the yard with Charlotte.  But she isn't doing well now - she is showing her age, arthritis every morning hard to get up to her feet and she can't get as much air to bark and howl as she had before.  The other dogs are worried about her, but she still seems happy enough to get a treat here and there and to sit in the sun when it's warm.  Today it was raining though, so she sat in front of the propane heater and wasn't quite as happy about that.

Got the laundry out.  Time to get myself some more sleep now that I've done that yoga routine, and hope I didn't overdo it and wake up too early hurting somewhere.

Sunday, November 03, 2024

bits

 

 Vintage Greece OWL of ATHENA COINS Hellenic Republic 1 drachma Collectable coins Greece 1973 1 drachma coins coins for crafts image 1 

I got Esme a Greek drachma for her birthday, and a book 'How to Tame a Fox (and build a dog)' - 'oh, it's about the silver fox project!', she said.  I thought she might find it interesting and it is nice to have something to hand to page through instead of just relying for it to be on the internet.  The coin isn't worth much, but I told her that - to our eye - she has been growing up quite wise for her age, and that we were proud of her.  And the owl is the 'owl of Athena' the Greek goddess of wisdom.


Grandma also gave her a few coins, which she is going to look up, and a pretty card with some for 'her shark fund', which is based on a joke I had made a few years ago about her going into an antique store and coming out with a wooden duck sculpture, after saying 'Now watch, I'll find a shark or something', to which I had to draw a comic about that.



I've got a cake in the oven for her for dinner tonight, and hopefully serve with bacon and eggs and cherries.

I found a little app called 'golingo' that is speaking exercises in multiple languages.  It only recognizes about 80-90% of my spoken French - maybe room for improvement, maybe error in the system.  It only gets about 50-60% of my Welsh and it has abbreviations like 'ut wyt ti' for 'how are you' instead of 'sut dych chi'.. don't know if that is North vs. South or modern street vs book learning etc etc... anyway, it's kind of a cool addition to learn something from.  A friend tried it for Greek, and didn't like it much at all. *shrug*  

I have been studying still a lot of Japanese, a bit more Czech, and French and Spanish (on the golingo), and went and dipped back into Latvian / Lithuanian vocabulary and had not forgotten too much of that.

I had given myself such a headache yesterday, trying to cut back on coffee for other health reasons for a few days... drinking juice and water and diluted tea, but it wasn't enough as I ended up with a raging migraine and all of the other fun joint popping and earache and other inflammation that happens when I try to stop coffee.  Back to half-strength today and I have to avoid the work coffee because it is just too strong and dark, it will get me right back to square one.  


Saturday, October 26, 2024

tiny bit

 Did the postal route today, mostly normal bumping along and got done about three o'clock.  I started doing some more Czech again with the Japanese, because my grammar on that always starts to invert when I stay away from it too long.  Not much else.  I'm still pretty sure I have tomorrow off, but not sure what else I'll do.  Need to finish more laundry, and clean a few areas.  I'm pretty sure Mark wants to do some more grocery shopping - I grabbed a few things that can only be gotten at the one store in the post office town, in anticipation that we would get more at the other town tomorrow.

Made tacos for dinner, or at least - a semblage of them...  also want to go have a bath with the V05 coconut stuff I like and got some of today.

I've been having some pretty odd and very realistic dreams.  One of them the other night was drawing out 52.00 from a bank just before closing time, and trying to count up what I was given, which was a large array of very non-standard coins as well as some bills.  One of the coins looked like a silver walnut shell.  I was asking the bank teller, who wanted to go home, how I was supposed to add all this up and know I had the right amount?  There were also three dollar coins and even a 2.50 coin which I thought simply had to be complete fantasy - but no, there really were some three dollar and 2.50 dollar coins back in early America - although they were gold, and the ones in my dream were silver, with a face on the front and a bird on the back though, which was accurate and probably robbed from my brain actually knowing that quarters are like that (and the other coin types were modelled onto the quarter dollar, 'quarter eagle' is the 2.50 and the 'eagle' was a ten dollar coin!)

 

I doubt Esme will read the blog, but I did buy her one specialty coin for her birthday- a real coin from a foreign country, as a sort of souvenier.  I'm hoping it will come in time, it's not expensive at all but it looked cool and I saw something about it being a modern coin but resembling 'remarkably' the ancient variety of coin from the region in an archaeology article.   As in it was kind of lost knowledge that the ancient coin had a drawing on it so very similar to what they picked for the modern coin.. but people in 2024 are still pretty amused by the similarity.  

 I know that this is more for 'I would like her to have it' than her actually wanting it - but it's something that could last compared to a new stuffed animal (she has a thousand) etc etc..and it is harder to buy for a teenager, especially when they 'don't want anything' everytime you ask.  I've gotten her 'numismatist' things a few times over the years, some just because they were cool (the Dutch coins), one (the mercury dime) for nostalgia because my grandmother had given me one as a necklace,  the pennies I had saved as a young child that were wheat backs and then one year we even gave her several rolls of 50 cent pieces and a collector book for them just to prove to her that they were indeed real and still quite available.  Her grandmother gave her a few that she had brought back from Germany and Japan as well.  So, even though she's not really interested in coin collecting, she's mildly interested in the fact that I've made her a coin collection over the years *ha*  and we put it in a nice glass display case that she keeps, along with ticket stubs and other bits like iron patches or cards etc. from places we have went over the years.

 

 
I happened to still have these pictures on my desktop -- The 'dimes' I got her one year for Christmas, they are from the Netherlands and were just in the 'these are cool' dish at the local pawn shop.  I had went there to get an American 'very fine' graded mercury head dime because my grandmother had given me one of those and over time it was lost, so I wanted to give her one like it and tell her the story about how that one had been made into a necklace.




I also ordered her a book I DO think she will like, that I saw in a scientific article about foxes.   And she did pick out a game on the computer that she did want, and I got that for her.


Thursday, October 24, 2024

bits

 It's almost the end of another week.  Went out and got the animal feeds today after work, but on the way back I stopped at a gas station and suddenly the car wouldn't start.  I called the mechanic and he tried to walk me through some checks - the battery had charge but the ignition in the Buick Century would not even click - no lights, nothing.  So, he asked me tighten the connectors to the battery but I didn't have the proper tools in the trunk (same as Mark originally didn't have the right things to change a tire with it the first time that happened).  So, he was good and came out to find me at the gas station and showed me that really was the problem - the negative connector had started to come loose every once in a while.  It's one of those new-fangled types, not the good old fashioned kind the other two trucks had that could be turned with a simple wrench - you have to have the right socket set for it and a small handled one at that because you have to reach down into the machine a little ways.  He told me that was an issue he saw with that car before - and ones like it, but showed me how to fix it and what tool I need to get to put in the trunk.  

 

Mark comments that the 'new fangled type' is on a 2001 car, and the types on the other 1998 and 2004 cars were adapted after-market back to the older style.  But the 'new fangled' I am talking about has been around nearly 25 years - and the new-fangled NOW is even worse for repair-ability by yourself.

 

So, got home, made dinner and fed animals, didn't do the laundry, and only did the minimum work on the monthly budget - like the car knew I got a paycheck *ha* no, not really, and the mechanic didn't charge a lot for the 'house call', but he definitely deserved something for coming out at 5 pm and helping me get home.  It's already been a long night, and tomorrow is coming at the same time as usual -- headed to bed.  I've borrowed Mark's socket set to put in it just until I buy one - but am not expecting to have the same issue with it tomorrow.  It was so strange to have it happen today with no warning - it might have been a little less power going up a hill between the feed store and the gas station that I looked at the temperature gauge and said 'its not overheating, why is it sluggish?' and that was the only thing that made me wonder what was going on - the radio played, the lights on the dash were on, and it didn't sound any stranger than usual except on that one hill.


Still doing Japanese on all platforms (two duolingo, clozemaster).  Getting a few more new words finally on the highest duolingo profile.  Listening to a channel called Anime.Mex? that is spoken Spanish commentary and also Spanish subtitles  over the spoken Japanese from the anime soundtrack.  The animes they are reviewing tend to be sort of more 'explicit' ones than I usually watch or read, but I know that is a very large portion of animes out there, as well.  And I am getting much better at following the slang and colloquial conversation.


bit of bits - When I come in from outside at work the empty darkness is 'green' in the building, but I found it much more interesting that the darkness of the cardboard boxes when the green overflare begins to go away is now red.  That happened to me twice, and I'm walking through that without a flashlight - the darkness is black, and the boxes look just faintly red, so I'm getting through it in the dark not just by memory or feel but by 'seeing'.  I'm not quite sure what that is - it goes away and everything becomes just black, but it was eerie the first time and the second time it was like 'there has to be some reason for this, infra-red, latent heat?   Mark and I have noticed many times I 'see' infra-red in full light (especially sunlight) as a mirage reaction.  I can tell when something is hot by looking at it, but it doesn't look red in the light.. it looks wavy or 'vibrate-y' is about the best word for it.  

 Also, I found a place today that you can stand and hear someone clear as a bell who is standing on the other side of the warehouse, some thirty feet away - but when you begin to walk towards that person the sound stops echoing like that and they get quieter, then of course louder as you get nearer to them again.  That was VERY strange - I turned the corner from my office and thought my boss was right there by the wall, or maybe just inside that office there - and looked down the hallway and she was on the other end of the building talking to someone else.  It's either vents or just plain perfectly-bouncing echoes as it is a metal building.