am a tro, what a day

 Last night when I was actually getting ready to go to bed (at 7:30, because I was already overtired and hoping to sleep well) the mechanic called and said to bring the car down to get the window fixed.  So, we did... and then this morning we went to town to get lumber and groceries.  I did make myself a good egg omelet with seaweed and arugula and hot peppers, hot pepper cheese and spices.  I feel I haven't been eating very well the last two months but it could be worse... and I have been feeling more absentminded, which I hope is from being overtired and not having as much free time to do the things I was used to doing.   And I played with a few language lessons this afternoon and then some more Sims (which, I'm still on the fence if that is any good for me...it sucks up time and I still wonder if I could get more out of baking or making lunch for the next day or this or that...) and then the mechanic called again and said the window was fixed and to come get the car.  So, we did...  that cost a bit more than I expected, but at least it's done.  After that, made dinner and did laundry and am getting ready to go to bed early again tonight to get up early tomorrow.  Am a tro, what a day, and that is a day 'off'....  

 I studied some Latvian today as well as the Japanese.   I felt proud of myself when I did the 'phone numbers' Latvian lesson where you listen to the string of numbers being read off and either put them in as you hear them or correct a series of questions where the number is written down incorrectly.  Both were hard in their own way, especially since I didn't review the numbers from my last bout with the language months ago and just dove in.  'Nola' is zero, by the way - that was the only one I couldn't sort after hearing them again for the first time in months.  Some of the numbers are almost the same as in many other Indo-European languages, but the word for eight is unique.  The teen numbers remind me of Czech, not the same words, but a similar form - but then, the 'teen' in all of the English ones is a similar relatable pattern that I don't think of easily, because I'm just too used to it.

I played with the Bern Istaba, a Latvian children's website to see if I could remember a lot of the basic words I learned there.  It was a good review, as well.

Did some more of the yomu yomu Japanese story app that reads the story to you while you read the text on the screen (in Japanese hiragana/kanji) and the subtitles (in English) side by side.  Sort of like a dual-language reader, which I had a few of back when (high school / college), in German as paperback books.   I like that quite a bit... am wondering if the language is 'stilted' vs what a real Japanese story would be to make it simpler for beginners.  It was quite repetitive.. which seemed unnatural - but I understood 75% of it and learned some new words with every chapter.  That's the sweet spot.

I browsed around the internet a little to look at the costs of some of the other language sites.  I would like to take a course in Latvian, but there aren't a lot of good ones out there.  Duolingo has a lot of courses - 40 or more, but it doesn't have Latvian or Lithuanian.  We do have the Transparent language learning free with our library cards here in our area - it's just been a while since I logged onto it.  It had Latvian!

fast forward friday

 It's cold.  The window in the little car decided today was a day to stop working - and it's electric, and without whatever broke while it was sitting in the driveway overnight, it won't go up all the way and it won't stay up, either.  The mechanic has ordered a part for it.  My keyboard is acting funny in the cold, as well, all of a sudden.  And because it is this cold - I really just want to go to bed and stay in bed until I have to go to work tomorrow.

Finished reading 'Lessons in Chemistry', (by Bonnie Garmus, fiction book) which I had set aside a few months ago - well, more like six months ago.  But it was good to finish it.

Saw some language polyglot person in a post that said they learned 'conversational' level in 15 languages over the course of a year.  Yea... probably not, especially looking at that list of languages they posted.  However, my idea of 'what is conversational' is probably higher level than most people would think.  I am thinking he means the absolute basics, hello, goodbye, how are you, where is the restroom 'survival' phrases.  

I think 'toddler level language' - to be 'conversational' you should be able to speak simply about what you need, want and think about things - as all the questions, understand numbers, have a good handful of adjectives, place names (library, bank, rooms, park etc.) and other nouns.  You should also understand at least half of what a speaker might answer back to any of your conversational / survival questions enough to get the information.  But maybe they consider that a higher level?  

 I would say I am 'adequate' in maybe 6 languages, and that is a much higher level than what I just said, able to read newspapers and watch tv, along with being able to read more although I might still check a dictionary on an uncommon word or to check the right form of the word to use.  I could say I am 'conversational' (my description above) in up to 11 or 12, and that I have a 'bare basic' of I know some key phrases and recognize even more words but my grammar definitely wouldn't be able to hold water in a conversation in about twenty different languages, total).

 Although this has taken a lot more than 15 months - and many more resources than a single app or class course each - I'd say I'm at 8 years on focusing on the Welsh and French (2017 when I discovered Duolingo those were the two I focused on), scattered amounts of Japanese and German from many stops and starts, and 3 to 4 years on many of the others as I really began my push in 2021 for Czech and Romanian and restarting Japanese - then added the others as I continued and while I was taking that Comparative Linguistics class at the online university course. 

That course had me look at Finnish, Greek, Irish, Latvian, Turkish, Zulu and Hungarian to get an idea of the structure differences of all of the different language families.  I tried Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Dutch to compare them specifically against Finnish and German.  I beat my head on Spanish, all by itself, for three or four months exclusively and then found Catalan, and Portuguese were both easier for me (through French similarities) and still have trouble with responding in Italian, although I understand it okay, the Spanish and the French both get in the way there.  I took a Russian A1 course this year because I was watching videos of a lady training big cats that she spoke to the in Russian.  I also though it would help me with Cyrillic letters for learning Bulgarian, as an offshoot of getting fairly good with Czech. - but I  can't say I'm conversational in that. I also took the first few levels of Chinese on Duolingo to support learning Kanji in Japanese when I moved from 'studying this a little' to 'actually understanding this and needing to go deeper now.'

I had a dream the other night that I was opening up a letter that said I was being published for a book that I have not yet written or even thought of.  I 'remembered' the book in the dream and it was so complete and funny and it could work - and then it fell apart like sand through my fingers as I pulled myself awake.  That happened once before with a detective story, as well - which I only got half of it down on paper before I couldn't remember it anymore.  I guess we'll see if I can get started on this idea, but with it being cold and working six days a week - maybe I'll need even a bit more inspiration or enough time with a notebook to lay it out.

I had gotten Esme a Christmas present coming in the mail because last year I waited too long and missed it - it was out of stock for months, and then I finally got her one of the versions, but not the one she really really wanted (She still said she liked the version she did get).  Well I got it early, and we decided to just give it to her early and let her enjoy it for the extra month instead of waiting for it under the tree and maybe it wouldn't even work (it was a game cartridge).  It worked.  She is happy.  She has this weekend to play it and then Thanksgiving break next week for a few days, as well.

it's been a long week and it's Tuesday

 It's gearing up to that again, it's been a long week and it's only Tuesday.  This is because I did the post office on Saturday and then went out to the store on Sunday and I really could just crash now after dinner and take a nap.  But there is laundry in the washer, and I need to get it to the dryer.  When that gets in the dryer I'll probably head off to bed.

The two trucks that were supposed to come in today both had mishaps, and are going to have to limp in tomorrow.  So I sat without a lot to do this afternoon except phone calls, mail and email - and fighting the eyelids that wanted to droop.  Ran out to the feed store after work, because there's no time like the present etc... even though I would have liked to have taken a nap even then.  Driving in the sun around 3 o'clock in the afternoon in November here is vicious - there is nowhere to look that isn't bright as blazes etc. 

I've let both of my Japanese Duolingo leader boards slide a bit - dropping to Pearl and Amethyst.  But then that is also doing only Japanese, and I haven't broken my streaks, just not doing as much xp as was usual for me before.  There's a twinge there of 'hey, go do some Latvian', but here I am writing a blog post, instead, with my little black cat sitting by my side.

 My Mikki Mack books should be coming sometime - and I'm going to give a few of them away.  They were inspired by a few different people, which, sadly, one of the elderly gentlemen passed away recently.  I had given him an idea the character in the book was based on him and his little cat, but with stories and characterizations from other cats I've known.  I saw an old work friend at the store the other day and he has had a few sad things in the past few years, as well.  He gave his regards for Daphne, as he knew her from a little pup, as well. I think I'll drop one of the books off at their desk at the old store with a note that the character is based off Mr. Art - because they'll recognize that.

monday monday, wait, it's not tuesday

 It's been so much of a Monday, it almost feels like it should be Tuesday by now.  But I'm headed off to bed, so that will happen in a few hours here anyway.  And somehow it is also more than halfway through November.  *squints at calendar*    Doing less Japanese than I should be doing.  

 Fussing around with the architect profession now on Sims 3, thinking about playing with the gardening dynamic after this.  It is supposed to rain a lot tonight again and be better tomorrow, then turn very cold.  The furnace is out at the office - after being asked to start turning it on to 'comfortable' for visitors and so you're not in a coat all the time... up from 'bearable with a coat' for me, which is where I had it on - so *sigh* now I'll be putting on my double thermal layers and fuzzy socks again until they get someone to get it fixed.  I bought some malted milk to put in my hot tea.

I've reached that two month review point, but now with working through Thanksgiving I know we won't have any time to discuss vacation days and then I was overhearing that it isn't two months, it's four - two for a half day, and four for a full day.  *blink*  But I am still liking the basic job, getting things done, keeping track of things, getting things we need and getting the bills paid etc.  And having my own bills paid helps so much.  I've had to make a lot of calls to electricians and plumbers lately, and that has had me saying 'oh my introvert' a little as I take a few minutes and regather myself and call the next one.  But I'm getting through it, and there isn't anyone there to ask me why I'm taking three minutes before calling another one... do what you do etc.

apropos of nothing, tried the ginger and sesame flavor Halo seaweed snacks today and it is good - I usually eat that with rice as a sort of 'pseudo' sushi snack.  So, I'll have to make some 'sushi' rice to eat with some of it soon, and the sweet-and-spicy chili tuna packet bought with the same intention.  I also bought two cans of brown sugar boba tea but haven't cracked into one yet.  

And what was the reason for these strange foods?  Went shopping with someone else and 'really didn't need anything'...a pizza, cheese, pepperoni and some canned vegetables were all that was on our list - but I ended up getting a few other things as well, and a birthday present, and that is how you spend money that you don't really need to *sigh*.  Although I did have a cat brush on the list, didn't think I'd find one, did - and have been using it on our little elderly cat because she has trouble grooming herself now AND likes to lie out in leaves and gravel.  So often, she still has bits of stuff stuck to her fur when she comes to sleep in my lap.  It's getting colder now, so if I'm going to be sat on so often I thought I'd get the little soft plastic brush and put it somewhere I could reach it from my chair.

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.

bits

 

  

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.  

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.

a month

I've been working as the logistics clerk for a month now - and I like it.  There is a lot of data to analyze.  There's mostly always something to do, and it is consistent.  Since it is a very small company, the job is a bit of a mosaic of things that at a bigger company might be done by several people - but in a small company it is enough to keep one person busy.  So besides arranging and scheduling transportation for how orders are received and the products are shipped (the logistics part), I am also doing cleaning duties, ordering supplies, answering the phone and keeping the utility bills and other things paid by scanning them and sending them to their billing department etc. etc.. It's a job that needs to be done and I'm taking an 'ikigai' approach to it, not as in MY reason for being, but there is a reason there is a job there and it needs someone to do it, and I needed a job that I could be a good fit for - so I am going to show up and do it to the best of my potential.  

 I'm still a bit worried about snow and ice this winter, and getting there so early in the morning before dawn... but taking it as it comes.  And I'm still doing the postal route on Saturdays (under the same sort of it needs someone to make sure it is done, and to do it well, and that person is me, umbrella).  That's a little stressful for the managers at the post office because now, finally, the carrier I was subbing for the last few years is just now taking her vacation days for the year after saving most of them, and I'm not available to cover for them during the weekdays because I'm now doing the other job.  If she might have taken her vacation a little earlier in the year I might not have been so broke that I went looking for a second job!  But, then, I wouldn't be here doing this, learning these new things and would still be getting really inconsistent pay checks through this winter that is coming up, scraping by or falling behind instead of getting the bills paid.  

I am glad these two jobs did fit together this way and I will continue trying to do them both.  It is covering our bills, and giving me a better feeling for this winter.  Maybe after another month, the office job told me when I interviewed, I can plan to cover a day here or there for the post office and use my own vacation or time off from the office job to do it.  We'll cross that road when we get there.

Laundry, - we need to pull the washing machine away from the wall this weekend and unscrew the wall panel and see if we can see where that bit of water is consistently leaking from.  It might be from the machine itself.. or the drain hose, we're just not sure.  We are pretty sure it isn't from the valves or it would be constant, and it is a small amount of water that only shows up when we run the machine.  Mark and Esme even asked me if maybe it is coming from that vanity sink on the other side of the wall that we rarely use - but I was using it for washing my face almost every night up to a few nights ago - and there was no water.  I just ran a load of laundry tonight and there is a bit of water visible at the base of the machine right by the wall.  

 We turned on the heater for the house.  Trying to get Grandma's heating on, as well - she has two new 6 to 8 week old female puppies and her house is cold.  Esme went up there to give them some socialization and hold them in her lap, and I've asked her to do the same tomorrow while she is on break.  I went up there today, too - and spent some time with Grandma and the pups while trying to get the thermostat to kick in - it didn't.  The person who gave her the pups told her they were older, so we had given her food for older dogs.  Then we all saw them with our own eyes (Esme, me, then Mark) and we knew they were younger and needed different food.  Mark and I ran to the store yesterday and got the puppies the right kind of food and I put down a water dish today which I thought Grandma had done yesterday -- and they will need some vetting in another few weeks.  I checked with Mark and they do not need worm medicine for another week or two, but then they will need it every two weeks for a little while, a very small amount each, as they are very small and will be small even as adults.

I'm still reading the manga Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You, studying mostly Japanese the past few days on three different accounts (two duolingo and one clozemaster) and doing the Tetris game on my phone.

bits

 Mark's nephew and his wife came through Hurricane Milton just fine, which is a relief.  It's been nearly a month at the new job, and they told me the amount of product we're shipping out is unprecedented.   After a few more weeks the warehouse will be nearly empty, except for what they are making now, and the materials they have to make it with (which are a lot, though).  The manager is selling it, and I'm setting up transportation, and the warehouse crew is loading it up.  The warehouse crew said it was more work than they wanted right now - but they were also having a really hard time finding things that had been squirreled away for months and months and hadn't been selling... so, it's going to be good in the future to have that old stuff gone and be able to organize putting the new stuff in ways they can get to it.. right?  They had already claimed it was ruining their sanity trying to figure out where to put the new stuff a few weeks ago...

 For spreadsheet practice at work I made a 'shipping price trend analysis chart' showing all of the prices they have paid for freight to every destination from the records they had kept (already on another screen that I update daily) since the company was bought out.  They had told me to play around with the spreadsheet program and see what I could make it do in whatever free time I wasn't cleaning etc.. and since I am calling and scheduling and taking bids on these freight trips - I thought it would be a useful tool as well.

I did Japanese and Turkish and French today at work, (before work clockin, at lunch and at afternoon break) although just a tiny bit of the last two.  Then I tried Spanish and failed badly on the verb cases and spellings.  Came home and punched out the next module on the much higher level PC Duolingo profile - but had a lot more time to work on it after dinner.  After work I had also put another cheap new tire on the mail truck and got a bit of groceries - not everything, but some.  Tired now, headed for bed.

I still think often : Why is a forty-five year old geek girl in Tennessee learning bits and pieces of so many languages?  And then I think .. why not?  I could put the same amount of effort into mathematics, accounting, business etc... and not get as much joy and progress out of it.  It's taken a long time to find out I was actually good at languages, after being told for so long that I couldn't possibly be (because of the speech impediment and dyslexia)... so I'm enjoying this thing my brain can do :)  and have to keep finding ways to make it more useful, but that is second chair to actually enjoying learning.

bits

It is starting to get cooler - and we'll probably have to light up Mark's propane heater soon.   I've been busy at my new job, and trying to get enough sleep at night in between it all - it starts so early, and then our typical family schedule runs until 7 pm or so... I am really wondering how that is going to work when winter hits, as it is already far before daylight that I have to set out for it.  It has been really good to know that all the bills for the month can get paid now - and Esme's birthday is coming up as well.

 

I'm still studying Japanese every day, and found a site for reading some manga, in multiple languages.  I read one in Portuguese the other day, and some of one in Turkish (although my Turkish is very low level, I understood some of it without going to the translator and then when I found the English version I was further impressed).  I am also sprinkling in some French and Spanish in there.  There was a driver at work that did not speak English, but I was too afraid to speak to him in what little Spanish I have.  I know that is still strange, studying all of these other languages and Spanish is the most useful, but not the one I find the easiest to grasp.  If only a driver from Houston spoke fluent Welsh ;)   

 

(Honestly, a goal of mine is to do Babbel or some lessons on italki or something at some point and get some good practice in doing actual production in conversational Spanish, but since it is one of my hardest languages to grasp, I haven't reached out to actually spending anything on it)



The manga I just finished reading was '365 days to the wedding', which was very sweet and different from the things I have usually found. The pair start out as barely work acquaintances and then claim they are getting married to avoid being sent on a bad assignment - but it turns into more, and they both break out of their shells and find out life is so much more than they were shielding themselves away from, and that together they can get through the embarrassments and constant worries and build on what they are discovering . Another one was really hard to translate the title of it - it was 'Usuzumi no Hate', which is translated from the Japanese as 'the color of the End, mission in the apocalypse' about an android girl with the memories of a real person? (they are still explaining some of that), who is trying to clean up a strange plague that has turned countless millions of humans to crystal - and is still extremely contagious and fatal to any remaining human life unless dealt with by the androids. That was the one I had started reading in Turkish before I found it in English. I finished all there is so far of Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (The Apothecary Diaries) but it is definitely not finished yet. I had to read the last chapter of that in Portuguese as it was the only langauge available.




Of course, the hurricane (Milton) is about to hit in a few days as well - hope everything is alright for the people there. I know a few that are staying, and a family that is evacuating to the east until it is over with.




Languages:  (old style Duolingo, from DuoMe)

French                 L 25     XP 52905 22905 XP beyond Level 25
Welsh                  L 25      XP 30114 114 XP beyond Level 25
Spanish               L 23       XP 25613 +387 XP to next level
Japanese             L 21     XP 17741 +1259 XP to next level

Czech                  L 19     XP 13888 +1112 XP to next level
Romanian           L 17      XP 11143 +857 XP to next level
Portuguese         L 16     XP 9632 +868 XP to next level

Italian                 L 15     XP 7952 +1048 XP to next level
Greek                 L 14     XP 7226 +274 XP to next level
German             L 14     XP 6148 +1352 XP to next level
Finnish              L 13     XP 5515 +485 XP to next level
Catalan (en espanol)      L 12 XP 4303 +597 XP to next level

Swedish            L 11     XP 3848 +52 XP to next level
Russian             L 11     XP 3818 +82 XP to next level
Spanish (from French)     L 11 XP 3190 +710 XP to next level
Norwegian        L 11     XP 3097 +803 XP to next level
Hungarian        L 10     XP 2591 +409 XP to next level

Ukrainian         L 10      XP 2288 +712 XP to next level
Irish                 L 9        XP 2174 +76 XP to next level
Turkish            L 9       XP 2074 +176 XP to next level
Chinese            L 9       XP 2055 +195 XP to next level
Polish               L 9         XP 1798 +452 XP to next level
Danish             L 4         XP 299 +1 XP to next level

and Latvian elsewhere, and Lithuanian on babadum and baltoslav

and another duolingo profile on my phone that I had made in 2017 and took back up again because it was easier to do that than have dual login from pc... //sigh  I usually stick to about two to five languages per day unless I'm feeling overly bouncy and need brain exercise

Japanese on Clozemaster, did Russian on Busuu for a bit, Japanese on LingQ for a bit, French and Spanish on Kwizik, yomuyama and a few other things in Japanese, mangadex in whatever languages it lets me, cooking blogs in Portuguese and Norwegian and Latvian, children's games sites etc etc..

bits

 

 So much in the news today - Iran, Lebanon and Israel - the port worker's strike and a lot of fear being spread around about supplies being hard to get over the holidays and winter if it continues.  Gah.  I don't like fearmongering like that - and we all should already know things will be a little harder to get because of the hurricane damage.  It doesn't mean go run out and buy up every store, making more trouble far and wide.  But that doesn't stop people from trying to do it.   I did go get all of our animal feeds, but mostly because I was running to the other town for something Mark wanted - and that is where the feed store is, and I didn't want to have to run there again right after work in a few days.  Now that I work in the other 'other' town Monday through Friday, and at the post office on Saturday, there isn't a lot of time to get to something that is only open until 5.  I stopped by that grocery store there to pick up the few things that I usually do buy there that the other one doesn't have, or doesn't have generic of (canned apples, and canned carrots - the big store has been out of canned carrots for going on a month and that's weird)  It made for a long day, and 150 lbs of animal feeds unloaded at home, then dinner, and some Scrapheap Challenge, and Japanese lessons.  

 

 

I've done some French, a lot of Japanese - my phone Japanese has now surpassed both the French and Spanish levels, as well as the Tetris type game on my breaks and before work starts.  Some of the manuals and invoices for equipment have bits in them in Italian, and yesterday - one with electrical descriptions in Turkish.  I read a bit of a welcome page that was bilingual and realized after a few sentences that it was Turkish - the word 'onun' especially and all the 'az' on the ends of things.   I still haven't gone past level 9 on Duolingo in Turkish, just enough to see the structure of the language and the most common words  Not really the kind of words in an electrical manual!  Then I confirmed by seeing a website link that ended in .tr which is the country code.  I had to scan a lot of those manuals in for digitizing, part of what they wanted me to do for this job.  Lots more truck stuff tomorrow.  Reading more of the Apothecary Diaries manga that I found - not quite up to the point where the anime had left off until next year - but enjoying it.  I am seeing some differences in translation between the English translated manga and the English dub anime even - word choices etc.  And there are some little scenes or details that are not included in the anime, to cut down time and frames etc. 

Also, I had been taking a mixture of cranberry juice and water in one container to work, and coffee in my thermos.  Then, when I got home, I would combine all that was left, heat it up, and drink it together.  Yes.  That's odd.  What's worse though - is I forgot one of those cups in the microwave when Mark and Esme were starting to cook yesterday - and Mark told me my 'coffee' was beeping.  So I took it out, nice and warm, and added a bit of milk to it like I usually do, forgetting it had the cranberry juice with it.  Curdled.  *Stare at it*  Oh.  Yes.  That combination doesn't work too well!  Mark could barely contain a giggle there, after he heard what the issue was.

grow

 

An older picture, but I keep pretty pictures up on my desktop sometimes, ones that I have taken, in order to click them open and look at them again or leave them up like a screensaver and have that on my computer for the day while I'm doing other things.  I had dog roses up the other day, and today I switched to these blue flag irises.

That's two weeks down at the office job, and the postal route on Saturday, and today I didn't get called for emergency 'we can't cover it' packages on Sunday - so we went and did some shopping with Grandma.  Esme helped me with all the carrying and such.  We also looked at Christmas ornaments, trees and home goods.  We bought a mop, which I've been needing to get another one.

When we got home, I put dinner in the toaster oven and used the mop a little on the worst places (that had spurred me to get it), and did laundry, and so forth.  I almost went down for a nap after chatting with a friend, but found a hole in a yarn blanket and repaired that, and remembered a hole in a shirt I was going to run under the sewing machine and so forth...

I dreamt of snow last night, so high it filled the entire valley and the yard up... blocking the downstairs doors and windows.  In the dream, I woke Esme and Mark up to look at it, but they didn't think it was really a problem... that dream was probably brought on all by the flooding in the East, and my worries for winter.  The night before I had dreamt of my poor little black cat had been speared through against a tree, and I was so afraid to pull the spear out for fear it would do more damage - and I did, because I couldn't leave her like that, and she ran off as if she wasn't hurt, but leaking green liquid while I was trying to figure out if I could get her into the back of the truck, or if we could bring her to the vet or just what to do about it.. she grew three times bigger into a wolf with fangs and started eating rabbits that I hadn't even seen up until that moment, and I was conflicted, and the wolf started leaking even more neon green goo, jumped into the back of the truck and then disappeared entirely into a mass of green goo in the truck bed.  The stranger thing was that all 'happened' in the dream, in my mom's yard, back in Minnesota, which I didn't find strange until I woke up from the dream and remembered I was chasing the cat originally around the bathtub and the oak tree the spear had been put into, which were places I had played often as a child and have become iconic in my brain. I had a box at the post office yesterday that was leaking liquid all over but only when it was upside-down - it came out like a spout, and when it was right-side-up, it was fine.  That liquid was clear, and probably bottled water.  I had also been very worried about that same little cat outside in the rains - she came in twice but kept going back out and I let her, because she was very urgent about it.  It is very strange what anxious brains do with daily information, and maybe a bit much anime.

Going to go make a cup of tea now and maybe watch another anime episode.

Thursday already

I'm still showing up and doing the best job I can - still learning things.  Trying to put myself to bed earlier at night - more like 8:30 than 9:30, but it isn't happening easily yet.  Did Japanese and French today on breaks, and a little afterwards - but Mark wanted me to get groceries now that the first paycheck is in.  It is supposed to rain now until through the weekend - so I am hoping that doesn't cause any flooding.  The little car seems to be running well, but I also took the mail truck in today because I can't let it sit too long either.  

 

 

the penguin is an alien

well, no ... but hEDS makes me feel like one sometimes

 

 Mark asked me 'how I'm holding up', six days a week - although that won't be six days this week until Saturday is in the bag.  I have to admit, a bit tired, especially in the mid-afternoon, but I might just have to give in and pack an extra peanut butter cracker or something for that.  I used to do that at the hardware store.  It's not all just because I'm not getting to sleep early enough, there is that mid-afternoon slump from eating lunch, then sitting down and not being up and rushing about as much.  There has been something to do most of the time, but I was told that will slack off a little now that we're through the backlog - and it will be more bit here and there cleaning and going back over things for accuracy etc.  I'm getting by okay though - it's going to take some time to get used to any new routine, even if you aren't an alien.

 

Funny not funny, my left knee is doing something unexpected - I'm opening one of the locked doors by pushing with it or perhaps the getting down and getting back up from the little car or maybe even hooking it wrong in the office chair I sit in... even a combination of the above.  I'm not complaining about it, just noting it, so I can look back on it later.  I'll just have to pay more attention and figure out what it is.  I had a bruise on my left arm that was from getting in and out of the car a new way and I figured out how to get up without putting that arm on the sharp door frame.  It's funny not funny to have hypermobility and easy bruising, as you can do something really 'stupid' like pick up a huge box and hurt the next day and know it was from that - 'I shouldn't do that' or you can do a lot of little stupid things you're not used to doing in a new daily routine and have it hurt daily and wonder 'what on earth am I doing to cause that'...  and have to go narrow it down.

bits of Monday

Did the postal route on Saturday, had a partially restful day on Sunday, slept in a little, which was needed.  Did Japanese, and a little French.    The power went out for an hour and a half in the morning.  And with the power out I cleaned up a little, and organized my clothing, and then when it came back on I did more laundry and we cooked dinner.   Today, besides work at the office, was a rush to get new tires on the little car, which had popped one of them on Friday when Mark was going to the meat store.  He was helped by a kind elderly gentleman who gave him a ride back down his long driveway in a golf cart and helped him put on the spare, since we did not have a jack or a 4-way in the vehicle yet.  A blown tire wasn't entirely unexpected, considering we know it sat a while before we bought it refurbished - but we weren't going to put chances on the other three after the way the first one failed.  That put us out of going to the supermarket on Sunday, as the spare that was on it was one of those tiny donut things.  

I called the tire shop on my lunch break, and they had the right ones in stock.  With the mail truck, they always have to order it, because it is such a strange size.  Got home in the truck at 4, got into the car, convinced it to start, got out of the driveway and to the tire shop under the 5 o'clock wire, while they had four tires in stock.  And home.  Did more Japanese today.  Watched the first four episodes of Apothecary Diaries (anime), and it's quite good.  I had watched bits and pieces of it in Japanese here and there, but could not find full episodes in Japanese, only in English dub (odd, huh?) It's time for bed again, the day has been full, and I have to be up early again tomorrow.

bits of going towards the weekend

 

 

I had been doing mostly Japanese, but started to slide into a bit of French here and there on my main profile.  Wow, did some more French and Japanese switching off from each other just now (lesson of one, then the other, then back etc.) - the high level French, and the high level Japanese lessons.  I found the feeling of switching from the 'am I doing this right grammar with the y's and the les/leur/lui' on the French to the Japanese 'point click - the syntax falls into place because that is where it goes' very interesting.  But the Japanese is all still present tense, as well, and mostly I/you so grammatically it is much simpler than where I'm at with the French.

//brought the spider plant to work and gave it some water and left it for the weekend,  we are nursing another chicken in the garage but this one seems much better off than the other one to start with.  Mark had a flat with the little car but had a very nice person help him get it changed, as the car didn't have all the tools in it yet to deal with that- and we need to get it kitted up for such problems.

A whole week finished at the new job, and the postal route today.  And then we'll see how restful Sunday is and start it all over again, except next week I'm 'on my own' in the office, so that will be a huge change both timewise keeping track of what happens next and quiet wise, as this week has been a LOT of conversation and I'm not as used to that anymore as I had been when I was at the hardware store, but I've been doing my best to keep up.  There has been SO much talk of food, as well, and I'm really not used to that.  

 I still have to watch and make sure I'm drinking enough - postal route today should be interesting to see where my habit falls on that now.  I always bring a thermos with me and sometimes get an extra drink, and haven't had any problems in a long time.  But at this office job, sitting most of the time, with drinking small amounts throughout the day - somehow I've had more trouble drinking enough than when I'm out on the road drinking sparingly and stopping only at the designated breaks - and then drinking a lot after the route, how does that figure out?   The only thing I can guess is that the humidity difference because the plant is hot and has weird heavy humidity and the office is air-conditioned and dry - it must be altering how my body reacts then the postal route which is mostly 'outside' conditions (window always open) and fairly constant the whole day, my body gets used to whatever the condition is - hot, cold, dry, humid, and can stay in that mode instead of jerking back and forth between modes and then not knowing how much to drink because of it.

office

 

Still learning the range of things there - lots of cleaning yesterday, as some of the other 'hopping around' things didn't happen.  Sketched this up in about ten minutes (here at home, after dinner).  It's easy to draw penguins (a bit too simple here with the flippers long) - but I have felt like the keyboard is so far away from me, had to put it down in my lap when entering figures into the spreadsheet.  If I can remember, I'm going to bring a little plant in for the filing cabinet tomorrow - I have a spare spider plant that needs a home.  It is a bit difficult to drink enough liquid there - but working on making that part of the routine.  I need to stop and get chicken feed at the feed store on the way home this afternoon.  And then I still have the postal route to cover on Saturday.

I've been keeping up with my Japanese, all except the extra vocabulary site - and did a little bit of the higher French grammar tonight.

early early long week

 Every day starts early early, even before the alarm, as the dogs begin to bark.  Keep on learning all the new things, so much at once it's like cramming a month into three days so far, and doing a lot of backlog they had stacked up of filing and so forth, trying to keep all the processes separate in my brain - and check check doublecheck every printed thing for typos (two today, *sigh*)  tomorrow is another day.  

 

//It's also been quite loud there, lots of talking, echoey etc... with a big temperature and humidity difference between the plant and the office, so I have a bit of a headache that I am putting down to that at the moment, besides being tired and needing to drink a lot more liquid that isn't coffee when I'm there.  Putting on my music and setting my alarm (although I expect Sweetie dog to wake me up earlier, and getting back to sleep after that is touch and go)

penguin at work

 

 wireless keyboard and mouse - we ended up putting in a wired keyboard

First day at the office job (still at post office on Saturdays) was good, just got to find out what their processes are and keep my eyes and ears open and not go too fast I miss stuff or mistype stuff because someone is looking over my shoulder.  More to learn tomorrow.  We had a lot of running around after work - going to have to get used to that - because so many things close now right after I get off here (and aren't open when I start!), it's going to be a bit harder to get some things done but not impossible  ie: bank, feed store, etc. both close at 4 and 5.  I did some Japanese at home (woke up way too early again, 3:30 am - stayed up and got ready) and some on my 30 minute lunch break, and finished the rest at home.  Laundry done, lunch made for tomorrow, heading to bed soon - try to sleep more.

After those dog baths yesterday and sitting in an office chair today I think I might have to do some yoga to stretch out my lower back!

sunday dog wash

 

Did packages today.  Washing dogs tonight - and then start the job early tomorrow.  Did Japanese, and am planning on making the kielbasa and rice dish for Esme in a little bit - they are working on making another pan of peanut butter fudge right now.

friday

Did all the Japanese today, and half of a postal route.  It was raining a lot.  I've got rice on the stove to put up, and Mark is planning on making a few pork chops.  Starting the new job on Monday.

Went and looked up the gauge fuse for the truck - it had popped again, and I need to try to fix it when it isn't raining.  It operates the gas gauge and the speedometer.

I took that budgeting video's ideas on calendars and made one that showed everything I have been tracking - Esme stared hard at it.  It's even got when we put the chicken feed or dog food into the bin vs. when I have bought the latest bag.  Gotta know where everything is and when it happens and then I can start getting it by the tail, maybe.