Friends and Family

December 05, 2022 by Adam in Family

I visited my friend Jason today.  It was great to see him and the most reassuring thing was just how much he seemed to be himself.  He, Bridget and I chatted for over an hour, talking and laughing and telling stories about how fascinating and annoying it is to have part of your brain stop working.  The good news is that his movement and balance issues have mostly resolved.  He gets tired sometimes.  The main challenge seems to be vision processing issues - having to pick out details from a messy scene is really challenging.  Still, he improves every day and the neurologist seemed to feel he'd be able to return to work after a few months and likely even drive again.  It was so reassuring.

The wayward travellers also made it home just this moment.  A friend of theirs drove down to California in his truck to rescue them.  They were wiped out but very happy to be home.

Today felt like a win.

Wayward Travellers

December 04, 2022 by Adam in Family

The wayward travellers had their truck break down in Bakersfield, the recurring theme being that everything falls apart a day from home.  Fortunately a friend is going to drive the 12 hours to pick them and the trailer up and return it home.  Also fortunately Seraph and dad are shuffling things around so they have a vehicle again while out at the farm.

Other than that minor catastrophe, the weekend has been relatively uneventful.  I ended up work a little on a pull request to assuage my guilt of my workdays being so busy.  I'm heartbroken by Danica's news, especially after such a positive diagnosis a month ago.  Hopefully I can see Jason tomorrow and see how he's doing.  I'd love to stop by regularly to play board games and hang out, though my schedule continues to be packed.  I played a few video games and listened to a sci-fi podcast that's really good.  The front lawn was mowed.  Advent calendars were put up.  Dinners were cooked.  Life goes on.

Snowy Mocha Friday

December 02, 2022 by Adam in Family

It's been snowing off and on the last couple days, sticking just enough to make the roads dangerous and the landscape pretty.  The younger kids have been off of school and appointments have been fewer, so my usually frantic schedule has been easing off somewhat.  Work is still busy as we try to get a release ready, but I got to work on something fun for a few hours yesterday.  Hopefully we can do some final testing and kick our 2.5 release out the door.

I'm hoping to visit Jason on Monday and seeing how his recovery is coming along.  It would be cool to start up D&D again, but only if that's something he thinks he'd like to do.

I'm woefully unprepared for Christmas, which seems to be coming up fast.  Hopefully this weekend I can have some downtime.  The travellers are arriving Sunday night and taking the southern route, so hopefully it's relatively uneventful.

Mid-Week Update

December 01, 2022 by Adam in Family

Let's see . . . update time.  Joanna continues to heal - I've started driving them to 2 hour hyperbaric chamber sessions each morning at 7:30 am.  Emma's almost done with her term.  Ben's excited about chemistry and wants to take AP Chem as an elective senior year.  Duncan's wrapping up IOP and starts a new term next week.  The Texas people arrive this weekend, assuming the snow doesn't cause trouble.  I guess I need to stop calling them Texas people now that they're hitting the road with everything in a trailer today.

Work is frantic.  Hopefully I'll stop feeling personally responsible for everyone's problems, though I somehow doubt it.  I did manage to work on something fun for the first time in awhile, though I suspect I'll need to stop and work on bugs when we actually release the latest version.  The team merging process continues - we're informally calling ourselves the PAPI team from Pop Analyzer and Pop Insights, which comes with a variety of interesting meanings.  "Poppy" is the nickname the kids call me, so maybe it all belongs to me now.

Reports of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

November 27, 2022 by Adam in Family

It's been a very busy week, with Joanna out with her follow-up surgery and taking the kids to appointments and such.  Work has been nutty with all the things Jonathan used to do falling to me.  I sometimes wish I didn't feel so responsible for everything.  To top it off, I've gotten a cold and am so sniffly that Emma just carried a box of tissues and set it down next to me without saying a word.

Thanksgiving day was busy, getting Jo from the airport and settled back home again, plus cooking all the vegetarian aspects of Thanksgiving on my own.  I smartly started with pumpkin pie the day before, along with prepping the sweet potato caserrole.  Everything else didn't really matter as much with those two pillars in place.

The rest of the weekend has been a mix of all the chores, coupled with hanging out.  Emma got her COVID booster and flu shot.  I hopefully mitigated the basement plumbing once again.  Laundry and dishes were non-stop.  Fortunately with Joanna back home I don't have to pill Leia anymore.  That was the one thing I dreaded.

Tomorrow is another crazy work and kid transportation day.  It helps knowing such things are only temporary.

Frazzled

November 22, 2022 by Adam in Family

Life's really full at the moment.  I finally collapsed last night at 8:30 after a day of work meetings, client tickets, fixing lunches, feeding cats, doing laundry, cooking dinner, and driving kids back and forth to appointments.  I'm hoping today is somewhat better.  The underlying challenge is that at home I'm doing all my stuff and Joanna's stuff and at work I'm doing all my stuff and Jonathan's stuff.  Basically there's too much stuff and not enough me.

My friend Jason is out of the hospital and into a rehab center, though they still don't have his blood pressure entirely under control.  Bridget gave me the green light to visit when he's back home which hopefully will be later this week.  It'll be nice to see how he's doing and do what I can to help.

Joanna's recovering okay, hopefully flying home on Thursday.  I'm really glad to have tomorrow off of work, though I really need to get some shopping and maybe a little baking in there.

The kids are all doing okay.  Emma's finished all her final projects and doesn't have to take her final since her midterm score was so high and they take the best of the two.  Ben's discovering the secrets of chemistry and loving it.  Duncan's winding down his IOP and moving to a new counselor, but he mostly seems to be doing okay.  We chat about Minecraft and video games and such.

All the Things

November 18, 2022 by Adam in Family

There's a lot going on.  Jason's still in the hospital as they try to get his blood pressure managed.  Joanna's in sugery as I type this, sounding cheerful - hopefully they'll be done in a couple hours and their friend Rebecca will be keeping an eye on them while they recover.  My coworker Corinne is driving to Texas today.  Work is having some layoffs, though I think I'm fine.  I've been taking care of the kids and cats and chickens in addition to dishes and groceries and all the other things.  My biggest success this morning was pilling Leia relatively easily, especially compared to yesterday.

Hopefully this weekend is a little quieter.  I have a lot of chores, including some minor pluming and tree pruning, but the day-to-day schedule should be easier. I hope that all the people I care about are doing okay.

Monday

November 14, 2022 by Adam in Family

The weekend itself was low-key and pleasant.  Emma was her cheerful self and we managed some video game playing, a trip to the library, and chatting away in general.  Joanna and I did some gardening, planting fava beans and garlic for next year.  I painted miniatures and now have a small army of evil aquatic creatures across four different boxes.

I got news from Bridget that Jason, my longtime friend and D&D player, was in the hospital.  It's serious, but it looks like he's going to be okay with some OT and PT in his future.  The hope is that he can come home in a few days and start planning next steps.  We've postponed our upcoming D&D session for the time being.

Joanna leaves in a couple days and this morning I followed them around as a parent-in-training, making sure I'll be able to get kids clothed and fed and out the door for school.  I'm glad it's just a week.

Work has changes too - meeting with the new manager, trying to get the new release out, and so on.  I often wish life were a little quieter.

Mocha Friday

November 11, 2022 by Adam in Family

I've survived another work week.  Yesterday was the "catch up on everything" day.  We finally got all our hotfixes in and deployed to all the clients we were supposed to.  I think we're down to one ticket, which I think means we can start doing development again.  We also met our new manager and project manager.  I don't know them really well, but I think it'll be fine.  Our stocks also went up a little, which means they're now worth a fifth of their highest value rather than a tenth.

As for the rest of life, I'm bracing myself for Joanna's departure next week and taking care of the kids while they're away, followed by doing most of the transportation and such for at least a couple weeks after their return.  Fortunately we have a fair number of days off of school so hopefully I manage it all.

I've printed and painted a veritable evil army for my next D&D session a bit over a week from now.  No idea how this one will go - could be catastrophic, could be fun.  I've got a little prep to do and there are always more minatures to paint, but honestly that's half the fun.

Still playing video games for fun, meditating, lifting weights, running at lunch, and having the weekly date night.  Looking forward to Emma's arrival and chatting about her latest lab where she makes crabs fight for science.

Changes

November 08, 2022 by Adam in Family

Work has been pretty crazy lately.  Jonathan left, we're pushing out a new release, and we just got the news that our team is merging with another team.  I'm not sure how that's going to work - my experience says "poorly" but hope springs eternal.  I'm back to not sleeping well again, which isn't great.  Hopefully some of these changes and issues are temporary - we'll see how it goes, I suppose.

It was a pleasant weekend.  Saturday was pretty quiet - hanging out with Emma, playing games, and staying cozy during the pouring rain.  Sunday was D&D day and as usual I loved hanging out with the fam, rolling dice, and moving minatures around.  I've been playing a new video game occasionally - Deathloop, which is a time-loop mystery on a weird island.  It reminds me a little of The Prisoner and Lost, which makes it pretty compelling.

Joanna is off in a week, about the same time my coworker Corinne moves to Texas.  I imagine I'll be really ready to take some time off when Thanksgiving rolls around.  In the meantime, I try to find moments here and there to enjoy.  I painted miniatures while listening to HR talk about open enrollment, which was a highlight of my day.