I have noticed over the past two weeks or so that my energy level is pretty low. I wake up sore and tired which is the way I go to bed, most of the time. Most of it is my back and I have been having general back issues for years...they are just worse now.
I have been trying to walk some each day (down to a couple of miles each day now instead of the 3-5 I used to do) with half of that at lunch and the rest as soon as I get off work. It is a slow walk, playing Ingress along the way (care to become an agent? Send me your e-mail address and I will send you an invite.) I don't have the energy anymore to go at it like I used to. I guess this is just the way things are going to be from now on.
I have also noticed that my right hand is starting to exhibit the same behavior as my left one did a few years ago which is now causing me problems getting dressed. Buttons are much more difficult for me now as are laces. I can usually still manipulate them, but it takes longer to do so.
Typing is a chore so I am now either voice dictating or using the "hunt and peck" method, which is slow and tiring. Using voice dictation at work is not possible all the time due to the close proximity of the other cube dwellers in the office so I am hunt and pecker most of the time.
I set my sister up as the trustee to my Google data which was a lot less painful than I had thought it would be. I had hoped to do the same with my Microsoft data but they do not allow that, so I will have to move any important data over to Google while I am still able.
I realized the other day that I still have 2.5 weeks of vacation left that I need to take before Jan 1, 2017. I hope I can do some long weekends from here on out but I need to verify that with my manager. My desire would be to take Friday as a vacation day but I might switch that to Monday since nothing usually goes on for me. I will still be available if something important comes up.
I received notice yesterday that I have been summoned for Jury duty in November. It has been a while since I have been summoned and even longer since I have served. I am kinda hoping I am chosen.
Friday, October 28, 2016
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Getting to Know the Neighbors
Working in an office brings about many challenges, especially if you happen to be a cube dweller. My biggest challenge is trying to attend conference calls (ConCalls) while those around me do the same. I am in an older building with high wall cubes so the sound is muffled a bit but you still hear everything your neighbor says unless they whisper.
My current neighbor, I will call him "Don", is loud..To be honest, with the type of work he is involved with (finance, layoffs, PO's, etc) he really needs an office but alas, our company has decided only mid and upper level management gets offices (even though we have several sitting empty right now) and the rest of us must work in cubes. This makes things interesting when non-work phone calls take place.
Again, "Don" is loud and sits right next to me. Without trying, I hear damn near every word of every conversation he has while he is in that cube. I really try to tune it out but he is so loud it really is impossible.
Thanks to "Don" talking as loud as he does, I feel I know quite a bit about him and his non-work life:
His son just got married and went on a cruise, leaving a vehicle with a slow leak in one of the tires. As expected it was flat when the happy couple returned. I can only assume the son is not mechanically inclined because he called his dad 2-3 times to get advice.
"Don" has a pickup truck that leaks oil and the labor involved to fix it (the rear main seal is bad) will cost more than the truck is worth. He puts a quart of oil in it every week or so.
The battery in his truck mysteriously would not hold a charge after the mechanic diagnosed the rear main seal leak.
His AT&T U-verse contract promo just expired and his new bill was $65 more per month than the promo rate. He spent 15 minutes on the phone with AT&T trying to get it reduced with most of that time trying to figure outhow AT&T calculates taxes and fees which never are the same from month to month. I can empathize with him as I suffered through the same thing a little over a year ago.
I have also heard a couple of questionable comments being made but since I only heard one side of the conversation I won't speculate on the intent.
Mind you I have only had two short conversations with "Don", one about the battery (he did not mention the oil leak) and one regarding the problems we have been having with our network connections in this building.
I am certainly looking forward to the day I get to move back into the main building. I am not a fan of working out of the building I am in right now. My old space did not have noisy cube neighbors. They all went someplace quiet and private to make their personal calls. The only thing I had to contend with was the atrium walkers who carried on conversations (sometimes very personal) while they walked their laps but at least these were disturbances were short, just as they walked by the front of my cube.
My current neighbor, I will call him "Don", is loud..To be honest, with the type of work he is involved with (finance, layoffs, PO's, etc) he really needs an office but alas, our company has decided only mid and upper level management gets offices (even though we have several sitting empty right now) and the rest of us must work in cubes. This makes things interesting when non-work phone calls take place.
Again, "Don" is loud and sits right next to me. Without trying, I hear damn near every word of every conversation he has while he is in that cube. I really try to tune it out but he is so loud it really is impossible.
Thanks to "Don" talking as loud as he does, I feel I know quite a bit about him and his non-work life:
His son just got married and went on a cruise, leaving a vehicle with a slow leak in one of the tires. As expected it was flat when the happy couple returned. I can only assume the son is not mechanically inclined because he called his dad 2-3 times to get advice.
"Don" has a pickup truck that leaks oil and the labor involved to fix it (the rear main seal is bad) will cost more than the truck is worth. He puts a quart of oil in it every week or so.
The battery in his truck mysteriously would not hold a charge after the mechanic diagnosed the rear main seal leak.
His AT&T U-verse contract promo just expired and his new bill was $65 more per month than the promo rate. He spent 15 minutes on the phone with AT&T trying to get it reduced with most of that time trying to figure outhow AT&T calculates taxes and fees which never are the same from month to month. I can empathize with him as I suffered through the same thing a little over a year ago.
I have also heard a couple of questionable comments being made but since I only heard one side of the conversation I won't speculate on the intent.
Mind you I have only had two short conversations with "Don", one about the battery (he did not mention the oil leak) and one regarding the problems we have been having with our network connections in this building.
I am certainly looking forward to the day I get to move back into the main building. I am not a fan of working out of the building I am in right now. My old space did not have noisy cube neighbors. They all went someplace quiet and private to make their personal calls. The only thing I had to contend with was the atrium walkers who carried on conversations (sometimes very personal) while they walked their laps but at least these were disturbances were short, just as they walked by the front of my cube.
Monday, October 17, 2016
Is It Really Mid October and If It Is, WHY is it still 90 Degrees Outside?
Autumn is my favorite time of the year. Harvest time means cooler temperatures, fresh apples (pie, cobblers, CIDER, etc), pumpkin EVERYTHING (that can be a bad thing...really), long hikes and camping. Well, normally it does. Right now we are flirting with 90 degree daytime (70 degree at night) temps and it sure does not feel like harvest season to me. Hopefully that will change in a week or two.
I wrote to my sister the other day and in doing so I guess I caught her off guard with the content. My sis and I are not super close (we text and e-mail as well as yearly visits) but our relationship is light years ahead of the one I had with our brother. It still pains me that we never were able to reconcile but I did try... however, I digress.
Sis wrote me back today, obviously a bit shaken by the tone/subject of my e-mail. In a nutshell I asked her to be the caretaker of my Google and Microsoft accounts and to make a "final"post on my Facebook account when the time comes. There is a lot of data out there in the cloud and I had hoped she would agree to be the administrator of that data. Long story short, she agreed and asked that I do a couple of things for her, which I will most certainly do. We are family.
I really hate to dump more on my sis...she has a lot on her plate: Married, children (one autistic), full time job, manages my mom's medical issues, has her own health concerns to contend with, lost one brother to cancer a few years ago and now stands to lose another brother within the next 5 or so years due to one of the most EVIL conditions a person can be diagnosed with, ALS.
I continue to have good days and bad days. Overall my energy level is much lower than it was a year and a half ago (I ran a half marathon in the spring of 2015 and did damn well for a sick dude...just a little over 2 hours for 13.1 miles) and while my left hand has always been severely compromised, my right hand is now beginning to give me more trouble. I am having difficulty with a lot of day to day tasks but so far I have found a way to perform them.
I also finding myself getting "weepy" more often now. Sad thoughts will cause my eyes to well up (like right now) with tears and I have to really pull myself together just to appear normal. It just ain't cool for a 51 year old man to being streaming tears at work.
Work still weighs heavy on my mind as the pending merger gets closer and closer. If I survive the layoffs I will be part of a new company, which will mean I have unwillingly changed companies 3 times in the past 14 years due to outsourcing, spin-offs, and mergers. It gets harder to do my day to day work if it involves much typing due to the decreased mobility of my hands. Company disability is becoming more and more appealing but the thought of living on ~70% of what I earn now is frightening. Things are tight now...on disability they will be almost unacceptable so I keep plugging along hoping for some miracle of finance to appear :)
I do a lot of voice (THANK YOU GOOGLE!) typing as well as "hunt and peck" typing which is not fast but it allows me to continue working. The down side to that is my hands are so tired by the end of the day I cannot hold much. I am not complaining...just stating a fact.
Welcome to "the new normal" of my life.
I wrote to my sister the other day and in doing so I guess I caught her off guard with the content. My sis and I are not super close (we text and e-mail as well as yearly visits) but our relationship is light years ahead of the one I had with our brother. It still pains me that we never were able to reconcile but I did try... however, I digress.
Sis wrote me back today, obviously a bit shaken by the tone/subject of my e-mail. In a nutshell I asked her to be the caretaker of my Google and Microsoft accounts and to make a "final"post on my Facebook account when the time comes. There is a lot of data out there in the cloud and I had hoped she would agree to be the administrator of that data. Long story short, she agreed and asked that I do a couple of things for her, which I will most certainly do. We are family.
I really hate to dump more on my sis...she has a lot on her plate: Married, children (one autistic), full time job, manages my mom's medical issues, has her own health concerns to contend with, lost one brother to cancer a few years ago and now stands to lose another brother within the next 5 or so years due to one of the most EVIL conditions a person can be diagnosed with, ALS.
I continue to have good days and bad days. Overall my energy level is much lower than it was a year and a half ago (I ran a half marathon in the spring of 2015 and did damn well for a sick dude...just a little over 2 hours for 13.1 miles) and while my left hand has always been severely compromised, my right hand is now beginning to give me more trouble. I am having difficulty with a lot of day to day tasks but so far I have found a way to perform them.
I also finding myself getting "weepy" more often now. Sad thoughts will cause my eyes to well up (like right now) with tears and I have to really pull myself together just to appear normal. It just ain't cool for a 51 year old man to being streaming tears at work.
Work still weighs heavy on my mind as the pending merger gets closer and closer. If I survive the layoffs I will be part of a new company, which will mean I have unwillingly changed companies 3 times in the past 14 years due to outsourcing, spin-offs, and mergers. It gets harder to do my day to day work if it involves much typing due to the decreased mobility of my hands. Company disability is becoming more and more appealing but the thought of living on ~70% of what I earn now is frightening. Things are tight now...on disability they will be almost unacceptable so I keep plugging along hoping for some miracle of finance to appear :)
I do a lot of voice (THANK YOU GOOGLE!) typing as well as "hunt and peck" typing which is not fast but it allows me to continue working. The down side to that is my hands are so tired by the end of the day I cannot hold much. I am not complaining...just stating a fact.
Welcome to "the new normal" of my life.
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