Weekend Plans Post: Stir Crazy
I am one of those guys who works in a place where I have about 8 or 9 people I might be referring to when I talk about my boss.
This alternates, sometimes. I’ve been places where I had my boss and then I had the owner of the company… but then I get transferred to another team where they need a jack-of-all-trades to help the network guys have a conversation with the integrators or have the engineers sit down and really talk with the security guys and, next thing you know, I have 5 people mention that they need somewhere between 4-6 hours of my time every week and, jeez, they report to different managers and… well, I’m currently in one of those places where I have 8 or 9 bosses now.
Amusingly, two of my bosses are married to each other. While doing some research for one of them, he mentioned that he struck out the last time that he went shopping and couldn’t find any Hamburger Helper. While working on Excel worksheets for the other, I made a joke about getting a bottle of wine delivered and she made a comment about running out the weekend before.
Well, we had delivery earlier in the day and I got 4 pounds of ground beef in it (in one-pound packs, frozen solid) and my booze delivery from the booze store included 4 bottles of wine to get me well into May. I thunk and thunk and thunk and realized that, jeez, I haven’t been out and about for a good long while.
So I packed up a pound of beef, a box of Hamburger Helper, and a bottle of wine and got in the car and drove to their house. They live about 35 minutes away and it was a lovely drive. Seriously, I drove more on that trip than I had in the month prior. Rolled down the window and had my arm on the sill. I checked out various stuff like gas prices (Cheap!) and the various darkened storefronts as I went about. Got to their house, put the stuff on their porch, got back in the car and drove home. I got on the google chats and texted them both “Dudes: Check your porch.”
And a good time was had by all.
That’s pretty much the only interesting thing that happened to me in the last week. Everything else was a Xerox copy.
This weekend will be a Xerox copy as well, but we’ll do some fun stuff like get together with the gaming group or make some Hamburger Helper of my own and, tomorrow, we’ve got a delivery scheduled. If they manage to get me my fresh basil and thyme, I’ll make myself another crock pot full of spaghetti sauce.
And look forward to next week because one of the things we hammered out in a meeting today is that I’ll have to go into the building at work and have a mask-to-mask conversation with some of the Change Management people that the other folks on my new team need me to talk to.
It’ll be nice to drive.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Featured image is the author, fixing to go for a drive. Photo taken by Maribou.)
I wish I had an excuse to take an hour drive. It’s approaching the point where I probably need to at least go take a few spins around the block to keep my battery charged.
This weekend we have an additional child in the house due to my wife’s close friend going into labor and her immediate family being stuck in New York. This eliminates any possibility of productivity but maybe I’ll tune in to the rest of the draft tonight and tomorrow if I get a break from juggling children. Good guys already got Chase Young, hopefully we deal TW for more picks, HTTR, etc.Report
Chase Young.
There was a kids’ cartoon a few years back called Xiaolin Showdown. Fairly clever setup (duels for magical items, using magical items), but very generic characters. But in Season 2, there was a new, multi-episode villain named Chase Young, who was so subtle and dangerous that I have no idea why he was in a kids’ show. I haven’t watched the show in a long time, but he stands out as one of the best-written villains I’ve ever encountered.
Anyway, what do you think the ‘Skins will do with their top 5 pick next year?Report
Follow the Redskins more closely (if you can stomach it) and you’ll see that they’ll do just well enough not to draft in top 5. Rather they’ll be somewhere in that pick 7-15 zone of teams that missed the playoffs but weren’t quite bad enough for a shot at top 5 talent, which they’ll absolutely need after Dwayne Haskins inevitably flops. Bonus points if we win a meaningless December game or two against some other NFCE trash to clinch the position.
I mean assuming there’s even a season.Report
Truth is, I can’t stomach it anymore. I live somewhere near you, and not even my perverse fascination with failure can keep me paying attention (although I still listen to Steve Czaban regularly). You’re right that they could win 7 games this year, and sometime in the next few years 9, but you know if this team has a ceiling and a floor, which one it’s going to end up closer to.Report
It’s kind of a family curse for me passed down generation to generation. My dad abandoned ship in disgust years ago but I was too thoroughly indoctrinated when they were still a beloved institution. Not that I go to games or spend money on them anymore.Report
For me, it all began during Superbowl XVII, and ended during the second Gibbs era. That’s when I realized something about the team under Dan Snyder, and of all the theories that I’ve discussed on this site, none has been so thoroughly demonstrated by history.
ETA: I wish Haskins luck, and maybe he could turn into an upper-tier quarterback, but who does he have to throw to?Report
Not many plans on my end. My wife and I took a short walk last Tuesday (I think), but that was the most exciting thing. Maybe we’ll take a walk again next week. But maybe not, because I’ve been feeling under the weather the last couple of days. It’s probably just a cold, but I don’t want to risk hurting anyone.Report
Doing schoolwork so I can clear the decks to wrestle with typing final exams in BlackBoard (whose name I curse daily now) next week for the week after that.
Probably laundry?
Maybe Saturday I mow the lawn and cut some brush, I don’t know. I’m hoping this summer it’s permissible for faculty to be back on campus M-F with social distancing. I never thought I’d miss research but I do. I miss being somewhere other than in these four walls.Report
Yeah, our Blackboard gradebook has been super slow, and I’m leaving it behind. Luckily, I have my own spreadsheets. This was the last week of class, and next week is finals week and I just want to get stuff done.Report
I realized how much I miss driving….I only go to the grocery store and the liquor store now and I still have more than 3/4 of a full tank. Doing 68 on the side roads to the store helps but still….nothing like driving in the sun…and I miss it…
I also miss restaurants, bars, and dating my gf who I haven’t seen in over 2 months, and being on the mat doing jujitsu. I”m an introvert and can go weeks without missing human contact…but even now I’m a bit stir crazy.Report
I went for a drive to pick up dinner. On the way back, I was pulled over by a state cop. He gave me a warning though, and was really quick. So that was my driving adventure for the week, besides shopping day.Report
Was he wearing a mask? Face shield? Gloves?Report
Nope. The only PPE he had was his bullet proof vest.Report
To keep my marriage on solid ground, I have been taking one day of each weekend an Getting Out of Dodge. Last weekend I went over to the tops of the mountains, taking the southern route and meeting up with the middle route. The week before that I to another middle distant part of the state. Not sure where I am going to go this week, maybe Pendleton? Medford? We shall see.
On the lucky end though, I really like driving long distances. No problem going a couple hours with just a bathroom break (more frequent with age)Report
I’ve had some essential drives this week, enough that I had to fill my tank for the first time in a month. $18.
I’ve noticed people in my area just sitting in their cars. I wonder if it’s an escape, or a way of simulating the drive to work to make telework less jarring. Speaking of sitting in cars, my church is having an event this Sunday, so I only have to think of something to occupy myself for tomorrow.Report
One thing my wife missed (sorta) when we left the bay area was that during her commute she had a period were she couldn’t interact with the world outside of the cars next too her. It let her decompress from a fairly high stress job. I was also a way to build up for the mental issues of work, as opposed to just jumping into it everyday.
My brother is a self employed architect, and while he started with a home office, he found that there was zero separation in the aspects of his life. He quickly moved his office to a professional building.Report
We had a fun adventure on Sunday. The family took a drive to Garden of the Gods. As we drove around in GotG we found a dirt road leading of and decided to take it. And hour and a half and 23 winding miles of dirt road later, we came out in Woodland Park.
It was a fun adventure , but only for two of us. My wife and I enjoyed the scenery and the time out of the house. My son on the other hand flipped out. He kept saying that we were all going to die up in the mountains. Still not sure how much of it was not wanting to be stuck in the car for so long vs actual concern, probably 60-40.
I doubt there will be much going on outside this weekend.Report
We tried to get pizza delivered last night. But the phone was busy for like half an hour.
So we piled in the car and drove over there. I gave my order at the counter, while wearing a mask and distancing, and then we waited in the car and listened to tunes while they made it, then we drove it home.
Strangely, the place didn’t seem busy at all. I have no idea what the phone thing was about.Report
Maybe there weren’t many people in the shop because everyone was phoning in their orders.Report
This plus odds are delivery was slowed by a reduced staff and/or more delivery orders than they are accustomed to, which often leads to increased call volume about delayed deliveries.
Not sure where you are, but in NJ (or at least in my part of NJ) you can’t dine-in anywhere. So everyone has gone to curbside and/or delivery. Which means places are simultaneously swamped and empty at the same time, particularly during “rush” periods.Report
I’ve been back in the office since Tuesday afternoon. Building is still pretty empty so distancing isn’t a problem, but there are still a few holdouts who refuse any sort of PPE. I do my best to stay away from them. For me, going into the office is miles better than working from home, but the parent company announced that the work from home policy will continue unchanged for the time being, so once my build is done it’s back home for me.Report
I work from home 100% of the time, regardless. Have so for a little over a year. My work space is also my gaming/research/entertainment/home lab space, and I’m starting to go a little crazy. There’s not enough room to break things out and I use the same monitor setup in all situations and I certainly don’t want to move stuff around, as it’d be impossible to manage. I may look into renting a small office space locally so that I can just get the !@#$%^ away from home for a while each day.Report