As I was puttering around the servers today, a coworker mentioned that he had finished his work for the week and was looking forward to a four-day weekend.
I looked up and realized that, yep, we’ve got a 3-day weekend ahead of us (I, for my part, have *NOT* finished my work for the week). Tomorrow, however, should go quickly (patching, scanning, repatching, rescanning) and it’ll be the weekend soon enough.
EDIT: He has a four day weekend. I don’t.
In years past (well, not last year), this was the weekend that Maribou and I would gear up, get in the car, and wander down to the State Fair. Get some lemonade, get some grilled corn, get some grilled meat, and wander around the fair. The craft exhibits were the most fun and we’d reminisce about the year that Maribou ribboned. The modern art alternated between “wonderful” and “MY FIVE YEAR OLD COULD DO THIS”. We’d wander through the various booths selling this, that, or the other. Maybe get a candle. Maybe get some spices. Maybe get some candy. Maybe we’d go on the ferris wheel. Walk through the various livestocks and wonder how they could possibly be selling these rabbits for five bucks. “Surely it cost more for the water they drank! Let alone the food! Let alone the grooming! There’s not even a whole lot of meat on them.”
Pick up some fresh-spun cotton candy and wander to the exit and talk about how the fair has changed and how it has stayed the same. Maybe make tentative plans about coming again next year.
EDIT: It is not yet Labor Day.
Well, this year we really can’t go. But next year? Definitely. Knock wood.
So what about this year? Well… it’s the last of the three gates of summer. I imagine we might socially distantly visit some friends and grill some meat and talk about high school and cars and the eldest kiddo’s senior year of college (and his little brother’s senior year of high school). Maybe we’ll just stay home and socially distance even more. We’re back to getting groceries delivered for the most part and back to trying to stay out of places that don’t do masks… like, my summer session at the climbing gym is now officially over and I’ll wait until this wave recedes before going back (back to jogging, I guess).
And so maybe a quasi-quarantined weekend to kick off the quasi-quarantined autumn.
At least it’s a three-day weekend.
EDIT: It is not a three-day weekend.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Featured image is “Ring, Ring! Bananaphone!” Photo taken by the author.)
Oh, and I met the baby. Outside. From about 4-5 feet away.
My gosh. They’re so dinky.Report
Sweetie, Labor Day is next weekend. Alas.Report
Oh.
Bummer.
Fixed.Report
I spent yesterday calling out of town friends to let them know I’m postponing my wife’s memorial service. Our church has re-instituted mask required if attending, and no congregational singing. Not what I have planned, so I’ll wait for a better day. Kinda livid right now.
30th season of football officiating starts tonight. I should be more excited.
Outdoor open house memorial on my in-laws farm for those out there. Gonna be a hot one, but it’ll be nice to see those folks, and reminisce.Report
That sucks, Slade. Good luck and I’m sorry.Report
Sucks, sorry. We put off my Mom’s service last year. When it was clear that the restrictions weren’t going away, but that because of her age her contemporaries who would want to attend were dying (almost all not from Covid, sh*t happens when you’re past 90), we went ahead and did it masked, spaced, and with only a soloist singing.Report
She was only 54, so no danger of that! Music is such a big part of the Lutheran service. I want to send her out in style.Report
I’m so sorry. That’s even worse than the simple disillusionment I’m feeling about things seeming to go backwards (so: I can’t start going out and doing things again)Report
That’s awful.Report
Just got back from a short family reunion at Cinnamon Beach, FL… cousins re-acquainted with cousins and realized our youngest had never even met Uncle M/Aunt E. My mom had to undergo Breast Cancer treatment last year with minimal contact from family… so a big post-op-recovery party.
Had a professional take pictures of everyone which turned out to be, let’s say, 17% better than the digital photos we snapped along side him with our phones. Mostly we off-loaded the annoying cat-herding aspect of the photo shoot to a stranger, so we could be united in our ire against the other.
So this weekend we’re doing all the stuff that needs doing after a week away… laundry (oh, our dryer is still broken), mowing the lawns, beating the pastures into temporary submission… etc.
Plus enjoying both Labor Day weekends… this one and the one following, which will mark our 25th anniversary. Send gift ideas.Report
How does one beat a pasture into temporary submission?
(I thought you sold the goats.)Report
Rotary cutter … it’s like cutting your hair with a flowbee… makes things shorter, but not necessarily better.
We made bank a the cull goats… the main goats are still here… in fact just had a baby goat the day after we got back… so +1 goats.Report
oh. That’s a different kind of rotary cutter than what I use for preparing fabric for piecing quilt tops, I reckon.
(The kind I use looks kind of like a pizza cutter, but it’s wicked shahp. I have a scar on my hand from where I nicked myself with one by mistake 10 years ago)Report
Yeah… more commonly known as a bush-hog. Theoretically would cut fabric too, if we weren’t all particular about the length or the width or your arm.
My wife has one of those fabric cutters and some magic board that makes the whole thing seem like witchcraft.Report
Lemme explain.
No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
A year or so ago the company Jaybird and I work for was having retention problems. To combat this, the CEO gathered leadership together and instructed them to go out among the people and ask them what they needed to be happy. My answer was, “How about a 35-hour work week?” And after some hemming and hawing, I got what I asked for.
So what ends up happening is that, often, I’ll find myself having to do just a handful of hours on any given Friday to get a full week in. Occasionally, I’ll stretch myself and by the second week of the pay period I’m all full-up by Thursday, allowing me to not come in at all on Friday. Three-day weekend!
And it just so happens that this coming Monday is my RHCSA exam, for which I took the day off. Four-day weekend! But…not really because I have to pass that exam on Monday? I mean, I’ve been a UNIX/Linux sys admin since 1997 so really, there’s no excuse for me not to pass this exam on the first try–and I’ve been studying and practicing–so I shouldn’t be worried. But tell that to my brain.
And to top that off, I went full opposite-Jaybird and completely forgot that Labor Day was coming up, so next weekend is Three-day weekend! too.
So this weekend will be spent rolling back my VM’s to run through the practice again and again (at least, minimum, once a day) just to satisfy the anxiety monster in my head (but seriously, I’ve got this. I’d better have this. I think I’ve got it) and TOTALLY NOT AGONIZING OVER MONDAY MORNING.
Oh, and I’m trying to track down my Dragon Age boxed set, last seen somewhere in oldest boy’s room, so I can maybe try to run a quick game with the group tomorrow.Report
Is learning to pass the RHCSA actually valuable, or is it just a box to check off?Report
Learning to pass it is actually valuable. It doesn’t necessarily indicate competence… but it’s like the difference between a programmer whose code doesn’t compile versus one whose does.
Having code that compiles doesn’t mean that you’re a good programmer!
But, you know, if you have to pick between a programmer whose code compiles and whose code doesn’t even compile…Report
I’ve worked with some where inability to write code that compiles would limit the damage they can do.
But it’s a good analogy, thanks.Report
It doesn’t indicate competence. But it does indicate that the guy can, at least, sit down at a Red Hat computer that has not been turned on since 2018 and log in despite the fact that the only guy who knew the password moved away and is posting pictures to facebook about how he’s growing psychedelic mushrooms in his basement. Which, if you ask me, is a recipe for a police raid.Report
And the fact that it’s a hands-on test required more than just memorizing facts and picking the right answer out of four options on a test. Being able to pass it indicates more competence than being able to pass the Sec+, for example.Report
I take it that’s not hypothetical.
Long ago, the company I worked for had a product built by a contractor that didn’t check the source code in and then moved back to Pakistan. As you might guess there was no version 2, or even 1.1 .Report
It’s actually valuable. I’ve even applied a few things I’ve learned to work activities. And as a bonus, studying for the test has been fun because everything I’m doing to prepare is actual Sys Admin work, unlike most of the stuff I’m asked to do for a paycheck.Report
I’m sure you’ll do well. As opposed to me, despite having one or more Linux machines running at home and/or work since early in 1992.Report
Well, I’m waiting on news from my brother. He is fully vaccinated but cavalier about masking (“I’m vaccinated, why should I?”) and is going out and circulating widely. His location (western VA) is not as much a plague-hole as where I live, but still.
You know what comes next. Yesterday he woke up with a bad headache, runny nose, coughing, fever. No loss of smell or taste, no GI symptoms. Could be sinus infection, could be a break through infection.
My mom is the one who called and told me (He rarely calls me). I basically yelled at her that he needed to go get tested ASAP and she was like “yeah I called you to get back up for when I yell at him” (I am a biologist, though not medical field). The good news is that it’s been a solid 2 weeks since they were at her place, so she’s safe (she’s 85 and supremely careful these days, and vaccinated)
The biggest worry for me? His kid is 8. She can’t be vaccinated yet. Both he and my sister in law are vaccinated, and so if this is a break through case he’ll most likely pass an unpleasant couple days and then be fine, but my niece is now at risk.
So yeah, everything kind of sucks. I slept badly last night. Also this is my only sibling and one of the few family members I even have left, and of course I worry.
I WAS planning to make a quick run (even through the bad construction) to the JoAnn Fabrics (just for “time in the yard” so to speak) and to a nicer grocery store than what I have in town but I wonder if this is a cosmic sign I’m supposed to stick at home a while longer, sigh. (OTOH: I am paranoid about masking and always wear one, and also am careful to distance).
I do also have my first exam of the semester to write, was hoping to get a start on that today.Report
Maribou has turned the quarantine back on. But it’s a vaccinated quarantine. This means that we try to have most of our groceries delivered (but I went to Costco yesterday to pick up some things that the service ignores or doesn’t deliver). I was fully masked. N95, baby.
I hate N95 masks. They are tough to breathe in and I become a mouth breather within a minute of putting one on. The only good thing about them is that they don’t steam up my glasses.
Significantly fewer trips out, wearing a mask, and handwashing, washing, washing.
BUT NOT ZERO. I still see (vaccinated) friends. I still go out for stuff that would be nice to have (rather than pharmacy only).
I think you should be careful… but I also think that you should go to JoAnn’s.Report
Yeah grocery delivery here is not a thing. “Grocery delivery” is “you are too ill to even drive to the store for pick up, and you have to lean on a friend/co-worker/fellow congregant to get them and bring them to you”
I’ve been teaching in KN95s and I don’t hate it! I had been wearing cloth masks but they seemed to mold really tight to my face (I have a long nose) and made me feel uncomfortable, these kind of poke out from my face like a sideways duckbill and are actually less miserable.
True N95s ARE less comfortable; have worn them for some labwork with potentially-infectious-bacteria carrying soil. They’re hotter and a bit harder to breathe in.
I dunno. I have about 25 points left on this exam to write, and I also have an….ahem….minor imaging thing this afternoon (Maribou may know it as “the big squish”) that I almost forgot about, but maybe I can get the exam done and go in good conscience tomorrow.Report
his test came back negative, it was just a stupid sinus infection, of which he gets many. Great relief here.Report
Good! Whew!Report
So glad to hear thatReport
It’s my birthday tomorrow! So ideally I’ll get out for an AM run, then goto brunch with the fam, then goto the Zoo. The weather has improved enough to allow for outdoor events but isn’t good enough for the pool or beach or a waterpark. Boo.
On Sunday… woo boy. The infant nephew is scheduled to get baptized. So we were all set for that and a post-baptism lunch. Then we learned that the godmother-to-be and her husband — who are among “The In Laws” — are unvaccinated and will not be in time for Sunday. YIKES! That has set off all sorts of drama of one stripe and another. Nothing like vaccine-related drama with in-laws and all of the extended in-laws on both sides drawing all sorts of lines in the sand. So now we will have the ceremony and then goto a park together. It should go swimmingly!
On Monday, I return to work. Just meetings to start. It’ll be good to be back after such a wonky year last year.Report
Some of my friends recently had a Vaxxer vs. Antivaxxer in-law fight.
The compromise was a Covid Test. The immediate ploy was “you know covid tests cause cancer, right?” gambit but that ran into the brick wall of “okay, if you’re not vaxxed and you’re not tested, we ain’t coming”.
And happy birthday!Report
what the fish? People are literally going to make up reasons why they can’t do ANYTHING to help keep their loved ones safe? The “the test causes cancer” thing is a new one on me. Granted, I don’t like having a swab jammed up my nose but if I had to do it in order to, I don’t know, go see a cousin’s new baby, I’d do it.Report
The swabs themselves are, apparently, sterilized with a particular type of gaseous sterilizer (heated to the point where the liquid becomes gas).
In liquid form, when the liquid touches the skin, it can increase the chance of skin cancer at the site of contact, if left unwashed.
That’s how it was explained to me before I took the swab and stuck it up my nose.Report
oh ffs.
in reality you probably need to smoke a pack of them a day to appreciably increase your risk, not get the occasional brief exposure.
Do these folks eat hot dogs? Hot dogs are probably way riskier cancer-wise.Report
Ffs, indeed!
I just did 30 seconds of googling to learn about this claim, and…commenting further at this point veers far too closely to politics, so I’ll just it at filly’s “oh ffs.”Report
It wasn’t even that. Apparently it was just, “Eh, we haven’t gotten it done yet.”
She was pregnant which I think may have been her initial reason not to (I believe initially doctors were unclear on whether pregnant woman should get the shot before coming around to recommending it). But she gave birth about 5 months ago. I don’t know what his excuse was. He’s a bodybuilder of some sort (or at least fancies himself one) so maybe he thinks it’ll impact his gainz? I dunno.
Among the many frustrations is my sister’s feeling that they would get vaxxed if properly motivated, but apparently the baptism wasn’t enough (she theorized that a Darius Rucker concert would qualify but that may be part of the in-law battles). And an inherent difficulty to the vaccine is it’s not something you can just go and do overnight. It’s still a 4-6 week process to reach full vaccination status.Report
Testing, masking, etc… everything has been debated. And then there was our own intra-family battle about who was properly outraged and who was not. And this was with no one saying to the Outrage Police “Didn’t you JUST fly internationally…?”
Covid takes family drama and turns the volume up to 11.Report
I’m pleased to say my weekend plans will include getting my first dose of Pfizer – Vaccinations opened up for 30-39 year olds this week, so I’m all booked and ready to go.Report
Awesome! My advice is to have a couple of somethings easily microwavable prepared beforehand. The evening of my Moderna shot, I was out of gas and the day after was like operating under a bad hangover.Report
Good to know. Because all the takeout places have been closed due to lockdown I’ve been doing more meal prep than usual (I’m making Chilli Con Carne in my slow cooker right now – enough for 6 meals). So I’ll have a few things I can eat with no hassle.
And if it turns out I’m in no fit state to work on Monday – that’s what sick leave is for.Report
Man, I was so disappointed over my lack of side-effects (I got Pfizer). I was really looking forward to using up some of my sick time and, outside of a sore arm and maybe a headache, I got nothing.Report
The whole vaccination process was quick and practically painless. I got in line with a few minutes to spare before my appointment time and within a couple of minutes I was being given the briefing so I could give informed consent (no physical paperwork during Alert Level 4 as there is too much infection risk from handing people things). This only took about a minute, then I had to sit on a well-spaced chair until 15 minutes was up. They then called out my name and I left.
I largely dodged side-effects too. My arm was sore (it’s almost entirely gone now, a bit over 30 hours later), and I think I felt a little feverish yesterday afternoon, but that was it.
Now all I have to do is wait 6 weeks for dose number 2.Report
It was the third gate of sumer
It was the first of a new romance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=offPw82-XCUReport