3 Positive Things Part 7

[Daniel E.]

 

[gooblax]

Happy birthday @David Baxter

 

[gooblax]

1. Good temperature for riding to work today, and the clouds blocked the sun that's normally blinding after sunrise. But it started raining when I was about 3 minutes away from work so that was quite annoying.
2. My task is on its last stretch. I made a phone call to discuss some points rather than going through another review loop or wasting their time on an email. And I didn't get super nervous about making the call, although I'd written most of it out as an email already.
3. Yesterday I was invited to a colleague's retirement morning tea which was nice that he invited me. I also tried to talk to other people there and went up and spoke to someone who didn't have anyone to talk to (it helped that I'd met him at the bowling thing).

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Excellent, @gooblax! Very well done! 👍👍👍

 

[gooblax]

1. Got most of my groceries yesterday, after my usual grocery timetable was disrupted by the planned midweek 8hr power outage. So I have a reduced grocery load to get today. Mostly weekly essentials (milk, bread, weetbix) which would normally be challenging if I had to get other things as well.
2. Finished the current pokemon go challenge without having to go out today, which saved some time.
3. Resumed studying for my internal work interview for getting a higher level of authority within the company... rather than continuing to stress myself out about it instead of studying.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

1. My son bought a new gaming computer last fall and his old one was only about 2 years old. Mine was more than 10 years old and definitely starting to show its age. This morning he brought his old one over after installing fast new RAM, 2 - 1 TB SSD drives, a new NVIDIA GeForce graphics card, etc., and set it up for me top replace my 10+ year old Gateway. Awesome. It no longer takes 10 minutes to boot up (that's honestly not an exaggeration) and it is FAST!
2. I got a special deal on LapLink PCmover Pro to move over my files, settings, and software, and ran that. It didn't copy over everything but it did get most of the most important ones like Office and Outlook. Unfortunately, it did NOT copy over my email database and I needed that. I was able to retrieve that manually and got everything back.
3. I am hungry and exhausted and still have several utilities to install but I'll gradually gert all of that done over the next few days. The important thing is the new desktop is workiong beautifully and I already have the basic software I need and more activated and running. I won't lose any time from my work.

Exciting!

 

[Daniel E.]

BONUS: Small wait (less than 5 minutes) to get my second COVID-19 shot this morning without an appointment.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Wow. After all that wasted time under Trump,. the US is certainly making up for it now. That's great!

 

[gooblax]

1. Got through my interview-exam thingy at work.
2. Ordered delivery food as a reward for studying for it (which I'd planned to do, and actually went through with it rather than talking myself out of it afterwards). First time I've ever ordered delivery food on my own (the other times I was with my bf).
3. It rained during the middle of the day but I only got a bit wet when I had to walk between buildings at work while it was raining (for the interview), and a surprising amount had dried up when it was time to go home so there wasn't too much mud puddle flick-up.

 

[Daniel E.]

1. Have my vacation in early June mostly planned/booked.

2. Fresh donut this morning.

3. Got a raise (by switching caregiving companies last month). And survived a 12-hour night shift earlier this week (12 hours of uncertainty that ended up being mostly downtime ).

 

[Daniel E.]

1. The county agreed to pay me back the $330 to replace the rear windshield on my pickup truck. (The window was accidentally broken by a county employee.)

2. Because of COVID, Arizona allows online notaries.

3. Husband is excited that he starts a new job next week.

BONUS: Had a perfect visit with the in-laws today.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

1. I'm really enjoying my new desktop. The sheer speed of it compared to my old one continues to amaze me.
2. I was having a problem though with my wireless mouse that I originally thought was Firefox: when scrolling up or down web pages, it would jump up and down a few lines so I'd aim for one thing and actually click on another. It turned out to be the mouse connection: all my USB ports on the old desktop were USB 2.0, whereas most of the ports on the new computer are USB 3.1. I switched my keyboard and mouse to USB 2.0 ports and (so far at least) that seems to have fixed the problem. 👍 👍 👍
3. I tried one of those A&W Impossible Burgers yesterday evening and my digestive system seemed to tolerate it just fine. So tonight my son picked up some Loblaw's Beyond Burger patties for me to make for supper tonight. Woo hoo! As chemo goes on, I've discovered that what I can and cannot tolerate has gradually evolved (devolved?) and I was really getting super bored with my increasingly narrow options for meals. I'm actually quite excited about having something new, as pathetic as that might sound.
4. Bonus: This means that next week I can get some Beyond Meat "ground beef" and have homemade meatless tacos. Another woo hoo! And I'll add an "In your face, Flanders!" to that.

 

[gooblax]

1. Was feeling nervous/overwhelmed this morning about work, so I've made a to-do list to show myself that it's not that bad.
2. Crossed one thing off the list already and started on the next one.
3. I'm trying to be 'not mean' to myself about my feelings of missing my psych.

 

[gooblax]

1. Got the auto reminder for tomorrow's session, so my psych did put it correctly in his calendar (I'd started considering the possibility that he might not have, because we just said "count 3 weeks" rather than stating the actual date).
2. Didn't make myself too sad/upset about things yesterday.
3. Ran into a colleague who had been planning on ignoring (or bottom-of-the-pile-ing) my email and got an answer from him in person instead. Sucker.

 

[gooblax]

1. Had a double serve of milo in my milk.
2. Psych sent the link for our session this arvo.
3. Getting through the thing I'm doing at work.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

1. Had my second COVID shot this morning.
2. No serious side effects so far.
3. With the first shot, I had a sore arm, headaches, and a mild fever for a few days, rather like a mild flu. So far with the second shot, less so. Just a sore arm and I slept all day. I just got up to get some apple juice and water, feed Mindy, and clean her litter box and then I'm going back to bed again. I can live with this, for sure.

BONUS: After 2-3 weeks following this second Pfizer vaccination, I will have 95% protection against COVID-19 and if for some reason I should get the virus it will be a mild case. I think that's awesome. There are only two family members left in my immediate family who don't have the first shot yet: one son is eligible tomorrow May 17th and the other, a bit younger, will get his on June 2. We might actually be able to gather together a bit for holidays this fall.

BONUS #2: Bearing in mind that your body is still building immunity for the first 3 weeks after either the first shot or the second shot, the most recent research shows that the protection from even on shot is better than initially expected. For Pfizer, the first shot provides 52% protection within the first few days to a week and this increases to 89-91% protection 15 days after that first dose. After the second shot, vaccine effectiveness increased to 95 percent after 7 days and presumably increases a bit more by the 3-week period after the shot. It is also assumed that the second shot also increases the length of time the antibodies remain active in your system, although this is still awaiting long term studies for verification. Studies of the Moderna vaccine show similar results.

 

[Daniel E.]

1. The only side effect I had was a little arm soreness after the second shot.

2. Got a new coffee maker (Bunn) since I got spoiled having one in Florida. It brews coffee twice as fast.

3. Sister in law's health is still relatively good/stable lately. We had a Thanksgiving-style feast when she visited yesterday (since she had a frozen turkey we offered to cook for her).

 

[gooblax]

1. Good day for cycling today, although a bit cold especially when I couldn't find my gloves.
2. Booked myself in for a flu shot on Saturday. Work gave us a free voucher (although I dunno if it applied the voucher correctly when I made the booking... Guess I'll find out!). I may not be able to get my COVID vaccine any time soon but at least I'll be better prepared with the flu vaccine when my parents visit next month. My dad's had his flu shot.
3. I've got some more real engineering work to do today.

 

[gooblax]

1. Finished the boring mandatory training modules for work.
2. My psych is now 3 sessions (9 weeks) behind in billing, so at least I get the extra offset against my mortgage interest until he gets his act together. Guess this will be topic #1 for next session though.
3. Still having good weather. But looks like there might be a headwind on the way home this afternoon.

 

[gooblax]

1. Flu shot voucher went fine and I didn't have to explain it. I was hoping I could sit outside during the 'monitoring period' (she said "just hang around outside for 15 minutes") but I tried going outside to sit on a bench and she made me come back in. Not feeling embarrassed about doing the wrong thing with her instructions being ambiguous.
2. Have a plan for groceries after this. Only problem might be taking the lipbalm from the pharmacy into the grocery store.
3. The pharmacist was really quick and painless with the injection.