Coffee Break [6/4/20]

6/4/20 Hannibal 39

It can be a struggle to get through the second half of the day.

How goes your quarantine? I feel like I’m finally settling into my routine. Over the weekend I made a lot of face masks for friends and family. I could have made more but those same friends and family kept bothering calling and texting me. They’re bored, I get it, but some of us are trying to be productive. Are you working on any special projects to pass the time? I enjoy seeing people’s quarantine crafts. Like this popsicle stick house.

Brag about your DIY remodel, or pillow fort. Whatever you did I hope you enjoyed yourself at least a little.

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39 Comments

  1. We took off Thursday and Friday, so closets got cleaned out, the garage got re-org’d, and the gardens got started. So many plantings. Very fulfilling.

    Also, had a Zoom conference with the family wherein my uncle had to wear his MAGA hat. So, ‘Murica.

  3. I finally overhauled my bicycle that’s been hanging in the garage for the last several years untouched. I used to be a huge bicyclist, riding 30 miles a day during the week and 75-100 each day on the weekend. Then life got in the way and my bike time kept dwindling. Eventually I shifted to a stationary bike that I try to pedal for a hour 4-5 times a week.

    I’m trying to walk every day and saw tons of people out biking, and thought, y’know, I need to get my lazy ass back in the saddle. I’ve got no commute, so use that time productively. It’s easier to stay away from other people on a bike than on the sidewalk. So I bought supplies and replaced all the worn parts on both my daughter’s and my bikes and rode for a couple of hours on Saturday. Sunday was rainy. Today I hope to get in another hour after work.

    My plan is an hour of stationary before work, a 2.5 mile walk at lunch, and another hour on the real bike after work. I aim to leave quarantine both healthier and smaller than I entered it.

    • This is too funny. I just walked in from the garage where I pumped up the tires on all the family bikes that haven’t been used in years, except for mine. I ride mine once in awhile but not enough. Sad thing is I have no real excuses since I have a great mountain bike track a few blocks away, I think I need to go ride and try not to kill myself!

    • I recently got a new job, and it’s got a location that’s really well suited to a bike commute.

      It’s been close to a decade since I’ve rode my bike with any regularity, so I was starting slow, just going home on bike ~3x a week, taking public transit the other two days and mornings. I was hoping to eventually move up to biking home 5x a week, and then when I got used to that, maybe see about taking it in on mornings or something.
      It was making a difference, my jeans were fitting a little looser, and my legs were perpetually jelly. And then the lockdown happened.

      I did order some fenders, and put them on the other day. Also looking at getting some panniers or similar, right now I just have a ~$3.50 IKEA basket ziptied on the back. Also changed the brake pads and sanded the rims, and did some chain/sprocket cleaning/lubing. I’m probably going to have to get a new chain/sprocket eventually, I did zero maintenance the first few years I had/used it.
      I’m also thinking of getting a nicer bike, and keeping my present one as a backup, but that’s going to have to wait until things start up again and I’m commuting most days.

      • congrats on the new job mate… i remember the posts from a ways before..good to hear that problem at least got sorted 🙂
        (i guess i missed it if you mentioned it before)

        • thanks.

          It was a pretty close call, unemployed and applying to various jobs for about a year, and finally got a job offer just as I exhausted the retirement accounts I gutted.

  4. I realize that I am very lucky to be able to continue my job from home — for now, at least — but it puts me in the awkward position of being actually very busy during the day while Mrs. Razor and the little razors are doing “school at home” on the opposite side of the wall. The first half of my day is the hardest, especially early in the week when all the small unfinished tasks from the weekend are just laying out and about, which is to say: in my Animal Crossing town.

  5. I’m one of the “essentials” working, but I have more time on my hands than normal.

    Been alternating between:
    1) Writing bad novels (among other things.)
    2) Building mediocre models (my main hobby)
    3) Catching up on my reading

  6. i fixed my bike again…(course….thats pretty much a weekly thing for me… im not very nice to the poor thing and break it a lot)
    also i stole some silicone lubricant from work to help get me new tire on…these newfangled tubeless tires are bastards to get on the rim… anyhoo…worked a charm
    other than that my new thing for getting through the day is avoiding the news and listening to ska instead


    its doing wonders for my mood

    • I like that your in a good mood but watch a little bit of news. Otherwise you’ll be like one of those Japanese soldiers that did’t know the war was over. We’ll all be back at work, school, etc and you’ll still be social distancing!

      • tbh….i dont mind the social distancing much… least the part where people stay out of my personal space….its nice
        the rest of it kinda sucks….but i vote for keeping that bit when this is all done

  9. I have been mostly unproductive, other than being a little more adventurous/less efficient with cooking. I did clean my studio today, though, so I hopefully can get to work, finally.

    • Whatever it takes to get you through this! I was very unproductive today. I spent most of the morning on a group text with some friends, sending pics of our lonely dogs. I got nothing done but I enjoyed myself.
      What have you been cooking? Anything we can try to make too?

    • I’m supposed to be “working from home”, but there is very little for me to do, so I’m pretty much logged into email, constantly checking that, and doing other things about the house meanwhile.

      I started digging forgotten about things out of my pantry and seeing what I can do with them, or how inedible they are. My breadmaker that I haven’t used in about eight or ten years still works fine. Decade old yeast, not so much…

        • I’m trying a sourdough starter, I’ll see how that turns out.

          I imagine by the time I decide to go to the grocery store, they will probably have some in stock…

  10. Started more seeds over the weekend. First planting of cabbage and basil. Second planting of tomatoes.

    Monday sucks ass. I’ve been in the midst of training remotely for my new position and I can’t begin to tell you how fucking stupid I feel. Almost nothing I’m trying is working and none of the references at my disposal are of any help. So, I inevitably have to contact someone who then points out something simple that I missed and sends me on my way. Five minutes later I’m stuck again. The whole fucking day has been like this. I’m ready to set myself on fire.

    • It may be simple but that doesn’t mean it’s obvious. If it’s not something you’re used to doing it’s easy to miss a trick here and there. You are definitely not stupid. But I understand how you feel.

      • Well, it took my entire day–putting in an extra hour–and doing a live stream with support, but lo and behold it turns out that literally every problem I kept running into today (and there were a number of them) was due to other problems that had been created by other users in the background. Plus, it seems my system access is considerably slower than others so when something doesn’t appear as it should I have to wait several minutes longer to see the change (when, theoretically, the change is supposed to happen instantly). Bottom line is I was doing what I was supposed to be doing and getting hosed by problems beyond my control. Well, almost beyond my control. One of those problems is my instinct to automatically assume that I’m the one screwing up. I’d prefer not to take the DJT approach of assuming that every problem is someone else’s fault (which is also the approach of my older brother and dead father), but perhaps I just need to be a little more willing to ask for a little help now and then.

        Thanks for the pep talk, everyone–I really needed it.

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