friday random ten: “an infinity of chores and chicken salad” edition
Given the general uncertainty about projects, along with a great number of folks in my work circles on the road for a bit industry conference down in Florida, my time in the office was slow in terms of actual PM work. I dumped a bunch of time into knocking out some online training prerequisites for a class I’m trying to take to knock out my continuous learning requirements for the next two years, and score another certification to pad the resume. I’ve got the application for the course in the system, though we’ll see whether they approve it, as I have the required certs for my position (this one would just be gravy), while many people in the organization don’t have what they’re supposed to. The fact that the course is local and won’t really cost the organization much of anything at all is a point in my favor, but I don’t really trust anything to be easy or working to my benefit or preference around my current workplace anymore.
Beyond work, I’ve been trying to fill my time with biking; I’ve knocked out 25 miles in the dirt in the last two days, but yesterday was a little tough, with some old-man muscle aches, and what I think is a failing seat bracket (the saddle tends to shift unpleasantly on bumpy terrain in spite of my constant tightening). It’s getting to be time to take the bike in for the usual annual tune-up I like to have the pros at the the local shop do, but that sort of thing is a lower priority in the budget than a few other things I have to have done first, which has eaten up the budget this month, and I can do a lot of the stuff myself, honestly. Anyway, I’m still planning on knocking out a few more miles today, before the usual predicted rain on Friday.
Some of the discretionary/maintenance budget went into buying an electric chainsaw (I got it at Lidl, the grocery store, of all places, for less than it would cost me to rent a poorly-maintained gas unit for a day) so I could saw up a downed tree on the property and hopefully knock down a couple of the smaller dead-or-dying trees I have, so I might get some more sunlight back there. I still felt guilty about buying it, though it filled a need*, and gave me a decent workout hauling wood around on Monday afternoon.
We do have some budgeted entertainment built into the weekend; it is, of course, Avengers: Endgame release weekend, and we’ve had our tickets sorted for a few weeks now. We’re getting together with a bunch of our nerdy friends at one of those cinema-cafe sorts of places Saturday afternoon. It’ll be nice to get out. It’s been a pretty stressful week or two for all kinds of reasons (work, finances, responsibility, the state of the world, brain chemistry, etc), and I hope this little adventure helps.
Don’t really have anything else lined up for the weekend, though I expect we’ll attempt to replace our burned-out garbage disposal either Friday night or Sunday, and I’ll probably see about getting some biking in if the weather holds, and maybe I’ll cook a nice meal that doesn’t include chicken salad; I made a huge batch Monday night with the idea that it’d cover my lunches for the week, which it has (along with a couple of quick dinners), though as good as it is (I make killer chicken salad), I’m growing a little weary of it after eating almost nothing else for several days.
That’s honestly pretty much it, other than the tunes I usually stick here. Hitting Pandora again rather than my hard drive this week. Not a terrible mix, though for some odd reason, it threw me *two* Men At Work tunes; I like me some Colin Hay, of course, but really? Also, I’ve got the usual Bowie/Donnas/Zappa thing I always get. Might be time to clear the channels and rebuild…
- “For Those About To Rock” – AC/DC
- “Sweet Revenge” – Bangs
- “Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)” – Pink Floyd
- “Two High” – Moon Taxi
- “Down Under” – Men at Work
- “The Man Who Sold The World” – David Bowie
- “Life or Just Living” – Caveman
- “The Great Salt Lake” – Band of Horses
- “It’s A Mistake” – Men at Work
- “Paradise City” – Guns ‘N Roses
- “I Didn’t Like You Anyway” – The Donnas
- “Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra) (4FRNT Remix)” – Gotye
- “Slepp Meg” – Lumsk
- “Africa” – Toto
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* – maybe a little less guilty, as that order for the mixer from monoprice’s open-box list ended up getting cancelled, so they didn’t have it in stock after all, or somebody pushed the order button a few seconds before I did. I’m actually kind of fine with this. Was completely sober when I bought (and used) the chainsaw, though.
