we're extremely grateful that yesterday evening didn't result in a maiming. also, i kinda feel like the event was a metaphor for this past month.
watching bits of penny arcade's strip search while getting setup on a second project
monday 20th:
a midnight struggle with mr smear's nappy rash
going to wake up mr smear, and for the first time since we moved starting his day positively
my favourite: emergency shopping before i've had coffee, making me late to drop mr smear off at school. not being healthy enough to return to the gym, returning home and having to deal with medical aid and apartment issues instead of working
getting some work done, at least, before wolfing down a couple of pancakes and picking up mr smear, trying to pick up museum passes on the way home
fifteen minutes to get into a handover meeting with my previous employer, in the middle of the call receiving a text informing me that i'd need to hand over their dev machine soon and forcing me to spend the next couple of hours backing up and wiping my data
moving boxes with my mom, showering mr smear (positive), putting him to bed (a long, sad time), crashing for a half hour
tuesday 21st:
waking up at 3.30am and working (a lot of pc setup) until 4.30am, with a hectic sinus situation and lying down feeling awful... but jumping up to scribble poetry
late morning, gd man down, school - game - home - dentist, unpacking (failing to find my id but locating a bunch of other important stuff), handing over my work machine to SxS's cousin, a good first work meeting
picking up mr smear, a museum visit (still no passes?!), feeding birds and squirrels, making the bronze man sad (why u no entertain??), a long call from a canadian debt collection agency with a decent-seeming guy who said he'd set up a conference call with bell representatives... a long call in the middle of town with mr smear in my easily-tiring arms...
nap time and strip search, a little work then grocery shopping then a struggle to wash mr smear's hands then helping my mom with her storeroom and taking a bunch more things and coming home to shower mr smear (good shower, but his rash is awful and cleaning him was demanding), reading-ish time (he read c is for cthulhu while i tried not to fall asleep), then suddenly realizing it was 10pm already
strip search and dinner, chocolate and marshmallows, lots more nothing than intended
wednesday 22nd:
intending to sleep five hours but getting a surprise hyper 3-4am episode that was apparently caused by a fear of bears
waking up with the landline installation guys and sinusitis, waking mr smear with psytrance ("space robot music" for my little space pirate)
another day full of mucus
physically going to the periodontist to cancel gd's treatment because their phones were out, chores and work and finishing a one minute poem for the upcoming slam
giving the wardrobe motion sensor lights another chance with new batteries (good idea!)
picking up mr smear who hadn't napped, home for an afternoon filled with a mixture of fun, work and sadness - in a number of ways he seems to have regressed and it's hard for me to reconcile my notion of him being awesome and clever with frustrating behaviour that i find utterly confounding (like not wanting to change his diaper when he's got an awful rash, drinking from a cup by dipping his hand in and sucking it, wasting a table full of good food)
my first work "success" (determining that an issue isn't an issue after hours of fiddling with firefox attempting to reproduce)
selling a fridge and a washing machine, learning about Q
making my salad again for the first time in years and really enjoying it
showering mr smear, a struggle to brush his teeth, a pleasant reading and an early night, having time to eat and watch random shit and do a little web-presence housekeeping before going to bed before 9pm
thursday 23rd:
up at midnight and paranoid about mr smear's potty training and being paid on time
up at 1am for an hour or two dealing with mr smear's fever
snoozing an hour and getting out of bed at 5.15 to work, being quite productive for the next couple of hours, mr smear waking up still sick but pleasantly communicating, catching a bedbug, invoice surprise, sudden power outage
coffee for wifi, invoicing same value in usd as my previous employer, overflowing cups
doctor parasaurolophus pride, stunted growth big breakfast sandwich and spitting half the spinach pharmacy tower building (with pill boxes)
getting mr smear to nap, spending his nap time on the phone to bell canada (see my previous post)
a LOT of desk clearing (does it ever end?)
joining my mother on a mission to get her a new pc and set it up, finding the right model in spite of the assistant, and my mom bailing on the setup and dinner to have drinks
musing on my eldest niece's awful choice in husbands (she's finally discovered that she's his beard and now that she's initiating a divorce he's suddenly showing more of an interest in their newborn son)
mr smear eating well again, a generally good shower experience but frustration again over wasted water due to a stupidly designed mixer (any mixer with separate hot / cold taps is barely helpful)
easily getting mr smear to sleep, either because he finds my poetry voice soothing or really boring
a few episodes of strip search before work, gd giving up because the audio quality is so bad
friday 24th:
wow, my chest just getting worse, working until 2am
nightmare hours of a feverish restless three year old
a very long day, a little bit of work amidst unpleasantness before last minute prep for the pest control people then squirrel feeding and watching parkour and bees and a walk to plant (with some asshole street cleaner upsetting all of us by touching mr smear's arm with zero consent), a pleasant chat with plant's new owner, good food, forgetting to pick up mr smear's jacket and arriving at the waterfront to discover i hadn't put the stroller in the trunk, sand eating at the school and grid lock to the waterfront and desperation coffee and slowly getting tp the temple and managing most of the service with relatively little coughing and mr smear on my lap singing along (or shushing the other kids), but also ripping challah before the prayer was said
stressed home arrival with the apartment still stripped for the pest control guys and mr smear passing out in my mom's arms, otherwise a nice evening, reconnecting with an old CLAWs friend (mr q)
difficulty breathing - bronchitis?
saturday 25th:
a few hours of sleep and then a very long early morning filled with crying and coughing; a mixture of relief and sadness learning that humans aren't the only species so badly designed that post-nasal drip is a thing
painful wakeup but combo meds seeming to help, a lot of focus on the slam, managing to register on time
the slam today was interesting and there were some amazing pieces, but i think i'm over the generally neoliberal virtue-signalling spaces these events tend to produce and i'm once again inspired to put together some kind of online slam experience (whatever that may look like). regarding my personal performance, i could've done better and should've done better; the dozens of excuses i may have don't change the fact that i didn't deliver what i wanted to and i'm going to have to take my time to present what i wrote in a more palatable manner.hiring the new nanny, configuring my mom's new computer, a relatively easy time getting mr smear showered and ready for bed - getting him to sleep by encouraging him to listen to the windsong
getting a relatively early night
sunday 26th:
waking up around 4am angry with the museum management, but spending the next two hours sorting out my mother's computer instead of doing something about it
trying to find a new tactic to deal with mr "i want to be wet and smelly", gd putting out her back over a juice spill (apparently i'm a "nanny boy")
taking mr smear out around lunchtime and arriving at the waterfront with him completely out, sitting down for a coffee and coming up with a youtube strategy for a digital poetry slam
the hunt for a "jumping kangaroo", zenn the looper, returning the stroller to the car, a red frozen coconut yoghurt (raspberry seeds), watching shark feeding and penguin petting at the aquarium, a quiet ride home and putting him in bed with his coat and cap on
mom's pc might have been fine but transferring her outlook accounts was a few-hour long nightmare, everyone seeming to get sick again after seeming to be getting better
a really nice shower / bedtime, falling asleep on the couch after an episode of disenchanted and half a bag of soft, delicious marshmallows only to wake up groggy and with sore iliotibial bands
starting work around 11pm
monday 27th:
and completing my task (mostly) around 1.45am
waking up at alarm time to discover that my teammate had merged my pull request at 3am (yay!)
another night struggling to sleep with sore legs and lower back pain which has become more or less "normal" and chronic
becoming upset after discovering that telkom has been stealing money from me since april, then learning that they'd taken a whole lot of money out of my account after i'd already paid them (see previous post)
rage, rage, rage, picking up museum membership cards after receiving a pitiful excuse, more bureaucracy and feeling utterly wiped out
some successful tantrum strategy, a little work while managing a scam, joining a two hour queue at the pharmacy, a coffee with my mom at her coffee shop, quick shopping
a pleasant surprise in my email inbox on my way out, quickly moving my first ETH paycheque into rands, rushing off to pick up some more of our stuff from my mom's apartment and admire the new floors
my salad (flax fail), poor mr smear freezing cold before and after the shower, an easy bedtime, eating and watching disenchanted then passing out
tuesday 28th:
mr smear's hours of awful coughing combined with the pain of blocked sinuses to get me out of bed and working at 2.30am
finishing up around 5am, then up around 9 again for another long and uncomfortable day with the sinuses and coughing and sore back
getting my first new company paycheque into my account!
followed by learning that my bank won't give me credit unless i can find a way to get credit from somewhere else
...
fifteen minutes in the company gardens
mr smear to the doctor, not taking a precautionary prescription
when you're in a hurry and get a breakfast box instead of the sandwich you ordered
waiting with the cleaning lady's daughter while gd got jerked around by an unprofessional uber driver and mr smear decided he loved the spinach
dropping gd and mr smear at emergency to get a prescription (expensive), rushing to fill out existing prescriptions and arriving at the counter before realizing i should've waited to get the new one, returning to pick them up and my mom arriving to switch so i could go to the waterfront for the new prescription and do a grocery store run (rude asian tourists crowding me at checkout)
mr smear spitting out antibiotics (a very angry gd), super late shower and bedtime
wednesday 29th:
up around 4am to work and try to organize myself a bit better until wakeup time, mr smear sleeping soundly and begrudgingly letting him lie while watching true facts videos
dropping him off at school just before arriving at his next year's school interview which he should have been there for (really impressive)
taking gd to sea point and spending an hour at the mojo market with coffee, hummus and my thoughts, being inspired to write a framework for a racism poem
home, a little rest and a little work, picking up mr smear from a good day and taking him through to the dentist for a 3pm appointment which turned out to be a 3.30 (whoops)... there by the grace of a chalkboard and plastic teeth went we
an gratifyingly positive experience for all
home, eventually taking him and his bike out to the gardens for a bit (squirrels crowding us), then an early shower before saying goodnight and walking to rick's for drinks with hido and co (did his wife and i really talk about parenting for two whole hours?!)
home, a bit of you magnificent bastard, housekeeping (online purchases for the home), work
thursday 30th:
until cross-eyed at 00.30
sending the cleaning lady home because she came in sick (really? she couldn't call?)
dropping a clingy mr smear off very late
three hours of learning web3
picking up mr smear and witnessing a special moment:
mr smear: guys.the insult of finding solutions for ethernaut puzzles and realizing they didn't give enough information to make them more than just guessing games
mr smear: guys.
mr smear: GUYS!
*everybody stops*
mr smear: are you building a house?
one of the other kids: yes
*mr smear slowly gives them a thumbs up*
mr smear: good job, guys.
playing local, feeling suddenly horrible, emergency big grocery run (a bar of zang helped), getting mr smear showered and into bed and leaving around 10pm to help my mom transport stuff
banking and elevator saga
friday 31st:
working until 2.15am and climbing into bed with sore legs and bum (a standing desk only isn't great)
gd feeling even sicker in the morning, paying salaries and getting mr smear ready and out (in his dragon onesie) much earlier than usual
driving straight through to my mom's to install a shelf (solid, it should've been done months ago not on move-out day), laughton's not selling posiflex screwdrivers, watching the movers damage things (and having to bribe them to move basic shit around)
stopping by cp&b on my way home, meeting our excellent handyman (who received lots of pain management advice in return), the relief from the wardrobe light not being broken
trying to work through fog, picking up mr smear, enjoying him following his new friend's example of peeing on a bush (confidence plus aiming) while his mother and i had a good chat about nutrition
some of a chai latte at my mom's coffee shop while we chased him up and down, rushing back to the move-out apartment to sell the fridge
the fridge taker was not only highly professional, but kind too - he helped us move the last items, and he also took the washing machine and oven off our hands so we're now definitely ready to find a dishwasher
mr smear generally being good, taking him to buy challah and stopping by the boxing gym for a minute, quickly shopping then returning home for kiddush, shower*, and a quickish bedtime during i was falling asleep more than him
an evening transferring, categorizing and prioritizing tasks and i'm pretty sure i'm almost done
still no money from my previous employer
saturday 1st september:
going to bed utterly bombed (unable to keep my eyes open) around 1.15am
me time until mr smear woke up, then preparing to go to the furniture store for a couple of hours, finally going but with lots of frustration
an unexpectedly very expensive trip (going for a dishwasher and leaving with a couch and bedside tables as well), figuring out how to lift my debit card limits only after giving up and paying via EFT - which ended up making the month more difficult than it needed to be
a difficult waterfront mission and being worn down by mr smear, finally getting home around 4.30 with him asleep; freaking out because gd had shared her ipad password with the cleaning lady (i think she's learned her lesson)
reconnecting virtually face-to-face with mr q after twenty years, not only really enjoying each others' company (and ending up with lots of "homework") but finding an accomplice in my shakespeare mission; sadly learning about his horrific mishap during the last few minutes of our hours together (he shattered his knees falling into his father's grave)
a juice run to the petrol station, a pleasant shower and mostly pleasant reading before bed, being so tired that i crawled straight into my own and then woke up a couple of hours later to a nightmare scene because he'd pooped a runny one and it had gone all over
finally getting him back to sleep, scribbling notes then trying to return to dreamland myself - building resentment for SxS's company over being underpaid for so long, then not being paid on time and having to pay bank penalties
sunday 2nd:
trying to start the day with santana (not appreciated), a very long morning with some good bits (like reading a few more pages of the long earth over coffee), eventually (after noon) taking mr smear to my mom's to help her reinstall her washing machine, being unfairly called out for how i handled a tantrum, taking mr smear to meet his brazilian friend at the park, then heading to primi piatti where the kids had a great time and so did we, reversing into a steel pillar just as my sinus headache and exhaustion returned with a vengeance, stopping by my mom's to try and fix the washing machine leak (which needed professionals)
bringing mr smear home with him falling asleep on my shoulder as we entered the apartment
howard the duck - impressively unfunny, if that's such a thing
housecleaning + going through photo albums, finally getting back to work around 11pm
risking waking mr smear by changing him while he was sleeping only to discover that his diaper wasn't as full as i thought
monday 3rd:
into bed around 1.45am, panicking a little about finances
a cyberpunk nightmare being chased by an agent in glass elevators, managing to pick up my partner's thrown hardware and hoping he got away
a good early morning, getting mr smear to school reasonably not late and back in time for my first dev meeting since joining the company - it was very nice getting enthusiastically positive feedback from our lead for a suggestion i'd sent earlier
it was also very nice getting buy-in from sailor for my telephony project
long brain-draining studying
museum samoosas and doritos
olive branch, stairs missions carrying fifteen kilos plus a lollipop, no men's baby changing stations part i
gardens centre, mr smear only wanting to play catch and throwing himself to the ground roughly (almost succeeding the second time), no men's baby changing stations part ii, almost getting his hand mangled in an elevator door (see above)
brilliant home-made pizza and spongebob squarepants, good shower / easy bedtime then going to bed myself
tuesday 4th:
a full night's sleep, a fairly pleasant morning, learning that mr smear's teacher had had to shower him after the previous day's accident and he'd been repeatedly saying sorry and thank you
the furniture delivery time not matching our expectations, a constructive chat with my accountants, great trance on the way to the hospital to provide a dna sample, meeting gd there and then going to the bank (visa application reappeal)
coming home to lunch and a little reading before going to pick up mr smear, home to receive the new furniture and escort the delivery guys to my mom's to drop off the couch we'd borrowed in the meanwhile
an afternoon working, making salad and gd making even better pizza and my mom coming over to join us for a bit
a fun shower and bedtime, although bedtime did drag a bit, some of avengers: infinity wars before gd crashed
finally getting my last paycheque from my previous employer, then posting this, then planning on getting some work done
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.