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Hi!
How are you? I hope things are going well. Still working on neat stuff? And the family, everybody happy and healthy?
I’m doing well. It has been a little crazy since the start of the new year but I’m starting to get a handle on everything.
We’ve been doing a lot of work on the house and getting quotes for even more work (eek, a new roof). I’m super happy with the garage remodel, it is like a real room now. I’ve been pining for a microscope for the workbench so I could solder better. I could never have dreamt of that for the old garage, it would have just been another place for the spiders to live. I’m trying to be sensible and wait until I’ve needed it three times before I buy one.
I did kind of need it yesterday with a new board I got from a client. Work has been doing ok… there is plenty of it but the grass seems a little greener over there. One work project got cancelled so I immediately shifted over to a new one. It is interesting in an academic way but not really my cup of tea. I’m hoping the first one comes back or some other shiny object captures my attention. You know, I don’t really mind having to look around for shiny objects. If you hear of someone needing an embedded software consultant, do think of me, especially if they want to use an 8 or 16 bit processor.
I’ve been involved with DesignWest, the big embedded systems conference. So far, being a track chair isn’t too onerous. And I’ve been slowly working on my proposed talks. The moderator and I spoke with a panelist on the Sensors in Health panel. Scheduling it was difficult so we ended up on the phone. I was concerned about it meshing but I think we talked for all of three minutes before I thought, “This is going to rock!” I’m looking forward to repeating the interviews with the other panelists.
Let’s see, what else? The garden is a bit of a mess. We’ve had a few too many frosts this year so I’ve got a lot of damaged plants. I’m not sure the cold times are over so I haven’t cut back to new growth. It looks messy but in a few weeks, I’ll fix it.
Dogs are good. Well, not really. But they are cute so they continue to get fed. We lost Dylan, the big cat, over the holidays. That was sad. Ani, the littler, fuzzier cat, has gotten much friendlier. She’s always been really sweet but now she’s almost a lap kitty.
Oh, and my husband is great. Very excited about his new car/toy/spaceship. He had a cold but is over it, working a lot this week since he got roped into working for one of my clients.
Well, I just wanted to drop you a note to say I’m still alive. I do hope things are going well for you.
Cheers,
Elecia
There is a guy crawling around my ceiling right now. On the upper side. And this is literal, not my usual metaphoric guy crawling around my head.
The guy is from a Solar City, he’s looking at the roof, at what would need to be replaced. Because all or part of our roof will need to be replaced before we get solar panels. I’ve wanted solar panels for a long time. It just meets some check on the list of “living in the future”.
When we moved in to the house, they said the roof would last 3-5 years and need re-doing. That was 15 years ago and every year we wonder if THIS is the year. And every year, including this one, we call a roofer to check it out and they do a couple repairs then say it will last 3-5 years.
So why is there another guy planning to destroy the roof? We’ve been waiting to get solar until the roof went. But the tail is going to wag the dog a bit:
We want a new roof because we want solar. We want solar because if we get solar, the panel upgrade is free. We need a panel upgrade because 100A is not enough to run the oven, the microwave and the charging station. We need the charging station for the new car. We need the new car because we got the garage re-done.
No, that last part isn’t right. We got the garage re-done because of the new car. And because the garage was horrific but it is super nifty now. And the floor will match the new car.
Which we will get on Saturday. Hopefully.
I remember once in a shared office, two guys I worked with were complaining that they never had time to exercise. They had plans but never got to it. They commiserated with each other about exercise falling by the wayside due to stupid work deadlines then turned to see if I’d join in. I said, “Don’t look at me. I get on the exercise bike with a beer and do my ten miles as soon as I get home.”
They were impressed. Probably more by the beer than by the consistency in exercise.
This year, I made a small new year resolution: for one week (starting January 1st) I’ll focus a bit more exercise; I want to get 10k steps on my Fitbit and spend time on the exerbike as well. My goal is to get into a new habit. The plan is that I didn’t need to do ten miles on the bike, just get on it for a few minutes. For the most part, I have done my normal ten, except for that day we rented a Wii Dance game (Rick Astley and Carly Rae Jepsen wore me out).
I only have one more day to walk and bike. I don’t anticipate any problems completing my goal and I plan to make a new one for next week. Though I may take a day off. I hoped for a habit but I find I’m starting to drag a bit. Maybe on Wed, I’ll do one or the other instead of both. Also, I’ll change resolutions to something else.
After all, over the last week, I have gained wait (but lost body fat according to the scale). Maybe next week, I’ll ditch the exercise goal and spend a week counting calories. Or maybe I’ll ditch health goals for a a week and spend a week writing more (I have a 10 part series I want to blog but haven’t had time with all the exercise). Or possibly I’ll do something particularly nice for someone every day. That is always a fun resolution. Or maybe I’ll spend an hour every day promoting my book (I suck at self promotion but there are people I should ask for reviews or send copies to). Or I could garden for an hour every day, clean up the backyard so the spring wildflowers can some in.
I suppose my real goal is to have some self-improvement-ish thing every week to focus on. Every thing I add takes time. Some thing will turn out to be worth the time. Some things won’t. Some things will form habits and after a week of concentrating on it, I won’t need to think about it anymore.
So, starting tomorrow, I’ll keep exercising (that has been a habit for years) but with a little less focus on it so I can try something else. Wish me luck and strong resolve.
Happy new year!
I am a creature of habit, I didn’t realize how much until I considered the things I do each morning. Some mornings have minor deviations but even Sat and Sun usually have this pattern.
- Wake-up
- Cuddle a bit with C
- Roll out of bed
- Grab sweats and yesterday’s shirt from floor
- Bathroom
- Weigh self bemusedly on scale that is half deconstructed (I wrote part of the software; it is a test unit)
- Wash hands
- Dress
- Free dogs from their crate
- Herd dogs into backyard
- Turn on coffee maker
- Open door for dogs, find shoes and go with them
- Deep breaths and stretch until both dogs return, admire sun rising and plants blooming
- Open door, dogs come in and run to their feeding locations
- Pet whichever dog was slowest (usually Bear but not always)
- Feed dogs
- Add water to the pets’ water bowl
- Tell cat to stop eating dog food
- Wash hands
- Look at time, think about what to do with morning
- Get mug, fill partway with water, take vitamin
- Start coffee brewing into mug
- Get food bar
- Take coffee and food bar to desk
- Get started
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