Roof, Trail, ETS
Apr. 22nd, 2025 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ranunculusThe roof is almost complete. Now we are waiting for the ridge vent materials. Apparently it will be a couple more weeks before they arrive, which is fine, there is no real rain in the forecast, and the roofers say that the roof is watertight in any case. Michael says my sprinkler pipes are done, but I haven't picked them up yet.
This morning Donald and I "brushed out" a trail. I had failed completely to drain the muddy swamp at the bottom of Buckeye pasture, it is still a churned up, gloppy mess so we needed an alternate route. Yesterday Carrie and I walked a path from the east Clover Flats gate down the canyon to a point just past the swamp. For years people have wound their way up and down the south side of the stream, dodging trees and low limbs. It is a really pretty area when you aren't ducking something. Unfortunately dozens of trees have been out competed by their neighbors, died and fallen or partially fallen, all along the route. Other trees have branched out to take their place. The resulting tangle of dead wood and new branches has effectively blocked all reasonable routes. Even the cows; who are masters of forcing their way through; had problems. I chainsawed while Donald cleared up for about 4 1/2 hours before I felt the trail was clear and would be nice to ride. This trail will make a great trail link across the bottom of Jungle Pasture.
(no subject)
Apr. 22nd, 2025 10:41 pmmarina( mentions of health issues )
*
In job news, something pretty huge and happy-making has happened???
One of the 4 companies I interviewed with has gotten back to me (after like 7 stages) to say they want me to work for them and they'll send me a contract offer in the next few days (which is standard). Fingers crossed, nothing certain until papers are signed etc, but. BUT.
It's been over a year, and finally I have a job offer.
At least one company wants to pay me a decent salary with all the nice perks and everything.
Now, if I had no other offers and was not in the running for any other position, I would take this one IN A HEARTBEAT. I would take it and be SO GRATEFUL.
But since I am still somehow in the process with 3 other companies, I'm in the weird position of mentally wondering which one I'd choose if they were to make me an offer.
Company #2 - I've finished all the interviews, and they're supposed to get back to me tomorrow on whether they want to check my references, which usually takes 1-2 days and is more of a formality. There's good reason to assume that if they say yes to me tomorrow they'll make me an offer next week.
Company #3 - I'm doing my final interview with them on Thursday, a big presentation, and after that they'll let me know if they're interested, no reference checks. If they want me they'll just make an offer.
Company #4 - the actual company of my heart, that all other considerations aside I would probably choose to work for because I love their product so much - I'm doing my final interview with them on Monday (next week). Of course they have the WORST HR process, so I actually have no idea what their next step is and whether there's something else they'll want to do before deciding yay/nay after Monday.
Now I'm mostly stressed because Company #1, that's already told me they want me, will probably try to pressure me to finalize a contract with them before Company #4 has a chance to decide whether they want me, sigh.
All of these potential roles are so good. None of them are "I can live with that" compromises. All of them are amazing, it's more a question of specific types of amazing, and of course I ideally want the combination that works best for me.
It is utterly surreal to be in this position after a year and 2 months of being unemployed. UTTERLY SURREAL.
But you know, maybe all the other companies will reject me and only Company #1 will remain, which will still be perfectly fine and even great.
Or maybe I somehow manage to fuck up this whole thing and will be left with nothing ////o\\\\ IDK it's just too good to be true at the moment.
Phew. Deep breath. The next 2 weeks will be continued stress, especially since I have a big presentation on Thursday and on Monday, but then... then. I don't know. Maybe, just maybe. *fingers crossed*
If anyone could use a morale boost
Apr. 22nd, 2025 05:17 pmrydra_wongMany many pictures.
Also, more protests yet to come, apparently, with ones scheduled for Oxford and Cambridge.
Physio reprised
Apr. 22nd, 2025 04:56 pmoursinSo today was my physio let's see how you're doing assessment, at the different health centre -
- which I was in a bit of a swivet about getting to, because the obvious straightforward route is the longest, and there are shorter ones but these involve a tangle of residential streets -
- not to mention, whichever way you slice it, the road winds uphill all the way, yea, to the very end, because the health centre is bang opposite Parliament Hill.
Nonetheless, I found a route which seemed doable, which said 24 mins (and that was not actually starting from home base but from the road by the railway line), which I thought was possibly optimistic for an Old Duck such as myself, but mirabile dictu it was in fact just over 20 but under 25 minutes, win, eh?
And took me along streets I have seldom walked along since the 70s/80s when I was visiting them more frequently for Reasons.
Had a rather short but I hope useful meeting with the physio - some changes to existing exercises and a new one or two.
Thought I would get a bus back as I had had time to check out the nearby bus stops, and there was one coming along which according to the information at the stop was going in a useful direction.
Alas it was coming from the desired direction, but still, cut off a certain amount of homewards slog.
Poetry month: For the New House by Ursula K. Le Guin
Apr. 21st, 2025 02:38 pmresonantMay this house be full of kitchen smells
and shadows and toys and nests of mice
and roars of rage and waterfalls of tears
and deep sexual silences and sounds
of mysterious origin never explained
and troves and keepsakes and a lot of junk
and a flowing like a warm wind only slower
blowing the leaves of trees and books and the fish-years
of a child’s life silvery flickering
quick, quick, in the slow incessant gust
that billows out the curtains for a moment
all those years from now, ago.
May the sills and doorframes
be in blessing blest at every passing.
May the roof but not the rooms know rain.
May the windows know clearly
the branch and flower of the apple tree.
And may you be in this house
as the music is in the instrument.
Maybe I'm being unduly cynical
Apr. 21st, 2025 02:42 pmoursinBut this did sound awfully like that spate of books where people had A Bright Idea to Do Something for A Year and got a book out of it, which was clearly the intention, and this struck my cynical ayfeist self as 'My Spiritual Pilgrimage to a Mystical Experience, Conversion, Faith, and Publishing Deal'.
Could I become a Christian in a year?
(How long did it take St Augustine? asking for a friend.)
For my perpetual Christian road-trip – beginning in the last months of 2022 and ending in early 2024 – I purchased a 21 year-old Toyota Corolla and stocked the glove box with second-hand CDs. I filled up my calendar with Christian retreats, church visits and stays in the houses of Christian strangers all across the highways and byways of the UK – Cornwall, Sussex, Kent, Hertfordshire, Birmingham, north Wales, Norfolk, Sheffield, Halifax, Durham, the Inner Hebrides – seeking out every kind of Christian, from Catholics to Orthodox Christians: Quakers, Pentecostals, Evangelicals, high to low Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, self-professed mystics, focusing on my generation specifically, those in their 20s and 30s, the youngest set of adults in Britain.
70s flashback!!! Only in those days it was people working their way through the various offerings of the 'Growth' aka 'Human Potential' Movement that was flourishing then and I'm pretty sure that people wrote up their memoirs of their odysseys through the various practices/groups/cults on offer.
I was also, in the light of this article today, intrigued that it was two bloke friends who set her on this path: I’m delighted to see gen Z men in the UK flocking back to church – I just hope it’s for the right reasons. So am I. I have a friend who has been involved in the much-delayed and still unsatisfactory response of the C of E to certain abuse cases and some of those seem to have been connected with cultish manifestations which were praised for bringing in that particular demographic.
(And having noted the other day that Witchfinder Hopkins was pretty much in that demographic of young men aged 18-24, I'd really like to know where these Gen Z converts are in relation to issues like ordination of women, LGCBTQ+ inclusivity, etc etc.)
UK people: disability benefit cuts
Apr. 21st, 2025 09:48 amrydra_wonghttps://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/20/the-whole-policy-is-wrong-rebellion-among-labour-mps-grows-over-5bn-benefits-cut
(If you have a non-Labour MP, hassle them too and see if they can be persuaded to do something vaguely useful.)
Culinary
Apr. 20th, 2025 06:29 pmoursinNo bread made this week, last week's + rolls holding out.
Firday night supper: sardegnera with spicy Calabrian salami; okay but not the great sardegnera I've accomplished.
Saturday breakfast rolls: the ones loosely based on James Beard's mother's raisin bread, made with Marriage's Light Spelt Flour.
Today's lunch: lemon sole fillets, which I baked thus - first cooked chopped shallots, chopped up butter and pancetta in hot oven for 15 mins, then added quartered little gem lettuce for a further 5 mins, then added petit pois (tinned, recipe said frozen but they only had huge bags of frozen) and white wine + water (recipe said vegetable stock but didn't have any) and placed sole fillets on top and seasoned with salt and pepper, baked for a further 5-10 mins, added lemon zest just before serving (this was about finding something to do with spare packet of pancetta left over from the other week); served with warm green bean and fennel salad (dressing actually olive oil + white wine + tarragon, left for a bit to marinate and strained over the beans) (this was using up the fennel left over from last week, also last red onion); and sticky rice with coconut milk and lime leaves.
Weekly proof of life: media, adulting, food
Apr. 20th, 2025 01:59 pmumadoshiWatching: I finished my Guardian rewatch!
scruloose and I finished season 1 of Kingdom and did indeed opt to hold off on season 2 until after we finish season 2 of The Last of Us. (Is Kingdom complete at two seasons? Anyone know offhand? Fear of spoilers makes me not want to search up the info.) We also saw the season premiere of TLoU and the first episode of The Pitt.Playing: Because the evil 368chickens game keeps track and springs the number on you when you beat it, I know that when I finally rescued 368 chickens a few days ago it was after 454 tries. And for reasons that are not clear to me, the victory screen (at least in the browser version) also informs you that you can't play anymore and is all that shows if you reload. (There are ways around it, of course--incognito tabs, simply using a different browser, whatever--but it just seems weird to me. I have thus far avoided going back to it, but that just means returning to my default couple of games that I play endlessly when my brain is completely incapable of focus but needs to be doing something. >.<)
Adulting: Mid-week,
scruloose and I took the day off for my birthday and both dropped off our tax documents with our tax guy (bless our tax guy) and voted in the federal election at the Elections Canada office. I'm glad we got the voting taken care of so early--sounds like lineups for advance polls have been unusually lengthy this weekend (and here's hoping that's a good sign for the outcome!).( under the cut: fruit and meat consumption (separately) )
Marking trail.
Apr. 19th, 2025 09:58 pmranunculusMimulus Meadows below Split Rock were wonderful. Yes it was that green.
There were rivers of flowers everywhere. The white ones are meadowfoam, the orange are mimulus. There are lots of other flowers out there as well, but those are the main ones.
Burn!
Apr. 19th, 2025 09:49 pmranunculus
Behind the pile of branches on the right are two live oak trees. I don't like live oaks and I really didn't want them growing up that close to the road as they are nothing more than a fire bomb waiting for a spark in the summer. So the trees came down and were burned up along with all the dead wood. Yes I dragged all the branches up the hill and to the fire... Here is the finished product. No brush and no trees.
In the middle of the second day I got phone calls asking why there were no release of liability forms at the Cow Corrals, and would I meet Michael at the gravel place to choose what gravel I wanted for the culvert installation. Oh, and I needed dog food. M is back in Alaska so there was no help on the dogfood front, I'm on my own! Bit of a busy day.
Happy Saturday
Apr. 19th, 2025 04:20 pmcofax7Still alive, still employed! Booyah.
Not loving the job right now: it's never boring, but I had never intended to be a manager of people, and it's really quite stressful. Plus, you know, ::waves vaguely:: the omnishambles of everything is not helping.
But I did take the Tornado out for a 7-mile hike this morning, and she behaved quite well, and we just did some agility practice, and she got six weave poles in a row! Five times! So great. (If you have never seen dog agility, it looks like this, although that's one of the top dogs in the UK, and the Tornado is just beginning her agility journey.)
I call her the Tornado because she is Very. High. Energy. (And tends to knock things over.) I fear she will be one of the dogs barking all the way through the agility course.
Anyway, I'm planning some vacation time this summer, although it feels a little weird to be planning an international trip at this time. I plan to do some judicious app-deletion before coming back through Customs, because that's the world we live in right now.
Currently very excited about both Andor and Murderbot! I've already gotten a tiny bit spoiled for Andor, so I think I will have to lock down my browsing for the next few days. I understand the next Star Wars animated show (after Underworld) is also going to be about Darth Maul, and I'm kind of dubious, but maybe they can do something interesting with it. Myself, I would rather have learned more about Omega's adventures in the Rebellion.
I'm halfway through this month's book for book club, but it's heavy going: Therese Raquin, by Zola. I have liked Zola: he's very grounded, very vivid. Not at all romantic. But these characters are really very unlikeable. I may end up skimming a lot to finish by Tuesday.
***
I feel like I'm running out of plotty time-travel fixit fics in which determined heroes (and heroines) go back in time and prevent the errors of their forebearers. I suspect I have not found the right tags on AO3...
In other news, I am listening to Mind the Tags, a charming podcast about fandom, specifically fic-writing fandom. And although the hosts are quite nice, they're so young, and I found myself talking back to them as they fumbled their way through a discussion of the early days of alt.tv.x-files.creative. They tried to talk about show-specific archives and auto-archiving and never even mentioned Ephemeral and Gossamer! There are plenty of us fandom Olds still around!
(Although, how cool is it that Gossamer is still up? WTF.)
Still, it's a very friendly and upbeat podcast full of enthusiasm for fandom and fannish institutions, so I encourage y'all to give it a try if that's the sort of thing you enjoy. I found them because one of the hosts got interviewed by Anne Helen Peterson on her Culture Study podcast, which is also great.
In other other news, I lined up a group of local pals to go see our local minor league baseball team next month! So that will be fun! I like minor-league baseball because it's cheap and low-stakes and you can sit outside and drink beer and eat corn dogs and it doesn't really matter except you're there with a crowd and it's just fun. And all the seats are good.
I am usually very much a text person....
Apr. 19th, 2025 04:48 pmoursinBut this promised to be a short video, by one of my academic crushes.
(Indeed, should I ever meet Professor Hutton I fear I shall melt down and revert into A Teenager in Love to the embarrassment of all.)
Ronald Hutton on Matthew Hopkins, the English Civil War's 'Witchfinder General': 'What really happened when a breakdown of the legal system in the English Civil War fuelled a series of witch-hunts? In this 10-Minute Talk, Professor Ronald Hutton FBA delves into England's witch trials and Matthew Hopkins, the self-proclaimed Witchfinder General.'
It was really local, it was really atypical -
- and I never realised how very young Hopkins was, as well as being in a socially marginal position. (Do we think that these days he'd be an incel mass shooter?) In the 1968 movie he was played by Vincent Price who was well on in his career by that date.
What goes around, comes around
Apr. 18th, 2025 02:36 pmkayreA year ago I suddenly figured out how to follow through on a design I've been imagining. I spent months piecing it, and then had to pause for six months to develop my quilting skills (the actual process of sewing the layers together). I finished that last week, and the ideas just keep flowing-- I've got three designs in mind now. One is already in process, the second is close.
What's really amusing me now is that Laura and I just created strikingly similar designs on the same day, without any consultation. They won't be identical, and in fact will highlight our different styles, but they'll definitely seem like companion pieces. We are already contemplating a mother/daughter show!