Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

I always build in a buffer after some time off, especially if it involves travel. There’s always something that needs to get done afterward, like laundry, grocery shopping, etc. This trip was no different. The day after the anniversary trip we had the ground floor of the townhouse power washed, and had our handyman over to finish fixing the owner’s suite bathroom ceiling and wall.* And, naturally, laundry and grocery shopping.

The trip itself was wonderful. While the forecast called for constant rain, that didn’t materialize. There was a lot of rain, but it generally held off to mid-morning, allowing me to get in some morning walks. Only one day did it impinge on the front porch with some wind creating a small lake there. Otherwise was perfect, and I got four and a half books read.

Went into the office Friday for a day of email catch up while it was still the holiday week. Mostly caught up and I know the projects I’ll have to get to this upcoming week. Not that it’s going to be a full week – I’m taking tomorrow off for a doctor’s appointment, and Thursday to see the new Masters of the Universe film with the husband. He’s a HUGE fan, as is his sister – they have matching tattoos of He-Man’s and She-Ra’s swords. So the movie is a big deal, hence the day off.

* Some time last year a bird got into a vent on the front of our townhouse. Called a trapping company, they confirmed there was evidence a bird had gotten in, was no longer there, and they put a new vent cover on. Around the same time we had some water damage on the wall toward where the vent was. I had surmised that the bird had broken the duct when it got in and we were pumping moist air into the wall when we ran the exhaust fan. Finally got someone in to fix the duct, they put a hole in the ceiling to get at it and discovered … there was no duct. As in, the vent cover didn’t connect to anything. Apparently on the other models that’s where the clothes dryer vents out, but on ours the dryer vents to the back. The builder put the hole and cover in the wall for the vent, but didn’t connect it to anything. The exhaust fan piping goes up to the roof. Oy. The water damage was from something else, but wasn’t anything active, just a coincidence with the bird intrusion. Hence the need to get the ceiling patched and painted and the water damage cleaned up and painted.

So far the new office is … fine. They managed to wire the window offices for internet (but not the internal ones), so my connection has been steady. It’s roughly the same time in the commute that it was to the old office, but with a longer walk at the end (a couple blocks versus just across the street). Have to cross a major street, but there’s a pedestrian tunnel that allows one to pass under the street.

On the plus side, we have solid doors with locks on them (the old building had glass internal walls and doors), so if you need some quiet it’s there.

I will admit to getting home Monday, backing into the garage, and as the garage door was coming down saying to myself, “Well, that was fun; let’s never do it again.” Heh.

I head back to the office on Monday, part of the first wave of folks moving into our new office building. Hopefully the internet will work; supposedly we’re going to be on hotspots, which does not sound like a sustainable model. And based on the calls with the few leadership folks who’ve been in the office, the connection will be … less than optimal. Whatever. Y’all set the conditions and I’ll do my best to work under them.

Tomorrow I’ll have to go through the stuff I hauled home from the old office building and see what needs to go back immediately and what can wait until I decided to drive down.

Hardest part is going to be figuring out the new morning routine so I can get my exercise in, and still make it to the office at a reasonable hour. I know myself well enough to know I have to do it before work or it won’t get done, and I’ve made too much progress this year not to make this happen. Heck, the other day I was able to squat down and play with one of the cats and stay in that position for a while. Not bad for ten months out from knee surgery!

Monday was most definitely a snow day, but you couldn’t tell that from the flurry of work emails. As I said to one fellow lawyer, ‘bored scientists gonna science’. ‘Twas crazy busy on a day that people really should have been more chill, no pun intended.

Rest of the week has been okay so far. The husband dug out our driveway, much like the next several neighbors down to our left. Then we watched the HOA contract crew dig out the driveway to our right that hadn’t been touched. Wish they’d make up their minds. First few years they dug out everything. Then suddenly they would only do the sidewalk and we were responsible for the 3 feet from door to sidewalk (which was still the case this year) as well as the driveways for those of us who don’t have driveways on an alley (which is most of the townhomes). Cue the rolling of the eyes. But in any case it was all clean for our housecleaner to come over today, a couple days early because she has a doctor’s appointment on her normal Friday.

Escaped the house to go get comics this afternoon, then hopped right back inside. We are braving pizza delivery this evening after being assured they were open and delivering. I tipped more than usual in recognition of the road conditions, which are okay, but not stellar.

For the good deed, that is. The young friend apparently had a cold at the end and the husband and I have it now. LOL I’m fighting it, he’s got it full blown. I’d tease the friend about it, but he’d take it way too seriously and go into a spiral right now, so I’m just teasing the husband instead.

That said, I still got in a workout this morning. Trying a one-week program from my favorite mobility site. So far so good, though getting in the steps while teleworking is a challenge. Speaking of, scuttlebutt in the office is that rather than a couple months we’re probably looking at 9-12 before we can move into the new building because of all the work that has to happen to get the IT systems up to snuff, including work outside the building to tear up the street and install better external wiring. So much for “move in ready” in the request for proposals. Not complaining, at all, just amazed at how messy this whole thing has been. All because a large agency head hated his building downtown, and his commute. Lawdy.

Got the young friend settled into his new apartment this evening, post-work. He seems to be settling in okay, and he’s doing better at reflecting on the relationship with his ex-fiance. Thank heavens. With the young friend out tonight I was able to set up my bike in the trainer downstairs again, giving me back that option for exercise in the morning. Yay.

Returned to more regular work today. My team used AI in one of the tools we have access to for the first time to summarize a document from another agency for our boss. Reviewed it closely to make sure it was actually accurate, and passed it along verbatim to our boss, with appropriate attribution and a lot of our own analysis as well. I’m still not sold on AI tools, but given that I’m at a science agency, and we’re paying for this thing, I have to get used to it. I’m still cognizant of how much AI hallucinates, hence the careful vetting of the summary, and making sure she knew it was not our own work. I’m reminded of the phrase “change equals stress”.

I’ve been slacking off on my PT exercises for the repaired knee, with the (expected) result that it’s been more sore lately. Splurged for a squat wedge, which is a lot easier to use for heel elevated squats. I can get a lot deeper into a squat than on flat feet, and that was one of the things they had me doing a lot when I was going to PT on the regular. Between that and the slack block my knee is feeling better.

Was back to work today, teleworking. Relatively quiet, so mostly cleaned out email and read a longish memo from justice that pertains to my small gubm’nt agency’s work, though it was written for a different agency. We’ll have to change some of our programs, and cancel some others, under this new guidance. But that’s a problem for next week.

The husband and I are going to take some trips via airplane next year so I’m applying for TSA’s PreCheck clearance. He’s already got it, and I consider it worth the cash to not deal with as much security nonsense at the actual airport. Less valuable in the DC area where it’s well known and so well subscribed, but for flying back I understand it cuts out a lot of hassle.

My coworkers seem to be settling back into the fully remote routine. I think it helps that it’s so close to the year-end holidays, so much of the normal business of the agency is quieter than usual. Not to say that we’re not working, but the normal urgency isn’t quite as bad as the norm.

Comics, dinner, and a Target run. I was surprised at how quickly we were able to get out of Target. The husband’s sister had ordered something for her husband that she had us pick up, and then we went ahead and got the candy for stockings while we were there. I also picked up a Roku stick for the monitor in my office, as I slowly turn my office into a pseudo-man-cave. Hoping that the better seating and some TV will be conducive to more knitting and cross stitching. In unrelated news I finally finished the first section of dark grey yarn for the latest scarf so now I have to refresh my memory of how to switch colors. I know it’s not hard, I just haven’t done it in a while. I did some knitting on it while we were in Ocean City, and managed to finish the section today while waiting to pick up the husband from the Metro.

Had grand plans to wrap the presents that have arrived, but alas, Amazon decided that 7-11am delivery of wrapping paper actually meant 7-11pm. No biggie, but I had to put some of the stuff I’d set up in the kitchen to wrap back in my office before the husband got home. I know it’s rough work this time of year, and this wasn’t pressing, so I’m not stressing over it.

I did go through his lego advent calendar and pull the bricks for the rest of the month so I could catalog which pieces were missing and order them. No clue when they’ll arrive, but hopefully I got them all this time. Has still been a fun process, and I think he enjoys the ships that he has been able to build.

Work is … weird? Like hey, it’s the week before Xmas week, so it should be slowing down, and it sort of is, but the administration is still nuts and sticking to their crazy deadlines, so we still have odd one-off things to do. In the meantime, I have zero motivation for most of it between our ridiculous forced office move and (*waives hands wildly in the air*) all of the rest of it, but I plow through.

Was in my office building today for our holiday open house, and cleaning up the last of the stuff in my office before they kick us out. Was glad to see people, but I am looking forward to the several months of full time telework that we’ll have while they fix up the new building. Here’s hoping it’s a disaster inside so it takes longer to arrange. In the meantime, I just want to sleep for more than 7 hours tonight.

The husband and I are taking off for Ocean City tomorrow for their winter Comic Con. It’s a small affair, but it looks like it’ll be fun. And this will be a nice respite before his sister and her husband and daughter come down the following weekend for Xmas week. I’m actually looking forward to seeing the niece since she was so chatty the last time we saw her in October (which is a pleasant change from her previous quiet self). I’m looking forward to seeing her parents, too, but the teenager promises to be more fun to watch and interact with this time around.