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

Got another run done this past weekend. One mile this time, still doing repeats of run up the block, walk back. But still no knee pain during or after. Huzzah. Plenty of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) this week, though, between the run and my regular workouts M/Tu. Whee.

I am working from home this week and next as my office building is reinstalling network cable all throughout our floor. The floor that was the first one occupied back in May. So while the last cohort of everyone else doing the whole Return To Office thing came in on Monday, half of the first folks back are once again at home because they didn’t have the cable done before we moved in. *snert* Whatever. I will say that I am terribly out of practice for working from home, and it definitely doesn’t give me enough other movement (aka steps) versus going into the office. I don’t miss the time for the commute (I do appreciate the uninterrupted reading time on the train), and the cats have enjoyed being able to bug me 24/7 again, but I think I’d rather have a mix of in-office and at-home.

Had my first crown done a couple of weeks ago. Aside from the gums feeling a little roughed up for a couple of days it’s gone smoothly. It helps that the doc has the printer for the things right in the office, so no more having to wait weeks with a temporary one – they fit it 20-odd minutes after he got done drilling. And while I’m not thrilled with the location of the office (Foggy Bottom), he’s a whiz at the anesthesia shots, so it’s worth it.

Starting to catch up on comics finally. I think I’m two months behind at this point? But I’m dedicating more time to get caught up, which isn’t easy when there’s a new batch every week. Plus trying to keep up with other reading.

Up way too early this morning. Been a rough week for my gut, which has not helped my sleep. FODMAPs hate me, and I haven’t been able to eat at home where I can better control the food as much as I should.

I make it a habit to flip off the statute of the 40th President of the US every time I pass National Airport on the Metro (twice daily on work days). While I’ve found most presidents are a mixed bag, I have a particular dislike of that one because of his inaction on HIV and what it did to wipe out the generations of gay men right before mine.

The husband thanked me this week for insisting that we not look at any properties which were anywhere near a flood zone of any kind on the FEMA flood insurance maps, after one of his coworkers complained he was going to have to completely redo his finished basement in the house he’d just moved into 11 days prior.

Work has asked me to write up my second memo in six months on constitutional issues facing our agency for the folks at Justice to weigh in on. On the one hand, hey, they like me and like my writing. On the other hand, no pressure, it’s just the future of the agency and how it operates. Eeck.

Because of the lack of sleep my personal reading has been light – rereading the Cradle series by Will Wight, which is fun, but by no means a heavy intellectual lift. Thank you, Kindle unlimited.

The husband and his sister are bungee jumping off a bridge this afternoon. Her daughter and I will watch and make fun of the screaming. All good.

The husband brought in a head cold, which has us both snotty and not sleeping well. Skipped the potluck, obviously, as I greatly prefer not to share such bounties with others. Took today as a sick day, might do the same tomorrow. In the meantime I’m reading fiction that doesn’t demand a lot of me (Dungeon Crawler Carl) and napping. Several good sneezing fits today, which typically means I’m on the mend in my experience. Blech. At least the cats are happy with quietly reading/napping Moose.

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.