Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 37

Another One Down

I've been doing virtual races, although I'm not sure you can call them races--exactly--since they cover hundreds of miles and I just plug away at them.

I finished the Cote D'Azur either at the end of February or the very beginning of March--I can't remember which--and I received my medal in the mail! That little sign is on a hinge that opens and closes. (This company doesn't mail out the medal until the racer completes their course, so Iceland hung out there forever!)

The previous race was Iceland, which took forever. This one was short in comparison and it felt like I flew through it. I'm working on Easter Island now which is even shorter than the Cote D'Azur, so I should have another medal to share shortly.

I paid for two more challenges with this company and I'm trying to think about what I want to do when I finish the island.

I've also tried races from another company and their app is so freaking frustrating! It's a 100K race, but I've only been able to get my distance to record once! Grrr. They have some super cool medals/races and I would love to do more, but I do not want to fight with their app any longer. The plus side is that this company will mail the medal out before the race, so I really don't need to use their app.

BTW, when I added up my distances manually, I'd gone 132K, so I earned my 100K medal and then some.

I also tried a third company that mails out the medals immediately. Their medals are plastic, which I don't like. I have those medals in a drawer because I haven't completed those distances yet. Instead, I've been working on these other challenges.

Sometime soon, I'll share the medal from the race with the frustrating app. I think their problem is they're a fitness app and tried to squeeze the challenges into the same app. What they should have done was created a completely separate app. JMO.

Phone Annoyances

My work phone is an iPhone 8. Yes, I said 8. It's actually a miracle I still have it because when the pandemic hit, the company was talking about taking away all our mobile devices. That's when I went out and bought my own iPhone. The iPhone 11.

My iPhone 11 is awesome! The only issue is battery life, but it's more than two years old, so I read that's to be expected.

The iPhone 8? That's another story.

Every time I update it, the cellular update fails. Then I have to follow a bunch of instructions that involve hooking it up to the computer, using iTunes, and forcing an update. The last time I did this, it didn't work and it involved three hours of Googling and messing around on my MacBook Pro. The MacBook is not my primary computer. I have it for some writing-related programs that don't run on the PC.

When the latest update came out, I put off updating, but when I called our IT help desk recently, they had an option for company mobile phones. I thought, okay, I'll update while I'm at work and if it fails, I'll call the help desk.

I should have known better.

The update failed. I called the help desk. They told me to call Apple. Really?

So I brought the phone home and I now have it hooked up to my PC laptop and forced the update via iTunes. Right now, I'm hoping that I don't have to fire up the MacBook and try to find the instructions I used last time.

Me and TV

The other day, I remembered this television show I used to love. My Own Worst Enemy starring Christian Slater.

In this show, Slater plays a man whose brain has been segmented and part of him is a deadly spy and the other part of him is a devoted family man. The only problem? These two personalities have learned the other exists.

The show was on in 2008 and only made it 9 episodes before it was cancelled. This is one of the reasons why I watch very little TV. Every time I fall in love with a show, it gets cancelled. No exaggeration. This is the same year that Life on Mars debuted--and was cancelled after one season. At least this network allowed the show one full season and we were able to get closure, unlike with My Own Worst Enemy which was just cancelled.

I thought it would get better with Netflix. After all, they didn't cancel anything, right?

Yeah, not so much. I started watching this TV show called Limitless and OMG, it's the first show I ever binged. As I neared the end of season one, I began to Google to find out when I could watch season two only to learn there wouldn't be a season two.

And even when a show is renewed, things don't go smoothly. I adore The Umbrella Academy, but instead of immediately filming a second season, Netflix decided to wait and see how season one did. And they did the same thing with season three, which was then delayed farther by the pandemic.

Why can't I ever fall in love with a show that I can just binge without having to wait forever for the next season? I guess it's an improvement over falling for shows that get cancelled, but still...

I guess the solution is to watch a series that is already deep into seasons except when I look at a show and see that it had 7 seasons, I can't get myself to commit to it. It feels too overwhelming to come into it that late.

So I kind of just don't watch much television. It's much better than being disappointed over and over.

Missing My Birds

There are so many awesome things about working from home. In fact, everything about working from home is awesome, but one of the things I really started to enjoy was my birds.

I call them my birds because for two years running, they've nested in the tree near my office windows. And when I got to work from home every day, I was able to watch as the baby fledged from the nest and learned to feed itself.

It was better than checking out a bird cam online. The parents, both took care of the baby--at least from what I could see--and that chick needed their help. It kept screeching. I'm like, little guy, if you keep screaming like that, the predators are going to find you!

But mom or dad would fly in with food for the baby, feed it, and then it would be quiet for at least a little while.

Now that the trees are starting to bud, I'm watching for my bird couple to show up and nest in the tree again. I'm sad to work in the office for so many reasons, but missing out on year three of nesting season is definitely on the list.

What Happens In Sewing Club

I kind of accidentally joined a sewing club.

You're probably wondering how this happened, right? So I follow the designer and she posted about it and the year-long subscription was on sale. Also, the patterns for sewing club are not supposed to ever be for individual sale, and the first pattern was so cute!

I talked myself out of it. First, I don't have time to sew. Second, the lessons on fitting will be over my head because it's all I can do to sew the pattern as is. Third, the patterns are going to be above my skill level and I won't be able to make them. Four, even if I could find the time (which I can't), I don't have the money to buy everything I'd need for each pattern. I'm not only talking fabric and notions. I literally don't have all the equipment. I keep adding things as the projects go along, but as an example, I don't have pinking shears. I don't have a good iron, just a cheap, horrible one. And so on.

I was happy with my decision--until the designer did an Instagram live and talked about sewing club and how the patterns are for confident beginners.

I wouldn't say I'm a confident beginner, but I am relatively fearless. This is how I learned to knit--by tackling patterns/stitches that were beyond my skill level. And I mean, it's only fabric, right? If I mess it up, no one is injured (except maybe my poor dining room table).

Okay, so I joined the sewing club and I downloaded the pattern, but it is over my head at this point and I'm absolutely not buying fabric.

You know what happened, right? I bought fabric.

I still have no plans to make the pattern. The fabric was cute, it wasn't too expensive, and it was almost sold out, which is why I bought it now rather than waiting, but I'm reading posts on the bulletin board for sewing club and I know I'm in over my head. So I'll wait, and when I have time, work on something simpler to improve my skills. After that, I will tackle this jacket.

In the meantime, I'm going to soak up knowledge from sewers who actually know what they're doing.

Planner Problems

I've mentioned before about using a new planner this year instead of my usual brand for reasons which I went into in this blog post. After using the new planner for a while, I can say a couple of things.

First, I never should have bought the bigger size. I do like having all that additional space to write, but the problem is I have no room on my desk top and I keep the planner on a pulled out drawer. With the smaller size, I'm able to write on it where it's at, or if I need to bring it on top of the desk, I can move the keyboard and it's not a huge problem.

The new, bigger planner wobbles. It falls off the drawer to the floor. When I have to bring it up on the desk (which is more often thanks to wobbling/falling), it requires more space. Space that I just don't have. Sigh.

The Second thing that I've discovered is driving me crazy is all the stickers I had to add for water tracking, sleep tracking, and vitamin tracking. These were features that were printed into the other planner. The stickers cause the planner to bulge where I put them down. And since I did the entire year, the bulges are thick, making it difficult to write in.

So now I'm debating. Do I pick up a copy of my old planner for 2022 and write everything in from the first of the year? The planners are on sale, but OMG, the work of going through and adding all the old information. And I'd have to add all the birthdays and anniversaries to a replacement planner, too.

Then there are the stickers I bought for the dates of the full moon, mercury retrogrades, and other things. All those are in the original 2022 planner. I'd either have to rebuy them or do without.

And what about the cost of the planner I already purchased? That would be like wasting money.

But this planner is driving me crazy. I'm not sure I can live with it until January. This alone might make switching back to the other planner brand a good idea and then reevaluating next year. If I do switch companies again next year, I would get the smaller size planner and not put the stickers in it. I'd just live without the trackers. It's not like I can't track my water on my phone and I'm getting the sleep information from the Fitbit app anyway.

I hate messing up like this.

Adventures With Time

Last week ended up being a strange one for me and clocks/alarms.

It started on Tuesday.

I have a timer on my coffee maker so I wake up to hot coffee in the morning. The only minus is that I have to keep changing the timer depending on what day of the week it is. I wish it had dual or even multi timers so that I didn't have to futz with it all the time.

And this is why I wok up on Tuesday to no hot coffee. I forgot to futz with the timer.

No big deal. I manually started it and went to start getting ready for work while it brewed. And that was that. Or so I thought.

It stormed on Tuesday. Thunder, lightning, rain. And when I got home, my dad tells me the power is out. Clearly, it wasn't out because I opened the garage door. I took a look at the circuit breakers and every single one is popped except for the garage.

I reset everything and now the clocks are flashing. Including on the coffee maker.

I'm careful as I set the timer. I do not want to wake up on Wednesday and not have any coffee. Two days in a row would be brutal.

And I woke up on Wednesday and reached for the handle of the pot before I realized that the coffee hadn't brewed again. While I'd carefully double checked the timer to ensure it was on AM and not PM, I wasn't as careful setting the clock on the coffee maker. That happily proclaimed it was evening. Got it set correctly and everything will be fine on Thursday.

Thursday was a work from home day because I had an eye exam scheduled. This means I get an extra two hours of blessed sleep.

So Thursday morning, my alarm goes off. I feel groggy as hell, but I get up, make my bed, and head for the bathroom. That's when I finally see the clock. It's 3:30 AM, not 5:30. Yes, that's right. I forgot to tell my iPhone that I didn't have to get up at a ridiculous hour of the morning. I went back to bed, but then I had to use the regular alarm and that noise is obnoxious.

Three times in three days there was an issue with the timer/alarm.

I'm writing this on Saturday. Daylight Saving Time starts tomorrow. I'm scared to touch any of the clocks.

The One Where I End Up Back Where I Started

I finally realized that it made more sense to buy some spreadsheets I needed rather than teach myself the elaborate formulas that were needed to, say, put together a budget spreadsheet. I mean, I have a lot of writing left to do and that's more important.

I decided to give some budgeting spreadsheets a whirl. Okay, I had one already, but I wasn't using it, so surely there must be something better out there, right?

This, BTW, was inspired by an ad on Instagram for a financial spreadsheet. It only came in Google Sheets, though, and I wanted Microsoft Excel.

So the first spreadsheet I tried looked a lot like the one in the ad. It was very complicated. Things didn't work right in the copy I made. I think this was my fault because I deleted (and added) rows rather than typing over the data already there as the example.

It felt like too much work to start over.

The next spreadsheet was cool and I liked it--until I realized it wasn't auto-populating data from the expenses sheet to the monthly sheets. That I was expected to transfer the data manually. Say what? That meant adding up everything for an individual month and trusting I didn't miss anything.

Then I remembered the budgeting spreadsheet I already owned. It separated everything into month for me. I could use this and then transfer the data to the new spreadsheet already added for me.

Um, yeah. It eventually dawned on me that I should just use the old budget spreadsheet I already had because it worked better than anything else I tried and I couldn't remember why I wasn't using it to begin with. It has clear instructions, it's easy to use, and it has pie charts. So after shopping for spreadsheets and spending money on them, I'm using the one I already owned. Oops.

Medal and All

I mentioned almost being finished with my virtual walk around Iceland. I did finish and I received my medal! I wish the picture would have turned out better, but I didn't mess around with lights or anything. 

Anyway, I walked 828 miles or 1332 kilometers in, well, it took forever!

I've moved on to a virtual walk around the Cote d'Azur and it's much shorter, only 161 kilometers. In fact, I was so used to the snail's pace of progress on the Iceland walk, that it's a little shocking that in a matter of two weeks or so, I'm already close to the halfway point. I'm enjoying this so much more because I like to see progress.

I think I mentioned in my previous post about this that I wanted to do the Sun as a virtual walk. I signed up for it and I'm supposed to be doing it now, but I hate the app. There are no words for how much I hate it. Trying to enter my steps manually has been nothing except frustration.

If I decide to tackle the rest of the Solar System races, I'll do it without recording anything on their app. The Conqueror's Challenge app is quick and easy to use. Not that it wasn't without its challenges. The reason I'm entering my steps manually is because that app kept messing up my Fitbit count. Seriously, it was way off. Maybe the Sun would be better auto recorded? But I'm reluctant to allow them permission to access my data.

Anyway, Ring Road (AKA Iceland) is in my rear view mirror and now I'm walking the South of France. I love these virtual races/walks. Maybe a little too much. I'm thinking about buying a medal rack to hold them all. I've got a bunch now (including the 5K I did live and in person before the pandemic) and have more in the wings.

Real Estate Shopping as Recreation

I got hooked on checking a real estate app when I was house hunting. I'm embarrassed to say how long ago that was, so I won't, but it's kind of fun to see what's available and look at the pictures.

But so many times I'll look at a house and be like, seriously? You're going to leave that dark red paint on the walls? Do you know how many coats of primer and paint it'll take to cover that? I'd 100% take off the cost of having it painted off the asking price.

And I'm not looking for a house. This is just recreational!

But really? Dark paint is a pain to cover up and red is the worst. Before I sold my house in Minnesota, I had a painter come in and make the walls neutral. Neutral sells better--or so I've heard.

The other day, I was looking through the app and I saw a townhouse asking $1.1 million. Of course, I had to look at the pictures for this listing. BTW, the townhouse has an elevator. (It's three stories.)  I was mostly impressed with the finishes, but then I hit the kitchen. I'm like, you're asking a million one and you have granite counters? At least go with quartz.

Saturday I was breezing through the listings and I saw a house that was over a hundred years old. I stopped to look at that one, too, although I'd never want anything that old or traditional. The kitchen had black granite counters. Ugh. Otherwise, though, it was nicely redone. But even if I was in the market for a house, I don't want one that old.

I also house hunt for my characters. I have pictures and sometimes floor plans for every character's home that makes a book. For example, Zo's home in Wicked Intention is cobbled together from a variety of listings in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, so it's totally work related. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.