[Weekly - F/Sa] Week In Review

Kendrik said:
Initial player character is right up there with Tidus in the "look how few cares I can muster for you" rubric, but he's much more a player avatar than central character to the plot.
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Had to chuckle at this. CloudSquall was my least favorite character of the series, Zidane was, for me, a welcome break in that he actually had personality from the outset instead of just moping (understanding that CloudSquall had reason to mope, but still unable to muster sympathy for a lead that takes his suffering out on the people around him), and Tidus was downright cringey. Vaan was neither good nor bad. He was just...there, like a pair of pants the player puts on.
 
Last week was...a week. Seven days. Seemed like 10, but it was only 7.

Little one got her flu shot. Was glad to be able to be there with her. She didn't cry! What a trooper. <3

Work, church, and children's extracurriculars leave almost no margin, but still making it through. We shall soldier on.

Hoping and praying to finally FINALLY get back to editing some original content for the CGA. The path to self-loathing is paved with good intentions, eh? Is that how the saying goes? No?
 
Oh my. Three weeks since I last posted.

Celebrated my younger child's birthday this last week. Since the kids didn't have school Monday and Tuesday, we traveled out of town and stretched the celebration across 3 days. My dad came with us and we had a blast--except for the part where I had a head cold for most of the trip. It wasn't too bad until the second half of the last day out of town and the next day (the actual birthday date) back in town. It's been about 10 days since I first noticed symptoms and I finally feel like I'm approaching 100% better (though I was holding at 90+% for a few days now).

Work was crazy busy week before last as we were installing equipment and getting a new site ready to go live later this month. Last week was a 3-day work week thanks to taking Monday and Tuesday off for my younger daughter's birthday celebration. After spending 7 work days installing equipment at the new site, my ticket queue blew up. No rest for the weary, eh?

I've been brainstorming different career paths lately (most recently tonight) and I haven't yet settled on anything that I enjoy or like enough to invest a significant amount of time and money. I was daydreaming about working with assistive technology, but I live in a smaller job market, I can't relocate due to my wife's work, and I don't even know where to begin in terms of certifications or training. I'll keep praying on this one and would ask for your prayers as well.

All in all, we're hanging in there. @Ember has a variation on the head cold I had, though with different symptoms. She seems to be recovering more quickly than I did, though. Here's hoping that trend holds. Kids are staying healthy. Praying that trend holds as well. :)
 
Work has been returning to something resembling normal, which is a welcome change after the hectic pace of October and November. It's looking like things will ramp up again before the end of the year, but things aren't getting too crazy just yet.

Thanksgiving went well. My dad came up, stayed Thursday and Friday, and left Saturday morning. Good times, good food, and a good break from the routine.

Family is healthy with the exception of my older daughter, who still has a cough that's lingered about a week after she got past all the other symptoms. We made and canceled two appointments at the urgent care because the severity of the cough fluctuates. Poor kid. :'(

Hey, it's December! Now that we're past Thanksgiving, all that Christmas music is fair game...which is unfortunate for me because I dislike most Christmas music and my wife and two daughters love it. December's going to be a long month...
 
Had a short work week this week because @Ember had diagnostic surgery on Thursday (yesterday). Everything went well and she's recovering quickly!

Work got crazy busy Tuesday and Wednesday as the final roadblock for deploying a bunch of computers got removed. Now our team springs in to action! The timing was less than ideal, but I'll be back on Monday and going full throttle.

Kids are in good health, minus my older daughter's lingering cough, which has mostly subsided.
 
Christmas went pretty well. Had some college students over. We did get to play star ears epic duels board game, that was fascinating.

My dad has been pretty ill lately though and that has definitely dampered things significantly.

It's been a little weird too. We've been a paycheck to paycheck family for a while with savings for sure, but always felt tight. But just recognizing how blessed we are and how rich we are. Even in small things, I get like small snacks and Capri sun for my office, and just marveling at how a few months of routine we really have a fantastic office.

Or at home, I've picked up more and fixed more things than ever before just because we could finally afford to do it.

It's really a reminder that God is our provider. I've failed nearly all of my small business goals for the year too, but God has provided everything that He said he would. And even when I doubted, I looked back at my journal notes and found I was remembering wrong what I had written XD
 
Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas was great this year! My dad drove up Christmas Eve, our girls got SO MUCH STUFF on Christmas Day, and we've been enjoying my dad being around these last few days. Unfortunately, @Ember had to work Thursday, Friday, and half a day Saturday, but my dad and I took my girls to the zoo the day after Christmas and my older daughter got to practice taking pictures with her new digital camera.

I spent almost all day Friday and a good chunk of this morning cleaning and I'm pretty pleased with the results. There are so few opportunities for deep cleaning (which largely involves processing stuff that gets thrown in to boxes when we need to reclaim flat surfaces) that I'm reminded that sacrificing a day and a half yields impressive results.

It was wonderful taking the week off work and I'm looking forward to one more week of vacation starting Monday!
 
Ya dude!

I've noted that too!

I use to take "mental health" days off from work to catch up, take a walk, etc.

My wife has been doing a lot better too this week taking off some time from work.
 
I RETURN

I last posted between my first and second week of vacation. The return to work was a troublesome adjustment as expected, but not terrible. It was really, really nice to have two weeks to work on the house, spend time with family, and still have some time left to relax on a few occasions. Work has been busy since I returned, but I'm hoping that things will calm down in February (or, more realistically, March).

Family is healthy, which is always nice.

We're back in the regular routine, including church and extracurriculars, so Monday morning to Friday night is a blur again, but life is easier with a cleaner house.

So, pretty much status quo.

Oh, and the Tribe of Judah web site was defaced by an anti-Israel and anti-America group, but @rhematom was able to clear the offending page. (Thank you again, Tom!) The attack served as a helpful reminder to switch to a newer platform, so stay tuned for news of a new ToJ site soon!
 
It's the weekend!

Work has been relatively calm lately, but busy enough to fill the time without dragging on. Visiting sites and auditing inventory (which involves barcode scanners, laptops, and spreadsheets) isn't very fun, but it's really nice to actually know where stuff is located.

Older child has a cough, but no fever, so she's been attending school and extracurriculars. If the cough persists, we may take her to the pediatrician, even if no other symptoms develop. Family is otherwise healthy.

This weekend is SERIOUS CLEANING TIME after the older child's birthday parties (one for friends, one for family) last weekend. A school project due this Thursday highlighted the disconnect between the American school system and the realities of the average American home where both parents work outside the home, but we survived and learned some lessons from the occasion. I'm pleased to report that the older child reported that the project went well.

This season of life continues to be busy, but we're doing our best to manage. A proper break would be nice, but we shall soldier on!
 
Oh my, how the world has changed since my last post.

COVID-19 has drastically changed our daily lives. Our family is making the best of it, but, as I mentioned in our COVID-19 community check-in and discussion thread, the changes have taken their toll. Nevertheless, we are trusting God and His provision while doing our best to follow the CDC recommendations and act with wisdom. It is difficult, but He is with us.

Work has been oddly quiet, but I suspect that will change next week as our team prepares equipment for employees to work from home. I admit I'm concerned about having to meet people in person to hand off their equipment (especially after hearing of shortages of personal protective equipment), so I'm praying that I can navigate the work with wisdom.

Though it feels as though there's no aspect of life untouched by COVID-19, we know that God is sovereign, as He ever was and ever will be. It was a pleasure to play Golf With Your Friends and Sketchful with CGA folks Thursday and Friday night, especially after limiting social contact so strictly this last week. I've been telling people that I thought I was an introvert before this last week, but now I'm not so sure. Aerithos mentioned the term "ambivert" during this week's TF2sday and I felt like a light bulb went off. Pretty sure that's an accurate description of me. :)

I pray you all are hanging in there, too. As always, you all are welcome to share what's happening in your life here and on our Discord server. This week has reminded me just how helpful it can be to just interact with fellow believers, whether online or offline. I miss meeting with my local church and there's no substitute for it, but the CGA community has been a wonderful encouragement to me this week.
 
Oy, what a week. It started out normally, but I started feeling extremely tired (as in, it was painful to be conscious) and sore Monday afternoon and woke up with a fever Tuesday morning. I called my supervisor, who instructed me to call the relevant department at work, who told me to go get tested for COVID-19 and only return if and after I got a negative test result and was fever-free without fever reducers for 72 hours.

I got tested the same morning (in a parking garage, of all places) and oh my word nasal swabs are unpleasant. I went home on Tuesday, ate lunch, fell asleep sitting up on the couch, woke up long enough to go to bed, slept on and off for three hours, and woke up with a fever of 103. After recording my temperature, I took acetaminophen, felt better until the medicine wore off that evening, and went to bed before 11. Fortunately, I woke up the next morning feeling significantly better.

Even better news: I woke up nearly symptom-free (still had a headache) Thursday morning and my test results came back negative the same day. I was still feeling tired and my head was a little foggy, but I relaxed, played some games (mostly Steamworld Dig 2 and Persona 5), and continued recovering.

Now I'm back to 100% and on track to go back to work on Monday, provided my employer gives me the all-clear.

And among the best news of all: The 4 days I was off work this week won't come out of my PTO (paid time off). Huzzah!

As for the rest of the family, @Ember returned to work this week. She's currently working at about 80% of her usual schedule and her work, like almost every business, has made significant changes to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The kids are healthy and still doing extracurriculars remotely (mostly videos shared on Google Drive and some Zoom classes) and my older daughter's remote schooling continues.

We're all healthy and grateful that I don't have the 'rona!
 
Still Alive!

We've been settling in to A New Normal(TM) during a pandemic, but very little feels normal or anything remotely resembling normal. Nevertheless, life moves on and @Ember returned to a full-time schedule this week, the kids returned to in-person extracurriculars (with significant accommodations made for social distancing), and, well, I'm still working full time.

My dad recently visited over the Memorial Day weekend and did most of the work installing tile in our bathroom to fix a problem with damaged drywall that was allowing water to leak down the inside of the wall and into the crawl space. The work took longer than expected, but the end result looks fantastic (and, even more importantly, will protect against future leaks)!

Work is still relatively quiet with a few busier days here and there. The company I worked for recently had mass layoffs. The good news is I still have my job. The bad news is that my job consists primarily of recovering equipment from people who lost their jobs. I'm grateful to still be employed, but reclaiming equipment after mass layoffs can be emotionally draining work.

So we're still here, still healthy, still working, and still grateful to God for it all. :)
 
A month and a half later and we're still truckin' along.

I think (and hope) my employer is through the layoffs, but with COVID-19 numbers rising locally and in other cities where we have locations, I would not be shocked if there was a second round before the end of the year (though I really, really hope that's not the case).

Speaking of work, it has picked up considerably! It's not overwhelming, but it's definitely enough to stay busy. I've been doing my best to be smart, wear a mask, and minimize contact when I can, but the nature of my work makes it impossible to eliminate face-to-face interaction entirely.

The family is doing well and staying healthy. The kids are back in extracurriculars, but with measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Again, we're doing our best to be smart while navigating a pandemic. August is fast approaching and with it a new school year that will look and feel very different from last year. We're thinking and praying through our options as we receive information from the school system.
 
Wrong day, but such is life. Been busy in prep for baby...with potentially bumping up the arrival date? Pounding out hours on side-hustle when I can to fund some tool and project stuff as well as get prepped for some furlough days I'll be taking once baby comes.

Projects include laundry room work (repainting, stacking previously unstacked machines, reinstalling cabinets), digging out a ~70sqft area to eventually put in concrete and extend our front entrance/create a patio space, various woodworking builds, and so on.

Drama is still definitely a thing over the 'rona. We're following local and federal guidelines and regulations and being generally cautious since preggo wife = high risk. Apparently, that makes us anti-family and crazy liberals to boot?

I'd say I'm resisting the urge to become a full fledged Lawn Dad, but it's mostly the desire to make good financial decisions (especially with third baby here soon and furlough needing to be taken) holding me back.
 
This week, I just learned about the threads "weekly-f-sa-week in review and Weekly - now playing. ... I'll have to add them to my scheduler so I can keep tabs on them.

Not much really going on in my life. I'm an introvert that works and comes home to play games. Don't have a lot of friends to chat with. No funds or interest in going out to do things. So it's just the same life before Covid. Although I still have my mood swings. I went from Sunday laying in bed severe depression to being full of energy and positiveness on Monday. And no, it's not bipolar.

I'll see if there's anything more to contribute on a weekly basis. Maybe share interesting stuff. Cool to see Tek doing it, so I may as well. Might also help me practice being consistent, which is a severe weakness of mine.

Love you all!
 
Couple days late again. C'est la vie!

Busy work week while everyone was scrambling to meet some deadlines in anticipation of fall semester. For me, meant working the full week to help them get their stuff ready, then working on Saturday to get their stuff into the production environment.
 
Kendrik said:
Couple days late again. C'est la vie!

Busy work week while everyone was scrambling to meet some deadlines in anticipation of fall semester. For me, meant working the full week to help them get their stuff ready, then working on Saturday to get their stuff into the production environment.
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I've always considered the days in the thread title to be more of a suggestion than a requirement. We all have busy lives now, so I can't imagine anyone taking offense at someone posting when they can rather than trying to force fitting into an inconvenient schedule or not posting at all.

Though for myself, my main holdback in posting lately hasn't been from lack of time, but lack of positivity. Things are going alright here, but I don't have a lot of cheery, uplifting things to say about it. Not that would be honest anyway.

Even with 'Verse of the Day' I've been pulling back, because everything in my personal prayer and Bible study and study of historical precedent right now indicates things are likely to still get worse before they start getting better, which is probably not a message anyone needs to hear right now. While people might be universally encouraged by the outcome of Job, no one really wants to live through such an experience or think too deeply about his statement, " What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" (Job 2:10)

So I just content myself with doing what good I can and being grateful and willing to see God's grace in the evil at least not being as evil as it could be or as bad as past generations have had to endure. The world as we've known it in our limited lifetimes may seem to be falling apart, but in the larger perspective of things, this is probably the most comfortable global crisis humanity has ever experienced.
 
Thank you so much @KrissaLox ... I'm going to have to check out that website! ... That signature was a phrase I would use quite often when I actually did in game biblical services in character in Dark Ages of Camelot. I loved that we could preach out of the bible in that game and it be part of game lore. Can't really do that in World of Warcraft though. ::sadface::

(As an aside, it's really nice to see other people's week in review. Kind of helps to feel not so lonely, especially during these times!)

A week in reflection

- started a journal - every week, will read through it for my personal benefit, encouraged by this very forum
- Had an argument with a manager about the kitchen water smell. He told me to not troubleshoot but to research it online and call a plumber. He was convinced it was rust in the pipe. I just checked one thing and found the issue in the water filter under the sink. Seems when the CEO installed the water filter, he never opened it up. And thus, still rubber banded to the inside filter, was the instruction manual, which was now soggy and moldy. ... Once I fixed that and replaced the filter, no more smell!
- Had a great surge of confidence and energy Friday, but that was gone by Saturday, replaced by extreme discouragement and surrender. Can't figure out how to keep those positive surges going for longer periods of time. Interesting though, some of that surge returned Monday.
- Still need to break the fast food habit. Comes from a lifetime of it. Some small victories were achieved during the week, however.
- What was supposed to be a week long trip to New Orleans was a staycation for my husband and a regular work week for me. But I decorated the house like Mardi Gras and we spent some personal time together this weekend. Plan on doing the same for next weekend.
 
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