(no subject)
Nov. 17th, 2022 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckI never ended up testing positive for Covid. Scott has recovered just fine.
We're starting to get used to Scott's new schedule. He's finding it a little weird to be a supervisor, but he's also finding that he likes it because he's confident in his knowledge of how the equipment works and in his general problem solving. He's also got decent people skills which is not a given for those with the other job requirements.
Last week, we had to have some fairly major plumbing work done. It was five hours of work to replace every output put from the ground floor bathroom all the way to the sewer line. The old pipes were corrugated iron and had corroded inside to the point that nothing could get through. We first noticed that the shower wasn't draining well. Scott tried to clear the pipe two different ways before we called the plumber. (We have a couple of minor things for pulling hair out of the drain, and we have a snake of our own.)
It took two guys five hours to do the work. The guy working upstairs kept showing me the nasty pieces that they'd pulled out. I think he wanted to prove that he hadn't lied about how bad it was. I didn't actually need the proof. Those iron pipes were 70+ years old, and I'm familiar with how corrosion works. We did have a conversation about building choices that are longterm good ones from the point of view that none of the folks who did the building living long enough to see them fail. 70 years is a very long time when one's at the beginning of it or even halfway through.
We had to use our home equity line of credit to pay for the work. We'd have had to use it for the less expensive patch job that would have let us put off the big fix for a year or two, so we decided that we might as well borrow now and not have to worry about sewage coming through the ceiling in the basement.
Our water was off through the whole five hours which I hadn't realized would be the case. Mostly because I hadn't thought it through. I'm pretty sure that part of it was not wanting waste water coming from any part of the house until after they had the new pipes in; given how our house is laid out, the bathroom pipes enter the sewer line last, so anything coming from, say, the kitchen would have to pass the junction where they were working.
We're still not sure what we're doing for Thanksgiving. The main confusion is that, while Scott's family is discussing times and dishes, nobody has said where the gathering will be. Scott's sister's place is more centrally located and has the space for her to host, but if it's there, I can't go (her son brought a cat or two with him when he moved home after graduation). Scott's parents also have space, and they often host such things, but I don't know if they're up to it this year. They're a longer drive for us than Scott's sister's place is, about twice as far.
I had a three day migraine last week and lost track of my Ingress portal maintenance. That mostly means that the portal I had held for more than three years decayed and no longer belongs to anyone. I'm not heartbroken by this, but I had been maintaining it because I was curious about how long I could keep it. I held it for 1167 days. That achievement no longer earns badges because, in the early days of the game, deliberately hunting people's long held portals for spite was a Thing on both sides. There used to be a badge for holding a portal for a set number of days with levels at 3 days, 10 days, 20 days, 90 days, and 150 days. I never managed the 150 before the badge was retired, but I did get past 90 more than once.
I'm not managing as much writing this month as I'd hoped to. I'm reviewing canon for my Yuletide assignment and trying to finish a couple of fics that are fighting with me. The exchange for which they're treats keeps extending the deadline, so I keep plugging away at them. If the deadline had passed, I'd probably have moved to other things by now. I have a lot of WIP, after all.
Cordelia's currently planning to come home this weekend. She stayed at school the last two weekends. I'm looking forward to seeing her, but I also sort of feel like it would make more sense for her to wait until Wednesday and not do the additional back and forth.
I pried my uncle's email address out of my mother. Every time I've asked for his phone number it's recorded in something that's not currently in the same state with her. The paper address book in Louisiana when she was in Michigan and now her old cell phone which is in Michigan while she's in Louisiana. I just... I can't even. At any rate, Cordelia has talked to him on the phone. We're trying to figure out a time and place for a meal with all five of us or even just with him and his wife and Cordelia.
He's still offering Cordelia space in their house. It comes up in every conversation, so I think he and my aunt would really be pleased to have her there. It's a huge house, and the youngest of their three kids is a decade older than Cordelia. I don't think any of those kids has married or had kids. I think I'd have heard about either one. Of course, I also can't always remember all three of those cousins' names because I'm 20+ years older than the oldest of them. The middle child was born after my grandparents moved permanently to Florida, so there weren't any big family gatherings until my grandmother's funeral.
I can see downsides for Cordelia in terms of having them paying attention to her comings and goings, but she says it wouldn't be an issue for her. Then again, I'm not convinced that they'll be any worse as housemates than a group of other students who are looking for a stranger to take that last spot on their lease. Right now, her most likely option is that last year's roommate thinks they might need one more for the place she'll be living.
It's almost certain that she won't have the option of staying in the dorms next year. MSU is enrolling an extra large class next year (after an extra large one this year), and they had trouble finding space for everyone this year.
At any rate, I really worked at getting contact information from my mother after Cordelia texted me one evening, while Scott was at work, that she was worried that she'd concussed herself (she hadn't) and I realized that her cousin (Scott's sister's son) is no longer in East Lansing. Not that he'd have been a great backup in case of emergency, but he'd have tried, and he had a car. I want her to have someone local for emergencies because there's damn all I can do at this distance.
We're starting to get used to Scott's new schedule. He's finding it a little weird to be a supervisor, but he's also finding that he likes it because he's confident in his knowledge of how the equipment works and in his general problem solving. He's also got decent people skills which is not a given for those with the other job requirements.
Last week, we had to have some fairly major plumbing work done. It was five hours of work to replace every output put from the ground floor bathroom all the way to the sewer line. The old pipes were corrugated iron and had corroded inside to the point that nothing could get through. We first noticed that the shower wasn't draining well. Scott tried to clear the pipe two different ways before we called the plumber. (We have a couple of minor things for pulling hair out of the drain, and we have a snake of our own.)
It took two guys five hours to do the work. The guy working upstairs kept showing me the nasty pieces that they'd pulled out. I think he wanted to prove that he hadn't lied about how bad it was. I didn't actually need the proof. Those iron pipes were 70+ years old, and I'm familiar with how corrosion works. We did have a conversation about building choices that are longterm good ones from the point of view that none of the folks who did the building living long enough to see them fail. 70 years is a very long time when one's at the beginning of it or even halfway through.
We had to use our home equity line of credit to pay for the work. We'd have had to use it for the less expensive patch job that would have let us put off the big fix for a year or two, so we decided that we might as well borrow now and not have to worry about sewage coming through the ceiling in the basement.
Our water was off through the whole five hours which I hadn't realized would be the case. Mostly because I hadn't thought it through. I'm pretty sure that part of it was not wanting waste water coming from any part of the house until after they had the new pipes in; given how our house is laid out, the bathroom pipes enter the sewer line last, so anything coming from, say, the kitchen would have to pass the junction where they were working.
We're still not sure what we're doing for Thanksgiving. The main confusion is that, while Scott's family is discussing times and dishes, nobody has said where the gathering will be. Scott's sister's place is more centrally located and has the space for her to host, but if it's there, I can't go (her son brought a cat or two with him when he moved home after graduation). Scott's parents also have space, and they often host such things, but I don't know if they're up to it this year. They're a longer drive for us than Scott's sister's place is, about twice as far.
I had a three day migraine last week and lost track of my Ingress portal maintenance. That mostly means that the portal I had held for more than three years decayed and no longer belongs to anyone. I'm not heartbroken by this, but I had been maintaining it because I was curious about how long I could keep it. I held it for 1167 days. That achievement no longer earns badges because, in the early days of the game, deliberately hunting people's long held portals for spite was a Thing on both sides. There used to be a badge for holding a portal for a set number of days with levels at 3 days, 10 days, 20 days, 90 days, and 150 days. I never managed the 150 before the badge was retired, but I did get past 90 more than once.
I'm not managing as much writing this month as I'd hoped to. I'm reviewing canon for my Yuletide assignment and trying to finish a couple of fics that are fighting with me. The exchange for which they're treats keeps extending the deadline, so I keep plugging away at them. If the deadline had passed, I'd probably have moved to other things by now. I have a lot of WIP, after all.
Cordelia's currently planning to come home this weekend. She stayed at school the last two weekends. I'm looking forward to seeing her, but I also sort of feel like it would make more sense for her to wait until Wednesday and not do the additional back and forth.
I pried my uncle's email address out of my mother. Every time I've asked for his phone number it's recorded in something that's not currently in the same state with her. The paper address book in Louisiana when she was in Michigan and now her old cell phone which is in Michigan while she's in Louisiana. I just... I can't even. At any rate, Cordelia has talked to him on the phone. We're trying to figure out a time and place for a meal with all five of us or even just with him and his wife and Cordelia.
He's still offering Cordelia space in their house. It comes up in every conversation, so I think he and my aunt would really be pleased to have her there. It's a huge house, and the youngest of their three kids is a decade older than Cordelia. I don't think any of those kids has married or had kids. I think I'd have heard about either one. Of course, I also can't always remember all three of those cousins' names because I'm 20+ years older than the oldest of them. The middle child was born after my grandparents moved permanently to Florida, so there weren't any big family gatherings until my grandmother's funeral.
I can see downsides for Cordelia in terms of having them paying attention to her comings and goings, but she says it wouldn't be an issue for her. Then again, I'm not convinced that they'll be any worse as housemates than a group of other students who are looking for a stranger to take that last spot on their lease. Right now, her most likely option is that last year's roommate thinks they might need one more for the place she'll be living.
It's almost certain that she won't have the option of staying in the dorms next year. MSU is enrolling an extra large class next year (after an extra large one this year), and they had trouble finding space for everyone this year.
At any rate, I really worked at getting contact information from my mother after Cordelia texted me one evening, while Scott was at work, that she was worried that she'd concussed herself (she hadn't) and I realized that her cousin (Scott's sister's son) is no longer in East Lansing. Not that he'd have been a great backup in case of emergency, but he'd have tried, and he had a car. I want her to have someone local for emergencies because there's damn all I can do at this distance.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-18 03:51 am (UTC)OMG we had to do that, only in our case, it was a combo of tree roots and then just replacing the original pipes under the house because they were ooooooold and finally needed replacing. Of course, the pipes underground in the front yard going to the sewer line happened first via tree roots, and then not long after was the old pipes under the house LOL. idk what's worse, everything happening at once or having half then half in the same year?
no subject
Date: 2022-11-18 10:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-18 11:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-18 06:01 pm (UTC)I know what you mean about wanting a full-fledged adult nearby a college student. I have a friend who lives a three-minute drive from my son James' dorm in Ohio, and I am very grateful that my friend is there. We haven't needed to get help from her yet (actually, because of the pandemic, in the three years he's been at college we haven't seen her even once!), but it gives me a lot of peace of mind to know that she is nearby and willing to help.