Stumbling Through Adulthood

1. Perry had a bit of a day the day before yesterday (Tuesday). He went to the boathouse early for his afternoon session to get a run in and ended up... doing CPR by the side of the trail. Elderly man. Lived in one of the houseboats, I guess. Women walking her dog saw him slumped over in his chair outside, she realized something was BAD, called 911. They told her to get him on the ground and start CPR. Another dude who was passing helped her get him on the ground, and then... neither knew CPR. That's when Perry ran by and they called at him. He does, in fact, know CPR. Checked pulse and respiration and started CPR. He stayed at it until the paramedics got there and took over and did their thing. They eventually did get a pulse back (for whatever that means, ya know?). Perry made his statement to the police when they got there and got to the boathouse just a bit late for his coaching session. He had a bit of a cry and went on to coach, at least they were on land so he didn't have to focus quite as hard. He was a bit shook up. So, yeah.

2. We went up to Vancouver last Saturday. It would have been my aunt's 83rd birthday. We had lunch with her group of close friends, and it was good to see them, catch up, and feel again how much JoAnn was loved. I miss her.

3. Every other time I've looked for a job, I've at least gotten interviews. I've applied for about 50 jobs, probably 40 that I am actually well qualified for and not a single call. Depressing.

4. Going down to California in a few weeks for a quick trip chasing a steam locomotive. It should be fun. Alas, it'll be too early in the year to get to the trail I want to do in Northern CA. Next time, I guess. Or I'll plan another trip.

5. Read a really good book recently: The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson. Book 2 isn't out yet. WAH. Highly recommend.

6. Weather has been all over the place these past few weeks, with wild swings and major amounts of wind, mostly in the afternoons. Snow, hail, rain, wind, and sunny days. Sometimes all in one day.

7. Because he's popped up on my twitter feed three times this morning, I think Ilia Malinin is one of the least appealing skaters out there. Not personally, just... I find his skating ugly, for lack of a better word.

8. New Harry Potter series, which, no, I won't be watching. But OMG, BLACK Snape? NO NO NO. It completely shifts the dynamics of the whole story, adding racism in a way. I mean, WTF? I never liked Harry himself, but it turns him, and his father (and Sirius Black) into racists/white supremacists in a way the books did not intend. Are there problematic racist things in the books? Oh hail, yes. But not this. Black Hermione? Sure! (My only reservation is my inner child wailing that those of us cursed with curly frizzy hair who cannot use braids to tame in need some representation too, LOL, but I'm not really upset.) But Black Snape changes something fundamental and not in a good way. But whatever.

9. I've been knitting. Haven't gotten back to my beanie, my sister was here and I didn't want to try and concentrate on reductions when I was also talking with someone. So I taught myself to do cables. Still not great at them, but eh.

The beanie with extra rows added since the previous version was ridic small.
I hope it fits this time!

The cables. I hate the color of that yarn. I have no idea where it came from, but it's my scratch yarn.

10. Sunday, we drove out to Snoqualmie Falls for a quick walk with my sister and BIL. The falls were quite impressive. Not the highest I've seen, but.

11. Still struggling to take off the pounds I gained when I was off Zeppy in early December. I just can't seem to get them gone again. I have to say. I never understood people who complained that they were 10 lbs over their preferred weight because eh, I was A LOT MORE over mine, 🤪 , but while I never said it, I now get it a lot better. I mean, this is oodles different from way before, but I certainly felt different 12 lbs ago. I'll figure it out. Even if it means waiting for retatrutide to come on the market if Trump's FDA ever gives its approval.

12. A few weeks ago, I was in a sculling boat. There was someone else in the boat who hadn't sculled much either. We both came off the water looking like we'd murdered someone and dumped their body in South Lake Union. I mean, my right hand was dripping blood, my left palm was smeared with the blood, and the front of my hi-viz yellow jacket was covered. It was... pretty bad. This happens to inexperienced sculler because the nails on your left hand, even if they are short like mine, tear up the back of your right hand. Anyhow, I sculled again a few days after that, and only made a tiny new wound, and took a scar off an old one, but nowhere near as dramatic as the previous week's had been. Then I didn't scull for a few weeks and everything healed. Sculled again Monday. Just as we were about to cross to take it in, I noticed that I had not done further injury to my hands, and I was quite pleased with that. And proceeded to take a chunk out during the last 10 strokes. 🤪 I'm getting better, though.

13. My life feels so very small.

Finally figured out Perry's limit: a marathon.

He had trail running shoes and ended up with severe foot pain, which slowed him down considerably though he finished under 4 hours, which eh, since his goal was 3h30, not bad. His heart rate monitor actually tells tge story, it was never that problem, just the pain. But yeah, he could barely walk when he was done, he looked horrid and ready to cry. But he finished. He could have probably used more prep, tbh, which would have made clear that maybe his shoes weren't the best choice. But he did it and I'm very proud of him.

Dh and I finished the half a little bit faster than last year, to our surprise, and with relative ease.

The weather was close to perfect.

Anne-Chloe, bless her heart, came to pick us up. Dh and I would have been fine walking a few blocks to the light rail, but there was no way Perry could have.

1. Because the Dems caved, looks like Perry is headed down to California! So one thing good about the #$%($$(%!!!! fuckers caving to Trump and the fucking Rs. I just can't. I am so angry. My two senators are solid nos but I called them this morning to say thanks for the no vote, and please get fucking Schumer and Durbin out of leadership now because what they did was unconscionable.

2. As part of our half-marathon prep, we walked 10 miles on Saturday, after a few hours of work cleaning at the boathouse (yearly clean-up day). We finished, but much more tired that I'd have liked. And my new same brand shoes are not as comfortable as my old shoes were, but since they don't make the old shoes any longer, I had to get a new model, sigh.

3. I have to sit down and get Thanksgiving menus and plans sorted out. Note that my dining room table is still covered with my MIL's stuff, sigh. I've dealt with some of it, but a lot of what is there needs to be done by dh, imo, not me. We'll get to it, though it's annoying that I can't sit at my table to make my plans like I usually do! 🤣

OK, fine. 4 things.

4. This weekend my mom's move was on, then off, then on, then off, then on. At least I think it's currently on. Looks like it's happening this week. Dh has an MD appointment that I want to be around for (don't know if I'd go with him but I want to be immediately available in case things don't go well) so I can't get down this week. So sister and BIL have to deal with the move, with Larry's family helping, I guess. He does have a really big family so at least they.

Perry came in first in the Men's Lightweight Single at Head of the Hooch. He was seeded last and passed the finish line second, which means he passed everyone else, LOL. It was a good time and he would have done well (4th) if he'd raced in the Men's Championship Singles as well, where they are taller by 6 in and outweigh him by 50 lbs, LOL. So a good race for him.

What made me happy? I was watching and saw him unexpectedly on screen, since he started last I didn't expect him to be the second rower over the finish but I knew it was him, since over the years, I've really come to know his rowing style.



Also, casual bit of sexism in the previous two races:

Announcer at Head of the Hooch (head rowing event). A woman, seeded 1 in the Women's Singles goes by. Then the last seeded (last started) Men's Singles comes by. And the freaking announcer comments about how "they may have started her earlier".

They MAY have. However, the higher prob is that the fastest woman may just be faster than that dude. I mean, really?

And results show that to be the case, by far.

I mean, she was the only one who passed a guy but many women were faster than some of the guys.

Ugh.

Some joker on the other side of the lake has put a green light at the end of their dock.

Perry wants to go over there and smash it to bits.

I suspect he still has a lot of unresolved _Great Gatsby_ trauma.

Whatever day it is. I'm a mess.

1. There is not tell work. There is just less time in which to do the same amount of work. It's been hectic.

2. Perry took full responsibility for everything. He bought a car, didn't expect any help from us. We offered to float him a loan, but he refused. So eh. He got a decent 2009 Prius and dealt with stuff by himself, with mostly dh just watching over his shoulder. What was annoying is the number of scammers. Before, they were easy to pick out, because the cars were just too awesome, but now? Decent value, nothing extraordinary and.... total scam. I mean... Dude claiming no accidents, single family car, 45 mpg? 5 accidents, 4 owners, and.... 23 mpg. I have no idea how you get that low of a mileage on a Prius: even when they cut the O2 sensor on ours when trying to steal the catalytic converter, it was better than that! What was frightening about that one is that CarFax and the mileage were the only tangible things: dh's OBD scanner showed no codes, not current, and not historical, and he's pretty confused as to how the scammers managed to clear the codes and stop new ones from being reported. He could hear a cyclinder misfire and it wasn't getting reported. Anyhow, after 2 scam cars and one obvious scam when we talked to him over the phone, we went with a dealer. They were excellent. They are local to me, have a great reputation, and in our experience, it's easy to see why. Anyhow.

3. Saturday was Opening Day. Got to see both Linnea and Perry row through the Cut in their respective boats. Both got the highest placing they could: Perry 3rd behind two UW alumni boats and Linnea second behind another UW boat. 😂 Such fun, I just love races there!

That would be "Wednesday" in Icelandic and I love how it's literally mid-week day, LOL.

1. Perry did what dh calls a speed run of a viral illness this week. He was a bit tired on Monday night, Tuesday he was awful: highish fever (104F, which isn't the highest his has ever been, gulp), body aches, sore throat, the whole nine yards. Note that he's had both flu and Covid vaccines. Anyhow, by the evening, he felt even worse, and his neck was stiff, and his lips numb. I heard that and sent him to the MS clinic. Negative for Covid, negative for flu, and the NP was shocked, she'd expected the flu to be positive considering his symptoms. Today? He's fine. It was a nasty intense 24 hours, but it's apparently over. He stayed home from rowing at least but expects to be back tomorrow. It's not the first time he's done this, gets very sick very fast, but it only lasts a little bit. Ugh.

2. This happened today, as recounted in a text to my spouse:
PI to me: add Nahuel to the animal protocol.
Me: adds Nahuel.
Our animal protocol coordinator: no can do, he hasn't had the proper training.
PI in email to coordinator: please remove Nahuel, he was added in error.
Me, privately: 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
I submitted the amendment to the protocol so I'm the one who looks like the idiot.

Also. Last Friday PI tells me we're getting a cell line (that we don't have authorization for) from another researcher on Monday. I scramble to make sure we have the needed supplies on hand (we do, or close enough). I write up a quick change request to our biological use authorization, which won't be reviewed from another month, ugh.

Monday, I went to get the cells, thawed and plated them. By Tuesday they looked good, so I divided them, which eh, needs to happen so we can freeze stock to have as backups. I checked them this afternoon, they should be ready to freeze tomorrow at the earliest, Friday at the latest. Note that freezing these down and keeping one plate to passage for experiments next week is my priority. Note as well that I don't know how these things grow. If they were my usual HEK-293, I could predict doubling time with much more accuracy. These cells are smaller and I have no idea of their growth patterns.

Today PI asks me how the cells are doing because Nahuel needs them by tomorrow. I'm like... Dude. No. I might have some ready by Friday at the earliest, but not tomorrow if I want to have backups. And really... We got them Monday; it's a new cell line etc. No doubt he'll mention to me again that I have almost no experience in cell culture... well, no, maybe not (I mean, beyond a year and a bit, ya know), but I do know one thing: I can't make the cells grow any faster than they are so bug off.

Linnea has a regatta on Saturday and needs to be in Seattle Sunday (more on that in the 3rd thing) so I'll probably stop by the lab and check on the new little guys.

3. Remember last years when Linnea's team were Div II NCAA champions? Well, it's March madness and there are games in Seattle. And the team is going to be honored at the start of one of the games, at the big arena in DT Seattle. Can't be there, so hopefully NCAA will have it online. How exciting for them! They're also, along with the 8 other women's champion rowing teams at WWU going to be inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in early April. Also pretty damn exciting!

❄ Perry's coach took this a few weeks ago and posted it again today. I managed to grab it.

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Ap5tbOHbgHtsi6l9H4bVZL2xt6OCFw?e=O0Tt8P

It was a gorgeous day and I think my boyo looks pretty damn good too!

❄ Busy weekend. Didn't get half of what I wanted to get done done, but I did get a few things accomplished. Linnea is home, yay! Planning for Christmas is a mess; I really need to buckle down to it. If I can at least get a plan down in my head, I feel better, more in control, and much less stressed. But of course, the thought of thinking about it all stresses me out. Circular badness.

❄ I had a bad eating weekend. There were just too many things to eat sitting around and ate them I did. The problem is that I ate while not being hungry and -and this is the bad part- I'm not not feeling well as a result. Ah well. I'll get back on track tomorrow, I'm not horrified or feeling out of control, just... like I ate too much junk.

He placed 4th in the men's lightweight single at Head of the Charles!!!



That's Perry to the right of the image. He takes the buoys tight... and clean.

It started with a text from Perry this morning:

I don't suppose we can adopt a flightless seagull?

Further questioning revealed that it had a "fucked up wing". I pointed him to Paws, who does wildlife rehab and where, a quick check showed me, they had space for adult gulls.

The gull was in the canal, and since it could not fly and the walls are steep, it was pretty much stuck, paddling near the edge.

After coaching, Perry and Linnea went to see if they could trap it. They could not, so they went back to the boathouse to borrow a launch. Perry was able to get hold of it gently, though he did have to get into the water, while Linnea piloted the launch.

Box, towels.

They updated the wrong thread, sending the deets to our large family chat (my siblings and families etc).

This is what followed, and if I may say so myself... Linnea always cracks me up.










Perry will get an update on Earl when they have one. He doesn't seem too optimistic, but fingers crossed. I'm glad he noticed the poor bird, now it has a chance and if not, its end won't be as bad. I'm glad he did something about it, and that without prompting, made a $100 donation to the rescue (we'll probably go halfsies with him and I think Linnea wanted to contribute as well).

But still "His name is Earl" just cracked me up.