Silly Site o' the Day

While today's commute seemed a lot easier, and the weather tolerable for winter, I can see this week is starting to take a physical toll on me. I just don't have what I used to have. It's not like I'm a crow!

Via Mustang Bobby. So worth watching!

A Weak of Manhattan

Aches and pains never seem to be magnified until you have to do that 90-minute commute five days a week. The last time I tried that I was considerably (well, five years) younger, so I'm out of practice and far more decrepit than I remember being in the Before Times. In any case, today was my first day with the nicest group of PCAOB inspectors I've ever met, they're all smiling and polite and calling me by my name and everything! Took about an hour and a half to get everything settled in just right, but now I'm just a "warm body" outside their conference room should they need anything. And it looks like the weather is cooperating so far. And my temporary workstation desk drawers contain the key that I left there the last time I was here, so I don't have to go to my usual cubicle to store my stuff. It was definitely strange coming home without my laptop, but no complaints. Well, except for insomnia, for which I blame the weather because why not?

Congestion

Back into Manhattan for the only time this week, as I have to come in all five days next week. At least the weather is looking less frigid and I'll be able to leave my laptop in my locked desk overnight. Congestion pricing seems to have taken care of the former snarled traffic below 60th Street, or maybe it's a combination of that and the holidays being over (and the cold!). But all this layering and unlayering, shuffling between warm inside and cold outside, resulted in me actually getting overheated on my homeward commute, and by the time I stumbled home in the dark using my phone's flashlight (Robin's been under the weather for a few days so I didn't want him meeting me at the bus terminus) all I could think of was to strip as quickly as possible and drink lots of water. Robin had gotten me a lovely present, a heated desk pad to go under my keyboard and mouse so I could work without my hands freezing up, but I was too far gone to appreciate it fully. I've just about started to recover, but I'll be glad when the temps get back up above freezing.

Muscle Better, Bones Cold

Have I mentioned how January is so not my favorite month? While the weird pain in my ribcage has now disappeared, the cold still seeps in, and I had to commute back and forth and wait for each bus in frigid weather, as well as having a lunch date a full block away. Seriously, I complain about stupid things. I made it through just fine. And I'm sick of the cold but at least it's not wildfires and not ice storms. And I did have a good time seeing everyone in the office. Once I'm either at my source or my destination I'm fine, it's the in-between that gets me...

New Year's Graveyard

Back into Manhattan today, arriving well before 8:30 even though my usual bus was nowhere in sight and I had to take another one that added 10-15 minutes to the commute. The bus home was much better, I had my usual driver and I swear it only took about an hour from pickup to terminus, so that was nice. But the office was a veritable dead zone, almost nobody was in. I still found enough to keep myself occupied for 8+ hours, caught up on a number of things that had happened during our firm's winter shutdown, and I'm in good shape for tomorrow. Very glad I don't have to go back until Tuesday, as the frigid temperatures have returned, but my winter jacket kept me toasty enough. And who can really complain about a work week this short?

Manhattan Madness

Thank goodness I don't have to go into The City again until 2025! Doubly thankful that, at my age, my FOMO is fading fast; I quite like staying at home and watching other people be all touristy in midtown. Mostly I miss the way things used to be when attractions like the shops at Bryant Park or Columbus Circle were actually navigable. But I'm glad I went into the office, as two of my partners who were also in gave me some much-needed cash for the holidays. And I didn't get run over by any gridlocking vehicles as I crossed the streets, so that's a win as well. Now if only I had enough energy left to sort and put away the clean laundry...

Of Gridlock and Drones

Too many things on my mind to pay attention to local or even world happenings, but apparently there's another UFO scare going around and people in New Jersey are shooting down drones or something? Leave me out of it, I'm too busy navigating Manhattan streets. Got to the post office today to mail out holiday cards, where the worker at the window apologized that there were no foreign stamps left, and besides which there's been a postal strike in Canada for the past month (I told you I haven't been paying much attention). I told her I didn't care about foreign stamps, could she please just get them mailed whatever way works best, and while she was doing that I affixed the US stamps to those cards, then walked back to the office where I read how the Canadian postal strike had ended, so good timing, I guess! Also, even though walking through holiday crowds and gridlocked traffic at the intersections proved tricky at best, I lucked out in that the weather was downright pleasant for this time of year, so I'm glad that's all done and I get to work from home tomorrow. Only one more Manhattan day for the rest 2024!

They Run and Hide Their Heads

It rained a bit yesterday but this evening's rain hasn't quite begun yet, just a few sprinkles here and there. Tomorrow is slated to be the deluge, and after that temps plummet. But I'm very glad I was in the office today as there was tons of stuff to be done and much accomplished. Even the surprisingly dank temperatures didn't bother me that much as I didn't have that long to wait for the bus. I'm slogging through our last roundup insert for our holiday cards, which have arrived (alas, one design is full of glitter), and will actually be relieved when that's done and the holiday list is updated. I've lost too many folks on that list, which might be why it's depressing me a bit, but that's the circle of whozeewhatsis.

Blustery

We're definitely in a cold snap in NYC. Could be worse, at least we don't have any precipitation. And it was warm enough in the office in Manhattan that I wasn't affected by the cold (in fact, I ran my small desktop fan on low for most of the workday). It was just that five minutes or so to and from the bus, and at lunchtime, that it really bit me. Mostly I was kept busy enough, and actually running around for a change, that I didn't have time to think about it. And busy is good, after all. But now I just want to sleep...

They Paved Paradise and Put in a Parking Lot

I did so much work yesterday that I was able to shunt some hours into today, and the same with this day's work again. I'm in pretty good shape, so I decided to leave a bit early so as to beat what's now one of the busiest travel days of the year. I was unsuccessful. All the highways were like parking lots, and the homeward commute was nearly two hours long. So exhausted, glad I have a relatively easy day tomorrow and I don't have to be in Manhattan for another week. Goodness knows I have enough to do at home the next few days! This evening I could barely even look at the laundry that needs putting away...

Can't Trust That Day

Today was Robin's turn to trek into The City for a root canal, always a favorite. Meanwhile I powered through a lot of work as I wanted to get ahead of things during this short week. Fortunately Rob should be able to eat everything on the menu I have planned for the coming holiday. I'm trying to be sensible about things so as not to exhaust myself but we'll see, I always have a tendency to overplan. So tonight I plan nothing.

Elemental

This morning the weather turned cold and dank and, thank goodness, rainy. I hope this puts out all the wildfires in the area. My commute wasn't that bad, I have a plastic sleeve for my laptop that keeps away moisture and I got to wear my nifty corporate rain jacket, so no real complaints there. No real grumbles about the rain from my fellow commuters either, just a seemingly vast sigh of relief. I'm also relieved I get to work from home tomorrow, as the temps have started dropping. As inefficient as this house is, I see space heaters in my near future.

A Helluva Town

The Bronx, I'm told, is up. And my battery's down. Fires are breaking out all over, even though I had the car washed on Saturday to induce rain. And it was a tough Manhattan day, which had me juggling three calls/training sessions at once on MS Teams, not a fun thing. I couldn't even do two of them because I was recording the other one and that recording would have been lost if... you know what? Doesn't matter. I'm through, I'm home, I'm thawing, I'm exhausted.

Silly Site o' the Day

It's Election Day in the US, and we're hoping for the best and... well, I don't even know how to prepare for the worst as one candidate is an existential threat to pretty much the entire world. So I'm keeping busy at the office, and Robin's keeping busy at home. Today we found out that our landline has been automatically forwarding calls to Optimum's online answering machine (not even our own!) for about a week, which means we've missed all incoming calls. I'm grateful we haven't heard the political spam ones, but there was at least one from my uncle I would have liked to have heard. Everything's all fixed now, and I'll be making a couple outgoing calls tomorrow to make sure everyone knows what happened. I think we're moving closer to a cell-only life, probably when I retire. In the meantime, enjoy this ballot-box stand-up comedy.

Silly Site o' the Day

Off to the bus in the dark, home from the bus in the dark. I love autumn, even how it smells when the leaves lose their chlorophyll, but I'm not quite as fond as I used to be of walking (or driving!) in the dark. At least I can see things at lunchtime, which today consisted of a couple bad decisions courtesy of a local street fair. Those soup dumplings were neither soupy nor very dumpling-like; second time I've fallen for that place in as many street fairs. Anyway, plenty to eat throughout the day, enough work to keep me on my toes, and now I'm back and relaxing as the temps drop. Oh, speaking of light and dark, here's an interesting overview on the creation of holograms.

Silly Site o' the Day

Between the overuse of the car at my age and the general anxiety over Mom's situation, my body keeps giving out in peculiar places. At the moment it's my right heel, which is actually referred pain from somewhere in the calf. All I can do at this point is brace it, limp, and hope for some sort of cramp in the night which will loosen it enough to begin recovering. At least I only had to schlep my laptop one way today, as I planned ahead to come into the office today and tomorrow given yesterday's PTO. The other issue is my occasional insomnia, which made it pretty difficult to stay awake at my desk. But I really didn't have a choice, and there was enough to keep me occupied (plus at least one caffeinated beverage). Are you ready for a Hallowe'en light show? Just check out this Laughing Squid post that covers all five stages of the performance. I feel like I'm not quite ready for Hallowe'en yet; maybe when the temps dip a little.

Silly Site o' the Day

Hurricane Milton continues to creep closer to the Tampa area, and I continue to hobble about Manhattan. I was on my feet way too much in the office today, and paid the price later. I'm getting too old for this stuff, particularly as the weather starts to cool. At least I don't have to reach for the microwave!

Silly Site o' the Day

After yesterday's Manhattan commute I was just tired and achy enough to be grateful today was a work-from-home day. It also let me watch the playoffs, where three of the four best-of-3 matches concluded, leaving only the NY Mets and Milwaukee Brewers split at one game apiece. Ah well, it was nice while it lasted, said pretty much every Mets fan. Also, can we block out NJ so we only see New York reflected?

Silly Site o' the Day

And I thought Tuesday's commute was hellish! Because there were protests called for around 6 PM in the vicinity of Grand Central, I decided to leave the office at 4:30, but it didn't help much because the protesters were marching and blocking the intersection two blocks south of my bus stop. Between the 45-minute wait until the first bus finally arrived (there were five behind it that wound up breaking the logjam a half hour later, I was told by Robin who was keeping track on BusTime) and that bus being SRO so we all had seat company AND my seat company staying next to me as the bus grew emptier and emptier and getting off at the last stop as I did... well, everything hurts now. At least the Yankees finally won their division. The Mets/Atlanta games have been postponed due to the horrific oncoming Hurricane Helene, so heaven only knows when the regular baseball season will actually end. Have I mentioned everything hurting? I'm removing my squiggle eyebrows and lips and going to bed.

Silly Site o' the Day

I was up a bit in the night, from about 4-6 AM, before going back to bed for a little over an hour when I was awakened by The World's Worst Leg Cramp. I mean, my right calf cramped without release for easily (what felt like) a minute, with at least two painful aftershocks. It didn't bode well for our trip to the Great Elephant Migration outdoor art exhibit in Manhattan's meatpacking district, but I slapped on a knee brace and everything wound up just fine. The exhibit was amazing, well worth the local bus and subway trip, and we made side trips to Myers of Keswick and Hao for some lovely English and Chinese food respectively. Home by 3 PM and napping again by 4, no cramps this time. And, aside from the Mets/Braves series being postponed by an oncoming hurricane and the Yankees going down in flames, it's been a terrific end to my last fiscal year 2024 vacation day, even though we didn't get to see the iconic New York pillow fight.