marsden_online (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
marsden_online) wrote2018-12-15 11:16 am
marsden_online) wrote2018-12-15 11:16 am
Entry tags:
- antonio hall,
- family,
- games,
- health,
- house,
- life,
- money,
- relationship,
- work
Life update
My last general update was wayyy back in April. Since then I have had difficultly finding the combination of time and energy to write. I'm not convinced it is what I would best be doing right now, but I'm in a bit of a down patch and need to get some stuff out.
Current issues:
House/Financial As of my last update the building contract had just been signed. Since then there have been repeated delays from the plans actually getting out of the drawing office to confusion over whether we needed just a building consent or a resource consent (in the end a building consent and a Family Flat Encumbrance on the property title) to the unusually wet weather for Canterbury delaying demolition and building start. As I type a workman is taking the framing off the concrete pad which now takes up most of what was garage + back lawn + back shed; but further work won't happen until mid/late January.
The project is being paid in installments as the work progresses, and two 5-digit ones went out on Thursday evening. I am now more in debt than I have ever been and once again experiencing the heavy emotional weight and worry for the future which goes with that. I know the maths says we can manage (barely, two of us plus mortgage on one income when D moves in) but I also know that life has a way of making it hard to stay within the maths. Over the past several weeks there have been several unexpected medical and other expenses which have meant that I have not been managing to put money against the flexi-mortgage the way I was supposed to be, imagine if I had had the full mortgage as expected :(
So that is weighing on me at the moment.
Medical At the end of November I had two lumps surgically removed, one on my forehead (a keratosis, nothing to be concerned about) and one just behind my left ankle (see more below). That limited my mobility for a couple of weeks (and I was not able to take it as easy as I would have liked over that period to let it heal cleanly because among other reasons we were in the final stages of emptying the garage for demolition and /someone/ had to deal with the regular household chores) but had just stopped being significant when I was summoned back into Burwood for what is probably going to be a repeat of that operation to make sure that they got all of what turned out to be a melanoma.
That appointment is on Monday and I expect it to leave me hobbled into the new year meaning I will be unable to get on with a number of projects I had planned for the short period between work finishing and D's kids coming down for two weeks. Much frustration.
Hall Over the past few months we've have several instances of looting (from guttering to window catches), plain vandalism (including smashing up one of the big stained glass windows in the chapel) and tagging (including the chapel and an impossible to clean feature wallpaper). And while my requests for immediate help with some things like glass cleanup have been met by our core team or nearby residents the turn out to working bees and wider response to requests for time/effort have been weak to non-existent. We are still doing tours or opening for photographers/filmmakers pretty much every weekend and sometimes during the week, it is frustrating that so many of these who profess enthusiasm for coming along never follow through. I question if there is something in the way I am wording the notices which is the problem / is it me?
The frustration of all this has at times been overwhelming, but despite the gentle urging of several friends this is not a project I am prepared to let go until the Hall's future is something other than limbo, because this is the one place I am actually making a difference to people beyond my immediate social circles and because there is no-one to replace me.
Work The pressure has been on at work all year and actually it hasn't been on me as much as the other programmers, whom I have been worried about to the point of bringing up our mental health in our developer meetings. Our little web-development and hosting company also got DDOSed off the internet (we're not sure if we or one of our clients were the actual target, or just collateral damage) for the better part of a week at one stage which was extremely stressful for everyone /but/ the programmers, who got to feel somewhat helpless and switch to projects which didn't require access to the servers.
Our annual staff reviews should also be sometime next week, and I am very not-happy with my performance over the year. Most everything which has been assigned to me seems to have taken much longer than allowed for, in some cases probably to the point of actually costing the company money. I did put on some very long hours for me at one stage but have been paying for it in reduced productivity ever since. Nevertheless I intend to ask for a small raise; I have not had or needed one since just after moving to the office however many years ago. Practically speaking paying off the student loan and increasing the number of hours I was able to work have both given me increases in income over that time, but the latter seems to have topped out at about 27 hours a week and now some extra money would be more-than-helpful.
Gaming Broken Kingdoms has been on hiatus the past couple of months while we try and find a time everyone is available for a full afternoon/evening session for the epic final battle of the campaign. TBH I've had so much else on that I have been relieved not to have to deal with it.
~~~~~
In better things
D. Still keeping you <3 ;)
The big cleanout With D at my side I have begun properly sorting and disposing of much of the stuff which has accumulated in the house since (and before) my family bought it.
There's a certain amount of emotion involved with letting go of a lot of things, sadness but often also an odd relief. The biggest item to date was the TV, still in perfect working order but sadly there's not many reuse options for a 47" CRT rear-projection without HDMI ports and a model too early to have the edge-to-edge display that most modern signal expects, so it went to the eWaste depot yesterday along with a box of other items which had built up in the cupboard. But it was one of my first major purchases and even though it hadn't even been plugged in for over a year I'm sad to see it go.
But now I can more easily get at the bookcase it was sitting in front of and sort that out.
And of course the garage had to be done, although some containers of personal effects are just in storage until I have time to go through them. A lot was red-binned, and a carload went to the metal recyclers (in exchange for a few paltry dollars, not worth the time I spent sorting and stripping it but a better option than landfill).
There is still a load waiting to go the drop-off for the Eco-store.
Younglings D's kids have been down for another couple of visits (one week every school holidays) and we continue to function, well, like a family I think.
Gaming Although I haven't managed very much roleplaying or boardgaming this year D and I have started playing Path of Exile, both as a party and separately with other characters. I do enjoy it so far, it is very much like my old friends Diablo and Neverwinter Nights, and if I had the time would easily lose a couple of days at a stretch to it.
Alas only a few hours a week can be spared, and even then they often have had to be to be forcibly taken "me" time, because I have been at the point of needing some of that :(
Current issues:
House/Financial As of my last update the building contract had just been signed. Since then there have been repeated delays from the plans actually getting out of the drawing office to confusion over whether we needed just a building consent or a resource consent (in the end a building consent and a Family Flat Encumbrance on the property title) to the unusually wet weather for Canterbury delaying demolition and building start. As I type a workman is taking the framing off the concrete pad which now takes up most of what was garage + back lawn + back shed; but further work won't happen until mid/late January.
The project is being paid in installments as the work progresses, and two 5-digit ones went out on Thursday evening. I am now more in debt than I have ever been and once again experiencing the heavy emotional weight and worry for the future which goes with that. I know the maths says we can manage (barely, two of us plus mortgage on one income when D moves in) but I also know that life has a way of making it hard to stay within the maths. Over the past several weeks there have been several unexpected medical and other expenses which have meant that I have not been managing to put money against the flexi-mortgage the way I was supposed to be, imagine if I had had the full mortgage as expected :(
So that is weighing on me at the moment.
Medical At the end of November I had two lumps surgically removed, one on my forehead (a keratosis, nothing to be concerned about) and one just behind my left ankle (see more below). That limited my mobility for a couple of weeks (and I was not able to take it as easy as I would have liked over that period to let it heal cleanly because among other reasons we were in the final stages of emptying the garage for demolition and /someone/ had to deal with the regular household chores) but had just stopped being significant when I was summoned back into Burwood for what is probably going to be a repeat of that operation to make sure that they got all of what turned out to be a melanoma.
That appointment is on Monday and I expect it to leave me hobbled into the new year meaning I will be unable to get on with a number of projects I had planned for the short period between work finishing and D's kids coming down for two weeks. Much frustration.
Hall Over the past few months we've have several instances of looting (from guttering to window catches), plain vandalism (including smashing up one of the big stained glass windows in the chapel) and tagging (including the chapel and an impossible to clean feature wallpaper). And while my requests for immediate help with some things like glass cleanup have been met by our core team or nearby residents the turn out to working bees and wider response to requests for time/effort have been weak to non-existent. We are still doing tours or opening for photographers/filmmakers pretty much every weekend and sometimes during the week, it is frustrating that so many of these who profess enthusiasm for coming along never follow through. I question if there is something in the way I am wording the notices which is the problem / is it me?
The frustration of all this has at times been overwhelming, but despite the gentle urging of several friends this is not a project I am prepared to let go until the Hall's future is something other than limbo, because this is the one place I am actually making a difference to people beyond my immediate social circles and because there is no-one to replace me.
Work The pressure has been on at work all year and actually it hasn't been on me as much as the other programmers, whom I have been worried about to the point of bringing up our mental health in our developer meetings. Our little web-development and hosting company also got DDOSed off the internet (we're not sure if we or one of our clients were the actual target, or just collateral damage) for the better part of a week at one stage which was extremely stressful for everyone /but/ the programmers, who got to feel somewhat helpless and switch to projects which didn't require access to the servers.
Our annual staff reviews should also be sometime next week, and I am very not-happy with my performance over the year. Most everything which has been assigned to me seems to have taken much longer than allowed for, in some cases probably to the point of actually costing the company money. I did put on some very long hours for me at one stage but have been paying for it in reduced productivity ever since. Nevertheless I intend to ask for a small raise; I have not had or needed one since just after moving to the office however many years ago. Practically speaking paying off the student loan and increasing the number of hours I was able to work have both given me increases in income over that time, but the latter seems to have topped out at about 27 hours a week and now some extra money would be more-than-helpful.
Gaming Broken Kingdoms has been on hiatus the past couple of months while we try and find a time everyone is available for a full afternoon/evening session for the epic final battle of the campaign. TBH I've had so much else on that I have been relieved not to have to deal with it.
~~~~~
In better things
D. Still keeping you <3 ;)
The big cleanout With D at my side I have begun properly sorting and disposing of much of the stuff which has accumulated in the house since (and before) my family bought it.
There's a certain amount of emotion involved with letting go of a lot of things, sadness but often also an odd relief. The biggest item to date was the TV, still in perfect working order but sadly there's not many reuse options for a 47" CRT rear-projection without HDMI ports and a model too early to have the edge-to-edge display that most modern signal expects, so it went to the eWaste depot yesterday along with a box of other items which had built up in the cupboard. But it was one of my first major purchases and even though it hadn't even been plugged in for over a year I'm sad to see it go.
But now I can more easily get at the bookcase it was sitting in front of and sort that out.
And of course the garage had to be done, although some containers of personal effects are just in storage until I have time to go through them. A lot was red-binned, and a carload went to the metal recyclers (in exchange for a few paltry dollars, not worth the time I spent sorting and stripping it but a better option than landfill).
There is still a load waiting to go the drop-off for the Eco-store.
Younglings D's kids have been down for another couple of visits (one week every school holidays) and we continue to function, well, like a family I think.
Gaming Although I haven't managed very much roleplaying or boardgaming this year D and I have started playing Path of Exile, both as a party and separately with other characters. I do enjoy it so far, it is very much like my old friends Diablo and Neverwinter Nights, and if I had the time would easily lose a couple of days at a stretch to it.
Alas only a few hours a week can be spared, and even then they often have had to be to be forcibly taken "me" time, because I have been at the point of needing some of that :(