Re: Re: camping  was: bbsing
  By: Nancy Backus to Damon A. Getsman on Tue Jun 02 2015 12:57:04

 NB> Shinies etc can be quite distracting at any age... ;)  And birthdays
 NB> (and other special occasions) can be a good time to scratch the itch, as
 NB> long as one doesn't go overboard...  :)  Happy Birthday to the kid.. :)

  Oh for sure.  I'm finding that I'm getting better at dealing with these
things as I get older, but I also note (and I'm in a perfect situation for
noting this right now, as I wait for someone much more prone to distractions to
come and sit down so that we can do some paired coding together) that it
certainly does still seem to be a big issue for a lot of other people of all
ages.
  I've passed your well wishes on to my son.  He appreciates it, belated though
as it may be.  It's good for him to get a little reminder of some of the good
things that have been going on recently right now...  Just last night he ended
up coming down with either some nasty food poisoning or else some really wicked
short illness.  He ended up throwing up at least three times last night
(projectile, and with a whole lot of stomach contents to get rid of-- poor
guy), and has been suffering a pretty wicked sore throat and [I believe, though
currently unverified by thermometer] a bit of a fever today.  Poor kid just
hasn't been getting much of a break lately.  At least it happened once school
got out for him (yesterday was his last day).  I mean, I'm pretty sure that
he'd see things in the opposite light, but after all of the time that he missed
with crap as of the last school year I'm glad that there wasn't any more added
to that...

 NB> That all sounds simply GREAT...  :)  Work that you can enjoy, and a
 NB> steady cashflow...  :)

  It's been really nice.  Things have come along, such as my cat, that really
rocked the boat and have made it a bit difficult to hit the target number of
hours lately, but that being said, I'm finding this work experience much better
than anything that I've had since at least 2001.  It's soo nice to be able to
do something that I don't loathe, something where I'm learning more in areas
that I actually care about, and something where I'm pairing with my roommate
which makes things a little bit more fun than they would probably be otherwise.

 NB> As with any technical field, there was bound to be some having to catch
 NB> up with new developments... but with the basics in place, you shouldn't
 NB> be having too much trouble fitting the new stuff in...  :)

  Yeah.  Well with the devops nature of this particular segment of work there's
always going to be a bit of internal things that I have to learn due to a
myriad of different suites and packages being deployed to whatever particular
situation.  So there's always a bit of a curve which, despite being annoying at
times, is kind of good from the standpoint that keeping a learning curve is
good for the mind/brain in general, IMO.

 DAG>> those situations.  I suppose being on the road for so long when he
 DAG>> was still 2-2.5 years old really helped prep him for it a bit,
 NB> Some things you do because you have to... some because you enjoy them...
 NB> and it's nice when it's some of both...  ;)   I'm sure though that the
 NB> no other alternative sorts of things can get old real fast, as the sense
 NB> of adventure wears off...  ;)

  Definitely.  We've had some interesting times, and no doubt it has changed
the recreational aspect of some of the activities that we've had...  I don't
know, I'm kind of going through a phase right now where, despite our
limitations and the lack of kids in the area, I'm trying to figure out what
kind of a routine we're going to have for things this summer.  I'll write more
about it later, I'm actually trying to get this out before I do some work in a
little bit here, but I could probably use some input on some of the different
things that I'm considering.  The limitations of the situation that I'm in is
going to make it interesting, to say the least, and I'm definitely at the phase
where I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel a bit.  But yeah, more on that
later.

 NB> A good lesson in why consistency is so important... One doesn't have to
 NB> be a martinet and deny the kid everything, but it still is important to
 NB> have the boundaries and keep to them pretty much, so the kid is secure
 NB> in knowing where they are...  Saves a lot of trouble in the long run... 
 NB> The kids that have learned that a tantrum will get them what they (think
 NB> they) want generally aren't actually happy with the results, either...
 NB> not that you could get them to admit it, though...

  Oh I know how important it is.  That being said, I definitely need to work on
it in my parenting methods.  Especially when I've been getting tips from other
people who lack in consistency a lot that are telling me that I need to be more
consistent with things.  Heh.  It's been really tough in the setting that we're
in right now, but the summer drive is on now.  Hopefully things can be set up
by the end of the summer well enough so that we'll be in a setting where we
have a new primary location with enough space for all of us; I think more than
anything else it's the fatigue at the whole situational aspect that's kept me
from being a little better than I would like with the consistency of it all.
  But yeah, I can always tell when my consistency hasn't been what it should. 
That's when the 'big stick' has to come out.  Then it's used, and then things
are better for a time.  He's really good at responding very quickly to it, and
doesn't push things too far, at least at the age that he's at right now, when
such is the case.  When I'm doing better with it he's really great about doing
the things that he's supposed to right away and not pushing the limits.

 NB> Sequoias and redwoods are pretty awesome...  :)  I can't blame him for
 NB> wanting to share those with you...  :)

  It was great.  ;)  Unfortunately I was working without very much battery life
left in my phone most of the time.  So, while I managed to get some decent
photos from parts of the trip, when we went out on the absolutely breathtaking
hike from the top of one of the ridges down to the bottom of the gorge where
the ocean was meeting the forest, the phone lied to me and told me that it was
taking and saving the pictures, while the whole time it was losing the very
best ones.  :(  I think that I should be able to get some of those pictures
back from some other members of our trip, though.

 NB> I can certainly relate on the bronchitis issue... I get that
 NB> periodically... Nice that your body could just fight it off on its own
 NB> this time..... ;)  

  Yeah my health has been doing a lot better than it has for a very long time,
actually...  at least since I've gotten over the various plagues that had a
pigpile on me after first getting here.  I can tell that I've been taking care
of myself really well, fitness-wise, also, because I don't think that I've ever
had a resting heart rate that is often below 64, and mine pretty much sits and
hovers right around 60 now.  It's nice to see the fruits of my hard work, even
if they're in statistics that really don't mean much beyond the medical
journals.  ;)

 NB> Pluses and minuses to camping... and too much at a time can definitely
 NB> be a put-off for more...  ;)  Plus you have other things on your plate
 NB> now that have more than minor benefit to them...  ;)   How long is this
 NB> camping trip to be...?

  Well the last one was a Friday night to a Monday.  My son got to miss a full
day of school out of the last week of school that he had, so he was pretty
pumped about that.  As for right now there are no more planned for the
immediate future, which is good.  Parts of the voyages that we had been going
on were starting to be a little bit more like tasks than like vacation.  Plus I
think what I really need more of right now is some time to cement the good
habits and routines in place, not escaping it and taking a monetary hit when I
really need to be saving up a nest egg right now.

 NB> The minor hassles of life... ;)  Guess you need to pack a waterproof
 NB> surface to roll out onto the picnic table to protect the cards... ;)

  Yeah.  Lots of my camping gear disappeared during those last rough
relocations when I was in North Dakota still.  I'm still missing some stuff
because of that; when we start getting into a ready-to-camp mode again I'll
hopefully have the resources available to start restocking these supplies,
though.  Plus, with my normal doom-n-gloom outlook on society and the way that
our government is taking things, I like having survival gear around just in
case things start looking like some sort of a trip out to a nondisclosed
location in the hills might be a good idea.  :)  Call me paranoid, but we live
in a crazy friggin' world, even if we _are_ mostly isolated from large chunks
of that in this country.
 
 NB> It works for me.  :)  My web browsing (little enough as it is) is kept
 NB> separate from my other computer pursuits.. And when I do, I can avoid
 NB> ads and popups etc simply because I'm using a text browser usually.. ;)

  Yeah I've had some systems that I made do with for a long time that had
solely text-browsing capabilities.  It was always kind of a nice break from the
media that pervades everything, and just being able to take time from it to
read.  'Course web development has catered to that so far these days that a
disturbingly high percentage of those sites won't even render into a format
that can be displayed properly in a text-only browser any more.  I actually
just resurrected a laptop of mine that is pretty much in that status.  It just
doesn't really have the processing power to be handling full media and a
bloated browser floating around in its RAM.  Plus it's got some media issues,
too, so it's a lot more reliable for just working and handling text-only
sessions when that's what's desired.  (Sorry if I'm rambling or jumping from
topic to topic a little bit here; I've had some people relocate out here that
are severely distracting me from what I was trying to do in responding to this
message since I started it)

 NB> Nice effort...  I note that there are two more from you here in DADS...
 NB> but I'm off to do stuff myself now... those will have to wait...  :) 
 NB> We'll get caught up soon enough...  ;)

  Yeah I've been really slammed with different things lately, so I'm trying to
get to a few more messages that I know I've got piled up in different echoes,
too.  So no worries about it taking awhile, because things are definitely going
to be taking awhile from my end, too.  Especially when I've got the kind of
distraction brewing next to me that is going on right now.  God it's going to
be nice once there's been enough cash saved up to pick up a place that gives me
a little respite from the distraction when I need it.  *tries to go to the
happy place*  Oh yeah, I didn't have a chance to meditate today, either.  No
doubt that's causing me to be a couple of steps behind where I could be with
this all right now.
  Anyway that's it for now.  I'm gonna try to get some work done now.

  -D
--- SBBSecho 2.27-OpenBSD
 * Origin: Tinfoil.synchro.net - now at FTN (1:340/200) (1:340/200)