The Inhale Thread !

[apl68]

Congratulations on all the progress folks have been posting lately.

Did I already mention that we have SUN here today?  Makes the air a lot nicer to inhale, even if it is still bracingly chilly.

[mamselle]

Yea, sun!

M.

[ergative]

A bunch of things that are working out nicely the last week or two:

1. I had a wonderful time at a week-long workshop on Islamic geometric art, and I think I've persuaded Absolutive to go with me for an eight-day summer school on the same topic in Spain. I'll do the classes and he'll go hiking.

2. I got a very favorable R&R from the TOP JOURNAL IN MY FIELD!

3. I've discovered how to batch-processs audiobook files from Librivox from mono into stereo, so I can get them out of both ears in my wireless headphones. Before I was doing it track-by-track, which is extremely tedious. Now I can click a button and the files convert in the background.

4. For reasons that I'll keep coy for purposes of institutional/regional anonymity, I will not be working much for the next three weeks, and I'm really looking forward to getting this break!

[scamp]

A bunch of things that are working out nicely the last week or two:

1. I had a wonderful time at a week-long workshop on Islamic geometric art, and I think I've persuaded Absolutive to go with me for an eight-day summer school on the same topic in Spain. I'll do the classes and he'll go hiking.

2. I got a very favorable R&R from the TOP JOURNAL IN MY FIELD!

3. I've discovered how to batch-processs audiobook files from Librivox from mono into stereo, so I can get them out of both ears in my wireless headphones. Before I was doing it track-by-track, which is extremely tedious. Now I can click a button and the files convert in the background.

4. For reasons that I'll keep coy for purposes of institutional/regional anonymity, I will not be working much for the next three weeks, and I'm really looking forward to getting this break!

All nice inhales!

[mamselle]

Ok, after all my grousing over on the venting thread....

1. I'm closer to being done with the dread transcription. And I paid two bills.
2. I got more work in on my article, including pictures and text. One more pass may do for a near-final draft.
3. Handling silk and really good trim for a Renaissance dress is a healing experience!
4. I'm going to allow myself one episode of Nero Wolfe (gorgeous work! Who recommended this?) and a couple of shorter films and then go to bed.

Day decently lived, I think.

M.

[ergative]

Say more about Nero Wolfe! My parents read the books when I was little, so the name is familiar, and when period detective serials are good, they're so much fun. (I speak, of course, of Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes, David Suchet's Hercule Poirot, and the inimitable Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.)

Unfortunately, I haven't found a good Lord Peter Wimsey adaptation yet.

[mamselle]

Indeed. Dangerously, time-wastingly good.

I just finished all of Brett's Holmes, saw all of Miss Fisher's earlier series and several others in recent years...and yes, the Nero Wolfe series is so far excellent in the same ways, luxurious fittings and clothing, wonderful filming, etc.

It's on YouTube right now; let me know if a search doesn't bring it up and I'll post the URL...

M.

[San Joaquin]

Okay, I just had a really good interview with nice, engaged, professional colleagues who demonstrated caring and integrity.  It had been a long time with some dismal results, and this is quite heartening.

I also did well by my own internal standards, as is not always the case.  A good boost, regardless of the search results.

[mamselle]

Indeed. Dangerously, time-wastingly good.

I just finished all of Brett's Holmes, saw all of Miss Fisher's earlier series and several others in recent years...and yes, the Nero Wolfe series is so far excellent in the same ways, luxurious fittings and clothing, wonderful filming, etc.

It's on YouTube right now; let me know if a search doesn't bring it up and I'll post the URL...

M.

Here's the first episode.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UvZDRXVBUo

I warned you...

;--}

M.

[AmLitHist]

After more than two months of stressing after Cigna said my hospital/doctor/providers would no longer take my insurance, I got a letter yesterday saying that they've come to a multiyear agreement and I can stay with my doc!  Woohoo!  I literally put the letter down and immediately called in for an appointment for later today (interthreaduality).

It doesn't seem like a big deal, but after all my health problems last year, I really did NOT want to have to change doctors.

[mamselle]

What a relief. Glad to hear it.

(I hope you don't need them as much as before, though!)

M.

[alto_stratus]

It's Friday and remote happy hour is nigh. . .

[fast_and_bulbous]

It's Friday and remote happy hour is nigh. . .

Indeed... the usual bunch of us that normally gather at the pub every Friday after work are doing an online video thing tonight for the first time. It won't be the same, but it will be good to see some familiar faces. While drinking beer.

[mamselle]

The next iteration of the gravestone blog is at least in something like a final-draft form.

I've sent it to two friends to see if it's readable.

Whew!!

M.

[AmLitHist]

Just got a lengthy and informative email from my pension plan, reminding members that

1.  we're a defined benefit plan (so those who are already retired and vested have our benefits set, regardless of the markets)
2.  we have "several billions" of dollars in liquid assets to pay benefits now and well into the future (about $250M paid out monthly)
3.  Investments are widely diversified, with a 30-year horizon and $9 billion in Treasuries
4.  There's no plan to increase contributions (steady since 2011), and when it does go up, the rise is capped at 0.5%
5.  State statute protects the benefits from decreasing, once vested

So.  Retiring at 65 was going to be a long shot financially anyway. Since lots of my colleagues who'd hoped to retire around that same year are going to have to hang on longer, once all this current upheaval is done, I have to remember that even if I have to keep working too, I still have it pretty darned good.  We have little/no debt, and my only real concern is to keep working long enough to get ALHS and myself onto Medicare. Other than that, I can live poor if we have to.  I definitely don't have the debt load, younger kids, health insurance worries, etc. that my younger colleagues (who'd hoped to retire by their early 50s in a few more years) have to contend with.