The vinhale thread?

[mamselle]

Inhale: Sharing some work with folks. It's long, but they mostly like it.

Vent: I very much doubt if anyone told Proust to turn《Temps Perdu 》into a comic book, "so people would read it...."

Grumble...

M.

Nah, they waited until he was dead.

Don't tell me that....

;--》

Thanks for the laugh!

M.

[ab_grp]

Vent: I happened to read the emails from AmEx about my weekly account snapshots for the two cards I have with them.  Good thing I did, because I apparently paid off the wrong card, so I "missed" the payment for the card that actually had the balance and incurred a late fee, and I ended up with a sizeable credit on the other card.

Inhale: I called AmEx, and they were able to move the payment to the correct card and get rid of the late fee since it was clearly paid before the due date and was the exact amount owed.  Whew! It only took a few minutes.  I guess this happens a lot.  They have always been helpful in rectifying any issues with the cards, and I am grateful.

[mamselle]

Inhale: Many good, worthwhile things to do, today, and honestly, most days.

Vent: For some reason, today, I feel like a baker walking into a kitchen with 40 empty cake pans staring me in the face.

Inhale: They can all be filled, or all the important ones, anyway.

Vent: They won't fill themselves..I'll have to do it....

;--》

M.

[AmLitHist]

Vent:  I'm taking time this morning to work through the nearly 4 hours' worth of mandatory training classes on various topics.  All are on topics that are incredibly obvious for any adult living in the modern real world (i.e., "You must allow accommodations for students with disabilities; the Access office will provide specifics"; "Don't be a racist to students or co-workers"; "You're required to follow the college's drug-free workplace/non-harassment policies"; etc.).

Vent: I'm pretty sure I complain here about this every year.

Inhale:  At least I still have a job and thus need to take this training, which is a good thing....I guess.

Vent: The videos must be run in their entirety. The quiz at the end of each topic must be passed at 80% or better, but the quiz can't be accessed until all the videos have run.

Inhale:  At least I can run the videos out in the background (while reading/typing here or doing my NYT archive crosswords) and then just take and pass the quizzes anyway.

Vent: These aren't due until 3/31/22, but my compulsive nature won't let me rest until they're done.

Inhale:  I've taken on a heavy OL schedule for spring, so at least these are done and out of the way.

[Harlow2]

Vent:  had upset stomach for a couple of days and then woke up with stuffy nose, sore throat,  and chest congestion. The latter 2 were a good match for COVID. No tests to be found at this point, of course.
Vent 2: gave up calling Dr. after being on hold for 45 minutes
Vent 3: Went to urgent care affiliated loosely with Dr. by 1 pm they weren't seeing anyone as they were at capacity

Inhale: went to urgent care near home and they were taking patients

Vent:  from sign in to results took 5 hours. Lost a whole day of holiday prep.

Inhale: results: negative! Joy!  And awfully nice staff who were apologetic about the wait.

Vent: yes, we are all supposed to get at-home tests, but how?

[AmLitHist]

Glad you tested negative, Harlow2!  Sorry about the rest, though.

[Harlow2]

Vent:  at 10:30 last night on my way home from a night walk with friends the car  radiator sprang a small leak, stopped producing heat, and popped up a warning.  Surprisingly expensive repair.

Inhale: though I stupidly drove the remaking 5 miles home not wanting to sit in 20* weather waiting for a tow truck
I didn't damage the engine
Inhale 2:  wonderful mechanic was able to squeeze me in and find a radiator in another state ( apparently radiators are another thing in short supply).

[mamselle]

Inhale: Such joy arguing chord analysis points with a passionate middle-schooler who's largely correct, and is graciously able to concede the part he's wrong about!

Vent: I hope the younger class member, who usually takes such things with aplomb, wasn't too badly blindsided by the fact that the chords he's working so hard to learn can actually function more than one way at a time. (Nuance is tough on the very young).

Inhale: Both learned from the exchange, as did I (check all options!) and I can go over the vexed issue with the younger student in his lesson next week.

Silly sweet scalawags.

M.

[mamselle]

Me again, sorry for the delayed double...!

Vent: I missed the part in the CFP that said there's an online site to upload an abstract to, and emailed it.

Inhale: No-one wrote to tell me it was wrong and that it wouldn't be accepted, so I re-did it (the length was different on the online site than what the letter had first made it sound like...) and sent it in.

Vent: I also sent an email to the coordinator, to let them know, apologizing, and saying it was fine if I'd goofed up and it wouldn't be accepted, I understood.

Vent: No answer, so I sent the amended abstract in as it should have been, on the site.

Inhale: It was not closed down, and it accepted the abstract, so at least there's a hope it might go in, still.

Inhale: And if not, I have more than enough work to do this spring and it won't kill me not to have a paper to work on as well.

Inhale: And if it's accepted, I'm pushing harder than before to see it into publication, somehow, someway.

The little twerp whose paper last spring it rebuts is going to hear about it....(interthreaduality).

M.

[OneMoreYear]

Vent: I am sick and have too much work to do.

Inhale: I am working from home and am currently surrounded by napping cats.

Vent: I cannot nap with them.

[mamselle]

That's ok.

They're doing your sleeping for you.

That's their job...didn't you know?

;--》

M.

[mamselle]

A double a while later...

Vent--The coverage for my phone's data plan under my old free-lance job's boss (which we continued for the year, with me paying them at the reduced rate they got for having several lines on the account, by mutual agreement) has ended, and I now have an added bill to deal with each month--oh modified rapture...

Inhale--I talked them down to as low a figure as I could, and the representative I dealt with was one of the most pleasant, intelligent, humorous, responsive individuals I have ever had the great fortune to interact with on the other end of such a call....which involved disentangling my phone from their account, re-assigning it, etc.

Vent--I have this extra bill now--low as it is, it's still another autopay to account for, grumble...

Inhale--He understood I didn't want 5G on principle, didn't try to keep selling it to me once I explained my objections, made it work easily and smoothly, and dug pretty deep into two accounts without any major issues, which was a relief, because sometimes it's taken two hours just to get all the things lined up properly.

So, overall, net win and then some--I gave him all 5's and a glowing review.

M.

[mamselle]

Continued data saga vents/inhales....

They misspelled my last name--by either correctly including the space between the French definite article and the rest of it, when it's been omitted before, or omitting it if it was (unusually) correctly included, so the whole thing had to be re-done.

Vent--Verizon is so slowed it took TEN transfers with full explanations to resolve the mess, because what was there was backed out, etc, and the person I had first talked to apparently knew what it took 9 more to fill in for the rep I got next (one NEVER gets the same person back...grrrr).

Inhale--it's set up again, a bit less per month, in fact, and barring any more craziness with getting the last bit of info tobthem, should go into effect soon.

In most cases, it was not the agents' fault, it Verizon that decrees one can process a pre-paid set-up, but not if it's also auto-pay, one does something else, another something else yet again....it's enough to make me look at other brands with yearning--while knowing they're all probably the same.

M.

[AmLitHist]

Inhale:  I finally got the damned MRI last week (after the foot injury on December 7).

Vent:  It shows a torn tendon (as podiatrist and I expected), and two sizeable bone spurs and lots of edema (which we didn't expect, and which in all likelihood were caused by not treating the original injury for nearly 4 months now, and counting).

Inhale:  I saw the podiatrist today for follow-up. I do have to have surgery, but at least we can actually DO something now, besides just fighting with Cigna.

Vent:  I have to have surgery.  >: (

Inhale:  At least I have health insurance.

Vent:  Cigna will have to pre-cert the surgery.  Good luck with that. Let's see how many months this go-round takes.

Vent:  After surgery, I'll be pretty immobilized for 2 weeks until the stitches come out.  Then, 3-4 weeks in a plaster cast.  Then, 4-6 weeks back in this blessed boot that I've worn since December. So, my summer gardening and walking-to-get-some-of-this-weight-back-off plans are pretty much shot to hell.

Inhale:  I'm going to sit on my fat lazy butt this summer, teach my online classes, and not feel one bit guilty about it.  :-)

Inhale:  Once all this is done, I can actually get to a new, highly-recommended orthopedist to figure out what we can do with my SIJD, as I'd planned to do over this past Christmas break. . .

Vent: . . . which I'm sure will entail another Cigna cluster*&%#.

To be continued, I'm sure. . . .

[mamselle]

Glad you know, sorry what you have to know and what you have to do about it.

I've seen folks with little wheeled trolleys, like smaller versions of what car repair folks use to get under the chassis, for gardening. Is that a possibility?

Or table-level plants you can work with from a chair?

(Can't imagine not gardening if you want to...)

Anyway, glad for the progress, despite what-all it entails...

M.