Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

now that the grand office shuffle of 2025 is over, local IT decided that he really needed to _do_ the computer upgrade/transition that was budgeted for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

As far as I can tell, there were no major issues. Some of my work actually got easier(!) as the upgrade fixed the voter database printing issues (I can now print natively from the website, rather than going through a multistep process). Logging in to the voter database *and* the accounting software both required only one extra confirmation each. As I got upgraded to a physically smaller laptop, I also got an external monitor, which required a certain amount of desktop rejiggering, but that, too, is done.

I hauled a trunkload of cardboard boxes off to the recycling center on my way home from work, so that's another stack of shtuff out of the basement.

I have been slowly working my way through the gardens, but we've been getting (much needed!) rain, so there've been days when I've been home but the ground's been too soft. I was able to get into the E garden yesterday afternoon and do some weeding, though. Tomorrow, I think I'll move a few things from the deckside garden which is going away so that J can replace the deck skirting. We will need to replace the cat's "stack of sun warmed bricks" at some point, though....

it was a concert. We got a really congratulatory note from the director today, and I wonder if he was at the same concert I was. I mean, I understand that as a performer in the band, I tend to hear a lot of infelicities, and don't really hear the entire effect, but.... OTOH, some of my reaction may be colored by the fact that I "missed" three rehearsals for this concert, and there was a lot of finger-flying in the TSax part, and I was really off my game (I spent two rehearsals on BSax, then missed one because I had a (paid) FCB gig).

Got to the office today, and discovered that the plumbing issue we discovered Thursday afternoon is still not solved - the building was dark and there was a sign on the door saying "closed". Undoubtedly, Sup sent an email and mine went to my work email which I don't check when I'm not at work, mostly because when IT was setting my system up, he didn't set me up for offsite access. (This is a feature, not a bug, AFAIAC.) It was not a completely wasted trip though, as I was able to put the flag back up -- it'd been at halfmast for Pope Francis.

Last night's FCB rehearsal was very tiring, so it's probably just as well that I don't have rehearsal tonight. But I have no excuse for not weeding. (well, other than J is mowing, and I want to be on the other side of the house from the mower).

BC is back at work, so last week I actually wrote down the plan for the sliding-tile game that is the basement rearrangement. (Sup wanted it all written out, not just a map. She really wants to get the shed sorted out, but we can't do that until we get the election infrastructure into the basement. And I only want to move it once!)

Tuesday's clinician visit to LCCB went really well. He worked us a lot harder than DM usually does, and really seemed to concentrate on the middle voices (baritone, tsax, low clarinets), so I had two days of hard musical work in a row. I was very tired on Wednesday.

I've been working in the garden when I can, but it's been a typical April -- cold and rainy one day, nice and sunny the next, usually with the nice days on days I have other things to do. I spent over an hour picking up branches yesterday morning, and then last night we got more wind, so there are *more* branches to be picked up (well, and the ones I didn't get to yesterday). I should do those today, but I need to run to the grocer (I had to stay home yesterday for Reasons).

BC is back in hospital. I do not *know* why, but I suspect that her system is not tolerating the strong oral antibiotics well, and so they need to be administered intravenously. She finished the first round of strong antibiotics, but apparently the pneumonia did not clear up as the docs wanted it to, so.....

So yesterday I did payroll. whee? (and Sup and Treas were off at a state meeting, so it was me and the office manager.) Tomorrow, S & T should be back, so I can consult with T about getting the GL entry for April's payroll done, and see if BC did the one for March. If she didn't, I need to do that one before I do April. I may have to do checks this month as well -- last month, BC came back for a week and was able to do them while dodging moving crews. (I don't like doing anything that requires me to sign in as BC, because if my account doesn't have permissions, then I shouldn't be doing them, right?)

Last night, a smaller FCB (just around 50 people) did a 30 minute gig before the State of the Cities address in Farmington/Farmington Hills. It required nearly as much work as a full 90 minute concert. Perhaps a bit more, as I had to figure out a smaller layout that would fit in a smaller space. I dug out the seat "dots" (that we used in 2021 when the layout was different nearly every week) so that BM and I didn't have to point everyone to their seat.

And today it rains. nearly an inch since 8 am (it's currently 1230!), and they say we'll get more. And it's cold. (35F and rain is hard to dress for -- winter jackets aren't waterproof enough, rain coats aren't warm enough and mine aren't big enough to put warm layers under. Maybe I should remedy that....)

Z is more-or-less settled into zie's new office. Said to me "I was expecting a bit more space. But the windows are NICE."

Moving crew showed up yesterday to move C into Z's office. That was done fairly quickly, as zie had packed everything that needed to move, and the only "mess" was caused by the top desk drawer (which is not removable, and we didn't realise that it wasn't empty until they tipped the desk up to move it), but everything is still *in* the drawer. We may have to get a longer printer cable, as zie's printer isn't a network printer, but the phone is plugged in and works, and the computer is plugged in. I left the rest for IT, as I don't have (nor want!) C's password.

Then we moved the extra file cabinet from the boardroom into the space where it will go in the basement. And put everything back in the cabinet. So that's two things in their new places in the basement. There are many more that still need to be moved. The pile of rubbish in the large room needs to go away before we can really do anything else downstairs. I put a lot of it into the trash roll-away, but the stuff that's too big for the roll-away, and the cardboard, and the fluorescent tubes needs to be dealt with. I need to pack up the file cabinets in the large room so they can be moved. That's tomorrow, as is beginning to move things out of the furnace room.

Sunday's FCB concert went really well. Lots of really good moments. The entire flute section missed an entrance because they were listening to the really nice brass duet behind them (but they all came in together, in the same place, so it sounded fine). The ASax solo in Steampunk Suite was AMAZING! (We are so lucky to have him!) MB's trumpet solo at the beginning of Pictures at an Exhibition had some strut, and it was perfect....

There are many many crocuses in the side garden and yard, and a few snowdrops. The daffodils are beginning to come up in the NW garden -- I guess that means I have to rake and cut back things there this weekend. OTOH, the weather peeps say that today is the warmest it's going to be for a couple of weeks... (But I don't wanna work in the garden today.....)

got into work yesterday, and there was a message from the supervisor -- "the moving crew will be here late Thursday morning to move your office". Um. OK, then, I know what I'm doing today. Well, after I finish these other two tasks which I am in the middle of. And BC (who is back in the office with strict instructions to do nothing more strenuous than walk to the bathroom or the kitchen) is actually working, and so there's a lot of stuff that I can't pack. And there's a board meeting Tuesday evening, so there's no place to stack the boxes that I pack anyway.

So I finished the tasks I was working on, packed up my desk. Packed up the notebooks/etc on the small table. Cleared the tops of the filing cabinets. Packed the top shelf of the filing cabinet. Packed the top drawer of the lateral file. After BC finished checks, packed up the top of her desk. Called the IT guy and asked if he would be available to do the re-assembly of BC's set up (thankfully, he will be, at least for a while.)

I still need to go in either today or early Thursday and pack up the rest of the filing cabinets. And buy/assemble a shelf in the basement for the ballot boxes which are currently in the office. I don't want to move them more than I have to! I don't know if we'll be moving the other offices Thursday or not. I have the plan for our old office, but I don't know what C wants -- I think BC knew, but she didn't write it down, so hopefully she'll remember (I haven't asked).

A couple of weeks ago, I made a plan for the basement rearrangement, but yesterday I realised that we'd forgotten all the cruft that was on the side shelf in the upstairs closet, so I had to add a couple more shelving units to the basement plan. There is wall space for that, in two different areas. I think it would be best in a side room, but it could also go in the main room. Supervisor was asking about the basement rearrangement, and I said that we'd need a moving crew for at least a day, *after* they got the pile of rubbish out of the middle of the large room, and then we could start the sliding tile game of getting cabinets/shelves/desks into their "proper" places. And we could install the new shelving units, and then get the stuff out of the random cabinets/piles where it was stashed in January. Must remind the IT guy to go through the stack of old computer equipment, so we can move the desk it's on.

And there's an FCB concert this weekend, with a stage rehearsal at an offsite venue Friday night. And complete teardown between Friday night and Sunday afternoon. (I will not be unhappy if the board says that we won't be using that venue again!)

And my thumb still hurts, although not as much. I fear that moving will not help it much. Doc knows what the issue is, but doesn't know *why*, and is sending me off to a hand specialist who may be able to figure it out (with the caveat that there might not be an obvious trigger). She's pretty sure that she knows a remedy for it, but doesn't want to administer it before the specialist sees the issue.

- Doc called yesterday, following up on the conversation I had with the nurse on Wednesday. She decided that rather than sending me for an MRI which probably wouldn't show anything that the ultrasound hadn't, she'd send me off to a hand specialist and Zie could order an MRI if Zie thought it necessary. Both UMHS and Trinity are scheduling for early April. sigh.

- we didn't even get the running around to the banks finished before KB (the treasurer) had me signing checks. :)

- J's chorus is having a fundraising meal/Social Night at a restaurant in Ypsi. I wouldn't mind going, and chatting with people in the chorus, but J invited one of his friends whom I do not like to join "us". So I'm not going.

- J is not sorting his laundry, again. I get tired of it, and about every 12 months I remind him that I'd really like it if he did. He does it for a few months, and then it gets to be "too hard" or something, and I'm faced with a pile of laundry in the middle of the closet floor. Nevermind that there are two laundry baskets right there to be sorted into, and he's got to step over his heap of dirty clothes to get to the shelves.....

one must determine which ducks go in which row.

Office moving time is approaching, and BC is getting antsy to schedule the moving crew. But first the basement work has to be completed and all the cruft moved out. So, while they're finishing that, she and I are figuring out exactly what's getting moved, and to where.

Most of the stuff from our office is moving into the new office space, that's easy (and we know where the rest is going). The more complex things are:
- how much of Z's stuff is moving into our current space, and how much into storage? And what kind of storage - can it be boxes on open shelves/file cabinets, or do they need to be in a locked room?

- how much of A's stuff is moving into Z's old office, and what kind of storage does the other stuff need? Zie has already said that one of the file cabinets can go away, can we use that in the basement for Z's stuff?

- do we really need a lock on the door at the foot of the basement stairs (inconvenient at best, awkward if you're carrying *anything*), or would having individual doors with locks be "better"? and who gets keys to which doors?

- the fireproof file cabinets need to move from where they are. Where do they go? What do we have to move so we can put them there? {a new fireproof file cabinet will be needed sometime in the next few years, must leave space for that.} Can A or Z use that currently unused file cabinet in the corner for their storage?

- if we move the desk from the corner office in the basement, and take out the non-load bearing wall, there's much more usable storage space for election stuff. This is good. But where do we move the desk to? Or do we just sell it?

so that's what I'm doing on Thursday. Asking questions and plotting things out. (tape measure, colored pencils, and quarter ruled paper at the ready.)

{Edit for typos. sigh.}

It will be "interesting" to see where this one goes. Went to see the doc for pain in/on my right thumb. Doc (orthopod) pokes at it, ponders a bit, does a few "does it hurt when I do this? that? other thing?", compares against the other hand, ponders a bit more. "Not arthritis, not either of these two tendons, not a sprain. Probably a partially torn muscle, possibly a hematoma. Won't know until the results of the ultrasound come in. Meanwhile, ice once a day and try to limit usage. A splint would probably be a good idea, because if it *is* a torn muscle you don't want to tear it further. If it's a hematoma, the splint won't hurt. Tylenol for pain, no aspirin, limit NSAIDs."

Both Trinity and UMHS are scheduling 3 weeks out for ultrasounds. sigh.

So I dug out the ambidextrous brace that I have, and have started wearing it. gahh. It's not as bad as the full wrist splint I wore for a while when they were trying to figure out what was going on with my left thumb, but it's still annoying. Although, if I'm honest, it's much better than the pain. I can play saxophone with it on, and it does hurt less that way. (Monday night was very painful, but the brace wasn't in the music bag. I did have it on Tuesday night, and it was better.)

that it's very strange for there to be more snow on the ground in Houston and NOLA than there is here. Some of that, of course, is because "it's too cold to snow" here -- usually when it's this cold, there are no clouds and thus no snow, and we are far inland and only get lake effect snow when the wind is coming straight from the west (or from the north over Lake Huron/Saginaw Bay, but that happens very rarely).

I did not have to skip Livingston rehearsal tonight -- Howell cancelled school, so by default there is no LCCB rehearsal. BC called the Ingham County clerk about tomorrow morning's meeting, and they said "yeah, you're not the first to call. We'll have the meeting for whomever shows up, and send forms off to those who didn't make it in to the meeting". TwpBoss closed the office for Tuesday a couple of days ago, so I haven't left the house since Sunday's trip to choir practice....

I discovered tonight that the ski gloves that I picked up off the clearance rack last summer have pockets for those little handwarmers.... I don't need them when I'm going outside to get the birdfeeders or to sweep the fluffy snow off the porch, but it's nice to know.

J is currently building a mixtape for his new motorcycle. It's got a tape deck, so of course it needs a mixtape. Grateful Dead, Cash, P!nk (because why not), BOC, Springsteen, Queen, etc. (hopefully no Bob Seger. If I never hear another Seger track in my life, it'll be about right.)