In Other News | Through The Yarny Curtain

Project Home Organization, Week 2

Click here to see the first post in this series.

So, I didn’t finish every task on my list, but I made excellent progress! Workspace in the garage was my limiting factor this week. We put the tub in its box in the garage, so until that was installed, we had limited space for working on other projects.

A view of the garage, with all the works in progress. We set up saw horses for the bookshelf in the front. The cardboard under the saw horses is the box from the tub! The main workbench is behind that, with two bookshelves leaning against it waiting their turn for paint. The loom pieces are not visible, but are laid out on that workbench. The small workbench to the right is usually the home of small tools, including a vise and belt sander. We moved those tools to the wire shelves on the left so I could put another bookcase on the small workbench.

This is a test… And a confession

Yesterday, Chris moved all my website database to the new host. I figured I would write a new post to make sure everything is working properly. Good thing I did — turns out my theme broke when we moved to the new host, so I had to install a new one. I have more work to do on visuals — the logo I was using was too big for this theme, so I cropped it. I’d rather make a new logo to fit properly, once I decide if I’m sticking with this new theme.

Falcon Heavy: The Preparations

My husband is a space geek. He’s old enough, just barely, to remember when we landed on the moon and he’s loved space ever since. We are both sci-fi geeks and Chris especially loves shows about exploration. He loves discovery and adventure. Naturally, all of this means he particularly loves Elon Musk and Space X.

Tomorrow, February 6, Space X is scheduled to launch its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time. Falcon Heavy is a BFD. The stats on it are impressive. Rather than reciting them, I’m going to refer you to Space X’s website. The important thing is that this is the first launch of a rocket that could be used to put humans back on the Moon or to land on Mars for the first time. And we are going to be there.

Falcon 9 will be launching from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A. This pad has been the origin of more than 90 missions to space, including the Apollo 11 mission that put men on the moon and many space shuttle missions. After the shuttle program was discontinued and before Space X leased the pad, you could take a tour inside the fenced perimeter. Naturally, we took that tour.

Chris and I with Pad 39A in the background, circa September 2015.

Chris listening to our guide tell us the history of pads 39A and 39B.

Our feet, right on the line which we weren’t allowed to step past. The bricks are the same kind used in kilns because they have to withstand the heat of the rockets.

Tickets for the Falcon Heavy Launch went on sale while we were in New Jersey. We bought tickets to be at the Saturn V center, located 3.9 miles from the launch pad. This is the closest that members of the public can get. The launch is scheduled for 1:30 pm and our pass tells us we must be there at least 5 hours before launch time. It’s a 1.5 hour drive from here to Kennedy Space Center, so we are leaving the house at 6:00 am to make sure we are there in time!

So tonight, I packed a little bag and in the bag I put:

5 pairs of binoculars
Sunscreen
Bug Spray
Eye drops (for our contacts)
Lip Balm
My Sun Hat
Benadryl and AviQ. I have an anaphylactic allergy to fire ants, so if I’m going to be outside in Florida, I always bring these.
The set of lenses and filters I have for my iPhone
A battery to charge our phones, if necessary
And a knitting project, naturally. We’ve got to be there early and the launch window is 2.5 hours long, so there will be a lot of waiting around!

I’ll post more tomorrow evening!

Coming Home

While I was away, I wrote long posts with few pictures. Thanks for sticking it out. We got home last night, so I thought I’d do something I rarely do: a photo essay.

Knitting on the plane on the way home. All I have left on the Begonia Swirl Shawl is the bind off!

Tiger was happy to see his favorite person.

Amazon delivered some books while I was away.

Apparently it got too cold for too long. The galangal isn’t happy. Hopefully, we will be able to harvest the roots.

74 Days

I’ve mentioned previously that I listen to a lot of podcasts (e.g. last February’s post of my Top Twenty Podcasts). I don’t know that I’ve ever actually quantified “a lot.”

I am current — for varying definitions of current, as the rest of this post will discuss — on approximately 225 podcasts. Current means I’ve listened to the entire back catalog, except for current news and politics podcasts. For those, I listened to the 10 most recent episodes when I started subscribing and then listened to current episodes from there.

I am also subscribed to many podcasts on which I am not current. I haven’t counted, but there’s at least 400 of them between several categories — Catching Up, In the Wings, Limited Release, Abandoned, and Podfaded. Theoretically, Catching Up means I’m currently listening to the back catalog. In the Wings means I want to listen to those podcasts and will listen through their back catalogs after I finish the Catching Up list. Limited Release is a podcast that, when it was initially released, the intention was to do a specific number of episodes and no more. An example of Limited Release is the Presidential Podcast, which did one episode for each U.S. President. Abandoned is all the podcasts I listened to at one time but which I decided I no longer wish to do so. Podfaded is podcasts that are no longer produced. I move podcasts from the Current list to the podfaded list if they do not release episodes from more than 12 consecutive months or when the makers announce that they will not be releasing new episodes.

I do not unsubscribe from podcasts that I abandon or that are podfaded. I used to unsubscribe, but a couple of times I resubscribed to previously abandoned podcasts and then remembered I had listened before and why I no longer do. Sometimes podfaded podcasts come back. If I remain subscribed, the episodes will drop into my feed automatically. Either way, if I try to subscribe to something that is on my abandoned or podfaded list, I’ll get a pop up message from my app telling me I’m already subscribed. I can then find it on my lists and remember why I haven’t been listening to it.

So here’s my dirty little secret: I’m a 74 days behind on listening to podcasts. I know this because I am subscribed to two podcasts which release episodes every single day — each episode is under 5 minutes long, btw — and that’s how many episodes my app tells me I have queued from each of those podcasts.

I usually listen to podcasts when I drive, when doing housework, and sometimes when crafting. Any given day, the number of podcasts I listen to is somewhere between 14 and 16 hours of content. Since I set my app to listen at 2.5x speed as a default, and the app has a silence skipping feature that gives me an effective listening speed of 3.0x, it takes me 4-6 hours to actually listen to 14 – 16 hours of content. I learn a lot from some podcasts and am highly entertained by others. I also listen to some that are just meh or are repetitious of others or that I subscribed to just to have something to fill up time.h

I started thinking about why I’m 74 days behind. What happened on those 74 days? Or is it just an accumulation of days where I only had 2 hours to listen to podcasts? I realized that the 74 days represents some of the best and worst days of the my life over the last 9 months. I offer this inventory:

7 days visiting Stacy in Indiana in April 2017. Ever since she moved, I’ve visited Stacy once a year and attended a fiber festival with her (See blog posts from 2014, 2015, and 2016.) This year, I was there for a week. We went to the fiber festival, watched Star Gate, read, and crafted together. It was awesome, and there was definitely no time for solitary time, cut off with earbuds in my ears.
14 days, sick with a terrible upper respitory infection. I was just starting to be sick when I left Indiana and it turned out that I was the sickest I’ve been in a long, long time. My energy was zapped. I slept in the recliner in the living room because I couldn’t breath laying flat. You’d think 14 days sick would be an excellent opportunity for listening to podcasts. However, since I was so congested and my ears were swollen, it was painful to put earbuds in my ears.
4 days helping my sister move and organizing paperwork. I spent more than 4 days working on these projects, but since several of those days she was working while I was packing or unpacking, I am guessing that only 4 were days when I did not listen to podcasts.
7 days for Hurricane Irma. This includes a day of preparations, the day of the storm, and the 5 days after the storm when we did not have electricity at our house. We were able to keep our devices charged with batteries, but we limited our use of them so I didn’t listen to podcasts.
30ish days visiting my mother-in-law. We went to visit for long weekends in July, September, and October, a week at Thanksgiving, and I was there for 6 days at Christmas. While there, I might listen to podcasts for a short time after I woke up and before bed, but other than that I was too busy visiting.
6 days traveling to and from and attending SAFF. This was the third year in a row I’ve rented a house with a bunch of friends. This year, Fredi and I drove together and several other people met us there. While there, we are all busy shopping or taking classes. In the evenings, we eat dinner together then gather around the fireplace for Show and Tell. It’s a fantastic time.
15 days (so far) in New Jersey for my mother-in-law’s funeral. The days I have been here are days I have needed to be present, not cut off by my headphones. Making plans for the funeral, hanging out with family and friends, sorting through paperwork, all mean that I have listened to podcasts for less than an hour a day the entire time I’ve been here.

This adds up to 83 days. In addition to these days, there have been many times when I haven’t been listening to podcasts at times I normally would. For example, my friend Shellee has been having eye issues and has had a limited ability to drive as a result. When we are going to events together, I pick her up and we drive together. If we were driving separately, I would listen to podcasts, but I’d rather enjoy her company! The day I was Scouring Fleece recently, I could have listened to podcasts while working. Instead, I did not listen to anything. I simply enjoyed the beautiful weather and the work I was doing and the sounds of birds singing and children playing in the neighborhood.

Obviously, I’ve been able to catch up on some of the podcasts since I am less than 83 days behind. However, I haven’t been able to catch up on much. When I first started listening to podcasts back in 2014, I easily had 4 – 6 hours a day filled with activities that I could do while simultaneously listening to podcasts. The fact that I am now 74 days behind is an indication that my life has changed since then.

I want more days and times in my life like those represented by the 74 days. On those 74 days I was present, whether for the good or the bad. I was engaged. I need more of that in my life.

Today I started abandoning podcasts. I only want the best of the best, the ones that are truly adding to my life. Here’s to greater presence and engagement.