paean

Organized the pantry and basement storage last night, greatly helped by Witcher podfic. Mobile giving  me troubles, so have a simple link. Is there an adventure fic genre in Witcher stories? Because this reminded me in the best way if case fic in Sherlock fandom circa 2012.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20665589

I discovered we have plenty of peanut butter and flour, but could use more rice. Also, my brothers eat amazing amounts of oatmeal. I seem to remember buying several large bags when it was on sale at my local natural grocery. Only one remains. They eat 20lbs (10kg) a month
collectively, and I suspect most of that is Brother1.

I’m awake because Monkey is in my bed, and flailing more than cuddling. I made her get up to pee already, but it may just be a night she needs to be returned to her own bed. Most the time she wants to plaster herself to me and is a good (but hot) cosleeper, but right now she keeps yelling and flailing. I gave up and just returned her to her bed, maybe now I’ll sleep again.

I was okay after Monkey except when I ran with a full bladder. But after Pigeon my ability to retain pee was pretty tenuous for a while. Eventually I got to the surprisingly absorbant panty liner stage, and then to the point where I didn’t regularly leak. On her second birthday I decided that I was recovered enough to just quit wearing pads, and even started thinking I might post something about it getting better just with time.

2 weeks later I got the flu and by day 3 of the cough I was going through my back of the cupboard left over postpartum pads at the rate of a pad every 1-2 fits of coughing. This is despite using the toilet about twice an hour to try to stay completely empty. I was even waking up at night to change my pad repeatedly, although lying down was somewhat helpful.

I’m thankfully back to no cough, no pad. But vaginal wetness freaks me out in a way that was never an issue when I knew it was just vaginal. Now I’m always wondering if I peed my pants, and second guessing my decision to forego extra layers. I also wear almost exclusively black pants.

If I had more time and commitment to doing the exercises, I’d do some pelvic floor rehab with a physical therapist. But it’s just not enough of a priority right now. So for now, it’s good I’m back to regular underwear, and I will just keep crossing my legs when I sneeze.

Said Monkey when I walked in her room and found her reading comic books in bed. Aforementioned hot water bottle was last filled last night, and is now room temperature.

Dropped the kids at childwatch this morning while I took a yoga class at the Y this morning. It’s a lot like handing your coat over at a coat check, except the kids often come back slightly messier when I pick them up. I don’t remember that happening to my coats.

We then went to Costco and the natural grocery store for food for the week. Ate lots of food samples at Costco. Came home, fed them a late lunch and pigeon napped.

Took both of them to the ice skating rink for free skate. Monkey spent the whole 90 minutes on the ice. She’s getting good at skating, and definitely better than I am. Pigeon was a bit trickier. She can’t stand up in skates yet, so she spent some time being held upright on the ice between my legs, and a lot more in her stroller, and some in the bleachers. Monkey was a better than usual big sister and pushed pigeon around the rink for me a few times so I could skate for a few minutes. I’m working on a new stop - which I can do if I’m only going pretty slow, but at least I can now do it on both sides now.

We got take out bbq for dinner. Monkey decided to go to bed half way through it, then changed her mind and came back out so she didn’t miss reading after dinner. But she was asleep within a minute of hitting her pillow.

Tomorrow is swimming and probably more ice skating.

Mr P, the kids, and I went to Calgary to take an English test (non refugee Canadian immigration requires proof of proficiency in either English or French). Mr. P took the English exam too. We both passed.

As a happy coincidence, their Pride celebration was that weekend, so we got to take the small beasts to the parade. It was awesome. There was a lot of commercial interests, but as someone who remembers when most businesses felt that associating with "the gays" was unacceptable, I welcome the change in attitude. Also, there were a lot more unions than I remember seeing in any US Pride event. The whole city and the airport were sporting rainbow signs, rainbow lights, and visibly queer folks. I was so happy that I may have cried just a little bit.

We live in a small, fairly conservative city. A non-discrimination ordinance failed here several years ago. Our second locally organized Pride parade is tomorrow. We're walking with a group from my work, and the girls are super excited about wearing new rainbow tutus. I've personally invited just about everyone I directly work with to come walk with us.

But I'm also dreading the realization of how this still feels like a protest march rather than an open celebration. I think I'm ready to move on to a better location. I feel guilty about it, but I'm tired of constantly combatting the local culture, and I want my kids to see a bigger, kinder, more diverse world.

We had an evening hail storm with dime to a silver dollar size balls of ice. We had absolutely no warning, so I'm really grateful that they weren't any bigger. Unlike the one a few years ago, all the windows appear intact. I will more carefully inspect the vehicles and roof tomorrow. It was late enough in the evening that by the time it was melting, we were at sunset.

There's this funny delay when a storm like this starts, just for recognition that this was actually real hail and not just our regular summer thunderstorm. By the time I moved the freezer that was sitting in the middle of the garage defrosting, it was coming down too hard to walk the 6 feet outside to Mr. P's ramp van to get it out of the way. If it turns out to have taken major damage, that's going to be a hassle. My vehicle is not special and could be replaced or repaired easily.

After the previous storm we experienced, we didn't think it was that bad, then the insurance person came out to inspect, and we ended up with something like a 40K claim for new roof, siding and paint on 2 sides, a few windows, damaged wheelchair ramp, and some smaller stuff. So I will go look at the roof, but we'll have to have a professional come assess as well because I didn't spot the problems all that well last time.

The insurance estimate is no more than one major hailstorm every 20 years here, but clearly climate change is already progressing. This is the third in under 6 years. Although no broken windows, we have a lot of broken glass and pottery from outside decorations, so I know what I'll be doing for the next week or so.

On the plus side, the girls thought the whole thing was great excitement, and happily ate as much ice as we would let them have once it passed.

Dear Alfalfa. Thank you for being pretty, since you came in the “certified weed free” soil we bought, and by the time I realized you were not yet another ornamental Mr. Paean had planted as part of his grand scheme to plant only non matching flowering plants to see which ones he likes best, you had put down 4 feet tap roots. I will enjoy you being mixed with all the other flowers in perpetuity. Sincerely yours, the weeder.

I had possibly the best experience today possible in a US post office. All of our passports are expiring, and Pigeon hasn't had one yet. While the grown ups could just send in a renewal, the children's had to be done in person. We showed up to the post office, and Mr. P realized he had brought the application but not the checkbook, so he rushed back home to grab it. In the meantime, the girls started exploring the hallway waiting area, and discovered that the workers had stocked it with children's toys (including a ride on red truck!), books, and coloring. Monkey asked about a toilet while we were waiting, and the very kind grandmother who was there to process the paperwork took us through the facility so she could use to employee toilet in the back. Then she brought us into her office, deliberately grabbed one of the push-buttons-to-make-loud-noises toys specifically to keep Pigeon occupied, and went ahead and started doing all the paperwork while we waited for Mr. P to return. Yay for small town living! Instead of the bureaucratic hassle we had for Monkey (3 trips to the post office with long waits for a scheduled appointment), it was all taken care of by a kind and competent woman in under 30 minutes.

After that we stopped at a cafe for a bit, where Mr. P got so excited about some of the art exhibited on the walls that he is considering purchasing it. We have mostly plain walls, so some art would be really nice. Then we dropped the girls off for the rest of their day at nursery school.

I came home, actually emailed and called 3 contacts regarding possible job options in their areas. This was what I was dreading doing yesterday, and also absolutely had to be done. One of the emails and then calls was to an old conference friend of mine, so fairly easy. Another was to an old mentor, who did not respond, but I am hopeful he will find the time to talk to me at some point. I'm nervous about the conversation, but it's necessary.

The third was basically a cold call to awkwardly tell someone I had heard a rumor they might be retiring in a few years, and would they please tell me about their job, because I thought I might really enjoy taking over when they left. The person on the other side of this conversation was initially, and very reasonably, not delighted with me at first, but then when I managed to properly apologize for my clumsy opening and let them know a bit more why I was interested, they very graciously talked to me for 30 minutes. And I think I probably do want the job. However, it sounds like they also still want their job for another few years, so I will have to keep looking in the meantime, and wait.

I actually have a great job I love right now. But it's 2 plane rides or about 20 hours of driving to visit where our families live. Perhaps more importantly, Mr. P is really sick of how poor wheelchair access is here, especially in the 6 months we have where it snows. All the snowplows seem to think piling the snow in the disabled parking spots where it will sit until it melts in April is a brilliant idea. So we are looking to move in the next few years, and sooner if possible. I interviewed at one place already, but although on paper it seemed good, the location wasn't the right fit for us.

Mr. P (who has much stronger feelings about geography than I do at this moment) is going to take a vacation to another city we are considering, where there might be a job when someone retires in about 2 years. It's in Canada so they will probably consider Canadian applicants preferentially, but if they do look at the international applicants, I'd be super excited about the position, which is academic in the fun sense of some teaching and interesting collaboration, but not with the publish or perish paradigm I was so happy to leave behind. *If* he likes the city, then the job position is a serious long shot.

I have high hopes that if Mr P and I can agree on a location, and the job is good, that we won't have to move again until retirement. Or at least until the girls grow up. Unfortunately, I suspect that any location that's not where we grew up isn't going to keep him satisfied that long. Which is pretty limited for me in terms of positions. But if we can find something for 5-10 years where we are both happy, it will have been worth it.

I also got up room darkening curtains in the girls room, and spent another hour and a half of putting up shelves in the sewing area. It's not done, but I can see that it is possible. And it allowed me to listen to a few chapters in Good Omens, which I am enjoying.