Dispatches from a happy Hullian

I dreamt about getting COVID-19 tests last night… dream me was trying to time the testing so that the period of isolation between test and result I gather you're supposed to do was minimally disruptive. In the dream I wasn't infected but the antibody result was effectively ¯\_(ツ)_/¯: 50% chance of antibodies (and the report was in hard cover?!). I also dreamt about panicking briefly after waking from a dream about forgetting I was enrolled in school, and then dream me was happy it was just a dream in a dream and a bit exasperated I was still having those dreams. Um: thanks, brain.

In real life I finished my secondment today with meetings, planning work beyond my being there, knowledge transfer and even a bit of hacking graph theory. I got a nice send-off in the morning huddle and nice messages throughout the day, and saw a few things come together — some due to my work and some thanks to others and nice to witness. Monday I pick up my StatCan gear in distanced fashion and get to work at my substantive job. For a while it looked like I was going to have to wait a while for my gear but I got moved up the list, probably when someone realized this wasn't just an external screen or an office chair but my entire setup that would let me connect to the work network. It's going to feel like a fresh start, coming back in remote mode after six months away. I'll miss my team from secondment but I hope this will be a good second half of the year.

We have four two-week-old chicks in the upstairs bathroom right now… Elizabeth found an ad in Kijiji for chicks now, as opposed to many offers of getting on a waitlist for chicks, so I drove to Tay Valley to pick up chicks. The kids are super excited. Given that the offer came as a bit of a surprise, we scrambled a bit for bedding and supplies, so they're in deluxe pet store bedding.

Earlier in the week I dreamt of flooding in our area… maybe Michigan got in my unconscious, or maybe it was the high river here a couple of years ago that had me staying home (and working from home a bit… but we lost a lot of time because telework technology and policy were pretty limiting back then). In any case, I dreamt my basement office lair was full of water. I think the risk this year is mostly passed!

Tuesday I took a distanced walk with Heather… first time near her since March, and first time in Ottawa as well. People were out and about in pairs and threes mostly, spaced out and enjoying walking and talking photos on the closed-to-car-traffic Alexandra Bridge (police blockades were down but bridge repairs continue). It felt refreshing, and will probably be a first step to carefully seeing more of other. I'm looking forward to a walk with Andrea and sitting safely far apart around an outdoor hearth with both of them soon!

I had a dream Tuesday night set in the Montréal apartment that keeps coming back in my dreams — my dream pied-à-terre in the city I left in 2007. I was packing up to leave, but couldn’t take everything and was worried about leaving stuff for my brother (who sometimes lives in my dream apartment) to sort out what to do with. There were clothes, mattresses, clean stuff, dirty stuff. I think leaving in an orderly way was the main source of anxiety for dream-me.

Life here with social distancing and everyone home was a bit disorienting at first but I’m starting to get the hang of it — I work a bit of a longer day but with longer breaks and have my little office lair in the basement. We’re slowly working out how to move work to all telework all the time, and I’m taking to it pretty well — maybe part novelty, but I’ll run with it. Planning future work is a bit difficult, though. Next week I plan to retireve some more stuff from the office — they’re letting me go in quickly to get a few things I left in my cubicle to make my home office a more productive and ergonomic place. I’ll wash my hands after going in, of course!

I’m not going to try to cover everything — that’s been my downfall in trying to write here lately — but with any luck I’ll manage a few more posts. Adapting to the new normal should provide some fodder at least!

I've been remembering more dreams lately. Some of them, I even remember long enough to post here.

In one dream, I was trying to find my way out of a huge shopping mall. I was remembering little aphorisms, one of which was all about the importance of the fourth floor. The exit, including a Metro exit (must've been Montréal), was in fact on the fourth floor. I guess my inner Discordian was asleep at the switch in picking the floor.

In another, I was talking to a doctor who told me that my heart was not working right and that I would not live past 60. That's some pretty slow heart disease, I guess, but I felt really crushed in the dream knowing that my life was half over.

In a third, the recurring test/course/whatever that graduated students all dream about missing, remembering and realizing that their graduation was null and void, all for the want of a French credit, had the academic thing replaced by a vet appointment.

Like much of LJLand, my comment notification e-mails are hit-and-miss, but I'm watching my recent posts' comment counts. Nonetheless, my direct e-mail is more reliable if you want to get my attention fast.</maintenance>

I'm kind of floating above the bits and pieces I have left to do this term... I guess if I put in a few hours each day, they'll be in good shape for the due dates, or at least the last crunch will be less crunchy. I'm a little stressed, but perhaps a bit too happy to care.

Packed books for a really interesting professor this morning, who dresses as casually as my dad (which is pretty casually), eats vegetarian at the Potato and bikes 8km to work most days. Fortunately he's just moving to the new, unified math offices downtown, although I'm sure he could retire if he wanted to. I should poke my head by his (new) office again.

I actually dreamed about packing books last night before getting up and going to pack books.

I don't know if this is going to be a brilliant semester, and I should be worrying about money and grades and stuff, but I'm surrounded by good people, learning interesting stuff and eating pretty well. All good things. This weekend should be nice, with geekery, music and food. And some measure theory and programming, if I know what's good for me.