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I ran the marathon on the weekend and finished nearly half an hour faster than last time — the next personal best is going to be considerably harder to achieve! The weather cooperated and I have been working on my speed — my consistency wasn't there all the way to the end but I was pretty solid for the first 36 km or so and the drop-off in the end wasn't nearly as precipitous as last time!

In other endurance events, our kitchen and bathroom are now both done. Waiting for the final invoice and anything else, but we've put most of the stuff back and are living in them. The space and brightness and lack of impending plumbing failure are all very nice.

This week is going to involve a lot of union stuff; I hope my team doesn't miss me too much...

Tomorrow is Ada's actual birthday: nine years old! She wants to go out to supper for her birthday meal, so off to our local bistro for moderately fancy burgers and fries we go.

Current Mood: mellow

My rear wheel has a bit of wobble on my bike but I don't think it's the rims or spokes — maybe tire's a bit off?

Got out to see high school friends and parents last weekend — nice to see them all, the kids had fun and I don't think we overwhelmed anyone. The kids are travelling better so long as they can dictate the podcast audio for at least part of the trip.

I've had a few kind of big feelings talks with some of my people lately. I'm really happy to have them, but feeling a bit wrung out as well.

Renovations are going — drywall up and all the right things (plumbing, electrical, fresh insulation) behind it. Plaster on Tuesday! Barbecued for lunch (not the first time this year) but ate it out there (first time this year). Also, did dishes at the garden tap. At least it's nice camping weather now!

We finished our D&D campaign with polycule and kids last week — they defeated a dragon, improved the world, and called it done. It was a flagging game, but it was a fun final battle and they earned the win. Dragon was full of hot air, seemingly — she recharged her breath weapon twice, roasting party members three rounds in a row, fortunately they had divided into clusters out of range from each other!

Looking forward to reports of a mostly-open Gatineau Parkway to Champlain Lookout. Maybe I should line up people for a run at it next Sunday, after this week's forecast weather! Got in some good runs Monday, Friday and yesterday -- 31, 6, and 15 km mostly on trails. I think I'll have a pretty good spring marathon but I'm thinking I should sign up for a fall one too...

We have emptied out the kitchen and bathroom downstairs in anticipation of the renovation crew arriving early tomorrow to demolish anything left in there. It's going to be a bit like camping at home for several weeks, but when it's all done we'll have normal-height counters, a built-in dishwasher, better plumbing and a kitchen arrangement that gives us a bit more room to swing a cat (put the cat down, kids). Meantime, our place is feeling pretty small, and a bit like we're moving.

I was at three days of national union meetings Thursday through Saturday, and we're trying to tighten up a lot of things internally while processing the latest budget and rumblings from Parliament Hill. With Liberals like this, who needs Conservatives? I really like enough people in the union to make it still fun, but this is going to be a hard stretch.

I also replaced my beaten-up road running shoes with this year's version of the old model, and have been putting them through their paces. Almost 24km at a run in and out of Aylmer. Wanted to do more, but I was kind of flagging on the way back and walked the last three.

The wildfire smoke is back as the kids finish school; it means things are feeling a bit cooped up here. We had some board games from the library to keep us amused but I was looking forward to getting outside more.

Oscar has finished elementary school and is diving into their supplies list for high school: USB key! Lots of looseleaf! They got a grad shirt and certificate and photo book and some nice words from their teacher — best tech support in the class :)

I am now a Group President in my union — the liaison and point of contact for 2700 or so core public servants in research occupations. The hand-over is going to take a little while, but I'm scheduling the first meeting of the new term and going over the files to transfer. The previous president will stay on as Treasurer so I will have plenty of opportunities for perspective over time! I feel like it's a big transition but also I have some extra energy to move forward.

Speaking of moving forward, I ran the marathon! The day before, I ran a fast and fun 10k, and then the first half of the marathon was very good -- I followed a 4:20 pacer and ran my fastest half. I ran out of juice at around 20k and slowed down, with hamstring cramps at 36k, and finished in just over five hours. It was hot, I made some rookie pacing mistakes... and I still made it :)

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: basement lair

I went to my parents' place for a visit on the weekend with the household. Saw some cute critters, walked, talked, ate, and took a side trip to visit a couple of high school friends who stayed in the region — this much was planned! I also caught my brother and his kid leaving (late) for Up North, and then it turned out that some beef (a share of one of my dad's steers) was in my sister's freezer, so we took a bonus side trip to her place and saw her, her partner and both her kids. That probably makes the first 24-hour period where I've seen my whole set of parents, siblings and niephlings since 2019. Some of it was a bit rushed, but I hope we'll be inspired to get together at slower speed soon.

Monday I got together with some people I knew from Peer Support in university. Maybe unsurprisingly we were two therapists and two not-therapists. We had affogatos and talked life, real and potential kids, chicken husbandry, therapy, absent Peers… three afternoon went by really fast; I hope we'll manage to get together again.

Elizabeth had her thyroid surgery today; Doug got get there and back while I was in bargaining and she went to bed early tonight. No complications so far; the kids seem to want her to wear a scarf until the surgical site heals and her stitches are out. We have a "care and feeding" sheet, a full fridge and a few calm days (at least for her) — Oscar is on a school trip to Toronto so there's one less kid to feed and get where they need to be for a couple more days.

Bargaining is going — we got a comprehensive offer from the employer this time, which we'll have to fix but we're optimistic we can get something that will be good for members and justify the trust put in the Central Table team by the bargaining units. It'll be strange — "done" for us just means handing language off to other tables. Last time I was on my group table and Central took until we were almost ready to sign but this time our group is way back from the front runners so a tentative agreement might be months away.

The Ottawa Marathon is on Sunday. Tapering is weird, but I trust that my body will be able to do the thing! I might be finding comrades out there on the day of; Anne had doubts about whether she was going to do the marathon after all. It's going to start comfortably cool but get pretty hot by the end. My 42km in my 42nd year is likely going to happen, though!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Couch
Current Music: Daft Punk

It's the Sunday after the Wednesday Elizabeth and Vivien took off for Europe. My general strategy is to keep myself and the kids here busy. We rode the Cycle for CHEO (15 km edition, to keep it manageable for Ada on a one-speed kid BMX bike) and it went pretty well — Oscar zipped off ahead despite my admonition to stick together but we didn't have too much trouble finding them. We took some time to hang out with Simon (who had done the 35 km on their own), chowed down on the included BBQ and wandered the activities — Ada sat in the driver's seat of the OC Transpo EV bus while Oscar assembled a cardboard O-Train and double-decker bus in one of the passenger seats (and took some prompting to dislodge).

We've been eating things that Elizabeth and/or Vivien don't (sushi! pancakes! meat sausages!) and on the PD day Oscar went off to the library after the bunch of us had sushi with Andrea. Yesterday Ada and I met up with Andrea and Morgen for a visit to the Ottawa Art Gallery at the speed of four-year-old attention span (we can get away with that because admission is free!) followed by Byward Market ice cream and a community barbecue at the Children's Garden.

One unsettling thing that happened on Thursday night was that someone was skulking around the yard and went into our garage, smoked in there, moved things around and, as far as I can tell, didn’t take anything — might have borrowed Elizabeth's bike helmet for a bit, and I thought they stole the digging fork but then it turned up inside the garage (it had been leaning against the fence). I think I saw the guy putting back the bike helmet. Odd — at first I thought Elizabeth had left her bike and helmet somewhere and the guy (not a familiar one, but I'm not at every open mic…) was bringing them back? They also moved the chicken feeding station out of their coop and unplugged the light in there. It wasn't hard to put things back and the garage smoke smell has dissipated but it was pretty unsettling.

This coming week I deliver the presentation on our unit's specialty to the recruits at work — I've delivered it last decade but it's been a while so I've spruced it up and am looking forward to it. I think, with me responsible for the kids in the evening, I might book a morning off for a second 32ish km run before tapering to Race Weekend.

Current Mood: perturbed
Current Location: Basement lair
Current Music: Home Cooking

Bargaining meetings with the employer start tomorrow — two days of staking out our positions and interests and getting a feel for each other. All us on the bargaining team have been asked to do some brief introductions including what their constituency has been doing for the public in These Exceptional Times. As the Researcher rep... we're a real grab bag; it's been fun crafting a list for maximum entropy.

Heather and I decided to de-escalate out of romantic partnership in December. We're still planning to be in each other's lives in the long term, we enjoy each other's kids and still have a partner in common, but if things are a little weird, we're not in the same place at the same time as much or we're a little glum or emotional, that might be related.

The Ottawa marathon is less than 18 weeks away. I've been running with the work group and did a half in the snow a couple weeks ago, which might've been overdoing it a bit. Feeling better now (and have been doing 3-5km lunch runs in the interim) but next long run might be more like 15-16 km.

Andrea and I celebrated six years together on Sunday — we wandered the Ottawa Art Gallery and took a look at the Rideau Canal (no skating allowed yet) and had a nice supper at The Albion Rooms. Our server seemed to be holding down the whole place alone and had a bit of an anxious vibe, but the food was uniformly delicious. With everything that's happened over the past six years it's hard to say if six years feels accurate, but I know I'm still filled with delight in and admiration of her. We're safe harbours for each other and I hope we'll keep being that and more for each other for many years to come.

Work involves more tinkering with budgets and juggling tasks than I'd like, due to budget tightening, and there are still many rough patches in the return to the office — local management is showing some willingness to fix or roll back things that aren't working, though. I attended a Lean skills seminar last week and one of the things that struck me was the value of actually zeroing your task list from time to time. I'm not sure if I can manage that, but maybe a month where at the very least I don't re-migrate any tasks I migrated the previous month would be attainable.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Basement lair
Current Music: Panick and the Silent Folk

But the year turned over.

I filled out a YearCompass which prompted me to look over my paper journal. I did and got through a lot; I think the less-obvious things I'm happy about are a pinecone maze while camping, delivering some training last winter to lay the ground for a returning employee post-transition, and inserting a couple of long bike rides into a camping trip.

I signed up for the Ottawa Marathon this year. It'll be a feat, and it also lets me develop a little network of running friends at work. I can use that kind of community and I like who I've found. I've also been going to a masculine-folk peer group all year more or less, which has been really good practice on talking and thinking about feelings. And a little odd being the lone parent in the group while not being the lone polyamorous person (in a group not targeted at queer/polyamorous folks).

After all fall getting ready and trying to get a date, we might see the employer's bargaining team at the end of this month. I'm looking forward to the central table process (and know it's going to be full of solidarity and exasperation)!

Current Mood: pensive
Current Location: basement lair

Fall isn't so bad, so long as you stay warm, says Elizabeth.

I just finished migrating my to-dos from September — I got a lot done, procrastinated on a bunch, and picked up a bunch of new responsibilities. I'd do well to make out > in this month, though! My page was full. I see themes emerging, though, maybe it's time to organized them into collections (or farm some out!).

I celebrated a birthday since last entry, kind of quietly. Oscar did too, and now Elizabeth's is coming up. A friend of mine asked if I was in the best shape of my life (with all the exercise I'm getting) — I figure I definitely was at some point in the pandemic; I'm a bit off my peak but still feeling pretty good. I signed up for the full marathon in May (early bird discount!) so I hope to hit a new peak in the spring!

Last weekend I spent Friday and Saturday with union folks — my first long meeting with that crew in person in a while. Got a few of those to-dos done there, wrapping up treasurer loose ends and picking up some good news to spread at other tables about improved gender-inclusive languages in our contract. Things are getting off the ground with negotiations; I just gave something like six months of availability to our negotiator for him to set up training, planning and bargaining meetings.

I went to the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation events last Friday, the mood was a bit odd but Andrea pointed out that not every culture's sense of how serious or sombre you need to be at a memorial event is the same. The Hon. Murray Sinclair compared the day to Remembrance Day but between weather and maybe a lack of shared understanding, it felt more like a typical demonstration. Maybe it will change with time. The sheer physical scale of the banner listing names of the dead in the residential school system was striking, and the event felt well-resourced and organized. There were a couple of convoy-esque people wandering in at the Parliament Hill part wrapped in Canadian flags; it looked to me like they were informed they had missed the memo and then they wandered off. I have a some aspects of my work that interact with Indigenous sovereignty (including data sovereignty), I hope I can do right by Indigenous folks in the scope of my projects.

This week my supervisor and one of my employees are coming back from long leaves, and I've got a couple of days of in-person union meetings with my CLC comrades. I'm going to need to be disciplined and get the right things done in the right contexts.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: Basement lair

It's National Public Service Week; yesterday they used the voice broadcast system to announce treats after lunch served by management on yummy lawn… I thought for a moment it was a fire drill in the middle of my lunch union meeting.

In other news, Cabinet has decided that unvaccinated people aren't a danger to the workplace working from home (for now). I get it, everyone should get vaccinated but if they're not breathing on other union members or the public as part of their jobs and are helping keep my workload down then they can have their strange religious beliefs (whether or not a panel of managers who mostly aren't experts in evaluating religious beliefs like them) and help mitigate labour shortages a bit.

Off duty I had a nice run last night — my June 10k — but twisted my foot/ankle on the gravel path up by P3 so I'm down to walking gingerly and biking for a few days.

Current Mood: sore
Current Location: Coffee patio

I cleared out a bunch of union stuff, certificates, training materials and reference books from my office today; everyone is going to get moved around as floors are remodelled and the square footage is reduced to reflect the large number of folks gone remote and hybrid. Some nice memories bound up in some certificates and reports I was shuffling through...

Also, just now I my mind wandered on to the cafeteria at work. It's big, it's in the basement (with little high windows), it's pretty bland... but I've had lots of good games of cards, mentoring talks, coffees, and even meetings down there pre-pandemic. And between secondment and pandemic, I last had a meal there in 2019 (maybe I popped in once or twice in very early 2020, maybe?) But I remembered it with its green paint, dark wood and stainless steel, and kind of missed it.

I've got a bit over a month before I switch to my new position, I'm looking forward to it, maybe mourning the things I won't do in this one a bit.

In other news, I ran the Ottawa Half Marathon a week and a half ago, and then a miserable (but generic) cold swept through our household. Glad I timed that right.

Current Mood: mellow
Current Location: basement lair

1) What are you doing this spring that you weren't doing 1 year ago?: Making a habit of running or cycling daily.
2) What pandemic precautions are you still taking?: Giving people space, masking up indoors, seeing less of people than I'd like and giving strangers more personal space including stepping off the sidewalk as we pass each other. Also, got vaccinated!
3) What's a safety rule that's very important to you?: Don't surprise drivers.
4) What plants are blooming where you live?: A lot of the spring flowers have come and gone... strawberry flowers are still open, bleeding hearts too, and honeysuckle has some flowers holding on and lots of golden fallen petals under the bushes.
5) What was your most memorable summer job?: Probably working on web development in the mid-to-late 90s as part of a bold little enrichment program which connected talented rural kids with community groups that wanted websites. I discovered ramen, both ends of a job interview, Photoshop and Illustrator, hand-coding HTML, and doing tech projects in teams. I liked how us kids taught each other a lot of what we needed to do and I liked biking to work and having my own money.

Questions: thefridayfive

Current Mood: mellow
Current Location: Basement lair
Crossposts: https://metawidget.livejournal.com/230067.html

What have you done lately for improving or maintaining your mental health? What more would you like to do?: I have been getting outside and moving almost every day — running, walking, biking — most days for an hour or more. I'm lucky to have that time to do it, and it feels good to move, get fresh air, and see my local area and how it all fits together. I know where my tofu burgers come from! I know how to get between neighbourhoods! Also, I got my first dose of COVID-19 vaccine (Team BioNTech/Pfizer for the curious, although really Team Get Something In My Arm), which is one thing off my mind and a step toward getting to the After Times.
When did you last eat something specifically because it was good for you?: I think the only thing I "eat" for health reasons is actually making a point of drinking water. I'll remind myself to take it easy on something rich or vapid but I try to eat things that I like eating.
These days, what are you learning about, and what would you like to learn about next?: Management, union-ing, exercise training (taper! cross-train! stretch!), 18xx games (mostly 1846).
What’s positive about your physical appearance lately?: I trimmed my hair and beard yesterday! And I'm a bit sleeker than pre-pandemic thanks to all this running.
What will you do this weekend to bring joy into your life and a smile to someone else?: I'm going to play silly online games with a friend living alone, help make nice food appear for Mother's Day, and DM a D&D session with some of my favourite people. And probably get outside on feet or wheels.

From f.riday5.com

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: Basement lair
Crossposts: https://metawidget.livejournal.com/229620.html

It's been a bit of a challenging winter and spring here, as everywhere. We're all still healthy here, employed, eating eggs from the backyard hens, so not as challenging as it could be, but still.

One of my union colleagues died last weekend. Mehran was quick to welcome me aboard when I got elected to the national Research Group executive, and quick to be friendly and to do what needed doing in general. He was also curious and open and talked happily of his love of food, dance and life in between matters of helping members and being good unionists. I'll miss him; there'll be a very empty virtual chair next weekend at the Group meeting.

Work is a bit of a slog... getting traction and coordinating people is hard and tiring sometimes, and there's a lot of staff movement and random requests going around. I might be able to make some good changes in an upcoming Lean process review, which would help me feel like I'm leaving things in good shape when I find an opportunity somewhere that fits me better. The return to virtual school for the kids, extended one week at a time since Easter, has thrown my routine and energy out of wack, even though Elizabeth has been taking the brunt of the daytime parenting. I have a fair amount of extracurricular stuff going on — Positive Space is getting more active again, union work continues with consultation and a stewarding case that might have legs. Those extras are work but they help make work more meaningful. In good pandemic news, our age slices are up for registering for a first shot next week... I'm hoping for Johnson and Johnson just so I'll be done (and apparently there are 300k doses of J&J coming into Canada now, but there are some possible bumps), but any shot in my arm is a good shot.

I've been mixing running and biking for my mental health/exercise time. I'm still shooting to run and now also bike every public street with asphalt and a name — I'm over half done on the bike and nearly two-thirds on feet. I've been varying it partly because if I run long distances too many days in a row my muscles have some concerns. But overall I'm getting pretty good at this, and seeing everywhere in the Hull sector at least twice, sometimes in different seasons, has been pretty cool. I know where our favourite tofu burgers come from because I've run past the factory in an industrial park. I can see new streets and developments go up, moving the goalposts for this whole silly game.

I'm missing seeing my Vanier loves in person — we've got our stopgaps — virtual D&D, grove rituals (happy Beltaine!), video storytime (Heather has finished the first book of Lord of the Rings with the kids) and various one-on-one chats. I used to do walk-and-talk after the kids were in bed by phone, but the 8 PM curfew has made that harder. Once the restrictions are loosened maybe walking and talking in person will be a thing again.

Current Mood: melancholy
Current Location: Home
Crossposts: https://metawidget.livejournal.com/229298.html

It's been a while since I've done one of these.

1. What did you do in 2020 that you'd never done before?
Made Yorkshire pudding. Run a half-marathon distance. Gave plasma by aphresis.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I'm not sure I made any last year. This year I'm vaguely committing to keep running, connect more with friends and mentors, make my work life better and maybe ferment some things.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Our elderly Druid and friend Judith. I can still sort of hear her voice and think of her lots — she's all tied in with the turning of the seasons now in my head.

5. What countries did you visit?
Unsurprisingly: none.

6. What would you like to have in 2021 that you lacked in 2020?
More time in person with more people.

7. What date from 2020 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
March 16, when we all went home from the office in the morning.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Probably getting the go-ahead to become part-time faculty at the Canada School of Public Service, teaching Positive Space training.

9. What was your biggest failure?
A Pride seminar that we had to reschedule a bunch of times that still hasn't happened yet. Logistics happen.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing beyond the routine stuff.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Possibly a used office chair for my home office. My back is better for it.

12. Where did most of your money go?
There wasn't a dominant category but a lot of it goes to various sorts of savings as well as food and drink.

13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
I think I was really stoked to do my secondment at the beginning of the year and to get good at running. The CSPS position is pretty exciting too!

14. What song will always remind you of 2020?
Maybe "Happy" by Mother Mother.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder?
About the same?

ii. thinner or fatter?
My shirts fit better!

iii. richer or poorer?
A little richer: I've been saving, I have a steady job and no major debt. And I kept saving in the economic turbulence which really helped.

16. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Cultivating relationships and organizing for good.

17. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Being overwhelmed and spinning my wheels.

18. What was your favorite TV program?
Sex Education. So cute and engaging. It's nice to find out about a show when there's already a couple of seasons out but now it's a long wait for Season 3…

19. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No… some people frustrate me, I'm envious of some of them, and some people just get on my nerves but I don't feel a lot of hate.

20. What was the best book you read?
Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber was thought- and feeling-provoking.

21. What was your greatest musical discovery?

sabotabby put me on to Bob Vylan, who is raw and biting and Punk and very good.

22. What did you do on your birthday?
I had a backyard gathering where my parents as well as Heather, Andrea and Morgen made it.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Home
Crossposts: https://metawidget.livejournal.com/228768.html

Rands muses on something I've felt has been rattling around my memescape over the past couple of years… being from the memescape, it's not groundbreaking but it's what tweaked me to post.

It's been a bit of an autumn… a little over a week ago we lost a radical elderly Druid (never a Druid elder, she insisted that was a kind of tree). Her passing was a surprise to everyone and I can still hear her voice in my head when I think of her. Elizabeth made a list of little tributes to her including picking up trash, gardening over more lawn, being kind to animals and looking for meaning, and the one thing I can think of to add is chipping in a little extra to the food bank and to people facing oppression (most recently the Mi'kmaw fishers being terrorized in Nova Scotia).

We're also trying to wrap our heads around holiday plans, avoiding as much marginal risk increase as possible and still make it happen — gathering with who we can, distanced present drops and walks with others, Zoom and Canada Post with further flung people and cooking up a storm. We're going to make it happen. And whenever things are sufficiently normal we'll gather again with people we haven't gathered with in a while. Not being able to visit makes me miss people more.

Work is also pretty intense lately; there are urgent projects and personalities to wrangle; I'm feeling like I'm more in manager than statistician mode right now. My supervisor says I'm doing fine but I'm not always so sure.

I've been running regularly and keeping track on Strava (find me there under my real name if you're interested). Quantifying it motivates me — in these first few months I've gone from being able to sustain a run for under a kilometer to being able to do 10+ km at a moderate run or a mixed stagger for over 20km when I'm feeling really ambitious. My shirts fit better too, and it makes the neighborhood feel closer together feeling that more of it is reachable on foot.

Current Location: Basement lair
Crossposts: https://metawidget.livejournal.com/228036.html

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In the long run
Spring Miscellany
Into the renovation breach
Hunker down
Top up the coffee: we're going in!
Holding the fort and keeping busy
Five things
Not the headlines
October
Appreciation
Work thoughts
Friday Five: Seasonal adjustment
Friday Five — self-care et al.
It's May already
Year in review
Fear is a teacher

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