A little under two weeks ago, I did a post “If You Read Me on Facebook“. The gist of it was I was no longer going to repost the daily twitter summaries from this blog onto Facebook, although regular manual posts would continue to get automatically posted there.
I’m now saying the same thing for Google+, for basically the same reasons. If you want to see what I post to twitter, either follow me there, or follow me directly on Abulsme.com. You can even sign up for a daily email with links to my posts from the previous day if you care for that.
As with Facebook, I’ll continue making sure my manual posts get cross posted to Google+… for now. But I’m giving a heads up that I may stop doing that soon as well. Google Reader made it pretty easy for me to click a couple buttons and share my own posts on Google+. Google Reader is of course shutting down soon. My replacement of choice so far, Feedly, also has a share to Google+ feature, and while it works fine when it works, it has been inconsistent at best for me, and I’ve usually gone back to Google Reader to do this little bit of things. When it goes away, I probably won’t go through a lot of extra effort (read any) to make sure things get on Google+. Especially since it seems there are very few people who use Google+ to follow me. There are some. Just not many.
If Feedly improves on this front, then I’ll continue, otherwise… I dunno.
If you are one of the very few people who normally get my content via Google+ and if this will be a pain to you, let me know. If there is a lot of demand, I may continue even if it is a bit more work. If not… well, you can find my stuff in the ways I described in the second paragraph…
I’ll keep posting the “regular posts” (as opposed to the automated Twitter summaries) to Google+ at least until Google Reader is shut down. After that, no promises.
TLDR: I stopped reposting my daily twitter summaries on Facebook, but other posts to abulsme.com will still show up.
For awhile, I’ve had something set up on my blog that autoposts to Facebook whenever I make a new post. Well, it was mostly autoposts. Any post that I manually created would do an automatic notification to both Facebook and Twitter.
But I also have a daily automated post at 00:00 UTC each day that gives a digest of my tweets from the previous day. For whatever reason related to how that digest is created, those would not autopost to Facebook. I’d have to remember to manually push a few buttons to post those things to Facebook. This was kind of a pain, I’d often not remember, and then end up “catching up” by posting a bunch of them at once.
That kind of sucked.
I’m not going to do that any more. (In fact, I stopped about a week ago.)
My “real” posts will still get repeated on Facebook. But if you are interested in the things I am posting on Twitter, well, follow me on Twitter. Unsurprisingly, I’m @abulsme. Uh, or just follow my actual blog at abulsme.com. In addition to just going to the site, you can of course subscribe via RSS, or there is even an option in the left bar on my site to subscribe to get a daily digest of my posts via email.
Now, I know most people don’t care, but FYI, that’s the deal. :-)
Despite taking part of a day off on Monday, progress on the garage/driveway slowed dramatically during the work week, with me generally only able to spend an hour or two on it in the evenings before it got dark. (Yes, it might have been possible to do some after dark, but since it was dark, it was hard to see what I was doing…)
Anyway, by early Saturday UTC (Friday evening local time) almost everything that was either stuff we knew we wanted to keep, or stuff that we might or might not want to keep but would have to actually spend time looking at it to know, was back in the garage. For some reason I didn’t post then, but here is what it looked like at that point:
Looks so much better than it started! Everything all I’m nice neat stacks and such!
Unfortunately, there were still huge piles of things we know we want to get rid of (either donate, recycle, or trash depending on the specific things and their condition)… Quite a bit of which were large items like furniture… and we haven’t quite yet made arrangements to have those things picked up and taken away to wherever they are going to go.
So all that had to go back too. That process just finished. At this point everything that came out of the garage (with a couple minor exceptions that were claimed by Alex or Brandy and actually are now being used or unpacked) is now back in the garage.
So what does it look like? Here ya go:
So… Well… Just as full looking as it started… Almost. It is now possible to walk a little bit in there. But just a little. But it is still very very full. I certainly didn’t reclaim 40% of the floor space as I had hoped.
But… Everything that was added between early Saturday and when I finished is stuff that is fully ready to be gotten rid of. Brandy has collected the information on who to call to come get all that stuff, and those arrangements will probably be made soon. All that stuff is fit up front and ready to go. It is no longer interspersed with everything else.
Once that stuff goes, I ink my 40% goal is indeed actually met. Perhaps even 60% or more actually. And at that point, what is left is neatly stacked and accessible, not thrown in haphazardly like it was before.
It will be in a state where it will be easy to grab one box a week or whatnot, in order to go through the box and reclaim what is still wanted, and trash what isn’t. I suspect 80% or so of what is in the boxes will actually be trashable, but unfortunately that can’t be determined on a box by box basis. We actually have to go through the boxes.
That will be a long term thing though, not a project we will attempt in the same way I did the garage straightening.
For now, next step, call the trucks to take away that big bulk of stuff we know we don’t want any more… Brandy will do that though.
Once again, click to embiggen (since folks liked that word).
View from inside house:
View from driveway:
And, um, the driveway:
Now time to start putting everything back. Hopefully in a more compact (and accessible) fashion. Unfortunately, given that it took just short of 28 hours (including breaks for sleep, food, etc.) to empty the garage, I find it unlikely that it will all get back in the garage before the end of the weekend.
I may have to take some personal time from work on Monday to finish. Either that or just not worry about leaving some stuff in the driveway a few more days than I had planned. It isn’t supposed to rain, so I GUESS that is a possibility. I really want to get this done though.
Plan: It is a nice sunny warm weekend. No rain forecast. Empty the ENTIRE garage, putting everything in the driveway. Then put it all back, just in a more compact and possibly (but maybe not) organized way. Based on exploring the voids currently in the garage, I expect to be able to free up 1/3 to 1/2 of the garage. We shall see!
All winter long Alex has talked about how last year he walked his dog in the snow, and how when it snowed he would do it again. But all winter long, the most we got was a short lived dusting. Now, we managed to take advantage of one of those dustings, but it just wasn’t the same. So I had started thinking about taking Alex and Roscoe up to the mountains some Saturday in the next few weeks to play in the snow.
But then this morning there was real snow, with an inch or two on the ground! I was at work and missed it, but Alex got his walk with Roscoe in the snow! He was reluctant at first, but from what I hear in the end he had to be dragged away from the snow and the dog to get ready to actually go to school this morning. So yay!
Perhaps there will still be a trip to the mountains. Or not. We’ll see. :-)
As of the time this posts, 2013-03-14 00:59 UTC, Alex will be exactly three and a half years old. Yay! Such a big boy! In the home video above (from the 13th), Alex recreates the tractor tipping scene from Cars and sings with Roscoe.
[Note added 2013 Mar 17 14:58 – Since at least one person contacted Brandy with concern, 2 things… First, Roscoe is not mad, growling, or threatening Alex in any way. As you can see in the video, Roscoe licks Alex several times. The noises being made are ones that Roscoe makes regularly when “singing” with Alex, myself, or other family members. Roscoe sometimes does get impatient or upset with Alex, but this was not one of those times. Second… yes, I know what it looks like when Alex lies down, but he is three and a half, Alex was not doing anything inappropriate, and it is all completely innocent, so get your minds out of the gutter! Thanks!]
Some random notes on some things from the past six months:
Six months ago, Alex was regularly dreading going to pre-school, and was telling us how bad it was. These days, on the worst days he goes with a grudging acceptance, and on the best days, he seems to actually look forward to it. There was a phase where every day he was telling us he didn’t want to go because the other kids were being mean to him (including hitting him), but he hasn’t mentioned that in quite a long time now, so hopefully all that is under control. (We talked to the teachers about it several times.)
Although he did it longer than most kids do these days, Alex stopped nursing in October when Brandy had to go to Pennsylvania for a couple weeks when her mom had surgery. The day after Brandy gets back, Alex wakes up in the morning groggy and not to happy to be awake. I ask him if he wants to go see Mommy. He looks really sad, like he is about to cry, and slowly says “Mommy no ning. Ning all gone.”
Since then he has talked about this a few times as a way to reference time. He was telling the story of when we took Roscoe to the vet for some surgery. He described when it happened as when he was still a baby and drank Mommy’s ning.
He talks a lot these days about how he used to be a baby, and the things that were different when he was a baby. Like diapers. And the ning. And other things too. He likes to pretend to still be a baby a lot too.
In September, Alex and Brandy went with me to a doctor appointment (this was during one of my kidney stone episodes). For almost two months after that he would tell us all that I was a new Daddy, and we had left the old Daddy at the doctor. This was most disturbing, because until then I did not know I had been replicated, and now I wonder what happened to the old daddy.
He is very aware of growing bigger, and that he is getting bigger every day. He also has noticed that I am getting smaller (well, it must seem that way, right?) So he has told me that when he grows very big, and I grow very small, then he will be the one to carry me on his shoulders.
Despite having tons of trains at home, he still likes to go to the bookstore to play with the trains there… because usually he gets to pick a new train to take home… I will give him my card and he will take the train and the card to the counter at the front of the store to check out.
Alex and Roscoe continue to be best buddies. Sometimes Roscoe gets frustrated by Alex’s attentions, but usually his patience is incredible. They are good together.
Meanwhile, Alex is just getting to know my Mom’s dog Sara, and they don’t get along quite as well so far. Sara is still getting used to Alex. Alex is very upset by this, after the second time we visited my mom and Sara in their new apartment, Alex burst into tears “Grandma Ruth’s dog Sara doesn’t like me!!!”. They are getting better with each other, but it will probably take some time.
Alex got a small couch from his Grandmother Leslie for Christmas. He uses it ALL the time, including as a booster seat at the dinner table. He uses it along with a little tray table thing he got from his mom. He loves those things.
Just in the last month or so, Alex has stopped fighting bedtime. I’ll say it is time to go upstairs, and he’ll say “OK” and follow me up. Then he will help turn out all the lights and lie down. Of course, this is him curling up in bed with me, not him going to his own bed, and I let him use my iPad in bed while I go to sleep… I have no idea how late he is up watching YouTube after I fall asleep. So… maybe that isn’t really a big thing after all. :-)
Alex may not be quite “reading” yet, but he recognizes many words. The titles of his favorite shows, Mommy, Daddy, Alex, Amy, Dog, etc… I suspect he knows even more than he lets on. He also knows when shopping for trains he needs to get the ones that say “wooden” or they won’t fit on his tracks.
He has friends at school that he talks about by name. His best friend’s name is Apollo. One time Apollo said he WASN’T Alex’s friend. Alex was upset and talked about that for WEEKS until one of the teachers said that Apollo WAS his friend. Then everything was OK again.
“No! Teacher said!” is often heard, as we find out we are doing one thing or another wrong and the teacher said to do it a different way.
He met Santa! And was very into Christmas. Was on us for WEEKS about getting up the tree and decorations before we actually got it done.
He clogged the toilet! And similar things. Like pouring water into the air conditioner because “doggy needs it” only to have water spray out all over the room. Which was quite amusing.
For awhile he decided “trains like dark” so he would always turn out all the lights before playing with his trains. That lasted maybe a month.
He is very proficient playing with the iPad, figuring out new games without very much prompting from me, including some games that actually aren’t geared to kids his age. And just a couple weeks ago, I think I made a big mistake… he now knows how to use the App Store! He’ll browse through there looking for new games then ask me to get one for him. He still can’t type my password to do it completely by himself, but I’m sure that is coming soon…
He remembered walking his dog in the snow LAST winter and really wanted to do it again, but there was never snow that really lasted. I may try to take him up to the mountains soon to see some snow. Maybe Roscoe too.
There are several of Amy’s friends that Alex REALLY likes when they come over to visit. He loves to play with her friends.
He makes important observations: “Daddy… fish… they have no feet! They swish their tails. Swim under the water. Ducks have feet. They swim on top of the water.”
He can’t type, but he is starting to try to use the voice recognition in iOS to fill out search fields and the like. So far, it isn’t very good at understanding what he actually said, but give it time.
A couple of fish have died in the last six months, so Alex and I have had a few conversations about death. One fish died and he asked where it went. I told him mommy took it away after it died. He asked if mommy took it to fix it and make it all better. I told him that no, when fish die you can’t put in new batteries or fix them, they are just gone. He doesn’t entirely get it, but knew what to expect when his own fish Hush got sick and died more recently.
He has moved from Thomas to Chuggington to Dinosaur Train to Choo Choo Soul, to some videos with Micky Mouse and a train. Then back to just plain train videos on YouTube. HIs favorite things to watch have kept changing, but it has been all about trains for a year and a half now.
And that is more than enough for now. Happy three and a half Alex!
[Edit 2013 Mar 14 14:33 to add the first of the two parenthetical comments in the first bullet.]
[Edit 2013 Mar 20 21:24 to slightly change the wording of the note added 2013 Mar 17.]
