How you doing?

I got a Mitsubishi Type 73 kit from ebay. I will be doing it with my 6 year old :D
I wish we could import one of these. Two door Rav4 4X4s from 1990s are about 10K USD at Duncan imports.


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Nice. Still riding the bike as much as I can. Ordered a stationary bike because I think, for once, I am going to take this getting in better shape thing seriously. :D
 
Well, tighter C-19 restrictions are being put in place again (for a two-week period). Seems people in my area just got too comfortable.
Our state (RI) was doing relatively well for the first wave. Then things changed after Oct. The back to school in Sept. and general complacency contribute to the upward trend and people lost the sense of reality. So essentially while we are reaching the same new daily case level as the first wave, the school, Halloween, business continue on, like our governor thinks she put too much restrictions for the first wave and there is lots of room for deaths to grow.

I have been saying the good economy can only be achieved with healthy population. My point is less popular now. People seemed to think they have suffered enough from the lock-down 5 months ago and are not too worried about the elders health and well-being. Too bad a lot more people are going to get sick and suffer deaths and long term tissue damages that will be costly from this totally preventable pandemic simply because people can't treat it seriously.
 
Anyone take up a new hobby, continue an existing one or start a project?

@sm1ke How’s the aquarium you recently set up doing? 🐟

I got a Mitsubishi Type 73 kit from ebay. I will be doing it with my 6 year old :D
I wish we could import one of these. Two door Rav4 4X4s from 1990s are about 10K USD at Duncan imports.
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Any update on the build? :)
 
It's been a rough week, school started for my 9 year old. Oh... I mean.... "school".
Sucks. We just moved to this suburb, he barely knows anyone. He made 2 close friends last last year, then school shut down. Couldn't meet any neighborhood kids this summer, now he's in remote school. It's depressing...
I remember when my family moved to another city as a child, it was a huge stress for me and my family. He really needs some support at this time, so support your son
 
We are, very much so.
He is something special. He does see his best friend occasionally and a new friend that we met basically through my job (mom works here). Occasionally, sees the 2 new friends he made. We're getting through and he'll come out the other side amazing. I just know he would have made A LOT of friends in school.
 
@sm1ke How’s the aquarium you recently set up doing? 🐟

Doing very well, thanks for asking. The 9 original fish I put in there are doing great. I also transplanted a big (over 7") silver dollar from my parents' old tank and added three more smaller (3-5") silver dollars to make the original fish feel more at home.

I'm actually considering setting up a smaller 20 gallon tank. I've set up the rockwork for it, but until I figure out what I want to put in it, it's going to stay dry for now.

I've also started lifting/exercising a bit more often.
 
I feel great. When the heat was over, I resumed my morning jogging (I can't handle cardio in the heat). So far I got involved again, but now I feel wonderful. I put things in order in the yard. Prepared for winter, so to speak. I'm getting ready to watch TV shows in the evenings.
 
Doing very well, thanks for asking. The 9 original fish I put in there are doing great. I also transplanted a big (over 7") silver dollar from my parents' old tank and added three more smaller (3-5") silver dollars to make the original fish feel more at home.

I'm actually considering setting up a smaller 20 gallon tank. I've set up the rockwork for it, but until I figure out what I want to put in it, it's going to stay dry for now.

I've also started lifting/exercising a bit more often.

Bit of an update. Since the last post, the fish have settled in enough to begin attempting to spawn, but one of the fish (can't tell if it's a male or female) suffered a fairly deep wound. I'm guessing that it was from brushing up against the rockwork during courtship. Anyway, I set up the 20g I mentioned earlier for it and moved the injured fish into it so it can recover in a less stressful environment. The fish has now recovered fully, but I think I'm going to wait to reintroduce it until I've moved some of the rocks out of the way. Probably going to keep a few rocks on either end, but leave the center open so the fish have more room to spawn.

I would like to get these fish to spawn successfully at some point - the stomatepia pindu are a critically endangered species and I would like to get some of the fry to other breeders so we can keep this species around.
 
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Checking in again! Booked my second dose of the vaccine for tomorrow. How is everyone holding up? Any new hobbies/interests/renos? :)
 
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Checking in again! Booked my second dose of the vaccine for tomorrow. How is everyone holding up? Any new hobbies/interests/renos? :)
Got my 2nd vaccine at the end of April.

Had to get another endoscopy and acid monitoring with a device called a Bravo back at the beginning of May. Old meds just weren't working so they changed them up. Seems to be working better. Was starting to get ulcers in my lower esophagus.

Work has been botching my net pay on my paychecks going back to 3/31 so that's been fun trying to get them to pay what is owed (still ongoing). Long story of how it got botched, but dealing with HR/Payroll has been a nightmare trying to get it fixed. Think I finally got it fixed so they aren't deducting incorrectly anymore going forward, but they won't acknowledge they were doing anything wrong on the previous 5 paychecks to the tune of about $2500 I was shorted by cumulatively. So still trying to recover that.

Otherwise doing well. But really no plans for anything right now, just trying to recover from a rather expensive medical year lol.

I put on like 20 lbs over the past year so I am hoping losing some weight will help with the acid reflux and the hiatal hernia I have.
 
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Got my 2nd vaccine at the end of April.

Had to get another endoscopy and acid monitoring with a device called a Bravo back at the beginning of May. Old meds just weren't working so they changed them up. Seems to be working better. Was starting to get ulcers in my lower esophagus.

Work has been botching my net pay on my paychecks going back to 3/31 so that's been fun trying to get them to pay what is owed (still ongoing). Long story of how it got botched, but dealing with HR/Payroll has been a nightmare trying to get it fixed. Think I finally got it fixed so they aren't deducting incorrectly anymore going forward, but they won't acknowledge they were doing anything wrong on the previous 5 paychecks to the tune of about $2500 I was shorted by cumulatively. So still trying to recover that.

Otherwise doing well. But really no plans for anything right now, just trying to recover from a rather expensive medical year lol.

I put on like 20 lbs over the past year so I am hoping losing some weight will help with the acid reflux and the hiatal hernia I have.

Yikes, sounds like quite the ordeal. Pretty messed up that they won't acknowledge any errors even after HR/Payroll made those corrections. "We fixed what we did wrong, but we didn't do anything wrong" smh.

I actually goofed and booked for a second dose that I'm actually not eligible for, so I had to cancel it. Oops.. 🤦‍♂️
 
Yeah I was like...supposedly I got a pay raise this year, but so far its been a pay cut!

Sorry to hear on 2nd dose...how are you not eligible having had the 1st one? Here many places aren't even appointment only anymore. But also having issues with adoption numbers so seems to be an over abundance of vaccines available.
 
Yeah I was like...supposedly I got a pay raise this year, but so far its been a pay cut!

Sorry to hear on 2nd dose...how are you not eligible having had the 1st one? Here many places aren't even appointment only anymore. But also having issues with adoption numbers so seems to be an over abundance of vaccines available.

In short, I misread the eligibility criteria for the 2nd dose, assuming that I qualified because my first dose was over 21 days ago. However, that only applies to those with priority conditions (health concerns, or those with First Nations status). For everyone else, you can only get your second dose if your first dose was on or before April 8th.
 
In short, I misread the eligibility criteria for the 2nd dose, assuming that I qualified because my first dose was over 21 days ago. However, that only applies to those with priority conditions (health concerns, or those with First Nations status). For everyone else, you can only get your second dose if your first dose was on or before April 8th.
Well hopefully not too long. There is a window of effectiveness (there is wiggle room) for second dose I believe. Out here you usually schedule 2nd dose same time as 1st so that both are lined up.

21 days so assuming Pfizer/BioNTech? That's the one wife and I got and 2nd dose kicked both out butts. Me for a day and her for 2 days solid and feeling better by the 3rd. On mine I took the day after I got it off from work.
 
Well hopefully not too long. There is a window of effectiveness (there is wiggle room) for second dose I believe. Out here you usually schedule 2nd dose same time as 1st so that both are lined up.

21 days so assuming Pfizer/BioNTech? That's the one wife and I got and 2nd dose kicked both out butts. Me for a day and her for 2 days solid and feeling better by the 3rd. On mine I took the day after I got it off from work.
Were doing it very diff up here. We don't have the supply the US does, or didn't until recently. US leads the way here, we just didn't have the market power to buy/get as many doses going in the winter.

Our regulators have decided to get as many people with one shot as possible before doing number 2s, the thinking being some protection in many is better than fully vaccinating a few.

So the wait here is 4 months between. Apparently it's fine, I believe Britain did the same. There have been studies I guess on the efficacy/effectiveness of the longer interval.

We all hope the window can be shortened as supply continues to come in.

The above is all true for Pfizer. We don't have a ton of Moderna yet.

We were allowed to get AstraZeneca here (Not approved for USA due to blood clots), so for those who took it, they will likely have second shots in a much shorter timeline. Been quite the story up here, the vaccines and safety of AZ versus risk of getting covid. Many are just opting to skip AZ and take chances on the wait for Pfizer.

We know some americans, and it's much better access down there. You guys will have summer, us...remains to be seen.
 
That really sux about your payroll CD. Pre-pandemic would it have been this much of a pain to get it fixed? Was your pay pretty consistent each pay period? If it was, I don't see how they can say they don't owe you the backpay. Hope the new meds continue to work for you.

Canada has been a bit odd with their dosage timelines. Then again, maybe they think ours are odd? haha Same for me here, got my appt. for my second dose the day I received my first. I got Moderna and the second does kicked my butt too. Like CD, I took the day after off from work and happy I did.

Wife and I finally sat down and decided to go forward with all of the concrete work we got quoted late last year. Going to add a 8' x 10' section to the front porch in front of the breezeway. It will be 8" high and extend about 10' into the breezeway. Then an 8" speedhump that is 10' away from the garage will be connected to this and then 62' of curbing coming off this and wrapping around the garage to the back of the house. Then a 25 'x 10' patio in the backyard that will have another 50' or so of curbing 10' away from the house attached to it and wrapped around to connect to the current curbing in the front. Two basement windows will be filled and the other two will have a 2" wall built up from the well. That was the plan but when I pulled out my old records I thought the price was too good to be true and it was as I didn't have the second quote that was given to us.

So now we can't get all of it done at this time financially so we need to prioritize. Looks like the patio and attached curbing are out the window. Had a thought over the weekend about having the driveway moved from one end of the house to the other with a 3' concrete wall running the length of it. No need for the concrete work in the patio or speedhump then? A big thank you to the township for all of their help!!! They told us that we live in a floodzone so we should expect to be flooded. 🤬 We only live in a floodzone because FEMA revised their maps.

In other wonderful news, I got a letter from one of my neighbors last Thursday. The return address was township citizens and it asked me to slow down in the neighborhood as there are kids who play there. Went on to say that they have observed me on numerous occasions exceeding the 25mph speed limit (not sure how they determined that, plus it is 35mph) and that if I don't, they will be forced to contact the police. Why couldn't they have the common courtesy to knock on my door and talk to me face-to-face? I don't speed in the neighborhood and all of the younger kids live at the other end of the block which I rarely drive through. I just hope that the kid at the other end with the muscle car and the lady at the other end whom I have seen texting while driving down the wrong side of the street also got letters.
 
The payroll issues I have now aren't related to the pandemic at all. What is causing it is another problem along a path of problems I've had since I started (but first one to impact pay). Even if I could go to the office, our HR is 2 timezones away. We're just an IT office of developers, product owners, some support folks, security, etc. We also switched HR's in January (we were bought by another company 2 years ago, actually before I started) which has been part of the problem, so we don't know anyone to escalate issues with and it's been difficult for me to get any higher than phone agents and their supervisors when I try to escalate. In old jobs, I would have just gone up to HR and sat at someone's desk until they fixed it. :devilish:

Very interesting strategy for Canada vaccination. And I guess it makes sense to get some protection vs nothing.
 
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