more progress

 We stayed up too late last night, oops. We hadn’t meant to, but the time between our group training on zoom at 21:00, and 23:00, when we finally went to sleep just zipped by. This make it a little tough to wake up this morning, but I managed, and got some tidying up done around the house while chatting with Keldor as he drove to work.

 

Then I sat down to the computer and resolved to actually make some progress learning the new tool “SEAD Shape Shifter” that my colleague has built for mapping datasets to our database structure. I have tried doing this off an on since he unveiled it just before I went to Uppsala last week, and haven’t made much progress. Today, after trying again, I decided that what I really need to do is just sit down with the guy who made it and have me walk through it step by step, till I understand how one uses it. So I sent him a calendar request for Monday morning early, and he replied with “how about Monday afternoon instead?” Yes, that works fine for me too.

 

Then I thought “I should prepare for the meeting”, and sat down and took notes about every window in the tool, filling in tables for each with the names of every box, if it is a drop down menu, free form entry, or what, if it is drop-down menu what each of the options are, plus a blank column into which I will be able to write down notes as to what everything is and how we use it.

 

After several days of no ability to focus on work and getting easily distracted, I suddenly had a project that I could fall into—my “quick little preparation” for Monday’s meeting felt like it took perhaps 15 minutes to work my way through everything, but a couple of hours elapsed. I like it when I can focus like that and accomplish stuff. Bonus when it is work stuff, and I am getting paid to do it.

 

While I worked Simon returned and resumed in the attic on the Create extra bathrooms project. Now the bathroom walls are pretty much done and ready for us to spackel and paint, and the wall for the back of the closet next to the loo (which will create a warm space over where the water incoming and drainage pipes slope through the floor to where they head down through the hall closet to the basement) has been well started. Tomorrow Simon will insulate the closet wall, cover it with gips. On Monday he will go buy the parts for the sliding door, and will mount it on Monday.

 

Then, as soon as we get the room painted and the floor installed the plumbers can return and install the sink and toilet and get them working. The easy part of the project, where I throw money at it and it just happens, is winding to a close, and soon we need to find the energy to do our part. Or, once I get the bill for the part I am hiring, I can decide if I can afford to have the contractor do more than I have already ordered.