-=> Quoting Damon A. Getsman to Nancy Backus on 13-May-2015 11:04 <=-   
      
    NB>> How old is he, again...?  At some point, he ought to be able to learn how   
    NB>> to take disappointment in stride... but that does take some maturity. :)   
    NB>> It does, though, help if one wasn't setting one's heart on it... ;)   
    DAG> He's 8, going to be turning 9 on the first here.    
      
   That's still pretty young... although, by that age, I was oldest of 5   
   kids, and learning that other things often had priority over what I   
   might have liked...  ;)   
      
    DAG> I'm working with   
    DAG> him on the disappointment bit, but I still try to make sure that I   
    DAG> don't set him up for it by telling him about plans that have any sort   
    DAG> of a decent chance of being pre-empted.  :)  He's really good about it,   
    DAG> for the most part, but I like to save him the added disappointment   
    DAG> being as we've been in a situation where he gets so few things above   
    DAG> and beyond the average everyday norm for so long now.    
      
   Makes sense... and if he's not set up to expect something, he won't miss   
   it if it doesn't happen after all... probably wouldn't hurt for him to   
   know, more in the abstract, that you are trying to figure out ways to do   
   some special things, though...   
      
    DAG> Well, right now I think that the economic stability kind of takes   
    DAG> the priority in most areas.  I'm going to try to make up for him   
    DAG> missing that last little outing soon here.  The economic situation is   
    DAG> starting to look a little bit better.  Might even be able to have next   
    DAG> month's rent paid by the end of next week.  If that happens there's   
    DAG> some definite forward motion [finally] taking place.   
      
   That does sound like things are stabilizing a bit more...  :)   
       
    NB>> Sounds quite promising...  paycheck to paycheck is better than no   
    NB>> paycheck at all... but it certainly is nicer to have a reasonable   
    NB>> amount coming in regularly...  :)   
    DAG> It's going up.  Slowly but surely.  For what it's worth the issue   
    DAG> right now isn't _my_ productivity level, either.  It's the fact that   
    DAG> the project manager has a limited amount of time.  I'm usually sitting   
    DAG> here wanting to put in more hours every day, but I'm waiting on his   
    DAG> schedule to free up a bit so that I can get more bits carved off that I   
    DAG> can chew easier.  That shouldn't be so much of a problem in the future,   
    DAG> but with the familiarity I have with the stack that their site is   
    DAG> deployed with I really need smaller chunks carved off for me...   
      
   Yeah, as you get more familiar with the whole project, you'll be able to   
   handle bigger chunks at a time...   
      
    DAG> Especially when the people reporting the problems don't even know   
    DAG> enough about the situation to give me enough information to diagnose...   
      
   Par for the course, though...  :)   
      
    DAG> Shouldn't have to worry about anything like that with a little more   
    DAG> experience, at least. Totally still a virgin on this 'magento' suite,   
    DAG> though.  :)    
      
   You'll get there... :)     
      
    NB>> So, if I understand correctly, you went with some others in a van to go   
    NB>> camping...?  A couple of families with kids...?  Was this some sort of   
    NB>> organized program, or something that people just got together to do...?   
    NB>> Sounds like a long trip... hard for kids to be cooped up that long...   
    DAG> It was a long trip, definitely.  It was myself, my roomie, his   
    DAG> girlfriend, and her two kids (along with my son) in a mini-van.  I   
    DAG> think that I'm somewhat spoiled, because my son is so good at dealing   
    DAG> with trips like that.  He's _NEVER_ done anything like that, even when   
    DAG> he was 4-5, even on 15+ hour drives. He just doesn't act that way.    
      
   And some kids just travel better than others...  I remember taking my   
   son on long trips, just him and me, when he was only about 6... I   
   remember joking about how I must be out of my mind, to even consider   
   that sort of trip, but he was just fine... Until he actually started   
   driving his own vehicles, he'd be asleep within 10 minutes, and probably   
   sleep the entire trip, more or less...  ;)   
      
    DAG> Different strokes for different folks, I've got to remember...  Not   
    DAG> every parent has been able to spend as much time with their kids as I   
    DAG> was able to for the first 6 years with my little man, either.  I've   
    DAG> been lucky in a whole lot of areas.    
      
   Good thing to think about and remember...  :)  Another way of keeping   
   perspective...  :)   
      
    NB>> Yes, at least he and the other kids had a chance to run and play... and   
    NB>> sleep outside for the night...  ;)  Too bad it wasn't a little longer in   
    NB>> the camping phase, for the long trip there and back...   
    DAG> They probably reaped a lot more benefit from the whole situation   
    DAG> than the adults did.  They had the entire 18 hours, sans sleeping time,   
    DAG> frolicking in the woods and having a blast.  It was just the van trips   
    DAG> that were tough for them, and I think really only the one.  The kids   
    DAG> seem much more able to tune out the cries of one of their own than the   
    DAG> cranky old farts.  ;)    
      
   How old was the kid that was having the meltdown(s)...?  Some kids just   
   don't travel well, either... ;(   
      
    DAG> But it was great to see my son (and the other   
    DAG> kids) being able to have such a blast for such a long stretch of time   
    DAG> out there.  Especially after the isolation that my poor little guy has   
    DAG> to endure (as I've whined about endlessly ;).    
      
   I'm glad that it was generally a good trip... with real benefits... :)   
      
    NB>> That still gives at least 50% chance that it WON'T happen...  :)    
    NB>> Maybe not even in your lifetime...  ;)   
    DAG> Well I've always been one of those people with a 'can-do' attitude.    
    DAG> Even when it comes to the Earth 'can-do'ing an earthquake to try to   
    DAG> chuck me off into space.  ;)   
      
   One does need to draw the line somewhere... ;)   
       
    DAG> That reminds me I haven't yet meditated today.  ;)  I'm working on   
    DAG> it, every little slice at a time.  I find that it's definitely showing   
    DAG> benefits, too. Like those nightly revisitation and haunting hours that   
    DAG> I've mentioned before. When I haven't had way too much coffee or done   
    DAG> anything else that spikes my anxiety uncontrolably, I find I'm having a   
    DAG> much easier time banishing such thoughts.  It just takes me a few   
    DAG> minutes to concentrate on releasing those circular chains of thought, a   
    DAG> few minutes to concentrate on something happy like my son playing in   
    DAG> the bathtub and cackling when he was 3, and then I'm good to go.    
    DAG> Sometimes it's a little tougher than that, but not so often. Either   
    DAG> way, it's a lifesaver when I'm trying to go to sleep.  I was out of   
    DAG> sorts on the camping trip, but I bet in areas where I'm having   
    DAG> illogical phobias or paranoia like in the earthquake/vulcanism scenerio   
    DAG> it'd probably help quite a bit, as well.  As I seem to recall I was way   
    DAG> hopped up on coffee because I hadn't had nearly enough sleep the night   
    DAG> before...    
      
   Yup... sounds quite reasonable...  Keeping the illogical (mostly)   
   phobias at bay is a good thing, and I can see where the meditation, or   
   at least some diverting concentrations could help with that... and   
   minimizing the coffee jitters couldn't hurt, either...  ;)   
      
    NB>> Offline readers are quite the godsend at times, to be sure... :)   
    NB>> Especially since I'm in DOS, not exactly what you'd call a   
    NB>> multi-tasking environment...  ;)   
      
    DAG> Wow.  Are you using DOS because of older hardware?  Just curious...    
      
   Partly, and mostly by choice.  I don't get along well with mice and   
   other tracking devices, and I am quite content with command line... This   
   computer has some extra commands, some from *nix, and some from small   
   utilities my resident wizard has written... And I have some good   
   software for the things I do... :)   
      
    DAG> There are a few drop-in replacements for DOS (like TSX-11) that'll give   
    DAG> you a DOS compatible environment that can support some multitasking, I   
    DAG> believe.  I mean not that there's anything wrong with working linear;   
    DAG> it's probably a lot better for productivity and focus.  :)   
      
   That, too...  :)     
      
    DAG> I just realized I've still got some old QWK packets sitting here   
    DAG> from other BBSes that I was going to read before I had to reinstall my   
    DAG> operating system for the umpteenth time here, too.  I'll have to break   
    DAG> out metamail pretty quick here, probably.  Hell, it might be easier to   
    DAG> use that even for my own BBS; I've found an issue lately where if I go   
    DAG> take too long of a break from composing a message it logs me out for   
    DAG> some reason, and I lose whatever I've already written.  Not sure what   
    DAG> setting I toggled to cause that evil, but I'm not finding it to set it   
    DAG> back easily... Best wishes!   
      
   At the very least, I suppose you'll just have to be sufficiently   
   efficient to finish composing the message in the one sitting...   
   apparently the bbs is seeing too long of a period of inactivity...   
   that's probably the setting, wherever it might be hiding...    
      
   ttyl       neb   
      
   ... 12 Hours Of Work!! What Do You Mean Disk Error??   
      
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