In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2) by SIGNYM

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, April 30, 2026 15:27
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VIEWED: 249809
PAGE 142 of 142

Saturday, April 25, 2026 6:01 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I saw the most interesting things yesterday on the wall where the roses are.

The first was a baby 'possum cautiously exploring the top of the block wall behind the roses. Adult 'possums are kinda gross looking, but babies are the cutest!

Then I saw a white cabbage butterfly and yellow sulfur butterfly duking it out. They look the same except for color, but they're entirely different species. Despite that, apparently they see each other as competitors or rivals.

Then I saw a butter butt (yellow warbler) flitting thru the shrubs, and a big old fence lizard sunning himself on the wall.

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

Cool on the critter spotting. Bird wise all I see are pigeons, crows and sea gulls. Can hear robins and another bird but not sure what it is.

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Saturday, April 25, 2026 6:05 PM

BRENDA

All done for today. Groceries and I got the measurements for that collapsing storage box at Walmart. It is 15 by 15 and my card table measures 27 by 27, so I can easily get it.

Was going to get something for my nails and such then move them so I can reach them. Well, I realized that I had something I had bought at a local dollar store. It didn't fit what I wanted to do, so it will work perfectly for that.

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Sunday, April 26, 2026 1:02 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Careful with that collapsible stuff, Brenda. Just remember you get what you pay for and sometimes products like that don't stand up well to any abuse. If this is still about the ottoman, just make sure whatever you're getting is going to be able to do what you intend it to do.

It's nice when something you bought that was a mistake ends up working out somewhere else.

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Sunday, April 26, 2026 1:06 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Still not getting much faster at what I'm doing. Part of that is because I veered off course today and to do some landscaping here and trim off the really bad parts first. Things that needed to be moved into their own spot, were rather infrequent, usually came in large batches when they did pop up, and completely derailed my momentum whenever they did.

But now that I've gone back through the normal route, there's still another annoyance that is popping up often enough to ruffle my feathers when it does, so I think it's time to veer a little off course again.

Though what I'm doing isn't ever going to go fast, I think once I take care of this other thing it will be as fast as it's ever going to get.

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Sunday, April 26, 2026 1:39 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Careful with that collapsible stuff, Brenda. Just remember you get what you pay for and sometimes products like that don't stand up well to any abuse. If this is still about the ottoman, just make sure whatever you're getting is going to be able to do what you intend it to do.

It's nice when something you bought that was a mistake ends up working out somewhere else.

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

It should be able to hold up until I can think of something better. My files are going into it, so that should give it a bit more stability.

It is nice. Now, just finding the five minutes to get that done.

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Sunday, April 26, 2026 1:40 PM

BRENDA

Quiet Sunday with clean up and some music. Email I still haven't sent I really, really, really need to get to today. *fingers crossed*.

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Sunday, April 26, 2026 8:19 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Just trying to get as much done on the project as possible over here. My dad is coming for a few days next weekend and I won't be able to do anything with it while he's here. I'm going to have to mow the lawn once before that, and spend a little time cleaning up around here too. Also have to get my follow up CT soon.

My progress has picked up pace a bit, but it's still too much to be blowing through without taking time to verify things. The minute you start trusting yourself too much is the minute you let your mind stop working and you just go through the motions without your head involved. Can't be falling asleep at the wheel now.

Fortunately there seems to be just the right amount of jank here. Not enough to bring the process to a literal halt with what still needs tweaking, but just enough speedbumps along the way to keep me from mentally dozing off while I'm sorting through it all.

It's just so much... Sometimes the computer project isn't like it is in real life work. Whenever I'm getting ready for a project in real life I joke that I always seem to take 3 times longer to do the job than I thought I would going into it. It could be ten times as much with this computer stuff. This is one of those times... I thought this thing would take me 2 or maybe 3 days at most. I'm going on day 4 and I think I'm not even 1/3rd of the way through it. It's hard to tell exactly because I've been moving and removing things along the way, I forgot to look at my numbers before I started, and even though I've taken things away I've added about half that number back already, with notes to add other things back when I'm through to the end. I think it's going to take me another 2 days just to figure out how long I really think it's going to take to finish this part.

But at least it isn't shy about showing me the fruits of the labor. This is the digital equivalent of putting finishing trim on a room, so it should be. That's what's keeping me motivated right now. I don't want to delve too deeply into the mess I have yet to go through, but just at a glance the difference between what I have and haven't worked on yet is stark.

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Sunday, April 26, 2026 10:05 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Trying to do the math here on this thing... not perfection with the numbers, but just a guesstimate...

One folder/category with exactly 300 things from 3 sub-categories...

But that data put up against many other folders, making certain that all items within which share a certain variable with the data of all the items in these 50 or so other folders are notated as such, and then making time to verify that all data is correct across each hit, or only differs when it is supposed to differ.

And the "virtual" folder I'm doing the comparisons against with the initial data started off with roughly 1,460 virtual items being pointed to it for having this variable. So far that number is down to less than 1,250 because of removals, but there have also been quite a few additions along the way with at least 50 more coming during a later step. By that time it could be 150 to 200 add-backs. Probably not that many... I'm expecting somewhere in the area of just around 100 if a little south of that. At this rate, that final number will probably be around 1,200 I'm guessing, after the add-backs.

The sheet says I'm almost 600 into my folder which was originally only 300. This gets me roughly halfway through the alphabet. That 2nd half is always pretty fun to blow through except for S and T.

I'm probably only a few hours away from halfway finished. There's still more to do after this step, but all of that should be pretty straightforward and quick. I've gotten a good deal of the easy stuff out of my way already and probably got as far as I'm going to get to streamlining the process at this point. The 2nd half should theoretically go faster than the first half has, barring any surprises.

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Monday, April 27, 2026 1:32 PM

BRENDA

Out soon on a very cloudy day. Looks like we could be heading for a rain.

Got email sent but I think I messed it up. Will see if they answer me and maybe I can try again.

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Monday, April 27, 2026 5:41 PM

BRENDA

Finished for today and hands are bad.

Screwed up submission will get another cover letter done and prologue and chapter one done then resend.

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Tuesday, April 28, 2026 1:19 PM

BRENDA

Out, out, out. Doctor's then I have to check how I do that email as I screwed up. Order lunch at senior's centre for Thursday then what else I don't know.

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Tuesday, April 28, 2026 5:20 PM

BRENDA

All outside things done for today. Nice, young intern working at my doctor's office handled all my stuff. Even my question about the cardiologist. He let me read the report which made me feel much better. Redid my prescription. So all is good their until vampires and such. Lunch ordered for Thursday and talked to the local publisher but how to do things with them.

Got the collapsing storage box up and it has another piece to put into the bottom of it for more stability. Now, I just have to rearrange things again.

ugh!

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Wednesday, April 29, 2026 1:27 PM

BRENDA

Out on a bright sunny day. Things to do. Things to do.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2026 5:47 PM

BRENDA

Back and done for today.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2026 6:49 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Good luck with the re-org....

I kind of never got around to finishing mine yet.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2026 8:17 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Good luck with the re-org....

I kind of never got around to finishing mine yet.

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

Well, I thought I would do it last night and then I thought I will do it today. Maybe I will do it tomorrow or..... just keep going.

And on top of that I found something else I can reorganize but this time I do have to get another small container for some old tv show pins that I have bought over the years and that will go on and on and on.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2026 9:04 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

It's good when good things snowball... if you allow it. Just make sure you aren't holding onto and buying new storage space for things that you really don't need along the way.

I'm still working. Way too much, actually. It just doesn't really feel like it since it's not physical work.

Nearing the end of this part of the project that I've been at for about a week now. I can't go into any detail here obviously, but this one is a pretty big deal for me. I will at least be able to move away from the project entirely without losing my spot at the very least, if I'm not going to wrap it up entirely. It really was something too big to walk away from once it got started, so I've been really putting in the hours to get it behind me as quickly as possible without making any mistakes.

Any work I put into it in the future should now be "modular" efforts. Smaller projects that I can add to the larger project as a whole, which won't require any work or editing on the main project other than the little opening I needed to make to get the smaller project injected into it.

This is only possible because of all of the thousands of hours of research and documentation that have been done and the behind-the-scenes groundwork that it's all been laid on top of. It's why I did all of that work. It's something I knew I wouldn't see the benefits of for years or even decades when I started the work, but now that I'm finally getting to the other side of it, it's kind of amazing to be able to sit back and see what I've created here. To already be able to see what I've made possible even though I'm still plugging away at working on it.

It's kind of cool.

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2026 11:28 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

From my ramblings the other night...

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Trying to do the math here on this thing... not perfection with the numbers, but just a guesstimate...

...

At this rate, that final number will probably be around 1,200 I'm guessing, after the add-backs.

I don't have a final number, but whatever it is, man... that was a close prediction.

I may have several add-backs left to do, but I do believe at this point all the removals have taken place. I don't think there will be enough add-backs to get the number high enough that I would have won with The Price is Right rules, but right now I'm sitting at 1,192 with about 150 more things to go through with the final phase. Probably a few more hours worth of work on it.

That was a lot of variables to end up being that close. I never would have been able to show my math on it though.

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2026 11:42 PM

BRENDA

Don't worry SIX. That's the point of going through the pins. I was looking at them last night and started thinking, some of these need to go. The ones I save will go into what I get then they can go into a drawer.

As to the storage box, I think that will have to wait until I get the trashed foot stool out first. Then I can fill the box and pull out a couple of things that I need for the weekend. Oh, then it's home will be under my card table for my feet. And I will make sure to go through the files again.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2026 11:43 PM

BRENDA

Off to mah jong in the morning.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2026 11:45 PM

BRENDA

Cool is good SIX. My brain I know could never do what you are doing with numbers. My brain and numbers aren't really friends and that doesn't change no matter how hard I try.

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Thursday, April 30, 2026 12:52 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Cool is good SIX. My brain I know could never do what you are doing with numbers. My brain and numbers aren't really friends and that doesn't change no matter how hard I try.

I'm good with all the basics. Enough to do taxes and balance a checkbook and keep a budget. I'm good at statistics and holding numbers in my head. But give me anything beyond basic algebra and it's all a foreign language to me.

This wasn't even really about the math, more than it was about the "feeling" of that number being right. In a way, it's about knowing myself, because so much of myself has been poured into it. I'd been working on this part of this one thing, that had the first bricks put underneath it even before I saw Firefly. But this one thing has been taking up most of my waking hours for the last week, and with no real idea what the final number could be, I was just weighing out the possibilities against the numbers I knew I had and even though I was still at least 8 or 9 hours away from being done I came up with a number that was nearly on the head.

And actually, I'm exactly at 1,200 right now. I had a little surprise in there that cost me about 2 hours to work on, but it got me 8 more add backs I wasn't expecting along the way.

I've got enough leverage on the fringes to play around with that number and make it what I want, but I'm not willing it to happen. It's just cool that with still only around 150 more things to go through I'm exactly at the number I guessed that I might be.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Thursday, April 30, 2026 2:24 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

1,198...

Feels good to have that done.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Thursday, April 30, 2026 3:27 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Yay! for you, SIX!!!
If I had to guess, it sounds like you're creating a database- like structure using searchable filenames to allow retrieval?
That's tough, man. Of course, I could be way off, but sounds like a lot of work, whatever it is!

Hey BRENDA, sounds lije you're in reorg/ declutter mode? Good for you! I just have one ??? ... what's a TV pin?

Been mostly absent here, going balls to the wall on finding a resolution for hubby's back pain, and landscaping. The weather continues acceptable for outdoor work so I'm doing as much as my knee and Dr appt schedule permit. Been spending a heckuva amt of time pruning up the climbing roses while preserving the branches with flowers so family doesn't squawk. It's going very slowly bc four of those climbers are excessively thorny, and I have to go really slowly. I wear an overshirt to protect from the sun, and it's got a couple of good sized tears in the back from when I got tangled up, and several "picks". It's kind of a waste of time bc I hope to replace them with other bushes later, but I've already removed about 2 70-gal bins of material and will probably remove one more before I'm done.

Well, on with the show!

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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USER	POST DATE
6ixStringJack	04.30 00:52
6ixStringJack	04.30 02:24
SIGNYM	04.30 15:27