Too Many Emails

I am pitifully behind on email.   Every day I make an effort to get to the computer, open my inbox(es), and beat back what feels like the never-ending onslaught of emails.  Gmail does quite a good job of filtering out spam so it's not that, it's just a lot of emails and they all need at least a minimum of time to handle. 

Some of them are companies I've purchased things with that I need to go through the, "no, seriously, unsubscribe me from your mailing list, I'm sure you have excellent offers but I'll come to you if I need anything."  Or at least that's what it sounds like in my head when I'm looking for the small, light grey unsubscribe word hidden in the bottom of their emails.  I do my best to remember to always click the, "no thank you, I assure you I'm not interested in receiving your newsletter and I don't mind missing out on your deals" checkbox when I sign up/purchase/create an account on sites, but I either miss that box (a lot) or companies like to double-check, confirm or change my preference at a later point. 

Those emails are easy to bulk delete.   It's the emails that each needs to have something done to mark them complete and move them out of my inbox that takes time.   My husband has thousands of unread emails in his inbox and the ones he does do something with, he just archives them afterward.   I sort everything I want to keep into appropriate folders.  

My husband's reasoning is sound: Gmail is Google's product and the search capability is just as good.  Should he need to find something he can just search for it in that large folder that is "All Mail".   Only that doesn't work if you don't remember enough details to search or if you want to know all the companies you've bought 3D printer filament from (a search I did recently for a friend who wanted suggestions on good brands to buy.)

Suffice it to say, over six-hundred emails in my Updates folder alone, and my head is already threatening to get a headache, thus postponing the email management and having the list even longer tomorrow.   I have a bill I need to get to one of our tenants that's multiple months old.  I let him know and he said he was fine whenever.   He's a good guy. 

Today I made a dent.  And a dent is a victory I am happy to be claiming.   I have work to do at a property this week and I have got to get this inbox under control so I can have that happy feeling that I associate with it.   For me, there is nothing quite like the feeling of an empty inbox.   Knowing I've gotten back to those that have sent me emails and have done the work needed so that I can do the responding.  

Tomorrow, both children are in school again and I plan to attack full force my inbox.  At least for an hour or so.  

The Big Boy Update:  There are express expectations on travel and visitors from my son's school.   This is not a position the school enjoys.  It is uncomfortable and they don't like getting in the middle of how people live their lives, but there is so much connectivity in siblings, teachers with children in other classrooms, and classmates of siblings that one infected family could affect a huge portion of the school in a worst-case scenario.   Several students told their teachers today about the Thanksgiving celebrations they enjoyed...with more than ten people in an enclosed area wearing no masks.   It was alarming to the teachers.   Emails were sent home to each of the families, who responded with information regarding the situation and why they judged it to be safe.   It's a different time right now but one thing hasn't changed: children will always tell on you.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter went to school today for the first time with a rolling backpack.   Her's was so heavy, even I didn't want to put it on my back.  Braille versions of textbooks are huge and heavy and for now, until her materials can be fully contracted and on her refreshable braille display, she's going to have a lot of braille to bring to and from school.   Even getting the largest child's rolling backpack we could find, it was packed this morning and I had to wedge her lunch in.   Last week was distanced learning so hopefully, it won't be like that very often.   But if it is, she doesn't have to carry the load anymore.

I Wish I’d Never Been Born

There was a brief conversation tonight between my son and daughter that had me holding on to the mop with the strongest grip I could muster, waiting to hear how it came out.   There are things children will tell other people that they won't tell their parents.  There are things in the case of my daughter that she can't actually tell us also because she just doesn't know because she can't see. 

There was an audiobook playing in that cat series my daughter is in love with.  In this case, my son was listening to the book—one about five books behind his sister—when a conversation happened between two cats.  One of the cast, a young initiate was angry because he wasn't doing well as a potential warrior in the cat clan.  He was talking to the healer cat who was cleaning his wounds.   She talked about all the other skills he had, like how he could recognize smells that other cats couldn't.   He was upset and said, "I hate being blind.  I wish I was never born."

My son piped up and asked my daughter, "Do you wish you were never born because you're blind?"  This is the bit where I held on to the mop with near nail breaking force.  My daughter casually replied, "No."  Then she followed up with, "He's completely blind, I'm not."

I took a sigh of relief and was about to think the danger was over when my son helpfully said in a know-it-all voice, "um, I hate to tell you, but you are."   I asked him to come into the bedroom with me shortly after that and had a talk with him about how it looked to everyone that his sister was blind because it didn't seem like she could see anything but that she did have vision.   And that the vision she had was precious to her and it also meant to her that she wasn't completely blind.   I told him he was always supportive of her, something that never failed to impress me and make me proud, and if he could support her feeling that she wasn't completely blind, it would be a nice thing to do. 

I'm glad she wants to be alive.   She was depressed for a good while.  Lately she's been enjoying school, has good friends and has enough things she enjoys doing that she's not bored all the time like she was some time back. .

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Cleaning Helpers:  Our house cleaner, who has been with me since 1997, is taking a break from both COVID-19 rising incidents but also because she has been diagnoses with breast cancer. It was caught early and is treatable but is scary nonetheless.   We love her and miss her and hope her a speedy recovery with complete remission.  In the meantime, we're cleaning our own house and today was major cleaning day.   The children learned how to dust (they loved the dusting), did laundry, swept, cleaned their bathrooms including the toilets.   They weren't keen to help at the beginning but got into it after a while.   Two solid hours of house cleaning helpers was most definitely a lot of help.   We have put off cleaning for so long that the floors were looking more like the outdoors than the indoors at the high-traffic doors. 

Alexa, Stop.

My children have been playing hard these last few days.   The weather has felt like fall, but a fall that's gone south on vacation.  Days have been hot for November, climbing into the sixties with nights cooling off, making my HVAC system all kinds of confused.   We expanded the playability in the backyard with an obstacle course a la Ninja Warrior and there has been a resurgence in the trampoline, which had been out of fashion for a while. 

My daughter plays hard and if you didn't know she was blind, upon arrival at our house, you might not realize it for a while because she just zips about.   Today I saw my daughter very little.   She came in and out and asked me to help with some lunch at one point.   Most of the time she was asking her father if he would please, pretty please and seriously you still can't jump on the trampoline with me?  

My husband is working on a holiday thing that will simplify decorations dramatically when he gets it done.   He has spent a lot of time in the garage doing woodworking things in the spot that used to hold my car.  I jumped in on the wood-related projects and asked if he could get some 2x4's for me at Lowes so I could prop the filament up in the closet.   He finished that unexpected task today and did a far, far better job than I ever would have.   My husband never does anything half-way. 

The children were probably tired at the end of the day, or at least I hoped they would be.   I took some laundry up to my daughter's room at seven-thirty to find her lights out and no audiobook playing.   And that was odd.   The lights are always out, she doesn't need them.   Conversely, she doesn't mind if you turn them on when you come in.   But no audiobook playing?   Now that was odd. 

I went over to talk to her because she loves to act asleep and then shout, "BOO!" at me and then ask if I was scared and did I really think she was asleep?   This time though she was not only asleep, she was sound asleep.   I tried to get her into some pajamas and she was dead weight like she was as a little girl who'd fallen asleep in the car on the way home. 

As I was struggling to get her pajama pants on she woke up enough to say, "Alexa, stop."

The Big Boy Update:  My son played some Zelda today.  That would be one of the Legend of Zelda games.  I played many of them over the years, including the original, as the series began when I was in my youth.   I would come into the room and he would immediately tell me about the hack he had going.  My son loves hacks.   Just being able to do something the game designers didn't intend the game to do for some reason is exciting to my son, regardless of how odd it is.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is very driven.  The obstacle course is fairly tough.  I need to get a picture of it and post it.  Some of the parts are easy, but we've fixed it such that getting from the start to the finish is not easy.   She's shorter than some of the other children who've tried it, but she isn't going to give up until she can successfully make the whole run by herself.   She's practicing starting at each end and seeing how far she can get.   

Ninja Warriors

Now that I've found the cursor I can start this post.  Maybe I should change the cursor to some glaringly hot pink and double it in size.  That, or get some glasses.   Today, though, I spent very little time at the computer.   I told my husband as he and I got up from sleeping in—yes, we got to sleep in, it was blissful—it was time to give our children that early Christmas present we'd told them about. 

In truth, it wasn't a Christmas present to start, it changed into one after my daughter broke her arm.   She loves playing on the swings outside or doing anything outside with her two friends.   She and Keira had been talking about things they wanted to do to expand the backyard's playability which included a zip line among other things.   

I took the drawing and thought about it.   The idea that always got suggested by children was to zip line from the deck.   This definitely couldn't happen because it would involve climbing up on the railing and grabbing hold of a zip line that had no possible anchor point, only to fly downwards at a steep angle into the swingset where they pictured the landing to be. 

As I got to thinking I figured out something that would work, involving 2" slack lines (which aren't well-named as they are anything but slack).  We could get a slackline and loop one end around the brick column that held up the deck and then the other end to the upper railing of the fort part of the playset at about the height where the slide begins.   This would provide some height, but not that much.  It would also give some angle, but not that much either. 

I looked online and found a lot of options for slacklines that were filled with different obstacle-type things like a rope wall, wooden bars, and a collection of hand grips.  They even had swings you could add to the run.  I ordered several different pieces and we were ready to give it to my daughter for her birthday and then she went and broke her arm. 

Thankfully she decided about that time that the only thing she could possibly want for her birthday was a Barbie Dream House, which made finding a replacement present easier.   We decided to hold off until she had her cast off and her arm was healed before giving them the present.   But we wanted to do it now, before it got much colder, so they could maximize time playing on it before winter set in and they just wanted to huddle indoors. 

My husband and I put the run-up today with much excitement from my daughter.   They played on it a lot of the afternoon and into the dark.   My son wasn't as excited, but I hadn't expected he would have been.   We weren't done with the total present, we told them, but we'd save the rest for another day.

I got a second slackline with the idea we could do a tightrope walking course at some point by having the lower line at a walking height below the first line.  We'd unclip the various pieces for this option so it was just two slacklines and some hooks with a red ring to hold on to as they tried to walk across the line.    This is going to be tricky to configure though as there are different heights to consider, so it might not work out. 

What will work out is using the second slackline as a zip line.  My husband had the idea to hook the second slackline up on the middle column of the deck and connect the zipline attachment to that and also have that run over to the swingset.   It won't be a fast zipline, but it'll be a zipline.   And that counts for a whole lot of fun and outdoor playtime, I'm betting. 

The Big Boy Update:  I was over at our next-door neighbor's house this evening, standing around the firepit and when I couldn't take the cold any longer I came home to find my son and see if he needed anything before bedtime.   He was already up in his room, pajamas on, watching something on his iPad in bed.   Like mother like son in this case.   Also, he forgot to brush his teeth.   I will be shocked if they actually remember before they're fourteen.   Telling them they might lose their teeth doesn't matter.   It didn't matter to me when I was a child either. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter absolutely loves playing with her new neighbor, Nora.   They have become very good friends during COVID-19 and I'm glad her family moved in when our beloved neighbors decided to move.  

Obligated

I sort of feel obligated to write about Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving.   As if it perhaps would indicate I am less than thankful if I ignore the importance of family and friends during this day.   For years I have tried to write about one facet of the day or one thing happening in my ever-cluttered mind instead of just reporting on the events as the day marched on. 

Today, though, I don't have anything specifically interesting to write about.   I fell asleep incredibly early for me these days last night at some time well before nine o'clock.  Then I woke up around two-thirty and was in and out of sleep for most of the remainder of the night.   I got up at six-thirty, fed the dog, helped my daughter to some donuts we'd gotten the day before because she wanted to make sure she didn't get the ghost pepper one (they're not that hot) and then went to the basement. 

And this is where my day went longer than I anticipated.   My husband asked me to check on his fifteen-hour print on the SLA (resin) printer because he was concerned about one area.   It wasn't failing, but it was potentially having issues, so I stayed downstairs and watched it for an hour-and-a-half until he got up.   I got into some things on the computer I'd been needing to do, including email, which I have gotten behind on, again.  I swear, I get caught up, and then it just piles back in.   

I hate email.   It's not that one particular email is bad, it's the totality of the emails and the time they require to handle appropriately and well that gets me.   So I avoid them sometimes, which makes it worse. Back to the riveting story of my day, though. 

My plan had been to go downstairs for a short while at seven o'clock and then go back to sleep.   I didn't make it back upstairs to lie down until almost one o'clock and my husband is so kind he didn't wake me after I fell asleep.   I sat up in my pajamas to hear my in-laws had arrived for Thanksgiving dinner at 3:00 and I was neither up nor dressed. 

The meal was good, as always, with specialty items made by my mother-in-law and a turkey made by my husband that was done just right.   Dessert was little cupcakes with different icings and toppings, made by my mother-in-law. 

After dinner, we got on a family Zoom call and saw some of the family members we couldn't be with in person.  My in-laws left and now I'm writing this post.   Hopefully, I can go to bed soon.   I'm tired.  And I didn't even do the cooking.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son loves "glitches" or bugs in games.   He called up from the bonus room, "I've just done the coolest thing."  I came up to see him show off the new hack he'd learned about from a YouTube video in the Zelda game.   I watched him play for a while, listening to him explaining everything while he did it.   He and I also sat at a table together, just the two of us, for Thanksgiving.   He was unhappy until I told him he could tell me all about Minecraft.    He and I had a good day together. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I asked my daughter if she could help set the table for Thanksgiving dinner today.  I had printed some napkin rings she could put out and she would get to select where everyone sat.   She put herself with her father and two grandparents.   She did all the work, so she got to sit with them and have all their attention at the meal.   She does so like to be helpful.

The Missing Cursor

I keep losing the mouse pointer on my computer screen.   I've never had this happen before, but I've never had the same situation that I do now.   It might sound silly that I can't find the cursor, and it is smaller depending on what it's hovering over.   The real problem is screen real estate. 

And when I say 'problem' what I actually mean is 'feature'.  I recently got an extra-wide monitor.   Monitors, like other technology items, have gone down in price dramatically.   The last time I got a monitor upgrade was years ago.   I had been watching my husband with his two monitors move some things out of the way while keeping the item he was working on directly in front of him. 

I was working in a collection of new software products with the 3D printing and had a collection of ancillary windows related to that work.   I was paging back and forth between virtual desktops, hiding and showing windows and kept losing things. 

A new monitor did solve that problem and now I have more screen space than I could have possibly imagined I'd ever use, even a few years ago.   The big monitor is extended to the laptop beside it, meaning if I move the cursor all the way to the left, it leaves the monitor and appears on the laptop screen.   "Super wide" doesn't even describe it.   I think I have "Mega wide" going on here. 

The problem is, when I come back to the computer after getting up to check something on one of the printers or after helping a child or anything else, I can't find where I left the mouse pointer.   I have to do this waggling around behavior until I see where it's gone to.

It's not a problem I'm worried about having.   I'd gladly keep both it and the new monitor. 

The Big Boy Update:   My son threw a ball at his sister's face today in what I think was an attempt to show off to a friend.  My daughter came in very upset.   I talked to her about it and then I brought him in.  I explained he was exhibiting the type of behavior that bully's have and I didn't think he wanted to be seen that way.   I think he was showing off for the neighbor's son, but it could be that my daughter provoked him.   Either way, violence wasn't okay, I told him. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I was taking my daughter to the doctor today (she has a UTI again we believe, but please don't mention this to her as she'd rather people not know.)  She is more interested in all the things associated with driving now that she's been in an accident.   I was describing things as we drove by and she sadly said, "I wish I could see so then I could see all of this."   I told her I wished she could see too.  

Some Prints

I've just finished folding what feels like an epic mound of laundry and I'm tired, so here are some pictures of things I've printed lately.   

Print in place foldable heart box.   The printer beeps in the middle of the print to change filament colors and prints for instance all the red first and then finishes off with the white.   When the print is complete it folds in half to close the box. 

A spiral print vase mode in atomic dark cherry red.   This print is basically done like a slinky print.  If you could unwind the model, it would be one long piece of filament.   There are gaps in the center area because I miscalculated when I sliced the model.  

Coffee cup models designed by one of my favorite creators.   The filament I used changes colors over time.  I printed them one after another and you can tell the order they were printed in by matching the top of one to the bottom of the next.

This is a top and bottom bottle.  The top screws onto the bottom and makes a tight connection closing the two halves together when complete.  I don't know if it's watertight as I didn't check—but it might be.

My mother-in-law's kitchen window.   The tan-colored flower pot includes bendable arms and legs.  She asked if I could print a daisy, which is standing out of the top.  The sticker and the other flowers are not 3D printed.

The Hex Dice Tower I sent to my daughter's school for the VI room to use.   I was very happy to hear they have plans on how to use it with their students. 

Stellated dodecahedron with silver inserts and copper locking rings. 

A Lattice Bowl model made by my favorite model designer, Clockspring, who created all the models pictured in this post other than the flower pot.  His work is a delight to print.   I had the printer prompt me four times to change filament colors during the eleven-hour print of this model.   I like the fall colors. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son's class had a standard lunch today at school instead of a Thanksgiving celebration with shared food and families.  He came home with, instead, a paper chain of links with one message from a classmate on each link saying what they were grateful for about my son.   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter spent this week in distanced learning at home, studying her standard subjects as well as Thanksgiving traditions.  She and I read a story together today about how our celebration differs dramatically from what the originally pictured Thanksgiving is like and where our traditions are borne from.  I learned a lot I didn't know before about the history of Thanksgiving this week. 

Addict

I am an addict.  I need to let you all know this, because it's getting out of hand.   I thought I could control it, but I just want more and more.   Yes, that's right, I'm talking about gum.   

A while back I wanted to get some bubble gum balls and Amazon had a big bucket of them.   I went through those and then I saw on the next order those chicklet pillow-shaped gum things and I got a five-pound container of those.   

Next, well, next I had to reorder the first two things because I was out of them again.   My children know where the gum stash is.   It's in the closet under the stairs or what we now call, "the filament closet".   Or maybe I just call it that.  Anyways, that's where the gum is.  You can see my children stepping in and then coming right out from the closet after school or any time on the weekends.   I may well have gotten them addicted too.

I have a little cup I keep filled that I refill with the main bin contents.   The cup gets refilled a lot.   I can go through a whole slew of quarter-sized handfuls of gum in a given day.  

And now I've gotten in a container of those large sized blowing gumballs.   

I may need to go into gum rehab. 

Monday Tuesday Taco Night:  Nana came to get the children (and the dog) to go over to their house to have Tuesday Taco Night tonight.   Only it was Monday.   The children and I tried to figure out what exactly Tuesday Taco Night on a Monday was called.   We came up with a lot of variations but ultimately to me it meant, "dinner without the children!"

Dang It

I was fine.  Fine from the collision.  Then I went and fell off the swing set today.   I was helping my daughter put a swing back up that the boys were "trying to hurt" so she dropped it to the ground.   It's a four-person swing so I had her on the top of the A-frame, ready to grab the ring and hook it in.   I had gotten the first side hooked by standing in the playhouse side of the swing set but the second side needed me to stand on the crossbar of the A-frame and hand her the heavy chain, connected to the heavy swing.  

We got everything done and then, just like my daughter, I was doing something I'd done a hundred times before as I stood on the A-frame but I lost my balance and fell backward.   I didn't have time to grab the swing behind me and landed, only to feel my neck go crunch.  

The neck was fine though, protected by some metal I suppose from the spinal fusions.   What wasn't okay was my middle lower right side as I slammed into the ground with most of my body weight whamming into that area.   I don't know if 'whamming' is an appropriate word in this context, but it's what it felt like inside. 

I got up and realized I'd shifted some vertebra way out of alignment.   This was confirmed five minutes later when the muscles started spasming from being stretched in the opposite direction due to the subluxation.   The same thing happened to me years ago when I slipped and fell on icy ground in the car park at our old house.   At that time I went straight to the chiropractor and in three hours I was almost as good as new. 

This time I 'whammed' myself on a Sunday so there was nothing to do but wait until tomorrow morning when I can get to the chiropractor and have him un-wham it.   I texted my chiropractor, asking if I could do anything but, in this case, it requires specific and exact force in a direction that isn't something I can do.   

So for today and tonight, I get to tough it out.   I wasn't hurt so much as messed up temporarily.   I will be in their office early morning.   For now, it's NSAID, and going to sleep early. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was playing Minecraft today when he said to me, "I want to go outside and play now."  Woah, that's a new one.  Usually, he wants to play forever.  At least we've always had to curtail his screen time in the past.   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Tomorrow is cast removal day.   My daughter is excited to have her arm free.  I'm excited to have the exceptionally dirty cast taken off her arm.  

A Day Later

My daughter woke me up this morning to remind me we needed to get to the chiropractor's office when they opened in case they felt we needed x-rays and we wanted to have a chance to get them done today.  My son was already up playing Minecraft in the basement.   I gave him the, "we're leaving in five, get dressed and meet in the garage" message and went to get dressed.   My daughter, of course, was already dressed and ready to go. 

In the car, I asked them how they were feeling.   My son pretty much had zero symptoms.  My daughter's chest and shoulder were bothering her some from the seatbelt.   I had checked her before leaving and she had no bruising or marks.  My daughter is very in tune with her body and talks about anything that is out of kilter with her all the time so she had a longer list of things going on. 

The first was her ankle and wrist.   She then said, "they were bothering me a lot on the playground at school."  Since the collision happened after school, I talked to the children about how the doctor would want to help them in any way they needed, but when we went in today, the doctor was going to assess what was going on from the accident and we needed to report those symptoms first, and then we could talk about other things afterward. 

My daughter's back and neck were stiff, as were mine.  I had a possibly jammed pinky finger.   No one had any indications of broken bones.  We told the doctor all of this and he palpated us and then adjusted us, including (and this he found funny) all three right ankles.  Each of us had turned our ankles at different times and he did something that helps.  I don't know to describe the thing he does, but it helped a lot. 

We got back in the car and headed home.   We talked about being safe when driving and that anyone who's had an accident is always super duper extra crazy vigilant when driving.   They didn't seem scared to get in the car.   They teased me when we got home by telling their father, "we didn't crash on the way home."  They don't seem to have PTSD or any physical side effects from the crash.   I hope that continues to be the case. 

All of us had a very leisurely, lazy Saturday at home.   Tomorrow I plan on being as lazy as I can muster.   There is an awful lot of laundry piling up though.   Duty calls...

The Big Boy Update:  My son is getting so good at Minecraft.   He's on his computer a lot on the weekends (the computer he was meh about getting at first.)  It's nice having him in the basement beside me.   He is recreating things he sees on YouTube videos, but then he takes the ideas and extrapolates on them.   He makes some wacky stuff, like right now he's built an anvil launcher and is giggling and talking to himself. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter played with Barbies and American Girl Doll with Nora all day.   She microwaved herself some chicken wonton soup, including opening the can that she recently learned about by asking.   She brought the soup outside to eat on the play set picnic table with Nora.   She really loves spending time with Nora.  

Inside a Marshmallow

Today, coming home from school, the children and I were in one of those pile-up situations on the highway.   Multiple accidents happened, both in front of us and behind us.   In our particular case, I hit the car in front of us who then tapped the car in front of them. 

I knew there were a lot of airbags in my car but I had no idea what it would be like to have them all deploy at the same time.   Everyone is fine.  I promise.  The car, however, is not.   We were kept safe by the many safety implementations in the car but in the case of a front-end collision, the crumple zone is paramount. 

The front crumpled, the windshield cracked and the airbags deployed.   Don't ask me for the order, because it happened too fast to tell. 

I'm tired after a lot of stress dealing with the situation, being worried about your children, police, tow truck, getting my children home, talking with Tesla, talking with the insurance agency, talking with a physician, and the terrible feeling of knowing you totaled someone else's car and have inconvenienced them in a massive way.

We're fine.  We will be sure to make sure we're fine with our health care team as needed.  We "walked away" from the accident with a sprained ankle and a jammed finger.    

I don't like to use the word because it's overused but my car was amazing. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was not only okay but totally nonplussed by the accident.   He just wanted to get home to play Minecraft on Friday night.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   I asked my daughter (again, for the fifth time because I'm a mother and I do that) how she felt, and was she in any pain?   She said he ankle was hurting a lot.  Oh, and her wrist.   Then, upon further questioning, she told me they had been bothering her on the playground and they both had been hurting for a few days after she fell and hurt them.   Her seatbelt may have bothered her but she's not sure yet.   I'll ask both children the same questions a lot more times in the coming days.   

This Keeps Happening

Gone are the days where I get my children to sleep at seven o'clock, head downstairs to a hot tub and a book.   I love that the children are growing up and yet again tonight they took care of themselves mostly.   We still have to be there and I want to still be there, but they're more independent now.   It's a nice thing. 

It wasn't even that long ago when my daughter lived in the same room as her brother.  When she moved out she seemed like a little girl.   I believe she moved out after COVID-19 started?  Now she is in control of her own room, manages her own clothes, and sometimes even cleans it (when requests are phrased as requirements.)

I'm not upstairs in the bedroom watching shows on some streaming platform in the dark on my iPad by nine o'clock anymore.   I'm down in the basement, checking on the prints, researching things to print, and doing emails for school, neighborhood, family, shopping, general computer stuff.   That's my life now.   It's not bad.  I like it and if I can get the work things done during the day then I can focus on more fun things at night like...you guessed it, 3D printing. 

What keeps happening is I look up and it's late.   I realize I need to get a post in before Midnight and Midnight is seriously looming.   I've had to backdate posts because I've been up past Midnight some nights—and I never stayed up past Midnight a few years ago.

Last night I looked up, thinking it was probably eleven o'clock and it was twelve-forty.   I yelled out in the room, "that can't be!" because I couldn't believe it.   Where did the time go?  This keeps happening to me, loss of time and not in a memory loss kind of way.   

Tonight I'm going to make it upstairs before Midnight, but I'm cutting it tight.   Tomorrow is Friday thought.  Maybe I'll sleep in on Saturday.   The children have been nice and are letting us sleep in more and more often these days.   They're certainly growing up fast. 

The Big Boy Update:  I heard an interesting melody coming from the bonus room this evening.   I asked my daughter what it was and she said it was part of the game they were playing.   I thought it was something on Alexa, but no, it was my son playing on the keyboard.   He was making up something that was minor in key that had a haunting yet catchy melody.   I heard him play for another ten minutes or so.  He's never exhibited any interest before but maybe I should see if he's interested in piano lessons.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is binging her lunch to school.   She loves the cafeteria lunch but they don't have that option now because meals are delivered to them in their classroom and there are no choices.   She was the one who insisted on cafeteria meals when she started kindergarten after requesting them.   Now, I think she's going to make her lunch going forward.  She has more control and gets to pick things she likes.   Also, she's pickier than I think she used to be. 

RepRap

I broke my printer.   I fixed my printer.  

The way I was able to do this so easily tonight when I realized the fan shroud to the new printer was cracked was because of a group of people who got together a number of years ago when 3D printing was more in its infancy and decided the best way to make 3D printers would be for them to make themselves.   Self-replicating machines, although not in the Terminator kind of way. 

My new printer was made by other printers.  Not all of the parts as the screws, wires, metal, and some other pieces were made elsewhere. but where plastic parts are found on the machine, they were made by other printers just like mine.  

The Reprap project is not only about making self-replicating machines but making them generally available.   That means the hardware on my printer is all open source and all the pieces are free to download and print for yourself.   I could have ordered a replacement part for $3.50 and had it shipped from overseas.   Or, I could send it to my printer and forty minutes later I would not only have the piece printed but also installed.   I chose the latter option. 

The printer is still in that shiny, "it's new and perfect" phase so when I realized I had a broken part I had that terrible feeling you get when you hurt something you care about.   I worried it would be long and complicated to repair.   I already had the print files for the whole printer though so I threw the part on the printer and then went looking for installation information. 

I ran into another expectation from the company though, which caused me to get derailed for a bit.   The company clearly states: "we expect people to make modifications to the printer."   Not only do they expect it, it's part of the culture around the company.  And that meant I found other parts, similar to the one I was printing from the company, for free, that other people had designed that they said had other benefits such as, "this version better redirects airflow onto the print surface."   

I could fix the printer, but heck, I could also upgrade it if I wanted instead.   Tonight I opted for just replacing the part with a stock alternative.   But tomorrow maybe I'll go see what other upgrades people have created for their printers that I can download and print on mine...to upgrade the machine on which it was printed. 

Crazy, no?

The Tiny Girl Big Boy No Idea Update:  We had a friend come over tonight for dinner and a meeting.   My children said hello and we talked during dinner and then my husband and I went to the basement.   I have no idea what my children did for the rest of the night, but they got themselves in bed and took care of everything themselves.   They are growing up.  Although odds are they "forgot" to brush their teeth.    They haven't bought into the whole, "trust me, you'll want your teeth when you get older" lecture yet. 

Kentucky

I've been working at my parent's house the last few days cleaning up some things in their basement that were impacted due to a recent flood.   I was amazed, and I do mean amazed, at how many things I saw that were in their house when I was a child.   They've lived in the same house since I was born so there could easily be things they just hadn't gotten rid of or replaced, but I'm fifty and I suppose I hadn't imagined they would keep things that long. 

I live in a time of impermanence.   The phone I have in my pocket is probably a year old.   I'll get another one in less than a year.   Today, I saw the phone that was in my parent's house that I talked on nearly half a century ago. 

The Tiny Girl Moving Away Adventures:  On the way home from school I asked her if she had a message for someone I was going to be catching up with that evening.   She told me to tell him hello and that she was planning on moving to Kentucky when she had enough money.   She said there was lots of good land there and she could have her pet store and Keira (who was planning on moving there too) would have a flower shop. 

The Bog Boy Chronicles:  My daughter and I were disagreeing on something when we all got in the car to go to school.   My son asked if we could change the subject and talk about something happy?   Sure, we said.   So he talked about Minecraft.   It did, however, effective; end the argument.

$19.99 or Free

I helped clean out a shed at a house today that had the most interesting collection of things in it.   It was satisfying work because we were able to take the existing contents and by arranging them differently, regain close to seventy percent of the floor space in the shed.   I saw more old tools today than I have in the past ten years. 

Old tools are heavy.   And my back is ready for me to go to bed.    BUT, before I do, I wanted to write another post about 3D printing...because I can't help myself, it's just so much fun. 

I've been printing lots of things, but I also look through many more models than I have time to print.   There are beautiful prints, creative prints, useful prints, and even weird prints.   What's been the most interesting of late is in my perusal of holiday catalogs that we've gotten in the mail I've found multiple things I could print myself. 

And I don't mean something similar.   I mean that exact model is free and available for anyone to print.  One of them was a twist on measuring spoons that was listed for $19.95 in the catalog.  That one stuck out because I'd already printed it twice. 

So many things are plastic and there are loads of people creating and sharing designs.   My mother-in-law asked if I could print her a daisy.   I found just the kind of thing she was looking for and had it ready the next day.  

So much fun. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl In School Update:  It may not last, but my children were both in school today for the first time since the shelter in home orders went out in March and April.  I forgot what it was like having them both in school.

Marty McFly

Does anyone else remember the beginning of Back to the Future where Marty McFly's alarm clock goes off and he wakes up in the most uncomfortable of looking positions before stumbling out of bed, grabbing his skateboard and then blowing Doc's workshop up by turning up the amp to virtual eleven? 

For some reason that was the most exciting thing, watching Marty McFly in that crazy position when I saw the movie more than once again later.   Maybe it was because I knew an epic adventure was about to begin.  Maybe it was because the position looked so strange but he seems not the least bit bothered by it or maybe, and this could be the real reason, Mickael J. Fox was just hot.   

Yeah, probably that last reason.   It's a memorable bit of the movie.   Now that I have children, I can understand the position somewhat more.   Here, for instance, is the position I found my daughter in when I went up to put her laundry away about a half-hour after she went to bed.

The Big Boy Update:  We told my son tonight about how one of our friends wasn't well and we hoped she would be better soon.   We talked to him about how it was hard for her to be out of work for an extended period (she's self-employed and may lose business if she can't work to competitors) and that that was an added stress on her.   My son said he wanted to help her out, just like he did for Keaton.   He wanted to send her some money so she wouldn't worry.   My son is a very sweet little guy. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My husband scrubbed and scrubbed my daughter's feet tonight to try and make them look less dirty.   She's barefoot so much of the time and outside a large portion of the day.  We think her calloused feet have incorporated the dirt into her pads.   Nothing bothers her: sticks, stones, acorns.   I couldn't walk across wet leaves without my feet being uncomfortable.   They really are a useful tool for her.  

I Want to Have COVID-19

I'm serious.   I know, it sounds crazy, but I would at this point, just go ahead and get COVID-19 and get it over with.   Today, like every day, I worry about what we're doing that could cause our family to contract the virus.   I worry that our actions will affect others, potentially with disastrous results.   I do a lot of worrying.  

Today was like many days around here of late with the children outside.   There are neighbor children we are sort of, "in the same bubble" with.   We still ask them to social distance where possible and have them play outside because studies show it is a lower risk of transmission, should any of us be infected.   Today there were other children who came to the backyard that on a non-infectious world day, would have been a welcomed sight.  

But I worried.   We let them know the rules, mostly that you could only get in the trampoline with someone you were in a bubble with and we expected them to social distance at other times.   Still, we weren't out there spraying IPA on every surface the children touched, cleaning the slide, ladder, swings, and trampoline surface after each child.   We talked to our children and told them to play in other areas (the front yard or garage with the doors all open) if the other friends were over.   They don't like it, but they do try.  

Could we send every child home?  Away?  Yes.   But those children have also been cooped up and need some exercise and, well, fun.   It's hard to tell them no when the trampoline and swings go unused a large portion of the time.   Especially when I heard them laughing and having fun today. 

Our bubble is already much larger.   We have two children in school and although safety measures are in place, COVID-19 could come from any direction the children or we have interactions with.   We have Blake here, who is very concerned about getting COVID-19 and is more cautious than most people I know.  

There have been actual, live, in-person doctors appointments for both me and my daughter.   She has two more coming up and they're not the kind you can do electronically when you have a cast that needs tending to. 

There is the pharmacy and grocery store.  I had to drop something off to be shipped that I couldn't do from home and due to a mistake on my end I had to go to Kohls instead of the UPS store I was already going to to return something to Amazon that arrived broken.  

My in-laws come over and we worry about getting them sick should we unknowingly have COVID-19.  And right now I am frustrated enough about Thanksgiving that I'm writing this post.   My son's school can't control what families do, but they can make rules about when you can attend school.   If you have family visit for the holidays, you have to isolate for fourteen days.   It's a rule and I know they're trying to be safe and I understand and I'm not arguing.   

But it doesn't allow for family who have a COVID-19 negative test before leaving and isolate after taking the test and then drive non-stop and see no one after taking that test until they arrive at your house and are asymptomatic.   There is no rule about having friends or neighbors over for Thanksgiving.   And obviously, there is an overriding rule that says to use good, safe judgment.  The no family rule overrides  your judgment, even if the family that might be coming is far safer a choice than those neighbors who go out to bars (are bars even open these days?)  

I'm not upset about the rule, it's to keep people safe.   But what if...what if we'd already contracted and gotten past COVID-19?   My husband, children, and I wouldn't be in danger of getting it from anyone and we wouldn't be the transmission vector that could give it to other people.   The amount of worry I would have related to this virus would be dramatically less.   And the freedom would be significantly more. 

There are no guarantees and as I am writing this I am reviewing the CDC's statistics on deaths related to our age ranges.   How many times have you heard a parent talk about intentionally infecting their child with chicken pox so they would get it early and have immunity to it later?   The statistics for children in my children's age range is so incredibly small and does not preclude other health conditions that I would without hesitation worry about them contracting it.   I'm older as is my husband and the death toll is higher, but as we grow older, we seem to have more things wrong with us than when we were children.   We're healthy.   I have a crappy back, but I don't think COVID-19 has a confluence with messed up backs so I'm dubbing me, "healthy" for the sake of this discussion.   I have no concern with us getting it either. 

In theory (because I'm not acting on this idea, it is just words on this white page I type on) if I knew I could stock up the house with food and necessities and then infect our family, lock the door and not come out for until fourteen days after we developed symptoms, I would seriously consider it. 

I don't know anyone within our age range or younger (some even older) that have had more than the mildest of symptoms.   I'm willing to take that risk.   To be done with this thing.   For the freedom of worry it would bring.   Because this not knowing where there are germs and as a result thinking the germs are everywhere is maddening. 

My husband has talked to me about mutation and duration of immunity and I'm no expert, but my argument is that if people were getting it again and again, it would be, "all over the news" as the saying goes.  Searching for information on it now, even the CDC is saying it is not known but that the virus mutates more slowly.   I'd rather have it now, suffer the isolation and symptoms and take the immunity provided for whatever period it lasts for and let those in need have the vaccination when (and if) it comes to light. 

The opinions in this blog post are entirely my own and are definitely not shared by my husband in large part.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is clicking and making mouth noises.   It's a habit he's picked up that he can't stop because he doesn't realize he's doing it at this point.  I remind him and not five seconds later—literally, I'm not exaggerating—he's back at it.   He's trying to stop, because it's bleeding over to school I fear, and it's hard to work when a student is making random noises constantly as they sit six feet away from you.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We had a child in our house today.   It was unexpected but needed to happen to appease my daughter.   Claire had gone to her house to get her mask on my daughter's suggestion and my daughter was so very excited to have Claire set up an acorn in a glass jar with some toothpicks so that it would sprout and grow a tree.   Claire understood and didn't touch anything save for the toothpicks I gave her with the jar.   She set it up for my daughter and then they both left, about three minutes later.   Claire is older and my daughter looks up to her.   Claire is also a very nice girl and I hated feeling I was kicking her out or making her feel unwelcome.   She probably, very likely, doesn't have COVID-19 and we probably, don't have it either and masks weren't needed, but we don't know.   So that's the way it has to be for now. 

Comma, Period.

Tonight my daughter opened a present from Uncle Bob and Uncle Brian.   When she was done opening it I told her we should send them a message to let them know she had received it and how she liked it.   They had sent her one of the things she'd requested for her birthday: more swings.   

To digress, we have a lot of swings for the playset in our back yard.   Swings are an inexpensive way to expand the fun of the outdoors for the children which traditionally would mean me going out from time to time to switch out or around the swing options we have.   Of late, it's my daughter with the help of Keira, swapping around swings.   

There are only so many options when it comes to swings.  I know this because I frequently go looking for new, different options.   I found something interesting that's unlike anything we have in a basket rope swing.   It looks very comfortable to sit in and I will be testing it out myself once they get it hung up tomorrow to see if it's as comfortable as it looks. 

Uncle Bob and Uncle Brian sent her the swing in orange, which my daughter loved.   I told her I had the phone ready for her to send a message after confirming (at her insistence) that I couldn't lift her up in the swing and swing her around in the bedroom.   She's sent messages like this before, using voice to text, but this time she said, "do I need to add the commas and periods like you and dad do?"

I told her she could if she liked and so she launched off with a message of multiple sentences in a steady flow, saying 'comma' where she knew one was needed and ending her sentences with 'period'.   She knows punctuation from school, so I shouldn't have been surprised at this, it was just fun to hear her rattle off a text message like we do.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has gotten some new clothes.   One of the shirts I got him was white with black sleeves and had a black tie printed on the front.   I put it in the front of his drawer, hoping he'd like it.   He picked it out on the very next day and I though he looked so good in it.   I told him that apparently too many times through the day though because he told me, "if you say that one more time, Mom, I'm going to throw this shirt away and never wear it again.  I think he liked that he looked good in the shirt though. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter showed Keira all her Barbie things today.   Keira listened very politely with the occasional positive comment.   We could tell though that she totally wasn't interested.   Dolls are not Keira's thing.   Swings are much more her speed. 

Something Useful!

As Mr. Furious from Mystery Men comedically says as he limps away from the reporter, "I'm in a super amount of pain right now."   I am indeed in a super amount of pain but you know me, a blog post per day, regardless.   That's how high a priority this blog is: it trumps almost anything else. 

I mean, yeah, I was busy working on some 3D prints—but this time they're useful.   I got an email from my son's teacher asking if I could 3D print a "parts of speech" grammar stencil for the students in case we have to go to distanced learning next week.    She sent me the link to a site where she could have bought them for six dollars per student, but budgets are non-existent with enrollment so low and expenditures jacking higher and higher with COVID-19 measures being implemented. 

I looked in some repositories and lo if I didn't find the same thing so I downloaded it, printed one and asked my son if the color (see-through to see words under the template), shape and size of the elements was okay.    Apparently I nailed it.   

So now I'm printing nine of them and will deliver them in the morning to his teacher.  It's a nice feeling to be useful. 

The Big Boy Update:  No positive COVID-19 results back from the family at my son's school so he has another "snow day" tomorrow.   He was not broken up about it. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  It is exhausting to play with Barbie and American Girl Doll after school four hours because my daughter fell asleep on the floor immediately after dinner with a blanket over her.  

Dreamhouse

It was a very Barbie ninth birthday for my daughter today.   This morning my husband was in a golf tournament with Nana, Papa, and a good friend of his so he had to leave at eight-thirty.  My daughter was up already and I told her I would bring her birthday present down so she could open it before her father left.   

I called my son up from the basement (he had gotten up and was on the computer after finding out school had been canceled for the day) and after taking one look at the huge Dream House box, nodded and went back downstairs. 

Thus started the back-breaking process of opening up and putting together this very exciting present for my daughter.   She was helpful and excited and it was quite easy to put together, it's just one of those things that's hard for me to do with the damage to my spine.  I can do so many things, but sitting on the floor, moving around without back support for over an hour and I was about ready to keel over from pain and discomfort.   

Things got better once it was all together and I was in a vertical position again.   By this time, Blake had arrived and my daughter ran to get Nora from next door.   Nora and she can only play together outside and it was raining.   We made a compromise and put the dream house in the garage with the garage doors open. 

My daughter got a convertible car and a travel Barbie from her aunt, uncle, and cousin, completing the Barbie Dream House as there was no car in the garage otherwise.   Nora ran over and we put outside all the Barbie and American Girl things she now has and we didn't hear from them for hours.    

At one point it started raining heavily and I heard screaming, but it was just the two of them running in and out of the rain in the warm weather. 

For dinner, we had her choice of sides dinner of all items she picked including corn niblets, roasted cherry tomatoes, green beans, my husband's homemade french fries, and mashed potatoes from Bojangles.   Nana and Papa came to join us for dinner and then for dessert we had cupcakes she also designed with strawberry icing, three marshmallows on top, and edible eyes with a dash of sprinkles. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son would have complained about getting up today until he heard school was canceled.   A family with two children in classes my son isn't in was exposed to someone with COVID-19.  The school was doing a deep cleaning of everything for the day and consulting with the department of health.  Upon hearing from my daughter that school was canceled, he vaulted out of his bed and went to play video games in the basement.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Blake bought my daughter a Barbie in a glamourous dress and an Ariel puzzle. She was so sweet to him, telling him thank you several times throughout the day, and deciding his new name was, "Bestie Blake."

Not Clothes!

My daughter talked to my mother about two weeks ago.  One of the reasons my mother wanted to call was to find out what she wanted for her birthday.  The list included many things we could put on her wish list, including that Barbie Dream House and lots of American Girl sized items.  The one thing my daughter absolutely did not want was clothes.   

This was an interesting comment from her, but absolutely understandable.   She needs some clothes right now.   While it was a crazy seventy-eight degrees here today, it will be cold in short order and my daughter was very low on pants that a) fit her and b) hadn't been destroyed by her outside adventures.  

She had been asking me for clothes.   But in her mind, she didn't want to get clothes in lieu of toys, hence the ban on clothes for her birthday.   My mother-in-law wanted to get her some clothes and I told her they would be much appreciated, but to phrase in such a way as to say, "I was just passing by these lovely clothes and couldn't resist getting them for you and it certainly didn't occur to me that your birthday was coming up because I already had your gift and would never get you clothes for your birthday because clothes aren't nearly as fun as toys."   

Okay, not those words, but that general gist.  And that's what my mother-in-law did and the clothes were well-received.  

Tonight my daughter opened a present from my childhood best friend and her husband. It was an American Girl doll rollerboard suitcase, an outfit with shoes, a fox purse and little metal renditions of an iPhone, iPad and Mac that were quite heavy.   There was an old style SLR camera that clicked.   She liked it all.   She was going to open up another present but got very tired and fell asleep after me telling her no more presents until her room was clean.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son's school has been canceled for tomorrow.   There is a family who was exposed to someone with COVID-19.   They are being tested and will isolate for fourteen days, regardless of the results.  There was more than one child at the school and even though every classroom has its own HVAC system, there is no interaction between classes or teachers, doors and windows are open if at all possible, hands are sanitized many times a day and are washed just as many, masks are always worn unless eating and other protocols the school has in place that I'm not remembering right now, because of the exposure, school is closed tomorrow.   The administration is working with the health department and will make a decision on what to do next.   My son didn't have any of the siblings in his class so I feel quite safe that we're not at risk from that particular family exposure.   I am glad the school is being cautious though. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was out on the play structure today, sitting across from Nora, doing Barbie and American Girl Doll things.   I couldn't tell what they were doing, but they seemed to be having lots of fun.   

The Wheel Chair

Today for my daughter’s, “birthday week” we had her open Mimi and Gramp’s birthday present.   We’re spreading out the presents so that she doesn’t open them all at once, which can dilute the excitement.   Nana suggested this yesterday and it sounded like a good idea to me, so birthday week it is.

Let me sidetrack, as I am wont to do, and explain that I can’t count.   Today is my mother’s eighty-first birthday, not her eightieth.   I had faulty birthday counting logic in play when I wrote the post in my tired state last night.   I knew Mimi was thirty years older than I was, so I added thirty to my age.   Although, that’s not exactly the case.  Mimi was thirty when she had me, which means if I’m fifty, she would have to already be thirty years older than me and therefore would be turning eighty-one, not eighty. 

My foolishness aside, my daughter loved her present.   It was an American Girl sized wheelchair, crutches, and casts for the leg and arm.   They have been playing doctor with the doctor kit but didn’t have any doctor-sized items for the dolls themselves.   My daughter absolutely loved the wheelchair. 

She loved it so much, she has officially decided she wants Santa to bring her a wheelchair for her for Christmas.   How am I going to get out of this one?

The Big Boy Update:  Today when I picked up my son from school I was on the phone with my mother and after wishing her a happy birthday, she asked him what he might want for his upcoming birthday.   He said, “A surprise.  Anything you get me is priceless.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter also opened another present from someone special tonight: her Aunt Jo.   She felt the package and with barely a touch said, “it’s a water bottle.”   And she was right, but it was one of the double-walled ones that keeps beverages hot or cold for hours and hours.   My daughter has been making hot chocolate every morning and suddenly realized she could make hot chocolate and take it to school to drink for lunch.   She is really excited about taking it Monday when she goes back to school.

Something Useful

When I first got the 3D printer I wanted to print everything I found—and there was a lot to find.   The only problem was most things would take eight, twelve or even more hours to print.  It doesn’t even need to be a large model to take a long time to print if it’s complicated or dense or you want extremely fine detail in the layers.   I just wanted to print things, going from a spool of filament to something finished on the printer. 

So I learned to be selective on the models I picked to print and figured out what print settings I could use to have models print faster at the price of detailed accuracy I didn’t really need in some models so I could get experience printing different types of things.   I learned about “vase mode” which ignores everything else and prints only a single perimeter in a slinky-like fashion.   Vase mode was really fast and would churn out models faster than anything else as long as the model would work with only one perimeter.   Not surprisingly, vase models were ideal for this type of print. 

I figured out how to change nozzles to a much thicker one which enabled me to print larger models with bulkier lines of filament, but for some models, this worked well.   Faster extrusion of filament through the larger diameter nozzle meant I could get models printed faster, again, at the price of detail and accuracy.   Still, some models look great printed this way and many of my favorite models to date were printed like this. 

For the longest while, my husband would contend that I was printing things that were mostly trinkets or another slew of vases and as far as he saw, none of it was useful.   I bristled.  I balked.   Of COURSE everyone needed thirty-odd vases in their basement mechanical room.   And how could he say those articulated toys weren’t a complete necessity in everyone’s household?   

I’m exaggerating, but he did say he didn’t think I was printing anything useful at the time.   Now that the new printer is in, I’ve been able to send one printer on a long-haul print, while having the other printer do shorter-length work.   I’ve even sent them off on full overnight prints as I’m more willing to wait for that perfect model to come off the print bed.   

I’ve been printing things for teacher holiday presents.  I’ve found some really beautiful and useful models and I’ve been printing and assembling them.   I also have some functional parts I’ve been printing that have a specific useful use.   So when my husband came in yesterday and told me he wished he had useful prints to do on his printer, well, I almost laughed.  Only he was serious.  

His printer is an entirely different process than mine.   It does an outstanding job of printing some things, but isn’t as ideal for the types of things I’ve been printing.   He’s made a lot of highly-detailed figurines, but those are less functional and more beautiful.    

I’m getting up the nerve to sent prints to the printer that are over ten hours in length.   I’ve never done it before for several reasons.   First, if something goes wrong at hour eleven, you’ve lost the material and print.  Second, if something goes wrong and you’re not watching it regularly, you can have a massive mess that could damage the extruder and third, it’s a long time before anything else can be printed.   

Tomorrow we’re going to add a raspberry pi to the second printer to enable remote printing monitoring as well as putting a camera on it.   I’ll be able to check the status of the print in the middle of the night without getting out of bed and I can stop it if something’s wrong and we’re away from the house.   I can also do time-lapse videos of prints, and those are always fun to watch.

I have to end this so I can start something else useful on the printer. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  The week of my daughter’s birthday has begun.   She wanted Barbie things, and she has several things coming from grandparents.  She opened Nana and Papa’s gift today and tomorrow she will open Mimi and Gramp’s present (it’s also Mimi’s 80th birthday!)  There is more Barbie madness to come.   It’s going to be a Barbie birthday for sure. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted to play Minecraft with his father last night.   I was listening to him talking to my husband and then my husband’s responses.   After a while I told my son, “I know you wanted to play with your father, but after a while it seems like what you want to do is have a show-off show, not actually play with dad.   I see your father is trying to build something.   I’m getting the sense from the tone of his responses to you that he’s not having fun with the way you’re wanting to play by showing off all you know.   You’ve got to keep in mind you know so much more about Minecraft than either of us do, and that’s great, but maybe you’d get a better response from your father if you spent your time working with him instead of just trying to show all the cool things you can do.”  I tried to say it in a nice way, and I think he got the message.   It’s tough to play with him because all he wants to do is show off.   After that, he started helping his father and they had a good time.   

To Be President

We have two school-aged children who are learning about the governmental process at school.   They have each come home wanting to talk about the current election, asking questions to help them understand.   They know there was more than one election and were interested to know about one of the candidates, asking if he’d won.  

My son has a classmate who’s father was running for state senate and he did win the seat.   He was running for re-election so the children have heard about him in the past.   We had a discussion with them about how he was a state senator, not a congressional senator.  That sparked more questions which my husband did a good job of explaining. 

My daughter’s school had no specific guidance about how we, as parents, might support our children during the election with questions.  My son’s head of school sent out a nice email about respectfulness of other’s thoughts and opinions and asked that we help our children understand that differing opinions are important and should be respected.  It was a very well-written, “we should all play nice” email and I liked that the school was trying to encourage it. 

Tonight at dinner the conversation invariably got around to the presidential race.   The children knew there was a lot of counting of votes going on and we might not know the winner for some time.   My son said that no, they had the finals now (he was looking at Alexa’s screen) so my husband jumped in and explained how it was almost certain, although there were reasons recounts would be done like if a state was very close in votes or if a candidate contested the count.   Even so, my husband said, there wasn’t a big chance things would turn out differently.

The conversation then shifted to George Washington and how many terms a president could serve.   As the conversation was winding down my daughter said, “Actually, I’m going to try and be president.”

The Big Boy Update:  My son wants you to play Minecraft with him.   What he really wants to do is play the show off everything he knows game.   I told him it was fun for only so long with someone who played like that and if he wanted his father and me to play with him, he might want to consider that. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was more cautious for a while after breaking her arm—which I continue to forget is broken she’s done so well with it—but today she is back to her risk-taking, full-tilt, on top of the swing set and trying to do flips on the trampoline self again.   I hope she heals from this break before the next calamity occurs, at least.

For New Players

I am hardly keeping my eyes open at this point and I’m back dating this post to be an hour ago, making it post on Friday night instead of after midnight, which it now definitely is.   My son has been wanting to play Minecraft together for some time.   I told him yesterday that if the Java version would run on my Mac, I’d play with him tonight.   

It turns out it does, and I did play with him, although it mostly involved him running around, doing everything and telling me what was going on while I was lost, got lost again, got myself killed, and was utterly useless.   Still, he loved it.  

Minecraft was free to play although it has since been maintained and expanded by a company and is now a paid game to buy.   There is so much to the game, and children do creative thinking in this block building, crafting, creating world, that I don’t mind him playing it.   

He has a world with his father that I was going to get into tonight but we needed a back leveled version of the game and it was getting late so we decided to save that for tomorrow.   The world they’ve been working in together has been significantly modified and developed by my son.   Earlier today he showed me some of the features of the world he’d created.   He showed me a stack of blocks with all sorts of things floating above each block. 

He had put a sign up in front with the message, “For new players” and told me it was all the things you’d need as a new player to help you when you first started to play. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son has been giving me a hug every morning and after school each day.   It’s so unlike him but it’s been very nice.   I tell him every time how much it means to me. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicle:  My daughter’s first week back to school in-person is over.   She is home next week while cohort C students get an introduction to life back at school.   Then, starting the following week, she goes back to school full-time. 

The Unexpected Package

Maybe the title should be, “The Long-Awaited Package” but regardless, there was a package today at my doorstep that met both criteria.   I got in the car to go get my children from their respective schools this afternoon after letting the dog get in with me (on account of she never wants to be left at home) and as I backed out of the driveway I saw a large, black shrink-wrapped package on the doorstep.   

It was festooned with stickers in various places and from a similarly decked out package some weeks back, I knew exactly where it was from.   I pulled back into the driveway, disarmed the house and pulled the packed in, stopping only to glance at the label to confirm that it was indeed the package I’d been waiting weeks for. 

When I picked up the children I told them Blake was coming over to help this afternoon before their father got home from his motorcycle trip and I was asking for some grace from them because…my new 3D printer had arrived from the Czech Republic!  

My daughter said, “yay, Mom’d 3D printer arrived!”   My son was more of the, “meh” feeling so I said, “I love my daughter for being excited for me; thank you, sweetheart.”  My son said he was happy too, feeling a little badly about not sharing in my enthusiasm.   

So now we have three 3D printers.   It might sound a little crazy, but lots of the prints that are substantial and more than little trinkets take hours and hours to complete.  Having more than one printer is going to be a very handy thing.   For example, I’m printing four bolts, four washers and eight very small connecting brackets tonight on the new printer and just those parts are taking five hours.   I could print them faster with poorer quality settings or by sacrificing stability by making less of the interior solid, but these are precision pieces I need to connect well, otherwise a shorter print is just a waste of time and filament.  

Printers continue to gain more in the way of sophisticated functionality while prices drop, even in the short time I’ve been 3D printing (I watch a lot of printer reviews instead of watching television shows before I fall asleep at night.)  Just a few years ago it would have been quite expensive to have a single 3D printer.   I recently watched a review for a printer that was under a hundred dollars. 

I’m signing off for the night and going to bed, but before I do I’m going to check in on the two printers printing away in the room behind me. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son let me cut his hair last night and apparently prefers to have me cut it.   I find this strange because I don’t know how to cut hair.   The only hair I’ve ever cut is his but after four times, necessitated at first by COVID-19 shelter at home, I’ve gotten more confidence in what I’m doing.   I cut his hair fairly quickly last night and this morning when he woke up I thought it looked pretty good for someone who doesn’t know how to cut hair. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had a very good but tiring day at school.   Tomorrow is her last day at school until after Thanksgiving.   Then, provided nothing changes she’ll go back for four days each week until the holiday break.   After that we have no idea what the plan will be.

Two Wheels On the Road

My husband has been wanting to take a motorcycle trip for some time.  He’s tried to make this happened but things have gotten in the way, including children, school, schedules and most annoyingly, weather.  He has almost taken this day-and-a-half trip more than a handful of times, only to have to cancel.   Today, after asking me for the fifth or sixth time if I was sure it was okay to abandon me to the management of the children, he left after lunch. 

This type of thing has always mystified me.  I love my car.  I love driving my car.   But I’ve never once wanted to just “go for a ride.”  A lot of people do this.  They get enjoyment from just driving with no particular destination in mind.   The ride in and of itself is the goal.   Some people drive around to cool off when angry or have a think about something.   

It’s just never happened to me, not once, even on the first day I got a new car.   I wanted to drive around, certainly, but my thoughts were who could I go see or did I need to go any place that I could do right then so I could spend more time in the car. 

My husband has arrived at his overnight destination and tomorrow will be riding through many, many switchbacks in the mountains.   Then, after a hopefully enjoyable ride, he’ll ride some more on the highway, getting home before dark.  

The Explanation Update:  The children and I talked about why it’s fun to do a motorcycle ride like my husband will be doing tomorrow on the way home from school today.   They have no experience on a motorcycle so I had to do some comparisons to when they turned corners on their bicycles, but said it was more leaning and to the extreme where they would fall over if they tried it.   It’s hard to explain something they can’t experience because they’re not allowed to ride on a motorcycle at their age, but in this case, I’m glad it’s nothing they’ll be doing.   A startled or scared child going fast on a motorcycle is a recipe for disaster.   My husband is a very defensive, conservative and safe rider.   It makes us all feel better knowing so, including the children. 

Tantrum

My son is a good child.   He has good behaviors and bad choices, just like any other child.  Tonight, he got caught making a bad choice and it made him furious.   It ended on a good note, which is a good thing as I don’t like to let the children go to sleep upset.  

It had been a busy day and while typically I would ask the children to fold their laundry, I decided to get theirs done while I was on a phone call and let them put the folded clothes up in their rooms afterwards.   I caught my son as he stuck his head out from his room and said to come down to get the basket.   He was jumping around, acting things out in the audiobook he was listening to and didn’t want to leave.   I told him to hurry, it would just take a second. 

I gave him the basket, told him to put the clothes up and that I would be up shortly to check his work.   I did this because twice now he’s taken the basket up with folded clothes, sat it on the floor and left it for multiple days.   At other times, he’s emptied the basket by cramming the clothes into drawers.  Hence the, “I’ll be up to check your work” comment. 

I knew he heard me because he didn’t have anything distracting him like a show, video game, audiobook, book, friends, LEGOs, anything else you could think of basically.   He is the king of distracted.   I got my other work done and came to get the laundry basket to bring it downstairs so I could bring his sister’s clothes up in. 

He was asleep a full two hours before he typically would be and the basket was nowhere in sight.   I found it, hidden around the corner with the only thing missing being the pajamas he was wearing.   So I woke him up.   He intentionally made the choice not to put the clothes up after having them folded for him and he needed to know that wasn’t going to be acceptable.   Also, he hadn’t brushed his teeth because his toothbrush was dry. 

He didn’t like being woke up.   He got mad.   He got really mad and I stayed calm.   Eventually I had to match his volume because I couldn’t get through to him that I was serious.   He said he wanted me to send an email to the school saying he would be tired tomorrow due to, “bad parenting.”  He said it was all my fault that he was a zombie and he couldn’t stand the light and loads of other things, but he had to put the laundry away.  Period.

I left and he threw a massive tantrum by himself in the room.   When he quieted down I went to check and he had shoved—and shoved things in the wrong drawers intentionally.   He had to fix it and he bellowed more.   Then there were the teeth.   That made him angry and when he only swished for five seconds we swished a second, third and finally fourth time because I was timing him after hearing him take such a short time while I tidied his bed. 

He was so mad.  He screamed.   A lot.   He lost though and at the end, after everything while I was quietly sitting in the rocking chair in his room he said in a calm, quiet, normal voice, “Mom, can you cut my hair after school tomorrow?”  I said I’d be glad to, but did he want his father to take him to get someone who knew what they were doing to cut his hair after school instead?   No, he told me, he liked how I did it.  

He went from incredibly angry to suddenly regulated in a matter of minutes.  He even let me hug him before leaving and telling him I loved him as I shut the door for the night. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son has played a lot of Minecraft over the five-day weekend he had from school while parent/teacher conferences and teacher workdays happened.   He has been so excited about some of the new things he’s building that he wants to talk to his father and me about it with incredible enthusiasm non-stop.   If anyone has a spare hour to spend, I’m sure he’d be glad to tell you all about it, barely pausing for breath the entire time. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Last night we went to our friend’s house for dessert.   This was because their daughter is home from college—the daughter that got COVID-19 so her brother, Blake, stayed with us for a week.   While we were there, Luna, one of their dachshund's , jumped up on the couch and sat on my daughter’s lap.   My daughter gently petted her and was so very happy.   She loves animals and Luna has never been so forward before, typically wanting to stay away from the fast moving child with grabby hands.  

Dessert

My daughter is home from her first day back at school, on campus, in the classroom, with real teachers and real students, for the first time in seven months.   She was fairly nonplussed about the whole thing, but I think she was glad to be around other people after so many hours in front of a screen. 

I asked her just now if she had a good time today and I got an answer in the affirmative, but to get more out of her I would have to press her for details, and she’d just found the BopIt Aunt A sent as a present some time back and was busily bopping away.  I’ll hopefully get more information later in the week, but I’m afraid I might have to wait for the information to come when she feels like talking about it. 

I got a text today from Shane, saying she was home from college for a bit and would we like to come over for dessert tonight?  This message arrived in similar timeframe as one from her brother, Blake, who has been back from his twenty-first birthday trip to visit family on the coast, where he fished off their dock, sending pictures of huge fish he caught.   Blake sent a text saying, “I got my test back and I’m negative.”

We’re heading over for dessert now, so I’d better wrap this up.   I always insist we leave on time and if I’m the one making us late, I won’t hear the end of it. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl We Don’t Want to Listen to it Update:  My children will not try something new if they’re not ready for it, even if they’re bored.  They would rather do the old thing they’ve done before than try something their mother or father recommends.   You have to get them in just the right frame of mind—or you have to trick them.   I have tricked them several times lately by starting an audiobook they have insisted they just do NOT want to hear while they were captured in the car and had no choice.   I don’t say a thing, I just put the book on.   Today, I started The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan, a book we’ve had for a while that both Blake and I have said they’d love.   They have listened to two other series by him and love his books.   Now, after only ten minutes in the car with my daughter listening, both children are individually listening on two different Alexa devices.   My daughter infected my son with the book over dinner after the ride home from school with me today.   

The Raft, the Brim, and the Gluestick

I mentioned before there is a lot of failure in 3D printing.   It’s just how it goes when there so many variables in play.   I don’t quite understand why I don’t get frustrated and give up, because when something is too hard, I typically decide it’s not something I want to do.   Typically.   And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 

There are only so many battles we can fight in life and I’m a selective battle fighter.   I like to try different things.  I suppose you could call me a, “dabbler.”   Sometimes I decide I like the thing I’m trying and continue on with it, other times after getting into it to some degree I realize it’s harder than I anticipated and it’s just not something I want to keep on with.  Opera singing.   I didn’t take voice lessons to become an opera singer, but it would sure be something interesting to try.   I would venture to guess it’s infernally hard to sing well in, well, however you sing for an opera.   It would be fun, it would be hard, I would move on. 

My children like to tease me about what my next fad/craze/obsession will be.  I have no idea what I was going to say next.   I got interrupted three hours ago and now that I’m back, I don’t even know what I was writing about.   My husband knows to give me space for the ten minutes it usually takes me to write these posts, but sometimes, interruptions happen.   Let me see if I can read what I wrote and try to finish this post in the original direction I intended it to go.   This could be challenging given that my son is very excited behind me, laughing and exclaiming loudly all sorts of things because he got his father to play Minecraft with him and he’s busy showing off how powerful his character is and how much he knows.   I shall endeavor to focus and ignore the gleeful laughter coming from two desks over. 

I think I was going to say that sometimes, the thing you pick up and try turns out to be something that’s a good fit.   Being lazy is a really good fit for me I feel like some days.   Recently, I thought I’d try out make up.   I bought a variety of things, watched a lot of videos and in theory, I know what to do.   But it wasn’t fun.   I thought I’d look much different, hopefully a more radiant, younger version of me.   But instead it was a lot of stuff on my face that felt uncomfortable and I didn’t think I looked better at all.   Also, it was messy.  

3D printing seems to suit me though.   I don’t get discouraged when things fail.  Which is odd, because if you ask my husband, he’ll tell you pretty much everything annoys me.   I think he might be exaggerating with, “everything” but he’s not far off.   I have gotten frustrated and turned off the printer to go to bed and fight the challenging model/filament/settings the next day, but more often than not I’m up too late because I’m still working away on something. 

I’ve been watching a lot of professional 3D printing people (professional in the sense that they’re sustained by Patreon supporters and other revenue from their YouTube channel) and I know that they fail in their prints all the time.  I keep talking about this failing as opposed to all the successes I’ve had.   For some reason the failures are more interesting than the successes because if I was successful all the time I wouldn’t know nearly as much about 3D printing and quite possibly I’d be a lot less interested.   

Today I was having one of those failing days.   I’d found what I thought would be a very nice model to print for one of my son’s teachers as a holiday gift.   It was complex with multiple parts, four of which were very thin and delicate.   I decided to print those pieces first because if I couldn’t get prints I was satisfied with, I wasn’t going to print the larger, much longer print of the main body.  The model is a pen holder with a grill pattern for the side walls that’s delicate.

I tried printing it several times but the filament wasn’t holding well to the build plate because there were a lot of single lines of extruded plastic that had nothing else to anchor to.   I changed the temperature of the build plate and the filament, thinking I wasn’t getting it hot enough or I had it too hot, either of which could cause problems.  I changed filaments and started over and still had problems.  I decided to add something called a ‘brim’ to the print.   Imagine a ladies hat with a large brim around the perimeter.   That brim would lay down around the outside of the model and would hopefully hold it in place.   Which it did, but it only held in place the edges and not the little fiddly bits in the middle. 

I had only one thing left to try and I didn’t like doing it.   I put the model on a raft.   Imagine the kind of raft like you read about in children’s stories where they lash together some logs that make a flat surface for you to float on top of.   A raft in 3D printing is just that.  You print a sacrificial few layers of filament making a strong plate under the model.   The fractionally sticks to the raft, making it almost a guaranteed successful print in that sense, but it’s at the cost of both time (it takes a good while to make the solid raft) and filament, which is wasteful.

It worked though but more than doubled the print time.   I had three more of the side panels to print and I was about to start the next raft when something occurred to me as I was prepping my daughters backpack for the first day of school tomorrow—she needed a gluestick in her pencil pouch.   

Gluestick!  Gluesticks are included in many filament orders I’ve received because it’s one of the best tools to help the first layer of filament stick to the build plate.   I used it a lot initially until I realized the type coating on the plate on our the printer we got really didn’t need it for most models.  

I had spent the better part of the day trying different things and if I’d just remembered the gluestick it would have saved me so much time.   The good news is that since I the glue on the build plate, I’ve kicked off three prints, walked away and come back an hour later to perfect prints.   

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Candy Sorting Spot:  My children are spend time with a select few of their friends outside.   They can also do some things in the garage as there is airflow with the open door.   It was cramped in there with bicycles and the things my son and Rayan had created, so today Keira, my daughter and I cleared out the cars, blew away the leaves, art and debris with the leaf blower, trashed the junk, recycled the recyclables, decided what should go in the attic, moved things to other areas of the garage to make more room and then put the bicycles and other things in spots according to use.   We had so much more room.   I went inside to start this post (which then got interrupted) and came back tonight to find this: