Ho Hum

[bjarvis]

Today's work-related tasks were handled fairly early this morning. While there are still several irons in the proverbial fire, they're on hold waiting for information and/or hardware from various other parties.

Which means I've run out of excuses not to do the truly tedious tasks still on my list. *sigh*

One of these boring jobs was sorting through the papers in my backpack. I typically carry two laptops (the office laptop and my personal laptop), my clipboard of various notes and a tonne of other square dance related papers, notes, cheat sheets, call lists and such. The weight surely adds up, especially if I haven't cleared away the excess for a while.

My square dance-related papers are now sorted into six transparent folders: one each for Mainstream, Plus, Advanced and Challenge 1, as well as one of misc notes and another of teaching materials & notes. Duplicate papers were jettisoned into recycling. I didn't save a lot of weight but finding a particular set of papers when I'm working on choreo for a particular level will be vastly easier.

I'd save a lot of energy by not carrying my office laptop home every night but Murphy monitors my habits and would surely arrange a desperate need to telecommute on the one day I didn't have my laptop handy. The universe is evil that particular way.

I'm calling C1 for our Barkley crowd in Arlington, VA, tonight as our regular caller, Doren, is still recovering from recent surgery. I have a tonne o' new material which will either earn some applause or tar & feathers. I'll let you know which tomorrow.

Nine more days until we fly to Los Angeles for CALLERLAB! Perhaps more importantly, 27 more days until the camping season starts and we return to the trailer!

Comments

[bootedintexas.livejournal.com]

the whole trailer lifestyle i am highly jealous of.

most gay texans, you mention "camp" and they start asking my heel shoe size. (uh, no)

i was brought up on trailer camping. i miss it.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

We never had a trailer when I was growing up... needless expense, my parents would say. And truth be told, we couldn't afford it.

kent4str and I went tent camping for years but we always had to be conscious of the weather and it seemed we were spending half our already-scarce weekend time either setting up tearing down the site.

It's such a joy to leave items stored on-site, to not have to worry overmuch about the weather and to have guaranteed, comfortable, bug-free spaces in which to sleep.

jearbear65oh & hubby tend to go there for partying while I go for quiet & isolation so we occasionally have minor disagreements, but we're all fairly agreeable short-term roomies and the co-ownership arrangement has worked pretty well for three years now.

Come camping with us some time!

[bootedintexas.livejournal.com]

my june and august are completely free at the moment (rubbing beard. contemplating)

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

August is better. June is utterly packed with DC Pride, Baltimore Pride, the IAGSDC convention in Cleveland and such so there's no camping time available then.

[cuyahogarvr.livejournal.com]

EXCEPT........ The several days around August 23rd.

Non-refundable deposit has been paid.

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

Whoo-hoo! Good work, grandpa!

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

I grew up with a trailer, too, so I'm really glad we've got it. But I'm also really glad I don't have to drive it anywhere - I've towed a few things but never really felt comfortable doing so.

The scary thing is this means I'm the experienced one when it comes to all things trailer-related. Pity us.

[bootedintexas.livejournal.com]

well luckily there is that fine line between Trailer-Related, and Trailer Trash Related.

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

Oh, but I am related to Trailer Trash, and not just by marriage.

[bootedintexas.livejournal.com]

hmmm. rubbing beard. chuckling inside.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

My family aspired to be trailer trash but never made it to that lofty social strata. *sigh*

[bootedintexas.livejournal.com]

where is a double wide when you need one.

on second thought, dont answer that.

[canseefour.livejournal.com]

Nine more days until we fly to Los Angeles for CALLERLAB! Perhaps more importantly, 27 more days until the camping season starts and we return to the trailer!

See you in Los Angeles! You're already talking about the trailer - we're digging out from another 15 cm of snow!!! This winter is certainly overstaying its welcome.

[cuyahogarvr.livejournal.com]

#1 Why am I utterly surprised that your life hasn't been neatly organized into nifty clear folders until now..... really, this shocks and worries me.

#2 As stated above, LATE August is not clear. The weekend of the 23rd is taken although there's always room for more company on Labor Day Weekend.

#3 I LOVE it, but as my children put it, "it's not camping, it's relocating."

#4 Have I told you how much I love the sound of raindrops on a metal trailer roof????

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

#1: Until recently, I wasn't carrying a massive amount of paper & notes. We hit critical mass earlier this week so the folders are now necessary until I can catch up on the backlog.

#2: Cool!

#3: We walk down to the rec hall to have a hot shower in the morning... that makes it camping. Yeah, we're spoiled.

#4: Especially amid the screams of the tent campers being washed out to sea. I live for that. :-)

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

#1: Until recently, I wasn't carrying a massive amount of paper & notes. We hit critical mass earlier this week

Dear heart, who do you think you're kidding? I've known you longer than most people here, including your husbands.

When I was dating you - this would be in the spring of 1991 - you carried a bulging backpack, in which was a stuffed-to-the-point-of-spring-failure item you called the "Clipboard of All Knowledge", which you consulted regularly.

That was nearly 17 years ago now.

what's your definition of "recently"????

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

The bulk of the clipboard was retired years ago once I got my first Palm III. All the calendar, scheduling and contact information I carried are neatly stored --and easily backed up-- in the electronic format.

There was the Palm III, then the V, the Vx, the E, the E2 and back to the E model again. My Tungsten E model currently has 1559 address records, 4022 calendar entries, 266 documents, 776 tasks and 1 GB of music (mostly square dance stuff as an emergency backup to my regular calling equipment).

The paper began building up again when I needed to carry various notes, lists and definitions related to each square dance level so I could work on teaching plans when the opportunity arose. Now that I've (co-)taught several Mainstream classes and two Plus classes, I can reuse materials I've already created so it's time to downsize the burden. I'm looking forward to teaching an Advanced class some day.

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

{restraining himself from pointing out that it's a fiberglass roof...}

You should have been home last night - so much rain it sounded great on the house's roof. And it was all liquid!