time relay
Two and a half weeks without pain medication. Before i didn't take enough to numb myself completely, just enough to take the edge of the sensation. Well, so far i've managed. What has become a bigger obstacle in my daily life, was autism1 and ADHD2; moving from one place to another/from one task to another is something that i experience much stronger than before, the only thing i can really focus on, is reading—i guess due to it occupying sight and imagination. I need to occupy my hands while watching a movie, which isn't a great thing when watching something with subtitles, which i do most of the time these days due to catching up on asian movies/shows.
What is interesting is, that no matter how much i sleep, i stay tired throughout the day; falling asleep whenever i have too much downtime.
Also, i experience much severe bouts of being lebensmüde—tired of life.
I built a few smaller Gunplas3 i had lying in storage, testing how to remove sprue marks, and painted a few things. My older Brother in-law lent me his set of Dspiae Markers for that purpose. Painting made me aware, that i need reading glasses; focusing on the small areas and concentrating on applying the paint was … exhausting.
In the afternoons, Kirby the Wife and i took up playing HeroQuest whenever we had time. They both like it, and brought up the idea of painting the miniatures. The older Brother in-law recommended the Speed Paint range from Army Painter.
I already feel, like i have no time to do anything »right«, is taking up another thing a good idea under that conditions?
There is a thing that os taking up a lot of my brain power: Home Assistant. I'm not that smitten with our current »smart heating« solution, and—again—the older Brother in-law recommended looking into Home Assistant4. In the beginning, i was overwhelmingly positive towards it, due to it being able to control almost every device. Now that i'm trying to get it to work, i feel like i'm in over my head and/or i'm part of a cult. Everything i look up turns on my »keep a safe distance« mode due to the ritualistic nature of most of the instructional material i've seen. Guess once i have the vernacular internalised, i can summon a few things. Managed to automate an electric outlet to charge the hoover.
Since i mentioned that outlet: before we jerry rigged everything to be radio controllable, i set up a small distribution box in the storage room containing a time relay, mentioned outlet, and a latching relay. I the changed the light switch to two push buttons, and installed a separate wire for the light. Now every time someone used the hoover, after putting it back you pushed the second button, and it would be charged for a few hours. Recently i learned, that the hoover's battery was ready for a replacement, yet not in the shape i considered it to be, the time relay had ceased to function. So i rewired the circuit in the distributor box to only support the latching relay, and while doing so, found out that i had built some kind of oscillating circuit, since the faint hum one started to notice in the storage room a while ago ended when i removed the time relay. Anyway, i got a Zigbee controlled outlet, and that runs a charging routine two times a week. Welcome to the future. Next thing on the list is: improving the heating.
At work, i experienced how »thin my skin has become«. Also, we had a production that almost had to cancel their event due to being let down by their logistics provider and some of their technicians flights being cancelled. This led to a conflict between my department head and another department head, who's also my dh's proxy, about how much assistance we should provide. So i had to navigate three people—the two DHs and the production manager—, from which two had a pissing contest. The show did take place, and i was glad that i got to leave before the lighting guy that got hired arrived, because from what i was told, he didn't perform well under pressure, and left the bulk of the work with my co-workers who were on duty that day. Also, there were troubles with the work ethics of some colleagues, and i wonder how long it'll take until things blow up in our face.