Saturday 11 October 2014

Still here

Just not had much time to get a post actually finished! I have started a couple. One still to come, and another that has just been deleted. I was on far too much of a downer when writing it and it was too much.

The downer is caused by issues in the office at the moment. I have just started emergency coaching as when in the office I feel about 2 seconds away from a complete breakdown (and have been on the edge of tears too often in the last few weeks). The coaching is going well, but there is a long way to go or recovery.

The good side is that except for the complete and total lack of energy (and falling asleep on the sofa too much) it is limited to just the office, it is not something I am bringing home with me!

This week has been really tiring though. The little guy, after trying it out when he was two months old, decided that he wanted anothe taste of 5th disease this week. On Monday he had high temperatue and was taken to the doctors (btw 240bhp and hearing that are not a good combination! Waiting to see if any tickets come in). The doctor originally thought it was a bad cold as he had a running nose, was coughing and wheezing a little.

The temperature dropped over the following day, but then the spots arrived...  I called the doctors again and they said 5th disease, normally he would have had immunity seeing as he had it in the past but apparently that immunity only comes after a certain age. At 2 months he didn't get it. Hopefully he will at 8!

When he started to recover though we had something that we have never had before (except the first few days). He just would not go to bed one night. He moaned when in our arms and screamed when in his bed. After spending 4 hours trying to get him to sleep we decided to give him a bottle (something he has never needed). Before it was finished he was asleep. We guess that he was starting to recover and got his appitite back. I now have even more sympathy for anyone who has a child that won't sleep at night. One night was enough to completely wipe us out!

He is doing fine now BTW. The spots have gone (expect for the ones that went hard - they are going to take some time to dissapear), he is eating, and playing on his own again. Though when he gets tired he hangs on to our ankles until we pick him up :)

So what else???  Well, a month ago I treated myself to a Sonos Connect to listen to streaming music in the living room. We've tried a few options in the past, but there was nothing that really worked well. I must admit I wasn't overly hopefull about this either (I only bought it after making sure I could return it even after unpacking if it wasn't any good).

Well, I was quite wrong! 5 minutes after unpacking it I had streaming FLACs coming from the server upstairs and it sounded so good that we moved the CDs out of the room that weekend (MP3s are fine for background music, but awful for when you actually want to listen to something).

With that and very good Spotify support connected to the amplifier via a digital link so that the DAC used to make the audio signal is the best it can be I am very, very impressed!

Of course it meant even more cables in the living room and eith that and making it as safe as possible for the little guy (we have not baby proofed the room, he just needs to learn what he can and cannot play with - but the dangerous things to him have been hidden) meant that I had to re-organise all of the equipment. That was a lotmore work than I was expecting, There were cables all over the living room and 7 years of dust bunnys from underneath the furniture that needed moving!

I worked it out that there must be about 200m (about 220yrds) of cable underneath the cabinet! 24m of just power cables! Then there are the network cables. We bought an unmanaged switch a year or so ago. I wanted a 5 port but the 8 port was only a few euros more. Good job that I did! We now have only one of the 8 ports free (if a connection can be wired then I use it wired - better signal and less traffic over the wireless link). And that is used for when we need to transfer huge volumes of data from the laptop to the server (even with a 200Mbps wireless connection a 1Gbps connection is much, much faster!).

All in all taking everything apart, cleaning everything that has been hidden, laying the cables for each bit of kit and then putting the kit back together cost me about 4 or 5 hours. Far longer than I had hoped for!

Worth it though!

Right, looking at the time I should get the little guy up and organise some breakfast for him!

6 comments:

  1. I'm sorry the little guy hit the daily double with his illness! How awful. Glad to hear he is on the mend.

    I have to laugh at the image of him hanging on to your ankles to get your attention, however. I may try that technique at work the next time I need a developer to answer a question! ;D

    220 yards of cables?!? Good Lord, what kind of sound system *do* you and Mrs. Stace have, anyway? It sounds as if you could host Glastonbury in your living room! (I was going to say Woodstock, but then I remembered who I was talking with. :D)

    Another post to come, you say? Be careful, girl - you're going to start spoiling your readership! lol

    Have a great Sunday, hon! Give the little guy a hug from all of his online aunts & uncles, too!

    Hugs,
    Cass

    BTW, you might want to check out this link: http://instagram.com/muse Seems as if our favorite band got tired of being on holiday... ;-p

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    1. Hi! The little guy is donig well again thanks! He started day care again today and apparently did really well (too well if you ask me, it took him a good few minutes before he realised I was there picking him up! The truck he was playing with was far, far more interesting - but when he did realised he crawled straight towards me!).

      Yes, he has two 'I want picking up' poses. The first is a sky dive position with arms off of the ground and legs matching to balance, and the other is hanging off of your ankles complaining :)

      Yup 220 yards! Let's just say the front speakers need two power amplifiers to drive them :) One for the bass and another for the midrange and treble.

      Yup, one from you, something about an award :) It's just taking longer than I thought it would...

      I've been watching Muse on twitter / Facebook. I can't wait!

      Stace

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  2. Jeez, I'm tired out just reading about the cable work :-) Good to hear that your little fellow is sleeping properly and is on the mend. No matter what their age is, if they're not right, I think it puts you on edge. On the bright side, the more sniffles and bugs he gets now, hopefully that'll prep him to avoid more at nursery and later, school. I know that must seem a long way away right now! :-)

    Sorry to read that work is (also) driving you a little around the twist. Hang on in there and stay strong. It will pass..... that, or just have one 'taken care of'. That normally puts the rest on their toes ;-)

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    1. I'm tired just remembering it! And dreading the next time we make a change and have to unplug it all again!

      Thanks :) I must admit, for the most part he is a little angel who looks after his mums by letting them sleep and being a cheerful little chap most of the time. The thing that costs energy is just worrying about him - I had though that after 8 months I was going to start relaxing, but there is still the itch to check on him (even though we have a video monitor) throughout the evening and everytime I wake up at night! My mum has been kind enough to let me know that the worry neve really stops (how you coped with the weeks camp for yours I have no idea!!!)

      On the bright side I am having the emergency counselling, that is helping, but recovery is not going to be quick.

      Stace

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  3. Glad the little guy is better.
    Lynn is right, no matter how old they are when they aren't well you end up being on edge. Mine still causes me worry and sleepless nights and he's nearly 17. The times when they are well do make up for that though.

    200m of cable!! I though the pile behind our television was bad but that's nothing compared to what you've got.

    Hope that the situation and work gets better soon.

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    1. Thanks! As I say he is doing better now, it's just trying to stop worrying for no reason. I have no idea what I am going to do when he is old enough to go to the local park, let alone the when he is 17!

      A colleague of mine entered a competition on facebook for messy cables. He posted a picture of a 4 way plug almost filled. I had to laugh and post a picture of 1/4 of my cables (because they won't all fit in one shot). There are drawbacks to being a gadget freak! :)

      Stace

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