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Digging out.
2018-02-26 05:41Whoa, two weeks since my last journal entry. It's been a little bit rough: we were having a very mild winter up until mid-February, and then BAM! Since Valentine's day it's been snow, and more snow, and more snow, with occasional rounds of freezing rain.
It's not like in Portland, where you get a couple of inches and wait for the city to scare up a sand truck or a snow plow, and your biggest danger is other drivers who don't know how to drive in the snow. Here, people own 4x4s and snowplows, and even then the smart ones stay indoors when the roads get bad. Both of my co-workers (the two women who work in the office downstairs) missed a couple of days of work, and then both got stuck when they did come in.
I live on the grounds (lucky me), so for me it isn't a matter of not being able to get to work, it's a matter of not being able to get away.
But I've been making the most of my downtime, and when I'm not busy shoveling snow for Mr. Boss or helping Mrs. Boss with the housework, I'm busy learning the basics of Windows and Android development in Visual Studio and Android Studio.
Yesterday evening I had a big moment of success when I got an application to run on my Android phone. (It was a matter of learning how to enable developer mode, so that the phone could be accessed through the USB connection.) There was something very satisfying about seeing my very simple app appear on the screen of the Samsung.
I'm already pretty comfortable with the elements of "programming", as in, if-statements, loops, strings, number types, and so on. Mainly I need to master the practical, nuts-and-bolts skills of using the IDE, building a well-designed UI, debugging, and deploying the app - and of course collaborating with other developers. My goal for the end of this year is to have gone from 'programming as a hobby' to 'development as a marketable job skill'.
We've got about another week of crappy weather ahead of us, according to the forecast. With luck, I may be able to get down to Scappoose, or (dare I hope) even Portland next Sunday. If not, at least by two weeks from now we should finally be done with this mess.
It's not like in Portland, where you get a couple of inches and wait for the city to scare up a sand truck or a snow plow, and your biggest danger is other drivers who don't know how to drive in the snow. Here, people own 4x4s and snowplows, and even then the smart ones stay indoors when the roads get bad. Both of my co-workers (the two women who work in the office downstairs) missed a couple of days of work, and then both got stuck when they did come in.
I live on the grounds (lucky me), so for me it isn't a matter of not being able to get to work, it's a matter of not being able to get away.
But I've been making the most of my downtime, and when I'm not busy shoveling snow for Mr. Boss or helping Mrs. Boss with the housework, I'm busy learning the basics of Windows and Android development in Visual Studio and Android Studio.
Yesterday evening I had a big moment of success when I got an application to run on my Android phone. (It was a matter of learning how to enable developer mode, so that the phone could be accessed through the USB connection.) There was something very satisfying about seeing my very simple app appear on the screen of the Samsung.
I'm already pretty comfortable with the elements of "programming", as in, if-statements, loops, strings, number types, and so on. Mainly I need to master the practical, nuts-and-bolts skills of using the IDE, building a well-designed UI, debugging, and deploying the app - and of course collaborating with other developers. My goal for the end of this year is to have gone from 'programming as a hobby' to 'development as a marketable job skill'.
We've got about another week of crappy weather ahead of us, according to the forecast. With luck, I may be able to get down to Scappoose, or (dare I hope) even Portland next Sunday. If not, at least by two weeks from now we should finally be done with this mess.
I didn't get as much done this weekend as I'd hoped, but I did manage to get through Shir haShirim (Song of Songs) to the end, which was the Bible project I'd tasked myself with a few weeks ago. It's not that long - only 117 verses, although the verses tend to be longish - and it's part of the liturgy (read publicly on the eve of the Sabbath and/or Passover, depending on local custom). Plus it's really beautiful, and it is referenced by countless Israeli pop songs. So I wanted to sit down and take the time to get familiar with it. There are some grammatical anomalies in the Hebrew, and a few words I had to look up (with no help from the Artscroll non-translation) but overall it was pretty smooth going.
Today (Sunday) I spent some time working on programming, although I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I've dabbled in C++ and Visual Basic, but I've decided to get serious about learning Python and C# in Visual Studio. Right now I'm working through a tutorial where you make a timed arithmetic quiz app. Now that I'm on GitHub, I can leave feedback on the tutorial and join discussion forums for learners.
The weather here has finally started clearing up, and we're getting patches of sunshine from time to time. We're not quite out of the winter weather yet - it's expected to be cold this week, and we might even get one or two more days of snow before it's all over. But thankfully we've had a mild winter overall, and I haven't had to test my snow-driving prowess on these hilly roads yet.
Tomorrow is pay day, and that means I finally get to drive my car down to the tire shop and get a set of new tires. Not the most exciting thing to spend a big check of my paycheck on, but it's gotta be done; and given the road conditions, and my remote-ish location, I think it'll be prudent to invest in a good quality set.
So, off to bed, and then to another work week.
Today (Sunday) I spent some time working on programming, although I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I've dabbled in C++ and Visual Basic, but I've decided to get serious about learning Python and C# in Visual Studio. Right now I'm working through a tutorial where you make a timed arithmetic quiz app. Now that I'm on GitHub, I can leave feedback on the tutorial and join discussion forums for learners.
The weather here has finally started clearing up, and we're getting patches of sunshine from time to time. We're not quite out of the winter weather yet - it's expected to be cold this week, and we might even get one or two more days of snow before it's all over. But thankfully we've had a mild winter overall, and I haven't had to test my snow-driving prowess on these hilly roads yet.
Tomorrow is pay day, and that means I finally get to drive my car down to the tire shop and get a set of new tires. Not the most exciting thing to spend a big check of my paycheck on, but it's gotta be done; and given the road conditions, and my remote-ish location, I think it'll be prudent to invest in a good quality set.
So, off to bed, and then to another work week.
So there's that.
2017-12-11 20:34Just tuned in to this advisory on the Portland-based NOAA weather broadcast:
'...STAGNANT AIR CONDITIONS EXPECTED INTO NEXT WEEK...
Central Willamette Valley-South Willamette Valley-
Including the cities of Salem, McMinnville, Woodburn, Stayton,
Dallas, Eugene, Springfield, Corvallis, Albany, and Lebanon
918 AM PST Mon Dec 11 2017
...AIR STAGNATION ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM PST
THURSDAY...
* AIR QUALITY...Air quality may deteriorate due to an extended
period of stagnant air conditions.
* TIMING...through Thursday afternoon.
* LOCATIONS...The South and Central Willamette Valley.
* IMPACTS...Limited ventilation may result in deteriorating air
quality continuing this week.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
An Air Stagnation Advisory indicates that due to limited movement
of an air mass across the advisory area, pollution will increase
to dangerous levels. Persons with respiratory illness should
follow their physicians advice for dealing with high levels of
air pollution. ...'
Well, where I'm at now, it's probably pretty safe to say I don't have to worry too much about stagnant air or big-city pollution.
And - seriously - the night sky here is awesome.
'...STAGNANT AIR CONDITIONS EXPECTED INTO NEXT WEEK...
Central Willamette Valley-South Willamette Valley-
Including the cities of Salem, McMinnville, Woodburn, Stayton,
Dallas, Eugene, Springfield, Corvallis, Albany, and Lebanon
918 AM PST Mon Dec 11 2017
...AIR STAGNATION ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM PST
THURSDAY...
* AIR QUALITY...Air quality may deteriorate due to an extended
period of stagnant air conditions.
* TIMING...through Thursday afternoon.
* LOCATIONS...The South and Central Willamette Valley.
* IMPACTS...Limited ventilation may result in deteriorating air
quality continuing this week.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
An Air Stagnation Advisory indicates that due to limited movement
of an air mass across the advisory area, pollution will increase
to dangerous levels. Persons with respiratory illness should
follow their physicians advice for dealing with high levels of
air pollution. ...'
Well, where I'm at now, it's probably pretty safe to say I don't have to worry too much about stagnant air or big-city pollution.
And - seriously - the night sky here is awesome.
Portland, Oregon is near the Pacific coast and it's generally a mild climate. Two inches of snow is a lot for us. Last week we got eight. The city had to borrow snowplows and sand trucks from Seattle.
And the temperature has stayed below freezing since then. Now the snow is supposed to start melting today and tomorrow ... just in time for a monster storm that's supposed to dump tons of rain on us Tuesday and Wednesday.
So, lots of fun.
And the temperature has stayed below freezing since then. Now the snow is supposed to start melting today and tomorrow ... just in time for a monster storm that's supposed to dump tons of rain on us Tuesday and Wednesday.
So, lots of fun.
