Event Reason
Saturday, September 3rd, 2022 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioThree days since the last entry and Dad's doing better every day, but... we still haven't gotten him his prescription refills! Four days ago the visiting nurse said they'd call in for full refills and we went later that evening to pick them up and the Pharmacy said nobody had called them.
I made a call to the home care office to tell them and they promised they'd call them in. I then waited another day... because I didn't trust they'd get on it right away (the pharmacy is miles away, with heavy traffic and construction along the way) and the visiting nurse returned. She said she'd verify and text me later, but then she never texted me!
By the way, if you call the pharmacy, there's no way to talk to a human. The menu has two options, one for covid information, and one to order refills from a robot, and if you hit zero, it just starts the main menu over again.
--<>--
Meanwhile, my new employer still hasn't resolved my onboarding issue.
That issue was pretty simple; at the HR website I need to fill out forms that give them my tax and bank info, so they can issue paychecks and direct deposit them. Simple. But at the top of the very first form is a field labeled, "Event Reason."
Event Reason is a required field... but it's blank. And it's also greyed out, so that I cannot type anything into it. Thus, when I try to submit the form, I get an error saying I must complete all required fields, and that, Event Reason is blank!
When I went to the employer HQ the manager couldn't enter anything into the, Event Reason, field either. But HR never answered the phone that afternoon, and... still wasn't reachable on Thrusday or Friday!
So my employment is in limbo, and Dad's been off his meds for like six days!
--<>--
So, what's going on?
Well, two things are going on. First, the Labor Day weekend... big three day weekend, that everybody gets hyper about for some reason. In the week prior to Labor Day weekend, the odds of getting anything done drop exponentially with every day closer to Friday... and drop to zero on Friday itself.
Second, everybody is also understaffed... the HR department... the home care office... and even the pharmacy!
When I was at employer HQ with my manager sitting, listening to hold music for 90 minutes, she said repeatedly that Human Resources had been very frazzled lately, because of some big web system change rolled out by corporate. In other words... they were understaffed! Human Resources... was understaffed!
And that's probably why the goddam, "Event Reason," field had gotten accidentally left blank to begin with!
Meanwhile, when our visiting nurse came on Friday, she said she was a little irked because another nurse had just quit, so her office assigned her to not one, but two weeks on call, for the end of September... and she also had to work Labor Day.
This is probably why she forgot to text me back about the status of Dad's prescriptions!
And so, it is also a fair conclusion that the home care office, and the doctors office, and the pharmacy were also understaffed, making the prescription issue all the more complicated!
But NOW... everybody's home for the big three day, Labor Day weekend! So it's absolutely impossible to do anything but wait until Tuesday!
--<>--
What does any of that have to do with Snoozefest Audio?.. not much directly, but it has been consuming a lot of my attention and energy, leaving me far less motivated to try and work on field recording.
------------{=0=}------------
I did, however, spend several hours over Wednesday and Thursday trying to produce a good track out of the stuff I've recorded so far.
On that one good wing tapper, canopy recording from last week... I did figure out that there is one magical frequency on the Audacity equalizer that, when pulled down, really tones down the bush crickets... without effecting the field crickets or wing tappers!
Until now, I've been loathe to use the EQ at all, because EQ is a slippery slope!.. especially when mixing in headphones!
Indeed, I decided to listen to the same track in the open speakers to double check it and... while yes that magic EQ band does get rid of the bush crickets... I also then heard, some kind of white noise in the back ground!
It must've been coming from a condenser fan somewhere! Damn! But then I listened to another recording from another night and still heard it! Wait!.. was this just the normal background noise of the city and the air itself?
Was this on EVERY recording I've ever uploaded?
I started freaking myself out and knew, at that point... it was time to take a break for a few days! I was getting too close to the material, and could no longer trust my ears about it.
--<>--
But it has been warm the past several nights... above 70F, well past dark. So I have been recording out there. I did a ground level recording a few nights ago, and another canopy recording last night.
But those wing tappers just are not doing much, and the field crickets also are just... weak!
I'll sort this all out at some point, when the rest of my life isn't in such a state of chaos!.. when Dad's got his meds, and is back to his normal routines... and when I finally start this damn job and establish my own new routines.
------------{=0=}------------
As for the poor performance by the wing tappers and the field crickets this year... I am at a loss to explain it.
Other years, they've been very numerous and active well before the end of August.
I vividly recall that in most years, by the middle of August, I could hear an orchestra of field crickets from inside the house, with the windows and doors closed! That was considered normal! And the wing tappers are normally even more resiliant, tapping all night, every night, through August and well into September.
You'll recall I had this complaint about 2021's, "lazy brood," and speculated that it might be an every-other year thing. But that theory seems to have been blown out of the water in 2022.
But the weather this year has been, by and large, more favorable than last year. Yes we had our fools fall in mid August, but that ended a while ago, and it's been quite hot during the day, and warm at night, with not a lot of rain.
So it's hard to blame the weather.
--<>--
So, I hate to think this, but, given what I know, the most logical explanation is... all the Tordon RTU poison I used around the yard in 2021.
I cut down a hell of a lot of trees, and used that stuff on every single one... getting it down into the root systems that... at the time, I did not realize were interconnected with all the other root systems of all the other trees and plants.
I wrote about how, last year, it caused the Hackberry out front to drop leaves all summer.
And a bit of research says that stuff can take up to three years to get fully flushed out of the ecosystem!
So, my lazy broods of last year and this year may just be... illness caused by my own hand!
--<>--
Still, if I'd known, in 2021, what I do now about the wood wide web, I probably still would've used all that Tordon, because I didn't have much choice!
The yard was way too overgrown with trees on all the property lines, and had I just cut them down, they'd all have grown back this year... and really would never have quit trying to grow back.
So... I may just have to face the fact that I might not be hearing the kind of crickets I remember from years past... until 23, or 24, or maybe even 25!
--<>--
So that sucks!.. and it sucks that SoundCloud makes people pay for HD streaming!.. and it sucks that the neighborhood is filling up with back yard dogs who are out all night long!
It sucks that there are no more late night speeders, thanks to high gas prices and supply chain issues with car parts... because they can make a recording more interesting, if the crickets aren't up to snuff!
I dunno!.. maybe I'm just chasing some high I got in 1994, that can't be recaptured!
Sigh!..
Well, anyway, all I can do is record what I can, and make the best of the material I wind up with in 2022.
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
I made a call to the home care office to tell them and they promised they'd call them in. I then waited another day... because I didn't trust they'd get on it right away (the pharmacy is miles away, with heavy traffic and construction along the way) and the visiting nurse returned. She said she'd verify and text me later, but then she never texted me!
By the way, if you call the pharmacy, there's no way to talk to a human. The menu has two options, one for covid information, and one to order refills from a robot, and if you hit zero, it just starts the main menu over again.
Meanwhile, my new employer still hasn't resolved my onboarding issue.
That issue was pretty simple; at the HR website I need to fill out forms that give them my tax and bank info, so they can issue paychecks and direct deposit them. Simple. But at the top of the very first form is a field labeled, "Event Reason."
Event Reason is a required field... but it's blank. And it's also greyed out, so that I cannot type anything into it. Thus, when I try to submit the form, I get an error saying I must complete all required fields, and that, Event Reason is blank!
When I went to the employer HQ the manager couldn't enter anything into the, Event Reason, field either. But HR never answered the phone that afternoon, and... still wasn't reachable on Thrusday or Friday!
So my employment is in limbo, and Dad's been off his meds for like six days!
So, what's going on?
Well, two things are going on. First, the Labor Day weekend... big three day weekend, that everybody gets hyper about for some reason. In the week prior to Labor Day weekend, the odds of getting anything done drop exponentially with every day closer to Friday... and drop to zero on Friday itself.
Second, everybody is also understaffed... the HR department... the home care office... and even the pharmacy!
When I was at employer HQ with my manager sitting, listening to hold music for 90 minutes, she said repeatedly that Human Resources had been very frazzled lately, because of some big web system change rolled out by corporate. In other words... they were understaffed! Human Resources... was understaffed!
And that's probably why the goddam, "Event Reason," field had gotten accidentally left blank to begin with!
Meanwhile, when our visiting nurse came on Friday, she said she was a little irked because another nurse had just quit, so her office assigned her to not one, but two weeks on call, for the end of September... and she also had to work Labor Day.
This is probably why she forgot to text me back about the status of Dad's prescriptions!
And so, it is also a fair conclusion that the home care office, and the doctors office, and the pharmacy were also understaffed, making the prescription issue all the more complicated!
But NOW... everybody's home for the big three day, Labor Day weekend! So it's absolutely impossible to do anything but wait until Tuesday!
What does any of that have to do with Snoozefest Audio?.. not much directly, but it has been consuming a lot of my attention and energy, leaving me far less motivated to try and work on field recording.
I did, however, spend several hours over Wednesday and Thursday trying to produce a good track out of the stuff I've recorded so far.
On that one good wing tapper, canopy recording from last week... I did figure out that there is one magical frequency on the Audacity equalizer that, when pulled down, really tones down the bush crickets... without effecting the field crickets or wing tappers!
Until now, I've been loathe to use the EQ at all, because EQ is a slippery slope!.. especially when mixing in headphones!
Indeed, I decided to listen to the same track in the open speakers to double check it and... while yes that magic EQ band does get rid of the bush crickets... I also then heard, some kind of white noise in the back ground!
It must've been coming from a condenser fan somewhere! Damn! But then I listened to another recording from another night and still heard it! Wait!.. was this just the normal background noise of the city and the air itself?
Was this on EVERY recording I've ever uploaded?
I started freaking myself out and knew, at that point... it was time to take a break for a few days! I was getting too close to the material, and could no longer trust my ears about it.
But it has been warm the past several nights... above 70F, well past dark. So I have been recording out there. I did a ground level recording a few nights ago, and another canopy recording last night.
But those wing tappers just are not doing much, and the field crickets also are just... weak!
I'll sort this all out at some point, when the rest of my life isn't in such a state of chaos!.. when Dad's got his meds, and is back to his normal routines... and when I finally start this damn job and establish my own new routines.
As for the poor performance by the wing tappers and the field crickets this year... I am at a loss to explain it.
Other years, they've been very numerous and active well before the end of August.
I vividly recall that in most years, by the middle of August, I could hear an orchestra of field crickets from inside the house, with the windows and doors closed! That was considered normal! And the wing tappers are normally even more resiliant, tapping all night, every night, through August and well into September.
You'll recall I had this complaint about 2021's, "lazy brood," and speculated that it might be an every-other year thing. But that theory seems to have been blown out of the water in 2022.
But the weather this year has been, by and large, more favorable than last year. Yes we had our fools fall in mid August, but that ended a while ago, and it's been quite hot during the day, and warm at night, with not a lot of rain.
So it's hard to blame the weather.
So, I hate to think this, but, given what I know, the most logical explanation is... all the Tordon RTU poison I used around the yard in 2021.
I cut down a hell of a lot of trees, and used that stuff on every single one... getting it down into the root systems that... at the time, I did not realize were interconnected with all the other root systems of all the other trees and plants.
I wrote about how, last year, it caused the Hackberry out front to drop leaves all summer.
And a bit of research says that stuff can take up to three years to get fully flushed out of the ecosystem!
So, my lazy broods of last year and this year may just be... illness caused by my own hand!
Still, if I'd known, in 2021, what I do now about the wood wide web, I probably still would've used all that Tordon, because I didn't have much choice!
The yard was way too overgrown with trees on all the property lines, and had I just cut them down, they'd all have grown back this year... and really would never have quit trying to grow back.
So... I may just have to face the fact that I might not be hearing the kind of crickets I remember from years past... until 23, or 24, or maybe even 25!
So that sucks!.. and it sucks that SoundCloud makes people pay for HD streaming!.. and it sucks that the neighborhood is filling up with back yard dogs who are out all night long!
It sucks that there are no more late night speeders, thanks to high gas prices and supply chain issues with car parts... because they can make a recording more interesting, if the crickets aren't up to snuff!
I dunno!.. maybe I'm just chasing some high I got in 1994, that can't be recaptured!
Sigh!..
Well, anyway, all I can do is record what I can, and make the best of the material I wind up with in 2022.
°¦}
