Rise and Shine... at 0430?

I primarily want to write about the vaccination process, but I'm also going to add updates on the computer, on cars, and returning to a normal schedule and what all that means.  

First, I'm not holding this one back.  That second dose of Moderna COVID-19 vaccination kicked my fucking ass!  When I got the first vaccination I got symptoms that fell right in line with what they talked about.  A little tired, a little headache, and pain at the injection site.  The fatigue and headache were easy enough to push through and they were gone after a couple days.  The pain at the injection site was worse. It was bad.  Normally when I get a shot... say the annual flu shot or a tetanus shot... I'd call the lasting sensation an "ache" rather than pain.  It aches.  It aches for a few days and then it's gone.  The ache is hard to localize as it just hurts the entire shoulder.  It doesn't stop me from doing anything and if I were to put it on the 1 to 10 pain scale, where 1 is the least amount of pain and 10 is the worst pain imaginable, I'd rate it between 0 and 1.  This was not that.  This was pain.  On that same scale my shoulder sat at a dull achy pain of 6 or 7.  I felt like I wanted to gnaw my shoulder off to make it stop.  Ibuprofen made that go down to a more bearable 4 to 5, but it was still bad.  And I could easily localize the area of muscle that was hurting. I could both feel the swelling with my fingers and I could feel it when I moved my arm in a particular way.  If I moved my arm up outstretched and parallel to the ground or curved it inward (like moving into a typing position!) the pain spiked up to an almost unbearable level.  I literally had trouble washing myself as I couldn't' get my arm out of the way and it was useless for cleaning the other side of my body.  

If it was just that, just a more severe pain at the injection site, I could have bore it pretty well.  But I got hit with fatigue, body aches, and feeling feverish.  The fatigue wasn't feeling tired, it was exhaustion to the point of falling asleep.  I don't mean snuggling up and napping, I mean falling asleep while I was having a conversation.  I mean being, honest to the Goddess, afraid of driving.  The body aches?  That was the dull ache I expected at the injection site... but everywhere.  My head (yeah yeah, headaches), neck, shoulders, arms, forearms, back, chest, belly, hips, thighs, calves... I hurt everywhere.  I just couldn't find a position where I didn't make some of those aches worse.  And while I took my temperature on a regular basis I never got into that 100 to 104 degree area where I should worry and call it a fever.  BUT, I'd be shivering one minute and burning up the next.  I have a little window in my office at work and even though it was 25 degrees outside I had that thing open at least six times in an hour.  

And I can hear what you're thinking... "oh if you could go to work, it couldn't have been that bad!" and to that I'd say "fuck you".  Yes, I went into work, but I lasted all of one hour the first day.  I had to work the schedule pretty hard to make sure we had coverage and when I don't do that the other supervisors can step in... but they fuck it up pretty bad.  I don't just give up on my nurses, no matter the personal toll it takes.  The second day I lasted longer, but I seriously think that effort made this last longer.  

If this were just me, I might think it was in my head.  I often let my mind follow fears pretty far and I know damned well I've made physical conditions worse by mental effort alone.  But this took out half of our staff.  Doctors, dentists, physician assistants, nurses, supervisors, pharmacy techs, RCAs, office staff.  It started a day after the second injection and lasted between 24 and 48 hours on average.  I have one particular nurse that I hold up as an example of what NOT to do when it comes to working sick.  He'll work when he's on his death bed.  He holds on to his sick leave like it's printed in gold.  I seriously sent him home one time because he looked like death warmed over and he ended up having pneumonia.  Even he took two days off.  

Now maybe its just the batch that we're getting.  Maybe its our shared repeated exposure to the virus.  Maybe its mass hysteria.  But it was bad and it was all encompassing.  

I can still feel the pain in my shoulder but it's at a 1 while resting and maybe a 3 when I press on it or push it into positions it doesn't like.  The fatigue finally seems to have gone away (I couldn't sleep for more than 4 hours last night even though I tried!), and I have no body aches other than those you develop from sitting around all day.  

Now, in a couple weeks, I should be fairly well protected from the virus.  I'm going to celebrate by going out to have drinks with a friend.  We might even travel as she got vaccinated herself, but that's up in the air as what can we do when we travel when most things are still closed... waitadamnedminutetherehoney!

As I wrote that I decided to look at what museums are open in Chicago.  Because honestly, if we planned a trip there and couldn't go to the art institute or any of their other fantastic museums, it just wouldn't be worth it.  And low and behold, many are open and the rest are opening soon:

• Art Institute of Chicago - Opening February 11th
• Shedd Aquarium - Opened January 27th
• Field Museum - Opened January 23rd
• Museum of Science and Industry - Opening March 7th

That's the big four, but that are dozens of museums that are open or opening soon! OMG I MIGHT BE ABLE TO TRAVEL!!!!!!!!!

The computer

Well, I put some of the upgrades into my comptuer.  Lesson number one; buying a computer from a boutique manufacturer does not mean it will come in a case that's easy to work on.  Changing out the power supply wasn't bad, but just accessing the fans was a pain in the ass in three different levels. 

First, the two 80mm fans in the back.  These were fairly straight forward.  Just unscrew them, unplug them, rout their cables out, screw the new ones in, rout their cables, and plug them in.  It's that middle part.. the cables were routed to be mostly hidden.  I appreciate it as it keeps the system looking clean, but damn that was a pain that took a long time.  

Next was the two 120mm radiator fans.  The screws holding them to the radiator were blocked off by the motherboard so I had to completely unscrew the radiator, pull it out, remove the fans, put the new fans on, re-attach the radiator, then plug in the fans and rout the cables.  It seriously took about an hour just for that.  

Finally there's the two 120mm fans on the front of the case.  These... are not coming out now.  They have the same problem as the radiator fans in that the motherboard itself is blocking access to the screws, but where I could unscrew the radiator from the top outside of the case, these are attached to a non-removable piece in the front of the case.  Even if I could take t he front of the case off, I can't access the screws to remove  the piece they're on without completely disassembling the case.  

Thankfully those last fans aren't loud so they can stay in.  For now.  Unthankfully, one of the fans sits right behind the video card.  My RTX 2080 Founders edition is 10.8 inches long.  Most RTX 3080 cards are 11.8 inches long and the RTX 3090s are often longer.  I don't have an inch to spare.  I MIGHT be able to squeeze it in but I bet I'd have to unplug the fan as its blades would touch the video card.  What will be more likely is that I'll have to actually pull the motherboard out and remove the fan to get enough space.  

Fuck. 

Those problems only happen once I have a video card in my greedy little hands though and that's no small task.  I seem to have three paths open to me, and none are really good:

1. I can buy one of the cards that are for sale now.  These are cards purchased by scalpers and are for sale at a $1,000 upcharge.  You didn't read that wrong.  They are asking over $1,700 for a card that should retail at $699.  They're asking $2,600 for the 3090 which retails at $1,500.  Now, I don't mind getting screwed a little on price, but I DO mind being bent over and fucked roughly from behind (except in fantasies where... blush... nevermind).  
2. I can sign up for notifications and wait. There's two types of this.  
1. The first is what most retail sites offer... best buy, newegg, B&H Photo (by the way, when did they become a major player in the electronics/computer market!?), and others... where you sign up and as soon as they have some in stock they send emails out to everybody.  But you see, they get stock in at llike 15 or 20 cards and are sending out tens of thousands of emails.  The likelyhood of being fast enough to buy one is ridiculous.  The difference between them sending the email, your email program collecting the email, and you reading the email could be the difference between getting the card and not.  I'm signed up for multiple cards at all of those locations. 
2. EVGA, my favorite video card manufacturer outride of Nvidia's own founders cards, has a better system.  A far more fair system.  When you sign up, you're put into the line.  As they get stock in they assign each person a card and give them like 8 hours to purchase it.  If they don't, then it moves on to the next person in line.  I'm currently signed up for all the cards they have for sale except for the water cooled ones.  
3. Wait until the cards are in stock.  Just wait.  

I'll eventually get one of these cards and I'm hoping that the EVGA system means it won't be too long, but I'm honestly going to be surprised if I get one before summer.  

Cars

I talked in my last post about looking two, three, or four years into the future at what car I'd like to get next.  I'm seriously hoping I can find a good used one as it just makes so much more financial sense... but I won't compromise on the features I want.  No car currently stood out as to what I'd like.  To be honest, what I'd like is a mix of Nina with her well over 400 horse power and a Mercedes or Volvo with all their luxurious touches. 

Well, between writing all of that last week and writing this now, Cadillac has announced their new V Blackwing versions of the CT4 and CT5.  

A quick asside on Caddy's stupid method of naming their cars.  First, I like NAMES of cars.  Mustang.  Corvette.  Focus.  Fusion.  Silverado.  Defender.  Accord.  California.  I don't particularly like numbers or letters.  BMWs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 6 series.  Mercedes A, C, E, and S classes.  Volvos S, V, and XC lines.  Caddy for the longest time HAD names.  Seville, Eldorado, Escalade, Allante.  But they slowly succumbed to the number/letter game.   STS and DTS were first.  Then CTS and ATS.  ELR, XTS, and SRX.  Now, from those 'names' you can't really tell what's a car and what's an SUV.  And you can't tell what' the small one, the medium one, or the large one.  So with this current generation they've fixed that.  

Cars are CT, SUVs are XT.  Small is 4, medium is 5, large is 6.  So, you have the ATS replacement, the CT4.  The CTS replacement is the CT5.  The XTS replacement is the CT6.  They also filled out their SUVs with an XT4, XT5, and XT6.  The only exception is their big money maker... the Escalade.  The big mammajamma SUV.  

Okay, naming aside, Caddy had their high performance line.  V.  This was their equivalent of BMW's M line and Mercedes' AMG line.  Throw that letter after a car name and you knew it was the massively high horsepower edition that was that sweet almost perfect mix between power and luxury.  Both the CTS-V and ATS-V were pretty damned sweet high horsepower cars.  

Then they went and threw a monkey wrench into it just like BMW and Mercedes did.  I get following other companies when they do well, but why follow their mistakes.  In days past when you saw the BMW M badge on a car you knew it was high horsepower and could blow the doors off almost anything else.  The M3 and M5 were Gods.  Same with the AMG.  The C 63 AMG or the SL 65 AMG.  But now you can get a BMW M340i and a Mercedes C 43 AMG.  The two ways to look at it are they are slightly more powerful editions of their base counterparts or are woefully underpowered editions of their M/AMG big brothers.  Well now Caddy has done that with their V line.  

The CT4-V and CT5-V both came out a year or so ago and were.... not impressive.  The last CTS-V had a supercharged 6.2 L V8 engine that produced an eye popping 640 horse power and  630 lb⋅ft of torque.  The CT5-V had a twin turbo 3.0 L V6 that made 360 horsepower and idon'tcare lb-ft of torque.  Technically these were supposed to be replacements for the V-Sport line that Caddy had for a few years that was the equivalent of the watered down M and AMG lines. I wasn't happy with the 'V-sport' idea, but at least it had a different V logo.  

Caddy's V Logo (this is the euro spec, but close enough)

Caddy's V Sport Logo

Now the V Logo goes on these 'lesser' V cars.  Don't get me wrong, the CT5-V in particular isn't bad.  It's the successor the CTS V Sport above with 360 horsepower from a twin turbo V6.  With Cadillac's interior and styling, I could do that. They're not overly expensive either.  Spec'd just how I'd like it, it's just out of my price range without putting money down.  

But now comes Blackwing. 

Caddy's new top of the line replacement for the V will be the V Blackwing.  These are the over the top 'gentleman racer' cars with carbon fiber everywhere, big spoilers, and most importantly big power.  The CT5 V Blackwing is the same beast the CTS V was.  6.2 L supercharged engine producing over 600 horsepower.  And like the CTS V, it's prohibitively expensive.  I couldn't really afford a used one that meets my miles/years requirements.  A 2016 CTS-V (three years OLDER than Nina!) with 38,000 miles on it (4,000 MORE than Nina!) is going for $60,000.  For comparison, Nina with all her trade ins and extra warranties went for near that same price brand spanking new.  For a used car I'd want a year or two old (maybe three for the right car) and under 20,000 miles (or a certified pre owned that I can warranty up to 150,000 miles.  So the CT5 Blackwing is just out.  

But the CT4 V Blackwing?  Well that only has a twin turbo V6 instead of a glorious V8... but that V6 makes 12 MORE horsepower than Nina.  472 glorious horses with 445 lf-ft of torque. It's 0-60 times are better than Nina.  In a freaking Cadillac sedan!!!  Comparing it to the ATS V is a little harder as they stopped making the sedan in 2018 and only had the couple in 2019.  BUT, I can find a 2019 ATS V coupe with under 20,000 miles for $56,000.  That's right in the price range I'd be looking at... hopefully a little less so I can add a waranty and hopefully with some trade in value out of Nina.  

So... I have two targets that I know I'll at least look at  whenever I'm ready to buy a new car.  A CT5-V and a CT4-V Blackwing.  The CT5-V should be an easy find but the CT4-V Blackwing will be worth it if I can get one.  And when is that 'whenever I'm ready...'?  When I'm not upside-down on Nina.   At least a couple years away, probably closer to 4.  

Scheduling
I've complained about my schedule before.  But lemme go into some details that I think will help clarify it.  When I was working 1130-2000 I would go into work at 1000.  That meant shit/shower/shave at 0900 with breakfast and making lunch afterward.  So if I got up at 0700 or 0800 I was fine and could catch my emails and maybe even post to D+X or cap a bit.  When I got home at 2100 I'd eat dinner while watching TV, then wander into my computer at 2200 or 2230 and log into D+X or cap for a couple hours.  By 0100 going to sleep and getting between 6 and 7 hours which is right in my sweet spot.  

When they pulled up my time to the morning, I was screwed on so many fronts.  I'd forgotten why I was getting up so freaking early, but I finally remembered.  My schedule changed to 0830-1700.  That's leaving home at 0700.  That's shit/shower/shave at 0600 with breakfast and making lunch afterward.  BUT, my brother R leaves for work at 0700 and we only have one bathroom.  We're both regular bowel fellas and 0600 is a time for only one of us to occupy the bathroom.  So... I had to get up earlier and be done with the bathroom by 0600.  As my stomach and bowel didn't want to change schedules, I finally settled on 0430.  

Getting up that early is... not my bag.  I'm not that creative all that often when I get up that early.  It doesn't matter the number of hours I'd just slept, I'm just not moving fast at that early hour.  Even now as we approach a year on this schedule, I'm still not up for it.  And the evenings when I'd post and cap and play?  Well, now I get home in time to eat dinner with my family, and that takes longer.  I'm more tired at that time, so when I'm finished I sit in front of the TV and watch it for an hour or two.  That's getting home at 1800, eating through 1900, watching TV through 2100... and now its practically bed time.  I go to sleep between 2130 and 2230 every night.  

Now, when I moved to my cousin's house, I should have adapted my schedule.  I should have started getting up at 0530, have a little time in front of the computer, shit/shower/shave at 0630, and out the door at 0700.  To get my 6 or 7 hours of sleep I could then go to sleep at 2230 to 2330.  A far more natural time.  I might have even been able to check in with my friends at D+X several nights.  

The thing that got me thinking about this was a post I saw at D+X.  One of my friends is being celebrated for her 10 years there.  I too have been there for 10 years and desperately want to return.  Just about every weekend I contemplate coming back, thinking about how I could at least post on the weekends... but then I consider what happens if one weekend I'm just not feeling it and can't post.  It's a situation that comes up often enough so I have to think about it.  If I don't post on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, I'm skipping out on three days.  But if I don't post on Saturday or Sunday, I'm skipping out on possibly twelve days.  

No, that's just unacceptable.  

And now I'm kind of close to returning home, so I can't switch to the 0530 vs 0430 start time because once I get home I'll have to switch back. 

Sigh