silentq: (Death)
silentq ([personal profile] silentq) wrote2025-08-13 11:31 am
Entry tags:

boy that sure was a long August... oh

So yeah, getting covid right after the Terminus festival (though feeling bad enough despite testing negative that I skipped the last night and brunch meet ups) started off my August with a lot of cancelled plans and quarantining. I had the fever and sleep for hours on my still negative days, positive days were about moving as little as possible as I was exhausted. I barely had an appetite, which was good as I had a full enough pantry to last until I was negative again. At which point my appetite came roaring back this past weekend and now I'm hangry all the time, guh. I tried to take it easy as I caught up on out of the house stuff, though returning the (quite heavy) not installed toilet to the hardware store with my sister was a challenge. A nice fellow building person offered help to get it down the stairs and into the SUV and despite my initial gasping refusal I took the help. Thank goodness we found a cart to wheel it into the store.
I've been plotting out painting approaches to get rid of the beige, so I now have a nice supply of paint chips and a couple sample cans to play with. I want my red dining room walls back, and I think I'm settled on a dark green + cream theme for the master bathroom. Still waffling over the master bedroom, I have art that works with the light green of my old bedroom but I never liked that colour all that much. Kind of want to recreate the other room colour schemes though, the ice blue in the workout/gear room was nice... and I want my bright kitchen back!

Though most of that is on hold for a bit as I got laid off (finally!!!) yesterday. We'd had about 5 of our remaining about 20 people quit right after the year cliff on the stock grants vesting and I'd been waiting for the trading blackout period to expire so I could sell (and learning about capital gains). That expired at the end of last week and then we had a very last minute all hands meeting called Tuesday morning by HR. They'd been warning of restructuring for months after they cancelled our product in April, and I'd just started working with the safety CPU team to do integration testing but was pretty sure they wouldn't have noticed that new work and only focussed on my lack of depth of UI work. That hunch played out as I was contacted for my 1:1 in the being let go group. I have some digging to do regarding AB employment standards as they only offered me 6 weeks severance, but I need to find my notes on my service dates[1] and find out what they're basing that number on. Also sucks that my salary now is a *lot* lower than it was in the USA so even if I were to get closer to the 20 weeks I should get if you count from when I started at Veo, the dollar amount won't be super great. No idea how much I'll have to pay an employment lawyer if I have to retain one either. :-/ Guess selling that stock grant might be worth it.

I also had an outstanding expense report, and need to deal with the locked 401(k) that they weren't letting me touch from my time working in the USA after the acquisition.

Still very glad that I underbought when I got a condo here, I've got a very nice cushion left, and I also can stop worrying immediately about contributing to an RRSP that I might not have any contribution room for. Oooh, and I might be eligible for unemployment insurance! They're paying me through Friday and that's when I'll get the termination letter and know more details. Right now I'm just dreaming about running away to sea or the mountains. :-)
I also need to jump gently back onto the workout train after my covid slump.

But it's also Pride Month here, so I have some fun things to look forward to that shouldn't cost me much money (might have to pass on the one drag competition if I can't get the cheapest ticket). I've also got some airline miles to use and should go visit my parents. Hrm, with lots of time on my hands, might see if I can find a cheap train journey to take as well. *resists looking at last minute Arctic cruises*

[1] Turned out I'd only texted my sister (on Jun 12) the information on service dates, so duplicating it here so that I can find it better in future:
Length of Service was recorded as 6+ years (from my Veo start date which was listed as my Continuous Service Date). Time in Position and Time in Job Profile were both 10+ months though (calculated from Hire Date when we were acquired).
The service dates are the ones they should use to calculate severance so they're gonna be on the hook for 6+ years rather than just over 1. That anniversary was going to be Sept 4th, just missed out.
the_siobhan: (on fire)
the_siobhan ([personal profile] the_siobhan) wrote2025-08-09 12:29 am

your city lies in dust my friend

I am currently sitting on twitch listening to the Convergence 27 Raid Train. It's been great for checking out new DJs and I now have a long list of bands and songs to look up later.

I'm sad about missing the people who are at physical Convergence this weekend and I really wish I could hang out with them in person, but... well you know.

Final Contractor came over last week so he could take some measurements. He's running behind on work orders (go figure) because most of his work is outside and his employees can't work a full day when the temperatures are over 30 C. Which makes perfect sense to me.

In the meantime, now that the painting is done I'm taking a break from big projects. I did zero house-cleaning while I was working on the yard and basement and the allergen level in the house is making me break out in hives on the regular. Doesn't help that I can't open the windows because the air quality is crap with all the wildfires. I'll spend August getting on top of that. And all the outstanding paperwork that's piling up on my desk around work permits and insurance claims. And catch up on appointments, if I can get that organized.

I haven't done great (yet) with scheduling exercise time, but I've putting aside time to write letters to politicians. I am so beyond pissed off at well, everything. I have no idea if it helps at all, but I figure it can't hurt and I have to do something with all this anger and frustration. And I'm too old to start a punk band.