It's really been a fairly miserable few days.
I was struggling almost the entire day Friday, trying to get this program to read in a new dataset. I then tried to go back to an old dataset that did work and just fuse together the missing variables, but that didn't work either, and there was no useful error message. In the end, I did manage to get it in, but it was many, many wasted hours that put me in a pretty foul mood.
I've also been strung along by this first contractor to help me clean up some water damage in the basement. I've finally given up on him and then found someone else who will actually do indoor work, which is still incredibly challenging, though slightly easier now that the Province has moved to stage 3 and new COVID cases remain pretty low, so it feels relatively safe. There was some mixed messaging about when he was coming over, and I missed out on a slot for Friday, which was annoying. In the end, we agreed the new contractor would come over on Monday. In the evening, I went over to the gym to try to burn off some of the frustration.
Sat. started off moderately well with one of the smoother grocery shopping experiences in a while. Then I went off to work. I've had this report hanging over my head for quite some time, so I got more done on it, though it will still probably be another day or two before I can finally pass it over to someone else for final edits. (Along with this book review that I am kind of dreading, these tasks really do suck up way too much of my mental energy.)
However, there was one frustrating detail. I dug up some data on car sharing that I had collected in 2017, and then repeated in 2019 and 2020. For some bizarre reason, I seem to have collected the data for Boston but not Chicago. I am really surprised that my 2017 self didn't get that at the time, so I spent many hours tracking through old records, trying to find the original files, and I have basically given up. (The way the data happens to be stored means that I can't just go back and retroactively gather the 2017 data now, unfortunately.) I'm basically left with the notion that because Chicago didn't have Car2Go in 2017, I didn't bother gathering the 2017 data. Or perhaps I didn't check carefully enough and thought that ZipCar wasn't operating there in 2017, though I'm pretty sure I was aware that 2-way car sharing existed in Chicago, even back then. So it is all quite baffling why I didn't collect Chicago data and then bothered to collect it for Boston. It's certainly not the end of the world, but it was a disappointing turn of events.
I worked a little later than I wanted, but felt I was finally in a bit of a rhythm. I decided I would be pro-active and pump up my back bike tire just a bit before setting off. Big mistake. Somehow my pump malfunctioned, and it is possible (though not confirmed) that it has broken the valve on the inside tube, which will also have to be replaced, though the bike shop I go to isn't open until Monday. I tried for close to an hour to fix the pump and then pump up my back tire, but by the end of this it was completely flat. I even went and visited the cubical of a fellow cyclist to see if he happened to have a spare portable pump, but he didn't. I knew that if I tried to ride with a completely flat tire it would just wreck the rim and I'd have to replace the entire back wheel. It was also dark by now, so it wouldn't have been all that safe to ride home, even with a miraculously repaired tire.
I debated various options and finally decided I would take the subway home -- with the bike. And basically the TTC ride home was a nightmare, which it is so often. There was a suicide just north of Bloor and it was taking them an extraordinarily long time to a) get the shuttle buses running and b) turn the trains around to take the people up to the St. George station. There weren't many people on the train, which was one saving grace and everybody except one person was wearing a mask. I really don't want to be taking the TTC this winter, especially if people have started working downtown again, but perhaps it isn't quite as dreadful as I imagined. And of course, I won't be attempting to make the trip with a bike and having to carry it up and down the stairs!
I'm just about to run off to the gym again and then hit Walmart as soon as it opens. I should be able to find a bike pump there. I'll see if it is just the pump that was broken or if the tube also needs replacing. I think I may be a little jumpy and not too trusting of this tire for a while and maybe I will need to drop the bike off at the bike shop anyway. So that made for an extremely frustrating day, and I am just hoping that this Sunday turns out better.
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