Small victories

Last night I succeeded in excavating my sofa, finding a $10 cheque between the cushions that I deposited this morning. Tonight, I tackled the aquarium. The water was very low, has had no pump or heat for awhile, and was gone to duckweed and algae, but one solitary platy had hung on, and so I felt obligated to clean the tank, add water, and get the pump moving again. I'll plug in the thermometer once everything clears. I hope she survives having some fresh water put in. So now, having gotten way too much water, duckweed, and algae on me, and having had to siphon some of the crap out using my mouth on the end of the hose (I have one of those type that you're supposed to be able to move up and down to get going, but alas, have never been able to get it to work like it's supposed to), I have washed my arms and hands thoroughly, brushed my teeth, and after many primings managed to get the pump running like it's supposed to (I bought some material for ammonia and nitrogen awhile back that comes in premixed bags, and the placement of the bag, which is a little bigger than my filter, was apparently crucial. Wish me luck. I'm afraid the tank had gone the way of the apartment. But it's nice to hear the waterfall coming from the dining room now.

I went through a bunch of recyclables yesterday, too, so I'm going to take them out tomorrow morning. I didn't today because I had to run to the bank and slept too late to do both.

I have reached the true understanding that cleaning the apartment is going to take sections of rooms at a time, not a room at a time. I knew that deep down, but it's made it to the forefront.

I have decided one thing that must be done is to take all the non-functioning electronics in my house (an old printer, four old computers [no they weren't all mine], two VCRs, a bread machine, etc., and put it in the walk-in closet so I can get to all the other stuff in the living room. It looks like a computer parts store exploded. Add two functional but obsolete CRT monitors, and I just have too much stuff that can't be thrown in a dumpster and needs special recycling but no way to get there. I doubt the air conditioning will leak again soon and if it does, well, most of them don't work anymore anyway. The monitors I'll try to unload using Freeshare. If I can get that plus the recyclables (including the big cardboard boxes of doom) out of the way, I can get to everything else.

Second plan of attack is to take every CD and CD-ROM in my house and put it in my CD stand where I can go through them later to determine what still works on the computer (I'm running Windows 7, so a lot of old programs won't), what might run for friends, and what just needs to be thrown out. The music CDs are still in good shape, but they're all over the place.

Oh, and I think I need to take my plants from home in to work. All of my work plants are thriving. I remember to water them. The ones at home are pallid shadows of their former selves. I'm afraid right now if it doesn't make noise, I can't remember to take care of it, because there's too much stuff between me and it to bother. Thank the Gods I don't have a kitten right now (the state of the apartment being a major reason for not getting one--it's not kitten proof at all, too many small edible things.)

Most of the books, with the exception of library books and new books, are in their places. But I really need to work on organising things better down the line. It's not like I don't have a lifetime subscription to LibraryThing, after all.

It hasn't all been work today; I played a little Morrowind (wanted to see if it worked on this system), and I'm going to put Riven on if it works, too. Not that I do much computer gaming, but still, I like those a lot. And I must say, I'm looking forward to Civilization V, which will come out later this month, although it may be awhile before I can get it (I was still on Civ II on my last system).

Oh, by the way, two things:

I.

Bad news: I've been clocking out before doing a job transfer on our time clock system, and this apparently means I've been accidentally docking myself an extra half-hour each day.
Good news: They fixed what I had done for this past pay period, plus it looks like I'll get an extra 13 hours or so from prior pay periods put on Thursday's direct deposit.
Bad news: I may never actually know how much I'm supposed to make in a two-week period, since yet again it was screwed up.
Good news: More money to sock to taxes and car fund.

II.

Bad news: I never made it to Danville yesterday.
Good news: I probably needed a day to myself.
Bad news: My attempts to contact my mother failed (she'd left her phone at my grandmother's, had changed her home phone and not told me, and she didn't even think to call me.) On the other hand, if I'd called my grandmother, I would have reached my mom.
Good news: It really gave me some insights into some learned passiveness and also into feelings of abandonment I've had since I was small. Of course, there was that time she forgot to get me from elementary school....yeah, it felt the same.
Bad news: I broke down and cried, feeling unloved and abandoned.
Good news: Brandon cheered me up and getting something to eat and drink helped steady me, too, after waiting for hours for someone to come.
Bad news: Technically, I don't have another day off until Thanksgiving.
Good news: I might be able to take a Friday off if there's a really light clinic that day.

Well, I guess that's all for now. That's how my life's going. Hope yours is better.