Well, that was decidedly odd

I've been burning the candle at both ends, by working long days, doing errands and going to appointments with friends and for myself, visiting my mom (who was transferred to the rehabilitation centre within the nursing home my grandmother used to be in, closer to their home but further away from me), and basically getting about 4-5 hours of broken sleep at a time. So it's probably no wonder that I haven't written much.

I came home about 6:30 or 7 tonight, had a quick bite to eat, and then laid down for a bit. I shot for an hour's nap; I got two, with Pandora in the background and my fan running (I was terribly hot). I'd been having some trouble breathing today, which is why I didn't go get my allergy shots today. Anyway, I slept well. Then I woke up, went to the bathroom, and then the kitchen, where I grabbed something to drink and some string cheese, and I had my glasses off (you know, you get used to your house and can do certain things, even if you're nearly blind without them). But I did notice the light in the aquarium was off, which was odd, because it was on when I got home, and I didn't turn it off. I have several LED bulbs in the aquarium hood--one might have gone out, but that is unlikely, as they're not old and LEDs last a long time. So I went and got my glasses, turned the light to the dining room on, and tried the light. Nothing. I looked around to see what could be amiss, and it turns out the large and one small, heavy pictures on the wall, maps of the world, had fallen off somehow, fortunately straight down, so they didn't hurt the aquarium (29 gallons of water and fish on the floor would not have been good), but they did unplug the light and the pump. So I've plugged those in and I'm going to check and make sure the pump is putting water through in a minute. But it was weird.

There are a few things I need to do this weekend:

1. Get up early tomorrow and go over to YKWIA's house by 8 am and get him up for an appointment.
2. Take him to said appointment.
3. Go get some of his medicine from the pharmacy.
4. Pick him back up.
5. Take him home.
6. Go to the library and return a book. Read off the small amount of fines I have (they've got a fine read-off through tomorrow).
7. Go to work and get some hours in, doing the extra work I agreed to do, which will help keep me from being as short from the holiday for Christmas day from Monday.
8. Come home and work on:
   1. A book review.
   2. The game notes.
   3. The house.
   4. Watch the ball drop at midnight.
   5. Pick up A at 2 am from work on New Year's Eve downtown, hopefully without getting struck by a drunk driver.
   6. Get over to YKWIA's at 9 am Sunday to clean house for the game.
   7. Play the game.
   8. Pick A up at midnight from work. At least I don't need to work Monday due to the holiday, unlike normal, when I struggle to get up in time on Mondays.
9. For Monday--I have physical therapy with YKWIA in the middle of the day. Otherwise, I'm going to try to work on my own house and try to get caught up on my rest.

So, yeah, still busy, and starting the year off just as hectically. Oh, well. Anyway, I hope you all have a good New Year. 2016 has been pretty sucky--here's hoping that 2017 will be much better. Granted, I'm scheduled for a lay-off, but I might do better in the long run.

Not to be a total and utter wuss

But I'm in quite a bit of pain, due to tendonitis in the elbow and shoulder, so I'm going to keep this short. Today I:

• Voted in a special election for state senator. My candidate came in second of three, but hey, at least I voted.
• Got caught up on all the work I was behind on at, well, work.
• Lent an ear to someone who had to talk out their feelings regarding a family situation.
• Stopped by the library and got a couple of books and some CDs.
• Installed a new aquarium filter. The fish are SO much happier. Thanks Amazon!
• Watched several episodes of 'The Big Bang Theory' with YKWIA because 'The Originals' and 'Supernatural' were preempted by Katy Perry and Lady Gaga.
• Heated up a microwavable bandage for my elbow numerous times tonight. It does help. If only I could take care of the shoulder as well. First thing to get when I get paid Thursday--a heating pad. I had one that was my grandmother's, and probably it was about 40 years old. I think I gave it to Goodwill, damn the bad luck. But for now I'll keep with the microwavable things. They're like the rice-in-the-sock sort of thing, except there's a velcro strap for affixing it around the affected joint.
• Came home running on my gas light the whole way. I have $7 for gas tomorrow, before I get paid. Here's hoping I don't get vapour lock or something similar tonight--it's in the low 20s right now (Fahrenheit) and it's supposed to go down pretty far. I usually try to keep at least a half a tank of gas in the car for cold weather. Wish me luck.

Okay, enough typing already. Have a good night.

Home from the Cthulhu game

which went pretty well. We had a nice visit. Brenda agreed to help me out in terms of taking me to the colonoscopy sometime in mid-late October. Despite a busy day, I'm a little tired but not overly so. I think I'll listen to some music and maybe read a bit. I have a book out from the library, Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead, plus plenty on the Kindle I need to read. I simply haven't read enough at all lately. So I'm going to get all comfy and go to the bedroom and curl up with a book.

I lost a few fish today, which isn't surprising, as the nitrates are still high. Oddly enough, they were the plainest of the bunch. The plecosotmus seems to still be there somewhere, although hidden. The snails are fine. There are still about twelve goldfish left. It's time to set the lights to nighttime (there are a couple of small blue lights for the evening). I am sorry that the ones didn't make it, although that is one reason I went for goldfish that are nineteen cents apiece. :) I put some water conditioner in that helps with the slime coat as a boost. Hopefully that will help. Sometime this week I need to give the tank a really thorough vacuuming.

Okay, time to retire to the other room. Hope you had a great weekend.

Looking forward to a quiet evening at home

We're not going to watch the movie tonight, but I'll see if we can sometime this coming week. In the meantime, I didn't go to the farmer's market, but I did go to the library and on a Kroger run, along with a trip to Incredipet to get some feeder goldfish (I don't feed them to anything; they're cheap and tend to work well in my tank, which always has high nitrates despite my efforts, so when I told the girl that, she netted some of the prettiest ones--she seemed happy to be saving them from a short life). I got a plecostomus as well, to eat the algae. I found the lights that go to my new aquarium hood on half price, so I got two so I have a full complement, one of the daylight ones and one with red LEDs alternating with the regular to bring out the colours in the tank. Once I got home, I put the special one in the middle and the others on either side. The fish seem happy. I went from two medium-sized goldfish in the big tank to about sixteen fish altoghether, including the pleco. The feeder goldfish are on the small side, so I think I did okay on the whole fish inch per gallon ratio. While I was at Incredipet, a small evil dog was running around without a leash and under absolutely no control by his owner. He hiked his leg and peed on a display at one point. The guy tried to put a halter on the dog and when the cashier tried to help him, the dog lunged at her and tried to bite her, so she said she didn't feel comfortable and asked the owner to adjust the halter. He seemed put out. Really, I wish people took responsibility for their animals.

While I was over at my friends' house, a helicopter was flying very low over the area and there were lots of police cruisers running around. Turns out some juveniles had stolen a car, didn't stop when the police told them to, and wound up on a chase where the car eventually crashed into a cruiser and they fled on foot. They caught them. I hope the owner of the car was insured.

Okay, I think I'm going to open up the windows (it's a beautiful day, now that the rain's gone by) and do some relaxing. I'll try to write later.

Let there be light

After nearly three weeks of darkness in the main aquarium, I stopped by Incredipet today and looked at what they had available. The problem with my hood wasn't the light bulb; it was the electronic starter, which is the second time that's gone out in about three or four years. So I looked at options for replacing that style of light. Turns out they had modular LED lights that fit over a glass top, which I already had. I got an Aqueon brand one that has space for up to three LED bulbs (it comes with one). There are two types of bulbs available: a day light bulb and one that has interspersed red LEDs that help accentuate the colour of the fish. I chose to wait and see how bright one light on its own is. One is plenty light enough, although I may add one of the others with the red lights, too. There are also a couple of small 'moon lights' that are blue that can be used at night so it's not in total darkness. LED lights last a long time, but I decided against the single-light, non-modular style because the whole unit would have to be replaced, and they're about $80 a pop. The lights themselves for the modular one are a little over $20, more than a regular light bulb, but a lot cheaper than a whole new hood assembly. So I went ahead and got the one in 30 inches, which fits my 29" long aquarium nicely.

Now that the light issue has been resolved, I need to:

1. Vacuum the gravel thoroughly
2. Do a water change
3. Clear out some of the Java moss.
4. Check the tank water (I particularly tend to have issues with nitrates)
5. Buy a few large snails (consequently, I also tend to have a lot of algae)
6. If water is okay, get some more fish (I'm down to two goldfish)

So that will keep me busy tomorrow. I also need to do the game notes, farmer's market, grocery run, spend some time with a friend, and have another over to watch Silver Linings Playbook. So I have a lot to do tomorrow. :) With that in mind, and the fact that it's half past midnight, I am going to go on to bed. Good night.

The last couple of nights

I have come home and been too exhausted to do much more than go straight to bed. Last night I was nearly falling asleep on the drive home, even though it was about 8 pm, but I did manage to rally just long enough to watch an episode of 'The Big Bang Theory'. It was the one with the luminous fish and Sheldon's mother, from season one. But then I just crashed.

So now I'm up. We're dong the grocery run after the UK football game lets goes off (around 3 pm), so I have some time to do some things. The plan is:

1. Go to the library. I have fines to pay (bad librarian!) and I want books.
2. Go the the farmer's market. I am craving real tomatoes.
3. Work on and finish the game notes.

If I have time, there's getting an electronic ignition for my aquarium hood and going to the YMCA. But the first three are the ones I really want to get done before I go over to my friends' house. I'm up, I'm showered and dressed (except for shoes), and I'm eating some coconut cranberry granola cereal I got from my foray into Trader Joe's the other day. So I'm almost good to go and it's not quite 10:30. :)

Wow...

One of the things I did before bed last night was disarm the five alarms I use to wake up in the morning. I rarely just sleep in to when I want these days, and I decided I was going to do it. That was about 11:30 or so last night. I woke up about 10 am and got out of bed at 10:22. I slept well and long. So I'm up, it's cycling between sunny and cloudy outside, and the cicadas are so loud I can hear them from inside.

Things I'd like to do today:
1. Do some reading. I'm working on Charlaine Harris' Dead and Gone, the last Sookie Stackhouse novel.
2. Watch some videos. I have one of the 'Sherlock's to catch up on, some 'Downton Abbey', etc.
3. Go to either the pool or the YMCA, or both.
4. Work on the window boxes (they were tossed around by the storms this weekend, and some of the plants need some attention, plus the strawberries are sad and almost dried out in places.
5. Get some pots and re-pot some of the indoor plants like the hoya and the prayer plant.

I don't think I can do anything about my dark aquarium. The folks who told me about the electronic ignition assembly (I can't remember what it's actually called) are usually closed on Labor Day, as it is a family-run business. I'm not sure Incredipet or PetSmart would be helpful. I don't have to replace the whole hood, just that assembly, but I don't remember how to, to be honest. That may be something for later in the week.

I am so glad tomorrow is Friday

It has been a very long, busy week at work. I've had a little time in the evenings to recuperate, but I'm ready for the weekend. Today I went on over to Meijer after work and got the stuff for my friend, along with some plastic plants for the little aquarium (I don't care for them, but I don't want live plants taking over the betta tank). I just put them in and he seems to like them. I did get some cilantro and German thyme plants to replace the dill and basil in the window boxes, which were pretty much spent. Everything's doing well so long as I water them. The strawberries have several berries on them right now, and hopefully they'll ripen soon. I also got a bread knife, as I didn't have one, and now that I'm making my own bread occasionally, I need a knife that will cut cleanly.

After I came home (the first time) today I planted the herbs in the window box, and then headed over to my friends' house to drop off the stuff from Meijer. I wound up watching a few episodes of 'H2O: Just Add Water'. Now I'm home and I'd better go ahead and pay my cell phone bill--I waited till the due date because today was payday. Then I think I'll listen to some music (I'm listening to Ed Sheeran right now') and head on to bed. Tomorrow I'm helping my friend with some cooking in the evening, and Saturday I hope to go to the farmer's market, we'll go to the grocery, and I have an appointment to have the car looked at. I think a belt is going bad--it's making that distinctive high-pitched noise, especially on rainy days, and I'm hoping to get it changed before it actually breaks.

Hope you have a nice evening and an even better weekend. Good night.

I told you I'd post this

Here's the little betta in his tank. He's been exploring. It's only three gallons, but it's much bigger than the small cup he came in. I haven't decided if I'll name him (the goldfish aren't named, for example).

Today I slept in and then took a friend to do the weekly Kroger run for groceries. Then I watched some 'H2O: Just Add Water' (we're in the second season, now). It was raining when I came home. Now I've eaten, and I also transferred photos from my phone (always a hassle, as Samsung's Kies software rarely works without doing lots of updates each time I go to use it.) Now I need to work on the notes from the game last week.

PS I got my passport card today. This is an ID card that can be used for travel to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. A regular passport (which I received yesterday) is necessary for other travel abroad. All that's left is my identification papers that went with my application. I'm really pleased by the turnaround the State Department had for issuing the various forms of identification. It took 14 business days, 19 total days to receive the passport, and one more day to get the card. Not bad!

Strangely awake, without having taken a nap earlier

In fact, after coming home and lying in front of the fan with my feet up while texting a friend, I decided to go out to Meijer (because it was 10:30 and the pet stores had closed) and see if they had any of those small aquariums suitable for a betta, which I wanted for my bedroom. I found one that had a colour-changing bubble stone and small filter that was 3 gallons, a good size for one solitary fish, and much better than many bettas get, poor things. I also found a betta and some black gravel, but forgot the food, so stopped by Kroger on the way (I only have goldfish food for the other tank). I put everything together before realising that while the gravel didn't need washing, according to the directions, you should wait about 48 hours to put the fish in. So, I'm afraid he's still in his little bowl that he came in. But I gave him a pellet of food and he seemed reasonably happy. He's a blue-green colour, peacock colours and seemed feisty compared to the others, who were languishing in their little bowls. I hope he does well. I'll take a picture once he's in the tank. :)

I just put twelve gallons of water into the fish tank, and I'm pooped

Yes, it had gotten down pretty far. Of the things to do from my list that are likely to happen for the rest of the weekend, there's trash/recyclables (tomorrow), hand-washables (tomorrow), bread (tonight or early morning), and dishes (tomorrow). I'm too tired to watch anything tonight, although it was good to get things mostly in order. I'm going to try to get up early and do a bit more before going to get snacks for the game. I also need to go out and give my monthly libation to Hekate, but I'm going to wait a little later for that, so I'm going to retreat to the bedroom for a little while and then get up around 1 or 2 am and do that. For once, I'm actually doing it on the night dedicated to her, when there is a dark moon, the traditional time of offerings.

I have got to sit down, as my back is bothering me

I called a friend and checked on him, then I filled the fish tank completely up (and that took three full 5-gallon buckets, as it was down pretty low), treated the water, cleaned off the algae from the glass, took out some of the Java moss (the stuff grows amazingly fast), fed the fish, and they're quite happier. I watered the houseplants. I also gathered up recyclables and went through papers, excavated the couch, got together the trash, and figured out how to use my nifty new kitchen scale. I discovered that the two pieces of pineapple I ate had 43 calories but 11 grams of carbohydrates. It should help with carb counting. I did get the first disc to the first season of 'Grimm' today, and I'm tempted to watch an episode, but I think I'll read a book that I have a review of due on Wednesday. I corrected a proof to one of my book reviews today as well, so it should be published soon. Yay. It will be in The Journal of Hospital Librarianship.

Listening to Bruno Mars, 'When I Was Your Man'. I do rather like it. Sometimes people just don't get the romantic stuff right. A little romance goes a long way. :)

Got up early

which is nice, as lately I've been struggling to get up by 7:45, so I have an extra hour today. I'm still a bit bleary-eyed (isn't that how I was when I said good night?), but I've already added some water to the aquarium and had a little caffeine, so eventually I'll get going.

I have an appointment this afternoon, so it will be a shorter workday than usual. Then I'm going to help YKWIA with a reshelving project assuming the weather isn't too bad. We've got rain and a wintry mix coming in today. Guess I should go check the weather and see if they've firmed up whether we'll get rain, ice, snow, or a combination today.

Hope you have a great day!

A little tired and sore, but home

I did not fall up or down my mother's steps. That was a plus. I spent a remarkably good visit with my mom, stepdad, grandmother, the two dogs, and a somewhat shy cat. I didn't sleep well last night, being in a different place than normal, and I didn't have my semi-usual mid-afternoon nap either yesterday or today, in the hopes of getting back into the swing of things when I go back to work tomorrow. I'll probably go to bed a bit early tonight because I have to get up early for that, maybe around 10 pm.

I discovered that as is usually the case, whenever I go out of town my power flickers off and my aquarium pump and microwave need to be reset. I'm not sure why it happened, but I took care of that so the poor fish would have some circulation before sitting down to eat or unpacking. Now it is happily cascading in a proper waterfall.

The walking with a cane thing is working pretty well, although sometimes I forget to put the can down first before my bad foot.

My computer is acting weird. My printer keeps saying it is warming up and acting like it's going to print or scan, and Windows 8 is making some sort of happy chirping sound right before it happens. Who knows.

Alright, I think I'll go unpack. I've already chucked off my clothes, which smell of cigarettes, and traded them for a nightshirt (I do wish my mother didn't smoke; it's not good for her, of course, either). And then I'll get together the stuff for work tomorrow. I'm giving my co-worker back the walker she loaned me. And I'll pack the boot and Tylenol just in case. I did have only one major issue on the trip to Stanford--we went into a Rite Aid and my back suddenly started hurting horribly; I could not sit down fast enough, just from standing and walking around for about 20 minutes. This, despite being in my regular shoe and not the boot. I hope that doesn't happen tomorrow. But once I sat down for a few minutes, all apparently was forgiven, so if it does, I'll just try that and see how it goes. Thank goodness I no longer work in the gas station where so much of the work was standing. I'd still not be back. Yay for sedentary jobs. :)

Poor fishie

My tank is having some issues, building up some algae, but I had noticed that I was only seeing four goldfish and not the five that are normally there. So I had begun to wonder if I'd lost one. Well, it's floating at the top of the water right now, so I have my answer. Fortunately, it's not the big effusive one. Thanks to Brandon, who offered to fish it out for me tomorrow. Not everyone will mess with dead fish. I have been feeding them, but their light stays on more often than not because it's hard for me to reach. Maybe I stressed it to death, or given the algae bloom, the nitrates may be up. Still, they've survived pretty well despite a tank that nothing else would survive in. They're feeder goldfish, but they're pretty, and they have 29 gallons in a long tank to play with. :) Hopefully they'll survive till I'm able to really go in and work on cleaning it up a bit. At least they have plenty of water thanks to Brenda.

I did manage to fix the aquarium

So yay for me. Maybe I'll tackle the dishes later. There aren't many, and I might be able to if I can sit and do them. Trash is right out I am afraid, so I may have to wait until someone comes over for that. There are three steps in front if my building that I can only get up and down with some help, and a garbage bag would only make it worse. There is a back door, but it goes out into a sloping uneven yard with exposed tree roots.  I might be able to gather it all into a big bag for later, though. I have a small trash can in the bath, a grocery bag hanging on my bedroom door, and a slightly larger trash can in the kitchen, so it's no bigger than a standard kitchen bag, even altogether.

But for now I am sleepy and am considering going back to bed for a little while.

I had a bit of an aquarium emergency this morning

but still got to work on time. I had not put water in it and it had gotten low enough that the pump was trying to get the water up but couldn't. I have one of those filters that has an intake valve, and the water goes through the filter and then falls back into the aquarium. So I filled up the tank, treating the water with both the anti-chlorine/chloramine stuff and with good nitrate-eating bacteria, and the fish are much happier. Their space just increased to double what it was. I am such a bad fish mom sometimes. I cleaned the algae off the glass as well, and now the water is happily tinkling down and the fish are swimming all about, and it's very relaxing to watch.

I started reviewing my Greek today (and I'm going to do some Latin before the night is over). I had five semesters of Latin (I have a Classical Civilisation degree, and one semester was Mediaeval Latin in the history graduate programme), but I dropped Greek in the first semester, about the time we got to the aorist. So I'm going to try to follow the adventures of Dikaiopolis and his family. I have both of the Athenaze books by Maurice Balme. They're standard at many universities and there are a lot of websites with exercises and supplemental material.

For Latin, I have a series of five small books called Ecce Romani! which follows the story of the Cornellii family, especially their children. I also have Wheelock's Latin Grammar (two different editions, the most recent I have being the 6th, on my Kindle. There is now a 7th out.)

I also just went through and downloaded several free Kindle books from Amazon. I'm getting back with my Kindle. For awhile there the tablet took precedence, as it was smaller (I have a Kindle 2, which is a behemoth compared to the newer ones, but by God it reads to me, and not all the new ones do), could be more easily packed, and I could read Kindle books on the tablet (but I don't really like to, I prefer eInk), so I've started taking it with me in my backpack.

Okay, I've paid some bills and gotten some things done on the computer. I think I'm going to go do a little studying and then maybe listen to some music. Bye for now.

Let there be light

So I finally took my aquarium light in (and got toilet paper, which is good, as I was down to two sheets this morning), and it turns out that while I have an electronic ballast, and many of the early ones of those had issues, the problem was simply that my replacement bulb that I got at Incredipet was bad. So I got a new one from Animal House, they took care of my old bulb, and I'll take the bad one back and get my money back from Incredipet. Sometimes, apparently, you just have to deal with a real pet store run by people who know what they're doing, who have been doing it for years (I've watched this couple's kid grow up over time). Anyway, the fish seem happy. The new light really picks up their colours and shifts the water to a nice green.

While I was at Kroger I found a cart that is smaller than mine, a much better size for the bus, but which will carry about two or more reusable bags and save wear and tear on my little suitcase. It has a heavy-duty blue and grey cover, rugged wheels, and an aluminium body. It carried a large thing of Cottonelle toilet paper, a grocery bag, the aquarium hood, and the old bulb, and I still could have gotten a bit more in. I put it together when I got off the bus (the bus came the moment I got to the stop at Kroger) and carried everything in it. At first I thought it was broken; there were broken plastic pieces that were basically place-savers and didn't go back on after the wheels snapped on (no tools required). It was $15 or so, which I thought was very reasonable, and looks pretty sturdy.

Well, phooey

Animal House is closed today. I guess they took the day off, too. I'm glad I called before taking the bus over there. Now the question is whether I still need to go over there for the toilet paper. I think I can wait till tomorrow. I could take the aquarium hood with me to work (yes, that will look odd) and stop by on the way home. But it would have been nice to do it today.

Now, there's also this: Do I want to check out the farmer's market, or just stay home and finish doing stuff here? Hmmmm....and the good thing is there's mostly just fun stuff left to do. :)

I can actually see my fish

My tank tends to build up nitrates no matter what I do, and that means algae grows on the glass (and everywhere else). When I was at Incredipet earlier I bought an algae pad that was on closeout for only $1.97, so I thought what's to lose? It really does an excellent job of removing the stuff. I had been using just a regular scrubbie pad you use on dishes, but it didn't do as decent a job. I also got the build-up on the glass under the light off. So things look less murky. I have a few goldfish of varying colours in the tank, one of which is kind of a dark bronze, and I could never see it much. Now they all are showing their vibrant colours. Yay! Now someday soon I need to vacuum out the gravel. I hate doing that, because I can never get the vacuum to work right. You're supposed to be able to pump it into the water a few times and get some suction going. I usually wind up having to do things the old-fashioned way, which means getting the suction by sucking on the end of the hose, which is rather unsanitary and would probably make our Infection Control director majorly box my ears. But if I don't do it, the nitrates will build up further and the fish will suffer, so what can I say, I do.