Huzzah!

Well, I:

• Drove to the UK area to pick up my friend's jacket, which he accidentally left at a friend's house while celebrating the new year
  
  
• Drove to the grocery store to pick up food, especially as we were out of coffee, so things were dire
  
  
• Drove to Captain D's through the drive-through to pick up dinner
  
  

It was odd to drive after eight weeks, but it felt nice to get some independence back. Yay, I'm back on the road!

Today I cancelled the Chandler Pharmacy's standing order to mail me my prescriptions, so I'll have to pick up a couple after PT tomorrow. So now I can go to my appointments by myself.

To everyone who drove me to my appointments, though, thank you so much for helping me! I really appreciate it.

It was a slow day

We'd cancelled the game for other reasons, but it's good that we did. The weather's messed with my fibromyalgia, so everything from neck muscles down to the soles of my feet hurt, and I have what I think is a light cold I seem to have caught from a friend, so I've slept so much today and could sleep all night, too, I'm sure. I did about half of my chores, the ones that were most important, and went and got something from Captain D's (and actually got fried fish; we'll find out if my gall bladder will react badly--it's been almost a year since I was brave enough to eat it, but I was craving it). We watched an episode of 'Sister Boniface's Mysteries (an excellent show, a spinoff of 'Father Brown' but with a character that was not in the GK Chesterton stories.) I've listened to the new album by Ed Sheeran, - (Subtract), which came from came from Amazon yesterday. Because of the cold, I couldn't sing along with the car radio. I did test for Covid, but it's negative. My sore throat started Friday night, and it would be just my luck to finally catch it on the day the WHO said it was no longer a pandemic emergency. But no, it seems to be just a normal cold. That's about it. But some days it's good to have a slow day. And our coming week has high clinic numbers, so it's good to get some rest now.

It was a very nice workweek

A little shorter, of course, with the funeral on Monday, which was very nice.  All three sons got up and shared memories.  It was a good turnout.  We didn't go to the internment due to the bitter cold and wind; the family had a big potluck later and our friend was set for food, so we gave the family some space to mourn.

She had such a lovely personality, and I miss her very much.

After Monday, of course, it was back to work, but it was a normal week without being overwhelmed, and Friday was actually the way Fridays should be, a good day to play catch up.  I'm keeping track of what I'm doing each day for my boss (as are my department co-workers), and I actually do quite a lot and am very busy, and this is borne out in my log, and it's giving me a greater perspective on how much time it's taking to do what, so it's been useful.  My partner downstairs has been helping with the off sites as she was caught up with her things, and that's been very helpful.  We actually have all but four scheduled, and of the four, one is a coordination of different departments that is being worked on at the university, one is a problem one that was scheduled but I'm trying to get rescheduled to an earlier time, one is in the hands of the sedation scheduler there and I'm just waiting to hear back, and one I'm waiting for word from a care manager, as theirs is scheduled a month away and both family and the doctor want it earlier but the university has nothing, so I've asked if it can go to another facility.  I'm using two different facilities beyond the university as its schedule is such that I can't get anything within a month for any type of ultrasound or MRI, and when I cancelled an ultrasound I'd taken for January but was able to get next week at another facility I let them know why.  Really, I'd like to schedule there but there's roadblock after roadblock.

Yesterday I did my friend's laundry, my shelves to dust, and some things around the house, but mostly it was relaxing.  We went over to my friend's house whose mother had died, and we had fish from Captain D's and visited for a while.  There was a big storm that blew up just as I got back with the fish, and it really rained and thundered.  Today, however, it is up in the 60s and sunny but also windy, and I have my laundry to do and just a few things around the house.  Not bad for the second day of December.  We're going to see Fantastic Beasts: the Crimes of Grindelwald today, his treat.  I'm out of my free passes from work, but I've taken care of most of the movies we've gone to in the last couple of years with them, and last time (for The House with a Clock in its Walls) I was able to do both the free passes and a gift card for the concessions, all because they were employee appreciation gifts over the years.

I did some drawings earlier.  I never had anything beyond third-grade art, and I would like to draw better.  I used to do it almost obsessively, doodling a lot.  I haven't drawn in years.  Anyway, I have this book on drawing basics called Drawing for Everyone by Bruce Waldman and drew some things based on the first two chapters.  YKWIA, who is an artist, looked them over and said the main problem was that I was very timid about shading and needed to do so with more confidence.  Otherwise, they look pretty ghostly.

I think I'll do some reading before we go.  It's been a while and my book awaits.  I'm still reading that Kate Morton book, and I'm only about a fifth of the way through (it's 530 pages).

Tuesday afternoon

was my last day at pulmonary rehabilitation. I did pretty well, and I finally got to the top of the inspiratory resistance inhaler in terms of difficulty. It was four sessions early, but they felt pretty good about my progress. They took a selfie with me and gave me sheets with goals on them and a nice t-shirt as well.

Afterwards, I went downtown to the revenue office and applied and paid for my business licence. So now I am duly licensed and in compliance with local ordinances while doing this contract work. My boss is going to see if they can reimburse me for the unexpected expense.

A was downtown, too, getting ready to take the bus home, so I gave him a ride. I took something over to another friend's house for him, and I took that friend to the library, where they were having movie night (Metropolis). I stayed at the library working on the game notes, as I'd brought my laptop with me. I got home about 9 pm and then relaxed until about midnight, trying to keep awake longer than I have been, with success, although I'd woken up tired yesterday, and I lingered in bed a little too much this morning, as I got to work with only five minutes to spare after taking the shuttle in. On the other hand, I couldn't believe my eyes when I got the very first space as you come into the parking lot. It was a little weird that it was free. But, still, it made it easier to find the car when I left for an appointment. I walked this afternoon, afraid I'd missed the shuttle and in a hurry. Three shuttles passed me on the way, so I needn't have worried about that issue. I knew that fewer shuttles run during off-peak times, so I walked. But it was good exercise. Later I took a friend to get something, then we ate at Captain D's (I had my usual grilled wild salmon salad, but added fried green tomatoes this time to my order). After that, I went out to Costco to get some 100-watt-equivalent LED light bulbs for him. I also picked up some Edward Marc Chocolatier Coconut Almonds with Dark Chocolate, which I love, and he pointed out that perhaps because I didn't get 'goodies' much growing up, I tend to get something for myself whenever he gets something. It's a valid point. Then we went to Kroger to pick up a partial prescription for A, who had his ADHD medicine stolen out of his locker at work the other day and who had filed a police report, which was needed before they could replace it. He really needs it and was feeling awful. So after that, we went and dropped it off to him. Then I took my friend home and came home myself. Now I'm listening to Pandora and trying to get caught up on my blogging. I'm using a tool developed by Grammarly that examines your typing/writing not only for spelling errors (and I was able to set it to British English since I use that in my personal writing) but also grammatical ones as well. It's free at https://app.grammarly.com/. It works really well at alerting me to errors which I normally only catch after hitting 'publish' and proofreading on the page. Yay!

Okay, I think that's enough for now. I'm going to go eat the puffy pierogis I just baked. Maybe I'll write a little later.

Today

I did a lot of stuff at work,  went to a friend's appointment,  watched 'Bones'  in the waiting room, got my allergy shots,  paid my rent,  spent the longest time ever in a Drive-Through at Captain D's (We could have gone inside and eaten in the time it took,  they messed up the tea with sweetener,  and I was asked three times what sauces I wanted,  when it was just vinegar), listened to platypus noises and classic Catherine Tate sketches on YouTube,  and now it's late and I have to get over at a friend's by 7 or 7:30 am for an appointment.  And my phone just reminded me it's time for bed.  So,  good night.  Happy weekend!

PS I found out YKWIA did not realise that Catherine Tate was Donna Noble on 'Doctor Who'. He doesn't tend to recognise actresses and actors in different roles for some reason. He had the epiphany today. An artist, he's a very visual person, but he has no filter, really. If an actress is blonde and then changes her hair, he won't recognise her, because he sees her as a whole rather than being able to differentiate the parts. He has that issue in languages, too. When we were in Hebrew together, I was horrified to learn he couldn't pick out the pattern (he has dyslexia) in terms of conjugation and declination, but rather had to memorise each and every form separately. Despite this, he has a facility for languages and has studied several, all with a variety of different endings for various words. Hebrew, of course, is even more of an issue because unlike Latin, Greek, etc., it's not just the endings--rather there is a root of about three letters and everything--and I mean everything (prefix, suffix, vowels, emphasis) changes. I'm just amazed. He also does lower math incredibly fast using a system of colours and shapes in his mind that boggled the mind of a friend (she almost understood it, and it nearly broke her)--and she's now an engineer with NASA. But he has trouble with the concept of 1/4 = 1 divided by 4 = 0.25 = 25%. I don't think he went past geometry. On the other hand, I've used algebra exactly once post-college, so hey, it hasn't been a great handicap for someone who majored in history, philosophy, and art. I truly envy his memory though, which is nearly eidetic, and of course he's brilliant and has an IQ that's through the roof, and I often feel pretty stupid by comparison and have to remind myself that I test pretty high myself. If he'd been able to do math better, he'd probably be some sort of mad scientist--it was what he wanted to be when he grew up.