It's weird

To watch the clock on your cell phone change from 1:59 am to 3:00 am in an instant. Happy Daylight Savings Time. :)

This morning

YKWIA came into my room (which is actually the living room, so you need to if you're going to come into the house or go to the kitchen to let the dogs out, which is what he was doing). He came over, noticed my always on display on my phone, and commented on it. I asked him what time it is. Eight, he said.

Now, my always on display is set to be on from 10:00 pm to 8:00 am, and it was still on. I look at my phone. It's seven. We only have one clock, not counting my thermometer/humidity gauge and my glucometer, that doesn't automatically set from Daylight Savings to Standard Time, and that's the stove. I told him it was seven. The stove says eight, he says. I explain that it has not been set back yet. But, he said, you said we gained an hour, and so it should be 9, right? I just shook my head. The concept of time, beyond light and dark and seasons, eludes him. He never knows what time it is, unless he has a digital clock somewhere that says it. Analogue clocks are difficult. I think it's part of his dyslexia. Anyway, I explained that it was really early and that yesterday it would have been 8, but now it's 7. I don't think it made much of a difference to him, and by that time, I figured I might as well get up.

I had a leisurely breakfast, took a nice shower, got dressed, read for a bit, visited with him for awhile, and I have:

1. Gotten my stuff off the kitchen table.
2. Cleaned the cat box.
3. Taken out the trash from all cans.
4. Run my summer clothes to the storage unit.
5. Gotten some bananas at Kroger.
6. Cleaned the toilet.

Now I need to water the plants, and since I did the notes last night, I'm pretty much ready for the game. I've caffeinated and taken my meds. I do need to do some laundry; he's in the shower right now, so I'll start after that. I think it'll be a difficult game. We're in ancient Rome with slightly under 24 hours to dismantle a cult of He Who Shall Not Be Named (not Voldemort, rather, Hastur) before the gates open up and all sorts of alien Cthulhoid entities cross over to the world and subjugate mankind. Wish us luck. Brenda has two characters, I have two characters, and YKWIA has two NPCs (non-player characters) on this one.

Home from the weekly Call of Cthulhu game

that I've been playing for almost 25 years. Wow. 25 years. That's scary. We started back in July of 1991 and while players have changed and storylines have taken bizarre turns, I still remember that first adventure, 'The Auction', where we went from normal folks at Miskatonic University to became ninjas with mystical powers there in Arkham. We're still going strong, and our characters have kids and mundane issues that are far worse at times than tentacled horrors. But it's fun to role play (really role play, not the stuff you do in a computer game or for that matter in some dungeon-crawling paper-and-dice games). The game master is brilliant, and he has meshed dozens of games into a coherent whole while maintaining the spirit of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, which is one reason we keep coming back week after week to some new horror. Or maybe it's masochism. Same difference. But most importantly, it's fun, and a great creative outlet for which I am very thankful.

It's been a decent day so far. I did laundry, worked on my friends' house, and then Brenda came over and we played till about 8 pm. I did pretty well with the whole Daylight Savings Time in terms of getting over there in time, especially considering I had my laundry, my book bag, a lunch bag, a two litre of soda, the laptop, and a very heavy bag with two 6.6 lb weights for A, some ankle weights for him to borrow, a book on fitness to borrow, a tote bag for him, and some envelopes for YKWIA. That bag was pretty darn heavy. Hopefully I will be able to get up on time tomorrow when I get ready for work. I've been getting up earlier lately anyway, so that may help.

That's it, I guess. We're planning something big for next game, a ritual to remove some conditioning from a non-player character who has been psychically programmed to kill her husband (one of Brenda's characters). And probably in the next game or two my character will find out she is pregnant with twins. Ah, good times. I think I'll go read for awhile; I have some books due at the library tomorrow and the new Eastside branch won't open until Tuesday, so I'll either renew or take them to Tates Creek, which I'll be near anyway. I'm going to look them over and decide which to do. Good night.

I think that it is time

To increase the number of wake-up alarms from two to five again.  With the dark mornings we've had lately,  I've really struggled with waking, and even more importantly,  getting up.  Today I slept through my normal alarm, which played every ten minutes for two-and-a-quarter hours before I woke up, as well as a one-time alarm.  On a normal day,  7:45 is about right,  but I meant to be at work by 7:30 this morning.

At least the daylight savings will end Sunday.  I'll have at least two or three weeks where the mornings will be lighter (albeit sacrificing the evening light) earlier before it's just dark both when I get up and when I get off work.

As on that note, it is time for bed.  I am going to try for earlier than a normal Wednesday,  so I should turn in.  Also,  it is hard to type on a phone, especially by swiping,  when you have hiccoughs, anyway.  :)

PS I finished Hollow City tonight,  and Library of Souls came via UPS today,  which was very timely. I'm going to let YKWIA read it first, though,  since he finished the second book before I did.

Am I just getting old?

Today I visited with my friends and reconnected after the trip, watched UK beat Auburn in the SEC men's basketball semi-finals  with one of them, and then took him to the grocery, and now, less than 24 hours after getting home from Chicago, I am already ready for a nap, even though I've done nothing strenuous and I've walked about a fifth of what I did Thursday. Now granted, on the first week of Daylight Savings Time, I've bounced back and forth between two time zones, really exerted myself over the course of three days, flown twice, etc., but still, I thought one good night's sleep would get me back to normal.  Of course, come to think of it, I was up for an hour in the middle of the night because, well, that's what I tend to do--I wake up and it takes awhile to go back to sleep.  So maybe I didn't sleep quite so well.  But I did dream vividly, something I don't remember doing at all during my trip.

A day of serpent mages and magic carpet rides

Okay, for anyone who has never played Call of Cthulhu or other tabletop roleplaying games, that probably sounds weird. But the game today involved trying to get innocents away from a serpent mage, who bugged out of there with them when he found we were dispatching his Children of Yig (giant snakes) fairly quickly. So we didn't manage to free the innocents yet, but we did escape a crowd of almost two hundred degenerate snake-human hybrid people who were out for our blood by using magic to turn ourselves invisible and then rode the air back to the plane crash site we'd started from. So it was an exciting game, and no one died. Since one of my characters is currently magically bonded to another, I have to be very careful or if one is injured or dies, so it goes with the other. Brenda has three characters on this adventure, so the stakes are high for her as well. But we're trying to save a 6 year old girl, an airline stewardess, and a German guy from having their genetic material used to try to elevate his serpent hybrids to a more civilised form. Yeah, you guessed right on what that means. It's an interesting adventure. It's called 'Final Flight'. The book is very small. I'm not sure who publishes it; I don't think this one is a Chaosium one. One of Brenda's characters owns and airline and so it was a natural fit with a plane crash in the Amazon and all. Of course, it's kind of funny that I'm playing in this adventure right before taking a plane ride myself. But at least we'll be nowhere near the jungle. :) Here's hoping for an uneventful couple of flights this week.

The weather has improved for the trip in terms of temperatures, being in the 50s and 60s here and the 40s and 50s in Chicago. It may be raining here on the day I come back, but that should be okay. I have a lot to do before I leave. Tomorrow I'm going to pay some bills and start getting everything together I need to, as well as working on the house. I hate to leave on vacation with the house a mess, and it definitely is, although I did do four loads of laundry at my friends' house today while I helped them get their house ready for the game, so at least that's taken care of, and I'm doing a load of dishes in the dishwasher right now.

So now I'm listening to some Loreena McKennitt and considering that while I shouldn't be all that sleepy, as we're an hour ahead with Daylight Savings Time now, so even though it's after 10 pm my body should think it's nine, I am, indeed, sleepy. So I may turn in soon, and then start anew tomorrow, going to work and getting things ready for my absence, and then going to the library to turn in a book and renew some. Then I need to straighten up around here.

Okay, I think I'll check the news before I go to bed. If I don't write anymore tonight, have a wonderful evening.

Meh--rain

I don't want to do my laundry in the rain. Guess I'll wait until tomorrow. I went to read and listened to some lovely Loreena McKennitt, which put me to sleep. That was about 7, and I just woke up, so I had a two-hour nap. The thing is, I just don't feel like doing much else tonight. I have all the stuff from the car to stow away--some electronic recyclables and an air mattress that refused to compact back into its box, plus a whole lot of Kroger tote bags. :) I still need to work on the aquaria. I need to do laundry and dishes. And I need to straighten up and take the trash and recyclables out.

But right now I have a headache. It looks like I'm free tomorrow as well, so I can work on that stuff, along with game notes and 'Grimm', then. Right now I just feel like the weather is really messing up with my sinuses and I just want some peace and quiet and maybe a dark room. And I'm still a little down. Be sure to set your clocks ahead tonight. Mine mostly do it on their own, except for a microwave and a giant old-fashioned alarm clock.

What I've been/am/will be up to

Yesterday--
1. Cleaned a friend's house (no game)
2. Watched some 'Law & Order' and MeTV ('The Brady Bunch' and 'The Monkees") with friends
3. Finally watched The Blues Brothers with YKWIA, which was great. One, it had great music and wonderful musicians. Two, it had Carrie Fisher with incendiary weapons. Three, the sheer amount of damage, particularly to cop cars, was staggering. I wonder what sort of budget it had.

Today--
1. You would think I would wake up earlier because it's lighter earlier now that daylight savings time is over. Yes, I did, but I stayed up till 1:30 last night so I was slow to get out of bed.
2. Somehow I hit all the lights just right, and I started my morning commute at 8:30 and clocked in at 8:36, so I was within payroll's window. :) Note it's 3.7 miles, in morning traffic.
3. I got my rent and paid it.
4. I got a call from the medical supply place and set up an appointment tomorrow for a new CPAP machine. Yay! I'm going to go in early tomorrow because there was something I needed to get someone by 8 am for a meeting that I couldn't finish today. So I'm going to go in about 7 am (hopefully) and finish it. Then I should be able to leave early and go to the medical supply place.
5. Quite frankly, I'm going to take a nap.
6. I will ry to get caught up on some things on the DVR.

Tomorrow--
1. Go in to work early.
2. Finish survey project and hand in (I'm the only person in the hospital who knows how to use that software fully, and it corrupted the last file after I made some edits. They weren't able to get it to load it again today, so I have to start over, using an old one as a base. It shouldn't take too long, but it is a little annoying. And it's not just like a word processor; each question is built in a sort of wizard fashion.)
3. Try to get caught up at work.
4. Get my new CPAP and accessories.
5. Watch 'The Originals' and 'Supernatural' with YKWIA.

I am having some trouble with the time change

It doesn't help that it's been raining heavily nearly all day today. Yesterday I ran late to my friends' house for the game preparations. Today I managed to get to work on time but didn't get up till 7:50 (I have to be there at 8:30).

Almost immediately, Monday happened. The copier ran out of toner five minutes after I put my stuff down, but before I'd grabbed anything from the cafeteria or put my stuff away. I went to put some toner in, and it turns out someone had done so in the past, and instead of leaving me a note or putting the empty bottle on my desk, he or she put the empty bottle back where it the supplies are kept so it looked like a full bottle was still there. I check the supplies about twice a week to make sure there's enough, and as soon as I put the last toner in, I order another couple. But unfortunately, there was no toner, but rather an empty bottle masquerading as toner. So I put a sign on the copier, sent out an e-mail, and ordered toner, which will take 3-5 business days to get here. Did I mention that it was the day the board met, when there are all these directors giving reports? Fortunately, most people seemed to have done their copying and printing on Friday. As it is, the machine will scan to PDF but not produce any pages from the document server, printer, or copier. :(

But I wasn't irritated too long; I was able to get breakfast even though technically they normally take things off the heat table by the time I got there. Then there was the fact that I'd brought an orchid and a sun star plant (Ornithogalum dubium, a plant from South Africa that is very showy and orange--I've included a picture to the left.) to work to cheer things up, potted up my big African violet, used the old pot to hold a baby plant that had grown from a broken leaf and gave it to one of my co-workers, and put another couple of leaves into a tiny pot of soil to root. So I kept calm and carried on, and breathed and looked at pretty flowers. :) Life got better.

I got my work done, came home, and now I'm contemplating a short nap (maybe a half-hour or 45 minutes; anything else and I tend to go into a deeper sleep and not wake up till morning. :) Then I have a few things to do around the house. I'll try to write later.

I'm not sure I'm ready for Daylight Savings Time

So we spring the clocks forward tonight for Daylight Savings Time. It seems to get earlier each year (when I was a kid, for example, it was in April, a week or two after my birthday. Now it's three weeks before. Don't get me wrong, I like having the afternoon sun, but at least for awhile, it's much harder to get up in the morning because it's light later then. I always feel hungover for a couple of weeks. Want to know more about Daylight Savings? Try:



and there's Wikipedia's article Daylight saving time, which includes the following interesting map:


Legend:
Blue=DST observed
Orange=DST formerly observed
Red=DST never observed

I don't want to be in bed anymore

and with the clocks 'falling back' last night it was actually light earlier (well, or rather I should say, normally, as this is without Daylight Savings Time). But I'm uncomfortable when I'm out of bed, even with my foot elevated, and I'm down to precious few pain pills, so I'm using them a half at a time. My plan is to transition to something else after the appointment Tuesday, something milder. But for now, they're all I've got other than some naproxen (Aleve), which doesn't do it on my normal aches and pains unless I take them two at a time, and one of the nurses mentioned the NSAIDS can interfere with bone healing, so it may have to be acetominophen (Tylenol).

So I'm up, and I've had a light breakfast (I still have a little Jell-O), and now there's the question of what to do with my day. This is the fourth Sunday I've missed playing the game (it is on hiatus until I am better). On the good side, no housecleaning, but on the other, no game, something I really love. Maybe I'll try to work on the last game notes later today. The trouble is I can't stay in this position for very long without becoming very uncomfortable, and I have to reach to get to the mouse, etc., since the desk is a little short for the chair I'm in.

I think I'll catch up with the news and then head back to bed to read for awhile. I downloaded a free book called The Book Waitress last night that looked interesting. It involved librarians, daemons, and a love interest trying to stop a cult, anyway. :)

Well, for better or worse, I put in for the extra day

I think I can manage the trip without spending much in the way of cash until I get paid, which will happen the first night I'm in Chicago. I called the hotel to make sure I would get the group rate if I went up early. The reservation clerk told me there were only 3 rooms left for that day. I talked to my boss, who approved the extra day (we had a miscommunication where he thought he had already done so, whereas I thought he was mulling it over). I sent in my travel request immediately and the folks in Chicago are starting to work on that. So, I committed to a three-day trip, and hopefully I'll get to do my sight-seeing. The museum I'm going to is only $35 for an all-inclusive pass to experience all the exhibits. I can buy a day pass for the L and buses at the airport. I plan on taking a cab back to the airport at the end of the trip, but that is reimbursable, as will my food on the last two days (some of which will be provided at the conference). I'll probably eat in the hotel on the first night and then go out with a group for dinner on the first day of the conference. So, yay! I feel much better today.

I also found out that part of my job is expanding somewhat in that I will be putting more entries in than I currently do. So, I'll have to make even better use of my time while still trying to do referrals, do all the data entry, and run the library. :) I'm beginning to think I should ask for a raise on the data entry job, as my 'added duties' are becoming a big part of my work life.

I got the package from Amazon today that had my friend's birthday gift and my desk fan in it. It's a five-inch black fan that folds up and runs on either USB or AC USB adapter. I got it approved by plant operations and then ran it this afternoon. It's got a little noise to it, but the amazing thing is, I did not become sleepy during my data entry at all. Normally I do, and I always chalk it up to my blood sugar being a little high, but I think the lack of air circulation tends to make me sleepy. I work in a fairly small cubicle, and sometimes it gets stuffy in the afternoon. This was like an instant wake-up pill. The fan only has one setting, but it was reasonably priced and seems to work well. It's angle is very adjustable. I'm seriously thinking of getting another fan (a bigger one) for the living area at home so I don't head to the bedroom to lie in front of the one there, or have to move it back and forth. Maybe then I wouldn't turn in so early.

Tonight I'm going to try to straighten up the house a bit. There's the couple of shows on TV I wrote about last night on; I may watch or DVR them.

Man, it's only 5:47 and the light is fading. Usually the sun is streaming through, at least when I get a ride home, like I did today. But soon it'll be dark when I leave and come home from work--daylight savings comes to an end on the first weekend of November. Not fun. It'll be even worse. It's a good thing my winter coat is light blue; otherwise the bus drivers might not see me. I'll definitely be wearing it tomorrow morning--tonight it is supposed to get down to the upper 20s to low 30s with a frost warning out My little pepper plant is in, with a few peppers started on it. I hope it does well for awhile.

Okay, time to get away from the computer for awhile. After all, I spend most of my day on it. :)

I keep thinking my time is off

For one, both my radio-controlled clock and my bedside alarm clock, which have daylight savings time features, have already fallen back on their own. Then my alarm went off twice this morning (no I didn't snooze--I have to perform a simple memory test to turn off my alarm on my cell phone, and I did that twice). I dreamt for awhile between the two alarms, although it was only a few minutes. So it left me feeling a little disoriented. For once, I'm awake, and running ahead of schedule.

Tonight the 'time of no money' ends. There will be much rejoicing. It's been a month of peanut butter and crackers except for some food a friend bought me early in the month (well, actually, the peanut butter came from there, too. It was one of those giant Kroger ones and it's lasted me just about a month). I won't be rolling in money--I'm paying my rent and electric from this, plus getting a bus pass and food. But considering last month I paid my rent on the 20th, things seem to be looking up. And yes, I have already declined those featured selections for the book club and I'm doing what I need to cancel it soon. I swear the first thing I'm going to buy is deodorant (thank goodness I have some nice smelling bodywash, but even I can tell towards the end of the day that deodorant is a necessity. I hope no one else has noticed. I've been out for just been the last few days. YKWIA has a nose of a bloodhound, and he didn't say anything, and he would have.)

Okay, it's off to work I go. (Sorry, watched the latest 'Once Upon a Time' last night). I ate tuna gruel with some rice and tuna that had been given to me and some old cream of celery soup that was two years out of date from the back of my cupboard, but everything was nice and hearty and I only belatedly realised my insulin was still in the refrigerator (it shouldn't be injected cold), so I kind of passed out afterwards with some idea to get up and blog later. Hence I'm up early today.

Speaking of which, I need to take that out and put it in my backpack. Have a great day.

It's kind of like magic, even if it is a lie

So I happened to be up for the change to Daylight Savings Time. I'd woken up to take my insulin and then posted the last post, with a couple of minutes to spare.

So what did I do? I watched my computer desktop. I have Windows 7 and I have one of those gadget clocks on my sidebar that looks like the ones you see in schools. Plus my desktop changes pictures every half-hour. So, I get to the moment, and lo, suddenly the clock turns to three, the picture changes, and we're an hour ahead.

I'm such a geek.

Okay, so we're really not an hour ahead. As YKWIA points out, time doesn't really do that. But we can muck with our keeping of time, of course, and we do, twice a year for dubious reasons.

While I am lamenting that now I have to get up in an hour and a half rather than two and a half, I'll enjoy getting off work while it's still light.

That said, I'd better get back to bed. Good night.

Well, it's 1 am

Soon it will be 3 am instead of 2 am. I'm going to bed, having finished the game notes. Had a good day at work; I was a little too bouncy for my tastes, and managed to insert my foot into my mouth is a most spectacular way (twice), but survived without really offending anyone. And there was nummy Bean Curd Szechuan-style from Golden Wok. Will write more tomorrow. Good night.

A little humour to go with setting your clocks forward

from Rachel Maddow and her guest:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Let's do the time warp again

Okay, if you live in the US then you probably know that we 'fall back' tonight from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time. The thing is, all sorts of electronic gizmos are now set to automatically change, but Congress has been mucking about the last few years with the dates, and so sometimes you get unexpected results.

Take my new alarm clock. It suddenly, without warning, set itself back last weekend. It's been an hour behind all week--until this morning, when it's with the rest of the clocks (well, except the radio-controlled clock I got for my tenth anniversary at the hospital; it is supposed to automatically go forward for Daylight Savings, but doesn't, so it's always an hour behind during those months. I just deal.) What gives? I think I have the option of turning DST off on the clock, and I think that's what I'm going to have to do, so no more 'updates' happen unexpectedly. I don't want to be late for work because of a machine.

Anyway, don't forget to set your time back. And if you're not working, enjoy an extra hour of sleep tonight.

Too dark, too early

both in the day and the year to change to Daylight Savings Time. I don't like this losing an hour last night. Plus, now I'll have more trouble getting up without the sun up already. I just got A from his job and took him home. I'm going back to sleep for a little less than an hour for now, and then I'll get up and get ready for my day--when it's light outside. Thank goodness I don't normally work before 10 am (although I often work until 10 pm, so it balances out).

A rare night at home

I got in a little while ago, but I can't really take it easy; I have an evening of notes ahead of me, since I haven't even transferred the game's recording to the computer yet. I need to finish by Sunday morning. Since we play from about 2 pm-8:30 pm (we get together at 1 pm, but there's usually socialising and catching up on the last game's notes before we get going), that's several hours to go through. Fortunately it was all downtime. I've got some plans for Sunday's game, jotted on a sticky note in my purse, that I must remember to bring up.

But first I took a brief break to eat something and check the news, just a few minutes. I hope I don't have to stay up too late tonight, as I work at 8 am tomorrow, [then go wash dogs and read more Lumley, among other things] and then on Sunday I have to be there at 7 am to prepare for the game plus get a friend from work, so Saturday night is going to be a crunch, too. I really meant to start earlier this week, and I've actually had a little time to work on them--but I keep napping instead because I just feel tired most of the time. Maybe it's the weather change or the days getting shorter, or just working a lot, although this week that's slacked up. Or maybe it's a touch of depression. I went up on one of my meds but it'll take a few weeks to really get the full effect. Hopefully after daylight savings ends it'll be easier for me to get up in the morning, anyway.

We lost another person at the store today. I don't know the details; it was the girl who didn't show up the other day, leaving me by myself. So I may be working more next week. Plus, on the 22nd a woman who has worked for the company for 32 years is retiring, and one of the second-shifters will be going to days. That leaves the new shift leader and myself to cover evenings. Hopefully my boss can borrow some people from other stores or even better, get someone sent over from the hiring centre that isn't flaky, is honest, and doesn't mind working. How hard can that be to find? Pretty hard, apparently. It worked much better before when the managers hired their own employees.