Odd

It feels really weird to weird to wear pants today rather than (one of three pairs of) shorts I have, all of which are in the laundry to be washed, so I'm wearing my wide-legged pants that allow you to push up the fabric all the way up the thigh to get to the incision to massage the patella and incision or check for flexion, etc. The only problem they make for PT is the hurdles. I have to lift my knees a little more and concentrate a bit to make sure I don't knock them over, but that's actually good. But considering it's been 21 days since I've worn pants, it just feels odd. It doesn't hurt or anything; they're healed enough not to be an issue, it's just kind of strange. Funny how we get out of the habit of things. Like when I was first driving after two months. It took the first errand we ran to really get a feel for it again. But it's all good.

Speaking of driving, it's time to go to PT. I did the ROMTech bike after taking my morning meds and some insulin since I'd been high on my blood glucose, and then lay down to put some heat on that pulled muscle, which was tight. My roommate woke me up two hours later, at 12:30, which startled me that I slept that late. I hadn't expected that and hadn't set an alarm. My appointment is at 2 pm. My blood sugar was 43. I chewed quite a of glucose tablets. It's finally 141, so I can drive. But it had been so low it took a while to come back up. I'm hoping I'll get the okay to ditch the cane in the house (to be honest, I've mostly not been using it, to my roommate's dismay). I'm using it out of the house, and of course, on the steps still.

Okay, I'd better go. It's 1:23.

 

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.

Excited

I have my post-op appointment here in a couple of hours. Wish me luck and fingers crossed! I hope to get an idea of 1) when I can drive and 2) my return-to-work date. Plus, I'm getting my bandages off, regardless. Woo-hoo!

As far as the fusion bandage, it's all but ready to come off itself:

Feeling a little down

about the car. I got the okay to drive, and now I can't go anywhere because my car's oil pressure light is on. I'm heading quickly into the 60% of income time when I go onto short-term disability (I'm on extended illness right now). I have a little windfall coming that the car obviously sensed [isn't that always the case?], but it's already spoken for. But I need the car fixed before I go back to work if at all possible, although if I did have to take the bus to work after my leave is over, at least PT is right down the street and that's a shuttle ride (I specifically asked for PT to be at UK Kentucky Clinic to help with that). It could be something minor, say, a clogged oil filter, or it could be something much worse. The last time my oil light even flickered (in another car, and it didn't come on steady at all), my engine blew. I'm certainly not driving it anywhere, since that could happen. I may see about having it towed to my mechanic and having him look it over to see what's wrong and see if it's a simple fix, at least, and then go from there. If it's big, we can just have it towed back. I think that's doable.

I had let my AAA lapse because I wouldn't be driving and because their recovery unit pissed me off so royally (at one point calling me three times within the space of five minutes while I was at work after I told them I planned to renew in the autumn) to the point where I don't plan on renewing now, but I have roadside assistance through my insurance that has actually been more useful this year. At one point, I got stuck on the ice and got an occurrence at work when AAA abandoned me and wouldn't come down my street. I finally got out on my own, but it was after the four-hour mark, so I'd missed too much, and it was an occurrence. I told the guy from my insurance who came out to jump my car that, and he said a lot of the big trucks don't actually have 4-wheel drive, and he'd never actually had trouble with the ice this year or gotten stuck because his was a smaller truck with it. I pay $12 a year for my insurance assistance vs. $185 or so for AAA. I need to see what the limits are for it. AAA is 4 or 5 calls a year, I know.

I know it's a short-lived window because the next surgery would be four weeks away anyway. Still, I'd hoped to have some time to drive where we'd get groceries and food, and I'd be able to go to appointments without having to rely on others. To those who have been helping, thank you so much. I'd already called and let those who had appointments lined up know I could drive yesterday, and then I'd had to call them back and ask them to take me to them again, and even had to add one for Tuesday, where I didn't have one lined up yet.

It'll all work out, I know. But it's still a bummer. Still, I'm going to focus on what I can do, which is call Kenny at Mitch's Auto on Monday and see what my options might be and go from there. I trust him. He's got a guy who'll tow for a lot lower than most, too, if it's going there.  And in the meantime, I'll just do the bike, keep working on my recovery, go to my appointments, and rely on my wonderful friends. Thank you all. I'll figure out everything else as it comes.

Dang it

...and my low oil pressure light is on in my car, so I am not driving after all. Harumpf. Also, randomly, my gas cap light is on, even though it is screwed in. The car is not idling correctly and smells like it is burning oil. There is oil in the car. It does need an oil change, but it's not over by much. This is a job for Kenny at Mitch's Auto Repair, but I can't send it over just yet, till I get paid.

I am not sure what the universe is trying to say here.

Today's update:

Flexion at PT is 100°, I haven't taken pain pills in 5 days and so Dr Talwalkar's office says I can drive!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can usually deal with snow, but I hate ice storms

Monday we had a major storm which brought us about 6 inches of snow and about half an inch of ice. I couldn't go into work, because I was afraid of falling on the ice. The next day they were using sheriff's deputies to get healthcare workers to and from work, so I used my hiking poles to get down to the street to him (and back, once I was taken home). I used the snow tips and punched throught the ice so I could get to the snow underneath and get traction with my snow boots. I then went back outside and spent one and a half hours clearing the car, as they were ending the programme at midnight, so I'd need to go into work. I was soaked to the skin before I came back, but I had success. I was able to drive in Wednesday morning and used the poles just in case, slipping just once because the shutttle stop was clear but the sidewalk was icy.

Yesterday, waking up to absolutely frigid temperatures in the teens, I went to leave the driveway to drive to work and promptly got stuck in the street, unable to go forward, but only reverse. The slush had completely frozen. I managed to make it to the curb, but had a light pole behind me, so that hampered the effort of getting it out, waited for a tow, and they had to cancel the AAA call because my street was so impassable that the tow driver got to my street and couldn't get down, and he was afraid he'd crash or get stuck, too. A Kentucky Eagle beer truck also got stuck right next to my car and had to have a pickup truck come and help get it out, which took almost an hour. Everything was glazed with about two inches of ice in the area of our house. About noon, hoping the temperatures and sun had at least done something, even though our high was 24 degrees and it hadn't hit that yet, I went back out to try again, nearly fell three times trying to get across the road (I'd brought my cane rather than hiking poles because I was going to try to go to the store, and I'd be needing to put it in the cart), and there was absolutely no snow to walk in, just ice. Someone came down the street right as I was about 10 feet from my car and scared me to death because they couldn't really stop and I was afraid I would fall in front of them. But I finally got to the car, grocery list in hand just in case. It took awhile, and some direction from my roommate, who realised my tyres were just spinning and gave some advice on getting out since he could see from the window, I finally got out, and once I was there, I skidded a little down the 30 or so yards to the ploughed road, went down to the next connector road to the snow route (I hoped it had been ploughed--it's on the bus route), went to the bank, the grocery, another bank to pay my rent the pharmacy, another grocery (the first didn't have half-and-half), and finally home again. The main roads were fine. There was a car stuck on Rosemont Garden, which was clear itself, but they got stuck turning onto a smaller road and blocked across our lane. I am so glad that when I got stuck, I'd at least managed to reverse to the curb. Eventually, I came in and tried to mindlessly scroll on Facebook, but I was so tired I went to bed and slept another two hours.

So my sleep, like my days of the week, is terribly messed up and I'm up a full hour than usual on my day off. I have to wake up my roommate in three hours so he can have coffee and wake up before class. The only thing I might be doing today is taking him to get a haircut, but that may not happen because we're supposed to get another three or more inches of snow today. At least we have food in the house and any medicine we need for the next few days.

With everything that happened, plus the frustration of it all and the concern of getting an occurrence at work, I was just exhausted. Once I got up, I fed the animals, had cereal for dinner, watched an episode of 'Midsomer Murders', and went to bed.

Here's to a better day today.

Had to go back to my doctor's office today

Most of the other symptoms have resolved, but my throat has been very, very sore, especially at night, to the point of keeping me awake. My ears hurt, too, to the point where I can't play music except softly or they hurt. So last night, when I was up and in pain, I sent a message to my nurse practitioner giving her the symptoms, and asking if it could be strep, regardless of the negative test the other day. She wanted to go ahead and see me, so I went over lunch. The good news is that I don't have strep--the test again was negative. I do, however, have thrush (oral Candidiasis, basically a yeast infection in my throat), probably as an opportunistic infection after being sick, coupled with my use of Breo, an inhaled medicine that can contribute to them--although I do rinse my mouth and brush my teeth after every use--and my diabetes. My ears, meanwhile, are fluid-filled (it's called otitis media serous), and bulging a bit inside where they're not draining. Rather than put me on a steroid pack, which can wreak havoc with blood sugars, she gave me one steroid shot, and I'm to continue the Stahist AD. She didn't want to put me on anything with a stronger dose of pseudoephedrine because of my ADD medicine, which, while not really a stimulant, might have reacted. She also had me go on Diflucan and I have to swish and swallow this thick-looking liquid three times a day for 17 days that looks particularly nasty. But a Candidiasis infection can go down your throat to your organs, so best to do it. One reason I went ahead and got tested for strep was that I planned to go visit my mom in Danville's hospital, and it's best not to bring strep with you to visit someone in the ICU. My throat infection isn't contagious per se--it's an overgrowth of a yeast most people already have. So I was given the okay to visit. Ironically, it turns out that there were contact precautions in place there for Clostridium difficile, a particularly nasty bug that cause terrible gastrointestinal distress. I had to use a gown and gloves. So I'm probably more at risk for infection than she is. But I did wash my hands thoroughly.

But she knew me and could talk some. That was good. I stayed an hour-and-a-half and then headed back to Lexington. The only problem I encountered was some cardboard in the road that had to be straddled and sort of obstacle-course-driven. It could run someone off the road, it was substantial enough, but I got home okay. I drove exactly 100 miles today--I put my trip odometer to zero this morning when I started out and was on my gas light, and then kept it going after I got gas. I took YKWIA to a couple of appointments and we stopped at the pharmacy to get our respective medicine between trips. I took him by the store and Jin Jin, then dropped him off and headed to Danville about 7:30 pm.

Now I've eaten and I should think about taking the scary looking stuff (I can't eat or drink for 30 minutes afterwards) and heading to bed.

Good night.

I came very close to hitting a puppy today

I was on my way to YKWIA's,  and a dog with a leash came running in front of my car suddenly,  with a man chasing it.  I hit the brakes for everything I was worth. It activated my anti-lock brakes.  I managed to stop.  The man said thanks and kept running after the puppy. I had someone behind me,  so I drove on to my friend's house, shaking and crying the whole way--and that was having avoided hurting or killing the dog.

Which is one reason I cannot see the movie from the previews called A Dog's Purpose, as the trailer alone made me cry a lot.  I'll try to post it here.

I'm kind of proud of myself

I am normally very un-assertive, to the point where I almost always wind up letting people walk all over me. But I broke today. I was on Reynolds Road trying to cross Nicholasville Road while no less than two people blocked us from proceeding, because they weren't paying attention and realised suddenly that the lane we were in was, indeed, straight ahead and instead of going forward and taking the route through the next shopping centre back to the road in the right direction, the light came and went and they bullied their way into the turn lane. I finally got up with one car in front of me, which had, yes, its turn light on (which may have confused the other two in the first place), and she suddenly realised she wasn't in the turn lane and when the light came in, tried to block everything so she could get into the lane. (Mind you, the lanes are clearly marked on the pavement and above.) Upon which I laid into my horn with everything I had, not a tap, not a long sound, but continuous, until she finally went forward and did exactly what you're told to do in the driving manuals we all had to study--she went across the road, turned into the shopping centre, and went towards the street running by Southpark to get where she needed to go. And we finally got through a light. You're welcome, people behind me. I'm sure the lady thought I was an absolute ass, but really, isn't it terribly egocentric and entitled to think the entire area of traffic will stop and let you do whatever the hell you want because you actually want them to? That's much more asinine in my book. We all make mistakes--decent people roll with them and then correct their error without making everything worse for everybody else. Just saying. I'm usually just anxious and timid when I drive. For once I was calm and assertiveness, and I didn't do it because I was in a hurry, as I wasn't--it was the principle of the thing. YKWIA was proud of me.

Also, I went ahead and excavated the kitchen, and pulled three 13-gallon bags full of recyclables and 2 bags of trash out of there, and took them out. I still need to do a few dishes, fill up the ice cube trays, and do some minor stuff, but I can use my kitchen again. It was the smallest of the really bad rooms (the bathroom has just a little clutter, and isn't bad).

I'm going to celebrate by doing some music listening and maybe, just maybe read. I had the eartips of my glasses modified today so they'll stay on when I look down better. Generally though, my distance and near vision has been remarkably better.

PS Listening to Linkin Park on Amazon music was really good for the purging process earlier. Now I'm just relaxing, so I'm listening to Rob Thomas radio on Pandora.

Random thoughts

When trying to make microwaved baked potatoes, one does not simply put the potatoes in the microwave and walk away without setting the time and hitting the start button.

Three men were putting a car on a U-Haul trailer in front of my apartment last evening, and one actually pulled out (and read) the instructions. I was amazed. I bet he'll ask for directions, too. If anyone is dating him, he's a keeper.

No matter how hard one is hit with the urge to twirl upon entering the building one works at in the morning, one does not do it, because one is an adult. Exceptions may be made for days when one is wearing a skirt with sequins on it while walking in bright sunlight, but today was not that day. What can I say, I got rest (hence no blogging last night) and was in a happy mood.

When trying a recipe for the second time that didn't turn out right the first time, one should check and double-check the ingredients and amounts and directions. I am trying the bread again. This time I put a whole tablespoon in the yeast bin (I have a bread machine that has a separate yeast compartment which releases it at the right time in the process). We will see how it turns out.

Despite having a driving phobia, one's best friend has an incredibly calming effect on one, so that even if one forgot to take one's medicine, the drive across town to the pharmacy and back was pleasant and almost relaxing, even in rush-hour traffic. When one dropped off one's best friend, everything went downhill from there. Fortunately rush hour is now over and one is home.

When leaving the pharmacy, one does not turn sharply to exit into the parking lot, or one makes a horrible scraping noise on the kerb. However, there does not seem to be any damage, so one was lucky.

When one is driving someone with back problems who has expressly told one that his back popped earlier and he has been in quite a bit of pain, one should not turn suddenly or move quickly while driving (or run up on kerbs). One should instead pretend one has plants, animals, or children in the car, and drive gently.

A great big thank you to my bank branch at the Alexandria Road Kroger, which stays open on weekdays later than the others, so I was able to put $1.50 into my account rather than $2.00 to cover a bill I will be paying tomorrow, and as a result I had a whole $4 for gas. :)

It was nice getting free stuff via the Apple settlement from Amazon today--I got a blue cloth elephant-print purse, a phone case (what can I say, I like them, even though no one understands my need to match them to my outfits), and the second series of 'Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries'. One more DVD to get at some point, and then I'll have them all, yay!

I was so happy to see a co-worker who had been hurt return to work today. She started at the hospital the week I was born, and so next year, she will celebrate her 50th anniversary with the company before the hospital closes and becomes an ambulatory care centre instead, moving over by the University of Kentucky hospital.

I moved an appointment I had for tomorrow to Tuesday so I could have more time to get ready, and be on time, for a meeting of the library committee tomorrow. I already had a noon appointment Tuesday, so now I have one (same general area) at 2:30 as well, so I took the day off. That means I have a four-day weekend, although one will mostly be spent at appointments. :( I don't think I'll go to the downtown festival for the Fourth this year, as I haven't really had as much fun in recent years. However, I still plan on going to the Idle Hour fireworks as per usual (employees can park at the hospital using our badges to get in, and we're right across the street from the fireworks display). People normally park along the road and spread blankets or take chairs and sit on our front lawn. It'll be the last year the hospital will be open for it, and who knows whether the new owners will allow that sort of thing. We also allow sledding in the winter, and again, I think things may change. The neighbourhood tends to treat our grounds (there are slightly over 29 acres, mostly rolling grass and trees) as a local park, walking, biking, taking the dogs out to play, etc. There's even a bunch of little kids (very little) who practice soccer out in the back forty some afternoons. If the property is developed, or if the new owners don't want that kind of thing, the neighbours will be very disappointed, I think.

Okay, I'm going to make boiled eggs and the eggplant pasta later, but the bread machine is going right now. I think I'm going to lie down for just a bit, as I have a headache. I should write later.

Note to self:

when you have pasty Irish skin and are on certain antibiotics, do not stay outside in the sun for an hour cleaning out your car and its trunk without proper sunscreen. On the one hand, yay, I got my car looking spiffy again; on the other, I also look like a lobster on my arms, face, and neck. I just took a cool shower and will put some aloe lotion on it.

Oh, and the stupid thing is I had sunscreen in my bag, in the car, the whole time. I did put some on afterwards because I was doing a lot of driving around this afternoon and thought it would help prevent further issues, but it was a bit like closing the barn door after the horse has run off. I have also been so terribly hot today, soaked to the skin, my hair wet with sweat and then dry again. I took a cool shower the moment I got through the door, and that helped, and got into some shorts and a tank top. I'm going to put on the lotion and then go lie down in front of the fan for awhile. At least I'm back in air conditioning. I've been in the car, outside, or in a house with just the windows open for something like ten hours now (although we did put the ceiling fans on for watching Hotel Transylvania, the Netflix DVD I have out).

I'm pooped for now, though.

I just crashed, after an insane day off of doing all sorts of things

We decided to just record 'Grimm' and watch it later, even though this was the 'Taming of the Wu' episode. So I dropped my friend off about 7:30 pm, went home, put the new CPAP masque together, took out the old SD card and replaced it, and put the old card in the package to send back to the medical supply company so they can download all the information on it. (Yeah, that's a bit creepy, I know). Then I tried to lie down for a bit, and the new masque is a little different. There are not separate nasal pillows that fit up your nose, but rather a under-the-nose area area. Here's a comparison. The one on the left is the ResMed Swift FX for Her masque (made by the folks who made my original CPAP machine--which I probably have had for fifteen years and still keep in the car during the winter in case I'm stranded somewhere), the one on the right is the Phillips Respironics Dreamwear masque (by the same folks who make my current CPAP):



Note the nasal pillows on the Swift FX, and that the hose is on the bottom. The Dreamwear has the hose on a rotating thing on the top of the head, so it's a little less likely to tangle as you move around in bed. Now you would think that without something in my nose, I would have fallen to sleep immediately, but actually it is a little louder, more reverberation I guess, and I didn't really feel like I had a masque on, which is good, but disconcerting. So it took a good hour to actually fall asleep, and I really just rested, but finally did doze, and I'd moved around on my back, left side, and right side. Both have their good points. And considering I wore the Swift FX upside down for almost the entire time I wore it, it worked remarkably well, getting 90% of 16.1 pressure over time. [The plastic piece goes on top; the soft cloth piece in the back]. The new one can't be worn in any other way, since the top has the hose, and all writing should be right side up. So I guess you could say it's more idiot-proof. We'll see how the new one goes. I'll definitely keep the other in case the one doesn't work out, and as a backup.

So all told, I was resting or napping for about two-and-a-half hours, just crashing. Now I'm up, and blogging, listening to the OneRepublic station on Pandora. I called my friend once I sat down to this, because I realised that we never got A's bus pass. They're going to use cash to go somewhere tomorrow, which will take them near a Kroger, where they can get one there, so really, the only thing I'm needed for tomorrow is the grocery run later in the day. So...that means I can push certain things to tomorrow, including:

• Exercising
• Bill paying
• Cleaning house

and really put some effort into the house, which is terribly messy at the moment. Not insurmountable, of course, just messy. And the fish tanks need attention and the recyclables need to go out (I took the trash out a couple of days ago). So the idea is to go back to sleep, wake up maybe at 8 am, go exercise, get a shower, start on the house, work on it for awhile, and pay bills as I take breaks. Tomorrow I think it's supposed to rain and be cooler, so it'll be good to do stuff inside, although hopefully it won't be raining so hard that the recyclables will be an issue. That way I'll also get things put together before the end of the month, Beltane (which starts tomorrow night), and my next cycle/dark of the moon. That'll be nice. So, I think I'm going to head back to bed. Good night!

PS I'm not sure how many miles I drove today, but I went through a quarter of a tank of gas, and made several trips around the eastern and middle parts of town, back and forth, back and forth. My step count for the day was only 4,856, so most of my running around was by car. But whew! What a lot of running!

It's not good

when the first thing you do once you get home is to check your blood sugar and then wind up having to take some glucose tablets because it's all of 55 mg/dL, which is way too low, and if I'd realised just how low I was, I wouldn't have driven home until I could get it back up (70-130 mg/dL is the ideal range for a diabetic). So now I'm eating some crackers and peanut butter to bring it back up. I just thought I was getting sleepy because it was late, so I rolled the window down a bit (I was hot) while driving. But the shakiness didn't start till I got out of the car, thankfully. I will definitely be more careful in the future and test if I feel the least bit off before getting in the car.

Whew!

It’s been a weird day. I mostly did some things around the house, ate, and played a bubble shooter game on my phone without much success of getting through level 23 (it’s based off of Disney Pixar’s movie Inside Out). A had called me earlier today and explained that the snow ploughs had not made it to his street but that he was about to go out and do some shoveling. I asked him to give me an update later. About 2 pm he called and said the plough had been through, everything looked good, and he’d shoveled the walks and driveway for me. They were almost out of coffee, and we’re getting temperatures around 0 degrees tonight and tomorrow morning, so I figured conditions would just worsen, so I went out and spent a half-hour digging out my car with a broom and a dustpan. Yes, really. I do need to invest in a snow shovel, after never needing any for years. But last year we had over 10 inches in each of two storms two weeks apart, and this time, while the official measure was over 9 inches, A and I each have about 10 or 11, as our parts of town got more snow. Add the drifting from the wind and it could go up to three feet in places.

After digging out where I could (and I’m counting that as exercise for my Habitica application), and only falling down once into a drift onto my butt, I managed to get out of my parking place, and then there was a moving truck taking up most of the space near the curve to the exit from the parking lot, so I had to go through the snowier area. I got stuck on my street, which never gets ploughed as far as I can tell, but shifting into reverse and then into first and second gear (which I’ve never done using an automatic) and got out and down the road. The next street and the one after that wasn’t bad, just narrower. Once I got to Man O’War, things were just wet, except for slush where people pulled out of other streets here and there. None of the right turn lanes had been ploughed, though, so we were having to turn from the right straight lane instead. I went down Man O’War and then another road that I knew was a snow route just to be okay, not the normal back way I go. Then I got to their street, which was pretty decent, and into the driveway. A and I went and got a few groceries for each of us, stopped by Jin Jin and got Chinese food, and then I headed home, as I wanted to get back by dark and the sun was already low on the horizon. I got home shortly before 6 pm, managed to make it back into the very same parking place I’d been in, after negotiating my street again.

I came in and one of my floor lamps (the newest, which I got three years ago), was leaning awfully badly, so I tried fiddling with it, and it totally came apart and broke, much to my frustration. I decided to walk away from the lamp and eat my kung pao tofu and spring rolls and calm down a bit. When I went back it was obvious that it was broken and not merely unscrewed, and that it was designed somewhat poorly. I salvaged the heavy glass shades off of the torchiere piece and the two reading lamps, and I’ll get rid of the rest when I take things to the dumpster, then look for another one that is similar. It means the living room is a bit dark, having only the original floor lamp over by the computer, and nothing will come on when I flip the switch next to the door, but I’ll eventually get another, maybe when I get my tax refund and have a little money to spend. Who am I kidding, that will all go to bills, I’m sure. :)

So now that I have released the lamp to the Great Beyond and I’ve eaten, I feel better. There are plenty of things to do tonight, but my back and neck are hurting somewhat from wrestling with the lamp (the base was very heavy, and the whole thing was nestled in a spot in the corner behind the couch, which reclined while I was trying to line up the base with the pole and screw it back together. I probably needed two people to even get as far as I could, but in the end, the screw would not pop up to where the pole could be screwed in, and plastic parts, beyond the metal pieces that were giving me fits, just crumbled, especially up in the light. Fortunately I didn’t break any of the shades (I did break one once before when the lamp fell over, and had to replace the two small shades with something similar). In retrospect, the lamp has never truly been completely vertical at 90 degrees to the floor since then, so it probably was on its way out for some time and I managed to keep it going for awhile by leaning it against the wall and putting it between other objects. Oh, well.

To be honest, I think I’m going to lie down for just a little while and then maybe watch something on DVD. Or read. I don’t know yet. I did do a little reading last night, but the book was terrible in terms of grammar so I returned it. It purported to be a history of Rome, but it was very cursory at best, treating the entire period from the founding of Rome to Augustus Caesar in few pages, and I had doubts of it getting any better. Plus, it focussed on battles rather than much of (in my opinion) the more interesting history of Rome, the social and political aspects. Anyway, considering I’ve taken graduate classes where I had to learn the history of the Republic and the Empire pretty thoroughly, this seemed inadequate, more like a listing of kings and emperors. I already had to memorise the entire list of Roman Emperors, I don’t need another listing. What I wanted was a nice overview to jog my memories on certain aspects of Roman history, and was disappointed. The download included another book on the history of Aegypt and one on the history of Greece, but I decided to not even try those.

Okay, the bedroom and perhaps getting comfy with a book (or a Kindle) is calling me. Oh, and probably I’ll just fall asleep for awhile anyway. :)

Snow Day!

So the snow didn’t actually start until the early morning commute. I got up and watched the conditions being predicted on the weather, though, and decided that while I most likely could drive or take the bus to work, getting back was going to be an absolute problem, whichever I chose. So I called my boss, who bless her heart planned on being in, as her husband was going to bring her from Garrard County, and left a message on her voicemail that I was going to heed the warnings and stay off the road, hunkered down in my apartment.

And then the snow came. And came. And came.

I went back to sleep till about 10:20 and fixed a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast with fruit, a banana, and Morningstar farm veggie sausage patties. As I ate, I watched the snow coming down. It was about two or so inches then, and it was coming down probably at about 1-2 inches per hour. Some of my neighbours, mostly from South Asia, were coming up by foot and visiting others here in the building. No one was out clearing vehicles or trying to drive anywhere that I saw. (I have a front living room window, facing the parking lot, so I can sort of watch the world as it goes by. I did a lot of that after I was hit by the car and was laid up for three months with a broken foot and ankle.) Anyway, one of our maintenance men came and shoveled the walk, stairs, and porch, clearing the snow. It seems to be a heavy, wet type of snow. I decided to go back to bed for awhile (I didn’t sleep that well last night), and so I slept from about 11:45 to 1:00 and got up to about six inches of snow. The walk is completely covered again, and it looks like the snow has been blowing and drifting some. The southern part of the state apparently got ice before the snow, so things have been worse for them. We’re at about the limit of my ability to drive in the snow now; if it continues like this for three more hours, I really don’t think I could have gotten home, and it is supposed to go for some time, up through tomorrow morning.

Now I’m going to try to do some things around the house. I’m a little chilly, but getting up and doing some things should help (it’s one reason I went back to bed.) So I’m going to turn the heat up a notch and then try to (over the next couple of days, since I’m probably not going anywhere soon):

1. Wash dishes.
2. Straighten up the kitchen.
3. Bag up the recyclables.
4. Take out the trash and recyclables if possible.
5. Straighten up the dining room.
6. Fold the remaining clean laundry.
7. Gather the dirty laundry for tomorrow, after the snow stops.
8. Straighten up the living room a bit.
9. Do a quick once-over on the bathroom.
10. Tackle the bedroom, which need to be excavated, as for once I have dirty laundry on the floor rather than the hamper, some clean laundry stacked up, the boxes of Christmas ornaments to still put away, and some things pulled out of the closets that need to go back. Then I can make the bed and all should be right with the world, and I can mark things off my to-do list.
11. I also need to call Vonage today and cancel my service, since I don’t have Internet at home anymore. To save on data, I’m also typing this up in Word first and then pasting into Blogger.

I’d also like to do some things for fun while I’m off (what’s a snow day without reading, for example). And while I can’t watch any streaming video, I have some DVDs to catch up on, including Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, some Phryne Fisher mysteries, and of course, ‘Downton Abbey’, where I’ve only finished the first season and have two and three on DVD, so I’m hopelessly behind.

Depending on how things look tomorrow afternoon, I may try to dig out and get A for a trip to the store, assuming there is anything left to get. :) But it may be Sunday before we can do that. I did bring them milk, creamer, and bread yesterday to help bridge that time.

Okay, I guess I’ll start with the dishes. Stay safe if this storm is impacting you.

I am so glad that today is (mostly) over

But:

1. I managed to make it from one side of the city to the other and back, along with various areas between, despite snow and nasty commuting conditions.
2. I didn't get hardly any sleep last night because I was keyed up over the snow and so I'm looking forward to going to bed tonight.
3. Tomorrow is pay day. I can't pay everybody, but I can make a dent in things.
4. Tomorrow I should get my W-2s, and I got my student loan interest tonight, so basically I'm ready to do my taxes.
5. I ache all over, and part of me just wants to take some ibuprofen and head on to bed.
6. At least I got my medicine and A's medicine before the really big snow hits on Friday (somewhere between 6 and 21 inches, depending on which model you look at). My meds were ove $500. That's with insurance. Thank the Gods for flexible spending accounts. I don't know what I'm going to do when the hospital moves to the medical centre next year and I lose my job, and my insurance. I have to find a job before then, and frankly, the chances of getting the solo medical librarian position I interviewed for is looking pretty dim, given the time that has passed since the phone interview, sadly.
7. I did finally get that reimbursement from the Chicago trip. It only took a month and a half. :) It wasn't much, but given that I had less than a dollar between my two accounts, hey, it's grocery money.
8. I checked on my mom today and she was doing pretty well. Yay for that.

Last night was all about managing various digital content. I ripped some CDs from my collection to my computer so I could put it on my phone, took the photos on my phone and backed them up on the computer, deleting them and freeing up a bunch of space on my SD card, and downloaded some free Kindle books. Today I went online and downloaded updates from my Kindle library (that is one nice thing about e-books--they can be corrected easily).

Tomorrow I need to:

1. Pay many bills.
2. Try to get a hold of my allergist (again) and see if I need to start my allergy shots over.
3. Try to get a hold of a friend's doctor as he has an appointment on Friday evening and I really don't think we'll make it due to weather. I tried to call today but apparently had the wrong phone number, so I'll have to look it up. My phone was running out of battery at the time, and I was about to head to the pharmacy, so I put that off.
4. I really want to transcribe a passage from one of the games that didn't get put into the notes.
5. Go to PT. I didn't get to have my session Tuesday because my physical therapist's wife was in labour, and really, I can't fault him on wanting to be there for the birth of his child. But I've been hurting as a result of the missed appointment.
6. Whittle down my to-do list on Habitica.
7. Read!
8. Get my tax info together so I can do it this weekend.

Okay, I've (finally) had dinner, which I practically inhaled, I was so hungry (it was 8 pm after all, and I hadn't eaten since noon). Time to do some quick checking on the computer and then start winding down for the night. Good night!

I feel like

I've been driving all day. First there was the podiatry appointment. Then after a couple of hours at home, I drove to the Lawrenceburg-Harrodsburg exit of the Bluegrass Parkway to collect an friend and her friend, and drove them to Lexington. We stopped by Kroger, where one of them bought a cake, took it over to my apartment, then we went downtown to witness an important thing, thing, a wonderful thing, meeting up with five other people. Then we went and picked the cake up from my house and went to Masala and enjoyed a wonderful meal [although I was very messy and got lots of stuff on my blouse; I hope it will come out]. They even kept the cake in the refrigerator during the meal and then brought plates, a knife, and utensils out for us to celebrate with. Then I stopped and got some gas, thanks to one of the people I drove who gave me gas money, and I drove them back to that exit, where they'd left their car. Then I came back to Lexington, getting home right about 9 pm. My friend called to check on me and we talked for a bit. Then I printed out some pictures I took on photo paper. Oh, I'm tired, but it was a lovely day and very much worth it to see this happen. Not bad for someone with a driving phobia.

Sorry to write so obliquely. I try not to post things that are personal in other people's lives without their permission. If I get it, I'll elaborate. But for now, let's just say I'm happy, and it was a good day. But I'm really beat, so I'm going to go ahead, take my contacts out, get into some comfy clothes, get some ice water, and retire to the bedroom. Good night.

Yay, I am home!

There were really no problems. I used Google Maps on my phone to get to my meeting this morning, and then get back on the Watterson Expressway and I-64 to get home. Once I reached Lexington, I decided to stop for dinner as a reward for doing so well, and the Google Maps application voice was increasingly insistent that I wasn't going the right way home. :) But I was much more relaxed on the trip home, even going past an accident on the on-ramp to I-64 and some major construction that had us at times at a standstill, and sometimes going maybe 20 miles an hour, tops. I even passed some on the way home, whereas last time I was really just trying to make sure no one merged into me.

The training was absolutely excellent. I am so stoked for class on Wednesday. I had a great roommate, met some really wonderful people, and received a tremendous amount of information (and my own teacher's handbook). I want to thank NAMI Kentucky for paying for my hotel for two nights plus meals (one of their people actually went and got me something yesterday for lunch since I didn't eat meat). The hotel staff were fine, the hotel was a little oddly set up (sink in the hall, bath having a toilet and bathtub/shower), but serviceable. I did very nearly leave a library book that had a white cover on the white sheet of the bed, and my shave gel and body wash were saved from the bathroom thanks to my roommates vigilance during walk-through.

So now I'm home with my suitcase, vanity case, laptop bag, CPAP bag, purse/tote bag, jug of distilled water, training manual and portfolio, cup of favours we had at our seats, and a muffin I grabbed that was left over from breakfast. It took three trips to get everything in. And while I'm not as exhausted as I thought I'd be, I am planning on getting some rest, take my contacts out, get into something comfy (I've already done the latter), and just chill. I considered going into the pool for a bit, as it's still open, but I really just want to enjoy being home and lounge around.

Overall, I did very well. The driving was a bit nerve-wracking at first, but it did get better, and actually I drove home on the interstate without my anxiety medication, because I left before I normally take it and didn't think about it at the time. I had never used the Google Maps application on my phone before for navigation, and didn't have to on Friday or Saturday, but this morning the only thing I did wrong was get off at the 15A exit rather than 15B off the Watterson onto Gardiner, but I just had to do a U-turn, which the woman in front of me did as well (she was in our group, the one who got the food for me yesterday) and we had done the same thing in my roommate's car yesterday, so I just went with the flow, and kept going, and made it with no trouble.

Okay, I have informed my friends that I am back, and I seem to be heading towards a small crash. Here's to taking my contacts out, setting up my CPAP, and crawling into bed for awhile, even though there's still plenty of sunshine left.

I made it, yay!

I got onto the Interstate around 4 pm, after checking the oil and tyres, and putting a quart of oil in, and pretty much stayed behind tractor trailers that were doing between 60-65 mph (the speed limit is 70), and just let anyone who wanted to go around me do so. It worked out that, with one exception, I didn't even have to worry about people trying to merge into my lane. So all is well.

I did really well on the Interstate, although my hands are a bit cramped from holding the steering wheel for so long and so hard. :) I got off the Interstate at the correct exit, got to the next couple of streets, and only had trouble with the actual street for the hotel I'm in. I went down the wrong way and back and forth a couple of times, then decided there was a big white building on the other side of the road that might be the correct building, and it was. Yay! I checked in, but my keycard didn't work, either because it didn't take when they keyed it or because I put it next to the phone. So a nice lady in the next room who was going back down told them (I had all five bags and a jug of distilled water with me, so she thought she'd save me the trip), and she brought up the new one. I came in, put my stuff down, and plugged in my phone, which was kind of low on battery, and called YKWIA to report.

The quarters are nice. There are two double beds. The bath is just a bathtub/shower and toilet, with the sink out at the entrance to the room. It has a TV, microwave, mini-fridge, etc. The only thing so far I'm having issues with is that the outlet for my CPAP seems to be behind the actual bed. I waited until my roommate came in to choose beds, wanting her opinion. Now that I have mine (near the window), I can try to get behind the pillows and see if there's anything there. The clock is plugged up, so there must be something. The bedside lamp doesn't have any outlets. The desk lamp has two, one for the fridge and one free one, which is currently hosting my phone charger.

It's nice and cool in here, which is great. Even though I don't normally use my car air conditioner, I did on the way up because 1) it's very hot outside, and 2) it means less drag on the car at higher speeds. But I'm still sweaty from the trip.

I double-checked with one of our hosts and we're on our own for tonight, with the agenda starting at 7:15 am. My roommate did check in; she and another lady who she gave a ride to are out eating dinner right now. I'm going to check and see what's around here. I did see a Subway, but there might be something better. I wanted to charge the phone up a little and rest a bit, but I haven't eaten in almost 7 hours, so I'm getting a bit peckish.

At least the hotel does have free Wi-Fi. That's nice. So I can update here, although over the next couple of days, I'll have very little time to. Tomorrow has a very early start and could run twelve hours in terms of training; Sunday we'll be here at least until 4:30 or 5 pm.

Okay, I'm going to check out what's around here. The hotel serves breakfast, but not any other meals, so I'll have to go back out in the heat to find something. With that in mind, I'll check online and see what's around first.

Have a good weekend!