So I had two appointments scheduled

for the 23rd.  So I got off work because they were far enough apart, what would be the point of coming in late.  Then I realised a friend had a dental appointment and needed a ride. So that was three.  Then I wound up with two more.

So...8 am psychiatry telehealth to follow up on my depression and monitor changes, 10:50 am gel injection in my knee, 12:30 pm physical therapy evaluation for balance issues, 2 pm friend's dental appointment, 7 pm behavioural coach telephone call. Whew! We'll see how that goes.

It takes a village

Yesterday as I was about to leave for work, my roommate pointed out that my car, which just has the plastic on the window, was in no shape to park over at UK.

I'd been worried about the ADA hangtag disappearing. He pointed out that my car itself might be stolen, so I called my supervisor to ask if I could be late, and I took the bus in, which took almost an hour and a half, but I was actually only 40 minutes late for work. I was thinking I'd have to ride the bus for the rest of the time till payday [March 9th] when I'm off and can get the part put in by my mechanic.

Over the course of the day, I had friends from my department and another offering to do various things, and a plan was concocted and modified throughout the day.

• I checked with Autozone after a suggestion and the switch was not actually $150 like Tire Discounters had said (surprise) but $52. For signing up for e-mails, I got $10 off my first order, so I was able to get the whole thing, with tax, for $45. It's supposed to be here today but there may be a delay per a message I received this morning.
• The plan is to have my manager's husband try to put it in on Thursday if it doesn't require taking the inside of the door off, or the weekend if it does. I sent pictures from the website of the switch, including the plugs on the back, to my manager to share with him.
• Meanwhile, one friend took me home yesterday so I didn't have to ride the bus. My supervisor is taking me back and forth over the next few days; she comes in a little earlier, but I'm getting up about the time I would take the bus and I'm getting here quicker. They even picked me up/dropped me at the door to keep me from having to walk a distance to their cars.

I REALLY appreciate all the support from my friends at work who are helping. It really does mean a lot.

Grrr....

So one benefit of Zoom is allowing one to check up on people you care about who otherwise have no voice. Discovered today that a friend in hospice has been without his morphine due to someone's incompetence, whether it be in the nursing home, the prescribing office, or elsewhere. Not acceptable. 

It's very quiet in the house

Just the sounds of my fans going above my head and nearby. We finally have some relief to the heat (it's been in the 90s with little to no rain for weeks), with rain in the forecast tomorrow, but I'm hot-natured, so even though it's in the 70s now both inside and out, I keep the fans on in my room whenever I'm there. But the quiet is nice. Sometimes it's good to only hear your own thoughts.

Today  I did many things but I did not go to the YMCA and do exercises in the pool like I meant to.  I haven't given up, I just had a lot to do today.  But I did have some time to myself and some relaxation time, as well as game notes and laundry and errands.

I went to the pharmacy today to get my roommate some medicine and see if they had my Lantus, as I started on my last pen of the pack.  Turns out they'd sent a request to my doctor's office for a refill and it had been denied.  The reason? They said they had never prescribed it.

Now, I have been on Lantus for a couple of years, Basaglar before that for a short time when it was on my insurance's formulary, and years of Lantus prior to that, including quite some time of it from this office, continuously up till this past month.  So obviously there has been a mistake. I'll have to call them on Monday.  I'm hoping I have enough to last me through Monday so we can get it taken care of, a pen only lasts a few days--I get 10 per refill, and they last about 3 days each.

On Habitica, the task/productivity 'game' I play, there was a reading challenge I took up to read a book called The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury.  Now I like Ray Bradbury, and it's actually a children's book, so I thought it would be good to read some fast-moving fiction. It's been such a struggle to read fiction (even non-fiction has its challenges), for several reasons.  For one thing, I think being on the Internet has made my attention span that of a gnat.  I've also apparently been a little off in how I use my bifocals, and it's hard for me to find a nice comfy place to read--I can't read in bed easily, and the comfy chairs are in the study (where my friend is often watching streaming stuff) or in his room.  Reading in bed requires lots of pillows, a folding lap desk, and a study pillow with a neck bolster.  I can read at the kitchen and study tables, when it is quiet, but the chairs are wooden and really need cushions after a while.  Still, I managed to read the whole book in a very short time, maybe an hour or an hour and a half (it's 145 pages long).  I enjoyed it--I knew all the various cultural ties to the practices of Halloween, but that was fine. And I'd figured out what happened to one of the characters.  I guess the only real thing I had a bit of an issue with it--not a lot, just a bit, were that there were no girls at all in the characters, and little to no character description or development, really.  But it is a product of 1972, and while Bradbury's writing deviates poetically from standard writing styles, he shares a common thread you find particularly in male writers of the time, and especially in science fiction writers, somewhat tilted towards action and away from characterization.  (Women, by contrast, tend to over-describe and have a lot of emoting going without driving the action forward at all)--a good writer balances both.  Still, his description of the settings and experiences are very good, and this story actually needs somewhat blank characters, as they represent certain timeframes of history in their costumes and with the exception of the one character from whose perspective the story is told,  there's no real personality among the children, and I guess there really doesn't need to be.  Anyway, I did enjoy the story, and it was a little chilling there at the end, so suitably Halloweenesque.

Later, we ate dinner from Subway with a friend, who had a couple of Pierce Brosnan 007 movies on, and then we returned home and I took up finishing the laundry.  I've done my clothes and I'm working on my friend's bedding right now. I'm going to do mine tomorrow.

Tomorrow I think I'll try to get up early.  I was supposed to do a couple of shelves, pulling off the books and dusting them.  I didn't, but I can today.  I did do the game notes, which were more timely.  If I could get that and my normal Sunday pre-game chores are done really early, I might still be able to go to the Y and do some exercises in the pool and work out in general for maybe an hour, total.  Then Monday I can go back for the low-impact pool class that I took this past week.  I did really well with everything (and have been in much less pain and been able to move and bend better as a result) except this thing where you put the foam dumbbells under your knees and then balance above them.  I need something to hold on and even so couldn't do it.  The instructor suggested getting a lighter pair of dumbbells (I had the heavy ones) next time.  People were really nice and non-judgmental, though, and I enjoyed it.  The instructor was very good.  We ended with a mindfulness exercise.  So it starts out easy, gets the heart pumping, puts you through all sorts of movement, but it isn't extremely intense--just right for my level of conditioning.

I  also need to run by the library while they're open and pick up a book on hold on the zero-waste home--I've been on the list for a while.  It must have been there when I picked up The Halloween Tree earlier, but I didn't realise it was in, so I didn't look.  I also checked out CDs by Sam Smith and Rush.

Okay, I'm going to get ready for bed.  The laundry's still in the dryer, but at least I'll have my teeth brushed, etc.  Hope you're having a good weekend.

I loved it

'The Big Bang Theory' finale closes with a big dose of heart [contains spoilers] I have only watched 'Big Bang Theory' fairly hit-or-miss throughout its tenure, although I do have several seasons on DVD, and hope to complete my collection. I just don't watch much live television and don't have cable.TV. But...I do love the show. So it was a great delight and a little sadness last night to be over at one of our friend's housing eating Chinese food from Jin Jin and it came on. :)

So yesterday went better than I thought it would

After work one of my friends and co-workers, Feliz, took me to the credit union, which was half a block from where she parks her car, and then out to PetSmart at Brannon Crossing to get some food for the kitten.  While we were there, I got some Gumbo Ya Ya for dinner to bring home and grabbed a few things from Kroger, and then she took me home. I'm very grateful.  I used to take her home often when she didn't have a car, so that worked out well.

Today I'm going to try to get the car fixed.  They've just opened.  I'm going to call Kenny at Mitch's Auto, get a tow truck over to the house, where the car is unlocked and the key is with YKWIA, and then see how bad it is quoted.  If it's just a hose, it may be very cheap.  If it's more, well, we'll see.  I had a PTO request in for today for a now-rescheduled appointment where I was leaving at 3 pm anyway, so I can leave here and get over there to get the car (assuming I can get it fixed),

Okay, I just called YKWIA to make sure he's awake, and Kenny to get the ball running with the car. Wish me luck!!!

I got up at an insane hour this morning

YKWIA is going with a friend for an important doctor's appointment, and it's very early, and it takes him a couple of hours to caffeinate and get ready to go anywhere, so I had to wake him up at 5 am, meaning I got up at 4:30 am and showered and then woke him up.  But the thing is, once I'm ready to go, I need to go.  I can't just piddle around the house.  Besides I needed caffeine, too.  So I left the house right before Kroger opened (our neighbourhood has one that is an 18-hour store), got some soda and something for breakfast, and then came on into work.  On the one hand, I'm going to be very tired at 5 pm.  On the other, it gives me a chance to truly wake up, take my medicine, eat breakfast, and get on my phone hotspot with my laptop and have some quiet time.  Also, I got a wonderful parking spot at the Orange Lot at the university this morning, as I got here by 6:30 and parked in the lane right in front of the bus stop about halfway down the front section.

Okay, let's go see what news I can glean from the Web.

Happy new year!

Sorry, I wrote that and then was drawn away to mince onions, which means I have now retreated to the safety of the computer away from sulphurous compounds that irritate eyes and nose.  The last thing on my list of things to do while off is to back up the computers, so I'm backing up the desktop and blogging on the laptop.

I have been off since Friday and I've mostly either run some errands or relaxed, visited friends, etc.  Last night was a very quiet New Year's Eve.  We visited a friend who got us all Subway sandwiches, and then I hung out with the cats and watched the ball drop and YKWIA spoke on the phone with a friend in the Chicago area.

The following new year's resolutions are on track:

1. Reducing soda intake.  I drink way too much diet soda.  I'm going to limit it and try to transition to some coffee.  I did drink one today, but considering on the weekends I've been drinking two 2-litres and some days at work I have five out of the machine, I definitely need to work on this, both from a health standpoint and money one.  So I'm going to try to limit it to one a day, then taper off to coffee, and then taper that further over time.
2. Blogging!  No more waiting two weeks or a month between posts.  Granted I was sick a good portion of last month, but my blogging was pathetic.  I'd like this blog to flourish, and it really hasn't been of late.
3. Watching my blood sugar better--testing, taking medicine, and not eating so much out of the snack machines.  I did take all my medicine correctly earlier, but this will really get tested at work.

Today I have:

1. Done my friend's laundry.
2. Done all the dishes.
3. Made bread (in progress).
4. Backed up the computers (in progress).
5. Gone to Kroger (three times), once for sweetener, once for bread yeast, and now I'm going for a zucchini.
6. Bought a MegaMillions ticket.
7. Ordered a game for a friend who gave me his Amazon gift cards to do so (he doesn't have a computer, but he does have an Xbox One S, and I checked to make sure this Xbox 360 game, which is older, should work).

Well, I think I'm going to get wrangled further into cooking, as I've been interrupted about four times just writing this post.  But hopefully 2019 will be a better year all around and I'll have more to say about it than 2018.  I'm going to go now; I'll try to write later.

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).

Did you know?

That if you sign on to an unfamiliar computer, say, at a library, Google will send you a notification (not a text, a notification) asking if it's you and then have you tap one of three numbers to correspond to what the computer says?  That was a little creepy.  Very useful, but still creepy.

I'm on the computer at the Beaumont library because it's not quite time for the public visitation for my friend, but I didn't want to go back home, but rather stay on this side of town.  The funeral home is right down the street.  I took YKWIA, who will be helping our friend with the family visitation, so he had to go earlier.  But I'm all dressed and ready, and there seemed to be no real reason to go back home until later.

So I'm where I feel most comfortable, a library, looking through books and music. I pared down my keys to the car fob, ignition key, and house key only to realise when I got here that I don't have my library card, the actual card being with my Kindle and the key ring card being on the rest of the ring at home.  But they let me use my licence to check out a few things, which was nice.  I can apparently sign in to a computer using my name, but when I went to the reservation kiosk it asked for my library card number, which I was able to glean from the Lexington Public Library application on my phone.

Anyway, the plan is to spend some time doing some things here rather than go home.  It's just a little over an hour till the public visitation begins, and the library closes at the same time, so it was fortuitous.

:( Sad today

It's rare that you meet someone who is an honestly good person who adopts you as part of the family even when you are not related by blood. Several months ago I was fortunate to have someone come into my life who did just that. She died today at the age of 94, peacefully in her sleep, and the world seems emptier without her. Requiescet in pace, Mrs Fore. I will miss you terribly. Following so close after my father's death, I can only hope that the old adage of death coming in threes is wrong in this case.

I'd like to think that I could write on days other than weekends

But it seems, for now, I'm too tired in the evening.  Here is a re-cap of the last few days:

Thursday, September 27th -- I utterly broke down at work because a mom was not happy that I hade made an appointment at an alternate location since I can't get an MRI at the university until a month after the child was supposed to have it.  Turns out the doctor told her they couldn't have it locally because the university's scanner is so much better.  She was very strident, not necessarily abusive, but it just set me off into a crying fit (it turns out I was also pre-menstrual, so maybe that can explain the sudden lability), and my neighbouring co-worker heard it, had me unlock the door, and talked me into taking a walk and stepping away from the office.  It was a really hard day.  I had over 20 off-sites to schedule (still do, as every time I manage to schedule one about 2-3 more appear in my box).

The university is down to two, maybe one MRI scanner (depending on certain conditions like age, if it's with contrast, etc.) due to some maintenance, and so the other day I managed to get a cervical, thoracic, and lumbar MRI scheduled there--a long scan, easily over 2 hours--but otherwise without any of the constraints I'm normally given (it was originally supposed to coordinate with a brace pickup, but the university was too booked, so they just said any time I could get), and the first available was in the middle of December.  Now in some cases, I do have an alternate place I can go to--the one I scheduled the kid in that caused his mom to go ballistic--and I was given the go ahead to go there for this one, as it's just too far out.  Most of these are supposed to be same day so they can see our doctors then, and they're usually in clinic about two days a week, given that they're in surgery or at the university on other days.  But if I go to the alternate place, I have to clarify a spine survey (a reduced scan) vs a full scan, and all these little details take time, especially since I try at the university first as that's preferred.  And they can't do sedation ones.

Meanwhile, the baby hips are causing me no end of stress.  When we ask for an ultrasound for hip dysplasia, it's usually for treatment, not for diagnosis, and it has to be without manipulation, often in a harness.  These kids are extremely delicate--they can't be moved out of position at all.  The university is the only place in town that does them without manipulation, and they're down three techs.  The requests for these are always the same day, as is our protocol, and usually a week or two weeks out.  I'm struggling to get dates before a month out, and I'm relying on cancellations to get anything scheduled.  There are lots of little things that go into all of this, forms to fill out, faxes or e-mails, calling the centres, calling the parents, rescheduling, usually, as it doesn't suit someone, and then mailing letters, maps, and updating a summary, and sending the form out to a group.  That's just my part.  Then I hand it over to someone else who pre-certifies it.  But this could easily be a more-than-full-time job alone.  And it's just half of what I do--the surgery pre-certs are the main thing, and I"m struggling to get those done ahead of time because of all the time I'm spending on the off-sites.  I tracked the last week of off-sites on a running total to see how many I had a day, how many I got done, etc., whether I ran into any problems.  The one where the mom triggered the crying fit took about three hours total. On a good day--if I only work on off-sites--I can do about seven, or one an hour.  But that's without doing the surgeries at all that day.  Usually, it's two, maybe three.  And they just keep coming.  Plus, they have to be prioritised as they come in, as some are more urgent than others, like ones that are post-surgery the next day, or the baby hips for a week out.  It's causing a lot of stress.

I've already had an episode where I went to the emergency room for hours with chest pains and headache, and they eventually decided I'd had a migraine that was causing numbness and pain down my left arm.  I told that to my neurologist yesterday and he gave me a dissolving medication for migraines.  But I'm sure the whole thing was stress-related.  I'm getting a lot of headaches, have had some gastroenteric issues, and I've been stress eating from the vending machines, so my hA1c jumped from 7.1% a few months ago to 9.0% since I started in June.  I'm going to have to start packing carrots and other healthy foods, as I'm not sure I can curb the urge to eat, but at least I can change what I eat, and my endocrinologist said that was fine.

Friday, September 28th--It was a better day.  Busy, of course.  I started tracking the off-sites at work.  I had 26 that morning and got it down to 19.

Last weekend--my friend, the kitten, and the cat were all sniffly and under the weather.  The dog and I were the only ones fine.  We didn't play the game as a result, but I got a lot of rest, at least.

Work throughout the week--I just sallied forth and did what I could.  Surgeries were mostly done the day before or day of.  I realised late Friday afternoon that I had not sent one, and sent it in.  It may be denied for no timely authorisations (most places don't due retro ones).  That's not acceptable, and I know it, and it most likely will be an issue.  It won't be passed to the family (we are an actual charity, not just a non-profit), but it will cost the hospital money if denied.  So there was stress there.  I didn't think I was doing well, but I didn't think I'd actually drop the ball entirely on one.  So we'll see if they approve it.  I have no illusions that they will.

Tuesday, October 2nd--So I updated my laptop to the Windows 10 October Feature Update.  More on that in a minute.

Wednesday, October 3rd--That evening, I went to do a book review that I hadn't managed to get in by the 1st, and lo, my documents were all gone due to the update.  No one was really reporting on it at the time, just a few things in the fora.  I spent the evening seeing if they had been moved to another area, and I rolled back the update to see if they would appear.  Nada.  Nothing on my desktop, music, or photos had been touched, just my local drive non-cloud documents.  But that included the game notes, my job hunt materials, and my book reviews.  I updated back and at least I have some of that on Dropbox.  The game notes were backed up a month ago, and there are just two sessions I lost, which is good, and those recordings were still on the desktop, thankfully, so I can reconstruct (over several hours).  Most of the important stuff was already backed up.  But I was not happy with Microsoft at all.  I was also up late that night backing up my desktop, where my friend has tens of thousands of documents and pictures that he's collected and created over years, and we unplugged it from the Internet entirely.

Thursday, October 4th--News stories started making the rounds on the tech sites of the data loss issue with the update.  I did find a good tool for trying to recover files, but it only recovered a few non-important files I'd deleted myself, although I did get a book review back.  But either the files I'd had were just absolutely deleted by Microsoft's update, or rolling back--which even now Microsoft is suggesting,--just deleted them beyond recovery.

I did find ways to make sure the desktop didn't get the update (fortunately that machine is Windows 10 Pro, not Home like the laptop, so it's easier.  We were able to plug the computer back in.  It's deferred all updates for a month, and any feature updates for a year.  So we're good for now, hopefully.  But again, despite my best efforts to go to bed early, I was awakened in the middle of the night for a minor crisis and didn't get back to bed till 4 am.

Yesterday--We are officially out of grocery money.  I'm broke in general, my last purchase being a pie for a send-off at work for a co-worker who is moving to a new department.  It's going to be a very lean week until I get paid.

Today--I got some good sleep last night, and woke up to sun streaming through the window, and the cat, who'd really been struggling with the crud, obviously doing much better.  I got up, got some water, took my medicine, and played with the kitten with a laser pointer, although I have to be careful because while he's up to playing, he's still got a little breathing issue from the crud he had.

Okay, that's it for now.  Sorry I haven't blogged.  Today is the library, pet food run, book review, and working on the notes, plus going over to our sick friend's for a visit and maybe a movie tonight.

Yesterday was the game

So it was a matter of getting the house ready, doing laundry, and rolling dice. Brenda and I are both playing characters we hadn't played in years, which was fun, although I have no clear idea of how to play mine since it's been so long.

Today, meanwhile, has been fairly relaxing, although it started out not so great. I'd forgotten to change my alarm, with it being a holiday, but more to the point, YKWIA came in shortly after 6 am to check on me.  Turns out that he'd dreamed I was dead and wanted to make sure I was alright and alive.  I think it was his mind's response to all the stuff that happened last Monday when I went to the emergency room.  So we talked for a while and both of us went to bed till about 9 am.

It was nice to have a day off from work. My physical therapist is out at the end of the week, so she worked on Labour Day, and they called and had a cancellation, so I moved my appointment from 6:30 to 2:00. I was there till about 3:30 pm [my piriformis and other muscles were really tight, probably from sitting at the game, so Grace took awhile working on it]. Then I went and got my hair cut, and he didn't take much off but at least it looks a little neater.

Before

After

After and smiling :)

I'd taken YKWIA over to a friend's so he could help him with some things, so I went and got him and we went to drop off a bill and got a few things from the store (he's been cooking dinner; I've been keeping him company.) We're having sautéed zucchini with parsley and shallots, along with bell peppers stuffed with a tuna-onion mixture. [Note: I'm continuing this post-dinner and cleanup; it was very simple yet very yummy.]

Okay, it's after 10 pm now.  YKWIA is on the phone with a friend from Cicero.  I'm in my sleep clothes, and I have washed dishes, cleaned up, changed my purse, and packed my lunch.  I even laid my clothes out.  I don't usually do that.  It's time to go to bed now.  6 am comes early.  Have a good night!

Thunderstorm!

Brenda left just a little while ago and I fed the dogs, let them out, and then let them back in within a much smaller timeframe than usual as it was very dark and gloomy, much different from the mild, sunshine-full day we'd had so far.  Now the thunder, lightning, and rain have really started, so I'm glad they've come inside.

We didn't wind up playing the game.  We did go to the Indian restaurant Masala, over in Beaumont, to celebrate a belated birthday for me and something else that is a bit private, but let's say was a long time coming (really, and that's why the celebration was belated) but represents a very, very good turning point in one of our lives.

We stopped by our friend's house to say hello (Brenda had not seen him in quite a while), and then came back to play the game, but we wound up watching Batman: Gotham by Gaslight instead, which we have out from Netflix.  It was fun.

I'm working on laundry.  I've almost finished YKWIA's, and I have started on mine.  I don't think I'll get to the bedclothes today after all.  But I did the cat boxes, took out all the trash and recyclables, and cleaned the bathroom.  We knew it was going to rain later, so I didn't touch the tile, as it was just going to get muddy tonight.

It is so humid! YKWIA opened a couple of windows in the living room/study, but while there's a breeze it's not really making it in here, although the cat, satiated from his meal, is happily watching out the window.  I'm sweating and considering going into my room/the library to put the ceiling fans on. I've had quite a bit of caffeine today, so I'm not really sleepy or anything, just hot.

Okay, I should go check the dryer.  Have a good night.  I may write more, but for now I'm signing off.

I'm pooped, and it isn't even game time

Today I've:

1. Laundered my bedding and clothes
2. Changed out the spring and winter clothes, put spring clothes away, packed up the winter ones, and prepared to take them to storage
3. Swept and mopped the floors
4. Cleaned the bathroom
5. Taken out the trash and recyclables
6. Cleaned the cat boxes
7. Started a loaf of bread

Yesterday I cleaned a very dirty shelf with magazines and did YKWIA's laundry, and that was enough to make my back hurt quite a bit, so I laid down for awhile while he helped a friend out at his house who is battling cancer.  They called me to go get Subway and we all ate and visited, then we got home about 8:30 pm.  I think we were both done in by midnight (he's been over several days in a row and took the bus out Friday, getting lost on the walk over there, and probably walked four miles back and forth until he found it), and we .were up by 7:30 am.  I have no real reason to be as tired as I've felt lately.  I've done some housework and of course, I worked at the medical centre, but still, I'm just tired all the time.  I've been up doing my stuff and listening to shows he's watching (he finished the 'Almost Human' DVDs and we watched a couple of episodes of 'Up the Women'.  I unplugged my tablet, which has been on the charger for two days and really needed to be unplugged and just turned off.  He's got a lot of documents to transfer to it and we're going to see if there's enough room once I cleaned my stuff off of the microSD card.  There's not much on it, now, just some basic applications and one from Adobe for reading PDFs and one for reading Word files.  That should suffice for him.  I haven't used my old tablet for some time.  I'm not sure it'll have the processing speed he'll need, but it's worth a try since neither of us can afford a newer tablet or laptop right now.

Today I'm looking forward to the game.  I'm kind of grungy and should go ahead and take a shower, but I'm just not up to it.  I'd like to lie down for awhile, but the bed hasn't been made yet.   I just feel a mess today. 

My strawberry plant that Brenda gave me is back outside after being brought in for a frost advisory last night, and it has two ripe strawberries and one that is turning on it.  I have lost three smallish African violets recently, including the two pink ones in the bathroom and a purple one in the bedroom.  I'm not sure what happened; they got puny and I tried to save them, but it was a no go.  On the other hand, one of the orchids has grown a new leaf and I have two that are getting ready to re-bloom.  Maybe orchids are more my thing, although I've had no problem with violets before.  The window seat in YKWIA's room is lush with shamrocks, an umbrella tree I just repotted, dumb cane, and philodendrons.  They love that window:

So overall, the plants are doing well.  Also, the orchid at work is putting out new shoots and buds.  I separated the stems out to give them more room:

It's the same colour as part of my mousepad, my pen holder, and my water cup, so it's coordinated to the checkout bay. :)  What can I say, I like it when things match.

Okay, I'm going to go check on the last of the laundry.  I realised I started the bread while still running the dryer (the bread machine is on the washer, as that's a good place for it usually when I'm not washing, as it has a tendency to 'walk' as it mixes, which is apparently supposed to happen, according to the manual.  But the vibration isn't good for rising bread.  I don't want to mess up this loaf.  I'm experimenting with all-purpose rather than bread flour, as I'm low on the other.  But the other day I forgot to put the yeast in until 30 minutes into the cycle.  While it was edible and looked fine, it was chewier than usual.  I can't believe I did that.  I was washing dishes and remembered suddenly, doing what I could to fix things.  It wasn't bad, but not ideal.  Hopefully, this one will come out fine; I definitely put all the ingredients in. :)

So tired

I finished everything on my list except putting away clothes and bringing the winter ones out for storage.  That will simply have to wait till another day.  YKWIA called me about 4:30 or 5 and wanted me to make a run to Long John Silver's for everyone, and I went over there, got some money, got some gas, as I was on my light, with the last of my funds, and got the food and went back.  We visited for another two hours or so, and it was good to do so, but I stood most of that time and YKWIA had done a lot of helping around the house, so by the time we left we were both hurting and tired.  I got home and had to put my feet up for a bit, and then got up and did the dishes and floor.  YKWIA made some coffee and then went into the bedroom.  Now everyone else in the house is asleep in there.  I had to pull out the little dog's bed because she'd been in the kitchen with me and I'd taken up the blanket to sweep and mop, and she was distressed to not have a blanket in every room. :)  The bedroom one is fleece over a comforter, so particularly cushiony.  Anyway, I'm finished.  I'm going to go to the bathroom, drink a little water, listen to some music, and lie down.  At eleven I'll get up (that's the plan anyway, take some medicine, get him to take his medications, and then I'll go back to bed for the night.  I may have to take some tizanidine--everything feels like it's out of alignment and there are pain and numbness radiating out to my limbs.  Our friend's 93-year-old mother is probably in better shape than either of us, really.  Bless her heart, she has a lot on her plate, with his illness and her age.

Okay, I'm definitely lying down.  Everything's hurting.  Rain is coming, and that's part of it, perhaps.  Oh, and the cat is awake, so I think he wants me to lie down so he can cuddle.  Good night.

I'm rarely home without YKWIA

But he decided he wanted to do some things for our friend alone and just needed me to take him there, so I came home.  I've got several chores to do today, so it made sense.  I made a quick stop for cereal at the store (I needed some and I was one point away from 40 cents off a gallon of gas, and I need to get some when I pick him up).  He's going to call the house phone when he's ready, so no headphones while I work.  So I brought my little boom box out from my room and I'm playing Pandora through my phone on the auxiliary setting.  The dogs were angrily barking when I got back; they hate being left alone completely.  So I've let them out and back again, I am eating some of the cereal, and I'm listening to the music (the 3 Doors Down channel, which I've listened to for a couple of days and liked almost every song played).  I took a shower earlier, which was great, as I hadn't had one yesterday or the day before (I usually skip a day at the most and usually shower every day or my hair looks horrible, even though daily cleansing can be drying to the skin).  The bread cooled before we left, so I put it in its container to keep fresh.

So what do I need to do today?

• Laundry
• Pack up the winter clothes and put away the spring and summer ones, then take the winter ones to storage
• Cat boxes
• Clean bathroom
• Sweep and mop tile
• Put away dishes and load dishwasher
• Do the plastic dishes/hand washable ones
• Finish backing up the computer (I've mostly gotten it backed up but had to leave in the middle)
• Make my bed (the cat was on it earlier, on the blankets--he claimed the bed when it was first delivered about a month before I came to live here

I took out the trash and recyclables yesterday, although there are a few more to go out, and I forgot the wine bottle where we had a whole bottle go into soup the other day.  I think there's just my laundry to do, maybe a little of his, but no bedding this time, hopefully.

Okay, I should start working.  Hope you're having a good Sunday. I wish there were three days to each weekend--I need a day between Saturday and Sunday just to relax.  But it's been a nice weekend so far, really.

I'm up and

listening to Pandora this morning and getting some caffeine after a fitful night's sleep. This song came on, which I have always loved. Today we're going over to an old friend's house who is very ill and helping him with some things. I think I'm going to consider this an anthem for today, in terms of helping make the world a better place and making a difference in other people's lives.  Since we're going to be there this afternoon, I'm making bread now and then later, when we get back, I need to do laundry.

Yesterday was pretty productive.  First, I went over my next few pay periods to see if there was a chance of taking care of anything I'm behind on financially.  Then I called H&R Block to discover that the Richmond Road office is already closed, but my paperwork should be at the Tates Creek office waiting to be filed as soon as I can pay to do that, and they'll keep it up to a year. I filed for up to six months of an extension with both the state and federal governments.  Then I called a creditor, but they'd closed a few minutes before.

I took the recyclables out, repotted several plants and watered them all, put the strawberry plant Brenda gave me for my birthday back out on the hanger (there was a freeze warning the night before).  I cleaned and dusted two shelves (we're doing that on a rotating basis so the bookshelves aren't too overwhelming.  There are five walls between the library (my bedroom) and the bedroom that are entirely built-in bookshelves.  Next week I'll only do one, as it's a large shelf of magazines on the bottom of a range.

I spoke to our friend on the phone, and then to Brenda's husband to cancel the game since we're going over there today.  Because of that, I didn't work on the game notes.  Instead of that, I went and looked up part-time work (I'd applied to Kroger earlier in the week, as well as a part-time computer associate at the public library), and in the process discovered a job at the University of Kentucky and one a Bluegrass Community and Technical College, and I applied for both.  The first is a temporary, grant-funded position but pays very well and while only lasting two years, pays over twice what I make now.  YKWIA thinks I shouldn't consider it. because it's essentially got an expiration date.  But one thing I've discovered in the lay off is that all jobs do, and at least this one has a set date you know to have everything wrapped up by.  It could also help me with my need for more supervisory experience and consists of digitising a collection, which appeals to the historian and librarian in me, but also would help increase my experience in digital preservation and provide professional academic library experience.  So I went ahead and applied.  The BCTC position is a circulation manager; again, it would help with being pigeon-holed as a solo librarian for all those years.  I have supervised student workers, but I need more real-world experience as a manager.

YKWIA is up and has made coffee.  The cat is very happy as YKWIA does morning feedings and I do evening, and we instituted that from the get-go so the animals wouldn't beg for food and be loud in the morning when I was getting ready for work and YKWIA was asleep.  He's been fed, and the dogs have as well and are outside, although little dog didn't eat (she does that sometimes) and I had to take her food away from the cat, as he's allergic to, we think, chicken and grain, and so he has his own special grain-free fish-based food.

Okay, I'm going to go check the news.  Have a woderful Sunday, and remember, it's Earth Day!

Sigh

After writing today, and visiting our friend--which it was very good to see him and speak with him after all this time-- I went to the grocery to get more contact lens cleaner, took out the trash, and started the laundry (I'm having a devil of a time trying to get the bedclothes dry), and then I've spent the last couple or more hours going over some financial things. I've come to the conclusion that the only way I can make it at all, especially with the taxes to pay, etc., is to get a second job, something part-time.  I went ahead and applied to the Chinoe Kroger, and I'll keep looking for other opportunities.  I think I could work on Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday evenings and most of the day on Saturday, without being terribly tired, maybe 16-20 hours a week.

YKWIA is watching 'Hunderby', a British comedy set in the 1830s.  It's got a lot of mystery to it.  I moved into my room (although I can still hear it fine), mainly because the computer has been off its charger all day and I needed to plug it back up.

I called Brenda and we're set to play tomorrow.  So it's just the laundry to get finished, and like I said, it's being very slow to dry.  I'm thinking I may use the spare bedding and concentrate on the comforter and blankets.  The pillowcases didn't really need to be done (the sheets, despite a cover, get the blonde dog's little tiny hairs all over them).  The black dog is blowing her coat; I'll have to sweep the house tomorrow in addition to the usual things I do to prepare for the game.  But they are very sweet doggies.

Okay, I think I'll listen to some music while waiting for the laundry to finish.  Good night.

I somehow managed

to get through Friday, which was a slow 'catch-up' day in clinic, despite almost no sleep.  It dragged by, but I got quite a lot accomplished and got to actually speak with my co-workers more than just a moment or two, which on a busy day is kind of normal.

Last night, I kept YKWIA company while he made dinner and also some soup for someone we're visiting today who is battling cancer.  I haven't seen him in about 20 years, but YKWIA were good friends for a long time and he owned the comic book store we both worked in for a while.  So we thought we'd go and get caught up, visit, and bring soup.

I was very tired before bed, and I was still hurting a bit, although stretching to get things off the printer from my chair during work did help some.  So I took three tizanidine (the recommended dose), a muscle relaxer I've been prescribed for my neck issues. and I slept like a baby, only waking up early this morning to the cat howling because the wind through the windows had shut my door and he was trapped in my room.

Today I have:

1. Gotten some medicine I forgot for YKWIA the other day at the pharmacy, as well as a small bag for myself.
2. Paid my rent [I pay half every two weeks].  I'd forgotten the deposit slip for his account (we have the same credit union, so I just transfer it), but they were able to look it up.
3. Got new lenses for my glasses (for free!).  In August 2016 I got new glasses and got the 2-year Crizal lens warranty.  It was a year before I got one scratch on it, but even though I always use microfibre cloths, they starting getting scratches on both lenses when I was wearing my glasses full-time after running out of contacts.  So, I asked about that, they traced my frames and had new lenses recut and when they came in, I just had to stop by and they popped the old ones out and put the new ones in.  Easy peasy.  I did accidentally leave my travel contact solution on their counter, as I had to take my contacts out to check the lenses were properly made, so I'll have to get some more from the store.  But the travel size that comes with the first pair of contacts is pretty small, so I needed to get more anyway as it was less than halfway full.
4. Helped close all the windows in the house, as it's about to storm.
5. Made my bed (usually I do when I get up, but I waited a bit today).

When I got home, I started to feel shaky and wonky, checked my blood sugar, and despite having eaten breakfast (a toasted blueberry bagel, cream cheese, and a banana) just two hours before, my blood sugar was 48.  So I ate a sandwich with peanut butter and spreadable fruit and drank some orange juice (not in that order).  I feel much better.  I may have to dial back my insulin further, which is good.

Now I'm caffeinating and have a little downtime while YKWIA gets ready to go visit our friend.  I don't have to do any notes today due to the fact we visited without playing the Cthulhu game last week.  Tonight I should really work on finances.  I can't pay much of anything, but I need to come up with a plan/call a couple of numbers that are incessantly dialling my phone.  And I have to figure out what to do about the taxes.

Okay, that's all for now.  Hope you're having a good weekend.  It's been in the 70s here, and was nice and clear this morning, although it's going to rain the rest of the weekend, and then the temperatures will plummet on Monday.  But still, it was nice driving weather earlier.  I had Bastille playing in the car, the window rolled down (my hair is a mess), and my sunglasses on.  Not a bad day, so far, really.