I spent a good part of the day in bed

But I've been up for a couple of hours, have dealt with the mail, have spoken to some people on the phone, and wished Brandon and his family happy trick or treating. It doesn't feel like Halloween. At work we dress up and the kids come around the offices to get candy. I had not decided what I would go as before all this happened, so I don't know what I would have come up with.

It's also Samhain night, a religious holiday for remembering the dead, among other things. Having had my brush with death this month, I'm just glad to be among the living.

It's hard to believe it's almost November. I need to go online and register for my work benefits for next year. I think I have until the 13th on that. On the 14th, of course, I had planned to fly to Chicago. That isn't happening. So November's going to be a good deal quieter than I had expected, just a few doctor's appointments and the like. At this point I don't know whether I'll be able to visit with my family for Thanksgiving. My mom's house has these steps that are pretty steep, and they're wearing out. They've gotten my grandmother up them in a wheelchair using a couple of stout boards, but my grandmother is tiny. I don't think I can get up them at all. It depends on where I am in my recovery, I guess. So I'll probably be alone for the holiday.

I really want to clean the house. I've dropped a few things here and there, and now that I'm spending more time here I see things that need to be worked on. When I'm better, I'm going to really have to consider de-hoarding some of my stuff; Brandon's three-year-old is right, there's way too much. It's not particularly valuable. A lot are books of course, but in my living room I also have two cathode-ray monitors that really need to go to the recycling centre, stuff like that. And maybe it is a little silly for a 45-year-old woman to have a lot of stuffed animals. Maybe.

Tomorrow I'm going to really try to do the dishes, at least the ones I can load in the dishwasher, and water and cull some of the plants. I'm still having trouble with those white fluffy bugs on the violets. Thank goodness Jill, my roommate in the library, is watering my plants there for me. I also need to take a baby wipe bath and change my clothes. Washing my hair may be an option once I get the dishes squared away, depending on how my balance is. It's been over a week; I've just been using the dry shampoo. What I do not want to do is stay in bed all day.

That said, I think I'm going to go back in there and read for awhile. Have a happy Halloween, and a good Samhain (it is also the time when in Celtic tradition, the old year gives way to the new). So happy new year (or one of them, anyway) :).

Woke up this morning

when the sun was properly up and realised that I had set my DOCLINE account (the service through the National Network of Libraries of Medicine through which we order interlibrary loans) to 'away' at least until the 30th and, but didn't reject the two requests in my received queue. I tried to log in to it via the tablet but my 'finger memory' for the account and password doesn't work when I'm swiping on a tablet keyboard. So, I got up, made it to the living room, and had no problem getting in at the computer. I went ahead and received them, then rejected them as 'OTH' for 'other'. There really is no other reason that covers oh, your solo librarian got hit by a car, and won't be in for awhile.

So that's taken care of, and those requests can move on. The people who set the account to 'away' are in Chicago, meaning they're probably just getting to work about now, so I did it before the request was set. I was afraid the two requests would get stuck as a result--I've heard of that before.

Feeling good (comparably) so far, although it's early in the day. I woke up about 6:45, went to the bathroom, took meds, checked my blood sugar, ate, that sort of thing, and went back to bed. I have to get my blood sugar down before the surgery. I've not been as vigilant with the diabetes as I could be because I've, well, been a little out of it. But the diabetes has to be in the best control I can do before surgery, and I'll have to watch it closely here on out because it will affect my wound healing. Trust me, I don't want to go from broken bone to wound care, to amputation. I may wind up in a wheelchair temporarily, but I want to stress the temporary part if I can.

I wish I could do something about the house. It's not bad, but there's stuff lying here and there, and there are dishes to do, plants to water, bathroom to clean, that sort of thing. I might be able to get a folding chair and get it to the kitchen sink (I probably should do that when I'm bathing anyway, since I just have the walker and one supposedly good leg. The water for the plants I could put in a two-litre bottle and in a bag. But that does put off the balance on the walker. I don't know. I don't want to take the chance on falling. I keep my phone in my pocket just in case when I'm up, and Friday after my appointment I'm going to get a key made for Brandon (who can get here quickly in a car) and for YKWIA (who should just have one on principle). I haven't been putting the chain on the door. If all else fails there's an emergency number for the apartment complex that I can use in the meantime to get them to open the door. And if I fall and hurt myself any more, I'll just call 911. That's the plan. Here's to no falls. The next time someone is over, maybe I can have them water the plants and take that chair over to the sink.

Okay, it's been awhile since I took the short-acting insulin when I ate. I'm going to go take the long-acting one and hopefully read for awhile. I haven't really done any so far; I haven't felt up to it. But I have several good books to choose from. One is one of the Jim Butcher books, which are set in Chicago. Maybe if I can't go, I can at least go there in my mind, reading. :)

A quiet night

I just got off the phone with a friend. Otherwise it's been a quiet night. This morning I put some more water that I had treated and let sit overnight into the aquarium, and I cleaned out the filter, so the water is gently falling and the fish seem much happier. I need to do some dishes and clean up a bit in the kitchen, but that will be tomorrow's task. The rest of the house is still looking very good from the other day. I've actually been making my bed, something i got out of the habit with when I had my dog because she just made a doggie burrito out of the covers anyway. I'm reading a book on organising your work environment over the course of a year, and one of the small changes they suggest is making the bed every morning, because it gives a boost to your outlook and makes you feel better about yourself and your surroundings. I have to admit, that's true. Also, I've still napped a bit over the last week, but having it made means I don't just 'go to bed' around 8 and stay there.

I guess that's all for tonight. I hope your week is going well so far. Mine will improve in about a half an hour because I get paid, which is good because between my checking and savings accounts right now I have exactly 24 cents. Hopefully I can pay my bills and not be quite so destitute this time, but we'll see. Good night.

I don't mind snakes, but....

there's a limit!

Idaho family abandons snake-infested house

They slithered behind the walls at night and released foul-smelling musk into the drinking water. Ben Sessions once killed 42 in a single day.

Shortly after buying their dream home, Sessions and his wife discovered it was infested with thousands of garter snakes. Their growing family lived as if in a horror movie for three months. They abandoned the property, but the home briefly went back on the market more than a year later, and they fear it could attract another unsuspecting buyer.

Thanks to YKWIA, who told me about this.

I may be online haphazardly for the next few days

as once again, I've had to choose housing, food, and the necessities over paying my cable Internet bill from Insight. I really need to see if I can adjust my billing cycle, since it seems I'm always about a week off in terms of restricting my service. I'll be able to next Thursday, though. At least it's just a 'soft' disconnect, so I won't have to pay a reconnect fee. In the meantime, I'll try to blog from the library at least a few times over that space. I just wanted to give you a head's up. I don't know when I'll lose it, either, so I'll try to blog some before it goes. But right now I'm going to work on game notes. :)

By the way, I was off today from the hospital (hence the blog post in the middle of the day). I worked some on my kitchen and got some rest. I had plans for more, but I'm glad I did get some things done, at least. I'll try to do some more work on the house before I go to sleep.

I'm being thwarted by rain (and my own laziness)

I took today off from the hospital so I could conserve what little gas I have until I can buy some more tomorrow morning. Hoping to get some rest, blog, and clear a space for yoga in the living room, I didn't tell anyone other than my boss about being off.

Well, I did get plenty of rest. I woke up at 11:30 am (after going to bed at 4:30 am). I did blog a little. And I did work on the living room, but between the gentle rain outside and eating lunch, I got sleepy and went back to bed for a couple of hours. I don't have to be at the store for work until 4 pm, but still, there's not a lot of time to finish clearing the living room floor and shower/get ready for work. But I'll do what I can and then maybe finish Friday (tomorrow I work both jobs, 10 am-10 pm, so that probably won't work, unless I get up early in the morning).

Still, I feel like I've recharged a little. The next week I have work or doctor's appointments on every afternoon except Sunday, which is when we play the game. This was my best chance to have some 'me' time for awhile.

A nice day so far

First of all, I slept until 2:30 this afternoon, giving me 12 hours' sleep. I apparently needed it. I dreamt of a bridge that went to a friend's family home. It was a nice size, about 8 feet wide and 14 feet tall to the timbered ceiling (yes, it had a ceiling, read on), and it was stone or light brick, with space on either side for displays. It was covered with a cedar shingle roof. The neighbours had tried to take it over, so we were arranging their plants artistically along the way. It was over a small ravine. It had all sorts of jars and a small lab or gardening bench where things could be mixed or pots planted. Okay, so it was a little weird, but very real, and I woke up several times and went right back into it.

After I finally did wake up and stayed up, I got ready, took Cerys out, and then headed to Hamburg. No, I don't normally do that, as it seems like the world's largest strip mall (okay, we're not a big city, there probably are others, but it's not laid out well at all and I'd almost prefer a super mall to what they did with the remains of a farm). I went to Backyard Burger for breakfast/lunch. Yes, you're wondering, a vegetarian (or pescatarian, actually) in a burger place? But they have a garden burger combo that has the burger cooked on its own George Foreman grill. Yay. I went ahead and transferred some addresses into the new planner while I was at it.

Then I went to Half-Price Books. It's a treasure trove of books, CDs, DVDs, computer programs, even vinyl records, all half the original price, plus a decent clearance section as well. They have a nice selection of various types of all of the above, including roleplaying books. I must mention that to our gamemaster--especially both old and new White Wolf titles. I got a couple of Julian May books (I did not have the Nonborn King or the Plicocene Companion, and I enjoyed that series quite well when I was young. I think I have the other two that begin it. There were a couple of paperback mysteries, one by Ellis Peters (not a Cadfael book, but from another series, but it sounded interesting) and one by Barbara Michaels (who is the same as Elizabeth Peters), a book on growing orchids, an astrology text, and a hoodoo one. Plus I got a 25-disc set of radioplays of Sherlock Holmes with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce (my favourite Holmes and Watson), and a landscape gardening CD that allows you to do both 2-D and 3-D planning, ages plants throughout the season so you can see how they'll look together, and you can do the platts and elevations. I'll need that this winter. All told I made it out of there pretty cheaply. There were many more I'd have love to have had. There was even a history of cannibalism--you don't see that every day. The books were in really good shape for the most part as well. They buy books, too, which I may keep in mind because I have a few duplicates (I think I bought one Anne Perry book three times). They have a really nice Judaism section. I considered getting an encyclopaedia of Jewish myth, mysticism, and magic as a gift (it is after all between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), but decided the person I would have given it to knew it all anyway.

Then I went to Kroger and stocked up on grocery staples. I went ahead and got three of those 99 cent canvas bags where they give you a rebate off for using them. I really don't need any more plastic bags--my cubby hole where I keep them is full, and since I don't have a cat box anymore, I should probably just take them in and recycle them or give them to Good Foods. I came home and cleaned out the refrigerator of some frightening things and then put the new stuff in. Now I'm blogging, of course. I'm going to put my foot up for a little while and then go do notes for the night and do some laundry. I didn't get much done on the house (I'd like to have it in good shape by Wednesday, when both the exterminator and carpet cleaner come.) It's not too bad, but the bathroom needs to be cleaned, dishes need doing, and a little picking up wouldn't be amiss.

That's all for now. I guess we could entitle this 'How I spent my Saturday off'. I didn't go into the store once, not even to get a drink. I'll probably write later tonight--I have a few things saved up to blog about that are library-related. In the meantime, I hope your weekend is going well.

Cool beyond words

Creative Home Engineering

Thanks, YKWIA, for showing me it. You find the most interesting links.