Wow...a keiki!

So if you've been around me in the last few years you know I grow orchids. Well, I had one I'd gotten a cut rate that stil had some blooms on it that bloomed for some time, and the stems stayed green for a long time (one still is), so I didn't cut them back, as stems can sometimes branch off and bud from there.

What I did not expect was this. I have a stem that had turned partly brown, and I'd meant to cut that part back because it was a little unsightly, but hadn't, and now there is a keiki, or orchid baby on it. It might be hard to see against the African violet behind it, but it's there. Now, keikis are sometimes meant with dread because they often indicate the parent plant is stressed and may be about to die. I'll check on it. It does have new leaves coming out, too, so that's a good sign. I'll check the root system and make sure all is well. It doesn't mean a death sentence. And those stems had come from the base, which is good. Phaelenopsis do make keikis that aren't death knells. But I've never had one before, so I'm a little excited. 😀🥰😁🙃

How I'm doing #HealthyatHome

So I'm about two-thirds of the way through my third 'week off' due to Coronavirus, as I alternate being at work for a week and a week off. The first couple of weeks off I used personal time off, but I was rapidly using that to try to deal with it, but this time I broke down and applied for unemployment benefits since my hours were reduced by half. Since that could take awhile, I'm not sure how financially that will work out. It seemed a better idea since I'm not sure how long we'll be operating on this plan. The governor is opening things up very slowly, starting with healthcare, but it could take some time to get back up to normal levels, and even so, we need to do it gradually to protect patients and staff.

I'm actually getting ready to listen to Governor Beshear in just a couple of minutes. His 5 o'clock briefings have become part of the routine for many Kentuckians, as it is carried on TV, radio, and online in many media settings. He actually took off yesterday for the first time since this began with Kentucky's first case.

I've been home except for going to the grocery, pharmacy, or pet food store. Yesterday I did some re-potting of plants. Two friends, Brenda and Feliz, dropped off plants for me in a socially distanced way, where I didn't get out of the house. Brenda gave us a hyssop plant and a dill plant. Feliz had some really tiny cherry tomato and jalapeño plants, just sprouted, and I put them in pots, which I'll have to re-pot as they're going to get bigger, I just got them out of the cups they were in. I also potted up two African violets I got at the grocery during a run for essentials.







I also have a new orchid blooming:



So my bedroom is full of plants:

Up

I won't say early, because compared to the weekdays I've actually slept in, getting up right at 9 am. But in the 30 minutes that I've been up, I've started a load of laundry, started a loaf of bread making in the bread machine, gone out to the car to get some Diet Sunkist from my car, nicely chilled, and am now caffeinating. It's why I drink the stuff--I don't care for colas that much, preferring fruit flavour, but it's the only orange soda I've found with caffeine. That said, I know soda, in general, is not so good for me, particularly with artificial sweeteners (Diet Sunkist uses aspartame). So I have been exploring other options. I don't care for coffee or black tea. I've tried Mio Energy and Crystal Light Energy but they are artificially sweetened as well. So I'm still looking. And yes, I like water, but I need a little caffeine to get through the day or I'm like a zombie.

Also since getting up, I've also taken my insulin and Byetta (but not the oral meds yet--I'm at the end of my pill container and need to fill it up. I need caffeine before I do that, or I tend to put them in the wrong slot or even drop them, which is not good when you have cats, particularly a kitten, who is fascinated by all sorts of things dropping to the floor.

I did splurge just a bit yesterday, buying a Kindle book of a regular book that I have out from the library. It is called Orchid Modern: Living & Designing with the World's Most Elegant Houseplants By Marc Hachadourian, the curator of the Orchid Collection at the New York Botanical Garden. It's a lovely book, dealing with the history of orchid collecting, the different species, plant care, creating decorative projects like terrariums, creating a good environment for the orchids, etc., all in one substantial book and generously and beautifully illustrated. I really liked looking through it, but when it came to reading--and he has a good writing style--I found I was impeded by the relatively small typescript, no doubt small to leave room for the lovely pictures of orchids. So I got the Kindle book because while on my e-reader it would have been wasted, I normally read my books on my tablet now (which is not a Fire, but I use the Kindle application on an Android tablet. I say splurge because it was $10.99 and I don't have much money, and I am trying to get tyres soon. But it is such a lovely book. What can I say, orchids have a long history of causing mania, why should books about them be any different? Anyway, this way I can increase the text size to see what I'm reading. My glasses do correct to 20/20 both in general and with the bifocal, but the small print is still harder to focus upon. This, I think, is the most useful quality of e-books, that they can be manipulated in terms of settings so that anyone can read them who would normally have issues due to age or disability, and most books, particularly non-fiction ones, are not given Large Print editions. Also, you can blow-up images when needed on the tablet, something that the Kindle e-reader does not do hardly at all. Incidentally, I used to keep my Chrome settings at 95% and I knocked up the text and the rest up to a little above 100%. It helps immensely. No sense in getting eyestrain. I think the presbyopia is part of my hiatus from enjoying reading, so anything I can do to read more books is worth it. And I can also read on my laptop, which is a low-end 2-in-1 that folds back to be a very large tablet-like screen when you change to tablet mode and I have the Kindle application on it, as well.

Alright, I'm going to go get some breakfast. I'll probably write some more before I start my Sunday chores proper (although laundry is something I do on Sunday, that's for me, not the household, generally).

Tomorrow

at work they're having resident interviews for the coming year, and so our clinic has only a few patients and there are no surgeries. I found that out in a memo a few months ago and put it on my December calendar page so I'd remember to ask off for the day. I'll miss a building-wide potluck, but that's fine. It's nice to be on the mend (I'm still a little snotty and coughing, and wheezing in the mornings, anyway, but I feel much better. So tomorrow I need to clean and reorganise my room--do things like put the laundry away, make the bed, clean up some soil that's on the floor from when the kitten stole one of the succulents out of its pot--things I wasn't able to do while sick. I also need to wash some linens and see how much other laundry is in the house.

It's been a little quiet at work this week, and I've gotten caught up on everything except I do have to notify some families of upcoming imaging appointments, but by the time I finished today I had it so most were a little way out, so I can call on Monday. I set the autoresponse for e-mail and an alternative greeting for voicemail, and then I high-tailed it out of there about a half an hour early, as I'd worked a little over this week and didn't want to go into overtime. So...here I am, it's nearly 2 am. I've been spending time with my roommate, who has my crud, and making sure he's taken care of and that the animals have their treat. Earlier I checked on a friend (by phone) who is battling cancer and is now back home after being in the hospital/rehabilitation centre for a while. I think I can go do errands for him if needed this weekend--it'll be almost two weeks since I got sick--I just don't want to spread anything to him.

I took the following pictures today of the orchids in my bedroom; I think they're doing well. Both are 'bargain' orchids that had been marked down that just kept putting out more buds after the initial blooms fell off. The spikes on the other three are developing nicely. I don't remember what the colours will be, so it'll be a surprise.





Okay, I really should go to bed now. Have a great evening and a better tomorrow!

I feel awful

This is not how I wanted to ring in the new year--not at all. My chest cold has moved into my head, which is a little odd, as it usually goes the other way. I got up and took my medicine after a bad night of being up and down, so I'll probably just head back to bed after I drink something. On top of everything else, I was in bed last night when the kitten, who usually goes for succulents, decided to nibble on my bamboo. So he got summarily removed from the room and the door is closed right now. He loves the succulents, the juicy, thicker, probably sweeter leaves. He pulled a Hawthornia up like a bonbon out of its little pot, and I found it yesterday by accident and put it back down in the soil to see if it will root again, even though it's been a little nibbled on the outer leaves. I don't hold much hope for it, but still. The only plant in the house that is questionable as far as being toxic to cats is his favourite, the aloe, which doesn't appear to hurt him but can cause mild vomiting in cats. All the others are safe, and the toxic plants went to our pharmacy. He's denuded most of my red velvet Echevarria. I'm hoping it comes back. But it is frustrating. He was no doubt weaned a little early because he's a very orally fixated cat, and he loves to put fingers and just about everything else in his mouth. But for the most part, fortunately, he's leaving other plants alone, including the orchids. I have two of those blooming right now and then three others have put up flower spikes, so soon I'll have almost half (I have twelve, between what was at work and what was at home), one Oncidium and eleven Phalaenopsis species. The Hawthornia plants are each in two tiny pots in the same pot with a Phalaenopsis, and I'd been having trouble watering it in a corner, so I moved it out and that's when the kitten pounced upon. But he didn't hurt the orchid.

Here's what's blooming at the moment:



By the way, here are some links you might find interesting related to this post. The first is an article on types of orchids used as houseplants:

20 Types of Orchids to Use as Houseplants

The others I keep as a bookmark on my Chrome browser (both on the computer and the phone, in case I'm plant shopping and need to know if a plant is safe. It is the ASPCA's guide to Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants List -- Cats. There is another one for Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants List -- Dogs I also have. But they also have one for horses. It's very good, explaining the effect of each and including those that are good and bad for pets. For example, I loved my shamrocks, which are not true shamrocks and are actually Oxalis, and I had them in the library for years, and then at home at the apartment. But they can cause kidney damage in cats. So they can't be here, as there are two cats, an older one that doesn't really bother plants and the kitten, who is about 9 months old and is into everything. So off to the pharmacy they went. They're looking a little sad there, but they've had a good run. I need to tell them the window's too bright for them.

Alright, I'm going back to bed for a while. Here's hoping that medicine kicks in.

Beautiful

One more orchid (which has two succulents in separate soil) for the office. I couldn't resist the colour. That brings it to 23 plants. I doubt I have any more room at this point, but I'm beginning to think I really am hoarding plants.

I have another orchid blooming at work

That makes two there, three total between work and home.

And here is the orchid :)

Brenda also gave me the bag, which says 'Plant lady is the new cat lady.' :)  As I'm writing this, the kitten has discovered the orchid. I've moved it to the nightstand so it's in front of the window in an eastern exposure, and the leaves are rustling with the fans going on above.  I'll have to watch him.  Orchids aren't toxic to cats or anything, but I don't want him eating on them.  He's gotten so big--almost as big as the black cat, and he's absolutely adorable.  I guess he's eight months old now. :)

I've tried to blog using the mobile application several times lately

but it refuses to publish with an image attached no matter what I do. Maybe it's a glitch that will be fixed in an upcoming update.

Anyway, sorry I haven't physically gone to the computer and blogged instead.  I've been fairly busy as of late.

I've spent some time setting up the new phone and tablet.  The phone I've geared towards listening--things like Pandora, audiobooks, podcasts, music on the SD card, etc.  The tablet I've geared towards reading, especially Kindle and Project Gutenberg.

We haven't played the game in a while as one of the players is away visiting family in another state.  So the first weekend of this month YKWIA and I went to the Lexington Chamber Orchestra concert at Tates Creek Presbyterian Church and had a very good time.  Otherwise, it's been all about doing stuff around the house on the weekend and getting some relaxation in.  I haven't read much else, just a bit of The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman, and while I had to turn in The Labyrinth of Spirits (which, as a new book, was due in 2 weeks rather than 28 days), I got it as an Audible audiobook.  Today as I was waiting at a doctor's appointment I went through the book up to where I left off.  I was on chapter 19 (21 really, as it has a prologue, etc.), which sounds great but the thing has over 700 pages and while the chapters are short, there are over 170 of them!  I'm not sure I can listen to it at work and still focus on my paperwork like I can with music, but I have a device that plugs into the car cigarette lighter that syncs up with Bluetooth to my phone that allows me to play music and answer calls even though I have an old car (18 years old!) that doesn't normally have that functionality.  I can also play the audiobook through the device.

Brenda stopped by the other day with a wonderful orchid for me.  She'd found it at Kroger for $2, in a plastic pot and finished blooming, but healthy and there are about three plants in there.  It's a type I haven't had before with a very prominent pseudobulb on the bottom with leaves coming from them.  I've seen them in the store--they have rusty, spidery, small flowers in just clusters of them, and I've really wanted them.  I'm not sure what type it is, perhaps a miniature Cattleya or Dendrobium.

Speaking of which, it's almost spring, and I read with interest that the Bluegrass Orchid Society was having their first meeting of the year tonight, with a talk on Dendrobium species and their care, but I had the doctor's appointment and then we had planned on going over to a friend's house for his birthday.  He is battling cancer, and had gone out with his brother and sister-in-law, and was just too tired to get together tonight, so we'll go see him tomorrow.  So by the time we got home, it was too late to change plans and go to the meeting.  I would have loved to have taken the new orchid, though, and get an identification, but oh, well.

I fed the animals and then YKWIA went to the computer and was watching some weird, twisted soap opera he discovered on YouTube, while I went to my room to lie down for just a bit, and the cats came with me, the one purring on my belly and the other at my feet.  I wound up falling asleep for two and a half hours.  I got up and did the dishes, plugged in the electronics to charge tonight, and then decided to write a bit.  But I can tell sleep is coming fast.  I didn't sleep the best last night, kept waking up in fact, and woke up at 4:30 am to pee and almost just got up for the day.  I toyed with the idea of going and getting another bookcase for my office since I had the appointment and therefore parking in back of the hospital, but that would have meant going to the storage unit in the dark wee hours of the night, and I thought that wouldn't be particularly prudent.  So I decided to go back to sleep, and it's good that I had the parking, as I woke up at 7:16 am, and had to be at work by 8:30 am.  I was about 15 minutes early, but if I'd had to ride the bus this morning that would not have happened.

Work has been very busy and I've done really well with productivity and while it can be frustrating, I'm plugging on.  The other day I was able to pull off a minor miracle to get a family's MRI scheduled next day, with the help of my co-worker who does the authorizations, and my boss let me come in at an ungodly hour of the morning so I could call first thing.  It was touch and go for a while (I got pulled out of a meeting because the family got there and the university had accidentally scheduled a sibling instead, so they were being told there was no appointment made).  I'm working on some difficult surgeries, and I have three denials I have to work on for a single case agreement tomorrow.  That's when you ask the insurance company to treat your out-of-network status as if it were in-network for that one case only.  I've had one other case I tried it on, and it worked, so it's worth a try, and it works better, in my opinion than an appeal.  But I don't have much experience in it.

I had applied to the Lexington Public Library in February for a library programming position, but I haven't heard anything, so I'm assuming I didn't get it.  LPL does usually send an e-mail, and I haven't received that yet, but it's been a month or so since the position closed so it's not looking good. :(

Tomorrow I'm at work until 3 pm again as I have a blood draw at 4 pm.  My family doctor always does a blood draw two weeks ahead of the main appointment.  Kudos to my boss, who let me off for a total of four appointments this month, although they're all after 3:30 pm at least.  It was five but I rescheduled my appointment with the ophthalmologist to April.  My endocrinologist is next Monday; it had already been rescheduled by them from January since she wasn't going to be in that day, and when I tried to reschedule, it was going to be August!  So that one had to stay.  I need to reschedule one I missed during my bout with the respiratory virus in January, and I have made an optometrist appointment for an exam on the first weekend of April.  Yay for weekend appointments.  I'm switching dentists and need to get the ball rolling on that, too.  But all my appointments were clustering in March and so I'll wait on that till maybe May, I think.  Then I can have the second cleaning of the year in November.  I did have the DMO plan for Aetna, which paid more fully for services but had a very limited range of providers (mainly Aspen Dental).  I switched back to the PPO, which costs a little more but has many dentists so I could go to one I've been to before and liked, one that YKWIA goes to.  The reason?  Aspen called me up one day insisting I pay a bill I didn't know about before they turned me over to collections. When I asked how much I owed, it was $1.  Yes, you read that right, $1.  I paid it there over the phone, but it kind of ticked me off that they would do that, threaten to send me to collections over such a trivial amount when I'd never even been billed.  Anyway, I like Dr Kleier, although she doesn't have the later hours they did.  So I'll have to wait to go there.

Okay, I guess I should head to bed.  6 am comes early, and with the time change, it's a struggle.  Good night!

This beauty

opened up overnight.  I was happy to see it when I woke up this morning:

This is the fourth time this one has bloomed since I've had it.  IT's a regular trooper.  The blooms are actually a little small, but quite lovely.  I have another sending out a shoot right now, as well.

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. :)

:)

My orchids at home are getting ready to bloom again (well, a couple of them):

I'm training the stem on this one; it's yellow.  This will be the fourth time it blooms for me.

This one is just sending out a stem.  I'm not sure of the colour; I got two that were on manager's special at the same time, and I don't remember which is which or what colours there were. I think one was white with magenta spots.  Both were pretty, though.

Wednesday there is a meeting of the Bluegrass Orchid Society, with a talk on general orchid culture being given, along with orchids, media, etc., for sale. [I can't afford anything right now, but it's worth a look.]  I'd like to go. It's at 7 pm over in a church on Bellefonte Drive and is free. A late acquaintance was heavily involved in the club; that's how I know about it.  I think I'll finally go.

Rule #37

I've learned about growing orchids. Don't bother with orchid pots. I transplanted a plant into a pot months ago and it's really suffered. Orchid pots have holes in the body of the pot to allow more air to the orchid roots. One drawback is that the roots might grow out of them and make transplantation hard without breaking the pot. However, of more concern is that I've never gotten the hang of watering it without water coming out of the holes, and so the water would be lost before the plant could take it up. Also, any surface the bottom touched would get rings on it or mould. So it's languished. Yesterday I passed the clay pot I had on the porch and thought, you know, the one person whom I first knew who grew orchids, beautiful ones, had them just in simple clay pots. So I changed it out and it already looks better. It was drying out. I'm hoping it will turn around.

On a brighter note

I was looking at my orchids, and this one has a stem sprouting! It's a yellow one I've featured here before, my most consistent bloomer. Apparently after doing well despite a lack of light for five months,  a Change to a brighter room with a window nearby has been good for it.

Okay

Sixteen boxes packed and one peace lily that constantly needs water replanted in the lavender pot (it had died, and the pot is a nice cobalt blue and larger than what the peace lily was in, plus it has an attached saucer built in. The peace lily is going on the floor in the room I'm going to be sleeping in--which is technically in the living room, not a bedroom--in front of a shady window.)

I did spill some soil on the carpet, and my vacuum is over at YKWIA's, so I will need to retrieve it tomorrow. Anyway, I think it's time to work on notes, now. Time to turn off Pandora and listen to the game instead. I also need to water the other houseplants. Two orchids are still blooming (in fact, the yellow one sent another shoot off of last year's stem and has five blooms and a bud on it, and the pink one that started blooming in March is still going strong). I've been going through things and rearranging them so I can get around things. I've also been throwing or recycling things as I go. There are two-and-a-half big bags of recyclables, one and a half of trash, almost two, and a small grocery bag full of drink lids, which one of my co-workers collect for some form of charity purposes. I'll take the bags out later--that's not got a time limit for today, whereas the notes do. So it's next on the list. I also have a (small) collection of books to take (remember, it's a book case bed), a few I want to read, a few to study (mainly Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, all of which I'm getting rusty with), and then there are a couple I just need to take--my workbooks on hoarding and anxiety/phobia disorders. I've also gotten my important papers and identification papers together, like my birth certificate, passport and passport card, business licence, and librarian certification, that sort of thing. They're definitely going with me, and not into storage.

Okay, on to notes!

Tired

My rest of the day:

1. Got an oil change at Valvoline and a new air filter.
2. Went to the library and picked up a couple of books on orchids.
3. Got a call from my boss (I have a boss!) about bringing two forms of ID on Monday.
4. Picked up a friend for his appointment and took him there.
5. Picked up another friend from work, home, and to the pharmacy.
6. Stopped by Jin Jin with my friends and picked up dinner.
7. Dropped them off, came home, ate kung pao tofu and spring rolls followed by some ice cream. I am now very stuffed.
8. Spent some time on Facebook. Found an interesting article about Polari, the forgotten secret language of gay men, which I passed on to a friend.
9. Listened to Pandora (the Bastille station) for awhile.

It's not even 8 pm. I'm pooped. I'd like to watch something, but right now I'm going to just take it easy, maybe close my eyes for a few minutes, but not necessarily nap this late in the day. A has to be at work at 8 am, and I'm giving him a ride, but I don't want to go to sleep just yet.

I helped a friend

work on some job application materials, namely cover letter, résumé, and the online application, for a job at a local hospital. He's currently in the hospitality business, but wants to get back into healthcare, where a good bit of his experience lies.

I went through and filed a stack of papers regarding insurance, retirement, separation, unemployment, student loans, all that stuff that had been piling up in my inbox. I discarded anything I didn't need, and just put the rest into individual folders and into my little filing cabinet, which admittedly is falling apart, but will serve for now. So my inbox is clean and happy.

I also looked through some paperwork from the credit union on accidental death and dismemberment insurance, which was reasonable, so I think I may get it. The credit union pays for a couple of thousand dollars' worth, and then it's $1 per $10,000 per month after that, taken out of the account quarterly. So I do still have insurance, between that and what I ported from work, although neither lasts after my late 60s, early 70s. But in the meantime, if I die, particularly if I die accidentally, my loved ones can pay off their house and fix it up some. :) I already have funeral insurance, car insurance, renter's insurance, health and dental (I dropped the vision, as I'd already gotten glasses and contacts in the past year), and AFLAC. Insurance can be kind of scammy, to be honest, but on the other hand, it can be handy. My car was bought from my mom by my AFLAC money when I got hit by a car, for example.

I took a plastic crate and put it under my desk for recycling. There's also a small trash can nearby (that's what I hooked my toe upon), and together they're keeping the work area pretty clean.

I called YKWIA, but apparently he's just waking up, is still hacking, and I was using too many words. It takes him about two hours and two giant cups of coffee to really get going. He has an appointment I need to take him to, but it's not till 4 pm, so I'll venture over there in a couple of hours.

So that leaves some time. Mmmm...I'm really avoiding getting into the apartment clearing, especially as they could come by, and I already have plenty of stuff dragged out. The hangers I'll wait until after the inspection. My drill (and the drill bits, presumably) are in a closet that has some stuff that needs moving right now. Goodness, I wonder if I'll ever reduce the clutter in this place to where I can truly have friends over and be comfortable in my own apartment. But I do have several boxes of books to go right now.

It's sunny again. I wonder how humid it is out there. It's lovely in here, as the air conditioning is working just great. I did turn it so it wasn't too cool (didn't want to affect the fish or plants). That one orchid has put out six more buds, and that may have had something to do with how warm it had been in here. I don't know enough about orchids to really know. I must see if the public library has a good book on them. The only one I have is a very small guide, mainly with details on various varieties, rather than taking care of them.

I'll go look that up. Maybe I'll go to the library if there are any. I'm down to eight books from the library (mostly on job hunting). That's pretty good. I usually have far too many and don't get to them all in a timely manner. In fact, maybe I should just read one of the ones I have out. There's one on clutter, for example, and it's pretty small, but it may be useful, and it's due soon.

Surprise!

After weeks of bloom, three (maybe four) more buds are coming out on this orchid. Yay!

PS Actually, I've counted not four, but six new buds coming on. Marvelous!

I've already been pretty productive this morning

I:

1. Woke up easily and rested.
2. Took all my medicine, including my injectables, and not only checked my blood sugar, but transferred the readings over to my phone. I haven't been doing so well with this between the different schedule and being sick, so I'm starting anew and really trying to get a handle on my glucose readings.
3. Got a shower and got dressed.
4. Sent the computer package back to the technology company.
5. Enquired about getting a mailbox at the UPS store so that I can get packages, since it never seems to work out if I'm not home and it comes to the apartment, which is why I always had them delivered to work. It's $20 a month, $240 a year, but if you pay for a year right now, through a promotion he's running through June, you get three months' free, so it's cheaper. I'll think about it. I may be able to get things delivered to YKWIA's without the hassle I have at my home, because they leave things there for him. It may be my settings--I do have things tracked--or it might just be because I live in an apartment building. But I can receive things at UPS from any shipper, so that's good. Still, that's awfully expensive, and I doubt I'd have enough shipped to really warrant the expense. I may have a couple of small things sent to YKWIA's to see if it'll work before the special ends, and go from there.
6. Got some quarters from Kroger.
7. Picked up some caffeinated orange soda, which isn't the best for me, I know, but at least it doesn't have the dark colas' phosphoric acid in it.
8. While there, I found a couple of orchids, still blooming, in colours I like, that were 75% off each. I am beginning to thing this orchid bug is an illness. I now have six orchids--two I re-bloomed, two I just re-potted, and the two I just got. All are different colours, and all all phalaenopsis, except possibly the smallest one. If I can get that one to re-bloom, and ever get to the orchid society, I'll ask them. Here's a picture of the two new ones:
   
   
   
   
9. After I got home and opened the windows (it's quite pleasant with a breeze, although it's supposed to be in the 80s today), I noticed the peace lily, which the hospital I worked at sent me when my mother died, is finally about to bloom. It's a huge plant, and fortunately doesn't require a huge amount of light, so it's away from the window. I was afraid it wouldn't bloom for that reason, but it's about to, just in time for mother's day. :) I'll take it as a good omen:
   
   
   
   
   
   

Okay, it's not quite time for lunch yet, and my cherry chocolate Greek yoghurt is still keeping hunger at bay from this morning, so I think I'll start working on the house. I need to check and see just how much stuff needs to come out of that walk-in closet, as they need to fix the air conditioning, and then there's the rest of the apartment to straighten up before tomorrow's walk-through. And I really need to do something about the plants, as they are in the way of the windows pretty badly. I mean, if there was a fire, I'd be able to get out, because I wouldn't worry about injuring the leaves or flowers then, but they'll need to open them tomorrow. I wish I had a couple of hanging basket holders, and I could suspend a couple of them from the ceiling. Maybe I'll do that. The larger shamrock would work, as would the older Christmas cactus, and they wouldn't actually block the windows that way, like a shelf would. They're just a bit too crowded right now. I mean, I have 25 plants between the two rooms. I think I'm at my limit.

Both orchids are now blooming fully