Me, with the orchid

Feeling all spring-y in an outfit my mom got me for my birthday a few years ago. It's very bright--pink,  yellow,  and orange,  which was a thing that year,  and it makes me feel a bit like I'm an Easter egg,  but still,  I matched the blooms.  :)

Four blossoms now

Isn't it beautiful?

No bracing tonight

I just noticed that the arm that is hurting has a slight lumpiness and redness where I've been bracing it.  Maybe it's been too tight,  or worn too long.  So I'm going to leave off the night brace and reevaluate tomorrow.  I shouldn't have to wear the day brace until I start cleaning house tomorrow,  and of course,  won't be while actually using water,  like washing dishes.  Maybe that will help.

PS I have had far too much caffeine today.  I was talking super fast earlier,  and I'm just now winding down, and it's almost 1:30 am.

Poor Kroger

they do try.  So I noticed two endcaps of Kosher-for-Passover food,  which  is nice,  but while Easter and Pesach (Passover)  are often close time wise,  they are figured differently,  and Pesach isn't until later in April this year.  Purim (the festival centering on the story of Esther)  was  just the other day,  and yet I actually saw Hamentaschen at the same Kroger--three weeks ago. But I suppose it's nice that they try.

Well, that's better

My frustrating day got better.  I took a nap,  built a nice civilisation in Civilization IV,  and then spent time with friends.  Now I'm listening to show tunes (more Jesus Christ,  Superstar) and heading to bed soon.  There's no Cthulhu game tomorrow,  so I have some time to do things around here before going over to my friends' house to visit. Now let's hope the car behaves well this week,  as I think the earliest I can get it looked at again is Friday.

Argh!!!!

So frustrated.  My car has had intermittent starting issues.  Wednesday it wouldn't  and I actually called roadside assistance but it finally started and I did my errands with my friend in the car and the car running. Thursday I took it to a place on the way to work but their mechanic who did that was off,  so I made arrangements to bring it in today.  I took it in at 9 am, was promised it back by 1 or 2, refilled the lost paperwork out,  walked home,  and didn't hear from them and called at 1; they hadn't even looked at it.  Still no word an hour before they closed so I walked back over there.  They couldn't reproduce the problem,  so couldn't tell me anything after having my car for 6 hours. But at no point did they call to tell me. So not taking it back to Tire Discounters for anything beyond oil changes and rotations,  if that. I have a regular mechanic I trust (Kenny at Mitch's Auto),  but they're not open on weekends.  Guess I need to check and see if I have any time off left to get it fixed during the week. :(

Is there something wrong

When a Pagan who loves Jesus Christ,  Superstar  plays both the Brown Album and the movie soundtrack every year during the Easter season and enjoys it immensely?  When my ex-husband was in his Christian phase,  he turned me on to that (and also the band Rush as well,  not that that had anything to do with him being fervently Christian at the time).  Even though we've almost been apart 25 years, the love of the music really stayed with me,  despite all the tangled feelings about the relationship itself.  Oh,  and a bit of trivia,  did you know that the man who played Pilate on both albums also was the voice of the Skeksis Chamberlain in Dark Crystal? Think back,  the voices are the same.  :)

The last two days have been rather frustrating

Last evening, a little before 6 pm, I took A to T-Mobile to answer a question about his phone. When we left, my car wouldn’t start. Now, it’s been doing this thing where it’ll be fine in the morning, and maybe on a couple of trips, but on days when I’m making several small trips it can get slower to crank each time and eventually just stop. Lights come on, nothing happens. Then in about 5 or 10 minutes, it’ll start right back up.

Yesterday, however, I went straight over to their house, got A, and went to T-Mobile. No other trips since I’d left work. And it wouldn’t do anything when we came out, anything at all. After 5 minutes, nothing. 10, nada. 15, I called roadside assistance, the first time I’ve done so with this service through my insurance. They were very nice, took down my information, and dispatched a tow truck. I was going to have them take me a block down the road to Tire Discounters, because while it is probably a starter issue, there could be something with the battery and electrical system, and they sold me the battery recently. After I got a text telling me the ETA was an hour, I tried the car one more time, and it started up, and while it wasn’t enthusiastically, it started. So, I called roadside assistance back, cancelled to distress call, and then (keeping a person in the car at all times and running the engine the whole time):

1. Took A to get a couple of books of stamps at Kroger’s (and talked to the tow truck driver and explained that the car had started)
2. Went to the library to pick up a CD I’d had on hold
3. Drove to Gumbo Ya Ya and used their card to get them food, and my card to get me some
4. Drove to their house, where I locked the door while the car ran (thankfully, because a bad transponder key can be the problem as well, I’d brought my extra key with me—neither of which worked when it wasn’t starting)
5. Picked up my backpack and laptop (I’d left everything there except my wallet and phone) and headed home

As I backed out of their driveway, the gas light came on, and at that point I was just praying to get home. I did, got everything in the house, at my Cajun food, called them to let them know I was okay, talked on the phone for awhile, and then headed for bed. I’d had enough of the day.

I didn’t really sleep well last night. I should have taken some ibuprofen for my wrist. I also didn’t take my Lantus, which meant my blood sugar was higher this morning than it has been in quite some time.

As far as this morning went, I’d gotten my refund from the federal government (small and paltry compared to the usual, but something, at least), and YKWIA had offered to loan me any additional money I needed to fix the car, so I got up early and was there at Tire Discounters when they opened. Unfortunately, the mechanic who diagnoses such problems (and with starting problems, it can be a host of things), was not going to be there today. I have to take someone to an appointment tomorrow, so I can’t do it then. So I had them put me down for Saturday and will try this again. Fortunately, the car started back up (I’d also stopped for a bit of gas before going over there, figuring that the Kroger fuel centre was next door, and we could probably push my car if needed rather than getting it towed for about 20 feet, if they’d be okay with that). Then I headed to work, got there a half-hour early as a result, and it started right up when I left today. But I wasn’t taking any chances, so I just came straight home.

I haven’t been home at this time of day in quite some time. Granted, it’s raining, so I don’t have the usual sun streaming in, and I have the lights on, but it’s good to be home. Still, looking around, my poor plants really need water, the living room needs some attention, the bedroom is a wreck, and the dining room and kitchen need some help, too. I need to take the trash and recyclables out, and it’s rainy and icky, so I may see if it clears up any in an hour or two.

For now I’m going to eat a veggie burger (I have some nice Mediterranean chickpea burgers from Morningstar Farms) and then go from there. Oh, and I definitely want to work on the game notes some more tonight. I got a good start on Monday, but tomorrow is the appointment (which is usually short enough it’s not worth taking the laptop), followed by ‘Grimm’ night. I don’t want to wait until Saturday. It would be better to just get it out of the way and be able to relax a little then. Okay, I’m going to go. I may write later tonight. >br/>
What am I saying? I'll be at the repair shop most of the day Saturday; I can probably take the laptop and get anything left finished. But, it would be nicer to get it taken care of tonight, and then I'd be able to read while they're working on my vehicle, right?

Good news/bad news

Well, the good news is that I contacted the doctor's office today. The x-rays hadn't been reviewed yet, but the office manager checked and there were no acute fractures in my wrist. I didn't think there would be, as I don't remember actually 'hurting' it--it just started hurting on its own. But that was at least ruled out. It does mean that I'm having some ulnar nerve pain for some reason, however, and I asked if they'd made the referral to Dr Favetto yet, and they hadn't, but I got a call a little while later that the appointment was for April 14th, which is three weeks away (the bad news). :( My wrist is doing better since I've been bracing it night and day, though. Instead of sharp pain radiating up to my elbow and shoulder, it's a deep ache radiating just as far, and down into my hand, especially the fourth and fifth fingers It's enough to interfere with sleep and distract me from work. I have the brace off at the moment, giving it some time out of the restraint, and while typing is probably not the best way to 'rest' it, I don't want it weakening by being braced all the time. I'll put the night brace on when I go to sleep.

I went over after work today and helped a friend get his bills ready to send out. Then I came home and found my stamps (we didn't have enough for all of them). I've only got five gingerbread house Forever stamps left over from the holidays--I thought I'd have more. Oh, well. I'll still donate to the cause, as I don't have much need for stamps these days. I pay all my bills online or have them automatically taken out.

Now I'm in my comfy clothes. I've eaten a little cheese, and I'm in bed with the laptop and a soda. My alarm is going off to remind me to take my nightly Lantus insulin. I got some out of the refrigerator a few minutes ago and am waiting for it to warm up (it sometimes hurts a little if it's still cold). I was putting some things away at the same time, and I managed to knock some Humalog insulin off the shelf and onto my toe, causing quite a bit of sudden pain and while it didn't bleed, it must have hit with the corner of the box onto my foot, because it scraped quite a bit of skin off. This was a double box of five pens taped together, but the one box was empty. I'd hate to see what sort of damage I could have done with a full complement. :) I am such a klutz.

I read the news earlier and a lot of it was depressing--terror attacks in Brussels, for instance, and a murder-suicide in Louisville where an ex-army helicopter pilot shot his wife and children (ages 3 and 4), set his house on fire, and then shot himself. I haven't looked since this afternoon. That was sad enough.

I did get some of the notes finished last night, but I probably have another hour or so of work to go. I should work on them tonight, as it's not quite 9:30 pm, but I think I need a little down time that's more fun than that. It shouldn't take too long to finish--the meat of the session is still left, but it doesn't have to be done in great detail, or anything, and part of it was an action scene, and I don't do those blow by blow or anything. My goal is to be thorough without being tedious.

I think I'll do a little reading while the radio is on. I made sure my Kindle, which is a Kindle Keyboard (which I replaced my 2nd generation Kindle with, although really, they're pretty similar), had the latest software on it, because Amazon was saying a critical update needed to be done on older Kindle models or they could not continue to connect to the cloud. I'm pretty zealous about updating my phone, my computer, and my Kindle, so mine was apparently fine. Today was the deadline--after today it can still be done, but it has to be downloaded via USB instead of an over the air update. You can probably Google anything about updating the Kindle and get instructions if you need it.

If you're awake and it's nighttime

Go outside and see how close Jupiter and the moon are together tonight (and yay,  I knew it was Jupiter even before checking with the Sky Map application on my phone.) :)