I'm up in the middle of the night as usual

Because I fell asleep at 7:30 and couldn't keep my eyes open any further. I woke back up at midnight. I have that interview tomorrow, so I figured I might as well get everything ready for it, rather than try to do anything early in the morning when I'm usually rushed. I:

1. Updated my résumé to reflect the professional certificate I got today from the state of Kentucky. The Professional Librarian Certificate is used primarily for public libraries in Kentucky to ensure that librarians in the commonwealth keep up their continuing education and are qualified to serve in public libraries.
2. Updated my curriculum vitae to reflect my work with Doody's Core Titles this spring and the upcoming publication of a book review that has been accepted and for which I just finished the proofs.
3. Printed out copies of the résumé, my references, and my updated curriculum vitae (not likely to come up with a public library, but one should be prepared).
4. Assembled everything together in a portfolio, put a paper pad in it, and put some of my business cards in the portfolio, along with a pen.
5. Got all the essential stuff into a small(ish) black purse to match the portfolio and my shoes.
6. Plugged in the computer to let it charge. It's got a great battery and had 6 more hours of charge, but I wanted to top it off.
7. Found my Spanx and the box of nude pantyhose I'd bought for the occasion and laid them out.
8. Steam ironed my suit, took off the tags, cut open the slits, and put the extra button somewhere safe, then hung it back up.
9. Put all that away, or in the case of the iron, let it cool in the bathroom.
10. Took my night meds, checked my blood sugar (which has run really high all day, no matter what I tried). Took my long-acting insulin and a little of the short-acting as well, as I was in the 300s. This morning I was over 400. I can't afford to have it up tomorrow when I really have to be at my best cognitively.

I've been listening to music the whole time, and so it hasn't been too bad. Tomorrow's plan is to go to work in the morning until noon, come home, get in my suit, and then head to Owenton via the Interstate so that I can be there by 2 pm. Wish me luck! Now I'm getting sleepy again, so it's time to get back in bed and try to sleep. Good night!

Note to self: Get gas in the morning before work, so that you don't smell like gasoline for your interview. :)

Tuesday afternoon

was my last day at pulmonary rehabilitation. I did pretty well, and I finally got to the top of the inspiratory resistance inhaler in terms of difficulty. It was four sessions early, but they felt pretty good about my progress. They took a selfie with me and gave me sheets with goals on them and a nice t-shirt as well.

Afterwards, I went downtown to the revenue office and applied and paid for my business licence. So now I am duly licensed and in compliance with local ordinances while doing this contract work. My boss is going to see if they can reimburse me for the unexpected expense.

A was downtown, too, getting ready to take the bus home, so I gave him a ride. I took something over to another friend's house for him, and I took that friend to the library, where they were having movie night (Metropolis). I stayed at the library working on the game notes, as I'd brought my laptop with me. I got home about 9 pm and then relaxed until about midnight, trying to keep awake longer than I have been, with success, although I'd woken up tired yesterday, and I lingered in bed a little too much this morning, as I got to work with only five minutes to spare after taking the shuttle in. On the other hand, I couldn't believe my eyes when I got the very first space as you come into the parking lot. It was a little weird that it was free. But, still, it made it easier to find the car when I left for an appointment. I walked this afternoon, afraid I'd missed the shuttle and in a hurry. Three shuttles passed me on the way, so I needn't have worried about that issue. I knew that fewer shuttles run during off-peak times, so I walked. But it was good exercise. Later I took a friend to get something, then we ate at Captain D's (I had my usual grilled wild salmon salad, but added fried green tomatoes this time to my order). After that, I went out to Costco to get some 100-watt-equivalent LED light bulbs for him. I also picked up some Edward Marc Chocolatier Coconut Almonds with Dark Chocolate, which I love, and he pointed out that perhaps because I didn't get 'goodies' much growing up, I tend to get something for myself whenever he gets something. It's a valid point. Then we went to Kroger to pick up a partial prescription for A, who had his ADHD medicine stolen out of his locker at work the other day and who had filed a police report, which was needed before they could replace it. He really needs it and was feeling awful. So after that, we went and dropped it off to him. Then I took my friend home and came home myself. Now I'm listening to Pandora and trying to get caught up on my blogging. I'm using a tool developed by Grammarly that examines your typing/writing not only for spelling errors (and I was able to set it to British English since I use that in my personal writing) but also grammatical ones as well. It's free at https://app.grammarly.com/. It works really well at alerting me to errors which I normally only catch after hitting 'publish' and proofreading on the page. Yay!

Okay, I think that's enough for now. I'm going to go eat the puffy pierogis I just baked. Maybe I'll write a little later.

Monday morning

I was putting my bags together to take to work, and I was startled by something going by the window. I grabbed my phone and carefully went outside and looked for the unexpected visitor, and snapped some quick photos before she went around the building.



Sorry for the quality--these are cropped pictures that were taken at first light and so they could be better. But I think you can see the deer pretty well. I live in town, but near a reservoir, creek, marsh, and a small wood. So I guess it's not all that surprising that you'd find deer here. I've written before of how I once saw two young ones running by the church at Man O'War and Beaver Creek, which is not that far away. But this one actually ambled slowly by my living room windows, which are lower than the parking lot. Later, on my way to a friend's house to pick him up for work, I had to use my anti-lock brakes when a duck waddled into the road. She was in no hurry to leave, but I drove around her. So it was a wildlife sort of day. :)

No one should be forced to marry, much less at such a tender age...

11 Years Old, a Mom, and Pushed to Marry Her Rapist in Florida

She was in elementary school. And she's not alone. And Kentucky has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the country.

This is interesting

Who Doesn't Read Books in America?

I can't imagine life without reading for pleasure, even though I don't have the time to do so that I once did. The Pew Research report predictably found that those who were older, poorer, less-educated, and those who were Latino were less likely to have read a book at least in part in the last year or *ever* visited a library. For some, it's probably that they may not be fully literate, and we fail in helping with that, I think, especially once they've gone through the system and are adults. I have one friend that can read, but almost never does, short of maybe skimming the newspaper. He is visually impaired, and was embarrassed having to use large print books as a child, and it was just more difficult. He never developed a love of reading and I'm still not convinced he's really very good at it, yet he makes fun of others he's encountered who obviously are functionally illiterate. I remind him on those occasions that it's something to be sad about, and to offer help about, not something funny or worth belittling someone.

We're better now at providing books to children whose families might not be able to afford them, and we can promote our library services, but many children live in areas where it is impossible to come to the library on their own if they're old enough, like I did when I was in my pre-teens and teens. My local library branch moved from across a major road from a residential neighbourhood to a business area two streets away, but the distance increased significantly, and to ride the bus, you now have to go downtown, transfer, and it's an hour and a half ride for a five minute trip by car. It's bigger, it's better, but if I didn't have a car, I couldn't really go anymore. Same goes for rural libraries. Urban ones may be easier to get to in some ways, but there are other factors such as crime and drug use that often happens right outside. So if the parent didn't grow up loving libraries enough to take their kids to the library, the children might not develop that love.

Latinos may be less likely read for socioeconomic or language-barrier reasons. There's not a lot available, at least here, in Spanish at most library branches or bookstores. That is, they may be literate in Spanish and have trouble finding books short of Amazon shipping them in. And they may have the same barriers as the other groups. We do have a branch here in Lexington that is an area of town which is heavily Latino which encourages Spanish among its staff and has more selection, as well as programming aimed at this group. I hope that can be expanded.

Not only did I

get it all out to the Dumpster and Rosie recycling containers, I hit my daily activity level goal, for the fourth day this week (Sunday was the game, Monday was spent away from work and the trip from the parking lot to the medical centre) according to my phone. I went to plug it in for the night, and realised that the step count was 4,995. I was five steps short of my 5,000 step goal. So I unplugged it and walked down the hall with it a couple of times. Now it says 5,024. I can tick it off my Habitica dailies list. Is it scary that I do what my phone suggests? Or that I sign into my laptop with my face? I'm not sure the marriage of human and technology is always for the best. I'm not a Luddite--I'm actually an avid adopter of technology, but I use it knowing I have no privacy, and I'm not entirely sure I'd set up a Smart Home, if I had a house, because frankly, having my very home hacked scares me a bit. I don't think I'm paranoid to think of that scenario at all, you know.

Ah...

So Friday wasn't too bad, really. Work was much calmer than the rest of the week, and we worked at a steady but relaxed pace. I left at 5 pm and went and got a friend who had taken a bus to an appointment that didn't happen (but I was more annoyed at that than he was), and we went and got another one, and I dropped them off and came on home, and I stayed up till (get this) almost 11 pm (although I was just heavy-lidded and falling asleep quickly). The rest of the days this week have mostly been about 8:30 pm as far as bedtime, I've been exhausted (to the point that while I met my goals the other day on Habitica, I fell asleep before checking off the boxes, and woke up 10 minutes after the start of a new 'day' (which I've got set at 2 am), so my little avatar took damage--and so did everyone else I game with. I felt so bad. It's just been hard to get everything done that needed to be done lately.

This morning I called A at 6:30 am, picked him up at 7:30, took him to work, got a couple of cheese and egg biscuits and a parfait at McDonald's, and came back intending to go back to sleep. But I laid in bed from about the time I got home (8:30 am) till about 9:30, and decided to go ahead and get my day going. I went to Costco, intending to get some light bulbs and a couple of other things, and spent more than I meant to, but everything I got was quite useful. Well, maybe not the cheese bagels and tomatoes, but they're yummy nonetheless. Then I went to the library, where I sheepishly turned in most of the books I had (most of which were overdue, including one of two interlibrary loans I'd gotten for a friend, who'd taken off the papers that have all the information on them that the ILL department uses. I had most of it to give them. It so embarrasses me that he does that, and I know they're not happy with me. He wants to see the covers. I tell him not to do it. He almost ripped the cover off one, because they changed how they do it, so instead of having two sticky labels, they wrapped the cover in a piece of paper that was carefully taped. I am beginning to think that should they ever let me borrow again, I should remove them myself, carefully. The man mangles anything he tries to remove (paper from a notebook, or my favourite, the DVD envelopes from Netflix, which we just leave to me now). Anyway, I apologised, left the other books in the book drop, and slinked away without mentioning in any way that I am, indeed, a librarian. And with all the overdues, I checked later after everything got checked in, and I owe $6.30, which is actually less than I expected. The interlibrary loans are $1.00 a day. One was still before the deadline, but one was due the 25th. :( I got it from him on the 26th or 27th, but I literally was just too wiped out to take them back during the library hours, and didn't just want to dump them in with the papers just sitting inside the books. Also, they had a 'read off your fines' thing going on through the 31st, and while I planned to do that, I just decided I was too tired. So I'll happily pay the fine.

Speaking of public libraries, I have an interview about an hour's away up the interstate on Friday afternoon, and got permission to leave work at noon so I can get there before 2 pm. I'll probably come home, change clothes, and go straight up there. It's Owen county. My dad's family, the Duncans and the Cobbs, have lived in the Owenton area for generations. I'm interested to know more about the library. I never visited the library there as a child; I don't know much about it, actually, and I should educate myself on it before I go. I also need to e-mail a confirmation that I will be coming.

I went to the grocery a little while and got some veggies for a tray for the game, some cheese, some crackers, and some dill dip, so I'm good for the game tomorrow. And I spent four hours today doing the notes. I came back and collected the trash and recyclables from various containers and some horizontal surfaces, and I now have quite a load to take out. I had to take a break, though, before actually taking the bags outside, as my back was bothering me. Mainly I've been doing better with my back, although that workout on Thursday made muscles in my lower back and buttocks scream, because they apparently didn't know they were supposed to do anything. I didn't make it to the gym at the complex today (there was a pool party going on early afternoon that was intriguing, but too many people for me, I think, being a shy introvert who would have stood around, not eaten hamburgers or hot dogs, would have had to slather on a ton of sunscreen, and gee, talk to people). It's not my thing. I am glad the complex did that sort of activity, though. I wish they'd have a yard sale. They did that every year for several years while I was at Speedway and working on Saturdays. Now I could participate, and I have plenty of stuff that needs to go, if I can part with it.

Okay, as much as I hate to admit it, those bags of trash and recyclables are not going to take themselves out. I should get up and do that, so they're taken care of and I can tick that off my busy day list.

I kicked butt today

First, I think I handled the normal busy pace at work well and any of the weird stuff that crops up, too. Then I went to pulmonary rehab and went up to a 39 on the inhaling resistance gizmo (it only goes to 42, I think), 2750 on the spirometer, and 45 seconds on the pursed breathing, my best yet for any of them. They put me on a heart monitor while I exercised to see if my heart remained normal in response, with the idea that when I'm exercising on my own I have an idea for how high to get my heart rate up. The good news is that my workout was at higher watts, higher resistance, and more duration than normal on the Nu-Step, the bike, and the hand bike (I did treadmill for cool down), and my heart responded exactly as it should, going back down to normal within two minutes of exercise cessation at each piece of equipment. She said I should be safe going up to 120-130 beats per minute, so I have that as a goal. The equipment takes heart rate, as does my phone, which also takes the oxygen level. So I'm set to work out on my own. Also, although technically I have four more visits approved, I'm going to cut that down to Tuesday being my last day, my fifteenth visit, so that it will work better with the schedule and coverage at the hospital. I think graduating early is okay in my case--I don't have COPD, and I'm doing much better. Anyway, that's the plan. I got one planned for Tuesday approved to make up for this Tuesday.

After rehab I took YKWIA to a couple of doctors' offices he goes to using the bus route and pointed out the correct stops. He's going to have to go on his own. Then I took him by the grocery for a quick stop and looked up the bus times for his appointment. Now I'm home, I've eaten, and I'm looking at how much needs to be done around here, none of which I really have any energy for at the moment. I'm going to try to rest for a little while and then tackle things. Barring that, I'll see about getting up early and doing what needs to be done before work. We'll see how successful I am in that endeavour. :)

PS

I found out today that I do need a business licence so that my local taxes are paid, since I am an independent contractor/1099 employee the way we have things set up.

The fee is $100, but will be offset when I pay my taxes, as it acts like a credit. Still, it's a little annoying. At least I thought to check, and I can send in the paperwork and payment by mail, rather than going downtown.

PPS

My boss wants me to get a detailed receipt so they can reimburse me for the unexpected expense, so the plan is to go downtown after all, after my last pulmonary rehabilitation session on next Tuesday. :)

Sorry I've been so sporadic lately

On Tuesday someone called in, and instead of working till 1 pm and going to pulmonary rehab, I cancelled my appointment and stayed till 5:30 pm. I wound up eating out of vending machines because I didn't bring my lunch. But by the time I got home at 8, after getting A and taking him home, I could barely drive, I was so tired. We had an extremely busy day, and were three people short. It is amazing to me how tired I get, even though it's not physically hard, but it's intense mental juggling, not only when you're trying to check someone out, but with all the follow up with so many people there is. So I was in bed Tuesday by 8:30 and slept and slept till it was time to do it all over again. I got up a little early this morning and took A to work and grabbed a few things at Kroger so I'd have breakfast and lunch today.

It was still busy today, but a steady busy where you're not pulled in too many directions at once. I had a headache again, but not as bad as Tuesday, when I felt my brains are about to leak out of my head. Things quieted down by 4 pm and I was able to catch up on phone calls and emails. After work I took A briefly somewhere and did a grocery run for a friend who hadn't slept for two days. Then I came home, ate, and slept from 8:30 pm to 1:30 am. I took my meds and now I'm heading back to bed, trying to get up a little early to deal with the trash and the recyclables, which are threatening to overtake things in my little apartment.

Okay, I'm going to sign off. Have a good night!