And all you have to do is exercise more despite the fact your (my) chronic disease symptoms make it terribly difficult to do any exercising.
The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss
- Thread starter zanzjan
- Start date
Well, just go under your Settings menu and uncheck "chronic disease"... might be under Options on some operating systems.
Tuesday evening, and it started sprinkling juust enough I couldn't weed whack after dinner. Or get the mail. (Okay, in all honesty, I probably could get the mail, but I just don't wanna.)
Mom tried mixing a little baking soda in the hamburger to keep it from drying out much. Unfortunately, she didn't trust the measurements... I suppose that is how one learns.
Okay, idiot me, you're officially out of excuses, here. Get thee to the word processor and brainstorm, already! Yeesh...
Tuesday evening, and it started sprinkling juust enough I couldn't weed whack after dinner. Or get the mail. (Okay, in all honesty, I probably could get the mail, but I just don't wanna.)
Mom tried mixing a little baking soda in the hamburger to keep it from drying out much. Unfortunately, she didn't trust the measurements... I suppose that is how one learns.
Okay, idiot me, you're officially out of excuses, here. Get thee to the word processor and brainstorm, already! Yeesh...
Wednesday after work, been sprinkling with some sunnyish breaks. Another long work day, but we were at least decently staffed. Not that that makes a dent in the backlog anymore...
Hoping to get an idea sooner rather than later on story stuff. Got one that might carry a very short or flash piece, but am hoping for something more substantial (not too much more substantial, but a little more).
Hoping to get an idea sooner rather than later on story stuff. Got one that might carry a very short or flash piece, but am hoping for something more substantial (not too much more substantial, but a little more).
What sort of an idea were you looking for? What is the short one, and could you, er, substantiate it? Use the current short/flash piece as a part of something bigger?
Current one is more of a mood or aesthetic than a solid story, if that makes any sense. I might be able to build more around it, but if I try to hang words on it too soon I expect it to melt back into the aether.
And it's after dinner on Wednesday. Dishes have been washed, stuff prepped for work tomorrow. Will probably watch something, then read for a bit. Tomorrow will be a Very Long Day, because Mom has an eye appointment after I get home from work, so we're thinking of just ordering pizza so I don't have to make dinner. I am in favor of dinner I don't have to make.
Any dinner you don't have to make after a day at work is a good dinner.
Thursday morning, and it's doing that thing where it's overcast outside but too humid and warm inside. About to trudge off to a pointless day of work, and I remembered to get the pizza place info into the phone in case I forget between coming home, hauling the recycle bin down the lane, and taking Mom to the eye doctor.
Oh, yeah... today's gonna be so much fun... not...
Oh, yeah... today's gonna be so much fun... not...
Oof. I Googled, and your theoretic test sounds like an extra-long version of the test we take to get our learner's permit. Ours doesn't have as many questions as yours, and these days you can go on the DMV website and take practice tests as many times as you want, basically memorizing the exact phrasing and answers to the test. Once you take it, you don't ever take it again unless you take so long to get your license that your learner's permit expires, which takes 8 years.
***
Oh yeah... I meant to tell y'all that our entire deer family visited this morning. This year we've had a herd of three females come through regularly, then they split up when one had a baby last month. Then, one of the others had twins, which I saw by the back fence on a Sunday Morning two weeks ago. But today, there were two females, a male with his little antler nubs, and one baby right at the back fence. They've hid the one baby in the undergrowth just beyond the fence about three times in the past several weeks. I think today, they may have been hiding it there again, because baby was frolicking around, then stood literally right against the fence for a bit, then went over to mama and got a lick on the head, and then I didn't see it following the adults as they turned around and left. I guess we're the official fawn babysitters again.
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Hooray for fawn babysitting! (*waits for new wildlife spinoff series of The Babysitters Club*)
Thursday afternoon, in the brief downtime between coming home from work, running the recycle bin down the lane, fetching mail on my way back up the lane, and departing for Mom's eye appointment. Work existed again, though I was an idiot and forgot my headphones at home. I usually have backups in my purse, but, of course, the one time I need them... Managed to find a pair of spares at work, which I borrowed long enough to finish off an audiobook, but the sound quality sucked too bad to start a new one or listen to music, so I put them back. I will have to find or buy another corded backup pair to carry with me, dang it... especially on long shifts like this...
(And I'm reasonably certain we'll be losing one, maybe two people by fall, no matter how many we hire, assuming we ever do hire anyone. Which will make me the last one standing, at which point I'll walk, 'cause I ain't doin' that.)
Thursday afternoon, in the brief downtime between coming home from work, running the recycle bin down the lane, fetching mail on my way back up the lane, and departing for Mom's eye appointment. Work existed again, though I was an idiot and forgot my headphones at home. I usually have backups in my purse, but, of course, the one time I need them... Managed to find a pair of spares at work, which I borrowed long enough to finish off an audiobook, but the sound quality sucked too bad to start a new one or listen to music, so I put them back. I will have to find or buy another corded backup pair to carry with me, dang it... especially on long shifts like this...
(And I'm reasonably certain we'll be losing one, maybe two people by fall, no matter how many we hire, assuming we ever do hire anyone. Which will make me the last one standing, at which point I'll walk, 'cause I ain't doin' that.)
OOoooo I love the deer stories, E.F.B. We have a lot of deer around here but with the Hundred Acre Wood right in the back yard, seeing them is sporadic.
Thursday evening, and sibling is currently angry that they don't make computers like they did ten or fifteen years ago... which is somehow our fault, or at least worth yelling at us about. (She is bound and determined to keep Windows 7, and she needs an internal DVD drive to do that, which are no longer standard. Apparently, she doesn't think an external DVD drive will work for what she wants to do.)
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Maybe sibling needs a reality check? Or a reminder that it's not appropriate to yell at people who are not at fault, and that such behaviour will not be tolerated? (My stock workplace response is, "I understand that you are upset about X, but shouting at me will not resolve the issue. I am leaving and will return/I am asking you to leave my office now and to return when you are willing to discuss this in a professional and respectful manner.")
And because having a portion of your digestive system removed to lose weight if you can't do it any other way is such a small deal right?
Yeay for the deer! (Except when they're raiding the garden...)
They keep the current exam questions a secret mostly, and what is available for practice tests are old discontinued questions and you almost only get to practise them at commercial websites so you have to pay for access to them.
And the real exam questions can be real stinkers too. "What doesn't this traffic sign mean? for example is one I remember with vengeance, because you can exactly know what that specific traffic sign is, but if you missed the 'doesn't' in the question, you'll fail and what exactly does that do for improved road safety, I still don't know.
Our learner's permits are three year at the utmost and you need either a designated instructor (who is named on the permit) or take a minimum of 20 hours of driving lessons at a liscenced driving school.
I kinda like your system better.
I kinda feel your Sibling. Windows 7 was in many ways a good system.
And I too loathe the move away from internal DVD drives was. I mean, I have an external DVD drive and it works fine for me, but the cable and the seperate drive is a hassle that didn't need to be. I need to lug a lot more material around and need more deskspace that I needed before to have the exact same installation now and that doesn't sound like progress to me.
But unless my sister is Microsoft, ranting and yelling at her about it doesn't do much good to either...
Depends on the Sibling, though. My sister HATED it when I walked away in an argument, having the last word was vital to her. Me walking away robbed her of that and that Could Not Be. (Whereas upon learning that I felt I suddenly had so much power. I used it whenever I could. But then I was, like, twelve at the time.)
I looked into this once, and the diet that you have to do after the surgery. Um, if I had the ability to stick to that kind of diet I wouldn't be overweight...
EXACTLY!
Although, gotta say, I am a Type 2 diabetic, and Ozempic has made a difference, both to the blood sugar levels and the weight.
It didn't strip the weight right off, but it made a noticeable difference, which made it easier to do all the other stuff (move around more, be more conscious of what I ate) that actually helps.
It gives you hope that something can make a difference.
(Didn't hurt that last summer was so hot that I didn't feel much like cooking or eating. The popsicle and salad diet was a help.)
They're not exactly thinking things through, are they? They don't think of 'swimming' as exercise? How do they feel about sit-down, wheelchair exercises for paraplegics? Or other adapted stuff?
Just 'walk' or 'run'? Idiots.
Boo for dismissive pharmacists!
Friday, edging towards evening and dinner starting time. Sibling did find a laptop that met her standards, but then had a meltdown when the credit card company called to confirm the large charge (especially since it's been a while since she's made a large charge on her card due to the whole not-having-a-job-until-January thing). Fortunately, Mom was able to help with that one, and we think it's all straightened out. (She's working this afternoon/evening, so I won't catch any residual meltdown energy until she gets home tonight.)
And I suppose I ought to look into that whole dinner starting thing... mergh. Am sick of starting dinners, but if I don't, nobody will. And then Mom will complain she doesn't have anything to nuke, or anything for Dad...
Friday, edging towards evening and dinner starting time. Sibling did find a laptop that met her standards, but then had a meltdown when the credit card company called to confirm the large charge (especially since it's been a while since she's made a large charge on her card due to the whole not-having-a-job-until-January thing). Fortunately, Mom was able to help with that one, and we think it's all straightened out. (She's working this afternoon/evening, so I won't catch any residual meltdown energy until she gets home tonight.)
And I suppose I ought to look into that whole dinner starting thing... mergh. Am sick of starting dinners, but if I don't, nobody will. And then Mom will complain she doesn't have anything to nuke, or anything for Dad...
Sick, vegging in front of the computer. Spouse comes in, Kid was making soup. From scratch. Kid does not know how to make soup from scratch. Used water, seasoning, and precooked protein. </sigh>
I had the kid add a teaspoons of my beef soup seasoning powder. Had the Kid taste it. Seasoned water. Add another. Taste again.
Kid was happy, "You saved my soup!"
I think I'll go scrounge something up. I am so ready to feel normal.
I had the kid add a teaspoons of my beef soup seasoning powder. Had the Kid taste it. Seasoned water. Add another. Taste again.
Kid was happy, "You saved my soup!"
I think I'll go scrounge something up. I am so ready to feel normal.
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Overall, it is a good thing. I'm not feeling like death warmed over, so it wasn't too bad to help with a few tips. But I'm not feeling good yet either.
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Boo for being sick!
Hooray for saved soup!
Wrappin' up Friday. Sibling's feeling somewhat better, actually; nobody's called about the order charge again, so we're hopeful it got dealt with successfully and they believe she ordered the thing she ordered. Also, her manager talked to her again about trying to get her on the day shift, though they did warn her she'd earn a little less (the pay differential for graveyard is less than a buck an hour; she's willing to make that sacrifice if it means something like normal hours). She's willing to fill in overnight still occasionally; it's just regular graveyard that's hitting her so hard...
I've been watching S1 of Netflix's The Umbrella Academy (have not read the graphic novels). I like the gist of it, but they seem to do a lot of dancing and being coy with holding info back and having characters not talk to each other to prolong problems. Am going to finish out the season, and probably see what S2 is like (there's 3 up currently).
--
And a cloudy Saturday morning, just finishing up the weekly room tidying(ish). Hopefully it stays cloudy and not sprinkly so I can weed whack this afternoon. That is the extent of my major plans.
--
Aaand Mom sorta knocked a hole through the weed whacking plans be deciding that today was the day we'd burn and test the silkscreen. (Seems to work, so that's done. Except putting all the crud back where we had to move it to reach the thermofax...) Not sure I'll have enough time between putting stuff back where it belongs and dinner-starting time to whack any weeds. Guess I'll do that tomorrow... dang it...
--
Windin' down Saturday, and watched the first two eps of S2 of Umbrella Academy. Definite improvement, though one character I still want to kick in the head for being a stubborn twerp (what part of "the world will end if you don't help us?" can't make a dent in that thick skull?), and I'm a little iffy on robbing another of power via the plot convenience of amnesia... Still, better than the first year so far, and it has a stronger main story (so far).
Saw a bear in the back yard earlier. It was eating some of the weeds I was going to whack today. Never seen them eat weeds (I think it's some sort of dandelion) before, and it was pretty intent on one specific kind. More power to 'em for eating weeds... one less plant to whack tomorrow.
--
Sunday afternoon, sunny, and most of the weeds have been whacked. The lousy whacker, which has been stubborn about not self-feeding line when it's supposed to (we have to pry open the thing manually to extract more line when needed), suddenly decided to go gung-ho on letting out line at random, which both ate battery life and devoured twine. Finally gave up after burning through two and a bit batteries. (And one of the dead batteries is now giving the Red Blinky Light of Doom when I try to recharge it, though it's not that old. Frell off, battery... and weed whacker... and weeds...) But I got the back yard and a decent chunk of the front yard done before the line ran out, and I'm too tired now to bother finishing off the last battery on what's left of the front yard.
Got caught up on site stuff earlier. Think I'll cool down with an ep of Umbrella Academy, which still isn't great-great but it's something to watch. (Still looking for my next Expanse or Lucifer, dang it: a franchise I can really immerse in and rewatch almost endlessly.)
--
And windin' down Sunday. Still can't get a story spark to properly catch, dang it. But I watched a few more UA eps. Should read until sleep occurs, I suppose. Tomorrow's shopping day again... yippy skippy...
--
Monday afternoon, sunny and summery, and trying to get the oomph to exercise. Morning was spent on shopping with a side trip to the lake for lunch. (Didn't get to walk, though, because Mom was with me and she has a hard enough time getting to and from the car... also, we had more shopping to do.) Got stuff for BLT sandwiches for dinner. (And some sliced turkey, because Mom can't do bacon anymore.)
Mergh... really need exercise, but I'm also kinda crashin' after sitting in the park and shopping. Stupid, lousy, energy-leaching sunshine and shopping trips...
--
Tuesday morning, another sunny day on tap, and hopefully I don't have to go anywhere. Already got chicken salad for dinner made so it can chill all day.
And I finished off S2 of Umbrella Academy last night. While better than S1, it still felt uneven and a touch drawn out, plus the characters didn't always make great decisions and backslid on what they'd learned now and again. It leaned into the silliness, sometimes to its detriment, but managed to come together for a reasonably satisfactory conclusion and a cliffhanger. I'll be finishing off the third season, as it's entertaining enough to watch and the ensemble's definitely gelled better, but I still can't say I love it.
--
Wednesday afternoon, warm enough for capris at work today, and chilling a while before dinner (hot dogs and chips and probably baked beans if I'm not being too lazy to heat them up). Tote numbers are slowly dropping, and we're supposed to be getting a couple new people, but I'm almost positive at least one person is leaving soon.
Sibling's been having a hard time sleeping lately because brains are evil, and she gets extra Siblingesque when she doesn't get enough sleep... hopefully she's sleeping today, as it's her only day off until next week. (She took a week off for her b-day.)
--
And Wednesday evening, after dinner (hot dog night; everyone was lazy enough to consider it a good meal, so win for lazy dinner). Sibling is now talking about going somewhere next week... which almost invariably means someone (me) has to go with her, because of her Issues (and her car being barely functional). I understand the impulse, but, a) last minute much in a season and year where things are likely to be extra busy and already booked (coming off COVID and a very unsunny early half of the year), and b) I really just plain don't wanna. We're trying to think of day trips as a compromise, if she'd accept that... or maybe she'll get distracted trying to get her new laptop set up... Please let her get distracted...
--
Thursday afternoon, warm day again, and another understaffed work shift. Didn't end up shopping my way home today, at least. So there's that. And sibling has to work the afternoon/evening shift today through Saturday. Which is one more thing for her to complain about. Yippy skippy...
Will wait until she's gone (and the complaining stops), then maybe try to watch something before I have to poke dinner. (Pot roast in the pressure cooker, which mostly cooks itself until I have to add veggies.)
Hooray for saved soup!
Wrappin' up Friday. Sibling's feeling somewhat better, actually; nobody's called about the order charge again, so we're hopeful it got dealt with successfully and they believe she ordered the thing she ordered. Also, her manager talked to her again about trying to get her on the day shift, though they did warn her she'd earn a little less (the pay differential for graveyard is less than a buck an hour; she's willing to make that sacrifice if it means something like normal hours). She's willing to fill in overnight still occasionally; it's just regular graveyard that's hitting her so hard...
I've been watching S1 of Netflix's The Umbrella Academy (have not read the graphic novels). I like the gist of it, but they seem to do a lot of dancing and being coy with holding info back and having characters not talk to each other to prolong problems. Am going to finish out the season, and probably see what S2 is like (there's 3 up currently).
--
And a cloudy Saturday morning, just finishing up the weekly room tidying(ish). Hopefully it stays cloudy and not sprinkly so I can weed whack this afternoon. That is the extent of my major plans.
--
Aaand Mom sorta knocked a hole through the weed whacking plans be deciding that today was the day we'd burn and test the silkscreen. (Seems to work, so that's done. Except putting all the crud back where we had to move it to reach the thermofax...) Not sure I'll have enough time between putting stuff back where it belongs and dinner-starting time to whack any weeds. Guess I'll do that tomorrow... dang it...
--
Windin' down Saturday, and watched the first two eps of S2 of Umbrella Academy. Definite improvement, though one character I still want to kick in the head for being a stubborn twerp (what part of "the world will end if you don't help us?" can't make a dent in that thick skull?), and I'm a little iffy on robbing another of power via the plot convenience of amnesia... Still, better than the first year so far, and it has a stronger main story (so far).
Saw a bear in the back yard earlier. It was eating some of the weeds I was going to whack today. Never seen them eat weeds (I think it's some sort of dandelion) before, and it was pretty intent on one specific kind. More power to 'em for eating weeds... one less plant to whack tomorrow.
--
Sunday afternoon, sunny, and most of the weeds have been whacked. The lousy whacker, which has been stubborn about not self-feeding line when it's supposed to (we have to pry open the thing manually to extract more line when needed), suddenly decided to go gung-ho on letting out line at random, which both ate battery life and devoured twine. Finally gave up after burning through two and a bit batteries. (And one of the dead batteries is now giving the Red Blinky Light of Doom when I try to recharge it, though it's not that old. Frell off, battery... and weed whacker... and weeds...) But I got the back yard and a decent chunk of the front yard done before the line ran out, and I'm too tired now to bother finishing off the last battery on what's left of the front yard.
Got caught up on site stuff earlier. Think I'll cool down with an ep of Umbrella Academy, which still isn't great-great but it's something to watch. (Still looking for my next Expanse or Lucifer, dang it: a franchise I can really immerse in and rewatch almost endlessly.)
--
And windin' down Sunday. Still can't get a story spark to properly catch, dang it. But I watched a few more UA eps. Should read until sleep occurs, I suppose. Tomorrow's shopping day again... yippy skippy...
--
Monday afternoon, sunny and summery, and trying to get the oomph to exercise. Morning was spent on shopping with a side trip to the lake for lunch. (Didn't get to walk, though, because Mom was with me and she has a hard enough time getting to and from the car... also, we had more shopping to do.) Got stuff for BLT sandwiches for dinner. (And some sliced turkey, because Mom can't do bacon anymore.)
Mergh... really need exercise, but I'm also kinda crashin' after sitting in the park and shopping. Stupid, lousy, energy-leaching sunshine and shopping trips...
--
Tuesday morning, another sunny day on tap, and hopefully I don't have to go anywhere. Already got chicken salad for dinner made so it can chill all day.
And I finished off S2 of Umbrella Academy last night. While better than S1, it still felt uneven and a touch drawn out, plus the characters didn't always make great decisions and backslid on what they'd learned now and again. It leaned into the silliness, sometimes to its detriment, but managed to come together for a reasonably satisfactory conclusion and a cliffhanger. I'll be finishing off the third season, as it's entertaining enough to watch and the ensemble's definitely gelled better, but I still can't say I love it.
--
Wednesday afternoon, warm enough for capris at work today, and chilling a while before dinner (hot dogs and chips and probably baked beans if I'm not being too lazy to heat them up). Tote numbers are slowly dropping, and we're supposed to be getting a couple new people, but I'm almost positive at least one person is leaving soon.
Sibling's been having a hard time sleeping lately because brains are evil, and she gets extra Siblingesque when she doesn't get enough sleep... hopefully she's sleeping today, as it's her only day off until next week. (She took a week off for her b-day.)
--
And Wednesday evening, after dinner (hot dog night; everyone was lazy enough to consider it a good meal, so win for lazy dinner). Sibling is now talking about going somewhere next week... which almost invariably means someone (me) has to go with her, because of her Issues (and her car being barely functional). I understand the impulse, but, a) last minute much in a season and year where things are likely to be extra busy and already booked (coming off COVID and a very unsunny early half of the year), and b) I really just plain don't wanna. We're trying to think of day trips as a compromise, if she'd accept that... or maybe she'll get distracted trying to get her new laptop set up... Please let her get distracted...
--
Thursday afternoon, warm day again, and another understaffed work shift. Didn't end up shopping my way home today, at least. So there's that. And sibling has to work the afternoon/evening shift today through Saturday. Which is one more thing for her to complain about. Yippy skippy...
Will wait until she's gone (and the complaining stops), then maybe try to watch something before I have to poke dinner. (Pot roast in the pressure cooker, which mostly cooks itself until I have to add veggies.)
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Driver's test today. Wish me luck!
Otherwise, it's been a half quiet/half busy week. Mom's been doing well enough with OT they've now discharged her. Thankfully, the guy who gets people set up for OT and discharges them didn't talk our ears off *quite* as much as when he originally evaluated her. Bless his heart, he's very sweet. Originally from Kenya and happy to tell alllll the stories about his youth. But he does tend to lose track of time as he tells them. Mom will still have PT for a bit.
For the past 10 days, I've also been working on rewriting my Snow White retelling for Camp Nano. This is the one I originally drafted back in 2016 (and which was a finalist in an anthology contest in 2017.) Took me a while to get back around to it, but it felt like now was the time. The contest had a word limit of 20k, so now that I've got more room to breathe, I'm adding back in a few scenes that I loved but had to cut from the original for word count sake. Whomever judged my entry also mentioned that when certain characters did a certain thing that directly led up to the ending, their reason for doing so felt a little contrived. I agree with that, so I'm trying out my original plan that I didn't have room for back then to see if that will be better.
Guess I'll work on that, and probably a book review as I wait for time to head out for my driver's test.
Otherwise, it's been a half quiet/half busy week. Mom's been doing well enough with OT they've now discharged her. Thankfully, the guy who gets people set up for OT and discharges them didn't talk our ears off *quite* as much as when he originally evaluated her. Bless his heart, he's very sweet. Originally from Kenya and happy to tell alllll the stories about his youth. But he does tend to lose track of time as he tells them.
Mom will still have PT for a bit.For the past 10 days, I've also been working on rewriting my Snow White retelling for Camp Nano. This is the one I originally drafted back in 2016 (and which was a finalist in an anthology contest in 2017.) Took me a while to get back around to it, but it felt like now was the time. The contest had a word limit of 20k, so now that I've got more room to breathe, I'm adding back in a few scenes that I loved but had to cut from the original for word count sake. Whomever judged my entry also mentioned that when certain characters did a certain thing that directly led up to the ending, their reason for doing so felt a little contrived. I agree with that, so I'm trying out my original plan that I didn't have room for back then to see if that will be better.
Guess I'll work on that, and probably a book review as I wait for time to head out for my driver's test.