days_unfolding

Woke up at 7:20 AM? Oliver isn’t eating his breakfast. Has he decided that he doesn’t like chicken? He eats the rest of his meals. I’m not too worried because he’s young and relentlessly healthy. Well, relentlessly rambunctious, anyway.

So freaking tired. I closed my eyes leaning on the filing cabinet in Zara’s room. I showered in the morning, so I can have a lunchtime nap. Still silence from the CPAP people, so I need to call.

Overslept my nap. I’m not feeling up to phone calls. I just want to work quietly. I’m doing a tedious task for work, but I volunteered to do it. The government issued an edict that all public-facing Web sites, applications, and the like at colleges and universities will become accessible. The original deadline was last month, but the government extended it for one year because no one was making the deadline. We have a Web page that contains an archive of webinars that we gave for years now. We posted the slides for each webinar in PDF format, which is the devil as far as accessibility is concerned. So I’m replacing the 60-odd PDF files with the original PowerPoint files. Someone will have to caption all the recordings of the webinars, who probably will be me. Oh well, job security. But the upload feature for the files keeps flaking out.

Checked on the dogs, and Gracie was sitting on top of the dirt for the raised beds.

Bella is always so happy when I go outside and see them.

It keeps threatening rain. Probably no lawn mowing tonight. Maybe I’ll take a nap. It started raining, and I went to let the dogs in, but it isn’t raining hard enough for them to want to come in. Okay.

Oliver attended my nap after work, but he was good and let me sleep. Had a good nap. Fed us all.

I finished We Burned So Bright. It was hard because a lot of it was depressing, especially after the fizzy gay hockey player books. But it’s good. And hard.

Another iris is blooming.


I think that the dogs have gone to bed already. They were outside for over 12 hours!

Got up around 6:30 AM. Threw myself together and got my blood test done a little after 8. The blood test person asked me which arm, and I said, “Whichever arm in which you can get a good vein.” She said, “Oh, you’re going to be like that.” She found one. I can check that off of my list.

I really want to go back to sleep. Come on, lunchtime. It doesn’t help that Gracie is snoozing in my field of vision. So jealous!

I got my slides done for work last night, so the pressure is off me today.

Called the CPAP people and they’re emailing me some forms to fill out. Made an appointment with Weight Management–for June, sigh.

Way overslept my nap.The dogs had been jumping on me and wrestling before I fell asleep. Maybe I should wake Gracie up whenever she naps upstairs. She’s snoozing now.

Got some file sorting done while Zara was eating because Oliver wasn’t in there. Then he came in and I stopped. Every little bit helps though. I need a box of file folders (ordered).

Cat thermometer. When it’s cold, Lily curls up in the cat bed, which has fleece. When it’s warm, she sprawls out in a box. It’s in-between right now, so first she tried the box and is now in the cat bed. She’s stretched out though. Gotta calibrate!

Oh! No piano tonight. My teacher sent a note because it’s the fifth Wednesday of the month.

I should be able to book the cruise in about a month if I don’t tap my Ally savings. Pink sand beaches, here I come! Oops, two months. Four paychecks.

I’m thinking of driving up to Michigan to get Mom’s stuff in storage the weekend of July 4th. We get the 3rd off, and I can drive up then. I need to check that the storage place will be open on July 4th though. I’d load up the car then and clean out the storage space. Then I’d drive back on Sunday. I need to get Mom’s car fixed by then. Money, money, money.

I finished my latest Heated Rivalry book (the guys wound up in each other’s arms after being idiots) and am waiting for a new one to load in the Kindle on my phone.

Gracie is barking her fool head off.

Got my groceries in. Got my recycling out. I need to get to bed early because I have a physical therapy appointment at 8:35. And then a dental appointment afterward.

Oh ugh. Passports with Trump's face on them. Good thing that mine won't expire for a while.

My dad wants me to stop taking my antipsychotic med. I’m not going to do it, but I need to sleep on my response to him.

Oh great. Champaign-Urbana has a high level of nitrates in the water. Do I need to buy distilled water? Oh! No it doesn’t. I needed to zero in further on the map. It has other contaminants though. Need to get a reverse osmosis system.

Drastically overslept this morning. Sigh.

I had a fun time feeding Oliver and Lily. Lily went down in the basement last night, and she spent the night in the basement. (She likes it down there. I wasn’t being cruel.) I went to let her up this morning, and Oliver went down. Sometime in there, Bella went half-way down the stairs to the landing, and I had to get her up. After a little while, I went to let Oliver up and Lily went down. I went to feed them, which got their attention, and both came up. Sheesh.

Lily is going after a roll of paper towels. I told her that she’s not a kitten anymore, but a full-grown cat, but she still wants it.

Had my annual physical. It went well. She is giving me a referral to Weight Management to get Wegovy. She is giving me a referral to a gynecologist for my urine leaks. (Getting older is the pits.) I have a fasting blood test next week.

I get a magazine called Hawaii magazine. It’s got me wondering if I should go back to Oahu one of these years, although I had been thinking of a trip to Molokai. I just found a perfect hotel near Waikiki. (I went to Oahu twice, one on our first Hawaii trip when I was about 10, and once when I was 17.) Oahu has cheaper hotels than the rest of the islands.

I’m reading the books on which Heated Rivalry was based. I think that they’re sexier than the TV show (although the two leads of the TV show got matching tattoos that say “Sex sells” ;))

Fed the cats and myself. (Gracie hasn’t come in yet.) Washed my clothes for tomorrow. I need to post, feed the dogs, and shower. I need to get to bed early because I’m meeting my colleague at 6:30 AM. Yikes.

Woke up at 8:15 AM. I’m not expecting a delivery, so I let Gracie out without a leash. Bella came in, but Gracie, typically, did not. Gracie came in at 9:30. It's cold out there and snowing.

Can't stop yawning. I'm looking forward to my nap. Napped.

Napped after work too.

Received the Will Harlow book. I think that I’ll take it to bed with me along with tape flags to pick out exercises.

Lily is chowing down on her food. Good.

The dogs came in quickly because it's cold out. Fed us all.

Watched an episode of The Pitt.

Oliver left a large scratch near my right eye. Thanks a lot, Oliver. I know that he loves me, but he’s a handful.

Woke up at 5:15 AM. I’m feeling hammered.

I did pull myself together and get the car jump-started. The guy came quickly and started it, but he said that the battery was bad and needed replacing. Sure enough, I ran the car for a half-hour and it won’t start now. I’m going to have to take Uber to my doctor’s appointment. Then I’ll try to have a battery delivered. Yes, I know that it’s more expensive, but I have a ton of things to do today.

So freaking tired.

A multicultural museum at the University has a book club. This month's selection is An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, but the discussion is in two days, and I can't read that fast. June is A Queer History of the United States, and I just ordered it, so I should be able to go. Oh! That was June last year! Oh well.

My appointment with my psychiatrist went well. I really like her. She’s concerned about my levels of vitamins though.

Ate lunch. Just emailed the battery people. Oops, they aren't in my area. Contacted Advance Auto Parts for same day delivery/installation. But it might be too late for choir. I emailed the choir director. Got the battery from Advance Auto Parts, but they didn't install it. Then the first place contracted me, but they wanted payment in advance and some things seemed fishy, so I'm in going to have the car jump-started tomorrow and have Advance install their battery.

Oliver and Lily are playing Pounce! I forget how young they are because they look like full-grown cats, but they're only a year old. (Bella is two and Gracie is one and Zara is 16.)

Oliver is snoozing on my lap, and I think, "How sweet". But see paragraph 1. He’s being extra cuddly today.

I think that I just want to crash tonight. I'll have to get up early to deal with the car.

I think that it would be cool to have a collie or a sheltie. Then I look at my two dogs and realize that I have my hands full.

I’m trying to nap but my brain is whirring. I got up to buy duct tape (to fix the mattress) and a lilac bush. I ordered a crabapple tree too after my nap.

Watched a little skating.

To bed, quickly.

Kept on hitting snooze and got up at 7:20 AM. Gracie does not want to come inside. Sigh. I'm tired, and I won't get a nap at lunchtime. I'm tempted to blow off piano, but I shouldn't nap because I want to get up early on Thursday and finally get the car jump-started.

Oh man, I'm yawning my way though a meeting. I might need to take a nap after work.

Going back to the Appalachian Trail book, the part that I find interesting is that it’s as much a mental challenge as a physical one. That got me wondering about my mental challenges. I tend to cave in. Maybe getting the house together is my Appalachian Trail. Maybe I should get an Appalachian Trail map and assign (big) house tasks to portions of it and color them in. I kind of like that idea. I ordered a laminated map. I can use dry-erase markers on it. I finished the book, which I liked better when she dug into the mental hardship of the trail. She also wrote a book about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, so I bought it. I found it interesting that she said the AT is harder than the PCT.

At this point, it’s too late to take a nap, so I’ll just go to bed early. I need to get into my pajamas so that I can hand-wash jeans.

I think that I’ll gather my laundry this weekend and go to a laundromat to start with clean clothes, although I really want to fix the washer this weekend. Note to self: The Courtesy Cleaning Center in Urbana is open until 10:30 PM every night.

My clothes are soaking. After I post, I'll issue sell orders for the money market (ETFs?) for some of the money in my investment account to prepare to buy actual stocks.

Oliver likes to sleep on my down coat. So I looked for a down cat bed, and there aren’t any. I found a plush self-heating bed that wasn’t too expensive and ordered it. We’ll see if he likes it. I also found a shag dog bed on Chewy, but it’s large.

Got up reluctantly at 6 AM. The problem with getting up early is that I want to go back to sleep. But I need to feed the cats first. I think that I forgot to give them their crunchies last night. I suck.

I’m not going back to sleep. I need to take a shower because I have a short lunch today.

Bella is being manic.

I rescheduled my lab visits so that I can wait until Sunday to jump-start the car. I have to brush off the cars today so that I don’t get a ticket.

The cold bathroom is COLD. (I think that it once was a porch that someone converted into a bathroom. There's very little insulation and the floor stays cold.) I almost didn't take a shower because I didn't want to take my pajamas off. And after the shower, I was chanting COLD COLD COLD as I got dressed. It's cold upstairs too, but I'm cranking the space heater. My dad said to close the bathroom door so that the heat vent heats only that room, but I have litter boxes in there, so I need to figure out what to do with them. There is a door hook thing that opens a door to let cats in but keep dogs out. I should look into that as a possible solution.

Note to self: Cabela's is where I got the wool socks. Cozy! I ordered some more compression and regular socks on Amazon, and I'll order wool socks later (done).

sunshine_two's passing has left me a little shaken up. She was two years younger than me. I wonder what happened to her dogs and cats. You never know, so I was thinking about my dogs and cats. I think that I'll contact Hospice Hearts (dog and cat shelter for pets whose human becomes incapacitated or passes away) and see if I can mention them in my will along with a hefty donation.

I have a short lunch because my 11:30 meeting ran long and I have a 1:00. Bella and Oliver are in my face; Bella for pets and because she’s lonely when I work upstairs (she won’t use the stairs), and Oliver because he’s hoping that I’ll feed him again. (Not.) Oliver and Gracie: We’d be happy to eat your food. Me: I bet you would.

Piano class went well. Nothing exciting to report. Zara was happy for the cuddle time.

I shut Oliver in the bathroom when I let the dogs in so that he doesn’t get out. There are other advantages. Lily can eat without him eating her food when he’s done with his, and I can feed Zara without Oliver bursting in there.

Gracie still has a scarcity mentality about food. She needs to clean up every scrap of food around. She was found in a park (probably dumped—people suck) and probably had to scrounge for food. I told her that she hasn’t missed many meals here, but she still worries.

I’m not going to fix the washer tonight because it’s gotten late due to my piano class. I have some black clothes that someone, probably Lily, got fur on. I’ll run them in the dryer along with some hand-washed underwear and socks.

I think that I’ll wait until lunchtime tomorrow to brush off the cars, even if I get a ticket. There’s a wind chill warning now through tomorrow morning.

I’ve been reading Pete Buttigieg’s autobiography. I thought that it would be dry, but he’s a good storyteller, plus the way that he built his career is fascinating. Recommended if you are interested in politics and like biographies. It’s called Shortest Way Home.

I've got the underwear and socks soaking in the sink. I grabbed out the wide sink plug that I take with me for traveling. It's very useful to make a good seal. So I'll post, give the cats and dogs their crunchies, put the clothes in the dryer, and go to bed.

I finished the Tim Curry book. It was interesting.

I’m going to hate myself in the morning. We lose an hour to boot. There’s a photography lecture that I’d like to attend at 10 AM. I have my massage in the afternoon. I wonder if the pool is warm enough to swim in. Some people are braving it.

I slept until 9 AM. Yikes. Probably no breakfast. I did get a little breakfast. I missed the photography lecture. Started the Patti Smith memoir. Logged on and then took a short nap.

Had lunch, such as it was. Had a couple of cheese quesadillas and a big bowl of bread pudding with vanilla ice cream on top.

Today is the day of mishaps. A guy fell near me in the dining room. He was okay though. And someone spilled their drink all over the floor. The cruise workers were on the ball both times.

I’m skipping the lecture on Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. I want to read until my massage appointment. I had a bad feeling that I had the wrong time and asked, but my watch and phone are right. Today it counts!

Someone wanted to read my t-shirt (“My dog thinks I’m cool”) and told me to read hers (“Free hugs—Just kidding—Don’t touch me “). I like mine better :)

Read a while and went to the spa. Apparently my appointment wasn’t today even though the app said that it was. It’s on the 2nd. I also made an appointment for a manicure because I forgot to bring nail polish remover and my manicure is chipping. I might just have them use clear polish then. My new appointments aren’t showing on the app, so I’ll have to remember when they are.

Now what? Should I try the pool? Sauna? Both? I don’t think that I want another nap. Housekeeping wanted me to itemize my laundry and call them, so I did that. Then I picked up a luggage tag for disembarking (second to last). My flight is typically late.

I tried the sauna. Because I’m new to saunas, I stayed for only eight minutes. I know that saunas are good for you, but it’s kind of boring. Then I tackled the pool. It was COLD. I went down step by step, getting used to the cold each time. Finally I submerged myself. (Another person who went in the pool was watching me, and she wanted to say, “Just jump in!” But we had the same end result.)

I’m WIDE awake now! I need to fix my makeup and then I’ll go read until dinner. I want to eat later because I want to get to sleep early because my shore excursion to Puerto Vallarta is tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it!

There’s a fly on the ship that likes me. I don’t know why.

A quote in the Patti Smith book: “Always do what will cost you the most.” — Simone Weil I’m mulling that over. It struck me.

Had salmon again because they didn’t have anything else that I wanted. But they had rice pudding for dessert!

Finished the Patti Smith book (Bread of Angels). It’s good.

It’s almost 8:00 and I’ll go post. I want to get up around 5:30 AM to give me time for a shower, makeup, and breakfast before the shore excursion. .

Note to self: print off Bella and Gracie’s shot records. Buy small stapler. Print boarding pass and luggage tag (all done).

Just read an article about the impact of aircraft fumes on people. Just the thing to read when you’re about to take a flight.

Kept hitting snooze on my alarm and got up at 6:30 AM. I’m thinking about going back to bed for a while. I am so not a morning person. I did go back to bed but couldn't sleep.

Had a bit of a panic when I couldn't find my phone, which I need for two-factor identification at work, this morning. I finally found it still plugged in by my bed. Whew. (And I need it for travel too!)

Now I can't stop yawning. It's another gray day. (My light box is supposed to come today.)

Ran my errands. Deposited cash at the bank. Ran into a snag at the post office. They wanted $71 to send the box with the blanket to zhelana in Scotland, and I said, "No". Apparently the cashier goes to Scotland regularly. She said that last time she had to keep running around, and I said that I'm a "sit in a cafe and watch the world go by" kind of traveler, and she said that we should go to Scotland together.

I'll look for something for zhelana off of her Amazon wish list. Anyone want a plaid throw blanket (US Only)? I think that it has paw prints on it. (I got it from the Humane Society.) Oh for god's sake. It said that my credit cards were ineligible to buy things off of her wish list. But I could use them overseas!

Got a pedicure and manicure. The color that I wanted broke, and the color we used for the pedicure is kind of a peach color that I don’t like. I picked out a mauve color for my fingernails, and that I like. Picked up a small stapler (for the luggage tag for the cruise) at Walgreens. Picked up my printer ink and cell phone charger at Best Buy. Picked up some feather toys for the cats at Walgreens.

I didn’t know that Tim Curry played Mozart in Amadeus, which I saw on Broadway.

Changed the printer ink and printed off the boarding pass and luggage tag for the cruise. I need to gather a few things, start a load of laundry, and go to bed.

Canceled a bunch of subscriptions on PayPal. I think that all I have left is Netflix, which I want to keep. Oh, and I should resubscribe to Hulu.

I checked into my cruise, but the boarding documents won't be available for a few days. I also bought the Have It All package, which includes WiFi, drinks, and one specialty dining meal.

Bought a ring that looks like hugging arms, and it'll have "Mom" engraved on the inside.

Now I really need to go to bed. I have a boatload (so to speak) of stuff to get done this weekend.

Gracie is trying to play dog play with me on the bed, and I told her to go play with Bella. That’s why I have two dogs. Now she’s snoozing with her head on my leg.

Woke up a little before 6 AM. I explained to the dogs that the cats get fed first. They don’t think that’s fair. Fed us all. My stomach hurts. I’m going back to bed. The dogs are wrestling on the bed and not leaving me any room. The snow has started.

Woke up a little before 11 AM. I’m feeling cold. It’s 15F/-10C out. So yeah, cold. I’ll take a shower in a few minutes. After lunch.

BuddhaStoneShop had a bracelet that I liked for only the shipping cost, so I got it. They also had a ring in the shape of a cat for shipping cost, so I got that too. And a Tree of Life bracelet. And a Yin-Yang necklace. They’re probably getting money from part of the shipping cost, but still, it’s cheap.

Oliver was warming my lap and purring.

I’m IBSing. But I’m staying home today so I guess that it’s okay.

Ate lunch.

Finished the book on James I. I just ordered a book on Charles I to continue my investigation into the Stuarts.

Oliver is knocking stuff down and being annoying.

The Precip app says 3.3 inches of snow so far, to make a total of 6.5. It’s like living in a snow globe. I saw a map on Facebook with the words “Stay home” over our band of snow. Will do.

I think that I’ll have one more nap. Slept for about an hour. I’m feeling cold and trying to warm up before my shower. It seems like the dogs and cats are sleeping. At least, they aren’t in the kitchen.

Opened packages while I and my clothes were warming up. I got the file folder wall holders for sheet music. I need to dig out my drill.

Hmm. UNICEF Market has a lot of rings that I like.

The dogs are barking at who-knows-what.

I think that I’ll have some soup.

Final snow total: 5.7, for a total of 8.4. Now we’re into the cold part of the weekend (currently 0F/-18C). I'm going to pull out another blanket and go to sleep. I hope that Gracie won't chew holes in the blanket. Oh, and I need to set the faucets to dripping.