days_unfolding

Ack. The prices for the cruise go up in the summer. But I still think that the summer would be a better time to go.

Gracie was grumbling under the bed. I think it was because Bella wasn’t leaving her enough room? Bella gave up and jumped on the bed. She’s taken over my side. Um….I realized that I didn’t take my meds, so I got up.

It just occurred to me to look for Orthofeet shoes on eBay, and I found some that I like. Maybe I’ll get a pair of Mary Janes to take with me to Europe.

Overslept until 9:30 AM, but I’m not surprised.

I rescheduled my massage for financial reasons.

The dogs went outside when I brought the groceries in. I was afraid of that. I hope that they decide to come in soon. Bella came in. Gracie is still holding out.

I forgot to mention something cute that happened last night. Oliver came into the room when I came back in after taking my meds. He lay down on the bed right next to Bella! Bella got up and moved then. Then Gracie came out from under the bed and tried to pin Oliver, so I removed Oliver from the room (which isn’t fair, but I needed to sleep).

I’m tired, but I have an important meeting this afternoon, so I don’t dare take a nap. I’m hoping that they’ll let us out early for the holiday.

Sigh. Gracie won’t come in. She’s lounging under the porch to get out of the sun, but she’s still outside to bark at things that need to be barked at. I guess that’s her logic. Meanwhile, her sister (Bella) is lounging in air-conditioned comfort.

Showered. I’m feeling a little more perky. I really like my new underwear (sometimes it’s the little things in life).

I think that I figured out my back problems. When I work at my kitchen table, I sometimes bend my left leg and press my foot against the table leg. I think that it’s throwing my back out of whack. So I need to stop that.

Gracie finally came inside. Yay.

I’m trying to figure out what I’ll do in Venice. I don’t want to go to St. Mark’s Basilica because I’ve already been there. I thought about going to Murano, but I don’t really want glass stuff to bring back with me. I did see a shop that sells Venetian masks. That does interest me. Though I found one that I like on eBay. There are some good museums, so I might go to them.

My meeting went okay. I put my makeup on to be on camera. Because I’m “together”, I might run out later to get some body wash. Now I’m stopped on what I need to work on at work, and I’m just running the clock down.

Let the dogs out and watered the outside plants. To my surprise, Gracie wanted to come in when I went in.

Country Arbors has peonies and bee balm, so maybe I’ll finish the front garden. I’m not sure where I’ll get the time, but I’d like to do it.

I’m really tired but haven’t taken a nap yet. Now I’m thinking that I’ll just get to bed really early.

Ow. I wrenched my back putting my pajama pants on. Did I say “ow”? I’m falling apart. And “ow,” I did it again this morning.

Got up around 7:30 AM. I canceled physical therapy because of my back. I got my groceries, but there was no diet cola in it. I’ll have to stop by the local store.

I didn’t take my CPAP off last night. I kept on waking up but remembered to keep it on. Go me.

I lay down for a while to stretch out my back. It seems to have helped. But it just twinged again. Damn back. Do I need a massage? Do I need to take yoga lessons again? I’m doing some gentle stretches. I booked a massage on the 3rd at 4 PM. Crud, it twinged out again. I need to find my yoga bag and take some lessons nearby.

Zara was calling me, so I went and fed her. “Mom? Where are you?”

I finished a project at work, checking captions and posting slides and recordings for the big online meeting that we had a couple of weeks ago.

I thought about mowing tonight, but with my back, that’s a “no”.

I bought some shampoo and conditioner to fill bottles for my go bag and my trip. (I use some fancy stuff that makes my hair shine.)

Hey yay. So far, no rain is predicted for the weekend. Yard work! Walmart has marigolds for the tomato garden. No rain tomorrow too.

The Week had an article about how more dogs are “left-pawed”. Gracie is. She paws me with her left paw when she wants me to do something. And usually scratches me, sigh.

I’m lying down again with Oliver and Lily. I set my alarm for 8 PM. And I’m trying to conserve caffeinated soda for tomorrow. I wound up lying on my back with my knees up, and Oliver burrowed under my knees. Okay.

Oliver and Lily are playing Chase Me! No, Oliver is bugging Lily. I told him to leave her alone, but he’s not listening to me.

I kind of want to climb Mount Shasta, but 1) It’s very tall, and 2) You have to learn to self-arrest, and I could see freezing up. So maybe not. Mount Whitney? I found a guided tour in which they supply everything, but you have to be able to carry it all in a backpack, so I’d need to do some training. (I’d need to do some training anyway because Whitney is tall!) It’s not going to happen any time soon. It’s tough to train for mountains in the flatlands too.

I’m not going to get the garbage out either because of my back.

Everyone’s fed.

I want to go to bed early and lie quietly to stretch my back. Too bad that I don’t have muscle relaxants. Maybe if my back is still jacked up tomorrow, I’ll go to Urgent Care. But I have piano tomorrow. Busy busy.

I was looking up details on the Chicago Pride Fest, but I don’t know if I’d be able to go up there for it. Champaign-Urbana has a parade, but it’s in September.

It’s crazy humid in here. I moved my work laptop under the ceiling fan in the kitchen. It’s been raining. Thunder now.

The car is ready. Yay.

Oh, what a mess. The physical therapy people called me, and I didn’t answer because I had meetings all day long. Then they called my dad as the emergency contact. Then he called the police when he didn’t hear back from me. The police left the screen door open, and the dogs got into the yard. Shit. I called my dad and told him not to do that (and called the PT people to not call my emergency contact), but I’m not convinced that he will listen to me. Gracie came in because it’s raining at least. (Bella already came in.)

Got the car (Honda). It runs like a dream now. And it’s a lot cheaper than a new car. It’ll work great for my trip to Michigan to pick up the remaining stuff from Mom’s place.

Went back to work for a little while, but I want to take a nap. The dogs are play-fighting loudly though. Annoying. Couldn’t sleep.

Logged onto work and finished my task.

I need to go to sleep and put this lousy day to bed.

Barney Frank died. Not surprising because he was in hospice, but still, sad. The New York Times and the Washington Post had great obituaries for him.

Woke up with my alarm at 7 AM. I’m tired, so I think that I’ll skip my shower at lunchtime and nap instead. I have a meeting in the afternoon for which I need to be on camera, so I’ll throw some clothes on and slap on some makeup.

Got everything set to drop the fur faces off for boarding tomorrow.

Overslept my lunchtime nap. I’m still tired, but I really need to mow today.

I’m washing clothes for my trip.

Mowed the lawn by the sidewalks. At least people on the sidewalks won’t have to deal with overgrown plants. I’m tired.

I really want to get to bed early and get up early.

Oh, what a day. I overslept an hour and a half, but made it to my meeting. Then, I was going to go to our volunteer work, but my shoulder and neck started bugging me (maybe from carrying the laptop?) So I went home to work. Then I had an IBS flareup. Sheesh.

We each did the Clifton Strengths assessment. We found it interesting that five out of seven of us in User Services had relator, someone who likes to work in a friendly environment, in the top five. Makes sense though because we work closely with our libraries.

The ground is still wet and I’m feeling achy and tired, so no mowing today. I need to book my hotel in Chicago and the bus (done). The Hilton is booked up, so I’m staying at the Hyatt near O'Hare. (They have an airport shuttle.) I’ll have to hussle a little on the way out because my flight is at 1 PM, but on the way back, the bus is at 3:30, so I can take my time. Maybe I can ask for a late checkout because my flight back gets in at 10 PM. I wonder if they have a Domino’s near there so that I could order a pizza when I get in. Or I could buy food on the flight from Denver to Chicago.

Oliver and Lily are attending my nap. Oliver is under the blanket and Lily is batting at him. Napped and woke up just before my alarm.

Fed us all. I looked for the White Elephant gift from last December at work, but couldn’t find it. I’ll ask the recipient for his address to have it sent to him.

I need to wash off the mud that Bella got on my jeans and go to bed. Damn, it’s humid in here.

The dogs are totally flaked out. I had problems falling asleep, so I got up to have some oatmeal. Bella got up with me because she is My Dog.

Woke up several times during the night but got up with my alarm. I wasn’t moving fast enough for Gracie though and she pawed me. Oliver jumped on my back with claws outstretched. Ow. A quiet morning at home.

Got my groceries in and dogs out.

Today is meeting day at work. I was wondering how I could be so tired after sleeping all day yesterday, but meetings put me to sleep. I can barely keep my eyes open. I think that I’m going to bail after my last meeting.

The co-pay for my CPAP was only $44 and change. That’s a bit of good news.

Water did help my sleepiness a little but I still bailed out of work.

Oliver was already on my, er, “their” bed. He looks like a little angel. Appearances can be deceiving:) Slept until a little after 7 PM.

Fed us all. Logged into work for a little while. I need to get to bed early because I have physical therapy in the morning.

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!

I read an ad for a water filter on Facebook that said that energy shortages could affect water supplies. It was trying to scare us and it said that the filters are in short supply, but you can get water filters from REI! I decided that having one (from REI) is not a bad idea though. And I want to get a folding tricycle in case there’s an energy shortage. No, I don’t trust the way things are going. (I do have a bicycle but don’t know how to ride it. And a tricycle would be better for groceries and such.) Actually, a rain barrel is not a bad thing to have too. I can always use it to water the garden.

Overslept. I was scrambling to get myself together for my physical therapy appointment, but I decided to call in sick for the appointment and dental appointment, and I’m going back to sleep. Overslept my nap too. Jammed into the shower in case we needed to appear on camera for the presentation today. (We didn’t.)

The presentation today went well except for a moment of worry because the Zoom meeting was waiting for my boss to log on, who is at a conference in LA. One of my colleagues texted her and she logged on.

Napped after work and way overslept. Fed the fur faces. I’m making myself some food. Ate. I need to go back to bed soon.

Woke up around 4:30 AM. The dogs and cats were wondering why I was up so early. Took an Uber and met my colleague at 6:30 AM.

My colleague drove us up to the Chicago area (Elmhurst). The event went well, and no one was upset about the lunch choices that I chose.

I’m so freaking exhausted. I have a singing lesson at 7, but then I’ll be working towards going to bed. Singing went well. I left a couple of pages out scanning a song though. I need to scan it for next time.

Oliver and Lily: ”Good, you’re home. Feed us!” Fed us all. Gracie isn’t eating her food. Anyway, now I’ll post and get ready for bed.

Gracie woke me up at 6:30. I let the dogs out and went back to sleep. Then I drastically overslept. Fuck.

A lot of people at work seemed to have had a tough week. Yay, weekend.

Fed the cats and showered at lunchtime. I’m wearing used clothes and will change later before the concert.

It’s a good day for planting tomorrow–a high of 56 F/13C. It’s supposed to be windy though, which isn’t great for assembling the planters. I guess that I could put a brick on the instructions? I need to find my stapler to staple the instructions together. I checked on crops, and I should plant green beans as soon as I get the planters built. Sweet potatoes are a warm-weather crop, and I like them. Zucchini? I ordered bean seeds and sweet potato slips. I’m going to order my soil on Sunday. I’ve been looking at and saving green bean and sweet potato recipes. I bought a book on canning.

Hmm. I added a cooling comforter to my Amazon list (not expensive because Gracie chews stuff). But I’ve been sleeping without a comforter, so do I really need it? But that does give Gracie easy access to me to wake me up. I need to dig out my linen sheets.

I fell in love with a t-shirt that is artsy and would make a good travel t-shirt. But it’s $72! Yikes! I found the perfect shirt for my mom in the same catalog, sigh. I would get it for her if she was still alive.

Gracie came in at the last minute before I had to leave. Give me a heart attack, dog. I slammed their food down and left. I left early for the concert because the first floor is sold out, and I didn’t know what parking would be like. I found a spot though, and I’m in my seat chilling. It’s interesting to people-watch. Most people dressed up a little (including me—I’m wearing a linen top, pants, and blazer), some are wearing jeans, and some dressed to the nines. I’m in the balcony. Some people got seats right above the stage, which is something to think about for next time. Most of the people are older. I guess that classical music attracts an older crowd.

They did a good job building the venue. There are no bad seats.

This is my second time to see Joshua Bell. I saw him once in California.

The concert was fabulous. His wife has a lovely voice. He substituted the Massenet "Méditation" from Thaïs for one of the songs, which is one of my favorite violin pieces ever. He played it in honor of a friend of his from Indiana University who got a job at the University of Illinois, where we are. The friend had an untimely death while on tour. He commented that he was from nearby (he’s from Bloomington, Indiana) and said, “Go, Hoosiers,” and we all laughed. We gave them two standing ovations and they did one encore. Then he made a gesture with his hands that clearly said, “Enough “.

I’m sitting with a Diet Coke waiting for the traffic to clear out. Well, we ended with a bang with a tornado warning. The staff brought us down into the basement where the sets for plays are made. A nice person found me a chair.

I’m home now. It’s storming but not too bad now. At least I know that my phone makes a nasty noise when there is a tornado warning.