(no subject)

[the_rck]

I didn't write anything yesterday, just let ideas roll around in the back of my mind. Instead, I inventoried our canned goods cupboard and had Scott help me inventory the upstairs freezer. He had been trying to tell me that we had no frozen green beans upstairs, but we came up with four bags (and there are two in the basement freezer). I think the hard part will be getting Cordelia to update the inventory lists when she takes things out.

I threw out a number of things from the cupboard where we keep the cans. The cookie mix we bought back when Cordelia was two might conceivably still have been edible, but I rather suspect that the ingredients had gone off. It didn't seem worth holding onto it given that I've looked at it regularly over the years and constantly decided that I wasn't up to making cookies. I can't physically handle more than a single cookie sheet going in and out once.

I haven't decided whether to try to keep track of the contents of the fridge or of any of the other cupboards, but I might weed our herbs and spices. We have some still unopened bottles of various things from the spice rack a friend gave us as a wedding present twenty four years ago. If we haven't opened them in that time, we're not going to, and most likely they're not very flavorful any more.

I slept kind of poorly last night. I was in bed about seven and a half hours, but I'm not sure how much I slept. I'm feeling really kind of groggy now in spite of food and caffeine, but the headache I woke with has mostly receded. I got up this morning when Scott went to bed because that pretty thoroughly woke me.

Our friend, cherydactyl, came over for a few hours yesterday. We played and won a game of Forbidden Desert. Neither she nor I had played before. Scott had played once and so knew a couple of pitfalls that we needed to avoid to survive. After that, we hung out and talked for a while.

Both hands and my left elbow were hurting a lot most of yesterday. I think that the hands started up because I read a couple of volumes of manga. Those aren't heavy, but apparently my hands don't like even something that light. All of the reading stands I've seen online are either flimsy or horribly expensive. Because I do most of my reading in the living room, I either need a floor stand or have to keep moving my laptop (not sure to where) in order to put the stand on my table. Laying the book on the couch next to me and looking down at it to read tends to hurt my back and neck, so I'd rather not do that or a pillow on my lap.

My elbow may have also reacted to the reading, but I suspect that moving all of the cans out of the cupboard and then back in had an impact. I also vacuumed and washed the shelves. Those are down on the floor, so at least I wasn't reaching up.

I'm looking at signing up for darkestnightex this year. I didn't last year but did a pinch hit for it. I'm mainly hesitating right now because I can only see one request, so far, that I'd be happy to write. Everything else, even in fandoms I'd normally consider, is stuff I'd go out of my way to avoid matching on. It's mostly a case of not being able to wrap my head comfortably around the requested freeforms in combination with the requested characters/pairings. Even if I could write all of the requests for fandoms I'm comfortable with, I think there'd only be half a dozen possible matches. Of course, sign ups haven't been open for quite two days yet and run through the 11th. Other options may turn up, so I'm putting some time into coming up with my requests. The freeforms are particularly challenging for me.

Comments

[kyrielle]

Moving the cans may also have contributed to your hands. I wouldn't conclude the lightest books are a problem just from this - I'd try again when you haven't been moving cans and such.

Maybe put a book stand that looks really good on your wish list and see if anyone bites come Christmas/birthdays? :)

[the_rck]

I'm trying light books again today, so I'll see how it goes.

I've been looking at stand options. I think I want to try to get my FIL to make one because every single one I see has a reason why it won't work for me. The biggest issue is that none of them have good options for holding the books open if they're of a type that won't stay on their own. The best thing I saw in that direction would cover the bottom two inches of the page, and I'd have to pull the book out in order to turn the page and then put it back. Scott liked that one, but I really didn't.

[evalerie]

Would an e-reader help with the turning-pages problem? I'm not sure that it would, plus then there would be the problem with getting books for it, but maybe?

[the_rck]

I would still need a stand. The problem isn't so much turning the pages as supporting the weight of the book itself. A volume of manga isn't all that big/heavy, and I can read most in under 30 minutes. I haven't tested to see just what level of weight/duration makes my hands start hurting.

[fred_mouse]

The reading stand that I use is a recipe book holder (see here for a pic of the one that I have -- I just picked a listing on ebay, and there are others cheaper at the bottom of the page I viewed). It is robust enough for textbooks, and wide enough that I can balance it on my stomach/legs when lying in bed. I also use it for the laptop when lying on my back in bed, because it tilts the keyboard and screen nicely.

[the_rck]

That looks close to what I want, but I need to have either a shelf deep enough for me to put something* on it to hold the book open or some other method of keeping the book open. The shelf here doesn't look all that deep, but I can't tell for sure.

But, given these, my FIL might be able to make something like them but with a deeper shelf or some such.

Thanks!

*Most likely a long beanbag or something similar.

[fred_mouse]

Yeah, it works best for heavier bound books that will hold themselves open, and for larger format paperbacks. But I can usually hold a smaller format paperback for as long as my attention will last for the reading (about twenty minutes at the moment) before I wander off to do something else, so it hasn't been an issue. It is, however, very useful for the ipad, which I can't reliably hold for that long!