(no subject)

[the_rck]

Physical therapy went pretty well yesterday. My therapist told me what to do about the lymphedema in my side. I think she was actually sort of pleased to see it because it means I’m getting the fluid out of my breast. I just have to massage my side to get the last bits of it to move along to where they’re meant to be. We agreed that I would schedule a return visit in mid-April. Right now, it’s just me doing more of the same, and me going in isn’t really doing anything but giving me an hour with a woman who’s fun to talk to and a bit of hacking Ingress portals (the hospital has about a dozen due to public art and memorial plaques).

I found out from the cabbie on my way home that the other cab company, Yellow Cab, that used to operate in Ann Arbor is now gone. Apparently, the owner wasn’t paying his employees what he was legally obligated to. Someone reported that, and they lost the federal contract for the A-Ride which is a low cost cab for people with disabilities (I’m allowed to use it for certain things. Unfortunately, none of my current medical stuff is in places I can get to using that. Basically, if the #1 or #2 bus route goes there, I can’t use the A-Ride, and, well, I’ve set up all of my usual medical stuff over the past twenty years so that I can get to it using those routes. It’s just that I haven’t been able to take the bus in the last year which has meant a fortune on cabs). Losing the contract meant they couldn’t keep up payments on the cabs they’d bought in the last couple of years, so those got repossessed. At any rate, Blue Cab is now the only cab company in town.

I’m not quite sure what to do about our cleaning lady. She’s putting in a lot of extra time that she won’t let me pay her for. As far as I can tell, it’s because she considers us family rather than clients. We originally hired her, at the recommendation of someone we knew who was also disabled (she has since passed away), because I was physically unable to change the sheets in Cordelia’s crib, so she’s been coming here every week for just shy of thirteen years. She has stated that she considers Cordelia her granddaughter.

Cordelia, however, doesn’t want to interact with her at all and hasn’t for the last couple of years. I’m not willing to force her to do so beyond saying hello and goodbye and generally being polite. I’m not sure how much of it is Cordelia wanting privacy (there’s a bit of a tug of war over the question of cleaning Cordelia’s room. Cordelia doesn’t want to do it, but she also very much doesn’t want anyone else doing it). I would like Cordelia to learn how to change her own sheets, but she has a loft bed now with a difficult mattress, and I’m not sure whether it’s something she actually could do herself. She’s of the opinion that her sheets never need to be changed. The cleaning lady and I think that they need changing every two to four weeks (two being preferable but not always possible).

Our DVR may be dying. Last night it claimed it was recording Legends of Tomorrow, but the episode is nowhere to be found. It did actually record The 100 (Scott watches that. I can’t handle the violence, so I don’t), at least, but we don’t know what happened with Legends of Tomorrow. The record light was on while it aired. The DVR thought it was recording the show. It just… didn’t. I think Scott will resist the idea of getting the dratted thing serviced or replaced. He’s been wanting to get rid of cable for quite a long time, but every time he prices out getting the things he wants to watch in other legal ways, he’s unhappy with that cost, too.

I’m debating ordering food for delivery for lunch today. I’ve been kind of wanting to all week and then not doing it because I don’t want to spend money and don’t want to make the required phone call (the place I want to order from doesn’t take orders online. They have their menu online but no way to order there). There are two places I could order from online, Jimmy John’s (sandwiches) and Cottage Inn (pizza), but neither of them are really what I want. Because we’re in a college town, there are services that will deliver food from just about any place in town, but every time I look at them, I balk at the price. I’m not willing to pay $10-$15 above the $8-$10 the food would cost if I went in to get it, and that’s without considering the need to tip. I’m willing to pay $2-$4 for delivery and about the same in tip, but… I need to decide soon because I’d like to eat in the next hour and a half. I don’t know.

I have decided to sign up for Camp NaNo for April. I set my goal at 15000 words for the month and left it open ended which projects I’d work on. I’d like to finish something, but I’d be happy with that much progress on my stories even if I don’t finish anything. I’m going to participate in a private cabin being organized by someone I know. I don’t know most of the participants, but I trust the organizer.

I’m still debating wipbigbang. Sign ups for that don’t end until 3 April, so I have time to consider. I’m pretty sure I could write something by the 10 July deadline. I’m just not sure about actually finding the end of a story that’s more than 7500 words. I’ve only managed that a couple of times. I can write shorter pretty easily, and I can write things that go on with no end in sight.

I’m absolutely sure that I couldn’t finish Rheotaxis (Weiss Kreuz) or Auguries of Innocence (Harry Potter) or the Rurouni Kenshin AU in the time available.

I’m too vague on what I want to do with the Weiss Kreuz meets Cthulhu story to be willing to commit to that.

Occlusion (Weiss Kreuz) is an utter mess that would require untangling and serious, serious world building and might get too long to finish anyway.

I’ve got a couple of smutty Weiss Kreuz things started that might be able to go the right length, but… I’m not sure I can write sex at the moment, and both of those are difficult to get a handle on because the characters keep getting more complicated.

I don’t think there’s any way that the old Amber darkfic that I haven’t touched in years would end up long enough.

I’ve got a couple of Narnia stories I started last year or the year before, but I don’t think either would get long enough, and both beginnings are wrong enough to be dead ends. I can tell that without having any idea what’s wrong.

Torsion is fairly short stories in an arc, and I actually don’t know what comes next. There’s a ton of world building that I’ve been avoiding by keeping the focus small, so I don’t think I can pick that up right now.

Apotheosis has logistics that I can’t seem to work out, and I think it would be way too long since it has to parallel most of Kapital and go beyond it.

Of the three things I’ve started this year, the Narnia story will be too long, and I think the Amber story will be, too. The Weiss Kreuz one is likely to be too short unless I pad it a lot.

I’ve got at least another fifty (I haven’t actually counted) ideas/prompts that I’ve not written even a word of, and I suppose I could pull one of those out and start it right now.

I think I’m talking myself out of this…

By the way, do readers want me to cut tag more of my posts? I tend not to think of it, but I babble sometimes. I don't generally want to deal with cut tags as a reader because my browser doesn't deal with them in a way that works for me. (I have to scroll back and close every cut when I finish reading because, when my browser-- Chrome-- decides to close them, it deposits me at a different point on the page than where I was which means I have to find my place again and frequently end up missing things.) If it would help other people, though, I'm willing to try to cultivate the habit.

Comments

[zhelana]

I don't like cut tags for similar reasons as you mentioned.

[the_rck]

::nods:: It's pretty annoying.

[lemon_badgeress]

...so it's Chrome and not me. That's good to know. >_>

[the_rck]

Yeah, it's Chrome. I think it wants to put me back the same distance down the scrollbar as I was before without acknowledging that the amount of text involved has changed.

[maramcreates]

I don't have a problem with long posts being left uncut, so no worries on my front.
I use Firefox (and Firefox based) browsers and haven't had the problem you're describing. That said, I use cuts for images (which you don't ever do, from what I can tell), and to organize content for readers. I guess this means that I'm not doing chrome users any favors....
Does clicking on the 'expand all cuts' triangle (or whatever it's called) help you?

[the_rck]

The main problem with cut tags and Chrome is that Chrome will close all of them if I leave the page (to comment or to read comments generally). When I go back, Chrome seems to helpfully put me back at the same point on the scrollbar as I was when I left, but because there's all of the cut tags that are now closed, it's a lot farther down the page in terms of the text than where I was when I left.

I haven't tried the expand all cuts thingy, but I suspect that, as long as Chrome closes all open cuts when I go away and come back, that wouldn't help.

And, yeah, I don't ever post images. I've not ever done the work to figure out how. I only ever take photographs if someone asks me to specifically, and I don't draw/paint/whatever, so my motivation to figure it out is pretty much zero. That said, if I ever do post a picture, I will cut tag it. I've had too many occasions where someone else posted an image that was too wide and made reading my circle harder than it had to be. At least, DW only wobbles a bit on the screen. LJ has a tendency to extend all text to run the new width of the screen as dictated by the overly large image which means either a ton of side scrolling or missing half of every line of text. At this point, I've disabled images on LJ and only click on them if I know the poster is careful about such things.

[maramcreates]

I see what you mean about Chrome. I just tried using the 'expand all cut tags' option and that didn't do much, but I did look at the settings, and you can set your account to automatically show what's behind a cut (in journals; in your reading page; or in both instances). The drawback, of course, is that you will never have the cuts there (assuming that triggers and such are behind the cuts).

[trepkos.livejournal.com]

I personally don't mind if there are no cut tags, except for pictures. Have you asked Cordelia why she doesn't want to interact with the cleaning lady?

[the_rck]

I've never posted a picture, and I don't think I ever will. I'm not willing to do the work of figuring out how to do it. I don't take pictures or make pictures, so I'm not very motivated. But I would definitely cut a picture because I'm pretty sure that I'd be likely to size it wrong somehow and break people's friends' page display.

I'm not entirely sure that Cordelia can articulate it. It seems to be a general not wanting to be bothered. I think there may also be a component of her having realized that we pay our cleaning lady to be here and not really knowing how to deal with that. It's a weird half-business and half-personal thing. People usually fall into one category or the other. We never left her with a paid babysitter (mostly due to us not really having anywhere we wanted to go out that she couldn't come along for), so she doesn't have that for context.

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

Is there any local agency addressing this transportation issue? Our public bus offers services for people to get to doctor's appointments. i don't know what there circumstances need to be to qualify.

That WIP Big Bang sounds like an excellent idea. I have a fic I haven't touched in years that mocks me and makes me feel like a failure. I need to do a re-read and see if I'm inspired.

I don't mind no cut tags.

...giving me an hour with a woman who’s fun to talk to and a bit of hacking Ingress portals (the hospital has about a dozen due to public art and memorial plaques Those are both good things.

[the_rck]

The A-Ride program is pretty much all there is. People with certain types of disabilities can ride the main buslines for free (I can), and an A-Ride scheduled at least a day in advance is only $3 ($6 if Cordelia's with me. Though, as she gets older, they're giving me more trouble about that because they think she's older than she is. There's a different pay rate for carers, but they're only allowed if the person can't travel without them). I think a same day ride is $5.

But the A-Ride only goes to where the buses go, so there's a huge swath of medical specialty clinics affiliated with the local hospital that are a couple of miles beyond where the A-Ride will go. My daughter's pediatrician has also moved out there. It costs us $17 (including tip) each way for a cab.

The A-Ride contract is now with the surviving cab company. I'm hopeful that they'll do well with it. A-Ride is a shared ride program, so one can't predict how long it will take to get to one's destination because there may be detours to pick up or drop off other people.

The old company wasn't reliable about coming within a reasonable window. There were a couple of times I prescheduled with an hour between my requested pick up and the beginning of the appointment and didn't get picked up in time. The old company also wouldn't call to let people know that the cab had arrived (the new company reliably does which was the original reason I switched to using them when I needed a regular cab). If you failed to come out within whatever window the driver chose to allow, the cab left without you.

I have heard that there's a Jewish social services organization that will help with medical transportation for people of all (or no) faiths, but I haven't explored that.

Oh, and people who have Medicare cards can get a special pass to ride the fixed route buses for half price.

To be honest, for Michigan, we have excellent public transportation. There's been a bias against public transit for a very long time in Michigan because a lot of people traditionally viewed it as betraying the car industry and taking money away from the folks who worked in those factories.

[1-rhiannon-1.livejournal.com]

I agree on the cost of delivery food! Our local delivery service has a ridiculous delivery fee, on top of a gas fee and a tip for the driver. It's nuts!

[the_rck]

I'm pretty sure the market for this service is students who have more money than they know what to do with. The local university is horrifically expensive, even in state, in spite of being a public university, so we get a lot of undergraduates with money.

I really regret the cost of the local university because my daughter wants to go there, and I don't see any way we can afford it without about $100000 in loans, and I don't think any school is worth that, especially not for a kid who has maintained for eight years that she wants to teach.

[hamsterwoman]

Not fussed by cut tags either way (though that's annoying that your browser doesn't handle them well for reading).

The situation with Cordelia and the cleaning lady is awkward... I'm sort of like your daughter in that I don't particularly want to clean myself but also feel weird paying people to do it (thus: controlled chaos at home). But it's definitely a very odd feeling when a person of ambiguous status has known you for so long...

[the_rck]

I'm not sure there is a solution to Cordelia and the cleaning lady except time. Cordelia's about to turn thirteen, and, well... I don't expect her to get easier to get along with any time soon, rather the opposite.

Before Cordelia started school, she used to like to 'help' the cleaning lady. We bought her a little broom, and the cleaning lady gave her a little apron. It was very cute.

[snogged.livejournal.com]

I think Jimmy John's has a ridiculous delivery charge! It's nearly $1.50 extra for each item they deliver...and they note that in the tiniest print ever on their menu.

[the_rck]

Sadly, in terms of local delivery options, that still leaves them cheaper than anybody else. And they're a *lot* faster than the other two options. They tend to get us food within twenty minutes while other places take a minimum of forty and often longer.

I just get annoyed with the forms on their website because they won't permit tabbing between fields. Also, they start complaining that the phone number/credit card number/email address you're in the process of typing in isn't valid (well, two or three characters in, it wouldn't be, would it?).

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

I don't mind really about tags or no tags. And good luck figuring out what to write about. :-D

[the_rck]

Thanks!

[carbonel]

If you have good broadband Internet, PlayOn might be a decent alternative for cable. It's basically a legal way to download and save TV items that you already have access to. So anything on network TV, and it has an optional feature to remove commercials. I bought a lifetime subscription for $80 or so. I'm not sure they offer that anymore, but it's only about $5/month for an ongoing subscription.

The other thing I really like is the free MyMedia option, which allows you to stream stuff that you've already downloaded to your computer from said computer to your TV. It took some fiddling with my antivirus to make it past the firewall, and if the computer is already doing something intensive (backup or antivirus scanning), it tends to get a bit cranky, but it beats sneakernet for .avi and .mp4 files all hollow.

You really do need good Internet to make it work, though.

[the_rck]

We do not have good internet, unfortunately. We have DSL from Earthlink, and it's pretty slow. Our fast options are either AT&T or Comcast, and both have horrible reputations for bad service and for jacking up prices once you've signed up.