the_rck

The local libraries are planning to re-open for browsing on Monday. We'll probably keep doing our hold pickups at Traverwood rather than downtown. I dislike Traverwood's design (it's an attractive building with an attractive interior; I dislike it as a library where I, at 5'2", can see over the top of all of the shelving. I care considerably more about a library having a large and varied and immediately accessible collection than I do about pretty. Also, I can't browse anything on the bottom shelf at all).

Still, I'm not going along on book pick up these days and wasn't even before quarantine. Traverwood is more convenient by car than the downtown branch is. It's not much out of Scott's way home when he's coming home from work or picking up groceries.

Going downtown let me play Ingress, of course, and going to Traverwood has only about 5% the portal opportunities, but if I'm not going anyway, it's a much better choice.

I'm still playing Ingress. They added a 'drone' which can fly a certain distance from its starting point to another portal which I can then hack. I'm in an area where that lets me reach a lot of portals. Most of the time, the drone can only move once every hour, and during those times, I could just hack portals one step from home without repeating as long as I didn't care about who owned them (points for hacking portals belonging to the other team) or what sort of gear I get (most of the portals are unclaimed and therefor only yield things that I'll recycle).

There's a portal out by Scott's parents' place that I've owned since Labor Day 2019. I take this mostly as a sign that people haven't been playing Ingress nearly as much in low portal density areas. The nearest other portal is at least a kilometer away, and it's not a walking friendly road.

I'm assuming that people haven't been playing Ingress as much more generally. The turnover in ownership of the portals I see from home has been very limited and mostly involves the same 3-4 people.

Scott and I had our 28th wedding anniversary in late June. Since I'm 54 and he's 55, 28 years is more than half of our lives. It's kind of mind boggling. We didn't do much to celebrate.

I got Scott to sit with me and listen to the first four Murderbot books. He enjoyed them. He was also surprised how short they are. I think he hadn't realized they were novellas. I really enjoyed being able to share that with him.

Scott has taken up kayaking with our friend, Cheryl. They don't go every weekend, more like every other. Scott likes it enough that he asked his folks about the kayaks they were getting rid of. Those turned out to be too small for him, however, so he's hoping to buy one that fits.

I don't enjoy outdoor activities generally or being on the water more specifically, so I'm really glad that Scott's found company for this. He's enjoying kayaking as a form of exercise. He's been looking for a fun physical activity for a while, and I don't think he'd have tried it if Cheryl hadn't invited him along.

I was cranky and stressed while I was writing up some of these, and it probably shows. I decided not to try to edit for that, but it is a thing to be aware of.

( Dahl, Roald. Matilda )

( Dowd, Siobhan. The London Eye Mystery )

( Henry, Emily. Beach Read )

( Hiaasen, Carl. Squirm )

( The Inferno of Dante )

( Jenner, Greg. A Million Words in a Day )

( Klune, TJ. The House in the Cerulean Sea )

( Mass, Wendy & Rebecca Stead. Bob )

( Turner, Megan Whalen. The Queen of Attolia )

( Turner, Megan Whalen. The King of Attolia )

( Wodehouse, P.G. Jeeves and the Mating Season )


Started but not finished: 
( Almond, David. Skellig )

( Armstrong, K.L. and M.A. Marr. Loki's Wolves )

( Carter, Ally. All Fall Down )

( Hammer, Joshua. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu )

( Oshiro, Mark. Each of Us a Desert )

( Barnhart, Edwin. Ancient Civilizations of North America )

( Beasley, Cassie. Circus Mirandus )

( Brennan, Sarah Rees. In Other Lands )

( Chambers, Becky. Closed and Common Orbit )

( Cline, Eric H. Archaeology and the Iliad )

( Danker, Sean. Admiral )

( Gaskell, Elizabeth. Cranford )

( Hernandez, Carlos. Sal and Gabi Break the Universe )

( King, Laurie R. Beekeeping for Beginners )

( Nussbaum, Emily. I Like to Watch )

( Peters, Elizabeth. Crocodile on the Sandbank )

( Pogue, David. Abby Carnelia's One & Only Magical Power )

( Sanderson, Brandon. Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians )

( Wilson, Andrew R. Art of War )

( Wilson, C.L. The Lord of the Fading Lands )

( Wilson, C.L. The Lady of Light and Shadows )

( Wodehouse, P.G. The Man with Two Left Feet )


Started but not finished:
( Burgis, Stephanie. The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart )

( Cervantes, J.C. The Storm Runner )

( Forester, Victoria. The Girl Who Could Fly )

( McManus, Karen M. One of Us Is Next )

( Milton, John. Paradise Lost )

( Nix, Garth. Angel Mage )

( Ruby, Laura. The Shadow Cipher )

( Welford, Ross. Time Traveling with a Hamster )

I'm concluding, for the bazillionth time, that Overdrive audiobooks aren't ideal for how I do audiobooks. I tend to listen to one book and then switch to a different one then to a third and fourth without going back to finish the first one. It may be weeks or months before I'm ready to move through whatever I found off-putting or anxiety inducing in the first book.

This particularly happens when characters are doing something that's both in character and stupid. Or when the list of likely plot events in my head includes something going wrong in a way that will irritate me.

We went to Hudson-Mills Metropark Saturday night. Scott and I walked for about 20 minute. The opposing team in Ingress had a lot of fields anchored to a couple of portals there, and we took them down. I'm pretty sure that the fact that a lot of the fully charged level 8 portals that our side had around here are now ghosted is completely coincidental.

There was a police car doing a sweep through the parking area as Scott and I were walking back. They didn't stop, but I wonder if they would have if we hadn't been in sight, if it had just been Cordelia sitting in the car.

It got dark faster than Scott and I expected. Twilight is a good time for walking out there in terms of not running into other people, but it's less than ideal in terms of being able to walk very far safely.

I captured eight unique (new-to-me) portals and hacked eleven uniques. Right now, I'm mainly after points, but I like knowing that I've been somewhere new. I need about another 600K points to get to the next level.

(4 of 4)

Audiobooks started but not finished:

( Anderson, M.T. The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge )

( Arikawa, Hiro. The Travelling Cat Chronicles )

( Beasley, Kate. Lions & Liars )

( Capetta, Amy Rose. The Brilliant Death )

( Cavallaro, Brittany. A Study in Charlotte )

( Chokshi, Roshani. The Gilded Wolves )

( Day, Sylvia. Spellbound )

( Freeman, Dianne. A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder )

( Gailey, Sarah. River of Teeth )

( Gibb, Stuart. Spy School )

( Hearne, Kevin and Delilah Dawson. Kill the Farm Boy )

( Hernandez, Carlos Alberto Pablo. Sal and Gabi Break the Universe )

( Hoang, Helen. The Kiss Quotient )

( Howard, Kat. An Unkindness of Magicians )

( Johnston, E.K. Ahsoka )

( Kahn, Joshua. Shadow Magic )

( Kraatz, Jeramey. Space Runners 1: The Moon Patrol )

( Lim, Elizabeth. Spin the Dawn )

( McAnulty, Stacy. The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl )

( Nimmo, Jenny. Chronicles of the Red King 1: The Secret Kingdom )

( Peck, Richard. The Teacher's Funeral )

( Poston, Ashley. Heart of Iron )

( Thomas, Dylan. A Child's Christmas in Wales and Other Poems )

( Weir, Alison. Katherine of Aragon, the True Queen )

( Winthrop, Elizabeth. The Castle in the Attic )

(2 of 4)

( El-Mohtar, Amal and Max Gladstone.  )

( Emrys, Ruthanna. Deep Roots )

( Funaro, Gregory. Watch Hollow )

( Graff, Lisa. The Treehouse War )

( Greenblatt, Stephen. Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics )

( Gutman, Dan. Mission Unstoppable )

( Heyer, Georgette. Venetia )

( Kingfisher, T. The Twisted Ones )

( Korman, Gordon. No More Dead Dogs )

( L'Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time )

( Madden, Thomas. Medieval Mysteries: The History Behind the Myths of the Middle Ages )

( McCall Smith, Alexander. The House of Unexpected Sisters )

( McCall Smith, Alexander. The Colors of All the Cattle )

( McManus, Karen M. One of Us Is Lying )

( Milford, Kate. Greenglass House )

( Milne, A.A. The Collected Stories of Winnie-the-Pooh )

( Munroe, Randall. How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real World Problems )

This is mostly a 'yes, I'm still alive post.' I've not been checking in here recently or interacting much anywhere else due to high levels of anxiety intersecting with hand issues. Part of the mess is me needing to appeal my LTD review. Part of it is the usual suspects.

I sent a patient portal message to the woman I saw in orthopedics to ask what further options there are for my hands. I think surgery is what's left, and they may be reluctant to do that, especially given my sister's EDS-hypermobility diagnosis.

I've finally admitted that I can't really read paper books or use an ereader. 15 minutes of holding either leaves the backs of my hands and forearms feeling both semi-numb and burning/tingling which seems like a thing to avoid. I still want to read paper books, but I'm going to have to be realistic about which ones are worth expending time on.

I have experimented with reading long fic on my phone, and it's kind of horrible. The print is uncomfortably small, and I don't like the short lines. I tried reading some novels on my laptop via the library (Overdrive). That solves the tiny text and short line problems but leaves me without pagination or any other indication of how much I've read or how much I still have to go. Also, my hands don't like needing to click to go forward, and because of the type size I need, I have to click at least twice a minute. It tires my hands out a lot more than scrolling does. (I have tried iBooks for reading Project Gutenberg stuff. As with the browser reading, it's better than trying to hold a book, but it needs clicking, too. It's got a scrollbar at the bottom of the screen and pagination, but I'm not finding navigation particularly intuitive.)

Audiobooks run into a major problem on two fronts. The first is that I really need to be at home alone (no, earbuds/earphones aren't an option) for anything written for people older than twelve. The second is that I work on other things while I listen which leads to me losing focus and missing 5-30 minutes at a time. I end up bailing because I don't like the reader or because I can't finish listening before the due date. Audiobooks take so much longer than me reading text would.

Sadly, neither the library catalogue nor the Overdrive catalogue will let me sort books by length, so if I've got 10 pages of 'wish list' items, I have to open each record individually to find out the time investment. The longer the book is, the more likely I am to listen to half an hour to an hour and then bail.

I very much prefer getting audiobooks on CD from the library and then putting them into iTunes. I delete the tracks after I listen to them, but I often end up listening to a few chapters at a time over the course of many months. Overdrive books have a two week window, and since many have waitlists, it takes months to get access to a specific title again. Audiobooks on CD have tracks; if I hit a bit that I can't deal with, I can skip around and find out what happened so that I can decide whether or not I really need the stressful bit.

Not being able to skip forward and back easily is very near to being a dealbreaker for reading of any sort. I hate it with TV and movies, and the anxiety is worse when I don't know how long something is or how far into it I've gotten. The length of a narrative impacts the story flow considerably; I don't expect particular resolutions to subplots, but I do expect a certain mix of complications, mistakes, epiphanies, etc. that changes focus as the narrative progresses.

The difficulties with holding things apply also to things like plates and bowls. I need to change my habits around eating and actually put the plate/bowl on the dining room table. Doing that will increase my risk of spilling food on myself because the fork or spoon has to travel farther, but it may mean I eat more because I don't have to keep setting the dish down.

Since I've started and not posted a lot of entries in the last month, I'm going to stop this one here. There may be more today or tomorrow. I don't know what I'll be able to manage.

Scott wasn't up to going to work today. I've been pretty worried all weekend. He looks slightly better today, and the tessalon is helping with the cough, but he's still very obviously sick. He managed a couple of hours in the living room and is now showering before going back to bed.

I'm frustrated because my Overdrive holds dumped two romance novels on me during the last week. One is due in two days, and I can't listen to it while Cordelia's home. It is, of course, spring break. I'd rather not listen to it while Scott's home, either. Partly because of the content and partly because he doesn't understand that I can't listen to an audiobook while there's something else going on audibly. He'll turn on his own book or a video or something and expect that it won't matter.

Getting The Kiss Quotient again will take at least six months. I wish the library had these on CD because I can stick those into iTunes and delete tracks as I listen. I may take months to finish a book, but it means that me hitting a point where I can't go on for several days doesn't mean I can't ever go on.

I realized last night that one of my problems reading library books is that it's vastly easier for me to read things that are back-lit. I need dark text on a light background or the letters wobble badly. My eyes are doing weird things with being very sensitive to light while simultaneously needing extra light to be able to bring text into focus. I'm pretty sure that the reason I've never been enthusiastic about my ereader is that it's not back-lit, so this is a problem going back many years.

I occasionally read ebooks on my laptop, but there are so many things going on when I have my laptop open that I tend not to finish anything there.

I'm taking notes in preparation for two fics, first my assignment for the Wayback Exchange, second my promised fic for the Fandom Trumps Hate auction. The former has a hard deadline, so I'm hoping to finish it quickly. Right now, I just want to write something. I've managed small fragments of several different stories, but nothing's really caught fire since November.

I'm finding that Overdrive is a terrible way for me to listen to audiobooks. It doesn't fit my general approach because my tendency is to listen to an hour of this and an hour of that and then not go back to audiobooks for a week or three. Overdrive only gives me 14 days, and I mostly don't finish in time. It's not usually that I'm not interested, just that I can't handle that much all at once.

I'm still having days when I'm very light sensitive. Unfortunately, I often don't realize that that's the problem until my eyes ache. It feels like dry eyes but isn't.

Not that I don't have dry eyes-- At that appointment I had with an eye specialist a few weeks back, the doctor told me to apply heat to my eyes at least twice a day and then to massage my eyelids, top and bottom. Apparently I have problems with the oils that are supposed to keep my eyes from drying out. The heat is meant to melt those oils a bit and the massage to spread them to where they ought to be going naturally. He said that artificial tears won't help because it's not lack of fluid that's the underlying issue; it's that the oils are necessary in order for the water-based bits to do anything.

I can tell that the heat and massage are changing something, so I guess this will be part of my routine from here on out.

Tomorrow, we're getting together with Scott's family to celebrate our nephew's birthday. He's twenty this year. Scott's sister is still trying to find a restaurant that has food I can eat. Sadly, this one isn't looking promising. It's a sushi place. They don't seem to do anything else, and all of their rolls contain cucumber which makes me sick. I'm probably going to end up ordering the tofu appetizer and, maybe, the tempura appetizer. The fried elements are risky, but I'm hoping neither dish will have added seasoning.

( Beard, Mary. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome )

( de Bodard, Aliette. The Tea Master and the Detective )

( Jones, Kelly. Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer )

( Lackey, Mercedes. The Hills Have Spies )

( Leckie, Ann. Ancillary Justice )

( McCall Smith, Alexander. Precious and Grace )

( Nye, Bill. Unstoppable )

( Quick, Amanda. The Other Lady Vanishes )

( Tan, Shaun. Rules of Summer )

( Yang, JY. The Red Threads of Fortune )


Started but not finished:
( DuMont, Brianna. Thrilling Thieves: Liars, Cheats, and Cons Who Changed History )

( Schwartz, Virginia Frances. 4 Kids in 5E & 1 Crazy Year )