the_rck

I never ended up testing positive for Covid. Scott has recovered just fine.

We're starting to get used to Scott's new schedule. He's finding it a little weird to be a supervisor, but he's also finding that he likes it because he's confident in his knowledge of how the equipment works and in his general problem solving. He's also got decent people skills which is not a given for those with the other job requirements.

( Plumbing issues )

We're still not sure what we're doing for Thanksgiving. The main confusion is that, while Scott's family is discussing times and dishes, nobody has said where the gathering will be. Scott's sister's place is more centrally located and has the space for her to host, but if it's there, I can't go (her son brought a cat or two with him when he moved home after graduation). Scott's parents also have space, and they often host such things, but I don't know if they're up to it this year. They're a longer drive for us than Scott's sister's place is, about twice as far.

I had a three day migraine last week and lost track of my Ingress portal maintenance. That mostly means that the portal I had held for more than three years decayed and no longer belongs to anyone. I'm not heartbroken by this, but I had been maintaining it because I was curious about how long I could keep it. I held it for 1167 days. That achievement no longer earns badges because, in the early days of the game, deliberately hunting people's long held portals for spite was a Thing on both sides. There used to be a badge for holding a portal for a set number of days with levels at 3 days, 10 days, 20 days, 90 days, and 150 days. I never managed the 150 before the badge was retired, but I did get past 90 more than once.

I'm not managing as much writing this month as I'd hoped to. I'm reviewing canon for my Yuletide assignment and trying to finish a couple of fics that are fighting with me. The exchange for which they're treats keeps extending the deadline, so I keep plugging away at them. If the deadline had passed, I'd probably have moved to other things by now. I have a lot of WIP, after all.

( Stuff about Cordelia )

Cordelia's work has started requiring masks again. Cordelia's both irritated by wearing the mask and glad that her employer is taking things seriously.

Michigan State has let us know that they'll be requiring masks for at least the first few weeks of fall semester. They didn't commit to any end date, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was deliberate.

We need to get our house into company ready state by next weekend. Our SIL and older niece from Seattle are coming to town so that our niece can take a look at the University of Michigan campus. They'll be here less than 24 hours, but we need to come up with a place where they can sleep.

We used to put people on an air mattress in the basement, but Scott and Cordelia have ruled the basement 'too gross' for guests which leaves the floor in Cordelia's room and the floor in the living room. Probably the niece on a camping mat on Cordelia's floor and our SIL on the living room couch.

It'll be challenging because I'm used to being able to stay up quite late and then sleep equally late, so is Cordelia. Given the configuration of the house (1 story ranch, about 850 square feet), it's not possible for me to stay up while someone's trying to sleep in the living room, and Cordelia staying up while someone's trying to sleep on her floor has obvious problems.

Our rooms cluster tightly enough that light in the study, the kitchen, or the dining room means light in the living room. The two bedrooms and the bathroom have doors which will mitigate some light issues (but not all), and the doors are not quiet, not when they're all so tightly clustered. I can get from our bedroom doorway to the study or to Cordelia's room in one step. I can get to the bathroom in two and the living room in three. The study and the living room both connect to the kitchen/dining room, just at different points. (The basement stairs open between the study and the kitchen.)

I'm pretty sure that our SIL is expecting sleeping quarters in the basement. That's where we've always put them before. Of course, we don't have a usable air mattress any more, and we have a rather large number of boxes of books (I think we've got about 12 good sized boxes) that we want to donate as soon as the Friends of the Library start accepting donations again.

They're currently saying possibly the end of August, but I'm not holding my breath. Partly because I'm not convinced the reopening is going to last and partly because I suspect they'll open up and then get overwhelmed as 18+ months of donations get dumped on them in the first week.

Some of Cordelia's old books might work for either the nearby K-8 or for Skyline, but either will be a long wait for being able to donate. I don't think most of what I'm getting rid of would be useful for a school collection as it's mostly mass market paperbacks.

We don't have any good options for moving the books elsewhere. I suggested the garage, but there are two barriers there. The first is that Scott wants to be able to put the car in there every night. The second is that we'd have to jury-rig something to keep the boxes off the floor; all the rain that hits the driveway flows toward the back of the garage. We have some crude mechanisms for getting it out the back without rotting the baseboards, but that doesn't help anything on the floor.

Scott just bought an electric lawnmower that runs on a chargeable battery. He got tired of having to go out and buy gas to run the old lawnmower but hadn't wanted an electric mower that needed a cord. The leaf blower and snow thrower both use cords, but neither of them are designed specifically to chop up things that get underneath them.

We finally managed to repot the Christmas cactus that Scott's mother gave Cordelia more than a decade ago. It's needed repotting for at least five years, but my hands weren't up to the task. I also had a moderate sized chunk of the plant in water after the cleaning lady knocked it off the plant in January 2020. It flourished in that glass of water in spite of getting no sun whatsoever.

At any rate, I melted down over the damned plant about six months ago because nobody else would water it unless I stood over them and watched and because I couldn't safely move through the dining room to get to the plant on the window sill. I have always resented the plant but have been unwilling to abandon it because it's a living thing (I have no idea why I didn't throw out the piece I ended up rooting. No, I know. It was such a large part of the plant, maybe a third of it).

At this point, Scott's actually clearing the path back to the plant occasionally. I still have to ask, but he no understands that I can't walk through bags and boxes and can't move them without help. He also bought me two large pots and twice as much potting soil as we needed. We had that for about four months before I managed to catch him when he could help. I could do most of the work, but I couldn't get the plant out of the old pot or open the bag of soil.

I set up with a large box in the living room and put the empty pot and the bag of soil in the box. That let me sit on the couch and bend down to work which was about the only way I could have done it without injuring myself and without making a huge mess. The whole process took about 15 minutes with most of that dedicated to slowly water the repotted plants. The original plant looks so much healthier now that it's no longer root bound, and the rooted fragment seems to be happy.

I'm still looking for someone to take one or both plants. Cordelia says she doesn't want them, and I really don't either. I also don't think I can keep taking care of them even at the water once a week level. The dining room is a tight space, and it holds a lot of things that Scott really wants to keep but that don't have other homes. Since we don't eat out there, the area around and under the table ends up as storage for things like empty boxes that won't fit in that week's recycling and books that we can't currently donate and board games Scott wants to play but doesn't have opportunities to play.

Our local niece has said she's willing to take the plants, but she's still in college in a dorm room a ten hour drive from here. Well, she's half an hour away right now. I just don't think she wants to give up that much carrying space for plants, and if she's leaving them with her parents, I want their consent first. I'd feel better about giving her just one of them.

Kroger did substitute on our grocery order. We didn't end up with anything that will kill Scott, but one or two of the substitutions are things none of us will eat in place of things only I will eat. The ease of pickup was helpful, but us being able to read the labels matters a lot.

I haven't checked the bread yet, so I don't know if I'll be using the bread maker tomorrow.

And we didn't get any of the things that Scott habitually checks for to see if there are any sales. I don't have that list in my head, and I found the Kroger website horribly frustrating (and it crashed for 20 minutes while I was working).

I have a bit of a back up in terms of DVDs I need to watch and return to the library. I ended up not watching anything last week so that I could listen to some Overdrive audiobooks. Fortunately, the season set due today was renewable. I just have to get myself to turn on the TV.

I may have overdone things today. My wrists are bad, and my back is threatening to dump me face-first on the floor if I'm not sufficiently careful when walking.

The wrists are probably mostly down to having read a hardcover from the library, 450 pages in the last 48 hours. I typed a good bit yesterday, too.

I'm less sure about my back. I stripped the bed. I've washed three loads of laundry. None of those have come upstairs yet, so that's not a factor. Scott helped me get the fitted sheet on the bed, and I've managed the pillowcases. I haven't tried to deal with my flat sheet and blankets yet. (Scott and I have sufficiently different needs in terms of comfortable sleeping temperatures that we don't share flat sheets and blankets. It's just now because I'm constantly too warm instead of because I'm constantly too cold.)

Scott did the grocery and library pick up today. He mowed the lawn which required shifting all of the stuff in the front yard.

We're in that annoying state between summer and full on fall when I can't predict whether or not having the ceiling fan on over night will be a necessity or a misery. Scott generally doesn't have trouble either way. I do, but getting out of bed to flip the switch requires taking off my c-pap gear and then putting it back on again. Also, turning the fan on risks turning the overhead light on because I'm not likely to remember whether or not the light was on.

Fan and light are on the same switch, and I can't reach the cord for the fan. The light has a long pull cord so that I can find it in any light and so that I can reach it at all. We've discussed alternatives for the fan pull cord that will still make it obvious which is which, but Scott can reach it when he's standing at the sides or the foot of the bed, so I don't think he quite gets how difficult it is for me to reach. It's also something that's an issue for a few weeks every year, non-consecutive weeks even.

The household repair I most desperately want, though, is new back steps. The current ones are decaying from the inside out, and bits that look safe to step on have given out under our feet. Snow and ice will not improve footing. Scott says he wants to get something custom made, something wooden instead of concrete. Given cider season, though, I don't know that we'll be able to do anything before spring.

I've tried looking online to see what can be done about steps, but neither Lowe's nor Home Depot have been helpful. I very much don't want stackable pieces because that's what we have now. The top step has wobbled for years, and I'm nearly certain that's due to the same freeze-thaw cycles that destroy local roads and sidewalks.

I'd like to ban use of the back steps entirely until we have a replacement, but I'm not convinced that either Scott or Cordelia will listen to me.

I'm at 1500 words for a 5000 word minimum story that's due this weekend (Fandom 5K). I've got the characters in the same place and am ready for Plot to happen. I just don't yet have hook for it. I'm confident that I can finish the story, but there may be some marathon writing sessions at the end.

I'm in the middle of a long Overdrive audiobook with two more checked out and needing my attention. One of those isn't quite as long and is a thing I should be able to get again without much delay. The second is long and has a waitlist as long as my arm. I can listen to some things while I write, but I tend to miss parts of the story. I think I won't mind that so much with the current book, but I would mind with the other two.

We're still in that unfortunate part of the year when I'm too warm to do without the ceiling fan but get very cold with all that wind blowing on me. The fan in the living room is adjustable via dial, but some lower speeds make grinding noises as the fan spins. The fan in the bedroom has three or four different speeds, but changing requires pulling on a cord that's a bit difficult for me to reach, enough so that I don't bother even when I'm uncomfortable. (We haven't lengthened it reasons that make sense to us but are likely to confuse other people. Mainly, that it's one of two cords right there and the one I'm less likely to need to reach easily and quickly.)

I still haven't adjusted to Scott's new schedule. I'm not sure how long it will take. This morning, I fell back to sleep after he left and woke less than an hour later with reflux. I have no idea why reflux at that point since it had been at least seven hours since I'd had anything but water and my normal medications. I had to take my before breakfast meds, wait half an hour, and then eat something in order to settle it. I went for bread as easy and likely to work. It did, but I still had a hard time getting back to sleep, so I think I only had about five hours of sleep during the ten hours I was in bed.

I'd probably have slept later, but I had something I needed to do at 1:00. That's when Imperfect Foods lets us look at what they're planning to send us and allows for alterations. Going online even ten minutes late can mean that half of the goods they were offering are sold out. If I'm fast, there will still be some things completely gone, but I have better odds, generally.

I would prefer that Scott and Cordelia have input on the order, too, but Cordelia's unwilling, and Scott's now unavailable until around 4:00. This leaves me trying to figure out whether or not he actually wants, say, celery (I can't eat it, not even in small amounts). They don't have the same things every time, so it's hard to make a get-this-every-time list. I've also mentioned to Scott that we should compare prices on a few things that we can also get at Kroger.

Naturally, we both forget by Saturday. Then it comes up again on Monday. I think we're kind of bad at this planning thing. In a different time, I'd look at the online prices on the Kroger website, but those no longer reliably track with in-store prices.

I suspect that Imperfect Foods would inspire more expensive impulse buys from us if Scott didn't have the alpha-galactose allergy. They've often got sausages, bacon, and various cuts of beef. They've also usually got vegan alternatives, but those tend to be priced high enough not to be in our budget. Also, a lot of them add celery and/or rosemary for flavor and so will make me quite sick. (And, yes, buying boxed or canned broth has become vastly more exciting in also sorts of risky ways).

We ordered food from Totoro today. They're on GrubHub now rather than just asking that people pickup purchases. Scott probably would have gone to pick up food there if I'd asked, but their location is awkward for that because parking nearby is difficult. Pickup would really need two people, one to drive and orbit the block, the other to run in and get the food.

Scott did go and pick up a bubble tea order. We placed it online and paid that way. Then they assigned us a time to enter the shop to get our tea for carry out. I didn't go along, nor did Cordelia. I don't think it's something we'll do often.

Scott has taken the day off for my birthday. Tomorrow, he goes back on first shift, hopefully permanently. I expect the transition to be awkward for him and for me because we'll need to go to bed so much earlier. It will also throw my eating schedule into disarray again. We've been trying to shift things over the long weekend, but I don't think we're even close.

I'm seriously considering trying to stay up in the living room after Scott goes to bed. I might be better off doing that, especially if I can make the transition out there earlier than 10 p.m. That's Scott's target time for going to bed, but he's often watching shows that don't end before that or otherwise distracted enough to lose track of the time. I usually stay in the bedroom because I'm not interested in his shows or in Cordelia's.

Moving out there feels like a huge chore, though, and I tend to have more neck/back trouble when I sit on the couch than when I sit on the bed. On the other hand, my laptop is much happier on the table that I use out there than it is in the bedroom; it's less prone to overheating.

We're starting to consider a laptop and printer and such for Cordelia to take to college in 2021. There's sufficient money in her savings account to cover the expense, and I'd much rather spend it before we do the FAFSA paperwork. The money's Social Security that she's received based on my disability and is meant to pay for her living expenses.

(We currently use a bit more than half of it every month to help with household expenses. The rest stays in the account and comes out when we have unexpected expenses like the sewer line replacement or the furnace or what-have-you. I'm not sure how we'll adjust to the sudden disappearance of that money when she turns 18, especially when it will come with needing to deal with college expenses.)

My hands have been quite bad the last week. I've been tempted to put a sock on my right hand to discourage me from trying to grasp things with my thumb. My left hand is doing better, but I suspect that that's largely because I'm right handed and keep trying to do things on that side instead of on the left.

After a week of using the gel for rosacea, the rash on my face, neck, and shoulders is unchanged. The rash on my arms is worse. We took some pictures of my face, neck, and chest to send to my primary care doctor, but I haven't sent them yet. The rash on my chest still looks as bad as it did in terms of redness but has flattened. I think the rosacea medication had something to do with that.

We had a guy in last week to do the AC tuneup. That was straightforward enough. Cordelia stayed in her room. Scott and I wore masks. The technician wore a mask. He was the same guy who usually comes, so we didn't have to show him where things were which made keeping a safer distance more feasible. The company did check in ahead of time to ask if anyone in the house was sick.

Scott's family is kind of pushing for some sort of face to face gathering. We've been putting them off because I really can't handle doing it outside and because Scott is a potential vector for infection. Between work and shopping, he's going out at least six times a week. I really don't think his parents understand that the risk is real.

I haven't done much writing recently. I keep starting up other tasks and telling myself that I'll get to the writing soon. I need to remember that 'soon' is not actually a firm measure of time. I have an exchange assignment due soon and it's somehow not writing itself.

We made a pot pie yesterday. It involved a lot of me standing next to the stove and stirring things, so I think that we need to plan better. I had Cordelia working on the green beans because I didn't think my hands were up to the fussy work, but she took a very long time. I managed the carrots and potatoes and mushrooms.

We used ground turkey because I didn't want to try to work with raw chicken. I did the squash/Bisquick/shredded cheese mix for the topping. It all came out tasty.

I was extremely shaky by the time the soupy part of things was done. I had to drink some orange juice and then do the topping while I was sitting down. The OJ stopped the trembling. I was still exhausted, though, so I was extremely glad to get everything into the oven without my having dropped anything.

During that time, Scott was cleaning the dryer vent and all of the furnace filters. Replacing the filter for the humidifier needs to go on the list for once we can go out again. We shouldn't need the humidifier again for several months, so it can be put off. We just don't want to start it up again without a new filter.

Today has been another all day headache. I'm still pretty sure that it's stress. I got a good night's sleep last night, and I've eaten and hydrated. None of my other triggers apply.

But I do routinely get headaches from knowing that there are things that need doing but that I can't even start in on yet. My guess is that this is largely about all of the disruption to Cordelia's junior year in terms of campus visits, the SAT and ACT, and all the rest.

I texted our cleaning lady today and asked her not to come. I told her that we'd be okay and that she shouldn't risk herself. She thanked me for that. We're within walking distance of where she lives (she lives next door to where we vote), and I'm sure that she'd have come if I'd said we needed her help, but we can get by. If nothing else, Cordelia is capable of doing the required work.

Our cleaning lady is in her 60s, and she has other clients who really, really need her assistance for things like food preparation and bathing. She can't drive, so she'll need to use the bus to get to those people. Her coming here adds to risk for us, for her, and for her other clients.

Our oven has decided that it's time to start leaking gas. The stove top is fine with no odor of gas, but when I tried to bake some meat, the oven heated properly, but the reek of gas got as far as the bedrooms. I turned off the oven and aired things out by opening the front door wide. The air cleared within about ten minutes. I took a flashlight into the basement and looked at the pipes. Nothing down there seems to be leaking; the furnace, dryer, and hot water heater were all running without any noticeable odor.

The oven was fine on Tuesday when I made biscuits.

I'm in that stage of convalescence when I *can* do some things but need to stop and think about how much of the day is left and what else I may have to do. That is, bringing the laundry upstairs is possible; it's just not a great idea because it probably means not eating lunch and might mean not eating dinner.

Our absentee ballot applications are in the mailbox, awaiting the mail carrier. I'm debating ordering stamps online versus just going to the post office and buying some. The downtown post office is on the way between where the bus route starts/ends and the library, and I'll be going down there tomorrow morning. I'm just not 100% sure I'll be taking the bus. Still, if I don't, Scott will be able to get stamps on Wednesday. I'm not sure how long it takes the USPS to deliver stamps purchased online, but I can't think they'd get here before tomorrow's mail delivery.

One or the other of us needs to buy more bus tokens for Cordelia. Those are a PITA because the bus company only sells them in bags of 100 (full price tokens can be purchased in smaller quantities. These are half fare and meant for kids and people who meet certain income and/or disability guidelines). Otherwise, I'd just send Cordelia to buy her own since she'll be downtown tomorrow afternoon and again on Wednesday afternoon.

The hard to do things are still at the top of my to-do list as they have been for weeks. I was hoping to have Scott sit with me while I worked on them, just for moral support and help focusing, but he was busy yesterday evening with bills and with canceling Comcast. I'm still not up to sitting in the living room for more than an hour or two a day.

I've successfully used my c-pap the last two nights. Both mornings, however, I've awoken more tired than I expected to be, so I'm not sure this is a net win. I'm still taking half a tablet of halcion at night rather than two tablets. I think I'll manage to keep that dosage, but I don't think I'm going to be able to drop it entirely. I need that and the Tylenol in order to sleep around the pain.

Also, once Scott starts working 2nd shift, sleep is going to be harder to come by. He'll get off work some time after 11 p.m., have a half hour drive home, and still need to eat and shower before bed. I can't sleep through him getting home. His current plan is to get up with Cordelia in the mornings at about 5:45 a.m. I think this is a bad plan as it means he'll only get about four and a half hours of sleep a night, but it is the only scheme by which he'll get to interact with her at all during the work/school week, so... I don't know.

My best guess for my sleep is that I'll sleep from about 1 a.m. to when Scott and Cordelia get up. I may be able to fall back asleep again if I don't get out of bed during that hour that Cordelia's getting ready to leave. I can manage the going back to sleep thing some mornings now. I just think it will depend on what Scott does when Cordelia leaves. My impression is that he'd like to be up for the day then because it gives him time to do things. Theoretically, at least.

The front door is having issues with not latching properly. It needs double checking because it will look shut but pop half open when the screen door shuts (the screen door has a separate issue with not closing properly unless it's pushed firmly). It will still look closed from the outside, but it will be half an inch to an inch off from shut. It's getting cold enough that this is going to be a real problem. I don't want to have to keep getting out of bed to check after Cordelia leaves in the morning.

I'm actually half thinking that I should ask Cordelia to go out the back door in the mornings. Even when the driveway is a sheet of ice, that would add less than a minute to her walk to the bus, and it would avoid the issue of the front door.

I'm planning to weed my shelf of unread books. If I've had a book for a decade without even taking it down and opening it, I think it's time to pass the book on to someone who will read it. I know of seven little free libraries within six blocks of here, so when I'm up to walking around, I'll try to make some trips to leave some books at each.

I'm starting with some mass market paperback romances. I don't think that books are going to become magically easier to hold or that my general, anxiety-related difficulties with finishing books are going to evaporate. They haven't done in the last twenty years. (The revelation that I don't read many books or watch TV actually shook my mother. She thought I was still reading a book a day, minimum, because that's fundamental to her image of me.)

Today was two appointments and a lot of walking. I feel like I got very little done. I still haven’t finished the paperwork, and at least one thing that’s due this week is still only in bus pass condition.

For Ingress, I’m getting closer to the badges I need. I need one to make 12th level. Then, all I need for 13th is a single additional gold badge. I have the necessary points already.

As far as PT, I really wish that I could see this woman once every month or every three or six months. It would help with management and mitigation. These aren’t fixable problems. It’s just that me on my own means I don’t have a way to tell when things slowly change for the worse. It’s the boiling frog thing. It’s also hard to tell which gradual changes are just normal aging. I realized today that the hand issue is more about that bone not being anchored at the bottom than about joint pain. When I’m not careful, the bone tries to go away from whatever presses on that part of my hand. This doesn’t affect movements that only need the knuckle joints of the thumb. I’m pretty sure that surgery is going to be my only hope for improvement.

Yesterday I made myself cry by removing pillowcases for washing. I had to ask Cordelia to put the clean ones on.