RantWoman Sleeps--or Not

RantWoman really does not CARE whether readers want to know the details of write blog post with only screen reader turned on, turn off screen reader so screen enlarger will launch correctly turn screen enlarger voice off and turn screen reader back on. RantWoman does not care wither readers are interested. It is part of planet RantWoman. Sometimes rantWoman comes back and edits with more visual input. Sometimes not. RantWoman is trying to get to more fluency in eyes entirely free mode. New CPAP mask was a brilliant idea. RantWoman also got almost 6 nours of sleep and this despite eating both hard boiled eggS and cheese late at night. Cool air also helps though RantWoman woeke up wiht an interesting dream possibly tied to the word Montana in a weather report. RantWoman woke up with a dream about needing to cross a snowy slushy wide road with snow plow piiles along the crub and along the middle of the road. RantWoman thought she was only going to be able to cross by climing over the

Barely 4 hours of sleep in bed because... drum roll please... Skin irritation around face in shape evokative of CPAP mask. Holy Crap! At least I am not losing sleep over my report draft of which is almost done.

Sttill experimenting about relying even less on vision. More things to whine about. More or less well exercised from long list of transit fiascoes on way to memorial. See other blog. Memorial was about what I expected but I showed up to represent. Sleep: fell asleep while writing and the automated shutdown schedule made me decide to go to bed. Actually in bed from arounb 1 till a little after 4. Get up pee, feed cat. Breakfast I think and back to bed after 5. sleep until after 6. Get up pee. Got back to bed and score another 1.5 hours. Almost feel rested. Definitely have things to do and dealing feels better than trying to lounge around. Write report and then do chores. FUN!

RantWoman achieved about 1.5 hours of sleep in various chair stints interrupted by phone and friend dropping by. RantWoman settled for fetching a stray shopping cart but did not get trash taken out before deciding just to go to bed. RantWoman thinks She was close to 4 hours in bed. RantWoman is not clear whether she went back to bed. In other words total smaller than preferable.

FWIW Cheetos seem not to be as distruptive to sleep as wholesome homemade carrot cake. Cheetos before bedtime should still be a RARWE  occurrence. Also a good idea to remember to hit the Sleep button on hte talking book player so one drops off within 15 minutes instead of waking up 1.5 hours later with the book still playing. The two Koreas were negotiating the 1988 Olympics and North Korea was having to put up with S Korea trying to have better relations with all of N Korea's allies from the communist countries. I can only imagine the interpreter gigs for all of that. Ah, but sleep: 1.5 hours plus back to bed for another about 3 hours plus another 45 minutes.

Decently productive morning working on end of project report. Enough pieces are settling out and appropriately appreciated that I can calm down about things not going so well. Wired and tired from conference call mid afternoon. The carrot cake turned out lighter, a lot less oily and definitely not as cloyingly sweet as actual recipes. By actual recipes RantWoman means as exactly on the internet as opposed to what RantWoman remembered and made up.3 cups of grated carrots seemed like a lot but was just perfect.  The 12 oz can of crushed pineapple plus juice helped. Probably it would have helped to grease and flour instead of just grease the baking pans. RantWoman baked in bread pans instead of something bigger. This worked great All of this is on the sleep blog because starting the carrot cake at about 9:30 and then snacking when the cake came out of the oven is not optimal for sleeping. Fall asleep in chair until about 12:30. Go to bed. Wake up before 3. Some sleeping in chair

Warning: RantWoman is editing without glasses and screen enlargement. RantWoman aspires to proofread. That might not happen. RantWoman aspired to do some writing last night after one of her go to public meetings experiences. Public meetings as in nothing melts down because all kinds of disabilities issues are both manifest and talked about, where no one questions RantWoman's right to be there or in the case of last night to throw a massive tantrum on behalf of 5 other screen reader users either in the room or on the phone who are all PISSED OFF that the application process for a new citizen commission about paratransit contract oversight is NOT accessible. Turns out someone is new to job and wanting to make the case for a bigger role so to the extent that massive tantrum comes with connections for next steps and options for introductory webinars, progress. RantWoman did not make it to the blind people in the bar event but one of these days she really really does mean to make

The short version: RantWoman has achieved between barely 4 and almost 6 hours in bed the last three nights. Last night RantWoman was in bed before midnight mainly because of not getting anything done anyway after getting home from dinner with RantMom. But early to bed means too early to rise, like 2:15. RantWoman gave up and at breakfast and went back to bed somewhere before 4 and slept until past 7. RantWoman could have slept longer but the day beckoned. Night before last, the adventure was that zone of gastronomic fascination Grocery Outlet and buying cookies instead of baking carrot cake. Tiredness rant available but the impromptu tech conversation in the morning at the Camp Long event went just fine especially considering that I did way less prep than I had hoped to.

It is September, It is time for it to be raining. It is Seattle so who really cares about umbrellas--EXCEPT here as Tactile Art projects Tactile Art, you say? Ya know if 3 people who came to the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing had so much as thought to ask about ANYTHING that goes on there, MAYBE I would be more forthcoming. Or maybe you get, without even being asked about preferences, to think about projections of 3-dimensional objects onto a plane, software that converts images to line drawing s and the art of finding images that will convert easily to line drawings. And if you are REALLY nice or if you still don't even ask, you get to hear about taking our collection of tactile drawings to various public events and giving a great cat picture away to a mom whose daughter finds regular coloring books hard because she has motor control issues. But if all you want to hear about is sleep, home from fantastically successful end of computer classes

Even though it was a small sandwich at 8:30 after probably enough forms of food the rest of the day was not a great idea. At least judging by the fall asleep in chair about 10:30, wake up to go to bed about 1"30, wake up after 4 the first time with a headache and a sense of too much salt. Oatmeal kind of a wonder drug. Water. Back to sleep about 5:30 and awakt at like 7:30-7:45 Weird clarity about  about... Watered tomato palnts. Glad for cool and more darkness.

Tomato plant update: The cherry tomato plant has TWO cherry tomatoes on it. The one that had a big tomato (golf-ball sized, not THAT big has 3 small tomatoes. The third plant so far refuses to bear anything. Sigh. Good heirloom plants. Maybe I should not try to grow tomatoes on the balcony. Sleep: went to bed just after 12. Woke up about 5:15. Went back to sleep for about an hour after 7. Could still stand to sleep more. Not as much exercise yesterday as some days. Insurance company sends around a nurse once a year for an interview. I let her nag me about a couple topics I need to deal with. She says avocado oil for the psoriaisis around my eyes. I think I will stick to calendula and sleep.

September. Time to not water the Christmas cactus so they will bloom on their usual schedule betwen Thanksgiving and Christmas. Time to hope I will see actual tomatoes from the plants on the balcony. Time to replace the cat litter. Time to change sheets, do a ton of laundry and get to sleep in the new sleepwear associated with RantMom's interaction with mail order around RantWoman's birthday. RantMom uses PHONE not internet for orders. RantMom had to insist she wanted to order even though the item was out of stock.. The sleepwear finally arrived and survived a needed laundering. The sleepshirts are a glorious length. And out of all this exercise, go to bed about 11:30. Wake up after 4. Eat breakfast. Feed cat. Go back to sleep before 6 and sleep until 7:30. Reward for almost 6 hours of sleep: eyelids, face are way less swollen and crusty but still red

The problem with no evening snacks is... waking up starving at 5 am.  Eat breakfast. Go back to bed somewhere around 6. Sleep until 7:30. Somewhere over 5 hours in bed plus some sleep in chair. Maybe enough said for today. Glad i had time for the extra incrment of sleep

Exercise for the day included making chili, getting mail and other errands, stopping at event that made her smile. Laundry did not happen. Neither did scrubbing the kitchen floor. Both will keep but not indefinitely. RantWoman is grateful for longer darkness in which properly to be asleep. RantWoman notes something like 2 hours sleeping in chair and at least 4.5 hours in bed. When RantWoman goes to bed early enough to skip the sleeping in chair, RantWoman just wakes up in the middle of the night needing to pee and let sinuses drain.

Composing this post with just screen reader not turining screen enlargemetn on. Various ways for that to be a typographical adventure. RantWoman discovered THREE tiny new tomatoes on the plant where to eg-sizzed one disappeared. There are still no tomatoes at all on one plant. Sigh. There were two sets of sirens on Thursday. One was for a fire at one of the car camper vehicles down the street. The other was for relentless beep baseball promoter and all around formidable blind community presence who worked at the Lighthouse until he had a massive heart attack. He was younger than I am. SOcail media is full of remembering. Sleep was another night of a couple hours in the chair, almost 4 hours in bed and then another 45 minutes. Today I made chili and ran errands. Laundry needs to happen but it can wait a couple more days. At a meeting Friday various points from elevator grapevine came up" responsible staffperson told me I should report every time I smell weird odors c

RantWoman needed to go shopping last night. RantWoman had in mind greens, some kind of carnivorous protein, other vegetables like squash or yams. First RantWoman needed supper. RantWoman was feeling carnivorous but the barbecue place she found recently was sold out and the stroll around the 'hood revealed notice of two impending  housing developments, one of which will overtake the barbecue place. No luck for pulled pork and RantWoman was feeling lazy about crossing Rainier at dusk. Cue Taco Time and then catch the first bus and shop whichever option the first bus suggests. #7 means either Uawjuimaya or just Bartell's. Bartell's it was: steel cut oats, honey, popcorn, a couple other items. Then cross Jackson and either light rail or bus. First elevator out of order and I do not feel like dealing with stairs. Raining. But 14+8 goes right to my door. AND a friend offers to bring by oatmeal, flax meal, and the soon-to-be discontinued canned cat food flavor. Stash groceri

Eat a decent supper. Do evening activity. Do not eat again before bed. Last night I probably fell asleep in chair about 10. I woke up about 1:30 and was in bed by 2. Slept until 5:45. Get up pee feed cat decide to eat breakfast. Note to self: need more oatmeal. Went back to bed after 8 and slept until close to 9. Total semi respectable. On another note, besides interpreting client who says water bottle is interpreter's most important tool, staying hydrated is a no-brainer: 3 close family members have had kidney stone issues and I don't wanna go there! Between sleep hydrating and peeing, think of all the trouble one should be able to stay out of. Maybe.

Technically attempting to grow tomatoes on the balcony across the hall from RantWoman's apartment is civil disobedience. This is only a problem in close time proximity with certain inspections. The balcony also suffers from lack of pollinators and light conditions that encourage spindly plant growth rather than fruit-bearing even when RantWoman keeps whacking off chunks of the most spindly plant. Today alas another hazard emerged: shared use of the balcony. One summer RantWoman had several containers of basil plants. RantWoman at one point noticed that one of the containers had disappeared; RantWoman did not even care since the plant probably went to the Chinese couple who always had their family over on Sundays. Anyway, today the reddest almost ripe tomato has disappeared. HOWEVER RantWoman found another tomato on the plant and will keep watering and checking. RantWoman hopes whoever ate her tomato REALLY enjoyed it. As for sleep, a total of almost 3 hours in two spells in

Can praying be obnoxious? Never mind. Spent 9:30 worship arguing with God about whether to offer ministry about Sybil. Sybil and her rose spoke. And in close of worship, so did Ivanka in the spirit of weird gratitude of the week: Ivanka in her Argentina gig actually looked like a responsible professional. Then ... Then off to Swedish Cherry Hill because a planned trip to Wing Luke got rescheduled. Then off to Wing Luke. Lots of walking even though bus connections also lined up. Cool tour: Bruce Lee understated and living in his neighborhood. No Action Star moments. Live tour of the building that houses the museum including OMG details of laborers and how they lived, also rooms full of different cultures. Interesting use of compact space even though also kind of compressed. One whole culture per small room. Powerful, but... Vision loss has its advantages: I totally missed the details of the S&M room that upset my friend. So sleep Sunday night was 1.5 hours in chair

Observations: efforts at sleep routine working if there is a high probability of falling asleep while writing sleep blog? Some people hear line about "so far have managed to avoid mass murder and say "WHAT?" Others laugh. Probably good to cultivate the ones who laugh. Probably wise to not overdo usage especially amopng people not used to weird sense of humor. lots of walking with visiting friends. Watched lightning storm from a restaurant in Pike Place market. Sleep: 11:30 to a little after 2. 3:30-6:00 Solid 5 hours

A friend / long ago political activism cohort and her husband arrived from the east coast. They got to SeaTac past midnight or 3 am according to their bodies. They are staying ... and are getting started slowly. Phone check in about schedules, nearby places to eat (ummmm) notable locations. They are interested in the Sadako statue. As for sleep, a couple hours in the chair followed by fresh energy to fuss with documents followed by 4+ hours in bed. Nothing to eat after supper works well. So does 20 minutes just walking the breezeway because it is getting dark earlier, because the breezeway is quite the social scene and because too much stretching on the balcony involves confronthing the sad reality of my recurring attempts to grow tomatoes there. So far 3 plants. 2 tomatoes all summer.

"I have so far managed to avoid mass murder." Probably not the best way to answer a STAR Center staff person's "how are you?" question. We did digress to Ivanka on the world stage in Argentina and a new to me MUCH more professional hair style and an exuberant but professional dress, BIG improvement over the baby doll thing in the video with Teresa May and Christine Legarde, Yes, fascinating, and the sleep thing:? Fell asleep in chair sometime after 10:30; went to bed sometime 12:30-1.Woke up at 3:30. Did a bunch of stretches on the balcony which helped Back to bed at 5 and slept until almost 8. So total semi respectable for me Now MUST get meetup announcement out. No first field call about helping book some professional blindness visit opportunities for someone from Japan, chapter FB page, AND an offer for a donated old computer monitor. Fun? Also prep for project-related conference call. And coordinator who has been doing an awesome job wants to g

Ate too much too late in the evening. Bad idea. Need to stop. Need to deal with the emotions of the day too: Aftenoon Frustrating conference call: lots of process not enough substance and people just have less time than the topics need. Plus much self-righteousness and other gentler challenges. No time to just share details of life and being accessibility nag for no less than Sen. Murray's office. UFM was noisy because of group that meets every first Wednesday. Good group but noisy Ah, sleep? a couple hours in chair. Go to bed about 1:30 and wake up first time at 3:30. Back to bed at 4 and sleep till almost 7. Think of going back to bed but wind up banging around and turning ingredients into several days worth of food. Note refrigerating while blind fun and joys for when the blogosphere needs more blindness tourism.

Seems two people got stabbed. No one died. Still, one of reasons to weigh options for different domicile: HUGE by Seattle standards apartment in concrete box with amazing transit connections but not the greatest walkability. OR dream abode: wood floors. Balcony. Live musicians practicing nearby but not too near. Swimming pool. Throw in some new furniture and a couple more exercise options and some other social vibe. Everyone can have a disability as long as their neighbor skills are at least as robust as RantWoman's. (Um, oh, dear.) and they have good caregivers if needed. Actual sleep: 2 hours in chair. 4+ in bed.

Stabbing sunday? In the apartment right above RantWoman. RantWoman is glad she was nothome. No, RantWoman has no idea whether the victim died. Elevator grapevine will have to tap other info streams. But RantWoman did sleep: about an hour in chair and close to 5 hours actually in bed. RantWoman also decided not to go back to bed. More sleep would have been a better idea, but PS 2 reminders in calendar about bedtime is overkill. How to undo the second reminder has to be a technological horizon for another day.

Last night was basically uneventful.after family communications fiascoes --Fall asleep in chair about 9:30. Wake up at 10:30 and again. Go to bed about 1:30. Wake up about 3:45. Back to bed at 5. Up around 7:30. Yeah holiday The intrusions were from yesterday morning: --police car, the mention of stabbing police tape being gathered. --Then at Meeting, homeless woman needed to harangue ARE. Finally she got coffee, mentioned outfit she is a client for one service provider and stomped out. Serious ranter material.

Conked out in chair about 10. Woke up about 12:30 and made it to bed about 1. Woke up a little before 5. So not enough in bed. But did not go back to bed. Thought of it at first and when I thought of it again, it was too late. Ramble available about wayfinding while finding the boat trip for United Blind of Seattle. Ramble available: diabetic emergency not fun. even less fun if blind guy on tour boat with a bunch of other blind people. Further ramble about wayfinding to see a friend in the hospital Upshot: decent amount of exercise leads to better sleep. And conversation from Friday about review of surveillance camera footage related to why texting at 1 am. Management says just don't engage but we did not finish conversation about when someone clearly not authorized or their sob story leaks all over the place. But no texting at 1 am.