RantWoman Sleeps--or Not

 Somewhere barely 5 hours of sleep. Smart blind people Zoom call ended prematurely when the acting host left without making a new host. Probably people signed back in, but I did not. I was glad enough to let the trial host do what he needed to try. Plus I had other fish to fry, oops email to answer. Morning meant multiple Quaker Zooms The new kitchen appliance  just out of the box Lentil brownies and pistachios late in the evening probably did not help on the sleep front. Plus I took a break from binge-watching Capitol riot videos and rapper lexicography research to...drum roll please...watch live stream on tvrain.ru of all the pro-Navalny protests ALL OVER Russia.  When I went to bed the authorities had been picking up all the bloggers and starting in on what would be the thousands of arrests. Many many arrests last week for failing to follow COVID protocols though it definitely looked to me like vast majority of people both were masked up and wore hats, a REALLY good th...

 Almost  4 hours plus almost 4 hours = well over 7 hours, some missed sunshine. The Queen of Spades Playing Find the Kitty Several chunks of time being cat furniture and figuring out whqatthe cat would say if aI let her have ner own Twitter feed. Deal Oval Pawfice, please alt text your images. Put the yummy lentil brownies in containers for the fridge and freezer and washed pan. Got hair washed. Tweeted. Texted. Meditated with various hiccups. The meditations involve traffic and transit planing and accessible signals and deciding the people on the bus matter not just as numbers on spread sheets. So if Dial a tirade is needed today's topic would be.. And that is all, what passes for productivity today, before smart blind people Zoom

 Somewhere about 5 hours of sleep. Going back to bed would not have been terrible but I decided to get my lentil brownies baked instead. SAlso promised water shutoff is postponed. So theoretically I should mop floor this afternoon so mop can dry on the balcony over the weekend unsnatched by staff. really slick little slider to keep gunk out of whichever attachment holes are not in use Lentil brownie achievement required  --Unpack new mixer food processor combo --Register product never mind that I don't have the purchase receipt because it was a gift. --Figure out some cool features by close examination because there is no $%$#^& way I was going to be able to read the instructions. Take a bunch of photos so I can look up online instructions and write some Use your words improvements if there is time. Welcome to planet freaking RantWoman while I write another comment about reading. Other than that therapist thought my appointment was at 1. I thought at 2. At 1 lentil brownie...

About 5 hours of sleep. 11 am Zoom so no going back to bed. Plus I had to scrub the toilet so the building plumbing repair intruders do not think I am a complete slob during their promised visit to test flow of the toilet after they repair something in the building tomorrow. Water off 8-3. Too much fun.. Verbiage of the day from 3 zooms except one was a Webex and therefore more of a pain.: Inclusive virtual events. (Citizenship or a PhD? too many to list) Draft Modal integration policy And one of my fave info streams about the #CapitolRiot. WARNING: the video is linguistically interesting and not only because of heavy use of vulgarities. Below the video are samples of terminology. Language included for lexicographic purposes only. Listing does NOT equal endorsement.  #BreakfastClub #DonkeyOfTheDay topical slang mayonnaise Al Cracker Vanilla Isis also in use on other clips: Vanilla Isis Diversity Recruit to describe people with obviously ethnic sounding names.

 4+ and then 3+ more hours of sleep. Whining about mail order shoe issues is danged well a  FIRST WORLD PROBLEM Not really enough exercise today but cooking yesterday counts I guess. I am glad I made fish chowder yesterday. Today in more Zooms than I have sense, at one point I had 3 different Zooms on three different devices queued up that way for timing reasons. I had a total of 5 Zooms and I could have tried to shoehorn in two more.  This week Zoom is rewarding screen reader users with all sorts of unacceptable pukiness, on top of a which sign-in is which issue.  Too much fun. And for diversion I have new shoes and new socks.

I think I made it to almost six hours of sleep. I could use more.  Binge-watching #CapitolRiot footage is a bad idea.  So is cocoa or mocha at home late in the day.  Another stem of red amaryllis blossoms I got up because of a webinar about aging and transportation. The webinar was disappointing but it also makes me appreciate a lot of things that are comparatively better right in WA.  And I should just remember that GoToWebinar specifically works better actually on my phone than on the computer. I could dig up some speakers for the computer at the computer lab but I need to unmuddle other things about the computer lab or just find something else to parachute into. And my friend who got hit by the hit and run driver slept through the night for the first time since her experience of traffic violence. And what is exploding today on Twitter makes me hope lots of kids in abusive situations find help from the resources listed. The topic does not make me want to give more ...

 Not quite 5 hours plus almost 3.  = close to EIGHT hours. I clearly needed it. The Queen of Spades doing High Contrast cat Black cat on white couch Downside: I slept away too much sunshine. Upside when I was finally awake, somehow dirty dishes were a lot easier to handle. My mom is bumming today. She had a tree outside her window. She used to love seeing a squirrel run around in the tree. Awhile ago she learned the tree is too diseased to save and it would come down soon. Today it finally came down. Mom watched all the techniques of doing the different pieces, dealing with branches, ropes, one person in the tree and one person on the ground. Besides being sad about losing the tree, the whole thing made her think of when my brother used to be able to do that kind of work. I don't blame her for being bummed.

 1+ 3+ hours of sleep. College applicant interview season Put the good mask on to walk across the breezeway and do Zoom calls Note to self. Washing hair at 2 am because one will not have time the rest of the day is not helpful for sleep. Further note to self. Late night snacking on almonds also does not help sleep. But the weekly smart people do Zoom event rocks. And the legs itching madly until I got up, put some lotion and socks on was also not helpful.  And today's recipe for I hope someone found the grocery bag I probably left on the bus and enjoys the contents: a head of cauliflower, bags of dried figs and cranberries, a pack of fresh fish and a pack of sliced turkey. Time to figure out a reasonable shopping cart option. Also time not to flog the person I know who lives in the building by the bus stop and has been camped out on the bench at the bus shelter the last two times I have wanted to come home from grocery outlet. I do not care what your mental health history is. ...

 5 before breakfast + almost 3 hours of sleep after breakfast Slight guilt twinge for missing a lot of glorious sun.   I t's alumni applicant interview season. All virtual this year. So far I have used the suggested Zoom background options for exactly 0 of my 3 interviews, but today I used one for something else.  The Sculpture is called Oval with Points. The view looks toward the building where my department and other language departments are located. I do not understand why Zoom flips it on its vertical axis. The effect winds up being sort of Star Trek half beamed up half not flickering back and forth. Who knew we would all be needing the metaphor.

Six hours more or less of sleep.  More would be better. No late evening snacking definitely helps.  Choice of evening viewing also matters. Youtube has been trying for weeks to get me to look at the story of "dr. Liza," Dr. Elizabeth Glinka. Read a fast bio at the Wikipedia link below.  The song is part of promo for a recent file. There is a link to an older documentary. Wikipedia page about Dr. Elizaveta Glinka Actor promoting file on talk show Earlier Documentary Yeah. everything except the wikipedia is in russian. Enjoy. Otherwise today's reading options include: --I am tired of weed smoke everywhere. Today there was also burning grass or leaves. Where from? Who knows. The weed is better than other smells previously from aapartment above me. I think those smells got tenant evicted. Good bye is too good a word... --Elevators at SCCA are smaller than at my building but allow 4 people. At my building, signs encourage there to be only 2. Today someone was moving. And other...

 Six ish hours of sleep. Peanut butter pretzels are not a good bedtime snack. In fact I am bored of practically everything in my refrigerator. And I need to walk more. And and. But here is a link to Amanda Gorman's poem for anyone who needs renewed inspiration. Amanda Gorman from CNN

 Somewhere over 5 hours of sleep. In lieu of sleep,  --an inauguration!!!! --Accidentally sign on too early to a Zoom meeting --A shower and getting at least somewhat professionally dressed. --The Zoom meeting, promoting world peace while trying to make a difference allocating funds for transportation projects. Other than that Leonard Cohen Hallujah with 10 tenors and orchestra One probably should never stop being disturbed by this song, but 10 tenors including a couple who remind me of my dad in his crew cut barely older than his students college professor with a young family days... sold. Not sure dad even knew who Leonard Cohen was or when this was written. Probably would not have been dad's style..

 Somewhere close to 7 hours of sleep counting going back to bed after breakfast. Unless floor got stripped and waxed while I was asleep, it didn't happen today. Sigh. That means another day of schedule kink.  I made ratatouille minus the zucchini and also beans and rice including the rest of my butternut squash. So I will be well fibered and well tomatoed. I finally took my Christmas presents upstairs. I had ambitions about also doing things that needed the food processor mixer combo but that did not happen. And I want an $1800 20 character braille display for when I am tired of listening to things. Never mind my pitifully slow braille reading rate. So now I will read for my book group on my hand me down iPad. Technology and literacy are SO much fun. But Cross fingers. We are just over 15 hours from a new president.

 overalmost 7 hours of sleep counting 5+ and  then another 1.5 hours. Late evening cheese snacking does not leave one hungry at breakfast time.  An axolotl Worth noting because tomorrow is strip and wax the hallway floors on my floor day. Either leave before 8:30 or stay in until 3 pm. If I am feeling really non-compliant I may try to tiptoe in a very few long steps to the stairway. No I am not physiologically virtuous enough to take the stairs all the time, for various reasons but getting to the stairs would not be as transgressive as going all the way to the elevator while the wax is drying. And in honor of Alvaro el axolotl who inhabits a whole set of labelled stickers (Labelled so the screen reader can try to help keep me from sending emojis with messages i definitely do not intend) and has charmed his way into morning texts with my friends recovering from the car crash, a picture because who does NOT need a salamander with all kinds of amazing properties.

 Somewhere over 5 hours of sleep. Blame the crossword puzzle, the dry cider, more binge-watching the increasingly diverse television news. Quinoa coconut bites good with mandarins for supper And yes, the rest of this is pissy, opinionated, snarky, un Quakerly language that MAY get filtered...But at least I have lovely quinoa balls for dinner. Woke up too late to think about worshipping with Moscow friends. Oh well. Next time. I wonder what would come up about arrest of Navalny. Dear shitheads who smashed up our capitol. Ya wanna talk about love of country or ...? Navalny could have stayed in Europe after recovering from poisoning and he chose to return to Russia. I have no opinion about vigor and governing capacity of his movement Dear Shitheads who smashed up our Capitol --I am trying to figure out what would be a sense of proportion for your crimes compared to how non-violent dissent is handled. I want to house the unhoused, not pay to house you. Home monitoring. Heavy fines. Req...

 about 4.5 hours of sleep.  So I am dragging ass today. black hat, tan hat, black cat Also the cat is definitely into sit in the human's arms mode right now more than sleeping the day away near me. Endaring. Hard to be productive. To blame for lack of sleep: binge watching insurrection videos. Also the Saturday NYT crossword puzzle. This week even more of a bear than usual. 

 5 hours plus another two after breakfast. My phone from time to time randomly starts talking in British in some applications. Today I had an automatic update. No more zeds at least for awhile. All I want to do right now is eat or sleep. That seems silly when it is so sunny. Chunks of steamed broccoli I have plenty of now steamed broccoli.  I had a yummy turkey bacon and avocado sandwich for lunch.  It's itchy eye breakout season and I need some calendula cream. I need some bias tape for a mending project.  Either purchase would be lovely to do in person, but I have no idea where to get bias tape so I may break down, buy on Amazon, and throw in some other purchases. It's all about the shopping, right? I want ice cream. I don't need ice cream. I also wanted to pummel the guy smoking weed on the NON smokers span of breezeway into unconsciousness with an organic carrot. No organic carrots available. Oh well. He moved by the second trip across the breezeway.

 Almost SIX hours of sleep. I could definitely have gone back to bed and I should have . I can also resolve to try to go to bed earlier. DO NOT eat popcorn after dinner. Popcorn is good for stress eating: high fiber. Even with olive oil lower in fat than other options. Crunchy... But I still DON"T NEED it. Yesterday was about more groceries and picking up eyedrops and other things at the pharmacy. Broccoli,Broccoli was on sale. Body wants broccoli. So the eggplant I bought before that can wait. Today besides steaming broccoli, I ...broiled BACON for a treat even though I know many reasons I only VERY rarely do that  I also made quinoa peanutbutter cocoa coconut balls. So things I like for several days. Single person quarantine food is even more of a challenge than without pandemic. Cook for several days. Get tired of eating. Lather Rinse Repeat. I think I am VERY well supplied food wise so I should not grumble. Nice email from FCNL guy I sent ACB statement to. and Bible study ...

 Somewhere close to SIX hours of sleep without even a question of going back to bed. POURING rain. And parking lot drainage so crappy that the breezeway had this lovely slippery layer of water. So much for any late-night walking. Luckily I had shopped and exercised that way. I explained on Twitter to relative newcomer: it's rain for 40 days and 40 nights season. Some years lots of people's basements flood. Sometimes things really do slide off other things.But it's the pandemic and supply chains are disrupted so probably arks are in short supply. Early morning texting: did I lose power? No. A lot of flickering for awhile. I think I would have wakened up if we lost power while I was sleeping. My Lynnwood friends did not lose power either but the tarp and bamboo trellis arrangement covering the chicken coop got half blown down. More exercise today on shopping / pick up eye drops trip. It still gets dark too fast. I was not geared up with the shoes with dog walker lights and th...

 A decent spell of 5 hours of sleep. The lake in the hallway One end of night involved  a trip to my apartment for my jacket. In the hall on the way I found a growing lake outside my deaf-blind neighbor's apartment and the sound of water running inside. No, his doorbell did not work. No, getting my notepad and banging on his door did not work.  THANK YOU after hours maintenance who ere still there vacuuming up water a three hours later when I came back to my apartment from the computer lab. At least I won't be needing a rowboat. I probably could have stood to go back to bed after breakfast That did not happen. I am responsible for the time snark tweeting about recent events. Then there was phone call from my sister. My mother is having some kind of kidney stent procedure, next chapter of something else. Oh the family communication dynamics. Hospital called me on Thursday with information I told them to speak to my mom and my sister about. Apparently they spoke to my mom b...

 close to SEVEN hours of sleep I think, 5.5 and then at least another 1.5 Thank you to the friend who upped my supply of evening in Missoula tea which she now sometimes comes over to drink latish on Sunday evenings. Visits always include entertaining moments. Last night after a good chat Ihad to kick her out so I could go run bedding through dryer and change sheets before bed. Clean sheets are glorious. Probably I do not want to look back to see for sure how long it has been since I changed my sheets. This would fall in the category of my therapist saying I am better off about managing pandemic ennui than some of her clients. I aspire to do better. Other than that today i am learning new email stuff because of a volunteer gig. I am supposed to be able to figure it out with screen reader but gig is reminding me of job skills, voc rehab issues. Being a grownup is such a grand experiment. And did we mention organizational needs to talk about sexual assault issues, a conversation about...

 Another FIVE hour night.  Partly to blame the NYT crossword puzzle. The smart blind people with strong opinions zoom call was too lively and I couldn't work on the puzzle while on the call. For the record, accessibility is imperfect and if using my precious work visually energy to solve the crossword puzzle calms me.  I had more words on my mind but I finally just decided to go to bed. This JUMP Bike is STILL THERE on the breezeway! As for the title of this post, one of the things I did with my last stimulus payment was to buy some badly needed new clothes. I also need to figure out getting the old clothes to Goodwill but that is a different problem. I am mostly delighted especially since some of my old clothes also seem to have disappeared in the laundry. Problem 1: once i get dressed in new clothes, even fairly casual ones, I do not feel like doing chores such as washing dishes or moppping the floor. And now I need either to go buy cat food or bias tape to fix some jac...

 5+ hours of sleep, from before 5 until 10.. I am a grownup. I do not know whether watching extended video of the assault on the Capitol is the best sleep hygiene in the world but I guess I am glad I get to grapple better with the full horror and outrage. Plus the can of dry cider probably knocked out at ;east enough of the anxiety effects to counteract lingering wakefulness. But then there is the NYT crossword puzzle. The Saturday NYT crossword puzzle is actually the hardest puzzle of the week. The Sunday puzzle has more words, but the Saturday puzzle is hardest. I am getting so I can get it done in a little more than an hour. But I don't care about streaks of puzzles solved without help. It is way more efficient for me to use check puzzle a couple times at the beginning, get rid of wrong words that are getting in the way of figuring out the whole network. I have also come to see the point of taking a break when there is some big segment of the puzzle I am getting nowhere on becau...

 Somewhere over 4 hours of sleep but not much over. I got to bed okay but don't have time to go back to bed. It must have been a restless night in the universe. No caffeine too late yesterday but don't forget the late nigh mixed nutes--no peanuts. Wayward JUMP e-bike This bike has been on my the breezeway for at least 3 days. Whine of the day. And I WILL shortly pry myself out of insurrection twitter to go to Zoom prayer with my mother and sister and U-pres.  Then I WILL go grocery shopping, read a bunch of things....

I think 7 hours in two stints. Christmas present from sister a giant container of mixed nuts, no peanuts Don't blame the late night chocolates or the nuts nibbled even later. Don't even blame mere mention of very crunchy snooze inducing reading called The Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, MUTCD. Conference call got the executive summary of a related draft plan. Sounds like I don't need to read the whole thing, just help blind people around the state figure out whether it says anything useful about standards for installing accessible ped signals. And we definitely did not get to beg buttons. High excitement lifestyle. Wading through internet insurrection bilge takes a lot of energy. Or something. Today I made a spicy brown rice, black bean, butternut squash etc stew. Four servings will be lovely. The cat also thought my whole role in life needs to be warm cat furniture. Usually she sleeps a good chunk of the day on the couch or on my pillow on the bed but today it w...

 4.5 + 2.5 hours of sleep after breakfast = 7 hours of sleep. This morning I woke up hungry partly because of no late night snacking. But also my body said that 1/2 teaspoon of instant coffee in my frightening dry milk and cocoa mix and instant coffee mocha did what it was supposed and I definitely do not need to drink more coffee than that. Lanyard found in a pocket of one of my bags Oh Look, I found a lanyard in the pocket of one of my bags. Now it and the sacred laundry room key can live in the same place I keep my laundry quarters and we will save Dial a Tirade about debit card laundry for another time. Cat was being a total love bunny. I doubt it was "Human calm down." probably more like "Human change the cat box or else." and something is not agreeing with her about food so a vet visit might be n order. Party with stimulus payment provided her vet is even open. And I adore Taco Time and the Taco Time App. Not only can I find out what's in the different men...

 Almost SIX hours of sleep And tons of virtue for getting SEVEN loads of laundry washed, dried and mostly put away before I conked out. And by the way still in time to get a reasonable amount of sleep. Laundry was not as much of a multicultural sharing resources exercise as sometimes. One person was just finishing with last load in dryer when I arrived. That meant I could start off strong with all FOUR washers. So I decided to take a chance, go get the basket I might have saved for another day and just go to town with another 3 washer loads.  One woman, thin, white, native English speaker who said she is 66 (and apparently new to building) came in just as I was finishing with washers. Between hearing and vision and mask issues we did not attempt much conversation. She also put laundry in wash and left but did not come back to move clothes. Kind of high risk of having clothes stolen, but okay. Another woman came in and started wash as I was finishing dryers. She also did not co...

 I think somewhere 7-8 hours total in two spurts. I thought of doing laundry instead of going back to bed, but I had a nasty leg cramp and decided laundry would not help that. 3+ more hours of sleep helped a lot. So did lively phone call about many topics. AND THE RED KEY ARRIVED.  Red key and Google key fob t hat says "Build for everyone" Thanks to new lock I am now supposed to be free to do laundry without the presence of intrusive homeless people. The key needs its own lanyard because i do not plan to carry it all the same places I carry other keys. I think I have about 17 million transit swag lanyards SOMEWHERE. I obviously put them somewhere I was sure to be able to find, and ... Christmas present update: Brother in law's socks were right where Little Sister told me to send them. I just fetched RantMom's present today. Pick up and also drop off an old Kindle for Amazon trade-in program. Weird sentimental moment of progression in world of electronic accessibility ...

 About Six hours of sleep. Amaryllis Holiday Joy Note to self. Skipping the caffeine late in the day: very good idea. Also a good idea: if the second automatic shutdown notice comes around GO TO BED. Do not hit cancel. Do not play any more DDT. Do not watch any more late night comedy. Celebrate getting the crossword done earlier. GO TO BED. So i made it to six hours without even having to go back to bed. I ate pizza for breakfast, texted my friends of the bad physics with SUV about gravity and quest for slippers. That's where the Godzilla toes come ihn, after bunny ears, and big eyes with funny eyeglasses. Then I did LOVELY Quaker Zooms, Lovely Quaker Zooms that made me clearer to stay the course. Note to self: the last batch of lentil brownies is gone as of today. Time to unpack the Christmas present hand mixer combo food processor and skip mashing lentils for the next batch by hand.

 About 4 hours of sleep. The cat, again Then I started texting with my two friends. One sent a picture of the other. The latter's face looks pretty good for someone taking a bite out of an SUV. They usually appreciate my snark, and the one answered willingly when I asked her some questions about her mouth injury. More moments of VERY lucky compared to other things that could have happened. And the pictures mean definite progress. Plus I could not go back to bed because I needed to be dressed for the blind geeks meetup. Okay most of the participants can't see enough to care what I am wearing but... For grins last night, i could not do one thing I wanted on Amazon but I did find out I can trade in my very old Kindle and get a $5 credit on a new one. There were shipping labels to print for that one. And my neighbor across the hall needed airline tickets printed for her and her mother, grandma and great grandma of toddler with the cat thing. More printing than I have done in months...

somewhere close to 7 hours of sleep. A chair in the laundry room Prep for Zoom open house involved unusal errands, making signs about a delay of laundry room key issues until Monday and staging my snow globes in their own Zoom space. Hosting a Zoom open house is delightful but also exhausting. I invited a bunch of people who don't know each other. Some cool moments resulted but Zoom conversational logistics are, um, awkward. drinking a quart of black tea at 6 pm and eating my yummy Pagliacci pasta salad at 9 pm could not possibly have anything to do with being wide awake until almost 5. I slept until after 10, had morning sleep check-ins with my friends K and I of the flesh vs SUV saga, and then went back to bed for almost two more hours.  I am liking my Pagliacci delivery scene. Today I had a lovely slice of pizza for breakfast and some bits of roast chicken and a kiwi fruit for lunch. Level of physical activity is low and I just an mot super hungry and not even much about boredom...