RantWoman Sleeps--or Not

 Somewhere close to six hours of sleep.  Black cat on white couch Going to bed earlier helps.  So does baking enough yams for more than one meal so I can just be lazy and eat cold from fridge and still enjoy they nice roasty flavor. So does solving the crossword puzzle. Okay, I do check puzzle a few times and I do not care if that spoils streaks. It means I get the puzzle done in a finite amount of time. So, somehow does getting the weekly pot of beans boil / soaking on the stove. Throw beans in pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil. Add garlic and whatever lemon or lime is getting too far to eat from fridge. Turn off pot before leaving house. Next time one is around the stove, check to see whether more water is needed and if so, add. Then bring to a boil again. Do the boil cycle a few times until the beans are cooked enough to use. And appreciate new upstairs neighbors. Music I can hear rumbling through my ceiling is a big improvement over very problematic odors wafting down and thro

 Four + hours of sleep. Black Cat. White Couch Blame: --finishing the last of my applicant interview reports --baked cheetos and chocolate way too late. --a really frustrating Saturday crossword puzzle --my news video fix and bless a Barack Obama one for making me laugh and FINALLY getting me to go to bed. --waking up and needing to pee even though I had rolled into a lovely blanket burrito --not going back to bed and nipping at a Twitter diet of women of the Insurrection bits. Happy Women's History Month and dang, the culture! The Backlash! Did I write this before? Nephew and friend made it safely back from MT road trip before Snoqualmie pass closed. And the travel time even with dinner did not imply a COMPLETELY unreasonable rate of speed, never mind winter driving conditions. Between God and fear of God as embodied in insurance premiums... And the photo? Cat not really into photo op and human not properly fulfilling role as cat furniture. But at least the house has clean dishes

Only about THREE hours of sleep. Black cat with grey hair in her ears "To heck with my groupies. I object to forced selfies" Yikes. Blame the crossword, news junkie video fix, late night end of the Taco Time meal, and generally ragged angst.  I could have gone back to bed but somehow, even though therapy appointment was later than usual, body was afraid of missing it.  I finished my aborted merch purch from the other day. Masks, a phone holder I can put my phone in to Zoom hands free, an accessories bag and a polo shirt. Boy will I be sporting the brand. I wish I had a source for more provocative masks too. I finished the last of my alumni interviews of applicants. It feels like they gave me every kid with an amazing story. Odds are long and these will do great wherever they wind up, and. Then there are chores. It did not occur to me in my protesting youth that i should aspire to enough financial wherewithal to pay someone to do chores. Now to various writing tasks, never min

 five plus hours of sleep. Somehow I slept wrong in all the lumps in my bed and things feel off-kilter that shouldn't. Going back to bed would have been good. But Twitter and the cat's need to sit on me and my sister's phone needs sucked me in. Houseplant Zone I forgot to tell sister that DNA test came back. She and I share one piece of DNA lotto that could only be identified a couple years ago. Now we get to decide how much of the rest of the fam on mom's side to encourage to get tested. And reading a long list of other negative results with a screen reader is a drag. My mom has torn tendon in hip area nd tears in hamstrings on right leg. Owwww. And nothing to do except take it easy at her age. Plus she got a rash. She thinks from opiates now discontinued and substituted with muscle relaxers anyway. I think could be several possibilities but so far it seems to be going away with hydrocortisone cream. I wish it were easier just to go give her a hug. Email says her commu

 Almost six hours of sleep. A cool weekly Zoom. This week is ALMOST interesting enough to again make me rethink my decisions not to go to law school. Almost. Keyboard plus mandarins Now I need to get brain together for a lobby meeting with Adam Smith about ACB legislative priorities. And the mindless picture of mandarins is just because I need some visuals and vision loss says Keep It Simple Superhero.

 about five hours of sleep.  Going back to bed would be nice but not happening. One of the bananas was ripe enough to eat. That means the others should be on their way. Three days of blind zoom webinars interspersed with ads for merchandise. Very friendly human interface, ie very nice friendly woman on phone. And I am impatient and so want to cheerlead her to join 21st century. NOT realistice. I had VERY nice Google meets call yesterday. No of course no one can figure it out in one test.

 I achieved about 5 hours of sleep AGAIN. Today no hair-washing but my First World problem of the day: I bought bananas the other day at Grocery Outlet. They were nice and green and I expected them to ripen. They are still nice and green. After awhile green stops being nice.  These are Atlanta daffodils. They put a body in mind of an old blog post about daffodils and cigarette butts. Neverthe less I am glad spring is on the way. Daffodils

 Wowie. I managed to get almost 5 hours of sleep AND get my hair washed before the first Zoom at 8 freaking 30.  The Cat! All the joys of jet lag without airports; and the cat can come to meetings too.. For the record, I find webinars stifling. I want to know who is in the room. The Massachusetts blind people can do Zoom meetings just fine. I find it freaking oppressive that my strand of blind people except for locally does everything by webinars. First world problems,

 Somewhere close to six hours of sleep. Calamity: my cellphone charger has gone AWOL. I have various other cable and plug combinations that I thought might substitute. But NO! Very feeble current flow. After current blind people zoom I will venture out and see whether I can come up with the right substitutes. Zooming with blind people from MA. All kinds of Ai-yi-yi topics: accountability and training re survivor issues and sexual abuse. Discrimination. legal issues. A state affiliate president who believes in term lmits. Blind guy running for at large position on Boston city council.  Blind Pakistani Muslim going to law school. Young woman talking about pronouns and LGBTQ+ issues. Charger and USB C cable UPDATE! Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Oops wait. Save that for the Blind prayer warriors. Well energized by hanging with Those Other Blind People. More importantly, I GOT A NEW PHONE CHARGER and mah phone is healed, healed I say and renewed in the capacity to track calendar and contacts an

 Sleep five hours. We will not discuss when the 5 hours began or why going back to bed was impractical. There was a crossword puzzle involved. Also some news junkie behavior. New Extra Large Print Wall Calendar New braille and art calendars, one for Mom Today's accomplishments: --Before going to bed send cheerleading email followup to blind guy phone call: Look. Now you have an iPhone. No there are no fairygodmothers around here but here would be some things you can try. --biweekly disability zoom. I am doing nothing except making observations on calls. Is that good or bad? --somewhere in here losing the charger plug for my phone. Arrrgh. --Two hours of visiting Those Other Blind People at a convention in MA.     Hour 1 was very patient African American guy being both frank and patient about people on call grappling with microaggressions and trying to be an ally and Stuff That Really Does Happen in the organization. (officially a Star trek-y name that weirds RantWoman out which is

 Somewhere under 8 hours of sleep. Going back to bed after breakfast helped.  Tomorrow maybe I will cook some quinoa in coconut milk now that I know TJ's seems to have good coconut milk affordably. Snow is all gone but here is a link for some nice songbirds. And with LOVELY alt text so I know which birds are in the picture. Minnesota birdsongs from the MN DNR I did not photograph the great lentil brownie production effort. The food processor definitely does cool things with the texture. I probably still need to tweak a couple things with the recipe but I will see after the pan thoroughly cools Doing blind people diplomacy this weekend Zooming to a state convention for those Other Blind People.. More snark lurking but maybe enough for now.

 about 4.5 hours of sleep. Do I get to blame the powdered milk mocha with supper? I went to bed early enough MAYBE I could have gone back to bed before the first Zoom at 9 am. Whose bus stop is plowed for car friendlines?s Zooms were rural broadband, transportation, more transportation but in a legislative hearing I decided to skip, then worshipping with FCNL and trying to center so I can talk about the transportation part of ACB legislative priorities over the weekend. Then turning water into wine at Quaker Bible study. And finally a computer with a real keyboard and a big screen. Did I mention the whole day I was trying to make my hand-me-down  iPad work because vaccination clinic was happening near the computer lab.  My 4 generations in a 2-bR household neighbors did not want vaccine. The deaf-blind guy down the hall is a hair too young. Some people I know are aiming to organizing a disability friendly popup clinic in the summer. No the lentil brownies did not get baked yet, but the

Somewhere over SIX hours of sleep. Amazing what going to bed earlier will do. Work area such as it is in otherwise computers only computer lab Up in time for breakfast before one of my favorite transportation Zooms. I even put on a dress both to cheer self up / help hold together for professional presence and also as an excuse to avoid some household chores. Zoom with 50 people filling chat is a lot. I just ignore screen share. I wish there were a way just to turn it off and but it in a separate window.  This meeting wants a co-chair. I think it should be someone who gets paid but I could think about it just because...I would have to make people use the raise hand function and tag team with someone to monitor the chat. This group also tried a couple Zoom polls. There does not seem to be as much Q&A as when the meeting is live, but I think I only manage to look at a low percentage of the chat. 

 Barely 5 hours of sleep.  Going back to bed would have been good but did not happen. And already the snow disappears from the tree and the window ledge I have spent two weekends in a row Zooming with Quakers. It has been WONDERFUL. Space for the things I love and space to let the soap operas mull. But being wired is one reason I did not sleep. Also my body was all crampy maybe from sitting even before laundry. Another risk of pandemia I guess. And word comes tonight that who is eligible to get vaccinated when the fire department comes is getting adjusted again. Whine. Moan. Growl. OF COURSE I will cope. I got 3 loads of laundry done last night. I forgot the magical red key and had to go back and get it. But 3 loads of wash also cleared out the shopping cart I needed to take the garbage and compost out this morning.

About 6 hours of sleep. It should have been more. More impeachment fix Snow out my window. I still need to do laundry and today is VERY rich. Back to one more hour of zoom but in the meantime another snow pic just for posterity.

 about 5 hours of sleep. Snow out my window on the window ledge, on trees Going back to bed would be lovely but there were Queer Quaker Zooms to be had. I decided to miss one and get my hair washed. Who are we kidding. RantWoman was also up too late watching impeachment video. Yowza. And lunch is humorously minimalist: 1 hard  boiled egg. One package of baked cheetos, Two packets of dried peas from the supply gotten early in the pandemic when there was a lot less than average on the shelves and in the produce section of one of RantWoman's favorite markets. Add a couple mandarins. Live it up. Lentil brownies later I stocked up on only a few things because that is what I had room for. But now I am tired of my supplies except I think this week's chocolate item will be quinoa cocoanut bites. Happy Saturday. Stay warm. Don't go anywhere if you don't have to.

 Somewhere over 5 hours of sleep. Going back to bed would not have been terrible but I am glad I spent the morning reviewing the grant applications I said I would review. Snow out my window this morning Also, it's FREEZING and I have a window that won't close. I guess I should put in a work order. And the Carbon Monoixide detector test next week is cancelled because COVID vaccination! I think I already wrote but I'll say it again: as often as the Fire Dept comes to this building, I am glad they want to do a vaccination clinic. Oh, and any household with someone over 50 is eligible! So my Eritrean neighbors who are 4 generations in a two-BR apartment can get vaccinated. And so can I without stretching any definitions or fishing all over town on the internet. And just in time for not getting to the store before the storm I discovered another container of lentil brownies in the freezer. Cat litter on the other hand....

 A little over 5 hours of sleep. Interestingly I went to bed when I missed the 1 am automatic reboot and shutdown.  But I didn't really feel like going back to bed this morning. Photo of the day is pumpkin cheesecake bars. I found the recipe on the internet. I have made it twice and not followed the recipe exactly either time. Verdict: cheesecake in smaller chunks is not objectionable in the least, but I think I will go back to pumpkin custard and experiment with pumpkin soup. Pumpkin cheesecake bars Will I make a grocery run before it snows? I have plenty of ingredients at home. I might have to tweak menu and a few more fruits and vegetables would not be terrible. But I will be okay for several days and I have Stuff To Do and no time. And double masking? Try mask fatigue. A lawyer on the smart blind people call talks about he and his wife don't even launder their masks after every use. They just dry them and figure all the germs will be dead after 3 days so it is safe to reuse

 somewhere over 4 hours of sleep. I am a grownup. I get to take responsibility for: --nowhere near enough exercise --drinking half the daily tea after 8 pm --late evening pistachio snacking. --Too much salt when I get commercial salads and laziness about making my own. Today's cat sort of selfie It is cold at home. I have a stuck window. And I just add layers because I am protected on all sides except the window. This temperature regime is definitely not the cat's preference. Plus I insist on limiting the warm cat furniture time and going off to hide in the office.  I think she has plenty of places she can snuggle and stay warm. And then there is morning Twitter. Cat would prefer I adore her and skip the impeachment snark. Winston the First Cat is now appearing on Twitter along with the first dogs. The Queen of Spades wants her own Twitter feed but that will mess up my efforts to dump anyone I can with whom I have cat interest in common into space where people might strongly di

 5 plu 2 hours of sleep. I went back to bed after breakfast with the radio on. So I woke up to the riot video at the impeachment trial. But my friends recovering from the hostile encounter with the SUV were BOTH outside planting primroses. And the cat at my house has a completely fresh litter box. Now I just need to go get cat litter. And if that is my worst problem... After today's Zooms I WILL do laundry and I will remember to take the red key. My deaf-blind neighbor had not gotten the word about the red key last night when he wanted to do laundry. Bah!

 Not quite five hours of sleep.  Good intentions about going back to bed but instead cat cuddles, morning Twitter, and clean dishes intervened. Brain is still getting back from weekend of Quakerism on the Internet with Jon Watts. And I have THINGS TO DO before I can get to the virtual car ride home. But I had some of Mugsy's socially distanced Superbowl non party for lunch so I feel very blessed. No visuals today. Sorry.

 Barely 4.5 hours of sleep partly because I wanted to get up in time to wash my hair before a Zoom worship at 9 am. Three avocados and some limes The blind prayer warriors are not praying together because of the Stupor Bowl. Random Twitter moments for people with challenged relationships to the Super bowl: --"It's a brain ruining game between Sir Trumpsalot and the Racially Insensitive Teamname but I like the commercials." --President Biden (listen to that roll off the tongue) went to church today. He sat in the back row as he usually does. --"Phoebe Bridgers smashing her guitar on SNL doesn't even make the top 5 angriest things I saw a bisexual do yesterday." --"I'm not religious but I'll be damned if I tolerate bigotry about it just because someone found atheist Jesus." --Super bowl Sunday is great because I went for a 25-mile bike ride and didn't curse at a single driver. --and account of one of the describe thigns for blind people s

 not quite six hours of sleep! Weekly Cat photo op 9 am Zoom and basically whole day is Zooms. Too much fun.

 Somewhere close to SIX hours of sleep. Did I mention that yesterday I got stuff to take care of lots of annoying ows. Today I cut ALL the toenails that needed trimming with my serious new toenail nippers. I have this one meeting on alternating Fridays. I think I should try to take on things between meetings but there is no coherent ask I can grab onto. But I show up. And I opine. And I feel listened to, enough of the time to keep coming back. But ACK Three avocados and a bag of limes My therapist's cat kept coming to my appointment today. I like that. First of all he has very striking nad unusual markings. Also I find it reassuring that my therapist appears well taken care of by her cat. I told her she should not worry about keeping the cat out because I find him reassuring. She said lots of her clients tell her that. Now who is Mugsy. Mugsy is a cat. He came up this morning in a conversation departing from texts about weird forms of alcohol. Mugsy it seems will NOT be holding a k

 A solid SIX hours of sleep I considered going back to bed but instead I  Laundry change because I was grumbling about coin issues and alarming debit card readers. --found the rest of a Christmas present tucked into a pocket of the bag. --had a morning text exchange departing from a book about an American ornithologist trying to study Blakiston Fish owls. in Siberia. If you really want to know what the vodka was infused with... --got out another Christmas present, banged around in my kitchen wearing a bathrobe with sleeves that are wondrously long except when one is trying to cook something, and made pumpkin cheesecake bars WITH A MIXER instead of beating by hand like last time.  Then more errands. The spinach sending email? apparently spinach roots can detect some kind of explosive. They give off some kind of molecule. The molecules hit a detector which sends the email In other words, the spinach needs A LOT of help.

 Just over 4 hours of sleep. Not enough but the morning's first Zoom was worth the sleep deprivation. The Christmas lamp or the Valentine's day lamp? The second Zoom plus turkey for breakfast put me to sleep. Note to self: eat turkey only when intending to go to sleep. Also, vaccine transportation is about what one would expect. One agency: oh we can switch to vaccine transport but that means kinking the schedule of the meal delivery. Jack hammers but sunshine while i was trying to Zoom at home. I would like to think the cat wanted to be part of the FCNL worship but i suspect she was probably just prematurely convinced it is suppertime.

Somewhere around 5 hours of sleep. The crossword was not the problem.  It was snowing on the east coast: thank you internet. I can watch and don't have to freeze. And Navalny was on trial in Russia and part of the story was the people outside vs A LOT of police in heavy gear.   And there is still #CapitolRiot reportage to digest.  So not enough rest for... Oh and there was test the MyRisk page. Ha-ha. RantWoman will have a rant not only about the logic of the program but about accessibility FAILS are even worse when they come packaged with a promise of accessibility.  I still love my new socks. The photo is NOT an invitation for the internet to try t o sell me new shoes. PS Yeah! The weird HTML thing appears to be fixed! No going back to bed in the morning. Instead 1.5 hours of (sort of) PAID accessibility testing.  Then another 1.5 hours of Quaker Eucharistic theology of disability also to be digested in a blog post.  Somewhere in here electronic notifications that the Dept of hea

almost 6 hours plus almost 2 more after breakfast. Lentil brownies with extra cocoa are a great good thing because even though I am not doing enough walking, chocolate seems to get things moving internally. Snoqualmie Valley Transit red lanyard Last night I finally did enough online shopping to deal with one of my pieces of personal gear that is falling apart. I chose the cheapest shipping method possible, but in case that takes too long, one of my pieces of transit swag hanging around idle will do in a pinch. Yeah zippers even if one does not trust the plastic forever. I also really like the cool pattern on new support socks. The pattern is called Montana Plaid. Is that why I like it so much? For all the blind prayer warriors who say "Praise Jesus" about EVERYTHING, Allahu Akbar I ran into the mailman so I did not have to go find a mailbox to return a genetic testing saliva sample. Allahu Akbar because I am still thinking about a wonderful conversation I had recently about t