RantWoman Sleeps--or Not

About  5.5 hours of sleep. The Christmas cactuses at their peak awhile ago Zoom Open house was lovely. No one even thought about needing a Zoom background. HAPPY NEW YEAR 

SIX hours of uninterrupted sleep. The cat coping with cold by finding her warm cat furniture Sleeping in my daytime leggings and T shirt and new CPAP and I was somehow warm differently than usual sleepwear. No I did not go back to bed. Mercifully, it has warmed up enough and i did enough cooking yesterday that apartment was more habitable with fewer layers. I think window that needs to get fixed made it onto an inspection work order awhile ago, but... As for gas smell issues in computer lab: very conscientious HVAC guy called me directly even though we are both supposed to go through channels. And tonight I can breathe. So enough of that adventure. Nephew did not make it by to pick up the rest of Christmas presents. Amazon drivers and pizza delivery people are not out either. Happy snowstorm. And the title: I did not get two renewal reminders because of new software. Ah adulting.  

5.5 hours of sleep counting a late morning nap after my 9 am zoom event. In front of Benaroya Hall downtown Nephew is quarantining because of COVID exposure from buddy. Merry wednesday. It's sunny enough outside to really want to venture out, but since shovelling sidewalks is out of fashion around here, not gonna try it. Neighbors helpfully warned me, as if my MT soul would forget, about slippery breezeway. The title says as much as I know about the squash, and the furnace update comes with the news that a newly hired staff person is soon leaving. Arrrgh!  

about 7 hours of sleep including going back to bed. Pan of lentil brownies with sink in the middle problems That was cutting it close as far as time to mix and bake the long promised charity auction lentil brownies. Part of goal was get to FedEx during daylight. MANY other bus adventures. Nah, it's Seattle. Not only do we not plow many streets don't get me started about sidewalks.  Part of the brownies deal is narrative. Oh boy is there narrative, cooking technique narrative and transportation on a snow day narrative.  Cooking technique among other things involves links such as  Why cakes sink in the middle and how to fix via Food Network Hint. I still haven't even tried to fetch eye drop resupply..

Almost 8 hours of sleep. More Christmas joy before picture just because Sucky weather, new CPAP and no obligations rock for sleeping. Goback to bed partly just because it's warm. I have standards about still being in sleepwear at noon but I also have issues with a wonky window that won't close, furnace and thermostat issues in the computer lab. So sleepwear plus layers it was. Other than that one batch of lentil brownies for myself, another long overdue one due to ship out tomorrow for a charity auction  Energy to to three meals worth of tofu rice and vegetables partly with the celery that did not get eaten at Christmas. Also zeal to get this year's amaryllis planted. I love amaryllis when they bloom. The bulb in plastic start thrills me less. Rock and Roll. Living large. Plus the cooking heat makes up for .... 

about 5.5 hours of sleep. Toby the wonder Chihuahua dozing in the Christmas package after effects I didn't do enough of the crossword puzzle while Zooming with the smart blind people. And I didn't try to go back to bed. And I DID decide to shower before online worship. This afternoon, eye drops prescription is ready. In snow with bus reroutes and unshoveled walks I decided I have nothing to prove even trying to walk 4 blocks there and back. The eyedrops can wait. Now both relevant bottles are on spray rather than clear droplets, but...

About six hours of sleep. I should have gone back to bed. CPAP is a little bit of a workout but I think that will settle down. Mom's tree after all the presents were unwrapped Christmas with the fam went brilliantly.  First there was a chauffeur schedule that left me time to talk to Mom about latest non-locating of my brother while nephew fetched his parents. We did snack food and did not even attempt anything complex in Mom's "one-butt kitchen" Little Sister brought Little Smokies, one pan in a sauce I did not expect to tolerate made of commercial BBQ sauce and grape jelly. Little sister brought rolls and fruit salad. I brought crackers, cream cheese, beet chips and celery the latter of which I think I was the only one eating. So the rest of the bunch gets sauted and frozen for soup.  I brought yams to microwave if anyone wanted but kitchen logistics clobbered that. And we finished with mandarins and no one even wanted cookies and ice cream. Mostly I am SO GLAD Mom d...

 5 + hours of sleep WITH CPAP and a couple more around the edges. I can definitely get used to breathing better and also work at sleeping longer. Getting the cat's weekly photo op in a day early because it feels like Saturday The bed did NOT have permission to celebrate the return of CPAP by doing what I have been afraid it might do: collapsing because one or more of the sort of lame corner braces worked their way out of the nuts supposedly holding them in place. All I did was try to move in one direction. After a healthy bout of heaving and rescrewing things were fine the rest of the night but I think I want some concrete block to stick the corner legs into so they can't do that again. What adventures. Other than that, I am causing family consternation because I want to do virtual Christmas eve service instead of braving candlelight and COVID and holiday perfume and crappy weather to hang with Presbyterians I mostly don't know. God will show up regardless and we will hold ...

Somewhere over 6 hours of sleep, but an hour or so on either end from falling asleep in front of computer of in chair after breakfast. Cross fingers i get new CPAP this afternoon. Body is weird. Sometimes I plow hard into something that keeps me awake a long time with too much to say and no energy to write emails until I sleep more and hit insistent / consistent / persistent and even though there is only a small tirade about pronouns, still pay attention to the rest of the pictures.  The view while eating lunch on a bench on the breezeway Other than that I had taco time for lunch. The walk is great. I can have whole snotty self-congratulatory tirade about walking compared to other family members. I can, but better just to enjoy the winter trees. I love Taco Time except I want them to sell coleslaw particularly since they have all the necessary ingredients on hand. Breathe deeply celebrate abundance. And I don't know what to pray for as far as weather and a COVID issue and family ga...

 Somewhere around three hours of sleep. The caffeine buzz from IHOP? Not only. Also home way early in the morning from finally settling down to write.. Early / late as in already time to feed cat I think the pile of blankets by the hallway radiator that turned out to have a person inside was there when I came home It was purple blanket time, time for a blanket my feet don't stick out of instead of the throw with the funky pattern that I have been sleeping under.  Then oh breakfast and try to go back to bed. Then poke head out and think the blankets should not be that close to the radiator. Oh happy morning. And the toddler across the hall is doing what sound much more like normal toddler chatter than sometimes.

about 5.5 hours of sleep. Going back to bed was not practical because I was due at an end of the year meeting and reflection at IHOP at 10:30. And the bus ride involves Norman street and new housing and then a walk to the restaurant. And look at all these scooters all NICELY lined up on my way home   and new complete CPAP now due for delivery on Thursday. Oh happy breathing day.

A good seven hours of sleep counting going back to bed. after a bite to eat and tylenol. Ouches are doing better and at least I know enough now to take Tylenol instead of just getting depressed about pain. The main guts of the CPAP still don't work. I called and left a message. Interesting that I am managing to sleep longer without. A Christmas tree and a Christmas lamp I did not ask for Christmas tree a friend insisted on delivering, and I am very grateful for hugs in the dropoff and for motivation to clear space on the desk. Rock and roll and see what's next. ORnaments might or might not happen. I went out to PT and did not need opportunities to rant about pedestrian issues around the new light rail station, but God is bountiful anyway. Physical therapist is from somewhere Russian. I did not ask. She was very encouraging about stretching and helped me come at the catch the cord in the door exercises from a different angle. Plus I get to do a slide across the table stretch tha...

 Almost 8 hours of sleep again.  That means go back to bed, abandon any thoughts of going anywhere in person. Also abandon pretensions about sartorial standards for Zoom worship. And welcome the cat and especially the worshippers who receive her graciously. Sometime the body does so well with alcohol. Kahlua and ice cream is lovely sometimes though definitely not every day.  The smart blind people zoom call had LOVELY interfaith reflections on Christmas, Santa Claus... And during worship my sister texted me wishing peace and good will between me and the Quackery. Guess what autocorrect was working with. It was not the only occasion for inappropriate belly laughs. I will now muster sincere condolences for the loved ones of a certain WA state trump campaign manager who just died of COVID.

Basically 8 hours of sleep. 5.5  and then go back to bed. I waited until after I got up the second time to check out about the CPAP. LOTS of new pieces. I have to try another outlet, butit looks like the main unit is what's short. Blind people doing Zoom Christmas party is working out surprisingly well. I guess I want to know that the other person who also lives in my building has COVID. I guess I want to know this. I probably should not be typing this in the middle of the party. But otherwise i would just take a nap. 

 5.5 hours sleep in bed and another 1.5 in the middle in the chair. I sort of aspired to Get Stuff Done before it was time to leave for booster appointment. Um, no. Not happening. Break, a shower, some color coordination of outfit, dithering about taking the long cane, and I'm off, but phone was not charged enough to suit. Need to work on faltering phone battery issues next. Light pole covered with Screened stickers Lots of people at UW clinic getting boosted. Another whole series of transit experiences which go in other blog. Got mail including new CPAP supplies. Put it together tomorrow. By that time, just do minimal walking bus connections, think about stopping for small number of groceries, but now. And some pettable llamas visited Ida Culver House today. Mom sounded just thrilled. 

5.5 hours of sleep but only 4.5 of them in bed. I am a grownup. I made the grownup decision to drink a powdered milk mocha later in the evening than was a good idea.  And something from Bible Study fried my nerves more than is preferable and led to reasonable request and also unsolicited bluntness and venting. Oh happy day. Then I fell asleep in the chair and when I woke up I decided to stay up long enough to give the cat breakfast and then go to bed. Today the next in followup calls about CPAP stuff. Progress but goal is definitely to keep exercising enough hopefully to sleep okay. Today I am tired of oatmeal so I made quinoa porridge.  And I put on sandals with my compression socks. That makes me so happy walking across the breezeway but with furnace funkiness I may go home after Zoom calls and change shoes. Furnace funkiness is natural gas somehoe getting incompletely burned when building furnace is running so computer lab is colder than preferabe. Note to self. Call the HV...

 6 ish hours of sleep. aren't bar codes fascinating Enough energy to make food for about 3 meals and to start lentils soaking because I owe someone some lentil brownies. I got new computer ordered. MOST IMPORTANT, progress on the CPAP front. Progress defined as emails and an actual human followup and actual tech support conversation. Plus, yes my device falls under the recall. stay tuned.

5+ hours of sleep. Maybe 6. This counts a lot of time sleeping in chair. No CPAP. HAVE to call again about that today.  Maybe I can give up elevating the sore leg and  see if that helps. Also trying to go back to neck and arm exercises. I send apologetic note to therapist in advance: my computer and mic work fine on multiple Zoom calls. She says in appointment, yep, it's the platform. Other people sometimes have the same mic problem we had last time. I want a booster shot before the fam gathers. I do not want to have to poke around in every damn site to make an appointment. I do not want to wait until Jan when the booster people come back to the building. Oh and another exciting episode of "What's 5-0 doing in the parking lot?" The charming squatters threatened the life of the new manager. No bleeping idea why the bleeping squatters haven't long ago been ousted.

Somewhere over 6 hours of sleep. Get to bed at a reasonable hour. Go back to bed because it would have been ridiculous to get up the first time I woke up. But have a tylenol and some fruit juice.   Cat thinks I should cuddle full time Geronimo is a dog I frequently meet in the elevator when one of his humans takes him outside. Geronimo looks like he is part dachshund and part something bigger. His humans have some kind of tribal affiliation also so it does not seem appropriate to diss his name. The thing is, the other day in the elevator I completely spaced out his name.  And I have Things To Do. So here's hoping for some steady focus.

 5 ish hours of sleep in bed followed by a couple more in the chair. HOPEFULLY I will get a new CPAP machine soon and get back to better sleep patterns. Other things to write up elsewhere. Sore leg held up well on walk to Bartell's and wait in line. Never mind all the tree vs sidewalk moments. I rode the bus one stop back home. Fewer and less serious sidewalk safety hazards that way.  I also summoned energy to do other chores. Body appreciates exercise. Leg was ready for Tylenol when I got home.  Mom is really clear she wants more time to think about new medical stuff. Considering all the stuff she already has going on and considering other elements of situation, I don't blame her. Stay tunde for more family communications psychodrama anyway. Compline was beautiful

Somewhere about 6 hours of sleep before breakfast and some more in chair after. Sore leg made it through 4 loads of laundry last night. I really needed to wash socks. I am glorying in abundance and I did not quite realize I have so many pairs. But I also am tired of hand wash in the shower.  So I have been throwing pairs folded together at the top into a mesh bag. The mesh bag was getting full and the clean suppply was dwindling so I decided laundry had to be a kill me or cure me endeavor. GLORIOUS to have whole laundry room to myself. Irritating that there is a boarded up broken window! Anyway the spin cycle meant the socks dried so much faster than when I hand wash. Also shampoo day. Yeah scalp massage. Leg is definitely not 100% and I will keep at which parts of PT seem to help rebalance. But I think I have it in me to walk to pharmacy and get prescription refills. Which cane am I going to use? Stay tuned

Somewhere slightly over 6 hours of sleep. I am tired of runaround to get new CPAP and today even to connect to pharmacist to refill basic meds. Ouchy leg is improving but whole thing is tiring. And like a good little public radio puppy, I set the Google to work on the subject of yodeling pickle. Oh my. 

about six hours of sleep including getting up to figure out a good option for elevating leg and going back to bed after feeding cat. The scene of the pedestrian infra crime Leg is enough better to want to try more activity. So I steamed up my broccoli supply. But the dishes have to wait.  I was on day 3 since last shower. Thank heavens for grab bars to make it in and out of shower.  And knock, knock, knock. It was Chief Morale officer from the computer lab. CMO has many physical limitations. Today she needed help retrieving bottles of water and cans of soda from their packaging and putting them in fridge. I am a grown up. i did not HAVE to walk down the hall to her apartment today. Mostly the task was doable but now I am exhausted before I even get to the to-do list. Also, it's food bank. CMO does not like brown bread with lots of seeds so she was happy to share.

somewhere past 6 hours of sleep in bed and another 1.5 hours in chair in morning. Pretty banged up from falling off some steps on way home last nigh. Good excuse to reschedule two appointments tomorrow and to reach out about new CPAP. Everything is harder nursing sore leg. Just luck I recently bought a walking cane to use with arm stretches. Now about cooking, dishes, and laundry. But tonight I ordered pizza

about 4.5 hours of sleep. bright yellow sunflower bright blue sky Getting to bed was the problem. Two zooms back to back  Fresh to-dos from both to make up for the third one getting rescheduled.

 5 ish hours of sleep. needed to prep for an 11 am zoom. so no going back to bed. No, don't ask about that timeline. My mother has a root canal scheduled at 12:45 pm tomorrow. Nephew's birthday celebration has been rescheduled for 5 pm. I don't know what my mother is going to want to eat. I told her she has my permission to reschedule the birthday party, but so far she won't hear of it. And the COVID vaccinators will come back to my building NEXT month, 9 months after round 2. Maybe I will try to find a booster before then. And in I'm allergic to getting run over" photo ops  Crosscut, dressed like a traffic cone   I think I was slightly misquoted. It's probably not the end of the world.

7.5 hours of sleep! Closing blinds seems to be a good idea. So much for pretending to sleep under the stars. Don't even think of doing laundry. Just GO TO BED. Wake up in time to feed cat, eat oatmeal and go back to bed. So much for adult religious ed options.  Terse text from sister: birthday party cancelled. Ok, WHO DIED? Turns out nephew wanted to go out in sun and fresh snow with his off roading buddies more than he wanted to sit around and have food with fam. Mom and I adapted. Family psychodrama: Nephew is 21. He is old enough to decide what to do on his birthday AND to communicate about it to fam. Psychodrama is why the communication part doesn't happen. Catch first bus that comes by and get on light rail from there. Shucks. No eggnog lattes at Starbucks this year. Happy pandemic. I will have to look elsewhere for nutritionally appalling. Stop at Whole Paycheck on way from train station is convenient. Broccoli, avocadoes, bananas, mandarins reasonable. Donuts no so much ...

about 5 hours of sleep. Cat with shadows Good thing NOT to try the laundry super late. It will keep. Sleep clinic has not called me back about an appointment. I think I need to call so I can deal with needing new CPAP machine. I always wake up with something snarky on my mind. Mabye it is fine that snarky does not make it all the way here.  Nephew turns 21 tomorrow. How did that happen? Having celebration tomorrow instead of Monday as originally proposed will helpfully unkink schedule for Monday. Ah family.

Somewhere close to 6 hours of sleep, thanks to going back to bed. From a household that raises chickens these are easier to feed and more tolerant of holiday ornamentation than the live kind. The laundry room does indeed work. We are down two dryers and one washer from before the ravages of the vandals. Since the laundry was out of order for weeks, I am not the only person with a backlog of things needing attention. This also means more than one caregiver of a small child in the laundry room way past what seems like sensible bedtimes to me and as noted, really terrible morning for at least one small boy awakened too early.  So last night after two tries earlier, SUCCESS. Bed linens run through the dryer. Sheets changed. Resist temptation to do rest of things ready for attention. Get to them tonight hopefully.

   about 6.5 hours of sleep because go back to bed after breakfast. No howling vomiting neighbor child. No fluffing the bed linens yet because of the laundry backlog. OF COURSE I need to leave the daytime laundry to people with caregivers. Or I need to bound out of bed way earlier than I did. But anyway I was telling my mentee about my laundry hassles and she sounds intrigued enough that I will send her links.

decent 5.5 hours of sleep.  I got to bed at a reasonable hour and did not instantly fall asleep. So interesting how much difference temperature makes. No sign of cat in bedroom when I woke up but she was happy for breakfast. Clean new catbox yesterday too. Laundry now works so I need to change sheets and run bedding through dryer.  Across hall neighbor mother and grandson were doing laundry late. Very late. So late that grandson this morning was crying so hard he threw up when it was time to go to school. And grandma swatted him at least twice that I heard after they came back. I think for various reasons there may already be an open CPS case so now I get to poke through reporting. And another family related phone call returned. Limited but useful information.  But at least there were no plans for jackhammering while I wanted to do a Zoom call and other work was happening at the computer lab. Welcome to inching toward reopening. It's GORGEOUS outside.