RantWoman Sleeps--or Not

CPAP machine says I achieved a total of almost 5 hours of sleep. This involved sleeping away half the morning after techno zoom about issues getting federal broadband money to tribes. I also think there was some sleeping in chair involved but the point is life is better with more sleep and if I keep repeating that mantra I may actually get to a better steady state about the topic. Happy news that my mom has cross fingers gotten rid of one annoying medical encumbrance.  Other than that we can let the two contrabassoon variants be a metaphor for certain political parties HOPEFULLY dancing together well enough... And it's the end of the month so I get to total up lots of hours stuff. What am I doing with my life and should I try harder at getting paid for it and ...? Cat seems especially eager to snuggle. I think it's partly the cooler temps. Hopefully not something else.

                       6.0 hours of sleep NOt sure how I got there because I definitely thought I was going to bed later than that. But Time warp on the morning end too. At 10 am I was certain I was late to something at 11 am. But today I am so proud. This is only screen reader sofew visual cues about text placement. I will try to fix one thing, but in general, COPE and learn.

6.9 hours of sleep! We will not discuss from when to when. Goals for today involved cleaning refrigerator and / or floor. How about some of each. I have been tending a very large glass bottle of hot sauce, like tabasco except a different brand, since early in the pandemic if not before. Today gravity took care of worrying about how much longer a third of the bottle was going to last. The bottle shattered into both decent sized chunks and lots of slivers. In the course of cleaning the jagged red mess, I also cleaned at least some of the floor, the part in front of the refrigerator. Boom. Happy memorial day with extra flourishes about code talkers and formerly enslaved people wanting to honor a mass grave for Union soldiers.

4.2 hours of sleep and no time to go to bed. Plus I  also woke up just in time for choresbutnot time to chronicle as the nuggets deserve. I think I will try going to bed before midnight.

4.2 hours of sleep. Early enough that MAYBE I could have gone back to bed--until I realized that I promised to make a visit to Mom work. Always so satisfying to be out even though it was a tad breezy and I was glad I had a couple layers even though short sleeves. Mom was so happy just to let me babble about digesting news eg of way.  Then we talked about shoe preferences. I probably can't palm off the shoes I don't like because she won't like them either. Lunch with her in the dining room for the first time since the pandemic. I am SO glad she can ask for on and off extra help after surgeries. No need for me to sleep on the sofa bed that served heroically when she was new to Seattle and nephew still fit easily. Now nephew definitely does not fit and I could make a good case for moving the sofa bed along in the universe. Probably when she has to move. And tonight in addition to mom's bladder and kidney stuff it sounds like sister also has more kidney stones and .... Toni

5.6 hours of sleep. A better idea than fussing with...something I asked Friends to help me season. The Friends I asked share my view. But at least there was someone to ask. In high school orchestra, the bass and cello sections get to be the shark for Jaws, the movie sound track. This video amuses me because of the camera angle with the contrabassoon taking up half the frame and the camera shooting up the player's face. The other awkward moment of high school nostalgia: even though I see the logic of an orchestra-themed item that came my way, the orchestra is going to have to do what music programs everywhere do and fundraise. Will it be boxes of citrus fruit or chocolate covered almonds or...?

4.6 hours of sleep. I did not have one Zoom meeting on my calendar so going back to bed was not an option. I want my late night comics back. I mean the nightly nibbles of classical music are great and some of the political streams are their own best laugh lines. Still, time for the writers to come back.

3.9 hours of sleep.  This number makes more sense than the first thing I read, a sure indication that I NEED MORE SLEEP But the two zooms standing between me and more sleep were well worth it, I got showered between them and another one I also did in my apartment. Did I mention fire alarm testing affecting everyone in my building as we were trying to meet? GREAT relief about surgery time, transportation resolution and mother's day celebration delayed yet another time. CROSS FINGERS that new surgery gets done right and works as hoped for some much needed relief. Happy Wednesday

5.7 hard won hours of sleep. We will not discuss from when to when. It's either feast or famine, both as far as sleep and writing. Still feeling virtuous that I got all my assigned grant applications reviewed Sunday night. Accessibility WAY better than last year. My reward for such intrepid technological adventures: today I spent TWO HOURS trying to file a simple needed form and trying all the things the nice text presence told me to do. Thankfully I have eyes, blurry eyes but eyes enough not even to interact about screen reader navigation with the chat even though I certainly did with the online form, the form that resolutely did not have either visually or certainly not detectable by screen reader the fields nice presence was telling me to look for.  Finally when text presence threw up her hands and said there is nothing she can do, I threw a fit and asked her to forward the problem to her supervisor with specific instructions for what I want the supervisor to do, namely forward

6.2 hours of sleep. Not like I needed it or anything. Exhaustion and a gratitude that gets a different post

Somewhere less than four hours of sleep. THis vid has a lot of visual silliness. Blind folk last night were pensive about job issues. Rest of today gets other space elsewhere. Reading grant applications. BIG improvement over last year in that I can at least navigate.

  Brave little Rhododendron near one of today's bus stops 4.7 hours of sleep.  More would have been VERY good but instead shower and journey to blindness group. President and VP and treasurer all variously indisposed but secretary did an AWESOME job running a meeting. Must nurture that and appreciate occasional rough spots with self-confidence. Beautiful day and Rhododendrons at bus stop such a joy. Also I figured out how to deal with the grants portal so I can review applications. Weird idea of fun. And smart blind people were all talking about job stuff.

4 ish hours of sleep.  IN two spells. We will not discuss when it started. The important thing is that I got to my noon event. Happy Friday.

5.9 glorious hours of sleep. No Zooms until noon but OF COURSE I came away with much to do. I am a grown up. I need to say No more and / or say "Pay me" and see what comes my way that way. I SO want the late night comics to come back. Some much dreck to purge from my media feeds and royal family soap operas are at once enticing and barely more appealing than Trump-a-rama and the #GOPClownShow. I totally want a flying carpet to zip off and give my mom a hug: she is dealing with bladder and kidney yuck that latest increment of intervention did NOTHING to help. Happy Thursday. Life really is better if one cuts the computer earlier. It's TOO EARLY for wildfire smoke but apparently my opinion does not matter.

6.2 blessed hours of sleep. AND awake in time for two back to back Zooms Will stop here in time for Global Accessibility Awareness Day. #GAAD #GAAD2023 Hah!. It IS the cat. Wish I could label my photos as I take them.

I did not go to bed last night. I caught dribs and drabs of sleep but I did not go to bed. Honestly as much of the morning Zoom as I slept through, I should have just skipped it and slept. So tonight I may just skip worship with Kyiv Friends. More watching the royals and getting a little bit addicted to soap opera. Other than that, I made the Braille printer work today for the first time since the #pandemic lockdown. I made tactile art and also explained tactile art to the new coordinator. That part was cool. Tomorrow there are details I still have to clean up a little. It was reassuring when I plugged the printer in and it said something in its Australian accent. It took a couple tries and it only wants to deal with one page at a time so I have to look online for the manual. I also have to slightly correct the existing directions. Fun times. I am glad it has not been as hot as promised.

Holy Cow. Almost 9 hours of sleep. The extravagant luxury of going back to bed and not even trying to do anything after 5.9 hours of sleep. Going to bed at a reasonable hour because of not wanting to compute in the computer lab with no AC helped.  I decided I needed to get up and eat a real breakfast after a dream involving my certainty that I needed to take a shower in a tiny restroom near a big event of some kind and then enjoying a lot of food that I found tasty and it was not clear whether others realized it was available. I probably can go all kinds of places with that. Computer lab has AC. Room where digital equity team works does not. There is some kind of switching mystery that not even one of the very wise SHA HVAC experts can solve. Nice to see the computer lab space in use. And for exercise I will ride under desk bike to nowhere for awhile at an hour too late to be a good idea. Also I MUST scrub floor and wrangle refrigerator life forms. Count how many days I say that before

5.o hours of sleep EASY bus trip to see Mom and reassure myself that I have not completely lost capacity to cope with heat. Plus nice breeze and a few lovely blocks of extra walking to move large muscles. We will have more elaborate mothers day observance in a couple weeks. Laptop gawkiness cramping my style. WHINE

How not to park a bleeping scooter 4.7 hours of sleep.  Achievements of day flatten some Amazon delivery boxes Wash hair procrastinate Remember too late that the AC needs to be set on the thermostat I don't know how to work and that is basically inaccessible with not audio cues. Bus has AC  Fam will do Mothers day later but I WILL go see Mom partly because of UTI post surgery misery. Bleck.     

5.2 hours of sleep. AFTER 5 loads of wash.  ALL the machines worked from my phone app. The phone app was doing something weird about whether or not it accurately told me which machines are available, but no hassles with debit cards and extra hold. Plus the machine that sometimes has serious drainage issues also behaved well. And just for a bonus, no small kids with caregiver causing me to think SOMEONE needs to be in bed at the hour I usually do laundry. Good sleep because today I get to fuss with all kinds of tech. Will the world stop if we don't venture out in hot weather and do Mother's day another week? Happy Friday.

The garden for Mom 5.2 hours of sleep. SLOWLY catching up. Also not getting enough exercise especially in the sunshine. At least I was dressed before two zooms in a row.  So humble about alumni mentoriing for summer intern experiences. Posting at home on my laptop.  A wacky keyboard thing from the newest versions of software. Also I hate earphones so Mr. JAWS comes to meetings when I am unmuted.  Here I am. I need to be authentic COPE. 

4 ish hours of sleep. I should have read my email because this week my fave 9 am zoom was prerecorded and I could thank you very much have slept much longer. Knock on the door during an afternoon zoom. Do I know who lives across the hall? I see badly. Do you know this man? He looks a little like grandma's druggy boyfriend but I do not think it is good to say well a lot of men from his culture look alike. Have I seen any man living there? No, but I have heard male voices after grandma died which I think is not the druggie boyfriend. And YES, I do sometimes HEAR concerning sounds but person did not ask that question and I did not think to get a name. Use the Google OF COURSE. Meaning to post a snarky post about the victory day events that weren't. If your only military parade is basically an ancient thing that looks like a toy tank. I kind of like this piece but if I saw the movie at all either I was bored or I slept through it.     

For everyone secretly enthralled by dandelions 7 hours of sleep I think. Thank heavens I had time to go back to bed after breakfast. Sore toe seems to be some kind of argument between toe and sock and shoes, almost all of them. Thank heavens it is warm enough for the most open sandals. Watering plants makes me feel so grounded. Now, about separating the mother in law tongue and deciding whether to repot the biggest Christmas cactus. Such a difference between just not a total zombie and brain actually firing appropriately. Interesting conversation that is PhD level survivor accompaniment. Glad to be able to do it. Happy Tuesday. 

6.0 hours of sleep. Still dragging so have to catch up some more tonight. Dragging but apparently enough going on in brain for the day's meetings.

Somewhere around 5 hours of sleep. Definitely not enough but a big improvement over last night. Videos will emerge in digestible bits. And the dress  here is a phenomenon in its own right.

Blue blooming stuff along the walk       0.0 hours of sleep 6ish hours of coronation. A good full day that will just cause me to zonk out instead of... So Good night.     

4.5 hours of sleep  at least as long listening to the Pharmacy Quality Assurance Commission talking about prescription labels in many languages and / or accessible to people who are blind, low vision or print impaired. And enough German to guess at the title but not enough to get very much of the rest of the description.

4.5 hours of sleep. Up in time to shower AND get across town to a  LIVE IN PERSON meeting. New staff, Old connections. Same problems modest moments of hope. And lunch was LOVELY black bean, rice, kale, Yam, spicy burrito. There was ONE person working at the coffee shop. It took a REALLY long time for lunch to appear after we ordered. Good thing it was both delicious and sufficient for two meals. The kind of dining experience that makes one both annoyed and wanting to root for the restauranteur. And for both me and mom day was discombobulated enough to want some musical moment to blow off steam

5.2 hours of sleep. No Techno Zoom Also no time out in sunshine but I did make luscious rhubarb sauce with garden rhubard from friends in Lynnwood.

More garden joy from a recent visit to Mom 5.3 hours of sleep. Not totally decadent wake up hour but not enough energy to tackle some chores. Sigh. It's shower day. And put on an actual dress for this afternoon's webinar. Put on a dress because otherwise I don't have enough occasions to wear it. And think about sending back the pair of compression socks that looks GREAT once one gets the compression part over one's heel. And there is sun. Happy Tuesday.  

5.3 hours of sleep Going to bed at a reasonable hour helped. I MUST call about recall replacement CPAP. Might not  Other than that there is a first grader in a city N of here that severely affects vision but that getting services about is not a slam dunk. He is having a hard time in school and among other things it reminds me of first grade when other girls complained "Don't stare." I couldn't help whatever was bothering them but it did not make me care about being their friends. As if another thread in certain media streams were not also frying my brain. Happy Monday with the Pink Panther even if the Pink Panther may have been here before.