>It’s definitely autumn.  The chill has arrived.  Today was cool, breezy, lots of sunshine, lovely.  Went out with my friend Tess to Walmart to stock up on some items, then back to her house to play with her dog.  Poor doggie has allergies and has been chewing on her feet, so vet prescribed a shot and Prednisone.  No, No, No.  This is not the same little doggie.  No playfulness, no energy, no nothing.  It’s very hard on Tess, and she feels responsible.  I blame the vet for prescribing such a heavy drug for a 14 pound dog with an annoying, not health-threatening condition.  Fortunately, Misty is only on this for a short time, so we’re hoping she bounces back to her old (bouncy) self.  Poor baby.  Poor Tess. 

I am doing pretty well.  The melatonin is helping, even if sporadically, and today I got my scrip for the Zanaflex which almost always works and works well.  So I have two options every day.  Sleep is good.  Not being able to get to sleep is not good.  Sleeping for twelve or more hours at a time is also not good.

I cooked yesterday.  Yes.  Me.  I cooked.  It was very stressful and tiring and painful, but except for that was an easy dish and came out really well.  Chicken breasts, artichoke hearts, potatoes, Parmesan.  Yum.  Happy Fall.

>

Yes, it was a sneezy, allergyific day today.  Slept through most of it, but the awake part wasn’t fun.  Otherwise, it was a lovely day.  Sunny and cool.  I didn’t do much, since I was mostly asleep, but I had leftovers from the nice dinner I made yesterday, so I did eat well. 

Talked to my friend Tess on the phone.  She is almost finished with the table runner she is quilting for a gift.  It’s really pretty, and the book she got the pattern from was all about the Underground Railroad, and how the slaves used quilt patterns to pass messages to those escaping.  Fascinating, and so very clever. 

Kind of given up on the sleep thing and just going to bed when I’m sleepy, and not when I’m not.  Oh, well.

>Been having some sleep issues still. My body wants to sleep between 5 or 6 am and noon or later. I want it to sleep fro midnight to 8am or some other ‘Look, it’s mornig and I’m up!’ hours. I did manage to get up at 10 this morning, but then fell asleep on the recliner later. I am NOT a daytime nap person, so this irritates me.

It’s voting day, but I did not make it. The friend I was going with isn’t feeling well, and the voting place is much too far to walk. I hate to think that all the Republicans will be out in force, and I didn’t contribute any to getting their party out of office. Does this mean I can’t vote in November? I never quite understand the ‘you’re registered, you’re not registered’ qualifications. I was getting absentee ballots for a while, but they stopped coming.

Very slumpy today. Not enough sleep or hangover from the Benadryl I took last night. How DOES one change their body clock? I’ve tried just about everything I can think of or have read about, including staying up for 36 hours. Didn’t work.

It’s a gray and coolish day. You can really feel Autumn now, especially in the evenings. It’s my favorite time of the year.

I can’t find the link to post a picture. It vanished. So that’s the name of that tune. My keyboard has some issues with N, M and on to the right, so if letters are missing, that’s why.

>I had a very good day. That’s Gertrude, by the way. She’s not fat, but she sure is furry. Anyway, I got up at 11 or so, did my morning routine, got ready for my homemaker, and turned on the pc, of course. Homemaker came, homemaked, left, and my friend Tess came over. I took three extra-strength Excedrin, which I do when I will be walking at all. We went to Christmas Tree Shop, where I got a little bottle of citrus flavored mustard for a dollar, then to Walmart where I bought some cereal and things, a new trash bucket for the kitchen, and some filters for my Pur faucet attachment. Those things are expensive!! Then we bought Coolattas and went to her house, watched a movie, had dinner, gave her hubbies a hard time, and played on the computer. Came back here, played on the pc some more, she left, and now I am still on here at 1:20 am, when I should be in bed pretending that I can actually sleep at night. My life is so very exciting, but I do get to laugh an awful lot. Think I actually will go to bed now. I am having a good spell, without much pain and with a little bit of actual energy, so I am enjoying it as much as possible. And that’s all for today.

>Mother’s Day flowers from number two child. Number one child made a lovely phone call and we had a pleasant chat. Nice day.
My friends came on the fourth and we got a lot done. Old loveseat, recycling, miscellaneous items—-all gone. Later I got some furniture arranged more to my liking, and things are looking good. I am a happy camper. A pretty good week last week over all, with only one or two not-so-great days, then Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were just wasted. Not able to sleep, new med killing stomach, bah, humbug. Stopped the new med, took a pill and a half of the knock-out pill since my liver tests came back fine and I really would like to sleep at night. I am NOT a vampire, really.

>For the second day in a row. I love rain. April is my birth month, so ‘April Showers’, Singing in the Rain’, and ‘Just Walking in the Rain’ are three of my favorite songs. April showers bring May flowers.

Very tired today. Gave up the Zanaflex, then not sleeping well at all, so took two Benadryl last night. Worked fine, but didn’t get quite enough sleep. After my two and half good days last week, I’ve been kind of in a slump again, with no energy to keep on with the decluttering/rearranging. But I will get there. Sooner or later. *smile*

I need to buy a couple of fans for the summer, since all three of mine died at the same time. Hmmmmm, what could have caused that? I blame Simon. He’s the official scapegoat for this household.

I am feeling much better since I got the living room in better shape. Lots of floor visible, and much less clutter. Still have ‘refining’ to do, the kitchen could use some work, and then it’s the bedroom. The bathroom is always in pretty good shape, thanks to my homemaker. The kitchen is just too small. It’s only got two small counters, and they are pretty much taken up with dishdrainer, coffee maker, and storage jars. And part of the actual moving around space is taken up by the cart with the microwave, toaster oven, and toaster. It has to be moved before I can open the dishwasher, so I try to mostly do dishes by hand. Then I have several not-so-good days in a row, and the dishes pile up. I don’t really worry too much about it, except if I’m running out of cups for my morning coffee.

Ohhh, slumping. Off to find something to eat.

> Finally, with some help from a friend, I got the living room organized. A pile of stuff on the couch and a couple of boxes to go through, and that’s it. Hooray! What a relief. It’s amazing how much clutter can debilitate you, mentally as well as physically. So that’s two rooms done. Next I will tackle the bedroom. I am zee happy, happy lady. *smile*

>It went okay. I stayed up later than I should have, so when the alarm went off at 9, I stayed in bed and slept til 11:15 or so. But then I had a very good day. My friend came over and we went to Walmart and Shaw’s, back here, then to her house so I could help her with her laptop. It has gotten very slow and needed some serious tweaking. Then I stayed for dinner, did the dishes, gave her husband a hard time for watching Bill O’Rellly, and came back home where we played games on my pc for a couple of hours. Now I’m tired, but still feeling good. Very little pain today, for the first time in a couple of weeks.

Already took my pills tonight, and have the alarm set for 9am tomorrow. It’s supposed to be a warmer day tomorrow, but today was quite nice with light rain and coolish winds. I do love rain.

The picture is out my living room windows, taken in April of 2005. I hope the flowering pear trees are as nice this year. Some years they are amazing, and other years, not so much. The pansies were a birthday gift from friends. I love pansies, especially yellow ones. It was a good day, both the day I took the picture, and today. Tomorrow is April. I like April. *smile*

>This is a beautiful picture from my favorite Korean tv show, Winter Sonata. It was shown on AZN tv with subtitles, a real bonus since I speak no Korean. I came across it while surfing channels, and before I knew it, I was hooked by the music and then by the story itself. It did seem that everyone was always crying, and always wearing their coats, but it was winter, so……. I liked it so much I bought the DVD set on Amazon. Guilty pleasure, I think.

Haven’t felt much like blogging lately. Been struggling with sleep issues again, and ever since I did the very short walk in the park a few weeks ago, my legs have been really painful and twitchy and uncomfortable. But I still think it was worth it. Being out, being in the park I seldom get to go to, spending time with my friend and the lovely little West Highland Terrier Misty. It was a good day. I even took some pictures of a tree top and some bark as well as the puppy.

I did cook yesterday, and the day before I had those fresh steam-in-bag veggies with ham. Those veggies are very nice. It takes more energy than I can spare to peel carrots and wash and cut up broccoli, or any veg for that matter, so having them ready to go in a bag you just nuke for a few minutes is a very good thing. I think you can just use them raw, too, for dipping or whatever, but I decided to go with the steaming.

I am trying, trying, to get organized. I did get the kitchen pretty well done finally, but now I have about four days worth of dishes waiting to be washed. I have to move a cart on wheels to get to the dishwasher, and there are too many to do by hand except in batches, which is how I got into this mess in the first place. Those darn dishes. Eating only finger foods would be nice, but boring.

I am stating here for all to see that I am going to follow a schedule. Take my pills at 11pm and set the alarm for 9am. And GET UP at nine, even if I didn’t sleep. Not sure how this will work, cause if I don’t sleep enough, I am pretty non-functional the next day, but I really want to have a normal sleep-wake pattern and I’ve tried everything else I can think of.

I had a compliment (I think) the other day. My homemaker came in from shopping and picking up a prescription for me, and as she came in the door she said, “You’re 64!”. “I will be next month”, I said. “I thought you were no more than 55”, she said, “but I just figured out your age”. Gee, I filmed myself for a couple of minutes with my new dinosaur webcam the other day, and I think I look like I’m 90. Or maybe I just feel like I’m 90. Being ill takes it out of you and ages you.

I read somewhere that I should have a post about myself, and a way for readers to contact me if I want to be a successful blogger. Thinking about it. That’s all for now.

> I like clock-changing time in the autumn. Get up, change clock, it’s an hour earlier. But now, in spring, I change them before bed. It’s a really hard adjustment either way for people with illness-related sleep problems. I’ve tried all sorts of adjustments, none of which work even a little bit. Oh, well.

It’s been a lovely week, weather-wise. Rainy some days, but not too cold and very pleasant to be outside. Went out a little Tuesday and Friday afternoon. I really would like to get out more, but it’s hard to motivate myself when I don’t have enough energy to get dressed. *smile* I got some books from the library, too. Real books. It’s been quite awhile since I’ve been to the library, and it was a lovely feeling to bring home a handful of books. I do like to read, and I’ve read all of my own books so many times I can probably read them with my eyes closed.

I was watching Torchwood earlier and started feeling achy. Thought to self, “I must be coming down with something. Rats.” Then remembered that I feel like that every day. Torchwood can make you forget. It’s a good thing.

I also got a little cute webcam yesterday. It looks like a dinosaur. I wasn’t going to ever get one, but…..Anyway, cammed the cats to a friend last night, and today just turned it on myself, for myself, not broadcast. Oh, pretty depressing. I look so old, and fat, and sad. I’m not sad, generally, but old and fat? There’s just no getting around it. That does make me sad. Guess I’ll take my old, fat, sad self to bed. It’s an hour later than it is, at least until 2 am. Happy spring, everyone.

> An artificial construct to make an artificial time-line sync with itself. And it’s COLD outside. 20 degrees. Went across street to convenience store for some milk and wine since it’s supposed to snow later. Going to make bread pudding, so need more milk. Going to drink wine, so needed wine. A nice and cheap Chardonnay.

I had a good day today. And yesterday, although by last evening I was in a lot of pain and completely, totally exhausted. But fine today. Had a nap this afternoon, which helped. Simon sat on me throughout the nap, which made for a nice and warm nap.

I mentioned my Green Mountain delivery. It came packed in brown paper, which was cut throughout. I put the box by the cat’s platform and Simon pulled out a piece and proceeded to stretch it with his teeth and made a little nest. Then this morning, when I got up, brown paper and the white paper which was also included, were all over the living room. NOT torn up, thank you very much cats, just all over. They must have had fun while I slept. Sometimes when I get up, there are clumps of cat hair all over the rug. What were they doing? So long as they don’t wake me up, I don’t really care.

Happy Leap Day, everyone.