i hear the voices when I'm dreaming

1. I've officially had Phoebe for a year now. Doesn't seem that long, somehow. She is still the bestest girl. (Standard disclaimer that other dogs may also be bestest; ties are acceptable here.)

1b. Her puppy raiser came for a visit today :) Phoebe was of course extremely happy to see her. (Yahtzee made sure he got a share of the attention, lol.)

2. Having wheelchair issues again... ( Read more... )

2b. ...and the new wheelchair is still not quite usable. It's better than it was earlier in the Chair Saga, but the joystick is in an entirely bad place, so reaching the joystick is awkward and painful, and I can't reach the buttons. Sigh. I have a call in to NoMotion (UnMotion?) for both issues, but I've had the chair in my possession since September (with the whole saga going back to May of 2022) so not holding my breath.

3. Inflicting the "Vindaloo" football (Brit.) song on my aides has the unfortunate consequence of re-earworming me too, but that's an acceptable cost for, uh, sharing the love, lol

4. For anyone who likes reading police/detectiv procedurals, I'm really enjoying the series starting with Angel Maker. (Technically there are earlier books with the main character, Jamie Johansson, but AM is the one I started with). It's set in Sweden, with a female lead, and it's good imo.


5. I still like having a shaved/ buzzed head.


6. The art thing I'm doing -- one sketch/drawing a day of items starting with a for the first week, b for the second, c for the third, etc -- is working nicely. ( Read more... ) I'm up to G now, woo.

7. Trader Joe's has some extremely delicious brookies. I'm kind of addicted (only not really). Also their mini ice cream cones are amazing, but I've known that for a while.

8. Tried a new cpap mask to see if it would be easier. ( Read more... )

9. Sorry I keep being so bad at reading DW and therefore have no clue what's being happening with y'all. It's not y'all, I promise! I just... forget it exists?

10. This took an hour to type up. Sigh. Hate how slow typing is these days. And typing on tablet (stylus plus thumbs on touchscreen) is faster than computer typing (mouse clicking on virtual keyboard).

Today has been... very Monday.

* Wheelchair tech was supposed to be here sometime between 1 and 4 in the afternoon, to follow up with the ongoing tilt issues and also start the process for getting a new chair. He came at 9am instead.

* then my morning aide called in sick, and while I did eventually get up I've been worried all day that she might have gotten me sick when she was here last night

* also Loki pooped and peed on my bed last night, because of course

* all day I've been tired and grouchy and brainless, and I can't tell if it's circumstance (plus gloomy grey weather that makes me want to hibernate) or if I'm maybe getting sick ... it's not covid just a cold but still not great

* and I'm almost out of one of my meds (that of course I can only get 30 days worth at a time) and Rite Aide is being... gah. I'm trying not to use "stupid" but I can't think of words right now, but they aren't communicating and are taking forever and argh

* fml

but I had fuzzy socks on, and leftover chocolate cake for breakfast because fuck-it-why-not, so it wasn't *entirely* bad

Pretty sure the universe hates me right now.

Point: my chair is semi broken. Last week I went to go somewhere and *couldn't get out of the van* because motor 2 was disconnected. It took 45 minutes and two (strong) people to get me out -- luckily once I got back inside, the chair started behaving again, but I am afraid to go anywhere in case I get stuck, either in the van again or outside someplace. The theory is that something in the right-side motor is loose/worn enough that the disengage lever slips out of fully locked. (Which also means it's totally unrelated to the joystick falling off earlier.) They've ordered new parts but this tends to be the sort of thing that, based on delivery times, is handmade by Tibetan unicorns in the light of a full moon and then shipped via narcoleptic yak.

It's been a week, and so far I've missed a book group discussion that only meets every other month, reiki, choir rehearsal, soul collage, and I forgot what else but fuck. Also all three pets had vet appointments, so my aide had to go be my proxy.

Point: my brain feels like it has somehow short-circuited because stress and because I don't know if the chair will die completely or when it will be fixed. i can't focus on anything or do anything or ... anything.

Point: the aide that was leaving at the end of the month? Apparently the other client needs her sooner so as of Monday she can't work for me in the afternoons. She's still doing her two morning shifts through the end of feb, but not the three afternoon ones. I found this out tonight.

Point: the power went out at around midnight and stayed out for two hours. Something was beeping. My bed (alternating air pressure mattress) requires power. My cpap requires power. My fan requires power. Too hot and uncomfortable to sleep. And I couldn't even distract myself with Netflix because internet requires power (and while I do have videos on my iPad, I didn't want to drain the battery down and have nothing, if the power stayed out). I got the cpap hoses disconnected so I could breathe (it is very awkward and stifling to try to breathe through the filters and stuff when it's unpowered) ... but then when the power came back on couldn't get it connected again (partly hecause the hose attached to my face mask isn't quite long enough for me to hold well, partly because I can't bring my hands together) so I had to wake my roommate up. Which is, granted, one of the reasons she's here, but I still hate doing it.

Point: it is ::squints at clock:: 3:30 and I am not asleep and my brain doesn't want to go to sleep (it's like a very small toddler, just less mobile). I'm also hungry and craving sugar, but I haven't figured out a way to eat stuff in bed, and anyway shouldn't be having a lot of sugar, though I'm thinking of saying fuck it and just gorging on chocolate tomorrow, because who fucking cares if it's healthy, give me all the sugars.

So I have some very important news: I HAVE A NEW CHAIR OMG.

It's not perfect yet; there are all sorts of minor tweaks and changes that have to be made. (And because I am so physically inflexible, the wheelchair controls need to be positioned very precisely, and there are all sorts of awkward things like deflating the seat cushion a bit to make it more comfortable means the armrests are too high, etc.)

But. But! It is shiny and new, and *fast* (6mph top speed), and the suspension is amazing, and it has all the features I need including the lateral tilt, and the display has a clock, a speedometer, an odometer, a resettable trip odometer -- no streaming video though, lol.

I'm still switching back and forth between the chairs until the things that need resolving get resolved, but soon the most important question will be how to bling it up to suit my personality :D

( pic )

I'm not sure how much I've talked about this here. But in the interests of having it all in one place:

( Read more... )

Needless to say, this all is ... frustrating is an understatement. And sort of interferes with doing anything at all.

Wheelchair update: Main circuit board is fried, so they have to order a new one from the manufacturer. So probably at least a week.

Meanwhile I can't tilt back without help (can't reach the switch) so I'm afraid to go outside because long legs + fixed ankle/knee/hip + tilted all the way down = foot go smashy on uneven pavement. And I can't really use the van, partly because of the tilt thing and partly because I can't get seated all the way back in the chair so my knees will go smash against the glove compartment. So while I am not bedbound and can get around my apartment okay, I am essentially housebound. And can't even take Yahtzee for walks D:

Plus my wrist is not happy still and using the mouse hurts, so I'm trying to limit full use of computer. I can browse stuff okay using either a) left hand on mouse plus on-screen keyboard for typing, or b) voice control if I'm alone in the apartment, but neither strategy works for gaming, so no SWTOR escapism. Sadface. At least I am getting a decent amount of crochet time?

(And at least I was able to get my dad to fix the left armrest, which was way too high for how I sit now and so was not only uncomfortable but was turning my hand numb um no thanks. Now it's just poking into my hip, which is way more tolerable.)

Just what I needed: my wheelchair decided to utterly freak out and stop working.

...with me tilted all the way back and at a bit of an angle so I can't even get out.

Yay?

(at least I'm inside)