Oracne's Brain Radio

Wow, I haven't posted in days. I used most of my energy for the dayjob this week, but saved some for pre-breakfast jog/walk on Monday and Thursday; I'm up to nine blocks of jog, five blocks of walk. This morning, though, I really didn't want to get up when I first woke, so I dozed until almost eight before dragging myself out and going to exercise; I wasn't feeling it, but I did it anyway, in the hope things would improve. Except I felt really slow and heavy, stopping to breathe a couple times, and after five blocks, I realized maybe I needed to eat because I sure didn't think I could continue in any useful way.

I went home and ate breakfast, then digested a little, then went out again and finished my route, still feeling a bit heavy and slow, but of course now my stomach was full. I didn't have that feeling of "not sure I can do this" after I ate.

I'm not sure what was up, unless sleeping longer meant my blood sugar was lower than usual. I hope I'm not getting sick. I don't feel any other signs of illness. Next Saturday, maybe I'll leave my alarm on so it's the same time as usual. Hopefully, I'll be back to normal on Monday. I'll be interested to see if my next A1C, in a month or so, is the same or not. If it continues, I'll have a snack before jogging.

On the good side, I think my leg strength is increasing; I was having soreness in the little muscles at the top of my thighs relating to balance, and that seems to have abated. I tend to feel a little distance from my legs after a while, which I used to get on the treadmill as well; I think it's my equivalent of runner's high, unless I'm just numb from whacking all my weight onto my small feet. The cushiony shoes I wear help a lot.

It was just barely above freezing earlier this week, which meant I pulled out my new wool neck gaiter to breathe through, and wore two layers on top to jog, and a cap. Given my exercise is currently less than half an hour, I stayed warm enough but everything felt more difficult until I started to get warmer. I'll be experimenting with various degrees of clothing as the degrees of temperature drop. I have a fleece vest that will be useful, and need to dig out an old pair of gloves I have that are meant for outdoor exercise. I've assembled light layers and already bought a base layer suitable for exercise a few months back. I am not going to attempt snow or ice, though. Too much chance of falling and breaking something.

Last night, I dreamt I was running, but the dream running was fast and effortless; in the dream, I thought "wow, I'm almost to the bridge and I ran the whole way!" In the dream, there was a cool bridge with great views, and I was going to take a breather and a photo there.

( I also had a grief dream. )

I had lunch with friends on both of my office days this week. First was a long-time friend who also works for the same School as I now do. Second was my former colleague and trainee, who I talked into applying for a job with my new department, which would be a considerable salary increase for her. I think she'd be good at this job, though of course it isn't up to me. As I pointed out, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I am trying to stay in touch with the people I liked from my old job, and forge new relationships with them. I am still friends with a couple of people from my first job at the university. This morning, I texted someone who joined my team shortly before I left, whom I liked a lot; we both live in the same neighborhood and are going to try and meet up and see how it goes.

Other things I did this week: I made a to do list; I have to get back to the lawyer about my will. I read and wrote up my November TBR Challenge book, to post in my pro blog. I made apple crisp. I moved the bathroom windowsill plants into my bedroom because we turned on the heat and there's a radiator under that windowsill. The foundation work under our front room is started, and we're paying the down payment (I have just enough for my share; unless something unexpected happens, it won't be as expensive as we originally feared).

Runners: how often do you replace your shoes? Do you go by time or distance? Since I'm only putting about a mile and half on mine three times a week, I don't expect to wear them out quickly, but are there warning signs that mean it's time to get new ones?

My previous pair of Brooks Glycerines, I wore until the bottom layer of the sole wore off and they were too slick to walk in. This pair, I did wear for walking around in cities a few times, but mostly saved them for the gym, so they are in pretty good shape despite being elderly as running shoes go.

1. Today is my departmental office holiday party, and tomorrow my team's holiday dinner. I am working from home and won't be attending either, though I am wearing a red sweater to manifest a little spirit over Teams. Fingers crossed there isn't a wave of illness next week that I end up covering for...we're closed for the following week, between Christmas and New Year's. Tomorrow, I get to log off early because the dinner attendees are leaving early. I usually get some enjoyment out of these events, because I like most of my colleagues, but I am not upset about avoiding the risk. My previous team are all attending, and all of them are wearing masks to the big event; this is why I love them.

( Read more... )

I am uninjured from the small household accident I am about to describe.

I had plans for Tuesday evening. I finished work at four pm, and had ordered groceries for delivery, including heavy whipping cream to make trifle. C. got her second orthodontic appliance implanted, and trifle will be easy on the mouth. Spoiler: no trifle was made.

( Read more... )

Maybe making trifle can wait until Friday or Saturday.

Summer hours - leaving at three pm on Fridays - for dayjob started this week. My usual schedule is eight to four, but for this purpose those of us on that schedule are going to be nine to three. I wasn't successful in sleeping in, alas, but I did use the extra morning time to cut up a cantaloupe and take a picture of my birthday Philodendron micans, which has been growing steadily.

( Read more... )

The pretty window film I ordered for the guest room arrived this week. I might try and put it up this weekend. It should provide filtered light through the single window, but the people with facing windows across the alley won't be able to see anything but indistinct shapes.

We're supposed to get sunshine, low humidity, and temperatures in the low seventies this weekend. Gorgeous!

I've managed to pop in and out of the WisCon Discord a fair amount, which feels a bit like running into people in the lobby and in the hallways. I've missed that feeling. I feel weirdly shy and out of practice. There's a Dreamwidth channel so I dropped my journal address in there.

Houseguest's visit went great and so did brunch outdoors today with additional college friend (at least, so long as nobody ends up testing positive for Covid). Houseguest made it to her bus this afternoon in plenty of time. She was very pleased with Fabulous New Guest Room experience so go me! She suggested a window covering given the single window is directly opposite windows in the house next door, which, fair! I need to get more of that window-sticking film that makes rainbows, a budget version of frosted glass. I prefer it to curtains because I love getting sunlight and second it doesn't get dusty like curtains. There is quite enough dust in this old house already.

I watched gwynnega's reading on Saturday morning, and since it was a small group, we spent the second half chatting, which was lovely. That afternoon while houseguest was out at The Mothership I tuned in to a panel about mixed race characters that included a lot of the panelists' real life experiences, and the fifth iteration of Best Superpowers for Banging, done as a bracket competition - I think Shapechanging ultimately won. This afternoon, I enjoyed the vid party review panel, which included mostly vids I'd missed in the live party (and now I have the show list so I can watch the other ones I missed). I was interested in the Zen Cho panel but couldn't concentrate on two panels in a row, so gave up and ate dinner. I plan to go offline after this post, and finish the mystery novel I'm reading.

Houseguest enjoyed the blueberry muffins and ham/cheddar/kale quiche; it's always satisfying when one's cooking is enthusiastically eaten. Yesterday I made a loaf of soda bread with dried cherries which C. and I made a good dent in; I used the Fannie Farmer recipe, which has two full cups of buttermilk, more than other recipes I've used. The dough was very shaggy and wet so I wasn't that thrilled with handling it and then scraping my fingers, but it baked well and tasted great, especially with butter. C. liked it better than the other recipe. It was fun to be making soda bread while listening to a panel!

1. On my walk home Friday afternoon, I stopped at the hipster plant store on 40th where my birthday plants came from, and bought two small plants: a Sansevieria trifasciata 'Golden Hahnii' and what I think is a Sansevieria burmanica. They're currently living on the rickety desk I use for work-from-home, in the back room, so they get plenty of indirect light and some late afternoon sun. The Hahnii got blown over by wind while I was repotting, and some of the root system got broken, but there were still roots left, and it seems to be doing fine. I put it into a pretty blue glazed pot that I bought at Marshall's on an excursion to Center City while the case rate was low. They look so big compared to the little rooted pieces of different sansevieria I bought online last year; of those, a couple have put out new pups, and one doesn't seem to have grown at all, so I want to try it in a new pot.

( Read more... )

"The pandemic is not over and being vaccinated and also boosted does not give one magic powers of invulnerability from plague" is something I need to print on a giant sandwich board and wear around town, or at least the grocery store. I am, as a matter of course, wearing two KN95 masks when I ride the bus and when, as yesterday, I go to the grocery store. This precaution helped me keep from utterly panicking and losing my mind when I spotted a couple ambling around the grocery store without masks.

However, I did get groceries out of the trip.

( Read more... )

College friend Fearless Leader and her husband Dave were in town this weekend; they had both taken a week off from work, visiting first NYC (and our mutual friend K.), then Philadelphia, before returning to the D.C. area today, Sunday. They saw Black Widow Thursday night as well, after their arrival; Friday afternoon, they came out to West Philly and saw my house for the first time. I ran a load of laundry for them. We had dinner out at Manakeesh, the only indoor diners in a pretty open space, and bought fresh baklava from their excellent bakery. Then we watched the new episode of Loki (don't tell Ms. 13 I already saw it!).

( Read more... )

Today, it's back to writing. I will be sending this manuscript to beta reader #2 this week. And I need to get back to manuscript #2.

I've been slowly dealing with years' worth of photos, mostly scanning in prints, discarding a lot of them, and consolidating negatives and the prints I'm keeping into a more limited number of photo boxes. I need to go through the boxes again and separate out the genetic family ones, so I can pass them on and have them not be my problem any more. It's much easier to deal with scans!

More recently, I rotated out some of the photos that used to be in frames and replaced them with different photos, and filled some frames I'd never used, since now I have more rooms to decorate. Today, I cleaned up a 5" X 7" frame feklar42 handed over to me; it had been in a box of Random Stuff, most of which she didn't want. I had a cardboard matte that size, from a now-gone art supply store, that enabled me to use the frame for a 4" X 6" print. (Most of my prints are that size.)

I chose a photo of Geeklet and Ms. 12, from when they were still small. drinkingcocoa and I had taken them to Franklin Fountain for ice cream, and they are leaning their faces together to both be in the picture. I later used this photo for the cover of a tiny paperback book, full of nothing but Adorable Tots, which they loved to page through. But I hadn't thought of this picture in years. It's pretty great. I used an actual camera; it's from before I had a phone with a camera (I didn't get a smartphone until maybe three years ago.)

I need an updated picture. Or several. Hmmm, Xmas will happen sometime soon. *cough*