It's My Life

Yes, that's "stupid-sticious", and it was on purpose. SMILE! It's going to be one of those days and I can tell all ready. I woke up at 4:15 this morning and have been awake ever since. This is most definitely not a good thing. I guess this does prove that the Melatonin really does work for me. Usually when I wake up I can get right back to sleep if I've taken one of those pills. Oh well, I can sleep later today if I absolutely need to, otherwise tomorrow I'm going to be a total zombie.

So anyway, what's new in my life? How about we talk about the weather and get that out of the way. Here we are in the middle of October, and we just had our first freeze the night before last. It was only 30 degrees when I got up at about 7:00, and it didn't get much warmer all day. Right now it's 36 degrees with winds gusting as high as 30 miles per hour. To top all this off, they're talking about that absolutely terrible 4-letter S word... You know the word. It's that wet white stuff that tends to come around from time to time, masking landmarks, and deadening sounds; making travel quite interesting. Yeah, that stuff. So now my office is going to start to be cold again. Those of you who have been reading my stuff for a while will probably remember that last year I needed to put a space heater in here to keep warm. Well, this year I want a new one. The one we have is probably as old as I am, sounds like death warmed over, and scares me every time it goes on because I think it's going to start a fire. No, we didn't buy it. It was given to us 4 years ago when we moved in here because the heat wasn't working right away and it got cold early again. I'm thinking that it's time to give it back and buy something, um, a little bit more up to code. Let's not mention the fact that Cally is terrified of this thing, and she doesn't scare easily. Maybe she's afraid it'll burn her fur. I'd be afraid too if I were her. You should hear this thing!

The other big news in my life ... Yes, sometimes it's the little things. I cleaned off the spare bed the other day in preparation for any guests that we might get over the next few months. It's actually kind of nice because I can lay down in the middle of the day again if I want to. You can still hardly walk in here, but that's due more to the cramped space than anything else. The room itself is about 99 percent presentable at this point. SMILE!

Okay, my week. It looks like I haven't written since Monday. I keep meaning to, but then when I sit down to write I forget what I was going to say. Maybe I need to start writing when I think about it on my PAC Mate, and then I can transfer my stuff onto the computer or post wirelessly or ... Well anyway, you get the picture I'm sure. So anyway, my week. Things have settled down a little work-wise, but I think things are going to be picking up again soon. It really doesn't help much that I'm still going to the dentist at least once a week, but I'll get into that in a minute. So Tuesday I was attempting to do some research for someone, and learning how to use FSTTY, Freedom Scientific's TTY software for the deaf-blind. It's hard because I feel guilty for using the relay service because I could be taking time with an operator that could be better used by someone who truly does need the service. So, I was trying numbers that I knew would be out of service to see if I could find out what those TTY tones actually say when you hear them on recordings. I still never found out by the way.

Wednesday I was back at the dentist, this time for a cleaning. I asked them if they offered frequent visitor discounts. Unfortunately they don't, but I guess it was worth a try. I really like the people at this office. It's small, and the staff really take the time to get to know you. The dentist talks to me while she's working, and it's about every-day stuff. The coolest thing though, (and I think most of you will completely understand this), is that they never once freaked out about the blind thing. So many people in the medical profession, (okay, let's be honest, so many people), tend to get really worried about how to talk to me, how to act around me, so on and so forth, and it was never a problem for me at this place. I don't normally tell people in advance that I'm blind, but in this case I did since they originally took me on an emergency basis and I knew there'd be paperwork to fill out. The lady never flinched, and asked me if I'd need help getting in to the building, and it wasn't a condescending "she's blind, therefore she's helpless" attitude. They love my PAC Mate, and every time I pull it out to schedule my next appointment or to play a game while waiting they just find it fascinating. So anyway, this time was no big deal. I went in for a cleaning, which I was apparently way overdue for. I guess 8 or more years between cleanings is too long. Man, someone should have told me that a long time ago! GRIN! Actually though, I didn't do too bad. They only found two cavities. The bad part is that A, they have to be filled, and B, they're the very back teeth on each side on the bottom. That's going to kill my jaw!!!!!! I prefer opening and shutting my mouth on my command, not someone else's. Oh well, it shouldn't be too bad. That night I had a visit from Sas, and we ate this crock-pot spaghetti that I decided to try making, and listened to the audio-described version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. That's one weird movie! The audio was on Freedom Box, and they don't include any pictures with the movies, which of course is fine since the pictures really don't mean a whole lot anyway. SMILE!

Yesterday I was at the VA all afternoon doing a Freedom Box demonstration. This program still amazes me, and 99 percent of my posts here are now written from within FB because it's just so easy! I think I had about 7 guys there and a couple of wives and/or adult children. I'm sure that most people read the news story a month or so back about the guy who took a VA computer that had all kinds of sensitive data on it and it got stolen. Well, because of that they are extremely tight now with their security. I couldn't use my laptop on the network so I had to use a computer that I'd never seen in my life. That's the advantage of FB of course, but everything was disabled, so the auto-run feature on my U3 Kingston traveler weren't activated so I had to have help getting the program started. There were several things that didn't work as expected either due to the security issues, but I think many of the people found the program to be quite interesting, (I hope.) Last night I had a conference call for the Scholarship committee of the Wisconsin Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired My friend Snowflake is the chair of that committee, and after it was over she called me. While we were talking, I heard voyagerjc from the other room informing me that it was doing that afore-mentioned S word. I couldn't believe it! I yelled at him to shut up, and I'm sure that Snowflake thought I was telling her to shut up. Nope.

So now this brings me to today, Friday the 13th of October, the month of Halloween and otherwise creepy and strange things. I think many Milwaukeeans like Halloween, or the night before because it gives them an excuse to cause trouble. Not that they seem to need much cause these days. See voyagerjc's latest post for details. Anyway though, I'm rambling again. Today is the day of my oral surgery to remove both the last of the extracted tooth and the bone fragment that apparently got stuck at some point. It still rubs my gums some, but it has gotten better. It'll be nice though to completely get rid of it though and get back to what passes for normal. The one thing I really want is a nice bag of Doritos, and once the permanent crown goes on in a couple of weeks, and once the cavities are filled in, I'm going to get me one! My appointment is at 3:00 PM this afternoon, but I have to get there early to fill out paperwork. This was another place that seemed really willing to work with me. they asked me if I wanted the paperwork mailed to me in advance. I thought about it, but the place where we go to have mail read and things isn't exactly sound-proof, and I didn't want others in this apartment building hearing any of my information so I chose to do the paperwork there, and asked if that would be a problem. They said it was fine, so that's what I'm going to do. Now, the ideal thing would be to have the paperwork online as an accessible form and then I could fill it out that way, submit it, and be done. Hey, that's not a bad idea. Maybe it'd be something worth considering for the future, especially since everyone seems to want to get rid of actual paper documents. I think it'd be a great alternative! SMILE!

Anyway, I'm rambling again. Chalk it up to the extremely early morning and the fact that my fingers are getting cold and so are doing their own thing. Things should take about an hour or so, and we'll see what happens next. I think I mentioned that I'm supposed to work a conference tomorrow, but we'll see if that actually happens or not. My goal is to do it, so we'll see.

Well, I suppose I should probably get out of here for now. I've been writing this entry for close to an hour now, and I figure I should try to get some food, take a shower, and all that good stuff. Maybe I'll write more from bed or my recliner later this evening. Later everyone, and welcome to the weekend, almost!

Here it is, 1:30 in the morning as I start to write this, and here I am still awake. I'm not at home, and I forgot to pack some Melatonin, so I've got a double strike against me. I'm in an unfamiliar bed that is most definitely different from mine and I don't have my wedge pillow that I have at home, so laying flat means I can't breathe right. Normally in this situation I just stack up several pillows so that I'm propped up in a semi-sitting position, but for whatever reason it's not working tonight. I'm going to be really super tired in the morning, and I can tell all ready. And, I'm still feeling the tooth extraction and I didn't take anything for it earlier because it wasn't hurting and I thought I'd take it a little later and then forgot. Now it is, and I don't have a clue where any cups are so I can't take anything for that. For some reason, the whole left side of my face is hurning, and I don't think that's normal, but it's really hard to actually pinpoint where the center of the pain is so I'm not sure if it's from the extraction site or from the broken tooth in front of it. Somehow I think it's the tooth in front because there's some swelling in the gum area. I've been trying really hard to watch what I eat, but no matter what I do I've managed to either get something in the hole or else start biting down on the other tooth.

I had planned to be out of town today, not for any special reason, but because I'd made plans quite a while ago. Then I realized that I had a thing to do for work, and I wasn't able to leave as early as I had originally thought I would. I did that and then got picked up later in the day. I had a great meal though. I had Chicken Wellington with extra mushrooms and a twice-baked potato. It was extremely soft and good, and it really filled me up. Once we finished eating, we went to Giggles Comedy Club. They had three guys perform, and I guess one or two of them actually have a show on the Comedy Channel or something. So overall I've had a good evening, but my night isn't turning out so well. At home I'd be able to take some pills, grab an ice pack, whatever. Here though, I'm pretty much stuck. Oh wait! I had a glass of water earlier that I used for a warm salt water rince. If it's where I left it I might just be able to get it again and get some water out of the bathroom. I'll have to check that out and see if it's still there.

Well, I think I'm going to go post this and then read my friends page. I haven't done that today, (or should I say yesterday), so I've got a days worth of entries to read. Later.