bits

 

 So much in the news today - Iran, Lebanon and Israel - the port worker's strike and a lot of fear being spread around about supplies being hard to get over the holidays and winter if it continues.  Gah.  I don't like fearmongering like that - and we all should already know things will be a little harder to get because of the hurricane damage.  It doesn't mean go run out and buy up every store, making more trouble far and wide.  But that doesn't stop people from trying to do it.   I did go get all of our animal feeds, but mostly because I was running to the other town for something Mark wanted - and that is where the feed store is, and I didn't want to have to run there again right after work in a few days.  Now that I work in the other 'other' town Monday through Friday, and at the post office on Saturday, there isn't a lot of time to get to something that is only open until 5.  I stopped by that grocery store there to pick up the few things that I usually do buy there that the other one doesn't have, or doesn't have generic of (canned apples, and canned carrots - the big store has been out of canned carrots for going on a month and that's weird)  It made for a long day, and 150 lbs of animal feeds unloaded at home, then dinner, and some Scrapheap Challenge, and Japanese lessons.  

 

 

I've done some French, a lot of Japanese - my phone Japanese has now surpassed both the French and Spanish levels, as well as the Tetris type game on my breaks and before work starts.  Some of the manuals and invoices for equipment have bits in them in Italian, and yesterday - one with electrical descriptions in Turkish.  I read a bit of a welcome page that was bilingual and realized after a few sentences that it was Turkish - the word 'onun' especially and all the 'az' on the ends of things.   I still haven't gone past level 9 on Duolingo in Turkish, just enough to see the structure of the language and the most common words  Not really the kind of words in an electrical manual!  Then I confirmed by seeing a website link that ended in .tr which is the country code.  I had to scan a lot of those manuals in for digitizing, part of what they wanted me to do for this job.  Lots more truck stuff tomorrow.  Reading more of the Apothecary Diaries manga that I found - not quite up to the point where the anime had left off until next year - but enjoying it.  I am seeing some differences in translation between the English translated manga and the English dub anime even - word choices etc.  And there are some little scenes or details that are not included in the anime, to cut down time and frames etc. 

Also, I had been taking a mixture of cranberry juice and water in one container to work, and coffee in my thermos.  Then, when I got home, I would combine all that was left, heat it up, and drink it together.  Yes.  That's odd.  What's worse though - is I forgot one of those cups in the microwave when Mark and Esme were starting to cook yesterday - and Mark told me my 'coffee' was beeping.  So I took it out, nice and warm, and added a bit of milk to it like I usually do, forgetting it had the cranberry juice with it.  Curdled.  *Stare at it*  Oh.  Yes.  That combination doesn't work too well!  Mark could barely contain a giggle there, after he heard what the issue was.

grow

 

An older picture, but I keep pretty pictures up on my desktop sometimes, ones that I have taken, in order to click them open and look at them again or leave them up like a screensaver and have that on my computer for the day while I'm doing other things.  I had dog roses up the other day, and today I switched to these blue flag irises.

That's two weeks down at the office job, and the postal route on Saturday, and today I didn't get called for emergency 'we can't cover it' packages on Sunday - so we went and did some shopping with Grandma.  Esme helped me with all the carrying and such.  We also looked at Christmas ornaments, trees and home goods.  We bought a mop, which I've been needing to get another one.

When we got home, I put dinner in the toaster oven and used the mop a little on the worst places (that had spurred me to get it), and did laundry, and so forth.  I almost went down for a nap after chatting with a friend, but found a hole in a yarn blanket and repaired that, and remembered a hole in a shirt I was going to run under the sewing machine and so forth...

I dreamt of snow last night, so high it filled the entire valley and the yard up... blocking the downstairs doors and windows.  In the dream, I woke Esme and Mark up to look at it, but they didn't think it was really a problem... that dream was probably brought on all by the flooding in the East, and my worries for winter.  The night before I had dreamt of my poor little black cat had been speared through against a tree, and I was so afraid to pull the spear out for fear it would do more damage - and I did, because I couldn't leave her like that, and she ran off as if she wasn't hurt, but leaking green liquid while I was trying to figure out if I could get her into the back of the truck, or if we could bring her to the vet or just what to do about it.. she grew three times bigger into a wolf with fangs and started eating rabbits that I hadn't even seen up until that moment, and I was conflicted, and the wolf started leaking even more neon green goo, jumped into the back of the truck and then disappeared entirely into a mass of green goo in the truck bed.  The stranger thing was that all 'happened' in the dream, in my mom's yard, back in Minnesota, which I didn't find strange until I woke up from the dream and remembered I was chasing the cat originally around the bathtub and the oak tree the spear had been put into, which were places I had played often as a child and have become iconic in my brain. I had a box at the post office yesterday that was leaking liquid all over but only when it was upside-down - it came out like a spout, and when it was right-side-up, it was fine.  That liquid was clear, and probably bottled water.  I had also been very worried about that same little cat outside in the rains - she came in twice but kept going back out and I let her, because she was very urgent about it.  It is very strange what anxious brains do with daily information, and maybe a bit much anime.

Going to go make a cup of tea now and maybe watch another anime episode.

Thursday already

I'm still showing up and doing the best job I can - still learning things.  Trying to put myself to bed earlier at night - more like 8:30 than 9:30, but it isn't happening easily yet.  Did Japanese and French today on breaks, and a little afterwards - but Mark wanted me to get groceries now that the first paycheck is in.  It is supposed to rain now until through the weekend - so I am hoping that doesn't cause any flooding.  The little car seems to be running well, but I also took the mail truck in today because I can't let it sit too long either.  

 

 

the penguin is an alien

well, no ... but hEDS makes me feel like one sometimes

 

 Mark asked me 'how I'm holding up', six days a week - although that won't be six days this week until Saturday is in the bag.  I have to admit, a bit tired, especially in the mid-afternoon, but I might just have to give in and pack an extra peanut butter cracker or something for that.  I used to do that at the hardware store.  It's not all just because I'm not getting to sleep early enough, there is that mid-afternoon slump from eating lunch, then sitting down and not being up and rushing about as much.  There has been something to do most of the time, but I was told that will slack off a little now that we're through the backlog - and it will be more bit here and there cleaning and going back over things for accuracy etc.  I'm getting by okay though - it's going to take some time to get used to any new routine, even if you aren't an alien.

 

Funny not funny, my left knee is doing something unexpected - I'm opening one of the locked doors by pushing with it or perhaps the getting down and getting back up from the little car or maybe even hooking it wrong in the office chair I sit in... even a combination of the above.  I'm not complaining about it, just noting it, so I can look back on it later.  I'll just have to pay more attention and figure out what it is.  I had a bruise on my left arm that was from getting in and out of the car a new way and I figured out how to get up without putting that arm on the sharp door frame.  It's funny not funny to have hypermobility and easy bruising, as you can do something really 'stupid' like pick up a huge box and hurt the next day and know it was from that - 'I shouldn't do that' or you can do a lot of little stupid things you're not used to doing in a new daily routine and have it hurt daily and wonder 'what on earth am I doing to cause that'...  and have to go narrow it down.

bits of Monday

Did the postal route on Saturday, had a partially restful day on Sunday, slept in a little, which was needed.  Did Japanese, and a little French.    The power went out for an hour and a half in the morning.  And with the power out I cleaned up a little, and organized my clothing, and then when it came back on I did more laundry and we cooked dinner.   Today, besides work at the office, was a rush to get new tires on the little car, which had popped one of them on Friday when Mark was going to the meat store.  He was helped by a kind elderly gentleman who gave him a ride back down his long driveway in a golf cart and helped him put on the spare, since we did not have a jack or a 4-way in the vehicle yet.  A blown tire wasn't entirely unexpected, considering we know it sat a while before we bought it refurbished - but we weren't going to put chances on the other three after the way the first one failed.  That put us out of going to the supermarket on Sunday, as the spare that was on it was one of those tiny donut things.  

I called the tire shop on my lunch break, and they had the right ones in stock.  With the mail truck, they always have to order it, because it is such a strange size.  Got home in the truck at 4, got into the car, convinced it to start, got out of the driveway and to the tire shop under the 5 o'clock wire, while they had four tires in stock.  And home.  Did more Japanese today.  Watched the first four episodes of Apothecary Diaries (anime), and it's quite good.  I had watched bits and pieces of it in Japanese here and there, but could not find full episodes in Japanese, only in English dub (odd, huh?) It's time for bed again, the day has been full, and I have to be up early again tomorrow.

bits of going towards the weekend

 

 

I had been doing mostly Japanese, but started to slide into a bit of French here and there on my main profile.  Wow, did some more French and Japanese switching off from each other just now (lesson of one, then the other, then back etc.) - the high level French, and the high level Japanese lessons.  I found the feeling of switching from the 'am I doing this right grammar with the y's and the les/leur/lui' on the French to the Japanese 'point click - the syntax falls into place because that is where it goes' very interesting.  But the Japanese is all still present tense, as well, and mostly I/you so grammatically it is much simpler than where I'm at with the French.

//brought the spider plant to work and gave it some water and left it for the weekend,  we are nursing another chicken in the garage but this one seems much better off than the other one to start with.  Mark had a flat with the little car but had a very nice person help him get it changed, as the car didn't have all the tools in it yet to deal with that- and we need to get it kitted up for such problems.

A whole week finished at the new job, and the postal route today.  And then we'll see how restful Sunday is and start it all over again, except next week I'm 'on my own' in the office, so that will be a huge change both timewise keeping track of what happens next and quiet wise, as this week has been a LOT of conversation and I'm not as used to that anymore as I had been when I was at the hardware store, but I've been doing my best to keep up.  There has been SO much talk of food, as well, and I'm really not used to that.  

 I still have to watch and make sure I'm drinking enough - postal route today should be interesting to see where my habit falls on that now.  I always bring a thermos with me and sometimes get an extra drink, and haven't had any problems in a long time.  But at this office job, sitting most of the time, with drinking small amounts throughout the day - somehow I've had more trouble drinking enough than when I'm out on the road drinking sparingly and stopping only at the designated breaks - and then drinking a lot after the route, how does that figure out?   The only thing I can guess is that the humidity difference because the plant is hot and has weird heavy humidity and the office is air-conditioned and dry - it must be altering how my body reacts then the postal route which is mostly 'outside' conditions (window always open) and fairly constant the whole day, my body gets used to whatever the condition is - hot, cold, dry, humid, and can stay in that mode instead of jerking back and forth between modes and then not knowing how much to drink because of it.

office

 

Still learning the range of things there - lots of cleaning yesterday, as some of the other 'hopping around' things didn't happen.  Sketched this up in about ten minutes (here at home, after dinner).  It's easy to draw penguins (a bit too simple here with the flippers long) - but I have felt like the keyboard is so far away from me, had to put it down in my lap when entering figures into the spreadsheet.  If I can remember, I'm going to bring a little plant in for the filing cabinet tomorrow - I have a spare spider plant that needs a home.  It is a bit difficult to drink enough liquid there - but working on making that part of the routine.  I need to stop and get chicken feed at the feed store on the way home this afternoon.  And then I still have the postal route to cover on Saturday.

I've been keeping up with my Japanese, all except the extra vocabulary site - and did a little bit of the higher French grammar tonight.