Helenka, Queen of Outer Space

At least the day had begun well, considering I slept until shortly after 9. So, I waited and wondered whether the contractor would show up today. Hour after hour passed by, with no contact. So, I just decided to stay in bed and take my chances.

It was Anniversary Sunday; I'd intended to watch the church service on my iPad, but my sight was abysmal this morning. Naturally (/sarcasm), it's much improved now. I found out later who the award winners were, but only recognized a couple of names.

Only watched the news on TV. We'd had a stunning flash storm in the early afternoon. Luckily, we didn't lose power, but there were downed lines at the edge of Greektown not too far away. Exchanged texts with S, so I now know the contractor will be here tomorrow morning. I hope I don't lose water. ::crosses fingers::

So, after the unprecedented bedtime of 11:34 PM, I woke at 7:30. Another deep and calm sleep. Today didn't seem to be as oppressive as yesterday. My first order of business was to send out birthday greetings: the first was belated by a day to Danny, my childhood pal. Oops! The second was to my "cute, wise, older sister" Stephanie whose b-day was today. She may share the day with that giant south of the border but she's a lot smarter and good at self-preservation!

In the afternoon, I began reading a huge SGA fic (still haven't finished it) about what might have happened to the expedition if Weir had been murdered the first week via Trust sabotage; and then they couldn't dial Earth because of further sabotage. So, John and Rodney and other worlds formed a coalition. It's now Year Six and the Daedalus has arrived. Uh-oh. It's showdown time.

I also took the time to watch the Trek movie "Nemesis". For some weird reason, I think I did see it on my TV (I can remember B4 faintly), but the dark screen made watching painful. After that, I got my daily fix of Jeopardy!

Anyway, it's almost time for bed. I think I hear the rumble of distant thunder out. Yay for rain. ::crosses fingers::

I made it to church this morning. And back home. I know. What's the big deal? Well, we just happened to have a rousing ice storm this morning. SuM tried to dissuade me from going, but I was already dressed, and I was supposed to be on duty. So I went out the back door and very g-i-n-g-e-r-l-y made my way down the driveway. I had to sit for a little while, but luckily the wind was hitting my back and I had enough layers to keep me warm. When the driver showed up, he said he thought I was crazy for not cancelling. Um … pot, meet kettle. After all, he'd gotten out of bed, gone to work so he could come pick me up! It was also a very moving service as it was World AIDS Day. I'd forgotten to wear my scarf, so the only colour on me was the tiny red ribbon on my black beret.

Anyway, I was glad I made it. I always feel better being there in person rather than watching the webcast (which was being wonky again). When I was ready to leave, my driver was already there. So, now the roads were covered - with lots of snow. At least it made for a quiet ride.

I was just happy to be home. Lay in bed for a while, read a bit, watched cartoons, took pills, and had some soup. Now, my ribs are screaming at me, so I'd better shut them up with pills, and go to bed. I'll deal with chores tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Arrgghh. All aggravations as well. And let's not forget the Bell receiver conking out. Again. So I departed in a torrential rain, with my hood pulled down over my forehead. This weather was just gross. Cold and volcano-dark. The driver dropped me off a block from where I lived near campus. I finally found the right room but had to wait for the organizers to get their acts together. There weren't that many of us (possibly 50) at the forum/workshop on affordable housing for people with disabilities. Each table was a huddle. There were many obvious and excellent suggestions but, at the end of the day, I believe we were reinventing the wheel. As valid as it was to relate personal and unique experiences, the problem has been identified for the past 4 decades. And, yet, here we were, at the conclusion, suggesting what should be done today … and TEN (expletive deleted) years from now. It's a good thing we each got a token 10 bucks for attending.

To add to the aggravation factor, after I was picked up, the driver had to go downtown for his next client. We got royally stuck in traffic. So I didn't get home, in almost full sunshine after the storm, until after 6 at which point S. gave me the good news and bad news. Bad news is I have no TV-watching capability. The good news is the Bell will send out yet another receiver. If I'm lucky, it'll arrive tomorrow. In any case, they can record my programs and I can watch tomorrow morning when S. is at the doctor's.

Right now, I'm just reading even though I can barely keep my eyes open. Maybe I should wash my face and go to bed. Cuddle a piggy. Hmm, sounds so peaceful.

Woke up around 7:30, earlier than I wanted, but I still got out of bed. The sight was so-so, but good enough to settle in front of the computer. I texted S, at a more civilized hour, asking whether we could watch The Rookie together. She replied in the affirmative and added that I was welcome to watch my other recorded programs. Aww, that's sweet. So, after I finally had brekkie, I joined her and the cat menagerie. After the first show, I watched MasterChef Jr. while she read, followed by my game shows. Even though she was quite content with her reading, she did call out some of the clues on Jeopardy! while I'd been restraining myself from indulging in behaviour I reserve for when I'm alone!

Back in my space, I continued reading May's book. My vision had been pretty good all day. I fiddled around with my phone, getting familiar with new features. SuM texted me asking if I wanted to do movie night tonight, around 7. That gave me enough time to do editing for the church (really easy for once) and also take care of blind group business. Yay for efficiency!

I joined them and they tried to get the disc from the library to play. Tried SuM's laptop, then S's but no luck. There was a long scratch. In desperation, S. suggested "Black Panther" and we agreed. Unfortunately, the copy on Netflix seemed to be really dim and I didn't get a lot out of it. So I'll have to find Rev. Jeff's sermon on it from last year. The funny thing is that we were all thinking or saying the same expression, aka "striking it off our bucket list"!

Now I'm going to indulge myself by staying up a little longer, even though S. is taking me shopping tomorrow i/o Friday (as we're still having stupid weather, including a mini snow squall downtown!).

So, I'll bet you couldn't guess we had another snowstorm today. This is getting tedious. Apparently it stopped around 3 a.m. But SuM shovelled twice (I believe) and it was still horrid. The snow plough couldn't get around the corner and there was the gentle beeping to be heard. On top of that, I'd woken up around 2, checked my emails, groaned as there were people who didn't know what was happening. When I returned to bed, I had less than 4 hours to get some decent sleep. After a frustrating patch, I must have sunk into a very deep sleep as I didn't hear anything until the alarm at 6.

And, yes, I was a stubborn blonde, wanting to make it to our blind group's monthly meeting. So the mountain climbing? Being pulled over (or more like through) a huge drift of snow up to my knees, just to get to his van. Driving was rough, too, but we made it up north just before 10. So I was there, half our exec was there, our Prez, the Volunteer coordinator along with lots of snacks. And, to my surprise, the refugee from Nigeria (who sat next to me) and my fave visitor from Ireland who's back for about three months. So, who wasn't there? Our guest speaker to talk about online banking.

Instead, Ian, our Prez, led us through a very leisurely talk about upcoming activities and then we had our snacks. Getting up here had been challenging but now I had to worry about getting home. At least it was brilliantly sunny. But my ride was late. When I got home, he parked away from the snow drift. But his ramp was so steep that I looked like a skier out of the starting gate, sliding down, unable to get traction. I was exhausted to just get in the house.

But my day wasn't over. We were having a conference call at 6. Before that, I began ordering groceries. Our meeting ran until around 7:40, after which time I returned to my groceries. I didn't place the order until 9. The website is so horrid now. The worst thing? There were no delivery slots for tomorrow, so I'll have to wait until Thursday morning. Siiiiiiigh.

I still couldn't warm up, so crawled into bed and watched tonight's game shows. My sight fluctuated during the day, even though I threw cold air, sociability and laughter, and sunshine at it! That was the only saving grace of the day, brilliant sun bouncing merrily off the snowbanks. Anyway, we're all crossing our fingers it won't snow again before our special Expo on Saturday.
X X

Why'd it have to be today? Being off the computer for much of the afternoon, it was hours before I checked email, FB and Messenger. There were plenty of the aforementioned as I found out that my special Mum Ruby had departed from this plane of existence today. I'll never hear her call me "daughter" again (that meant the world to me).

And here I'd been having an amazing day. The cats were all present and I didn't have to hunt them: two of them had been sleeping on either side of me as I waited for my meals delivery. Then, mid afternoon, I opened my "Come From Away" CD and played it (just a little loudly), mouthing the words when I knew them and just celebrating life and hope and generosity.

I guess the weather was also contributing to the theme of wildly fluctuating conditions, from the heavy, sustained rain in the morning, to afternoon sunshine, and back to a quickly moving storm over the dinner hour. No wonder my face aches.

Anyway, I guess I'd better get ready for bed and rest my eyes for tomorrow's activities. Goodnight, Mum; I'll see you in my dreams.

So. Not. A. Holiday.
Even though I woke up at 6:11. Considering my lack of sleep the last couple of days, does that mean I got to … sleep in this morning? Ha. I didn't think so.

Mind you, I did drift off into several naps during the day. A dream during one of them involved me - at my current age - being roommates with a teenage boy (no, no hanky-panky, just sharing a bedroom). In it, he was talking on the phone to his real GF while talking about me. Then, I was staring - in fascination - at the window, because there was a strange craft (either alien or drone) hovering right there. See: heat has melted my head. There was another weird dream later on, but it's already dissipated. No big loss, I'd gather.

Continued reading my book until I needed to rechsrge the battery. Then I managed to deceive AO3 where there was NO contrast for comments by using my gmail and C&P. No wonder I'm exhausted. SuM and S. finally returned after a thunderstorm sround 6:30, so my duty to mostly-yowling cstd was over. Big sigh of relief. Tried watching my usual TV but kept zoning out. Anyway, it's exhausting typing with one hsnd only, so I'm signing off.

Well, at least I'm not in Helsinki making an ass of myself in front of the world. Extreme sigh.

So, I've been sleeping very well - still? - again? Such a departure from my childhood when the extreme heat and humidity would lead to hysterics because I was unable to sleep. Ha! I seem to be doing old age backward. Many (most?) older folk have difficulty sleeping. I don't, even if I've been watching TV late or indulging in a sweet treat. With rare exceptions, I sleep like a baby.

After waking up at 9 to the alarm, I had brekkie and then gravitated back to bed where I dozed off and had several weird dreams. The most memorable one was where I was younger, with a female supervisor who suggested we play hooky one afternoon. We took off on the subway together even though I was only wearing my holey lace-top nightgown and a towel wrapped around my wet hair. We got to the subway and then exited at her instructions at a Walmart store. Where I'm still wandering around in a nightie and towel. I remember buying something; it may have been an outfit that I changed into at the store … and then I woke up. The other dreams were almost as bizarre. While not asleep, I drank water (though I believe I may have been dehydrated during the weirdest dream), read my book club selection a little bit (while hampered by wonky sight), and concentrated on trying to reduce my misery from the humidex.

There had been some thunder in the afternoon but it was a while before we got a little bit of rain. I felt the humidity drop around 6:30 when I started feeling almost human again. Watched the news and my game shows. The TO champ won again on Jeopardy! so I'm happy for her.

Okay, so we all survived the hurricane-force winds (it's been 60-odd years since we've had a hurricane. But there were things hanging off the side of the house from the second floor, namely ripped-off siding that was dangling and just a shade too close to the power lines. So, naturally /sarcasm, SuM and S. took off for London and will be away overnight, leaving me in charge. You know, the cats I could handle but, whoa, was I begging the universe not to cause the power to fail. The destruction ws so random. My friends who live nearby were forced to have a candlelight dinner (aka sandwiches!). And a family in the next borough over had the entire roof torn off their rented house. Just a whole bunch of misery.

Even though I'd slept well, I think I was a zombie, completely forgetting about my eyedrops as I trudged through my chores. So it was my avatar that welcomed me (back). [EDITOR'S NOTE: I have no idea what that sentence means, but I'm a zombie....] Just barely managed to watch last night's double episode on MasterChef Jr. as well as the news and game show repeats.

Anyway, as eye-toothpicks are not a reality, I'll need to put an end to my misery (headache, again). Looking forward to the Sermon on The Post which - naturally - I haven't seen; so it's a good thing there was a really good (spoilery) synopsis online, so I'll be all ready for the Lesson extrapolated from the movie. ::crosses fingers:: Okay, all the cats are safe (but not necessarily sane), and I need bed NOWWWWWWW.