Woke up at 530, completely refreshed and not groggy. Started my day that much earlier, which was nice, but holy fudge am I completely zonked right now.
Might need a 15 min power nap at some point.
my back pain totally messed up my sleep, I’m still sleep deprived and put anxiety on top of that
but I have stopped having coffee after 4 and am trying to stay warmer at night
Might need a 15 min power nap at some point.
Arnt you in a senior position now? its past 2pm, you should already be on the golf course!
It’s seniorish. High enough to be accountable, but not high enough to fuck around that much.
I’m actually busier than ever 😥
As a reformed slepper-in-er-er, I now routinely get up at about 5.
I am, I have to say, one of those abominable “morning prople” who waxed on about how much better it is to start early etc etc etc. Of course, I’m also basically a nanna who is in bed by half nine.
I’m generally up at around 630, but that’s planned. Unplanned wake ups are welcome when I’m rested, but the 2 pm downer hits bad.
My bad habit is not going to bed until 1030 at the earlies.
Called in at work earlier - the staff member who told me not to test if I didn’t have symptoms was a lot more conciliatory. You wonder if someone Had A Word.
In other news, am slowly tackling the books etc. in short bursts. I realised that today it’s technically one month since I moved in, thought given the extra day I spent cleaning at the old place it feels more like the following day was The Day.Good night everyone and special hugs for Melbs an Melbcat
Thanks
Yay: got some exciting news about some uni study I’ve put off for years and can finally complete. I can exercise my brain in ways I never could at work
Nay: I kind of forgot about it because it was in limbo for months, so now I need to turbocharge my brain and think of research topics ASAP.
I’m starting to find the commute to one of my jobs is really a drag, especially in winter, and I don’t get as much out of being in that office now that I have my other job… I think I’m going to make it a policy that I wfh one day every other week. If I’m going to be studying again, even very very part time, I definitely need to cut down on all that BS.
I’m utterly fucked. Brain not work good. Body feels weird.
I know it’ll get better over the next couple of days but damn, fucking with your circadian rhythm is intense.
Tested again this morning and got the faint line, but since the stick snapped off in the vial and I had to find some tweezers to rotate it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s actually stronger.
Anyway still coughing and honking and last night I had the knives in my throat feel, so definitely not fit to work. Or be out of the house.I’m in the process of writing up a care agreement for my mother’s future (short version: Mum gives me house now, I take care of everything the house equity would have provided). It’s a lot like drafting a pre-nup, except instead of dividing up a house you haven’t bought yet and deciding custody of children that haven’t been born it’s all “what happens if Mum gets dementia” or “what happens if I get sick and need support too” type issues. Combined with reading lots of sobering stories about what can go wrong in caregiving and these sorts of agreements it’s a bit confronting. I have just signed myself up for a fairly expensive trauma/illness insurance policy, which also has a sobering list of all sorts of terrible things that could befall me in the future.
The whole process has also made me realise something - our society’s approach to aging is horribly broken. So many of the problems that happen with elderly people relate to a combination of abhorrence of the idea of aging leading to people not wanting to think/talk about options and a devaluing of carers so the job often gets foisted on vulnerable people who are often ill equipped to do the job and often exploited horribly. Add in our reverence for individual choice to be respected (which means people can lose capacity to make good decisions and no one has the power to do anything about it - refer to “scams”)
Just the way we generally talk about aging is illustrative - “when I get that way, just take me out and shoot me” is often the extent of planning for the future we do, and is often used to shut down conversations trying to do anything more. One problem with that sort of concept is it treats “getting old” as a one-time event that just happens, as if everything is fine one day, and the next you reach a point where you become valueless. That concept prevents people from taking a gradual approach to winding down as they get older. It’s no wonder elderly people often fight the slightest loss of independence, we set things up as an all-or-nothing situation, like walking off a cliff instead of a gentle downhill stroll.
The other problem with that is that no one actually has the power to “just” do anything - whether that be stopping you driving, “putting” you in a home, or shooting you. The only option people have to make decisions for you is if they can have you declared incompetent, both reinforcing the walking off a cliff feeling for older people and putting their family in the impossible position of being expected to look after them (both by society and earlier promises) without actually allowing the family any legal right to actually do so.
With the agreement I’m working on I hope to set things up to allow for a more dignified and gradual withdrawal from responsibility for Mum, allowing her to pass over the responsibilities that are getting harder to manage without losing choices of how she wants to live and what she wants to do. Hopefully I will be able to set myself up to eventually do the same in future.
Sounds like you are already doing all the right things but there’s a book called ‘letting go’ by Charlie Corke that talks about death planning. Read it a while back but I remember it had some really good practical advice and was not too heavy to read.
Edit. And hugs. This is tough stuff
Even better the library has that as an e-book, I have downloaded it now. I’m currently re-reading “Avoiding the aging parent trap” by Brian Herd which is by a lawyer specialising in elder law that has a lot of good information in it.
I think researching and planning is my go-to coping strategy, having a good plan in place always makes me feel better. The hard bit will be all the family discussions around it. I always worry about what reaction I’m going to get and fret about what could go wrong, but so far all the talks we have had have gone well so I probably shouldn’t worry so much.
Oh I 100% understand (both about the research-as-coping-mechanism) and fear around discussions. You can only try (and understand it might take a few goes)
I ordered a heater from Kmart on May 30, and someone went and lost it. Kmart sent me an email the same day that they’d sent it, but the tracking never updated and when I contacted couriers please they said they’d never received it. When I checked on the Kmart page their tracking had changed from “fully shipped” to “we’re trying to find items for your order”. I contacted Kmart and they just refunded me stating it had been lost in transit.
Booooo
Also the other kid stole my water jug I keep in my fridge and now I don’t have cold water :(
Maybe look into getting yourself a little bar fridge? 2nd hand on marketplace you could get one for maybe 70 bucks delivered?
Save a lot of headaches.
Next payday I reckon I will. I found a small fridge + freezer that I think should fit in my cupboard for 60 bucks. 3.5 energy efficiency, so I figured if it fits it’d be a good investment for when I move out too. But I needed a tape measure to confirm it would fit which I forgot to buy
Remember to leave a 5 cm gap around the fridge sides AND TOP to ensure that the heat exchange element gets enough air circulation to work properly. 10 cm is even better. Cutting a generous hole in the base of the cabinet and fitting a small fan to blow air through the hole will help the fridge work better too. Otherwise you’ll spend a lot of time defrosting the fridge and a lot of energy running it. Ikea has paper tape measures for free that are good for a limited number of uses, and you can write on them with a biro - eg width measurement and height measurement of cupboard.
Thanks TW. I meant wardrobe, not cupboard (I basically call everything a cupboard). Unfortunately it’s built into the walls so cutting anything is off the table, but I’ll remember to keep it back from the wall.
You could try my emergency measuring method - find a sheet of A4 paper, measure how many lengths of paper the cupboard is, then Google the size of the paper and multiply it by the number of lenghts. You can fold the sheet into 1/4s or 1/8ths etc. to get a more accurate measurement.
No need for any emergency measurements (that’s a good idea though). I can’t do very much for a couple of weeks anyways
gumtree and facebook freebies have a lot of fridges.
Gotta pay for transport though and our guy is too young to have a licence.
Well technically I do have a license, just not a full one and I can’t tow anything. I do know someone with a trailer who’d be down to help, but he’s away on holidays for a few weeks
I’ve been craving one of those Jarrah coffees but I wasn’t prepared to spend $7.50 because I’m a tight-arse. Good news is they are on special for $3.75 this week at Coles if anyone is interested. I got the Brazilian latte. It’s not bad.
are they any good?
Yeah I think so. I don’t have sugar in my tea and coffee so i can pick up if drinks are overly sweet and this wasn’t. It was pleasant. I’d get it again for sure.
Seeing that sleep is today’s topic…
Out the front of my place there’s a part of the road that dips quickly outside my bedroom. Been getting worse recently.
People fang it up and down that road and gets pretty busy at around 5am (for some reason the last few months has been crazy for a residential street). When it’s a tradie with unsecured metal shit in the tray / trailer it makes an immense noise bouncing around so 5am is my new wake up time.
I think people are realising it’s a short cut to avoid the nearby junction.
Once that first clang hits, it’s game over. Counted 11 clangs today before 8am.
I wonder about this with Google Maps and Waze. They can find drivers shortcuts, but make residential roads so busy because the were never intended for that amount of traffic
Ok so the quick nap to feel refreshed lasted a couple of hours. No matter, it was to be expected.
Went to the aquarium yesterday, and saw this dickhead:
how does he eat?
I am super keen on Out of Sight in 4k arriving in the mail today or tomorrow. One of my favourite movies (and books) suave as hell George Clooney in 4k…yes please.
Also hanging for his new movie with Brad Pitt.
Ooh that looks fun. The early seasons of ER are streaming on Iview at the moment if you need more 90s George Clooney.
I’s looking nice and sunny outside, I think it is dog walk time. 🐕
Heading to Melbourne on Thursday, does anyone know of any good used book stores? I believe the one in Warrandyte is still operating? And I know the one in the city in the basement (which is huge but didnt have anything I was looking for :S)
I’m staying in the Bundoora area but will have a car so travel isn’t an issue.
Thanks.
It’s probably a bit out of the way but For Pete’s Sake in Queenscliff is my fave. Absolute chaos in there:
That’s definitely up there on the Clutter Image Rating Scale though at least there’s a clear passage lol.
Oh that’s straight up L-space
Looks like Bernard and Manny would be in there somewhere, too
There’s a really good one in Thornbury, on the 86 tramline. The 86 tramline goes out to Bundoora so you can maybe avoid all the parking hassles by getting on the tram. Name is Fully Booked and is at 824 High St Thornbury. Broad selection of interesting bookies on a variety of topics including some real weirdies. Don’t bother with Perimeter Books down the street a little - not a good selection the last time I went in. Already Read at 98 Scotchmer St North Fitzroy is OK if you’re looking for fairly mainstream books with a few eclectic selections. It’s small but choice, and it’s just around the corner from Piedmonte’s supermarket (worth a visit too as it’s unique). The real gem is Kay Craddock in Collins Street - exxy but an INCREDIBLE selection of books on every possible topic.
Brunswick Secondhand Books is one I like to go to :)
Thank you :)
