Topic: What are you doing right now?

[8ullfrog]

Sitting in a dark room. I may have mentioned heavy condensation on my window in inclement weather before, well today was it's last day. The frame has some holes in it, for what function I know not. Either way, they decided to become spigots.


Thankfully, I'd rearranged my room the last time things got damp, and no electronics were harmed in the catastrophe. We called in an emergency to the realty company, and they sent over some dudes. They drilled somewhere way above the frame, and now it's got a black plastic curtain on the OUTSIDE.


Blinds might be ruined too, but I pulled them during the deluge.


So far, the repair is working great, I sincerely hope it continues to hold.


This of course, triggers anxiety. I do not want to be squeaky wheel. But it was an emergency.

[6pairsofshoes]

Wow.  Black plastic instead of replacing the window properly so it's not going to leak more?  Sounds like a prelude to mildew.

I'm drinking tea.  It's citrus season.  I have been cranking out about 4 batches of marmalade a week.  Different citrus.   This morning, I had some navel orange and blood orange with meyer lemon & hibiscus.  Two marmalades: one on each half of a scone that I made.  There is a wonderful bittersweet quality to citrus.  I used to buy Frank Cooper's Oxford Marmalade but it's not so great to me any longer.  Here's the ingredients to their rough cut Oxford Marmalade.  They like to rest on the fact that the family product goes back to the 19th c. but their ingredients today say otherwise.
"Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Seville Oranges, Sugar, Acid: Citric Acid, Acidity Regulator: Sodium Citrate, Gelling Agent: Pectin, Orange Oil."

For this marmalade (Seville Orange) I use sugar, oranges, and if it seems appropriate, a little lemon juice.  That's it, and maybe some spices to give a little variety (star anise, vanilla bean, rum) as I tend to make several batches in a season.  I guess the commercial varieties add some of these odd things:  gelling agents, sodium citrate, citric acid, etc. to extend shelf life or to save money?  Why they use glucose-fructose syrup instead of pure cane sugar is most likely because it's cheaper?  Go figure.  I had to look it up as in the states most such products use High Fructose Corn Syrup, and many health conscious brands have taken pains to announce that their products do not contain this ingredient. 

There is a lot of confusion around the terms glucose-fructose syrup, isoglucose and high fructose corn syrup which are often used interchangeably.

GFS may be called differently depending on the country and the fructose content. In Europe, due to ‘isomerisation’ process, GFS with more than 10% fructose is called isoglucose. In turn, when the fructose content exceeds 50%, the name changes to Fructose-Glucose Syrup to reflect the higher content of fructose.

In the United States, the syrup is produced from a maize starch, usually with either 42% or 55% fructose content, hence it is called High Fructose Corn Syrup.

[8ullfrog]

lol, maize. I know it's not a stargate reference, but it reminds me of my favorite joke in the series.

The team finds a base camp of American soldiers desperately fighting Jaffa. They assist in the battle, and are swiftly tased and captured.

The "American" forces are actually infiltrators, and are weirdly stiff. One in particular thinks he's got being an American down solid, and boldly proclaims that Maize is indigenous to North America!" O'neill snaps back "And that information may one day save your life"


Shame HFCS is put in everything. Like WHY is it in bread? Like in soda, it makes sense, if not healthy. But BREAD?

So today everyone but me is sick. I feel POWERFUL.

I don't think the black plastic is meant to be a permanent solution, just an emergency temp job until the regular crew can roll around.


Then again, the new property management people have REALLY bad yelp reviews.

[6pairsofshoes]

Ha.  When I was in England I was surprised to hear wheat referred to as corn and corn as maize.  It helped explain why "John Barleycorn must die," though, as they were talking about barley/wheat spirits, I guess.

[8ullfrog]

I'm about to download and hopefully install a MS cumulative update. Every time one of these pops up, I cringe in fear. For about a year I couldn't install updates at all because one of them would loop - it would download a bad copy of the update, attempt to install it, fail, and roll windows back. I called it the groundhogs day update. I think it was the much maligned "Fall creators update" which broke the registry hack that got rid of automatic update and the lock screen.


It survived!

[Beatrix]

I'm happy to be home.
  Other than that I really have nothing going on for just today.  I've already been to work and back. We eat dinner in about a half hour.
Going back to work at the wedding venue.  Seasonal work though, closes for winter. Have a live in with me, an 18 year old girl I've know as a close friend for some years now.  She'll be working the same job, got her started at 9.25, and that's good since minimum wage is still 7.25 here, or something. 
So to conclude, I'm relaxing in the good news <3

[smokester]

I finally have a day off from what has been a brutal contract. 

Pretty much seen off any remaining vertebrae that might have been in some kind of working order, but there's always the hope of an advanced alien encounter that may have the technology to repair such injuries. Modern medicine certainly doesn't stand a chance.

Anywho. So right now I'm posting here for a change.

[6pairsofshoes]

Hope you can find more time to take it easy, smokes.  Your work sounds pretty grueling, physically.

I'm trying to recover from having those damned drops put in my eyes during a routine exam this afternoon.  It's supposed to wear off in a few hours but my eyes still feel the effects and even typing on this backlit screen is a chore.

[8ullfrog]

My mom's spine resembles that of the Borg queen. Plus Cadaver bone, which is super creepy.

If you can do anything to protect your back smokes, anything at all, please do so.

She was a tradeswoman, Wallpaper. Fell off scaffolding because one of the other people working on a house messed with her poo.


I would gladly gut that person. She stepped where she should have been safe, and someone found the supporting structure "inconvenient".

I've taken that step myself several times when working off a moving truck. One time I was moving what resembled a mine cart on scaffolding because the flooring was substandard. Scaffold snapped, and I went from a shallow ramp to "Solid drop, cart in your gut". They tried to make it up to me by giving me a laptop. Fellow worker stole everyone's cigarettes on the job, sat on the truck lift, jammed it, and stole the laptop on his way out. Wasn't even a good laptop. I wanted it because it was the same model I had in high school. Unit ran Windows ME. Windows was already solidly 7 at the time.


In a more infurating note, one time when moving furniture out of a house, a coworker jammed a couch into a wall. He blamed me, thinking he was in the clear.


False. My Uncle knew the customer was going to be a chrome plated joker, and kept me on the truck playing item tetris and managing the moving blankets. golly that guy too.


Another time I was working too hard pushing a load up the ramp into the truck, and literally shredded the shoes I was wearing. I felt Super Stronk, but in reality, I was Super Dumb. That load could have easily killed me, and I should have asked for help.


A less depressing story, one time a madam refused to pay because she said the work was unsatisfactory, judge told mom "tough poo"

She lived on the edge of a canyon. Her patio furniture took flight into the canyon. All of it. damn' madam.


6, get off the screen. I know they told you to keep that stupid plastic filter on and to avoid light for 21 hours. That being said, why the golly is it 21 hours and not 24?

[6pairsofshoes]

She said 3-4 hours.  It's been about 9 and I still feel the effects.  I came home and sat in a dim room for much of the afternoon, then took a nap.

Walking the 2 miles home was sort of dicey in that there are uneven sidewalks and busy traffic intersections.  The film intended to protect my eyes did much to blur my vision, so I had to peek over it to see if cars were coming and that sort of thing.  I finally got into a residential area where it was safer.  I was glad to come home, and had a couple of naps.  I don't know if it was the time change or the drops.

I'm sorry to hear about your mother's back.  That's simply awful that a client would mess with the supports and cause such an accident.  Your moving job sounds like it sucked.

The older I get, the more I try to recognize that I'm not made of iron and that I need to be more mindful of picking up heavy objects or subjecting myself to unnecessary physical risks.

[8ullfrog]

It wasn't a client, it was someone working on something else in the house. Sometimes you have to block off a doorway because you're working on the ceiling over the doorway, or arch, or whatever. In that case, the guy didn't want to go through the front door. Which, I kinda get that, tradies tend to go in through the garage, but he made a decision on what inconvenienced him, and seriously hurt her.

As to the eye film thing, I dunno, last time mom got her eyes messed with, it was 21 hours. Maybe it's different for different stuff. When they screw with my eyes they use this weird orange jellyfish goo and a blue lightbulb. Apparently it lets them look at nerves?


When I went to give the dog his goodnight kiss, he decided to remove my lip.


So I had to go buy liquid stitches at CVS, the clerk was shocked, I looked like a horror movie survivor. Then I had to go back, because I bought the worthless spray version. (Brush version is legit, spray breaks the second time you use it)

Oh, AND the refund on the spray was denied, clerk said you have to swipe your license for refunds. I was in gym shorts and a blood soaked tank top.

So today sucks, and I'm using straws. Also, golly you CVS.

[6pairsofshoes]

Yeah.  Orange/yellow stuff w/blue light for glaucoma test, then to really view your retina, they have to put an additional drop in that basically paralyzes your irises or whatever the thing is that opens or closes your pupils, and that causes them to dilate your eyes.  I guess the natural reaction to light shining in your eyes is to constrict the opening, but that thwarts the effort to examine it, so you get the fun second drops.  I hate the whole business.  And really, it interfered with my reading a bit, so I just basically went to bed early.

I have to go back because I could not see the little flashes in my left eye for a test of peripheral vision.  Had they given me the test before putting the drops in my eyes I don't think I would have had so much trouble.  But this is a school I go to -- usually the students are extremely professional and correct.  I suspected the woman I saw yesterday was not up to her game or whatever.  She graduates in May so I don't think it was lack of experience.  They have an opthamologist come in (the supervising professor) and do a review of the exam so you get checked out twice.  I went because the frames in my glasses broke and I needed to get the lenses swapped out with a second set of frames I'd purchased a long time ago.  This turned out to be handy because they didn't charge me for it and I don't really need another prescription so I came home with better fitting glasses.  Still, it's good to have one's eyes checked periodically and they generally give excellent care.


CVS used to be a much cooler place but they have a new CEO and he's obsessed with the bottom line.  They've adjusted the computers so you really get jerked around with returns.
 Not that I did much returning of merchandise, but now I tend only to buy things there that I doubt I'll take back because of the hassle and the reduced amount you get back in case you use store credit or coupons. 

I'd still take that stuff back and raise hell about the way you were treated.  Here you are in a medical emergency and they're jerking you around because the medicine they sold you was ineffective and you forgot in your state of shock to bring a driver's license?  I'd have asked for a manager and complained.  That's pretty outrageous.  I hope your lip heals quickly.  That sounds pretty traumatic.

[8ullfrog]

Doctor was super pissed until I explained the dog is on steroids. She said "oh" and then told a few stupid human stories about steroids. Then she stuck her finger in my mouth to make sure I wasn't lying when I said the bite didn't go through. She did say she wanted me on antibiotics, so I'll be doing that.

Then I got a proper case manager. Turns out the Case manager I had wasn't specific enough, which like, yeah, she quit six months ago and I never got a new one.
 The lady who helped me was like a master of schedule Tetris AND cutting through cowpoo, I want to be her when I grow up.

So now I have a proper case manager.

No needles today, which I always consider a win, but I need to schedule an ultrasound. I couldn't find my paperwork on the endoscopy, so it's back to digging through Rubbermaid boxes, since it was before the move.

Also dropped off the samples with green lids. I had a real hard time getting that one done, and spent an entire day just eating steamed apple slices. Did the trick. Obviously don't google foods that make you poop, because people post all sorts of wacky nonsensical stuff that could possibly damage you.

Just Fiber.

A note: I mixed up carbs and fiber before my last appointment, and was unable to "produce". I think my doctor wanted to smack me in the head for that one.



So, very busy day, and if anyone thinks I overshared here, well, sorry.

[6pairsofshoes]

Resisting going to sleep.  There's always something going on somewhere that I know I'll miss.

[8ullfrog]

Dang, AMOX-CLAV is kicking my ass.