Windows Open, Door Closed

The landlord with his assistant and some workers came in around 8 this morning to work on the front entrance door and the downstairs apartment, and that went on pretty much all day. On the one hand, it drowned out the screechy childers, and it is nice to have a door that finally closes and locks properly. On the other hand, it made it very difficult to relax or nap. We got out for a couple hours of shopping and sushi, and timed it well as the lead worker had taken a break (and his vehicle) so we had a clear path right to our usual parking spot, but I'm glad we didn't do our car shopping as bringing back a new vehicle just doesn't seem like the right thing to do with all this activity. Nonetheless, I'm almost 100% ready for the dealership now, with title and maintenance log in hand and all the papers finally filed correctly. And the horse I rooted for won the Kentucky Derby, so I suppose that's something as well.

May Day!

White Rabbits! Now that our downstairs neighbor has moved out, the landlord has started preparing for renovations. We'll be getting a new front door at the foot of the indoor steps that actually closes for a change, and I suspect they'll be gutting the place pretty thoroughly. The noise today was minimal but still disruptive. I dread the noise this coming weekend, maybe it'll be an earbud kinda weekend after all. Meantime the laundry was done and has been put away in near-record time, I had a nice chat with the family financial advisor about my inheritance, I got through my work assignments in pretty decent shape to move forward next week, and I'm determined to finally organize my car maintenance files this weekend so I have my couch back!

Charcuter-Me

Extra long day today, as after work (which was relatively quiet and I got a lot of reading and self-study done) one of our diversity groups had a charcuterie-assembly event, which honestly was more like a DIY buffet thing. So I grabbed one of the only chairs until the presentation was finished and we all gathered around the charcuterie table, and that's when the foot pain started. I can walk okay, I did it at lunch when I finally found out about a nearby Panda Express (when you're jonesing for Chinese food you'll take the fast food approach over nothing at all), but I can't stand for periods of time without it causing pretty intense neuropathy pain. So while the salami and cheese and nuts (I keep forgetting how much I love shelled pistachios) and dried apricots were nice and tasty, I had to leave a bit early due to my pain and was able to hobble back to Penn Station (where they were having some sort of basketball playoff rally at MSG) to catch the homeward bound subway. Because I was a bit past rush hour I got a seat right away, but then a woman at lease twice as large as me (and I'm still large) squeezed herself right next to me, and the seat on the other side of her as well, and the neuropathy was triggered again. And again, when I'd changed seats and someone exited the subway car by bumping my right knee. I'm quite the mess now, and happy I get to work from home until next Tuesday!

Everything Everywhere All At Once

A few days ago I had a feeling of impending wossname, and had no idea what the imminent dread could be. Today I had to face three stressful situations involving the usual phone calls to AI robots before I could get human beings, and that was just my morning. The afternoon was wall-to-wall work meetings, during which my family broker called, so I've put that call off until Friday. There's only so much financial and medical stuff I can do in one day. There are also only so many meetings. I had no problem filling my day, my body didn't experience too many aches and pains so that's a plus, and I'm in good shape to concentrate only on work tomorrow, getting in my month-end requirements.

Silly Site o' the Day

Pretty good day at work, just busy enough to not overwhelm me, nothing wrong with the commute, so let's celebrate with another silly site. Do you know what was going on the day you were born? Let Birthday Headlines help you with that! Via BoingBoing.

Silly Site o' the Day

Too much stuff on my body hurts, so here's a silly site disguised as an ad disguised as a well-deserved dig at the orange sh*tgibbon:

 Get me some o' those m*therf*cking chips...

 

Incremental Giveaways

Today we stopped by the local farmers market for the first time in awhile, as I'd promised my neighbor the cat-supply lady a feeding bowl and automatic water bowl, since we're not in the market for adopting another cat until well after I'm retired. Naturally I had to grab some of my usual stuff, earrings and veg and so forth, and we then visited my uncle in his assisted living place down the block (someday they'll pave that awful road so it takes us 2 minutes to drive there instead of 10) and left some plates from my mom's house that my cousin wanted. We're trying to downsize things from the car so that, if we wind up buying/leasing a new one next weekend, we don't have to empty out that much more. The rest of the day was spent watching both NY baseball teams lose so, you know, par for the course.

Stock, Car

I did have more neuropathy pain in the hands last night and this morning, particularly in the thumbs and unfortunately in my right hallux (big toe) as I was driving back from the grocery store (yay, new car battery working fine!) so that made using the brake and accelerator tons of fun, but I haven't had to take any ibuprofen so it's manageable with heat (doing the dishes warmed them up nicely, as did wearing wrist braces for an hour or so). We didn't have a huge shopping list but there was a "10 for $10" sale on two staples that we use all the time so we are stocked up now. Before we left I finally tackled my car insurance files, getting rid of all the outdated supplemental info (we have a fairly nice shredder now so all those pages got shredded) and putting all the renewals in date order. Which is a lot for 22 years times twice yearly! Now all that remains is the maintenance log, basically all the times I've taken it in for an oil change or other work. And I received my replacement title in the mail today, confirming that I don't think I've ever seen my car's title in my life. My guess is that Dad must have kept it and after he passed it never made it to me. Now I'm ready to go car shopping, possibly as early as next weekend if my body behaves itself!

Finger on the Problem

After two straight in-office days it was such a blessing to work from home and give my hands a few days to heal! Lots of nerve pain, although I'm hoping it's more neuropathy being triggered than any lasting damage. Couldn't really do too much more than type, and ibuprofen is the order of the day, or at least the evening. Manual dexterity is just a bit tricky today. But my work got done, I put in my 8+ hours, and I can now relax...

Of the AM Commute from Hell, and Espresso Martinis

Brand-new bus this morning! I hopped on at 6:30 after a 10-minute wait in the somewhat-cold-and-dank, and all was fine until one of the last pickups when a wheelchair passenger wanted to board. All well and good, I think her timing might have been better if she'd waited until after rush hour, but I know nothing of her life and plans so who am I to say. Unfortunately, the wheelchair lift mechanism on the (I say again) brand-new bus didn't work, and got stuck in the exterior position. Which meant I had to wait almost half an hour before the next bus on that route came by (the bus in between takes a faster route... had I only known). All the other passengers got off and took an east side bus that promised to make the first Manhattan dropoff, but that's no good for me as I needed to get to 9th Avenue. And the later you get the more traffic builds up, so by the time I hit the transfer point for the local it was well after 8 AM. Alas, it was another 20-minute wait for the local, so I finally got into work around 9:15. Nothing like a 3+ hour commute! Then at lunch I tried to "piggyback" through the turnstiles and they closed in on my hands, which stung like hell and will probably result in a lot of nerve pain in the next couple of days. Fortunately there was a cross-promotion going between Grey Goose vodka and the new Devil Wears Prada movie, where they gave away tiny espresso martinis (martini-tinies!) and popcorn, which I later discovered (when eating the popcorn back at my workstation) was made with edible glitter. Glitter now festoons my keyboard and pants. The kids who came into the office for Take Your Kids to Work Day seemed to get a kick out of that; so great to meet the childers of two of my partners! Homeward commute much easier, and I'm just hoping the pain isn't too bad tomorrow...