Elayne Riggs' Journal (for Leah)

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

There and Back Again

The back is still twingy, and I'm sure the backpack this morning didn't help, but the naproxen kicked in and by noon I was busy enough at the office that I didn't really notice. This evening we watched the best episode of Beat Bobby Flay I've ever seen because, even though it was scripted up the wazoo with them all pretending it wasn't, they made it extremely official that Flay and Brooke Williamson are A Thing, and it was totes adorbs all the way, lots of huggy kissy and such. I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. And it made my back feel better too.

Monday, August 17, 2026

Temporarelief

Not permanent by any means, I'm still doing naproxen in the morning for the next few days, but I could actually move around without pain today, which made job stuff a lot easier. And because it was a work-from-home day I could also relax a bit. Goodness only knows how I'll fare tomorrow when I have to go into the city. Meantime I have to call my former doctor's office to see if I can get a telehealth visit with my new primary doc prior to my annual physical in late October, as I'll need someone in-network to sign off on my prescriptions. Lots of hoops to jump through, it being the US, but another reason I would not have taken the early retirement package this year. Very content to get a steady paycheck for another two years!

Sunday, August 16, 2026

Debilitating

The back was bad enough this morning that I opted for naproxyn, which feels like it never quite kicked in. Fortunately there's no pain when I lie down, but I don't want to spend the entire day in bed, and I really can't if I'm running to the bathroom every couple of hour and sweating the rest of the time. At least I got all my work tops steamed, and there's nothing else really pressing that I need to do. Let's hope it eases by tomorrow!

Saturday, August 15, 2026

Back, To the Future

SuperCuts did their usual terrific job and I am shorn for the foreseeable. On the other hand, my back has gone all wonky. Fortunately I have a back brace, a heating pad, and plenty of ibuprofen, but it's still a nuisance and a half. I was able to move around enough by mid-morning to pass along some old sneakers to a neighbor, then get the haircut and Robin's meds and go grocery shopping, but after that I was shot for the rest of the day. I've never been a good patient, and back pain is one of the worst for me. I just hope it eases by Monday, as the auto place called and said their inspector isn't in tomorrow so I'll have to take a couple hours off work (if I can even walk) to take the car in.

Friday, August 14, 2026

Connectivity

Well, I thought my work-related tech issues were behind me, but this morning a firmwide glitch stopped all external emails from arriving, so I had to go onto my email at the client site and stay there for awhile until things got fixed. Not good for a firm where customer connection is key. Thank goodness so many people were still on PTO. My brain is half-there too. Tomorrow I get my hair cut, Sunday I take the car for inspection, just ticking off the things to do before the big September travel (first to Philly for the wedding reception then to Merrie Olde), and expecting fate to throw a spanner in those works as it sometimes does.

Thursday, August 13, 2026

OMG Shoes

Now that my tech issues at work are temporarily behind me, I can again concentrate on my personal health and such. To that end, I wore my new sneakers to work. I still have problems with the fourth toe on each foot, particularly the left one, but I'm guessing that's just a breaking-in thing. I love these sneakers, they only cost $50 and they have very wide toe boxes so things should settle by the time we're in England. I just hope the trains are running OK by the time we arrive, the tracks near where we'll be just buckled and three train cars overturned (fortunately no deaths) so it'll be awhile in repairs. I don't mind buses though!

Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Stuff Do-Age!

Wow, what a difference a good night's sleep makes! Somehow I put away all the laundry yesterday so that helped me get a good start, the Woolite wash was done well before I logged on, I'm trying to get through steaming my clothes but I keep giving up on one particularly stubborn shirt, and best of all a work issue that I've been having for at least a month is finally on its way to being solved. So chalk all that up to a win so far! I kind of wish I had more job stuff to do, but three of my seven partners are out this week and I can't concentrate enough to keep taking self study courses. I should have that problem all the time!

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Insomniac

Let's just blame the air-fryer chicken wings. A few of them smelt a bit "off," and while I don't think I got food poisoning I was certainly up in the night sweating and such. In fact, almost all night. I got maybe an hour of sleep before my 5:15 AM alarm, and the commute into the office was a whole lot of fun, but I made it there in one piece. Unfortunately I started falling asleep at my desk, and when wide awake I couldn't concentrate on work as the fellow in the next workstation was not exactly using his inside voice, so I made an executive decision to stow everything but my laptop and commute home at 2 PM so I could still do work once I was back. So worth it! And I plan on falling asleep tonight as soon as my head hits the pillow or a NY baseball team starts losing...

Monday, August 10, 2026

Silly Site o' the Day

Sometimes I really miss my college days. I know I've forgotten so very much, and there have been a lot of advances in the areas I studied, like linguistics. I wish this North American English Dialect map (via Laughing Squid) had been around back then! 

Sunday, August 09, 2026

Ironic

Today was the first of what will undoubtedly be many giveaways as we start to downsize. My iron and ironing board are gone. Considering they haven't been used since we got the steamer, good riddance to what I'm sure is a fine home. I also finally filed away my financial stuff (i.e., from Mom's estate) in preparation for actually giving it a good perusal once it's no longer too hot to think. Now off to read comics, about the only thing I can manage.