computer

Medication, footie and labels

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Not necessarily medication labels, just labels.

Well, today I spoke to the doctor, and now I have new anti-depressants. Same “family” (SSRI) but just different. The process of changing over from one to the other is so complicated it takes four weeks. I always have a pill organiser for the forthcoming week, but have needed to set up four different pill organisers, labelled clearly Week 1, Week 2, etc. It’s complicated by the fact that my pill-taking week starts on a Wednesday. Don’t ask. Fingers crossed it will all go well.

Tomorrow I have a guided steroid injection into my thumb joint booked – they’re going to check the rest of the hand too while they’re at it and then decide whether to replace or fuse the knuckle joints. They’re talking about ultrasound and x-ray, so I’m not sure whether it’s one or the other, or both. Anyway. We shall see. Hubby is taking me and fetching me – they advise you not to drive after the procedure.

Saturday I have booked my first pedicure since February 2020. I’m really hoping I’ll be ok to drive there, bearing in mind the change of meds and the thumb injection. Mm. That is something I could re-arrange but will wait and see if I need to first.

The sorting out of the spaghetti tangle behind the hi-fi is going well. Just awaiting some 0.5 metre power cables, and it should look much better. It’s already looking tidier. You can see a jumble of wires on the right, and holes in the wall where the electrician took out the old plug sockets. You can even see one of my plug labels ! as well as various Father’s Day cards. It will all be sorted out very soon . . . .

Football again tonight – we watched Scotland vs England on Saturday. England’s game was a bit lacklustre, but I thought the Scots played really well. (Goalless draw). Last night we watched Belgium play Finland. Cor blimey, exciting. Tonight it’s England vs Czech Republic. It’s always a bit fraught watching England play, partly because it’s our team, and partly because they’re not that reliably good! We both shout at the screen, I tend to shout a bit at the inanity of the commentators – they do have a tendency to state the bloody obvious – and why can’t they just shut up once in a while? I don’t need to hear their constant speculation about who will go through! I do understand that they can’t hear me . . . .

I’m a bit worried that the motherboard on my computer is failing. It’s not quite 3 years old yet, so a bit soon. But from time to time things don’t work. For example the monitor (even the new one), the keyboard, and some of the USB ports. So I’m backing up every other day and keeping a watch on it. I did have an old computer where Windows lost all its USB drivers, so installing Linux worked, but I’m already using Linux on this one!

Temperatures are currently lower, so better for me. 17C today, 21C tomorrow allegedly. Anything over 23C leaves me limp. So this is just fine.

Reading some excellent stuff at the moment. Currently halfway through “Barbarossa/how Hitler lost the war” (Jonathan Dimbleby). It’s very interesting, detailed, and intense. At the moment I’m having to leave it for a day or so in between reading sessions because there’s quite a lot about the massacres of Jewish people. Horrific anyway, but as I have Jewish heritage (my Dad and all his relatives) it’s particularly upsetting. It’s hard to understand such hatred, based on nothing except propaganda.

Had a bit of a day so far .

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The first thing was that my computer monitor didn’t work. I changed the cable. No joy. Luckily, because I’m such a nerdy type, I do actually have a spare monitor (old, second hand, cheap but works) for when I fix other people’s computers. That works fine. Excellent. New monitor arriving tomorrow.

Then discovered that both the wildlife cameras are telling me there’s either no sd card, or that the sd card is full. Hmph. Unlikely that both the cameras (different makes) would be playing up, so ordered some new sd cards. Yesterday in the garden hubby managed to film our local friendly woodpecker, so I really hoped the camera traps would have caught it. Nope. Nor the pair of beautiful goldfinches who were clearly househunting. That’s what made me check the cameras. Sigh.

These are not, unfortunately, pictures from our garden, but stock photos from Pexels. The Great Spotted Woodpecker pic is from https://www.happybeaks.co.uk/bird-library/great-spotted-woodpecker
and this is exactly what “our” woodpecker looks like. I notice our British robins are much shorter and fatter than US robins. We have a robin family in our back garden, and they are very inquisitive and friendly (territorial and bossy).

Still awaiting the gardener. Should be here within the next hour or so. I hope so, the lawn is more like a meadow now, only without the pretty flowers. The cat is loving it. She caught, but then lost, a mouse yesterday. Only doing her cat thing, but it’s not nice to see.

Managed to actually shower AND wash my hair this morning, which is always a bit of a mission because of the stupid wonky hands, so drying it is a bit fraught.

Also ordered new vest tops. Not sure what size I’ll need so ordered both sizes and will send back the ones that don’t fit right. One is coral, one is bright blue. Sort of cobalt blue. Yeah.

August 10th 2013

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Mugginess gradually decreasing, although still plenty warm enough for summer clothes. The cat is very keen on catching and eating butterflies. Not such good news for the butterflies, but it keeps her very fit.

Went to the hospital this week and saw the orthopaedic surgeon about my arthritic knuckles. Apparently the X-ray was “fine” so they’re not going to do anything. I was very disappointed at the time, but have recovered since then and have decided I’ll ask the GP if physiotherapy would help. Meantime I’ve ordered some cod liver oil and glucosamine tablets to see if that helps. The pain is pretty bad, and each time I straighten or bend the finger I can feel the bones grinding. Mm.

The new computer arrived, and is set up, and working fine. Couldn’t wipe the old hard drives though because the old pc kept shutting down. So hubby sorted them out with a chisel and a hammer, and now they’re unusable. Freecycled the old pc case full of motherboard, memory, power supply, etc, to somebody who might well get it working, and the monitor stand. Love Freecycle.

Have had a large sort out of my yarn stash, and am feeling pretty virtuous. There is a Women’s Refuge which needs yarn so it’s going there. Excellent.

The socks are going well. Hoping to try one on younger daughter tomorrow, then I can finish them off.

Had a back episode about a week after the M.E. crash. It lasted five days, but the osteopath sorted me out. Still not quite back to normal, but much, much better.

Have just read a book called “Stoner” by J Williams. It’s absolutely unputdownable. I read it in a day – I was at the hospital for three hours, so had plenty of time to sit and read it. It’s wonderful. I don’t know anybody who’s read it who doesn’t think so. Highly recommended.

Went to Sip & Stitch today (the knitting group at the local yarn shop) and had a wonderful time, sitting, knitting, drinking tea and chatting. And eating biscuits of course. Am just about to go and make tea. Smoked salmon, beef tomato and salad. And baked potato for hubby.

That’s about it for now.

August

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Well, it’s cooled down considerably, but is still muggy. Plenty of rain and thunderstorms, so the garden still looks ok, and the lawn is starting to green up a little.

I have various strategies for staying cool. One I described in a recent blog (pyjamas all day), another is having a fan on wherever I am sitting, and I don’t use my hairdryer. I spike my (moussed) hair up and leave it to dry naturally. It looks a little odd but I don’t care. It’s cool.

Recently bought two summer dresses, one full length, and one with a “dipped” hem. I love them both, and have worn one already, to general acclaim. Also two new pairs of summer trousers, one combats and the other in exactly the same style, but plain dark blue. Both 100% cotton. Re-hemmed them (I always have to re-hem trousers, always) and they look and feel excellent. Perfect for when it’s pouring with rain, as I don’t have any summer shoes except Birkenstocks, which aren’t particularly good in the rain. So I wear my trainers with summer trousers.

Knitting – progress. Finally managed to finish off the Cardigan of Doom. It’s currently blocking, and I need to sew on a button yet (it’s a wooden button I chose, so didn’t want to wash it with the button on). Also finished a pair of fingerless gloves, knitted in the round. I knitted a pair last year, but flat, so had to re-write the whole pattern, as it involved pattern on every row. Makes much more sense knitted in the round. Now started on a pair of socks for YD. I’ve done the leg, am going to turn the heel tonight, and am awaiting the measurements of her feet before I do the foot part, because I’d like them to fit right.

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In other news, I am typing this on my trusty old laptop, with Lubuntu installed. I had a new computer a couple of months ago, but hubby needed Windows 7 for a particular music-related piece of software, so he has that one, and I have his old one with my old 1 Tb hard drive. So that one has died now. I had thought it might, as it’s about the same age as the one that died recently. But it’s never convenient, is it. Fortunately I’d just backed everything up onto the network, so I’ve ordered another computer (exactly the same as hubby’s), and with a new monitor this time. i always seem to end up with the handed-down monitor, and I thought it was time I had a new one. Still less than £500 though, from Dabs.com. It’s coming this week, and I’ll have it set up by the weekend. Mixed feelings about it. Didn’t really want to have to spend the money, but am perversely excited about new stuff. Windows 7 – can’t bear the thought of Windows 8, because that’s really intended for touch screen stuff. No, no, no, no thank you. Will use Libre Office on it – recently tried to upgrade Open Office to version 4 and it kept crashing my spreadsheets. Bugger that for a game of soldiers.

Two of the grandchildren are coming to stay on Wednesday, so I won’t have a chance to play with the new pc until Friday, but that’s ok. Can’t wait to see them. Haven’t seen them for six months now. Love them to bits.

Saturday 20th April

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Last blog was quite “up”. This one is likely to be a bit “down”. The knitting is going ok, but only a few minutes at a time, and tonight I shan’t do any, too much pain. But still less than before the op.

However, the right forefinger knuckle, which was injected with a steroid on 7th February, is swollen and painful again. Went to the hospital on Friday, and they’ve discharged me from Orthopaedics. Still have to go back to Occupational Therapy once more though. The options with the knuckle are: one more injection, and if that doesn’t work, joint replacement. That’s quite a big job though so I’d have to be in more pain than this (!)

Disappointed, really. It was going so well. But it’s 2 1/2 months now, and I guess that is when things would either stay good, or deteriorate. Hmph.

Have been going to the Stitch group at the shop twice a week, Thursdays and Saturdays, in the morning. It works very well for me. It’s lovely to sit with other knitters/crocheters and chat and drink tea/coffee. The shop seems to be doing really well too. And it’s also excellent to be able to pop into my local yarn shop and buy yarn or needles! a five minute walk which is just right for me, and with a purpose at the end of it.

My computer is borked. I use Linux Ubuntu, dual booting with Windows XP. Linux never crashes, just never. I’ve been using it for years and years now, at least 5 years if not longer. And all of a sudden, I was playing a game of Solitaire, and there was a click, and it shut down. Wouldn’t start again, so I changed the fuse in the plug. Then it started, but re-booted itself every five minutes or so. Googled it, and some people have had this problem after the latest updates. So I tried booting into Windows, and it re-booted before I’d even logged in. So not Linux then. Hardware. Googled that (on the laptop which I’m using now) and constant re-booting can be absolutely anything, and very hard to troubleshoot. Checked how old the computer is (built it myself) and it’s 4 years old. Damn and blast. This time I’m buying one, because you get guarantees with bought computers. Just awaiting its arrival. It will have Windows 7 on it. I’ll set that up, then get the old drive out of the borked computer and see if that works in it, and then I could have Windows 7 on the 500 Gb drive, and Linux Ubuntu on the 1Tb drive. Also bought 3 years extra guarantee, collect and deliver. But I wasn’t expecting it. Wasn’t planning it. Hate that.

Then hubby saw how good the resolution on my laptop screen is, and made enthusiastic noises about how fabulous it is. So I tried to improve his screen resolution on his Linux Ubuntu, and borked his computer. Took me seven hours to sort it out. But he is happy with the resolution on his screen now. Thank goodness!

I did manage to back my computer up before it died, thankfully, but will lose my emails. If I can get the hard drive to work on the new pc I’ll get them all back again, but will just have to manage otherwise. I do have the contacts file and browser bookmarks and stuff, so no panic.

The weather here is beautiful. Sunny, breezy, and fairly chilly, but certainly nice enough for me to do a bit of pruning in the garden tomorrow if it stays like this and my hand improves. Lovely.