Three Minutes to Tomorrow...Yesterday

I fell asleep very early and didn't wake up until morning last night.   I didn't write a blog post and today I got busy and forgot to write yesterday's post again.   So now it's three minutes until tomorrow and I'm writing yesterday's post.   I'd better press post so I still have two minutes to write today's post. 

All Better (I Think)

I think all is well with my eye that I blasted with super strong UV light several days ago.   This is the first time in my life I've ever done something that caused more than a short-term retinal retention mark.   I was nervous about it, but I also had a strong feeling it would heal.   I'm quite relieved it has. 

My husband and I have been working on a large video project for Protopasta.  This particular video is going to represent their company on Amazon for all their pages.  It's the one video that should be the best representation of their company.   It's a big message, and something we didn't take lightly.  

We were stymied for the longest time and then we figured something out.  Well, a lot of somethings.  The number of individual shots in the video is quite large, but it was what needed to happen.   We weren't sure what they would think about the video, and I sent the email with words saying we could change the music or any of the areas they wanted to be done differently.   They responded back fairly quickly that they loved it.   

They had a lot of other very kind things to say about the work we'd done.   The video has some placeholder shots they'll need to get of their plant, and then we'll have a final sixty-second video.   Sometimes the shorter a thing is the harder it is to make well.

Back To School Groove:  Both children have gotten back into the groove of the school year almost effortlessly.  They both very much like their teachers and their classmates.   They like going to school.   And that makes me happy. 

Do Not Tell My Father

I did something stupid.   It was one of those things that makes total sense in your brain at the time but the fraction of a second after you execute doing the thing that seemed like such a good idea is when you realize you made a horrible judgment call.   If my father knew, I would get a lecture.  I know him, he is Doctor Safety.  He gave me the undertow lecture every time I went to the beach and always advocated for safety in everything. 

Let's just say that there was never any intent to be unsafe; it was one of those things where you want to know if the burner is hot, so you test it to see—with your finger.   That kind of bad decision making.   That's what happened, and I'm still paying for it. 

The other day I was working on a project, and I needed a light to see under one of the printers.  I grabbed the flashlight closest to me, which happened to be a high-powered ultraviolet flashlight.  I got this flashlight for glow-in-the-dark filament and other black light reactive filament because I needed something powerful to charge them up. 

I did the thing I do a lot—I dropped the flashlight.   I drop things all the time.   In this case, I was worried I'd broken the bulbs.   It's an LED flashlight, but it's still breakable.   So I turned it on and looked at it to see if the bulbs were lit.   You got what just happened there, right?  I looked at a powerful ultraviolet light straight on.   Stupid.   

The bulbs weren't broken.  That I discovered from the fraction of a second I looked at the light before I tore my eyes away.   But the damage had been done.  The light was an extra powerful one I had bought.  But it gets worse.   I don't have natural lenses in my eyes.  I've had them replaced with artificial lenses.   People who have cataract surgery have their natural lenses that are clouded as a result of the cataract, replaced with artificial lenses.   I had the same thing done, but for corrective vision purposes as I wasn't a candidate for LASIC or other options. 

And I love the lenses.   They are wonderful and I haven't needed glasses at all, nor will I need reading glasses as I get older because I don't have natural lenses that can harden, making it harder to see things close up.  

But there is a downside: the artificial lenses don't have the UV protection you get from your natural lens.  Which means I got a fraction of a second's worth of damaging light to my eyes.   The left eye seems to be fine, as it was further away from the light I angled towards me as I turned the flashlight on.  The right eye has had the image of the three bulbs persisting for several days now.  

It's getting better, and I suspect things will heal completely, but what a stupid move.   And what a big lesson learned.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son had a great first day of school.  He came home telling me about how he was going to be in charge of ordering pizza for the upperclassmen at the school as a fundraiser.  It's for his end-of-year capstone trip, which it looks like he'll get to take this year.   He's quite excited about being the leader of the school in this way. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter started choir tonight.  She wasn't going to do it again this year but she changed her mind at the last minute.   She is going to like it a lot more this year.  They have a lot more students in the capital city girls choir. 

Ready or Not

My son has been responsible for preparing things for school this year.  I printed out the list of supplies and other items he would need to bring to school with him.  He was reminded several times, and finally, this morning, I told him he absolutely, positively needed to stop what he was doing and at least go through his backpack from the end of the year last year and see if he needed anything added. 

Did he need more pencils, colored pencils, erasers, gluesticks, or anything on the list?   He reluctantly took a break and started going through things—because it was the final day and stores would be closed early, so this wasn't an eight o'clock at night thing to be waiting to do. 

He didn't really need much, and what he did need, we already had in school supplies.   He has a new teacher, and I wanted him to make a good first impression.  But it is important for him to do things himself. 

The Bath Time Gauntlet:  I told my children they needed to take a bath or shower today since school was tomorrow.  My daughter made a groaning sound.   I said, "from this point forward, anyone who complains about taking a shower will have to take one every day until such time as I think they are eligible to go back to every other day."  My daughter said, "I was talking about my brother sitting on me."   It was true,  her brother was sitting on her, but that groan was not intended for him it was obvious.  But I let her get off with a warning this time. 

Fondue Delight

My mother-in-law prepared all day for us to come over and have a special fondue dinner with her and my father-in-law.  I would write lots and lots about how amazing the cheese was that I scraped the bottom out with the spoon onto my plate so none was wasted. 

I could go on about the custom sauces she made by hand and the select cuts of meat she procured from various locations.  I could mention the two stock pots and the special plates and the chocolate cake for dessert.  

But I am so full I'm not sure I can do it justice other than to say it was absolutely amazing.   So full.   I think I'm going to bed.  

The Children Without Alexa:  My daughter lost her Alexa tonight due to behavior.  My son is going without in the hopes he can get to sleep earlier than normal because he's having a hard time resetting his sleeping schedule and school starts in two days.   I have four Alexa devices on my dresser now.   Thankfully they're not plugged in because they all would be responding should we say her name. 

Not What We Were Thinking

I sent an email to Protopasta asking for them to get some shots of their plant so we could put it in this very important video they've asked us to create for all their Amazon product pages.   They sent a video their marketing contact at Amazon suggested they create a video like, and we've been using that as a general basis, although I thought that style didn't play to their strengths. 

We had been working on some filament-based shots for them and were going to interleave the plant shots between them.   I'm glad I emailed because they came back and said they thought the video would be all filament and models.   

Ugh.  If we had known that, we wouldn't have spent so much time trying to work in one direction.   So we have to rework what we had, and we're not even sure what we're doing for the video, which has to be a very attention-grabbing thirty-second video.   Both my husband and I really want this video completed because it's been challenging working together on it because we are not sure what to do, and that's stressful. 

The Pokemon Card Children:  My daughter is interested in trading Pokemon cards because Mcdonald's has Happy Meal toys that are packs of four cards.   She wants to trade, which means we aren't putting braille on the cards so she knows which is which.   And that means she can be taken advantage of.   You would think of all people, her brother who has a large collection of Pokemon cards from the past four years of collecting, would trade fairly.  Only he didn't.   She figured it, out and then to retialite, took one of his cards.  She took the single most valuable card he has that was a Christmas present from Olivia, Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Dale.  The card is solid metal with enamel on the front and back.  It's quite beautiful.   I don't know if he learned his lesson because she, of course, had to tell him what she'd done and why as opposed to letting him discover the card was missing and then worry where he'd lost it for a while until she confessed.   Hopefully, he learned a lesson.  I'm not sure he did, but we can hope.  My daughter has to rely on sighted people for so much; taking advantage of her in this way is a very low thing to do. 

"Yesterday" Stuck In My Head

I have the song "Yesterday" by The Beatles stuck in my head.  It's been in my head for several hours now as my alarm has been snoozing every ten minutes, reminding me I need to write the blog post I should have written yesterday but was too beat up to do so. 

I really don't know how my parents and in-laws and all the people in the generation before me manage to live such active, busy lives.  My life is busy, that's for sure, but sometimes I just don't know if I can manage it.   I really don't know how they do it.  My parents and in-laws are inspiring to me. 

Some of it has been spine/back/pain related, I know.  It's hard to fight the pain when it gets bad.   There is a ring of burning pain around my trunk just below my ribs.  It's been difficult to diagnose because nothing in that area seems to indicate there is a problem there.   We were finally able to get insurance approval for imaging in my cervical region, and that showed some degeneration that is likely the source.   Any location in your spine has all the nerves for pain and functionality for everything below that area. 

I am exceptionally grateful that there are nerve medications that help with the kind of pain I have.  Neurontin or generic Gabapentin is the most common one prescribed. I took that for some time but now I take Lyrica or generic Pregabalin, which works a better for the type of nerve pain I have.   It's not a narcotic and is what I would consider a "good" medication in comparison to a lot of the other options for pain in general.  I liken it to taking Tylenol for a headache—there are no other side effects, the pain just gets better an hour after taking it. 

I fight taking any and all medication.  I don't like talking about it because it is a topic that brings a lot of judgment from people.   There is a lot of judgment from people who hear medications are "addictive," for instance, or are "bad" and should be avoided at all costs.  Typically those people are well-meaning in their comments but haven't dealt with constant, debilitating pain.  People associate "addiction" with a medication instead of a state of mind.   People who need heart medication or insulin aren't labeled as addicts, but when it comes to pain, the distinction between a necessary dependence and addicitve drug-seeking behavior which is not needed or necessary to combat chronic pain. 

If it sounds like I'm ranting, I am.  There is an opioid crisis in the country because of people and physicians who take or prescribe medications above and beyond actual need.   Those people make chronic pain patients jump through hoops every single month because we have to have monthly appointments to get medications prescribed that only last thirty days, even for some medications that have no addictive profile to them. 

Then, once you have your monthly appointment, you have to deal with the insurance company, who denies medications regularly citing prior authorization is required.  Your physician and their insurance people have to fight to get a medication you've been taking for years covered for sometimes only one additional month.   Once the insurance company approves it, which might be after the date you need it which leaves you with no medication after the thirty days are up, you have to deal with the pharmacy.  Sometimes medication are out of stock.  They keep things in stock, but only the general amount they commonly dispense and if new prescriptions appear they have to fill them.   Which means you might have to wait days for something to come in stock.  Or you can get a partial month filled, but the rest of the prescription is lost due to the medication class and then you have to go back to the doctor's office, and then back to the insurance company who may not approve the second prescription because they already paid for one that month—even though it was a partial. 

Then medications change.  I was on a new medication that was a different formulation and was much, much less medication that just worked better with the nerve pain I have.  It was over eight hundred dollars per month with the insurance coverage, because it was new and there was no generic.  But there was a coupon and I could get it for $125 per month—and it was definitely worth that.  

That coupon just went away, so we're now trying to find an alternative that works as well.  And that's been challenging and stressful and fighting with the insurance company and dosages weren't right and I was spending hours and hours in the day because I was just in too much pain.  Which makes me feel like a terrible mother and wife with my children understanding their mother needed to be in bed a lot.  They spent a lot of time with their father and I would lie in bed and cry, because I just feel so broken and useless. 

Things are getting better, but now my provider thinks I have a mental health issue.  I yelled at him (after all this time we are friends and enjoy catching up on each other's lives each month) saying I was a happy person.  I have a wonderful family.  We have friends that are just the best.  We aren't in financial difficulty and I have the best husband in the world.   But I CANNOT FUNCTION right now and can we please get this fixed?

And we've been trying, but it's been five months and I've about lost my mind.   There is more complexity to the situation but that's a high-level overview.  Before this current month's visit I changed my medication to what I thought would work.  And the small change I made did indeed put me back to close to what I was before all this mess with insurance company and medication with no coupon now.   I was chastised by my doctor for doing this, but I told him I was tired of having to do thirty day tests that we couldn't address until the next month (even though he said "call me, we'll fix it" because I tried that and it is not simple.)

Actually, let me talk about that a bit.  Two appointments ago I had a laundry list of all that had happened, because my doctor has a lot of people he sees and I could summarize better and let him see how things had been happening from my side because I absolutely have been on top of things but I can only control my side of things.   But when he walked in he launched into a story about his mother having multiple strokes and how he had to leave to go take care of her.  He was so distressed about it and I was a good friend and listened.  And I didn't complain when we got to the medication change because there just was no time left and he had other patients he needed to get to. 

This month I made a change, I pushed back and said it answered questions and we didn't have to wait another month to see.   He had some insurance issues (of course) but called me two evenings later at close to eight o'clock, still at the office.   I calmly told him that I hadn't gone into things because he needed to talk last time and he felt really badly.  He really did make me angry though, accusing me of taking incorrect dosages and saying I had refills left until he looked and I was (of course) taking the correct dosage and had been out for close to a month and had been stuck taking old medication at a lower dosage. And yes, I had called his office.  I had even talked to the other doctor when I was there getting an injection.  That doctor talked to my doctor and assured me that the refill was being called in right now. 

But was it?  No, because he conveyed the message incorrectly.   And my doctor never called to ask me what I meant, he just did nothing.   I called, nothing happened.  I had the pharmacy request refills to their office, nothing helped.   And yet my doctor contends that it is "easy" and "they can handle it, I shouldn't worry". And yet things go wrong at least two-thirds of the time and it is the most stressful thing to me. 

Easy is the one word I would never use.   So I've dealt with five months of reduced activity and have felt like the worst parent and spouse.   Hopefully, things are better this month with the change we made that I suggested.   I just want to be able to feel normal or I can take some pain, I'm used to it.  It's just when it gets so bad that I can't fight it and function.   Hopefully things will be back to normal.  I would really like some normal.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has not been too terribly angry about having to go to sleep earlier this week.  He starts school on Monday and he's not going to sleep until eleven o'clock now and the next three days we're going to have him go to sleep even earlier.  He's still getting up very late, even though he contends he doesn't need that much sleep.  He actually does. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We finished Ghostsitter, the Audible Original production.  There are three books and we loved all three.  The disappoint thing is there are a lot more but the author is German and we don't speak German.   We are hoping the next installment will be coming out in the next few months.   My daughter really wants to know what happens.  

Graphs and Graph Paper

My daughter is doing graphing this year at school.  I always find it interesting the ways they make something complicated easily understandable that my daughter can not only understand but use as a way to do her school work as well. See if this makes sense just from the picture alone:

The Big Boy Update:  My son had to be off screens twenty-two minutes ago.  And yet he just went upstairs.  I have a feeling he got more time out of his father while I was upstairs with his sister.   I doubt I’ll find out though.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  my daughter wants to hear the culmination of the book series we're listening to in the car going to school.  We listened a bit tonight and then her brother came in asking if we were done yet so he could start the third book.   And to think I couldn’t get either of them to listen to the books at all until I tricked them into hearing the first ten minutes.  

Pregnancy

I am most definitely not pregnant.  I was struck today by time.  Time up and smacked me, and as I was reeling, I realized a whole lot of time had passed.   It was only a year or so ago that I was pregnant.  It hasn't been that long, right?

I can't have one middle school-aged child and a second who is starting her sixth year at her elementary school.  There is just no way my daughter has been at her school for over five years.   And my son, he's starting his tenth year at his current school—the school he went to when he was a toddler.  

Not happening.  There must be a time warp.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son will fight something simple until he has taken it to the point of having  consequence given.  He will then compound it with saying things he's not allowed to say which may mean insulting people or attitude in general.  Today, I told him it was time to start going to bed earlier because next week school begins.  All he had to say was that yes, that made sense or even just agreed.   In the end, he lost screens for two days.   The story was complicated and he had so many opportunities to turn it around.   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter took her Pokemon cards to school today.   She wanted to make trades and even though she couldn't see her cards and had to trust people to tell her what was what (we didn't put braille on them because of the trading factor).   She was so happy to successfully have made trades today. 

Tending to the Time

My son continues to get in trouble for going past a deadline for something.   For instance going to bed by eleven (summer hours), stopping watching television at six o'clock, starting his laundry in an hour, or any other number of things.   The question is, is he intentionally missing deadlines or is it more complicated than that?

It has occurred to us that my son would benefit from having a watch,   It's not good to be tied to the time for everything but we're asking him to be on top of things based on certain times and he might be more successful if he had a watch.  

He doesn't need a fancy watch and in fact can't have one at school, so a plain watch with analog hands.   He doesn't want to wear anything on his wrist.  Which might make this plan fail.  We'll try out an inexpensive watch and see if it helps hin with his time management and if it does, we'll let him pick out a more interesting watch. 

The Ice Bath Children:  Both children love getting in a hot bath and then having a large container of ice delivered to them.   The ice machine we have makes small pellet ice and they have a good time doing all sorts of things with water in two different states that rapidly move to equlilbrum when brought in contact with each other. 

All Asleep

 It's just past eleven and my whole family, save for me, is asleep.  My husband fell asleep before nine o'clock after a long day at the lake with my son.  My daughter and I had a lovely day working hard on a big LEGO project and I, too, am tired.  So no social media post tonight and a short blog post and I’m off to sleep myself.  

I rather like this getting to bed early thing…

The Theater

Mt husband went to an event downtown yesterday where they were showing off different home theater, audio, and related technology.  He did not invite me, he invited our neighbor instead.   I didn't want to go all that much, but I did pretend to be mortally wounded that he would leave me out for long enough to for him to think I was really mad before I laughed. 

Then, after finding out about all sorts of nice, new, fancy, and I am sure expensive technological advancements, he took his parents back today.   He told me they were coming over.   They wanted to go too.   He was going to go back with them.   He didn't ask if I wanted to go—again.   And this time I was actually a bit miffed because I had heard all about the things he saw and what they looked and sounded like and I was going to be at home with the children. 

When I said something, my husband got a worried look and said, "we can leave the children at home, you can come too". But I suspected it would have taken a few hours so I said to just go without me.  

When they got home I got to hear all about the things they saw and heard and I am pretty sure we need to start saving up for the home theater last year.  

The Floor Is Lava Game:  I came downstairs today to find everything everywhere.  Pillows and chairs were everywhere.   The children had set up a "The Floor is Lava" game with bases, rules and things they had to hide and steal from each other.   They were having a great time, I hated taking my chair back so I could get to work. 

Two Archaeologists

This came home from my daughter this week.  It was something she wrote for an assignment at school.   I read it and was thoroughly surprised because I had no idea she even had an interest in this potential career.

The thing that is so singular about this is her cousin Olivia is also interested in archaeology and has returned from participating in her very first dig, which I have to say personally is so exciting!   

I loved hearing how my daughter thought she could bring her strengths to a dig by using her senses other than sight.   To see that she is thinking about what she can do as opposed to what she can't, is a victory in and of itself.   She has been angry silently for so long about losing her vision.   

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Wrongside Out Situation:  My children look like ragamuffins quite a lot.   They don't have any interest in dressing in tidy clothes and presenting themselves in anything other than comfortable clothing.   With the time at home due to the pandemic, getting dressed has become an even more neglected task.   And of late, both children seem to not mind if their shirts or pajama pants and most definitely socks are on wrongside out.  Okay socks isn't a new development, being in the proper orientation hasn't ever been high on my children's list of things that they need dedicate any energy towards.

Family Reunion

Edna, who has been cleaning my house since 1997, came back today.  It has been over eighteen months and she has had a very rough time with breast cancer, which they were able to contain, but she had to have chemotherapy and radiation in addition to the initial surgery. 

She had complication after complication and every time she thought she was on the way out of the abyss of medical entanglements to save her life, something else would happen like an allergy to a medication she had been taking and then pnumonia and then a prolonged bout with COVID-19 and on and on.  I felt so badly for her. 

She wasn't able to work all that time and since she had her own cleaning business, most of her clients had to find other options.   We've been doing something in the interum but Edna knew she was welcomed back whenever she was ready.

Today was that day and let me tell you, the number of hugs that happened today was great.  It was so wonderful to see her again.   She looked just like she had when we last saw her.  I was worried she would look aged from all she'd been through, but it looked like no time had passed.   

She is getting back up to speed and we told her to do what she felt she could, but not one minute more.   Don't do hard things, do the things that don't hurt or that you feel comfortable doing.   She is going to come when she thinks she's ready and make sure she's not overdoing it.   We're just glad she's back to her old self.   

Edna has been with our family so long that she is a member of our family.   That's how our children think of her, and we love her very much.   As hard as the journey to fight the cancer was, I hope it is the last she hears of it and all her months of medical procedures and medications is coming to a close. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was so sweet today.  He kept going over to Edna to hug her again.  I think he must have hugged her four times.  We even got a bit full family hug in at the end. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was at school today and was very sad she missed Edna.   I told her hopefully she'll come home before Edna leaves the next time she comes.  Oh, and her egg drop was a success—the egg didn't break!

A First Period

My daughter was lying on the bed this evening, listening to me read the last chapters of a children's book about zombies.  It's cute, even though the subject matter doesn't sound like it would be.   Right in the middle of the reading, my daughter said to me, "Mom, Brooklynn and Avi are, I think, having a first period. What is that?"

I launched into mom mode and explained more than my daughter wanted to know.   Way more.  Like "Mom, stop, you're freaking me out."   

The Big Boy Update:  My son knew I had a tough appointment this morning that didn't go well,   I asked him if I could have a hug, and he gave me a really nice hug for a very long time.   The best part about the hug was he'd washed his hair and it smelled so nice.   He made me feel better just for being supportive. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I told my daughter I had two books that will help her understand what's happening.   I could read any of it to her when she's ready or we could get braille versions for her if she wanted to read it herself.   She was puberty overloaded at that point and didn't want to even talk about a book. 

Fifty Unreasonable Questions

My son has uncharacteristically wanted. "to be tucked" at night, as he calls it.   He wants one of us to go up, tuck him in or just spend a few minutes with him in the dark.  My husband has gone the last two nights, and so tonight, when my son asked for him I wasn't surprised.   But he said, "and I also want you to tuck me, mom."

My husband went first, and then I was told it was my turn.  I went into the darkened room to find my son waiting for me, now talking in his baby talk voice that he does from time to time when he is in fact feeling like a much younger child.  

This is where the bait and switch happens.   He flatters you with how nice it is for you to be there but he always wants something else.  I told hin I couldn't lie down with him for longer than two minutes because I was tired and I'd fall asleep on him when I rolled over (exaggerated motions of me sleeping).   

I got up to leave but he grabbed my arm and said, "nut mom, this is when I get to ask you fifty unreasonable questions."   I laughed and he followed up with, "I find that I learn best in the dark just before going to sleep."

We compromised,  I said ten questions, time limit enforced on question creation and asking.   And no tricks.  

The Big Boy Update: My son asked me what time of day was my favorite in his ten questions.   I couldn't answer because It depends on the time of year, where we are, the weather, what day of the week it is.  So many factors.   I told him I couldn't decide.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter made an egg protector from things around the house.   We did in fact use only things around the house and I think her egg would be fine no matter what, but she wanted to inflate a balloon to slow down the egg's fall.   We have helium and balloons at home so we inflated an old Mylar balloon from years back in the shape of a red heart.   The balloon stabilized the triangular prism-like shape she ended up with because when she was making a cube out of foam pieces it wouldn't hold together as easily as three would.  We held it together with some hosiery, trimmed and cut anything and everything that was extra.  Then we tied a balloon around the top part of the triangle and dropped it from fifteen feet up.    The balloon slows it down so minimally, but it does help, and it keeps the proper side faced down, which takes the brunt of the blow.   Thursday she gets to try hers alongside her classmates

Seventy-Five?

We're trying to make a thirty second company overview video for Protopasta.   It's the kind of video you see on Amazon product pages (where this one is destined to go) that show about the company or about the collection of products they offer. 

Protopasta sent us a video from another company—a video interestingly I was sent by that very company over a year ago to show me what his factories in China looked like and the production they were doing in the filament realm. 

That video is done very professionally in a factory that has white walls, is brightly lit, and is organized in such a way as to make the environment look bright and warm.  Protopasta's plant is very nice, but it has a much more industrial feel with grey walls with an almost cluttered look, even though they are very organized.   

How can we make a video that looks bright and inviting?   We have a white backdrop, and they have a lot of beautifully colored filaments.   I brought it all out (I had no idea I had seventy-five different spools of their filament, but we've been getting more from them over time, so I suppose it makes sense.)

Maybe some stop-motion animation with filament appearing and disappearing, pans, exciting models, something.  We'll figure it out, I hope.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son is up so late these days.   We can't get him to settle down and go to sleep, and he's not a baby anymore so we have little control.   He comes down to hang out with us when we've told him three times to go to bed.  School is coming soon and he's going to have to get up early. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is doing the egg drop challenge.  I'm so excited about this.  She wants to use helium balloons to slow the descent.   I'm not sure what the constraints are, but I'm really interested in what she comes up with.   I want to help (and try not to take over out of enthusiasm for the project.) 

Again?

Did I forget to write a blog post again yesterday?  I'm either getting old or I'm just getting distracted with other things. 

Yesterday I got a lot accomplished, but there are so many things that need to get done that it's hard to see the progress when there's so much more to do.  One thing I am very happy about overall is the work we have done and are doing with Protopasta.  A nicer group of people I can't imagine working with.   

That being said, it's a lot of time each month, more time than we are obligated to work for them, but we want to do a good job.   We're going to finish out the year with them and try to get as many things done that will provide a full set of videos for their products and some other company overview videos so that we leave them in a good place to move forward next year. 

The Children Together:  My son and daughter have been doing a lot of playing together recently, and they aren't constantly in conflict.   For a change, my daughter actually seems like she wants to roughhouse, which is fine with my son as he's always leaned in that direction.

No More Emails

I have so much I'm behind on, but one thing I try never to miss is this blog post.  I have been following my blog as well as my sister-in-law's with a daily email that comes to my inbox with any new posts written in the past twenty-four hours.   There are tools you can get that will show you all the latest posts on all the different podcasts or blogs you follow, but since I only followed my sister-in-law with complete regularity, I've never used any of the tools. 

When I created my blog the only widget I added was the one you could use to sign up for daily updates.  That was some time back, 2011, which seems like last year instead of over ten years now.   Blogger told me for about a year that that particular feature was going to be discontinued.  It was vague and complicated and said I could download the email addresses of those who were signed up for my blog if I wanted. 

The steps were so complicated to navigate, mostly because the user interface was so old and outdated.  I got the list of thousands of emails that were apparently signed up to get my blog posts, a number which I found highly skeptical given that very few people even know about this blog.  

The end date happened a good while back, but the emails kept coming.   And not just for a few days, but for months.   I had completely forgotten about the ending of the feature, figuring they were just letting it run until my brother-in-law emailed and said he'd stopped receiving the emails.  

And now I know why my inbox is less full than it normally is!   I really liked that feature.  There is no other feature that I've found that does the same thing.   I'm going to miss it. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Dog Daycare Assistants:  My children took care of Roxy today all by themselves.   They played with her, walked with her, played hide and seek with her, and then my daughter and I went to put her in her crate for bed.   She is a very sweet dog.  

Missed, Intentionally

I didn't write a blog post last night.  I just felt too bad.  I was in the bed and trying to rest and my very sweet family came and spent time with me.   I do have the most wonderful family. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son said some very, very bad words to my daughter's friend at a birthday party after school.   I was told exactly what he said.  The friend told her parents.  There were teachers there.  It was lovely, as I'm sure you can well imagine.  My son got to sit beside me and was very, very bored (and wet from the water area they were playing in.   I had a long conversation with my son and then let him be bored.   He lashed out when he got home at us verbally, I could tell he was upset at himself.   But he can't use those kinds of words just to show off.   I have no problems giving him serious consequences for it.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter asked if I brought her bathing suit when I picked her up from school for the birthday party.   I told her I didn't know she needed one and she needed to be responsible for things like this.  She was mad and wanted to blame me.   We grabbed some clothes she could wear and get wet at Walmart and are going to work on a way they can have calendar reminders for them every day or the night before so they can manage their own schedules which will I hope give them some more confidence in themselves. 

Back Into the Dark

There are four more episodes of the podcast I created a while back with my friend Scott.  We had intended to do more episodes, but his situation changed, he relocated to Florida to help with his girlfriend's business, and the recordings we had started on were in limbo. 

Scott reached out a few times, apologizing for being slow to communicate.   I messaged him back sometime after that, apologizing for the same thing.  This delayed communication went through a few more iterations, and then I got an email from Scott saying he had finished four episodes from what we recorded.

I didn't expect him to spend time on them because I knew he had lots going on in his life.   He spent a lot of time on the four episodes, his business partner told me when I inquired.   What I didn't expect was that he would have gone ahead and released them.  I hadn't paid him for his time, and that's important to me.   He did all that work for me, something incredibly generous. 

I paid him after asking his partner about the time he actually spent.  Jason said if it was up to Scott he would get around to invoicing me in 2032, which is so very Scott.   Jason and Scott are both great to work with.   

To think it all because of a business card Scott handed to me on his last day of work at Starbucks, where he was working for medical insurance until he got his business up and going from relocating to be closer to his children and grandchildren.   If I hadn't gone to Starbucks that day, there would be no podcast.  

I've only listened to episode seven so far, but I have a friend who said they are good.  The new episodes are on most of the major podcast streaming platforms, or you can listen to episodes seven through ten here:  www.intothedarkfindingthelight.com 

The BARD Complication:  My son wants to listen to the next audiobook in a series.   Unfortunately, the only location the book is resides in an app named BARD that is on my daughter's iPad.  The app accesses things from a source that's a subset of the Library of Congress specifically for blind and visually impaired people.   So the question is, can my son listen to the books if we've already downloaded them for his sister?   Can we put the app on another device and let him listen or should we not allow that at all?  His sister does not want him to.  This morning he stole her iPad, saying we had said he could use it, which we definitely did not do.   We're going to have to figure out what is reasonable and fair. 

Food Irregularities

When the children were young, we had a fairly regular meal system in place.   We would eat early because they were hungry early for dinner, which worked because they went to sleep early.  Now, as they've grown older, they are hungry later, and we have gotten into a habit of not having a regular meal time. 

This can be good because we are much more flexible.   But sometimes we are a little too flexible.   If one of the children is hungry after school, we pick up food then.   That puts half the family hungry much later in the evening for dinner.   Sometimes we get involved and don't eat until late for everyone.  

Tonight at 9:15PM, my son stuck his head downstairs and said he wanted dinner.  That he hadn't had dinner.   My husband had gotten everyone food at five-thirty, and my son had not one, but two different rounds of eating that food.   But he's hungry again.   My daughter wanted to make a smoothie and then for dessert dip pretzels in chocolate.   

I can't decide if our irregularity is a good or bad thing at this point.   I suppose it's a bit of both. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is coming up with reason after reason to take a break from reading The Hobbit, the book he needs to finish before school begins.   Some of it would be easier if he took his ADHD medication for part of the day.   Maybe I'll suggest that tomorrow.  He's not trying to be difficult, he just can't focus on the reading.   He could focus on the cell phone he snuck today.  I noticed it was missing and started pinging it repeatedly.   I went upstairs as I heard him dash to the back storage area.   He tried to look innocent while I went to pick up the chain beeping phone.  He said he just wanted to talk to his friends.   I said then he needed to finish reading the book.   I did notice he was playing Pokemon Go and not talking to friends at the time I took the phone back. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I wasn't feeling great this afternoon so my husband went to school to pick up my daughter.  She was sad I didn't come to so we could listen to our shared audiobook about a ghost train that is very cute.   I told her we could listen together some now that she was home.  

The House Is Clean(ish)

There is nothing like having the cleaning people come to cause you to clean your house.  The children hate it and my daughter says she wants her room to be a mess, but I think she just doesn't want to feel all over the floor to find all the things she's dropped there instead of putting them in the trash. 

Notably this month it is more balloons.  She loves balloons and this time around it's the animal twisting kind.   She's been on this kick for close to two months now with no signs of stopping.   I just ordered some more balloons because the ones I have had for many years are in poor shape and pop before she has a chance to make anything with them.   And that means bits of balloon all over the floor. 

But the house is clean.  It's such a nice feeling.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is the messiest person with food that I know, but he likes to keep his room clean.  He will make a mess in any of the other rooms, but his room is usually picked up.   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is usually so good at cleaning up but she's been avoiding putting up a partial load of laundry for close to two weeks.  Tonight she said her room was clean but when I brought in some dirty clothes from another area of the house I found the basket, still not put up.   She was very cross at me that I discovered it.  

The Rabbit Died

My brain is tired.  The friend who had a difficult situation had the situation turn dire this evening.  I have just gotten off from a very long phone call in which I tried to calm down a hysterical person.  Or rather someone going in and out of hysteria, despair, grief, hopelessness, pain and all the emotions that go along with loss.   I am glad I was there for support but it's emotionally difficult to see someone going through such a difficult time, knowing you can't help other than to be there. 

My friend's daughter and fiancee just tested positive for COVID-19 (or are we at COVID-22 now or are we still in variations of the 2019 strain?  I'm never sure.)  He told me he took a RAT test and it was negative and for some reason it reminded me of something my parents used to say when I was young that I didn't understand because I was too young.  

My mother would get off the phone or see my father when he got home from work and tell him about the such-and-such couple and how, "the rabbit died".   This news was always delivered with a positive tone and smiles.   My mother told me that meant the couple was pregnant.   I thought that was so strange as a child. 

The Wrasslin' Childr'n:  My children are so happy together lately.  I attest it entirely to my daughter liking her new teacher and my son not having screens.   They are doing this pouncing on each other thing that is just too funny.  But they love it. 

Friend In Need

I had a friend in crisis who called tonight.  All is well, but I needed to take a very long call and I didn’t have a chance to do a post tonight.  I’m glad he's okay.  

The Children Together: they have been playing very well together for the past three days, which has been a nice change 

Word Games At Dinner

Leave it to my daughter to come up with a word game at dinner.   Tonight's game was moderated by me as I came up with rules and scoring.   The first person says a letter.  In clockwise rotation around the table the next person adds a letter onto the first.   The goal is to get points by completing a word.  On your turn you can add a letter, call out the currently spelled word or call for a foul, meaning the last letter doesn't make a valid word. 

It's easier to explain by example.  The first person calls out T.   The second person calls out O.   The third person can add a letter or call end of word, taking the number of points as there are letters.   So you could get two points and end that round or call out a letter such as P.   The fourth person could claim the word TOP or add an M to the stack.   

We're now back to the first person who can add a letter to TOPM.   They could add a letter and possibly be challenged by the next person, or challenge the prior person.  If they challenged, the last person has to say a word that starts with TOPM, and in this case they could say, TOPMost.  The challenger would lose four points.   

There could be some strategy to try and pick letters that would cause others to lose points or sometimes even give someone points by not calling an end to a current word that you could take the points by adding S and letting them take the points for the now plural word.  

I may not be explaining this well, but it was a lot of fun, and the best part is you didn't have to see a thing to be successful. 

The Zombie Apocalypse Reading:  My husband has been reading a book to my daughter, and my son thought I should read one of his books to her as well.  Tonight I started and we got close to halfway through the book about a boy who is left in his small town alone, battling zombies and trying to find his friends so he's not alone.  It's a comedy that had my daughter laughing and giggling as I read.  My son was so interested in hearing the book again that he stayed in the room and bounced around, telling us exciting and good parts were coming up.   The three of us are continuing the story tomorrow. 

On Storage

How much storage is enough?   This is one of many, many conversations my husband and I will have through the house project we have decided to undertake.   There will be differences of opinions. Sometimes there will be strong differences of opinion sometimes, it will be education on a point the other wasn't aware of. 

Fortunately, no issues are insurmountable, and all issues will be resolved, decided, or addressed in one way or another.   We're only at the initial architecture phase and there are so many things to talk about already.

The Children Aren't Fighting: My son has no screens at all which means that by the time my daughter is home, he really wants to play with her.   Which is a little odd, because she's wanted to play with him a lot, but he never has the time for her he makes it seem.   Now he's seeing what that feels like.   She does eventually play with him and today they got along really well. 

Pop Caps

My son, husband, and I were trying to finish a Mandalorian puzzle this evening because I very much would like to have the dining room table back.  We are to those last pieces that all look sort of brownish black and could go anywhere.   

After a while my son grew tired of pieces not going into places and pulled out the three pop cap guns and suggested we three duel outside.   My mother-in-law provided a lot of caps to be used with the three guns so we had plenty of pretend gunfighting or pretend target shooting to do.  

After my husband and son had gone out my daughter appeared and I asked if she wanted to join us.  She wasn't sure at first but I think she had a good time once she got into it.  I explained to her how the ring of eight caps in the small red plastic housing worked and how to load and unload the gun.

We did all sorts of duels starting with the back to back sort and then migrating into hitting targets.  All of this was via imagination as the caps only went bang and no projectiles were involved.  

It was a lot of fun.  My daughter had far more fun than I thought she would have had.  Her blindness didn't factor in as we were all imagining shooting out the moon or street light or foe.   As we finished using the caps we'd brought outside a lightning storm was approaching.   It was really nice seeing the sky darken as night came on, lit from time to time with lightning followed by rumbling thunder. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son had a great time with the pop caps.  It's not something I would have picked for a family activity but it turned out to be a really fun idea.   And safe too, as the pop caps just made a small bang and violence was the farthest thing from actually happening. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was scared of the pop caps until I explained it was just like those little bangers in the cardboard boxes with the sawdust, only in this case a hammer in the gun made the bang, where as in the bangers the sounds was from little rocks in the tiny pieces of tissue laden with powder.  Once she understood that she was very interested in joining in.

The Other Singer

My daughter sings a lot.  She loves to sing.  Sometimes she drives her brother and possibly her parents with the sheer amount of belting out songs again and again.   Well, the table has been turned because her brother has a song he likes to sing. 

And this in and of itself is remarkable because while my son does sing with the music class at school and has always enjoyed doing so, he has no interest in singing at home or even acting as though singing were anything other than something dreadful other people do. 

The song he's singing is a slow, happy song in a major key.  It has a positive message and love is even mentioned in it.   It is, however, related to some show, a cartoon or animated series I believe. When I ask him about it he comments in a way that indicates of course I know about it because everyone obviously does.   So I've stopped asking for details, not wanting to look ignorant. 

He has a very pretty singing voice.  I've tried to catch him and record the singing but he's been wise to my ways.   I'm going to keep on trying.

A Taste of Your Own Medicine:  My daughter is absolutely sick of my son singing the same song over and over.   She keeps demanding he stop.   I don't say a thing, because she's done this to him more times than I can count. 

While I Was Lying Down

I would like to say things were back under control, and I had normal days and didn't have to lie down, but we're still working on getting things back to normal.  So while I was lying down this evening around dinner time, messaging people related to content creation or Filament Stories or however you want to go about calling what I do that is "work" to keep the social media brand that is Filament Stories going, the children were quarreling. 

The quarrel started because my daughter wanted to pop a balloon she had twisted into something near her brother to annoy him.   He took the balloon from her, and then he popped it.   My daughter was wailing because he popped it, and she wanted to pop it.   She got what she was asking for, though she annoyed her brother.  She just didn't expect the tables to be turned on her.  

I fell asleep, and the next thing I heard was big yelling.  This time it was my husband, who had gotten back from some board work with the neighborhood for First Night Out coming up.  Apparently, my son had done something, and it wasn't a good something, and he probably compounded the issue.  I heard him scream and then slam his door.   

I kept telling myself to wake up and go be a parent.  I should not be in bed.  I should be a parent and help. But I was too asleep in that sleepy state to wake up.   Later, I woke up and found my husband and son playing Street Fighter II on the small television proper up with the two little speakers on the sofa in the bonus room.   What was all the commotion?  My son didn't have screens...tomorrow. 

I hate when I miss things I should be there for. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is about to lose privileges he got back.  I found a drink can in the bonus room empty, lying on its side on the carpet, and his iPad in the middle of the walkway on the floor where anyone (blind or not) could step on it.   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter made a cake tonight.  It was a sheet cake, and someone had already cut into it to have some, so I grabbed a piece while on the way up to find my son and husband.  I rather like uniced cake. 

Street Fighter

My son woke up the other morning and the first words out of his mouth were, "Dad, Street Fighter."   This was something I think my husband was rather glad to hear.  Let me give you some backstory...

My husband loved playing Street Fighter when he was young.   For one of his birthday, his parents rented the actual arcade game.   Suffice it to say, my husband is good at the game.   My son's preferred style of game hasn't been the fighting kind...until recently.  

He's shown an interest in old games, and as it turns out we have all the old console game systems as well as a large controller set my husband built that has a huge collection of old arcade games on it that today, you can play with a television and a small Raspberry Pi.  

So when I haven't seen my husband or son for a good while, I know where they are: in the bonus room, playing Street Fighter.

The Big Boy Update:  It was after eleven when I came downstairs to write this blog post and my son was still up with the light on in his room.   He said, "I just want to dance."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter said she was sleeping a lot today.   I asked further questions because I hadn't really seen her at all and she admitted she was listening to a new audiobook.