The Seated View

Dear Mercury, Can we talk? I know that you going retrograde several times a year is something you have to do. I’m not quite sure why this is necessary, but I accept it. I also accept that historically, you’ve had a tendency to mess with Regan, my power wheelchair which has, for reasons (mostly) unrelated to you, been named after the girl in The Exorcist . Perhaps her — the chair, not the girl In The Exorcist — being a bit of a lemon calls out to you in some sort of special way. Perhaps you have a connection. Perhaps you were soul mates from another life. To be honest, I don’t care, because what the two of you have going is exhausting me. Two Saturdays ago, I had to book an emergency call with a wheelchair repair technician when I found out that grounding prong on the cord of my charger was stuck in the wall. This is not necessarily your fault, Mercury, as I later found out that it had apparently been in there for quite some time. Nonetheless, an emergency call is expens...

I am extremely thenthitive . Perhaps not so much emotionally, but physically? Fuggedaboutit. Decades of RA, especially the wreckage after my 2004 flare, combined with fibromyalgia has made me as sensitive as the girl in Hans Christian Andersen's The Princess and the Pea . My body works all right within my current parameters, but if you mess with my environment, even just a little, things get unhappy. This is why. I can be sent into a panic by a broken microwave, why I hold on to a pillow even though it is falling apart and my floor is littered with down every morning. And it is why I have not yet instigated getting a new power wheelchair, even though Regan is showing signs of needing replacement sometime soon. Because the last time I switched from an old chair to a new one, it took six months (and a lot of pain) of slowly transitioning between the two. Despite my attempts to control my environment so there are no physical changes, life has a tendency to happen, and so doe...

This week has kicked my arse. There was a lot of work, there was forgetting of moving slowly and subsequent consequences, there were various disability related expenses hemorrhaging, much delay of certain administrative things that really shouldn't be delayed, Buskerfest has started and although I'm sure I could get a good rant going on minimal provocation, I choose to not. Because I'm taking a long weekend starting now and am therefore in a spectacularly good mood. Or will be soon. One of the reasons I'm taking a long weekend is that it's my birthday tomorrow and much to my delight, due to my uncle arriving next week from Germany and the family birthday shenanigans being delayed another week, I will not have merely a birth day, but a birthday fortnight. I love extended celebrations. To kick things off, I'm having a contest to spread the good mood. The winner will receive an 8x10 print of their choice from my Flickr page. Contest closes Sunday evening at 6pm ...

Thanks for all the lovely comments and thoughts for Mojo and me on Friday's post. Having this many people pulling for her seems to have obliged Her Royal Catness to do well and so far, so good. The colonoscopy was clear, the surgery went well and they were able to get the mass with 1cm margins with no apparent effect on bodily functions - a very cheerful Australian vet told me on Saturday that you only need half of your anus to be continent. Not just good news considering how much time the wee beastie spends on my bed, but also an absolutely fascinating piece of trivia, no? Mojo's staying until she doesn't need painkillers or major medical care and will hopefully be home in a few days. Pathology results later this week - continued crossing of appendages would be much appreciated. As for the Mercury Retrograde thing... Thursday, my shoulders went ballistic, Friday, my microphone went to its reward after many years of dedicated service and the combination of the two means ...

Remember Mercury retrograde? The quarterly phenomenon that astrologers claim affects technology and communication and when I post about how it's out to get me , I get the distinct sensation that there's eye rolling out there, people not quite buying into this. Settle in my friends and let me tell you about my week. Have your morning drink of choice with you? Tea, coffee, vodka… (I’m the one with the vodka) L ast Friday, my computer let me know there was an update to be downloaded, so I did. Installed the update and my computer promptly started making chugging sounds, working at away at something in the background, in general slowing things down. I'm thinking it might be that malicious software removal thing Microsoft feels is essential - does anyone know if I need it if I have a decent antivirus program? So I did a system restore, setting things back to Thursday, restored my user files in Dragon - system restores messes with them - but there's a trick and it's easy ...