What the...?

Left work at midnight and drove home via Church Street. Piece of cake. I do it five nights a week.

Got lucky and made it past all the lights, even at Hoffman Street. Then my headlights seemed really dim and my muffler got annoyingly noisy. Feeling guilty, I looked around for a police cruiser.

That's when I noticed that there were no lights at all in Elmira Westside, and all the way down Church Street through the Town of West Elmira!

None. We were in a blackout, from Hoffman Street west towards Corning. Corning also experienced a blackout later on. Rumor has it a transformer blew. The paper never knew.

Up Guinnip to First Street and our little Friendly House, right there in Little Pond. No lights. I got out of the car.

No sound at first, although later I was able to detect water dripping into the sewer. At that point I also could see light on at one house, way up. No doubt some people were firing up their backup generators. Once inside, I worked my way towards our Black and Decker Storm Station.

By the auxillary room light, I made myself a Bailey's and milk, turned on the gas fireplace, got undressed and went to bed.

The power was restored shortly after I hit the sheets. Back downstairs, turn off the fireplace, return the flashlight to the Storm Station, back up stairs once again.

Another night in Little Pond.

pb
Little Pond

Monday morning: worked the budget until it screamed for mercy. It will have its revenge sometime in the next two weeks, I'm sure. But to actually balance in the month after Christmas, well, it's very unusual. I expect I've forgotten something.

Monday morning2: vacuumed the downstairs, after I first lovingly carried Patches to the stair landing. My reward? A strange Purrupp? from her just now, as she reached up to tap my butt. When Ellie is not here, Patches knows she is the top dog, and insists on the lion's share of attention.

Monday morning3: still no shipment of necessary prescriptions. I can buy some fallbacks that aren't prescription strength, but will cost a fortune. More than my copay. Still, going without will be a useful indicator of its effectiveness. None of my MS drugs, however.

The new system for ordering maintenance drugs is failing me. Husband RJ refuses to use it, and has gone to the local pharmacy. However, they are not permitted to fill for more than one month. His copay? $50.00 for one month. Together we will probably total over $500. for medicine copays in January, and maybe again for February.

We cannot afford this. I will probably cut back on all my expensive medications, except Copaxone, to accommodate.

I do not look forward to retirement. It's almost as if we will only get lucky if we don't survive until then... Does anyone else feel this way?

pb
Little Pond

Can't complain.

The neuro was very polite, and didn't quite let on what we both must have been thinking in unison.

I have lost ground this year. I failed the closed-eyes balance test, and I tripped on myself when asked to walk toe to heel. That was the second time, when he suggested I walk "late-for-church" fast.

There hasn't been a real exacerbation in a few years. The Copaxone is working, but I am still losing ground.

What to do?

Call in the Ground Dog and go hunting down by the Chemung River! I'm lame as hell afterwards, but at least I'm using myself up before I'm completely gone.

pb
Little Pond

Those words make me mad!

My current neuro is chatty, personable, and competent, the last being the most important. He took away my driver's license years ago when he learned I was using my cane to work the clutch. Or was it the brake?

He wants a hearing test. My first and last was shortly after the diagnosis. Verdict: nerve damage. Prescription: nothing. Nothing can be done for nerve damage.

"Those words make me mad?" Huh? What words?

He told me that he didn't believe nothing could be done. Wouldn't I want amplification? Well, it would help, maybe, except that the deafness fades in and out, depending on my neural health.

More testing would be okay, I guess, if the insurance would cover it. Last time we wound up paying $400 out of pocket for the series. I'm told hearing aids cost lots more, and aren't very well covered.

However, it would be nice to hear cars coming up behind on the left again. So many near misses, so far. One time they almost got the HuggaMutt. I try to keep her out of intersections now.

We left it at that. Just another expense to me.

pb
Little Pond

Plus que ca change...

You can find my New Year's predictions for 2008 at Pat's Pond.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

At least, I'm kind of hoping they do...

pb
Little Pond

Linda D of Brain Cheese

insistently asks, so I guess it's time. I was going to wait until the weekend to post. Just a few minutes this morning won't hurt. So you can thank Linda D.

I am quite well, considering the Holidays are just past. Actually we are very, very well.

This time of year is something like an abbreviated end of summer. Every summer I experience an exacerbation, due to the extended period of heat, both outdoors and inside at work. The physical plant at the paper is so very old, a real patchwork of chewing gum, spit and baling wire. (Like it? I got it from an old episode of Air Wolf...)

The Winter Holidays, on the other hand, are a very quick course on how to screw ourselves up through stress. No matter how we plan and pare back, Christmas leaves me with numbness in the legs and that weird feeling at the back of my neck and shoulders. (There's a special name for that reaction, but I can't recall.)

But. Last weekend afforded me two days off. I worked New Year's Eve then took Christmas and New Years over the next two days. I am working both yesterday and today and then another weekend off. Frankly, I don't know how people survive working swing shifts!

(The Punchline?) The real reason I haven't posted is because I am busy playing Final Fantasy XII, and have been trying to crack the Great Crystal at Giruvegan.

Okay, there. I've admitted it. There was no real reason, except that swear I am not a game geek.

Tell that to poor Husband RJ, who got conscripted into a huge battle with a major boss (Zodiark, Keeper of Precepts), because there was too much going on for me to watch my Health Points, Magic Points, Status Effects and those of the enemy at the same time. When we won, he got the first spontaneous kiss in a very long time...

Well, you asked.

pb
Little Pond