… except the day of the week doesn’t really have much effect on the day to day argh that’s been going on. At least I’m going out to dinner tonight with two excellent women, so that’s something to look forward to.
There’s been lots of argh and grr happening, and I feel like I’m being nibbled to death by ducks cats. Did two installs of XP on the dead laptop; it died twice. Swapped the hard drive, started again. So far things are okay, except it won’t connect to the Internet via ethernet cable, nor will the screen accommodate a resolution above the halfway mark, leaving a frame of black around the display. And the most annoying thing is that I can’t find my wireless card, despite turning out the laptop bag, my desk drawers, and most of my office closet. It has absolutely vanished. It’s a little thing but it was what gave me mobility, and not findign it made me very, very cranky. If I haven’t found it by the end of the weekend I’ll have to buy another one.
The boy has made up for his sweet twos by hitting us with the Terrible Threes. That’s all I’ll say on the subject.
I started reading Elisabeth Le Guin’s Boccherini’s Body, a music analysis text based on the performer’s physical experience playing Boccherini’s music, specifically the cello sonatas and his quartets. It’s a fascinating theoretical approach and I want to be enjoying it much more than I am. The first two chapters were all I could handle; after that I had trouble focusing and following the theory and analysis to such a point that I’d reread a few sentences over and over and the meaning wouldn’t sink in. I hasten to add that this is in no way the fault of the author or the material; it has more to do with the fibro fog. So I switched to Elizabeth Wilson’s recent bio of Rostropovich and am much happier.
I’m going through a tough fibro week with worse than usual weakness in the hands, and joints that feel like they’ve never been oiled, ever. This morning is particularly bad, and it isn’t improving the way it usually does as the day progresses; in fact, it’s getting worse. Good thing today’s freelance work is simple online research and filling in blank fields in an Excel sheet. If it doesn’t clear up by this afternoon I may have to cancel on the dinner out, though, which I really don’t want to do.
Re. the pain: Ouch! Poor poor thing! I only ask because it seems to have helped my mom at times . . . but do you think maybe some good ol’ fashioned alcohol at dinner might ease the pain somewhat? That, and the distraction of the company of two fascinating women, of course?
Re. the Terrible Threes: Practically every parent I have ever spoken to has agreed that there is no such thing as the Terrible Twos. It’s all about the Threes, baby. I can certainly vouch for that: Devon was an angel at two, but by three knew how to push all our buttons, and did so on a regular basis!
It’s not the pain, it’s the fatigue. The pain isn’t an issue these days, thank goodness. It’s not being able to walk to the end of the street without wiping myself out for the rest of the day that’s problematic. A day home with the boy usually makes my next day (supposedly a work day) unproductive because I’ve used up too many reserves chasing him down, so to speak. That and who knows what else that triggers it. Some sort of consistency would be nice.
I’ve tried the alcohol thing; it’s pleasant, but often makes the flopsy lack-of-energy problem worse.
You’re missing drivers. Dell website. Check on boot which model that one is. Get and apply drivers. Should fix it. The network card and graphics issues anyway. The hard drives were a crap shoot anyway.
A note on the laptop – the One Laptop Per Child website says their “give one, get one” project will be starting up again this year, and there will be more details after September 1. Something to keep an eye out for.
I have the same annoying thing as you have, and I find that the relatively new medication, Lyrica, the only med I know made for fibro, is helpful, even with the fatigue thing. I have been taking it now for 2 weeks and it is certainly helping. I wake up full of energy and I can now go down the stairs without pain. I still, however, find it hard to walk a block without wanting to sit down on a bench, or something, but that’s probably because of my arthritic spine. Anyway, I’m on 3 capsules a day, totaling 150 ml. In high doses, this medication has awful side effects (and I’m talking about people taking 300 ml a day), but at 150 ml a day, it’s not bad.
Bev