Shadowless Groundhog Day

Puxatawny Phil must be blind. That’s the only excuse I can come up with that he saw no shadow today. Who’d trust a groundhog as a weather forecaster anyhow?

Still learning the ins and outs of my new MacBook. It came loaded with something called “Lion”, which I guess is an operating system. The Prof’s came loaded with a previous incarnation called “Snow Panther” (at least that’s what I think it was called) and he’s been a little frustrated because every time he tries to show me something he’s been finding out that my system doesn’t work quite the same way. Last night, when he came to bed, he told me that he’d gone into my computer’s settings and changed them so that it worked more like his Mac. This will be a good thing in the long run, since he’ll be better equipped to help me learn this. In the short run, however, I’ve become a bit frustrated myself because a few of the things I’d figured out how do to on this system now don’t work for me. It’s all part of the learning curve, but it’s a steep curve!

I spent maybe a quarter of an hour this morning trying to figure out how to create a document on my new machine. I’d gotten very used to having MicroSoft’s Office suite, which isn’t loaded on my new machine. I finally opened something called “Text Edit”, which seems to be some sort of document writer thingy. I can’t find “Spell Check”, but I know it’s gotta be here somewhere. At least it doesn’t try to pre-format my documents like Word did – I never did figure out how to set my standard document settings to single space and don’t add an extra empty line after I hit “Enter”. The Mac program understands that single spacing is what most people prefer to format their documents with and that if you want an extra line all you have to do is hit “Return” twice.

One of the IT guys at the new place I work said he’d be glad to take a look at my fried Acer and try to recover whatever files were recoverable. I baked him brownies and took them in with the little dead NetBook on Tuesday, and I’ll find out when I go to work today whether or not I’ll be getting anything back from the hard drive. Since I still haven’t really figured out how to load stuff into the MacBook, there’s a whole new learning curve awaiting me once I get everything back from him today.

The new job has me working 24 hours a week and both days every other weekend. This seems to be working out to a minimum of 32 hours a week. The old Big Box Pharmacy job is still throwing eight to sixteen hours of work a week my way as well, so I’m as solvent as I’ve been in a long time. I’ve made arrangements to go to a two-day veterinary conference in The Big City the beginning of March, and to attend the big AVMA conference being held in San Diego this August. Between the two, I should earn enough continuing education credits to keep my veterinary license intact for another two years. I still have hopes that I’ll be able to use my license one of these days, and it’s far easier to keep it current than to get it reinstated.

Since the new job has me working 3:30 to midnight shifts on weekdays, my schedule has gotten completely up-ended. The Prof has always been a night owl, and now I need to train myself to be the same way. Meal times have been the hardest to cope with. I’ve tried switching lunch and dinner around, eating a larger meal before I go to work and then something smaller at my dinner break at work, but it isn’t working all that well yet. Still, it’s early days, and I’ve hopes that eventually my stomach will catch onto the new schedule.

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned in a previous entry that I have another new foster cat, Daisy. This one is a tuxedo, six years old, and a diabetic. Ordinarily the cat rescue organization I work with doesn’t take cats with chronic health conditions, since we are ill-equipped to handle them. Our organization does have a standing rule though that we will accept back any cat we adopt out at any time after the adoption. Daisy was adopted from our organization five years ago, and had to be returned when her owner had a stroke and had to go to a nursing center for long-term treatment. The president of our organization’s board of directors had hopes that Daisy would convert to being a non-diabetic after being treated short term with insulin, but this does’t seem to be happening. My greatest fear is that we have to make a decision based on finances to put her to sleep, but right behind that fear is another fear that I’m going to be stuck with this cat for the long term. Don’t get me wrong – she’s a sweet cat and I love having her in the house (she’s currently sleeping on the dining room table at the moment). But taking care of two diabetic cats (Daisy and LGS) with the work schedule I have is proving to be really difficult. Insulin shots are supposed to be given exactly twelve hours apart, or as close to that schedule as possible. I work 3:30 to midnight weekdays at the new job, unpredictable hours anywhere from 7:00 am to midnight on weekends, and 10:30 to 7:00 at Big Box Pharmacy. There has been absolutely no way to get even close to twelve hour intervals with the insulin, and the cats’ s blood sugar levels reflect this. Ironic – now that I’m earning enough money to come close to covering the meds (including insulin), the test strips, the lancets and the syringes I can no longer administer the medications correctly.

Another thing that’s taken a hit from my new schedule is my lamp working. I haven’t touched the torch in 2012 yet. I can’t claim it’s just because I don’t have the time – I still have mornings and early afternoons at least three days a week. It’s just that I can’t get myself motivated to commit a block of time that would amount to three or four hours to doing making and setting up to anneal the beads. What I have been doing is reading. A lot of reading. I’ve read the John le Carre’s first three books (I can’t believe I’d never read “The Spy Who Came In from the Cold” before), two de Lint books I got for Christmas, and five or six C.J. Cherryh books that I’ve had in my SF library since the 80’s or 90’s and hadn’t read in years. I’ve currently got three books going – one at work for meal break, one by the bed, and one that travels about with me downstairs. Reading and television have proved to be my favorite forms of escape right now, though television seems to be a bit sparse this days.

I’m currently watching NCIS, NCIS:LA (though I don’t know why I persist, since the show really isn’t up to original NCIS standards) and Royal Pains. I look forward to the return of Burn Notice, Eureka (though rumors regarding the show’s demise abound), Warehouse 13 and Haven. And Homeland. Let’s not forget Homeland. That show absolutely astounded me – I’m good at catching onto plot lines and sub-plots, and Homeland kept me guessing for its entire first season. Besides, Mandy Patinkin rocks. Loved him in “Princess Bride”, loved him in “Dead Like Me” and love him now.

And that’s enough free-association for one day.