The Lyorn's Den

I know I meant to complain less. And things are not shitty all over. Basically there is exactly one personal (as opposed to state-of-the-world) thing with is extremely shitty and so annoying and omnipresent that I cannot write about the state of the Lyorn without complaining.

I had time off work the past week, and did, dunno, things. Went bouldering with R---, booked ferry, hotel, and night train for August, decluttered the wardrobe, got a new chest of drawers set up in the bedroom (much prettier), and applied for a choir workshop.

Yesterday I decided to drive over to the city to buy a Sudoku puzzle book. The things you do on a Deutschlandticket, when for less than 50 Euros a month you can use all public transport except for fast trains and long distance busses. But as the same day the train drivers were on strike again (feels like third time this winter, and I have Opinions about that), I bicycled 10 kilometres to the start of the tram line, and took the tram the rest of the way.

I got my Sudoku books, and bought some more books, and a shirt, and sweets, had lunch, and walked about 5K steps which made me worry about the next day, because my joints are mess and that much walking (Much. Hah. Six years ago this would have been barely worth putting on shoes for) usually means lots of pain for the next one or two days. But what the hell should I do? If I sit all day on the f***ing sofa, I will still be in pain. So I just do it and hope for the best while expecting the worst.

Bicycling back was nearly too much for my arm strength. This does not bode well for my plan to bicycle to work at least once a week when the weather is OK. I am extremely annoyed with myself and with every self-help book and article about joint pain, which advises, a) go to a doc early (they will tell you that they cannot do anything), b) move more (how the fuck should I if I cannot move because I am in pain and working through the pain makes it worse?) c) lose weight (yeah, sure. I'm underweight for my age), d) take NSAIDs (I'd love to, but I should not because other health issues - I limit myself to one every three days). "Nothing to be done" is bad enough. Every publication and know-it-all shouting idiotic useless advice really gets my goat.

Today, however, was not as bad as feared once I made it out of bed. I took the car into town, got plants for the balcony, and even managed to plant them. Two of the pots have been taken over by plants that really want to be there: In one case, young poplars! Now I have added one pot with horned violets and daisies, one with blue and white bellflowers and an errant horned violet, and one with Asian ranunculus, which are poisonous, but they are out of reach for Tully the Tabby, and he prefers grass anyway.

Tully is still alive and active and a very sweet cat. He wants his food, and his playtime, and his cuddles. He has also lost a bit of weight, but nothing alarming yet.

( Thoughts on work and money )

A lot of "up" in recent weeks and I even managed to resolve one of my drama points by sitting still and thinking about it.

New (second) choir is fun because we sing LOUD and high, and quite often both at the same time.

Of course, sometimes I run into stuff from other universes that is incomprehensible to me and would take me months of intensive training to learn at all, let alone to do it while singing. ( Cut for me getting everything wrong. You have been warned. )

My firmware is buggy.

Fortunately I also have a completely normal and solvable challenge, which is how to sing a soft H5 for a single voice descant. I already managed once or twice, I only need to learn to do it reliably, and then it will be glorious. :-D

2022. Hrmpf.

Generally, one can say "this could have been worse". Of course, everything could always have been worse and it does not help those hurt by how bad it was, but still, it could have been worse and I'm very glad that it wasn't.

Personally, I had a pretty equal (it feels) mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. Only that I worked for or paid for everything good, while the bad and the ugly just dropped in like a bunch of moochers.


( Cut for wordiness, bad English, animal death, and too much Kafka )

Four hours to midnight.

I've been thinking that I really need to turn in my introvert club membership card, because, damn it, I want to meet people in person.

Not online, where communication is clumsy (unless it is in writing and with the very few people who are *good* at writing), voices sound like weird, faces all come from the Uncanny Valley, where a talk resembles a spiritist ghost summoning, and the cat is making worried noises because human is giving off strange sounds from their fake ears for no reason known to cat.

Today I got hit by an inspiration particle.

OK, so, interacting with people is strenuous. As is hillwalking. As is creating complex concepts. As is cooking a six-course vaguely historical feast for fifty. "Strenuous" is not the problem, assuming I kind of volunteered and can re-charge later.

But interacting with fragments of people as transferred by wonky tech -- fragments that need to be completed from intellect, emotion, experience and imagination, to have any as a chance of successful communication, dumbing down concepts, balancing over an abyss of misunderstanding and misinterpretation, while one is simulatneously assulted by unpleasant sounds and images, tech trouble, and unhappy cats -- that is five times the effort and less than half of the results. So it's about 10 times the effort spent on people in a vid conference as opposed to seeing them over a desk or in a room. And that is just. too. much.

We hates it, my precioussssss. (Cuddles cat.)

Tomorrow, our small choir (12 singers) will be performing in a church. ( Cut for whining )

mad_freddy triggered me to register for stadtradeln.de this year.
One day after I registered, their web site failed. According to Gwydion, it works just fine if you use the app.

Rational me says, "SNAFU"

Paranoid whiny me says "If you do not have a smart phone, you are obviously not part of their target group", and goes on to rant about preaching inclusion and doing exclusion. (Yeah, I know, even - especially - the poor and the elderly can't live without their smartphones these days. How else would you talk to the grandkids or know when your shift starts tomorrow? Only, I, having no grandkids and a traditional paying job, can live with out a smart phone... and without political action for better cycling infrastructue, actually.)

Paranoid whiny me should shut up now.

It's Monday morning. Hopefully they will fix the website some time today. Or tomorrow. You never know with software.

I'm so tired this spring that all the jokes about if have worn out. I sleep seven hours at night, and when I get home from work I'm too tired to look straight and sleep two more. I lie in until 10 on weekends and feel that I need a nap after lunch. I don't know what's going on. This time of year, I should get along just fine with 6.5 hours. Maybe I'm getting not enough exposure to the sun, because, bicyle troubles...

Anyway, today. The public pool opened, and admission on this day is traditionally free. I had planned to be there first thing in the morning, then go to a May Day event which started at 10.

Hrmp. As if. I got out of bed at half past ten, and it took me two more hours (sitting on the sofa with a blanket and two cats, and hot tea) to get warm enough for going to the pool to become thinkable. Well, at least I went *then*.

Still: Not funny.

And likely to be for the next week, too, because while mornings are fine, afternoons are still quite bad, and sitting at a desk (or at the piano) for more than one hour feels as if beavers are gnawing at my ankle from the inside. At least the swelling is kind-of down (only 1.5 cm more around than the other ankle, down from 3), I can walk without a stick (most of the day), and the sock-sized bruise is down to pale yellow and a few purple blotches. I am very annoyed that this is taking so long and argueing vainly with nature.

I went to the pool yesterday, that was kind-of OK, but with very weak legwork I could do only 750 metres, and it took me 35 minutes. However, it was nice and cool. (Ankle *hates* heat. No socks, no bedcovers, no warm water, no massage, or the beavers will wake and go to work.)

I made plans for the library/piano room. Maybe I can get up from the sofa today and make some pictures of the table, and offer it up on ebay. It's the wrong table for that room, because it's a living room (or dining room) table, it seats four to six and can be used as a desk if needed, but it is not the right size or shape for a library or guest room.