Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Many people become sentimental when they think about percolators, often recalling childhood memories and the smell of coffee in the air in the morning. Nostalgia aside, percolators are by far the least well-regarded of brewing methods. The water is overheated, the brew overextracted (only water should be spread over coffee grounds, not already-brewed coffee), and the percolating action dissipates the complex, volatile compounds into the atmosphere. This is why people often recall that wonderful aromas: the aromatics that should be in the coffee are instead cast off into the atmosphere." -- Scott Rothstein, The Coffee FAQ (Chapter 3: Brewing Techniques)

[Include me among the folks with fond childhood memories of percolators. It almost makes me want to get one just to make the kitchen smell right, and use some other method for preparing coffee for drinking. But that'd be wasteful. (Then again, if I only did it when I really wanted to set the scene for an impressive and comforting breakfast for an overnight guest with the same mental associations ... Make my house feel and smell full of "This Is Home, You Belong Here" triggers ... Not that such subtle psychological manipulation ever occurs to me, of course, nuh uh.) OTOH, when I need a mood-lift for myself, it might make a useful happy-place sensory trigger.]

Since it's been more than a week since the last time I posted anything myself (QotD entries don't count -- I have the cron daemon post those for me), I'd better throw a status entry up here before people start organizing search parties.

I'm not doing well physically. This seems to be the fibro-flare from hell. After too many days in a row of hearing that I wasn't feeling well, and repeated apologies for not yet having felt well enough to come visit, anniemal said she wanted me where she could take care of me, and that if I didn't make it to her place under my own power she would come to Baltimore and pick me up. I did wind up having about six hours of not-as-bad in a row, during which time I made it to Arlington. Since then I've had other periods of not-as-bad, and one morning of actually feeling pretty good, but when those better spells end they do so rather abruptly and far too soon. So I've continued to miss rehearsals, meetings, and other events, and keep worrying about mail piling up at home (and programming the VCRs now that we're coming out of rerun season) ... but having a shorter walk to the bathroom, not having to deal with stairs to get to the kitchen, being fed when I'm in too much pain (or feeling too clumsy) to cook, and having company, are all good things. So is the occasional massage. Being able to converse with anniemal even when I'm not feeling quite up to dealing with email is a good thing as well. (Yes, you know I'm doing poorly when email seems too difficult. It happens.)

For the past few days my lower back has been excruciating. So I'm really glad that I'm not dealing with stairs right now. Yow. But I've discovered that a harp is a good instrument to noodle on while flat on my back due to exhaustion and pain (though I'll be happy when anniemal and syntonic_comma decide it's time to get sharping levers added to it ... not that it's my place to say anything since it's not my instrument). The biggest problem with that is propping sheet music where I can see it from that position.

Anyhow, I'll be a lot happier when I can dress myself without stabbing pains in my lower back, walk without wincing, and have enough energy to make it to rehearsals and take care of my to-do list again. 'Cause feeling this helpless and this tired Really Sucks. And the pain is no fun either.

So that's where I am and how I'm doing and why I've been quiet. I'm also not doing well at keeping up with my friends list. (For those of you who did the annoying "comment here if you read my journal" meme: I normally read -- at least skim -- everyone on my friends list, though I sometimes get a week behind and then catch up all at once. But I missed posts during Pennsic, and I'm missing posts now.) I'm keeping up with my "read in a hurry" filter and skimming my "newsish" filter, but I'm only seeing an afternoon or so of my whole friends list at a time and not reading back far enough to see everything else. This is partly a matter of fatigue and partly a result of sharing a computer instead of having my own handy. (*grumble* I feel like I'm missing out on stuff. *pout*)

I've got at least one LJ entry sitting on this machine that I composed at Pennsic and have been meaning to edit and post, and a 'link sausage' entry coming soon. Actual new personal content that isn't more "I'm not well but I'm still alive" entries will appear as I manage to have enough energy to write more of what's been in my head.

Now to go copy quotes from books I've read recently out of my PDA and into my QotD queue ...