We have been experiencing technical difficulties please stand by

Yesterday is a day that needed a reboot.  The Footless Man. started it all off at 4:30 am with a blood sugar in the terrifying low range.  One 911 call, one ambulance ride, one pick up from ER this brings us up to 7AM and I decided that I am going back to bed because it is Saturday.  Mostly I am the one up early. It's my time to putter about without anyone around.  I have my tea and read the paper and do the crossword puzzle and then I am ready to face whatever is going on in the day.  Saturdays, I sleep in.
Footless Man went off to visit the food bank, and I guess by the evidence he was washing dishes.  Point is that about noon I come down the stairs to find him in the midst of yet another insulin shock.
Argh, argh, argh.
This one I was able to feed him glucose and get him up and level, He ate lunch and headed in for a nap.
I headed in to the computer. 
The internet was down.
Now generally I am pretty calm about most things computer related but, and this is a big but, I have been coping with the slow death of my monitor and borrowing the swordsman's monitor for minimal and basic use.
This suited nobody and upset the Swordsman something awful because he has an OCD component to his makeup and there was absolutely no way I could share the use of the monitor that didn't give him an anxiety attack.
I was gifted with a really excellent Monitor on Thursday. (Thank You Gretchen)  Saturday was the first time I had a chance to actually go online.  The browser simply announced that it couldn't find the server.  Or anything else, like it's backside with both hands.
Argh, Argh, Argh.
Today I called my service provider and spent an hour and a half with a technician as she talked me through the black screen depths of the innards of my computer to figure out if the problem was theirs, mine or something in between.
So far as I understand her, the computer ate it's all important numbers that allow it to connect to the net.  Meantime I followed directions, typed commands, read what the computer said back to me about the commands, reset the modem and the router, and all the numbers.
What do I find in my mail but a concerned message from someone who reads this.
My goodness I feel touched. 
So now here I am.  I aintn't dead.  I may be tempted to whack the Footless Man upside the head, scream imprecations at the computer and stomp about in a Godzilla Moment, but dead I am most certainly not.

Miles to go before I sleep.

I have never been good at keeping my things/stuff/ papers/house in any kind of order.  Especially if I am coping with mine plus anyone else's possessions.  The fact that I am married to a bonafide hoarder makes the collection problem harder to deal with as well as easier to blame on the footless man.
Well,  It is a problem and I happen to be part of it.  I have my own collection and holding habits, including yarn, knitting equipment, sewing stuff, art and painting supplies.
Today I began thrashing through the fall cleanup process of dumping clothes and getting back to what I will actually wear so that I am not quite so insane. 
This afternoon We took two cartons of miscellaneous clothes to the thrift store, and as a bonus would you believe they took the counter top?  I have a whole closet shelf that is ready to accept some things that need to be out of my way.
However my bedroom looks a lot like it blew up.  If I intend to sleep in my bed I have a long way to go.

progress not perfection

Today the Footless Man took a step that I thought was never going to happen. He loaded the cook top from the cabinets that are still cluttering up the kitchen plus the counter top and took them down to Habitat to donate.
In one afternoon I am free of six large pieces of junk that have been living in my house and that he has been clinging to for nearly ten years.
The downside of this is that Habitat didn't want it.  So we tootled off to the other store for weird household schmutter known as Resource.  They took the stove and left the counter top.  Any body want a counter top? No?  Why am I not surprised?
He says that tomorrow I get to come out to the garage and help him sort out a bunch of boxes. 
Be still my beating heart!

One finished, Four to go.

Socks. two months, four pairs. Plug in the audio book and off I go, or now, fire up the nook, and off I go.  The weather is cold, My hands are cold, and so finally they have stopped aching.  Goody.

Lovely, lovely.

Last Thursday Mom came up to see me.  I had a wonderful time with her, and enjoyed it no end.  She brought up a gift from my dad. There are several reasons for gifts. there are Anniversaries, Great occasions, Holidays, and then the best reason of all, Because.  This was a Because.  I am awed. I am touched.  I am thrilled.  Dad and Mom both, thank you from the bottom of my heart for the Nook.  I love it.  I am having a whole lot of fun with it.  It makes socks just flow off the needles as I read and knit.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

It's a bird, it's a plane, Its super mommy!

Today I have managed to fumble three major parts of my life.
I set out from home to meet a client.  Being the kind of person I am that means that I am on bicycle neatly dressed in my office mufti.  I have a whole quarter tank of gas left in Edith and I want to see if I can make it last until Halloween.  Halfway in to town My phone rings and Ms client informs me that she has the flu and in not able to meet me and give it to me.  I should be grateful.  I don't need the Flu.  I do however miss the session fee that she didn't pay me last time and the one she was going to pay me on top of that today. 
So here I was with a morning planned out and no place to go (no money coming in either)  I called a friend and re routed myself in to have tea and a cookie with her.  That was nice, I stopped and picked up supplies and did my bank errands. 
I got home about when I said I was going to, to find that the Ambulance is in front of my house.  This is never a good sign.  This tells me, " Kiss whatever you thought you were going to do with your afternoon goodbye.  Your afternoon is now scheduled with Emergency room"   Thing was, I wasn't really involved with that either.  The Swordsman had called them in and was helping the ambulance guys, who were short the critical extra guy who keeps things calm and sits on the struggling patient while they do the important parts.
All I did was pack the comfort bag and wave goodbye.
After the dust settled, After I picked up the footless man, I needed to have a nap.  I just got nicely groggy when the Erstwhile Child calls.
Erstwhile Child pretty much takes care of his life himself.  He does a fairly good job of it too.  So if he is calling for help, he has a problem that is larger than his coping skills and outside his experience. 
His car's clutch has died and would I be able to help him get it to a safe haven?  Well, I could, except that if I did, I would be getting up tomorrow at 4:30 after getting to bed at 2.  If I were in my late thirties I might even do it.  As it is I am too damn old to pull an all nighter.  After further questions, it turns out that all he needs to do is pay a moderate parking fee and his car is able to spend the night where she is, quite well and very safely.
So there you have it.  Three ways that I did not go to the rescue, save the day or earn my way in the world, all in one day.
Over all I feel pretty good about it.  I do miss the money though.

And now in other news

I have been neglecting the blog due to being hot, miserable because I was hot, and dealing with some inward stuff that I'm entirely unwilling to talk about here.

Today I am back and heaven help y'all
Due to some family kerfuffle that ended with emergency surgery I want to address  the basic question of when do you call the ambulance.
You call the ambulance if you think that a trip to the emergency room is in order.

1. If you power in to the E room on your own they automatically put you low on the list.  unless you are actively bleeding, gray, or throw up.  people arriving by Ambulance get first priority.
2. The ambulance guys know a lot about where to take you.  Some hospitals specialize in some things and if you go in to the E-room and it isn't the hospital that does heart issues and you have one, then they have to load you into an ambulance and take you over to the heart hospital.  Time is of the essence in things like this.   Besides the keystone cops episode of racing around and having the patient at one hospital and the worried family at another one, It makes for a remarkably silly story but it isn't funny at the time.
3. The family member driving you is not likely to be thinking well because they are worried and scared and trying to get you there as fast as they can.  The EMT's have the original go fast mobile with the bells and whistles plus the training to drive it fast in traffic.

What this all comes down to is that if you need the emergency room the ambulance guys can sort you out and get you there faster and safer so use them if you need them.
If you need medical attention but not really fast go to an urgent care center.  The emergency room will thank you.