Two notes:  

First, I started this, like, 2 weeks ago.  But I still want to post it, so, voila, here it is. I’m feeling better health-wise, which is great. (Though our furnace is on the fritz now). 

Keep an eye on my Patreon for the March Patreon Push, which is going to involve, well, more stories on Patreon.  Also check out the Leap Day stories I posted there – and as always, you can find fiction on my account at https://ping.the-planet.space/@aldersprig.

 Second, Thank You Kelkyag!  Kelkyag sent me a lovely little kids’ book called The Trouble With Chickens.

(So, should I  make The Chickens Era Science an option on the upcoming poll for this month’s Patreon Theme?)

(Yeah, I’m a little behind. Story of my life.)

Now continues the actual blog post, voila.

~*~~*~~*~

Hello!  If I have not been as talkative as normal, you can chalk that up to the February Month of Doom, which hit about halfway through January this year – although bonus! The doctor (Nurse practitioner) LISTENED this year and I got a prescription which HELPED. 

Now if only I’d been willing to believe she’d do that and had gone earlier, but after the last couple years… (“There’s nothing wrong with you but here, have an anti-vertigo med, that’s all I can do.”)

(That was a different NP; I’ve gone through almost half a dozen at this place.)

It may have helped that I repeated, like a mantra, “I am not going to -{well, I forget the exact wording, but it was something like undersell or diminish} my symptoms to the doctor.  I am not going to…”

So, the sickness.  Definitely not Corona Virus (though there’ve been suspected cases in my school and there is at least one confirmed case in NY State).

It’s sinusitis, which leads to nausea, vertigo, & exhaustion, not a fun mix. Lucky for me, I knew this was coming – it always does – so I planned ahead and had been banking sick time. I took a LOT of short days and a few amazing work from home days. 

So I’m going to talk about Working from Home, because talking about being sick sucks. 

I love it.  I wish I could do it all the time, but let’s be honest, it’s not AS productive as working in the office can be, and ahem, I have to get away from my husband and my house once in a while. (Since he’s not working right now, he’s home when I’m home, and he has trouble not distracting me. Or I have trouble not being distracted?) There’s also the cats, who think my office is their room, so they can get distracting too. 

My home office is, technically, the back half of a sevenish foot by sevenish foot by barely 6’5″ room (2.13m x 2.13m x 2 meters tall, or so) which is either off of or part of the living room. Currently, it’s about 4 inches taller than the rest of the room; we’re not sure why.  It has no windows, but the “fourth wall” (ha) is completely open to the living room – a large portion of which opens right onto where the wood stove is. Thus, half the front of the room is wood storage and the other half is our Big Comfy Armchair.

I  have: a wide desk, usually covered in things, a wobble chair, a normal chair, a standing desk (a wire shelving unit), and a box of skirts-I-might-fix-or-might-throw-out under the desk, currently the nest for whichever cat has claimed it this week. 

If I’m on the wobble stool, Oli prefers to sit nearby in the Normal Chair, or, if he thinks he needs my attention, on the desk in front of me. EVENTUALLY, I want to build a monitor stand to hold the monitor, the laptop, and leave a spot underneath for the cat.  ‘Cause right now the monitor is on a stack of books, the laptop goes on a stack of boxed games, and the cat goes between those with one foot on the keyboard tray, getting annoyed every time I move my mouse. 

(Merit or Theo sit on the back of the Large Comfy Armchair within arm’s reach ’till that gets annoying; they also have a series of increasing-in-size box lids in front of the chair, by the wood stove, but that’s mostly the boys, not Merit). 

RIGHT.  Working from Home.

Cats!  Cats is an amazing perk.  Well, also a distraction, but I usually have a cat Right There, which is great. 

The not having a 45 minute commute is also great. 

(Seriously.  Ithaca isn’t 45 minutes across.  It’s a small city.  But because the university I work at has limited parking, it’s either take the bus (preferred) or drive AROUND the city, park on the other side of the school, and take a bus back. Or pay a shit ton for parking yearly.  Like, up to $1,034.43. $600 would probably reduce my commute by like, 10 minutes. I’d rather drive 5 minutes to the park and ride (When I make it, sigh), write the whole way in, and then write or nap on the way back out.)

The naps, the naps are amazing. 

Yeah, somewhere in the last decade I got old 😀  But seriously, wood fire going (if it’s winter), couch, cat on top of me, half hour nap on lunch, it is amazing.

Also, I don’t have to get dressed up, just my PJ pants and a tank top, throw on a cardi if I have a telecall. 

But the naps.  As many as I want in a day, let’s be honest. 

Also, I can have whatever I want for lunch, as long as it’s in the kitchen.  That’s pretty amazing. 

If only it wasn’t so distracting. 

Also, if only I could do something about the copier from home, that being my one actual physical responsibility that takes any time at all. 

Ah, well, you can’t put paper in the copier from another town.  In the meantime, I’ll settle for working from home occasionally.  

With all the naps.

 

Want more?