Friday, January 12, 2007

These things? They worked out better in my head.

Mara Levi quote. Relevant to my week.

After my middle of the night post, I couldn't sleep, until I finally could, and overslept the alarm by 5.5 hours. Yikes! I thought I was done with the lack of restful sleep that would have me so insensate that I couldn't respond to any number of alarms set right next to my head. In this case, I didn't fall asleep until about 2 hours before it went off, which is right in the heaviest part of my sleep cycle. When I fall asleep, I wake up 4 hours later. At 2 or 3 hours, I am so deeply asleep, that I could sleep through most anything. Including 2 hours of very loud alarm, apparently.

I've decided to try some Breathe Right strips to see if more air helps me sleep better. I don't have sleep apnea. I do sleep on my side because I can breathe better that way, and I'm already using my "Sinus Rinse" and taking allergy meds so maybe taking it one step further will help. The acupuncture and valerian root aren't doing enough right now I guess.

But even more, my mom is coming to visit. Probably. She's flying standby, so when she gets here is still up in the air. And I have great visions in my head of how this place will look when I clean in up. And like with the still unfinished websites, I've had no motivation to do any of it this week. And thinking of one sends my thoughts skittering to another. My plan is to start with the obvious, make sure necessary things are clean, not just picked up, and then do the stuff that requires decisions (put the paper away). I could really use a secretary. And if that all gets done, I get to exercise. Yep.

The good stuff:
  1. Made progress on a problem at work. Much, much closer to root cause. Stayed 2 hours late on a friday to inspect a lot and document my findings. Granted this means I don't have to spend 4 hours repeating my experiment just to get basic information. I have the basic information and can take an experiment to further refine my theory.
  2. My boss is both smart and reasonable. She comes up with the most insightful comments in most of the meetings we both go to, and she didn't freak about my late morning (without condoning it). And she respects the work I do. It makes all the difference in the world to have a boss that works with me and not against me.
  3. CPR/AED/First Aid recertification.
    I volunteer to do first aid at work, and in exchange, they bring in instructors I don't have to pay for. I've been certified in CPR on and off since age 11 or so, and in using an AED for the last 4. There were some changes to the Heart Association's recommendations this year: Now everyone gets the same number of compressions, and the same number of breaths regardless of age. It's 30 compressions to 2 breaths. And will move to 50 compressions once people get used to the large number. And if you can't/won't do rescue breathing, just do compressions - they'll help. This is based on a 5 year study of survivability after first aid variants according to the instructor.

    This is first aid of the sort where your primary funtion is to call EMS:
    1. assess safety of the scene
    2. assess responsiveness of victim (if unknown), gain permission to aid
    3. call EMS, get AED and first aid kit
    4. assess injuries/status/breathing
    5. stop blood, start CPR, keep calm and
    6. keep going until EMS arrives.
      It's not the kind of training that will allow me to field dress a gunshot wound and splint a broken ulna in preparation for hiking out of a canyon, unless these things can be done with pressure on gauze on wounds. Granted, in the best of all possible worlds, I won't ever have to use this knowledge.
    Funniest new thing, though. If you're at high risk for a heart attack? Take out those nipple rings. Apparently speed of getting the defibrillation shock trumps burns from electrified metal.

Off to condense boxes so they aren't the "accent piece" my mom sees when she first walks in.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anyway to figure out the root cause of your poor sleep patterns.

Did you ever try to remove foods yet?? Dairy caused #1's nighmares/terrors and poor sleep habits.

Hope your Mom makes it today.

S.

Janet Webb said...

So off topic but I'm thrilled you discovered Ramblings on Romance -- she's a fine writer ... not just 'cause she lives in Ontario (my old stomping ground :)

Her postings on becoming a widow and living through the last year were heartbreaking.

Anyhow, have you discovered Rosario's Reading Journal -- her tastes and mine are almost identical: she loves Suz AND Balogh. http://rosario.blogspot.com/

Speaking of Balogh, have you read all her old Regencies?