I've been Skyped!

On Friday, I had inspectors come around: one checked the fire and smoke alarms, and the other performed the annual gas check-just to make sure that nobody would blow up the building, presumably.

I decided that it was way past time to set up my new computer-especially since the old one unceremoniously expired last week, after 11 years of faithful service. So I rang my service provider and got a tech support worker who was not, I have to say, the most patient of people!!

I was very pleased with myself, because I had to carry my laptop from the bedroom into the front room in order to connect it to the router. I also had to locate an ethernet cable-and, lucky for me, I found one quickly. If you saw the tip that is my flat, you would say I was very lucky!! In fact, I carried the laptop without dropping it, or crashing into any furniture, and I was able to set the whole thing up (with the guidance of the tech lady) in an embarrassingly long period of time!! She was losing her patience - until I told her that I am visually impaired, and that it is difficult for me to see what I am doing. Funny-her attitude changed then, and she took over the computer from wherever she was and completed the process.

So-I decided to install Skype. I've got Skype - and doesn't it sound like I've got some kind of awful social disease!! It's like saying I've got some strange medical condition, or some STD - who ever thought of that name?? But-now I have Skype, and I can get in touch with my friend and my cousin, who is dodging bullets in the middle east. The downside of Skype is, of course, that my new little machine has a built in camera, so now I have to wear makeup, and brush my hair, and be dressed!! No more computing when starkers!!

While I was at it, I also went onto Facebook and Google +. I have both accounts, but I haven't been on either one in so long that my contacts probably think I've died!! So, I have now been Skyped, and Facebooked, and Googled...welcome to the 21st century, and how about finally having a life, after two years of fighting to regain something resembling health!!

What amazed me wasn't the indecent amount of time it took to set up the new laptop-or even the fact that I decided to finally come out of hibernation and go onto Facebook and Google +. I was amazed that I was able to carry something from one room to the next without either dropping it or crashing into something. I wasn't terribly dizzy, either-although my eyes refused to focus, and I could feel nystagmus in action. I could never have done that before. I still spill my tea and coffee when I take them from the kitchen into the front room-but I don't drop the mugs anymore. So there is improvement. I'm so close to it all that I don't usually notice. After 88 weeks, it's time to notice!!

I have good days and I have not-so-good days. It rained intermittently over the last few days, and the cold and wet weather really affected me badly. I was falling all over the place, and I was staggering every time I forced myself to get out and walk. I walked in the rain, which was probably not a good thing to do-but I did it anyway.

I realize that I am not only the queen of rumination; I am also the empress of procrastination!! Truly-at work I was so organized, but at home-why do something today when you can put it off for three weeks (or months)? I'm starting to work on those counterproductive habits, too - because if I don't do something, there is nobody who will do it for me. I'm not sure if I am finally accepting that my life will probably never be the same-or if I am in a permanent state of depression and denial!! I like to think that it's the former, rather than the latter!