trauma

I couldn't wake up this morning until after having a dream that a swarm of ants was on the ceiling, and they opened up a hole and started pulling out a big beetle. In my dream I was on the top bunk, so the ceiling was inches from my face (yeah, we don't sleep on bunk beds) and I got up and found a plastic garbage bag to cover my bed with so that hopefully there wouldn't be ants in my bed, later.

I may have mentioned before an event when I was maybe 19, where my ex and I were at my father's house and he woke me up in the middle of the night and said, "There are ants falling from the ceiling!"

Being fairly used to this sort of thing in my father's house I said, "Pull the blankets up over your head so they won't get on you," and I tried to go back to sleep. But it wasn't long before they started getting in through the edges and we got bitten. It was, in fact, two different nests of ants having a war, so they were all primed to bite. And the nasty thing about ants is, when they bite you and you try to brush them off, their neck breaks and the head is left attached to you, and you have to pick it off.

So, yeah, that was real life. Eor and I happened to see a swarm of ants in the garden, yesterday, and apparently that and needing to get up combined and sent me back.

a good time was had by all

Just looked back and realized that I never followed up on my post "Threaten me with a good time ".

Light duty was not available, because work is still down, so I then had to go into a whole tailspin of calling round and getting more paperwork done, checking with my union rep and going up the manager chain, harrassing the surgeon's office, etc. When I think about it, probably means that normally we're always understaffed, if managers pant at getting any body on the floor, no matter how little they can do. Right now work is down to the point they're offering early retirement for anyone over 50 with 20 years gov't service.

I don't qualify for early retirement because this is my only gov't service job and it started in 2002. And I'm not sure at present what happens to my medical insurance if I take early retirement... even if it's offered again in two years, as this is a limited time offer just to get rid of some people. Some older people, who are higher risk.

Anyway, there's plenty for me to do when I'm at home, and I've been catching up on dishes and laundry that didn't get done over the weekend or yesterday when I went to Physical Therapy and got my eyes checked / ordered new glasses.

I got new glasses a couple/few years ago, bifocals, but the distance at top and reading at bottom plan didn't work out for me, because what I needed was midrange at top and reading at bottom... I guess. I hope. I may never be able to get used to bifocals and end up a three sets of glasses person. I ordered a new pair of distance for driving and working, in a larger frame because I feel like I need more protection from other people's breath droplets these days. So those will probably be my standard, and the bifocals hopefully will be okay for working at monitors. We'll see.

I also bought myself a new purse, yesterday, but from a fabric store. It's a plain muslin shoulder bag and you're supposed to doll it up how you want - dye it, paint it, etc. I don't plan to do that, but have attached a couple of pencil bags for zippered pockets, and I hope to also add some patches and a couple of magnets to hold it positively closed so stuff won't fall out like with my old purse. (Which I'm only replacing because it's falling apart.) Total cost might end up more than if I'd just bought something, but I think it will be what I want, roughly, if a little small. And for some reason I haven't been able to find what I want, lately.