Still Alive

Sometime next week I will find out if, in November, I will be paid 66% of 25% of what I normally am (since I'm 25% work-restricted and compensated at 66% of that), or 66% of my normal pay.

It's a weekend of repurposing, folks ... from pantry ingredients to things stashed in the closet to NEVER BUYING ANYTHING EVER AGAIN. Also, have you heard we're in a recession? And this whole financial crisis too? And that if worries about money were something you or I had before, those worries could triple now and that would be a reasonable amount of worry?

However, within the next few weeks, Noah will finish some interviews and decide on a future job and a city to move to, and with all that comes a different sort of salary. Did you know engineers and editors make different amounts of money? They do. And so while these tripled worries are reasonable, they will also pass in a very definite time frame.

To end, I will tell you I am still alive, figuring out ways to manage pain, letting Noah do kind of everything our house needs, and thinking thoughts of reduced inflammation and the opening of nerve tunnels (folks now say I have carpal and cubital tunnel syndrome, and bilateral tendinitis in wrists and elbows).

Also, a brief list of awesome RSI prevention/recovery things:

for PC's--Workpace is a free customizable break timer and activity tracker, and it is awesome. It includes stretches to do on breaks, a "lock my computer" thing to do in one click if you get up and walk away ... really good for offices.

For Macs--Time Out is also a free break timer, though with no activity timer, and has a very pleasing transparency/opaque thing to indicate break time.

Honestly, anyone and everyone who is reading this should install either, or both, if you use a PC at work and a Mac at home like me.

I'm doing some new stretches for shoulder, neck and upper back muscles ... if anyone is interested, let me know, and I'll make some PDFs of them to circulate. I'm doing easy stretches every hour and hard ones four times a day ... and they feel good. My OT is pretty sure that if I can loosen the insanely tight muscles I have there, I'll reduce nerve pinching throughout and feel generally better.