The Fandrogyne

~ As always, grocery shopping on Friday morning was fun. I took advantage of a few sales and came home with plenty of toilet paper, some ground pork, ground turkey, simmering steaks... Most of what I buy at grocery stores now is meat, because vegetables are so cheap at the 2 farmers markets, so it's better to just get meat when there are good sales and get vegetables elsewhere even when they're at regular prices.

Unless there are some good fruits or vegetables on the markdown rack. Last time I got 5 ears of corn for $1.49, which is a good price for this time of year. Most of the stuff there isn't much good unless you're going to use it within a day, maybe 2, but sometimes I can find some amazing deals on markdown produce.

~ One of the grocery stores I went to has a walk-in medical clinic, so even though I was tired and had groceries to take care of and just wanted to come home and go to bed, I sat there for an hour and a half until I got an appointment. Got a prescription for my asthma meds, filled them the next morning, and yay, I have things that let me breathe properly once again! Expensive, but I prefer oxygen to money most days anyway.

Sadly, my meds are more expensive here than they were in the last province I lived. By about $30. Which is very unfortunate, since it's not like I'm going to stop needing them any time soon, so that's an extra expense on top of the regular expense and bleh, why do I have to be unhealthy, anyway>

I also got this year's flu shot while I was there, which was cheaper than it was in the other province, but not by enough to offset the increased cost of the asthma meds. To offset the cost, the pharmacy would have to have paid me $10 to get the flu shot. They were usually around $20, before. But even then, I never paid, because my asthma entitled me to a free flu shot each year. (Pre-existing lung conditions occasionally have minor perks.) But that same allowance isn't given by this province, so I went from paying nothing to now paying $12, on top of paying $30 more for my regular meds.

But hopefully the vaccine will help keep me from getting as sick this winter, and my regular meds will do the rest to keep my lungs in decent working order. I hate that they cost so much, but I do like not being sick.

~ I earned enough points doing surveys to get a $10 payout! I have plans for this $10. Not huge plans, because it's only $10, but I'm going to have a little bit of fun with it. Money I earn from surveys like that is my fun money, money that doesn't need to go elsewhere, so I'm pretty happy earning little bits here and there to help me buy a video game or craft supplies every once in a while.

~ I finally splurged and bought a microwave, too, which, even though it was expensive (though it was still the cheapest microwave there), will help me make sure I eat more leftovers. Leftovers are a pain to reheat without something convenient like a microwave, so sometimes I just wouldn't go through the hassle, and some food would go to waste. No longer! So even if it was an expense, I think it will save money in the long run.

~ I've been having so many problems with my Internet connection lately. Sometimes it works wonderfully, high speeds and everything... for about 10-15 minutes. Sometimes less. And when it stops working, I'm left with no Internet connection for at least half an hour. I'm not sure if it's the router in the living room, or the signal booster on my computer, or something else entirely. I can't find anything on virus or malware scans, which means that "something else" isn't too likely, but that still leaves me with two options that I can't do much about. Other devices do work when they're closer to the router, but also sometimes they don't, and the router needs to be reset, so in the end I just have no idea.

I suppose I should try to see it as a mixed blessing. A sporadic Internet connection means less opportunity to get distracted by online stuff when I ought to be doing other things. The Internet's great for a lot, but it's also great for killing certain kinds of productivity, and really, sometimes I do need an excuse to step away and do other things. Not necessarily step away from my computer, because there's plenty of work I can do on it without needing the Internet, but step away from YouTube and Facebook and other distractions that I really need less of in my life.

Still. That doesn't make the lousy connection any less frustrating to deal with.

~ I managed to get both Palkia and Dialga and beat level 50 of the Latias challenge to get a Latiasite in Pokemon Shuffle, all of which makes me very very happy! I'm not sure I'll be able to rank high enough on the Mega Absol challenge to get an Absolite, either. No matter; even if I don't manage it this time, I'm sure those levels will come around again at some point in the future.

~ Last night I got the laundry folded and put away, the recycling bagged and taken down to the basement until pickup day, washed a load of dishes, vacuumed the downstairs room and the stairs leading upstairs, and a bit of the junk cleared off the kitchen table.

I also ended up taking a nap, due to sleeping very little the night before. Completely worth it, because I probably managed to get more done after feeling rested and refreshed than I would have if I'd just tried to push through the fatigue.

~ Tried a chai latte from Starbucks. It was pretty good. Not as good as the ones I used to be able to get at Java Moose, but since there's no Java Moose here, Starbucks's is a decently-priced alternative.

I also tried their gouda, egg, and bacon breakfast sandwich. It was okay. Nothing special, and smaller than I expected, so I don't really think it's worth the price. I can spend only a little bit more across the street at A&W and get a couple of their bacon & egger breakfast sandwiches, which taste better and fill me up more.

~ Walked about 2.5 km today, which isn't spectacular, but it's more than I usually do, and it helped me get a load of steps logged on my FitBit, so yay!

~ Ended up with a random inexplicable fever while trying to sleep, one that seemed to sap me of my ability to feel like I had any body heat whatsoever, and I slept under a ridiculous number of blankets and had to take muscle relaxants to unclench enough to fall asleep in the first place. I woke up later, drenched with sweat and feeling shaky. I still feel shaky, truthfully, but I can't get away with not doing housework tonight. Fortunately I have a friend coming over tomorrow who can help me with whatever's left over, so I can go easy on myself tonight, at least a little bit.

~ Supper tonight was leftover salmon and rice. So when I do more housework later, at least I'll have some high-energy food in my belly to help keep me going!