Sleepy Now

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

Yep, this is one of those posts. Yep, I have guest posts. But I’m not awake enough to read them.

So, do you guys ever wake in the middle of the night, when you can’t do anything, and want to do stuff?

So, that’s what it is….. I need my mind examined. Middle of the night my head is making lists. I think I slept like 3 hours.

162 thoughts on “Sleepy Now”

  1. So, do you guys ever wake in the middle of the night, when you can’t do anything, and want to do stuff?

    Every morning the last two weeks or so, between 4:30-5:30, feel need to get up and do stuff but know it would wake husband and I am supposed to be asleep so I’d get scolded. Sometimes I fall back asleep and get a reasonable amount.
    Five hour average, do not recommend.

    1. we’re working on getting the house ready. And waiting for news on FIL. and recently, they’re all bad.
      Also I had a weird dream about dad. that’s a bad sign.

  3. Yes, and I hatesssss it, my Preciousssssss.

    I just discovered that I can eat twice as many pecans as I thought (only 10 cal/half). No, I am not getting hooked on mesquite smoked pecans from Valley Pecans in Chillicothie, TX. Ah, I was looking at healthier lunch/snack options for Day Job. *serious kitty look* And I can quit the smoked pecans at any time. Really. I’m serious.

  4. Sleep? What is that you speak of?

    Granted. Our fault. We brought in a new kitten. Had her a week.

    Freeway (does that give a hint of where she was found?) is somewhere around 12 weeks old by the veterinarian the *inlaws took her to. But she won’t eat kibble (plays with it). Will eat canned and still will drink KRM.

    Anyway. The two young cats (15 months old) adore her. Entertaining her and themselves … at 1 AM, and 5 AM (took less than 48 hours). Added is Lil Bit got brought in at 5:30 AM, but she was forced to leave her mouse on the deck (which was promptly tossed in the garbage but she didn’t know that). So, Bits is wailing. TJ is stalking Bits, because she is wailing. Freeway is following along. Between TJ, Amber, and Pepper (the dog), poor Bits was trapped in our bedroom wailing … Got that broken up. Let Bits out. She circled where she thought she’d left the mouse, cried to be let back in. Went to bed. PEACE.

    * Inlaws were going to keep her, but their existing cat Thomas turned red eye demon at that. They live in a 5th wheel. Bits may not be thrilled, but she hasn’t turned demon on us. We do not live in an RV.

    I repeat. What is this sleep you speak of? (I might be up to 5 or 6 hours because of naps between 11 and 1, 2 to 5, 7:30 to 8:30 …)

    1. 10pm. Street racing. Peal outs, loud exhaust, loud music, loud liquored up humans.
      10:30pm Loud argument involving, initially, two females concerning the bedroom activities of one male. Much cursing occurs.
      10:45pm Argument proceeds apace. Now there are five. Fight becomes physical.
      11:30pm Police arrive. Much cursing evidenced by two aforementioned females. Five has become eight. Car stereos, which were loud enough to shake windows a block away, suddenly go silent.
      1:30am Ambulance arrives. Sets off three car alarms set too sensitive when it does.
      2ish am Somebody starts a fight with the cops. Note to readers: This Is Not A Good Idea.
      2:04am Fight over. Cops win. Good thing they got that ambulance right there.
      2:12am Blessed silence.
      2:45am Ambulance leaves. Car alarms go off again. NeighborDog barks at car alarms. He is old, so we forgive him.
      2:48am Car with loud stereo rolls up, sees police cars, backs into driveway and reverses course. NeighborDog barks at it, because that’s his house and he’s defending his territory. He is old, so we forgive him.
      3:11am Vociferous disagreement occurs regarding the ownership of a certain ziploc baggie filled with unmentionables. Now they’re arguing with each other and the cops, too. Backup arrives, and more matching metal bracelets are given out. Party goers do not appreciate their new party favors.
      3:36am One police car leaves, two aforementioned females inside. Blessed silence, or close enough, returns.
      4:12am Some idiot breaks a bottle. Much swearing occurs. Another fight occurs.
      4:13am Cops win again. NeighborDog wakes up, not happy. Lets all involved know about it. He is old, so we forgive him.
      4:22am NeighborCats come to the window. They look like they’d rather be inside. It has started to rain. This dampens the ardor of the party goers. Lightening does not strike the party goers.
      4:29am Another police car arrives. Car alarms go off again. NeighborDog has had enough and is not going to take it anymore. He is old, so we forgive him. NeighborCats are hiding under the porch, seriously annoyed.
      4:57am One police car leaves in a hurry. Car alarms go off again. NeighborDog decides to let this latest trespass go. This once.
      5:32am It’s not Blessed silence, but its close enough. Until the alarm goes off.

      5:45am I am now convinced that sleep is a vile myth and rumor bandied about by sadists and fabulists. Temporary bouts of unconsciousness are transitory trips into the land where things might look like they’re sane, so they’re obviously lies. Also, naps are heavenly things that must not be interrupted by anything less than serious and immediate impending armageddon, and nothing less.

      1. Sounds roughly like an episode of My Methylated* Neighbors. Though with more female involvement, more darkness, and fewer cops – yes, really.

        * Yes, I know I am abusing the term.

                  2. Now I’ve got this image of a brain being squashed in one of those old Gutenberg printing presses with the big wheel on top. Just what I needed.

      2. Earplugs, white noise, possibly a headset with white noise. Or you can llisten to an audiobook, and outside noises will fade away somewhat.

        The problem is that you have to be reasonably sure that your own place is safe from the noisy neighbors, and that is not always a safe assumption.

        1. White noise, fans are not enough, would have canceled the wailing, and the herd of cats feet hitting the carpet and racing down the hall. Using the top of the covers, and therefore us, as a race track and launch pad? The dog using the bed, and us, as a launch pad? Not so much.

          Oh and Dan Lane – you win. Prayers your neighbors move and the replacements are quiet nice ones, or just polite at minimum.

          1. Rather lose, frankly. *grin* I do recall the racetrack/launchpad nights. Trick I found was to keep them active during daylight hours. Pets want your attention, and when you’re only home at night… Well, they take advantage. NeighborCats are easy to get along with. They visit to chase birds and mice, loll about on a sunny porch, and mooch pets from random homeowners. I think they spend more time here than at their titular home- ironically, the one with the party goers the other night.

            1. I tried!

              Thursday is Agility Class. For reasons we got a private session. Then back at home the dog played fetch, with cats chasing the item along with dog, but having dog carry it back, inside, so for hours (mom didn’t have to move). Then cats did the red dot chase. At minimum the kitten should have been exhausted. Then I got the small rope moving and cats chasing. Back to the fetching. All 4 should have been exhausted. Bits does not join in, but she went out and that normally puts her out. But … Bits was keyed up because she had to abandon her mouse outside. Her wailing “moooouuuusssseeee”, triggered the other 3 cats. All four cats got the dog excited. Then we had a feedback loop. I couldn’t win Friday AM. This morning, at about 2 AM, the cycle started again, only no dead mouse. To calm down the dog, she spent a few hours in her kennel. She got to come back to bed with us about 5 AM. Peace. A little over 7 hours sleep between 11 PM and 8:30 AM by the FitBit App.

              1. Well fought indeed! But kittens, ah, young kits and young doggos alike, they are possessed of boundless and infinite energy… Right up until the very moment they’re not. Tricksy little fuzzballs, they are. And definitely, the lack of mouse is a factor. Only when it is properly shown off and displayed to the jealous gazes of other cats, doggos, hoomans, houseplants, kitchen tables, dustbunnies, sofas, and shoes can it be safely disposed of behind something heavy and annoying to move, thus to stink up the house in far excess of its tiny deceased size. Leave the mouse corpse outside? Why, it’s just not done don’t you know?
                *grin*

                Here’s hoping the next nights are filled with Blessed silence. Or at least close enough.

                1. That’s one advantage of living in the country. When the next door neighbors-of-the-while had a drunken fight with ballistic resolution, we slept through the responses from the ambulance (he lived) and the simultaneous free ride in the back of the Sheriff’s car (IIRC, it came down to “they were both drunk, self defense is plausible, it’s $TINY_TOWN, let’s give it a pass”.) We rather liked the estranged husband of the shooter. Met him as he got cleanup duty for the place. Said place is now bought and lived in by decent people.

                  OTOH, the people across the river were setting off fireworks and shooting in mid-July (2 AM, sigh) and when confronted, claimed they were shooting at the Resident Cougar. Which hasn’t been around lately, because of $WHACKING_GREAT_WILDFIRE. I suspect someone informed them that further midnight shooting with lame excuses might involve another fire call–to their home. There’s a history of such around here. I love the place, but it gets a little *interesting* at times. (This area attempts to disprove Heinlein’s Law: An armed society isn’t always a polite society. In the longer run, it generally settles down when the miscreants realize that the consequences of misbehavior can be quite drastic.)

      3. I do remember the night the neighbors were shooting at eachother. Managed to sleep through the whole thing, though my dreams of some sort of school field trip were slightly disrupted when a bamboo tank burst out of the bushes and fired off a three blasts, and things morphed into lots of eu bing around in circles in weirdly designed rooms, while the fire department showed up.

        It was a strange set of dreams that night.

        Fortunately no-one was hurt, and that was the last loud party they had there too.

    2. Kitties will do that! I’m surprised my Balinese mix floof stopped meowing, trying to climb over the keyboard, and shedding all over it long enough for me to type this! He and his black smoke big brother know how to demand attention!

  5. Newly diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea. Huh? What do you mean I can’t operate on only 80% of the oxygen everyone else needs?

    1. Been there done that, diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea in ~2002. I used to commute from North Shore Massachusetts to Nashua NH (Old Spitbrook Rd DEC plant). Before I got my cpap I would have to take a 15-20 minute nap pulled over in a parking lot to be alert enough to make the whole drive as I could feel myself starting to nod on 495 and Rt 3. Absolutely terrifying. But what our Hostess is describing is I think worse. Wanting to sleep, needing to sleep desperately and sitting there vibrating or wandering the house trying to get all the things you KNOW need doing done. Been there a couple times in my life and it is just miserable. Who would think that something as stupidly simple as just shutting down for a couple hours could be so desperately hard. I do envy the cats, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an insomniac cat.

      1. Doing that right now with academic stuff. Need to work on paper. Too tired, eyes bleary, can’t focus. So go to get sleep, and can’t fall asleep because I need to do the paper.

        Of course if I actually started working on it, instead of watching Silent Witness and Professor T, and reading blogs it would only take me a few hours tops.

        But my current interest level is about zip. Though not having a full night’s sleep last night meant the first night in the last 4 where I didn’t have a long, detailed dream in my weird new dream world (the one with the massive casino/hospital/university complex). The second night of the string, I was wandering around with a llama (more like a pokemon Wooloo, but in dream world it was a llama) and trying to find someplace where I could buy a teapot shaped like a turtle with matching cups. I ended up in a Mexican restaurant, which was Japanese inside and sold various crockery. I woke up before I found the teapot.

        I suspect trying to analyze my dreams would be even more disturbing than the dreams are.

      2. I remember those bad old days. I worked near LAX and drove about 50 miles each way. More than once I had to pull off the freeway and take a brief nap lest I fall asleep behind the wheel. I can still remember the first night I used the CPAP: I woke up feeling better than I had in years.

        Two to four times a year I used to drive to the Phoenix colo site. My doctor prescribed modafinil for those times. Good stuff.

    2. BTDT just a few months ago. I went with an oral sleep appliance via the dentist, rather than CPAP. I now usually wake up refreshed and mostly coherent, wake up easily when the alarm goes of, and sometimes even before it. I can even function better on a bit less sleep than before.

        1. Sorry to hear that. It has made a big difference for me, but it isn’t necessarily a good fit for everyone.

    3. Ouch. That is not good.

      I went to the doctor because I ached, all over. Got sent for in home Sleep Study. Upshot Mild Sleep Apnea (so I can use a device not a unit). Now I can (not do) sleep 7 to 9 hours, instead of the “10” I was getting before (10 PM to 8 AM is ten hours). But what do you know, I’m dreaming again, or at least a lot longer. Who knew that both oxygen and dreaming were important?

    4. Been there long enough to have worn out two CPAP machines. Protip; change or clean the filter frequently. The bearings in your machine will appreciate it. Granted, the first one lasted 7 years, but the last year I had to take the machine apart and put a drop of oil on the bearing I could access. The filter got grubby and I neglected to clean it.

      The replacement machine had a small foam filter that I cleaned regularly. The machine wore out in 10 years.

      Machines 3 and 4 (bought together, for backup and as a grab&go travel setup) use disposable filters. I change the filter on the active machine twice a month.

      I don’t try to sleep without the machine. It Does Not Work. (Backup power for the win!)

      1. Not using CPAP. On second mouth appliance. Didn’t know I grind my teeth.

        But, yes. Even naps, must have appliance in. Or I wake up feeling horrible.

        1. I was chipping lower incisors (now replaced by a partial–family history of rotten teeth) until I got a nightguard. I had ordered the hot-water softening type, but the lab sent the rigid one by mistake. They corrected that, and the rigid one is my backup/travel guard.

          Considerably more expensive than the type you get at the drug store, but I rather like it. Not positive I need it with the lower incisors gone at night, but it’s likely saving molars from trouble.

          2. Current one is officially called “Snore Guard” by TAP. The TAP device comes in two pieces, top/lower, that are inserted separately, then locked together. The lock is adjustable for how far the lower jaw is pulled forward and locked. I can adjust that any time. Once locked, the lower jaw can’t fall back to preferred position while sleeping. But the jaw does have limited movement to move back and forth. This is the device my dentist uses himself. Now his son (also a dentist) is using one too. Dentist says he has worn them out over 10 years, but never broken one, they get “gross”, but not broken. OTOH caution was explicit on not letting the dog get to them … (With a “don’t ask”, warning). These were $1500, with insurance paying about 2/3rds.

            The first set was different. Not quite as robust, and thinner (also less bulky in mouth). Technically one piece. Still had upper and lower, but they were permanently connected by metal arms. No adjustment possible by user. The lower piece broke, once, where one of the arms were embedded. That was a fluke. It happens. But, the arms themselves were breaking, regularly. In 18 months, I’d had to have them repaired 5 times (would have, didn’t fix last two breaks). First time it was free. Second and third time it was $100/arm, then it jumped to $250 per; which is when I decided to replace them. They were $1900 to start. Considered medical so insurance paid some, but not anywhere near all. Sure to replace them was $1500, but My Cost was only $500 … so $500 to fix what was going to break, again. Or $500 and not replace for another 10 years … hmmm.

            Wish I’d know from the start that our dentist made these things. It isn’t something they advertise. Nor are they are the list of providers the Sleep Apnea Clinic gives clients. I should have asked dentist who he recommended. But one of the names on the list was son’s Orthodontist. Hey, we’d already used him! Not his fault that the device wasn’t going to hold up with my use. And no, there was no “insuring it” either.

            Oh. Having the dental office software billing the insurance for a medical device was a royal PIA (first time, second time, lesson already learned). Software on dental side allows it, but the clearing house that processes claims, just rejects it before the insurance company sees it, and (at least the orthodontists software clearing house didn’t) did not send a message back that the claim had been rejected!!!! Figuring that out was … lets just say, having written software for 35 years, I knew there were steps the back office was unaware of (the clearing house part). Didn’t know What steps were unknown, but there had to be something. I finally filed the claim manually. Second time, I just filed the claim. Only concern then was would they pay to replace the old one.

            1. That sounds like what I have, although mine allows more freedom of jaw movement. It’s to keep things in position so I don’t make my TMJD any worse. (I’ve hit the end of non-surgical options. Next is surgery to re-work the jaw joints. No thank you!)

            2. Mine is a standard(?) night guard. The lab is Thermo-Splint, and it comes in two forms. Both use impressions made at the dentist’s. The cheaper rigid one seems to be vacuum-formed clear plastic (either an acrylic or polycarbonate) that’s had the edges rounded. Not my preference, partly because there was a tiny amount of spring-back in the forming, and I’d find myself biting it and moving it around rather than falling asleep. OTOH, it’s handy for travel–one less thing to remember. (Aside from the time I made it to town for a med test and realized I’d forgotten that entire medical/toiletry pack. Add 90 miles to that day’s driving.)

              The one I prefer is a heat-softening plastic. Thicker than the rigid one, it needs to be heated a bit, either with a hair dryer or (my preference) soaking it in hot water. The impression included a lone molar, and after two years, the night-guard broke at that molar. Since there wasn’t a matching lower molar (have I mentioned I have terrible teeth?), the protection offered for that tooth was moot. A bit of DIY work with a saw and a diamond file got it to an acceptable configuration, and it’s still going.

              Thermo-Splint says the guards will last “one year or more”. It varies; beyond the breakage, the rest of the guard is fine with minor scratches. the thermal-softening one did break at that tooth (the rigid one doesn’t cover the stray molar at all), but beyond scratches from my lower teeth, the rest of the guard is fine. OTOH, without the partial, I only have 8 lower teeth. Flossing is quick!

              I haven’t had dental insurance since the early Aughts, but the dental practice offers a small discount for prompt payment. Costs include the making of the impressions and the tooth models:

              Actual cost for the thermal-softening version: $500 for everything.
              Remembered cost for the rigid: About $350, again for everything.

                1. This is what I have now.

                  I don’t have dental either. Will have some limited (cleanings), maybe, come October depending on which medicare advantage plan we go with (our dentist isn’t on the network of any of the HMO’s or even PPO’s but at least PPO’s will pay something out of network … but PPO’s are higher out of pocket everything … and … round and round we go).

                  My appliances, while provided through dental, is considered a medical device, at least by the insurance we have now. So they paid something. But I had to pay upfront and file with the insurance because of the medical codes being filed from a dental office.

                2. Holy Carp, I thought sleeping with a CPAP was bad, but that looks like a colorful medieval torture device. I think I’ll stick to things blowing air at me…

                  1. You get used to it.

                    Dentist has me doing jaw moving exercises in the morning after taking it out. Supposedly people get their jaw locked (ish) after being in all night. But I never have. Only issue is having dreams that I have something stuck at the gum lines … like super sticky taffy, or gum, that won’t peal off. Then in the dream it is “oh, dreaming, oh, okay, stupid mouth piece.” But I can understand why people tend to take it out unconsciously in the middle of the night. Dr. Ryan (dentist) was being teased by staff about not successfully keeping his in all night, over the first two weeks he had his. I haven’t with either one. But I credit that success with the fact the first (hinged) version was less aggressive along the gum lines. Second version success because already used the first version for almost 2 years.

          3. I have CPAP, it helps a lot. I discovered my sore throats were caused by being a mouth breather. With the mask, I sleep better, my wife sleeps better (NO SNORING).

            Today we have a cat visiting. (Our son and his wife’s cat), so they can travel for the first time in two years.
            The cat was exploring. She accidentally hit the on button for the CPAP! Loud whoosh. The cat leaped across the room. Indoor cat, her first overnight with us. She is finding lots to explore, lots of places to hide. Have to remember not to leave the front door open. “Where is my staff?”. “Don’t you know I get treats all the time?”

            1. $SPOUSE wants to get a puppy to replace our Sara, the late Lab/Aussie, ASAP. There’s some Labradoodle pups at the shelter. Mornings will be interesting again. 🙂

                1. I know. The ones at the shelter are 3-2/3rds months old. Two girls and two boys. I’ve mostly had girls as pets, with a couple of noteworthy exceptions (one great, one not-so). Unless the policy has changed, we’ll have to get the spay done before we get the dog, so an older pup is better. Sara was tiny, and we had an emergency go-back when she broke sutures. Came out OK, but it was far better with Angie, a month or so older border collie.

                  1. Dang.

                    Most rescues and Greenhill, local non-profit that provides the local shelter for the city, also require spay/neuter before adoption no matter how old. Which means procedure is done too young.

                    We lucked out. Rescue we got Pepper through just requires spay/neuter be done at 6 months (ish). The fee covers the procedure, but you have to use *their* veterinarian. Fee also covers chipping and all puppy shots, including first Rabies.

                    * Their veterinarian is the First Avenue Spay/Neuter Clinic. Same Clinic all groups use, including Greenhill. That is all the clinic does is spay/neuter, vaccinations, and flea medications. Want a Health Certificate? Have a problem? Then have a regular veterinarian clinic to fall back on.

              2. what color are they and also, can you hold one for me for a month? And also how do we get him?
                (Yeah, I know, but… sigh. I really wish we could. It would have to be a labradoodle and have the poodle hair, because younger son is allergic to dogs.)

                1. Pic of the remaining boy (two girls still on hand–we’ll be in town and make an appointment first thing Monday): https://www.petango.com/Adopt/Dog-Retriever-Labrador-48342875

                  A) Black, possibly a white spot on the chest.
                  B) Not sure I’d survive. $SPOUSE: “You said *what*?” $NEW_PUP: You’re going to give *away* my sibling?”
                  C) If it’s remotely near viable, see the website, either for the shelter, or try the Petango site. The shelter links to it, but I haven’t encountered Petango before.
                  C’) Under some circumstances, dogs can be moved from shelter to shelter. Sara was part of a litter of 21(!) puppies who were moved from near San Francisco. Special instance, and it made the news.
                  C”) Search on the breed for a national organization. I’ve seen “home needed” notes on the Italian Greyhound site, though that was a lot of years ago.

                  FWIW, the ’07 shelter procedure was:
                  Check out and fall in love with the dog.
                  Reserve the dog (Angie was at a private training place, because overflow), and pay the fees.
                  Shelter will check references. (Used our vet for the first & second adoptions.)
                  Bureaucratic fiddle-faddle complete, the dog (if not altered already) goes to the vet for spay-neuter.
                  Fee prepaid at the time of adoption.
                  Pick up the dog at the vet.

                  I suspect it’s similar. The main difference is now a much smaller shelter population, and now it’s appointment only. They went full lockdown with the covidiocy (probably by government order), and haven’t loosened up. OTOH, a lot of non-shelter adoption/sales seem to be going on.

                  IIRC, the allergens from dogs is both saliva and underfur. Some breeds (Italian Greyhounds for an instance) don’t have the underfur and don’t shed. However, IGs are a bit fragile (literally–broken bones can be an issue if you have slick floors. Rugs are a must.) and have the usual sighthound issues, along with toy-dog teeth.

                    1. Rescues aren’t necessarily inexpensive either. Especially for puppies as their fee is bumped to help pay for the expenses that older animals whose fees won’t cover the expenses. While local rescues will take in dogs surrendered locally, most of them are pulling dogs from high kill shelters out of California. They also try to intercept younger liters from going into shelters in CA. Because, at least before the last 18 months or so, puppies too young to be weaned were immediately put down when surrendered to a shelter. With the over crowding (allegedly) there wasn’t enough staff to deal with puppies that young properly, causing them to get sick in the shelter environment, not adoptable. Pepper’s fee was $400. She was 5 1/2 weeks old, they’d had the liter a week (an intercepted liter, didn’t make the shelter).

                      I’d like to think that the local shelter and rescues having limited animals is because all the southern animals have been adopted or people started being responsible. But I doubt that happened. I suspect that the rescues just haven’t been able to get puppies and other adoptable dogs out of the shelters in CA.

                    2. Not just CA. Our new dog, Sugar (7 yo pug mix) and her litter were pulled out of a nasty shelter somewhere in the Beaumont TX area. The pups found homes elsewhere.

                    3. I know not just CA. That is just where I am aware the animals are being pulled from for Oregon and points north.

                    4. No. It’s because they’re not importing the babies from Mexico. The truth is that there are very few rescues in the US. THey were importing them all from Mexico and further South. For dogs. Cats will do as they please.

                    5. Well that might explain what is happening with Pepper now. She’s been having seizures. At first small short ones. Last one was a lot longer. All I can do is hold her and keep her from falling off anything. They seem to be infrequent. But still. She is 4 1/2 years old.

                    6. Our local shelter made a point of being no-kill, but they will not adopt out until the pups are 8 weeks old. When we got Sara, they were holding a German Shepherd pup that was just under the limit. He was adopted just as he came of age–same vet as ours. Cute guy, but a voice! Sara was 9 weeks, and Angie supposedly 12, though she might have been 2-4 weeks older than that. That litter was rescued; the original owner wanted workers, but screwed up and was going to kill the 4 pups. A neighbor intervened and brought the four to the shelter. As I recall, all were adopted in a day or two. We lucked out by looking on a Sunday.

                    7. Pepper’s litter was supposedly 6 weeks old; possible, but for reasons, I don’t think so. Four pups. Arrived in Eugene on Thursday. Initial local Veterinarian assessment locally Friday. Saturday, 3 of the 4 were adopted (one by fostering mom’s daughter). We adopted Pepper 7 days later. Puppies rarely last the first weekend they are in town. Older young dogs not much longer. Even adults are quickly adopted out. Locally we even have a trainer who will take on less socialized dogs and train them for adoption.

                      The local shelter won’t adopt out if they are less than 8 weeks. But the rescues use Foster to Adopt. So, as long as they are eating on their own, they’ll adopt them out.

                    8. I noticed that our shelter requires an appointment to surrender a dog for adoption, so that’s yet another reason why there aren’t a lot of dogs in the shelter. I know they have capacity for a lot, including large cage/rooms for litters and dogs that get along together, but the current inventory is quite small.

                      This is an area where a lot of people have dogs. (Also cats, and the shelter has a separate section for the kittehs.) I’m wondering if they are using fostering, deliberately keeping the shelter population low because ChiCom virus reasons. (rolls eyes)

                      Either that, or people got tired of the shelter lockdown and are bypassing the system. That does let people spay if/when they think it appropriate. Our neighbors went private and were told to wait by the vet until Bailey went through her first heat. She was pretty big by then.

                    9. I know that one look at the requirements they wanted to give us to take a shelter cat, we bypassed the system.

                      Didn’t want one cat max, 9 months at the youngest, that had been socialized to have a bunch of other cats around. Wanted two kittens to socialize in with US…..

                    10. @d: What breed is Pepper? Our IGs would get seizures from a hypoglycemic reaction. Kept a turkey baster and a bottle of Karo syrup and would give them some when it happened. (When I was working, my hours were rather odd, and if dinner was late for them, a seizure was something to watch for.) No lasting damage, but it was scary. It was better when one or both of us were at home.

                      Sara had seizures due to liver issues. She used to be reckless at eating *anything*, and got food poisoning from way-too-old dead critters. Between that and one of the heavier antibiotics, she had liver damage with toxins going to her brain (mostly presented as motor control–she’d fall or at the worst would have her back legs stop supporting her).

                      The remedy was something to help the liver, though the brain damage wasn’t reversable. The prescription product was short term, but we found that Milk Thistle has the same ingredient, and she got a capsule of it (mixed in canned food) every day. It helped. (Her terminal issue seemed to have been cancer, probably at the pancreas. I don’t think it was related to the seizures or what caused them.)

                    11. @RCPete. She is a 3/8 Pomeranian, 3/8 Chihuahua, 1,/8 Maltese, and 1/8 Great Pyrenees, by DNA test; 22# Pom/Chi essentially.

                      What I’m afraid of is that she did get a hold of something she shouldn’t have.

                      Pepper’s food is Veterinarian prescribed. Hoping it isn’t that. Vet wants her to be 16#s.

                      The last episode occurred after working a hotter day (not one of the super hot days). She got plenty of water, and the “work” was 5 to 12 minute bursts. We’re learning Agility. Not like she ran an entire coarse. Just one or two sequences, until we got the process. The water was wet, not particularly cold. No clue as to what triggered the earlier seizures.

                      I recognized the seizures for what they were because my GSD and one of our cats started having seizures, but both times the seizures were onset during old age. But Pepper is only 4 years old.

                    12. Hmm, I’m ignorant on those breeds.

                      Our previous vet (since retired) called it “field indiscretion”, and Sara found other ways to get into trouble. She’d get her teeth brushed when we caught her…

                      $SPOUSE told me her parent’s dog got a seizure disorder after getting a rawhide chewie from an undetermined country. (1980s, possibly Mexico.) Our dogs could not deal with pigs’ ears (rather, we didn’t like the cleanup after they had one), and we stopped with the rawhide after more warnings came out.

                    13. Pepper does not get rawhide chews of any kind, of any source. She is on Barkbox, but I switched out the treats when there was a report of one of the long (not rawhide) chews causing problems (made in the US, got tossed). Gets a 4th toy instead. Toys are tossed when she gets to the point where the “squeaker must be freed” point. Sometimes the squeaker is another toy, which she gets to keep (some last, some don’t).

                      No food or treats that are not made in the US or Canada (and I’m starting to get leery of Canadian sources because of hints that it is Shipped to the US through Canada, not Made In Canada. Truthfully some US sources are pulling that too.) I rely on the veterinarian to make sure what she prescribes is what is best for the dog and the cats (there are 3 brands she recommends). Once Pepper’s weight is off, thinking of going raw.

                      It is hard. I wasn’t surprised when Taylor started having heart problems when she was about 6 years old. I know how she ended up being rescued by our Veterinarian. Wasn’t expecting it, but wasn’t surprised given her medical history. English Toy Spaniel, one of the brachycephalic breeds all of which are prone to heart problems because of the breathing problems. The heart condition eventually killed her just before she turned 10. We’d had her 7 1/2 years.

                    14. We had to put Sara on an exclusively lowfat diet after the pancreatitis. Royal Canin GI lowfat kibble, same, but canned (straight in one bowl, used to flavor rice & water in another), with Hills LF canned when RC supplies were disrupted. Hills low fat doggy treats–Sara could *not* tolerate ordinary food, at all.

                      The vet practice we ended up at (previous vet has too much business for one person. He was the junior partner when the senior retired. He needs a partner or more people are going to walk) stocks the specialty foods, as well as large animal supplies, but we prefer cows as neighbors. Good prices, too. Chewy dot com was running 3X the price for canned until they came to their senses some months ago.

                    15. We tried at the shelter. No luck. They implied binary–if the picture was present, the dog was available for adoption, but there’s a non-visible “pending” state, and all the doodles were in that. This afternoon, there’s one still pending. We put in for the waiting list in case the prospective adoptees can’t do it (no idea how deep that list is), but I assume she’ll be adopted tomorrow.

                      Meanwhile, a local breeder has a litter of heelers. Yeah, we (especially $SPOUSE) really miss four footed friends.

                    16. My BIL and his wife are driving to Idaho or Colorado to meet a breeder who might let them purchase one of the Papillon pups from a current liter. They didn’t say how much the puppy was going to cost. Guessing not inexpensive as Papillo’s are not cheap.

                      I know had Taylor’s puppies lived, the breeder already had them sold for $6500/puppy. This was in 2009. (Which is why Taylor ended up at the veterinarian clinic rescue. She lost the 4 puppies during birth, 2 still born, two taken during emergency C-section, one DOA, the other born alive but didn’t survive. Breeder told vet to put her down. Vet conferred with staff, on likelihood Taylor would survive what was need to do. Vet offered to clear the bill if breeder would sign her over. Then the clinic worked to save Taylor’s life. Named her Taylor because Taylor Swift song was playing as they worked to save her. Have no ideal what her registered name was. Which is the ONLY way we could afford a pure breed puppy, let alone a pure breed English Toy Spaniel.)

    5. I had an airline break my cpap just in time fory CPAP provider to disintigrate under what, I think, was them being busted for some sort of money laundering scheme?

      All I knew was one day I was calling them up to get a replacement, then the next week their number got disconnected. Took me five months to get a new provider and get a new working machine.

      The study was kind of funny actually. Once they dialed in the setting and I had cleared my nose, I was out like a light. Went from something like 800 events to two.

      1. My last machines were purchased without insurance: Have been really happy with cpapman dot com. OTOH, even the welding & DME supply place (what? You don’t have multitasking businesses?) offers CPAP machines. I had my family practitioner write a prescription for machines and all accessories, so things like headgear are covered under the current regulations.

        My brother bought a used machine through a private party. Craig’s List, I assume.

        I had a rough idea of the pressure I needed, and went with an auto-set machine. The initial pressure was too low, so I changed it (technician’s manual acquired through the “apnea board” website) to suit. I also monitor results with the OSCAR software that can be found through the same site. (FWIW, OSCAR is the direct descendant of the open source Sleepyhead software–various models of machines are covered, and it’s available for multiple operating systems.)

  6. Middle of the night my head is making lists.

    And none of them will be missed. 😈

    Take Care Sarah. 😀

  7. Oh, yeah, been there. When we made the big move, I lost 15 pounds from lack of sleep and skipping meals–and I had almost no fat at the time, so that was NOT good.

    1. Yep. You need to sleep to be able to do The Thing, but because you need to do The Thing, you can’t sleep.

      At least I’m dreaming a lot lately, not that it makes up for needing to do The Things. I spent Wednesday night with a “llama” visiting a Mexican restaurant which was a Japanese restaurant when you went inside, all because I needed to find a teapot shaped like a turtle.

      I’m not sure I want this analyzed.

    2. Me too. Anxiety is my problem too, and I had to stop taking meds for it because of other medical issues. Hang in there!

  9. Yes.

    Lately it has mostly been pain.

    Without the pain, some times I just ruin the day, some times I get a crazy idea, and some times I get an idea that seems sane even after I have slept well, and analyzed carefully.

    I have less problems when I am carefully managing my sleep times, stress levels, and excitement/fixation before bed.

      1. I have a tab of Vitamin I in both the bedtime and morning pill safes. It keeps the arthritis at a manageable level.

  10. Yes, especially if I am working on a project involving power tools or other noisy stuff, and it was interrupted by the time of night. Or similar projects involving paints, solvents, stains, or sealants outside, where I have to wait for temperatures to rise or humidity to drop from overnight.

  11. I wake up in the middle of the night pretty regularly, thanks to GERD. On good nights I’m able to go back to sleep after an hour or two. Usually I spend the time sitting at my desk with my computer on.

  12. I’ve sometimes gotten up and written a list of things to do at times like that.

    (of course, I have special List Paper and a sharpie to use, because it’s not a Real List otherwise)

    For me that’s usually enough to calm the mind down enough to sleep.

      1. Yep, I discovered that too. My M.O. now is to notice that I’m stressed and write the list out before trying to go to bed. Helps immensely.

  13. My CPAP machine says I run around 6 hours a night, though things got pretty strange with the knee injury. (5.5 hours after I got injured until surgery, then 6.5 hours for the following month. Norco might have had a bit to do with extended sleep a few days….)

    I have to be careful about drinking too much late in the day. (Water. I don’t/can’t do ethanol any more. Sigh.) If I wake up at 2AM, I might as well get up. (Bedtime is somewhere in the 9PM hour. Yes, I normally get up at 3:xx AM. It’s quiet.) Normally, hydraulic pressure is my alarm clock.

    When Sara the Lab/Aussie was aging, she’d move around, usually with some minor crashing and falling. (Seizures clobbered her motor skills). Without Sara around, $SPOUSE doesn’t wake for her. OTOH, there’s too much in the way of wildfires going on. We had Bootleg, and (very) extended family is getting hurt by Dixie in Cali (which fire looked at Bootleg and said “Watch This!”. Her sister & niece were affected by other fires–there’s a certain amount of PTSD going on, affecting her sleep. I somehow have the ability to set those worries aside at bed time. Usually. Frequently. Sometimes.

    1. I use machine. Dan and I were probably both apneing form mid twenties, which probably led to weight gain, etc, as we saw this repeat with our sons. You see, both of us have a weird mouth/nose malformation that makes sleep impossible as soon as you hit your mid 20s, because you won’t get enough air.
      I’m actually on the edge, where the mouth appliance works, but it was seriously injuring my gums, because I “bite” it. I honestly prefer the mask. (And I’m not that fond of either, TBF)
      But I’ve been waking up at 3:30 am like clockwork, and for me that’s usually extreme anxiety.

      1. Not sure what I did with my response. If this is a repeat, sorry.

        In 2002 I found nasal pillows, in this case the Adams Circuit. They worked well for years, but the company disappeared by 2016. ResMed makes something sort-of similar, but I was getting pressure sores on the inside edge of my nostrils. Seems I like to sleep on my side unless extraordinary circumstances (wrecking the knee and surgical repair had me on my back in The Comfy Chair–not quite so comfy after several weeks, though), and the shape/composition of the ResMed just didn’t work for me.

        There’s tons of suppliers, but if there’s a way to check a sample, damned if I could find one. (Medical, legal and economic issues seem to say No!!!)

        On nightguards, YMMV seems to be the key factor.

        1. On nightguards, YMMV seems to be the key factor.

          –
          I was warned that gum issues could result. My dentist and hygienist aren’t worried based on my teeth and gum condition. Although I am getting dang tired of that taffy gum combination that gets cemented on to my teeth and gums … Oh, um, wait … dreaming again. Haven’t taken them out in the middle of the night (also warned about) but then I wore a different set for 18 months before I got these, so that hardly counts. I did get dentist jr. a bad time. He’d had his a short time before I had the impressions for mine made and got mine. He hadn’t made it a single night without unconsciously removing them while sleeping.

          1. My dentist recommends taking the partial off when sleeping. Aside from chewing issues, I find it comfortable without the partial, though it would give me way too much redneck cred if I did it in public. 🙂

            The partial is prone to trapping food particles in uncomfortable places. Between that and huge gaps at the base of my teeth (gum issues–fixed, but with residual effects), post-eating rituals tend to be messy. I keep toothpick/brush things in my going-to-town satchel, alone with the face diapers and my Kindle.

      2. I feel for you. I’m on the CPAP, it’s saved my life.

        I had the rather frightening experience of seeing an ENT doctor look at an x -ray of my nose and just say “wow!” Too much rugby football I guess. My nose managed to get broken back straight if that makes any sense and I had a fractured cheekbone that knocked everything out of whack. I did manage not to get the cauliflower ears, which are the hazard of rugby forwards, because I promised my mother I’d wear a scrum-cap. My father was a back and so stayed pretty, but most of the rest of the men in the family looked like palookas with broken noses and cauliflower ears. Number two son is a back so I haven’t had to explain this to the wife. Soccer is a gentlemen’s game played by ruffians, rugby is a ruffian’s game played by gentlemen.

        Good luck with it all and keep the faith. Don’t let the b-stards grind you down.

      3. Don’t know if this would help you, but the Liaden novels always had a lot of interesting martial arts philosophy in them. One of the bits was a stance called “Accepting the Lance”

        Basically, the idea was to be loose and of the mindset that the blow is coming. You don’t know when, you don’t know where, but you will accept it and ride with it.

        There’s something like it in pistol marksmanship, but it doesn’t have a name, so I called it that. When shooting a pistol, your objective is to not move. You need to resemble a static shooting bench as much as humanly possible. You’ve tensioned your forearms so they’ll be like big springs when the gun fires, but you yourself do nothing, save take up the trigger, and let the gun do its own job. Once you have the sight picture, your role is stillness. You accept the bang and the recoil when it happens, but it is not your job to create it.

        I think that’s a certain analog to what’s going on here too. It’s not our job to make the bang. That will happen if it’s own accord. Our job to to ride through its effects and find the other side. The things we cannot control or change are the things we cannot change or control. We must accept them, even (perhaps especially) when they are the lance, and work with only that that we can influence.

        1. Hmm. Like when you ride horses, and are completely relaxed so that you can feel what the horse is doing and respond, but you are completely aware of your surroundings so you can direct the horse.

          1. Ah. Their tendency for coincidences? I could see that. I tend to mostly gloss past that, unless it’s the only possible solution for a problem.

            I think that’s one of the reasons I never had issues with the Lord of the Isles series either. Yes, there are dozens of gods in dozens of machines, but they’re more causing the problems than solving them. I was more bothered by the implication they may have created a time loop, and that a monarchy clearly didn’t have a sufficiently robust system of succession to ensure a stable government…

        3. Er…. I know that mind set from being in a lot of fights. You know you’re going to get smacked, there’s no avoiding it.
          But it’s hard to translate.

  14. Continuing the weirdest timeline….

    Britney Spears announced today that she has been received into the Catholic Church.

    This might have something to do with her family’s (some kind of independent Baptist) pastor allegedly advising that her dad put her into conservatorship and hold her captive, as well as her dad getting doctors to forcibly install a contraceptive device in her and not letting her remove it. Or it might have been something she’s been wanting to do for other spiritual or temporal reasons.

    Either way, welcome home, Britney!

    2. Welcome home.

      (also: holy F, dude, yeah, because they did such a great job raising the gal they should be in charge of her as an adult, whooof.)

    3. She’s now actually entitled to the school uniform she wore in the only song of her’s I know.

      Speaking of Catholic schoolgirls, Sydney McLaughlin went to the local diocesan HS, it has a very good track program. She won the gold and set the world record in the women’s 200 M hurdles. You’ll have trouble finding her on the news ,but it’s worth taking your time. Gives me hope for the future, she does.

      1. It is possible that her saying that “I’m Catholic now” didn’t involve actually being received as yet. Although she is apparently going to say more about it, to her fans, at a later date.

        Apparently she’s also known to do a bit of religion-hopping, although also to make a point of attending churches on Sunday when she was touring. Aeh, about the same level of confusion as a lot of people. But I’m still glad for her, whatever level of Catholic she is.

          1. I have to say that, when I saw that her Mass-going dress covered all areas adequately _except_ cleavage, it made me believe that she is hanging out with some flavor of my fellow cradle Catholic women… Heh. If I were Sherlock Holmes or an anthropologist, I could probably even guess the ethnic groups involved. But really, it’s summer. And honestly, not worried about it with somebody fresh out of captivity.

  15. my rule 31: IF you wake up and cant get back to sleep for an hour, get up and do something- esp when on a deadline

    1. I was too dizzy when I got up… I’ve done that before, usually for international flights. Less than 5 hours of sleep, I’m going to be dizzy and throwing up….

  16. I’m grateful that I can function on 6 hours sleep, cuz I seldom get more than that, and usually less…Old age I am told….But sometimes my mind is very sharp at 4 a.m. and I get things done..

  17. I’ve been spending most of these past few weeks just lying awake in bed, maybe managing an hour or two if the black smoke curls up in a nice, snuggly position instead of pawing my face. It’s been catching up to me recently if that wasn’t obvious and I just dragged myself out of bed from a nap. Good luck from me and the kitties like always!

      1. It’s thankfully been backing off lately and I can see where the lack of sleep was doing it, even if it means I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to today. A certain seal point floof has been helping, too, in his own way!

          1. That nap cut into my time too and I’m only just now getting the laundry under control. Not fun, and I’m going to have more clutter to get rid of over the weekend too. Hopefully I can finally catch some rest one day, though.

  18. I’ve been waking up twice every night lately. The second time is when my bedroom finally cools down enough to cause me to want to pull up the bedsheet.

    I’m not sure what’s causing the first one, though, and that has me puzzled.

    1. I take Melatonin because of the waking up. Not to go to sleep, initially, but to go back to sleep because I will be waking up. Either because I’m hot (flip or swap pillows, technically neither the pillow nor the pillowcases are suppose to get hot … yea, right), or I have to get up because my bladder has suddenly shrunk to the size of a walnut. If I’m lucky the latter corresponds to when the dog decides she has to go out. Then I have to turn over, I always wake up a little (the whirl-bird-twist-turn the kid did as a toddler and young child … lets just say, he got it from me …). There is also the “on blanket”, “off blanket”, etc., syndrome. And yes, the pull on the blanket because the house is finally cool enough to warrant one, is also a problem in this summer’s weather. It is when it adds up, and more gets piled in that it gets like last night/early this morning. Even as tired as I am tonight. Until the house cools down a bit more, I can’t even bother to try.

  19. So, that’s what it is….. I need my mind examined. Middle of the night my head is making lists.

    …will they be missed?

    I think I slept like 3 hours.

    Things get strangely hilarious when that happens. 😉

  20. I haven’t slept with medication for a year and a half now. I think it’s having long term detrimental effects; the depression and anxiety are egging each on at this point. But if I don’t take anything I wake up every two hours.

    In the mean time I’m running off to Montana for the eight days. Hopefully that will help or at least not make things worse.

  21. Anyway, I was checking back on a thread, and noticed that I have a potential guest topic that I commented, as something thought about while sleeping.

  22. There are times when my internal clock rings around 3am. I can fight it, miserably, or I can go to bed at 7pm. Dimming lights, and avoiding PC monitors, over the last hour before bed helps.

    Can you work a heavy bag? That can sometimes for some folks address the unrequited anger at the Legion of Stupid and/or Evil. A “combative” seeming exercise if one can tolerate it. Working in a buddy’s forge, swinging a sledgehammer, worked during a very bad patch. And the resultant Bowies and utility knives are still cool.

    1. Second on the heavy bag. Good exercise, form and control if you do it right. Tend to sleep better after, too. Recoil therapy is nice, too, but getting a smidge pricey.

    2. If have to work on a computer late at night, or inside your hour before (which I do too), I can highly recommend f.lux which will dim your computer backlight from the bright blue to a softer orange. It really helps.

      1. Thanks for reminding me.

        I use tinted overglasses, and I was way overdue for putting them on.

  23. I figure things out. If they are story ideas, I may have to get up and write them down so I don’t forget.

  24. I usually wake up at 2AM – 4AM. Sometimes I won’t be able to go back to sleep. Usually I try to force myself (unsuccessfully) to go back to sleep. Once or twice I’ve attempted to make use of the time by getting up and programming or working on a project. Usually though I’m too tired to do anything with any complexity to it, (yet not tired enough to actually sleep.) I usually don’t remember very well things that I’ve studied on days where I can’t sleep (or my sleep is poor during a migraine attack/brain-fog. Sleep during a migraine “doesn’t count” or something.)

  25. I have had a few sleepless nights since hubby informed me that his work might mandate the jab.

    We had both decided that we would refuse to get it for religious reasons. We are very opposed to using aborted children for medical research. Since one of the US bishops has already told his priests that they could not “co-operate” with anyone seeking a religious exemption I was feeling pretty stressed.

    Today I spoke with my parish priest and he said, that while the bishop of New York said that, since then National Catholics Bioethics Center has come out and said that Catholics should be given an option to refuse the jab for contentious objection reasons. He also said he would have no problem “writing something up” if we would like to have something in our pocket, “just in case” because our bishop hasn’t said anything about it.

    I am somewhat relieved.

    Meanwhile, I just found that the NCBCenter has a template letter for it.

    https://www.ncbcenter.org/ncbc-news/vaccineletter

    1. OK, I’m not trying to pick on your typo, but I am *totally* stealing “contentious objector”.

    2. Oh, I got a nice piece of spam offering to send me a “medical exemption card”, along with a book of tips on what to say to back it up and what Federal laws to cite.

    3. I was a “Contentious Objector”

      so I enlisted.

      (I am -so- stealing that phrase…)

    4. Today I spoke with my parish priest and he said, that while the bishop of New York said that, since then National Catholics Bioethics Center has come out and said that Catholics should be given an option to refuse the jab for contentious objection reasons.

      The latter is consistent with binding Catholic teaching; well informed moral objections are binding to those who have them, and a bishop cannot declare a prudential judgement invalid.

      I am… maybe just a bit upset, still.

    5. Add me to the list of folks looking at that was-it-a-mistype-or-your-subconscious-being-awesome and thinks:
      “I can use that.”

    6. Thank you for sharing that link!
      I was/ am also upset about that diocesan letter, especially the bit about liability.
      I ❤ "contentious objector" too. 😀

  26. Well if you knew me in meat space, you would know that contentious is more like me than conscientious is so no wonder autocucumber should pluck that out of the ether.

    🙂

  27. So, do you guys ever wake in the middle of the night, when you can’t do anything, and want to do stuff?

    That is when I pull out my phone and start watching podcasts. A favorite is Styxhexenhammer666, a libertarian who uploads his shows between noon and 1 PM Central European Time (2-3 AM Pacific).

  29. Through a Glass Darkly, by George Patton

    Perhaps I stabbed our Savior
    In His sacred helpless side.
    Yet I’ve called His name in blessing
    When in after times I died.

    Through the travail of the ages
    Midst the pomp and toil of war
    Have I fought and strove and perished
    Countless times upon this star.

    I have sinned and I have suffered
    Played the hero and the knave
    Fought for belly, shame or country
    And for each have found a grave.

    So as through a glass and darkly
    The age long strife I see
    Where I fought in many guises,
    Many names — but always me.

    So forever in the future
    Shall I battle as of yore,
    Dying to be born a fighter
    But to die again once more.

    1. There was a musical version of this poem (which has more verses than the snippet here) on the Con CD “Smoked Fish and Friends”. I couldn’t find it online.

  30. OK, gang. The music post was bad for my budget. Freedom Call’s _Beyond_ and Twilight Force’s _Dawn of the Dragon Star_ CDs arrived last night. I’m blaming y’all. 🙂

    1. So maybe it would be appropriate for me to finish the next seven comments I was preparing for that thread, and then to post them here?

          1. Not “them.” HIM. These pictures are all Bob.

            And I’m calling bullshit. Bob, how the HELL are you consistently getting WordPress to allow you 2 image links per post? What black sorcery is this that you wield?

            2. There’s this software produced by Microsoft Corporation called ‘Notepad’. It often is distributed with the Microsoft Windows Operating System.

              More seriously:
              1. Pick song, listen to it on Youtube. I do not have ‘autoplay next song’ turned on.
              2. IIRC, usually after the song finishes, I use share and embed to get the embed code, and copy to the clip board.
              3. Paste to notepad. I’m pretty sure other text editors will also work.
              4. Get distracted and wander off. Do other things. Eventually get around to actually posting.
              5. This time I was trying to organize to more or less hit a thematic order. So I put my ordered selection in another notepad window, started copying from the portion of the file with the embedded links, and only needed to harvest another two embedded links from youtube.
              6. Actually start posting. Since I am working from a prepared list, I know that I can post comments very rapidly. But, over the years, I have also somehow managed to learn that rapid posting can also dump me into moderation. So I make sure the previous comment has posted, and wait a little bit, in between posting comments. (I stopped for the night when I wasn’t sure if the previous comment had come out properly. It had this morning, so I resumed until the end.)
              7. Since I was working from an unsaved notepad file, I would delete the comment links after confirming that the post had gone through. This seems to have kept me from duplicating posts. (Which is also a moderation flag at times.) When I got confused about what was happening, I saved my to do list to the hard disk for the night in another file.
              8. I posted these using a single browser tab, and was not listening to music or doing anything else in the tab. There may have also been a benefit to having javascript off some of the time, but I’m not sure, because I wasn’t taking notes on my process, I’ve slept since then, and the last two comments were posted with javascript on the entire time.

              1. Hmm… First guess is that using the embed code instead of dumping the address straight into the comment is what does it. Testing with 2 videos:

                  1. Outstanding. Thanks for the info, Bob.

                    I wonder if using proper tags would let us use multiple images or text links per comment as well. I’ve got something to do so I’m not going to test this myself just now, but if someone else wants to take a stab at it be my guest.

          2. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. (With allowances for free will and malice aforethought. [Theirs, not mine!])

            1. Yeah, malice aforethought fits, I’ve been working on this for a while. Then I got distracted by another project, and finished that Friday. Recovered Saturday, and decided I would finish this one, and that more people would see it if posted here.

  34. I’ve been having trouble staying asleep recently, but the good news is that I can get up, go into my office at the other end of the house, and work on my project.

    Which is good in other ways too, because I believe I have the solution to the rehashing issues I’ve been dealing with.

    Until now I’ve had a choice between:
    1. Multi-second outages while rehashing a large file; and
    2. Terrible size bloating due to the requirement to double the size of the file whenever rehashing is needed.

    Now I believe I have an algorithm that avoids both of those potentially disastrous outcomes. I should know if it works in a day or two.

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