Uhrm, that didn't work.

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I finally believed the kombucha was ready.  I set up a second batch of sweet tea, to be used for the next batch, transferred the scoby, then had a sip.  The rest is to be second fermented using frozen fruit.  I wanted to clean and sterilize a few pop top bottles, so got that going.  They are ready, but I haven't gotten to the bottling quite yet.

As mentioned, I had a sample of the kombucha.  I think it boosted blood sugar by forty five points?  Or was something else involved?  I'll try again, tomorrow.  My fasting blood sugar was 180, an hour after the kombucha it was 225.  Unless I ate or drank something else?  I don't think so, but so tired.  I... can't remember.  I need to try a pure sample, on a clear run.  If that is correct, I can't use first run kombucha.

I gave it a very long ferment period.  Of course, there is always the possibility that a second ferment might work.  Don't know.  But, something felt off, after drinking it.  I am sure there was no alcohol left.  Had it turned more to a vinegar?  There is supposed to be a fine line between the alcoholic period, the drinkable period, and the vinegar period.

Not a bad day.

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It's past noon.  I'm holding off eating until I find out whether a pal will be by.  Checking now.  He... might have gotten in a bit of a mess.  Or... not.  He is finding out.  Should have found out by now?  I just sent a brief text, checking in.  Yes, it happens.  I think he was innocent, but he... may push things?  Not that I would know anything about such.

It was just 66 about an hour ago.

Nice, in several ways.

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Not perfect, not always what is wanted, hoped for, expected.  But... nice.

Sleep, in the main. I didn't get as much as hoped, under six hours.  I couldn't go to bed earlier, if it was before 19:00.  And I couldn't stay in bed, waking, and getting up, at one.  No choice.  I could tell.  But, my sleep measure counted last night as even a better sleep than yesterday night, at 73.  It might only be a C, on a typical grading scale.  But compared to deep F territory as the norm, it's... excellent.

Yes, I actually know what it was.  Since it has been warmer, I have been sleeping with only one blanket.  I remade my bed, after not doing that for two weeks?  I was just so shot, and lost in things, that I forgot.  But, last night (a few days late, as I prefer to do that on Thursday, though on through to Saturday?  Actually, I got the right day... had thought it was Monday?  Bleh.  Still sleepy.

Nearing bedtime.

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Cool, all day, mostly.  It's just 63 out there, currently.  Mostly cloudy all day as well.  But no rain.  Strange.  Probably a good thing.

On an interesting note, with all the rain and even snow melt that is still coming down?  My reverse osmosis system has a water impurity check, for both what I put in and what comes out (not terribly accurate, but... offers trends).  Water, here, for the last few years, even with water softening, has often read the input water, from the tap, in the 350 range, sometimes as low as the 220s.  Now it is reading particles in the low 80s.  So, yes, the water... extra water... is doing interesting things.

I did get two loads of laundry washed.  The last is drying.  Can't really put things out on the clothes line.  Far too high a chance of it being rained on.  So, I'll just use the dryer for now.  As well, I did find the half gallon jars, and got those washed.  I kept thinking they were in twelve packs.  Nope, six packs.

Still, between washing up the quart jars and the half gallon jars... actually some quart jars yesterday as well, I am ready to change out all of the jars, that haven't been changed recently, with regards kefir.  As well, I'll be able to set up another kombucha jar, though that one will be a scoby hotel.

As tired as I am, I did those few bits of work.  Trying for more, but... just can't.  I also made it through the part of the game I was stuck on.  Just.  But, now I can move on.  Lost a lot of time to that.  But... it's a first run.  And on the hardest difficulty.

The card I have with Amazon accepted the payment quickly this month.  The last few months they were taking days, up to a week, to accept payments.  This time, it only took a day?  So I was able to buy this month's list.  Cat food, sardines, compression socks I want to try, and one smaller size of another form which is working well for me.  I'm not sure I am ready for that size, but maybe.  Will find out.  I have gone from xxl, as I have mentioned, down to a large.  And, I may be ready for a medium.  Maybe.

So very tired.  But, it is just at 18:00.  I'd like to stay up just a bit later.  But probably won't.  Still, this is a good time.  I don't mind this time.  I just want the clothes in the dryer to be finished.  Then I'll go to bed.

Did I mention?  My mother called, when she got home.  Which... surprised me, for two reasons.  One, I... didn't expect a call for about six days.  Perhaps I lost track, or she didn't understand that she would be leaving as soon as she had suggested the time we talked before this last time.  The other was, I didn't expect a call just when she got home (technically the next day, but she got in after midnight, so that didn't count).  I... was a bit impressed.  Sometimes I sense she really doesn't like me.  So... a bit surprised.  All good though.

Hoping to do a bit more work tomorrow.  A shower first thing, with nothing in the way.  And a clogged sink.  Probably turning the kefir over, as well.  I will strain everything, into clean jars.  Big and little.  As well, I'll begin seeing about getting a couple of plywood sheets, and see if I need 2x4s as well.  Get that arranged.  As soon as those arrive, I will see about tearing out the old window.  Yeah.

So very tired.

A really good night of sleep.

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My watch, through the program and algorithms, suggests my sleep was poor, at 66.  What it doesn't count is, since I have been wearing the device, my average sleep score has been about 40.  Whether too short of a sleep, too little deep cycles, or rem, or waking up too often, or for too long.  Always some problems.

I haven't figured out how to improve things.  Hopefully, if I can sleep more regularly, and longer, this will improve.  Though getting exercise may help too.  At 66, last night is among the top scores I have gotten for sleep.  Now, to keep that going and improve on it.  Food is as good as I can get it, fluid intake too.  Exercise could be useful, but that will throw my sleep cycles off.  It... just will.  And add exhaustion to exhaustion.

It was 68 near me, upstairs, and 66 in the room generally.  Rather surprised.  It was 50 outside, so... not a really cold one.  Strange.  Overcast, completely, or was when I woke.  No rain had fallen through the night though.  Or it would still be visible.  Some yesterday, but just spots and spits, and I think just in one short period of time.  And, downstairs, it was 66 to 68.

Nearly 13:00.

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Doing well.  A bit dark out there?  Yes and no.  It seemed darker earlier, but it... changes, often.  Now it is mostly clear, but there is a haze.  It has the feel of fall, but of course isn't.  Smog?  Or just... humidity build up?  Or... something else?  Fires somewhere, the smoke ending up here?  Not sure.

Beef and beans, this morning.  Made hot.  Nothing fancy, hot as in spicy.  I... miss hot food when I haven't had it for a while.  I don't even turn red, eating carolina reaper sprinkles, with cayenne for a side flavor profile.  Love that stuff.  I need it a few times a week, really.  Oh, once in a while I will get a runny nose.  But I think that is more from the pepper, or the dust of the spices when I add them.

Bills!  I didn't realize it was already the first until... well... until I did.  My mother called me this morning.  She is home, and happily.  Oh, she had a wonderful visit.  Maybe her last.  I hope not.  But... time, she passes.  And takes things with it.  Even so, I don't worry about that.

Leaning too hard doesn't work.

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Leaning into changing my schedule, or anything really, doesn't work.  So I was just hanging on to my meager gains.  For nearly a week, I seemed stuck at going to bed around 14:00~15:00, if waking a bit later every few days.  Needed the extra sleep, as initially I was only getting about six hours of sleep.  Had to make up for that, well, and needed more sleep.

Yesterday I was able to stay awake until nearly 17:00, perhaps ten minutes off.  Then, as well, was able to sleep until ten to one.  When pushing time, I don't seem to be able to get enough sleep.  Eight hours doesn't seem bad, but often I really need more like ten to twelve.  Which... is how I lose time. and my schedule gets off.

If I could tell, one night from another, whether I would need more or less sleep, I could attempt to alter my bedtime, make it earlier.  But I just never know.  And, it isn't really a choice.  Though, sometimes, I just can't sleep earlier.  Trapped in a body that does as it will, in spite of wisdom or will or anything else.  And, I can't blame it... it is alive well past the grave it should be in.  It does every bit as well as it can.  Imagine driving a car which shouldn't still work.  Can you hate it when it won't start on a winter day, or coughs and sputters on it's merry way to the junk yard, never being allowed to die and go there though?  I can't hate the animal part of me.  It has been as faithful as an old hound, more so.  Endured much, and still... tries.

Cool, as seems the norm.

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It got down to 46 this morning, as the sun was coming up.  A moist day, so extra cool for the temperature.  Some suggest we have enough water.  I'm... not so sure.  Ten to one, by this time next year, even with normal rainfall, they'll say we are back in a drought.  And, they may spill all the water just to make sure we are in dire straights.

People think California, Illinois, and New York are awful states, with terrible bureaucrats.  The truth is, there isn't a good state, with truly good bureaucrats.  All bureaucrats, at this point, believe they know what is right.  And, if killing a lot of people, one way or another, is necessary to prove that, or for their cause, they'll do it.  You and I are not important.  Their plans, goals, and such, trump our very lives.  In almost every state.  Some states have more limits on their bureaucrats, or simply fewer of them.  No state has good bureaucrats.

So, if they have, by state or national regions, or both, decided to dump water, cause a drought, and else like it?  They'll do it.  They forced, or tried to force, you to take the jab.  And many of you did.  I wonder how many of them found a different way?  Saline replacements, friendly doctors who realize some have to go but bureaucrats are above that?  As I have it, many in congress and the senate, and their staffers, outright didn't take it, and were on ivermectin.  You see, they aren't governed, literally, by the same laws we are.

Difficutly getting enough sleep.

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Still struggling with the schedule.  Having to push to make it to fourteen hundred.  Made it to fifteen hundred thirty today, and one other time, in the last five days is it?  Six?  Otherwise, 14:00 or half after has been my usual max.  Brutal to stay up longer when so very tired.

As well, sleeping longer takes just as much effort.  Though tonight I did better, making it to nearly 23:00.  The rest of the nights have been generally improving, starting with waking around 20:00, then a few 21:00s, then 22:00s, and tonight almost reaching 23:00.  So very difficult.

The place is warming, with or without warm weather.  It was 72, near me... 68 otherwise upstairs.  The downstairs is 70~71.  I figured I had left the furnace on.  I checked outdoors, 56 currently, though that will drop five to fifteen degrees yet, maybe.  Probably.  So I opened the windows and went to turn off the furnace.  It... was off.  It is staying 70ish degrees without any assist.  Which... is good.  But it also marks that summer is... beginning to arrive.  Always a fearful thing for me.

I do have the big ac, for downstairs, and the ac's for upstairs.  I just need to tear out that old window and put the ac in as a temporary wall mounted type of unit.  The only thing I really need is masonry screws, for the casement around the window.  And shims.  Oh, and waterproof wrap.  For the underparts of the lower part of the window.  Well, that's the idea.  Nothing is as easy as most people think.  Do it poorly, you end up doing it twice, and maybe redoing the whole thing, full cost.  Choices.

I made excellent soup yesterday.  Wasn't up to other cooking, so...  I started with a can of soup, added a can of corn and peas.  Spiced it with tarragon, cayenne, black fresh ground pepper, and carolina reaper pepper flecks.  Then, I took the fattest remnant of a roast, diced it, and tossed it in.  Adding an equal part of water to what the soup was in.  That fed me well for the whole of yesterday.  I doubt if there were five hundred calories.  The good, and bad, of soup... depending on where you stand on things.  Oh, she had some tang to her, I'll say that.  I love some bite, once in a while.  Didn't quite overdo it, but got right to the line.  Delicious.

I finished the game, first play through.  Missed a lot.  Playing through again.  I need to figure out what passes through to a new game plus, because it looks like, when you change difficulties is a single weapon?  Maybe it is types of weapons?  I don't know, I'll look before I finish.  I also want to figure out a few collectibles, and finish all the side tasks, in this run through.  Perhaps and learn to pick up speed by learn where to go, what I have to fight and what I can possibly run through, and such.

Resident Evil games are notoriously difficult.  Unless you are almost a cult player, and even then, getting their higher ratings and ranks is pretty much impossible.  Even their devotees, few of them get anywhere close.  I must assume, when seeing someone wearing the items earned from it, they were either given special codes/game types with the items in it.  Or they are the devs, playing around with their own stuff.  Programmers couldn't play to save their asses, most of them.  Certainly not paid "reviewers".

So, I don't expect much.  Still, I'd like to get a few things into the kit, which might make higher rankings possible.  The one thing for certain, if you want the better arms and such, you have to play multiple times, study how to cut time corners, and learn a few things on your own that only experience can achieve.  But, you won't get most of the toys.  And, yes... the game cheats to make it so most can't get there.  It just does.  If you are doing well, it will increase the damage mobs can take, and deal out.  And change subtle things.  You have to be connected to go far.  It's the simple truth.  But, take it for what it is, and play it or don't.

Still, play I do.  I just realize I can't get far.  If I can reach even an A scale in the game (goes from nothing, then C, B, A, and S ratings, based on time to finish and what is used in the game).  I think the hardest one requires a completion in under five and an half hours, with no special weapons, and such.  Not possible for regular players, less so on consoles.  You need a computer, and to be able to tweak the program running the game, and the easier methods of play a computer allows.  Or, receive a special copy of the game.  That's... my opinion anyway.

Hmm, making coffee, and will begin playing... in order to wake up.  But I am hoping to get a shower taken, then set up and do dishes.  I cleared and washed the freezer top yesterday.  Put the countertop r.o. back, but that leaves enough room for dishes otherwise.  So... yea.

I'd also like to make some burgers today.  Smash burgers really are my favorite.  Though, sometime, when I am feeling up to a longer cook, I'd like to try my hand at a thick burger, half pounders, done medium.  I love rare burger, I just don't trust it... like pork.

I am waiting a bit.  When I woke, I heard thunder.  Haven't heard a hint of rain since, but want to give it some time.  Need to play to wake a bit more, as well.  And can shower and set up dishes first, or during, or after... depending on my read of things through the night.  Coffee!

A young lady, at the register, was saying how she loved the smell of coffee, as people bought it and brought it through.  Most likely being Mormon, she doesn't drink coffee.  And, at her age, I would hope she didn't in either case.  I should have told her, coffee doesn't taste anywhere near as good as it smells.  It tastes more like dirty water.  To be honest.  If it weren't for caffeine, as with women and lady parts, no man would imbibe.  :p  God can be a tricky bastard, I'll grant Him that... uhrm... with... great reverence and respect, don't ever think otherwise from me.

Well, on to gaming.  And coffee.  Unfortunately, no... lady parts around.  :p

I didn't get to sleep.

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Couldn't.  Just... wasn't ready, able, to sleep.  I did get the trash out, and to the curb.  But... now realize they won't be picking it up today.  I try.

Would love to sleep now, and for the last hour or two.  But, now.  I will stay awake until 14:00 or later if possible.  Almost an hour and a quarter to go.

Oh, while I was sitting here, I remerged to call my mom again.  This time we got to talk a bit.  Just wanted to check in.  Her flight went well.  She will be heading home in a few days.  She sounds tired, but that is to be expected.  Look, she is 80, took a flight, had to be wheeled everywhere, had a graduation to go to, and perhaps a party for another of the girls' graduation.  Plus just... being taken around and doing things for a week.  She's rather an impressive old girl.

Just good to hear that she was... well.  Always a bit worried.  I keep teasing her that I am staying around to see her pass before me.  But I won't ask her to hurry up, if I would... like to head out before too awfully long.  :p  At the way things are going, I may have to just... let go before then though.  Rough, these last few weeks... months.  It's been a while since I could even stand for long.

I'd like something more to eat.  Not sure I will have it.  Will see.

Down at 14:00.

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But, up at 20:00.  For a bit.  The plan is to get back down before too long.  Midnight, as a rough goal.  For more a nap, until I can get things more securely back around to days.  Sleep was fantastic.  Dreams, I'll discuss those in a bit.  Some dreams... bother me... in very strange ways.  This was among those, but at least not of war.  Though, at least those are comfortable, comforting, in... strange ways.  Familiarity?  At the very least in the dream world, yes.  And who the good and bad guys are is... very simple, as the world has become black and white.  At least for the chess pieces.  The cunts running the show, a whole different thing, but for the pieces, it is simple.

I'll have kefir(s) and vinegar tonic(s) as I am awake.  Maybe sardines if I really feel the bite of hunger.  Odd how it bites us right back.  Can never truly satisfy, without killing one's self.  But, for tonight, just a bit.  The kefir is turning a bit quicker, with the house being kept at 70.  Warmer is, oddly, uncomfortable.  But then, wearing compression socks keeps the body warmer sum total, by a lot.  I fear the summer, and those.  Fear worse potentially not being able to wear them as often.

Without them, my legs will not only sag, and expand, but there are forms of bruises, which form under the skin.  If that pooling goes bad, a leg can be lost in short order.  Or a life, without even incompetent medical care.  It's a spooky condition.  Surprised that hasn't gotten me yet.  After the last time I scraped my leg, and it almost didn't heal, I sorted out food (to my ability), compression socks, and anything else I could do.  That is terrifying.  But... the things I am doing have truly helped... just... to figure out how to keep it cool enough in the summer to continue wearing them, even if in shorter spans of time, as well.

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Noon, and just 50 F.

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Outside.  I turned the furnace, to at least keep it 70.  Which... means I didn't sleep last night.  Well, that was part of it.  Was playing my new game, comfortably.  Warm, that is.  For the first time in a while, I hadn't shut off the furnace by night.  Which means I didn't notice how late it had gotten.  So I just stayed up all night.  And, will stay up into the early afternoon.

I had a kidney out, thawed.  Time isn't gentle to those cuts of meat, so I had to cook it.  It turned out well, and I enjoyed it.  I would never have believed I would like kidney.  It's quite a treat, these days.  Seriously.  Better even than liver.  But you can't tell people that.

Initially, there is a bit of an odor, and taste, that is... suspicious?  But, once you try it a few times, it doesn't kill you, and else?  It... just becomes another cut of meat.  Not even exotic, to me, at this point.  As with liver.  Actually, liver... beef liver... is much stronger, stouter, than kidneys.  I'd say kidneys taste like the mildest liver you have tasted.  Maybe even lamb or chicken liver?  Maybe.

Hmm, I think I failed to pull meat out for the week.  I'll have to do that before going to bed.  A couple pounds of burger, maybe two packs?  A pork roast and chicken liver, while I am thinking about it.  With organ meats, save kidneys as I don't think they'd work well this way?  I simply bake them in the over for... twenty to thirty minutes, then grill them.  I'll do that with the liver, too.  Onion will go down first, in butter.  Then when those are nearly done, to my liking, I'll add the liver.  And more butter.  I won't be trying to sear the liver, just give it a gentle finish... in butter.

I called my mother this morning.  She is visiting my brother, and his family.  One of his girls is graduating with her master?  Or ph. d.?  Something.  His other daughter is graduating from high school.  She did answer, but is preparing a meal... or planning that.  She'll call back later.  Maybe.  If she does, maybe I'll be awake, maybe not.  No worries, mind you.  They have a busy thing there.  If you aren't in their face, they could easily be forgiven forgetting about everyone else.

Just to hear her voice, know she is okay, and sounding pretty good, was enough.  I'm not... all that fussy.  We will talk... when... we talk.  I'll hear things.  What happened, good and bad, and such.  As I said, now that I know she got there, is healthy and doing things, and sounded good other than all the barking?  All good.

Fifty?  I can't believe it.  And so much rain.  I do believe they are adding snow to the higher elevations.  How much?  Hard to tell.  But it is... a goodly lot by the look of things.  Some peaks had nearly lost their white crowns.  Now they are back.  That's... a lot of snow.  I may go up and read a bit, as I get in and get comfortably.

Oh!  But after pulling meat for the week.  Yes indeed.