This Week

Of all the weeks that I've had working where I work--(assuming, of course, that's a vague enough reference), this week so far has been the most busy, yet the most calm--of any weeks that I've ever worked.

The stress is still there, but it's a little less, I think. And a little goes a long way with me.

The snakes have started their hibernation, as snakes do that sort of thing. The dog has been sick a few days this week, but I've got a spot-bot now...

Oh, short advertisement here...

IF YOU HAVE A DOG OR A CAT THAT SOMETIMES HAS ACCIDENTS...

A Spot-Bot is what you need!

Nuff said. That little wet vacuum has literally saved my sanity!

Today, I see my physical therapist, and she's been bugging me for a new mouse to start using my left hand mousing--to give my right hand a rest. Since the office was taking it's sweet time about getting the new mouse due to funding issues, I bought my own (FINALLY!) and started to use it.

Do you know that this really has helped my right hand...and I know this because now my left hand is starting to twinge on me in the same exact place as the right hand. This tells me two things---

One, the mouse was the culprit and
Two, management has got to get me away from this one program that is so mouse intensive that it's not funny.

You see, I'm a hotkey person--when I first started with computers, I used a mouse almost exclusively--because I didn't know the hotkeys. Many inexperienced computer users are mousers--in fact, you can almost peg a new user by how much they use the mouse instead of the keyboard--People who are familiar with their computers use the keyboard for more of the most common commands--such as copy/paste, undo, print, open-new and the list goes on. People who know their computers use the tab key more often than the mouse--and know how many tabs to hit to get to where they need to go on the screen.

Of course, all this will change, when laptop monitors are "touch controlled", and you can drag a window over here or over there, just by touching the screen and literally "moving" it. I suppose that sort of technical piece of technology is in the making, and in some cases, already here, but I figure it's out of my price range, which runs from FREE to $10.

Anyway, you can tell that this particular program was configured by someone who was an inexperienced user, because nearly EVERYTHING is done by mouse. I really had to push, and push hard, to get the hotkeys that I knew should be available, and even then, things don't work the way that they should. This pesters me to no end, because now, the person who was working with the programmers has left our area (I'm pretty happy about that, actually.), so there is no way to get any sort of upgrade now.

So, I suppose that, unless I start complaining (dare I say, bitc#ing?), I'll likely never get "better" where my hand is concerned.

Therefore, I am crocheting for a while. This action, especially with the yarn I'm using, is even harder on my wrist, but I set it down every few minutes to give my wrist a rest, and it seems to be working out okay. I also started these socks for my mother for Christmas--and I'm wondering if they'll get done in time. If I could work on them exclusively, then perhaps, but there are so many neat patterns available.

How dare they come up with new patterns all the time! I hate that!

Well, seriously, I don't hate that. I LOVE that. I guess you could say it's a Love/Hate sort of thing.

But the stress at the office is less, and I'm getting things done--not in the time frame I'd like, but they're getting done.