Sleepless apnea

When we last heard from our hero, he was getting ready to adorn himself with the sleep test rig and go to sleep.

The nurse said to not wear it on bare skin, so I put on a bright green T-shirt and stood in front of the bed. I put on the bed the camcorder case which the rig was in, and Domino walked from the corner of the bed where she was grooming herself to stare at me. The rig was all kinds of dangly shiny things, which entranced her. She watched raptly as I strapped the main unit, which is about as wide as an iPhone and half again as long, to the center of my torso. It had a couple of LEDs blinking. There were two other straps connected to it, one went around my waist and the other around my chest. Next was an oxygen sensor which fit on my index finger, and had a red blinking light inside. The instructions said the LIGHTLY tape it in place with the standard medical cloth tape provided. I taped it in place firmly, but not tight. After a couple of minutes my finger felt like it was turning blue so I re-taped it lightly. Then I needed to go into the bathroom where there's a mirror and put the nose thing on. Domino followed me, and watched as I draped the clear plastic tube loop over my ears and taped each side to a cheek after I got the little nubs pointed into my nostrils. It's the same look as someone on oxygen.

Back to the bedroom, get into bed (Domino is still staring at me from a foot away on the bed) and spend the next 90 minutes not getting to sleep. A trip to the bathroom for a little bit of water helped, but I woke up about every hour or hour and a half all night. At one point maybe 3 am, Pumpkin jumped onto the bed and started to curl up against me, but saw the rig and jumped off again.

Finally up at 7, took off the rig and put it back in its case, did the morning stuff and headed for Kaiser to drop off the rig. From there to work, where I got more done by 10 than I usually get done by 1 pm. Lunch with my buddy Quang, I took us to Thaibodia,and the food was good. The waitress looked Cambodian but responded in Thai the couple of times I said thanks or bye-bye. She was way too busy to strike up a conversation with, and I'm not sure she knew that much Thai.

Back to work, there was a bit of research to do on a couple of the tests I'd chosen for today. Most of them were easy once I found video clips with the right kinds of formats. Kept nodding off, though. Or more accurately, mesmerized by the monitor. I was planning on leaving at 5, since I had been there early, but it ended up being 5:30 because I had an overnight test to set up which took more time than I expected. Monday it will take maybe 5 seconds to pass/fail it.

Needed some OTC drugs and snacks, so I went to the Lucky's on Mathilda since it's accessible without getting on the overcrowded expressways. There were quite a few things on sale which were on my "buy it if it is on sale" list. Egg nog, for instance. :-)

Home, in the mail was a letter from the CPA whom I hired to do the parental trust taxes last year, a whole page single spaced with narrow margins, saying that when they do the 2011 taxes,  they will only work with the data I provide them, ( Read more... )

So much for taking a nap when I got home. Fired up the PC, wrote a nastygram back saying that they would not be doing any more work for me, or this "Harold" guy to whom the letter was addressed. This was the 6th time they got my name and the name of the trust wrong on an official letter, even after I had gone to their office twice to get it corrected. And I went on to note all the mistakes they had made along the way. But I did not mention the real reason the letter ticked me off - what they had done for 2010 was a final tax filing for the trust. If they were competent, they would know there is no 2011 filing to be done.

Signed up for a photo shoot for Sunday.

Plans for tomorrow:
Sleep in
Drive out to Livermore and look at Thai Silk drapes
Saratoga in the evening for a musical revue written by a local director/composer/playwright who I like enough to put up with it being holiday themed.