While on the bus tonight, I noticed a large white van parked in a side street. The van was filthy dirty. Properly manky. Not just a wee bit grubby, but a candidate for the predictable and somewhat cliche'd "also available in white" to be scrawled on the back.
So I almost didn't look when I noticed the finger graffiti. I'm glad I did though, because this was no ordinary finger graffiti.
On the back was the inscription:
"If only my old lady was this dirty"
The response below:
"If only my old man was this clean"
Well 24 hours of resting my voice seems to have been enough to allow Dragon to at least partially understand me again. Well it's at least able to discern words, rather than constantly flashing ??? at me (the software equivalent of a blank look and a shrug).
Anyway, I'm bored of whingeing about this now, and if I'm bored, then you lot must be even more bored, and for that I apologise.
So on to the important topic of today's post.
You are in a room with the three Top Gear presenters - Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond (funny how Dragon gets the name Richard Hammond without any problems whatsoever - maybe we're getting on better than I think...):
Which one would you shag?
Which one would you shoot?
Which one would you marry?
Answers to the usual place (and I want to know your reasons why).
So I spend an evening talking to myself and feeling both foolish and frustrated by turns, and actually manage to get some (very short) emails done.
We'll have to leave the discussion on why this was significantly more difficult than it needed to be for another time, because I'm having to type this and it's hurting so I'm going to have to stop soon.
Why am I having to type this?
Well y'see, I woke up this morning with a sore throat. Didn't think much about it because I'm having a quiet day in and hadn't really spoken to anyone.
Which is why I hadn't realised that I've almost lost my voice. Not entirely, but enough that Dragon can't understand me even to the (fairly pitiful) level that it did last night, and it would seem that I sound so bad that it thinks that the audio settings are borked when I try and record a new voice file.
Thank god for DVDs and laptops with DVD drives.
Well, what a week this has been.
I don't even know how to begin to describe it.
I'm trying to stay positive, but it's been incredibly difficult and frustrating and quite honestly, I'm utterly exhausted.
There's a lot more that I wanted to write about, but Dragon (the software, not stalker Dragon) and I are still not particularly on speaking terms and there's only so much frustration that I can handle in one sitting.
Thank you for all your comments and messages of support, they've meant a lot to me and have really kept me going through the times when the pain or frustration levels were particularly high.
Big thanks also to Patrick for the Amazon care package, which I found on my doormat when I got home. It's much appreciated and will give me something to distract me from the joys of talking to myself as I attempt to get Dragon to understand my (not particularly strong, but admittedly Scottish) accent.
What goes around comes around.
Six years ago I started blogging because I was off work because my "disability" (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Hypermobility Type) had got all out of hand after a dose of the flu.
Six weeks ago I had a really bad dose of the flu.
Despite my best efforts, that disability, which I've fought to keep under control for the last four years, has got all out of hand again, but in a different way. Then it was my major joints that were the biggest problems, this time, rather than being my knees and hips and shoulders, it's my hands.
I've had a bit of trouble with my hands before, but mostly one hand at a time, and not for any great length of time. Combined with the fact that it's been a couple of years since my last really bad patch, well, I wasn't really prepared for how painful it was going to be.
I shouldn't even really be typing this, because the motion of typing is about the most painful thing I can do right now.
Which leads me to my dilemma.
I want to keep blogging, but it hurts to type (this post has been agony), and it might take a wee while before I manage to get some kind of voice input software sorted out. I had thought about doing a proper podcast - where I record and upload a sound file rather than typing my posts, but by their very nature they'd be inaccessible because I wouldn't be able to create a transcript (and if I could, I would just type rather than record).
So I'm stuck between wanting to do something that will make blogging more accessible to me in the short term, but which I know will be inaccessible to those who can't hear and not doing it because I know it'll be inaccessible and as a result not blogging for a bit... and that's not even getting into the whole issue of whether anyone would actually download and listen to it if I did do it.
But before I go (for however long it takes for me to sort something out), I have to say thanks to a couple of folk.
Firstly, to my secret pal for sending me a couple of cards and a lovely set of stitch markers.
Secondly, to whoever sent me the Battlestar Galactica Season 1 DVDs from my wishlist - thank you so much. I was feeling really crappy when I got home - my hands were agony and the amazon package was so unexpected. You really made my day and it's something I can do without using my hands.
You both rock.
Two threes.
Half a dozen.
Five plus one.
Six times one.
Four plus two.
Two times three.
Three plus three.
The highest number on a die.
One fifth of the age I will attain on my birthday this year.
The number of years I've been writing a blog, as of today.
My sister is having a baby.
I've known for a while now that she's having a baby, but today it finally became real. When I saw the evidence.
This is no blob. This is a baby.
My wee sis. Pregnant.
I'm going to be an auntie (or maybe an uncle - don't know what model it is yet).
This blows my mind.
Sarnie 1 of 5.
Henny organised a raffle as part of her fundraising efforts before heading off to the arctic. I coughed up some cash and bought a few raffle tickets.
Amazingly, I won a prize.
Even more amazingly, I won the one prize which I really seriously wanted/needed.
A week's worth of free sandwiches from the shop across the road.
Perfect.
... the online home and (not very) alter(ed)-ego of Ann McMeekin, a recently freelance Web Accessibility Consultant.
... passionate about many things, most of which will turn up on this site at some time or other.
... contactable via email.
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