Friday. As mentioned, to sleep after eleven, up once or twice during the night which was better than my experience last night and then up at the alarm to put things together and head off to breakfast on an overcast morning.

A crick in the neck. Is that right, a “crick”? A pain at the top of the neck, base of the skull on my right side to the point where you place your hand under head to raise it up from the pillow rather than raise it up by itself without support. Not for the first time over this life, nothing that hasn't happened (fairly rarely, fortunately) before, but disconcerting. A pain in the, well, neck.

Later. A lie down on the bed to rest the aching neck, some time on the computer, a walk down to the bus stop thinking I'd go downtown and pick up the balance of a prescription and one of the blood sugar testing kits, deciding at the last minute it would be better to go later and take another nap. Nothing out of the ordinary in this in that I'm often feeling less than enthusiastic in the late mornings.

Finally a bus downtown to go by the pharmacy, yes they had the refill ready, yes they had a blood sugar device and so yes I bought one and plan on running it for the first time later this afternoon. I suspect the doctor will write a prescription for one when I see him on Monday and the insurance would have covered much to the cost had I delayed, but evidently the real ongoing cost is in the test strips you have to buy to use with the meter and those will be covered if it turns out I need to use them here on out.

Still overcast, still a big muggy, a set of pictures taken when I got off the bus a stop early to shoot starting at the far side of the construction project and then on along the side from the sidewalk. Snapshots are the best description, I just raised the camera and got what I got. No complaints, the day stumbles on, we have the J-Pop weekend starting tomorrow, life will go well if that turns out.

Later still. It turns out the blood sugar meter is much like the meter they were using at the hospital and much easier to use than the device I use to measure the blood thinner every week. Takes almost no blood, gives a reading right away. I'm on the six meal a day routine, been on it for a long time now, and so I made a measurement after consuming one of the Pad Thai noodle cups.

One thirty-eight. Best it read less than one-forty after a meal it says in the instructions, so I guess we're on target. We'll do more, they evidently want you to take a measurement before a meal and then after, but they're thinking a three meal a day schedule, not six. At least it doesn't look as if we're going to fall on our face.

Evening. Another New Tricks followed by two chapters of Midsomer Murders at eight on PBS, the New Tricks about what I expected, certainly watchable, no complaints. The Midsomer Murders had a plot that was rather, um, surreal, but I guess that's not altogether important in enjoying these things, although I wondered at the fact the character interplay and dialogue seemed to make up for a comic book plot right til the end.

You're just worried you're showing yourself to be an idiot by admitting to this.

Strange, isn't it? Worrying after the horse has left the barn now for so many years?

A better phrase would have been “the cat's been out of the bag” now for so many years.

I'm allergic to cats.