I had a small 'incident'

My blood sugar went way too low while I was walking the dogs. Normally, I have about half an hour when I first notice the symptoms, and since I was literally 3 houses away - just around the corner, and heading back home anyways, I wasn't alarmed. A minute later, I was having difficulty seeing - everything was blotchy. it's never struck this fast.

I was in the driveway, and instead of turning right to go up my stairs, I went left. I don't know why. Probably confusion brought on by severe hypoglycemia, and the dogs pulled me there instead (though they never did that before).

I tried to open the door, but it wouldn't open. I looked around in confusion, but by now I was pretty much blind - the last I remember is going to try the door handle again.

Next thing I know, there's police cars and a fire engine (the city sends out a crew of 6).

The end result is that when I collapsed, I broke a couple of ribs where they attach to the spinal column when I landed on a flower pot, and the concrete patio beat up my left elbow pretty good. The rest are minor cuts and scrapes. But it hurts to breathe, sleeping is almost impossible, and it takes 10 minutes to get in or out of bed. Getting dressed or undressed is torture.

It could have been a lot worse. If I had turned right instead of left, I would have been inside and partly up the staircase. It could have taken a while for people to notice I wasn't answering my phone, and I could have been lying there with a broken neck or back, blocking my door. My dogs probably saved my neck ...

So right now it's too painful to do a lot of things, including updating the site. I have some dilaudid left over form surgery, but broken ribs are funny - it doesn't really cut the pain enough. A hot shower, though, works temporary wonders; I'll settle for that.

Sorry, and I'll be back ASAP. Thank you for understanding.

One of the great things about having a home office is that my schedule is a bit more flexible than when I did the 9 to 5 routine

If I need a break, or just some away from the computer to think, I can take the dogs for a walk, or go to the store, or take pen and paper and just sit on the couch and think, without worrying that someone will see this is "unproductive time".

I keep an eye on the weather, and on nice days, I'll squeeze in a load or two of laundry. I like the smell and feel of sheets that have been hung outside in the sun to dry. Dryer sheets and fabric softeners don't give quite the same smell or feel, and 10 minutes to hang it out to dry when I break for lunch works for me.

We all make promises to ourselves, and we break them because it's easy to break them. This applies to everyone, and not just about transitioning or coming out as lesbian or gay.

There are ways to improve your success rate.

1. Take small steps

I made myself a promise to go even greener this year. For two years now, I've parked the car in the garage during the winter months. Winter is yucky to drive in - it's cold, you have to scrape the windshield after you park outside if it snows, people forget that stopping takes longer on ice, you get worse gas mileage and emit more pollutants, you have to warm up the car, slush accumulates inside, a 15-minute drive to the office becomes a 75-minute drive ...

Summer, well, summer's better for driving. You can open the windows, you don't have to sit there in the car waiting for it to warm up enough to leave, get stuck behind a snowplow, or any of the other winter nastiness.

But driving isn't the best way to enjoy what nature has to offer. So I decided I was going to take the plunge and buy a bicycle. A nice one, with fenders to keep the rain off (because sometimes it rains :-), a rack for carrying things, nice fat soft tires for a nice ride.

And I'd face my trepidation about getting back on a bicycle so long after my last one was "eaten" by a defective manhole.

For the 150th article, I've decided to resurrect Barbie's Blog. There are some things I want to write about that just don't fit into any particular topic.

The threats

Shortly after publishing Flushing out the truth about notmybathrom.com, 3 emails showed up in my spam folder.

I know the following about you. (see story body for the details) Get rid of that article or you lose your anonymity. Everyone will know everything about you. Do it now.

Not a nice threat, so say the least.