Done yesterday (20090615)

[mdlbear]

0615 Mo
  $ 03:34 housekeeping check for YD - $200
  & 03:57 unable to sleep for about the last 90min; will try again.
    * maybe 1/2 hour of relaxation and an hour of sleep; vivid dream.
  * up 5:40ish; drugs, nose, teeth; coffee, C
  $ 7:40 e-paid some bills
  * 9:30 Colleen: psych - Campbell
    good time to get prescriptions refilled
  $ paid phone bills.  
  * 1:15 found the usual 11:15 mtg rescheduled, so I got to it after all
  * 2:30-4:00 Caregiver support group - 19000 Homestead (Tantau)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillain-Barré_syndrome
    more networking than support, but will be useful
    -> Kaiser has something around "complex case management" -- not at all
       clear whether we'd qualify.
  x 5:30 Planets group
  & IM with N, partly about possible travel plans around OSCON
    = beware of trying to maximize the wrong function
      (e.g. utility rather than friend-bonding)
    = "What if we do X?" is better than "OK, Plan B: we do X."
    ! chagrinned
  & Tuck Colleen in ~10pm; bath; bed ~11

The main thing about yesterday was the caregiver support group at Kaiser; it meets the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month, and I should have started going to it back in January when I was doing Colleen's TPN. Yeah, it'll be useful. This time I think I gave more information than I got -- there was a woman caring for her husband there; we spent an hour or so after the group swapping information. She pointed out that stress makes one fuzzy-minded and forgetful; that's good to remember.

The evening's IM conversation pointed out a couple of valuable lessons which ought to get their own River posts at some point:

1. Present half-baked plans by asking "What if we do X?" rather than by saying "OK, we do X." The latter gives the impression that things have already been decided, which is misleading and potentially hurtful.
2. Beware of trying to optimize the wrong function. The main point of an activity may be obvious to one or two people involved, but things around the edges may be much more important to others, or to the group as a whole.