Perchance to sleep

 As eluded to in my last post, late last year I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea, which explains a lot of the trouble I'd been having sleeping over the previous year (and probably much longer), as well as other symptoms (chronic cough and indigestion, frequent nightmares/stress dreams, etc.)  I now have to use a BiPAP machine, and while it took some getting used to, honestly it's been a godsend.  I still usually wake up once (but, as far as I know, only once) per night, but I generally wake up feeling rested, which certainly beats the alternatives as I was so fatigued by the end that even driving in the morning could be scary.  It's nice to not to be constantly nearly falling asleep at my desk at work, not to mention less concern with longer-term complications.  And I actually generally look forward to sleep again.  

For anyone who happens to read this and needs to hear it: if you have any reason to believe you have a condition like this or any other sleep disorder, get it looked at as soon as possible.  Sleep is so important, more than you might even realize.

Adrian and Tabby

 Also as mentioned in my "comeback" post (one before the last), I have two cats now, a 200% increase from my previous amount of cats.

They came to me at the end of my own previous life, last December.  Both from a person who no longer had adequate space for them, along with their two other cats that these two didn't get along with.

They're very much a study in opposites, and while they coexist they don't always fully get along with each other, but they're both extremely lovey towards me.  I also kept the names they came with.

Adrian is about seven now.  A former stray, who left the streets with a tipped ear, a once-broken tail and a very nervous disposition.  She's gray with white trim, including a white triangle on her face with a gray chin and black nose, and is on the chunky side as (as the vet told me) often happens to strays that become housecats.  She could best be described as a furry potato, though occasionally I do succeed in getting her to play a little, or catch her batting a toy that's been left out around.  She generally doesn't want Tabby getting into her space.

Tabby, about three, is, as the name suggests, a gray/brown tabby, with white tuxedo markings and a white streak down her left back leg.  She looks like a perfectly-formed storybook cat, but in miniature - according to the vet she weighs 8 pounds, but I question that, as she's tiny for a fully-grown cat and there's nothing to her.  Despite her size she has a seemingly endless supply of energy and can be quite an agent of chaos; very talky (though her meows sound like squeaks, and her purring is usually too soft to hear).  She's very much the extrovert of the duo, which Adrian doesn't always appreciate.

Getting them was initially meant to be a group effort, but I unexpectedly ended up a "single parent" to them soon after they came home.  But having them helped me through tough times earlier this year, and now I can't imagine life without them.