mastodon.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
The original server operated by the Mastodon gGmbH non-profit

Administered by:

Server stats:

383K
active users

#neurospicy

15 posts14 participants0 posts today

Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 487 , Wednesday 26/02/2025

Wednesday started about 07:30 after a fraught night where I struggled to get warm & had weird achy feet - Geoff was also a bit of a bastard for some reason - possibly because I didn’t hydrate enough yesterday.

Came down & had breakfast then took my coffee & my book back to bed for an hour.

Got up & got my chores done then read my book again until it was time for my therapy session with Sami.
She wanted to talk about my relationship with Mrs S. - who was working from home so i had to go out into the garden. Thankfully it was another sunny morning & with it being near midday it was moderately warm. I made sure to have my hoodie on to keep me warm.

It was a difficult session & I’m not going to bore you with the details, but it left me psychologically battered & bruised. I know that in the long run it’s worth it though.

Made lunch & cleared up then spent some time on NMS sorting out what I wanted to take back from the Titan expedition to my primary save.

NMS has come on leaps & bounds - hats off to Hello Games, they’ve made a grand job of it - its easily the best open world space game on the PS 5 now that the folks who write Elite:Dangerous have decide not to support the platform on their new content.

Final Thoughts.

Getting into my book on the HMS Erebus, it’s not quite what I thought it would be, being far more of a historical travelogue than an actual story, but it’s keeping my interest & it’s fascinating learning about how it was built & the characters who sailed aboard!

I hope that I manage to get a decent nights sleep tonight!

Thank you to all those who are helping me on this journey, in a myriad different ways. I am thankful to each & every one of you! 🫂 🫶🐿️🖖

@actuallyautistic
#TimsASDjourney #ActuallyAutistic #Neurospicy #TheMammutMoves

Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 486 , Tuesday 25/02/2025

Tuesday started just after 7am for no better reason than I had had a rough night & once the sun rose it seemed like my body had made its mind up that it was now fully away.

I think I got chilled yesterday while I was out - I wore a t-shirt & a sweat shirt but is was only 9ºC in the sun & I had wet hands for most of my time outside. I’ve been cold all day - not freezing just not warm despite extra layers & snuggling under my throw.

I had a quick breakfast & then went back to bed for an hour or so to listen to my audiobook & wallow in self pity.

Ultimately I decided that I could just as effectively wallow in self pity downstairs as up so I got washed & dressed & came downstairs.

Did my chores - lets face it if I don’t do them then they simply won’t get done.

Finished my current audiobook just after lunch, really could not find anything that appealed to me to watch on TV so did some more on the NMS ‘Titan’ expedition.

We had another energy saving session late this afternoon, so we’ve earned another few pence off our electric bill.

I started to read ‘Erebus:The Story of a Ship’ by Michael Palin, by way of a change while we were in the saving session - its an ebook so the low light conditions didn’t present a problem.

Final Thoughts.

Gotta TT session tomorrow, I know Sami wants to talk about my relationship but Mrs S is at home that that won’t be happening!

In other news - Mrs S gets a reminder from the vet for us to give Alice & Sophie their anti-flea/tick stuff but obviously it’s not feeding or cuddling them so it falls to me!

Thank you to all those who are helping me on this journey, in a myriad different ways. I am thankful to each & every one of you! 🫂 🫶🐿️🖖

@actuallyautistic
#TimsASDjourney #ActuallyAutistic #Neurospicy #TheMammutMoves

Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 485 , Monday 24/02/2025

Monday started around 7am. I got breakfast & did my chores.

It was another really lovely morning so I went out into the garden again & did some more work on the pond - the new outlets are finished & I’ve got the pond facing side of the filter all prettied up again.

Spent another 3 or 4 hours outdoors & then spent the afternoon listening to my audiobook in the afternoon sun.

Fried chicken for tea tonight as we missed out yesterday & Mrs S had a a hankering for it!

Final Thoughts.

I’ve had a nice quiet day & felt better for it, I am totally solar powered & the sunshine is helping raise my mood a lot!

Thank you to all those who are helping me on this journey, in a myriad different ways. I am thankful to each & every one of you! 🫂 🫶🐿️🖖

@actuallyautistic
#TimsASDjourney #ActuallyAutistic #Neurospicy #TheMammutMoves

Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 484 , Sunday 23/02/2025

TL:DR Repair Shop eat your heart out!
Also computing & how many ways can I bore the pants off people in the weeks & months to come - you wanna see autistic hyperfocus in action, watch this space & you may well see it!

Sunday started at around 04:40 in the very AM! Dunno what woke me up but I got little pockets of sleep interspersed with listening to my audiobook until 8am when I at last gave in & got up.

Made breakfast & emptied the dishwasher (more about this below) & then watched ‘Winterwatch’ with Mrs S & Sophie & Alice - who adore Chris Packham!

Mrs S vanished into her room to read, as is her wont, I had a shower then made the bed.

It was a wet & windy morning & my muscles were still complaining about yesterday so I decided a day inside would be appropriate!

Mrs S had asked me to look at her digital watch which had stopped working - it’s only a cheap is Timex™, her choice not mine, & I suspected a new battery was in order. I too it apart on Friday, gave it a bit of a clean & ordered a pack of the relevant batteries - our battery draw is fast becoming as well stocked as some shops!

The batteries arrived yesterday so after my shower I dug out my watchmakers kit & set to fitting the new battery.
It’s fiddly work, with teeny, tiny screws that require a special screwdriver & tweezers to remove & fit again but there is nothing hard about it, anyone with enough patience & some vaguely fine motor skills can do it. The biggest problem I have is that I have to put my glasses on to do the macro work - like releasing the new battery from its ‘child-proof’ packaging - more like everyone proof! I managed to slice my finger when cutting open the stupid thing! Then I have to take my glasses off to do the fine work.
Anyway it’s done now.

11:50 Ahh the power of the internet!
So I noticed the other day when I had the dishwasher on it’s monthly cleaning cycle that there was a weird noise - when the cycle had finished I found the container with the cleaner in it had gone walkabout so I assumed that was the cause.
Then I happened to accidentally start the dishwasher last night (we normally run it on a timer to catch the E7 discount so I’m normally in the land of nod when it runs.) & the noise was still there - like a rattly/ grinding noise coming from the pump!
I put the dishwasher on its normal cycle overnight just to check if it was still cleaning the dishes & when I got down this morning everything was clean (thankfully Mrs S has done her usual ‘selective’ empty of just the stuff she needed - normally this pisses me off but today it meant I could actually check the state of the dishes.).

I turned the machine on again & again there was the noise - the water pump was not happy!
I psyched myself up to do a full dismantle - not an easy thing given the location of the dishwasher & the way the plumbing is routed.
Before I started I thought it wise to see if I could get my hands on a service manual but while Miele happily provide a user manual online getting hold of a service manual needs one to part with cold, hard cash!

On the off chance that others may have encountered the same problem I did a DDG search for noisy Miele dishwashers & found a YT vid by a lass called Veronica, with the exact same noise. She demonstrated a technique to get at the pump from the inside of the machine & she found a part off the middle basket - like a very small long cap - seems it was a part off the middle tray assembly.
I followed the same procedure & found a similar shaped item in the pump cavity! In our case it was a protective cap that covers the tines along the edge of the bottom & middle baskets - I added these several years ago to help stop the plastic cover being damaged & corrosion setting in. (Them baskets are flipping expensive!!)

So suck on that all you JD Vance / Orange Oaf types who deride the ability’s of the women of the world, maybe one day you will join the rest of the human race in understanding that ability transcends all the DEI differences you scorn!

I take my hat off to Veronica & am so grateful to her for saving me hours of swearing & effort!
So now I’m sitting back listing to the whisper quiet sounds of the dishwasher as it goes thru a short test cycle!

12:27 Seems the dishwasher noise problem is solved! Yay to the power of folk like Veronica who have the nounce to a) solve such problems & b) make a video of her fix & explain it in short words for those of us with lesser abilities!

Wondering if I should do scrambled egg & beans for lunch - I have a hankering, that said we have some frozen ham that needs eating up so the scrambled egg may have to wait.

Ah Mrs S is moving about upstairs, no doubt feeling that I should be making her some lunch about now too.

Caught up on a few more of Mrs S’s tv shows this afternoon.

Pie & flipping salad for tea, not even a different salad, oh for an original choice 🙄🤦‍♂️

Mrs S has discovered ‘The Tower’ cop series - which is ok but we binge watched series one & have started series 2. Enough already!

Final Thoughts.

Started reading J Clark Scott’s ‘But How Do It Work?’ as part of my re-discovery of computing basics & feel my deep abiding love for computing returning with a vengeance!

Oh I can leave most lay-people standing, & am a total nerd, but I last studied computing at college & although the bare basics are the same computing as a whole has come on leaps an bounds.
My expert knowledge used to be in Mainframe configuration & storage, but since one needs an inconveniently large room & some very specialised environmental kit to own one (not to mention a heap of money) then I needs must choose a smaller platform to work with. I have chosen Linux as there is a wealth of knowledge out there & it is easy & cheap to get a Linux box up & running (indeed I have UBUNTU installed on my old 2009 MBP) so all I really need is to get my hands on reference material & dig up the motivation to pursue my studies.
There is no motive here other than to learn - which is a new approach for me. I am sitting no targets & I have no great expectations at the end of the exercise.
I might even get into coding again, but for that I need a project so that will be down the line.
Yes @NormanDunbar I may well get an Arduino kit & use that along with your book as the basis of any future programming project, just bare with me my friend, with everything going off in my head it is going to take a little time to get there!
I might even be brave & get your books on using assembly language (when you finish them 😊) - but one step at a time!

I have already said thanks to @amiserabilist for pointing me at the book that is proving to be the catalyst for revisiting computing in its most fundamental forms but such thanks bares repeating! Thank you 🙏

Thank you to all those who are helping me on this journey, in a myriad different ways. I am thankful to each & every one of you! 🫂 🫶🐿️🖖

@actuallyautistic
#TimsASDjourney #ActuallyAutistic #Neurospicy #TheMammutMoves

It may be one of those days where my brain just keeps racing...
So much I wanna write and share...
So much I wanna do...
So of course I already feel exhausted, even though I've not done that much yet.
I've only been up for almost 9 hours now, so still some hours to go...
Will I be able to get things done today?
I wonder... 🤔
I did do a few things already, just not all that I still wanna do...
But the brain is jumpy and giving me a slight headache, and this headache is already draining the wee bit of energy that I still had for the upcoming 7 hours or so...
Maybe I just need to lie down for a bit...
Ugh, yay for days when the methylphenidate doesn't seem to work properly. 😔

Sorry for all the babbling. If I get very quiet for a while, then I'm trying to calm my brain some with just lying down with some telly...

Catch you all later folks! :squirtle_jam:

🧚🏼‍♀️ 🍀 💜 🐾

#PixysJourney
#AuDHD
#NeuroSpicy 🌶️

Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 483 , Saturday 22/02/2025

TL:DR the names Pond, James Pond ….

Saturday started, somewhat hesitantly, just after 7am when a noise from next door woke me up - I toyed with the idea of staying in bed for a bit longer but decided that since I was awake I might as well get my ass downstairs & have some breakfast.

Mrs S left to go see her mum just after 8am & it was such a nice morning that I decided to bite the bullet & go & do a little work on the pond.

I built the pond from scratch a few years ago, a number of design restrictions were placed upon me so it’s a bit too close to the fence with next door & a bit to close to the house. It’s more or less square and about 10ft on each side, about 5ft deep at its deepest point, with a reed bed filter on the far side. It has a total capacity of some 3000 litres

The reed bed filter has been phenomenally successful with plants going nuts in there & keeping the water lovely & clean. However all filters need cleaning at some point & the time has come to thin out the plant life & clean the gravel. There has also been a persistent leak, due I suspect to a) the plants basically raising the water level & b) a design flaw in that there was only 1 water outlet in the centre of the reed bed.

So there is a 3 fold set of objectives here: 1) thin out the plant life, while retaining enough to maintain the health of the pond. 2) clean the gravel & 3) add some more water outlets to help with flow & water balance across the length of the filter bed.

Today I was just going to go out & maybe shift 1 or 2 plants … maybe 20 minutes work.
However, as is my wont, I ended up getting carried away & spent until just before midday out there, just shy of 4 hours! It helped that it was a gloriously sunny day & the temperature was around 12 / 13ºC.

So progress so far: about a 3rd of the plant life has been evicted, sadly not in any organised manner, I’m hopping that enough will survive to prevent me from having to buy new stock, also there are plant on the very edge of the filter bed that probably wont come out with out risking the integrity of the liner so they will be left in peace.

II I’ve shifted about 2 bags worth of gravel out of the filter to give me working space to deal with the rest. I can’t clean the gravel without evicting the fish, so that will have to wait until spring. The water already got really dirty today so I’m hoping that the fish will survive this round - they’re a pretty hardy bunch!

I have also added 2 new water outlets via the simple method of taking a hammer & chisel to the breeze blocks that make up the pond facing wall & chipping out a couple of dips to allow water to flow out. It lacks elegance but is effective.

I need to add maybe 2 more outlets & then replace the stones that line the dividing wall to get the aesthetics back to the way they were.

I nearly managed to join the fish a couple of times - the rocks that line the side of the pond by the fence - a narrow strip about 3ft wide - were slippy & it was only because I had the fence to grab a hold of that I didn’t take the plunge!

So there is about another 2 or 3 days work to get the pond & the filer back up to spec, I’m hoping that the nice weather holds until Monday or Tuesday so I can get a little more done.

One of the things I have to do is clear away the plants from the 2 cleaning ports that are part of the pipework, then I can back flush the system & improve the water flow thru it.

The pump also needs some TLC at some point.

I finished up outside just before 12 as I said & had a time for a quick shower & a glass of coke before Mrs S got back with the shopping.

We caught up with some of her shows this afternoon & then needed up have in pizza again as the fired chicken place wasn’t answering their phone.

Final Thoughts.

I’m pretty chuffed with myself for getting out & achieving something, even if only partially. The sunny weather helped loads but being able to force myself outside & then actually getting so involved with the work that I lost track of time helped me feel less of a spare wheel. If I can start to get decent sized jobs like this done on a regular basis I might have a better self image & opinion of myself!

Hopefully the water levels will hold overnight which will indicate I’ve finally fixed that annoying leak!

Thank you to all those who are helping me on this journey, in a myriad different ways. I am thankful to each & every one of you! 🫂 🫶🐿️🖖

@actuallyautistic
#TimsASDjourney #ActuallyAutistic #Neurospicy #TheMammutMoves

Someone has started to add appointments in my calendar with absolutely no description of what it is and where it is. That someone is me. So now I’m spending my evening playing detective with my own damn calendar..

Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 482 , Friday 21/02/2025

Friday has been another quiet day, which was good because I woke around 7am with zero motivation & very little urge to get out of bed.

I got up, made my breakfast & then took my coffee back to bed for an hour.

The day has sped past, I hardly know what filled it. The was some gaming this afternoon & I listened to my audiobook for a while.

Spent some time on here with my Peeps, which made me smile, so there’s that.

It’s been a relatively warm day but windy & squally.

Pizza for tea. Then ‘Waking the dead’.

Final Thoughts.

Feeling very bläh today for no good reason.

Thank you to all those who are helping me on this journey, in a myriad different ways. I am thankful to each & every one of you! 🫂 🫶🐿️🖖

@actuallyautistic
#TimsASDjourney #ActuallyAutistic #Neurospicy #TheMammutMoves

I know "orentated" is technically a correct word, but it triggers the same neurospicy response as "lengthly" and "all of the sudden," so every so often I keep typing "orientated isn't a word" into Google in the hopes that their AI will one day pick up on it and subtly convert people into using "oriented" instead.

Cat ALWAYS helps me with my HRT shot. I can't do it without her.

That acknowledged, someone help me tell this woman thank you. With my broken arm I couldn't do my shot last night.

Instead of simply helping, Cat bravely did it for me. I'm so freaking appriciative. I love her so much.

Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 481 , Thursday 20/02/2025

Thursday impeded into my consciousness just after 7am.

Breakfast & chores followed. Didn’t really get chance to listen to my book today.

The high point of the day was a trip to the dentist & a filling in one of my molars (likely a casualty of all the Christmas goodies) - which kinda gives you a feel for how exciting my days normally are!

It’s unseasonably warm today - around 14ºC mid morning, we often get a mini false spring in mid February.

Played some DL2 this afternoon trying to get some more of the 10th anniversary achievements done.

Some kind of nuked Cumberland pie for tea, & a bit of a Doc Martin binge.

Had a good shenanigans session on here this evening, I smiled a lot, so thanks to all who participated! 😊

Final Thoughts.

Not a bad day - filling not withstanding, it was nice to go outside & not freeze!
Back to the normal humdrum routine tomorrow.

The dentist asked about our holiday plans, always an awkward subject as Mrs S doesn’t like ‘all the hassle’ so we simply don’t go anywhere, but one can’t tell others that so I changed the subject.

Thank you to all those who are helping me on this journey, in a myriad different ways. I am thankful to each & every one of you! 🫂 🫶🐿️🖖

@actuallyautistic
#TimsASDjourney #ActuallyAutistic #Neurospicy #TheMammutMoves

Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 480 , Wednesday 19/02/2025

Wednesday started around 7am despite a disturbed night. I was feeling a little anxious about the 2nd session with Sami my counsellor. I’m not sure why I’m feeling anxious about these sessions Sami is perfectly nice.

I did my chores this morning & listened to my audiobook until the therapy session.

We covered a couple of topics, & touched on the problems I’m having re-engaging fully with my friends on here. I think there is at least one more sessions worth of stuff to cover on that.
Sami was intrigued at how close I feel to all of the folks I share TLs with on here & I tried to explain the nature of our little corner of the Interweb.

Managed to play some more DL2, polishing off the majority of the 10 year anniversary achievements - 1 more to go to get this weeks set. I won’t fully complete all 3 weeks because one of the achievements is to do with playing co-op & I am really not comfortable doing it.

Final Thoughts.

Sami wanted to know what I thought of todays session & I’m still really not sure what I think of it - it’s a lot of me explaining me & my situation I’m not sure if that is the point - it helps to unload of course but I’m still wondering what the therapy bit is.

Dentist tomorrow morning - I have lost a chunk out of one of my back molars, a casualty of Christmas I suspect. So at least one filling to come - joy!

Thank you to all those who are helping me on this journey, in a myriad different ways. I am thankful to each & every one of you! 🫂 🫶🐿️🖖

@actuallyautistic
#TimsASDjourney #ActuallyAutistic #Neurospicy #TheMammutMoves

Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 479 , Tuesday 18/02/2025

Tuesday started around 8am, Mrs S had gone into the office so it was a peaceful day.

I spent the vast majority of the day listening to my Audibook - I did my chores of course but really could not get into anything else.
The new speaker is working a treat! It’s small enough (about the size of a box of Aftereights) to be easily moved around & the sound quality is excellent - certainly for the audiobooks.

We had yet another energy saving session this evening - it was 5pm to 6pm so I was pretty much on my own for it.

Alice has been in a very cuddly sort of mood today, she has come over & begged for a snuggle 4 or 5 times today, which is a lot for her. I think that she might be feeling a little insecure as there is a new tom in the area that has been harassing Alice & Sophie. Sophie just yells at him but it seems Alice needs some extra TLC, which is fine , she purrs like a hose full of cats & while she only wants cuddling for a few minutes each time she really seems to enjoy it. 😊

We had a Melton Mowbray pork pie with salad for tea - I am fast becoming sick of this as a meal, it’s totally out of season & while it made a change the first time we had it, when the weather was a little warmer it’s getting to the stage where I’m going to feed it to Mrs S & have beans on toast myself!
It wouldn’t be so bad if Mrs S didn’t get the same pre-prepared salad bowl (only one between the 2 of us, (heaven forbid we splash out on 2!) which means I have to try & divide the constituent parts equally between us - a definite object lesson in chaos theory & entropy!

20:00 Ugh, my tinnitus is screaming in my ears & Mrs S has gone up to read her book & left me on my own as usual, I get a whole 2 hours of her company of an evening & that’s it.

I might go to bed & listen to some more of my book.

Final Thoughts.

Next therapy session with Sami tomorrow, not sure if I’m in the right frame of mind for it though!

Thank you to all those who are helping me on this journey, in a myriad different ways. I am thankful to each & every one of you! 🫂 🫶🐿️🖖

@actuallyautistic
#TimsASDjourney #ActuallyAutistic #Neurospicy #TheMammutMoves