zyzyly

This evening we went to the town lighting of the Christmas tree at the town centre/center. The temperature was around -3C/26F so we all dressed very warmly. I was wearing heavy wool socks, parka, gloves, wool scarf, and warm hat, and had the hood of the parka up as well, and while most of me stayed warm enough, my toes and my nose got very cold, and my gloves weren't quite thick enough and my fingers were cold as well. We were standing around outside for about an hour listening to recorded music as well as to the local middle school brass band playing Christmas songs, and my daughter and I were just wishing they would hurry up and get to the tree lighting part because we were so cold. When they did eventually flip the switch to light the tree it was very dramatic of course. After the tree was lit one of the local fire trucks arrived fully decorated with Christmas lights and carrying Santa Claus. The girls had fun with various school friends but they were happy to come home after an hour. Now I'm at home trying to get the blood flowing to my toes again. The floor in this basement has heating but it seems to run in a fairly narrow band across the middle of the floor, so I have to sit in a particular spot so that my feet are on the warm part. It feels good but my toes are still very cold and still look blue.

maju

It was -10°C/14°F this morning and predicted to stay under freezing point all day, so I'm thinking I will stay inside and walk up and down the stairs for exercise.

I don't want to sound ungrateful, because I really do appreciate my daughter and son in law making their basement available for me to live in, but it can be hard not being in my own space where I'm able to prepare and eat my own choice of food. My daughter and son in law are both good cooks and in general I very much enjoy eating whatever they prepare, but just sometimes I want to eat something that is not in their repertoire. Things are complicated by the fact that this is a gluten-free household by necessity, so I can never have the bread I like (or make my own); other meals being gluten-free is fine but for breakfast I miss the toast I used to make with my own sourdough bread.)

On every previous visit here I've known it was only temporary and sooner or later I would be back in my own environment, but this time I'm adjusting to the idea that it's permanent, or at least much longer term than ever before. (I'm still holding out hope that things will work out for me to either move to a separate apartment or into a granny flat that's been added to this house.)

There are many benefits to being here, of course. I feel safer knowing I'm not alone in the house if something bad happens to me or I fall ill. I am very relieved that I'm no longer responsible for running a house and maintaining a yard. I love seeing my granddaughters all the time and the physical affection they give me.

I know my being here is something of an imposition on the family. I'm living in what used to be the girls' playroom. It's also where my son in law's piano is kept, so he needs to be able to feel comfortable coming down here to play it every day at times when I'm not down here. I try to stay upstairs for long enough at different times during the day for him to get his piano time.

summersgate

Full Moon. Chloe texted me around 8 last night to ask if I had seen the Super Moon yet so I went out to take a look at it. It was cold last night. The kind of cold that sticks in your throat and freezes your nose hairs. It was only 2F this morning. When they first started talking about "super moons" years ago I thought it was something rare but they happen 3 or 4 times a year. Still, any excuse to get outside and see the night sky is a good thing.

Dave went off with Andy to retrieve the knife that he accidently left in the woods when he killed his buck. And then he hopes to stop by and visit an old friend of his. She's in her 90s and he hasn't seen her in 30 years. I hope she's home. Me, I'm just sticking around the house and working on the mirrors. I'll probably get done with them today. Plus we are going to an ARC potluck dinner tonight in Clarion and I want to make 3 bean salad to take.

susandennis

Biggie takes 3 pills a day. He has a vet appointment next week. His old vet moved to Iowa. So this is a new-ish one. She saw him last fall when he ate (and then popped) the nose plug but she hasn't weighed in on his pills/food. The last vet gave him one of the pills to discourage him from eating weird shit. The other pill was in lieu of the hyper expensive food she had prescribed the year before for his urinary issues.

I'm thinking we drop the anti anxiety pill and see how that goes. And then also drop the other one and go back to the hyper expensive food. Expensive, yes, but easier over all. He's fine. He acts fine. He eats fine. He poops fine. He pees fine. He drinks plenty of water. He's fine.

Oh and the tofu litter? It's really really fine. I am never going back. It's cleaner with no dust or debris and I also feel like I need less of it to do the job.

This morning, I think I'll go out and get some smaller cash. I never need 20 dollar bills. When I do need cash, it's ones and fives. There is a little Christmas fair this morning to raise money for something. But Martha has a table so I have to go. If I want to buy something, it's much more considerate to have exact change and all I have are 20's. To today is a good excuse to go get some usable money. I set up the Chase account for this very reason but have yet to take advantage. The closest Chase branch is very close.

It's cold and rainy but not nearly cold enough for ice so no big obstacle for going out and the car needs to stretch its tires.

mallorys_camera

Tentative opening of Chapter 4, Work in Progress:

Wiltwyck Hospital was a small community hospital. We didn't have a lot of sophisticated resources. We didn't have________. We didn't have________. We didn't have________. We didn't have ________. There wasn't much we could do for COVID patients, but the COVID patients kept coming in anyway.

Problemo is not having been an RN during COVID, I don't have the slightest idea what resources might or might not have been available to a small community hospital.

I've been calling all my nurse friends and putting the question to them. Except they don't have the slightest idea either, since all of them had managed to get out of hospital nursing by the time COVID hit.

Yesterday, I chattered with Barbara Angell for an hour and a half.

And it was a great conversation, except that it did not yield me the info I was after.

Barbara did remind me that during COVID, all hospitals looked like lawn parties in the Hamptons since they were surrounded by these enormous white open-air tents where people were tested for COVID and had their vitals done so that once they were admitted, they could be shunted off to the COVID only wards.

And also that once they were admitted, COVID patients were forced to rest prone on beds, face down, because some CDC sartrap had ascertained that, however uncomfortable and unrestful this position might be, it provided the best aeration for damaged lungs.

So, I guess I will work with that.

###

Meanwhile, it is a balmy 7° here in the quaint and scenic Hudson Valley. So cold, the chickens' water has been freezing over, so mornings start with me literally hammering through the ice scrim on the poultry fountain.

When the thermometer hits double digits, I will toddle off for my annual haircut. I am lucky, I have great hair. It always looks good until it hits that length where it begins to get weedy. It hit that length about a week ago.

I have the beginnings of a cold, which I'm trying to ignore. And now that I've restarted the gummie protocol, I am a bit braindead.

But better braindead than sleepless.

Plus the great thing about "braindead" is that you don't have enough battery charge to actually care that you're braindead!

conuly

Which, good for her, but she's not going to make the big bucks in social work, which is what she's getting her BS in. Well, best of luck to her anyway. (She does have her eyes wide open, because everybody has told her that. Unsurprising.)

*****************

( Read more... )

ranunculus

Sat and Sun are December's Obstacle Practice Days here at the Ranch. As usual I have 8 obstacles planned. Sunday's event already has its limit of 10 riders signed up. Saturday has 5. I have no idea why Sunday is more popular, but that has been true on several recent events. In any case, I'm really happy to have this many riders signed up in the middle of winter. It is true that the weather has been spectacular for the last week and should be perfect on Sat: Sunny with a high of 65F. The hills are green and lovely.
Got some shelves half installed. They are good metal industrial style shelving that were being thrown out of the Opera House back when I was working there. I brought them up from Henry St last week.
Scored an excellent buy of some used but very good fence panels. Priced about $150 per panel. New they would be 250+. It was one of those deals that I tuck a little money away for. Thank goodness Ray was willing to pick them up for me, the seller wanted them gone ASAP.

somedayseattle

In my previous life as a walking human being, I was quite an active photographer. My goal for every week was at least 100 photos. Out of that would come four or five great shots. I kept them corralled on a page over yonder at Flickr. In early 2023 the camera on my iPod gave up the ghost. I still had professional equipment as well as a pocket camera, but they didn’t have the convenience of the iPod. I had to remember to bring them and if I didn’t, I was out of luck. Towards the end of 2023 I got sick and was hospitalized. Being in the hospital and not having the convenience of the iPod put an end to my photography. I changed my Flickr page from professional back to basic. Fast forward to today and I have a new phone with an excellent camera. I’m not fully biped yet, but I am far more mobile than I was two years ago. I’m out and about, taking pictures of every little thing I see. Some nice and artistic & others just documenting the details of every day life.

So with that in mind I am upgrading my Flickr account back to professional. All 31 pages, over 3000 photos, are now available for public consumption. Drop in and you can put names to faces. Pictures of all the people in The Weirdness Parade that is my life. You’ll see

tinytadpole, Da 2 Headstrong Sistas, Maxwell, Your Favorite Mustached Black Cat. You’ll see pictures of J-Nic and going back a couple years you’ll see Detective Ziggy Pigglesworth and Da Lady Zoe Blubbington. . You van even see pics of my full-on mountain man look whilst hospitalized.

Framed prints or now available !!!
Instructions-
1-Pick out a photograph. Click the 'print' button. Print the photograph.
2-Go to the Dollar tree and purchase a frame.
3-Insert printed photograph into recently purchased frame. BOOM!! You got yourself a framed pic.
4-Send me $19.99 for licensing fees and you’re all set!

Check out my page here. If you have a Flickr page send me a link so I can check you out.

summersgate

It was cold today but sunny so that was nice. We walked down back to the creek and lake in the afternoon and Rainy even went with us. She did get some ice balls on her legs but she was wearing a sweater so at least her tummy didn't have ice balls. After that Dave and I, with Andy drove to Cochranton Vet to pick up Skye's regular meds and then to Meadville to go shopping. By the time we got home the sun was setting and doing it's thing where it lights up the rainbow flags on the back porch. With the icicles getting lit up by the sun too I thought I should get out the big camera. ( Read more... )

maju

3. What is your favorite fictional story? (novel, movie, fairytale, etc.) Too many to count really, but I guess one of my favourites is the whole Anne of Green Gables saga, which follows Anne through her life from when she was adopted from an orphanage at 11 years old to when she was an older woman with several adult children.

4. Where or who do you turn to when you need good advice? I used to turn to S as well as looking online; now I'm more likely to just look online or perhaps talk to my daughter.

maju

I'm reading a book in which a family from Atlanta, Georgia is visiting another family just outside of Anchorage, Alaska, for Christmas. The daughter of one of the families is attracted to the son of the other family (and it's mutual). However, parts of the story seem implausible. In one scene, the woman has been working late at night and goes outside around 1 am to clear her head, throwing on a coat and a pair of boots before she goes out, plus picking up a blanket. Just the coat and boots doesn't seem like enough warm outerwear for after midnight in Alaska in December to me. But then she finds the man she's attracted to outside, apparently also clearing his head. At one point he stands up and stretches, and she gets a tantalising glimpse of his flat stomach. Okay then, but that makes it sound like he is dressed very inadequately for after midnight in Alaska in December, doesn't it? Out of curiosity I checked the weather forecast for Anchorage Alaska for the next week, and it seems that the overnight temperatures will be ranging from about 0F to about 6F. That's -18C to -14C. Would someone from Atlanta Georgia be hanging out outside in the middle of the night in those temperatures? It seems highly improbable to me.

susandennis

When I lie on my side in the bed, my eyes look out on Barbara's terrace. Barbara lives in Assisted Living. She's a lovely lady with very little vision left. Someone has hung a VERY bright set of icicle lights on her terrace rail. I can practically read by the damn things in bed. I thought about asking her to turn them off at night but then decided, fuck it, I can wear the eye shades that I wear in Summer. They aren't uncomfortable and do the job so problem solved.

Laundry day. I have the process started. I forgot to turn on the lotion warmer before I left for volleyball so it's warming now. The paint roller enables me to apply a layer of lotion all over my back and then get dressed without oiling up my clothes.

There are a lot of seasonal activities planned around here and 99%, maybe even 100%, make me want to lock the door of my apartment with me inside. I have never been a fan of holidays but this year, I am really not. Don't know why and don't particularly care. Happily, I don't even have to explain myself to people. I can be what I want to be.

I got a really interesting email this morning from a French artist asking permission to use me in an AI art piece - specifically in an upcoming exhibit in a French High School. I cannot even believe that sentence. What a wonderful time we live in.

His name is Matéo Picard and his note was delightful. He was, oh so very respectfully, asking my permission to use my data. Of course, all of the stuff is out there for the world to see, no permission needed. He gave me a wide runway for landing a response of 'oh no, that's too creepy' which I really appreciate but do not need. I think it's fascinating. I have more than 25 years of daily journal entries, and photos back to the beginning of Flickr and Tweets and Bluesky posts and that autobiography I wrote and of course my now very old website. I mean there's a shit load to scrape from. It would be fodder for an artificial dummy but artificial intelligence could really go to town.

What amazing fun. And I love his website.

Ok the lotion is warm. Time to get greased up and dressed.

summersgate

Winter Is Coming. Yesterday I had an idea that I wanted to draw some kind of really simple circle with wavy tendrils coming out of it. Just a black circle with black lines dissipating as they went out, but I never did. Didn't feel like I had the time. So this morning I tried to paint something a bit more exciting with that as a premise and this is what came out.

I'm about halfway done with finishing the backs of the mosaic mirrors (I could even finish today if I stay on task) so I'm feeling a little more energized and am thinking about what I want to do for a next project. Thinking about new projects always make me feel good. I'm looking forward to weaving cotton-blend pin loom squares to make a summer weight baby blanket for Rowan. I have 2 shades of blue, aqua, white, yellow and lavender yarn that I want to use. Also I want to get back to doing art-a-day again. Everyday. Even if all I have time to do is something like that idea I had yesterday - a simple black and white drawing. Just something. I have numerous sketchpads and books I could use but I'm not going to worry about that. Just grab any book or any piece of paper I can find that will work and use that. I won't worry about filling a book page by page like I did before.

mallorys_camera

What happens when one feels humiliated & ashamed is that one loses the narrative thread of one's own life.

Because how can what happens to you be at all important?

You're an idiot!!!

And idiots don't deserve to have stories.

Serious recalibration is called for.

###

Anyhoo, the storm was dramatic but only dropped four inches of snow. While I watched the snow fall, I baked banana bread & prepared a complicated chicken Florentine dish. (See? I can cook! I just choose not to most of the time.)

All I wanted to do was read & watch mindless television, but no could do because I have approximately 1 billion pages of the U.S. tax code to memorize, plus all the usual Remuneration.

Betsy invited me to spend a weekend at her fabulous house in Westchester County.

Real-life Daria invited me to spend the winter at her house in California. She wants to give Brian's car to her son, but I suspect she has not thought that one through because she's also on the verge of trading in 30 years of freelance teaching & translation for a real job with benefits & security & everything, but also with only two weeks of mandated vacation per year—is she really gonna want to spend that precious two weeks transporting a car from New York to California?

If she does, we are chatting about me driving with her. Road trip! That would be mid-April.

If she doesn't, then I end up with Brian's car.

###

Somewhere around then, too, I must mastermind my own next move.

I've been going back and forth between whether I should relocate to Ithaca or back to Dutchess County.

Dutchess County has the advantage of being a short train ride away from New York City where I would very much like to spend more time. And I have pals in the area.

I know more people in Ithaca, though. Plus RTT is there. If last week's unfortunate mishap is any kind of foreshadowing of how I can expect my dotage to transpire, it would be best to be around family members upon whom I can endlessly presume.

###

I haven't gone near the Work in Progress in a couple of weeks.

I'm thinking I should start Chapter 4 today.

A large chunk of it takes place in a small-ish community hospital during COVID.

But I don't know anything about how small-ish community hospitals operated during COVID. And I'm not sure how to track that information down.

I guess I'm just gonna have to make it up.

conuly

so now I'm spending some part of my evening with another coworker instead of by myself, which means I can't just summarily turn off the TV. Other people are weird when they want the TV on even if they aren't watching it, but since they think I'm weird for preferring blissful silence I guess sometimes I have to compromise.

Which means that the other day my entertainment choices were either a long and frankly tedious piece on the JFK conspiracy theories, or HP1. Welp, JFK won't get any deader, and practically speaking, JKR won't get any richer. The choice wasn't really very agonizing, is what I'm saying. I feel like maybe it ought to have been, but no. (That place does not have enough channels. If I'm going to be stuck watching TV for even part of the night I really need to figure out how to get my phone on the screen.)

All this led me to realize something that I somehow don't think I ever thought about before, which is that the plot of book 2 doesn't make any fucking sense, like, right from the start. How exactly did Lucius set it up so that he'd happen to bump into the Weasley family? What if they hadn't gone shopping that day? There clearly was a lot of planning that went into this, so what was his backup? Really, none of those plots hold together if you look at them too hard. And that's not too unusual for fiction, but I'm not particularly inclined to be charitable about it.

**********

( Read more... )

conuly

Watch on YouTube

But never fear, he no longer has a bear living in his crawlspace. He now has two bears.

conuly

Honestly, if you ban somebody it ought to warn you before you comment on their posts so that if you forget or don't realize you don't end up in an awkward situation.

maju

Duolingo is all the rage here at the moment. Eden is learning Italian, Violet is learning Spanish, and Aria appears to be learning both Spanish and Italian, with a lot of help from her father since she is still learning to read and write. Violet has been busy making sure that I'm following each of them and they're each following me. Poor Violet can't roll/trill her R's the way she needs to in order to speak Spanish correctly; Eden, who can, and I both spent some time early this morning coaching her on where to place her tongue etc, but she just can't do it. I know there are some genetic differences in what people can do with their tongues, so maybe this is a genetic thing too. I have to wonder though, how this would work if she was actually Spanish. Are there Spanish speakers who can't roll their R's? Indonesian has the same rolled R's, and I know these aren't the only two languages that do. (Of course I just did a quick Google search on this question, and it appears children who can't do the Spanish R correctly can have speech therapy to learn it.)

maju

It was raining for most of the day yesterday, so I didn't leave the house. This morning it was just below freezing when I got up, but had risen to 1C/33F by about 9 am so I was able to go for a walk, dressed in several layers and with my ears covered. I had received a phone call yesterday from the Stop&Shop pharmacy about a prescription from the dermatologist they were holding for me, so I walked over there to pick it up. I paid $62 for two tubes of cream, which is more than I'm used to paying at Kaiser. Right now I guess I'm between drug plans, because my Wellcare plan doesn't cover me here and my Humana plan doesn't kick in until 1st January. I did enjoy the walk in the sun.

I have to say it's been a real education navigating Medicare and the various extras (supplement plan and prescription drug plan) after being so sheltered by having S's government Kaiser plan which covered everything. (There were co-pays but they were minimal.) It's such a shame Kaiser doesn't extend to Connecticut.

Speaking of Kaiser, on 24th October I received an email from whoever is administering my health insurance payments, telling me I would be moving out of Kaiser's service area and I needed to email a request to enroll in a new plan (the included a link to available plans) along with my new address. I replied with the requested information the same day, and I still have not received an acknowledgement or notification of how much to pay and how to make payments for the new plan. They were almost this slow at the beginning of 2025 when I was trying to get my coverage continued, so I'm not surprised, but I'm very glad I have Medicare as well. I did some research into Federal Employee plans and it seems you can keep them along with Medicare, which is not true of some other employee plans as far as I can tell.

US healthcare is such a mess.

maju

An anonymous person has given me six months of paid access to DW. Thank you, whoever you are, for your generosity!

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zyzyly

August 2024

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Page generated Dec. 6th, 2025 06:00 am

Reading

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friday

Just stuff

Protocols

Today's coworker is in college in the hopes of increasing her earnings

Obstacle Weekend Approaches

culture and context

thursday later

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Things that didn't happen...

Misc boring bits then... news!

thursday

Recalibrating

Switched shifts

I had no idea bears were so squishy!

Hey, can somebody who knows pauraque ask if they intended to ban me?

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August 2024

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