La Cantina de la Awesomepeepahs

[MaeZe]

Sibling story is quite interesting. I worked nightshift for some length of time and I never got used to sleeping during the day. I'd be falling asleep driving home and wide awake once I got there. I hear a really dark room helps but I never tried it. Too much effort to put tin foil over the windows.

Don't beat yourself up over forgetting that appointment @Friendly Frog. It happens.

I had a great afternoon. My son and DIL came over, finally. We both deferred the holiday visit(s) keeping exposure risk to a minimum and today worked out as the best option. DIL brought homemade split-pea soup and I made cookies which I conveniently bagged up for them to take the rest home as I can't afford the calories.

And I managed to get a nice clean kitchen and the table in the dining room cleared off which is a big accomplishment for me. This house is a clutter-f**k and that took a lot of effort.

When they left I was reminded what really matters in life: your loved ones. We didn't wear masks, we hugged and the risk was worth it. We've all been vaccinated and very cautious, avoiding exposure as much as possible. When they left I felt like the risk was definitely worth it even if it wasn't zero.

The omicron variant is spreading like wildfire here. It has reached Antartica. I imagine it is spreading in New Zealand and Australia now where both countries had previously dodged the bullets.

I have no real idea how well the vaccine is working for me. I'm moderately immunocompromised, more than minimal but nothing like organ recipients are. I see the rheumatologist Friday and I'm going to ask her to okay an additional dose of vaccine.

My cousin shares the most hilarious stuff on her FaceBook page. This is the image she shared today:

Flicking tiger balls Blank Template - Imgflip

Blank Flicking tiger balls template

imgflip.com

with the caption: "2022 Here we go ..."

 

[Brightdreamer]

Year of the Tiger, indeed...

Hooray for family visits and gifted calories!

Boo for clutter! (And our house's clusterf*ck is guaranteed to be worse than yours. Four packrats, a little more than 50 years (granted, two of us weren't here the full five decades)...)

Sibling's brain is like the brains of the rest of the family in that it seems to lack a reliable "sleep now" switch. Stress, of course, makes it that much worse. TBH, she's not stressing quite as bad now as she was before going in (always the way), so I'm hoping she can keep herself together and get what she needs from this opportunity that literally tumbled into her lap, even if it doesn't last beyond the sixty day "temporary" period. It's a kick-start to refresh skills and a resume, at least. (We still cannot figure out why the guy picked her, of everyone in the store at the time, to approach about giving a job to. She was wandering browsing while I stood in line for parental medication at the pharmacy counter. I was on my way back to meet her by the checkout when I saw a guy walk up to her and ask her something, and she said she was sorry but she didn't work there, and he said that's what he wanted to talk to her about... among the top ten most surreal moments in my life, watching that conversation. Even when she told him she had a large resume gap, he said that was no problem at all, then she asked if he had an application she could take home, and he said, "Do you have five minutes now?" So I sat in the car for a while watching snow fall and hoping against all possible hope that maybe this will be a better year for someone, and she walked out with a job. And if I'd written that in a story, I guarantee I'd be lambasted for it...)

Anyway, am watching the time. Mom's watching her show tonight - she can watch the new Murdoch Mysteries live on CBC via Hexfinity's online live TV option, but since we're Americans we're not eligible to rewatch it on their Gem streaming service - so I'm the one who has to prod Dad for his nightly phone call with his deaf-as-a-post friend (at 9:04 precisely, for reasons that only make sense to Dad), then I have to make sure he gets back to his sleeping chair about an hour later.

 

[TedTheewen]

I want to learn Italian. There's a romantic in me who wants to speak Italian to impress a woman because that's how it works in my mind.

I'm actually writing. I'm getting words on the paper and they make sense. To me, they do, anyways. I'm sure if somebody else read them it would be gibberish.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for Italian!

Hooray for words!

And things are mostly done for the night, near as I can figure, so time to crawl into bed and attempt sleep.

Oh, yeah, hiccups... great time to kick in for no frellin' reason...

 

[RunForPresentense]

Wow that is such a stranger than fiction sort of story about the Sibling job offer on the spot! Also fascinating that your Dad has a nightly call with a mostly deaf friend at a very specific time? I’m not sure my life-simulation is ever as specific as yours seems to be Also, call me paranoid, but I’d have MANY questions for any human that wanted to hire me on the spot out of a retail checkout line? What’s up with that?? Did Sibling ask why??

Also, Oooh Italian. No one’s ever tried to woo me with Italian? Not sure if that’d be successful since I have zero Italian under my belt. Reminds me of a weird story I heard referenced in a book I’m reading about long term romantic partnerships in an era where people live twice as long, and there was an anecdote about a couple that married before they spoke a similar language and how communication worked and grew for them.

I’ve got my first day of jury duty today ever and I’m oddly excited about this? Wish me luck in my possibly inevitable disillusionment.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for jury duty! (Mom did JD and got on juries five times. Interesting job, and the source of a household running joke when one defense attorney, dismissing claims of why his client was found carrying lockpicks near a burglary scene, was studying to be a locksmith which was "the world's oldest profession"...)

And the reason the sibling was offered the job was because retail, particularly this chain, is somewhere between desperate and ready to perform sacrifices to elder gods when it comes to getting bodies on the floor. They created a whole new job category even, a temp thing for 60 days, to let the managers bypass some of the red tape crud, which is how she went from approached to working inside a week.

Tuesday morning, sitting around waiting for the rodent guy to check the traps. If he's not here by a certain time, Mom's leaving a note; she has a PT appointment, and we'll probably leave a bit earlier than usual because there are still some ice Issues around even though the main roads are bare and wet; schools are still two-hour delay on snow routes, so not everywhere is clear, and I'm sure our road is still a slick portal to Hell because it's always the last to thaw.

 

[zanzjan]

no way to tell if your car was locked because it locks or unlocks when the key fob is close to the car.

OMG that drives me (no pun intended) up a wall.

 

[MaeZe]

I’ve got my first day of jury duty today ever and I’m oddly excited about this? Wish me luck in my possibly inevitable disillusionment.

No idea if it will be the same in your state but here in WA I've been called on for jury duty five times and the first three were such a waste of time I excused out of the last two.

First time wasn't so bad, I was called up fairly quickly but excused by the prosecutor in a domestic abuse case because I was a nurse.

Second time I sat most of the day as did many others. By afternoon, after again wasting most of the day only to never be called, I asked to leave. It was annoying to be inconvenienced because they wanted this large number of reserved jurists that in my mind was because our time didn't matter.

Third time I stuck it out because I really did want to be on a jury. Everyone who hadn't been called at the end of the day was called for a case. The first thing the judge said was the case was expected to last a week. He asked who couldn't stay for that much time so I raised my hand. More than half of us left.

The fourth time the call was for THREE DAYS! That was it, I'd had it wasting so much time only to never sit on a jury anyway. I called and explained as a self- employed person with a medical practice where I was the only one to take emergency calls, I couldn't do it. My request to be excused was at first denied but eventually after writing a letter to the judge, I was excused.

Fifth time I sent a copy of the same letter to the judge and haven't heard back. No one's come to arrest me so I assume I was excused.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Mmmmerrrggg...

Tuesday afternoon, warming up out there (in a relative sense); the road was barely navigable on the way out to Mom's PT appointment, and marginally better coming home. (Was going to chain up on the way home if it was like it was coming out, it was that bad.)

Now that we're home, the sibling's up and grousing about the job and not being able to sleep. We left you alone at home for four hours hoping you'd get some sleep without complaining that we were making noise, dang it... now it's our fault you didn't sleep while we were gone? I get that you're frustrated, sibling, but please stop taking so much of it out on us...

At least I get to escape to work tomorrow. (Unfortunately, work might be above the fluctuating snow line, and the parking lot's a pain in the tail in the ice - got a nice steep slope with a stop sign to get to the main road - so I may need chains to get out of work... still got 'em out in the back seat for just such an emergency.)

On the plus side, dinner's going to be sandwich and baked bean, and probably later than normal because we're trying to find a compromise time with the sibling (which would really be easier if everything we did wasn't somehow an excuse/reason for her to not attempt sleep... fortunately, she's only working a few days a week right now.)

--

Later on Tuesday. Dinner existed. Sibling's not coping well with lack of sleep; can't get her brain to turn off when she needs it, and refuses to even nap for a couple hours to freshen herself up a bit. So I'm hiding out in my room after dinner so I don't have to hear how she can never sleep again and has to live at night when all stores are closed forever, and she'll never earn enough money anyway... yeah, been a fun afternoon/evening...

Got stuff ready for work on my end, at least. Fingers crossed the roads don't totally suck; not supposed to freeze tonight, but it wasn't supposed to freeze last night and it did.

I so need to get away to work it's not funny...

 

[E.F.B.]

Welp, our area is officially going into "FIRST SNOW OF THE WINTER AAAAAAH!" panic. [snip!] It was only supposed to be 2-3 inches for our area, but now the prediction's gone up to 6-8 inches even though it's still 50 degrees out at 10pm. Not sure about the logic behind that one, but there are lots of businesses and schools being canceled nevertheless.

Oooooh, now naive I was. It did indeed snow 6 inches. Heavy, wet, snow that knocked out our power for 30 hours and downed a bunch of trees. We couldn't get out of the driveway to go anywhere for the night because a pine tree fell in our driveway, so my parents and I and the dogs spent the night huddled in the bedroom under multiple blankets as the house slowly got colder. Not. Fun. At. All. I barely slept and was starving all night because peanut butter and jelly sandwich does not a satisfying supper make. Mom was having *cough* lower intestinal problems due to the remnants of a stomach virus she's been dealing with since new years (did I mention we didn't have electricity or water and had to haul water out of the bathtub to flush the toilet?), and dad can't really sleep without his c-pap and oxygen concentrator. Time crawls when you're miserable...

This morning, since the power was still out and we were feeling a bit panicky, dad was able to call and get the police to come cut up and move the tree in the driveway for us so we could get out. Mom and I cleared enough snow around the car to move it and we booked a hotel room to go to. We couldn't check in until 2:30pm, though, so we spent most of the day in the warm car, driving around, getting things done. By 2, we went to the hotel and sat in the parking lot, waiting for check in time, so dad decided to call the house landline in the off chance he could get through, which would indicate the power was back on. Well, he did get through, so we decided to go home and see if the power really was on, and it was!

Thank God it has STAYED on, so we didn't have to actually stay at the hotel. The nice hotel lady even waved our late cancelation fee because "electricity at home is a good thing." Sounded like they were probably getting flooded with people who had no electricity. The only down side is that our satellite box is fried from the long outage. Blue screen of death. Mom and I have talked about dropping the satellite and switching entirely to streaming, but dad's one who likes to be able to sit and flip channels, not to mention it is nice to get the local channels through satellite instead of glitchy antenna so we called customer service and they'll send a new box out sometime in the next 3-6 days.

Here's hoping no more power outages for the rest of the year, especially not 30 hour ones. I'm so tired, y'all, I'm so tired.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for power outages and cold!

(We, too, lose water when we lose power... the joys of electric well pumps...)

Wanderin' about aimlessly, trying to avoid stressed relatives. May end up crawling into bed early and finding something new to read; finished off the previous book while waiting for Mom to be done with PT. May try to clear a Kindle title before going back to physical reads, though the one I've been poking it is disappointing given how much everyone seems to love the author and the series and I'm tempted to give up...

 

[MaeZe]

Sounds like a terrible night'mare' E.F.B.

Once, way back when, we went to Mardi Gras, New Orleans when I was ~18. Fantastic time except we camped on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain and our tent, one of those old canvas tents, wasn't waterproof. It rained and my sleeping bag, also the old heavy cotton ones, got soaked. I was too cold to sleep, stayed awake all night long. You cannot sleep when you are too cold.

I had to break my habit of having the TV on, surfing channels when I cancelled my cable TV. Now I watch DVDs and do any channel surfing on my computer. It works because I have Chromecast and I'm in a household of one (plus my dog who doesn't care).

My pleasant day yesterday was erased by the bad day I had today. I ordered vaccine last week that I need by tomorrow. I missed the "last shipping day" even though it was only Wed but no worries, I paid for overnight shipping so it would go out Monday for delivery by today, Tuesday.

The FedEx tracking said it would be here by noon, then it said by the end of the day. I called the vaccine company asking them to help because FedEx won't talk to the recipient only to the shipper.

Sigh, multiple calls later and 15 minutes before the vaccine company was due to close for the night I tried one last time. The tracking page still said delivery by the end of the day but now had red exclamation points saying delivery delayed.

No shit Sherlock, it's been delayed since noon. I tried to arrange for me to pick it up at the FedEx office because I know from experience if it's loaded on a truck they won't take it off for you.

Well sure enough it's indeed on some truck and they won't take it off. I can ask to pick it up but they need 24 hours notice.

So now supposedly it will be delivered between 9 and noon tomorrow. And no one can do anything to assure that is correct information. I can't even ask they make it available for me to pick it up at 8am instead of loading it on the delivery vehicle.

This is not the first time I've had similar nightmares with vaccine shipments. I so want to retire.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for shipping problems!

(Sibling's dealing with that right now, too - something that was "guaranteed" by the 31st has been riding around in Maple Valley, where we do not live, getting put on and taken off the truck, for days. She's watched the little tracker thing, and is positive they transposed the street address and are looking for our house in the wrong place. And there's no way to contact them. Which is, as you can imagine, helping her stressed mood immensely... not...)

And sleeping cold... not fun. Coldest I remember being was when we took a late-season camping trip to Lake Easton, just over the pass. (One of those "oh, crud, school's almost here, we should Do Something" trips that was very poorly thought out.) Temperature absolutely plummeted at night. We were all huddled in our sleeping bags with every layer of clothing we had on, colder than cold, wondering what the frell we were doing out there... while, a campsite or two away, the people in the little pop-up tent trailer thing had their heater generator thing dutifully turning on and off at regular intervals... (The next day, we went to the lake itself, and it was so bitterly cold we could barely wade - though I dutifully marched out, ducked my head under, and marched back to shore, more out of spite for the lake and the cruddy vacation than anything else.)

Some years back, the sibling and I stopped off at Lake Easton on the way back from a quick trip. A gust of wind kicked up and blew dust in our faces.

We've decided that Lake Easton just hates us, and the feeling is mutual.

Anyway, am hiding out while more family stress ensues. Need to get dinner stuff put away (we were lazy, so we did sandwich and deli baked beans for dinner, and sibling is using leftover sandwich material for her lunch on graveyard), but can't do that until family isn't stressing all over the place. At least dishes got washed. That's something...

 

[Friendly Frog]

I thought being without heat in winter was bad enough, but to be without heat and power when it's snowing outside tops that by miles. Glad to hear the power's back on and the hotel was understanding, EFB.

Sorry to hear about your shipping woes, Maeze.

Camping trips where you get so cold one night you can't sleep seem almost like a universal experience! Took me only one to learn that I do not have the required camping spirit. At. All.

I want to learn Italian. There's a romantic in me who wants to speak Italian to impress a woman because that's how it works in my mind.

To women who speak Italian, I suppose.

I once met an Italian who was trying to impress a friend and me. But he didn't speak much besides Italian, which neither of us spoke or understood. The end result was a very stilted conversation as much as his poor English allowed and I can not say it was terribly romantic that way.

I wish I was better at languages but I do not have a knack for languages and it takes much, much more practice than I can invest. So I am always impressed by people studying a new language for the heck of things.

 

[E.F.B.]

Once, way back when, we went to Mardi Gras, New Orleans when I was ~18. Fantastic time except we camped on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain and our tent, one of those old canvas tents, wasn't waterproof. It rained and my sleeping bag, also the old heavy cotton ones, got soaked. I was too cold to sleep, stayed awake all night long. You cannot sleep when you are too cold.

Very true. Though, I actually wasn't particularly cold that night until closer to morning. I sleep warm, and part of my problem was that I was wearing three layers of clothes under 5 layers of blankets, so I actually woke up at one point sweating through my hair. Which was uncomfortable because if one part of your body is hot and another part is cold and wet, it's sending signals to your brain that something's not right so that made me feel yucky. I ended up taking off a layer of sweatshirt and pants, which helped, but there was still that imbalance of head/partial upper torso too cold, lower torso/legs too hot. But you're too scared of getting too cold as the temp in the house drops into the 50s to take off any more layers. (It was in the teens outside, so the fact that it wasn't lower in the house than that shows we're pretty well insulated, I guess.)

And isn't it weird that during the outage I dreamed that the power came back on, but once, last night, with the power on and the house warm, I started to dream the power was back out again? (Then I jolted awake because nooooo!) Thankfully, it was just a dream and then was able to sleep like a rock with hardly any dreams and without waking up for the majority of the night.


The parents had a podiatrist appointment today, but decided to cancel to give the roads a chance to clear a bit more. I'm going to sub my stone dragon story out today instead.

 

[RunForPresentense]

Wow, a few days in following this thread, and I admit i don’t even know how to keep up with all of you! There’s so much going on!

Here’s hoping FedEx came through by now, MaeZe! Don’t they know we have a pandemic on?

Speaking of Lake Pontchartrain and wading through other mean-spirited lakes, anyone else like the band Ludo? Their song Lake Pontchartrain is fantiastc. The lyrics for all their songs are delightful because at least of the the members has some musical background from Broadway. This song like many of theirs tells a story, and it’s catchy and spooky and cool.
Link to song w/ fun fan art video

Glad the power is back on in whatever snow drenched landscape you’re in, EFB! It’s been a LONG time since we lost power *knocks on wood* but the last time we did it was statewide for weeks. I had to cohabitate with then-boyfriend after we’d moved apart (but initially stayed together) to pursue a bit more independence. The snow had zero culpability for this, heh.

Oh! PS: good luck subbing Stone Dragon!

 

[MaeZe]

After 1pm here and no, FedEx has not delivered the meds I need. The client was very understanding. I moved the appointment to 3pm with the caveat I had no idea when the delivery is supposed to happen. The website says it's on the delivery truck but under expected delivery it remains "pending". And on the truck doesn't mean they have a driver or that said truck is moving.

One benefit, the stress has taken my appetite away which is good, I could use a bit of weight loss. Now if I can only keep the calories down.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for missed deliveries!

A wet Wednesday afternoon, and the ice is in full retreat for the moment. Getting out to work was a little tricky, but coming back was much easier.

Work itself has the usual backlog, plus there are a couple people who may still be unable to get out; some of the hills around here are even worse than the one I live on.

And I had to shop my way home after work. Standing in line at Walgreens, I got to hear the pharmacist and other customers talk about the pharmacy robbery in the wee hours. (Sibling was actually there, though not back at the pharmacy. Wasn't aware it was something they'd tell the customers about, but I guess word got out. Nobody hurt. And she thought graveyard would be uneventful... Turns out they're not only the only 24-hour pharmacy in town, they're one of only two 24-hour pharmacies of their store brand in the state. And one of the highest volume ones.) And after that I had to hit a grocery store for grocery stuff. Whee.

Anyway, dinner's a little later these days, as we try to find a schedule that will mesh okay with sibling's graveyard thing (only three days a week, but still want to shift so it's not too big a swing when food exists, because people have meds they coordinate to meals).

Think I'll sit for a while and contemplate the joys of being able to take off my shoes...

 

[MaeZe]

I was wondering if night shift at a pharmacy or drug store was going to be hazardous. Bummer.

I'm trying to relax. The vaccine finally arrived at 5pm! Fortunately the client understandingly rescheduled for next week. Unfortunately the paperwork arriving with the vaccine said if it didn't get here by 10:30 am (48 hours after it was packed) then to call the vaccine company. The icepacks were cold but none of them were still frozen. They used to include temperature monitors with the vaccine that would show if the temperature had been out of range for too long but there isn't one in the pack.

It has been sitting out in a truck all day and it is cold enough here it should be alright. But I'm going to let the vaccine company advise me on that. I don't want to have to go through this again but I will if the vaccine is spoiled. I wish there were consequences for FedEx but there won't be any that matter.

I would be understanding if they would have just said yesterday their staffing shortage was going to be a problem. I could have gotten what I needed locally with 24 hours notice. Or if they would have let me pick it up this morning instead of loading it on the delivery truck they must have know wouldn't be getting here on time, I wouldn't be so angry about this. There were solutions but I was unable to avail myself of any of them because of rigid FedEx practices.

Sigh, I am unwinding slowly. Perhaps some of this frustration can be useful in book two of my duology if I ever get book one out the door so I can take up book two again. Book two takes place in the city where just this kind of idiocy is certain to exist.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for FedEx being FedExxy!

Wednesday evening. Dinner done, dishes dealt with, and trying to decide what to do with the rest of my evening that can be interrupted if need be, because family always interrupts. Don't really feel like watching anything, even something mindless. Should probably get another book started, or pick at the lackluster Kindle read some more. (Still squinting at it wondering how this little by-the-numbers flat-charactered story gets all the praise people heap on it, 'cause I am just not seein' it; TBH, the only reason I'm even thinking of pushing through to finish is that it's relatively short, and to say that I've tried two works by this author and can therefore officially say I've given them a solid chance and a solid second chance to convince me they're worth my time and money.)

Also trying to get an idea to crystallize around a Sisyphus prompt.

And the sibling has, at least, gotten some sleep. Like the rest of us, though, solid sleep is not a thing; a few hours, then waking up, then a few hours... Hopefully she can get the internal clock reprogrammed if she stays on graveyard (as she likely will for a while; this store has been dealing with some serious staffing Issues, plus I think given her resume gap and inexperience at retail she's kinda the low end of the batch of new-hires until she picks up the ropes. Already seems on decent terms with management, though, which is always a good start.)

 

[Brightdreamer]

Thursday afternoon, and rainy. Rainy enough there's almost water over the road in some spots. Rainy enough to make me wonder if I'll need an alternate route to work tomorrow. Seems like it's just going to keep raining forever (which is a distinct possibility; Guns N' Roses specifically tells us that cold November rains don't last forever, but mentioned nothing about January rain...).

Finished an audiobook at work. Started another one, a well-praised novel from a well-praised writer, and might DNF it; interesting concepts and settings, but I don't like anyone in it at all, they're all unpleasant, and they're all dancing and hiding everything from me while pointing at the fact that they're hiding everything. Not sure how long I'll bother sticking around in the off chance one of them becomes interesting...

Anyway, gonna chill for a bit before dinner. Or, rather, warm up. (Had to run the recycling bin down the lane after work, so I'm a bit damp.)

 

[RunForPresentense]

I don’t believe Guns N Roses were especially prescient about global warming Must be quite the slushfest in your neck of the woods now after all the snow? We’re supposed to get quite a bit of snow tomorrow. May actually have to shovel out tomorrow to make it to jury duty—which also seems to be lingering like January rain.

Do you have a guideline for when you DNF something? I also tend to peace out if I’m not into the characters. What book is that?

 

[Brightdreamer]

In my area, aside from the piles left by snow plows, the snow and ice are pretty much gone... replaced by rising waters. Got flood watches going now... will be interesting to see if I can get out to work the usual way. Or back home. And all four passes over the mountains are closed - last I heard through Sunday. Just too much snow, heavy wet snow on top of older lighter powder, and it's too dangerous to get the snow plows through to clear the way.

And it's Thursday evening. Current plan is to get my newest thing of trail mix divvied up into snack cups (to try to curb excessive grazing), then see if the second-to-last ep of Expanse has dropped on Prime.

--

Mergh... later the same Thursday, and finally got to finish watching Expanse. Got interrupted by an Issue with the microwave. It would run a couple seconds, then stop. Circuit looked fine... was it dying again? It wasn't that old... so I decided to check the outlet it was plugged into, which - because this house was evidently wired by a crazed mongoose who had no business holding a screwdriver, let alone wiring a house - is actually downstairs.
Whoa, momma...
We're lucky there were no flames. And the microwave itself appears to be okay. But the outlet sacrificed mightily.
So, since we don't have any extra-heavy-duty extension cords on hand, we're essentially without a microwave until we can pick one up. And find a new place to plug it into, because the place we plugged it into looked a little toasty, too...
(And as for what that says about the wiring in this house... I know. Believe me, I know. Until I win the lottery and can afford to deal with it, or just buy a new house with better wiring, it's not something I can do anything about...)
And I think I'll crawl bedward now. Work tomorrow...

 

[Friendly Frog]

Whoo, I've shared a house with wiring like that. Had at least one fascinating (if hair-raising) encounter with a melting plug. (Toaster, not microwave, that one.)

Finally convinced dad to get a little more proactive with the garage leak. Now there's a rain barrel underneath, rather than a bucket. With the tap it will be slightly easier to evacuate the water. Now to see if I can get him to do it, it's his garage and his car after all. Still so many days of rain ahead. *groan* So we did another run at pumping out water from the other basement, finished just before the new pump called it a day. (Did I mention I loathe leaks? LOATHE.)

With that done yesterday there was nothing to get in the way today so I went and got my booster. (At least I didn't miss that appointment.) Yeay Spikevax! Am deciding to do absolutely nothing else today. Except maybe a computer game. Oh, and the usual post-vax game of "are these vaccine-related chills or is it really just cold in here?"

Still, way better than the alternative.

 

[E.F.B.]

Boo for bad wiring. Yay for boosters! We were supposed to get our boosters on Sunday, but with mom's current diarrhea issues... Yeah, they probably don't want us in there right now, so we canceled and will have to reschedule.

Speaking of: Mom's doctor ordered a stool panel to figure out what's going on (we're figuring it's probably C-diff given all the antibiotics mom's had this year), so we went to the office yesterday to get the collection kit. Fun times. We've got her on a probiotic in the meanwhile and while she's still *going* it's not as bad as it was day before last when she was practically camped out in the bathroom.

There was talk of more snow last night and we made sure to stock up on food that doesn't need heating just in case of another outage because I for one will scream if I see another peanut butter sandwich. Thankfully, got up this morning and it had barely dusted on the cars and porch so no fears of another outage. I'm officially done with winter now, thanks. You don't realize how much a period of intense stress can wipe you out. I've been so tired since the outage and it's truly just recovering from those 30 hours of constant stress.

Well, I need to get something done today I'm just feeling flip floppy about what to do. The Stone Dragon story was subbed two days ago (fingers crossed!), so no more work on that for a while. I want to start editing pass 3 on IDTC but feel like I have other things that need doing before I start that. Probably need to schedule out some Etsy social posts at least.

I did get the one excerpt in crit group read and submitted my feedback. Technically there are two others, but those two members have started horror stories and I just can't emotionally/mentally handle horror. Thankfully it's okay to politely pass on a story if it's not a genre you're comfortable reading, so I'm not worried about that being an issue. It's mainly just going to feel weird to me to intentionally skip two people's works for a while since I've always been fastidious about keeping up with all excerpts from all members. *shrug*