La Cantina de la Awesomepeepahs

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for cake and aquarium clearing!

Boo for iffy birthdays (I can so relate to exhausted relatives - who insist in "tagging along" to the store anyway, though they can barely move and complain the whole time), duckweed (I don't think anything kills that off once it's in the water), and COVID!

And Friday morning. Will have to hit a store again on the way home because people who aren't me use up my Mocha Mix and don't tell me, so I'm left with nothing to put on my cereal... mergh...

Also, sibling's offer to work an extra shift on short notice apparently got attention. Sounds like they're offering her a lead position - I think for graveyard at first, but she did make it clear (again) that graveyard long term wasn't going to work. She might have a bit more leverage as a lead. Hopefully a raise, but I'll just take "proof that she's doing her job and they've noticed she can do the job" for now...

About time to get shoes on and head doorward... work is gonna be so much fun... not...

 

[owlion]

Started feeling crappy after work Wednesday and ended up going to bed early. Thursday morning I woke up feeling like a hot bag of wet garbage. I knew I'd be calling out sick anyway but did a home Covid test. "Read after 15 minutes" my ass, that positive line was there in under a minute. It could have been from PT (everyone is supposed to wear a mask but what are they doing before putting the mask on), work (clients aren't asked to wear masks) or my husband or daughter brought it home. Yesterday was horrible - all I wanted to do was sleep but fever dreams keeping me awake, and I haven't eaten much of anything in the last two days.

Oh no, I hope you feel better soon... Somehow I haven't caught covid since a possible case way back in March 2020 (couldn't test back then and it felt like general flu so maybe not?) but cases are going up massively, so it feels like everywhere's plague-ridden at the moment.

On the topic of health, I went to the physiotherapist at the GP surgery and she actually took me seriously and will be talking to my main doctor about the weird nerve stuff I've got, plus she also seemed to have referred me onto another doctor to start pursuing an actual diagnosis of my vertigo issue because I got a surprise call last night about it. It'd be nice to finally get some kind of treatment for it (if one exists).

 

[Brigid Barry]

Oh no, I hope you feel better soon... Somehow I haven't caught covid since a possible case way back in March 2020 (couldn't test back then and it felt like general flu so maybe not?) but cases are going up massively, so it feels like everywhere's plague-ridden at the moment.

We stopped caring about Covid, remember? /s

On the topic of health, I went to the physiotherapist at the GP surgery and she actually took me seriously and will be talking to my main doctor about the weird nerve stuff I've got, plus she also seemed to have referred me onto another doctor to start pursuing an actual diagnosis of my vertigo issue because I got a surprise call last night about it. It'd be nice to finally get some kind of treatment for it (if one exists).

FINALLY! I hope you get some answers.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for doctors who listen! (Rare unicorns, those...)

Hooray for diseases that simply vanish when you stop caring about them because it's too much work, which apparently are a thing according to millions of people and statistics are lies and I want off this frellin' planet!

Friday afternoon. Work was a thing again. Losing someone off the other shift to retirement, a guy who does a lot of subbing on our shift, so that's one less body on a floor bereft of bodies. (And HR's gonna be sending me the "why haven't you taken vacation, you've accrued too many vacation hours" e-mail any day now...)

Need to write up some audiobook reviews (yes, multiple reviews - three short books in a MG/YA trilogy), then see if I'm needed to start stuff for dinner. Mom keeps saying she's going to do meatloaf, but has a way of not actually starting things or needing so much help it's basically me making it anyway... not that I don't appreciate someone else doing dinner, it's just not as helpful when I'm still more or less doing dinner anyway... mergh...

 

[Brigid Barry]

So my husband came home and I asked him what was up (I've been worried about him getting Covid).

"I think I gave it to you. I was feeling tired and cold on Monday and then Tuesday one of my employees called out sick, then Wednesday this other employee called out sick, and they both have the same symptoms that you have."

So it looks like ignoring things isn't as effective as everyone had hoped?

Mild fever today of 99 (I'm normally 97 and change) so I'm glad I didn't have a thermometer yesterday to take my temp. Stayed awake for most of the day today and actually managed to eat food, even though everything tastes super salty for some reason.

 

[Unimportant]

Hooray for doctors who listen! (Rare unicorns, those...)

Hooray for diseases that simply vanish when you stop caring about them because it's too much work, which apparently are a thing according to millions of people and statistics are lies and I want off this frellin' planet!

Friday afternoon. Work was a thing again. Losing someone off the other shift to retirement, a guy who does a lot of subbing on our shift, so that's one less body on a floor bereft of bodies. (And HR's gonna be sending me the "why haven't you taken vacation, you've accrued too many vacation hours" e-mail any day now...)

Need to write up some audiobook reviews (yes, multiple reviews - three short books in a MG/YA trilogy), then see if I'm needed to start stuff for dinner. Mom keeps saying she's going to do meatloaf, but has a way of not actually starting things or needing so much help it's basically me making it anyway... not that I don't appreciate someone else doing dinner, it's just not as helpful when I'm still more or less doing dinner anyway... mergh...

Ooooh, meatloaf! I haven't made that in years!

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind I have a terrific recipe, where you mix the beef mince with grated veggies and tomato, and then plop it into a deep pot lined with bacon, and then cook it in a water bath, and it creates a thin but really savoury bacony tomatoey sauce/gravy which is a pig to drain out before you turn the pot upside down onto a platter to get the meatloaf out....

Now I need to get me some bacon from the free range pork place and have a go! (Here, a pound of bacon rashers costs about $25, hence me not buying it often...)

 

[Brigid Barry]

Alton Brown has a really good meatloaf recipe, naturally I took the veggies out.

Also beef is too expensive for me to make this right now (ever again?)

 

[Unimportant]

Alton Brown has a really good meatloaf recipe, naturally I took the veggies out.

Also beef is too expensive for me to make this right now (ever again?)

Yeah, beef is ungodly expensive here too: a pound of mince costs about ten dollars, I think? But we raise and butcher a cattlebeast every year or two, so we've got a freezer full of beef at much less cost than the supermarket.

 

[E.F.B.]

Evening, Cantina. *falls into a smibble pile*
Mom's in the hospital again. She felt the increasing breathing issues that have developed over the past week or so called for it since she couldn't get into her doctor any sooner than Thursday next week (It being Friday, she couldn't even get through to call any of her doctors either.) No one disagreed, so we called the ambulance around noon and got her down there. The good news is, there's no complications this time of anyone fearing weird bacteria or whatever, so it's straightforward treatment. This probably got started because they tried to reduce her prednisone and it was, apparently, too much, too soon. Further good news is she's already feeling and sounding better with the treatments, and since there are no complications, we didn't have to put her in the hospital downtown, we were able to put her in the one closest to us and that our family typically goes to. (The same one I was born in, actually.) Holy moly, it's so much easier to get in and out of there. Bonus benefit to not going downtown: I didn't have to go through a metal detector just so go back to see mom in the ER! And she didn't have to be checked for bombs or weapons upon being brought in! Gasp! Also, dad can actually get parking at this hospital, so I could actually sit with mom for a solid 45 minutes when we brought her stuff this evening.

It's sounding like this should be a pretty short stay vs the week-long stay of March. Fingers crossed she might be home by Sunday or Monday.


Poor doggies, though. They had to spend way too much time in their crates today, and the poor lab mix in particular was very depressed to see the EMTs take her "mum mum". That's the sound she makes for mom, and she said "Mum mum!" as dad and I headed out the door to follow the ambulance. Just tear my heart out, why don't you? I'm going to have to play with her extra tomorrow to make up for her being cooped up all day today. (The beagle, on the other hand, just sleeps through it all.)

It's very much time for bed now, so I better go get some sleep. I'm surprised I'm not more sleepy than I am, but we got home late, so I know it'll take a bit to get my brain to settle down.

 

[MaeZe]

Goodness I'm sorry about all the terrible news. Hopefully it will be mild illnesses all around (for those that have something, not all around as in 'everybody').

I've been feeling run down and nauseated off an on. I don't know if it is prednisone withdrawal or the Imuran side effects. I'm going to stick to 10 mg and not try to go lower until the Imuran gets up to the full dose and the side effects settle down like they are supposed to.

It makes it so hard to get anything done. And the way everyone seems to be getting this round of COVID is a tad scary. I don't know how the prednisone affected my vaccine response.

On the better side of world we are in for sun and warming temperatures for the next few days. Yay!

Take care of yourselves, have some noodle soup with or without chicken if you are vegan.

[Fluffs up all the smibbles in the pile for everyone.]

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for hospitals and side effects!

As for meatloaf beef, we mixed ours with somewhat cheaper ground turkey... still tastes decent, and it saves money. (Mom did indeed make meatloaf tonight, for the curious. Found a recipe for making meatloaf in muffin tins.)

And winding down the evening. This weekend, weather pending, I need to work on remulching the paths in the yard. May also need to hit a store before Monday because the humms are hoovering juice and we're running low on sugar.

 

[Unimportant]

Boo for hospitals and side effects!

As for meatloaf beef, we mixed ours with somewhat cheaper ground turkey... still tastes decent, and it saves money. (Mom did indeed make meatloaf tonight, for the curious. Found a recipe for making meatloaf in muffin tins.)

And winding down the evening. This weekend, weather pending, I need to work on remulching the paths in the yard. May also need to hit a store before Monday because the humms are hoovering juice and we're running low on sugar.

Oh. In NZ, turkey costs about three times more than beef. And is hard to find. Last year at Xmas I saw a frozen turkey breast roll thing. One kilo. $60.

The muffin tin idea sounds great.

 

[Friendly Frog]

...And I remember why I stopped cleaning out the aquaria.

So the four upstairs one went fine, I removed oh, five full buckets of plant material. They look so much better now.

But the duckweed ones, oh boy, oh boy, what a trip down to hell.

Long story short: I spend three hours scooping duckweed; I cut my finger on the glass, narrowly avoided bleeding on everything; I broke the suspension of the glass plate that shields off the lighting from the water because dad still hasn't fixed the broken lighting cover and its nearly impossible wrangling it; I then had rig up a system to hold the glass plate up; got everything set up right only to discover I had accidentally unhooked the airing tube so I had to break it all down again to fix that. That's the moment also when you notice there is still duckweed there that I could swear was not there ten minutes ago.

Never again. Well, I say so now. But the next time the fish can't find their food because it's stuck above a thick layer of duckweed, three guesses what happens again. In any case, next time I end up doing this again, I'll be doing it when dad's around so I can complain about it to him loudly and repeatedly.

I use the /spoiler for potentially disturbing imagery. To date I can't recall using it for anything else. People get upset over different things so using the /spoiler gives them the opportunity to screen. As much as I understand rodents are pests, I also don't want any creature to suffer needlessly and that's a thing that I'd rather not read if I can avoid it.

Yeah, next time I'd beter use that.

Hope you're feeling better soon and have a speedy recovery.

Evening, Cantina. *falls into a smibble pile*
Mom's in the hospital again.

Oh no. Wishing her speedy recovery too and here's hoping she's back home soon.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for pricey turkey! (Here it's usually cheaper than beef.)

Boo for annoying aquariums!

And it's Saturday morning, so far a decent day, so I'll probably be dealing with mulch this afternoon. First, I need to do the room tidying and probably catch up on site stuff, because I'm behind on that again.

--

And Saturday afternoon remains sunny and deceptively springlike. One might almost think it's May, but long-range forecasts have us dropping back to the high-50's by the end of the month.

Got the mulch spread on the yard paths, and need about two more bags to finish that. And maybe four more to redo down by where I park the car... mergh.

Also got exercise in, so I can pretend I'm doing something healthy.

Next up is the site stuff, splicing in four reviews. (Three of them are a trilogy, so that should go relatively fast.)

And at some point dinner needs to be started.

Will leave story editing for this evening, when relatives are less likely to interrupt me. Also should start coming up with some potential prompts for Summer Sisyphus.

--

Saturday evening, and no dice on transcription. Again. Really should check out another outfit, maybe... I just don't seem to be on when the most jobs are available here, and it's feeling like a waste of my time to check in.

Mergh...

And sibling has another schedule adjustment. Really hoping the offer for a promotion to lead isn't just talk, because they're sounding more and more desperate for people who show up...

Otherwise, not much. Got some site stuff done, made dinner, washed dishes, and subbed my Summer Sisyphus prompts.

Might try watching something with my evening, since transcription's a wash again, but I may have to wait until relatives stop knockin' around. That new show on Prime, Night Sky, looks intriguing... may give that a go.

 

[MaeZe]

Well that was weird. I'm sitting out in the backyard enjoying the beautiful day when thunder begins, then ends. Then a rain cloud passes over. It cools off a tad. Anyway, very pleasant. Fortunately my laptop was under the patio umbrella even if half of me wasn't.

I slept all day then could hardly get up. I think that's the prednisone withdrawal because normally I take my dose in the morning so I didn't have a dose until three PM. That's some serious side effects if that was the cause. I wish there was a way to kick start my body's own cortisol.


That aquarium stuff sounds crazy Friendly Frog! You have four upstairs and a huge one downstairs? Buckets-full of plant material? Wow!

Sorry your mom is back in the hospital, E.F.B. But at least it sounds like this go round will be better than the last time.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for withdrawal!

Sunday morning, and suspiciously springy again. Yesterday closed out with a sky half blue and clear, half orange-gray with a misty rainbow. We'll see if today is also weird.

Sibling has her shifted hours today, and already something is complaint-worthy. Eh, well... always something...

Plans for today are minimal. Hope to watch more of Night Sky and avoid whatever people are being loud about. Also need to do more editing/clean-up on that Sisyphus I'm trying to get sub-ready in manuscript format.

--

Closing in on lunch, but waiting until sibling is gone in case she needs to grab something for work. Got some more editing done, and still keeping it below 20K (thus far). Wish I could get out of the house to go somewhere to enjoy the sun while it's here, but every park's going to be lousy with people. Plus Mom would insist on "tagging along", which turns the whole thing into a Mom trip that would probably involve shopping.

--

And the day winds down. Got some more editing accomplished, watched another ep of Night Sky, dealt with some bill backlog from Mom, even got some exercise in.

Whee.

Tomorrow's a shopping day. And Tuesday Mom has an appointment dead in the middle of the afternoon. Sorta wish we could put off shopping and just do it all Tuesday but we're almost out of sugar for humm juice so we can't.

 

[Friendly Frog]

Hope the med side effects clear up soon, MaeZe, because they sound really unpleasant.

That aquarium stuff sounds crazy Friendly Frog! You have four upstairs and a huge one downstairs? Buckets-full of plant material? Wow!

Oh, those were only the ones I was cleaning out that day.

In total there are 5 aquaria upstairs with the biggest one being the size of a bath tub and down stairs there are four small ones and one bath-tubsized as well. And then three terraria too.

But yeah, things got a little out hand with the aquarium plants. Dad just can't seem to get rid of any of them.

Of course now that I've lightened one tank, the fish in it have decided now that they have room and they can see eachother they're gonna hold territory contests and bite the hell out of each other. Already had to evacuate one fish.

Really, there is truth in this: no good deed goes unpunished.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for fish fights!

Monday, late morning, and back from shopping and tostado salad fetching. Going to be scrounging lunch in a little while, then I need to do some more editing and such.

Am also keeping an eye on Sisyphus prompts as they roll in.

 

[MaeZe]

Well I need a new hot water heater. That means a fight with the leasing company that will be responsible for the $1500 tab. I'm too drained to call them today. I'll call them in the morning.

The money fight is one thing, I expect to win. But that still leaves the disruption of workers in the house for half a day or more and keeping the water mopped up until it can be scheduled.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for water heater woes! Been there, done that...

Monday afternoon, and creeping up on time to start dinner. Chicken soup night, for anyone keeping track. So mostly it's throwing stuff in the pot and heating it, then remembering to slice and heat the bread to go with it.

Watched a third ep of Night Sky, hope to clear a fourth this evening. So far, interesting, though - like Outer Range - I'm hoping it's going somewhere with its many intriguing parts. (I also hope it doesn't leave us dangling on a cliffhangerish ending like Outer Range did; still don't expect Outer Range to get a second season to wrap up, though Night Sky seems to be reviewing better.)

Should probably start gathering soup stuff together for heating purposes.

--

Later on Monday. Soup existed, dishes existed.

Should check in on transcription but I'm just not feelin' transcribey tonight.

Will probably poke at story editing, then maybe watch another ep of Night Sky.

 

[E.F.B.]

Morning, Cantina. Rainy, chilly Tuesday here. Which is preferable to the 98 degree heat we had over the weekend.

The weird news yesterday was that I woke up hearing what sounded like water running and the bedroom bathroom sink wasn't running well. Thought, "um, I have a bad feeling about this." Thankfully, it wasn't a broken pipe, but apparently the backyard hose, for whatever reason, decided to burst open overnight and was gushing water for who-knows-how-long. We keep the hose faucet perpetually "on" during spring and summer because mom uses it frequently enough it's just more convenient to be able to pick up the hose and open the sprayer to use it than to go down the steps, turn on the faucet, then climb back up the steps to use the hose. We've got (had) a supposedly heavy-duty hose, but apparently, it had a weak spot and just... bubbled and burst open all of a sudden. The porch was all wet and covered in red silt from the well, and the water had run out from under it and down the slope of the yard. To say the least, I turned it off. The water in the house is pretty brown now and will be until it settles. Wheee. Stupid hose.

The good news is, we got to bring mom home from the hospital yesterday. She's going to have to build her strength back up, but she's significantly better than she was before going to the hospital. Still, we're all pretty tired today, and probably going to be for a while.

In nature news, I think one of our deer visitors had a baby last night because I saw a tiny, wobbly faun following mama last night. So cute! Hopefully, she'll bring it by sometime when we can see it better.

Also, the baby wrens have fledged the nest in the Christmas cactus pot.

In less good news, apparently, my uncle, dad's twin, decided last night that he was going to change a burnt out light bulb, which involved climbing on a ladder. This being the homebound uncle who is as morbidly obese, if not more so, than dad, and schizophrenic. Yeaaaah, awesome idea. So, apparently, he fell and bashed his knee. According to my aunt (uncle's sister) the rescue squad was as baffled as to why he was trying to climb the ladder as she was. As far as we've heard, his knee is okay, but they're keeping him at the hospital because, according to him, they're concerned about "a dark spot on his toe." He is diabetic, so they might be concerned about circulatory stuff or something. Guess we'll hear more when we hear more, but nothing we can do about it living as far away from them as we do.

I better go get some stuff done while I'm not needed for the time being.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for burst hoses and fallen uncles!

Hooray for returned mothers!

And it's Tuesday, cloudy and somewhat dreary out the window after our brief burst of actual spring weather in spring. This afternoon Mom has her eye pressure rechecked, which will also entail another shopping trip, since yesterday's was a bit rushed. Until then, not much to do. Will probably get some more editing in. Am hoping to keep it below 19k, but I keep nudging up to the 20K line, and calling it "approximately 19K" when it's about a hundred or so words away from 20K... part of me just wants to kick it over the line for honesty's sake.

--

Tuesday afternoon, still gray. Mom's eye pressure looks better, so that's good. She checked on getting a booster shot at Rite-Aid, but they didn't have the kind she wanted. I might have to take her tomorrow after work, which sorta derails shopping plans.

The aunt called. Her husband has been getting terrible aftercare from the surgeon after his major leg surgery. Apparently he's been oozing from his wounds even before they sent him home, and they finally gave him stuff for an infection. Well, duh - if his wounds weren't closing up and they're doing squat for care, you're gonna get one of those! They're not having him rinse with saline or use gauze or anything like I had to do when I had a major incision, just letting fluid run down his leg. He is Very Not Happy, to the point we're not sure he'll do the other leg surgery at all. I think they should try looking for a different surgeon.

--

Tuesday evening creeps in like a creeping evening. Got everything pretty much ready for work tomorrow, except loading new audiobooks on the phone.

The aunt e-mailed this evening to say her husband is finally (!) being sent to a wound care place. Why the frell he was even sent home from the hospital without instructions on wound care after major frellin' surgery, I don't know, but we are Very Not Impressed with the whole team.

And I cleared another ep of Night Sky. Halfway through, and it's decently intriguing at least, but I think Outer Range was better by this point in its arc... It's not bad, but I keep hoping for a little more forward motion and a little less point-at-the-questions-without-answering-the-questions dancing, if that makes sense. Some character motivations and actions still seem vague and almost arbitrary without knowing some of those answers. Still want to try finishing it by the weekend, though, so I can start Stranger Things S4 with a solid binge.

--

Wednesday evening, and why waste a perfectly good chain post...

Work existed. Tomorrow's our last day at six strong on our shift. Friday's gonna suck...

After work, I drove Mom to Rite-Aid to get her COVID booster shot. Went well. We still have to arrange for Dad to get his booster, but at least she has hers. Picked up dinner on the way home at the store deli.

And I was going to watch another Night Sky ep but I'm sorta crashing. Too early to go to bed, but I may lay down for a bit.

 

[CMBright]

I sounded the call to action. Then, I patiently awaited the arrival of my most hated foes. Patient, because I knew that call to action would not be refused.

The child arrived, foes in hand. Or, rather, on head. Tangles. Lots and lots of hair tangles.

A complication arose. The comb, detested by the child, had disappeared. So had the child's brush. The child searched, no luck. My brush, inferior as it was for this particular task, would have to do.

An epic battle ensued. I fought valiantly, attempting to minimize 'friendly fire' shrieks, though some did occur. Slowly, so very slowly, the tangles yielded to my strokes.

I released the child as I emerged victorious, but not unscathed. Finger cramps HURT!

 

[Unimportant]

There are hair products that help with this. Expensive, but effective. I recommend Sebastian.

Alternatively, twist the tangles into a unicorn horn dreadlock!

 

[CMBright]

There are hair products that help with this. Expensive, but effective. I recommend Sebastian.

Alternatively, twist the tangles into a unicorn horn dreadlock!

Kid complains enough about non-no tears hair products and the ones I get are for kids. I nudge where I can with the kid. A few things, like hair washing and brushing is not negotiable.

Both of us have detangle brushes, but mine had little beads at the ends of the bristles. Hers doesn't. It didn't occur to me it would make that much of a difference to our gas molecule until I was brushing tonight. I will be replacing her brush if it doesn't turn up tomorrow.