The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for hundredth sales!

Just wrapped a couple quick transcription things, so the weekend won't be a total waste on that front. (Really not a huge moneymaker anyway; mostly I'm doing it for a little extra spending money now and again, and in the hopes it makes my anemic resume somewhat more attractive when I have to get another job.)

And if Amazon won't bother getting back to me on my Affiliate issue, I'll have to commence Operation Strip The Links from my site and blog this weekend. This will be a major, major time suck and pain in the tail... I think I can do a quick fix to at least hide the links on the site until I get around to going through all 1,700+ reviews, but the blog is just going to have to be going through every. Post. One. At. A. Time. (On the plus side, it means I can feel somewhat less guilty about procrastinating maintenance sweeps to check for broken Amazon links and "graveyard" reviews.)

--

And Saturday afternoon, gray and somewhat damp. Just finished lunch and the commencement of the Lucifer S6 rewatch. About to head out to my workshed to start Apoxie work on the ornaments (in theory - there's almost always something else that needs doing first), after which I need to accomplish some manner of exercise and eventually get the roast started.

--

Saturday night, and winding down the day. Hit a temporary setback on ornament work; my lousy nitrile gloves are shredding at an unsustainable rate, they're so cheaply made, so I had to order thicker gloves that won't be here until some time on Monday. Ornament work is pretty much on hold until then, because burning through seven or eight gloves just getting the barest of base coats on three ornaments, and still having to stop to pick out bits of glove from Apoxie... not really how to make anything resembling progress. Dang it... And then transcription was a wash tonight, so I just watched another ep of Lucifer. Need to do some spitballing to keep word wheels moving, then probably read until sleep occurs.

--

And now Sunday morning is blustery; we've already lost power two or three times. Think it's not going to be a very productive day, all things considered... eh, well...

 

[MaeZe]

My power is threatening to go out as well. The dreaded beep when the smoke alarm loses power went off but the power came right back. Fortunately this MacBook has a long battery power life. But my older one with my novel and the beta reader notes on it has a failing battery that drains quite quickly.

But if the power goes out, so does my internet.

 

[E.F.B.]

No power problems here, but thinking along the lines of internet outages, why don't they make laptops that allow you to connect to your phone plan's internet when the wifi goes down the same way your cellphone can? That would make too much sense and be far too convenient, I suppose...

Had a pretty good day, but then a mini crash a minute ago because I learned about a limited-release movie I wouldn't have minded seeing in theaters, but mom can't wear her glasses as long as she has the Bell's Palsy, not to mention the rounds of prednisone made her cataract worse, so she can't see things as a distance well and there would be no point in going. And that made me think of how we wanted to go to the State Fair and had tickets, but then dad fell, and then mom had her surgery, and we never got to go. And then a local theater is doing Broadway's Anastasia right now, which is one of the few shows they've had in years I'd really kind of be excited to see, but family health issues, sky-high ticket prices, and the theater isn't in the safest location either, so NOPE.

tl;dr I had a mini tearful self-pity party over all the "can't go and can't do" in this later half of the year when I would just really like some non stressful special thing to be able to go/do/see after all the stressful things we've had to deal with. *goes to curl up in a corner and cry more*

 

[Brightdreamer]

Yeah, feeling the "can't go anywhere or do anything" thing myself... especially the "can't go anywhere or do anything because family"...

Sunday afternoon, and it's calmed down at the house some, but there may be more on the way, and the wind doesn't have to hit here to eff up the power. So I'm pretty much just going with it, chalking the day up to a productivity loss, and doing precisely nothing. (And it has been a bit of a wild storm... there's now a container ship on fire, after losing 40 containers in the rough seas.)

Still need to exercise, though. Because someone was evil and bought some Halloween candy and has been snacking too much again. Not me, of course - I'm a Responsible Adult (TM) who would never think to scarf down half a package of Reese's PB pumpkins while aimlessly surfing the internet when I should be doing Useful Things. It must have been someone else who did that, then left empty wrappers in front of the monitor...

 

[Friendly Frog]

tl;dr I had a mini tearful self-pity party over all the "can't go and can't do" in this later half of the year when I would just really like some non stressful special thing to be able to go/do/see after all the stressful things we've had to deal with. *goes to curl up in a corner and cry more*

I know the feeling and it sucks So. Much.

 

[greendragon]

Checking in - work slowed down enough that I took two days off for a mini-vacation for our 20th anniversary. We spent 3 days in Mystic (about 1.5 hours from our home). It was lovely. We did touristy things and I napped every day. I RARELY nap. Like once a year. I guess my body really needed sleep.

I'm making progress editing my book. I'm on page 240 of 290. I hope to be done by Nov 1 to jump into NaNo!

 

[Brightdreamer]

Sunday night, and nothing accomplished. Kept having power blips all day, so I didn't even risk streaming anything. All I managed was a little exercise and starting to strip out the old Amazon links from the review blog, since they don't seem to want to get back to me on the affiliate issue.

Anyway, about time to wind down the day. Still not sure I can trust internet and power enough to stream anything, dang it...

--

And it's Monday morning, still a bit wet and blustery but not like the other day. Still lots of outages and weather fallout around the area. Hope to get back on my streaming schedule, at least... Also, the gloves I ordered from Amazon (that hopefully won't shred the moment I attempt to use them with Apoxie, like the last bunch did) arrived this morning, just when I was about to check Amazon to see when they were due to arrive. They usually don't get stuff out here until afternoon or evening. So I should be good to go on getting back into Operation Ornament Blitz. Also still have to work on Operation Strip The Amazon Links. And Operation Brainstorm For NaNo. Plus there's the ongoing Operation Stop Being A Lazy Idiot Making My Pathetic Life Sound Grandiose By Naming Everything I Do An Operation...

 

[E.F.B.]

The conference call with uncle's rehab people happened. I guess it went okay? Mom was at least able to make sure the questions that needed asking got asked and reinforcing the hard facts of what uncle MUST be able to do to go home, but it's hard to tell if these people truly understand that my aunt cannot do ANYTHING for him. As she's stated repeatedly, her caretaking days are over because she physically CAN'T anymore. Supposedly, he'll be ready come home by the end of the month and all anyone can do is hope they've worked with him enough (and that he actually TRIES to keep doing stuff after) that he doesn't fall down or whatever.

Meanwhile, dad still has trouble understanding why everyone gets tired of his constant "Why couldn't things have been handled THIS way? I just don't get why surgery ever has to be done???" (Like, he truly does this for EVERYTHING medical. His own medical stuff, mom's foot surgery and ear surgery, uncle's pace maker surgery.) Um because we don't live in Star Trek world where you can take a pill to grow a new organ, and therefore sometimes surgery needs to happen?

So, after the phone conference, and after dad drove aunt up a wall with the would have-could have-should haves during his private phone call with her, Mom kinda let him have it about his irrationality about the pace maker thing. 1) The surgery is done. You can't undo it by DAILY asking why it had to be done, not to mention everyone gets tired of hearing it and can't answer the question anyway. 2) Everyone who's seen him in person is saying uncle is doing 10x better having had it done. His color is better, he's walking farther, he's not panting like a dog when he's just sitting, watching TV. Gee, I think maybe he needed it! So, who knows if dad'll let it go now or not. Hopefully uncle is genuinely better off and will prove it by doing better when gets sent back to his home.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for relative improvement and possibly getting healthcare people to listen!

And we just had a bit of an Issue; Dad's taken to going through things at night and rearranging them, part of the joys of dementia, and managed to misplace all the credit cards and health insurance cards and other things he needs. So we just got to take the house apart looking for those. Finally found them in the pocket of a pair of his pants, but still... not a great sign.

And my intestines are trying to rebel on me, dang it.

Sooo... yeah. One of those days...

--

And it's Tuesday, almost noon. Lost the morning to Mom's PT appointment and shopping, though about forty minutes of that was trying to get out of the hospital; one lane in and out, and construction had it choked off. Great planning, guys...

And just learned the aunt needs a more intensive biopsy to diagnose an Issue she's been having, a "knock you out to get the tissue" level intensive.

Also, Dad managed to misplace the checkbook he was using just a couple days ago. Mom located it, and may have removed it from his custody, too.

--

And it's Tuesday evening, and the sibling is currently melting down because the state now requires proof of COVID vaccination for some indoor venues, which somehow translates to the entire state shaming her for losing her COVID card and preventing her from ordering take-out from anywhere (even though it totally doesn't, but we're dealing with sibling logic, which is tangential at best to real world logic)...

We printed out the MyIR Mobile thing that's supposed to be equivalent to the card. Now that's shaming her, too, because now she's decided that it's somehow shaming her to have a printout...

So she's sitting in the living room sucking the life out of the entire family and preventing us from doing anything but listening to the Eternal Howl...

I hate everything...

 

[E.F.B.]

Flu shot was obtained today. Other than that, things were pretty quiet, which was nice.

I got some solid WIP editing done and continue the eternal quest to do Etsy shop improvements as the holidays approach. I'm finally making myself sit down make an info graphic for each and every listing with the exact same info as is in the listing descriptions because it's becoming more and more apparent that people just don't read anything but the photos. Thank God for Canva or this would take two eternities instead of one.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for shooting flus!

Hooray for Canva!

Sibling finally went out to get food. (Probably still melting down.) Sorta wanted to do something else with my evening than deal with her Issues; literally can't start anything in case she comes home in an even worse mood than she left...

 

[Friendly Frog]

Plans for today were well an truly scuppered when I went to get Junior Cat for the noon meal and he couldn't take two steps without falling over, much to our mutual surprise.

One speedy vet appointment later and a good deal of money lighter, we now wait for another hour so we can get the results from the blood tests. It's unlikely something in the brain, and the virus tests were negative but for the rest it's anyone's guess. We had a cat with brain issues in the past, not really looking forward to that again.

But I don't expect much results, to be honest. I don't recall ever getting a clear result for any of the sick cats we had tested in the last 30 years of cat custodianship. But you just don't want to risk not getting at least bloodwork done. Certainly nor now with Junior Cat having odd bouts of lethargy and being off his food for days. Even if the vet thinks they're unrelated.

At least he's alert and not in obvious pain. And he's getting the good food. Vet said it may just pass. Let's hope for that.

But I'm not going to get anything else constructive done today, that's for sure.

 

[MaeZe]

That sounds quite worrisome FriendlyFrog. My dog has some kind of brain issue but the neurologist said the only way to find out is with a $5K MRI. All the less expensive tests have been done. Whatever it is would probably require brain surgery and I wouldn't do that to my 17 yr-old cat. She doesn't appear to be in pain from it.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Fingers crossed the cat recovers soon...

Wednesday morning, first day of "vacation" (a.k.a me taking a week off because HR is snarking about too much accumulated vacation time, even though management keeps telling us how terribly understaffed and behind we are), and the sinuses are sinusating something fierce today.

Eh, well... not like I had any plans other than sleeping in (which I accomplished)...

If the sinus vise ever loosens its grip on my skull, I intend to head out to the workshed for more ornament work; yesterday I completed the first phase of Apoxie application. Today I commence the second phase, which theoretically should go faster (but who am I kidding...). Also need to poke around reacquainting myself with Scrivener, because I finally downloaded that the other day to take advantage of the extended free trial time for NaNoWriMo (which I still need to put some actual thought into). And, of course, I still have to get Amazon links stripped from the blog, which probably won't be done by the end of the month, but oh well.

 

[Friendly Frog]

Vet didn't return the call. *sigh*

That sounds quite worrisome FriendlyFrog. My dog has some kind of brain issue but the neurologist said the only way to find out is with a $5K MRI. All the less expensive tests have been done. Whatever it is would probably require brain surgery and I wouldn't do that to my 17 yr-old cat. She doesn't appear to be in pain from it.

Yeah. We've had a cat with what was likely a brain bleed (tests there were also inconclusive, but I already suspected his brain was wonky well before) but he improved well and lived for at least 8 years after the incident with a good quality of live. He couldn't jump higher than a chair, fell down the moment he looked straight up, and held his head at an angle for most of the rest of his life. Junior Cat's head is still level so far.

But that cat had it when he was an adult cat, Junior Cat is only three. They don't think it's his brain, but they didn't rule out the spine.

Not sure if MRI is routinely done here for pets but the vet talked about possible further imagining with a CT scan. Would still be over 700 euros and we would have to be referred to a further away specialised clinic. I highly doubt we'll take that road without new data from the blood screen.

At least he's not in pain but ah, this is another worry I did not need in my life right now.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for unreturned calls!

And Wednesday winds down with a return of the drizzle. Not a lot accomplished today, though I did sweep leaves and gunk off the back patio and stairs, which was what passed for exercise. Also got some ornament progress made. (The wasps that live in the workshed peak may or may not be getting into the workshed proper; one of them might have just followed me in when I had the door open. Either way, I can't do anything about it until we get drier weather for spraying and/or removing crud from the shed for bug bombing, which won't happen until the weekend... Will go back out tomorrow, and if I see another one buzzing around I'll probably have my answer as to whether it's an Issue or an issue. And this is precisely why I wanted to start early, because I knew crud like this was gonna happen. Well, not exactly like this, but still...) And I did some site work. Think I might stream something next. It's my week off, but my brain is still worried about bedtime... stupid brain...

 

[Friendly Frog]

The vet at least called this morning but in doing so got my mom, who really did her best with taking notes but most of it doesn't make sense to her and she doesn't know what questions to ask. But at least there were some results in the blood work. Looks like anemia, low blood sugar, kidneys struggling but hanging on.

So he's going back in tomorrow for more expensive testing.

Can't help but feel we lost a day and that he could have gone in today if they had called when they said they would. They said they tried but I'd like to know why they didn't work since I was parked right next to the telephone well into the night. Last night when his eyes started flipping I was sure he was a goner right then. But luckily it passed but we're not going to be lucky that long again.

I still feel I want to kick the world in the shins and the feeling's becoming a bit of a habit...

 

[E.F.B.]

Kitty health problems suck.

Flu shot had me feeling a bit achy and blah yesterday, but I got past it and am not achy this morning. My armpit on that side where I got the shot is still sore, though. The lymph nodes in there have activated to do their immunity thing. Internet said that kind of soreness will clear up after a bit. I'd definitely rather have a briefly sore armpit than the flu.

Had a bit of trouble focusing on writing/editing yesterday due to feeling blah, but did have another accomplishment in driving at night for (as far as I remember) the first time. I've gotten lots of drive time during the day and into the early evening as it's starting to get dark, but not necessarily at night. Can't say I'm a fan when people decide it's okay to blind oncoming traffic with their high beams on a back country road, thus leaving spots in your eyes . But spots in my eyes while still being able to see the road are better than mom being quite literally totally blinded by the lights because of her cataract. We survived and experience points were gained.

 

[zanzjan]

Hope your kitteh is doing better today, FF.

Any folks doing NaNo?

 

[Brightdreamer]

I'm taking a stab at NaNo this year (almost entirely because it'll be cheaper to get Scrivener on the machine if I "win"); user name WordDragon this time around.

And boo for late vet calls... (Nice to know we aren't the only ones who get the "but we tried to call" lie from medical professionals; no, you frelling well didn't, because we have an answering machine, plus we didn't leave the house and never heard the phone ring...)

Thursday, and rainy. An "atmospheric river" following up on the "bomb cyclone" is bringing lots of secondhand ocean. Just finished up another phase of ornament work. (No wasp sightings in the shed, which leads me to suspect they aren't getting in save through the door, which means I probably won't have to gut the thing and bug bomb inside, just nail the buggers with spray outside when things dry out this weekend.)

The aunt got an appointment for her knock-out-biopsy thing. Her husband is going in some time for stents in his legs; at least two surgeries, at least seven day stays each. I think I'm expected to have a bag of books to keep him entertained; he's where I usually dump my culls. Much of my reading lately has been audiobooks, though, so I'm thinking of picking out the ones he's most likely to enjoy and seeing if I can grab cheap copies through Amazon or Half Price Books online... I have about two or three HPB gift cards by now, but their local stores have been uninspiring and uninviting lately, plus there's the whole "it's stupid to shop frivolously during an ongoing pandemic" thing...

In any event, closing in on lunch time. I hope the rain lets up later so I can wheel the recycle bin down the road; it can't fit in the Taurus, so I have no choice but to walk it down.

 

[RaiscaraAvalon]

Kitty problems suck. Hope Junior Cat gets to feeling himself soon.

Figured I'd pop in here before we needed a new one lol, only read the first and last pages cause I wasn't reading 509 pages today. Going to take a nap here soon, but wanted to say hi. *waves*

 

[E.F.B.]

Hope your kitteh is doing better today, FF.

Any folks doing NaNo?

I'm doing Nano to the extent that I'm internet-hanging out with some writer friends on Slack (too many interested for a group on the Nano site, so we went to Slack) all November. The group is super flexible about what everyone's goal is and I'm editing rather than drafting right now anyway. My goal is to cut those last 3k words to get my story under 100k + I'm feeling like the first few chapters need a total rewrite.

 

[Friendly Frog]

My legs are cramped because I had a sick cat on my lap for two hours and while I usually have no problem transferring a cat to a nearby pillow, I am not a monster.

Junior Cat is less active today, didn't eat but had enough energy to struggle away when I tried to get some drops of water in him. Typical cat. At least no creepy eye shudder today so there's that.

If I do a NaNo this year (and currently I'm not quite feeling it) it'll be another NaNo light and I'll be finally finishing my latest sisyphus story. It's still very draft-y.

And boo for late vet calls... (Nice to know we aren't the only ones who get the "but we tried to call" lie from medical professionals; no, you frelling well didn't, because we have an answering machine, plus we didn't leave the house and never heard the phone ring...)

It's the needlessness of the lie that gets my goat. She was still with a patient when I called, she could easily have had the perfect excuse to just say her last patient took much more time than she had hoped and it really was too late. I wouldn't have been able to tell anyhow.

But no, they went for a verifyable lie. Above all the other evidence, our landline also shows missed calls. There were none.

 

[Brightdreamer]

It's the needlessness of the lie that gets my goat. She was still with a patient when I called, she could easily have had the perfect excuse to just say her last patient took much more time than she had hoped and it really was too late. I wouldn't have been able to tell anyhow.

But no, they went for a verifyable lie. Above all the other evidence, our landline also shows missed calls. There were none.

Exactly. Rather than just admit they were busy or forgot or whatever, they have to lie and try to make it your fault for not picking up the phone that didn't ring...

And it's later on Thursday, and it never. Stopped. Raining. All. Day. Gray and dismal and wet, and several local waterways are creeping toward flood stage, and it's still raining...

Mergh.

Anyway, got a review posted, did a little site work, streamed another episode of Lucifer S6, so now I need to find something else to do with my evening. (Rifftrax uploaded their riffed version of Carnival of Souls to YouTube for free; may give that a watch...)

 

[RaiscaraAvalon]

I'm just making dinner and then heading to bed. Too tired for more.