It’s Wednesday

Hiiii! I’m updating today despite being extremely sleepy. I’m not really sure why I slept so well compared to other days, but I can tell you that I think my body is going through fat burn. When that happens, I get periods where I’m extremely hot. It’s cyclic and can happen at night and during the day, though mostly at night which is terrible for good sleep. Yesterday, when I was “working out” I found that I can actually touch my toes not because I’m suddenly more flexible, but because my stomach area is less large and I can bend better. Heeeeey! I guess that’s good.

Weekdays: Last week kind of flew by. Not a complaint. I’m sure stuff happened, though I don’t really remember anything crazy. Oh. Yes. So, one, that mean temp hygienist got towed which, while it sucks, is kind of funny because all she did was talk bad about everyone. Who does that right off the bat? Then one of our 90 year old patients crashed into another car while parallel parking and the doctors hotly debated whether or not to leave a note for the other car or encourage her to do something about it. I decided to engage my special skill which is being snoopy and nosy, so I walked out to surreptitiously take photos of both cars. That back of her car is filled with dings and scratches because she must do that constantly. I don’t know what happened with that. She’s SUCH a nice woman, too.

Saturday: Normal morning routine. Found out that one of the grocery stores I go to sometimes has recently installed metal gates that automatically close to prevent people from just pushing their unpaid carts out the door. Stealing is such a problem! Came home, did plant stuff, ferried, then went to the Asian mart to find stuff to make moon cakes. I always end up spending a fortune there. Came home and became a vegetable.

Sunday: Took Cora to the park with a bug spray barrier. It was also nice because the park service had been out to mow down the poison ivy next to the trail. Phew! Was able to go a good loop without being terrified of itchiness. It was hot, though! Went home, did more plant stuff. Ferried, then had all these plans of writing game guides, making moon cakes, cleaning out the shed… and I did NONE of that. Instead, I finished moving around the hydroponic setup and completed the new S-sized sprinkler system. Still altering and trying new things. Was a veggie again. Dinner of chow fun, homestyle.

Monday: Since I did nothing all weekend, it was time to be useful. Woke up normal time for a Monday, was annoyed that there were so many people out at that time (time is changing so it makes sense). Came back, paid bills. Was ecstatic that there was extra cash, so I was busy trying to get ahead of the bills allocating here and there. I’m desperately trying to save money which is a losing battle. That took a long time, so then I immediately jumped into drawing a RW post with hopes of finishing and being able to mow the lawn later. Of course, I decided to tackle the longest post in a while with the most detail. I drew so quickly that by the time I was done and inked (10:30-12:15) my hand had cramped up something awful. Hadn’t had something that like in a long time! Digitizing took even longer. All in all, I didn’t finish until past 3pm. So much for mowing the lawn! That’s what I get for trying to cram too many elements into one post. And the worst part? Because it was rushed, I didn’t do a good job with quality, so it looks kind of bad, the part I wanted to go into more detail on. At least I finished. Went back to vegetabling on the couch and did it for too long. After Monday chores, walking Cora, I only had a short time to cook the ambitious thing I wanted to do. In the interest of time, I altered it (though it took around the same amount of time, just less mess) into “treasure box chicken.” Took forever to cook, but it was good. Fell right to sleep when I hit the bed.

Tuesday: Work sailed right on by! Went to be nosy in my neighborhood because I saw a fire engine. Nothing special. Ate food, worked out. Stayed up too late reading one of my stories.

Now I’m tired and want to sleep.

It appears that yet again…

…I must wait until tomorrow to update. I spent too much time editing my RW post note and am now writing in my dream blog before I forget.

Whoops

I intended to get right on writing the update, but then got distracted researching a name for Scandinavian medieval people (crossword-like puzzle I’m doing), which led to info about the Huns, which then led to the Xiongnu… yeah. Interesting stuff.

Weekdays: Mostly okay. My boss is back to being unable to handle her schedule again. She goes through periods like this (in fact, yesterday was extra bad). I think something may have happened, but I don’t remember now. The snowblower came and I was able to contact the loan people. Now I have moolas for the roof slated for early to mid September. The spider bite on my head was obnoxious all week

Saturday: Normal morning routine. Went to Walmart instead of the regular grocery store to find 1 specific item. Was able to score some storage bins I’ve been wanting. Stuff like that are hard to decide on with online shopping. I would prefer to see it in person, feel it, etc. Walmart’s prices these days aren’t as good as they used to be! I didn’t save any money, though. Ended up being the same cost as usual. Came home, normal Saturday stuff. It was cloudy out, though no rain like all the forecasters were warning about. I ended up being a blob because I didn’t feel great… At least I’m pretty sure that’s what I did. Had steak for dinner. It was my nephew’s birthday, but I never did hear anything about it. This is good, though, because, again, I didn’t feel great. I finally understood what it was towards the end of the day: I finally got my first skeeter-syndrome bite. I swear that my immune system resets every autumn. Biologically, perhaps late summer into fall is actually the start of the new year. Looks like that’s the end of my sick-free streak. Oh boy.

Sunday: Took Cora out to the park… after covering myself in bug spray. No more skeeter syndrome, please. It was foggy and beautiful. We walked around and enjoyed the peacefulness in a way that only morning people can. Sure enough, by the time we got back to the car, the other people were pouring in. You know, the non-morning people who are just having an early adventure. Way too noisy for a tranquil Sunday morning. Interestingly, when I was driving back home, I looked at the parking lots for the other trail entrances and the 2-3 cars that had been at each one were long gone. It made me laugh because those are the morning people, long gone before the others show up. Got home, did a tick check (all clear!), took a shower. I’d been planning on clearing out the shed to fit the new snowblower that came on Friday (early prepping for winter! Because I have sooo much money), except I never counted on the skeeter syndrome thing. It’d been oozing everywhere and being super obnoxious. I ended up being a blob again. Made a dinner of Thanksgiving in the summer with mango and lychee flavored turkey and ham. Got to eat my fresh picked corn and it was just as amazing as last year! My bite was really affecting me, so went to sleep early.

Monday: Woke up feeling much better. Hopped onto the computer to get some online errands done (and shopping. People really need to stop having birthdays) and ended up writing another game guide. These things take a few weeks to do. I was trying to decide upon art or game guide and chose the guide because I have so many undone ones. My arm was feeling better, so, naturally, the spider bite on my head decided to act up, too. Between the arm and the forehead, I was done with being productive. Back to being a blob! Made curry for dinner. Monday chores.

And that’s it! Just an obnoxious weekend not getting anything useful done thanks to my immune system and mosquitoes. The arm one now looks terrifying. The weeping had gotten really bad, and now it literally looks like a hard, scabby nipple. The size has gone down today. Yesterday was bigger. That will eventually go away. Both the head and arm will and have been bubbling up which is scary looking. My boss complained that my head one still hadn’t gone away yet. Haha. She said it looks almost worse. Nah. It’s better. It’s going to look scary like this for a while yet. I think people think it’s just a bad pimple.

I’m a little worried about getting sick this year. It’s been a nice run with 2025 and up until now not having any real illness issues. That’s what happens: I’ll go through a period where I’m really healthy and then BOOM. Major hit from something. Cigna has decided to drop their participation in the health marketplace, too, which means I’m worried about where to get health insurance from now. It’s always something.

I’m sleepy. I learned that if you get West Nile from mosquitoes (the rate has gone up tremendously this year) and beat it, you should have lifetime immunity. The only problem is that West Nile has a good chance of causing neuro-invasive problems in high-risk populations like older and immunocompromised individuals. We’re talking paralysis, loss of vision, any CNS thing. Scary stuff.

Traffic is VERY Loud Already

Which means I’m going to have a time of it. Better make sure I’m early today. Yesterday was the first day of school for the county, so it stands to reason that today would be like that. Summer is over! Wah!

I was going to write up an update, but I think I’m going to close my eyes for a few minutes, instead. I’ll try to remember to update tomorrow.

Sooo Sleeeeeepppyy

I have been extra tired the last 2 days. It might have something to do with this 3rd eye I have in between my normal 2… I got bitten by another spider. At my own house this time. I was actually wearing eye protection at the time so it makes me wonder if I hadn’t, how different this would be… It was spreading into my eyes and impeding my vision for a bit. Now it just looks nasty and weepy. At least it’s not as big as it was. I just gave the go-ahead for the roof people. *stomach hurts again* The mornings are getting dark again. No headlamp yet, but we’re getting there.

Weekdays: The week was a disaster. Not only was S “sick” all week (so not only is she not working Wed anymore, but now she’s just sick again. At this point I have no idea if she’s faking it or not. I mean, if you don’t wanna work anymore, then just don’t!), but the docs finally got a temp for Friday, we crammed all the patients we’d just cancelled into it, and the idiot shows up, “fell on her way up the stairs,” hurting her hand, and demanded to go home after 1 patient. I’m more worried about liability from someone like that. That means we had to cancel all the people we’d just placed on there. WTF. Unless I’d broken it, I would’ve toughed through it all, holy crap, at least half the day. Geez. There wasn’t much traffic because there’s a “last hurrah” vibe in the air before school starts next week for most of the area. I feel like something else happened, I just don’t know what. OH. My 2nd to last patient on Friday is a 92yo man that I’ve been seeing for years. He has kyphosis pretty badly, so it’s insanely difficult to work on him. Well. He pooped himself in my chair. I don’t usually use my nose during appointments, but I’d seen a demeanor change in him (almost a fear), so I actually did use it only to be smashed into the face with this awful odor. At first, I kept telling myself it’s his breath (kidney failure causes bad breath, something common in older people as the body fails) or someone heating up food, but no food smells like that. It’s the same odor as my old man dog at the end: a runny poo smell. So, of course, once you smell it, you can’t unsmell it. I tried to go fast yet discreetly, giving myself a nasty headache in the process and contorting my body in ways that are terrible for me. At the end the smell was mostly gone and he was back to his usual self. Nothing plopped onto my shoes, so I assumed he was wearing something. After the exam, he did something he’s never done: he basically told me that he really enjoys being my patient and that I do good work and… I kind of cut him off because I was in a hurry for my next patient (and to air the place out), but also because I knew what he was doing: he was trying to say thank you and goodbye. He, himself, didn’t think that he’d see us again. I’d come to that conclusion myself during the appointment. I warmly saw him off and told him I’d see him next year, to which he chuckled. I think this might be the last time I see him. He could potentially eke out one more appointment, but I kind of doubt it. He even told me he really shouldn’t be driving anymore (he was driving…). That kind of stuck with me.

Saturday: Woke up, charged car, went grocery shopping where this one lady in the checkout line came and stood smack next to me and even acknowledged it. It was weird and I don’t know why she did that. Came home, ferried mom, then went to cut trees with my new (properly shipped) manual tree pruner! It’s so sharp and scary looking! Definitely a weapon. Freed up some limbs from the peach tree, then the arbor vitae in the front, then hand-trimmed the grass around the pumpkin. I had eye protection but no hat. I also had 1 glove that I wasn’t wearing. As I was trimming all around the pumpkin plant (ginormo thing), I saw that this thing was being aggressive: turns out it’s another yellow sac spider! It was trying to attack my hand pruner. I guess I’d woken it up from its sleep and it was trying to defend itself. That’s when I became super aware that I wasn’t wearing the glove I’d thrown on the other side. This is the problem with tall, untrimmed grass and other overgrowth. Honestly, though, it’s probably because of the 1 spider that the pumpkin has seen no fungus or squash bugs. It looks good overall with 5 pumpkins. Came back inside to start my game guide and then realized that I got a spider bite on my head that kept growing as time passed. Marathon guide writing, then dinner and sleep. Cut in my napa

Sunday: Extra tired when I woke up and it was rainy, too (pattern these days). Considered taking Cora to the park and wasn’t keen on adding even more bites to my collection. My head didn’t feel great. Walked her far around the neighborhood instead, and we saw a fox who saw Cora, then sat down to watch us walk by. We went to check out the oak trees because I realize that I haven’t seen any acorns. I use them to forecast the winter. I did find a small amount of moderately sized 2-3″ ones, but I think the massive population of squirrels around here have eaten them all already! So, I don’t know! Came home, did plant stuff, felt tired, ferried mom, then came home and immediately started writing the guide. I got to try eating the napa I planted. I left it too long. The leaves are good (I had to scrub the dirt from them), just the white part was way too hard. I worked so hard and long on the guide, soon it was dinner time. Finished it finally around 11:30pm. Spider bite was impeding my vision and extremely itchy

Monday: Slept in. Extra tired. Likely from bite. Came back from walk, hopped on computer to get started. Recorded medical results (my cholesterol is so high!! What happened in 2 years?!?!), took vitals, paid bills (OMGGGGGGGG I need to STOP spending MONEY!!!! WTHHHH), did other stuff. Around 10:40am, started drawing something for RW. Finished at 12:40pm (record!), then went to cut the grass. Did some for the neighbors, too (crabgrass season), lugged the yard waste from the back to the front, then went to die on the bed because it was 102F outside. Played video games for fun this time, no guide, for the rest of the day. Cora was nudging me to walk and it turns out the sky looked terrible. Thunder made us go faster, and I rushed through Monday chores, and made double baked beans for dinner with a quick mashed potato. Watched TV for a bit, then took a shower and went to sleep. I conked out after watching this crazy crime story on YTube, then conked out like a light. And I’m STILL super tired! And now out of time for a nap. Ugh. Maybe just a few minutes…

This is the last week before school starts after all. Maybe traffic won’t be so bad. I’m so worried about patients staring at my weepy bite smack there.

Maybe I Should Update

Yeah, I never did get back around to updating properly. Of course, now that it’s been so long, I remember nothing! That man at the end of our line of houses, the newest one in our unit, is not someone I am a fan of. It started off badly as he has these 2 little doodle things and he let it poop on our strip of grass and just left, looking at his phone, pointedly not looking at anything as I walked smack into our house with Cora a few weeks ago. That poop sat there for all this time (I don’t really know what happened to it, probably just got absorbed into the earth with all the rain and bugs and such), didn’t even bother picking it up later (I do that sometimes when I forget my bags: I’ll go get some and come back to pick it up). I saw his weird interaction with my next door neighbor and her new dog which was just gliding smack by her with no indication of anything while the dogs go crazy on my camera because I heard noise. Yesterday, I was walking Cora home, and he was there again with his dumb little dogs across the street. They were barking at me and Cora, and he just stood there watching them bark like a dullard. I moved my car out this morning to the street because I have another roofer coming and there he was again. At least he had the capacity to move out of the way of a couple and their baby stroller, but not by much, and the dogs were acting out again. I walked the other direction back to the house just as another dog walker was coming that way. It would have been too nosy of me to turn around and watch, so I resisted!! and walked home. His wife or whatever is fine with them and she’s careful to pick up and such, but he’s got this soft weakness to him alongside the antisocial (which is fine, don’t get me wrong). It’s that passive, weak part of him that I hate so much. Your dogs are literally 15lbs each. Yes, you can control them.

Anyways, I’m trying to get stuff done this morning early so that I can deal with the roofing people later. I hate waiting around for these things. My Mondays are typically filled with regimented tasks, so this throws a loop in it all. Let me try to remember the events of my week off:

That Weekend: It was quite a typical weekend except that I knew I’d not be working. Normal morning of charging the car and grocery shopping. Later, I went to the local nursery to look for Arp Rosemary. Thanks to the rodents, I finally know what to do with all that extra space in the backyard: I’m going to put in all kinds of rodent/pest repelling plants. We’re talking about Arp rosemary (one of the varieties of rosemary capable of withstanding the winters around here), decorative allium (onions. Nothing likes onions) and probably some garlic, daffodils, and later probably some creeping thyme. After wandering around the amazing fun land of the plant nursery, I found and took their last 2 large Arp rosemary (I started buying the big plants because they’re more established and worth paying more for), got a different variety that looked interesting, and got milkweed while I was at it. I’d seen a Monarch butterfly a few days prior (couldn’t snap a picture because Cora literally chased it away) and wanted to see more. Very expensive, everything from there. Came home and immediately went out to plant them. It was hot work and I was little worried that the vinegar I sprayed back there would mess with the rosemary, but so far so good. I was a little sad that me spraying all that stuff everywhere made all the spiders disappear again. While planting them, I noticed that the tea tree had FRUIT! I never even knew that tea trees had fruit! It looks weird! Kind of a tricorn green orange. Yes. Cora isn’t a huge fan of gardening or digging in dirt except she didn’t want me outside by myself (or just got tired of being left out of things), so she was hanging around while being annoying at the same time. Haha. After that, I went ahead and signed away my soul for the beach. There it is: all bazillion dollars that I don’t have.

It was a plant weekend. I was messing and inspecting all my plant setups, decided I wanted a fan for the basement (never did set up that timer…), then got to work on finishing that new expanded bird bath. Frustration!! That project had been a source of major frustration for just ONE teensy little connection for weeks and I kept throwing money at it over and over. Saw a polyphemus moth, cut in more cucumbers, got new seedling thinning scissors (cuticle scissors) for the basement grow, worked out. Played lots of Megaman Starforce series. Monday saw me finally update RW with a long post which was waylaid because I broke my dresser drawer trying to finally put away all of my laundry (speaking of which… I need to do some more today). That’s what happens when you do years of smashing stuff into things. Took me over an hour to try and fix it mostly because I couldn’t get the stupid thing to slide in and hold it together, etc. After all that, I suddenly decided to jam all of my appointments in and made them all. Why not?

Tuesday: I woke up like normal to go to work because I was… just not necessarily for work. I was going to finally sharpen my instruments and at the same time, send Cora to daycare for a half-day because she hadn’t been for so long. She was beyond excited, but then had gotten so attached to me that she was afraid when I left. I drove to work, spent the next 1.5 hours sharpening my instruments that were so dull they were like rocks. That’s why it took so long! I’d intended to take maybe 30-45 minutes, bum around the area a bit, then go pick Cora up before noon. So much for that!! I rushed out of there, swung by to pick up some snacks for my family real quick, swung by my grandma’s house to deliver her laundry and gave her some of the banh uot I bought, then raced over to pick up Cora. Usually when I go pick her up I have to fight traffic, so I was on edge. Turns out it’s the summer and while I did run into an insane amount of people going 10 under the speed limit and blocking all the lanes, I made it with 40 minutes to spare. Cora was happy to see me, just tired, and I got to say hi to the people there I hadn’t seen in a while (why is it that with my patients and everyone, they all look like they’ve lost 50lbs? I mean being more trim is good, but most people look ill. I like when people look robust. I don’t like this gaunt look everyone’s got going lately). I didn’t want to go home just yet, so I took Cora to the park where I almost forgot my poo bags and had to go back to the car to get them. Good thing, too, because Cora made a massive poo about 5 steps in. I guess running around in daycare does that. We walked around a bit in the crazy heat of midday summer. I got to see dragonflies and butterflies I don’t normally see in the early morning, and a dumb mockingbird yelled at me then flew up and tried to poop on me despite me being nowhere near its nest. My pants kept falling down and Cora was desperately tired, so we turned around and trudged back to the AC in my car and went home. She was very tired and so was I. Played video games the rest of the day and made more appointments for myself.

Wednesday: I was doing internet stuff and something inside me kept telling me to hurry up and go to my appointment. I argued with myself that I only live 2 minutes away, why? So I disregarded everything and left the house when I felt like it. Stopped to take pictures of a swallowtail that flew by and landed on my plants. Drove casually over to the office, was early, so sat in my car playing MHNow, ignoring another strong GO INSIDE NOW voice. I finally saunter in and they told me that I was so late I might not be able to be seen. I was shocked and super embarrassed. I’ve become one of THOSE patients. The doctor was okay seeing me, so they had to squeeze me in. Felt awful and apologized to everyone I could. Appointment was normal and no changes. I puzzled over my birdbath some more and STILL was unable to figure it out. That was the day I became upset at myself because I couldn’t make myself stop trying to work and to just relax. My body just inexplicably wanted to work. It didn’t want to sit still and relax. It wanted to work, to go and do something worthwhile!

Thursday: The most unbusy day of the week, I intended to not do anything special at all. My body was still putting up a fight, though my mind was winning. Tried again with the birdbath. No dice. Played video games to force myself to relax and worked out to try and burn some energy

Friday: Finally, it was starting to feel like vacation. Woke up early to get to my annual wellness appointment, resolved to NOT be late again. They were instantly ready for me, meaning I could have gone even earlier. Ugh. Saw a new NP this time who I liked tons better than my last one. She seemed like my age and was very professional and warm at the same time. I’d been putting off the pap test forever, but finally decided to give in. She talked me through the whole thing and while not fun, wasn’t terrible. I’m glad I did it. That meant the appointment took longer than I thought it would and after the blood test, I was shocked to see the time! Cora had an appointment in 20 minutes! I raced home, drank some water, loaded her up and off we went! We arrived around the same time as a guy and his beagle mix. I let them in first, then came in. Front desk was swamped so we both sat and waited. The chairs were really close together, so it was a good test for Cora. I’m never afraid of her around other dogs because of daycare, it’s just the over excitement. The other dog was going crazy, and I got to practice exerting calm on her to make her stop her own over excitement. It worked REALLLY well and I was sooooo proud of her. She got to the point where she was giving the other crazy dog the “wth…” look for being unstable. Its owner was embarrassed that he couldn’t get it under control. Turns out he was 30 minutes early for his appointment. We got into the room, Cora had gained FOUR pounds! Too much! The physical exam went well, I hemmed and hawed about the blood test and finally just gave in to the full thing. Got to really talk to the vet. I like her a lot. She’s old school and I love it. We go home and I decide against going to the pet store like we usually do because I just spent a LOT of money. Came home, finished Megaman Starforce 2 (didn’t go for the 100% like the first game because that game is crazy and I was tired of it), and started on Megaman Starforce 3. Guides for the first 2 games done and onto the next!

Saturday: Back to the regularly scheduled routine. Woke up, charged (amazingly, I’d driven around so much that I used more than I thought I would), went to the Asian mart, regular grocery shopped, and went home. Tried to feed my venus fly trap a dead fly (too large, bad idea), thinned out the pumpkins in the front (crazy vine is MASSIVE) and gave it some compost (which made it even more monstrous). Ferried mom, cut my hair (a little too zealous this time, did a bad job pinning the hair), and played more video games and guide-making.

Sunday: Took Cora to the park despite the rain. It was so humid and nasty again we didn’t go for too long. It’s okay, she just likes going somewhere new and I like greenery. Came home, checked out all my plants. Played games, made dinner of mi and tons of dumplings (my lunch during the week)

Monday: Woke up, moved my car in readiness for the roof people coming for an estimate. FINALLY figured out the expanded bird bath. I got the connection figured out: it was the fancy nozzle I’d chosen. Took a circular saw to it and BOOM. Works flawlessly. Put it outside while taking in the nasty algae filled old one to the sudden cacophony of birdsong. They’re picky, you know? Sounding the new-water-alarm. I’d watched them all turn up their beaks at the algae-filled one on the camera. Spent the rest of the day waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Finally, I called their office. No pickup, then called the guy himself. TURNS OUT, they were supposed to have cancelled me because they had some office-wide event and I guess I fell through the netting. He felt so bad that insisted on coming over right then because he lives close to me. I tried to quickly make dinner, but there he was and now I had to deal with a salesperson. I fibbed a little like I’ll do with these people by saying there’d been another group out already, which came back to bite me in the butt because as it turns out, he used to work for them and knew all about them. Dammit. I kept giving vague answers and decided that if he pushed, I’d just say that I didn’t actually meet them, one of my housemates did, and I just heard about it. He was really nice and I like the group because I dealt with them already at my grandma’s house. I got eaten alive by mosquitoes talking to him outside while the rest of my neighborhood was busy snooping from inside their houses at us (I can tell!). The roof definitely needs to be fixed, the gutters need to be, too, the siding is actually okay, just needs tightening up, and one of the vent pipes is cracked. What’s crazy is that I KNOW for a fact that the siding was loose and flapping about. Not only did I take a picture when it was getting loose, I’d seen in person that it was hanging off altogether later (didn’t take a pic then). So, I guess the strong winds smashed it back into place. LOL. When I finally got back inside the house, my dinner was way overdone.

The price is a lot, though exactly what I thought it would be. *SIIIIIIIIGGGGHHHH* Yet another loan! Yay! I am WINNING this year in the financial dept.

Ehhhh…. I guess I’ll just update now and save myself some trouble tomorrow morning.

Weekdays: Work was okay. S no longer works on Wednesdays and the person they had filling in for her is crazy. Like, crazy. All these up-and-coming hygienists are TERRIBLE. My field if being destroyed. They don’t know what to do about it. Thankfully, I’m not the boss. Keep your head down and work. Week rolled right along. My nose kept waterfalling and my coworker kept asking if I was sick and I kept saying no. Then I thought about it, and I think I was. Not necessarily from people (though I did see lots of people I don’t normally see last week)… I think it’s more from mosquitoes. I get at least 2-3 a day. The suspicion is west nile or something.

Saturday: Charged, shopped, came home. Checked out my pumpkins, finally unclogged my bathroom sink, marveled over how my window orb weaver managed to catch a lanternfly and was having the feast of its life. Gonna be a BIG spider! Picked some monster cucumbers and 2 of my peppers. Worked hard on the guide for Icebound Secrets the rest of the day.

Sunday: It was all about the plants in the morning. I was out there cleaning up plants. Found ladybug larvae, aphids, a yellow sac spider which I did listen to my gut on and didn’t antagonize. Yellow sac spiders were one of the few venomous spiders in this state. I’ve been bitten by one before 2 years ago on my head. They’re nocturnal hunters and eat lots of garden pests. Hunter spiders are the absolute most brave and aggressive of spiders… for good reason. My new birdbath has no algae yet! The copper disc is working! I swapped out the giant hydro broccoli with my dying tomato (I have ZERO luck with hydro tomatoes!). We’ll see if they both live or not. Went to check out the basement grow. They’re getting big, just trying to contend with the surface fungus! I intended to use the manual pole saw after leaving it there for 2 weeks and turns out when I opened it, it’s only an extension pole. WTF. So, then I had to get on with Home Depot, and they were cool about it. Now I have even more things to sell online. Hopefully, they’ll send me the correct one this time. I do need to do some summer pruning. My peaches are too big! Decided to go chop them up anyways with what I could reach. Played more tablet games and moved on to the next game. Gotta get paid somehow. Kind of restless all day. I wanted to get more tree stuff done. It was hot out. Didn’t feel like cooking, so we got takeout. My ear was killing me for a lot of the day. In and out painful. I concluded that something bit me on my ear probably when I was knocking down peach tree limbs (spiders, ants, who knows). Kept trying to finish the game guide all night. 2 more chapters to go. I’ll try to finish it later.

Which leads us to today! Here I am typing away (it’s been nigh 2 hours). I’m NOT going to do a RW post because that usually sends me past to around 1-2pm and the guy is supposed to be here around 12 (it was originally 10, but he had an appointment for his kid). My ear feels tons better and I slept super well! Maybe I should go eat something. Hmm. After I do some bank stuff, so I can go wait for the guy properly. I have a feeling he might come early.

There you go! I posted!

Welp

I was going to update because I clearly haven’t for 2 weeks straight, but I was just reading through the proposal I just received for the roof replacement and am considering how the HELL I am going to pay for it all. I was totally right about it costing the same as the AC except this one has more that can go wrong, so it’s actually going to cost more like $15k because it’s the gutters and one of the vents up top that are causing issues. I am STRESSED AGAIN.

And I don’t want to go back to work. I spent last week trying to convince my body that it doesn’t need to work because it was desperately wanting to work, and then it’s time to go back to work and it finally relaxed and now doesn’t want to. Sigh. It’s probably going to be a disaster.

I’ll get to the update at some point. I’m still mulling over the roof, here.

*Atchoo!*

My nose feels like it needs to sneeze at least 10 times, but nuthin. It’s cloudy out again today and there’s supposed to be some serious downpours and wind and thunderstorms later. Tornados are something my house area doesn’t contend with much unlike my workplace… Aaaaand it’s supposed to hit somewhere between the 2-5pm range which is exactly when I need to get home from work. Probably need to pack extra food today. Either the power is going to go out at work, or traffic, or trees down or something. Something is gonna happen. I just hope it hits BEFORE 5pm so that people leave early and I only have to deal with the late people.

This weather is crazy this year: we had cool weather for a long while, then it was deathly dry and we were in a nasty drought, then intense heat, and now it won’t stop raining. It’s late July! It’s supposed to be super hot and parched! I had to mow my lawn 2 weeks in a row after not mowing it at all this season. No joke, this is the 3 or 4th time this YEAR that I mowed.

Weekdays: Busy, busy, busy. I hardly touched my phone all week. Had to help the new doc again because not only was she extra booked, but her assistant is really slow, and she’s getting to really show in her pregnancy. I can tell she doesn’t feel well. S decided to quit coming on Wednesdays in her quest to retire slowly. It’s not enough for me to stop my schedule and start coming in earlier. Then Friday rolled around and for the life of me I could not remember what else I wanted to give my doc for her birthday, but I was really excited to give her the card (old people bingo). Turns out literally no one else remembered except me which I could tell made my doc sad (she literally remembers everyone else’s birthdays and we only have to remember 2), but it’s okay because I didn’t forget. Got her hot honey and some other foods. It took until 12pm for me to remember what else I got for her and while it’s nothing special, I got her an activity brain teaser book. They’ll be at the beach next week, so maybe it’ll give her something to do? Ordered Famous Dave’s for dinner Friday because I have soooo much money. Friday saw me yet another day with the runs. I swear up and down that I have that cyclospora outbreak thing. It keeps returning every 5-7 days.

Saturday: Woke up later than usual to charge the car. Again, I feel like I’m super tired at night because of that parasite. Drove out like normal, charged up, decided to go to the one grocery store, went home. Bummed around playing games, then ferried mom and went to HD for roof stuff because my package shelter is falling apart already. I guess it gets super hot in the front. Came home, went looking for stuff I needed to apply the stuff. Cora got tired of being left out of things, so she followed me around the house until I had to go outside, then she waited for me at the top of the stairs. It was so hot on the front porch that my head dripped sweat within 10 minutes of just sitting there (it was cloudy). I gooped the roof sealant on, added the fiberglass mesh (supposed to stop cracking), and gooped some more on. It looks terrible like cake icing, but it was super hot, I kept getting the stuff everywhere, and I couldn’t get it nicer. Immediately went to eat and play video games. Around early afternoon it started to POUR rain and the wind was crazy with thunderstorms. I got tired of not being able to find solutions to the side quests, so I decided to write my own guide.

Sunday: Woke up early to take Cora to the park. The sky was very dark and so I had to lie there and wait until it lightened a little (clouds). She wasn’t too excited because I haven’t taken her anywhere in a while, but then we got in the car! She was a little worried about it. We get to the park and there’s no one there! Both of us were excited at that point. We walked in, I got to look at the creek (normally this time of the year, it’s deathly dry and you can walk on it… not this year!), and then I spent the rest of the walk terrified because there’s poison ivy everywhere. The trail looked like spring and not summer the way things were overgrown! Nonetheless, I think Cora was just happy to be somewhere instead of the house, and I was happy to be amongst the green trees. About halfway through the short trek, I decided to turn around because of all the poison ivy and also because it was unbearably hot and humid despite there being no sun and still mostly cloudy. The overgrown greenery was really breathing! The worst part, though, were all the MOSQUITOS. I guess with all the storms and rain that humans haven’t hit the trail that much because they came upon me like a feast. They bit me through my shirt. Yes. I started getting itchy. It’s a good thing my shoulders are broad and the rest of my shirt doesn’t sit flush with my body (thankfully I wear big shirts). My shoulders and neck were destroyed by mosquito bites. And 2 on my leash arm. We hurried back to the AC. Cora was very excited for that part. Tick check at home was uneventful. After my shower, I immediately started working on the new birdbath setup. Stopped part way to ferry mom, then it was back to work. Had to use aviation snips for the ABS sheet (hard stuff!). It was all good except I had gotten the wrong sized reducer, and had to buy yet more things! Keep the costs coming! So I set it aside to wait until the next day. It looks good, though. Applied the plant signs with chalk marker downstairs, applied plant fertilizer to the pots outside, gave the spider a new leaf (its original one fell off with the crazy wind the other day), tried to right my corn stalks blown over by the crazy wind, and then back inside. Played Megaman Starforce 1 and continued the guide for the rest of the day. Dinner of Chinese takeout. Found out that the Brita pitcher has grown mold in seams you can’t clean. Need a new one.

Monday: Mondays are my official errand days. Got up really late (7am), walked Cora, jumped on the computer to pay bills, spent more money on shoes and bulbs for the backyard, laughed at my own sketches for RW which will done next week, recorded sales ($8 so far! yay!), contemplated adding to my art portfolio, didn’t add art to my portfolio, looked up beach rentals (because I have money…), sent estimate requests to 3 roof companies, contacted the daycare because I think I’m sending Cora for a half-day next week, then remembered about and scheduled her wellness appointment. MORE MONEY. They were trying to put me with their new vet, who, if I’m being fair, would benefit from an easy case like Cora, but I didn’t want her, so I actually requested a different doctor who was on vacation. I kind of both felt happy and guilty at the same time for doing that because I’ve always not cared about my providers… until now. I’m old. I’m picky. Things like this matter now. Spent the rest of the day finishing MMSF1 and writing my guide. Except there’s post-game stuff and so I’m not quite done yet! The generous assist features really are amazing for time-strapped adults like me now. Monday chores, spaghetti dinner. Watched TV. Went to sleep late.

Last night was so stuffy and hot despite hearing the AC working. Turns out Cora had thrown her blankets on the register on the floor and that’s why. Ugh. I feel like a weight has been lifted from me with this whole roof thing. It’s the last MAJOR repair for the house (aside from the crumbling deck) for this year and will give massive peace of mind for the integrity of the place before jumping into other, more optional maintenance like the deck and facelift for the front. Then that should be it. Just gotta figure out how to pay for all this stuff AND go to the beach. Which I still want to do.

Money money money. Ugh.

I hope it’s not too bad later on today. I’m taking the Jackery small battery bank with me just in case. Reminds me that I still want one of those big backups. MONEY.

I’ve been wide awake for at least 1 hour

I have no idea why I feel incredibly compelled to wake up today, but I’m clearly not the only one because I wake up every day around the same time to walk the dog and I’ve not seen so many people out and about in a while. Sometimes, it’s my gut telling me to hurry up because there’s going to be a ton of traffic, so I checked, and while there’s no traffic backup, I did see 4 accidents already. It certainly makes me more aware to know this. Like I’ve mentioned before, there’s a collective energy in a region and sometimes it’s strong. Today seems like one of those days. I’ll be sure to be careful.

Weekdays: Work was full of temps again, not that I’m complaining because I didn’t miss the coworkers that were gone. Lots of birthdays in July. My boss has one this Saturday. I was very busy all week with patients. On Friday, I didn’t even touch my phone until I got HOME. It’s hopping! S told me she heard that I wanted to take her hours (she’s trying to quit). I wonder if that means she’s going to do it sooner than later. I thought she’d hold out for a bit. I’m still excited for the change, but now I’m a little bit worried because that’s a big schedule change. The transition might be harder than I think for both me and the dog. I swore up and down that I had that dumb parasite Cyclospora that is being widely reported on in the media because after last Thursday’s food poisoning, it came BACK on Thursday even though I didn’t have anything aside from the stuff I made. I feel fine now, but that’s the hallmark of the parasite: it seemingly gets better, then it comes back. Had a fight with my mom about the ongoing ice dilemma. What I learned: never use silicone ice cube trays. Use plastic or stainless steel. Silicone in general absorbs odors and doesn’t want to let them go. I think this is why at one point everything was silicone and now they’re not. I got on the silicone wagon after everyone else and I jumped right back off. Everything I’ve tried that’s silicone (aside from a few spatulas for which it’s good) keeps odors and textures that are impossible to remove. I tried the whole vinegar thing and NOPE. She literally never wants to get rid of anything, so I just do it. I will never be able to understand the hoarder mentality. I’ve determined that it’s a fear and control issue over the years, but that still doesn’t help me understand why someone would feel that way in a time when it’s not necessary.

Saturday: Woke up, went to charge (was devising a plan for my birdbath which is failing the algae thing and no real customers), then hit the grocery store. I think I was a little earlier than usual. I don’t mind. I like the lack of people in stores then. Come to think of it, that might be the best time to hit Walmart if I ever want to go. I was proud of myself for spending only $75 because I didn’t want or need anything specifically (also, nothing was on sale). Came home, did whatever, ferried mom, then went to the wholesale club. So much for only $75 grocery week. *Sigh* There’s stuff from there that’s needed because while it costs more, it’s a better bargain. Came home feeling the sting in the wallet, ate some food (nachos! with homemade salsa), then spent literally the rest of the day in the garden, potting, repotting, and adding to my basement plant setup. I was even able to rig up something for the one pot that came missing parts. Then, I finally opened my box of boot trays that I left there for a long time to find out exactly why it was so insanely heavy for just 2 boot trays: Instead of 2 boot trays (they come in a pack of 2), I got 24. Talk about a great deal (about $450 profit), though it sucks for whatever company it belongs to. Also… what the heck am I supposed to do with 24 boot trays? Everyone gets one for Christmas…? Birthdays? When I finally finished all the plant stuff, I let Cora out to pee in the backyard, and she chased something. I yelled at her while I got shoes on and ran out. The thing looked like a hamster and was very clumsy and slow. I immediately turned on the camera as it ran into a hole in the ground and I was a little excited to think it was a chipmunk baby. That’s when I noticed other movement around me and saw 3 more ambling blindly around everywhere. Those weren’t chipmunks (who have stripes by 3 weeks, fyi)… those were RAT BABIES. RATS!! I took some video footage while Cora didn’t know what to do. Alarmed, I went back to the house only to see Cora had found something else. MICE!!! How can we have both a mouse and rat problem at the same time?? And they’re all babies!! OMGGGGGG!! We ran in and I jumped onto the couch to buy (ugggh) rodent repellent. I hopped right back up to make a vinegar mixture and went to spray that everywhere (and then needed to buy more vinegar… uggghhh). I got some video gaming in and soon it was bedtime. It poured rain that night. Like, really hard.

Sunday: Woke up ready to go to the park with Cora, but… she didn’t want to go, so I played video games for 45 minutes while she snored and thought about how to get her acclimated when the time comes to change work hours. When she finally woke up and was ready to go, it was around 7am. I thought maybe she wanted a longer walk since we didn’t do a park one, but aside from going a slightly different route, she wasn’t interested. Okay, then. Old lady. Since I didn’t the day prior, I spent the whole day playing video games after ferrying mom to work (and driving badly) and beat the Cat Quest series. Unsatisfied with the 3rd and last installment, I ended up writing a post the rest of the afternoon about all 3 games. Kind of a review, but more of an impressions thing. The 3rd game, aside from being not the same quality story and creativity-wise (they worked with a bigger studio), was very shallow and held annoying amounts of innuendo where the first 2 were simply cute. Picked some more onions later, made dinner of wings. Tricked myself into working out (haven’t for at least a month) and ended up with a full leg cramp which I haven’t had in a very long time. Absolutely need to work out regularly. Started playing Megaman Starforce instead of going to sleep.

Monday: Woke up earlier than normal for a Monday, then spent the morning changing out wiper blades on my car. Ended up breaking the new rear blade from being the gorilla that I am. Turned a 10 minute job into a 1 hour one. Went back inside and onto the computer. Finally wrote up a guide on how to change out wiper blades for the car, then jumped immediately into drawing for RW. Rushed through that, then ran out around 1pm to mow the lawn which I purposefully neglected for at least a month. Perfectly manicured, I ran back in to spray the backyard with the new mint repellent. I could smell the rodents but haven’t seen them. I hope they left. Finally ate some food, played Megaman Starforce for the rest of the afternoon, then rushed around for Monday chores, hanging up the remaining onions to cure, general cleanup, cooking (grilled stuff), eating, and then before I knew it, it was time to go to sleep.

AND NOW I’M 10 MINUTES LATE. This is probably why my body wanted to wake up early.

T-Storms

Bleerrrrbbbggggghhhh. I got about zero sleep this weeeeeekeeeennnnnddddd. So TIRED!!! And have a headache. First, Thursday night was death food poisoning or something, Friday night was okay, but I get up early on Saturdays to get stuff done, July 4 (Saturday) Cora was so terrified from the fireworks I had to stay up well past 11pm with her before she felt okay to fall asleep. Then Sunday, I stayed up to play games, then last night was absolutely terrifying thunderstorms well past 11pm again!! What’s silly about the storms is that I had just gotten finished telling a patient last week that the storms around here aren’t nearly as bad as the ones we had when I was growing up. It’s much more subdued in this area and I hadn’t had a storm actually make me scared on the brink of panic in a very long time if ever. I got close last night, but still not as bad the all-nighters growing up. Oddly enough, Cora wasn’t nearly as afraid of those as the fireworks.

I’m trying to finish this early so I can nap a little. Oh look, it’s storming again a little.

Weekdays: Not only was my body and brain rebelling at working a week that it usually never works, but it was yet another week of temps (and another one this week!). Wasn’t as bad as the week before in the temp regard, but my brain was literally never there and my body definitely didn’t want to be there. The week itself went by at a steady rate. Busy, as usual, especially given the holiday. Sadly for me, my brother and I decided to eat at a restaurant we’ve been enjoying for many years here on Thursday. They’ve got new owners or management or something, changing names and platforms and such, but keeping the same menu. I like to try new things, let’s go. Not only did it look sloppily made, but it did not taste good. Not like it used to. And then the cherry on top was BAD GI issues for me all night long and into the next morning. Food poisoning. It rolled over into work and I was terrified of eating anything or even using the bathroom because I was controlling it all through medication. blargh. My bosses asked why I didn’t make my patriotic Jell-O this year.

Saturday (July 4): Woke up early to go recharge and to hit the store. Every time there’s a holiday, the chargers – which are usually empty that early – have more people than normal. Went to the grocery store (the best part about this area is that there are so many to choose from that I tend to shop at a different one every week, though there’s one that’s my go-to). Came home, watered the plants, ate food, then ferried mom. Stopped by the go-to grocery store (crowded) for some minor things. When I used the self-checkout as I didn’t have too many things, I had this overwhelming feeling that I was being monitored closely… like I was under suspicion of stealing. I wasn’t, so I just remained confident… until I went to put my bags back in the cart and saw that, indeed, I had forgotten one item. I started up another transaction, and immediately the feeling disappeared. Geez! I went back to my car, and drove home. I relaxed for just a little (doughnuts!!) before jumping into the Jell-O making! This usually takes all day long. First, though, I had to marinate the meat I’d just bought for later. I stayed busy going back and forth into the kitchen to make all of this. Then, we had to plan around the weather later for the grill. Made entirely too much food for the holiday! Then, it was consoling Cora the rest of the night. They started around 7pm and it didn’t stop until past 12.

Sunday: Slept in a smidge. Walked Cora. No park. My stomach was still weird and I was so tired. It has been 3 weeks since I took her somewhere. Did plant stuff for a while, played video games (Cat Quest trilogy), ferried mom, came home, and immediately became a vegetable because I was so tired. Played Cat Quest for the rest of the day like a potato. Made ribs later. Someone shot off fireworks AGAIN. Not nearly as bad, though. This lasted until 11pm.

Monday: Slept in like normal for a Monday. Took my time, paid bills, though some of the sites were down (coincidence? or not?), played more video games. Ignored a call from my mom’s aunt. Had more GI issues because I’d managed to ingest a dozen eggs in the span of 3 days… when I’m not supposed to have ANY. Moved the operation downstairs. Sat outside for a little bit. Played games the rest of the day (Cat Quest III at that point). Monday chores, made dinner. Watched TV, then tried to go to sleep just in time for major thunderstorms that lasted well past 11pm (sensing a pattern here?).

Tired. I’m tired. I don’t want to work. I want to sleep. I’m disappointed in the 3rd game of the trilogy. Why do they always feel the need to destroy something that works. Also, unless you’re a huge game company, the addition of voice acting usually heralds BAD in a game like this. I’m only playing it to finish the trilogy story at this point. The gameplay, the map, the fighting mechanics, the everything is such a downgrade and boring. Even the story is kind of boring. It lost its charm and hilarity. The other 2 never took themselves too seriously and that was the allure. Beh. I might give it up, I don’t know yet.

Also, it was a bad idea to put the recycles in the cardboard box this week. I really didn’t think it was going to storm that badly. The weather apps only gave us 50% chances of rain and such.

Oooo I have 7 minutes to nap.