Separated At Birth

Holy Crap!  I slept late!  and went to bed around my usual time  2230.  Turning my alarm off this morning was not a good idea.  Crap.  Instead of my normal, healthy breakfast, I'll be wolfing down a nuked chimichanga.  How's that for great nutrition?

Yesterday I walked a little over a mile on the treadmill wearing the portable heating pad, which doesn't really work that well.  Could that be why I slept so much?  Don't really think so.  Rather than pain now, I have discomfort which is manageable.  My prescription for 500 mg naproxen arrived this morning so that should help.  Mostly, right now, I want to stop walking with a stoop.  As Cori, the woman who does my book covers pointed out, "you're walking like you're 90."

My front porch and side roofs need to be replaced.  The estimate arrived this morning.  $1400 Wow!  Fifteen years ago I had my main roof replaced for the same cost.  My, how things change.  And there will be an additional fee if they need to replace any of the wood.  Son of a bitch.  I will bite the bullet and use my SS to cover the expense, since the guy's dependable.  He's did my main roof back at the dawn of time.

I saw this in Marc Alexander's blog Voenix Rising, and just had to steal it from him.  I can't say I've never seen Mitch looking so... loverly.

Speaking of McTurtle, evidently the GOP is ready to give him his walking papers after he blinked on the debt ceiling.  If you haven't realized it yet, they would destroy the America in their attempt to gain control.  They don't care about human beings, just power, and their need to make this a fascist society.  The Election approaches.  Vote them into oblivion.  Vote Blue.  And you Democrats and Independents in Virginia?  We're counting on you!

 

Voting by Mail

 Hello to Friday.  This is my almost Hump Day, since I only work 4 days this week.  Monday begins another 3 days off, which I will enjoy.  I will be hanging a tapestry, and cleaning the aquarium.

Speaking of my aquarium, the angelfish laid another clutch (I think that's what it's called) of eggs.  This time they were on the heater.  They hovered over them for a few days, and then they were gone, all of them.  Food no doubt.  They're fish.  Everything is instinctual.

I'm still waiting for the phone call letting me know about my cortisone shot.  I hope it happens soon.  Though I do have to admit things are slowly improving, the same way they did 6 years ago, though back then I walked with a cane.  Where I was waking up every 2 hours to sit against heating pad for 45 minutes, I'm now either sleeping through the entire night or getting up once for a twenty minute heat therapy session.

Last night I woke up around midnight, and though I probably didn't need it, enjoyed a session while I sat at the computer filling out my ballot for November's election.  One thing I find tremendous about voting by mail is the fact that I can research the candidates on my computer.  Too often when you step into the voting booth, you look at all of the names and say to yourself "who the hell are all these people."  When you have 4 Democrats running for 1 position, you want to make sure you chose the most qualified, right?  I wouldn't be surprised if this was another major reason Republicans hate mail-in voting; you can research the candidates and make an educated decision, rather than chose the most attractive candidate, or the one who's name sounds familiar.

For example, this year one of the candidates for a judgeship was endorsed by some 'right to life' group.  This judge, a woman, did not get my vote.

Here's a catchy little tune from The Wombats.  Could these lyrics show up in my next book?

Speaking of books, I'm moving on to Chapter 23 of The Body in Repose, which means there are about 11 or 12 more to go, and then there will be a bit of rewrite before I unleash this thing upon my readers.  And, as usual, my mind has already begun moving to the next.  I had wanted to send Eli and Max to Pamplona and bullfights, and toreadors, but then...  this picture jostled into the front of my mind: red woolen gloves, fingertips, ice, blowing snow and snow mobiles on Mackinac Island.  Could all of this be inching me towards The Body Under Ice?

Responsibilities

 Well, I did take yesterday off.  Called in bright and early and took a personal day, not because I was feeling bad, well I did for a short while since the flooring desk was going to be left short handed.  Then I reminded myself there are others working who can talk to customers.  I'm not the only one working there.  As I get older, I'm shrugging off responsibilities I used to wear as a mantle of authority.  This is how life is.  I tell people that in all the years you spend on this earth there should be two times when you should be able to shirk off responsibility:  when you're a child and your parents are shouldering them, and when you get older.  And let's be honest here, I am getting older.

One of the things I did notice yesterday, and something which has come to my attention before, is that my back feels so much better when I'm at home.  Not that I think going to work causes psychosomatic pain, but I'm not walking on concrete at home, and I sit in chairs that are a comfortable height, and are cushioned and not plastic.  Six years ago, when I had a very serious back episode, my specialist asked me what I thought caused my improvement.  I didn't really know then.  Looking back, I'm fairly certain that today my answer would be, not walking on concrete, etc.  Six years ago I went on LOA for 3 months.

I wrote over 1000 words yesterday.  I suspect this is what my going part-time will be.  A new character has joined the plot in The Body in Repose:  Captain Trawley.

And then, of course, this happened yesterday.

A certain political party is not happy.  Which one?  Here's a hint: The one that is solely responsible for most of the Covid deaths right now.  Here's another hint:  The same party is running the state of Florida, a state which has stopped releasing the numbers of Covid or Covid related deaths.  The same party in running the states of Arizona and Utah where out of state health care workers are being hired to help with the over-crowded hospitals.  And why are they pissed off?  They say this is an attack on their personal freedom.  That's a lie.  The truth is they see masks and vaccines as part of the Democrat agenda and the last thing they want to do is give the Democrats a win.  The truth is they hate the Democrats so much they have chosen to let members of their own voting block suffer in die out of spite.  They alone are responsible.  

Conservative Mantra

 Today's my Hump Day.  My schedule was updated, so I now know how I'll be working during the 2nd last week of my fulltime employment.  It is not good.  Six days in a row.  A bit of a frown slipped across my face.  I have personal time on the books, so I may have to break up that stretch.

The portable heating pad I bought didn't work as well as I was hoping because it creates this superficial feeling that everything is fine.  Bending too quickly will still trigger a spasm, I learned that yesterday reaching down for a faux wood blind.  Heat relieves the symptoms, but not the problem.  In fact heat does a really good job.  I have heating pads upstairs and downstairs.  Days off are fine.  Work days, however, even with the portable pad, are not, and I'm wondering how much of that might actually be short-timer's attitude.  Is the discomfort worse at work because I know in a few weeks I'm only going to be working about 25 hours a week?  Honestly, I think about that when there are no customers, writing out different schedules for myself.

We had another thunderstorm last evening.  There was still a drizzle this morning when I left the dogs out.  This is how we transition into a rain forest.  Climate change, you know?  I find it rather sad that there is a certain group out there who don't believe our weather patterns are changing.  Not surprisingly, these are the same people who think Covid is like the flu, they are the anti-vaxxers, and, as you might expect, the ones who treasure their little red hats, and worship the orange anus.  They are the ones, who, on their way to being intubated, will claim they don't have Covid, only bad allergies.  Cough.  Cough.

The unfortunate truth is that these people are having an allergic reaction to reality.  They will never be able to comprehend the actuality of the situation.  Denial is their daily bread.  For them, everything revolves around their conservative mantra:  Me, Myself, Mine.

Oh, and I saw where Kellyanne Conway had her ass fired.  What a sorry situation that a human being with that low an IQ should make it into any position of government or power.  She will always be, and never anything more, than the bottled blond from Hell.