So we're doing a pumpkin decorating contest at work

I decorated the pumpkin itself, but it was supposed to be part of a diorama. Because of getting sick, I thought I'd miss it, so I kept the pumpkin to put on my desk when I can go back to work but recycled the cardboard I was going to use and threw away the little bit I'd done, including arms for the pumpkin and a stand for it.

One of my co-workers on the committee told me to bring my pumpkin on Thursday when I go back as they'd saved me a spot. So, I pulled the cardboard out of the recycling bin (fortunately before the rain) and spent a dreary day assembling the Headquarters from Inside Out 2.

Here's the final product. I'm not an artist or anything, so it's certainly not perfect, but it basically meets the vision I had in mind and was fun to do.  I need to do something creative more often. Oh, and note there's an LED tealight under the 'idea' light bulb receptacle on the console. I thought that was a nice touch.

I also tried on my Halloween costume and it will go well. It's Sadness from Inside Out 2 as well. I have an oversized white turtleneck sweater (with lined side pockets!), I'll wear it with jeggings and my dress shoes (hers are ballerina pumps, mine are Mary Janes, but oh, well). I have blue tights and gloves, a blue Sadness wig, and blue makeup (I haven't tried that yet). I got some setting spray to keep the blue on, let's hope that works, as the sweater is rather nice and I don't want it stained. I'll be sure to take pictures of the whole thing.

So beautiful and poignant

I came across this poem while listening to a Yom Kippur service coming from the computer in the living room as it was being live-streamed (the house is rather small, so it's easy to hear, even in my room, which is why I usually listen to my headphones if my friend is on Zoom with friends or classes). It was read before the names of those who had passed over the last year. It's lovely. It is by Rabbi Sylvan Kamen and Rabbi Jack Reimer:

We Remember Them

In the rising of the sun and in its going down,
We remember them.
In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter,
We remember them.
In the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring,
We remember them.

In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer,
We remember them.
In the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of the autumn,
We remember them.

In the beginning of the year and when it ends,
We remember them.
When we are weary and in need of strength,
We remember them.

When we are lost and sick at heart,
We remember them.
When we have decisions that are difficult to make,
We remember them.

When we have achievements that are based on theirs,
We remember them.
So long as we live, they too shall live,
For they are now a part of us,

As we remember them.

Also, can I just take a moment to mention that the 23rd Psalm is absolutely wonderful when sung in the original Hebrew? English does not serve it justice.

I went from being busy and not putting my health above things like work

 to sick. Yes, I've been off work from having COVID-19, and I still test positive, so no work for me until next Thursday. If I'd have tested negative today I could have gone back on Monday (with a mask). So I'm a little tired tonight still (I slept 14 hours the night before last), have a scratching, sore throat, have been coughing and blowing my nose a lot) and have been really achy. Before the rest of the symptoms, I was run down and having trouble staying awake through dinner. It's better, but I'm still symptomatic. I think maybe I need to step away from work for just a bit--it's been super busy and I have definitely felt tired. It's annoying though--four years of doing so much to not get it and succeeding through a pandemic.  On the other hand, it's now endemic, so I guess it was bound to happen eventually.  

Anyway, I've been sick and not doing anything big, just little things around the house. Tomorrow I'm going to try to do more here rather than just posting on Facebook. Really. I shared some stuff there mainly so I could go back and do it here. Unfortunately, because of being ill, I totally forgot the geomagnetic storm-producing auras in Kentucky last night, so I didn't get to see them or take a picture to post. It's one of two things on my bucket list and I missed my chance in May, too. :( Hopefully, the sun will do some more ejecting masses from sunspots to light up the sky again (without taking out anything vital).

In the meantime, tonight is Yom Kippur, so I'm staying in my room out of the way of my friend, who is watching his synagogue's livestream of the Kol Nidre service. I've actually been on my own today, just me and the animals (mostly the dogs), and it was rather nice. When you live with someone, it's hard to really be alone, especially if they turn the TV up to 90 because they don't hear well. I can hear everything out there in my room. But I think I'm going to put on my earbuds and listen to some music and just relax.

Plans today

1. Wake up at 8:30 AM
2. Fill up toilet paper
3. Run dishwasher
4. Make coffee
5. Call UK Chandler pharmacy to refill meds
6. Eat breakfast
7. Listen to music
8. Take oral meds
9. Take insulin
10. Take weekly injectable
11. Check e-mail
12. Caffeinate/check Facebook
13. Wake roommate up at 10 AM [he didn't actually get up till after noon
14. Pick up meds from Corner pharmacy before noon, including folic acid
15. Pay bill at credit union by 1 PM
16. Withdraw rent money and deposit it into account by 1 PM
17. Withdraw rest of food money
18. Give blood at 12:10 PM
19. Order materials for pumpkin-decorating contest for work
20. Pick up meds from Chandler pharmacy
21. Repot bamboo
22. Make bed
23. Fold and put laundry away
24. Straighten room
25. Transcribe notes from last game
26. Watch ‘Agatha All Along’ 

Well, that's all but two. Not bad at all. 🙂

So disturbing

This breaks my heart. And they're right. We should be doing more.

Taliban begins enforcing new draconian laws, and Afghan women despair: Afghan religious police wield new power to enforce a ban on women raising their voices in public and looking at men other than their husbands or relatives

Some Afghan women blame the outside world for their vanishing freedoms. “The silence of the world over the last three years will go down as a dark chapter in history,” said Meena, echoing a widespread sentiment in the country that global attention has moved on from Afghanistan.

Many of the women she speaks to say they have unsuccessfully applied for scholarships abroad, she said, and are running out of options.

“The Taliban will keep using religion as a weapon against women,” she said. “To them, seeing the hair of a girl is a sin, but starving your country is not.”

Congratulating myself

Because of my anxiety and also having bipolar II (mainly depression,  but also sometimes hypomania, I use an app called Daylio on my phone to track my moods every day. I have kept that mood diary for exactly eight years today. 

Awww

Lexington teen with rare aging disease dies

I remember when he was featured on the local news years ago. My heart goes out to his family.

Bring them home

'We could have saved all of them': Israelis go on strike as hostage deaths trigger demand for Gaza deal

Protests and general strikes swept Israel on Monday as frustration and anger mounted over the failure of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to secure a cease-fire deal with Hamas that would free Israeli hostages held by the militant group in Gaza for nearly 11 months.

The action comes after Israel's military recovered the bodies of six hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, from a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

Goldberg-Polin's funeral was held Monday in Jerusalem. He was 23.

Protesters want Netanyahu do more to bring home the remaining 101 hostages, a third of whom Israeli officials estimate have died in captivity. They say Netanyahu is delaying doing a deal for his own political purposes. His ruling coalition government is propped up by far-right allies bitterly opposed to any kind of agreement with Hamas.

Netanyahu blames Hamas for the lack of progress.

Still, a cousin of Carmel Gat, one of the hostages whose body was recovered by Israel's Defense Forces on Sunday, told a press conference on Monday that "delays" by Netanyahu were the main obstacles to an agreement.

"All six of them were held together and all six of them were killed in captivity," Gal Dickmann said.

"We could have saved all of them."

Good

The country’s largest publishers sue Florida over school book bans: Works by hundreds of authors, from Maya Angelou to Judy Blume, have been challenged and removed from school libraries. Now a group is suing to bring them back.

The suit alleges that House Bill 1069 does not consider the book as a whole before removing it for having “sexual content” and that it does not specify what level of detail mandates that a book be removed for describing sexual content. Another concern, the suit alleges, is that the law’s use of the term “pornographic” is vague and often books that are described as such “are not remotely obscene,” including Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.”

The suit said the law allows for the removal of books before consulting “trained professionals, such as teachers or media specialists.” It adds that some teachers have shut down their classroom libraries out of fear of objections, controversies or the risk of losing their teaching licenses.

There will be many repercussions

How did the pandemic affect babies starting school as children now?

In Bethnal Green, London, twins Aqil and Fawaz were just eight weeks old when the pandemic hit.

Their mother, Fahmeda Ahmed, lived in a second-floor flat with her husband and their two older children - Hasan, four, and two-year-old Khaijah. "It was just the same day over and over again," she said. "We couldn't go out, we couldn’t socialise, we couldn’t invite friends over and we couldn't go anywhere with the kids.

"“I was so scared going into the hospital because you would hear stories that you would catch [Covid]," Fahmeda said.

... 

She attempted to homeschool her four-year-old, who had just started reception, but he completely stopped talking. And then there was baby Aqil. He was having difficulty swallowing and Fahmeda tried for months to get a face-to-face appointment with a doctor. Eventually, at three months, he was diagnosed with tracheomalacia, a condition where the walls of a child’s windpipe collapse. He needed a minor operation.

"And I remember when Aqil was going into theatre, I was so upset. There was a nurse there and she said ‘I'm so sorry. I can't hug you’."

Four years on, Aqil and Fawaz are healthy young boys, about to start reception at Elizabeth Selby Infants' School in Bethnal Green. But they both have speech and language needs. Their two-year child development check was delayed, they weren't able to attend any baby classes and their first year involved very little interaction with the outside world. Fahmeda believes all these factors have had a lasting effect, and experts agree.