Third try was not the charm ☹️

Well, I tried again. I went to the Kentucky Blood Center for the third time this month after being deferred twice for low iron. Hemoglobin on the first stick (right finger) was only 11.9, but she really had to squeeze to get it out, so it may have skewed the results. Left finger on second try was 14.2 so yay!!!!

Unfortunately, the stick didn't get the vein well, and even with adjustments from another phlebotomist, the little tiny bag wasn't filling up fast enough, so they had to abort, and it left a bruise. I can come back and donate after my hematoma has healed, they said.

Sigh. I did get another $20 gift card to Amazon, though. But I did want to donate. The stars are not aligning. I haven't had this much trouble in about 25 years.

I made it, or, two more books and a challenge completed!

Granted, they were both short, but still...

#24 Food Journal Magic: A Daily Food and Fitness Diary to Create Lasting Weight Loss That Stays Off Without a Diet by Alegra Loewenstein

This is not actually a food journal, but how to set up one and what to include, and how best to execute it. I was a little disappointed for that reason. I was able to find a food journal that allows me to write directly on it for the Kindle Scribe, which, of course, I am not including in the reading challenge, though. That is: Food Journal and Weight Tracker by No Yellow Snow Media, and it allows you to export the data via email so you can just erase the information and reuse the pages as needed.

THIS BOOK COMPLETED THE Goodreads 2026 READING CHALLENGE!!!!!

# 25 My Novel Work Book: A step by step guide for novice writers by Roger Alderman

This one basically shows you how to outline a novel in 12 chapters using classical format along the lines of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey. Some spelling errors could have used an editor's eye (it's self-published), but otherwise, the book is adequate. It got me thinking. I have wanted to be an author since I was a child. Granted, I've published over 30 pieces of writing, from book chapters, book reviews, articles, etc., and I mean went-through-a-committee-and-editor published in a book or journal, but I never feel like a published author. I would like to write a novel. Not the Great American novel, but still. Something people would enjoy reading. Seeing my name in print, or at least in digital form. 😉

Interesting

A Crisis in the Humanities: The norms governing scholarship now often serve to protect a rigid orthodoxy on certain politically charged issues—with ideological tests substituted for proper academic standards

We begin from what ought to be a platitude: The humanities and the social sciences are academic disciplines aimed at understanding the human world and the larger reality of which it is a part. There is room for debate about what it means to “understand” a historical episode, or a literary text, or a social phenomenon. But it should not be controversial that, like all academic research, scholarship in these disciplines is in the business of asking questions; that these questions have answers (when they are well-posed); that these answers are not simply evident and can therefore only be arrived at indirectly, by appeal to evidence and argument; and that it is the role of academic disciplines to cultivate methods for collecting the evidence relevant to their questions and for assessing scholarly proposals on the basis of it.

Two new shirts

from the American Library Association, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary, so these are vintage designs they've brought back from the past.

 

I knew about this already, but I find it fascinating

A hairstylist with no archaeology degree solved an ancient Roman mystery scholars got wrong for centuries

She spent years recreating elaborate Roman hairstyles and discovered they were far more ingenious than scholars had realized

For centuries, scholars believed that the intricately braided, gravity-defying updos synonymous with Roman hairstyling were achieved with wigs. Then a professional hairdresser turned bona fide “hair archaeology” specialist proved them wrong.

Wow. I did not know this, and I've kept up with Voyager a bit since I watched it launch as a child...

Voyager 1 has no engine running. The 38,000-mile-per-hour speed it has held since its Saturn flyby in 1980 is borrowed momentum from planets it grazed more than four decades ago, and that free ride carries it to one light-day from Earth this November

The probe is moving because it was launched onto a carefully chosen path and then reshaped by planetary gravity. Its present outward motion is mostly the inheritance of encounters that happened when the spacecraft was still young: Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1980, and the rare alignment of the outer planets that made the Voyager mission possible in the first place.

Not to be the parking police, but...

Okay, I'll admit it. This infuriated me. This is not how you park in handicapped parking, even if you do have a placard. Also, they have an 'Honour nurses' licence plate, but apparently have no regard for anyone with a disability who might need the blue-lined space to get out with a wheelchair ramp. I did report it to Chinoe Kroger, but I think the guy getting the carts just was like, yeah, it's horrible, but didn't say anything to anyone or maybe page anyone to freaking move their vehicle.

So frustrating

So I checked the blood supply at the Kentucky Blood Center and O blood is in low supply (both + and -). I really am trying. I've been deferred twice this month for low iron. I got some vitamin C to take with my iron tablets (I have been taking those for years) because that's supposed to help the iron absorb, and I just went to the store and got some things they suggested to eat, including garbanzo beans and pumpkin seeds for our nightly salad, and generic V8 juice that includes beets. We'll see. I can donate three days from yesterday, but I'll wait a few more and try to build up some more. But for you all, who, like me, are type O and who normally donate (or would like to try), they really could use some. O blood can be given to any blood type. O- can be given to anyone [and is therefore the person is called a universal donor]. O+, like mine, can be given to any blood type which is also +. So it's really useful. Anyway, here's the graphic...

My last donation was my 9th gallon. I've been donating since I was in college, at age 17 (full disclosure, at that time you had to have permission from your parent--you can donate now at that age without it--and I had it, verbally, but I didn't have a note, and it's the first and only time in my life I forged my mother's signature on something. But let me reiterate: I was living on my own in a dorm, making many decisions on my own, and I did have her permission.)

I obviously haven't donated as much as I could have. I've gone years without donating. But I did donate when 9/11 happened, and I donated the day after COVID was announced in Kentucky, because I didn't think people would, and just started donating regularly after that. It's how I know I didn't get the virus during the actual pandemic, because they were testing for antibodies. I've had it once, only after it went endemic, and it was just like a bad flu and no worse, thankfully. So I went from about 7 gallons to 9 pretty quickly. I donate about every 2-3 months now. Which may be why my iron's low; I don't know. Anyway, I'm going to try again in a few days.

Why I'm going to delete Dropbox

I reached out to Dropbox via the only contact form I found, which was for reporting issues. It turned out to be an abuse reporting form, so I kind of get why they closed the ticket, but they didn't actually give me any information for contacting anyone other than perusing forums or FAQs, which wouldn't have answered my particular question. I'm just going to delete the whole thing. I deleted files because Dropbox kept sending me emails going 'You're at your max and can't backup anything, upgrade to more storage space or delete files now'. Then I deleted EVERYTHING, including their sample pictures, and permanently deleted the deleted files, yet still had over half of my storage listed as full, with no single file of my own and no explanation. I have a terabyte of storage with OneDrive due to my Microsoft Office 365 subscription that I don't even begin to fill. I don't need Dropbox. I'm going to, indeed, drop it.  And he did give me the links to cancel it, at least.

Reede, Jul 16, 2026, 1:57 PM PDT:

Hi Elisabeth,

Thanks for reaching out to Dropbox support.
 
Your support options depend on what kind of account you have. To see the support options for your account, sign in and go to https://dropbox.com/support. Your query today can be supported by our help center, chatbot, or our community; this ticket will be closed now.
 
You can find our help center at https://help.dropbox.com/learn/faqs which has the most up-to-date FAQs, how-to articles, and more. You can also reach out to our Dropbox community at https://www.dropboxforum.com where you can receive answers and discover new ways to use Dropbox.
 
Regards,
Reede
 
Are you having issues signing into your account? Try our sign-in FAQs at https://rb.gy/t0tgsz
Are you interested in sharing feedback? Try our ideation board at https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Share-an-idea/ct-p/101002000
Do you have a "Payments" or "Billing" question? Try our Payments FAQs at https://rb.gy/aeuqml
Do you think that you want to cancel or do you have a cancellation question? Try our Cancellations FAQs at https://rb.gy/r22oly
Do you have a Security or Privacy question? Try our Security FAQs at https://rb.gy/no4ty6
 

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Elisabeth Rowan, Jul 16, 2026, 8:30 AM PDT:

Explanation: I do not understand why my Dropbox is showing that I have 4.11 GB of used storage out of 7.25 GB when I have deleted every single one of my files permanently, including the sample photo folder. If this is not a glitch, and Dropbox is literally padding over half of my storage with other files, I see no reason not to just delete it, as I have a terabyte of storage included with my Office 365 subscription that more than suits my needs. Can you explain this discrepancy? I have a screenshot if that will help.

 

Said screenshot [not sent to them, there was nowhere to include it]:

Random things this morning

1. When you forget to take the trash bins to the kerb the night before, and the city is starting early due to the heat, it behoves you to get up at 5:00 AM to take the trash out and roll all three (trash, recycling, and yard waste, when in Lexington, have names, in order: Herbie, Rosiek and Lenny (for Lend a Hand). This is a somewhat perilous process in the dark, without anyone's knowledge, as you are also a klutz and liable to fall. But all went well. Still, at that point, you might as well stay up.
2. I have very short hair, but I have kept all my hair ties because they are extremely useful. I mainly use them to wrangle charging cords.  However, just now, I dealt with a sagging lumbar pillow that I have to adjust every single time I sit in the chair because the strap is stretched out by pulling it back and securing it with a hair tie. We'll see how it goes, but for now, it's at the perfect height for my back.
3. So far, I have used my extra time filing papers, mainly all the information the government sends me regarding my benefits. I know they're mostly duplicates of the notices they put on the portal, but still, some part of me thinks I should keep them. I also just had to change an asthma preventative inhaler that I've taken nightly for at least a decade (Breo Ellipta) because it's not covered by Medicaid. They cover Advair Diskus. Hopefully it will work as well. The pharmacist who works with my doctor helpfully advised me that the dosing is twice a day, though, so that was nice.  I spent 29 years with the same commercial medical insurance (UnitedHealthcare) when I was at Shriners. I knew my benefits intimately, and it was extremely good insurance: $150 deductible/$1500 out-of-pocket. Even though it was an HMO, it didn't require referrals as long as someone was in-network, and I never had issues with anyone being out-of-network in all that time. Since I've left, I've been covered by two Medicaid managed care organisations (Aetna Better Health of Kentucky and UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Kentucky), both of which use MedImpact for medications (all of them do, at least for our state) and then for two months I was on a assisted qualified health plan from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield where the state paid about $900 and I paid $500 for a $400-$500 deductible plan (medicine did not count like it did for my commercial plan, so I never hit it like I thought I would, or I would have gone for something cheaper, although medications were probably cheaper, and the first month of the doctors' visits were cheaper; the second month everything went up, including the premium, due to me pulling some retirement income out--to pay for the premiums and medical bills. It's been very hard to navigate all the changes. I'm highly literate, great with technology, and having been to university, an expert at red tape and bureaucracy (I always said I majored in red tape and minored in line waiting at the University of Kentucky); I  can't imagine how difficult it would be for someone without those advantages.
4. Today's agenda is fairly simple:
1. Work on as many chapters as I can, proofreading a talking book for the Kentucky Talking Book Library. I am woefully behind. I got chapter 3 done yesterday, which I was sent in April.  I got the whole book yesterday...fifteen chapters to go.  Life just has gotten in the way, and I should just buckle down now and get as much as I can get done while I'm off.
2. We need to put a large shop fan together to get some air moving in the house. It's a little oppressive out there, where the central heating went out last year. I am the only one with air conditioning in my room, and there have been other barriers to putting it in the rest of the house, so we've been relying on different types of fans and using my room as a cooling area for everyone occasionally.
3. I need to pick up some medicine at the UK pharmacy today.
4. My roommate's going over to friends' tonight, so it'll give me some chance to work on the book more. It's a true-crime murder mystery from the 1890s in northern Kentucky, so it's been pretty interesting, both from an historical and story point of view. 

Those are about all I can think of for now. That's a little rambling, I know. I'm just waking up, with no caffeine (I only drink soda on weekends, and I'm not a fan of coffee or tea; what can I say? It's terrible, I'm such an Anglophile and I hate tea.)