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.)

Going for a Walk

I last saw my weight loss doctor [who is also my PCP, but we do the appointments separately; in-person for general visits and telehealth (normally) for weight loss--she's an internist, but she was my weight loss MD first before I asked her to be my PCP when mine retired after I'd gone to him for 20 years] about three weeks ago. I'd gained about 15 lbs. since last December, mainly, I think, from going back to Ozempic, which doesn't work as well for me as Mounjaro (due to insurance--neither Medicaid nor the qualified assisted Anthem health plan I had in May and June covered the latter), and 2) I went through a period where I was overeating and eating a lot of calorie-laden food after I left Shriners and especially while my roommate was out of state for three weeks.

I've been much better with my eating for the last month/month and a half, but my weight hasn't budged a bit. Part of it is water weight--I just blow up ankle-wise in the summer, and while compression hose help, I can't go up on my diuretic because it was what was making me so dizzy a couple of years ago, so they cut it back. So about 5-7 lbs is water weight, because when we had a cool spell, I suddenly lost some. I had, at one point, been 328 lbs and had lost down to 208 lbs. I'm about 223 lbs now.

Sigh. So until (and if) I get insurance that pays for Mounjaro (or unless it goes to generic early--apparently that is being petitioned as the patent expires overseas first, even though it doesn't here for several years), we decided I would try to walk about three times a week, starting for about 10 minutes a day. I promised to do it the next day and did, but then the heat wave of doom came, so I didn't.

Today, it's supposed to get to 90°F, but it was only 76°F about noon, so I decided to put on some sunscreen and a floppy sun hat (since it is also very sunny and nice outside) and go up the street and back. There is an incline at either end. The close-up is me before I went for a walk. The other is me after. It took about 15 minutes to do the circuit. It's a small step, but it's a start. With the inclines, it's a fair little walk. Next time, I should actually bring my inhaler. It did hurt my back a little, but it should be better in the long run. The knees did pretty well, though. The key will be doing this and doing more activity.

Of course, since I got back, I've been helping my friend do some things around the house that apparently, despite normally being fairly minor, wiped both of us out, and I just woke up from a 2-hour nap, and he's still asleep. So I did more activity and kept on going, then my little windup key just wound down entirely. We have to put a fan together later (I'm talking one of those big shop fans) for his bedroom, so it's good I got some rest. It wasn't hard to put the other one together, but there was lots of bending, and if I remember, my back was not happy, even though he had to hold the fan part because it's so heavy while I dealt with all the screws because I'm the mechanically inclined one. 🙂

I know, it's a silly hat. I've got one in purple, too, though. They're good against the sun.

How do you like my 'Censorship is so 1984' shirt from the ALA? It's new. Also, look how tall my tomato plant is!

Statement of the AHA and encouraging historians to comment by today

AHA Submits Comment Seeking to Prevent Politicization of Federal Grantmaking

The AHA submitted a comment to the Federal Register stating our opposition to a rule proposed by the Office of Management and Budget that would give political appointees final approval over all federal grants. The AHA urged historians to submit their own comments by July 13.

I pulled a lot of old files off of Dropbox today

Frankly, I got tired of them annoying me with the 'you're out of space, upgrade' messages when I have a terabyte of OneDrive storage with my Microsoft 365 subscription that more than meets my needs. So I pulled almost all of it off, even deleted the deleted files permanently, leaving one several-kilobyte-not-megabyte-big file, and it's still saying over half my 7.25 GB storage is taken up. 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, I found this...one of the early designs for this blog had this logo I designed using a superhero-generator tool I don't remember the name of and am not sure even exists today. I do not have an inner dominatrix, I promise. I just liked the costume, although of course Edna Mode would say, 'No capes!'