I can live with that...

A video of a very cute puppy

Post by Pit Bull's.

Ah, ha! I will not be deterred!

So, until recently, we had a fascinating houseplant in our recreational therapy area (with lots of glass doors and sky lights) that really caught my eye. It had blooms that reminded me of something out of Dr Seuss. Over the last months it had bloomed on and off several times, these strange green globules that burst into pale yellow spheres. I liked it so much, I looked for some similar plants, and found a couple of tiny ones at Kroger, but it didn't say what the plant was called. I've taken pictures and tried searching the Internet using TinEye and Google Images to no avail, but I tried one more time, and it worked! Putting the image onto Google Images along with houseplant brought up the plant Croton (Codiaeum variegatum). Sadly, the plant at work has apparently died back. I hope mine bloom someday.

Here are the pictures I took of the plant we had:

Budding

Blooming

Here's one from the Wikipedia article (by JM Garg, used under the Creative Commons licence):

Nifty, huh? I can often be tenacious. :)

Another quiz

I'll agree with this...

I'm probably going to get in trouble for this one, given that it involves sweets, but

I finally broke down and bought one box of Girl Scout caramel deLite cookies. Although I managed to find the courage to keep them at bay for weeks (even when the little marketing geniuses put up a sign that said we needed to load up on cookies for the coming zombie apocalypse), I did finally succumb. But I was very pleased that the young lady who sold them to me not only knew that the ankh around my neck was an Egyptian symbol, she knew what it meant. Makes me feel good about our education system, just a bit. That sealed the deal.

For YKWIA

who shows me all sorts of unusual houses.

'Flintstones' House Made Entirely of Clay Attracts Visitors

Here's more on Casa Terracotta. Sadly, I didn't see a kitchen in the interior shots in the gallery, but perhaps you may have better luck.

Every potential princess should heed this

Of course, if the person (man or woman) you fall for is really your 'true love', then you can still have adventures, a sense of self, and maintain independence. True love means not losing yourself to someone else's expectations, but supporting each other's growth and facing the world together so that each of you can be the hero/heroine of the story you both create for yourselves. Or at least that's my take on it. Of course, I'm single and haven't given true love a chance in years and years, because, well, my standards are a little higher now than when I was a young woman. It would take someone very special to sweep me off my feet. I'm not saying it won't happen; I'd like to think it would. I haven't given up, but I'm, not going to pine away waiting for Prince Charming, etc., despite, in many ways, being a hopeless romantic. :)

:)

I'm not sure which is cooler about the jeans and blouse I ordered from Amazon--the fact that they arrived on a Sunday or the fact that totally without being able to try them on, they both fit absolutely perfectly. *Happy dance*. This means I have a pair of actual blue jeans again (which is nice for Fridays at work) and the blouse got rave reviews today, even from YKWIA, who usually thinks I am a fashion victim, as it is a sort of Romantic-Victorian-Gothish plum one with a lace up front and long billowy sleeves, which actually looks good on me (although the ties and sleeves stream out and are not the best for working around copiers). But I feel like singing 'I feel pretty' from West Side Story. Ah, a little punchy tonight after a long, long day. Time for bed, I think.

So I knew that Amazon

had said something about working with the post office to bring about Sunday deliveries, but hadn't heard more on that front. Yet today both a friend and I received packages, on a Sunday, at our respective addresses. Mine's at work, so I haven't had a chance to open it yet. I don't know exactly how this marvel of ingenuity happened, but thank you Amazon.com and the folks at the US Postal Service.

Ooooh! Count me as intrigued....

Post by Heroes.

Today I:

1. Transferred things from three bags to my purse
2. Went by McDonald's and got egg and cheese biscuits for my friends and me
3. Made a list of various things to do for my friends today
4. Watched videos with YKWIA
5. Went and got A's medicine
6. Picked up a mailed package from Amazon
7. Transferred things from my other wallet to the item in the package, an all-in-one crossbody wallet with room for my phone from Vera Bradley (I'm not a huge fan of the brand, but I loved one a co-worker had, and it's very useful when carrying a bigger purse or backpack so I can go into a store with just that, plus with the strap, it leaves my hands free)
8. Went to Barnes & Noble and picked up four books for YKWIA using a gift card he got for the holidays
9. Went by Target to use the restroom and get a pretzel and drink
10. Took a friend to the grocery store
11. Drank an entire 2 litre of diet orange soda
12. Drank a litre of orange juice
13. Took down a friend's Christmas tree (yes, really)
14. Helped him take it and its accessories out to the shed and lock it properly (he has trouble getting it right)
15. Watched part of the UK-LSU men's basketball game, which UK one by one point in overtime (yay!)
16. Lost my phone (but found it again; it was in my large purse the whole time)
17. Put some shelves up in their built-in cabinets
18. Hung a tapestry
19. Dusted DVDs and VHS tapes
20. Moved DVDs and VHS tapes to the new shelves
21. Helped a friend move some furniture, and swept up the stuff
22. Laid down in the floor to cleanse a dog's vaginal area (long story)
23. Helped a friend load some non-working electronics and flammables into my car
24. Took out the CDs from the car
25. Took out the flammables and put them in my house so the car wouldn't blow up if hit in the rear (it's stuff like spray pain and old turpentine, I just have to figure out how to correctly get rid of it)

I'm pooped. I should do some work around the house, particularly the living room, as a friend is giving me an old desk that we may be moving over to here tomorrow, but I just can't right now. I'm going to take out my contacts (which are foggy with dust; I kicked up a lot of dust today), put my feet up, and rest, and just try to get up early and prepare for it. Thank goodness I already finished the game notes.

Tomorrow's plans:
1. Get snacks for the Cthulhu game
2. Clean my friends' house for the game
3. Charge the batteries for the digital voice recorder
4. Watch a movie, City of Ember that we have out from Netflix
5. Move the desk, if Brenda can take us in her truck
6. Play the Cthulhu game

So, I should be tired after such a busy weekend. How about you? Are you busy this weekend? At least it was in the 50s and sunny here. :)

Just woke up from a three-and-a-half-hour nap

Yesterday I said I was tired. If anything, I was worse today, having gotten up very early to get my teeth cleaned at an 8 am appointment. I was so tired when I got off work that I didn't even have the energy to sing along with the CD player in the car. I went over to a sick friend's house briefly and made him some dinner, and then came home, relieved to not be driving any more. I don't think I'd reached the dangerous/can't drive point, but I was definitely feeling a little slow on the reflexes and struggled to remain vigilant for any issues. I didn't immediately sleep, and played on the computer and did some online shopping before finally going into the other room about 7:30 and putting on some Ed Sheeran, none of which I heard beyond the first bar of 'A Team', waking up about eleven. So, I didn't really get anything accomplished tonight, but I did get some rest, at least. Here are my plans for tomorrow:

1. Get up early, and work on the house.
2. Take out the trash and recyclables.
3. Run the dishwasher.
4. Go get some medicine from the pharmacy for one friend.
5. Go get or order some paperbacks from Barnes and Noble for another.
6. Take A to the grocery store.
7. Watch 'City of Ember', which I have out from Netflix, with YKWIA.

That's pretty much it. The game notes are finished, so no worries there. Lots of running around, though, I know. And the pharmacy closes at 1 pm, so there is a time limit there. I also have a package that might be delivered to work tomorrow that if it comes in, I'll stop by and get if possible. But it will probably be Monday before it comes.

I did get a package today, courtesy of Amazon Prime. It is Ransom Riggs' second Peculiar Children book, Hollow City. I'm looking forward to reading it, and started it earlier, finishing the first chapter. I also had my second performance appraisal today (I have two jobs, two bosses, two pay grades, one place of employment). It went really well, and I addressed some concerns about what happens to this job when the hospital goes to an ambulatory care model. It's still up in the air, but I did find out that part of what I do currently would not be needed, so unless I take on additional duties (which has happened over the last four years in other ways), I'm thinking it won't go either (the library is also to be eliminated, and me with it). Still, things have been pushed back enough that I've still got about two years to find another job, so if you're aware of anything in the Lexington, Kentucky area, please feel free to pass it along. But according to my boss, we should be getting an update soon on things like severances and the way things will work during the transition, which was reassuring. Oh, and I'm getting a raise with both positions, starting in March.

Today I paid my bills for the end of the month and went through and budgeted a bit for next month. I'm trying to pay my credit card down before the April trip to Chicago so I have that for cab fare, etc., which will be reimbursed. But I'm afraid I can't swing an extra day in Chicago this time, so I'll be flying up on a Thursday and coming back on a Friday. But I'm looking forward to it anyway. It's just a little sad that when I did have everything set up for an extra day, someone ran over me with their car. :( But at least hopefully this time something like that won't happen again.

Okay, I think I'll go back to bed so I can get up early and get some things accomplished. The weather is supposed to be partly sunny and in the 50s tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have no excuses for getting things done. Maybe I'll open the windows a bit, even. Good night.

Some heartwarming news for a change

(and from Florida, of all places. the land where they shoot you dead for the stupidest of reasons):

Drama on the expressway: Drivers scramble to save unconscious baby on 836

It was a sight that jarred motorists on the busy Dolphin Expressway.

Westbound traffic suddenly came to a standstill around 2:30 p.m. Thursday, and a woman sprang from her car, holding a baby, screaming for help.

Pamela Rauseo, 37, of West Kendall, quickly got that help for her 5-month-old nephew, little Sebastian de la Cruz, who was turning blue.

Rauseo said she was in a panic, thinking she could not let anything happen to the baby while in her care.

“My sister had trusted me with him,” she told reporters.

Drivers stuck in 836 traffic just east of 57th Avenue swung into action.

So very tired

I got up early this morning to take a friend to a doctor, then went to work, picked him back up at lunch, and then after work went by the pharmacy and grocery, and spent some time over at my friends' house visiting and watching 'Absolutely Fabulous' ando our favourite episode of 'Let Them Eat Cake'. At work we took pictures for a special project. Different departments are doing different things. I'm in two departments, but for the library I built a 'heart' shape out of red books and bound journals, then propped the skeleton on one side and had me on the other for a picture. So I moved a lot of books, and tomorrow I need to put them all back again. Also tomorrow, bright and early (8 am), I have a dental cleaning, so I'm going to try to go to bed soon and get some rest. Some thunderstorms are coming in, though, so we'll see. Hopefully the power will stay on. The ground is waterlogged and we have lots of trees damaged from a small ice storm a few weeks ago. I tried to park away from anything that might do damage, but I'm afraid there is a tree that, if it fell, could hit my car. Hopefully that won't happen.

Earlier, it was 71 degrees Fahrenheit, which isn't bad for a windy February day. Right now it's 66 degrees, at 10 pm. It's such a wonderful change from the cold temperatures, although of course it won't last. I'm sure winter isn't finished with us. I have a fly that is buzzing around the house, unfortunately. It's quite annoying. I guess no one told it that it's still winter. It's thundering outside. I think we're in for quite a storm.

I am actually so tired I moved the laptop into the bedroom to blog, rather than just sitting in a chair in the living room. That's probably just as well, with the storm, as it's on battery. I am charging my phone, though, to make sure I have some charge in case the power goes out.

Okay, I'm really fading. I'm going to do a quick check on the weather, turn off the little aquarium light (the betta seems so much happier), and then turn in. Have a good night.

Mad for British accents

As you may have guessed, I'm an avowed Anglophile, my chief failure at which is my dislike of tea. So today a man called me from Eduserv, which runs the identity/access management feature Athens that you see on so many electronic resource web sites. They're based in Britain. Even though I have no budget for such things and the whole library, including myself, is going to be scrapped in a couple of years when the hospital transitions to an ambulatory care model, I must confess letting him run on a bit before informing of him of this because, frankly, I adored his accent. I wonder if they've found Americans will buy just about anything from a Brit if the accent's right? I know it frustrated YKWIA to no end at aforementioned pagan gathering that certain authors with British accents would have the crowd nodding and smiling in agreement and placated into some sort of sense of truth even though the gist of their talks were pure hogwash. Anyway, I'm feeling a tiny bit guilty I didn't cut him off earlier, but I did eventually fess up and while he was disappointed not to be able to do a demo, I think he appreciated my candor. And I let him run on with his spiel for just a tiny bit. :) Most vendor calls never get that far. Then I put my headphones back on and continued listening to the BΔSTILLE album 'Bad Blood', which are, of course, a British band. :)

Absolutely no 'Ab Fab' before bed

I was over at YKWIA's earlier and we watched an episode of 'Absolutely Fabulous' called "White Box", which among all the other minor subplots, had Marshall and Bo on the run from the IRS and FBI for their evangelical bilking of America. Then I came home, and tired, I went on to bed. I had a strange dream, set in Georgia, where the government was coming down on members of the Church of All Worlds (which is nothing like Marshall and Bo's scheme, is actually neo-pagan in nature, and inspired by Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, and which is currently based in California) [although come to think of it, the last time I saw the church's founder, Otter G'Zell, now known as Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, it was in the Atlanta area at a pagan gathering]. Then Eddie and Patsy showed up, and things got positively weird. (Sadly, I don't remember Saffron showing up--she was always my favourite, being the long-suffering good girl who kept it all together and running.) Anyway, the thing was so odd I actually woke up. Here's the original inspiration:



Why shouldn't your dreams be messed up as well?

Sad that there are still those

who want to ram their religious beliefs down others' throats at sword point (or in this case, gun muzzle).

Pakistani Taliban threaten Kalash tribe, Ismailis in Chitral

The Pakistani Taliban have announced an “armed struggle” against an indigenous tribe and Ismaili Muslims in the picturesque northern Chitral Valley, calling on Sunnis to support their cause in a video.

The valley was once dominated by moderate Ismailis and is also home to the Kalash, a polytheistic people who claim descent from Alexander the Great and who have maintained separate cultural traditions to the predominantly Muslim country.

But migration in recent decades has meant that Sunni Muslims are now the majority in the area, while the Kalash way of life has come under threat by the Taliban, who have also carried out a number of attacks against security forces in the area.

The Taliban's 50-minute long video released on February 2 on their media wing's website opens with a scenic view of the mountainous valley that is popular among domestic tourists and famed for its annual polo festival.

The narrator warns the Kalash, who are thought to number only 3,500, to convert to Islam or face death.

Quote of the day

that YKWIA sent me. It's from the musical The Music Man:

Oh, my dear little librarian, if you pile up enough tomorrows, all you will be left with is a lot of empty yesterdays.

Words of wisdom, indeed.

A happier fish

I originally had a colour-changing LED bubble stone in the betta tank, and it happened to brightly shine colors that fish can see, which just imagine it would be like having a revolving spotlight shining in your home. He hid a lot, plus it didn't really light things up enough to see him well. So I found a normal bubble stone and a natural light LED lamp to clip to the tank, and the fish seems happier and I can see him in all his glory. Not only is it kinder, and hopefully without the stress he'll live longer, now I can just unplug the light at night and give him a break, just like the other fish get. (Well, technically they have a night moon light, which are blue LEDs.) But you get the point. He came right out when I was looking at the tank and swam around happily. YKWIA should approve. We'd seen a video of how fish and other animals see colour and light, and he definitely thought I should make some changes.

Hmm...two quizzes in one night

Quiz: Which 'Sesame Street' Character are You?

I always liked Grover. Besides, he always sounded like Yoda, and vice versa, because Frank Oz was at the wheel. And yes, if I had a semi-secret identity like 'SuperGrover', it would probably be what Wikipedia describes as 'well-meaning but inept'. Thanks Dave Reid for sharing the quiz.

Today I:

1. Got my hair cut at Supercuts (see the picture included).
2. Went to the public library and picked up two books and some music CDs.
3. Got some items for the fish tanks, including a non-LED bubble circle and a clip-on light for the small aquarium. The bubble light that came with the tank has all the colours that fish can see, and it's very bright, so I'm probably torturing the poor thing. I also got filters for that tank, some water conditioner, and some power strips and a thumb drive while at Meijer's.
4. Got a few clothes and household items at Gabriel Brothers.
5. Straightened up the house some.
6. Finished the game notes.
7. Managed to eat a Morningstar Farms Tomato Basil Pizza burger on a soft wheat bun. Not bad for 6 days after some fairly extensive oral surgery.

The only thing left on my list is to watch The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, so that I can send it and Suddenly, Last Summer, back to Netflix. I think I'll do that in just a bit. I need a break, as I've been going pretty strong for some time. I think I'll get some water, blow out the candles in this room, and go listen to some music or maybe read for a bit in the bedroom. :) My, it's gotten windy. It was sunny for awhile earlier today, but then the rain (thankfully, not snow) came in, and now it's quite wild-sounding out there.

:)

Quiz: Which 'Downton Abbey' Character Are You?

I'm still working my way through the second season, so I'm glad it's one of the characters I knew (and yes, I wasn't able to avoid the terrible spoiler regarding her). What can I say, a life lived with heart and compassion, no matter how brief, is a good one.

A happy find

YKWIA and I were on YouTube earlier looking at shows from Britain in the 1970s, especially those made for kids. There was one aimed at adults that I saw on the Wichita, Kansas, PBS station in the 1980s (along with Tom Baker's 'Doctor Who' and the Tripods series based on John Christopher's novels) that really intrigued me. It was called 'The Ωmega Factor' and was about a government group that looked into paranormal phenomena, paired with a journalist who both investigated such things and also was developing psychic ability of his own. It only lasted for 10 episodes, as the production halted due to a protest by one of those uppity sorts who brand anything like that daemonic. So, for a kid who cut her teeth on things like 'In Search Of...' and knew what Zener cards were by the time she was 8, this series was intriguing. But it's been a long time since I've watched it, so I was happy to find it on YouTube, especially as it's difficult to get a region 1 (North American) DVD of the series these days. Here's the first part of episode one:

Okay, maybe I'm weird

but I for one love watching 'Doctor Who' opening themes to see how they've changed over time:



and some related themes, including webcasts, animated series, and spin-offs, such as 'K-9 and Company', 'Sarah Jane Adventures', 'Torchwood', etc.:

Just spent an hour

trying to download a library audiobook via OneClickDigital, Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Terror, only to find that neither the manager for the computer nor the Android application could transfer or otherwise download the files necessary, and in the end I had to do it manually, unzipping .mp3 files and transferring them to the root area of the phone's system and then playing through the normal Music application that comes with Android rather than the OneClickDigital one. Not sure what the problem was, or whether this, being an out-of-copyright book (although perhaps the recording is not), it worked rather than a more recent book which is sure to have Digital Rights Management. At least I finally got it onto the device and where I could listen to it; it'll be nice to have at work or tomorrow when I'm doing some housework. Of course, I was doing this instead of doing the game notes, and although we are not playing I should really do them. I think I'll get up early tomorrow and do them, or at least get a substantial start on them. In the meantime I have requested a book for a friend from the Interlibrary Loan Department of the public library (that's two under my name now that I have pending, one for me, one for him), caught up with the news, listened to some music, and generally had a quiet evening. Tomorrow is cleaning the guys' house, watching Suddenly, Last Summer with them (based on the Tennessee Williams' play), and hopefully working on my house a bit, as well, because I'm afraid it really needs a good straightening up. I have stuff everywhere, from laundry, to recyclables, to stuff that needs to be just thrown away. It's not conducive to doing anything productive, and I have game notes and two book reviews still waiting to be done. Anyway, have a good night. I'm going to turn in for the night. Hope your weekend is going well.

A dedicated teacher using technology off the fly to keep the learning process going

Hun School teacher holds class via tablet as she sits in Pa. Turnpike gridlock

After missing multiple school days because of snow this winter, Hun School history teacher Lynn McNulty wasn’t going to let a series of chain-reaction car crashes and a miles-long traffic jam on the Pennsylvania Turnpike yesterday keep her from school another day.

“I was probably about two miles back from the big, serious pileup, but there were accidents all around,” McNulty said yesterday. “And I was like, ‘Oh this is bad.’”

After sitting in the stand-still for about an hour at the Willow Grove exit on the turnpike and live-streaming a news program on her cell phone, McNulty realized her chances of getting to school in time to teach her advanced placement European history class were not good. So she posted a message to her class through the school’s internal communications system, telling them to contact her via video chat when they got in.

Bridging a distance of miles through technology, McNulty yesterday used the school’s electronic resources and her tablet computer to teach her class from her car that was stopped on the turnpike, which was shut down for hours because of an initial 25-vehicle pileup around 8:30 a.m. in the eastbound lanes between Willow Grove and Bensalem and Willow Grove, according to 6ABC.com.

“Literally no one was moving, and I sat through a total of four-and-a-half hours,” McNulty said.

Kudos to her! In related news, In pileup on eastbound Pa. Turnpike, at least 25 injuries reported, I'm glad no deaths were reported--hopefully the injuries were minor and people will soon recuperate. What a scary situation.

Here's a fun Facebook game: Who would be on your zombie apocalypse team?

Go with your birthday and your current shirt colour, if any. Mine would be Dana Scully from X-Files, comedian George Carlin, and the Incredible Hulk. I could live with that. :) Who would be on yours? (Click on the image below to make it more readable.)

Up and planning my weekend

I have called Brenda and confirmed that she has a doll meet tomorrow, so there will be no game. A called me and we made plans to go to the store about noon. The roads should be pretty decent; we did get a boatload of rain last night, but only maybe a half-inch of snow, although it is cold, so they could have some black ice on them. By giving it a couple of hours, we'll have better roads. We're very lucky in terms of how that played out. If it had snowed as heavily as the rain was coming down, we would have had several inches by now. It's sunny and around 20 degrees. I'm holding out for those 60s that are in the forecast for next week. I am so sick of winter. This one has been cold and the snow has just hung around for days on end. Normally we get a snow of maybe 2-3 inches, then in melts, then again, then it melts. This time it's just snowed on top of snow, although the rain yesterday finally took care of some of that.

My teeth and jaws are aching today. Apparently I clenched them in the night, and since there are precious few molars to take the strain anymore, my front teeth hurt. I'm convinced that my clenching and grinding are a factor in terms of losing the teeth. We never could find a good bite guard solution. I tried an over the counter one and couldn't tolerate it well, so we didn't do a custom one years ago when my dentist first brought it up. Of course, the acid in the diet sodas was a big part, too, I'm sure. But I'm actually thinking of taking some acetaminophen today, and I haven't taken anything at all for the pain, which has been minimal, since I threw up Wednesday after taking Tylenol with codeine. But I can't complain; it hasn't been too painful. And I'm up to tortillas with cheese and bananas as far as food goes.

Okay, I think I'll check up on some news and see what's going on in the world, then start getting cleaned up and ready to go. Have a great day!

There is one good thing about the soft food diet due to my oral surgery

I've lost 8 lbs, which apparently isn't water weight as it's been consistent each morning for the last three days. Yay. Still, I must admit I don't have a lot of energy; I managed to work very steadily today (being behind for the first time in awhile), but by 8 or so I pretty much conked out. Now I'm back up, but most of the night is gone. Still, here are my plans for this weekend:

1. Work on my house
2. Watch The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which I have out from Netflix
3. Take a friend to the grocery, depending on the weather, although we got mostly rain, and it looks like the snow will fall short of the original estimates
4. Watch Suddenly, Last Summer which I also have from Netflix, with friends (yes, it's Dame Maggie Smith day--she's in both)
5. Work on the game notes (although I'm pretty sure Brenda has a doll meet Sunday, so we won't play--maybe I can work up a character that's supposed to return soon)
6. Clean my friends' house
7. Do some reading (I really haven't done much lately)
8. Watch some episodes of 'American Horror Story: Murder House' with a friend on Netflix streaming

Hopefully that's not too ambitious.

I don't normally comment on news stories, or reply to other comments

But one woman was going on about how gays weren't in God's plan, and how God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, etc., etc., in capital letters to try to make her point somehow more believable than anyone else's, I suppose. It irritated me, to say the least. So this was my reply:

The sin of the people of Sodom & Gomorrah was, according to Jewish tradition (as in the one that the scriptures come from), one of hospitality. There was a great deal of sin in the cities, per the Bible, but as the scholar Jay Michaelson wrote: "Homosexual rape is the way in which they violate hospitality—not the essence of their transgression. Reading the story of Sodom as being about homosexuality is like reading the story of an ax murderer as being about an ax." Perhaps you might consider reading the text of the scripture and of those who have devoted their lives to studying it, rather than using it to spout hate. Also, shouting in giant capital letters and misspellings does nothing for your case, but rather just indicate that you are trying to spout hate masked in religiousity at the top of your lungs. I wish Christians were more concerned with their own souls than that of others. I am neither Christian nor Jewish, and the status of my soul is a matter for time to tell, and for my Gods to decide, but I do respect the teachings of Christ, and wish more people who profess to be Christian would actually learn his lessons of love rather than casting aspersions on others they perceive to be sinners. Beyond that, marriage in this country is a civil matter. You can marry in a church, but without the state's blessing, it is not recognized. It is just customary to not require two ceremonies when a couple marry, for simplicity's sake. So Biblical arguments against legal marriage in the United States are invalid. Religious bodies are free to not bless unions, but legal civil marriage should be open to people regardless of gender, for without it, basic rights protected by our Constitution are violated. All gay couples are asking is that they be able to enjoy the same rights and straight ones. And I say more power to them--I was married nine months and it was considered legal and binding. Friends of mine have been together 16 years, yet they are seen as being merely partners because they are the same gender. Who had the greater commitment to each other? Definitely my friends. They should be allowed to marry in this, their state of residence.

Here's the original story: Couple Sues Ky To Issue Same-Sex Marriage License

Coincidentally, I had someone post a comment on my last post (why, I'm not sure, since it had nothing to do with religion, or anything that would even tangentially made sense) in a long rambling bunch of Bible verses (and yet again, much of it in all caps). Now, I moderate the comments on this blog, and frankly, I didn't see any reason to allow that one, because it was not related in any way to me or to what I wrote. Or at least, I'm assuming it doesn't have anything to do with me. I suppose it could have been a pathetic attempt at conversion, in which case, sadly for the writer, it failed. Please understand that I'm very open to comments, but do not pass on things that are either simply spam or, in this case, the equivalent of leaving a religious tract on my doorstep. Also understand that I don't have problems with Christians, especially ones who have compassion and tolerance. Nor do I necessarily expect all Christians to respect that I have my own religious beliefs. But this is my forum, so I'm afraid it operates by my rules. So sorry, no long praise comments regarding the Christian God. Maybe a nice Orphic hymn would be more appropriate, don't you think?

Just requested a book through interlibrary loan

called The Irish Zorro: The Extraordinary Adventures of William Lamport. It was prominently featured in a documentary I saw the other day on the Smithsonian channel whilst waiting for YKWIA to wake up the other day. It has mixed reviews on Amazon, so I don't want to spend $30 on the book itself when I can borrow it through the public library ILL system. We'll see. But I am intrigued. I always loved the legend of Zorro. The Lone Ranger, bah, anyone can shoot a gun, or at least so my pre-teen mind went. Swords took real skill. I loved watching the old Zorro movies (and no, I haven't read the novellas, but I would like to), or reading exploits of The Scarlet Pimpernel or The Three Musketeers (the latter of which, despite their named, did more with swordplay). I even did a little fencing in high school, and wasn't too bad, but the face guard wouldn't fit over my glasses so in effect I fenced blind, which I think unnerved my foes quite a bit. :)

A bit of a setback

in terms of my teeth. The good news is my gums are doing well and healing. The bad news is that there was a crown that came off a tooth, along with the filling underneath it, during the surgery. Before they can do the last of the impressions needed to do my partials, something has to be done about that tooth first. My options? Build the tooth up with a post and filling, put a new crown on it, and hope that it holds together over the long-term, or have it removed (this time as an office visit without sedation). I chose the latter after looking at the tiny nub of a tooth and deciding that it would be better and cheaper to go ahead and have it removed. So in a couple of weeks when my gums have healed some, I'm to go in for impressions, and then three days later have that tooth taken out, whereupon (in theory) they will send me home with the partials in place. So this is turning into a somewhat unhappy saga. It is especially disappointing because I was supposed to do the wax bite today and get my partials tomorrow originally, and went over there thinking it would be a short appointment that moved things forward. Instead I got bad news and had a decision to make.

Okay, today I went back to work and then went to the dentist and got the news. I picked A up and got some things from the store, then dropped him off. Now I find that I'm pretty tired. I think I'm going to lie down for a bit, anyway. Then I really should get up and take some things out to the Dumpster and recycling containers, before yet more snow comes tomorrow. I'm really trying to hang on to the idea that we're supposed to get temperatures in the 60s towards the end of next week. It couldn't come too soon.

A little scary, I must say

Woman Stabbed While Shopping At Grocery Store

It happened at the Nicholasville Road Kroger this afternoon. An elderly woman was stabbed and they do have a suspect in custody. It appears to have been a random attack. Scary, though, and in a neighbourhood normally considered 'good' (for whatever worth that really has; crime can strike anywhere). I hope the lady recuperates quickly.

A good opinion piece on the real reason for Marius the Giraffe's death: profitablilty

Opinion: Killing of Marius the Giraffe Exposes Myths About Zoos: For the Copenhagen Zoo, it seems Marius was worth more dead than alive

All of which raises some questions: Why is the zoo breeding reticulated giraffes, when they are not endangered in the wild? And why did they let Marius's parents mate?

For answers, you need look no further than the Copenhagen Zoo's Facebook page, where it celebrates the birth of a baby giraffe (possibly Marius) in 2012. Humans, science has shown, are drawn to babies of all kinds; we love the big eyes, the floppy limbs, the fluff and fuzz of infants. Baby leopards, baby pandas, baby elephants ... baby giraffes. They all draw huge, paying crowds to zoos.

And while the Copenhagen Zoo, and other European Union zoos, may celebrate themselves as conservation sanctuaries protecting animals on the threshold of extinction, a 2011 report from the Born Free Foundation tells a different story: "An average of only 13% of species kept in European zoos were classified as Globally Threatened" and on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

So, if these zoos aren't really engaged in conserving species as they claim, what is their purpose?

Back home

after spending the night over at my friends' home so they could keep an eye on me post-oral surgery. I had to be watched for at least five hours and couldn't drive for 24 hours. YKWIA woke up every time I rolled over or made a noise, even though he was all the way at the other side of the house. I really appreciate that; I feel very loved. I'm doing pretty well. I woke up last night and went to the bathroom and thought I looked like a vampire, there was blood all around my lips. And I did have to have one more pulled than planned, so it was seven in all. (Well, six and a half, as this all started when a tooth broke off inside a crown at Christmas. Two other crowns came off, one during the impressions (and it turned out that tooth had some issues, so it was either make a new crown or take that one off), and one during surgery (but that should be able to be put back on, as that tooth was okay).) The pain's not bad, and I'm dispensing with the Tylenol 3, which just made me sick anyway. Going back to work tomorrow. Still eating soft food, but I managed a bit of canned peas just now. Once the grogginess wore off and I was up today, I got to do fun things like watch the first couple of episodes of 'American Horror Story: Murder House'. :) So thanks to Brenda, who got me there, took me to fill my meds, bought me a milkshake while we were waiting (and no, I used a spoon; straws can cause dry socket, although the cherry kind of oozed out because I still had gauze in my mouth and it was just too solid--guess I should have asked them to leave off the cherry at McDonald's), and got me back to the guys' house, and to the friends who let me stay overnight, kept watch on me, and then helped me get everything back into the car. (I had a 2-piece carry-on luggage set, my CPAP, the laptop, two pillows, a backpack, a couple of bags and a small case of things like applesauce, yoghurt, and pudding, an air mattress, and a foot pump.) I think they thought I was moving in. :) Anyways, thanks everyone. Tomorrow I return to work, but have to leave long enough for them to take another type of bite impression, and then Friday I should get my partials and should have a better chance eating real food. Yay!

PS I managed string cheese (soft mozzarella) as well. Yippee! I checked, and there are normally 32 permanent teeth in the mouth. I had my wisdom teeth and one tooth out several years ago. Then there were two that had to be taken out after that, after they broke when I bit down on something. This time there were seven, so I still have eighteen teeth. But I'm getting partials that will fill in the gaps, and it will be a better solution I think for me than costly implants or trying to save the teeth when I keep having trouble with crowned teeth anyway. And yes, while that's a lot to lose (and my penchant for drinking diet sodas may very well be a big part of it, as YKWIA insists, along with genes, my tendency to grind and grit my teeth, and the fact I never had my teeth straightened like many kids do) by my age (46), my mother lost her top teeth in her 20s not because of problems with the teeth (which as near as I can tell were small, straight, and perfect--I have my dad's teeth in my mom's small mouth), but rather by losing the bone support for them somehow. So I've kept the majority of them longer than I thought I would. The good thing about the partials (even though that has a whole set of issues, such as cleaning, etc. that come up) is that I'll be able to fully chew on the right side, where I had a couple of molars in the back missing in addition to my wisdom tooth on the bottom and so my left side has been taking up the slack, and as a result, having more pressure put upon it. This will even things out. So while it was a bit painful, it will be better and lest costly in the long run than trying to save each individual tooth, especially in terms of upkeep when I might not have insurance a couple of years down the road.

Jon Stewart explains my disbelief

at the whole Super Bowl Coke ad controversy much better than I could:

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

Up at 4 am

because it's 9 hours before my oral surgery, and I'm supposed to eat a light meal at 4 am so my blood sugar stays stable before the surgery. I need to get ready and do some things around the house, but instead I think I'll go back to bed for another hour or so.

I am nervous, and not looking forward to this, but I recognise it will hopefully be better for me in the long run. I've stocked up on soft food and have made plans for a driver and for someone to keep an eye on me afterwards. I'm going into work for four hours, though, this morning, although I'll be off tomorrow. Wish me luck.

In the 'Unshelved' comic today

They have a banner that says 'Books that may irritate you.' Now I'm a librarian, and I, of course, love books. But everyone has a not-so-enjoyable book in their past. One that maybe didn't offend them, but irritated them somehow. Or kindled great repulsion, even. And so I'm asking a question:

What is your least favourite book of fiction that you've read from cover to cover and would rather go into a pit of vipers rather than ever open it up again?

Mine? Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. 'He looked at the fish, he looked at the sea.' That's all I remember about reading it in high school except that I found it terribly un-fun to read. I do love a lot of the classics (gravitating to things like the exciting Three Musketeers, the riveting To Kill a Mockingbird, or even the interesting Great Expectations, for example.) But Hemingway's was sheer torture for me, and I have never given any of his other books even half a chance, perhaps unfairly. I mean, really, the Book of Numbers from the Bible was more riveting, and it's primarily a dry census.

So, what's yours?

Okay, I just don't see where it is defensible to even be breeding an animal

If your concern is inbreeding of the captive species, and if you determine that none of the other organisations that offered to take your surplus male giraffe because they might have 'lesser standards of welfare', even though several other zoos offered, and if sterilisation just means he would 'take up space for more genetically valuable giraffes', then why on earth breed animals in the first place, only to kill them with a bolt gun and feed them to the zoo's lions in front of children?

I agree with Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, who said, the zoo's decision was 'the most abominable, insensitive, ridiculous thing I've ever heard of.'

I'm not saying that the death threats are warranted that they're now receiving, but gee whiz, what genius thought this was a great idea? It's at the very least a public relations disaster. And while yes, feeding the meat to the lions is less 'wasteful', the whole thing stinks to high heaven. Zoos are centres of conservation and education. If they can't treat animals humanely and breed responsibly, then they shouldn't be putting themselves into that arena. And yes, I know, they insist they were acting responsibly. They just don't get it, and that's more the pity. And here I thought the Danes had some advantages over Americans in terms of forward-thinking mentality.

Marius the giraffe: Copenhagen Zoo staff get death threats

I heard this on the radio this morning and really liked it

'Pompeii' by Bastille

Eh-eh-o eh-o [six times]

I was left to my own devices
Many days fell away with nothing to show

And the walls kept tumbling down
In the city that we love
Great clouds roll over the hills
Bringing darkness from above

But if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
Nothing changed at all?
And if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
You've been here before?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

We were caught up and lost in all of our vices
In your pose as the dust settled around us

And the walls kept tumbling down
In the city that we love
Great clouds roll over the hills
Bringing darkness from above

But if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
Nothing changed at all?
And if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
You've been here before?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

Eh-eh-o eh-o [four times]

Oh where do we begin?
The rubble or our sins?
Oh oh where do we begin?
The rubble or our sins?

And the walls kept tumbling down
In the city that we love
Great clouds roll over the hills
Bringing darkness from above

But if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
Nothing changed at all?
And if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
You've been here before?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?
How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

If you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?

Eh-eh-o eh-o [eight times]

2,035 years and the destruction of Pompeii still lends imagery in our popular culture. That's pretty cool. And it reminds me of some of the things I heard in the 1980s, some of the alternative music I liked.

I didn't watch the Super Bowl, so I just saw this today

I laughed myself silly. Another one shared by YKWIA. He finds odd things almost every time he gets on the Internet.



If I remember correctly, the clockwork owl was Athena's from The Clash of the Titans.

I thought this was wicked fun

YKWIA showed it to me today:

I fully support a parent's right to choose whether to bring a child into the world

and it's stories like this that reiterate to me why. Some people reduce the abortion debate into a black and white issue, good vs. evil, etc., etc. Some people are supposedly so concerned about the life of the child yet the quality of that life is often ignored. I don't think the decision to end that life is ever really that easy. I've known two women in particular who went through abortions, where I was with them right afterwards. One was told not to have the child based on her own health and the damage it could do to her. One did have a major health issue with her heart and blood pressure but I don't think that was part of the decision so much as the fact she was at a point in her life where she would not have been able to support a child, and she was neither maternal nor particularly stable emotionally. Neither made the decision lightly. Both cried afterwards. Both had the relationships they were in fall apart. The latter even named her foetus and marked it's death for years. I've never been in a position to have to consider the decision myself, but each of them, and their experiences, affected my feelings on abortion. While I do recognise that the foetus is alive, I don't believe that it has a preeminent place above the mother's life. I don't think women who have suffered from rape or incest should be forced to have a child resulting from that. And I think the best persons to decide whether they can take up the challenge of a severely affected child are the parents. And yes, I think the father should be involved, but that in the end no woman should be pressured or required to have a baby she doesn't want. Does that mean I always agree with that decision? No. But it's not my decision to make, or my consequences to live with. Does that mean that I think all foetuses with medical conditions should be aborted? Of course not. I work in a hospital that every day treats children with various congenital disorders, making strides to help them live life to the fullest. But not every person is up to the challenge of raising such a child, and in some cases, such as the one below, the quality of life is minimal, because the situation is so severe. I once stumbled across a blog of a man in Malaysia whose wife and he were travelling to Australia to obtain an abortion unavailable to them in their home country. The reason? Ancephaly--the baby was missing most of her brain, and if she even made it to term, she would likely live only a few days. They believed it was kinder to end the pregnancy, and I agree, not that it matters if I do or not. But that one blog post haunted me in terms of just how difficult and what lengths they had to go to to ensure what they thought was best for their child. The options available should be weighed, but in the end, the decision to carry to term or abort should be between the parents and their medical team, not legislators or screaming protesters shouting 'baby-killer!' It is the parents who must live with either decision. And while, yes, adoption is an option, the pool of people wanting to adopt children with severe medical challenges and who are capable of dealing with them as well is small.

Abortion is a messy and complex issue, and I think this writer did an excellent job of conveying the difficulty of the decision, and I think in the end she and the father made an important choice that was best for the child. It's well worth a read, wherever you fall in the abortion debate. My heart goes out for those who must make this sort of choice, who grieve for what was lost, but in the end, make a decision based on love as well as logic.

A Peaceful Death: Aborting my son was not about when life begins, but how to end it humanely. By Phoebe Day Danziger

My story is not unique—I am part of a group of 20-odd other mothers who have also terminated pregnancies for medical reasons, and many of us have shared remarkably similar reflections and perspectives—and yet there is not an easy language for situations like ours. These types of late-term abortions for medical reasons occupy an uneasy place in the mainstream dialogue about abortion. Opponents of abortion may argue that terminating my pregnancy violated our baby’s human rights and that if anything, we should have continued the pregnancy and opted for palliative care at birth. The more surprising and hurtful responses, however, have been from people like my staunchly pro-choice friend who told me that she was jarred by my use of the word son to describe our fetus, as though the moral basis for abortion depends on denying the fetus any semblance of humanity, no matter how close it is to the point of viability, no matter how the woman herself chooses to define her relationship to the fetus. I’m not sure I explicitly thought of our fetus as our son until the day of that ultrasound, but after entering a situation in which we had to consider medical decisions that included imagining our long-shot, best-case scenario as trying to get our little boy through a year or two of preschool before getting a kidney transplant and starting on lifelong immunosuppressive drug therapy, there was no way to think of him otherwise.

Why does any of this matter right now? In recent months, there has been high-profile legislation across the country seeking to ban abortion after 20 weeks or earlier. This is precisely the point at which many fetal anomalies are diagnosed in a pregnancy. My own state, Michigan, recently passed a bill prohibiting insurers from providing coverage for pregnancy termination, with no exceptions for circumstances like fetal anomalies or rape, unless women have purchased a special policy in advance, as though this is a situation anyone would anticipate and plan for. The rhetoric surrounding abortion focuses primarily on the question of when life begins—is the fetus a baby at six weeks? 12? 20?—and whether women have the right to make choices about their pregnant bodies. In our case, abortion was a parenting decision—the most important and powerful one I have yet to make. This might not be comfortable or convenient for the pro-choice narrative, but it’s the truth. Some aspects of abortion might rightfully be best considered in the context of when life begins, but in situations like ours, the most salient fact was how and when life should end.

Yay, Kentucky Revenue Cabinet!

I just checked my account, and I've already received my somewhat small but better-than-in-the-past refund from the state of Kentucky. I filed the night of January 30th, so it was ready to go when the IRS started accepting the returns the next day, so I hope the federal follows suit soon. Yay!

Starting to get a little nervous

This week I'm having some oral surgery at the dental office I go to. The plan is that I will work a half-day, meet my driver over at another friend's house, go do the appointment, pick up any prescriptions, and then go back to the house and stay overnight there, so that someone can watch me for a few hours after the surgery, and of course I can't drive for 24 hours, so I'll have to be off work the next day. It's been awhile since I've had oral surgery, and I've never actually had it at the dentist's itself. So I'm a little nervous. But hopefully everything will go fine. I'll take my laptop with me in case I feel like blogging, and my phone can act as a hotspot. (Well, I can blog from the phone, but I don't know how coordinated I'll be afterwards, for using a Swype keyboard. :) ) I'll be bedding down on an air mattress I keep in the car in case I get stranded, as they don't have a spare bedroom (they do have a lovely library, though). So the idea is to take the CPAP, the mattress, etc., etc., and some soft food over there. Wish me luck.

I've changed my Facebook and Twitter profile pictures to this

courtesy of the Human Rights Campaign. #LoveConquersHate

Have a smartphone? Need to remember when to take your meds?

Check out www.needymeds.org. It links to coupons for various pharmaceuticals, as well as the assistance programmes for each drug, but it also has a free application for iOS and Android that will remind you when to take each medication if needed, among other things. You can keep a medication list, list of prescribers, pharmacy info, etc., for free. You can buy the full app for other functions, too, but the reminder works on the free one. I'm a little bad about taking my Lantus, and my insurance company was suggesting I take a look at the website to save money on my prescriptions, and I stumbled upon the application. It's working pretty well for me.

Kudos to Google

Okay, I must confess that I didn't immediately realise it for what it was, despite being a liberal lefty who is a long-time supporter of gay rights. I don't automatically associate rainbows with gays, for one. But the rainbow-coloured 'doodle' of Google's celebrating Olympic sport with the following quote was definitely meant to show solidarity for those in Russia who are gay and the athletes competing there:

"The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play." –Olympic Charter

Sorry to hear this

Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek’s ‘Spock,’ reveals he has lung disease: The beloved 82-year-old actor has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, Nimoy said recently on Twitter. He has the disease despite quitting smoking some 30 years ago.

He is using his Twitter account to urge those smokers who can to quit, which I find admirable. I've always liked Leonard Nimoy, and I'm sorry he has such a serious disease. My grandfather had COPD. It robbed him of his vitality and left him hooked to oxygen for most of his day at home. My mom has it, now, too. I have asthma, like them, and I suspect that I have a genetic predisposition for it, but I've never smoked, so I hope that I can avoid it as I age. It's not a fun way to go, feeling like you can't breathe. Maybe this will get to some of those young people who haven't damaged their lungs too badly yet. But to Mr Nimoy, I say in return, 'Live Long and Prosper' as well.

Can I just say

that I am terribly tired of winter. Really. It can be spring now, even with my allergies. I want to see things bloom, and hear happy songbirds, and see greenery return. I want it to be warm and pleasant and no more dirty snow, ice pellets, or salt to deal with. Just saying.

Having a quiet night alone (but with power!) :)

The commute to work today was surprisingly good, as the temperatures were a bit warmer but windy, and so there was very little ice on my car. The trees and other surfaces had at least a quarter of an inch of ice on them. The maintenance folks had cleared the sidewalks here at the complex. Our road was still very slushy, but the main roads were good. On the way home, though, that was a different matter. We got just enough snow to cover the roads and the temperatures were falling throughout the day, freezing the wet roads. There was an accident right outside our main entrance when I left work, so I went out the back. That was after spending about 10 minutes trying to open at least one door of the car so I could get into the driver's side front door. I finally managed to get the rear one open on that side. I really need to invest in some de-icer; this is an almost daily occurrence now, if there's been any precipitation. Then, invariably, the car warms up and I get a light that something's slightly ajar. That happened today, because the front passenger door opened just a bit where I'd tugged on it once the ice melted. But I was almost home so I took it easy and got home. But it was a real mess and it took about 20-30 minutes to get home, when it normally takes less than ten. Then I realised I had a voice message from a friend and right after I listened to that he called, asking for a ride home from work. I hate to say, I told him I'd just gotten home, that the roads were bad, and he'd be better taking the bus like usual. Of course, he didn't get home for about two hours due to the changeover from 35 to 70 minute runs and the timing involved. But it was the right decision. Also, I was very tired from lack of sleep during the power outage, and wasn't at my best for driving. When we leave his workplace, we have two choices--drive down a busy street in stop and go traffic that's down to one inbound lane during rush hour, or taking back roads that would probably have been worse than the main road I took, which was bad enough. I know it probably hurt his feelings, but he got home safely, and I didn't want to risk an accident given the conditions at the time. So I went on and took a couple of hours' nap, and I feel much better in terms of catching up on rest, and of course checked on him when his spouse called just a little while ago. All is well, although he is tired and cranky. My friend and I talked for some time. Now it's 9:30 and I'm wondering what to do with the rest of the evening. I'm sort of tired of being on the computer for now. I think I may listen to some music and maybe read. I've downloaded several Kindle books (mostly free, but a few that I've bought) to read lately, so I have plenty of material to keep me occupied.

Hope you have a good evening, are warm and comfy, and with power. I actually turned my thermostat down to about 65 because I was warm earlier. Hopefully that will help the electric bill. :)

YKWIA sent this to me

It Matters If You’re Black or White: The Racism of YA Book Covers

It's a thoughtful and compelling post by a young adult librarian.

So right before I left my friends' house

one of them said, oh, there won't be much ice because it won't last long. He said that's what the weather people said. So I drove home in the freezing rain as the roads were just starting to get slick, but mostly the problem was how heavy the rain was, leaving water in the road and the danger of hydroplaning. I got home, and everything was icing up quickly. Not five minutes after I called to let them know I got home, and just as I was about to heat up something in the microwave, the power went out--for five hours. (I called after about a half hour and gave him a small talk on what the ice was doing for me. See, he doesn't have to drive in the stuff, and they had power. On the other hand, he'll have to walk in the stuff tomorrow, as it's steadily and heavily been falling now for hours). Thanks to Kentucky Utilities, it's back one. I used their application to check on the status. They estimated it would be back on by about 1:00 am. At 1:28 they were listing ours as 'under evaluation'. By 1:35 the lights came on. I made sure the fish tank pump had water in it so it wouldn't run while dry (priming it, that is) and then unplugged anything that didn't need to be plugged in since the whole system will probably be strained. I'm not sure how much ice has accumulated, but they're thinking it could be about a half an inch, which is enough to consider it a hazardous ice storm.

I'm charging my phone as I write. I'd fortunately charged it throughout the day in the car as I took my friend to his appointment and went to mine. Then when the lights went out, I charged it on the battery backup for the computer for awhile, and put the power saver feature on. Now it's down to 30% or so. But it could have been much lower. Throughout the night people have gone out to their cars and run them for awhile, obviously charging their phones. And during the brief time I was in the bedroom, I discovered my upstairs neighbours were doing what many couples do during blackouts--all you could hear were bedsprings going and the rain falling outside, since the heat was off. :) They're still up, and I suspect most of the complex is, but it's 2 am now and I'm going to try to go to bed and actually sleep. now that I can use my CPAP. Be careful if you're being affected by the weather, and I hope your power stays on (and mine, now that it's restored. Power good.) Again, thanks KU for getting it back on. Apparently tree limbs took down some lines, according to their application. Good night.

Power's out

Decided to conserve candles and just open the curtains for a tiny bit of ambient light and go ahead and get some sleep, which will be hard to do without my CPAP. Lots of freezing rain coming down. Could be ugly tomorrow. Also there are sirens every few minutes, so the emergency folks seem pretty busy. Glad to be home, even without power/heat.  It's at least fairly comfortable for now.

This morning I gave up and rode the bus

The ice was such I had trouble getting into my car (one of my co-workers actually broke her door handle trying to do that--she wound up taking a taxi). I tried to get a couple of doors open, gauged the amount of ice and how long it would take to chip into the car, and decided to just walk to the bus stop and go in that way. The buses were on the snow plan. We got about 1/2" of ice pellets with almost four inches of snow on top of them, so sidewalks and roads were quite slushy. One of my co-workers took an hour and a half to get to work because a main road coming in from Nicholasville to Lexington hadn't been ploughed. That kind of thing. I made it to the bus, just in time, crossing the intersection where in October 2012 I was hit by a car, the first time I've done that since that time. I had to cross the road back after the bus dropped me off, and that was harder, because there's no light at the lane near the hospital I work at.

Work was quiet; we got a lot of cancellations due to the weather. School was out, so there were a lot of sledders playing out on our hills (we have 29 acres of land, much of it with slopes). Even the University of Kentucky was out, which is very rare. They were just having their Plan B employees come in. The public library was closed too. The roads were just terrible, especially early.

Of course, they were much better on the way back, but I'd taken the bus, so I had to wait for it to take me back. As soon as I got home, before going inside or taking off my backpack, I scraped the snow (the ice had melted for the most part) off the car and put the windshield wipers up. We're supposed to get rain tomorrow, but it may be freezing rain. Then I went inside. I'd left work at 5 pm and got in the door at 6:30 pm. I watched the late evening news and just decided to lie down for an hour or so and listen to music, but of course I fell asleep and woke up at 11:30 instead. So I'll probably check on the weather and head back to bed now that I've gotten some water, etc. My hand and arm are hurting, so a little ibuprofen probably wouldn't be amiss. Have a a good night.

Got home just a little while ago

on roads covered with about 1/4"-1/3" of sleet. I drove about 25 mph on the main roads, along a snow route, and still had trouble skidding just a bit on slower turns. I hope Brenda gets home okay--I just had to go about four miles, whereas she lives in the next county, to the west, and they've had even more sleet. We're supposed to get another 1/4" of sleet and several inches of snow in addition to that, anywhere from 2"-6".

But I'm home, thankfully, safe and sound. The game (Cthulhu, that is) was really good, and my character who was in danger of death actually survived, although with some odd consequences, the full import of which isn't known yet.

Okay, I have 'Downton Abbey' and 'Sherlock' recording. I think I'll listen to some music and go and rest. It's been a good yet long and at the end, nerve-wracking, day. :)

Oh, by the way

hope you had a good Imbolc/Candlemas. And did the groundhog see his shadow? He wouldn't have here, anyway, as it's very cloudy. :)

Getting ready for the game

and by that I mean the Call of Cthulhu game, not the Superbowl. The house in clean, the snacks have been bought (what a lot of people at Kroger, between the football bowl and the fact that we have a significant snowfall in the forecast tonight!) We are expecting about 3-6" in our area. I'm a little nervous about it, as I'm over at my friends' house for my game and it's supposed to start snowing in about two hours or so, a little after Brenda gets here and we start. Yes, I'm a little bit of a weenie when it comes to driving in snow, but then I'm out of practice. But we'll keep an eye on things, and if it does get bad, I have an air mattress, pump, and backup CPAP in the trunk of the car and could spend the night. The snow is supposed to last till about the morning commute, so it should be interesting. All this one day after 68 degree temperatures and sun. Of course, the good news is the ground is warmer, so even if we get some freezing rain, it shouldn't be too bad.

My hand still hurts a bit. I think I sprained it. That, along with my arm, is putting a damper on my day. I'll have physical therapy again on Tuesday. It is helping overall, I think, but there are some days that I still have issues. I hope this resolves soon.

Okay, I'm typing this on my laptop using my phone as a hotspot, since my friend doesn't have wi-fi. I've got a 2.5 GB limit per month on the hotspot as part of an otherwise unlimited phone data plan. I'm going to check on the news and weather and then sign off. Hope your day is going well.

Only I

Could hurt myself flushing a toilet. My fingers slipped and I flushed with my middle finger, which hyper-extended and now I think I've done something to the tendon. My hand is sore, and it hurt as I drove home. It is, unfortunately, my dominant hand, and the same side as the arm that is having numbness and pain due to an impingement of a nerve coming from my neck. Joy.

Okay, that was one expensive (and long) oil change :)

When they did my free rotation after doing the oil change, they found that my front rotors were too thin. so the rotors and brake pads on that end were changed. I swear getting cars fixed is like going to the dentist--something small always leads to major work. The price wasn't bad as rotors go (I've gotten those before, and even just had them turned before, but of course there's only so much you can do when they're thin), but it was substantially more than I was thinking I would pay. Fortunately I did my taxes the other day and should get a refund soon, so that took about half of it. And while I could have waited a couple of weeks until that refund came in, I'd rather not mess with brakes in terms of safety. All told I was at the shop for three hours.

After that, my main objective was to get a car wash. I went to the Speedway on Malibu, but theirs was closed. I called over at the one on Southland, which was working, so I went there and purchased one that would get the undercarriage as well as the car body. Unfortunately, when it became my turn (and it was a hopping place, let me tell you, with temps in the 60s for the first time in weeks and sunny, coming off of subzero temps and lots of salt on the road), I apparently put the code in too early, even though it was asking for it, and the car wash wouldn't open. Since I'd just called them, I still had the number on my phone and called, and they came out and then went in and got me a new number, but the car wash had to be reset both outside and inside before it finally worked. I remember how much car washes annoyed me when I worked at Speedway; now I was the problem child. There were about 8-10 cars waiting in line this whole time. But, I finally got in the bay and the wash itself went well. It's so nice to have all that salt off it.

Then it was off to Kroger for milk for a friend and a few things for me, and I went over to my friends' house and spent some time there with one. Then the other came home and we went to the grocery for their shopping run. I then fixed some dinner and a friend and I watched an episode of 'Absolutely Fabulous'. Then I came home so they could watch the finale of 'American Horror Story: Coven', which I've already seen. I've spent about an hour or so downloading some music to the laptop from Amazon, and now I'm thinking of doing the game notes. I'd like to get them done so I don't spend all night 'trying' to wake up like I did last week.

It has been a long day today, and I am tired, though. Maybe a few minutes stretched out won't hurt, do you think? :)

I didn't sleep well last night, and I feel like I could spend at least a couple of more hours in bed

But I'd like to take care of the car as early as possible. It's sunny and 45, and supposed to be up about 57, after such bitter cold for weeks, that I suspect a lot of people will be trying to do the same. Still, I'm overdue for an oil change, so I'll at least try to get that done today. I'm just moving really slowly, and I had odd dreams. Oh, well, might as well get up and get going. Have a great day.