Long live Judy Blume

I agree with this completely.

I will tell you that we were passing around V.C. Andrews books, I devoured "Flowers in the Attic," and that whole series. How was that OK, but reading a book about a girl who is wondering about her body and questioning religion and having certain feelings about her friends — why wasn't that OK? I wish I could go tell my 11-year-old self not to listen to all the people who said, "That book is not OK for you. It's a dirty book. It's a naughty book. Don't read it." Because I think it would have really helped me as a flat-chested, shy, insecure 11-year-old to meet Margaret.--Leah Wolchok

"Judy herself is furious": "Judy Blume Forever" directors on today's book banning and moral panic

Good for her

As the article points out, the law is actually on hold while it's fought in the courts, but the message she sent was fabulous. We have a similar law that was passed here in Kentucky. This is crazy.

Lizzo defies Tennessee drag ban with help from iconic RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni

Poor thing, so glad he's okay

Aww... And the article did try to find out the condition of the human he was with, to no avail. I hope both will be okay, and that Toodles will never again be exposed to opiates, and he'll be adopted into a safer home.

Narcan saved the life of this poodle after suffering apparent drug overdose

Is that a lizard on my head?

My favourite image from my MRI...it looks like a strange alien, doesn't it, especially with the eyeballs?

Healthy progress

When I was not walking as well as I am now, being dizzy and having a lot of knee pain at the time, I set my step count goal to 3,500, which may seem really low, but I was lucky to reach it maybe 3-4 days a week at most. After the gel shots in my knees and the physical therapy for the dizziness (primarily caused by a malfunction in the Vestibulo-ocular Reflex (VOR) [where you have a dysfunction in turning the head and focusing on a point at the same time] with a little Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) [where tiny calcium crystals build up in an area of the inner ear where they should not be, causing dizziness], I'm walking better. I keep a collapsible cane with me, but I haven't been using one full-time anymore. I told myself when I met my goal for seven days a week, I'd move up the goal. So... On six days last week, I was over 4.000 steps. On four, I was over 5,000, and on one, 6,000. I'm going to move it up in 500 step increments--so up to 4,000 for now, and then if I can get it up to 4,000 consistently, I'll move it up again. I'd like to at least get up to 5,000 steps a day. Wish me luck.

BTW. I got a call from my neurologist Friday afternoon and he'd gotten the report back from my MRI early. Everything looked normal. In addition to the dizziness, we'd been checking on the very frustrating memory issues I've been having and trouble finding words, especially names of things/nouns. He is under the impression that it is not my brain, or even ageing, but rather side-effects of some of my medication, which is unfortunate, because it is extremely important that I stay on said medications, and if I were to try to find an alternative, it would be bad, as what I'm on is working very well and it can take ages to find the right medicine otherwise. He said that unless it gets markedly worse, he wouldn't recommend pulling me off of them. If it does, then we could reconsider or put me on additional medication (something I'd like to avoid if I can). But I'd asked for an evaluation because I was afraid it was a kind of degenerative aphasia, which is a form of dementia, and at least we've ruled that out. So yay!

This morning's effort

I started out my morning with plants, of course. We went to Meijer for a few things last night and my roommate really liked a purple calibrachoa he saw in a hanging basket. I told him they liked sun, but this morning I was double-checking and they do well so long as they get about 6 hours of decent sun. The front of his house is direct morning sun, so I wasn't sure last night, but since it gets super-hot on the other side of the house (sunnier, but to the west and slightly south), I decided it was worth a try to get one and experiment on the front. So I went back and got the very one he'd been looking which is hanging in a nice, compact ball with plenty of room to grow. I would have liked to get a couple of pink geraniums for the porch, but they were looking puny. The begonias in 4" pots looked pretty, though, so I got a couple of pink ones and a couple of small pots (I've got a couple of more here should they outgrow them), then drove home carefully (plants in car!), potted up the begonias, watered them, hung the calibrachoa and cut off its tag. Here is the result:

My favourite parody that Randy Rainbow has done (so far)

A fitting memorial

Interesting copyright case from Italy

The Italian Museum That Owns Leonardo’s ‘Vitruvian Man’ Has Successfully Sued to Stop Production of a 1,000-Piece Puzzle Based on the Work

Getting crafty

The first bracelet I designed and made myself, plus earrings I made a few months ago. The earrings are amethyst, and the bracelet is amethyst, lava, howlite, and black onyx. Not sure what that combination means in gem lore, but I thought they were pretty. Wish I'd had room for three elephants, but my wrist is smaller than it once was. I had just enough cord to knot the other end onto. Next time I'll know to allow a little extra. Fortunately, the cord is stretchy, so that was helpful. Anyway. I'm happy with it, and it was nice to do something creative. (And the other day a child complimented me on the first pair of earrings I'd made from amethyst chips. It felt very nice, and it inspired a little more effort).

UPDATE: Apparently, I made a nice combination of stone properties. Howlite is for emotional healing, and amethyst is for clarity of thought, calmness, and spiritual healing. Black onyx is for grounding and balance. Lava rock, which is basalt, is also grounding, but can also be used to diffuse essential oils. 🙂

Thank God

for the Kentucky Assembly, Governor Andy Beshear, and a desire to fall in line with federal guidelines regarding cigarette taxes, as of September 2022.

Student debt won't be taxed as income in Kentucky

Originally it would have been. 

In shock

March 31st is a recurring important day in my life. In 1992, it was the day I found out my divorce was final, freeing me from a very bad marriage. In 1997, I was laid off from a job I loved as a librarian after 20 years, which would be very sad except they asked me back in another capacity a few weeks later, and I still work there, someplace with a wonderful mission with people who feel like family. So it wasn't a sad ending, but a transition, although it felt sad at the time.

Fast forward to today, 2023. I just got a notice from MOHELA, the student loan servicer my account has been transferred to because I applied under the temporary limited waiver of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness programme that after applying credits for all necessary payments, I have fulfilled the programme's requirements and my loans have been forgiven. I thought it was a spam email, so I went to the website to verify. My balance is $0. All $220,667 was forgiven. My student loans have hung over my head since I was 17 years old. I struggled to make payments, and over the years my loans only grew with capitalised interest, bringing the amount owed up by almost $100,000. I was on income-contingent plans that never made a dent in the amount owed. Now, because of working for all that time in a qualified nonprofit and credits plus the required amount of payments, they're gone. I'm in shock. I thought I'd be paying till I was on Social Security or my death. I'm incredibly relieved. Now I just need to know if Kentucky follows the federal guidelines on taxes (in which case, no taxes will be due) or not (in which case I may be in a world of hurt next year come tax time). But I'm not going to worry about that right now. I'm going to be happy at the moment. This is probably the best birthday present in recent memory.