Did not want to get up, so I didn’t til 10:30. Was gray, i was feeling very lonely and alone, and Gertrude didn’t even come over to say ‘feed me, feed me’. So bah. Also, humbug. But then I made coffee and turned on my caramelldansen station on Pandora on my FireStick on my tv. Bouncy music for the win.

I am making a perked coffee every day in my one-cup stove top percolator. Turn the small burner on high, heat water in electric kettle, meanwhile add 2 big scoops coffee to basket. Pour boiling kettle water into pot to about half an inch below the holes, add basket works, put on burner. Perks almost instantly and I turn it to medium till water turns brown, then to med/low for however many minutes. Today I did 8. Stronger is better when you are down in the dumps. I then pour it through a damp melitta filter into the mug, add dairy (real dairy, not soy, oat, almond, whatever). Put mug on candle warmer and dive into my email.

Usually I eat breakfast first, but nothing appealed today. And the sun finally came out. Partly cloudy, but lots of blue sky and sunshine. Opened a window in the living room early, then one in the bedroom later. Bathroom fan on drawing in fresh air. It’s all good. You have to take the good where you can find it, right? Sometimes being alone just plain sucks, so I have to work to not spiral into that black hole. Never want to go there again, for sure.

Here’s the last vestiges of snow which will be gone tomorrow, and then Friday another snow storm. Close to 70 today, snow storm day after tomorrow. I love New England. 🙂

Sort of. Very fine and not sticking at all. Bigger flakes earlier. Started out the day with clear sunny skies, then gray just sort of meandered it’s way across from west to east. And now snow. I do like snow.

Headline from a newsletter I get has three tips to avoid impluse buying. I have that figured out already. Get your packages stolen from the outer lobby. Cannot tell you how much impulse buying I have NOT done since this started a couple of months ago. LOL

Not as good as I have been, was awake most of the night, but it was entirely my fault because I was binge-watching Ted Lasso. I am going to dump Apple tv+ til the new season is out, because I just do not like the interface they have and there is nothing else I really want to watch on there anyway. So. Saving 5.00 a month while eagerly awaiting Ted Lasso season 3. As I was binging, I kept saying to myself, ‘God, I love this show’. The only other show I did that with was The West Wing. I really loved that show. How we wish things could be, instead of the incredible mess they really are. Remember how upset they were when Clinton got in? A redneck from the south? What? Cannot have that, now can we? Well, they went completely berserk when an actual black person got in. My country is such a disappointment. We got a good start on getting things somewhat right with Obama, but because the racists couldn’t cope, we then got the orange clown disgrace and look how well that went for those of us who are not enthralled by Fox News. Nothing lasts forever, I keep telling myself, and hopefully people’s brains will suddenly kick in and start working, and actual, rational thinking will ensue. Yep. That’s going to happen.

Making pesto pizza with store-bought pizza dough and Rana’s pesto, which is quite tasty. Also making chocolate bread, which I think I said is a Lindt bar wrapped in pizza dough and baked. I pkg of dough is enough to make both items. Dinner and dessert. LOL Actually I used to make the chocolate bread for Christmas breakfast with bread dough I made myself. Kids loved it. Me, too. Chocolate bread and coffee for the grownups, the bread and milk or cocoa for the kids, presents, real breakfast. Christmas. I miss it. My Christmas is now me and the cat.

Going to finish Ted Lasso when I get done on here. Fun times. Something happy to look forward to. Yay.

Roy Kent Roy Kent He’s Here He’s There He’s Every F’ing Where Roy Kent Roy Kent

Okay, I’m a little delirious today. 🙂

I love New England and New England weatherpeople.

Very hyper when the homemaker came today. So much fun. LOLOL

Sunny, windy, and cold. Not too cold, but cold. Went out to lunch with a friend yesterday. First time since early December, I think. Have not seen this friend except briefly in the hallway at Christmas, for a couple of years maybe? Anyway, great fun.

Here is from Twitter. Cracked me up.

It is ten degrees. Ten. Another bright sunshiney day. But cold. Did not make it up til 7:45 or so, breaking my five-day record of getting up at or before 7am. 7am is usually my equivalent of 1or 2 am for someone who goes to bed at a normal time, so big deal being able to get up that early. Really big deal, and I am loving it. Less pain today, too, so maybe recovered from my three days of seriously getting things done followed by two days of ow, ow, ow. Still getting some things done. Dishes, and yesterday I cooked. Had some leftover baked pork chops and found a decent recipe to use them. Chop them and some cooked potatoes and an onion,. Fry the onion in butter, add the meat and potatoes, cook a bit, add 1/2 cup milk, 1 can cream of whatever you like soup, Worcestershire, Tobasco, s&p and cook a bit. Tasty. Can add other chopped veg, but noooo. LOL So leftover leftovers for today. I even washed most of the dishes after. Just the skillet which I did already this morning. OMG, is this really me? Have I been taken over by pod people who clean or something? IDEK.

Found my original Kindle receipt. As of September of 2021, I have had it for ten years, and have used it virtually every single day since, sometimes for hours if I am having a bad day. Reading is very helpful on bad pain days. Or bad exhaustion days. It has gotten pretty slow, and I’ve had to change the battery once, but it still works, thank goodness. Why they stopped making keyboard Kindles is beyond me. I really resent when choices are taken away from you by companies who think they know best. Wrong, Amazon. Touchscreens suck for a lot of us. Okay, end of that rant.

Found this in my pictures folder.

Nothing is exactly what I expect. Lesson learned after contracting a chronic, debilitating illness. I don’t expect my emails to be replied to, my phone calls to be returned, people to turn up when they say they will. I used to. Silly me. Thinking I mattered. Here’s another:

Yeah, who needs them anyway, right? LOL

I am thinking it’s going to be another at least semi-good day. Fingers crossed. Have not even needed tylenol yet. Yay. One more weird thing. Twice now I have been woken in the night by the sound of something falling, like Miss G pushed something off of something onto the floor. However. When I get up to look once it’s actually morning, there is nothing out of place. Does she morph into an opposable-thumbed, walks on two legs, creature and replace whatever it was while I am sleeping? What? Whatty what what?? Puzzled Jean is puzzled. 🙂

Time to make the coffee. Been having nuked oatmeal first thing, since I moved my pill to before bed and don’t have to wait an hour to eat. Or have coffee. Anyway, half cup rolled oats or meusli, half cup water, half cup milk, zap three minutes. Hot bowl. Caution. Add a spoon of brown sugar and it’s good to go. Or to eat. Whatever. Lord, I am delirious this early in the morning. LOLOL Stay safe, people, and have a great day.

If yesterday was recovery day from my three good days, today is RECOVERY day. Woke up in major pain, just wanted to go back to sleep, but I am really working hard at not just couching now that I’ve had a sort of reprieve from the miseries of last week. So got up, fed Miss G, ate a bowl of cereal, and THEN laid back down and had a nap. Up now, but even though the two tylenol are working, they are not seriously working, so everything still hurts, just not as badly. Hobbling around. A friend I rarely get to see is possibly coming Thursday, so hoping to really be recovered by then. That’s the thing with fibro. The pain turns up much later and can sometime last for weeks or months based on one episode of having a good day. Delayed Pain Response accompanied by Really Screwed Up Pain Response. Fun times.

So here I am reading my emails, and this is a quote from a book review. Earthseed by Octavia E. Butler “When American society collapses under the weight of climate change, capitalism, and corporate greed,…” This was a book published in 1993. Oh, the prescience. Not even thirty years later, and isn’t that exactly what is happening? Corporate greed has ballooned, capitalism is completely out of control, and if you think the climate is not changing, well you need to look around you a bit harder than you have been. Actually, you don’t have to look hard at all. It’s obvious everywhere. And people. People have just lost their minds. Can you imagine this kind of protests over the polio vaccine? The smallpox vaccine? Seriously, WTF people? Of course, when these were saving people’s lives, there wasn’t easy access to so many brain-washing miss-information outlets, like you know, Fox News, Joe Rogan, and the Orange Disgrace and his minions. Free speech is one thing, but this deliberate assault on reason for profit is abhorrent, and to give it a pass as ‘free speech’ seem to me to be a crime in itself.

And more on the subject: I have been trying since late November to get an appointment with a rheumatologist, and still no luck. This is the place I have been going to for years. No appointments available. Two month wait to see my new primary care doctor. Then there is the grocery store. My homemaker shops at one store, and my friends sometime shop at different one in another town. Neither store has a regular deli anymore. No ‘scoop me out half a pound of ham salad, please’. Ham salad or any other deli item is pre-weighed and pre-packaged. No tubs of anything. Half the items in the sale flyer just do not exist on the shelves or refrigerated sections or frozen sections. The food supply has never, in my memory, been this disrupted. Prices are skyrocketing while corporate profits are SERIOUSLY sky-rocketing. Hmmmm. The western US is in the most serious drought in 1200 years, so I have been reading lately. This means food supplies will dwindle. From here:

https://wwd.ca.gov/wwd-newsletter/drought-and-the-food-supply-chain/

“This will undoubtedly impact prices across the food and agriculture supply chain in the months to come, given that California’s $54 billion agriculture industry provides over 400 key commodities, including a third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.”

I’m not saying it isn’t looking good, but seriously, it isn’t looking good. Meanwhile those two or three rich white guys are getting richer literally by the millions every SECOND. Something need to be done, but somehow I can’t see that happening, and I wouldn’t know what to do about it anyway. Anybody? Please?

On the bright side, it is a beautiful but freezing (18 degrees F) sunshiney, clear blue sky kind of day. What’s not to love. Winter. Of course there is the two thirds dead mini-mall that is my only view, cause all my windows look out on it. Time for lunch. 🙂

After almost an entire week on the couch, sleeping most of the day, Friday I woke up at 5:45, feeling the energy, and got things done. Saturday, up also early, getting more things done. Today, up at 7, lots of pain from all I did Friday, and very tired, but still got some things done. Do not know what changed, what I did or didn’t do to make a difference, or maybe it was nothing I just did and it just happened, but I plan to enjoy it however long it lasts. But weird.

As for the getting things done, I cleaned and reorganized my counters and kitchen cart. Looks so much better. It was a cluttered mess and now the counters are clean and have working room to chop veg or mix dough or whatever. Moved the toaster oven and the microwave and everything is much more accessible. Very pleased with myself. Also did some hand laundry, and cleaned the bathroom and did some tidying up in the living room. These are mostly things I do not normally have the energy for, except in very small increments of time. There was a lot of ‘move microwave, lie down for 10 or 15 minutes, clear off small counter, lie down for 10 or 15 minutes, wash counter, lie down……. and so on. But I got things done. Major achievement for me. Happy Jean is happy.

And it was snowing when I woke up and has been snowing all day. Actual snow, like winter is supposed to have. Not a blizzard, like the other day, not a brief snow and the sun comes out, but a real, all-day, beautiful gentle snow. I love winter.

“Oh my giddy aunt Jolene.” Jamie Oliver

Cooked, did dishes, fuffed around. Fell asleep around 9am and woke up at 3:30pm. Am going to drink coffee every two hours and see if I can stay awake til tomorrow night and hopefully kick-start a more sleep-at-night, up-all-day lifestyle. Like that’s going to work.

Icy, but not too bad. My homemaker came. Surprise, surprise. Groceries. It’s a good thing. LOL

Amazon is raising the price of Prime to compensate for increased costs. How much is Bezos worth again? $185.5 billion dollars as of today, according to Forbes. He needs more of our cash, people. No one can survive on only 185.5 billion dollars, right?

But not necessarily in a bad way. Reading an newsletter. Headline for one article begins, ‘A.C.D.C. study found that….’ and my first thought was ACDC, the rock group? Nooooooo. It’s ‘a C.D.C. study…’ Duh!

Was in the 40’s today. Melty snow, oh yes. Maybe more snow and ice Friday. Of course. Homemaker day. Groceries, etc. I have backup canned goods and all so not worried, but sheesh. I used to have someone twice a week. Worked out better for me. Really hard to get people to do the job anymore. Crap work, even crappier pay. It’s never the people who do the actual work that get the good pay. So not fair.

I managed to stay awake four hours between two daily sleeps. Yay. Been a long time since my sleep schedule was this messed up. I once stayed awake for four days straight. Just could not sleep. Then I did. LOL

I’m sure you all know by now that today was 2/2/22. Oh, the excitement. Especially when you consider that time and dates are human constructs, and do not actually mean anything except a way to keep track of things. Okay, I am done. Just going to sit here and drink my tea, thank you very much. Oh, if any of you have PBS Masterpiece, and don’t get me started on how a public television network, paid for by donations and taxes, has devolved into several different ‘have to pay for this to see that, have to pay for something else to see this’. That is so wrong. Anyway, The Mountain Detective is a French show that is pretty good, but has the most amazing scenery. Who knew France even looked like that? Not me. Check it out if you can.