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• https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/in-solidarity-with-the-students

I seem to have fallen into a slump. No idea why. Just cannot seem to get it together. Example: Got up before 8am, yay me. Took a shower, came in and sat on the couch and then just sat there for half an hour. Could not decide what to do next. What to have for breakfast? There is nothing easy, wound up having coffee and nothing else. Sat some more. Decided to fold Friday’s laundry, discovered it is still wet. He did run it through the dryer, I thought. Not soaking wet, but not dry. So kind of just spread it out on the furniture to dry. Got dressed. Decided to eat, again could not decide what so no eating. For some reason, my birthday was the start of the slump. So this is the third day. Bored? Lonely? Still not recovered from being sick? Did not get cake. Cheesecake instead, which is nice, but not the same thing at all. I was looking forward to cake. With frosting. Is that a reason to fall into the blahs? IDEK, but I do not like feeling like this. Just blah. I’ll get over it. I always do. Bah! Also, humbug! 🙂

Actually, it is me. It’s mah birthday. Woo Hoo. Of course it is yet another gray and rainy day in the 40’s, but the trees are still in bloom and later I am having CAKE. I only have cake about once a year, on my birthday, so it’s a treat. My friend Tess gets a little two-serving cake from the grocery, and we split it.

Still sick, but getting better faster, achy all over, too, but took the pain meds, so yay. Listening to my Rusted Root station on Pandora, so that’s good, too. Ignoring the world today. Can’t fix it, not going to stress for today at least. Oh, and I had chicken soup from the local pizza joint this week. They make it themselves, and it was pretty good. Even better the second day reheated. So yum. Not sure if chicken soup really helps when you are sick, but it makes you think it does, so that works. Right? Anyway, happy birthday to me. Can’t believe I made it this far, but really glad I did. Life is good. Pay attention and enjoy every minute of it.

You have to ask yourself what kind of humans value profit over saving people’s lives, but just look around you and the question will be answered. I remember when blogging was fun.

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/12/1244316874/florida-blocks-heat-protections-for-workers-right-before-summer

What kind? Doesn’t really say, but:

‘Affordable Connectivity Program, which is a federal program managed by the FCC meant to offer people living on low-income assistance with their internet bills. Of course, we can’t all have nice things. On Tuesday, the FCC said that since Congress has not approved new funding, the agency has had to make massive cuts that will mean far fewer people receiving aid for high-speed internet.’ From here: https://gizmodo.com/how-to-tell-if-your-isp-is-ripping-you-off-1851399788

I have this, and have been notified it is ending this month. “Congress has had to make massive cuts’. Tax the rich, for crying out loud. They have all the money and we just stand by and let the country go to ruin while they keep it. Why?

Went to Urgent Care. My friend called and volunteered to take me, since she has recently had pneumonia, and thought I might have it, too. I don’t. Nor do I have covid. I have a cold? that is aggravating my asthma, so I got 5 days of 40 mg prednisone, and a pill to stop coughing. Pill makes me dizzy, but does nothing for cough. First day on 40 mg, so far no cure. Oh well. Had to cancel my new homemaker and my decluttering helper. Did get some chicken soup from the store while we were out, and it was really good. Didn’t cure me, either, but it was very tasty anyway. LOL I’ve been getting their pot pie for awhile, and it is really good, too. Didn’t even know they made soup.

Just went on Instagram, and suddenly was suspended. Wouldn’t it be nice if they told you exactly what you did to get suspended? Noooo, that would be too logical. Anyway, filed the appeal and as soon as I clicked the last thing, the suspension was lifted. WTF?

Another gray day. More rain, although it seems to be around us more than here, but it’s spring, Mother Nature. Some sunshine would be good. Also, since I can only see the trees across the street from here, I had not idea the forsythia is blooming, and all sorts of trees are flowering.

I miss outside. Not looking like I am ever going to be well enough to be out and about again, so I really treasure the times I do get out, even if they are mostly for appointments. Eye exam, rheumy, urgent care, whatever. At least I’m out. Right?

Sorry I just cannot figure out how to align the pictures. I miss the old WordPress.

Wear you masks people. Being sick is no fun.

I am sick. Four years I’ve been super cautious, I finally ease up and bam! Not covid, but sick. I am such an idiot. I need to listen to my own advice. Wear Your Mask!!!

While I was looking for something cute to illustrate that, I came across this instead. Oh, how many times I could have used this.

I am looking for a lightweight stick vac I can use to pick up the detritus Miss G leaves after eating her treats (Treats have crumbs? Who Knew?) and other things. The only one that seems to fit the bill (weighs 2.6 lbs) is teal. Ewwww. My regular vac weights 15.6 lbs. But….. I am also trying to eat lunch, make a shopping list for Target to deliver, and a few other things I can’t think of right now.

Oh, and I am listening to my Bleed Radio station on Pandora. I love Bleed Radio and my Caramelldansen station. ‘Makes you want to jump around the room’ music. I can’t do that, but I can jump around in my little office chair. Works for me.

I just got an update on my new Samsung 23FE. I love, love, love this phone. The camera actually catches the colors of the sky that my Moto never did.

Neat. The voice recorder app will now convert to text, too. Oh, happy day. As they say somewhere or other.

I have had a very good week in general. My caseworker came and brought me a bag of goodies Goodies is a relevant term, I think. It is covid tests, a bottle of water, a tiny bottle of hand sanitizer, a cloth mask, and some latex (?) gloves. We had a nice chat, too. She never comes any more, it’s all done by phone since the pandemic, so I was happy to see her.

Thursday, my friend Tess brought a charger to see if it fits my Dell, but no. I can’t find the one that goes to it anywhere, so it works but the battery won’t charge. It is soo sloooow, too, but it was before the battery thing, which is why I replaced it originally. It was nine years old last month, coincidentally. I figured it out by looking when the BIOS was installed, because I bought it brand new way back when. It came with 8, and I immediately updated to 10, so I never even saw 8, which I am pretty happy about. I still miss 7, but 10 is like a thousand times better than 11 so happy Jean is happy. Anyway, I was hoping to walk up the street a bit, but it was raining, as usual.

Anyway, while Tess was here, my friend Beth called and wanted to visit. Yes, please. We all sat around and talked, mostly about me and my issues because therapist said I need to do that. Trying to explain living with Asperger’s (yes, I know that is no longer PC, but I am not ready to say I have autism) is fun. After Tess went home, Beth and I went to dinner at our local Irish Pub, run by actual Irish folks from actual Ireland. Fish and chips anyone? And Guinness. I do love me some Guinness.

Then yesterday around 4:30, the homemaker service we just fired called me to set up a new homemaker, like I had never been a client. Different person than before so I just set it up and then called my caseworker, who was as surprised as I was. It’s another guy, putting himself through school or something. Fingers crossed. It has been nothing but one hassle and disaster after another with this agency, but some help is better than no help.

It is again gray, gray, gray. The past couple of months have been like February in New Hampshire. The sun just never shone there, and it seldom does here lately. And so much rain. I like rain, but this is getting ridiculous.

Back around to my beloved Dell. Does anyone have any ideas about how to speed it up? I have scanned, finagled, removed tons of stuff, but nothing works. It can take several minutes to load a page. Very frustrating. It is so well-made, so much better than the newer laptops I have bought in the interim, and I just want to be able to use it like I used to. Any help at all would be appreciated. Should I take it to a repair person? Is there some secret setting I don’t know about? Something must work. I hope.

Oh, and going to dinner with Beth was the second time we’ve gone to dinner the past couple of months and I did not wear a mask either time. I have had my shot, and am getting braver (or more careless). I think it will be bad news if I get covid in spite of the shot, but I want to enjoy my life as much as I can, so…….

That’s it. Done rambling for today. Stay safe people and enjoy your lives as much as possible. They are very short, after all.

“Later, sandwiches become sweeter, Enderwick says, with sugar added to bread and sauces. ‘That was part of the plan by companies to sell more.’” Haven’t I always been saying this? Sugar is addictive and in the U.S. it is added to everything so you will buy more. Other countries do not put sugar in everything. I have read comments from visitors from other countries that say our bread is more like cake. We are all about the profit in this country. For shame. Quote is from here: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/nov/01/from-compressed-yeast-to-cream-cheese-and-cornflakes-one-mans-search-for-the-worlds-greatest-sandwich

Last night I spent two hours, two, texting with my family, two daughters, one grandson. OMG During which I learned that there is speech to text, and it is amazing because I just cannot type on the stupid phone keyboard. Of course, it gets what I say wrong a lot of the time, but it was so funny. At one point I was laughing so hard I could not read the screen. My grandson is super snarky. He got it from me. My friend Tess says I am the Master of Snark. Yay, me. We are all very funny, too. Also got that from me. 🙂

There is also a little voice recorder so you can speak your text and they can hear you. How cool is that. It’s been there on my Moto all the time, but I never noticed it, but grandson pointed it out to me on my Samsung. I love that phone. Seriously. But I also discovered that you can make long recorded notes or whatever. As long as you want, and then supposedly can send them to people. I am recording what I remember of my life. My oldest daughter asked me to. It’s amazing what I remember, but I think that is partly because my friend Ed asks me the most bizarre questions and most of them spark a memory about something.. Who would even think to ask if I had a pet snake growing up in Colorado. Did I ever see a porcupine in person? Do I like Chef Boyardee? Ewwww. I don’t remember ever having canned pasta. Ick. But really unusual questions. There is a lot of laughing. Laughing is good. But who knew you could do that on your phone? I googled tape recorders and came across the info somewhere. It uses the Voice Recorder app. Free. Free is good. Just so you know.

It is gray, gray, gray again. And raining. Yet again. Wettest year in a long time. Good thing I like rain, and live on high ground AND on the second floor. First floor, if you’re British. LOL

Oh, here is a picture of my full-spectrum bulbs. They are too big to put the cover on the light fixture, which I think would negate the full-spectrum-ness anyway. I would have done a picture of my desk, but it lives under a mountain of paperwork and stuff at the moment. Oh. well. 🙂

So over fuzzy headedness. Allergies are worse than ever. Hard to get anything done with pain, let alone not being able to think clearly.

BUT, I discovered I have been making coffee wrong. Not enough grounds, not steeping/perking long enough. Much better now. I only have one cup a day, so I want it to be the best. I use two heaping scoops, mine is a tablespoon, for one mug, and let it do it’s thing for 7 minutes once it’s started turning brown in the glass lid of the percolator, or I pour the just-off-the-boil water into the french press. Perked takes longer, but if I heat the water in my kettle first, it takes a lot less time to make. I like perked. I have a little one-mug stove top percolator. Heat it on not quite high heat, once it turns a bit brown in the glass thingy, lower heat to just above med low (electric stove) and leave for 7 minutes. Should be doing a slow perk. Turn off heat and let stand for a few minutes to settle. I also pour it through a melitta brown filter into the mug. Wet the filter first. And that’s how I make good coffee for one. 🙂

Another gray day. And then it’s going to rain for the next few days. We have had so much rain, after the severe drought two summers ago, and not much rain last year, we are def making up for it. Flooding alerts almost every day. Fortunately, I must live on higher ground, because it is not a problem here. But not that far away it has been pretty bad for some people.

My lovely helper person is on vacation, and no homemaker anymore, so am depending on friends yet again. To take out the trash and get the mail, because I am just not up for trekking downstairs to the mailbox. Too much pain makes it very hard to get around.

My Asus laptop has given up showing anything on the monitor, and the HP keeps going black screen randomly, so I hauled out my older Dells. One is okay, but kind of wonky, but the oldest one, the really well-made Dell, works perfectly except for being so unbelievably slow, which is why I replaced it in the first place. I have cleaned it up as much as possible, but it take about a minute to load gmail, for example. Or anything else, really. But it has win10, so I am learning patience. I hope. Oh, I also discovered why I have 2,000 instances of each category, like Documents in my file explorer. You have to go into the Documents or any other folder, choose ‘view’, ‘options’, and ‘change folder and search options’, ‘view’ and check ‘don’t show hidden files, folders or drives’. Voila. Just FYI.

Took a picture of my messy living room. It is a work in progress. My helper and I have been doing the kitchen cupboards, but will get to this next. It actually looks kind of cheery. I must have had the sun on when I took the picture. I have full spectrum bulbs in the overhead light, which I turn on when I get up on the dark days, and leave on for 3 or 4 hours. Makes a huge difference in my mood. Once I was working at the table with my back to the windows, and when I turned around it was dark outside. I thought it was still daytime because it really does seem like the sun is shining. They are Phillips curly bulbs, and I have had them for at least a decade. I should probably order some back ups just in case, but then I’d need to get someone to replace them. I have high ceilings. I love high ceilings. Okay, Rambling on. Later. Oh, second pic it was in slightly better shape. So was I. Second Gertrude had just moved in. When I moved in, I had the table the tv is on, a big brown basket, a plant stand, the blue chair, the table and chairs, the shelf thing in the hallway, and my desk, which is in the bedroom. I seem to have accumulated some stuff in the intervening years. LOL