Ordinarily I hate shopping, but the fact I’m now immunized is glorious FREEDOMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!! to go pick out my own stuff at the grocery, see new things to try, etc.
Jane is still ‘percolating’ from her shot, but she was able to join me in a foray to the pond store, where we got supplies and the one koi pattern we’d not been able to find, simple orange-white pinto type. This koi only understands Japanese: he’s an import, and has very nice color. He’s about thumbsized, but he’ll grow. Jane and I did go to the Swinging Door for lunch—I went in after food and she and I shared a burger in the parking lot.
Next week when she’s fully percolated, she and I have dinner reservations, and I’m going to have (gasp!) a glass of wine. I may have to practice beforehand, to be sure it doesn’t drop me facedown in the bean dip. I jest.
The hands and feet are a tiny bit improved. It’s slow. But it’s more nuisance tingle than pain. I can type, and think, and I’m working…we’re both working. Just my own sideways bit on vaccine risks—there’s a risk to anything I ingest or take in that it can affect my hands, and yes, the vaccine did a number on my hands for a few days, and it hurt, but a) it passed and b) I bet it would. Sometimes you just take a sensible risk—and the chances of you being run down tomorrow by a taxi stolen by a lunatic clown are out there too. So is the chance that we will rear-end an unseen asteroid the size of Chicago. BUT—the chances we won’t are greater. The chances of your developing your own unique reaction to the vaccine are out there—but the chances of your getting that clot reaction are 1 in a million who got the shot safely, you can always search out Pfizer and Moderna, which don’t have the problem, and your chances of getting clots from Covid if you get it are 16 in 100. I’ll take my chances with the taxi and the asteroid, not the virus. Just sayin’.
Nihon desu ka! Have you named your new koi yet?
People have been showing up for spring break vacations in droves. Everyone is getting cabin fever, and some are starting to think that the precautions they used all last year are no longer necessary. Sorry, kids; you still should be wearing a mask when out and about with gobs of strangers. It’s polite, rather like the old Roman tradition of showing you didn’t have a weapon in hand evolving into the modern handshake. You don’t know if everyone around you is fully immunized, and they don’t know that about you.
Maybe Ginzamon?
I Googled that, and the only thing I came up with was a pottery shop. I like pottery very well, but am not sure that’s what you meant…
Lovely to hear from you and know that you are fully vaccinated and have transitioned the follow-up weeks into full fledged immunity… and that Jane is nearly there. My spouse got her 2nd shot yesterday (and seems to be weathering it fine overall) and I have mine this coming Tuesday. I’ll be at the height of my immunity on my birthday… which does make me want to go do some non-home dining… but the semester’s final grades are due that evening too.
Odds are worrying about it is worse than anything you’ll experience. I agree with herself that the effects are almost certainly idiosyncratic. (In my case just a sore arm for 36hrs or so, while the annual flu shot is no more than 4hrs or so.)
I do note one man getting J&J has reported blood clots, but again even saying they are naturally rare is saying they do happen spontaneously, independently of Covid-19.
These “excursions” from protocol, SAID to be from an “abundance of caution” and good things, have actually been the worst things that could have happened, given the testing protocols they passed. Unqualified people making decisions almost always turn outbadly, and so did these. I mean politicians, and the public following them.
DH got the second shot yesterday, so is taking today off (enforced by the folks at work, “Stay home, goffunnit! You’ll be sorry if you don’t!”) Aches today, the proverbial worked over by a thug with a phone book.
We bought a new mattress-inna-box, only to discover that we hate memory foam with a passion. The mattress came with a 100-day trial, so made arrangements for the dud mattress to be collected by Sealy. Originally they wanted to have us donate it, but no charity is currently accepting donated mattresses, especially used, even briefly, so they will have to come take it away. While we were rassling it out to the laundry room, Zorro made a break for freedom and managed to get outside for about 20 minutes. Dummy didn’t fight too hard about being retrieved; she knows where the food is.
And now it appears one of our friends will be getting a like new Cocoon by Sealy mattress. They contacted me and said no one in the area can collect the mattress, so they will be back in touch when they process our refund, and we can do with it as we wish.
So good to hear you went shopping! We have been doing curbside but I went into Spokane today for the first time in over a year and shopped for just a few things at the old Cash and Carry where I get Chinese takeout boxes that I use to freeze things in – like strawberries and morel mushrooms that will be out soon. I also dropped off old video 8 camera tapes and audio tapes from as far back as the 70’s at a place on Garland and it was so liberating to go in and do it and great to see the “Milk Bottle” and though I was tempted I did not go into Fergusons (don’t like eating alone) for food though it is my favorite place for breakfast! I am still just smiling that I did it and am very happy to hear you are getting out and Jane will be with you out there too before long! Take great care ladies…
ISTR, that as they age the color increases, or is it the other way ’round?
Still think you need a couple “hi utsuri”, black & red!
Fantastic! I’m due for my second mid-month and am really rarin’ to go. I am 100% behind you on the idea that temporary mild inconvenience is absolutely worth it, considering the possible severity of actual COVID (it might be unlikely, but it can be catastrophic, and I’ve done enough Operational Risk Management to know that the vaccine is important — for /everyone/). I’m so glad you’re able to get out and about and that Jane will be able to do so soon too!
Also: yay koi! Sugoi ne!
My second shot is scheduled for next Monday morning. Shoulder was achy for a day, starting several hours after I got the first one, so who knows what it will be like? (Usually no pain from flu shots, though one was about three days of ache.)
Hurray for new koi!
Chemo messes your body up so it is not surprising to have idiosyncratic reactions to things like vaccines. C. J., has your doc mentioned gabapentin? Useful drug for post chemo neuropathy, as well as diabetic neuropathy. You might investigate it and see if it’s something that might be useful/helpful. I’ve taken it for a pinched nerve and it did help.
Saw this and thought I’d mention it. https://www.tor.com/2021/04/29/bridges-go-in-both-directions-humans-and-atevi-in-cj-cherryhs-foreigner-series/
Saw where Jane was posting on her blog again. Glad to see her back posting.
It’s nice to go outside without the guilt now that the CDC recognizes that the shots bring immunity.
I had my card laminated, and intend to wear it with my name tag to work.
I’m glad the vaccination programs are progressing well. My wife *just* got her shot #2. On a very interesting note, I saw an article that world-wide flu was essentially zero this year. How about that, masks DO stop/slow disease that’s air-borne.
Cj and Jane, so GLAD you are both doing so well. Let us know how the writing is going. We’re sooo looking forward to a new book. Hopefully Betsy can prioritize the publication process !!
I’m amused that people are so concerned whether they get the 95% shot of the 77% one, while the flu shot is 30%-60% effective and nobody complains.
Flu is much less lethal than covid. Also, people don’t have much understanding of statistics.
For which the people of Las Vegas are eternally grateful.
I heard someone say one time that in the “modern age” people are or would be ashamed to admit they can’t read, but they readily admit to being innumerate, unable to do even simple high-school math.
And for the record, CDC estimates that the burden of illness during the 2019–2020 season was moderate with an estimated 38 million people sick with flu, 18 million visits to a health care provider for flu, 400,000 hospitalizations for flu, and 22,000 flu deaths. To be sure 22K IS less than 575K, but not to be dismissed out of hand.
Over the last year I learned most people don’t seem to understand the notion of “exponential growth” or “marginal tax rate”. My own math in school was routinely undercut with my dyslexia and simply reading or writing numbers wrong (argh) but concepts I understood pretty well.
This concept of “shopping” seems like something only a science fiction writer could dream up. People outdoors? Seeing each other? Whatever next!
I got my second Moderna shot Thursday. That day I had a sore arm and headache and was sleepy enough to go to bed early. I had pre-drank a crap ton of water ahead of it and drank half a jug overnight that first night. That night I also had some waves of joint pain and woke up in wee hours having sweated through my pajamas. I was curious about that and took my temp and my normal 97ºF-ish temp was a whopping upper 98ºF… so nothing exciting there. Just a little warmer.
Second day woke up with headache gone and by the end of the day my arm pain had gone away without me even noticing. I thought that was the end of it, but last night I sweated through my PJs yet again. After already having washed my bedding from the first go around. Maybe I need to sleep on a towel tonight. I’m suspecting this is the real end to it. All in all I still think my tetanus booster from last Fall was worse in many ways. I wonder how the boosters will be for this. I’ll be first in line for them however it is.
Once I’m done marinating it’s straight to the dentist, hairdresser, and oil change place for me. I’m sure the fun stuff will come to mind eventually as summer starts to heat up.
Because I’m back in the area I grew up I have decades long friendships and Thursday was the first time since The Unpleasantness started that we’ve been able to have lunch with some of them. It’s amazing how such a simple thing can bring such joy.
I love your voice on this; sensible, grounded views on the clot risk should be more widely heard. In the uk/NHsyou don’t know what vaccine you’ll be given; you get an invite, turn up, and they tell you then. You can always say no, of course, but I’ve never heard of a case. My own experience… My surgery text and say I’m now eligible and they are running sessions Saturday and Sunday at the local community centre, 9-10, 10-11, etc which do I want. I pick, turn up and queue with hundreds others in a long winding crocodile of other 50 somethings around the car park and behind the centre. Volunteers work their way down the queue handing out obligatory masks and laminated information sheets explains we will be getting the Oxford vaccine and here are the contra indications. Everyone is chatting and happy. I don’t hear anyone ask whether there’s an alternative but then we are NHS educated from birth to assume the best is being done for us. It starts to rain and we are told try not to get the masks wet… after 20 minutes I’m in the centre and a volunteer directs me to table 8 where an assistant takes my invite from me and checks my name and a doctor asks if I’m happy to get the Oxford jab. She says she knows some people might be worried after news reports but tells me my risk is 1 in thousands of problems from the jab, much lower than my risk of COVID. I say go ahead and she smiles. No one, she says, has said no. After the jab I leave the table and go to a rest area and am told to wait for 20 minutes in case of any reactions. Then I leave, go home, and phone my friends. I had a headache for a couple of days and felt tired for a week or so. I’ll have the 2nd in a few more weeks I think, just waiting for that text. Perhaps not having a choice on which type makes it easier? I like to think I’d just follow CJs line anyway…
Hi all! I’m so glad CJ and Jane are doing all right, and glad the writing is doing well too.
It’s been very quiet here. Since the erstwhile friend showed back up and began paying the apt. complex, I have heard not one word from them. (That is, the apartments.) I have been dragging my feet on any move prep. I don’t know what’s up with me still. I have been easily tired and I have slept a bit more, but still not in the normal range.
Brindle is essentially recovered from having been spayed / neutered. Her incision looks to be healed. Her fur has not grown back quite yet. She is doing better, and has not gotten out; I’ve been very vigilant about that, however. In less than a week, she will have been here half a year.
Goober is perking along with is new meds regimen, and is much more like his old self, except he has gotten very fussy about getting his meds. But his weight is better, no longer scarily skinny, and he is otherwise happy. Still have some issues with the litterbox, but that is also some better., As of Saturday, he has now been with me 14-1/2 years, and he might make it to 15, astonishing. I’m so glad to have them both.
We’ve had flash flood risks for the past two days, but it has slacked off tonight. I have been hearing cats, but any time I have checked, I have not seen them or had them come up to me. I last thought I saw Mystic, the big lummox, just before Brindle’s neuter surgery, but I wasn’t sure. I have definitely not seen him since then, now nearly a month. I don’t knoww if he’s still around. He may be one of the cats I’ve heard, but I would’ve expected to see him. I miss seeing him.
It’s now been almost 3/4 of a yer since I gave up Ned the Little Nipper. I think I learned better, and wish I knew for sure that he got a good home and family. I don’t know, and I miss the little guy. — I am glad I have Brindle.
Very, very quiet otherwise. No news yet. People around here have been subdued, partly due to the new management, I expect. Our temps are climbing toward summer norms, with a break due to the flash flood rains. But that’s it.
My eyes are giving me trouble, but I am muddling through.
I haven’t done much good in writing. I have just been hanging out at home in the apt. I intend to do some catching up during the week.
I have had a little inspiration toward writing ideas, and I hope those may shape up when I write through them.
My apt. lease is due either in June or July, I still have to double-check. I can hardly believe it’s May already.
I still think it might be worthwhile to go month to month for your lease, unless you are concerned about the new apartment management doing an end run and trying to force you out. Depends what the penalty would be for terminating a lease early, should you find a better place to move into.
I spoke too soon about nothing new with the apt. mgmt.
Today, I got another note on the ground, this time in my fenced privacy area (front porch / balcony, but ground floor), stating the current balance still due, that they say they know previous paperwork had been submitted, but that it may be incomplete, that I need to contact them and get it completed, and saying that due to the remaining balance, they will evict me in May. No date for the eviction was given, and no acknowledgement that they can’t evict due to the moratorium.
Called the investor friend. He said he’s had to send notices to tenants too, the country requires it, even though the moratorium is in place. (I don’t get why they wouldn’t also require a note that there IS a moratorium.) But he said yes, call the office, reiterate that the paperwork is there, who was handling it before (Mr. Patel) to contact him, and to contact eh friend, (Billy M.) to remind the office of the agreement on payment worked out with them.
Meanwhile, he is still looking for a place I could move to. The out of town place was snatched up quickly, so no longer an option anyway. Lots of restrictions on currently and interest rates are low, so the friend says there are not many choices, most are bought up. He is looking, though.
During the week, I will be pursuing things again, toward paperwork to resolve things, I hope. I will call Mr. Patel so maybe he can talk with the office and give them copies of my paperwork again, or something to help. Just maddening.
I don’t recall if it’s June or July when my lease is due for renewal, but at the end of the term, it goes not month to month, with an increase on the rate. (If I were to switch to month to month anyway, also an increase on the rate.) The terms do stay I’m supposed to give advanced notice of intent to move out, which I believe is 60 days. But I think the terms are still that as long as the current month is pad, I can cancel the lease and move out without further penalty beyond any amount already due. So basically, I’m stuck but not more stuck than I already am. It means I will need to check on the renewal date and if I can renew under present conditions (balance due), if my rate will increase either way, and then to get into a new place before this term is up, or live with the month-to-month before I have finished a move, or else to renew but then move when possible.
I am tired of being hassled here, and as long as I can get a doable, livable situation elsewhere, preferably without constant hassle, then I want to be out of here. Tired of it. I can’t help how things are for me or for the world, and pressuring me like that is not helping them or me. It is sure not helping me feel better or feel better towards them, and at this point, I don’t trust them not to pull something.
As I understand it, we (in Texas) have a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions until the end of June, which could get extended yet again, but no word on that yet; it might not happen this time. If it’s extended, then that would ease things for me. The friend says that even if the apartments filed now, it’s unlikely the County Court could get to it until the end of July, due to backlog anyway.
He also said the complex had about a thousand units, but was down to less than 250. Whether that means they sold off or they have only a quarter of their spaces rented, I didn’t ask for clarification. But my friend said that around 30% of the current renters are in the same situation as me, putting the apartment complex in a bind due to so many spaces not rpaying back rent or current rent. Well, y’know, I wish I could solve that, but I can’t. I’m glad the friend is working on the agreement with them, but as of yet, nothing from assistance has been disbursed on my behalf or other applicants’ behalf, prompting the pressure and bad behavior from the mgmt. office toward renters.
So we have the problem of paying out periodically for me and reducing my funds, plus the problem that the more spent on that, the less there is to pay down and make future payments on another place. Most likely, I’ll be in a rent-only situation, not a rent-to-own, until I can have a stable income, if so.
I’m sitting here with much packed, but no real see space, and my previous laundry is still drying. (Goober helpfully spit up on the bed, necessitating another round of bedding laundry, so I’m hanging onto all bedding too.) Ideally, I need to get rid of half of what I have here and get rid of as much in storage as possible. The one bright spot is, if I can get a rent house, then a garage or a shed could likely hold some or all of the stuff in storage. But ultimately, I’ve still got to reducee down, and maybe even expect a one bedroom house or apartment, or to move in with someone else at a future point, or now, if things don’t resolve soon enough.
I am so frustrated and discouraged whenever I think about it. I am trying to move forward, but dang it, it’s aggravating. I have reduced some, but I’ve still got things boxed and stacked and uncatalogued, unsorted, with laundry and other items loose. I feel ridiculous like this.
My eyesight is driving me crazy. I’m not sure how much is only fatigue getting in the way, or how much is a new reduction in sight ability. I have to get that done too.
I need a way out of this mess, and I need to keep myself on track and productive, get the assistance I need, and also get an income, despite the two levels of govt. at cross-purposes against the citizen (me) for that. If I can make any income, I need it, and I have to overcome my disability if I can, and my mental block going on about this. Somehow. (On some level, it’s anger and grief and frustration. On some level, I think part of me has given up. I know I can’t do that, but I’m having a bad time fighting myself and the system.)
So…I’m just me. Things are alternately at a standstill, some forward, some backward, and I just want it all resolved with no one sniping at me over something I can’t really do anything about.
I heard most of the presidential address the other night, and that sounded good, if Congress will get things done instead of blowing hot air and disagreeing and doing too little or nothing. I’ve seen economic predictions of dire consequences, another Great Depression or Crash world-wide. I have no way to do anything about that, of course. If it happens, I’ll be carried along with the tide like all of us. — I hope we can somehow get past all this nightmare back to a livable situation for everyone, and make whatever societal and governmental changes in programs are needed to solve things. I want a life again, a future, a home, an income, stability, local friends I can rely on for support if I need something, and just to talk or blow off steam or have a little fun, maybe.
I have been goofing off to distract myself some, but it’s random, not even the rewatch I had been doing. I’ve actually written a little, but it’s nothing great, and I don’t know if it’s actually usable or leading anywhere. It’s just … coping? Maybe?
I’m solo. No significant other and not really with local friends to socialize with. This gets to me. My senior cat and my jinior cat both keep to themselves a lot now, but do come around for some attention. They aren’t sleeping with me, though, but in the room or the other rooms. So I feel very isolated. Nothing new and nothing others aren’t going through in lockdown, I guess. But as much. of a loner as I am, it is still rough, too alone, and no one really in person.
I have no idea if I could have a roommate or be a roommate these days. I want that human connection and contact. My eyesight and my isolation worry me. Brindle, the junior cat, is likely too prone to run off and is not one to come when called, so I hope we won’t get separated. It’s why I had her chipped when she had her spay/neuter done, because I don’t want to lose her. Goober may have months more, given how he’s doing lately, but I don’t know; he still has chronic symptoms, but higher now. When he’s gone, I am sure I will find another cat (likely one will find me). But that is not the same as human relationships, in person contact, living together.
I just don’t know. I think I am coping halfway OK, but I am not as productive as I want or need to be.
Maybe it will all work out somehow anyway, and I will do OK. At least I am trying. I think I’m recovering from being so down and in such a bad off situation back in December.
I’m grateful to folks here for helping me and listening. I would not have gotten this far without you all. I’m grateful for Mr. Patel’s kind help, for him caring past a job. I’m even glad that the investor friend seems to be back on the ball. I hope that is for real; I still don’t know quite what to think about that. I haven’t heard from my cousin or uncle in weeks, and I haven’t called them in a couple of weeks or so. I hope they are OK and things work out.
So…It’s Sunday afternoon, we have some sunshine and heat instead of flash flood rains and heat. 🙂 The cats and I are OK for now. I am going to rest today and tonight, write or watch something or read/listen to audiobooks. During the week, I’ll work on things, paperwork towards assistance, cleanup and getting rid of things. Somehow, there has to be a bright side, an end to this. Somehow, I have got to get back to a workable situation, something I can keep stable and livable; ben if it means living with others. As long as I can have a better situation.
I keep thinking of how many people are in similar bad situations, facing uncertainty and maybe homelessness, how many adults and youth are newly in that, and how many were in that bad situation before the pandemic and the hit to the economy. I’m heartened that we changed administrations and have a little progress and not more sliding into chaos. — I don’t know how things will turn out, human needs, my situation, cats, or how I might end up in any better place with people around for support. I’m a bundle of nerves. But dang it, I am still here. I nearly wasn’t, back in December.
Maybe somehow, I’ll gain a better life, a place to live, stability, friends, an income, assistance, helpful my eyes and teeth. I sure hope so.
I want it to be good again, so I look forward to things and feel like what I’m doing makes a difference, contributes some too. somehow.
I’m a mess, but I’m here. :-/
I would have never thought I’d ever be “excited” about going grocery shopping…but when you find yourself putting a reminder on your calendar to go shopping, you know it’s been too long. We’ve been house hunting the last couple of months and that has definitely been an experiment in terror!
Bad enough if moving locally, but we’re looking at a move across the state. Virtual house tours are definitely something I would have thought science fiction when I bought my first home. At a minimum a “fancy” convenience. But it, along with other technologies, have been small miracles this last year and have gone a long way to keep me sane. I guess… 🙂
Remember when the question was ‘Is it real or Memorex’? It is really amazing the things we can do now in the relative safety of our homes. But I have to admit having to get my car inspected for registration last month was a treat and an event to “dress” for. No sweats and T-shirt here; had to put on my jeans and shoes! And actually comb my hair.