December Dagnabbit
 

I managed to nick a finger chopping up salad fixins. Bled like a stuck pig too. Wearing a bandaid for a week is annoying but no big deal. But if the neighbors see me heading for the shower with a rubber glove on, there goes the last scraps of my good reputation in this town.

Why would the neighbors see you headed for the shower?

The shack seeme to have been scientifically designed for minimum privacy. Due to the floor plan and placement of windows, only about 10 square feet of the place is not in direct view of at least one of the neighbors. Curtains are crucial.

On Thanksgiving day, I sliced into the side of my thumb while using a mandolin slicer on potatoes. Cut into the nail and thumb meat simultaneously, and I also bled like a stuck pig. I'm still wearing a bandaid, but that's to prevent the jagged snag of cut nail from tearing further sideways into the quick. Gah.

Most of our forecasted "atmospheric river" of much-needed precipitation dried up and flew away, and we're looking at dry weather in the 60s and 70s for the next week. I was hoping for a cold, wet December.

Well, draw the damn curtains, for Christ's sake! Your nakedness makes the neighbors and Baby Jesus cry!

Especially with that fucking glove.

I've got one of those, that I use on a regular basis. They work very well, indeed, but you have to use them carefully, and hold the spuds or whatever VERRY carefully to keep your fingers out of the way. I've never cut myself with it.

In fact, the only time I ever cut myself with a knife while cooking was when I worked at Burger King. I bled into someone's chicken sandwich. Extra protein!

I then requested management to get the damn knives sharpened, because dull knives are more dangerous than sharp ones, but "Oh NO! Dull is safer than sharp!"

Not to anyone who actually COOKS with knives. Dull ones require you to saw into whatever. Sharp ones let you slice, with your fucking fingers out of the fucking way.

B-b-b-b-brrr!

This morning's low: 27 degrees F.
Forecast high for the next week: 45 degrees F.

The first Jardiance commercial was catchy and I enjoyed the scenes segueing into each subsequent one. Every commercial after the original is just more annoying than the previous version. This last one I've just seen for the first time -- unfuckingwatchable. My head knows way too well how the song is supposed to go. Once you start messing with it by altering the melody to "spice it up" I hear nothing except a song that's wrong. WRONG! ALL WRONG!

Fuck you, Jardiance, I hate you.

Turns out that I will no longer be able to go to a concert without a phone, for two reasons. Before 3-4 years ago, I always left my phone and glasses behind when I went to most concerts, so they wouldn't get broken. But now, all concerts require a smart ticket to get in, which requires a cell phone, which requires cargo pants so the phone doesn't get broken.

But I also learned a new reason I need my phone. Yesterday I went to a concert without my glasses, and bought a drink with my credit card, and my short range vision has gotten so bad that I couldn't read the receipt to put the tip on. I was able to use my cell phone camera as a magnifier of sorts, so that was a plus, but it means that I need to take a phone to a concert now for two reasons, rather than one.

It's really a tiny little rant, but my Advent calendar got returned to sender. They can resend it and I'd receive it in 15-20 days, at which time it'd be almost pointless.

I was really looking forward to it; it was little dragon ornaments.

They gave me a refund, but my heart is still sad.

Awww Kat, that's a little heartbreak, not a tiny little rant.

:(

I hope you can then enjoy it NEXT year and meanwhile do something else for yourself now.

:hug:

Our pellet stove stinks - literally. If we set the blower speed too high, the house fills with the odor of smoke. But if the blower is too low, we don't get the advantage of lots of warm air, which is the point of the stove.

I've asked at least 2 of the techs who've done the annual cleaning what causes is. Neither had good answers. I thought it might be the seal around the door, but they said no. Maybe I need to find another tech. Meanwhile, my house stinks. Literally.

We had a porch pirate! I ordered a bird feeder. I got a picture of the box on the porch with a time. Hubby went out within 30 minutes and it was gone. Amazon is going to replace it.
I think someone must have been following the truck.
:harumph:

I hate that happened but I'm glad they're replacing it; I believe they're pretty good about that.

I delivered for Scamazon for a couple of years. The type of porch-pirating where someone follows the van and rips off what was delivered is something they were constantly on us to watch out for. The couple of times I suspected it was happening on my routes, I called dispatch and gave them some details and let someone deal with it that gets paid to,

Try cracking open a window a couple inches somewhere in the house. If that stops it, the fan is drawing a very slight vacuum in the house and its time for a look at how the stove was installed.

God dammit. I just clicked on a phishing scam perpetrated by my company. Now I'll have to take the training again. AARRGH!

Honeypots? Oh man, thats evil.

I hate that! I think I got one yesterday, but you can't tell sometimes. A couple years ago our whole group got a very generic email that redirected to an outside website and no one clicked on it but it turned out to be legitimate.

I'll give it a try - thanks. I hate that we have to keep the fan so low that much of the heat goes up the chimney.

We may have the same problem. We can smell the fireplace strongly after there is a fire. (Not during, the chimney seems to draw quite well.) There is an unused air inlet into the basement that I sealed up because bugs were getting in. I got a stainless steel mesh screen to put over it, so I'm going to put that on and unseal it.

I did crack a window and it seems to have done the trick. It's in the basement stairwell and tho the door is closed, the cat door seems to be sufficient for air flow. So HUZZAH!

Hmmmm, but I can't post without a complaint, can I? Um, Too many people in Food Lion this morning - I just wanted a few things and they were all in my way!!!


How's that?

Have I mentioned my brain got bruised? It's kinda like this

:shrug: link no worky but did you have a TBI?! :(

Here you go!

Thanks again for this. I opened a window barely a quarter of an inch and that took care of it! As for the installation, we bought this stove 12 years ago and the company that installed it no longer sells or services any of their stoves or inserts. Frankly at this point, I don't know if it's worth it to make a fuss. When we get the stove cleaned and serviced in the spring, I'll talk to the tech about it

Glad it helped. I had a fireplace that did that, and figured it out by accident one day. The sudden lack of smoke and cold air coming in the window gave me the clue. Depending on the type of insert, there might be a combustion air inlet on the fan that could be hooked up to outside air instead of drawing from the house.

spread the word, everybody, helping others provides a Dopamine hit! :science:

good on ya, Jag! :hug:

The decline of MIL drags on. When her nurse came on Sunday, she said death was imminent. Well, it's Tuesday and MIL is still breathing - but that's about all she's doing. She's essentially in a coma, not responding to anyone. FCD gives her pain meds every 4 hours (which is why neither of us are getting much sleep.)

She hasn't eaten in over a week, and I don't think she's had any water since Thursday or Friday last week. According to everything I've read, she should have died already, and yet she lingers. I'm not being a vulture here, I'm just amazed. And yes, I'm a bit impatient. I want my life back, and until she's gone, we're pretty much her prisoners.

No one should have to watch a loved one waste away like this. Death should be quick and clean. And I'm not advocating euthanasia, but a few weeks ago, our dog was suffering and we had her put down because her quality of life was awful. And yet we, as humans, don't have that option in most places. I don't know the answer, but I wish there was one.

A friend of mine's mom was a pathologist. And she said that when the time came she would go out on her own terms and that she had the knowledge of how to do it. But when her time did come, she found herself unable to go through with it and lingered longer than she wanted. It's a tough subject and I don't know a good answer.

This is going to sound really morbid, but it's also true: while I'm sad that Mom's cancer seems to be very aggressive and likely to rob us of more happy years together, there's an awful silver lining. Mom's sister is moving into the later stages of Alzheimer's. Their father lingered for over a decade with it, and it was a horrible decade. I know it's one of Mom's worst fears, and she may be spared it.

We talk so much of a good life, but our culture struggles to bring grace to death.

That's because there IS no grace in death. It's ugly. there is no way to put 'grace' into it. You can try all you want, and you might sneak some grace in there at the last minute, but ultimately, just like death itself, it's inevitable that you'll fail. I still remember all my cats, my dog, and a (far too large) number of people dying. It never gets 'good'.

My kitty Oliver had a good death. He lived a very long and happy life, and when he had more bad days than good we let him have one more bask in the sunshine, took our time saying goodbye, and took him to be euthanized. He was loved. His suffering was minimal.
My paternal grandfather's death was quick and clean, though a shock to the rest of us who weren't expecting it. (massive abdominal aortic aneurism after a lovely day out on the town and dinner with his lady friend, a week after getting a clean bill of health from his annual physical)

Hospice workers spend every day bringing what grace they can to the end of life. They are amazing people.

Bringing grace to death can't always be done, but sometimes.

As to whether death is ever good, well that's been an interesting discussion point in the news this week. . .

Our Hospice team has been amazing! I don't know how we'd have gotten this far without them.

I have had such good experiences with Hospice. when my Mom was on it they were fantastic and when I used to meet up with them while working in nursing homes they were always great.

spoilered for ranting

they are sadly underused as people are entitled to 6 months of hospice care and generally end up getting a week or less at most. because to have them do therapy instead makes more money for the facility and family sometimes let this happen because they don't want to "give up". I don't know a single therapist who hasn't had people on their caseload they knew was going to die soon and should be on hospice instead. It is not rare. sorry, didn't mean to threadshit but we really need to be better providing health care in this country.

MIL died about 2 hours ago. The hospice nurse is here doing what they have to do, and the funeral home folks should be here within an hour. She is at peace at last.

May her memory be a blessing and may all of you know peace.

My most sincere condolences. Even when their passing is a release from suffering, it still isn't easy.

My deepest sympathies to you and your family

I'm sorry for your loss, FCM.

I am sorry FCM. I'm glad she found peace.

I'm so sorry, FCM. No one could have done better than you and FCD in giving her the care she needed, including hospice care. I know she loved you both. May you all have peace now.

Very sorry to hear this, FairyChatMom.

{{{virtual hugs}}}

{{{FCM}}}

My condolences on your loss.

I'm very sorry, FCM. I hope you and FCD can get away for a little bit so you can take some deep breaths and decompress.

Got an ocular migraine going. Haven't had one in a long time. Just took some ibuprofen and drinking a bunch of water. Tactical theme is nice for this.

I'm sorry for your loss. Take care of yourself.