We’ve opted out of our usual St. Paddy’s day fest with the pipers and all—regretfully. But while the virus isn’t out in town,it is in town, and we’ve just decided the tightly packed pub crowd in that evening is not wise for people of _ahem) – our age.
Hope you all are staying smart and safe. I love my readers and want them healthy.
It seems every time I think i’m getting ahead on the writing, some new emergency pops up, but we are now making progress. It’s tax time in the US and we’ve decided to change accountants, being absolutely out of our minds with the delays, procrastinations and problems of dealing with the ones we’ve used the last several years. We paid a bill, the papers didn’t get filed, the IRS returned what we paid over our objection to our accountants, who said, no, it’s ok, and now the IRS wants it back with interest…arrgh!
So…that’s part of the hassle. Finity—is a handful. Found her atop the range lapping chicken soup (our lunch) out of a pan that had a burner going under it. There is nothing this kitten will not dare in pursuit of food.
It’s supposed to snow Saturday, after a month of 50 degree days. Naturally things are budding out and ready to bloom.
And we’re doing ok in most regards, except the house is a mess, the basement is a mess and we are behind.
Well, yes, it’s getting to be that time, to do the IRS dance, after three years unemployment, I have to get back into the yearly habit, now that I’ve been employed for a full year…
William Gibson was in my neck of the woods last month, and I got him to sign a copy of Agency for me, though I haven’t yet started to read it… Also had him sign a copy of an Arnaud Maggs photo of William and his wife from long ago that I found online and printed out, so that was cool…
I’m currently working on Dell training that should lead to a better job once I get through with the training (I’m about half-way done currently)
Our library just had it’s quarterly book sale, so I picked up works from: Michale Moorcock, Rudy Rucker, Gordon R Dickson, James P. Blaylock, Anne McCaffery & Andre Norton… sort of filling in the blanks in my collection… I’m still missing several works from Jo Clayton I was looking for, but they didn’t have any of hers…
I’m looking forward to any non-Foreigner books you get done! The Foreigner series will have to wait till you’re in the better place, sometime in the future, etc.
Any way, Howdie-Hi-Ho
Well, at least she knows how to get a hot lunch / dinner. Can’t get fresher, more direct from the chef service than that. Ah, and…you all and she live together anyway…yeah, tough call, on do you eat after her, after she’s eaten from that. Sigh. …Is it bad that I might throw caution to the winds, favor budget, and…maybe eat it anyway? Although if she’d stolen a hunk of meat, ah, yeah, lil girl, it’s yours.
I got a good laugh out of that, but oh, I can sympathize. Mama Peppercorn and the five kittens have poor non-assertive Goober run ragged. Mostly, he’s keeing to himself, coming to me when he thinks the coast is clear, getting his food regularly (while they are occupied eating). Occasionally, he dares to show up around them, as he’ll brave the kitchen bar counter or top of the fridge. He has abandoned the bed, except again if the coast is clear. When the kittens have been climbing onto the bed to play or nap (since Friday or Saturday) he will give a low, annoyed, long-suffering warning complaint, or may hiss or swat at them. One kitten stayed, moved off a bit, settled down, and waited. So Goober has stayed on the bed with one or two kittens for a few minutes, all he can bear before he goes off on his lonesome. Poor old fellow, it’s not fair; but he and they and mama have not yet learned to share and make friends. And so his patience has worn thin or worn out. I feel bad for him. He deserves better. But they and he also could make friends and thereby have no problem.
I do take it as a good sign that he’s willing to stay a few minutes with one or two of them there within a foot to a yard of him.
Mystic, the longhair mild guy, is not even doing that. He’s just plain staying outside, now not coming around regularly. That, together with him not being willing to get into the carrier (I will try food bribery if I can get him in, in future) — I am worried I may lose my chance, or rather, he may lose his best chance, at a good home with me, because of this. I cannot make him do what he does not want to do, though. I haven’t given up hope yet. Last time I saw him, he wouldn’t come in, but he was happy to see me, and went so far as to flop on the concrete, belly and under his chin vulnerable, smiling cat-fashion, glad to see me and get love.
Mama is still not keen on being picked up and carried any, or held, which I have not done much. She is still not happy if Goober gets too close to them and their food, but is a little easier than she had been. Except for not quite understanding to give me some room and get out of my path when moving, she and I get along really well, and she enjoys getting love / attention. She likes being in, at least while her kittens are still young enough to need supervision, and I think she will want to stay beyond that. She comes back in if and when she pops out when I open the door.
Her kittens have now conquered the bed and are about to conquer all other surfaces and heights. So far, no risk while I have cooked, stove top or oven. I am hoping they will avoid any injury. I try to be VERY careful about this, both because of my own vision and for their safety.
They’re almost to where they trust me almost fully. Not quite there yet. They are getting to be a handful, but I am thoroughly enjoying this, the fun, the work, the time, the few typical mishaps. I am also being extra careful with head counts and so on, trying to make sure they don’t pop outside or get stuck in a closet or the like.
One kitten likes to grab around my ankle while asking for for.
One kitten of the five always seems to be the odd man out, but I am not yet sure it’s the same one each time, and so I intend to track that. I can be partial to such a n individualist kitten or a runt. At least twice now, this has been the kitten with the ducky collar, so I’ve nicknamed him(?) this. He has been on the bed with me, by choice twice, by me bringing him in ice. Girl #1 seems fiercely independent, but has her moments. The kitten who may be the boy who is delayed (balls not yet descended, getting a bit late there), seems otherwise OK; and I’m keeping my eyes on all of them. I still am not clear on who’s who, but getting more of a sense of that now.
I have twice had four or five playing or sleeping n the bed, including with me. Little Mama , only on the bed once or twice briefly so far.
They have an appt. on the 16th, their follow-up. I am hoping they will have a clean bill of health, no unwanted tiny passengers.
Oddly, the cats did fine last night, it was me who couldn’t get to sleep enough. More on that later.
The kittens and mama are great. I just really wish Goober and Mystic and Mama could make friends. This is mainly on Peppercorn. If she’d cool it and be friendly, I think the guys would be good and might become friendly to her and her kittens. She is not helping to make them friendly to her, when they would have been before.
Not much else besides personal news, which I’ll post later, after a chance t rest a little. Long day, some progress, some where forward motion is not yet visible, only supposedly in progress.
C.J. Don’t tell the tax man that you have your own personal food taster, they might decide that you need further scrutinizing.
Blue, I think your not really giving your cat the support it deserves. He’s given you all these years of support and companionship, and your letting this ( to quote a certain utube blogger ) Karen run him roughshod. She’s taking over your bedroom, telling him he’s not welcome Anywhere. I think at the very least you make sure that only cats with years of seniority get to share your private sanctuary at night.
Ok, technically it’s not a blogger, people send him in stories and he reads them out. There’s always an OP person involved.
I keep thinking she’ll warm up to him. She is mostly not sleeping in my room, but in the hallway or on a lower tier of a cart by the kitchen instead. Goober is, in a sense, _letting_ the kittens run him out of the bedroom, and not often enough sticking up for himself. When he is grumbling, a warning growl, it’s more, “I’m annoyed and impatient and feel put upon,” impatient and complaining, more than, “don’t do that, you little twerp.” But he has gotten irritated enough to hiss and give a light swipe at them — then he’s been forgiving enough, or not assertive enough, so that he’s let one or two stay, with everyone calming down, and then he gets frustrated and gets down and goes to one of a few spots in the apt. where he can be (so far) undisturbed.
Pretty soon, they will be big enough to test all limits, want to play or test dominance, and he’ll have to deal with that more directly.
The only real alternative is to close the door to my bedroom, with I’m in with me, like I did after I’d banned Curry from the bedroom. I may have to separate them. — I am still feeding Goober separately from mama and the kittens. — It may be that she and they are at a stage where I could introduce him closer for feeding near them. I’m not sure of that, but I’m thinking of trying it as a way to get the idea that they can al coexist. If they try instead to take over and shoo him away from his food (he’d let one kitten or her do that, he’d definitely let more than one push him away.) (Except if he gets too hungry or desperate to assert himself.)
He’s mostly non-assertive. Before, I’ve called him The Most Non-Assertive Cat in the Universe. He occasionally shows bravery, assertiveness, but it’s rare or in certain circumstances. He isn’t so much a coward as, he just would rather avoid a fight, a fuss. He doesn’t mean anyone any harm, and for him to be irritated enough to complain or swat at a kitten says he’s near his limit, defending himself. (This seems to be normal working out of who’s who in the group, to an extent, too, learning to have manners and not push an elder cat, or maybe learning the tthey can.)
Yes, he’s sweet, he’s not an alpha male, he’s been with me for a very long time, cat years or human years, and yes, I owe him the time and affection he deserves. He’s a good cat with few and minor faults. — I don’t think he’s entirely an “omega” in a group, and I’m not so fond of that term, even if it’s sometimes true. (I tend to root for the underdog or run of the litter. Hey, I’m handicapped, I’m gay, I kinda get this.) (And my own nature isn’t as confrontational as most guys.) I like Goober’s mild ways.
So I may try the separation again. — He has been known to go to the door and want it open, not just to go to the litterbox. LOL, he wants the run of the place, which is understandable (and deserved too).
I am not sure if there is a consistently low-status or maybe more independent / individual kitten in the litter. So far, I’m not sure it’s usually a specific kitten. But there/s nearly always one who/s late to eat or who sleeps off by him/herself. If I could know it’s a particular kitten, I’d give that one extra attention. “Ducky,” (from his collar) has been by himself at least twice and on the bed twice with me. I am trying to socialize all of the kittens as much as I can. — Still not good progress on them eating dry food. I’m going to start feeding less moist per feeding, but leaving dry food out.
So I’m a little torn about what to do. But I want to insist on fairness so Goober gets the love and the time he needs, so he doesn’t feel neglected, unloved, left out, or outnumbered, which I think he does now.
On the other hand, if I could find a way to get them all making friends, including Goober in with the mama-and-kittens group, that would be great. I’m open to suggestions.
It was yesterday or a couple of days ago, coming back from a trip to get things done about the house, that I came back to find Goober and the others, all hanging out together in the spare bedroom, then all eager to greet me and be greeted, in whatever way they see me as friend and food provider and shelter provider. — I do think Peppercorn is grateful to have a good, safe home, with good food and no enemies really, to raise her kittens and give her a chance to let down her guard some.
Goober was fine with being with them and they were fine with him. So there are indications it can work, if I could just figure out how to get it going faster and solidly.
Yes, Goober does need his rightful place with me. — He is also coming around, then going off to get some quiet alone time, checking in on me, or not satisfied, or satisfied, hard for me to tell, and he contradicts himself some.
Last night, I was restless, nothing to do with the cats, probably nerves about my eye ppt. plus all the rush and up-in-the-air surrounding moving. “Ducky” joined me during part of that, and Goober was on the bed a while too.
So — Yes, something needs to happen to change the pattern. — And I”m tired enough now, I’m going to sleep after, with Goober if he will, and get back up to pack, etc., overnight.
I think everyone is napping after their supper (I’m still full from a late lunch of fast food). So without the door closed, I’ll see again if I can get Goober to stay and sleep with me.
(Yes, I think he’s also off-balanced by this plus possibly in a snit with me for allowing the others to get in the way.
A “Karen”? I am pretty sure I should know the reference. I think I ge the idea, though. Someone who steps in and takes over, interferes. (I don’t know the YouTuber who uses that one.) Maybe a TV show reference? Seinfeld or Friends, or a UK show? Yup I’m out of circulation. LOL.
You and Hanneke have a good point, you’re right, Goober needs a better deal, bless his furry head for not sticking up for himself more. (And I wonder how much I am like that too.)
Today was odd, mildly productive, but only two things really done, one of those half-done, only started.
Aarrgh, our bureaucracy is designed more to blockade than to help, I think.
Good news / bad news from the eye appt. — The dr. saw me again, got back up to speed with her old findings once she’d had a few minutes to recheck notes, see and talk to me.
Yes, my vision’s gone down, now about 1/4 in the good eye of what it was before, with not a lot going on with the weak / non-master eye, which has always been weaker / less accurate by a large factor. — So when the retinal specialist finally does get ahold of me, the eye dr. wants to see if the opinion is to go ahead with cataract surgery on it, if it’s still a good candidate, if the retina hasn’t detached — or if it is not a good enough risk to save what vision remains in it. (I do have some sight there still, so I’m hoping it is still worth saving that eye.)
The good news, though, is that my good / master eye, if it’s a candidate for cataract surgery, still may have a chance to recover the original level of sight before the cataracts. That would put me at 20/200 again, plus or minus a bit. While that is still just as legally blind as before, it’s way more functional and I’d be way more able to get by on my own, do for myself, work for myself, than at present.
The doctor just can’t see enough past the cataracts to tell for herself what’s going on with my retinas; thus the need for the specialist’s opinion and equipment. — But at least the master eye may be able to return to my former sight level, and that’s good news still. I could live with that. — She thinks now that the best option is to do the good eye, and if the other eye can be done, if there’s enough sight there and the retina is OK in it too then we could go ahead and do it. So either outcome is as good as I could hope for. I hope for both to work, but if it’s only the one, I’d be OK with that.
Health coverage, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and private insurance if I can get it with vision and dental coverage, are the hurdles now. My friend’s ins. agent may be Abel to get me health, vision, and dental coverage; we still have to look into that.
I also have to see a family doctor (my old one retired some time in the last few years), for a general physical exam, check blood levels, etc., to see basic health and any risks for surgery. This, after SSDI and Medicare/Medicaid are setup, and any private insurance. (I believe next year I’m eligible for AARP; I turned 54 this year.)
The eye doctor gave me the number for Social Security to apply. — When I got home this afternoon, I called, waited on hold well over an hour, while their music / on-hold announcements said they serve over 50 million people. — Finally got an agent, had a 15 to 20 minute talk, and that’s it. — I get to wait 7 to 10 days for a letter with a date and time for an in-person appt. The first available will be in late April or early May. So nothing will happen until then about my eyes. — The most I can get as a single person for SSDI is $783 per month, but they subtract an amount based on any other income, so some months, I might not get anything, others I might get the max, and usually in between. — But the amount I have left in savings, the income I get, liquid or non-liquid investments, all play into this. Medically, I should qualify without a problem. Financially, I may or may not qualify. And yet I am going to be on thin ice, even if I get SSDI, for a while. The investment needs to grow as fast as my friend claims. I think I’ll be lucky to make it and keep the house. (But without this, if I had stayed in the apt., it would use up my money faster, and without the investment, I’d go broke entirely, so this is still the best deal I can get.)
I was on the phone so long, I lost nearly all afternoon, and Medicare/Medicaid is still to do in the morning, a separate problem to tackle. — Again, I may or may not be eligible for Medicaid, but may be covered by Medicare. — And so if I can get private health insurance, I need that, with vision and dental coverage, given the givens.
The eye doctor can’t get me the retinal specialist referral until the SSI,Medicare/Medicaid, and any private insurance are in place, and until after a primary care physician (like in any US health ins. plan) has seen me and refers me elsewhere. The eye dr. said the primary care doctor my refer me to another ophthalmologist, which is fine, and if they confer, fine, but go ahead with that if so.
She gave me info to try to get that started through the city health centers, which serve needy folks as well as more at-risk folks, such as private screenings for teens (boys or girls, teen moms, etc.). Not listed was anything about STD’s, HIV, or others. Also not listed were services for LGBT folks, but I expect that is the city’s health service for these groups.
She also gave a name, address, and number for a local uni.’s school of dentistry. Ah, be it noted, Raesean had made a recommendation like that, months (years?) ago. Raesean, thank you again for being such a good person. I should have followed up better.
I did tell the doctor that I’d tried, repeatedly with her office’s former staff, regarding the city’s metro program and regarding the retinal spec. referral. — She apologized and assured me it wouldn’t happen again.
So now things are in process again for all this. It sounds like it will be months before anything can actually get done. Yes, I askedd about SSI being denied, and the agent outlined, if so, appeal it rather than reapplying, so you can get benefits backdated to the first application; you don’t want to re-apply and reset.
So…For the next few months, I will be going through the interminable and maze-like process until things start to get done, and months more before things are done for my eyes and teeth and any other physical issues, if there are any.
Meanwhile, I have the move to the new house to get done after closing and then getting utilities in.
I called the vet’s office to check my appt. time on Monday. Good thing I did. I thought it had been set. The vet’s office thought not, so now it’s set.
So yes, I’ll have mama and kittens at least through the move to the new house. Goober is (of course) coming with. Mystic will come with if at all possible, even if I have to come back for him. If I can’t get him, I’ll be very disappointed.
Note: ‘coming with,” without a pronoun or other words after, is a usage I think I’ve borrowed from CJ, who I think borrowed it from British usage. Ordinarily, I’d put in a pronoun or other words to complete that, but folks here know the usage.
I thought I’d have much more done today. At least these are started.
My friend is supposed to swing by tomorrow, as he didn’t get us by the office to pick up much-needed cat litter and anything else, some office supplies, I think.
* The upstairs neighbors seem to be practicing wrestling or some other thing involving landing things or persons on the floor, shaking the ceiling and walls. I believe this overly enthusiastic, overly physical, overly shaky and noisy thing is due to kids being off for spring break, namely elementary and younger, maybe middle school. It’s really annoying and kinda worrisome.
Looks like I won’t be getting to sleep any time soon, until they get tired out (or break through the floor and ceiling?)…. Sheesh.
I am going to spend some time with the cats and then try to sleep. Tired from everything today, despite not as much done as I’d wanted.
Expecting to close on the new house on Friday, and start utilities then through Monday or so, except for the Monday vet appt. After utilities are in (for which, I have to be present for at least gas startup and cable/intenet install) then we can get me moved in.
Looks like maybe by the end of this month still, start of next month if delayed.
Oh — my voting district / polling location may have changed with the move. I will have to update that. (I have been registered to vote since 18, and voted in 2016, though I voted for someone else.) — I also have to update my ID non-driver’s license and wait (again) for it. Plus, gotta find the nearest grocery store, and so on.
But right now, tired and needing rest. Time with the cats, then sleeping with Goober.
I am so, so over-hyped with so much to do! But overall, it’s a good kind of busy, and some good things are started. If things can just hold together long enough to really improve longer term.
SSDI (not SSI) means you go into Medicare early, essentially. It’s not means tested, it’s insurance. It includes Medicare insurance of your choice. I suggest you look at Medicare Advantage, an HMO:
https://www.medicare.gov/plan-compare/#/?lang=en
If you have a doctor you want to keep, ask him which Medicare plan he works with, if any.
It’s Medicare and its insurance -OR- SSI and Medicaid.
Blindness is special, so talk with your doc about that.
I’ll try to keep the difference in mind. — I don’t have a primary / family doctor, my old one had retired since the last time I’d seen him, and so had my former vet. So I’ve got to get a new doctor and go from there. — I was lucky, in that my grandmother had nearly everything set up previously, and it was a matter of new services or changer or maintenance, with a few exceptions.
For me, this is all new. — My parents probably thought everything would be fine and I wouldn’t need such prep until I got to retirement age. But they also made a severe mistake at the time and toward my future, now my present. I later found this wasn’t allowed, which was what I’d argued at the time, as a college student. — My parents never paid me directly for working for them, neither when I was in college, nor later, when I went back to complete a community college degree rather than a bachelor’s. Instead, they put the money toward my college fund, but in their accounts. I argued no, they should pay me and let me manage it, mistakes or not, as I was, at the time, not really spending much anyway, and I’ve never been one inclined to partying, drinking or drugs, etc. They (probably rightly) claimed me as a dependent. I got mad enough to argue with them, while in the midst of trouble in college because I hadn’t come out. I argued in favor of them paying me, letting me manage my own money so I’d get used to it, and to help me get a job working (ahem) for someone else, and an apartment away from home. Oh, I was gloriously underprepared and naive, but I got mad enough, desperate enough, that when I’d lost the argument, if I had only had enough money in savings (didn’t because they had my pay) I would have packed a bag or two and moved out. I wasn’t sure if I could ask my grandmother, who at the time was in good health and mentally as sharp as ever. — If I had had the temerity to ask family friends for help, esp. our attorney friend, they might have intervened on my behalf or helped me set up my own place. — I didn’t find out until after my parents were gone that, oh, what my parents had done, while they thought they were doing right and meant well, was, er, not only not morally/ethically sound, it was not legal, not to pay someone over 18, even if living under their roof and their child, while mentally competent. So…if only I had rebelled, or thought to ask friends, or had had friends my own age I thought I could ask to move in with or…something.
That, together with my internal difficulties because I couldn’t yet accept myself enough to come out, was to affect the rest of my young adult life and into now. I could have and should have learned a lot more about living on my own. That was back when mobile phones were the brick or car battery sized things that might stay in a car, before cell phones, before Netscape and the common internet. There was this new idea of something called hypertext and hyperlinks, but it was not yet a thing. it was the mid-1980’s. I had not yet gotten a cab for myself, and had only been in a college dorm to be off on my own, no apartment yet. That’s how things remained, mostly, until my parents passed away by my early 30’s. So I had some skills but not others, and had not been enough of a rebel or insisted enough or persuasively enough to get them to see my side of it.
When I had first checked about social security before moving from my house into the apartment, a few years ago now, I got a shock, something I’d had no idea about. The years from college to my parents’ deaths, there’s virtually no work income reported in from working for them. A couple of times, there are bursts that, in thinking back, I realized were because a family friend had paid me for some work done. — In other words, I may be sunk in terms of any ordinary social security benefits from working. My parents likely thought they were preparing me, leaving behind savings and investments to get me through the transition, besides later working for myself. Well, no, that all went toward my grandmother’s long-term care needs. When she passed, all I had left was a small amount in long-term savings I couldn’t get out for quite a while, and didn’t want to touch if possible.
So…ugh. I do think my parents thought they were doing the right thing for their handicapped son, since I was inexperienced, naive, had not been out on my own. But also, they didn’t actively help me learn that and did not help enough to get me started with managing my own income, an apartment, and so on. They were, well, selfish and overprotective and overly controlling. — I don’t know what they thought was going on with me. They should have known I wasn’t going out, spending lots of money, partying like wild, drugs and alcohol id not appeal to me, still don’t, and sex was, well, not really happening; certainly dating girls wasn’t working out and I stoped that once I saw, er, that was never going to work the way it does for straight folks. I was too conflicted and insecure to try with guys, and didn’t really have much clue how to find any potential partners (gay guys) in ordinary ways. I’ve always lagged behind in that. Whether it’s merely a personal preference in how I socialize and where, or whether it’s also a mental block, I’m not sure. But there was no risky behavior going on and no overspending. I was too conflicted on one hand, and too introverted or ordinary (?) or not rebellious enough on the other hand, to be out doing much that was really at risk.
So… I’m where I am now, trying to get used to my new situation, where a new house may actually be cheaper than the apartment rent and storage space rent I’m now paying. A large chunk of my adult life was spent stuck with my parents, and then another large chunk taking care of my grandmother, because, well, I loved her and saw it as her only chance and my duty, but also again because I loved her and wouldn’t leave her. Our family attorney friend had advised me, after my parents were gone and when I still could have done so, to set up a trust fund and trustee to take care of my grandmother’s health care needs and thus get me independent (and not the bad guy as she might see it if she didn’t like something). Oh, if only I had followed that advice, instead of so quickly getting mired in it because I had naively thought, oh, I can do this, I’ve got this.
My life has been a mess, very wacky, all my adult life, not like most other people’s, and not like my parents’, who grew up poor to lower middle classs and put themselves through college while working, and then worked as a team once they found each other and married, two able-bodied and capable people.
It looks like, if I can just squealk through this rough patch for another couple of years, I may be back to self-sufficiency (more or less) again. But it’s going to be a long row to hoe, meanwhile, and I had grown too used to doing what I wanted, meanwhile, with a few bad spending habits in there.
So here I am. Life is weird, but somehow, I am still here, still halfway afloat, and I still have a chance or two to turn things around and make a life for myself into what would be retirement for some people. I don’t want/need to retire anyway, but I am all but effectively shut-in and retired as it is.
If my friends and I can get me going again, with health care and social security and so on, get my eyes treated, get my teeth done, and if I can somehow keep the house, well, then I’ll be back into a decent life.
Yes, I’m over-sharing and my usual boundaries or guard have been down for quite some time, because (1) no one much in my life locally and (2) I’m feeling so back-to-the-wall cornered, as in, what have I got to lose, or, I might as well be frank, and if people don’t like it, that’s just how it is. — I ordinarily have a fairly thick inner guard, as well as a fairly thick outer guard. I let friends in that outer wall, but lately, it’s ben mostly down, open. That inner wall, I don’t usually let most folks in. — And online, a few places I still go, I have become uncharacteristically prone to open up, to let down those guards, at least the outer one. Not sure why except maybe I’m just feeling lonely or needy.
Anyway, this is me, an unusual case, not your run of the mill guy.
I am maybe beginning to get back some of my former poise or equilibrium in dealing with people, personal and business, out in public. The past few weeks, it’s started coming back a little. It feels so, so strange to see how I am nw and how I used to be. But the more publicly or socially skilled and more confident guy is coming back a little more now.
I so hope that I can get the cataract surgery and have good results for my right eye and maybe my left. If I can get back to the level of vision I used to have, I know how to function there pretty well, not nearly so limited and unsure and not needing as much help. I can get back to some degree of self-supporting if so. I hope so.
The eye doctor still thought there’s a fair chance I may get back vision in my right eye, back to my former legally blind level. The left eye is not so much a good risk, but Is still have vision there, so I think the specialist may find I’m a good enough risk to try it too. I hope.
Very tired today still, but things are moving forward mostly on schedule except for packing.
As long as I get there.
Well, your parents were right from one viewpoint. If they paid you formally, they would have had to do a lot of paperwork and you and they would have had to pay something like 15% FICA, plus you would have had to pay income taxes. See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Insurance_Contributions_Act_tax#Regularly_employed_people
SSDI, which gives you Medicare, requires you to have worked in a regular job for a number of years that depends on the age when you were disabled. See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Disability_Insurance#Qualification
SSI, Supplemental Security Income, and Medicaid are given based on need. You have to be poor to some level, though I think money in an owned home doesn’t count. Medicaid especially varies by State, and TX has not expanded it in conjuction with ACA. For SSI, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Administration#Supplemental_Security_Income_(SSI)
And that’s about the limit of my knowledge, and so my ability to appal Hanneke with the US social security system(???).
@BCS, Reading that Wiki-page on SSDI, if you were disabled (legally blind?) before you were 22, and have documentation to prove it, the work requirements might not be mandatory, depending on whether they conclude you could have done substantial gainful work despite your disabiity.
I’d think, from what I read, that you need to be careful not to over-inflate the possible income you might gain from designing fonts (or webpages or anything like that) on your computer – you’ve been working on them for years, and they’re still not finished. Once they are selling they might generate some income, but the chances of that generating enough not just for the future but to pay for the hours of work already invested in them seem slim to me.
From a future budget standpoint, any income is good; but from a labor-economics standpoint, investing that many work-hours for such a small hourly return is not economically feasible. The same goes for learning to play an instrument. So don’t give the SSDI person that impression, that if theyy’d just support you for a little bit, you’d be able to support yourself once those income streams kick in. It might work that way, but counting on that now means they conclude you could support yourself, and you won’t get the assistance you need.
I’m not saying blind people could never be gainfully employed and financially independent, but that it requires some basic societal and personal support structures to be in place. For instance, with good, safe, frequent and ubiquitous public transport and sidewalks everywhere you would not be dependent on friends and (costly & unreliable) taxidrivers to take you everywhere – you could commute to a job. As you can’t get to an office, that leaves working on the computer at home, which has two points of trouble. One, with your limited eyesight doing that for eight hours a day would probably strain your eyes too much, and most of those jobs don’t pay enough to live on if you can’t work fulltime. Two, you need some kind of a support network to find a job like that, and at the moment your support network is almost nonexistent.
As there are jobs you could physically do, at a callcenter or something like that, or transcribing verbal notes to a computer, or reading aloud to make audiobooks, or whatever, the SSDI person might say that you could support yourself doing those, never mind that you can’t get a job like that, and deny you your SSDI benefits.
@Walt, I’ll bite 🙂. We had a drive to reduce the number of people on disability benefits over here several years ago, and they’d argue like that: if you’re physically capable of folding spring rolls, you could do that work, so you’re not disabled enough to get benefits. Never mind that there were no jobs for ‘spring rolls folders’ available anywhere in the Netherlands, and never mind that being physically able to do such a thing for a short while doesn’t mean that you can do it all day at speed and without negative long-term consequences, so no employer would take a chance on that. It caused an outcry, but the capitalist party is still in power so it’s not been reversed.
At least we’ve got the general assistance (“bijstand”) for anyone who has no other source of income, so the people who were denied the disability income could still get that. It’s set at slightly below the minimum wage per month (which here is at a livable wage level) so people still have an incentive to look for work, and it can have some requirements like needing to send in a job application every week, or getting schooling. You can request extra assistance if you need to buy new glasses or your fridge or washing machine broke. They also actively help you find work – employers can get some recompensation for taking the risk to hire someone with a disability or other “distance to the labor market” (like lacking language skills or school diplomas or being a re-integrating prisoner). For instance the “bijstand” can continue to pay the person hired for three months, with the employer only having to top up that income to minimum wage level, so the employer can train you and see you’re a hard worker and won’t leave them in the lurch before taking you on permanently.
From what I’ve read, it’s not so much that our disability allowance is so much better, but that it appears that the “general assistance” backstop seems to be missing in the USA. Maybe related to the minimum wage not being set at a livable wage level, and being undercut by a massive prisoner population having to work for a dollar or less an hour, and illegal workers being punished instead of the people who hire them. How do you set a barely-livable minimum general assistance level, and still make people want to go to work, when employers can set wages at well below a livable level, because they can outsource labor to captive workforces powerless to insist upon improving conditions? Whether that’s prisoners, illegal immigrants, or cheap Asian imports, or because labor unions have been forbidden by law in certain states and sectors, it all means the same: a great power imbalance detrimental to the ordinary working people, sustained by US law. That isn’t the premise of capitalism and free markets, where a balance of opposing forces (between owners of the means of production and the workers {owners of labor}, and between producers and consumers) leads to efficiency in outcomes. That is “runaway capitalism”, where capital has gained control of the political powers (and from there, a lot of the judiciary and enforcement apparatus), and gained the capacity to take away nearly all the power of the opposing force which is necessary for a balanced society.
And ordinary working people keep voting to sustain that ‘status quo’ of increasing imbalance! Knowing what alternatives are possible, and can work quite well, I find that incomprehensible.
Sorry, no politics. Just not understanding how people can be that blinkered (not limited to the US; Brexit, and the recent inability of the three Dutch leftist / democratic socialist parties to form a single voting block {to counterbalance the four decades long capitalist block} show we’ve got a lot of blinkered people voting against their own interests over here too).
Until I can get cataract surgery, if I can, font work is going to be very limited, with diminishing chances, as are any graphics work. I’m about half as productive as I was on it now. Writing is still possible. Learning or relearning to play piano, plus learning to play guitar, shouldd be doable if I can enlarge the text and sheet music. — But yes, for the near future, those are unlikely to start producing any income. Once I’m moved, I can get back to font work, though.
If I have any documentation still of earlier status, like a doctor’s report, prescription for eyeglasses, etc., it’s in storage if it’s still around. — When I had an eye appt. back in 2004 or 2006, and then when I’d reestablished in 2016 before my move, I found that in the meantime, the low vision eye clinic, through the university and lighthouse, had purged all paper records, and only recent computer records were left, going back to after year 2000. That meant all my records from birth, childhood, my teens, and into young adulthood were gone. I was shocked. — And in the past few years, my old family doctor has retired, which isn’t surprising. — There’s supposed to be a medical database that may store many records for individuals, so some data on me may be there still. — But the end result is, it could be up to the current eye doctor to say she can see evidence of the eye surgery (laser and conventional) performed when I was around 3 and 6 y.o. — I was born prematurely, so I’ve always been legally blind. — I don’t know if there’s anything in my old school records that would back that up. — But therefore, it might be difficult to prove that, other than the eye doctor’s word for it. Any ophthalmologist or retinal specialist should be able to see the evidence of the laser surgery and conventional surgery I had as a little kid, though, and see what state my eyes are in, lifelong to recent.
Walt, my guess is, that was my parents’ thinking, that they could avoid a lot of problems. The trouble is, it therefore may have seriously caused trouble for my present and future, in eligibility for social security benefits.
Based on what the agent said over the phone, an income level as low as $750 per month can make someone ineligible for benefits, but being legally blind or otherwise permanently handicapped / disabled means that I should still be eligible for SSI and some benefits, but not others. My state has similar very low limits on eligibility and on amounts paid via Medicaid, food stamps, and the like. They raised the amounts after my grandmother passed away, but during the last 5 to 10 years, the total income limit for eligibility for, was it Medicaid?, was around $1250, no gifts or support from me or anyone else, no income past that in any form, including her social security check, any royalties, stock, or investments, reverse mortgage payments, anything at all. So the word was, I could apply, but likely she’d be ineligible because even her social security check put her nearly over the limit. It may be about $1750 now; I don’t recall what they were going to raise it to.
With the current thunderings from the current administration and that party, and from a portion of the other party, they may not increase and may decrease who is eligible, how much they can be paid, and require periodic (every two years or so) new proving of eligibility. (Oh wait, he’s still; blind. Duh. Oh, she’s still deaf. Oh golly, he’s still in a wheelchair, paraplegic. Well, golly, you mean they didn’t get a miracle cure yet? Duh.)
In other words, I don’t really hold out much of any hope that govt. aid is ever going to be enough for me to live on, so independent income and support / help from friends have to happen. Thus my decision to take a gamble and do the investment, in hopes of getting a better rate of return than I can get through an investment account at the bank.
The thing is, the new house should actually be a little less than what I’m paying in apt. rent and storage space fees, even factoring in year-end homestead taxes. (I can have a homestead exemption on the house. I can have either an over-65 exemption when I reach 65, or a blindness / disability exemption, but not both, and IIRC, I may not be eligible for the handicapped exemption together with a homestead exemption. Of course, those don’t mean freedom from property taxes, only a discount, part of the fees are exempted.
—–
Today, I’m guessing a schedule for packing and moving, for getting utilities set up (I have to be there for at least the gas hookup and cable/internet hookup, and electric and gas and water need to be setup prior or concurrently.) Cell phone and change of address need to happen, new checks, newly updated ID, notify any accounts I have, and so on.
I’m off to do a little prep and label / pack some before the appt. for closing on the new house. Whee!
I am excited and cautiously optimistic, but also concerned how I’ll make it for a year or two. If the investment gets returns as my friend claimed, I may recover my initial investment and double it by year-end. However, I’m not so sure of that. Taxes, repairs, any improvements I want to make, health care costs, feeding myself and the cats, whee… But hey, I also did let my friend know, I may need help with that, and just what shape my savings are (not) in. So….. Well, it is what it is. I am not homeless yet.
It still feels unreal that I may have this chance at a house and at increasing my savings over the next couple of years. It still feels like there’s some massive “gotcha!” looming, waiting to strike when I get comfortable.
I will be setting up for utilities added to existing accounts plus new utilities, today. Looking at it, I think instead of scheduling for today and tomorrow, it will need to be Tuesday and later, since I have the cats’ vet appt. Monday too.
Off to shave and brush my teeth. The weird modern era: It looks like rather than a formal sit-down meeting for both sides to close, it will be relayed, virtual via internet.
I intend to ask my friend to take a current picture, as I haven’t had a recent photo in a while. Because of my teeth, I won’t be smiling with my teeth showing. My eyes are tired, I don’t look my best, but I am OK.
Packing to do, utilities, and likely a load or two of laundry before I do move, after all. I am still hoping to have it all done before the end of this month, but it could go into next month too; ideally done before the 15th, mid-month.
Tomorrow will be one year since I gave up Smokey. It seems so long ago and so recent at the same time. It was likely Mystic I heard before dawn, two cats fighting outside.
Goober more or less shared the bed with two kittens last night. One, Beige Boy, was right next to him at one point, but at another, Goober hissed at him. So, a little tiny bit of progress.
When I post next, I may have possession (and keys!) for the new house.
I am still no end amused by the street name. It’s almost a pun, two ways. No idea where they got the name.
Let’s hope the numbers and all else are fortunate for this, today and in future. — Good thoughts and prayers are welcome.
Hanneke, I know the standard for SSDI is whether you can work anywhere in the economy 20 hours per week. I don’t think they consider what the pay is. I think they conveniently ignore Nevada brothels. Reviews are uncommon.
I think but I’m not certain that SSI is similar, and that blindness has some extra wiggle room. I know nothing about SSI reviews, but a nephew has been on SSI for a long time.
You’re right that one should emphasize the disability and that you cannot work. They’re trying to prove you can work, so don’t give them any help.
“Come with”, sans pronoun, is a Midwesternism; I’ve been known to revert to bad habits and say, “I’m getting pizza. Wanna come with?” Actually, I believe that Ducky may be a Brit, as in “‘Ello, Ducky!”
I survived a close encounter of the Administrative variety; our bureaucracy appears to be as convoluted as stsho, and I had to attend a monthly managers’ meeting. Still. I got out of it with my ears intact and no new scars.
CJ and Jane, pray do whatever you need to do to stay well.
So he’s a Ducky from across the Pond? Oh, that fits so, so well. Possibly he’s a Scottish Ducky. … Wait, Scrooge McDuck was Scottish, while Donald Duck and the three boys were Americans and Mrs. Duckworth was British. Hmm….
Och, the wee bairn must be Ducky indeed, then.
I slept around two to three hours, in between human neighbors’ noise more than cats, and my own wakefulness despite being overly tired. So I’ve been up a little while or hours?) and need to sleep still.
Goober did sleep with me, then has been hanging out in the room. I’m not packing, not up to it at the moment. Goober has both fussed at, and alternately tolerated the kittens, who have been exploring the room and daring to get near him. — So far, about as well as can be expected. — They did get on the dresser with the computer (it’s filling in as my desk, very inconvenient, no knee hole). A few things knocked over, but the place is as cat-proof as I can get anyway. — No major fights with Goober or Peppercorn or the kittens, and this time, he’s stayed and is putting up with them, mostly, if not thrilled, then also not mean. (He did fuss at one who wanted to pounce on his tail.) But all in all, no major problems, just getting used to each other. If this lets everyone start to make peace, then good, excellent.
Heh, Chondrite, I am glad you didn’t get notched ears, although a voyage ring might be stylish. 😉
Going to give them Greenies treats. Maybe this will help tempt the kittens to eat dry, or at least tide over mama.
Then I think another try to sleep.
If Ducky is a ruggedly individualistic Scottish laddie, that quite suits me. 😀 They are quite something. Wish I had some more pics.
Oh, and I thought we were going oto have one kitten test the “if it fits, I sits” theorem with a plastic glass, but no, only testing reach of paws. Still funny.
Treats for them, then bed again.
I have no corned beef or cabbage as of yet, maybe after the move. St. Patty’s for me will likely be a green hoodie or shirt, an attempt (maybe at some vaguely Irish food, and that’s about it. With being out some lately and a different cabbie coming and going each time, well, I am just dong the best I can.Trying not to think about Corona Virus, but I should double-check on current knowledge this week.
Cats can be fun. I can’t have them because my chilling are rather allergic. Speaking of taxes, I got my more than generous refund last week. Do not be afraid to dump any accountant that does not provide good service – I wonder if there are any who specialize in handling authors – there must be a lot of items peculiar to people who create for a living.
Stay safe everyone.
Jonathan up here in warming New Hampshire
Yesterday afternoon was spent getting the appt. for the Social Security Admin.’s Disability Initiative / Income… oh, the acronyms have got me. This was only an appt. In late April or early May. I won’t get the letter for the appt. for 7 to 10 days. I was on hold for over an hour and the talk with the agent took around 20 minutes.
This morning was spent, not packing, but calling to get Medicaid and Medicare started. Oops, no, Medicare will be done with the SSI / SSDI appointment, but the claim is, Medicare benefits will not start for 24 months after signing up, so 2 years wait for benefits.
Medicaid turned out to refer me from federal to state, and once I got to the person, I lost count of the number of times on hold. But because I had had food stamps once before at the old house, oh, no, we can’t change your residence address over the phone, although we can get your mailing address. No, you have to do that in person or online. Once your act. is active with the correct address, then we can change your address as needed when I move. But they are going to mail me the Medicaid application form, and other info, plus that, are available from the state’s website, which manages this stat’s branch of the Medicaid program, along with other services.
In all, it was something like three hours spent on the phone, for two tasks not completed, and actual time spent talking with a human being less than 30 minutes for each. Wow.
I was so moved that I took the used cat litter to the dumpster. Heh. — Things were then fine, except I tripped on my own feet or on a box, still not sure which, scared all the cats, including Little Mama, who, startled, defending herself, she thought, did not quite sink all four sets of claws into my butt or back, either to push away or to climb, I’m not sure what it was. Oh, I should say, I had picked up a package from outside (shower curtain in case, for the new house, which had been sprayed overnight by a passing male cat. So Peppercorn was possibly defending against that by mistake too. She and the kittens had to smell that after, while I was picking myself up off the floor, rather startled also at the whole thing. Yet not blaming Peppercorn, Goober, or the kittens for an honest mistake. Heck, it surprised the heck outta me too. Be it noted, she could have really dug in, but didn’t. She had just enough reaction time to know it was me and I wasn’t attacking and I was still a friend, so, oops, sorry, human.
Less than ten minutes later, I again screed up set my hand on a door while moving and her leg or tail was near. I don’t know if I actually pinched it by moving the door, or if she was only scared, but oh, I did hear about it, and she was not happy. I had to give her a minute to collect herself, so she didn’t think I was after her. I don’t think she was hurt Hope not.
Somewhere in that, in checking that no kitten had got outside, I set down a hb book that had arrived and lost track of whether I’d ut it where it should be, or some random spot. Senior moment or just distracted and tired? I don’t know. But geez….
I realized how knocked out I still was, and Aly down to sleep. I got a nap for an hour or so. Goober got on the bed with me, but one of the kittens had too. — Very surprisingly, Goober and the kitten tolerated each other, no squabbling, and the kitten was near my hand plus near Goober’s hip, almost touching. No problem at all between them that time, and we all got a nap. I am impressed.
Whether Goober’s getting used to them or it’s the extra attention to him, or the scare gave them all something in common, to start realizing maybe they can get along, I don’t know. But I am glad for this one trouble-free instance.
So no packing was done all day, and I am behind by a good bit from where I thought I’d be. But OK, I will go from here.
My friend was not by, so I am almost out of cat litter. I have ordered 2 more boxes, in desperation. I hope my friend gets the one pail tomorrow, plus whatever’s at the office. Then I hope the new boxes arrive over the next day or two, to my door, instead of the leasing office. Or I will be in desperate straits without cat litter.
So…thngs happening, very mundane yet hectic, moving fast toward new home ownership. Can’t schedule utilities just yet. But that needs to happen, beginning Friday. Then appliances and furniture, and moving items as needed, with a main move soon after. Still sort of on target. Maybe.
Despite the nap, I’m still tired. I’m sniffly, but this feels only like fatigue; I don’t think I’m sick, just way too tired. So I am taking it easy tonight, despite schedule, and hope to catch up tomorrow, some.
Three topics: personal, cats update, and a musing on the Chanur audiobooks, in no particular order.
Yesterday and today, I’ve been way too tired. Last night, I was so keyed up I could not sleep, and I didn’t want milk or ice cream for some reason, which might have helped. I tried to get myself to calm down and sleep, but even my muscles were overly nervous, so that I kept wanting to move. I was too tired to want to get up and work. So it was a weird night. I occasionally get somewhat keyed up, but not to that extent, and not with the need to move like that, leg muscles needing to move, not settling, over-anxious, not cramping, b but just out of whack. — Somewhere around 1 or 2 am, I tried a fruit cup, discovered I didn’t have much on hand, but then wanted to listen to an audiobook. My eyes were too tired to want to read.
During this, two and then four and then all five kittens joined me on the bed. Goober was doing fine when it was one and two, but got down when it was everyone. — The past couple of nights, after giving him extra concentrated attention and bringing him purposefully onto the bed with me, he has felt better, more included.
Also, for the past three nights, one of the kittens, “Beige Boy” from his collar, has gotten onto the bed, and he and Goober have been amicably there, not quite chummy, but close to each other and not minding. Goober’s mild protests and swipes at a kitten or three have meant, interestingly enough, they back down usually and he then decides it’s not worth getting more angry with them. So he’s shared the bed with the Beige Boy and one or another kitten, and it’s been going better. Still no friendly relationship with Mama Peppercorn, but they haven’t fussed lately either. I’m cautiously optimistic. I figure if Goober and the kittens start making friends, then Peppercorn will at some point in there. I don’t think he and Beige Boy are quite friends yet, but sharing the bed three nights / days is a good start. I’m also surprised that kitten is a regular.
ucky is sometimes the one off by himself, but it can be others. Ducky and Wizard (or Sage, or Stars and Moons, haven’t decided, and it’s from the collar) are there with me less, but I’m hoping they’ll do fine, and Pinky and Unicorn (again, collars) are often together, being the two girls. Ah, assuming I got it right when three of the kittens got their collars off before. If I still have it right, then little Wizard is the boy with delayed undescended balls, Ducky and Beige Boy are the boys, and Pinky and Unicorn are the girls. I, ah, have not tried to do a definite check to determine that, but may soon, or we’ll check again at the vet’s on Monday.
I finally got to sleep after dawn, and slept late, which helped a lot, but I’m still tired. I don’t feel sick, just very fatigued and sniffly / stuffy-nosed, and my eyes have been too tired. I have taken it easy all day, haven’t done a thing but listened to an audiobook and lounged on the bed, with four to five kittens, and with Goober and Peppercorn around. 😀 Heh, this is the life. Had two kittens purr and two rest their heads on my ankle and leg, so we are doing better with socialization / trust issues. LOL, one discovered, hey, if you get too physical with the claws, you make the human yelp and draw back and fuss at you, in a way that isn’t too scary for a kitten, but (yay) I think got the point across, that was not to be done. (Much like Goober’s limits.) One kitten, who’s been grabbing my ankle with both forearms and at times attempting to climb, as an enthusiastic encouragement to get food on the plate faster — discovered tonight two things: One, hmm, that can pull down the human’s sweatpants too far, when he’s dressed for around the house, which isn’t very good for climbing, and Two, ah, yes, if you also get your claws into said leg, the human will yelp, move the leg by reflex, and that will dislodge and surprise said kitten, who perhaps now has something to think about, as to how readily climbable are human legs, and how tolerant (or not) the human might be of that. In other words, kitty, I hope you got the clear idea, grabbing a human’s ankle or trying to climb is not a good idea, even if, as a little kitten, it may seem cute. When you’re older, that will not be cute or welcome.
I confess to getting more attached to these little characters, but they need homes. The food and litter bills are, hmm, spendy.
Yesterday, I tripped over my own two feet or over a box or something. Still don’t know what. Startled Peppercorn in the process, and all the others. Peppercorn got her claws, maybe all four sets, into my butt and back, however, she must have realized it was all an accident, because her yelp and claws were nothing like what she could easily do; she didn’t sink in her claws, so I got off very light. I am surprised at her restraint, in fact, and grateful I didn’t get really banged up. She’s still prone to be hissy at times, she still has not quite gotten the idea of how to keep a little distance to avoid getting in the way or getting near stepped on, but she does seem to know I have some problem with this, and that I don’t really mean her any harm. Well, in theory she gets this. She is remarkably trusting and grateful, all things considered, and I like her a lot. Glad to have her and the kittens, very much.
If Goober and Peppercorn and the kittens can make more progress and become friends, oh, that would be great. — Progress recently is encouraging. And having one or more kittens on the bed, with Goober, is great. When he decides he wants some space he’s better about it now. The kittens on the bed have been good today. So I am happy with the progress.
Hoping I feel better tomorrow.
—–
I wasn’t especially in the mood to start something else. For some reason, I gravitated toward The Pride of Chanur. I have had the audiobooks for a while, but hadn’t listened all the way through yet. I’ve read the books in print several times, but it’s been months since my last read-through.
I am to the point in Pride where they are in the orbiter to go downward on Anuurn.
I mostly like the narrator, whose name escapes me at the moment (Deena or Dina, but I don’t recall her last name). She has a good alto voice, keeps it interesting, some fair voice acting. Her pronunciation of some words, both English and alien, sometimes does not match my own. It’s not too jarring, just taking some getting used to. (She’s American, I think, but there are differences.) On a few hani and mahen words, she pronounces or stresses them in ways I don’t. In a few cases, she uses American vowels where I think they should be Continental ah, eh, ee, oh, ooh vowels, and in one case I’ve noticed, she uses a soft G instead of the hard G in a hani name (Ginas, which I’ve always read as GHEE-nahss instead of JEE-nahss.) But these are not serious enough to mar my enjoyment of the book.
The other difference I note is her characterizations of tone of voice or emotional delivery. In some cases, I disagree with this, mostly about the hani. In other cases, hmm, I have never imagined them using those tones, but those do make some sense in those situations, as how a woman, with friendly or motherly instincts, feminine personality, might deal with others, such as kin and crew, even while my take on the hani women is generally a leonine assertiveness, confidence, a female version of machismo, I guess.
And with mama and kittens and Goober here for ready comparison, as always, I note how very catlike and leonine the hani are, true to form, not human. That’s always been a strength of the books, that the aliens are aliens, not humans walking around with funny makeup but human in behavior and psychology. I like aliens who are genuinely alien, something I’ve always liked about CJ’s books. Her humans are always unique too, not just present-day Americans running around.
So although the presentation of the book through the narrator is not quite how I’d do it, how I’ve nearly always read it each time, on the other hand, I’m still enjoying it and it’s making me rethink my interpretations, which I think is good. I still always get something new out of any rereads of CJ’s books. She’s one of only a few authors whose books I like so much that I have reread them, sometimes multiple times.
Hehehe, I feel for the narrator when she gets to the alien chatter over coms in some of the battle sequences. 😀 But I always liked that too, given that I like languages.
There is one point in one of the books where we get coms chatter about Vrossaur, where Vrossaru seems to be a grammatical form. I have always wondered if that is the case, or if it was supposed to be Vrossaur or Vrossauru or another form.
The narrator seems to pronounce mahen a, for yes, as ay/eh. I’ve always taken the mahen vowels as ah, eh, ee, oh, oo, short and long like Latin or German or pre-Great-Vowel-Shift English. I haven’t tried to track the pronunciation. I’m listening for enjoyment rather than proofing.
Note: I don’t recall where it is in the written text, but in one of the books, there is one instance or two of Aia Jin instead of Aja Jin. Next time I read the ebook or pb, I will make a note and pass it along. I would have before, but when I’d noticed it a few years back, I lost track of it.
In a couple of instances, mahen names have eh or oh spellings, which I took to be regional or historic or dialectal. — There’s an instance of a hani or mahen name, a ship name if I recall right, with a C without a following H; that is, C instead of CH. That may also be dialectal.
Anyway, I’m enjoying the audiobook quite a bit, despite differences. My eyes are still wa tired, so I’m going to wisen some more after I eat supper.
I have not taken pictures of the kittens in a few days and need to remedy this. With a little luck, I’ll have some real packing done soon, maybe some moved to the new house soon, and some more tidying up here. The cats have their follow-up appt. on Monday.
When I last saw Mystic was by chance yesterday, but in the meantime, I had tripped and fallen, so by the time I’d picked myself up and sorted ourselves out, well, Mystic had gone on his way on patrol. Poor guy. So it’s been days since I last fed him, and a few days in between each sighting. He’s been minus his collar and ID tag for about a week, and I hope to get another on him when I do see him next. I still want to move him with us. The carrier and his vet trips are the issue, and he still does not want to deal with Peppercorn. However, also, since he’s outside, he needs to be tested for FIV and FeLV and needs to be neutered when he can be. He still needs a repeat on de-worming, poor guy, because he’s been outside and missed his follow-up appt. So until he’s cleared, he and the others cannot mix anyway.
I hope he will get to come with us. I’m unhappy that he was so dead set against the carrier last time, and I will attempt food bribery and sequestering in a bedroom, in order to get him into a carrier, next time I can. If needed, I intend to come back for him. At present, it’s looking like that’s the only way I may get him. And yet when he sees me, he is otherwise glad to see me and still likes me, wants attention s much or more than food, and I think he’d come in if he wasn’t worried he’d have to tangle with Peppercorn. He’s OK with Goober and Goober is mostly OK with him, so I’m not really worried there. I wish I could get it through to him that he can have a good home with me, and wouldn’t ever have to be fighting or roaming outside when he doesn’t want to. He could possibly go out y choice, once I know he’s healthy and in a place he could do so. But I’d prefer for all their sakes that they stay in, so as not to be exposed to contagious or incurable diseases, or to worms.
So that’s where we are. — Breaking for supper, then listening some more.
Supposed to close tomorrow if all goes to plan, at which point, I should have title and keys, possession of the new house, and then on to getting utilities and then appliances / furniture and moving in. Vet trip on Monday. — I am not packed, very much behind on that, but I needed the break today.
Toes, etc. crossed that all goes well.
Anybody want an all-black kitten? I have five; two boys, two girls, and one boy who’s delayed still. I haven’t checked on that. I hope he’ll do fine. I like all five, but they need homes. If one was particularly strongly attached or withdrawn or runty, I might be tempted, but so far, they all seem to be doing about equal, with the points already mentioned. — I still can’t really tell them apart except by collars, and I am still getting a sene of who has what personality traits, but oh, they each do, most tedfinitely.
One other bit: one of them, I think it’s Pinky, has a real thing about “farming” or digging in the cat litter. This seems to be enthusiasm or play, having fun, not some urgent or manic need. If I do determine it’s her then she’s likely to be renamed Digger for the duration of her stay. Heh. I am not yet sold on the other names, which re for convenience. By now, they should have had more lasting names for a few weeks. It’s now been more than 6 weeks since I first met Peppercorn, about 5 weeks since meeting her kittens. They should now be 8 to 9 weeks, following the vet’s estimate. They are still small and still nursing occasionally, but old enough to get new homes.
They are more than ready to learn how to run a starship for trade…. Heh.
(I haven’t named them after Cajeiri and his aishid after all, because I’m still not sure enough on personalities. Also, they’re more mani-like than atevi-like. But hmm, all-black, and quite adorable, these little characters are.)
Shouldn’t but gonna do it anyway and mention that your situation, C.J. ,is like the butcher who backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work. . . .
Also am going to pass this along as it has legit reliable info as well as much food for thought: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3URhJx0NSw
We think about the illness itself and the immediate effect of people being sick but we don’t think about how that ripples out through society. Pretty sobering.
Thanks for that link, WOL, I’m listening to it now. That Michael Osterholm knows what he’s talking about.
He’s right that it’s very important to do the preparation right, to set in place the necessary redundancies and means of production and means of coping with these calamities in advance, when they do not make economic sense *yet*.
That is something that governments need to do, because it doesn’t make sense for a company, focused on making profits, to set up redundant production lines for vaccines or breathing masks or whatever, and keep them idle for years, just to be ready to ramp up when demand spikes. Or to make sure vaccine production and production of important medicines and apparatus doesn’t get concentrated in a few low-wage countries far away, so if something hits those countries these vital things become unavailable to the whole world. A purely commercially driven market focused on efficient and cheap production will not build in those kinds of safeguards, that *has* to be done through government regulation. Preferably with some international, worldwide, coördination through something like the WHO for that planned medical overcapacity.
For the economic and societal repercussions, having some basic regulations in place that can cope with different kinds of emergencies is important.
But that means you need a society which sees the government’s role as taking care that the society as a whole, including *all* the people that make up that society, can get on with their lives as well as possible.
Day before yesterday the Dutch government told everyone who could do so to work from home and practise social distancing, and shut down gatherings of more than 100 people. Primary schools are mostly staying open, as kids who get Covid19 do not get very sick, and keeping kids home would mean too many of their parents who work in healthcare and other essential sectors would be off work at home with the kids. Universities and colleges are closed, switching to online classes (most people here have internet).
Yesterday our news had an article about how the regulation meant to help businesses cope with short-term disasters is now being used to help cope with the Covid19 shutdown. This is a regulation where businesses who have a temporary interruption (between 2-24 weeks) to their ability for production, like a lightning strike or a fire or a flood, or borders being closed, can request part-time unemployment benefits for their workers (up to 50% of their payroll). That means the business does not need to lay off their workers, they can keep them on the payroll while the business receives government unemployment benefits for these workers. Sometimes, if production is stopped completely, the unions and the business will negotiate a partial pay cut for the duration (and/or maybe losing some of their mandated yearly 24 paid vacation days), so that nobody needs to be laid off for the remaining 50%. The workers stay fully employed, even though they can’t work, or can only work parttime, because the factory is (partly) closed. So as soon as the factory ramps up again, the trained and experienced workforce is ready to go. The workers don’t lose their jobs and incomes during the shutdown, so the (local) economy doesn’t get hit by people not being able to spend their paychecks the way they’re used to.
This regulation is normally used by 150-200 businesses a year, but yesterday 5000 businesses applied for it to cope with the Covid19 shutdown. The government will need to do some budget-shifting to accommodate that, but as the mechanism is already in place it is a lot easier to cushion the blow for the businesses and the people involved, and that helps limit the economic crash caused by the pandemic (or any other calamity, like a flood or a hurricane).
In the long term and the broader view, it makes a lot more moral and economic sense to care for people and businesses that way, than to abandon everyone to their own devices and let them die or drown in debt when they can’t cope.
I am so lucky to live in a caring and practical society… I wish the rest of the world could have these advantages too.
The Netherlands is now taking Coronavirus precautions a step further: all schools, kindergartens, restaurants and cafés, bars, coffeeshops, brothels, hotels, sportsclubs and gyms etc. will be closed for 3 weeks, until April 6th.
Amsterdam will get a respite from drunken British stag parties and hordes of tourists trying to get high on weed and take pictures of the prostitutes.
Healthy teachers and childcare professionals will go to work, to provide remote learning for kids at home, and to provide childcare options for parents in essential jobs without inhouse alternatives, in smaller groups.
My employer told us all to work from home until April 1st; that might be extended later. If not mandatory (with exceptions, if they ask, for people who need the big CAD machines and plotter-printers and such, that don’t work well from home), they’ll probably be more lenient about people wanting to work from home – they used to want us to work in the office 3 days a week, or at least half your working days, to promote social cohesion within and among teams.
Within my team of less than 40 people, there are two already quarantining at home as of this weekend because they’ve been in contact with people who had been in contact with a Covid19 patient.
The outbreak is clearly at the start of or close to the explosive phase in most of Europe, and it sounds like the US is at a similar point but with less accurate numbers because of lack of testing.
Please stay safe everyone!
Flatten that curve!
See the article linked below that picture-gif for an explanation, and a follow-up.
Ah, I was just too late to stick this link in the first paragraph: the BBC’s Dutch correspondent lists the new measures in English, and list the critical professions who can still use childcare. link
Thank you, Hanneke!
I think one thing has to be mentioned about that flattening the curve cartoon. The cartoon implies flattening the curve will get the number of patients needing a hospital below hospital capacity. This is not necessarily so. Also, the patients may need breathing assistance, so the limit is the number of people the hospital can assist, lower than the number of beds.
So, flatten the curve more.
I agree, Walt: I thought that was the point of the image.
The height of the healthcare system capacity line will depend on lots of things, not just the number of hospital beds (also varying by the kind of calamity: e.g. trauma and burns stuff for a large fire, ventilators for this virus). The number of ventilators and other breathing apparatus plays a part, but also oxygen, medicines, masks and protective gear, isolation units, testing capacity, hospital staff available to work, concurrent winter influenza epidemics, etc., all play a part in determining where that line is for this state, that region or that country.
It will not be the same everywhere.
The curve needs to be flattened to stay below that line, at whatever height that line might be in your area, if we are to avoid any unneccessary extra deaths for people who would have survived with adequate treatment. Like the Italian doctors needing to decide who will be likely to die because there is no ventilator left for treating them.
The lower the line, the more extreme measures are needed to stop transmission of the virus, to get that curve flat enough to cope.
I just realised, the word I needed is respirators, not ventilators!
Sorry, translation error…
For the last few days, including at my eye appt. and the vet appt. a week ago, I’ve had what I think are just ordinary sinus and fatigue symptoms, not sick. However, I was tired enough the day before yesterday and yesterday that I rested and didn’t do much, after being uncommonly keyed up. The info I’ve seen says the COVID-19 virus has been in the USA as much as 6 weeks ago, in WA and CA, and says it’s passed by “respiration droplets” from coughing / sneezing and so on, basically symptoms like one would have with the flue or bronchitis or the common cold. Potentially, people may become carriers or get the virus without knowing it at first. The CDC info seems unclear as to how many people will have milder reactions or not get badly sick, versus how many will be strongly affected or fatal. They’re advising people to stay home if sick, voluntary quarantine at home, or to do ordinary good hygiene like hand-washing, covering your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze, avoiding hand-face contact otherwise, and being careful not to pass it to others by such contact.
So there is reason to be very careful, as there’s no group immunity built up yet, s more at-risk people may get it.
I live in a major port city, one of the largest US cities, so there’s a higher chance of me more my neighbors or others in contact getting sick, and I’ve been out doing more in public while getting ready for the move. Hoping all goes well for everyone. Kids are still playing and adults are still gathering, where I live. Life goes on and people act how they act.
Stay well out there or get well soon.
Oh, what a messed up day. Well, we didn’t get to close today. I thought we had all the documents needed, everything sorted out. Nope, and I didn’t see the voicemail my friend sent sometime yesterday. So mid-afternoon, I called him, since nothing had happened. After some silliness over file formats and such, I got the items sent. So it will likely be tomorrow or Monday before we can close.
I had thought we were ready, and I had thought it would take longer to get utilities scheduled. My friend had been urging me to do that. So this morning and afternoon, I called and set things up, thinking we’d be after the closing and therefore OK.
But gaah, turns out, electric was set up within hours, gas hookup is scheduled for Tuesday, water is scheduled for Monday, cable/internet and security are scheduled for Friday. The vet appt. is for Monday. So it’s possible I’ve jumped the gun in this. That frustrated my friend. I had said I didn’t think it should be done until after closing. Well, so now we live with it. Hmm, and two utilities retained my info from when I had owned a home over 3 years ago. This complicated things more. I will have to be there Tuesday and
Friday for the hookups. I just paid the startup fees for all those.
So now we are delayed and I really hope there’s not a hitch in the deal, so we can close and have it all done, tomorrow or Monday if possible.
And…oh, but half the owner/seller’s staff are out due to the virus. (I presume out of fear of it, not real exposure.) Great, that won’t help anyone, if they are out prematurely rather than when needed.
But just to make it extra weird and crazy, for no reason at all, all the cats, kittens and adults, had a major freak out during the tail end of one phone call, then went completely bonkers while on the phone with my friend about the delay.
I do not know what the cats’ problem was, but by the end of it, items knocked down from atop the dresser, etc., cats yowling at each other, and I don’t know for sure what set them off or what was really going on. As far as I can ell so far, no one got really hurt, although my right calf became a friendly-fire target for Peppercorn. (Ow, hey, why the heck did you do that?) And I am going to have to check for accidents, as I think someone or other, ah, lost control of …may have pooped.
If any of them are actually hurt, I’ll let you all know Otherwise they’re all OK. Once I’m assured of cleanup, I’ll do that and then stop to eat and rest. No packing happened today, but hey, I have utilities prematurely scheduled, and the electricity is apparently on already.
What a mess. — I fussed at Goober and Peppercorn equally, as the likely main instigators. I think it’s probably Peppercorn over-reacting, but it may have bee an honest mistake or from too much going on at once for them, caused by the feline contingent in the house.
Side Note: My Kindle is confused about rights and number of copies of two or more ebooks and audiobooks, so I have to go in later and check that any previous devices are deauthorized, then try to download the files again.
Well, life’s just wacky today, but it could have been worse. As it is, more of an aggravation than any real problem. Or so I hope.
I will be very unhappy if the closing doesn’t make it. I would not have dared to try scheduling anything, but I thought we were good t go. Sigh. Oh well. I hope it doesn’t screw things up too badly, and I hope the remaining documents go smoothly.
Twice lately, the upstairs kids and neighbors have been up and loud around midnight. I wintry own place again, and free of nutty neighbors and maintenance problems and non-working mgmt. phones. ( I haven’t checked today, but they were still out the other day.)
Hoping all goes well. And I am frazzled, largely from the cats going nuts. Was not ready for that. Don’t know why they did that. Sure wasn’t good timing. And wow, I’m hungry, haven’t eaten since dawn. What a weird week it has ben, but it’s mostly over with now. Maybe next week will be less bizarre.
The COVID-19 is fast-spreading and can live in air for hours, and on surfaces for days; it can apparently pass from people who have no symptoms and may not know they have any disease at all.
https://www.npr.org/2020/03/13/815307842/research-coronavirus-can-live-for-a-long-time-in-air-on-surfaces
My personal strategy is to shop, resist face-touching until I put everything away and wash my hands thoroughly, then try to leave things alone for as long as possible before touching them again. At some point I may need to switch to delivered groceries, but Trader Joe’s has alcohol wipes by the shopping carts, and I can go at a slow time. But given COVID-19 can survive hours in air….
I used to live in the Interior of Alaska and 100 miles from affordable food shopping in Fairbanks so my sister and I would bulk shop in the fall for the long winter. I have kept that practice since moving here to the Lower 48 so i have some reserves if things get weird and that includes toilet paper which is getting a lot of attention in the media. Having our state a ground zero state is kind of scary so please take care. Stay safe, warm and well, CJ and Jane.
@BCS — The half Siamese/half Godknows cat I had for almost 16 years was the one I could only get in a carrier if I caught him by surprise, threw a towel over him, bundled him up in it and stuffed him in the carrier towel and all. He fought and swore like a berserker, and we both hated it. It was either that or get a pair of welding gloves. Poor old Pu. He’s been gone almost five years now, and I still miss the little nudnik.
Not sure you want to go that route with Mystic, but I thought I’d toss it out as an option.
That’s how TinyKittens catch and treat their ferals too.
Being bundled up in a towel and held, especially with their face and paws covered, is less stressful for them than trying to hold them with gloves, while they can see the human holding them.
TinyKittens uses old or cheap towels, as they then cut a small hole in the towel to inspect their ears or their mouth, or lifting the towel a bit to look at the rear end while keeping the rest covered. Towels with a few holes can still be used for this, as long as you can keep his face covered and his paws contained.
I didn’t see him this morning when I took out the trash. 🙁 But putting a bribe of really great food in the carrier as a lure, trying that, is my main hope. — I have had only limited success getting a hand towel around kittens and keeping it there while also trying to hold them to administer oral meds. Heh. They’re liquid and all legs! I suspect a large bath towel or beach towel might be the size needed for Mystic, who is a good-sized male under all that longhair fur. And most determined he does not want another carrier ride. He objected somewhat the first time, ut after the vet trip, trying to get him back in the carrier last time didn’t work. Oh, the cussing and lunging and so on he did. I was afraid if I keto on trying to force it, he’d lose trust or get afraid / angry enough to really fight. He wasn’t trying to fight or bite, just get away from the carrier, any way he could. Poor benighted kitty. He’s mostly mild, but that covers a stubborn, strong cat who can defend himself if need be. I keep missing him on timing lately. But I still want to save him, to move him with us, and give him a good home with us if at all possible.
I think it’s TinyKittens or Kitten Lady who refer to that as a “kitty burrito,” haha. Sure hope I can get something to work when the time comes. He’s a good, sweet, mostly mild cat, and he and Goober have gotten along OK. It’s just Mama Peppercorn’s spicy defense he does not want to have to put up with. Understandable and wise, really.
I wish he and Goober could work out some way to get on Peppercorn’s good side. I wish she’d see that Goober and Mystic are fine fellows, good allies for her and her kittens. She’s being a fierce, good mama in her defense of her babies. But also, they are getting bigger and beginning to wear on her nerves at times too. She is, I think, now trying to wean them. So maybe once she’s a little less bound up in motherly duties, she’ll let up on ol’ Goober and Mystic. She has a strong sweet side too, and has a lot of trust and forgiveness for me, so I think this strong-minded young lady would make a good ally for the guys if she can simmer down and make friends. Yes, she gives warning growls and hisses to me if/when I have to get around her or step on her. She has not figured out that it’s better to give my feet a wider berth, or to move if I say move. In fact, she seems to think that getting right up against me, as if to lean on me and guide me, is the tack to take. I can see she’s smart. She doesn’t hold a grudge about that. All in all, I’m surprised. She evidently decided that if I was going to feed her outside and be kind to her kittens, and tolerate her coming in and stealing my cat’s food, that I must be pretty good people. Thus her decision to keep moving her kittens over to my door, and ultimately the other family letting me foster her. Once she and the kittens were inside, she was relieved, and though she’s popped out a few times, she’ll also come back in, or let me pick her up and carry her back in. She isn’t yet happy about being picked up, either she’s too sensitive along her underbelly, while still nursing, or it’s just worry from how other humans have treated her before. I’m hoping with experience, she’ll learn that’s OK.
Goober’s doing some better, with extra attention lately, and purposeful moving him onto the bed. He’s seeing he’s really still wanted and loved, and won’t get shoved aide by me, just because there are a bunch of kittens and a rather pushy, fussy mama. Or at least I hope he is understanding this.
I don’t know what the dust-up was about yesterday afternoon; high spirits and heavy playing by all the kittens, getting into everything, or Goober and Peppercorn got too close and got into it, or she thought I was somehow up to something while at my chair at the computer, n the phone, with the kittens and Goober around. Whatever it was, whew, we all had quite a tangle for a minute there, shocking me and all the cats, before it was done. While on the phone to my friend, swho’s a dog lover, allergic to cats, but seems to get it that things happen, whether he understands feline behavior or not. He didn’t seem too bothered. I told him I’d hang up and call back. Fortunately, that was before it really hit the fan.
But afterward, although everybody, me included, were still frazzled, getting back to normal, we did OK. No further fuss from Mama or anyone. I don’t think Goober started anything and didn’t want any fuss to begin with, therefore only wanted to get free of the argument. Not sure what happened, but one of the kittens may have been scared into having a small accident, which I discovered later in scent on Goober and one kitten and my arm, after I’d extricated a kitten during the fracas.
But for a few hours after, everyone (me too) was subdued and still startled. No further difficulties, and maybe it worked loose some of the tension built up. I notice they are all back to normal, last night and this morning. Who knows, maybe it shoed the cats they can argue but still not be moral enemies? Hope so.
One other bit: “Beige Boy” has now been getting on the bed to sleep with me and Goober, or solo, four four consecutive nights. He likes getting next to us, and last night, he and Goober were right next to each other for a few minutes with no quibbles from Goober. This morning, Beige Boy traipsed around on the dresser / desk, and although Goober fussed slightly, Beige Boy didn’t push it, gave Goober his space, and kept exploring. However, from how Beige Boy was acting, body language, facial and other expression, I think little Beige Boy has decided Goober could be a role model, hero, and friend, if only he can get Goober to let up and like him. Haha.
I think Beige Boy has adopted us while I wasn’t expecting it. — I had thought one of the others, Ducky or Wizard, might. (Wizard should be the delayed development boy, if I didn’t mix them up too much when they got out of their collars.) Instead, it looks like Beige Boy is the one who’s attached himself to us. I was not planning on keeping one of the kittens, unless one proved unpopular to get adopted. But Beige Boy might get himself a place here this way. He seems convinced he wants to be with us.
Their names are from their collars. But one, Pinky, is getting renamed Digger (Girl) since she especially likes to dig in the litter, not any need, she just likes playing in clean litter. (I had two kittens studying me sifting their litterbox, the night before last. Funny to see those little mental gears turning and so attentive.) One, I’m not sure yet who, but think I know, is prone to want to grab my leg and climb, to encourage feeding. I am trying to discourage this and divert it, since most people, me included, do not want a kitten or adult cat doing that. It is still kittenish enthusiasm, but it needs to be diverted.
Doing fine otherwise, short on cat litter, and now I have to order yet more, because I still don’t have the one or two pails that got sent to the leasing office.
The upstairs neighbors are more of a bother at night than the kittens, when I’m trying to sleep. I don’t mind the kittens, and so far, they have not been trying to engage or annoy me at night. So far.
So in other words, typical kitten behavior going full steam ahead. As far as I can tell, everyone is healthy and happy Ah, I think we may have solved the parasites issue. Hope so. Monday is the second dose and should stop anything.
Still not much luck getting the kittens to eat dry food. They will a little, but no great or equal choice of it yet. I’ve tried broth or water with the dry food, both kinds, but no real luck yet, the dry gets left, even if soaked. They will eat a little when it’s dry by itself I the bowls, but Goober and Mama are the ones really eating it. I haven’t worked out how to get them equally on dry food yet. Either kind. I’ll keep trying ideas. They are now plenty old enough to have dry as well as moistened dry and wet foods.
Wow, the amount of food and litter I’m going through, though, and this isn’t likely to be done until after I get us moved.
Aw, I’m loving having them around anyway, no matter that it’s some work dealing with behavior and food and litter and having them all underfoot. The rewards in seeing them learning and growing, the cuteness, outweigh the less glamorous parts, heh. I get a big kick out of them, and the love involved is great too.
Now if Peppercorn can just mellow a little and make friends, this would be almost ideal.
But yeah, I can’t keep all the kittens. I didn’t expect to be keeping any, unless one didn’t get a home. But of all five, Beige Boy seems to want to be with Goober and with me. So he may stay. We’ll see.
Hre I am hoping to move, I’ll be in semi-familiar yet mostly new territory, likely new grocery store location and so on, new neighbors, and oh, I have too much stuff in some ways, too little in others. So I have a surplus of a few food items, hardly any reserve of others, and I don’t yet know what kind of refrigerator is coming with the deal, to know how much I can store in the freezer. A small deep freeze is sounding good about now.
So..I’ll ride it out, I guess. We’re used to keeping a few things for emergencies in hurricane season, but I’ve been trying to fight off my tendency to keep too much around (Still too much left, but not so much food-wise or some other supplies.)
This feels weird, and I’m still not panicky, more like, if it happens, it happens, treat it like any other “something going around.” I think I’ll be OK. Hope so. Meanwhile, I don’t have a family doctor / primary care physician, and need a general exam for upcoming SSI/Medicare etc. and possible eye surgery. So maybe this is accidentally good timing. I’m not sure I believe in either luck or destiny anymore. Some things just happen beyond our control, and there’s lots that’s not good and some that is good occasionally. — And yet I’ve just had what seems uncommonly unlikely and good. I don’t know.
Take care out there, everyone. One likes you all in one piece and healthy and happy.
—-
My upstairs neighbors, whether it’s the kids or adults or both, have been banging around, like a herd of elephants, since around 7pm, and it’s now past midnight, so I question how much kid involvement there is right now. This is more than enough to shake the ceiling and walls in alarming fashion, and I have three times broken my silence and tapped with a broomstick on the ceiling, going to get the point across, to no effect. I’d prefer not to have to knock on their door and say something, but it’s getting more common, more frequent, and way more annoying when I want to get some sleep. I’m hoping to move and let it be someone else’s problem.
No news, so I don’t know if we’ll close tomorrow or Monday, with vet appt. Monday, Gas hookup was scheduled for Tuesday, Cable/internet and security for Friday. So not much packing will happen next week and it all may be thrown off by delay in closing.
I’m not truly upset or frustrated. I get that both sides were delayed, and I figure it will work out, despite my misstep in scheduling utilities hookup too soon, expecting it to happen after the deal was closed.
I hope it all goes wel with no aggravations for either side.
I now think it’ll be right around the end of the month before I’ll move, so I am likely out another month’s rent for the apartment, plus utilities. Today I’d paid hookup fee for each service.
Can’t sleep now, too much going on upstairs. I was too keyed up, still am, a bit better.
I am trying to figure out how to reload audible audio files on my Kindle Fire. For reasons unknown, it decided I had too many copies of Pride of Chanur and Chanur’s Venture and one other CJ title, which must be because I had not deregistered old Kindle device / app installations. Hoping it’ll be settled easily.
Beige Boy was again briefly on he bed with Goober and me. He seems to like being with us. I’m getting attached.
I gave all the cats some extra attention, after the altercation this afternoon. Hoping that got them all cooled down.
I am way low on cat litter. Gotta order more, plus counting on my friend to get by the office to pick things up, including the long-missing pail of litter.
Going to listen to the story and
Oh, fun. Two calls in the past two hours with a message cut off, claiming my account has been debited $399-something, and if I didn’t make the charge, press 1. Hmm, only no such charges show up in my account, fortunately, or I’d be pretty ticked off.
Some sort of scam call, I think. No reports from a check of the phone number, but I’m going to report it. Not good timing, to get that kind of shakeup. Oh, I’ll be keeping an eye on things for the next while, but oh, what a pain in the posterior from some con artist. Not good.
(Outside, there is the rhythm, the flavor, the cadence of English on one side, Spanish on the other. I can’t hear either set of conversations, but the beautiful flow of Spanish is clear from one side, while on the other are the bunch of kids playing, mostly shouting and calling in English through their game. Both are unique. Where I live, there are lots of Latinos and black folks and not as many white folks. People mostly get along or give each other space by group. It mostly works. I still find myself not as deep-down used to this, in all its ramifications, as I like to think I am, because the neighborhoods where I grew up were mostly, though not exclusively, white. That Spanish patter, the way Spanish sounds, I still find beautiful, lovely. It’s “exotic” and yet not so different in so many ways, and yet there is a distinctive cultural and linguistic quality to it that makes it its own thing, not quite like English. — And that Anglo-American insistence on making it different, when all of us from the Aericas have this mix of European and American and other groups…I wish American English-only folks could see how artificial and prejudicial this is. Black folks have their own brand, their own flavor, of American culture. But as my mom once put it in a clearer moment, there’s more in common among all of us as Americans than there is different, in many ways. I see more f the compare and contrast around here, and the good and bad, the difficult parts of living how we do here, but the wonderful stuff too, at times. Oh, I get annoyed at the hered-of-turtles noise from the upstairs neighbors, but in moments like this, when I hear the kids outside having a good time, and the adults on the other side also having a pretty good time, I am reminded that we Americans have mostly found a way to make it work, by our common culture and ideas, past the things that make us all so different. That Americans are this simultaneous unruly mix, and yet we have things that unite us, when we remember them, is a thing others, and sometimes we Americans, too easily forget. And in the current divisive and ugly, mean-spirited political nonsense, oh, how I wish more people could stop and remember this thing about being American, that we can bring together people with radically different ideas and solutions, we can cooperate and work together when needed, we can get along and be neighbors and friends and families, people who love each other or like each other, who get along and make life better for each other, when given a decent, working chance to do so, when not divided by crazy-stupid folly and prejudices.)
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I have been listening to the audiobook for Chanur’s Venture today. I am reminded why I love this saga. While the narrator, Dina Perlman, does not read things the way I read them in my mind, her take on it is still interesting and makes me think.
Here we get Pyanfar waking up to new conceptions, new ideas forming of how hani could be versus how they are, the spots in hani thinking and culture that don’t quite make sense, that Justiny attitudes, beliefs, which are not as biologically ingrained as hani like to think.
We get Pyanfar musing about hani customs regarding men’s and women’s roles, beginning to conceive of a more equal and less limiting future. We also get Pyanfar beginning to see more about how the Compact between species works or doesn’t.
So we get Pyanfar’s take on things, forming, while na Kym then objects that there’s more to him than meets the eye. This turns the usual human male-female dynamic on its head in a way that hasn’t otherwise been done, to argue the strengths of equality, not favoring one or the other gender over the other.
In that few passages while Py and Khym have a conversation before he starts on as crew, we get Py in transition, and Khym also in transition, and how the Pride’s crew, versus how other hani see this, gets shown.
Meanwhile, she has just gotten nose-deep in interspecies intrigues, with Tully showing up, with mahe, stsho, kif, knn, t’ca, chi all getting into it,, with humans a still mostly unknown quantity looming, possibly headed there. And Py has begun figuring, but still has to deal with built-in expectations, like shining of Tully and Khym together as a potential risk, not realizing that humans really do not work that way, not hani-fashion.
My browser’s spellchecker has probably insisted on respelling a lot in all that. I do know how to spell, including alien words. But y browser thinks it knows better than I do. My apologies.
— And in the middle of me trying to formulate some thoughts are refer this back to things with the cats — Peppercorn had to start meowing, loudly, and came back here wanting extra attention. Not sure what else she was after, but when a kitten showed up, maybe wanting to nurse, little mama got up and left. Poor mama is working on weaning them, looks like. Maybe that was why she was calling, but I thought it must be some other thing she wanted. Not sure what.
Be it noted the Yesterday’s News cat litter I bought — is a huge flop. At least the cats used the Feline Pine. I don’t think they have even touched the new kind. I am waiting on another delivery tomorrow or the next day, but it looks like I will be getting rid of the rest of this. Peppercorn may have been trying to tell me about that. Cats can be nutty or not always the smartest, but they can also have times of very smart, clear thinking. I know she was trying to tell me something, I just don’t know what, except she also wanted attention.
Cats have this way of impressing me sometimes. I always find them interesting and funny, even when they are aggravating at other times. They are worth it. And each one is different. People who don’t have animals are missing out.
I was last at the supermarket on either Wednesday, or I think it was Thursday, on my way home from work. In either case I could have bought certain items that I infact didn’t because I thought , oh I’m ok for that just now, I can get more later on when I do. I started to hear stories on Facebook that night, about shops with the shelves stripped of toilet paper. I was a bit suprised, but thought to myself oh won’t be That bad !!! I saw those stories continued when I went to the local Chinese takeaway shop on Saturday for my Mother and My weekly treat ( either lemon chicken or sweet & sour chicken Hong Kong Style, with fried rice. Mini Vegetable Spring Rolls as a side dish ). Anyway, I was told by the lady there that she had also found a lot of shelves stripped by hoarders when she was last there. Sunday Morning, tried to get Mum to get up early enough so that I could get to the shops while there might still be stuff there. 9-45am before I could get her up, 10-45 before she got clear of the bathroom, and had her early morning medication. Made breakfast, an by the time I was ready to get out the door, it was an hour later. Got to Boots the Chemist, to get a new supply of pull-ups ( disposable underwear ) for her. I would normally buy two packs at a time an that lasts her about a week. Managed to get just the one. Then I went across the trading estate to the supermarket, Oh Gods !!! First stop looking for a fresh loaf, I’m working Nightshift this week, tonight infact. I was actually suprised to find there was still one loaf of the particular brand of sliced bread that we usually have. I do mean one loaf, there was very little other than unsolved left. Next, down to the meat fridges that I passed on the way to the bread. I swear the shelves were stripped. Did pick up one pack of four lamb chops, also discovered a ham hock cooked with an Apple and blacklisting glaze ( comes in a sealed bag inside a cardboard box ). Almost no other uncooked meat there. No Mince, Beef, Pork, Lamb, or Poultry there. Hardly any tinned goods, I did pick up a couple of items there for the Local Food Donation points inside the store. There was no Toilet Paper at all, of any brand or pack size, shelves were also stripped of Paper Tissues, although I got lucky their, in the next aisle over was a trolley with a couple of boxes waiting to be put on the shelves, but with no staff there to do so, So I tore the box open and took a twin pack. Crisps and Confectionery was slim pickings, and even though I’d stopped buying crisps there regularly, due to the manufacturers decision to drop the flavours I like, I noticed that those shelves were bare too. There was little in the way of washing up liquid for the dishes, but I did manage to get some wash pods and conditioner for our laundry. This particular branch is NEVER good for soap or shower cream, but they had none there today anyway. Managed to pick up some washing liquid for the dishes at a rival supermarket, and also a bottle of sauce, none in my first choice. where even the frozen chips were in short supply