days_unfolding

I'm wondering when I'll be able to watch the Olympic ice skating. The time difference does not work for me. I wonder if they'll rebroadcast it in the evenings.

Gracie woke me up at 7 AM. I’m going to take care of the beasties and go back to sleep. Oliver was tired and sleeping in a laundry basket. Gracie doesn’t want to come inside. A typical morning. It’s a circus here as I feed the beasts. Fed us all.

Watched some of the ice skating on YouTube. Oliver is on my lap loving me up. I fed him and that gets cat approval. Napped. Woke up at 11 AM.

Torrid had a hoodie that said, “I’m only talking to my dog today”. I bought it. (Though it should be “I’m talking to only my dog today”.) Napped again.

I’m drinking water because I’m dehydrated. I’m trying to get up the energy to tackle the bathroom. I’m going to do some decluttering while I move stuff. I’m taking a break from the bathroom and am going to open packages.

Me to Oliver: I need to get up and get the recycling out. Oliver: I don’t care what you have to do. I care that your lap is warm.

I’ve got the Olympic TV on my phone. Nothing is on that I’m interested in however.

I received multiple pairs of jeans. I need the new hoodies. Two of them are out for delivery.

I keep checking on my investments. I’ve made a little money so far. Dad said to check on them during the week to see if they have triggered additional investment.

Oh excellent. I have conditioner for my hair and a small white board for the refrigerator. Got my hoodies. The postal guy gave Bella and Gracie some treats. I just need to hand-wash a t-shirt and underwear, and I’ll be ready to go tomorrow. I got a ring with a pretty blue topaz that says “Strong as fuck” on the back.

Gracie doesn’t want to come inside again.

Yuma Kagiyama is one hell of a skater. And he clearly enjoys the audience. Turned on the TV broadcast, but they’re showing skiing, which doesn’t interest me that much.

I've started yawning, so I'm going to wend my way to bed after finishing hand-washing stuff. There's no live Olympics anyway at this hour. I started a new Pacific Crest Trail book after dumping the other one because it was trying to teach us Zen. I might read a little more.

A while back, I bought some Milkbones for “medium“ dogs. Well, their idea of medium is not mine; they’re tiny. Bella loves them. The box is open, but she doesn’t try to eat them all at once, so I let her get one when she feels like it. She always gets one right before we go to bed, and comes trotting in with it in her mouth. She’s almost done with the box, and I’ll get her some larger ones.

Overslept until 8 AM. I must have needed the sleep. Let the dogs out, fed us all, etc.

I’m thinking that it’s funny that Lily is the smallest cat that I’ve had, and Oliver is one of the biggest.

Why is “Puff, the Magic Dragon” playing in my head?

Showered, makeupped, ready to go. I have a few minutes before I get an Uber. At the dentist now.

Back home. The implant wasn’t too bad, but it’ll probably hurt after the numbness wears off. I took some preemptive acetaminophen, but they recommend ibuprofen, so I’ll have to have some delivered. I think that I’ll nap soon. Napped for a couple of hours.

The dogs keep sniffing my face. I think that they smell the blood from my dental surgery.

I’m feeling shaky. I’m making some macaroni and cheese. Had a good late lunch. Now I’ll order my meds to be delivered and also some yogurt because of the antibiotics. I forgot ibuprofen so I submitted another order, sigh. They’re shipping my meds although I wanted same-day delivery. Oh well. It’ll get here tomorrow. Got my ibuprofen and took some.

I’m reading the PCT book with Oliver curled up in my lap. Cozy. I bought two headlamps because they would be good to have if the power goes out.

Lousy day on the stock market. Oh well.

Let the dogs out. Can’t stop yawning. I need to make it an early night.

I did get my meds today. I’ll take the antibiotic before I go to sleep.

I really would like to see Crater Lake sometime. The closest airport is Redmond. I’d want to rent a car, although there is a bus there. The airfare isn’t too expensive.

Finished my book. I ordered her next book, but it won’t be published until March.

Fed us all. I ate more macaroni because it’s soft. Now I’m seriously thinking about going to bed. I did start another Pacific Crest Trail book. The guy worked in Silicon Valley, and oh, could I relate. I haven’t reached the point where he chucks it for the trail yet.

Ugh. Possible ice tonight. Good thing I don’t have to go anywhere tomorrow.

Cool. I found a pair of clean pajamas. They're ugly but very warm.

Woke up with my alarm at 7 AM. I want to go back to sleep. I did and woke up a little before 9 AM. I’m at work now. Got my scuzzy butt into the shower at lunchtime.

Finished up some stuff at work, which was satisfying.

I think that tonight I'll catch up on the trash that I wasn't taking out because it was so cold.

Off work. I finished my book on the Appalachian Trail. I love reading about the AT, I don’t know why. I don’t think that I could ever hike it because, while I could take the dogs, I also have cats. Plus I’m badly out of shape. I’d like to do shorter section hikes though. I bought two more books about the AT. I don’t like the person in my new AT book though. She’s trying to get the fastest time on the trail. Ugh. I wonder where my picture book of the AT went.

Note to self: Reschedule French lesson (because I'm having my dental implant that day). Done.

Hmm. I’m gathering garbage, but the snow should melt by next week, so maybe I won’t roll the can through the thick snow now. I hate winter. Emptied litter boxes and garbage cans. Got Oliver out of Zara's room, which he ran into. Snot.

I've done everything that I want, except that I'm handwashing clothes. I want to get to bed early to get up early, brush off the cars, and put my garbage bags in the bin.

I got ChatGPT to screen some stocks for me. That will save me some time. And I set a reminder to get the Wall Street Journal data that’s key to the system. I asked ChatGPT to write a Web scraper to pull down the data for me, but I don't have time to test it right now.

Woke up at 8:15 AM. Gracie does not want to come inside. She finally did. Ugh. Bella wants both food bowls. I told her that if she doesn’t let her sister eat, pretty soon she won’t have a sister. Finally both were eating. I fed Oliver and Lily. Oliver decided that he wanted Lily’s food because clearly it was better. (It came out of the same can.) Lily ran upstairs, so I brought her food up there and she’s eating it. Cats!

How’d it get to be February already? January just went “poof”.

Gracie is biting me because I’m trying to rearrange the blanket. I’m asking her if she’s going to be a good girl now. The answer is probably “No”.

Napped. Had lunch. Tried to pull the ironing board out, but it’s still stuck on the floor.

I need another nap. Napped. Now I need to shower. Crud. It’s supposed to snow, so jump-starting the car won’t work. I need to get up early.

Something is setting the dog alarm off.

Showered. Let the dogs out. I want to hand-wash some clothes for tomorrow in case that I don’t get the washer fixed (in-progress).

Gracie didn’t want to come in at first. I finally pretended to eat her food, rattling it, and that was too much for her. The dogs have eaten. Now the cats have eaten too. And I ate dinner.

Politico predicts that the next election will be Gavin Newsom vs. JD Vance, and Vance will win. Ugh ugh ugh. 2028 can't come fast enough though. Vance can't be worse than Trump.

Need to crash soon and get up early to jump-start the car.

I always forget to set the faucets dripping until after I’m in bed. I sigh and get up. Come on warmer weather.

Overslept. Sigh. And I forgot to turn the dryer on last night. I’ll take my shower at lunchtime.

Cold out (4F/-15C). The dogs came in right away. Fed everyone except me, although Lily didn’t eat because she’s down in the basement and won’t come up. I can’t tell if she’s stuck in a crawl space or not. I put some food down there to encourage her to come out. She ate it, so I guess that she's okay. I put down some water for her too.

Work is kind of a zoo, but I'll have lots of time this afternoon to work on stuff.

I had a headache earlier and think that it’s probably because I’m dehydrated. I’m trying to chug some water down. I received some new water enhancers that I need to check out.

Managed to get my weary and cold butt into the shower. Received my grocery order. Walmart bagged three sodas a bag and the bags broke, so I'm not happy with them.

Fell asleep at my desk. I haven't done that in quite a while. I'm not sure how long I slept, a half hour? I emailed and canceled my singing lesson because I can’t keep my eyes open. I know that the sleep doctor told me not to nap at night, but I’ve got to nap.

Bella and Gracie are chasing each other through the yard and play-fighting and don’t want to come inside. I’ll give them a few minutes and try again. This time they came inside. Fed the dogs and started soaking the cat dishes. Nap time. Slept for 5.5 hours. Oliver: Mom, are you going to get up and feed us? Did so. Both Bella and Gracie have diarrhea, sigh.

I bought a Wyze scale after reading susandennis' mention of it. I bought the scale with Bluetooth so that it can send readings to my phone. What can I say; I love tech. And I paid for it with my FSA account. I'm counting the days until my annual physical so that I can ask for Wegovy. I want the pills; I'm a pain wuss.

I need more hoodies and jeans so that I don't need to do laundry all the time. I bought most of my hoodies from one shop that sold kind of bohemian and zen stuff, but now I can't find it. Cosmic Clothing Co.? They don't seem to have hoodies now though. They have t-shirts. No, they do have hoodies too. Bought a couple pairs of jeans and hoodies. I need to eat dinner yet. Then I'll feed the critters their crunchies and go back to bed.

Oliver likes to sleep on my down coat. So I looked for a down cat bed, and there aren’t any. I found a plush self-heating bed that wasn’t too expensive and ordered it. We’ll see if he likes it. I also found a shag dog bed on Chewy, but it’s large.

Got up reluctantly at 6 AM. The problem with getting up early is that I want to go back to sleep. But I need to feed the cats first. I think that I forgot to give them their crunchies last night. I suck.

I’m not going back to sleep. I need to take a shower because I have a short lunch today.

Bella is being manic.

I rescheduled my lab visits so that I can wait until Sunday to jump-start the car. I have to brush off the cars today so that I don’t get a ticket.

The cold bathroom is COLD. (I think that it once was a porch that someone converted into a bathroom. There's very little insulation and the floor stays cold.) I almost didn't take a shower because I didn't want to take my pajamas off. And after the shower, I was chanting COLD COLD COLD as I got dressed. It's cold upstairs too, but I'm cranking the space heater. My dad said to close the bathroom door so that the heat vent heats only that room, but I have litter boxes in there, so I need to figure out what to do with them. There is a door hook thing that opens a door to let cats in but keep dogs out. I should look into that as a possible solution.

Note to self: Cabela's is where I got the wool socks. Cozy! I ordered some more compression and regular socks on Amazon, and I'll order wool socks later (done).

sunshine_two's passing has left me a little shaken up. She was two years younger than me. I wonder what happened to her dogs and cats. You never know, so I was thinking about my dogs and cats. I think that I'll contact Hospice Hearts (dog and cat shelter for pets whose human becomes incapacitated or passes away) and see if I can mention them in my will along with a hefty donation.

I have a short lunch because my 11:30 meeting ran long and I have a 1:00. Bella and Oliver are in my face; Bella for pets and because she’s lonely when I work upstairs (she won’t use the stairs), and Oliver because he’s hoping that I’ll feed him again. (Not.) Oliver and Gracie: We’d be happy to eat your food. Me: I bet you would.

Piano class went well. Nothing exciting to report. Zara was happy for the cuddle time.

I shut Oliver in the bathroom when I let the dogs in so that he doesn’t get out. There are other advantages. Lily can eat without him eating her food when he’s done with his, and I can feed Zara without Oliver bursting in there.

Gracie still has a scarcity mentality about food. She needs to clean up every scrap of food around. She was found in a park (probably dumped—people suck) and probably had to scrounge for food. I told her that she hasn’t missed many meals here, but she still worries.

I’m not going to fix the washer tonight because it’s gotten late due to my piano class. I have some black clothes that someone, probably Lily, got fur on. I’ll run them in the dryer along with some hand-washed underwear and socks.

I think that I’ll wait until lunchtime tomorrow to brush off the cars, even if I get a ticket. There’s a wind chill warning now through tomorrow morning.

I’ve been reading Pete Buttigieg’s autobiography. I thought that it would be dry, but he’s a good storyteller, plus the way that he built his career is fascinating. Recommended if you are interested in politics and like biographies. It’s called Shortest Way Home.

I've got the underwear and socks soaking in the sink. I grabbed out the wide sink plug that I take with me for traveling. It's very useful to make a good seal. So I'll post, give the cats and dogs their crunchies, put the clothes in the dryer, and go to bed.

Walmart Delivery was scheduled out until Tuesday, so I scheduled a delivery order at the local grocery store.

I wanted Bella to have her goose tonight, so I brought it in with me. She’s squeaking it. I didn’t think that through :)

Woke up a little after 7 AM. The dogs came in early. Someone wrote a criticism on Facebook about people who leave their dogs out in the cold, and someone said that their stupid dog doesn’t want to come in. I know that problem. -4F/-20C with a wind chill of-17F/-27C. I’m glad that I’m not trying to get the car out.

A post on Facebook says that roads are mostly snow- and ice-covered. I think that Bella is barking for the sake of barking. I don’t think that anyone is out there.

They’re plowing the side streets. Yay.

My grocery order has been delivered. I'll go get it in a minute.

Oliver was on my lap, and I told him that he was a handsome guy. Then he started digging his claws in and biting, so I told him to get off. Sigh.

The cats (Oliver and Lily) are wrestling to entertain me as I work.

Now Lily is digging her claws in and biting. She drew blood on my hand. I dumped her off, but she came back. I feel like a pincushion.

Gracie wants to know what Bella is barking at.

Overslept my lunchtime nap.

I asked the snow removal guy if he could come tomorrow, which should be warmer than today. That reminds me to put the letter to send in my mailbox to be picked up.

I finally let Randy Rainbow talk me into Ground News. It draws news from both the left and right and discusses bias. I got it at a discount, so we'll see how it goes.

Went to get my phone unlocked because I paid it off, only to find that it was already unlocked. Okay. Now to look for a new phone company, one that handles international travel well. (Lily says,”Feed me first!”)

Well, hell. I signed up for Ultra Mobile, which offers free calling to a wide variety of countries, and costs half of what I was paying Xfinity. But I ran into problems getting a transfer code from Xfinity. It took around three hours. No, I'm not kidding. The transfer is processing.

Because I spent so long dealing with Xfinity, I didn't get a chance to work on the washer. So I'll have to wear dirty clothes tomorrow. I'll work on the washer tomorrow night for sure.

Ate dinner way late. I need to feed the beasts their crunchies (dry food) and go to bed.

Holy cow. Now the forecasters are predicting 6 - 12 inches of snow. I almost forgot to set the faucets dripping. It’s colder than late night, -4F /-20C with a wind chill of -14F/-26C.

Woke up a little after 7 AM. I think that the heat vent in the bedroom is blocked because it was freezing cold in there.

I managed to get the dogs inside in about 15 minutes. It’s very cold.

Oh! The snow is starting at 4 PM now. That helps. Maybe I should take a shower to let my hair dry before taking a nap. No, I’m going to take my nap now and blow-dry my hair later.

I unblocked the heat vent in the bedroom, and it’s toasty warm in there now. Had a nice nap. Overslept quite a bit.

The snow started at 2. I didn’t take a shower, but instead, I DoorDashed an errand (done). Now I think that I want another nap. Bella grabbed a piece of donut out of my hand. Cheeky pup. I established that Gracie knows her name because I called her to get the other half of the donut, and she came running over. So when she doesn’t come when called, she’s just ignoring me :)

Bella was whining because I wasn’t paying attention to her. Remedied that.

Slept until 8 PM. Holy cow. Wrestled a recycle bin onto the basement stairs landing. Fed us all. Me to Bella: “No, you can’t have Zara’s food. You ate dinner. I saw you.” She was not convinced.

Hmm. I could buy a used Suburu Crosstek for not a lot of money. I'll keep that in mind in case I need to replace the Honda.

It’s late (almost 10 PM). I need to get to bed.

It’s predicted to snow all night, so we’ll wake up to a pretty mess.

Oh, how stupid do people think that we are? I got a phishing email about a "Microsoft upgrade"--from an AOL email address. Right.

Overslept until 7:30 AM. Gracie did not want to come inside. I finally filled her bowl with breakfast and shook it, and she eventually came in.

I rescheduled my blood test for next week. I can’t cope with it this week. Now I can jump-start my car tonight and not have to get up early. I really want to nap over lunch, so I guess that I'll shower after work. Fed us all.

Someone (Bella?) is stealing the special unscented dish detergent that I got for the cats' dishes. One vanished, so I brought out the other one, and that vanished. She likes to hide things under the bed, so I need to get a broom to clean it out. I'm a little afraid as to what I'll find. And I need to get more and keep it under the sink. I bought a magnetic white board for the refrigerator to note down stuff for the next grocery order.

Ugh. I have a lot of work to get done but I'm soooooo tired. Well, one thing down.

Overslept my nap at lunchtime. I really conked out.

Oliver is being a "lover boy". This will last just a few minutes until he's off doing something else. Actually, he started digging his claws in and biting me, so I dumped him off of my lap.

Finally remembered to call to get my physical therapy for my knee set up. They're scheduled out to late February. My list of health care visits is scary. I have visits on 2/20, 2/23, 2/24, 3/2, two on 3/3, 3/9, 4/14, 4/23, 4/28, and 6/9. Sheesh. I know that you have more doctor's visits as you get older, but yikes.

This weekend is going to be a zoo. I need to catch up on work, plus I have an added incentive to work on the house. That reminds me to check on the status of the steam cleaner. Still sitting.

Blasted through some stuff at work. I still have a bunch to do, but it seems more manageable now.

Okay, I found a t-shirt that I want. It has pictures of Bach, Gluck, Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart with the caption "I listen to dead people".

I’m going to stay in my pajamas and deal with the car in the morning. If I get up early enough, I could have the Kia jump-started or get the Honda to the DMV. But I don’t want to go out now.

Spent some time talking to Zara and Lily. I told them that I know that Oliver is a little shit. But he’s MY little shit.

Ooooh. Costco has some interesting groceries. I should defrost my chest freezer and order some.

Crappity crap. Oliver jumped down from the ledge over the bedroom door onto my face, claws outstretched, and cut my lip. It’s bleeding a lot, but I don’t think that it needs stitches or anything like that. I’ll have to make sure that it doesn’t get infected. I told Oliver that I was unbelievably mad at him. The plus side is that I impressed him enough that he didn’t eat Lily’s food (though he tried). Damn cat.

All the critters are fed. I need to eat, but I’m waiting for my lip to stop bleeding to eat. Maybe I’ll post first. Well, it seems to have stopped, so I’ll make some food. I ordered some Neosporin (and some other stuff) rush delivery from Walmart. At least, I’ll get the unscented dish soap for the cat dishes that either Bella or Gracie is stealing too. I got the rest of my stuff, but when I canceled the first order because I used the wrong card and pressed "reorder," it didn't copy over the dish soap.

Anyway, I'm going to post, brush my teeth, put on some Neosporin, and go to bed.

Woke up at 7:15 AM after hitting snooze on my alarm for a while. I forgot to put my faucets on dripping, but they didn’t freeze. Apparently, I slept through a minor earthquake (3.5).

I want Oliver corralled when I try to get the dogs in. Oliver and Lily took the bait and went down in the basement. The dogs don’t want to come in yet even though it’s freaking cold. They still don’t want to come in. So much for my shower this morning. They finally came in. Silly dogs. They don't appear to have icicles hanging off of them :) It's cold upstairs, so I'm blasting my space heater.

I'm thinking that I want a nap over lunch, so I guess that I'll take a quick shower after work.

My Dad's response about whether we are heading into a recession:

Based on what I'm seeing about the economy it's quite likely. Recessions/Depressions are caused by economic sector imbalances. New upcoming sectors need to do a lot of hiring. To get the manpower they bid up what people are being paid, this causes a migration from "old" sectors to "new" sectors (and inflation). Companies in old sectors which are marginal (not very profitable) tend to fail because losing employees pushes them over the edge. Things begin to settle down, and the new sectors find that they overhired and lay off the extra people, which causes unemployment to spike more. The unemployed default on loans, adding to defaults of the old failing companies. This causes problems in the financial sector, resulting in failures. The failures result in not enough financing being available, which causes interest rates to rise. That in turn causes additional failures in various economic sectors.

The magnitude of the out of balances determines whether the result is a recession (mild) or a depression (severe).

I have found a set of cheaper skin care that might be good: Clinique. I'll give it a try. I ordered their cleanser and eye cream. I have a lot of moisturizer to use up before ordering theirs.

The dogs understand the word “nap”. I told Oliver that I was going to take a nap, and the dogs headed to the bedroom. Had a nice nap.

Off of work. Showered, but it’s 6:30 PM, and I just let the dogs out, and I need to feed everyone. Instead of getting the Kia jump-started, I’m going to get up early and get the registration tag for the Honda, and stop at the Post Office to mail my check.

When I think about earthquakes, I think of the “Pretty Big One,” the Loma Prieta quake when I was living in California. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it led to some national broadcasts about it at the time. Art Agnos was the mayor of San Francisco then, and I looked him up. That led to a 30-year retrospective of the quake that I want to watch.

That also reminded me that I didn’t realize that the quake was national news when it happened. I guess that I was in shock. When I got home, our cable was out, so I was listening to the radio. I got a station out of Santa Cruz, and it made the damage sound pretty bad (as it was there). Then the national news came on, and they made it sound like the entire Bay Area was in ruins, and it was only then that I started to call my parents to let them know that I was okay. I couldn’t get through to them for a couple of days.

I did watch the 30-year retrospective of the quake. It was quite good. P.S. I'm glad that Bookshop Santa Cruz is still going strong. That's a great store.

Somehow my phone's USB port got water in it, and it's telling me to let it dry before charging it. That's a problem because I use it as an alarm. I just set up my Sharper Image travel alarm to use. I hope that it will wake me up.

I need to get up early to get the car's registration renewed and my check mailed. So I'm going to go to bed soon.