My thumbs ache inexplicably. May be part of the recovery process from the RSI from July 4 railorama, may be warning I got my mom's arthritis (rheumatoid, iirc.) Which would be AWESOME, thank you 39. Been a fantastic first two weeks of it.

Consuela, glad things seem to be turning around in increments.

I no longer give smoke alarms more than one chance. Battery replacement doesn't work? Fucker is replaced. You can get ones for $10 that come with an led emergency light now!

I am a giant skipper who skips. I am home from a month of travel/professional development and am SO HAPPY. Except for the loud ranchero music coming directly into the bedroom from the party next door when I'm trying to nap. That's not my favorite.

What percentage of the Eurorpean population died in during the Plague? Way more than 10%. Just looked it up and the first numbers coughed up by Prof Google was 30-60%. 2% should be easy to absorb.

Ruby Gloom! I bought Franny a Ruby Gloom book many many years ago but she failed to see her charms. I'm so happy to hear Mathilda likes her.

Kat, that fig jam sounds amazing.

I am burning out so hard these days I can just barely manage to get through a day. Writing is suffering, which makes me a bit sad.

Averaging about 30%. Higher in Europe. Closer to 50%

Don't judge that I have plague mortality numbers so available. I can also do Ebola.

That's why I love you, Cass.

Just a quick update to let you know why I've gone grey. The shoulder pain turned out to a torn rotater cuff. MRI spotted it. I will eventually get in to see an orthepedic guy about it. but only after going through a long process. So glad that leaving our health care in the hands of private insurers does not result in any treatment delays. In the meantime pain controlled mainly with muscle relaxants which unfortunately leave me spacey and not overly functional.

Oh - in addition my Mom had a cut a few days ago where we could not stop the bleeding. She only let me know about this after bleeding for 25 minutes. So took her to emergency room, where she was triaged and eventually got to see a Physician Assistant who irrigated and stitched the wound with dissolving stitches. Ahead of us was a guy suffering from alcohol poisoning due to a .4 blood alcohol level. He survived and even woke up before we left, thanks to prompt treatment. From what I overheard the physicians tell the family, he was very lucky; .4 blood alcohol is fatal 50% of the time. His sister commented to his mother that she hoped this would scare the crap out of him and serve as a wakeup call. (There is very little privacy in the ER, especially when it is crowded and they are treating patients in the hall because they ran out of rooms.)

Oh also had my regular needle-in-the-eye injection yesterday. One thing you do NOT want to hear after such an injection from the doctor is "I almost never see this amount of bleeding".

Yikes, Typo! I hope your shoulder gets better -- is there even anything to do about a torn rotator cuff?

I am burning out so hard these days I can just barely manage to get through a day.

I hear that. I'm even exhausted from mostly good things! I was all excited to have a quiet weekend, but that still meant after-work plans on Friday, a block party today, two trips to the nursing home, and I was out and about most of yesterday. Maybe next weekend I can really sit around a lot? Maybe not. At least I don't think I have any after-work plans this week.

Am currently taking advantage of having woken up unnecessarily early to sit around for a couple of hours before getting a pedicure.