Weather~ma to those of you who need it. It certainly looks scary from here. Brzail~ma for Gris and Brazil. Hi, Karl. So so good to read it, Laura. Feel better~ma, sarameg.

I am waiting in my living room until my dad will come and help. After the hornet drama a few days ago, apparently a small bird got into the house in the early hours of the morning. Looks like the cats had some fun with it too. It is still alive and either in shock/wounded, but I'm really not good with any flying thing, so I mainly try to keep the birds away from it and wait for help.

And I really need to leave to get some things done before everything closes for the weekend, but can't leave the bird alone with the cats.

Update: alas, birdie didn't make it.

I'm sorry about the bird, Shir.

So far here things are a little gusty and occasionally rainy. I still have power, which is nice. On the other hand, that means that I should probably try to get some work done. Mostly, I want to shop for travel stuff. Does anyone have suggestions for good walking shoes that do all right in chilly, wet but not snowy weather?

I'm inland and on fairly high ground, but we're getting warnings about heavy rains and high winds, possible flooding, trees falling (the ground's so wet that the roots don't hold), power failures, etc. I was in the grocery the other evening to pick up a few things and they were out of milk with people asking when there would be more. sigh ....

The news coverage of the storm shouldn't make me laugh, but really they are absurd. OMG, my hair is wet and look this fence is pushed over! I'm not saying it isn't going to be a wet dangerous mess, but the soggy reporters aren't impressing me.

Happy to report I am in New Orleans, which is lovelier than usual with extra added Buffistas! And more to come!

Everyone in the path of the storm, please stay safe.

I'm exhausted and anxious. I wanted to take myself out for a treat after dropping ltc off at school but that would have meant being out in public.

Does anyone have suggestions for good walking shoes that do all right in chilly, wet but not snowy weather?

I love the Merrels MOAB hiking boots that I tromped all over Ireland in. Stayed warm and dry, are super comfortable for my troublesome feet, and are not heavy at all.

It looks like a faded old Kodachrome photograph out there, there's so much smoke in the air.

Thanks, lisah, I'll check them out.

Owww I actually remembered to take painkiller, why Ami in pain still?

I'd like to rename 'painkillers.' Because mostly they just knock it down a little. Either 'pain reducers' or something that really eliminates pain.

On the advice of my PCP, I take 1000mg acetaminophen and 400mg ibuprofen together, as needed, and that dosage is usually enough to knock things down to manageable, and frequently does eliminate pain for the rest of the day. I rarely have to resort to that more than maybe twice a week.

The other day things were so bad the first dose did nothing, and I took another dose four hours later, something I never do. I rarely need a second dose in a day. The second dose backed things off to functional, but by late evening I really needed another dose just to be able to sleep.

I don't know if it was the barometric changes of Florence's organizing or what, but I'd really like to avoid more days like that.

Body chemistry being what it is, most opioids (that is a damn funny word to spell) don't do all that for my pain, they just make me not function well enough to care very much.