Pix, I'm very sorry. It's a lot. ~ma to you.

askye and dcp - I am so sorry about your losses. My condolences.

Hi, hi. Laura emailed and asked me to post this very important announcement: Yesterday, we celebrated the natal day of shrift! Many happy returns to you, shrift. Glad you're home safe and sound.

As I've said many a time to many of you -- Birthday +1 is totally a thing. Happy B+1, shrift!

(Laura is recovering in bed this week -- if memory serves, it's her foot surgery; she misses y'all and is hoping to make a return to the glowy box tomorrow).

Pix that is a lot. Take care of yourself...

Happy B+1, shrift!

Get better, Laura!

Since I'm officially a New Yorker again I look forward to the disease-fighting properties of all that swagger.

Pix, I’m so sorry.

asker, I’m so sorry for your loss.

Omicron numbers are shooting sky high in highly vaxxed SF. So even though only 5% of people who get infected are going to the hospital (instead of 15% during Delta), there are so many infected it's still starting to strain the healthcare system.

Still trying to get Matilda a booster, but while the FDA approved 12-15 y.o.s, the CDC hasn't recommended it. And I'm afraid it's going to sweep through her high school in that lag time. Especially everybody coming back from the holidays (and her boyfriend coming back from Texas), it just seems inevitable she's going to get it. Need to try to snag an at-home test kit today. Walgreens restocks on Tues & Fri and they sell out immediately.

I had a couple of post-holiday appointments scheduled for the end of this week, and now I'm going to reschedule them to February.

Laura emailed and asked me to post this very important announcement: Yesterday, we celebrated the natal day of shrift!

Aw! Thank you for relaying the message and recovery~ma for Laura.

Still trying to get Matilda a booster, but while the FDA approved 12-15 y.o.s, the CDC hasn't recommended it.

If the FDA approved it but the CDC hasn't recommended it, does that mean that Walgreens and clinics and such aren't offering it to 12- to 15-year-olds yet? I disapprove of that bullshit. Kids are about to be back in school, and those places are petri dishes.

I'm hoping 2022 will be better ... it's been a rotten year for so many in so many ways. I'm OK, although at the nibbled to death by ducks stage. I spent nearly two hours trying to get an appointment for a booster and flu shot at the pharmacy I've been using for more than 20 years. Got there, no appointment, but the pharmacist condescendingly said I could have the booster. But not the flu shot - he kept telling me I needed to have Part B and I kept telling him I wasn't on Medicaid. Then he said my insurance wasn't valid ... turns out I have to go online, set up an account with the insurance company, register and request them to send me a card. That was the 23rd. I had plans for the 24th - go to the shopping center and watch the last-minute shoppers. But I woke up that morning with my booster injection site really painful and my back hurting to the point I could barely get out of bed. Same for the 25th and 26th. A friend had sent me a present and, when I opened it, it was a size 4 ... which I don't think I've been able to wear since I WAS 4. So I'll need to return it. Had to do some laundry and go to the grocery ... and fight my way through the screaming (literally) tourists.

Thursday the 30th I was awakened by building maintenance a bit before 6:00am. There was a leak upstairs and, luckily, wasn't dripping into my apartment. There were some water stains on the ceiling and they put in one of those big fans to dry it out. But it was really warm and rained almost non-stop, so it wasn't drying well. Meanwhile, I don't have a living room; guess I should be glad it wasn't the bedroom or I'd have no place to sleep (those fans are LOUD and I had to move furniture to make room for it). They were talking about opening up the ceiling to get it dry, deal with any mold that had developed ... which means even longer without the living room. I had them stopping by on a daily basis, checking the water stains and waving a moisture monitor at the ceiling.

Monday, the 3rd, it snowed. And snowed. And snowed. People were told to stay home, just about everything closed, but there were accidents. Because people. As of this morning, some people had been stuck on the highway for 16 hours - no food, no water, running low on gas.

Dragged myself into work because there was a project I needed to deal with. My boss tested positive; I haven't been able to get a test, so I'm hoping for the best. Couldn't get a bus, eventually got a cab. It has to be better tomorrow.

And for those parents dealing with small children who have their own ideas of how things should be, here's one mother's take on that.