They deserve every ounce of safety and protection and recovery, and so are Gazans. I don't know in which universe we can have both. I wish we'll find those who can lead us to that universe and to that trust.

There are people trying to make this happen, but it is a huge problem to solve. If the people with common sense and morality were in charge everything would be different.

Niki reports this morning that their new Foster lady is nice.

So I'm hopeful that this can be the stable base they need for a couple years to finish high school and get themselves launched to college.

EM is coming over this morning and we're going to wrestle with passwords and autopays with new urgency as JZ's old debit card expires at the end of the month so it all has to be changed over anyway.

Tennessee Dave, our vintage window specialist, may or may not be coming by to fix the sash. He's the Schrodinger's Cat of Contractors.

My face continues to flake off old skin at an alarming rate. It's like the worst case of dandruff but my face.

I really want to get back to my running routine but all this dermatology has thrown me off my schedule.

Bright sunny day here in SF. It keeps teasing us with hints of chilly fall but doesn't commit.

Good luck David. I hope their person is like my sister—she had a foster kid for junior and senior year of high school and summers sometimes in college. Kiddo had some issues but graduated and is still in touch.

Nilly thanks for popping in! Shir thanks for your updates, it’s really good to hear from someone who is there and how things feel. Wish anyone had some good answers on how to fix anything.

Niki reports this morning that their new Foster lady is nice.

So I'm hopeful that this can be the stable base they need for a couple years to finish high school and get themselves launched to college.

I'm so glad to hear that!

My face continues to flake off old skin at an alarming rate. It's like the worst case of dandruff but my face.

You *may* be a lizard. (I'm a medical editor; I know stuff.)

I really want to get back to my running routine

I'm consistently hitting 30 minutes on the bike these days; now my goal is to do that 5 days a week.

(oh, and people. Please remember that I'm on 4-5 hours of not so great sleep at night for almost 3 weeks now, and the days are filled with stress. Bad logic and even worse, bad grammar might occur every now and then. War-life balance).

You *may* be a lizard.

Intriguing Halloween possibilities....

Or you're getting the extreme exfoliating experience.

They're all Schrodinger's contractor, I think.

Shir, that's fine. We're happy to see your pixels (and Nilly's). Any unexpected arrangement thereof is only to be expected.

Hec, I hope the dermatology stuff settles down soon.

Hec, I hope the dermatology stuff settles down soon.

I very gently exfoliated with a wash cloth and cleanser in the shower and took off a bunch of the dead skin flakes.

The new lizard emerges.

Then EM vacuumed after she got here so everything I had shed is also cleaned up.

Good news about JZ's autopays: She seems to have set a lot of them up as direct charges to our checking account rather than through her card. That was smart.

Bad news about JZ's autopays: She set a bunch of them up with her work email address and work phone number, both of which are discontinued. So when I try to change them it sends the stupid verification PIN going off to somewhere that doesn't exist and I can't access it.

We did determine that PGE is charging through to our checking account so the power won't be turned off November 1st.

Xfinity was a nightmare loop of being in the account and then getting kicked when I tried to review the billing, complicated by us having two accounts: one for our old apartment, and a separate one for the new house. Which was further complicated by Emmett & Kalena setting it up when they moved into the Garden Apartment which has its own address (152 Shrader) and also the aforementioned work email mishegas.

I was able to confirm though that the old apartment account went directly to the checking account, so I'm hoping that the new account was set up that way as well. Otherwise I'm going to have to fight with a phone tree which is nobody's idea of a good time.

ION, I'm flying my niece out to see us next week for four days. I'm flying her first class on short notice and I don't even care that it's going to cost.

I have made progress, though, so that all the financial accounts are transferred over to me, and have initiated the series of changes through UC Retirement which will make me the lead member on our health insurance and line up pension payments and life insurance.

So you just keep scratching at the big pile of impossibility and you get one or two fixed at a time and eventually you push through.