Feeling a little crappy -- headache, generally achy, and a fever. I'm hoping to sleep it off. And side effects are a fair tradeoff for antibodies, so I can live with it.

That's how I felt about the side-effects. I didn't feel well, but I've felt worse, and at least I knew the shot was working.

Thanks, Laura. This year as every year, I'm grateful to share my birthday with the great Willie Mays, who turns 90 today.

It's been quiet this year, which I am beyond ok with. As Ann Leckie says (and I believe it was in amyparker's tagline at one point): "It's only ever been one step and then the next."

I love you all, even if I'm a lot less demonstrative about it than I was at one time.

Happy Birthday, Karl. Nice to see you.

Thanks, Cindy. What a year, eh?

Toddson, that reminds me of this old sketch from The Edge.

So, we have someone coming tomorrow from a company called Cincinnati Hoarding to assess the situation. So that’s where my fucking life is right now. I feel like a goddamn shitshow failure of a human being.

You are a perfectly fine human being, Tep. I’m sorry this feels so terrible.

You are a perfectly fine human being, Tep.

This is true. You know what's good? Getting some help in a situation like this.

Put aside your reflexive shame-response, and see that this is part of the process of fixing the situation. It's almost like seeing a therapist. And alleviating it going forward. It's going to be okay.

When my people came, they were so nice! I was a wreck, though.

I empathize with the feeling, truly. I admire you for doing something hard about a situation you know you want to fix when taking the fixing steps makes you feel shitty, too. And for talking about it - because we all (or mostly all?) have albatrosses of some kind, and seeing someone else handle theirs is... aspirational!