At least one crime, Tep. Are they trying to produce Jokers?

they told me they can’t do the bloodwork because the spine center ordered weird tests

Oh yeah, those tests you have to get from the three mysterious old women lurking in the forest. Walk-ins only, they don't take appointments.

They know you're coming before you do

ND, how are the folks in and around Pigeon Forge and Sevierville handling the news about Ms Dolly?

I haven't heard anything from the folks I worked with out there, but I'm sure it's a sad time for everyone. Not sure when I'm going to be back out there again.

It’s nice to know there are so many read-alongs. Kind of comforting. But also seeing the pixels is lovely.

I’m sorry business is so stressful, ND.

Steph, OMG, seriously.

I was at a hospital today driving/supporting a friend who was getting nasal surgery. It was general anesthesia, so coming out of it took longer than the surgery. Surgeon reported that all went swimmingly. Now she is comfortably ensconced at home. I offered to stay over, but she declined (I would have, too, ha!), so I’ll check in later.

I too forget to post very often when I'm reading to catch up. I'm sure having a depression/anxiety episode the last couple of months didn't help with the chattiness either, though thankfully I seem to be coming out the other end of that.

Good to see the lurkers pixels!

May things settle enough to allow you to spend more time being nattery.

Brendon is still in NY with me, which is very unsual, but he is trying to do a big construciton project involving a deck, shed, and hot tub. He got all his materials list together and sent out for bids to a few places. Placing orders today. The excavation was a big deal with the extremely rocky backyard, but he has the foundation pillars poured and level. He's been up here for a full month, plus a couple of shorter trips earlier this summer. We really need to clone him because Florida projects need completion too.

I'm pretty much a lazy slug, with good intentions.

he is trying to do a big construciton project involving a deck, shed, and hot tub...We really need to clone him because Florida projects need completion too.

Clone him twice because we could use him in Ohio!

We keep putting off remodeling the bathroom because, even though we have the budget earmarked for it, Tim kept having serious medical shit (and now I have 2 surgeries in the next 12 months -- the cervical spine, and then a hip replacement next year [I hope!]), so we wanted to make sure that we could cover the medical bills first, before renovating the bathroom. We are extremely lucky that his health insurance is so good when it comes to surgeries (and, apparently, cancer treatment). You would expect a family (in good old America) to go bankrupt after 5 surgeries and cancer since 2020, but our finances are fine, and I am grateful for that every day.

There's 13 days to go until surgery, and I got the pre-surgery physical (which is different than your annual physical) done yesterday. Thursday I pick up the hard neck brace I have to wear after surgery. I am *dreading* that, because I hate snug things around my neck — I never wear turtlenecks, and it has to be like 10 degrees for me to wear a scarf out of the house — but I'm hoping I'll be so stoned on opioids that my violent hatred of stuff around my neck goes way down. Fortunately I don't have to wear it when sleeping, showering, or icing my neck. Apparently with some more complex cervical spine surgeries, the patients have to sleep in the hard brace and have to wear a different kind of brace when showering. I would die.

I have an OB/GYN appointment next week to talk about HRT for perimenopause, and I cannot wait. The hot flashes are unreal, and I would appreciate my mood leveling back out from the ready-to-stab-a-bitch phase it's been in for a while. (I mean, some bitches need stabbing, but not all the time, or so I hear.)