Many happy returns of the day, meara. I didn't get to talk with you at JZ's gathering, but you looked fabulous! I'm so glad you're here.

Hey, Karl. Happy birthday, Meara!

Happy Birthday Meara!

I'm back for my follow up. One of my Academy trainerswas out this week and will be out next week with an injury. My Team Lead is out sick (possibly covid I don't know). And once again overnight left things a mess and it was a scramble to get things done.

I was feeling better so I did maybe more than I should. My shoulder doesn't hurt as much but there still is a knot of tightness and I'm worried about over doing it.

Also overnight shift left a pallet under the steel shelves that the base is packs of bottled water (half fallen over) with packs of water and soda on top of that and buckets and bags of cat littler on top of that. The top 2 layers are leaning over. There is no way to pull it out without taking almost everything off by squatting down and leaning under the steel. Which is one way I strained my shoulder. (If you try to lift the pallet jack up to move it the pallet bows in the center and this causes everything to shift.

We have a baby turtle in the house. Or we did. Not sure if it's still there. Cousin W (who is on week 2 of sleeping on our couch again) found it and decided it would make a good pet for his daughter (who lives with her mother and grandmother). I kept telling everyone to wash their hands after touching it.

Timelies all!

I haven't done any reunions since the 10th, so I have no idea how they look. It does kinda feel weird that the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President are both only a couple of years older than me.

I finally got off my butt and made an appointment for a physical. The practice was referred to me by our case manager at my insurance company. Let's see how that goes...

Got re evaluated, some doctor. She said there is a lot of improvement but I'm still on work restrictions until next Friday. She also prescribed me prescription strength Naproxen and a different muscle relaxer that shouldn't make me as sleepy. I took it as soon as I got home to see how it would make me feel. We shall see.

I have seen...it does not make me sleepy however it does make me feel really stoned. So I will not be taking this before I go to work. Boo.

Happy birthday, meara!

I find that when I walk through my neighborhood to the park I get nods of acknowledgement from Clearly Old People and it makes my whiskers bristle. "I'm not one of you! Stop acting like I'm in your cohort!"

But I am.

(The population on this side of the Panhandle is older than where I used to live, though it's only a 12 minute walk.)

Saw my Dermatologist today and she only cut two chunks out of me. The last time she took like five and they were all clean, so I'm liking this trendline.

She did look at my ear which I had gotten pierced for my birthday and didn't like the look of it ("It might be forming a keloid and it's irritated and seems like it could be retaining water"). So she gave me a tiny steroid shot in my earlobe. So I'm hoping that takes care of that issue.

One of the great thing about Dermatologists is they have a wide range of tools to Fix Your Problem Immediately.

Happy birthday, meara!

I'm done with my first week of classes. Went pretty well, I guess. Still trying to get the chair replaced in that one classroom -- I was told that they're looking into it, because there isn't a budget to buy any new chairs, so they need to find one somewhere that they can put there. I'm going to email again and stress that this is a disability accommodation, because my back is killing me from trying to teach like that.

Going in the other direction, I have seen it asserted that one's grandparents' siblings should be called your grand-aunt or grand-uncle, not great-aunt or great-uncle, but they do not seem to be getting much traction.

I’m against any change that doesn’t let me say, “I’m not the great aunt, I’m the fabulous aunt.” That said, to my grandnibblings, I’m tante. Possibly because my niece and nephew have known me all their lives, and decided to nip that in the bud.

Speaking of family, I’m off to visit mine for the annual family lake get together! Assuming the airline cooperates. My last family trip was derailed by Cloudstrike, so I’m a tad cynical.