Reading

Entry tags:

daily life,
health

tired and sore

Today was the first day of my "weekend", but it really didn't feel like it. I had only 2 goals today: pick up my blood pressure medication at the pharmacy, and post a package for delivery to Texas for the holidays. Goals achieved, but at a price.

I got up with sunrise (which is late for me, thanks to "weekend") and checked when the post office would open for business. I was going to ride the micro transit bus there to buy a box suitable for the gift and card. But the app would NOT show me any micro transit bus options. Strange. Not the usual message to try again if there were no available drivers. Instead, the app would sort of hang with an icon suggesting network communications... until it gave up and showed me regular bus routes instead. Okay, so it'll be that kind of inconvenient day.

Click to read the various trip details...

Trip #1 and 2: Ok, so no help from the micro bus, so I walked there, sometimes through unshoveled snow about half a foot deep. I got the cardbox box that I needed, then I walked back through the snow again. That's a decent walk for an old guy with arthritis, but it was successful.

Trip #3: I went to the regular bus stop to get a less-convenient ride to the grocery/pharmacy. I waited... and waited... and waited. I checked this route, which I thought was a bus every 20 minutes. No. There are only 2 buses each hour: one 20 minutes after another. Afterwards, there's a 40-minute lull without service. ARGH! I spent a very long time in the freezing weather, noticing my face and lips starting to feel weird. Eventually, the bus arrived. I climbed a snow bank on the roadway to get inside to warmth.

Trip #4: I got groceries and medication without incident, then I went to get another regular-bus ride back. I saw the route "14" bus again heading the right direction, so I climbed aboard. Later, it detoured slightly. I was confused. When it became clear it wasn't returning along the same route as earlier, I got off as near as I could to my destination. Then I walked an extra 3 long blocks through a lot of unshoveled snow to get back to the bus stop intersection where I started. Not walking sometimes, so much as plodding through unshoveled snow. The arthritis complaining.

Trip #5 and #6: Back home, I got the gift wrapped and addressed, then it was time for yet another walk in the cold. I was much slower this time, feeling the arthritis in both my back and feet. Post office achieved. Gift sent. Walk back home, again even slower, this time with my hips aching too with a kind of muscle (not arthritis) ache, complaining at too many heavy steps in the snow.

At home, finally done with chores for the day, I tried to play a computer game for a while but started nodding off, so I crawled into bed. My body ached at getting into bed, even turning from side to side in bed. But at least I slept a while. Now up again. Feet are feeling better, but back and hips are still complaining. The walk upstairs to the bedroom isn't fun.

Now, it's dark outside already. The day is gone. More computer gaming, if I'm able. More sleeping, otherwise.

Entry tags:

how to rub your prostate

There's so much terrible stuff to discuss for Moody Monday, how about I try a different direction this week?

This YouTube video has almost too much joking around, but there is important biological and psychological information throughout. They discuss the many names involved in this topic: male g-spot, p-spot, prostate. Keep in mind that this video is very much not safe for work, not safe for the bus, not safe for most crowded environments. Listen at your own risk. I'll leave the link here with the title.

"How to rub your prostate?" (YouTube, 34 minutes)

I'm not sure how practically they answer the central question posed by the video title. It's a fascinating discussion, though, regardless of what preconceptions or history you bring to it yourself.

busy week

Monday after work, I did eventually walk to the store to buy some whisky. That strategy was good. I slept well that night.

Tuesday morning was a "snow day" at my remote job. I logged in for work and saw the notice that it was called off until noon due to local (in Pennsylvania) snow conditions. I also saw a coworker asking for someone to take his shift, because he needed to help a friend with a bad car situation. I (foolishly?) agreed, so I worked the skeleton crew to continue working on tickets that morning. It was another very busy day, though less busy than Monday.

Wednesday had more people on staff all day, but it was still a busier-than-usual Wednesday workload. I was glad when it was over, though, and my "weekend" began.

Thursday and Friday resulted in almost no accomplishments at all (well, some laundry), which was glorious.

Saturday morning, we had half of our crew out sick. And it was still a busier-than-usual day, so the few of us left were busy all day. On weekends, I usually have some free time to read Dreamwidth or the news, and I never opened the web browser that day.

Today, finally, full crew on staff and reasonable workload. "Normal" is such a nice distraction.

Entry tags:

moodday,
work

busy day

Normally, my team working on 40-50 tickets per hour is a respectable pace. About 2.5 years ago, during the semester start of the worst semester of workload at my job, we crossed 100 tickets per hour a few times. That experience was awful.

Today, I saw 85 tickets per hour once, and 70+ tickets per hour at 2 other times. That, plus we had about 1/3 of our full-time staff out for vacation or sick leave, so the workload was higher for those of us who remained. It was a very busy day.

I had other topics planned for Moody Monday discussion, but I don't have the mental bandwidth for it now. If I had any booze in the house, I'd be drinking it. I may still dress warm and walk to the store to buy some. Despite marijuana being legal in Minnesota for 3 years already, there's still no widespread deployment yet. Too bad, since if I had any edibles in the house, I'd be eating that too. This article talks about the slow rollout here, and it even mentions firefighters as another group of workers needing edibles to make their brains stop rehearsing the stressors of the day.

Entry tags:

Blort: Dock, Bicycle, Action (#18)

Today we took out the rest of the dock. It's a very fast job if you have 4 people: we finished in less than 45 minutes. The lake level is still pretty low and so we were able to do it with two people in waders and the others on the shore carrying things as we disassembled. I measured the temperature of the lake a week ago and it was 45. Probably slightly lower than that now. The whole lake needs to get to be 40 before it can freeze. Next week it's going to be cold, lows in the 20s and highs in the 30s, so while it probably won't freeze completely, we will see ice here and there.

After the dock was out, I rode my bike down to the center of town where there was a small protest scheduled. I was surprised that there were only 15 people there, because the timing was perfect for the local UU church letting out, and generally speaking they are on the right, meaning left, side of these issues. And it was announced on the church social mailing list (which I am on, even though I never go to church), so I fully expected a large number of people to join us at around 11:40. But only a few did. It was cold, so maybe that was the issue. "Fair-weather protesters." Of course, I had my heated insoles in my boots.

I had a flat tire a month or so ago. I found a weird bulge in the tire material at the corresponding place to the hole in the tube, which I assumed contained a small piece of shrapnel, but I couldn't get it out. So I carefully arranged the patch to be under the bulge, thinking that the patch was pretty thick.

Then, I got another flat Friday. This was in a different place, and this time the murder weapon was easy to locate still in the tire and possible to pull out with needle nose pliers. But with two flats in a month, plus the funny bulge, it is now tire non grata, so time to replace. So off I go to the local bike store ("small business Saturday") but they don't have one, because it's the front wheel of my recumbent which is an odd size. So I had to order one (did not wait for "cyber Monday"). Normally, I would just curse and put the old tire back on my bike and hope that I don't get a third flat while the order is being shipped. But I recently got a replacement bike, so I can use it as a parts bike! Swap the wheel and all is good.

Issues: in the last four months most of the air had leaked out. Four months is a long time, so I just pumped it up. It's not the same rim width, so I had to adjust my brakes. It's not the same size of tire, being both slightly narrower, 1.25 instead of 1.5, and thus less tall, and also having less aggressive tread, also reducing the height. So the circumference is less. Which means that my odometer (which I see I neglected to mention in blogs that I replaced the wiring harness so it is no longer flaky) will read the wrong number. The wheel goes around a slightly larger number of times during each mile, so it records a mile somewhat earlier. Thus: cheating.

Ken and I went on a ride together, and he went 6.81 miles while I recorded 7.18, so we know that it is 5% high. Then I recorded 10.37 after that. Unfortunately I didn't look at the total odometer before I started off on this cheating plan, but subtraction shows that it was 1939 or 1940 (it only shows whole miles, and we don't actually know when it clicked over to the current 1957). I'll just keep track and adjust later; probably it won't be as much as the 5 miles or so that it owes me for the flaky odometer. Also, the new tire I ordered is likely to be a different circumference than the one I replaced. So there will be more adjustment needed. It will all come out in the wash on January 1 when I reset for the new year, and I will get new measurement of my circumference before then.

Entry tags:

charity,
dreamwidth

a gift year at Dreamwidth

If any regular readers here (whether you currently even have a Dreamwidth account or not) would like a regular Paid account for a year, then send me a private message from your Dreamwidth account through the Inbox. I will send you a gift subscription.

This post from Dreamwidth admins reminded me of their tradition of encouraging gift subscriptions at Dreamwidth. This FAQ page explains the benefits of Paid versus Free accounts. I don't really understand the point system, so I'm sticking with the Paid offer for this year.

Look! I remembered to post before December started this year!

Hello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means

karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.

The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.

( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )

Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.

On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.