Same handle. Cross posting seems to have been broken for a while..

So late last night, some time (an hour, an hour and a half) after doing nasal sinus rinse for the first time in a couple years (9 hrs later still draining; a reminder of why I don't do that with rinse bottle but instead saline spray but I didn't have that), I did another AG test, which was faint positive. About 2 the day before (day 5), I had insta positive. Some time this evening I'll test again, without sinus rinsing again; there'd been something interesting on TWiV questioning how long how much virus had actually /been/ in someone's nose. I have saline spray in the house, but kinda figure it should all be thrown out b/c I assume I had some sort of sinus infection when I was using it.

Anyway, just woke from a dream involving faint positive and gatherings and one thing turning into another and I think it was Moira from Schitt's Creek:
( dreamCollapse )

took a shower yesterday for the first time in I'm not sure how long. My hair has olive oil in it still b/c it was pretty late before I got in the shower, b/c I spent a completely worth it in exchange fair while on the phone with a friend whose parent had just died and I'd apparently not been following his newly in use DW. Saw the FB, sent a note that I was callable.

Will maybe take a bath today while watching the new medcram in depth 2 hr (which is usually around an hour for me b/c 2x) about the role of actual sunlight in health. Guy who voices and draws medcram, Seheult is board cert Pulmonology, Sleep Medicine, Critical Care. On twitter, his intro for the interview style vid was This is the most important and far reaching video MedCram has ever produced. It explains why the US has 4% of world population but 25% of the cases. It also explains why vit D predicts outcome but why we have mixed results in Vit D prospective studies. I'm not sure any one thing explains why we're quite so terrible about C19 here, but he's seemed very excited about the role of infrared with mitochondria of late.

Sleep is of course huge for immune system; because I was up from 730-10 due to touching the phone, I didn't do zoom shul this morning, but instead just woke up when I started typing this. Last night, over a bowl of the borscht Lynn brought the other day, I attended zoom Friday night for the first time in a long while, and discovered my singing voice is great, perhaps even better than usual.

I've had very little appetite this whole time. Food tastes fine or even great (see borscht) but until I've actually started eating it's all a matter of 'oh right I probably should eat.' Even if my stomach is growling it's an 'oh right. I must really need to eat.' Weird. Not that I do "I'm hungry" all that much in the first place, but usually having food available in front of me at least elicits an OMG I'm apparently hungry why is this not in my belly now rather than having to finish walking it to the table?

I just sent a happy birthday to someone who is having a party today. If I weren't virused, there would have been a fair amount of dither re the current prevalence and whether I'd be willing to do anything indoors unmasked even with other vaxed people. I'm not trying to stand in the way of there being acro tomorrow although I don't think it's a great idea; that'll be vaxed and masked.

Currently zoom watching Ocean's 12. Didn't watch 11 last week. Not sure I ever saw 12. 13'll be next. Baltimore Science Fiction Association is having anime watch in person and discord.

I keep not getting around to listening to all the Worldcon hybid panels.

Probably should get out of bed. I forget if there's other things I wanted to write about, maybe later. This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1796197.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

But since I try to keep the Vvalkyri and my real name separate I don't really want to post it over on Facebook

I made a Twitter poll!

I finally recall maybe it was only on LJ not on dream width, ppl having what I found at the time incredibly annoying, lists of all their tweets showing up. but now I think that would be really helpful because finding anything ever again is really difficult.

I never did get a nap but I did get a little bit of exercise and I'm currently feeling quite chipper.

hence being intensely curious about whether the antigen test looks any different.

not that it actually matters.

there I go occasional cough again. This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1795985.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

So this morning I wasn't even sniffly until I actually got up; had been considering testing again out of curiosity as to whether it would be a lighter pink.

Once I was up though, back to kinda sniffly occasionally coughing, weird voice.

Joe brought some stuff to my door, knocked, talked through the door, and went away. Sadly, not an avocado or all that much salad.

Jmom called a while ago and we talked until I realized I was in Mandatory Nap Land.

Of course now I've spent time on FB, Twitter, and here instead of napping.

It's 48 degrees out and sunny. There's apparently evidence infrared is important for immunity. Fooey.

I think I'm going to see if I fall asleep.

Rants about ways other places handle testing and reports and about people's doctors telling them 'vaxed shouldn't take extraordinary measures to avoid' b/c vax makes symptoms minor . . . well, that'll wait til later.

I've concluded that even if I feel fairly fine, I'm really lacking Brain for reading long things, and I lose words. Like yesterday I couldn't remember 'reagent.' This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1795674.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

y'know, one thing I'm resenting right now is I'm watching people going to indoor restaurants weekly even during this surge and not picking up c19, and I'm sitting here in isolation occasionally couhging and worrying about future blood clots from
could be
- wore only a surgical in my building elevator
- acquired a homeless lady for 1.5 hrs during which there was a lot of extra time in trader joe's and i bought her a sandwich at dunkin donuts (duckbill 95)
- massage envy? duckbill 95; he was in a KN95. I owe him email on goggles
- walking through ikea for a fair while (duckbill 95)
- going into hard times to order takeout and go to bathroom, then brought some 95s for them (duckbill 95)
- going into wawa to pee and buy a sandwich, lingered to offer 95s (elastomeric that's supposed to be kn equiv)

I am profoundly uncomfortable that LUMSFS is continuing in person dinners; I'm not even sure the wednesday zooms are happening. I almost replied to one of the emails with "well, I figure maybe I'll get a little more immunity to Omicron at least once I'm done with Omicron, and then maybe I'll show up in that small window." But is IHOP worth that risk? Prevalence remains ridiculous. And the people who are showing up to these dinners are probably boosted but also offhand I can think of a number of ways several are higher risk.

On the other side, I'm seeing pics from Interfusion with ppl posing for pics w/o masks, as well as vid of doing moves w/o masks. Joy and rapture.

I posted over on the Acro group a reminder that ppl should test 3-5 days out from a big event. Maybe it'll mean something. I don't see anything from Interfusion suggesting people do so.

Honestly the realization that I'd done the math wrong about, say, WAWA or my elevator means I am dismayed at myself that seeing so many people planning to go made me even consider what was patently a high risk situation. It's also amazing how much seeing Sommer posting from there swayed my thinking. Her N95 is likely professionally fit tested, though.

That said, if I came down with Covid after something I knew was high risk I"d probably have been considering myself a dumbass; I'm somewhat kicking myself for not using the P100 more or reverting to prevax protocols, but it's not the same as knowing something is risky and still doing it.

My assumption is that there will be no posts approved in Interfusion Community from people who test positive after the event.

As far as my own symptoms go, I'm occasionally coughing, but also only occasionally sniffly. This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1795362.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

so I should try and get more sleep because I didn't get enough sleep yet, but right now I don't feel any different from how I felt a million times in the last couple years.

and I'm thinking about how I declined an invitation to go to a destination wedding in San Diego at the beginning of February, and how many other things seemed like way too much risk and here I am not even able to come up with what the hell might have been where I picked this up because I don't go unmasked in public spaces and I haven't even been doing much in the way of public spaces.

I suppose one other possibility could have been when I acquired a homeless lady for an hour and a half and a lot of that involved way more time in trader Joe's and I would have liked as well as buying her a sandwich at Dunkin. but that was a week ago Friday and in an N95. that said, to be hitting a strong positive last night implies that there were symptoms for a couple days I didn't realize were symptoms. But again, negative PCR thurs.

I do recognize that the fact that I'm barely sick is likely a combination of vaccine boost and good masks but I was trying for none.

I got a Twitter notification that Eleanor Holmes Norton had followed me clicked through and it's the actual Eleanor Holmes Norton. I have no idea what to make of this.

Very happy to have gotten a txt from the person I was around Friday that he received an exposure notification. (well he received one from me last night) DC allowing activation straight from the app means he got that notification THIS MORNING not after however long PCR would take*.

I should go back to sleep, because I really didn't get enough sleep, but with how I feel right this minute I don't know that I would have thought to test**. My negative PCR from Thursday is still less than 72 hrs old.

Virginia seems to have their system directly sending invites after a PCR positive, which is also better than having to wait for public health to contact you.

I also already have a text from DC health that they will be contacting me.
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* granted, with curative and sameday around here it's currently less than a day but I'm not expecting the test yourself kit to come back before tomorrow or Tuesday.

** pre test probability is such that the ihealth result last night is HIGHLY unlikely to be wrong, but considering using a binax as confirm w/different brand

This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1795030.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

By last night I was generally leaning against but much more about a feeling of impropriety than a feeling of lack of safety. Hell, Dorry Segev's (epidemiologist & transplant surgeon, much published about immune compromised lack of vax response) wife has been posting from there. Because of much dither, though, I'd Kept My Options Open with a PCR from Curative Thursday so I'd have results to present rather than puzzle out their antigen process.

Yesterday I worked on cleaning the kitchen, did a tiny amount of acro with Crosbie, gave some masks to the gate house, almost ended up doing acro with Lianyan.

Last night I enjoyed the Cecilia Tan erotic reading and made pasta and sauce from fairly old sausage.

Got to sleep late and then was schnuffly when I woke up, so that kiboshed the idea of maybe going today.

Antihistamines helped, but around 630 after an hour's phone banking to Sinema donors I decided to antigen test b/c my throat was kinda weird feeling.

Strong positive.

The Red Death analogy from the prior post may be better than I realized -- I have a negative PCR from 4p Thursday.  It would have been valid for entry to Interfusion through til tomorrow.

I'm pissed.  I have no idea where I picked it up.   I've not been around a lot of ppl this week, and also negative antigen'd before PT Tuesday morning.  Went to the bathroom in Wawa when I got gas b/c I really needed to pee; spent longer in there than strictly necessary b/c I was offering masks to staff. That was Tuesday.  Joe's 15 floor elevator Wednesday, then later stopping in the library to pick up antigen tests.  Neither of them more than 2 minutes.  Was wearing my GATA.  Thursday the only time I left the house was when I decided to drive over to Curative and back. Trying to remember what Monday and the weekend were but with Omicron that's getting pretty far in the past.   I know last Friday I had a massage (antigen negative ahead of it) and got takeout from Hard Times and a battery from Home Depot.  Had some time in hard times in that I gave them N95s.  Lost a lot of time into the phone.  Saturday, um, hm. Ah right Saturday I eventually drove up to E and watched Ghostbusters and then ran into a closed road getting home and ended up staying up all night by mistake.   Sunday I lost the day into the internet with a vague intention to get up to an outdoor thing my cousin was doing, but then instead bought him Amsterdam Falafel for his birthday on Monday.  And dropped by the library and picked up tests. Hm.  I spent a fair while talking with the security guard in the alcove that day. But was wearing a duckbill.  Relatedly, the owner of Amsterdam Falafel just died of c19.  Vaxed and boosted and apparently 70 not 50 like many people assumed.

Alternately, it could be that I didn't go back to avoiding elevators. Or that I occasionally wore a surgical down to the car rather than deal with All The Hands of putting something stronger on.

Given how strong the positive, it's unlikely I picked it up yesterday when I stopped by the gatehouse to give Molyn more N95 and teach her how to use them.

I would have preferred to use a binax to confirm but I didn't find my last binaxen until after I'd had the bright idea (not) to confirm with the other test in the ihealth kit. It'll probably take a couple days for TestYourself.dc.gov to come back, but I already have reported to DC Health and activated exposure notifications. This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1794792.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

This got pretty long, and then I forgot to post it several hours ago.
Short form is that Interfusion has done an amazing job with their C19 policy to the point where I wouldn't actually find it uncomfortably risky, and if I already had a ticket I probably would have chosen to attend a few workshops a day, but buying one to do so feels way weirder. As well as the 'fiddle while rome burns' angle.

.............



Most of my brain and talking the last week has been dithering about Interfusion. It's a festival that's been quite literally transformative for me each time I've gone, and which I didn't buy any of the discounted tickets for because it wasn't clear there would be an ability to bail if winter went pear shaped (it did, but turns out there is) and, well, they didn't add universal masking as a policy until December 26.


When I told Joe the other day that I didn't care about the acro and dance, he looked at me like I'd added a head, but the thing is that I can get acro and dance elsewhere.

It's the boundary workshops, the meditation workshops, the weird woo energy workshops. Sound healing. Right now I'm missing something where someone brought several huge gongs.

https://interfusionfestival.com/schedule/

At this point, had I already bought a ticket before the spike (which I wouldn't have done at black friday nor before because mask optional), the fact that I myself have N95s and even a P100 would be enough that I'd be popping in and out to all these various thing I don't know where I'd find a sampler of elsewhere.

I didn't realize until probably yesterday or the day before that they were including surgicals and KN95s and even a box of rapids in the welcome packet. I learned wednesday night that volunteers are to call security if they see anybody without a mask. I learned last night that there are some with ill fitting masks but otherwise, yes, universal.

If prevalence were what it was back at Worldcon or what it'll be in a couple weeks I'd have bought a non discounted ($$$) ticket for the weekend, based on that.

(It also doesn't help that the dishwasher is coming monday and I still have things to do for that and I have stuff that I need to deal with as well today.)

I don't completely understand why it's a different experience to decide whether to use an existing ticket or kick it forward vs whether to buy one right now.

I can easily satisfy the test requirement.

I am well aware that the in-convention prevalence will go up over the weekend. Vax & Test & decent Mask & air purifiers are the best I've seen and the only thing I've seen better was when Mina mentioned a med conference where everybody did proctored antigen before every morning. That they're also handing out antigen tests is an added mitigation.

The other day I ran across a tool* that estimates likelihood of an infected person in your 10 or 20 or 30 person event, given local prevalence and various mitigations. Infected =x= infectious, but over a multiday event, that also changes.




I think what I'm really going round and round about is that they've made it so that the risk in and of itself can be made acceptable, but there's also the propriety of going to a festival during the worst surge we have seen, when so many people seem to have forgotten there's a pandemic on at all, and so many other people don't have access in their daily lives to a fraction of these mitigations.

A word that came to mind was obscene. I had an image of the party in the mask of the red death. In this case, it's mostly /not/ an illusion of safety. But it's still reveling while there's so many outside unprotected from the sickness.

And yet... I don't care about the night parties. It's the workshops I'm having trouble letting go of, and that doesn't feel at all the same.

And now it's noon.


(Somewhere in there is surely how many people I know who have covid either themselves or in their house. And more than one teen refusing to wear bettermasks. One brought it home. Masking is optional in school in missouri. School's closed in Sweetietown today because too many teachers are out sick. Sweetiekid had a sore throat and strong positive last night. Sweetiekid never wore the 95s he was given, preferring the honestly well fitting and comfortable two layers of soft jersey with a filter pocket mask I gave him last spring. Had I known, maybe I could have at least provided some filti filters for it. (2.5s are pointless. The filti filters fill the whole mask.))



* here's an explanation of methods and sources: https://link.medium.com/XW3K8QAYJmb

and here's a link to the tool: https://public.flourish.studio/story/1067262/ This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1794441.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

oh gracious I seem to have missed a lot.

just skimmed back to the end of the year but now it's 5a.

ever since I added a Spanish keyboard to the phone it's been less consistent about dictation. and I'm having so much trouble forcing myself to get anywhere near the actual computer for doing writing

I've gotten more into twitter, which is a really bad thing.

there's so much to write about

and I've realized that part of the stress right now is everything is open and probably nothing really should be if we're going by hospitalizations, but also if we're going by hospitalizations, if you're vaxed, it's pretty much not a thing*. And so yes I think arisia did the right thing by canceling and I'm very glad that the hotel was on board with it, and I'm having trouble thinking interfusions a great idea, but then I look around and Baltimore acro's going on and there's dances at Glen echo all month and I have trouble putting into words how at that point maybe a dozen vaxed and masked mostly young/healthy acro folks in well over 1000 square feet of high ceiling should still be paused. (I am so happy I didn't have to be the first to call the pause.)

and I suppose on one level the question is why the hell is any of this going on - hospitalizations are worse in this area than any time in the pandemic and certainly prevalence is, but on another level vax and mask is very protective.

I hate all of this. Everything takes so much Brain.
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*pre-vax, 10-20% of cases would land in hospital, and 2% mortality. Now, per most recent This Week in Virology clinical update (minute 34), hospitalization's down to 1 in 10,000 & mortality's around 1 in 30,000 if vaxed. Add a risk condition like over 65? Triple the risk . . . to 1 in 10,000.

This is one of the reasons why I really wish vaxxed and boosted people wouldn't refer to whatever activity as oh I'm not suicidal so I wouldn't do that. It destroys the message that it's worth getting vaxed and also boosted.

(Vax does protect to an as yet unknown extent against long Covid; it certainly does not completely prevent. That I can pretty much expect that covid won't put me in the hospital does not make me interested in acquiring it.)

Someone got really mad at me the other day for not including in a comment that immune compromised and comorbidities have more concern; I'm watching a whole lot of people mad at Walensky now for referencing that 78% of vaxed mortality have 4 or more comorbidities.

It's also probably worth noting that it's not all that hard to accumulate four risk factors, especially given how much of the population is obese. This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1794180.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

Crossposted: O Brother Where Art Thou is one of the few movies I've seen more than once. Right now on a zoom watch of it, but I own it, somewhere -- it's one of the movies I introduced Dad to.

I'd forgotten just how delightful it is.

I've deliberately got the zoom watch on the surface machine, so that maybe I'll find some tiime actually WRITING here.

Many dreams of late.

Many thoughts of Dad, and of Mom This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1793907.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

volunteering to make the PCR test kits today netted me a rapid, which was helpful, because I'd been sort of thinking of rapiding one last time bracketing Christmas, but didn't want to use my last reserve box, and then I got an exposure notification on my phone.

I'm not particularly worried - the only time it could really likely be would be while I was well masked and outdoors at the Christmas market.

but I'm not entirely sure whether antigen testing today (neg, unsurprisingly) and maybe tomorrow counts for DC's purposes (does "get tested" imply PCR?), and I fully expect several hours of wait if I wander over to a curative location tomorrow...

update, 12/28: called DC health- Antigen fine and he point blank told me it was refreshing to talk with someone with clue and care on such things. as of today, DC is also adding the capacity to report positives to the contact tracing app without having to wait for PCR and talking to DC health.

and now I have another two boxes from one of the libraries, yay so This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1793787.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

in that I can't find the Ziploc I had to count it some into before the con, and that means I have too fewer tests available, and I've already given away a couple of ihealthlabs the last couple days (the girl who drove to Southwest to pick one up yesterday brought it home to her husband who then tested positive) and have been testing daily since the con and so now I'm not sure whether I can offer another kit to someone else from the welcome to DC group because I need to test me and Joe and maybe Bernadette before Christmas later today and would prefer to at that point not be out.

then again I can get more from eye health in about a week of shipping

DC municipal testing sites all closed today and yesterday and I just walked up to the curative site that's a couple blocks away to check whether that was wrong on the website which I suspected it was, and there is a single municipal site open tomorrow and I'm not sure curative or same day are and maybe some of the pharmacies are

and it is utterly crazy the numbers here. last night I saw $184 daily new cases per 100,000 for DC

I'm incredibly dismayed at the bars and nightclubs that are still advertising and are not enforcing masks This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1793461.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

there's been a lot of wonderful things about the con, I was especially chuffed to hang out on the porch at a party with a virologist I follow on Twitter

but I've been nominally hoping helping with loadout since 3:45 and it is now 12:45 and I have plans tomorrow and I'm tired and I have been of limited use for a while but my stuff is in covert's car This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1793278.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

have to write this down --
been kicking myself for not thinking to buy more masks to bring with, because I've been giving away what i have but don't have all that many

but today i talked with the maid. she's 62 and boosted but still very worried, and they have to wear black masks, and I gave her a KN she could put under her hotel mask, and also one of the KFs I had, and she was so very thankful and when I showed how to tie and tuck a surgical she was in tears about being able to teach it to her grandbabies. I told her how the respirators are generally good for 40 hours of wear so even at $2 each it's hopefully not bad. She kept talking about how much more protected she felt in the KN.

They're very thankful we're here in the hotel. much of the staff won't be back until the 1st of the year because there's just not the business.

Yesterday one of the things I did instead of napping was answering a query about rapid tests

and I'm apparently the one who knows where to find the faster PCR as opposed to the city testing, but also who knows about the testyourself program, or the various places to get free rapids or where to get cheaper rapids.

I'm still thinkng of her in tears about learning such easy things. This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1792927.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

I wish I understood why I'm so incredibly unhappy today and why it's been so hard to do anything and now I'm out and I'm still not happy and I guess it's pretty and I guess I could put more layers on and there's a Meetup I could join or maybe I could just give up and go ice skating and I don't know how to find anyone to do things with and I feel stupid about that too This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1792142.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

I'm about to sleep alone for the first time after 15 nights entwined.

the drive from Missouri to yellow springs was surprisingly fast and painless oh, except for the time when my leg was hurting so I stopped to get gas and got gas on me and then had to keep looking for a place to wash my hands.

I shared an interesting beer (well, a six pack, and two for me, which turned out to be 8.25%) with my high school friend, decided not to attempt to compose an email to the potential indoor Acro venue.

then it took me well over an hour to wind down.

and now I put on a sound generator

but I've gotten very used to being entwined.

about half an hour after I got in, I realized I should tell Sweetie I was safely here. I opened my texting program and that very minute a message I come in from him asking if I was okay. This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1791595.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

srsly, Waterworld is not a good substitute for sexy times, and I still don't understand why we couldn't txt kid and ask his ETA so we'd have known there was time before we had company.... This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1791339.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

we watched Galaxy Quest this evening, which was great fun, especially having just watched the never surrender documentary. it had been a very long time since I'd seen Galaxy Quest so much of it was oh right I had forgotten that.

kid enjoyed it, but I also ended up keeping on telling him hey look at the screen there's cool stuff going on. he wasn't screwing with his phone but instead staring at twist ties. .

just now I saw a cartoon that made me think of Harley: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php/?set=a.101087104719810&fbid=43767145439470

I'm chicken sitting starting the 24th, so I have to be back by then. I should talk to the Ohio contingent. I may not stop a night in Pittsburgh. I've got a whole week left but it feels so short. This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1791054.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

Listening to shabbat services, someone who just retired from being Navy legal corps (first tell is hair and beard!) just talked about his 20 years, having joined 1st September '01.

I may add more, but the mental image of having imported a moyl from Hong Kong to wherever they were in Japan, then needing it to be a hotel event (on the military base) what with Shabbat . . . and then the moyl had invited a bunch of orthodox tourists from various and sundry parts of the world. . . who weren't carrying ID because shabbat, and wasn't /that/ a fun conversation with Base Security?

Also stuff like managing a seder in Admiral's mess, or once a seder at the table Saddam had often had dinner at. This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1790611.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.

Been at Pat's since late Saturday, and the days go by both quickly and slowly. Like it's not long after 7 and we're already past a movie (demolition man) and dinner (I am intensely proud of myself to have riffed off a Green Chef recipe for shepherd's pie* I did at BadM's a while back (my oven's top element's been kaput since '05; it's a bit weird to have cheese in Shepherd's pie but :shrug:).

It was really really nice to see John from college and to meet his wife (Ft Wayne) and zomg was that an overwhelming farmer's market.

The visit with Uncle was also surprisingly good. In some ways right until a couple days later.
One thing we did on the Thursday was to first spend time going through his file of Dad mementos. A few news clippings, the dx from Mayo, a bunch of pictures, a couple difficult emails. I scanned pretty much all of it. He offered me a lot of it and I told him I specialize in losing things. I did arrange some of it on a table as a tableau for one picture. Also we looked at a lot of other way organized family pictures and I learned a lot about Grandparent history (Dad's story of how Saba got to Peru was wrong -- he went on some trips to See Places, not accidentally land in Lima and work his way back to Cuba. Or who knows? ) and I never knew there was a dog growing up, nor that there was a hotel Uncle and Dad worked summers at in Atlantc City. (Israeli Cousin says it eventually burned?)

It's bittersweet. So many things I somehow never got stories out of Dad or Mom. Like Mom and her month wandering Turkey.

And a fair while talking with Aunt and a fair while on a vidcall with Israeli Aunt.

So. A few days later.

Figuring safest to ask permission before posting on FB but honestly expecting a sure and kudos (a goodly deal of the fallout last time involved him at least saying I should have writtne a long treatise on how nice the visit was) I sent a pic of that table tableau I mentioned and said that I'd love to post it. And... the answer came that well, no. there's private family photos. So the thing is, everything on that table was a picture of dad or a clipping, with one picture where he's the only recognizable adult. I'm a toddler, Cousin S is a year older, and cousin J is in a baby carriage. So that would make Dad probably 41 or 42. And when Dad died there were a bunch of photos I posted already, some of which other folks had been kind enough to restore for me -- things Israeli Aunt had sent or Israeli Cousin. So it's covered in WTF, and I can't begin to explain how sad that reply made me.

And... he knew I was scanning all sorts of things. Which I was going to put on Dad's memorial Wordpress, but I guess /that/ is fine with him. Or he wasn't paying attention before? Like, I give up. Or I guess I don't give up but I'm still sad, partly because I'm right back at I don't understand my uncle

I'm currently figuring to go through Yellow Springs on the way home. I have to be back in time to take care of chickens on the 24th. It's mildly tempting to go back through Cleveland; I really did enjoy meeting Tylik's friends (though zomg the spare room was cold even with the heating register open) and it would have been nice to maybe try out the ropes course Dean was offering to take me to. But Dan's talking about leaving the country at some point in the not too distant future, and it's certainly way more directly on the way. I couldn't get to CLE in one day -- it's 12 hrs from here. But I can go here to Yellow Springs, and then a day later go on back to the chickens, and it's directly on my way.

Uncle would have liked more time, as would I. I'm a bit torn.

I'm rambling. I learned things about concrete today. Pat gave me a pretty necklace. I am not bothering to tell Therawhatsit I'm in a different state and I kinda don't consider her smart enough to figure that out, which is an entirely different problem.

It's kinda strange here with neither the mom nor the dog -- we can wander for as long as we want. I won't even be seeing her, b/c visiting hours and people are so limited at the nursing home.

I suppose I should stop typing. Somehow I seldom start of late.

Movies so far:
Demolition Man
Thomas Crowne Affair
Velocipastor
Never Surrender

We shall show the 14 year old Galaxy Quest tomorroow


*in this case, there was taco meat to use. bought peas and shredded carrots and some beef stock instead of the spiced mushroom stock in the original, and used a can of rotel instead of tomato paste, and the carrots and onions and rotel ended up in there all together instead of softening the carrots early. Instead of trad spices we added more taco seasoning, and threw in some mushrooms mostly b/c we had them, and the potatoes on top were already four cheese instant. Maybe not quite so much of the potatoes if repeat, but I am QUITE pleased and this was less fiddly than the GC version. This entry was originally posted at https://vvalkyri.dreamwidth.org/1790250.html. You can add to the comments there using OpenID, or here is okay too.