the mellow tigger's musings

I'm glad I've got the day off of work today, as it's the start of my "weekend".

There has been a heat dome parked over Minnesota for most of this week. I checked the temperature a few times yesterday, and the website told me more than once that the air temp was 35C/96F with heat index 41C/107F. I wallowed in stickiness at my work desk downstairs while my little window a/c unit worked constantly to keep my bedroom upstairs cooled. The heat has led to wildfires around the state. In Minneapolis yesterday afternoon, the sky was beige. Pictures from locals are available at Reddit (1, 2, and 3), even from the Duluth harbor. People noted that our air quality rates as terrible, and some people ask about dizziness. I went to bed early last night, while there was still plenty of light in the beige sky, feeling something slightly different from being well.

I was going to write more about the gut pain that woke me early last night and the bloody toilet bowl afterward, but... it's probably alarming enough in short form like that. Thankfully the pain passed by the time I was finally done with the restroom. I'm still doing as well this morning as when I returned to sleep last night. My body is just at a similar "not 100%" alert score today, same as yesterday afternoon. Non-specific, just mildly unsettled about something. Looking at the beige sky outside my bedroom window this morning, this generalized unease could be my lungs noting the difference in air quality.

The broken-glass-in-gut pain last night felt exactly like the gluten response I got several years ago after foolishly eating a deep dish pepperoni pizza, trying to remember what good/gluttony/glutinous food tasted like after many years of avoiding it. Reviewing my diet from the last week, however, did not provide sufficient excuse to think it's gluten this time. Considering recent tales about Cyclospora infection spreading through the USA, I pondered recent lettuce that I've eaten. I'm not finding anything mentioning pain or blood, though, so I don't think it's that either. I'm waiting to see if my body tolerates food I eat today, before I make an appointment at the local clinic.

I took a few days off of work this week. Instead of catching up on much-needed chores outdoors (before the city writes me to complain) or indoors (because the gas company wants to replace my gas meter), I did nothing but lay in bed and listen to YouTube stories, mostly BL (boy love) stories but not always. It's amazing how much content is available for free these days. I listened to so many hours that my YouTube algorith was fundamentally changing its recommendations to me, and that detour needed to end. I created a new gmail account and Firefox browser profile, then I spent over an hour transferring my YouTube channel subscriptions from one account to the other. Hopefully my main account will return to science stories soon, without having to completely wipe my Google history first.

One of my favorites stories, an hour long, is "[BL] The Alpha King's Guard Wolf Never Stops Insulting Everyone — And I Am the Only One Hearing Him". It's less about BL and more about a very memorable wolf character who has opinions (correct ones, naturally) about everyone and everything. The hilarity comes from the fact that his many opinions would be immensely awkward or socially damaging, if every other human could hear them. Instead, it's our main 2 characters who can hear him while they still have to navigate the social world... while the wolf keeps plotting to make them a mated pair. Yes, it's definitely one of my favorite Omegaverse stories.

I haven't done anything for Pride month, other than the dive into BL stories on YouTube. I thought I'd pass along this documentary news piece by Kyiv Independent about the legal status of LBGTQ people in Ukraine during wartime.

I learned some things from it. For instance, I didn't realize queer equality is a requirement to join the European Union, because anti-discrimination protections are part of the Fundamental Rights charter for the EU. Ukraine, however, cannot change its national constitution as long as they remain under martial law. This prohibition was intended to maintain democratic stability during unstable times caused if authoritarians (who like martial law) usurped power.