Category: Uncategorized

I’m really kind of despairing right now. In 2022, I read 77 books. Now, granted, 35 of those were Ranma 1/2 (Germane Amazon Link!), but still

I’m at 21 books right now. I’m reading my August 2023 book club book, Congratulations, the Best Is Over! by R. Eric Thomas (Another Germane Amazon Link!) right now, so that’ll make it 22. Whoopee!

My September, October, November, and December book club books will bring it to 26. Meanwhile, there are, like, 10 more books in my TBR pile, and my ongoing decluttering-my-book-collection-by-rereading-everything project (that really needs a shorter name!) is taking the time it takes.

Will I meet the 42 non-Ranma books that I read in 2022 with less than half of the year left? I can’t wait to find out.

Note: This is not medical advice. I’m talking here about my own personal and family medical history and research I have done into it. Even if your own personal and family history is identical to mine, it cannot work out exactly like mine has.

As I have done more research into the Mediterranean diet, I have found more and more potential benefit for my own health beyond heart health. For example, I have mild arthritis in my hands.

And guess what? The Mediterranean diet seems to lower all of these nifty inflammatory markers in studies. So maybe this will help keep inflammation in my hands down.

And since it lowers inflammatory markers, guess what other health issue I have that involves inflammation? Asthma. And things I’ve been reading say that diets high in anti-inflammatory foods, like the Mediterranean diet, seem to lower asthma symptoms.

Now, admittedly, I’m not perfect at my adherence to the diet. I have a sweet tooth, for example, and so I do finish my day with a few single-serving pieces of dark chocolate candy, like Reese’s Thins.

But my breakfast is cheese and fruit, my lunch is . . . more cheese and fruit (usually with cashews, as well). My dinner is increasingly becoming cheese, vegetables, and lean meat. So I’m not doing too badly.

I researched having my Amazon Link be germane in the form of trying to sell you a bag of Reese’s Thins, but apparently you have to be a member of Amazon Prime to get them. So here’s a Gratuitous Amazon Link: The Lost Hero, the first book in the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. Two heroes are kind of the titular “lost hero” here. I suspect that Riordan probably meant Percy Jackson, who has disappeared, but this book follows Jason, who has no memory of anything prior to a school field trip to the Grand Canyon. So, even though we know where he is, Jason is also, in his own way, a lost hero.

So far, my heart is in good shape, near as we can tell.

However, my maternal grandmother died of heart disease at 58 (I am currently 56). Her sister died of heart disease at 59. They both also smoked, as has every maternal relative I’ve ever had that has had heart disease. So maybe that particular problem will miss me.

However, I also had cardiotoxic chemotherapy in 2001/2002. So maybe it won’t miss me. It’s been 20 years, which, I guess so far, so good.

At any rate, when I approached 50, I decided to start researching heart-healthy diets and, based on my own taste in food, there was one clear winner — the Mediterranean diet. I mean, lean protein, fresh produce, and cheese? What’s not to love?

One thing has led to another and *finally* I’m committing to this. I’ve subscribed to Emeals and generally I pick one meal a week to cook from scratch (usually there are enough leftovers to make one or two more dinners from it). My meal earlier this week was just a Greek salad with romaine lettuce. Delicious, but not much cooking.

Tonight, I took my second stab at that TikTok tomato and feta pasta. I just sort of half-assed it this time and it came out with too many tomatoes and not nearly enough pasta. If I ever take a third try, I’ll use a smaller baking dish for the sauce and make about twice as much pasta. I love pasta, but I don’t like that much in the way of sauce.

I work the late-ish shift tomorrow, so I don’t know if I’ll have the energy to cook. Maybe I’ll just make another salad.

For today’s Gratuitous Amazon Link, we’ll go back to one of my favorite writers, Ally Carter, with the first book in her Embassy Row series, All Fall Down. Grace Blakely has been through a lot. Her mother died in what everyone tells her was an accidental fire. She was there that night, however, and she knows her mother was murdered. After getting out of a mental health facility, she has been sent to live with her maternal grandfather on Embassy Row of the small Mediterranean nation of Adria.

I don’t think I’ve ever read the third book in this series. I’d better get on that.

Since deciding that science and medicine would make good content for this blog until I can get my act together to start visiting parks and things again, I’ve been paralyzed with indecision.

I mean, science and medicine are such broad topics, you know?

Okay. The RSV vaccine.

Respiratory syncytial virus (“RSV”) is a pretty common virus that causes coldlike or flulike symptoms — runny nose, decreased appetite, sneezing, fever, and so on. The only thing is that RSV can be really dangerous in infants and in older adults.

They’ve finally developed a vaccine for RSV, which the CDC recommends for adults over 60. The only thing is that it is also only approved for people over 60. With my asthma, you’d think that the vaccine would be recommended for me, but no dice.

My pharmacist actually asked if I was going to get it. I’m still only 56, so I have four years to go. Well, maybe they’ll recommend it for adults with asthma before then. You never know.

Today’s Gratuitous Amazon Link is The Seeing Stone, book 1 of the Arthur Trilogy, by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Arthur is a young teen boy living in the borderlands by Wales in the 12th Century. A family friend named Merlin gives young Arthur a “seeing stone.” When Arthur looks into the stone, he sees the story of King Arthur unfolding before his eyes. When Thomas and I were in the UK, we stopped at a bookstore on our way to the airport. I bought the first four Harry Potter books and this one. All things considered, this one has aged much better.

I need a subject for today’s blog post, and since top of my mind is how it’s too hot to go anywhere new to write about, let’s talk about a study that I swear I read years ago.

Now, I have very detailed dreams, so I don’t know if I actually read this article or not. I remember talking to my mom about it, but that might have been a dream, too.

Basically, they planted 100 trees in a 100-square-foot (100 square meters?) space and measured the effect on the temperature in the area, and the temperature was actually cooler above the trees.

The conversation I remember having with my mom was that she remembered how nice and cool the street she used to live on was. It was lined with trees and never got hot, even in the hottest part of the summer.

Since this was Chicago, it only got above 90 (32.2 Celsius) occasionally. I don’t know how much of a dent it’d make in our 100+ (37.78 Celsius) heat this summer, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.

I have found information on a Japanese botanist named Akira Miyawaki who wanted to restore native forests to Japan and, thus, to the rest of the world. I’ll have to dig through his writing and see if maybe his work is what I’m remembering.

Gratuitous Amazon Link time! Today we have Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink. Brink was the granddaughter of the real Caddie, whose last name was actually Woodhouse. Caddie Woodlawn is the story of Caddie, a tomboy, and her adventures in what was at the time the Northwest of the United States and nowadays is the state of Wisconsin.

Until July 28, 2o23, the last time I was inside a movie theater was 2019. But everything I had heard about Barbie made me just know that I had to see it.

So I dug my hot pink clam-diggers out of the back of my closet, bought a Barbie t-shirt from Amazon (Germane Amazon Link!), ordered two new pairs of black sandals, grabbed my kid and went to the movies!

Now, by now you’ve heard everything about the movie. Or seen the movie. Whichever.

I knew that I was in for a good time. Well, I hoped. All of the negative reviews made it sound amazing. “The feminist agenda will kill us all”? Sign me right up for that.

I mean, really. The movie is science fiction. Barbieland is a parallel world to the “real world.” A portal has opened between the two because “Stereotypical Barbie” (Margot Robbie)’s owner is having an existential crisis. Barbie has to go into the “real world” to resolve the crisis and seal the portal. That’s science fiction.

Barbie (all of them) are strong female characters. I love me some strong female characters, whether that’s Nancy Drew, Anne Shirley, Mary Lennox, Wonder Woman, or whoever.

One of my pharmacists said that he didn’t think I’d be interested in “that sort of thing” when I told him how much I loved Barbie. Science fiction? Strong female characters? A pink acid trip that feels like being slapped by a lot of confusingly attractive people? What’s not to love?

Love is Real, Buckaroos!

I was so looking forward to Camp Damascus (Germane Amazon Link!) — the preorder was my only Cyber Monday purchase in 2022. And it did not disappoint.

As an ace person, it took me a while to get into the Tingleverse. I mean, niche gay erotica? Not the first thing you’d expect for an ace person. Particularly the niche in question — dinosaurs, cryptids, living inanimate objects and so on are the love interests in Dr. Tingle’s books.

Then I started following him on Facebook and discovered what a delightfully positive place the Tingleverse is. And then I discovered the “no-pound Tingler,” which is what Dr. Tingle calls the no-erotica books he writes and also his “Choose-Your-Own-Timeline” series which are also “no-pound.”

Just for a sample of a “No-Pound Tingler,” see Not Pounded By The Physical Manifestation Of My Own Screenwriting Because I’m On Strike And I Deserve To Be Fairly Compensated For My Labor While Studio Ceos Take Record Salaries, which is a fundraiser for the Entertainment Community Fund.

The Entertainment Community Fund exists to provide a safety net for creators in the entertainment industry (writers, actors, directors, etc.) during periods like the (as of August 2, 2023) current actors’ and writers’ strikes.

Now that I knew just what kind of awesome person Dr. Tingle is, I was eager to support their first professionally published book.

And I really loved the book.

The Camp Damascus of the title is a ex-gay conversion camp with a reputed 100% success rate. Now we hit the snag that has had me frozen on “And I really loved the book” all day.

I don’t want to spoil the plot, like, at all. Well, I guess I can talk about the protagonist a bit. Rose Darling is somewhere on the autism spectrum. This leads her to new places in plot and character development where more neurotypical characters might not have gone.

It was also a very fast read. I read almost the entire thing in the first night I had it. I ended up putting it up for the night because of my new adventures in sleep consistency. If I’d finished the book I would’ve missed my bedtime entirely.

I don’t know if this is classical writer’s block or if it’s because I’m under the weather. Maybe I’m just out of practice.

It could very well be all three.

At first, I thought that my under-the-weatherness was due to Sarahan dust. God knows that interferes with my respiration. But on Sunday, I felt like death warmed over. I tested for COVID, which was negative, and took my temperature, which was normal. Since I wasn’t feverish and it wasn’t COVID, and I didn’t know how I could mix around the schedule to get coverage, I went in.

I figured I’d just do the stuff that I wouldn’t have to move around for — phone calls and data entry and things. And I did. I put back the returned scripts that hadn’t been picked up that week. I did the filing. I also called my telemedicine company and got a script for prednisone. The prednisone made me feel a lot better, but once it wore off, I couldn’t sleep because I felt lousy again.

And that’s part of why I’m up at 3 am on Tuesday morning typing a blog post. My prednisone has worn off again. And I was developing a headache. I basically spent all day yesterday (I had the day off! Yay!) in bed and so I’m not actually sleep deprived. But I’m trying to get my brain to sleep at regular times and this has messed it all up.

Hopefully whatever is going on will pass soon (I have three more days of prednisone) and I’ll be able to sleep better.

I am working on my novel. I have spent the time lying awake linking up the pieces of book that I have decided on so that I tell a coherent, or somewhat coherent, narrative. I might have to give my protagonist a procrastination problem.

Maybe with daily practice, like I’m doing now, and like I’m doing while I try to sleep, the words will one day come more easily.

Today’s Gratuitous Amazon Link is for The Mark of the Dragonfly, the first book of the World of Solace trilogy by Jaleigh Johnson. And by trilogy, well, it’s three separate stories set in the same world. I’ve read the first two and ended up buying the third as an ebook because when I tried to buy it in hard copy it was *very* expensive.

Anyway, capsule review: Piper is an orphan living in a town on the edge of a meteorite field. Periodically, big clumps of garbage from somewhere else come hurtling out of the sky and the “scrappers” go out into the field and try to find usable things among the junk. Selling the usable things is how scrappers make their living .

Piper’s good at fixing things, so she looks for mechanical items that she can repair. One day she ends up outside during the meteor storm and finds an unconscious girl. The girl has the titular “mark of the dragonfly” which marks her as belonging to the household of the neighboring king, so Piper decides to return her home, in hopes of getting a reward.

Because here is the “rest of the story.”

So. Evelyn got pregnant in mid 2022. Evelyn really wanted this baby, but the relationship with the father didn’t work out (long story; not my story to tell). So, since she was facing life as a single mom, her family offered to let her recuperate at their home.

Evelyn has two chihuahua mixes and she didn’t feel right sticking her relatives with two dogs in addition to her, so she asked me to take care of them. So far, so good.

Now, what you have to know about my lifestyle is that I walk Mila at least twice a day, usually about 20-25 minutes in the morning and about an hour in the evening (though it’s been so hot lately that I’ve been taking her out in the back yard for about 15 minutes in the evening and walking her for about an hour at night). This means that instead of getting up an hour and a half before I have to be at work, I now get up two hours before I have to be at work. I also don’t get my dinner until about an hour and a half after I get off work.

When Felicity came to stay, I shortened Mila’s evening walk, because I started walking Felicity for half an hour in the morning and in the evening, too. So now I was getting up two and a half hours before I have to be at work and still not getting my dinner until about an hour and a half after I get off work.

Add Evelyn’s dogs to the mix now. I had to get up three hours before I had to be at work, and wasn’t getting my dinner until two hours after I got off work. So on days when I worked until 7 and had to be back at 8:30, I was getting my dinner at 9 and getting up at 5:30. This really began to eat at my mental health. Just getting up at 5:30 in general began to do it.

There were other things as well. One of Evelyn’s dogs has an anxiety disorder (I think it may even be OCD) which causes her to lick at people constantly. She’s a sweet girl and I love her, but geeze.

Mila was happy to see her sisters for a couple of months, but then she wanted her momma back, dammit. She didn’t get possessive, possessive, but if one of her sisters took Mila’s usual spot, she’d be visibly unhappy with the situation.

My possession of a pit mix and having had four dogs has made me make some discoveries about my personality. I have one of the personality traits of a dog hoarder — I want to save all of the pit bulls. We have a pit bull problem in the city; about 10 or so are put down by the city every week. However, I now know that I cannot handle more than one, **maybe** two dogs.

I met with my psychiatrist about two weeks after all of my visitors went home and the first words out of her mouth, after “hello,” were “so how many dogs do you have now?”

I was so happy to tell her “One!”

Today’s Gratuitous Amazon Link is going to be Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon. Vern was raised in a religious compound. She escapes and gives birth to twins in the wilderness. Soon after this, her body starts to change. And then the people from her compound come looking for her.

The year started with my dad still short of breath and the two of us still disagreeing with the cause. I believe that what the doctor saw on the CT scan is correct, he thinks it’s long COVID.

In February, I was walking Mila when this yellow dog looms out of the darkness and starts jumping up on me. In a totally friendly way. I took Mila home, put a leash on the dog, and took the dog out to see if she could lead me home. Not only couldn’t she lead me home, she didn’t seem to have ever walked on a leash before.

I bumped into a neighbor, who said that this dog had been floating around the neighborhood all day but that no one in the neighborhood had been able to keep her. Turns out she’d been surfing from one back yard to another. The neighbor had posted about her on Nextdoor hoping her people would see her, but he suspected that she’d been dumped.

Somehow I ended up agreeing to keep her in my back yard for a couple of days while we waited to see if her owner turned up (spoiler alert: they didn’t).

Once I could see her face clearly, I realized that she was at least part pit bull and so I was afraid she’d be hurt or worse, since pits have such a bad reputation. This is totally unfair in general, of course, but particularly when it comes to this dog, which I named Felicity. She has a great temperament (my vet’s exact words), and just needed someone to train her.

This began her four-month stay in our back yard. She couldn’t come into the house because both Mila and my dad were afraid of her.

Immediately after her people didn’t show up, I began looking for a home for her. I asked pretty much everyone I knew and they promised to start looking for homes for her.

A week or so after that, she went into heat. So now I didn’t just have to find a home for her, I had to find a home where they’d promise to spay her. Once I thought she was out of heat, I took her to get her shots, and the vet at the mobile clinic I took her to thought she was pregnant, because her genitalia was still swollen.

So off to my vet I went. She was not pregnant. I guess she was in heat for a full month. I had stopped looking for a home for her when she went into heat (I wanted to do someone a favor by giving them an awesome dog. I didn’t want to stick them with every unneutered male in a five-mile radius). By now it’s the end of March and my vet didn’t have any openings for a spay until late April.

So I began looking at low-cost spay places and inquired about sending her to the Humane Society. All of the low cost spay places were full until at least June and the Humane Society couldn’t take her until at least July and maybe not until October.

By now it was late April, and so I called my vet again. They had an opening at the end of May. So I took it.

I was getting a nibble every couple of weeks, but nothing ever came of it. Generally the person I talked to (or the person they had talked to) was up to take her, but their roommate/spouse/etc. wasn’t. Most notably was the first person I asked, whose wife wanted her, but he didn’t.

I got her spayed and, figuring that since she was a friendly dog but still mostly a wild animal, she wouldn’t like the Cone of Shame, I bought three bodysuits to cover her incision. This worked great.

So, the 10th day after the spay, just as I was going to go ham on posting her absolutely everywhere, we got some rain. There was thunder in the background, and apparently she freaked out, because she jumped through a window. She didn’t seem too badly hurt, so I sat up with her the rest of the night and took her to the vet in the morning.

She needed stitches on her foot. I mean, it could have been so. much. worse. She could have sliced a tendon. She could have gotten glass in her eye. So really she got off easy.

I wanted to keep her indoors to protect her foot, but my dad was still scared of her, so he gave me an ultimatum and that’s sort of what led me to call 988. There was more to it than that, but that’s for my next post.

Before her stitches came out, a friend’s family said that they wanted her. So, stitches, Cone of Shame (which she took to much better than I’d feared) and all, I turned her over. She’s there now, there was definitely a learning curve regarding transitioning to being an indoor dog. She seems to be doing really well. She has a crate and regards it as her safe place. The grandma of the family has two elderly chihuahuas, and she gets on with them. She sits and stays. And she’s becoming a couch potato. I couldn’t be happier.

Coming up in two more days, the other things that were going on at that time and thus the rest of the reason why I ended up calling 988. Whee!

Our Gratuitous Amazon Link for today is one of my all-time favorite books, Freaky Friday, by Mary Rodgers. Now, since Freaky Friday has been made into two movies, I’m sure you’re “Oh, I know that story by now.” But do you? Do you really? Because the proverbial novel-on-which-the-movies-were-based is all from Annabel’s perspective. It is literally one day — Friday — and we watch Annabel, who told her mother that her mom’s life is easy, living her mom’s life for a day. Such a good book.