I survived so far

They’re expecting one more day of sub-freezing temperatures here in North Texas. It got down to 10°F locally with a wind chill of minus 8, spelled out for emphasis. I used to have cold weather gear that Mrs. the Poet gave away because “you never use it” even though the purpose of having warm clothes is to not need them but have them if you do need them! Her take was if you haven’t worn them in a month, get rid of them. Which I suppose is good for like summer clothes in the summer, but winter clothes are kept for emergencies of cold. Not as a fashion choice. Which for some reason didn’t get through to Mrs. the Poet.

They are having a minor emergency at the home, 8 patients and one employee testing positive for Trump’s virus. They’re still open for Christmas, but everybody has to stay masked up during visits. Which is going to make kissing Mrs. the Poet interesting to say the least. Plans are still up in the air right now.

And I haven’t been able to get anyone presents except for Alex. because everyone else jut wanted gift cards and I haven’t been out where I could get gift cards in at least a couple of weeks. Alex asked for and is getting books and a Nerf rifle, because I can order those from the jungle site and get them delivered to the house.

And that’s pretty much all I have to tell today.

Advertisement

Quick non-sequitur post

Because I have music streaming while I work and I’m on the Electro Swing channel this gem came up in the queue, which reminded me of one of my first Mondregreens that I remember.

I heard this (Andrews Sisters cover) and tried to make it into something in English because I was a kid and English is my first language, so “Bei Mir Bist Du Shoen” became “My Dear Mister Shane” in my head. The TV show “Shane” had just ended its run that year, so that probably contributed to my confusion.

And FYI my hand is still not fully functional, not even design tolerances, just two fingers and kinda-sorta my thumb. If I keep it hot, it doesn’t hurt, but the only way I have to keep it hot is soaking in hot water and then putting on one of my winter bike gloves made for riding in sub-zero F (-18°C) over it as soon as I get out of the water. Typing in those gloves is impossible, of course.

It’s really cold here

It has warmed up to 59°F (15°C) in my office via trapped body heat, up from 54 (12) when I sat down at the computer. Outside was even worse at 29°F when I fired up the laptop, 23 now. For readers in lands where the metric system is in use, those are all minus temperatures where you might live. We are looking at possible single-digit temperatures in the early morning (-13°C). Needless to say, I’m not calm, cool and collected about the cat’s fortunes tonight.

Other fun things: the touch pad that acts as a mouse on my almost 5YO Chromebook doesn’t work except for the left click when I push on the pad until it clicks. I could really use a new laptop here at Casa de El Poeta. I done wore this one almost completely out. Dead keys, dead battery, now a dead mouse pad.

In other news I’m in better shape than Our Fearless Leader. Even taking into account the numbers released were fudged in his favor, I’m 30 pounds lighter than him. And I look a hell of a lot better than he does. Which I should, because I have died a lot more than he has. To my knowledge, I have died at least 2 times more than Trump. Not twice as much, two times more, there’s a big difference. And BTW the next time I die I’ll know how to use the viewer because I’ve used a touch screen and understand gestural interfaces now. It would have helped if someone had explained that instead of saying I should become one with the universe. Of course most of their customers have a lot longer to play with the interface than I had. I mean what’s 2 minutes compared to eternity? They look at the new guy getting frustrated and they say “Give him time, it’s not like he has anyplace else to go.”

And in spite of the best I could do with both cats adding their best body heat, the temperature has dropped to a finger-numbing 56°F, so I’m going back to bed where it’s nice and warm under the covers. BTW that means that both cats are inside out of the worst of the cold. Clint and Clyde are both comfortably warm tonight.

I’m detoxing, posts might get weird for a while

I’m eliminating all the brain drugs because the side effects are worse than the disease. I was taking anti-depressants because untreated PTSD from when I was a kid turned into depression, so I took SSRIs which helped the depression for a while until the side effect of destroying my ability to have sex kicked in. I managed to get most of a year in without depression, and I had a positive attitude and everything. I was even cheerful and talked with my wife regularly. That was great while it lasted. but eventually side effects kinda blew that out of the water.

So, then I changed meds in an attempt to find one without sexual side-effects, with the first attempt getting the side effects in full effect before the intended effect of reducing depression even started. Which brings me to the current med, that uses a chemical strategy that does not even affect my depression. Well my soon-to-be-previous-med, that takes as long to wean off of as it required other meds to be clear from my system. It will be about 2 weeks to detox enough to switch to an SSRI. Then at least another 2 weeks to get back up to speed on the SSRI as I mourn the death of my sex life, or not. I might decide to just save the money and live in a dull, grey world, and retain something of my sex life.

In other news I was going to get my toes done Tuesday, but we are experiencing the southern end of an arctic cold front that dropped the temperature about 40°F overnight, from a high of 57° to a forecast low of 20 tomorrow morning, with wind chills expected to be in the single digits. That’s chilly. We had to fight to get the cats to come in and stay in because they want to be out in what is still pretty warm, and now they are pacing the hall yelling to be let out.

I had to turn the AC off

And I wore long pants and a long-sleeve shirt today, and wished I had more on. I got up way too early (0900) and then spent about 2 hours getting to the meeting after getting ready and fed. I felt like I was freezing until I found a place out of the wind while I was waiting for the bus for the outbound trip, when the actual temp was 44 and the “Feels like” was down in the 30s.

I mentioned turning off the AC because it was down to almost 60 in the office this AM, and it is still only 68°F this evening, a far cry from the mid 80s from less than a month ago. Seriously after all that time acclimating to hot weather, decent temperatures feel cold. I’m even back to drinking hot coffee again instead of iced tea for breakfast to warm up. We actually used a blanket on the bed last night. And my nose feels like an ice cube on my face.

And I’m also dealing with a needy (and kneady) cat, so this post is over.