Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

We made it again! Well done!

Noticed this week the ol’ seasonal depression is oozing in a bit, highlighted by a lack of appetite/not quite caring enough about myself to eat. (Likely not helped by election stress. So help me god, if my fellow white women betray me again…)

This morning I almost passed on the farmers market, kinda felt like nothing would be appealing. But the one functioning brain cell I had left said, “It’s sunny, perfect hoodie temps, and even if you don’t find a single thing you want to eat, you need fresh air and exercise.”

That brain cell was right. I parked at the far end of the lot, got in a good walk, probably the last cherry tomatoes of the season (freeze watch tonight) other salad goodies, jerk pork, some sausage rolls, and nice loaf of rye bread. (I did make myself a nice turkey-pastrami sandwich today with that bread – not to worry, I am eating, it’s just a bit hard to be arsed about it.)

And one of my favorite bakers had pumpkin pie bars. SO GOOD.

Oh, also got a jar of Moco Black Sauce – new vendor this weekend. Best way to describe it is that it’s like a thick and spicy worcestershire sauce. They had mild/medium/hot and I sampled the medium first, cause I’m white, but not that white. I bought the mild, because it turns out that maybe I am that white, LOL. But it’s tasty and I think could be an interesting cheese accompaniment. (Cheese tray holidays are coming, woohoo!!)

And the walk was good, and the fresh air was good, and being out of the house was good. It’s like going for a stupid walk for my stupid mental health was a good thing. Which also means I need to get back on my bullshit with my yoga, too.

Also got myself some pretty flowers to brighten up the room.

Jorge of the Jungle & the AwesomeSean continue to be awesome. Still battling Sean’s dermatitis, but we’ve got special food to see if it’s a food allergy, but it can take 4-6 weeks to see a difference and we’re only a week in. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that it does confirm a food allergy and we can transition him to a non-prescription limited ingredient food.

Big plans for the rest of the weekend are: remember to eat, do some yoga, and try not to think too much about the election. (I suspect I’ll hit 2 of the 3.)

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

I was so very happy to hear that the ILA union & USMX were able to come to enough of an agreement that they can suspend the strike until January 15th. I didn’t think the strike would go on long enough to actually seriously impact supply chains, but certainly more than just 3 days, but hey, I’ll take it.

Can’t help but think Biden saying he wasn’t going to intervene on behalf of USMX and saying he deosn’t believe in Taft-Hartley didn’t hurt. USMX had to be really damn disappointed in that, and I’m hoping that the head of the ILA, who is reportedly kinda of a MAGA dick, understands that Trump would have busted that union so fast it would make his head spin.

I am very pro-union and think strikes sometimes have to happen, and I will also admit I was cringing hard at the timing. Elections in weeks, Christmas just around the corner, photos of the IL A boss with Trump, etc, etc – it could have been a whole ass mess.

And then there was the panic buying. In this house, usually paper towels and toilet paper run out at the same time. (Weird, I know, it just works out that way.) But last week, we needed paper towels, but not toilet paper just yet, which was great, cause I get the big packages and they’re unwieldly as fuck. I was not thinking about the looming strike and Wednesday night as I added toilet paper to the grocery list, I just realized, “Fuuuuuuuuck, is there gonna be any on the shelves?”

The shelves had definitely taken a hit. But there was enough left I could sit and stare and try and figure out toilet paper math, aka how does 15 rolls equal 72 rolls, but 12 equals 80, and I so wanted to scream, “Not panic buying, it’s just time to buy toilet paper this week!”

I’ve joked about the panic buying, but if you did – it’s OK. Toilet paper won’t go bad, and you don’t have to buy it again for a while and if it made you feel a little more secure, it’s OK.

I don’t think you’re stupid, or silly, or uninformed. When you hear “supply chain disruptions” is your first thought really, “So, where does what I need come from and would it be coming through these east coast ports?” I think it’s far more likely it is, “Fucking hell, not again.”

When I saw pics & videos from places like Costco with the toilet paper and whatnot sold out, what I saw was an absolute fuckton of unprocessed trauma from 2020. I know as I stood there in the paper aisle with some unsettling empty spaces, I felt that ick in the pit of my stomach – same ick I felt in March of 2020 when I walked into the market and it was like locusts had come through.

So, if you were feeling like “Fuck, I let my guard down and here we fucking are again, I am not gonna get caught short again” – seems pretty normal to me. I know between watching the aftermath of hurricane Helene, and this strike, I’ve had some “damn, do I need to become a prepper?” thoughts floating through my head.

For now, take a deep breath. Maybe several. If you still feel like you need to stock up, take a slow, deliberate, and non-panicky look at your household supplies and pantry, and figure out what you might want to have some extras of that will make you feel a little more secure, and get them gradually. You don’t have to go drop a grand at the grocery store tomorrow. A couple extra cans of beans this week. An extra box of pasta next week. Another bottle of cleaning spray week after next.

If you need a few extras of some things to feel a little more secure, that’s OK. Just do your best to be calm about it. The supply chain disruptions of 2020 did a fair amount of mental damage to all of us, and I don’t think we realized those wounds weren’t really healed until we were looking at it happening again.

Be kind to yourself.

So, while I didn’t have a ton on tap this week, it was all predicated on semi-decent weather. Well, it’s going to rain FOR THE NEXT TEN DAYS.

I am SO salty, because originally I was supposed to be off last week, but moved it because of the work dumpster fire – and last week the weather was FINE. I know the weather is the weather and it’s not going to be 75 and sunny every day, BUT TEN FUCKING DAYS OF RAIN?

So, I’m trying to figure out how to salvage the week so I at least leave the house a few times without being completely soaked by the time I get to wherever. (DC day in the rain = decidedly unpleasant, I know this from experience.)

At least I have a few other Fridays off in October, so weather permitting, I can still get in a DC day and check out the botanical gardens. (Though I don’t know how garden-y they’ll be in the fall now that I think about it.)

I do have some holiday crafts I want to work on this week, but I just don’t want this to turn into a “catch up on housework” or “rot on the sofa” week. Granted, catching up on housework wouldn’t be the worst thing, and rotting on the sofa with the kitties is kinda nice – but, ya know, it’s PTO and I should be *doing* something with it.

And not only because I am on PTO this week, it’s legit really nice out there to boot! Got my coffee, been to the farmers market, and I’ve got Sean-A-Rama sitting happily between my feet. Pretty good day so far!

This fall’s staycation isn’t going to be quite the whirlwind that last year was, but it’s all good – nothing wrong with just chilling out a bit. There will be a DC day – just need to pick the museum, and I’m gonna check out one of the botanical gardens in the county, and a nice dinner somewhere. I also have a knitting project I want to get started on, and this is a good week to do it if I want it done by Christmas.

Invariably, the week before I go on PTO is an utter shitshow, and when round 2 of the dumpster fire reared it’s head Friday before last, I was in a wee bit of despair. But Monday morning I said I couldn’t help, cause I had multiple deadlines and round 1 of the dumpster fire had put me way behind on everything else.

Mind you, just saying that damn near gave me a panic attack, but no one was pissy, and consulting said they would help.* But because I spoke up for myself, I was able to get everything done that I needed to get done, and even got a little bit ahead of where I needed to be by the end of the day yesterday, and I didn’t even have to work 12 hour days to do it.

I did get pulled back into the dumpster fire for a bit yesterday with my dev & product manager for some brainstorming, but it was OK, because I was actually caught up on everything.

And I left on time, not stressed out, and had a great PTO kickoff with a field trip to the new Trader Joes that is SIX MINUTES FROM MY HOUSE!* I have loved this place since we were getting flyers from them back in the 80s even though there wasn’t a store anywhere nearby. It seemed so fancy and cool. And then I went to one – and it WAS fancy and cool – AND CHEAP! And now I have one right nearby!! And a freezer full of good stuff. Spent $60 that would have been near $100 at my regular market.

And according to my brother, TJ’s Green Chile Chicken bowl makes great tacos.

My furry buddies continue to be awesome. Jorge occasionally does try to assassinate me with love via flinging himself on me when I’m sleeping – fine until I inhale a lungful of fur, LOL. Sean has still got the itchybritches, and I talked with the vet yesterday and we’re doing another round of prednolisone. The first round was a really short course, and it helped, but it just wasn’t long enough to get him to the point where his little bumps were healed over. Thankfully we have the transdermal gel, he gets his meds and I don’t bleed. I’m also supplementing with the occasional half of a gabapentin – it also stops itching, works pretty quick, and isn’t enough to knock him out, whereas the pred is going to take a little while. (They are not contraindicated, I checked multiple sources.)

Little dude is just stuck in a cycle of “the bumps itch, he overgrooms them and they get kinda raw, they start to heal, they itch because they’re healing, he overgrooms, lather, rinse, repeat” – so if we can stop the itching while they get fully healed, we can hopefully stop the cycle.

The vet I talked to wasn’t the same one that first saw Sean & Jorge, and I loved that she was “Oh, this is a new friend you just brought home recently!” and I talked her ear off about how awesome he was doing outside of the dermatitis.

And here are some Caturday shots!

Not much else on tap for the day – I do need to hit up Walmart and see what they have in the way of fleece – need to make another long, skinny blanket to go in front of the sofa for the kitties, and see if I can make some kind of a cover for the bins Sean likes to sleep on. Sunday is looking like an “arts & crafts for cats” day.

Have a great weekend, tell your pets I said HI! and check your voter registration.

* Narrator: Apparently they were not in fact, very much help.
* Yes, I did just look on maps to confirm, LOL.

The week sure whipped by, which is fine for the workweek part of things, but NOT THE WEEKEND!!

But, at least I can say I didn’t fritter the weekend away – Mount Vernon fall market fair yesterday and it was lovely. Got some soaps, a notebook, a book, and lots of fresh air and exercise! The book is by Dr. Cynthia Kierner, who was one of my grad school professors, and is up for the George Washington book prize. Fingers crossed for her!

And I had the thought I always have when I am there: I do not understand how people who live on waterfronts do great things. I would spend every waking moment just sitting there staring at the water. Probably for the best that the closest thing I have to a water feature in my yard is the puddle that forms under the tree in the front yard when it rains.

This weekend’s flowers are more gerbera daisies – I’m glad I’ve made this a Sunday morning habit of grabbing a bunch of flowers at the grocery store.

Work is work and fine enough, but of course at 2:45 on Friday, support sends the dumpster fire from a couple weeks back over again – because they don’t have the time to do the analysis. Well, neither do I. Consulting was supposed to be helping on this, and there is gonna be a meeting on Monday where I have to very gently say, “No.”

The long and short of it is that I legit will not have the time to take this case over this week, and QC/Development just can’t be the solution to support’s chronic understaffing – we’re at capacity, too, and can’t create time where there is none. It’s one thing to help out when support is stuck, or has done the analysis and think something is wrong – we do it all the time – but we can’t be just taking over support cases – we’re not swimming in free time.

On a much brighter note, Sean and Jorge continue to be awesome. Sean is slowly but surely understanding he can go upstairs whenever he wants! He napped with me on the bed yesterday, and I woke up to him on the bed this morning! (I’ll admit, I did plunk him on the bed yesterday, but this morning, that was all on his own!)

These two make everything OK. Every day I can’t help but wonder how we got so lucky with these two.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, and have a great week!

Mixed feelings on the change of seasons, cause I so love summer, but fall is nice and September is chock full of weekend outdoor festivals. But it also means winter and way too little sunlight is also around the corner, *sob*… But for now, I’m going to do my best to enjoy that it’s not yet winter. FALL FESTIVALS, HERE I COME!

Oh, last weekend when I said work had been sane lately? Holy shit, I jinxed myself big time. This past week was 3 days of putting out a dumpster fire. Half inadvertently self-inflicted by the client, half a software problem – but that problem stems from a use case I can only describe as “well, you’re the one that has to explain this to your auditors, not me.” But at least by the end of the week, the dumpster fire was out and I got a nice public shoutout from as colleague in support for my help, and I actually got some of my other work done, and replicated a different client problem, so the week ended on a good note.

Sean & Jorge continue to be awesome. It’s so much fun learning more about them – now that we’re past the initial “So, this is home now” phase, they’re feeling good enough to PLAY! They like to chase each other around, and Jorge prefers rolling toys, and Sean is a big fan of strings on sticks. (Big thick fleece strings, nothing he can eat.) Does my heart good to see them relaxed enough to just have fun.

My brother is having some “problems” (HA!) with Jorge in that the little furry dude will be sacked out on his bed, and just as my brother is drifting off to sleep, that is when Jorge decides I MUST SLEEP RIGHT ON TOP OF YOU.

Sean is doing great, and I am still figuring out more things about him. When he had his few accidents downstairs, I thought it was separation anxiety. I may have overestimated my importance, LOL. I think wherever he lived before, he may not have been allowed in a lot of places, like upstairs, or bedrooms. Even though he started upstairs here, once he was able to be downstairs in the living room – he seemed to start treating the upstairs as somewhere he wasn’t allowed to be.

So, we’re working through that – it’s hard to explain to a cat “anywhere you can get to, you’re allowed to be – if you’re not allowed somewhere, there is a physical barrier, and if you somehow get around that, well, that’s on the humans, not you, and you’ll just be gently relocated.”

At night, he’ll follow me to the stairs and stop – I’ll scoop him up and take him upstairs and he has a snack and will stay for a while, then goes back downstairs – and that’s progress. And this morning, he was in my room when I got up, and started purring up a storm when I went to tell him good morning. Cue exploding hearts floating around my head.

Beyond that, the only real “challenge” I have with Sean is that he is an ankle twirler and he can be FAST when he wants to be – so I have to be careful when I’m walking as there can be a cat between my feet in the blink of an eye, especially when I come home from the store.

I love them both to pieces – and they very graciously put up with many random hugs and forehead kisses from me.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and if you have to work tomorrow, I really hope you’re getting double time pay and folks are kind to you.

You made it to another weekend, well done!! Things are delightfully boring around these parts, and I am here for it.

The only bit of the DNC I watched live was VP Harris’ speech and damn, it was a banger. I am actually a little bit fucking hopeful? It’s weird cause I haven’t felt like that with regards to politics in…a while. It has been very nice to see the Democrats get their collective shit together.

Also, to anyone that went after Gus Walz? These hands are rated E for everyone – go fuck yourself. A young man being emotional about A Very Big Day for his Dad? THAT’S HEALTHY YOU GODDAMN WEIRDOS.

It was another lovely morning at our local farmers market, with fake fall making it even nicer. Went to one of the bakers that I usually don’t frequent because they specialize in very large loaves of bread, but I really wanted some croissants and checked them out to see if they had any. OMG, so many croissants, and little cheese danishes, and mini ham & cheese quiches! Yeah, I fucked up sleeping on that vendor.

Work has been somewhat sane lately, which is nice. Took yesterday off – half day Friday, why not make it all day? Though I didn’t turn off my Teams notifications on my phone and I saw a chat notification come in at 3PM – I did not open it. If you were expecting a response at 3PM on a half day Friday when everyone leaves at 1PM – even if I hadn’t taken the whole day off – you’re out of your goddamned mind.

Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out Monday morning. But also, JFC, I should have stayed in my art classes and gone anywhere but corporate with my life.

Jorge & Sean continue to be awesome and the fake fall is giving them both serious zoomies. I love them so much.

Jorge hijacked Sean’s favorite spot on the bin and if this look isn’t “This Is Some Bullshit” I don’t know what is, LOL.

And thankfully, I don’t seem to have any lingering symptoms. (Though my sinuses are a bit, “Hey, where is that nightly Benadryl, that was great!) Here was my timeline – and it was WAY longer than I would have preferred…

Day 0 – Symptom onset, did not test cause I wrote it off to general cat-wrangling fatigue.
Day 1 – Light positive (Not me thinking, “Maybe this is already the tail end of it?” HAHAHAHA!)
Day 2-7 – Very positive
Day 8 – Light positive
Day 9-10 – Positive/Negative depending on the angle I held the test under the light – OH, FFS.
Day 11 – Barely positive regardless of lighting – ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Day 12-14 – True negative three days in a row!

Day 2 of testing, my symptoms had resolved. Did the nightly Benadryl help? IDK, but it certainly didn’t hurt. Overall my symptoms were fatigue & achy-ness, slightly scratchy throat, and a bit of a headache. I was also very lucky in that my symptoms were brief & genuinely mild.

I find I keep saying “genuinely mild” because I remember in the early days when they were telling us, “Oh, like 80% of Covid cases are mild” and we all thought, “OK, well, mild isn’t too bad, right?” and then we found out that “mild” just meant “you’ll be flat on your back for two weeks, but you won’t need to be admitted to a hospital.”

Honestly, had I not needed to test for my acupuncture appointment, I may very well have written it all off to walking A LOT in Baltimore and the vet visit being physically strenuous and mentally stressful cause I was worried about the kitties behaving. (Thankfully, I did have an N95 on at the vet appointment, and yes I should have tested before it, but it just completely slipped my mind.)

According to the current CDC guidelines, I could have been out & about with “additional precautions” on Day 3 of testing and just done whatever on Day 8. I was still fucking positive on Day 8 and if I’d followed the CDC guidelines, I could have easily infected someone else. Granted, I wasn’t gonna do whatever, I’m still masking up indoors and I’m gonna make sure I don’t get distracted and fuck up again – but jesus, what shitty guidelines.

Can’t help but wonder if the change in guidelines is just a tacit acknowledgement that so few people have dedicated sick leave, and thanks to 50+ years of being told in America “if you can’t do it on your own, you suck” – a lot of people don’t have the support systems they need to get through an extended isolation period.

I haven’t seen a soul in a mask in I don’t know how long. And because there are so few people actively taking any precautions, if you are trying to actively take precautions, you gotta be pretty damn perfect about it right now.

Day 5 of testing positive, I keep reading it can average around 10 days, so I’m REALLY hoping this is the halfway mark.  I’d been trying to avoid Covid because I didn’t want to get sick, or make anyone else sick.  

What I did not consider was HOW FUCKING ANNOYING THIS IS.  I don’t like isolation, I don’t like masking in the house (not gonna give my brother Covid) and I’m not enjoying trying to keep my body as calm as freaking possible in an attempt to ward off Long Covid. 

You should absolutely avoid Covid cause getting sick sucks, getting other people sick sucks, nobody wants Long Covid, but also – seriously consider the annoyance and inconvenience factors, too, cause damn, I did not ever anticipate those and they are making me very stabby.

My symptoms resolved in under 48 hours, yay, and per the CDC, I can just go all face-naked Wednesday, because they tossed the 5/10 day isolation guidance out the window in March and it’s all about symptoms and vibes apparently.  (I will not be going face-naked anytime soon.)

Been seeing two camps on Covid lately.  One is surprised that they know a bunch of people who have picked up Covid recently, and the other is astonished and really angry that people seem to not know better.

If you’re not Terminally Online and actively seeking out Covid info – honestly, I can understand why you’d think things were OK and just go about your business like all was well.  Because if it was still dangerous out there, the government would do something, right?

I can’t remember the last time I heard about Covid in a meaningful way in any mainstream media.  No structural mitigations since mid-2021.  Health departments aren’t really talking about it*, and the only data we seem to have anymore is wastewater surveillance, & you have to go looking for that.  (And at least for my county’s health department, that wastewater dashboard is not particularly helpful.  It’s out of date and only says if things are up/down/static.)

Federal, State & Local governments just acquiesced to industry and right wing psychos the moment the vaccines came out and just said “welp, good luck” and that was it.  

The fact that the President caught Covid last month and it didn’t even spark the tiniest of official public health discussions?  The whole thing was a blip on the radar at best.  Not a mitigation in sight at the Olympics?  Of course folks will think things are OK.

Hell, anywhere I have a mask on these days, it is rare that I see anyone else with a mask on.  When like 95% of folks aren’t taking precautions, you can’t slip up *at all* – and boy do I know – and if it was flipped and we were back in a majority of folks masking situation, we could all fuck up every now and then and it would be OK.

I am 99% sure I know exactly where I let my guard down and fucked up Covid-wise.  I had masks on my trip, and I used them, and I got distracted and forgot once, and welp, here we are.  Maybe if I’d looked around and everyone else was wearing a mask, I would have had that “what am I forgetting?” thought, IDK.

I’m not mad at whoever had it – I’m betting they didn’t even know it and if their symptoms were anything like mine, it may not have even occurred to them as a possibility.  I genuinely hope they’re doing OK.

My symptoms were genuinely mild, and resolved in under 48 hours.  Thursday morning, no symptoms, but still positive.  If I’d not tested on Wednesday, I might have written it all off to just being overtired and just gone on with life.**

I understand the people in the “angry that folks don’t know better camp” but that anger is misdirected.  This has been a public health failure on multiple fronts from the start.  You cannot make managing something as big as Covid an individual responsibility with zero support, which is exactly what has happened.  

There is no good data being pushed out, tests aren’t covered by insurance anymore, masks aren’t covered by insurance, the CDC says a “Core Prevention Strategy” is vaccination, but current vaccines don’t prevent transmission (ASK ME HOW I KNOW,) strains are changing faster than we get vaccines out, a year seems to be a big stretch on vaccine efficacy, and masking is just a “Additional Strategy”…  

We fucking *know* masking is the best, easiest, and cheapest damn method for preventing transmission – every agency even tangentially involved with public health should still be screaming it from the rooftops 24/7.  But it’s crickets, because, fuck if I know anymore.

Fucking terrified of what H5N1 avian flu is gonna do given the sorry state of public health in this country.

* I checked my county health departments Twitter account.  6 mentions of Covid in 2024.  That account has 14,000 followers.  There are over 880,000 people over the age of 18 in the county.  They only have 22,000 followers on FB, and about as many Covid mentions.
** Yes, I still took sick leave for two days, because I know a critical factor in recovery is rest, and I am not resting when I’m working, even if it is a laptop job.  HR can fight me on this if they want.