Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

To stay inside and be still if at all possible. Heat indexes over 100 again – and my brain keeps glancing out the window going, “Oh, looks like a nice day for a walk!” No, brain, no!

How hot has it been? I am pretty heat tolerant, and even I have been getting wobbly if I am out too long, and it’s hot enough that I have been wearing shorts IN PUBLIC.

If you hadn’t seen, the lottery is up to a whopping $790 million. Of course I did some quick math – cash option, split with my brother, taxes, chuck a few mil to rehab this house and get my beach house – then put the rest in 7 year CD’s – even after the tax on that interest, that’s like $130K a month – knock off $20K for the most lavish lifestyle I can fathom, and that is still $110K a month to give away.

How fucking awesome would it be to have over 100K a month to just give away to people? There would be some institutions that got recurring gifts, and damn, so many GoFundMe’s and Donor’s Choose projects would get funded. I’d fucking love that – and yes, I’ve got some tickets, cause why not?

Despite the daydreaming, I am still working with boring reality, and I finally got off my arse and did my beach laundry – maybe I didn’t overpack given that I went through 13 pairs of pants/shorts and 11 shirts. In a week. No – I don’t know why those aren’t the same number, LOL. But it is certainly a testament to how actually active I am down at the beach and need to change out of sweaty gross clothes – and apparently clumsy and spilling things on myself. (The Mildly Cursed Day that included beer spillage comes to mind.)

But that laundry is done, and I am going to spend the rest of the day just very quietly existing.

I recommend you do the same if at all possible.

That is pretty much the exact noise I make every time I come in contact with the outside right now. We’re looking at heat indexes over 100º for the next three days. I feel so bad for anyone that has to work outside right now.

I know if you have one of those jobs, you’re probably in a situation of “don’t work, don’t eat” – as a society, we have got to do better. This kind of weather, no one should be doing outside work. I couldn’t help but automatically be in Mom Mode at the farmers market this morning. “Be careful with the heat!” to everyone I encountered… Yes, you could say that by going to the farmers market, I am part of the problem – but they would have been there had I gone or not, so they might as well get some sales and I get some eggs, salad mix, tomatoes, shortbread, and accidental raspberries*.

The WHO has declared MonkeyPox a “Global Health Emergency” – and here in the US we’re still dealing with the CDC acting like it’s just a “gay man’s disease” and that is gonna fuck us over if they don’t get their shit together right quick. It’s. Not. An. STI.

Then I think about how we refused to test people for Covid because they hadn’t been to fucking China in the early days, and of so much Covid money that was given to police departments instead of going to schools or used for grants for small business for ventilation improvement, and, the President has Covid and isn’t even resting like he should, and yeah, we’re fucked.

I just don’t understand how we’re so bad at this, other than we’ve just allowed Corporate America to call the shots every damn time – and we all know what they think of regular people and the planet – and we’re all paying the price for “shareholder value.” The planet is dying, Covid isn’t going away, but boy, unemployment is low!

I hate having to participate in this. Commerce is fine, but capitalism is shit and killing us all. And opting out – pretty much impossible unless you win the damn lottery.

On a lighter note – here are some really pretty flowers I saw outside the farmers market that I’ve never noticed before.

Stay cool this weekend and do something that will annoy a titan of industry.

* I was in a stall and was going to get tomatoes, snagged a bag and got a closer look and decided they weren’t ripe enough and felt bad, so I bought raspberries. They’ve been washed and dried and are in the freezer and will go in my iced tea.

And trying to get back into the swing of things around the house has been A STRUGGLE. Work has been fine, but the rest, not so much. I’m gonna blame the heat and my mattress. Yep, that is it, heat & mattress, LOL.

On the mattress front, someone I follow on Twitter is also looking for a new mattress and their temp solution while they research is flipping over the mattress (pillow top like mine) and getting a 4″ mattress topper. I may go with this while I try to find something new.

Last time I got a mattress, it was easy – you went to the mattress shop, there were maybe 3-4 in your price range, you laid down and finally went, “IDK, I think this will work” and that was all there was to it. Now there are several dozen kinds of mattresses out there and as many ways to buy them. It’s a little overwhelming. And the local shops “mattress matcher” thing recommends a $3600 mattress, LOL.

But I will hit up the mattress shop this weekend and see what there is to see that doesn’t cost $3600. Seriously, who can afford a $3600 mattress??? I mean, if I hit the lottery tomorrow night, I’m all over it, but otherwise, no.

Y’all have a good day, keep cool and don’t let anyone tell you that you must buy a $3600 mattress.

And we start with my realizing that I really, REALLY need a new mattress. Nothing like a week on a mattress that *hasn’t* been used daily for the last…OMG, 17 years to notice the difference. Definitely going to make the time to visit the local definitely-not-a-money-laundering-front mattress shop this coming weekend.

I don’t want to work today, LOL. I want to be retired. Come oooooon, lottery! $530 million should do the trick, I think. If I hit it, I’ll get a new mattress AND box spring!

I’d briefly considered clearing out my work email yesterday, but decided against it, because dammit, I am still on vacation until I log in this morning. It’s gonna be the better part of an hour to slog through it all, I am sure. I did check my calendar on Teams to make sure there aren’t any 7:30AM meetings – I appear to be in the clear there at least.

Only 24 days until a long weekend!

The LilyMonster is back in fine form this morning, yelling and stomping around – bit of slow feeding yesterday and naps did the trick.

Welp, time to go to the thing to make the money to get to retirement. You have a great day!

Getting the car washed this morning as it threatened to rain… But, gotta get that salt and sand off the undercarriage and all that.

I seem to be totally back into NoVa not-on-vacation mode, as I slept for shit last night and wasn’t up before the alarm this morning. Boooo. Lily is having her own re-entry issues in the form of a slightly touchy tummy this morning. Maybe another sign a petsitter is the way to go next year – they take very good care of all the animals at the kennel, but it’s just a lot for her. It is a shame she doesn’t like the kennel as much as Snoopy & Target did – they loved exploring the cattery and Target was known as the helper when it was time to get meals together for everyone.

Though I can tell she’s not feeling *too* bad, cause she’s still talkative (she gets quiet when she feels particularly icky) and I just went to pet her and she tried to pull my glasses off my face. I also have some rotisserie chicken that I got yesterday for salads, so a bit of that will make its way to her plate today.

In “bigger than my home” garbage, the radio was talking about Covid BA.5 this morning and it sounds like it’s gonna be as fucked up as the first Omicron wave. Sounds like it’s going North to South like so many of these variants – we’ve been a weird plateau of ~400 cases a day here in the county for the last month. We’ll see how long that lasts.

I’d like to someday get to a point where I’m not questioning every damn thing my body is doing. Sore throat or just a dry throat? Is my nose running because of Covid or because I went from AC indoors to humid outdoors? Headache or hangover? Is having dinner out for the first time in A YEAR a small, moderate, or incredibly stupid risk? And every time I want to do something even slightly normal or enjoyable – most of the enjoyment is sucked out of it because I just wonder if I’m being stupid and reckless. Honestly, I think 99% of the reason those damn beach tacos were so good was cause I could eat them outside, away from people, and with a lovely breeze. Not much of that around here.

And now we’re staring down the barrel of BA.5 – since all we’ve done since the vaccines became available is give variants all the room they want to run because no one wants to tell anyone what they need to do to help.

I will never understand why transmission prevention wasn’t part of the vaccine development and testing. Prevention of hospitalization and death is incredibly important – but when all structural transmission mitigation is dropped in favor of vaccines that don’t prevent transmission – well, it just doesn’t work, as we’ve seen with Delta, Omicron and all its bastard sub-variants. Our case counts now are higher than they were in 2020 when we had no vaccines, but we actually had structural support.

Pandemic management and prevention is completely on an ever shrinking portion of the population. It’s not right and it’s not fair. I wish people wouldn’t give up they way they are, but I also understand it – and absolutely hate it. Because it’s just never going to fucking end. 862 days of this and no end in sight, because for reasons I will never, ever understand – we lost the political will to care.

I’m going to try to go focus on more positive things. You hang in there.

It’s a messy depression nest, but it’s mine and has a kitty, so, it’s the best.

I am still in good vacation vibes mode, and by 9:30 this morning I had already been out for coffee, hit the farmers market & grocery store, and we are set for not-leftover-pizza food for a few days at least. Thank you rice & quiche guy at the farmers market!

Lily has not shockingly been a velcro kitty since we got home – I’m wondering if maybe next year we need to go back to a petsitter – she’s does OK enough at the kennel, but as she gets older, it may be too much for her. At least I have *checks phone countdown* 354 days to get the house into “allow a non-family member in” shape, LOL. A couple times last night, she woke up (plastered against me) and let out the tiniest of “Mrrps?” and as soon as I put my hand on her, the INSANELY LOUD purring started and she smashed her head on me and went back to sleep.

Seriously, Southern Shores Realty – give us cat friendly rentals!!

The trip home was uneventful after I waited out the storm cell in a parking lot, but I do love how it starts as google maps telling me, “You’ll be there by 12:22 PM!” and I arrived to pickup Lily at 2:30… An hour of that extra time was the storm plus stopping at every rest stop – the other hour and ten minutes was just…Northern Virginia being Northern Virginia.

I don’t know when VDOT started it, but the rest stops have these lovely pollinator gardens and yes, I took so many pretty flower pictures! I love how this shot came out almost like a painting.

Though I didn’t do the best job of totally disconnecting this past week, the change of scenery, no work, and incredibly good food was just what I needed. I am going to allow myself to rest for the remainder of the weekend and just focus on getting vacation things put away. The to-do list will certainly still be there Monday morning.

You have a lovely day.

And it’s grey and calm and peaceful, and perfect for quietly packing up.

May go up north and get one last taco, or maybe just sit on the porch all day.

I do miss my own bed and the LilyMonster, though. If there was only a way to have both those things here… Come on, lottery, LOL.

A very gentle rain has started, which will definitely drive folks to the shops, so looks like a porch day.

I’m certainly a little bummed that we didn’t have better weather overall, but honestly, the overcast and rain have been so very peaceful, which is what I needed. And there is always next year.

My turtles before the rain started:

The gentle rain:

I have done everything I wanted to do, eaten tons of good food, and have now hit my away from home limit which seems to have shrunk to somewhere between four and five days, LOL

I’m gonna blame the pandemic for that.  Easier than asking myself what the hell is wrong with me, cause that could take weeks if not years to answer, and who has that kind of time?

Oh, I’m also gonna blame people. They’re just too much any day of the week, anywhere, even in a place where you can avoid them.

And today ended up being Very Mildly Cursed, so, yes, I am good on away from home time.

Umbrella lost in marsh, walked the boardwalk to all the shops in search of another one, found some at shop just *before* the loss (good mile and some walked south then north again before said shop), bottom of cup of beer caught on tiled counter at taco shop, sloshed beer all over myself, discovered coffee shop had stamp program far too late in trip, post lunch dessert coffee somehow sticky on outside of cup, resulting in sticky steering wheel.

But, at least I met this little guy who lives at the pond behind the coffee shop!

Not sure if muskrat or nutria, but just living it’s best little life there.

ETA: This just happened with one of the new umbrellas:

Then it poured rain.

And another dinner was incredibly stressful.

Then my phone refused to charge and said the port was damaged. (It seems to have been the cable vs the port.)

Should have left yesterday.

Why does ice cream on vacation taste just a little better than ice cream at home?

It’s all ice cream.

It’s all delicious.

And yet, here we are.

Which then begs the question: If I ever do move to the beach, will the ice cream not taste as good?

Gertrude the gull isn’t even sure.

I go ON the beach rather than just being AT the beach!

The grey weather seems to have finally broken and we have sun and warm temps. I think when am done with my coffee, I will get changed and head out for a bit so I can at least say I hit the beach once this year. And it’s early enough in theday, I’ll still have the afternoon to do whatever.

Though, as I get older, I care far less about being on the beach than just being at the beach. I do wish it could all be a little less covid-tastic. We’re being careful as always, but I’ll admit I’m so damn tired of it all. The pivot to all prevention being on individuals has been such a fucking disappointment and disaster, and the lack of structural mitigation is why we’re where we are today.

And honestly, being constantly on guard gets tiring. And people are going to mess up, because they’re human, and have zero support in this. And when the folks in charge have decided it isn’t a problem, how do you expect anyone to take it seriously anymore?

Ah well. Not much we can do except keep trying our best.

On a far more pleasant note – here are some sunny waves!