mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2024-11-12 05:38 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2024-11-12 05:38 pm
Entry tags:
Quick summary of the last few weeks:
Mostly I just feel really behind. The whole *gestures* everything with the election makes it hard to want to do or say much of anything, but I'm trying to get back to doing... something. Catching up here. Writing something.
My break from work was sort of a nothing span of time. We did almost nothing in terms of "going out to do things" and I did almost nothing in terms of "productive personal projects that would have been worthwhile uses of the time."
I spent a couple nights hanging out with Taylor, Sunday (Oct 27th) through Tuesday (Oct 29th). That was fun.
Unfortunately, that Sunday night, Cy started really having a hard time walking. Just about as bad as the first time we'd taken him to the emergency vet. I wasn't home, but Alex was extremely worried. He did start to slowly improve after that, though! Alex was concerned that maybe he'd had a stroke, because his balance was so bad, and he only wanted to turn to the left. I'm more inclined to think it was still just pain, and that moving right was more painful. He wasn't *incapable* of turning the other direction; just reluctant to. He's been continuing to get better, and was back to wanting to run and play by the end of the week, but it was a bad couple of days.
That same Sunday night into Monday, the first katydid, Greenbean, died. :( I knew that late-October - mid-November was about the longest I could expect to have them, but it was still sad to have him go. It's about a month longer than he likely would have lived in the wild, and he overcame that terrible probable-poisoning, and seemed to have a happy month with us, judging by his enthusiastic clicking and eating of green beans.
I miss the clicking. :(
That Tuesday (the 29th), we did our one "go out and do things," which was going to a haunted house. It was fun, though I feel like Alex always goes through them faster than I want to! But there were a lot of cool sets and fun costume pieces. There were two houses: one was nautical-themed and one was more traditional haunted house. Both were neat, but the second one felt a bit more engaging, like it was just better established, maybe. It was a good time, and I'm glad we went.
Halloween itself was kind of a bummer, just in terms of how little we did, but it wasn't *bad.*
Friday (Nov 1st) we did a big grocery trip, but Alex started feeling sick partway through, so I wound up doing most of it solo.
Saturday (Nov 2nd) was a model show. We'd spent much of the week leading up to it doing prep for that, as this one was focused on collectibility (so emphasis on things like age/rarity/condition) rather than the shows we usually go to, where the focus is more on realism. The show... did not go terribly well for us, haha. Not a lot of winners, though the show itself was good. Two of the few winning horses we had were my two from the last couple years of "NaMoPaiMo" - my wisteria stained-glass styled horse (who got second in her class) and my art-deco peacock horse (who got first in his!) I was quite happy about that.
My mom kindly watched the dogs, even though it meant barricading part of her house off so that the cat wouldn't have to see the dogs at all.
Sadly also on Saturday, the second katydid, Moodring, passed away. We suspected it was coming, as she was suddenly eating far less, and then on Friday night she didn't want to move when I got into her cage to swap out her food. :(
RIP, my katydids. I'm glad we had you for a little while, and I hope it was a decent life of green beans and no predators. I miss the clicking.
We are left with somewhere around 30 or more katydid eggs, as Moodring just kept laying them. I don't know how many of them are viable (if any), as the two weren't housed together for very long. There are a few obvious "duds" - ones that are small and dark, obviously different than the bigger, smoother tan ones... but whether they're *actually* fertilized or not, I don't know. We'll keep an eye on them and figure out what to do if we DO wind up with a bunch of katydid nymphs.
Time change has not been terribly kind to me. I am definitely feeling the impact from having it get dark so early.
The election happened on Tuesday and was a bit of a dismal, miserable shock. I still don't have anything better or more meaningful to say about it. I am still afraid of what will be coming.
The return to work was mostly fine, except that now it's dark by the time I leave, which is tough. One of my work friends (our lead instructor) had to go on surprise leave to take care of his father.
We had a major winter storm come through starting on Thursday. It snarled local roads a lot less significantly than expected (Friday night and Saturday morning were supposed to be basically impossible to navigate, but thankfully we did not actually have any trouble.) The storm total by the airport came in at 20", so it was a pretty significant storm! I was super concerned about the potential for broken branches; with the unseasonably warm weather we've had, lots of trees are still leafed out, and I was afraid the snow would break many of them. Also surprisingly less of a problem than I'd expected!
We had a weird power outage on Friday night. Our bathroom light, bedroom light/fan, microwave, and dishwasher stayed on. Everything else, from outlets to stove to other lights, all went out. We messed with the breakers for a good five or ten minutes before we realized that the lights in the apartment hallways were on their emergency power, so it wasn't just us. The parking lot lights were also out. The street lamps were on, but the traffic signals were out. I've never had something like that happen - as far as I knew, all our power to the building came from the same source, and in the past a power outage has knocked everything out, not left a handful of lights and appliances somehow working.
I haven't wanted to write anything much since the election news, though that'll be its own post, probably.
About the only good thing has been reading. I finished Acceptance and have started Absolution.
This "weekend" I decided to get my covid and flu vax out of the way, while we're still allowed to. The pharmacist who did them for me was great - whichever he did first I almost didn't feel at all, and the second only stung a bit. They haven't knocked me down quite as badly as all the previous covid shots have, but I've still felt under the weather yesterday and today. I'm hopeful I feel a bit better tomorrow when I'm back at work, but shouldn't be so sick I can't tough it out.
Unless of course, I'm just also getting sick. I've felt crappy for much of the week, with intermittent sore throat, but mostly just tiredness. That's worse today, but I'm hoping its just my usual side-effects. I've been falling asleep by 8:00 on some nights, but am still exhausted when I get up the next day. Is it getting sick, or just the depression? I can't quite tell.
My break from work was sort of a nothing span of time. We did almost nothing in terms of "going out to do things" and I did almost nothing in terms of "productive personal projects that would have been worthwhile uses of the time."
I spent a couple nights hanging out with Taylor, Sunday (Oct 27th) through Tuesday (Oct 29th). That was fun.
Unfortunately, that Sunday night, Cy started really having a hard time walking. Just about as bad as the first time we'd taken him to the emergency vet. I wasn't home, but Alex was extremely worried. He did start to slowly improve after that, though! Alex was concerned that maybe he'd had a stroke, because his balance was so bad, and he only wanted to turn to the left. I'm more inclined to think it was still just pain, and that moving right was more painful. He wasn't *incapable* of turning the other direction; just reluctant to. He's been continuing to get better, and was back to wanting to run and play by the end of the week, but it was a bad couple of days.
That same Sunday night into Monday, the first katydid, Greenbean, died. :( I knew that late-October - mid-November was about the longest I could expect to have them, but it was still sad to have him go. It's about a month longer than he likely would have lived in the wild, and he overcame that terrible probable-poisoning, and seemed to have a happy month with us, judging by his enthusiastic clicking and eating of green beans.
I miss the clicking. :(
That Tuesday (the 29th), we did our one "go out and do things," which was going to a haunted house. It was fun, though I feel like Alex always goes through them faster than I want to! But there were a lot of cool sets and fun costume pieces. There were two houses: one was nautical-themed and one was more traditional haunted house. Both were neat, but the second one felt a bit more engaging, like it was just better established, maybe. It was a good time, and I'm glad we went.
Halloween itself was kind of a bummer, just in terms of how little we did, but it wasn't *bad.*
Friday (Nov 1st) we did a big grocery trip, but Alex started feeling sick partway through, so I wound up doing most of it solo.
Saturday (Nov 2nd) was a model show. We'd spent much of the week leading up to it doing prep for that, as this one was focused on collectibility (so emphasis on things like age/rarity/condition) rather than the shows we usually go to, where the focus is more on realism. The show... did not go terribly well for us, haha. Not a lot of winners, though the show itself was good. Two of the few winning horses we had were my two from the last couple years of "NaMoPaiMo" - my wisteria stained-glass styled horse (who got second in her class) and my art-deco peacock horse (who got first in his!) I was quite happy about that.
My mom kindly watched the dogs, even though it meant barricading part of her house off so that the cat wouldn't have to see the dogs at all.
Sadly also on Saturday, the second katydid, Moodring, passed away. We suspected it was coming, as she was suddenly eating far less, and then on Friday night she didn't want to move when I got into her cage to swap out her food. :(
RIP, my katydids. I'm glad we had you for a little while, and I hope it was a decent life of green beans and no predators. I miss the clicking.
We are left with somewhere around 30 or more katydid eggs, as Moodring just kept laying them. I don't know how many of them are viable (if any), as the two weren't housed together for very long. There are a few obvious "duds" - ones that are small and dark, obviously different than the bigger, smoother tan ones... but whether they're *actually* fertilized or not, I don't know. We'll keep an eye on them and figure out what to do if we DO wind up with a bunch of katydid nymphs.
Time change has not been terribly kind to me. I am definitely feeling the impact from having it get dark so early.
The election happened on Tuesday and was a bit of a dismal, miserable shock. I still don't have anything better or more meaningful to say about it. I am still afraid of what will be coming.
The return to work was mostly fine, except that now it's dark by the time I leave, which is tough. One of my work friends (our lead instructor) had to go on surprise leave to take care of his father.
We had a major winter storm come through starting on Thursday. It snarled local roads a lot less significantly than expected (Friday night and Saturday morning were supposed to be basically impossible to navigate, but thankfully we did not actually have any trouble.) The storm total by the airport came in at 20", so it was a pretty significant storm! I was super concerned about the potential for broken branches; with the unseasonably warm weather we've had, lots of trees are still leafed out, and I was afraid the snow would break many of them. Also surprisingly less of a problem than I'd expected!
We had a weird power outage on Friday night. Our bathroom light, bedroom light/fan, microwave, and dishwasher stayed on. Everything else, from outlets to stove to other lights, all went out. We messed with the breakers for a good five or ten minutes before we realized that the lights in the apartment hallways were on their emergency power, so it wasn't just us. The parking lot lights were also out. The street lamps were on, but the traffic signals were out. I've never had something like that happen - as far as I knew, all our power to the building came from the same source, and in the past a power outage has knocked everything out, not left a handful of lights and appliances somehow working.
I haven't wanted to write anything much since the election news, though that'll be its own post, probably.
About the only good thing has been reading. I finished Acceptance and have started Absolution.
This "weekend" I decided to get my covid and flu vax out of the way, while we're still allowed to. The pharmacist who did them for me was great - whichever he did first I almost didn't feel at all, and the second only stung a bit. They haven't knocked me down quite as badly as all the previous covid shots have, but I've still felt under the weather yesterday and today. I'm hopeful I feel a bit better tomorrow when I'm back at work, but shouldn't be so sick I can't tough it out.
Unless of course, I'm just also getting sick. I've felt crappy for much of the week, with intermittent sore throat, but mostly just tiredness. That's worse today, but I'm hoping its just my usual side-effects. I've been falling asleep by 8:00 on some nights, but am still exhausted when I get up the next day. Is it getting sick, or just the depression? I can't quite tell.
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Oh goodness! Poor Cy. I hope that he keeps this upward swing of feeling better. It always sucks when the furkids get to this place. Sweet boy. Sounds like his picking back up though it a good thing.
I know what you mean by it getting dark by the time you leave work. I close two nights a week - Wednesday and Thursday, both 9-6 days, and driving home from Hutto on Wednesday nights isn't horrific as Hutto isn't AS far away, but Pflugerville is farther. I did it last week with no real problems other than that was the farthest I've driven in the dark, esp by myself. Kathy and I might've found an apartment complex in Pflugerville that if we can afford it and they let us in, it would mean a 5-10 minute drive to and from work in Pflugerville for me and not THAT bad of a trip to and from Hutto, which I'm at far less often than I am the Pflugerville clinic.
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I do hope that Cy keeps feeling better. He's just such an old man now. He's *knock wood* still doing well.
Yeah. Having to go home in the dark sucks. I get off at 6 two days a week and 5 three days a week (though those days *can* sometimes be 6, depending on what's going on in the center). It's always dark once I leave now, and that's tough. I don't have time before work to do anything outside, so basically I just don't see the sun five days a week. I have a window at work! But still.
A 5 or 10 minute drive would be much better! It'd be great if that apartment works out!
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Poor Cy. Getting old is hell, and having to care for an older dog is emotional hell.
Yay for the two wins!
Holy crap, 20" of snow?!!! DNW!! Can't you send it back for a refund?!!
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Poor Cy is getting so old. :( I love him so much, and I feel so bad when he's hurting.
Those wins were unexpected, but very gratifying!
BIG DNW. I demand a refund, in fact! This did not go through the appropriate approval process!
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Sorry about... a lot of things. Even without the new layer of crap, being run down and tired is horrible. Glad Cy's doing better at least.
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Yeah. Just kind of a crap time right now. I am glad Cy is doing better, and hopefully he'll stay doing well for a while.
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I'm trying to keep up with fitness walkies (3x a week) and yoga (3x a week, I have an app on my phone, so any visions of spa like respite from the world should be soundly spanked and sent to bed without dinner) because then at least I'm doing something besides doomscrolling.
We haven't had any snow yet, could desperately use any sort of moisture coming from the sky, and have only had a few hard frosts so far. And the endless night.
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I should at least find a way to see the sun each day. It being dark when I get off of work makes it hard, but it'd probably help. Finding alternatives to the doomscrolling are a definite must.
Hopefully you get some sort of moisture soon. I do not like snow, but it's real damn weird to have not gotten any until November.
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I'm sorry to hear Cy is having difficulty. What is going on with him?
I hope you are feeling better from your vaccines. You reminded me I need to get mine! I hope we're still able to continue to get them... :/
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And wow, small world: I've met Jennifer Scott, though only briefly and in passing! She was actually one of the judges at the show we just went to (though for a division we didn't show in), and lives not that far from us! She has Morgans, right? Hamilton is an amazing sculpt, one of the best Breyer has, IMO. (And Canción was one of my favorites of the ones they premiered last year.) Jennifer's resin sculpts are phenomenal, too!
Cy is mostly just getting old. :( He's 14, and starting to show it. Earlier this year something happened that left him unable to walk for a couple days. As far as our vet could tell, it was some sort of spinal issue. Possibly a herniated disk or similar (which I can unfortunately understand from personal experience.) With a bit of pain management and rest, it mostly resolved. The issues a couple weeks ago seemed to be more of the same.
And thank you! I put off getting my vaccines for way too long, because I know that they tend to knock me down for a couple days, and I didn't want to give up a whole weekend *or* have to call out sick from work. But the worry that we may not have the option to get them in the near future pushed me to get it done.
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Poor Cy. It is so difficult watching our pets age. I'm glad it has been resolved for now. I understand back pain, though thankfully, not a herniated disk. I'm sorry you have, though! It is a fear of mine.
I need to make an appointment to get my vaccines this week. It didn't occur to me that the option could be taken away. I would like to not get sick from all the children we will be around at Christmas. Given how this year has been with work, if I have to take a day off, that will be fine with me!
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It seems like Jenn has been super busy. She's such a very talented artist. I think I've seen commissions open occasionally on her studio page, though I know she also tends to lament her lack of time to do much.
Aging pets are hard. :( We love them so much, but have them for such a comparatively brief time, and it's not fair. Spinal problems are atrocious!
I certainly HOPE that it won't be an option taken off the table. But there've been mentions of being "open" to vaccine bans and such, so I really do want to be as prepared as possible. And ugh, the holidays is a tough time for The Seasonal Crud as it is. Especially with kids around!
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Oh, that's cool! I boarded at an eventing barn, though I wasn't an eventer and it wasn't that niche when I first started boarding there. I hope Alex can find his way back to dressage if he wants!
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I hope he can as well. He was also doing some working equitation, which he had a lot of fun with. If he finds another trainer in the area, he might try to get back into it, though the physical issues have gotten pretty debilitating, unfortunately.
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*hugs about all of it*
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I miss the katydids, even though it was well within the expected timeframe to lose them. I'm glad we had them while we did.
Cy does still seem to be doing better, thank you! I'm hopeful that will continue.
*hugs*