Brain currently booting in Safe Mode

Sunny's Gotcha Day was seven years ago!

He's still a delight, and has maintained that 'normal mad amazement of kittens everywhere'. (Thank you, Sir Pratchett, for such wise words.) I think we could live without his anxiety and stupidly expensive medication, but the daily treats make it easier for both of us.

He is solid and healthy and still enjoys a good belly rub.

It's been a week.

But, valkryor, you say, it's only Monday.

And to that I reply, yes, yes it is.

Working backward starting today:

Monday - End of July always sucks. Today, it's been 19 years since we lost Shannon. 19! I'm not bawling my eyes out every five minutes or anything so obvious, but I'm flat and gray and glum all the same. We did do groceries this morning, so that's one less thing anyone has to deal with. Oh, and because today isn't 'fun' enough, I think I'm coming down with something. What that something is, or even if it is a thing, I do not know. Whee.

Sunday - Was okay, but kind of meh as it's been 22 years since Gus the big Mean Bunny died. I miss him a lot, even if he could be a cantankerous ass about the weirdest things.

Saturday - Best day of the lot. It was ostensibly a game day, but clawfoot, Ironstone, and I are making up for the time lost during the Great Panini. Yes, we still gamed, which was great, but in person beats online any day of the week. Good times, good conversation, and one actual combat. It was enough. :)

Friday - Mammogram and Ultrasound. Yeah. That just sucks even when you're not facing down the Worst Weekend. I'm not entirely reassured by the number of pictures taken during the ultrasound, especially in places where I didn't find anything; it has been hovering at the edge of my thoughts since. Good times. I also lost a chunk of writing (I use Docs on my phone when I'm out and about) and I have no fucking clue where it went. It was there and then it wasn't. I likely fat-fingered something. Not improving my mood was dealing with public transportation. It was ostensibly fine, and yet... While it wasn't cramped or overly crowded, every bus I took over the two days of appointments was BUSY. Lots of stops, lots of movement of passengers. Which is fine, but I had had enough by the time I had to catch my bus to come home.

Thursday - A dental appointment. I mean, a cleaning and exam isn't that bad all things considering, but with the impending mammogram/ultrasound and the Worst Weekend? We'll just say that "dental anxiety" wasn't on my bingo card this year. Oh, and I have work that needs to be done at the end of August. JOY.

Here's hoping that the thing that wants to invade is nothing more than a stress response to the Worst Week and not an actual virus. I am not a fan of either, but at least the stress response isn't contagious. Super annoying, sure, but I won't make anyone else sick.

For some reason, using my regular specs with my laptop this morning was no bueno. I couldn't focus, even after cleaning them. I have an old pair that's...four prescriptions back, I think? I'm supposed to use them for reading, since my close vision is pretty good and doesn't need a huge amount of correction (which is why I don't have bifocals).

Can I wear them to sit on the couch to watch a movie? No, because I will be squinting the entire time and end up with a headache. I have them as reading glasses or emergency glasses when my current pair need new lenses. I can mostly see. Good for short term, not great for long term. I had to use them for a week once and it was Not Good. Doable, but Not Good.

BUT, I can wear them to type this out and be able to focus on the letters marching across the screen as my fingers dance across the keyboard of my laptop.

My eyes are acting weird this morning. Why? *shrugs shoulders* Your guess is as good as mine. And that's okay. I can work around that.

My kid wasn't feeling great, so he's home today, which means I've had to work around two people to get shit done instead of just one.

I have:

pilled the cat, fed the cats, scooped both litterboxes

done my laundry (washed, dried, AND put away - minus the things that need to air dry)

vacuumed

set up the portable AC unit because it is going to be STUPID hot this week

installed a window fan in the kid's room (this included getting to the window, clearing off the sill, cleaning the sill and radiator, washing the window (ew), adjusting the curtain to block light without blocking the fan, vacuuming under the window, putting everything back

I wanted to be done everything by noon, but I'm happy enough with being done before one. Now I get to relax and put my feet up or fuck around on my laptop. I am *le tired* and overly warm from all that work. At least I do not have to make dinner tonight, since I made a massive meal yesterday for Father's Day and there are leftovers.

All that work I did to transplant the fern from amidst the hostas and over to a bare spot so it could flourish?

GONE.

My super, who fucking finally decided to cut the overgrown lawn, took a weedwhacker to that entire spot, clearing it of everything, including the fern, which was starting to bounce back.

I just... GAH!

So I took my frustration out on the carpet and vacuumed. I can't have the fern back, but at least I have a less crunchy carpet.

I just spent the past fifteen-ish minutes jumping rope.

Badly, I might add.

Is it a lovely day and worth getting outside to do something physical, even if badly? Yes, yes it is. Is it worth huffing and puffing like a dragon about to breathe fire? Yes, yes it is. Did I make a smidgen of progress? Yes, yes I did. I managed to jump at least ten times before the rope caught three times in a row. When I first got out there, it was only two or three times before I got stopped. I feel good about it.

My knees are not going to be happy with me in the short term, but fuck 'em. I used to skip all the damn time when I was a kid and could do so for HOURS. I kind of miss those halcyon days of going outside with a jump rope and skipping in the driveway until I was bored of it or I went to skip with other neighbourhood kids.

I miss being able to do so without feeling like I wanted to fall over. I can do fifteen to twenty minutes a day, right?

The only good thus far (and I've not even been out of bed an hour as of writing this) is that my toe is starting to look better. It feels weird, and is still a little sore, but it no longer looks ANGY. The swelling's gone down, too, so yay!

The bad? My cat is an asshole.

Well, okay, cat's are OFTEN assholes. It seems to be a default setting, so there is that.

BUT, Sunny, not ten minutes ago, pulled down my aloe from the window sill and onto the kitchen counter, breaking the planter that the pot was in and spilling soil. One of the fronds is broken, too, so it's dripping aloe everywhere. I doubt that was his intention, but he has this habit of biting the lower fronds and tugging off the desiccated bits. And I couldn't break him of it.

Sadly, I don't think I can keep this plant, at least not anywhere the cat can get to it (which is all but one location, and that's not a great place as it doesn't get that much light). It bums me out because it's large and healthy and loves the kitchen window.

FUCK.

My kid had yet another dental surgery. This time, it's to try and pull down his front teeth, which are reluctant to descend. His prior dental surgery was to remove the extra teeth, so here's hoping that this is it for dental surgeries for him for a good long time. Or, at least, until I'm no longer paying for it. (I think I'm still paying off the last one.)

There is a chance that this won't work, and his front teeth will never come down. If that's the case, then we look into other options and go from there. BUT, I'm guessing it's a small chance, and there's no use worrying about it.

I expected him to be groggier or at least less...bouncy today, but he seems to be mostly fine. I was supposed to give him pain meds, but he doesn't want them. Considering my own mother can have friggen root canals without freezing, I wonder if that dental-pain-is-for-other-people has skipped a generation (ie. me). I kind of hope so, because I am NOT A FAN of tooth pain and become the most giant baby when it happens.

My kid came home from school today soaked and carrying his shoes (they go to and from the school in his bag), his coat askew, his backpack gaping open.

Why?

Zippers.

Zipper malfunctions all the way down.

First, I fixed his bag. I tried to do it the easy way (ripping the seam at the bottom of the relevant side, pulling out the ends of the zipper tape, replacing the slider, stitching it closed), and soon discovered that the zipper slider was starting to disintegrate. Since the main pocket has two sliders and the other looked okay, I pulled that one off and closed it up and considered it good enough for now. I might need to replace the zipper in the future, but I have a number that I've pulled from my old packs over the years, so that's not going to be an issue.

His coat, though. UGH. I had already fixed it, so no shit, there I was, fixing it AGAIN. Except my fix wasn't going to work, because the slider broke into two pieces and that was that. Had this happened last week, I would have put off the work until tomorrow, when there's daylight and it's easier to see what the fuck I'm doing. BUT, it's cold and the weather is going to get colder and damn it.

I had two zipper candidates in my stash: a gray one that was the perfect length and a black one that was about 5cm shorter than the zipper in the coat. Not egregious by any stretch of the imagination, and not the first time I've put in a zipper that was a bit short. The winner? The black zipper. Why? It wasn't a two-way separable (you know, two sliders so you can unzip it from the bottom to access the inside of the garment without undoing the zipper), which was the commercial zipper put in when it was made and it has caused nothing but headaches.

So.

I fixed his coat, because that's the cheaper/easier option for me. My hand, though, it fucking hates me (I think I'm developing arthritis at the base of my thumb on my right hand - good times), because I made it pinch and hold and pin and do all of that other fine motor control necessary for sewing. It's one of the reasons I've made myself some tea, so I can wrap my hand around the mug and use the heat to ease some of the ache. (The other reason is I just want a cup of tea.)

Is it the best zipper replacement I've ever done? Oh hell no. Replacing zippers is one of the things that I do not enjoy doing. I do it because people pay me to fix their winter coats and sometimes it's necessary. I'm always happy when it's done, though, so there is that. And yeah, not my best work but that's okay. For an emergency replacement that would not wait for a day or two? It's good enough and most people won't even notice that the stitching is wonky in places or that the zipper isn't quite the right length. It will outlast the kid's use of the coat, which suits me fine.