Sarah’s In A State

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Good news: I’m home.

Bad news: I managed somehow to contract the WORST cold I’ve had in…. oh, a decade or so. Let’s put it this way: I slept twelve hours, showered and had breakfast and I feel like I did a hard WEEK’s work.

It was probably a normal sized cold when I left — we got soaked a couple of times while out and looking at things, and everyone in Portugal was sniffling. — but traveling 28 hours, dragging bags, etc did it a whole lot of no good.

For the record, if any of you feels like trying “Take off and landing with double ear infections” 3 TIMES: don’t. No, seriously, don’t. There is that sound when your eardrum finally bursts which is like someone trying to suck a weasel through a straw. After that it hurts less, ut you’re at the very least semi-deaf. Which is where I am. (And no, not my first rodeo. Eh.)

I’m sorry. Resuming normal schedule will be delayed. The big program today is lying here and sleeping.

Hopefully better tomorrow.

154 thoughts on “Sarah’s In A State”

    1. When the fabulous parting gift from beloved spouse’s stay in the hospital early last year was a case of C19, for me it was basically a bad flu, notably not the worst I have had. The worst I have had, back in the 90s I think, was the flu that featured a weeklong piercing headache behind my eyes.

      The normal recovery actions, rest, fluids, etc., worked for me for C19. Two days in bed, then It felt like a truck ran me over followed by somebody leaving the gravity turned up for a couple weeks. The recovery period felt similar, though a lot shorter, to what it felt like after I managed to get walking pneumonia back in my college days.

      I know others had a harder time, but my C19 was not the bubonic plague.

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      1. Pretty sure I had COVID19 in late February 2020 — even though it wasn’t ‘officially’ here until May. Slight fever, general aches and dry cough for a couple of days. Nothing worth wrecking the economy over.

        Unless wrecking Trump’s booming economy was the whole point…

        Naaah, they wouldn’t do that!

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            1. Like the guy (not an ATFE agent, of course!) at the gun show who asks the NFA dealer to show him the difference between a full-auto M16 or M4 and the semiauto version? Or asks to see a “Glock switch” and be shown how it’s installed?

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              1. watched a gun show table dude very carefully explain the parts and function of a AR. Pause, then pull out a blank “become a manufacturer” ATF form set and say, “then you get one of these applications…”

                Hilarity ensued.

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                1. I’m not sure why we criminalize constructive possession of firearms and explosives, which every American who is eligible to vote should be able to own freely, but the BATFE is just allowing anyone to go to graduate school, where they can learn to make chemical, biological, and radiological weapons.

                  Faculty, journalists, and activists are in constructive possession of ability to manufacture weapons of mass destruction like biological weapons, government policy, and riots, and should not be less tightly regulated than machine gun manufacturers.

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                  1. I agree regarding the possession of explosives and automatic weapons; as someone said, ATF should be a convenience store, not a Federal agency. But knowledge isn’t the issue (yet, anyway); the issue is if you actually buy or manufacture automatic weapons, explosives, gas, bioweapons or nukes. Through open source info I know how to modify several semiautos to full-auto, make a few forms of lethal gas or build a thermonuclear “device” (and a gun-type simple atomic, as used over Hiroshima, is essentially child’s play to construct). The problem with nukes is getting the materials; neither refined uranium nor plutonium is available on eBay or Amazon. Nor are the kryton switches needed for implosion devices.

                    Explosives of all sorts are “kitchen-table” simple to make, as are pipe bombs using them or black powder; the ingredients are freely available without any sort of license. C-4, Semtex or equivalent, not so much. But actually manufacturing most of them (black powder may be an exception) is usually a felony, and will get you multiple years in Federal prison. And that’s if you don’t blow yourself up in the process of making them.

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                    1. Tannerite is legal. Note also what it actually is.

                      You can’t -transport- it assembled. Also, proscribed is use as other than a noisy target.

                      The laws here on HE are -weird-.

                      Also the laws on full auto. It’s not technically forbidden. It has a byzantine tax law, and limit on new tax stamps for non-dealers. I suspect that ultimately the tax aspect will be upheld bt SCOTUS as Constitutional, but the registry closure will be voided. Thus anyone will again be able to pay the tax and register new ones. SCOTUS may also consider it an unlawful poll tax and void it. But that would also likely void any other sales taxes on firearms and ammo.

                      If the above occurs, I expect the Feds to raise the tax dramatically. The original $200 was ten or twenty times the value of the shotgun/rifle. And at least 3-5 times the buzzgun. Now, $200 is comparable to sales tax. And that routinely gets charged on books, papers, movies, phone calls, etc.

                      The one exception was the prohibition on “poll tax” for voting. If that gets applied to guns, the cost is ten of billions. Which might prevent SCOTUS from going there, beyond some sort of “% limit” rule.

                      We shall see.

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                    3. “…the registry closure will be voided.”

                      Thast would be a Good Thing (TM). The closure addition was slipped into the FOPA in the final 30 seconds or so before the vote, and apparently Reagan didn’t see it before he signed. Its primary effect was to shut down all private development of military automatic weapons; Browning and Stoner, and others, would have been out of the weapons R&D business if this idiotic law had been in effect in 1900, and we would have missed quite a few of the standard weapons of the two World Wars et seq.

                      I’m familiar with the regs governing Tannerite, although I’ve never used it. Interesting stuff.

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                    4. There is basic and fundamental applied research that could be done, possibly of the same level of practical benefit as universities having pathogen samples, that is seemingly blocked by machine gun regulations.

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                2. AR isn’t a problem; it’s semiauto, and anyone can explain how it works. But I’ve seen reliable info that ATF agents have caused major problems (as in large fines and prison time) for NFA dealers who did as little as show an undercover ATF agent how an AR-15 differed from an M-16. “Conspiracy to violate the NFA regulations” was the charge, IIRC. And from what I’ve read they have made it stick in court. I’d call it entrapment, but that’s me.

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                  1. Yup. And that person was well aware, setting up that”details comparison that yields jail time”, then instead of explaining another gun, pulling out the “make me a title 2 manufacturer form” and explaining filling it out, the absolutely correct ATF published process info. He practiced that delivery. It was Oscar worthy.

                    The laughter was epic, and the “ordinary gun geek” was beet red. No CI donut today, Fred.

                    oh well….

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                  2. Why can you go to jail just for talking about guns? Clear violations of both the 1st and 2nd Amendments there. If only the courts would do their jobs…

                    But the courts are no longer about justice, they’re about enforcing the government’s authority, even when that authority is illegitimate.

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                    2. You can’t go to jail for just talking. But showing someone the exact way to convert a semiauto to full auto is considered by the ATF to be a conspiracy to violate the NFA, just as having parts by which a suppressor can be made, no matter how innocuous, is considered to be possession of a suppressor. Do I think that either is valid? Not only no, but HELL, NO! But I’m not the one writing the regulations or operating by the Iron Rule.

                      There is a significant effort underway to rein in the more blatant overreach by unelected bureaucrats, and it seems to be making at least some progress in the courts. We’ll see after 5 Nov. Which, coincidentally, is Guy Fawkes Day…😁😁 :twisted:

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                    3. Consider those same tests and standards enforced for ‘conspiracy to violate ITAR’ or ‘university labs can culture bacteria and fungi’ against the universities.

                      Now, probably the universities have captured, or are captured by, federal regulators.

                      ITAR was also very definitely written with an exemption for textbooks and for university lectures. (Not that very many college courses could possibly fall under ITAR in the first place, but still… ATFE style enforcement of ITAR on scientific literature would probably cripple science and engineering research.)

                      There’s definitely room to argue for much stricter regulation of universities. In my view, the universities have covered their ‘stewardship of public good’ in cess.

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        2. While I don’t have “proof” (nobody has “proof” because COVID tests didn’t exist until at least half a year after the fact), I have multiple avenues of strong theory as to COVID being in my immediate community by the end of November of 2019.

          First, there’s the mathematical proof. Nursing home deaths were verified at the end of January 2020. They would not have had direct contact (primary cases); it’s also not very likely that they would have had secondary contact. So just by length of incubation, you’re talking at least a month, maybe a month and a half to trickle into the nursing homes.

          Secondly, my kids’ school had a “horrible flu that takes a long time to recover from” running through the students in December. At one point, almost half of my youngest’s kinder class was out. Anecdotal, sure, but then…

          The third point. The fact that another mom in my youngest’s kinder class had a brother or brother-in-law (I forget which) in Wuhan for a conference in November—after which he had Thanksgiving with his family. They did get sick, and isolated, but who knows how infectious they were beforehand.

          There are people who say the shutdowns should have been harder, but that horse was over the horizon, gone feral, and having foals by the time that barn door was shut. (And let us not forget Pelosi saying that Chinese New Year celebrations were safe and anyone saying otherwise was an awful person.)

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          2. We were hearing from neighbors who have children in the system, plus one teacher, in fall 2019, of a bad flu sweeping through the school district. Rumors that the other two major school districts, plus smaller surrounding rural districts, having the same very bad flu sweeping through the students. Plus student deaths. Two verified in our district (vulnerable students, “flu”, not their chronic illness, killed them). Swept through fast and through enough that by the time the shutdowns occurred, the “flu” wasn’t a problem in the youngsters (not that covid19 was particularly harsh on children in general. But curiously enough they survivors of the “flu” didn’t get sick, again.)

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      1. Fluffy said the minions had a list of things they’d like in the minion pool for entertainment purposes. So they say.

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  5. Sending heaps and heaps of healing vibes your way. Take good care of yourself and don’t worry about posting – we can handle a bit of time off 🤒🤧🤕🤍

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  6. I don’t wish that junk on anyone! I can empathize a tiny little bit, as last week we came home from a vaction in Switzerland, and on the night before we left for home, a European cold finally caught up with me. I blame it on living long enough to have acquired immunity to the American cold viruses, but some sneaky European one was just different enough to catch me.

    Rest, EAT (I love either chicken broth based soup or a miso based soup), and if you have any wierd(er) inspirations for writing, just blurt them out loud and your phone will remember them. They’re always listening.

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    1. Good on SpaceX. “Let’s see if we can do the impossible.” A few years later, “Oh, look, we did the impossible! Cool. What’s the next impossible to try?”

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      1. [hands up] I know! Getting FAA to get the [redacted] out of their [redacteds] and treat SpaceX like the other launch companies.

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        1. The EPA too. They’re accusing <strike>Elon Musk</strike> SpaceX of poisoning the wetlands with the industrial coolant oxygen dihydride.

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        2. Go use your fave non-Google search engine and look for “SpaceX California Coastal Commission” – a story today in the LA Times, wherein commission members explicitly state they don’t like how he’s actually saying stuff about the election, so they denied the Space Force’s request to let SpaceX launch more Falcon launches from Vandenberg SFB.

          If there’s a really Really REALLY protected form of speech it’s political speech, but monoparty CA really Really REALLY does not like Elon out there campaigning for DJT so they are punishing his privately held company, as well as the U.S. Space Force.

          When he wins that court case judgement he’ll be richer-er.

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          1. I no longer have a dog in the fight (22 years since we left Cali-f’n-ornia), but IMHO the optimal solution would be to cause the CCC to get dismantled. It was bad when it was formed, but now that the masks are completely off, maybe there’s leverage to cut them down. (Removal of the roots would be the best, but a prune to 2′ below grade would help.)

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              1. My thought when I saw the SpaceX robots techno-dancing out onto the stage was “If they say ‘Roger Roger’ I think we’re in trouble.”

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                  1. Design does not give the “unstoppable shortish Austrian bodybuilder” vibe, probably on purpose – more the “oh, silly and cute robots, wait, why do they have blasters?” like battle droids.

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          2. And Space Force’s/Air Force’s proper response to the CCC should be

            “Space Force Base Vandenberg is a Federal Military installation. You as a California state commission have NO authority here. These launches are authorized by FAA and EPA. As they are either involved with interstate commerce or military or International security issues they are constitutionally in the domain of the Federal government, not a state government. Please take a long walk off a short pier or avail yourself of any rolling donuts at your earliest convenience.”

            Of course the Biden-Harris administration hates Elon Musk with the burning of a thousand suns and so likely is having the Commander of Space ForceBase Vandenberg defer to these California (pardon my language) piss ants and do the dirty work they are too cowardly to do. Should Trump win I think the flag level officers of our military need a thorough weeding out as they seem to be totally politicized after Obama and now Biden. They are now a part off the Deep State in a way military officers never ought to be.

            Looking Col. Shoemaker is the Commander (https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/About-Us/Leadership/Display/Article/3481331/mark-a-shoemaker/) of Space Force Base Vandenberg. He is ONLY a Colonel, I expected at least a Brigadier General for a base of that importance. He’s served under Clinton. Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden. Did a tour at the Pentagon during the Trump administration, was Vice Commander at Cape Canaveral before promoted to Commander at Vandenberg. No matter his politics if he’s not of flag rank he’s unlikely to put his ass on the line as that would be a career limiting move. Sadly we’re unlikely to see much information.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. If he’s full bird he has to screw up to not make flag. The gate is generally (heh) the promotion from O-5 to O-6, with anyone making O-6 basically vetted for a flag, with the correct political skills and cleanliness of record.

              So yeah, he won’t do any public kvetching about this one.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Says just Col, not Lt Col and looking to his promotion dates at the end of the web page I reference he made Full Colonel as of Feb 2018 during his stint in the Pentagon in 2019 so that looks like grooming him for a star. I sort of wouldn’t blame him for not wanting to screw that up, especially with the current administration.

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    1. Naval Aviators, obviously subject to more rapid pressure changes in high performance aircraft like fighters, have had clogged sinuses collapse and crack the bones in their head during flights. No toughit out a little cold in that line of work.

      All the quick-fix stuff like real-Sudafed and Afrin are your friends when civil-aviating.

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        1. It’s a “behind the counter” OTC drug, which means you have to show photo ID (in PA, the driver’s license does the job) so the Feds can make sure you’re not stocking up to make meth. I ALWAYS keep at least one 48-pack handy; whenever I have to crack that open, time to go and get another one for the shelf.

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        2. In some states, it has to be an in-state driver’s license. (No, I never made straw purchases for other students or staff members, nor do I know anyone who did such a thing.) A few states used to ration the good stuff, so if your allergy attacks lasted more than X boxes of pills long per year, well, tough luck. Not sure if anyone does that still.

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        3. You have to go buy it from behind the prescription counter even though it’s “OTC, then a psych eval, poly, genetic sample, retina scan, and a contract that said something about spinning straw into gold and firstborn or something like that the last time I bought some, which just means I buy the biggest box they have so I don’t have to do it again for a while.

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  11. Hope ya feel better soon. Had to have my ear drums punctured so the infection could drain. Not fun and yeah semi deaf at best

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  12. Oh Dear!!! It’s probably COVID.

    Perhaps Pentathanaluna (Cr: Bob Sheckley – IYKYN*).

    Either case, the treatment’s the same: take two kitties and hie thee to bed.

    ~

    Rgrds,

    RES

    *Pentathanaluna = Five Day Reversible Death See: Dimension of Miracles (1968)

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  14. so sorry to hear this, Sarah. Please rest up and feel better. You don’t owe me any post, especially if it will slow down your recovery.

    (I use the full panoply before flights: mucinex, afrin, REAL Sudafed, just as if I have a sinus infection. Can’t say it worked last time, but…everyone on the ship.and in the airport was sniffling.)

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      1. There was a crud going around Archon this year, and I caught it (missed taking my morning vitamins on Friday because we were dealing with vehicle issues while trying to set up and run two stores at once in the dealers room). I’ve been lucky that it’s just a lot of unwelcome snot and a cough, and it’s definitely on the downslope now. With luck I’ll be recovered by Tuesday, when we head out to Kansas City to sell at the anime convention there.

        It’s not COVID — two of the first people to get it both tested and it was negative. And it just feels like a regular cold to me. (I still think I got COVID back in November of 2019, when I did both Youmacon and Grand Rapids Comic Con with a crud that involved a nasty hacking cough that was almost impossible to stop with cough drops).

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          1. Sure. First cases officially arrived January 2020. Before that it was just an unknown respiratory disease, go to bed and take your vitamins.

            Something was going around in Wuhan September/October 2019, I suspect it hit the US and started spreading around November.

            It wasn’t officially identified until China sent us the data and it was confirmed as a novel disease.

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            1. Yup. The Thanksgiving 2019 crud. Folks my sister invited were hacking up hairballs. “This is such a weird cold”. By the time I got home, ugh. SortaFlu. Extra hairballs. Lingered weeks, when normal for me us a day or three.

              Then the news broke “officially”.

              “Welcome to the party, pal.”

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            2. I don’t have to “suspect” it. All the Chinese students and profs at WSU had it big in late October and early November 2019, a couple of little kids from daycares had a little of it in early November, and then almost everyone working at Sam’s Club had it bad for most of November and December and January, after which we were okay (but had that dry cough for weeks and months).

              I don’t remember it fondly, because I got it very badly; but since I didn’t die, I was lucky in retrospect.

              Remember, kids: Wrap up warm and help your body fight bad bugs. If you have a fever, there’s probably a reason. Don’t let your brain boil, but let the rest of your body do its thing.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Number two son got it from me and I got it from the NYC subway In November 2019. Shortly after, we were told we were racists if we didn’t go to Chinese new year and such which went on until roughly saint Patrick’s day when the politicians panicked. It’s when I started to hate them.

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              2. A local nursing home had a bad bout going about in February. Also a woman I knew online lost her mother because a bad bout of bronchitis had weakened her heart too much.

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          2. Although I was pretty healthy at the time, I had a severe cold just before Thanksgiving, 2019, that was bad enough I postponed making Thanksgiving dinner until I think Sunday. I was still dragging days later.

            I have never been tested, tho, and NEVER taken the so-called vax. So i cannot say for sure what it was. But for reasons I have my suspicions.

            Strangely I have not had any kind of respiratory infection at all in the five years since. Of course, my daily regimen of supplements includes vitamins C and D, zinc, and quercitin bromelain as the zinc ionophore.

            My son (also unvaxed), whose job includes some daily interaction with the public, takes those also and has not missed any days due to any respiratory issues in his two years on the job. Unlike several of his fellow employees, some of whom have had “confirmed” covid despite the shots.

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        2. Crud’s been going around here for a month. Unusual, it normally hits around February.

          I can’t add anything useful to the medical advice, but if you need a cheap laugh, watch Walz pretending to know how to load a shotgun. And wince, because he’s just begging for a Darwin Award.

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  15. Ouch! Had an eardrum rupture once; not fun at all. Take care of yourself, get lots of rest, and don’t worry; we’ll all be here when you feel better.

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    1. It’s a good thing Colorado is in her rear-view mirror else it’s likely she’d have returned to a house now ‘owned’ by a Venezuelan gang.
      ~
      Rgrds,
      RES

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        1. … Except the popcorn is flying off the shelf.

          Who had Biden running over Harris, backing up over her, and running over her again. Going around the block to do the same for any democrats in his way, and back to Harris, doing this all over again. And Repeat. On their bingo card? All under the umbrella of “complements”. Seriously. Not only does it appear like he going for a Trump win, he’s going to insure Trump has a republican congress and house (not that either will help any). Biden is pissed.

          Liked by 1 person

            1. “Never underestimate Joe’s ability to #%&^ things up.”

              –Barack Obama

              I’d feel safer if he were trying to help her.

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          2. What? Didn’t expect vicious retaliation from Joe LGB Biden? Seriously?

            I suspect late October may include either federal indictments of those who f(HONK!)d him over, or major “leaks” of info that wrecks them and tees up Trump to lehitimayely and ruthlessly drop the legal axe.

            And no way anyone can prosecute that “poor senile old coot”.

            Biden ain’t done. Not yet. He is a grade a a(HONK!)hole. He isn’t suddenly going nice or forgiving on folks who turned on him.

            And if Biden helps Trump over the finish line, no way Trump prosecutes Biden. Trump -is- fairly forgiving of those opponents who later join his efforts.

            Yeah. Popcorn time

            Liked by 1 person

            1. And to be fair, I’m sure that all the Biden clan/crime family connections are also worried about being sacrificed by a Harris/Walz administration, or even as a last minute attempt for goodwill in the elections. If Trump sends you to prison, you are more likely to live.

              But yeah, some people feel that revenge is the best revenge, and Harris/Walz people bragging about how their Biden coup was worked — that probably was the last straw.

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              1. Oh, yeah – the likelihood of cleaning house after the Kammy coup went completely through is 100%. They would not want any unaired dirty laundry that could tarnish the new Camelot.

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            2. In addition Clinton has thrown her under the border bus. No way was that accidental. That Grime’s death wouldn’t have happened if those crossing the border had been properly vetted. That emigrants are needed to fill jobs (not now, but that is a different track) but they need to be properly vetted. Didn’t say “like Trump has been saying all along”, Fox News added that, but Clinton didn’t say that. Obama has said something too that sounds like a compliment but isn’t, but don’t remember what it was.

              Popcorn time.

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              1. So, weeks ago I was saying that part of the issue is that the enemy leadership is nuts, and that their psychology could unpredictably turn things quite rapidly compared to time remaining in campaign.

                I did not have ‘every has been never-actually-was wannabe is going to be getting ego hits from stabbing Harris once the shine wears off pretending she is competent’ on my bingo list. (Never-actually-was is maybe a little bit of a strong editorial qualifier on my part, yet Biden and Obama may have been frauded in, and personally owe all of their ‘accomplishments’ to other people.)

                I maybe should have, looking in hindsight.

                But, I do not think it a shameful thing to estimate that these people would be too crazy for me to consistently forecast, even in my best condition.

                Very much “Don’t get cocky”, but they may have thrown the towel in on frauding her in. I think it may be too late for a last minute HRC substitution, barring the death of Harris.

                Three weeks.

                Nutso-rama-Llama-ding-dang-dong.

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                2. Honestly? I think what messed things up was Harris picking Walz. Harris would be an obvious patsy for getting impeached or otherwise removed, but then Walz would be in.

                  And besides obviously China having every kind of blackmail on him, Walz gives me the feeling that he’s a true believer in Mao and Xi. He’s done treason and espionage for them (probably), and he didn’t even try to get away.

                  A lot of people on the left want to take money from China, and do favors for China, and rah rah for China, but they don’t actually want their comfy lifestyle taken away. They might want to shoot us, but they don’t want anybody else in power over them, or potentially shooting them.

                  So yeah, any kind of grudge will do, any kind of backstabbing, because Walz might just mess up everything.

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                3. Things are so strange in politics right now that I don’t think any political thriller writer, even Dean Koontz, would try to write a novel about it. No editor would buy it.

                  Liked by 1 person

                  1. Have you been reading his current books? He seems quite up with our strange branch of the alternative worlds. He also seems to be his own editor.

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    3. Rest! Be well.

      The kids are hitched, in style. Mission accomplished. (Plays MI end music)

      Your Majordomo is doing a fine job of minding the savages.

      Rest! Be well.

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  21. Get well, take care, rest, dream those dreams that someday will become new stories, stories to inspire others to dream as well.

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  22. Ah yes, the super fun of hurtling through the air in a silver cigar tube hour after hour, breathing everyone else’s germs.

    My condolences on the crud. I had one a couple weeks ago that was -so- enjoyable. Hopes for speedy recovery.

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  23. For what it’s worth, it’s going around.

    It’s like the one from last year where do not push through the last or you will relapse applies.

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    1. I think I got the Crud at Day Job. It started like allergies, but is acting more like the Virus-of-the-Week. Oh well. I was probably due. I skated by in ’22 and ’23, missing all the good stuff.

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      1. This season’s Crud: 0/5 stars. Lousy service, terrible timing, continues past end-by date. Seller not responding to complaints. Do not recommend.

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      1. Rest? Moderation?

        What are those? Do they taste any good in soup?

        (Yeah, apparently I have not been prone to only one sort of problem when it comes to wearing myself down too much to ‘get anything done’. )

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  24. Yes, hopefully better tomorrow. But also hopefully you rest for at LEAST the next week, after that trip.

    Just post a sentence or two, and you know the never ending party will continue even without its hostess.

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  26. Sympathies, Dad and my sister caught what was probably the same bug in Ireland, and brought it home to me.

    It didn’t help that Dad had accidentally pepper-sprayed us the Sunday he got home, so we got all of that lovely draining and irritation.

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      1. Ah, yes, boot camp. One fine morning they crowded us into a little room, closed the watertight hatch, instructed us in Proper Operation And Use Of The Mk 5 Gas Mask, and then the PO1 in charge cooked a little pellet of CS on a hot plate.

        Then we had to take the masks off and recite the Seven General Orders before they’d let us out. That CS is some nasty stuff.

        BUT — it cleared my sinuses right out. The Recruit Crud didn’t bother me for the rest of the day.

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  27. my preferred method to colds is sleep as much as possible and do the airborne/vitamins c&d high dose deal. then sleep some more, sleep good. Mungo like sleep.
    Hope you get well soon

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  28. When I had a freshly done prosthesis in my ear, the surgeon told me that if I had to fly, use the “bad” decongestant (IIRC, she recommended Afrin) nose spray. I had one trip (San Jose to LAX and back) and the ear canals opened up nicely.

    I don’t know how well it would work for an ear infection, but I think it’s worth a try.

    We got COVID in mid March, 2020, though my MD insisted that it couldn’t possibly have been C19 because it didn’t officially arrive in Flyover County until mid April. Considering that test kits were not issued to the county in mid March, and they had two patients with the classic symptoms (and on ventilators, poor dears) at that time, I employed the SAH-STD shocked face at his news. The words “bull” and “shit” were not uttered, though seriously thought.

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  32. Ginger, garlic, lemon, honey in hot tea as much as you can. And after your rest, we look forward to hearing from you when you can. 🙏🌹💖

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  33. All the condolences; all the sensible advice about treating yourself and not pushing too hard.

    Plus, look at it this way. You were worried that in your transcontinental absence, America would blow up to the extent that you’d be stranded in Portugal approximately forever. Instead, you came back with a heavy cold. Had you been offered that deal in, say, July, would you have accepted?

    Weird way to look on the bright side, but it’s the brightest side I’ve got right now.

    Republica restituendae.

    Liked by 1 person

            1. Waffle House does have a Storm Center. It’s a conference room with computers in it, and with windows all around so that the Waffle House managers are sure that those storm people are working.

              There’s video on YT from a local news station, and that’s how I know.

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    2. I had to go to Home Depot today. Don’t know if they still had the animated (and expensive) Halloween stuff out, but they do have the animated and expensive Christmas stuff on display. Sigh.

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  38. Get up in the morning. Go to the bathroom and wash your face. Take a shot of tequila from the bottle in the medicine cabinet.* Decide whether to go back to bed. Repeat as necessary.

    *What? No tequila in the medicine cabinet? Move that to the top of your “to do” list.

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    1. Tequila … ugh. They put worms in that stuff.!

      Better yet – my dad’s famous hot toddy – scotch, orange juice and honey. Warm gently, a sip as needed.

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  39. I just saw the comet (Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). Visible in binoculars, to the right and a bit above Venus. (A good bit to the right of Venus). The tail looks fan-like in my Dad’s old Nike 10 x 50s.

    Given the traditional view of comets as bad omens, maybe it’s good that it takes a bit of work to spot it.

    Liked by 1 person

  40. Gah! I can’t imagine. I mean, I could. I’m very imaginative and have a good memory. But I refuse to. I’m such a wuss about ear pain. Sleep through as much as possible and get better quick!!

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  41. Gah! I can’t imagine. I mean, I could. I’m very imaginative and have a good memory. But I refuse to. I’m such a wuss about ear pain. Sleep through as much as possible and get better quick!!

    Like

    1. Do you happen to know what causes the double posted replies and/or why it keeps auto-assigning me a random name instead of my haphazardsly chosen pseudonym? Am I doing something wrong or is it just the gremlins?

      (Also, I’m about to purchase a website/blog, and wondering if there’s something I should know before setting up).

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  44. Hope you are all well soon.

    Here in Florida with Hurricane Milton no power for 4 days may need new roof but all loved ones safe so grateful and still have house to live in.

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    1. Yeah, it’s been a blessing that the storm brought some cooler weather for those without power, though we did have a friend stay with us since her power didn’t come back on until yesterday afternoon. I bought a whole house generator about fifteen years ago, so mine hasn’t gone out since.

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  46. Feel better, please, Sarah! I’m recovering myself (from a saga) and there’s no point in both of us suffering. Since you have important work to do, I’ll suffer while you work.

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    1. The nature of FEMA, and the nature of the political status quo, would exactly suggest that there are long term problems that would be difficult to completely fix.

      Okay, I have little confidence in the current leadership, but I would expect problems even if I were more confident in the executive branch leadership.

      Why? Inherent qualities of the patterns of bureaucratic function or dysfunction in the federal government, and that FEMA is inherently transient. Whether FEMA’s dysfunction is politically important, and for which factions is statistical. And FEMA is maybe hiring a bunch of people for the big incidents, then letting them go.

      Transience would tend to create problems, even if the political interests were lined up to fix problems, and keep things in good order. And the political interests around FEMA seem to have never been oriented towards fixing problems, and keeping that bureaucracy in good order.

      I think the Biden regime has actually deliberately tried to make things worse, but that is because I think the general purpose of the regime is in effect to make everything worse.

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  48. If you ever have a question about how to vote, with candidates or issues that you don’t know, or if Google isn’t showing you voting info that you want…

    You can always look for Democratic Party endorsement info, which will magically pop up in Google with no problem at all.

    You can then easily divine which parties that the other candidates and issues are associated with.

    In fact, a lot of the “blue” endorsement websites are perfectly happy to tell you that X is Republican, and that Y is a Libertarian, even if the state ballot has them as unaffiliated.

    (Because certain offices like school boards are not supposed to be represented as a party vote, the ballots and most parties’ websites will not identify these candidates as members of their parties; they just endorse them or not.)

    So that’s surprisingly convenient…. I wish I’d figured out this hack a long time ago.

    Like

    1. Nice!

      For anyone who invests, there’s a similar tool (it might only be available to investment advisors, I don’t know) to tell you what a fund’s or company’s ESG rating is.

      Which means you can pick ones with low ESG ratings (and good rates of return) to put your money in.

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  50. Ok. So she’s home safe? I’ll drop the charter on the fast “fishing boat” with extra fuel bunkerage and the lockers that don’t remotely look like arms and ammo stashes.

    in that novel under revision…

    (grin)

    Liked by 1 person

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