unravelling
Feb. 6th, 2026 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tielanSo this is at the edge of an "I am not coping with life right now" kind of week.
Unfortunately, the weekend also looks a bit busy.
Unfortunately, the weekend also looks a bit busy.
tielan
Shot Number 3
Feb. 5th, 2026 08:41 amsusandennisSo way back when I first started this Wegovy thing, I was quite twitchy about using NovoCare. They communicate via texts - no account set up, etc. No warm and fuzzy emails telling me they have my order. Initially, it was even weirder. I tried to call the number I was given 'for questions' and ended up on hold for nearly and hour, twice, before I gave up.
Yesterday on the eve of my third dose, I was wondering how the refill will happen. On my box, it tells me I have 3 refills and I do have the RX number and a different phone number to call. So I tried again. This time it was answered nearly immediately by a woman who instantly looked up my account and transferred me to the pharmacy - also answered immediately by a nice guy who said I would get another text with a link 'here, I'll go ahead and send it now' and he did. I clicked and paid and selected a delivery date. Still no warm and fuzzies, no account set up. Nothing. They just send me a text every time. But at least now I know the phone thing works.
Third shot in. Got to use the leg with the numb spot this time. That's my fav. My doctor said it would make my brain think my stomach was full. Reddit says I will feel less compelled to eat. Both of these are proving to be true. The first week or so I figured it was psychosomatic (I think everything is). But, now I'm 'getting' it. I am eating less. And I'm perfectly fine with it. I know what eating less and wishing I could eat more feels like and this isn't that. This is different. And expensive. Assuming I keep on using Wegovy once a week and the coverage doesn't change (my insurance does not cover it - but NovoCare goes me a deal), this will end up costing me right at $11 a day. (The per day price is a bit easier to swallow than the per month.) At least I can afford it.
Biggie and Julio are not happy. Biggie has been sitting next to his food bowl for 30 minutes. His food bowl has food in it. But he wants dry kibble. At least he's not pestering me for treats yet.
Myrna died one year ago tomorrow.
Volleyball was good. I have to go down to the lounge and meet with Harriet at 9:30 to go over next week's agenda. I'm still naked under my robe. I really need to put clothes on before I meet her.
Yesterday on the eve of my third dose, I was wondering how the refill will happen. On my box, it tells me I have 3 refills and I do have the RX number and a different phone number to call. So I tried again. This time it was answered nearly immediately by a woman who instantly looked up my account and transferred me to the pharmacy - also answered immediately by a nice guy who said I would get another text with a link 'here, I'll go ahead and send it now' and he did. I clicked and paid and selected a delivery date. Still no warm and fuzzies, no account set up. Nothing. They just send me a text every time. But at least now I know the phone thing works.
Third shot in. Got to use the leg with the numb spot this time. That's my fav. My doctor said it would make my brain think my stomach was full. Reddit says I will feel less compelled to eat. Both of these are proving to be true. The first week or so I figured it was psychosomatic (I think everything is). But, now I'm 'getting' it. I am eating less. And I'm perfectly fine with it. I know what eating less and wishing I could eat more feels like and this isn't that. This is different. And expensive. Assuming I keep on using Wegovy once a week and the coverage doesn't change (my insurance does not cover it - but NovoCare goes me a deal), this will end up costing me right at $11 a day. (The per day price is a bit easier to swallow than the per month.) At least I can afford it.
Biggie and Julio are not happy. Biggie has been sitting next to his food bowl for 30 minutes. His food bowl has food in it. But he wants dry kibble. At least he's not pestering me for treats yet.
Myrna died one year ago tomorrow.
Volleyball was good. I have to go down to the lounge and meet with Harriet at 9:30 to go over next week's agenda. I'm still naked under my robe. I really need to put clothes on before I meet her.
Win Win... nope
Feb. 4th, 2026 11:33 amsusandennisBiggie has stones in his bladder and crystals in his urine and a fairly high ph count. The trifecta. The vet cannot figure out how to fix him. Surgery is still on the table but tabled for another month. Instead we're doubling down on one of his pills so now he takes FIVE fucking pills a day. Holy crap. AND no dry food. So Julio gets no dried food either. Neither of them are going to be happy about that.
We go back in 4 weeks, again. $365 this time. This cat could have sent a kid to college with the money he's cost me in vet bills. When I adopted him, they told me he had feline leukemia and would likely not live more than year. I expected a year of vet bills. That was 6 years ago. He does not have feline leukemia. He does have a violent obsession with keeping vets in business.
We go back in 4 weeks, again. $365 this time. This cat could have sent a kid to college with the money he's cost me in vet bills. When I adopted him, they told me he had feline leukemia and would likely not live more than year. I expected a year of vet bills. That was 6 years ago. He does not have feline leukemia. He does have a violent obsession with keeping vets in business.
And now we wait...
Feb. 4th, 2026 08:28 amsusandennisWill today be a $300 vet visit (scan and checkup and ALL CLEAR!!) or a $2,500 (scan and surgery) vet visit? Arugh. But the second hardest part is getting the gabapentin into Biggie and that has been done. Not easy. He takes 3 pills a day and I can pretty much get those into him without issue but the gabapentin is in a capsule and it just does not want to go in. But, it's now done and I still have all my fingers so that's a win?
He's currently passed out in the closet where I hope he stays because if he gets into one of his beds under my bed, it will be a bitch to get him out and into the carrier. It's 8:30 now and his appointment is 10:15.
I had a lovely swim this morning. I listen to music while I swim and most of my music is pre-concert stuff that was played on the radio so the songs are all about 3 minutes long. I do about 100 yards in 3 minutes (it's actually a little under that but hey, I'm rounding). So 100 yards per song. It's a nice way to count. FYI Katy Ledecki does more than 100 yards in 1 minute but I don't think she listens to music. hahahahaha
One of the guys I play volleyball with is Wally. Wally just turned 90. He'd be skiing again this winter if we had any fucking snow. He's a rather spry 90. Anyway, last weekend, his two great grandsons were here and they played in the pool and banged the volleyball around. He said they had a great time. I've been thinking about that. The kids are 13 and 15. Imagine two young boys being forced to visit really old people in a 'home' but, yet, getting to play with their great grandfather in the pool. What fabulous memories they will have.
And on the other end of the scale... when someone dies here they put out their photo with their birth and death dates. I always check their birth year to make sure they were way older than me. I was born in the 40's and usually it's 20's or 30's so whew. BUT this week some dude died who was only 4 years older than me. That's crossing a line there.
Guess I'll go do some chores til vet time.
He's currently passed out in the closet where I hope he stays because if he gets into one of his beds under my bed, it will be a bitch to get him out and into the carrier. It's 8:30 now and his appointment is 10:15.
I had a lovely swim this morning. I listen to music while I swim and most of my music is pre-concert stuff that was played on the radio so the songs are all about 3 minutes long. I do about 100 yards in 3 minutes (it's actually a little under that but hey, I'm rounding). So 100 yards per song. It's a nice way to count. FYI Katy Ledecki does more than 100 yards in 1 minute but I don't think she listens to music. hahahahaha
One of the guys I play volleyball with is Wally. Wally just turned 90. He'd be skiing again this winter if we had any fucking snow. He's a rather spry 90. Anyway, last weekend, his two great grandsons were here and they played in the pool and banged the volleyball around. He said they had a great time. I've been thinking about that. The kids are 13 and 15. Imagine two young boys being forced to visit really old people in a 'home' but, yet, getting to play with their great grandfather in the pool. What fabulous memories they will have.
And on the other end of the scale... when someone dies here they put out their photo with their birth and death dates. I always check their birth year to make sure they were way older than me. I was born in the 40's and usually it's 20's or 30's so whew. BUT this week some dude died who was only 4 years older than me. That's crossing a line there.
Guess I'll go do some chores til vet time.
halfamoon challenge
Feb. 4th, 2026 10:09 pmtielanPick a female character you know I'll write, and one of the prompts below. Preferably one nobody else has yet chosen.
Day 1 - The Innocent
Day 2 - Guilty Pleasures
Day 3 - The Caregiver
Day 4 - Needs
Day 5 - The Outlaw
Day 6 - Her Own Personal Code
Day 7 - The Lover
Day 8 - Pet Peeves
Day 9 - The Scholar
Day 10 - Acting the Fool
Day 11 - The Explorer
Day 12 - Her Sanctuary
Day 13 - The Ruler
Day 14 - Letting Go
I never manage to write for halfamoon because my stories end up seriously epic. Maybe this off-the-cuff thing will work instead. (Or maybe those will just turn seriously epic.)
Day 1 - The Innocent
Day 2 - Guilty Pleasures
Day 3 - The Caregiver
Day 4 - Needs
Day 5 - The Outlaw
Day 6 - Her Own Personal Code
Day 7 - The Lover
Day 8 - Pet Peeves
Day 9 - The Scholar
Day 10 - Acting the Fool
Day 11 - The Explorer
Day 12 - Her Sanctuary
Day 13 - The Ruler
Day 14 - Letting Go
I never manage to write for halfamoon because my stories end up seriously epic. Maybe this off-the-cuff thing will work instead. (Or maybe those will just turn seriously epic.)
Minor operations; testing new serving path
Feb. 3rd, 2026 10:25 pm![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
mark posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_maintenanceHi all!
I'm doing some minor operational work tonight. It should be transparent, but there's always a chance that something goes wrong. The main thing I'm touching is testing a replacement for Apache2 (our web server software) in one area of the site.
Thank you!
Fayetteville, AR 2026 part 1: My First Airbnb, Many Treats
Feb. 3rd, 2026 10:09 pmtaz_39**Disclaimer** The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer. DO NOT RESHARE ANY PART OF THIS POST WITHOUT PERMISSION. Thank you.
This post covers Monday and Tuesday.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
MONDAY
Fayetteville, Arkansas. I was here with Tootsie in 2023 (Part 1 and Part 2 of that visit.)
TL;DR Highlights included eating at Arsagas, Hail Fellow Well Met, and Little Bread Company. Visiting Ozark Natural Foods, visiting the public library which is one of the top-rated in the country, eating ice cream made fresh in front of me, and signing a wall tag at the Watson Center (which I look forward to finding again tomorrow!)
A nice slow morning of breakfast, packing, and running through my masterclass once before we loaded our things onto the bus. When we travel by bus my usual routine is to be on time for the luggage call, put my suitcase under the bus, use my backpack to hold a seat for myself (important because I get motion sick easily,) then go back to my room for another 20 minutes to mess around or eat lunch until it's time to go. This time we were leaving right at noon and I didn't want to delay housekeeping, so I brought lunch to the lobby and ate it there. The bus ride was uneventful and only 2 hours long.
We arrived at the company hotel which is 6 miles from downtown. You may recall that I am trying VERY hard to avoid carpools and long commutes on this tour. To that end, I've booked an airbnb! My space wasn't ready yet so I killed time in the hotel lobby for 30 minutes or so, then Ubered to the airbnb location. There was a lock box with a key that was easy to find and so was the space.
For safety reasons I won't share exactly where I'm staying yet, but will share that it feels luxurious! The most important thing is it's close to the theater. There's a nice view, I'm walkable to all of the awesome restaurants and thrift stores in this college town, and there's a living room and a fireplace (which I have no idea how to operate.) Best of all there's a washer and dryer IN-UNIT! Wow! And all of this only cost slightly more than the company hotel! This is already a GREAT birthday gift to myself.
That's right, this week is my birthday! The big 4-2, on Wednesday.
Anyway, dropped my luggage and walked to Ozark Natural Foods. They carry a lot of awesome local goods. This time I picked up sourdough blueberry bagels from a local bakery, sweet potato soup from a local farm, and some chai spice almonds from Minneapolis. And Olyra crackers but they're not local :p
They also carry products that I love that are difficult to find, like Freshé tuna meals and Wild Planet shredded beef and Poshi pickled veggie pouches. I'll write reviews of the local stuff by the end of the week.
Carried my groceries home. On the walk back I found this sticker on a concrete wall:
(PROFANITY WARNING!!!)
(PROFANITY WARNING!!!)
Then I did an Uber to Whole Paycheck too because the co-op hadn't had some grocery standards.
Ate dinner, unpacked, settled in, and chilled.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
TUESDAY
I forgot to mention yesterday that our French hornist will be out for the next two days :( I don't really know why but hope she's all right.
I *think* I slept well? The bed was comfy. A train went by late at night, but considering that I used to live in train yards that's a non-issue. Made myself a nice breakfast and enjoyed stretching out on the couch. Mmmmmm luxury :)
Finished Pittsburgh Foodie Finds (I'm on a roll!!) and did a masterclass run-through. I'm consistently between 46-47 minutes, which it turns out will work out just fine because one of the other presenters cancelled and I'll get to poach a little of that time to add to my Q&A. Perfect! For me anyway :p
After lunch I walked to a nearby family-owned drugstore because I'm almost out of earplugs (and just to go for a walk. It was 50 degrees!!) Did not find earplugs, and decided to continue on back to the co-op to get a birthday treat for myself for tomorrow. I will have to pick up the goodies for the band tomorrow and that's a walk in the opposite direction, so I realized that now was the best time to do this. After much faffing and indecision I settled on a lovely chocolate espresso cupcake, as well as a bottle of sparkling blackberry water because why not. Yay treats!
I went to the theater early to scope it out. By luck I was there at just the right time to catch our logo truck pulling around the corner.
Inside I quickly remembered the layout of this small theater and found the pit.
Someone has put a stuffed Garfield in the drum booth! I think it was Tiff (Assistant Sound.)
Got my space set up nicely and went back upstairs to find the bottle filler, Company Management (must--steal--CANDY), and our dressing room, which is conveniently in a sort of break room with tables and counters and plates and plasticware and everything I'll need to share treats with the band tomorrow. Lucky! Eventually I found the trunks and dug my stuff out of mine. We had sound check and it was fine, our horn sub did an amazing job considering that she's sightreading. Tim (trumpet) and I were talking about times we've had to cover other horn or trumpet books when someone was out sick and a sub couldn't be found in time, and it made me remember that I have the trumpet and horn books! Now my new project is to put those on my iPad, look through and figure out which solo/important lines I could cover on trombone, bookmark them, and print them so they'll at least be ready to go if such a thing happens. I hope it doesn't, but we are less than a year in and already several people have had unexpected call-outs. Better safe than sorry.
The evening show was just fine. Our horn sub was great, there are so many incredibly exposed and prominent solo horn lines and she absolutely nailed them. She's in again tomorrow (good, she can enjoy the charcuterie with us :D )
In closing, I found the Tootsie wall tag! It is one of my favorites. It is inspired by a line from the show:
"I spent the night doing the Dirty Dancing lift with my cat. Turns out...he isn't very strong!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday: My birthday! Plans are to work on my usual things, watch The Muppet Show which is airing with new episodes on ABC tomorrow, download those horn and trumpet parts, and eat my special birthday treats :) We have one show in the evening, and I will bring treats to share with the band.
Thursday: A two-show weekday, so no plans.
This post covers Monday and Tuesday.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
MONDAY
Fayetteville, Arkansas. I was here with Tootsie in 2023 (Part 1 and Part 2 of that visit.)
TL;DR Highlights included eating at Arsagas, Hail Fellow Well Met, and Little Bread Company. Visiting Ozark Natural Foods, visiting the public library which is one of the top-rated in the country, eating ice cream made fresh in front of me, and signing a wall tag at the Watson Center (which I look forward to finding again tomorrow!)
A nice slow morning of breakfast, packing, and running through my masterclass once before we loaded our things onto the bus. When we travel by bus my usual routine is to be on time for the luggage call, put my suitcase under the bus, use my backpack to hold a seat for myself (important because I get motion sick easily,) then go back to my room for another 20 minutes to mess around or eat lunch until it's time to go. This time we were leaving right at noon and I didn't want to delay housekeeping, so I brought lunch to the lobby and ate it there. The bus ride was uneventful and only 2 hours long.
We arrived at the company hotel which is 6 miles from downtown. You may recall that I am trying VERY hard to avoid carpools and long commutes on this tour. To that end, I've booked an airbnb! My space wasn't ready yet so I killed time in the hotel lobby for 30 minutes or so, then Ubered to the airbnb location. There was a lock box with a key that was easy to find and so was the space.
For safety reasons I won't share exactly where I'm staying yet, but will share that it feels luxurious! The most important thing is it's close to the theater. There's a nice view, I'm walkable to all of the awesome restaurants and thrift stores in this college town, and there's a living room and a fireplace (which I have no idea how to operate.) Best of all there's a washer and dryer IN-UNIT! Wow! And all of this only cost slightly more than the company hotel! This is already a GREAT birthday gift to myself.
That's right, this week is my birthday! The big 4-2, on Wednesday.
Anyway, dropped my luggage and walked to Ozark Natural Foods. They carry a lot of awesome local goods. This time I picked up sourdough blueberry bagels from a local bakery, sweet potato soup from a local farm, and some chai spice almonds from Minneapolis. And Olyra crackers but they're not local :p
They also carry products that I love that are difficult to find, like Freshé tuna meals and Wild Planet shredded beef and Poshi pickled veggie pouches. I'll write reviews of the local stuff by the end of the week.
Carried my groceries home. On the walk back I found this sticker on a concrete wall:
(PROFANITY WARNING!!!)
(PROFANITY WARNING!!!)
Then I did an Uber to Whole Paycheck too because the co-op hadn't had some grocery standards.
Ate dinner, unpacked, settled in, and chilled.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
TUESDAY
I forgot to mention yesterday that our French hornist will be out for the next two days :( I don't really know why but hope she's all right.
I *think* I slept well? The bed was comfy. A train went by late at night, but considering that I used to live in train yards that's a non-issue. Made myself a nice breakfast and enjoyed stretching out on the couch. Mmmmmm luxury :)
Finished Pittsburgh Foodie Finds (I'm on a roll!!) and did a masterclass run-through. I'm consistently between 46-47 minutes, which it turns out will work out just fine because one of the other presenters cancelled and I'll get to poach a little of that time to add to my Q&A. Perfect! For me anyway :p
After lunch I walked to a nearby family-owned drugstore because I'm almost out of earplugs (and just to go for a walk. It was 50 degrees!!) Did not find earplugs, and decided to continue on back to the co-op to get a birthday treat for myself for tomorrow. I will have to pick up the goodies for the band tomorrow and that's a walk in the opposite direction, so I realized that now was the best time to do this. After much faffing and indecision I settled on a lovely chocolate espresso cupcake, as well as a bottle of sparkling blackberry water because why not. Yay treats!
I went to the theater early to scope it out. By luck I was there at just the right time to catch our logo truck pulling around the corner.
Inside I quickly remembered the layout of this small theater and found the pit.
Someone has put a stuffed Garfield in the drum booth! I think it was Tiff (Assistant Sound.)
Got my space set up nicely and went back upstairs to find the bottle filler, Company Management (must--steal--CANDY), and our dressing room, which is conveniently in a sort of break room with tables and counters and plates and plasticware and everything I'll need to share treats with the band tomorrow. Lucky! Eventually I found the trunks and dug my stuff out of mine. We had sound check and it was fine, our horn sub did an amazing job considering that she's sightreading. Tim (trumpet) and I were talking about times we've had to cover other horn or trumpet books when someone was out sick and a sub couldn't be found in time, and it made me remember that I have the trumpet and horn books! Now my new project is to put those on my iPad, look through and figure out which solo/important lines I could cover on trombone, bookmark them, and print them so they'll at least be ready to go if such a thing happens. I hope it doesn't, but we are less than a year in and already several people have had unexpected call-outs. Better safe than sorry.
The evening show was just fine. Our horn sub was great, there are so many incredibly exposed and prominent solo horn lines and she absolutely nailed them. She's in again tomorrow (good, she can enjoy the charcuterie with us :D )
In closing, I found the Tootsie wall tag! It is one of my favorites. It is inspired by a line from the show:
"I spent the night doing the Dirty Dancing lift with my cat. Turns out...he isn't very strong!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday: My birthday! Plans are to work on my usual things, watch The Muppet Show which is airing with new episodes on ABC tomorrow, download those horn and trumpet parts, and eat my special birthday treats :) We have one show in the evening, and I will bring treats to share with the band.
Thursday: A two-show weekday, so no plans.
Tuesday
Feb. 3rd, 2026 08:48 amsusandennisIt's house cleaner day - pretty much my favorite day of the week. She only spends about an hour in here but really, it's perfect. Everything sparkles and the carpet stands up in rows. There is more mess around here today than usual and I'm not sure why. It won't take long to tidy and I don't really have to but it will give me that fresh start feeling which is lovely.
I got my eye appointment moved so tomorrow is Biggie only.
Volleyball was better than usual this morning. We had enough people for a good game, no one was particularly obnoxious and the play was good. The newest guy has had a hard time getting it but this morning, he did great.
I have a return to drop off at UPS. Does not have to be today but why not? I could do it while the house cleaner is here or I could just pop out this morning.
I rarely look back my sometimes glance at former years in my one-sentence-a-day five year book. This time last year I was stressed to the max about taxes and... it was snowing!! We had a few days of snow that were just lovely. This year, my taxes are all in hand but we have not the first snowflake. In fact it is supposed to hit 60 this week. Sigh.
I have made 20 Easter bunnies and would like to make at least 100. I'm going to keep making them until the end of February or until I can't stand them. I think I can get to 100 fairly easily. These have no neck ribbons yet or bunny ball tails. Martha is adding those.
Ok. I'm not dressed yet so I probably need to do that now. It's after 9!
I got my eye appointment moved so tomorrow is Biggie only.
Volleyball was better than usual this morning. We had enough people for a good game, no one was particularly obnoxious and the play was good. The newest guy has had a hard time getting it but this morning, he did great.
I have a return to drop off at UPS. Does not have to be today but why not? I could do it while the house cleaner is here or I could just pop out this morning.
I rarely look back my sometimes glance at former years in my one-sentence-a-day five year book. This time last year I was stressed to the max about taxes and... it was snowing!! We had a few days of snow that were just lovely. This year, my taxes are all in hand but we have not the first snowflake. In fact it is supposed to hit 60 this week. Sigh.
I have made 20 Easter bunnies and would like to make at least 100. I'm going to keep making them until the end of February or until I can't stand them. I think I can get to 100 fairly easily. These have no neck ribbons yet or bunny ball tails. Martha is adding those.
Ok. I'm not dressed yet so I probably need to do that now. It's after 9!
Catching Up in the Cold
Feb. 2nd, 2026 09:43 pmfauxkloreCelebrity Death Watch - December 2025: Robert Lindsay wrote The Falcon ad the Snowman. Perry Bamonte played guitar for The Cure. David Rosen cofounded Sega. Lou Gerstner was the CEO of IBM from 1993 through 2002. Jeffrey R. Holland was the president of the LDS Church. Thomas J. Fogarty invented the balloon catheter, used for treating blood clots. Julius Berman was a lawyer and Orthodox rabbi who served in leadership positions in several Jewish organizations, including the Orthodox Union. Tatiana Schlossberg was an environmental journalist and the daughter of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. Dick Zimmer was a congressman from New Jersey (and the father of my friend, Ben).
Brigitte Bardot was an actress. She cared more about animal rights than about human rights and was fined several times for inciting racial hatred.
Ben Nighthorse Campbell served in both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. During his term in office, he was the only Native American serving in Congress. He had earlier become the first Native American on the U.S. Olympic judo team. He switched from the Democratic to the Republican party in 1995, largely due to a dispute with the Colorado Democratic Party over the balanced-budget amendment.
Celebrity Death Watch - January 2026: Brian Doyle was a Canadian writer, primarily of children’s books. Diane Crump was the first woman to ride in a parimutuel race in the United States. Johnny Legend was a rockabilly musician. Aldrich Ames was a spy, who compromised more CIA assets than any other intelligence officer at the time of his arrest. Philippe Junot was the first husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco. Bob Weir was a founding member of The Grateful Dead. Louis E. Burs won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for co-discovering quantum dots. Kenny Morris played drums for Siouxsie and the Banshees. Gladys West was a mathematician who worked primarily on developing satellite geodesy models. Valentino was a fashion designer. Hudson Talbott wrote and illustrated children’s books and collaborated with Stephen Sondheim on a book version of Into the Woods. Roland Huntford wrote several books about polar exploration, notably The Last Place on Earth about the race between Scott and Amundsen to the South Pole. Bryan Loren wrote the satirical song “Do the Bartman.” Demond Wilson played Lamont on Sanford and Son. Catherine O’Hara was a comic actress known for appearing in Home Alone, Beetlejuice, and Schitt’s Creek. Billy Bass Nelson played bass guitar for Parliament-Funkadelic. Mingo Lewis was a percussionist for Santana and Al Di Meola.
Scott Adams was responsible for the comic strip, Dilbert, which adorned office doors throughout the United States. He fostered a negative view of the corporate world and wasn’t any nicer in the rest of his life. He took to political commentary and was eventually brought down by persistent racism. (I knew someone who had worked with him at Pacific Bell and she said he was, in general, an asshole.) By the way, a colleague and I once bought our boss a pointy-haired boss wig and he wore it while doing our performance reviews. He was on my ghoul pool list and earned me 19 points.
X. J. Kennedy was a phenomenal poet. He began his career writing science fiction stories for pulp magazine (mostly under the name Joe Kennedy) and had his first book of poetry, Nude Descending a Staircase: Poems, Songs, A Ballad in 1961. He wrote a lot of poetry for children, as well as for adults, and was the poetry editor for The Paris Review. He also taught writing at several universities (notably at Tufts for 15 years) and wrote textbooks. If you like light verse at all, you owe it to yourself to read his work. He was on my ghoul pool list and earned me 24 points (including a 12 point bonus for uniqueness.) I wrote the following, loosely based on his poem “In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus,” which was the first of his poems I ever read. (This is a revised version after one of my friends objected to an imperfect rhyme on my first attempt.)
A Eulogy for X.J. Kennedy
In a small living room on Long Island one day
I first read the works of the poet, X. J.
Joseph Charles Kennedy was his name at his birth
His poems were amusing, they sparkled with mirth.
He wrote about children, he wrote about art
He wrote with sharp humor, but also with heart.
His verses showed off his supreme savoir faire
He loved rhyme and meter, and used them with flair.
He translated works, from French and from Greek
He won many prizes - at least one each week
And now in his nineties, death’s pulled him away
but I’ll always remember the poet, X.J.
Convergence - Lullabies and Anthems: The final session of Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell’s class was Tuesday of last week. He had two subjects to talk about. Re: lullabies, he asked us which ones we knew. The most familiar one to me was the Yiddish song “Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen” which has a widow sitting in the corner of the synagogue singing to her son about his future. He discussed another Yiddish lullaby and the song “All the Pretty Little Horses,” which he explained as an enslaved man singing to his son, after her mother had probably been sold down the river. He focused on the theme connecting these being the absent parent. I didn’t think of it at the time, but now I’ve been wondering about the level of violence in lullabies, e.g. “Rock-a-bye Baby” (in which “down will come cradle, baby and all”).
As for anthems, most of us knew “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Hatikvah” (the Israeli national anthem, whose title means “The Hope”) but he also wanted us to discuss things other than national anthems, e.g. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (which is sometimes called the Black National Anthem) or even “I Am Woman.” He closed by posing the question, “What does victory look like for us?” It’s a good question to ask in troubled times.
Overall, I thought the class was worth my time. I’ll look for other offerings from New Lehrhaus, though it is always hard to clear my schedule for things like this.
Stafford Challenge - Week 2: I managed to write a poem every day again for the second week. I will, in general, include just the titles here.
24 January - Winter Storm
25 January - Do You Know Who I Am?
26 January - Ink
27 January - The Bordens
28 January - Irony
29 January - LIRR 1
30 January - LIRR 2
I’ve noticed two things. First, I can’t write just about things associated with the wreck of the Congressional Limited, because other topics distract me. I have plenty of things to say about trains in general (including my habit of writing haikus when I am frustrated with the Metro). But other topics inevitably creep into my head. And, secondly, the best advice I’ve gotten for doing this challenge (and for writing in general) is that when you feel blocked, you just have to lower your standards.
Projects: My Tunisian crochet afghan is crawling along. The biggest problem is that I really only work at it during crafts group. I probably need to watch more television.
I finally wrote the first part of my guide to Lithuanian Jewish names. This part covers given names. I still want to write about surnames, but I am not sure where I put my notes for that.
I also have a bunch of things to do for the Women’s Storytelling Festival. I’ve got two major tasks and need to get a good start on them this week.
Snowcrete: We had about 6 inches of snow a little over a week ago. The problem is that we got 3 inches of sleet on top of it, resulting in an annoyingly hard layer of ice which was too difficult for most people to clear. My condo complex does an okay job of clearing the sidewalk, but a lot of people don’t bother. (Or, physically can’t.) And it’s been too cold for ice melt to be effective. Can we please fast forward to springtime?
Both Sides Now: I went to a concert Saturday night at Sixth and I on Saturday night. It was titled Both Sides Now: The Music and Lives of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. It was performed by Robbie Schaefer, who I’ve liked since the days of Eddie from Ohio, and Danielle Wertz, who I hadn’t heard of before. It was generally enjoyable, though I had qualms about a few of the arrangements. In particular, I thought the arrangement of “Big Yellow Taxi” was slowed down too much. But, overall, I thought it was a success. And the audience was engaged and responsive and well-behaved. At the end, everybody sang along to “The Circle Game, which felt like the right closing. I'm glad I braved the frigid evening to go.
Brigitte Bardot was an actress. She cared more about animal rights than about human rights and was fined several times for inciting racial hatred.
Ben Nighthorse Campbell served in both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. During his term in office, he was the only Native American serving in Congress. He had earlier become the first Native American on the U.S. Olympic judo team. He switched from the Democratic to the Republican party in 1995, largely due to a dispute with the Colorado Democratic Party over the balanced-budget amendment.
Celebrity Death Watch - January 2026: Brian Doyle was a Canadian writer, primarily of children’s books. Diane Crump was the first woman to ride in a parimutuel race in the United States. Johnny Legend was a rockabilly musician. Aldrich Ames was a spy, who compromised more CIA assets than any other intelligence officer at the time of his arrest. Philippe Junot was the first husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco. Bob Weir was a founding member of The Grateful Dead. Louis E. Burs won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for co-discovering quantum dots. Kenny Morris played drums for Siouxsie and the Banshees. Gladys West was a mathematician who worked primarily on developing satellite geodesy models. Valentino was a fashion designer. Hudson Talbott wrote and illustrated children’s books and collaborated with Stephen Sondheim on a book version of Into the Woods. Roland Huntford wrote several books about polar exploration, notably The Last Place on Earth about the race between Scott and Amundsen to the South Pole. Bryan Loren wrote the satirical song “Do the Bartman.” Demond Wilson played Lamont on Sanford and Son. Catherine O’Hara was a comic actress known for appearing in Home Alone, Beetlejuice, and Schitt’s Creek. Billy Bass Nelson played bass guitar for Parliament-Funkadelic. Mingo Lewis was a percussionist for Santana and Al Di Meola.
Scott Adams was responsible for the comic strip, Dilbert, which adorned office doors throughout the United States. He fostered a negative view of the corporate world and wasn’t any nicer in the rest of his life. He took to political commentary and was eventually brought down by persistent racism. (I knew someone who had worked with him at Pacific Bell and she said he was, in general, an asshole.) By the way, a colleague and I once bought our boss a pointy-haired boss wig and he wore it while doing our performance reviews. He was on my ghoul pool list and earned me 19 points.
X. J. Kennedy was a phenomenal poet. He began his career writing science fiction stories for pulp magazine (mostly under the name Joe Kennedy) and had his first book of poetry, Nude Descending a Staircase: Poems, Songs, A Ballad in 1961. He wrote a lot of poetry for children, as well as for adults, and was the poetry editor for The Paris Review. He also taught writing at several universities (notably at Tufts for 15 years) and wrote textbooks. If you like light verse at all, you owe it to yourself to read his work. He was on my ghoul pool list and earned me 24 points (including a 12 point bonus for uniqueness.) I wrote the following, loosely based on his poem “In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus,” which was the first of his poems I ever read. (This is a revised version after one of my friends objected to an imperfect rhyme on my first attempt.)
A Eulogy for X.J. Kennedy
In a small living room on Long Island one day
I first read the works of the poet, X. J.
Joseph Charles Kennedy was his name at his birth
His poems were amusing, they sparkled with mirth.
He wrote about children, he wrote about art
He wrote with sharp humor, but also with heart.
His verses showed off his supreme savoir faire
He loved rhyme and meter, and used them with flair.
He translated works, from French and from Greek
He won many prizes - at least one each week
And now in his nineties, death’s pulled him away
but I’ll always remember the poet, X.J.
Convergence - Lullabies and Anthems: The final session of Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell’s class was Tuesday of last week. He had two subjects to talk about. Re: lullabies, he asked us which ones we knew. The most familiar one to me was the Yiddish song “Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen” which has a widow sitting in the corner of the synagogue singing to her son about his future. He discussed another Yiddish lullaby and the song “All the Pretty Little Horses,” which he explained as an enslaved man singing to his son, after her mother had probably been sold down the river. He focused on the theme connecting these being the absent parent. I didn’t think of it at the time, but now I’ve been wondering about the level of violence in lullabies, e.g. “Rock-a-bye Baby” (in which “down will come cradle, baby and all”).
As for anthems, most of us knew “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Hatikvah” (the Israeli national anthem, whose title means “The Hope”) but he also wanted us to discuss things other than national anthems, e.g. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (which is sometimes called the Black National Anthem) or even “I Am Woman.” He closed by posing the question, “What does victory look like for us?” It’s a good question to ask in troubled times.
Overall, I thought the class was worth my time. I’ll look for other offerings from New Lehrhaus, though it is always hard to clear my schedule for things like this.
Stafford Challenge - Week 2: I managed to write a poem every day again for the second week. I will, in general, include just the titles here.
24 January - Winter Storm
25 January - Do You Know Who I Am?
26 January - Ink
27 January - The Bordens
28 January - Irony
29 January - LIRR 1
30 January - LIRR 2
I’ve noticed two things. First, I can’t write just about things associated with the wreck of the Congressional Limited, because other topics distract me. I have plenty of things to say about trains in general (including my habit of writing haikus when I am frustrated with the Metro). But other topics inevitably creep into my head. And, secondly, the best advice I’ve gotten for doing this challenge (and for writing in general) is that when you feel blocked, you just have to lower your standards.
Projects: My Tunisian crochet afghan is crawling along. The biggest problem is that I really only work at it during crafts group. I probably need to watch more television.
I finally wrote the first part of my guide to Lithuanian Jewish names. This part covers given names. I still want to write about surnames, but I am not sure where I put my notes for that.
I also have a bunch of things to do for the Women’s Storytelling Festival. I’ve got two major tasks and need to get a good start on them this week.
Snowcrete: We had about 6 inches of snow a little over a week ago. The problem is that we got 3 inches of sleet on top of it, resulting in an annoyingly hard layer of ice which was too difficult for most people to clear. My condo complex does an okay job of clearing the sidewalk, but a lot of people don’t bother. (Or, physically can’t.) And it’s been too cold for ice melt to be effective. Can we please fast forward to springtime?
Both Sides Now: I went to a concert Saturday night at Sixth and I on Saturday night. It was titled Both Sides Now: The Music and Lives of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. It was performed by Robbie Schaefer, who I’ve liked since the days of Eddie from Ohio, and Danielle Wertz, who I hadn’t heard of before. It was generally enjoyable, though I had qualms about a few of the arrangements. In particular, I thought the arrangement of “Big Yellow Taxi” was slowed down too much. But, overall, I thought it was a success. And the audience was engaged and responsive and well-behaved. At the end, everybody sang along to “The Circle Game, which felt like the right closing. I'm glad I braved the frigid evening to go.
Tags:
travel: Georgia - Uplistsikhe and Kutaisi
Feb. 3rd, 2026 07:55 amtielanYes, I'm back with the Georgian trip!
Day 1: Overview | Day 2: Vashlovani Nature Reserve | Day 3: Jvari Monastery and Svetitskhoveli Cathedral
-----
The night of the Jvari Monastery and the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral (still Wednesday) we stayed in a little vineyard tucked away in the back of beyond, which required a hike along rough tracks and up and down roads. Our luggage was (thankfully) taken by a very old jeep - Soviet era, we were told. It surely looked it!
The vineyard had been owned by a former church minister, and they were still doing it up. The road there was a little rough, and a few of the women struggled somewhat with the path.
There was also almost no signal.
But there were kittens!
This night was a particularly bad case of "we can't eat anything, we're too stuffed full of food". I didn't even take photos of the food, I was so full!
And the next morning was no better.
Ruins and vineyards and buildings on the walk back down to where the bus awaited us in the morning:
Yeah, it's a bit of a mouthful...
Uplistsikhe Rock Village dates back to the 2nd Century BC, and translates to 'God's Fortress'.
The carvings and design of it indicate both pagan and Christian residency (a pagan temple's fire altars were filled in when the community converted to Christianity and the space used as a chapel/cathedral), and multiple cultural influences from outside Georgia are indicated by its architecture and decoration before it was sacked in the 12th Century by the Mongols.
There was so much of it to see, but we only had an hour, so it was a very truncated tour of a really interesting historical site.
And I spent long enough in the chapel that I and my roomie (only other non-American on the tour, apart from the 'host' who was local, and the 'organiser' who was ) lost the rest of the group on the way out of the site. I found the chapel particularly fascinating to me for the black Madonna-and-Child portrait, the layout of the space, and the "drooping arms" cross symbol, which is representative of St Nino's grapevine cross she carried to Georgia when she brought Christianity to that part of the world.
Oh yes, and the black Madonna and child!
No, not me! (I just realised the juxtaposition of the photos. XD XD)
More seriously, there was a woman in the chapel who was praying or observing her pilgrimage. I had to be quiet while she was there and even after she left, I had to be quiet because there was a woman manning the shop right outside the door. *sigh*
I find it a bit restricting, actually, that the chapels and cathedrals all demand silence of you. There are times for silence, of course. But there's also time to sing and be joyful - to shout to the Lord! To everything a time and a season, as Ecclesiastes declares. I did manage to sing a hymn in a chapel in Positano, Italy and that was fun!
Anyway, there was a tunnel we missed out on seeing because we didn't work out where the rest of the group went, and then we got stuck at the top and ended up having to go back down the way we came, whereupon we met the rest of the group and went along to the bus.
On the way to lunch, we passed through the city of Gori, which is Stalin's birthplace. Many of the older Americans wanted to hop out and have a look at it, and I hopped out because the architecture looked really interesting!
C'mon, tell me this isn't fascinating to the daughter of an architect!
The location is the house in which he was born. The neighbourhood was "bought out" (*cough cough* we know how that goes in the west, now imagine it in Soviet Georgia!) and everything else razed to bring you...this edifice of stone and magnificence...
The Americans exclaimed over the details of Stalin's life. Me? I looked around at the architecture (very interesting, oddly beautiful for what I think of as 'communist brutalism') and then out at the public gardens surrounding it, and the Georgian national flag flapping in the wind. And I turned to our Georgia guide, grinned, and said "Stalin would have hated it." And she grinned back.
It was pretty much a fifteen minute stop because we were already kind of late to lunch. But then, we were still kind of full from the previous night and breakfast, so it's not like we were rushing to get to eat!
--
Lunch at Sisters-in-Law winery. The owner used to be in the diplomatic service, but married a guy whose family owned land out in the countryside and now runs a restaurant that they built out of reclaimed everything. All the bricks, all the wood, all the furnishings found and repaired and now reused. It's very permaculture.
They're also very socially active (also very permaculture) to the point where they decided to close the restaurant this summer, because they wanted to participate in local protests against pro-Russia government and they were worried about retaliation. That's a dedication to the cause. There were assorted signs and stickers around the place that showed the sentiment of the younger generation about Russia, but the older generations often recall the good times of the Soviet Union and want that back.
Sounds a bit familiar, really.
They definitely had some permaculture books...
Also, there was a wine there that was absolutely amazing, and honestly I'd have shipped an entire crate of it back home except they didn't have any left over from that batch! *sigh*
A beautiful place with a beautiful couple doing good, solid things in the world.
--
Kutaisi
At this point, my memories are growing a little fuzzy. I shouldn't have put off typing this up for so long, and since I've been back, a lot has happened!
But I do remember that the dinner in Kutaisi was a bit ordinary, all things considered...
A walking bridge, quite close to where we were staying, and the last light of day.
Day 1: Overview | Day 2: Vashlovani Nature Reserve | Day 3: Jvari Monastery and Svetitskhoveli Cathedral
-----
The night of the Jvari Monastery and the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral (still Wednesday) we stayed in a little vineyard tucked away in the back of beyond, which required a hike along rough tracks and up and down roads. Our luggage was (thankfully) taken by a very old jeep - Soviet era, we were told. It surely looked it!
A B&B up in the mountains
The vineyard had been owned by a former church minister, and they were still doing it up. The road there was a little rough, and a few of the women struggled somewhat with the path.
There was also almost no signal.
But there were kittens!
This night was a particularly bad case of "we can't eat anything, we're too stuffed full of food". I didn't even take photos of the food, I was so full!
And the next morning was no better.
Ruins and vineyards and buildings on the walk back down to where the bus awaited us in the morning:
Thursday: Uplistsikhe
Yeah, it's a bit of a mouthful...
Uplistsikhe Rock Village dates back to the 2nd Century BC, and translates to 'God's Fortress'.
The carvings and design of it indicate both pagan and Christian residency (a pagan temple's fire altars were filled in when the community converted to Christianity and the space used as a chapel/cathedral), and multiple cultural influences from outside Georgia are indicated by its architecture and decoration before it was sacked in the 12th Century by the Mongols.
There was so much of it to see, but we only had an hour, so it was a very truncated tour of a really interesting historical site.
And I spent long enough in the chapel that I and my roomie (only other non-American on the tour, apart from the 'host' who was local, and the 'organiser' who was ) lost the rest of the group on the way out of the site. I found the chapel particularly fascinating to me for the black Madonna-and-Child portrait, the layout of the space, and the "drooping arms" cross symbol, which is representative of St Nino's grapevine cross she carried to Georgia when she brought Christianity to that part of the world.
Oh yes, and the black Madonna and child!
No, not me! (I just realised the juxtaposition of the photos. XD XD)
More seriously, there was a woman in the chapel who was praying or observing her pilgrimage. I had to be quiet while she was there and even after she left, I had to be quiet because there was a woman manning the shop right outside the door. *sigh*
I find it a bit restricting, actually, that the chapels and cathedrals all demand silence of you. There are times for silence, of course. But there's also time to sing and be joyful - to shout to the Lord! To everything a time and a season, as Ecclesiastes declares. I did manage to sing a hymn in a chapel in Positano, Italy and that was fun!
Anyway, there was a tunnel we missed out on seeing because we didn't work out where the rest of the group went, and then we got stuck at the top and ended up having to go back down the way we came, whereupon we met the rest of the group and went along to the bus.
On the way to lunch, we passed through the city of Gori, which is Stalin's birthplace. Many of the older Americans wanted to hop out and have a look at it, and I hopped out because the architecture looked really interesting!
C'mon, tell me this isn't fascinating to the daughter of an architect!
Gori: birthplace of Stalin
The location is the house in which he was born. The neighbourhood was "bought out" (*cough cough* we know how that goes in the west, now imagine it in Soviet Georgia!) and everything else razed to bring you...this edifice of stone and magnificence...
The Americans exclaimed over the details of Stalin's life. Me? I looked around at the architecture (very interesting, oddly beautiful for what I think of as 'communist brutalism') and then out at the public gardens surrounding it, and the Georgian national flag flapping in the wind. And I turned to our Georgia guide, grinned, and said "Stalin would have hated it." And she grinned back.
It was pretty much a fifteen minute stop because we were already kind of late to lunch. But then, we were still kind of full from the previous night and breakfast, so it's not like we were rushing to get to eat!
--
Lunch at Sisters-in-Law winery. The owner used to be in the diplomatic service, but married a guy whose family owned land out in the countryside and now runs a restaurant that they built out of reclaimed everything. All the bricks, all the wood, all the furnishings found and repaired and now reused. It's very permaculture.
books and food and activism against an oppressive government: what it can look like
They're also very socially active (also very permaculture) to the point where they decided to close the restaurant this summer, because they wanted to participate in local protests against pro-Russia government and they were worried about retaliation. That's a dedication to the cause. There were assorted signs and stickers around the place that showed the sentiment of the younger generation about Russia, but the older generations often recall the good times of the Soviet Union and want that back.
Sounds a bit familiar, really.
They definitely had some permaculture books...
Also, there was a wine there that was absolutely amazing, and honestly I'd have shipped an entire crate of it back home except they didn't have any left over from that batch! *sigh*
A beautiful place with a beautiful couple doing good, solid things in the world.
--
Kutaisi
At this point, my memories are growing a little fuzzy. I shouldn't have put off typing this up for so long, and since I've been back, a lot has happened!
But I do remember that the dinner in Kutaisi was a bit ordinary, all things considered...
A walking bridge, quite close to where we were staying, and the last light of day.
Monday
Feb. 2nd, 2026 08:16 amsusandennisThese days in the Pacific Northwest are rainy and cloudy in the morning and sun shiney in the afternoons. Kind of perfect. And perfect for swimming but I think I'm going to pass today just because. Maybe.
On Sundays I generally stay in my apartment (Bonny calls it hibernating) and enjoy the heck out of that. And some Mondays, like today, I just want more. I don't have anywhere I need to go except maybe downstairs to pick up Amazon packages. If they come to the lockers, I pick them up. If they are dropped off at the front desk, they get delivered in the afternoons. I never know until they get here which way they are going. Usually it's lockers, but sometimes...
My latest obsession is makers on YouTube. I watch on my TV. There's the one very excellent guy, Pask Makes, from Australia who does fascinating work and makes great videos about them. He has a ton of videos and he's fascinating. And it seems way more productive than my previous obsession with watching Instagram videos of small children speaking in British accents. (Chances are they are actually British and not cheeky American or Canadian children with great linguistic chops but who really knows???)
I am caught up in the weirdest book. And I can't quit it. I'm a bully killer no personal life loaner thriller kind of reader. When I want something light, I go for a police procedural. This book is characterized as 'delightfully charming' something I am pretty sure I've been vaccinated against. And, yet... One sentence leads to the next and I have lost my will to stop. The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett.
So I have plenty of entertainment and not massive chores that need doing and no one who's counting on me for anything. Perfect.
On Sundays I generally stay in my apartment (Bonny calls it hibernating) and enjoy the heck out of that. And some Mondays, like today, I just want more. I don't have anywhere I need to go except maybe downstairs to pick up Amazon packages. If they come to the lockers, I pick them up. If they are dropped off at the front desk, they get delivered in the afternoons. I never know until they get here which way they are going. Usually it's lockers, but sometimes...
My latest obsession is makers on YouTube. I watch on my TV. There's the one very excellent guy, Pask Makes, from Australia who does fascinating work and makes great videos about them. He has a ton of videos and he's fascinating. And it seems way more productive than my previous obsession with watching Instagram videos of small children speaking in British accents. (Chances are they are actually British and not cheeky American or Canadian children with great linguistic chops but who really knows???)
I am caught up in the weirdest book. And I can't quit it. I'm a bully killer no personal life loaner thriller kind of reader. When I want something light, I go for a police procedural. This book is characterized as 'delightfully charming' something I am pretty sure I've been vaccinated against. And, yet... One sentence leads to the next and I have lost my will to stop. The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett.
So I have plenty of entertainment and not massive chores that need doing and no one who's counting on me for anything. Perfect.
A little more CCRC
Feb. 2nd, 2026 07:40 amsusandennisSomeone asked me specifically about Judson Park which is south of Seattle. I remembered seeing about it but not the detail, so this morning I looked at their website.
One of the things I did NOT want was non-profit. I'm not at all sure now that was even a valid consideration. Timber Ridge is part of a very for profit group of homes across the country. Judson Park is part of a non profit of group of homes across the country. As I look now, it seems a very viable option.
If you are at all interested in CCRC's I encourage you to read the stuff at their website, they articulate the whole thing better than anyone else I've seen.
Among many other salient points, they also say, if you have owned a home, you can usually afford to move to a CCRC. As you age, living on your own, maintaining a home becomes a far more expensive option but the costs are creeping costs. I did not even have a mortgage and still, the cost of living day to day here is on par with what it was when I was in my condo and I have far more amenities here.
Ok, I think that's it. All my thoughts. Now back to your regular programming.
One of the things I did NOT want was non-profit. I'm not at all sure now that was even a valid consideration. Timber Ridge is part of a very for profit group of homes across the country. Judson Park is part of a non profit of group of homes across the country. As I look now, it seems a very viable option.
If you are at all interested in CCRC's I encourage you to read the stuff at their website, they articulate the whole thing better than anyone else I've seen.
Among many other salient points, they also say, if you have owned a home, you can usually afford to move to a CCRC. As you age, living on your own, maintaining a home becomes a far more expensive option but the costs are creeping costs. I did not even have a mortgage and still, the cost of living day to day here is on par with what it was when I was in my condo and I have far more amenities here.
Ok, I think that's it. All my thoughts. Now back to your regular programming.
Tulsa, OK 2026 part 3: Productivity
Feb. 1st, 2026 09:38 pmtaz_39**Disclaimer** The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer. DO NOT RESHARE ANY PART OF THIS POST WITHOUT PERMISSION. Thank you.
This post covers the weekend.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
FRIDAY
I had a rather productive Friday morning.
Up to this point, my masterclass has been designed around college-age students pursuing degrees in music. These studio kids are YOUNGER...middle school and high school-aged. I looked at my PowerPoint and was like...yeah, no, none of this applies. And that is why I spent the entire rest of the afternoon building a new PowerPoint for a younger age group! This one will not be about career moves; it's centered around "What's it Like" to perform in all the different types of gigs. It's designed to showcase all the fun options out there besides the "band and orchestra" programs that these kids are offered in school. Theme parks! Circus! Cruise ships! Broadway tours! With lots of pictures, videos, fun facts, and a few surprise questions to keep them involved. At the end there is ONE slide that suggests students can work toward playing these fun gigs themselves (i.e. "Keep practicing!" "Follow your dreams!")
It took several hours to build, but when it was mostly done I sent it off to the studio owner and she seemed to genuinely love it! We're on for an early March presentation. I think it'll be a lot of fun for both me AND her kids!
Meanwhile, the new couch (or whatever you call this thing) that Jameson and I picked out together has arrived! One of Jameson's friends helped him move the old couch to the curb. The new couch-thing looks great and Jameson is enjoying it very much :)
(Also let's take a moment to reflect on the fact that the reason Jameson FINALLY got rid of his 30-year-old, filthy, sagging couch, and is enjoying this nice new couch, is because I tripped over a ladder and put a hole through the back of the old one. Suddenly I am rather pleased about having done this :p )
It is obnoxiously cold again, single digits with that Oklahoma signature wind. After dinner I bundled up and quick-walked to the theater. Connor was conducting again and did a great job, but I made some weird mistakes and was unhappy with my playing. When I don't play as well as I'd like, I always consider (in real time and afterward) why it's happening and whether there's anything I can do about it. Sometimes it's just that I'm tired or distracted, but often it's a combination of factors--mental state, the cold (which makes me more tense in my body), and sitting in front of a computer unmoving all day today--that impact how I play whether I realize it or not. So tomorrow, even if it's cold, I'm at least going for a short walk.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SATURDAY
Woke up to 8°F (-13.3°C) plus windchill. Big words about going for a walk yesterday!! Will I still do it??
Meanwhile, coffee and keeping my shades drawn because the hotel has floor-to-ceiling windows that are uninsulated and are letting cold air in. I have to set my thermostat to 73 for the room to be 68. Breakfast, working on Pittsburgh Foodie Finds now, and I managed to squeeze in a run-through of my masterclass before a non-mandatory Disney safety meeting. It was very brief, they just wanted to refresh on some things. After that I could have gone for that walk. I could have! But did I? NO! It is VERY COLD! And I refuse to hold it against myself either! :P
Lunch, adding more fun circus pictures and facts to the kiddie PowerPoint, and now I think that one really is done. Walking to the theater with all of my trunk stuff and putting it away, warming up just a little, then the matinee. It was well attended, and Josh (Key 2) conducted and did a great job. Back to the hotel to catch up on reading blog posts and drink some nice hot tea, then dinner and walking back for the evening show.
Everything went fine but it looks like we're gonna have a clarinet sub for a day, as our clarinetist has had something unexpected come up. This kind of thing is going to happen for each of us throughout the tour, and I'm grateful that this group of musicians are empathetic and understanding about it. I'm glad we were able to find a sub! He sat with us in the pit and audited the show, and should hopefully be playing it tomorrow.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUNDAY
I had trouble sleeping...my brain would not shut off, it was noisy in the hallway starting around 5am, and I was also hungry and unable to fall back asleep because of all those things combined. Oh well.
Breakfast and preliminary packing, Foodie Finds work, watching the final episode of Vox Machina Season 3. Whew, what a crazy and fun show. I suppose next up will be The Mighty Nein, then by the time I finish that some of the anime series that I watch should have enough new episodes out to binge.
When 10am hit I did a run-through of my masterclass. 46 minutes, which is just fine. Lunch and then walking to the theater (with fewer layers on because it was a whole 30°F/-1.11°C! Hooray!) The matinee was fine, DAR is back from conducting the Oklahoma Philharmonic, and our substitute clarinetist did very well especially considering that he had less than 24 hours to review the music. I'd be scared out of my wits to read a book like ours on short notice, but he was cool as a cucumber. Jealous of that!
Oh, we did have something kinda funny happen! During "Belle," Gaston shoots a duck out of the sky with his blunderbuss.
Here's the scene from the animated movie:
We do the same scene, using a prop blunderbuss with pyro and a stuffed duck prop that falls from somewhere above the stage.
Well the duck fell like it was supposed to, and LeFou missed it like he's supposed to...and it hit the stage and exploded open, scattering stuffing and feathers everywhere! The actors and ensemble got through Belle to the next dialogue scene, but before Maurice makes his entrance they had to stop the show to sweep up all of the fluff!
The weirdest stuff happens in live theater shows!
During the break the usual thing of going back to the hotel for dinner, more packing, and researching which anime to binge next.
Back at the theater, and several of you were curious about the "Please Don't" sign in the pit, so I went back to have a better look and show you what's going on with that. Here's the original picture that I took, and here's what is underneath the "Please Don't" sign.
I have no idea what it is but you can see a key/lever of some sort, a hole presumably for the key, and also a sort of wrench-tool. Generally when you find things like this in the pit it's a REALLY good idea to leave them alone...it could be the mechanism that raises and lowers the entire pit, or an emergency lockdown function that seals the doors to the pit. Yes, such things very much do exist and I've seen them in other theaters. NO TOUCHIE.
The show was "ok." DAR is back but I think he was pretty tired, plus we had the sub on clarinet who did a great job but did miss a few things this time. Again, he is essentially sightreading so that is still an absolutely amazing job. We all made sure to shake hands with him and thank him for filling in. I do hope that our clarinetist David feels better soon, though!
Random pic of this stage, from the pit.
As always I was The Fastest to load out of the pit, and escaped quickly back to the hotel to type up this post.
Thus concludes our Oklahoma run. Unfortunately the weather was not kind to us, so it was a lot of holing up to avoid cold and snow. Next up is Fayetteville. I have been there before with Tootsie and will link back to that post. There is not a lot to DO in Fayetteville, but it's a college town so there's a campus that we can walk around and lots of fun restaurants.
Sarah (French horn) and I BOTH have birthdays this week too, back to back! Hers is Tuesday and mine is Wednesday. I've ordered a nice charcuterie to bring to our band room to celebrate (gosh, I hope we'll have a fridge...)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday: Afternoon bus ride to Fayetteville, AR. This time I have an airbnb, so I will ride the company bus to the hotel and then Uber downtown and get settled in with the usual grocery routine.
Tuesday: Opening day in Fayetteville.
This post covers the weekend.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
FRIDAY
I had a rather productive Friday morning.
- Laundry. I'm on the 10th floor and it's on the 3rd so a lot of back and forth.
- Reposting on the socials about masterclass opportunities. This does take some time as I have to look up the available dates over the next 4 months, create the post, make sure I'm not violating Group rules (some groups ban "self-promotion") and share the post across multiple platforms.
- Sharing the Fayetteville Foodie Finds to our tour chat, both as a Google Docs link and a PDF.
- Working on Philadelphia Foodie Finds. I'm about finished, but enlisted the help of some locals to get further recommendations.
- Texted my brother and his fiancee to coordinate a meet-up while I'm in Philly.
- Folded the laundry.
- Meal planning for coming days.
- Packing things to go back in my trunk.
- Full run-through of my masterclass presentation. I wait until after 10am to do this, but the people staying in rooms adjacent to mine probably still hate me.
Up to this point, my masterclass has been designed around college-age students pursuing degrees in music. These studio kids are YOUNGER...middle school and high school-aged. I looked at my PowerPoint and was like...yeah, no, none of this applies. And that is why I spent the entire rest of the afternoon building a new PowerPoint for a younger age group! This one will not be about career moves; it's centered around "What's it Like" to perform in all the different types of gigs. It's designed to showcase all the fun options out there besides the "band and orchestra" programs that these kids are offered in school. Theme parks! Circus! Cruise ships! Broadway tours! With lots of pictures, videos, fun facts, and a few surprise questions to keep them involved. At the end there is ONE slide that suggests students can work toward playing these fun gigs themselves (i.e. "Keep practicing!" "Follow your dreams!")
It took several hours to build, but when it was mostly done I sent it off to the studio owner and she seemed to genuinely love it! We're on for an early March presentation. I think it'll be a lot of fun for both me AND her kids!
Meanwhile, the new couch (or whatever you call this thing) that Jameson and I picked out together has arrived! One of Jameson's friends helped him move the old couch to the curb. The new couch-thing looks great and Jameson is enjoying it very much :)
(Also let's take a moment to reflect on the fact that the reason Jameson FINALLY got rid of his 30-year-old, filthy, sagging couch, and is enjoying this nice new couch, is because I tripped over a ladder and put a hole through the back of the old one. Suddenly I am rather pleased about having done this :p )
It is obnoxiously cold again, single digits with that Oklahoma signature wind. After dinner I bundled up and quick-walked to the theater. Connor was conducting again and did a great job, but I made some weird mistakes and was unhappy with my playing. When I don't play as well as I'd like, I always consider (in real time and afterward) why it's happening and whether there's anything I can do about it. Sometimes it's just that I'm tired or distracted, but often it's a combination of factors--mental state, the cold (which makes me more tense in my body), and sitting in front of a computer unmoving all day today--that impact how I play whether I realize it or not. So tomorrow, even if it's cold, I'm at least going for a short walk.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SATURDAY
Woke up to 8°F (-13.3°C) plus windchill. Big words about going for a walk yesterday!! Will I still do it??
Meanwhile, coffee and keeping my shades drawn because the hotel has floor-to-ceiling windows that are uninsulated and are letting cold air in. I have to set my thermostat to 73 for the room to be 68. Breakfast, working on Pittsburgh Foodie Finds now, and I managed to squeeze in a run-through of my masterclass before a non-mandatory Disney safety meeting. It was very brief, they just wanted to refresh on some things. After that I could have gone for that walk. I could have! But did I? NO! It is VERY COLD! And I refuse to hold it against myself either! :P
Lunch, adding more fun circus pictures and facts to the kiddie PowerPoint, and now I think that one really is done. Walking to the theater with all of my trunk stuff and putting it away, warming up just a little, then the matinee. It was well attended, and Josh (Key 2) conducted and did a great job. Back to the hotel to catch up on reading blog posts and drink some nice hot tea, then dinner and walking back for the evening show.
Everything went fine but it looks like we're gonna have a clarinet sub for a day, as our clarinetist has had something unexpected come up. This kind of thing is going to happen for each of us throughout the tour, and I'm grateful that this group of musicians are empathetic and understanding about it. I'm glad we were able to find a sub! He sat with us in the pit and audited the show, and should hopefully be playing it tomorrow.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUNDAY
I had trouble sleeping...my brain would not shut off, it was noisy in the hallway starting around 5am, and I was also hungry and unable to fall back asleep because of all those things combined. Oh well.
Breakfast and preliminary packing, Foodie Finds work, watching the final episode of Vox Machina Season 3. Whew, what a crazy and fun show. I suppose next up will be The Mighty Nein, then by the time I finish that some of the anime series that I watch should have enough new episodes out to binge.
When 10am hit I did a run-through of my masterclass. 46 minutes, which is just fine. Lunch and then walking to the theater (with fewer layers on because it was a whole 30°F/-1.11°C! Hooray!) The matinee was fine, DAR is back from conducting the Oklahoma Philharmonic, and our substitute clarinetist did very well especially considering that he had less than 24 hours to review the music. I'd be scared out of my wits to read a book like ours on short notice, but he was cool as a cucumber. Jealous of that!
Oh, we did have something kinda funny happen! During "Belle," Gaston shoots a duck out of the sky with his blunderbuss.
Here's the scene from the animated movie:
We do the same scene, using a prop blunderbuss with pyro and a stuffed duck prop that falls from somewhere above the stage.
Well the duck fell like it was supposed to, and LeFou missed it like he's supposed to...and it hit the stage and exploded open, scattering stuffing and feathers everywhere! The actors and ensemble got through Belle to the next dialogue scene, but before Maurice makes his entrance they had to stop the show to sweep up all of the fluff!
The weirdest stuff happens in live theater shows!
During the break the usual thing of going back to the hotel for dinner, more packing, and researching which anime to binge next.
Back at the theater, and several of you were curious about the "Please Don't" sign in the pit, so I went back to have a better look and show you what's going on with that. Here's the original picture that I took, and here's what is underneath the "Please Don't" sign.
I have no idea what it is but you can see a key/lever of some sort, a hole presumably for the key, and also a sort of wrench-tool. Generally when you find things like this in the pit it's a REALLY good idea to leave them alone...it could be the mechanism that raises and lowers the entire pit, or an emergency lockdown function that seals the doors to the pit. Yes, such things very much do exist and I've seen them in other theaters. NO TOUCHIE.
The show was "ok." DAR is back but I think he was pretty tired, plus we had the sub on clarinet who did a great job but did miss a few things this time. Again, he is essentially sightreading so that is still an absolutely amazing job. We all made sure to shake hands with him and thank him for filling in. I do hope that our clarinetist David feels better soon, though!
Random pic of this stage, from the pit.
As always I was The Fastest to load out of the pit, and escaped quickly back to the hotel to type up this post.
Thus concludes our Oklahoma run. Unfortunately the weather was not kind to us, so it was a lot of holing up to avoid cold and snow. Next up is Fayetteville. I have been there before with Tootsie and will link back to that post. There is not a lot to DO in Fayetteville, but it's a college town so there's a campus that we can walk around and lots of fun restaurants.
Sarah (French horn) and I BOTH have birthdays this week too, back to back! Hers is Tuesday and mine is Wednesday. I've ordered a nice charcuterie to bring to our band room to celebrate (gosh, I hope we'll have a fridge...)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday: Afternoon bus ride to Fayetteville, AR. This time I have an airbnb, so I will ride the company bus to the hotel and then Uber downtown and get settled in with the usual grocery routine.
Tuesday: Opening day in Fayetteville.
thoughts on news thingies from the last week
Feb. 2nd, 2026 10:32 amtielanpipe bombs in perth
Finally on the 26th of January ("Australia Day"), there was an Indigenous protest march in Perth.
During the march, someone threw a pipe bomb into the crowd. It was packed with metal shards and nails and suchlike. He failed to light it correctly so it didn't explode.
He was white. He was a he. That's all we know about it. And even that was mostly reported by the people who bring online news commentary, rather than mainstream media. (I saw it first with Cheek Media, myself.) You know why? Because "we aren't putting out his name because he is accused of..."
FUCK THAT SIDEWAYS WITH A RUSTY SPORK.
They had ZERO compulsion about publishing the names of the Bondi terrorists.
But a terrorist action done by a white guy? (It wasn't even billed as 'a terrorist action'. Well, excuse me for bloody well thinking that a FUCKING HOMEMADE PIPE BOMB tossed into a group of people who are supporting a particular racial identity isn't 'a terrorist action'.)
Oh no, can't publish his name!
--
conservatives, right wing, and please let our electoral system hold
In other political news in Australia, our 'right wing' is going down. Hard. Not only is their current leader (she's technically a "conservative moderate" and has lasted since the election) on the way out, but the Racists And Arseholes Party (known more conventionally as 'Pauline Hanson's One Nation') is on the rise - at least in sentiment. Whether that sentiment can gather the centre-to-right-wing conservatives in Australia is another question.
Our holding institutions right now are pretty much the Australian Electoral Commission and common decency, but how long those will hold is another matter. Watching what is happening in the US, being told what is happening by billionaires who own all the media properties, having a point of view RAILROADED through thanks to a lack of media discernment, and general outrage headlines...
I can't see my conservative friends here in my electorate (strongly conservative - one of the very few suburban electorates that hasn't gone "Teal") voting PHON. And they have to vote, and they can vote for the "least worst" option - ie. preferences. Plus, we have a very large percentage of "not born here" Aussies in this electorate, possibly one of the reasons that Old Guy down the road (and a bit further in) has his house decorated with PHON and Trump flags. Yes, Trump flags. In Australia.
Great moogly googly.
Anyway, we know the guy - he stumped up on Election Day 2025, put his little sandwich board up, stuck a plastic sleeve with the "Trumpet Of Patriots" party 'how to vote' card on, and went away.
That sleeve was touched pretty much twice. Once by one of us volunteers for the other parties gingerly looking to see what they'd recommended (even the conservative volunteers were eyeing it like it was fresh dogshit), and then once by a woman from the AEC whose job it was to go around collecting the 'how to vote' cards for each party in each electorate, so that the AEC could archive them.
We left the sandwich board after we packed everything away, and it was gone the next night.
In the end, hard right-wing support isn't non-existent, and probably never will be, but the current state of world politics, where right wing conservative parties get hollowed out by hard right wing racist fucks is sincerely worrying. I've never thought Australia is immune, but it's a worrying trend to finally witness happening, even if nothing comes of it. Grievance politics is hell on the system.
Maybe it mitigates with mandatory enrolment and preferential voting - we can hope - but if it does, that's on the system and the institution, not on anything else. Heaven knows the parties and the politicians are NOT HELPING.
NOT. HAPPY. JAN.
a couple of weeks old now
Feb. 2nd, 2026 10:04 amtielanSome thoughts I put down at the time, and which I'm going to store here.
( Bondi Massacre: shortly after - the aftermath )
--
( a few weeks later/now a few weeks ago )
( Bondi Massacre: shortly after - the aftermath )
--
( a few weeks later/now a few weeks ago )
Looking back at two years of CCRC
Feb. 1st, 2026 10:42 amsusandennisMy brother and I had an email conversation today that led to my reflecting on my move here and I thought I'd outline my reflections.
In the Summer of 2023, I started thinking about finding a Continuing Care Retirement Community for me. I was 74. I had lived alone in the same place for more than 30 years. I was diagnosed with COPD which is degenerative and incurable. I was doing ok but for how long? My parents and my maternal grandparents had both spent their final years completely content in CCRC's. My grandparents' was a low rent church supported outfit and my parents' was a very high rent luxury place (which was actually church affiliated - Episcopal). I had already 'bought' into the concept. And somehow, I knew that there were long waiting lists - like 2 or 3 years so that I would have a nice long time to settle into the idea.
I started research online and found a list of places near Seattle. For a lot of reasons - and weather - I never really considered moving very far. I spent a long time on the websites of these places and eliminated them one by one. My reasoning was not at all sound. I had no idea what I was doing and had not done nearly enough preliminary research or thinking about the whole thing. So much of my decision was misguided and ill conceived.
Do not do it my way.
I found Timber Ridge online. It was classy looking. It was privately owned (not religiously affiliated). It was not far away (20-30 minutes from Seattle) in a town that I almost kinda knew. I'd worked in the Issaquah office of Microsoft in the mid-90's and I had very lovely feelings about the town. It's a wealthy town of mostly white people and that made me a little anxious. But, I could really not find any evidence of political issues so I plowed on.
It was the only place I actually visited or even actually talked to the management of.
Seriously do not do it my way.
I came and I liked what I saw and I was told the waiting list was probably about 2 years so I honestly figured my decision would not be binding at all. Two years to look at other places. That's what I thought.
Finances.
All CCRC's are different financially. But most are kind of designed to take the proceeds from the home you sell and hold those proceeds for years and charge you a monthly fee for housing, food, and a boatload of services. The bulk of the money is held in a non interest bearing state until you die and then you get it back. I paid Timber Ridge $40,000 for a place on the waiting list. Had I spent those two years looking at alternatives and found one, I would have gotten that $40,000 back.
Once you sign a contract, you pay them that giant lump sum (like those home sale proceeds). At Timber Ridge the sun is based on the size of the apartment you select. My apartment is the smallest they offer - 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 726 square feet. The largest is 2,273 square feet. I paid right at half a million as my lump sum. BUT when I give up this apartment (die, or move out of Timber Ridge), 80% of that half a million is returned to me or my estate. (There is also an hilarious clause that says if you don't die or move within 30 years, you get the 80% back anyway.)
Then you pay a monthly rent - mine is now $6,000 - and it includes nearly everything. Seriously. Food, bed, all maintenance, all utilities including cable TV and wifi, social life, transportation, classes, swimming, physical and mental health services. But, most of all, it covers the future. As I need more care, more care is here. Timber Ridge agrees to care for me until the end of my life. It's in the contract that we both signed.
Now, in my case, I think my COPD was a missed diagnosis. My medical records now say it has been 'resolved'. But, something will get me someday. And I have resources at my fingertips. Big things and small. Last week after I gave myself the Wegovy injection, I marched my two used pens down to the desk in the nursing unit and asked them to put them in their sharps bin. 'happy to!'
Had I done the research I should have and looked at all of the resources and different places around here and elsewhere like a reasonable person would do, would the outcome be different?
What happened to me is a bit of an anomaly. Less than a month after I handed over my $40,000 waitlist money and settled into for my 2 year wait, I got a call saying the apartment that was at the top of my list had come available and did I want it now. Yep. My two years got snatched right out from under me.
I could have said no. I probably should have said no. And then done the appropriate amount of thinking about it as well as the research and taken my chances on a different apartment.
But, I didn't. I said yes. I move in here on October 31, 2023. And in retrospect it was the right thing for me at the exact right time.
The problem with CRCC selection is that you really can't discover what is most important until you've lived there. Some things you can tell are issues - the place where you have to go outside to get to the dining room - or the place that has limited services or no covered parking stuff like that. BUT you can't really find out the important stuff until you live there. You can't know that the menus don't change enough and the food isn't that good ever until you've been there for a few months, or that the front desk never gets anything right and the wifi is always down and the pool is really closed mostly for maintenance or the gym staff is mean. NONE of those things are Timber Ridge things but they sure could be and you'd have no way of knowing until you lived here really.
Even on the days when I'm frustrated with all these fucking old people and why can't anyone manage them, I'd still have to give Timber Ridge a 95 out of 100. My friend, Christian, who designed my apartment has kind of a practice of doing the same at retirement places all around here. He sees the most of anyone at each one because he deals with the management and hears from the residents. I asked him once, out of all of them around here, now, with all he knows about me and them, which one would he pick for me. He gave it a long, good thought and then said 'really? Timber Ridge!'
I've probably glossed over stuff and/or left stuff out so if anyone has any questions, feel free. I'll answer, I promise.
In the Summer of 2023, I started thinking about finding a Continuing Care Retirement Community for me. I was 74. I had lived alone in the same place for more than 30 years. I was diagnosed with COPD which is degenerative and incurable. I was doing ok but for how long? My parents and my maternal grandparents had both spent their final years completely content in CCRC's. My grandparents' was a low rent church supported outfit and my parents' was a very high rent luxury place (which was actually church affiliated - Episcopal). I had already 'bought' into the concept. And somehow, I knew that there were long waiting lists - like 2 or 3 years so that I would have a nice long time to settle into the idea.
I started research online and found a list of places near Seattle. For a lot of reasons - and weather - I never really considered moving very far. I spent a long time on the websites of these places and eliminated them one by one. My reasoning was not at all sound. I had no idea what I was doing and had not done nearly enough preliminary research or thinking about the whole thing. So much of my decision was misguided and ill conceived.
Do not do it my way.
I found Timber Ridge online. It was classy looking. It was privately owned (not religiously affiliated). It was not far away (20-30 minutes from Seattle) in a town that I almost kinda knew. I'd worked in the Issaquah office of Microsoft in the mid-90's and I had very lovely feelings about the town. It's a wealthy town of mostly white people and that made me a little anxious. But, I could really not find any evidence of political issues so I plowed on.
It was the only place I actually visited or even actually talked to the management of.
Seriously do not do it my way.
I came and I liked what I saw and I was told the waiting list was probably about 2 years so I honestly figured my decision would not be binding at all. Two years to look at other places. That's what I thought.
Finances.
All CCRC's are different financially. But most are kind of designed to take the proceeds from the home you sell and hold those proceeds for years and charge you a monthly fee for housing, food, and a boatload of services. The bulk of the money is held in a non interest bearing state until you die and then you get it back. I paid Timber Ridge $40,000 for a place on the waiting list. Had I spent those two years looking at alternatives and found one, I would have gotten that $40,000 back.
Once you sign a contract, you pay them that giant lump sum (like those home sale proceeds). At Timber Ridge the sun is based on the size of the apartment you select. My apartment is the smallest they offer - 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 726 square feet. The largest is 2,273 square feet. I paid right at half a million as my lump sum. BUT when I give up this apartment (die, or move out of Timber Ridge), 80% of that half a million is returned to me or my estate. (There is also an hilarious clause that says if you don't die or move within 30 years, you get the 80% back anyway.)
Then you pay a monthly rent - mine is now $6,000 - and it includes nearly everything. Seriously. Food, bed, all maintenance, all utilities including cable TV and wifi, social life, transportation, classes, swimming, physical and mental health services. But, most of all, it covers the future. As I need more care, more care is here. Timber Ridge agrees to care for me until the end of my life. It's in the contract that we both signed.
Now, in my case, I think my COPD was a missed diagnosis. My medical records now say it has been 'resolved'. But, something will get me someday. And I have resources at my fingertips. Big things and small. Last week after I gave myself the Wegovy injection, I marched my two used pens down to the desk in the nursing unit and asked them to put them in their sharps bin. 'happy to!'
Had I done the research I should have and looked at all of the resources and different places around here and elsewhere like a reasonable person would do, would the outcome be different?
What happened to me is a bit of an anomaly. Less than a month after I handed over my $40,000 waitlist money and settled into for my 2 year wait, I got a call saying the apartment that was at the top of my list had come available and did I want it now. Yep. My two years got snatched right out from under me.
I could have said no. I probably should have said no. And then done the appropriate amount of thinking about it as well as the research and taken my chances on a different apartment.
But, I didn't. I said yes. I move in here on October 31, 2023. And in retrospect it was the right thing for me at the exact right time.
The problem with CRCC selection is that you really can't discover what is most important until you've lived there. Some things you can tell are issues - the place where you have to go outside to get to the dining room - or the place that has limited services or no covered parking stuff like that. BUT you can't really find out the important stuff until you live there. You can't know that the menus don't change enough and the food isn't that good ever until you've been there for a few months, or that the front desk never gets anything right and the wifi is always down and the pool is really closed mostly for maintenance or the gym staff is mean. NONE of those things are Timber Ridge things but they sure could be and you'd have no way of knowing until you lived here really.
Even on the days when I'm frustrated with all these fucking old people and why can't anyone manage them, I'd still have to give Timber Ridge a 95 out of 100. My friend, Christian, who designed my apartment has kind of a practice of doing the same at retirement places all around here. He sees the most of anyone at each one because he deals with the management and hears from the residents. I asked him once, out of all of them around here, now, with all he knows about me and them, which one would he pick for me. He gave it a long, good thought and then said 'really? Timber Ridge!'
I've probably glossed over stuff and/or left stuff out so if anyone has any questions, feel free. I'll answer, I promise.
Saturday night out on the town!!
Feb. 1st, 2026 07:39 amsusandennisThe dining room manager shared her COVID with the kitchen and wait staff so dinner was canceled last night. Us four old ladies were left adrift. Bonny said 'well, let's go to that dive bar next to the Dollar Store and get some burgers!' So we did. We left early enough to get there in daylight and, hopefully, beat the crowd but we failed on the latter. Happy hour. ooops.
But it was fun. Turns out what Bonny calls a dive bar, the rest of the world calls a really fucking excellent pub. It's owned by my favorite steak house. And the food was phenomenal. It was loud but not painfully. Most everyone there, of course, was decades younger than us but that was the most fun. Look at the old ladies! And, they did not ask for ID when we ordered drinks. We really did have a great time. We might have to do it again. We did have to drive home in the dark but it was a familiar route and Bonny made it fine.
Dear Gmail. ANY, I mean ANY email I get in Hindi, is spam. k? Particularly if it's about insurance, car or otherwise. thanks.
It's 8 am and it's cloudy and raining so there will be no sun glare at the pool. So while I'm not dying to go for a swim, I can't really come up with any credible reasons why I should not. Maybe I'll take tomorrow off.
This week, in a once again, scheduling oversight, I only have two things out of the ordinary on my calendar and both of them are Wednesday morning. I have an eye appointment and Biggie's checkup. I don't know why I didn't notice this until right now. Possibly both are doable but I think I'll try and move the eye doctor. I'll call in the morning. If Biggie still has those rocks in his bladder, he'll have to have surgery. Ugh.
Biggie is a morning cat. After noon, he's dead to the world. He'll wake up for dinner and maybe to knock something over, but if he were to get some deadly condition after noon one day, I'd never be able to tell. However... in the mornings, like now, he's crawling over their keyboard trying to cause trouble. I was all set to sleep for a while longer when he and Julio decided to hop on the bed and race around the room. He's clearly not dying of anything right now except maybe my potentially swatting him across the room.
Ok. Fine. pool it is. I'm off to swim.
But it was fun. Turns out what Bonny calls a dive bar, the rest of the world calls a really fucking excellent pub. It's owned by my favorite steak house. And the food was phenomenal. It was loud but not painfully. Most everyone there, of course, was decades younger than us but that was the most fun. Look at the old ladies! And, they did not ask for ID when we ordered drinks. We really did have a great time. We might have to do it again. We did have to drive home in the dark but it was a familiar route and Bonny made it fine.
Dear Gmail. ANY, I mean ANY email I get in Hindi, is spam. k? Particularly if it's about insurance, car or otherwise. thanks.
It's 8 am and it's cloudy and raining so there will be no sun glare at the pool. So while I'm not dying to go for a swim, I can't really come up with any credible reasons why I should not. Maybe I'll take tomorrow off.
This week, in a once again, scheduling oversight, I only have two things out of the ordinary on my calendar and both of them are Wednesday morning. I have an eye appointment and Biggie's checkup. I don't know why I didn't notice this until right now. Possibly both are doable but I think I'll try and move the eye doctor. I'll call in the morning. If Biggie still has those rocks in his bladder, he'll have to have surgery. Ugh.
Biggie is a morning cat. After noon, he's dead to the world. He'll wake up for dinner and maybe to knock something over, but if he were to get some deadly condition after noon one day, I'd never be able to tell. However... in the mornings, like now, he's crawling over their keyboard trying to cause trouble. I was all set to sleep for a while longer when he and Julio decided to hop on the bed and race around the room. He's clearly not dying of anything right now except maybe my potentially swatting him across the room.
Ok. Fine. pool it is. I'm off to swim.
Reading challenge update
Feb. 1st, 2026 10:54 amganimedeA quick update on my progress for my reading challenge this year. My plan is to finish some of the series that I've got ongoing - I've selected 14 series with a total of 44 books. I've managed to read 4 books this month which is an excellent start. These are:
Spook’s: Seventh Apprentice by Joseph Delaney
Taken by Benedict Jacka
Chosen by Benedict Jacka
Hidden by Benedict Jacka
Seventh Apprentice was the last book of The Wardstone Chronicles series, so that's that all finished. It was a bit odd in that it was the last of the series but actually a prequel. And the series itself continues in The Starblade Chronicles which I've already made a start on. It's very confusing. The other three books - Taken, Chosen, and Hidden - are all from the Alex Verus series. That's the one with the most books so I wanted to get it finished early on. I've got another 6 left yet but I'm having a little break from it which was completely unplanned. I happened to see an intriguing book in the library a couple of days ago, so I'm reading that now. It's Doing Time by Jodi Taylor which happens to be the first book in the Time Police series! I didn't realise it was part of a series, it looked like it was a standalone novel otherwise I wouldn't have picked it up!
So this is what the full list of series looks like now:
Spook’s: Seventh Apprentice by Joseph Delaney
Taken by Benedict Jacka
Chosen by Benedict Jacka
Hidden by Benedict Jacka
Seventh Apprentice was the last book of The Wardstone Chronicles series, so that's that all finished. It was a bit odd in that it was the last of the series but actually a prequel. And the series itself continues in The Starblade Chronicles which I've already made a start on. It's very confusing. The other three books - Taken, Chosen, and Hidden - are all from the Alex Verus series. That's the one with the most books so I wanted to get it finished early on. I've got another 6 left yet but I'm having a little break from it which was completely unplanned. I happened to see an intriguing book in the library a couple of days ago, so I'm reading that now. It's Doing Time by Jodi Taylor which happens to be the first book in the Time Police series! I didn't realise it was part of a series, it looked like it was a standalone novel otherwise I wouldn't have picked it up!
So this is what the full list of series looks like now:
- ✔ The Wardstone Chronicles by Joseph Delaney - 1 book COMPLETED
- The Starblade Chronicles by Joseph Delaney - 2 books
- The Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovich - 7 books *
- ▶ Alex Verus by Benedict Jacka - 10 books - IN PROGRESS
- Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo - 1 book
- The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman - 1 book *
- Gentlemen Bastard by Scott Lynch - 1 book *
- Her Majesty The Queen Investigates by SJ Bennett - 1 book *
- Spellcaster by Charlie N Holmberg - 1 book
- The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman - 6 books *
- Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens - 7 books
- The Stranger Times by C.K. McDonnell - 1 book *
- The Locked Tomb by Tamsin Muir - 1 book *
- The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells - 4 books *
we've reached Lamech, I see
Feb. 1st, 2026 02:01 pmtielan"Lamech, son of Methushael, said to his wives, ‘Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me."
It's disproportionate violence to the imago dei, not merely sanctifying one over the other, but eliminating the other for daring to risk the one.
The ancient world said "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: as you have done, so shall it be done to you". We know the pattern of that through history. Blood feuds. Honour prices. Duels.
Our modern codes demand justice, yes, but part of the intent was to give grace for betterment or improvement. It was not a hand for a hand, nor even a hand for stealing, but a limitation for a while with the chance to make better. And sometimes people did manage to work out how to make better than they'd done.
And sometimes we just returned them to the situations they were in, that turned them back to the practices that got them in trouble, without any attempt to change what went wrong the first time.
Which worked about as well as one would expect.
Anyway, here we are, back at the violence of Lamech of the line of Cain - Cain who was marked by the blood of his brother, one like to him but unlike to him, also. Disproportionate violence to be visited on the 'lesser' - a hand for a injury, a life for an interruption.
Truly, humanity doesn't change, just goes round the block again with a fancier set of tools.
It's disproportionate violence to the imago dei, not merely sanctifying one over the other, but eliminating the other for daring to risk the one.
The ancient world said "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: as you have done, so shall it be done to you". We know the pattern of that through history. Blood feuds. Honour prices. Duels.
Our modern codes demand justice, yes, but part of the intent was to give grace for betterment or improvement. It was not a hand for a hand, nor even a hand for stealing, but a limitation for a while with the chance to make better. And sometimes people did manage to work out how to make better than they'd done.
And sometimes we just returned them to the situations they were in, that turned them back to the practices that got them in trouble, without any attempt to change what went wrong the first time.
Which worked about as well as one would expect.
Anyway, here we are, back at the violence of Lamech of the line of Cain - Cain who was marked by the blood of his brother, one like to him but unlike to him, also. Disproportionate violence to be visited on the 'lesser' - a hand for a injury, a life for an interruption.
Truly, humanity doesn't change, just goes round the block again with a fancier set of tools.
summer heat, boating tired, and small things
Feb. 1st, 2026 09:03 amtielanWent boating yesterday with friends. 33C-ish? Bright sun. Blue water. Good days.
I tried my hand at waterskiing again - at 430pm in the afternoon. A bit late for it, I think. After two tries, the skis came off, and I gave up. Earlier in the day, I'd have kept going because I was very nearly up on my feet! But by that stage, I didn't have the energy. Next time, gadget!
I may be a little sunburned, but it's mostly a 'glow' that will fade to a tan within a day or two. Then again, the temps are still pretty warm - today is supposed to be 30C, while tomorrow and Tuesday drop to the low-20s. Back up to 30s again later in the week, and then we settle into late 20s for (hopefully) the rest of the month. That'll make it nice and warm, but not enervatingly hot.
Anyway, I came home around 6pm, showered and washed my hair, played a little CivII, and lay down...
I vaguely remember the sisters on a call with Dad, and possibly removing the cats? I'm not entirely sure about that part. But I did pretty much fall asleep and dream, and then woke up properly around 6am this morning.
My body ached. Oof, waterskiing is hard, a lot of bracing needed. I felt it lightly in my shoulders and my core, that's for sure!
Anyway, I had to be up for some weekend work at 7:30 - about an hour's worth of stuff, standard things, nothing dire - and did some cooking, and a bit more CivII this morning.
Now that it's nearly 2pm, I might lay down for a nap. Again.
I tried my hand at waterskiing again - at 430pm in the afternoon. A bit late for it, I think. After two tries, the skis came off, and I gave up. Earlier in the day, I'd have kept going because I was very nearly up on my feet! But by that stage, I didn't have the energy. Next time, gadget!
I may be a little sunburned, but it's mostly a 'glow' that will fade to a tan within a day or two. Then again, the temps are still pretty warm - today is supposed to be 30C, while tomorrow and Tuesday drop to the low-20s. Back up to 30s again later in the week, and then we settle into late 20s for (hopefully) the rest of the month. That'll make it nice and warm, but not enervatingly hot.
Anyway, I came home around 6pm, showered and washed my hair, played a little CivII, and lay down...
I vaguely remember the sisters on a call with Dad, and possibly removing the cats? I'm not entirely sure about that part. But I did pretty much fall asleep and dream, and then woke up properly around 6am this morning.
My body ached. Oof, waterskiing is hard, a lot of bracing needed. I felt it lightly in my shoulders and my core, that's for sure!
Anyway, I had to be up for some weekend work at 7:30 - about an hour's worth of stuff, standard things, nothing dire - and did some cooking, and a bit more CivII this morning.
Now that it's nearly 2pm, I might lay down for a nap. Again.