My video visit on Tuesday with my doctor took less than half the time allegedly scheduled for it. Although 20 minutes is plenty when you can’t do the chest thumping and stethoscope routine. She was pleased I’ve been tracking my blood pressure and said that both Monday’s numbers and Tuesday’s were pretty good.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It's also so we can find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. Members come here to check in. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
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People appear to be getting into birdwatching. This will make my stepfather happy, who has been, for as long as I can remember, a birder of religious intensity. I remember once looking up the spelling of ornithology just in case I had to tell him I was happy in my own faith, thank you.
National Geographic will be running a series about excavations in Egypt — a fully intact (unlooted, at least) funeral complex.
And ordinary police investigations continue. Though the breaking up of a ring of archaeological thieves isn’t exactly ordinary.
Oddly enough, archaeological researchers have been studying how societies rebounded from pandemics in the distant past. Although there are certainly enough clues in the documentation about the Spanish Flu in 1918-1920.
There’s a festive mid-May cold snap to make things interesting, according to DAMWeather.
A dig in Leeds brought up somewhat surprising results.
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I did tell my doctor about walking my neighborhood and the other stuff going on. Yes, it made her laugh. I showed her my masks, and we discussed that subject for longer than anything else. I am supposed to set up an appointment for about six months from now so we can do this in person and get some bloodwork done.
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Last winter I bought a bread machine, and have been making my own bread at the rate of a loaf every two or three days since. One of the bread machine cookbooks I checked out of the library had some recipes that called for eggs. The trick they used is one I had never heard of, but it works nicely for any recipe I want to play with. Crack the egg into a measuring cup and then add water to total the measure called for in the recipe.
I have a good stock of flour — I’m a bit more adventurous than most with the flours that I’ll use, and able to pay the higher prices for the more expensive ones; though it’s been years since I’ve bought less than 5 pounds at a time.
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A piece of silliness keeps popping into my head — but never when I’m at my computer, and when I’m at my computer, I cannot for the life of me remember it.
I still can’t remember the silliness, but I have thought of something else that I ran across online a few months back. If your back is hurting from sitting too long, one thing that will help is, when you are sitting with your hands in your lap or resting on the arms of your chair, turn them palms up — it will straighten your spine, some at least, which always helps. I’ve been doing it. It works.
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I bought a camp chair this past week. There’s room on my back porch for it when I want to go outside in the afternoon. Also an 8-pound weight — it’s time to continue working my triceps, and the simple exercise I know only requires one weight. Yes, I know canned goods could be used, but nothing I have that wouldn’t be horribly awkward is heavy enough — I’m well past a pound or two being enough to feel, and I don’t particularly enjoy even hours of dancing (which is something I very much like doing).
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I had some Honeycrisp apples that were starting to soften, and some Granny Smiths that I wanted to use before they did, so I made an apple crisp on Thursday. I’ve had better, but the woman wouldn’t give me the recipe; and the one I made was pretty good.
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Well, I still haven’t found a route through the neighborhood that works out to three miles; but the one I tried on Friday came in at 4.1.
I didn’t walk on Saturday. I worked my enthusiasm up enough to clean my floors. Bathroom mopped by 9:30. My vacuum isn’t especially noisy, but I don’t run it before 10:00 AM, ever. The last to get done was the kitchen — that’s how the circle works in my apartment.
I need to get another fan, since the weather is heating up and I don’t have air conditioning.
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My AFSCME retiree membership didn’t show up on my card, and PERS is no longer deducting it from my pension, so I have a call in to the union to see what the problem is.
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I have been praying for the best outcome for the entire world since I heard the news out of the White House. My taste for schadenfreude kicks in enough that I know what I want that outcome to be; but it’s not my choice. And I’m mean-spirited enough to wish it were.