Diario de Tepintzin

I am very not okay.

Sigyn can't get a passport anymore with this anti-trans executive order. Elongated Moscow threw Nazi salutes and "conservatives" are making excuses for him. My first instinct was "I guess I gotta move to Israel" but I'm not going to support genocide.

On the upside, I'm done with my presentation for Witchcon and just need to organize the photos into a slideshow and do a dry run on the platform.

I have some confidence in my harp playing! I cannot perform in front of people to save my life, but I enjoy playing and am keeping it up.

Zuko and Henry will sleep on the couch together, but Chug decided that Zuko was perfect for bullying and he charges at him at random, making Zuko hiss and smack at Chug.

Chug is my heart cat, and I sleep with him tucked under my arm every night, so I wish he wouldn't be such a little asshole. He did the same thing with Dandy Sam when we lived on 55th Street in San Diego, and kept walking away with cuts on his nose. Feliway did nothing. So Zuko ends up having his own room (the music room) where he sleeps every night in a little bed I made up for him early last year, so I don't wake up to the screeching and the howling.

Sigyn is a respected government attorney. She spends about three nights a week at my place. I've never slept in the master bedroom, so she has set the enormous walk in closet into an office and the main body of the room is where she sleeps. She goes back to Marana over the weekends to see Ivan, who is 14 now, and take care of the house. Her housemates look after Ivan when Sig's not home.

My part time job is taking care of little kids, who I will call K and E. Dad is a rabbi with two jobs and Mom is going for her master's of education, so I pick up the kids from their daycare, bring them home, and sit with them till one or both of their parents return.

I'll probably have more to say when I have people interacting with the blog. FaceBook has become unusable since it's five rage-bait "groups" and weird ads in between entries from people I actually know.

I don't know if any of you are going to show up. I hope you do. I know a lot of people on FaceBook from LiveJournal. FaceBook seems to have FacePlanted, but we'll see if that lasts. I really like the longer form posts you can make on here.

Since helenkacan died, I haven't been updating. Depending on if anyone comes on here, I still might not.

And FB is up again. Foo.

I woke up nine-ish, and "went" to Ohr Shalom because Koba was chanting one of the Torah readings. I'd forgotten how looooooong their services were. It's a trade-off of traditional prayers and looooong services. We'll see what I'll pick when I am finally able to go synagogue shopping after the pandemic.

I'm figuring that will be June, minimum. The first doses are being given out here to hospital staff of course, and I should be in the second or third group, depending on whether they lump people with pre-existing conditions in with the assisted living people.

I did take a two mile walk because I feel I have to get some outdoor exercise. My bones and brain both need sunlight. I used to say I didn't care for audiobooks, but they are just the thing when taking walks that don't have a particular destination in mind.

Covid-19 cases are soaring in AZ to the point that Tucson City Council has imposed a curfew to be lifted only when cases drop. Knowing that infection is up. I'm staying in even more strictly than I was previously. Thing is, this leads to me be scared to take any sort of walking outside. I'm afraid to go out, getting stir-crazy within.

The results of my bone density test came back, and not unexpectedly, I'm in osteopenia, which is pre-osteoporosis. My doc at the VA will be sending me additionally supplements to take. I know that the lockdown and associated lack of exercise isn't helping.

I did go out on Monday to take out recycling and check out a nearby Asian market. it stocked many of the ingredients I use a lot. LeeLee is better stocked, but GrantStone is much closer. I bought a bunch of fresh noodles, so I'll be having fun with those.

I know Garpu does, but does anyone else?

Biden needs six more electoral seats to win the election. Nevada is poised to go blue--and the Registrar of Voters has decided that they are going to stop counting until tomorrow. Not sure what the other three swing states are doing, but none have produced numbers yet. I want to be put out of my election misery, and I know you do too.

As I've commented perhaps here, I got a good flat-bottomed wok a couple of months ago and have been using it. I made the NYT "Takeout Sesame Noodles" recipe which I can't recommend enough. I need to save it digitally, because I had printed out a copy and then dumped a whole bunch of jarred minced garlic on it. A couple days later I made kung pao chicken which I need to tweak, but which was still really, really good. Inspired by these successes, I've bought "The Breath of the Wok" by Grace Young to master wok cooking. So much for kitchen minimalism!

I took a melatonin last night at 11 and didn't wake up till 11:20. I had a video conference with my new doctor at the VA. Turns out she's an MD who worked on the original Burn Pit Registry when it was established, so she is the ideal doc for me.

tl;dr, my labs all look fine, my prescriptions are renewed, with some bonus over-the-counters (Benedryl, cortisone cream) as a no-cost bonus.

I thought about nuking my LJ, but decided against it. There are too many friends' blogs that haven't migrated here, and I'd be sad if I didn't have access to them.

helenkacan, the Tucson Symphony is doing online concerts and lectures for free if you're interested. They are at http://www.tucsonsymphony.org. I held a subscription at the San Diego Symphony and was looking forward to being a regular here. Obviously it wasn't to be, at least this season.

No symphony, no Tuscon Comic Con, no Day of the Dead procession. Covid-19 sucks and we need to flush the turd on November 3 if there is to be any hope.

Since the zoo is open, although with reservations and masks necessary, I've been twice. It's getting cooler, so I've walked across the street to Target to buy...scrubbies for dishes. I'm hoping for some hiking (although I've heard that trails are crowded with maskless people) and perhaps I'll buy a bicycle in the near future.

I'm gaining weight, as I feared. I have to be more diligent about either walking or using my step machine. Because one of the creative things I am doing is cooking. The Instant Pot is fun to use. I made black bean soup and a spicy farfalle dish in it yesterday. Today I baked a Pillsbury brownie mix using a cup of water and a rinsed can of black beans instead of egg and oil--which I recommend!

The High Holy Days start Thursday. Koba will be out so neither of us have to celebrate them alone, but they are still a lot of work and very intense. Glad I'll be able to hear a shofar blown in person cause Koba is bringing one. The neighbors are gonna LOVE Koba blowing the shofar on my patio as I call out the blessings and the blasts.

I went to Costco and Fry's and spent a lot of money on food and spices. This morning I toasted up the spices for garam masala and ground them in the coffee grinder I'd purchased just for this reason.

So I have chicken and spices and the usual amount of frozen awesomeness you buy at Costco, particularly chicken wontons.