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Oh boy. I feel flat today. This is usually a sign that a depressive episode is on the way. Also very tired, so that could be the problem. Just gonna lie here and listen to audiobooks.

Drove down to San Jose to visit DF at work for a long lunch. He fed me scones with strawberry jam and double cream. Oh man. DOUBLE CREAM. Cream that’s thicker than mayonnaise. Yesssssssssss.

Went to Trader Joe’s this morning for grapefruit juice and to return a jar of truly horrible pickles. I usually buy their jars of small whole pickles but they were out of stock last time, so I tried a jar of “dill pickle spears”. They were shockingly bland, with tough waxy skins and mushy insides. Gross. Couldn’t even finish the one I tried. It’s rare for Trader Joe’s to sell a crummy product! Luckily they’re super nice about returns. No receipt needed, just show up with your unloved item and they give you credit.

I’ve learned my pickle lesson!

I have a feeling I wrote about this already but I really can’t remember and I don’t want to scroll through old posts to find out so here we go again maybe!

I reinstalled good ol’ Words With Friends Classic to play with DF — finally, a sweetheart who can beat me at scrabble! (Occasionally, heheh. And he doesn’t get all butt-hurt that I kick his ass most of the time)

At first I had the app set so that random players could start games with me, which they did, in droves. Interestingly, they were all men with generic Nonthreatening Handsome Guy profile pics and were VERY interested to know my location and marital status. When I didn’t chat back and started mopping the floor with them, they’d mostly disappear. And the ones who didn’t disappear were clearly cheating (the app lets you pay to cheat) because they were playing bizarre, arcane words in non-strategic places on the board. Any real scrabble player knows you NEVER make it easy for your opponent to reach a DW or TW bonus square unless it’s literally your only option.

So I turned that setting off. Sorry, catphishers and scrabble cheats, I am not the girl you’re looking for.

So now I play with my uncle, my sweetie, and my son — all of whom don’t cheat and can beat me some (or all) of the time! My uncle Jack is a master. I don’t think I’ve ever beaten him. The app says I’ve been playing since 2009. If you played back then you’ll remember that it was a nice basic game without all the pay-to-cheat nonsense and silly achievements and all that it has now. But in those days it froze all the time and it doesn’t do that anymore anyway.

f you’re not a cheater and you want to play with me, I’m kayrayovac in WWF Classic (linked in first paragraph)

Excellent day. Drove Chloe to the airport in the mid-morning. Didn’t need GPS to tell me how to get there and back. Easy drive, no traffic.

DF came over in the afternoon and we had lunch at our regular place, Falafel Corner. He likes the gyros wrap; I get the Greek salad or dolmas. Super-fresh, tasty, reasonable prices, friendly staff, 2 minutes from home. And they have Martinelli’s sparkling apple juice!

After lunch we just lay around and talked and laughed for the rest of the day. I was very tired from my drive to the airport but he is incredibly understanding and perfectly happy to do nothing with me. *heart eyes*

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Lots of pain today. Ouch. There’s always some, but occasionally it hits hard in multiple places. Knees, hips, feet today. Have iced, taken Tylenol, rubbed on Aspercreme. Just took 2.5mg THC to see if that will help — I usually eat my THC gummy at bedtime but I’m fine with getting sleepy earlier today if it will dull the pain.

Watched some Sewing Bee with Chloe. So sweet, friendly, and soothing. And she reminded me that Bake Off will probably start again in a month or two, along with season 3 of Succession and the first new Survivor season since Covid!

When Henry was a wee boy, so, like, 20 years ago, we used to get these great audio CDs from the library. They were themed folk music interspersed with narration about the relevant historical era/situation, performed by a husband-and-wife team, Keith and Rusty McNeil (plus some extra musicians). We loved them! Many years later I went looking for them online but all I could find were CDs. Awkward.

A few days ago we were talking about one of their songs (The Work of the Weavers) in our Discord channel so Henry went looking again and found them ALL on Bandcamp! HOORAY!!! Thank you, Keith and Rusty, for joining the digital age and letting us stream your music!! https://wemrecords.bandcamp.com/

The collections we’re familiar with are “Colonial and Revolution Songs”, “Working and Union Songs”, and “Moving West Songs”, but my goodness there’s a wealth of others. I highly recommend them, especially for homeschoolers and other permanently curious people! Stylistically they are pleasantly rough and folky — not slick and polished like “Peter, Paul, and Mary” or other commercial “folk” groups. Just right.

Chloe is here! She’s my favorite cousin and dear friend. She has the week off work so she flew up for a short visit. YAY!

Still recovering from the 4th. I managed to go to Trader Joe’s for groceries this morning but I forgot to buy goat cheese! So I rested for a bit and then went back out to Sprouts. Their goat cheese logs are smaller and more expensive, but a lot creamier so it’s all good.

The word “their” is looking really strange to me. Is that how you spell it? Their their their. I guess so but it doesn’t even look like English.

So anyway! Played some WoW, finished a library audiobook (Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford), watched some Taskmaster. Now it’s 6:30 and not long till bedtime yay!

Wiped out. Did nothing all day.

It’s the Fourth of July! In our city we’re allowed to have small fireworks! And we have a bunch of friends over — maybe 20 people: K&M’s friends, Em’s friends, my wonderful boyfriend Dave. We’ve all been hanging out in the front yard for hours, waiting for it to get dark. Big barbecue feast, chat, margaritas mixed by Bunny Bill the Bartender. The kids are running around shrieking and playing with sparklers. It’s after 8 so it’ll be dark enough for fireworks any minute now! BOOM!

Tired and headachey today. Took my little walk and made cauliflower cheese in the morning, watched a couple of murder shows, played Words With Friends with DF all day <3

I reinstalled Words With Friends (classic) to play with DF. So much fun! But wow, it has changed a lot since we all started playing in 2009. Remember that? It was so popular that the servers were constantly overloaded. I guess I bought it back then because it’s not shoving ads in my face after every turn like it does for DF. So many ads. So many OFFERS.

Ah well. Gameplay is still the same and still tons of fun!

Reminded me of We Rule, another early and incredibly popular iPhone game that had a lot of issues. We played and played and played (when the servers were up). Pity that one hasn’t followed Words With Friends into the future.

Oh MAN have I been having fun with Discord! Henry and I listen to music or podcasts together most mornings, and watch some youtube or whatever later on. He discovers wonderful things on YouTube to share with me — Baumgartner Restoration, of course — I’ve shared a couple of those videos here. Today we watched two from Technology Connections about how hurricane lamps work. Fascinating. Jenny Nicholson critiques pop culture in an intelligent and entertaining way. We watched her episode about possibly the worst book ever written: Trigger Warning. We were howling. Also watched her ep about The Greatest Showman, a movie I loathed. It’s easy to say something sucks but a lot harder to say exactly why it sucks!

This morning I spent an hour on the phone with with Accredo, my specialty pharmacy, because my medication was supposed to arrive via UPS yesterday but didn’t show up.

When I called last week to schedule a refill, they told me a generic has just been released for my Remodulin. Fine. Then they said, oh you need new pumps for the generic. Um, ok… I asked some questions. They really didn’t want to answer, but I persisted. Turns out the “new” pumps are EXACTLY THE SAME as my old pumps. Seriously. Same make, model, everything. But get this:  the pumps originally provided to me are owned by United Theraputics, the manufacturer of name-brand Remodulin.  They will not allow their pumps to be used with generic medication.  No good reason — just pettiness. Probably to make it harder for people to switch from name brand to generic.

So Accredo sent me two “new” (identical to “old”) pumps, which did arrive yesterday. When I unpacked the box this morning and saw that there were no meds or other supplies, I called Accredo and after an hour of being passed from person to person on the phone, I was told that they won’t ship my medication refill until I return the “old” pumps.  They kept saying I “can’t” use the old pumps for the generic and that they’re not allowed to ship my meds until the “old” pumps are returned.  Which is most nonsensical bullshit I’ve ever HEARD. WTAFF. As far as they know, I only have meds through the weekend (I always lie about how much I have left for this very kind of insanity, so I’m actually ok till the middle of next week but they don’t know that so shhhhhhh)

They didn’t send name-brand Remodulin to me because, of course, insurance won’t pay now that there’s a generic. And it’s thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars a month.

Of course no one told me about this. No one told me I wouldn’t get my meds. No one called to say there was a problem. No one called to tell me it was urgent to return the “old” pumps.

They say they’ll COURIER my meds from LA up to me, and eat the cost of name-brand if the “old” pumps haven’t arrived in time (I’m sending them back today), and that I definitely won’t run out of meds. I will LITERALLY DIE if I run out of meds. (Which is why I lie about how much I have left, every time, because they can’t be trusted. This kind of thing happens all the time.)

Pardon my French but FUCKING HEALTHCARE IN THIS FUCKING DIRTBAG COUNTRY CAN GO TO STRAIGHT TO HELL.

OK, I’m better now. Lol. Have been listening to music with Henry and GreenMtnGirl in my Discord channel allllll day. Come join us!

https://discord.gg/ncvEDyTQ (link good for seven days, and the I’ll post a fresh one)

It’s nice to be older. I mean, besides the fact that getting older means I’m not dead! Lol.

I don’t put up with mistreatment from men anymore (and it only took 51 years *eyeroll*). I’m completely happy with my body, my hair, my face. My hair is wild and frizzy and luscious. I have a cute little belly that would have infuriated me when I was younger but now it indicates to me that I’m un-anxious enough to eat properly! I like who I am; I know what I want; I don’t care if everyone on earth likes me. I know how to take care of myself when I get depressed.

I love me. I hope you love you.

Bedtime yay! And that means it’s time for an old episode of The Great British Bake Off! I’ve recently figured out how to stream my media collection from its USB hard drive to my phone.

Media on hard drive. Hard drive plugged into my Raspberry Pi with the Kodi media software on it. Enable UPnP in Kodi. Install the VLC media player on phone. Use “network“ tab to connect to the Pi. Easy!

Play Bake Off every night :)

Lovely date with DF today. Tried a new Middle Eastern place and I had a kick-ass Greek salad.

I usually hate talking on the phone, but someone very dear to me needed company today after getting some difficult news, and we talked for four and a half hours! That’s gotta be a Kayray Record.

Man, my mood has been good lately. My life is so pleasant, and in spite of my appalling health conditions I’m doing really well. Very very proud of myself for not letting my physical difficulties drag me down.

Today — took a tiny walk, washed my hair (date with DF tomorrow!), knitted a sock while on the phone, played a little WoW. Goodnight!

Today — woke up a bit too early but not while it was still dark, at least! Then Trader Joe’s and therapy with lovely Suzanne. Caught a few Pokémon while I was out. Listened to music and podcasts with Henry over Discord all day. Mom played Bach for me and Chloe over a 3-way FaceTime. I finished reading a really sweet and well-written rom-com, The Summer Job by Lizzy Dent. Ate two small salads. (No appetite lately) Tired now, gonna eat my apple and cheese and go to bed. Pleasant, basic day <3