Jumping a little ahead, for convenience's sake, I got my teeth examined, X-rayed, and polished. By the professional dentist, understand, not just anyone anywhere.

Not much different to report from last time, though. My extreme good luck in health continues, with no sign of trouble among my teeth and even my gums looking like they're not receding importantly. They tried an ultrasonic device for cleaning some spots of my teeth and that was a novel experience. Not a bad one, understand. Just a different sort of vibration from any I'm used to. The cold water used along with this confirmed I don't have any particularly sensitive spots in my teeth or my gums, good news that will inspire bunnyhugger to kick my shins for being so good at teeth.

My tooth-grinding continues, though. Not because it's made my gums recede appreciably since half a year ago, but I guess they had it in my file and were asking about its progress. I couldn't swear I'd noticed it in my sleep, but bunny_hugger has and I passed that on. They're going to check with my insurance and see whether they'll cover getting a mouth guard and all to say what it'll cost me, besides a couple hours off for measurement and fitting appointments.

The hygienist told me she'd found a couple times she'd taken them out overnight. I think this is extremely likely for me since I'm an active sleeper doing a lot of squirming around. She thinks it's likely I'd lose the impulse to take it out after a couple weeks. bunnyhugger had a different experience herself. But maybe I'll be good about this.

And in pictures, back to the 4th of July and the same fireworks pictures several times over:

A couple lanterns being let go at once.

And here's a nice sparkler shower with a telephone pole coming out its center.

Here we go. Some other town's fireworks plus a couple lanterns in the sky.

And now downtown has its show starting. Or maybe the ball park. Hard to be sure.

But between the city's fireworks and individuals doing their own shows you can see how smokey it gets here in early July.

I believe this is two fireworks shows photographed at once but it's hard to be sure, at this remove.

Trivia: Telephones of the 1880s were extremely vulnerable to background electrical interference, both from the weather and from the electric light and electric trolley services also stringing wires around cities, to the point of being unusable when a trolley car switched tracks or a city electric light sputtered. Source: Telephone: The First Hundred Years, John Brooks.

Currently Reading: Slime: A Natural History, Susanne Wedlich. Translator Ayça Türkoğlu.

mecurtin

#Purrcy was both happy and regal, sitting in my seat on the sofa with the sun coming the skylight on it. See how he smiles at me in Cat!
#cats #CatsOfBluesky

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby is lightly curled on a brocade cushion, looking at the camera with ears alert, whiskers spread wide and white, eyes light green and pupils just slits. He is clearly very happy, as sunlight shines on the cushion and most of him.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby is lightly curled on a brocade cushion, looking at the camera with ears alert, whiskers spread wide and white, eyes light green and pupils just slits. He is clearly very happy, as sunlight shines on the cushion and most of him.

I sat out on the porch to eat breakfast today, and the local hive of feral honeybees was awake, buzzing about looking for nectar. The crabapple flowers are opening, so they seem to have their timing just right. The carpenter bees were also out, inspecting the eaves. It was really good to have that 1/2 hour, even though it was so late in the morning (I had errands to run before my stomach was ready for breakfast) that I didn't see or hear any migrants.

ismo

Sometimes, when it rains in the night, I hear the sound of it sweeping around the corners, and it feels as if someone is wrapping my house in a blanket. It's a comfortable feeling. Then in the morning when the sun comes up, there are still droplets sparkling on the twigs, calling attention to the fact that this year as ever year, the maple buds are beginning to unfurl again. And I was startled to look out the upstairs window and see a panoply of dandelions already spangling the lawn. Everything is getting out of hand, as usual, while I am out of commission. But how lucky am I to have seen this so many times.

We both had a bit of a relapse yesterday, but the Soarrowhawk's was worse than mine. He ended up staying home from the gym again. It's not fun when we're both sick at the same time. He seems to be doing better today, and we hope to continue our interrupted trajectory of getting better. The stomachs are still not entirely reliable. I did laundry and made him some lime jello with bananas in it, his favorite. I had other things on my list but at that point I got too tired and sat down for awhile. He offered to take me to the botanical garden to see the butterflies, but alas, I was not ready for that. Laster, I pulled myself together and made us some fried rice for dinner, with mushrooms, celery, green onions, red peppers, ham, and an egg in it. You wouldn't think this would be tolerable to a dicey tummy, but it seems to be okay so far. Now I've developed a sore throat and a cough, and that's what's bothering me at the moment.

We're belatedly watching "The Saint" as a tribute to the late Val Kilmer. I saw it when it first came out, but had forgotten most of it. Oh lordy. I so want to believe in the Templar and his operatic, completely implausible multiple personas with a dash of Jim Morrison . . . but . . . lordy!! I can still enjoy it as a gloriously awful movie, bad enough to give one a rococo hangover. But I have to say that the female lead is giving the most embarrassing misrepresentation of a scientist I have ever seen, and I've seen a lot of them. I hope they kidnapped her puppy and blackmailed her into it, because I'd hate to think she did this willingly. It has hints of the very first Mission Impossible in it, and a prefiguring of Jason Bourne as well. This is a movie Harriet M. Welsch would have watched with popcorn.
"Look at those rotten things! Oh boy!" said Harriet, and sat down, stuffing a great gob of popcorn in her mouth.

flemmings

When the weather page says 90% chance of rain at 4 p.m. one should not look at the placid grey sky and the dry sidewalk, think Guess they're wrong, and trundle over to Fiesta for crackers. Because the heavens opened as I came out and everything got soaked. That was yesterday. Today was sun and bulgogi at my tony Korean restaurant, which was twice as much rice as I wanted. I did finally ask for a fork, so if I go back I needn't worry too much because now they know. But I still spill stuff. Age sucks.

Won't talk about the piggery I indulged in over Easter which means I won't be weighing myself any time soon. But the Pour Boy restaurant sent me some elegant and manageable chopsticks with that pad thai on Sunday and I may keep them for use elsewhere.

And my tax return was delivered to the accountants in good order so I may assume it was filed in good order, though the Easter disruptions mean they haven't even cashed my cheque yet. They will, Oscar, they will.

jjhunter

Let's take a breath for poetry. It is April, and as good a time as any for a collaborative poetry fest. Please find below a starting stanza or two of a brand new haikai (what's a haikai, you ask? Think extended haiku: alternating stanzas of 5-7-5 and 7-7). Comment with a following stanza to build on that seed. Someone (most likely me) will respond with another stanza, and so on and so forth throughout the day.
===

daffodil focus
bell song, valdrome, pheasant's eye
live stained glass glory

_

shipperslist

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heron61

I’m looking at the various options for what my partner and I can do and what is likely to happen with the US, and I find this seriously depressing, so I’d love if anyone reading this could provide alternatives or reasons that they think some of the unlikely possible options are actually pretty likely (and why).

Option 1 Fleeing Fascism: My best guess is the US slides into full on fascism, somewhere between Hungary and Nazi Germany, and after my mother dies (likely in the next year or so, she’s 90) my partner and I flee the US, likely not to Canada unless it looks likely that 47 won’t invade, so our options are Portugal (you can buy your way in with money we’ll have from my mom), or New Zealand (same). The problem is I utterly hate the idea of having to leave Portland and our friends, but I’m not too keen on living under fascism either.

Other options (I’m saying how likely I think they are, if you disagree, please let me know, and also why):

Option 2 Social and economic collapse: 47 and Musk are idiots who aren’t remotely careful, so this seems like a real option that seems somewhat likely, but I’m uncertain , I also find this far superior to option 1, in large part because while it will suck, people won’t be disappeared to Central American torture prisons, and it likely won’t last that long. I’d expect the states to pick up the pieces and we might even end up with the US balkanizing.

Option 3 Military coup/civil war: If 47 (as he seems very likely to do) invades Canada or Greenland, or both, some portion of the US military will likely refuse to attack NATO allies. If it’s enough, we get a military coupe, which is terrible, but also a serious improvement, since I’d expect them to push for free elections soon. OTOH, if only some of them refuse we could easily end up in full on civil war. I think the overall option is moderately likely, but have no idea which way things would go, and in the case of a full-on civil war, I would want to be on another continent.

Option 4 Low Violence Popular Uprising: This has happened in numerous nations; enough people take to the streets and the leaders flee. I’d love for this to happen here, but I also firmly believe it won’t. The US lacks that sort of hard-core protest culture. It could easily happen in France, I don’t believe it will happen here.

Option 5 Free elections: I think this is only slightly more likely than a successful popular uprising. It’s been 3 months, 47 will have been in power for almost 22 months for the mid-term elections, and the Republinazis have shown themselves to be absolutely fine with eliminating democracy. Blue states may or may not keep far elections, but red and many purple states won’t.

Option 6 Secession: This is my strong preference – either for the West Coast to join Canada or to become its own nation, and in either case, I’d never need to worry about sharing a nation with the powerful wealthy elites in hard core red states like Alabama, Idaho, or Iowa. The problem is that attempting this either results in an ugly civil war that our side loses, or someone needs to seize nukes and a way to deliver them. I expect that in CA at least there is at least some discussions about this, but I have absolutely no idea how likely I think this is.

I don’t see any other remotely likely options, and I really don’t like the likely ones other than 1-3. What do you think?

the_siobhan

It's a warm today and I am itchy and sweaty. I have spent two days in the shed, pulling out boxes and cleaning up spider webs and mouse poop. SO MUCH MOUSE POOP. And one dead mouse.

I'm taking a break right now. when I go back outside I'll stack the things that I know are staying out there onto the shelves and finish taking the rest of it into the house. Then I'll finish going through the boxes. This is the last place in the house to be cleaned out and I've already found the paining supplies box, so I'll make a list of whatever I'm missing and tomorrow I'll hit the hardware store. I'll also be able to make the final get-things-out-of-the-house push so maybe that will make some room to empty the storage unit. We'll see.

While I'm working I'm also taking pictures of all the stuff the contractor didn't finish. I keep noticing new things, like spotting a new light switch leading me to a light fixture that was never installed. I should also take screenshots of the text messages where I repeatedly asked for receipts I never got.

Everything is taking too long. I keep offering to give money to people for help and they keep not showing up. Which in itself is frustrating. Like if you're not available, fine! But tell me so I can make other plans!

Lord Brock is doing well except for shouting at me whenever I come back from outside because how dare I not be in the room when he decides he wants to sit on me.

I should probably book a massage on the last day of the week. I already feel like somebody beat me up and it's only Tuesday.

Right. Back to the salt mines.

purplecat

Two Doctor Who companion outfits for your delectation and delight! Outfits selected by a mixture of ones I, personally, like; lists on the internet; and a certain random element.

( Outfits below the Cut )

Vote for your favourite of these costumes. Use whatever criteria you please - most practical, most outrageously spacey, most of its decade!

Voting will remain open for at least a week, possibly longer!

Costume Bracket Masterlist

Images are a mixture of my own screencaps, screencaps from Lost in Time Graphics, PCJ's Whoniverse Gallery, and random Google searches.

hrj

Medicare Advantage (through Kaiser) is all set up. I've paid my first 3 months of Medicare B through the website, since they can't automatically deduct it from my retirement benefits until they're actually giving me retirement benefits. (Still waiting on that one.)

Sent out my retirement announcement (and celebration invite) at work. I've promised people jars of Heather's Retirement Marmalade as door prizes for as long as they last. (I made 2 dozen.)

Other than the SSA thing, all that's left is:
* last-day stuff at the job (turn in computer/badge, exit interview)
* convert 401K to IRA and select investment strategy (the exact details of which may depend on market details)

Oh, and close my last two investigations. One is in final review, the other is pending completion of some corrections.

(My "retirement checklist" also has some other items on it that aren't directly retirement related but it seemed useful to record them as official to-do items.)

kiya

Late

Before you say
You are too old to change,
Listen:
Some of these new hairs
Are already
Silver
It is never too late
To climb out
Of your grave.

rydra_wong

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/04/protests-erupt-across-the-uk-after-supreme-court-ruled-against-trans-rights/

Many many pictures.

Also, more protests yet to come, apparently, with ones scheduled for Oxford and Cambridge.

catherineldf

So I used to call this “The Greening of Our Lives” when I started it, but there is no more “our” so I think I’ll drop that part. And I haven’t done one of these for the past couple of years because, honestly, it was too depressing. But you can click through on the hashtags if you want to see what we did before this point.

Between April of 2024 and today, I’ve:

Had a new heat pump dryer and high efficiency washer installed (just yesterday!). Energy + water savings + reduced gas use
Had new window treatments installed to help block drafts and increase natural light (also to make me feel less like Miss Havisham)
Continued to work from home so less driving time.
Got an induction hot plate and cookware set (Costco, for the win!) to reduce amount of cooking on gas stove.
Upgraded my convection oven so I use the gas oven less.
Had an home energy audit done and got a low flow shower head and some insulation on the basement pipes.
Started container gardening
Doubled down on the pollinator plants and reducing the grass. Continue to avoid pesticides and herbicides.
Switched to buying more used/refurbished electronics
Continued involvement with Buy Nothing Club
Switched Queen of Swords Press to recycled/recyclable mailers from Eco Enclose and recycled paper shopping bags from Nashville Wraps.
Switched QoSP newsletter to Buttondown, a platform that doesn’t use AI (so far) and reinvests part of the proceeds in environmental projects.
Continued with Windsource, continue to avoid AI use wherever possible, recycling, composting, reusing, etc.
Support local and international green projects.

What are you up to this Earth Day?

oursin

So today was my physio let's see how you're doing assessment, at the different health centre -

- which I was in a bit of a swivet about getting to, because the obvious straightforward route is the longest, and there are shorter ones but these involve a tangle of residential streets -

- not to mention, whichever way you slice it, the road winds uphill all the way, yea, to the very end, because the health centre is bang opposite Parliament Hill.

Nonetheless, I found a route which seemed doable, which said 24 mins (and that was not actually starting from home base but from the road by the railway line), which I thought was possibly optimistic for an Old Duck such as myself, but mirabile dictu it was in fact just over 20 but under 25 minutes, win, eh?

And took me along streets I have seldom walked along since the 70s/80s when I was visiting them more frequently for Reasons.

Had a rather short but I hope useful meeting with the physio - some changes to existing exercises and a new one or two.

Thought I would get a bus back as I had had time to check out the nearby bus stops, and there was one coming along which according to the information at the stop was going in a useful direction.

Alas it was coming from the desired direction, but still, cut off a certain amount of homewards slog.

sartorias

This is quick, as things have been fraught, with a sick family member who doesn't do well with sickness.

Dobrenica 3: Revenant Eve

Re-edited and reissued:

It’s now 1795, the rise of Napoleon, and Kim finds herself a guardian spirit for a twelve-year-old kid who will either become Kim’s ancestor . . . or the timeline will alter and Kim will vanish, along with the small, magical European country of Dobrenica.

Kim hates time travel conundrums, and knows nothing about kids. How is she going to spirit-guide young Aurelie, born on Saint-Domingue, with whom she has nothing in common?

From pirate-infested Jamaica to mannered England to Revolutionary Paris in the early 1800s, Kim and Aurelie travel, sharing adventures and meeting fascinating people, such as the beautiful and charming Josephine, wife of Napoleon.

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: lonely

julesjones

There was a fountain pen meet at Eastercon, at which assorted pens and inks got handed round for people to try out. A couple of mine proved popular, so putting here what I'd brought along with me. The Y1 was already inked, the others were inked at the meet with one of the Diamine samples. If I'd had any sense I'd have done a better job of recording which samples...
( Details )

lsanderson

Northfield residents warned of elevated levels of manganese in drinking water, advised to use bottled water or filter
Emily Baude KSTP
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/northfield-residents-warned-of-elevated-levels-of-manganese-in-drinking-water-advised-to-use-bottled-water-or-filter/

Rice crisis: Japan imports grain from South Korea for first time in more than 25 years
Japanese consumers who used to treat foreign-grown rice with scepticism have been forced to develop a taste for it amid domestic shortage
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/22/japan-south-korea-rice-import-crisis

Experts talk realism of Conclave movie: ‘Gets a lot of the details right’
After the death of Pope Francis, experts weigh in on how much the real-life papal election will mirror the hit Oscar-winning movie
Adrian Horton
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/apr/22/conclave-movie-pope-francis

How an American businessman lost his job and found himself in an old French vineyard
One day, life as a finance consultant stopped making sense for Peter Hahn, so he took to organic winegrowing in the Loire instead
Genevieve Fox
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/apr/22/how-an-american-businessman-lost-his-job-and-found-himself-in-an-old-french-vineyard

US to impose tariffs of up to 3,521% on south-east Asia solar panels
Ahead of a global summit in London comes a warning that lessons on energy security have not been learned
Julia Kollewe
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/22/us-huge-tariffs-south-east-asian-solar-panels-energy-summit

Gold hits $3,500 for first time as US dollar sinks to three-year low
With many stock markets in the red and Dow Jones headed for worst April since 1932, gold could even reach $4,000
Julia Kollewe and Graeme Wearden
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/22/gold-hits-3500-us-dollar-sinks-three-year-low-stock-markets

Ex-US senator's wife convicted in gold bars bribery scheme
Brandon Drenon
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70zlj8dpn8o

Show us your mussels! A mouthwatering trip to Vigo, Spain’s seafood capital
The Galician city on the Atlantic coast has the EU’s largest fishing port, which provides its many bars and restaurants with a spectacular trawl of oysters, clams and mussels
Fiona Dunlop
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/apr/22/food-trip-to-vigo-galicia-spain-seafood-capital

The extraordinary rise of bakery tourism: ‘People travel from all over the world. It’s mind-blowing!’
Beer crawls are out and bakery crawls are in, with people arranging whole days, weekends or even holidays around the search for the perfect loaf or croissant
Chris Marshall
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/apr/22/the-extraordinary-rise-of-bakery-tourism

2025 Sony World Photography Awards: Winners revealed
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9qww2rv0y0o

spiralsheep

A tale of medieval women crossing the gender line LITERALLY: in 1417 the Bishop of Durham ordered two Newcastle women to dress as drag kings and parade around two churches on six separate days, because he thought it was an appropriate act of penance, and if the Bishop of Durham thinks parading around a church in drag improves one's chance of getting into Heaven then who am I to argue?

Matilda Burgh and Margaret Ushar were ordered to do this penance after they dressed as men to visit the shrine of Cuthbert, one of England's most popular saints (defo Top Five), because the Bishops of Durham had literally built a misogynist blue line of exclusion into the ground around the shrine and only men were supposed to enter. There's more. The women's employer's wife, Mrs Baxter, who was accused of aiding and abetting the "crime" of female pilgrimage to a saint's shrine, disobeyed the Bishop's order to attend his ecclesiastical court and also disobeyed his order for her to attend the drag king parades because she claimed having twins to look after made her too tired ("& uxor prædicti Petri fic eſt fatigata cum duobus gemellis quod honeſte non poteſt comparere"). Clearly I love this entire escapade, although I did feel mild sympathy for the parish chaplain who had to deal with these three ungovernable women and an out-of-touch Bishop, lol.

( Sources in English and Latin. )

gingicat

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James Nicoll Reviews

April 2025

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Page Summary

austin_dern - Exercise is great but exercise your choppers too
mecurtin - Purrcy, bees
ismo - CollaredPika of Bliss
flemmings - (no subject)
jjhunter - Haikai Fest: "'The World's Most Popular Spring Flower'"
shipperslist - Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me by Whoopi Goldberg
heron61 - The Political Is Very Personal
the_siobhan - sharpening my beak on the cosmic mountain
purplecat - Costume Bracket: Round 3, Post 16
hrj - Retirement T-8 and counting
kiya - [ poetry ] This one came out of nowhere
rydra_wong - If anyone could use a morale boost
catherineldf - Annual Earth Day Post
oursin - Physio reprised
sartorias - Book Day...
princessofgeeks - for those of you following along at home....
julesjones - Fountain pens at Eastercon meet
lsanderson - 2025.04.22
spiralsheep - In which the Bishop of Durham orders two drag kings to parade around two churches for six days, 1417
gingicat - A good question

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Page generated Apr. 23rd, 2025 06:25 am

More Words, Deeper Hole

Reading

Exercise is great but exercise your choppers too

Purrcy, bees

CollaredPika of Bliss

(no subject)

Haikai Fest: "'The World's Most Popular Spring Flower'"

Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me by Whoopi Goldberg

The Political Is Very Personal

sharpening my beak on the cosmic mountain

Costume Bracket: Round 3, Post 16

Retirement T-8 and counting

[ poetry ] This one came out of nowhere

Late

If anyone could use a morale boost

Annual Earth Day Post

Physio reprised

Book Day...

This is quick, as things have been fraught, with a sick family member who doesn't do well with sickness.

for those of you following along at home....

Fountain pens at Eastercon meet

2025.04.22

In which the Bishop of Durham orders two drag kings to parade around two churches for six days, 1417

A good question

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April 2025

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