Things at the rehab facility went so swimmingly that instead of a rehab plan being generated today, we're gonna have a meeting with rehab, nutrition, activities, safety, psych, housing and finance next Tuesday. Also my mild-mannered stepfather was beaten up enough by his bitch of a wife that the administration had to caution him not to be rude to other guests. Apparently you are not allowed to talk in my mother's room if my mother doesn't want you talking, this was his mission to enforce. He wanted me to file a complaint with the health department. Gonna be fuckin' choice when his ass gets banned from the only assisted living facility in a fifty mile radius. I tried to explain, in as kind a language as possible, that as far as the facility is concerned, my mother is gonna die or get better, it doesn't matter much to the facility, they get paid either way, so if they want to find some comfort as she recuperates she'd best get hunting and get busy. And since this is a codependent relationship in which my mother manipulates all around her with her upset and he stands witness, it's gonna go really fucking shitty. For the first time in her life she has no agency over her brain chemistry and is surrounded by people unwilling to prostrate themselves before her whim and, of course, her displeasure with this is primarily expressed through eating the soul of anyone who actually cares how she feels. Their house is on native land. I'd love to sell it back to the tribe but they're one of the few tribes in Northern NM without a casino. Irony of ironies, my mother did water QA for thirty years and from what I can tell of their official website, the tribe's water has been shit for three years because they can't pay anyone to do their water QA. I was this many years old when I internalized that my "Black Mesa" is the "Black Mesa." No wonder I've always hated Half Life, it's set in my childhood. Half of my kid's school tested positive for COVID. They're pooled tests, which means one positive test in your classroom means your classroom is positive, prove us wrong by scrounging up a PCR test. We've got a box of 'em and close relationships with three lab companies and we're still waiting on results from a PCR we ran four days ago. Kindergarten is still out because while errbody got swabbed, the lab is so behind they hadn't run kindergarten in time to decide if they were okay or not. Ain't nobody prepared for Omicron, man. We all gonna get sick, and if you're vaxxed you're mostly inconvenienced. We had ten unvaxxed patients pop COVID over the break and a few of 'em are in the hospital. We've also gotten five transfers of care from one of the unvaccinated midwives in the area. On the flip side, I needed a fan guard and didn't want to pay for a fan guard so I made a fan guard. And on the flip side, I needed an oiler stand and nobody makes such a thing so I made an oiler stand. I'm actually pretty good at this crap, I just don't get to do it much anymore because I'm busy locking up old people.
I'm here. Still breathing. Still have a bum knee. Still haven't done a single part of my physical therapy regimen to help my knee out. I look at the papers she gave me every single day, and have not yet done a single stretch or exercise. Slept like shit last night. Again. Because my knee was bothering me all night. Because I haven't done any of my PT stretching or strength building exercises. The cycle continues.
When I went to PT, at my first appointment after giving me some exercises, the PT looked at me and sternly said "you will do these tonight and you will do them every night." I'm still grateful because I did, and it helped. I don't do them anymore (and should), but she and her counterpart got me going again. Do your exercises, goobster.
The weird thing is that I DO my exercises religiously for my Tennis Elbow, that was cured about two years ago. It's the exercises that keep it at bay, and keep my arm pain free. And yet I have not been able to make the metal leap to adding in my knee exercises. Man.... I am such a derp... it's embarrassing.
I threw out my back this morning. Pushing a car out of a ditch? No Lifting something heavy? No Cutting down a tree? No picking up a pair of socks off the floor. Ahhhh life. Otherwise, the NYT tells me that Omicron is less severe (for vaxxed/boosted folks), and that makes me happy. Work is going so well I can't believe it. I'm rounding the corner on my fifth and final year on my kids' school board. I love it, but I'm tired and almost done with it. I kind of wonder what it will feel like with the extra time back in my pocket. I've started a project that is requiring some middle/high school maths and I'm embarrassed how much googling I've had to do. Alas, I will prevail. Happy 2022 y'all!
We watched Minari this week, and it was pretty good. However, my wife and I agreed afterwards that there is a soft white liberal racism that limits the foreign film market in the US to heartbreaking stories of love and loss. Parasite was a refreshing exception.
The aesthete's bias presumes that if you're going to watch a movie, you're going to watch it with your full attention. That was Bong Joon-ho's whole point: Americans would have so much more to watch if only they wanted to watch a movie and read it at the same time! So what happens is foreign movies are imported for (A) pretentious film snobs (B) people willing to put up with the foreign-language hump if and only if there is a tremendous amount of ass-kicking. One of the best parts about not being in Hollywood any longer is I am no longer surrounded by pretentious film snobs. No, I'm not giving your fucking movie my full attention, because you haven't earned it, because I'm paying you, because you as the artist have exactly zero fucking grounding to set ground conditions under which I may or may not enjoy your art. If you can't entertain me enough to not surf kit cars on eBay we can still be friends... but if you're gonna call me out for it? We're done. Most of the cultural criticisms of the entertainment industry and its hangers-on are nothing more than the expression of economics. Hollywood makes nothing but superhero movies 'cuz that's all anyone watches anymore.
I'm still eyeballing some of the vintage Porsche kits... I won't pull the trigger, but it's fun to look. What I'd really like would be a speedster kit to fit on a Miata chassis. Japanese reliability with vintage Porsche styling? yes please.surf kit cars on eBay
Day by day, I'm inching myself toward finishing the thesis draft, REPLing progress through my adviser twice a week. Simultaneously, I have two other huge projects. There's a whole list of PMs, emails and responses here I'm yet to return to, and it seems unlikely to happen until April. Sorry about that, but I'd rather put some time aside to address them in a less frantic-eclectic style of past few months. Overall, though, I feel great. This is the first winter in nearly a decade that I didn't spent surfacing briefly from increasingly heavier, lethargic states for a week or two of, ya know, having energy to do anything. Combined with blue lights everywhere, it's really working for me.
I really can't live like this. Too many pills. Too many recurring issues that can't be properly treated even in-hospital. My very nervous tissue is rotting out from underneath me and every time it happens it feels worse and takes longer to recover. No end in sight.
Three months after being hired I've been fully background checked and can start working in the dead center of a COVID wave! Real nice of them to drag their feet and wait until now instead of allowing me to work throughout my break and get trained and be ready for this shit...
We went to DC for Christmas and London for the new year. It was too much travel. We were all exhausted. London deserves to be explored by a version of me that isn’t sick and tired. So many covid tests. So many small bottles of water and almonds. Churchill’s War Room was cool. We had high tea at Sketch, which was amazing. Then, we travelled home and our power was out. Has been for 3 days. Came back on this morning. It’s been an adventure :) we camped out in our living room in front of a fire. I am optimistic Re 2022. I think it will be a great year for my family. I also think it will be good for Forever Labs. My resolution: to bench press 185 pounds. To only eat when hungry. To drink more water.
Churchill's War Room is a brilliant presentation, combining the original equipment and feel of the space, along with cutting edge digital technology to help explore the range of events that were run from that space. I was particularly impressed with the "video table" that responded to your hand movements and let you move through time and clip (video and audio) of real events along the timeline of WWII. Juxtaposing that tech with the phone operator's room was ... impressive. And there is something just overall depressing about that whole space. I'm glad I went there. I won't go again.