Monday random things

* Some time I need to try the new Blogger interface but I hear some people saying they dislike it so maybe I wait a while longer - maybe there are some bugs to work out. (The old interface works fine for me and I would like to keep it, but maybe they need to change something as software changes?)

* Had my six-months dental checkup this time. They are doing a few new things to reduce the risk of COVID for the hygienists - they have head-mounted lamps now rather than the big overhead lamp (which you constantly have to touch to adjust) and there's a lot more changing of gloves and they have a different kind of suction device (which also blows painfully cold air in your mouth) for use when they do the ultrasonic scaling, she said it generated fewer aerosols. I think these are fairly new innovations; the hygienist didn't seem totally comfortable with them yet and she was also working fast. My gums are a little sore now. (They always are; I am a tartar hyperaccumulator - which is like the worst superpower ever - and they always have to scale the heck out of my teeth).

It did seem like working with the headlamp was harder, harder to get the light where you wanted it.

At least my teeth were healthy so I don't need to go back until December.

* Getting a bit more done on the horse pillow cases:



I ordered yet another set of cases (lavender flowers this time) from 123Stitch because I also wanted to get more embroidery needles (I foresee doing more of this; it's relaxing and it's easy to do in the heat). I have quite a few of these ahead but they keep. And I will probably be staying home for a while longer....

* I am contemplating going out either tomorrow morning or, better, Wednesday morning (because it will be cooler) to Twin Oaks for plants, and planting them Wednesday evening (because it's better to transplant in the evening, and best to do it on a cooler day). I have kind of made note of how much sun exposure the area I want to plant has (more than I expected) and I want some kind of perennials, maybe even climbing perennials, that will have good flowers for pollinators.

I mmmmmmay also mask up and go IN to the Kroger for a bit of shopping, especially if I go early and they're not crowded. It's probably not a great big risk (if I am careful to distance) and I found that the trip IN to Pruett's gave me more of a sense of control, because I could pick my own food out and I didn't have to sit and think really hard about what I needed to buy; I could see it on the shelves and grab it. I know I will want more milk, and the Manischewitz noodles I like, and if they have Golden Syrup, some of that for the shelf, and the good rye bread I like...

Because when I make the wal-mart order, I am like Ralphie Parker when Santa asks him what he wants - I draw a blank.



"Football? Football? What's a football?"

Also, they were out of several important things I wanted and it's apparently not that there was any shortage of those things, it was just their bad restocking practices.

* Did a bit of editing work for the journal I tech-edit for today. That also felt good because it felt like purposeful work to be doing. I have a second article to look at; that will be for tomorrow, probably. 

(Though: I am thinking MAYBE I could also collect a July soil sample, about the same time I collected the July sample - or was it June? I'll have to check this week - late last summer is, for reasons you can imagine, a memory hole for me - and pick the invert project back up and just look at it with a year elapsed rather than eight months elapsed, that should be fine. I had either two or three samples from last year; I could do about the same this year, and I would be able to salvage the project and not have those data lost, which would please me.)

Checked my past blog - because I record EVERYTHING - and it looks like early July was when I took the first sample, so I have a couple weeks. Maybe by then more people will be back on campus and I can ask someone "hey if I haven't checked in by X time, send someone after me" because I do always worry about heat exhaustion out in the field - have had one or two times where I simply had to WILL myself to get back to the car and I was afraid I wouldn't make it.

I *think* I collected an early-July, an early September, and a mid-October sample (August was pretty much a lost month last year, Because of Reasons)

Man, though: to be able to just pick this back up and finish it like Nothing Happened....that would be quite a thing. I started it before all the losses of late 2019 hit, and then in 2020, breaking for Coronavirus and thinking I'd never be able to get out again for like a couple years....and maybe even having a manuscript by next spring, that would feel like quite a recovery. As long as I can safely get in to collect the data, even if I had to write the manuscript here at home, I could. (Shoot, for that matter: once I've extracted the soil, I could bring a microscope home and set up in my garage to do the final (messy) extraction and maybe even do the counting/scoring using a microscope on a card table out there, with my car pulled out into the drive. I just need to look at this whole thing more like Rosie the Riveter, I guess.


* I'm also saving out the books I've read this summer, both the continuing-ed ones and the for-fun ones, and at the end of the summer might just post a photo of all the reading I did, to remind myself that I did get something done during this time. I want to start the next one - one on environmental law - very soon, though I should finish the editing work first as that is more urgent.