a Monday miscellany

 Busy day, though I didn't do anything very large:

* The regular six-month doctor checkup, which I need to do because hypertension. The good news is I've lost nearly all the weight I gained during the pandemic lockdown/stress, and that mainly came about because of increased activity, so I guess I don't have to be SUPER restrictive on eating (though maybe? a little more careful and I could drop a little more). And my doctor wasn't as concerned as I was that my blood pressure isn't as low as it was a few years ago. (but again: if I drop a few more pounds/get even more active, it might). 

* Had to buy a new CO alarm; the one I had apparently reached the end of its life (I guess they have some mildly radioactive thing in them that decays to the point where it no longer works?) and it was doing the annoying fast-five-chirps that indicates "I'm dying." So I ran to Lowe's. Which was kind of a cluster. For one thing, they're down to a sole brand of some things, and a sole model of that brand for some. (They had a couple different kinds of CO meters, but only First Alert brand, and they had exactly one kind of toilet cleaner) so I don't know if this is still pandemic-throttling of the supply lines or if stores have just started to decide "you know? we'll just sell one kind of each thing and people can like it or lump it" and for those of us in a smaller town, we just kind of have to deal. 

Also they had exactly two checklanes open, having replaced about half of them with as-yet-nonfunctional self-checkouts. And one lane, the person was having a problem, and the checker shooed me away saying "It'll take too long" so I got in the long line at the other checkstand.....and then the checker got the problem cleared and people jumped in her line, and that's actually kind of par for the course of how things like that work for me, I have people push in front of me at deli counters or talk over me in meetings and stuff. I should be used to it but at that point I was really stressed and annoyed and hot and I ALMOST just abandoned my cart and left, but didn't know how easy it would be to find a CO meter somewhere else, and mail ordering one was out because I suspect Amazon stuff just to be counterfeit now, and you don't want that with a CO meter....

* Part of it was, I had to get home to make some food. The small CWF group at my church decided to go ahead and have a salad supper - there are only about 10 of us currently active, we are all fully vaccinated, so it's pretty safe. I had to make muffins and get iced tea (those were both Mecy's jobs....I guess I inherited a few of her jobs) but also make a salad.

I just made from-a-box Krustease cranberry-orange muffins (several are left over; someone brought banana pudding so a lot of people took that as their dessert). The salad was the corn-and-black-bean salad I always make, but I could NOT find a jicama ANYWHERE so I subbed garbanzo beans - which I think I like better, it's less work (no endless chopping of jicama) and also it's softer - with my bad teeth I don't always love the hardness of the jicama)

But it was good to meet as a group again. Some laughter, some remembering Mecy (who was a big, big part of all this), good food. I realize now how important those relationships - something more than an acquaintance but not quite a best friend - are to me and how much I missed them. I know there's a danger in defining yourself too much based on other people around you, but I really think a big part of my problem during 2020 was I had no "reflection" from other people to help me remember who I was, and I kind of lost who I was for a little bit.

* Tomorrow will probably be Day 2 of fieldwork - I did Thursday (Friday I took off, took the weekend off, couldn't do today because of doctor's appointment). I don't love how hot it is, but if I leave early (before 8 am) and just do one transect, it's not too awful. And like I said: I have 12 transects, so if I do 3-4 a week....well, I'll be done in less than a month, and can work on other things. (And I do definitely plan to go visit my mom again in July). 

* I'm currently reading a locked-room mystery (another John Dickson Carr "Dr. Fell" outing); this one is one of a three-volume set of "locked room" mysteries from Folio Society. It's called The Hollow Man and presents an "impossible" mystery that seems to suggest a supernatural event. It's an enjoyable story, and I'm still not sure how it was done (these novels are almost as much "how done it" as "who done it"). 

I did order a copy of Susannah Clarke's "Piranesi" - I earned a $25 gift certificate from Amazon for participating in a survey about educational practices, and I'd been wanting to read it for a while (I ordered the hardback version). I feel like I need escapist stories this summer. (And yes - locked room mysteries do count for me as escapist stories). 

* My June Doki Doki crate came.
Another little marshmallow shaped stuffie cat:

But my favorite thing is a "summer blanket." It's designed to feel cool to the touch - I don't know if it's just the synthetic fabric or if it's infused with something (a pillow from a crate about a year back claimed to be "infused with jade" in the fabric, and I know that Duluth Trading sells underwear that's supposed to be "cooling" and is also somehow "infused with jade")

It has axolotls on it:

It really does feel cool to the touch - would be good to rest your head against in the heat.