Dispatch from the front lines. Things are bleak, rations are holding out for now, but the psychological impact of the situation is dire. Okay, kidding. Sort of.

It’s my birthday season and I wanted to start my next year free of clutter and I’ve only made things worse. I spent this past holiday weekend  bringing out boxes and going thru them, randomly moving furniture and generally feeling overwhelmed. And I’m covered in bruises from all of it. I’m going to Ricky Gervais at the Hollywood Bowl Saturday, but other than that, I’m going to continue the work. I’ve even arranged to work from home Monday and Tuesday so I can try to get more done then. I was going to take the days off, but a member of the team is out of town and I need to cover the clients, plus I have a weekly zoom with management from the western US I have to be on. Ugh.

Changing topics, because of the current leadership here is so horrific and the latest news out of Washington is a change of policy for vaccinations, I was able to get in to CVS and get a Covid shot that was still covered. As I’m not 65 and have no major health issues, my access to future boosters us heavily in doubt. I guess I’ll be out of luck come time for my flu shot in the fall, unless my insurance covers it.

Going to LA tomorrow afternoon to get my roots done. My hairdresser said having blonde hair would be easier than dark hair, but over 2 years in and it seems like it’s more expensive and a pain in the neck. Literally. Plus, when I imagine myself, I still see a brunette with blonde highlights, not a blonde. It’s weird.

Random thoughts- If I haven’t mentioned it, Thunderbolts* was awesome. Saw it twice. 3D sucked, but the movie was solid. Looking forward to Fantastic 4 and Superman!

If you’re in the US and are so inclined, google “no king protests June 14 2025”. There will be nationwide protests in honor of our would be king's birthday. There is one a couple blocks from here and I know they are a few others in So Cal.

Work should be quiet but busy tomorrow, and since I’ll most likely be alone in my area, I packed up my complete MacMillan and Wife set to play on my portable dvd player so I can listen to it while working. 

Oh, send good thoughts to Magda Szubanski. Diagnosed with aggressive blood cancer. That woman is a treasure.

It’s going to be hot tomorrow, BOOOO.

Well, better set my clothes out for tomorrow. More later. 

Ta,

R

Well folks, I got notification that my health insurance has denied my hospital stay. Now I’m going to have to try and see how to appeal. Keep in mind, I got this notice one day after I met with my surgeon and he proceeded to tell me I should have had my gallbladder out 2 years ago and it was a nightmare inside me and a mess to get out. He said it was barely working, huge and the wrong color. On the flip side, my incisions are healing great, two of which are already almost invisible and tests showed no cancer. 

I don’t get it, did I have a choice when I was admitted to the hospital? They told me I wasn’t going home and they were waiting for my insurance to approve my admission then they admitted me. I’m sure the hospital had me sign forms taking responsibility for stuff. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll make some calls once I hear from the hospital. 

I don’t condone violence, but I get how people get very upset about this. I was in the hospital for three days, I doubt I have the means to cover that. It’s scary.

Well, I guess I better learn how to deal with this.

It’s been a challenging 2 weeks or so. The last few years I’ve been under the impression I’ve developed heartburn. Doesn’t that happen once you reach a “certain age”? Then I had a really bad attack last September when I got Covid for the first time. It was so awful. Crippling pain that lasted all night. I’ve had a bunch of light episodes since, but nothing terrible, until about 2 weeks ago. I was sick for 9 hours straight, non-stop. I thought I might have torn my stomach from it all. Stayed home from work the next day to try and rest, but it started up again around 6pm. For the first time since I was a kid, I went to the hospital. I just knew I couldn’t go through that again on my own, but I was afraid they’d roll their eyes and send me home with milk of magnesia. Urgent Care couldn’t help, so they sent me to the emergency room. It took hours and another attack (after countless EKG’s, sonograms and bloodwork for them to whisk me into a weird emergency room pod to be given an IV of fluids and pain killers. My insurance approved me to be admitted around 6-7am. More tests, more doctors. Turns out, my gallbladder had things wrong with it and had been spreading bad stuff to my liver all this time. Luckily, I don’t drink much (unless I’m visiting my parents, lol!) and the liver damage was still at the stage where it could repair itself.  That gallbladder had to come out, but they needed to take an MRI and they didn’t know when that would happen. Once it did they rushed me down and took it out in a nighttime surprise surgery. Recovery has been okay and I went back to work for partial days Thursday. By partial days, I mean I left an hour early, but was still there 9 hours, no lunch.

The hospital stay was interesting and kind of bizarre. I had a really nice room to myself and had a mountain view. It rained while I was there, so I spent a lit of time looking out the window, didn’t turn the tv on at all!  The bed was dumb though. It was the kind designed to stop you getting bed sores, so every time you shift/move, it inflated then deflated. Sometimes it did it randomly on its own! It was hard enough trying to sleep when the nurses came in every two hours to take vitals, let alone while my bed would randomly move on its own!

Luckily, I was on IV pain killers the entire time coz, I’m not sure I would have appreciated TWO bosses (one with a spouse) visiting me while I was clad in only a hospital gown, no make up, no glasses,  an IV, tons of wires and tubes attached and my hair unbrushed. The absolute worst was when the client a team member sent showed up. A CLIENT!!! Again, luckily I was on drugs and luckily she’s a sweet woman who I adore…but I’d rather she didn’t come. I’m grateful they cared enough to come, but I hadn’t even told family I was there (boy, that didn’t go over well after the fact!).

So I went to hozzie on a Monday night and got home on a Thursday afternoon. What a week that was! I wonder what that bill is going to look like! 😳 After day 2 of being home I quit taking the prescription pain killers and muscle relaxers. I just don’t want to rely on them. Surprisingly, the  pain hasn’t been bad at all. The worst was the big air pocket. I guess they had to pump me full of air to do the surgery and before it dissipates, it moves around like I’m a human spirit level each time I move, pushing my organs around as it searches for the top of wherever it’s at.

I guess I should be glad all this happened after I saw Squeeze in Vegas! I can’t imagine going through all this away from home. I flew in Friday night, met my best friend who drove, went to the show and we drove home after. I’d flown out of Ontario as that’s where they’d rented a car, so I still needed to drive aways home after I reached my car.  I walked back into my place at 3:15am Saturday, exactly 24 hours since I’d woken up, so rock-n-roll! Of course I felt like garbage and spent the entire day recovering. The next evening, my hospital saga started. Yikes! 

Happy Birthday CBLMW, keep doing amazing things. Everything you do is a light in the darkness we’re living in.

Hey guys! I just wanted to mention I’ve seen a bunch of article headlines about people who voted for the current dictator and how unhappy they are their benefits/jobs/etc are being taken away and how unhappy they are coz they thought it was only non-cis gendered people and non-whites who were going to be hurt. This isn’t what they voted for!

Welllll, fuck all of you. Many people warned you and your selfish, racist ass voted for him any way. Enjoy your misery. Welcome to reality. There is no sympathy for you. Anywhere.

I heard they were going after republican females now. 

He doesn’t need your vote any more, you morons. 

I honestly believe he will do what I predicted during the previous election and abolish the 2-term limit.

And they’re just getting started

Different topic/thought - Who’d have thought there would be a measles death in 2025?

Have I mentioned how scared I am? This is worse than even I thought it would be.

Guys! Like Charlie Brown with the football, I went to the Doctor Who convention again this year. I mean, it was okay. Steven Moffat, Mark Sheppard, Julie Gardner (she’s blonde now, like me!), Jenna Coleman, Catherine Tate and all the guests were really good, but the other attendees are just so rude! Pushing, throwing trash on the floor, talking really loudly through panels, it’s endless. Honestly, I think I’ve aged out of going (but will probably still get a pass for next year). I think I’ve become the old man yelling at kids to get off his lawn, but instead it aimed at people in the chair next to me touching me with all their stuff. I’m glad the other folks have found their tribe and can connect with each other though. They really were having a good time, which is awesome! I only went on Saturday and ran to the garage to get my car so we could head to the IPic for…..

Captain America- Brave New World. It was a good time! It was a little choppy from editing and a couple of things were under developed, but I still really enjoyed it. I hope I can go see it again. Stand out performance for me was Carl Lumbly. What he does with his eyes alone is incredible.

I had a check-in /status update appointment with my orthopedist Friday to look at my shoulder. It seems like my twice weekly physical therapy has hit a wall (not literally). Range of motion is way better, so the labrum tear has most likely healed, but it still hurts up inside the rotator cuff (cup?) on the bicep tendon. He poked and squeezed and I was “hey! That hurts!” “Yeah, I bet!”, as he continued, lol. He’s a cool guy for a doctor. He said “I want to give you two injections, how do you feel about that?” “ I’m fine, I met my deductible, so do what you need to do”. So he leaves and comes back “look away, you don’t want to see these” uh oh! “You’re gonna feel the freezing spray, a pinch and the injection” “Is it going to hurt” “Yeah, it should” “Great”. So the first shot was on the back of my shoulder, between bones. He had me drop my arm and relax it. I felt all the stuff he said and it HURT! Then he has me turn around and presses his fingers up along my bicep tendon going up into my shoulder. Just doing that killed! Then he says to look away and jabs me. I could feel whatever it was go in and it felt like there wasn’t enough space for it. Luckily, we get along great, because at that point, I yelped, said owwww, that really hurts a lot and “you’re such a dick, what the hell??!!?”.  He laughed and we’re cool. Not my best moment though. I meant it though, lol! It was weird, my arm was all wibbly for a few hours. 

Because of the holiday tomorrow, I scheduled physical therapy at 7:30am, so I can hopefully enjoy the day or do the chores I didn’t do today. I’ve done nothing today! I woke up around 4:30am and have been watching Youtube videos and laying around, apart from going outside to get an Amazon package and running the dishwasher. Tomorrow, I need to clean out the fridge, take out trash, clean my dirty makeup brushes, get my vanity back in order, vacuum, dust, iron….I should do some of that today! Should I? BOO. 

Nah.

Welp, the fires were a scary event, the winds even more so. We had approx 90mph winds and it felt as though the roof was going to be ripped off. Then all of a sudden they stopped and we couldn’t see much for about 5 days. Once the smoke lifted, the devastation was laid bare. 

The office had to be closed a few days due to smoke inside the building. I still went in for a little bit, but it was bad. My eyes streamed with burning tears most of the time I was there.

I’m still cleaning up ash and stuff that got into my apartment even though the doors and windows were closed (the win was that bad!),

Right now though, I’m on day one of jury duty. Thank goodness I’m not in downtown LA this time. This courthouse is a “one day if you don’t get picked and you’re done” location, but it looks like they have a lot of trials. 

I’m bored.