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flu vaccines
Jul. 25th, 2025 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redbirdThis is health/health care, specifically vaccines, but it's related to US politics: If you live in the United States and are wondering whether you can get a flu shot this fall, yes they will be available. Whether you have to pay for it depends on what kind of insurance you have. The following applies specifically to the flu vaccine, and not to most other vaccines.
If you have Medicare, the seasonal flu shot is covered at no charge. For adults with private insurance, that's up to the insurer, and Dr. Jeremy Faust thinks most insurance companies will cover it. For children, either their insurance covers the flu vaccine, or they can get it from the "Vaccines for Children" program, but only in certain locations, which do not include the pediatrician's office. I'm linking to Dr. Faust's post, and his description is complicated because it's describing a complicated situation.
https://insidemedicine.substack.com/p/is-rfk-jr-calling-the-shots-who-can
That article says that federal law also has specific rules for three other vaccines--pneumococcus, covid, and hepatitis B--but neither Dr. Faust nor the website he links to say whether the same rules apply to them and to seasonal flu shots.
The information above is as of July 25, 2025.
If you have Medicare, the seasonal flu shot is covered at no charge. For adults with private insurance, that's up to the insurer, and Dr. Jeremy Faust thinks most insurance companies will cover it. For children, either their insurance covers the flu vaccine, or they can get it from the "Vaccines for Children" program, but only in certain locations, which do not include the pediatrician's office. I'm linking to Dr. Faust's post, and his description is complicated because it's describing a complicated situation.
https://insidemedicine.substack.com/p/is-rfk-jr-calling-the-shots-who-can
That article says that federal law also has specific rules for three other vaccines--pneumococcus, covid, and hepatitis B--but neither Dr. Faust nor the website he links to say whether the same rules apply to them and to seasonal flu shots.
The information above is as of July 25, 2025.
The sun will set in Lowell at 8:14 PM
Jul. 25th, 2025 12:41 pmlauradi7dwThe Lowell Folk Festival is this weekend.
https://lowellfolkfestival.org/
The Friday evening programming ends at 10 PM or, later than I usually drive.
I couldn't get there until almost 5 tomorrow, so that would be only 3 hours total under the won't stay past dark lifestyle.
Sunday might be rainy? I won't know until Sunday morning what time I can get there, anyway.
Roll a die?
https://lowellfolkfestival.org/
The Friday evening programming ends at 10 PM or, later than I usually drive.
I couldn't get there until almost 5 tomorrow, so that would be only 3 hours total under the won't stay past dark lifestyle.
Sunday might be rainy? I won't know until Sunday morning what time I can get there, anyway.
Roll a die?
Give me your address, get sent some weird question cards!
Jul. 25th, 2025 08:10 amsorcyressSo here's a thing!
In the streets of Providence this morning, Tuesday and I found these cards lying mysteriously on the ground.
Image Description:A deck of a hundred blue and purple cards each with a question on it.
They seem to be some sort of "getting to know you" game, probably aimed at tweens. Tuesday didn't want them, I don't particularly want them either but having picked up the litter I now want to make art out of it. Here's my concept!
If you get me your address1, I will write it in my rolodex. I will select 1-5 cards. I will mail them to you, in an envelope, with my return address in the corner! All I ask is that you someday answer at least one of the questions in a way I see it2.
Your deadline is "eventually". I will send cards to people until I run out of cards or get distracted (but I think I can guarantee sending them to anyone who gets me their address before Aug 14th.) I may or may not put this post onto other social medias as well.
Have fun!
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Sending Address: the comments on this post are screened, my email address is kdsorceress, gmail, you can text/Signal me if you know that number, whatever.
I'm happy to have international addresses. Please include a "good until" date if you know your address is subject to change.
2: The subtext here is "write me a letter or postcard with your answer", but you could just post it too if you want.
In the streets of Providence this morning, Tuesday and I found these cards lying mysteriously on the ground.
Image Description:A deck of a hundred blue and purple cards each with a question on it.
They seem to be some sort of "getting to know you" game, probably aimed at tweens. Tuesday didn't want them, I don't particularly want them either but having picked up the litter I now want to make art out of it. Here's my concept!
If you get me your address1, I will write it in my rolodex. I will select 1-5 cards. I will mail them to you, in an envelope, with my return address in the corner! All I ask is that you someday answer at least one of the questions in a way I see it2.
Your deadline is "eventually". I will send cards to people until I run out of cards or get distracted (but I think I can guarantee sending them to anyone who gets me their address before Aug 14th.) I may or may not put this post onto other social medias as well.
Have fun!
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Sending Address: the comments on this post are screened, my email address is kdsorceress, gmail, you can text/Signal me if you know that number, whatever.
I'm happy to have international addresses. Please include a "good until" date if you know your address is subject to change.
2: The subtext here is "write me a letter or postcard with your answer", but you could just post it too if you want.
Better
Jul. 25th, 2025 07:19 amspryngSomething has shifted in the last month. I don't know exactly what precipitated it, but things are... better. I'm more hopeful. Optimistic. Less beaten down and stressed out. A lot less "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up" and a more firm "I can do this."
It could be the diet change. My energy levels in general have been so much better and more stable. I haven't had a fatigue spell since I changed my diet in May. My anxiety has calmed down. I feel stronger and more in control.
It could be the failed therapy attempt. I actually just went through and canceled all the future appointments because I couldn't see myself going back. Not a good fit but also like, she was right: I need to continue building my support network and learn to lean on them. I've had a lot of good Thinks about how to do that in the past week. As well as Thinks about how to shift my perspective on all this, to embrace the good when it happens instead of constantly bracing for the bad.
I'm still low-level worried about my job, I'm still mostly solo-parenting, I'm still struggling to stay on top of basic chores, I'm still bad at actually feeding myself... but the mental shift is making it all a bit easier to handle. I've got my feelers out for other positions, I've got a pretty good routine on the solo-ing, chores are getting done and we don't exactly live in filth, and I signed up for some premade meal delivery because fuck it, I deserve a break.
Nothing has changed. Everything has changed. Brains are so weird. I'm also excited and hopeful for finishing the edits on catastrophe!WIP -- I still think it's got legs when it comes to marketability, I just need to find the right agent. And then though the idea of going through that process fills me with the unsettling buzzing of a giant hornet nest, I feel like I can handle it. Versus early July, when all I wanted to do was succumb to my own worry and give up entirely.
Anyway, on this high I went ahead and scheduled a week of PTO for the first week of August. I'm going to finish these edits if I haven't by then, revise my query letter, write a synopsis, and send out my first batch that week. It's a lot but I'm honestly probably going to be done with edits next week, my query letter is already pretty solid, and I just need to write the synopsis.
I also want to give CG one last summer hurrah before school starts -- either a day at the beach or the springs, it'll be her choice. Because summer! Almost over! How! After school starts, it becomes a lot more difficult to just bugger off to a body of water, so: now, I guess.
Anyway. Yeah. Brains? Brains.
It could be the diet change. My energy levels in general have been so much better and more stable. I haven't had a fatigue spell since I changed my diet in May. My anxiety has calmed down. I feel stronger and more in control.
It could be the failed therapy attempt. I actually just went through and canceled all the future appointments because I couldn't see myself going back. Not a good fit but also like, she was right: I need to continue building my support network and learn to lean on them. I've had a lot of good Thinks about how to do that in the past week. As well as Thinks about how to shift my perspective on all this, to embrace the good when it happens instead of constantly bracing for the bad.
I'm still low-level worried about my job, I'm still mostly solo-parenting, I'm still struggling to stay on top of basic chores, I'm still bad at actually feeding myself... but the mental shift is making it all a bit easier to handle. I've got my feelers out for other positions, I've got a pretty good routine on the solo-ing, chores are getting done and we don't exactly live in filth, and I signed up for some premade meal delivery because fuck it, I deserve a break.
Nothing has changed. Everything has changed. Brains are so weird. I'm also excited and hopeful for finishing the edits on catastrophe!WIP -- I still think it's got legs when it comes to marketability, I just need to find the right agent. And then though the idea of going through that process fills me with the unsettling buzzing of a giant hornet nest, I feel like I can handle it. Versus early July, when all I wanted to do was succumb to my own worry and give up entirely.
Anyway, on this high I went ahead and scheduled a week of PTO for the first week of August. I'm going to finish these edits if I haven't by then, revise my query letter, write a synopsis, and send out my first batch that week. It's a lot but I'm honestly probably going to be done with edits next week, my query letter is already pretty solid, and I just need to write the synopsis.
I also want to give CG one last summer hurrah before school starts -- either a day at the beach or the springs, it'll be her choice. Because summer! Almost over! How! After school starts, it becomes a lot more difficult to just bugger off to a body of water, so: now, I guess.
Anyway. Yeah. Brains? Brains.
(no subject)
Jul. 24th, 2025 10:23 pmsorcyressTime to write my words!
Today has been a good day! Albeit a fairly low-key one.
I slept in until nearly ten, which feels...luxurious and stuff? I dunno man, Tuesday had to leave the house by like 7:30am so ke could get to work on time, which is very early for a non-teacher. (in contrast, Austin can leave after 9, as long as he's got his bike, or just before if he's walking to the shuttle). But I did not get out of bed at the same time! I stayed floppy and happy and snoozy and had weird edges of dreams and it was _great_ frankly. 10/10.
Got up, fucked around Tuesday's apartment, ate some snax, mostly played a bunch of Stardew because _obvs_. Managed to just begin an experiment with Camping Out, and now my next day is going to be waking up next to the skull mine and charging through it as deep as I can. Mua ha ha and stuff! (I possibly shouldn't have done this on the day I need to harvest my snowmelons (powdermelons?) but that's fine, it's fine, I can just be a day late with them since I don't really want to spend all my pinecones on more anyways, so maybe I'll just leave them lying around).
Tuesday got home around five, and we snuggled a bit and then walked off to a farmer's market not too far from ker place. We bought neat art! I got horrible barbie-arm earrings and I love them _so much_ already, and also earrings that might actually be a gift for Alys now that I think of it, and also talked to a very enthusiastic artist who makes acrylic rings (!) and they are so bright and chonky and wonderful and I'm going to use them as hair rings for my braids. She was completely charmed by the idea, and so I took one of her cards and promised I'd send a photo. So now I actually have to do that, but it'll be fun and I have all the right tools for it.
(At the yard sale SamSam and I went to over the weekend, I also bought more things to be hair rings, so I really am due a proper fun braiding).
We also stopped by a little food truck and got borgers1 and a different food truck for fries and enjoyed the stunning weather --warm but breezy and very pleasant in the shade. There were children and families and the occasional dog, and some kind of theatre happening, and it felt really good to be hanging out in A Community (even if it's technically not my community).
Also on the way home we saw a cat, who Tuesday gave much adoration to, and I finally got my Merlin app set up enough to put in some birds that I saw. I now have Two Birds on my life list, so I assume that's most of them2.
We got home in plenty of time before my much-delayed "weekly watch Taskmaster with Tailsteak" date, which we are currently _very_ behind on. We have now seen episode 3 of UK season 19, please no spoilers, yes it's a very good one. I think there's a series of NZ being uploaded to the YouTube now, that's certainly next, and then we should line up and ensure we're caught up on all the various English speaking ones. Maybe someday we will venture into the wonderful world of subtitles? I know at least a few are on official YouTube, and they do tend to have pretty good subtitles for the English ones, so I have hope!
Anyways, seeing Tailsteak was really good because he's my bro and it's nice to have someone I can fistbump (metaphorically) and brag to and gas up and also analyze the comedy and figure out how we could do it better. And then he disappeared halfway through, because there was a thunderstorm, and it's plausible I have narrowed down where he lives to the circle on the outage map for his city. He did not confirm or deny, but it's possible he ignored my message because I sent it while he was no-internet.
What no, I'm sure he wouldn't give his address to me, a total stranger from the internet, I might be some sort of creep.
ANYways, he did make it back online, and we did finish the episode, and now I am doing words and soon I am going sleep. Tomorrow I take the train back to Boston and, I dunno, fuck around a bit? Austin and I have a maybe train-and-bike-adventure-plan for Saturday, which I'm looking forward to!
<333
~Sor
MOOP!
1: congratulations Ezri, you have in fact ruined my vocabulary in this way, "burgers" actually sounds wrong now, I love having a family that influences my familect <3 (that second part is entirely sincere, I really do love my weird little house-family so much!)
2: Like, how many birds total are there? Ten?
Today has been a good day! Albeit a fairly low-key one.
I slept in until nearly ten, which feels...luxurious and stuff? I dunno man, Tuesday had to leave the house by like 7:30am so ke could get to work on time, which is very early for a non-teacher. (in contrast, Austin can leave after 9, as long as he's got his bike, or just before if he's walking to the shuttle). But I did not get out of bed at the same time! I stayed floppy and happy and snoozy and had weird edges of dreams and it was _great_ frankly. 10/10.
Got up, fucked around Tuesday's apartment, ate some snax, mostly played a bunch of Stardew because _obvs_. Managed to just begin an experiment with Camping Out, and now my next day is going to be waking up next to the skull mine and charging through it as deep as I can. Mua ha ha and stuff! (I possibly shouldn't have done this on the day I need to harvest my snowmelons (powdermelons?) but that's fine, it's fine, I can just be a day late with them since I don't really want to spend all my pinecones on more anyways, so maybe I'll just leave them lying around).
Tuesday got home around five, and we snuggled a bit and then walked off to a farmer's market not too far from ker place. We bought neat art! I got horrible barbie-arm earrings and I love them _so much_ already, and also earrings that might actually be a gift for Alys now that I think of it, and also talked to a very enthusiastic artist who makes acrylic rings (!) and they are so bright and chonky and wonderful and I'm going to use them as hair rings for my braids. She was completely charmed by the idea, and so I took one of her cards and promised I'd send a photo. So now I actually have to do that, but it'll be fun and I have all the right tools for it.
(At the yard sale SamSam and I went to over the weekend, I also bought more things to be hair rings, so I really am due a proper fun braiding).
We also stopped by a little food truck and got borgers1 and a different food truck for fries and enjoyed the stunning weather --warm but breezy and very pleasant in the shade. There were children and families and the occasional dog, and some kind of theatre happening, and it felt really good to be hanging out in A Community (even if it's technically not my community).
Also on the way home we saw a cat, who Tuesday gave much adoration to, and I finally got my Merlin app set up enough to put in some birds that I saw. I now have Two Birds on my life list, so I assume that's most of them2.
We got home in plenty of time before my much-delayed "weekly watch Taskmaster with Tailsteak" date, which we are currently _very_ behind on. We have now seen episode 3 of UK season 19, please no spoilers, yes it's a very good one. I think there's a series of NZ being uploaded to the YouTube now, that's certainly next, and then we should line up and ensure we're caught up on all the various English speaking ones. Maybe someday we will venture into the wonderful world of subtitles? I know at least a few are on official YouTube, and they do tend to have pretty good subtitles for the English ones, so I have hope!
Anyways, seeing Tailsteak was really good because he's my bro and it's nice to have someone I can fistbump (metaphorically) and brag to and gas up and also analyze the comedy and figure out how we could do it better. And then he disappeared halfway through, because there was a thunderstorm, and it's plausible I have narrowed down where he lives to the circle on the outage map for his city. He did not confirm or deny, but it's possible he ignored my message because I sent it while he was no-internet.
What no, I'm sure he wouldn't give his address to me, a total stranger from the internet, I might be some sort of creep.
ANYways, he did make it back online, and we did finish the episode, and now I am doing words and soon I am going sleep. Tomorrow I take the train back to Boston and, I dunno, fuck around a bit? Austin and I have a maybe train-and-bike-adventure-plan for Saturday, which I'm looking forward to!
<333
~Sor
MOOP!
1: congratulations Ezri, you have in fact ruined my vocabulary in this way, "burgers" actually sounds wrong now, I love having a family that influences my familect <3 (that second part is entirely sincere, I really do love my weird little house-family so much!)
2: Like, how many birds total are there? Ten?
A little less predictable?
Jul. 24th, 2025 08:52 pmlauradi7dwTo give credit where due, youtube on my phone has been offering more of a mix lately.
First there was this
It led me to listen to a lot of their other songs. I can't listen to that one without thinking of Poirot, though (not a youtube rec). Start at about 10 seconds in
How did youtube know that I started listening to this song (I've Endured) in the mid-1970s, when I first started working for Rounder. Ola Belle Reed was recording number 0021. These folks weren't even born then. Different continent, too.
A not unreasonable next suggestion
It irritates me that she called it traditional. It was by the Carter Family, whose original version is much better, IMO, but they aren't around to raise money for hurricane relief in western NC. It wants me to login to google to donate to the gofundme? WTH? I might figure out some other way to donate - FEMA isn't going to do any follow-up.
Is it just musical style, or does youtube know that I grew up in the same state? (about 250 miles east, though).
Speaking of youtube knowing things, an ad for a clothing catalogue that was mentioned just once, very briefly, at knitting group showed up. The friend's dress that prompted the conversation was nice, but out of peevishness I am not going to look at the online catalogue.
First there was this
It led me to listen to a lot of their other songs. I can't listen to that one without thinking of Poirot, though (not a youtube rec). Start at about 10 seconds in
How did youtube know that I started listening to this song (I've Endured) in the mid-1970s, when I first started working for Rounder. Ola Belle Reed was recording number 0021. These folks weren't even born then. Different continent, too.
A not unreasonable next suggestion
It irritates me that she called it traditional. It was by the Carter Family, whose original version is much better, IMO, but they aren't around to raise money for hurricane relief in western NC. It wants me to login to google to donate to the gofundme? WTH? I might figure out some other way to donate - FEMA isn't going to do any follow-up.
Is it just musical style, or does youtube know that I grew up in the same state? (about 250 miles east, though).
Speaking of youtube knowing things, an ad for a clothing catalogue that was mentioned just once, very briefly, at knitting group showed up. The friend's dress that prompted the conversation was nice, but out of peevishness I am not going to look at the online catalogue.
Accomplishments in video game life
Jul. 23rd, 2025 08:45 pmsorcyressHere's the Stardew footnote! Does Dreamwidth have Spoiler Tagging? 
( like, maybe, but I'm just going to put it under a cut instead. Spoilers are below but also please try not to give me additional spoilers very much, I am trying mostly to figure things out on my own! )
There's probably more things I could say, but that feels good for now. I am enjoying this video game!
~Sor
MOOP!
( like, maybe, but I'm just going to put it under a cut instead. Spoilers are below but also please try not to give me additional spoilers very much, I am trying mostly to figure things out on my own! )There's probably more things I could say, but that feels good for now. I am enjoying this video game!
~Sor
MOOP!
Accomplishments in real life
Jul. 23rd, 2025 08:45 pmsorcyressI am on a train to Providence!
Yes, my summer is _extremely_ flitting about from place to place and partner to partner. I am okay with this, mostly, although I do really wish I had a bunch of time to just...rest and do nothing? I think that's the short span of time between "home from Maryland" and "pre-the-thing".
(don't worry about the thing. I can't remember whether I've mentioned it explicitly on socials, and it is a good thing, but I'm superstitious and it's a complicated good thing. I'll tell y'all in late August.)
Despite the fact that I desperately would like to do Absolutely Nothing With My Life Except Play Stardew Valley1, I did actually write myself a short list of normal goals and stretch goals for "what needs to happen before I go to Providence" and then I made progress on literally _all_ of them, including the stretchy ones! Here are some things I did today:
*Finshed unpacking from Pinewoods
*Packed for Providence
*Did partial packing for Maryland, by which I mean, made a pile of stuff on my floor. But it has probably enough clothes and a few other things I'll need? I don't think I will need a particularly large amount of stuff in MD, although I should a) remember to tell people I'll be in MD and want to hang and b) bring extra packing space because part of the point is helping mom clean out/sort all my grandparents' old stuff and some of it I might want to claim.
*Vacuumed the downstairs. It was a subpar vacuuming job, but I got a noticeable quantity of cat hair off the floor/furniture, so I'm counting it as a win. (I swept the kitchen yesterday).
*Cleaned the toilet and rinsed out the sink. I didn't like...bother to actually spray the sink with cleaner like I should've. I am a master of "half-assing a job is greater than no-assing a job" is what I'm saying.
*Brought my bike to the bike shop. It has been a while! It has also been a while since I've ridden my bike, being as I got a flat in like November and went "welp, that's it for the season" and just dumped my bike in the garage until the weather got warmer and then couldn't get the tyre off the rim. So. It will be some work. I will not get it back in time for the weekend, but they are okay with me leaving it in the shop until I return from Maryland.
*Went to the pharmacy and got a thing and didn't get another thing but know what date I can theoretically get the other thing (Friday).
So that's lots of good tasks, and then I rode on a train and played three days of Stardew and wrote most of the above (and the next post). Now I'm at Tuesday's house and we have eaten snax and watched good stuff with the initials BB2. I am happy to be snuggling with my sweetie!
Not sure what my next plans are. Fuck around. More stardew. Maybe some photo organizing or other digital projects. Sleep. Is good. Happy summer.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: You know how sometimes you start to write a footnote and it becomes a whole _thing_? I'm just gonna make a separate post about Stardew.
2: We started Blues Brothers a couple weeks ago and then couldn't finish it because it turns out to be really fucking hard to get seats together on the train when you're not boarding at a terminus, so we finished that, and then watched S1E5 of Black Books, which is the one with Bernard getting locked out (a masterpiece, honestly).
Yes, my summer is _extremely_ flitting about from place to place and partner to partner. I am okay with this, mostly, although I do really wish I had a bunch of time to just...rest and do nothing? I think that's the short span of time between "home from Maryland" and "pre-the-thing".
(don't worry about the thing. I can't remember whether I've mentioned it explicitly on socials, and it is a good thing, but I'm superstitious and it's a complicated good thing. I'll tell y'all in late August.)
Despite the fact that I desperately would like to do Absolutely Nothing With My Life Except Play Stardew Valley1, I did actually write myself a short list of normal goals and stretch goals for "what needs to happen before I go to Providence" and then I made progress on literally _all_ of them, including the stretchy ones! Here are some things I did today:
*Finshed unpacking from Pinewoods
*Packed for Providence
*Did partial packing for Maryland, by which I mean, made a pile of stuff on my floor. But it has probably enough clothes and a few other things I'll need? I don't think I will need a particularly large amount of stuff in MD, although I should a) remember to tell people I'll be in MD and want to hang and b) bring extra packing space because part of the point is helping mom clean out/sort all my grandparents' old stuff and some of it I might want to claim.
*Vacuumed the downstairs. It was a subpar vacuuming job, but I got a noticeable quantity of cat hair off the floor/furniture, so I'm counting it as a win. (I swept the kitchen yesterday).
*Cleaned the toilet and rinsed out the sink. I didn't like...bother to actually spray the sink with cleaner like I should've. I am a master of "half-assing a job is greater than no-assing a job" is what I'm saying.
*Brought my bike to the bike shop. It has been a while! It has also been a while since I've ridden my bike, being as I got a flat in like November and went "welp, that's it for the season" and just dumped my bike in the garage until the weather got warmer and then couldn't get the tyre off the rim. So. It will be some work. I will not get it back in time for the weekend, but they are okay with me leaving it in the shop until I return from Maryland.
*Went to the pharmacy and got a thing and didn't get another thing but know what date I can theoretically get the other thing (Friday).
So that's lots of good tasks, and then I rode on a train and played three days of Stardew and wrote most of the above (and the next post). Now I'm at Tuesday's house and we have eaten snax and watched good stuff with the initials BB2. I am happy to be snuggling with my sweetie!
Not sure what my next plans are. Fuck around. More stardew. Maybe some photo organizing or other digital projects. Sleep. Is good. Happy summer.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: You know how sometimes you start to write a footnote and it becomes a whole _thing_? I'm just gonna make a separate post about Stardew.
2: We started Blues Brothers a couple weeks ago and then couldn't finish it because it turns out to be really fucking hard to get seats together on the train when you're not boarding at a terminus, so we finished that, and then watched S1E5 of Black Books, which is the one with Bernard getting locked out (a masterpiece, honestly).
Wednesday reading
Jul. 23rd, 2025 05:43 pmredbirdI read fewer books than I'd expected to while I was in London. Recently finished:
The Grimoire Grammar School Parent-Teacher Association, by Caitlin Rozakis, is a fantasy novel about a magical school, from the viewpoint of a student's parent.
The Eights, by Joanna Miller, is about four women students who enroll at Oxford University the year the university starts offering degrees to female students. It's set in 1920-21, with flashbacks to earlier in the four women's lives. (The "eights" in the title means the residents of corridor 8.)
Between Silk and Cyanide: A Code-maker's War, by Leo Marks, describes working at one of the British government agencies that sent coded messages to underground agents in occupied Europe during the second world war. The author's job included deciphering messages that were mangled either in transit, or by the agent who encoded them, and coming up with new and hopefully better codes.
Evvie Blake Starts Over, by Linda Holmes, is about a woman who was in the process of leaving her husband when he died in a car accident, and her recovery from both the bad marriage and from all the people who expect her to be grieving him. A romance, more or less.
I enjoyed all of these, and don't remember who recommendedany most of them to me (adrian_turtle just reminded me that she recommended The Grimoire Grammar School PTA). There's a range of moods here, less because of planning than because of what came up on my library hold lists.
None of these books are useful for my Boston Public Library summer reading bingo cards: I'd already filled the squares for "book with a name in the title" and "published in 2025." I have a book with a green cover on my desk, and got email while I was in London telling me that it had been automatically renewed for another three weeks.
The Grimoire Grammar School Parent-Teacher Association, by Caitlin Rozakis, is a fantasy novel about a magical school, from the viewpoint of a student's parent.
The Eights, by Joanna Miller, is about four women students who enroll at Oxford University the year the university starts offering degrees to female students. It's set in 1920-21, with flashbacks to earlier in the four women's lives. (The "eights" in the title means the residents of corridor 8.)
Between Silk and Cyanide: A Code-maker's War, by Leo Marks, describes working at one of the British government agencies that sent coded messages to underground agents in occupied Europe during the second world war. The author's job included deciphering messages that were mangled either in transit, or by the agent who encoded them, and coming up with new and hopefully better codes.
Evvie Blake Starts Over, by Linda Holmes, is about a woman who was in the process of leaving her husband when he died in a car accident, and her recovery from both the bad marriage and from all the people who expect her to be grieving him. A romance, more or less.
I enjoyed all of these, and don't remember who recommended
adrian_turtle just reminded me that she recommended The Grimoire Grammar School PTA). There's a range of moods here, less because of planning than because of what came up on my library hold lists.None of these books are useful for my Boston Public Library summer reading bingo cards: I'd already filled the squares for "book with a name in the title" and "published in 2025." I have a book with a green cover on my desk, and got email while I was in London telling me that it had been automatically renewed for another three weeks.
(no subject)
Jul. 22nd, 2025 10:01 pmsorcyressI am having a lovely evening with Austin!
We ate dinner outside in the nice weather, and then we began a cooking adventure, and we watched an episode of Leverage while the shortbread cooled (it was the Ho Ho Ho Job, which is...a little uneven (Parker being THAT enthusiastic only kinda rings true to characterization; Chaos is a complicated part of the plotline) but ultimately a stupid fun episode, as opposed to a clever fun episode. I like both, and Leverage does both well!).
Now I am doing words and Austin is making caramel to put on the shortbread.
I have lots of things I should write about here, but I am somehow out of the habit. I would like to start that again, and especially to start reading here again. (I have picked up a little bit of Tumblr again, and that feels marvelous --it appears to be in order, and doesn't insert people I don't follow now that I figured out what settings to turn off. And saving images is just...easy, unlike Facebook. So that's grand!)
I hope you're well, and I will write more soon.
~Sor
MOOP!
We ate dinner outside in the nice weather, and then we began a cooking adventure, and we watched an episode of Leverage while the shortbread cooled (it was the Ho Ho Ho Job, which is...a little uneven (Parker being THAT enthusiastic only kinda rings true to characterization; Chaos is a complicated part of the plotline) but ultimately a stupid fun episode, as opposed to a clever fun episode. I like both, and Leverage does both well!).
Now I am doing words and Austin is making caramel to put on the shortbread.
I have lots of things I should write about here, but I am somehow out of the habit. I would like to start that again, and especially to start reading here again. (I have picked up a little bit of Tumblr again, and that feels marvelous --it appears to be in order, and doesn't insert people I don't follow now that I figured out what settings to turn off. And saving images is just...easy, unlike Facebook. So that's grand!)
I hope you're well, and I will write more soon.
~Sor
MOOP!
more notes on the trip to London
Jul. 22nd, 2025 06:54 pmredbirdIn no particular order:
Mom wanted my cousin Janet to have two rings, and two specific books, and we couldn't find any of them, despite searching repeatedly. This doesn't make sense: if only the jewelry was missing, it might conceivably have been stolen, even though other appealing jewelry was in her bedroom closet, including the few items that are mentioned in the will. If it was just those two used books, maybe they were put away somewhere safe. But there's no reason the rings and books would have been in the same place, where we couldn't find them while going through things that thoroughly.
Mark was already planning to take all of Mom's unclaimed jewelry back to New Orleans, photograph it, and offer it to our cousins. Because the rings Mom promised Janet are missing, he's going to give Janet first pick. (He, Linza, and the three of us have already looked at it, and taken a few things.)
The whole process was very amicable. We weren't arguing over who could take something that wasn't specifically left to either me or my brother, but agreeing that Mom's crystal might be pretty, but wasn't worth trying to take home on the plane. Instead, Mark took a glass bowl that a friend of his made, and Andy took a small piece of cranberry glass. There were two envelopes of paper money; we split the pounds, and I told Mark to take all the euros, because he's probably going to visit the EU fairly soon.
There were more than enough good photos of Mom, her parents, and other relatives for me and Mark to take home, in some cases duplicate prints of the same picture. I labeled a few photos of people I wasn't sure I'd recognize if not, including a couple of pictures of my paternal grandparents, and one of Dad's older sister. I decided I wanted my mother's first US passport, from a trip to Europe in 1953, and her resident alien card (from before they were green).
Mark took some photos and documents home because he thought Janet would want them, and he was willing to schlep things for her. I'm not sure if that's because he's one of the executors of the will, or simple generosity.
As we were packing yesterday, we decided to take Mom's salt and pepper grinders: they have no sentimental value, but we've been unhappy with both our current pepper grinders and one of our salt shakers.
otter's comment reminded me that there also is, or may be, a gold charm bracelet that belonged to our grandmother. Janet asked to buy it from me and Mark, but we didn't find it either, only a different gold charm bracelet that belonged to Simon's first wife. The one we found is in the will as going to his daughter Liz, and after Mark took a picture, Liz confirmed that the bracelet we found was her mother's, and Janet didn't recognize it. We left that in the flat, because Liz will be in London in a few months. It's possible, though not likely, that my aunt Lea had the bracelet Janet wants, and that it's still in her and Dave's apartment. We asked Lea's daughter Anne, who doesn't have it but is going to ask Dave.
If Dave finds it, or if the bracelet turns up a few months from now at Mom's flat, we'll give it to Janet, not sell it, but we're waiting until the bracelet turns up before telling her that.
[I am adding to this as I think of other things that seem to belong here.]
Mom wanted my cousin Janet to have two rings, and two specific books, and we couldn't find any of them, despite searching repeatedly. This doesn't make sense: if only the jewelry was missing, it might conceivably have been stolen, even though other appealing jewelry was in her bedroom closet, including the few items that are mentioned in the will. If it was just those two used books, maybe they were put away somewhere safe. But there's no reason the rings and books would have been in the same place, where we couldn't find them while going through things that thoroughly.
Mark was already planning to take all of Mom's unclaimed jewelry back to New Orleans, photograph it, and offer it to our cousins. Because the rings Mom promised Janet are missing, he's going to give Janet first pick. (He, Linza, and the three of us have already looked at it, and taken a few things.)
The whole process was very amicable. We weren't arguing over who could take something that wasn't specifically left to either me or my brother, but agreeing that Mom's crystal might be pretty, but wasn't worth trying to take home on the plane. Instead, Mark took a glass bowl that a friend of his made, and Andy took a small piece of cranberry glass. There were two envelopes of paper money; we split the pounds, and I told Mark to take all the euros, because he's probably going to visit the EU fairly soon.
There were more than enough good photos of Mom, her parents, and other relatives for me and Mark to take home, in some cases duplicate prints of the same picture. I labeled a few photos of people I wasn't sure I'd recognize if not, including a couple of pictures of my paternal grandparents, and one of Dad's older sister. I decided I wanted my mother's first US passport, from a trip to Europe in 1953, and her resident alien card (from before they were green).
Mark took some photos and documents home because he thought Janet would want them, and he was willing to schlep things for her. I'm not sure if that's because he's one of the executors of the will, or simple generosity.
As we were packing yesterday, we decided to take Mom's salt and pepper grinders: they have no sentimental value, but we've been unhappy with both our current pepper grinders and one of our salt shakers.
otter's comment reminded me that there also is, or may be, a gold charm bracelet that belonged to our grandmother. Janet asked to buy it from me and Mark, but we didn't find it either, only a different gold charm bracelet that belonged to Simon's first wife. The one we found is in the will as going to his daughter Liz, and after Mark took a picture, Liz confirmed that the bracelet we found was her mother's, and Janet didn't recognize it. We left that in the flat, because Liz will be in London in a few months. It's possible, though not likely, that my aunt Lea had the bracelet Janet wants, and that it's still in her and Dave's apartment. We asked Lea's daughter Anne, who doesn't have it but is going to ask Dave.If Dave finds it, or if the bracelet turns up a few months from now at Mom's flat, we'll give it to Janet, not sell it, but we're waiting until the bracelet turns up before telling her that.
[I am adding to this as I think of other things that seem to belong here.]
Well, I'm home
Jul. 22nd, 2025 08:36 amredbirdWe got home last night, very late in terms of the time zone we woke up in yesterday morning, then spent some time petting and playing with the cats, eating chocolate and ice cream, and unpacking a few things that I needed or wanted right away (slippers, toothbrush, and prescription drugs). I washed a few dishes, because I walked into the kitchen for chocolate and saw that we were almost out of clean mugs in the size we'd want for tea and coffee in the morning.
The trip home was OK as these things go: I ordered a cab to take us to Heathrow, using the service Mom always used, and paid in cash using my half of the British money she'd had in an envelope, including a generous tip for the driver. We had time to finish things like washing our dishes and clearing Mom's data off her computer before leaving, and enough time at the airport to be at the gate before boarding started, but not enough to get bored. I arranged the cab, and got us all aisle seats for the flight home, on Sunday, and then turned everything over to Cattitude and Adrian once we got to Heathrow. By the time we got off the plane, I was so worn out that I was stopping occasionally to lean on the walls in the airport, but fortunately doing better once we got home.
I woke up this morning at 7:30 Boston time, which seemed good--about 7.5 hours sleep, and back on my home time zone. The milk from before we left was iffy but the cut of tea tasted OK. The igniters for the stove burners didn't work when I turned them on, but I remembered both that we have long matches for just this purpose, and where we keep them, so that was OK for the moment, and we can investigate that further when Adrian and Cattitude are also awake.
We plan to do very little today: order groceries, unpack, and I might inject the about-monthly dose of my current MS medication, which I take every 4-6 weeks, and would have taken Saturday if we'd been home). Some balance PT would also be a good idea.
The trip home was OK as these things go: I ordered a cab to take us to Heathrow, using the service Mom always used, and paid in cash using my half of the British money she'd had in an envelope, including a generous tip for the driver. We had time to finish things like washing our dishes and clearing Mom's data off her computer before leaving, and enough time at the airport to be at the gate before boarding started, but not enough to get bored. I arranged the cab, and got us all aisle seats for the flight home, on Sunday, and then turned everything over to Cattitude and Adrian once we got to Heathrow. By the time we got off the plane, I was so worn out that I was stopping occasionally to lean on the walls in the airport, but fortunately doing better once we got home.
I woke up this morning at 7:30 Boston time, which seemed good--about 7.5 hours sleep, and back on my home time zone. The milk from before we left was iffy but the cut of tea tasted OK. The igniters for the stove burners didn't work when I turned them on, but I remembered both that we have long matches for just this purpose, and where we keep them, so that was OK for the moment, and we can investigate that further when Adrian and Cattitude are also awake.
We plan to do very little today: order groceries, unpack, and I might inject the about-monthly dose of my current MS medication, which I take every 4-6 weeks, and would have taken Saturday if we'd been home). Some balance PT would also be a good idea.
How much has changed in 70+ years?
Jul. 21st, 2025 08:23 pmlauradi7dwIn 1952, a short opera by Leonard Bernstein called Trouble in Tahiti debuted. The prologue came to mind today when I read the list of 50 wealthiest suburbs in the US. The first two suburbs mentioned in the song are Scarsdale and Wellesley
Scarsdale is #1 on the list. Wellesley comes in at #10, not #2, but still. I don't know why they're using the mean income instead of the median. I suppose a different list might result.
https://www.gobankingrates.com/money/wealth/these-are-americas-wealthiest-suburbs-in-2025/
Scarsdale is #1 on the list. Wellesley comes in at #10, not #2, but still. I don't know why they're using the mean income instead of the median. I suppose a different list might result.
https://www.gobankingrates.com/money/wealth/these-are-americas-wealthiest-suburbs-in-2025/
Early unnecessary death is always perturbing
Jul. 21st, 2025 03:19 pmlauradi7dwSomeone on twitter posted an interesting excerpt from an interview Malcolm Jamal Warner did about what it's like to be famous and still do auditions. I couldn't remember anything he had done but thought it might be worth tracking something down. Minutes later I learned that he died yesterday, drowning while on a family vacation in Costa Rica. I briefly felt completely disoriented - how could he be dead? A second ago he was saying an insightful thing in an interview (except it wasn't a second ago).
54 is too young. Drowning shouldn't happen. phooey.
54 is too young. Drowning shouldn't happen. phooey.
Aria's turning 10
Jul. 21st, 2025 08:47 amchanalehAria's 10th birthday is this coming Saturday. She didn't want to "use up" her actual birthday having her party (we always have a special day of doing whatever she wants), so we had it this past weekend. She wanted a slumber party, so we invited all the kids in her class for a pizza party 5-8pm and then girls to stay for a sleepover. Last year, we tried a similar format and only had 1 friend who actually showed up - though it was her BFF so that was the most important one. This year, she had 10 kids for the beginning part and 6 girls for the sleepover, which fortunately was about the most we could have crammed into her room.
Notes:
* To make this happen, we had to deep-clean the house, and particularly her room, which has been in a hazmat state for a couple of years and required a few months' intervention. We started out in early May saying "we're going to have a garage sale! let's start purging stuff down to the garage!" and by a week ago I was going "ok, still totally not ready but it's now or never" so we did that a week ago Sunday. Did not get rid of much stuff but cleared $100 (for my 12-hour day). Still have a garage full of crap that has to go somewhere!
* Aria and Mr. Y have been playing Ocarina of Time this year, so she wanted a Legend of Zelda themed party. Needless to say, there is not a lot of commercially available Legend of Zelda partyware at this point in time (RIP Party City), but we grabbed internet graphics and made signage and homemade party games, including Pin the Shield On Link, a Heart Pieces scavenger hunt, the boss level Ganondorf Swordfight Pinata, and the highlight: Kakariko Village Cucco Round-Up, which consisted of throwing rubber chickens up into her swingset playhouse. For this purpose we obtained a box of 20 x 6" rubber chickens which make an actual "bawk" noise when you squeak them. I don't think any of the other kids got why this had anything to do with Zelda, but they were all game.
* Only 1 girl took the "sleep-under" option wherein she hung out in her jammies until her mom picked her up at 11pm. I guess that means the group is getting to actually be old enough for sleepovers.
* The first activity on the sleepover agenda was Aria's homemade Kahoot quiz game, in which she prepared 10 trivia questions about herself. "What is Aria's favorite color? [lavender] What is Aria's SECOND favorite animal? [deer - the bunnies were the red herring, being her well-known FIRST favorite animal]" This worked out great since every single child had brought her own phone or tablet from which to ring in (the one exception, the 8yo, got to borrow my phone for a few minutes).
* The second activity was YouTube Karaoke, in which they take turns looking up YouTube videos with lyrics to any song in the world and stand up front to sing along. This was way more of a success than I expected. Aria kicked it off with "Guns and Ships," which she has been practicing hard. :-) At some point I snuck in between songs with bowls of M&Ms and Reese's cups, and one of them said admiringly "Aria, your mom came in clutch," which is an accolade I will treasure forever.
* Aria got peopled out around 10pm and escaped up to her room with her cousin, where they sat quietly playing 99 Nights in the Forest (a Roblox game) for the rest of the evening. The rest of the girls stayed in the living room and watched KPop Demon Hunters once they got bored of karaoke. I would actually have liked to see that myself (I've been hearing good things since Aria watched it the first day it was out), but I couldn't see trying to sit down long enough, let alone squeeze into the living room.
* Did I mention that Mr. Y had been recruited to play a gig that night and was out of the house after 6:30pm? By 11pm I was making my 4th batch of popcorn and pondering the wisdom of a double vodka tonic with an ibuprofen chaser.
* By about 11:45pm everyone was in the bathroom brushing their teeth at the same time, which I have to admit was super adorable.
* We got everyone settled into Aria's room and I was out cold in my own bed by 12:30am. Around 4:30am I heard some sort of kerfuffle across the hall, had to go in and intervene. It turned out that no one had actually been to sleep yet at all (that, too, is traditional), it's too hot, she's kicking me! etc etc, but I made them all put their tablets away and try to sleep.
* The first parent pickup came at 9:30am. It was an adventure trying to get one half-asleep kid (the 8yo) extricated from the puppy pile, and we never did find her shoes, let alone the rest of her belongings; they're going to have to come back for them later this week. Everyone else started lurching downstairs like zombies around 10:30am, until they hit critical mass and suddenly it was peak squealing time again. :-)
* Overall a success, and it's nice to have a mostly clean house now, but OMG all of us need to sleep for a week to recover.
Notes:
* To make this happen, we had to deep-clean the house, and particularly her room, which has been in a hazmat state for a couple of years and required a few months' intervention. We started out in early May saying "we're going to have a garage sale! let's start purging stuff down to the garage!" and by a week ago I was going "ok, still totally not ready but it's now or never" so we did that a week ago Sunday. Did not get rid of much stuff but cleared $100 (for my 12-hour day). Still have a garage full of crap that has to go somewhere!
* Aria and Mr. Y have been playing Ocarina of Time this year, so she wanted a Legend of Zelda themed party. Needless to say, there is not a lot of commercially available Legend of Zelda partyware at this point in time (RIP Party City), but we grabbed internet graphics and made signage and homemade party games, including Pin the Shield On Link, a Heart Pieces scavenger hunt, the boss level Ganondorf Swordfight Pinata, and the highlight: Kakariko Village Cucco Round-Up, which consisted of throwing rubber chickens up into her swingset playhouse. For this purpose we obtained a box of 20 x 6" rubber chickens which make an actual "bawk" noise when you squeak them. I don't think any of the other kids got why this had anything to do with Zelda, but they were all game.
* Only 1 girl took the "sleep-under" option wherein she hung out in her jammies until her mom picked her up at 11pm. I guess that means the group is getting to actually be old enough for sleepovers.
* The first activity on the sleepover agenda was Aria's homemade Kahoot quiz game, in which she prepared 10 trivia questions about herself. "What is Aria's favorite color? [lavender] What is Aria's SECOND favorite animal? [deer - the bunnies were the red herring, being her well-known FIRST favorite animal]" This worked out great since every single child had brought her own phone or tablet from which to ring in (the one exception, the 8yo, got to borrow my phone for a few minutes).
* The second activity was YouTube Karaoke, in which they take turns looking up YouTube videos with lyrics to any song in the world and stand up front to sing along. This was way more of a success than I expected. Aria kicked it off with "Guns and Ships," which she has been practicing hard. :-) At some point I snuck in between songs with bowls of M&Ms and Reese's cups, and one of them said admiringly "Aria, your mom came in clutch," which is an accolade I will treasure forever.
* Aria got peopled out around 10pm and escaped up to her room with her cousin, where they sat quietly playing 99 Nights in the Forest (a Roblox game) for the rest of the evening. The rest of the girls stayed in the living room and watched KPop Demon Hunters once they got bored of karaoke. I would actually have liked to see that myself (I've been hearing good things since Aria watched it the first day it was out), but I couldn't see trying to sit down long enough, let alone squeeze into the living room.
* Did I mention that Mr. Y had been recruited to play a gig that night and was out of the house after 6:30pm? By 11pm I was making my 4th batch of popcorn and pondering the wisdom of a double vodka tonic with an ibuprofen chaser.
* By about 11:45pm everyone was in the bathroom brushing their teeth at the same time, which I have to admit was super adorable.
* We got everyone settled into Aria's room and I was out cold in my own bed by 12:30am. Around 4:30am I heard some sort of kerfuffle across the hall, had to go in and intervene. It turned out that no one had actually been to sleep yet at all (that, too, is traditional), it's too hot, she's kicking me! etc etc, but I made them all put their tablets away and try to sleep.
* The first parent pickup came at 9:30am. It was an adventure trying to get one half-asleep kid (the 8yo) extricated from the puppy pile, and we never did find her shoes, let alone the rest of her belongings; they're going to have to come back for them later this week. Everyone else started lurching downstairs like zombies around 10:30am, until they hit critical mass and suddenly it was peak squealing time again. :-)
* Overall a success, and it's nice to have a mostly clean house now, but OMG all of us need to sleep for a week to recover.
incoherent (non) travel thoughts
Jul. 21st, 2025 07:43 amlauradi7dwI have not been out of Massachusetts since last November, when Arthur's mother died. The next trip I have scheduled in in December, for another family gathering. I had had the thought of taking Amtrak as a day-trip to visit a friend near Portland Maine sometime this summer. I have considered going to Newark for a concert or to NYC really soon to see Audra McDonald's Mama Rose before "Gypsy" closes (earlier than expected). Although aside from being in the room for that performance I'd actually rather see "Maybe Happy Ending" if I got off the bus/train in Manhattan. But would I rather stay home? Going back and forth to see Flo's family might be plenty of travel.
As opposed to going to Japan, not ever on my list except that a friend will be there in the fall for a family thing and it's close enough to South Korea that one can still go on a boat.
As opposed to going to Japan, not ever on my list except that a friend will be there in the fall for a family thing and it's close enough to South Korea that one can still go on a boat.
National Gallery
Jul. 20th, 2025 09:14 pmredbirdWe went into central London this afternoon, intending to visit the British Museum, but we made a very late start, and after our late lunch discovered they were sold out of (free) tickets for today.
So we went to the National Gallery, a few bus stops away, and looked at paintings. I wasn't up for a huge amount of walking, but bny the time I was ready to leave, so were Adrian and Cattitude. We spent a few minutes just enjoyong being in Trafalgar Square on a sunny afternoon, then walked to Charing Cross to get the Underground. Annoyingly, while it was (as whichever app Cattitude was using said) only a few minutes walk to Charing Cross, there was a lot more walking underground, and we had to go down several flights of stairs.
ETA: I was emotionally worn out to the point that I was glad it was just the three of us yesterday, not socializing with anyone else. I hadn't realized that beforehand, only that I was tired enough that committing to anything involving other people seemed imprudent. Being around my brother for most of several consecutive days was a lot of 'there are people here,' even though, or because, much of it wasn't socializing so much as being near each other and sometimes asking whether we needed, or wanted, various items.
I was pleasantly surprised by how little my joints hurt by the time we got back to Mom's flat. I took both naproxen and acetominophen before we left, and wore my better walking shoes and a pair of smartwool socks, and the combination sdeems to have done me a lot of good.
We're flying home tomorrow. I booked a cab, which will pick us up at 2:15, and logged onto the British Airways website and changed the (acceptable) seats it had assigned us to ones we like better (I got us all aisle seats, instead of all next to each other so one person was in a middle seat).
So we went to the National Gallery, a few bus stops away, and looked at paintings. I wasn't up for a huge amount of walking, but bny the time I was ready to leave, so were Adrian and Cattitude. We spent a few minutes just enjoyong being in Trafalgar Square on a sunny afternoon, then walked to Charing Cross to get the Underground. Annoyingly, while it was (as whichever app Cattitude was using said) only a few minutes walk to Charing Cross, there was a lot more walking underground, and we had to go down several flights of stairs.
ETA: I was emotionally worn out to the point that I was glad it was just the three of us yesterday, not socializing with anyone else. I hadn't realized that beforehand, only that I was tired enough that committing to anything involving other people seemed imprudent. Being around my brother for most of several consecutive days was a lot of 'there are people here,' even though, or because, much of it wasn't socializing so much as being near each other and sometimes asking whether we needed, or wanted, various items.
I was pleasantly surprised by how little my joints hurt by the time we got back to Mom's flat. I took both naproxen and acetominophen before we left, and wore my better walking shoes and a pair of smartwool socks, and the combination sdeems to have done me a lot of good.
We're flying home tomorrow. I booked a cab, which will pick us up at 2:15, and logged onto the British Airways website and changed the (acceptable) seats it had assigned us to ones we like better (I got us all aisle seats, instead of all next to each other so one person was in a middle seat).