This flu season is particularly terrible with a death toll. We’d all gotten our flu shots early but we also stayed away from humanity as much as possible. It didn’t save us from the common cold, of course, one of the lesser scourges of having a preschooler attending a daycare where only fevers and vomiting are stay home worthy. Generally it’s ok, we’ve gotten through the worst of it in year one but I’m still pretty cautious and don’t share food and drink with JB if ze is dribbling fluids. We’re really lucky that ze has been relatively robust, certainly more so than I am, and recovers well or has been only lightly touched by most germs but even still, those nights when ze can’t stop coughing rend my heart. Ze is having one such night so I’m sitting up cuddling a bundle of mostly sleeping three year old so that, even if the propping up doesn’t help zir breathing and coughing, ze knows I’m here and loving on zir. It’s almost more for me than zir. I miss my mom fiercely, never more so than when I’m sick or hurting to the point of vomiting, and long to lay my head on her lap. I understand now why she was sad that I didn’t do so as a young adult, when I was busy trying to carry a burden twice my size. At the time, I didn’t think I could afford to need my mom. I had to be strong every minute lest a crack in my shields break them wide open. All the more my loss. I could have gotten and given comfort that I’ll never have again. Now, with my own child, I know to hold on tight on these late nights when maybe all the comfort I can give is being a human pillow. That’s fine. As long as ze still wants me, I’m here to be zir pillow. (more…)
The focus on Vicki Robin as one of the most core referenced people (instead of FIRE bloggers who are newer to the scene and the lifestyle).
QUOTE: Missing is any acknowledgment of the privilege embedded in the ability to save 50% or 75% of your income to begin with. The FIRE movement, to a large extent, remains a culture of “very entitled white men who are very proud of themselves when it wasn’t much of a stretch for them anyway,” says Emma Pattee, 27, a writer based in Portland, Ore., who retired last year at 26 after making successful real estate investments. Many FIRE followers, she says, are already high earners who “disdain all the Midwest minions who can’t get out in front of their truck loan.”
QUOTE: Tanja Hester, a FIRE follower who leans toward the frugal strain of the movement and retired late last year at age 38 from her career as a consultant for political and social causes, realizes she’s in a privileged position. “I feel like one of the luckiest people to ever live, and if I can’t use some of it to help others, it will feel like a waste,” she says. She and her husband, who live in the North Lake Tahoe area of California, volunteer at the local humane society and plan to start teaching financial basics in their community.”
QUOTE: For her part, Robin gives back by investing in local businesses. Aside from using royalties to pay for cancer treatments in the mid-2000s, she says she’s given away a significant portion of the money she’s made over the years from her bestseller. And she still thinks our society places too much stock in paid work.
PRINCE!
Nothing Compares 2 U: Previously unseen rehearsal footage of Prince & The Revolution from the summer of 1984.
Breakfast: PiC whips up GF pancakes for me, and regular just-add-water flapjacks for the rest of the gang before we venture to IKEA to buy some gifts.
Lunch: We end that epic visit with lunch in their restaurant and an ice cream cone. (Don’t eat the cone! he warns me. I know, I reply sadly.) Most of their food has gluten but the salmon fillet with veggies plate is quite good, and GF! I feel full for the first time in days. Not sure if that’s because I’ve been inadvertently eating less or because I don’t feel full without six carbs for breakfast.
Dinner: We have leftovers for dinner again – those ribs make excellent tacos!
Pain/Discomfort: Hands are swollen badly, but I can still bend the fingers on my left hand. Cannot lift my arms above elbow level – it causes searing tendon pain. Back, hip, ankle, knee, shoulder pain is low.
I let PiC pick my new phone because he wasn’t really picking for me – he was picking his future phone. I have to learn to use whatever phones we get first so that I can troubleshoot them because I am IT, and I don’t much care about which phones we use as long as they’re functional and not Apple, now. (I refuse to give Apple any more money on principle. I find their confession to throttling older phones, and their excuse, to be fishy. Also, I HATE iTunes and iCloud and all the proprietary, frustrating as all get out software, and Apple ID, with a hot fiery passion and never want to have to see it again. Ever.)
Then again, since he inherits my now “old” phone which has quite a lot of use left in it, I’m destined to spend a few more years with them.
He was debating the Google Pixel and the Samsung Galaxy, and I decided in favor of the Pixel 2 since I would like the option to go to Project Fi in the future to save on monthly costs. We’re still getting service from T-Mobile but we’re paying more than I want to for cell service.
I don’t like buying new phones but it was originally to give us some flexibility as to our phone plans earlier on. Now, while I’m happy to sell our old phones, I am doubtful about buying used/refurbished – what if we get a lemon? Transferring phones is already a colossal PITA buying new, is buying used another layer of risk? Maybe no more than it is with a car which we DO believe in buying used.
I need to hunt down a verified reliable source for refurbished phones for the future. This time we simply didn’t have the luxury of waiting because his phone suddenly made the acquaintance of a large rock with extreme force and prejudice. Actual chunks of the screen were falling out when he got home from that run. Given the choice, I’d prefer that he temporarily lost it again but clearly the choice wasn’t mine.
Quick review: The phone is fine, though too big for my hands, but I HATE the Android WordPress app. It’s so bad that I’ve stopped blogging on it so that’s going to seriously slow down or cut into my blogging.
Fabulous finch story starts with … “Every year the same pair of finches returns to the bush outside my office window, and every year they have the same debate about whether or not to build their nest in exactly the same place. It is like an Avian Love It or List It.”
Beyonce and Beychella – making hearts sing: “I was supposed to perform at Coachella before, but I ended up getting pregnant,” she explained to the crowd of diehard fans who exchanged knowing laughter and cheers. “So I had time to dream and dream and dream with two beautiful souls in my belly,” she continued, “and I dreamed up this performance.”
I’ve been seeing research that suggests that a gluten-free diet may help the effects of my fibro and rosacea, not just anecdotes like I’d heard in the past and finally had to start considering that it might be something worth trying.
I hated the thought because oh how I love my carbs but I’ve lived with high levels of pain for most of my life. If a simple change in diet might help, I’ve got to try it.
I planned to wait until after our summer vacation to start because that would give me time to use up the gluten-ful ingredients we have stocked and phase in GF foods instead over the course of several weeks. Instead, PiC convinced me to start early because if it could help, why not find out earlier rather than later?
My order-loving soul is grumpy about it but his argument has a certain amount of logic. It takes at least two weeks, according to the experienced, for all the gluten to exit the system so I have to try this for at least 6 weeks to get any real sense of whether this will help.
I’m not a fan of people and one of the reasons is this: people can be remarkably ignorant, judgmental, and downright crappy. In general it doesn’t matter because I avoid them as much as I can, but in one aspect of my life, it can matter a great deal.
My illness, the incurable and constant pain and fatigue, has been bad for years. It’s debilitating. I find ways to work while fogged with fatigue and aching constantly because it’s important to earn while we can and we’re just not wealthy enough for me to rest on my laurels, but that the amount of energy eaten up by work is not going to my family and life and that sucks.
It also sucks that I’m doing as much as I reasonably can to live my life in a healthy way and what little improvement has resulted is incredibly incremental. That doesn’t do a heck of a lot for morale, I can tell you that much!
I’m very lucky not to struggle constantly with depression – that old specter has only haunted me a few times. I’m also very lucky not to be wheelchair-bound yet – that would pose a whole host of other accessibility problems that I’m not prepared to navigate. (more…)
Viral
Week 2
I’ve been seeing research that suggests that a gluten-free diet may help the effects of my fibro and rosacea, not just anecdotes like I’d heard in the past and finally had to start considering that it might be something worth trying.
I’m not a fan of people and one of the reasons is this: people can be remarkably ignorant, judgmental, and downright crappy. In general it doesn’t matter because I avoid them as much as I can, but in one aspect of my life, it can matter a great deal.