New Header (at last!)

Posted on August 12, 2021 by Thistle

This morning, I looked out the window and saw a gorgeous butterfly in the flower garden right outside my bedroom. I couldn’t tell immediately if it was a gulf fritillary (which is one of the most common I see) with very distinct markings, or if it was a different fritillary variant. Turned out to be the former, but I got a very lovely photo of it while trying to determine this:

So lovely, in fact, that I realized it might work as a header for this blog. The former header was from 2017, and I was saying around my blogoversary this past February that it was outdated and needed a change. And after all, my blog name is The Zen Leaf, and this is a butterfly chilling on a zinnia petal…

After cropping it down to the right size, it turned out to be perfect. Will I keep it forever? Nah. But right now, it feels right. I really needed this little change.

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My Top Ten Moments of the Olympics

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Thistle

Now that the closing ceremony is over and there’s something like six months before my next Olympics binge (heh), here are my favorite moments from the 2020(1) Summer Olympics, in no particular order:

1. Ahmed Hafnaoui, the 18-year-old underdog from Tunisia who won the 400m freestyle, plus the priceless reaction of his family

2. Mutaz Barshim of Qatar and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy choosing to share the gold rather than do a jump off to determine a winner in the high jump – if you haven’t seen the videos of these two, who were apparently long-time friends, screaming and crying and hugging each other, it’s worth looking up

3. Rebeca Andrade from Brazil winning silver on gymnastics all-around behind Suni Lee, and then getting gold in the vault

4. Tatjana Schoenmaker from South Africa realizing that not only had she won gold, she’d broken the world record – her jaw-drop was priceless

5. all of Caeleb Dressel’s emotional reactions to winning with his relay team, talking with his family, etc

6. Karsten Warholm of Norway’s reaction to breaking his own world record in the hurdles – mostly because he tries to rip his shirt open and the collar refuses to let him finish the motion, ha!!

7. the absolute incredible job Ashleigh Johnson did as goalie for the US women’s water polo team – she was the star and needs an MVP award

REUTERS/Marko Djurica

8. Quan Hongchan, the 14-year-old diver from China – completing two perfect dives (10s from all judges) as well as a third dive that had six 10s and a single 9.5. She obliterated the olympic record in the event, and afterwards, seeing her coach pick her up by the armpits and jump her around like a little kid, a giant smile on her face, warmed my heart.

9. watching Abdi Nageeye (Netherlands) encouraging and waving forward Bashir Abdi (Belgium) to get them both over the finish line of the marathon in 2nd and 3rd place when they’d both been behind the 2nd place in line only a minute before

10. The mixed relays in swimming and triathlon were incredible and not anything I expected to ever see. I wish I’d seen the track mixed relays but missed them.

On the reverse side, I’m going to call out a few things that felt like poor sportsmanship. Thankfully, only three of these come to mind!

The Over-the-Top: I’m not a fan of the kind of coach Ariarne Titmus has – he seems to be a “yell and insult to inspire” kind of guy – and I didn’t appreciate his reaction when Titmus won one of her early races. I’m totally happy for Titmus that she won, but her coach was hopping all over the stands, going crazy, shaking and humping the bars, going outside of his designated quarantined area and scaring the crap out of some poor Japanese woman who was trying to keep everyone where they belonged. Dude, I know you’re excited, but please don’t harass the employees who are just trying to do their jobs…

The Cringe: I didn’t see a lot of the weightlifting competitions, but there was one woman from South Korea who was struggling with a particular move, and every time the judges said she didn’t complete it, she started screaming and crying and yelling, why, why, why, and when she dropped the weight on her last attempt, she literally fell to the ground and started throwing a tantrum. It was embarrassing and very bad sportsmanship.

The Sorest of Losers: And then there was the worst. Dina and Arina Averina of Russia are identical twin sisters who compete in rhythmic gymnastics. They’re generally hailed as the best in the world. Arina messed up in her last routine, so with only her sister left to perform, she was sitting in bronze medal position. After Dina’s performance – which went well, and was sure to land her on the podium, knocking Arina out altogether – Dina fell to the ground sobbing when her score put her in second place. There was an immediate inquiry called – this seems to be common in rhythmic gymnastics – but the score wasn’t changed and Dina was hysterical. Right in front of her sister, who didn’t get any medals at all, she fell apart. When the gold-medal winner came to give everyone in the competition hugs, Dina refused to even look at her, much less hug her. Then I found out that the head of the ROC claimed that the judges were biased and he wanted an inquiry into their judging practices for the whole event. Talk about sore losers!! Further statements from Dina came out: “I don’t feel that it was fair today and it was obvious from the very first apparatus when… I got a lower score, so I can’t say that it was very fair,” and “My conscience is clear, I still believe that I won.” Ugh.

Okay. So the Olympics are over. Maybe I’ll get back to, I don’t know, reading and podcasts and walking and blogging and that sort of thing again?

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Sunday Coffee – Feral Colony, part 5

Posted on August 8, 2021 by Thistle

It’s been quite a bit since my last update, and at first that meant “not much news.” Now it means…well, new adventures and oh-no moments.

From the feral colony itself: Our neighbors managed to trap our kittens’ mother a couple weeks back. There is a very short list of locations that’ll do TNR surgeries at the Feral Cat Coalition discount rate, and most of them will only do a handful of surgeries one day a week. The closest to us is Animal Defense League, who does 10 surgeries once per week. That’s where the neighbors took the cat, at 6am to get in line (for a 10am start time) and they were too late to get a slot. They called everywhere they could think of, and even started calling vets to do the surgery at full price, but no one would take her because she’s feral. So they had to let her go again. This week, they caught the little grey one we call Bert, took him to the Humane Society at 3:30am, and managed to get him neutered. So that’s one down. Fingers crossed the others will have their chance soon.

I wish that was all. Unfortunately, a new adventure began on Monday evening. I went outside to try to get some good garden photos. As I went to step from the last stair to the ground, I looked down to see a charcoal-grey kitten butt and tail sticking out from under the stair. My foot was already in motion, so it hit the ground. The kitten was frightened and disappeared from view. I looked everywhere under the deck but couldn’t find it without a flashlight. By the time I got inside, got Jason, and we both had flashlights, we still couldn’t find anything.

Fast forward two hours. Jason gets home from picking Laurence up from driver’s ed. As he pulls into the driveway, he sees a charcoal-grey kitten by our trash and recycling bins. It runs back into the side yard, where Jason follows it and sees it go under the deck. And then he figures out why we couldn’t find it before. The kitten was hiding in the space between the old concrete stairs and the underside of the deck, hidden between crossbeams where there’s no way we could spot it.

Monday night left us wondering if one of the kittens from the June 29th litter at the feral colony had wandered over and gotten lost. Neighbors confirmed they’d seen one of the new kittens, a light grey one. But five-week-old kittens don’t tend to move as fast and coordinated as this one seemed to. Tuesday morning, one of the two siamese cats from the feral colony started walking along our fence, looking toward the deck (above). Neither of these two siamese has been in our yard (that we’ve seen) in three months, so I had to guess this kitten was involved. Tuesday evening, we put out food by the deck stairs, hoping to lure the baby out.

(I sat by my bedroom window and watched. At one point, two very large deer with enormous antlers walked past our back gate. !!!)

After a bit, I saw movement. The little kitten – who must have come from behind our yard – began the same skulking-along-the-fence route that the siamese cat had taken that morning. I got pictures, and this kitten is definitely at least eight weeks old. Since it didn’t stop for the food we put out, Jason went to the front yard to see if it was again by our garbage/recycling cans (it was), and it sprinted back through our yard and out the back gate.

Further coordination with our neighbors (with the new picture) confirmed this is not part of the new litter. Mom had begun to bring her babies with her for food, and there are only two, both light grey. Furthermore, a new siamese has started showing up at their house for food. We suspect it’s the third one we’ve seen in our backyard. It’s possible the new kitten belongs to this third siamese, that we thought was pregnant back in early June. But honestly, I have no idea. The neighbors suspect he’s male, and if that’s the case, there are either four siamese or the one that looked pregnant wasn’t actually pregnant. It’s a mess.

And to make things worse, despite putting out food every day since Tuesday, we haven’t spotted the charcoal-grey kitten again. We don’t know if it’s dumped, feral, lost, or something in between. We just want to rescue the baby and make sure it’s safe! Unfortunately, unless something changes, I don’t think that’ll be happening. 😦

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Fugitive Telemetry, by Martha Wells

Posted on August 6, 2021 by Thistle

A dead body shows up in the middle of a public area on Preservation Station. These sorts of things just don’t happen here, so no one knows how to handle it – except Murderbot. The human security team doesn’t trust the rogue SecUnit, but given they all have to work with each other to make sure there’s no ongoing threat, there’s a lot of dubious extra care going on. And Murderbot is annoyed. This means a lot of extra time dealing with stuff it doesn’t want to deal with.

I really don’t have more to say about this series. Each book is delightful and I’m happy to see there are several more in the works. If you haven’t decided to try these out from my earlier reviews, this review won’t change your mind. Which is kinda too bad, though, because you’re missing out! Heh.

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Wellness Wednesday – All About Coffee

Posted on August 4, 2021 by Thistle

Let’s talk coffee, allergies, inflammation, and weight. I tried to find my posts from last year that discussed this already, but after finding all these different pieces in multiple posts, I decided to compile this in one place. So for a quick recap:

  • Prior to late 2013, I didn’t drink coffee at all. I began drinking coffee drinks at Starbucks maybe 1-2 times per month in autumn 2013 while I was going through a really rough emotional time.
  • For Christmas 2013, Jason got me a Keurig. I began drinking coffee more often in early 2014, becoming a once-a-day habit by about March, and I began drinking it twice a day in May 2014.
  • May 2014 is when I began gaining weight after maintaining with no problem for almost 1.5 years. I didn’t connect it with the coffee because there were other factors involved – my stupid attempt at doing Whole30, a lot of family issues, and an upcoming cross-country move (aka lots of stress).
  • From May 2014 to early this July, I had at least one cup of coffee every single day. My weight gain went from May 2014 to March 2016 in a bit of a roller coaster, then leveled off at 75-80 lbs of regain from March 2016 to October 2020. (I’ll get to October and beyond later.)

Now, I began suspecting that coffee might be an issue in the spring of 2017. I started a personal 100-day experiment with the intent to cut out alcohol altogether and see if it affected my ability to lose weight. I also cut coffee down to once a day by chance. The experiment only lasted a few weeks because my family entered our Summer of Nightmares, and when you’re living under that much trauma and stress, personal experiments kinda lose priority. But I did lose a small amount of weight in that time, which I attributed to the alcohol abstinence.

Only by spring 2018, I’d mostly given up alcohol, and I hit a stride for about two months where I actually managed to lose about 7.5 lbs (equal to what My Fitness Pal predicted per my tracking). I tried to compare this 65-day period to the one I’d kept track of in later 2017, during which I lost nothing even though MFP thought I should lose 5-6 lbs. There were a lot of potential factors, but one I didn’t mention on that post was that in 2017, I drank 2-3 cups of coffee per day, and in spring 2018, I only had one daily. That’s when things really got suspicious in my mind.

Yet, it still took me until 2020 before I was willing to publicly call out coffee as a possible suspect in my health problems, and to design some coffee experiments to determine if the coffee itself, or caffeine, or some other factor related to coffee was the problem. I had a lot of realizations in 2020: I could have potentially given myself a metabolic disorder via coffee; I craved coffee to soothe anxiety over being hungry; coffee was clearly bad for my body as it caused severe hypoglycemia attacks. None of that was enough to overcome my addiction, which grew worse the longer I thought about giving it up. Honestly, I’m not sure if I ever would have managed to quit if I hadn’t landed in the hospital on July 10th. I saw the opportunity, and caffeine-headaches be damned, I ran with it.

Now, to change the subject slightly, I want to go back to the October 2020 to July 2021 weight story. Because in October 2020, my many-years of maintaining suddenly disappeared. I wasn’t eating or exercising any differently, but I started gaining about 3 lbs per month. At first, I blamed this on the new medication my doctor had put me on, but even after I got off it, I continued to gain. (Likely, this medication was the cause, because it’s literally designed to affect your metabolism, and I didn’t actually fit the criteria for taking it – didn’t have diabetes or PCOS – so it affected me badly.) I’ve fought like hell for the last nine months, and nothing I’ve done has made a difference. I just kept gaining. By the time I went into the hospital on July 10th, I was up a total of 26.5 lbs. (And yes, I was gaining even during the three weeks where I couldn’t keep down any food – I was gaining faster, in fact.)

When I got out of the hospital, I didn’t weigh in for a few days. Normally, I get on the scale most days, but I knew that with the amount of water they’d pumped into me – I had the fattest, most swollen hands ever – I didn’t want to see a number affected by water weight. When I did weigh in on the 16th, my weight was down about 1.5 lbs from before I went into the hospital. And over the rest of July – as my digestive system stabilized and I was able to keep food down – I lost a further 3 lbs. Y’all, I was no paragon of good health. I hardly exercised because I was recovering from sepsis. I could only eat very simple, processed foods because anything too complex would cause stomach issues. There was a lot of ice cream, cereal, and bread-and-butter eaten in the second half of July!

Now, it is too early to say 100% that things have turned around for me. The weight loss may simply have had to do with the giant influx of antibiotics changing around my gut flora. Maybe I’ll get another 2-3 months down the road and find out that cutting coffee has changed nothing at all. However, I suspect (and hope!) that this is, indeed, the answer. Whether an allergy or an interference with my metabolic system or something else entirely, hopefully cutting coffee will be the key that unlocks the door I’ve been searching for these last seven years.

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July 2021 in Review

Posted on August 2, 2021 by Thistle

So. July. It was an interesting month in the Gignacery. 1) Four birthdays, including one in my direct household. 2) We added three car accidents on top of the one from June, and had to replace both our cars. 3) I spent four days in the hospital for colitis with sepsis, and after I got home, I re-broke my toe (it is still not healed). 4) I canceled my small intestine biopsy because it’s not good to have surgery on the digestive system a week after finishing an antibiotic course for a massive digestive system infection. 5) Laurence began driver’s ed, but can’t actually start the driving portion until after he gets his permit, and the earliest appointment available was the end of September. 6) Covid began resurging in SATX, though thankfully this has yet to directly affect my family. 7) We got the one kitten with FeLV to Austin, but the other three are still living in Jason’s bedroom, and new guidelines mean that the vets won’t spay/neuter for 5-6 months for anyone other than a shelter, which we are not. Every shelter is full, so we’re stuck with the kittens for now, and we can’t rescue the new litter as planned. They’ll have to be TNR babies, and this makes me sad.

Can August be boring, please?

Reading and Watching
I finished four books this month, three of them on audio. It was the first time I’d really wanted to listen to audio in awhile now, and I had some much-anticipated books come in. In order, I read Down to Earth, The Box in the Woods, The Night Hawks, and Bridge of Souls. Definitely the best of these was The Night Hawks. I loved the return to north Norfolk, and to Ruth Galloway’s world.

Now, in the second half of the month, I hardly read a thing, because Olympics! There were so many good moments: Ashleigh Johnson’s amazing work as the women’s waterpolo goalie; Ahmed Hafnaoui from Tunisia blasting ahead to win the men’s 400m freestyle (especially since 1) he’s an actual Tunisian, not an American with a Tunisian grandfather, and 2) he didn’t expect it and his reaction was beyond priceless!); the reaction of Tatjana Schoenmaker of South African when she realized she not only won gold in the 200 breastroke, she’d broken the world record too; all the new mixed relay events (medley relay in swimming, triathlon, etc); and Simone Biles showing the world that mental health is every bit as important as physical health.

It was a watch-heavy money, as beyond the Olympics, I watched Sophie: Murder in West Cork, Home Before Dark (season 1 and all of 2 that’s out so far), and Raya and the Last Dragon. I guess TV kinda becomes critical when you’re literally on bedrest for weeks.

Goals
I’ve basically given up on goals this year, but in July, I just happened to complete one really big one: I gave up coffee. At first, it wasn’t voluntary. They won’t even give you ice chips in the ER until they’ve done all their tests and made sure you don’t need emergency surgery! Not that I wanted coffee while under those circumstances (though I really wanted water, or at least ice chips!). It wasn’t until the next day that got the caffeine withdrawal headache, and not until the day after that that I actually began craving coffee specifically. On my second day in the hospital, I was offered coffee, but I declined. I knew this was my chance. I was on painkillers (which helped slightly with the headache) and they were giving me unsweetened iced tea with lemon, which also took the edge off. I stayed strong when, on the morning of the third day, they brought coffee with my breakfast. And I stayed strong when I came home to several jugs of iced coffee in my fridge. For a few days, I drank that iced-tea-with-lemon to help with the headaches, but eventually I stopped that too, mostly because I don’t like tea. In any case, today is Day 24 since I quit. I did have an iced coffee on Thursday evening this week, because I was really craving the taste, but that’s it since July 9th!

Health
Um, as I landed myself in the hospital for four days with colitis and sepsis, came home and re-broke my toe, and generally was unable to exercise or do anything for most of the month, my health is not great. I did just start trying to do a little bit of walking/hiking again, though I’ve been told to take it REALLY easy for a few months as my body recovers from sepsis. It’s very easy to relapse, and I definitely don’t want to do that.

Favorite photos
I realized this month just how little variety there is in my photos when I’m stuck inside all the time. It’s cats, kittens, and various creatures living in my garden. Other than the trip to the hospital, I didn’t leave my house until the 27th. Each time, I found so many fun things to photograph, even if I didn’t actually get to take that many photos. So I really have tons and tons of the same photo this month, which made picking favorites very difficult! As always, these photos were taken by me and aren’t always good photography, just my favorite pics of the month.

Clockwise from top left: pipevine swallowtail on zinnias; I was trying to take a photo of our house, when Laurence walked out with the recycling and made this face at me; Gherkin got all puffy with her little stubby tail, ha!; liriope blooming

Clockwise from top left: a photo of two of my favorite words: prestidigitation and crépuscule; Ambrose in his monocle on his birthday; vitex blooms at the library; perfect Gavroche yawn timing (ha!)

Highlights of July
It was a dark month. Hospital, injury, multiple car accidents. Oy. So it was hard to track the good moments. There were lots of little things with the kittens as they made more progress into becoming fully domesticated babies. And of course, Olympic moments because I love the Olympics. Beyond that:

  • hummingbirds and butterflies and grasshoppers and dragonflies and all the beautiful things flocking to our garden!
  • Reaper and Ghost both making biscuits!
  • flowers from my hiking gals in the hospital
  • the last of my Way of Kings kickstarter swag arrived!
  • getting our first electric car
  • my friend Melanie got married! Sadly due to the medical issues, I couldn’t be there, but it was lovely to see the photos and to see her so happy!
  • saw my cousin Byron and his family, spending an afternoon with them on the Riverwalk
  • Ambrose turned 19, and got both a cane and a monocle for his birthday, ha!
  • while I’d rather not have had to buy a new car, it’s awesome to own a pretty car with a cool color for the first time ever!
  • J got a work bonus for some extra stuff he’s done recently, which has been really helpful with all the extra car/vet/medical bills this summer

Coming up in August
More Olympics, though without the frantic pace of the first week when most of the events I watch are crammed in together. Hopefully a slow return to weekly hikes – I’ve signed up for a few – and other than that, please let the month be as boring and uneventful as possible! I’d love to find homes for these kittens, too!!!

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Quarantine Diaries – July 2021

Posted on August 1, 2021 by Thistle

So San Antonio just finished its 72nd week of the pandemic on Thursday, and the weeks since I last wrote (week 67) have been a doozy. To be honest, I would have liked to be able to keep this as a subset of my monthly wrap-up post. There was a bit too much for that in July, though, mostly because a giant chunk of the US population continues to refuse vaccines, and that combined with the delta variant, and we’re having another new surge. Sigh.

The Way the Numbers have Grown
So let me start with a general picture of where things left off in June. At the end of June, we had a total of ~226,500 cases with 3,550 deaths, an amazingly low positivity rate of 1.3%, an average daily case number of ~100, and only 135-140 folks in the hospital. Things had continued to improve or stay steady for the whole month of June.

Because the city stopped twice-weekly briefings toward the end of June, it wasn’t until mid-July that I started to hear rumblings about things going wrong. Let me start with some quick stats, as of Thursday, July 29 (end of Week 72):

  • Cases: ~239,000 (up 12,500)
  • Deaths: ~3650 (up 100)
  • Positivity rate through the month: 1.3% at the end of June, to 3.8%, to 5.8%, to 11.2%, to 13.5%, to 17% now
  • Daily case average through the month: ending at 724/day, with the weeks leading up going from 106, to 265, to 363, to 589, to 724
  • Hospital trends: steady increase through the month with sharp jumps toward the end, ending the month with 695 in the hospital (up ~550+) with ~200 in ICU – Note: Many hospital patients are adolescent/pediatric, far more than before, some requiring oxygen or ventilator, many without underlying conditions

As you can see, everything is much worse than a month ago. There are some mitigating factors, though. First, there was a huge drop in testing (by about 61% in mid-July), so the high positivity rate can be partially explained by this. An example: When our positivity rate was 11% in January, there were 6000 folks who tested positive in a single week. In mid-July, when our positivity rate was 11%, there were 8673 folks tested, and 971 testing positive. So that’s a bit of perspective. However, the increase in daily case numbers and hospitalizations show that there is indeed a surge happening here in SA, and toward the end of the month, we started getting reports that testing centers had multi-hour waits and urgent care facilities were at capacity. So testing is definitely going back up again, too.

The causes of this new surge are easily identifiable. 1) Everything is open, and masking is on the honor system. Very few unvaccinated folks are wearing masks like they’re supposed to, because they were the loudest decriers of masks in the first place. (AKA the honor system doesn’t work) 2) The delta variant has surged into our community, at 20% at the beginning of July. I can’t find current data for SA, but a week back, the data for TX as a whole was around 60%. 3) Vaccination rates have stagnated at only 65% of our eligible population fully vaccinated, which is nowhere near high enough to keep the virus contained. [Good note, though: new reports on 7/31 said that first-dose vaccine appointments had a sudden surge after it was reported that Delta is as contagious as chickenpox and spreads as easily through vaccinated folks, so I guess people who just hadn’t done it before are starting to go in!!]

Honestly, I don’t understand the vaccine hesitance at this point. The numbers are in. Over the last six months, 99.5% of covid deaths were from unvaccinated folks. Over 95% of current hospitalizations from covid are from the unvaccinated. As of 7/23, only 12% of current infections were breakthrough, and that number makes up less than 1% of the total vaccinated population in San Antonio. Clearly, the vaccine works! Frankly, I’m starting to feel like in addition to people believing conspiracies and misinformation, were dealing with a lot of folks who are afraid of needles and will come up with any excuse to avoid them. If only I could convince the giant chunk of my family to get vaccinated…

Around the City
So back in June, San Antonio was at a “low” risk level. By mid-July, that was “mild” with a “worsening” trend, and by the end of the month, we’d moved into moderate. There have been a few impromptu briefings over the last couple weeks to discuss numbers and hospital stress, etc. There’s now talk about city and county workers potentially required to get the vaccine the way they are in some more liberal states around the country. (So far, this is one thing not outright banned from by the state government. My guess is it’ll be contested if it goes through.)

Unfortunately, there’s been a big outbreak here in an assisted-living facility, where nearly everyone was vaccinated. (This might actually be the reason that 12% of current infections are breakthrough.) A bit over 40 people got covid, and one man (last I heard) was in critical condition. However, the others are recovering well, which is a VAST difference to the outbreaks in nursing homes we had last year when no one was vaccinated. Most of our early deaths were from those outbreaks, and as far as I’m aware, not a single person from this outbreak died. AGAIN, VACCINES WORK!!!

(Siclovia 2015)

Two fun little facts: First, the zoo received animal versions of the covid vaccine to distribute, to keep covid from spreading via animals. I didn’t even know they were working on an animal version. Love it! Second, Siclovia has announced a new date for fall! Siclovia is a street festival in SA that happens only twice a year, and it hasn’t happened since autumn 2019. I love Siclovia and I’m so happy to see it back on the books, though I wonder if the current surge is going to get it shut down again.

Around the State and Country
Texas, in general, tends to do worse than San Antonio because the majority of people here are anti-masking covid-is-a-conspiracy idiots, and the governor panders to them. Only about 51% of the population is vaccinated (much lower than SA), and the state positivity rate has risen to 11.5%. Texas is having one of the worst surges in the US, along with Florida and Missouri. Those three states apparently make up 40% of the new cases among the US. Sigh. The country is having such a huge surge that the CDC reversed its guidelines this month and now recommends masking for all again.

(an actual clip of the email from our school district)

And of course, Abbott is making things harder for everyone except the covidiots. He’s banned any form of vaccine passport in the state so that those who choose not to get a vaccine can’t be “discriminated” against. *rolls eyes so hard* Then there’s the limitations he’s put on the public school system. Schools can’t require masks or vaccines, they can’t have funding to offer virtual classes, and now (the newest blow), they are no longer legally allowed to quarantine students or staff after a covid exposure. Covid is supposed to be treated “like the flu or strep throat” from here on out. WTF??? (Note: Our school district said they wouldn’t send out the daily letters about covid cases at individual schools this year, but parents protested, so those letters will return. Good.) Abbott also removed his own rules for rolling back occupancy limits if covid cases in hospitals exceed 15% for seven days in a row. His words: “Texans have mastered the safe practices that help to prevent and avoid the spread of COVID-19.” Me, looking at the above numbers: O RLY?

Headline: Bexar County is a covid-19 hotspot, CDC map shows

On the Homefront
It has been really nice, at least for a short time, to not worry so much about masks. There were a few times when we’ve been out and needed to stop for a second, didn’t have masks, and were still able to stop. We got to eat in a few restaurants. We saw a movie in theatre. It was nice!

However, that’s all gone now. Masks are back on. I was already being super careful about my mask as I’m at risk for secondary infection post-sepsis, but a lot of my friends are starting to get serious about masks again as well. It’s just what we’ve got to do. Of course, it’s really jarring to see things diverging so far. In late July, I went to my chiropractor’s office, to find that I was one of only three people wearing a mask, including one other patient and one receptionist. None of the chiropractors – not even the one who had an active sinus infection – were masked, and they definitely aren’t vaccinated. They all kept masks on after the governor’s permission to remove them in March, but then took them off after the CDC recommended putting them back on. Ugh, I really need to find a new chiropractor’s office! Then I walked into Dunkin the other day, and they actually had their seating area open – only now that things are surging again. Wut? Similarly, despite USAA’s initial decision that all employees would work from home until 2022, Jason’s team had to start going in one day a week this month. And when J arrived the first time, he was the only employee wearing a mask. I guess it’s no mystery why we’re surging.

I know everyone’s just tired of this. Believe me, I know. For the I-don’t-know-how-many-eth time, Jason and I canceled the cruise we had planned for September. The CDC has been keeping an eye on cruise companies/ships, and rating them based on their safety protocols and how many outbreaks they’ve had onboard. Royal Caribbean is one of the worst, and the ship we were on had an Orange rating. With numbers surging, this is not the time. So again, vacation is canceled, though we do still plan to go somewhere during the week J took off work. Not sure where yet, but somewhere we can get to outdoors and hopefully have an active, away-from-people kind of vacation!

Moving forward
Honestly, I’m not sure if I plan to do a monthly update in August, or to do one halfway through, or what. I was really hoping not to have to return to this…

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Bridge of Souls, by Victoria Schwab

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Thistle

Cassidy is being hunted, she doesn’t know by what. But being in New Orleans – her parents’ latest stop on their paranormal TV show – isn’t making the situation better. With overlapping layers of history, Cass must call on her new friend Lara to help her navigate, and with Lara’s help, they find a paranormal society who might have information they can use.

That’s a terrible description but I’m trying to avoid spoilers for the first two books.

I’ve been looking forward to this book for the last two years, through multiple delays re: covid. It’s a cute, creepy series, middle-grade level, and I really enjoyed the first two books. Unfortunately, this one took me ages to get through. It shouldn’t have. I loved the story, loved revisiting the characters, and thought so much about the book was good. But OMG setting is such an important part of a book, and y’all? I despise New Orleans.

Back in 1996, I went to Nola for the first time to visit a college, the only one my family could afford to take me to visit. It was sweltering, hot and humid, sticky, stinky, and horrible. I immediately decided I would not be going to school in Nola. Then in 2009, my family went there for vacation. I personally thought that my hatred of Nola was entirely due to it being summer when I was there, so we went in December, between Christmas and New Years. At first, I thought I enjoyed it – when I was in my hotel in the suburbs of Metairie, no where near downtown. The second we approached Jackson Square, though, gag gag gag. Reading this book, I realized just why I detest Nola so much. It’s the embodiment of chaos. There is no order to the place, and that’s what people love about it. It explodes with music (often jazz, which I also hate), noise, and disorder. People embrace that, and add to the chaos. Chaos is anathema to me. I’m constantly overstimulated, stressed out, anxious, and overwhelmed in Nola. I can’t wait to get out of the city as fast as possible.

So, reading a book set there, where the setting is an extremely important and interwoven part of the story, was tough. I kept putting the book away after five minutes of reading because I would be overwhelmed with mere idea of Nola. Eventually, the story moved a bit further away from the setting, and I was able to get through the last half of the book more quickly, but MAN this was a tough one to read. I’m still looking forward to the next installment – which won’t be in Nola – and reading this really taught me just how strongly an impact setting can have on a reader!

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Sunday Coffee – Olympics

Posted on July 25, 2021 by Thistle

Y’all! I love the Olympics. Especially the summer Olympics. And despite everything re: covid and safety issues and questionable scheduling, I’m so very happy to be watching the Olympics right now. I have so many memories from over the years, and the Games just make me happy.

I remember being a young teen and hoping that I could swim well enough to make the 2000 Olympics despite the fact that I only started swimming competitively when I was 12ish. Then, long after I gave up that dream, I wondered if one day I’d see any of my fellow swimmer teammates go on to the Olympics. (I didn’t, though ironically, when Jason and I got our will updated in 2009, our lawyer turned out to be one of those teammates!)

I remember back in the mid-90s when Dominique Dawes did those incredible floor routines where she soared so high I couldn’t believe it was possible. It was the start of non-white gymnasts on the US team, and the transition from super-young, super-thin gymnasts to powerful, muscular ones. It was also around the time when gymnasts were transitioning from all classical music dance routines to a whole variety of music. My mother hated it. I loved it.

Does anyone else remember when trampoline gymnastics were added to the games? Synchronized trampoline? Synchronized diving?

Speaking of synchronized diving, the 2004 men’s competition was awesome in an unconventional way, with the pair from Greece winning in Athens because all the divers ahead of them screwed up majorly. They weren’t expecting to win, and got so excited, running around with their flag, celebrating the unexpected. I wish I had that recorded – it’s one of my favorite moments ever in Olympic history.

The underdogs are always my favorites. I wish I saw more of them, tbh, but I know there’s a lot to cover. One of my recent favorites is Tongan athlete Pita Taufatofua, who participated in both summer and winter Olympics, the latter in skiing despite never getting onto snow until 12 weeks before the Games. These athletes are just so incredible and awe-inspiring!!!

I love watching the swimming, even the super long races that other people find boring. For years I loved watching folks try to swim the 1500-meter with Janet Evan’s world-record line nearly a lap ahead of the fastest swimmer. She held onto that record for an insane amount of time, from 1988 to 2007. She also held the 800 free for 19 years, and the 400 free for 18. That woman was a beast! And then there’s Dara Torres, who in 2008 competed in the Olympics at 41 years old! That’s incredible.

Much like Oksana Chusovitina, the 46-year-old gymnast who has competed in every single Olympics since 1992, and has qualified to compete this year as well. I saw her vaulting in 2016 and she’s just unbelievable.

Speaking of the 2016 Olympics, does anyone else remember the four chip varieties that Lays put out that summer? One of them was a Tikka Masala kettle chip, and omg that became my favorite chip of all time. I was really stressed during that Olympics, because our house was under construction and we were packing to move to Wisconsin. I have these photos of packing piles in the living room, Olympics on in the background, crochet projects on my lap. And often, though it’s not pictured, I’d have those kettle chips with my lunch. They were soooooo good and if I’d known they were being discontinued immediately after the Olympics, I would have bought up every bag I could get my hands on.

The winter 2018 Olympics got me through the grief of my grandmother’s death. The 2012 Olympics helped me to soldier through a stress-fracture and 12-week exercise ban. In our early years in Wisconsin (2001-2005), we usually didn’t have TV service, but you better believe I insisted we pay the money for two months of service for the 2004 Olympics. Then there is the way my family has bonded over the Olympics. Two of my FB posts from the 2016 Games involve my kids:

“Hosszu and her husband are the most awesome and entertaining part of the Olympics this year. And just a minute ago, J and the boys were all standing and smacking their chests with him.” Ha!

“Morrigan: Ryan Lochte’s old. He has grey hair.
Jason: He’s not old. He just dyed his hair gold for the Olympics.
Ambrose: It looks more like silver. Which is probably the medal he’ll get.” Burn! 😀

I’m not really a sports person, most of the time. I watch football with my youngest son because he loves it, and I enjoy participating in 5Ks, but I’ve never been a sports fanatic. Except for the Olympics. Last year’s delay, while understandable and necessary, was gut-wrenching. So yes, I’ll guiltily enjoy every moment of the next two weeks.

What are your favorite Olympics memories?

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The Night Hawks, by Elly Griffiths (audio)

Posted on July 23, 2021 by Thistle

In this 13th installment of the Ruth Galloway mysteries, a new Bronze Age burial site has been discovered by the Night Hawks, a group of metal detectorists in search of treasure. Unfortunately, a fresh body is found nearby, entangling the police and archaeologists once more. Add on another four bodies, a giant black dog with red eyes, and an illegal medical research lab, and you have one hell of a mystery going on!

Back in September 2019, I discovered this series and read through all 11 of the then-published volumes back to back. Last summer, I read the 12th, and I only discovered a month ago that number 13 was coming out. And man oh man I can’t tell you how lovely it was to return to the world of Ruth Galloway and her Norfolk seaside setting. The last book was a bit of an anomaly, as Galloway is temporarily living in London, so it was extra nice to return to a full cast of folks I’ve come to know and love so well. I won’t talk about the story of the mystery, because that gets into potential for spoilers of previous volumes, but this is one of my all-time favorite series and I hope others will love it too. This particular book is one of my favorites so far, and I’m already aching for the next one, so badly that it actually entered my dreams for a few nights. ❤

Performance: The audio read by Jane McDowell, who is my preferred of the two narrator who read these. I quite enjoyed it as usual!

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