When Someone Wants To Scare You

It’s harder to analyze events than to paste labels on them. Events come thick and fast, and pundits have to say something. It’s mostly pundits I’m talking about, but not entirely. History may not repeat, but it does rhyme, they say, and then they reach for one of these tropes. When the tropes are repeated again and again, they can influence policymakers. They flatten everyone’s thinking.

Here are five that I find particularly irritating.

Nuclear Diner

It’s a good read about how pundits quickly give you rhetorical shortcuts when writing about current events. Cheryl Rofer over at Nuclear Diner gives you five signs that the author of the post, op-ed, or Twitter you’re reading is lazy writing and to be avoided.

Imagine That

https://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/post/704546657239465984/via-67rk0gk23p7a1jpg-jpeg-image-411-613

In other words: they have to lie to win.

Fall Semester 2022 is Done!

I took my last exam. I barely managed to pass the exam. However, I did pull a C+ in the class. It was Introduction to Psychological Measurements. The instructor was terrific; the topic was excruciating. And as I posted earlier, I managed a B for Introduction to Biology. Again, the instructor was excellent; but unlike the other class, the subject was enjoyable.

They are not my best grades, but all things considered, I’m glad to have passed the classes. With all that has gone on during the last five months, I am surprised I finished the semester.

Where’s the Response?

The January 6th Committee has released its findings with referrals for criminal charges and not a sound from the man identified as a criminal. Why so quiet? (You read that with Heath Ledger’s Joker voice, didn’t you)

A Shout Out to a Good Neighbor

The Castle

And no, it’s not State Farm. Many thanks to a Hip and Ridge Construction worker for volunteering to plow my driveway. I was at the end of my second hour of shoveling by hand when he came by. I would have shoveled well into the night if he hadn’t helped. My snowblower couldn’t handle the thick, wet snow. It was damn near compacted to ice. So, hence the reduction to manual shoveling. I offered to give him money, but he adamantly refused. So, instead, he’s getting what pittance of free advertising I can give him.

Come the spring; I’m going to see if they can repair the gutter damaged by that mammoth ice dam of 2020. And maybe build us a new deck in the process.

Almost Done!

I finished Biology 1001. I took my last exam this morning and managed 87%. I’m happy with that. I also turned in my last assignments for PSY 3801. It was a statistical course, Introduction to Psychological Measurement and Data Analysis. I still have one exam, and then I am completely, utterly, fantastically done with the Fall Semester.

For the record, worse semester ever. Not the classes but what life threw at me the last six months. How I managed to get passing grades is beyond me. I look to be getting a B in Biology, which I am overjoyed about. I look to be holding onto a C in the Psychology class, with which I am content. Considering that I was switching jobs, making multiple trips to Green Bay while Tina dealt with the passing of her mother, including handling the estate, and then Tina having emergency surgery to remove her rupturing aneurysm, I’m grateful I finished my classes.

Mid-December Blizzard Comfort Food

The Castle

I made this. And no, you can’t have it. No, I will not come to you house and make it for you. Make your own damn sandwich. Don’t you know there’s a blizzard out there?

After The Collapse

Just Keep Running

I collapsed. That is the best description of what happened during November. My last run was on October 30th. After that, I became exhausted. Mentally and physically. And then, the week before and after Thanksgiving was overwhelming, having to deal with the arrival of furniture from the estate of Tina’s mother out of Green Bay. I also had to drive to and from Green Bay in forty-eight hours. So, yeah, I collapsed. My motivation went into seclusion. I stopped doing my schoolwork. I made errors at work with billing for groups. I also forgot to generate some necessary forms for intakes. All the while, my body ached. My muscles felt like they had run three miles every day. My back hurt to the point of keeping me up all night.

This past Saturday was peak collapse. I had no physical energy, no mental energy. I was even starting to suffer emotionally. I ended up in bed early Saturday night.

I woke up Sunday morning to an entirely different experience. My exhaustion was lifted. My body no longer ached. And my motivation came out of hiding. I emailed my professors to arrange for make-up work so I can pass my classes this semester. I went for a run with pleasantly surprising stats. I went on another run this morning, but to lower stats than Sunday’s. And I managed to make it through work yesterday without any charting errors.

I’ve experienced physical and mental reductions before. It seems to be a recurring cycle. Unfortunately, this down cycle coincided with the above-normal life stressors mentioned earlier, possibly worsening the decrease. I can’t help but wonder if it’s due to long COVID. Anyway, it’s lifted for the time being, and I’ll not complain.

Now, to the stats:

Back At The Incremental Marathon

Just Keep Running

I was struggling with sleep and intense, chronic pain for about two weeks. I thought it was my kidneys because it didn’t hurt at the back. However, after a visit to urgent care, the doctor informed me the pain was not located by the kidneys, which are higher on the back, and that the pain was probably radiating from the small of my back due to pinched nerves. So, I was prescribed muscle relaxers and took it easy for a week.

And then memory hit. Back in 2008, I injured my tailbone and lower back due to falling while roller skating. But the pain was initially in my stomach and not my back. That would show up weeks later. Anyway, my chiropractor told me the stomach pain, and later my back pain was not just due to pinched nerves, but to my eating high concentrations of sugar. I took his advice, stopped eating sugars, and started putting more effort into stretching. Within a month, my pain was gone, and I was sleeping better.

Well, I started putting raw honey into my smoothies and realized that was when the pain in my back started up again. So, I’ve also stopped using honey. It’s made a difference.