laramie

WEEKs OF Mar 3 to now, 2025

Last Wednesday’s snow storm led me to delay making my visit to Terry until Friday. In the meanwhile I kept up  with making small steps toward other goals: I ordered a new med the vet prescribed for Rajesh, paid extra for expedited shipping and it arrived the next day; I’ve now been administering it orally for the past week. Fortunately, he seems to like the chicken/marshmallow(!) flavor.

My sole house-plant suffered an injury a few weeks ago and I've been trying to propagate new roots from a detached branch. It's being awfully slow about it, but it looks like some nubs are on the way.

I ran my ads for a few days, but they need rethinking, as they are not getting many clicks. I’ve also studied a tutorial for a money-making scheme doing promotions on Instagram. I’m more interested in my reading material: currently the ‘Age of Unreason’ series by Greg Keyes – an interesting alternate history with alternate science, wherein Ben Franklin is a main character.

I'm still watching old episodes of The Avengers. Themes of mind control and paranoia around technology are more time-honored than I'd realized.

As of this current week, the snow is gone. I visited Terry again on Wednesday but have not had much energy for other projects. My Bookbub ads are on hold. I've been thinking about framing the painting I'll display at the Unicorn Art show if accepted.

Yesterday evening I participated in an online meeting of the Minicon Con Committee. I'm not on the committee, but I'm interested in a number of Minicon activities. Mainly Art Show this year, but I've been active in music and programming in other years. I didn't express interest in doing a filk concert this year or in participating on panels, but am still interested in hearing about the progress of planned events. My kudos to those on the committee; it looks like the con will go forward!

WEEK OF Feb 24 – Mar 3, 2025

I heard back from Pawp, who denied my claim for Rajesh’s veterinary care. (Amounting to more than $500). They claimed it was a pre-existing condition. I Canceled my account with them. Raj is now fifteen years old and other pet insurance plans all list accounts at more than $100/month. I don’t know what to do. I’ve been applying the ointment prescribed by the vet, but there is still a lump of infection on his forehead, though it seems to have moved more into his nose.

Meanwhile, I made the trip to the Minicon hotel on Saturday. The front desk was no help in finding the board meeting; the one listed started at 1pm, but the M’con board meeting was to start at two. By looking online, I eventually made it – a bit late – to the meeting in Plaza 4. I was duly impressed by how well-in-hand the arrangements for the convention looked to be. I wandered around to the room where the Mnstf party was scheduled to occur, but it was still locked up. I greeted a few people waiting there, but didn’t linger long as the indoor-air was bothering my eyes. I headed home again, missing the chance to get girl scout cookies, so stopping at Aldi where I got Jaffa cakes instead.

Seeing Terry once a week worked out reasonably well this week. It seemed to leave me with more energy for addressing other concerns. I worked on a couple new book ads and applied to participate in an art show. These activities helped me keep going in the face of the political news which had been getting me down.

Yesterday I bought nothing, and refrained from posting any new book ads, though I did create one. I'd like to see some feedback on how the buy nothing strike impacted the economy.

I also applied to participate in the Unicorn Art Show, a juried show hosted by the Otherworldly Arts Collective in St. Paul. I knew nothing about it, but received an email inviting me to apply, so I did. The show takes place in mid June and I would only have to supply one piece for hanging/display. Less work. They will  have a sales table to which I could bring small items like greeting cards that showcase more of my work.

Meanwhile I watched the last episode of 'Northern Exposure' via my free-trial Prime Video membership. I loved that series, but the last season was drifting after Joel Fleischman went back to NYCity after going native. Sigh. I liked the ensemble cast and especially the elders like  Ruth Anne and Holling and the natives like Ed Chigliak and Marilyn Whirlwind. I miss them.

As a follow up, I started watching 'The Avengers' starting with season four, when Emma Peel joined the cast. (From the days of Black & White TV!)

I'm thinking of going to the Minicon Committee meeting this afternoon. It meets earlier than the Pool Party. I may stick around for that, but I'm not much for late hours these days and I'd want to be home to give Rajesh a dose of his medicated eye drops. I cancelled my Pawp (pet insurance) policy when they turned down my first and only claim, calling his infection a pre-existing condition.Because I didn't include the bill for the visit where the vet first diagnosed it? Grr.

WEEK OF Feb 17 - 24, 2025

I’ve been feeling emotionally-overwhelmed lately, helped in large part by the political news and my cat (Rajesh)’s health needs. I’m still waiting to see if the pet health insurance I’ve been paying for will help with that. Meanwhile I’m putting medicated ointment in his eyes several times a day. 

I’m still concerned with my zombie book launch, but it’s been taking more of a back seat than I like to admit. The free book promo leading up to Valentine’s Day did well enough: over 230 books claimed and I can hope there will be some feedback in the form of reviews or purchases of other books in the series – I still need to put up some ads for those.

Meanwhile, I’ve had less energy for Terry visits and am presently down to once a week. Her attention span is less than it was, making it harder to communicate or engage her interest for any length of time. The political landscape is on my mind and I don’t want to depress her by talking about that. What can I say? The world is on fire; ready your hoses and buckets.

WEEK OF January 27-Feb 3, 2025

As of this past week I made some Zombie book launch progress – remembering the ‘Universal Book Link’ titles I have posted through Draft 2 Digital; and was reminded that there was a problem with them because Amazon won’t accept books that have live links to their competitors’ sites. I started on one title and found that my Jutoh application did not transfer to the new computer. I searched all my software disks and couldn’t find the one for Jutoh, so I went ahead and bought a new copy. Not a lot of progress, but since then I added all the Universal Book Links to my spreadsheet.

I had to deal with a hacking attempt on my computer and renewed the McAfee virus protection software.

I visited Terry on Wednesday and Saturday; Saturday so I could combine the trip with attending the Minicon committee meeting.

Meanwhile I’ve been keeping up with daily household tasks – including watering/repotting houseplants and putting out unsalted peanuts for the squirrels.

WEEKs OF Dec 16-30, 2024

Sadly, I was without keyboard and mouse for about a week after the death of my former desktop computer – even though I managed to acquire a new one (Inspiron All-in-one) which came with wireless peripherals, but instructions in print so tiny I couldn’t decipher it even with reading glasses. I secured an appointment with the Geek Squad as part of the package, but did have to wait over a week for it. As of Saturday afternoon, he showed me the wireless adapter I needed (hidden inside the mouse, but needing to be plugged into a USB port on the back of the computer. Duh.) The techie also managed to extract the hard drive from my old computer and transfer all the data (yay for my internet bookmarks, esp). So now I am getting back in touch with people.

During the interim I visited Terry as usual and attended the wonderful caroling party at Dreampark and have been learning my way around the Win11 OS. I’m also gearing up to start promoting my various publications.

I now have two extra monitors. The literature on my new PC suggests it can handle an extra monitor, but I don’t see how and may have to do some research.

WEEK OF Nov 18-25, 2024

Live long and prosper! I've adopted this as my favorite salutation lately.  It has become all too clear that not everyone lives long and there have been too many of my friends and community and loved ones who have left us behind and I've realized how much emptier it leaves my world. I've seen too many friends struggling to get along in a larger society that isn't always accepting. I really, truly, sincerely wish you all long happy lives and prosperity in the world.

That said, this week I've continued moseying along, taking more baby steps, working on improving my own state of prosperity. I spoke with someone at All American Title who referred me to the Minnesota Uniform Conveyances site for templates, and had a long phone chat with Marty, going over the details for our deal. I feel relieved to have set a date for filing the mortgage doc with the county.

I've visited Terry a couple times again this week and she's in good spirits. She (I surmise) removed the bandage from her dislocated finger. She doesn't appear to be in much pain, but needed both hands to lift her coffee cup.

My Blue Cross Advantage plan put me in touch with a Friendly Helpers program of Lutheran Social Services who sent me a helpful visitor, Jamie, a very nice young woman whose own cat is apparently very similar to Rajesh - and she did some vacuuming for me! Seriously; it's been months since I've attempted to deal with my couple of rugs. She also swept and brought up enough clumps of cat hair to make another pair of cats.

I'm feeling very thankful today for friends and social services and pray to heaven that the new regime does no damage to Social Security and other programs that help people in need.

The first couple weeks of November, 2024

~ Laramie, a disappointed childless cat lady

I originally posted this on FaceBook, but would like to share here as well.

WEEK OF Aug 19 - 26, 2024

I made both visits to Terry this past week, and was joined on one by Terry's brother Jim, and on the other by her friend Karen Shaffer who was in town following Worldcon and had also just visited the state fair and had lots of photos to share from both.

Otherwise I met with my Blue Cross care coordinator, with the physical therapist for my hand and attended a seminar on estate planning. The latter was interesting, but I'm not sure how useful when it comes to setting things up to pass on my intellectual property, since I haven't got much in the way of monetary assets. I did learn that you can have up to three million dollars in Minnesota without having to pay estate taxes on it.