wombat_socho

So my new primary care doc (until he retires and I get a new one, which will apparently be happening later in the spring) doesn't like my BP or cholesterol, so he's upping my dose of cholesterol and adding another med for the cholesterol, which I think I'll research before I blindly stuff it in my gob. 

I checked into Boulder Station with no trouble but on getting to my room I remembered why it's my least favorite of the Station properties: the plug that I need for the nose hose is buried behind the bed and is already taken up by the nightstand lamp. Otherwise I slept well, and dined well at Tacos El Pastor Wednesday night even though they were out of suadero. Breakfast on Wednesday and Thursday both was at McD's,  and I'm beginning to think the sugar-free vanilla iced coffee may not be for me, at least in the large size; both days I had a somewhat upset stomach for most of the morning. 

Today I had the Oregon state tax preparer retest, this time at a place on South Rainbow, and this time I passed, even though I should have brought copies of schedules B and E along with the form 1040, A, C, and SE. Got a 77 and did much better on the final problem solving section because I had (most of) the needed forms. Now I have to shell out another $85 to Oregon for the actual license, the thieves. I'll do that tomorrow after the financial dust settles from the trip. 

After the test, I doubled back to the Maverik on Lake Mead to fill up on E15 ($2.55 after the Nitro discount, huzzah) but first I stopped at the local Randy's Donuts (an outpost of the famous LA doughnut joint) and sampled their doughnuts, which are good. I saved the ham & cheese croissant for breakfast tomorrow. After Maverik, I used my BOGO on the Rally's app to get a Big Buford & a Baconzilla, which were smaller than I remembered but just as tasty. I got too many fries, and the drink was kinda small for an XL, but I was going to Sonic on the way out of town anyway. Also I stopped at Walmart and got more melatonin gummies since I'm almost out. 

Then it was up 95 to home, stopping only in Amargosa Valley for garbage and Goldfield to urinate. Actually got home before 1800 but not before dark...but I'm really tired since I woke up at 0600 this morning long before my alarm was to go off, so I do believe I'll take my meds and insulin and call it a night. 

So I rescheduled the Oregon state test for this Thursday, booked a room at Boulder Station, and I guess I'll download copies of the necessary forms to a thumb drive in the morning. Postponed laundry from Sunday to tonight, since I was busy thrashing the Dodgers Sunday night after getting my zines ready for StippleAPA. I'd lost track of #376, which was not in the stack with the rest of them next to the desktop, but it turned out to be buried under some office supplies in front of the secondary HP monitor, so I was able to bash out some minimal comments. 

The Internet was being uncooperative this afternoon, so instead of knocking out the weekend substackery I had to do that tonight after getting back from doing laundry, and now I am very tired. 

I suppose I should do some Obligatory Seriousness about the shit going down in Minneapolis, and crank out new issues of the convention newsletter & Tonopah Elucidator etc., but after spending part of the day gazing into the abyss of X, I just want to fire up Civ5 and get back to the business of conquering the world for King Artoria V and her Celtic Empire. 

I spent most of the weekend and today grinding on the Oregon basic tax course, and finally passed it tonight. Think I might bite the bullet and print out the OR-17 for Thursday; I'm pretty confident that after all these years I have the federal stuff down. I also spent almost an hour on the clock today taking care of crap in Workday, submitting my New York registration, and taking a look at the schedule. I don't actually have anything to do yet, though I suppose I should start pulling together my tax documents and getting them organized. Carlos won't need my help this year since all his income is from SSI and VA disability, but I am expecting some documents from George, so I'll have a Massachusetts return to fiddle with.  

So tomorrow I'll catch up on the blogging, maybe knock out my zines for N'APA and Stipple, and call the Tax Book to find out where my 2024 All States book is. Also I have baseball at 1700, so I want to duck out for some tea and munchies before that. 

So I'd originally planned to go down for my Wednesday podiatry appointment on Tuesday, do the Oregon state tax exam Thursday morning, and come back that afternoon, but I wasn't ready for the exam and rescheduled that for the following week. Too late to cancel the extra day at Main Street Brewery, though, and unfortunately I didn't make good use of my time there, which meant when I got back to Tonopah I had to do two days worth of double-posting to get caught up.

Why Main Street Brewery? Well, CES was in town, and rooms at the Strat were $insane per night, so...this was the best option. Or maybe the Cannery would have been cheaper, but I didn't look. Anyway, the room was nice, the brewpub was good (I ate more than I should have) and the breakfast buffet on Thursday was excessive. Refueled at the Maverik on Lake Mead ($2.55 for E15!), got fluids at the Sonic on Decatur, and then picked up a few things at the nearby Walmart neighborhood market. They were out of english muffins, and I forgot the ham, but the heavy cream was marked down and I got plenty of water enhancers. I also consulted with Lindsay about the ex's tax problems, and I'll be sending her a letter outlining what she needs to do. 

Lost two out of three to the Cardinals on Wednesday, beat the Tribe twice tonight, and that's the way it was. 

I'll hit the post office tomorrow and get started on the damn Oregon tax course tomorrow. 

So the Brotbox was good, by and large, except for the rye bread which was tough to slice, and I probably won't be re-ordering that. 

I took the week off from studying for the Oregon state exam, which turns out to be open book, but I don't think they'll allow me to take a tablet with Publication 17 and the Oregon equivalent into the test area, and the Tax Book is probably iffy too - but I'll ask. I'll have to see if I can get hardcopies of both publications before the test next month, and in the meantime call the Oregon state office in charge of the test to pay my fee and make the necessary arrangements. 

Thanksgiving dinner went all right. The breast cooked up like it was supposed to, I fixed two kinds of stuffing, scalloped potatoes, a sweet potato, butternut squash, and it was all good. Between all the food and the desserts (Tillamook vanilla ice cream & a mini Marie Callender peach pie) I put on a little less than six pounds but lost half of it on Saturday so that this morning's weight was 391.8. That will probably tick up a bit on account of dinner at the Stage Stop, but I'm still way under the 400+ I came back from Minnesota with. 

Finally sent out my perszine to all the friends I could find e-mail addresses for, and much to my amazement only one bounced. Actually got a few e-mail responses back. Forgot to send copies to Nic and Garth, though. 

Made a fair amount of progress on cleaning up the apartment, at least as far as bagging up garbage goes. I guess I'll spend a lot of tomorrow hauling out those bags, filling more bags, and hauling those out as well so the place is merely cluttered and not looking (too much) like a hoarder lives here. 

I took the day off from blogging, but I had to get up at 0900 (after not getting to sleep until almost 0400) to renew my PTIN and do a fonecon with Jeannette in Reno about renewing my state registration Also talked to Jeanette about the dual screen issue and she said she'd talk to her team about it, so maybe I'll be able to extend my screens this year. We finished the online paperwork; I had a protein shake & English muffin for breakfast, and went back to bed. In other work-related news, I passed the AFSP on the first try over the weekend, and will be pitching into the Oregon basic course tomorrow in between running to the post office and picking up more tea at Raley's...speaking of which, I went in Monday and for once took advantage of the $5 sale to pick up a bunch of chicken for salads and a couple of Marie Callendar bowls that were 2/$5. 

Woke up at 1630, lost two out of three to the Phillies at Shibe Park, and grilled the rest of the pork chops for dinner after noshing on a Caesar salad during baseball. The MyFitnessPal app has definitely helped me get the weight down (mostly) and I'm sitting at a little above 393 as of this morning. Unsurprisingly, the back pain has mostly gone away. 

The video call with my clinician went pretty well despite the connection going to shit halfway through. My numbers have been so good since coming back from Minnesota that she agreed to back off the Lantus from 45 2x daily to 40 2x daily. We'll see how that works out.  

Got registered for Confinement and this time bought the T-shirt at the same time. 

Thought about taking all my stuff down from e2 but decided I didn't care enough to bother. 

I used the last bucks in the NSB account to fuel up at the Sam's Club in Sioux Falls and then went off in search of the Kum & Go which was alleged to be on West 41st Street, a straight shot from the hotel, but alas, it had converted to a MegaSaver. So I went and ate breakfast at Perkins and headed down I-29 to Sioux City, where presumably I'd find one of the last Kum & Go stores since that was their home turf. As it was, I stopped in Elk Point a few miles down the road, where I got my free coffee & soda from the &Rewards App (RIP) and learned that pretty much all the remaining stores had converted internally to Maveriks and only the signage & disposable cups remained from the old brand. So they didn't have any coffee mugs or hats, which meant I had to order them off Amazon.

Then ensued a random drive through the northern counties of Nebraska thanks to the accursed Google Maps, which I think was trying to drag me to Wall or maybe Rapid City. I finally broke out the atlas in Albion, gave up hope of reaching North Platte, and managed to reach the Best Western Plus in Grand Island a little after dusk. I unloaded my crap, went to the nearby Sonic for burgers and fluids, and proceeded to get some blogging done before falling asleep. In the morning, I hit the Sonic for breakfast and more fluids, and managed to make it to the Pilot truck stop at Elm Creek before I ran out of gas. From there, I went to the Runza in Grand Island to see what the fuss was about, and indeed, the Runza (kind of a cross between a sub sandwich and a pierogi) was good. 

After that satisfying lunch, I resumed the cruise down I-80 to the I-76 split, which took me into Colorado as far as Wiggins, which I mistakenly thought was the exit I wanted to US-34 but it was only a mile out of the way, and I eventually found I-25 which took me south to the Buc-ee's at Johnstown. There I got a couple of brisket sandwiches, some oatmeal cookies, a coffee mug, and some Benadryl, but somehow I couldn't find any hats. Fueled up, made reservations at the Quality Inn in Longmont, and arrived there shortly thereafter. The best thing about the Quality Inn was that it was next door to a Waffle House, where I breakfasted before heading south and west to Grand Junction. I have to say, the drive through the Rockies on I-70/US-6 was enough of a pain in the ass (and lower back) that I never want to do it again, especially since the Super 8 there was no prize - the one electrical outlet in the room was hidden behind he bed and the wifi was so weak I had to use my phone as a mobile hot spot. Went out to Jimmy John's for dinner. 

The next morning, I queried USAA about all the holds on the Amex from Buc-ee's and other truck stops, got a couple of Monster Biscuits with coffee & Diet Coke at the Carl's Jr. that was kitty-corner from the Vectra Bank branch, where I pulled $100 off the Amex and deposited it to my NSB account, Vectra being affiliated with NSB through Zions Bancorporation, and then headed for the Maverik in Fruita for gas and fluids, which I acquired while enjoying the sight of the bodacious beauties from the high school next door. Then it was off to Utah, where I decided to take the shortcut along US-6 between I-70 and the I-15. I stopped in Spanish Fork to hit the Walmart for Benadryl, toothpaste, a toothbrush, Listerine, and some Q-Tips. Then I sat around the nearby Jiffy Lube for most of an hour while they changed my oil & reinflated my tires before heading off to West Wendover. I stopped a couple of times along I-80 for fluids and in West Wendover at Arby's before getting to the Red Garter Inn, where I got a room that was quite comfy but lacked a refrigerator; the icepack sufficed, though. In contrast to the rest of the trip, it was ungodly cold one I was out of SLC, and I was glad I had the Carhartt jacket. Naturally, by the time I got to Ely, it was in the 60s again. 

Finally it was time for the home stretch. Got breakfast and fuel at the local Maverik and headed down US-93A to Ely, where I made a pit stop, bought some sodas and watermelon chunks, and headed out US-6 west toward home. I was pretty pissed that gas at the Love's in Ely was about fifty cents cheaper than it had been in West Wendover, but it wasn't like I could unfill and refill the tank. It seemed to take forever, but I finally reachd Tonopah, unloaded the car, and lost three games to the Giants. FML. 

 Having completely failed to remove any of the stuff from the trunk or back seat before I left, and not finding Masha's magazines or my ski gloves, I set out for Plymouth and Anime Fusion by way of US 6 to Ely, Alt 93 to West Wendover, and I-80 to Salt Lake City. Along the way, I filled two bags with garbage and stuffed them into a trash can at a rest stop somewhere between the Tonopah Test Range and Saulsbury Summit, bought a replacement road atlas at the Love's in Ely because I forgot the Motor Carrier's Edition at home. Wound up staying in a Quality Inn not too far from Temple Square in Salt Lake City, found Masha's missing magazines in the back seat along with the shoulder holster rig, and the next morning picked up a few things at the Walmart after breakfasting at a Carl's Jr. Then it was off along I-80 to Cheyenne, with occasional stops at Maveriks along the way to acquire & release fluids and the Walmart in Rock Springs Wyoming for gloves. Of course, when I opened the glove compartment to put the new gloves away, the old gloves I hadn't been able to find showed up. Wyoming was an okay drive, although every exit seemed to have warning signs that the highway ahead might be closed, presumably in case of blizzards or other catastrophes. Stayed at a Super 8 in Cheyenne and was tired enough that I ordered in from Jimmy John's before bashing out the bloggage and going to bed. 

The next stage of the trip took me off the Interstate and into a maze of U.S. and state highways in eastern Wyoming/western South Dakota until I stopped in Rapid City to refuel at the last Maverik* in South Dakota before I headed for Wall and my hotel room. I arrived too late to see Wall Drug, which closes at 6 in the off-season, and after blogging I discovered that everything else in town except for the gas stations closed at 9. So I grumpily ate gas station pizza and went to bed.

The next morning I checked out of the hotel and easily found Wall Drug, which is quite the little indoor mall. I claimed my free coffee & sinker for breakfast before ordering the buffalo burger for lunch, and all of it was good, so much so that I bought a dozen of the doughnuts, which were plain cake doughnuts exactly like my dad used to favor. I bought a souvenir coffee mug, an "X Miles to Wall Drug" sign which I intend to fill out and post in the window, and the free bumper sticker. Then it was off to Sioux Falls, a long, boring drive along I-90 with oppressive low clouds and occasional drizzle. There I stayed in a decent little Days Inn conveniently located across the street from an Arby's, a McD's, and a Circle K. Dinner was Arby's, the McD's offered a cheap breakfast with horrible coffee, and I only stopped at the Circle K for gas, though considering the mess McD's made of my coffee, I probably would have been better off dining at the Circle K. Then it was east on I-90 to Worthington and a drive through the farm country of Southwest Minnesota to Mankato, where I caught US-169 through Shakopee up to Bloomington and I-494, and soon enough I was at the convention hotel in Plymouth. James took an Uber over to the hotel and we went off to Big Bore Barbeque in Hanover. This was a good decision. We split a rack of ribs, along with rib-stuffed egg rolls and onion rings; we agreed that Big Bore was definitely several cuts above Famous Dave's. I took him back to his place, went back to the hotel and crashed. 

*Or so I thought. I was to find out otherwise on the return trip. 

Sixteen days after rolling out of here at 1400  the day before Columbus Day, I'm finally back...and too tired to write about it right now. Mostly. 
I will say that without the USAA Amex this would not have been possible at all, and even with it, it was a damn close thing.

Got home in time to play the Giants only to find the idiot who'd been bugging me for a week and a half to play did not know what time the games were scheduled for. I played the robot and got swept; the only game that was even close was the opening duel where Jim Kaat lost to Nolan Ryan. 

Going to unpack the suitcase and go to bed. The CE can wait another day. 

I got most of the important stuff done today: dropped off checks at the banks for Son of Silvercon and the N3F, topped off the tank, and retrieved my drugs from the post office along with another package from the VA, which turned out to be a box of syringes instead of the insulin I was hoping for. Well, Informed Delivery says it was supposed to be here today by 1800, which God willing means it'll actually be available for pickup tomorrow.

Did not get the tires checked, did not get any work done on Stipple-APA, did not do the ethics course or any other CE. I expect I'll do more apahacking and maybe CE tomorrow along with the FMJRA. 

Currently rereading Alliance Rising.