wombat_socho

Ran out of Ozempic a couple weeks ago and have reduced the dosage on my Novolin R from two units every 5 mg/dl over 130 to one unit every 10 mg/dl on the advice of my clinician, and so far I'm not real happy with the results...and I haven't even been eating that much in the way of carbs. Well, okay, I had pizza yesterday as part of the Post Office run, but surely not enough to push the evening BG over 300...anyway as of today I'm going back to the 2/5 dose and tomorrow I restart the Ozempic.

Not much action on the tax front. I've had a few appointments, but they've all been phone appointments; nobody has actually sent any documents in. The timekeeping software is also being difficult and not doing a good job of retaining my out punches, so I'm going to keep track manually on the side as a backup.

On the last novel of the Spiral Arm series, which means I'll be getting into Maggie Hogarth's Shieldmatron novel this week.

I am being cheap and staying just one night in Pahrump at the Best Western, because my credit cards have become strained. So I'll have to pack everything but the nose hose Tuesday night so I can just pack the nose hose, grab my pack and my insulin, and get out the door so I can be in Pahrump by 3 PM for the intergovernment meeting before the regular meeting. Zoom. 

 I moved it this year.

I had a good Christmas. Did a little cooking, did a little baking (the Irish cake had too many raisins so it was super dense) and a lot of Civicrack. 
Also finished The Book of Skaith, which is a damn fine collection of Leigh Brackett's tales of Eric John Stark's adventures on the doomed planet of Skaith. 

Talked to troika for a bit; apparently the fudge hadn't arrived yet but he appreciated the joke. Here's hoping my ex and my cousins do as well. 
Also texted Rob Hansen the other night; he is depressed by the election results and has quit his job contracting for some agency in the IC because he isn't sanguine about working for Tulsi Gabbard and/or whoever is going to be running the agency he was working for. (I don't know & didn't ask.) Sent him a CFA gift card as a token of my esteem. Doug surprised me with a small wooden box marked "Made In Russia/Recycled In Ukraine", which proved to contain a ingot from a T-72 destroyed in the Battle for Kiev. It's a little confusing because the microslab is marked "37 Motorized Rifle Brigade" but is also marked "Military Unit 51460", which corresponds to the 64th Separate Guards MRB out of Khabarovsk, a unit plausibly accused of war crimes in the early days of the war. Regardless, it's a very cool gift and certainly not how I was expecting to ever interact with a T-72, which was something I was concerned about back in the day when they were the New Hotness and the Abrams hadn't yet appeared in USAREUR. 

The package from Wisconsin Cheeseman arrived and I have consumed all of it except for the Dobosh Torte, which I am saving for New Years Eve, and the cheese, which I am going to nibble on over the next few days, I think. I have done shopping at Raley's a few times before and after Christmas, mostly picking up tea and (finally!) eggs, which have been very scarce lately thanks to an outbreak of bird flu in California. Also in the mail today (aside from Doug's surprise package) was the last pack of lebkuchen I ordered and the two packs of cards from the Carmelite Sisters, ditto. I will prepare and send these off to friends along with notes. Also also I got cards from Anna and Andrea, who go to the top of the outgoing card list.

I celebrated finally finishing my pre-season training by sleeping in until after 1300 today, going down to BK for some burgers and O-rings, and then proceeding to the Post Awful to send off the box of Kerlix and related items to Ralts. Much to my annoyance, the postage on the 8-pound box was almost $70, but at least it'll be there in a couple of days because it was too big to go by ground mail. The postman at the window kindly advised me to grab a few of the large priority mail boxes and pack them full of Kerlix instead of sending hueg boxes through the mail for 3x the price. This I then do, which will help clear a couple of boxes out of the bedroom, hallway, and trunk. In the meantime, I have to go back to the post office and get whatever waits for me in the parcel locker, which I was too burdened to pick up today. 

Meanwhile, Amazon sent me a bunch of stuff that wasn't supposed to be here until tonight, but the local USPS folks are efficient and it was all ready for pickup TODAY. This included a copy of The Burning Mountain, which is a horror story disguised as an alt-history war novel, two new/reconditioned headsets from Koss, a pile of lebkuchen, and most importantly a new HP kibo to replace the awkwardly sized Onn kibo that got pressed into service when the previous HP kibo's left-shift key died and it started having other weird problems. New kibo has the home/end, insert/delete, and page up/page down keys arranged weirdly, but I suppose I'll get used to it. 

Went out Tuesday to Raley's and bought a bunch of dairy products as well as salt, baking soda, and some other staples, because I intend to make some Irish cake over the holidays. And some normal bread, too. Since store-bought bread is approaching $3.50/loaf even when it's on sale, it behooves me to save a little money and put the bread robot to work. 

Carlos finally got approved for VA disability, just in tie for Christmas. Still going to send him the biltong on general principles. Also sent gifts to James & the ex as well as Kathy & Patsy, and will soon be sending a few other things out to deserving people. 

That was what my Aunt Maureen (my godfather's widow) said as we were talking about the death of my Aunt Pat, who passed away quietly in her sleep Saturday morning. It's true; all of my father's siblings are dead now except for Uncle John, whose mind is incomplete, though at least one of his adoptive daughters is caring for him in his twilight, so he's got that going for him. I thought I might be able to be there for the memorial and interment, but the cousins scheduled it for Black Friday, and the airfare to Manchester & back all by itself was over $1000, and I just don't have the miles, credits, and/or cash to make it. Kathy says she understands and it's okay, but I still feel bad about it, because Pat was my favorite aunt on that side of the family, the O'Malley's are my favorite cousins, and it hurts that I can't be there for them. 

In other news, I passed the AFSP exam pretty handily, but it looks like I need to knock out eight more hours of Federal CE to get AFSP certified with the IRS. Guess I'll do that this week. 

I see there's a community Thanksgiving dinner at the Convention Center. Dunno if I'll be social and go to that, or just get a small turkey from Raley's along with the usual trimmings. 

Currently reading Grandeur and Misery of Victory, which is not so much Clemenceau's memoirs as a riposte to Marshal Foch's memoirs, which apparently took some shots at the former PM. Also rereading Alliance Unbound. 

One more day with the balancing board on Tuesday, working 3-7 to get the last of the tardy mail-in ballots processed. If people had just come to the polls, we could have had all this wrapped up last week, but no, the (Democrat) idiots in the state legislature decided we had to have mail-in ballots, so we had a giant mess on our hands. As a result, Sam Brown got screwed out of a Senate seat just like Laxalt two years ago, because while the presidential margin was too big to rig, the Senate race was a lot closer, and Clark County was able to fuck with it. Things are even worse in Arizona, so we're not the only state suffering with this BS. I think the Feds under Trump are going to take a prolonged and painful look at how the elections were conducted in Clark & Washoe Counties, to say nothing of Arizona, but as far as Nye County goes, our noses are clean and we did everything by the book. I'd still be a lot happier if we used the same system Fairfax County did, with ballot marking & tabulation at the precinct level, but the NVGOP is going to have to retake the legislature first.

In the meantime, all the Alliance-Union books came in and I am almost done with them, being in the middle of Rimrunners. It turned out Merchanters Luck was available on Kindle after all, in a package with 40,000 In Gehenna, which I am not eager to reread and have no need to, really, since it's almost completely planetside and doesn't deal with the Hinder Stars at all. I posted something on Substack comparing David Drake's "The Bonding Authority" from Hammer's Slammers with Cherryh's description of the Hinder Stars losing their purpose after FTL made them obsolete as rest & refueling stops, and questioning why they didn't become new homes for dissidents or cultural preservationists from Earth. I suspect that if Cherryh was aware of the question, it would probably be answered by the Alliance not wanting any EC presence beyond Alpha Station, but...once the Alliance abandoned them the second time, unless the stations were destroyed (as it's implied in Rimrunners that Thule Station is after its second closing) what would there be to stop the EC from moving in?

Along with the books came the wire cube shelves that I ordered from Amazon, couple of letters from Social Security acknowledging that I was off Medicare and telling me they were going to extract overpayments from upcoming checks, a coffee mug from the Sam Brown campaign, and a surprise package of biltong from Rob, who is apparently almost at the point where he wants to pull out of Facebook. I'll have to stop in Beatty this next trip and get him some elk & buffalo and some other kind of rare jerky in return. 

Anyway...tomorrow there's supposed to be a spaghetti dinner at the Elks on account of Veterans Day, thanks to the VFW, and I guess I'll probably go. It's free, but I think I'll throw a tenner in the pot anyway on general principles. Not like I can't afford it.

Put in a full day with the balancing board today after using yesterday afternoon to get my ears lowered, check in with Dr, Hsi, and get my PTIN renewed. It was pretty cold this morning, so I broke out the field jacket and gloves, though I really didn't need the latter. 

I decided since my appointment with Dr. Kletzky is in the late afternoon tomorrow, I'll just drive down in the late morning, do the appointment, and then crash at the Strat before returning here on Thursday. That way I only miss 1 1/2 days, 2 at the worst, instead of missing 2-2.5 days. I might even manage to pick up a few things at Walmart on the way back, or on the way to the Strat. 

I'm getting used to Civ 6, even though the cartoony leader portraits are still annoying and I'm not keen on some of the mechanics changes. Won at level 3 with good old Julius Caesar, and am currently attempting level 4 with Teddy Roosevelt. On my way to crushing the treacherous Aussies, after which the Brazilians are going to get it right in the teeth. This took priority over blogging; after all, I can easily catch up tomorrow. 

Time to hit the rack.  

Woke up at 0800 but so far all I've gotten accomplished is to fill my pill boxes, update and file the necessary reports for the N3F, shave, and eat breakfast. Still have to pack the suitcase and the backpack, bearing in mind that I'm leaving this afternoon for the Stratosphere since driving the 3.5 hours to Mercury for tomorrow's tour would require me to get up around 0400 tomorrow and drive down to Mercury in the dark. Fuck that noise.

The new Savor card has arrived at the post office, but so far no money from the DoE or VA. I'll ask Barb about the former tomorrow.  

Finally ripped La vie Electronique #15, and it sounds pretty good. Peturbator's New Model is okay, but nothing else on the album is as good as "Tactical Precision Disarray". 

Time to quit screwing around and finish packing. 

I didn't do one of these last year because I was busy with Son of Silvercon, but since my schedule is clear this week, I have the leisure to look back and see how things have progressed (or not) over the last couple of years. Well, I do have my CE to attend to, but instead of 18 hours we only have to do ten, and I've already knocked one of those out; between the AFSP and the mandatory ethics course there's another eight gone, so by the end of the week I should be all done with them. (Sure I will.)

Physically I'm doing better than last year. Weight is down, BP is almost always good, and BG is generally good as well, though I need to stay away from Punjabi Dhaba in Amargosa Valley, because their samosas will be the death of me otherwise. My legs are better, too, even if they're not healing as quickly as Dr. Lal would like. Part of it is that I'm not changing my bandages often enough, which is stupid of me, but then I'm lazy like that. Mentally, I'm okay, I guess. No urges to rope myself or do anything else stupid like that. 

Financially I'm doing better. Barb called yesterday with some questions about the hotel billing on either end of the Oak Ridge conference; we got that sorted and soon my NSB account will get a ~$1600 injection, just in time for the Anime Fusion excursion. While I do have four credit cards, the VA disability is enough to keep me current & even make progress on paying them down, which is a Good Thing, because it allows me to do dumb stuff like travel around the country AND finance an SF convention (mostly) out of my own pocket. 

I am keeping up with my N3F duties better now that tax season is over and I'm just the Treasurer and not also the membership secretary. Someone else is handling reminders to people whose voting memberships are expiring, and a good thing too. 

I'm undecided about whether this is going to be my last tax season or not. I miss dealing with people face to face; phone calls and video conferencing just aren't the same. On the other hand, I don't fancy paying someone else to do my taxes or trying to fight with TurboTax or HRB's at-home packages. Guess I'll just have to keep at it until I die, I guess. 

Well, it could have been worse. My Senators finished 67-95, last in the Beta Division of the American League in Da Tech Guy's 1969 League, but well ahead of some really awful teams: Baltimore and KC both finished 62-100, the Cubs were 57-105, and the Dodgers were 46-116. Still not as bad as this year's White Sox. The problem, as it usually is, is that we didn't have the offense to match our pitching. I stupidly left Johnny Callison on the bench for a good chunk of the season, which didn't help, and I completely failed as a GM to fill the roster's eleven empty slots before the trading deadline with waiver picks, which didn't help. 

Anyway, the key to our offense was Richie Scheinblum (9-54-2, .294), who was our leadoff man and scored 94 of our 583 runs. Cookie Rojas (2-44-2, .248) might not have been the best choice as #2 hitter, but I had hoped his A-1B hit & run ability would make up for his piddly .285 OBP. Del Unser (1-40-1, .271) was our usual #3 man, and in fact he hit better than IRL. The cleanup hitter was Mike "Superjew" Epstein (32-99-1, .258) who like Unser hit better in RFK than he historically did in Oakland. 

After that, Rick Reichardt (2-28-0, .191) was a disappointment despite being platooned against LHP in place of John Lowenstein (7-23-0, .208) and Johnny Callison (3-14-0, .290) who if my mind had been right would have been our everyday RF against righties. Ed Herrmann (13-43-0, .273) was surprisingly good at the plate if not behind it (7 passed balls, allowed 11 SB); we could not say the same about Andy Etchebarren (0-14-0, .219) and Randy Hundley (0-18-0, 215), who were much better at handling pitchers than they were as hitters. Frank Howard (10-36-1, .282) started most of our games against LHP in right field, and exceeded expectations, hitting just as well as he did IRL despite playing fewer games. Ken McMullen (8-67-0, .261) started every game at third base and actually drove in more runs than he did IRL despite hitting fewer dingers. 

Joe Lovitto (0-10-4, .237) mostly filled in for Unser against lefties and occasionally did some pinch-running; he didn't steal nearly as many bases for us as he did for the Rangers. Ed Brinkman (4-37-0, .170) we traded for because of his defense, but he did surprise us with the homers, some of which came at opportune times. 

On the mound, Joe Coleman (17-20, 3.33) led the team in starts (39), complete games (14) and innings (276); he lost most of those 20 games due to poor run support. Reggie Cleveland (12-13, 3.65) was right behind with 222 innings, and our token lefty Jim Kaat (11-9, 3.39) was the third best starter even though he could only pitch 170 innings. The man who should have been our #4 pitcher, Pat Dobson (8-17-3, 2.52) had a run of unusually bad starts which saw him exiled to the bullpen to replace Ed Farmer (4-6-7/4, 4.19) and Vicente Romo (4-5-7/5, 3.18) who ran out of innings and luck respectively as our closers. Carl Morton (6-7, 3.38) replaced him in the rotation, while Eddie Fisher (3-4-2/3, 4.65), Don Stanhouse (1-5-4/1, 6.75), Chuck Taylor (0-4-3, 4.50), Jim Panther (0-2-0, 5.27) and Steve Lawson (1-3-1, 5.92) eating some innings in the bullpen. 

The main holes we need to fill will be at third base, since Ken McMullen's only going to be around for 42 games and Bill Madlock for another 26, and first, where Mike Epstein turns into a pumpkin and Frank Howard becomes useless against RHP. Del Unser may become our leadoff man since Richie Scheinblum's glove disappears and he's only around for 106 games anyway. Then there's the bullpen. I may have a trade in the works with the Dodgers to fill the closer spot, unless something better shows up in the draft, but I guess we'll see.