Groundhog day

Yay, Groundhog Day. We took our Christmas tree down yesterday, right on schedule. Just need to carry the boxes and bins down to the basement. It's sunny here, which I believe means 6 more weeks of winter. But it's supposed to get to 63 today and then stay in the 60s all week. Tomorrow is supposed to be *67*. Hardly winter. I hate to think what summer will be like this year.

I liked "Sally Forth" today. Ted has a dream that they get their own groundhog. It looks within itself and predicts six more weeks of patchy fog.

I have to laugh at something. The news is so terrible I'm screaming inside (and outside, periodically). My anger right now centers around two things, although there's always something new to be mad about.

1. What the Muskmelon is doing to the civil service, i.e., breaking every law possible, destroying decades of tradition, ruining people's lives -- both the people in the civil service and the people that the civil service helps, which is practically everybody. For example, the VA -- staffed mainly by veterans to help veterans. And hardly anyone seems to be noticing this. I keep reading articles about how civil servants were offered 8 months pay without having to work. Don't people realize that is a con???? And the letters being sent to civil servants from the new Musk-controlled OPM are so nasty, so condescending. Rocket Boy got one, even though he wasn't supposed to, being a contractor. It was horrifying. The letters were titled "Fork in the Road." Rocket Boy calls them "Fork in the Back."
   
   
2. What the Dump and the Muskmelon are doing to trans people. They're especially going after trans women, claiming that they're a threat to biological women. Have you ever met a trans woman? They're not threatening. The person RB has gotten the most help from at his agency is a trans man. Also not threatening. But they are being attacked on all sides. Apparently one of the Muskmelon's kids is trans, and he finds this so upsetting that he is hellbent on ridding the world of trans people. What a guy (or whatever he is).
   

Probably the next thing is going to be NPR and PBS. I read that the new Dump-toady FCC commissioner has been asked to investigate NPR and PBS for treason. I don't think they'll be funded much longer. I wonder how long they can survive without funding.

We (that is, my family and I) are in an interesting position regarding the mess that is unfolding. Rocket Boy is a contractor for the federal government, having retired from same in October. So we think we are safe, sort of, for now. But it's like the people who voted for the Leopards Eating Faces party and then were upset when the leopards ate THEIR faces. We didn't vote for this party, but we thought we were relatively safe from them -- but they might eat our faces anyway. (They might eat YOUR faces too.) To wit:

1. We don't know how long Rocket Boy's contract might last. The paperwork he signed says he can be fired at any time, but that's by the contracting agency. We don't know whether the government can cancel the contract at any time. This isn't a huge worry, more like something to watch, because we know the contract will end at some point.
   
2. Rocket Boy is currently receiving social security payments, as are the twins. (I'm hoping to hold off at least 3 more years.) The Dump says social security won't be touched, but the Muskmelon has control of those computers now, so it's anyone's guess what could happen. Also, social security is managed by civil servants. If too many of them leave/are fired, who will do the managing? Things could go wrong.
3. Rocket Boy and I both have TSP accounts (Thrift Savings Plan). The TSP is managed by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, an independent agency composed of federal employees. If they are fired/quit, who will manage our money? The Muskmelon?
   
4. Rocket Boy's brother receives disability payments and is on Medicaid. He is 72 years old and has schizophrenia. What will happen if the Dump and the Muskmelon cut his eligibility/money? He has been ill recently, went to the hospital again on Friday, is in a lot of pain. Maybe he'll die before things get really bad. Or maybe they'll cut him off right when he needs a lot of medical attention.
5. That's all I can think of right now, but it's probably not everything.
   

So, in other news, the new tariffs kicked off yesterday. You know, when I was reading some of my presidential biographies -- Cleveland, McKinley, Benjamin Harrison, around in there -- they kept talking about "The Tariff." And I didn't understand it. I kept writing about that -- what is "The Tariff"? Eventually I kind of began to understand, and what I learned from those books was that "The Tariff" is a BAD thing. People always want tariffs because they think tariffs will protect them. But tariffs don't protect people, they hurt them.

The Dump apparently didn't read the same books I did. Or any books, more likely. OK, so his advisors didn't read the books I did.

So now we have "The Tariff" once again (I know, we've always had tariffs, but now we REALLY have tariffs). I am just praying that Canada and Mexico don't capitulate. I don't care what China does. But Canada and Mexico are our FRIENDS. You don't do stuff like this to your friends. I desperately hope Canada holds strong. Also Denmark, which may impose its own tariff on Ozempic to prevent us from stealing Greenland.

That looks like a good lead-in to the weekly Mounjaro report (which is not made by a Danish company, however).

• Weight the morning I took my first shot: 254.6
• Weight last Sunday: 226.8
• Weight this morning (after 32+ weeks on Mounjaro): 226.2
  

Yep, back down to the weight I was two weeks ago. So, basically staying the same for three weeks. Which is fine! I'm very happy with this. This week I stopped taking hydroxycine, which was making me crazy, and I got some exercise -- not enough, 5 days out of 7 (too much ice on the sidewalks), but not bad.

I also keep track of what I weigh from month to month, comparing my weight on the first day of each month. So from that perspective we have:

• June 1, 2024: 257.8
• July 1, 2024: 251.4
• Aug. 1, 2024: 244.4
• Sep. 1, 2024: 239
• Oct. 1, 2024: 237.4
• Nov. 1, 2024: 229
• Dec. 1, 2024: 231
• Jan. 1, 2025: 228.8
• Feb. 1, 2025: 226.2
   

That graph (i.e., the graph that would exist if you plotted these points) makes me very happy. I'm still aiming for a pound a month, so we'll hope for 225.2 on March 1st. Or less.

What else can I talk about? My prurigo nodularis is improving, finally. I stopped taking hydroxyzine and switched to generic Zyrtec, and that finally seemed to make a difference. Not 100% -- I've learned that there are things I still have to be careful with. For instance, my legs must be completely dry before I go to bed. No lotion. I can put lotion on during the day, but it must be absorbed before I go to bed. If my legs are at all damp, they rub against each other when I lie on my side and irritate each other. I had one really bad night this week, and that was a night I put lotion on my legs.

I still wake up in the morning and scratch. But it's much better. My legs still have bumps all over them, but the bumps are receding into the skin. I don't think I'll ask my doctor for an antibiotic. I think I'm going to be OK.

So it was a pretty good week, despite getting furiously angry about what the Dump is doing to the country. I read updates from federal employees on Reddit, get searingly angry, and then have to put the phone down. I know it doesn't do any good if I get so angry I make myself sick. But I need to keep track of what's happening, in case there's something I could do in response.

***

I cooked all five days this week, instead of having Rocket Boy cook a couple of nights. He likes to go swimming at the end of the day, come home just in time for dinner. I approve of this, because it helps his bad leg and makes him sleep better. Also, I just felt better this week, so cooking was OK.

• Monday we had salmon, rice, and broccoli (that's getting to be our standard Monday dinner).
• Tuesday we had turkey, cranberry, cream cheese, marmalade & lettuce sandwiches on mini croissants (sounds weird, but it's yummy).
  
• Wednesday we had Grandma Peg's goulash (made with fake meat) and salad.
• Thursday we had bean & cheese quesadillas and salad.
• Friday we had a recipe called "Mango Burrito Bowls" with canned peaches substituting for the mango, because RB is allergic. They're made with tofu and peanut sauce.
  

There is a possibility that Rocket Boy will have to start commuting to Golden to work -- if the dictate that government employees have to go back to the office includes contractors. If so, I'll be the five-days-a-week cook. I think I can handle it.

***

I also did a lot of writing this week. I'm still getting used to my new schedule, the idea that I must sit down and write from 2 to 3 pm every weekday. But it's becoming a habit. This week, instead of going back to my novel, I continued working on my memoirs. I've been having trouble getting started with writing about junior high, but this week I just plunged in and kept going. And the memories started coming back. In elementary school, my memories are mainly connected with my family, all the drama that was going on there. But in junior high, my memories start to be more about school and relationships with my peers. 

In 8th grade I was in a team-teaching situation that brought me a lot of misery. Going back into those memories was hard, but good for me, I think. I remembered a girl on the team who I was fiercely jealous of at the time. I googled her and (I think) found her in southern California, a failed lawyer, very unattractive. In other words, not someone to be jealous of anymore.

The novel I'm trying to write (the 2nd in a series) features two main characters who are 10 and 12 (the 12-year-old takes center stage in this novel). It occurred to me that it's probably good that I'm trying to remember what those years were like for me. It might make my novel more honest if I can really remember what it's like to be that age.

So maybe this week I'll go back to the novel. I think my characters (see photo) are looking a little annoyed with me, like, why doesn't she get busy and write our story??? But at the end of the week, Friday, I started looking at my short stories again. I was thinking about how one thing I might do someday is self-publish a collection of short stories. I read through what I have collected so far, made a few tweaks, and then remembered a story I haven't written yet but would like to. So maybe I'll work on that this week.

The bottom line is that I'm writing and enjoying it, even while the world is burning down around me. I think it's a good thing. You have to do both -- live your life and fight against the bad stuff. I just don't know what I can do to fight.