Not a victim

This week some friends of ours, who we usually only see once a year at Christmas, texted me and asked, point blank, "Are you still employed?" I reminded them that I haven't worked since the pandemic, but that yeah, Rocket Boy had been fired by the Muskmelon. They expressed sympathy and then said they'd like to take us out to lunch in the next week or two. I said it sounds fun, but you don't have to take us out, we're OK.

I was struck by how important it was (to me) to say we're OK, we don't need help. These friends have gone through unemployment a couple of times, they know what it's like. We could at least let them take us out to lunch.

Immediately after Rocket Boy's contract was canceled, I told a lot of people and enjoyed the sympathy I got. But very quickly my victimhood turned to rage, and that's where it has stayed. It turned out that I don't want to be a victim (or want Rocket Boy to be a victim). I feel he/we were wronged, but I don't want people's help. I want revenge. So that's why I decided to do things to fight back.

***

It turned out that this wasn't a great week for fighting, though I tried. We had a major distraction in the form of our hot water heater going out -- after only SIX MONTHS. Grrr. This is the water heater that we got for less than $400, because our old one was still under warranty. That one lasted 4-5 years, which is also not very long, but longer than SIX MONTHS. Grrr again. Rocket Boy spent a lot of time on the phone with Rheem, the manufacturer, and at first they were going to send a technician with a replacement part, but then they emailed and said the part was on back order, no idea when it would be available, we could try looking for it ourselves on Amazon, blah blah blah. Dealing with this went on for days, and we had to keep taking the linen closet apart (the hot water heater lives in the closet, behind all the linens and their shelves). 

The hot water heater would still work, for a few minutes, if you turned it off, waited 30 seconds, and then turned it on again. (You can turn it on and off by crawling under the bottom shelf of the closet.) So that's how the four of us were taking (lukewarm) showers, turning the water heater on and off repeatedly. Very annoying.

Monday

I wrote a letter to Don Bacon, Congressman from Nebraska, because he's spoken up a few times recently, defying Trump. He stood up for Zelenskyy and he did something else, which I've now forgotten, maybe spoke up in support of federal workers, I'm not sure. So I wrote him a nice letter (OK, a dumb letter, but it was pleasant) to thank him, explaining that while I'm not one of his constituents, I do have deep Nebraska roots (much deeper than his, I might add). I included a lot of information about my roots in the footnote, which you can't see. I printed it out and put it in an envelope -- I wanted someone to have to open it and look at it, not just click "delete" on an email.

Then, after Rocket Boy spent a few more hours on the phone to Rheem, he and I went to the East Boulder Rec Center to swim (him) and take a shower (both of us). I was going to swim, but there was a class going on in the leisure pool, and a swim team was practicing in most of the lap lanes, and I just felt very uncomfortable with all the noise and hustle bustle. I had worn my suit to the rec center, so I just went straight to the showers, wearing my swimsuit, and washed my hair using the "citrus handwash" that was provided. (Rocket Boy had told me they had shampoo in the showers.) I kept putting more and more "citrus handwash" in my hair, rubbing it in, washing it out. I didn't worry too much about the rest of my body, just my hair. Then I went back to the lockers, dried off, got dressed again, and went out to the part of the rec center where they have tables and chairs and you can sit and read or watch the swimmers. I read my book until Rocket Boy finished.

From the rec center we drove straight to the high school to pick up Teen B, who had practice until 6:30, and then since it was obviously too late to make the dinner I'd planned, we went to Noodles. I texted Teen A and he asked me to bring him some mac & cheese, so we did that.

Tuesday

Today I was planning to contact the Boulder City Council to ask them to switch the police and fire departments from X/Twitter to BlueSky, but I didn't do it. The main problem was that Rocket Boy decided it was time to give up on stupid Rheem and stupid Home Depot and go elsewhere. So he called Ferguson Plumbing, and they got him set up with a completely different water heater and a nice retired plumber to install it. I went to my parent support group from 11 to 1, and soon after I got home the plumber arrived to take a look at our setup. Rocket Boy had taken the linen closet apart again before he came, so the contents were all over our bed (so I couldn't sit there and read). After the guy left, we had to drain the old water heater, which involved a hose stretching from the water heater to the front door and out onto the lawn. Suddenly I felt really sick (probably just a Mounjaro thing), so I took a brief nap on Teen A's bed. 

Then around 3:30 pm or so the plumber came back with our new water heater and proceeded to install it. Teen A came home, and I moved over to Teen B's bed, where I stayed until the plumber left at 6 pm and I left to go pick up Teen B from practice. The new hot water heater plus installation cost $1500. We think it was worth it, but it was a lot of money to spend right after Rocket Boy was fired.

Again, there was no time to cook, so we got take-out Chinese. It was all fried food and I got really sick at night.

Wednesday

This was not a great day. I felt so crummy from the Chinese food the night before, just didn't have any energy. Also, it was another day full of extraneous tasks. I was scheduled to take my car in for an oil change that day, so as soon as we got the kids off to school (it was Late Start), I took my car in to Hoshi. Then we drove to Home Depot to return the broken water heater (the plumber had helped Rocket Boy load it into his car). It took absolutely forever for the Home Depot people to process the return, many many calls to Rheem, but they finally did it. They could only give us a credit (for $696.80), not a real refund, but it's better than nothing. If I can just not lose the card they gave us, we should be able to get free leaf bags and bottles of Simple Green (the main things I buy at Home Depot) -- forever, essentially. I guess that's good.

Home again, we had lunch and then I just rested for a couple of hours. Around 3 pm we went to Hoshi to pick up my car. The car was in good shape, the oil change and inspection cost only $68.77 -- but it needs an expensive repair very soon. The last time they replaced the timing belt was in 2014, and I guess you're supposed to do it more often than every 11 years, lol. So I'm going to have to spend $1233.89 (estimate) in the very near future. The joys of an 18-year-old car.

We headed back home, and then around 4:15 we left again to go to parent-teacher conferences, which started at 4:30. We met with six of the kids' teachers (out of nine), were done by 6 pm, and then had to hang around until Teen B was done with practice at 6:30. We had leftover Chinese food for dinner, and I stupidly I ate some of the leftovers -- it smelled so good! -- and ended up getting sick AGAIN. I'm not sure it was entirely the Chinese food's fault. I was reading some Trump-related news right before bedtime (don't even remember what it was), and I started feeling like I was going to throw up.

Thursday

I was still tired today, but also tired of getting nothing done, so I finally emailed City Council. I tried to make my request very polite and congenial. I also posted on BlueSky about it. The next day I got a response from Tina Marquis, one of the council members I did vote for. She told me to sign up for emergency alerts instead of looking at X or whatever. That's not really what I meant, but OK, I tried, and it was nice of her to respond. I could consider attending the next City Council meeting (next Thursday) and making my pitch there too. Hmm.

Even though I managed to do a political task today, I was blindsided by the news that RFK Jr. had canceled the annual meeting to plan next year's flu vaccine. I honestly couldn't sleep after that. It was a terrible night. I was, however, slightly cheered by an email I got from a local organizer telling about upcoming rallies on Monday, March 3rd and Friday, March 7th. I don't know if I'll be able to go to both of them, but I will try. As David Skaggs says, quoted in her email, 

Have no illusion that citizen protests alone will turn things around. However, speaking out can bolster the efforts of those in elected office who are opposing the incremental destruction of the democracy. And those in public service who simply want to do their jobs. And provide some sense of purpose for the rest of us, lest we acquiesce. 

Friday

I thought I would participate in the "Economic Blackout" that was planned for today. The rules are: don't buy anything, except at local stores if you need to, no big corporations, and don't use your credit card for anything (don't support Visa and MasterCard, etc.). This is not really a problem for me, as I'm trying not to spend money (and we already spent WAY too much this week, on water heaters and constant eating out).

Things didn't quite turn out as planned (but there are lots of blackouts in the future, so I have more chances to participate).

• Since Friday is bill-paying day, I paid off both my credit cards. I thought that didn't count as using them, but I am not sure. I gave them money, but it was money that was already owed them, not a new purchase.
• I used my bank account (not my credit card) to pay the property taxes on the cabin. Rocket Boy got his last paycheck that day, and for some reason it was larger than usual (I thought it would be smaller). So we had almost $8000 in our checking account, and I thought, better pay the taxes while I can, even though they're not due until April. Now all I have left to pay is the 2nd half of the taxes on our house and the rental house, due in June.

I spent most of the afternoon finishing our taxes and finally emailed our tax preparer to tell her we were ready for her to "open the portal" around 5:30. I wanted to be done by the end of February, but oh well, almost. (She opened the portal on Saturday, so I got them done on March 1st.)

Then I emailed President Trump at the White House (I used the form on the White House site). I told him I'd never been so ashamed of a president as I was today, watching him with Zelenskyy. So that was my true political task for the day, since my participation in the Economic Blackout was so iffy. My brother-in-law did much better, contacting the Ukrainian consulate in San Francisco to apologize and sending money to some pro-Ukrainian group.

• I was so wiped out after the taxes and the Zelenskyy thing that I just said "let's eat out again." After some disagreement, we ended up at Boulder Social (which is a local restaurant, not part of a chain, though it is part of "Concept Restaurants" so I don't know...). The bill was a little over $120, so I left $140 in cash (the waitress was awful). At least I didn't give Visa any of my business that day. Just paid off my credit card. Arrrgggghhhh!

I actually slept well that night. Thinking about what my brother-in-law had done is what calmed me down. I felt as though I weren't the only one holding up the earth, if that makes any sense at all.

Saturday

I wanted to go to the anti-Musk protest at the Tesla dealership in Superior today, or possibly the "Save Our National Parks and Public Lands" protest at Rocky Mountain National Park but I had a Zoom call at 2 pm. I could have done the Zoom call from my phone, but I decided that I was tired and that I would take the weekend off.

And then, happily, in today's paper the Daily Camera printed the letter I wrote a week ago, about how the DOGE layoffs are affecting veterans. So I figured that was my political task for the day. (You can submit a letter every 30 days, so I put my next letter on the calendar.) I also emailed my neighbors to tell them about all the protests I was aware of in the coming week. 

After eating out over and over again this week, I didn't want to go out again, so Rocket Boy took Teen B to Shreddy's and I had a bowl of cereal at home. Cereal is not the best food for diabetics, but my stomach likes it.

Today

There were articles in the paper today about the Tesla dealership protest AND the Rocky Mountain National Park protest, and it sounded as though they were both wonderful (see photo). Over 1000 people at the park! Rocket Boy really wanted to go to that protest, so maybe we'll go to the next one.

Also, a friend of mine from the Zoom call said she accidentally ended up as part of a pro-Ukraine protest at Balboa Park (in San Diego) on Saturday, so that made me really happy too. The number of things that need to be protested right now is truly dizzying, but you just do what you can.

Looking over the past week, I think I did OK. Not as many political things as I would have liked, but I shouldn't be too hard on myself when it doesn't work out. That would be silly. Just try again the next day.

I didn't get ANY writing done, and a lot of my other regularly scheduled tasks didn't get done either, mostly on account of the water heater. I skipped genealogy day, for instance, although I did manage to do the vacuuming (a weekly task that mysteriously often gets skipped). I didn't work on the taxes on Tuesday, but I did finally finish them on Friday. I took a couple of walks (we had beautiful warm weather all week, all the snow melted), but not as many as I should have.

Perhaps that's a good lead-in to the Mounjaro report.

• Weight the morning I took my first shot: 254.6
• Weight last Sunday: 224.6
• Weight this morning (after 36+ weeks on Mounjaro): 223.8

I didn't expect to go down (eating out, not exercising...) but I did. So now I'm down 30.8 pounds. It's still coming off, little by little by little. This week I need to get bloodwork done, in preparation for seeing my doctor on March 10th. I hope my A1c goes down again. I'm going to ask my doctor if I should go up to the 10 mg dose.

The week ahead

I actually have a very busy week ahead of me, so I don't know how I'll do with getting back to my usual tasks and all that. I'll just do the best I can.

There are protests on Monday (in Boulder) and Friday (in Denver) and I will try to go to both of them. The weather for the Friday one doesn't look great, but I'll see. 

In addition, I've signed up to bring food for the kids in the musical (and orchestra pit!) on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings. On Tuesday I have to bake 12 potatoes and bring them to the school, and on Wednesday and Thursday I signed up to bring vegan desserts. So that will be interesting, since I've never made a vegan baked good before. I have some recipes...

I'll have to think of political tasks to do on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I think at least one of those will be a phone call to an elected representative, and I suppose I could write some emails. Maybe something else will occur to me. I like the idea of going to the City Council meeting on Thursday, but I don't know if I will have the energy.

I also am probably going to have to go to the eye doctor, because I might have a detaching retina. Last night, when I was reading with Teen A, I kept seeing flashes of light out of the corner of my right eye. I also had big floaters going across the eye. According to Dr. Google, this means I could have a detached retina, which means I should run off to the ophthalmologist immediately. Unfortunately, there are no ophthalmologists (that I know of) available in Boulder on Saturday nights. So I'll call on Monday. The eye is better today, but I'm still seeing the occasional flash. Sigh. Just what I need.

And finally, on Sunday, the twins turn 17! I have done nothing, nothing, nothing to prepare for this birthday. Neither of them wants anything except money, but we can't exactly give them a lot of money when Rocket Boy just lost his job and I have to get a new timing belt and we've got that stupid Spring Break vacation that I don't want to take coming up... I think what I'm going to do is stress about it all week, and then decide what to do next Saturday. Doesn't that sound like a good plan?