Reading post: April

Well, it's the last day of April, so time for another reading post. Wow, this was really not a good month for reading. I whizzed through my two "Briefly Noted" picks, but struggled with my "Best Books of the 21st Century" pick. I ended up finishing only five books this month -- my lowest total in years.

The books I drew from my "Briefly Noted" envelopes this month were A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit, a sort of biography, described as "engaging," and The Blizzard, a Russian novel described as containing "Gogolian flights of fancy."

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  A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune by Noliwe Rooks (2024). This intellectual biography of a Black activist was fairly interesting (and blessedly short). But what really caught my attention was the author's name.
  
  
  
  Back in 1988 I spent 3 weeks at a Spanish language school in Antigua, Guatemala, and there was a young woman there, another student, whose name was Noliwe. It's just not a common name. I studied the photo on the book jacket and compared it with a photo taken in Guatemala that summer. I think it's her. So weird! I didn't know she was an academic, but back then she probably wasn't, yet. I was 28 at the time, and she was a few years younger. Wikipedia says Noliwe Rooks was born in 1963, so that would make her about 25 that summer in Guatemala. Maybe she was still thinking about what exactly she wanted to do with her life.
  
  I'm tempted to send her an email, tell her I liked her book, but the problem is that I didn't like her at all back in 1988. She and two other girls at the school were really mean to me, almost as if we were still in junior high. So I'll probably let things lie. But still, so weird to encounter her again, near the end of what seems to have been a successful career. I think instead of contacting her, I'll look for some of her other work.
  
  
• The Blizzard by Vladimir Sorokin, translated from the Russian by Jamey Gambrell (2010-2015). I thought this was going to be fun, but it wasn't, and it got worse as it went along. I also suspect that I missed most of the point. I read that in addition to being a commentary on modern Russian society, it's also a riff on the Tolstoy story "Master and Man," which I hadn't read before, so I found it online. It also reminded me of the Kafka story, "A Country Doctor," although in this novel the doctor never gets where he's supposed to be going. A doctor in a blizzard, struggling to get somewhere -- kind of a Russian trope (or eastern European, to include Kafka). Only this book also had horses the size of quails and other horses the height of 3-story buildings. The quail-horses broke my heart. I don't need my heart to be broken any more these days.
  
  Sorokin, who is a year younger than Rocket Boy, is, according to Wikipedia, "one of the leading and most popular writers in contemporary Russian literature." He's also a big Putin critic and is living in exile in Berlin. So I'm glad I sampled his work, but I don't really want to read more.

Best books of the 21st century so far

In April I decided to read some more books off the New York Times list by authors with last names beginning with F. But there was only one "F" book I wanted to read. (The others on the list were by Elena Ferrante, whose first book I didn't enjoy so I haven't wanted to read her others.) So I thought this would be easy.

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  Septology by Jon Fosse, translated from the Norwegian (actually, Nynorsk) by Damion Searls (2019-2021). Fosse, who won the 2023 Nobel Prize for Literature, is just a year older than me, born in 1959. When I started reading his novel, I wasn't engaged. So I went looking for negative reviews. And I really couldn't find any. Almost everyone who actually made the effort to read this monster seems to have loved it. So I tried again.
  
  The 667-page novel consists of seven separate books (thus the title), which were originally published in three parts (I-II, The Other Name, III-V, I is Another, and VI-VII, A New Name) but are now printed together as one book. The seven books, or sections of the one book, are written as all one sentence, with no period at the end of any of them, including the last one. Each book begins with the words, "And I see myself standing" and each one ends with the main character, Asle, an artist, praying, sometimes in Latin. In between we get the story of Asle's life, as well as his interactions with people in his current life, many of whom are each other's doubles, or doppelgangers. For instance, he has a painter friend who is also named Asle, and he encounters a woman named Guro who seems to have the same history as his neighbor's sister who is also named Guro. The other Asle is kind of the dark side of the main Asle: the main Asle gives up drinking, but the dark Asle dies of alcoholism; the main Asle falls in love with his wife at first sight and is true to her even after death, but the dark Asle has multiple wives and children, and dies alone.
  
  I can't say I loved this the way all the other readers seemed to, though I've continued to think about it since finishing it. It took me over two weeks to read the whole thing. I'm not sorry I read it, but I didn't find it mesmerizing (as others have described it).

So I've now read 40 of the books on the list of the top 100.

Other reading

My other reading this month consisted mainly of the book for the book group (Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty), which was pretty good. I was planning to read FDR by Jean Edward Smith, but Septology took all my time. I also started reading Patriot by Alexei Navalny, but only managed to read the first two sections.

Next month

In May I will read two more books from "Briefly Noted" and try to read a couple more from the NY Times list, focusing on the letters "G" and "H." If I have time, I'll try again to read FDR, but the month of May is looking very complicated, so I don't know. Maybe I'll spend the long hot summer reading presidential biographies.

Busy April

Another busy week, and next week will be just as busy. Meanwhile, I am NOT adjusting to the new dose of Mounjaro, and I take long naps several days each week. It is hard to get anything done when you sleep half the day away.

Monday the kids were still off school, and Teen B had his yearly physical. He is now 5 feet 7-3/4 inches, so Dr. J. thought he may top out at a little over 5 foot 8. I always thought he would suddenly spurt up like Rocket Boy did in high school, but it looks like it's not going to happen. That's OK. Five eight isn't tall for a man, but it isn't super short either. It's a nice height.

I didn't hear how much he weighs, but Dr. J. said he was in the 10th percentile for weight (30-something-th percentile for height), so he's still very skinny.

On the way home, we saw police cars with flashing lights ahead of us on Broadway. It turned out to be an impromptu protest at the labs, because there was a rumor that DOGE was there that day. I honked as we drove by, embarrassing Teen B, and as soon as we got home I grabbed a sign and a hat, put on sunscreen, and Rocket Boy and I went out to join them. I stayed out for two hours (RB had to leave for part of that time to meet with a repairman). It was kind of exciting, thinking that DOGE was actually in the building, but they turned out not to be there after all. Our Attorney General, Phil Weiser (who's running for governor in 2026), came out to the protest, and so did our US Representative, Joe Neguse, so that was kind of cool.

Political task: the protest

On Tuesday morning, Rocket Boy and I went to meet with our financial advisor at our credit union. We've seen this guy before, and at first I wanted to find someone else, but he is a fiduciary, and he's nice, so we decided to go back to him. And he was very helpful! We explained our situation, he looked at our numbers (I'd figured out how much we're spending each month and how much we have in all our accounts), and he made some recommendations. The main one was not to get into our major pots of money yet, while we wait for things to play out. Wait to see if Rocket Boy can find another job, wait to see what the Trump Administration does to the economy, etc. 

I was so tired after that meeting that I slept all afternoon. 

Political task: nothing, just slept

Wednesday is Late Start day, and the twins come home for lunch, so nothing big ever gets done, but we did follow up on what our financial advisor had told us. Rocket Boy has a mutual funds account with only about $2000 in it, and he closed that out. They're sending us a check. And I got into my old TIAA account and looked at that -- and it has $30,000 in it! So they're going to start depositing $3000/month into our account (we're actually taking out $3750, but $750 goes for taxes) until we spend it all down. That will last about 8 months, until the end of the year, and then we'll look at what to spend down next.

In the afternoon we went to the high school, because Teen B was receiving an "academic letter" for maintaining at least a 3.5 average, two semesters in a row. We think it was this past fall and last spring. Anyway, the Academic Letter Program was short and not really worth attending -- but at the same time, it was fun, because it was the first time we've gotten to go to anything like that, and it will be the last. (This semester Teen B is doing very badly, has a 2.85 average including two D's, and we won't even mention Teen A's average.) Rocket Boy and I found seats in the auditorium near the front and texted Teen B to try to get him to come sit with us. He finally showed up and sat in the row behind us, refusing to clap when the presenter asked students to clap for their parents and refusing to stand up when the presenter asked all the juniors to stand. Then he had to go to the gym to get his "Letter" -- which turned out to be an actual letter, a large purple and gold "B," with a smaller bar saying "ACADEMIC" which apparently we're supposed to attach to the "letter" somehow. If he ever has another good semester (next fall?) he will earn a second "ACADEMIC" bar which we would also attach to the "letter." And then what? What do you do with this "letter"? I suggested that we could sew it onto the sweatshirt he got for participating in the spring musical, but he said NO.

On the way home we stopped at McDonald's and got Teen B a 20-piece order of chicken McNuggets (his favorite), which he threw up later that night, in the bathtub, and I had to clean it up, at midnight.

Political task: I wrote an email to Joe Neguse to thank him for showing up to the protest on Monday.

Thursday we didn't have anything scheduled, and I usually start feeling better by Thursday, but for some reason I still felt bad. I did manage to go out in the morning and do some errands (a smog check for my car, Target -- now that the boycott is over, Trader Joe's, and Petco), but then I slept all afternoon, just getting up in time to make dinner. I made easy coconut curry, which normally everybody likes, but the problem was that the week before I had made mattar paneer, which is also basically a curry, and so when the kids saw the coconut curry (plus rice, plus naan), they said, "But you just made this!" I had to promise no curry for the next two months, which means I am going to have to come up with some new recipes. No curry, no pasta (no one likes it). I guess we could just have tacos every night.

Political task: nothing, just slept

Friday was an extremely gloomy day, cloudy and drizzly, so after putting out the trash and recycling and paying bills, I decided to make cookies. I had bought a bag of toffee chips and I made the recipe on the back, so the kids had those to enjoy when they got home. I've been trying to bake more during this period between Girl Scout Cookie Season and Too Hot to Turn on the Oven Season. Last week I made brownies and the week before that, oatmeal raisin cookies.

In the evening we had tickets to see "Macbeth," which was being put on by the other high school (our next door neighbor was one of the witches). Since "Macbeth" takes place in Scotland, where it is always cloudy and drizzly, I thought our weather was really appropriate. I enjoyed the play, although they did it in modern dress, which seemed weird, and they had cast girls in some of the important male roles (Malcolm, Macduff), which was hard (for me) to accept. Actually, I was OK with Macduff, but Malcolm played by a rather short girl just seemed wrong, especially since her uniform was too big for her. I suppose this is old-fashioned of me. I did really like the actors who played Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Banquo. And of course the witches. It's such a fun play, and it was so hard to keep from joining in on "Double double, toil and trouble."

Political task: I attempted to sign a petition on Resistbot, something my friend Z'bet told me about, but I'm not sure I did it right. I thought I just had to sign (the petition was to support Afghan families in the US), but then it wanted me to send the petition to my elected officials, and for some reason I balked at that. So I may not have done anything. But the other thing I did was attend the play, full of young trans teens.

Saturday, Rocket Boy wanted to go out and do something, and I really should have gone with him (he went to History Colorado, in Denver). But I had gotten so little accomplished during the week that I wanted to stay home, or at least in Boulder. I went to the library and the grocery store, did laundry and dishes and took a nice walk. I also put away my winter clothes and got out my summer clothes. It's a little early for that, but I have some activities coming up in May that will require special clothes, and I wanted to look at what I have, see if I need to buy anything, etc.

I was pleasantly surprised by how many things fit well that didn't fit last summer. I feel as though I haven't lost any weight for a while, but looking back at my weight diary, on September 1st I weighed 239 pounds, and this morning... oh, I guess it's time for the Mounjaro report!

• Weight the morning I took my first shot: 254.6
• Weight last Sunday: 222.8
• Weight this morning (after 44+ weeks on Mounjaro): 220.4

You will recall (maybe) that I gained a pound last week, and was cross about it, so unfair, etc., so this weight is what I should have weighed last week. Anyway, it doesn't matter, but look at that number compared to September 1st! 18.6 pounds less! No wonder my clothes fit better!

Most of my pants don't fit MUCH better, because I still have a giant tummy, but most of my tops fit a lot better. I have a pretty periwinkle-blue sleeveless blouse that I bought online a few years ago that has NEVER fit, but I've kept it because, you know, maybe someday. This year it fits! I will have to think of someplace to wear it.

I still had to put back several things -- including some sleeveless cotton blouses that haven't fit in decades -- but I didn't mind. What made me cross was that some of the things I'd planned on wearing this summer weren't in the boxes! They'd obviously been given to Goodwill at some point because I figured I'd never fit into them again.

It's OK. You can't keep ALL your clothes, year after year, hoping that maybe someday... Usually, someday doesn't come. It's only due to the miracles of modern medicine that someday has arrived for me.

The reason I had to go through my summer clothes is that I have two trips planned for May, both of them to attend memorial services. My father's cousin's widow, Virginia, died a few weeks ago at the age of 98, and I am planning to attend her "Celebration of Life" on Monday, May 12th, in Grand Island, Nebraska. Since it's on a Monday, the kids won't be able to come, so Rocket Boy will stay home with them (and the cats). I am planning to drive down on Sunday (or should I say up? It's slightly north of here), stay overnight, go to the memorial on Monday, stay another night, and drive back Tuesday. It's a 431-mile drive, totally doable, although I haven't done anything like that in a while. 

I like Nebraska. I am pleased to have this excuse to go there, although I'm really sorry it had to be for Virginia's death. I really liked Virginia. 

I am also particularly excited at the prospect of two nights alone in a hotel room. Think of the sleep I'll get, with no Rocket Boy rolling over against me so that I have to creep over to the very edge of the bed, and no CATS jumping on and off the bed and snuggling too close so that there's no room to turn over and MEOWING for no reason in the middle of the night, and no teenagers coming in to tell me that they've just thrown up in the bathtub, etc., etc. Actually I'll probably miss everyone terribly, even the cats, but that'll be good, I'll be happy to see them when I get home.

The second trip will be to attend my old advisor's memorial service in Ann Arbor on May 30th. I am flying in to Detroit on May 28th, will spend three nights staying with my two old best friends from Michigan (who are married to each other) and two days hanging out with my other friends who are coming, and will fly out again on the morning of May 31st. I'm really looking forward to that trip, too. I wish I was bringing the family to that one -- I've always wanted to show the kids Ann Arbor -- but it seemed better to do it this way. 

The week ahead

So, we've got lots coming up this week, the last few days of April and the first few days of May. On Monday, everybody but me has a dentist appointment. Tuesday evening, Teen B has a band concert. Wednesday, Teen A has his physical and then I go to the dentist for a 2-hour appointment (fixing two of my bad teeth). Thursday is May 1st, and I believe there will be protests that day, although there's a lot of drama going on right now about the 50501 group being stolen by someone who's anti-trans, or something like that, I can't even follow it. Anyway, I think there will be a protest. And Friday is open for now, lol, probably won't stay that way.

Funny (not ha ha) week

This has been an odd week, the week leading up to Easter. Among other things, we had a day that got close to 80 degrees, and then on Friday, heavy snow. Today started out beautiful -- brilliant blue skies and brilliant green grass (freshly watered by all that snow, which has already melted) -- and then we had a teenage meltdown and our Easter plans ruined and yeah, all that. April is the cruellest month.

The kids had a weird schedule all week. Monday they went to school, a normal day. Tuesday they had to go in early and take the SAT. Wednesday they stayed home, except that Teen A went to TEC in the afternoon. Thursday they had to go in early and take the CMAS science test, plus Teen A had TEC in the afternoon. And Friday was a day off, as is Monday, tomorrow. 

I love four-day weekends, and yet, something always seems to go wrong during them. It's somehow too much time off. Oh God, how are we going to survive the summer? In previous years, we've done OK because I'm laid back and low key and lazy, but Rocket Boy is none of those things. He's going to be itching to get things done, and he'll be unable to resist telling the kids to get off their devices several times a day. Which Teen A does not react well to. Hmm...

On Monday, Teen A and I finally saw a dentist, after a year and a half of no cleanings since our old dentist flaked out and closed his practice. I liked the new dentist, and his staff, but I did not like the news about my teeth: three broken crowns/fillings, plus a small cavity. One broken crown needs to be replaced, the broken filling needs to be replaced, the cavity needs to be filled... but the worst is a tooth that I've had multiple surgeries on, two apicoectomies... the new dentist thinks we need to give up on it -- pull it and put an implant in. I don't want to do that, and the cost is unimaginable.

I think this is all due to all the hard candy I ate last year, especially around Christmas. Crunch crunch crunch. I knew I was hurting my teeth but I couldn't seem to stop. It reminded me of when I was pregnant and couldn't stop crunching on ice. The kids ate a lot of it too. I haven't bought any now in a few weeks, and I'm going to try not to buy any more. Jellybeans make a decent substitute, although they don't crunch. But that's the point. No crunching means no more broken teeth and fillings and crowns.

This is probably a good place for the Mounjaro report, NOT that it is a good report this week:

• Weight the morning I took my first shot: 254.6
• Weight last Sunday: 221.6
• Weight this morning (after 43+ weeks on Mounjaro): 222.8

I don't know why I went up this week. For several days I was 221 or even 220. I felt so sick the first few days of the week that I could hardly eat anything. Then suddenly up yesterday and today. It's just one of those things. Maybe not enough exercise. I got some, but not every day. A little thing called a HEAVY SNOWFALL interfered. Actually, this was a very good thing (it snowed all day Friday), because we got zero snow in March. And it didn't seem to do any damage to the trees, not quite heavy enough for that.

Saturday morning when we got up, the snow was already melting. This was a good thing, because of the "No Kings" protest that started at noon. Rocket Boy and I both went, with our signs. I had planned to walk up and down the street, but I ended up just standing there for two hours. There weren't as many people as usual, though there were a few hundred, probably. We got lots and lots of cheering honks, a few angry thumbs down, and one young man yelled "Go Elon!" which distressed me, but oh well.

And I got SO sunburned. Have to remember that for next time: hat, sunscreen. It's going to be a long, hot summer full of protests -- I must protect my skin. My face really hurts today.

It was not a good week for political tasks, I have to say. I don't think it's even worth counting off the days. Monday was taken up with the dentist appointments (and my fear of mine) plus feeling sick and napping, Tuesday I went to my parent support group and otherwise slept most of the afternoon. All I did on Wednesday was make a new sign for the window. Thursday I was feeling better (from the drug), but I couldn't seem to do anything. I was just so angry. Doing these political tasks helps keep me from feeling so angry and powerless, but this week the anger and despair got the better of me. Friday I didn't even try.

But the protest on Saturday cheered me up a little, so I am going to try again this week. I think it would help if I planned my tasks out ahead of time (like, today?), so that each day I just do them, no stressing about what would be the perfect thing. 

It was a decent cooking week, I guess. Monday I made tilapia (a nice recipe I have involving lemon juice and toasted sliced almonds), Tuesday Rocket Boy made spaetzle and salmon, Wednesday we had leftovers, Thursday I made bean & corn tacos, and Friday I made mattar paneer (except Teen B wouldn't eat it because it has tomatoes in it). Saturday we ate at the Cracker Barrel (pretty far away, but at least it was something different), and tonight we're going to have an omelet.

Which brings us to the latest teenage disaster: Easter. So, two years ago I realized that the kids were done with Easter egg hunts, and last year I didn't hide any eggs and this year I didn't either. I bought some Easter candy and put it out ahead of time so we could snack on it. No hiding. But Rocket Boy hasn't been home for Easter since 2022, and it's still kind of an important holiday for him, even though he doesn't go to church and doesn't have any religious beliefs (supposedly). He got out some of the old Easter baskets to decorate the house with, and he asked me if I'd like to color eggs. (I said, "No!") Then he got the idea that we should have a special Easter meal. 

I said, "No! I am not cooking a fancy Easter meal." The thought of doing so made me really tired. Sunday is usually forage night! If I weren't so low-energy due to Mounjaro, it would be different. Rocket Boy said he would do all the work, but then think of the dishes! So then he moved on to the idea of going out. This eventually morphed into going to the Huckleberry in Louisville for brunch/lunch. The only problem was that we didn't clearly explain to the twins that we were going to do this (and get their input).

Rocket Boy got up early on Sunday and got dressed up nicely in slacks and a long-sleeved (non-flannel) shirt. I had a bad night (my Cracker Barrel dinner didn't agree with me) and slept until 9:30. I finally got up, dressed in somewhat nice clothes, fed the cats, made tea, and waited for the kids to get up. They slept on. To make a long story short, we could not get them up. Teen A did not want to go out to lunch/brunch, and instead of just saying that, he sat on his bed in his pajamas playing with his phone and ignored us. Teen B didn't want to get up because Teen A wouldn't get up. On and on. Meanwhile it's getting close to noon and I haven't had anything to eat, just a cup of tea. I have diabetes! I can't just not eat, while we wait for recalcitrant teenagers. Finally I got mad and said that's it, I'm going for a walk. Except, wait, I have to eat something or I'll collapse on said walk. So I fixed my usual cereal and ate it and then I went on a lovely 1.5 mile walk -- lovely, except that I was so mad and so frustrated by the whole thing.

When I got back from my walk, Teen A had gone out to see his friends and Rocket Boy was eating a bowl of cereal. At 12:45 pm. Oh, the whole thing was horrible. I hate the teen years! I mean, I don't really hate them, there's a lot of good stuff that happens, but then you also get things like this. And I wish Rocket Boy would understand the teenage twins better. He hasn't really figured them out yet. He still wants them to be little kids. And they aren't.

Well. Teen B and I went to Starbucks, eventually (around 3 pm). I didn't get anything for Teen A -- not to be mean, but just because I figured we wouldn't see him again until late tonight.

Rocket Boy went to the grocery store a little while ago and got mushrooms for an omelet AND a (store-made) lemon meringue pie. So we'll enjoy that later (he and I and Teen B).

Next week

This coming week we'll be back to normal with school, except of course for the Monday holiday. The kids have their yearly physicals this week (Teen B on Monday, Teen A on Friday). Rocket Boy and I are finally going to meet with a financial advisor on Tuesday, thank goodness. I am working on getting ready for that. So far, adding up all our expenses, I've come up with $5125/month. How is that possible? We don't even have Netflix! Or car payments! Or a mortgage! And I just remembered a category I left out: the cats! Their fancy prescription cat food, vet visits, and Baby Kitty's nail trims.

Maybe I could learn to trim his nails myself.

On Wednesday, Teen B is being recognized at an assembly with an "academic letter" which means he earned a GPA of at least 3.5 for two subsequent semesters. This semester his GPA is something like 2.8, but that doesn't matter. 

And Friday night we are going to see "Macbeth" at the other high school, because our next-door neighbor is in it. Oh no, entertainment costs! We go to all the plays at the high schools and those cost something. And once in a while we go to a movie. Not very often, but it happens. Oh dear. 

I have not made a budget and lived with it in YEARS. Not since I moved to Boulder back in 1997 and had almost no income and had to watch every penny. I remember once consulting with a financial advisor when we lived in Ridgecrest (around 2011-2012) and were burning through all our savings. She was really puzzled by our financial situation (at the time we owned four properties, two rented but not for very much money, and also were renting a house in Ridgecrest). I remember she finally said to me, "Is there any way you could earn more money?"

I have been thinking maybe I could try to sell some of our stuff on craigslist each week. Maybe the kids' old Lego sets? But first I'd have to put them all together and wash them. I guess it would be a summer project. 

At least Rocket Boy can't say we need to hire a house cleaner anymore. Noooo money for house cleaners or gardeners. We will have to do the work ourselves, for as long as we can. 

Must be spring

A warm, sunny week (in the 80s yesterday). This coming week is supposed to be rainy and cooler, for which I am grateful, but I have to say this was a nice week. Everything is positively burgeoning (I like that word). Burgeoning means budding or sprouting, but it feels like it refers to the moment when things inflate and explode. Our backyard is burgeoning with dandelions.

Still, I won't plant anything yet. Our official last frost date is May 11th. This coming week it's supposed to get down to 33 one night and 35 a couple of nights, with a few chances for snow showers. Better to wait. In any case, the guy who sets up a portable nursery behind the grocery store isn't there yet, so I'll wait.

I did, however, encounter a wasp this morning when I went out to get the paper. Later, I found one crawling around the garage by the washing machine. It might have been the same one -- I might have brought it in with me. I wouldn't have seen it -- in fact, I probably would have stepped on it, barefoot, but Sillers was helpfully sitting there staring at it. So I put a big jug of Simple Green on top of it. Goodbye wasp.

Also, Rocket Boy went hiking yesterday and came home with a tick crawling in his hair. He found it and pulled it out before it sunk in. It seemed to be dead, so I just set it on a piece of paper while we watched the NewsHour. After a while I noticed it was waving its legs. Euw! I crushed it with a pencil eraser. Then I took its picture. (Then I flushed it down the toilet.) This is probably a female Rocky Mountain wood tick, carriers of Colorado tick fever, and less often Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, and relapsing fever. But not lyme disease. No lyme disease in Colorado.

The joy of insects. Maybe I'll just stay home and not open the door.

Other than being warm and pleasant, it wasn't a great week. The 10 mg dose of Mounjaro is Kicking My Butt. This week, in addition to feeling sick as a dog for a few days, I also had mental health symptoms, which I hadn't noticed before: I got so so crabby. (This is an official recognized side effect of the drug, just not one I had experienced previously.) I practically bit Rocket Boy's head off a couple of times, even though I was completely aware of how unreasonable this was. He wasn't doing anything wrong. I was just discombobulated by the drug. It made me very unhappy, because I couldn't make the bad feeling go away. Until I think Thursday, when I was suddenly normal again.

This is probably the place for the Mounjaro report

• Weight the morning I took my first shot: 254.6
• Weight last Sunday: 222
• Weight this morning (after 42+ weeks on Mounjaro): 221.6

So much for my goal to lose 1 pound a week for the next 2 months. I mean, I'm happy to be down a little more. Maybe in a month I'll hit 219, which would be exciting. But still, when you think how sick I was this week, and how crabby, and how little I ate...

It's OK. Maybe it's better to can the 1 pound a week goal. As I reminded my book group, I'm on this drug for blood sugar control. Weight loss is an added benefit, but not a guarantee. Plus, I am down 33 pounds in 10 months. I could easily have been up UP 33 pounds, well, let's say 13 pounds, during the same time period. OK. 

It was a decent cooking week. Monday, my book group met at Lecia's and she had food for us, so Rocket Boy fixed salmon and rice and broccoli for himself and the boys. Tuesday we had nacho cups; Wednesday we had Brenda's sticky tofu (Teen B's favorite -- I make it once a month for him); Thursday we had Grandma Peg's goulash (Teen A's favorite -- I make it once a month for him); and Friday we had a carrot tart, which was pretty weird, but can't win 'em all.

Saturday (yesterday) I made oatmeal cookies. First cookie baking since Girl Scout cookie season! Before I could bake, I had to make a quick trip to the store for missing ingredients. Butter, raisins, and quick oats cost me $18. Quite amazing. It was a four-pack of butter, and I do buy expensive butter (Vital Farms), but still.

Now, I have to think of what to have next week. It's hard to cook when you feel awful and don't want to do or eat anything, but I soldier on.

Speaking of finances, we continue to meander through the days. My car's timing belt ended up costing over $1400, so that was a chunk of change to come up with, but for some reason Rocket Boy's social security went up (and the twins'), so I had a little extra money to spend. Also, Rocket Boy received a single unemployment payment (about $650), even though he supposedly hasn't been approved. We decided to spend it (on the timing belt) and hope it doesn't get clawed back. Then our tax preparer finally appeared out of the woodwork and finished our taxes. We're getting money back from all three places (fed, CO and MO), for a grand total of $2498, so that will be helpful (next year will be a different story, but that's next year). I'm still trying to figure out whether I should start taking social security -- all the calculators say I should, but I'm wavering -- and whether we should start taking distributions from our retirement accounts. We need to meet with a financial advisor. But for now we're just going from big bill to big bill, like, "How am I going to pay this? Oh, OK, fine. How am I going to pay that? Hmm."

On account of being so sick, I didn't get a lot done this week, but I did take four walks and do three stretch videos. I also spent a lot of time on genealogy. Ancestry.com is soooo fun. I feel as though I could be on it all day every day. I don't think I'd ever run out of relatives. 

I was also able to help Rocket Boy find some of his relatives. He did the DNA test recently, but got very few results, very disappointing. However, he found someone else's tree that seemed to have a lot of information about his mother's uncle who emigrated to America in the 1920s. The thing is, this guy had two daughters, but we were under the impression he had a son. Plus, he was born in the wrong place. Finally, while Rocket Boy was off hiking yesterday, I delved into this conundrum and discovered that it wasn't his great-uncle, it was some other guy. I found the real great-uncle, definitively, and a bunch more relatives besides. Two new second cousins for RB! That was fun. And four third cousins for the twins. They live on the east coast, so we'll probably never meet them, but it was still nice to uncover more family. I've found that naturalization papers are particularly good sources of information.

Political tasks:

Monday: I felt too sick to do much of anything. I decided that the sign I put in the window on Sunday would have to count. It's hard to see most of the time, but at certain times of day, in certain lights, it's visible. It said, "no tariffs on penguins" with a picture of a penguin.

This week was also Boycott Walmart week. I rarely shop at Walmart, so it's not difficult to boycott them. The Target boycott continues, as well (until April 20th, I guess). Fortunately the twins have not asked me to take them to Target recently. If I decide I need more Easter candy, I can go to Walgreens.

Tuesday: Still felt terrible, but my letter to the editor of the Daily Camera was published, so that counted (even though I also counted it last Tuesday, when I wrote it and sent it in).

Wednesday: I wrote an email to Senator Michael Bennet about the SAVE Act and asking him why he didn't sign the letter from Senator Alex Padilla urging Trump to revoke his stupid anti-voting executive order. I like Senator Bennet, but he has been WAY too conciliatory with Trump supporters recently.

Thursday: I tried to write a comment on the HHS website, but could not figure out how to do that, even though I did it once. It's possible that they've gotten rid of their comment section. Instead I wrote a postcard to RFK Jr., telling him I thought getting rid of NIOSH right when Pres. Trump plans to increase the production of coal was a BIG mistake and to please rectify it immediately. As soon as I finished writing it, I got in the car and took it to the post office. I also wrote a BlueSky post about this. 

Oh, and I changed the sign in the window. It now says "Only you can prevent oligarchy" with a Smokey the Bear logo.

Friday: I felt better this day, but I couldn't think of a darn thing to do. Everything felt hopeless. I kept telling myself, "Don't feel like that, you know you have no power, that's not the point," but I still couldn't come up with anything. 

Finally I decided that I would pray. OK, bear with me for a moment. I know that sounds like a weird thing for me to do. But I thought, if everything I do is pointless, how can praying be any more or less pointless? In any case, it's a form of reaching out to the Universe, and if nothing else, it's a way to reach out to myself. When I'm feeling bad about something, I sometimes pray before I go to sleep, and it helps me sleep. I don't know why. Anyway, after I turned off my light that night, I prayed (silently) for a long time. It was a confused prayer -- please don't let the SAVE Act pass, please don't let DOGE fire more federal employees, please make Trump not be so retributional, please let the Republican senators be true to their consciences, etc., etc. I also prayed for strength to be able to go on fighting. Then I went to sleep.

Saturday: I considered going to the Tesla protest in Superior, but I didn't go. It's OK.

So now it's Sunday, my official day of rest. We all went to bed too late last night and I had trouble sleeping, so I slept very late this morning, till something like 9:30 or so. So I feel pretty awful today. Teen B and I went to Starbucks early, right after I got up and fed the cats, maybe 10 am. I got my usual cafe mocha and it had the desired effect of cleaning out my system, but I can't get the effects to stop, so that's unpleasant. Rocket Boy was interested in doing another hike this afternoon, but I can't do that if my digestive system won't calm down. I'll see. It's about 3:30 right now -- we could go in an hour or two, maybe. It was supposed to rain this afternoon...

We have an interesting week ahead of us. It's testing week for the twins. This means...

• Monday is a normal day of school, but in the afternoon Teen A and I have dentist appointments, our first with the new dentist and also our first in about 18 months. Dreading this.
• Tuesday the kids go to school at the normal time and take the SAT, but they're both off in the afternoon.
• Wednesday the kids are off regular school, but Teen A has to go to TEC in the afternoon.
• Thursday the kids go to school at the normal time and take the CMAS science test, plus Teen A has to go to TEC in the afternoon.
• Friday they are both off school and they don't go back until the Tuesday after Easter.
  

 It's almost like practice for summer vacation. 

April, come she will

Hello, April! We finally had some winter weather this week, now that it's spring (although it all melted right away yesterday morning). This is normal for Boulder in April. What wasn't normal was having no snow at all in March. Scary.

I felt gloomy this week, in part because of the political situation, but also because I felt sick all the time. It's taking me a while to get used to the new dose of Mounjaro. I didn't start feeling better until maybe Friday, and even last night I felt really sick again (probably because of what I had for dinner, a tuna melt, too greasy). Today, finally, I feel good, lol (I take my shot again tonight).

This is probably the place for the Mounjaro report, which I haven't done since March 9th, roughly a month ago.

• Weight the morning I took my first shot: 254.6
• Weight on March 9th (4 weeks ago): 222.8
• Weight this morning (after 41+ weeks on Mounjaro): 222.0

So, in 4 weeks I lost .8 lb, lol. Of course, what I really did during that time was go up and then down again. Our trip to Big Bend was in there, not much exercise, a week when I went up to the 10 mg dose, a week when I went back down to the 7.5 mg dose, etc. I feel ready now to get back on track, make an effort to lose some more weight. I thought I'd try to lose a pound a week for the next two months, i.e., by the end of May be down 7 more pounds. Hey, it's good to have a goal, right? We'll see.

I'm trying to get back to my schedule, my special tasks each morning and writing each afternoon. It is not going particularly well, but that's OK, just keep trying. I'm continuing to try to do a political task every weekday too -- again, it's a struggle, but I try.

Political tasks:

Monday: I sent a postcard to Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, who resigned recently on account of RFK Jr.'s nonsense. In the postcard I thanked him for his work and said I hope certain people come to their senses and we can have vaccines again. His last day at work was supposed to be yesterday, and I imagine he wasn't in the office much last week, but I took a chance. Someone will read the postcard, and maybe it will be forwarded to him at home.

Tuesday: It had been a month since my last letter to the Daily Camera was published, so I wrote another. I didn't have a particular topic I wanted to address -- there are so many! -- so I wrote about the ridiculous Fox News broadcast we were forced to watch at the hotel breakfast in Moriarty on our way home. My letter hasn't been published yet. I'll give it a couple weeks and then if it hasn't shown up, I'll try again. We're in an interesting situation with our subscription to the paper: I got a letter from them telling me it had run out and I needed to subscribe again, at twice the previous price. I still had four months left on my subscription, but they're claiming I didn't opt out of the "special issues" they send you now and then (basically just a bunch of ads), which shortened my subscription by four months. I wrote them a letter telling them this was nonsense, and if they didn't agree, to cancel my subscription. It's been a week and a half, and the paper is still coming. We shall see.

Wednesday: I subscribed to the Atlantic! This was in honor of Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor on the Signal chat. Just a digital subscription -- I have so many partially-read New Yorkers around the house, I didn't think I could handle another physical magazine. I know we have no money, but I thought this was worthwhile. I also gave $10 to a nice person who came to the door for CoPIRG, and wrote a BlueSky post about my "five things a week" goal.

Thursday: I wasn't feeling creative this day, but I watched an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg about the Signal group chat fiasco -- access to it was a perk, related to my new subscription. It was interesting and actually made me cry at the end. I wrote a BlueSky post about it.

Friday: I made my sign for the protest. I also made some smaller signs and put one in my window (though it's extremely hard for anyone to see).

Saturday: Went to the protest! Two hours standing on Broadway holding up a sign (here's Rocket Boy holding it). Most of the thousands of protesters were up at the intersection of Broadway and Table Mesa, but we held our own at the intersection of Broadway and Dartmouth. Lots of people honked and waved, so it was cheering. There was one big macho truck with a huge American flag that intentionally drove by and revved its engine at us (the sign of disagreement), but I thought it was interesting that they made the effort. It gave the sense of, "Look at my big penis, all you libs that I've just owned." In other words, pathetic.

The best part of the protest was that Rocket Boy managed to get Teen B to come out and watch some of it. First I texted Teen B a couple of times, sent him a photo. He texted back and actually asked where we were, i.e., showing a bit of interest. So Rocket Boy went home and got him (we were protesting half a block from our house). He expressed disapproval of all the people waving their signs, "So dumb," but he didn't leave. And then today he asked me when the next protest would be (April 19th). So I'm happy about that.

Teen A, on the other hand, was so horribly embarrassed by the whole thing that he wouldn't even talk about it, much less attend it. Later, after the protest, we decided to have an early dinner at Aunt Alice's in Longmont, and Teen A drove us there. As we approached the intersection of Broadway and Table Mesa, we realized there were still protesters! (this was an hour after it was supposed to have ended). We tried to get Teen A to honk, but OMG, he would NOT do such an embarrassing thing. So Rocket Boy reached over and honked for him, and I rolled down my window and waved at the protesters. 

***

So now we have the lovely month of April. It's supposed to get quite hot this week, which isn't good, it's just weird. I know, I'll wear capri pants and sandals and enjoy it, but at the same time, it doesn't feel good to have it be so warm and springlike, so early in the year. On a Zoom call yesterday, one of my old friends was showing us her yard full of flowers, and she said something about how it was at its best right now. I looked out at our snow-covered yard and laughed. I wouldn't dare plant anything until May. But maybe this year will be different. I just don't know.

We have a lot going on this month. Dentist appointments for everyone! And the boys have their yearly physicals. I'm taking my car in this week to get a new timing belt. Later in the week I have my yearly mammogram. Rocket Boy will have various appointments, as usual, including one this week as a follow-up since he had another bout of cellulitis this past week, sigh. The week after this one, the boys take the SAT and the CMAS test, and otherwise have the week off. After that comes Easter, and the Friday after that we'll go see our next-door neighbor in Macbeth, the other high school's spring play. And so on, and so on.

We should also do something about our finances, i.e., start to tap another source of income. Rocket Boy was turned down for unemployment, so he's appealing, but obviously there's no money coming in from that yet. We should start taking distributions from at least his retirement account, but we're not sure how much to take. In the meantime, we have these big bills coming in. The timing belt will cost about $1200. In May our house insurance payment is due ($3585) and in June there's the second half of our property taxes ($2016). To pay all that, we have Rocket Boy's social security ($2481/month). Yeah, have to do something else. Lol.

So I don't know if it's also the right time to make a lot of plans. But I will. I'll plan to keep trying to do all my morning activities, and my afternoon writing, and my daily political tasks. I should also start working in the yard. Even though it's too early to plant, I can dig up all the old dead plants from last year and get ready for May planting.

Spring is coming. Or maybe it is already here.