The Caring Corner :)


Yeah, um, no pathology report yet. I’m glad my sister is the one expecting it, ‘cause I would’ve called the doctor at least twice by now. They charge for certain calls now, you know.

My blood pressure was higher than 150/90 this morning. I could argue that checking it right before I take my nifedipine instead of 12 hours after is unfair, but I would be lying to myself.
 
I was talking to my sister on the phone for like two minutes just now, then she said, “I’ll have to call you back,” and she hung up on me very quickly. I’m thinking the pathology report might finally be in. I’ll edit this post later and let you guys know.

Edit: False alarm. The sheriff’s office stopped by my dad’s house with gifts for my stepmother’s grandchildren, and my sister had to answer since my dad was out. Then she forgot to call me back. Bah.
 
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The gamma setting on my PS5 keeps getting reset, and sometimes I remember to set it back to what my eyes can tolerate, and sometimes I forget to. Right now my eyes are just a little red from playing with the gamma up high.
 
My neighbor just called me stupid. He’s right too, these are classified intellectual and developmental disability apartments. His smart ass should be out on the street.
That would be a nice comeback if it would have been your real-time reaction in that moment.
Although I don't agree that people with a disability are all stupid.

Edit: False alarm. The sheriff’s office stopped by my dad’s house with gifts for my stepmother’s grandchildren, and my sister had to answer since my dad was out. Then she forgot to call me back. Bah.
Police never knocked on my door with gifts, that would a real surprise.
 
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My sister finally got her pathology report. Um, it’s a grade 2 tumor. That means it’s benign for now, but it could come back at a higher grade. I’m guessing she’ll need an MRI at least once every year. Still though, this is pretty good news, all things considered.

Edit: Looking into it more, it may be more serious than I thought. I forgot to ask her what type of tumor it was. Grade 2 can shorten your life significantly though.
 
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My sister says two things: that my lottery money is under $3000 now and that she isn’t sending me any more of it until sometime in January. I asked because PlayStation’s Holiday Sale goes live tonight. It lasts until January 6th though. So, I won’t get to immediately splurge, and there’s a chance I might not pick up anything from the sale at all. #firstworldproblems
 
I sleep like a rock when I haven’t had caffeine. I fell asleep even before getting my meds yesterday, around five in the evening. I was woken up around seven to get my meds, then I slept again, for nearly ten hours. I hope I can stay awake this morning now that I’ve slept. It might be hard to with that morning Klonopin though.
 
Ancestry emailed me to announce a military records hint for my 3x great grandfather Jeremiah Dove. It confirms something that I was already mostly aware of, that he served in the Confederate Army. I may have been born in Illinois, but both the Taylors and Doves go back to the Virginia border, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Anyway, time to go full redneck on y’all.

WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO MY STACHOOZ!?! NOOOOOOOOOOO
 
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Woke up around 12:30 AM. My insomnia is back, and I’m actually grateful, because I was afraid of oversleeping without caffeine. I slept like eighteen hours yesterday. I think the key is eating; it puts me to sleep. I’ve got to either eat less at a time or do my binge eating at night. I think I may try the former, but it’ll be tough to break my binge eating habit.
 
I tend to sleep amazingly during fasts. Fasting is how I often get over insomnia whenever I have it. One time I tried fasting only for the latter half of the day and it also worked very well in escaping from a streak of insomnia.

Though binge eating tends to just give me bad sleep.
 
I actually went back to sleep a half hour after that post and didn’t wake up until just before six. Welp. I’m hoping I can stay awake today, but I doubt it. 2mg a day of Klonopin is tough stuff to tackle without caffeine.

It troubles me too because I’ve been having nightmares. I try my best not to remember my dreams, but it doesn’t always work out.
 
So, I turned to WebMD for advice on what to do if Klonopin makes you drowsy.

If your medicine makes you feel worn out, don’t stop taking it. You can try other ways to fight the side effect and get an energy boost:
  • Get some exercise, like a quick walk or some stretches.
  • Take deep breaths.
  • Drink a little bit of caffeine, like coffee or tea.

F man, even they recommend caffeine. There’s no escape.
 
Guys, I’m debating going out to get lunch in less than an hour, but it’s just below freezing outside with 20 mile per hour winds and 40 mile per hour wind gusts. It’s only supposed to get colder as the day goes on too. Note that I’ll be walking to wherever I go. I have a place in mind, and it’s an eight minute walk from here.
 
It’s half past midnight, and it’s twelve degrees Fahrenheit outside. North Carolina isn’t prepared for this. I’m dreading losing power. The temperature won’t get above freezing all day today either, from what I can tell.
 
According to WBTV, Duke Energy has begun initiating rolling blackouts in the Carolinas in order to protect the power grid from damage. I can even see on their outage map where there are outages within driving distance of me.
 
Mmmm... Looks like Zelensky went to Washington, got back with USA help and though "what can we give the USA back? We have plenty of winter power outages, we could donate some to the USA....". Sorry, I shouldn't joke with thesse things. Ukraine is paying with Russian arms stock depletion and (unfortunately) dead Russian soldiers.

More seriously, though. I'm sorry for you. I hope you all stay well there. I don't know the place and I don't know much about cold weather, so I can't really give any advice. I'm surprised that Quebec seems to be ok (very cold and windy, but not much more than usual for the season and no outages) and El Paso is below -10 C (I've heard there were lots of poor migrants camping there waiting for some legislative change or somethign to cross into the USA. As it wasn't hard enough in good weather...)

Is the outages are just 30 minutes or so they should be bearable. Let's hope it doesn't get worse...

Best wishes.

EDIT: I was uninformed about Quebec. I had spoken to someone who has relatives there. Turns out their last contact was earlier in the week and once they've been able to communicate again it turns out that they were without electricity from 19:00 to 11:00 and flights cancelled. No precipitation, but it seemed a snow storm because strong winds lifted the snow on the ground. It seems over now, even with some sun sometimes.
 
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It’s half past midnight, and it’s twelve degrees Fahrenheit outside. North Carolina isn’t prepared for this. I’m dreading losing power. The temperature won’t get above freezing all day today either, from what I can tell.
Maybe you should get solar panels. Even if you are lacking in sun now, you can store up energy during the summer and then save that for if you get an outage in the winter. Also, even a little bit of energy might be enough to power a Pyra, so maybe your winters do have enough sun.
 
Maybe you should get solar panels. Even if you are lacking in sun now, you can store up energy during the summer and then save that for if you get an outage in the winter. Also, even a little bit of energy might be enough to power a Pyra, so maybe your winters do have enough sun.
If you only need to charge your Pyra, or mobile phone, you could use a portable solar panel pack. But usually you would survive a planned power outage as they are temporary.

For using electricity to heat your house and power appliances you need more power. Solar panels or wind energy could work here, depending if that works in your area.
Solar panels don't work if they are covered by snow (you could obviously put them in a spot where they are cleaned easily)
If you live in these regions it's a good idea to have multiple alternative sources of power. Easiest is probably a diesel generator, as fuel is usually available in the US.
Cooling and heating can be done with a heat-pump (like an air-conditioner), heating does work a bit limited under freezing temperatures to. Which is still way more efficient compared to electrical heaters.
You could also heat your house based on gas, probably other fuels work to, but that also depends on your living conditions and availability of these fuels.

Other options are to locally heat some parts of your house, with IR panels for example. Or you could have electrical blankets for example.

Problems during extreme cold could be frozen and broken water pipes, which will cause additional issues when they unfreeze.
Most people in the US don't rely on water for drinking via those pipes I would assume.
 
Maybe you should get solar panels. Even if you are lacking in sun now, you can store up energy during the summer and then save that for if you get an outage in the winter.
How would that work ? I thought batteries didn't last that long. And it would take a lot of batteries to last through winter. I though it was more like use at night what you produced at day.Are you thinking of flow batteries ?
Solar panels don't work if they are covered by snow (you could obviously put them in a spot where they are cleaned easily)
Not sure why I'm now picturing a tilting solar panel that turns around an uncentered horizontal axis when it has too much snow weight, so that the snow falls down and it stays clean again after the turn...
 
oh... by the way, MERRY X-MASS TO ALL OF YOU!
hope you are all safe and well!
on the bright side of life, i discovered that salted macadamia nuts are going verry well with black keemun tea.

stay safe and keep warm!
 
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