This Happened

[Phoebe]

Sounds tricky! But maybe the college bears some responsibility for things that happen on their property? Dunno. I've seen both the long and short end of that stick, so hard to say.

I used to joke with my husband about that unfortunate aspect of spousal support when I was working and he was going to law school. It's no good possible for the wife (or whoever, in other situations) until they make partner, lol!

[Zen]

I checked with the insurance company and the car is covered if it is damaged, so the most we should owe to get it fixed is the deductible. (Don't remember what it is...) I'm more worried about them living in a potentially mold infested environment for the remainder of the term, but that is, thankfully, very short. They move out in a couple of weeks. That is the other problem, they move out in a couple of weeks... so the car needs to be working by then.

They're going to be home for about a month, then go back to school for the summer and live at Janice's house (paying rent - at least that was the plan last I heard...). So if all else fails we can just leave the car there and take and extra trip with one of ours.

[Phoebe]

Yeah, I'm not sure I'd want a car that had been so thoroughly soaked... surely that causes lingering damage? Just what people need when they're taking final exams, isn't it? A relaxing, stress-free week.

[Tahlvin]

Yeah, I thought if the car was flooded, it had to be junked or get a flood title or something like that. Similar to Mike's discussion on the podcast about junked car titles.

[Zen]

Not sure. It is at the repair shop he uses down there now and the first thing she asked was whether he had tried to start it. (answer: no, which was good.) So we'll see what happens. He paid $40 to tow it there... Not bad. The university eventually got it towed out of the lot it was in. Finding it then was fun, because they hadn't told them where it was, even though he has a sticker and they could have looked up his contact info, it was in a visitor lot that he was allowed to park in because it was the weekend, so they were thinking it wasn't a student, I guess...

[Tahlvin]

Good luck.

Complete change of topic, and I don't want to create a new thread, but .

[Phoebe]

That is interesting, yep. The blanket claims about "anti-science" or "pro-science" doubtless aren't nuanced enough to capture what people are thinking. But neither do I agree with the article's flatly stated claim that "motivated reasoning" is responsible for things like vaccine skepticism or climate change skepticism. There seems to be confusion about what the bad evidence actually means and why it's bad, rather than some selection bias in its favor. People also have decent reasons for skepticism, but maybe it's harder to know when the application of that skepticism is inappropriate. One of my inlaws who shall remain only vaguely identified is a vaccine skeptic and so are some of her friends, so I get a chance to peer into this close up from time to time. Directly thanks to her unwillingness to vaccinate, I got to spend a week with the flu this year. It was great. Anyway, her skepticism is part of a general anti-corporate, pro-Bernie type outlook. The powers that be are lying to us about the benefits of pot, too. I don't think she prefers information confirming her beliefs while ignoring contradictory info, which is what the motivated reasoning theory implies. There is no information at all, as far as I can tell. There's a sense of "many things I do are criticized by old-fashioned people, and I feel I'm right to do them, since nothing has gone wrong so far*, so the old-fashioned fuddy duddies are probably wrong about lots of other things, and who is anyone to tell me what to do, anyway?"

* Me getting the flu is not counted among such things.

[Phoebe]

The issue also reminds me of . For someone who is warning about hubris and the dangers of certitude, it's pretty amusing that his response to his many critics was basically, I'm a pretty damn good reader and writer and maybe y'all need remedial help! He's right that activists tend to overstate things and scientists are more cautious. At the same time, scientists are ringing all the climate change alarm bells with all hands and they're getting no traction with the people who could push solutions. He's also in dreamland, imo, if he thinks that being less insistent and less about "scientism" (a word choice that makes it sound bad when, you know, it's not!) is going to make the typical climate denier want to have a reasonable conversation. Nope, what makes them have conversations is actual confrontation with physical changes to the earth. Fear, in other words. And in that case, the less-cautious alarmism isn't particularly bad, especially since the rapidity of changes is often proving it a day late and dollar short.

[Tahlvin]

Went to the doctor's office the other day for a lingering sinus infection. I've been going to that clinic for about 16 years, but my PCP retired awhile back and this was to be my first time seeing my new PCP. A nurse called out my (pretty common) first name and nobody else got up to go back, so I got up and went back with her. Usually the nurses will verify the last name and birth date to make sure they have the right person, but she didn't this time. She took my height and weight, took me back to the room, took my vitals, and asked if I was there for a physical. I said no, I'm here for a sinus infection. I booked the appointment online, so I figured at first that I might have accidentally picked the wrong type of appointment. She steps out and says the doctor will be in soon. The doctor comes in just a minute or so later and also asks if I'm getting a physical. As he sits down by the computer, which is right by my sheet, I take a look at the sheet of paper he has, and it's for a different patient with the same first name. I tell him, that's not me. He says, I thought you looked pretty fit for a 67 year old and was going to ask what your workout was! He looks me up and realizes I'm supposed to be with a different doctor, and leads me back to the waiting room. Almost immediately, the nurse for the correct doctor comes out and takes me back. I tell her what happened and she says when she went looking for me the first time, there was a third person with the same first name sitting in the waiting room. Hopefully they were able to get my vitals out of that other guy's electronic medical record. And I'm sure that first nurse got a talking-to about confirming she has the correct patient, especially when it's a common first name.

[Zen]

OK! So why do both of us have lingering sinus infections? That's what I want to know! I just got my second round of antibiotics. The first round I got from my allergist. I went for my regular 6 month checkup with him and he asked if I was having any problems. I said my sinuses were a bit bad but I figured it was probably spring allergies. He gave me the "numbing nasal spray" and used the scope to look into my sinuses and said, "No... I'm going to prescribe an antibiotic. You don't quite have an infection, but it will be there soon." Two days later I had to call in sick I felt so bad and I had to not go to see my daughter that weekend when my wife went for College Day at her high school. He knew what he was talking about.

Unfortunately, the antibiotic didn't do the trick. I think my PCP and I figured out why. I was taking Doxycycline. It has a warning to not take it with vitamins or antacids, in particular things containing magnesium or calcium. The reason is that those metals will bind with the antibiotic and flush it from your system. Since so many foods are fortified now, I generally take it separate from all foods by 2 hours on either side. However, one of the meds I take is a 12 hour extended release pill that I know has magnesium as one of the inactive ingredients. (Basically, it is part of the buffer of the pill, and it is a huge pill.) So, if it is a 12 hour pill and the medicine stays active for that long... does the magnesium stay around as well? When I suggested that to the doctor, she thought I had a very good point. I doubt that we'll use Doxycycline for me anymore, since that med is one that I take on a daily basis and have for over 20 years.

So now I'm on round 2 and hopefully will feel better before it is time to take my daughter and her boyfriend to see Rent in Chicago in about a week and a half... I'd hate to have to send my wife to that... I want to see it too!

[Phoebe]

Why does everyone else get to have their PCP? All I get is a vitamin, an advil, and a leftover half-glass of wine. Unbelievable that it's only Wednesday. I actually became... annoyed with someone at work today. It was just over the top, the behaviors. I wonder if I annoy people at work? Wow I hope not. Everyone else has been annoyed with this person off and on for a while, and somehow I have blithely floated along above it, but today the last straw was strewn. Possibly if nobody had TOUCHED ME I would have been able to tralala my way through the day unaffected. I can either get past the mild sexual harassment or get past the intolerably unreasonable verbal commentary, but I can't do both at the same time. PICK ONE PER DAY.

[Phoebe]

People are driving me batty in every aspect of life right now. Mainly at work, but on several levels at work, and in friendship, and in extended family life. Thankfully my kids are fine, and my parents never cause the slightest problem to anyone. So there you go, at least something is ok even if the rest of the people have all gone bonkers. I honestly think some of the reason people around me are unhappy is baseline stress about national politics. Every day brings something new and crazy and it's hard to tune out, because you don't want to be uninformed about health care policies and major wars and what to expect about people being deported, but you also know things might change by next week and you can't devote energy to it. A constant state of negative uncertainty, which produces anxieties for people, and then they act out in other spheres of life. Especially if more negative uncertainty is infecting those spheres of life too. I'm also a bit sad because I enjoy NerdPrideRadio but see a bad near future rushing up, in which I have about 30 spare seconds per day, and when that happens how will I post random nonsense about musics and whatevers? It's going to bum me out but I really do see that coming. Things are getting very REAL here.

[Phoebe]

Monday so bad, so very bad, and no hope for improvement until ... Friday. I might have a decent day on Friday. Arrrrgh. Most likely all the stuff that can't be handled Mon to Thurs will invade and ruin Friday too. And I have a stomach virus, that's the special sauce making Monday even sweeter.

[Tahlvin]

Please don't use "stomach virus" and "secret sauce" together.

[Phoebe]

It's not a secret, just special. I will spare you further details about why it's so special. Trust me though.

[Phoebe]

I walked into my daughter's room to say goodnight a while ago and she is standing there in the bathroom with all the lights on brightly, wide awake. "How do I get an egg off my face?" she asks me. WTF. I don't have answers prepared for this kind of thing, just OTHER QUESTIONS. So many other questions. Like why did you decide to rub an egg all over your face to "moisturize" it? To which crazy people on the internet are you listening, pray tell?

Anyway, having (hopefully) solved that one, I realized a hard truth: I threw myself into many challenging things for various reasons and now I am full in them and can't back out. So when I most want to go to bed and sleep, I have to do the things! I find that I am tired and would like the things to be tapering off now, but instead they are ramping up up up! I need a break from the things. There is no such break. I was anticipating a break. I wanted distraction, I wanted a challenge, I wanted my mind occupied with new things. Well, I got it and then some. Usually I feel like I'm operating at my unit's capacity, which is a good sensation to have. All the parts are firing, all the powers are engaged, but the system is still running smoothly. Then you get cocky and start having experiences of "system cannot handle everything being fed in". I also can't deal with my extended family; even those of us who have stabbed all the feelings out of our cold, rotten hearts cannot help but have feelings of some kind toward these people, held over from childhood, and then you regret indulging such feelings even an inch. Mistake! I need a full week ALONE in quiet and that's not happening.

Other annoyances: category, people. I was close to being liberated from the semi-regular presence of a vaguely creepy dude but for some reason it's not happening permanently enough. I am usually okay with creepy old dudes, not in the sense that I excuse what they're doing, but insofar as it can be bracketed/squelched/avoided readily enough. Non-creepy ones amuse me. I find, however, that I don't want to be around this one particular dude because I just do not want him to be physically near or risk having him touch me. I'll be honest, I blame some of this on Trump. The stakes of tolerating things seem so unreasonably high nowadays. Things I could have brushed (or maybe flicked?) aside without a blip are now causing blips of annoyance that interfere with the focus of my thoughts. These need to remain focused. Anyway, creepy dude #1 is apparently worried that creepy dude #2 is going to be spending excessive time with me, can you imagine? It would be a nightmare to be the perpetrator of this sort of thing, that's all I can say. Better the recipient than perpetrator. Gross. Which leads me to the other annoyance: young man, not creepy, who flirts with me. Because (a) married woman (b) not into young men (c) and far enough advanced into her gray, flabby dotage as to suspect something is wrong with either his eyes or brain or it's all some weird fake plot to... I don't know what. Possibly to steal my car, child, or dog - what else could it be, right? I was so sure I was making this shit up, so sure, but there comes a point past which denial or innocent explanations are untenable. All I can do is put my head down and barrel through the chute, you know? It bothers me, but bothers me more that it bothers me, because it seems like I should be mentally above all this and not bothered. It just makes a person feel very self-conscious and weird.

[Zen]

Well, I'm heading up to take my daughter and her boyfriend to see the musical Rent in Chicago tomorrow afternoon. I'm going up tonight so I can be there and pick them up early and get into town with no rush and we can find someplace nice for lunch that is both gluten-free (me) and vegan (boyfriend/daughter - though she's vegetarian, not fully vegan, it doesn't really matter when we're with her boyfriend who is...) before the show.

It did lead to one rather humorous text message exchange the other day when she was going to be visiting his house and I reminded her to tell his parents to be sure to authorize me to "take James out for Rent" and then sent a message that said something to the effect of, "That sounds really bad if you don't know that Rent is a musical!" To which she replied that you could solve that by saying "to see Rent"... Grammar Nazi!

[Phoebe]

I think Rent boy already has that meaning, does it not?

[Eliahad]

I'm not sure what hold music I would choose for a behavioral health center, but 90s soft jazz is not it. I've said this before, haven't I? Oh. Nevermind then.

[Phoebe]

Maybe the goal is to drive people into a frothing rage? Because I can see how that would work. Another one that bugs me is the doctor's office I sometimes call that plays Vivaldi, but on a tight repeating loop. So you just hear the same little 16 bars over and over and over and over...