February Mini-Rants. Look on the bright side - it's the shortest month of the year

Bloody hell. I just took the garbage out for morning pickup and heard a strange clattering at the side of the house. Well, the eavestrough downspout that had burst a couple of its fasteners and was hanging somewhat precariously has totally broken free and is lying on the ground, and rainwater is clattering down on it. Naturally, with my luck, it will be raining all day tomorrow and then turning to heavy snow!

Fortunately it’s in the area of the garage so it won’t result in a leaky basement, but water can be damaging to brickwork. Will have to call around tomorrow and get someone ASAP who is willing to come by in shitty weather.

I’m not sure if the above sufficiently emphasizes how God and/or Mother Nature (take your pick) has it in for me. So one of my downspouts has fallen off. Note that it will be raining all day today (“heavy at times”) thus guaranteeing that water will be sloshed all over the place where it can do the most damage. Then it will suddenly turn very cold, followed by predicted heavy snow. This means that (a) the detached downspout will become frozen to the ground, and (b) will then be buried by over a foot of snow.

I suppose one possibility is to see if I can somehow fit the two-storey piece of downspout in the garage. The other possibility, which is looking more attractive, is to give up and open another bottle of vodka.

I’ve done this, and I can tell you it works as planned.

Again… High of 65 yesterday, woke up this morning with 3-4" of snow on the ground. And it’s still coming down! Can we decide what season it is please?

Electric went out this morning so I went downstairs and knocked at my boyfriends cause his dad was coming to take him for his infusion. His dad wouldn’t have been able to reach him by phone or get in the building as he has a landline. I feel so useful. It may go off again this eve because of freezing rain. His medical alarm won’t work if electric is off.

Not sure who has the landline (presumably dad?), but landlines are on separate power from your lights, so losing one doesn’t necessarily mean you lose both. Of course, if you are like me and only have cordless phones, you do need power (I really should see if I can’t dig up regular phone from somewhere).

He has a landline, no cell, as his hands couldn’t use it proper. When the electric goes out, so does the phone. Edited to say it’s probably cordless then.

Just got a call from a non-existent home alarm company asking what alarm we use. I said ADT and they immediately hung up. The phone number was a spoof (as was the name listed next to the number). I think somebody is trying to line up a list of houses to rob.

Getting annoyed at my vet (see previous mini-rant). After still no response from my call Saturday morning I called again at about 11:30 this morning. The doctor was busy but I was assured that she would call me “shortly”. It is now almost 4:30 and no call. Mischief did get his insulin this morning with breakfast, but that’s no guarantee he’ll get his second shot with dinner.

I didn’t think I’d be posting here but. My boyfriend has MS. He used to take an infusion every week. Due to some insurance mix up, he was off it for ten weeks and deteriorated a lot. He’s been taking it twice a year now. He missed the first appointment six weeks ago. Finally went today. He fell getting into the chair, so they sent him to the connecting hospital (Cleveland clinic) with instructions to give him the med(ocrivus, sp) But they didn’t. He wasn’t even hurt by the fall! He was there over 8 hours. Now it’s a big risk he could deteriorate even more and he’s already in a wheelchair. I would be calling them mentioning being legally liable if he gets worse, not that that matters, I just want him healthy and not in a nursing home. He’s only 35.

Curious (and not mathamatically able) to figure if ten weeks out of fifty two is longer than six weeks out of twenty six

(more) 6 weeks out of 26 = 12 weeks out of 52
(less) 5 weeks out of 26 = 10 weeks out of 52

I am worried about him getting worse. I googled and have seen nothing that says this.

The vet called back. Basically, any insulin is better than none, and while there are oral medications they are essentially experimental and may or may not be effective. A change in diet will also help; switching from shredded/chunk canned food to pate and prescription dry food. I suspect the latter is going to be expensive. I need to go to the office to pick up a bag of the prescription food so I can see if he’ll eat it. If he will, then I can start shopping online for the best deal.

I’ve known two people who have fed the high protein/low carb diet to their diabetic cats and eventually insulin was no longer required.

The vet did mention the possibility that with proper diet Mischief might go into at least partial remission. Also, the prescription dry food would not adversely affect his brother, so I don’t need to worry about trying to feeding them separately.

Mundane Super Hero, I’m going to remember your 2/14 recipe. I once had the car door lock freeze shut from horizontally driven sleet.

I have been told that there are no answers at the bottom of a bottle.
I respond that due diligence requires me to check.

Thank you! ( using hot water is key though, so you’ll need a plastic spray bottle that can handle faucet-hot hot water though. Potholders/gloves help it stay hot longer. Remember to shake well before using.)

That’s just basic algebra. I’m not sure it extrapolates out to clinical pharmacology, especially if the clinician is going to take the patient’s current circumstances into account.