musesfool: Superman & Batman, back to back (you always think we can take 'em)
([personal profile] musesfool Aug. 17th, 2025 05:58 pm)
I finally saw the new Superman this afternoon and I enjoyed it a lot! The casting was exceptionally good - Nicholas Hoult was the best Lex Luthor since Rosenbaum, and I thought Fillion was just the right amount of bumptious asshole as Guy Gardner. (Do I wish we could get John Stewart in a live action movie? Yes. But I'm still so glad they didn't go with boring Hal Jordan.)

The writing for Clark was great and he and Lois had fantastic chemistry. Mr. Terrific was indeed terrific! Plus KRYPTO!!! spoilers )

*
turps: (beach)
([personal profile] turps Aug. 17th, 2025 04:27 pm)
It was our first craft fair of the year yesterday, so the days before involved checking through stock while James finished off new items. With him having to cancel a few fairs last year after breaking his elbow, there was lots to sell. It was held at our local cat only vet in aid of Consett Cats, and went very well. It's a small space so things got crowded, but we managed. And a bonus, I didn't adopt any of the adorable kittens there for cat cuddles. I was exhausted last night, though, ready for bed at eight, but managed to hold on to nine.

On the subject of broken elbows, James was finally discharged from physio. They said they've pretty much done all they can for him and his grip and strength is much better. He still can't get his hand to his mouth, but at this point the only thing that may help that is surgery and neither of us are keen on that happening as it would be very little gain for a big risk. Not that he's had an appointment to discuss the CT scan results yet, so surgery may not even be an option whether he wants it or not.

We went swimming again last week, got to the pool and the receptionist said, are you aware the pool shuts at 9:30 for an aqua aerobics class? And no, no I was not aware. But we got a good 40 minutes swimming so better than nothing.

B12 injection day again on Thursday and I went from the doctors to the gym. Can't say I felt any more energetic, though did do a 45 minute recumbent cycle session so maybe there was a bit of a boost going on. It was actually great at the gym as it was nearly empty for most of the time I was there. Which was good as they'd completely ran out of hygiene wipes so no one could wipe down the machines after use. Which was pretty gross and I cleaned mine the best I could with the hem on my t-shirt.

We went to see Freakier Friday and it was fun, a good way to spend a couple of hours.

Weight management class was about unhelpful thinking patterns, and it was one of the best classes I've been to yet cut for those not interested )
cimorene: closeup of Jeremy Brett as Holmes raising his eyebrows from behind a cup of steaming tea (eyebrows)
([personal profile] cimorene Aug. 16th, 2025 07:16 pm)
On Thursday I went to Turku to take the driving theory test at the Ajovarma office. I passed! However:

I had paid in advance and scheduled this test several weeks ago. I made the reservation at home, from the computer, and immediately saved the date with a bunch of reminders in my calendar.

But when I got to the test site they didn't call my name at the appointed time. One of the desk workers asked me if I had an appointment and when she scanned my non-driver's ID card, she said, "Oh, you don't have an appointment today, but you had one yesterday!"

I had somehow managed to put the appointment in my calendar wrong, even though I thought I checked it so carefully! (I stopped myself from saying "I have ADHD!" with very great difficulty.)

She was very nice and helpful, though. She said she would reschedule my appointment and the payment would still be good; she found an opening that same day three hours later, and then when I said I could wait, she said actually the testing room wasn't full and she could let me take the test right away. So she did.

I have a total of (I think) 5 hours of driving lessons left, the first of which is in two weeks, when my instructor is back from his vacation. In the meantime, it's the second half of Wax's annual vacation starting today, and we will hopefully be trying chicken florentine for the first time this week.
musesfool: Huntress being awesome (don't think cause i understand i care)
([personal profile] musesfool Aug. 13th, 2025 09:22 pm)
I'm off work tomorrow and Friday - I have my annual eye exam tomorrow (they have sent me about 17 requests to confirm and I have each time but wtf) and I decided to just take Friday off for a long weekend - so I logged off work at 4:30 and ended up taking a long nap. I woke up to an intense thunderstorm with a truly shocking (pun intended) amount of lightning.

My brother had hip replacement surgery this morning and it went well - he is home already!

Baby Miss L loved the books - especially the Pete the Kitty goes to preschool one and I got adorable videos of her "reading" it.

Speaking of books, I did indeed finish the last 3 books of Dungeon Crawler Carl over the weekend and I was incensed that book 7 was not the end - there are supposedly 3 more books coming to wrap things up and ugh, I hate having to wait. This write-up on tumblr (vague spoilers for the whole series, as an enticement to read the books) is a great summary of why you should read it and then come talk to me about it. I am not even a cat person and I love Princess Donut! There is a wide array of female characters! There is a lot of gory violence and an unfortunate amount of fatphobia (i.e., any), but the anti-capitalist rage is real. I just hope Dinniman can stick the landing.

*
cimorene: A woman sitting on a bench reading a book in front of a symmetrical opulent white-and-gold hotel room (studying)
([personal profile] cimorene Aug. 13th, 2025 09:53 pm)
I've mentioned before that our van is a 1999 Citroën Berlingo. We named him Bernie because he's an old white guy. Bernie was a white van man's van: he belonged to a company for twenty years and sat in their warehouse being taken care of, but mostly not used, so he was in practically mint condition when we bought him in 2019, but he only cost 2000€. Now contemporary Finnish driving education is teaching me about safety features that are common or required in modern-day cars that he doesn't have: traction and skid control, smart cruise control, side door airbags that you can disable in the back, front and rear fog lights, a screen that recommends which gear to use, warning messages when you exceed the detected speed limit.

Obviously a 1999 van doesn't have any of those. But [personal profile] waxjism has also been scaring me for weeks saying he's too old to have anti-lock brakes, but today I finally read the manual and he is not. He has anti-lock brakes! That one was the only one that was seriously upsetting (the car I learned to drive in didn't have any of the others: it was a 1993 Buick Skylark).

I have to get up early to go to Turku to take the driver's license theory test tomorrow, and today I took the practice theory test again as soon as I got back from my last driving simulator lesson, and failed with the worst score I've gotten on the practice tests yet (42/50 "situation" questions). Then I took it again immediately and passed with a perfect score for the first time.

I've taken the practice test 7 times in all, but I've also gone through all the practice question sets, which amounts to 60 tests' worth of situation questions and 40 tests' worth of verbal questions (with repetition!), and I have consequently pretty much been at saturation for a while. I can't predict whether I will miss situation questions when I do a set, but that's not because I haven't learned the material, it's because the questions are not at all like a situation you actually encounter while driving; they're more like a sort of Where's Waldo-esque detailed visual search game plus logic puzzle. About half the time I miss them because of something like not noticing that the car is on a priority road (when the sole clue that it's a priority road is the tiny triangular edge of the sign with 80% of the sign cropped off on the extreme edge of the image blending into the windows of an apartment building in the background) or not noticing that it's on a one-way street (when the sole clue that it's a one-way street is some painting on the road facing the wrong way that you can only see if you look in the left side mirror image but it's very small). So I just have to take methylphenidate and count breaths and try to make sure I take my time. And try not to get distracted.

(After the theory test I still have driving lessons in a real car, and then the driving test.)
Tristana never misses an opportunity to eat hair. She can't have toys with feathers, and she has to be watched like a hawk when I'm brushing or grooming bunnies, because she will stalk the balls of discarded fur with a surprising amount of tenacity and sneakiness. She frequently manages to steal tiny tufts of bunny fur from the edges of doorways that Rowan passes through (which always accumulate a small fringe of faintly-waving fronds every few days if I don't clean them off), but since bunny grooming is a discrete activity that requires a lot of attention, it is usually possible to simply carry the fur away and put it in a closed trash can that she can't reach without incident (although there have been past incidents with her stealing fur from the trashcan, but she's never managed to get very much).

So half an hour ago Tristana started being both extremely distressed and moderately distressing: cw: vomit )

(When picturing a ping-pong-sized ball of fur, recall that Tristana, while fully grown, is tiny. She was a runt and never fully made up for two weeks as an infant when she didn't gain weight. She weighed 2.3 kg or about 5 lb last year, and she is slim and wiry, the typical bundle-of-twigs/greyhoundish Oriental breed build.)

She's finished regurgitating now, and we put a bowl of clean water and the turtle bed, opened up so she could crawl inside, on the heated floor of the upstairs bathroom for her, and she immediately slunk in there to think about her misfortunes. I mean, to feel sorry for herself, not to analyze; I doubt she has any idea the fur-eating was related to her current distress.

But backing up to about midday today, earlier I had brushed Rowan and then neatly rolled up the excess fluff into a ball like I always do; but instead of carrying it into the kitchen and hiding it in the trash under the sink where Tristana couldn't get it, I left it on top of the trashcan because I was going to come right back and use the same trashbag to change the liners in the bunny litterboxes. I was going to put the soiled paper on top of the fur, so it would have been just as inaccessible. However, I got distracted and forgot.

So this is actually kind of an ADHD tax.
Tags:
musesfool: LION (bring back naptime)
([personal profile] musesfool Aug. 11th, 2025 07:55 pm)
3 things make a post:

a. So I hurt my back yesterday doing something normal and innocuous. Ugh. Everything about it is terrible. Icy-hot helps, and tylenol, but it was hard to find a comfortable position to sleep in last night. I did eventually get to sleep, but only for like 5 or 6 hours.

b. I did still manage to make this fried rice recipe with ground pork, but it's only okay. I think the meat could use more seasoning before it gets fried and sauced, and I'll probably stick with the Woks of Life recipe going forward, but it'll do for lunch for the week.

c. In other news, Baby Miss L is having a rough time going to school 2 days a week. I sent her a couple of books about it (including a Pete the Cat one, though it's Pete the Kitty in this case), so hopefully that will help (as much as anything helps other than time and patience). Poor kid - I wouldn't want to go be around strangers all day either!

*
I can't get excited about fandom right now, or at least can't find a fandom to get excited about right now, but I can always get excited about the history of the decorative arts.

I've been reading vintage magazines to try to immerse myself more in the worldview, the history, and the language of the period I love most (centered on 1920s, but including the whole between-wars period, the Golden Age of detective fiction, etc), and the last few weeks of browsing and reading Vogue and Harper's Bazar; Ladies' Home Journal, Woman's Home Companion, Pictorial Review, and McCall's; and House Beautiful, Better Homes & Gardens and House & Garden from the 1890s-1930s (on HathiTrust and Internet Archive mostly; there are various websites that collect links to vintage magazines online) have deepend my understanding of the period so much. A lot of that is general information about the period, turns of phrase, discourse style, beauty and graphic design styles, and bits of trivia. But it's also filled in a huge gap that I didn't even really understand was there in my knowledge of the history of decorative arts and design.

I'm super excited about my new understanding of early 20th century romanticism right now. Which is highly related to and mostly the same thing as national romanticism, a trend stretching back to the 19th century; but also an aesthetic and stylistic background that was actually more commonplace, more widespread, than the influence of art deco and art nouveau and midcentury modernism in their respective periods, but is often overlooked when culture looks back. I knew the term "romanticism" in visual arts and design before, of course. In the 19th century it links up with the arts & crafts movement; in the 20s and 30s, my understanding was vaguer: cutesy florals and... folk art? I now know that yes, it was that, but it was so much more than that: it was historical nostalgia expressed in historical eclecticism, the dominant aesthetic being an expression of a cultural obsession with creating and glorifying a personalized, domesticated patriotic past.

It was still very much tied to the project of creating the nation-state, in this case mainly through oodles of mass-produced imitation antique furniture marketed as "early American" or "Tudor" or "Gothic" or "French provincial" or "Empire". (Genuine antiques and reproduction antiques were also popular or at least popularly admired, don't get me wrong; but a great deal of the mass-produced furniture in this period was more about an antique vibe than about any sort of realism - something that was also very much true of the earlier explosion of Victorian-era "revival" styles caused by the initial spread of industrialization and an earlier ballooning of the middle classes. Victorian-produced furniture and design styles are also very much historical eclecticism.) This continued into the midcentury, when the pastiche styles previously called "early American" and "Tudor" had evolved into what was then generally referred to as "Colonial" (they meant American colonial specifically), exemplified by the mid-century modest ranch house's frequent pine kitchen and fake wrought iron and hammered brass hardware. Midcentury American ranches are iconic today, but the national imagination is inclined to populate them with mid-mod and streamline modern in blocks of color and metal-trimmed laminates; but in the period, the pine kitchen and the gingham ruffle were actually far more popular, even at modernism's height.

I'm focusing on American history in this narrative because I'm reading American magazines, but this was happening all over Europe. National romanticism in the 19th century produced a flourishing interest in cultural history and folk art in Europe too, and the same historical-vibe furniture recalling pre-Industrial styles was mass-produced for a growing middle class across Europe in the early 20th century. In Finland and Sweden the style was dominated by Gustavian (early 19th century, neoclassical) and rococo and baroque styles, often simplified, but the Nordic countries were leaders in modernism from the 1930s onwards, which changed the picture somewhat. Dipping into museums and auction sites from Finland and the Scandis brings a strong wind of light woods and simplified forms, painted instead of dark-stained wood, and a healthy admixture of functionalist/Bauhaus styles. And also way more actual crystal and imitation crystal chandeliers. Finns and Swedes fucking love their crystal chandeliers. I can understand their cultural history and dark winters and all that before the invention of electric lighting, but they still need to pump the brakes a bit. Chandeliers do not belong in your kitchen or bathroom, guys.
turps: (cheerful duck)
([personal profile] turps Aug. 10th, 2025 05:33 pm)
I called into the pharmacy on Friday to see if my new compressions had finally been delivered. Now, I've called in and asked twice since my initial appointment, and each time they'd said, not yet. Yesterday they admitted that while the script had been sent off, it had been done so without any measurements attached, and the right form had only been sent that morning.

Which is all kinds of frustrating, especially so as I had asked those two times. So, as they are made to measure, I'm looking at another fortnight at least to wait.

Yesterday I was Bodhisitting. She turns four next Sunday, so I was asking what she wanted for her birthday, and it's all superhero stuff as she's really into Spider-Man and the Hulk right now. Which okay, I can work with that. Kayleigh has actually bought a Spider-Man costume and intends to deliver Bode's birthday presents while dressed up. Which, way to go the extra mile.

Then last night we went to the theatre to see Chicago, and I enjoyed it lots. Roxie Hart was played by the ex Strictly pro Janette Manrara, and I wasn't sure what to expect as she's not the best as a presenter, but while she's obviously not a stage trained singer, I thought she did a good job. The whole cast did, in fact.

But in a what are the odds moment, two rows behind us was the woman who was thrown out of the Hamilton showing. She has a very distinctive voice and way of speaking, and I turned around and yep, there she was. This time much quieter, but she still chattered away throughout to her friends.

Today it was more Bodhisitting, and yet again I spent hours looking for criminals and getting arrested. Not sure what I ever did to require being arrested so often, but obviously I must be some kind of bad guy that needs locking away from the world.
cimorene: cartoony drawing of a woman's head in profile giving dubious side-eye (Default)
([personal profile] cimorene Aug. 10th, 2025 02:12 am)
Every now and then I get a craving like,

"I wish I could read [fandom] the way it was before [subsequent bad canon/creator behavior]."

The thing is, all the stuff I enjoyed the first time I read it is still there, but... it never feels the same. All that Avengers tower fic from 2012 and all that season 1 Teen Wolf fic, for example, actually don't taste the way I remember them tasting.

This is true of a number of foods that I liked as a kid, too. The smell of bacon or hamburger cooking are slightly nauseating to me now that I haven't eaten them in 20 years, but sometimes I still wake up from a dream wishing I could have the bacon cheeseburgers I ate at age 19 from the college dining hall once a week.
musesfool: safety first, victoria! (safety first!)
([personal profile] musesfool Aug. 9th, 2025 07:02 pm)
Arrgh, book 7 is not the last book! And the next one doesn't come out until next year! Arrgh!

*
Like oud or something. Not patchouli anyway. Because after shampooing it three times the night before last, I could still smell that on it yesterday every time it got in my face (the physically irritating part of the smell did wash out, but I personally dislike musks and think they're gross even when they don't make me sneeze). I can still smell it today too, but my hair is dry, and I don't want to shampoo it again yet.

So I guess this is no longer directly related to allergies, but I don't have a haircare tag or an "I fucking hate perfume flames on the side of my face" tag.
Last night I was joylessly reading until way too late in bed, and then after I put my phone down, I suddenly started to notice my throat hurt a bit.

Now, I do have a perfume allergy that has caused my throat to swell mostly-closed in the past, but only about 5(?)x in the past 20 years, and only after a Lot (the perfume has to be concentrated close to my nose and mouth probably).

And yes, yesterday I had tried a new curl-reviving spray and I had been mildly annoyed by its perfume all day, but it hadn't irritated my nose right away the way dangerous perfumes (and also many others) do.

So when I started to worry that the product was causing an allergic reaction that might make my throat swell closed and kill me in my sleep, this was extremely unlikely for several reasons: the perfume had already proven itself not similar to ones that caused a reaction before, and also that's not really how anaphylaxis works, probably?

But my throat hurt and every perfume I could smell seemed to be aggravating it. So I decided that getting up at 3 am and showering all the perfumed products off would be a better use of my time than going downstairs to take antihistamines, painkillers, and a benzo. I shampooed my hair three times and combed conditioner through it in the shower, then put a folded towel on my pillow and slept on it after towel-drying, without applying my usual leave-in.

My throat feels a little better but still irritated today, and I took loratidine and paracetamol with breakfast. I wonder why my throat got irritated, though. I hope I'm not getting sick, but probably not; the last time I went to the store was Wednesday, so the incubation period for a respiratory infection wouldn't match up very well.
turps: (cats and coffee)
([personal profile] turps Aug. 7th, 2025 04:48 pm)
I picked up my fruit and veggie box this afternoon, and look at the goodies )

I usually pick up from the Re-F-Use café, but this time, with it being a different day, it was a pickup from an address from Durham. It was a quick drive there, but then I stood knocking for ages. Finally messaged the person who runs the collections, and they said to just go down the drive and the boxes were under the car port and I could pick which one I liked the look of. Did that and yeah, there were four boxes to pick from, sheltered nicely out of the sun.

Once I knew what to do, it was so much easier than a café pick up. Now I have an excess of carrots to deal with, and yes, more lemons *g*
musesfool: Mal (i will not speak to lie)
([personal profile] musesfool Aug. 6th, 2025 08:07 pm)
They are installing some fancy new app-based intercom system in my building, which I'm not particularly a fan of, but I dutifully downloaded the app as directed. They haven't told us when the new system is going to go live, or given us really any other instructions on how it works, but I hope I won't have to keep the ringer on because unless I'm expecting an important call, I Do Not Do That. I guess we'll see what happens!

*

Reading Wednesday!

What I've just finished
So a number of people have been talking about the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, and I thought it was graphic novels, so I checked out a sample on Saturday. It's not comics, it's something called LitRPG, the trappings of which are a little tedious to me, but overall, it is pretty engrossing reading. I've finished the first 4 books of the series (out of 7) and I'm 2/3 of the way through book 5. It is about our eponymous protagonist Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, surviving a Hunger Games like set up after aliens invade earth. spoilers )

What I'm reading now
Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade. So far I find the setting more compelling than the last 2 books (though the train book was my least favorite in terms of settings) and I'm wondering how the rest of the book is going to go!

What I'm reading next
The last(?) 2 books in the series! I don't know for certain if #7 is the last book and I haven't wanted to google because I don't want to be spoiled. The series has taken some interesting turns I wasn't expecting and I enjoy that when it happens. Hopefully they can stick the landing!

*
lizbee: (Star Trek: La'an)
([personal profile] lizbee Aug. 7th, 2025 09:31 am)
So I've been a SNW skeptic since it was first announced, and have never been impressed by the show. But I've gotta say, I've seen six episodes of the third season, thanks to screeners, and we are so far yet to hit a good episode. We have, however, hit several repetitive m/f relationships, multiple love triangles, weirdly a lot of antisemitic subtext, and the decidedly bad look of Pike trying to stop his girlfriend from consenting to life-saving medical treatment.

Mostly I think this is because Akiva Goldsman is a hack who doesn't understand Star Trek or subtext, but also I wonder how much is because the seasons are being filmed back-to-back, and so there's no opportunity to see and respond to criticism. Ironically I think part of Discovery's problem was that it was too responsive to fandom, but Goldsman can't be left alone to pursue his creative vision because he doesn't really have one. 

Anyway, at this point I'm only watching because I have a podcast, and also out of a sick eagerness to see if Pike will have to murder his girlfriend and have manpain about it, or if she'll sacrifice her life to save him. 

(I've seen people theorise that the problems this season are due to the show pivoting in a more conservative direction to appease Skydance, and I am sorry to say that these scripts predate the 2023 strikes. Like, there was time for the writers to go back and think, "Oh, there's some dodgy stuff here, we should fix that!")
Benjamin is one of several large and venerable potted plants inherited from Wax's granny, so he's probably older than I am; he has been in front of the east window in the kitchen since we moved here. However, he's had a hard time this spring after Sipuli peed in his pot several times to protest her litter box being smelly.

Once it got warm enough to not shock him in the process, Wax discarded all his old soil, shook and jiggled and rinsed his roots, and repotted him with new soil; and in apology for the trauma of that, she felt obliged to let him stay out for a while (but not fully outside, where the temperature fluctuations and wind and rain would be too much for him).

The thing is... Benjamin hasn't been pruned in a long time, and he's probably about six feet tall and four feet wide, now.

The porch isn't large.

As Wax put it when carrying out the recycling last week, it's not very convenient having your porch half full of tree.

She says she can't bring him inside, though, because he's enjoying himself so much (making lots of new leaves) that it would be mean.
turps: (cheerful duck)
([personal profile] turps Aug. 6th, 2025 04:08 pm)
I went swimming this morning, the first time for years.

It was at another Everyone Active gym the next town over, and it was so good to get in the water again. James used one of the two free monthly day passes I get as part of my membership so it cost us nothing, and we were swimming by 8:30am. Which was nice timing as it wasn't busy then.

We swam about an hour, then checked out the spa part, where I got roasted in the sauna for a while, before we headed off.

The pool had impressive disability access, including an excellent, and huge dedicated changing room, complete with a hoist and table to change adults if needed, a sink that could be moved up and down, as well as a sturdy bench, shower and toilet. Plus, a wheelchair that could be pushed and left at poolside. Where there was a lift thing to help people into the water. So, James used that, because the way he's been going lately he probably would have fallen down the steps.

As usual when doing something new, I was a little nervous before going, but no one gave me a second look, and it was a nice and positive experience.

I was at my own gym yesterday and my aim to be invisible remains a no-go. As shown by the fact one of the chatty gym bros decided to show me a photo of what he'd thought was a stomach hernia he had, but was actually a cyst. Not what I expected to see going in.

My Fitbit has given up the ghost, which is sad. I mean, have you even moved unless your steps are tracked? But seriously, I am missing it already and am charging up an old one, which will have to do for now. That's if it works, which I really hope it does.

Two of my favourite shows are back, Masterchef Australia and Celeb SAS, Who Dares Wins. I enjoy both of them so much, but am surprised at how many have dropped out of SAS after just two episodes. I'm rooting for Bimini Bon Boulash who was my favourite back in season 2 UK Drag Race.

Thankfully, the storm didn't hit us too hard here. I lost two containers from the flower shelf, both blown down and broken. While the poor raspberry canes were almost horizontal. But, they're already starting to spring back.

Tomorrow I pick up a mystery fruit and veg box from Re-F-USe. I got one a fortnight ago and they're such good value, £15 for a crate of fresh products that would otherwise be thrown away. I managed to use mostly everything from the last one, even the pak choi. Just the lemons are left, mainly because I got an excess of the things. So, I'm looking forward to seeing what I get tomorrow. Hopefully, not more lemons.
We live in a tiny town with only one commercial street, but spread out with low population density. Our island of Ålön is about 77 square kilometers (about 44 square miles), and most of it is farms and forests.

My late MIL's summer cottage was fifteen minutes by car out towards one of the corners of the island, in the village of Levo, but what a world of difference! Behind its little orchard stretched fallow and planted fields; across the winding road lay a little forest, and on the other side of that the bay of Finland. (The neighbors gave permission to park extra cars in their field and to use their little scrap of sand and dock for swimming.) The music of the evening in Levo was birdsong and the rushing of the wind.

Here one block behind city hall and the police station, in the village of Parsby, we sit in the midst of urban decay, as mentioned recently. Our little street contains three inhabited houses and two abandoned wrecks that the city owns and is allowing to fall into public health hazards, with asbestos everywhere, roofs caving in, broken windows, and fallen trees and power lines. The street leading down to the back of the police station contains two more inhabited houses and three more decaying wrecks, and the city tore all the pavement on it up last January to fix the pipes and hasn't paved it again yet. Across the other street (we live on the corner) is a big clot of densely-populated midcentury apartment buildings, whose retired inhabitants risk their lives on the above-mentioned poorly-maintained ripped-up road in winter (it's a steep hill).

Because our town is rural and the driving age for cars is 18 in Finland, the plague of Parsby (and small towns everywhere) is teenagers on mopeds. The music of the evening in Parsby starts with wood pigeons, thrushes, and the distant buzzing of cars on the highway, but is interrupted periodically by the deafening roar of mopeds speeding by under the window and teenagers practicing being cool and adult by shouting the equivalent of "FUCK" at each other. (I fantasize several times a week about an externally-mounted loudspeaker that would play a voice yelling "Shut up" towards the street.)

It would've been impossible to quickly walk to the store from Levo, though.
cimorene: A painting of a large dragon flying low over an old pickup truck on a highway (dragon)
([personal profile] cimorene Aug. 4th, 2025 09:45 pm)
My dad (C5/6 quadriplegic wheelchair user) has been in and out of the hospital all spring and summer.

Initially, there was some kind of internal bleeding, I think, and he kept having very low blood pressure and cardiac events and then having to have his many medications adjusted. Then he had to have a colectomy, and then he got a persistently recurring UTI that is resistant to antibiotics. A lot of these times he's been carted off to the hospital it's been for low blood pressure or a slight fever, and it seems to my sister and me like they're just stabilizing him, tweaking his medication, and releasing him, sometimes the same day, only for him to be back in an ambulance in less than a week.

This is having a weird effect where it's cumulatively and abstractly more scary every time he goes, while at the same time it is becoming so familiar that it's starting to feel routine. I know this is why people got convinced they were safe from COVID after a few months of wearing a mask and why people are frequently injured in the streets near their homes: the cognitive illusion that an action is proved safe if you've done it a bunch of times and nothing bad happened. Or in the case of these hospital visits, bad things happened, but he didn't get seriously (ICU) ill.

It's rough on my sister, who lives with her husband and my parents in the US, and I can't really support her long distance very effectively. And even if it were safe to travel there now, there's no way to know how long it would keep happening, so it still wouldn't probably be practical for me to go.
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