Mom is doing a lot better. She had been isolated at home for five days with me leaving soups and stews on her porch for her to fetch which she has appreciated because she didn't feel like cooking. The paxlovid does bother her stomach a lot. But I dont know if that is a standard side effect. My mother has the most intolerant stomach in the universe. It is quite the snowflake of an organ. Since it has been five days (7 since she became symptomatic, our sons who were home visiting, wanted to see her for a few minutes. They went in with N95's and sat on the opposite side of the room with the window open next to them. Calculated risk, but they worry about her so much and didn't want to leave without laying eyes on her and seeing that she was definitely going to be okay. The next vaccine can't come soon enough for me. I am really hoping by the end of September. I have a window from Sept. 18- Oct. 1st where I could get the vax, hunker down because I am miserably sick for 2-3 days, and be recovered in time for my trip to Chicago to take care of a friend's children while she has a minor surgery. Her husband a professor of medicine, and can't take much time off. I would really like to be boosted before getting on the train!

Na. The American system is just as effed. My father had w collapsed lung for three months that no one would fix because they had to argue about billing, in network, out of network, blah blah blah. It took another three months to get the cancer diagnosis though it was evident on every single scan and x ray. It took lawyers and threatening to sue in order to get anyone to get off their ass and treat him, and it cost us tens of thousands of dollars because he didn't have it, and they were only too happy to let him die while they argued. So no. This could have EASILY happened here too. I know people who took YEARS to get simple diagnoses. Some died waiting, and it was autopsy that found the problem was easy to discover, and reliably treatable. I don't believe for an instant that our system is better for anything except we do tend to have absolutely fantastic trauma care, really tippy top.

Bingo!!

I had four kids and an endless array of invisible gremlins. Not me, Somebody Else, Nobody, I Didn't See a Thing, Honestly Mom I Know Nothing, The Dog Must Have Done It, The Cat Knocked It Down, I Didn't Take It, and I Have No Idea were just a few of them. I am pretty certain there were alter egos running around, possible Peter Pan and the Lost Boys living in the attic. Nothing short of Guantanamo Bay would have gotten straight answer out of them! 😂😂😂😂😂 How do we all stay sane????

Agreed. I have a grandson who will never be able to attend school. He has an intensely well developed sense of right and wrong, stands up for others when bigger kids around him are scared to do so, and will absolutely question an adult's judgment on safety issues and fair treatment. His parents have taught him to use an even, non angry tone of voice when questioning the adult, but seriously, this kid will never be an instant obedience kid even though he likes to please. He cannot stand hypocrisy, mean spiritedness, bullying behavior, adults who treat kids like non humans, people who will not abide by what is safe. He is hyper rational so he tunes into things that other kids do not because his brain can figure out quickly what the potential outcomes would be for doing x, y, z. He would be a nightmare for any teacher who demands shut up, do what I say, and if I bully another kid, it is none of your business. I get along with him just fine. We have a great relationship. But I also worked on building that trust with him where he knows if I ask him to do something, I have a good reason to do so and have his and his brothers' best interests at heart. He knows I love him to my last breath. So he has no problem following my lead. No teacher is going to have time to build that relationship with him, not in today's insanely crowded classrooms and increasing bureaucratic nonsense. I am wondering if the charge could be upped from negligent manslaughter to voluntary manslaughter. There was depraved indifference. the P.E. teacher didn't just set up a bad situation from a place of stupidity/ignorance, but over and over the child begged for help. At any time, the teacher could have stopped it, and assisted the student. Instead just kept pushing until the child collapsed and could not be saved. To me that seems like a willingness to harm the child to the point of death without premeditating murder. But, I don't know how prosecutors determine these kinds of charges. I also think that given one child died, there should be a reckless endangerment with depraved indifference charge for every, single student made to run. It was clearly dangerous conditions, and the evil monster had to have known it and didn't give an eff. It is a good thing I am not a judge. I would be pro "Here is your teaspoon and mini pick axe, brown bread, and water rations. You'll be mining granite for the rest of your life on a mountain pass in Dengali. Good luck!" The whole "cruel and unusual" part of the punishment clause is utterly lost on me when it comes to doing evil to children. No. Mercy. As for the poster who asked how someone lives with it. The answer is, it doesn't bother them that much, and they are generally pissed at being held accountable. They are just that depraved. You no...like kneeling on someone's neck until he asphyxiates. Too many people put into power that have zero empathy nor care for the other humans they share the planet with.

I had a dream one time that Betty was president, Dolly was Secretary of State, and the whole world was at peace. Then I woke up. Sigh.

Hugs, so many hugs Melissa! I don't have any great wisdom except to say try to talk with the hospital social worker. Draw her a layout of the house, and estimates of how far it is to get between rooms, how far you are from getting help in the event that you fall, and tell her about the twins and how much at I imma you will need to do with them when you get home because they are going to need your attention. If you can show that person how it is just not possible to live at home in your current condition, they may advocate hard for you to have a longer time in rehab, and different goals for what it means to be ready to go home. Lots of love from me.

Same. We chose Pfizer for our sons for that reason, and the pharmacist at Rite Aid was very much on board with that and offered excellent counsel in the matter. Mark got Pfizer as well. I have had exclusively Moderna. We have had several relatives die of covid, and 2 who appear to be permanently disabled from their covid infections. So even our son with a heart condition decided he would prefer to take the risk with the vaccine over the risk of the disease, and his cardiologist felt that this was the right decision. Thankfully apart from fever and chills for 24 hours after each vax/booster, he has been fine. All one can do is look at the data and play the odds if you don't have any contraindications for the vaccine.

This is why I firmly believe there should be a bill of rights for children/minors added to the constitution. Once it becomes federal crimes and human rights violations, people are more likely to see children as something other than property, human livestock. My heart breaks for the family. P.E. teacher can rot in hell forever as far as I am concerned. Rosie is spot on, as usual! She has so much wisdom.

I have wanted to visit the Dales ever since seeing the first BBC All Creatures Great and Small series as a teen. Something about that landscape really calls to me. Ideally, I would like to visit there as well as numerous places in Scotland.

Thank you. I did manage some sleep because I found some spray lidocaine in the medicine cabinet that I didn't know I had. It was long acting so I woke up twice in the night to reapply, and then this morning I iced it again. Now it is sore to the touch and still swollen but the firey pain has died down. So I am grateful for that. I am very relieved that I did not have a piano gig today. Since our sons were going to be home for Labor Day weekend, I had turned down substituting at the Episcopal church, and boy that turned out to be a good call! I can't imagine using those two fingers for that today.

One wonders what the little imps are tying up with their plunder!

Here it is because the rural bus routes are very long, and the bus drivers have to bring kids in and then go get more since there are not enough drivers. It is not uncommon for some kids to get on the bus at 6:00 am with a school day that ends at 3 pm, and then they have to go to aftercare until the bus comes back from the first drop off. Some kids don't get home until 5 pm. It is a helluva long day for little kids. And ya, these kids are seriously stressed out because of it, and the general craptasticness of school in general plus the regular bullying, bomb threats, potential shooters, etc. The high school kid two blocks down the street refers to school as his "P.O.W. Camp". So while he obviously doesn't have a full understanding of what that actually means in the context of world wars and conflicts, he also says this with deep sadness and obvious fear indicating a level of trauma students should not be legally compelled to endure. Long, horrible days. Kids should be allowed to unionize and go on strike.

Thanks! I tried the lavender because I actually had some. I didn't notice much difference. 400 mg of Advil does not touch the pain. The only thing working is keeping ice on it, keeping it numb. I am REALLY tired, and need to go to sleep, but I know that as soon as the ice melts it is going wake me up. I think it is going to be a long night. I am worried. I would have thought it would be more manageable after this many hours. Besides needing to make the peach salsa tomorrow before the peaches begin n to deteriorate, I picked a half peck up honey crisp apples and they, along with another load of grape tomatoes need to be dehydrated. I am typing one handed and the thought of handling all this produce with one hand makes me leery. It is going to be so slow going. I have an apple peeler that affixes to the counter top so I think I can load apples on it and crank away, maybe. Blanching the peaches, getting them of the pit, deseeding and chopping all the peppers, garlic, sigh...I just don't know.

I canned 15 pints of tomatoes today, half from the garden and half purchased romas. We are having too much overcast rainy weather and the tomato plants have a peck of green fruit out there, but they aren't ripening, and the plants are dying. I am happy though that I have managed 13 pints plain tomatoes, 8 pints mild taco sauce, 7 pints hot taco sauce, and five jelly jars of peach salsa which had a few Amish Paste all from my garden. I am still getting grape tomatoes, and have dehydrated 2 quart jars worth which is a lot of grape tomatoes given that they shrink to 75-80% of their original size. I pickled 5 jelly jars of jalapenos and have more to do. There are two strings of chili peppers making up to dry. I still have some romas left and peaches. Mark wants me to make more of the peach salsa. It has turned out to be very popular with our sons as well as him. But, while canning today, I burned two fingers on my left hand. Steam burns. Bad steam burns. I can't even bend those fingers, and the pain is bizarrely intense. This is really going to slow me down, and at the moment, I am feeling a strong aversion to heat.

My mother was known for her sewing. She made my wedding dress from a picture of one in a magazine that I could not afford. Jane Austen gowns for my sister, replica Revolutionary War uniforms for my dad, you name it. She could also make amazing, creative props and scenery for our school plays from super cheap supplies and scrounging scrap materials. Our teachers loved her! My mother in law is known for her cinnamon rolls.

Bingo! They can't have their cake and eat it too.

None. No, I take that back. One. Exactly one piece of advice: If you buy your dh a flame thrower for his birthday, you would be wise to follow him around with a hose when in use or keep it in a vault with a complicated password door lock along the lines of Mission Impossible so you don't find him the yard fiddling with the boat while ignoring the fire he started. Do not ask me how I know this. 😜 I have no idea if this is the protocol, but when I am actually burning a section of invasives, I create a perimeter around them by soaking the ground and wetting down the foliage of plants nearby that I do not want to burn. Then I babysit it like a hawk with a 5 gallon bucket of water, plus the garden hose filled up so I can either spray it out or give a specific spot a good deluge with the bucket. But, I have no formal training in such things. I just had a father who lit a big ole pile of brush on fire in our backyard when I was a kid, then went inside to watch football. I remember freaking out when I looked out the bedroom window and saw flames 30 ft high. My brother and I ended up putting it out because he fell asleep watching football and got very cranky when we tried to awaken him. It is an experience that has stuck with me. My brother is also very careful with fire because of it, and as a result, neither of us have ever lost our eyebrows, meanwhile Dh's eyebrows fled years ago and never came back.

Yes, my mom. Last night she said she felt a little better so we have high hopes that she will pull through okay.

My was diagnosed with covid today This is her second time. She is fully vaxed, has been for both bouts of it, and my guess is that the booster we got back in December just aren't cutting it. She is miserable. But it is because it is all head congestion causing a lot of headaches. She is not coughing or having breathing issues, and they gave her paxlovid so my guess is that she will come through okay. I know where she got it. My stupid, effed up, witch of a sister in law "graduated" with her " PHD" (unaccredited essential oils, alternative med university who should be spanked by the Dept of Ed, the Feds, the Attorney General, and the IRS), and my equally as stupid brother held a big party at a restaurant of all of their unvaxed, covid is a hoax friends. These are idiots that believe wearing masks causes brain damage. 🙄🙄🙄 She went and though she started out with a mask on, she felt out of place and let my evil bitch Silk talk her out of taking of her KN95. After being there for an hour, some of these idiots divulged that they had recently tested positive for covid but didn't believe the tests and figured it was actually flu. 😠 So not only do they not believe the tests, they feel entitled to party while symptomatic with "flu". The party was 5 days ago, and my mother's comment to me was, " I have no idea where I got this." 😱😱😱 Really mom???? Really??? Sigh. Of course we didn't go. I don't celebrate "degrees" that will likely end up with people killed. My Silk gives out advice like "fast for 20 days to starve the cancer" and, "dandelion root cures diabetes", and " Reiki will realign your immune system", and.....you get the idea. She is going to kill someone, and I think of her as a serial murderer so I do everything humanly possible to not be in the vicinity of her. I am being very patient with mom despite how frustrated I am. She is 79 and her thinking is not top shelf. I try to give her and my mother in law regular, safe outings. But she gets lonely, and she gets emotional about my brother and wants to be around him even though he is a total idiot. I am ready to buy remote property, take all my adult kids, honorary kids, and grandkids, and go have a compound where we ignore the rest of the world. I am just worn out dealing with the crazy. They need to get the dang booster out.

I am now reading "The Creative Vegetable Gardener". Mark told me that after this, I should give my brain a rest and read something completely different from all the gardening/farming stuff..I said that I would consider a book on backyard poultry for a change. He.was.not.amused.

Right there with you.

This is correct. We have sheriffs in my state that give full support of these groups, and refuse to arrest them when they break weapons laws, violate parole, commit domestic violence, make death threats. Public support from key people puts fringe, radicals in power.

It's heartbreaking that you had to write that. I am so sorry! You are not wrong at all, and yes, I would move him to another class if the teacher cannot admit things are this bad. You want someone in charge who gets it.

I am crying with you! This is so wonderful! 💐🌺🌸🏵🌷🌼💖💃💃💃