Handbill Handout

I had a toe amputated not too long ago.  Not really a huge deal nowadays with modern medical science being what it is.  The toe just got sicker quicker than the rest of me has to this point and was just about dead.  It had to be cut off so it didn't take the rest of me with it regardless of which parts of the rest of me might have been curious about the process.   In one of my follow up checkups I asked what they do with the bits they cut off of or out of people.  I figured they burned them.  The doctor said, very cheerfully given the subject matter at hand I might add, that "First it goes to Pathology and they do what they have to do and then yes, it gets incinerated.  So, a little bit of you is already in Heaven".   A little bit of me is already in Heaven? How is it that a dead toe qualifies entry into Heaven?  I don't recall the toe being a particularly virtuous toe.  It never told me that it had accepted Jesus Christ ...

 I went to have blood taken out of my arm this morning so the medical-industrial complex could tell me what else is wrong with me and sell me pills to fix it or control it.  I do this quarterly and so far I haven't died so it must be working.  Therefore, I keep doing it.   I was walking out of the blood taking room (Room 2, my favorite room at this facility because it usually houses a phlebotomist who gets what is needed without bruising my arm too badly) and a woman in the hallway had a clipboard from which she was about to read the next name.  She paused and said to everyone in particular "Manny Cotta?  Is that a real name?"  

 I have a talking coffee cup.  No, that's a lie.  A clever headline, clickbait.  I have a coffee cup that squeaks and hisses.  It doesn't actually talk.  It just makes noises that if they were louder might remind me of the radiators in the house I lived in for the first couple decades of my life but they aren't louder so they don't, or maybe they did anyway now that I mention it.  The cup came from WFMU, so it's probably appropriate that it makes odd noises.  The noises are because it's supposed to be an insulated mug, like a Thermos or as the English call it a vacuum flask.  Except the seal between the two layers was breached and when the cup gets washed water gets in what should be the vacuum.   Then when you put hot liquid in the cup the heat or the pressure or some combination thereof forces out the water and some of the air from the vacuum part.  It just squeaks and hisses and sounds like a hungry stomach all the time whil...

 I'm not going to use the p-word even when I'm writing about the p-word because I'd like to keep this quiet little corner of the G-word's part of the web that I live in rent-free.  But this is a post about life during the p-word.  I miss the subway .  Those links on the "the" and "subway" are to things I wrote about it over ten years ago.  I haven't been on the subway since early March 2020 and most likely won't be on the subway for several more months which makes this the longest subway-free stretch of my life since I started college in the mid 1980's.  Those subways were different than the ones I was riding last year but I'll neither wax nostalgic nor cast aspersions on the past here.  Some things were better, some things were worse.  The city changes when you are and when you aren't looking.   Some things will never be back.  Thanks to the location of the new Yankee Stadium I'll never have the experience of first bursting o...

 I've learned that you should celebrate all the things worth celebrating including just waking up in the morning and feeling relatively healthy and functional.  Still, New Year's is a holiday that almost never fails to depress me if I don't have distractions like a nice restaurant dinner or a concert.  It's almost impossible to think of the marking of the passage of time without remembering everything and everyone you lost in the interval and knowing that at the age you are the losses are just going to keep mounting.   On the other hand I just pitched a couple handfuls of unsalted peanuts into the yard and the squirrels and a blue jay seem happy about that.  I was late with my 11am apple this morning which means I was late pitching a chopped up core into the back yard and when I opened the door a squirrel was waiting on the step.  So now I have that obligation, though I don't mind.   I also have a pile of books (7 to be precise) to read to st...

Bigger apples are less texturally pleasing than smaller apples it seems, or maybe that's just true at this time of year.  Continued experimentation is necessary.   The pandemic is ticking along as expected with cases rising because people are getting together during the holiday season which in most of America is Thanksgiving through New Year's.  So it's going to get worse before it gets better from the vaccine rollout, and I hope it doesn't break the back of health care professionals.   Bigger apples are less texturally pleasing than smaller apples it seems, or maybe that's just true at this time of year.  Continued experimentation is necessary.   The pandemic is ticking along as expected with cases rising because people are getting together during the holiday season which in most of America is Thanksgiving through New Year's.  So it's going to get worse before it gets better from the vaccine rollout, and I hope it doesn't break the back...

It's 52 degrees Farenheit here, projected to break 60 before the day is out.  Christmas Eve in the Northeastern United States. Just another normal day in the 21st century. There's a pandemic going on.  Been going on since March, though some people don't believe it.  I've been careful, mostly, because it's not about me, it's about taking care of elderly relatives without poisoning them with a virus.  So you find things to do.  Some people took up hobbies or learned to play an instrument or painted.  Me?  I got really good at keeping the dish rack empty.  Mind you, I'm generally opposed to drying dishes with a towel, so it's a matter of knowing how quikcly they'll dry on their own.  As Alton Brown noted, you're just putting whatever bacteria is on that towel back onto the dishes you just washed.  Let 'em air dry.  He was a sensible type, then he went and had a social media meltdown and disappeared.  He's supposed to reappe...