Today, courtesy of the Cincinnati Zoo, otters that look like seals.
Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires. Is there anything great happening in your life? Anything you want to get off your chest? Reading a good book (or a bad one)? Anything in the news that you’d like to discuss? What have you created lately? Commiserations, felicitations, temptations, contemplations, speculations?
Categories: Life
Soggy here, innit? 
In memoriam: Diana Rigg 
Getting out the ‘yes’ 
100 books by women in 2016 
Hoyden About Town 
I have finally realised that I should have broken out the thermal singlets a few weeks ago – then I wouldn’t have spent the last few weeks with a spasming inter-scapular zone. I’m so used to looking after my cervical spine with scarves all the time (even in summer I always have one in my bag), I hadn’t realised that age had decided that now I have to look after my thoracic spine equally well.
Today I have a thermal under-top, a long sleeved over-top, and a sleeveless micro-fleece jacket on. I am not currently spasming. This is a very very welcome change.
Wow, here in Brisbane it’s still 30 degrees during the day, tigtog. No thermals for me. I wish it would cool down…
I’ve spent five hours today writing a detailed budget for a traveling scholarship, and now my brain hurts. Unfortunately I need to write an essay next!
On the up-side, I’m booked for getting needles shoved into my SI joints next week on Thursday next week – because after three years, someone finally thinks they know what’s causing me pain and even says they can fix it. I am tentatively being excited. (Though not so much about the needles.)
Good luck Jo! I hope it works. Agree about the weather (from Ipswich).
I am having surgery, pedicle subtraction osteotomy at L2 with rods and screws, in June. Have been suffering with chronic pain for about 15 years. I so hope it helps.
Good luck to you too Debbieanne! Three years has been bad enough for me, fifteen is even worse. I hope you get some relief too. 🙂
Good luck with your pain reduction procedures both of you. I hope that you can get some relief.
Many thanks.
Yes, best of luck for all of us with our various pains. I hope your respective procedures go well.
I think why this lot of temperature-related aches baffled me is that it hasn’t actually been that cold, so I didn’t initially think that was the cause. However, increasing thermal layers over my torso has pretty much eliminated it (I’ve still got a bit of spasm-echo, if you know what I mean?). Now I just have to find the balance between keeping the spine warm enough and not overheating the rest of me.
Anyway, today is our 23rd wedding anniversary, and we have an afternoon of band practice followed by dinner out. Time for the vocal warmups. Laters!
Happy anniversary tigtog.
Could it be an air circulation thing? I often find a breeze (or fan or air conditioner) on my bare neck is a recipe for stiff neck/headache regardless of the relative temperatures.
I have been on leave all week and taking advantage of the opportunity to sleep late. Not looking forward to the alarm tomorrow morning…
Happy Anniversary TT and Mr Tog. I hope the various pain remedies are successful. 15 years debbieanne oh my goodness.
I am not looking forward to going back to work while everyone else lounges around on their final day off (pupil free day) but nor am I relishing having to get them out of bed and ready for school the next day.
Happy Anniversary, Tig.
I am finding the “actually sitting and writing out stuff” part of acquiring my Cert III to be a bit challenging, after ten years away from study (and now with an adorable five year old distraction in the house).
We had a lovely anniversary, finishing with too much excellent Malaysian food.
– – –
I’m currently bingewatching Season 1 of The Americans, which I’m mostly finding above-average intriguing as expected. It’s taken me until over half way through the season to start getting annoyed at how we don’t see either of our super spies ever practising their super martial arts skills, and in particular we never see her do any exercise at all (at least he plays the occasional game of raquetball). This is bizarrely unrealistic. One cannot infinitely retain these sorts of skills no matter how well trained one was when young – the muscles have to be kept strong and the reflexes have to be kept sharp. It wouldn’t have to be much – the occasional split-screen training montage would manage it for me. I guess it’s mostly annoying to me because the actress is so waif-thin – I’ve read that she’s a dancer and thus really is wiry-strong and agile etc, but without them showing this to me as part of her character in the show it’s difficult to believe in her martial skills.
That sounds really frustrating TT. Is she supposed to be all about teh sexy instead? Or is it just a big plot hole?
It’s mainly just a big plot hole. Both halves of the super spy couple employ sex/seduction in pursuit of their espionaging, so she definitely uses teh sexy at times, but it’s very obviously a mask she puts on when she does. Most of the time she’s just intensely disciplined about living up to their masquerade for the mission, which is why not having any scenes showing how she trains with dedication EVERY SINGLE DAY just really doesn’t seem right.
Come on TigTog. Beautiful women are beautiful effortlessly. They wake up looking beautiful. They don’t work on it. It’s beauty magic. What next? You want to see her putting on her own make up and doing her own hair? (Happy anniversary from me, too. Or sincere condolences on bearing the burden of hetero-normative culture for so long. Which ever you prefer.)
I have just read First Dog on the Moon at the Guardian and laughed out loud for the first time in ages. “Tax all the rich people until they die.” Hilarious immediately after reading about Tony Abbott’s budget plan.
I am going to have to give up reading Crikey. (By reading I mean visiting and seeing if Bernard Keane has any un-pay walled articles up.) First there was Guy Rundle insisting that Julian Assange’s troubles have been caused by feminists (yes, he really said that. I couldn’t decide whether I should laugh or cry) and now they insist on publishing articles that say “shut up feminists, you are boring”.
If only a feminist conspiracy would take over Australia. I’d pay a subscription for that.
I may need some support as the time gets closer I am very nervous, but desperate for some/any relief. I like my Dr he seems honest and forth recommended thru family in Canada.
Hope the tigtogs enjoyed their anniversary.
Debs
Happy to provide support, think positive thoughts etc Debbieanne.
*sigh* One of my posts from a year ago offering some criticisms of the Live Below the Line campaign seems to have gone semi-viral and I now have all sorts of comments flooding my inbox, most of them along the lines of ‘of course we’re not saying living on $2 a day can make us feel what it’s like to be properly poor, but it’s still good so you can’t criticise it and anyway you’re probably lazy and have never lived without fancy foods all your life.’ And a lot of the ‘well I don’t see you offering concrete solutions or alternatives, so your criticism is invalid.’ That’s some sort of criticism-silencing tactic, right? I can’t put my finger on what the word for it is.
Silencing criticism does seem to be the go in the responses. Can’t think of the word, either.
I am noticing Tony’s Paid Parental Leave getting lots of flak. I am completely in favour of Tony getting flak. However, the basis for the criticism seems to be that women will benefit. There are people pointing out this is a class issue:(I presume Tony supports the plan because he sees that his daughters will benefit- I can’t explain his volte-face otherwise)but so much of the ire seems to be based on the fact this is a direct benefit to women in general. As a socialist, I completely get the “let’s not privilege the already privileged “: but stench of misogyny is distracting me.
When is that post-feminist era due to arrive?