* The aggregate went up late this week because of chaos detailed below. My body is still completely thrashed from the Friday uncleaning. I am doing my best, but only a tiny portion of news made it up.
* "Waterloo university stabbing was ‘targeted anti-LGBTQ+ attack’, police say as suspect charged:"
https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/30/waterloo-university-stabbing-was-targeted-anti-lgbtq-attack-police-say-as-suspected-charged/* "Bigots blame stabbing attack in a Canadian University’s Gender Issues class on trans people being too trans in public:"
https://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2023/06/29/bigots-blame-stabbing-attack-in-a-canadian-universitys-gender-issues-class-on-trans-people-being-too-trans-in-public/* "Russia conducts tactical fighter jet drills over Baltic Sea:"
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-conducts-tactical-fighter-jet-drills-over-baltic-sea-2023-06-27/* "Putin tells rebellious Russian fighters to swear allegiance or leave for Belarus:"
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/26/putin-rebellion-troops-belarus-00103695* "Some Russians welcomed Wagner mercenaries who appeared in their streets during brief insurrection:"
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/26/europe/russia-wagner-rostov-sympathy-ukraine-intl-cmd/index.html* "Plot Thickens: Russian Generals Supported Wagner Mutiny but Backed Out – US Intelligence:"
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/18817* "Wagner’s Prigozhin Planned to Capture Russian Military Leaders:"
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/wagners-prigozhin-planned-to-capture-russian-military-leaders-805345cf* "Putin Moves to Punish Prigozhin Allies:"
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/28/world/europe/putin-prigozhin-russia.html* "Prigozhin May Be Gone, but Not the Failings He Ranted About:"
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/29/world/europe/prigozhin-shoigu-gerasimov-surovikin-russia-military.html* "The poppycock of Myanmar drug suppression:"
https://asiatimes.com/2023/06/the-poppycock-of-myanmar-drug-suppression/* "SNP politicians accuse Tories of ‘rank hypocrisy’ for supporting devolution ‘where it suits them’:"
https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/30/snp-hannah-bardell-gender-recognition-reform/* "Politician who allegedly said all white men should have Black slave is suspended:"
https://thegrio.com/2023/04/14/british-politician-andrew-edwards-white-men-black-slave/
* "Ukraine spy chief accuses Russia of 'mining' cooling pond at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant:"
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-spy-chief-accuses-russia-mining-cooling-pond-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-2023-06-20/
* This is a really helpful thing explaining why Biden's wanting bridges without weight restrictions is correct from a civil engineering perspective:
https://www.tumblr.com/whovianuncle/721335205966823424/surely-this-is-a-good-idea-that-doesnt-have-the?source=share* This win was essential for saving democracy and a huge relief. "Supreme Court denies state legislatures the unchecked power to set election rules:"
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/27/supreme-court-rejects-independent-state-legislature-theory-00103793* "Hayes: Supreme Court has ruled against the right’s ‘slow-motion insurrection’:"
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/hayes-supreme-court-has-ruled-against-the-right-s-slow-motion-insurrection-185338437718* "Ketanji Brown Jackson Dismantles SCOTUS Conservatives in Blistering Dissent:"
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ketanji-brown-jackson-dismantles-scotus-conservatives-in-blistering-affirmative-action-dissent* "US Supreme Court's two Black justices clash over affirmative action ruling:"
https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-justices-jackson-thomas-illustrate-heated-us-debate-race-2023-06-29/* "How Clarence Thomas ‘pulled the ladder up behind him’ on affirmative action:"
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/how-clarence-thomas-pulled-the-ladder-up-behind-him-on-affirmative-action-185974341842* "Conservative justices welcome affirmative action—of legacy students:"
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/joy-conservative-justices-welcome-affirmative-action-of-legacy-students-185984069671* "Battle for belonging: Steps toward racial progress in U.S. met with pushback: book:"
https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/battle-for-belonging-steps-toward-racial-progress-in-u-s-met-with-pushback-book-185401925504* "End of affirmative action checks another box on list of long term conservative projects:"
https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/end-of-affirmative-action-checks-another-box-on-list-of-long-term-conservative-projects-186013253633* "How the repercussions of affirmative action's end will reach far beyond college admissions:"
https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/how-the-repercussions-of-affirmative-action-s-end-will-reach-far-beyond-college-admissions-186014277620* "Supreme Court: Affirmative Action Is OK — If the Students Are Getting Sent to Die in Wars:"
https://theintercept.com/2023/06/29/supreme-court-affirmative-action-military-academy/* "Biden slams SCOTUS affirmative action decision: 'Discrimination still exists in America':"
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-supreme-court-affirmative-action-decision-word/story?id=100491437* "Why the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action matters:"
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/29/1176715957/why-the-supreme-court-decision-on-affirmative-action-matters* "Harvard 'legacy' policy challenged on heels of affirmative action ruling:"
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/harvard-legacy-policy-challenged-heels-affirmative-action-ruling-2023-07-03/* "Capitol Hill reacts to Supreme Court rulings:"
https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/capitol-hill-reacts-to-supreme-court-rulings-186388549870* "Naive emphasis on 'colorblindness' ignores racial reality in U.S.:"
https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/naive-emphasis-on-colorblindness-ignores-racial-reality-in-u-s-186697285583* "Supreme Court rejects challenge to Jim Crow-era Mississippi voting law:"
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rejects-challenge-jim-crow-era-mississippi-voting-law-rcna85633* "Supreme Court strikes down Biden’s student debt relief plan:"
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/30/supreme-court-strikes-down-bidens-student-debt-relief-plan-00104409* "The Student Loan Case’s Unwilling Participant:"
https://prospect.org/justice/2023-06-19-student-loan-cancellation-supreme-court-mohela/The Republicans sued to end student debt relief on MOHELA's behalf against their will and against their best interests since the state government didn't have standing for the suit, and Republicans Supreme Court justices found for the state anyway because that's how much they hate poor and middle class students having access to college and want to punish them with crushing life long debt for daring to try to get an education.
All precedent and the legal requirement that the people doing the suing have an injury and standing have been thrown out.
* "Elena Kagan Has Had Enough:"
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/opinion/elena-kagan-dissent-supreme-court.html* "What is the Higher Education Act —and could it still lead to student loan forgiveness?:"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-the-higher-education-act-and-could-it-still-lead-to-student-loan-forgiveness/* "US Supreme Court says Colorado designer can refuse LGBTQ+ customers: ‘License to discriminate’:"
https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/30/us-supreme-court-lgbtq/* "The man named in the Supreme Court’s gay rights ruling says he didn’t request a wedding website:"
https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-gay-rights-lgbtq-website-385ec911ce0ca2f415966078eddb66daThis doesn't say it invalidates all anti-discrimination laws in this country of any kind, but in effect, it does since there is no limit on who or why you can discriminate against in this ruling.
Bonus points for the woman they found in favour lying in her filings about nearly everything in them, basically. her business is hypothetical. The person she claimed asked for a website didn't and wasn't aware the case was happening or involved him until it was already in front of the Supreme Court, etc.
I don't understand how any of that is legal, but that's just how eager the Republican Partizans on the supreme court are to make all discrimination legal: They ruled in an entirely hypothetical lawsuit about a dispute that didn't exist based on perjured depositions and filings without even informing the other party they were in a lawsuit about a thing they didn't do.
* "Reactions to SCOTUS' major blow to LGBTQ rights:"
https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/reactions-to-scotus-major-blow-to-lgbtq-rights-186388037861* "Supreme Court rules for Christian mail carrier who refused to work Sundays:"
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rules-christian-postal-worker-refused-work-sundays-rcna84868My assumption is they will use this precedent to allow EMTs, Doctors, hospitals, and pharmacists to deny trans people life saving health care, a thing that is already happening, but not currently legal.
I absolutely think hijabs etc. should be covered under the first amendment and anti-discrimination laws. I do think if Christians get their holidays off so should the rest of us.
it’s different if you say up front you can’t work certain holidays, but for me this is of a piece with the recent SCOTUS decision striking down all anti-discrimination laws.
The web designer one allows people and businesses to discriminate against any one for any reason. They deliberately put no limits on that.
This decision contradicts that, by saying that in the case of Christians, that previous ruling doesn’t apply, since Christians can’t experience any sanctions at all for signing up for a job they then refuse to do.
Sure looks like “rules for thee, but not for me.”
I’d love to be wrong, but I'd rather not bet my life on it next time I have to go to the Christian hospital where they group pray every morning, which is the only one servicing my small city.
* "John Roberts' Supreme Court rolls back civil rights one marginalized group at a time:"
https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/john-roberts-supreme-court-rolls-back-civil-rights-one-marginalized-group-at-a-time-186273349702* "'Galling': Hayes on the 'imperial mindset' of the Supreme Court conservatives:"
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-galling-hayes-on-the-imperial-mindset-of-the-supreme-court-conservatives-186215493589* "Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez call for changes to the Supreme Court:"
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/02/pressley-aoc-changes-supreme-court-00104537* "Writers Strike Messaging War Reshapes Standoff With Studios:"
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/writers-strike-messaging-studios-1235523786/* "Elizabeth Warren, Susan Collins Introduce Tax Bill to Help Married Same-Sex Couples:"
https://www.advocate.com/law/elizabeth-warren-refund-equality-act* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.
Here is one that will send your reps a fax:
https://resist.bot/* The Indivisible Guide: "A Practical Guide to defeating MAGA:"
https://indivisible.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/20220104_Indivisible_%20A%20Practical%20Guide%20to%20Defeating%20MAGA.pdf* "America's Family Secret:"
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-slavery-lawmakers/ * "Once a Trump target, arc of the moral universe bends for Yusef Salaam:"
https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/once-a-trump-target-arc-of-the-moral-universe-bends-for-yusef-salaam-185706565996* "Candidate turns lessons of public, personal struggle into winning platform:"
https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/candidate-turns-lessons-of-public-personal-struggle-into-winning-platform-186699333718* "RFK Jr. Claims ‘Vaccine Research’ Likely Responsible for HIV and the Spanish Flu:"
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/06/robert-f-kennedy-jr-does-vaccine-make-fork-stick-to-me.html* "The MAGA right is going all in on RFK Jr. That could backfire.:"
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/robert-kennedy-republican-super-pac-biden-rcna91176* "DeSantis’s latest appeal to MAGA tops Trump in performative cruelty:"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/27/desantis-immigration-border-plan-trump-maga/* "Pete Buttigieg slams Ron DeSantis for ‘trying to prove his manhood’ with anti-LGBTQ+ video:"
https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/07/03/pete-buttigieg-ron-desantis-anti-lgbtq-video/* "Lindsey Graham booed, called ‘traitor’ at Trump rally in his home state:"
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/lindsey-graham-booed-called-traitor-at-trump-rally-in-his-home-state-186648645849
* "Court upholds sanctions for some − not all − lawyers for suit to overturn Mich. election:"
https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/06/23/court-upholds-sanctions-for-only-some-kraken-attorneys/69493140007/* "Rudy Giuliani interviewed in DOJ probe into 2020 election:"
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/report-rudy-giuliani-interviewed-in-doj-probe-into-2020-election-185342533732* "Giuliani, at center of Trump election subversion schemes, spoke with federal prosecutors:"
https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/giuliani-at-center-of-trump-election-subversion-schemes-spoke-with-federal-prosecutors-185703493978* "WSJ: Giuliani testified for 8 hours in DOJ probe, questioned on Sidney Powell:"
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/wsj-giuliani-testified-for-8-hours-in-doj-probe-questioned-on-sidney-powell-186650693895* "Stephanie Grisham: Trump showed secret documents to Mar-a-Lago diners :"
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/stephanie-grisham-trump-showed-secret-documents-to-mar-a-lago-diners-186645573966
* "Senate report blasts intelligence failures ahead of Jan 6; bias, 'chilling effect' noted:"
https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/senate-report-blasts-intelligence-failures-ahead-of-jan-6-bias-chilling-effect-noted-185394757922* "Man wanted on Jan. 6 charges arrested with weapons near Barack Obama’s Washington home:"
https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-insurrection-obama-weapons-857bad453191c67480b020ec0d1f980a* "Drag Doesn't Kill People — Guns Do:"
https://www.advocate.com/voices/drag-queens-guns* "Baltimore mass shooting leaves 2 dead; half of 28 injured were children:"
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/baltimore-police-scene-mass-shooting-incident-media-2023-07-02/* "In wake of deadly mass shooting in Baltimore, mayor decries ghost guns, trafficking:"
https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/in-wake-of-deadly-mass-shooting-in-baltimore-mayor-decries-ghost-guns-trafficking-186686021667* "The Disturbing New Face of Mass Incarceration:"
( Embed: )* "Shipping containers used for Arizona's makeshift border wall are now for sale, but buyer beware:"
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2023/06/30/arizonas-shipping-container-border-wall-boxes-are-now-for-sale/70361464007/* "Thousands more prisoners across the US will get free college paid for by the government:"
https://apnews.com/article/prison-pell-grant-college-graduation-ff3f0b80b5bc0e44dde0408c3dedea19* "Judge awards a Black church $1M over BLM banner burned by Proud Boys during protest:"
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/01/1185630152/judge-awards-a-black-church-1m-over-blm-banner-burned-by-proud-boys-during-prote* "Georgia teacher faces termination after reading book about acceptance to class:"
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/georgia-teacher-faces-termination-after-reading-book-about-acceptance-to-class-185672261786
* "Reproductive rights battle especially poignant in context of Black maternal health:"
https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/reproductive-rights-battle-especially-poignant-in-context-of-black-maternal-health-184461893607
* "Hundreds detained at banned Pride marches in Turkey: ‘They are aware of our strength’:"
https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/27/turkey-pride-arrests-istanbul-izmir/
* "Climate Central analysis shows that human-caused climate change is making the near-record heat forecast in large parts of Texas and Mexico at least 5 times more likely.:"
https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-shift-index-alert* "Forest fire centre declares 2023 already worst year ever for Canadian wildfires:"
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2023/06/26/quebec-wildfire-smoke-causes-widespread-smog-warnings-grounds-some-water-bombers.html* "Canadian wildfire emissions hit record high as smoke reaches Europe:"
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/canadian-wildfire-emissions-reach-record-high-2023-2023-06-27/* "Rainfall likely won’t be enough to extinguish Quebec wildfires causing US smoke, officials say:"
https://apnews.com/article/canada-wildfires-smoke-quebec-rain-a0e287ea5117cccadb9e6917304635ea* "Air quality plummets as Canadian wildfire smoke stretches across the Midwest :"
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/28/1184812177/chicago-detroit-pittsburgh-canada-wildfire-smoke* "DIY Box Fan Air Filte rDirections:"
https://aghealth.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk261/files/inline-files/DIY%20Air%20Purifier%20Directions_English.Spanish_0.pdf* "Brutal heat wave makes Texas among the hottest places on Earth:"
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/brutal-heat-wave-makes-texas-hottest-places-earth-rcna91584* "Heat and smoke are smothering most of the U.S., putting lives at risk:"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/06/28/extreme-heat-wave-texas-southern-states/* Pro-Life Republicans act swiftly to cause more deaths because they believe people aren't dying fast enough. "Workers Die in Texas Heat as Greg Abbott's Water Break Ban Comes Under Fire:"
https://www.newsweek.com/workers-die-texas-heat-greg-abbotts-water-break-ban-comes-under-fire-1808610* "Critics Blast New Law After Dallas Postman Dies Amid Extreme Heat :"
https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-usps-worker-dies-in-extreme-heat-critics-slam-hb-2127-16896591* "35-year-old lineman dies after working to restore power in East Texas :"
https://www.ketk.com/news/local-news/35-year-old-lineman-dies-after-working-to-restore-power-in-east-texas/* "Teen and Stepfather Die on Hike in Near-Record Texas Heat:"
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/26/us/texas-heat-hiker-deaths.html* "Inmates are dying in stifling Texas prisons, but the state seldom acknowledges heat as a cause of death:"
https://www.kiiitv.com/article/news/local/texas/inmates-are-dying-in-stifling-texas-prisons/503-810c66fc-2bf2-4b7c-946f-c1cbac2ad58e* What would Jesus do? Deny prisoners succor so that they die locked up in oven like conditions they can't escape. "Push to put air conditioning in Texas prisons fails:"
https://www.corsicanadailysun.com/news/push-to-put-air-conditioning-in-texas-prisons-fails/article_257e94fe-0b00-11ee-a1ea-8bf9f4e3447f.html* "Solar power proves its worth as heat wave grips the state:"
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/28/texas-solar-power-grid-heat-wave/* "Gov. Greg Abbott vows to exclude renewable energy from any revived economic incentive program:"
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/01/chapter-313-texas-renewables-economic-development/Solar Energy is saving Texas' butt right now and keeping their crappy proprietary grid afloat, but in March Republicans decided doubling down on the oil and gas industry while planning to make renewable energy harder to develop in order to make everything so much worse.
* "As Texans suffer in the heat, state Republicans play politics:"
https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/as-texans-suffer-in-the-heat-state-republicans-play-politics-185722949628* "Heat wave hits Southern California with a scorching Fourth of July weekend:"
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-06-30/heat-wave-southern-california-fourth-of-july-weekend* "The Titan Submersible Was “an Accident Waiting to Happen”:"
https://www.newyorker.com/news/a-reporter-at-large/the-titan-submersible-was-an-accident-waiting-to-happen
* "It's Called Micro Metro:"
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/O-ZiycBMULI* "National Geographic magazine has laid off the last of its staff writers:"
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/28/media/national-geographic-magazine-staff-writers/index.html* "We Cleaned Up The Ocean Floor At 40 Meters Depth:"
( Embed: )* "How to Disable Ad ID Tracking on iOS and Android, and Why You Should Do It Now:"
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/how-disable-ad-id-tracking-ios-and-android-and-why-you-should-do-it-now* "Google Says It'll Scrape Everything You Post Online for AI:"
https://gizmodo.com/google-says-itll-scrape-everything-you-post-online-for-1850601486* "A Four-Decade Secret: One Man’s Story of Sabotaging Carter’s Re-election:"
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/us/politics/jimmy-carter-october-surprise-iran-hostages.html* He was incredibly talented. I loved him particularly in naked Lunch, Warlock and Impromptu, but he was in so many things. It's terrible he's gone, but at least the family have him back to mourn properly. In my experience, waiting is worse than knowing. "Julian Sands’ remains found in Mt. Baldy area, San Bernardino officials confirm:"
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-06-27/julian-sands-remains-found-mt-baldy-san-bernardino* "Bonus 4: Queering the Gothic:"
https://www.scribd.com/podcast/655892341/Bonus-4-Queering-the-Gothic-Stephen-interviews-Dr-Jamie-Bernthal-Hooker?irclickid=3kxxPHRpOzhvU%3A11aUXpLwX1UkF2jZSFRRYS3E0&irpid=2003851&utm_source=impact&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=affiliate_pdm_acquisition_Bing%20Rebates%20by%20Microsoft&sharedid=bing&irgwc=1* "Good Omens Parody by The Hillywood Show®:"
( Embed: )* Tuesday I went to the Doctor and had a blood draw. She's mostly caught up. Nothing can likely be done about the allergy treatments unless I want to day trip to Everett every two weeks starting in September, but i am so tired and the pain meds make me even more so. there is concern about no meds causing heart palpatations, but we are going to try a pill twice a day anyway, so i can get coverage in my sleep. Let us all hope I don't start hallucinating.
Given the hallucination risk I stayed at minimum for the Wednesday errands as the last thing I wanted was to start hallucinating while driving.
Some sort of blight has hit one of the garden tubs, but only one species of volunteer plant, which we removed in hopes it isn't in the soil and hasn't spread to the others. The other volunteers and the thing that actually is meant to be growing there look okay, but we are going to try to identify the species of ick, in case we need to sterilize and start over. I will be pissed if that's the case as it's one of the big whiskey barrel planters with the most expensive things in the garden in it. *fingers crossed*
Wednesday was the first day I woke up with bad collapsey legs since I started the new meds and on the scale of bad legs it was about medium. My arms we ironically less collapsey than average for the last week.
Bodies are weird.
* I think I need to tell you about the Cleaner, because OMG, but for that you will need context on my pain/meds situation.
So less pain does not remotely equal no pain. My hip joints were a mess Wednesday, and only a little better Thursday. My shoulder joints, and thus my arms, started to go bad Thursday. The fundamental things wrong with my body aren't fixable, but the new meds are doing a stellar job on what I think of as the secondary pain, IE: everything else not joint or tendon or in their immediate vicinity. It is far more effective than the muscle relaxants I've been using for decades at this since it's hitting the nerves and not just the muscles. It also adds to the tired. So much to the tired. Bonus: on the new dose, I get dizzy if I don't rest enough, and the heart palpitations hit longer and harder when they hit.
Dramatically better means for an extreme chronic pain/chronic illness perspective, not from a remotely healthy person's perspective, if you follow. I was into about a month of unbearable torment when we tried the one pill dosage. I'm still not sure my system can handle the two pills, and I plan to stick to this dose. They are supposed to last eight hours, but I get an extra four hours of partial coverage per pill, and like I said the side effects are scaling up on me.
So right now my balance sucks, I'm exhausted, and my shoulder joints scream at me if I try to do anything remotely strenuous with them, you follow?
So far I've had four different cleaners turn up, two of them twice. Three of those are hard and thorough workers. One of those will not wear her mask. I put up with it because I am wearing mine and turn on all the fans and I'm scared if I don't take her, no one will come. (see five skipped cleaning appointments in a row).
Cleaning is a hard fucking job and they are underpaid, get no benefits, no set hours, and have to pay their own travel costs including for the ferry if they are coming from the reservation and that is a lot of gas. I respect cleaners. I've done it, after all, amoung the many shit jobs I had over the years. I trust them to know what they are doing. This has been the case in three instances. Most of the conversation with those three cleaners has been things like: Where does this go? Where is (whatever) kept? What should i do next? I refuse to micro manage. In my experience, micro managing is dramatically less efficient and just insults the person doing the job. I know I hated it, when I was the person being micro-managed. This works great for Goth Millennial and for the other three cleaners on the other four occasions.
I'm sure you are sensing the big but here.
So the cleaner who came today, turned up the other time she was here high as a kite. I don't mean a little buzzed, which is fairly normal in this town and this state. Weed's been legal here for ages. People with shitty service jobs occasionally come to work a schootch high. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things if, say, your barista's a little buzzed. I don't partake myself for a host of reasons, but most of my friends since... I'm going to say 1985, have/do. A little high is no big deal.
Orbiting Pluto without a suit is. She was way out of it girl at a party who's friends have to watch her like a hawk high. She was barely coherent high. She drove here. O.o. She drove home. This terrifies me. after some consultation with my friends including them seeing the mess she made and me acting out vignettes, our best guess is she must have dramatically misjudged an edible. (It had to be vape or edible. I would have smelled smoke. Edible makes the most sense for both the degree of Jesus fuck high and the thinking she was fine when she left home, but waaaay not fine when she got here. Surely she would have cancelled otherwise, right?).
So basically instead of my working away at the aggregate or tumblr queue programming or whatever, it was a lot like baby sitting a toddler who would not shut up, only the toddler would make more sense and the mess would have likely been confined to things in a toddler's reach. I had to go around after she left and actually use the forbidden to me for safety reasons ladder to save a bunch of my cups and glasses from the accident I could see happening the second Squirrel opened a dish cupboard because he had jammed them in their so precariously that the door was the only thing preventing them falling. Goth Millennial came the next day and had to take everything out and restack it. I could live with the fitted sheet being inside out, so we left that for today.
I did not turn her in to the asshole agency because 1. worker solidarity. I never went to work on a substance, but I've worked so, so many shit jobs and the Asshole Agency is terrible. 2. I was pretty sure it was a mistake involving an edible. 3. I was big on giving people another chance when I was teaching. On fuck up shouldn't lat for ever unless that fuck up was malicious or really damaging to other people.
Well, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me.
No, she was not noticeably high this time, though I couldn't rule a mild buzz out. She also had a shamefaced and subdued demeanor that clearly told me she knew how badly she'd fucked up last time. She said she'd signed up for me on purpose instead of her other option because I was really nice to her and my apartment was full of interesting things to look at while she cleaned. My apartment is full of interesting things to look at and I suspect she liked me because I was consistently kind to her when she was a mess last time and hadn’t turned her in. She really is sweet and nice and she is clearly trying her best but not remotely the sharpest tool in the shed. Which can be fine. I've known a lot of good workers over the years with significant developmental or accident related challenges and they did fine. She wasn't in that category, but I realized she'd need extra supervision compared to the others. I underestimated how much.
She did walk right up to Tavy and start petting him right away like last time which again confused and alarmed him. Sure, Squirrel and I and a couple of the Millennials can do that because we are his particular friends, but he barely knows her and and she would NOT stop doing that last time no matter how many times I told her he was a biter and apt to maul when he was worked up. I was so proud of him because he did not attack her the first three times, and honestly the forth time, I would have bitten her too in his place.
Tavy was noticeably wary of her. He did want to watch what she was doing, but he remembered her. (By contrast, the other cleaners he'd watch from a distance for a while, and then follow around and in a couple cases, get me to pick him up so he could get a better look. He really took to the GNC person who came once, and kept sniffing their legs). He did let her pet him without biting her, and she was together enough to stop when I told her he was down, and leave him alone for the rest of the two hours when I said he was in a mood to hang out and watch but not interact.
I got her through the linen change okay and last time she was so high she forgot we had a dishwasher after she'd emptied it and it took her most of her shift except the linen change, but the dishes looked and smelled clean, so I set her to that and did not remotely supervise her enough. This I did not discover until evening, but we'll get to that.
Then I set her to sweep and mop, which... Like I've worked a lot of restaurant jobs, often with people in a supported worker with severe intellectual challenges. I've never seen one who'd been doing it for years who couldn't do it correctly. She said she'd been doing this for several years.
Assuming makes an ass out of me, doesn't it?
Oh gods the mess she made! I should have known it was too hard for her when she started prepping for mopping before sweeping. So I told her to sweep first, which she did. I told her to dump the water in the sink, not the tub, which turned out to be very, very lucky. (The tub is the most expensive thing I own. A city program that remodels for elderly and disabled people paid for it. I will never be able to afford to fix or replace it. There are super strict cleaning directions for a reason, because the mechanism is delicate.) I told her to use the liquid all purpose cleaner under the sink. I should have got it out and prepped the bucket myself, but bending hurts and I was exhausted and dizzy and my arm situation was deteriorating. I should have done it anyway, because this is So. Much. Worse.
She used a ton of water. Like way, way to much water in a way that suggested she did not wring the mop and/or she was dumping puddles out of the bucket. It was a terrifying fall risk situation because this was the end of her shift and I really really needed to get ready for bed as soon as she left and forage delivery was late so I had to go drag it in, just as I'd given up and settled into bed. So I'm dizzy with unreliable legs, using both hands and going careful back and forth over this swamp of a floor with a weird gritty, soapy texture. Which is... not what you want in a cleaner for elderly and disabled people. I could fall and end up in the hospital under those conditions. And it;'s not like I could want a couple hours for it to dry. There was no point in washing my feet in the bathroom, so I kept using wipes on them before getting into bed.
Then I woke up to pee and realized just how bad it really was. *head desk* My best guess is she used Ajax, which is stored under a bookshelf in the bathroom, not under the sink. Like a TON of Ajax. The kitchen sink and nearby counter was caked with it and the floor was tacky and gritty and full of muddy footprints. I couldn't leave it like that. I cleaned the sink. I took the other mop with the disability friendly easy to wring it out attachment which had been to complicated for her head and wet mopped it all again, frequently rinsing and wringing it out, until my arms basically gave out and I had to wash up and take a nap.
It's still incredibly dirty. I feel like crying, because I can't feel clean unless my feet are. I've been skating around on damp towels, but though my hip joints are a lot better this evening, I wear out fast and it hurts quite a bit if I do it too much. I hate leaving a terrible mess like this for the millennial, but I simply can't mop any more with these arms. I'd have been so much better off giving her something else to do, but I couldn't think of anything else simple enough for her, and I know from last time she will not leave early no matter how much I tell her she can just clock out at the end of the hour.
At this point I was debating what to do. I had settled on calling Monday and asking them to put her on my no list without giving a reason, because I simply can't go through this again. It's too hard on my body and it's incredibly could seriously injure me dangerous.
Then I went to feed the Empress Livia and discovered something worse.
I'm medically fragile. Amoung so many other things, I have an immune system that is far more interested in own goals than fighting pathogens. I can and will catch anything you expose me too. Anything. I also have a dicey digestive system. Anything I use to prepare food or eat or drink needs to be really fucking clean. We prewash for grease and stuck on food then run them through the washer to make sure the soap and anything else is off. yes, I know this is bad for the environment as it uses extra water, but it’s a serious safety issue for me.
I was very, very clear on directions because I remembered last time. “Wash the dishes and then put the in the dishwasher. The dishes in there are dirty, so don’t put them away. I will run the washer after you leave.” Did she do that? No. Were the dishes cleaned and dried, which would be reasonably acceptable as an alternative? No. They were jammed in with the clean dishes, soaking wet and covered in soap bubbles six or seven hours after she left. We'll have to go through all the pans tomorrow. I pulled the pans and dishes I remembered were in the sink yesterday. I have no way of guessing with the glasses and flatware and I don't know which things Squirrel put in there.
I am exhausted and I hurt and I've been pushed way past the limit of what my body can handle in a day and I can't trust my dishes or the glass I'm drinking out of and I can't get the dirty Ajax grit off my feet. I'm going to go take a bath, but my feet will be dirty again the second I touch the floor.
She's another poor person. I feel like a class traitor just putting her on my no list, but she could theoretically kill an elderly person with her mopping, and I can't decide if I should say something, because anything I do will be a terrible option.
This person literally uncleaned my apartment. I just....
Look, I know it’s a free service, but this is so very much worse than when they don’t send anyone.
* Squirrel was horified because he works with elderly people and he knows better than anyone that falls kill. He insisted I call right away about her. Squirrel: Even I know not to use Ajax on floors!
It turns out they take calls on the weekends. I admit i broke down a bit. My arm was screaming at me and we are looking at weeks of cleaning to get all the Ajax up. It turns out they literally don't fire people for any reason so ethically I feel a lot better about calling, but at the same time she could literally kill an elderly person and also they could send someone even more dangerous because there is no check on that. O.o. so she's blocked on the app from seeing my jobs. I ordered an extra cleaner, but I don't really think they'll send one. IDK.
I spent hours last night trying to fix it last night. Goth millenial spent hours on it today. It still is incredibly dirty. I'm scared the cats are eating the Ajax dirt that clings to their paws. Tavy is really traumatized and wouldn't even let Goth millenial pet him today and he mostly avoided the other millenials who were here breifly. he keeps needing reassurance cuddles and held blerpfest last night in the living room. I don't blame them.
At lets cancelling five times in a row wasn't actively destrucxtive. This was. It was so very very destructive.
It is freaking me out that shge's out there driveing, that she's likely endangering other people and their pets with the uncleaning.
Bonus: She waited long enough to clock out after i told her to clock out that her five minute delay stoole a half hour of cleaning from me.
* Sunday I took some of the Millennials for swimming/picnic at the Lake for the first time this season. I got to watch New Millennial fall in love with the PNW landscape exactly the way I did more than thirty years ago.
You can really tell which of us grew up with cold Northern Ocean. Me: wading steadily deeper and deeper once I'm far enough in to keep my balance by my self on the rocks and the bottom gets a little smoother, then slowly swimming out a little deeper in search of the warmer tide. (It's a run off fed lake, and the mixing of the cold inflow with the water that's been in the lowlands long enough, makes these weird little temperature striations you can very much feel even after you cold adapt). Everybody Else: Wading crotch deep and thinking for a while about whether they want to swim after all, then going way slower and stopping a lot to rethink.
I love my Millennials. The other two each had one of the newest Millennial's arms to help them over the rocks because the rocks suck and I'd forgotten to warn them. Me, urging them on: Keep coming! I found the warm current! New Millennial: Looking concerned this might be hazing, followed by the moment of delight and surprise on finding I was not. Look, it's only like ten or fifteen degrees on a good day, but it does make a difference and the activity of swimming or treading water and the adaptation once you go up to your neck and then duck your head, all add up. You just need to get into a sweet spot.
I discovered on the way back that my fucked up arms really, really don;t want to do backstroke. I managed a lopsided curve towards shore until I was far enough in to pull along the rocks with my hands and kick. So Goth Millennial is hanging close on the way to the shallows, because I can't really get out safely by myself and need help getting up onto my feet and staying there until I'm reasonably sure they are working, at which point either Goth Millennial (or Techie Millennial, who couldn't come), would grab my crutch so I could use it and their arm to get out onto the "beach."
My crutch was not where I left it. My crutch was not anywhere nearby where someone might have moved it if it were in the way of say launching a jet ski from the wrong stretch of "beach" instead of the boat and jet ski launch area. I mention jet skis as their were two anchored in the swimming area where they were not meant to be we we arrived, one of which way out past the swim buoys where it was meant to be, and the other parked on the "beach" where it emphatically should not be, surrounded by mostly kids, obscuring view of the corner where the "beach hits the cit off with the higher land and grass. But I hadn't gone near that, and I needed the crutch to get out to look to see if the crutch was there.
I am still angry about that fad a decade or so ago when asshole able bodied art students would steal poor people's wheelchairs for shitty "art projects" and then brag about it on line as if stealing an expensive thing someone couldn't afford to replace and stranding them somewhere like a park or a bathroom or an inaccessible public building was something virtuous and clever instead of an incredibly cruel things to do to someone, as if their crap project was worth more than someone else's independence. My crutch is basically one of my legs. Someone's wheels are their legs.
Every time I go into the water anywhere, I know there is a chance someone will steal my crutch. This is the PNW, and I think someone leaving a mobility aid next to the water makes sense to the ableds, whereas someone leaving a wheelchair on the pavement in a park doesn't for some asshole shitty lack of empathy and imagination neurotypical reason, I guess.
So I'm starting to get really upset and Goth Millennial is really worried and we are having a loud conversation along the lines of Me: shit! I can you see my crutch anywhere? I left it right there. I think someone may have stolen !it! Millennial standing up and going to look across the bad rock stretch craning their head around to see if some asshole maybe put it on the grassy bit above the cut: I can't see it! It's not there!" Middle School age, glaring resentfully at one of the younger kids, stomps around to the other side of the illegal parked jet ski, where we had zero chance of seeing it, retrieves it and hands it to me. Me: you're very kind! Thank you! Goth Millennial hoists me to my feet while I use their arm and the crutch to just barely get my balance. This is a complicated and painful procedure, returning to gravity after freedom, and I need to stand their awhile like two or three feet away from Asshole Jet Ski Extended family. These kids just stare at me the whole time we are doing this. It is very, very obvious that my normally invisible disability is very, very real. Grumpy teen in charge to a younger kid: You better go apologize. No one apologizes. They keep staring at us hobble slowly and carefully up the shallow stairs. After I went to pee and wash lake water off my hands before eating, I went to set my crutch down by my chair and all this water poured out of it. I'd left it on dry land.
Asshole Family who was too privileged to use the boat and jet ski launch who thus had to drive their jet skis through the swim area had stolen my fucking crutch to play with in the water and the missing adults and the grumpy teen in charge had let them, and then they hid it behind their angled jet ski so no one could see it afterwards. They could have lost it in the lake. They could have kept it.
We found out when our friends came out of the water that they’d also stolen and hid our blind friend's flip flops, which they grudgingly had returned when it was clear they were hers.
Rich people are the worst.
So we go get dinner stuff at the grocery store and drop a Millennial off and I'm in my kitchen searching for my reusable straws, of which I own four. I have one I was using for lemonade which I put in the refrigerator last night. I had assumed the other three were in the wash or something up until now, but I searched the dishwasher and they weren't there. All the flatware are in the dishwasher except the chopsticks and some specialty use items, since we didn't know which the Asshole Cleaner hadn't cleaned properly before putting back. we’d emptied the trays. I search there and around there anyway. There are no reusable straws in the kitchen except the one I was drinking out of Friday when Asshole Stoner Cleaner was uncleaning the apartment.
The time she was here high as a kite she kept wiggling them and shouting "Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle!" She was obsessed with them. They were a gift from Goth Millennial. I don't think they were that expensive, but they were cute and had a nice texture and are earth friendly. (Some people can't use reuseable straws for a bunch of reasons and we have emergency plastic straws here. This is not any sort of judgement on people who use single use. Let's ban fishing industry plastics which are most of the ocean plastic pollution before going after disabled people's straws, okay?)
I think the only reason she didn't steal the forth straw was it was right next to me so I could poke it up under the mask for brief sips. I'd left it and the cup in the fridge because I don't like to put them to wash until I see a new clean straw I can use in situations like this or when my arms are bad, and it's easier and safer to hold the cup low, or sometimes just because. They are reusable! It hurts nothing. I wanted a straw because my body wasn't working and I wanted to drink the juice I'd bought for dinner while lying down and waiting for things to stop hurting so much.
There is zero chance the other three are still here.
I had checked my bedroom right after she left for small, easily stealable things missing from the bookshelf where I put curios right after she left because the comment about my interesting things felt like something a person might say anyway, but also a things someone who might pocket once would say and I was already upset and wary of her because of everything. There are things it would be hard to check, like my BPAL Collection, but odds are she wouldn't steal those. She'd have had to climb on the bed and go through the little boxes and she was only unsupervised in there for a few minutes with the sweep and mop. I will need to see if she stole the bottle where I keep a few tramadol in case I wake up unable to get out of bet or occasionally, even roll over without an hour or more of slow, excruciating effort. While they clean, I'm sitting at my desk right next to the bottled meds collection that mostly feed assorted pill organizers, and the shelf above where the things I need to grab quick in an emergency are not surprisingly untouched. If anything had been stolen when I got up to go to the bathroom the parent tramadol bottle would be easiest to raid and the only really attractive thing to steal except throat pearls, and you'd have to know what they were and they are not recreational, just a little expensive and perscription. The altar and display shelf over the sofa seems fine, and she definitely didn't go in grabbing distance anyway.
When I went into the bathroom to bathe the lake water away, I noticed some small things missing. One of them I'd assumed was in the wash, but I have done a bunch of laundry over the weekend since the Ajax tainted clothes get washed separately and I don't want the dye to be leached by cleanser by letting them sit unwashed, and we have to wash the mop head by itself between uses to get all the ajax out. It's not in the wash. It's gone, a small, very useful thing. Nothing expensive is missing that I've noticed yet, but I haven't properly inventoried all the otc things and the prescription ointments and such, but I'm guessing those wouldn't be attractive. I doubt she'd steal books. She didn't strike me as a reader, but when I am in less pain and less exhausted, I'll inventory them better.
Asshole. Fucking asshole.
I know it could have been worse. Every little curio and most of the art except some things in the bathroom that are there because of the risk of steam or water damage have a story. They were given to me by friends or lovers or made by me when my hands still worked right or purchased at particular events or on particular occasions. These are memories and irreplaceable regardless because they are mostly hand made or limited edition from conventions.
We don't have money for replacing straws right now. They haven't paid Goth Millennial for a month and a half, not even for the supposedly paid training sessions. I owe money to the Honest Mechanic for the third time in three months and am about to burn two thirds of my bill money tomorrow on that, because you never ever fuck over a small business, just like you never ever fuck over another poor person. (I don’t steal, but I think ethically, stealing from a big chain to feed your kids is okay, and very much better than letting you kids starve, especially given the wage theft and lobbying against the social safety net and minimum wage those chains do. They steal from the poor, particularly their workers and if they hadn’t paid politicians to do things that prevent people from having enough to eat, then which is the bigger evil? Mom and pops? Family Businesses? Little micro businesses and artists and what have you? Never, ever okay. Small businesses are the life blood of a community online and RL, and letting me defer payment is a major fucking favor, so they are next after housing, whatever happens to my other bills. The other few things I spotted are replaceable if we had money for it.
I am so fucking angry anyway. I already felt my home was desecrated by her uncleaning it and distressing Tavy and the all over fuckery of it, but this small thing, this thing that wouldn't matter if I were a little better off or they weren't a gift, but feel like a big thing when added to all the rest.
It takes a lot to make me hate someone. We are not there yet, but if I do find something important I overlooked gone, I will, much like I still hate the ex-friend from first college who took three important things with sentimental value that were/are irreplaceable when he dropped out. This is how he became an ex-friend. He knew that the plaque was the last thing the artist my first freshman lover bought it from made and that it had a bunch of layered meanings in what was written on it. The things he stole from me and another friend were like that. Very personal and chosen with surgical precision to cause the most distress. (He did other, worse things, then made sure everyone thought, I’d done them and I was a monster. none of this we found out until he’d gone and we none of us could figure out why. Okay, the terrible things he needed someone to frame, but the rest... Sociopathy was the best guess for all of it really. Last I checked he was still working with children and there was fuck all provable we can do about it, but he really, really shouldn’t have been working with children). These things the Uncleaner stole were small, replaceable things, not something where there is no other one even if memories weren’t attached.
All the things missing I've looked for off and on since the time she was here high, under the belief they were misplaced or in the wash. I wouldn't be surprised if that's when she took them and that's part of why she was so embarrassed the second time, but if she were really embarrassed she could have brought them back then and I'd never have known. Like, she could have tossed them into one washer or the other, or tucked them around the sink, and I'd have just thought that was where they were.
I know the Asshole Agency will do fuck all, but I'm going to call them anyway. Goth Millennial said before we knew about the theft that she was the one who was a class traitor, because you don't do shit like this to another poor person. I have no idea when my apartment will actually be clean again. I'm doubting that an extra two hours this week even if someone turns up will do it.
We are still baffled by the thought process.
If she'd put the dishes into the dishwasher like I'd asked, it would have been fine and not tons of extra time and work cleaning everything. I still need to sit on the kitchen floor in the Ajax to go through all the pots and pans in case the extra cleaner does come. If she'd rinsed and dried them before putting them away, it would have been not ideal, but likely fine. She did neither for no reason we can understand. Putting them away wet and soapy was actually more work than racking them in the dishwasher like I asked.
Not only was the bottle of liquid all purpose cleaner right in front when I opened the cabinet under the sink to hand it to Goth Millennial Saturday when they decided wet mopping wouldn't be enough, there was a literal second full bottle behind it because I hate running out of things so I tend to buy two at once if I have enough cash for it and the trip to get the one I like that is effective but doesn't make bad smells is annoying if I don't want a big mark up. It was right there. couldn't have missed it if she'd opened the compartment. To get at the Ajax I use only for the toilet, she had to go past the dish soap for the sink and tub and the shampoo and conditioner I bought before the engine light went on last month. She could have used the dish soap and it would have been not ideal, but fine except for all the extra water. A wet mop after she left would have solved it. She had to go on her hands and knees and move things to get the Ajax. Following directions was Easier. Asking me to get it if she somehow couldn't recognize it as a bottle of liquid cleaner was easier. Getting about a third to a half of a big cylinder of Ajax out of those small holes was definitely harder than doing it properly.
WTF!?!
I get that stealing small stuff you don't need is actually a symptom of mental illness that requires therapy she likely can't afford, and given how high she was she really had no observable impulse control I could see, hence her repeatedly stopping work to pet a cat I'd warned her not to, and the 'wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, and all the many other things. This is the only explicable part of it. Like I get it. If that's all she'd done I would have been mildly miffed and reported and blocked her because I don't like people stealing my stuff and she might take something from someone else they couldn't eventually replace, but I wouldn't be this kind of furious. A compulsion to steal and/or walking away with something because one is borderline incoherent high and then going oops later are pretty easy to understand motivation wise.
Doing all this extra work to do so much damage to someone you barely know makes zero sense. I was nice to her! I sent her home with a big bag of food each time! We none of us think this was malice. It can't be laziness as this took so much extra work than not doing damage would. so seriously WTF, with the dishes and the Ajax? This question haunts us all.
UPDate: Asshole Agency now says they will file a ticket and investigate. I trust nothing they say, as they've lied to me before, most recently Saturday, when they claimed there was nothing to be done except blocking her from coming here. Today's guy says they weren't supposed to blow be off like that and their is a system. There is no way to tell which of them is lying. I hope the ticket system is not fictional like half of their cancellation calls and I hope there is an investigation system that is not made of bullshit and rubber stamps. That would be nice.
It really does scare me should could accidentally kill someone or their pets and it worries me she's out their in the homes of vulnerable elderly people who may not have a support system to handle the devastation. I'm still having trouble turning my head and lifting a full glass of liquid with my dominant arm above my shoulder. I don't know what long term health effects the Ajax will have on the cats. Livia's on a special diet for her urinary system. I did not fall and I could hide in my bed until all the water dried. The stuff she stole was small and that big a deal. I have Goth Millennial and to a lesser extent the others to help me clean up, but this is exhausting them. None of them have to do that and I appreciate that so much.
If I were older though? I could have broken a hip or had a serious head injury with no one to help.
It still freaks me out she was driving like that the previous time.
I've done a whole lot of shit jobs out of poverty. I have never harmed someone like she harmed me. I never would. I hate that I am harming her now, by reporting, but I had to try to protect whoever next after me. I hate the Asshole Agency. I hate them for the terrible way they treat the cleaners and whole fucking gig economy, and the predatory capitalism that makes this the business model now, and the shiftiness of it all. I wonder how many people before me tried to report her and how many gave up trying to get the asshole agency to care and just blocked her. Did she trash anyone's home before mine?
This was supposed to be extra help, but this is so much harm, so much extra pain, so much extra stress. Medicare pays them money to send untrained, unvetted people into the homes of vulnerable adults run by an agency who's first recourse is to lie to you if you complain about anything, and only calls you half the time to tell you the cleaner cancelled.
I am tired of being upset about all this. It will hard to be not upset about it until my apartment is clean and smells normal again. The chemicals give me a headache, which does not help either.
* On Monday night the extra cleaner I ordered for Tuesday called. They generally do this to check in. i tell them where to park and to call on arrival so I can pop out and wave them in and that they should wear a mask and headphones atre fine if they want to wear them. I began to hope a cleaner really would turn up despite the holiday.
An hour before the scheduled time of arrival, the Asshole Agency called, because they couldn't reach the cleaner. Me: she called last night. Everything seemed fine. Them: do you know how to reach her? Me: No. O.o
She was a couple minutes late, having taken the wrong entrance to my apartment complex, which happens a lot. It was fine. I explained the situation with dishes and floors. she did all the dishes and followed directions. She actually solved the floors with time to spare. O.o. i'll feel better with an extra mopping in the bathroom, but the Ajax spell is gone and she even got the caked crust around the edges in the bathroom. Then she took out the trash and organized the pots and pans, which have been a mess since the silverware drawer broke.
She was respectful of Tavy's space, which was a huge help, since the Uncleaner traimatized him to the point he's having his nightmares again. Livia hid of course, sensible girl.
Goth Millenial wanted to come hang out, so I went and got them. We had a nice dinner and watched Dark Winds. This is a rewatch for me, but they'd only seen the first episode. It's both worth a rewatch and the new season starts soon, so the timing is excellent. Tavy was so worn out from supervising the cleaner from afar, he slept through the visit.
After Lung Time Livia came out of hiding for a love and a snack, just in time for them all to be panicked by fireworks in the parking lot. They both Noped odff to their hides for hours. Livia only came out a couple hours later. She got a love and a snack, and then the fireworks started again, luckily not nearly as loud, so at least Tavy was okay.
The imperial couple decree no more fireworks ever, please.
The Ajax took the shiny protective layer off the flooring, which makes me sad, but I suspected this would be the case when I realized what she'd done to me.
Otherwise, things are normalish here at the cat asylum. It was almost midnight as I wrote this and the wind from Alaska is finally blowing the smell of Canada burning out of our little valley by the bay.
I would like to thank the donor who paid for the latest car repair and to anyone who chipped in in the last slightly over a year and a half when the catastrophic string of things falling apart including two appliances, an apartment electrical system, my teeth, A fire alarm, a tire, and.... Was it five car repairs on my aged and slowly failing vehicle?
I would like to thank you all for the kind words and support you all give me. I notice and it does matter.
* A thing I wrote for Tumblr on the evening of the 4th:
I have a lot of new followers who joined in the last year. You may have noticed that my 4th of July programming is not what one might expect from an American. It is deliberate. I think it is more valuable to see the country for what it is, what’s best and most important about it and fight for what it could be than to bellow self congratulatory platitudes wrapped in a flag.
The fight has gotten so much harder in the last 7 or so years, but it always was hard. Those of us who could never afford the rose colored glasses need to stick together, to have each other’s backs. To those who see the rising tide of fascism and are joining the cause and for those young enough that this is all pretty new, welcome.
We really do need to hang together or we really will hang separately. I said back in 2016 this was going to be a marathon and not a sprint and we have so very many miles to go. There is still time to save what is good about this country, and to build something new and better on part of the foundation that is still good. We can do it if we stick together and leave no one behind this time. We can do it if we don’t let them split us and get us all scrambling for the crumbs instead of insisting on pie for everyone.
This isn’t over. Not quite yet, though it might feel like it may be for some of us. Let us not go softly into that good night. Let us rage together at the dying of the light.
* "Midnight Pals: Jewish Noir:"
https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/721215690590339072/midnight-pals-jewish-noir?source=share* "Midnight Pals: A Fable:"
https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/721521022058233856/midnight-pals-a-fable?source=share*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.
The help links are at the bottom under the cut.
* BPAL Charity Fundraiser "TRIUMPH IN MY SONG:"
https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/activism/triumph-in-my-song/* Support the WGA. "Entertainment Community Fund:"
https://entertainmentcommunity.org/* "DIY Box Fan Air Filter Directions:"
https://aghealth.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk261/files/inline-files/DIY%20Air%20Purifier%20Directions_English.Spanish_0.pdf* My oldest continuous friend is trying to raise money to buy games for a Cat Rescue fundraiser. This cat rescue is no kill and places most cats in foster homes until they can be adopted. They are good people there and it's a huge number of cats many needing basic or more serious healthcare.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/318lgf6fa0?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cf%20share-flow-1&fbclid=IwAR1smSQTz7deMSVUBsEg30AdhQ-zeAEHGXOcHXqVUILTlF2MqnIIW49SDVU* Cool Blackwork Embroidery Patterns for Beginners:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/thehaberdasheress/?etsrc=sdt* If you would like to help support me and the Cats: paypal.me/Gwydion
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