Stuff That Really 'Grinds My Gears...'

AND ANOTHING THING

So now it’s winter and it’s not really possible to heat this room. I can run a space heater all night and it’s still cold. It’s just a waste of money. So, whatever, I’ve lived outside in the winter before, I’ll deal with it. Well HERE IT IS, I’m getting some kind of a respiratory virus. I can feel it in my throat. I’m lightheaded. I’ll probably have weird dreams. It’ll get worse before it gets better.

Vitamin C and ibuprofen are gonna be my new best friends this week.

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If you can get your hands on a couple of cheap materials you can make draft blockers for your window(s), which will help a lot.

I use a stockinette roll, bought off Amazon for about $7:

Clear ponytail holders from any drug store:

And rice.

Cut the stockinette (longer than you think is right), put a band around one end, fill with rice (not too much: they work better if they are loosely filled rather than tight), put a band around the other end.

That’s it.

Materials to do all our windows (new ones each winter, because our windows leak so much that water does get into these things) for 5 years came to around $10.

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Painfully loud leafblower pain. It was 74 dB inside while they were headed away. It must have been even worse before I was able to grab my ear protection and my sound level meter. And the leaves probably end up in a landfill, rather than building better soil.

P.S. Later 88 dB. Fucking hell. About as loud for me as 144 dB to someone with average hearing.

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I hate those things. Wish they could engineer them quieter, but that would be expensive :scream:

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Enjoy the fever dreams, that’s the one good thing about being sick. They can be totally amazing, especially if you do lucid dreaming.

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You know that thing where you cough and cough and cough until you start to vomit?

There is nothing good about this.

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When I had pneumonia a few years ago (complete with a 105 temperature) there was a Harry Potter marathon going on over several days. I had all kinds of fucked up fever dreams in the HP universe as a result. I wish I could say it was enjoyable but it was really not. :frowning:

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My last 105+ fever coincided with me being home alone on the couch with the _ Nameless Man_ trilogy.

Could have been worse.

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Should I go to the clinic? Maybe I should go to the clinic.

I hate to waste Medicaid resources on something that will go away on its own, but on the other hand I’m getting up into the demographic where people just get sick and die :fearful:

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Go to the clinic. That’s why it’s there.
And no, it doesn’t always go away on its own.

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Agree – such things can change to pneumonia fairly quickly. Happened to me once, and I was only 30.

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Do you pay into Medicare/Medicaid? If not, is your income below the level that taxes are deducted from your income? (These are rhetorical questions, I have a feeling we know the answer).

Then take advantage of these things that you paid for before the government takes them away, stealing that money for their buddies.

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I don’t even come close to feeling bad about this. My taxes are supposed to be directed towards the public good, and I want them to be.
Social systems are in place in order to be used. I am happy to see people being saved from a patriarchal system that would rather sweep them aside so it doesn’t have to see them starve or die.

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Do you not have legal limits on those things? When Britain joined the EU, lawnmowers had to be silenced to comply with regulations. I guess on 1st April 2019 the local Leavers will be removing the silencers from their mowers to celebrate their “freedom” - except that noise limits will stay in law.

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We do have noise limits around here, but who knows how well they’re enforced. It gets worse when they are several going on at once.

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Science video pronunciations:

“SupernoBi”

“Fungae”

“Belosiraptor”

It’s a small thing, but so many more people get these wrong than get them right, and at least educators ought to get them right.

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Nuculer

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Go to the clinic.
At best they’ll send you home with instructions to rest and drink lots of fluids.
Or they’ll send you for a chest xray and maybe some of the good cough syrup.

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Aluminium. That’s just wrong. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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