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Sep. 5th, 2018 07:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckI walked to my appointment yesterday. It took just short of two hours. Some of that is that I played Ingress on the way, but some of it was just that I walk slow. It got gradually hotter as I walked. My phone claimed it was 73F when I left home, and my doctor told me low 90sF when I got to her office.
I made it to my appointment with about ten minutes to spare. That was long enough to use a wet paper towel on my face and neck but not long enough to really cool down. I was very red faced at that point, and as I'm pale again this morning, I don't think any of it was sunburn.
I ended up buying lunch at Which Wich because I looked at the timing on the buses and realized that getting home within my window for taking my with-food lunch meds wasn't going to work. The Cloverleaf Diner would have been cheaper, but I don't like going there alone unless I have cash to cover the bill and tip.
Cordelia's English class will be reading Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, some poetry by several different authors, 12 Angry Men, and Octavia Butler's Kindred. I have queried the teacher about what plans are in place for helping kids deal with the trauma in Kindred. It's not that I think that the book shouldn't be taught; it's that I think it's a book that will really upset some readers because it really is upsetting.
When Cordelia's class went to the local Holocaust museum a couple of years back, the museum staff had plans in place for what to do when somebody fainted or broke down in tears because both are things that people do. Not all people, not necessarily even one every day, but enough people for it to be something predictable that could be accommodated rather than an out of the blue emergency.
We did an 8 p.m. run out to Plum Market to see what they had in the way of half-price baked goods. They put a lot of stuff that is about to expire out at half-price at 8:00 each night. What's there varies a lot. Last night, it was mostly pies with no bread or bagels. We snagged a pecan pie (which is something I love and don't get very often) and a couple of single serving cake type things. They had only one gluten free item (one of the folks who comes for gaming on alternating Wednesdays is GF), a brownie. We grabbed it but had been hoping for more options in that direction.
I don't think we'll play Scott's Firefly game tonight. Most likely, he'll get home around when our friends arrive and not have the brain power for GMing but still welcome playing a board game.
He's getting a lot of night time calls from work to tell him that one line or another has broken down or that they've run out of something they require to complete an order (this tends to be running out of things the customer supplied/ordered that the plant uses, generally labels or special caps, that sort of thing) or that someone has called in sick.
Calling Scott for all of this is protocol so that he knows when the production schedule is going to need reworking and so that he can tell the shift supervisor what has priority if only some things can get done. It's stressful because cider season is the part of the year when there're many complicated things that all need to work in a short period of time. Each hitch means rejuggling everything else later in the schedule to make the pieces fit again, and Scott knows that he's going to have to keep that up until all of the orders are done and delivered.
I'm going to need to go out again today. Cordelia and I both have prescriptions needing refilling, and Scott bought the wrong pain killer last time he went. Instead of getting straight up naproxen, he got naproxen with benadryl. The combination is intended to help people fall asleep when they're taking the medication at night. I don't take it at night and really don't want to add benadryl to the set of meds I take at night. Nine times out of ten, benadryl doesn't make me sleepy, but I really think me combining it with Halcion would be a terrible idea. I'm trying to make a list of other things that I might want to get in order to make the trip worthwhile.
I'm thinking that I'll take the Pontiac Trail bus to Kroger and stop at one of the parks along the route that has Ingress portals I've never hacked. I'll just have to track time so that I can catch the next bus, half an hour later. There's a university research complex across the street from Kroger that also has Ingress portals I've never hacked. Maybe I'll go after those.
I need about 750 more unique hacks to get the gold badge for Explorer. I need about 400 unique captures to get the gold badge for Pioneer. I don't really expect that I'll get either any time soon because they would require me to travel a lot. I can pretty certainly find a lot of new-to-me portals around Ann Arbor and Ypsi, but I'd have to take bus trips, lots of bus trips, and do a good bit of hiking to get one or two portals at a time.
I'm the only person I know who plays but can't drive. I also am not really able to overcome my agoraphobia to the point of making expeditions entirely for the purpose of playing Ingress. If I had someone else I could go with, that would help, but I don't know anyone whose schedule would fit.
I'm more likely to manage the 12000 more resonators placed or the 2400 more mods placed or the 13000 more hacks made or 1200 more portals captured (unique or not). I need two more gold badges in order to get to level 12. I'll need more for level 13. I'm pretty sure that I'll have most of the AP I need for level 13 before I have the badges for level 12.
I made it to my appointment with about ten minutes to spare. That was long enough to use a wet paper towel on my face and neck but not long enough to really cool down. I was very red faced at that point, and as I'm pale again this morning, I don't think any of it was sunburn.
I ended up buying lunch at Which Wich because I looked at the timing on the buses and realized that getting home within my window for taking my with-food lunch meds wasn't going to work. The Cloverleaf Diner would have been cheaper, but I don't like going there alone unless I have cash to cover the bill and tip.
Cordelia's English class will be reading Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, some poetry by several different authors, 12 Angry Men, and Octavia Butler's Kindred. I have queried the teacher about what plans are in place for helping kids deal with the trauma in Kindred. It's not that I think that the book shouldn't be taught; it's that I think it's a book that will really upset some readers because it really is upsetting.
When Cordelia's class went to the local Holocaust museum a couple of years back, the museum staff had plans in place for what to do when somebody fainted or broke down in tears because both are things that people do. Not all people, not necessarily even one every day, but enough people for it to be something predictable that could be accommodated rather than an out of the blue emergency.
We did an 8 p.m. run out to Plum Market to see what they had in the way of half-price baked goods. They put a lot of stuff that is about to expire out at half-price at 8:00 each night. What's there varies a lot. Last night, it was mostly pies with no bread or bagels. We snagged a pecan pie (which is something I love and don't get very often) and a couple of single serving cake type things. They had only one gluten free item (one of the folks who comes for gaming on alternating Wednesdays is GF), a brownie. We grabbed it but had been hoping for more options in that direction.
I don't think we'll play Scott's Firefly game tonight. Most likely, he'll get home around when our friends arrive and not have the brain power for GMing but still welcome playing a board game.
He's getting a lot of night time calls from work to tell him that one line or another has broken down or that they've run out of something they require to complete an order (this tends to be running out of things the customer supplied/ordered that the plant uses, generally labels or special caps, that sort of thing) or that someone has called in sick.
Calling Scott for all of this is protocol so that he knows when the production schedule is going to need reworking and so that he can tell the shift supervisor what has priority if only some things can get done. It's stressful because cider season is the part of the year when there're many complicated things that all need to work in a short period of time. Each hitch means rejuggling everything else later in the schedule to make the pieces fit again, and Scott knows that he's going to have to keep that up until all of the orders are done and delivered.
I'm going to need to go out again today. Cordelia and I both have prescriptions needing refilling, and Scott bought the wrong pain killer last time he went. Instead of getting straight up naproxen, he got naproxen with benadryl. The combination is intended to help people fall asleep when they're taking the medication at night. I don't take it at night and really don't want to add benadryl to the set of meds I take at night. Nine times out of ten, benadryl doesn't make me sleepy, but I really think me combining it with Halcion would be a terrible idea. I'm trying to make a list of other things that I might want to get in order to make the trip worthwhile.
I'm thinking that I'll take the Pontiac Trail bus to Kroger and stop at one of the parks along the route that has Ingress portals I've never hacked. I'll just have to track time so that I can catch the next bus, half an hour later. There's a university research complex across the street from Kroger that also has Ingress portals I've never hacked. Maybe I'll go after those.
I need about 750 more unique hacks to get the gold badge for Explorer. I need about 400 unique captures to get the gold badge for Pioneer. I don't really expect that I'll get either any time soon because they would require me to travel a lot. I can pretty certainly find a lot of new-to-me portals around Ann Arbor and Ypsi, but I'd have to take bus trips, lots of bus trips, and do a good bit of hiking to get one or two portals at a time.
I'm the only person I know who plays but can't drive. I also am not really able to overcome my agoraphobia to the point of making expeditions entirely for the purpose of playing Ingress. If I had someone else I could go with, that would help, but I don't know anyone whose schedule would fit.
I'm more likely to manage the 12000 more resonators placed or the 2400 more mods placed or the 13000 more hacks made or 1200 more portals captured (unique or not). I need two more gold badges in order to get to level 12. I'll need more for level 13. I'm pretty sure that I'll have most of the AP I need for level 13 before I have the badges for level 12.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-05 01:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-05 01:53 pm (UTC)Unlike Butler's future set SF, there's no cushion for a reader to believe that this is stuff that couldn't happen because, apart from the time travel, it's all stuff that did happen repeatedly.
Butler understood people pretty well, and I don't think she was optimistic about us improving vastly as a species.
I read the summary on Wikipedia and combined it with what I recall of the books Butler wrote that I have read. Given her power as a writer, I expect reading it to be like being slowly gutted. For a long time, Kindred was on my to-read list, but I realized that I pretty certainly couldn't cope with it.
Does that make sense?
no subject
Date: 2018-09-06 05:38 pm (UTC)There are a couple of very good books with similar themes, but they are considerably more hopeful and aimed at a younger audience. (Kindred wasn't YA in the 20th century.) Voices, by Ursula LeGuin, is the middle book of a trilogy, but it stands alone (and I like it best of the trilogy.) It's about an adolescent girl in a city that was conquered a generation ago. It's about stories and magic and memory, and different kinds of power.
The Freedom Maze is about a girl in 1960 Louisiana spending the summer with her grandma in the family's house that used to be a plantation. Being a bookish child, she wants an adventure like in Eager and Nesbit. What could possibly go wrong? She time-travels 100 years and meet some of her ancestors (she had not known she was biracial.) She's ~12, and often protected by being seen as a child. She is often scared, sometimes does not know how she can help, but isn't trapped in situations where her efforts to help one person reinforce an evil system.
Unfortunately, reading a mildly-distressing with a hopeful conclusion, then a very distressing book, one right after the other, would probably not work well for her. She can't very well read Voices last year.
Usually, the way to reduce the traumatic effect of reading a book is to take it in small bites, with something peaceful or hopeful after each bite. Cordelia might be more distressed than hopeful about stories like "after the disaster, people of many races worked together to rebuild the city," or "brilliant woman overcame sexism and racism to reach a high position and help her people" or "the workers came together to prevent yet another terrible accident, and everyone joined in solidarity with them." How is she generally with stories of quiet decency or triumphs over nature? I'm thinking of the general idea that people are decent and can make the world better, rather than any specific counter to the horror and despair that Butler describe.
Some kids' chapter books are very peaceful and hopeful, if such a big girl wouldn't be insulted by the suggestion of All of a Kind Family.
Maybe a biography of Virginia Apgar?
Jonas Salk?
Have you seen "Flotsam?" It's a picture book, but not at all babyish. I found it hopeful.
A video of Mr. Rogers speaking to the Congressional Committee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKy7ljRr0AA
Pete Seeger music? Other music that is not racist or stalkery?