Many fabulous things!

 Since my most recent post, many fabulous things have happened.

Primary among these is the fact that Mark and I closed on a condo in our VitaminSEA neighborhood. Mark's brother's house, where we have stayed since 2014, is right across the street. It will be a combination investment property, rented out to other vacationers, and a shore place for us when the place is available and we have some time for a brief getaway.  

We also have had some horrid news, in the form of a dear friend getting a terrible diagnosis. But the bright side of that is that the problem was caught before it caused any symptoms and, even more importantly, before it had time to spread or inflict major damage. Chemo and radiation are going on for the next few weeks, but as a preventative measure to knock out any microscopic issues that the surgery could have missed. The surgeon thinks they got everything when the surgery was done, but there is no room for error with this particular disease. Knocking out even the *possibility* that there's a microscopic remnant is crucial. But the prognosis is good, so KNOCK WOOD everything stands a good chance of proceeding well. Let us pray!

A New World Record!

 Before today, the largest document I’d ever had to scan was 492 pages long.

This morning, I received one that had been shipped to us in a cardboard box. It’s the Mother of all Documents: 1754 pages long.

😳😵‍💫😵 Yeowza! That obliterates my previous record!

I reached out to the company that sent us the document, asking if it would be possible to send it to us in a digital format.

I can only get a finite number of sheets of paper to physically go through the scanner during a given workday. Scanning 492 sheets took an entire morning, years ago, because dealing with paper jams and proofreading every page of the results has to be factored into the scanning process. I hesitate to calculate how long scanning 1754 pages would require. I have a newer scanner now, which is faster than its predecessor, but even then, it’d take a good chunk of time for a project of this scope.

I hope the medical records company can send a digital document; otherwise, I’ll have to craft a battle plan to divide and conquer this document. I’m mulling over the process I’d have to use to handle the situation, regardless. Better to have a plan and not need it, than to need a plan and not have it. The document was separated into five reams by the sender, so maybe I could handle it one ream at a time.

We’ll see if they can honor my request. Fingers crossed! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

And God be with all the folks whose medical history looks like an unabridged dictionary. 🙏🏻 Scanning all that info is a piece of cake, compared to LIVING all that info.

Happy Blogday to Me!

 I never thought, 20 years ago today, that I still would be updating a blog here and there. I might be here less frequently now, given the rise of social media, but I do enjoy keeping a blog that has been running this long.

Here's to a few more decades! 😀

Fixed!

 Late last night, I received a message that Blogger had rescinded the warning label on my post. Hurry, go to my 06/30/03 post and read it, before someone changes their mind!😆

Bizarre!

 Well, THAT was bizarre! I just got an email from Blogger, alerting me that one of my posts was put behind a warning screen for having sensitive content.

Then I tracked the post down. It was from June 30, 2003. Say what? The post has been sitting there, minding its own business and troubling no one, for almost 20 years. NOW they decide to put a warning label on it?

For the record, it was a post about a couple of blogs that were created with respect to the US i.n.v.a.s.i.o.n of I.r.a.q. Those blogs were written by people who were in the country at the time: one Iraqi and one US soldier.

Why the post got flagged as sensitive, two months shy of its 20th birthday, is beyond my understanding. But so be it.

I requested a review of their decision. I'm sure they have bots running through all the blog content looking for keywords. I would like a human being to review the post and realize that there is nothing in it that needs a warning label.

Madame Secretary

 I was the recording secretary of the Philadelphia Phantoms Phan Club for at least the final 6 years of the team's tenure in Philly. So when Mark and I recently joined the Philadelphia Flyers Fan Club, I found it novel to be sitting in on a meeting and NOT taking minutes.

Well, that lasted all of three meetings, lol. Last month, at our second meeting, they were nominating new officers. The existing recording secretary had to be coaxed to accept the nomination, because no one was offering to take over the position. The actual elections were this month, however.

In order to run for office, a member has to have attended three meetings. They said that if the April meeting is someone's third meeting, they technically could offer to run and be elected in the same day. So I reached out on FB to the President of the club, explained who I am and my experience level, and said that April's meeting would be my third one. Therefore, if the current recording secretary didn't want to continue, I offered to take the position.

Long story short, that worked out well. So I will be the recording secretary for the PFFC, starting next season. We have a summer break from meetings, though there are social events happening, and then in the fall, I will start as recording secretary. So feel free to address me as Madame Secretary, lol. 😄

Meanwhile, the DynaWrite brownies are on hold. The device has decided to have some issues with powering on, and as long as that continues, I can't access any of the files on the device. I will keep trying.

DynaWrite Brownies

 I have a collection of various and sundry distraction-free devices on which I like to write. Basically they are non-internet-connected word processors, and there is quite a variety of these things to choose from.

I picked up a DynaWrite last week from eBay. When it arrived, I saw that it still has some old files on it. The first one I saw is a recipe for brownies. 

I got some USB sticks, and I am going to migrate the files onto a thumb drive so I can clear out the device and start fresh.

But even though I'm not a baker, I might just try making the brownies, for the heck of it. 😄 I think I'll call them DynaWrite Brownies.

The Week from Purgatory

 Welcome to my week from purgatory.

Last Saturday, another unauthorized withdrawal was made from our bank. The NEW account, that we created because the OLD ones were compromised, was hit.

We now have multiple kinds of flag on our bank accounts, including the ones that were not affected, so that (among other things) the teller must ask for a password before allowing a withdrawal. (All three of our account compromises involved teller withdrawals, done in Alabama where neither Mark nor I have ever set foot. If it happens again, the next meeting we have at the bank branch will involve pulling our money out of the bank entirely.

I have had to deal with a crapped-out SIM card, so my phone was not working for most of Wednesday. Fortunately, a new SIM card resolved the issue.

I have had various and sundry forms of digestive distress all week, and this is WITH the truckload of prescriptions and OTC remedies I take religiously. Pain and multiple types of incessant organ recitals are involved, and I am getting tired of feeling like this. I was at the doctor a few days ago, and we think it was a norovirus that's going around. Sadly there aren't norovirus-specific remedies out there, other than just medicating the symptoms and waiting it out.

And some of my prescription refills were held up by Prior Auth issues, because medical insurance in this country is a royal pain in various unmentionable parts of the anatomy. It won't be fully straightened out until Monday at the earliest, so here I am dealing with symptoms because I am out of a couple of meds. (This is separate from the digestive distress mentioned above.)

I'm about ready to spit fire. Calgon, take me away.

Two Decades of Blogging

 I am thinking about the fact that in May, I will have had this blog for 20 years. 

I will have to celebrate on that day. I'm not sure how, but I am going to do it!

I also am this-close to my 3,000th post. Maybe I should schedule my posts such that I hit 3,000 on the same day as the anniversary.

Decisions, decisions. 😊