Inside the Little Plastic Castle

MyGuy and I both showed negative on our COVID antigen tests at lunch. Forty-four hours and counting!

Installing a new hot air furnace is hazardous to your lungs. It's not just a bad smell. The plastic exhaust piping requires a chemical formally known as "pipe dope" to connect the new box to the existing vent. The furnace itself is coated in anti-corrosive materials that get burned off in the first hours of operation.

This lesson was learned the hard way. Four puffs of ventolin and a true N95 didn't stop the constant cough, so I bundled up and rolled around the block until they finished. Then MyGuy opened windows on all four corners (to a nice sunny winter day: 25°F w 20 mph breeze). I hope the vapors clear out thoroughly by the time I get back from the pool before dinner.

When we woke up yesterday it was chilly. Happily the emergency HVAC folks arrived within 65 minutes, and IDed the issue by smell -- incomplete combustion. The fix is a new furnace, which cost just 10% more than the 20-year-old busted one.

As detailed in "My Fall Vacation," overview post, I had Mohs surgery last Thursday to remove a wee cancer on my nose. This entry contains photos during and after that operation. There’s blood and stitches — proceed at your own risk.

Wound healing protocols have changed since I was little. Now I’m told to keep the wound covered in vaseline, and to not bandage it unless I have to.

I’m uncertain whether my healing face would perturb folks in public. Adding bandages might make it easier for folks who get queasy seeing surgical results. On the other hand, I’m a "let your freak flag fly" kinda person. What do you think?

( moaning about how to let go )

The UK election result crashed through my news barriers. Oh, crap.

This scary turn reminds me of a song that helped me in an earlier ugly time, when I was stunned in certainty of imminent nuclear annihilation.

What can you do with each moment of your life
But love til you’ve loved it away?

Bob Franke: Thanksgiving Eve.

( The lyrics )

Three ways to hear it (hoping one of these links survives):

• Bob Franke performs with Chamber Orchestra Kremlin inside a nuke-proof bunker in Moscow

( YouTube embed no lyrics )

• Franke writes from a Christian tradition, so it’s no surprise Amidon Choral Music arranges the song for SATB, with full recording and lyrics

• More sonorous version from Irish singer Janet Holmes 2004 record, Road to the West

( Spotify player embed no lyrics )

Bright blessings to sonia, who linked me to drakkinabrarian's excellent essay, "The dreaded TBR pile"

https://drakkinabrarian.wordpress.com/2019/10/28/the-dreaded-tbr-pile

It's just what I needed to read right now.

I’ve been fretting the loss of my bookworm identity. I appreciate the writer’s point that making reading an obligation triggers anxiety. Also, when I developed my bookworm self-image, I didn’t need a TBR — I couldn’t afford to create a personal stack, and I read so fast that the library loans turned over in a week.

Considering drakkinabrarian’s points:

Many of the items on my TBR are things I should be reading. I want to support the author, who’s part of my extended community. I want to want to understand the topic. In short, aspire, not desire. The good news is that I can support writers by buying ebooks and then never reading them.

I decided that I could declare myself "retired" after my 64th birthday. In the time I have left on the planet, it’s okay to focus on fun, not work.

I don’t have infinite resources to dedicate to reading. Pain & meds & double vision & depression do limit what and how long I can read, even with my awesome new reading stand. In my bookworm days, reading provided safety and certainty. While doing something valorized by my family, I could be transported away from them.

This excellent essay concludes:

Remember that a To Read List just represents a list of titles you don’t want to forget – not a binding contract where if you die with these books unread you will be damned for all time.

( the details, including four thumbnail photos )

So even though the climate is lovely, and the bus lines are all accessible, traveling independently requires knowing what the sidewalks are like, both origin and destination. Given my memory issues, I’d be stuck using paratransit here for probably a year.