Day 536 – Frerg

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After 25 minutes of standing in the drizzle yesterday morning, I was reminded of the 1989 hit Getting Away With It by supergroup Electronic:

“I’ve been walking in the rain just to get wet on purpose”

But actually, my primary aim was to find a frog, which I eventually did.

It wouldn’t have been hard to find him if he’d been sitting on the grass like this. But he wasn’t, of course.

The Cape Rain Frogs in our area are vocal little things keep us awake all night when it rains, but they are notoriously difficult to locate because they are small (5cm long), well camouflaged and hide in tiny little burrows under the vegetation. When they’re quiet, you literally wouldn’t know that they were there. So I used the occasional croaks to home in on this little guy bit by bit, before finding him and ever so gently easing him out of his hole to meet the kids and the camera.

When he was making a noise and I was actively searching, at least anyone watching me would have know that I was doing something. For the other 95% of the time, I was just standing silently and attentively in the rain. It must have looked odd.
Fortunately(?), the rest of the family was still in bed.

After a few photos and some education, we popped him back safely in his little hole, ready to continue chatting to his local friends and to warn us of the next nocturnal precipitation.

Day 535 – Surprising screenshots

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Yesterday turned out to be a pretty good day. I pushed myself (on doctor’s orders) to see what I could get done, and I got quite a lot done. Yes, I am suffering a little bit today, but nowhere near as much as I would have expected.

I’m almost – almost – daring to hope that I’ve turned a corner.

I put my watch on for the first time in weeks, mainly just to keep an eye on my heart rate (doctor’s orders again), and well, wow, look at this:

A whole dog walk round the block, sure, but the steps! The steps!
That’s the first time I’ve even come close to that figure since I got this damn thing. I really wasn’t aiming for anything, so it was a huge surprise when I spotted it.

Other points: 72 resting HR is still too high, but that’s why I had the watch on. 150bpm is also still too high, considering I didn’t actually do anything strenuous (yes, you guessed it, doctor’s orders). And the stress level, well that’s always a bit of an outlier on the days that I watch United play.

Although…

Wow. Amazing.

We’ve been waiting to spank someone for about 18 months now, so this was long overdue. And yes, it was “only” Peterborough, but we’ve been drawing to “only” Luton and losing to “only Huddersfield” recently, so this was really great to watch (if a little stressful for at least the first 51 minutes) (see above).

But aside from the result – even better than the result perhaps – this was a cohesive, skillful, positive, enthusiastic, even occasionally awe-inspiring Blades’ performance. Just look at the quality of those goals. JUST LOOK AT THEM!

I’m almost – almost – daring to hope that we’ve turned a corner.

Day 534 – Oh no, too late!

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Argh! Now they tell me!

Seems legit. But then some thoughts…

  1. “It will alter your DNA once they insert the microchip”? Surely just avoid them inserting the microchip then. Simples.
  2. I’m popping a reminder into Google calendar for two years time so I can review the accuracy of his predictions.
  3. People like this would almost certainly benefit from having their DNA altered.
  4. This new era of US/SA relations in the fields of biomedical science, technology and biomedical technology science is to be welcomed, mostly because they’ve got shedloads of money and it will really annoy the EFF.
  5. They walk amongst us.

But perhaps most worryingly of all, I’m double-vaxxed and I typed this whole post just by thinking it.

#BuyMicrosoft

Day 533 – We’ve suffered enough

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It’s been a horrendous last 18 months. And, just as we were hoping to catch a glimpse of glimmer of light at the end of a very long tunnel, and after the positivity of yesterday, this:

What do they look like?

I know that people harbour irrational hatred for a lot of things, and I harbour an irrational hatred of all things Abba.
I just cannot stand them or their “music”. Ugh.

LPT: Avoid having to switch it off by simply not switching it on in the first place.

Just save yourself.

Your occasional reminder that it’s ok to be irrational if you know you’re being irrational.

Day 532 – Positives

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After being diagnosed with “Post-acute Covid-19 Syndrome” or “Long Covid“…

Early reports suggest residual effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection, such as fatigue, dyspnea, chest pain, cognitive disturbances, arthralgia and decline in quality of life.

Yep, all of that, and more.

…earlier this week, I was also given a battery of blood tests and another chest x-ray. I got my results back today and (aside from the actual symptoms mentioned above), I am the picture of perfect health. Every single result bang in its appropriate reference range bell curve. If you’d seen these results from a science experiment, you’d think that it was made up like all those Ivermectin trials.

And the CXR, while not being quite so perfect, did show a marked improvement from my last chest x-ray a month or so ago. So, with new drugs and a new plan moving forward, I’m feeling much more hopeful that I was last week. And even yesterday.

And – in another positive moment, I had my best meal in 2 months last night. I still can’t smell or taste anything, so any chef hoping to impress me has a pretty difficult job on their hands. But some bacon-wrapped chili poppers with BBQ sauce from the Village Bicycle had a surprising effect. While not being able to taste chili (at all), I can still get the burning effects of it (this also goes for the cooling effect of mint/menthol). And while that’s not perfect, it’s better than nothing. Because believe me, by this time, pretty much anything is better than nothing. Add in the combination of different textures within the poppers and I was having a good evening and then suddenly…

…did I just taste that BBQ sauce?

Well, no. Not really. But nearly. I did get a weird burnt orange taste, briefly. And that’s more than I’ve had in several (or more) weeks.

Add that in to the fact that I’m sitting outside editing photos* (and blogging) in the sunshine, and… well.. things finally seem to be improving and I’m totally here for it.

* yes, I’m going to have to do them all again this evening.