Debunking Christian Privilege

There were some real lows this week -- possibly having less to do with Leslie Fish's death (see Sunday) than with my realization on Tuesday that I was a month away from Colleen's and my 50th anniversary. Possibly also including communicating with my healthcare providers, which required an email to my GP's clinic (also on Tuesday) and a phone call to my oncologist's office on Friday. I prefer using a website, but both websides and the app are broken in various ways.

And Tuesday evening there was a huge wave of something negative, but I've no idea what or why.

However, I got the things done. And there were also a couple of unexpected highs, notably Thursday afternoon when somebody from the family of previous occupants came over to get a misdirected package. And I was able to hand them a nearly-full grocery bag of stuff that had accumulated over the last year, and which I had failed to find the last couple of times I had a chance. As I noted afterwards, it apparently doesn't take much to lift my spirits for a few moments.

But four walks, and four (admittedly short) guitar sessions. I'll take it. And today is my daughter's 7th anniversary! (I had forgotten, but I'd gotten a DM Friday night to say that they needed money because their car had died. Good timing.)

Linkies! Raccoon goes on drunken rampage in Virginia liquor store and passes out on bathroom floor. Dumuzi's Dream - world's first film in ancient Sumerian. (With subtitles, of course.)

( Notes & links, as usual )

Welcome to December, 2025!

Mixed. A couple of minor high points, including a very nice Thanksgiving (observed) dinner yesterday evening, but enough lows to more than compensate, plus enough problems with both my health, and my abject failure to get those across during my appointment Friday morning, to throw me into a tailspin that I still haven't fully recovered from. Oh, and Leslie Fish died yesterday. There's another bit storythere, too, but it'll wait for another day.

Three walks. One guitar practice, Friday, but after spending the day in a funk it lifted my spirits a litte, as did a little more Dutch on Duolingo. I take what I can get. The top quote of the week, from Paradox of hedonism - Wikipedia:

Happiness is like a cat, if you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you; it will never come. But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap.

Apparently the same thing applies to sleep. But it's only 20:48, so I have two hours, more or less, before I have to not-try to put that into practice. If the cats will let me. But I'll stop here, incoherent as this post is, because between now and then I have to compose an email to my doctors. (Or at least their clinic. It's complicated, and a large part of Friday's trainwreck was because I didn't know how complicated it had gotten while I wasn't looking.)

Why Nature will not allow the use of generative AI in images and video So apparently Nature abhors AI.

How about ending with The Illustrated Version of “Alice’s Restaurant”?

( Notes & links, as usual )

Today being (US)Thanksgiving, I will try to extend this back over the last year, more-or-less. I am thankful for...

• Having survived what is now almost 13 months here in the Netherlands, making this my second Thanksgiving here. (And my fifth without Colleen, for which I am NOT thankful, but sad.)
• Finally having gotten the kitchen and other parts of the house re-stocked to a useable level, if not exactly where we left off.
• 220V house wiring, for electric kettles, other appliances, and vehicles.
• Frame.work.
• Having successfully signed up for health insurance and gotten reasonably-priced health care. Including for the cats, who don't have insurance.
• While I'm on that subject, a vet who makes house calls.
• Having, with N, started our (required for immigration) business, and thanks mainly to N's book, actually made some money at it.
• Living in a country that has both good public transit, and excellent bike paths (which work just fine for mobility scooters).
• (Tin)Lizzy and Scarlett-the-carlet, our folding mobility scooter and micro-car respectively.
• Fuzzy blankets. NO thanks for whatever health problem makes me feel cold in the evening no matter what the ambient temperature.
• Finally getting screen rotation working on my Frame.work convertible laptop. Whether it's automatic depends on the window manager, and possibly the phase of the moon. But it should be usable.
• Walks, and occasionally st/rolls.
• Compression socks. (No thanks for the condition they're supposed to improve.)
• Hydrocortizone ointment.
• The filk community.

Last year's Thanksgiving entry is mostly still applicable, but a few plans for what was then the coming year have, predictably, gone by the wayside again, and my health isn't holding up as well as I would like. I'd be thankful for executive function if I had any. I'll be thankful for good drugs once we get my BP and psych meds figured out.

Again, happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it. (That includes us, but we're having the feast on Saturday to accommodate j's school schedule. Including the annual American Thanksgiving celebration in Leiden,)