Well, it’s been a while since I asked you all for your info so I could stay in touch, and in typical Me fashion, I have completely failed to follow up until now. The Reader’s Digest version is that life got busy; work’s been bonkers as I’m still working on hiring, my last remaining grandparent has been in iffy health, I‘m on 15 bajillion boards/councils/whatever, and the last, oh, I don’t know, 100-ish days have been stressful for all the reasons that I’m sure you can imagine.
Things are overall okay, though. I mean, it’s easier to feel that way when the weather’s nice and all the migratory birds are back. Most evenings, if I don’t have any commitments, I’ve just been going and sitting in our woods or on the dock, taking in the sunshine and the birdsong and the sound of fucking leafblowers or whatever but you know, everything can’t be perfect all the time, okay. If you’re interested in what’s out there, you can check out my eBird profile and checklists, and if you’re local, you’re welcome to reach out if you want to stop by sometime to do some birding. We’re still being Covid cautious, especially because of Grammy’s health, but nicer weather means it’s easier to socialize outside and be less worried about that.
Pets-wise, Pepper has continued to recover from her ITP; a few months ago she had some tummyaches from one of her meds, but pausing it for 24 hours helped. It’s the last one that she’s on and if her platelets stay good for the next couple of months, we might be able to take her off of it and see how she does. We’re down to two inside birds, as Polly finally went back to his owner, and the chickens have been good minus one having a mild prolapse last month. But this time we caught it early enough and after a few days indoors on a calcium supplement, knocking on all available wood, she has been fine. The cats are also good, minus Romeo horking up a hairball that was literally the size of a hot dog despite my having thought I’d done a great job of deshedding him. I swear with his undercoat he’s gotta be part husky.
Personally speaking, I started work on my second tattoo in early February, and got more done about a week ago; it’ll be finished up in July. It is a thigh piece and WOW does it hurt, which I did not expect since my forearm didn’t at all. I also gave the keynote at Wheaton’s second annual Networks for Change mini-conference, which felt completely surreal to be asked to do. It went well, though, and I’m really glad that I did it. It’s sort of become my personal mission to get Wheaton and Norton to be friendlier with each other and this very much felt in service of that goal.
Anyway, I was figuring that this would just be a bite-sized little update, but if you’re on this list then you know I’m prone to rambling, so I won’t apologize for it. Please feel free to reply if you’d like to catch up. :)