* I did all the prep work for the aggregate, but the HoA attacked again last Monday and I had to do terrible things to my body as a result. I'm a complete mess and I just can't do the posting this week.
How much I can do in the coming week will have a lot to do with how much the HoA wants to fuck me over because they hate my garden. Sorry.
* "Suspect dead, 2 students injured in shooting at Evergreen High School :"
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/09/10/evergreen-high-school-shooting/* "Right-wing firebrand Charlie Kirk dead after shooting at university in Utah:"
https://www.advocate.com/news/charlie-kirk-dead-utah-shooting* "Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin in custody :"
https://www.advocate.com/crime/charlie-kirk-suspect-arrested* Because of course he does. "Trump blames rhetoric from left for political violence after killing of Charlie Kirk:"
https://www.npr.org/2025/09/10/nx-s1-5537187/trump-charlie-kirk-blames-left* Kirk was a Neo-NAZI who considered the mass shootings of children a small price to pay, and advocated forced birth for children so of course Trump does this: " Trump to award Charlie Kirk posthumous Medal of Freedom:"
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/11/trump-charlie-kirk-medal-freedom-00557142* Even though the shooter wasn't a Democrat: "“THIS IS WAR”: Some Right-Wing Figures Call for Retribution Following Kirk Killing:"
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/charlie-kirk-killing-assassination-reactions-right-wing-grief-outrage-retribution/* "‘War Is Here’: The Far-Right Responds to Charlie Kirk Shooting With Calls for Violence:"
https://www.wired.com/story/far-right-reactions-charlie-kirk-shooting-civil-war/* "No, this transgender woman is not the Charlie Kirk assassin:"
https://www.advocate.com/news/transgender-woman-charlie-kirk* "Lawmakers erupt in anger over Kirk shooting: ‘Silent prayers get silent results’:"
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/10/lawmakers-erupt-in-anger-over-kirk-shooting-silent-prayers-get-silent-results-00556934* "Charlie Kirk’s murder proves America has crossed a bridge to hell, with the road to peace not on the horizon:"
https://www.advocate.com/voices/charlie-kirk-shooting-not-last* "Former Secret Service Agent warns Kirk assassination signals new targets of political violence:"
https://www.msnbc.com/the-weekend-primetime/watch/former-secret-service-agent-warns-kirk-assassination-signals-new-targets-of-political-violence-247538245899* CW: Sexual Assault. "Sinners & Stardust & Sexual Assault:"
https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/08/sinners-stardust-sexual-assault/
* "Getting your fix online: the websites that make repairing easier:"
https://www.positive.news/economics/getting-your-fix-online-the-websites-that-make-repairing-easier/* "Michael Seltzer, prominent LGBTQ+ activist and fundraiser in fight against AIDS, dead at 78:"
https://www.advocate.com/news/michael-seltzer-longtime-activist-dead* Monday, I really did need to do that cat errand, and also I needed some things rather urgently (I thought) from the ethical grocery. (I went to put one of them away later and thought, "You know what? This is a more logical place to put this" and it turned out that a Millennial several months ago had the same thought and I hadn't clocked it. D'oh!) The two others I did need.
Someone attempted to bathroom harass me today, which is literally my second time ever, as I live in a sapphire blue queer friendly city in a very blue state. Boomer in a challenging tone: "Are you a woman?" Me hobbling past on my way to pee with my classic 'no time for your bullshit' city dweller walk, using an utterly scathing and cold tone of voice: "I'm a me." Asshole actually apologized! O.o
Boomers, man!
I came back eyes burning, soaked through with sweat, clothes stuck to me like wet tissue. Put food away, had a bath, then Livia lured me into the bed for pettins and I crashed for nine hours by accident.
Which absolutely makes me an asshole because people were very much expecting me for my usual Monday evening Thing.
I miss how it was here before climate change sooo much.
* The HoA is threatening us again. This time it's one of their things where they demand we fix whatever it is by Monday after next, but won't tell us exactly what they want fixed. I sent them email. I am making my best guess, but there is literally no way to know if they won't tell us.
This is normal for them. Back when they still spoke on phones, it once took about 15 minutes with a similar notice to get them to admit that what they wanted me to do was hide my potting soil and sweep the patio. which they could have just said in the first email. Just saying.
So I've hidden my potting soil and I plan to sweep, but it makes sense to wait as my best guess for the other thing requires me to get help from someone tall, borrow equipment from a friend and systematically move most of the plants.
They are claiming we have constructed something that is attached to the walls or ceiling, which we did not. The only thing close to that is tiny transparent adhesive hook things that were put up despite me trying to tell Goth Millennial very and over that we weren't allowed to do that and eventually begging them not to, but they were determined.
I know I should have tried to physically block them but I was exhausted from trying to talk them out of doing it at that point, so it is my fault.
They are fingernail sized and have been there about four years without anyone noticing, but it's tyhe only thing I can think of short of them thinking the plant shelving that's been there since the Spring after we moved in or the plant shelving from a year and a half ago have since then been nailed to the wall or something. IDK.
The stupid adhesive hooks are way out of my reach even with our step ladder which is why I didn't take them down right after they put them up. We don't own a hair dryer. The scraper I used to try and entirely fail to get the massive ones they put on my bathroom mirror without my knowledge or concent is also missing. (I thought I'd taken it to the kitchen to be cleaned after the Incident, but it's not in either of the logical places for it and I've had no luck in sporadic searching since then, so I must not have.
I did look for non-hair dryer sollutions to adhesive hook removal on the internet and used the nightmare ones on the bathroom mirror for testing. Rubbing alchohol does not work. Finger nail polish remover loosened it up enough for me with a lot of time and elbow grease to pry them off with a knife. (I didn't try vinegar, as we had a positive result.)
The problem is 1. Squirrel really shouldn't be up on a ladder either for safety reasons as they are a fall risk too. 2. Gravity. How do we apply a liquid to something stuck to a ceiling? I am having trouble working out how to get liquid under enough to work.
Anyone have suggestions? This is already incredibly dangerous and physically taxing. The faster we manage it the less chance of serious injury.
* My body was not having Any of It Wednesday. When I did finally force it up to try to do necessary things it was painful and difficult and I failed my making food roll to the extent I mildly injured myself and needed to do Massive Clean Up and then had to start all over again. Ugh. And then my body through a tantrum resulting in hours of unpleasantness and pain. Sigh.
On the upside, New Millennial has lent us a ladder and also stained the wood for the bedroom shelf refurbishment, and it looks really good. Like, this is not quality wood. It was not the wood I'd have picked for this project; it was the wood the grad student that lived in my room before my bought heap when bodging together a make shift shelf.
It looks fine with the stain on, and I am sure it will look better shellacked and sanded.
This shelf is only going to be seen at a distance front edge on and by me from underneath, so the mild marring up top literally doesn't matter. I'm the only one likely to see it and only when I'm kneeling or standing on my bed to access the books there.
I am weirdly happy with it, even if it is still in pieces drying.
In other news, I do not particularly want to go to the doctor today, especially but the blood results are in and there are ISSUES. At least it is very, early so the heat won't have time to build up.
* Thursday was A LOT. I had an 8:05AM Doctor appointment which meant I had to be out of the apartment in time to get there. Which I did. It was originally intended to be a discussion of my hip joints, as they are likely best replaced before I turn sixty and if you figure in two separate operations so I can have a working hip while I'm rehabbing the other plus 1-2 years of physio to qualify for the operations, now is just about right, if you follow me.
So I'm going to need a lot of imaging, plus physio, plus a preliminary ostio appointment. The usual. Most of which also needs to work it's way through medicare preclearance.
We also talked about my blood work. The four things I didn't know how to interpret were related to the thing I did know enough about, turns out. Apparently, I'm only just out of compliance so instead of adjusting meds, we are doing wait and see. I vaguely remember this happening last year, which suggests I'm pretty stable at just over the line. I'm still going to try to work on it. Preferably when I'm not under constant siege from the HoA.
I completely spaced checking the pharmacy for flu and COVID boosters again, but I did remember to call when I got home and they aren't in yet, even though I'm hearing some North east states have them. I dropped my library books off, as I had a bunch including an ILL, but 9ish is too early to pick up there. I had the X-Ray order in hand and x-rays are walk in, but MRIs aren't and I wanted to check if the MRI cleared as if it had it made more sense to do both together. If it hadn't, best to do X-Ray early for the ostio and so my doctor could leverage it for the MRI and physio with Medicare.
Also, I knew I had enough gas to get home with plus a bit more, but I didn't like the idea of driving all the way to X-ray without gas. Which was a bit dicey as I wasn't sure if the money had moved to the card I use for gas quite yet. So I thought, I could hit OTC on the way to gas. I had a twenty and if the card hadn't cleared, I could still get enough to feel safe on the highway.
The Pharmacy was so alarming. Half the things I was there for were sold out of flat out gone with no card to show where they were. One of the things had an FSA/OTC tag, but when I got to check out it was FSA only, so there went half my twenty. Sigh. They change tags at the beginning of the month, but they've started changing eligibility for products every week.
Luckily, the money had transferred and I could get gas. I went home anyway, as I wanted to double check when the library was open and if I needed and MRI appointment or if I should just go get X-rays. Also I wanted to sit down a bit and make a few other calls.
X-Rays it was, so I did that, then took the back way to downtown for the library. I HAD intended to stop at the Indie Pet Shop again, as I realized the night before we were nearly out of Laxatone and Autumn blerping season has started, but I forgot, because it was hot and I was tired, sand at that point I was just thinking of home and food and a bath.
These x-rays were not nearly as painful as the shoulder ones, but a bit dangerous. Basically, we were doing Necromancer crotch shots. It was a series of three. One with me pigeon toed. Two with a leg up on a wooden block Captain Morgan Pirate style, which is dangerous without a crutch, but I managed. Me: didn't you used to have x-rays of flowers on your wall? Young tech: Maybe? Middle aged tech pops out all excited: We did! You remember that?
If I was going to be out and about in the sun this much, it was far better than it could have been. The sky was still uncanny valley empty for what should be the early rainy season here, and it was July hot instead of September mild, but the wind from Alaska was nearly normal so the air was a but better all of which is a vast improvement over Monday's Satan's armpit weather.
I'm still stuffed up from being outside, but it's more reasonable.
Which brings us to the HoA. Sigh. For those following they sent threat with a fourteen day deadline to be in compliance without actually telling me what they wanted done, because they are allergic to direct communication and prefer to make people guess. So half of it was the illegal structures connected to walls or ceiling, which logically only applied to the transparent hook things, and the thing they sent… half a decade or more ago that after fifteen minutes of teeth pulling meant they wanted me to hide my potting soil and sweep my patio, but realistically could mean anything. I hid my potting soil again as we were too tired to hide it during the Great HoA bedroom disaster and planned to sweep when we tackled the hooks this weekend.
They finally got back to me Thursday morning with more extremely vague stuff that was very hard to interpret because most of it literally didn't apply to me, and one specific thing which was easy to do. When I say the things they told me made no sense I mean one of them was the three bicycle limit, which is weird as I own no bicycle and have none on the patio, and a bunch of their complaints didn't apply to me as I am ground floor not an upper balcony. The best I could interpret I thought they maybe wanted me to get rid of the garden shelving. (It's out door shelving an in compliance with the rules, but I can't see that stopping them at this point and they kept complaining about structure I had at some point constructed connected to walls or ceiling, which they aren't but… idk Boomers threatening me and I have only a little over a week to sort it and who the fuck knows what they mean.) So I wrote back for more clarification.
I spent all fucking day trying to figure out how to salvage as much of the garden as I could and mentally tetrising furniture to make room fore things like an indoor gardening shelf. I was thinking I could at least manage that if I ditched a fish tank and moved a bunch of art, but what about the benches and which plant could maybe survive window placements for which there is not much room….
After my errands I ate, and had meds, and my anti-allergen bath, folded laundry and went to bed.
I am still not in great shape physically, but the improvement in air quality is helping. I had a long talk with a friend on the phone, wore myself out trying to do meds, dress, search my bedding for a missing remote, put the bedding back, and put the Tavy covers on the bed that I had to go back to sleep for a few hours. <.< >.> Disability is like that.
I then forced myself to climb into the hole between the bed and the closet to get a couple boxes out for the next level of sorting. I actually did two of the smaller boxes and left a large one out for later. It was late in the wee hours, by the time I'd done things like lungs, fed myself and beasts, etc..
Apparently HoA got back to me late Thursday afternoon with the actual list of three things they wanted done that they could have easily sent me Monday with the threat instead of once again making me do days of guessing and interpretation and teeth pulling and scrambling for equipment we didn't need and time wasting that I could have spent actually solving the problems they refused to communicate up front.
I am pretty sure they did not notice the adhesive, so fuck that, because instead we have to reorganize the whole kitchen garden and sweep under everything. There are things out there I physically can not move my myself and others I can't safely move myself. And they also want weeding, which concerns me as they might think things are weeds that are actually food or seeding for next years crop. I anticipate back and forth all next week over shit like is asparagus a weed.
Normally I wait for cooler weather for the end of season sweep and reorganization. Let us all hope it gets cooler this weekend. I also definitely don't like doing this while the tomatoes are producing as it's so easy to injure plants. Much better to wait for the die back. Sigh. Assholes.
Forage boxes Friday morning was extra exhausting as instead of leaving it at the patio's edge, they blocked the door again. They mean well. Closer is better, right? But if you put heavy boxes against the door I can't open it, so dragging them inside is So much extra work. The older, more experienced delivery people either read the directions or figure it out, but this one was very young.
I am trying to work out how to do the reorganization in stages, but most of it is basically musical chairs and will be hard to break down smaller.
I do think if I'm clever I can save most of the garden though. Hopefully. The tripod planter is mostly just seeding at this point. I could theoretically bring it inside for a couple weeks, for example, though it would be very in the way as I still have boxes in the livingroom from the Great HoA Bedroom Catastrophe.
If they'd waited another month I could temp store things in the livingroom so I could do things in smaller chunks, but it must be done NOW. Boomers always want things done now and have zero empathy for disability. As I wrote this I was trying to work out how much I can put in our tiny kitchen for the weekend where it will be very much in the way.
I hate the HoA so much and after what they did to me this summer, I don't feel safe here, but I don't have any options. I suspect I'm going to have to damage myself really badly doing the emergency patio reorganization, but there is zero choice here.
* I am basically using all the spoons on the garden. Friday there was at least reasonable air movement in the morning. I did make progress, but the lavender plant fell twice and I ended up putting it in a different time the second time because the pot was do damaged at that point. The previous lavender plant was killed my other people endlessly knocking it over. Let us hope this plant does better. I ended up moving it inside Saturday as it can sit on the windowsill with reasonable hopes of it and the cats not harming each other. The cats Do Not approve.
I had the area near the door nice and neat up until the lavender fell the second time. As I'd watered it after the first replanting, that meant I needed to wait for the dirt to dry, so I had to start over their Saturday morning. Sigh. The rest was nightmarish. The tomatoes were entangled as they were want to do, which made moving them around really difficult, on top of the weight of everything and the endlessly moving things back and forth trying to clean under them and trying to find some way to reorganize the HoA might accept.
Really, the simplest solution would be reporting the strawberries as that would be three birds with one stone solution wise, and I even thought of a clever way to do it, but it's monumental and I don't have that kind of time. Just moving the strawberries was a nightmare given the weight, size, and the dying oversized container they currently live in. Then there was the associated mess, and the compost that went over twice covering me and that corner with wet stinky compost. And I got trapped on the wrong side of the strawberries and ended up having to step in them to get out. I did manage to shift them back, but then the compost container that was not supposed to be a compost container, but by the time I'd discovered it a couple years ago was to late fell on the other side, meaning that was all going to need to dry again in the middle part of the patio. It was still wet there and in the strawberry corner Saturday, which means I need to tackle it again Sunday.
A while lot of tomato branches got injured and one got stepped on thrice.
My body started giving warning signs of collapse before I had time to tuck everything back in. It was a race to get everything hidden behind the front plant shelving that I came incredible close to losing. I was shaking, in horrible pain, my arms, legs, and spine all about to go on strike, covered in yet more bruises and scratches and splashed with liquid compost which was also all over my hands and arms, plus my close sweated through and stuck to me.
There was nothing for it but a bath, but my hands were shaking badly and mostly ignoring commands. I almost gave up and got in fully dressed. Luckily, it was one of the massive caftan sized shirts from Shoulder surgery, and the one that is no longer an Out and About shirt, because it unbuttons itself all the time. It had unbuttoned except for three buttons. They did eventually give in and I was able to escape.
I was drying off when I realized the phone was ringing for who the fuck knows how long. I had forgotten the pharmacy was delivering 17 meds from the Doctor's massive reup. (It is not all of them. Things like the lung meds, break through pain meds, other stuff I'd recently refilled weren't in there, but it was most of them.) I can not really hear the phone over the bath motor. Me: Shit!
They will only wait so long. So the curtains are all looped up and I'm naked and barely mobile. When I reach the office I discover a cat had knocked it off the hook. I hung it back up, but only the bedroom one was ringing, so I hobble that way and between cats and boxes, reaching the far side of the bed would be an undertaking. I was trying to work out a route when the hone stopped. Livia was wanting a pet. I'm extremely wet. If it's the pharmacy I need to dress now and speed gimp to the building front door because they have a strict policy about how long they will wait, so I'm trying to one hand pet Livia while getting fresh trousers from the window side drawer. The phone starts ringing.
It was Pharmacy, and I did just make it out to get my meds. That was the last call before she left, so it was a very, very close thing.
I went to bed early. (I do have the news prepped, but I haven't managed to post or scaffold much of it.)
I woke up with the shakes and a barely working right hip among other pain and breathing issues from being out in the allergens lifting things too heavy for me. Saturday was worse, because even though I made it out earlier, it was hotter and more humid with very little air movement.
I gave in and moved a bunch of things onto the front shelving, which is a Problem, as the shelves are too close together and I have trouble doing things like weeding and harvesting unless the containers are shallow. Also, this dense, it blocking a lot of the sun the tomatoes need. This meant I could nest some of the plant stands. I spent a stupid amount of time rearranging the same plants over and over, trying to find some way to make it work. I am likely losing most of the October part of the tomato crop and I am furious about it, because if they let me do this in November like usual I'd not be repeatedly risking and injuring plants that are right now producing and or in pollination phase.
And I'm going to be dragging them around again Sunday, so I can try to sweep again. Let's hope the dirt is dry enough. I don't expect the Boomer's can properly see the strawberry corner, and I intend to take the pictures they are demanding in a way that focuses on the two things they were more specific about. They were really angry about my garden chair placement which they found somehow offensive. It's in the way in the kitchen for the duration. It blocks the interior door, but as an upside, I can sit in it while I wait for things to cook. So my picture will show it's absence. I went super extreme in the most visible to them area, which I hope will be enough, but still, it would be best if the middle bit of the patio is dry swept instead of mud in the concrete divots, since if they get close from one angle they might see it.
I need to move stuff around again tomorrow anyway as I had an idea for tetrising in front of the strawberries so they can have light again, maybe, while I was in the bath.
I hate this. I know it's stupid, but I'm also really resenting that I can't look up from my computer and see my pinwheels spinning.
* My body did a hard pass on me getting up to work on the garden in the morning, so not only did I go to bed stupid early Saturday evening, but it was nearly 5PM before I was able to leave it. I did get out there and sweep some more, though really things had not sufficiently dried for me to really clean the center patio properly. I tried my clever idea at great personal cost because of the weits involved, and it failed, which meant I had to undo it, which was so much worse.
I did come up with something that mostly works, swept some more, yanked my pinwheels and took a picture to send the fucking HoA. They did not specify the pinwheels in the complaint, but I figure if they aren't in the picture they are less likely to arbitrarily ban them.
I strongly suspect they are angry about the asparagus and the greens that are in the seeding phase for next years crops and I will have to argue with them all next week. I'd love to be wrong, but the Boomers hate individuality and free expression and value respectability over livability and comfort.
I feel like I've been under siege more than a year with their cruelty and arbitrary demands for impossible amounts of money, refusal to communicate or take disability into account, the stealing most of my summer with the bedroom thing and now this latest bit of bullshit.
If they do pass the patio, I'll put my pinwheels back out and start slowly migrating plants back into more reasonable locations both for sunlight and me being able to access them. See how far I can push things. They usually only inspect once a month and by mid October a lot of things will be over or mostly over so the loss of sunlight won't matter as much. I can just prioritize the perennials, move more things inside.
New Millennial took good care of me tonight. In a little while I'll go bathe the ointment off and soak my poor joints and muscles.
* A friend in need:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/small-business-creating-artistic-solutions?attribution_id=sl%3Ac83a07d3-8543-4aa5-9a29-f7ca8620c897&lang=en_US&ts=1755130502* Squirrel Needs Help with Bills!
They've been running behind since last autumn because they got scammed, plus all the stuff with the Housing issues, plus the strike this Autumn. Now they had to quarantine for most of a week because of a dangerous exposure at work. They are fine, but it means they have a small paycheck right when all the things are due, including insurance and car payment to get to work, the Internet bill, etc..
If you'd like to help them out and help keep us both online:
paypal.me/Squirrelmh
* Hansel and Gretal and crows:
https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/794634525696229376/strangelittlestories-after-shoving-hansel-in?source=share*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.
The help links are at the bottom under the cut.
* "Getting your fix online: the websites that make repairing easier:"
https://www.positive.news/economics/getting-your-fix-online-the-websites-that-make-repairing-easier/* Call RFK Jr. to complain about him not funding vaccines ph# 202-690-7000
* CW: Suicide "These hotlines are still available for LGBTQ+ youth after Trump kills 988 services:"
https://www.advocate.com/news/lgbtq-youth-hotlines-still-available* "United States Disappeared Tracker:"
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/danielleharlow/viz/UnitedStatesDisappearedTracker/Map* "Introducing Rise Up: Federal Workers Legal Defense Network:"
https://aflcio.org/2025/4/16/introducing-rise-federal-workers-legal-defense-network* Here are some ways to help Immigrants and the anti-ICE Protesters:
Immigrant Defenders:
https://give.immdef.org/give/545119/#!/donation/checkoutThe Bail Project:
https://bailproject.org/National Bail Fund Network:
https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/en/nbfn-directoryAmnesty International: protect asylum-seekers:
https://donate.amnestyusa.org/page/113080/donate/1The Young Center for Immigtrant Children's Rights:
https://www.theyoungcenter.org/CHIRLA:
https://www.chirla.org/AL Otro Lado:
https://alotrolado.networkforgood.com/projects/63833-al-otro-lado-fundMid-South Immigration Advocates:
https://miamemphis.org/* Want to help Nathan Sage against Joni Ernst?
https://www.sageforsenate.com/* Want to help Dr. Annie Andrews beat Lindsey Graham?"
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/loc_annie_fr_txt_q22025?refcode=LOC_RTL_FR_2025.05.29_Lindsey-Bad-Job_B1_C1_Pros_N_Peony_RG-T1&amount=5* Want to help Mike Pruitt in Virginia?
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mike-pruitt-1?refcode=directory* Want to help Roy Cooper in North Carolina against Michael Whatley?
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/roy_cooper_email?refcode=directory* Want to help James Osyf in Virginia Beach?
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/james-osyf-1?refcode=directory* Want to help Omar Fateh in Minneapolis?
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/campaign-fund-of-omar-fateh-1?refcode=directory( More Links Underneath: )![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
china_shop) wrote2025-09-19 10:07 am
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guardian_wishlist is in its creating period (which is always much too short, argh), and I still haven't caught up with 