Overextending
Three day weekend yaaaaay!
On Tuesday I got up at the usual time, it felt great to sleep in.
After breakfast the plumber came right on time and was finished in like 20 minutes. Expensive! But the toilet isn't constantly draining now so there's that.
Then I did some yard work, it was Fertilizer Day which happens every two weeks. Everyone gets watered plus an infusion of fish/seaweed micronutrients and epsom salts. In addition, the container garden gets "Edibles" fertilizer from Miracle Gro; the citrus plants get a 6-4-6 citrus fertilizer; the banana trees get an 8-10-8 fertilizer; and the orchid gets its own special fertilizer as well. Not sure how much it helps, but the majority of plants seem happy so that says something.
While I was doing that I brought the caterpillars out in the sun with me.
They were very distracting and cute. I also couldn't help but be worried, as it's unclear whether my darker caterpillars are infected with some sort of virus. There's a particular disease called Black Death that this coloration might signify...specifically, the "dirty"-looking white stripes. For all my worrying, though, there's nothing I can do for them except euthanize them if necessary. It's unlikely that anything I did or didn't do caused them to get the disease, it just happens sometimes. This is going to suck, though, if they die without ever getting to be butterflies.
After I finished up in the garden Jameson came out to tell me his friend had just gone to a vaccination site in Winter Garden, and had experienced zero wait. The site was open until 6pm, and here it was about noon. I was shocked. I had kind of assumed, with Florida having just opened vaccination to adults 18+ literally yesterday, that there would be huge lines and booked appointments everywhere. Well OK! Let me eat lunch and head over there!
I'm apprehensive about shots, sometimes I have a fight-or-flight reaction that involves feeling faint and/or actually fainting, but I still always get my shots and blood draws because I know even though it's scary and feels awful, nothing bad is ACTUALLY happening, it's just my body's reaction. I can't help what my body does, but the part of me that is logical can still operate regardless of instinctive hang-ups. So I ate lunch, screwed up my courage, and drove 30 minutes to the site, which turned out to be a walk-in clinic.
I was amazed that there really was no line. A woman standing next to a table full of clipboards asked if I was there for a vaccine, yes ma'am, ok here's some paperwork, go to that window to show your documentation. I handed over my ID and insurance card and filled out the paperwork while she got me in the system. We finished at about the same time, and I returned to the table to give my paperwork, then was led to a hallway and told to wait. But right as I started to sit down a gentleman stepped into the hall and said, we can take you in right now if you like, and I DID like, so in we went.
I was shown to a small table with a smiling nurse, who asked me a few questions about allergic reactions and confirmed that this was my first covid shot, etc. She handed me my vaccination card, explained that it was the Moderna shot and I'd be coming back in May for the second shot, asked which arm, and boom, that was it.
I think from the moment I stepped inside to the administration of the shot wasn't even five minutes.
She handed me a little timer thingee and told me to hang out for 15, so I did. Of course I took pictures like an idiot, isn't that the thing?
Then I drove home. Yay! I finally got the covid vaccine!!
I kind of was in shock. I wasn't expecting to get it until June or later. Just wow.
My next vaccination date is on a Tuesday as well, maybe I'll be able to use my covid sick leave for it. I hope so. I'd love another three day weekend boiiiiii
After that I made a butterfly puddler, something I've been wanting to do but it took me a little while to gather the materials. Flat rock, little rocks, sand, drip tray. A little epsom salt in the water. Boom.
Pretty, right? This will be pretty impractical once monsoon season starts, but right now it's hot and unseasonably dry so It'll be a good experiment. I want to see of course if butterflies will use it, but I also intentionally left a puddle to see how quickly it evaporates (ironically there aren't supposed to be puddles in a puddler). Having an idea of how fast it evaporates on hot dry days will be helpful with refilling it in a timely manner.
Then I went inside and we ordered pizza, I made wings and practiced my steno while Jameson played video games with a friend. My arm felt pretty sore, but that's a small price to pay. I mean come on, our parents have permanent scars from some of their vaccinations.
Wednesday, my arm felt sore. I thought nothing of it and went about my day, but around the middle of the day felt unusually tired and achy, nothing debilitating, just uncomfortable. From what I've read, your body starts attacking the covid "spikes" at the injection site, and this is why you have the symptoms similar to when you get sick. I'm a little surprised to be feeling symptoms enough to be noticeable with just the first shot, but maybe that shouldn't be surprising. It's also been a hell of a stressful week, so I'm sure that doesn't help.
I made myself some fancy coffee in the siphon, had breakfast, checked on my caterpillars.
I brought the plants out into the sunlight so the 'pillars could enjoy the warmth while I cleaned their enclosure, and was pleasantly surprised at how active and ravenous they were. Nobody is getting skinnier, or puking, or having loose poops, so I think for now they are actually OK, darkish coloring aside.
Also, the rate at which they devour their plant is quite impressive. (there are four videos, use the arrows to scroll)
https://instagram.com/p/CNXu8_js-yV
With the caterpillars happy and not looking very diseased, I felt cheered and went inside to start this week's Bread Baking for Beginners loaf: wheat batard. "Batard" is just a different shape, kind of a football. And it's not nearly whole wheat, just a fraction of the flour is wheat, but I guess the goal is to get you used to working with whole grain flours. I got the dough started and while it was resting, ran to the grocery for dinner ingredients. Absolutely HAD to get creamsicles for some reason, maybe that's a side effect of the vaccine? ;)
Back home I kind of created a clusterf*ck of poor time management. I had planned ot make dinner, like I always do on Wednesdays, but now my steno class is on Wednesday at 5:30pm...so you can see how that creates a problem. Plus I had already started the bread and couldn't stop that process. I started making dinner too late, I messed up the mac and cheese and it came out all grainy, I had to email my teacher to say I'd be late to class, ate scalding hot chicken right out of the air fryer, then ran to class shouting directions at Jameson for the bread because it would be done in 15 minutes. He popped in to my class with the bread and it looked...wrong. Super pale. I continued with class, all the while thinking wtf happened to my bread...then it hit me. I had forgotten to change the oven temp after baking the mac and cheese. It was set to 375F. The bread was supposed to cook at 475.
ARRRRGH.
Well, lesson learned. I took on too much. Ya can't do that, or things will suffer.
Caterpillars, or loaves of bread. Or you.
I finished class. I threw out the bread, and thanked Jameson for his help. I cleaned up the kitchen. I fixed myself a drink.
I uploaded more pictures of caterpillars. Look how cute.
Thursday, well, Thursday night,
I woke up sweating, shaking, thinking I was having a panic attack.
But my guts were twisting and painful, and I felt nauseous.
It was a long awful night of fever dreams. In the morning I dragged myself to the bathroom to check my temperature: 99.6.
Not a "fever", but that's quite high for me, I run cold at 97.1.
I had aches, nausea, cramping guts, exhaustion. No idea if this is a reaction to the vaccine, or maybe getting the vaccine popped the balloon that was containing all of the stress and overwork and vitriol of the past week, and now it's all exploded out in the form of feeling absolutely awful. I wouldn't put it past stress and overwork to cause a fever and cramping guts. Or the vaccine, what do I know.
Scrapped my plans for breadmaking and macaron experiments, and just clung to the day barely functioning.
Around 4pm I called work to let them know I may not be in tomorrow if this doesn't improve (this after taking my temperature and getting 100.2). We get a pretty big bonus for perfect attendance after six months, and this would ruin my streak, but I'm going to be no use to anyone doubled over with abdominal cramps, running to the bathroom at random, and generally looking like someone you don't want to interact with.
Jameson was very sweet all day and looked out for me. I ate what I could, and tried to rest.
Now I'm going to lie down at 7:30pm. If this is a side effect of the vaccine maybe it'll be reduced by tomorrow. If it's not, guess I'll have another day off from work. Yay? Ugh.
I just want to remind everyone that EVERY TIME I take a three-day weekend, something like this happens to ruin it. Literally every single time.
On Tuesday I got up at the usual time, it felt great to sleep in.
After breakfast the plumber came right on time and was finished in like 20 minutes. Expensive! But the toilet isn't constantly draining now so there's that.
Then I did some yard work, it was Fertilizer Day which happens every two weeks. Everyone gets watered plus an infusion of fish/seaweed micronutrients and epsom salts. In addition, the container garden gets "Edibles" fertilizer from Miracle Gro; the citrus plants get a 6-4-6 citrus fertilizer; the banana trees get an 8-10-8 fertilizer; and the orchid gets its own special fertilizer as well. Not sure how much it helps, but the majority of plants seem happy so that says something.
While I was doing that I brought the caterpillars out in the sun with me.
They were very distracting and cute. I also couldn't help but be worried, as it's unclear whether my darker caterpillars are infected with some sort of virus. There's a particular disease called Black Death that this coloration might signify...specifically, the "dirty"-looking white stripes. For all my worrying, though, there's nothing I can do for them except euthanize them if necessary. It's unlikely that anything I did or didn't do caused them to get the disease, it just happens sometimes. This is going to suck, though, if they die without ever getting to be butterflies.
After I finished up in the garden Jameson came out to tell me his friend had just gone to a vaccination site in Winter Garden, and had experienced zero wait. The site was open until 6pm, and here it was about noon. I was shocked. I had kind of assumed, with Florida having just opened vaccination to adults 18+ literally yesterday, that there would be huge lines and booked appointments everywhere. Well OK! Let me eat lunch and head over there!
I'm apprehensive about shots, sometimes I have a fight-or-flight reaction that involves feeling faint and/or actually fainting, but I still always get my shots and blood draws because I know even though it's scary and feels awful, nothing bad is ACTUALLY happening, it's just my body's reaction. I can't help what my body does, but the part of me that is logical can still operate regardless of instinctive hang-ups. So I ate lunch, screwed up my courage, and drove 30 minutes to the site, which turned out to be a walk-in clinic.
I was amazed that there really was no line. A woman standing next to a table full of clipboards asked if I was there for a vaccine, yes ma'am, ok here's some paperwork, go to that window to show your documentation. I handed over my ID and insurance card and filled out the paperwork while she got me in the system. We finished at about the same time, and I returned to the table to give my paperwork, then was led to a hallway and told to wait. But right as I started to sit down a gentleman stepped into the hall and said, we can take you in right now if you like, and I DID like, so in we went.
I was shown to a small table with a smiling nurse, who asked me a few questions about allergic reactions and confirmed that this was my first covid shot, etc. She handed me my vaccination card, explained that it was the Moderna shot and I'd be coming back in May for the second shot, asked which arm, and boom, that was it.
I think from the moment I stepped inside to the administration of the shot wasn't even five minutes.
She handed me a little timer thingee and told me to hang out for 15, so I did. Of course I took pictures like an idiot, isn't that the thing?
Then I drove home. Yay! I finally got the covid vaccine!!
I kind of was in shock. I wasn't expecting to get it until June or later. Just wow.
My next vaccination date is on a Tuesday as well, maybe I'll be able to use my covid sick leave for it. I hope so. I'd love another three day weekend boiiiiii
After that I made a butterfly puddler, something I've been wanting to do but it took me a little while to gather the materials. Flat rock, little rocks, sand, drip tray. A little epsom salt in the water. Boom.
Pretty, right? This will be pretty impractical once monsoon season starts, but right now it's hot and unseasonably dry so It'll be a good experiment. I want to see of course if butterflies will use it, but I also intentionally left a puddle to see how quickly it evaporates (ironically there aren't supposed to be puddles in a puddler). Having an idea of how fast it evaporates on hot dry days will be helpful with refilling it in a timely manner.
Then I went inside and we ordered pizza, I made wings and practiced my steno while Jameson played video games with a friend. My arm felt pretty sore, but that's a small price to pay. I mean come on, our parents have permanent scars from some of their vaccinations.
Wednesday, my arm felt sore. I thought nothing of it and went about my day, but around the middle of the day felt unusually tired and achy, nothing debilitating, just uncomfortable. From what I've read, your body starts attacking the covid "spikes" at the injection site, and this is why you have the symptoms similar to when you get sick. I'm a little surprised to be feeling symptoms enough to be noticeable with just the first shot, but maybe that shouldn't be surprising. It's also been a hell of a stressful week, so I'm sure that doesn't help.
I made myself some fancy coffee in the siphon, had breakfast, checked on my caterpillars.
I brought the plants out into the sunlight so the 'pillars could enjoy the warmth while I cleaned their enclosure, and was pleasantly surprised at how active and ravenous they were. Nobody is getting skinnier, or puking, or having loose poops, so I think for now they are actually OK, darkish coloring aside.
Also, the rate at which they devour their plant is quite impressive. (there are four videos, use the arrows to scroll)
https://instagram.com/p/CNXu8_js-yV
With the caterpillars happy and not looking very diseased, I felt cheered and went inside to start this week's Bread Baking for Beginners loaf: wheat batard. "Batard" is just a different shape, kind of a football. And it's not nearly whole wheat, just a fraction of the flour is wheat, but I guess the goal is to get you used to working with whole grain flours. I got the dough started and while it was resting, ran to the grocery for dinner ingredients. Absolutely HAD to get creamsicles for some reason, maybe that's a side effect of the vaccine? ;)
Back home I kind of created a clusterf*ck of poor time management. I had planned ot make dinner, like I always do on Wednesdays, but now my steno class is on Wednesday at 5:30pm...so you can see how that creates a problem. Plus I had already started the bread and couldn't stop that process. I started making dinner too late, I messed up the mac and cheese and it came out all grainy, I had to email my teacher to say I'd be late to class, ate scalding hot chicken right out of the air fryer, then ran to class shouting directions at Jameson for the bread because it would be done in 15 minutes. He popped in to my class with the bread and it looked...wrong. Super pale. I continued with class, all the while thinking wtf happened to my bread...then it hit me. I had forgotten to change the oven temp after baking the mac and cheese. It was set to 375F. The bread was supposed to cook at 475.
ARRRRGH.
Well, lesson learned. I took on too much. Ya can't do that, or things will suffer.
Caterpillars, or loaves of bread. Or you.
I finished class. I threw out the bread, and thanked Jameson for his help. I cleaned up the kitchen. I fixed myself a drink.
I uploaded more pictures of caterpillars. Look how cute.
Thursday, well, Thursday night,
I woke up sweating, shaking, thinking I was having a panic attack.
But my guts were twisting and painful, and I felt nauseous.
It was a long awful night of fever dreams. In the morning I dragged myself to the bathroom to check my temperature: 99.6.
Not a "fever", but that's quite high for me, I run cold at 97.1.
I had aches, nausea, cramping guts, exhaustion. No idea if this is a reaction to the vaccine, or maybe getting the vaccine popped the balloon that was containing all of the stress and overwork and vitriol of the past week, and now it's all exploded out in the form of feeling absolutely awful. I wouldn't put it past stress and overwork to cause a fever and cramping guts. Or the vaccine, what do I know.
Scrapped my plans for breadmaking and macaron experiments, and just clung to the day barely functioning.
Around 4pm I called work to let them know I may not be in tomorrow if this doesn't improve (this after taking my temperature and getting 100.2). We get a pretty big bonus for perfect attendance after six months, and this would ruin my streak, but I'm going to be no use to anyone doubled over with abdominal cramps, running to the bathroom at random, and generally looking like someone you don't want to interact with.
Jameson was very sweet all day and looked out for me. I ate what I could, and tried to rest.
Now I'm going to lie down at 7:30pm. If this is a side effect of the vaccine maybe it'll be reduced by tomorrow. If it's not, guess I'll have another day off from work. Yay? Ugh.
I just want to remind everyone that EVERY TIME I take a three-day weekend, something like this happens to ruin it. Literally every single time.