Slightly Off Center

I caught a lovely virus on Saturday when I stepped out to buy wood shavings and Purina Lambena Chow (lamb feed) for the llama. She doesn't ask for it by name (probably have to be Gen X to remember that advert) but boy howdy is she keen when I lug in a new bag. I gotta be quick when opening it or she'll be munching nose-deep straight out of the bag while I'm trying to pour it into the hamper. So Saturday was my only foray out into the wild world of transmittable diseases since January 6 when a retired friend from work arrived unannounced, bearing gifts of jam and an old bag of cocoa. He left with a copy of my calendar that had been waiting for him and did not donate any viruses.



So, Sunday evening the nausea and cramps started. Nasty cramps that wouldn't fade until three in the morning. Monday morning I felt better. I wondered if the big helping of instant stone-milled oats I'd eaten was stuck somewhere in the plumbing or if I had a kidney stone. I've never had a kidney stone. But I do have an imagination. Monday I had a big mug of mint tea. So far so good. I ate the last chocolate cookie. No problemo. Chicken noodle soup? That went down fine as well. Cramps must be over! So I had a pan of fish, egg, broccoli and cheese. The cumin was a mistake. Blegh. Then, several hours later, cramps! Going out to feed the llama gave me a brief respite, but I was back to writhing in and out of bed. Next day, the cramps were on hiatus again. Had a mint tea. Tried a little ice cream. Maybe the fish and cheese was too much, so this time I cooked just two eggs around midday. By six pm, the sharp pain was back, as nasty as ever. I took two Ibuprofen tablets. That helped for a while. Two AM this morning, another two Ibuprofen tablets. Sunrise and I still had the cramps. But llama has to eat, so I shambled out. The llama had made a mess in one spot in her wood shavings bed so I pulled the shovel over and set about removing it before one mess invited many more messes. As I shoveled, angels fluttered down from on high and blessed my inflamed gut. The cramps left.

I've had an Earl Grey (hot). No cramps but feeling a bit woozy. To get a few calories in and stop reading the same paragraphs three times, I put the pot roast on the warming pad and when it was warm, ate most of the broth like it was soup. I dare not eat the pot roast... yet.



When I finally kick out this virus I'm going to get a new portable infrared heater. The one I've had for over a decade just suddenly died. Went from working like new to not working. It's not good at defrosting the car (there's no fan) but it has outlasted two or three heated coil space heaters. The heated coil gets weaker and weaker until it doesn't heat anymore. Not the infrared heater. So I'm getting a new one. It better not be Wi-Fi connected.



I've shaked 'n' baked this ComfyUI autopastiche gizmo over fourteen thousand times and counting. I've kept less than 800 results. Following the update I made last month plus the two 6 GB checkpoints I added to my stable, ComfyUI has been better at delivering the EZ Make pastiche (just add AI!). Of note, it can now crank out ponies swimming underwater. Barely. There is no real skill involved in cooking with free-falling robots. I use words I hope it can match with a pattern and whatever it cooks up looks about the same, a little less so if I request "dancing", "stretching" or "view from below". The subject is still nearly always facing the camera unless a rear-view is specified.



So, sure I can get the yellow pegasus clearly swimming underwater with her mouth closed and her main drifting, and even add in some fish; but have her catch fish? Nope. Or have a pegasus hovering over another pony on the ground? Nope. One horse flying and the other standing, in the same picture: no can do. But I'm having hours of fun trying and the "realistic" morph looks about right.



Meanwhile, the radio is on most of the time. As I cobbled together recipes for the EZ Make, yet another attempt at a star mare living constellation pony, Jonathan Haidt was on CBC Radio's Ideas program, stating that people born since the late mid 1990's have had their ability to read books and to concentrate destroyed by smart phones, along with their self confidence and 20/20 vision. Email and LISTSERV's messed up my concentration in the 1990's. But my ability to read non-stop returned when I got hold of the Harry Potter books. So what of the future? Jonathan Haidt seemed to suggest that the future is heading toward drugs, gambling and prostitution. Quick fixes for the impatient that solve nothing.

I just replaced my third rural mailbox. I'd repainted it twice but the rust just ate through the thin metal until there was a great big hole in the side. So I bought another, plastic this time. I don't know how the maker expected me to fix this to a post. It comes with four long screws and there are four screw holes leading to a roughly 7.5" x 15" void under the box. I had a small 9" x 18" plywood plank hanging around so I traced the box over it. I found a spot to clamp the plank and plugged in my Canadian Tire Mastercraft rotary saw. I didn't start. After checking to be sure that I had power in the outlet, and shaking the saw a bit, it got unjammed and worked fine. I trimmed the plank along the lines I'd traced. Then I went back and trimmed it again. Second trim was a charm, it fit very snugly. So I used the paint leftover from futilely painting the rusted mailbox and painted the plank. It was an even more snug fit when I went to put it back into the void in the base of the mailbox. It's never coming out: the paint wasn't quite dry yet. Many screws and angle bracket braces later, I have a new mailbox. Meanwhile I lost the street address numbers I bought to stick on it. I slapped an envelope label sticker but I suspect that's going to fall off with the rain and flying slush. It has already started to peel.



The sun is setting and my cramps and nausea are rising from the grave.