A Phenomenon Potpourri

My 44th came and went without much fanfare. I sorta wanted to post a “Lordy Lordy, look who’s turning 4040!” meme from Aqua Teen Hunger Force though, because of course I do!

Besides decade-old cartoons, I took the week off and just played Final Fantasy 14 for the whole time. I started it about a week earlier than that and am actually enjoying it quite a bit. I never thought I’d say that about a MMORPG, but hey, they clearly know what they’re doing. My only real problem is that while playing it on Linux works, I can’t use my mouse, as single-clicking seems to be transformed magically into a grab instead, so I have to use a controller. Not ideal, but it’ll do.

Mom’s birthday was also recent, and unfortunately her remaining cat from a brother / sister litter died literally that day. I know how much that hurts after losing Luna, so it’s like a double slap in the face to have that happen on what’s supposed to be a day for your enjoyment in some respect. After a lot of Facebook well-wishes, it looks like she’s going to be acquiring a couple kittens, and I’d be right there with her in the same situation if I didn’t still have three others of my own.

A few months ago, my right big toenail stopped growing mysteriously. I even let the nails on all the other toes keep growing as a point of comparison. It also hurt like I’d smashed it in something, but it didn’t turn black as you’d expect in that situation. In fact, it only hurt at the bottom of the nail bed itself.

I went to a podiatrist and he said the nail probably detached somehow and there was likely a new one growing under it, which was the cause of the pain. He said to soak it once a day in epsom salts and come back if it looked infected or inflamed. I did that a few weeks later and he basically said he’d have to take the nail off to see what’s actually going on.

So he numbed my toe and took the nail out and declared that there was no new nail beneath it. So why did it stop growing? Why the pain? He suggested the existing nail may have been blocking the matrix from advancing new growth, but obviously didn’t want to speculate. He gave me antibiotics as that area can get infected in situations like this, and it’s best to be safe. I have several instructions on cleaning it until it heals, and have no idea whether I’ll have a toenail after it heals.

I finally leveraged my new Illinois FOID card and acquired an AR-15, specifically a Ruger AR556 MPR. I plan to spend some quality time with the instruction manual and break it down a couple times to orient myself with everything. Then I need to schedule some kind of class just to have my bases covered. I don’t think I ever imagined myself owning a rifle like this, but I like to have my bases covered. Even if society doesn’t collapse due to the economic fallout of Covid, hey, I can always go plinking. Now I just need more ammo than the paltry 100 rounds I picked up for emergencies.

We also need to call an arborist soon. There are two trees in our yard that have been dropping branches like crazy, and about half of the upper boughs seem to be completely bereft of leaves. It’s not quite fall yet, and they’ve been like that for months. Lots of trees in the neighborhood seem to have the same problem, and our neighbor is actually having one of his cut down after having it evaluated. It would really suck to lose two trees, but we’ll see what they say about it.

I really need to update more often. I don’t know when my toe actually started hurting, or when I started playing Final Fantasy 14, etc., and I like having timelines in case I need them. All the more reason to be more proactive, I guess.

Until Tomorrow.