Res ipsa loquitur

I start my new job tomorrow! My brain is a hive of bees.

I've been out of work since I was laid off in July 2024. It would have been really inconvenient to be working for a lot of that time, as I was helping my brother see our mother through her decline and death from dementia and also having some serious health issues of my own. (And Mom left me some money, which allowed me to say "I'm too stressed to job-hunt" and then not job-hunt, a rare luxury that I'm very grateful for.)

But I have to admit I've also been bored and restless and lonely. It will be nice to have co-workers, and tasks, and a paycheck again.

On the other hand, it's been thirteen months since I consistently had to be any place in particular in the morning. And the cat is going to be sad.

Last time I saw my hairstylist, she had just bought four chicks and was embarking on a lifestyle of backyard chicken-keeping. She told me all their names. It was sweet.

Turns out chick-sexing is an imperfect art. Over the intervening month, she started to hear one of the birds crowing, but it took a while to figure out which one. It was Dottie.

My stylist called everybody she knew out in the county until she found someone who was both interested in rooster and zoned for rooster. When she was carrying Dottie out to the car to take him to his new home, he crowed a goodbye at the coop as they passed.

Out of the coop they heard some farewell cackling. And more crowing.

Anybody want to beta 400 words of light-as-air Sinners genfic?

Nearly a year ago I posted about having a dream that Fraser was removing a full face of theatrical makeup from RayK. Today that finally finds its way into a story. Many thanks to fox for beta.

Think But This And All Is Mended (2045 words) by Resonant
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: due South
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Characters: Ray Kowalski, Benton Fraser
Additional Tags: Romance, First Time, Makeup removal
Summary:

The makeup remover from Fraser’s kit smelled unscented. Which was not the same as not having any smell, but at least there wasn’t any pregnant mucus this time. Where Fraser was involved, you had to be thankful for small blessings, smellwise.

If you sometimes have blood in your urine, even just a bit, even just now and then, and you test negative for a urinary tract infection, ask your doctor if you need to see a urologist. If it happens twice (especially if you smoke), TELL your doctor you need to see a urologist.

I've just had my follow-up appointment from having a small cancerous growth removed from my bladder. I'm fine! I feel fine! My prognosis is fine! But I'm glad we caught it early and wish I had gone to a specialist even earlier.

The doctor compared this procedure to removing a malignant mole from your arm or a polyp they find during a colonoscopy, so as procedures go this was a pretty simple one.

I now have to have a cytoscopy to watch for regrowth, and after four years the frequency will go down but I'll have to have them annually for the rest of my life, just another annual thing like a Pap or a mammogram.

I would have pursued more healthcare if I hadn't been scared. So if you're scared the way I was, I'll put some details below the cut; if you're squeamish, maybe don't click that arrow.


( cut for gross stuff )

Poll is set to be viewable by all, so make privacy choices accordingly.



Me myself, I'm in the U.S. I'm not from Iowa but I'm in Iowa.

I think I've mentioned before that at the start of the year I like to observe Clean The Insides Of Things January. This year I have to share my joy: I've actually gotten to all the insides* of all the things** in the entire apartment. I don't think I've ever managed to do that in one year before; usually I get to a couple of rooms one year and a couple of rooms the next. Last year I was recovering from surgery and didn't get anything cleaned.

Dare I hope I'll actually be able to do Fixit February too?

* except for the insides of things that still belong to the kidlet.

** except for the chest freezer, which will have to wait until (1) it's not 6 days until garbage pickup comes and (2) it's not freaking 51 degrees outside.

As if to reward my hard work, last night I dreamed Callum Keith Rennie asked me to paint his nails black. His cuticles were a disgrace, but that's very punk rock of him.

An acquaintance just showed up on LinkedIn with a new job: Wrongful Convictions Unit of the State Public Defender.

I wish I could wave a wand and turn a lot of cop shows into Wrongful Convictions Unit shows.

This is the first time I've ever done a job hunt with what you'd call in-demand skills. It's a trip.

I mean, I don't have a fabulously lucrative new job yet, so maybe this is speaking too soon. But I just got on a screening call, asked the recruiter to repeat herself because I was having difficulty with her accent, and this resulted in me accidentally negotiating the pay upwards.

If you're looking for a career change, and you can write and have good executive function skills, I encourage you to check out proposal management. It's in demand, can be done remotely, and pays a lot better than admin or journalism.

If you don't have relevant experience, the APMP certification seems to be meaningful.

[Podfic] Reel (40 words) by SEF_podfic
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: due South
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Characters: Benton Fraser, Ray Kowalski
Additional Tags: Romance, Dancing, Podfic, Audio Format: Streaming, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3
Summary:

Real life is confusing, but a dancer always knows where he's supposed to be. [podfic version]