What made me happy today?

[edamame]

I saw some extended family today. One of my relatives is expecting which made me so happy for her. I also changed my kitchen lightbulb yesterday. I ended up not needing a ladder due to some ingenuity and even though the accomplishment was small, it made me happy.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Congratulations to your relative, edamame!

Well done on not needing a ladder. Did you use a chair instead?

 

[edamame]

Congratulations to your relative, edamame!

Well done on not needing a ladder. Did you use a chair instead?

Chair and alternately kitchen counter.

 

[GrahamLewis]

Went for a morning walk in the nature conservancy.. Moderately heavy snow, cloudy, 25 degrees (F), mild wind. Great to be out in it all. Great to have the opportunity and ability. Good too to get home to warm coffee, and to win at Scrabble. Little things worth having.

 

[GrahamLewis]

The advent of the first winter storm always brings with it the same routine. Making sure the snowblower is ready (I got a new toy this year, an EGO battery-powered one, so that disproportionally excites me) and asking, "Where did I put my super-warm gloves and my stocking cap that includes a facemask?" I remember putting them somewhere so I would be able to easily find them, but the place itself escapes my memory. Not in the familiar places. Then I remember, and pull open a drawer from an old cabinet in the garage, and there, presto, is all my cold-weather gear, including things I hadn't yet remembered to look for.

Makes me happy.

The snowblower worked wonderfully, quieter than a vacuum cleaner, and about as powerful as the old gas one, but easier to use. We got about a foot of snow, so I cleared things twice -- with once more planned once the sun comes up; and no fear about waking up any slacker neighbors who choose to sleep in on a Sunday morning. Though I've always enjoyed laying (or lying?) in bed listening to someone else laboring -- unless it's one of those high-powered gas-powered blowers.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Snow here, too. We've had the first and second woodfire of the year, which makes me happy.

 

[Dogberry's Watch]

Clean bedsheets. Something about doing the flying squirrel to get the fitted sheet on makes me feel like a kid.

 

[Donnie]

Got up this morning worked the NYTimes Strands game. Got the spanagram right away, then finish the rest of the puzzle in less than 5mins.
Fed the dogs cleaned up. Went to the dentist, I was the first appointment of the day , for a cleaning. Went back home walked Lucy and Bones. Hope you all have a great day.

 

[Naomasa298]

26 hours without a cigarette so far.

This also belongs in the unhappy thread.

 

[Homer Potvin]

26 hours without a cigarette so far.

This also belongs in the unhappy thread.

Good for you! I've got my alarm set on 90 minutes per and am ready to eat the drywall. I'm going on Buproprion next week, which allegedly breaks the urge. I've got my doctor, my shrink, my wife, and the homeless screamer outside my office window on the case.

ETA: Christ, just writing that makes me want to light up.... 36 minutes to go.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

26 hours without a cigarette so far.

This also belongs in the unhappy thread.

Fair play!

 

[Set2Stun]

I have the occasional lucid dream where I go buy a pack of cigarettes from a corner store, take a deep sniff after opening the fresh pack, and then lighting one up. Brain is still playing tricks on me sometimes, it's wild.

 

[Also]

26 hours without a cigarette so far.

This also belongs in the unhappy thread.

If you drink anything with caffeine, theophylline, or theobromine, you should cut your consumption in half the very day you quit smoking. Nicotine is an inducer of CYP1A2, which neutralizes xanthines like the above-mentioned in the liver. Quitting nicotine has an effect equivalent to doubling your intake of coffee or other xanthine-based stimulants overnight.

The last of many times I quit smoking was with this insight, and I was amazed at how much easier it was. That was 40 years ago. (But the principle has not changed.)

 

[Naomasa298]

If you drink anything with caffeine, theophylline, or theobromine, you should cut your consumption in half the very day you quit smoking. Nicotine is an inducer of CYP1A2, which neutralizes xanthines like the above-mentioned in the liver. Quitting nicotine has an effect equivalent to doubling your intake of coffee or other xanthine-based stimulants overnight.

The last of many times I quit smoking was with this insight, and I was amazed at how much easier it was. That was 40 years ago. (But the principle has not changed.)

I mainly drink decaff, when I drink coffee at all so hopefully, that shouldn't be a problem.

Once I've given up tobacco successfully, I guess it's the cocaine next.

 

[Amontillado]

I found a massively cheaper prescription drug policy, which was OK, I guess. I don't have prescriptions. It's hard to feel happy about insurance.

One must be prepared, though.

So, in 2024, $9.80 a month for a prescription plan. In 2025, missed the memo, ended up on the hook for a nearly 500% increase at about $45 per month.

This year, Aetna was on my radar. The fine print said it would be about a Happy Meal less than $100 a month. Call it a 1,000% increase from 2024.

I was very offended. I never order Happy Meals. What was Aetna thinking?

Then I found something that made me happy, even though I recognize a lot of people got hurt.

In May, the federal government filed False Claims Act charges against Aetna and some other insurance nimrods. According to the DOJ, Aetna got insurance brokers, ethically bound to be neutral, to push customers onto Aetna policies in return for millions in unlawful kickbacks.

I wrote to Aetna and said I was materially strengthening their company by cancelling. Money in Aetna's hands, considering some of their life decisions, can't be a safe thing. By making an effort to cleanse them of nasty old cash, I was making them morally stronger.

If it was worth millions to get brokers to cheat and lie, my quintessentially noble efforts would surely be worth a few thousand.

I mailed the letter just this afternoon. I can't help myself. I've already checked my mailbox three times. I'm going to be rich just as soon as Aetna sends my kickbacks!

 

[JT Woody]

Day 12 and My illness finally broke!
No more coughing so bad it hurts, sleepless nights as my sinus drains into my ears, and general misery.

I mean, im still spitting out gunk, but im no longer miserable!

(-sigh- now i have to shovel my driveway.... but thats a rant for the Unhappy thread)

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Day 12 and My illness finally broke!

This makes me happy, too. Poor girlie, you have really had a siege of it!

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Day 12 and My illness finally broke!

So glad to hear your antibodies broke through. Here's hoping the rest of it disappears soon. Fingers crossed

 

[Iain Aschendale]

26 hours without a cigarette so far.

This also belongs in the unhappy thread.

Good for you! I've got my alarm set on 90 minutes per and am ready to eat the drywall. I'm going on Buproprion next week, which allegedly breaks the urge. I've got my doctor, my shrink, my wife, and the homeless screamer outside my office window on the case.

ETA: Christ, just writing that makes me want to light up.... 36 minutes to go.

I was a pack a day Marlboro reds guy, interspersed with cloves on the weekends. When I quit I bought a box of toothpicks. Carried them in the same pocket I'd kept my smokes in. The hand motion was the same, reach to the same place, pull out the box, grab a stick and put it in my mouth. I even caught myself tapping the "ash" off a toothpick a couple of times.

But it helped.

 

[Iain Aschendale]

If we still had blogs, this would be a short blog post but here we are.

ALL IS NOT WRONG IN THE WORLD TODAY

So my school has a long row of maybe 50 flagpoles lining the quad-ish thing out front. National flags, arrayed in, I believe, no particular order (although Israel has been at the head of the group since at least the Oct 7th attacks. Dunno). But today the security guard was putting up the flags, as usual, without any special ceremony. He's got a box of flags, gets the top one out, clips it to the line, and uses a drill to operate the raising mechanism, then moves on to the next pole and the next flag.

But I saw that one of the flags, maybe France (there was red, white, and blue, but zero wind so I couldn't see detail) was at half mast.

I didn't think our school had any habit of doing that, and I'd glanced at the headlines on the way in and seen no particularly awful disasters in the world. so I asked the security guard "Which flag is that? Why is it at half mast?"

"I don't know, but the pulley is stuck. I'll call maintenance after I get the rest up."