white's notebook

—> open the cover.

today governor dewine hosted one of the covid conferences he does. i always watch if know about it – usually shows up in my twitter trending feed since i'm tagged as living in ohio.

unfortunately, covid is as bad in ohio as it ever has been.

https://twitter.com/GovMikeDeWine/status/1333504724461629440/photo/1

it's scary. remember when we all gasped when we heard the new york hospitals had to rent freezer trucks to store dead bodies because their mortuary was full? i never thought that could happen here, but that's now the reality.

while i've always been kinda irked that dewine is one of those gross anti-reproductive rights republicans (particularly because of the 6-week abortion law he passed) i'd thought he'd done okay to inform people about the current health crisis. he regularly insists “wear masks.” which is more than you can say about the sitting president.

but you know what he won't do? shut the state down or issue travel bans. he knows how infection works, surely, because he cites experts constantly? but a “no.” to shutting down schools and a “don't.” in regards to traveling? wouldn't count on it.

the reason, he says, he won't shut down the state is because of the rise in domestic and substance abuse as a result of staying indoors. these are serious issues. i recall voting yes just a month ago to pass a levy for funds to combat said rise.

naturally, because of his indecision and general pussy-footing about the health and safety of ohioans the state representatives have issued 12 articles of impeachment.

reads why he's gonna be impeached

oh. oh!

HOLY SHIT, HOLD UP. i... i just read what the republican party is trying to impeach him for. it's a fuckin' doozy.

  • abuse of executive power
  • meddling with the federal executive election
  • closings, curfews, and mandatory mask orders for businesses

below is a quote from the local news.

https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/ohio/republicans-file-articles-of-impeachment-against-gov-dewine/530-7e9c7c77-1e9b-48de-9129-0f7df0d8c6f0

Becker also claimed Ohioans find the mask mandate offensive and insulting while saying there is evidence masks can be a health hazard.

“Rather than hearing the cries of Ohioans, Gov. DeWine continues to stifle those cries by finding more inventive ways to use masks to muffle the voices of the people. He continues to have callous disregard for the fact that his isolation policies have led to a shockingly high number of suicides, alarming rates of drug abuse, persistently high unemployment, and the forced abandonment of the elderly by their loved ones,”

and this was his response —

“I'd like for them to go in and talk to some nurses, who are frontline nurses, who are dealing with people who are dying. I'd like for them to go talk to some family members – maybe a family that didn't believe that this could happen. Now at Christmas, there will be one less person at their table or more. So, at some point this foolishness has got to stop,”

i barely have words after reading this. i'm shocked. my head hurts from trying to twist their words into making sense. i cannot fathom being offended or insulted by a mask order, right now, with 63,000,000+ cases worldwide, 1,470,000+ of those people DEAD in current year. i simply cannot.

you know what i can fathom? i went back into my pocket archive and dug up an article dated 01/28/2020 – about how there's a coronavirus outbreak in china with an astounding 4,500+ cases and 100+ deaths, which was scary, because the two coronaviruses anybody remembers, MERS and SARS, had 10,500+ cases together.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/opinion/coronavirus-china.html

wear your mask. it's the least you can do; in fact, it's the bare minimum. fuck.

#cnv3 #november2020 #covid #covid19 #ohio #governordewine

still digging through my old freewrites. i've learned my lesson though: the goal is not to completely finish reading through a stack but to dedicate a set amount of time to find material and to work on said material as soon as it's found. it'll make sure an amount of actual writing (as opposed to writing about writing) gets done before you decide to call it quits for the night. not everything from the slush pile of your soul is worth keeping. you freewrite often and en mass.

#cnv3 #freewrite #notebookscrape #november2020 #waw

dayjob has kept me busy the last half of the day. getting flooded with calls, mostly from patients returning refill reminders.

more of them are getting pissy with [pharmacy] because their e-scribe requirements have been reinstated. this started in march 2020 then was stalled until august 2020 because of covid19. ordinarily a prescription can be called in, faxed in, or mailed in, but this electronic option is supposedly quicker and immune from fraud.

e-scribe is not a new system and i get the impression it's widely used. the complaints we're getting are from patients with older doctors who don't think they need new-fangled software to write and send prescriptions. pharmacies are perfectly content with seeing these doctors go the way of the dodo for the sake of security and liability.

i hear whispers the software is expensive, but I challenge you to convince a patient to shed a tear for their doctor's wallet when they've been out of medication for a month.

#cnv3 #escribecomplaints #august2020 #writeas

Nevada has had issues with her back over the course of months. Per the physical therapist, it's a stress injury from repetitive fine motor movements. A couple culprits come to mind.

First, gaming with keyboard and mouse. (You know, your hand is in a claw position over the mouse and your pinky and ring finger are slammin' those control and shift keys?) Lately we've played Astroneer, 7 Days to Die, and Overwatch. And I know all of those games are heavy on the shift bar. I can easily see them causing problems.

She also sews – has for a number of years. Pushing needles through fabric? It's painful for me; can't imagine it's any different for her. She usually makes stuffed animals. More recently, she's been making masks.

Her dayjob requirements are very fine motor intensive and very repetitive, she tells me. She works at a hospital pharmacy. That involves drawing from vials, reconstituting gross-smelling drinkables, and prepping tablets for patients to take later on.

She has bursitis, or a bursa inflammation, which per google, is the “Inflammation of the fluid-filled pads (bursae) that act as cushions at the joints. Bursitis occurs most often at joints that perform frequent repetitive motion. Symptoms include pain, swelling, and stiffness. Common areas include the knees, shoulders, elbows, and hips. Treatment includes rest, ice, and pain relievers. Surgery is rarely needed.”

She actually has this bursitis underneath her shoulder blade, and it's pissed off, inflating to the point where it pinched a nerve. This meant one of two things: pain or numbness down her left arm.

//

An update!

As I mentioned before, she works at a hospital, so her insurance is fairly decent. Her deductible is around $2,000, which is way better than mine – $3,200? Though so far none of the bills have been too scary. Odd, considering how many specialists are involved, but whatever.

She's still on my insurance – she didn't get this job until after I had already enrolled for the year. I have an HSA plan, er, an HSA bank account, and because I haven't had anything teeth-related or therapy-related this year there's a good chunk available for her to use.

The plan the physical therapist has her on includes some low-key exercises. I think there's three I've seen her do? She also goes in for a deep tissue massage, where they really just beat the shit out of her back. Finally, an injection.

All of those things combined have given positive results in a short amount of time. A couple of weeks? Less stiffness, greater range of motion. She's able to do more gaming, sewing, and now has an easier time at her job.

She's done more art, for sure. I have two examples. I'm sure she won't mind if I post them; they look very nice.

example 1 https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/689576983696638049/741889281483735050/image0.jpg

example 2 https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/689576983696638049/744762806645162074/image0.jpg

//

Lastly, Nevada had me do a “poke test” the other night. Which was, not too aggressively, poking at the underside of her shoulder blade to see if there was any sharp pain. Probably ought not do that, but to both our surprise there was none, and that's good.

I love you, buddy. And I hope you continue to get better. <3

#cnv3 #august2020 #writeas #otterai #bursitis

from casserly, for the third time.


How many times have I written a Hello World post? I bet it's more than I think. But that's okay because new beginnings are always exciting. Excuse me while I clear my throat.

Over the years I've owned several websites and payed thousands of dollars maintaining them. Not because my wife is pressuring me – we both have our hobbies – but I don't need to be spending so much money just to have a corner of the internet to stow my writing.

It's enough to me for a reader to confirm receipt of my message. I haven't received alot of feedback over the years, other than “It's fine.” from people who aren't used to writing/reading. At this point even if someone told me “Your writing is shit.” my reaction would be an ecstatic “Let's talk about why!”

I enjoy thoughts of being a professional as I've spec'd so many points into WORDPLAY it's hard to look back or laterally. That's a limiting belief, I know. shrug As is evident by all my filled notebooks, manila folders, and attempts at websites, I'll always come back to the pen or keyboard. I love it.

To close... Uh, if you want to watch me struggle, topics on Casserly's Notebook V3 (or CNv3) will generally include writing about writing, prompts and fiction shorts, media – games books movies shows, quotes, and other detritus.

#Introductions #newusers #helloworld #cnv3 #july2020 #writeas

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