A Hard Pass

Trainer was making good natured fun of me yesterday. Calling me a human pincushion for having taken the Covid vaccinations and continuing to go masked in the studio. This is something he often does because he’s an anti-masker/anti-vaxxer.

When I said I had an appointment for the 2nd Booster this Saturday, he rolled his eyes, called me an addict and told me the story of how the grandmother of one of his clients is now experiencing ailments she never had before being vaxxed.

Trainer’s taunts and anti-point of view doesn’t bother or worry me. It takes all kinds to make a universe so, just like I tolerate my buddy Apache’s support of No. 45 — because I enjoy Apache as a person, I tolerate Trainer’s views because I like him, and his training is worth the risk of being in his non-vaxxed non-masked presence.

I humor him, continue to wear a mask, wipe down with disinfectant wipes at the end of the sessions and, yesterday, I poo pooed that grandmother story.

THEN, catching up on blogs last night I saw where Catalyst, over at Oddball Observations, experienced neuropathy after his 2nd Booster — which he described as “Severe nerve pain, coming/going in his feet leading to prolonged moaning and occasional screaming and cursing”.

That’s twice in one day. First the grandmother story and then Catalyst’s story.

Taking them as signs, I cancelled Saturday’s appointment.

I’m taking a hard pass on this 2nd Booster and any future vaccine shots. I'll take my chances on coming down with one of the variants, which doesn't appear to be as severe as Covid or vaccine side effects.

Speaking of cosmic signs, I’ve been dreaming quite a lot lately. My subconscious is working overtime.

I think I know what the dreams are alluding to, how they relate to what I’m experiencing in daily and family life — like that dream/nightmare I had a week or so ago about the dentist.

I’d surmised it was the result of being traumatized by that lying dentist, fearful now of future dental visits.

Wanting to verify I’d interpreted it correctly, I attempted to dig my dream manuals out of patio storage but, seeing that particular container of books is buried deep behind Christmas decorations and other heavy containers, I decided it wasn’t feasible until December — when Christmas decorations are moved out of the way for display.

When out of the area on Tuesday, passing a Barnes and Noble, I popped in, purchased 12,000 Dreams Interpreted. The book interprets it thusly: "To dream of a dentist working on your teeth suggests that you will doubt the sincerity and honor of someone you have dealings with".

BAM!

Pretty much what I thought that, because of Dr. C, I now have trust issues with dentists.

Last night’s dream/nightmare was a doozie.

It involved waking up to find that lamp, mentioned in the last post, had been moved from the window to right next to my bed so that, when I awoke, I bumped it, and it fell across me. No harm to me, but placed as it was to let me know someone had been there during the night.

My queen bed in real life was twin beds in the dream, with the lamp placed nearest to the bed I was sleeping in.

The dream continued with my grabbing a weapon, in case the intruder was still in the unit as I cautiously made my way to the front door and outside. Banging on Next Door Neighbor’s door, I had her call the police. They searched the unit, the closet, found no intruder but did see the patio door had been breached and shoe prints indicating someone had exited the unit through that area.

Would you believe that out of 12,000 Dreams Interpreted not one covers the topic of "intruder".

Seems I’ll have to wait until December, dig out my other manuals to figure that one out.

I’m also still waiting to see if those lottery tickets I purchased on double egg yolk day will pay off.

I had a Power, Mega, Super Lotto, paid $5.00 and won a whopping $5.00 back on two of the three.

Breaking even, I rolled the $5 into a scratch ticket which yielded nothing, but has been entered into the Second Chance Draw. So, there's still a slim chance the double yolks may yet pay off.

No sign of that Karen character since the day she saw me see her. Don't know if this is because I've not been fortunate enough to catch her when she's out, or whether she's not been out.

Maybe she's embarrassed at being seen scrounging for tree droppings.

So Far So Lucky

Yesterday's double yolk day started off with a 9:45 call from the dental office asking if I could move my 2:00 up to 10:30.

I was to be in the Pain Cave at 11:00, and I wouldn’t have liked to miss a session EXCEPT my upper arms were still sore from Monday’s workout.

I wasn’t going to tell Trainer my arms were sore. I’d planned to just tough out whatever it was he threw at me that morning, but here I had an opportunity to let the arms rest until Friday.

What to do, what to do?

I messaged Trainer that the dentist had moved my appointment up, I’d see him Friday.

Thank you double egg yolks.

I’m happy with everything about this new dental office.

Whereas, everything this office has done, from start to finish, feels right, everything the other dentist did, from start to finish — except the dental hygienist, felt wrong to the point where, while work was being done, the voice in my head began to express worry, saying, "I hope this guy knows what he’s doing".

In addition to an impressive comprehensive new client questionnaire the new dental office had transmitted for me to fill out before that first visit — a detailed medical history like a hospital doctor would require, to know what ailments you now have, what you’re allergic to so they won’t give patients the wrong dose of what they use to treat or too much or too little. They even took my blood pressure that first 2nd Opinion visit (145/??). Took it again before they started yesterday’s procedure. Luckily (maybe the double egg yolks at work), it was a decent read — 135/69.

After the dentist, I stopped at a gas station for $5.98 a gallon gas and to play the lottery.

Too soon to know whether the double egg yolks brought me luck, if my tickets pay off, but it was sure lucky for one young man.

He walked into the station to use the ATM, and was told "It’s out of order".

"How much can I get on a cash back?" he asked.

I'm not sure, but I think what that means is he was asking if he purchased something, how much over the amount of the item could he get back in cash.

"Ten dollars" said the clerk.

"Can I do double?" asked the young man.

"No".

At that point, I was done with my transaction, headed out to gas up the car.

While at the pump, I saw him exit, look around, zero in on me, begin to walk towards me.

He presented well, as a nice clean cut young brother. The pump hose was positioned between he and I, but I nevertheless backed away as he approached.

He stopped and stood a respectful distance away, said "Excuse me Miss. I’m trying to get to …"

I didn’t really catch what else he was saying until he got to "Can you help me out?"

As I began to reach into my fanny pack, pull out money to help him out, I said "Don’t come any closer".

"I’ll stand right here" said he.

After I reached over the hose to give him enough for a few gallons of gas, he thanked me, went inside to pay, and was pumping gas as I headed away.

So, it was a lucky day for that young man that I was in the right place, at the right time.

On another topic — did you happen to see the clip of Will Smith that's come to light because of the lame excuse he gave for assaulting Chris — that "G.I. Jane" was such a terrible dis of Jada when he's heard far worse things said about her. 

The clip is from the old Arsenio Hall Show and shows him mocking the bassist on the show's band for being bald. WS looked over at the bassist, said to the audience "Like, he has a rule – the bass player? He's got a rule: He's gotta wax his head every day. That's a rule."

WS is no comedienne so, after an awkward uncomfortable laugh from the audience, he said "Ah these are jokes, come on."

G.I. Jane was also a joke, from a comedienne, aimed at a couple he knew and had joked about previously. Nothing to do with alopecia.

If and when the Academy stops dicking around and decides on consequences for WS, I hope it’s serious consequences, not some "slap" on the wrist.

Since the Academy is now saying he was "asked" to leave and refused (they should have tased his butt and dragged him out), I for one would like to see his Oscar taken away.

Double Yolk Day

Seeing double egg yolks hit the pan this morning made me feel a lot better about today’s dental procedure because of a dream I’d had two nights ago. Actually, a nightmare.

In the dream, I was in the dentist’s chair. He turned on the drill, made a movement towards my mouth to remove the broken cap BUT he’d not numbed the area.

I said "Stop! You’re not going to numb me?" Whereupon the dentist said, "If you want. Sure, we can do that".

I said, "I’m not doing this", got out of the chair and began to walk out.

No way, after that misstep, was he going to work on me.

As I was exiting, the receptionist called out that I’d still have to pay for the time I’d taken up that day.

I refused and called the cops — because I wanted a record of the call to protect myself from their calling the cops after I’d left to say I’d done so without paying.

Then as I was leaving, I told the receptionist I’d see them in court if they later tried to bill me, and that I was going to put them on Yelp blast for what the dentist had tried to do.

My Dream Interpretation book is in storage, so I can’t easily research what that dream really means. It may just be that, after how that last dentist played me — and the area he worked on still feeling like he went too far into the tooth, I’m a bit traumatized, fearful even of future dental visits.

At any rate, the double egg yolks are comforting, a sign this is going to be a good day, a lucky day.

I’ll be sure to play the lottery before the day ends.

In other news, my friend Q got his 4th Pfizer already.

Q is only in his early 50’s and I didn’t even know a second booster has been approved. Last I’d heard, a 4th shot was being discussed as a possibility.

Oh well, I guess this is my life now — dental visits and covid vaccinations.

Body Language

I woke up this morning to double yolks in my eggs which, according to mysticism, is a symbol of good luck.

Thing is, research tells me chances of coming across an egg with double yolks are around 1 in 1000, so imagine my surprise, because I’d experienced that same luck three weeks ago, when I cracked an egg for breakfast and out came double yolks.

Twin 2 told me to buy lottery tickets but, comfortable inside, I didn’t venture out to do so.

Given a second chance at luck this morning, this time I did pop into the liquor store, after working out, bought two $5 scratch-offs.

Then, I drove across the street, but not to the market.

Your girl has been doing a good job of staying away from the corner market where resides the security guard, who she’s sure is coming onto her, gives her the heebie jeebies.

The market in the other direction has all I need, except for Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream. For some reason, they just don’t carry many of the B&J flavors altogether, but not a problem, thought I, because the corner drugstore, also with a limited selection, does carry Chunky Monkey.

So, completely out of Chunky Monkey, the only ice cream my sensitive stomach will tolerate, I popped into the drugstore only to find not only no Chunky Monkey, but no refrigerated ice creams period, because the section was out-of-order due to a refrigeration problem.

What to do?

This was supposed to be my double yolk lucky day, but the Universe appeared to be working against me OR leading me.

Did my desire for Chunky Monkey outweigh my desire not to be looked at by that security guard?

Why yes, yes it did.

Driving to that side of the shopping center, I saw him standing outside, far enough away from the entrance that I surmised I could slip in without crossing his path.

Getting out of the car, walking towards the doors of the market, I saw he’d spotted me and, I kid you not, he left his outside post and quickly walked inside.

When I walked inside, he was leaning against a structure, trying to look all cool, like he’d not just rushed in to strike that pose, LOL.

I had my phone in my hand and pretended to be intently focused on something on the phone so I’d not have to look up at him or engage.

I hear him give me a cheery, “Good afternoon”, but pretended not to hear because I was engaged in what was supposedly on my phone as I rush by him.

THEN, to get my attention, he says, “That mask is blinging”.

Oh for Christ sake! It’s the same mask he’s seen every time I've popped in after a workout, but this time he just had to comment on it.

Can he not read body language?

My body was clearly saying, “Leave me alone. Don’t look at me. Don’t talk to me.”

I still didn’t look up from my phone. Instead, I signaled a thumbs up and kept on steppin.

The plan for getting out of the market was, after picking up the ice cream, to once again pretend to be engaged in something on my phone, but he wasn’t at the door, nor was he outside. He’d thankfully disappeared.

So, seat belting myself in the car, I look up and see his big gray truck parked under a tree. I know it’s his, because that last time, when I saw him on the lot and, when the coast was clear, did my grocery shopping, I’d seen him get in that truck.

So, anyway, seeing his truck in my line of vision, the windows of which are darkly tinted, it suddenly crossed my mind he’d disappeared from the market because he was in the truck …. watching. But just as quickly as the thought crossed my mind, I dismissed it thinking it a ridiculous thought, that I was just being paranoid.

Maybe ridiculous, maybe not. Certainly no more ridiculous than his rushing back inside the market to pose his body to say, "Look how cool and alluring I am". LOL.

Well, maybe I am being a bit paranoid because, when road construction prevented me from turning into the complex driveway, I had to pass the complex, make a quick turn into and around in a side roadway, then wait until I could get across traffic, drive back to the complex driveway.

I didn’t think anything of it when a big gray truck made a quick turn into and around that same roadway, stopping just behind me. I didn’t think anything of it until, after I crossed traffic, got to and turned into the complex driveway, I saw that same big gray truck had turn when I turned, drove same direction as I, but passed the complex driving in the direction of the market.

Did he follow me from the market?, thought I.

No, it wasn’t he. I checked the footage on the Drive App, saw it was a different big gray truck.

So maybe just a tad paranoid.

At any rate, at least I’ve got the freezer stocked with four pints of Chunky Monkey — all the market had in stock. That should take me into the next two weeks, long enough for the drugstore to sort out its refrigeration situation.

If you’re wondering how lucky those lottery tickets were …. they weren’t, but all is not lost as both have been entered into the lottery’s Second Chance drawing.

To top it off, though the Tyrant got rid of all the cats, new cats are finding their way here, just as I figured. Heading back to my unit, I came across one, a Black Cat, as it crossed my path.

Some lucky day this turned out NOT to be.

I don’t want to see any more supposedly lucky eggs.

Maybe I tossed the luck away, when I scraped the egg out of the pan, tossed it in the trash, because I saw what looked like blood and couldn’t eat, what I felt to be, an almost baby chick.