Syllabus #143

Sweet merciful christ.  It's finally Spring Break. Never mind that it snowed yesterday and went down to 18 degrees last night.  Never mind that I scheduled a service appointment to get the AC in my car fixed, after procrastinating the repair for four years because I'm cheap and lazy.  Yes, I lived through FOUR swampass Middle Tennessee summers with car AC that worked for sometimes a few minutes and sometimes not at all, because I was afraid the repair was going to be expensive and put my car out of commission for days.  It cost $150 and 3.5 hours of my life.  Aside from that shame, I assumed, like a schmuck, that I'd be real pleased to have a functioning air conditioner in my car right about now, instead of blasting the heat while I scrape away snow.  

But you know what, there are perhaps some larger issues for us all to worry about, right?  Like, do I need to order potassium iodide tablets for radiation exposure in the event of nuclear war?  Turns out, if you're over 40, probably not.  You have to be exposed to very large amounts of radiation for the iodine to be more helpful than harmful, and something tells me thyroid cancer isn't your biggest problem if that happens.  And since Andy kindly referred to me as 'pushing 40' the other day, I'm gonna shuffle myself into that category where you are better off sticking your head between your knees and kissing your ass goodbye.  Because I'm cheap and don't feel like spending - wait weren't we just here?

I'm only being insufferable when I complain about agonizing over whether or not I need iodine.  Millions of Ukrainian refugees actually do need something, and here are some ways to help.  

Does birth control cause depression?  Can I volunteer to be exhibit A?  Because on the traditional dosage where you have 21 active pills and 7 placeholder pills in a 28 day cycle, I was UNHINGED.  I was functioning but I was a stone cold lunatic about anything that made me mad or hurt my feelings.  I was a big ol' bitch to everyone around me.  On the low-dose pill, it would be a touch too charitable to say I'm fully hinged, but maybe if we're dragging out this metaphor and talking about a door with three hinges, all the hinges are there, and one of them is fully attached, but the other two are missing a screw or three, and the pins aren't driven in all the way, but they're getting the job done.  All the necessary equipment is there, but a good slam could send it all to hell. 

Analog Reading:

This is going to be repetitive for a couple weeks.  Or maybe I'll finish The Stand this week?  I dunno.  I'm about 1/3 of the way through it.  I have opinions but considering the relatively small portion of the book I've consumed at this point, maybe I should reserve my judgment for later.  I might take a break from our boy Stevie after I finish Book One and read something a little shorter/less grotesque.