My right hip flexor has announced that it has no interest in flexing today.  My hip flexor is an asshole.

The actual source of the problem is a lumbar disc which causes stuff around my hip to tighten up.  The disc is also an asshole.

I inherited my kinky spine from my dad who ... you got it ... was himself an asshole.  The Reader may sense a theme developing here.  In fairness, it's probably more accurate to say that my dad had his moments, as do we all.  At least my hip flexor can be made to see reason.  A fast sprint across a well-traveled six lane highway got it to unclench, although you can make an argument that threatening it with annihilation via semi may not qualify as "reason".  Both it and the disc will be treated later to the persuasive benefits of yoga, and if that doesn't do the trick, then it's more sprinting.  My way or the highway, is what I'm saying.

Our little disagreement comes after I pulled off a bit of a feat at our condo community election the other evening.  I am sincerely grateful for the savviness that comes with increasing age - I certainly didn't have the smarts twenty years ago to get a community to change direction because I said so.  My body has reminded me of the price I pay for that hard won wisdom - an asshole move if ever I've seen one.

I do remain thankful that it isn't my brain being the jerk.  Older folks tend to fear misbehaving brains more than bodily nincompoopery, and I knock firmly on wood as I say that.  Because frankly, the universe is also an asshole at times, and evidence suggests that it has it in for us.

​

We held an election in my condo community the other night.  A former board president was re-elected.  This person has antagonized every vendor with whom our association has done business - including the current management company who was hired because ex-pres couldn't get along with the previous one.

She also noted during her pre-election speech that she hadn't missed a single meeting in our community.  So, you're better qualified than those who followed public health guidelines during the pandemic, either out of civic responsibility or fears for themselves or family members?  Seems like a remark that would have landed badly with an audience largely comprising middle-aged and elderly residents - just the demographic that's been hard hit by covid-19.

I mean... how? 

Clearly the ability to get elected and the ability to do the job are very different things.  Which explains the state of our country as well as condo associations.

And our lungs.  And in our throats.

I was looking forward to a nice, long mosey this morning, but we have poor air quality due to the wildfires up in Canada.  Not that horrible, murky, yellow stuff that settled over New York a while back, but it's still visible and you can smell the fires.  Of course the winds have died down just as we need them to blow this stuff on out to the Atlantic.  Fortunately the longer term forecast is calling for a series of rain storms that should help with the fires and the smoke.

It's really discouraging when your HEPA filters' warning lights say there are unsafe levels of particulate matter in the air.  Indoors.  With the windows closed.  We'll be back to wearing N95's indoors and out.

My condo association is planning a second attempt at holding an election this evening.  I have a nice little speech prepared on the realities of receivership, about which it appears I'm the only one who knows anything.  My cockatiel knows more about it than my neighbors at this point because I've been rehearsing at her.  I'm already a bit hoarse, and I expect things to be worse this evening.  So much for yelling.

However this meeting turns out, I think I'll open that pint of ice cream in my freezer when I get home.  Either I'll be drowning my sorrows (because I've been elected to the board or nobody's been elected and we're still careening down the road to receivership) or I'll be celebrating (we're not heading toward receivership at the moment).  I note that if I'm elected, I will be both celebrating and drowning my sorrows - which is kinda par for the course for board service.

What is it with the window screens lately?

After entertaining a flock of male goldfinches several days ago, the cockatiel and I were delighted to welcome a male cardinal who kept hanging on the bedroom window screen yesterday evening.  He certainly seemed interested in what was going on in the room, and the cockatiel was quite interested in him.  Robins often visit the tree outside as well.  I'd like to think that they're all clamoring for an invitation, but probably they're just after bugs.

...for theirs is the Kingdom of Eternal Grievance.

A group of male goldfinches were hanging on the living room windows a while ago, apparently trying to pick stuff out of the screens.  One bird appeared interested in what was going on inside and pecked on the glass.  The cockatiel thought this was pretty exciting.

I encountered a few young quail yesterday while I was out for my walk.  At least I assumed they were young since they seemed to be interested in the large human and came a bit closer.  They'll learn.  Also spotted a blue heron flying across one of the lakes and got a whiff of fresh, black mulch.  Nothing says "happy days ahead" like fresh, black mulch.

Our air quality alerts are back to warning about ozone instead of particulate matter from the wildfires up in Quebec, for which I'm grateful.  I would be exceedingly grateful if we could have highs in the 80s for longer than two consecutive days.  Doesn't appear to be in the cards this year.

So the calendar insists that June is here, but the persons in charge of serving up the weather don't appear to believe it.  Hey, I can listen to Christmas music all year long, don't feel as though you need to provide sunshine and warm temperatures - although if I were your boss, I'd have fired your butts by now.

(We did need the rain, though, so thanks for that.)

Managed to change batteries in four smoke detectors this morning with only a bruised shoulder and a knot on the forehead at the end.  I call that a result.  One of these years I'll have to stop climbing on ladders.  I've heard rumors about smoke detectors that have ten-year batteries built in, so something like that would eliminate the annual romp up the rungs.  On the other hand, I wouldn't be able to do anything about it if the detector started chirping in the middle of the night short of shooting the thing or beating it to death.

One of my elderly neighbors did exactly that: beat the smoke detector with a pole until it stopped chirping.  Then she called the builder's warranty department to complain.  Do not mess with old ladies.  (I heard this story from the warranty rep who had to come out and replace the unit.  Working for a new home builder can be entertaining.)

Heard a comment the other day about how great it is if people show their real selves to the world.  Judging from what's on social media, we're seeing entirely too much of people's "real selves", and the world would be a better place if they'd keep their real selves under wraps.

So, my pet bird has ended up with a mild case of giardia.  How, you ask?  Well might you ask, as did I.  

She drinks bottled water.  The only items she eats that I don't eat myself are pellets made by a reputable company.  More directly to the point, these pellets are dry - ie., not the sort of environment that protozoa would normally live in.  'Tis a puzzle.

My best guess as to the source of the infection are the organic carrots we've been eating, mostly because the timing works.  They're also bagged, and if they'd been rinsed with contaminated water before the bag was sealed, there's probably enough moisture to keep some microbes happy.  I always rinse fresh vegetables myself before eating, but whatever.  A couple years ago another bird ended up with a clostridium infection, possibly not coincidentally after I'd bought some organic fresh broccoli.

That does it.  If I want to eat bright, colorful foods, I'm totally grabbing M&Ms.