so when it's 52 outside it's 52 inside as well.

That amuses me, because 52 is roughly what I have the furnace set to. We're already seeing lows in the 30s and 20s, so 52 is a perfectly cromulent temperature.

I've been alternating between turning on the heat and running fans in the window for the last month. It's been a gorgeous autumn, but hella confusing on how to maintain the house or what to wear.

I go back and forth from heat to A/C on the regular these days. Yesterday I took the dog for a walk wearing a down jacket and flip flops.

I had to jump through hoops to get both, so I hope I have the real stuff.

Stupid thing: We get flu shots for free at work, but late in the season, and this year's is today, which means I don't get one, because I am sick, so now I have to wait until I am healthy and let my doctor chastise me for not getting it earlier.

You could let the person at CVS not care when you're getting it?

Just got my flu shot. As in about half an hour ago.

You could let the person at CVS not care when you're getting it

I may go this route.

I have had a roller coaster of a couple of days. As I was leaving my polling place Tuesday evening, my car (which has given me absolutely no mechanical problems up until now) just died in the street. It was pretty clear that it was the transmission, and that turned out to be true after I got it towed to a mechanic I trust. $2500 for a rebuild. Which, for a 2006 Ford Focus with over 150K miles, I just wasn't willing to take the chance on, even though it's been reliable. (Thanks, Maria, for the advice.)

I had my emotional breakdown yesterday--I can't afford another car, I just paid this one off earlier this year, I can't go back to doing without a car in NC for a million reasons, ANGST...

...and then I bought a car this morning. I texted the guy I bought the Ford from, and he said that he had a 2010 Corolla in good condition that he would take $1000 off the price, plus he would give me $1000 on a trade-in for the Ford. I looked up the Blue Book value for the car with the mileage it has, and the price was fair, even before the discount. I went online and applied for a loan at the credit union, and they called me back in ten minutes and said I was approved. (What the loan officer actually said was, "We are a little concerned about your debt-to-income ratio (yeah me too), but we know that you need a car to get to work at your current schedule, and so if you're SURE, we're going to approve it." SMALL TOWN CREDIT UNION!) Then my car dealer faxed the buyer's order to the credit union, my insurance company switched my insurance from the old car to the new and faxed proof of insurance to the credit union, and the car dealer's wife delivered the car to my office. So now all I have to do is go to the credit union and fill out the paperwork and pick up a check, take it to the dealer, and go get my reusable shopping bags out of the trunk of my old car. Like, what? I bought a car in an hour without leaving my desk, basically. I just test drove it, and it's awesome.

I texted my non-bio sister, C. about it, and she texted back, "NOW FIND HIGHER-PAYING JOB". And I was all, "OKAY, BUT..." (Which is shorthand for, "I've had the same job for 15 years with ever-increasing responsibility but hardly any increase in pay, and I don't know how to find a job outside my field, or inside my field for a substantial pay increase that doesn't involve taking on more debt for grad school, AAAAH." And she was all, "YOU ARE SELLING YOURSELF SHORT, I'LL HELP YOU FIGURE IT OUT THIS WEEKEND." And she's going through a divorce and has a five-year-old and a two-year-old, and she's willing to take the time to help me figure out my shit. TO SUM UP: it's nice to have a sestra, even if you aren't actually related.

Also: if I am having a breakdown about how I'm never going to have a car again, you should probably not listen to me, and wait twelve hours.

Oh my god, AUTHORS. And/or, oh my god, poor communication on the AMA's part but none of my department even knows whether that's true.

We send authors their edited manuscripts to review as PDFs, because we don't want them to have a Word doc they can change, because no matter how often we tell them to fucking track their goddamn changes, they don't track their changes. (Or, I should say, some authors DO track their changes, but not all of them do, and we can't afford the time to compare the untracked ones against a previous version, because we would have to compare it character for character, and ain't nobody got time for that.)

So, they get PDFs. But this is 2015, and you can convert PDFs into Word docs. So the authors do, and then return their corrected UNTRACKED manuscripts as Word docs, OR -- and this is what makes us all start drinking at 9 a.m. -- they convert their untracked corrected Word docs BACK INTO PDFs.

Oh my god, I am having a rage blackout just describing it.

The problem is that no one in my department knows what instructions the authors are given when we send their PDFs to them. I know, I know, that sounds crazy. How does the editorial department NOT know what we tell the authors???? Apparently some boilerplate instructions were created, and when the author gets their email there is a link to click to download their PDF, and the instructions are at that link.

We (the Editorial schmucks) CAN'T access that link. No, really.

So we don't know what authors are told to do (or told NOT to do). The covert-the-PDF-to-Word-and-back-again problem has been increasing over the past year, and finally it's been escalated. (Though I don't know how far.)

I told my boss that we need to know what the authors are told, so that we can make sure they are explicitly told what to do and what not to do. How have we not done this before? I don't know. I am basically the lowest person on the ladder, so my ability to effect change is minuscule.

Ahahaha -- an author just emailed me (after I asked them to resubmit their changes using sticky notes in the PDF, not sneakily converting it to Word) and asked "You mean if I rewrite a sentence I should put the whole sentence in the sticky note?"

Um, yes? How is typing it into the sticky note different from typing it into your sneakily converted Word doc? IT'S NOT OH MY GOD FUCK YOU.

I was wondering where that FB post disappeared to, amyth!

...and then I bought a car this morning. I texted the guy I bought the Ford from, and he said that he had a 2010 Corolla in good condition that he would take $1000 off the price, plus he would give me $1000 on a trade-in for the Ford. I looked up the Blue Book value for the car with the mileage it has, and the price was fair, even before the discount.

That's fantastic. You got a great deal on the trade in! Running, in average condition, the Focus may have brought you $7-800. Not running, you would have been lucky to get $300. Don't ever lose this guy's number.

I'm so happy it all worked out for you!