Health~ma to your mom, Trudy. And to your Mohs recovery, too, ND.

I just had to call the animal cops on a skunk that is walking repeatedly in a circle in the middle of the street.

We had a version of that at my previous apartment, only it was a raccoon under the street light for the apartment complex parking lot. I called animal control. They said it was after hours and to call the cops. So I called the cops (and gave a heads up to the neighbor who liked to sit on his balcony smoking pot—Carrboro’s relatively chill, but he’s black and I didn’t want the cops to have an excuse to cause trouble for him). The police officer called me back because she couldn’t find the place. After much back and forth (“when you see the roundabout turn into the driveway in the left” “ok, I’m in the roundabout, now what?” “Now you get back on the road you came on because you went too far”) she got there and said, “Yep, that’s a weird looking raccoon alright. I’d better call animal control.”

The whole process started around 7 pm and animal control came over to nab the raccoon sometime after midnight. The whole time the poor thing was just staggering around in a circle. Anyway, I believe it was euthanized, which is far, far better than dying of rabies.

I keep having people tell me they saw someone online saying we are going to get 3" of ice. Except when I ask where they got this information they can't show it to me.

Because 3" of ice is catastrophic.

And then I looked at our local weather guy and he is saying that every where will be without power and if you don't have a generator or fire place or something to go stay with someone else or go to a hotel.

So I don't know what to do because I don't know if we will lose power. No one can get a generator around here right now everything is selling out and I don't know about a hotel.

It's supposed to get down to 11 FF Monday night. But we also might not lose power. I don't know. The only time we've lost power was during Helene and that was from all the trees that were down.

The whole time the poor thing was just staggering around in a circle. Anyway, I believe it was euthanized, which is far, far better than dying of rabies.

Yeah, exactly the same. I figured whatever the cause was, they'd handle it humanely.

The ice predictions are yikes -- hard to say what to do, askye, but I'm sending keep the power on vibes to you. Up here, so far, it's just snow predicted.

I am wearing green velvet pants today--I got a good deal because I bought them in June, when nobody around here is thinking velvet pants.(Some people don't like to wear green, or say, orange...the fact that I will is good for the prices of clothes or housewares.) Someone in the class dialed in from Dakar, Senegal yesterday...it started at midnight his time. Not sure I have been that committed to ANYTHING, let alone craft and the writing process. So far, it's good, but it's another thing I will have to leave early from, so as a Stride For Independence(TM), it, like almost everything else I've ever undertaken with that as even a secret intention, is only a partial success. Also, because we read from "A Manual For Cleaning Women(I will have to check the recording tomorrow and hear how the discussion went!) I think I told the whole class I'm poor--Yet again the old Rules girl Creature of Mystery is off the table for me, but that's not embarrassing as it might have been in college. If I were still talking to Stepmonster, maybe I'd tell her I said I'm poor and related to her and finish her off for real, but it's not worth messing up a decade and a half of careful silence. Especially since somebody with Christmas money isn't Oliver Twist poor.

I hope the treatment helps, Trudy.

I really should add "find a dermatologist, make an appointment" to my list of adulting tasks, but I already feel overwhelmed with the "what's going on with Atropa's lungs?" and "someone from a neurosurgery department left a message to talk about your five MRIs" things.

ION, I can't stop listening to Indo Girls, I'm having urges to chop off my hair and dye it red, my new black velvet jeans arrived in the mail and I'm thinking maybe that's all I want to wear forever and that I may be slowly morphing into a butchier version of Atropa - time will tell.

I love that image. LOVE.

I am not wearing velvet pants of any color and now I'm wondering why the hell not.

I keep having people tell me they saw someone online saying we are going to get 3" of ice. Except when I ask where they got this information they can't show it to me.

I keep hearing people here say we're getting 2 feet of snow, but every report I've seen puts most of the NYC metro area in the 5-8" range (which is still a lot, but well below Day After Tomorrow / 2011 Blizzard levels).

I am not wearing velvet pants of any color and now I'm wondering why the hell not.

I'm with you on that, with an added, "Why don't I own velvet pants... of any color?"

I'm in the 4"-7" snow band for the weekend as of last forecast check, but uncomfortably close to the 7"-9" area. Extra sodas and Doritos have been stocked up, and I already had 10 days worth of meals on hand. Must remember to open the faucets Friday night to protect the pipes.

Velvet leggings count, right? Not that I'm wearing them right now, because regular leggings were at the top of the drawer.

I think all my velvet pants are dance costumes. Or possibly figments of my imagination. Definitely packed away somewhere, if they exist