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"I'll stay in here for a while. Then I'll join you in the living room." - Explorer the Cat.

That sucks. Hopefully they will inspect and pass the bridge soon.

I live in the US of A, fifty states of unresolved conflict. 2024 is going to be such a joy. The Ukrainian Nazis, who need to be liberated ... nope, nothing wrong with that ... He should be more like Donald Trump. Ignorance is indeed bliss.

Warn your manicurist. The good ones can make allowances that drastically reduce the chance of getting cut. (Note though that "drastically reduce" is not "eliminate".)

What this strip needs is more transformation beam hijinks.

Lousy prognosis. But at least they are being upfront with you.

One of my close neighbors is using a power saw. Explorer is Not Happy about this, and to be honest I'm not real thrilled about it either.

There was a pedestrian bridge over the drainage ditch between my park & the park next door. It significantly cut the walking distance to the bus stop, grocery & many other businesses I use frequently. But it was damaged in the storm. Now it may not be used pending inspection. There is no schedule for that. An inspection may result in an order to repair or replace the structure. If those prices are too high, the bridge will likely be demolished. Most of my neighbors are older than me. Manny with mobility issues. Is this the fun part?

Thanks to the muscle atrophy in my left hand, I'm going to have to do something that no beefy, testosterone-hopped, masculine-addicted man would ever admit to doing. I'm going to have to have a manicure. I don't have the muscle strength in my left hand to operate a fingernail clipper, and Mrs. Prof doesn't trust herself enough to keep from drawing blood. Even though I don't mind admitting to the experience, I'm not looking forward to it. It's a control freak issue. That bit about drawing blood is part of it. Plus, my fingertips are super-sensitive in the fingers that still do work. I can just imagine my hand pulling back in a reflex action and me getting a cut that way. Will report afterward if able.

I have a rather long update. Please bear with me. I had an appointment with a hand and arm surgeon this past Monday morning to see what needed to be done for me. She came highly recommended, and had in fact treated my daughter-in-law some while earlier with excellent results. After the doctor ran some tests, she discussed the situation with me. Put simply, I'm going to need a double, possibly triple procedure done during a single surgery. It turns out I not only have Cubital Tunnel Syndrome with left hand atrophy, but I have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome as well. She's going to release the Carpal Tunnel and the Cubital Tunnel, and she may have to also perform a traverse of the Cubital Tunnel tendon or nerve (not sure which). All in all, my recovery time is going to take 8 to 11 weeks if everything goes well. There is a downside. The atrophy of my left hand muscles, severe as it is, is permanent. There is no way to regrow the muscles. Not at my age. Put simply, this means I've lost the use of my pinky finger and most of the use of my ring finger, and I've lost considerable strength in my thumb and in the rest of my hand that I'll never get back. Suffice it to say that I'm going to have to figure out another way of playing bass lines on my Arturia Keylab 88. I'm also going to be a bit slower when it comes to doing input on Cakewalk by Bandlab, especially when Control keys are involved. The surgery is not a waste of time, though. It will keep my hand from getting worse (e.g., it won't develop a claw posture, nor will it lose more muscle). The tingling sensation I have in it 24/7 is supposed to improve as well. For these reasons among others, I'm going through with it. There is just one small matter that really irks me about the surgery, and that's the surgery date. Wouldn't you know it, they scheduled it for the release date of my fourth album, "Lady Tygress' Suite and Other Commissions," smack dab on November 4th? There's no way I can reschedule it, either. I'll work something out so that the album gets released on time, but good lord, this is an inconvenience! Oh, well - such is life.