12/15/2021

Work went slower, but only because of this damnable issue with the Achilles tendon in my right foot. Walking from the municipal garage to the courthouse took about ten minutes, one way. Hobbling about the deed room made everything go so much slower. But everything was wrapped up an hour before I had to leave so... winning?
Back in my living space I scanned the jobs and my work log, but I didn't send them lest the home office get wise to my scheme. At 1:15 I left for the doctor's office. When I arrived in Keyport I saw this was a community doctor's office, but everyone was friendly and welcoming unlike the office in Toms River. Once the paperwork was done and a brief wait, the doctor saw me and remarked this is going to be painful, take a long time to heal, but it's relatively minor from what he found upon examination. Plus it seems I've been doing the right thing.
What I didn't tell him is that I wasn't wearing my boot to bed, and that's definitely not something I should be doing as I learned on Tuesday morning. When I woke and tried to boot myself, I found my tendon was tensed up and my heel wouldn't bend back to form against the boot. After fifteen minutes or so with an ice pack then hobbling to take a piss, I was able to put on the boot with discomfort.
When I left the courthouse my foot was feeling somewhat better, but not much. The effort of hobbling around in the boot was making me sweat like summertime. My sneaker has a thicker sole than my immobilization boot forcing me to walk weird. When I woke on Tuesday morning my left hip was uncomfortable because I was laying on it so long. When I flipped over, my right hip began to ache as well sending a message that I need to lose weight.
At the doctor's office I was weighed but told the nurse I didn't want to hear my weight. She was kind and wrote it down while covering the display, but in the exam room I easily read the post-it note. I really, really need to lose weight. Losing weight is going to help me out with my foot and everything else. By chance when I entered the waiting room, there was a heavy woman with a prosthetic leg and I immediately thought, "I don't want that happening to me."
Afterwards I limped over to the pharmacy, learned my pharmacy insurance won't cover Diclofenac Sodium Topical Gel 3% and it was going to be $44 and change before tax. I opted for the 1% which was $25 and change after tax. Right now I'm icing my ankle but later I'm going to apply this stuff and see if it works.
Once I returned, I uploaded my work, submitted my work log, and reported my current balances over at the courthouse. Followed that with Stardew Valley, discovered I'm really more interested in pursuing Emily than Penny except I have 8 hearts with Penny and only 7 with Emily. Pierre, who runs the local shop in competition with Stardew Valley's Walmart-analogue, sent a message that he's selling bouquets for the sole purpose of courting. Bought one for $200, offered it to Emily who turned it down then I learned on reddit that only NPCs with 8 hearts will accept a bouquet.
Whew, I thought I had fucked up.
Cooked dinner, filled out one last holiday card to mail out on Wednesday, and now I'm working to maintain inkubo.org.

My weight aside, there was another unsettling revelation on Tuesday. I've lost my attention span, but I'm hopeful the pain is the culprit rather than mental decline. I found myself stretched in several directions: Commenting on reddit. Trying to figure out the songs and song order for a mix CD. Watching Out Of Mind: The Stories of H.P. Lovecraft on YouTube. Emailing a friend and fucking around on Discord.

I'm doing myself no favors.

On the other hand, smoking dope should help me.

Also grateful that Bloomfield checked in on me regarding my doctor's visit. To my surprise, Leah also checked on me regarding my doctor visit too.

Oh yes, I'm trynta figure out New Year's Eve. Need to ping Sarah to see if a guest would be welcome in addition to me. Also I may invite a friend to come along with me if I have no other plans.

In other news, gif is pronounced with a hard 'g' and here's my argument.
Graphics Interchange Format and "graphics" has a hard 'g' or 'ɡ' per the International Phonetic Alphabet, not a soft 'g' or 'dʒ'. Why? The acronym POC is pronounced with a hard 'c' or 'k' or voiceless velar plosive, not an unvoiced velar sibilant like 's' nor a a voiceless aveolar sibilant affircate or 'ʦ'. The pronunciation of POC recognizes that 'color' has a hard 'c' not a soft one, so why not GIF with 'graphics'?

Steve Wilhite can take a flying leap at a doughnut.

And another thing! I dreamt the annoying kid who lived across the hall from me appeared in a dream from last night. The kid never moved out, rather he moved upstairs but has been keeping a low profile. In the dream I stumbled into him, he had grown out his hair and seemed a little more stooped than I recall. I found this to be strange, but then again his mail keeps coming to the house because he didn't spend a dollar to have it forwarded to where ever he is now. Still, I leave it on the table with everyone else's rather than filing in the garbage.