My niece has tested positive for Covid. She's vaxxed and boosted, but she has a heart condition, so everybody's moderately freaked. Her mother, my looney sister (there's one in every family), is not vaxxed. She's not an anti-vaxxer or Tr*mpist; no, this is her own peculiar life-long looniness, in which she imagines herself to be a frail flower suffering from every health condition imaginable, which no doctor can ever find. She could not *possibly* risk such a dangerous procedure as getting a vaccination to protect her from a deadly disease.

If I sound angry, that's because I am. The family has been trying to persuade her to get vaxxed for two years to no effect. I can't even. I don't know, at this point, whether my niece caught Covid from her mother or from someone at work (she works in a supermarket, God bless her). But either way, my looney sister's irresponsibility just sends me right around the bend.

In other news, one of our fourth-graders has tested positive and the entire fourth grade is now in quarantine. I can't even with that either. The lack of common sense I see everywhere makes me want to hit the nearest available bottle.

I'm working from home for the rest of the week, not because of the plague, but because the heat went out in our building. Personally, I'm grateful for our ageing HVAC.

Still writing, yikes! Just sent another 7K chapter of Identical romping to my trusty beta. *crossed fingers*

After three weeks of working from home, I have to go back to school on Tuesday. Both faculty and students are dropping like flies over there, and I'm not sure what the f*ck they're trying to prove, but I have to go. Fortunately, I'm pretty well protected from human contact in my office setup (in a small building with only 2 other people, and my office is at the other end of the house from them), so I'm luckier than most folks. But I'd be lying if I said I'm not nervous.

I'm up way too late, posting the first chapter of the last Identical story, because I'm on an obsessive tear. But it's up, and now I must have a cup of warm milk and sleep a little. :) *crossed fingers*

In good news, my nephew's symptoms were gone in a couple days. In bad news, he still hasn't been able to score a test, so we have no idea whether or not it was covid. No one else in the family has shown any symptoms, and it'll be two weeks come Wednesday. *crossed fingers* Hopefully we've dodged a bullet.

In less good news, omicron is having its wicked way in NJ, and my school has gone to remote classes for this week at least. We don't have enough healthy/unexposed staff to open on campus. This is new, and scary bad. *crossed toes*

In happy news, I'm about 8K words into the last Identical story, including a Sex Scene That Is Mostly Talking Because These Boys Will Not Shut Up. *g* I toyed with the idea of posting it in one go, as in the old days, but I've decided that doing it in chapters is more manageable. I like getting feedback along the way, and it reduces the anxiety, and I'm also superstitious at this point and think it's brought me luck. So chapters it is. There's a lot of ground to cover, so it'll be another long one. *crossed everything*

Wishing everybody a happy, healthy and safe new year!

One of my nephews has symptoms that MAY be covid, and of course there isn't a home test to be had for love nor money. So it'll be another Christmas of staying home, and my sister running Christmas dinners to everybody. It could be worse. Everybody's vaccinated. But covid fatique is most definitely a thing at this point.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! *good health vibes to all*

I'm working on the last scene of Snips -- a story I started in 2010. It is blowing my mind ever so slightly. *g* But the chapter should be ready for the beta treatment sometime tomorrow. The last scene is always difficult -- I always have trouble sticking the landing.

I've got an appointment for my booster shot set for Wednesday. Hopefully I'll get away with the sore arm and fatigue I experienced with my second shot. *crossed fingers*

I'm on winter break until after New Years, so maybe I'll clean my house and start the next and last story while my muses are still singing to me. *knock wood* If I ever manage to actually finish it, it will be something of an event for me. Yikes. :)

*waves* Is this thing still on? I think it was...2017 the last time I posted here. Truly in the before-times. I posted another chapter for Identical before dawn this morning. I've written more in the past couple weeks than I've written in a decade and I can't tell you how strange and wonderful that is. The urge to write again just came out of nowhere and is the last thing I expected. I hope *crossed fingers* it lasts long enough to finish the series. That would give me great satisfaction. But I'm taking it one day at a time. :)

Thanks for all the kind comments. :) I picked up Cricket's ashes yesterday. Sasha has finally stopped looking for him and yowling (then getting into my lap and staring at me as if he were asking), which was breaking my heart. I find myself still looking for him, though. The past week has been rough. I'm home for spring break, which is both good and bad. Sasha and Domino each come and visit me from time to time, then go about their kitty business. But my lap has no permanent resident now.

I lost my cuddlebug today. He was the sweetest, most affectionate kitty I've ever known. He spent every moment he could purring in my lap. He would meet me at the door at the end of every day. I don't know what I'll do without my baby boy.

A family of wild turkeys has fallen into the habit of visiting my patio to gobble up (heh heh) the leftover bird seed falling from the feeders. They cluck and gobble and scratch like extremely large chickens, and fascinate the hell out of the cats. I managed to get a picture of Darth Katie and one of the overlords having a staring contest.



The overlord won. ;)