The jacaranda trees are blooming and they look gorgeous. The bouganvilla on the back patio is a riot of white blossoms.

The air quality is shitty. Lots of wind, lots of dust. My nostrils are a sneeze away from open revolt. (Bleeding. They're a sneeze away from bleeding. So dry. Vaseline, applied 2-3 times daily, seems to only be of limited utility.)

I have potentially found three current favorite coloring books. I also unpacked more boxes and found more of my Phoenixcolor pencils. Also some other supplies, but those are the item that I'm currently happiest about.

I haven't come any closer to choosing a really good air fryer because I haven't had time to do any research. Y'all got suggestions?

I think I'm going to buy the Breville this weekend. That'll give me a good countertop convection oven with some air frying capability and several accessories. I really don't love the fact that a Mexican oven can only really get up to the equivalent of 250 degrees Farenheit, and it can kind of struggle to keep a steady temperature. I really want my meatloaf...!

I've bought a LOT of coloring books. I wanted to get things purchased and shipped before the tariffs hit. So I'll be all set for quite a while, especially since I scan all my coloring books so that if I end up loving just a few designs out of the book, I can print additionals and use different palettes or even emphasize different elements. I also bought a large set of glitter gel pens because I didn't really have any....and they weren't too expensive. (Shuttle Art, so probably not tip-top quality, but not utter garbage either.)

I also ordered some sheer curtain panels and tension rods. I have a few windows that get full afternoon sun, and I wanted to cut the solar intensity without entirely blocking the light. I found sheer curtains in deeper colors - evergreen, dusty blue, maroon - but could only get the sizes I wanted on AmaUS. Also, tension rods aren't easily found in Mexico, so I bought several of those too.

Command Strips were available during the winter holiday season (presumably for folks hanging lights, stockings, et cetera) but they kind of disappeared from store shelves. I tried ordering from AmaMex, but they arrived in different packaging and without the adhesive strips. So...there's another thing from AmaUS.

Taking into account the slightly uneven Mexican electric supply, with its tales of surges, mini brownouts, and of course lightning strikes during storm season, I decided to invest in some more surge protectors, especially for the big appliances that I bought when I got down here. Some folks that I asked online said "Yeah, no problems at all" and others said that new-bought appliances were basically irreperable after 3-4 years...so, yeah. Surge protectors for everything! (But more purchases from AmaUS.)

I'm eyeballing an air fryer/convection oven combo. I want to be able to bake without pumping a lot of heat into the house, especially in summer. Being able to bake smaller quantities is also nice, since it's often just me. I've almost narrowed my choice down, but I have to figure out the best way to purchase. The oven is about the same price through AmaMex and AmaUS, but I can't get all of the accessories (trays and shelves and whatnot) through AmaMex. I don't know if there are other places in Mex I can purchase this one. I may check out Liverpool or Coppel.

In some unreservedly good news, BabyJ finally got his proper meds to stop his snotty-sniffly-sneezy. (The vet put him on a different antibiotic that almost worked but didn't quite, and then had me to try this other antibiotic ointment that I had to PUT ON HIS EYEBALLS and from there the antibodies would work their way down the nasal passages. Neither I nor BabyJ were fond of that little experiment.) The upside: yay, doxycycline! The downside: pill form! In the US I'd always get Justin's liquid stuff from a compounding pharmacy. I don't doubt that such a thing exists somewhere in the country, but it's probably not super common.

I need to learn how to edit Google Forms to add a field. To save my own sanity, I'm limiting Radio Free Monday to personal and small-group fundraising links, but folks have been sending lots more types of links my way: notices about pet food recalls, notices about communities for community organizing and hyperlocal politics. If I'm not careful, I'll burn out faster than Copperbadge did. But at the same time, I know that these communities are important, especially with the Stonewall park scrubbing all mentions of trans and queer people and the CDC being muzzled and the US withdrawing from the World Health Organization and fucking Felon and fElon screwing around with peoples' faith in the financial institutions. (Personally, I'm so. very. glad. that I pulled the bulk of my money down to Mexico before they went on their ShenaniganStravaganza.) I want a way to permanently link to any communities that others start to share this type of information, so I want to set up a field that lets people indicate a mutual-aid community, or a fundraising link.

Today I made my breakfast, washed the dishes, swept the floors and the stairs, cleaned the catboxes, and took out the trash. That's enough housework for one day, though I do also need to wash my car. (Qro is DUSTY AF, y'all.) And I should change the bedding. And maybe organize my clothes so that I can empty another box. (Dammit, the list never ends...)

Major tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas. I have some relatives that live in Kansas. (And I was born there, but my family left when I was still wee and tiny, so I don't personally feel any connection with the state.)

Avian flu is causing LOTS of poultry and duck farms to have to significantly cull, or in at least one case, totally destroy, their flocks.

And the CDC and all government agencies have been asked to stop telling the general populace any more information.

Oh, joy in the morning.

And yes, I'm in Mexico, not the US. But I still grieve for the US' descent into chaos. And...avian flu doesn't respect human conventions like international borders. Yes, I'm going to be able to get eggs and chicken for less than USians, until avian flu comes south to visit and wreak havoc.

Now it the time to form local networks for information. Now is also the time to start looking around for shelf-stable substitutes for milk and eggs, and if you easily can, it's time to start growing beans to harvest and eat as a reliable protein source.

But now, a palette cleanser. I've been following Sarper Duman on Patreon for several years now. He recently released some music through YouTube.

In January I took over Radio Free Monday, a fannish-community resource started by Copperbadge. This resource has been running for over a decade and has now expanded a bit beyond just the fandom communities. I created communities on both Tumblr and Dreamwidth, so that eventually, in another decade, when I hand it off to someone else, the URL won't change :) Copperbadge did an incredible job running this by himself for so long! When he announced that he'd be ceasing operations at the end of 2024, I asked if others could take the helm, and here we are.

If you want to find folks who could use an extra boost, if you could use a bit of help yourself, or if you see someone else who's sent up the "Help" flag, follow either community and add your submissions.

(I just wish that Dreamwidth had reblog capability...)

Today is my birthday! And I've spent it mostly in bed, either resting or reading. I'm trying to fight off a cold, so have been drinking lots of fluids, eating soup, and sleeping when I feel like it. Not the way I would have chosen to spend my birthday, but a) I don't want to give this to anyone else; and b) I want this to go away as soon as possible.

I did get the final load of laundry done, and it's air-drying now. Only to find that I really do have another load of bedding and towels and socks and suchwhich, if I want to put that together and just get them done. I'm debating. While I don't plan to do laundry every week, I won't be waiting three more months either. 12 loads of laundry is a LOT!!!

I need to do a little bit of shopping this weekend. I need bottled water, more soups, facial tissues, and kitty kibble. If I can easily find cheddar cheese, I'll pick that up, but it's not easy to come by down here. (Mexican food is full of strong flavors in the spices, but they don't care for sharp or strongly-flavored cheeses. On the up side, gouda seems to be pretty easy to find, and it isn't priced as high as in the states, relative to other foods.)

I got my colored pencils organized. I need to organize my markers. I also need to re-organize my earrings because the movers wrapped the stackers in plastic, then put the wrapped stacks in a big box, but didn't mark which end was up. So things are thoroughly discombobulated and need to be cleaned up a bit. (At least each tray's stuff is all separate, even if it isn't properly paired or organized any more.)

I have gotten some more clothing put away, and some clothing and towels and bedding packed to go into storage. Small victories.

Yesterday: four loads of laundry.

Today: seven loads of laundry...so far. (It's only 4pm, and two of the loads are bedding and blankets, so they'll go into the dryer / don't rely on sun and warm air to get un-damp.)

Tomorrow: ...? Maybe some laundry, but then again, maybe not. After a dozen full loads of laundry, I'm done for a while. (I did find another load of pants and sweats under the bedding, so I could start them in the morning and have them drying on racks before the sun hits the back yard. Damn my completist nature.) I may spend some time packing things up for storage, but most of tomorrow is going to be lazing about and relaxing. Making my breakfast might be the only complicated productive thing that I do.

...dammit. Just remembered I need to go buy more water. So I will have to get up and get clean and get dressed. DAMMIT!!!

Going to post a thing that may be obvious to some, but is not to others:

If you went through some horrific abuse when you were a child, you must understand that the abuse you went through was not your fault. Not, not, not. Nothing you did, brought on that abuse. It doesn't matter what the abuser told you as they wielded the belt, as they forced you to lick the floor, as they raped you.

If you abuse others because your own childhood was so deformed that you still carry the trauma and you think that that's just normal or that you can treat others like that now that you have some power over them, you must understand that ABUSING OTHERS IS YOUR FAULT.

Being abused? Not your fault. You were in a position of a lack of power, either physically, mentally, emotionally, or all of the above.

Abusing others? Totally your fault. You, as an adult - even a badly hurt one - have the ability to make choices about your own behavior.

Not passing trauma on to subsequent generations or individuals is NOT easy. It's fucking hard. It's a shitton of work, and it can take years or decades. But you have resources. Make use of them. Ask for help. Get help from every resource you know how to. Learn to realize what was NOT your fault, learn how to make sure you don't hurt others.

Be the human being that you needed when you were abused, not one of the monsters who preyed on you.

(I speak specifically of abuse during childhood because that's when peoples' personalities are being formed. People who are abused as adults are also not at fault for the abuse that they receive. But I think that fewer people who are only abused as adults, turn into people who abuse others whenever they have the chance. They get far less trusting and more defensive, but I think that fewer of them take the same kind of damage to their personality as do people who are also abused as children.)

I got two more boxes emptied (not just consolidated), and found my masks. During Covid, I bought several larger-size N95 masks...like, 4 dozen of them. The ones I actually used, I would use for a day, leave sit in a sealed plastic container for a week, then reuse. (Hey, if they claimed that was good enough for nursing staff, it would be plenty good for someone who lived with no other humans and didn't go out much.) I had a lot still in their wrappers when I moved down to Mexico. Well, I finally found them! Just in time too, with this year's nastiest flu strain making waves in China. (Yes, it's a seasonal illness like a strain of flu, it isn't another COVID.)

Since I had fewer boxes on the floor downstairs, I moved the furniture. The dining table is now where it will live, and one of the Poang chairs is very near its future home. I still have a big-ass box to get out of the middle of the floor - new executive chair, unassembled of course - and once that's gone there are still a few smaller boxes blocking the way. I have a box of hangers that can safely go into storage. I can put some of my office supplies in storage. I can probably box up some of my clothes and send them into storage, especially most of the ones I usually hang up. (I'm using the office space for my really lightweight cotton-sousdi and rayon stuff which I could only really wear for 2-3 months up north, but can wear all BUT 2-3 months down here.) I really want to keep all of my decor here, especially my dragons. I also want to keep all my standard candles here, even if I don't actually burn them a lot.

I didn't lose much in the move, but what I wasn't allowed to bring, I really miss. I had two brooms with dense bristles and metal handles. I'd had one of them since college, and the other one of them for 12 years. I couldn't bring any "cleaning supplies" but hoped that the brooms would get a bye. They made it onto the moving truck - loose - but didn't make it into my rental house in Mexico. The stores around here all seem to only have brooms with plastic handles. The one I have works fine for its intended purpose, but...it's the way it feels. It doesn't feel as substantial. It feels like I have to make more strokes to catch everything I can catch. I want my old brooms with their thicker handles, metal handles, and denser bristles. I am a child, whee whaw whine.

I did it! Well...sort of. I consolidated five boxes into two, broke down three boxes (only one good enough to re-use), and got some more things put away. I also finally - FINALLY - got my work monitor set up and working do I don't have to try to work on a laptop-sized screen. I prepped two more boxes to go into storage, and wrapped up one ottoman to go into storage. Not perfect, but...baby steps. More boxes gone from the downstairs, so things are closer to Looking Civilized now.

I got my first Radio Free Monday posted, after taking that over from Copperbadge. I have the HTML rock-solid, but had some questions on the editing. This will be a weekly thing, and probably in a few months once I have a lock in it I'll see about recruiting another admin to help out every once in a while - both to avoid burnout, and to let me take the occasional vacation.

I've started learning how to cook more local soups, which will be nice to help me keep warm. Last night was very cold, the coldest predicted for a bit. Nighttime temps are starting to hover in the upper 40s, while daytime temps are edging up to the top half of the 70s more regularly. We may even break 80F later this month.

I'm trying to figure out what I can do to keep the master bedroom cool in the hot months. If I can hang an awning out on the deck-let, even something that's more of a "privacy" weight rather than "blackout" weight, that will reduce the sunlight hitting the glass, which will keep the room...well, maybe not "cool", but "less hot". Then at night, I'll open all the windows, have fans pulling air up and out, and cool things down. Now I just have to get permission from the landlady. I'm also noticing a knock-and-ping from the boiler when I run hot water to fill the basin for dishwashing, which I think is a sign that it's about to fail. She's not going to be happy with that.

Just checked, and my washer and dryer are, indeed, going to be delivered this week! The company is currently going to contact me to confirm on the 9th, and will deliver the appliances on the 10th. (Then, sadly, I will have to wait until the following week for the installers. But I'll have the appliances in place!!)

I slept wrong. Actually, what I think might have happened was, I didn't move all night. This morning I'm sore and stiff and I can't find my heating pad. I do, however, know where the IcyHot patches are and I'm going to use up about half a dozen.

I have most definitely hit an unpacking plateau. I can't summon the spoons to even consolidate another box, even though I can think of two separate candidates without even trying. This is not great, because I really do want to set up the living room chairs with the throw pillows and soft blankets and cat beds so the cats have soft places to sit other than the bed (which, honestly, is probably where they'd spend the bulk of their time anyway.) I especially want to get the domed beds up off the floor, because I think they'd made spectacular actual beds now that it's winter and it's fricking freezing at night. There's the one up on the highest shelf in the makeup room, and Merry usually commandeers that one.

I still have a cat tower to assemble. It's just over 5 feet tall with a sturdy base and two boxes, a sling, and 3 platforms with padded ledges. I don't kid myself that all four would be able to be on there at the same time harmoniously, but if Merry and Pippin grab that one, it leaves the one set-up not-on-the-floor Dome for Ari to curl up in.

The downstairs is open-concept, and I'd love to put an open shelving unit in the middle as a room divider-cum-storage because I can always use more storage space. I've found what I want at Ikea, but (of course) the color that I want is sold out online. I don't feel like schlepping 300+ km to the one store that has it in stock, so...I'll wait a bit more and see when/if my desired color comes back in stock. (Dammit.) I don't know if it would make the room look smaller or not, but I could definitely use the extra storage. I've already filled all six of my bookshelves, and one does not stop buying books simply because one has run out of bookshelf space.