Karen C @gamehawk@mastodon.social

Oh hey, today was our lockdowniversary (IIRC).

We went to go see Onward (Pixar), and that was our last time out in public. The 11th was my first curbside grocery order.

*schedules "get arrested for linewarming" trip to Georgia in November 2022*

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/us/politics/churches-black-voters-georgia.html

I am used to watching trends here on the East Coast arrive for family back in Kansas but I am here to report that Philly has discovered pickleball, which became a thing in Wichita when I lived there (so at least pre-2015). (Technically, Philly *media* has discovered pickleball, so the lag is probably only about five years.)

It's been almost a year since my last Somber Letter but I've just gotten the first "We're still gonna require masks" one (REI, of course). Haven't gotten one from JoAnn yet 😒

(NJ isn't dropping the mask requirement so it doesn't affect me specifically, but I still like to know any national corps I patronize are Doing The Right Thing.)

Computers remain a mistake: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/03/at-least-30000-u-s-organizations-newly-hacked-via-holes-in-microsofts-email-software/

Literally this cat is smart enough to perceive my fingers as tools to get treats, and smart enough to pull them over there with his paw, BUT NOT SMART ENOUGH TO JUST REACH IN AND GET THE TREAT WITH HIS OWN PAW.

We have a little cat activity board (https://www.trixie.de/heimtierbedarf/en/shop/Cat/Activities22/StrategySnackToys2/Fun+Board+Strategy+Game/?card=25660 ) that we put treats in, and it kind of keeps the cats occupied. A little.

Poppi has been pestering me for treats so I put some in. He mashes his face down it but can't bite the treat, so he comes back to me. And hooks my arm with his paw and pulls me toward it. I point to the treats. He watches Olivia fish some out with her paw. He comes back to me and gently hooks my finger with his claw and tugs it over to the board. WHAT

Southwest offered us a 9-hour flight to Wichita by way of Orlando for Christmas, and I jokingly said to west-coast BIL/SIL that we should just all meet at Disney instead (impractical because Wichita family is non-flying for medical reasons) and long story short, SIL and I are looking at an October Disney trip.

Have not convinced @sunsetmoth to give in to The Mouse though. I guess she's going to skip the WandaVision finale tomorrow since it's on Disney+.

Unpopular opinion: Dr. Seuss isn't actually very good.

(I do have some nostalgia for Original Grinch and Horton cartoons, but generally his art style just weirds me out. I also don't like noodle-arm animation styles, for much the same vaguely-articulated reasons.)

what https://thehill.com/homenews/media/541225-bbc-apologizes-for-interview-with-fake-cory-booker

OKAY so I just pulled my DL out of my wallet and a combination of the watermark and the wallet window meant I was misreading the expiration YEAR which is... 2023, not 2020.

I feel like "You are not eligible to renew your license yet" would have been a more informative response than "You are not eligible to renew your license online." 🤦‍♀️

Alternate possibility: my license is suspended, which I'm pretty sure I would have known about? The FAQ page mentions uninsured vehicles and "What if I no longer own the vehicle" and I wonder if they still have the van (which we got rid of in early 2019 and, admittedly, have let insurance lapse on) listed on my account somehow? I feel like we would have gotten some mailings on the subject before *now* if that were the case though.

The driver's license renewal site tells me I'm not eligible to renew online and sends me to the appointment system (next available: May) which tells me I'm not eligible to make an appointment because I should renew online.

Cars were a mistake.

Computers were a mistake https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2021/03/02/hafnium-targeting-exchange-servers/

Happy start of Women's History Month, can we do this?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-needs-to-rename-the-james-webb-space-telescope/

Car is on the trickle charger now. Battery is four years into a five-year warranty, and also the running lights came on at first (whyyyyy, car?) so that may have contributed to its temporary death. Although I feel like we'd have noticed that, whereas the dome light is surprisingly hard to notice given the illegally heavy tint on the windows (Mom was gangsta).

I thought the thing had a timer on the dome light for such an occasion but the electrical system on it has always been a bit... eccentric.

Me: All RIGHT gonna hit Costco as soon as it opens, it's gonna be a productive day...

Car: Yeah hi one of my doors was left unlatched Saturday night 💀

"The three car garage is just huge for those car enthusiasts out there or for your other hobbies like woodworking, painting, shopping, you name it or just rent it out"

yes thank you real estate agent, I totally needed a three car garage to have space for my shopping hobby

Indecisive button pusher meme, and one is labeled "change the name to avoid confusion" and the other is "leave it because maybe it'll sell better because of the confusion/humorous ambiguity."