Is it a glorious technological advance, or simply intrusive, that Safeway's pharmacy renews my prescription without me requesting it? Outta nowhere they texted that my refill was ready, three weeks before my supply of pills ran out, and then they texted 'reminders' that my prescription was ready for pick-up, every 48 hours for two weeks.

More annoyingly, they auto-renewed only one of my two perpetual prescriptions, so none of this even saved me any hassle — I had to call anyway.

Safeway has the lowest prescription prices in town, my doctor told me, but I'll cheerfully pay a surcharge to avoid them. My next refills will be from someplace where employees, not computers, handle the refills.

In addition to being the world's finest chef and host of a TV cooking show in his mind whenever anyone passes through "his" kitchen, my mentally or emotionally unbalanced flatmate Dean also plays LPs loudly, whenever he's home and awake.

Even his quietest music needs to be loud, because Dean is well past 70 and doesn't have much hearing left.

Rachmaninoff is cranked up to 11 as soon as Dean's awake, and he wakes up at about 3:00 in the morning. Throughout the day if he's home, there'll be big band sounds, early rock'n'roll, heavy metal, gospel music, the blues, old-style country music, movie soundtracks, and opera.

The walls are thick enough that I can't hear Dean's music in my room, but in the kitchen and bathroom it sounds like woofers and tweeters have been mounted.

And the floors are perhaps not as thick as the walls, for 2-3 times a month someone from the downstairs half of the house comes knocking on our upstairs door, demanding that "we" turn it down.

Robert or 'L' or I will explain that it's not "we," it's Dean, who doesn't usually even hear the knocking. When he does hear it, when confronted, he'll sadly turn the volume down for the duration of the day, but forget about it tomorrow.

All this came to a head when the landlord was in the house over the weekend. He was trying to fix a leak under the kitchen sink, while Dean's music shook the silverware and rocked the fridge.

"So this is what I'm always getting text messages about," the landlord said very loudly said to Dean, who seriously had no idea, until the landlord yelled, "Your music is much too loud!"

Dean turned it down, leaving it loud enough to still be annoying, and complained that he couldn't hear it at all.

"You need hearing aids, Dean," said the landlord, "or headphones," but that's a conversation all of us have had with Dean. He can't afford hearing aids and refuses to wear headphones or earbuds, so the house has a soundtrack.

And as soon as the landlord left, Carl Perkins and Aretha Franklin were at 90 decibels.

I can't hear it except when I come out of my room, and I rarely come out of my room, so Dean's music doesn't bother me much.

Dean himself, though, drives me nuts. He lives to talk. There's no chance of shutting him up unless I make a scene demanding that he shut up, but even that only shuts him up for a few days.

I'm on a diet, and my dinner is usually lettuce with a few toppings. If Dean comes into the kitchen while I'm prepping the salad, he'll watch, and comment, and ask questions about the salad.

All I do is snip open a plastic bag, pour the pre-shredded salad into a bowl, then open a Buddig bag of sandwich meat and scissor it into 18 bite-size bits of salad topping. That's all. Then I bring the salad into my room, where there's croutons and salad dressing and un-shredded privacy.

For the thirty seconds I'm making the salad, though, Dean will ask what dressing I'll be using, and will I put any cheese on the salad, and have I tried olives and onions, and is it always Buddig for the meat…?

I've tried ignoring him, and said, "Dean, shut up," and explained emphatically that my salad is no concern of his, but nothing prevents the next salad play-by-play.

Every morning since Monday has been very cold and wet and extremely dark, because some schmuck stole the daylight on Sunday, "saved" it, and won't give it back for months.

Glad my jacket has some reflective stripes, else the bus driver wouldn’t be able to see me to pick me up. Out the bus’s windows, it's only through the power of neon signs that there's any evidence of the bus's whereabouts.

And in the rain on Monday, the bus roof leaked onto me in my seat.

When I got downtown and hopped off the bus to catch the next bus, I forgot my umbrella on the floor, remembering it only when the raindrops splashed me, as the bus rolled away. Thought it was going to be a soggy morning indeed – ten minutes in the rain waiting for my bus, then ten minutes walking in the rain to get to the office.

Ah, but deep in my go-anywhere bag there was a back-up umbrella, this hands-free thing that snaps on your head.

It worked nicely, but once at work, despite twenty minutes of effort, it refuses to unfold,. Now it's leaning over my screens at work as a glare preventer, and I need a new umbrella as an umbrella.

News you need,
whether you know it or not

• Biden officials back Alaska oil project scorned as carbon bomb

• Silicon Valley Bank chief pressed Congress to weaken risk regulations

• States consider ending right on red to address rising pedestrian deaths

• "Colored School No. 4" in Chelsea moves closer to landmark status

• Facebook to end news access for Canadians if Online News Act becomes law

If so, Canadians will be much better informed.

• WordPress.com owner Automattic acquires an ActivityPub plugin so blogs can join the Fediverse

I didn't actually read that article, just thought the headline was hilarious gobbledygook.

• How climate change affects the spread of lyme disease

• Scientists confirm global floods and droughts worsened by climate change

• Columbus officer remains on duty while accused of drunk street racing

• No charges for Phoenix cops filmed kicking suspect to a pulp

• 11 East Cleveland police officers indicted on civil rights violations after video captures shocking brutality

• Florida DEA task force agent accused of buying illegal drugs

• Atlanta police explain why they need "Cop City"

(satire, but only barely)

• 5 states are considering bills that would classify abortion as homicide

• 18 states considering bills against drag performances

• Texas Republican introduces bounty hunting bill targeting drag queens

• The right offers a reason Silicon Valley Bank failed: Wokeness

• Gaming arcade deals with "Bible-thumping" backlash after porno shoot

• Iowa law forbids teachers from telling students "slavery was wrong"

• Colorado Catholic group spent millions on sensitive Grindr data to shame priests

• Judge who could ban abortion pill doesn't want the public to know when the hearing is

• 21 South Carolina Republican lawmakers propose death penalty for women who have abortions

• White House rebukes former VP Pence over homophobic jokes about Buttigieg

Mystery links
There's no knowing where you're going

• Click

• Click

• Click

• Click

• Click

My browser history
without the porn

• Biden "abandons millions of young people" by approving the Willow Project

• Before he was Nixon's wrong-hand man, John Ehrlichman helped destroy a famous integrated nightclub in Seattle

• Al Jaffee, now 102, is ready to be added to Mount Rushmore

• Nosy bastards read dead people's mail

♫♬ It don't mean a thing ♫
if it don't have that swing

• American Pie — Luther Wright & the Wrongs

• Fortunate Son — Creedence Clearwater Revival

• It's Finally Over — Country Joe & the Fish

• Once Upon A Time In The West — Ennio Morricone

• Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) — Arcade Fire

Eventually, everyone
leaves the building

• Barbara Bryant

• Alan Evans

• Dick Fosbury

• John Macrae III

• Rick Newman

• Joe Pepitone

• Pat Schroeder

3/15/2023

Tip 'o the hat to ye olde AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf's, CaptCreate's Log, Katameme, Looking for My Perfect Sandwich, One Finger Medical, Two Finger Magical, Miss Miriam's Mirror, Nebulously Burnished, RanPrieur.com, Voenix Rising, and anywhere else I've stolen links, illustrations, or inspiration.

Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Wynn Bruce, Joey Jo Jo, John the Basket, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and proved that the world isn't always shitty.