Not Heidi
Not Heidi's Journalquestion re what a pro aquarium cleaner will do
I've previously asked about how to do a water change. I started to do it, but I got so anxious after removing maybe two gallons, and after one of my rasboras got too close to the hose intake, that I had to quit. I remembered to match the new water's temp to that in the aquarium, and to put Prime into the new water, but after that I had to quit. I didn't get any cleaning done, either, except for what little gravel cleaning I could do while removing two gallons.
Does anyone know if a professional fishkeeper - someone who goes to homes and businesses to clean large aquariums - would do a water change and clean a 15 gallon aquarium? I could surely use the help.
If you know, please reply. If you're a fishkeeper in northern Orange County, CA, and might be interested, please PM me. I'm not looking for someone who'd do it for free.
Thank you.
my niece - I'm scared
My sister and her daughter share a home with my wife and me. My niece, who stands 5'4", is heavier than I ever was (my high: 283).
I just saw her leaving the kitchen with her lunch: a roast beef & cheese sandwich, a hard-boiled egg, potato chips, a yogurt, and M&M's. She eats all hours - my bedroom is close to the kitchen; I hear the refrigerator door, the microwave, and clattering dishes & running water.
She won't listen to anyone, not me, not her mom, not my other sister.
My other sister said, "She's making her choices and there's nothing we can do, so just think happy thoughts!!" I guess it's all I can do - unless any of you has any ideas.
Do you keep fish? I need help.
I have a new aquarium, my first in two years, and it's time for the first water change. Thing is, I don't remember how to do a water change.
I recently had four months of ECT (electro-convulsive therapy) and it robbed me of my memory. I've watched YouTube videos, but none was very thorough and none gave me any courage. I'm nervous.
I don't even remember how or when to use the chemicals for testing the water.
I know this might sound ridiculous, but it's true. It's embarrassing, but I really need the help.
If you know of any online encyclopedias of fishkeeping that give step-by-step water change instructions, I'd be grateful if you'd post a link. Thanks.
question about outdated (?) technology - seeking advice
I have a pedal computer control (don't know what it's called; it's for writing [word processing]) and a docking station. I want to get rid of them, but I don't want to throw them away if they can be used.
Can they be used? Is there a forum or something somewhere where I can list them, whether for sale or for free?
Any advice helps. Thanks!
Shallow and Superficial
This post will reveal to you how shallow and superficial I can be. (I used to have a button reading "shallow & superficial." I wish I still had it.)
At age 60, I hereby reveal that I am a huge fangirl (fancrone?). Of whose, you ask?
Of Tyne Daly, goddess of stage, screen, and television.
I have a minor beef: I want to know who decreed that Tyne Daly should wear a perm all through the last season of Cagney and Lacey (CBS, 1982 - 1988). During that series, she was so attractive in the ways they styled her short hair. In that final season, she wasn't unattractive, but that perm . . . ugh.
So there. Fancrone lives! Thank you for listening.
BTW, if you have any interest in watching the series, skip seasons One and Two. The series really came into its own (in my opinion) in season Three and took off from there.
Fancrone signing off.
Looks like I'm going into the psych hospital
I can't get a handle on my thoughts, can't organize them or explain to anyone what I'm feeling or why I can't participate in life like an average person.
I was hospitalized a couple of years ago, primarily to try to work out the trauma of having to take almost all of my pet cats to the humane society (we had many and were moving cross-country). I don't recall any work I did toward getting over that trauma - and it's not exorcized. So I guess I will be working on that again.
Mostly I need a safe place to let my feelings out. It's not safe here at home because they are too extreme. My sadness is impossible for anyone to understand - including myself. My depression is such that I can't understand it. I don't know how to deal with it.
All I have to do is talk to my psychiatrist and get her take. I know I could go check myself in, but I don't have the nerve for that.
A question for aquarium aficionados
If you've been reading my stuff lately, you know my mental health is ruling me in a most unpleasant way. I'll elaborate if you need to get caught up.
Before I began the ECT sessions earlier this year, I got a new aquarium. To my shame, I have not been able to keep up with taking care of it. I have three fish and no plants or decorations. Who knows what the existence of a captive fish is like, but when you don't even have any plants, well, I imagine sheer boredom & misery.
I'm asking if anyone knows of:
A service that will do all the upkeep of a small aquarium (20 gallons), including water changes, planting, etc.
-or-
Some kind of organization that will take my fish and find them a good home.
Weird? Maybe. But that's where I am these days.
Please let me know if you can think of anything that might help me. Thank you.
Pharmaceutical prices are out of control.
I know, I'm not telling you something you don't know.
Walgreens sent me a text to say one of my psych drugs is ready. Their site says it'll cost $99.60. That's ridiculous. I figure someone at the pharmacy forgot to run it through my insurance.
So I decided to go to the pharmacy tomorrow morning and talk to Leah, their most fantastic pharmacist (who doesn't mind clerical tasks). I know she'll get right on the phone to my insurance company and straighten it out, and I'll be able to leave Walgreens only $7.50 poorer.
Having made that decision, another thought occurred to me: in case the insurance company is intractable, I'll use Good Rx. (Good Rx is a website that somehow manages to affix reasonable prices to expensive meds.)
With Good Rx, my meds would cost $399.00.
If you heard someone screaming in Orange County, CA, at about 7:20 pm this evening, that was me.
What would you give (of whatever) if you could meet who (anyone)?
Me? I'd have my right little finger surgically removed if I could meet *sigh* Tyne Daly. She is a goddess. If you don't know who she is, ask.
Who do you want to meet? What would you give?
PS I'm not posting this question literally. This is fantasy.
ECT does not seem true to its promise. Damn this retrograde amnesia.
WARNING: THIS GETS HEAVY.
I started ECT on May 15. Two treatments remain: August 9 and September 6. I posted about this in the Lounge on June 21. https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181839933
I have been told by many mental health professionals that my depression will lift and my memory will return. If I had to give my verdict today, it would be one word: bullshit.
It's bad enough that I am experiencing no relief, not at any level, from my depression.
But the retrograde amnesia is killing me. There's not enough time on earth for me to list all that I've forgotten, but it ranges from little things (how to get somewhere I've driven to a thousand times) to astonishingly huge things. One of these was that I had to ask my best friend, whom I've known for nearly 30 years, and who lives a thousand miles away, if he attended my 60th birthday party. (He did, of course.)
WARNING: HEAVY
But the thing that's laid me out flat this week is this: I could not remember how my mother died. I remembered when: December 10, 1974. But not how. So, knowing it could be a downer to get this "news," I asked my eldest sister to tell me. My mother took her own life. My sister gently reminded me of this, including describing an incident the night before mother's death - which, all things considered, I am absolutely shocked to have forgotten.
--------‐---
I must insert here that something good came from my mother's suicide: my lifelong vow that I will never take my life. I've been on this miserable road since 1986 and I have never contemplated suicide, thanks to my mother.
Many of my fellow DUers have been very supportive as I've been going along with ECT, and I can't express my gratitude adequately. Thank you all, and thank you for reading this post. Only now do I realize that this essay has been searing within me for days.
Profile Information
Name: K.J. HeidebrechtGender: Female
Hometown: Huntington Beach, CA
Home country: United States
Current location: Fountain Valley, CA
Member since: Wed Jun 19, 2019, 03:15 PM
Number of posts: 1,343
