It's been up and down with temps and rain, and I know that's the main thing that brings on my fibromyalgia pain. But I've never had it this bad before. Imagine breaking your bone, and that's what my joints feel like. Earlier this week, it was every main joint in my body, both sides. I've managed to hang in there and it's down to being one side of my body screaming at me the most now... my right. It's so bad, I even googled to make sure I wasn't missing something important, like a stroke or something.

I'm not in a pot-ok state, and my hydrocodone meds weren't even taking the edge off this. Besides, I'm close enough to the "end of the month" that I'm afraid I'll have more month than pills at this point. I did take a sneak over to the state next to me and found a salve that I thought was the answer to all my prayers.

Within minutes of applying it to any hot spot that hot spot was hot no more... as long as it was a hot spot of pain caused by sciatica, scoliosis, or osteoarthritis. It even managed to kill the minor fibro pain. But even it can't keep up with the stuff going on right now. I'm a believer, and before this hit, was advocating for getting it legalized here. Legalization should be one of those no-question "duh" responses from anyone, especially after what I experienced. Keeping it illegal is keeping people in pain when they could be living lives without pain... and without any effects of smoking it. Gods... people can be so cruel by being so damned self-righteous.

Pain scales don't take into account this level of pain I have right now, and I have nothing in my repertoire to counteract it. I'm reaching out to anyone here on DU with chronic physical pain, no matter the reason, for help. The only thing else I've been doing is knocking myself out with tylenol PM to try to stay unconscious as much as possible. I'm not asking for expert help... but I know all of us chronic pain sufferers have our "tricks and ways" we use to try to beat back the worst of it. I'm just up against the point where I've been through everything in my book... and reaching out to try anything else. We have more rain coming in tonight.
Thank you...

it's either a picture of a new family member or one we've rescued. And yes... I am SO jealous of you who can post pics. I just can't seem to make it work for me!

The other reason, unfortunately, is to mourn a family member who has passed. I thought that's what I'd be doing this weekend, and to say I was panicking, heartsick, and at wit's end is to state an understatement.

I have a very tiny cat I rescued from a kill pound 20 years ago. She's a Japanese Bobtail (not a Manx). She's four pounds of spit and thunder with a puffball. While you can never put a price on such things, with her convoluted colon, we've spent thousands keeping her healthy and her colon flowing freely. And every penny, even those we scraped together, were given gratefully to the talented vet we'd been with for years. Izzie was that special to us.

Don't get me wrong, all my babies are special to me. Last year at this time, I lost 2 who were over 20 (one was 23) and another to a diabetic crisis in space of 3 months. I thought they were going to have to help ME over the Rainbow Bridge. Especially because of the one I lost to diabetes.

But when I had my hip replaced and was working from home, Izzie spent 8 hours a day laying across my arms while I worked on the computer. Then she led me to bed to lay down. When I worked the stairs during rehab, she was right there with me for every step.

The last two weeks, she's changed from being with us in the Family Room to staying exclusively on my bed. This past Monday, she didn't wake up when I did. I admit I poked her hard until she raised her head quite disgustedly at me. I should say she is now deaf as a post. Day before yesterday she sat herself in front of my shower while I was in there. She's never done anything like that... EVER before. I just knew I was on the last days with her, and was so heartbroken. But the day before, when she had gone into a coughing fit, I made an emergency appt with the vet here that I trust in this little town, and they fit me the next day.

We ran blood labs and x-rays. Izzie's got thyroid problems we're treating and the treatment is going well. Her lab numbers, even for her kidneys are great, I'm happy to say. She was a little dehydrated, so they gave her intravenous fluids, and then I told them to take her back for X-rays. It means I'm going to be scrimping a bit for a while, but the peace of mind they gave me made up for it. They showed NO masses anywhere in her little body. Her lungs are good, no masses in her stomach, and even her colon is good (which my hubby was thrilled with!). We're thinking now her coughing fit might have been either because of the dry heated winter air in the house (especially my bedroom), or even the fur from the other cats. There are at least 6 who sleep each night on the bed.

So... instead of writing an "in memoriam"... I'm writing a "Hallelujah! Bast be praised!" This little black puff ball cat that stole our hearts is not ready to give up yet, even at the ripe old Queen's age of 20, and her Mama ain't ready to give up on her, either. She's spoiled rotten, and will continue to be so for as long as she'll let me. Besides, she spent all last night curled in my arms around my neck while we both slept. How much more peace can there be at night for one person? To love and know you're loved just as much in return.

I only wish I could post a pic. (sigh)

I had a horrible mental and physical day yesterday... and seeing a "private message" waiting for me, all I could think of was I really screwed up bad.

Seeing someone gave me a heart sent a warm feeling of love and acceptance. Thank you for putting up with me through all the good... and bad... days. It means so much to me!

Due to a disability, I took early retirement 2 years ago. Dying of boredom, I decided to look for something I could do remote that didn't involve telemarketing. I've got 40 years experience in the IT field and Administration strongly interspersed between all that. The Admin is what I was stressing on Career Builder, as I didn't want to deal with the stress of IT.

You can probably guess what kind of notifications I got -- basically all IT based. However, there were a few Admin based. Followed up on a few of those and a couple looked really good. Interviewed with one, and an offer letter followed, which I accepted. Sounds good, right?

Turned out it was a scam. I'm so disheartened and depressed now I wish I never started this hunt.

When this first began, I checked things out via the BBB, did research via Google on career hunter scams, etc., and pulled up nothing. But my personal hackles got raised by some things that were said yesterday, and I went back online and did a search on this specific company with the word "scam" following it. That led me to a Facebook page and another couple of pages with information that matched exactly what had raised my curiosity. Finally, it led me to a page with a message from the company, itself, stating that people had been purportedly representing the company offering jobs and they were *not* with the company. That only by filling out an application on their website would you be considered for a position (which, btw, I consider to be very spoof-able).

Luckily, I "caught" this scam before they scammed me out of any money. They wanted me to send $350 for a piece of time tracking software. But I didn't find out before filling out a W-4, and I'm not sure how to protect myself against this. I'm open to suggestions. I'm also open to how to safely hunt for a job in this deadly age we're living in today.

Thanks... Sandy

I'm still having trouble having pix showing up automatically. I've got pix posted over at imgur. grabbed the link, and wanted to show you.

Luna is now 3-1/2 months old. I think he's going to grow into a big cat! He loves to ride around on my grandson's shoulder! Actually, the taller the person, the better. He loves my grandson, AND my nephew. My nephew is almost 6'7", and is currently his most favorite person in the world to "ride" (LOL). But, in worst case scenario, he'll even accept me (and I'm only 4' 9". Anyway, I doubt it'll show up automagically, but here's a pic of Luna and David from the other day at my Mom's 87th birthday party. https://imgur.com/3W5QHb8

To make it even worse, we lost our central A/C a couple of weeks ago and last week Summer finally decided to visit and STAY. We're under a Heat Advisory until Wednesday night, so I've been taking it easy and not doing much... as has most everyone in the household. We're trying to get a handle on what paperwork is needed to get help on affording a new system, or come up with the money. I've already lost 10 pounds and my doc is going to rip me good when she sees me again in a month. Oh, well... that's the way it goes. Meanwhile, even Luna, the new kitten is taking it easy. She's definitely decided the dog's sofa under the ceiling fan is the "cat's meow" and has made it his own special place lay these days. At night, he lays in bed with me, between me, the window and the fan. Did I tell you he's a pretty smart baby? (Proud mama here!) He's also getting Lexy wrapped around his little paw! After swapping loads, this is what I came into in the Family Room. Luckily, I had my camera close for once!







As you can see, Lexy really is a gentle giant, and Luna has her a big dog sister!

And I can't believe it.... the darned preview actually worked this time! Saints be praised, Hallelujah!!!!!!!!

[link:https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1389595294787565&set=a.945660075847758|

Well, shoot... I thought this was suppose to show automatically... what did I do wrong?

Full Title: How extremist Christian theology is driving the right-wing assault on democracy
Author: Paul Rosenberg
Citations include: Frederick Clarkson, among others
Commentary on [link:https://www.salon.com/2021/10/31/how-extremist-christian-theology-is-driving-the-right-wing-on-democracy/|

It's a (fairly long) article on the two types of Dominionism in American today, their history and how they are at work in today's Evangelical and Charismatic churches. Also, how they are taking charge of politics and hot button issues to press their agendas to positions themselves to be THE leaders and rulers of America in the near and far future. This is the Theocracy for which we're headed. You want to be scared? This is worse than any Tobe Hooper horror show!

I've only read thru half of it, and I've had to stop for the night. I'm re-reading the first half and the rest of it tomorrow. I recommend it just on the half I've read so far. It's important information for us to know to be prepared to fight against in order to retain our democracy. I've known for a long time we've been up against the Dominionists in the coming theocracy. Even I didn't know there were two branches. The "Reconstructionist" branch mingles religion and economy; the NAR is the one most of us who know of the Dominionists are most familiar with - the ones who tout Dominion over the "7 Hills" or "7 Mountains". They both advocate instituting old Testament Biblical law instead of laws such as we have today. IOW, the Sharia type law they've screamed about for years. This includes public execution of women who've had abortions.

This is where I stopped for the night. I can only read so much before the nightmares will take over...

I'm getting "Forbidden" on a lot of screens when I click on links. Doesn't make any difference what kind of link... could be to a story, to My Posts, even just clicking on the DU logo to go back to the front page. Completely blank page except for the word "Forbidden" in about 9 or 10 point sans serif typeface. It's happened enough, I cleared cache and cookies and when that didn't work I even opened up "Edge" (which I NEVER use). I figured since I don't use it, it'd be a clean browser. Still, the same thing happens. Is anyone else having this happen today? Has this happened in the past and I just didn't read about it 'cause it wasn't happening to me at the time? With today being the day of the Marches, and two mass shooting events separated by a matter of several hours, I just got concerned maybe somebody decided to take it out on us, too...?

Anyway, anyone who's experienced anything like this, let me know why and how to stop it. I'm using Windows 11, usually use Chrome. Using the latest updated version (as of last night, anyway). I've cleaned cache and cookies. Heck, I've even rebooted! (LOL)

Thanks for any info!

this morning prior to 8 am, believe it or not, this question... and she was actually up for it. I don't usually do things like this that early... but her answer was pretty darned interesting... especially given the times we currently live in.

Has anyone else been seeing what I call the "warring" religious commercials on TV? These don't ask for money? These ask you to come back to God (to their Church and/or version of God). Mostly, it's the Catholic Church and the latest Franklin (?) Graham doing them. Graham can go straight to hell, for all I care. He's done way too much harm with his relationship with Trump and Dominionism to EVER be taken seriously.

But it's the Catholic Church commercials that particularly had me going lately. You see, I remember the phrase... Peter, upon You will I build My Church.... being in the bible, spoken by Christ.

But Catholics didn't build their Church OR end up compiling their Bible on Peter. They used Paul. Paul was restrictive. Combative. Fascist. Controlling. Anti-woman. Peter was the exact opposite. Peter was progressive. He was nurturing. He believe clerics should marry. I look at the Franciscans who taught me at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, and I see some of what I expect Peter's teachings would have been.

Okay, some of this I've probably got all wrong, and I admit it. I'm not Catholic. I'm not Paulist. Hell, I'm not a Christian any longer, and when I was, my family was long ago Evangelical. So.... I'm about as far from Catholic as you can get. For the last 30 years, I've been Wiccan/Craft. For the last 20 years, I've just given up and called myself "Witch." As a woman, I've reclaimed that moniker as mine. And I've done it with pride.

But the whole Catholic Church saying they're Christ's church when they've NOT done the ONE thing Christ said they SHOULD have done just blows my mind for the pure hypocrisy.