While I love the term washroom, I had a bit of a struggle with Canada’s approach to public toilets. I’m used to stopping for a snack and being able to pee. But cafes with only counter service don’t seem to offer customer restrooms in Victoria, so we had to learn some new planning skills.
Due to the hand-drawn nature of these comics and the overwhelming time-suck they describe, I have not transcribed these comics. I apologize. If you need the transcription, please drop me a line and I’ll gladly put energy into it when I can!
Buuuuut I haven’t heard from Goodway about that auto-fill that should be ready… (glances at calendar) yesterday…
ARGH
RANDOM TIME: After something like 15 years we’ve finally run out of Agricola score sheets (including using the columns from 2 player games) and due to a lack of non-fuzzy downloadables I made a spreadsheet / PDF.
Do you play Agricola? Do you need to print more sheets?
Have at it. Free Printable Agricola Scorecards for 8.5×11 / fit to size on your standard printer. Available in JPG and PDF.
After my doggo died, I stopped walking to the bus stop. It wasn’t like she’d joined me this year- so it must have been grief that was stopping me wanting to go and chat with the other parents at the school bus- but the result was I was feeling a bit more isolated than usual. My close friends are all super busy and I think I underestimated the bus-stop value. So when one of my D&D kids’ parents said there was a wiffle ball gathering at a local field, with popsicles, on the last day of school, I decided to go. It ended up being incredibly community-affirming and nostalgic and I’m glad I did.
Transcript
It started out just me and my kid. Another mom had told me there was a little gathering at the park on the last day of school, with wiffle ball, but we were a bit early and there were only a few kids playing soccer.
Panel: I bend down, wearing a hat, next to my cane, and say OOF as a ball hits the ground in front of me. My kid, holding a wiffle bat, says “Ugh, I suck at throwing.”
Panel : After I threw my 10th “ball”… My kid runs off saying “I’m gonna go see if that’s my friend.”
Panel: …we picked up a classmate from the soccer game. Another child high fives my kid. Phew.
Panel: My kid piutches low and says “Ugh, can you pitch any better?”
Panel: A couple of older kids in hawaiian shirts joined in. “Can we play?” “Yeah!” “Can ya pitch?”
Panel: One of the new kids is pitching. Ball! Ball 2! Ball 3! Ball 4! Walk it.
Panel: The other kid says “Let me try” and takes the ball.
Panel: He pitches. Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! I am watching from afar.
Panel: I call, “Y’all want me to pitch?”
Panel: a big YES from all 4. I don’t know that I”ll be any better but they’ll stop blaming each other.
Panel: I was NOT much better- “Whoops!” my pitch bonks into a kid’s butt. From off panel comes “hahahaha butt ball”
Panel: But some more kids showed up to pitch and eventually I was made redundant (mostly). A line of kids chat behind the batter. I call from the sidelines, “BACK UP BATTERS! Someone’s gonna get hit in the mouth!”
Panel: A blond kid in wraparound sunglasses says smugly, “Me! I am!”
Panel: I look sarcastically at him. “Not on my watch, random kid. BACK. It. UP.”
Panel: He scoots backward quickly. “Bet.”
Panel: The sunglasses kid hits a ball – POP! The pitcher says “Ahh get it to first!” The batters sya “Let’s GO!”
Panel: This is not a field that’s been kept up. It’s just grass with a batting cage on one corner. Kids just keep showing up. It’s very nostalgic and I’m enjoying it….
Panel: Safe! Out! He was totally safe~! nah uh! HOw?? Saaaafe!
A kid approaches me, sitting on my cane. “Um, someone’s mom? We need bases.”
Panel: I rummage through my backpack. “I got….”
Panel: I pull out two cloth grocery bags. I am proud. “GROCERY BAGS!”
Panel: After a bit….
Panel: Another kid joins. “Hey!” “We got Tim!”
Panel: and another – “HI!” “go bat!”
Panel: There were enough kids to actually play. The panel shows a bunch of kids yelling OUT, Safe! MLB RULES! to the right, a man bikes up the path with pizzas on his handlebars.
Panel: And then maybe too many! The field is full, the pitcher says “I just need a warmup!” “Let me pitch!” “It’s my turn!” The batters are again standing too close to the batter up. I say, “BATTING TEAM: If you don’t back up I’m gonna make you back up!”
Panel: Another kid approaches me. “Ollie’s mom, will you go yell at someone?” It takes me a minute to recognize this child who has grown about a foot since the class trip in April.
Panel: I shrug. “Uh, sure, why?” “He keeps stealing 2nd base.” “I thought it was MLB rules?” “No, like…”
I look out to the field to see some kids with a frisbee literally stealing 2nd base – the bag we’ve been using is around their ankle as they head out to the soccer area.
TO BE CONTINUED
A couple months ago some friends and I took a trip to the coast. In early spring the PNW weather is either absolutely horrid (cold, spitting rain, high winds) or lovely (60s and sunny) and you never know what you’re getting – so our favorite hotel often has a deal. I guess this time it was for king rooms so we ended up sharing beds, which is fine except that some of us suck at sleeping. This time me and another bad sleeper shared and I think it worked out for the best.
TWO BAD SLEEPERS, one KING BED
It’s girls’ weekend and we’ve got 2 king rooms for 4 people.
No. Edit. Hate the phrase ‘girls’ trip’ – I’m going to the coast with some of my favorite women.
4 white brunette women stand smiling together.
Panel 2: Woman A: “I should share a room with the heaviest sleeper because I might cough.”
Arrow to Woman B: Does not want to volunteer but usually does.
Arrow to woman C (dotted outline around white silhouette): Sleeps heavy but hasn’t arrived to say so.
Me: I wear earplugs and am used to waking up?
Panel 3: Woman A and I turn down the sheets of the bed. She says: “Seriously, I hope I don’t wake you.
Me: “Seriously I always sleep bad at hotels night 1 so whatever. “
Her: “Fair, me too.”
Panel 4: Dark, both of us with eye masks in bed. Her, thinking: “Kinda need to toss but don’t want to wake her. Me, thinking: “Kinda have to pee but don’t want to wake her.”
Panel 5. Still dark. Me, sweating, thinking “god it’s hot in here.”
Panel 6: Dark. Her: COUGH COUGH
Me, thinking, taking off my eye mask “Now’s my chance!”
Panel 7:She goes to the bathroom, coughing. I go to the window, tug it open. SEA AIR wafts in.
Panel 8. Both back in bed, still dark. She, turning: Slowest adjustment everrrrrrr. Me,: gentle scratch.
Panel 9, slightly lighter. Both sleeping . Still.
IN THE MORNING
BOTH: I hope I didn’t wake you… hahaha
Text Message from 1 hr ago: On the beach come meet us!
Her: 7am! Ug!
Me: we SOOOO picked the right rooms.
End.
Between my kiddo’s birthday, the last week of school, and taking on too much paid work, I biffed it on a comic this week. That’s the spoonie in Spoonie Parent Journal.
I’m looking forward to adapting the notes I took at the end-of-school block party (because I couldn’t muster the energy to be social with grown ups… not when I spent the first 75% of the evening umping wiffle ball and didn’t realize it was like… a social thing lol)
Jeez now it’s almost 4pm, I haven’t had lunch, it’s my anniversary, and I was supposed to go to Costco and pick up meds. DURP.
Anyway to keep myself accountable to posting every week and remind myself WHY I didn’t make a ‘real’ thing:
Here’s a collage of what I’ve been up to.
Transcript: Hanging out with friends, including puppy friends (a baby and two puppies pictured)
Making a Jack Sparrow Costume (my kid bends over a worktable wearing part of a pirate costume)
FOR THE REN FAIRE (my kid and I make faces in costumes, my kid pets a horse with an acrobat on its back
Absolute Chaos block party on the last day of school… (a crowd of kids hang around a pinata) … during which my kid and I instigated a wiffle ball game and I drew a comic outline about it, coming next time.
I also did a lot of paid work and relettered CHAOTIC GOOD AND THE BANNED BOOKMOBILE because duh, webtoons needs bigger text than a printed book. OOPS.
Along with my various Long Covid maladies, I have some significant hearing loss in my left ear (I was lucky I’d started to diagnose it before Covid, because it gave me access to some Long Covid treatments that would have taken much longer otherwise!) Anyway I find myself guessing sometimes, especially if my kid has been talking a lot about things like … lemonade… and my response isn’t crucial. Enjoy.
Transcript: Panel 1: My son and I are standing on a busy street corner. I am a white woman with short brown hair and walk with a cane. He is a 10 year old white kid with brown hair. He is saying “I’ve never been to Starbucks before, how come we never go there? this lemonade is really good.” He continues, as a car VROOMS by, and I hear “Mrhfm mfefm rrmmm.”
Panel 2: I look down at my son smiling and say, “I love you too honey.”
Panel 3: He looks up at me, bemused, and says “did you say ‘I love you’?” “Yeah.”
Panel 4: his face looking up at me with an odd look. “Oh. I love you too. But I really said…”
Panel 5, text only: “You’re Bumpy.”
Panel 6: I stare into space confused. Blink, blink blink.
Panel 7: A green sound effect – “The walk sign is on. The walk sign is on.”
Panel 8: He pulls me across the street. “No, on your arm, see? Bumpy.”
I say: “I’m going to say ‘You’re bumpy” when I mean “I love you” from now on.”
Kid: “I love you bumpy mom.”
END
A new strain of Covid is showing up and it sounds like it’s a doozy. I mean, if the Today Show is suggesting masks, something’s up.
https://www.today.com/health/coronavirus/new-covid-variant-nb181-symptoms-rcna208189
I read today that 50% of cases are ASYMPTOMATIC but STILL CONTAGIOUS.
That means even if people stay home when they’re sick (and we know that’s not a guarantee)… they’re quite possibly infecting you without knowing it. I know the world has said that “only vulnerable people will fall by the wayside”… but if you have lungs and depend on them for being alive, you are vulnerable to Covid 19.
TRANSCRIPT:
A new strain of Covid is showing up and it sounds like it’s a doozy. I mean, if the Today Show is suggesting masks, something’s up.
https://www.today.com/health/coronavirus/new-covid-variant-nb181-symptoms-rcna208189
It brings up some FEELINGS.
I will never forgive the CDC for normalizing the idea of “letting the vulnerable ‘fall by the wayside’”.
[Image: A road winds down among some beautiful countryside. Far in the distance a shining city is labled “back to normal”. Many people walk towards it. An elder swoons prettily onto the side of the road in the shade saying “Ahh, I’ll just fall to the wayside!”. A child sits next to the stream and their parent hands them an inhaler: “Don’t worry, we can sit on the wayside.” A fat person in a mask says to their companions, “I’m vulnerable, will you mask up to protect me?” The others reply, “Hmm, but look at the nice wayside all ready for you!”]
It’s kind of a pretty term.
And they use it on purpose, because if they described what they really meant…
[Image: A road winds through dead countryside, with piles of bodies and bones to either side. Far in the distance a filthy city pumps out clouds of smog. A sign says “corporate factory jobs”. People are running and pushing to get there, wearing blinders or holding their hands to the sides of their heads.A child falls off the road crying “help me” and a person coughing in the ditch tries to catch them. A parent tells their own child on the road, “Don’t worry, it doesn’t make healthy kids sick.” A fit white man shoves a fat woman to the wayside, “Get outta my way.” An elder falls in a pile of bones and asks a wan looking middle aged femme, “Where are we?” She responds, “We call it the wayside.” A young man holds on to the road but is falling into the pit: “But I ate clean!” Another road person strews rocks and says maliciously “don’t trip!” Another says “I thought they said it was over with the vax!”]
Think I’m exaggerating?
The NYT has reported that over 400 million people have or have had Long Covid.
None of these studies are one-offs- each of these patterns has been building since 2020 – I know because that’s when I got sick and started paying attention.
-Heart Attacks and strokes up significantly (40%??!) in “working age” adults : https://www.cedars-sinai.org/newsroom/covid-19-surges-linked-to-spike-in-heart-attacks/
-Stillbirths – significantly heightened risk:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7047e1.htm
-Kids ‘Long COVID is common, affecting up to 10% to 20% of children with a history of COVID-19. With almost 6 million US children potentially affected, this is higher than the number of children with asthma, the most common chronic health problem in children.’
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2834486
-Doctors calling a variety of ‘rarely diagnosed’ diseases “tik-tok sickness” because suddenly everyone’s coming in asking to be tested- and they’re clustered around POTS MCAS, ME/CFS, neurodivergence, connective tissue disorders, and autoimmune diseases – all under studied and more likely to affect women – and all sharply on the rise since 2020. Patient to patient information is crucial as many family medicine and ER docs dismiss ALL of these symptoms as“anxiety”.
There ARE treatments for some of the conditions Covid triggers… if you can get a doctor to take you seriously. (Luckily, mine keeps up with the literature).
The thing is, we’re ALL vulnerable to Covid. It’s not a thing one brings upon themselves or can prevent. The Long Covid forums are FULL of previously healthy people of all ages who now can barely walk to the toilet without sweating and blacking out… and plenty of people who are completely bedbound or dead.
“Vulnerable” to Long Covid and falling by the Wayside(™) includes being overweight, elderly, having ADHD, being poor, being a person of color, menstruating, having a family history of heart disease, being pregnant, and even being trans or bi, according to a study I saw today. And now it includes having Long Covid or prior ‘mild’ infections. Might as well say “If you have lungs and depend on blood to live, you’re vulnerable to Covid 19.”
A partial population of the wayside, each someone I know with a max of 1 degree of separation:
Rushed to the ER with myocarditis; one year later, had a stroke (late 30s)
Anxiety and depression, uncontrolled ADHD
New Allergies, whole family on special diet to avoid anaphlaxyis
Stillborn at 39.5 weeks
Persistent chest pain and tightness
Debilitating menstrual symptoms
Died with dementia and CPOD, neither needed before 2 covid infections
Suddenly Pre-diabetic
Mostly Bedbound
Walks with a cane due to POTS
Brain damage / dementia symptoms (late 30s)
Blacks out after lunch
Can’t run a block some days, high anxiety
Previously did an hour a day of cardio, now fatigued walking several blocks
Looks like she aged 20 years in a month
Died of acute Covid
Only a very few of these people have a formal “long covid” diagnosis. Several were told “could be a post-viral” but not what virus. Most of them give me a skeptical look if I mention long covid. I mean, it doesn’t really matter… there are zero approved treatments for it… SO…
Try not to get it.
Mostly this means going back to masks.
I know, I know.
Now would be a great time to find an N-95 or KN-95 that you are comfortable in.
I like the ugliest kind best – duckbills – because they’re the most breathable and I like the wide and non-digging head straps.
There are also these shapes
And earloops on KN-95s.
CAN-99s are also great!
Find something you can put up with and I swear to you they work.
I’ve stayed healthy on multiple cross-country flights of 6+ hours, and San Diego Comic Con, which was as far as I can tell a solid square mile of people, and multiple people hacking in every room. I forgot to get sip valves but I did the
BREATH
DRINK
Pooooof/pull trick and didn’t get sick.
On a plane, I use these with nasal saline or spray (keeping tissues hydrated protects you even if it’s not ‘medicated’)- and a mini air purifier if I have to take the mask off for eating and drinking. (This is what I pretend it does, IDK if it’s really helpful, but I haven’t gotten sick yet).
There are exposures I can’t control – my kid going to school and camp, for instance. I’m going to restart oral probiotics and nasal spray, possibly h1 antihistamines for him.
And I’m going to get another Novavax booster asap (didn’t mess with me like the MRNAs did!).
None of this is fun. It’s boring and annoying. But it’s less boring and annoying than Having Long Covid. IIn February 2020, I wasn’t one of the people expected to ‘fall by the wayside’… but I did.
Don’t join me.
As previously mentioned, I’ve been trying to recover from bad energy deficit from exactly a month ago. I thought I was there and then I had two setbacks (one chicken-related, on emotional). I don’t have the spoons to deal with the emotional situation right now so you get CHICKEN VIGNETTES!
Not shown is the fact that the lil peepers knocked over their water dish so many times that the cardboard box started to rot under the litter (and we didn’t realize it until the smell got WAYYYY beyond “chicken poop”) so we had to do a whole transfer. However for next time we now know a dog crate is a pretty solid brooder box and we will use it instead of cardboard. We also had to expand the outdoor coop and just finished it on Sunday so these lil menaces can go out ASAP.
Without further ado. Read from the center in a spiral. (I don’t know why it had to be a spiral but I had strong feelings about it)
Transcript: 7 Weeks of Chickens in the Bathroom (or: where my spoons are disappearing)
Day 1: Child holds baby chick. “They’re so cuh-yooooot!”
Day 4: Adult holds baby chick upside down while three others peep loudly. Child: “Mom, you’re hurting them!” Mom: “I have to check their butts for poop so they don’t die. You wanna do it?” Child: “Ew no”
Week 2: Child, looking at awkwardly half-feathered chicks. “They’re already not so cute.” Mom: “They grow up fast, kiddo. At least they can poop on their own.”
Week 2.5: 4 chicks being chaotic and getting on top of their food and water containers.
Week 3: A hand carefully places a stick in the box. The chicks squawk and crowd into a corner, dramatically peeping. Mom: “Jeez it’s just a stick to sit on.”
24 hours later: The chicks are still crowded into a corner away from the stick. A dotted line marked “safe zone”, stick marked “scary stick”. Child: “Mom, you made a bad perch, they’re still scared of it.”
Week 4: The chicks are up on their food and water and they’re clearly able to jump out of the box. Mom: “Good morning, you need a lid.”
Week 5: Mom and kid are sitting in bathroom with chicks ranging around. Child is petting one. Mom is cleaning up poop from another. Mom: “Y’all poop too much.” Child: “aw but they’re fluffy.”
Week 6: Mom sits on a footstool in the bathroom. 4 chicks are fluffily asleep on her lap. There is poop on the floor. Mom, smiling: “I guess we’re friends now.”
Week 7: Mom is opening the enclosure to feed the birds and one jumps up on her shoulder and looks at her. Mom: “Uh i think it’s outside time.”
I overdid things at the end of April and am still “in the hole” as far as energy goes. It’s so hard to climb back from deficit when my baseline is already so limited. Plus we got a new round of baby chicks which are living in our second shower, and they’re cute but man do they serve up extra chores.
This episode is an illustration of how one unexpected parenting moment sent me down an energy deficit on track to last a month or more – between “can’t skip” items like taking my kid to the doctor and “won’t skip” activities like going away for the weekend with my girlfriends, I haven’t had the solid week of doing nothing I really need.
COMIC TRANSCRIPT
Pacing, the most useful “tool” in the ME/CFS care kit (ok, the only tool), is hard to do when you’re a parent. Really if you’re anyone, but parenting doesn’t quit just because your energy levels bottomed out suddenly.
So how did I get here, despite working hard to PACE?
Let’s use the SPOONS metaphor. Most days, I can reliably do my self care (meds, food, shower, basic parenting, very light tidying) plus “One Thing”. So I have one spoon a day reserved for “not optional” and if all goes well, I get another spoon, MAYBE two, for an activity beyond.
My partner went out Friday, so I planned a movie night and early bedtime with the kiddo. Just before bed… my kid coughed so hard he puked in the sink…
…which clogged and required two rounds of Drano.
So much for early bedtime.
Saturday the kiddo was still not feeling great… and I had to clean the house because…
Sunday was my husband’s birthday party.
Taco Catering for 20 was WAY TOO MUCH for the 8 RSVPs.
So after picking up all the food at noon…
…I meal-prepped 3 gallon bags of freezer burritos to make sure we didn’t waste food (and money).
*sigh*
Do you want a taco and a cookie for lunch?
???NO???? To a COOKIE???
He’d been home all week with a cough and fever, but he seemed better after resting Saturday.
BRB, checking my kid.
Honey can you come get some lunch?
Alive, but asleep. At 2pm. With a house full of noisy people.
Fuck.
He has a fever? How long?
Friend who is a family medicine practitioner.
I know it’s a pain but you should take him in and get checked for pneumonia.
DAMMIT
PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY
(really just chatting, we’re middle aged with kids)
Gentle!
Baby Chick
4-yo nibling
Throw it auntie!
1-yo nibling
Pbbbbbbt!
He loves it
Ginger ale + taco
That was a good sleep. Can I stay in my bed?
Tea
Tacos
Paper plates (luckily I don’t have to really host… everyone knows to just help themselves in the kitchen or whatever)
Low key party success!
7pm SO MUCH GUAC
Dad n Kid Time
*TONIGHT ON BATTLEBOTS*
7:30pm
So what’s for dinner?
Is that a joke?
No…?
I have been trying to feed you the $300 worth of delicious tacos for like 8 hours and I just got ALL OF IT PUT AWAY.
I thought that was lunch.
BEDTIME.
Up to this point I have felt ok (not getting whatever germs the kid has – he’s been coughing since February and I’ve assumed it’s not contagious). But as soon as I sit down…
UGH
Swollen glands.
Elderberry
Olive Leaf and other shit
Advil
Qi gong
No alarm
Electrolytes
Still I wake up Monday feeling sore-throaty.
BOO.
This doesn’t necessarily mean I’m germ-sick. One of the joys of ME/CFS type Long Covid is that I get flu symptoms from over-exertion. Think swollen glands, body aches, crushing fatigue, even temperature regulation issues.
But I have to take the kid to Zoom Care (and then an X-Ray at a different location)-
Power struggle over swallowing nasty antibiotic liquid…
…and keep up with basic life tasks like taking all my own pills and eating food. Things my partner can’t shoulder for me.
And since I’ve been feeling better and more stable, I’ve made plans! Wednesday I’m supposed to attend the kid’s school’s STEAM fair and bring a lesson on folding ‘zines, which isn’t fully prepped. And, I have a weekend away planned on Friday that I have been looking forward to for literal months.
And I’m struggling to rest the way I know I must if I’m going to make it there.
I *really* miss my pup.