Admittedly, I have not really felt the urge to blog (outside of sharing photos) lately. It's a little odd, because things have been happening!
It's Getting Closer (No. 1)
Surgery!
Last week, I was contacted by the clinic that will be doing my surgery for a few more questions. And once again, when I saw that email appear in my inbox, I practically levitated!
I don't think I've ever answered questions about my health so quickly, and once they responded, it became official: there is nothing for me to do now but wait to be given a date.
So very very exciting!
Mastodons Are (Once Again) Extinct
Once again, I have left Mastodon.
This time, my complaint was really more technical than anything else. The instance I had been on experienced a considerable technical issue whereby it was sort of defederated from all others (and vice-versa).
Nearly a week with no fix in sight and no capacity to even migrate to another instance, I decided to just close the account. I don't really blame the person running the instance or the people running the server, but it really showed my how brittle it all can be.
Perhaps the resiliency of a federated system is located in the overall, but if you happen to be in a little corner that experiences challenges, that might not be the experience.
If you use Bluesky and are interested in following me there, my account is here.
It's Getting Closer (No. 2)
Just three weeks to go!
Just three weeks and I will be in Toronto to visit my sister! I am very excited for us to have a few days of sister time and, as always, am quite excited to be in Toronto!
I don't know how we're going to fit everything we're thinking of doing in since we have a list that would take six weeks to get through in a three-day visit, but hey, you never know!
Setting Our Sights Further
As it has really come to set in that visiting the US is unlikely to be safe for me any time in the foreseeable future, Kathleen and I have begun to consider other places we might like to visit.
At the same time, we've been very passively thinking about the possibilities of, say, moving to another country. Being geographically attached to a US that looks like it does is a little frightening, but being in a Canada that appears to be well on its way to becoming a vassal state is even more so.
While any international move is purely in the realm of speculation and can be better thought of as evidence of privileged fantasy, it has also caused us to begin to make plans to travel outside of our usual Toronto-Montréal-Halifax corridor.
Our (vague, tentative) plan?
In 2027, Australia! 🇦🇺
In 2028, Japan! 🇯🇵
After that? No idea! There's a big world out there and we've always wanted to visit places like Thailand 🇹🇭 and Germany 🇩🇪 and Mexico 🇲🇽 and Italy 🇮🇹 and you know what? I've always heard that Uruguay 🇺🇾 is just lovely.
First things first though: I won't be going anywhere without a passport.
Now that's a critical step and a small achievable goal!