Good morning. It's been a long, rotten, horrible, no-good night on every front imaginable except for the fact our plumbing works. Yay!

Point 1. We still are getting fleas. And nobody knows why, includign pest control. So today they're going to see if the glue board they put in the chimney shows signs of critters, and if so, we somehow have a critter in our chimney despite it being capped and so forth.... If no critter, then we're a fuc*ing mystery and make Westworld look normal. Oh rapture.

Point 2. Mom may have Barrett's esophagus. And she may go blind in her left eye while we're waiting for eye doctors, but hey, the GI doc is always there... *sigh*

Point 3. I'm over 45, and my girl cycles are starting to flare into "Every 14 days, you'll hate being female" b/c hey, why only suck at *that* time, when ovulation can make life miserable, too?! (TMI, guys, I know, but seriously, if you have to share testicular issues, we'll survive, it's only fair, and, also, probably less gross.) You want a fibro trigger? Found it! *headdesk*

Point 4. Sciatic nerve pain because. Just because. ?!?! And that triggered "fibro feet". FOr me, that's a sense of hot dry pain in my feet, and I have to soak in cold water for "pretend" relief (numbing wears off), and that was me at 2 AM.

Point 5. I have fibro, it's flaring, and so is my PTSD, and while it is currently a mere 8*F right this minute (Oh, it's up to 12, wow)? Sunday will be around 65. Sure, no problem, I can handle that kind of... Mother Nature mood swing. Oh, and tomorrow? Freezing rain! EFF IT ALL I WANNA GET OFF...whatever crazy ride this is.derided for therapy when I still wake up screaming (literally, like the movies, poor Hubby nearly hit the ceiling the other night when I screamed awake, and I can't keep windows open in summer or neighbors hear me...) ???

So there. I whine, I whinge, I hurt, I hate this, and I am tired of being Little Miss Sunshine when I can't even go to my in-laws for Christmas, b/c that stupid PIN is at it *again*. Hubby texted his brother to have his wife (PIN) checked for early dementia and/or tumor, b/c in no universe does it make sense for her to think her 3-year-old kid will have the first clue what the battle of Midway was, and *will* prefer Legos, dammit! In what universe do toddlers not like building block toys?! PIN's. She is spending waaaay too much time in the Werid-iverse with SIL...

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOQ4JxPDXIU  Mel Torme and Judy Garland, the Christmas Song. Note that Judy messes up the lyrics and sings "if rainbows" instead of "reindeer", among other things, but it's cool anyway:-)

In 1653, Oliver Cromwell became "Lord Protector" of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and if you didn't like it, he killed you. Ollie needed some therapy. And a stiff drink. And a few other things, probably. His religion? Independent Puritan. His heritage? His umpteen-great-grandma was sister to Thomas Cromwell, a minister to Henry VIII of England. (The sister married someone, whose descendant changed the surname to... well, take advantage. Cromwell was also distantly related to Henry VIII via Jasper Tudor's daughter Joan, who would've been sister to Henry VII.) Oliver Cromwell was very good at military matters and at deeming himself, literally, "The Puritan Moses". During England's Civil War of 1648, Cromwell--then in Parliament---went Roundhead (Parliamentarian) and ended up signing the death warrant for the deposed King CHarles I.  He eventually dismissed the "Rump Parliament" of the Commonwealth of England, and said, "I'm it, but really, no, not a king, we aren't into kings, are we, no no no," and became the first Lord Protector....Really, it wasn't at all due to his doing, not a bit, it was wholly the idea of the post-rump Parliament. *Eyeroll* Right. And I'm Shakira. 

Meanwhile, he went haywire and hellfire all over anyone Catholic (Ireland) and confiscated lands, and to this day, Cromwell's name is *spat* in some parts of Ireland.

Somehow,d espite being this controversial and abrasive in life, Cromwell died of natural causes. Two years later, the monarchy (King CHarles) was back (The Restoration) and Cromwell's corpse was dug up, put in chains, and beheaded. In case nobody got the point that the king wasn't amused by revolution and the Lord Protector.  Vindictive much? Yikes.

Today in 1773, unnamed persons boarded English ships in Boston harbor, and thereupon dumped out 350 crates of tea. The act symbolically repudiated English taxation, domination of colonial matters, and, well, y'know. England. Colonists as a matter of patriotic pride switched to coffee, and therein lies the reason the US drinks coffee more than it drinks tea. Not a joke. Really is all down to the original Boston Tea Party. Americans drank coffee, Tories/English drank tea.

In sports, today marks the 1972 Miami Dolphins going undefeated (for a then-14-game season), being the first in the American football National Football League to do so. Go Fins!

And in 2002, Canada ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, aimed at reducing man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

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Thank you for bearing with my constant ranting.

Leo