DICHOTOMY
My eyeballs hurt so badly (from rolling back into my scull) when we received an email at work on Friday, asking all bureaus and offices to take immediate steps to implement the name change from “Lake Ont*rio” to “Lake Am*rica”. Luckily, I personally don’t work on projects in this region and don’t have to “take immediate action”, but the fact that this is happening at all is too much. Aren’t there more important things to do than waste tax payer dollars on something childish like that just to get back at the Canada in a trade war that we (and with “we”, I mean tR*mp) started? It really feels like a bad, bad joke.
Working for the feds is an interesting conundrum these days. I still believe in my work and the people I work with, but being often linguistically lumped in with this administration is a really strange dichotomy. Can you do me a favor? Whenever you think of the US and its government, I’d like you to mentally compartmentalize and distinguish the federal workforce from this administration. They’re not one and the same (but then again, I am sure you know that).
PERIMENOPAUSE HUMOR
After Nicole recently posted her Favo(u)rite things: Perimenopause Edition, I sent her this Instagram Reel. Please enjoy and have a good laugh (about non-laughing matters)… because how else are we going to get through this phase?
I am seeing a lot of perimenopause posts lately (because you know how this goes: if you watch one reel, Instragram will suggest a gazillion more!), but I appreciate them… some are humorous, some are really educational, and some are even posted by men, who plead with other men to learn and understand what their partners are or will be going through in (peri)menopause. I love the momentum of this conversation around this topic!
As someone else so eloquently stated in one of the comments (which of course I now can’t find again to give appropriate credit): (Peri)menopause is like coming off a drug you’ve been on for 40 years. If that isn’t the perfect analogy, I don’t know what is.
Relatedly, not related to perimenopause but women’s health in general, I saw a Reel that advocated for using female mannequins for CPR training. Why? Because women are 14-27% less likely to receive help during cardiac arrest, because apparently (mostly) men are hesitant to administer help when breasts are in the way and they don’t want to (inappropriately) touch. Fellows, this is NOT the situation when you worry about inappropriately touching a woman’s chest if it saves her life! This is yet another example where health care is generally geared towards the male body.
HAPPY MAIL
I received not one, but two pieces of Happy Mail this week. Thank you Birchie, Kyria and Michelle for sending a sweet message from your meetup! Thank you Melissa for sending me a postcard from your trip to Noosa! Snail mail makes my day :)
FRUGAL WIN
I received my per diem reimbursement from my work trip a couple of weeks ago and it always ends up being a nice, little “bonus”. I usually don’t spend all my per diem money and get reimbursed for more than I actually spent, even though my colleague and I had a nice dinner every night after a long day’s work (and I think we deserved that!) The part that makes it work in our favor is that we stayed at a hotel with a pretty decent breakfast buffet, and we always took a packed lunch every day (because there was no time during the work day to go and pick up food). My colleague told me that way back when, they used to have to submit receipts for every meal when traveling, but I guess that paying someone to tediously review the receipts was “more expensive” than just giving a fixed “per diem” allowance.
DECIDEDLY NOT READY
It’s September and, like clock work, people get out their fall decorations and pumpkin spice everything is back at the store. The house in our neighborhood with the seasonal “Peanuts”-flags switched from “It’s Pool Time” to this Charlie Brown football flag.
I am personally not ready for fall yet. September is one of the most pleasant months around here. The temperatures drop a little but it still feels like summer. The days are getting longer (and mornings darker), but the sun still rises and sets at a reasonable hour. We don’t really anticipate any rain before October (but we’re expecting a very wet winter this year).
Are you ready for fall yet?
Natka
September 4, 2026 at 12:40 pmI nearly choked on my tea when I read that you guys were asked to switch lake names. I’ve been purposefully not reading the news – I’ve heard about another phase in the trade war, and then I heard my family joking about the lake name change. I thought that’s what it was – a joke! I feel like I am living inside SNL. This is madness. I hate it that no one inside the government is willing to say NO to the bully.
And aagh, perimenopause on top of political insanity… I hear you.