MIgratory Big Vax Playdays

Let Cold and Flu season carry on: Allan is officially super-duper vaccinated. As our esteemed founding father, Lin Manuel Miranda, so eloquently put it: I ain't gonna miss my... shot! And I assure you, we've gotten them all. 

 This has been quite the quarter for Allan-related vaccinations. Between her 11 year old checkup, a September followup, and todays' Flu and COVID, we've been keeping busy with - I believe - 5 vaccinations or so. I can't even remember them all, but I'm pretty sure her autism is effectively topped up for a couple of years at any rate. 

The COVID and Flu are a bit of a triumph after various shenanigans in which we were contacted last minute to be informed that one or the other pediatric formulations weren't available just then. Finally, managed to schedule at one of the school clinics. Yesterday, we pulled up to Madison Middle School, found our way to the cafeteria area, and plonked the wee one down between two nurses. Many animal noises were made; shots were shot. In the room. The room. Where it happens. The room where it happens. Yeah, no, it's all downhill from here. Sorry. 

 

Allan rarely is very laid up by the flu/COVID combo (one years and years ago, she slept all day the next day, but otherwise has had zero effects). Still, it seemed like she ought to have a little weekend hurrah before getting her ultimate 2026 shots. Just in case. 

After years of meaning to stop in, we finally checked out the Seattle Playgarden, as they were having a small Harvest celebration. Turns out, playgarden is pretty sweet; it's an inclusive adaptive space for abled and disabled kids to mix among a bunch of pretty flowers, a few cool playgrounds, and a bunch of animals!

The animals were the top hit for Allan. They had chickens, ducks, and bunnies. (Oh my!) 

We spent most of the visit standing in the coop, letting the chickens wander past us. There were ducks too.  They were in a separate wired out area, performing some mildly disturbing fraternity-style assaults on the female ducks. Nature can be so beautiful, but apparently affirmative consent has not entered the world of waterfowl. Ah well. The roosters, at least, contented themselves with ambling around and crowing at each other. 

In other news: 

The roofing escapades ensue! They did a major push this week and will spend the next two weeks fixing the mess they've made, laying shingles, and (hopefully!) cleaning up all the debris they've tossed into our beautiful little garden space. 

They honestly aren't that bad. Mostly. I guess. It sounds kind of like the dryer drum got off while somebody is running on a treadmill in the bathroom. Other than that, though, it's not been too disruptive. 

Yet.

We'll see. 

I guess there was the day that there was so much debris in the walkway that it would've been impossible to leave the house. And there are all manner of strange things showing up in our (rather stomped-down) clover yard! We currently have a giant beam of wood next to the flowering currant. A different vibe than the usual mycotic boughs we keep as borders. 

But ah well... we survive! We persist! We endure!

But time to rewind all over again. This week hasn't just been strange noises and perplexing thumps. Oh no. We began with birds! As all the best ones do!

As mentioned, October 10th was Migratory Bird Day. Hizzah!

(Not a real bird!)

This is a biannual event that celebrates - you'll never guess! - the biannual migrations of birds from their breeding grounds to their wintering grounds and back again!

It's also celebrated as Global Big Day by Cornell Labs. To observe, participants simply pull up eBird and make an entry. eBird is a birding app developed by researchers that takes amateur birding logs and turns it into science: the data is made available to researchers globally and used to track bird population patterns in myriad contexts. 

The Seward Park Audubon society hosts an event that is also more or less centered around eBird. But with the bonus that if you go to all four of their stations (representing different biomes in the park) and do a 5 minutes eBird read per each, you get a prize! 

Allan picked this one out: it's a cute little baby crow!

They also have a bunch of indoor activities and screen this film about bird migrations upstairs. So on and so forth. 

It's a lovely loop around the different biomes; just about an hour's walk if you're taking a bit of time ot imbibe the atmosphere and listen to all the birdies. 

You start by the lake and work through the old growth forest, come out at the grasslands and head back through some more forest to get to the beginning again. 

In the forest, we saw (and far more heard) a certified gronking Raven!! This is actually my first as far as I know. If you don't count YouTube and Instagram, which of course includes many many ravens with whom I feel quite intimately connected at this point.

I digress. 

We also saw a metric ton of bushtits, finches, and nuthatches. Holy crap, the nuthatches were just about every which place making their iconic little honking-beeping noise!

And of course, there were ducks, albeit far fewer of them than I had expected. 

Yeah, at this point I'm just filling space to 

Fun fun fun! 

This week, Andrew went through another round of layoffs (ugh!) but remains employed, so that's a relief. I went through another transvaginal ultrasound (less sexy than it sounds) and remain mysteriously unable to ever get an image of my left ovary. This is the third time in 10 years that I've had one of these, and they have never gotten sufficient imagery of the damned thing. For all I know, it has Groucho glasses and a mohawk. Anyways, not sure why this caused a TMJ flare (my best guess is that the extra stress of having a camera yoinked around my innards on The Hunt for Red Octovary led to some brutal late night bruxism), but it seems it has. I've had a really annoying cervicogenic headache and jaw pain since Friday and am mostly living off of milk and peanut butter at the moment. Ah well. I'm sure it'll clear up in a few years!

Lord know what will come up next! I'm sure it'll be exciting as ever. 

Happy Two Weeks to Halloween! Hip hip boooooooooo!