Every few years, I have to buy a new cane. I decided to get a good, solid wood one this time. Maybe not have to get one again a few years from now.

It'll be here in a few days. I'll see how long it takes before other people in the house remember I choose such things with intent and start asking questions.

I was probably halfway through reading this when I realized I was crying. The children never should have been taken, but 3 are finally going home.

https://www.kulr8.com/news/three-indigenous-childrens-remains-returned-home-for-burial-in-fort-belknap-after-130-years/article_e6a636b8-76fd-11ef-9f2e-eb5c116542e6.html

Okay...I got down to 2 baby shrimp, and I just can't leave two tiny dots alone in a 1.5 gallon ocean. Did another partial water change and added more eggs. We'll see if I've got shrimp again over the next week.

Going to pick up my new glasses tomorrow. I have lived long enough to need bifocals! That's an accomplishment!

Had to do a partial water change in my shrimp tank. Changed out about 25% of the water. All of my adults have died, but there are still some babies. I can't give up and restart the tank as long as I see somebody swimming.

After a couple of days of fever, I just want a peaceful night of sleep. A shower can wait one more day. I just want that sleep!

It's been a good day for getting pictures of friends! Shai-Hulud let me take one of him at his water bowl.
#CoSoPets

In case anybody was wondering what a brine shrimp swimming around with a plump eggsac looks like...

Anybody know frogs and toads? I think my friend here is a Woodhouse toad? I'm in an area where they are abundant. I'm just not sure if I'm correctly identifying.

<insert big sigh> Every time I think the shrimp colony has stabaliized, I get surprised by a bunch of deaths in one night. This year has been a bit too much for me. Focusing on the shrimp has been protecting me from complete burnout. C'mon, little shrimp! We can do this!

I spent time talking with a friend today about art. Giving each other practical encouragement (tips to be applied, rather than vague praise), trusting each other with some of our doubts and self-criticisms. I haven't had many friends I can do that with. Most people I count as friend don't have the same hobbies as me. It was a conversation I didn't know I needed.

I'm going to have to get someone in my life to understand there's a difference between "I'm not good at doing that" and "I'm not comfortable when I'm doing that". I'm getting real tired of having to live other people's daily lives for them. I'll work with them, but I'm not getting paid to work for them.

I complete my trips around the sun in September, and I started making sure I always take a selfie in September when I completed the 40th. My grandmother was 50 when I was born. She was always beautiful to me. I don't buy the idea that beauty has to look young. Sometimes, if I turn my head just the right way, I see a little of my grandmother in myself.

They've also been moving little clumps of algae into the castle. That could be a coincidental thing - just drops in there and doesn't get flushed back out. But it means algae growth is picking up, which is healthy for them.

Apparently, their brains are just a little ring of cells that release amino acids and maybe have something to do with metabolism. The nervous system actually controls most things.

I don't know how they know to do this. Not even just instinct. But if a shrimp dies and eggs were already fertilized, they finish developing. I have seen babies coming up from the graveyard.

When a shrimp dies, they move the body behind the castle. There is nothing blocking them from continuing to move it. They just don't move it back out. But they still go back there to eat algae. They aren't avoiding the decomposing shrimp.

I spent too much of the day looking up info on brine shrimp brains. Mine have started a graveyard and are tending it. I can't find any evidence that their brains would even be capable of recognizing "get rotting flesh away from live creatures".

Somebody molted and the exoskeleton came off in almost one whole piece. Now it looks like there's a ghost shrimp haunting the tank.

I'm going to tell y'all because nobody told me...

Snakes don't have eyelids. They sleep with their eyes open.

Shai-Hulud doesn't usually have his head out of the sand when he's sleeping. I thought he was dead! No...just sleeping.