Saturday night odds & ends

• How is it possible that it's already July 25th??  The days drag and one blurs into the next and the next and the next, but somehow this year is rapidly slipping away... 
• I recently got on the scale for the first time in four months, since this pandemic began. My clothes from previous summers still fit, so I probably would have just cruised on blindly (lalalala...) -- but I have my annual physical coming up next month (unless it gets postponed again -- already re-booked from May...), and I didn't want any nasty surprises on the scale there (and of course, the dr's scale is always at least a few pounds heavier than the one I have at home...!). 
• I was somewhat pleasantly surprised that despite four months mostly in couch potato mode, I've only gained one pound. Now, my pre-COVID weight was nothing great -- the heaviest I've ever been actually, and I just upped that number by another pound -- but I figure things could be a whole lot worse, right?  #winning?
• I spent a couple of frustrating hours on Friday night -- including a longwinded live chat with my Internet/email service provider -- trying to change my email password. This was one of the things I'd been asked to do in order to restore access to my supermarket points, after my card was hacked in March, right at the beginning of this pandemic (which I mentioned here -- a huge hassle in itself).  Frustratingly, I wound up locking myself out of my online email account, as well the ISP website itself!! 
• After much wailing & gnashing of teeth, I managed to restore ISP access on both my Microsoft Edge & Google Chrome browsers on my laptop... and I was finally able to access my email online through the ISP email site on Chrome, via the Outlook program on my laptop, and on my cellphone -- but NOT through the online ISP email site on MS Edge on my laptop. I decided 3 out of 4 ain't bad and called it a night...!  :p  Technology can be a blessing, but it can also be a real hassle sometimes...!   
• I posted about this on Facebook & had a few people tell me to just get a Google Mail account. I HAVE a Google Mail account, but I mainly use it for Google Alerts & other junky email stuff. I like being able to download my email through Outlook, and I have had the same email address for almost 20 years... I'm kind of attached to it.  ;) 
• I continue to be agog over the photos in my social media feeds of my friends (and others) -- in Canada as well as in the U.S. -- socializing in groups (sometimes large groups), at bars and restaurants and backyard pool parties and barbecues, arms around each other, no masks in sight -- a high school class reunion, for one example. You would never guess there's still a dangerous pandemic raging around the world!  
• A friend (a loss mom we met through our support group) posted one of those "Never have I ever" memes on Facebook, where you scored one point for each thing on the list you haven't done. #7 on the list was "Birthed children." One of her (male) friends commented "#7 is a gimme."  Another guy commented, "If there's a #7 there should automatically be something that excludes women. Like peed in a urinal." I had to bite my cybertongue... not all of women have birthed children ("woman" does NOT automatically equal "mother")... not all of us CAN birth children, or even CHOOSE to birth children... and not all of us who have birthed children (I went through labour & delivery, I would take that point!) got to hear them cry or take them home. I don't know if it was male cluelessness specifically or society's cluelessness generally, but it rubbed me the wrong way. 
• It's not too early to start thinking about World Childless Week, which will be held Sept. 14-20 this year. :)  Organizer Stephanie Phillips is asking for submissions on the daily topics, which include Our Stories, Diversity Day, Ageing Without Children, Men Matter Too, Comments That Hurt, We Are Worthy, and Moving Forward. A submission form and further information can be found here.