I reached a milestone far earlier than originally expected, and it only took two years of a deadly and debilitating global pandemic to help make it happen: The current remaining dollar amount for the loan I’ve been paying off for let’s-not-talk-about-how-many years is a four digit integer for the first time since the original disbursements landed.

I’m not a student, but the loan I’m paying is for a student, and qualified enough to be caught up in the “student loan flexibilities” program for the last couple of years. I’ve been making normal-amount payments anyway, thus chopping away at the principal while there’s no interest accumulating.

And today I can see a result that makes me… well, “happy” may not be the exact word, but it gives me some hope that I might get this thing done & dusted before the year’s out.

(I’m allowed to hope, right?)

Sure, the one day of the month so far when something interesting actually happened, and it’s the day I forget to log into the site.

Still, a nine day posting streak is pretty good, considering.

Anyway! Yesterday, I met my new primary care physician. (What we’d have called “doctor” a few years ago but apparently times and titles change. Insert George Carlin routine about the softening of language, here.) Since my previous one was leaving the clinic I went to and nobody else at that clinic had availability, I ended up going through Providence’s phone system to line up a new option and schedule the meeting.

It all went well. I was weighed, height measured, and all the usual check-in check-up stuff, then had a brief chat with the new person in charge of making sure I don’t expire like an unpaid magazine subscription (speaking of dated references…), then hiked home afterward. I’m back to having someone on file that I officially can pester about renewing my stay-above-ground pills, and all it takes is a new round of blood testing so the primary care physician can make sure I’m still doing okay overall.

Being medical is still weird, but I’m getting more used to it.

The last two years have eroded many of my normal faculties, including my ability to reach out to people to stay in touch, as well as my ability to work up the energy to do the larger chores around the apartment.

Today, however, I managed to take the holiday lights down outside (they’d been unplugged since New Year’s Day mind you) and vacuum the carpets (they’d been unvacuumed since… let’s not go into that).

On the downside I kind of forgot about the dishes until dinnertime. Whoops. (The dishwasher’s been run now but I couldn’t fit everything in, so I’ll be running it again some time tomorrow.)

This whole “feeling untethered from time and space” thing is for the birds. And not ducks, some other kind of birds.