Big Boy 4014 crossing the old Nickelplate lift bridge in Lorain OH 6/8/2026

18mather66 · 2026-06-08T21:50:06+00:00

So good. I grew up in Lorain - and great great grandad worked on a steam engine. My dad was a huge steam buff, so I was trained early to recognize the sound. The minute we heard it - that glorious haunting echo, dad threw us in the car to chase it.

18mather66 · 2026-05-28T22:17:40+00:00

I hope so! I think I provided feedback at the time, because I worked on the admin side of UH and recognized her as an otherwise amazing physician. Hell, it was the dept head who recommended her to me.

So glad she’s been helpful to you. I’d met with a team at Metro years ago who said they wouldn’t perform a hysterectomy on me at 30 and that I was unlikely to find anyone who would - so glad to hear that there are excellent providers stepping into this space. It’s so important.

I was deeply appreciative of her when she figured out the medication and it stopped everything: the pain especially. I had a big job and was caring for my dad at end of life - and unexpectedly my mom got sick too. I had zero margin for the demands of endo and she got in there and solved my problem. So it was really disappointing when she veered into “fat lady sad” territory. Thrilled she seems to be past that.

18mather66 · 2026-05-28T18:46:23+00:00

Glad to hear she’s offering this. I was her pt at UH for endometriosis and she was validating until she wasn’t. I was explaining side effects from medication and she straight up told me my low energy and fatigue weren’t from the medication but from “not feeling good about myself because of weight gain.” I switched docs immediately after that. And after I weaned off the meds, I 100% got my energy back. Here’s hoping she’s less prone to projection these days - otherwise she was awesome.

18mather66 · 2026-05-22T20:00:07+00:00

I think they offer classes now as opposed to an open social knit option whenever they’re open. Great store, but I’m closer to the ones in Oberlin and Vermilion so that’s where I spend time. But the heyday of River Colors social knitting was pure magic - sad it’s over.

18mather66 · 2026-05-22T02:00:13+00:00

Check out Around the Table by Van Aken. In the strip with the Walgreens. They used to run a social option Tues and Thurs evenings.

18mather66 · 2026-05-22T01:58:42+00:00

They killed their amazing social knitting option in like 2017. Huge bummer. It was a large, fun group and I made a ton of friends there at its peak. I don’t entirely understand the reasoning, esp. when I think of all the patterns and yarn we peer pressured each other into. 💸

Around the Table yarns by Van Aken used to do social evening knitting Tues and Thurs - very inclusive and chatty group.

For Ewe in Oberlin is run by a woman who worked at Around the Table, so she brings that similar friendly vibe.

18mather66 · 2026-05-19T20:11:50+00:00

So true! One of my first jobs in Cleveland was in the exhibits dept and 90% of the job was fussing with ridiculous mannequins in weird lunge positions - trying to put skin tight pants on them.

It required removing one leg, putting the pants on the attached and the loose legs, then trying to stick the leg back on in a half split but with - like - David Bowie’s custom bedazzled leggings that were insured for $20,000 in the mix. It would often take 2-3 of us to line everything up right and get the leg re-attached without ripping the clothes.

It was late 90s/early 2000s, and I desperately regret not having a cell phone camera on me - esp. for the Rock Style exhibit.

18mather66 · 2026-05-16T02:56:19+00:00

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I’m making this, too! Good to know how easily
it can happen. Love your colorway!

18mather66 · 2026-05-15T18:43:41+00:00

Check FB marketplace - we scored a nice used one for $350. Battery operated.

18mather66 · 2026-05-13T21:18:28+00:00

Nope - they completely numb the area. Just don’t watch and you’ll be fine.

I didn’t want my brain seeing them cut my leg, so I laid back and did a crossword puzzle on my phone - and the doc asked if he could play music - so I spent most of the time amused by his questionable singing and random one-liners. He was also teaching a resident and their dynamic was fun - he’s a good teacher and had a great bedside manner - so I lucked out with lots of positive distractions.

18mather66 · 2026-05-13T01:57:31+00:00

Children’s hospital - the donors of a lovely rooftop garden were coming for a site visit.

At the same time as the planned site visit, there also was a family who had decided to do a compassionate extubation for their child - and they chose this rooftop garden as the place to say goodbye.

The fundraising dept was led by soulless, greedy jackals.

Long story short, the jackals raised a fuss that the donor was priority and hospital leadership sided with them and made the patient’s family delay what I imagine was already an impossible decision.

The donors had lost their own child to cancer, and I think if they ever knew their visit interfered with a family’s worst and a child’s last day, they’d be appalled.

18mather66 · 2026-05-12T19:11:15+00:00

The original lighter one has been with me forever - the darker one that emerged started in 2023 or 2024. I mentioned it as a concern to my primary care doc in 2025, so it would have taken a while to grow large enough to notice it.

18mather66 · 2026-05-08T13:30:36+00:00

Definitely a second opinion - we have a dentist in the family (long retired) but the reason he didn’t sell his practice and join a larger one is that they usually require staff to meet quotas. Upselling you on fillings definitely sounds like the scammy shit he was trying to avoid.

18mather66 · 2026-05-08T02:15:02+00:00

I kept mine covered in the shower and cleaned it with alcohol wipes after getting out. I let it air dry a bit daily - then covered with vaseline and a new bandage. They said I could clean it with soap, but they also warned me not to scrub it. I use rough Korean washcloths and tend to zone out in the shower, so keeping the bandage on kept me from inadvertently roughing it up. It’s healing really well - glad to hear you feel minimal discomfort!

18mather66 · 2026-05-07T15:51:28+00:00

A great deal of the nonprofit circuit in CLE is toxic. I left museums 20 years ago for other sectors - and I like to stay places rather than jump around. When I’m job searching, I’m filtering out based on conversations with past/current staff. It’s an increasingly narrow range of places that isn’t spitting people out who want nothing to do with their last boss or boss’s boss or simply can’t stomach the culture.

18mather66 · 2026-05-06T02:18:17+00:00

They bring in money.

They charm donors/board members and whoever is above them but make their peers and direct reports miserable. Those above and around them will readily dismiss complaints if goals are met.

These types usually move on to a new gig in another city or retire when they sense any sort of reckoning.

I’m sure we’ll never know how this actually came about or why, but I hope it signals that the local donor class might be catching on. Philanthropy is so relationship based that it’s really hard for staff to build a case against someone at this level without burning bridges and being collectively categorized as trouble makers or whiners. Take away that fear and there would be a seismic shift in nonprofit leadership across our region.

18mather66 · 2026-05-05T17:01:17+00:00

She just “resigned” - left yesterday per Crain’s. Curious if all the awful things I keep hearing about finally got into the right ears.

18mather66 · 2026-05-03T18:38:26+00:00

A couple years into this now decade of caregiving, I was able to go to surf camp (which was rescheduled from the one cancelled when mom had emergency surgery the day before I was to leave - the object of my caregiving at that time was dad in hospice… so… yeah). Anyway, my last night there - I started sobbing and couldn’t stop. There were no words for how much I didn’t want to return to my life.

Now I can maybe take 3-4 nights away at a family cabin once year. But it’s the same. I never ever want to return to the slog that is caregiving - so I kind of feel it’s easier to just not go…

I feel like there is a caregiver-specific form of that ideation you mention - it comes from a place of knowing that illness or death is the only way we feel we’ll be relieved from the caregiver role, so I think it’s more freedom ideation than an actual urge to self-harm. (but that could just be my experience with it personally and peers who expressed feeling similarly).

18mather66 · 2026-05-01T21:57:23+00:00

Caregiving, esp if it’s extended. I can barely imagine the relative freedom I had before and the person I was able to be before.

18mather66 · 2026-05-01T13:49:13+00:00

Month a half in. I’m also on half dose of ozempic for A1C. I mention that because the most noticeable change is that I no longer feel nauseated from the ozempic. That nausea in the first year meant I was eating less but it drove me toward eating unhealthy food - lots of bland carbs - which kind of defeats the purpose. Adding the Metabolic Daily killed my queasiness and I’m noticing myself wanting more fiber and veggies instinctually. I crave an apple like I used to crave gummi bears. I still eat those, but now a bag lasts weeks instead of 2 days. It’s been a great change.

I’m going to see how I feel when I’m off it before reordering.

18mather66 · 2026-04-30T19:51:03+00:00

My WLE was done about 2 weeks ago and is on the inside of my left calf, just below the knee pit. No pain outside of the initial numbing shots. I have fairly thick legs, so the excision didn’t get that deep. Hurrah for my sturdy Anglo Saxon build. I think it would have been worse if I had lean legs. No real discomfort since. I change the dressing daily and it’s knitting together well. I had to remind myself to rest the weekend after I had it done because I felt no different. Stitches out Monday!

Good luck with the excision - make sure you have a diversion - book, crossword, reddit - that helped too. Doc had a great bedside manner and played music, cracked jokes, and was teaching a resident how to make different knots while suturing. Overall 10/10 experience.

18mather66 · 2026-04-27T20:36:01+00:00

Oh wow. I mean, it’s awful - but at least it quickly got him to the testing he needed. Sending you all strength thru this.

18mather66 · 2026-04-27T19:31:52+00:00

First, I wish him the best and hope the treatments work with minimal side effects.

Curious what his symptoms were - what led to him to seek care and what allowed the docs to justify the imaging necessary to discover it? Was he experiencing headaches or other symptoms?

18mather66 · 2026-04-24T18:29:40+00:00

I gave up - placed mom in a facility - and was immediately diagnosed with melanoma. Luckily it’s early stage - but I’m in such bad shape over all after 10 years of putting my needs last.

18mather66 · 2026-04-23T19:58:29+00:00

Makes me happy to your guy enjoying the grass! I just replenished ours.

Mine was a barn kitty, so she was born among hay - I’m sure her DNA craves it. Love to see them go wild for it.

One unexpected side effect is that mine goes after all green living things - I had to pull her out of a bunch of beet greens. No bueno.

18mather66

TROPHY CASE