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(Please not typos, please no typos, please no typos, please no typos...)
Platelets can be donated? I didn't know that.
Joyous Yule to all.

Today, we begin in earnest the bastioning against oncoming relatives.
Wait..... Hawaiian Cowboys?
Yule this year, for us Pagans, actually begins tomorrow. It traditionally coincides with the Winter Solstice, which this year is Saturday at 4:20 am EST.

@Dave Higgins [Main Account] Joyous Yule to you as well! 🎄

I got flu and Covid vaccines on 11-Oct this year. I prefer to get them early. I had Covid twice in 2021. I am very cautious about the vaccines and get them as soon as practical every year. I'm also up to date on the vaccines for shingles, RSV, TDP, and pneumonia. As a woman of a certain age, I have more recommended vaccines than you young folks.
..at 2:21 A.M Denver time. 😀
I would love to be able to donate blood products. Unfortunately, I cannot, due to being on daily aspirin plus a prescription blood thinner.
I am planning the traditional activities: Chinese food and a movie.

@Jon Alcibar entirely different holiday, but I am told my great-grandma would prep, cook, set up, and ding everything for what would have been about 40 or 50 people. Just the great-grandparents, their kids, spouses, and some great-grandkids. And two days in a row.
Though, I guess this year I have to light a candle too. And open a silly "present."
Planning a simple Christmas... roast chicken with accompaniments. Probably no familly until later.

My son in the military won't have enough consecutive days off to make the 450 mile drive from Nebraska and round trip to three cities in IL to see family over Christmas. At this point, it looks like he might appreciate not having to spend money on gas, since, unless there is a last-minute miracle, the government shutdown will mean he doesn't get his paycheck. Luckily, he is a frugal guy and saves money. He told me his younger airmen aren't great at saving, even though he warns them about the possibiity of a government shutdown. He worries about them. Why on earth the military funding that was passed recently doesn't include paying personnel is beyond me.
I don't know if Biden signed that NDAA bill yet. There are some bad things in it.
@Jodi K I have not seen any news indicating that he has. And I've been watching.
Still won't pay the troops. They are separated out and considered government employees.
@Karl Auerbach It's a very different experience from whole blood donation. I haven't donated platelets for a long while due to what I saw as access issues. I need my veins for later.
The process spins off platelets and returns the rest, it took about 80-120 minutes. You had to stay awake so you watched a movie. I saw lots of interesting films that way. At one point there were two big ole needles, one in each arm and then the tech changed to allow for just one. Still took about the same amount of time. Donating plasma was a thing, but the RC didn't ask for that as much.
Once I got one the 'list' for platelets, they had me on autodial. The wait time between donations is shorter than whole blood. I had some factors that made me 'special', "think of the children".
My wife required many transfusions and it was my way of paying back.
Wait… Hawaiian Cowboys?
Yep. Paniolo. (from Español) Cattle given by the British had gone feral. With the help of a San Diego-born cowboy and vaqueros from Baja, Kamehameha had the cattle rounded up, and in 1832 the Parker Ranch was founded.
i used to donate whole blood and platelets pretty regularly. then i had anemia, and other things happened.

no special holiday plans. mebbe make a quiche, mebbe cheesecake.
years ago i made chocolate amaretto cheesecake. i have no amaretto now, alas.

i used to get a side of smoked salmon around this time of year. all the smoke places I knew in Seattle closed (gentrification, population density increase) so i no longer do that.

my understanding was that most of the herder people in Idaho were Basque.
@stefani banerian When My mom's grandparents emigrated from Sweden, eventually to Elk Mt. Wyoming ( 1880's ), they had sheep. They hired a Basque shepherd to look after them. According to family lore ( and a history book as I recall ), he was the first Basque shepherd in Wyoming. Later my grandfather lived in the shepherd's wagon to save money while he was in school in Laramie.
Tired. Heavy Holiday Grocery Run done for us today so we can hide from the world for a bit... not easy as it was snowing, the first snow to actually stick for the season. Have what I need for our Solstice meal etc.
Much of the Berkshire Hilltowns economy was centered around sheep farming, from about 1820 to 1880/1890. Then the trees started growing back.
Good evening, last work day. Decided to walk along the Christmas market in Paderborn and enjoyed some yummy tasty mulled wine with baked (stuffed) apple from a vineyard.
just got back from the Asian food market in Olympia.
Jiaozi (gyoza), kimchi, and more. good cold-weather foods.
@Mark Wollschlager When I was a child in Boise Idaho, I went to a French Basque kindergarten that was walking distance from our house. I was so proud of learning French there!
I had some factors that made me ‘special’, “think of the children”.
Mr. Stranger is O-, which for whatever reason is what they give preemies. Back in the day they had him on speed dial as well. Unfortunately he's on blood thinners now, so his days of passing on his DNA the hard way are over.

I have a thing about needles, plus technically I'm anemic, so I don't donate.
I'm a potential mad cow. So no donations for me either.