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Thanks for your kind comments on yesterday’s portrait. I haven’t yet had time to respond. I was downtown this morning for an appointment with a Genius at the Apple Store. My laptop is out of storage, and I wanted to find out WHY, since I don’t keep music, movies, podcasts or books on my laptop. I use Lightroom Classic, but I have not downloaded Photoshop, even though Adobe requires me to buy it. Why would my storage be used up?

Answer: Lightroom Classic. I only have a couple of thousand photos, as I regularly move photos onto external discs and then delete them from the laptop, but I shoot in RAW. The Genius suggested I move the whole system onto an external disc. I wonder how many of my Blip friends have this issue—perhaps you all know this and you’ve all put your processing systems onto external discs already. If not, be forewarned.

When I came home I heard that one of my neighbors from the 3rd floor is in the hospital. I’m her emergency contact because she has no family and only one close friend who lives hours away by car, so I went to see her. I was dismayed to find that she can’t remember her name, where she lives, or where she was born. She had no idea who I am, but she was cursing, agitated, and giving orders: she insisted I take my glasses off, remove my dentures (I don’t have dentures), sit down, etc. She has always had “control issues,” so I think she’s trying to control what she thinks she can control. She was yelling NO and FUCK, though she still couldn’t say her own name. The nurse asked me if she always uses that kind of language. I laughed and said yes, that’s normal for her, and the nurse laughed with me. 

The doctor came to see her while I was there. He asked her to spell her name, and she went silent. Address? Silence. Were you born in Oregon? NO! “Oh,” he said pleasantly, “where then?” No answer. He said there’s no evidence of a stroke on her MRI. He suspects she overdosed on muscle relaxants, perhaps forgot she’d taken them and took more. 

After I came home I called her one friend, who told me she has raved about those muscle relaxants, said they make her feel fabulous. So I guess that’s the problem.  I’m going back in an hour to see how she’s doing.

Update: They have ruled out an overdose of muscle relaxants, but they still don't know what's going on. I will check in on her again in the morning.