Three sadnesses, some joy and a welcome

1) RIP, Professor Dumbledore.

2) My chest and throat are sore today; I smoked a half a pack of cloves last night (although, in the best American tradition, I don't inhale; merely roll the smoke over my tongue); might there be a connection? I don't care how much walking at night in your hat and coat make you think of being a figure in an old noir movie (and the omnipresent smoking therein), Coyote; just remember what happened to Bogie...

3) My back has started aching in exactly the way it did before it got really bad- which is to say, pre-surgery. I have to carefully leverage myself in and out of be d, or a chair; DC looks like it's gonna be a wash *sigh* You get the idea. And, when I call my PCP's office for an emergency appointment, what can they give me? November frickin' ninth. And, of course, I'm gonna want a spinal MRI since, err, this IS a chronic condition, and he's gonna want to fob me off with muscle relaxants or some such... Dr. B, folks- gotta love 'im.

-More happily, my nephew Patrick's cold is much better; I may be able to eke out some photo time this weekend, if I'm up for dragging the camera around; my back problem was better last night by the time I left work, and may be again tonight... and, of course, six more days until The Big One.
And, of course... welcome algernon33!!!