An Especially Good One From The Bloggess

It’s okay to make due with what you have

Jenny Lawson (thebloggess) Jan 26, 2026

Hell, friend.

That was supposed to say “Hello, friend” but I fucked it up and I’m leaving it because it feels equally fitting. Maybe you, like me, are in the darkness right now and are just trying to get by until the light comes back. It will. I promise. Between the weather, tricksy brains and (motions wildly to everything) all of the traumatic bullshit going on in the world right now, your body is just acting the way it probably should and you need to take care of it and be gentle to yourself.

This week I was planning on getting organized but then a depression hit me and I found myself staring at the blank gridded planner I’d bought because SURELY THIS ONE WILL FIX ME but then it didn’t fix me and so instead of outlining all of the stuff I’m behind on I instead screamed into the internet for bit, donated to several important causes, amplified what I could and then I turned off my phone and found myself doodling on the planner because my brain was just not going to be able to work the way I needed it to.

Each line counted off a moment. A sort of meditation.

I didn’t even have the bandwidth to find my sketch book so I just kept drawing, using the strange grids to find my way, and knowing each mindless pattern would get me closer to the other side, when I’d have the energy to be human again.

Dorothy Barker helped.

I’m using the word “helped” lightly.

And each doodle got me through a bad hour.

The terrible messy ones I drew when my hands shook from anger or anxiety.

And the calmer ones I drew in the quiet, small hours of the night when I needed to remember that there is peace and light out there even if we can’t always see it.

I drew and drew and dropped each picture onto the floor where the cats could lay on them and contemplate why I still wasn’t in bed yet.

And as of today I have not gotten anything organized at all and my planner is a mess of pointless drawings. Except (I remind myself) they’re not pointless at all, if you look at them with the right eyes.

“I am not good at planning. Or organizing. Or calculations. Or any of the things this ledger is supposed to be for. But I am quite good at silly little doodles. And that is worthwhile too.”

So this is just my little reminder to you…find joy…create…don’t be afraid to use a ledger as an easel or a dog as a paperweight or this letter as a hug. It’s okay if all you are doing right now is surviving. That is sometimes one of the hardest things you will do.

Keep going.

It will get better.

Yours,

Jenny

https://open.substack.com/pub/thebloggess/p/its-okay-to-make-due-with-what-you?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

It Gave Me A Good Giggle!

It’s a well done short.

A Couple Of Things I Received Today-

A bag of tiny chocolate chip cookies from the company who was here a few weeks ago working in my bathroom. I’m off cookies until my jeans are looser again like they were in November, so these will go into the freezer, but anyway, they still brightened the day!

Next, a cool Substack post from Worriedman. I’ve shared his posts here before. Today’s is extra cool.

In the pewter mornings, the cat, a black fur sausage with yellow Houdini eyes, jumps up on the bed and tries to get onto my head. It’s his way of telling whether or not I’m dead.

Margaret Atwood – February

Worriedman Jan 31, 2026

The whole poem –

February

by Margaret Atwood

Winter. Time to eat fat
and watch hockey. In the pewter mornings, the cat,
a black fur sausage with yellow
Houdini eyes, jumps up on the bed and tries
to get onto my head. It’s his
way of telling whether or not I’m dead.
If I’m not, he wants to be scratched; if I am
He’ll think of something. He settles
on my chest, breathing his breath
of burped-up meat and musty sofas,
purring like a washboard. Some other tomcat,
not yet a capon, has been spraying our front door,
declaring war. It’s all about sex and territory,
which are what will finish us off
in the long run. Some cat owners around here
should snip a few testicles. If we wise
hominids were sensible, we’d do that too,
or eat our young, like sharks.
But it’s love that does us in. Over and over
again, He shoots, he scores! and famine
crouches in the bedsheets, ambushing the pulsing
eiderdown, and the windchill factor hits
thirty below, and pollution pours
out of our chimneys to keep us warm.
February, month of despair,
with a skewered heart in the centre.
I think dire thoughts, and lust for French fries
with a splash of vinegar.
Cat, enough of your greedy whining
and your small pink bumhole.
Off my face! You’re the life principle,
more or less, so get going
on a little optimism around here.
Get rid of death. Celebrate increase. Make it be spring.

Presented complete for educational purposes. And because no page celebrating the work of the great Margret Catwood is complete without the phrase "Cat, enough of your greedy whining and your small pink bumhole."

It's the last Saturday before February. It's wicked cold - 2 degrees with a breeze.

It's Caturday, though Hello Barncat!

Sam, in repose

Amos , paying attention!

Cold assed….ass.

One more ! 
Soon ...

That's all I got room for - Thanks for dropping by !

https://open.substack.com/pub/brawlatthepoetscafe/p/in-the-pewter-mornings-the-cat-a?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Look Who Visited Scottie’s Playtime!

Just a quick one to let readers know, and to thank Panagah Amn-Pet Safe Shelter in Kabul, Afghanistan, for visiting Scottie’s Playtime! Give them a look whenever you have a minute. I looked around and did not find anything disturbing, though of course the stories are sad; yet the writing is poetic. (Most of the Humane Society ads in the US are more disturbing than what I saw here, as a comparison point.)

A Saturday A.M. Bird Post

I haven’t posted these in a while, so here are a few links to photos, songs, and facts you can look at whenever you like!

The Painted Bunting

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Macaulay Library’s Best Bird Photos 2026

Featuring 37 photographers. Photo selections and text by Macaulay Library and Living Bird staff.

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The American Goshawk

We Interrupt To Bring You The Photo You Didn’t Know You Needed To See

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky family battling extreme cold temperatures on their farm over the weekend opened their home to a newborn calf that was struggling in the deep freeze.

Hours later, the calf, fed and fluffed, took a spot on the couch with the Sorrell family’s two children. Their mom, Macey Sorrell, snapped some photos and later posted them to social media, and the cuteness did not go unnoticed.

The calf was born outdoors in single digit temperatures on Saturday. Macey Sorrell said her husband, Tanner, went outside to check on the pregnant mother and found the calf, suffering in the cold.

“She was just frozen. Her umbilical cord looked like a popsicle,” Macey Sorrell said Thursday from her home in Mount Sterling, Kentucky. “It was just frozen.”

After losing a calf last winter to frostbite, the family moved quickly to bring the baby inside to clean her off and warm her up.

Sadly after. If you will let me post my own feelings. And ask a question

For nearly two days I worried about Tupac, which I call Ron’s cat. I stayed up, I forced myself to do everything needed to make sure he was OK. I nearly fell out of bed twice because he was pushed so tight against me, and I was afraid if I pushed back he would be injured that I was right on the edge of the bed. I fed him in the bed, I let him pee and poop in the bed. I carried him around the house so he wouldn’t have to put his paw down on the floor. Yes, I was trying to be a good daddy. Meanwhile Ron was panicking and crying on the phone that we might have to put the boy down.

Here is my issue I want to share and ask all of the wonderful people who come here. It is not critical and if you don’t want to reply it is OK.

After all of this, All the lack of sleep, and all the effort, as I got home and started to relax, as I started watching other things on one monitor and as I started replying to comments on this monitor … memories started to invade.

I started struggling to deal with Tupac, the kitchen, even the blog. Memories after memories are flooding over me and through me. I was answering comments yet even as I write replies I have to delete some of what I wrote. What is wrong with me! I should be so happy as my husband’s cat is not got a broken leg and I only need to baby him to get him well.

Yet the places my mind is going into my past, my childhood is horrific and blocking everything I am trying to do. I once as a preteen swam out into the middle of a pond to save what would become my only praised love, the black lab and I did not know when I carried her cold shaking form back to the camper my adoptive parents had that I was signing the death warrant of our other dog. Also I had to bargain my damn body for the dog to live. I agreed and went into the camper to be raped repeatedly. Shit why does my mind go to these places they hurt so much?

Why. Suzy Sunshine asked me that question before admitting she had no way or conception how to help me. She tried to hide it but she was shocked and horrified by the few minor things I told her.

Sorry I got so damn distracted. The question is why now knowing Tupac is OK and everything will work out as I sat here at my computer starting to deal with everything … did my mind flood me with horrific memories of my past and of things I can not change? That is what I am struggling with. Please help if you have an idea?

See the rest I have been dealing with all my life. I watched librarians when I was 7 or 8 years old put the books I was reading behind their desk for me tomorrow while only touching me on my head as if they patted me on the back I cried out in pain. But my mind knew this. So why flood my memories with it when I realized Tupac was OK. Why is my mind sending me these memories?

Maybe you all have abilities I don’t. I am sorry if this post upset anyone. I am going back to replying to the wonderful comments. I just wanted everyone to understand what I am dealing with. Hugs

$534 to find out the cat is a drama queen who may get it from his two gay dads.

I am home and decompressing. I had a very bad night. But I guess I should start at the beginning.

Ron left the morning of Saturday the 17th for Texas because his sister fell and broke her wrist. This after her husband died and she needed Ron’s help to get her large home ready for sale. She had returned here with him and I was so grateful for her being here as she let me get back to what I love, blogging. But Ron being gone for three weeks was traumatic for Tupac who has seen the humans he loves go away never to come back so he clung to me the entire time Ron was gone. He had already been coming to me before Ron when he wanted something and at night he would sleep either on the pillow I put in the middle of the bed so he could lay on it and be made of by both of us or what he started to do while Ron was gone the first time he would lay between that middle pillow and my body.

So Ron left for Texas and I noticed that Tupac was staying much closer to me and to the house when outside. He also did not want to go out as much. Ron had noticed that there was a very large orange cat that was coming around to lay near the house and also a back long hair cat that was very vocal screaming at Tupac. While the orange cat was trying to find friendship the black long hair seemed to want to provoke a fight or at least scare Tupac. So I figured Tupac was staying close to home or inside since Ron left because of that. Also since Ron left Tupac who is a bit incontinent leaking a bit on the places he sleeps and stuff started urinating on the floor as he was walking or eating, or even just sitting somewhere. Now let’s get to the drama queen stuff and the big scare.

Yesterday the 20th Tupac stayed on the new daybed Diane gave us that was in the new living room all morning sleeping. I heard him thump onto the floor. I was in the kitchen getting ready to do dishes. As he walked into the room I noticed he was limping on his right front paw. But he seemed to be walking it out as he moved I just figured he slept too long on his right front shoulder. So I gave it no more thought. Then during the later part of the day he got up on my desk as he has gotten to love doing. It is one way I have bonded with all our cats, they love the warmth the monitors put off and enjoy rubbing on them and other things on the desk. I put a towel down and the cat sits next to the keyboard enjoying the pets and warmth along with companionship while I work. It took a while for Tupac to understand that joy but he took to it once he did.

So back to yesterday he was on the desk and I went to get a soda. I heard a thump / bang and came back to find Tupac on the floor with his right front paw held high. He was very upset and when I reached for him he hobbled away from me to the bedroom. Then he stopped and let me put him on the bed. He hobbled to my pillows and lay down. I reached out to him and he swatted my hand away with no claws. I started envisioning the worst.

Yes maybe he gets his drama queen honestly. I figured he either broke his leg or did damage to his shoulder like dislocating it. He pressed hard into my side pillow very upset. I let him be for a bit then went back to him. He then accepted my petting him. Still thinking he broke his leg / paw I brought him supper in bed. Then I went to bed with him. I did not try to push him over but tried hard to lay down on my side of the bed next to him. He loved it. He slept pushed hard against me as I laid on the edge of the bed worried to try to move him and hurt his broken leg / paw. He never got up once which was not normal, but he did change position pressing harder into me each time, each time I woke and couldn’t sleep because I worried he would try to jump down from the bed. I figure I got two and half broken hours of sleep.

This morning I again brought him breakfast in bed which he loved. I tried putting him on the floor but he wouldn’t walk or put the paw down and I got even more worried. I put him back up on the bed near the pillows and he settled back into them while I went and got my shower. After all I had to take him to the vet’s office as soon as they opened. After my shower I got two shirts out, one that he could claw if he needed as I put him in his carrier and one to wear out to the vet’s office.

When it came ten minutes from the time to leave, I went out, started the van let it warm up, and then moved it into position to be more able to move him into it. I then picked him up from the recliner I have put him in and he seemed fine with staying in. He did not really fight or struggle to stop going into the carrier. So I closed the door and went to change my shirt to the one I wanted to wear in the veterinarian’s office. Remember I was on an emergency walk in so the bill was $150 to walk into the door.

I have to admit the young woman behind the counter was very much sympathetic and on the ball. Seeing my cane she carried the pet carrier to a chair for me. She was very sympathetic. Then who I would in the hospital say was a medical assistance who came to get me and Tupac. Again seeing my cane she came and offered to carry Tupac into the room and set his carrier on the table. She took all the information. Again very caring person. I explained my fears and how Ron was in Texas. She was very understanding through it all. I thought of my time in the hospital and how many of the people there had far less empathy and concern for the feelings of the patients or their families.

The doctor came in and talked with me, heard my fears and concerns. They took Tupac and did X-Rays and other checks. After 30 minutes the doctor came back. She showed me the two X-Rays they were able to get before old man Tupac got too grumpy to let them do anymore. I guess veterinarians are used to that and let him calm down while the doctor came to talk to me.

The X-Rays showed that he had no breaks in his leg or wrist bones. They did show great swelling in his paw near the first two digits. The doctor suggested he got his claw caught and wrenched it while jumping down from the day bed. But she was not sure. I asked about his shoulder and she told me he was too grumpy then but if I wanted they could try again. I asked her to if she could as I needed reassurance he did not damage his shoulder. She told me she also was going to look closely at his claws on that paw to see if he ripped one.

Well letting the old grumpy moocher calm down worked. They got the X-ray, no damage to the shoulder. She was able to look closely at his paw and claws. And it explained what the issue was. He had what she felt was an infected first digit and slightly his thumb on that paw. That was why his paw was so swollen. She said it looked like a puncture such as a bite from another cat that did it. I asked if it could be a puncture from a plant or other thing and she said yes, but she felt it was another cat that did it.

So for an entire night of staying awake watching to make sure he did not jump down and hurt his broken leg / wrist / shoulder and feeding him in bed then carrying him to the recliner this morning and packing pillows around him while putting them on the floor in case he jumped down, to find out he had an infected swollen very painful paw. The doctor gave me three pain pills to give him one a day, and they gave him an antibiotic shot to help with the infection.

But who would have figured that two old gay guys, one who owned / ran a bar for gay people in the 1980s would have a furry drama queen child who milked a painful paw into getting supper and breakfast in bed and carried around like a little prince … Oh I give up. Hugs

It Really Did Happen!

I slept in a bit today. Not only that, but:

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2026 January 17

Apollo 14: A View from Antares
Image Credit: Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14, NASA; Mosaic – Eric M. Jones

Explanation: Apollo 14’s Lunar Module Antares landed on the Moon on February 5, 1971. Toward the end of the stay astronaut Ed Mitchell snapped a series of photos of the lunar surface while looking out a window, assembled into this detailed mosaic by Apollo Lunar Surface Journal editor Eric Jones. The view looks across the Fra Mauro highlands to the northwest of the landing site after the Apollo 14 astronauts had completed their second and final walk on the Moon. Prominent in the foreground is their Modular Equipment Transporter, a two-wheeled, rickshaw-like device used to carry tools and samples. Near the horizon at top center is a 1.5 meter wide boulder dubbed Turtle rock. In the shallow crater below Turtle rock is the long white handle of a sampling instrument, thrown there javelin-style by Mitchell. Mitchell’s fellow moonwalker and first American in space, Alan Shepard, also used a makeshift six iron to hit two golf balls. One of Shepard’s golf balls is just visible as a white spot below Mitchell’s javelin.

Tomorrow’s picture: infrared Jupiter

For Science! And For Species Protection & Diversity, Too

New study reveals that 1,300 new species have been added to the global mammal count

Jan 12, 2026 1:24 PM

According to a new study published in the Journal of Mammalogy, the number of living mammal species has increased by 25% since 2005 — meaning that more than 1,300 new species have been added to the scientific record.

Just a few mammals in that crowded class include new creatures like the mouse opossum (Marmosa chachapoya) of the Peruvian Andes, the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina) of Ecuador, and the dwarf shrew (Crocidura stanleyi) of Ethiopia.

“Our recognition of 25% more mammal diversity now than 20 years ago indicates an overall improvement in our understanding of how global mammals interact with their environments,” Dr. Nathan Upham, lead researcher and Arizona State University professor, told A-Z Animals.

“Each species is genetically unique, not interbreeding with their close relatives, and thus presumably doing something unique on the landscape — specializing in different food or habitat type or location of activity,” he explained.

Upham’s research centered on a series of mathematical equations.

Since 2005, the Mammal Diversity Database has listed an additional 1,579 species.

Of those new species, 805 were newly described and 774 were “splits,” or offshoots, of what was originally thought to be a single species. 226 species were also merged after new evidence came to light.

In total, that means 1,353 species have been discovered since 2005, amounting to an average of 65 new mammal species being introduced to the scientific record every year.

In his interview with A-Z Animals, Upham emphasized that species are not evolving at a faster rate; they are simply becoming easier to find and identify.

“Next-generation DNA sequencing technologies have dramatically lowered the cost of obtaining DNA across the genomes from hundreds of individuals simultaneously,” Upham said.

Upham’s spotlight on mammalian research is supported by a larger, separate study published in Science Advances by John Wiens, a professor in the University of Arizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Together with his fellow researchers — Xin Li, Ding Yang, and Liang Wang — Wiens estimated that 16,000 new species are discovered each year.

“These thousands of newly found species each year are not just microscopic organisms, but include insects, plants, fungi, and even hundreds of new vertebrates,” Wiens told the University of Arizona.

In 2025, Wiens also spearheaded research on the rate of species extinction and found that it lags significantly behind new species identification.

“Our good news is that this rate of new species discovery far outpaces the rate of species extinctions, which we calculated to about 10 per year,” Wiens said.

“Discovering new species is important because these species can’t be protected until they’re scientifically described,” he added. “Documentation is the first step in conservation – we can’t safeguard a species from extinction if we don’t know it exists.”

Photograph of a newly discovered mammal, the Bassaricyon neblina, or “Olinguito,” taken in the wild at Tandayapa Bird Lodge, Ecuador. Header image via Mark Gurney / Wikimedia Commons (C. C By 3.0)