1583 Emotional Complexities.

I almost went way more dramatic with this, but pulled it back because it seemed like too much when I drew it out. I have to be careful sometimes because my mood will infect the tone of the comic. It was a pretty dark weekend and when I was doing this page I wasn’t feeling very good about anything. I’ve gotten pretty good about being able to shift into work mode when I need to, but sometimes I have to be careful. This part sets up a whole string of events, and is intertwined with stuff already in the process of happening, so I don’t want to fuck it up.

Rather than answering everyone in the comments who asked similar questions, or sent emails, I’d like to take a moment to talk about my various allergy and foot care practices.
I use some kind of common saline rinse with distilled water. I forget the brand but it’s the most obvious one in Wal-Mart. Dr generic guy’s whatever thingy. He has a whole line of things with varying degrees of quackery involved. I heat it for about 35 seconds in the microwave, so it’s basically body temperature, depending on the conditions in the house. Generally I use it once a day, but if things are really bad I have been known to go as high as 3.
I also use eye drops from time to time, which help with the disconnected feeling for a little while. I try not to use them too much because my eyes already don’t seem to produce enough tears and I don’t want them to stop outright.
For my feet I use various kinds of lotions/salves. I like coconut the best because of the smell, but I also use some stuff that’s mostly lanolin. It’s comparable to the kind one of you mentioned in the comments. Chemically speaking they are essentially identical. Nothing that I have tried has really managed to heal the cracks. Basically the only time they almost went away was when I wasn’t walking much. As soon as I get mobile they break open again. Maybe if I lost more weight they wouldn’t be so stressed? Who knows? Anyway I also soak my feet in Epsom salt water. I was doing it every day for a while, but now it’s every other day, or less, depending on how busy I am. There’s no really good place to do it where I’m not disturbing anyone, or they aren’t disturbing me. I also don’t love sitting in a chair for long periods of time because my circulation still isn’t great in the bad foot, so blood pools and I don’t like it. I’ve tried to set it up so I can lay on the floor, but it doesn’t work. Sometimes I sit in the old rocking chair which helps because I can rock to keep from being stationary for too long. It’s a really awkward chair though, so I don’t do it very often, especially if I need to do things.
The salt water seems to disrupt the toenail fungus, but not enough to kill it all. Nothing apart from the nail falling completely off seems to be enough. Even on the places where that has essentially occurred it still clings to the remnants. I’ve brought it up to the doctors, but they never seem very concerned. I might try to see if there are any options I can explore though. I’m really sick of the whole thing.

Lastly, I need new things to look up. If you guys have any ideas for subjects, or shows, on TV, youtube, or whatever, let me know. I’ve listened to about a million “true” stories of various mythical creatures, seen hours and hours of urban exploration, and all manner of other stuff. What have you got? I’ve even exhausted all the podcasts I can stand at this point.