As God Is My Witness, I thought Turkeys Could Fly! - A MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
141

You unfaithful beast! How could you?!?

Despite all prep and planning, as usual the kitchen ended up being a disaster. All has been set to order and the second load is churning through the dishwasher. I like our IP, but it’s a horrible bother when it comes to boiling eggs. I’m going to get another egg boiler thing because they only take up a little room in the dishwasher.

Tomorrow I’m going to buy a potato and see how the air fryer works. Maybe. I also need to talk to my doctor about my MRI and mail my Secret Santa person their gift.

If anyone has suggestions about making french fries I’d love to hear them. That’s the only reason I wanted the air fryer lid.

Neighborhood land values have certainly changed in 25 years. We bought our first home for 20 grand. It was a single wide trailer with land and a shed and a carport. The place was carpeted in avocado green and the insulation was so bad that we couldn’t keep our emergency candles in the cabinet on the exterior wall. We learned this when they melted into the light fixture.

It was a great starter home for a couple living in early American poverty, and we were happy to have it. No onions on our belts, though. Five years later, we were able to move and sold our trailer (axles and wheels still under it) for 30 grand.

Things have gotten so crazy that the single wide trailer with land sold last week for 115 grand. I saw the inside and they did paint and do creative things with the floors, but its still a single wide trailer with bad insulation. No wonder young folks can’t afford to buy homes anymore :frowning:

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Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave.

Alex Catt. :cat:

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Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 58 Amurrkin out and cloudy with a predicted high of 63 and partly N.O.S. for the day. Weather be weird. This mornin’ I shall attend to some church janitor JW and other stuff over to the church house. Annual meetin’ is set for January 16,2022 and then I shall be free! The rest of the day will be spent in sloth. I have decreed it, so mote it be. Any need to feed will be via forage of the remnants of the feast. No Black Firday activity whatsoever shall be had.

doggio how dare you smell of foreign critter!

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then I shall make myself presentable to the general public. Woe and bother!

Happy Firday Y’all!

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The only way my daughter and SIL could afford a house is because I’m a co-borrower on their mortgage. And the kicker is, to rent something similar would cost more than their monthly payment! I know in this area, real estate is insane.

There’s a house in our neighborhood that was built in 1978 and cost $76,500 at the time. It is the biggest one in the neighborhood but it’s on three acres, just like most of the rest of us. It’s currently pending sale and the last listed price was $649,000, making it by far the most expensive house in our development, altho a couple recently sold at or near $500K. If my math is correct, in 43 years it has appreciated almost 750%. Yoiks!

My folks bought a house in '56 for $10K, sold it in '79 for $40K. Current Zillow estimate is $149K!

Cleanup yesterday was amazingly simple. Since I’d done most of the cooking ahead of time, the worst of the dishes had been done on Weds. I ran a smaller load on Thursday morning and actually got it all put away before dinner time. So we had the table settings plus a few serving pieces and the big roaster pan. Granted, there are leftovers still in their assorted pans and dishes in the fridge - I’ll deal with those today. But for the most part, it wasn’t a disaster after we ate, so huzzah!

We had rain overnight and the current temp is today’s high. Looks like I wouldn’t have taken Roxy to the playground after all. When I was a kid, I wouldn’t have cared that it was in the 40s, but, nope, not today! I’ll just go over their house and help wrangle the kids while my daughter puts up their tree. Not sure where she’s going to put it - the dog’s crate occupies the space where the tree sat last year. I don’t think I’m going to bother with a tree at all. We put up one last year, and that’s been the only time since 2003 that we’ve had one. Since we do Christmas at my brother’s again this year, decorating is just another chore. Yeah, bah, humbug. :stuck_out_tongue:

Hoping we hear from the HVAC tech today - I’m sure he’ll want his phone back. It’s locked, so we couldn’t try calling someone in his contacts. I sent a message to the company - I’m sure someone will call this morning. I know people go crazy without their phones.

OK, I’ve blathered enough. Happy Black Firday!! Good luck to any of you crazies who plan to venture into the retail world today!!

145

Good Morning all. Thanksgiving dinner was…Pizza and Subway sammiches…mostly because all the restaurants serving Turkey dinners closed at 4pm and my nephew didn’t get in until nearly 5pm (he works in a funeral home and death does not take a holiday, apparently). We did eat out Wednesday night and I’m taking them all out to dinner tonight, so we will have some family time around the table, just not quite as usual.

Brother and Sis-in-Law will close on their new house next week and finalize the sale of their current place. Didn’t ask costs, but I imagine they made out well. I bought my place in Ali-bama in 1997 for around $104,000, probably could get 60% more today, but not interested in selling at this time.

Ever try to work on a laptop with two bassets in your lap? How about two bloodhounds? Alex Catt really wouldn’t like me, doggio.

Start back home tomorrow, so today will have prep for that. All y’all take care on Black Firday.

146

The Princess doesn’t seem too bothered by smelling dog on my hands, but gets VERY annoyed about smelling another cat.

Speaking of the Princess, today is her 10th adoption anniversary. We adopted her very shortly after her predecessor, Felix, went to the Bridge. It wasn’t that we hadn’t loved him (we did and still do) or didn’t miss him (we did and still do), we just couldn’t stand that cat-shaped hole in the family.

147

You are wise not to go on Sunday. We did that twice in the past (didn’t learn the first time) and it was awful!! A normally 10-11 hour drive took 15 hours, and it was when my daughter was little, so I had to do the entire drive myself. Sucked royally!! of course, it also sucked that at the time, FCD and I were living it 2 different states because of ill-timed job moves… Anyway, safe travels on a less crowded highway!

Speaking of whom, he’s still abed. I don’t know when he came in last night - I crashed early. I know he finished off the chocolate chip cookies. :angry: I should have hidden a couple for me. Dammit.

Need more caffeine…

148

Please don’t get me started on house prices- there’s areas here where, over the last 5 years, the average house price has increased more than the average wage for the same period. Yep, people’s houses have been making more money than they have.

My parents keep saying ‘helpful’ stuff like “Well, you should have bought one back then instead of complaining” but I’ve literally never been on a high enough wage to get a mortgage for even the cheapest house in the area, and saving was virtually impossible because rent is so high (even one room in a shared place was well over 50% of my wages).

Something’s got to give soon IMO.

The weather has turned icky, with spells of sideways rain, turning to sleet later. I’m plodding away at boring essay bits, mostly twiddling with references today. I’ll be heading into town later, for normal food shopping, not some Black Friday nonsense. That’s about the limit of the planned excitement.

149

Holy crap, we got, like, an inch of snow overnight! :open_mouth:

Dinner with my friend was nice. Came home and went immediately to bed, napped hard for a couple of hours, then woke up and called my parents for their evening holiday chat.

I could tell my mother was thiiisclose to saying bitchy things but at least made the effort to bite her tongue.

Most of my plants are inside, so now my tiny home is even more of a wreck. But am I gonna do anything about it?
Nope!
Am I gonna have a pre-work smoke & derp around on my phone!
You betcha.

150

Good morning everyone.

T-day was nice and there was an overabundance of food. I had a great time visiting with my kids and playing with the grandkids. I also had very nice visits with the kids’ friends. My mother drove me crazy, but she almost always does. I got home around 9:00 pm last night and Polar was very happy to see me.

I have to get a hold of the vet today; it looooks like Polar has ringworm or some sort of fungal infection. Damn it! I noticed he’d been chewing on himself here and there, but last night I noticed a perfectly circular bare spot on his flank. It was new and freaked me right out. I’ve never had a dog with this particular kind of infection before. At any rate, there go my plans for utter sloth and some very desultory online shopping.

We have more atmospheric rivers coming our way. Fun times…

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I would like pictures :heart_eyes: and safe travels back.

We are the same way. Happy Gotcha Day to you and the Princess.

I would like some chocolate chip cookies. :pensive:

shoe I’m glad your holiday went well. Enjoy the derp!

I have just inhaled a very large mug of coffee. I don’t usually have more than one, but Round 2 is about to follow. I think yesterday kicked my ass. I’m not sure what excitement today holds. I managed to get the bluetooth synced up on the automatic litter box. I’m now learning more than I ever knew about my cats. It tracks usage, which is not why I got it, but may be helpful. The main benefit of the bluetooth is that it will tell me if there are jams or other issues before the cats do, in their time honored way of crapping on the floor. :confounded:

Happy Thanksgiving recovery day!

152

Home prices are nutso here, also. We bought this little place eleven years ago for $350K, which I thought was outrageous back then. A realtor recently told us we could get over $600K for it now because everything ends up in a bidding war. Problem is, we can’t think of anyplace else we’d like to live.

T-day went fine. A lot of work for just two people. Two days of prep and cooking and dinner’s over in 20 minutes. At least there are leftovers.

153

First leftovers.

Just finished breakfast. I had two low-carb tortilla burritos with turkey, cheddar cheese, scrambled egg, and Sriracha. (I made The Missus leftover biscuits and gravy, and scrambled egg.)

154

Got through the day yesterday This morning I made a beeline for the little grocery with the good steak. I need beef. Also stopped at the regular grocery for other odds and ends and have no plans to leave my house for at least a week. Dropped my blueberries in the check out line so just grabbed another.

Our weather is coolish and I foresee a long nap. No shopping for me other than an amazon 16 inch dog leash to tether Buddy in the trike basket.

Happy weekend all.

155

We bought our current home for 140G three years ago. Smallish home, large lot with a couple of large outbuildings. We added another large outbuilding and a ramp which promptly raised the Zillow estimated price to 175G which I though was insane. Hubs looked it up yesterday and its up to 240G. We couldn’t afford to buy it now.

Happy Adoption Day Princess! You did good :slight_smile:

Got up this morning to see a small hawk sitting on the porch rail. It seems as though all sorts of birds are attracted to our feeders. If VBC is looking out the french doors when a hawk is out there, she turns into a flat cat and slinks away. Gormless George meows and chirps at them. George is up to 11.8 lbs now, he was 10.6 on 11/9. I thought he was looking bigger.

156

My email spam folder is being bombarded with crap from people wanting me to refinance my mortgage. I just did last year. I’ve got an excellent rate. So no thanks. Go away.

Home. Roxy did an interesting job decorating the tree. I had to intervene, lest every ornament end up on 3 or 4 branches. But she had fun.
Imgur

Had a bill from my dermatologist in the mail - for whatever reason, they didn’t file with BC/BS. When I was there, I told them I no longer had Medicare PartB, but never mentioned my other coverage. We’ll get it figured out on Monday - I left a message since they’re apparently not working today.

And now, chillage.

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Before I launch into the venting:

  • That is an awesome picture, FCM!! (When I typed that I meant the one of you with both grandbabies, but I also love the tree pic!)
  • My sub-division was established in the mid '50s, with bunches of single-level 3BR 1BA houses on decent-sized lots (mine is 1/4 acre, which isn’t bad for being 12 miles from the White House). Because of said decent-sized lots, the hard-to-beat location, and the lack of HOA, for the past decade or so everyone’s favorite hobby has been tearing down the original small houses and putting up big ones. I started renting one of the original '50s houses in 2014, and four of the homes that I can see from my windows have gone up in that time – plus, two more are under construction right now. Pick any block in this 1.5-square-mile neighborhood, and at least one of the lots is an active construction site. So, property values vary. Wikipedia reports that the median home sale price is $853,000, and the place two houses down from me sold for $1.6M after it was built last year. Which is why I rent. :smiley:

I am OVER. THIS. RECOVERY. BS. :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

No one warned me about the ridiculous cough I would develop from being intubated, which I’ve already whined about but have since learned the cause of and that it may stick around for a few more days. I’ve also learned that coughing is better than not coughing, because it means I’m getting a buncha crap outta my lungs, but dammit…does it have to hurt so much/happen so often/keep me from sleeping?! Luckily, my friends had already picked up a large bag of Halls for me or I don’t think I would have slept at all last night.

As it was, I woke at 6am coughing and needing to pee and with a mild fever of 99.9 (I’m normally 97-point-something). I took some Tylenlol and rearranged the pillows on the couch and ate two more Halls, and managed to doze on and off for the next few hours. And my temp gradually came down. But boy, was I grumpy when I finally woke for the day.

Suddenly I’m just tired of everything. Don’t get me wrong, I have no regrets. But I’m tired of the pain, tired of not being able to sleep in my bed, tired of the coughing, tired of the meds, etc. And I really miss my dog, but I’m starting to think/realize that I won’t be recovered enough by Sunday to bring her home: it might be best to leave her in the kennel for another week. :frowning_face: It’ll be the longest I’ve been apart from her in a really long time, but she won’t understand abdominal surgery when she knocks her cookie under the bed and barks at me to get it for her (she might be a little spoiled). I’ll see how I feel tomorrow, but my best friend has already offered to bring extra food to the kennel for me on Sunday. I just need for bending over to be a little easier…and, by easier I mean possible.

All of that said, I do feel like there has been some incremental improvement: I can move a little faster once I’m on my feet, and going from standing to sitting has become slightly easier. With luck, I only have about another week of “WTF?!?” to deal with.

Have a great weekend, everyone! :smiley:

158

It’s never fast enough, is it? I’ve had two abdominal surgeries, plus a laparoscopic gall bladder removal. No matter how well the Dr said I was doing, it still felt like for-freekin’-ever to get back to normal. And when I was feeling better, I still had to go several weeks before I was allowed to drive. And, of course, incisions always itch like crazy!!! But you’ll get there. Really!

I had some leftover green bean casserole for supper - it was pretty meh. Honestly, I don’t see why people go crazy of that stuff. It’s just not that special. I think I’m done eating for today. But I’m thirsty - time to find a non-caffeinated beverage. And feed the dog…

159

I just looked up our house on Redfin. I bought it in 2003 for $96,000. Redfin’s estimate today is $338,552.

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Howdy Y’all! Stuff got done and sloth got slothed. All in all not a bad day.

Oopsie hang in there. It will get better. In the meantime feel free to rant away. It’s a part of what we’re here for, after all.