Exactly!
My mom had some as-yet-undiagnosed medical event yesterday and is still in the hospital. I’m here at her house, taking care of my grandma, who has dementia. Seems I’m stuck here for the foreseeable future. This suuuuuuuuucks.
I don’t know enough about gymnastics to know whether or not the US lady was wrongfully deprived of a bronze medal. But hey, 4th place is not a shabby finish and I think she’d serve herself better trying again in four years rather than litigating the matter. If 3rd and 4th were that close then small discrepancies in judging can make the difference. Them’s the breaks. Bad calls happen.
One of my favourite drinks is the small 300 ml plastic bottle of Coke Zero, which contains slightly less than a normal can. It comes in 8-packs and I always have a pack in its own special little place in the fridge. It tastes great right out of the bottle.
I was pissed off when my local supermarket had nothing but empty shelf space where they normally stocked it, but a whole hell of a lot more pissed off when I discovered that no other store had any, either, and when I went back a few days later, that shelf space was now occupied by 8-packs of regular Coke. Coke Zero is still available in most other formats, but apparently in their great wisdom – the same wisdom that created the “New Coke” disaster – the Coca-Cola company has decided to stop making my favourite beverage in my favourite container size.
This is not a mini-rant, this is a first-world disaster!!! Apparently the Coca-Cola company wishes me to switch to sugar-infested Coke until I get fat and all my teeth fall out. Maybe I’ll give up on Coke and just stick to straight Absolut vodka with garlic-stuffed olives.
You may be interested (or disgusted) to know that Coke is coming out with a limited-edition flavor next month: Coca‑Cola® OREO™ Zero Sugar
4 seconds.
They got something wrong when they judged her, she pointed it out, they agreed and adjusted her score enough to win a medal.
But there is a time limit where you have to present your objection and the claim is that she was 4 seconds slow in reporting the errors, so the corrections don’t count. The US team showed video that they said proved that no, she was on time, but the committee said that it can’t be appealed regardless of new evidence.
The system seems pretty fucked up, I think they screwed up but whatever, they get to make whatever rules they want. She earned the bronze fairly and was robbed.
Note that she didn’t finish 4th, she finished 5th without the corrected scores.
As for, “try again in 4 years”, she may not be able to. She’s 23, and in 4 years she’ll be 27. That seems young but in the world of gymnastics that’s pretty old. Simone Biles is 27, and it’s considered remarkable that she’s still able to compete at a high level. Most Olympic gymnasts retire in their mid 20s.
(hurk hurk) Coke Zero tastes good to me, and most people like Oreos. This does not mean this misbegotten abomination will work. Just because two things taste good individually does NOT mean they’ll combine well!
Suggested motto for the Coca-Cola company: “Cannot ever leave well enough alone.”
A crazy lady at work said that Mercury was in retrograde and bad things would happen. I scoffed.
I had to take a boat to Louisville to do some work on the Ohio River. The truck we use for towing only had 1 set of keys available. No idea where the other 2 were so I took 1.
While on the river my coworker dropped our 1 set of keys overboard in 30 feet of water.
Then she left a $12,000 piece of equipment in the river while we were going about 30 mph. Fortunately it survived.
Coworkers at the office eventually found a set of keys and brought them to us (1.5 hour drive).
Packed up and left the ramp to head home.
I left a cooler of sample bottles on the edge of the boat when we left and only noticed as I was getting on the highway home. Fortunately stopped before it went flying.
3 miles later someone passes us and is making hand gestures. No idea what it’s about but I pull off and go to a gas station. Turns out when I stopped in the emergency lane I ran over a nail and had a flat tire.
I carry a 3 ton floor jack in the truck. But the boat trailer is new and no one ever thought to see if the jack will go up enough to lift the trailer. It won’t.
I searched around and found some boards at an adjacent construction site and got enough lift to change the tire.
I’m on a diet but decided I deserved a fountain Coke after all the drama of the day. They were out of ice.
I bought a 7 lb bag of ice, put a handful in my Coke and threw the rest away. Fuck you universe if you think you’re denying me a simple pleasure!
Got back to the office, parked the truck and boat. Left the truck door open while I went inside. Dropped off the keys (in the proper place) and went back to the truck to get a few things I had left. When I opened the back door the truck alarm went off. I don’t know why when the front door was open but it was that kind of day. Went back in, grabbed the keys and shut off the alarm, then dropped off the keys again.
Do not fuck with Mercury when it’s in retrograde!
I am still mad I can NOT find Caffeine Free Coca-Cola anyway.
On a kayak trip on the upper Conemaugh River, a friend’s car keys slipped from his carabiner that secured it to his cooler while he was grabbing a beer . The keys fell into 3-5 feet of moving water.
He noted exactly where it happened, then told us. We pulled our boats out of the water, waded out, and in less than 15 minutes someone found the keys!
Thankfully, nobody in my family has ever had any type of dementia, but our neighbors wife does. We hung out with her for ~3 hours one weekend so her husband could go shopping. It was very stressful!
Hope your mom is home soon.
And I’m grumpy because on my last Walmart delivery order I clicked the wrong thing and got caffeine-free Coke Zero instead of “normal” Coke Zero.
See previous experiments with onion rings and chocolate.
I don’t know what “retrograde” means in this context, but I’m curious to know if EARTH is ever in retrograde…
Mum (89) went into hospital recently with jaundice. Turns out it’s caused by
cancer*. Nothing can be done about that, but they put a stent into her
liver/bile duct/pancreas whatever to alleviate the jaundice.
Today i took her back to have it removed or replaced with a permanent one …
A few hours later i get a call: apparently, they took an x-ray… and couldn’t find the stent,
so they didn’t do the operation, and discharged her !!! wtf ? Now what ?
Good (?) news is that she doesn’t remember the cancer or the procedure.
As she says … “Don’t get old”
*fuck you cancer you fucking asshole git-bastard
It’s a sports drink. It was invented on earth (afaik).
So, I’d guess the FDA might allow up to 5ppm of earth in each ml of Retrograde.
If you want caffeine, consider getting a carton of cold-brew coffee. The President’s Choice brand I get here I’ve learned to dole out only in small cups, the kind you’d use for serving espresso. One minute in the microwave and maybe 6 to 8 ounces of the cold brew, and I’m vibrating like the paint-mix machine in a hardware store! 
I hate coffee. Oh well, I can pick up the correct Coke Zero when I’m out and around anyway, and there is a place in my life for caffeine-free soft drinks.