Autumn leaves are falling in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
161

I don’t know what to do. I ordered a very bright mini-flashlight, as it gets dark so early here in winter, and I’m night-blind. I checked package measurements, and it’d easily fit in my mailbox here. Hours later, I ordered a self-threading needles, a tiny package (2"x 5"). Yippee, no having to walk the 2 miles to the USPS!

I got an email tonight: my package containing both could not be delivered. I have no idea why not unless both objects were put in one box, and, as is da jungle’s wont, the box was MUCH bigger than needed, so it wouldn’t fit in the parcel bin. Or maybe the parcel bins were full?

Ironically, a book I ordered from da jungle was delivered via UPS right to my door today. The two smaller items were shipped via USPS.

OK, I could walk the .25 mile to the bus stop, take the bus downtown and walk only 3/4ths of a mile to the USPS, then reverse that to get home as this one should be a small enough parcel that I could take it on the bus. Hell, it should be small enough to stick it in my purse, which begs the question: WHY do I have to schlepp all the way down there again? This is the fourth time in < 6 weeks.

Probably 99% of people could drive to the USPS every time this happened, but even then, it’s got to be a pain.

I’ve always supported the USPS, but I’m starting to rethink that.

Yay, I’m Nelson’s honorary aunt! <3 Ihttps://boards.straightdope.com/t/autumn-leaves-are-falling-in-the-mmp/925137/156

162

Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to sort.

Mainly because Fox is now part of The Deep StateTM

163

What a P.I.T.A. I wish I could just give you a ride.

164

On the news last night, they reported that our area got between 5-6" of rain from the storm. No wonder we had all that flooding!! Several roads were still blocked off last evening. With luck, the excess drained away overnight.

FCD wants to leave next Firday - I want to wait till Sat. I don’t think the weekend traffic will be all that bad, I don’t want to make my daughter seek out a sitter for one day (she’ll be off the whole week of Thanksgiving) and frankly, it’ll be one less day with the inlaws.

I don’t want to sound ugly - I do worry about them and I certainly don’t hate them, but I can only take so much time with them. The main topic of conversation seems to revolve around medical issues, followed by a recitation of who in the neighborhood has died recently. I’m not rude to them - I listen and make appropriate comments, but it’s tedious and frequently repetitive. And yeah, I know I tend to repeat myself, too. Doesn’t mean I have to like it in others.

We will try to rig up FCD’s laptop to their TV and do a video chat with Daughter and Roxy. I figure a larger display will make it easier for MIL to see her great-granddaughter. We just need to take a long HDMI cable with us.

Today, I’m going to pull both turkeys out of the fridge and put them in water to thaw. I want to get them cooked up and carved this weekend. No rain forecast for Sat, so I can roll the smoker out to the porch rather than leaving it inside by the open garage door. I’ll rotiss the other one on Sunday. I also plan to make banana bread to take, since I have some frozen overripe bananas. And I should pull some butter out to soften for the cookies. I’m exhausted already!!!

Meanwhile, I’ll enjoy these last few quiet minutes before I have to fetch the little monster. :open_mouth:

Happy Firday!!

165

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ''Tis 58 Amurrkin out and cloudy with a predicted high of 81 and partly to mostly N.O.S. for the day. Another day of no real biggie plans. Fine by me. I can futz with the best of 'em! Sup shall be what we didn’t do yestiddy, bbq pork sammiches, slaw, and fries.

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah.

Happy Firday Y’all!

166

I’ve decided it’s a good day to go see fish! We’ve got tickets for the first admission block. That’ll kill a couple of hours and get her away from the TV.

Turkey is in a bath to thaw. It’s overcast and cold and damp and icky - kinda like a fall day… Go figure! :wink:

167

It’s overcast and cold and damp here in western Mitten State, too. Not icky, though - I love cool, cloudy weather. (Glares in general direction of the Lone Star State, which is not known for featuring either.)

God, I am so glad I got outta there!

I’ve got a beast of a to-do list, including figuring out what to do about my driver’s license (out of state AND expired). That’s definitely not something I can handle online!

I also need to print and mail my shockingly overdue federal taxes. My former I.T. Guy helped me get that done (e.g. did them for me) while I was visiting, and said I’m even due a couple hundred bucks back!

And if I wanna procrastinate on those tasks, all this clean laundry isn’t gonna put itself away. (I tested - it’s had days!)

168

Morning all. I hear the garbage truck doing it’s rounds (it’s usually Thursday pickup but with Veteran’s day Wednesday, schedule is set back), so need to bring the can in shortly. Also have the 9am car work appointment, so the morning is pretty well booked. Shoulder is feeling better right now, we’ll see how it goes. Only 49F right now.

FCM, agree with Saturday travel and have fun with the fishies…

Nellie, do you have a ‘by-the-street’ mailbox or is it one of those small porch things?
No idea why they mess with you like that.

flyboys, snails?!?! Begone, sir!

Butters, glad the power is back, most of our lines here are underground, no phone poles for people to run into.

OK, probably should get some sustenance before heading off to the shop for the car work. All y’all take care.

169

Up and guzzling the coffee. I didn’t fall asleep last night until almost 12:30 because I was working on a project and I wanted to finish it. Finish it, I did. I made myself a pair of fingerless gloves, and they’re super comfy. So there.

Mom was doing even better yesterday, though apparently those feeding tube feedings are prone to causing high blood sugar, so she’s on insulin now. But hopefully only temporarily. She was annoyed but even more able to communicate than yesterday so way less frustrated. I can’t even imagine how immensely frustrating it must be to go from someone who talks pretty much non-stop to suddenly having your voice stolen away, especially when you’re at your most uncomfortable and helpless.

Anywho, yesterday I stuffed myself with birthday Thai food and cake and my husband made me this amazing new cutting board that fits over our sink! It’s so pretty. Has a handle and everything. Today overlygirl turned 11, so we’ll be eating yet more cake and other takeout goodness while freezing our butts off at her outdoor soccer game. BUT, I’ve got mitts!

170

Nay, sir! I say, ‘Nay!’
If thou does not desire thy gastropods,
Pray, sir, give them to me
And I shall sup on their mollusky goodness!

171

So as I left for work on Friday the 13th, the bottom stairwell light was out, the top stairwell light was flickering, and it was foggy. I’m surprised I didn’t get axe murdered. Also, we had a metric butt tom of Amazon Prime packages today. I wonder if somebody at Da Jungle is gonna get promoted to customer this weekend.

“Well I have the thing, does it look infected? And have you noticed the odd smell from 207?..” :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

172

Made a respectable dent in the laundry - about half of it’s put away - which freed up a basket, allowing me to corral the next pile of dirties, thus counting as “tidying my bedroom.”

Got an appointment for my driver’s license … for next FEBRUARY for cryin’ out loud. :persevere:

Lined up a rat buyer for next week, for a relatively big order: 10 girls, and enough boys to adequately, ah, keep them company. Said he’s coming a ways from out of town, so likely a one-time thing … but still. If I’m being nice about myself (which is still hard for me to do) it occurred to me this morning that within a couple of months of moving to a completely new area, I’ve re-established a decent side hustle. One that I find personally fulfilling. I am so glad I made the decision to take them with me, stuffed into makeshift travel containers (mostly cat litter buckets) and tucked into my hatchback for days.

Onto the big, wide world to print the I.R.S. stuff. I may have procrastinated endlessly on filing the damn things, but now that I know I’m owed money, you betcher sweet ass I’m completing my next step ASAP! I’m already wearing pants!

173

Huh. I meant to type ‘dost’.

174

Hmmmmm … I wonder where you learned that phrase?? :wink:

On another note, check out the Celebrity Death Pool over in The Game Room. Ruble got posthumous points and the Deathmistress will be giving him a special award! I just know he’s laughing his ass off about that! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

175

Me too. Mumpers fighting over who gets to give you a ride. We’ll just have to remain orderly and take turns. Plus extra recess outside after we get back from picking up the package.

176

Back from visiting the fishies. Roxy was disappointed that they didn’t have an octopus. We have got to take that child to the Baltimore Aquarium! Daughter and I are going to split a membership - probably after the first of the year. For now, she’s napping, which isn’t a surprise, considering how much she ran around at the museum. Luckily, it was sparsely populated, so she didn’t annoy anyone. Just wore herself out.

FCD is taking Higgs to the vet. Poor pup is just “off” today and we don’t know why. But she was shaking and she didn’t want to come to me for skritches and FCD thinks she’s cold. He managed to get a stool sample, if that will be of any help. I suspect she ate something weird in the yard, because she came in yesterday licking her mouth like she’d been eating. Who knows - dogs is weird.

Anyway, I have some quiet time now. Yay!

177

Litter box is scooped, I finally unpacked the bag from my trip, laundry is 99.7% put away, a few clean dishes also got put away … plus while I was out printing the IRS stuff, I stopped at The Dollah Sto’ and got snaxxx for miles. Strawberry fig newton-type cookies, frozen sammich thingies for irk lunch, crackers, Oreos, ramen cups, etc.

Also got some nonperishables, for a food drive at irk, because 5 items = 10% off your order, and after some arguments, TPTB are allowing us to stack that onto our employee discount. (Seniors, veterans, and college students all get to stack their discounts. TPTB are not making us feel like valued employees right now, but that’s a subject for another thread in a different forum.)

Local food pantry is getting a bunch of salad dressing from me, because po’ folk should get to let their kids dip stuff into honey mustard sauce just like anyone else.
Also, plastic bottles are way lighter than tin cans.

I also got a bottle of Cholula, because I haz a gnawin’ and a cravin’ for a One-Eyed Jack (e.g. a toad-in-a-hole, or an egg-in-a-basket … look, it’s a egg fried into a piece of toast, okay?) and the late, great Other Shoe taught me to believe that really, one can only properly top this dish with Cholula.

Finally (thanks for Facebook Memories) I have verified for myself: my beloved Nikki is thirteen years old.

Appropriate to figure that out on Friday The 13th. When I commented on that date at the store (in response to a “Happy Friday!” from someone else) an employee pointed out that this year has been so troublesome, and since two negatives cancel each other out … then this must in fact be a lucky & auspicious day.

178

Happy Firday!

Should be annoying Firday.

I was sick all day yesterday, slept a good chunk of the day away.
Then most annoying, a car alarm went off right before 9pm. It would go on and on, then stop, then start all over again.
It kept waking me up, so finally, at around 12:30, I called the police.
From what I heard from the neighbor, the cops came out, knocked on a door and the alarm stopped. Before the cop could get back in his car, the alarm started again. Seems whoever is living in the house thought it was funny to keep setting off the alarm. I’m not sure which house it is, but if I find out, their landlord will be getting a call, as well as a complaint made to the city.

The other annoyance it, I made an appointment for my son to get his ID.
Well, he has to take ID to get ID. I have his birth certificate and social security card, but he also needs to take some mail with his address on it.
I spent almost an hour on hold with the electric company only to be told he can’t be added to the bill if he isn’t on the deed or doesn’t have a lease. Same thing with water. So I called the gas company, and what they would have to do is create a new account that is in his name. Seems you can’t have two people in the bill. Maryland law. WTF ever.
I think he can use a bank statement, he’s allowed on those with me.
So I need to go out and change everything to get paper statements and hope they get here in time.
They should, the first available appointment was December 26.
Then he can get a job.

I still need to pick a health plan. I hate doing this every year.
I need to go pick up prescriptions. One nice thing is I don’t have to go back to the doctor to get a refill for the thyroid pills. I still haven’t found a new doctor. I think I am supposed to go to the cardiologist this month, maybe, I can’t remember when I’m supposed to go and if I wrote it down, I can’t find it.

No park today, so the dogs are making me crazy.

LFB guy was here and got some more irk done.
He may be back tomorrow and start painting.

I got a shit ton of laundry done today. I think 5 loads or something, or at least the 5th load is still in the washer. Waiting for the dryer to finish so I can put the next load in. That’s my fault for letting it build up that much.
Now I can run the dishwasher.

It’s a grumpy day and I guess I’d better go check my bank accounts and change them from paperless to paper.

I read, but I didn’t retain, my brain is mush today.

179

@nelliebly

Let me make you even more cranky: the self-threading needles are a bust.

Thirty/forty years ago, they were the neatest thing since sliced bread :bread: . Now they are crap. The needles are so thin they are damn near invisible. You can THREAD them just fine. But once you pull the needle through fabric and tug on the thread, the thread pops right out of the eye.

Buy an assortment of embroidery and tapestry needles. The eyes are elongated, and much easier to thread. The needles are sturdy and long, which make them easier to hold.

Good luck! :four_leaf_clover:

~VOW

180

Another day of sloth is planned, but I need to finish trimming the hedge by the street tomorrow. Forgot to order tulip bulbs last month, so I’m just going to wait until next fall for that. A mix of black, white, and purple should go well with the yellow and red tulips we have now.

Still solid overcast here still; supposed to clear up overnight, but I’ve given up on seeing the Taurids this year. Forecast is NOS for Munday and mostly NOS for Tuesday, so I should have a good chance of seeing the Leonids.

I see Tropical Depression 31 has formed in the Caribbean and is expected to become Hurricane Iota by Sunday morning, but it’s heading west toward Nicaragua so you folks on the Gulf Coast should get a chance to dry out. :slight_smile: