Building an ark in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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nellie, Mike was no Animal. :stuck_out_tongue: He was just a talented young man who had a day job fixing vacuum cleaners and played out on the weekends. The last time that I saw him, he was a respectable businessman with grown children and a couple of grandkids. He still messes around as a drummer.

{{{butters}}}

The band was fun and I learned a lot about group dynamics from it. Even though I didn’t see Kelly often in recent years, I’ll miss him. He had a big influence on my life.

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted, bed stripped, a load of sheets and towels ready for the dryer and fixing to do KP. It’s a dreary, rainy day outside, so being inside doing chores won’t be the worst way to spend the day.

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

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red, sounds like Kelly was a character…and we all need some characters in our lives (IMHO)…my condolences.

butters, sorry about the anniversary, but glad you’re heading up to see son.Looks like a 5-6 hour drives, so take care. Hope the dogs bond.

nellie, fingers crossed (even if you have problems seeing them…) that round 3 is the successful one.

VanGo, what BBBoo said. We’ve been through deaths, health crisis and just about everything else, I think we take a little ranting on life now and then.

Newspaper has been rescued from the driveway and morning medication swallowed, so need to get properly dressed and do a little shopping in a bit. Still rainy on-and-off, no really hard showers/storms but ‘drippy’ as my Mom used to say. No soccer tonight and we’ll see if they let us get the last games of the season in or not Saturday.

All y’all take care.

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Good morning everyone.

I had a pretty restless night. When I did sleep, it was filled with unpleasant dreams, but I was waking up every 40 minutes or so. Ugh. I finally gave up and got up at 5:00.

The atmospheric river is finally sliding past us, and the rain is supposed to dry up by this afternoon. It was a dark and wet day yesterday.

The eye appointment went well, other than not the greatest vision, my eyes are healthy. My prescription didn’t change a whole lot, however, I did notice during my vision test that my left eye is much better than my right eye. Anyway, after the exam, I went to the optical shop there and ordered new glasses. The frames weren’t all that spendy, but my lenses sure were. Still, I received a federal discount, so that knocked a few bucks off the overall cost. I opted to go for the more modern lenses which allow for a wider field of vision, which added about another 100 bucks or so to the cost. I should have the new specs in about two weeks. I gotta say, it’s difficult to see how new specs are going to look on my face when I have to wear a mask.

I might head out to REI today to see if there are some water-repellent hiking pants available. I’m going hiking tomorrow, and I really do need some.

Other than the above, I don’t really have much on the agenda today.

FCM, I’m sorry that your FiL fell, but am glad he’s okay.

red, I am sorry for your loss. Kelly sounds like quite a guy.

butters, so sorry about the anniversary. I hope you enjoy your trip. I personally like long drives, so I hope you enjoy yours.

VanGo, it’s okay to share. Sometimes getting all that bad/negative/scary stuff off our chests is cathartic, and you’ll have much support here.

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Ah, we’re all here for each other, come hell or high water. (Occasionally, both at once.)

There’s the monthly mini-rants thread over in the Pit, of course, if you just can’t stand to rain on our collective parades.

… apparently, I got precipitation on the brain. { looks out window } Gee, wonder why?

Off to work in a sec. Need a quick shower first. Taking a cue from MOOooooommm and bringing a hard-boiled aig with me for brunch. Plus a yogurt, and a tuna-salad-kit thingie.

See? I’m EATING DAMMIT. Or at least, have packed the supplies to do so.

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Hugs to you, red! Kelly sounds like she was incredibly fun. And Butters, I hope you and your pup have an amazing time with Sonny.

I am so glad it’s Friday today. Another day with a scant few hours of meetings, at least an hour of which will be with my team. We’re also in the midst of benefits enrollment, which I usually take care of for the family. I gotta tell you, as someone who has worked in regulated healthcare markets for more than 15 years, figuring out my own benefits has been a nightmare lately. I don’t think it’s gotten more complicated, but our bodies sure have.

This week was the week of the eyeballs apparently. My husband had some interesting news yesterday. He may need eye surgery, thanks to something call blepharitis. Basically your oil glands in your eyelids get clogged, it solidifies and causes dry eye, swelling and eventually the gland stops working. Evidently his is pretty bad. We’ll know next month, though - they’re going to try some non-surgical stuff first before they filet his eyelid.

On an only somewhat related note, someone shoulda told me contacts are very migratory. I swear, I get them in successfully, hang out working for an hour, then all of a sudden the right one heads north or south or something and I stand up to go to the bathroom to fix it and want to barf because of the sudden vision change. This is for the boids, I tells ya. I think I need to go back to glasses. It’s only day 3 and I’m already tired of trying to find the most efficient way to poke myself in the eye. Time to get a fancy librarian chain.

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I was reading the local free paper that was tossed on the inlaws’ driveway. A letter to the editor read: Common sense is called for, not political correctness. Climate change used to be called The Four Seasons: summer, fall, winter, spring.

That’s Ocala. Not to mention having to hear Fox News this morning. I need a drink.

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No working on the kitchen yesterday. Mrs. L.A. had tickets to the Seattle Museum of Art. I wasn’t really interested, but… SWMBO. We took off about 1000 and went to Denny’s for breakfast, then drove two hours in the rain. I really hate driving in downtown Seattle. Anyway, we found a parking garage and made our wet way to the museum. It was closed because of something wrong with a fire alarm. Eleven dollars for parking for nothing.

We drove to the waterfront and took a spin on The Great Wheel. Our first time. It was fun, but we really couldn’t see much for the weather. Almost $37 for that. Next we went to the Aquarium. Wifey paid for that (about $50). She bought a sea otter fridge magnet. We went back to the car where I bought another ticket ($28 total), and then went to The Fisherman’s Restaurant & Bar. We both had bloody Marys; mine with pepper vodka, and hers with cucumber vodka. She had a crab-and-bacon sandwich, and I opted for the halibut tacos. Mrs L.A. treated ($95 with tip). We looked in shops, she bought some bourbon caramel, and then we headed home. It’s always a slog, and the constant rain and the dark made it nerve-wracking. At least we could use the HOV lane.

We got home about 1850, and the cats were happy to see us. They usually get their gooshy food around 1600 or so. Mrs. L.A.'s legs are sore this morning. ‘A good sore.’ I need to go to the corner market to get some eggs for brekky.

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Afternoon, mumpers! I am officially logged off work for the day, had a discussion with my boss about reclaiming all my banked hours so we have come up with a plan that should reduce a lot of it by the xmas break. We’re stopping flexible hours stuff in January so whatever we’ve got needs to be used before then. I started off with almost 90 hours.

Busy day for me today, I was up early to see to the cats (food, meds, litter trays) and then had time for some yogurt and a cup of tea before the gym. Then got home and logged into work for 10.45am, worked until midday, had an hour for lunch (part of the aforementioned plan!), then worked another 2hrs until finish time. I have planned for early finishes on the two days I work at home, and late starts on the three campus days. After xmas, we go back to attempting to do everything in 36hrs per week.

The weekend will be busy too, got two gym classes tomorrow and then a couple of errands on the way back home. Then a wander into town for other errands, and a local gig in the evening. Sunday will be domestic drudgery and meal prep for campus days, plus hopefully a bit of lazy time on the sofa.

red sorry for your loss, Kelly sounds like a real character, and we all benefit from one of those now and then.

butters sorry about the anniversary, I hope the trip goes well and you enjoy the drive.

Mooooom sorry to hear about FIL’s fall, are they any more likely to consider a change of accommodation?

VanGo this is a great place to rant when you feel the need, good friendly space and all that. Of course, there’s still the Pit and the mini-rants thread, as shoe mentioned.

Today’s trauma has been all about finding a cattery for the mogs to stay in while we’re away at two different events in November. I haven’t mentioned the spectre of the fortnight in a moggery at hexmas yet.

Time to go and contemplate the kitchen and decide what to make for dinner tonight. And peruse the online pet store. We have three cats and two carriers. That’s going to need fixing before too long.

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Afternoon all.
Very glad 'tis Firday today.

I’d been utterly stressing out about having 3 module weeks back-to-back; this might not sound like a lot, but they come with biiig assignments needing a lot of outside research, and the weeks are really info dense. I honestly didn’t think there’d be enough time to do a decent job on the assignments, without missing lectures. However, luckily I have discovered that I am a twit who cannot read; after telling literally everyone about my timetable from heck, I have realised that I don’t actually have the module next week- it’s an optional one I didn’t pick (well, I kinda did- due to the online module selection system making me pick something, combined with the fact I wanted to do an off-label class, I had in fact enrolled in it, then got the admin person to switch it). So yeah. I have all next week to do write-up, not just the weekend and a few headachey hours in the evening.

Combined with getting a final payday from my previous job- they paid out for unused holiday, and I had more than I thought- I feel like I should be out doing something tonight, but alas, I am too old, boring and tired. The pub last night will have to do.

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I forgot to say: We had to show proof of vaccination to get into the Aquarium and the restaurant. I’d forgotten that King County requires that now. Fortunately Mrs. L.A. has a photo of her vaccination card on her phone, and I have the certificate from the state and a QR code on mine. (I don’t know if the QR code works. There seems to be some ‘issue’ with MyIRmobile at least in the State of Washington.

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If you have an iPhone with Apple Wallet, they’ve just made it so that you can go to your state’s vaccine record website and download your vaxx records to your Wallet. I just did so yesterday and it was pretty easy.

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boofae - they ain’t leaving. Period. No discussion. They know what they’re doing and we’re trying to force them to do things our way because we don’t know. So, yeah… :confused:

I just ordered disposable diapers and bottles for Toby because I’m an indulgent grandmother. :grin: And because they have enough bills.

FCD turns 65 on Weds. I’m going to take him to the new Dune movie and I promised not to snark. And we’ll either have a late lunch before or a late supper after. Probably lunch. Then Daughter is making dinner and a cake for him next Sat.

Guess I’m married to an old fart…

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I will try this a bit later on.

I tried a new migraine medicine yesterday. The jury’s still out. I don’t think it made much difference yesterday, but today might be better. On the other hand, I am soooooooooo tired, which is a side effect. I will probably try it again, to be thorough, but I suspect that this won’t be part of the usual rotation.

In other news, here is 'Beamer in his Beaker costume! I think it turned out great.

Imgur

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Grandmas are supposed to be indulgent every way we can! It’s Job Two, right after Job One, which is love them even more than you thought possible.

Guess you are! Nice birthday celebration by the way. Love the Dune idea.

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It’s great indeed!

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I do have an iPhone SE, but I don’t know where the wallet is. I have the certificate and a QR code in Files.

As for the QR code, I don’t know if it works. Per MyIRmobile [emphasis mine]:

Please note that MyIR is providing accurate, well-formed SMART Health Cards on behalf of the states we represent. However, despite being listed within the CommonTrust Network, they have not yet recognized MyIR as a valid issuer.

When SMART Health Cards originating from MyIR are being validated, they are appearing to the validator as untrusted. We are working with the CommonTrust Network to resolve this discrepancy as quickly as possible. The card works successfully with other validators such as Bindle, SB Project, CLEAR, and COVID Immunity Project to name a few.

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Well done indeed!

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Well I just voted, for the few things on the ballot. A half dozen county offices and 5 state wide initiatives. So I feel like I was somewhat productive today. Other than that, I didn’t really do a damn thing. Oh I went over to the shop and did some cleaning and straightening, but nothing of real substance.

sunny Dig the Beaker.

I dunno about other states, but here in NY, there’s an app one can get on your phone that shows vax status.

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Hey! There’s a round, bright thing in the sky! A UFO? No, wait! It’s…it’s…what’s it called? Oh, yeah, the SUN! 6+ days of rain, rain, rain. My neighbor turned into a mushroom. He’s a fun guy. :rofl:

wordy, if the contacts move around that much, they’re not fitted correctly. I hope that doesn’t sound know-it-allish. I’ve just been there a few times. Don’t give up on contacts yet!

What kind of surgery is your husband looking at? I have blepharitis and have had two procedures to put plugs in the puncta. But that doesn’t involve surgery, per se. Mine was done during other eye surgeries, but I think it’s usually done in the eye doc’s office. Is there a surgery now? Dopers had many good suggestions in this thread.

Butters, so sorry you had misery after the booster. Yay for getting to see your son! And double-yay that he’s so excited to see YOU! :slight_smile: Some of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever known have been pit bulls.

flyboy, sounds like a WONDERFUL day-long date with the missus!

nut, I hope the stress dissipates soon. It sounds like you have a lot to stress about. Ditto BooFae.

Moooom, so how do you feel about FIL’s and MIL’s health and vision now that you’ve seen them again?

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The Beaker costume rocks sunny!

Finished up the chores. When I got to Aldi, I discovered that I had forgotten my grocery list. :head smack: Fortunately, I remembered what was on it and got it all at both stores. After, I took Nelson through the drive thru for supper (he generally tries the patented I’m a cute little doggy who likes treats to go for a pup cup or whatever treat they give out. It worked for a small milk bone tonight). Supper has assimilated and now I need to get the Marketplace sale that will go tomorrow together and put together a Halloween treat for the neighbor girls.