Falling Into The MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN 'Tis 73 Amurrkin out and partly cloudy with a predicted high of 91 and sunny. I foresee some quality cee-mint pond time today, cause why not. We have nowhere we need or want to be today, so that plus the usual RDOS sloth is the plan of the day. Sup will be boxed lasagna (don’t judge!) sallit, and cheesey garlic bread.

OK, it’s the last day of August. The great philosophical question of the week is, do you consider September 1st the first day of Autumn (or Spring if’n you live in the southern hemisphere) or are you of an astronomical mind and say the first day of Autumn will be the Autumnal Equinox, around the 21st or 22nd of September? If one is of a meteorological (I think that’s spelled right) mind then September 1st is the first day. I am of a meteorological mind. Discuss amongst yourselves or just hijack away as usual.

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

Happy Moanday Y’all!

2

First!

Ha! I’m fast enough now, with my post-quick-then-go-back-and-edit methods.

“Dopers hate this one weird trick!”

Happy Monday all. Sitting here bummed out with a swollen hand. I found a nice, purty yellowjacket nest yesterday. Or rather, it found me. Got 3 stings before I pushed the turbo button and fled.

I rarely have reactions to anything, even Poison Ivy. And this is no different. Just pain and royally pissed off. Got my cans of polyhorriblebadchemical, and my flashlight all ready. In a few minutes (while it’s still dark) I will commence Operation Yellowjacket Purge and if successful, will remove the threat of the nest right next to the cars. Leaving this nest alone is not an option.

Hope everyone has a good week! I’ll try to return and give a report (assuming my other hand isn’t swole up by failing at the task).

As to Swampy’s choice question… I use the astronomical definition. It sometimes cools off by mid-september here. It’s really hard to call it fall when the temps are still reaching 100F.

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Loved Chef boy ar dee boxed lasagna.
Autumn? First day of school!

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I ma of the opinion that it’s autumn when the leaves fall off the trees and it’s spring when the flowers start growing again. That’s what they taught me when I was tiny and I see no reason to change.

Am back to the writing and pacing, the laundry is out on the line tempting fate and elderberry bird poo and that’s about it for the morning so far.

5

I think of September as the start of Autumn, altho our Sept is starting with temps in the 90s, at least thru Thurs. May that be the end of the extreme heat for the year.

As it happens, Thursday is my next neurologist appt - I’ll find out what she found out from my EEG a few weeks back. I’m hoping to have my seizure meds further reduced. mostly because I don’t like having to take meds. But if she says I need them, so be it.

We had to do that twice a few years back, and they finally figured out they weren’t welcome in our yard. Most especially after they flew up my baggy t-shirt for a few stings, forcing me to disrobe outside as I ran for the house. They’re probably the most hated part of Nature to my mind. Nasssssty little bastards…

Today is starting with 68 Ferrets, heading to near 90 with possible t-boomers. The theoretical plan for the day includes more boat work - we shall see. Today is also BIL’s surgery day - as I write this, they should be rolling him into the OR.

I got an email from my mom that a former neighbor and one of her longest-time friends died on Sunday. She was 88 and has had dementia for some time. They’d been friends for 70 years. I babysat for her youngest (who happened to be one of the earliest COVID fatalities.) Lots of memories stirred up. I’m sure it’s a relief for her daughter who’s been her primary carer for years. RIP, Barbara…

In further not-happy news, Daughter told me last night her washer won’t spin or drain. I suggested she google it and see if there’s a relatively easy fix. Like she needs that aggravation and/or expense. I hope September is kinder to us all.

Anyway, Happy Moanday.

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There’s a “new” album out by the artist formerly known as Prince. He died 10 years ago, but he left an enormous body of unreleased work. The guy was a workaholic, writing and recording constantly.

Right now it’s 70 degrees Fair-enough, rising to 89 later.

When an equinox comes around, there’s always somebody standing up to 'splain that it’s not really the start of the next season. In a dry year, leaves will fall early to protect the tree from moisture loss even before the color changes. When you hear “first day of autumn,” take it with a grain of salt. Save most of the salt for your icy sidewalk later.

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I used to enjoy watching Jack Horkheimer discuss autumn.

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DH and I tend toward astronomical. Autumn/Fall is still about 3 weeks away, and as @pullin points out, it’s still usually summer weather around the 1st.

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Good morning. Even if the autumn equinox is three weeks away, I am seeing hints of the oncoming season. There are neighborhoods here lined with city-planted ginkgo trees, and though the trees’ full color change usually happens in November, we see a few of them just barely starting to turn a little golden. Also, some sweet gums are showing a handful of burgundy leaves here and there. May the cooler weather start soon! And I hope the predictions of a super-El Nino come true. We could use a good soaking wet winter.

I just pulled a pan of cornbread out of the oven. It’s made with Bob’s Red Mill cornmeal, buttermilk, and some diced roasted poblano pepper. It smells heavenly, and I’ll serve it as breakfast with ham slices and fried eggs.

We pulled an old plant out of one of our planters, and today will replace it with a plant that bears red tubular flowers (“cuphea”) that the nurseryman assured us will draw hummingbirds. It’s a good-looking small shrub and if it succeeds and the hummers come, I think we’ll replace a worn-out planting in our front yard with several cuphea. It’d be entertaining to see the avian dogfights that would ensue.

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Good morning my fellow Mumpers! Bladder got me up about 7am so I am getting started with the day. Should be a good week, I have an ENT appointment on Thursday and soccer practices on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, so should be a modestly active one. Have a toe that gets achy and swollen when I’m walking/running on it for awhile, but doesn’t bother me any other time, but think I’ll look up a podiatrist and have a professional look at it for me–sometime.

My bladder confuses me (if you don’t want to read urological stuff, proceed onward) I’ve been tracking the input/output for some months now (almost an obsession, but old folks have time for some obsessions) using a ‘pee bottle’ and the amounts of water/milk/pepsi I drink. I can go 4-5 days with normal output (~2,000ml and 6-8 trips to the bathroom) and my input is usually around 2,500-2,800ml, which is also average. But some days (like today), I have already eliminated 1,100 ml before 7am and I get 1 or 2 days a week my total goes over 3,000ml of urine passed, even if the amount I consume is the same on both days. It’s not a serious problem but I am keeping an eye on it (obviously)

And with that said, let’s see what interesting stuff my fellow Mumpers have.

Cat Glove, sounds like a busy Sunday. And I agree with BF’s daughter, Oregon has some scenic country.

Bright Tree, love the Pond Guy’s kids names, they must live near the seashore… And Ollie just liked the kids so much he was marking them as his territory…

VanGo, hope flakely artist is not too great a burden to bear–you could always drop your big nose on him if he is… :grin:

Shoe, I may start pronouncing it ‘Ancheevy’ too, but since I almost never say that, I doubt the opportunity will present itself.

September to me is when Fall begins to manifest itself, up North it was already cooler and the outdoor pools were closed as school started up (no AC in schools in 1970’s Ohio). Here, it’s supposed to be in the 90’sF every day this week, so if Fall is coming it certainly hasn’t arrived in force yet. I’m hoping by the Equinox it has cooled down some so I can open the windows and air out the house some.

Yanker, I usually type, post and then re-read and edit too. Have avoided the Yellow jackets to date, we had a couple kids stung at a soccer field, apparently the Jackets had taken up residence in one of the hollow soccer goals and objected to their home being hit with soccer balls. They have been cleared out so hopefully no more stings.

FCM, hope the Doc lets the medications be reduced. Best wishes to BIL, albeit given his condition as you reported it may be a dicey thing. And 88 is a good run, but dementia is a terrible way to go (my Dad had it and I’m trying hard to keep my brain going strong).

Wise words.

Lucky, breakfast sounds delicious. Good luck the hummingbird Thunderdome creation you’re planting… :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

And onward into the week. Have a great one all.

11

Good morning. It was71ºF when I got up with my walking alarm. It must have figured I was tired, since it didn’t try to get me up early. Chloé and I saw a couple of other pups and their humans this morning, including another cavapoo, who wanted Chloé to be his best friend.

My shoes kept coming untied. I really hate round and oval shoelaces. Flat laces stay tied.

Like Nut, I judge my transitory seasons by when the leaves appear and when they decide to end it all.
Obligatory Monty Python ref:

It will be. It will be.
Hummingbird Thunderdome has finally begun. It’s too bad that they’ll all head back to Mexico in a couple of weeks.

Metal Mouse Your urological rantings reminded me that I need to get blood drawn to check my creatinine levels. If they’re still elevated, I will not be able to start spiro. More importantly, if you also take in my already elevated ANA levels, I suspect there will be another rheumatologist visit in my future. I really, really have no desire to have lupus.

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Mollie ‐ double tie your laces. That’s what I do and they rately come untied spontaneously.

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equinox and solstices for me.

this weekend the usual shopping trip and bouts of tidying. i tried to put up my nifty solar system lights. they fell down. i’m going to try krazy glue next. bought 2 very nice black cat pictures at michaels. got those on the wall, only 1 fell down. so far so good on second attempt.

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Hit it with a hammer. If that doesn’t fix it, get a bigger hammer and try again.


73 Ferrets at 1000, predicted high 74. Rain starting tonight and continuing through Thursday night.

Today is the first day of school. When I was a kid it was always the day after Labor Day. One of the good things about school here is that the library is open on Sundays during the school year.

15

Good morning.

It’s 54F and sunny. By late morning, it’ll become partly cloudy, and our daytime temperature will top out at around 79F. By Wednesday, we’ll have rain, and on Thursday, we’ll have thunder and rain. I’m looking forward to it!

For me, fall used to mean the first day of school, and that day was always (and still is in this district) the first Wednesday after Labor Day. As I’ve aged, it generally coincides with the weather. I’ve noted little peeks of fall in the last couple of weeks, but I don’t think it’ll be fall (for me) for another couple of weeks. These last few years, the weather has just been unseasonably warm in September.

I have seen some leaf drop, and some trees are already turning color. I think that has more to do with dryness than temperature.

Teela, I’m going to have to disagree with you on the want of a Super El Niño. For me, that means warm and dry. We need some good, heavy snowpack over the winter, and that’s not going to happen unless we get some serious moisture up here. We are already in a drought, and The Mountain (Mt. Rainier) and her sisters and brothers are pretty much disrobed. If it’s this bad on the West (wet) side of the Cascades, it’s much worse on the East (dry) side of the Cascades, where we have a great deal of agriculture.

Bright Tree, I like the Pond Guy’s kids’ names, too. I’m glad they and Ollie had such a great time together, despite the shoe marking.

I spent yesterday washing the bedding and towels, tidying the kitchen, paying some bills, and not much else. Today will include adulting (finding an electrician). I hope to hear from the door people soon, too, so we can get the new door installed. I’m so sick of fighting that slider.

Other than the adulting today, the day will consist of some rollsucking and dusting. I need to water the pots on the front porch, too, because, despite the rain a couple of days ago, they are under cover and didn’t get any of it.

I suppose I should finish my coffee, eat my yogurt and get the day started.

Please take care of yourselves.

16

It rained overnight and today supposedly (supposably) starts a 3 day heat wave. Whatever. I am so over summer. Yesterday I went to the barn at 11 and got home at 5. Rode Ariel for 5 minutes then we both said “we’re done.” I’m at the age of needing a day to recuperate after a day of activity. My plan today was to buy a new television because I am going to cut the cable cord and I want a smart TV. My mother died in 2011 and this television was hers so the darn thing is what at least 15 years old.

However, my tummy is acting up so I may not get the television today. That’s the beauty of being retired. There’s always another day to do things.

Growing up, school always started the day after Labor Day so to me, the new year starts the day after Labor Day, not January 1. I don’t know when autumn starts but it certainly does not start September 1. I guess it starts with the equinox or solstice or September 20 or September 21.

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Afternoon, mumpers! It’s currently 18c/64f with no predicted change and partly cloudy. Weather app says “It’s somewhere between fucking warm and fucking cold. I don’t know what to tell you. Dress in fucking layers.”

I’m with Nut, autumn happens when the leaves start to change colour and fall off the trees. Mother Nature doesn’t follow our calendar, she does things in her own good time.

Music festival was very much fun. I met up with several gig friends there, and chatted to random strangers, as you do. We managed to see some (or all) of all the bands despite having to do a quick trip back from venue to hotel to check in and get changed, then driving one car back to the venue. That car stayed overnight and we went back to collect it after we checked out of the hotel.

All the bands were very good, there had been a couple of late changes to the lineup as one band had to cancel due to illness, so we did see bands that we’d never seen before. One friend left early as she was offered a lift back to the hotel by someone else, the rest of us left at midnight when the last band had just finished.

We had a nice lie-in this morning, didn’t bother with breakfast and instead we met up for lunch at a local café we’ve been to every time we’ve been to that festival. It was an entertaining and very sociable meal, then we parted ways and went home. Our satnav said there was a big delay on the M6 (no surprise there) so we rambled a bit down some back roads and eventually go onto the M6 further down past the delays. It still added about 20 minutes to our journey but it was a pleasant change.

Back home, unpacked stuff, cleaned up the cat feeding trays and the litter trays, and am now drinking tea and debating whether I have the capacity to go to a spin class tonight. I don’t really feel like it, but we’ll see how it goes.

'im indoors is outside in the chaos garden with our profoundly deaf ex-neighbour (George) who turned up earlier to start hacking back all the brambles and nettles. He made a very good start, but it will take a few days to finish the job. We’ve had about a month’s worth of rain in the last few days so at least the ground is easier to work with!

18

I’m back! No additional stings but… they weren’t yellowjackets, they were hornets. I discovered that a) it wasn’t a nest in the ground, but at eye-level right beside me (when I snuck in with a flashlight). You know that scene in Jurassic Park where the park worker guy looks slightly to the side and sees the Velociraptor a few inches away in the leaves, staring at him? Yeah, like that. I stealthed my way to where I thought the ground nest entry was, then was “What is that moving mass right beside my face?” I fled before they noticed. Also, yellow jacket nests can be safely approached in the dark. Hornets not so much - they are instrument rated and fly in the dark.

I rushed inside and suited up in the latest hornet hunter fashion – long pants and sleeves, a heavy coat with a tight hood, balaclava, and eye goggles. Then got about 5 feet away and soaked the nest with poison. Got almost all of them. A few squadrons were out on patrol, and I nailed them as they returned to the nest. Will reconnoiter again after lunch to pick up any stragglers that may have returned.

Also, went to my doctor afterward to show off my swollen limbs from last night’s encounter. She’s prescribed some type of antihistamine, and rest. I will follow her instructions to the letter, and spend the day on the couch with the remote in my (good) hand. :smiley:

Will check in later again, after I catch up on everyone’s posts.

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This.

Besides, where I live it’ll still be hotter than hell and humid as all get out until October, so why get my hopes up.

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You be nurses, cranky night nurses or otherwise, favorite kind of patient. We’d answer your call bell first!

Now we gotta gang up on FCD.