Well, damn. I just got home from a nice walk, to find two police cars in the flat car park- it looks like the nice lady in the flat below me has died. She’d not long got out of hospital after a non-COVID respiratory problem. I feel really bad- I’d given her my number for if she needed anything when I heard she was ill (like shopping, as she obviously wasn’t going out and didn’t have family locally) and she’d sent me a text over a week ago- not asking for help, just an update and chatting, and I forgot to reply. I doubt there’s anything I could have done, and she did have friends locally, but still… damn.
JCat cuddles up on me. Since he is a Buddha incarnate, I get to kill extend compassion to two birds with one stone Om.
I was raised Methodist so no priests/nuns in MY family. I have always had a fascination with pre Vatican 2 nuns though. I cannot fathom giving up your entire life to be in service with a bunch of like minded people. Ursala Kitteh sometimes comes into the bed with me, but only when it’s cold outside. And even then she stays for as hour or so then leaves. Ariel Pony does not live at my house so does not sleep in my bed…
I’ll admit, that 1.) I didn’t initially know what to make of this post, and 2.) being involved in exotic animal breeding, I re-skimmed too quickly - and forgot which forum I’m browsing - and then had a complete W.T.F moment.
There’s a meme about not having one’s ducks in a row (“I have squirrels, and they’re at a rave”) that seems appropriate here …
[quote=“scareyfaerie, post:179, topic:916481”]…
getting up early for a 7am session in the gym tomorrow. That will be followed by irk, and then the reward of Friday night cocktails.
[/quote]
You have far more self-discipline than I possess. Like, barrelfulls more.
My barrels appear to be full of monkeys, not discipline.
Speaking of … I canNOT get motivated to do jack diddley shit. About 85% of what I’ve “accomplished” today (which includes sweeping HALF of a 5’ x 5’ room 
) I did simply to have something to tick off here.
In my (rather pathetic) defense, I was sweeping the front mudroom. Directly out the front door. 
The “back half” of that little room is occupied by soft-fur rattie enclosures, and I didn’t wanna give them a heart attack. (They’re sound asleep by mid morning, the little nocturnal bastards.)
…
OY! Anyone heard from @SurrenderDorothy lately?
I think of her often, and realized the other day I hadn’t seen her post much lately.
Afternoon all. Three pair of Duluth Flex Ballroom Jeans (size redacted) have been purchased and nearly $190 deducted. Also went by the bike shop and tried one on for size, I like it and the seat is of a size that can accomadate my…generous…rear end, but it costs $529 and I’m just not sure I want to spend that much on something that, knowing me, I’ll use 3-4 times and then just tuck away in the garage. I’ll think on it a bit more.
Nut, sorry about the neighbor. And yeah, there is nothing you could have done, but it still feels that way…called being a good person (you are).
Cats, hope migrane stays away.
Boo fae, good luck with the worms…don’t let it become a SNAFU which can lead to the dreaded FUBAR.
herald, glad you could reclaim the AC units and I think you have chosen wisely what to cool off…
Take care, purp.
Sari, two fairly-sized dogs and you–tell me you have a King-sized bed for all of ya…
Ok, back to internettin’ and reading. All y’all take care.
Mine was when my Bishop excommunicated 8 or 10 of us for publicly advocating for girls to be allowed to serve as altar girls. Excommunicated us by name on the front page of the newspaper without ever talking with us.
My daughter and I drove every Sunday to the next diocese over. She became an an altar server, I became the instructor and organizer of altar servers and a lector, extraordinary minister, RICA instructor and first communion instructor. If you want children to grow up with the right ideas, teach them yourself.
My take: Lutheran=Diet Catholic and Episcopal=Catholic Lite. In my opinion Episcopal has better music and vestments. Lutherans do the best church suppers and bake sales by far.
I’ma gonna stop talking about religion now before I lose any new friends. Just to be clear, I deeply respect people who are full of faith, I envy them.
No big plans today. My housemate and her 12 year daughter are going out for a ride with me. We’re all getting a little squirrelly. Ok, a lot squirrelly. Hoping to find a park with a lake so we can dabble our toes in the water and throw some pebbles to make some splashes. Big ice cream cones via drive through will cap off the ride home. I mean, yah gotta have standards…
My cats are being unusually quiet. Must be a storm coming. I hope so, I love thunder and rainstorms. Not much better than reading a good book and sipping a cup of fresh brewed coffee while a thunderstorm is going on.
Howdy Y’all! Been a very lazy day here at da cave. It has rained off and on all day. We sat out on the back porch for a while to watch the rain, had N.O.;L. and then nappage. As I said, laziness abounds!
As y’all know I am Whiskypalian and pretty involved at my church. I’ve kinda always been that way, though for a while in the late seventies through most of the eighties I did not bother. Just didn’t want to and then decided to get involved again. One thing I do not like is Sunday School or any of those adult Bible study things. I went to SS growin’ up but when I turned fifteen my folks said I didn’t have to if I didn’t want to but I was expected to be at Eucharist. Eucharist (church) is fine but I was all too glad to not go to Sunday School. Cat The Episcopal church is referred to as Catholic Lite but really depends on the church. A real high churchy church can feel like a Catholic Mass. I like high church myself. Lutherans are much more down to earth. Even a more formal or “High” Lutheran service feels more like a “low church” Episcopal service. I enjoy the Lutheran service however. Lutherans also tend to really, really, really like lots of music. I like that as well.
DAMN! That’s cold. And decidedly un-Christ-like, as far as I was taught about that dude, and that’s all I shall say in this forum.
Because I am a goddamn f—¡ng lady.
Ah, I was remiss about placating the demons. So’s to shut them up, I: swept another coupla square feet by the side door (straight out the door! shaddup, totally counts) and washed a random assortment of dishes after remembering to put away the dry/clean ones first.
I’ll occasionally get a notion to clean, get all scrubbied-up and wet and … no room in the drying rack, because order of operations is important.
Ah, yes, inspired by the recent postcard exchange here, I scribbled off a 'card to a personal friend for the shits and/or giggles, knowing he only checks mail occasionally to clean out junk mail. I wanted him to find something fun instead.
Hope he doesn’t throw it out - I’d give a head up, but didn’t wanna spoil the fun of the surprise. Such a dilemma!
The soft-furs are fed and watered, including extra snacks for a few nursing moms with their little “Week! Week!” babies squeaking quietly.
Pretzel got a thorough cleaning and fresh water, which was highly interesting to her. She’s been such a hermit lately, through her convalescence, that it’s gratifying to see her immediately poke out to investigate anything new.
I sorted through some mail and bills, mostly to tear up paper for bedding.
Not mine - the rats. Which reminds me, I need to change my sheets.
If I accomplish that, and fix (and eat) a proper dinner, I shall consider this to be a Good Day after all.
It was 80+(something) when I finally got up this morning. (About 9) It is now 92F.
We went out and mowed the yards this am. I did the back, which takes all of 10 minutes, then passed the mower off to Wifey, and I weed-eated around the back yard while she mowed the front. We also watered some stuff here and there.
Did I ever mention we have actual grapes on our grape vine? I don’t have much hope that they will actually ripen properly, but it’s neat nonetheless.
Anyway, we’re back inside now and cooled off.
I am also an apathetic agnostic. I don’t know if there’s a god or not but I don’t believe anybody else knows either.
The vast majority of my family are bible-thumping evangelists. 3 of my cousins were preachers, (one’s dead now) and knowing what I know about 2 of them, well, let’s just say they are uniquely qualified to preach about sin, having explored the subject thoroughly.
They all consider me a minion of [church lady] Satan [/church lady].
:deep breathes:
Y’all have a nice Thorsday.
We’re doing a virtual offiste for work. What that translates to is six hours a day every day for three days on the phone, video chatting with about 100 of my closest “friends” listening to various presentations about how awesome our products are. It’s freaking exhausting. Virtual Happy Hour is tonight - the upside is that we get to drink and nobody has to drive home.
Anyway, we’ve got ants. Persistent little turds. I got a pie for dessert over the weekend when my mom came by for dinner and nobody (self included) remembered to put it in the fridge. We just walked by it for a couple of days until yesterday when I said, Hmmm, pie would be nice. I wonder if it’s still good? My husband grabbed a slice. I started to grab a slice and a buttload of ants swarmed outta the crust. Blech. (My husband ate his slice anyway, saying that since he’d warmed his in the microwave it was totally cool, probably true, but ew.)
So we chucked said confection and carefully wiped down all the countertops and floors to make sure there were no other crumbs to attract them. But of course, it seems to take them a while to realize there’s no more available food. Or they’re finding food we haven’t. Still…fewer ants than we had before. So, today’s silver linings: not as many ants. Booze after bullshit. Yay!
Debating going to the dog park this afternoon.
It’s 93 degrees out there, probably not such a good idea.
The way they are clinging to me, I think they want to go.
I shouldn’t do that anyway when there is so much to do around here. I’ve got boxes piling up in the living room as all my subscribe and save stuff from da jungle is being delivered.
Between all the food I bought Toosday, and all the stuff coming from da jungle, I shouldn’t have to buy anything for 2 months. Well, except for water and fresh stuff.
I’ve run out of room in the ‘pantry’, so some of this will have to go upstairs.
Only a queen sized MetalMouse
My two really aren’t that big, both weigh somewhere between 40 and 45 pounds. If Echo ever fills out, she may get up to 50. She is still thin and leggy, and eats like a little pig.
It you put the two side by side, they look nothing alike. You’d never think they were the same breed of dog, let alone related.
Speaking of pigs, when I picked the dogs up from daycare yesterday, somebody came out with a cute little pig on a leash. Ripple and Echo were right behind it and very curious about what it was.
Cinnamon works pretty well to keep ants away from stuff. My mother used to get them, and I put a trail of cinnamon around my nightstand as they were crawling up there every night to get into whatever I drink I had in my glass. Better ants than mice though. We haven’t had any for some time. Ripple caught one and the trap caught another. We haven’t seen or heard anything so that might be it.
I think we will go to the park. We don’t have to stay long if it is too hot.
DH is going to need another surgery on his leg in about three weeks. Supposedly, he should be able to resume normal irk duties within a couple of months of this. I’m not sure I want to get my hopes up.
Hello, Mump chums! Got up early and got 4.5 miles in. It’s supposed to be 90 again today, plus midday sunshine very bad. Got back before sun was high, and now my joints are grumbling. Hey, I did my part: it’s lupus that broke the contract. Hmph. 
I have not one but TWO Instacart orders arriving soon. I needed some Costco items and some items Costco doesn’t carry. I wonder if the delivery folks will bump into each other. 
As noted, I was raised Catholic. Went to Catholic school until 7th grade, quit the Church a year later. Took me decades to un-learn the version of Catholicism nuns used to discipline us and return. The priest at my church was a great guy: fluent in 5 languages and could point out mistranslations in the Bible, joyful, warm-hearted. Then he got ultra-conservative, and his sermons became political, so I left again. I’m a Cafeteria Catholic (pick and choose what Church rules and beliefs I believe in–some of the Church’s stands on things like gay marriage and birth control tick me off). I also believe, as Hindus do, that there are many paths to the truth. Studying world religions made me recognize how many beliefs are common across religions and cultures.
wordy, someone will say ants are protein, but ew. My ex once bought moldy mozzarella and insisted I use it to make pizza. The kids and I scraped ours off.
Boo, that bishop was an ass, all disrespect intended. That’s no basis for excommunication, and doing so publicly was unconscionable. I don’t believe in excommunication, but if I did, I’d still think he was an ass.
swampy, two introverts must make for a nice, quiet household. I like to think of you two blissfully floating around on the cee-ment pond
shoe, I’m stealing “My barrels appear to be full of monkeys, not discipline.” Cracked me up.
Cats, I hope the migraine didn’t hit.
MetalMouse, glad the jeans shopping went well. You didn’t have to try any on, did you? I hate trying on jeans. Could you/would you ride a bike in hot weather? If not, maybe you could buy one in a month or two, when it cools off a bit.
nut, sorry about your neighbor. I’m sure she didn’t give your lack of reply a second thought, so don’t let it weigh on you.
Mooooom, hope you had a great time swimming!
I miss having my big ol’ lab sleeping with me, even though she squished me into the dresser beside the bed and had Noxious Gastric Events.
Instacart 1 is here! Woo-hoo! Christmas in July!
Itsa quatah aftah wun, and I’m bored.
End of the month means not a lot of data. Waiting for one credit reporting agency to create a July folder so I can send a file, and waiting on a member to provide missing information. I suppose I can send out reminder notices…
I’m actual Catholic Catholic. Just too lazy to go to Mass(The Higgs-Boson is disappointed). The beagles I had slept on a bed on top of my bed. Gordie doesn’t jump, so he doesn’t sleep on the bed.
On the church thing – my family is VERY Catholic. As mentioned above, my mother was in the convent for a year or so (a cloistered order down south, her dream was to be a missionary), and her four younger sisters all entered a different order during their senior years of high school, pre-Vatican II. My mother’s aunt belonged to yet another order. My mother’s one brother was a religious brother, her cousin was the priest who married my parents, and my father had a couple of distant nun cousins but they died young in the convent. To say that my maternal grandparents were proud of their religious offspring is an understatement! The first time Kopek met my aunts at the house en masse, he said he thought he had wandered into a Vatican II convention.
When I was small and we’d be at the convent for “visiting Sundays” or they were down at the house, I was very confused by my aunts. They all wore the full habit, with nothing visible except their hands and faces, and even their shoes and glasses were the same. My mother called them and referred to them alternately by their “nun names” and their birth names, and it took me quite a while to really know who was who since I didn’t see them that often and three of them were already in the convent by the time I was born (the youngest one babysat for me and my brother before entering so I had a slightly better handle on her).
And I can tell you from personal experience – nuns drink and nuns swear and nuns have legs - they do not just float along!
Oh, and Kopek was an altar boy. Hard to imagine, huh? 
And we were married by a Lutheran minister.
OK, enough convent talk for now. Back to your regularly scheduled chaos.
That was funny and fascinating, OW! Not surprised nuns drink and swear; just surprised they didn’t do either at school…that I know of.
Oh my goodness… I am so sorry to hear this. It makes me very sad. 
Frankly, I fear that fate (ultimately) for myself, as there is no one I see or talk to every day.
There are times when that sounds very appealing. Being a nun today is not what it was prior to say, 1970. Today there are no young nuns to work to support the old nuns. When those old gals gave up everything and entered their orders back in the day, they thought they would always be taken care of. But many of the orders (if they did not collect and manage funds well) are broke and just scraping. The Church and even their dioceses don’t take care of them financially. There is an order that was founded here in San Antonio that was thriving when I was a teenager, but today there are just two nuns left, and both are my age. After they die, extinction.
I’m still laughing at “nuns have legs” and the earlier post about nuns on their day off, drinking beer by the pool.
I shouldn’t laugh, I was raised Polish Catholic, which makes those silly Italian and Irish Catholics look like a buncha sissy half-believers.
Kidding.
Mostly!
…
I made Polish “ground beef cutlets” which are the Polski version of hamburgers sans bun. Not having milk, I melted a shitload of butter … too much, so naturally, there’s popcorn now to soak up that nonsense.