Going back to school in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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FCM, I hope FCD can do some good, but once old people get ‘settled’ in a place ( I know because I dealt with the same thing) it can be hard as heck to move them. Tell him to be safe driving.

Nut, thanks for the explanation, here a grammar school is usually used to describe a elementary (ages 5-11) school (IIRC).

boo fae, a ‘science overall’? What were you doing, making nitroglycerin?

doggio, just remember what happened to Wash and be careful at work…

talky, good luck with the teacher (I may have mentioned I flunked French and while Paris is a beautiful city, it has too many French people in it IMHO…). Nothing on beans vs. no beans, I take no position on that (or on ketchup on a hot dog, another burning issue that divides Americans…)

Been shot (flu vaccine) and all bills have been delivered to the appropriate spots, so in a couple of hours I head off to soccer practice. All y’all take care.

62

Up from my nap. And today is the last day to vote for Fat Bears ( swampy is out of the running.) :bear:

63

Beans, always beans, the more kinds the merrier. 5 Bean chili is a favorite. Canned is fine if it’s easier, just none of that nasty ‘beans in chili’ sh*t, err, ‘beans in chili’ stuff. Never, never catsup on hotdogs, eggs or hash browns-that’s a sin against all that is right and good. If you put catsup on your steak, the steak should be taken away, rinsed off and given to someone worthy.

Boo, who is feeling drained and ready for the knocker man

64

So far the day has brought me lupus aches and a migraine, but I’ve decided it’s going to turn around. I want to walk to the store to get fresh produce.

I loathed our uniforms in Catholic school. We girls wore a white blouse and a thin wool jumper, plus a snap tie. The wool itched and wasn’t warm enough in winter, especially with bare legs (unless I wore tights). Socks/tights had to be either white, blue, black, or grey. HOWEVER, to this day I couldn’t tell you who was rich and who was poor.

Moooom, hoping for the best for your in-laws and for FCD’s trip. You’re past due for a long stretch of nothing much.

Thanks for the kind words, MetalMouse. (You’re always so kind to everyone!) The kids seemed to think I did OK as a teacher. What’s funny is that the paras were often telling me they learned a lot. One got so carried away, she’d raise her hand and try to participate in discussions! I was blessed to have a job I looked forward to every day.

Oh, and good on you for getting the flu shot! Did YOU get a sucker?

talky, I loathe beans, so if you’re inviting me–and you are, aren’t you?–leave 'em out.

Boo, a rinsed-off steak is oddly unappealing. It’s probably a good thing I’m not worthy, right? [checks] Whew. Definitely not worthy. Also, and, um, I know this is none of my business, but who is the, uh, knocker man? He apparently makes house calls, so you don’t have to, ahem, leave a knocker there and take home a loner?

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Of course I’m inviting you. Chili and cornbread for everyone!

I also managed to make some palak paneer so we’ve got options.

66

Yum!! I’d be glad to bring flan. Oh, and I do dishes. :slight_smile:

67

The first day of the junior high grades was always grueling. You HAD to wear your nicest clothes from the recent shopping trip! Nevermind that in SCal, September is the hottest month of the year! And those new shoes you cajoled/begged/cried to get? Blister factories! How many kids walked home barefoot that first day?

Oh, the three ring binder with all the goodies inside! Dividers, pockets, a sheet of reinforcements, even a stupid dictionary…all promptly ditched when you discovered how heavy and bulky the damn thing was to carry between classes!

I remember when PeeChees first debuted! We all had to have them! And after a while, they were so ratty and disgusting, but they were cheap, so get a new one! Bic stick ballpoint pens were 19 cents. Everybody immediately lost the lid. The next thing to go was the little stopper at the top of the pen.

Junior high! We all thought we were HOT STUFF, oh-so-grown-up!

~VOW

68

FCD is on the road. He thinks he can manage 6 hours tonight, which should get him into South Carolina, barring bad traffic. And that’ll be about halfway to Ocala - with luck, he’ll hit his parents’ place around noon. And he’s got strict orders to check in with me along the way.

Meanwhile, I guess I should think about throwing some supper together. I thawed some salmon and I bought some broccoli, plus there’s leftover rice. All of a sudden, I’m exhausted.

69

Eddie Van Halen dies.
I has a sad.

{{{{FCD}}}}

70

Just didn’t feel like doing anything productive today. Had a new rat buyer, which was nice - then promptly took a nap, which was even nicer!

Couldn’t get any mojo going once I got up, so I went driving around aimlessly. Wound up at a nice park by the lake, wandered there for a bit. (Reminds me: I have some entries for the “seen in nature” thread.) Got my hand sniffed politely by an enormous white dog.
Stopped at the corner likko’ sto’ on my way home for something stiff to drink, and wound up getting a hot dog from a guy set up with a grill in a nearby parking lot.
How timely, I was just wondering what to have for dinner!
While getting my snack, I ran into a neighbor (the one who helped me set up my window A/C Coolio) and got a friendly side-hug.

It was, like, all normal and stuff! { sniff }

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My friend @silenus and I agree upwards of 90% of the time, but I put beans in my chili.

72

Sunflower and I walked to the nearby shopping mall and ate lunch at Subway in the food court. My watch clocked this at slightly over 4 miles round trip. It is a lovely day here and we know that we need to take advantage of it while it lasts.

73

Me too. Another thing on the long list of things that 2020 needs to answer for.

I wore uniforms from 7th to 12th. Actually, I didn’t mind it. I had 5 uniforms, plus one for “important days”. It made mornings very easy. Plus, I was the scholarship kid, so I appreciated not making it blindingly obvious that I was not rolling in dough.

FCM - sometimes the in-laws are stress machines. I hope they both recover. Maybe you could cajole them into coming with a combination of “great-grandbaby!” and “you can go back to FL for winter - wink, wink”

I just got back from a COVID test. I’m scheduled for an out-patient back thingy on Thursday and they require a negative COVID test before they’ll proceed. Next week, I’m supposed to have another test, and then a colonoscopy. I think I’m just going to put that off. The week after that, I’m going into the hospital for 3 days of ketamine infusions.

Which brings me to dinner for tonight, and I have no clue. sigh

74

The ‘knocker man’ is autotype’s miscorrection of ‘knacker man’ which is the dead livestock hauler-away guy who collected animal corpses from farms in my trashy novels in decades past. Mumpers from across the pond please correct this if I’m wrong on the term. Just means I’m only good for the compost pile. Used up. Weary. Useless. Struggling to get back up onto my feet. Only worth pennies on the dollar.

I hope his trip goes extremely easily and safely. If some scenery pleasure and change of pace refreshing slips in too, all the better. Hope he finds his folks in fine fettle when he gets there.

Hey, I stopped and early voted on the way home from picking up the middle school housemate (who, BTW, is about as sweet and delightful as a 12yo could be, maybe even more delightful than at least 2 of mine were at that age). Figured that this way, even if I pop off and they call the knacker man to haul my pitiful carcass off, there’s one more Biden nail sealing shut the Cheeto/humanity dumpster fire’s coffin. Doing my part for the future.

Tomorrow my goal is to score my geezer high dose flu shot on the way home from middle school pickup. Will ask for my 2nd dose of shingles vaxx too. Wonder if I will get two :lollipop::adhesive_bandage::lollipop::adhesive_bandage:?

Boo

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On the plus side, we’re doing a refi of the house, including paying off the HELOC that we used to build FCD’s shop. The loan is for 25 years, but if we add extra principle to have the house paid off on our current schedule, we’ll still be ahead by around $350/month.And if we need to not pay extra, that’s easily done. So we need to decide if it’s better to have the extra cash in hand or be mortgage-free sooner. We’ll discuss it with our finances guy.

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We’ve been trying to persuade them to move here - either in with us or into a condo or apartment near us. Their excuse is “We’d have to find new doctors!!!” which translates to “We don’t want to move and you can’t make us.” MIL is legally blind and almost truly blind. FIL has Parkinson’s and early stages of dementia, along with his heart issues, so he really shouldn’t be driving. He’s 90, she’s 89, and they’re really not safe on their own any longer. We’ll see if FCD can talk some sense into them.

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@nelliebly

I went to Catholic school from K through 12th grade. The girls wore those jumpers. In elementary school, we wore slacks (no jeans) and a solid colored short with a collar (no T-shirts)

In high school the girls still wore jumpers. The boys wore grey flannel slacks and solid colored shirts with a necktie. Both boys and girls were allowed an approved uniform cardigan style sweater in the school blue.

At any given time, a Nun would tell a girl to kneel and if the hem of her jumper did not touch the floor she was in real trouble. The boys were not allowed an “unkempt look” meaning tie knots pulled down and top shirt button undone.

I now realize that the Principal Sister Marguerite Ann was bipolar. Back then we just thought she was crazy. One afternoon I was walking between classes with my shirt untucked. Sister came unglued. She grabbed the front of my shirt and started shaking it while frantically screaming at me for being such a slob.

My shirt came apart in her hands. When she realized what she had done, she went silent and just walked away from me. I spent the rest of the day with a necktie tightly pulled up with a shirt in rags. I thought it was funny, but in retrospect, she was pretty pathetic.

78

Howdy Y’all! Instead of boxed lasagna, we decided to belly up to the hog trough, so we went to GC around two this afternoon. Just seemed the thing to do. We are now very full sloths. The bears would have envied our attempt to fatten up for hibernation. :bear: :bear:

MOOOOOOM YIKES! Lookin’ after aged parents is not for the feint of heart. Here’s hopin’ FCD can begin to talk some sense into ‘em about movin’.

Everyone else, I read, but I have the attention span of a gnat on meth so yays, boos, hugs, nougies, trouts, chitlin’s and how you doin’s all around as needed.

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@FairyChatMom

Our thoughts are with you and FCD.

80

I made a fool out of myself by bursting into tears when I got a text saying Eddie van Halen died. I was at the grocery store. Damn. And again, damn.

This was just after a toddler struck up a conversation. She called me “Yoda,” which is a first, but since she said she “yike” Yoda, I guess I’m Ok with that.

Oh, yeah, we had the kneel test, too. We moved the summer after sixth grade, and my parents let me go to a public jr. high. It was an adjustment. We could talk in the halls! We didn’t have to keep hands folded on our desks! No flying erasers or painful wooden pointers! Those nuns did more to push people away from Christianity. I like to think they’ll be in Purgatory a long, long time…or maybe a hotter place, next to Mitch McConnell and Donald and the boys.

Boo, I think you meant to say, “Worth dollars on the penny.” Trust us. We know you (virtually but accurately).

Mooooom, I hope they’ll consent to go into assisted living. Surely they could keep their own doctors. Assisted living near YOU would be ideal, but if they’d at least consent to going near where they live now, you and FCD wouldn’t have to worry so much.