I’ve got a day off - maybe 2 if it takes longer for the grands’ test results to come back. The biggest chore today will be laundry, and I’m thinking I need to attack the ever-growing pile of papers on my desk. It’s not supposed to get above freezing today which means I probably won’t venture forth.
We got a letter from the IRS yesterday apologizing for the delay in answering our query of Aug 3 and asking for an additional 60 days to respond. Problem is, neither of us can remember asking them anything last summer. So, yeah, take 60 days. Why not…??
Speaking of the IRS, I think I have all the documents I need to do our taxes, so I guess I’ll get on that, too. And I need to call Royal Caribbean - I sent them an email asking if we can switch our April cruise to next year - we’re just not comfortable with this Omicron situation, even tho it’s decreasing around here. So we’ll see.
Yep, lots of fun in store at FairyChatEstates! Woohoo! Party on!! Happy Wednesday!!!
My daughter got appointments for the kids to get rapid COVID tests this afternoon. She said this morning, Toby was a little congested with a slight fever, and Roxy was coughing and snotty and had over 100° even after tylenol… Let’s keep a positive thought for colds and just colds…
Morning all. Paper has been rescued from the great outdoors and pills taken, so that much has been accomplished. Also joined a Gym on-line (Phaze3 Fitness, a local place but quite new and huge), costing $24.99/month so starting Moanday I’ll try to begin getting myself in some kind of shape.
Sorry, shoe, no work crush here, mostly since I haven’t worked since 2017… But I hope you younger-than-is-good-for-you crush ain’t jealous…
Oopsie, maybe he thinks your out of his league? Keep the lines open.
FCM, good luck on the COVID tests for the kids.
swampy, I really do miss my Golden Corral; hope somebody buys and re-opens it.
OK, need to do the morning internet visits (couple of webcomics and Good Mythical Morning, a webshow I’ve become rather fond of). All y’all take care.
They just had rapid tests done - results in a couple of hours. Pacing here, figuratively if not literally.
I tidied the kitchen after emptying and refilling the dishwasher, taking out the kitchen trash, and scooping the cat box. FCD has gone back to snooze, but here it is, nearly 9:30 and I’m still in robe and slippers. That’s a new sloth-like record for me! I need to shower and dress, but I don’t want to disturb his slumber, poor guy. He’s lucky to get 2 hours in a row before the pain wakes him.
Our Golden Corral is dead and gone, but frankly, it wasn’t all that great anyway. Fairly cheap for lots of mediocre food. I think we may have gone twice - saw BBBobbio there once before he headed west. Anyway, I don’t miss it. But it would be nice to have a place hereabouts with a good salad bar - like Quincy’s used to have. Do they even exist any more??
Yeah, Yay? is appropriate. It’s not plague, which of course was the big concern. It’s just seasonal nastiness. I’ll have Toby tomorrow and Roxy will stay with her dad - they want to keep the two kids apart as much as possible. Can’t say I blame them.
Afternoon, mumpers! It’s 3C here and mostly cloudy…actually, it’s dark, so probably mostly cloudy except I can’t see any.
Busy irk day, lots of meetings so did lots but got nothing done. I have officially done something nasty to my foot, two toes are very painful and now look quite bruised. I’m hobbling like a hobbling thing, and muttering about being too old for this sort of thing. Toesies are buddy-taped with a bit of cotton wool between them, hopefully that and a bit of rest will sort them out.
Moooom good news on the grandkids being negative!
metal mouse congrats on the gym membership. I do like a good gym session, sadly may have to miss out this week if toesies don’t get better quick.
nellie yup, another vote for reporting the Uber driver. We don’t use them much, largely because they are often more expensive than our local cabbies, and because they have a tendency to say they’re picking up from a specific location and actually being somewhere else.
I’ve never used Uber - never had the need - but when my sister still lived in the city, she’d use it when she wanted to go out drinking. I know at least once she found a driver she really liked, and they worked it out so she’d contact him directly when she needed rides. Not sure how kosher that is with Uber, but it worked for her.
Second load in the dryer, third in the washer, first put away. General laziness otherwise.
Never would have imagined a day when I’d root for an infant to have a cold. Crazy times we’re in.
Speaking of crazy times, yesterday I got some small KN95 masks delivered: I’m in the office today, and am very pleased that they fit pretty nicely. The regular ones were way too big for my face. (I’m fat – for now – but only 5’3, with a small face.) And N95s don’t work for me because of the over-the-head loops. I should have learned my lesson when I had to order small cloth masks after having bought regular-sized ones, but it never occured to me that the KN95s would be available in a smaller size. So, now I have a bunch of N95 and regular KN95 masks at home, representing my trial-and-error. (I plan to donate them.) I also never would have imagined spending so much time, effort, and money on masks.
LOL!!
(…but I will admit that my first name is Jennifer. )
Oh, I developed a crush on him almost immediately; well before the pandemic started. I only just admitted it to myself.
My boss has suggested that I establish a formal mentoring arrangement with one of the other project/program managers in our business unit. We’re going to talk about it in a couple of weeks, and she’ll have some ideas for who I might ask. I’m all for the idea, but I’m worried that she might suggest this guy as a mentor…I’d have to say no (really), then decide how to explain why. Heh.
I am counting the hours until the end of this module- I can usually deal with boring, but this is just next level. All I can say is I’m glad masks are still required so the lecturer can’t see my expression… I’m not sure why I’m still showing up, because I cannot express how irrelevant it all is, and I have so much to do- which I’m not doing when I get back because my brain is all frazzled from boredom.
We apparently have plagued students numbering in the hundreds on site. I’m taking a somewhat relaxed view of this given that my antibodies are probably up for a proper fight right now, but it’s somewhat unnerving that we’re supposed to be dropping restrictions this week.
Have read but not retained- am having a few glasses of wine with dinner after today. Hey, at least I didn’t start at lunch… I don’t need to drive to class, so I was bloody tempted.
As far as ride-share, I prefer Lyft. Lower price for the same trip (Uber’s rates can easily be twice Lyft’s in my area), and I’m reliably informed that Lyft drivers have a tougher background check, so I do feel a little safer.
End of the month, and it should be light days at work. But people keep sending me their data after I sent them reminder emails. And I have a report correction to send to Big Multinational Credit Reporting Company, because their report is wrong.
On the lighter side, a German shepherd came to the back of the catio. Goo’s tail got all puffy. It may have been a neighbour’s dog, Clover; but I don’t see her often so I wasn’t sure. The neighbours no longer have a gate on the steps up to their deck (which is where their main entry is), so I wondered if they moved. But there’s a gate in the fence around their back yard, so maybe that’s where the dog stays when they’re not home? That gate was open. If the pup comes back, I’ll try to get a look at her tag. If it’s Clover, I’ll take her home.
I gave the Uber driver only two stars. I probably should have given him one, but at the time, I was thinking maybe he really thought that was the right destination, and after all, the app sent him there. Oy. Of course he recognized that wasn’t the right destination: the only building was covered in plywood and graffiti and was obviously not a passenger station; there were several freight trains and dozens of pallets of freight; the sign that said “Amtrak” also said “freight.”
After I read all your excellent advice, I went on the Uber site to report him, but it would only allow me to report the most recent trip, which was the one from the local train station and my home, and that driver was very nice and very safe, and the same driver who took me TO the local train station. (There’s a driver shortage. I had to wait 20 minutes because he was the only driver to take the fare.) So I give up. I don’t care so much about him getting in trouble. It’s more that I don’t want him to dump some other hapless passenger in a dicey neighborhood.
I haven’t used Lyft simply because there aren’t as many drivers, and there’s a driver shortage here. I’d prefer Lyft because they pay their drivers better.
Mooooom, I’m relieved the grandkiddos only have The Crud. Not that The Crud is any fun. It’s a glorious day when babies get old enough to blow their little noses.
shoe, regarding Mumpers with work crushes, did you maybe get MetalMouse confused with doggio, who had/has a crush on a coworker? I mean, MetalMouse and doggioare a debonair mouse and dog, respectively, not to mention their kindly natures.
Soaking of IRS mysteries: I got a letter from them yesterday telling me that I didn’t owe them any money and I should keep this letter. OK then. The whole system is so weird. The IRS essentially says: I am thinking of a number between 0 and a gajillion. Guess my number! Then the taxpayer has to submit their own number and some weird reconciliation process happens. It’s bizarre.
Yay for negative COVID tests for grands. Colds, says the voice of experience, are definitely the better “choice”.
Metal Mouse I was wondering how you were managing the work crush. Good job finding a gym you like. Now comes the hard part (at least for me) - going!
BooFae have you gone back to the office or are you still working remotely? Cats are responsible for caring for the sick and injured you know. They have a duty to sit close by and purr in a reassuring manner. Mine are still working on acquiring this skill. Maybe I need more cats.
Over here the CDC updated their guidelines to 5 days of isolation just as omicron hit, and I have lost all respect for them. Again.
Nettie I’m with you on Lyft. I don’t use Uber at all. I often am out and about with my cane (when I go out and about), and I need drivers who will actually stop for me. Uber drivers seem to get away with a lot more nastiness towards the disabled.
Yesterday evening I started feeling really ill again. I think I just pushed too fast. Stupid COVID. I’ll rest up today and we’ll see how it goes. I mean, I feel like resting up is all I have been doing, but I’ll do it with extra intensity today.
I’m now experiencing that post-grief feeling where I’m coming out of the fog and realizing I haven’t done a damn thing for a month, at work or at home. So I’m panicking a little bit. But that’s okay. I’ve come to enough that I busted overlyboy the other day for watching YouTube in his bed until nearly 1 a.m. Since I had kids, if I hear a noise remotely near their bedrooms I’m up like a rocket, even if it was just one of them turning in bed. Which is why creeping sneakily down the hall to put your phone on the charger and pretend like it was there all night didn’t work. One of my more annoying traits.
Anyway, it’s freaking freezing in here, Mr. Bigglesworth. I’ve got a double layer of thick socks on plus thermal underwear and fingerless mitts and I’m still chilly. I guess that’s what happens when you park your butt next to an outside window when it’s so darned cold, but I haven’t yet learned how to work well without visual access to the outdoors. Anyway, a visit to the dentist is in the offing for later this afternoon, with kids in tow. Less than delightful, but necessary.
Other random and mundane things: I’ve got this candle burning that purports to smell like, “French pastries, cherry and almond.” It smells vaguely pastry-like, but also mildly acrid. I’m just waiting for my husband to walk in and ask what smells like a bakery’s garbage.
Cold 16 degrees this morning, 27 degrees now.
The dogs are back at daycare. Just in time, if they hadn’t gone today and got their Bordetella vaccine, I would have had to take them to the vet and wait two weeks before they could go back.
They are also getting bathed today.
Busy morning, of a kind I don’t like.
When I took food out for the outside cats, there was a woman standing on my porch. She looked worried and asked if I had seen my neighbor. I said no, and that I thought she wasn’t home. Packages were piling up on her porch, so I thought she was staying with her niece, especially since it had been icy. She said my neighbor’s niece was on the way, that nobody had been able to contact my neighbor who has been ill, and they were worried about her.
As some of you already know, my neighbor is a hoarder, and doesn’t let anybody into her house.
They called to her through the mail slot, and she was answering, so we knew she was alive. They asked me to call to her, anything to get her to come to the door. She kept saying she would, but she didn’t, and I said she’s not going to. She’s telling us she will, hoping we’ll get tired of waiting and leave.
One of the women found a key and managed to get the door open, except she could only open it a few inches because of all the stuff piled behind it.
Nobody wanted to call the police because they were afraid it would upset her too much. I said it they wanted they could go through my attic, the wall that separates us is just plywood nailed to some stud and could easily be pulled down. Her niece said no to that, one because the attic stairs are steep and while there is a handrail on the wall, there is no rail at the top (she used to live in my house), and two, with the hoarding, she wasn’t sure she could get out of the attic on the other side. Finally, somebody else in the family called the police and paramedics.
The first officer talked to my neighbor through the door, and said there was really nothing she could do. My neighbor is lucid, competent, and an adult who says if she doesn’t want help, they can’t force it on her. The second officer, he was magic. He talked to her through the door, then managed to get the door opened wide enough that he could squeeze his way in, and he went and talked to her.
She was on the damned floor and couldn’t get up.
Still protesting that she was fine.
It took over an hour, but he finally got her up and out of the house. The paramedics came back and got her. Once she was out of the house, nobody was going to let her go back in.
She was furious though. If looks could kill her niece would be dead, and I think I would be too.
I hope at some point she realizes just how dire her situation was, and appreciates that we were looking out for her.
So scary.
I don’t know if the hoarding is going to be addressed. The police asked me if I could smell her house on my side and I don’t. I heard him mention all the mouse droppings in her house and how that is not good for her.
I don’t know if the police will put in a report or not.
Let’s keep a positive thought for colds and just colds…
)
Good job finding a gym you like. Now comes the hard part (at least for me) - going!
