Good morning. It’s 7* here so extra strength long unders on. Currently filtering water. I use a brita and normally filter 3 gal of water each week.
there’s a lot of bopping that goes on in those soap operas. 
{{{nona}}}
FCD prayers that the Roxstar heals quickly
It’s a brisk -10F in the Big Minnie this morning, but it’s supposed to reach a balmy 10F by day’s end.
Made some good green chili stew yesterday with pork shoulder. I didn’t have fresh chilies to roast and peel, but I did have a giant Costco jar of fire-roasted green chili salsa, which is made in New Mexico from local chilies. It turned out great, so I think my days of roasting chilies are done.
Good morning everyone. Still in the low 20’s here (F), I think the last two days have only covered a range of 3 or 4 degrees. Predicted to stay that way for another day, and the weather app on my wife’s phone just dinged and announced the sleet would probably end at 6am. Forty minutes ago. Maybe it’s confused on time zones.
nona: wishing you and husband the best. Hopefully the cardio docs can figure it out and help him recover.
metalmouse: fair winds and following seas (or whatever we say nowadays). Hope it’s the trip of a lifetime!
Peaches (?) Welcome back. I’m still trying to connect lacuna matata to that name, but eventually I’ll figure it out. Welcome anyway, from an MMP newbie.
Mooom: the dulcimer is beautiful.
As for me, my life continues to be a country song. Now that my dog has died and my pickup is wrecked, I just want to know which song. That way I can tell what’s coming next.
We’re now past the two month mark on the wreck, and I talked to the insurance boffins yesterday. They’re waiting on yet another step in their process. I think I’ve found part of the problem, their arms are tired from all the “reaching out” they’re doing. I’ve never heard people use that term so much in conversation – yesterday’s set a record with 7 “reaching outs” to describe that one more bureaucrat must approve the decisions before they can tell me the super-secret numbers (how much my totaled truck is worth). I hope our nuclear codes are guarded with this much effort. They think maybe this week or the next, the final steps will be complete and they will then (wait for it) “reach out” to me and tell me the value. God knows how long it will take to reach out to the accounting department and reach out to the post office and reach out to the bank — and on, and on. It’s amazing how easy the processes are which flow money into a corporation – and how incredibly difficult it is to get money to go in the opposite direction.
To those advising I stop crawling underneath a vehicle in the cold and turn it over to pros – I think you may have a good point. It’s too cold for old geezers to be laying on the ground.
Here’s wishing everyone a good day (or trip).
See, at this point, I would be calling the state Attorney General’s office, pullin. That’s just ridiculous.
The minute I mentioned State Attorney General in my conversation, things changed. I had my payout the next day.
Happy Toosday!
It was chilly, windy, and 40 degrees at the park this morning.
How long has it been since I was able to say that!
When I woke up, I yelled down to my son, We’re going to the park today.
All three dogs jumped off the bed and raced downstairs. I didn’t even know Cerby was on the bed.
He’s learning to let me sleep.
They had the best time.
You’d never know anything is wrong with Ripple.
He’s more playful and energetic than usual.
Echo was happy to see her people.
Welcome back Peaches
Peaches is from Georgia, she is a Georgia Peach.
{{{Nona}}} I am so sorry. I hope all the testing go well for your hubby.
Happy Travels MetalMouse
Pulley I absolutely hate the phrase ‘Reach out’.
It reminds me of the 4 Tops’ song and smacks of desperation.
I think it’s creepy when a business wants to ‘reach out’ to me.
I remember the old AT&T commercial to ‘Reach out and touch someone’, and that is really too personal coming from a business.
‘Contact’ is the right word to use in business correspondence.
We will contact you - by phone, by mail, by email, by text.
My son got one unemployment check last night.
Seven more to go and I can cross it off my ToDoLIst.
It’s MINUS ONE DEGREE. Fortunately no wind. I am not amused. I take Ursala Kitteh to the vee eee tee this morning for a nail trim. Then I’ll go to the barn and hang out.
Morning again.
Not an auspicious start, the cab was 45 minutes late (wreck on the road they came in on) but that was OK, since the plane is an hour late…should still make my connection in Atlanta, have over an hour to do so and while ATL is huge, you can get from there to here pretty easily. But my plans for a leisurely lunch are gone, so a Pepsi Zero and a bag of Bugles have broken my fast. At least the airport internet seems to be pretty quick.
Oh, and for all you cold weather folks–it’s supposed to be 81F in Miami today…
Wet one, Brrrrr,and at least the three most fearsome words in the English lexicon do not apply…Wind Chill Factor.
Sari, glad the dogs had fun. And congrats on check #1.
Yanker, tell them you are going to ‘reach out’ and punch them in the nose…hope the bureau-crazy finally gets the money to you.
Taters, take care of yourself.
FCM, that short vacation can’t come soon enough, can it?
{{Ace}}. Hope husband-unit’s prognosis gets better and gets the support he needs from the medicos.
Ok, only got…another hour and a half sitting in the airport. May need more Bugles. Take care all.
So they opened up the 3rd slide to speed the heaving up, so we could stand around for 2 hours waiting for the Air. Then they told us to go home, since the Air wouldn’t make it. Of course, as I am walking up the hill to the lot 5 minutes later, the Air truck comes down the hill. Oh well.
{{{{nona}}}}
I just want to state for the record that I detest that bit of verbiage with all my being. It’s meant to mollify, but all it does is enrage me.
Afternoon, mumpers! It’s currently 7c/44f with a predicted high of 9c/48f and mostly sunny. Weather app says “Can you wear shorts today? Do whatever the fuck you want, I don’t care”. Yup, sums me up perfectly today, I still feel rough although I did log into irk today but am glad to be at home and not doing a lot of anything.
nona big hugs to you and Hubs, I hope the tests go well and he can get what he needs.
Moooom that is some beautiful wood work indeed, seems almost a shame to play it!
yanker “reach out” is one of my pet peeves too, makes me snarl every time.
Taters hope you feel better soon, sometimes you have to accept that your body’s raising the white flag.
sari glad to hear the dogs had fun and you had some success with the unemployment folks too.
peaches welcome back!
metal mouse have a fabulous trip, really looking forward to some pics later 
Swampy Should be. Appendages crossed. Just got my W2
lacuna matata. Welcome home
Mooooom. Wow those are art.
Good (checks) Morning Doing the irk thing but there is not enough caffeine in the world. Can I go back to bed now. ?
PS Anyone wanting to friend yours truly on the Book of Faces send me a pm.
Ursala Kitteh survived the nail trim and is currently napping in her sun spot. A kid at the vet was wearing shorts and flip flops. I rolled my eyes. Went to Mart of the Wall for $87 of stuff I didn’t know I needed. The horses are out napping in the sun so I believe I will sloth this afternoon.
Morning, all. 28°F here and the heat is having a hard time coming up. I have two heaters running and Cat is curled up in a bed by one of them, with a fleece blanket on top. I refer to this configuration as “squeak pie.”
I had my quarterly blood draw this morning. The phlebotomist did a good job. Sometimes it’s a big mess. I stopped on the way home for my quarterly post-blood draw Egg McMuffin. This is the only time in my year that I go to a drive up, because the Egg McMuffin is as far removed from my next A1c glucose test as it can possibly be.
My Lovely Wife and I had an enjoyable afternoon looking at things like puffy coats at REI. She got a pair of good boots, and I got a medium weight down jacket and a medium weight down vest. These are pretty much the first clothes either of us has bought since the pandemic started (other than a couple of pairs of Merino socks for my last Camino, which I paid for myself) so I’m not too concerned about the cost of the fancy ass boots. I also ordered a fresh pair of Tevas from Amazon, since REI doesn’t have any sandals in stock right now. My lovely wife wants to try a fleece neck gaiter, and possibly to order some rainproof over-pants.
I have three gigs set up for myself between now and April. Two are readings from my memoir for private organizations via Zoom, and one is a memoir-writing workshop session that I will lead at a small national conference. We’re doing some major work on the house so everything is chaos and will be for months, which makes it hard to do sustained writing. I am doing a haiku a day challenge for 2023. So far, so good, and I have only awakened once in the early morning hours to realize that I was a haiku behind and needed to get up and write before going back to sleep.
Well, the first meeting is out of the way. The AE from yesterday was in it (different client, though). She didn’t really need to be, but I did like that she was ‘selling’ – even if she did dominate the non-technical side of the conversation. At noon I have a meeting with another client, to go over the contracts and stuff so they can contribute their commercial accounts receivable to us.
I’m having my blood drawn on the 15th. Regence gives a reward for having a biometric screening. Once I get that, I’ll have a $100 Amazon gift card. It looks like there’s another $50 in rewards for a ‘Wellness exam’ ($30), a dental exam ($10), and a vision exam ($10). Gotta get on those.
Wowee!
Ask the doc(s) if what they’re calling a defibrillator is actually a CRT-D (Cardiac Re-Training (or Re-Timing) Device). If so, then you probably want one, depending on what’s actually going on in Hubs heart. That’s what I got 7 years ago and my ejection fraction went from 15% (only mostly dead) to 45%, and is at 55% as of my last test.
Mine has never defibbed me once. Mine only works for V-Fib anyway, not A-Fib. Make them explain to you everything the device they want to put in does. Docs are notoriously lax about explaining things in detail.
Seconded. Daughter discovered those chilies last year and shared them with us. Trader Joe’s has a version also. Yum!
Yippers. A feww years ago I had a collection agency harassing me for a debt I didn’t owe, so I wrote a letter to the Oregon Attorney General’s office telling them what was going on and listing proof that I didn’t do what they said I did. A few days later I got a call from the collection agency saying “We’re sorry, it must have been some other Bumbazine. We won’t call you again.” It was a scam from the get-go.
Hello Peaches!
Glad Ripple is feeling better.
It’s 31f here and sunny. When I got up this morning the weather app on the 'puter said to look out for snow flurries. I opened the blinds on the back window so I could watch for the garbage truck and was blinded by the light. I’m not worried 'bout no snow.
Well, that’s enuff.
I’ve got some chickie-n-dumplins started. FCD is at the UPS store getting the dulcimer packaged to go to his bro. SIL wasn’t picked for the jury, so he fetched Tobias early and I"ve been enjoying the quiet. Tho I did empty the dishwasher, so I haven’t been a total slug.
It’s been raining on and off all day and the temps have dropped into the 30s. The departure for Indy has been delayed till Firday because MIL had a cardiologist appt (that we’d forgotten about) on Thursday. Other than that, no excitement hereabouts.
Howdy all. In Miami and having dinner at that notable eatery IHOP (not much of a choice around here. Hotel is ok, but they had the thermostat set to about 50F, so had to get out to let the room heat up some. Now need to decide if I catch the 5am shuttle or the 6am (flight leaves at 9am).
Oops burger has arrived so I need to cut this short. Take care all.
I vote for the 5am shuttle. Get breakfast and coffee at the airport at your leisure. Rest easy.
metal mouse, they won’t post the position until it is permanently vacated. There is a lead position that I submitted my CV for, but I really don’t want to be a lead for my supe.
Welcome back peaches!
{{{ace and hubs}}} My dad went to St Francis in Indy for his defibrillator a few years back and had really good care. It has only jolted him three times, all within a couple of hours, since. He has felt better since the procedure.
Feel better soonest taters.
yank, unless your wife leaves you too, you don’t have a country song yet. 
If that does happen, play it backwards.
It’s been like 35F and drizzly all day today. We’re supposed to have sleet and ice tonight, so they made sure that we all had the weather hotline number to make sure the plant is open before getting out on the road.
Stay safe and healthy y’all!