Evening all. swimming (1,200 yards) has been competed, 2 pairs of Duluth Ballromm Flex Jeans (42 x 32) have been procured, and as a final act of responsibility, I have paid my property tax for the year. It went up by a couple of hundred dollars again this year, but still is better than most places, I think. Still haven’t heard from the repair shop, if I don’t get a call tomorrow morning I’ll drive over there and see where we’re at.
Pilot, sounds like your retirement ‘party’ was a lot of fun.
Flyboy, lovely video. Crows are never happy about intruders. And I think we need pictures of that Aloha Shirt…(you being in it is optional);
Shoe, hope you and G.M. stayed relatively amicable. And yeah, there are days (weeks) that leaving the bed is the hardest part of the day.
I have an Aldi several miles from me, but just haven’t gotten into the habit of going there. Might have to try in for a Moanday morning shopping trip one of these days.
Not a patty melt fancier, never have cared for grilled onions and in most places that is standard for the melt. But I know they are popular, so dig in.
Know a couple of the ladies here have both (1) had kids and/or (2) partake of the Wildwood Weed. Ran across this video while browsing my You Tube channels and well…I wonder how you would have done on this quiz…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8nQytx2GP0
I just had a good patty melt at the trivia game at the local brewery, It was great, with lots of grilled onions, which I love. They have been having their revenge today, but it’s been worth it.
I went to the credit union today. I got off the freeway and made a right. There were signs posted on the road with individual pictures of the Ferndale High School foot ball team. Almost all of them had Patrick Mahomes haircuts. *LOL*
Actually, I think Patrick Mahomes is a handsome kid. He seems like a nice guy too.
Thai leftovers for us. We bought a chair on clearance and I put it together. Looks good! A neighbor brought over 3 jars of homemade jam, and we had two nice walks with my visiting SIL.
I am exhausted, it has been busy.
I have a lot of reading and catching up to do around here.
I got my truck back today!
I am so very happy.
Even though I have to climb into the truck, it’s easier than getting into the loaner.
Expensive day though, I had to put $50 gas in the loaner, $1250 for truck repairs, and then $60 gas in my truck.
Today was a day of frustration.
I am taking four scripts for my back. Tramadol, Gabapentin, Tizanidine, and Celecoxib.
Last week I ran out of Tizanidine and Celecoxib, so I called the doctor’s office and asked if they could be refilled. He called them in on Friday, they weren’t ready until Sunday afternoon. I also had to ask for them specifically, as they had two other scripts from my cardiologist. They were going to give me only those two.
This week I ran out of Tramadol and Gabapentin. I couldn’t get through to the doctor’s office yesterday, but I was able to call them in today. The office called me back wanting to know why I needed Gabapentin when the doctor called in that last Friday.
I said I would call CVS and see if they had it. CVS has lost or forgotten scripts in the past.
I was on hold for 20 minutes and hung up.
I went online and saw Gabapentin had been ordered but was on hold until I called the pharmacy. No notifications, nothing, just sitting there.
I called the pharmacy and I sat on hold for 58 minutes before somebody answered the phone. The whole time I heard the message over and over that I could get faster service if I went on to their website. No idea why it was on hold, none.
The entire call took an hour, 58 minutes on hold and 2 minutes of information.
I think I am done with CVS.
There were other frustrations, we switched cab companies.
My son was late for work yesterday and got a 1/4 point because the cab was late picking him up. Then nobody showed up this morning when I called. The owner of the company got shitty with me when I said the cab never showed up.
I called a different company and they went right out to get him, and their cabs are marked so there is no guess work involved.
Swampy, I eat cabbage, tomatoes, and ground beef over rice and call it Deconstructed Galumpkis.
Adam is skating on thin ice.
He came in from outside, ate some food, watched me standing there with the back door open and strutted to the front door. I told him it was the back door or nothing. A few minutes later the dogs went out and he came into the kitchen and watched them go out, saw me standing there holding the back door open, and he strutted right back to the front door.
I let the little brat out the front door, then went back into the kitchen. A few minutes later I see the dogs bouncing along the fence, and there is Adam, strutting his shit down the neighbor’s back sidewalk.
He does this all the time. He comes in the back door, may or may not stop for food, wants out the front door, and then walks around the house to the back again.
Taters, when I lived in Baltimore, one street could be nice, the next street over was so bad you wouldn’t even want to drive down it, and then the next street could be nice again. If you lived there, you knew which streets to avoid.
I had clients that lived in a nice new community called Piney Orchard. (The name just pissed me off because pines grow in groves, not orchards. I figured some stupid city person made up the name). I thought the houses there were terribly overpriced but it was a good place to live.
There was a nice wooded area behind my client’s house, lots of trails and a pond with beavers.
It was nice, until teenagers who were breaking into houses, and robbing stores started hanging in the wooded area. Then the people directly across from my clients were arrested. Seems the husband was a huge drug kingpin. Not a very bright one it seems, as he paid cash for the house and his wife’s BMW. Then the man three doors up tried to drown his 18-month-old daughter in the bathtub.
So yeah, you have criminal elements and scum no matter where you live, some areas are just better at hiding it.
Nellie, I’m glad you didn’t do more damage to your knee and I hope it heals quickly.
Happy Retirement Pilot
Ugh, it’s 1130 and I’m not done, but I am exhausted.
You have my sincere sympathy. I cried over the pine. It was here before all of the utilities were run so we couldn’t replant there even if we wanted to.
BTW, I’ve seen your picture and I don’t think you look grizzled or even the least bit cranky.
You must feel a little bit of pride every time you look at them, how wonderful.
Our front yard looks something like the neglected back section of a K-mart parking lot and the back yard has a clover patch (that the goddamned grass is taking over AGAIN…I give up, next spring I’m going to plant wildflower mix and just say fuck it.) and flower beds and shade making things. There is always at least a 4 degree temp difference between his front yard and my back back one.
(The back yard is mine, the front is his and he doesn’t like plants.)
I get peopled out so much faster now that I’m a useless drain on society. For the most part, I still like people, I just don’t want to listen to them as much anymore.
I’m a first time flyer here. All of our other neighbors have been good or OK. We’d probably be on good terms with our current next door neighbors if they weren’t so horrible to their dogs. They have untrained dogs that live in their front yard. Their grade-school aged children don’t want to play with the dogs because nobody taught the dogs to not jump on people, so the dogs sit in the front yard and cry while listening to the kids play in the back yard. The dogs bark all the time because they are bored to tears and…
Argh. Animal Control says that as long as the dogs have shelter (a wood dog shed next to our fence), food and water they aren’t being neglected. I feel so bad for the poor dogs and wonder what lessons their kids are learning.
The big one in Phx is to fill your hand with some sort of alcohol and light it on fire. Back in the day, we would squirt lighter fluid on our 501 Levi’s and set that on fire for a fast flame, but we all knew better than to set our hands on fire.
I’m not going to post links, some folks might be eating.
Yes, GG is the last one. While we both have very fond memories of our childhood dogs, once our St Barnyard crossed the Bridge, we agreed that having a dog was unfair to the dog when we both worked full time. Now that we are old farts, we agree that we don’t want our pets to outlive us and end up looking for a new home because they did. We might foster when VBC is gone, but hopefully that decision won’t happen for another decade.
Oh hurray! Isn’t it wonderful when you find something that really works? I’m happy for you, but do need to remind you that you have a cat. It’s probably not wise to leave all of those fun things on a handy shelf for said jerkface to enjoy while you are working. I know I wouldn’t trust either of ours…
I was all YUM until you brought up ketchup. They must have enough mayo to drip on the plate, but ketchup is just not acceptable with greasy rye toast. IMO. I’m glad you enjoyed it
He wants to be sure you know who’s in charge.
Back when we let our cats out, one of them would come running to the door and scream to be let in, then dash to the litterbox because she wasn’t a commoner who peed in the dirt. As soon as she had covered, she wanted right back out again, the little brat.
That pic I showed off yesterday…with the gray and gloomy sky? Well, it actually rained last night, t’was wonderful. Just what baby trees need their first night home. I’m hoping it will rain again tonight, but it isn’t looking hopeful
Heaved, napped(at least as much napping is possible with a fuzzy hot water bottle snoring and twitching next to my head). Now I’m up, caffeinated, and sheveled. And off to heaving again.
Challenge accepted
The rich people’s Aldi here has 1 staffed, and 5 self checkout.
I’m not up early. I never fell asleep. The knee is a very angry joint*, and the pain kept me awake, so I finally got up. I put Voltrans on the “safe” part of the incision and took Tylenol (or “Time and All,” as my son called it when he was little). I iced it. I cussed at it, sweet-talked it, and sang “I Kneed a Man.” Nothing worked, and here I am.
Sari, that’s another issue I have with cabs: they’re not very reliable, IME. I’m gobsmacked that you have to order an Uber hours in advance where you live. I guess I’m confused about how that works. Uber has drivers out on the roads all the time, so when someone orders a ride, an Uber driver snaps it up and heads over. Do you live in a really remote area maybe? Sorry I’m so dense here.
You can tell by the way I use my walk, I’m a woman’s man, no time to talk.
JtC, I forgot to say I love your brave little trees. It’s really a thrill to see a seedling go from being a scrawny Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree to being a gentle giant.
Boo, I love elms and am sorry you lost yours. The street I lived on as a kid had a cathedral elm in front of most houses (Ours had a silver maple.). The street was dappled with shade. Then Dutch elm disease carried by elm borer beetles killed them off. It’s so sad. The world needs more trees!
I guess I’ll try getting supine again.
*I want to own a discount weed shop and call it Joint Savings.
Mornin’ all. It’s now long pre-dawn balconatin’ and caffinatin’ in the lush warmth.
I got it from Swampy. The circle of Mump is almost complete. May it be unbroken.
Good thing you mentioned the unsalted part. We wouldn’t want you to eat an unhealthy amount of sodium! Sounds like a seriously tasty (and seriously rich) meal.
Setting aside the typo I found the combo of “Duluth” and “Ballroom”
kinda funny. Picturing their fat cartoon spokes-character in a tuxedo twirling some delicate ballerina type across the dancefloor. Then I caught on to the other meaning. Very clever these Duluthians. Midwestern humor at its finest.
That is by far the best news of the week!!!11!!
I should say.
I hope your doctors’ office isn’t “calling in” scrips. Stuff sent by phone or fax gets lost. Stuff sent computer to computer gets worked. That’s pretty much true of every modern pharmacy & doctor’s office. I fired a doc awhile ago because they refused to use anything but paper scrips. Sorry: your refusal to join the 21st century is not going to screw up my care.
A fairly standard drinking game in USAF back in the day was to order a round of shooters of something flammable, set them on fire, then knock them back & invert the glass over your head. Anyone whose fire goes out before the glass is empty or who sets their hair on fire loses and buys the next round. They were called “afterburners”.
And here we shall part company. Mayo on cold sandwiches of any nature is great. A big slather on ham and swiss is food of the gods. Conversely, hot mayo is like hot vomit; not something you want in your mouth. Or at least not my mouth. YMMV and I love you anyhow.
I would prefer that ketchup not be sweet. I can sometimes find Asian ketchups for use at home that aren’t sweet and aren’t too weird otherwise. TJ’s “organic ketchup” is a lot less sweet than mainstream brands and has no unorthodox flavors like the Asian ones. Tastes like you remember ketchup from childhood. Can recommend. But at a restaurant, it’s gonna be Hunts or Heinz which is pretty much red dyed HFCS with some tomato puree added. ugh. But better than nothing. And simply essential on a patty melt.
Haven’t been there in a couple years now, but my local middle-class Aldi’s had IIRC 4 or 5 checkstands but never more than 2 cashiers working them. But they haul ass! No self service last I was there.
I’ve always treated Aldi’s kind of like I treat TJs. A place to buy snacks and a couple oddball specialty items, not a place to go grocery shopping.
Ouch!1! Sorry to hear. I hope you’re sleeping now.
As to me …
Last night was leftover dinner then ended with a fine birthday celebration for the two of us. Sleep was therefore excellent and now today shall be useful irk.
I’ve got some admin to do when I’m done w you folks, then mid-morning I’m going to go dispose of the last physical vestige of my former life.
A dead runabout boat and trailer I’ve been storing since shortly after we moved to Miami then discovered the next week that my first wife was late stage 4 and doomed. So having spent more to store it for a decade than I paid for it, now I’ll spend more than I paid for it to have a junkyard haul it off. The overall numbers aren’t large; an irritant rather than a deep cut, but those ratios are appalling.
I could have done this any time in the last 10 years, but it’s been just too easy to ignore and too uncomfortable / painful to face. She and I had a lot of fun on that little boat when we lived on the lake in Missouri. Back when life didn’t (much) include dread disease. Mournful sigh.
This afternoon I’ll make a few calls to get some transitional loose ends tied up with insurances and turning in my irk equipment before the weekend sets in for those poor benighted young folks who still irk. See? I’m gettin’ the hang of this retired stuff pretty quick.
Meanwhile Her Ladyship shall be doing her Mah Jongg club all afternoon.
Our Aldi generally has one, maybe 2 lanes open, so the self-check will definitely make a difference. The staffed lanes do go pretty fast, but I’ve gotten stuck behind 5 or 6 carts when I stopped in for 2 loaves of bread, so again, self-check will be great. I like having the option.
swampy: Speaking of collard greens, MIL gave us a can of collards. What do I do with them?
I don’t even bother comparing this year’s property taxes to last year’s. Nothing I can do about it anyway. I just wait for my mortgage payment to be adjusted upward. My homeowner’s insurance went up also - no surprise there. It’d cost a fortune to replace our house and its contents. And again, what can one do??
BTW, our Aldi has an pseudo-equivalent to Goldfish crackers called Turtles. Not only are they cheddar-y, but they’re just a tad spicy. Quite good, actually!
So strange - our CVS is really good - almost too good. We get reminders that refills are due and none are available. They’ll contact the Dr for us to get the refills. I’ve never had to call, so maybe they’re bad about that, but overall, we’ve been happy with them. I’ll assume differences are due to management, but what do I know…
I wonder why people bother getting dogs if they’re not going to pay attention to them. It makes no sense to me. If you want something canine-looking in your yard, get a statue and leave it at that. Sheesh.
I’m thinking it’s new to the corporation, not that I know anything of corporate decision-making. Coming to an Aldi near you!!
House is open, as it was all night - a glorious 65° this morning. Bliss!! Dare I hope we’ve seen the last of the 90s???
No idea what today holds. I may take Tobias to a playground since the weather is nice. I want to run to Shoppers and see if their buy 2 get 2 Coke deal is worth it. I guess if the regular prices is less than $8, then it will be. I need to vacuum the basement, but Tobias likes to help, which means it’s twice as difficult as it should be. I may leave that till tomorrow.
And so it goes. Another day in paradise. Happy Thursday!!
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis < snerk > 69! < snerk > Amurrkin out and cloudy with a predicted high of 90 and mostly N.O.S. for the day. Today shall be another stay in da cave day. I don’t want to people plus, we shall need to go out and about tomorrow, so whatever we need to get done can be accomplished then. So sloth, general overall uselessness, and bein’ retired drains on society are the order of the day. Sounds like a plan to me! Sup will be large and in charge and will require some prep, so there’s that for productivity. We shall sup upon chikin boobs in a mushroom gravy made in the slow cooker, collard greens, squishes, baby lima beans, dressin’ and cranberry sauce from a can (don’t judge! I like the schwump sound of it comin’ out of the can!). Thus we shall be well fed.
Nellie hope you are able to be gettin’ some sleep now.
MOOOOOOM as to the can collard greens, ICK! I suggest givin’ it to your sis so she can feed it to her outdoor critters since that is a thing she does.
sari yay for gettin’ the truck back!
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah.
Depends on the people, for me. I avoided talking to our next door neighbor in Portland because he was basically a tape recorder on legs. Same stories over and over and over again, same inflections, pauses, etc., but at least they were endless. The guy was a retired pharmacist, which is about as boring as it sounds. Here at The Home, people either can’t remember what they’ve already told you or are in a loop. You learn quickly which ones to avoid.
We’re off to pick apples today. We’ll see how the knee holds up, but I’m likely to end up sitting somewhere and watching other people do the picking. The wife’s a bit stir-crazy, and I sympathize, so off we go. Hopefully it won’t aggravate things too much.
It’s 51F, dark and clear outside. The expected high is 82F with clear sunny skies.
sari, I’m glad you finally got your truck back.
pilot, I shall vicariously enjoy retirement through you and other retired drains on society. Some day, someday, it’ll be my turn.
Some self-checkouts are good, convenient, and efficient; others are not. I sometimes use the self-checkout at Safeway and Home Depot. But there’s always that one person who can’t make things work, and they hold up the whole shebang because people start shifting to the lines for the other self-checkouts, and then another person starts holding things up for the same reason as the first person.
Work was very long and frustrating yesterday. I signed off my computer at 6:30 p.m. and started work at 5:45 a.m. Today will be another long day, especially because I have to lose time to meetings and briefings, which cuts into “gettin’ stuff done” time. Lack of attention to detail by others caused a lot of extra work for me, and that’s all I’m going to say about it.
cookie, I hope the knee behaves and everyone has a good time.
nellie, I’m sorry your knee was giving you such trouble. I hope today and tonight are much, much better for you.
Okay, I need to finish my coffee, gird my loins, and face my work day.
You’re dating yourself, pops. Few under age 30 have ever heard of this stuff. In 1998, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declared that Mercurochrome, generically known as merbromin, was “not generally recognized as safe and effective” as an over-the-counter antiseptic and forbade its sale across state lines…
And from da internetz…
…. There are two issues with Mercurochrome™ and other merbromin products. The first is that they contain mercury, a metal which is known to be poisonous. Although no one has definitively linked Mercurochrome™ to mercury poisoning, presumably because the metal is only present in trace amounts, many people prefer to err on the side of caution when it comes to mercury. The FDA originally grandfathered the drug in, and later decided that it should be banned until additional research could prove that it was safe…
The second issue was the red color of the stuff. It was staining so you couldn’t tell if any redness was due to the antiseptic or to encroaching infection.
I just remember hating it because it stung like the dickens.
My ALDIs didn’t add self-checkouts til about 6-8 months ago. Their cart ‘rental’ system annoys me to no end so I have pretty much stopped shopping there.
Afternoon, mumpers! It’s a cool 16c/60f with rain showers. Weather app agrees, and tells me “Well, fuck a fucking doodle doo, it’s raining.” This is very true, it’s raining and has been doing so all day. Not heavy rain, just a constant outpouring of emotion from the clouds.
Cookie I hope the knee allows you to have a fruitful day!
nellie I hope your knee allows you to have a better night.
sari good news on the truck, eventually!
Today’s great excitement was a union meeting at which there was a 95% vote in favour of more strike action. That means two days of strikes next week (student Welcome Week) and three days the week after during the first week of teaching. The three days one coincides with a full week of strike action by another union that has both academic and support staff membership so it could be very messy for the University. Power to the people!
Morning all. Had two bathroom excursions, one at 2am and the other at 5am, to interrupt sleepage but still managed to stay abed beyond 7am. Nothing on the agenda until the afternoon unless I get a call about my car, then things get busy. Only 63F this morning and the house was pleasantly cool, hopefully this weather sticks around for awhile.
boo fae, hope the vote convinces the University to settle.
flyboy, Nice shirt.
Taters, A 13 hour workday is not my definition of a healthy work environment; take care of yourself, now.
Cookie, happy picking and hope you end up with something apple-ly from your labor.
swampy, happy slothing.
FCM, truth on the taxes and insurance; paid the homeowner’s insurance in July for the year, it went up but I have had a couple of claims in the last 3 years, so it had reason to.
Pilot, a melancholy day, but needs to be done and no time like the present. And God’s truth, I never thought of the jean’s name that way until you mentioned it…now I have a grin on my face.
Sari, that must be maddening. Hope a different pharmacy can do right by you. And Adam’s patrolling habits are one of the reasons I don’t much care for cats.
nellie, hope the pain lessens and you can get some sleep in. Being awake than long isn’t good for you either.
Don’t go to Aldi, but the Wal-Mart has a couple dozen self-serve checkouts and usually only 1-2 with people, Kroger is much the same, and Publix is still old-fashioned and has checkers and no self-serve checkouts.
OK, need to consider foraging for sustenance. Have a good Thorsday all.
You have my sincere sympathy. I cried over the pine. It was here before all of the utilities were run so we couldn’t replant there even if we wanted to.
Sounds like a seriously tasty (and seriously rich) meal.
