It’s President’s Day, and the traditional mattress sales are on. Which means heaving 116lbs. mattresses in a box for the next week. Oy vey. On the other hand, my nice firm OMF mattress will be calling my name after work. So hijack away, or talk rest slabs, I’ll be back after heaving.
Almost mornin! Woke from a weird ass dream. It involved guns and dishwash liquid.
A day to do not much as tomorrow the sad tooth pull, wednesday the 4 hour work.
Imma try to go back to sleep ( to sleep, perchance to drool).
Looking forward to all your posts!
Just had to toddle out to the car to verify that a tool DH will likely need tomorrow got back out there. I have experienced showers with lower water pressure than the current rain.
Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 10c/49f with a predicted high of 11c/52f, and partly cloudy. Weather app says “It don’t have anything good or bad to fucking tell you right now. It’s like my mind’s fucking blank.” Yes, sounds like me on a Monday morning!
I don’t envy you the mattress heaving, doggio - also didn’t know post-president’s day mattress sales were a thing over there 
It’s Moanday, I had to get up earlier than usual for a working from home day as I had to take my car in for a service and MoT. The garage man was grumpy because he got called into work yesterday so he gave me a code to scan for an immediate £5 discount off today’s bill. I’ve already paid the charge for the service and MoT, but I’m expecting some repair work as I’ve had advisory notices on the front brakes for the last two years!
Off to irk, before my day becomes irksome.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 36 Amurrkin out and mostly cloudy with a predicted high of 63 and N.O.S. for the day. I shall take care of a couple of errands this mornin’ and OYKW has a dental appointment at eight a.m. We both like any kind of doc appointment to be early as possible just to get it over and done. We can then sloth away the rest of the day as is our wont. Tonight is men’s night over to the church house, thus steaks are marinatin’ and beer is chillin’.
Real_Fish yay for gettin’ sprung from the horsepistol! Here’s hopin’ for a speedy recovery.
So, today is President’s Day. I had no idea until doggio mentioned post President’s Day mattress heavin’. I guess that means no mail today. Trash pickup will happen, however. I’m retired, so I guess everyday is a good day to buy a mattress for me.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, bother of bothers, since I am to be amongst the great unwashed this mornin’ I suppose I must purtify and don appropriate attire. I just hope all my effort is appreciated!
Happy Moanday Y’all!
You know what I don’t see anymore? Police cars. Seems like as recently as ten or so years ago all the police near me had Dodge Chargers. Now it’s all SUVs.
America - any excuse for retail excesses!! I am honestly surprised that “the industry” hasn’t started “I have a dream” bed linen sales in honor of MLK, Jr. Maybe there is a little class there after all?? President’s Day used to be Washington’s Birthday, when grocery stores would offer deals on cherry pie to celebrate li’l Georgie and his cherry tree.
TWO YEARS??? 
Speechless, I am…
In our county, not only do the sheriff (and state troopers) drive mostly SUVs, the vehicles are less conspicuous than they used to be. Their vehicles are black and the lettering and graphics are a dark silver-gray, so unless the light hits them just so, the markings aren’t obvious. And the light racks on the roof are low profile so they don’t stand out. I’m guessing they catch more than one scofflaw unawares. 
And a loverly morning it is!! Well, it’s morning anyway. I woke just before 5, messed with my tablet for a little while, then fell back to sleep till a tad after 7. I have since tended Higgs and fed my face. FCD has to take his mom to her thyroid doc this morning. Higgs has an appt with the vet at 4 for distemper shots. Everything else is up in the air. I’m sure I’ll find something to amuse myself.
We’re promised 40s to low 50s all week, but sun till Firday. I might get brave enough to venture out. I’ve got daffodils popping up and the naked ladies have pushed a lot of greenery thru the leaves. I’m hesitant to rake leaves from the garden beds - nightly lows are forecast below freezing, so I think that’ll wait. Maybe I’ll gather branches that have fallen. Or not. We’ll see.
In accordance with my motto: Indecision is the key to flexibility!
Happy Moanday!
Had a good visit with youngest son and both most-favored granddaughters yesterday. I showed the older girl (6th grade) some photos of my family members and pictures of her dad and his siblings when they were very young. I’m pretty sure she’d never seen any of those before. Never too young to expose them to some genealogy. The younger of the two, who is nine, is into acrobatics. She has a practice bar at home and spends every minute on it. Fun to watch, but also a bit scary.
Our exercise person is having knee surgery today, so we won’t see her for a few months. I hope the substitute is decent.
Got the second set of stairs for the cat yesterday so she can now climb up onto the couch and watch TV with us. She spent last evening contentedly purring in the wife’s lap instead of relentlessly prowling in circles on the floor.
The UK’s MoT test is one of the most comprehensive vehicle safety checks in Europe A car can pass the MoT but still have advisories on all kinds of things. Mine passed the last two years but there were advisory notices on a couple of things. Generally it’s an indication that things are starting to show signs of wear and will need to be fixed in the future. For things like brakes, they will tell you how much life they’ve got left and the colour attached to the advisory will tell you how bad it is. Last year it wasn’t bad enough to fail the test, this year it was. Thus new brakes for Keith! He’s also getting a new suspension arm and having his suspension re-tracked, and an emissions package because something in there needs attention. So far, the bill is just short of £700 and that’s not including the cost of the MoT and service. On the plus side, the re-test after an MoT fail is free!
Morning all. Got a good 8 hours of sleep on my mattress, so doubt I will be testing doggio
's back anytime soon. Like most, have forgotten it’s Presidents Day, probably the least noticed of all holidays in the US (unless like Govt. workers and schoolkids, you get the day off). Heading to 52F today and then into the 60’s for the rest of the week and except for rain predicted on Thorsday night, should be clear and warming into the 60’s. Which means I have to look at mowage soon (I refuse to mow grass in February, it just ain’t natural). The 4 'S’s" should keep my day moving along (shop-sammich-swim-sauna).
Cookie, sounds like it was a good weekend for granddaughters and felines.
Like other MMPers, most of the police vehicles around here are SUV’s these days, but are fairly easy to spot, although they don’t have the big old light/siren displays on top.
I love this.
Boo fae, nice to save some money right at the start of the week. Have a good day.
Nettie, stay dry.
I…I…got nothing. Hope the tooth pulling and work go well.
Need to finish the morning internettin’ and then do the first two of the S’s, so take care all.
OK, that makes sense. When I take my Sonata in for regular service, they do an overall check - belt condition, leaks, and, yes, brake and tire wear. And they’ll do the same thing - “Brakes are OK, but next time they may need to be replaced.” It’s one of the things I love about my car guys - they don’t try to sell me extra crap - they’d have lost me as a customer long ago if they did. I told Paul I want a quarter million miles on my car, and he assures me I can do it (212.5K right now)
The only inspection that is mandatory in Merrylande is when you buy a used car. It has to pass inspection before they’ll register it for you. Um, I think there’s an emissions inspection in some counties, but not in ours.
I have passing awareness of Federal holidays because this is a Navy town and rush hour traffic obviously lessens when the Feds can stay home. Not that I plan to go anywhere to day anyway…
Daughter and SIL are taking the kids to the Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian today. They’ll get to ride the Metro - I bet that will be the biggest adventure for them! Sure, dinosaur bones are cool, but a TRAIN!!! 
I’m showered and dressed and the dishwasher is about done its cycle. I think I’ll finalize our taxes and get them on their merry way. It really shouldn’t be so difficult for ordinary taxpayers who don’t have a gazillion investments and such, but it ain’t. I don’t mind paying my fair share. I do mind that it’s such a chore to do so.
Oh well…
Good morning, everyone.
It’s 39 degrees Fahrenheit and partly cloudy. We’ll head into mostly cloudy skies throughout the day with a high temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit. In other words, dull but dreary weather.
Maisie and Buster like to jump up there “arrange” blankets, and nest. I keep the couches covered with waterproof blankets, but the other blankets are on there for TV time. I should have tidied before I took pictures, but that would mean tidying the couch every five minutes, and I don’t have time for that. The waterproof blankets are on there because the puppies get wet in the rain, roll in the dirt, and generally into every nook and cranny in the yard. My sofa and loveseat are made of leather and are not old, so I’m trying to protect them.
I ran several errands yesterday in search of my favorite yogurt. I happen to love Siggi’s Wholemilk Yogurt. The mixed berry is my go-to, but I also like the strawberry rhubarb. Siggi’s whole-milk Yogurt. I like it because the ingredients are simple: Pasteurized Whole Milk, Pasteurized Cream, Fruit (Rhubarb, Strawberries), Cane Sugar, Fruit Pectin, Live Active Cultures, and that’s it. It doesn’t leave a funny artificial taste in my mouth, either. It’s become impossible to find for some reason, and I’m irritated about that. So, I went to three stores to search for it, but my hunt was unsuccessful.
After my unsuccessful hunt, I went to PetSmart for new pet toys (they keep dragging them out in the dirt), Safeway for some stuff I needed, Mud Bay for the dog food, and finally the gas station.
I came home, unloaded, did laundry and some other chores. Today I need to wash sheets and towels though.
This post was interrupted by Buster sneaking out of the gate and running upstairs. He managed to tangle himself in the CPAP hose, knocked it over, and it stopped working. Queue pissed off husband bitching about me waking him up. Like he doesn’t wake me up every single g-damn night.
Anyway, I corralled the pup, got both of them outside and was heading back here to finish my post, when the husband stomped downstairs because the CPAP wasn’t producing air.
I let it cool down, unplugged, and finally got it going again, thank goodness.
Tomorrow, it’s back to work, and this week will be super busy, albeit short. Holiday today, RDO on Friday, but about eight days worth of work must be packed into three. Fun times!
Alrighty time to get that dishwasher going. Puppy chaos caused lots of delays today.
Two gunmen were chasing us ( in the dream). We finally got them captured and then I grabbed some Dawn dishwash liquid, took a swig, and starting blowing bubbles. I was serious when I said I have weird ass dreams.
Still sneezing, still trying not to be nervous about dentist, still trying to earn a living.
Mornin all! And a happy shiny new MMP it is.
As to mattresses:
By virtue of moving into a new furnished abode I just got a new-to-me mattress. Rather stiffer than the foam marshmallow HL preferred, but plenty comfy for undiscriminating me. Before I knew I was renting a room here I expected to rent an unfurnished apartment someplace so I did some sport-shopping to ballpark the price of furnishings. Including mattresses. Wow. At a nice but otherwise undistinguished chain mattress store I was seeing $4K to $10K name brand mattresses. 
About 8am as I start typing. So about an hour post sunrise and 90 minutes post wake-up. Been readin’ and caffinatin’ before commencin’ yakkin’ w y’all. NWS sez 61/16 on the way up to 71/21. Gray and windy now, supposed to clear up partly but remain windy. And dry all day. Yaay for that.
I hesitate to mention it for fear of jinxing it, but I’ve taken the baby steps to restarting my real exercise routine. Which had largely fallen by the wayside when late wife got bad and has remained dormant ever since except for walks and ocean swims. I have a zero impact large motion calisthenics and isometrics routine I’ve done for years. It’s silent so can be done in a hotel room at weird hours with no concern for the people downstairs. Each set goes quickly and once back in condition you can do a few sets back to back with no recovery before breaking a sweat but it quickly gets and keeps your heart rate up. The idea is to knock out a few sets right out of bed, a few more midday, and a few more in the middle evening. No need to change clothes or shower after. Pretty easy to have 30+ minutes of cardio and some “toning” every day that way. Plus keep a full and stretched range of motion on the big parts.
Mike’s house includes a full gym rig and a full set of dumbbells so once I’ve shaken the grunge out of my joints, lungs, and cardiac arteries for a few days I can add light dumbbells to the calisthenics and toss in a real weight session every other day. Finally layer on some running on the other days and I’ll be back in shape.
So far all I have to show for this grandiose design is a couple days of calisthenics 2x/day and increasing sets each time. But it feels sooo good. Baby steps are the way to fogey musculoskeletal longevity, as long as you keep building momentum. It’s the partying and traveling that’ll be the big obstacle to keeping this going. As it always was when I was working.
Speaking of traveling, I have two (and a half) new adventures to report. Yesterday I set up a longer cruise on a different boat for mid April, a few days after I get back from Mazatlán. Still on Virgin, but I’ll branch out to other brands after that.
But the funner (is so a word) news is this upcoming weekend:
On Sat I’m going to the Swamp Cabbage Festival and adjacent Swamp Cabbage Fly In. It’s a couple hour drive across the wilds of central FL from here, so I’ll need to leave early to catch the parade at 10am. The pilots’ union will have a booth at the fly-in so I may get to see some old friends. I’ll definitely get to see some old airplanes. I got a cheapass hotel room a few miles west of there because by the time the rodeo ends at ~9pm I’ll be bushed.
Sunday is the nationwide opener for major league baseball spring training. Late wife and I loved baseball and in fact the last pic of her is us at a minor league game two weeks before she crashed. A few days after she died I attended a game at the same park sorta in her honor. HL did not approve of live (or televised) sports; too boring. Haven’t been to a live sporting event at home since. Did do them while on layovers. That shit is over.
Over on the southwest side of the state where I’m staying there are two parks, one for Boston & one for Minneapolis. I have a ticket to see MIN @ BOS in the afternoon. Which promises to be sunny and 75/24; ideal baseball weather. Unsurprisingly considering the weather in BOS & MIN, the small stadium is nearly sold out a week prior to the game.
Then I’ll eventually drive home, making a loop of it; there is not much variety of routes or of scenery traversing the middle of FL, so I seek variety wherever I can find it.
Here in the Miami metroblob 4 teams have their training camps: Miami & St. Louis at one stadium, and Houston & Washington at another. On Mon I got a ticket to see MIA & STL at their shared home stadium. That stadium also hosts our local minor league ball from April - August after MLB spring training ends. The Jupiter Hammerheads and the West Palm Beach Cardinals who are Single-A farm clubs for Miami & St. Louis respectively. The neat thing about two teams sharing a stadium is there’s a game there almost 7 days a week, so any day you feel like baseball, just hop in the car and you’re in business. Only downside is it’s about a 50 minute roar up the freeway.
I have not yet scheduled a game at the other stadium, but will do so soon; that stadium sits fallow all summer, so spring training is the only chance to attend a game there.
In a reversal of the “Build it and they will come” meme, the city built this very nice shiny stadium hoping to attract both spring training and corresponding minor league teams. Houston & Washington moved in as soon as it was ready and we attended one spring training game there in IIRC 2019. Then COVID happened the very next year, spring training was cancelled, and MLB used that excuse to gut their entire money-losing nationwide minor league system. So far it’s “Taxpayers built it but commerce (mostly) doesn’t come.” Oh well. I’d like to see a few more games there before eventual budget cuts trash the place.
Next steps for me today are shevelin’ & feedin’ then accomplish some weekday-only phone calls I procrastinated through last week. Need to figure out how to create a paper trail that this is my physical address so I can update DMV, etc. Or decide to blow that off until I move again. Mike should be home from Key West today as well. Granddaughter plans to leave on Wed and then we’ll be back to odd-coupling it around here.
As to y’all …
boofae: Grumpy and “a £5 discount off today’s bill” seem like an odd combo, but bravo for it anyway!!
I found out when the City texted me on Friday to tell me their offices will be closed on Monday. Makes me feel all special and VIP-like that they care enough to notify me personally. Seriously, both the city and the county have very useful text /email / automated phone call alerting systems you can subscribe to for both emergency and routine notices. Kinda handy once you adjust which things they bug you about and which they don’t.
We have lots of different agencies driving around here in quantity within the metroblob: Federal ICE, state Highway Patrol plus Fish & Wildlife, 3 county sheriff’s departments and ~100 municipalities many with their own force. I don’t visit all of them, but there’s a lot of variety in cop vehicles.
Cars are common, but SUVs are an ever-growing fraction. Trunks (and back seats) have gotten smaller and cops carry ever more gear in their vehicle. Soon they may not be able to buy any sedan big enough for all their crap and a bad guy in the back.
And yes, the stealth level is slowly increasing too. Not every agency is fully sneaky yet, but it seems every agency has at least some sneaky vehicles doing regular patrol. OTOH, here in SoFL there is substantially zero enforcement of, or compliance with, traffic laws. Whenever I see somebody pulled over I always wonder: “What traffic mayhem did you pull that was big enough and bold enough to cause a cop to take notice?”
Cookie hooray for good visits and grandkids. That’s quite the irony that your (presumably young) and fit exercise leader is out for knee surgery.
That sounds like a very 'appy cat. Hope the guys in the cat detector van don’t hear her and demand their fee.
Aaannnd, 90 minutes later it’s time to stick a fork in this post; it’s quite overdone.
Happy Moanday to the folks irking and happy day off to the rest of us. Cheers!!
So the major excitement today was a 32oz. bottle of vanilla extract broke on the belt. I got some on me handing the bag it was in to Sterling the HazMat Guy, so I spent half my shift smelling like Granny Clapett on date night. I’ve had my oatmeal, so I am gonna heave myself onto my mattress.Spot is in the sunroom, watching the fuuds hop around outside.
“Pistols at Dawn” 
Sounds like my kind of event. Enjoy.
Yeah. Mine was only $700 for mattress and box spring(full size), including haul away of the old ones.
Sounds like Gordie and his towels.
Today is bright and beautiful and sunny. It’s also somewhat craptastic. Issues at work, issues with the hubs. I was a jackass yesterday and it’ll take a while to fix. It was one of those situations where I really just should’ve kept my mouth shut but I didn’t and I regret it dearly.
I’m hoping to get a waddle in later today to clear up the knot in my stomach. In the meantime, it’s about time for a shower. Everyone’s still unconscious - the kids are out of school, the husband doesn’t have to work today, but I’ve already had my first meeting. Ick. I hate meetings.
This weekend can best be described as blissful. Nobody to see on Saturday so I got in some cross stitch, some reading and some time with my family. I showed Wee Weasel how the space heater works and we learned about body temperature vs. external temperature and then we went around measuring the temperature of liquids with a meat thermometer. I really enjoy teaching him things.
My Day of Presence, which is what I’m tentatively calling my screen-free Sunday break, only enhanced the experience of true rest. I slept in about 45 minutes, got in an extra long meditation session and morning walk, then we prepared the house for guests. Two friends I haven’t seen since before my son was born came over. The guy is currently exploring a diagnosis of autism for himself so we had some enlightening conversation (my untrained opinion is he is DEFINITELY autistic. I clocked him the moment he opened his mouth, though it’s something I never thought about before I had an autistic kid, you just start wondering about everybody you know. But turns out my hunch was correct and we talked about Love on the Spectrum and how validating it was for him to watch that and see representations he related to.) This made me realize… we have a lot of autistic friends. And I think that is going to be good for my son to see and models of what his life could look like as an adult with autism.
Wee Weasel was bouncing off the walls (I really need to get him outside more, but the windchill gave me pause), he had a bit of a meltdown I think because he didn’t understand how to behave when he’s not the center of attention. Mom’s intuition was that he was feeling overstimulated, so I pulled him aside and gently explained what was happening, that sometimes grown-ups like to talk to each other and it’s okay to play alone, and he had a bit of a cry and hugged me, so I guess my instinct was correct. He seemed better after that, wanting to be involved, but not so… desperate? Conversation only improved after he went to bed (and fell asleep immediately.)
It was just the perfect weekend. I get stressed when there’s too much social stuff but I get lonely when there’s none. The exercise and meditation together are like the one-two punch of fundamental well-being. Things just aren’t getting to me the way they used to.
This morning I do not have the day off, but my son does (he has the whole WEEK off), so I have to pick him up at therapy at noon and then try to work while caregiving for the rest of the day. I have some low-cognitive load tasks planned to get done. I’m going to try, really try, to get us through the day without resorting to parking him in front of YouTube. He still has a really hard time doing things on his own while we’re around. Sometimes he is content to play by himself as long as he’s very close to me, which is somewhat disruptive but not as much.
Although one thing I have found interesting is that he doesn’t bother me when I’m meditating. He usually wakes up while I’m in the middle of a session in the mornings and he’ll turn on the light in the living room and start playing by himself, which is annoying (good to practice being annoyed) but he doesn’t interrupt me. It is the only time he doesn’t interrupt me.
Since my morning is not going to be work-productive I am going to call my Aunt and see how she’s doing. I haven’t talked to her on the phone since her surgery. Conversations with my Aunt generally run to about an hour to an hour and a half. She is my best friend. I wish she didn’t live in another state.
I love it, too. Unfortunately, it does not love me. I’ve had to phase out yogurt due to stomach problems.
I am very interested in the specifics of this zero impact routine. I am trying to incorporate “exercise snacks” into my day so the more exercises I have to do the better. But I have sensitive knees and I’m injury prone. Best of luck getting into your own routine.
I have found this to be true as well. I’ve been walking and today I felt like alternating walking with jogging, so I did that. It’s been the least stressful exercise has ever been for me, because it’s not attached to any particular goal or metric, it’s just me being active in whatever way I feel like being active, slowly building strength and endurance and flexibility. I started doing gentle yoga poses after meditation each day and the child’s pose alone has me suddenly able to squat to get things low on the ground - something I have not been able to do in a long time.
I remained on the rest slab for a more prolonged period than usual and yes, wasted several hours of bright morning light which at 36F I’ll be glad to admire from my window (overlooking the site of the water main break that led me to spend Saturday out at the outlet mall since the home was not fully served). Said rest slab being one of those delivered compressed via box, it is functional though mediocre; but at these prices I’ll take that through its service life.
My late brother did often observe that somehow all the Federal Holidays seem to bring out the sales at the mattress and car dealerships (*). His hypothesis was that this was calculated to deprive you of the quick out of Monday coming and if you had not made up your mind you would say, oh, forget it. Instead now you have one more day to come back and pick it up.
(* as opposed to the rug store for whom it was always closeout-sale season, sometimes for a decade)
I want a new mattress. I NEED a new mattress. I’ve been looking online but haven’t sold myself on one yet. Anyone have a recommendation?
StG
Mornin, all. I woke to my usual alarm and then realized today is MLK day, so the school is closed, so I rolled back over and got some more shut eye. Very nice.
coppertone I have also been having weird dreams lately. I can’t read anything in my dreams. All the letters get jumbled up and don’t make sense. It’s…odd.