(Old) FA LA LA LA LA Decking The Halls In The MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Agree those can be fogey activities. Although there’s lots of youngsters doing both. Two of the dancers last night were almost too young to be my kids. I see lots of 20-somethings mashing the shit out of a golf ball. Lot more graybeards than 20s, but I’m also doing my golfy thing midweek.

As to bingo, I’ll cite a recent pithy comment by DesertDog in another retirement-related thread:

Living in Arizona, in a city that until recently had reasonable property prices we have a lot of retired people here in their 55+ enclaves. Driving around, we see they have signs by the front gate telling what evening they have bingo. Every day but Sunday had been covered. I’ve told DesertRoomie , “If I ever think it’s a fun time sitting in a bingo hall with a dauber in my hand, just shoot me.”

As to today:
Her Ladyship finally emerged and once sheveled we went out to the not-quite-beachfront breakfast. I had a chorizo patty benedict with avocado, a chipotle hollandaise, and chopped fresh jalapenos on top. Yummy. Her Ladyship had a huevos rancheros.

Her Ladyship has just departed for Mah Jongg and once I get done polishing this literary masterpiece I’ll launch off to whack some golf balls to little effect.

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Everything went surprisingly well, both Midnight and Preload. I fear the worst.

No need, Spot prefers sitting on top of the couch with his Mindless and Garishly Colored Creatures.

Saw that in Philly.

I like when Wall Street refers to us as “Liabilities”. Like Carol could last one shift at my building.

Playing checkers and drinking High Life with Ed and Frank.

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The bread is out and this time it’s ok. I won’t be embarrassed to see it on Sunday.

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Well, looks like MIL is in stage 4 CKD. She’s already said she won’t go on dialysis and I’m pretty sure a kidney transplant isn’t even a consideration. It’s a bit worse news than I expected - I’ll be surprised if she lives another year.

Poor FCD…

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I’m going to head to the gym, then pick up an Rx and stop at World Market to get more sugar free coffee flavoring, which I use in tea and sometimes on oatmeal.

Also academic America. The entire faculty would get scolded because one teacher left early one day, then the meeting would end with the usual perfunctory, “Thank you for all you do.”

Uh-oh. Did I sound like I was virtue-bragging? It’s just that I’ve been in that kid’s shoes. It would’ve bothered me all day if I’d let him struggle. Once I was on my way home from the grocery store when it started raining. A block from home, the two paper bags dissolved, and I had to leave food out in the rain while I dashed home for the shopping bags I’d forgotten to take. And this poor kid had FOUR bags, one of which was ripping in the middle. He wouldn’t have made it off the bus.

I guess I’m too empathetic. Giving him the bags was more like scratching an itch than some noble deed. And I got to meet a very nice person.

Now, see, I thought you were going to suggest putting Tobias in the cupboard, too, and you easily cleared that bar.

FCM, so cool that you’re finding ways to let him “help.” He’s such a good little boy.

BooFae, I’m adding “dirty douchebaguette” to my vocabulary. Love that app!

Niner, my fingers will remain crossed.

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Started Typing: 2:09 PM ET
Clicked Reply: 3:01 PM ET

Oh man I really need to buckle down and focus on work this afternoon, but first I just gotta post! :grin:

The second LEGO wreath was delivered yesterday, and I put it together last night. Now my LEGO decorations are symmetrical, and I can enjoy the holiday season ( :wink: ):

https://i.ibb.co/Hzj46LD/PXL-20231130-010726893.jpg

At around noon I realized that I could use some extra time today to work on my self-assessment and a few other things, so I asked my trainer if we could reschedule our 5pm session to Saturday morning. He was fine with that. I apologized for the super-short notice, but I don’t think he really minded. I’m glad: I’d been feeling oddly stressed, and finally realized that was why. So whenever I stop slacking, I’ll be able to focus and work for as long as I want/need to.

In other news, today has been a bit like an early Christmas (except that I paid for everything):

(a) I went to the grocery store at lunchtime, and they had my favorite non-coffee protein shake flavor! It’s only available for a few months every year, and I’ve never seen it at any local store before; I’ve always had to order it. So far this season it’s been hard to find, and I haven’t had any yet. I got the last 12-pack on the shelf! I put them in the fridge as soon as I got home, and will be having one in a little while.*

(b) The LEGO jazz club was just delivered!!! :smiley:

(c) This morning I bought tickets to see the Indigo Girls! :notes: They’ll be performing with the county’s symphony orchestra in May. Six months is a long time from now, but I’m still pretty psyched! I love the Indigo Girls (even though I believe Emily’s voice is failing), and their orchestra shows are terrific; I saw them with the National Symphony Orchestra a few years ago.

*I wound up with too much stuff for self-checkout, and the protein shake discovery made me almost not mind that the only two open checkout lanes were staffed by (i) chatty mcchatterson, who isn’t as smart or funny as he thinks he is and will comment if you decline to give to their charity drive and (ii) the nicest old guy in the world, who’s been working there for 30 years…and who is as painfully slow as he is nice. I opted for the latter. I’d rather practice my patience with slowness than in-your-face-ness.

I’LL BE RIGHT THERE.

Last night I was sitting on the couch with a dog next to me, West Wing repeats on the TV, and ~500 LEGO pieces to put together, and I was ridiculously content. I told my BFF – who is 11 years older than me – that it made me feel so freaking old. :grin:

Oh…oh no. I’m so sorry, for all of you. :people_hugging:

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i’m sorry to read this. i what a difficult time y’all have had this year. i hope for the easiest, most peaceful path for your mil.

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The Sunset Point Rest Area is a well known tourist attraction as well as being a nicely maintained rest area. There is a large area dedicated to semi-trucks and their drivers which is on the far side of the tourist area because it gets thoroughly trashed every night.

It was nice of you to help that kid out. When I was a kid, I would walk to the library a couple of times a week and about half the time I’d get one book too many to easily carry. Once I at a corner, struggling to balance my big ol’ stack of books and a grown-up made it a point to cross the street just to be able to tell me to “next time, don’t be so stupid, bring a bag”.

I liked your approach much better!

Last week, I heated milk to almost 100F. That works about as well as starting yeast with boiling water for many of the same reasons.

Feel bad, but don’t feel alone!

Fingers crossed that everything goes well. I’m so sorry about your MIL, please do your best to get FCD to go back to that grief counselor. He’s had so much shit dumped on him this year, he’s got to feel a little overwhelmed. It probably wouldn’t hurt for you to talk to someone too…

I agree about us being out in the sticks, but the outlet mall ended up in New River, which is (was) a wildcat development even more out in the sticks and doesn’t have the advantage of being a major freeway interchange. Now a thriving community has grown around the outlet mall and it is much cleaner than the Junction.

You are right about the anti-consumerism out here but a lot of that is due to our “just leave us alone, we’ll take care of it ourselves, damnit” attitude.

That road you mentioned? Bloody Basin? It is an unmaintained county road and isn’t suitable for low clearance cars except in the summer when a couple of local guys bring their tractors out and clean it up. There are several retired government workers who live out here who know people so often we can get a couple of loads of ABC or even patch asphalt hauled out there for the big holes. Of course it all washes away when the monsoons come, but it gives us something to do.

There is another unmaintained road out by the Arcosanti and I know that those folks get out there with their tractors once in a while but that road goes through the Big Bug Creek and washes out even worse than the Bloody Basin road does.

I’m shocked, just shocked!

Do be sure to share about the weaving lesson, while I refuse to get sucked into spinning or weaving (no room), I love hearing about it. I hope both of you enjoy it.

Ten years ago I would have been first in line, but now that we are retired and in the habit of eating well, cheap off-brand frozen pizza just isn’t that appealing anymore. Now…had it been the dairy case, I wouldn’t be posting because I’d have bought all of the whole milk and cream for cheese making, so would be cooking now.

I really, REALLY hope it works out for you.

That whole display looks amazing!

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I’m so sorry to hear that, FCM. I hope things go as easily as can be hoped for.

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Howdy Y’all! I did a productive thing today. OK, productive for a value of productive. I made some peanut brittle. See, we bought two bags of roasted, unsalted peanuts at the Pubic sto’. I do not know why. We like peanuts, but two-two pound bags was a bit excessive. So I dug through a few of my church lady cookbooks and found a reasonable recipe. I think it turned out pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. OYKW pronounced it good, so there’s that. Still I used only one pound of peanuts. Other that, we slothed, napped, day drank, and et soup and cornbread.

MOOOOOOM sorry to hear MIL’s diagnosis. This really has been a tough year for y’all! However, yay for BIL and his new digs. Hope he settles in and decides that’s the best place to be.

Nellie count me in with all who are sayin’ good on you for helpin’ that young man out. You gained some good karma points there.

Wordy guess sis got the idea. Good for her. Enjoy the weavin’ class.

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Not in the slightest; I was just noting that you are a fine human being (something I think most of us Mumpers already knew). And there is no such thing as too empathetic, IMHO.

Oopsie, nice decorations. And good on getting tickets, best to do it early rather than waiting.

FCM, that is sad news indeed. Hope she can be encouraged to take care of herself, I shudder to think what will happen with BIL if she should pass suddenly. Best wishes to FCD, this has to be weighing on him.

I concur.

With soccer on from noon to 4pm (it’s a European tournament and they move from game to game during the broadcast) I managed to accomplish absolutely nothing of value outside of fixing and consuming some dinner. May head for the gym about 7pm or so to get my cycling in.

Been checking on the water meter on a weekly basis and the readings since I got back home and turned it back on seem a bit…ominous. Will track it more closely along with my usage and see if I’m just imagining things or am going to make the plumber’s Christmas a little merrier…

Take care all…

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NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

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Just gotta get some wifebeaters with that vertical ribbed knit weaving. And maybe suspenders for my pants. I’ll fit right in. NOT!!!

On the topic of elder hobbies. … Today I was at the golf course practice area from 1:30 to 4pm on a Thursday. Saw about 20 people total over that time. I was one of the oldest people there, most were 50-ish and I counted three 30-somethings, and a pair of probably still-in-college guys. Those younger folks did not shoot like newbies either; they’d all been at the game awhile. Unlike yours truly. Had fun though, with intermittent glimmers of progress amongst the buffoonery.


Yaay Baker. Nothing better than non-embarrassing bread. Although maybe embarrassing bread, like broken homemade cookies, has no calories. That might be a nice benefit. :slight_smile:


Moooom, ouch! Poor you and even more FCD & MIL. Best of luck as this all plays out. Agree w JtC’s suggestion for a grief counselor.

I can certainly understand MIL’s reluctance to treat, but it’s worth making sure she’s working with a modern understanding of modern dialysis, not whatever was done 15 or 30 years ago.

One of our perennial challenges with late aged MIL was that all her intuition and attitude about medical care was based on 1950/1960s practice when she was a young adult and Mom. By the 2010s some small progress in medical science had been made, but she (mostly) would not hear of it. The advice of that nice old doctor she had when her kids were small was the only one she trusted. Of course by the time we were helping MIL, that doc’s been dead 50 years and her once-little kids are in their 60s.


That’s where you put the pets when they annoy you.


JtC: As to Bloody Basin, I see now I was fooled by Google Map’s habit of drawing gray lines over roads. When I switch to aerial mode I just want to see the ground, not the ground with a map on top. What I thought was asphalt was just Google’s trickery. Over on Google Earth I can now see the aerials without the roadmap overlay. Yeah, as you say, BB is not a road for small cars. Nor is the one up towards Arcosanti.

This. The last thing you metalmouse need is more water problems.

OTOH, here’s perhaps another opportunity to decide home ownership is more of a PITA than you still need. :wink:

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Up from naptime. I dreamed that I got a delivery from Da Jungle, but then it turned out that the driver was an immortal serial killer that preyed on werewolf babies. I actually did get an amazon delivery today. Those poor little dead werewolf babies. :frowning: Finishing off he last of the Thanksgiving leftovers.

As long as you don’t blink. :wink:

I went to the Likker Sto at 11:00A.M. on a Thursday today. I was the youngest person there(staff induced). I got off everybody’s lawn once I paid for my gin.

{{{{{FairyChats}}}}}
And I second the Grief Councilor thing.

135

Google Map doesn’t update very often out this way and sends truckers through two fucking roundabouts instead of one left turn at a stop sign to get to the interstate from one of the truck stops and tries to take people from the other truck stop through that same stop sign and two fucking roundabouts to get to the entrance that was less than 500 feet from the stop sign.

Every so often a trucker will be foolish enough to fall for that same line you did when the interstate is stopped for whatever reason. I don’t know how detailed the map was that you were looking at, but you take a nice paved road up a mountain and have no idea what you are getting into until you pass the ROAD CLOSED signs and are heading down a shoulderless quad trail with no way to turn around.

Of course we all mock them, they drive past at least 10 signs telling them to go back. Some of the signs are official ADOT signs and others are homemade signs with reflectors and big red letters.

(The most effective turn back sign I have seen was a hand painted sign that said “STOP! Check your wallet because if you get stuck here it will cost $XXX cash for me to pull you out.” We turned our modified, lifted jeep around and went another way, LOL!)

Swampy, making candy is hard, that was true productivity!

There is a monthly surplus box giveaway at our community center that I don’t usually go to because it is mostly packaged food which we don’t eat. Last night I got a call from one of the organizers asking me to come and get a box or two because the food bank needed to get rid of their left over turkeys. We like turkey and free turkey is even better, so off I went.

Besides the turkey, I got a large package of wings (almost 13 bucks, holy cow, I remember when wings were what you cut off the bird and used for bone stock) and three lbs of grass fed beef. Also included were two cantaloupes and four honeydew melons and an 18 pack of eggs.

It just hurts my heart to know that so many people are experiencing food insecurity while that sort of stuff is headed to the landfill daily in so many parts of the country.

The cans and boxes went to the Give and Take food cabinet at the library, I wacked up a mess of jalapenos and pickled them for hubs and made 2 dozen mini-quiches to freeze for hubs’ breakfast. We are having hamburgers for dinner tonight and the turkey is in the fridge thawing so it can be smoked in a few days.

While I was getting the surplus box, I noticed a home with two large fruit bearing pomegranates. Ah ha! says I, someone who knows what they are doing, I must talk to them. After TC, I wrote a note introducing myself as a newby pomegranate grower in need of advice and went over to put it on their door.

Happily, I met a nice lady who was more than happy to share her experience “Water? Well, this summer we watered a couple of times but we usually don’t. I think we pruned once, oh and a couple of years ago we had to cut the side off that one and it didn’t fruit as well. Fertilizer? I think we fed them once when they were young…”

I am very optimistic about my tree/bush thriving now :slight_smile:

She also made me take some fruit that she picked while we were walking around her yard, happily NF loves fresh pomegranates so I will give them to her tomorrow.

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Just came home from the PT eval and first session. The quadriceps on the affected leg is weak and the knee bends 25 degrees less than the good leg. The bad knee is swollen. She did some soft tissue work to help the swelling, then I did 3 different stretches. It’s gonna take time but I know the arthritic flare will calm its ass down.

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I’m sorry about your MIL’s diagnosis Mooooom. Hugs to you all.

The weaving class sounds interesting wordy.

Nice holiday display oopsie.

That was sweet of you to help the student out nellie. I’m guessing that he’ll make good use of them in the future too.

I hope that the water usage isn’t an indicator of more problems down the road metal mouse.\

Irked, came home, took Nelson to the dog park, where he played with a rat terrier mix named Satsu. He looked a lot like Nelson’s mother, except his ears were tipped where hers are pricked. Now, we’re chilling. :slight_smile:

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

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My mom had a microwave version. Is that the type you used, or stovetop?

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So sorry, FCM.

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I was admiring your interchanges and saw the snazzy modern color-coordinated roundabouts. Tres chic.

Installing roundabouts anywhere near truck stops just off interstates is monumental stupidity on the part of ADOT. I’d bet 80% of the total vehicle count using all of the on- and off-ramps at the junction is 18-wheelers. They don’t need those obstacles in their way. Even if there is an alternate route around them. Dipshit road designers.

Yaay!!1! Said another way, they’re hard to kill. Those are by far my favorite kind of plant.


Shame for needing the PT, but it’ll get better with good care by the folks and good work by you.