(Old) Get To the Chopper! A Bastille Day MMP

Up until 7 years ago, my daily drivers for most of the previous 40 years were manual. Even after 7 years in this car, I still do once in a while. I also tend to have my hand on the shifter in traffic. Muscle memory is real.

Nelson got a short play session with his buddy Blue when we went out before bed. The power had gone out for about 5 minutes and my neighbor’s daughter came over to check on her mom along with her dog. I’m glad the power came back on soon because trying to sleep when it’s 84 ferrets with 95% humidity would not have made for a good night.

Smart ass comment like that, you’re a Mumper now!

Just wait til we have the secret meeting to come up with your Mumper nickname.

ETA: for some reason Discord decided to wait to post this so I see a fine , impertinent, irreverent nickname has been conjured up for you. And a fine one it is too~I endorse Cool Hand too.

Hey, it could be worse, I still catch myself stomping at the floorboard with my left foot to dim the high beams.

When I was about 13 I won the local model building contest with grandpa’s casket mobile, the Drag-U-La .

Discourse. Discord is something else altogether.

Evening all - it’s pushing 1am on a warm summer night in paradise and I’m just home from a wretched excess of an evening. And a 90 minute call with GF who’s the most wonderful thing in my world, if not the world.

Today has been the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. But ending strong. More mañana.

Sleep forth!

I blame autowhatjamacallit. Discord is that messaging app for younguns.

Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave.
I’m changing Spot’s name to This Spinal Cat, because these Zoomies go to 11. Did the dude eat a coffee bean or something?

There is no handshake. There is only Lenny The Squidgoat to uhh…welcome you.

Also the pain of feeling your clutch muscles in your left leg atrophy when you buy an automatic after 20 years of manuals.

My phone’s otter corrupt is full of shirt.

Who else has accidentally hit the brake pedal when going for the clutch that’s not there? Good times…

Less good times was dealing with FIL’s dementia, and it continues to haunt FCD still. He’ll say something about how his dad hated him and I have to remind him that it wasn’t his dad, but his dad’s disease. The same disease that had his dad ready to punch his mom. It wasn’t his dad.

This eastward travel comes with the bonus of losing hours. We just changed to GMT and after we leave Iceland, we’ll change the last time. (Until we fly home and gain 5 hours in no time at all.

Speaking of home, plans are underway to take our housesitter home, at least mostly, pass her off to her husband near the juncture of I70 and I77, then we’ll continue on to Indianapolis to visit FCS’s aunt. Not exactly how I wanted to spend our first days back, but life is full of complications, yanno? The main unknown is when, and we should get that worked out today.

Meanwhile, it’s another sea day and the water is as calm as I’ve ever seen it. In fact, it almost feels like we’re not moving! Apart from a couple of lectures this afternoon, there will be much chillage. Maybe some hot tub time. Or not. We’ll see.

Happy Firday!

Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 23c/73f with a predicted high of 27c/81f and mostly cloudy. Weather app says “Some people say this weather is fucking perfect. Those people are fucking ass clowns.”

Cool Hand welcome to the party!

JtC I am glad you and hubs were around to help and were able to recognise that Ronald wasn’t in his usual environment. You are what this world needs more of.

Mooom surely a macadamia cookie should have nuts in too? I would feel cheated!

Not much to report today, we arrived safely at our friends’ place yesterday, went out for dinner, yakked a lot and went to bed around midnight. They are already up and out for a morning of dog-walking at a greyhound rescue centre. We will be getting ourselves ready for day one at Maid of Stone, we can get a bus from their place down to the gates of the park where it takes place. That means I need to get 'im indoors moving so he can be 'im outdoors instead!

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 74 Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 92 and partly cloudy. We will be bears who brunch this mornin’. I shall also take care of candle duty. There may or may not be a ramble. We’re all willy-nilly like that.

red happy doperversary! Also yay on findin’ the new digs in Houston! Sad news about your neighbor.

Cool Hand welcome! Don’t worry about the handshake. A milkshake is fine.

Rocker glad the eye is better.

Now I need more caffeine and then I shall purtify and don attire acceptable for bein’ amongst the great unwashed. This has happened entirely too much this week!

Happy Firday Y’all!

Minor scare last night. I got an email from American Airlines saying there was a change in our flight!!!:astonished_face::astonished_face::astonished_face:

As my mind prepared for all sorts of contingencies and I pulled out the original plans to compare, I saw that we’re now scheduled to land 10 minutes later. Um, thanks for scaring me, AA. Dammit.

Ok, showered, dressed, and about to seek out food and caffeine. Buffet closes in 5 minutes, so it’ll be a bagel morning. Onward!

Good morning!

Thanks for the kind words about my new tattoo! And pilot especially, what you said was very sweet.

Yesterday was a flurry of silverware work. Today will be mostly organizing and packing up to get ready for the show. It looks like there is a chance of rain in the evening, so it will be interesting.

But, honestly, the anxiety is maddening. There is nothing that makes me anxious on the level that doing a show does. I skipped this particular show last year because of it. But, I guess I wanted to fight back against it this year. The irony is that this show is literally less than 5 minutes from my home. I mean, if I did forget something or there was a disaster, I could (theoretically) walk back home.

MusicMan will not be there to help me setup. That’s ok, though, because the nice girl that runs the show put me on the end of the line which is about 15 steps from where I will be able to park. So nice of her! Oh, and even when MusicMan was with me several years ago, my anxiety was about the same. I’m sure that it’s amplified by the new job coming up, too.

{{{JtC and company}}}

Welcome Cool Hand

It’s going to be great. You will have a good time listening to the music and will sell all of your rings by noon.

I can sympathize with the stage fright, I used to get it before events - especially if I had been on the planning committee. No sleep, cant eat, jumpy as all heck and then the day would come and all of my worries were for naught. Why do our brains keep doing this to us?

I wanted to try to catch up before the day took over, but it seems as though I’m too late. One of Hub’s cousins just pulled into the driveway, TTYL.

Mornin’ everyone.

It’s 61°F and mostly sunny. It appears we’ll have a mix of sun and clouds today, and a high temperature of 78°F. I’m grateful that it’ll be a little cooler, although it’ll still be warm.

I cut down the last giant arborvitae yesterday and cut it into smaller pieces—the ground thudded when the big main branch came down. Taterhusband cut off the big branch from the neighbor’s maple tree that was hanging over our roof. I have a two-story house, so that should give you an idea of how big that branch was. I lopped several branches from the neighbor’s giant juniper tree, but ran out of room to maneuver because the pile from all the bushes and branches is right under where I need to work (the side of the driveway). The plan is to try to rent a utility trailer or truck this morning and haul away all the stuff.

JtC, you and your hubby are good people. I’m glad everything turned out as well as it did. That’s definitely a scary episode.

Sticky, I’ll bet once you’re set up, the anxiety will ease. At least, that’s my hope for you.

Welcome, Cool Hand.

It took me nearly 20 years to quit looking for a clutch or stop resting my hand on the shifter. I would say the last ten years had less frequent instances of that behavior. I didn’t grow up with AC in the car, and it wasn’t until my second car, purchased as an adult, that I had AC. I can’t imagine not having AC in the vehicle now, and, yes, I realized I’m spoiled in that regard.

Things have gone even further south in the agency I used to work for. I’m sorry for my former workmates, and sorry for all the people my agency helps.

Shoe, I’m so glad LSL was able to provide advice that you found helpful. I’m sorry for whatever has been troubling you, though.

Welp, I need some more coffee, and then I’ll have to see about getting that rental. Please take care of yourselves.

Good news! No long drive for us! Casey’s husband is going to pick her up at our house! We’ll give them gas money since we’d originally planned to drive her.

Win-win!

:megaphone: :partying_face: :clap:

that is good news!

eye is much happier today.

i believe we are at 4 people in the office today. it is cold and dark. the lights are on motion sensors and keep turning off. accountants don’t move around much, and if you aren’t in the detectors range it can get annoying.

luckily, i have boxes to empty and it is shred day! when i get chilled i just unload a box or 2 to warm up. the shredder does kick some heat when it gets going.

onward!

All day on the boat. As the translator on top on normal race committee duties, it’s insanely busy. Today was the practice race, the real event starts tomorrow.

I only skimmed the thread, but welcome Cool Hand.

Morning all. The Firday shopping is done and a load of laundry is in the machine, so it has been a pretty constructive morning already. Lots of clouds and a 50-50 chance of rain today and tomorrow, which will cool us off from 92F to 85F…what an improvement. :roll_eyes: Not much planned for the day, I bought a new vacuum/carpet cleaner and i need to put it together and figure out how the cleaning stuff works, but that can be a little later. Did find a little bag of stuff the detailing shop found in my car, I would have sworn I cleaned it out but I guess they looked in places I didn’t.

doggio, it does amaze me that stuff actually gets somewhere. And I like going early (like 7am) to do my shopping, usually there is a good spot near the store.

Haven’t driven a clutch for over 40 years so any muscle memory I had is just that…a memory.

Pilot, I’m beginning to think your rather fond of GF… :wink: And may today be a high one for you.

FCM, feel for you and FCD, sometimes words that hurt stick with you more than they should…trust me, I know. And glad you don’t have to add those extra miles. Enjoy the calm water. And I also hate those notifications from the airlines that tell you the flight times have been moved by 10-15 minutes.

Sticky Buns, I think we all get nervous about getting up in front of folks and, in effect, taking charge. For me, it was leading the briefings for foreign mililary personnel, often with my chiefs in attendance. I’d be nervous right up until I stood up and started talking, and then it was all fine. Hope it goes the same way for you.

Taters, sounds like you and Husband-unit got a lot of work done. happy cleanup! :grin:

I know it’s a money-saver, but that would be irritating as hell for me to work in.

Happy Boat Racing time, Sensei

And it sounds like my underclothing is done, time for the shirts now. Take care.

Yay, FCM, that’s great news!

Speaking of great news, MusicMan will now be off tomorrow!!! They decided that they didn’t have enough trash for anyone to work tomorrow.

The first time I did that, I just about put myself and my passenger through the windshield.

Welcome aboard, cool hand!

Good luck at the show, sticky.

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted, KP done and a load of towels / sheets in the wash. The only must do item on the agenda today is taking Nelson in for his annual check up and vaccinations. Gotta keep him legal for the move. :slight_smile:

Stay safe and healthy y’all!