(Old) Getting Organised in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 11c/53f with a predicted high of 14c/58f, and mostly cloudy. Weather app must have heard about nellie’s new neighbours as it says “Cloudy with a slight chance for a fucking stampede of drunken elephants. You might want to fucking run.”

This week is the busiest one in my calendar for the year - I have four big meetings to prep for, it’s Extenuating Circumstances Panel today and then we have three Board of Examiners meetings spread over the rest of the week. Lots of organisation required so we don’t miss anything (or anyone) out.

On the personal side, I’ve been to the dentist this morning and spent more time in the waiting room than I did in her chair. All fine on the toothy front, booked another appointment for six months’ time. The dentist is just up the road from the vet so on the walk home, I popped in there and ordered another bottle of meds for Shadow. He’s also due for a blood test to check his thyroid levels, and he gets a mani-pedi while he’s there. That’s going to be next week. Now all I have to do is call the GP and schedule my routine scraping and squishing appointments!

2

First! And that’s a first for me!

I decided to lie down around 7:30 last night and fell sound asleep, so here I am.

3

I’m waaaaay overdue for the squishing one, I hatz it, I do. The scraping part I get to skip forever more since those bits are gone gone gone (cancer 2008). But in August my GP comes back from maternity leave and I’m going to have to pay the piper if I’m not BBB by then-bruised, black & blue boobs.

It’s 4am here and need to toddle off to bed-I;m an unrepentant night owl. You’re probably already at work.

Have a cuppa on me,

Boo/CJ

4

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 75 Amurrkin out and partly cloudy with a predicted high of 91 and mostly N.O.S. for the day. The plan of the day is quality cee-mint pond time to include sloth, nappage, and day drinkin’. Retired life is good! Sup shall be leftover sketties to which I shall add a sallit and more cheesey garlic bread.

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah.

Happy Moanday Y’all!

5

Fitful sleep. Very common dream of trying to catch a bus.
Way overdue on squishing too.

6

It’s Monday. Don’t you have men’s night at church today, @swampbear? We can’t let the world’s problems go unsolved! :slight_smile:

7

We used FCD’s motorcycle ramp over the two steps from the kitchen to the garage so we could wheel MIL’s wheelchair out. They’re aluminum and a tad noisy, but an old carpet helped that. Higgs refused to go down or up the ramp for weeks. If she came in thru the basement door, she’s get as close as she could to the kitchen door, jump up on the ramp, and run in the house. Then all of a sudden, she was OK - she’ll now go up and down without hesitation. Face it, dogs is weird!

MIL does this - I’ve never used a walker but I don’t see that one needs to hunch over. Maybe I’m missing something. Honestly, it looks painful to walk like that. OK, technically, hers is a rollator, because she does often need to sit enroute, but still, it looks like she should be able to stand straighter and use the handles for stability. I’d give it a try myself to see, but she’s so short, I would have to hunch down to reach. I guess I’ll find out if I get to that stage myself.

Woke around 4:30, thanks to my bladder, and had a terrible time falling back to sleep because someone was snoring like a rusty buzzsaw! When I was finally able to jostle him into a different position, he got quieter and I fell back to sleep till almost 7. When I see the neurologist next week, I’m going to ask about halving my night dose - I’ve been waking with a bit of a hangover. The daytime meds are less potent - at least they’re not making me dopey.

I think when SIL drops off Roxy tomorrow morning, I’m going to ask him to drive my car around the block a couple of times. It’s been sitting for more than a week and I don’t think that’s good. I could probably manage a couple of turns without any problems, but just in case…

I’ll do a quick load of laundry today so MIL and FCD will have all clean clothes to choose before they pack. I also promised to cut off and hem a couple of his jeans that have tears in the knees - despite current fashion, neither of us find torn jeans acceptable. Not sure what else will come up, but you know something will.

Happy Moanday!!

8

Mornin’ y’all. Up for bio-break, and debating bestirring myself for one of those square breakfast “croissants” from Wendy’s. Haven’t had one in a good long while, and it’d be nice to treat myself.
Plus, I was really craving scrambled eggs last night (they were a prop in a video clip I was watching last night & seeing that done awakened a gnawin’ and cravin’) but I was too tired at that point. Yes, even to scramble a coupla eggs, which is pretty much the epitome of easy as far as homemade home cookin’ is concerned.

Still want 'em, to be honest, but it’d also be really nice to let someone else do the “cooking” for me.

Trash truck just rattled on by.

Main agenda item for my Blessed Day Off is to get at least one if not both ASF colonies moved into fresh bedding.

I still haven’t figured out a permanent solution to the Charm Problem (my cornsnake who’s learned how to escape her tank & is currently coiled in a temporary, much-too-small tank) but last time I was at Wal-Mart, they had one (1) decent sized tank for sale AND THE METAL LIDS - sold separately, of course - that are necessary to prevent chew-outs.
I think imma go there today & see if they still have them. Last night’s tip-out (we each get $50 once enough has accumulated) would cover both items, and then I’d have one more enclosure for the ratties, at least.
Both colonies really need to be split up, they’re getting far too numerous.

Normally, I’d convert cash into a dispo trip, but the last coupla times I’ve been there, they’ve had such deep discounts on particular items, that I am utterly stocked for the time being, which is a really nice feeling.

That croissant sounds really damn good now.

Hopefully driving out there & back in the already-brilliant sunshine doesn’t wake me up too much, since I had wanted to go back to sleep as per my usual.
Perhaps an afternoon nap instead, like a “normal” person.
Except, I don’t usually nap mid-afternoon very well.
We shall see, I suppose.

Onward! Towards fud!

9

I’ve got my second round interview via zoom in about 10 minutes. And another first round interview via phone tomorrow morning.

Oh, and this…

:sob::sob::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

10

Morning all. Had some thunder and lightning late last night, but sun is out this morning and only a 3% chance of rain according to the weather wizards, so a good Moanday here. Outside of swimming not a lot on the agenda today.

As for getting organized, I leave Wednesday for Knoxville to referee at the Section Tournament, about a 3.5 hour drive (plus adding an hour for EST). So need to get packed, a load of laundry, gas up car, let neighbors know, get a little more cash from the bank, and then double-check my packing list and see what I forgot. Back on Sunday and then I have three days to get organized for my 2 week vacation riding AMTRAK trains and visiting New Orleans, Washington DC and Chicago. So I do need to get in gear–maybe tomorrow…

boo fae, got my 6-month dentist visit 23 July, so have that to look forward too.

shoe, happy new tanking.Hope the croissant was good.

Sticky Buns, fingers crossed that the interview went well.

11

Mornin’ from Panamá. A bit after 7am here = Central US time as I start driveling. I slept past sunrise, but not by much. It’s always fun here to see the sun rise out of the Pacific knowing it will set into the Atlantic. Now balconatin’ on an increasingly cloudy day that will, like all the other days this month, include rain. It did rain overnight. Think PNW- or UK-like dreary weather, but warm to hot and always sticky. It’s an acquired taste. For me it’s a familiar / nostalgic taste, but not really my favorite. Presently 26/79 with a high of 30/86 and the humidity is the typical 90+%.

Yesterday was a pleasant afternoon at the resort. Much yakking, drinking, and eating ensued. And little else. Specifically, no plans were made. Right now I’m about 2 gallons low on water.

As to y’alls 30 posts from yesterday afternoon / evening:

I knew that’d get a rise from the more rural folks. This was total tract suburbia, just biggish tract suburbia. That’s the least dense I’ve ever lived.

And yes, the facilities at palatial Chat Manor located on the truly vast Chat Estates are much less crowded than that :wink:


With on-demand poetry that wonderful, I sure hope you’re more present this week. Yaay!


'Zactly. She’s not nice; she’s a friggin saint.


Third Base! :grin:

That’s what I was thinking of when I finished Nellie’s story. And yours.

Had she gone to the board and written “Third base” instead of “Hu” then the kids, all of them, would have been utterly baffled. YouTube to the rescue!


For sure. And a fine pic of fine meal it was. Thanks for sharing.

Welp, it’s time to find food. No sign of my traveling partner. Cheers all. Happy Moanday to all!!

12

Must have been a low volume day. Which is good, because the whole joint was short handed. 5 total people in Smalls. And I was by myself in the Mez.

I’m very organized. Even my junk drawer is.

But how do you cook and clean one if you do? :wink:

Good luck on the interview, sticky!

13

Nurse and aide have come and gone. FCD will take his mom to get a haircut. It matters to her, but honestly, I don’t see what she expects. Then again, if you look at my hair, you know I’m not expert.

I hemmed both pairs of his torn jeans - the first pair is slightly not exactly the same length - I bet they’re 1/2" off. Probably because of where the tear in the knee was. But they’re grubby work shorts, so I’m not going to sweat it much.

Laundry next.

14

Tough question for sure. But if I know anything about you doggio, I know you have a cocktail that would go perfectly. :wink:

15

Like I said: it drives PTs and nurses nuts to see but 95% of people do the hunchback of Notre Dame thing. It got to the point tha if 12 hour charge nurse shift in a nursing home I couldn’t stand to watch the hordes turtle stampede on their way to the dining room-hurt my head.

Slow-sipping a cup of coffee, tapping away at my iPad, sitting in front of my Daylight light therapy lamp while my cat stomps around between my hands and the keyboard, occasionally bumping the mug and sloshing some coffee. At the moment she’s laying on my left arm immobilizing it so I’m having to hunt and peck. The special lamp first thing in the morning is supposed to help reset my circadian rhythm and sleep center, which the TBI persists in altering-daylight savings time is no help there either. I’m going to sit somewhere first thing in the morning, drinking :coffee: and reading the MMP, no harm in doing it in front of the Ghostbusters lamp my psychiatrist kid sent me. Might help, doesn’t hurt.

…Light therapy is eye exposure to an artificial light source that emits strong light, mimicking sunlight. This aids your body in the production of melatonin and serotonin when you have limited sunlight exposure. By replacing that lost sunlight, you can fall asleep more easily at night and feel happier and more energised during the day.…

I do melatonin at night and Provigil in the morning. Mostly my FUBARed sleep center just laughs at me and my days and nights stay upside down. Insomnia are brain injuries is are cruel taskmasters. Beats the alternative though.

I’m due to go teach literacy at the library in a few hours, which gets me into a bra and adult going out of the house in real clothes, up and out of the house and into the world populated with real life people 3 times a week. It’s volunteering I wish I’d started doing years before I did but Covid got in the way.f that for a couple of years. Lots of students who’ve been in refugee camps 7-10 years before they’re allowed to come here. From Myanmar, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, Morocco, Mexico, Columbia. They leave behind spouses and elderly parents for years and years and careers as doctors and engineers to come here to work in a factory assembly line or making pet food. Mondays and Wednesdays it’s Beginning English at the public library. Fridays it’s a two hour Conversational English class for Arabic speaking women, at a neighborhood community center sponsored by the Seventh Day Adventist Church. That is lots of fun, we laugh a lot as I explain things like ‘gesundheit!’, Halloween and all the inexplicable things we Americans do and say. They greet me with formalized kisses and call me :teacher: , we drink strong Iraqi tea and they bring me delicious foods from their kitchens. They teach me about Ramadan, hajibs and resilience and persistence and gratitude. I’m pretty sure I get more of it than I give.

The cat is back and my coffee is gone. Time for cup #2 and more Mumper reading. One lone fly is buzzing around, driving the Siamese nuts. “Flying sky raisins” I think doggio or @JohnnyLA calls them. She’s gonna launch herself at it any second and I’m going end up sacrificing some blood.

Such is the exciting morning at Casa Boo. At least tonight I’ll get to go over for dinner and to help with bedtime with my grandkidlets tonight. They were touristing in Washington DC these past 10 days and I missed two, count ‘em two Grandma play day Sundays. They flew into Omaha last night. I hear Sorenson liked the whale skeletons at the National History Museum and Harriet counted all the dogs she saw and wanted to meet the Biden cat Willow at the White House. She was so proud of swimming “all the way across the pool at the hotel without touching the bottom”. She actually wrote me a letter about her swim and her dog count. I think her parents just tried to survive.

16

The DMV sent Mrs W a letter Saturday stating that they were unable to verify the insurance on her car, and her registration will be revoked in one week. Odd, because the same policy covers both our cars, and my registration is fine.

You’re supposed to be able to go to their website and upload the required information, but of course I went through the whole process and got an error message. Three times. So today I am tasked with getting on the phone (how primitive!) to try to straighten this out. Bah!

That’s the biggest item on my to-do list right now. Hopefully it won’t turn into too big a headache. The rest of the week ought to be fairly chill. We shall see.

17

Just ‘sky raisins’. :wink: (Or jalapeño sky raisins if they’re sting-y.)

18

Just as I posted, I got sleepy again, so I cut it short. I dreamed the kids upstairs plus another kid I didn’t know climbed in through my windows. This is odd because I’m on the second floor. I told them they’d have to leave because their parents didn’t know where they were, and breaking in is wrong. They wouldn’t go, so I called 911, and they sent a social worker (!) who shrugged and said, “Kids are kids.”

I’m leaving in a bit to get Ms. Dog.

Wheelz, are you sure the message was really from the DMV? I worry about phishing.

Boo, that’s good work you do. The soul rewards are great.

sticky, hope the interview went well!

shoe, hope you got your Wendy’s breakfast, and yay for finding the right snake-quarium!

MetalMouse, sounds like Knoxville is going to be a busy time! Do you get a per diem or is it all on you? And I’m excited about your Amtrak vacation.

Oh, thanks, but my poetry tends to be the “There was a young man in Pawtucket” variety. Your evil-tree-evil-seeds comment reminded me of that Bobby Goldsboro hit, “Honey,” with its opening lines

See the tree, how big it’s grown
But friend, it hasn’t been too long,
It wasn’t big.

Deeeep, huh?

19

Lunch has been lunched upon, I ate in at the Jersey Mike’s today just to change things up and will head over to do my swimming in about an hour or so. Saw I made one error on my morning post, don’t leave for Knoxville until Thorsday, so have two more days to get organized.

Did get a phone call from a place who wanted to schedule me for an MRI…which was a bit strange, since the local hospital had scheduled me for one last week. They were going to call the ENT clinic and I haven’t heard back from them so I presume it was an ‘oops’ on somebody’s part.

Pilot, when I went through the Panama Canal last November it was rainy to start then just hot. Keep having a good time. And first time I ever heard the “Who’s on First” skit was two other guys in my College dorm doing it (perfectly, if my 50-yr. old memory is to be trusted). I thought it was hilarious then and still laugh at it today.

BBBoo, if I haven’t said it before, I truly do admire your literacy teaching work; with all the fear and hate out there at times, just quietly doing good for people striving to be just plain ordinary folks is uplifting. Thank you. As for Harriet, here is a brand-new You Tube about the most famous First Dog ever…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdP9D7g4usE.

Wheelie, sounds like a file got lost somewhere. Hope the phone call is simple (HA!) and gets it solved without probems (and again, HA!)

nellie, I do get some mileage and they pick up my hotel bill, but not a big cost to me so may let some of the others who are going dip into the pile first.

ONward into the afternoon!

20

Laundry done (just 1 load) and all 3 bedrooms have been rollsucked, along with the hallway, the dining room, and most of the living room. The portable O2 concentrator has to run for about 3 hours and since it’s not attached to a nose, it beeped… till I figured out how to disable it.

MIL got her hair cut and now she’s napping. FCD is going to run to the boat to tidy up a bit. I intend to read for a while.