(Old) I owe, I owe, so off to Mump I go - A Tax Season MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
381

Sub-freezing morning, and they’re now saying we might get 2-4" of snow on Tuesday. But Thursday is still looking good for flying, so there’s that.

I think a big chunk of today will be spent putting MIL’s photographs into the two collage frames we bought yesterday. Anything else will come along as it comes along.

I’ve started a list of mundane things that I want to remember before we go - like watering the house plants, taking the trash out, unplugging the electric blankets. We will be gone for almost 3 weeks, so I’m probably overreacting a tad, but it’ll make me feel better.

I downloaded a game pack on my tablet that doesn’t require an internet connection to play. So between that, the books I’ve downloaded, and salsa lessons, I should be well-occupied if I lose internet. From what I’ve read, that’s not uncommon at the bottom of the world. I’ll try to check in here while we’re gone, but who knows??

And so it begins. Happy Sunday!!

382

Good morning!

It’s 14F and mostly clear outside. We’ll have mixed sun and clouds and a high temp of 30F. No precip, no snow. Just relentless cold and frozen bird water dishes.

The pups were awake at 3:30, so I had to come down and let them out to potty. I let them potty and sniff, but it was time to bring them in when Maisie started barking for play. They are now ensconced in their pen, sleeping, while I drink my coffee. I foresee a nap today because I didn’t go to bed until 1:30 a.m. I could go back to sleep now, but they’ll stir as soon as I head upstairs, so I’ll sit quietly in the den and do my internet thing.

I was in high-sloth mode yesterday. This means I must do my laundry today. There’ll be some extra because I must also wash a pen mat and dog blanket. Thrilling times here in Taterland!

I must go to the office on Tuesday, but I don’t really want to go. Monday would normally be my in-office day, but it’s a holiday. Normally, I don’t make those missed Mondays up, but my SD will be in, and one of our PDs is coming down from another city, so I kind of feel like I need to be there. I still plan on dipping out at 2:30, though.

I liked your pics, pilot!

doggio, I hope you can find a solution for Ace. When we first brought Polar and Brandi home, it was nuts, and my husband was on the verge of taking Polar back. I fought him hard on that one and won. Polar ate my couch, for goodness sake. Does Ace have a kennel so he has a dark, quiet spot to calm down? It’s tough when you’re dealing with a dog that already has a history and previous relationships. Polar and Brandi eventually calmed down after many crazy adventures, and I hope Ace can too. I hope you can find a solution. Maybe training? I completely understand if you have to return him, of course. Only you know what you, the roommate, Spot and the complex can bear regarding Ace.

It’s time for the second cup of coffee. Sending yays, hugs, and boos as appropriate.

383

Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off today. I’ll try to clean up the debris around the place.

Wow. None of my little cars ever got stuck, even during the 20 inch blizzard of 2000.

He has a kennel, but as of Thursday, he will not go in, even with food. He’s even physically pushed back on me when I tried to push him in. As far as training, I’ve texted with Foster Dad, and long story short, I’m doing everything he was doing trainingwise, but he has spent the last week turning from Hyper but loveable pup to Dog Satan, with all the training tools becoming ineffective the last couple of days.

384

Negative 8 degrees and sunny this morning. A breeze is making for a good day to stay indoors. I’ve got our portable heater running in addition to the inefficient heating system. Part of the problem is that the window insulation is not in good shape. I can actually feel a breeze coming through the kitchen awning window.

385

Not overreacting. We turn off the water to the house, and set the water heater’s temp to “vacation”, which I think is just another name for turning it down.

386

Morning all. It’s 26F here in N. Ali-bama, almost balmy to some of the Northern Mumpers, but enough to break out the heavyweight coat when I did my Sunday NY TImes run at 7am. Also got my good deed for the day done, some idiot(s) had left shopping carts in the middle of a couple handicap spaces, don’t know if it was laziness or malice, but I rounded them up and put them in the proper stall, so that was my nice gesture for the day. Going to one of swampy’s favorite places, Golden Corral, for dinner and then coach the 9 year olds indoors at 4pm.

Checked the water meter and I used 6 gallons in the last 24 hours, for 3-4 flushes that is about right, so the leak is no more, hurrah!

doggio, best of luck with Ace.

Cupcakes, think your church is wise. Schools are closed Monday here for the holiday and since it is supposed to be in single digits by Tuesday morning, wondering what the schools around here will do.

Pilot, a truly inspirational story. I thought losing an eye messed with depth perception, wouldn’t that affect a pilot? And used to live not far from Lakewood, Ohio. And amazing what you learned in a brief time to answer a tongue-in-cheek query by me. Much respect.

nellie, further best wishes for your SIL.

J-Bats, sounds like Buddy (did I remember correctly) has more sense than some people.

JtC, GG is one interesting cat.

Shoe, hope the car hasn’t disappeared in the drifts and can be made mobile without too much effort.

FCM, you are not over-reacting; making sure things are settled in the house will keep your mind settled on the trip.

OK, onward into Sunday morning. Take care all.

387

My sister is hoping to spring my mom today - she’s got a 10AM appt, and Sis can’t visit till 3, unless they decide she can leave. So I wait…

I’m wondering if Mom will decide she’s done cruising. It’s her favorite thing to do, and it’d be a shame if should couldn’t any longer, but this may convince her otherwise. Overall, she’s been in pretty good health, but this internal bleeding is just a tad worrisome. Maybe it’s just the blood thinner, but maybe not. Getting old ain’t for sissies.

388

-20 degrees here, -42 wind chill. Unfortunately later today I’ll be venturing out in that windchill warning to spend Sunday with the grandkidlets. That’s if I can dig my car out of the drifts where I parked it yesterday afternoon. It’s a Civic and hasn’t left me stuck anywhere in the five years I’ve owned it. I’ve got a ziplock bag of kitty litter next to the door to take out and a little shovel in the back seat, hope that is sufficient. It’s not like the snow is gonna melt anytime soon, I’d best get used to it. After my grandma play visit (5 miles over plowed city arterials) I don’t have to go or be anywhere til I teach Wednesday at the public library 16 blocks away. Those 56+ hours huddled on my couch in my thick robe and slippers, under the electric throw (and one persistent lap snoozing Siamese) are going to be truly enjoyed after this last week. I’ve got books to read and time to waste, coffee, tea and hot chocolate to drink, Netflix to binge. I could put away Christmas decorations and wrapping mess, but don’t bet on it. Since I have no clean warm enough clothes I should do laundry but don’t bet on that either.

389

I woke up this morning to -20f temp and a -37f wind chill

390

This person who uses handicap spaces thanks you very much~it’s rare for people who don’t need them to be thoughtful about such things, so you’re one of the good ones! The really rare, really good ones.

Nice to hear~you deserve to finally be done with those water worries.

391

FCD just came back from a McD’s run and said there’s a tree blocking our road that might be ours. Fortunately (for us) it’s the neighbor’s tree. So WHEW! It fell towards our property but the base is definitely in his yard. And it’s not keeping anyone from leaving, tho it will require some neighbors to take a longer ride out. Still, Ben’s problem, not ours.
Imgur

Again, WHEW!!

392

What is a “minipin”? I gather it’s a critter but after that I got no clue. I’d rather ask you than the all-knowing Goggles, since asking you might get me/us a funny story or two.


Hey Shoe: cute car. By late morning when you arise it might be just a rounded white lump out there in the meadow that used to be a city street.


In the condo biz we tell the part-time residents that before they leave for a couple / few months to:

  1. Turn off the water at the supply entrance valve.

  2. Completely empty the fridge, freezer(s), etc. and prop open the doors.

  3. Open all the cabinet doors in the kitchen, bathrooms, etc.

  4. Turn off every circuit breaker except the HVAC.

  5. Arrange for somebody to look in on your place every week, and ideally 2x/week. it should be often enough to detect an HVAC failure and the resulting freeze or mold problem before it gets expen$$$ive. Also about monthly have them turn on the water, flush every toilet and run water down every sink / shower / tub, then turn the water back off. That prevents the traps from drying out and smells and vermin from climbing out of the drain pipes.

Some of that, particularly emptying the fridge and running the water, is overkill for a couple of weeks. But it’s a well-debugged place to start on “pickling” a residence for extended non-use.


The binocular part of depth perception is really only effective out to about 6 feet. Farther away your brain is using clues about angular size and rate, how clearly something can be seen, etc. So for the things that matter to piloting, the depth perception isn’t as much of a problem as the loss of half the visual field. Learning to crank your head around to really see the things that might otherwise appear in your binocular peripheral vision on the blind side is the larger issue.


FCM good to hear Mom’s situation is resolving. But yeah, if this is the end of her cruising she’ll be pissed. Congrats on having Fate pick somebody else’s tree.


As to me:
Stayed up stupid late for no good reason, then awoke on time = early. So way short on sleep despite some post-wake dozing. It was 68/20 and foggy drizzly gloomy when I got up about an hour post-sunrise. We had a bit of thunder overnight. The fog and drizzle have since lifted but the clouds remain, the temp is holding steady, and it’ll be an off-an-on light rain kinda day. Which is actually very unseasonable for us. The temps is about right, but there should be almost no clouds from now until late March when it starts raining like hell again every day.

Gonna be a lazy day here, and a nap is in order. oughta visit the pharmacy & the groc, but not with any urgency. Major donwannas here today.

393

Yeah, we started turning off the water to the house after we had a leak incident while we were home. Luckily, the leak started when I was sitting in a quiet living room alone, Mr. brown having just gone upstairs to take a nap. I could hear it behind a wall as soon as it started. I went upstairs to fetch my husband, and he turned off the water to the house and we called an emergency plumber. When he opened the wall, there was very little moisture under the faulty pipe because we had acted so fast.

If this had happened while we were away for a week or two, it would have been a disaster.

394

Good job. Sometimes, it’s neither laziness or malice, but a disabled driver who leaves the buggy there because they’re juggling a walker, cane or can’t return it to the carrel and walk back to their vehicle.

Holy icicles Batman! I thought that it was cold at 27F when I took Nelson out this morning.

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and fixing to do KP and the week’s breakfast / lunch prep. Not much else shaking at CasaRoja today.

A question for the dog owning Mumpers: do your dogs get excited / bark at animals on TV? I like animal videos, but Nelson starts going bat shit crazy with some of them, though not all.

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

395

Guessing that’s a miniature pinscher, a significantly handsome breed of dog. Somewhat like a diminutive Doberman pinscher.

396

Afternoon, mumpers! It’s currently 4c/40f with no predicted change, and mostly cloudy. Weather app says “It’s cloudy and the sun gives zero fucks. Like, literally fucking zero.” Odd really, since it’s sunny out there!

Yesterday turned out to be a bit more productive than expected, after the trip to town to do errands, I came home and did the ironing so that’s all out of the way now. 'im indoors faffed about quite a bit making tacos so dinner was a bit later than usual but very tasty. We watched a couple of films and had some wine, so we ended up not getting to bed until about 3am. Late start to the day today, I got up to feed the cats and do the litter trays, then went back to bed for a bit…

Had lunch, tidied the kitchen, and have dealt with some automotive administrivia. My car’s due for an MoT and service next month, the garage where I took it last year has been emailing with reminders so today I booked it in for 19th February and paid the bill. All I will have to pay next month is the inevitable MoT re-test fee and the cost of whatever repairs need to be done. I’ve also done some nice administrivia, we’re off to a charity music event next Saturday so I’ve been in touch with a couple of friends with a plan for dinner at a Turkish restaurant near the venue. Sent the restaurant an online booking thing for a table for the six of us.

Mooooom sorry to hear your mum is still in the horse pickle, I hope she gets out today and the news is better.

doggio it’s such a shame Ace is having problems, can you get fosterdad to visit and maybe help calm him down? It would be such a pity if Ace had to be returned to the shelter, but it might be for the best if he is not the right one for your and Spot after all.

metalmouse great news on the lack of water leak!

nellie please keep us updated on all the eye news, it’s not boring and we need to know that mumpers and their rellies are ok :slight_smile:

shoe cute little car! I hope you don’t wake up today to find a white lump on your driveway! I always keep a small bag of cat litter and some cardboard in the Keith’s boot in case we get stuck in snow.

BBBoo I’m glad to hear you have adequate supplies to see you through the blizzard conditions!

flyboy yay for hot water!!

pilot lovely pics, looks like a fascinating place to visit. To answer your question, yes I did get the right watch in the end. We went back to the store and I showed him the exact one I’d asked for, right there, in the window display. I still have no idea how someone talked him into an alternative colour scheme but at least it was easy to put right.

cupcakes your church made a good decision - even if it’s not all that bad for driving, the olds still have to get from the car to the building and that’s when the accidents will happen. My mum broke her hip many years ago when she slipped on a patch of ice in a church car park. The second time she injured herself (hip and wrist broken) was in a church too. I told her religion was a bad idea!

J-Bats Bob is very wise, he knows it’s not the weather to be outside any longer than you absolutely have to!

I have no plans for today since I did pretty much everything on the list yesterday. The vacuuming needs to be done since we had the catnip boxes out last night for the cats to roll around in. It helps confine the mess but the girls managed to overturn both boxes so there’s catnip all over the living room carpet. I might do it today, and I might not.

My turn to make dinner tonight so there will be chilli later but that doesn’t take too long to cook. Other than that, I predict the rest of the afternoon and evening will be spent in high slothage.

397

That is precisely the case. It’s still snowing (!) and at 10:30 a.m. not even 9 hours after I took that other picture - remember, my car was pretty well cleared off last night - this is how much new stuff has accumulated:

[Album] White lump

I don’t even know if it’s worth bothering to shovel myself out. (The pic is through my front window; I haven’t ventured outside yet.) The main reason I wanna have my own car is to have a sheltered spot to take my lunch/smoke break … hmph.

At least the power’s still on. And therefore, both heat and Internet at home, which are really the most important things.
I have enough candles, flashlights, and those tap-light button LED thingies to stay sufficiently illuminated at night … but cold & bored sucks, and at least I’m not there yet.

398

red Cinnamon used to go nuts at dogs, and other beasts, on the TV. He didn’t when I first got him, but after about 4 years we watched Bolt and he really didn’t like John Travolta. Lots of “Grrr” and the occasional actual bark.

shoe Hope the car doesn’t get engulfed by the plow lump.

When I first woke and looked out the window I couldn’t see the garage some 20 yards across the yard. Too much blowing snow. It has now stopped and it’s bright and sunny out there.

399

Pilot - I sent you a PM… I think…

400

Ugh, that’s another thing - the streets don’t look like they’ve been re-plowed, either.

With Monday being a holiday, I also wonder if/when the trash might get picked up.

ETA: thank gawd there’s a dispo in walking distance of me. I tried to plan ahead, and I’m not OUT-out, but with tomorrow being both a Blessed Day Off and one of enforced slothage (I am so not running errands in this mess) I could see taking a nice, healthy walk to, uh, take in the scenery tomorrow.

Hope they’re open!

The other night I heard quite the ruckus from the ASF tank, and when I fed them later there was a tiny pink pup visible. There might be more hidden in the bedding, but I didn’t wannna disturb.
Hopefully there’s more; singletons usually don’t do well. But I guess that means the one that was starting to look like she swallowed a golf ball squeezed hers out … which also means there’s at least one successful Romeo in there.

Which also ALSO means I don’t wanna feed anyone off anytime soon, and I’ll hold off for a few days to give the pup(s) time to grow bigger, but I do need to move them to a clean enclosure soon-ish.

In related news, it was a right PITA to give Pretzel a fresh water bowl yesterday (I wound up having to spray her with more water to get her to retreat, which isn’t honestly the worst thing in the world as ball pythons need a lot of humidity anyway) but she’s gonna need a lot more meals before her hangry self can - hopefully - go back to normal.
It’s gotten to the point now to the point that I’m having dreams/nightmares about her attacking me.