# (Old) It is getting cold in the MMP **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** mmp\ **Created:** [December 11, 2023, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-it-is-getting-cold-in-the-mmp/994405 "2023-12-11T05:51:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 268
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2023, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-it-is-getting-cold-in-the-mmp/994405/268 "2023-12-17T14:38:04Z")
Some comments on the last couple(!) of days of everyone’s life … > [@missred](#): > > prep the three cheese grits casserole Now _that_ sounds yummy. Which three cheeses? Any special tricks to casserolify (casserolize?) the grits? Getting them stiff enough sounds hard. > [@FairyChatMom](#): > > The Kindergarten Musical Extravaganza was ADORABLE!!! Today was Jammies Day at the school, and most of the kids were in holiday-themed pajamas. They sang 5 songs, including a Christmas Wrap Rap that was too cute! They also did something called The Wiggle Song and Roxy really got into the wiggling. Awww! That sounds so fun and gratifying. We attended a similar event last year at Daughter’s facility, but for Thanksgiving, not Christmas. Total cute overload as all the kids did their song-and-dance routines. In her case the staffers had segregated the many kids by age, so we had performances by a dozen to two dozen each of toddlers, kindergartners, 6-8yos and 8-10yos. Fun (at least for this non-parent) to see the range of development of the kids. Did I mention all the cute! Squeeeee!!!1! Then there were cupcakes & punch for everyone. And seething; lots and LOTS of seething. > [@Kitten\_Mitten](#): > > **{{RealFish}}** I’m so sorry to read that you are experiencing so much pain. I hope that you can find relief soon. Have you had a referral to a doctor in a Pain Clinic? You might consider this; it worked for Hubs last May. This. Pain is a sucky companion. Keep trying different ideas until you hit a winner. And best of luck. > [@Kitten\_Mitten](#): > > Then on to Kroger gas where both cars were filled to the brim for $1.79/gallon Holy frijoles. I haven’t seen gas prices that low since the 1980s! Regular is generally about $3.75 - $4.25 around here. Shish Tawook sounds fantastic. > [@FairyChatMom](#): > > my daughter was in the elementary chorus (grades 2-5) [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZq2_PMR1jI) was part of every Christmas concert. Always a favorite! I’d never heard that but it’s adorable kid music. Growing up where winter isn’t cold, we had a different sort of holiday songs. > [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > > [@LSLGuy](#): > > > > Yeah, that trick never works. > > Until you’ve done it a few dozen times, with the right tools for the job. Yeah, well, you’re a professional. 🙂 Never send an amateur in to do a pro’s job; it ain’t pretty. Sorry your back is acting up. Is your bed alright for you? Sleeping on one wrong, or wrong for you, is how I usually got those issues when I was your age. > [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > For some reason, sometimes, when I put something off, and it becomes more urgent, the "donwanna"s in my brain become increasingly louder. > > So I’ve been doing something I guess I’ll call “practical procrastinating.” Oh yeah; that first part is my specialty too. The longer it’s sat, the larger the thicket of guilt that builds up around it for not having already done it. Damn but those thorns are sharp and make me _really_ want to avoid the [whatever it is]. That’s a bad feedback loop. But Hooray !1! for practical procrastinating. What a great idea. I think I’ll start doing that too. Maybe next week. Probably. Perhaps. 😁 > [@JaneDoe42](#): > > Do remember to take your pain meds as scheduled, not as needed. Your body can’t heal if it is all clinched up in pain, it needs to be able to relax to heal. This was aimed at **hippie** but I’m echoing it here for him and for everyone. I spent a lotta years titrating pain meds for somebody. It’s ~~good~~ Grrreee-at advice for anyone suffering from chronic pain or recovering from whatever injury or surgery or … One my doc’s standard lines is “It’s far easier to prevent pain than to counteract it. Get ahead and stay ahead.” > [@JaneDoe42](#): > > The squirrels loved it, there would be a constant stream of squirrels scampering back over the fence for another turn. Every time you tell that story I get a fresh kick out of it. So great. Thank you. Again. Kinda like the squirrels I just love coming back for another round with the colander. 😉 > [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Pigeons do very well in cities, and are a natural prey for hawks’n’falcons. (Sounds like a weird football joke.) > > Hawks and falcons like nesting in cliffs, which tall buildings (and their accompanying pigeons) mimic quite well. > > 🎵 It’s the cirrrrrrclllllle of liiiiiiiife 🎶 I would love some hawks and falcons to apply some raptor love to the pigeons that infest my balcony. Our whole building has too many “architecturals” (read “pigeon roosting spots”) for my preferences and my balcony happens to be worse than most _and_ there’s a spot they’d installed pigeon spikes that later became dislodged, so I’ve got the damned birds in spades. Disease-infested aerial rats deserving only universal extermination. > [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > These cute pants and somewhat-tasteful makeup is not going to waste, dammit. Nor should they. Flirting workplaces are the best. If everyone is a sensible grown-up, not a creep, about it. Been a long time since I’ve had that privilege. > [@Misnomer](#): > > My annual performance review discussion on Tuesday went well! Yay! I was rated a 4 out of 5: most people get 3s, and hardly anyone ever gets a 5, so a 4 is really good. 🙂 You’re a total 10 in my book kiddo. And any supervisor who can deliver the PIP meeting to a worker skillfully is just awesome. Welcome back after your MMP sabbatical. > [@Misnomer](#): > > Tonight, though, I’m going back to DC – same venue as Monday night 🙂 – for more holiday jazz! Yaay!! We’ll expect a full report when you can next pop in. > [@nelliebly](#): > > My gum felt so much better this morning that I canceled my dentist appointment. AND my new contacts came in, so that’s TWO piece of good news! And the retinal doc says the glaucoma is no worse, so I don’t have to return for six months. Yay! Triple happy health news. Yaay!! > [@nelliebly](#): > > So 🎶 Jane the Cane vapes mainly on the plain. Yes, another congrats for this fine bit of doggerel. Well done **Nellie**!! > [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > Plumbing appointment is scheduled…for January 3rd Crap. You say you’re losing weight too fast? I’m not sure that can be a problem unless it’s a sign of some illness. IME, even if you did have a downward spurt, you probably won’t sustain that rate for more than a few days. The good news is that may be a sign of some endocrine realignment towards a new lower “set point”. Appendages crossed or clinched as appropriate here. > [@JaneDoe42](#): > > Its in the low 60s now and the community Christmas parade will be passing by around 1745. I am going to fix a warming mug of mulled mead and bundle up to go out and watch it go by. > [@JaneDoe42](#): > > Well, that was fun. My pics are most of blurry lights, but I did recognize friends. Besides the fire trucks, there were 23 trucks and what not pulling highly decorated trailers. > > Now I need some more mulled mead to warm back up cause it dropped to under 60 since my last post. Everything is better with mulled mead! Yum. Especially home-made mead. (Try saying that 3 times fast 🤪 ) At the same time as our holiday party Sat night there was supposed to be a boat parade on the nearby waterway. So reluctantly I/we had planned to miss it. Then the city cancelled it Fri morning due to forecast shit weather. Which turned out to be a good move; Sat night was indeed shit weather: lotsa rain and high winds. Her Ladyship finds boat parades (or any parade really) insufferably droll and boring, but I like them. I grew up near a harbor and it’s just not Christmas season without the abject silliness of a boat parade. > [@dogbutler](#): > > but I got cioppino and a Royal Hawaiian to hold me till second nap time. You live very, very well Good Sir. Sounds like an awesome meal & combo. > [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Plus it was Christmas music night, and Jeebus I cannot stand any more overwrought renditions of … well, all of them I’ve had pity / worry about the psychological torture of non-stop Christmas muzak abusing retail folks since I was a kid. I’m always surprised so few of them snap and start shooting up the store each year. No jury on Earth would convict. > [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > **pilot** , may I be first to wish you and her Ladyship a very happy anniversary? You may. And you were. 😁 > [@FairyChatMom](#): > > They no longer have self-serve drinks! The very idea!! I had read that fast food places all over are pulling those out. Not quite sure why, but cutting back on too much “all you can drink” must be the central idea. Bastards. > [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Higgs is definitely going deaf - you have to yell really loud to get her attention. Her Ladyship says I don’t listen to her. At least I _think_ that’s what she said. 🙂 What’s with visiting 2 groc stores to find 18-packs of eggs? Don’t two twelves work as well for less time and effort chasing around? You’re so darn logical and efficient this seems unlike you, so there’s gotta be another page to the story I don’t have. > [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > > [@FairyChatMom](#): > > > > Leonardtown FL > > For a minute I wondered what you were doing in Florida, then I remembers FL = Food Lion and all was well with my geography… 😉 😀 I had the same double-take. **Wordy** glad the illness stuff seems to be subsiding for you and your crew. Here’s to more progress on that front. > [@peedin](#): > > Yesterday I walked outside without my crutch! It’s been 6 weeks and IMHO the fracture is healed to the point it doesn’t kneed support (see what I did there?). You did something awesome getting out there! Congrats on the healing journey and hopes for lots more improvement to come. > [@Chefguy](#): > > Bummed out today. We were supposed to make xmas cookies with my daughter and was really looking forward to it, as it’s literally been decades since I could do that. We were going to have soup and cornbread, also. She cancelled with a sore throat Rats! Bad luck for sure. Making cookies with kids and grands sounds simply grand. When you can pull it off. Sorry you’re coming up empty handed this time. Next week maybe? It sure seems like post-COVID many people, myself certainly included, have more long-lingering minor illnesses than we used to. Or the episodic sore throat, sniffles, or whatever that shows up, leaves 3 days later, but rolls back around a week or two later for another short stay. Again and again and again. What’s up with that? Anyone else have this impression for themselves or their circle of IRL friends? Any real medical cites that this impression is real? > [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > I won’t be having my sacred Sunday play day with my two grandkidlets tomorrow because their dad tested positive for Covid Tuesday and will still be in isolation through Monday at a minimum. Crap! Your family too?! IIRC he’s had this before. Or was that kid-Mom? > [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I finally set up the fresh rat tub last night, but decided to wait till today to move them. (ASFs are nocturnal, and it’s easier to transfer a colony when they’re groggy.) > > So GUESS who chewed out last night? 🤪 If I’d have moved them last night, this wouldn’t have happened. Yeah, but we get a cool story and Monkey got to gleefully practice prey-chasing. So there’s that. Thank you! About how many ASFs do you have now? Is a “rat tub” what I think; just a big Tupperware-like storage box with snap-on lid? I had the same thought as **Nettie** : why not let the snakes help with the ASF round-up? They too might enjoy some exercise and hunting practice. The ASFs aren’t going to enjoy their experience no matter where or how it goes down; that’s sorta baked into their lot in life. > [@JaneDoe42](#): > > I guess interior facing kitchens work better for people who are more focused on inside entertainment, because the sink user in the new mobile would be able to watch TV instead of birds. In small houses, every window in / near a kitchen displaces what would otherwise be a kitchen cabinet. As you say, that place is already stupid-short on storage. That’s probably what the designers were thinking. > [@JaneDoe42](#): > > but actually I was worried about the light cause I like to sit out in the dark and look at the sky. Damn I miss getting to really good dark. It’s not like city sky even a little bit. Desert dark is even better for lack of humidity that fosters haze. As long as it’s not windy enough to raise dust, deserts have the best skies on Earth; better even than open ocean. You are so fortunate to have it, and so wise to treasure it. > [@JaneDoe42](#): > > utility companies who might have lines under your property will come out and mark where their stuff is so you don’t cut them. It’s not mandatory, but it is free and just takes one phone call, so why not? OTOH, paying for whatever you dig up to be fixed _is_ mandatory and delays your project while they do, so any smart contractor includes that little consideration too. Amazing how many un-smart contractors there are though. > [@JaneDoe42](#): > > I am in awe of the volunteers who smile their way through two hours of a sea of sugar fueled over-stimulated littles. Many of them don’t even drink! Yeah. 'Tis a mystery how they cope, but they do. It seems they feed on chaos and joyful noise sometimes turning quickly into toddler tears. Speaking of which, I’m a bit overdue for my next dose of adorable Horde, but I figure that around Christmas - New Year’s week we’ll be there half a day or more for most days. Pacing, dear boy. Pacing. > [@JaneDoe42](#): > > The poor critters have nowhere to sleep but the cold, hard floor. 😿 Oh, the Felinity! You’re a bad catmommy indeed. You couldn’t even front them a single bath towel to soothe their hips and elbows? O cruel, cruel Fate you are. > [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > **FCM** , I’m glad **FCD** got back safe and sound. Don’t let him try and do much tomorrow, he should be slothing like **swampy** and me. Thirded. Effort two, or worse yet three, days in a row is highly contraindicated as the medics would say. Instead one should sloth forth with great abandon. ETA: As I see you both have planned. > [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > I’d try shutting her out of the room but then she sits outside the door and mews piteously ruining whole ho-ho-ho merry and bright vibe. IIRC you own a garage. Or a bathroom. Anyplace that gets at least two closed doors between you and the noisesome cat. Or crank some appropriate music on your phone / tablet while you wrap. They’ll get over it and you’ll still have some nerves left at the end. Don’t do like another Doper recently reported they did and forget to tag what’s for who before they mixed up the wrapped packages or boxes. BTDT, it sucks. D’oh!! > [@missred](#): > > > [@rocking\_chair](#): > > > > Then onto acme > > Didja get any anvils? :d&r: I laughed. Well played!! > [@Sahirrnee](#): > > As another irritation, B/H mom was giving me grief for not getting a new phone already. > … > Of course, I know a lot of the rush from her was because I wasn’t answering her calls because my phone doesn’t ring. I’m confused. She’s the mean jerky person you want to block out of your life and you’re letting calls come in from her? Why? Bravo for having the wisdom to take things slowly and easily on yourself otherwise though. > [@dogbutler](#): > > is all time and a half during Peak. 😃 Yaay!!1! > [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Dear lord, I thought “grass lab” was some sort of puzzling typo, but … nope. Okay, then. I too was mystified until they posted that link. Hope your “one-eyed jack” was yum. Do you like to put any interesting sauces on your eggs? **Nellie** , sorry to hear the knee is still fighting you so hard. Sorry I can’t add anything on bursitis; not a problem I’ve dealt with as patient or as amateur caregiver. **Swampy** enjoy your churchifyin’ as a comfy pew-dweller and best of luck with the remaining sloth. **FCM** compared to your morning … I awoke and arose at 5am, it’s now 9:30 and in those 4-1/2 hours I have accomplished: making a pot of coffee, drinking half, and these two MMP posts. Period. That’s it. Not even a now quite overdue potty break. You are incredible. > [@scareyfaerie](#): > > Three excellent bands in our local rock pub, can’t ask for a better night out! There was much hugging and jollification upstairs in the Darkroom where the bands play, and some very entertaining conversations out on the fire escape where the cool kids hang out in between bands (because the Darkroom is, according to a guitarist friend, “sweatier than a docker’s armpit”). Afterwards, we went downstairs to the main part of the pub which was packed so we finished our drinks and went round the corner to our other favourite haunt. Stayed for one drink then got a cab home and retired to bed. Now that sounds like the perfect end to a productive day. I hope Little Paws got something out of all your sitting time at the pet place. Happy Spaining. Looking forward to your on-scene reporting. > [@Taters](#): > > That way, she can treat herself or use the cash for something she needs. I know that when I struggled financially, I always appreciated money because being able to pay a bill and keep those wolves at bay was a gift to me. Wise words indeed. Sorry she’s struggling. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-it-is-getting-cold-in-the-mmp/994405)._