(Old) Of Humid Bondage- A Heatwave MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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But you are our fussy eater, so all is well. I hope you got a chance to try beignets at the cafe du Monde~those powder sugar drenched doughnuts are da bomb, alone worth the trip to New Orleans.

I’m envious of you getting a nice, long train ride. I loved my last one, which wasn’t long enough to get a roommette. You will get to enjoy Amtrak dining car food-I remember how good their Flat Iron steaks were and they have a really good burger too. I liked their breakfasts too. Be sure to tell us all about the food!

Been there, done that.

I think shoe and I live in pretty similar Midwestern neighborhoods and, yes, it is rarely boring. I do have lots of kind, helpful, approachable neighbors, which is lovely. Now if I could just get drivers to stop totaling my parked on the street in front of my house cars….in ritzier neighborhoods no one parks on the street, they are all in their air-conditioned triple garages with automatic doors or at worst pulled way up in the driveway. How boring, you never get to see any one or pet their dog.

I remember that from back when I was a church lady…I was having to pay a different kind of attention so I did the right thing at just the right time and therefore I couldn’t just get lost in soaking up the worship experience. Both are good, but they are different. Sometimes I wanted to stay for the next Mass just so I could sit in a pew and immerse myself in it without having to think about it, just feel it.

He really is just that cute in person…having had the extreme good fortune to live close enough to his home town to have a couple of lunches with hippie and his very lovely and sweet bride. He’s very kind, thoughtful and gentlemanly, patient and considerate with my bonked brain. He’d come out to the parking lot of where we were meeting to help me get parked in a handicapped space and find the entrance door to a restaurant strange to me. Just lots of little kindnesses and considerations throughout. Plus, he’s wry and funny as heck in person.

His love affair with his wife is wonderful to be around too. 50+ years and it’s like being with high school sweethearts.

It’s time to for me to have lunch with them again…now that I’ve got a car (better do it quick while I still do).

pilot guy is most likely right on both counts.
Most ambulances choose to not run on lights and sirens if not that urgent so the driving public doesn’t get jaded and start ignoring emergency vehicles who do need to get somewhere urgently.

That seems to suggest they will pay 80% of the fee and hopefully your supplemental will pick up the rest. Supplemental be weird and slippery though, mine evades lots of things but at worst you may be stuck with 20% of $900. Actually that $900 is cheap compared to what I would pay in my Midwestern town where the Fire Dept does the 911 ambulance runs-last I knew an uncomplicated call to a hospital was $1800.

Well said, me too. After 32 years if that was how he felt, meh, I’m glad to be out of it. She’s (there were a lots of them) are welcome to him.

I wish her luck too. FairyChatMom has a stubborn one to deal with there and I have great sympathy for her. I looked briefly in the online places I know and couldn’t find anything in tiny petite denim-but-not-denim-but not blue elastic waist pants. It’s the denim but not blue that sinks that quest. I suspect MiL wants denim-like fabric because it’s heavier and keeps her warmer because she’s cold all the time (very typical of her age, IME). If mooom could get her off the denim thing, LandsEnd.com does some very nice pants in both their Starfish™ knit line and their Sports™ knit line that are high quality, heavier knit pants that launder well, fit well and have pockets (:blush:!!). They also lots of denim jeans like pants, in a range of colors, even black. Those tend to be slightly more expensive than the knit lines but they are there. LandsEnd is great at customer service, returns are easy and they have really good sale prices for the quality. I rarely get pants anywhere else because I like the price on sale, quality, the great customer service and those pockets.

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Yeah. No one who’s been happily married, no matter how temporary it may have been, can fail to feel that warmth from that statement coming through the magickal intertoobbz to us all.

Give him a hug from me Jane; even if he doesn’t know what he’s done to deserve it, you will. :wink:


I know the assembled masses will be almost as thrilled as I am at this exciting news: I have belatedly balconated baconically. Between rain. travel, and sheer sloth, it’s taken a few days to work up to it, but the deed is done: I’m no longer a baconatin’ balconatin’ birgin.

4 thick half-slices of the aforementioned bacon, 2 eggs over easy cooked in the bacon grease, a hunk of leftover bagel w cream cheese, a tangerine, and a can of V8 completed the sumptuous repast. It was baconoriffic.

For as little as I’ve used that stove and pan in the ~6 weeks I’ve now lived here, I was pleased to not have wrecked the bacon (much), nor the eggs (much), nor to have soiled the entire kitchen (much). I’m certainly showing my rust as a cook, but I haven’t rusted into complete uselessness or immobility. I’ve pulled a steak from the freezer which will be quick-defrosted in cool water and I intend to cook dinner here at home tonight too. We’ll see how well that intention holds up versus the impending rigors of the day. RDOS are not noted for their stamina in the face of obstacles.

Here at the crack of noon the day remains light gray, but not glary, with no sign of rain and just a light breeze to soften the gloriously lush 82/28.

Now to shevel, wrap up the laundry put-away, then tackle the errands and what administrivia I can accomplish online.

Cheers!

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The very tastiest way to do it! :fried_egg::fried_egg::fried_egg::fried_egg::fried_egg: in real butter being the next best.

Spoken for truth….says the RDOS who is at least an hour late getting off da dope and on to wrapping birthday presents (and late Father’s Day presents) to take over for my sacred grandma play day (that I had to miss last Sunday cause I was contagious). Bye….getting off my prodigious RDOS butt now.

Indeed it was…envious. Glad the new kitchen treated you well.

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Yesterday’s drive from Rosemont to Joliet took us close to the warehouse where TC and I used to work together, so we decided to stop at an old favorite lunch spot. Great pizza and beef sammiches. Google says they open at 11:00 on Saturdays. We got there at about 12:30 and, nope, locked up tight as a drum. Very disappointing. Plan B was Portillo’s, which I’m not mad about, but we were both looking forward to revisiting an old favorite.

On the way to the hotel in Joliet we passed by the prison, and stopped by the door where Elwood picked up Jake in The Blues Brothers. That thrilled me more than it probably should have.

We’d been to this ballpark before when a different team used to play there around 20 years ago. It’s in pretty good shape and all the folks were friendly and having a good time. But based on the attendance for a Saturday night game, Joliet is not all that into their team.

And not much was happening in the surrounding neighborhood. We did find a fun little dive for a couple quaffs and that was it. We’re staying at a casino hotel down the street, so we were able to stretch the evening out a bit. I slowly lost a few bucks on video poker and called it a night.

An afternoon game today at the same ballpark, and then we’re meeting up for dinner with a group of friends we used to hang out with back in the day. Should be fun.

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IME all the best hotels are near prisons.

MLB-affiliated minor league hasn’t been doing well since long before COVID, but that and the MLB-mandated reorganization and shrinkage that was done in the fading days of pandemic concern nearly killed it.

For the single-A games near me, attendance runs to a couple hundred on a good night. Even as recently as last season they were playing games with the stadium closed 3 days a week - attendance was so bad it didn’t pay to bring in the staff needed to unlock the doors and turn on the lights. So the players played live games to a locked and empty house. Ouch; talk about dispiriting.

I’m gratified to see that this year there are no lockout days at least for my local minor league teams.

Bush league is even worse in terms of attendance.

But for sure you’re having a great trip and that’s what matters. Yaay for old friends and old haunts. Closed or not.

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Awwwww!

We have had a long running battle with Gormless George about water. He wants to play in it and we don’t want to be constantly cleaning up after him. Plus, wet cat fur is slimy feeling.

The opposite of love isn’t hate. Hate is a strong passion which means one has feelings for someone. The opposite of love is indifference and neglect.

Will you have a bed or just a recliner? I’m still planning on a train trip, but not this year so I’ll just ask you all of my questions instead.

That was my question too.

This. I’m on team Yummy Treats as well.

I guess he’s going to be eating canned for the rest of his days, LOL!

:frowning:

Poor woman and poor you and FCD.

As is right and proper!

(You will be happy to know that we didn’t fall out of bed last night.)

So Hubs found a Kroger about ten miles away and we both went to get groceries. I’ll be cooking on a two burner hot plate for at least six more weeks so planning meals around that is more complicated than I thought. We have a microwave, but I don’t usually cook with it.

It was distressing to be buying the same things I gave away two weeks ago :frowning: Also distressing has been the lack of Avocados or masa. I was seriously considering bringing a couple of bags of masa with me because I use it so often. Live and learn.

Hubs is going to get a cheap BBQ to use until the truck gets here. It’s getting close to July 4th which is a big BBQ day so it should be a fairly simple task.

We had stuff all over the counters because I needed shelves in the cabinets moved. Hubs did that for me today and now the cabinets are clear and I have room to work again. That’s a good feeling.

Hubs also packed the Keurig and our coffee pods in the car. I knew there was a good reason to marry the man!

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That is, in fact, a very shitty feeling.

It also explains why I paid $$$ to move with stuff I coulda bought here - ultimately, it’s pay now/here, or pay later/there.

Sweetheart. You can find amazing things these days in the freezer aisle. (Especially at Kroger!) Full-on gourmet meals - just nukulate.

There are products available to make your life easier. You just hafta switch mental gears a bit.

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Church was wonderful as always. I am going to go in tomorrow and keep trying to train; I have failed one quiz about 50 times so hopefully someone gives me the answers.
I don’t think they’re going to pay me.

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Indifference is worse I learned. I’m almost over it. Almost.

The recliners are what you get in coach~very comfortable and roomy. Reclines waaaay back for sleeping. Adjustable leg rests. I slept just fine in one on my Amtrak trip to Denver. That was the California Zephyr.

Roomettes, which is what metal mouse has is a very compact little compartment with seats for two people (but barely two) [best if both of you aren’t over 6 feet tall]. At night the attendant converts those seats to one lower almost twin sized bed and an upper berth small bunk that one has to clamber in and out of. I’ve read that the seats in a roomette aren’t as comfy or adjustable to sit in all day as the coach seats but there is the privacy and quiet to make up for that. The trick is that roomettes are quite a bit more expensive than coach, sometimes by several hundred dollars. You do get 3 darn good meals in the dining car for the price though, as well as lots of non-alcoholic drinks during the day, including morning coffee brought to your room, as well as one free alcoholic drink or wine with dinner. There are great videos on YouTube by ‘Grounded Life’ that show what it is like. Seniors get a 10% discount on their fare.

There are also bedrooms on Amtrak sleeper cars, which are of course more more expensive but have quite a bit more room, I’ve read that those daytime seats are comfier than roomette seats and both people can sit facing the direction of travel. That couch like bedroom seat is turned into a near full-sized bed at night that two can snuggle in together. Same nice meal and arrangements with bedrooms.

There were lots of reasons to marry the man before Keurigs were even invented! Coffee is just gravy.

Here’s a portable, cheap enough to be disposable grill that Amazon will get to you by the 29th, plenty of time for the 4th.

SAVIMIA Portable Barbecue Folding Charcoal Grill,Outdoor Multifunctional Stainless Steel Charcoal BBQ Grill Small Grill for Outdoor Camping Picnic Hiking Travel Party https://a.co/d/07fyXNmK

Deep down I’m one of your new neighbors will invite you to a bbq to welcome you to the neighborhood (and to check you both out of course-it’s the American way). Bring some of your homemade cheese and hubs home brewed beer, you’ll be famous and invited to everything! :cheese::beers::beer: :us: :firecracker::us::sparkler::us::firecracker::us::fireworks::us::beer::beers::cheese:

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SWMBO asked if we have anything to make pizza tonight. I got the bag of TJ’s pizza dough out of the freezer to thaw. We have enough (barely enough for me) pepperoni, sliced olives, mozzarella, and most of a jar of marinara sauce. I also have anchovies, but I’ll have to put them on my slices straight out of the tin because SWMBO complains of the flavour getting on her slices if I cook them on the pie.

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I confess I was worried on that score. Reunioning is like that, and neither of you need more bumps and bruises right now.

I bet you’ll be getting your masa from Da Jungle from here on out. “Use it so often” may become “Used to use it so often”. Changing cultures often means changing which ethnic ingredients you can get and so which ethnic foods you can eat.

And yes, in WV, masa is wildly outré ethnic.

Hooray for the beginnings of getting the kitchen disorder under control. So satisfying. Good luck!

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But your grits-getting ought to be good :grinning:!

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Thank you all once again for the kind words.

BBBoo’s post made me blush…

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Yet another rare and endearing quality of his.

BTW, it is always very clear that his lovely sweetheart Sunflower knows exactly what she’s got in him…quietly and subtly of course but the force is strong with that one. We’re lucky she shares so gracefully.

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Thanks. I was wracking my brain to come up with a favorable “on the other hand, [whatever] oughta be easy” but was drawing a blank. Grits it is.

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Hubs will have his BBQ/smoker on the third, so we are considering having a 'meet our neighbors" bash at our place. We’ve met several of them, but saying hello over the fence isn’t the same as sitting down and eating with folks.

We just need a way to cook a few steaks or hamburgers while we wait for our ship to come in. We are far too spoiled to pan fry that stuff anymore.

to vape without hiding in the restroom.

As to cheese…hmmmm. These people are even more different than I had thought. Even at Kroger, the only choices for cheese are cheddar, swiss, Velveeta, gouda and jack. Snacking cheeses are limited to string cheese and baby goudas. I’ve been to three grocery stores so far and haven’t seen bleu cheese or any soft cheeses besides the traditional yogurt, sour cream and cottage cheese.

The selection of nice bread has been pretty limited as well.

However, we are retired and enjoy driving around and looking at the country side. I’m sure we will find options - plus both of us will be back in the fermentation business in a few weeks.

We did consider that, but paying someone to move boxes of non-perishable food that we could replace for less expense didn’t make sense for us. If we were moving like you did, we might have thought differently.

I will say that I’ve been happily surprised at the price of groceries. Even at the local sto, the prices were less than in AZ and the Kroger was amazing. Beef and pork are much less expensive as well as produce.

There is a Tractor Supply place in Logan that we are planning to explore, I understand they have a good selection of critter fud. While Chewey will probably be our main source of GG supplies, Imma gonna wanna start putting fud out for the birds.

Hubs doesn’t want me to feed seeds because that is so messy so I think I’ll see what happens with suet and birdhouses that are not our soffit.

We are soooo stuck in the mud. We really don’t like microwave food, we like our food. Eating out once in a while is fun because of the variety and no dishes part, but we both really are happier eating at home.

LOL!!!

Our big problem is that we have been sleeping on at least queen sized waterbeds all of our married life and are now on a smaller standard full sized bed while being on the larger side ourselves.

Waterbeds are bed, frame and then air to floor. Standard beds are bed, then hit the floor, you don’t get the tactile warning of the frame when you are too close to the edge.

Happily, the world is much smaller nowadays and yes, da Jungle is seriously popular out this way.

It is surprising to me that Asian ingredients are easier to obtain than Mexican. Not too surprising that Polish ingredients are easier to obtain than Italian.

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This. The issue isn’t the price of the stuff; it’s the price of the moving.

Paying $8/lb to move used stuff that sells for $3/lb new is a fool’s game. Worse yet to pay $8/lb to move raggedy old unneeded crap that should have been garage saled before you left.

358

Great Gobs of Goose Grease, don’t do that!! My Book of Faces threads following Amtrak fans is filled with story after story of people getting at best thrown off at the very stop after getting caught doing that on an Amtrak train. And they don’t care if you have a way to get anywhere from the wide place alongside the track that they booted you out at. If you lucky they won’t have the police or sheriff meet you to arrest you when they stop to throw you off. The arrest seems to happen about 50% of the time. Thrown off at the very first opportunity seems to happen 99.9% of the time.

There usually are what Amtrak calls ‘fresh air’ stops every couple of hours on long routes which are stops where the train stops for long enough for people to get off, stretch their legs and grab a smoke. They will announce these ‘fresh air’ stops ahead of time so you can have relief in sight. The trick would be what you might want to vape. Tobacco would be fine, just walk enough away from the car doors so folks don’t have to walk through a cloud of smoke to get back on. Er, ‘other stuff’ to smoke or vape might matter greatly whether the Other Stuff is legal in that state and if you are still on Amtrak property and if that is considered federal property-Other Stuff is not legal yet as far as the feds are concerned and the Amtrak folks are dead serious about that.

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It’ll be a bed (there is another overhead) that will be prepared by the car attendant closer to bedtime. I am using the blanket for it now as they keep the car colder than I like. Google ‘roomette amtrak’ if you are more curious. (and I see BBBoo has beat me too it–and I endorse all that she said.

JtC, don’t think I ever heard of masa before, so learned something new today. Glad the organizing is continuing and your caffeine fix is taken care of.

Pilot, the AA game I went to in Huntsville was pretty well-attended (about 4,500), I attribute that to a growing population, a new stadium, and not much else on the sports scene.

Wheelie, keep us updated on what sounds like a great trip. And love The Blues Brothers reference–that film helped keep me sane during my worst summer ever.

Pilot, was looking forward to some bacon at the hotel buffets, but they seem to have all gone for sausage links now. Guess I’ll have to fix it myself when I get home.

BBBoo, thanks for the hippie stories, even if he’s slightly embarrassed by them. And no Flat Iron steaks on this train, I think that is only on the Western Intercontinental runs, had Beef Burgundy and Mashed potatoes for lunch, Chicken Parmesan is planned for tonight. Food is served in the dining car but in boxes and not on dining plates, but it is still pretty tasty.

Right now I am looking at some trees, as we are on a siding waiting for another train to go by. Looks like we’re running about 40 minutes late, but with Amtrak you just go with the flow. They announced we’re slowing down in spots as the heat has made the rails dangerous in spots to go full speed.

Oopsie, glad others could use your ramps. bet the last one is gone by now. My AC is pretty permanently set at 76F for the summer and I have it at 81F while I am gone on this trip.

And we’re backing up to get back on the main line to head to our stop at Tuscaloosa. Our first chance to get off the train and stretch our legs (smoke break) will be in Birmingham. Still plan to be in DC sometime after lunch tomorrow.

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Howdy Y’all! We deheathenated, had sammich N.O.L., and have achieved nappage and day drinkin’. Such is the life of us two RDOS. Oh and the biiiiiig trash can has been hauled all the way down to the road for pickup tomorrow. Netflix, chill, and popcorn comin’ up next!

Metal_Mouse ain’t nuttin’ wrong with a first class lounge and free snacks. Always liked gettin’ to sit in the uptown peoples lounge at airports where snacks and drinks were free when I traveled for irk.

Pilot I know you will have a huge sense of relief with the divorce stuff is final. Hooray for the end bein’ in sight! I like servin’ as Verger, Lector, Chalice Administrator, and Presider when we have lay led services. It’s good to plop in a pew, but ime I have a better worship experience when I participate. OYKW, on the other hand is happy to plop in a pew. Hooray for baconatin’ while balconatin’!

Oopsie since you are intrigued I’ll give the Dallas Cheerleaders thang on Netflix a go eventually. I saw it and thought, interest not peaked. I could be proven wrong. That has never happened to me in my entire life! Do you believe that? If so, I got a deal on some ocean front property in Iowa for ya!

Wheelie Elmo and Jake were the first thing I thought about when you said Joliet. Glad you got to see the door. I would have been thrilled as well.

JtC Hubs has earned a place in Heaven for rememberin’ the Keurig and the coffee pods. I agree about the grill. Gotta grill on the Fourth! Anything less is un Amurrkin!