(Old) Puzzling Days in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
162

Up from naptime, having a martini, and chicken with egg noodles and peas. Spot is having dry, flavorless bits. Today my friend Mike L. from Florida is celebrating 32 years as an off ice NHL official.

:open_mouth:
That happened to the den outlet in my parents house in Durham, N.C. in 1986.

But can Ollie focus all his weight into a neutron star dense point on your sternum?

W00T!

Yes. And glad the PC is healed.

Animals have an innate nurturing ability, I’m sure it will be fine.

:heart:

Makes me not so bad about Mr. Skitters inviting himself in.

163

You can get doggy doors with latches. Keeps wildlife or other neighborhood pets from coming in at night.

In the spring, a lot of feed stores have chicks for sale. The Wabash down the street (strange that I was born in the town of Wabash, IN and have a little feed and garden store close with that name) gets them in the spring and other feed stores where I’ve lived did as well.

I played around in the studio this evening and made a couple of cards. The tractor one will go to my dad, who not only grew up on a farm, but collected vintage farm equipment for years.

164

10:30pm and time to wrap up the day with the late-night final–not that there is much of anything to report, have not appreciably moved since dinner, outside of a apple and crackers snack with a Pepsi Zero. Watched several You Tube Vids on the European Champions League Soccer and others, but now am about ready to retire for the evening. But first…

JtC, have never gotten that close to a bear before, dog must have been a sound sleeper or in another part of the house. And I’ll take GDIL’s word on it, what I know about chickens is usually limited to dinner…

rocky, think the gift cards are a good idea, take care.

Lily, neat maps. And a lovely picture.

Shoe, you should start a betting pool on how long Lil Miss will be employed there…

red, you do good work on those cards.

And off to Slumberland I go. See y’all on Thorsday.

165

Once, with the dog before Ms Peach, Cinnamon and I were on a walk through the blueberry barrens behind my folk’s place in eastern Maine and came upon a small bear. Was much like Blueberries for Sal except no buckets. The book was probably written about the very field where I was, or maybe the one on the other side of the pond.

shoe I had possum in the kitchen a couple years ago. Baby somehow found its way in and was stuck in the bottom of the kitchen trash can. Not what you expect to find first thing in the morning.

flyboy Good on you for refusing that job!!

166

To be clear: I didn’t refuse the job. I didn’t even apply, once I knew who it was for.

167

Today was quite literally a sh*t show. I’ll blur the worst stuff for those prone to the vapors. D, my elderly neighbor, had a doctor’s appointment, so I went over this morning to take Max while she was gone. As soon as I walked in, she called to me. She was nekkid in the bathroom and needed a towel. 10 days ago, she sent out laundry–She told me this as her washer was churning–to the tune of $160, and as of today, it was still folded and bagged in her bedroom. And here’s where the indelicate parts are.

Max had pooped on the kitchen floor, and she couldn’t clean it up. When she took him out this morning , she soiled herself so badly that she had to throw away her clothes. I cleaned up the mess and took out trash. In the process, I noticed her pooper-scooper was…well, let’s just say it hadn’t been cleaned in months. (It later took me 30 minutes of scrubbing to get it clean.) She said she was too weak to drive and would get an Uber, but she had no cash. (She gets confused.) She also had no Uber app. She called our neighbor for a ride, recalling too late that she needed to print off questions her daughter sent her for the doc. Her gmail box was full, so she hadn’t gotten any emails in 39 days, so that was a no-go.

She left, and I took Max for his walk, then cleaned. I’ll spare you the literally shitty details, but it was…horrifying. I needed a HAZMAT shower afterward. I took out 7 big bags of trash from her one-BR apartment. I didn’t have time to do her floors because a friend was coming to my place. D. needs to be in assisted living, but I can’t make it happen.

In the midst of all that, my sister called. When someone’s first words are, “I’m all right now, but…” it’s always an attention-grabber. She got a strike when bowling this morning, which meant she did her special happy dance, only she slipped and conked her head. They called 911, and she got an ambulance ride to the ER. Luckily, she’s OK, but she has a huge bump on her forehead.

Then my sister-in-law called.

I’m getting a raging headache but hope to return tomorrow to do more than vent.

168

(((nellie, Max and d))) Have you spoken to her daughter about her decline?

169

My darling, you are wonderful to care for others so hard, but who’s taking care of you?

… the world cannot fall onto your shoulders alone. There will always be an endless cascading more of neediness, far more than there will be of you.

Please. Take your world for yourself. At least a lil’ bit here & there.

170

Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave. It’s currently 64 degrees Ferret Height(17.778 Centipedes) outside.
Roomie: < attempts to go to bed >
Spot: < does cat antics in room >
Roomie: “dogbutler! Call your cat!”
Me: “Spot! Come here!”
Spot: < ignores >
Me: “Spot! Kommst du mit!”
Spot: < runs to me >
My cat understand more languages than I do.
Spot: “Of course I do! I’m a god, you brainless baboon!”

{{{{nellie}}}}

This.

171

Mornin’

Most I’ve ever found in the house was a couple of woodlice and spiders… No bears. I have to fill the house with rats myself.

Computer access was restored as of last night, but I will be heading off in a couple of hours for the weekend anyway. Please try to minimise the chaos while I’m away; no houses burning down, no burning out.

I’m going by train, cos I’m sick of the drive down there, and I actually got some reasonably priced tickets. For longer distances here, ticket prices are this crazy roulette game where it might be £30, or if you go 30 minutes later it may be £180, sometimes if you go one stop further it costs less, sometimes it’s double.

The thing that really gets me is that there is actually technology out there now to sort the eggs a couple of days after fertilisation which is something like 1p a chick more expensive than letting them hatch, sorting the chicks and killing the males. Most of Europe is now using this method- I think it’s now required in many places- but last I checked the only voluntary takers in the UK are sellers of heritage breeds to backyard keepers. None of the big egg producers were willing to pay that tiny bit extra, and the government has just put out a woolly ‘suggestion’ that it’s used.

172

Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 7c/45f with a predicted high of 9c/48f and cloudy. Weather app says “Fuck you, clouds!”

The furthest I could send her would be our Shakespeare Institute in Stratford, or our off-campus drama school in Selly Oak. Drama would probably suit her, but it’s not part of our School so I’d have to get her transferred out as well. Oh, so tempting…

hippie Glad you were able to fix the problem easily. Sunflower is a clever one, that’s for sure.

Cat_Glove welcome back!

Bright Tree glad to hear you’re feeling better too.

{{{{{nellie, Max and D}}}}} D and Max are so very lucky to have you, and you are clearly eligible for sainthood!

Yesterday was a fairly good irk day, I picked up some work for TM while she’s off and now have a long list of errors that I’ve had to put right, plus I also noticed she hasn’t put an “out of office” on her email so that’s going to be yet another conversation I need to have with her.

The Travel Gods decided I could have an easy trip home which was very nice of them. I had scrambled eggs on sourdough toast for dinner, and went to the pub with my friends. It was nice to catch up with them, and grumble about our respective jobs over a beer or two. Back to the grindstone today, and already I’ve got a couple of weird things in the inbox to work through - I need to work out who is the best person to ask about two things because I can’t work out where they’ve come from. On with the deerstalker then!

173

This!

174

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 71 Amurrkin out and cloudy with a predicted high of 82 with possible rain this evenin’. Same forecast for where I am headed, as well. I will betake myself towards Brunswick, Jawja around ten-thirtyish this mornin’. There will be stops along the way for lunch and pee breaks, so I hope I will be able to check in the glorious Days Inn upon arrival and take myself over to the convention center to do check in. Priest, other delegate, and myself will meet up for dinner somewhere this evenin’ just cause. There will also likely be minglin’ with other Whiskypalians from the Diocese. I am lookin’ forward to this, as I expect to have a good time even if I have to listen to endless reports, hear details about budgets and so forth. I am takin’ my tablet with me so’s I can be in communication with y’all and have access to teh intartoobz.

Coppertone HUZZAH for found money!

JtC YIKES! I imagine the new door is a very secure door. Oh, and yeah, it’s a safe bet to say mama bear was nearby.

JBats sorry, you’ll need to be able to tell us the serial number.

rocker I am sure they would appreciate Wawa gift cards. There’s a Wawa here and I sometimes stop there on my way to the church house. I mean, it’s not exactly on the way, just a little half mile at most detour.

Lily I am sure nephew and nephew’s husband will love those maps. WANT! Also, the vicious creatures do look all snuggly!

shoe rest assured Lil Miss will get her comeuppance. Karma don’t mess around.

red your cards are always so tres :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:! I just know all the recepients feel special.

Nellie neighbor does need to be in assisted livin’ post haste! Glad sis is OK. Hooray for the strike, however. The happy dance was needed. Hope the headache is better today. Never apologize when you need to vent. It’s one of the many services we provide in the MMP.

Nuts glad access has been restored. Safe travels and have a fun weekend! It’s Guy Fawkes Day so will there be bonfires, effigies and fireworks?

BooFae same question I asked Nuts. Do you do stuff for Guy Fawkes Day?

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then I shall purtify, don suitable attire for travel (jeans, sneaks, pullover shirt) and minglin’ amongst assorted Whiskypalians.

Happy Thursday Y’all!

175

We used to, when I was much smaller. My dad used to take us to the local newsagent who sold fireworks and we were each allowed to pick out one firework of our choice. He also bought a small box of assorted fireworks, and some sparklers. They were always let off in the back garden on 5th November.

These days, we don’t really do anything. There’s an organised display in the park close to where we live so we can watch that from our back garden if we choose. This year it’s on Friday night. Other people locally will have fireworks, they tend to start in October for the first Diwali celebrations and continue through to new year. We stay at home for the big local fireworks because the cats are properly scared.

176

When I open the garden shed door, a whole clan of Skitters flee into darker recesses. As long as they stay out of the house, I’m OK with them continuing to live.

Ribs have been added to the planned menu. SIL isn’t a big fan of turkey and I remembered that I did ribs the last time we had this crowd to dinner (minus Valerie that time.) I’ve got the prep schedule just about worked out so I just need to assign some to FCD and some to me. The hope is that we’re not running ragged on Thursday, apart from shoving things into the oven and hacking up the roasted bird.

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

A dreary 60 Ferrets headed to mid 70s with showers predicted on and off. T-boomers possible tomorrow, followed by a significant drop in temps. I slept with Mel, or tried to. I woke around 2 and couldn’t fall back to sleep till almost 5. Even then, I just got an extra 90 minutes. Dunno why my sleep cycle is so messed up. Must discuss with Christine at my appointment next month.

No particular plans for today. I do need to load the dishwasher. And the cookbooks I order for the grandspawn are being delivered, so I can wrap them. Beyond that, well, we’ll see.

I got an email from one of my sisters - their T-day will be small this year. Her daughter and crew will be with her inlaws, and we, of course, will stay here. My bro, as usual, hasn’t given an answer, so there will be 6 or 7 or 8 for dinner - in the past Mom has hosted as many as 20!

She posted her menu - I don’t understand why she and my mom tend to have very starch-heavy meals with little or no vegetable matter. While I’ll have smashed spuds and dressing and rolls, I also will have broccoli and grean beans, and Daughter might bring spare guts. And I’ll do a fruit platter because if Tobias is in one of his moods, I know he’ll eat berries and grapes. But I shouldn’t snark about their menu, should I??

Do any of you use or know someone who uses T-Mobile home internet? Our cable provider has gotten $$$ and over the last 3 days or so, we’ve had multiple outages. They usually only last a few minutes, but when you’re streaming a movie and it freezes… :face_with_steam_from_nose: I wonder if there’s a way to try it out and see. There’s a store near Daughter’s house - I may go there and ask.

Have a Happy Thursday!!

177

Morning all. Starting off with my Big Bowl O’Cheerios today followed by–nothing else in particular. Might get some house-irk done and probably spend the afternoon with some gym time, but otherwise sloth will rule the day. The rain is gone and it’s 59F heading to 72F so might spend some time outdoors, but we’ll see.

Nellie, I truly hope Max’s person can get the help they need, she really shouldn’t be living alone now, but the system is so screwed up that…I’m glad she has you but you can’t do everything. And hope Sis is ok, not sure of her age but head strikes are never good at any age.

Nut, glad you are once again computer-recognized. Will do my best to remain an RDOS while you’re gone.

swampy, safe travels.

FCM, I have Verizon so can’t be of help, sorry.

And onward into the day. Have a good one all.

178

Good morning. Mrs. Nott got a new laptop for her purse and jewelry biz. She says the new machine took a long time updating its software. Okay, that’s it. No, wait, here’s another bunch of updates. Ready? No, wait. Yeesh!

Outside, it’s 53F with a chance of rain. That’s as warm as it’s going to get here in Elkhart today.

Now it’s time for breakfast. Maybe I can remember to shut down the browser before I go.

179

you will never guess what happened this morning…

okay, you did guess.

yep, at 5:54 am the alarm went off again. le sigh. after yest. there was no way i was going near stairs. my quads are better than i thought they would be… they are not fit to do stairs again.

so i got treats for the cats, advil for me, and the alarm stoped at 5:58 am. we all went back to bed. i thought, that’s a really good response time for the fire department… at 6:20 the announcement came that the fire dept. had cleared the alarm and we could return to our flats.

i wonder how many people evacuated.

jtc, i have trained the cats to expect treats when the alarm goes off. lager always did well with the alarm. koritza and stretch would flip out. during what i call the “cooking alarms” i would move calmly and speak in the “reassuring tone” giving out treats and cuddles. now when the alarm goes off and i’m home they come to me.

my neighbour has work being done in the ceiling from a leak above him. his cat freaked during the alarm and got into the ceiling hole for 5 hours! i told him about having a pillowcase by the front door and lots of treats. the pillowcase is to put the cat in, gives a bit of help for smokey situations.

susan, what an adorable ying and yang.

lh75, wow! that was a close one.

purplehorseshoe, love the tummy prose.

nelliebly, that is quite harrowing i hope something can be worked out for d. very distressing for all of you. i hope things settle down soon

dogbutler, i break out the german for lager. i am more formal. i usually say “kommen sie hier” really stress the hier. koritza gets russian.

onward to office stuff.

180

For those of us who wonder, that’s 1.35 cents.

181

Good morning.

It’s 47F, damp, and cloudy outside. We’ll spend the day alternating between mostly cloudy and partly cloudy skies, with a daytime high of 58F. The rain arrived right on time yesterday evening and fell off and on throughout much of the night.

Nellie, as others have said. You spend so much time worrying or taking care of others; please, PLEASE, take care of yourself. Sadly for Max, your neighbor needs to be in a home. Your efforts were heroic, to say the least.

Wishing you safe travels, Swampy.

Shoe, honestly, I don’t know why management makes Lil Miss’s transportation problems your problem. That girls needs a reckoning.

JtC, just wow on the bear. I came upon a mama bear and her cubs while hiking on a trail at Mt. Rainier many, many years ago. Fortunately, there was enough distance that I could back down around a corner and wait for her and the cubs to go on about their business.

Lily, what a lovely kitty picture!

Bright Tree, I’m glad to read that you’re feeling better and managed to keep some food down. I hope today brings even more of an improvement.

It appears that I am fighting off a cold. I spent much of yesterday sneezing and blowing my nose. I took some DayQuil, which helped a bit, but today my nose is slightly stuffy, and my eyes are a little weepy at times. I’ll take some more Dayquil in a bit. I used to try and be heroic and just live through the symptoms in hopes they’d pass faster, but I’m over that malarkey. Why be miserable? I ordered some Cool Touch Kleenex too. Those things are nice when you constantly have to blow your nose. I’m hoping I’m past the worst of it by the time my son shows up.

I’m sure I caught this little bug after my Costco trip. It was chaos that day, and lots of people were hacking their lungs out without covering their mouths. Heathens.

The pest control people are coming today, so I’ll need to pick up poo and unlock the gate when the sun rises. I’m never sure what time they’re coming.

I’m sure it’ll just be me, my husband, my son, and all the dogs for Thanksgiving at my house. I don’t really want turkey, but it’s the one time of year my husband gets turkey and gravy, so I can’t deny him that. Still, it’s always a waste, and we end up tossing the leftovers because we don’t finish them fast enough, even though we send a bunch home with my son. We’ll have a small turkey, mashed taters, gravy, asparagus, sausage stuffing/dressing, and some croissant rolls. I used to make cranberry sauce, but neither my son nor my husband likes cranberry, so it’s pointless.

I’d best get my day started.

Please take care of yourselves.