Up incredibly stoopit early - why do I always sleep so badly the night before Long Night shift? - so I bestirred myself to obtain another square shaped croissant. This time, when I got home, I gilded the lily & added a slice of Am. chz on top of their Swiss. 10/10 highly recommend.
Thanks to the tea thread, I’m having a hot cuppa despite the local humidity.
Oh, and I got seasoned potato wedges on a lark while I was there. Can’t remember if I’ve had 'em before. They were decent, but I forgot to mush up my ketchup packet to mix the contents & it peed tomato-y vinegar all over my bathrobe. (Yes, I drove to Wendy’s in my bathrobe. No, there ain’t no shame in my game.)
As I had just started my load of laundry & am unwilling to run a 2nd load just for a single bathrobe, I suppose I shall smell vaguely like ketchup while lazying around La Casa.
I guess there are worse things in life.
On a less-lazy note, look who’s doing her laundry!
It’s supposed to get down to { snerk } 69 F tonight, with clear skies and mid-80s for the next couple of days. Man, the lakefront on Monday is gonna be packed. No, thank you.
Tossed some peanuts & birdseed and shredded an old roll for the birdies & squirrels, and I just heard the blue jays start gossiping loudly to each other about their prospective breakfast. So Monkey should be getting some entertainment soon, and I should be conking back out soon.
I was pleasantly surprised with these! It’s a good thing Wendy’s isn’t next door - that would be dangerous.
FCD is showering. I’m clean and dressed. I even took a few minutes to trim my toenails (or is that TMI??) We’ll be leaving in about 20 minutes for breakfast, which is good. I’s hongree!! And unless FCD needs my help, I’ll do some yard work today while it’s still on the cooler side. Tomorrow, too hot.
The doctor recommended Voltaren for the wife’s knee, which is an OTC topical ointment that used to be prescription. She did this without doing any x-rays, which bothers me. Seems like a guess, rather than a diagnosis. Well, it can’t be any less effective than endless Salonpas patches.
My knee is less achy this morning, so I’ll try some mild exercises today.
I’m thinking cornmeal pancakes this morning, if the buttermilk hasn’t gone south. Loves me some of those.
I has a sad. RIP Jimmy. You were quite the artist.
Hope that you’re feeling better hippy.
Glad your knee is a bit less cranky this morning cookie. I hope that Mrs.Cookie gets some relief soonest.
That totally sucks about the school Moooooom. I’m amazed that the rent for the building was as low as it was and wonder if they’ll be able to find something else for even the new rent price (for reference, $1K a month was the lease price for my late BigBro’s 1800 sf bar in the late 90s and my rent for a 560 sf apartment now is more than $1K a month).
Up, caffeinating, breakfasted, have put an hour in the studio and am fixing to do KP. Once that’s done, it’s back to work in the studio for a bit and then head to the 'Boro to World Market for coffee beans and the grocery outlet to restock the freezer.
FCM That whole situation with the school is one big disaster.
I was tangentially involved in a similar situation where the city had a more or less surplus small office building adjacent to a city park that they leased at a sweetheart rate to a non-profit that proceeded over 20 years to simply let the building fall apart around them while the city remained responsible to mow the lawn and paint the exterior. So nobody outside that org was any the wiser about what was going on the inside.
Eventually (Surprise Surprise Surprise!) the building became uninhabitable and the city was forced to push the tenant out and tear down the building. The taxpayers did not do well out of that deal.
Best of luck on what will probably be a very tearful and expensive journey for all.
One of my standard sayings is “It’s a darn good thing kids are cute or they’d never live to puberty. The parents’d kill 'em first”.
There was a whole recent thread on exactly this topic. A lot of people though as hubs did.
Your Mom was a clever one. I’d never heard of that trick, but I love it.
She certainly set up the situation by not keeping up with necessary maintenance.
When I was condo prez we went through something similar, where previous administrations had underinvested in common building maintenance, and which had finally reached the cannot-ignore-any-more level as I was taking the helm. Much crying from the membership ensued as the dues jumped up to pay for the stuff that had been neglected. The pisser is the people who had enjoyed low dues then sold, having stolen value that new owners now had to overpay dues to replace.
In your situation the tuition at the school should have been higher for the last 10-20 years to keep up with that stuff and now the current students’ families will be making up the shortfall somehow. Whether by paying to fix this place or by paying more for someplace else in better shape. Plus, as you say, all the lost volunteer labor hours.
Shortsighted management is like a dog with diarrhea. It just leaves a nasty smelly trail for others to first step in, then clean up. Meanwhile the dog is oblivious that anything is wrong with that.
I suspect that “can’t” is really “won’t”. He knows the price of marital bliss as well as the next guy.
Voltaren (active ingredient diclofenac) is a common go-to for arthritis pain or even carpal tunnel. We’d used it back when it was prescription and now as OTC. In our experience it is effective at local joint pain relief without burdening your whole system with enough NSAID to affect the same pain.
Not knowing the background on your wife I can’t comment more. But I will say that one general problem we encountered with my late aged MIL’s care was that beyond a certain age / decrepitude the docs basically tend to get lazy. As in “Whatever is bugging you, the cause is age and since that can’t be changed, there’s nothing we can do. Maybe some symptom relief and that’s it.” Quite often there is a medically addressable problem there, and getting them to actually dig for it and address it is sometimes an uphill fight.
Good luck with both of your battles with that as time marches on.
As to me:
Awoke a bit late, it looked threatening to rain, so rather than beaching I’ve been here dealing with various administrivia & Doping. I appear to have survived today’s on-call shift unscathed; the number of others ahead of me is larger than can likely be consumed during my remaining window of vulnerability. I’ll know for sure in a couple hours.
Now at the crack of 9am it is in fact raining lightly briefly. Her Ladyship should be up soonish. Breakfast should be at home and if so mine will be leftovers from my last breakfast out (chorizo & eggs), plus fresh fruit and plain yogurt.
Boring errands, a haircut, and general slothage are the planned rest of my day. We might do dolled-up fancy dinner tonight. If so I need to get crackin’ on making reservations someplace soonest.
Thanks. The big struggle I have is getting her to go to the doc. She’s clearly in a lot of pain with the knee. So when the doc says “here’s a placebo”, it’s doubly frustrating because I know it will be an uphill fight to get her back and to get a referral to someone who knows WTF they’re doing.
Of course there’s a self-reinforcing feedback loop there. She finally agrees to go, is uncommunicative & uncooperative with the doc who does little or nothing and then she can come home and triumphantly announce “See, I was right! Docs are useless”.
Being right was much more important than being treated, helped, or cured. I’ll give her credit that she had the courage of her convictions. And suffered a lot of unnecessary disability from them. I can’t say I thought it was smart. But it was consistent.
Coming out of lurking and joining all the other fans in mourning Jimmy Buffett. I think I will alternate “A Pirate Looks at Forty” with “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw” today. Problem is, where to stop? “One Particular Harbor”, “Come Monday”, “Fins”, “Pencil-thin Mustache”. Gonna miss you, Jimmy.
It’s 58F and sunny outside, and the expected high is 86F (two degrees lower than advertised in yesterday’s forecast). It’ll remain clear throughout the day, so I should get out there, root around in the dirt, and take care of the lawn.
I’m sorry about the school, FCM. I’m as suspicious as you regarding the former head. What’s also sad is that the cost of the materials used to complete these upgrades is lost, not to mention the cost of manhours this would have translated to had there not been volunteers. I sincerely hope a solution is found.
My son is finally getting out of the house he rents down in Tumwater. He’s been on the waiting list for an apartment for quite some time, and one has finally opened up. He should be approved by Tuesday and move in by 7 September. That is really fast, and I’m amazed but so glad he’s leaving that house. He currently has two roommates and has been unhappy for quite some time. There is also the whole criminal and homeless element near his place. He lives across the freeway from the Old Olympia Brewery, where there are many homeless people, and they frequently cross the bridge to the street my son lives on and wreak all kinds of havoc. His Jeep has been damaged numerous times by these twats. At one point, he talked about relocating back to Pierce County but opted to stay in Thurston County. Also, he was over having roommates some time ago and now will have his own space and no one to clean up after but himself. My husband and will help him move this coming Friday.
I’m sorry about those in pain, and I totally get where cookie’s wife is coming from. And, it’s not a matter of being right; it’s more disgust with a system that doesn’t take you seriously, doesn’t respect your time or effort, and flat-out ignores what you’re saying. I went through all of that with my knees a couple of years ago when I screwed them up running and they didn’t take me seriously. Just “don’t do that” advice. No imaging, nothing. I was in pain for quite some time. I’ve also had other experiences when I was younger where I went through the same lack of care. It’s not just older patients they ignore, but females too.
I was sorry to read about Jimmy Buffett’s passing and will have to search for my lost shaker of salt.
Yes, his music wasn’t adored by critics, but his music was fun and just evoked a general feel-good situation. I hope he found his shaker of salt and is sitting on a nice beach somewhere, strumming his guitar, at peace and not in pain.
Well, I should get on with the day. I went to bed at 3:00 and slept until 6:30, so I need to get going on my list of chores.
Good morning, all! I did something stoopid yesterday evening. We’re talking GG Cat Level stoopid. I was half-past miserable, and the oxy didn’t help much, so I thought. “If I’m not having side effects on this dose (5 mg.), I won’t have any if I double it.” Yes, I just said yesterday I had a bad time when’d done it before (doc’s orders). Like I said, stoopid. So I took a second one, and it made me hella nauseated and provided only modest relief.
My RLS theory is a bust. However, I tried something new. When the pain woke me, I got up and walked around the bed (a queen size). It helped enough so I could get back to sleep. I did this four times. It doesn’t work for daytime pain. Weird.
My daughter and her hubs are coming tomorrow. I’m excited. I’m making pasta with shellfish for dinner. I haven’t made it in ages. I’ll make a salad, and dessert will be apricot upside-down cake. Monday brunch will be pecan waffles and bacon. I have to place a big grocery order.
RIP, Mr. Buffet. You made millions of people happy. I love his family’s statement: “He lived his life like a song till the very last breath.”
cookie, I’m sorry the doc was dismissive. It’s a terrible attitude and all too common. Ticks me off, it does.
taters, yay on your son’s new digs! I know the neighborhood, and it seems pretty sketchy. Now you won’t have to worry (as much).
Oh, it was her own brainchild. She used onions because she didn’t have coal. She was feisty and sweet, and I miss her daily.
I’ve spent most of the morning taking care of volunteer-related administrivia, and now I have ~30 min until it’s time to head to my rescheduled personal training session. As I said to my best friend yesterday: it will be good for me to not sit around all day, but on the other hand I won’t get to sit around all day! When I get back home I’ll shower, but then I plan to do at least some sitting around.
At some point I’ll need to start prepping for tomorrow’s volunteer event: bring the big tub-o-events-stuff in from the laundry room, wash the tablecloth, put the hand truck and standing sign in the car, print some blank signup sheets, etc. I’ll probably do that this evening/tonight. I won’t have to leave until around 10:15am, so there will also be some time in the morning (which is likely when I’ll do the printing). It should be a fun event, though, and I’m looking forward to my friend’s birthday dinner tomorrow evening.
I have no plans on Monday, which is just fine with me!
Nearly time to don the gym attire…
I wonder if she suggested it as something to try before getting into expensive x-rays, etc. Why not exhaust all of the “easy” options first…that kind of thing?
Probably my favorite, though I love many of his songs.
I took advantage of a sale at the supermarket yesterday, and bought three large T-bone steaks and four pounds of ‘perfect burger’ ground beef. The trouble is, The Missus picked up a couple of rib-eyes from the corner market. So this morning I double-wrapped the T-bones, put two of them into a gallon-size zip-top bag, and put all three of them in the freezer. I weighed out eleven 6-ounce burger patties and put two each, separated by a piece of wax paper, into fold-top sandwich bags. Five packets went into a gallon-size bag and into the freezer. The odd patty is in the fridge. The freezer is stuffed. I’d bought a package of Costco Giganto Dogs (‘dinner franks’) and put them in a gallon bag in the freezer. I had to rearrange the frozen dogs so that the other things can fit. (Also, SWMBO wanted ice cream, and I had to find space for that too.) I parcelled out a pound of Costco bacon so that we have bacon for three breakfasts at-hand.
Still every so slightly positive. Le sigh. Last dose of pax last night. Just the annoying lingering cough now. Made a fast food run this morning.
It is interesting, my first test, that positive stripe came up before the last drop, very, very, bright red. Second Test the stripe took a few minutes, it was rather faint. Today the stripe took nearly the whole 15 minutes and was very, very, faint.
Lager has been in time out twice in 2 hours. Gonna be a fun day…
My friend claims that because her brother did not have children, she got the son of the famous mother’s words.
I am also diminished by Mr buffets’ passing. His music will keep his memory eternal.
And a late-morning check-in with y’all. It was raining early this morning (7am) and rained heavily heading to the soccer fields, but by the time we were ready to start the rain had let up and stopped a few minutes later, and never resumed, so the morning soccer is completed. U12 Boys won again, 7-2 and the U8 lost 0-8 (need to work on what defense means, they thought it meant standing in the goal and not moving…not quite the right idea). Now have the 1pm U12 game (they gave us a double-header today because of the odd number of teams) to round out the day. At least with the clouds and temperature barely reaching 80F, it’s a lot better than last week’s broiler.
Have read all but retained little; will try to do better this afternoon/evening. Take care all.
The lease terms were set up years before my daughter took over and for whatever reason instead of gradually raising the rent over the years, they decided to catch up all at once. If it was just the rent, that wouldn’t be an issue, but them expecting the school to fork over a quarter of a million bucks for improvements on a building they don’t own…
FCD has volunteered to head up and organize a planning committee. It’s one of the things he does best. So we shall see how it all goes.
Nah - I truly don’t care. Same with not playing the “It’s the XX anniversary of my 29th birthday” BS - Anyone who judges my value based on my age can go suck swampwater thru a dirty straw!
And heaven help you if you’re an older female. My MIL dealt with that crap a lot in Ocala for both herself and for FIL, since he would never ask questions. At least here, FCD goes with her and he’ll ask till he gets answers.
Breakfast was awful. Slooooooooooow inattentive “service” in our whole section. When we got there, only one other table was occupied, so one would think we’d get quick service. HAH! And, of course, the kids got antsy - I wound up taking them outside to run around while the others finished.
Once we got home, I changed into weed-pullin’ clothes at attacked the gardens nearest the house. I lasted about 90 minutes. I may or may not go out again. Daughter et al came over with the kids’ bikes and they’re just leaving. Peace reigns. I’m gonna read.
If you were any more practical and capable you’d be my late first wife in her heyday. I knew there’s a reason I liked you from when we first “met” 20ish years ago.
We just finished breakfast at 10:30. It was good. Scrambled eggs with cheddar (and Sriracha for me), and two rashers each. Got the dishwasher running now. The cats are like, ‘Dad! Where’s our food?’ Sorry kitties. SWMBO says that the kibble dishes need to be washed every time too, along with your gooshy food dishes and water bowls. There’s water for you in the catio.
Conked back out for the requisite additional 4 hrs. It was all nice and overcast earlier, but the stoopit sun is breaking through the clouds & making shit all bright and crap.
(I don’t have a naughty weather app. I just have a crusty attitude and a potty mouth.)
Gonna go pick up an order of soup and a lil’ tray of sushi from the local joint. Haven’t been in a while; gotta help keep the place in business, and need to get my appetite going in the next coupla hours before Long Night.
Also need to check if laundry is fully dry, and if so, to retrieve it from the depths of the basement.
Oh, yeah, I got to run the ovens last night for a while when the main Oven Guy went on break. I had to ask for help a coupla times, but 1a.) asking for help before it hits crisis isn’t my strong suit, so go me, and 2b.) other than a bunch of stuck spots - sorry, Muskegon, some of y’all got a slightly ripped crust … still tasty! - I think I did pretty well, especially on a super busy Friday night.
Didn’t burn or drop anything … which reminds me, someone remind me to tell y’all the sad saga of the Crusty Bread from last night.
“It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood…” 
