(Old) Strange Places and Milestones in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
101

Morning all. Up about 6am, so have plenty of time to do very little. No soccer today, so swim-n-sauna and, if I’m feeling guilty, will do the pedaling I skipped yesterday. No rain in the forecast here (in fact we’re looking at no rain for the next 10 days) and should get to 85F (68F now).

Cookie, good luck with the Bagel Hunt.

Taters, keep the pressure on those others to perform.

FCM, hope you found your glasses. My spares are on the top of my Chest of Drawers, so I can always get to them.

JtC, not a Next Door follower, but I don’t understand what the big meltdown could be on tipping; I mean, to each their own, right? Guess I will never understand human beings.

VanGo, After driving that Hyundai Kona mini-SUV for 2 weeks, it just takes a little getting used to. Plus the gearshift lever doesn’t move straight, you have to move it to the right, then down, then a bit to the left and down to go from Park to Drive. Guess they had their reasons, but it feels weird. I’ll adjust.

doggio, I’d have had to go with the finger question like Nettie did, I saw the weight markings but figured it was 4 lbs read upside down.

Sari, sounds like things moved along some. Hopefully the momentum continues. Glad you back is doing better.

swampy, stay dry. Looks like it might clear out of your area later in the afternoon, so maybe shopping is not impossible.

Real Fish, ah, the joys of parenting…hope BtY gets his head on straight and starts catching up.

suzie, OUCH on the Heating/Cooling costs. Hope the back feels better today.

OK, hugs, boos, yeas, and general good wishes to all, need to break my fast and maybe do a little housecleaning. Take care all.

102

Yaay Sari feeling better. Waaay overdue. Ride that momentum to lasting change.

Doggio: the nice thing about that package is you can tell all your non-UPS friends that you can single-handedly throw a 4000# weight.


It is sooo wonderful to hear you sounding happy & relaxed, not frustrated and burnt. Maybe you can’t pull that off every day, or even every day off, but here’s hoping you can improve things to feel that way more often.

FYI, a “mich” (miche actually) is a wonderful ~2# loaf of crusty French bread. Sounds like a perfect accompaniment to that dinner. With enough garlic sauce w chicken broth, the whole loaf would happily disappear at one sitting. Much groaning would follow, but it’d be worth it.


As to me, and quickly …
Good monring!!
Idalia was a non-event here in grater Miami. We had one good thinderstorm for a few minutes at 6pm. The wind quit and that was it. All the rain went around us here.

Went to bed at 10pm. At about midnight my incoming overtime alarm went off for either the last or next-to-last time ever. Up at 5:30 out the door into gathering traffic. The ground was dry; it’ hadn’t rained at all overnight. A few clouds and I drove in with the top down. Skipped breakfast at home to leave a bit earlier than necessary to be earlier versus the clotting morning traffic. That didn’t work quite as well as I’d hoped: somebody had crashed and we spent 20 minutes going 5mph or stopped.

Got to work with enough time to inhale breakfast which I just did. Work starts as soon as I post this. Should be home Thu night late or Fri late morning.

Cheers all, and here’s hoping Idalia treats everyone downstream well.

103

My boss decided that his Covid misery needed company and broke my three year streak. He sent out the email on Fri, and I tested positive on Monday. Doing well, started low fever Monday afternoon, to Tuesday am. Got paxlovid on Monday. Gah, it tasted like you bit into a grapefruit seed.

I feel the best so far today, which is inline with the expected run of a mild case.

The cats are doing their usual care taking. Lager is the nurse and stays close to me, koritza is the doctor and comes by, sniffs, says a few things, and moves on.

I hope our Florida people are staying out of harm’s way.

The Red Sox are the finest team in baseball.

104

FCD found them on the floor between the bed and the night stand. So I’m good.

Tobias and I are watching Sesame Street. So far so good.

105

swampie, I am worried though, I just watched weather news about Hurricane Idalia that says it’s headed for Georgia. Have you heard that? Please take care.

106

I just sent an email to one of our Members in Tampa. It’s about time to ask for their data, but maybe not time yet. I said I hoped he’s safe in the storm. I just received a reply saying that he’s safe.

I have Li’l Abner Dailies books covering 1934 (volume 1) through 1950 (volume 16). Or I thought I did. I discovered I was missing volume 15, but had two volumes 14. Thanks to eBay, I now have the complete set to 1950. One vol. 14 is a hardcover, and the rest of the volumes are paperback. I should sell that one.

107

I’m still thinkiing about “strange places” and what makes a place strange. Is it intrinsically strange, in and of itself? Or is it a strange place for me to be? An example in the first category for me might be the underground war hospital, now museum, in Pest. An example in the second category for me might be sleeping for a couple of weeks in a dormitory stairwell because my roommate was having too many gentlemen callers to the room. There’s also strange meaning “unusual.” I’ve been to Antarctica, which is not a usual destination. Your thoughts on the meaning of “strange”?

108

Another long heave. No 4000lbs. letters, but the one car part felt close. The rain should be hitting around 4. Spot was doing his usual welcome screaming zoomies, but now he’s sacked out. On my pillow.

French toast is for flurries. Booze is for hurricanes.

But I bet you find find “good” lutefisk.

That’s good. Gotta stay healthy to wait upon the feline overlords.

What makes a place strange is how it comes to be. Petra and Chernobyl are both abandoned cites, but Petra is cool ancient architecture, but Chernobyl is strange.

109

Good lutefisk is an oxymoron. My mother used to serve Swedish foods on Christmas Eve. I often went hungry.

Went to PT this afternoon. Little did I know that I had toilet paper hanging out of my pants……How embarrassing….We all had a laugh

110

My training session went well last night, and I did only minimal damage at the grocery store afterwards. :grin: A benefit of that trip is that for lunch today I made what my mom used to call “tuna burgers”: tuna melts on English muffins. I had two for lunch with nothing else; I’ll have one for dinner with some fruit, and will still have three left over for future lunches/dinners. I’ve been meaning to make them for a while. It’s been so long that I forgot how much tuna is needed: one 5-oz packet (across 6 muffins) was alright, but a second one would have been better. I made notes for next time!

Bailey’s nails really need to be trimmed, and the last two times I took her to daycare (where she normally gets her grooming) the staff couldn’t do them because she resisted, so I made a PetSmart appointment for today and dropped her off at 3pm. Man, is that grooming lounge a depressing place to be: all of the dogs seemed to be scared and confused. It was really hard to leave my girl there. She’s only gone to a PetSmart for grooming once before, but it was a different one (the one closest to home was pretty booked for the next week). They said it should take 60-90 minutes, but it’s been almost two hours and I’m still waiting for them to call…I’m going to edit this one last doc, then I’ll just head over there (if I still haven’t heard from them). They just called! I might never do this again; I actually teared up a little as I walked away. :frowning:

The husband half of my BFFs is very into “helping” without being asked, which is one of my biggest pet peeves. It’s probably the biggest source of conflict between us. In fact, we came up with a code word shortly after we first met (~23 years ago): if he’s over-helping, I say “bananas.” :slight_smile: The wife does it, too, to a lesser degree. Mainly at stores: we’ll be shopping for something for me and she’ll start asking the salesperson to bring things, etc. As though the item were for her, or as though I can’t speak for myself (she knows better! :grin:). I know it’s their love language, but it really bothers me. I frequently have to ask/remind both of them not to do that.

Awwww.

Oh no! I hope you feel better soon!

I TAKE IT BACK.

(I’m in the ever-shrinking “haven’t gotten it yet :crossed_fingers:” cohort…I still think it’s a matter of when and not if…)

111

I figure that someplace most people have never been is probably strange to them. Anybody else here been to see polar bears on Barter Island? How about the Dogon cliff dwellings in Mali? ::dog barks in the distance::

Just got back from the surgeon’s assistant. This morning there was a small bit of blood leakage at the incision site and some moderate swelling. Pretty sure it was because I pushed things on that walk yesterday. But to be safe I contacted her. She asked me to come in so she could have a look and between her and the surgeon decided to put me on a preventive antibiotic course for a week, just to be safe. Otherwise, everything’s good. Stopped for burgers, fries and a shake on the way home!

112

Happy Hump Day!

Another messy day!

The new house insurance company needs some information, and nobody seems to know where to find it.
Then the new house insurance company found a claim on my current homeowners’ insurance and I have no idea what they are talking about. Supposedly, in 2016 somebody sued me for $500, and my homeowners’ insurance paid the claim. My current insurance company has no record of that.
Anyway, that is all fixed.
By fixed I mean it didn’t stop me from getting new insurance, but not fixed as in wtf did that info come from.

I sent to the credit union to get a certified check, no problem there. I went to the bank to get the second certified check, and my son’s check hadn’t cleared yet and they couldn’t give us the check. If the previous check hadn’t bounced, it would have been approved.
The manager asked me what bank it was and the name of the account and said he would try to talk to them and see if it could be resolved. However, if he couldn’t get info, it would be five business days until the check would clear.
At this point, I don’t even care anymore.
No sooner did we get home; the bank called and said the check had cleared so we could go back and get the certified check.

My poor son has had almost no sleep today, and we still have the walk through.
Then when he comes home tomorrow, he’ll have about an hour before we have to head out for closing.
Then he can get some sleep. Some, because he has to go back in to irk tomorrow night, and he may have to irk Friday night too.

I have been on the phone almost the entire day, I need a nap.

I think very little will get done this weekend in terms of moving.

113

I am expecting a package, and they left a calling card. I had to tell them what day I would be home, and they confirmed it by me filling in my address. Then I got a text saying my address was wrong and to fill it in again, which led to asking my credit card for a small redirection fee. And without thinking, because it was early morning, I filled it in.

Which means I fell for a scam.

Damn it!

I had to stop my CC and now my monthly regular payments for September will be interrupted.

114

My two favorite teams of all time are whoever is playing the Cowboys today, and whoever is playing the Yankees today. With an honorable mention for whoever is up against the Braves. Go Jerk-Opponents! Beat the Jerks!!


Ouch! Bastard! As you’ve suggested, this ought be an irritant, not a crisis. With the recent brouhaha about the new and improved COVID-23, perhaps better to get an older-fashioned kind now to refresh your vaccinated immunity.


@susan: Strange places: Every inhabited place is ordinary for the people who live there. It’s only strange if you’re a stranger in that strange-to-you land. Some places are inherently strange, ghost towns, underground bunkers, etc.

As to the OP, the “strange” that matters is the “strange” that you choose to share. Even if it happens to be humdrum to some of us, it’ll be strange to the others.

There was the time we took 100 heavily armed US soldiers to an Inca ruins in Honduras as tourists as a break from our the work. Dropped a flight of 3 CH-47 Chinook helicopters into the parking lot among the beat up local Toyotas & minivans, paid the $2 equivalent per head to tour the partly restored ruins, then at the end of the day got back in our helos and headed back to wherever to do whatever to whoever. The tour guides were nice, the locals were rather confused but generally comfortable with us, while we were nice to everyone and everyone was nice to us. The Incas built some amazing stuff. A lot of which still exists. Felt a lot like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Your tax dollars at work.

So a sorta ordinary, sorta extraordinary place made utterly strange by the context.


When I lived in downtown St. Louis there was a nearby deli / bagel shop run by genuine recent NYC transplanted Jewish folks. Incredible bagels. Perhaps surprisingly, St. Louis has a large Jewish enclave, including a bunch of Orthodox. But somehow most of them had bypassed NYC on the way to the Midwest 75-100 years ago, so real no-kidding bagels mostly weren’t available even from places that made incredible homentache, etc. But these folks had great ones. Sadly, they retired & closed up shop around 2010.

Anything else is just “fake-els”

Oh yeah … And thank Og STL is about 800 miles south of lutefisk territory. That shit be nasty. And I’ve eaten and enjoyed roasted cricket paté.

Her Ladyship and I are struggling with that.

I’m of the opinion that two heads are better than one, and I welcome all inputs and suggestions. “We” are better than “you” or “I”, nobody is anywhere infallible, and each are improved by the leavening of the other. She’s more of the view that any thoughts I have are simply my attempt to take over her world, override her discretion, or prove she’s wrong, despite her perfection in all respects, and are therefore unwelcome.

I wanted a shaggy dog and in some ways I got a Siamese cat. 'Tis a struggle. But an exceedingly cute struggle.


One thing’s for sure, that lunch will cure what ever ails you. What flavor shake?

115

I hope that swampy, butters and doggio are staying dry.

Good luck on the MOW thing JtC Whan I worked the weekend shift, I used to deliver one day a week. Sometimes, I was the only human contact that the recipient had that day.The animal shelter where I still volunteer occasionally teamed up with MOW to deliver pet food along with the meals for some of the low income folks.

I hope that your case of the plague has minimal discomfort for the shortest duration rocker.

Irked, picked up Nelson, came home, et and now chilling before going to bed before the chickens do.

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

116

Do the cooking odors involve the smell of … beef? :crazy_face:

We’ve had a few threads about tipping here - they rarely stay civil - and I seem to recall a couple more where someone mentioned tipping in an offhand breath and hoo boy! hijack.

Tipping Summary, according to the SDMB:
“Tipping good!”
“Tipping bad!”
“We should outlaw tipping entirely!”
“But then waiters will starve, or quit!”
“Fuck waiters!”
“But I want my nachos, and I want 'em now.”
“Owners should simply pay their staff a living wage.”
“But then everything will be more expensive.”
“Oh, I am NOT paying $38 for a burger.”
“Who said anything about … where did you even GET that number? CITE!!”
“Um, 'scuse me, but in my country, we do not tip, and --”
"Yeah, okay, whatevs. So, back to 'Murrica … "
“Look, can we just all agree that tipping is bad?!”
“No, tipping good.”

… etc.

Thank you; those are kind words.

{ sniff } They grow up so fast, don’t they?

This made me smile - such an apt description of doctors & nurses.

Then you’ll hafta figure out a different way to deal with the nails. (My ex didn’t like taking his dog to the groomers, and that poor pup had ridiculously overgrown claws.)

You can buy a dremel-type grinder thingy specifically designed for dog nails that might be easier for you (e.g. less scary for poochie) than clippers.

Sounds like your entire household needs a break & a long snooze.
I hope both are in your very near future.

I have decided that I rather like the routine of taking myself out to dinner on my days off. (Work days, well, I work through everyone else’s dinner hours, with the possible exception of Taco Bell.)
Gives me something positive & healthy to look forward to when work gets really hectic or frustrating, and letting someone else do the cooking & cleanup seems to eliminate a large portion of my aversion to eating.

So I’m looking over the offerings at the nearby diner, and getting overwhelmed. By turns, it all sounds good, or … eh, maybe I won’t like it?

I keep reminding myself I can go back another day and order something else.

Maybe I won’t go. I’m wearing a hand-me-down rainbow tie-dye shirt a friend gave me, complete with holes in it, and { looks down } lavender :purple_heart: tie-dye pj pants in a totally different style of dye pattern.

I look like a unicorn threw up on a homeless woman.

Speaking of Taco Bell, a lady came through my line, about nine minutes before close a few nights ago, with the most sheepish, pleading expression on her face.

“Can I please order, just like, a small pepperoni? I’m so sorry, I know it’s late, but … I tried Taco Bell first and they’re having some computer issue and wouldn’t sell me any food.”

My reactions, in order:

“Oh, ferchrissakes. We are. about. to. CLOSE DAMMIT.”
“Well, she did ask politely. And we DO have a small partially set up.”
“Wait, did she say friggin’ Taco Bell is closed? Dammit, it’s not even midnight. Now what the fuck ammi gonna do for food, eat a friggin’ pizza? Ugh.”

… so I took her order, and thanked her nicely for the heads up. Saved me a trip to Taco Bell later that night just to be aggravated and disappointed.

117

Ok, this one made me chortle laugh out loud~startled the cat, she left in a minor snit.

Made me smile too~thanks @rocking_chair and @purplehorseshoe :purple_heart::blue_heart::green_heart:

118

Our irk day was befouled by Idalia but not badly.

We were launching for NYC in teh mid-morning. At which time Idalia was roughly abeam Jacksonville, and made a total mess out of the onshore routes to/from FL. The offshore routes, of which there are many, were also limited to just a couple, rather than the usual 6 each way.

So we pushed off on time, then were informed of a 90 minute delay as they slowly fed airplanes into the one usable route well offshore. Picture your usual 8-lane freeway commute reduced to 1 lane and you get it exactly.

So we went to the remote parking area (the “penalty box” in the argot), shut down, and hung out for 2 hours. During which time we fed and watered the crowd who decided to have a hurricane party. Treat them well, and they’ll (usually) respond with a party. The booze went quickly.

Eventually, a mere 2 hours 15 minutes after pushback, we launched for parts North. From a couple hundred miles out to sea, the outskirts of Idalia wasn’t very bumpy or impressive, but it was big. We caught sight of it just north of Nassau, Bahamas, and put it behind us just north of Norfolk VA.

Hope Swampy does OK; He & SO seem to be the primary target folks among the MMP crowd.

Slid into NYC on a lovely clear, if gusty, afternoon. Had we been on time we’d have gotten here in the midst of a thunderstorm mess. But by our actual arrival time all that crap was bothering the fish southeast of Block Island while life back in/near the City was pretty.

Since then I’ve had a swim at the rooftop pool overlooking the jets at the airfield, enjoyed a multi course meal going on 2 hours now, and have 2 more courses to go. Probably for the last time here at least. Another milestone.

One of my old pals retired yesterday, having done his last work event the day before. My contemporaries are, unsuprisingly, a rapidly vanishing breed.

Speaking of milestones, this week has seen last ferry, last Georgetown, last JFK (where I started 34+ years ago) and probable last overtime.

119

Roxy got off the bus today sans backpack. I said something and she immediately turned around, but another girl was carrying it off the bus - nice kid! Daughter got home as the kids and I were going in the front door, so I got to Aldi a tad sooner than I expected. I didn’t get much, but we needed milk since Tobias finished what we had today.

Supper has been ingested and I’m about to assume the recline position till bedtime.

120

This. Sleep god dammit. It’s right there with “eat” in the manual. Do both or be utterly screwed.

Professionally speaking: “Yes!!!111111!!!”.

Yes. Eat the whole menu one night at a time. Then eat it in reverse. But not before going down the street to that other place and doing the same there. etc.

Rowwrrrrr!!! :grin:

Sometimes intel is the most valuable thing you gain from an interaction. You are wise in so many ways.