(Old) The Heat Is On - A Heat Wave MMP

Good morning.

It’s 52F and cloudy outside. The clouds will give way to partially cloudy skies this afternoon, with a daytime high of 68F.

Dicey, congrats on your certification!

JtC, I perfectly understand your exasperation and your feelings regarding both the family drama and your mother.

I ended up leaving for Lowe’s/Home Depot later than planned yesterday morning, but I managed to pick up some things while at both places. I bought pavers, potting soil, a planter, and just a few plants. Two of the plant purchases are multiple zinnias in one pot, so they were a good value. I also bought a mix of some sort of poppy plants that are cornflower blue (almost purple, red, and fuschia colored. I purchased an interesting looking salvia, too.

On the way home, I picked up lunch, and after I got home and ate it, my husband helped me unload the Jeep and get the stuff into the backyard.

I was going to get to work on planting the raised bed, garden, and setting up both the planter my son built for me and the one I purchased yesterday, but my sister called.

That woman can go on and on…and on. Anyway, by the time she was done talking at me, the sun was in full beat down mode in the area that I planned to work in. I can’t work in high heat/direct sun for long, so I had to nix planting. Today’s cloud cover will be extremely helpful and help me to get the stuff done.

Frankly, given the report I got from my sister on my mother, I’m not hopeful she’ll leave the SNF as soon as she would like. The memory problems are still there, and frankly, along with a great deal of stubborness when it comes to rehabbing her right arm. We have a meeting with her care team on Wednesday, so we’ll see.

Other than the planting (and lawn mowing!), I don’t have much on the agenda for this weekend.

You all take care of yourselves!

Yesterday I saw the movie Michael about Michael Jackson. It was loud, boring, and too long. A small popcorn and pop cost $17.YIKES.

You are ever welcome. :slight_smile: I’m glad you found it helpful. I was just pleased to find a way to keep the hummers happy without attracting bears!

I’m so sorry you’re having a rotten time with the relatives. I agree with others who have said your sentiment isn’t horrible. It’s very understandable in the circumstances.

Afternoon all. The fifth and last load of laundry is in the dryer so shortly I will dress myself more or less appropriately and go to Kroger and Wal-Mart for a couple of items and then a couple hours of gym time to round off the afternoon. Rain has departed for now but next week is promising to be a wet one.

Sorry, was hearing a clacking sound from my dryer, investigated and apparently I am guilty of laundering money…but I have two very clean quarters now…

Knots, sorry to hear about cousin, unfortunately nice people pass on as well as the SOB’s…

Taters, hopefully the planting can go without interruption; my brother is the opposite of your sister, getting more than two sentences out of him at a time is a success. And old people can be stubborn…I know since I iz one…but hopefully she will listen to good sense and do what is needed to get out.

Wet one, yeah, it’s a tie between sporting events, airports, and movies who overcharge the most for consumables.

And time to check the jeans and get myself prepared for the shopping and the sweating. See all y’all later.

Aside from the one post I made Thursday, I’ve barely been able to skim this thread. Congratulations, condolences, hugs, and happies to those who need them.

Cheese omelette-and-bacon sandwiches for breakfast. Dishwasher is washing dishes. One load of laundry is in the dryer, and another is in the wash. (SWMBO says I can’t use the dryer after noon, because it’s going to be a warm day.)

The Spousal Unit isn’t feeling well, incidentally. Upper respiratory something. She took a COVID test, and it was negative. She thinks it’s allergies and asked me to pick up some pseudoephedrine.

I’m going to make pesto salmon for dinner tonight. I’ve got some Trader Joe’s vegan kale pesto thawing, and I’ll go to the supermarket for some unsalted butter to mix into it. And I’ll get a vegetable. Since I’m going that way anyway, for the food and the pills, I’m going to take the car to the self-wash. I’ll bring my large cast-iron frying pan, and try to clean it with the pressure washer. I’ll re-season it from scratch.

Afternoon.

Good job on the being certified Dicey!

The locals are walking round with shirts off or in micro shorts and bikini tops. It’s about 19C.

I did go to the plant nursery, though I didn’t go to the seaside proper as it was actually quite overcast. That place is dangerous, they have a whole area of hardy perennials in little pots which are all £2.99 each. That barely even counts as paying for it. It’s by far the cheapest place in the area and the choice is also really good.. On the other hand, the staff always seem in a bad mood and every time I go it’s a new person on the till, plus it’s always full of ridiculous seasonal tat- including stuff that plays obnoxious tunes. It’s genuinely difficult to deal with if you accidentally go too close to a hallmark type holiday.

I’m not 100% sure where the new plants are going, but I think I have an idea to make a new bed.

I also have a bit of a sad; there are no longer long-tailed tits taking beakfuls of things into the pittosporum. In fact I’ve not seen any of them in 3 days now, but it’s not been long enough for babies to have fledged. I think something else spotted them… The bluetits in next door’s vent are still going though.

There were a lot of call outs today. And K took a long time on the leftovers from Twilight, so I was running the 100 and 200 slides, clerking the iiregg pacakges, and spent most of the sort on the 300 Slide. Which was worse than usual, because there were 2 pacakge car routes that weren’t assigned a PDC, so they just came to the 300, so we had 600 extra packages to deal with. There were a lot of left in buildings, and the Sup in charge got his ass chewed over the phone by The Supreme Shouting Officer. The damages and overgoods weren’t bad, but the late start meant another late out. Monday is a company holiday, so I’m off 2 days in a row. They’re painint the building currently, and there’s plastic over the windows, and Roomie is off pet sitting my friend’s Pom, so Spot is in a snit right now. But I got bacon, eggs, and a gin&tonic, so I’m happy.

Lots of people say that about me. :zany_face:

Don’t forget to wear the hair curlers and the crushed red velvet hot pants.

Awww. I hate that for you.

You put your liquor bottles in the dryer? :thinking: :face_with_tongue:

Back from the boat to find Otis was in trashing mode. He destroyed 2 boxes of tissues, emptied FCD’s trash can, and tried to eat 3 cans of root beer - thankfully he didn’t pierce any of them. He does not like being left home alone.

I got an Alexa set up on the boat and as long as I take my tablet along, I can set it up at any marina providing wifi. So that’s nice. Then we had lunch at Salsa’s and while I had plans to get stuff done back home, it’s 3:30 and I just don’t feel like doing anything. Rainy, lazy day…

Rain disrupted my plans to mow today, so a solid time of sitting on my butt. My back is happy for that. Soon to start grilled chicken and pineapple tacos for dinner. The closest mexican place makes some that are pretty good, but I think I can do better.

Oh Otis, you dummy. If’n you can’t stop shredding things you’ll need to go in the crate when the FCs go out. I have to do that with Ms Peach, elsewise she’ll finish chomping the couch.

And a good late afternoon all. The rain left and the sun is out (so is the humidity). Did a little shopping and spent a little time at the gym (my little toe is hurting so I cut the exercise period short). Did some cleanup paperwork for soccer and will shortly dig into my Big Bowl O’Pasta for the evening.

Flyboy, hope the Missus gets to feeling better soon.

Nut, ah, the great choice; is it worth the bargains to be P*****-Off. And sorry that you lost your tits…wait a minute, that didn’t come out right…

FCM, lonely dog is rambunctious…does create a problem.

And need to get dinner started.

Good afternoon. I had a busy morning. The In-laws are town, so they had to be fed. Croissant bread French toast was had by all but Spike, who couldn’t be arsed to get out of bed. He ha d cereal.

Then it was off to do some Amazon returns, give Costco my new glasses prescription, and vist the Aldi Aisle of Shame to look for a cheap tablecloth. FIL wanted to tag along, in hopes that we could go by the cheap liquor store. I now have some very nice ryes that I don’t have room for in the liquor cabinet.

I have a French dip in the slow cooker and I’ll saute some summer sqash to go with it.

It’s looking like it’ll rain all Memorial Day. Installing flags in the rain sucks. At least the rebar goes in the ground easier.

You forgot the leopard print house slippers.

I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and the drive thru was closed. Since it was sprinkling and Nelson was with me, an executive decision was made to pick up a couple of pieces of chicken and go home. On the way to Hartz, the heavens opened up to a downpour. It was wet enough that I stuck to the middle lane to avoid hydroplanine. I hates driving in the rain, I do.

Howdy Y’all! The sun decided to visit late mornin’ so we had a couple hours of quality cee-mint pond time followed by showerage and nappage. Then we suppunched. More rain is headed this way from the looks of things to the northwest. It’s all dark and dreary over that way. I don’t feel like stoopid teevee this evenin’ so I shall see whatup on teh intartoobz.

Knots sorry about your cousin.

The wife is having dry skin issues with her back and would like to buy a back scratcher. Should be simple, right? So I go to Amazon and there are many versions of them, and they all seem to have problems. So I come to you, my fellow weary travelers, to see if any of you have had any luck finding a good one.

I napped. Watching hockey, and having a Sazarac. Dinner tonight is chicken, rice, and asparagus with mushroom sauce. Spot occasionally comes out of Roomie’s room, yowls at me, and goes back. So The Snit continues.

Get him a life jacket, and make him part of the crew?

Roomie has a $2 one from Walgreens.

I like a good rye. Let me know how they are.

I have one of those cheapo bamboo ones. They can also be used to scritch a kitty back if Sadie is into such a thing.

Thank you and thank you to everyone who sympathized with me. I think the thing I haven’t mentioned is my frustration with my inability to say NO to Mom. She calls me and says “I need you to do something for me” and my response is to find a pen and paper.

So…I’ve been enabling this all of my life and finally got fed up when they took that family cruise without me and a lot of this is on me. I probably should have started saying NO a few decades ago, but I am very habit/guilt driven.

Sigh.

Story time:

When Mom was growing up, her grandmother had a pocket watch in her jewelry box.

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Everyone knew the watch was there, nobody knew why she had it. It wasn’t engraved, it didn’t belong to any of the men in the family, her husband included and she never explained. When asked, she would change the subject.

She left the watch to Mom in her will. It was important enough that she named it on paper, but still didn’t say why it was so important.

Mom was busy raising babies when it passed to her, so it ended up in her jewelry box.

About twenty years ago, Mom took it to one of those Road Antiques shows and learned that it had no real value and didn’t even when it was new. Back in the Great Recession, men would ride the rails looking for work and would beg at farmhouses.

One of the common tactics was to offer to leave their “Grandfather’s watch, the only thing I have left of him” as collateral with a promise to come back for it.

We promptly decided that there were stolen kisses involved :slight_smile: Flooziness must run in the family, LOL!

Mom couldn’t just throw the watch away so now it hangs on our living room wall.

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When I use one, it’s the bog standard bamboo one from the dollar store. I don’t use it on bare skin though. A rub down with good lotion after bathing goes a long way to prevent the itch.

Sis texted me asking about unclaimed property. I told her to deal with it. She sent me in the mail, something about an account with over $2,000 in it a month ago. I told her that I have a very strict schedule now, and I don’t have time. I told her to deal with it. Two grand isn’t all that much. I told her she could keep it. She asked about another account, which I don’t fully recall. I told her to deal with it. I also asked her to find out about selling the house down there. I am so done with this shit.

Two of us are showing undiscovered backbones. Good for you!

I actually came back to say that my garlic is starting to develop scapes. Hurray! Now what? I’ve never gotten it this far before.

Late night final, even if it’s only 10pm (up at 6am and no naps, so late for me). Have pasta’ed and listen to the rain some more, but otherwise have barely moved since my last posting, a nice lazy Saturday evening. Temperature is down to 68F but it’ll be back to 80F+ tomorrow with more rain due.

red, I can remember the feeling of hydroplaning for a few moments once on a freeway, and they are moments I do not ever wish to repeat. So stay in the middle and take your time.

cookie, can’t help with the backscratcher, albeit I could probably use one now and then.

JtC, I can feel for you, not much family demands but I have trouble telling people No when they ask for something I can do (but would prefer not to). Mostly with soccer, when I’m asked to be a coordinator or do this or that job, I almost always say yes, even if I don’t particularly want to. And nice story on the pocket watch.

Flyboy, sounds like tough love on Sis, maybe it’ll get her motivated…or not…

And off to Slumberland I go.