(Old) Turning up the heat in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
101

Good morning. Annie and I have been up since about 3:30. Last night was rough. After eating a delicious dinner I suddenly got extremely nauseous. I ended up going to bed at about 7:30 because it was either that or :face_vomiting: .

Today MusicMan is going to the VA hospital in Cleveland for an appointment. I’d like to go with him, but I have too much to do here to even try. That’s ok, though, at least I am accomplishing something. We’re all a little bit off at work. My supervisor had a serious accident in the family and one person is not expected to live much longer and another is said to be paralyzed. Therefore, she’s been out and the second in command will be out today as well.

I hope y’all have a very good day.

102

Forgot. Here’s the latest on the ramp:

Imgur

Thoughts?

Interestingly enough, he posted a picture of the whole completed ramp on his fb business page. I hope it’s ok to post this picture here. There are no indicators of the persons speaking, so I don’t think it should be a problem… If it is, my apologies and it can be removed.

103

Awful night - I’m not sure if I got even 4 or 5 hours of sleep. Initially it was because I was cold, but once I turned off the ceiling fan and pulled an afghan under the covers to wrap around me, I finally drifted off. In the interim, there were lots of sounds of things falling outside. I heard what sounded like something falling on metal (shop roof is steel) but FCD said his roof is fine. Then something hit the roof of the house, I think, and another loud noise that seemed to be right outside the bedroom window, tho I didn’t see anything. When the rain lets up, I’m going to circle the house and check. it could all have come from next door - it’s not easy telling where things that go bump in the night actually bump. Anyway, that’s how my day is starting.

We were going to drive over to Stevensville (across the Bay Bridge) to what sounds like a cool boat stuff store, but I’m just not up to it today. We’ll give it a shot another day. Plus it’s supposed to be another rainy, dreary day which isn’t fun for a long drive. I may, instead, take a little time to sort all the papers that seem to have accumulated on my desk. And I’m sure I’ll find other mundane chores that need my attention. Plus I ordered a new DVD player - our old one is too long neglected and needs to go, and now that I’ve organized our DVD collection, there are several movies I want to watch. Anyway, the player plus some cinnamon tea are to be delivered today - I have that to look forward to.

And the day will be what it will be. Onward!

Happy Wednesday!

104

Mornin’ all - Slept alone again and all too quickly that seems strange and unwelcome.

Today is housekeeper morning and I have a dental checkup in the afternoon. A big first world admin task is one of my two main credit cards was compromised awhile ago but I just recently got around to ordering a replacement. It came, and now I have umpteen websites and bill-pays to provide the new number to. There’s an entry in the Sept mini-rants if anyone’s curious for more gory details.

Otherwise, some restless RDOSing and also settling some reservations for activities on the California trip next week shall be the orders of the day.

Cheers and happy Wed!

105

Good morning.

It’s 59°F and clear. Sunrise is an hour away, but the forecast calls for plentiful sunshine and a high of 81°F. We topped out at 91°F yesterday. I mean, c’mon, it’s September for Pete’s sake!

I remember 5.5-inch floppies, along with 3.5-inch ones. Then we went to CDs, but now computers don’t even come with drives for those anymore. My last two computers have not had CD drives. I use a thumb drive if needed, plus a large SSD drive for important paperwork.

Sticky, I’d tell him to go ahead and get a different brush, or offer to provide it, and ask when I could expect him back.

Sounds like a heck of a storm, FCM! I’m looking forward to some good stormy weather.

Coppertone, I hope the training is better today. I second Lily’s suggestion to explore alternative methods to the computer-based training, as I have also noted your difficulty with it

Shoe, I was wondering the same thing.

I obtained the dinner ingredients yesterday morning, and then spent the day doing this, that and the other. I was just getting up to start dinner, when my phone rang. It was my friend, T, from work, so I answered. We chatted and got caught up with each other, and have made tentative plans to meet for a martini sometime next week.

After my phone conversation (which lasted longer than I usually talk on the phone), I prepared dinner, which included a nice green salad. The dinner was pronounced delicious, and now I’ve got a bunch of leftovers in the fridge.

I’ll probably knock out the laundry today. I’ve noticed that my “official” laundry day is starting to slip away. I need to get back to having one. Since I’m not wearing two sets of clothes four or five days a week, my laundry has decreased.

Aw, sounds like Lil’ Miss Peach probably enjoyed her outing overall, VanGo.

Well, I suppose I should get that second cup of coffee down and start my day. Please take care of yourselves.

106

Good morning all (it is Hump Day, isn’t it–they all seem so scrambled now…). A nice 68F will turn into a hot 91F as the day goes along, so it’s just a matter of what time the AC is turned back on. Another quiet day, only major tasks are getting the garbage out and coaching soccer, so am planning on some major sloth time. Am charging my new (and cheap) ‘smart watch’, apparently all the directions are on the web and need me to use on of those QR codes you scan, so will do that later in the morning.

Shoe, that light strikes me as not very safe, hope they get the system (and the leak) checked out fast.

VanGo, you are spoiling that dog…as well you should!

boo fae, I don;t write my shopping list quite as organized as you, but do know where the various items are located so try and stay on a sensible course. And glad to hear Muffin is getting (for her standards) affectionate.

swampy, happy doin’s at the church.

{{Sticky Buns}}, hope you get feeling better soon. And what the guy posted on the painting job sounds reasonable to me (who knows absolutely nothing about painting or ramps).

FCM, I get the occasional bumps and thumps to, never sem to amount to anything but it does make me wonder if the whole place will fall down around my ears one day.

Pilot, glad you got the card replaced, but yeah, I am still finding places I order from rarely that I have to change over from the last time (4-5 months ago).

Taters, being a gentleman bachelor, laundry is not on a schedule for me, it’s whenever I run out of something (usually underwear) and the baskets are pretty full.

And that’s all for now. Have a good one.

107

ETA: Mostly ninja’ed by @The_Stainless_Steel_Rat

Why “need”?

My own approach to laundering clothes is when the hamper gets full-ish, run a load. If you find yourself running out of e.g. socks before the hamper is full enough to be a complete load, that’s a sign to buy more socks, not to do laundry more often. Depending on my activities and time of year that can mean clothes washing happens 3 days after the last load, or 10 days. With two of you, that’ll probably be more often than just me.

Sheets and towels are bulky enough that as soon as they’re replaced with clean, the dirties get washed that day. In effect they take their hamper from empty to full in one drop.


Yeah. Most of those seldom-order places I just ignore until I buy from them again. It’s the places, e.g. T-Mobile or my rent, that hit me automatically every month that I need to proactively update. Easy enough to just grab the last 3 months of CC statements and go down the list. The other ones I try to do are the lesser-use outfits I might next buy from using my phone, not my PC. It’s a major PITA to type complicated shit like a CC into a phone. I’d much rather do that on my PC where I can see what I’m doing and have handy auto-fill.

Lyft and the parking apps for nearby towns other than my own are the prime suspects here.

108

I love it that you can take her in to work to get fussed over.

:open_mouth: I hope that things get repaired pronto and you don’t have to be closed too long.

That is the same for me. Instead of two loads of clothes a week, it’s down to one. Of course, that may change come jeans and sweatshirt season.

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and fixing to do KP. After, I’ll shevel and play in the studio until Sis gets here. Yeah, we’re doing the RDOS senior shopping day. :stuck_out_tongue:

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

109

Whereas I prefer a set day because I know our baskets will be full that day and there will be sufficient towels and jeans and shirts and unders for separate loads. We all have our preferences. For me alone, I expect I’d do it differently. Dunno - it’s been over 40 years since I lived alone.

Similarly, we prefer to take our garbage to the convenience center when the cans are full rather than haul half-full cans to the end of the driveway and oh, BTW, pay for the privilege. And they don’t collect recycling. There are those in this neighborhood who don’t recycle and pay for weekly pickup. Works for them, no skin off my nose.

That’s how I did it until the spate of compromises. Now I have a spreadsheet with accounts and login information so the cuss-a-thon is greatly reduced.

Stacks of assorted papers and documents have been sorted, filed, or shredded as appropriate. FCD is home, pouting because the marina crew has a backlog of tasks to clear before they can get to us. So, maybe next week??

Closing in on lunch time - the piece of toast I had for breakfast has long since left a void in my tummy. Must forage. And Roxy should be seeing the orthopedist about now. :crossed_fingers:

110

I was loading Top Red 200 again. Gotta love a load where one side of the car is packed with big box bulk loads, and the other half is half empty with residential envelopes. Not much in the damages today. Except, if you’re a company selling $300 snowboards, why in Og’s name to you ship it in 2 18"x18" boxes taped together, with no packing material inside? Yeah, that got reboxed and returned. :roll_eyes: But Spot and I have had our dry, flavorless bits(mine had milk and strawberries, too), so it’s nap time. Or Screaming Tuxedo Zoomies. Hard to tell.

I hope your’s gets better.

It’s more a tinkle at the moment. :cloud_with_rain:

I have dedicated laundry days, but that’s mainly so I have clean clothes for work.

Edit: Spot has chosen screaming zoomies.

111

Started Typing: 1:11 PM ET
Clicked Reply: 1:48 PM ET

Yesterday I got home at ~6:30pm and discovered that the power was out! I learned via the neighborhood FB group that it had gone out at ~5:30pm (which was good to know, so I could start keeping track of how long the fridge was without power). I also learned that a nearby transformer had blown. I ordered dinner from DoorDash, and broke out my various power banks, flashlights, lanterns, etc. I’m very prepared for such things! :high_voltage: I used my work cell phone as a hotspot for my iPad Pro so I could be online, and used my personal cell phone as a hotspot for my iPad Air so I could watch Netflix. The power came back on just before 8:30pm. I would have been fine overnight if needed, but it was a relief. Even though it was in the 50s and rainy outside the house didn’t get chilly, and everything in the fridge was just fine after only 3 hours. After sunset I discovered that the only thing creepier than a dog-less house is a dark dog-less house, but all in all that was my kind of power outage. :grin:

The Atari 2600+ console and cartridges that were originally supposed to arrive yesterday are now scheduled for delivery today, which is actually better: a new game system arriving during a power outage would have made me laugh. :slight_smile: I’m hoping it’s on my doorstep when I get home.

I’m also hoping to find a fully landscaped yard when I get home. I got an estimate and made a down payment a couple of weeks ago, and this week the work has been happening in increments: on Monday the bags of mulch appeared on the side of the house, and yesterday the hedges and crepe myrtle in the front of the house got trimmed and the bed on one side of the front door got cleaned up (I was surprised that much got done; it rained off and on all day). There are still two small trees that need to be removed, and the mulch needs to be put down. It’s been overcast and on the chilly side all day but not rainy, so I’m hoping the yard work has been/is getting finished.

Every Safeway around here has a different layout, too. My shopping list’s aisle order is specific to the one nearest me; that’s the grocery store I go to the most often (I have Safeway, Giant, Wegman’s, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Harris Teeter, Lidl, and Aldi all within 2 miles of home). When I go to other stores I still have my list but it’s not in store-layout-order, so I wander around a little. :slight_smile:

:two_hearts: :slight_smile:

I feel like there’s a “how many x does it take to change a water-filled light bulb” joke just begging to be made here, but I can’t find it…doggio? pilot? :grin:

Sisters!

Ooooo new toys…always a good thing in my book. :smiley:

:crossed_fingers:, indeed!

112

i’m reckoning the yellow is from what is in the ceiling. water going across wood or insulation, that sort of thing before finding the lighting fixture. lots of ceilings have yellow fiberglass panels in them.

had an elevator meeting at the condo before heading into the office. we have our samples. there are some limitations due to the age of the building. the structure around the cabs constrain what can be done. when the building opened, it was manual with an elevator operator, then they went to automated cabs. the elevator guy told me there is one apt. building that still has porters in the elevators. it would cost 10+ million to replace the manual elevators with automatic. luckily, because they went to automated earlier in our building it will only cost 3ish million for us to update our cabs and the engineering that run them. our issue is that the cabs and operations that run the cabs are so old that we can’t get parts. when something goes out or breaks it has to be specially hand made and takes weeks to fix. the new cabs and operations will be easier and faster to fix.

113

Ugh, we hit 91F yesterday and it’s in the 80s again today. Relief on the way tomorrow, I believe.

I went down and reported our smoke detector beeping like a mad thing. Two hours later I tracked down the maintenance guy and told him I was feeling homicidal at that point and would really appreciate him fixing the problem. Done and dusted.

Exercise with weights today. Afterwards, I went to the in-house library to reshelve books. I’m wearing an Alaska tee today, and the old lady sitting in the library asked me if I’d ever been to Alaska (the shirt says “. . .where my story begins”, so yeah). I usually get a vague “oh, I always wanted to go there” response, but this lady - in her 60s back then, mind you - had bicycled from Fairbanks to Anchorage with a few hundred others in support of an AIDS fundraiser. This is over 350 miles, mind you, and camping along the way. It was in July, but they still ran into snow conditions on one of the mountain passes. :grimacing: I was impressed.

I’ve decided to give this tablespoon-of-EVOO-per-day thing a try. There doesn’t seem to be any downside and there seems to be a lot of benefits, so what can it hurt?

114

The good news is no surgery for my bestest girl in the world. She’s to wear a sling and the main thing she’s told to avoid is PE. I think the sling will remind her to take care. I hope.

As I was sorting, I came across the sales circular that the realtor printed up for our house. Apparently, we live on “3 lovely park-like acres.” They neglected to note that in part of that park, the previous owners burned garbage - well, almost. We found bits of light bulbs, window shades, food cans, and unidentifiable metal bits. Plus they’d been just a bit CDO, I think. All the trees were trimmed to about 20’ up and almost all of shorter growth was mostly hacked down. (We’ve let it all grow back.) All in all, it was very diplomatically described. But we were younger and saw the potential beyond, well, beyond. And the house is 50 years old this year. Dang!

My DVD player was delivered. It wasn’t raining at the time, but the box was left on a very wet edge of the porch. I guess the driver couldn’t manage to step two feet closer to the house. And I saw the truck drive up, so even if it had been raining, it woudn’t been a biggie. But it amused me anyway.

OK, back to my yarn.

115

Welp, I did it.

I booked a flight to see my grandkids (and their parents!). I’ll be leaving in just under two weeks and staying about a week. I’m flying out without my husband; he’ll stay home with the pups. My son will be on the same flight. I missed getting a lower fare by just a few seconds. I was in the middle of booking the trip, and the cost went up. But what the hell, I also upgraded my seats for more legroom. It’s my retirement gift to myself.

I’m looking forward to the trip. I’ll be there for my grandson’s birthday, too, so that’ll be nice.

116

Enjoy!

117

I was getting phone calls on Teams, but I couldn’t hear the caller, and apparently the caller couldn’t hear me. I figured out who it was, and sent an email. We dealt with a OneDrive issue, and then he took control of my Mac and tried to fix Teams. He said he’d come across the problem before. I’d used my earphones on a meeting earlier, and it somehow messed things up. After the tech was done, I rebooted. I called me from the landline, and I think it’s working now.

I just read a post on Nextdoor. Someone warned that a child rapist was let out of jail on bail. Someone immediately blamed Democrats. I’m really getting fed up with the Trumpiness and all of the complainers on Nextdoor. I’ll have to leave.

118

Groceries are bought and put away. Sis and I went to Hartz Chicken for lunch. We weren’t hungry enough for the buffet, but what we had was good. It could have used a little spice in the batter though (Bojangles and Popeye’s have spoiled me).

We got the dolly thing figured out for the washer (BIL can build, but not as good an engineer) and I ordered one that fits my washer. We’re not going to mention it to him. :stuck_out_tongue: She’ll find a reason to come over this weekend and put the washer on it.

Time to play with making more flowers.

119

The sunlight is looking a little yellow. I haven’t heard where the fires are, but I’m sure that’s the reason.

Cats are fed. Goo gets a quarter of a can of gooshy food, and Abbey gets an eighth. She usually doesn’t eat all of it (but Goo is happy to clean her dish). She virtually finished off her Mixed Grill today. When Goo came over to lick up her leavings, Abbey had barely left her more than the smell.

120

Howdy Y’all! Been home from the doin’s for a bit and unwindin’. Less of a crowd tonight but still good food and fun was had by all. We had hamburger steak with onion gravy, smashed N.O.T., green beans, rolls and a lemon custard dessert with lemon crumbles. There was enough leftovers to put together several meals to take to a local rescue mission. Food is always appreciated there.

red I am a little jealous. I haven’t had Hartz in years. Really liked their buffet back in the day. Satisfied stoner munchies many a time back in the 70s. I am soooooo ooolllddd!

Taters hooray for the trip! You deserve this so much!