(Old) Writing Letters - A Stationery MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

First and foremost: {{{{{taters}}}}} and {{{{{Polar}}}}}. I’m thinking of you.

I should be going to pick up a contact lens, but I screwed up and told Old Flame I’d be around today. He’s called three times when I wasn’t home, so it’s only fair. This isn’t the fingers-crossed contact; it’s the old better-than-nothing lens. I figure better to have a spare on hand in case specialty optometrist can’t fit the right eye with a fingers-crossed lens. Is that too confusing?

Anyway, I’m getting stuff done around the place today. Nothing too exciting. I sometimes tuck a letter inside a birthday card. Surely I’m not the only one here to send birthday cards, right?

pilot, I know people who are a little phobic about food going bad. I guess that extreme is better than the kind that has people saying, “Taste this gnocchi I left out since Tuesday and tell me if it’s OK.”

yanker, I’m sorry about the tough stuff with your dad. I hope the bronchitis beats a full and hasty retreat.

FCM, given the situation, I hope BIL would consent to signing papers giving permission for docs and nurses to update a family member (but not your MIL).

22

I’ve actually misspelled “Dad” when signing a birthday card.

23

Mowage is done. And I have a big cart full of logs to be cut down to size for the fireplace. A chore for another day. I didn’t push-mow the ditch, but maybe I’ll do that this weekend. Or not. Who knows?

Speaking of this weekend, it’s the Annapolis Power Boat show. FCD wanted to go on Thurs - but tickets are $50… each. That’s a big nope for me. Firday, they’ll be $25, which is still marginally obscene, but not as bad. Oh, and parking will be at least $10. Frankly, I don’t want to go, but he does. We shall see.

I send e-cards. And I quit sending out Christmas cards ages ago - I don’t think I’ve sent any since we’ve lived here - 19 years so far.

Speaking of BIL - he’s being discharged so we’re waiting for the call to come get him. If it comes within the hour, FCD will do it. Otherwise it falls to me, since my sweetie has a meeting at the school at 3. I fully expect it’ll be me.

What to do for supper… probably soup. TBD.

24

I still send actual cards because I think it’s nice to get one in the mail. My daughter makes her own cards because she’s all artistic like that. She sure didn’t get it from me.

Old Flame called, so now I’m thinking I could still walk/bus/walk to pick up the lens. I’ll be very careful, as this was the street where I fell.

25

Please report back when you’re home safely. Not that I can do jack shit if you don’t.

26

{{{{{Taters & Polar}}}}}

What is this ‘writing letters’ of which you speak?
My handwriting is atrocious, always has been. Some years ago I was forced to switch to printing anything by hand, and now my printing is atrocious.
When we were packing up to move, I found a rather large box of envelopes, ~100, and some nice, not white, stationary that I used to print resumes on. We’re prolly set for the rest of our lives.

Speaking of birthdays, I got a message this morning on the book of faces advising me that it is one of my cousins’ birthdays and I need to send her a message to help celebrate. Trouble is, she died several years ago. She’s not having birthdays any more. Am I the only one who finds this bizarre?
(Probably).

Friday we, that is I, spent the afternoon replacing nine 10’ 2x6 boards on the deck at the little house. The husband part of the couple who are buying it came over and together we got it done pretty quickly. It only required unscrewing ~100 deck screws and screwing in a like number of new 3" screws with torx heads which my impact driver could handle.The old screws had square drive heads, which were a problem. I thought we could just reuse them, but after getting one old screw in, and destroying the heads on 3 others, I decided to buy torx heads.

And I don’t even want to talk about Phillips head screws.

Okay, I lied.
Yesterday I helped Wifey build out part of her ‘studio’, which involved Phillips-head screws.
:face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

Wifey is having her hip replaced in 3 weeks and the hospital wanted some of her blood to peer at today. Trouble is, they wanted her to drive 30 miles to the big hospital in Bend to do it. She called and got it moved to the little hospital 3 miles away. (Same organization.) Sanity prevailed. She’s off doing that now.

Today I need to return the router from the little house to the internet provider. I called at the first week of last month to cancel our service and they said their tech guys would call me to arrange a time that they could pick it up. They never called, and I pretty much forgot about it. I have since discovered that they have an office here in town, so I’m going to go over there and hand it in, assuming they will take it.
Then I get to do some more mucking about in wifey’s studio. Which will undoubtedly involve more Phillips head screws. :roll_eyes:

Enuff.

27

(((taters and Polar)))

I quit handwriting letters when I learned to type, but I still rolled pretty stationery onto the platen. Cards are always sent for Christmas and Birthdays…plus to Mom if I see an entertaining greeting card.

If your shredder won’t pinch little fingers, BFF reports her grands just love to feed her shredder.

Go to your County Recorders office and ask to look at some of the really old books of records and tell them that you want examples of proper penmanship. The nice clerks will have their own favorite books with pretty handwriting they would be thrilled to show you.

I considered Pyrex, but even tempered glass has an unfortunate habit of shattering in the freezer, especially if it is filled with something liquidy. Round storage containers take up too much space in the fridge so we don’t have any.

Another reason for plastic is because I usually come home with leftovers and I don’t like one-use plastics.I bring containers when we go out so the leftovers go into proper storage containers without being double handled. A small ice chest in the trunk is very handy as well. Toss in an extra container for ice and ask the wait staff to fill it before leaving. This should keep everything cool enough to allow for a FAST stop for gas and everything can easily be placed in the fridge on the way to the bathroom.

Oh, I wasn’t clear, we don’t do that either. He cleans like a Marine and I have higher standards. I won’t be satisfied with his cleaning and will do it over while grumbling, so it is just better for us both if I do the kitchen cleaning and he is responsible for the cars (I haven’t taken my car for an oil change once in our married life) and garbage taking out.

28

The most important sentence in a yacht owner’s repertoire is:

I don’t care what it costs.

If it hurts when you say say that about your current yacht, get a smaller yacht. :wink: Mine fits in my bathtub now.

Although today I did throw out the glossy brochure I picked up at a local day-boat rental place. Your basic 20-28’ outboard runabouts, center console fishers, or pontoons. $600 to $900 for a long-ish day. The scary thing is that for as often as most boat owners use their similar boats, they’d be money ahead to rent at that rate over owning, storing, fueling, insuring, and repairing.


Bumba never try to reuse outdoor fasteners. It just isn’t worth it. Although I expect you knew that and yet your hope springs eternal. A lot of my DIY projects have certainly crashed on the rocks of hope over experience.

And yes, true Phillips are the worst for that application.


As to me:
After shevelment & breakfast Her Ladyship announced she was off to do erranding and will return TBD. OK. So after some productive administrivia here I launched off for Kohl’s and mini groc and perhaps some lunch.

Kohl’s was a bust. Of course they did not actually have on their picked-over shelves anything close to what the website said they had. I am just about done with B&M mass market retail. But it was a fun excuse to get out and about in the interlude after the morning rain had cleared out and before the late afternoon gloom had returned. Reminds me of growing up in SoCal but sooo much warmer.

Hit Publix for mini groc, then tried to visit a local Indian storefront eatery for simple spicy lunch. Closed Monday. Oops. So I went to the ancient fried chicken hole-in-the-wall across the street which was open Mondays and was delicious. The three ginormous black folks cookin’ are quite the floor show. All the best eatin’ comes from large black folks having fun together.

Unlike last time I’m not going to ignore my blood glucose test alarm when it goes off. I’d like to know how often I can enjoy this tasty by dietarily suspect treat. Now home, groc put away, and no sign of Her Ladyship. Slothage resumes.

Tomorrow is Daughter’s birthday. So Her Ladyship will leave home “early” in the morning (crack of 10) to have a day of Mother / Daughter togetherness. I shall join them in the early evening at Daughter’s for some kind of Door Dash dinner, then we’ll depart shortly after the seething Horde’s bedtime. The bulk of my day should be solo and include some fine beaching and lunching; we’re finally ending the week of wetness.

29

I don’t remember the last time I hand-wrote a letter, but the last time I typed, printed, signed, and mailed one was in February 2019: I’d learned that my youngest cousin (who is 28 years younger than me) was transitioning from “Megan” to “Max,” and I wrote a letter of support and sent it to him at college. I still send/give birthday cards to 3-4 people a year (plus I mail a Father’s Day card every year), and I also still send holiday cards; I have a list of ~30 people.

The replacement credit card arrived today! :tada: I’ve already activated it, updated all of the needed accounts, and put it in my wallet. Thanks to Seanette for mentioning using PayPal for as many recurring charges as possible a couple of threads ago: I did that while updating everything this morning. Some places required a credit or debit card, but the ones that would take PayPal are doing so now. I’ll have several fewer accounts to update when this card expires!

Pretty soon I’ll be heading out to get my COVID + flu shots. I wanted to go to a CVS and none of the nearby locations had appointments available this month (!), so I’m going to a CVS in Arlington; ~20 minutes away. I chose a 4pm appointment because of traffic: I’ll likely do a little shopping after I get shot, but hopefully I’ll miss the worst of rush hour on the way home – though I won’t be willing to pay the west-bound toll for a single-occupant vehicle on I-66, so coming back will take a little longer.

:broken_heart: :people_hugging:

I’m jealous: I’d love to have a balcony to sit on when it rains (especially during thunderstorms). I refuse to ever live in another apartment or apartment-style condo, though, so that particular dream will remain out of reach. :slight_smile:

Welcome back!

That made me laugh out loud…I startled the dog. :grin:

30

Picked up MIL, then BIL, and took them both back home. FCD is at his meeting, I’m about to plop into my recliner till he returns. Chillage mode for sure.

31

No worries. It started raining, and I realized Slip-n-Sliding down the big hill probably wasn’t wise, so I’m going to put it off until Wednesday. (Tomorrow I have my PT assessment, which is over a mile in a different direction.)

I won a penmanship award as a kid, but my handwriting got worse as an adult. I get it from my dad. Like you, he had illegible printing, too. When he sent me hand-printed letters, Mom, whose handwriting looked exactly like the cursive letters above the board at school, would translate between the lines. Now when I write letters, I write them on the computer and print them off.

The guy who invented Phillips head screws (named Thompson, IIRC. Phillips was the guy who marketed them.) patented them in 1932. He patented the corresponding screwdriver in 1933. Maybe he was the only one who had PH screws, but I like to think there was a period of time there when he was cussing a lot and stripping screws.

32

I write and send holiday, birthday, and thank you cards to many people. I send handwritten letters to a select subgroup around 4 times a year each. One I sent two weeks ago was in response to a handwritten letter from a friend who’d never written me a physical letter before, and I wanted to reinforce the behavior. One of my college friends and I send each other handwritten letters, with email reserved for things like “here’s the tracking number” or “how’s your dad doing this week?” I also keep a handwritten journal. I send 10-20 postcards if I travel somewhere interesting, including to some of my friends’ parents and my parents’ friends who are in their 80s-90s. That said, my handwriting has also deteriorated over time, though it was legible but not beautiful in my youth.

33

Folks forget why Phillips screws were invented. And they’ve been misused by generations of engineers ever since.

They were designed so that as you tighten them, the screwdriver tip climbs out of the receptacle in the head once you’ve applied the correct amount of torque to the screw. They’re designed to be used in factory assembly lines where the screw is installed once by a guy in a hurry with primitive power tools and that screw is never to be removed again. He just cranks on it until the screwdriver tip pops out of the head, then goes on to drive the next screw in the next hole.

So the screwdriver climbing out of the screw head, perhaps damaging the screw a little on the way out is not a bug; it’s a feature. And in fact it’s the feature, the secret sauce of Phillips’ original design. Which worked so well it quickly became the go-to screw head for assembly line production of anything.

Removal of a Phillips screw may well destroy the screw either before or after it comes loose. By design. They are really meant for one-time use only.

Now of course that’s not how they’ve been used since about 1935. With all the stripping and ranting we all know and love as the completely predictable result.

Several other cross-point designs have been invented since that don’t have that built-in self-stripping behavior. Posi-Driv screws are a thing of beauty. If you have a Posi-Driv driver to drive them with. Reed & Prince is another competing design, although now mostly moribund. But of course nobody wants to own 3 different sets of cross-point screwdrivers, so now we have “universal” screwdrivers, usually mislabeled “Phillips”, that fit all the kinds of cross-point heads badly.

Then in the 1970s with the advent of the widespread import of Japanese goods we add the abomination of “universal head” screws with a cross-point head bisected by a single slot to accept a flat-blade screwdriver also. Which further reduces the amount of screwhead material available to resist damaging the screw no matter what sort of tool you put to it.

Then around the year 2000 we add cheap Chinese manufacturing with soft metal and bad tolerances and it’s a wonder the entire screw-assembled world hasn’t fallen into a heap yet.


Whew, rant over! I think. I’ll be OK in a few minutes once my blood pressure subsides and my face isn’t red. :rage: :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: :rage:

34

I write about a half-dozen letters to family (in cursive) every week, and a few letters to friends monthly, plus assorted birthday and holiday cards.

35

[q

Just mailed one to my dad this afternoon for his 86th on Friday. Like your daughter, I make cards, so’s I send cards. :slight_smile: Happy mail is always fun.

I have a couple of FB friends (mostly family) who have passed and I get notified of their birthdays. I know for a fact that several of their children have access to their parent’s accounts now and will drop a line of remembrance.

{{{taters ans polar}}}

I spent the first two hours of irk today fixing what my idiot boss directed me to screw up. Then, I actually got shit done. :stuck_out_tongue: She’s on vacation this week, so’s I should be able to do stuff without her pulling me off several times a day. I also got some ACE points (500 are equal to $5 to spend in the program. Mine usually buy gift cards from da Jungle) from the boss who took over part of what I do. It’s nice to be appreciated. :slight_smile:

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

36

I type, on a manual typewriter, 2-3 letters a month. Just mailed one of 2 pages to a friend for his birthday instead of a card, and will post a 6 page letter to another tomorrow. We write back and forth and enjoy the leisurely pace. Sort of like slow food. Can’t do it all the time, but it is a welcome change and helps shape other parts of life.

37

Howdy Y’all! Slothful have we been today. Then again, we do so enjoy bein’ so. I did find a sermon for this Sunday, so that counts for sump’n. Plus I made sup which got et up and then the kitchen cleanded up. More productivity. The biiiiiig trash can go hauled all the way back up from the road to where it lives. More productivity. I deserved today’s nappage and day drinkin’ for all that effort! We had gin and tonics because both of us felt a tinge of scurvy and malaria comin’ on.

{{{Taters}}} that’s all I can say for now.

Why are some of us usin’ vodka and oj to build stuff?

38

'Cuz we’re smarter than the aver-age bear?

39

IN Catholic grade school in the late fifties and early sixties we were all taught the Palmer Method of penmanship. I remember classes in sixth grade where we would scrawl practice components over and over. All of the work we turned in was graded for proper penmanship along with subject and content. One could turn in a perfect English paper and have your grade drop from an A to a C due to unsatisfactory penmanship. My sixth grade teacher was a Nun, Sister Mary Claver. She had a speech impediment but ruled the class with an iron fist and was known to hit her students with the rosary she wore as a belt.

40

Evening all. With no soccer to coach tonight I spent a little longer in the pool (total of 1,500 yards) and sauna, so am nice and relaxed. Freddy’s Steakburgers provided the evening dining, so I am nicely filled in now. The days are noticeably getting shorter, it’s 6:30pm local now and it’s dusk outside; by 7pm it should be completely dark. Glad the soccer field I practice on has lights.

About the only penmanship I exercise now is when I write a check for cash. Still is quite readable (at least for me) and my signature comes out nicely (except on those (&(^& pads when you have to use your finger to sign).

swampy, such a hard-working day; you deserve another gin and tonic…

red, glad you got both peace and bonus points at work.

nellie, Pilot, thanks for the Philips-screws/screwdriver history, never knew about that, just that I had to keep two types of screwdrivers handy.

Oopsie, I don’t use Paypal for my recurring charges, most of them have their own systems, but nice to know it is an option. Hope the shots went according to plan.

Bumba, hope the hip replacement goes well for Wife-unit.

Yankers, yeah, we know, stuff happens. Glad to see you back around the old environs. And having some ‘me’ time is always nice. Hope your Dad can get better help and will know when the time has come to make changes.

Onward into the evening. The Southwest Chief is at Ft. Madison, I solved the Monday NY Times crossword, and the temperature has ducked below 80F, so a good evening is in store. Take care all.