DH (electrician) is off. At least I get the car, so I can swing by Taco Bell for an AM Crunchwrap.
Today is probably going to be dead at irk. Just as well, since sleep was a challenge. I’m pretty sure at least a few loud ones were exploded in a dumpster or similar, based on sound. Had other stuff being let off that was loud enough to set off car alarms. Probably going to be leftovers being played with tonight, too.
Must correct the caffeine/blood ratio.
Speaking of falling, any updates on the in-laws?
Yay for Ruby being found sari!
bumba, I have a queen sized bed that I share with a 15# dog. Sometimes I’m schooched clear over to the edge. 
Cool family history cookie. Half of my great grandparents were immigrants near the turn of the 19-20th century. A couple of them immigrated from Germany or Ireland in the mid 1800s and a few (including some indigenous ancestors) were here pre-1776.
Welcome back nava! That’s some scary stuff about your SIL.
Congrats on the new gig bat boy!
Got back from the plateau about an hour ago. It was a pleasant evening around the fire pit with my friend, another friend, four assorted dogs and NO fireworks!
I didn’t sleep really well though. I was on the sofa (the only one with a small enough dog to sleep there ) and my back is sore. Still, a good time was had by all.
I need to pack up two projects for shipping and do the Sunday chores (yeah, on a Monday) before going to the dentist at four.
Stay safe and healthy y’all!
Up, caffeinated, and sheleved. Off today. If I tire of sloth, I may do some minor shelving rearrangement(but nothing too major, I got an old man with cataracts).
Welcome back, [b]Nava[/! we missed you. And prayers and ((((hugs)))) for SiL.
Batboy!
: tacklehug 
And here’s hoping the creative outweighs the practical on the new job.
Maggie Wonderbeagle once quietly origami-ed all 6’ and 180lbs. of me on to the pillow, so she could spread out on my queen bed.
FCM, sounds like Roxstar had a good time. And something from a few MMPs ago, there’s a summer league team in N.C. called Burlington Sock Puppets
Lessee - last week, they were back in the ER because FIL fell in the garage. He’d been doing better after their primary doc adjusted his meds - no more of the stroke-like episodes. But FIL decided he needed 4 wheels on his walker instead of just 2, and that’s what led to the fall… we think… FCD doesn’t believe his parents are completely frank with him about their health. On the plus side, except for going to church, FIL has pretty much quit driving. Their youngest son drives them on their errands, and I’m sure he’d take them to church, too, except he has to work on Sundays.
On the down side, FIL seems to be developing an issue with one eye that affects his vision. But we can’t be sure we’re getting the full story. And talking to FCD’s bro won’t help, due to his issues. We’re hoping that we can persuade them to come stay with us over Thanksgiving for a few weeks. The excuse is meeting the newest great-grandson. Our daughter will try to get them to agree, and if so, I’ll be driving down to fetch them. (Hoping I can find someone to ride along and share the driving with me, but we’ll have to see.)
I’m very thankful that my mother has accepted her limits. She no longer drives at night, and she won’t drive very far out of her familiar areas even by day. Fortunately, there’s lots of family in the Baltimore area to help her get around when necessary. I’m 2 hours away, but I could get there if she needed me.
It’s everything you dream it can be, and more!!! 
Having showered, dressed, and loaded the dishwasher, plus killed some time doing some jigsaw puzzles on line, I think it should pull out the vacuum cleaner and suck up critter sheddings. Good times!!
I went to a 4th gathering yesterday. There were about 70 people gathered at a friend’s lake house complex. They’ve got 2 houses and space for a couple of RVs. Fortunately we had beautiful weather, so everyone was spread out all over the property. I’m exhausted. That was the largest group of people I’ve been in since this whole pandemic thing started. I’m not really a social person to begin with, so this was very stressful for me.
So today shall be sloth, aside from working up an estimate on an exhibit a museum has asked for. Need to find out how much a delivery van rental will cost to add to the estimate.
Onward! Stay safe, all.
(grump) No Taco Bell along a sane route will be open until 9am. I have to be at irk at 8:15am. No AM Crunchwrap. (sulk)
Good morning, y’all! Hope everyone - and their pets - survived your local mortar fire.
It occurred to me last night that July 4th evening would be an excellent time to invade the U.S. I one were so inclined. Half the population is drunk off their collective asses, the other half is busy with the grill, or the kids, or is hiding under the covers with the dog until it’s all over. Nobody would notice a thing!
I went over to Five-Cat Friend to grill hot dogs and marshmallows and hold up those silly little sparklers.
Hey, @swampbear did they pick up your trash today? I saw your post about dragging the biiiiiiiiiiiiig bin at the end of last week’s MMP. I did, too, but they didn’t pick up today here - hopefully tomorrow, otherwise {{ stinky }} 
Excess critter hair has be sucked from the carpets. The smaller TV that was in the basement is now in the bedroom, and the TV that was in the bedroom will eventually be installed in the guest bedroom. In a couple hours and a bit, we’ll head to the hospital to learn all about knee replacement stuff.
Now I need to order tickets for the Marine Museum for Thursday. Daughter has a Dr appt in Annapolis that day so I’ll wrangle the toddler, with the help of otters and fish. 
Happy Moonday!
It was a cool 62 at the park this morning. We had to go later than usual as the dog park was closed until 7.
Echo behaved herself. She started to get a little pissy with Romeo, but a time out cooled her heels.
Fireirks were horrible last night. The asshole druggies up the street (the same ones who thought it great fun to set off their car alarm over and over one night) were setting them off for hours. At least the dogs handled it, I was the one getting annoyed. It might explain why both of them are so tired today, and when I woke up, Ripple was sleeping by the bathroom door. Probably the quietest place in the house as there are no windows back there.
Was on the phone half the morning with AT&T. My son gets a 20% discount on the bill as an irk perk. There were issues signing up. I’m supposed to hear back from them within 72 hours with a fix.
He also gets a discount on rental cars, so I’m going to check that out too. Some of the car rentals will let you have dogs in the car. I still don’t know of it is worth it though.
Trash was picked up as normal here today.
I wish I could retire. I have considered collecting SS and irking part time, but I think I’ll wait a bit longer.
Have to do some laundry today. My son had off yesterday for the holiday, and has off today because there isn’t enough irk. He’ll have a makeup day later this week. We’ll need to go out and get some stuff for him to take for lunch.
July 5th and I want the neighbors down the alley dead, preferably after torture. Just your normal day-after around here. Spent yesterday afternoon with friends, grilling and eating and drinking and such. Then back home in time to try to calm the cats down when the aforesaid neighbors turned the area into Fallujah. Until 1:45am. This year it was the boys that freaked. Havoc just curled under my arm and rode it out. Caelan hid under the bed until this morning while Tango wore himself out running around all night. It was his first 4th and he didn’t know what was happening. The only one that it didn’t seem to bother was Pix. But even she didn’t get more than 6 inches from my side all night.
Don’t get me started on all the rednecks in town cruising the main drag with American flags flying from the back of their pickups. Most of them also had Confederate decals in the back windows. 
Hope everybody has a wonderfully safe week.
My neighborhood was booming from before dark to long after we went to bed. Easily the most I’ve ever seen or heard. And not just little amateur flares, but huge, seemingly professional-grade fireworks. How do people afford all that? It was kinda fun to watch for a few minutes but quickly became tedious. The cats didn’t care for the noise, but they did OK.
As for being off work, that’s a no-go. The zoo is open 365 days a (pandemic-free) year, so I irk pretty much every holiday, unless it falls on a Thursday or Friday, my usual days off. Holiday pay is double-and-a-half though, so I don’t mind. Yay union!
The crowds this weekend haven’t been as crazy as I expected, either. I think a lot of people were itching to get out of town.
If you’re off today, enjoy!
Making the most of the “Happy Treason Day” meme, I guess.
The fireworks were pretty much non-stop from 8:00 am yesterday until around 2:30 this morning. Didn’t do much for sleep. Someone nearby had such explosive fireworks that my two-story house shook. I am hoping everybody blew everything up yesterday because I don’t want to hear any today. I am sure though, that some yahoo will be blowing stuff up again later today.
Yesterday after having purchased my pressure washer I put it to use. I got the front porch and sidewalk and one-quarter of my driveway done. It does a darn good job. I have discovered that I want to get a longer washing arm. The front part of my house faces north and moss builds up on the driveway and sidewalk. The driveway, porch, sidewalk, and back patio are the aggregate type, so moss just loves to stick in all the little crannies, so I need to bend down to put the full force of the nozzle on the moss. At any rate, the areas that I did complete look a thousand times better than they did. Almost new! I did it without a concrete/deck wash, just water because there was so much crud build-up, I thought it would just be a waste of the wash. I plan to go over all the surfaces with the wash once I have the crud completely up. I should get the driveway sealed.
So, my plans call for finishing the pressure washing and maybe some laundry. I don’t have much laundry to do since I did most of it on Thursday afternoon.
Three weeks until vacation! I really, really want to retire, but I need to stick it out for three more years to build up that TSP. Three years isn’t such a long time, really. I mean I’ve made it 38 years, I can squeeze three more years out.
Nava! I wondered where you’d vanished to. Fingers crossed for the SIL.
Yay on the hopefully un-irksome new irk Batboy!
I have a minor dilemma today- I had my first Pfizer stabbing just under 7 weeks ago, and they’re doing jabs 8 weeks apart here. Of course, I’m moving this weekend, so, with 8 weeks falling at the start of next week, being a semi-responsible nut, I’d already booked an appointment for my second one in the new place for the 20th… so today I get a text from the GP here saying they have appointments available here.
On Saturday.
The same day I’m moving.
I could probably squeeze it in, as I should be able to get the on-the-day clearout stuff down to just packing the plants, valuables and the last few essentials then vacuuming/doing a last dust round, and I can drop the keys off until 4pm. It would be very nice to get the jab done, but… what if I have a reaction? Last time I got really sleepy -the day after- it that happened earlier, it would not mesh well with a 3-4 hour solo drive.
Hmmmmm…
My initial reaction is, “Oh, just put it off a day or two until you’re settled.” I’m not a medical expert, but I have been told a day or two here or there won’t matter.
You gotta take care of your moving stuff!
ETA: but hell, what do I know?
Shoe is smart. Moving is fraught with complications as it is.
My own news - survived the MRI. Just have to wait 3 weeks to get the results. I’ll try to get an earlier appointment, like next week, assuming the doctor doesn’t have vacation.
See, they weren’t trying to kill ya!
Just found out my mother (and dad) are coming up here. In, like, half a week.
{{ fires up Roomba }}
Hey, I had to put my second shot back one week, and was told by the nurse that it made no difference in the efficacy of the vaxx.
Glad to see assorted mumpers who have been gone too long. I spent the fourth at the barn. The horses weren’t turned out (the crew had the day off), so I stood in the sun for too long so Ariel could eat grass for hours. Then she had a bath and a leeeetle bit of mother’s helper. She goes mental being in the stall during the day. I spent the next 2 hours talking with my barn friends. One of them called me a social butterfly! One of the reason I got back into horses was for the socializing. Dinner was Silver Palate chicken salad which I always make for Memorial Day and Fourth of July. Then watched Yankee Doodle Dandy. Neighborhood booms started at 8:30 and went until midnight. The only ones I hate are the ones that rattle the windows. Today I am hanging around the house (irk holiday) watching Wimbledon.
305 days til retirement. That includes holidays, weekends, vacay, so it’s really less irk days than that.