I was trying to get out of a rut of negative thinking, and made a conscious effort to notice the little joys of life:
Eating whatever I please.
Having a smoke.
Sleeping on a comfortable mattress with as many blankets as I want, on pillow(s) of my choosing.
Snuggling with kitties.
… and it dawned on me that, basically, I’m thankful to not be in prison!
Happy Monday, Mumpers.
Good morning. I have been out of contact for a bit due to my annual fishing trip. The weather was beautiful, the fish were biting, the food and fellowship was outstanding.
Definitely something to be thankful for. 
I’ve got a good life, a good husband, the most amazing granddaughter in the world, and I really like where I live. And I find it especially amazing that I can sit at my desk in my robe and slippers and interact with some fun and interesting people all over the world - how cool is that?!?! I’ve come a long way from the little girl who was super-excited when her parents bought their first color TV!!
From last week’s MMP:
Guess I should tell you now that my greenhouse ain’t working - it won’t stay warm so I’m about to move everything into the basement. To be fair, my “greenhouse” is actually a minimal framework covered by a plastic fabric shell - not much more sophisticated than a heavy plastic bag. I hoped an extra layer of plastic would make the air barrier between them an insulator. It didn’t. And so it goes…
Or as my spousal unit puts it: “Any 5-year-old with 30 years of experience can do it!” He usually says that in response to people who seem to think that engineering design is no big deal. Some people have no idea how much work and rework and re-rework goes into a design that seems really simple.
Stoopit Taz decided he needed to jump on our bedroom door around 4 and I couldn’t fall back to sleep. Especially as I lay there trying to decide exactly where I want to put my veggies downstairs. The main part of the basement is floored with carpet tiles - I don’t want them to risk getting them wet and gross. My studio is crowded, and it gets chilly back there. I thought maybe the bathtub would work, and it would, except I’d have to figure out how to run the extension cord for the grow light so that it’s not a trip hazard or hanging from the ceiling. I’ll discuss with FCD - he’s always good for alternate ideas.
He’s got a meeting at noon and I have some errands to run before I go wrangle Roxy for an hour or so. I actually considered firing up the pellet stove - it’s gotten cool in here, but I don’t think it’s chilly enough for a fire yet. And even if it is, I’d have to cut away a few layers of plastic wrapped around the pallet of pellets. Just not up for that this early.
But no biggie! Happy Moanday!!
Heh. This phrase made my brain happy.
It made me giggle, too. I tried to work it into the “pestle with the vessel” and the “chalice with the palace” but it seemed like too much work. 
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 43 Amurrkin out and clear (BRRR!) with a predicted high of 79 and N.O.S. for the day. Not much doin’ today. I need to take care of a few errands so I suppose I shall. I also have a called meetin’ of the Vestry tonight at six. I do not want to do that, however, I shall. Sup shall be leftovers from yestiddy.
Hippie welcome back! Glad you had a good fishin’ trip.
I do have a mostly happy life with OYKW. I like where we live and we have some good friends. I think it goes without sayin’, but I also love all of you here on our little playground.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, alas, alack, and a world of bother, I suppose I should purtify and don appropriate bein’ about the public attire. Woe!
Happy Moanday Y’all!
Good morning everyone.
It’s a little cloudy with a current temp of 49 degrees with the expected high topping out at around 54.
I am grateful for wonderful kids and grandkids. I don’t know how I got so lucky. I am grateful for a good job, food on the table, and a roof over our heads. I’m grateful for a supportive husband and we’re mostly happy. I am grateful for my Polar. He makes me smile every day.
I have to spend all day today in leadership training starting at 6:00 am. On one of the breaks, I’ll have to call the HMO to see about getting in for my wrist pain and weakness. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a long wait. Since Kaiser took over Group Health the wait for appointments has been stupid long. I don’t like 'em and need to look at other options during the upcoming open season.
I’m glad you had a great trip, Hippy!
Well, I need that second cup of coffee. Another mostly restless night, made worse by the husband’s late arrival to bed and then his constant tossing and turning.
My youngest sis has Kaiser and she hates it with a white-hot hate for a variety of reasons. Even acknowledging that I’m only getting her side of things and she tends to the dramatic sometimes, I pretty much agree with her hatred. We have BC/BS and even tho it’s expensive, considering all the surgery FCD has had and will have, it’s been more than worth it.
PS, I personally have hatred for HMOs based on experiences I had in the 80s. Things may have changed but my opinion hasn’t. Hope you can get seen reasonably soon!
And have fun in training… < shudder >
I forgot to mention that one of my errands for the day will be dealin’ with wasps over to the church house. This falls under church janitor Junior Warden duties. Three more months and it will be someone else’s problem. I will be overjoyed at the handin’ over of those duties! I shall call our exterminator in a bit and deal from there.
Taters re the training, better thee than me. That is a major thing I do not miss since I have become a retired drain on society.
And you’re SURE they won’t successfully talk you into keeping the job, or moving up to senior warden? (laughing)
Morning all. Only 7 hours sleep (when I start on a crossword it’s hard for me to put down, even at 11:30pm) but feel good. It’s 44F and the house was cold enough than I turned the heat on immediately, I will say this about the gas heater, it’s quite efficient, we’re warming up nicely. The Moanday shopping and sammich are on the schedule for today along with some soccer practice, so it should be enough to hold my attention.
Down to 3-4 doses of pills, so need to check with the Medical folks to see what I need to do. They say “1 refill before 7/13/22” on the bottles, but I don’t know if that means I can just walk into the pharmacy and get them filled or not. We shall see.
I’m grateful for my health (so far) the kids in the soccer program who keep me from being a grouch, and the internet for finding me two sites in my lifetime that have provided me friends that I might never have had otherwise.
hippie, glad to see you back and glad the trip was great. Bring back a lot of fish for the freezer?
FCM, shoe, so you’re going to place packed pellets from the pulled packet by the stove, right?
OK, need to do some Moanday internettin’ and then get ready for the shop and sammich. Everyone have a great week now.
Yes you can. It means you can’t refill it after 7/13/22.
OK, FCD is up - my turn for the shower…
I have a lot of blessings. I’m one of those people who thanks the Lord/universe/cat for everything that I have. Started Prednisone yesterday for sinus inflammation. It has started to work, but boy howdy is it helping my shoulder. I have an MRI next Saturday so the ortho can tell me if I need/don’t need surgery.
I suppose I should be grateful that Nikki just this moment barfed on the easy-to-clean floor, and not onto a rug.
Cat-barf on a non-fabric surface is always a cause for rejoicing!
I am showered, dressed, and waiting till it’s time to do my errands.
FCD and I discussed the veggie placement, and bathtub it will be! The bathroom down there is small enough that heating it shouldn’t break the bank. And the showerhead is hand-held, making it easy to water my crop. I’ll just need to screw in some hooks to hold the extension cord along the ceiling. I’m thinking before I head out erranding, I’ll load the planters on the big cart and wheel them into the basement. Then tomorrow, I can get them all set up before I have to go wrangle Roxy again.
Tomorrow is ultrasound day - we may find out how Tobias will arrive, tho we’ll be told for sure next week. But my daughter’s appointment is at 5:30, so I’ll order supper for Roxy and her Mama (for when she gets home.) Because I’m nice, dammit!
Morning, all. Cloudy and cool in SoCal this morning. Looks like it could rain, but it won’t.
shoe - Feel blessed. My overlords and ladies managed to hit two patches of carpet and the hardwood floor with their regurgitations this morning. Luckily I missed stepping in all three.
The week promises to be a weird one. Again. Thursday is The Great California Shake-Out, which means 2nd period (and therefore the rest of the day) will be disrupted by a full-scale earthquake drill, complete with diving under desks, then evacuating to the JV Softball field. After submitting my evac roll, I then have to report to my assigned duty station (morgue detail!) Eventually they’ll dismiss us back to class, but the day will be a write-off no matter what. Then they have a completely random rally set for Friday, which screws up anything I would be trying to do to catch up with Thursday.
That reminds me, I need more tequila and margarita mix.
Have a safe and happy week, Mumpers!
Afternoon, mumpers! It’s 15C/59F outside, looks very grey and murky although there’s someone walking past my office building wearing shorts so who knows?
Weekend of music was just what I needed. Our friend arrived on Friday evening, I’d managed to do all the things I needed to do, and we had a good night out. Returned to the venue on Saturday for the day, and again yesterday although she took her own car last night so she could drive straight home (and leave early if she felt like it 'cos she was not enamoured of the final band).
A week ago saw the sudden death of someone many of our music community regarded as a good friend, he died very suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving behind a wife and two small children. Someone had already started a donations page for the family, and there was a charity bucket collection going on over the weekend. Many of the bands had their own moving and personal tributes to pay to Tom Leighton, many songs were dedicated to him, and instead of a minute’s silent, we had a minute of cheering and clapping instead. The page has raised about £15,000 so far, and the collection over the weekend will add another £800 to it. There really are some good people in the world.
Back to earth with a bump today though, back to irk and a pile of yucky emails to deal with. That’s after waking up in the night to the sound of a cat barfing somewhere in the house. Luckily it was on the half-landing so although it was on carpet, it was easy enough to locate and clean up. That was followed by the usual round of cat feeding, medication and cleaning litter trays before heading off to irk.
Moooom thanks for the update on the travel restrictions. Interesting to see that as far as tourism is concerned, the changes for air travel will be early January so we may have to reconsider our plans as we need to be in Vegas on new year’s day…so might have to come in via Canada instead as a land border rather than being able to fly in direct.
swampy I am not a betting person but I’d put money on someone trying to talk you into staying on as junior church janitor warden 
hippie glad to hear you enjoyed the fishing trip. One of my friends is a keen angler and was very much looking forward to the start of the pike fishing season here.
Oooh…might just have time for another cuppa before I have to start the trek home again!
Howdy, all! 'Tis a bad day at irk, I’m staining things all day, so it’s right stinky, and I left Cinnamon at home–he doesn’t need to exposed to these fumes. Got the loading dock door open to air it out somewhat, but still.
swampy Add me to the crew who thinks you’ll be still doing junior warden duties.
So the diverter bar broke. Which means instead of a sturdy triangle of metal keeping the bags from going past Smalls to the other end of the hub, it would fold like a French army whenever the belt turned on. But I got yanked to sort on the 300 table, where is was me. And 4 supervisors. 
Then I had to pull for 3 package cars. I’m thankful I’ve gone 19 hours without some sort of flooding event. 
Welcome back, Hippie!
Alex Catt, first of Her Name has not regurgitated lately. Although I should check the closet, she was locked in the bedroom with a manic barking terrier for 3 hours. She may have expressed her displeasure in other ways.
Priest: “We should make swampy a Warden.”
Deacon: “He’s already a Junior Warden”
Priest: “Then from this moment forth, he’s a Double Secret Warden.”
