I sure hope yours stays fixed too and “hiss/boo” on the billing company for that screwup.
My situation is particular, which is why mine might not stay fixed, more so than yours. You’ve got a lot going for you towards it staying fixed, age+less weight+ compliant careful, mindful meal size and eating, did I mention youth and smaller size? My weight and age are against me as is the paralyzed diaphragm, the slackness of which allowed the hernia through in the first place and there is no fix for the paralyzed diaphragm. My diaphragm is no longer capable of keeping that part of my stomach in its place and here I am. Too old and fat and respiratory compromised for reparative surgery. Traumatic brain injury, the gift that never stops giving.
Last I heard from FCD, he was on the DC Beltway almost at the BW Parkway exit and his GPS said he’d be home by 4. But it was the beginning of rush hour, so who knows… I do know he’s exhausted.
Supper will be ham steak, cabbage-n-onions, and crinkle fries. That’s as far ahead as I can plan. I’m sitting in Daughter’s driveway, Tobias snoozing behind me. He gets 15 more minutes then I wake him and we walk to the bus stop.
FCM Yaay for (un-)exciting. Tobias snoozing is probably totally cute. Quiet too . Poor FCD can’t buy a break driving either way, can he?
@PastTense that is an insect / arthropod of some sort. Might be a type of bee. ETA: I see you answered your rhetorical question already in your next post.
Shoe: good luck w the drive to wherever Mom is (TX?). Update us at least every half hour with your position and direction of travel so we know which small town jail to come bail you out of when you don’t check in at the next half hour. .
As to me …
Her Ladyship finally got up, I launched a load of laundry, we got sheveled then went to breakfast at the crack of 11:30 to a local chain breakfast / lunch eatery. Nicer than Denny’s / IHOP, but still in the basic big breakfast & sammiches lane; not snootáy.
They did have an extensive menu of slightly more unusual things, my favorites being a buffalo chicken omelet and an Italian sausage omelet. I say “did” for a reason. The new menu they gave us today removed all the interesting things except 15 flavors of very, very sweet high carb toppings for waffles & pancakes. Can you say “honey-granola waffles with caramel sauce, nutella, and whipped cream”? I knew you could. Sigh. Their basic eggs & grilled ham steak are still good.
Was reminded when I got home that our tub faucet is dripping. Put in a work order, then Her Ladyship departed for Mah Jongg. A few minutes (!) later the staff showed up to fix the drip. Which eventually turned into replacing the whole valve assembly after the leaky guts broke in half being pulled out. Another job that would have been a 2-day DIY disaster if this was me fixing a single family home. Anyhow, he took about an hour and it was done. Renting can have advantages. Meantime I did some successful online shopping for random clothing needs wants.
Now free of watching him work it was pretty windy, but also real sunny, and I decided to chance the beach. Worst case I come back early. Surf was up, and the breeze was blowing from shore to sea which makes for a tight short break, so not good to surf really. Did some swimming & fighting the thrashing surf so got a good aerobic workout, but mostly just baked in the sun and got gently sandblasted by the wind. Not miserably sand-blasted, just mildly irritating. An hour of sand-blasting later I was over it, it was time to come home, get clean, and come up with some ideas for the evening. Her Ladyship ought to be back from Mah Jongg soon.
Like you, I am certainly avoiding things that might increase the likelihood of dementia! Regarding the stomach acid issues, I had gastric reflux for some years and nothing seemed to work very well. Then someone suggested I try kefir (which is basically fermented milk, very high in probiotics among other things). I did and have really had nearly no reflux or even heartburn ever since. I drink a cup or so every morning. The unflavored version is a bit…um…tangy, but not all that bad, and the mango flavored is excellent. You might give it a try; according to Healthline, while dairy in general is not recommended for a hiatal hernia, kefir is. Best of luck.
Afternoon all. The morning calories have been pedaled or sauna’ed away, so had a few crackers and a Diet Pepsi to hold me through soccer practice. Complimented on my weight loss by a friend at the gym, so I guess it is noticeable (Of course I had forgotten my belt and had to keep holding my (*^%&^%^ jeans up, so that maybe helped clue him in).
Pilot, I use a service called Handyman, a bit pricey but they can fix/repair things much better than I can. The long-term plan is when I get to 76-77 (about 5-6 years from now) is to sell my house and go looking for an apartment; they are building them like crazy here right now, so a few years down the road the market should be over-saturated and the prices hopefully reasonable (at least that’s the story I keep telling myself…).
Past Tense, I thought it might be a type of Mantis, but I have no desire to ever get close enough to see that face clearly…
FCM, hope FCD is home and that he immediately went to bed.
shoe, well, sometimes you feel like a nut… Would think squirrels would consider your yard like swampy considers the Golden Corral… And safe driving…keep us in mind.
Oopsie, like you, I have a routine I go through to get ready for the gym, once I get started then things just flow that way.
Or an Elementary School teacher, if you want something really stressful…
Alrighty, need to chance to soccer-practice clothes and get ready for an hour or so with the boys. Then cheeseburger for dinner!! Good day to all of you.
Howdy Y’all! Been a very slothful/lazy/useless day here in da cave. We did go to Sonny’s for N.O.L. so there’s that. It’s been rainy and dreary all day so good to be inside and dry. We accomplished nappage and then we day drank out on the back porch. I think some netflix and chill is now in order.
Windy and blustery fall day today. Went to the orifice and finished the paperwork. Then across town for the drug test, and back home before the rain started. Now, I have a stack of online stuff to read as I await the drug test results, background check results and 7 a.m. on Monday to start my week of training. After next week, I’ll be on a Sun-Wed. shift provided they decide to keep me on board. No more sleeping in as my work day will start at 6 in the morning. Yikes.
But looking forward to regular paychecks and health insurance.
shoe, would your snek eat a warm egg (in shell) while waiting for fancy not-really-a-mouse dinner? I don’t know the size of your Pretzel, but thinking that an egg should not be difficult to procure from a local farmer. I’d rather your hands stay whole.
Just a bug, possibly wearing a Halloween costume to look like an innocent kernel of corn or a dangerous snek.
I agree with not taking Prilosec, but what about famotidine (Pepcid AC) to help? It does not appear to be connected with dementia.
I got your HBCU reference oopsie. I live within spittin’ distance of TSU, Fisk and Meharry Medical School.
Feel better soonest nellie!
vroom, I work 10 hour shifts. I tend to do the prep work on Sundays for both workweek breakfasts and lunches so’s all I have to do is nuke my breakfast burrito / taco / quesadilla, throw lunch in the bag and make coffee to go. I usually take a salad for lunch with mini-tupperware for the croutons and dressing, some yogurt, a piece of fruit for mid-morning break and some baby carrots / cucumber / celery / bell pepper for the afternoon. Easy-peasy!
I’m sorry about Pretzel being hangry shoe. It sounds like you have a plan now though.
We used to get corn ears like that when we truck farmed growing up JtC. Some varieties tend to do that more.
{{{wordy}}} Going through the possesions of someone you love like that is rough.
Squee!!! on the kitteh pics.
I like the warm spices used in pumpkin or apple pie, but not in everything.
Today sucked as a day. It began nicely, but my idiot supervisor pulled a dumbass this afternoon. One of the things that I’m going to have to talk to her about is pulling me off my primary job without telling me for how long. Not knowing means that time management flies out the window.
Once I got home, I took Nelson to the dog park, only to have some dumbass woman come in with two female dogs, one of them in heat. I couldn’t keep Nelson away from the canine bitch, so we left, but not before the human bitch got pissy with me.
I was hungry for a stoner supper, but the line was out the driveway when we pulled up, so I went to Raising Cane’s, only to remember that they had crinkle cut fries (I don’t care for them), so went two doors down to Whataburger. I took the second drive thru window there and found the closed cone blocking the one on the right after the curve (this isn’t the first time this has happened at the location, meaning that you have to back out around a curve. I was ticked and needed to pee in the worst way, so’s we came home and I nuked a bowl of ramen with some frozen broccoli and cauliflower. There was definately an F-bomb or 300 dropped this afternoon.
FCM: yaay for reunited! I’m surprised it’s quiet enough to mention now that he’s back. We can certainly have quiet here with both of us two (doin’ that right now), but alone is somehow much quieter yet.
Metalmouse: the idea IMO isn’t to stay in a detached house as long as you can possibly stand. It’s to jettison the burden as soon as you can figure out what sounds like more fun / more easy. The ease and freedom is palpable, believe me.
Mantises are really cool bugs. And remarkably quick, cool, ruthless killing machines; the Special Forces ninja assassins of the insect world. Damn good thing they don’t come the size of, e.g. St. Bernards or there’d be far fewer humans on this rock. But totally cool as long as we’re big and they’re small.
We can certainly tell which of the two bitches has good breeding. Four feet good; two feet bad. Three bitches actually, counting your supervisor. Regardless of their gender. You sure don’t deserve the BS you get stuck with.
That’s just mean, hiding the “I’m closed” cone around the corner. I’d have had some choice language for somebody over that.
carnut hope the job works out. Sounds like you’re off to a good start after waaay too many false starts recently.
As to me:
I’m the guy that didn’t catch HBCU. I used to live less than 2 miles from
in a totally mixed neighborhood and have walked their campus lots more than just once. IANA some lillywhite suburban honky-turd. Great pizza joint nearby the school. I just didn’t catch the acronym, but certainly know the idea it represents once decoded.
Her Ladyship returned as scheduled and after some filibustering we picked a fun nearby place specializing in appetizer-sized meals. She’s getting to the point where one small meal plus 2 snacks is plenty. Her two eggs and a couple potato wedges was her full meal, so she wants nothing more than a taste of food for dinner. I’m still at two full + one snack, so there’s a mismatch there. More if I actually exercise, which I did today.
Anyhow off we go and they’re closed. As in maybe out of business, or had a real crisis. The interior intact, the TVs on, and all the doors locked and everything put away like they just forgot to open after a normal close on some unknown prior day. No signs, no scribbled note taped to the door, no news on the website. Hope it’s temporary; they are/were fun. Time for Plan B.
After some headscratchin’, walk a couple blocks to a tiki bar sorta place. They have great discounts at happy hour which we still make. I have a pair of strong Mojitos (Yaay Sarah!) and 10 monster meaty nicely spicy buffalo wings for $20. Score! Her Ladyship has a stuffed avocado & goat cheese app which she pronounced “OK”. Which is code for “it sucked.” Oh well.
Heading home we stopped just outside the local live music venue for a few minutes, heard the band inside blasting away and decided not to linger beyond the one tune. Good, but loud. I coulda been there (outside only) all night if solo. Sigh.
Now home and hangin’ w y’all. Planning beach at dawn manana. We shall see.
Evening all. Soccer has been practiced and Cheeseburger eaten, so all is right with the world at Casa Rat. Watching the tackleball game on Amazon Prime, not very competitive but it provides some moderate entertainment. Temperature is back down to 65F and I have not had my HVAC turned on for the entire week so far. Doubt it will last more than a few more days, but my electric and gas bills will be much more pleasant next month.
vroom, glad things are coming together.
Pilot, have given some thought to moving to an apartment, but since the mortgage is paid off and I’m pretty comfortable here, it’s not really a burden yet. May make my Xmas poresent to myself some type of maid service to do some of the cleaning I’m rather lazy about…we’ll see.
OK, need to finish up my You Tube watching and head off to bed. Catch y’all on Firday.
Flikr is having fits, but I have a pic of a mantis holding a dead Anna’s hummer. I saw it hanging around a plant under the feeder and even saw it climb onto the feeder but didn’t think much about it because the hummers are so much bigger than the local mantises. I was talking to hubs and glanced out the kitchen window to see the mantis holding the body. Hubs saw my shocked look, turned around to see what I was looking at and then we both went out to get pics. The mantis was able to hold the hummer until hubs got down the stairs to get a pic with good lighting at which time the hummer was dropped.
That was a very long time for such a little bug to hold so much weight, especially when it didn’t have the mouth parts to actually eat a feathered body.
I guessed wasp before reading the answer, just because I’m having a running battle with them building nests on the porch ceiling so am very familiar with what they look like face to face. Bastids.
We need our pollinators, but that doesn’t mean I have to deal with them taking over my living space, they need to go make their nests on the sides of the house, not my porch.
If I said something like that to my mother the retired elementary school teacher, she would laugh so hard she’d get water coming out of her eyes.
I’m glad you were able to get your friend to go out. Distractions sometimes help one go through the grieving process.
She is a very pretty girl indeed and thanks you for noticing her. Now that GG is big, she feels like the glass dog in that old story. Everyone admires the handsome cat and forgets about her quiet beauty.
She looked annoyed in that pic because they were doing a some mutual grooming and I disturbed them with the clicky thing. Sometimes I am SO unbearably rude!!!
We like to go around 2ish to give the lunch crowd time to move out. Ain’t nothing more annoying than working folks rushing around while we are trying to relax and smell the roses.
He’s not as big as he looks, half of him is fur, LOL!
The corn made me think of the Day of the Triffids. Which gave me some strange thoughts because I can remember having nightmares after watching the it on TV back when I was a kid. I can’t remember the the nightmares, or what was scary about it, I can just remember Mom telling Dad I shouldn’t watch it because War of the Worlds giving me nightmares. She burnt his pancakes the next morning.
I wasn’t too skeered to eat the corn, though. It was tasty and I haven’t started sprouting tassels or anything, so it’s all good.
We get a whole lot of “ugly” food, which is sad because ugly food tastes just like pretty corn and shouldn’t be pitched in the garbage just because it isn’t pretty.
It certainly didn’t sound like a fun day, here’s hoping that tomorrow is better.
Welcome home FCD, I hope MIL has a good visit.
My mother has said she’s not traveling again. I was hoping to be able to be able to get her to Dallas for the eclipse (she loves them so much she was on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean for one), but she shoots down every idea I have.
Today was TC and TC friend made a mean face at us when I asked her to go easy on us because we had missed classes. Despite it just being NF and me, she worked us like she had a full class. We were both happy we went, we needed someone to make us move our bodies.
NF knows me so well it isn’t funny. I told her about entering the cookie contest and she instantly got happy because she knew I’d be making several batches of cookies so I could pick the best dozen to show off, so would have many, many yummy cookies to give away.
When I told her about the googly eyeballs I bought, she thought she would want an extra dozen just because we didn’t get that sort of sprinkles when we were kids!
In other exciting news, GG is a fierce hunting cat. He caught a grasshopper in the catio and brought it inside to play with. Once it stopped moving, it wasn’t any fun anymore so VBC showed him how to pull off the legs and eat the body. GG looked extremely grossed out and went into the bedroom for a bath.
Oh thank goodness, living in a motel room while trying to work just isn’t much fun. I sure hope you don’t walk in to find a bigger mess than you expect.
We lurve our housekeeper and tip her a month’s wages every Christmas. She cleans our five ceiling fans and both toilets, plus dusts all of our knic-naks and washes the windows. (and floors and a bunch of other stuff, but the named chores are the main reasons I love her) 40 bucks a week, SOOOO worth it.
We should have access to the apartment tomorrow afternoon, repairs done. Then we get to spend quite a bit of colorful-language time getting the place put back together. Ugh.
Hoping for sleeping at home Saturday night, will be massively POed if we can’t do so Sunday.
Famotidine is a different class of drug (it’s an H-2 inhibitor) and I have not heard or read about any association with increased correlation with dementia. Prilosec is a proton pump inhibitor. It is said that famotidine may not work as well but if it works well enough for you, great.
Which one? I watched most of the Chiefs-Broncos game at my daughter’s, yet another bennie of grandma babysitting. And yes, Taylor Swift was there (at the game, not at my daughter’s).
I’m sure she’ll want me to fly down & visit as soon as she knows I have a D.L. which is why Shhhh! we’re not telling her. Right, Mumpers?
I wholeheartedly endorse this idea. They’ll clean shit you had no idea was dirty.
She brings you piggies! And teaches her roomie how to eviscerate grasshoppers!
Why do you call her “Very Bad Cat”?
I hope you get a nice, long, peaceful slumber in your own damn bed, in your own damn home.
Thanks for the heads up. My sweet manager is kinda obsessed with Taylor Swift.
… and I did text her immediately upon returning home. It was a nice feeling, having someone to notify, even if she is my boss. She’s kinda got that “surrogate mom” vibe.
And she immediately replied, saying she was glad to know I made it back safely.
So I sent her back a picture of the ORANGE AND WHITE LONGHORN who also lives at the place where thia guy does his many things.
Skip the next part if you’re easily bored and/or don’t like scaly or squeaky things … there will be cute pictures at the end of neither of those things.
… everyone else good? Okay.
So, I knew this guy raises rodents commercially. (Nice setup, too.) I wasn’t prepared for the frigging cute-as-a-button alpacas (including two bebehs!) plus the longhorn, a pair of piebald horses, and a few pygmy goats complete with teensy tiny bebeh goats.
It was kinda fun to talk shop with a professional rodent breeder. I started as “small time customer,” quickly morphed into “tourist wanting to take pictures of all the cute critters” but then we bonded over our shared dislike of breeding mice.
Ye gods, those things really are a PITA. How can something so tiny & so obsessed with grooming still be so stinky?
He laughed when I told him the only thing I liked about mice was the rainbow of colors they come in (I had a male satin flame and he was gorgeous) and he said he couldn’t sell the colorful ones as feeders (“they’re too pretty!”) so he was forced to switch to lab mice - red-eyed white albinos - which he conceded were slightly more prolific.
The drive was lengthy, but sooo enjoyable. All the maples are turning tie-dye colors, and since I was heading to a tiny rural town, I was on winding one-lane backwater routes through the farmland of the Mitten State.
Saw so many cows and cornfields, I thought I was back in Texas.
Slowed down for some kids chasing their … chicken … in the road.
Passed a Dairy Queen on the way there and about lost my mind. I haven’t seen one since I left the South. Passed it again on the way back and stopped in, now that I was prepared to make the turn, even though I wasn’t really hungry, because when the fuck am I gonna encounter a DQ again?
Plus, long car trip. Might as well pee. At which point I realized that I did, in fact, very much want a chocolate shake. Malted, please and thanks.
There’s probably more, but I’m fading fast & promised pictures.
But, for those still following along, Pretzel finally got her first proper meal in months. The first one was done before I’d even closed the door of her enclosure; she was so eager I had to gently boop her snoot with long tongs to get her to back off from the door enough to even toss them in. She’s never been like this before, but now that I have a backup source if things go badly for my own stock in the future, she will never go hungry again.
That’s a good feeling.
The dozen-ish juveniles (which include at least a few females) are healthy and pretty calm, so although I’m starting over, at least I’m doing so with good stock. There’s a bit of color variety and their fur is glossy and sleek.
Anyway, here are the alpacas (including the bebehs, which really did look like tall lambs) and the longhorn & her pals. I didn’t take any pics of his rodent setup, so there’s nothing scary to see here:
Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave. I wonder what monkeys somebody else’s circus will have to deal with today. But it being Friday the 13th, who knows. In any case try to avoid going off by yourself to have sex in any location that has annual brutal massacres of teenagers.
you know what a safe way to get rid of wasps is? go to a walmart/dollar store and get the blue and white canof fake snow like you spray on wreaths and the fake trees …just make sure you have a bucket of water because thenest will drop off the roof cause it eats through the nest and suffocates the bastards …
. Poor FCD can’t buy a break driving either way, can he?
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