The spooooookiest MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Morning all. Managed to stay abed until nearly 9am today, not a personal best but definitely longer than usual. Will respond to everyone a little later, need to do my shopping-n-sammich run here in a few minutes, but it rained most of last night and while it should stay dry today it won’t get out of the mid-50’sF.

I’ve got a supply of Snickers, Kits Kats and M&M ready for Friday, and I am trying manfully not to raid it before then (well, those two snickers last night don’t count since that was before this MMP…).

Catch up in a bit, but a Jersey Mike’s #3 is awaiting me.

22

I started this one (after checking that nobody else had) then went to bed, so I guess I oughta respond myself.

Hi, y’all!

(Nobody: “Hi, Shoe!”)

Anyway, I’ll be working till close, like I usually do on Fridays, so no handing out treats at the door, although the one year in this ‘hood that I was actually home on Halloween, there were zero kids coming ‘round.

Good thing I always buy stuff I’ll eat myself if there’s leftovers. No weird Abba Zabba here!

But my mom sent me a shirt with glow-in-the-dark skulls on it, so I’ll wear that to work. It’ll be fun to go into the walk-in and turn the light off. I have earmuffs with cat ears on them … might don those, too, since the nights are getting chilly.

If I get really ambitious, I might use eyeliner to draw on a cat nose & whiskers. Easy peasy.

Meanwhile, the place is closed today, and my plans mostly involve not getting out of bed unless I have to (and then going right back).

23

A winning plan if ever I heard one.

24

Lots accomplished so far. Food Lion didn’t have the root beer, dammit - guess it sold out over the weekend. But I got everything else I wanted. Since getting home, I’ve made (but not baked) 2 small tuna-noodle casseroles, and they’re wrapped to go. I just finished making egg salad - half for Mom, half for us. There’s a poke < snerk > butt in the oven slooooooo cooking so it’ll fall apart as pulled poke - some of that will go to Mom. I’ve also got a pound of ground beef that will become 2 small meatloaves for Mom. And I’ll give her some of the chili I made last week, and maybe a sack o’sketty sauce.

Otis has been low-key today. Dunno if it’s venison upset or he’s still pooped after yesterday. He ate his morning food, so that’s good. Shortly, I’ll give him his mid-day kibbles.

I still need to empty the dishwasher, then start refilling it - I’ve dirtied a lot of dishes so far this morning. Oh, and I heard from Jason the landscaper - the crew should be here tomorrow and he said it should only take 2 days!! So I’ll have a new hill come Weds, Thurs at the latest. Huzzah!!

And FedEx did it again. They left my delivery smack dab where FCD would back over it had his car been in the garage. I sent them another scathing review, not that I expect anything to come of it. I don’t have these issues with UPS or USPS - heck, both of them have been known to put packages in my garage if it happens to be open. We hates FedEx, we does!!! :stuck_out_tongue:

OK, the dishwasher won’t empty itself. Back to the kitchen I go!

25

I was on the 300 Slide, which wasn’t bad. Until they cut the belt off, at which point several hundred unlabeled packages came pouring down the slide. I had to have D for iiregs come help scan them all.
D: “Preload Head asked me if all the packages I was taking around were from the 300 Slide.”
Me: “He should know, he walked right past the Slide and saw it.”
But it all made it out. I did my Aldi run, had a bowl of oatmeal(with apples and cinnamon), no now it’s naptime.

celebrating the dynamiting of Parliament is an interesting concept.

Or the Dark Knight.

So moms can have a Polaroid of their kids dressed up in a plastic Luke Skywalker mask.

[Cheers]SHOE!!![/Cheers]

Union vs. underpaid “contractors”
But hope Otis feels better. And stops going Ozzie Osbourne on the local wildlife.

26

Back from a week in Astoria, Oregon. We visited a couple of lighthouses, saw the Spruce Goose down in McMinville, went to museums, and ate. The last couple of nights there were gale-force winds. The Spousal Unit said that she read there were two inches of rain Friday. :astonished_face:

Back to irk. They shut off VPN, so I can’t connect to my desktop computer. I have a meeting in ten minutes to see if I can connect without VPN. I’m on the company-issued laptop, but I can’t run Easytrieve on it so I’m crippled. Our IT person said he wanted to see if he could make it work (after some changes to Windows 11), but A) I’m not hopeful; and B) I have that other meeting.

27

And good afternoon all (well, it’s 11:30am as I start typing, but it’ll be afternoon when I post it). Shopping is complete, not much except apples today (love them Envy Apples) and got my Jersey Mike’s sammich w/chips, so belly is happy now. Not much planned, probably go to the gym and let them worry about heating bills, have the Heater on at 70F and we’ll see how hard it has to work. So only about 2 months of ‘double low bills’ (that is, both gas and electric are on the lower end of the curve) and now the North Alabama Gas Company will start collecting their toll for the next 4-5 months.

And back to the beginning to catch up with all y’all…

I fail to see a problem with that plan…

Nut, sounds like the youth of your area think it’s Purge Day not Halloween…

FCM, hope Otis’s digestion isn’t too disturbed. Enjoy the planned Mom visit. Hope the landscaping goes well, that’s something on my agenda in the next year or two. And give’em hell, Mooooooommm!!!

Knots, that must be quite a sight, all the sprinklers suddenly spraying water all at once…

lucky, I have a couple yards with skeletons and such in them, but nothing like the scares you listed. Some people let things out about themselves at Halloween IMHO that we’d prefer not to know about…

Coppertone, I remember as a youth in NE Ohio going out to trick-or-treat, often with sweaters underneath my costume and my Dad having a jacket for me when I got back to the sidewalk.

red, which toe? My little one was bad enough that I had made an appointment but wearing slightly looser shoes has seemed to cure it.

Shoe, love to see a picture sometime of you in the skull shirt.

Flyboy, visited the museum with the Spruce Goose, was impressed with it, glad you didn;t get blown away in the storms (sounds like you and Pilot had the same weather, just different coasts).

And there we go, all caught up and it’s only 11:54am, so go me!! Have a good afternoon all.

28

It’s not as big as it was when I was a kid, for sure, and most people refer to it as bonfire night because explaining the whole anti-Catholic association side is a bit awkward. There’s still plenty of stuff going bang in people’s back gardens for a week or so, and there are a few big organised displays, but where every little village would have an organised display, now it’s only a few, with especially organised people.

There’s lots of campaigns to not have private displays and only attend big organised ones, plus occasional official or unofficial bans. The tradition of ‘penny for the guy’ where kids would make an effigy, and take it out to beg for cash to buy fireworks, followed by then throwing the effigy on a bonfire has entirely died, for multiple obvious reasons, though a few places still make some kind of effigy and burn it on a bonfire. Often a somewhat political effigy, sometimes with a contest, but no-one does that at home. There are notably fewer bonfires in evidence all round, in fact, even if there are fireworks, though the local show (which is in the next city over) does still have a big, well fenced off, fire.

Halloween used to be a much more minor thing in comparison, but in recent years it’s taken over. It used to be a minor kids dressing up event event and people might put up a few decorations if they were having a kids party but that was it. The quantity of halloween related junk in shops has hugely increased. Also pumpkins were almost unheard of when I was a kid- we carved swedes (I think rutabagas to you lot, not Nordic people) which is a lot harder to do.

All this does need one caveat though; I have moved round a lot since I was a kid, and this does vary a lot by area anyway- I’m in Scotland now, where halloween was always a bit more important and bonfire night wasn’t so much.

In the area I largely grew up in halloween was also known as ‘mischief night’ and was decidedly not a night for taking the kids out late, especially in the rougher areas. It could get drunk and rowdy, random bonfires were common on the street and it could occasionally turn really nasty, similar to as mentioned in my previous post, though it’s not officially a tradition in this area. A lot of British people haven’t heard of that being a thing at all though, as it is very localised and obviously there are attempts to stamp it out where it does happen.

Anyway, survived irk, but left a little early, as I realised I’d been staring at a page for half an hour without doing anything. It’s not as though I’m paid for fixed hours.

29

We don’t get trick or treaters here, the highway is dark and there are no sidewalks. There are things for kids in town but we tend to stay home and avoid mobs of sugar amped kids.

This week I’ll buy a couple of bags of candy that will be given to delivery guys and the two kids who get off the school bus. If our missing housekeeper shows up again, she will get the leftovers, otherwise I’ll just put them in the snack box. I have to get them out of the house right away or Hubs will eat them all at one sitting and then feel ick for a few days.

Thanks for your suggestion about the period panties, Boo. I kinda figured that would be the answer, but I’m old and child-free enough that I’ve never actually held them in my hands so wasn’t sure.

We’ve contacted the local meals-on-wheels to find out what sort of pet food they would take, but haven’t heard back. Back in AZ, we could take them big bags of kibbles and they would break them up into smaller bags for their clients. I’m hoping they will do the same thing here, that will save us some money. We haven’t heard back, I’m guessing they need to ask their drivers what is needed.

Hubs has also said that we need to double up the critter food donations we make to the shelter to help support the families who don’t want to give their pets up, but cannot afford to feed them now.

It is a dreary, cloudy day and I’m totally not motivated to actually go out and do things so I won’t. Nothing is critical or even close. We have pork chops thawed in the freezer, we were going to have them with gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans and fried cornbread, but now I think I’ll pull a tub of bean soup out of the freezer instead. This is just a soup kinda day.

30

Quoting myself for context:

Welp, it’s official. She backed out completely. A decision with which I reluctantly agree. Soo much shit happening in the next 3 weeks in her life that even the most efficient possible trip took too big a bite out of too few days.

I’m going to keep the leisurely road trip we’d planned. Might get bored, but at least I’ll get bored in novel surroundings.

31

I wish I was close enough to drive over to you and Hubs and give you both a bunch of hugs for doing this. My soul would shrivel up and die if I couldn’t feed Moxie.

As it is I’m laying awake at night worrying about all the folks who won’t have food stamps come November 1st. I love the idea of offering mac and cheese cups, ramen cups and instant oatmeal packets to trick or treaters. I bet hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows packets would be a welcome choice too.

32

Afternoon, mumpers! It’s currently 11c/52f with a predicted high of 12c/53f and mostly cloudy. Weather app says “Suck, it, fucking clouds. Fucking suck it.” OK, if that’s how you feel. It’s crisp and cool out there, typical autumn day really.

It is round my way. We have a big bonfire and fireworks display in the park near home so that will be a noisy evening. It’s usually on the Saturday night closest to 5th November but that’s a midweek night so apparently it’s going to be this coming Saturday. A good night to stay in and keep the pets happy.

That sounds like an excellent week off. Sorry to hear you’ve come back to irk aggravation.

I’ve had one of those days. I had a bad night as I’ve been coughing a lot, got up and took ‘im indoors to the station, did some irk and ended up on a video call with someone about something I am expected to complete and have no idea what I’m meant to be doing with it. Went to the supermarket at lunchtime, the kids are on holiday this week and it seemed like everyone in the store was a parent with at least three kids in tow, or an OAP moving at 5mph.

Came home and had lunch, then spent the afternoon doing stuff for other people instead of my stuff. I will have to go to campus tomorrow even though I am a little plague pit myself, but I should be able to argue for working the rest of the week at home. Well, argue, more like croak at people.

I need to feed the mogs next, consider what to have for dinner, and work out what I am taking to campus for food tomorrow. Then I’ll gather up the recycling and haul the biiiig recycling bin out to the kerb for tomorrow’s collection. Always something…

As for Hallowe’en, it’s not a big thing around here. We rarely have trick or treaters because everyone’s scared to let their kids out of the house these days.

33

It so happens I’m wearing my Cape Disappointment tee today! Did you have fish and chips at that joint up the hill?

34

When you go on vacation, do you let them know ahead of time so they don’t worry when you miss your Moanday sammich??

I would guess that the expense could be a factor - things going boom probably aren’t cheap.

I scored at the Leonardtown Food Lion - got SIX cartons of root beer for my sweetie, plus some bottled Diet Coke for me. We’re set for a while - if timing is right, we’ll be running out when the next sale hits.

The house is smelling of yummy poke! I’ll let it go a few more hours before letting it rest, then pulling it. FCD is about to go nap, so I’ll be watching the next episode of Monarchy.

35

No, we ate breakfast before we went. We didn’t eat lunches.

36

Happy Monday! We get no trick-or-treaters here, as there are few if any kids in the complex, plus it’s gated, so that kills that. As I’ve said before, as a kid I liked to TorT until dinner (5:30 sharp), then give out candy, which made our parents happy. All our candy got combined into a big bowl (It’s a wonder I’m not a socialist.), anyway so it didn’t cost me to stay home.

When we ran out of candy, I’d call Dad, and he’d some dig pennies out of his pockets.

Does anyone besides me recall the dreaded peanut butter kisses? They were tooth-breakers wrapped in either black or orange. In candy economics, they were like Confederate money, as nobody would trade for them.

We lived in the country, so I had to drive the kids into town to trick-or-treat. All the kids would go to the (wealthy) houses near the golf course, as the best treats were there, with one exception: a dentist gave out toothbrushes. We rationed our son’s candy. Our daughter never wanted to EAT candy, just HAVE it. I’d have to pitch it before Christmas. She LOVES Halloween and goes all out. My son will turn off the lights: one of their dogs thinks every kid is part of the zombie apocalypse.

I have Sir Charles the Chill with me. I had dogs every day last week. One day I took Ms. Dog down to the lake, where we were approached by two Mormon missionaries. They’re basically just kids, and I had a lot of students who went on missions, so I always chat with them. HOWEVER, Ms. Dog has a sense of humor and thinks it’s funny to sneak behind people and stick her head through their thighs. I swear she grins at this. She did it to one missionary, who jumped about a foot. I think he felt corrupted. Ms. Dog wasn’t a bit sorry.

We had rain and the big windstorm others have described. The sidewalks are littered with small branches. When I took Charlie out for his nightly potty Saturday night, he walked 10 feet, whizzed in the bushes, then dragged me home.

Will be back later.

37

We’ve been here for more than 2 decades, and the Halloween thing seems to wax and wane. The last few years it’s waxing again, and the stores are selling candy specifically for trick or treating. The company canteen is all decorated for Halloween as well.

Us? If we’re home, it will be with the front lights darkened, just in case somebody thinks they might get candy from us. Unlikely, though.

Satuday is a holiday, so we’re taking Friday off, to get shopping done, and to use up a vacation day. Fortunately it looks like the weather won’t be too bad. Since we’re back to standard time, the sun sets at 5:15, so today was the first time going home in the dark. As a bonus, we got cold (8°C/46°F), wind, and a downpour. Must be Monday.

38

Well, I was gonna treat myself to breakfast, but I conked back out after posting earlier, and since it’s now 3 p.m. I guess that ship has sailed.

That’s okay, I made black bean soup last night and have plenty left over waiting for me.

That made me smile. :slight_smile:

I LOL’d

Ah, that’s aggravating.

Oh, those things sucked.

Heheheh.

Whelp, this joint won’t smoke itself and the zombies in my game need killin’ so my lazy ass will … not be getting out of bed anytime soon, but, yanno, eventually.

39

I’m back. I had to leave abruptly because I’m going through an issue with Zelle. Sir Charles the Chill’s person paid me via Zelle, but I kept getting texts from Zelle (?) saying the payment is pending. This started on Friday. Zell has no stand-alone app any more, so I called my bank. They said everything is fine on their end, so I had to contact C the C’s person to get her to check her end.

Sometimes technology is the servant, sometimes it’s the master.

Hey, I’m not nobody. I said, “Hi, shoe!” I guess it’s hard to hear from 2,000 miles away. :slight_smile:

FCM, I hope Otis is OK. Dogs like to think they’re ferocious beasts who still hunt game. My lab once chased and killed a plastic bag tumbling down the road, so at least Otis is smarter than that.

Pro tip: It’s even more fun if you go in with a good kisser. :wink:

Will you spell “BOO” on the pizzas with pepperoni?

Much better than celebrating demolishing a wing of the White House.

flyboy, I’ve only been through Astoria. Maybe next time I go through there, I’ll stop at a lighthouse or two. The windstorm didn’t damage your house then? Good-o

It sounds like you had wonderful parents.

You are good people. I’m so angry about Congress allowing SNAP to lapse that I’m swearing in every language I know (so two-and-a-half). A plague on both their houses! AND the feds are basically not supporting food banks now. I’d better shut up before I get in trouble.

pilot, sorry about the change in plans. Your gf sounds like a busy woman!

40

Thank you. We started giving pet food to Meals on Wheels a very long time ago. One of the volunteer drivers lived on the same street as we did and he was the one who told me that some of his clients were giving their pets their food. Because of course they did. I would too.

It started with just that neighbor’s clients, but turned into a regular thing in a while. It was great when we found chewy, we could just have all that heavy food and litter delivered right to the main kitchen and never have to lift a finger.

We meant to start doing it here, but it just never got started. Now it will.

I also have a variety of words concerning what is currently happening. I used to be a food stamp worker, I know what chronically hungry kids look like and I don’t much care for it.

You have some very lucky neighbors, good pet sitters are hard to find.

I just go to sleep and lose cats all night long. Face wet with tears most mornings.

So, as expected, nothing happened here today. I ordered a serious grow-light for my tree, the cheapo on I was using just wasn’t cutting it and leaves keep falling off. The new one arrived today and I got it put together and adjusted so that was something. I should probably go out back and water my shrubs, the mulch is looking kinda dry.

Two of Harry’s young male grands came over today and climbed the ladder for him. One of his trees was reaching over the train tracks and he wanted to take the branch off cleanly before the train did it harder.

They have special tree trimming train cars (they look like they have a couple of big circular saws mounted on each side) that they run through a couple of times a year, but those aren’t that kind to trees either.

I totally understand. People need their pets, sometimes they are the only reason for someone to get out of bed in the morning.

Please promise me that if you are ever having to choose between feeding yourself and feeding Moxie that you will tell me. I won’t be able to save your world, but I’ll help as I can.