Whaddya mean, it's December in the MMP?!?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
101

A small SUV, unsure which. Like you, ours is (was?) a Ram 2500. Apparently her phone was so engaging she never hit the brakes. The insurance companies are saying mine’s probably a total loss. They’re awaiting more info from a body/repair shop before declaring it officially. No doubt about her car, as her radiator was (literally) beneath her windshield wipers. The entire engine appeared to have gone underneath her car.

We’re hoping the decision is to repair ours though. It would be difficult to buy the same vehicle at a decent price today, and we’ve modified it considerably for our needs (off-road skid plates, grill guard, bed cover, jib crane, fold-down tailgate ladder, and auxiliary diesel tanks). I’m not sure how this stuff is accounted for in claims, or what can be transferred to a new truck. The aux tank had 65 gallons of diesel when I was hit. This represents considerable expense and weight, and will be a pain to deal with no matter how they decide. I have sufficient hoists to lift it, but not high enough to clear the jammed tailgate – so I have to leave it to them.

So far today, I’ve removed most of the jib crane (still need impact wrench to get the final bolts), the entire bed cover, and the tailgate ladder. I’m awaiting a call from the insurance lady before starting on the grill/intercooler guard. It’s much harder than the other stuff, and if they decide to repair, it can just stay where it is (I think). Everything else has to come out anyway, as I (assume) the truck will need an entirely new bed. The bed floor and sides are buckled so I’m guessing it’s not repairable.

Good thing I bought new tires a couple of months ago, right? (sigh…)

Oh well. I hope everyone’s having a good week. Most of my neck and back soreness are gone, so I can lay off the Ibuprofen. I think I should continue applying wine and hot tub each evening. Just to be sure.

102

My back’s already yelling at me and I haven’t even gotten to the priority chores of the day (mirrors and counters in both bathrooms need attention). Too busy deciding to shuffle contents of several kitchen cabinets in a forlorn effort to make a kitchen that is NOT designed for a 5’4" cook at least somewhat functional. I’m pretty sure this kitchen was designed by someone at least 5’10" who never cooked, so never gave a thought to whether said cabinets could be reached. I do NOT like stepladder tasks when DH isn’t home (I have a thing about falling). Did manage this operation successfully, but I’m not going to push my luck much further today. I think the current version is at least an improvement (optimizing this kitchen appears to be an exercise in futility).

Time to breathe, do a little reading, and let the ibuprofen kick in before I get to those bathrooms.

103

Yikes… The bed is “just” a bunch of bolts and a wiring harness for the tail lights. But if she bent the frame, all bets are off. That’s when you look up the steps to do the “Do I wanna buy it back with a salvage title and fix it?” dance if they call it a total loss.

One thing going for you is it’s a truck with cab and bed bolted to a frame, rather than the unibody SUV that hit you. That thing is definitely scrap if the engine dove (as it will by design) under the passenger cabin.

While you wait for body shop and insurance to sort things out, your self treatment plan seems quite sound.

104

was the polce called because in most places that’s at least a class d/c felony and will legally make the accident her fault automatically (in ca anyways if you do something illegal while driving and wreck something its your fault)

Sari a grand an acre? you defiantly need to check that as that sounds waaay undervalued although it depends on the location … for instance here you can get an acre of the desert with no sign of human life for 50 miles for 2500 depending on various things

Swampy if you made that … id even consider eating grits again …

Just found out that la county has no proof of citizenship for my aunt … I wonder after last night’s altercation if I could get her deported lol

Yeah we had a row last night and some of it was my fault because I let the box with all the paper Xmas wall decorations get wet and I didn’t check to see if they’re was water in it for at least 3 weeks or so …but she was having a disagreement with her gentleman caller and was looking for the reason a to fight and found one … and something was flung and i said some bad things ,

105

I went to the supermarket to get a veg to have with the salmon tonight, where I saw an 11-pound turkey for $16. Since we didn’t have anything resembling Thanksgiving dinner on our vacation, I’ll make Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I put the meatloaf I was planning to cook sometime in the next week back into the freezer. (It hadn’t thawed at all.)

106

Back bathroom (just off our bedroom) complete and trash from everywhere except the front bathroom (next to living room) is ready to go out. Gotta let the naproxen kick in before I tackle the front bathroom.

107

Hey! I’m alive!

And it’s my birthday :birthday:, which is kinda neat. It’s number 55, which I’m finding fun. It’s a good number, for some reason.

I have read nothing, so I hope everyone’s doing OK. Hugs to all!

108

Afternoon all. Got my Wednesday swimmin’-n-sauna in, will see about getting back this evening and doing my Tuesday bicycle pedaling, which would get me back on-schedule.

Bought some $15 PetSmart cards to account for all the family pets, so that should cover everything Christmas-wise. No decorations at my place, but up the street a guy has a giant (call it 20") high skeleton he puts out for Halloweeen and then puts a red Santa suit over it for the Xmas season…don’t know how many $$$ he spent on that, but it is noticeable…

Flyboy, quite a trip and glad you are back safe and sound; enjoy the belated Turkey dinner.

shady, hope things settle down with family…can’t live with them, can’t get them deported… :smiley: :wink: :wink:

yanker, sounds like you need to keep stripping that truck down and hope you can find one close to it somewhere if they can;t repair it.

Orville, that sucks. Corporations are like that.

nellie, glad you and pup are both ok from the weather, Cookies sound good.

Jasmine, hoping the tests are negative and you get to feeling better.

OK, some more internettin’ and then decide if I eat dinner first then go exercise or get the exercise done and stuff myself for dinner…decisions, decisions…

Take care all.

109

The Chief Decorator has put the candy cane lights in front of the front window. She still has the orange and purple Halloween lights up because she couldn’t find the Christmas lights. We’ll have new Christmas lights on Friday. My job was to figure out how to plug the lights into the porch light. I did.

Speaking of Christmas, I thought of getting The Missus a greenhouse for Christmas, and put it in my shopping cart last Summer. Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago she asked me if I could build her a greenhouse. When I went to look at my shopping cart, it was no longer available; so I ordered the one in the link.

110

Happy birthday, sunny!! :partying_face:

I don’t mind Christmas music as a genre. I have a playlist of 66 favorite holiday tunes – everything from Vince Guaraldi, the Harry Simeone Choir, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to Stevie Wonder, U2, and the Beach Boys – and I had fun listening to that while I decorated on Friday. I also broke out some Christmas sheet music on Sunday, which was the first time I’d sat down to play in a while. I need to do that more. I started taking piano lessons when I was 7, and have had a piano or keyboard every place I’ve ever lived; playing is always good for my mental health.

I’ve actually made a dent in my Christmas shopping already! I still need one more idea for the husband half of my BFFs, and I’m waiting for the wife half to tell me what I can get for their son (my “nephew”). But the wife’s gifts and one of the husband’s are done, and I actually have gifts for my father and brother this year (we stopped exchanging presents several years ago, but they aren’t prohibited :slight_smile: ). Of course, I still don’t have holiday cards yet. I sent out funny cards the past two years, but I might just go with “here’s a photo someone else took of Washington D.C. in the snow” cards this year. I need to decide soon.

I bought myself a new toy: the latest Kindle Oasis! My 6-year-old model was working just fine, but I’d already been thinking about upgrading for a while and the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale was really good (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it)! It arrived yesterday. It has an “adjustable light warmth” feature that I won’t use, but I’m already digging the 1" bigger screen: I can keep the text size where I like it but turn pages less often. Because it’s a little bigger and the battery lasts a little longer it’s also a little heavier, which will take some getting used to, but it’s not too heavy (which I’d wondered about). Unfortunately it’s too big for the neoprene case I’ve used with all of my previous Kindles, but que sera sera. I’m willing to give the old Oasis (+ case) away for free, and I have some feelers out among family/friends.

Monday morning I went to the lab and had blood drawn for various tests in advance of my 1-year post-op checkup (scheduled for a week from today). I was a little worried about my A1C – a number representing a three-month average of my blood sugar levels – because (a) after the last labs my doc cut my remaining diabetes med dosage in half and (b) in the past few months I’ve started eating a lot of bread again and (c) I haven’t lost any more weight. In September, my A1C was stellar…I didn’t think it would be anything crazy this time, but I feared it might increase more than desired…so I’m tickled to report that it is still just as good! :tada: All of the results I’ve gotten so far (11 out of 14 tests) have been just as good as three months ago! WHEW!

For dinner, I’ll celebrate my good lab results with some frozen pizza… :wink:

WOW. That’s a special kind of needy/narcissistic/demanding. I think someone suggested honesty, which is what I recommend: no one worth your time can find fault with “it’s just not my cup of tea.”

(Trust me, I’m a jazz musician…no one likes jazz! :slight_smile: )

Holy crap!! I’m so glad no one was hurt.

D’awww. :slight_smile:

Yay!

Ooof…sorry the lesson had to be such an expensive one. :frowning:

111

Happy birthday!

112

Back from physical therapy. I left the house at 1:30 and didn’t get back until almost 4. That is a long time, too long. I hope it goes more quickly next time.
I couldn’t find a parking space and had to drive around the lot. Then a bunch of people came out and I found a space. Just as the sky opened up and the rain poured down.
Both of my legs are not so good. I can’t straighten either of them. The therapist told me walking and standing on slightly bent knees is making my knees worse.
I have exercises I have to do twice a day. My son isn’t going to be happy, but he may have to help me with a few of them. At least I can do them in bed. If I had to get on the floor I might never get back up.

Shoe, I think a little tough love might work, but he quite honestly is afraid to drive. I don’t get it, but the fear is real. If the truck starts to go too fast, he panics.
Like Nellie said, my son is very considerate of me. Of course, the only way to get over the fear is to face it. The more he drives, the more confident he will be.
But I can’t keep getting up in the middle of the night. I am exhausted. Getting three dogs out of the house and into the truck is a lot harder than two. As it gets colder it gets harder on me, and trying to walk on ice in the dark is just too much for me.
It’d be easier without the dogs, but since they have never been left alone, that is going to take some training.
I am always stressed about what he is going to do if I’m not able to drive him. I need him to be in a place where he can live without me.

I hope Ripple heals and doesn’t need anything more, Nellie. It’s good to be forewarned that this could be a continuing problem.

Shady, I was thinking of offering $1000/acre. If they don’t want to spend the money on an appraiser, and my sister wants to be an asshole about the house, well, I’ll offer a low amount. I think my parents paid $3000 for the lot, but that was close to 50 years ago. There was some mess up and a piece of their property was used for a road, so they got extra acreage added to the original 5 acres. From what I can tell, it’s probably worth about $25,000. That’s from looking at other parcels that have sold recently. Who knows though? It’s almost 8 acres of woods, sitting in the middle of hundreds of acres of woods. If I ever wanted to live there, I’d have to get everything, a well, septic tank, electricity, etc. If I were 20 years younger, I’d go for it.
Being out in the middle of nowhere is harder when you are older.
My father and his brother bought adjoining lots with the intention of building houses and retiring there. Unfortunately, by the time they retired, being that far away from medical facilities wasn’t such a good idea. My mother and aunt weren’t so keen on the idea either. Camping in the middle of nowhere can be fun, living there permanently, not so much.

Glad you had a mostly good time FlyBoy

Safe travels BooFae

Pork Rinds are Keto friendly. I wish I liked them Ace.

The rain finally stopped, but now it’s windy and getting colder.
I am going to be hating life when I get the call in the middle of the night.
I’ll try to go to bed by 8, but I never sleep well when he is irking.

113

Everyone has gone home and the dishwasher is done. We’re both beat.

I contacted the Holiday Inn and there are no youth groups booked when we’re there, so yay! Now to see if there’s anything going on while we’re there or if we’ll just veg in the hot tub. Good times!

114

Howdy Y’all! It rained a lot and then went away this afternoon and it got N.O.S. High sloth was accomplished today. Sup got fixed and et and the kitchen cleanded up. shades I guarantee you would like shrimp 'n grits. It’s cheesy, a little spicy and contains bacon along with shrimpies and grits. What’s not to like!

I read all but retention is low, so yays, boos, hugs, trouts, chitlins, noogies, and how you doin’s all around, as needed.

And now this…

< AHEM > CLEARIN’ THROAT < AHEM >
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY DEEEAAARRR SSSUUUNNNNNNYYY!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!

115

The salmon turned out great. It’s so much easier than the other ways I make it. And the organic yellow squash came out perfectly too. I didn’t give Goo any of my salmon skin, but she got some from Cat Mom.

116

So for Brown FUBAR Bingo:
Gas leak in the PDC trailer in 128
Head of preload spending entire sort in dumping loft(to be fair he did make himself useful)
Belt overload for five hours straight
Driver of 229 dumping multiple packages on us because he didn’t want to deliver(dude, don’t mark it as undeliverables on today’s date, when none of the package cars have left the building yet)
useless former coworker who is now a PT supervisor(me and a lot of capable semi-sane people said no to that) yet more stuff on me. Me: “What is this and why is it here” Him: “I do not know.”

Damn this martini tastes good. :cocktail:
And :cocktail: :cocktail: :cocktail:

:partying_face: :birthday: :champagne: Happy Birthday Sunny :champagne: :birthday: :partying_face:

I’m sure RoxStar and Toby* would take the heat, in excahnge for cookies. :wink:

Maybe it’s Dog Lent?

117

Welcome back gotti!

That was a good trade hippy. Do you ever use a die cutting machine to cut your quilting fabric? The reason that I ask, I bout a lot a couple of years ago with some steel rule dies for mine, but one of them was designed for a machine used more often in cutting fabric.

nellie, blankies, clothes or no, the crate may represent a safe space for your charge. When I still crated Nelson daily, his crate was his little doggy cave where he would retreat when he felt stressed (think thunderstorms or, back then, the vacuum cleaner).

Happy birthday sunny!

Irked and am now off until Tuesday. I decided earlier this week that a mini staycation was in order, so tomorrow will be swampy level sloth, then my normal weekend, then a dermatologist appointment Monday.

It was 61F when I got up this morning and 46F when I left irk. It’s supposed to freeze tonight. When I walked into irk this morning, there was a flood in the main break room, almost to security. They had all but a path roped off and didn’t get things back in order until after lunch.

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

118

Evening all. Did make it back to the gym for 375 calories worth of pedaling to nowhere, then home for soup-n-sammich. Otherwise a fairly slothful day. Need to gas up car tomorrow the little warning light came on, but I’m only 10 miles from 54,000, so wondering if I can make it to that before filling up…nah, I get gas in it tomorrow. Supposed to drop to 29F tonight, but up to 52F tomorrow.

Hippo Birdies Two Ewe, Sunny.

red, they have a broken pipe? Not a good sign for freezing weather…but since you’re off until 2sDay, not your circus, not your monkeys.

doggio, surprised you’re not an alcoholic by now with all the craziness at work.

Sari, he needs to feel some stress about being stranded. Almost wish you (and the dogs) could just disappear for a week and make him take on responsibility (what am I saying, he’d probably lose his job…). Hope it works out. And hope the PT helps…sounds unpleasant for you now, maybe these exercises will help.

Oopsie, don’t have a Christmas songs list, but did listen to Paul Simon’s Graceland album on You Tube, so I hope that counts. And hooray! for the blood test results.

Flyboy, that looks like a great gift idea.

OK, food is being digested and the house is moderately warm, so there is internettin’ to be done and puzzles to solve, so all y’all have a good night/morning and I’ll get back with you on Thorsday.

119

And you’re just warming up. I’d imagine preemptively putting packages on trucks rather than trains isn’t helping overall delivery times.

Now if you could just wave a wand and make the seasonals more …I dunno… just more? Having randos show up at my house with a backseat full of boxes in a Rav4 is just weird. And I had one pull up in front of my house, sit a bit then take off, all while I was watching the map-based tracker show my package leaving. :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: I got in the car and drove over a couple blocks where the tracker was showing my package and asked if I could have my box. She actually called someone and asked them if I could have it. :astonished: The voice at the other end of the mini-DIAD said “Let him have it!” and sounded almost as exasperated as me. Can’t believe she actually thought she had to ask.

120

metal mouse, a good share of the warehouses in our business park have plumbing issues because we’re built on a swamp. When the park was in development ~20 years ago, I irked in one of the original buildings. The drive was gravel, no traffic light on the main drag and only Mapco or McDonalds as your lunch choices. One of the guys with whom I irked lost his pickup in a sinkhole in the parking lot and another couple of vehicles were damaged, so yeah…plumbing is challenged.