So sorry for your loss nightshadea. 
Yep, this year has sucked mightily.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 74 Amurrkin out and partly cloudy (partly moony?) with a predicted high of 91 and maybe mostly N.O.S. for the day. Or maybe it will rain. TWPTB are willy-nilly today. I have a doc appointment this mornin’ at nine. Routine stuff and I get to see the vampires, I think. Also, some provisions need to be procured so I shall go to the Pubic Sto’ whilst out and about. I asked OYKW if he wanted to do that but he said since I’m out might as well be me. Thus it shall be. Sup will be sketties ‘n meatballs, sallit, and cheesey garlic bread. OYKW is cookin’ so I shall loll about whilst my sup is prepared. 
{{{Shades}}} so sorry about your aunt, and yes 2020 has been mightily sucky.
Shoe harkenin’ back to my irk days, sometimes the best thing one can say at the end of the day is at least nobody died or was murdered. Some days just be like that. Hope today is better. Also, I agree with Ace that A/C should be named Coolio.
Peaches I’ve heard complaints about the new votin’ machines. I voted absentee so didn’t have to deal with one. I liked doin’ the absentee ballot and since I am now a geezer and can get away with it, I think all future votes will be via absentee ballot.
Nellie hope today is a better day.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, alas, bother, dismay, alack, and woe of woes, I suppose I must purtify and don appropriate bein’ about the public attire. Pity the difficulty of my life people!
Happy Hump Day Y’all!
Morning, mumpers!
Sorry for your loss, (((Shades)))
Swampy, Larry’s sendoff sounds like it was a good one, and it’s great that you could attend without attending. I spoke to a colleague the other day, her BIL passed away and she is unhappy about the funeral arrangements as they’re a Hindu family and can’t use the temple for their usual rituals. She’s not angry about it, just upset that it won’t be the kind of funeral they were expecting to have - a total of 20 mourners instead of the 1,000 they had at her father’s funeral a few years ago.
Nellie, I hope today is a better day for you and your symptoms decide they’re not welcome and should go away again.
Grey and grim here today, I have two meetings, so I’d better get myself sorted out for the first one as it starts in 8 minutes!
I am very sorry for your loss shades
Shoe Coolio is the perfect name for an air conditioner.
**Chilly Willy **- what else would one call an a/c? I’m embarrassed for all of your lame suggestions. OK, except I did giggle at Coolius Freezer.
Thanks to the magic of antihistamines and hydrocortisone, I think I got a decent night’s sleep. I didn’t wake till after 7, which is not the norm for me. **FCD **has already gone back to bed after being up I don’t know how long… And the rest of the household is asleep. I was going to mow this morning, and now I’m thinking that ain’t gonna happen. Or maybe it will. But not right now.
I am much relieved after checking our 3 investment accounts yesterday. When the market crashed because of COVID (or whatever caused it to crash) I was afraid to look. When you’re already retired, your retirement accounts don’t have a lot of time to recover. But I’m guessing since our finance guy had us in fairly conservative funds, everything has gone up since the end of March, so we’re in good shape. So I won’t *have *to go back to work and we won’t have to live in a refrigerator box after all! OK, it was never quite that bad, but I do tend to over-worry about money.
No clue what today will hold - an adventure? 
Happy Wednesday!!
Nailed it in one.
(With Nikki the cat, Pretzel the snake, and a bevy of assorted unnamed ratties, that makes it … Coolio And The Gang!)
{{Shady}} sorry about your aunt
Well, yeah, unless you carry on looking once you’ve found it :dubious:
After a moderately productive day yesterday, I have decreed that today shall be a jammie day. I woke up feeling completely washed out, it’s raining, and I have nothing urgent to do. Adulting can wait until tomorrow.
The bees seem OK, if you were wondering, though the new mini hive will need feeding if there’s not enough gaps in the rain this week. The rain was needed though, it was getting bone dry, and when it’s like that, although there may be a lot of flowers around, they can stop producing nectar. It would be very nice if the weather would stop swinging from extreme to extreme, but that’s maybe the way of things now.
Executive decision has been made - meatloaf for supper. Sides TBD. Now I can chill for the rest of the day.
Not that I’ve done much anyway. OK, I did run the dishwasher. And I climbed into the attic to have a look at the attic fan. It hasn’t been coming on and I suspect it’s died. But I wanted to check that it would at least still spin, which it does. I suppose I could go up there with a meter or check the thermostat switch. In fact, it’s likely that’s the problem, altho the fan is well over 16 years old, which I understand is the normal life of such a device.
**FCD **wants to climb up there, which is a BIG NOPE! Last thing we need is him falling down the ladder. Wish I had a handier SIL.
Ouch!
They bring in a lot of dust here. Mama Plant’s went through a couple of belts. When the motor froze, I elected not to replace it.
I’m so sorry to hear about your aunt, nightshadea.
Completely random tangent: most of what teens and tweens talk about with their friends is useless nonsense. This is probably not news to anyone else, and I’m sure my own conversations were just as random and useless, but hearing my son and his frieInd debate the merits of a 4 oz glass of water vs. an 8 oz and watching my daughter give video tours of the boardgame closet to her friends kind of had me watching in awe.
I was headed out the door yesterday and trapped in a 15 minute conversation with my 14 year old son and his buddy about whether it was worth the $9 to buy a water bottle holder for your bike or not. I guess both kids take after their mom, hence my username.
Also, my username is somewhat misleading. I’m super wordy online, but I actually hate speaking most of the time. I do it out of necessity and because it’s rude not to respond to questions, but if I could go for 3 days and not have to speak or see anyone, that would be absolutely delightful.
Morning all. Woke at 6:30am for the usual early morning bathroom visit, but decide to put on the sleep mask (which I brought back from an international flight 3 years ago) and I ended up staying in bed until 9:30am. Will have to remember that…
Big Yellow Ball in the Sky is supposed to be out today and tomorrow, but only in the 80F range so I should get the lawn mowed tomorrow without problems. Today I had bicycle shopping on my to-do list, there is a store about 3 miles from here, my major question is if they can manage a large person like me with a…generous…derriere. We shall see.
FCM, Meatloaf is a good decision anytime, sez I… And I haven’t looked much, but my money is in annuities, and they supposedly guarantee a minimum investment each year, but I need to check with the Edward D. Jones guy on that.
{{Shady}} on your loss. It is one of the bad things about getting older.
Purp, I would have gone with Acey, but Coolio is pretty…well…cool as a name. And hope irk is less irksome today.
Peaches, best thing about politics is not to talk about them. I’m a moderately liberal sort while my brother is very much to the right, so we agree not to argue about something we’re not going to change each other’s minds on.
talkative, I’ve been single all my life, so not talking for days is nothing unusual for me (well, outside of hanging up on scammers and ordering food at the Burger King). You can even talk to yourself (long as you don’t start having existential conversations…
Ok, need to get at least presentable enough to retrieve my newspaper and forage for sustenance. All y’all take care.
**MetalMouse **- we have 2 annuities which were set up to be low risk with a guaranteed minimum return, and they’re doing well. The other is actually Roxy’s college fund, unless we end up in a bad financial situation and have to use it. So it’s a bit riskier but with better return. And should she get a full ride to college, it can help cover living expenses or books or whatever.
I’m in the middle of purging an old laptop that we’ll be donating to daughter’s school. It originally ran WinXP :eek: and my BIL put Win7 on it. Very slow and likely not long for this world, but maybe someone at the school knows more than I do about laptops and they’ll get some use out of it. I hadn’t logged on since November of last year, so it’s not like it’ll be missed here.
I think Roxy’s getting ready for another growth spurt. Her lunch today was last night’s leftovers - a big pile of veggies and shrimp. Like she needs to outgrow her clothes again!!
Grumpy Hump Day!
It’s hot outside.
Nice day at the park though.
It’s been a few icky days around here, although nothing like what it seems the rest of you have been going through.
Had some words with a neighbor yesterday.
Her tone and attitude brought out the ‘fuck you’ in me, but I managed to keep it in.
However, I will no longer be trimming the weeds in her part of the parking pad, so when they grow six feet high again she can deal with them.
I was doing it because the pad is asphalt and I didn’t want all the cracks running down to my end, but I’ll deal with a new parking pad when the time comes.
Also, the next time her flowers get sent to my house because of whoever sends them gets the address wrong, well those flowers can just sit on the porch. I will not walk them up to her house.
I ordered the rocks for the front yard, where they are looks nice and where they aren’t, doesn’t.
It’s a lot of money, though.
And I’m thinking why put money into this place when I am irritated with half of my neighbors.
I finally got a hold of the vet, Ripple goes in Firday, then in two weeks after that they can go back to daycare.
My next door neighbor says her nephew is going to come out and give her side of the backyard a good mowing and trimming. I won’t hold my breath, she still hasn’t fixed her window. At least it is boarded up so the birds and squirrels don’t get in anymore.
I really need to get out there and get some stuff done, but I am seriously considering getting a landscaper out to do something with the yard. The yard is small, so it shouldn’t cost too much.
I have decisions to make, and we all know how I feel about those.
{{{Shady}}}
It’s hard to type with stiff fingers and one hand on my ear. No earache. They’re coming around checking fire alarms today. They quietly advance on each building, then BUUUUZZZZ. RING. RING. It’s loud enough to drop your teeth and stop your heart. And you never know when they’re getting to your building. I know it’s good they check. We had a serious fire in my building a few years ago, and two apartments were destroyed (not mine). However, I hate a day of cringing dread.
Thanks for the kind wishes. Today is worse than yesterday, but I can still type. talkative, I never know how long a flare will last. I should put myself back on prednisone, but I hate the side effects.
{{{shades}}} I’m so sorry about your aunt.
mooooom, you’ve given me the courage to open my brokerage statement. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s a lot to me, and the statement has been sitting on my desk for two days because I’ve been a-scairt to look. But maybe it’ll be OK.
Sari, sorry you had a falling out with the neighbor.
swampy, sketti sounds yum. SO good the next day!
Holy frick, that’s loud! But they’re done with my building, so yay!
{{{{Shadey}}}}
The way I usually find something I’ve lost is to go looking for some other thing I’ve lost. My theory is that the little black hole that lives in my house has limited real estate and can only hide one or two things at a time and could be forced to give one of them up. Hey, it works for me.
You prompted me to go look at my IRA, Mom. It’s pretty sad but not as bad as I expected. I still haven’t figured out a way to take it with me anyway. 
Once upon a time, I had my money in a little fund that guaranteed an 8%/yr return. If they made more we got more, but never less than 8%. I liked them. But then they got bought out by a fund that uses some kind of deer on steroids as their logo and our returns plummeted. :mad:
I’ve also worked for several companies that got ‘bought out’ by other companies. It’s never good for anybody but the ‘sacred shareholders’. :mad:
The warm, sunny day that was promised for the last two days is finally here. It’s 72F outside, headed for 75, They say. As soon as the grass dries out I’m gonna mow. Then we can ‘weed-n-feed’ the front. We’ve got a stunning crop of dandy lions out there and Wifey doesn’t want them. I’m a bivalve about them myself. I remember my Dad trying to make dandy lion wine one year. It was terrible. You have to be 'specially careful not to get any of the green leaves in with the petals or it’s bitter.
I think that concludes my part of the program for today. Be careful out there.
I think Hill Street Blues is available on one of the streaming services. I should find it and see if it still holds up.
So Gordie now has to go out at 0430 every day. Also, the Interweb tube is clogged, and the A/C tube is still leaking.
You rang? 
((((shoe ))))
(((**shades **))))
((((**nellie **))))
Turns out neither daughter nor SIL will be here for supper, so the meatloaf is in the fridge till tomorrow. I ran to Food Lion and **FCD **and I will be having steak for supper. Roxy will have the last of the stroganoff and a pile of fresh veggies.
I finished the laptop purge, including a defrag and updating the Microsoft Security Essentials. There were 18 updates to install, too. But it’s ready to go to its new home. One less thing.
I haven’t gotten a whole lot accomplished today, but I think I needed a lazy day.
Afternoon all. Did go out looking for the bicycle shop, but missed it (they are doing a major facelift to the building, but the website says they are open, so will go look again later). Also go the Best Buy Geek Squad coming tomorrow to look at my TV?soundbar…going to cost a bundle and they’ll probably fix it in 2 minutes.
Also have an internet conference scheduled with Edward Jones on my Annuity. I really don’t need the money, but on the other hand I’m 67 year old and would like to spend it while I have the chance…we’ll see what they say.
Bumba, this type of dandy lion?? https://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/aPRqRnR_460s.jpg
nellie, you can compare notes with hippy, IIRC he’s got a job testing alarm systems…maybe there is a quieter way.
Sari, if the rocks make the place look better, then it’ll help the sale value when/if that day comes. And ‘having words’ is such a great term, can mean anything from a slight disagreement to a screaming brawl…
FCM, steak instead of meatloaf? Hmmmm, I guess that’s OK…
Take care all.