In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1007627
PAGE 24 of 116
Not a particularly productive day here. After stalling out most of the afternoon I did manage to get more stuff down from the attic for me to sift through.
I went out to the garage and managed to finish cleaning off my shelving units and throw a bunch of stuff out. Made room for all of my good power gardening tools as well as two of the three that don't currently work and would be quite a bit better than the ones I have if I fix them. Since they're not in the way anymore, I can take a bit more time to decide if I want to junk them or not.
Almost to the point that I've got my work bench back now.
Got a few boxes I need to take down to Goodwill again.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Well, the batteries in my remote just died and I am not going out this evening to get more. So no tv for me tonight.
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Sounds like everyone is making progress more or less. Been kinda stalled out here chasing after stupid stuff. Rounding up a handyman to repair the stucco that the plumbers broke open to replace the waste pipes, and our blu-ray DVD player broke. It's got to be at least 10 years old, but they will still repair it if I ship it to Menlo Park (all things considered cheaper than buying new) so that's what I've been in touch with the mfr about.
Fortunately my nose is making enuf progress that I can sleep thru the night mostly, so I've been back to taking puppywuppy out for her AM walk and then yardwork before it gets too hot, then kitchenwork until its time to start on the house projects.
We started prepping the walls for daughter's room with a little sanding, but I thought to get the lead check swabs and by golly it looks like the first coat of paint has lead in it. So I halted the sanding and got some first-class info on what to do next: wipe the walls with trisodium phosphate to pick up any lead paint pigment that may have powdered off over the years, seal everything with sealer (I was going to to that anyway) and then paint. So we got a little hitch in our plans, and today was lunch with dear daughter which set things back one more day.
She'd been bugging me to try this Mexican restaurant that looks like a real dive from the outside, I was ready to try a taco place but, well, what the hell we went to questionable-looking place. And wouldn't you know, it was quite charming on the inside, and it specialized in what I was looking for, which is fish! So I ordered a fillet (probably tilapia) which came pan-fried in an egg batter topped with shrimp and crab in a mildly-spicy sauce, with rice (gave that to dear daughter) beans, and salad. From what little I can taste I think it was well-prepared and I suspect that if I COULD taste it more, it would be really good. Then for dinner I had some leftover Greek-style salad from yesterday and topped it with a little leftover tuna so dinner was pretty good too!
Wish I was making progress like you, SIX! Even on your "bad" days you do pretty good!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Wow... you'r BluRay player is 10 years old. Geez... I've been outside of the new tech that long already, huh? Well, I guess it's not so new anymore.
Yeah. Careful with that lead. Can't be too safe.
Your daughter was right about the Mexican food joint. She still would have been if it had been a dirty hole in the wall with a dirty bathroom. Back when I used to eat out, those were my restaurants of choice. It seemed that the smaller and danker the joint, the better the food was. Granted, that's just the Chicago and south suburbs experience and might not be the case everywhere, but I do believe I've had some of the finest Mexican food on offer in America inside some of them. Italian and Mexican food are my favorites, and let's just say that I've never found an Italian joint that compares to these hole-in-the-wall Mexican food joints.
Yeah. Making some progress every day. Sometimes I have to force myself pretty hard. Other days I go all out and give it a good 10 to 12 hours. Wish I could get more even keel about it all.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Wow... you'r BluRay player is 10 years old. Geez... I've been outside of the new tech that long already, huh? Well, I guess it's not so new anymore.
Yeah. Careful with that lead. Can't be too safe.
Your daughter was right about the Mexican food joint. She still would have been if it had been a dirty hole in the wall with a dirty bathroom. Back when I used to eat out, those were my restaurants of choice. It seemed that the smaller and danker the joint, the better the food was. Granted, that's just the Chicago and south suburbs experience and might not be the case everywhere, but I do believe I've had some of the finest Mexican food on offer in America inside some of them. Italian and Mexican food are my favorites, and let's just say that I've never found an Italian joint that compares to these hole-in-the-wall Mexican food joints.
Yeah. Making some progress every day. Sometimes I have to force myself pretty hard. Other days I go all out and give it a good 10 to 12 hours. Wish I could get more even keel about it all.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Batteries in the remote for the HD box were the ones that died. With my tv being so old I can't do much with it without the box. I managed to watch the news then when I wanted to turn it over to watch M*A*S*H, I accidently got Much Music which is the equivalent when it first aired of your MTV. Now it also runs movies. So my tv is stuck on that channel until I get new batteries.
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Having a really productive day so far here. Another huge box already packed up in the car to take to goodwill. Another trash bin full. Got some more larger stuff staged in the garage to put out on the street as soon as somebody picks up the stuff already left out there. Got all of my change from various containers ready to go to the bank too, probably $150 or so in there. Going to do that all on Monday while I'm out for a haircut when the bank is open.
Also got all of my tool boxes out to the garage to clean up and sort through except for the smaller one inside my house with stuff I would most often use. About 7/8ths of the tool bench is free to use now too... I just have to get around to finishing the front stairs that are in the way of it so I can actually use it. Well... I suppose I can use it to paint the stairs now and not sit on the ground while I'm doing that. 
Done working on heavier stuff and/or things requiring going out to the garage for now. It's another hot day. It's going to cool off again on Monday.
Now back to the digital hoard. I've got a lot of various CDs, marked and unmarked that I want to throw out. Going to make ISO files of anything that's important and just pitch the rest. In the mean time, just going to do a few loads of laundry for clothes I'm either going to use for packing protection or goodwill, and I've got about 4 boxes of documents to go through and pitch whatever isn't important too. :)
Got to get a lot done this week. I'm going to start helping my friend on his rental property next weekend so we can start bartering some work now that he's back from his vacation.
Hope you're all having a productive and/or enjoyable weekend.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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On the phone for half an hour with the support people for my cable company twice trying to help me reboot everything. Then I get off the phone with the guy and it starts working.
Still made an appointment for a technician to come and have a look at the remote and maybe replace it.
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Sad that everything is so dependent on a remote these days. The old boxes used to function with or without the remote.
Gross..... The weather made a turn for the warmer. Not going to get that cool down that we expected. Not going to be extremely terrible, but I might have to have that blower working a lot more than I wanted to if I want to maintain the cool in the house until it breaks sometime around next weekend.
It's not the highs during the day that sucks, but the high lows at night that really do. Low tonight and Monday night now are 68 degrees. Blech....
Oh well...
On to some real nitty gritty stuff with the house purge. Paperwork. Actually was able to pitch about half of it already because I had it all organized by year. Can probably get rid of half of the rest, but it's going to take some time to sift through. Really missing my fire pit that I threw out right now. This stuff has some pretty sensitive info on it. I'm going to see if somebody has a shredder and won't mind me spending a half hour with it.
Got rid of a crazy amount of stuff today. Hopefully tomorrow is as productive.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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It is but that is the state of technology today.
Yeah, sensitive stuff you do need a shredder Six.
I am doing nothing much tomorrow as tonight I got some recycling out and yesterday night too.
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Yeah... We're talking taxes, credit card stuff, all of the things that I'm never going to put out on the street as-is. Finally put shredders behind me when I got the firepit, but it's gone now.
Yanno, I just remembered I've got a webber grill that's filthy and needs to be cleaned anyhow. Maybe I'll take care of that tomorrow. I haven't grilled in about 5 years, but it's something I haven't been able to part with. Glad I've still got it.
This is like a treasure hunt with the DVDs and CDs. I used to burn EVERYTHING. I'm finding a bunch of stuff I probably lost on those hard drives. Throwing out all of the tv shows and movies since they're so low quality compared to what you can get today, but the music is golden.
I just figured out how to use a thumbdrive to create a personal cloud with a pretty sweet router my old man gave me a few years back. Going to start loading that up with my music once I get it organized and I can actually do work around the house with some tunes instead of being in my own head all day. :)
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Pretty productive so far. I tend to go from thing to thing, but I make progress on whatever that thing of the moment is, so it's not wasted time.
I do spend a fair bit of time grocery shopping and cooking, but the sodium levels of everything you get either in a restaurant or a store are beyond what I can tolerate. So it's time well spent, imo.
I've been craving soup with a milk (not cream) broth, with pale vegetables like celery, onion, and potato (and maybe riced cauliflower) that I envisage with turkey meatballs, thyme herb, and fresh ground black pepper. I have NO idea where I got the notion, but when I looked it up, it actually is European regional cooking. Maybe there's a memory buried back there ...
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You might be craving something in the recipe too. Maybe there's a nutrient or a vitamin that you're lacking a bit and your body is trying to tell you through memory? I've heard of that being a thing before. Don't know how much truth there is to it.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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I know that when it's cold I crave thick, hearty soups. I make a phenomenal, rich, tasty minestrone if I say so myself!
Not about anything, but my cat ... sigh. He got out AGAIN today. Fortunately I was able to round him up pretty quickly across the street before he scampered up the hill into the undeveloped wild part. I shook a bag of treats and he came sidling over. The last time he did this, I looked and looked. That wasn't the first time he got out, but every time before that I was able to retrieve him after an hour or 2. The last time I looked for 5 hours. I thought he was gone for good, irretrievably lost, or maybe quietly eaten, or hurt ... Then finally around 2AM I went to the internet and looked up 'how to find a lost cat' and that's where I found the 'bag of treats' tip. Yanno, go around with that bag of treats shaking it so they can hear the treats rattling inside. Which is how I got him back in the house at 2:30AM.
This neighborhood is NOT friendly to indoor / outdoor cats. Out of the 5 I had previous to Einstein (he's a ridiculously smart cat, he can open every single interior door in the house), 2 were eaten by coyotes, and one was run over by a car. As much as he wants to go o.u.t. it's not going to happen if I can help it.
He is HUGE. I'm 5'7" and when he stretches up to reach for my attention, his front paws come just below my chest. He sleeps in a dog bed and fills it. And he's STRONG. I mention this because he recently tore out a window screen. THIS time around, he pushed the damn window open before he hopped out through the previously torn screen. So now I have to keep it completely closed - AND LOCKED.
Also, I had $$ecurity $$creen doors put in because I knew for a fact he would just rip through a regular one.
I hope he appreciates all I go through for him! (Just kidding. He's a cat. But despite being feral with pretty much everyone else, he's deeply attached to me. So somewhere along the line, what I do counts for something with him.)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yeah... We're talking taxes, credit card stuff, all of the things that I'm never going to put out on the street as-is. Finally put shredders behind me when I got the firepit, but it's gone now.
Yanno, I just remembered I've got a webber grill that's filthy and needs to be cleaned anyhow. Maybe I'll take care of that tomorrow. I haven't grilled in about 5 years, but it's something I haven't been able to part with. Glad I've still got it.
This is like a treasure hunt with the DVDs and CDs. I used to burn EVERYTHING. I'm finding a bunch of stuff I probably lost on those hard drives. Throwing out all of the tv shows and movies since they're so low quality compared to what you can get today, but the music is golden.
I just figured out how to use a thumbdrive to create a personal cloud with a pretty sweet router my old man gave me a few years back. Going to start loading that up with my music once I get it organized and I can actually do work around the house with some tunes instead of being in my own head all day. :)
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I hear you Six. I've got a few old papers of my mom's still around that need to be shredded. Tax stuff and her old medical cards, my dad's OLD medical card. I was thinking on doing some of that tomorrow.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Pretty productive so far. I tend to go from thing to thing, but I make progress on whatever that thing of the moment is, so it's not wasted time.
I do spend a fair bit of time grocery shopping and cooking, but the sodium levels of everything you get either in a restaurant or a store are beyond what I can tolerate. So it's time well spent, imo.
I've been craving soup with a milk (not cream) broth, with pale vegetables like celery, onion, and potato (and maybe riced cauliflower) that I envisage with turkey meatballs, thyme herb, and fresh ground black pepper. I have NO idea where I got the notion, but when I looked it up, it actually is European regional cooking. Maybe there's a memory buried back there ...
I do a lot of cooking for myself because of my food sensitivities which are a pain. But if I don't watch them I run the risk of making myself sick.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I hear you Six. I've got a few old papers of my mom's still around that need to be shredded. Tax stuff and her old medical cards, my dad's OLD medical card. I was thinking on doing some of that tomorrow.
Good luck. Hope you get it done.
I got a huge stack of old credit cards and other things that I've never gotten rid of too. I'll have to see if I got something I could just melt them in that's safe when I get around to burning everything.
I'm probably not going to do it tomorrow. I might as well keep doing the other stuff I'm doing and make sure that I have all of that together and just do it once.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I hear you Six. I've got a few old papers of my mom's still around that need to be shredded. Tax stuff and her old medical cards, my dad's OLD medical card. I was thinking on doing some of that tomorrow.
Good luck. Hope you get it done.
I got a huge stack of old credit cards and other things that I've never gotten rid of too. I'll have to see if I got something I could just melt them in that's safe when I get around to burning everything.
I'm probably not going to do it tomorrow. I might as well keep doing the other stuff I'm doing and make sure that I have all of that together and just do it once.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I should be able too. Back in the day before computers you never thought about getting rid of this stuff. My mom may have thought she'd need my dad's stuff. But I certainly don't need that type of material any more.
Death certificates and birth certificates along with their marriage licence when I find it I will keep. My mom's last tax return I've kept. But other stuff I can easily shred. I'll do it little by little because some of it is my stuff too, that I no longer need.
The stuff my mom kept and some of it I haven't seen in ages so it needs to be sorted through to make sure it can be shredded.
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Years ago, I had kept everything. Like every receipt I had, even if it was for goodwill or the dollar store. Every monthly bill that I had paid. Before I purged the house around 4 years ago, I had boxes upon boxes of this stuff. Now I'd say everything I've kept until now would fit into two cardboard office boxes.
But going 4 years without ever going into that stuff for anything other than my birth certificate and SS card for jobs, it puts into perspective how unneeded most of it is.
Things I'll be keeping are the SS card, birth certificate, high school diploma, a folder about how many college credits I have and in what subjects/what years, car title, all house purchase documents and a folder with all of the info on the property taxes after fighting for nearly a year to have them cut in half.
Oh... and 7 years of income tax returns.
You should check the statute of limitations on that in Canada and your locality before throwing any income tax stuff out, Brenda. Here in America, although you can only go back and audit your own taxes 3 years to report that they owe you more, they have 7 years to go back and audit your taxes.
Granted, most people in our situations likely won't ever get audited. I mean, it's possible that I did once because they contacted me and sent me a 2nd check because I had undervalued the Earned Income Credit I should have gotten one year, but I don't think that was an audit because they apparently have a team that specifically does that since you have the option to check a box and have the government figure the credit for you.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:Hmm... what region? Been trying to figure out where all of these would come from ... nothern Europe, maybe, with the potatoes, onions and milk, but the presence of thyme is a little confounding because I thought that was a southern European herb? Sounds like a real tummy-soother! If only I could eat potatoes ...!
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Pretty productive so far. I tend to go from thing to thing, but I make progress on whatever that thing of the moment is, so it's not wasted time.
I do spend a fair bit of time grocery shopping and cooking, but the sodium levels of everything you get either in a restaurant or a store are beyond what I can tolerate. So it's time well spent, imo.
I've been craving soup with a milk (not cream) broth, with pale vegetables like celery, onion, and potato (and maybe riced cauliflower) that I envisage with turkey meatballs, thyme herb, and fresh ground black pepper. I have NO idea where I got the notion, but when I looked it up, it actually is European regional cooking. Maybe there's a memory buried back there ...
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:I know I mentioned this before, but when I visited momI spent several days sorting thru boxes and boxes and boxes her hers and dad's old papers. It was something of a favor to the executor of the will and something of an asset chase ... dad used to chase highest interest rates and opened and closed a crap-ton of money market accounts at one time, so as I was sorting thru the papers ... "this is not a bill" insurance statements from 1992 ... letters from London to my mom when they first started writing to each other ... I was also on the lookout for stock certificates or bearer bonds or accounts that appeared to have been opened but not closed.
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I hear you Six. I've got a few old papers of my mom's still around that need to be shredded. Tax stuff and her old medical cards, my dad's OLD medical card. I was thinking on doing some of that tomorrow.
Good luck. Hope you get it done.
I got a huge stack of old credit cards and other things that I've never gotten rid of too. I'll have to see if I got something I could just melt them in that's safe when I get around to burning everything.
I'm probably not going to do it tomorrow. I might as well keep doing the other stuff I'm doing and make sure that I have all of that together and just do it once.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I should be able too. Back in the day before computers you never thought about getting rid of this stuff. My mom may have thought she'd need my dad's stuff. But I certainly don't need that type of material any more.
Death certificates and birth certificates along with their marriage licence when I find it I will keep. My mom's last tax return I've kept. But other stuff I can easily shred. I'll do it little by little because some of it is my stuff too, that I no longer need.
The stuff my mom kept and some of it I haven't seen in ages so it needs to be sorted through to make sure it can be shredded.
But going thru all of these old papers gave me insight into what they had been going thru ... steroid injections for rotator cuff and bursitis, hopeful and cautious courtship by mail, slow progession into Parkinson's .. snapshots of a life that will never be duplicated ... so will we all fare.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:Eastern Europe. But mine is QUITE altered from the originals, and there are many existing variations already! Many recipes are just milk with salt and/ or sugar and possibly some butter; some have things you add in, like hard-boiled eggs. Most recipes don't have potatoes, if they use anything at all it's rice or egg noodles, or flour as a thickener; and the addition of celery, thyme and turkey meatballs is all mine.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hmm... what region?
The Polish version is called zupa mleczna.
Eastern European Milk Soup
https://www.thespruceeats.com/eastern-european-milk-soup-recipes-11363
30
Great-Great Grandma's Milk Soup
Polish Classic Cooking
http://www.polishclassiccooking.com/2011/01/great-great-grandmas-milk-
soup.html
How to Make Milk Soup
https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Milk-Soup
Polish Milk Soup
https://polishforums.com/food/milk-soup-3432/
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Quote:I hope these were kept in a good, safe place.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
... letters from London to my mom when they first started writing to each other ... I was also on the lookout for stock certificates or bearer bonds or accounts that appeared to have been opened but not closed.
But going thru all of these old papers gave me insight into what they had been going thru ... steroid injections for rotator cuff and bursitis, hopeful and cautious courtship by mail, slow progession into Parkinson's .. snapshots of a life that will never be duplicated ...
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Years ago, I had kept everything. Like every receipt I had, even if it was for goodwill or the dollar store. Every monthly bill that I had paid. Before I purged the house around 4 years ago, I had boxes upon boxes of this stuff. Now I'd say everything I've kept until now would fit into two cardboard office boxes.
But going 4 years without ever going into that stuff for anything other than my birth certificate and SS card for jobs, it puts into perspective how unneeded most of it is.
Things I'll be keeping are the SS card, birth certificate, high school diploma, a folder about how many college credits I have and in what subjects/what years, car title, all house purchase documents and a folder with all of the info on the property taxes after fighting for nearly a year to have them cut in half.
Oh... and 7 years of income tax returns.
You should check the statute of limitations on that in Canada and your locality before throwing any income tax stuff out, Brenda. Here in America, although you can only go back and audit your own taxes 3 years to report that they owe you more, they have 7 years to go back and audit your taxes.
Granted, most people in our situations likely won't ever get audited. I mean, it's possible that I did once because they contacted me and sent me a 2nd check because I had undervalued the Earned Income Credit I should have gotten one year, but I don't think that was an audit because they apparently have a team that specifically does that since you have the option to check a box and have the government figure the credit for you.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I will check that out but that is why I am keeping my mom's last tax return filed after she died.
That's why we kept my dad's discharge papers after he died so she could apply for part of his military pension.
I have my high school diploma and other old things. My dad's parents marriage license.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:I know I mentioned this before, but when I visited momI spent several days sorting thru boxes and boxes and boxes her hers and dad's old papers. It was something of a favor to the executor of the will and something of an asset chase ... dad used to chase highest interest rates and opened and closed a crap-ton of money market accounts at one time, so as I was sorting thru the papers ... "this is not a bill" insurance statements from 1992 ... letters from London to my mom when they first started writing to each other ... I was also on the lookout for stock certificates or bearer bonds or accounts that appeared to have been opened but not closed.
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I hear you Six. I've got a few old papers of my mom's still around that need to be shredded. Tax stuff and her old medical cards, my dad's OLD medical card. I was thinking on doing some of that tomorrow.
Good luck. Hope you get it done.
I got a huge stack of old credit cards and other things that I've never gotten rid of too. I'll have to see if I got something I could just melt them in that's safe when I get around to burning everything.
I'm probably not going to do it tomorrow. I might as well keep doing the other stuff I'm doing and make sure that I have all of that together and just do it once.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I should be able too. Back in the day before computers you never thought about getting rid of this stuff. My mom may have thought she'd need my dad's stuff. But I certainly don't need that type of material any more.
Death certificates and birth certificates along with their marriage licence when I find it I will keep. My mom's last tax return I've kept. But other stuff I can easily shred. I'll do it little by little because some of it is my stuff too, that I no longer need.
The stuff my mom kept and some of it I haven't seen in ages so it needs to be sorted through to make sure it can be shredded.
But going thru all of these old papers gave me insight into what they had been going thru ... steroid injections for rotator cuff and bursitis, hopeful and cautious courtship by mail, slow progession into Parkinson's .. snapshots of a life that will never be duplicated ... so will we all fare.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
That is a good idea Sig. But my problem was that my stuff got boxed up after she died and I never really got to go through it.
Of course my mom also had so many pictures too. And the negatives have to be specially recycled. Local drug store that also sells computers, tvs and still does photo developing will take them once I find them all.
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I think what I'm saying, SIX, is ... save some of yourself. When you get old you can look through them and be reminded of the person you were. And then when you die others can go thru them too, and think about the person who was.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I think what I'm saying, SIX, is ... save some of yourself. When you get old you can look through them and be reminded of the person you were. And then when you die others can go thru them too, and think about the person who was.
I hear ya. I'm not going to be saving much though. What I buy isn't who I am.
I've got a lot of artwork back when I was younger. Dumb me wanted to be "an artist" when I grew up. Been a long time since I've ever done any of that. I won't get rid of stuff like that.
Had two huge boxes of comics I've always meant to sort through. My brother says he'll take any of them I'm getting rid of, even the crap we bought as kids that ain't worth a buck a piece.
I'm going to hold on to most of what my old man gave me as a kid. Back then, those mags were only 20 to 25 years old. They're a lot older now. Apparently, some of them are worth a pretty decent buck too. Not that I'm going to take the time to sell them all individually on e-bay, but a "keep" pile that's about the size of half of a box you get reams of paper in would go for about $3,000 going by the prices that they were recently sold for.
They were all junk when my old man would give them to us as Christmas presents. I figured I'd be just getting rid of the whole lot of them save for maybe a handful. It seems that the books from the 50's and 60's are getting harder to come by these days.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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There are some thngs that really bring back memories for me ... clothes, and check registers. I pick up one of dear daughter's t-shirts or dresses from when she was a toddler, and I remember the weight of her, her sturdy body in my hands when I'd toss her into the air, or how she would peel off her socks because she hated anything on her feet. Or hubby's polyester slacks, which is what he was wearing when we first met. Or the check register, which shows the checks I wrote toour very first apartment in LA. What an idiot I was back then! Always reacting, never thinking ahead. Well, time has revealed a few more fatal flaws in my psyche!
I don't save everything, but I save a few things.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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I've got a box of stuff that is mostly stuff from ex girlfriends. Pictures, things we'd write to each other, mix tapes, stuff they bought me, ticket stubs for movies and concerts we saw... things like that. I haven't looked in that thing for years. The last time I did, I remember it was the first time that besides the pictures I didn't remember half of it. It's in a real nice box that I could put some of my power tools for the move. Might be time for one last trip down memory lane...
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Well, I was dummkopf today. Went out again without my medical alert on. Didn't notice I didn't have it until I sat down with a cup of coffee somewhere.
Happens every so often.
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Getting closer...
Still waiting on garbage day bogging me down since my 3 cans are full. Doesn't mean that I can't continue to throw crap out, just that it's got to sit in bags until the cans are emptied. Most of the stuff I've put out on the street since last garbage day has been taken except for a large mirror that was part of a piece of furniture I'd gotten rid of a long time ago. I've got another similar one that I need to put out there that is much nicer that I got from my uncle years back, but without any of the furniture. I've definitely got no need for things like that and I should never have taken it in the first place. I'll probably put it out tonight to give people two days to take it before the garbage men come.
Gotten through about 2/3rds of my documents. Comics are all figured out. I'm keeping one box and giving the rest to my bro. I've got a lot of collectible cards from back in the day. My brother's taking all of the comic book related ones. Might pitch the baseball cards. I dunno... Maybe I'll look through them, but crap like that from the 80's and early 90's really have no real-world value.
All the bad/small hard drives are destroyed and gone. Good drives and thumb-drives have all the data consolidated and have been wiped and checked for errors. Now all I have to do on that front is start sorting through stuff, getting rid of things I don't need and backing up what I do want.
Kitchen and living room looking less and less like a hoard since I'm running out of stuff to put out there to work on. Basement is cleared out except for workout equipment and the washer/dryer. Attic is about 90% cleared out except for the stuff that's packed and ready to go. Garage is in great shape too, but there is still quite a bit to sort through and pitch even though I've finally got my workbench back and enough space to almost park two cars in there.
Going to help my friend on his rental house this weekend for a few days. Build up a sense of obligation on his part so we can get my porch fixed finally. :)
No racoons or other animals in the house for weeks too. 
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Way to go Jack. You are looking pretty good on the home front there.
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Have an appointment at the place where I got my hearing aides tomorrow. Not really looking forward to it. Worried that they are going to tell me that my one good ear is going too.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Way to go Jack. You are looking pretty good on the home front there.
Thanks.
It's crazy how much more hopeful I am about everything now that I'm not bogged down by all of this crap. It's as if I've cleared off about 90% of my to-do list in the back of my brain by just getting rid of it all. It's a minimalist lifestyle for me from now on. No matter where I end up, I'm never going to have more stuff than what would fit in a 12' to 16' truck.
I've still got a lot of work to do before the house is fully de-hoarded and sparkling clean, but with the strides I've made in the last week with a lot of the nitty-gritty stuff that I've been wanting to get to for years, I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel here.
And I can't deny it now. I was a hoarder. The only reason that I wasn't worthy to be on the Hoarders show is because I'm not even 40 yet. I still had years of heading down that path to go before it happened, but when I take stock of just how much I've purged from my life in the last 2 1/2 months, I can't deny the facts.
I had a problem.
I think all this bad shit fell down on me at one time because I needed a good punch in the face.
ANUSTART from here on out.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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That's good jack.
Sometimes we all just need a kick in the pants to get us started on the right road.
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Well, my hearing aides weren't working. That was part of the diagnosis today on them. The other half is that my left ear is getting worse.
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Man... except for the big furniture remaining I still have to decide what I'm going to do with, I'm almost done with the stuff inside the house. Just need to get a few boxes for the stuff that remains before I go through it. Got most of my kitchen and living room back and the living room will be almost cleared out comepletely besides the stuff that should be in there when my bro and niece come over tomorrow.
I think she's going to be really excited to see that two of my guitars are going home with her.
Still have to tackle the garage, but that's going to have to wait till next week. Have errands to run tomorrow after they leave, then I'm working with my friend on his projects all weekend.
Still have a lot of digital cleanup to do, but that can be done anytime now that I've done the purge of the unnecessary and/or outdated hardware.
Feelin' good.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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That's awesome SIX! I feel ya on the "minimalist lifestyle" too. I was contemplating life as an elderly person ... I think I could be content with one small bedroom, bath and kitchen facilities.
BRENDA, sorry to hear about your left ear. All I can say is that hearing loss, for whatever reason, is a normal part of aging; so I hope that's all that it is.
*****
Well, we finally got dear daughter's walls and ceiling cleaned with TSP, wiped down with clear water, and sealed. So the next thing is to buy some sample paints and try dear daughter's color scheme on the shortest wall that she has so she can get an idea of what it'll look like. Paint purchase tomorrow.
I sure don't have the energy you do, SIX. I feel my age at the end of the day, and I'm glad that Wednesday and Friday are no-project days because of other commitments!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
BRENDA, sorry to hear about your left ear. All I can say is that hearing loss, for whatever reason, is a normal part of aging; so I hope that's all that it is.
*****
Well, we finally got dear daughter's walls and ceiling cleaned with TSP, wiped down with clear water, and sealed. So the next thing is to buy some sample paints and try dear daughter's color scheme on the shortest wall that she has so she can get an idea of what it'll look like. Paint purchase tomorrow.
I sure don't have the energy you do, SIX. I feel my age at the end of the day, and I'm glad that Wednesday and Friday are no-project days because of other commitments!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
Thanks SIG. When I go and get my hearing aides back next week after they are repaired. I am going to ask them what caused the damage in my left ear. I'm not sure if it is just age or some damage that happened when I was a child and I don't remember it.
SIG, I also hear you about being tired after doing too much and I will only be 55 this year. But I have times when I feel like I am at least 100.
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Quote:Goes for the both of us! I know KIKI has the same problem.
SIG, I also hear you about being tired after doing too much and I will only be 55 this year. But I have times when I feel like I am at least 100.
A large part of my problem (in the past year, anyway) was a reaction to Levaquin which is slowly fading away. But even before that... sigh. Part of it I think was just sleeping very very badly because of stuffed nose, swollen tongue (allergies) and (painless) acid reflux causing general congestion. They say that deep sleep is very restorative; and when it's consistently interrupted it can cause fibromyalgia like symptoms within a few days. When I was working, I had no time to bird-dog my sleep issues; now that I'm retired I can commit myself to at least 7.5 hours of sleep a night plus the anti-snore mouth insert and nose spray and all of that. It's either that, or feel like crap the next day. Anyway, check your sleep. It may be something simple to fix. Today, I had to get up extra-early so right now I think I'm going back to bed!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Goes for the both of us! I know KIKI has the same problem.
SIG, I also hear you about being tired after doing too much and I will only be 55 this year. But I have times when I feel like I am at least 100.
A large part of my problem (in the past year, anyway) was a reaction to Levaquin which is slowly fading away. But even before that... sigh. Part of it I think was just sleeping very very badly because of stuffed nose, swollen tongue (allergies) and (painless) acid reflux causing general congestion. They say that deep sleep is very restorative; and when it's consistently interrupted it can cause fibromyalgia like symptoms within a few days. When I was working, I had no time to bird-dog my sleep issues; now that I'm retired I can commit myself to at least 7.5 hours of sleep a night plus the anti-snore mouth insert and nose spray and all of that. It's either that, or feel like crap the next day. Anyway, check your sleep. It may be something simple to fix. Today, I had to get up extra-early so right now I think I'm going back to bed!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
I know I can get acid-reflux when I am stressed out. Had bucket loads of that problem when I was living at the crappy place. So I watch that and I do watch my sleep and try to get as much as I can. I try not to get too tired during the day as that wrecks my sleep at night. Also try not to fall a sleep in front of my computer because that will mess with my sleep cycle when I go to bed. I sleep with 2 pillows because of my allergies. So yeah I am always looking at something.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
That's awesome SIX! I feel ya on the "minimalist lifestyle" too. I was contemplating life as an elderly person ... I think I could be content with one small bedroom, bath and kitchen facilities.
BRENDA, sorry to hear about your left ear. All I can say is that hearing loss, for whatever reason, is a normal part of aging; so I hope that's all that it is.
*****
Well, we finally got dear daughter's walls and ceiling cleaned with TSP, wiped down with clear water, and sealed. So the next thing is to buy some sample paints and try dear daughter's color scheme on the shortest wall that she has so she can get an idea of what it'll look like. Paint purchase tomorrow.
I sure don't have the energy you do, SIX. I feel my age at the end of the day, and I'm glad that Wednesday and Friday are no-project days because of other commitments!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
Hey... as long as we do what we can with the energy we do have.
I promise you, you get your situation sorted out to where you know where everything is and you have easy access to what you need, you're sorting yourself out big time too.
I'm still not there, but getting closer all the time. What is slowing me down is that while there are some things that I either know I'm never going to get to or I no longer have any interest in getting to can easily just be gotten rid of, there have been quite a few things that have popped up along the way that absolutely needed to be dealt with. Some of these things take up most of my day for 2 or 3 days at a time, and at the end of that time spent I'm only getting rid of say half of something that didn't take up all that much room in the first place. But when that's done, I've consolidated what had real value and made it easy to carry around and purged the ballast.
Who knows? Maybe this house itself wasn't the albatross around my neck I've been saying it is for years. Maybe it was just all of the shit I'd accumulated inside of it.
I'm not close to done yet, but yanno what? When I need a pair of pliers or a screwdriver or a flashlight, I know exactly where to go to get them and I put them back when I'm done (I found 6 flashlights so far, btw, all of which I could never find when I needed one, and none of them in the same place). Hell... I've found 3 nail clippers, which was also something I could never find when I needed them, which is a problem for somebody who doesn't have teeth that can do the job anymore.
I've still got a few milestones to reach before I'm officially done, and a lot of work to go before I can really give everything a great scrubdown, but in the mean time the organization that has been done is working wonders on de-addling my brain.
I'm not even living the minimalist lifestyle yet, but I can't wait to get there. I think it might even be better than my decision to go gluten free.
I wish you luck getting it down to whatever level is comfortable and acceptable to you. Take your time making the decisions, but also be firm with yourself too. If you're really on the fence about something, chances are you really don't need it.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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SIX, I can only hope that I reach your level of organization some time before I die!
BRENDA, I too sleep with two pillows! Are you taking any meds for your conditions? I get that gerd rears its ugly head when you're under stress, but -trust me - omeprazole (once per day), zantac (at bedtime) and Rolaids or equivalent (as needed) work wonders, stress or not.
As far as allergies, I understand why you might not want to take oral antihistamines because they might intefere with your neurological status, but have you tried local treatments like nasal decongestant spray, nose strips, nasal steroid spray, nose washes and mouth inserts like ZQuiet? You might not need them every day but they might really come in handy for those days that you do.
Anyway, it sounds like you have a bead on your sleep quality which is a good thing. Everyone needs a good night's sleep!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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I just want to caveat that consistent use of Zantac has been linked to dementia that may or may not be reversible after discontinuing it. So I'd use Zantac only as needed, when your other efforts have failed and you need quick relief.
Zantac works directly on the cells lining the stomach, expect to see it working within 20-40 minutes. But of course it also enters the bloodstream, where it may have a bad effect on the brain.
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It's so nice not having all that crap in my living room and kitchen. I actually had the kitchen table cleared off so my niece could use the marker set I bought her for Christmas on it while I was showing my bro all the stuff I was giving him.
Going to have to get about 5 more boxes for packing. Might not use all of them, but I do have some things to pack now that aren't going back up to the attic and out of my way until they're securely packed away.
I've got a really busy next 4 days now too, so no more work around the house in the near future. I'm hoping that I can spend some time the second half of Wednesday and early Thursday to get more stuff into cans for garbage day. I've got a can about halfway full, but it would be a shame to waste a garbage day when I've been doing so good putting stuff out there every week. I've finally got an opportunity to do more without having to wait on them to pick it up and I'm really hoping that it's not more or less squandered.
I'm going to try to get the age and the make of that antique bedroom set I've got. I've decided that I want to keep the other one since it's more functional and not as "girly" looking, even though I'm sure the value of it is just a fraction of the antique set. Now that the garage is going to be cleared out, it might be worthwhile wrap them up and put them out there until I can find a local buyer. If it's only worth $1,000 or so on ebay though, it's probably not worth the effort or the amount of time I'd have to store it in the garage before I found somebody. I really just want it out of my life at this point.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
BRENDA, I too sleep with two pillows! Are you taking any meds for your conditions? I get that gerd rears its ugly head when you're under stress, but -trust me - omeprazole (once per day), zantac (at bedtime) and Rolaids or equivalent (as needed) work wonders, stress or not.
As far as allergies, I understand why you might not want to take oral antihistamines because they might intefere with your neurological status, but have you tried local treatments like nasal decongestant spray, nose strips, nasal steroid spray, nose washes and mouth inserts like ZQuiet? You might not need them every day but they might really come in handy for those days that you do.
Anyway, it sounds like you have a bead on your sleep quality which is a good thing. Everyone needs a good night's sleep!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
SIG, I don't take anything for the acid-reflux as the problem is pretty well gone now that I've moved.
As for my allergies, I can't really take anything in tablet form because they don't mix with my seizure meds or my thyroid meds. But I do keep something on hand for when nothing else works. Other than that I use a nasal rinse and eye drops for them. Also I can use a nasal spray too but I don't have any on hand right now.
I do work on my sleep situation all the time.
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Quote:That's good! But if the problem ever comes back, I hope that you'll do something positive instead of just suffer thru it.
BRENDA, I too sleep with two pillows! Are you taking any meds for your conditions? I get that gerd rears its ugly head when you're under stress, but -trust me - omeprazole (once per day), zantac (at bedtime) and Rolaids or equivalent (as needed) work wonders, stress or not.
As far as allergies, I understand why you might not want to take oral antihistamines because they might intefere with your neurological status, but have you tried local treatments like nasal decongestant spray, nose strips, nasal steroid spray, nose washes and mouth inserts like ZQuiet? You might not need them every day but they might really come in handy for those days that you do.
Anyway, it sounds like you have a bead on your sleep quality which is a good thing. Everyone needs a good night's sleep!- SIGNY
SIG, I don't take anything for the acid-reflux as the problem is pretty well gone now that I've moved.-BRENDA
Quote:Yes, I know, which is why I posted I understand why you might not want to take oral antihistamines because they might intefere with your neurological status, but have you tried local treatments ...
As for my allergies, I can't really take anything in tablet form because they don't mix with my seizure meds or my thyroid meds.
Quote:Sounds like you have a plan, then. :thumbsup:
But I do keep something on hand for when nothing else works. Other than that I use a nasal rinse and eye drops for them. Also I can use a nasal spray too but I don't have any on hand right now. I do work on my sleep situation all the time. :smile
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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I still get acid reflux today, but it's very rare. I attribute that to the fact that even though I've changed most of my poor habits I do still drink a lot of coffee. But given how much I drink and the fact that it is a trigger in some people, I consider myself pretty lucky. I know it's not fun. When I first started getting episodes in my early 20's I had no idea it was heartburn and I thought my lungs were in pain from my smoking.
During the height of my poor diet and binge drinking, it was so frequent that I'd have to snag a bottle of tums off the counter while working overnights. It wasn't until a few years later that I discovered that eating a piece of bread with nothing on it would also make it go away (milk doesn't work... it would just give temporary relief). My acid reflux was so bad that simply the act of drinking a cup of water when I woke up could trigger it.
Bread is out the window now with the gluten free diet, but it's also because of the gluten free diet that I think my acid reflux is all but gone. I can't say for sure though. I ate a lot of bad crap back then, and it wasn't necessarily the gluten that was the culprit. And unless I go out to eat on rare occasions, these days I've pretty much limited myself to about a dozen different foods in my diet. If I were interested in expanding that diet now, I'd probably take some time after adding something to see what changes it might make before adding something else.
Maybe you should try to pinpoint what the trigger is Brenda? There might just be a particular food you eat, or a combination of them that cause it?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:That's good! But if the problem ever comes back, I hope that you'll do something positive instead of just suffer thru it.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:Yes, I know, which is why I posted I understand why you might not want to take oral antihistamines because they might intefere with your neurological status, but have you tried local treatments ...
I'll think about it. But hopefully I think I got a handle on the stress for right now.
Sorry, I did understand that.
Quote:
Sounds like you have a plan, then. :thumbsup:
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
My doctor recommended the nasal rinse years ago and it does work but it's rough on my throat though.
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Jack, I have basically narrowed it down to stress. It started back when I was looking after my mother before she died and I was really stressed out then. It went away after she died and I moved. It came back when I was living in the place before this because every time I turned around my landlady was in face.
I keep an eye on how much caffeine I drink coffee or other. I stop eating after 11pm for sleep reasons.
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We got rain today. And it is a lazy Sunday for me. Not doing anything.
Local Walmart has got stick vacs on sale. Should really get one.
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I hear ya. I need a new vacuum cleaner myself. Broke the damn wheel off of mine a year ago and I still muddle through with it to this day.
Kicked some ass at my friends place today. We're hoping to get more done tomorrow, but the stupid weather doesn't seem to want to cooperate with us.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I hear ya. I need a new vacuum cleaner myself. Broke the damn wheel off of mine a year ago and I still muddle through with it to this day.
Kicked some ass at my friends place today. We're hoping to get more done tomorrow, but the stupid weather doesn't seem to want to cooperate with us.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
The one I had started dying before I moved and so I just left it at the old place.
Hopefully they will still be on sale tomorrow.
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So did you get a new vaccuum?
Too cheap to do it myself now. Not a whole lot of reason for me to after I pulled up all the rugs. Mostly hardwood floors now except for the carpet in the attic.
Got a lot of work done with my friend again today. I had no idea how bad his own situation was until I got there since he's always so optimistic about things. Probably going to work with him again all next weekend and really plant those obs on him while I get materials priced out for my job.
He's also got a plumber friend who needs a tile job done. He says that after I send him pics of my broken drain pipe that I still haven't fixed that if he thinks it's something beyond his abilities he's going to call in a favor and get it done for me and do the tile job to pay it forward.
Bartering is cool.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
So did you get a new vaccuum?
Too cheap to do it myself now. Not a whole lot of reason for me to after I pulled up all the rugs. Mostly hardwood floors now except for the carpet in the attic.
Got a lot of work done with my friend again today. I had no idea how bad his own situation was until I got there since he's always so optimistic about things. Probably going to work with him again all next weekend and really plant those obs on him while I get materials priced out for my job.
He's also got a plumber friend who needs a tile job done. He says that after I send him pics of my broken drain pipe that I still haven't fixed that if he thinks it's something beyond his abilities he's going to call in a favor and get it done for me and do the tile job to pay it forward.
Bartering is cool.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Yeah, I did. Good thing too. They don't have too many left at the price they are on for. $21.99Canadian. Good deal for a stick vacuum.
Well, you can use one on a hardwood floor.
Way to go on the progress and there is nothing wrong with bartering and helping a friend.
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Quote:Hey, that seems really good!
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
So did you get a new vaccuum?
Too cheap to do it myself now. Not a whole lot of reason for me to after I pulled up all the rugs. Mostly hardwood floors now except for the carpet in the attic.
Got a lot of work done with my friend again today. I had no idea how bad his own situation was until I got there since he's always so optimistic about things. Probably going to work with him again all next weekend and really plant those obs on him while I get materials priced out for my job.
He's also got a plumber friend who needs a tile job done. He says that after I send him pics of my broken drain pipe that I still haven't fixed that if he thinks it's something beyond his abilities he's going to call in a favor and get it done for me and do the tile job to pay it forward.
Bartering is cool.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Yeah. Everything seems to be going in a forward momentum right now. Got some major things done, no more raccoons, kicked some ass today and I've got two more days before the weekend when I go back out to help my friend with his house issues. He's going to have a lot of work to do after we make everything watertight outside, but that can all be done without the time crunch of worrying about more damage and the city breathing down his neck. I'm hoping that we can make short work of my own major issues after that and I'll be in the same boat.
If I manage to score at least a halfway decent job in the near future, I might even choose to stick around for a few more years and bolster the bank account and get this house back into reasonable shape for the market. I might be able to even really get a head start on the next chapter of my life if I keep doing right here.
Glad I reconnected with an old friend. He kept me sane during the worst of it. Knock on wood the worst is behind me now.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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That's good SIX.
Sounds like good progress!
Been a little stalled out lately, I think I'm just in the "prep" phase of moving on to other things.
Dear daughter painted her paint selections with sample paints and decided she liked 3 of 4 colors, so we got two more and she made her final selection. Right now I'm just waiting for an online order of specialized lead stabilization paint to come in.
But the DVD player was repaired and returned today so that's done. I got some supplies for fixing the stucco and screening. Still need a few more supplies, getting familiarized with where everything is in Home Depot. Bought a staple gun, an angle grinder online so we could cut the stucco back to a stud to staple the tar paper and chicken wire. (Got a quote for repair for $1000, at that price it's worth doing ourselves).
I guess the biggest progress I made on anything was blowing a couple of giant chunks of packing out of each side of my nose; sounds gross I know but you have no idea what a relief that was!!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Well, I get my hearing aides back tomorrow and I also get to ask what is going on with my left ear. So, that's a good thing.
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Had more bad goings on in my province in August. A week ago or so a group, I would guess climbed up and cut the cable on the Sea to Sky gondola up at Squamish. This is a big, big tourist attraction in that area as it takes you high up into the sky area. It is closed down and some of the cars have to be replaced. Thank goodness whoever did this did so at 4am, so no one was hurt.
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lol Sigs. I thought you said you got packing out of both sides of your house and I had no clue what you meant when you said it was gross. Then I re-read it. Yup. Gross.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Have I mentioned that except for the bedroom I have no AC? Well, it's been freaking hot lately with highs between 90 and 95 - except for today and the next 5 days out of 10 where it'll be over 95 to over 100. And for here it's been pretty humid, the minimum is 50% RH. Hopefully the humidity will help keep the fire danger down.
90 is about my limit for getting much done. When it's that hot, I just want to lie down and pant. Sigh.
Still, I'm forever grateful for that cost live oak that planted itself nearly 3 decades ago, that keeps the back of the house cooler (90 or below). And I'm glad I had those super-duper security screen doors put in. When the evening breeze kicks up I can cross ventilate the front half of the house and my yuge and strong cat can't destroy the screening. They've been amazingly helpful getting the house cooler!
Plus I'm losing weight! - which I need to do. I've been living off of broth I keep in the frig.
I did hear a dozen or so very strange noises around 02:30 last night though - not as high-pitched with as sharp an attack time as a cracking sound, and not as low-pitched with as slow as attack time as a thump. But something in between. If you've ever used a hatchet on concrete to chop down firewood, when you first hit the wood a lot of times the hatchet will stick in. Then you lift up both the hatchet+wood and slam it down on concrete to split the wood. It sounded like that. It sounded like it came from near the side of the house. I did look but didn't see much. (The last time I heard something weird, I thought it sounded like a shotgun, and next I knew I saw red and blue flashing lights in front of my neighbor's house across the street and down 2.)
I think that'll be my next home improvement - installing a solar-powered motion-activated security light. If no one's there by the house I don't really care about whatever weird noises there may be in the middle of the night.
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Ugggggg.... I feel so sorry for you there Kiki. At least you've got one room to get away from it all. But I know full well how that seems like it becomes a prison when dealing with those temps. That's why I never use that ancient beast from the 80's my parents gave me unless it's life threateningly hot, which thankfully it hasn't been the last 5 years.
Glad to hear you're losing weight.
Hope the ears check out Brenda. Done some damage to my own ears with music when I was a youth, so I do what I can to protect what's left today. Thankfully it hasn't become too much of a problem for me yet.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Thanks for reminding me Jack, with me going on about my stuff.
Brenda, I truly wish you the best luck!
Signy, it sounds like progress to me! and that's always a good thing.
Jack, I'm glad you reconnected with a friend. That's also a good, good thing in my book.
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You might just try some regular lights that are on all the time to keep undesirables away at night. I used to mess around with timers and the like, until I got lazy and didn't. At that point, my house was pretty much dark all night except for two lights I kept on 24/7, but they were incandescents and it was a huge waste of money.
After I got a bunch of those LED 9w bulbs I put them in every fixture in the house. Now I've got 5 lights that I leave on 24/7. They're bright, and all 5 of them draw 15 watts less than one of the bulbs I used to use. The whole place is really lit up at night now and I don't worry about things like that anymore.
Last time I heard a loud noise was years ago. We were in the middle of the windy season and a pretty decent sized limb had fallen off a tree and nicked my roof and splintered. Scared the hell out of me and I grabbed a baseball bat and flashlight to see what it was making all that noise in the middle of the night.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Hope the ears check out Brenda. Done some damage to my own ears with music when I was a youth, so I do what I can to protect what's left today. Thankfully it hasn't become too much of a problem for me yet.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
The hearing aides will help again. Right ear is still at 100% which is good.
I had one ear drained of fluid when I was a child and now I don't remember which one. Could have been the left which could account for what is going on now.
Be glad you aren't seeing any problems. I started seeing them in my late 40s.
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KIKI thanks. I'll be okay.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Hope the ears check out Brenda. Done some damage to my own ears with music when I was a youth, so I do what I can to protect what's left today. Thankfully it hasn't become too much of a problem for me yet.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
The hearing aides will help again. Right ear is still at 100% which is good.
I had one ear drained of fluid when I was a child and now I don't remember which one. Could have been the left which could account for what is going on now.
Be glad you aren't seeing any problems. I started seeing them in my late 40s.
Well... it's not that there are no problems. My last job was pretty loud with the forklifts going around all night, which I'm sure didn't do me any additional favors, but I did notice that my most commonly used word there was probably "what?" unless we were on break or lunch where we could hear each other a lot better. Maybe I'm just a loud talker, but hardly anybody ever asked me "what?".
I don't have any tinnitus and if there isn't a ton of background noise it still seems pretty copacetic. I know that it's not as good as it was in my teens and early 20's though before I blew them out with the deep bass speakers for years in my own car and my friends cars.
Kids are idiots. That's why I try to take a step back and cut them some slack and remember all the purely asinine shit I did when I was young... and even not-so-young, if I'm being completely honest with myself.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Hope the ears check out Brenda. Done some damage to my own ears with music when I was a youth, so I do what I can to protect what's left today. Thankfully it hasn't become too much of a problem for me yet.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
The hearing aides will help again. Right ear is still at 100% which is good.
I had one ear drained of fluid when I was a child and now I don't remember which one. Could have been the left which could account for what is going on now.
Be glad you aren't seeing any problems. I started seeing them in my late 40s.
Well... it's not that there are no problems. My last job was pretty loud with the forklifts going around all night, which I'm sure didn't do me any additional favors, but I did notice that my most commonly used word there was probably "what?" unless we were on break or lunch where we could hear each other a lot better. Maybe I'm just a loud talker, but hardly anybody ever asked me "what?".
I don't have any tinnitus and if there isn't a ton of background noise it still seems pretty copacetic. I know that it's not as good as it was in my teens and early 20's though before I blew them out with the deep bass speakers for years in my own car and my friends cars.
Kids are idiots. That's why I try to take a step back and cut them some slack and remember all the purely asinine shit I did when I was young... and even not-so-young, if I'm being completely honest with myself.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I used head sets quite a bit when I was in my 20s to into my 40s, so I'm sure that didn't help me either. Then of course my mom had hearing loss as well and she would hike up the volume on the tv. So bad sometimes that I could hear it through the apartment door before I opened it. Don't think that helped much either.
We never do consider these things when we are young.
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When I think about all of the stupid things I did when I was young ...
That's part of being young, I guess. You don't have any experience to tell you what might happen next (when things don't work out) and imagination doesn't kick in either. Plenty of times in my youth I was surpried by what happened next.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
I'd nuke a BILLION PEOPLE if it would save the other 7 billion from living under Putin. Hell, I might go all the way to the last 100 people on Earth to keep this planet from being under fascist rule.- posted (and erased) by WISHIMAY
You idiots [white men] have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
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Slept straight through the night again. Nice? Yes, but I left that blower on all night. That's going to cost me. At least I woke up early enough that I wasn't blowing hot air in the house and it did drop the temp down to 72 from 81. Definitely the coolest start to my day in a few weeks since I usually don't leave it on all night if at all once I figured out how pricey it was to run.
Got a few hours before the trash man comes. Time to figure out what I can throw out before they get here. :)
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Need my hearing aides back. Using loaners and getting massive feedback and my ears are clean. Annoying!
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Got my hearing aides back yesterday with 2 new programs on them. I can now adjust the volume and they have a program added so I can get distracted from the buzzing I hear in my ears ever so often. It's a nice relaxing ocean sound.
Have to use them a bit more. Right ear is just starting to take a bit of a dip.
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Careful with that ocean relaxation setting. That's how Harrison Bergeron starts.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Careful with that ocean relaxation setting. That's how Harrison Bergeron starts.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Who's that Jack?
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Careful with that ocean relaxation setting. That's how Harrison Bergeron starts.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Who's that Jack?
The main character of one of the best short stories ever written.
Quote:
HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal
before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter
than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was
stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the
211th, 212th, and 213 th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing
vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.
Some things about living still weren't quite right, though. April for
instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in
that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron's fourteen-
year-old son, Harrison, away.
It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very
hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't
think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his
intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his
ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a
government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would
send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair
advantage of their brains.
George and Hazel were watching television. There were tears on Hazel's
cheeks, but she'd forgotten for the moment what they were about.
The rest of it's here:
https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.t
xt
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Careful with that ocean relaxation setting. That's how Harrison Bergeron starts.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Who's that Jack?
The main character of one of the best short stories ever written.Quote:
HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal
before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter
than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was
stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the
211th, 212th, and 213 th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing
vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.
Some things about living still weren't quite right, though. April for
instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in
that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron's fourteen-
year-old son, Harrison, away.
It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very
hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't
think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his
intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his
ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a
government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would
send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair
advantage of their brains.
George and Hazel were watching television. There were tears on Hazel's
cheeks, but she'd forgotten for the moment what they were about.
The rest of it's here:
https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.t
xt
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I went and looked it up after and read a little bit of it. I've never heard of the story before. But I'll finish reading it just out of curiosity.
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Interesting enough story Jack.
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Yeah. I wonder if it will be that way by 2081. It's definitely the way things are headed. It's 2019 now though and we still don't have flying cars everywhere.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yeah. I wonder if it will be that way by 2081. It's definitely the way things are headed. It's 2019 now though and we still don't have flying cars everywhere.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Don't know. I would love a flying car with an autopilot for me at least.
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Still chipping away at things here. Because I was waiting for that special paint to come in I was a little stuck on that, so I decided tht (instead of the perennial fight against weeds) I was going to start cleaning up around the outside of the house, again
As we go thru things in the house there are the inevitable unanswered "what do we do with it"? and "where do we put it"? questions, and sometimes the answer has been "on the back porch". Or the other little porch under the kitchen window. Well, a couple months ago dear daughter and I scoured the yard for recyclable metals and did a big cleanup, but now detritus is building up again, and some messes that weren'e cleaned up need cleaning. So I went thru my rusty metal gardening cabinets and threw out a bag of soil conditioner (Gypsum) and a crap-ton of those black gallon nursery pots and odds and ends that our former handyman/gardener thought might come in handy "some day". Also discovered a nice corded drill and a bunch of sprinkler parts that will come in handy plus a bunch of crap that needed tossing. It was a short cleanup because I had a lunch date with dear daughter, but tomorrow and for the next few days will continue the cleanup until all is neat and tidy.
Made an awesome ham and bean stew too. I had cooked two pork picnic roasts and had the juice saved, plus a couple of chicken carcasses (for the dog) with attendant broth and a chuck roast (for beef/bean burrito) with its broth, and juice from cooking three pounds of summer squashes, so the frig was building up a lot of leftover broths. (BTW I found that if you pour the unskimmed broth into a clean jar the fat acts as a terrific cap and keeps the broth fresh.) So the pork broth and half of the summer squash juice went into the ham/bean stew, the dog got the chicken broth, and the beef broth and remaining squash liquid will be going to make beef minestrone (onion, celery, carrot, broth, beef, beans, tomato, bay, oregano etc) Frig is a lot cleaner now too!
hey, I'll take my victories where I can get them!
So mornings will be outdoor cleanup and now that the paint is in afternoons will be painting, and when THAT'S done a big item will be off the checklist. Whew!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots [white men] have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
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Quote:I read the story and I couldn't help it - my mind picked at a loose thread that instantly occurred to me. What about height? It's really hard to make a tall person shorter. And then it occurred to me it wasn't about making everyone average. Because you can interfere with someone's brain to make it work less well, but you can't make someone's brain work better to reach at least average. Since the story didn't say anything about raising people up, just handicapping people down, it was about making everyone meet the lowest common denominator, which would be blind, deaf, dumb, ill, and imbecilic. That way nobody would be better. And then I thought about who would I identify with in the story. (Not who you might assume.) And before I knew it, I had picked at so many loose threads, it kind of fell apart.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.t
xt
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I guess I'm too literal!
I get that it's about people not being born to the same standard, and that we can't / shouldn't try and erase those differences because it would result in a hideously distorted society. But it didn't carry me along well enough due to its logical inconsistencies, and so I didn't make the emotional leap to agreement.
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Workmen on the roof of an apartment building next door. Have been workmen in my apartment building replacing fire alarms.
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Quote:I read the story and I couldn't help it - my mind picked at a loose thread that instantly occurred to me. What about height? It's really hard to make a tall person shorter. And then it occurred to me it wasn't about making everyone average. Because you can interfere with someone's brain to make it work less well, but you can't make someone's brain work better to reach at least average. Since the story didn't say anything about raising people up, just handicapping people down, it was about making everyone meet the lowest common denominator, which would be blind, deaf, dumb, ill, and imbecilic. That way nobody would be better. And then I thought about who would I identify with in the story. (Not who you might assume.) And before I knew it, I had picked at so many loose threads, it kind of fell apart.
Originally posted by 1KIKI:Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.t
xt
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I guess I'm too literal!
I get that it's about people not being born to the same standard, and that we can't / shouldn't try and erase those differences because it would result in a hideously distorted society. But it didn't carry me along well enough due to its logical inconsistencies, and so I didn't make the emotional leap to agreement.
Yeah... I don't think it was meant to be taken literally. Vonnegut is a great writer, but the story was only about 3 pages long. Not much you can do in that context. He certainly wasn't going to fit a fleshed out Orwellian or Huxleyian nightmare in just a few pages. But what he did do in 3 pages was drive a point across that has been stuck in my mind for the last 26 years since I first read it.
I'm not sure if you've ever read Vonnegut before, but although I find him to be just as cynical as the two former, I find his writing to be hilarious most of the time. Sure, that story itself wasn't very funny, but it did have some pretty far-fetched and/or comedic elements and visuals of his style interwoven in it. It should be noted that it was written in 1961 as well, so like Orwell and Huxley, he was very ahead of his time. 2 years from now will be that story's 60th birthday, and it will be the halfway point between when he wrote it and when these events are supposed to take place.
But I think you got the gist of it. Until we make pills that make you smart and beautiful and strong, whenever government steps in to make everybody "equal" the only possible way to do it is to lower the bar for everybody and choose inferior candidates for things by quotas that are either mandatory or are adapted "willingly" because of the heavy monetary penalties/rewards that come along with making the "wrong/right" choices.
I should probably also mention that my Jr. Year English teacher (a female) had us read that in class. She made us read a lot of things that weren't in the government approved books, and was always handing out stuff like this that she photocopied for us to read. I didn't appreciate that at the time, but by my mid to late 20's I appreciated very much recollections such as this and things that other teachers went out of their way (and out of the purview of the government approved curriculum) for us to learn about. I'd love to know that teachers still feel safe doing that in 2019, but for some reason I doubt it. (The "penalty" for such wrong-think, of course, the fear of losing their job and being deemed un-hireable anywhere else in their chosen field if they stray one inch off of the government approved learning path that has been mandated).
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:Just about this in particular, and it's not really a thought, just some semi-related notions I need to think about ...
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
But I think you got the gist of it. Until we make pills that make you smart and beautiful and strong, whenever government steps in to make everybody "equal" the only possible way to do it is to lower the bar for everybody and choose inferior candidates for things by quotas that are either mandatory or are adapted "willingly" because of the heavy monetary penalties/rewards that come along with making the "wrong/right" choices.
We have a conundrum - probably several - here in the US with "All Men* Are Created Equal" (see Ursula K Le Guin's *'I am a Man' https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nm9cg )
It's pretty obvious that people aren't born physically or mentally equal. So what does equality mean?
One of the ways I've read to interpret "All Men* Are Created Equal" is to qualify that it means 'before the law'. That the laws are set up to govern without fear or favor, and the political systems and justice systems are set up to operate without fear or favor.
But "All Men* Are Created Equal" exists within the context of the Declaration of Independence (not the Constitution, which is the law of the land) and within the context of a larger idea: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men* are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men*, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
So afaik it means that people of traditional European institutional power (church, royalty) have no special divine right to rule, and that governments are created by people to serve the needs of the people, and can be dismissed or reformulated when they cease serving the people.
This is a very grand statement, but it's NOT within the Constitution.
The closest things I can find in the Constitution re equality are
"Article XIII (Amendment 13 - Slavery and Involuntary Servitude): where slaves get to be men* under the law
"Article XIV - Rights Guaranteed: Privileges and Immunities of Citizenship, Due Process, and Equal Protection" applied variously to 'persons' - persons being legally defined elsewhere in the Constitution, citizens, 'excluding Indians not taxed', male inhabitants/citizens ... being twenty-one years of age'
"Article XV (Amendment 15 - Rights of Citizens to Vote)" applied to citizens
"Article [XIX] (Amendment 19 - Women's Suffrage Rights)" where women get to be men* for the purposes of voting, under the law.
Other limitations, exclusions, exceptions, and reservations are scattered within the Constitution.
(BTW, reading through the Constitution, I have to say they needed a good copy-editor, as whole groups of people are referred to using various terms within the same amendment like citizens/ people/ men, making it questionable whether the groups referred to are meant to be the same - or different.)
So we are supposed to be equal in liberty, representation, and justice, before the law * (*your rights may vary depending on Native status, age, past felony convictions etc).
With so many divots and detours, one wonder what's the underpinning to mess with a simple idea.
I think the unstated assumptions about who got included and who was excluded from this recognition of human*ity has to do with our sense of 'souls'. When we look into the eyes of another h
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I think it's pretty simple here, but it's always made much more complicated than it needs to be.
If you're an American born citizen OR a legitimately naturalized citizen, male or female, any race, any religious belief, yada yada yada, then you are privy to the same laws as everyone else and entitled to the same rights as anyone else. Period.
At least, that's where it should end.
But it doesn't. At least not today it doesn't.
What I said above is true, and people of certain races, sexes and sexual persuasions absolutely get the benefit of the doubt over others. I won't get into specifics here because overall politics are kept out of this thread and I think we all like it best that way.
I'll just say that I do know that you're a fan of meritocracy as well as I am, and that we both realize that we're not living in a meritocracy today. I believe strongly that this is a reason why it's not.
In an effort to force equality, we've severely lowered the bar and we've made certain groups "more equal" than others.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Got a ton of stuff done today. All of my documentation over the years is sorted through. I got rid of about 90% of it and it's now destroyed. The rest is organized and filed away in a single small box. :)
Cleaned out and bleached all of the nice containers a lot of this stuff was in as well as two more tool boxes that I'll get to actually use for tools now, so I can sort everything in the garage this week and finally see if I can't find the rest of my countersink set. Here's hoping that I don't have to buy a new one.
Put about another half-can of junk in the trash.
Really coming down to the end of the stuff to sort and throw out in the house besides my clothes and the rest of the furniture I have to decide whether or not I'm going to keep.
Garage is mostly cleared out of stuff I'm getting rid of. Really need my friend to get out here and take some of the big stuff he wanted.
I'm thinking two more weeks, tops, and I'll be officially de-hoarded now.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Yuck....
Next two nights aren't going to be much relief here heatwise. Low of 70 both nights. Opened the windows and realized it's about the same temp outside right now as it is inside. No point in fanning it up, at least not tonight. Will be in the 80's inside by tomorrow night though, so I'll have to use it then even if it won't cool off much.
Doesn't get much better than that until Thursday night though with a high of 59. That'll be sweet.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Got a ton of stuff done today. All of my documentation over the years is sorted through. I got rid of about 90% of it and it's now destroyed. The rest is organized and filed away in a single small box. :)
Cleaned out and bleached all of the nice containers a lot of this stuff was in as well as two more tool boxes that I'll get to actually use for tools now, so I can sort everything in the garage this week and finally see if I can't find the rest of my countersink set. Here's hoping that I don't have to buy a new one.
Put about another half-can of junk in the trash.
Really coming down to the end of the stuff to sort and throw out in the house besides my clothes and the rest of the furniture I have to decide whether or not I'm going to keep.
Garage is mostly cleared out of stuff I'm getting rid of. Really need my friend to get out here and take some of the big stuff he wanted.
I'm thinking two more weeks, tops, and I'll be officially de-hoarded now.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Good for you Jack.
I got a bunch stuff shredded on Friday and I took your advice and looked up how long before I can shred old tax information with Canada Revenue. Their site says 6years. So I am okay to shred anything of my mom's I find or anything of mine that is from before 2013.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Good for you Jack.
I got a bunch stuff shredded on Friday and I took your advice and looked up how long before I can shred old tax information with Canada Revenue. Their site says 6years. So I am okay to shred anything of my mom's I find or anything of mine that is from before 2013.
Nice.
Glad you looked into it. There isn't any sentimental value in tax stuff (or at least their shouldn't be). I knew full well I only needed 7 years, but like everything else I was collecting them like baseball cards. I've only got 3 years in paper forms and the rest are all in PDFs on my computer and backed up to a thumbdrive. That's all the worry I'm ever going to put into them either unless I ever get a good job again. There's just about zero chance of getting audited when you work on a payroll and you make less than the standard deduction 9 out of 10 years. There's simply nothing to audit.
Got a big freaking mess to clean up today. :(
It's unusual for a storm to wake me up. I usually sleep like a baby through them. But my windows were open and the wind was fierce. By the time I closed the windows upstairs I had water all over my hardwood floors. I cleaned that up real quick before I headed outside to pull 2 large tree limbs 200 feet to the driveway in the pouring rain and I had to get my telescoping limb cutter to pull another one down that was hanging like Damocles' Sword right over my front walkway, just waiting for somebody like the postman to walk under it before it struck.
Thankfully, it appears that nothing hit the house. The large one on my doorstep may have glanced it, but I would have noticed the bang if it actually hit it. It looks fine.
I'm wet. I'm tired. I'm sick of the rain and especially the violent storms we've had this year. And I doubt very much that I'll be helping my friend on his house at all again today with thunderstorms predicted well into the evening.
Crap.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:Wow. You're like a one-person whirlwind. That's tremendous progress!
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Got a ton of stuff done today. All of my documentation over the years is sorted through. I got rid of about 90% of it and it's now destroyed. The rest is organized and filed away in a single small box. :)
Cleaned out and bleached all of the nice containers a lot of this stuff was in as well as two more tool boxes that I'll get to actually use for tools now, so I can sort everything in the garage this week and finally see if I can't find the rest of my countersink set. Here's hoping that I don't have to buy a new one.
Put about another half-can of junk in the trash.
Really coming down to the end of the stuff to sort and throw out in the house besides my clothes and the rest of the furniture I have to decide whether or not I'm going to keep.
Garage is mostly cleared out of stuff I'm getting rid of. Really need my friend to get out here and take some of the big stuff he wanted.
I'm thinking two more weeks, tops, and I'll be officially de-hoarded now.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
In an earlier post you were wondering whether it was the house that was too much for you, or all of the "stuff" that you had accumulated since you moved in. (BTW, it seems quite a few people offloaded THEIR "stuff" onto you. Oh,SIX has got a house. Maybe he could "use" this and then they gave you something totally unuseable.) Maybe a lot of bad associations got purged with the "stuff"? It's kind of like starting fresh when you strip down to what you need.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Good for you Jack.
I got a bunch stuff shredded on Friday and I took your advice and looked up how long before I can shred old tax information with Canada Revenue. Their site says 6years. So I am okay to shred anything of my mom's I find or anything of mine that is from before 2013.
Nice.
Glad you looked into it. There isn't any sentimental value in tax stuff (or at least their shouldn't be). I knew full well I only needed 7 years, but like everything else I was collecting them like baseball cards. I've only got 3 years in paper forms and the rest are all in PDFs on my computer and backed up to a thumbdrive. That's all the worry I'm ever going to put into them either unless I ever get a good job again. There's just about zero chance of getting audited when you work on a payroll and you make less than the standard deduction 9 out of 10 years. There's simply nothing to audit.
Got a big freaking mess to clean up today. :(
It's unusual for a storm to wake me up. I usually sleep like a baby through them. But my windows were open and the wind was fierce. By the time I closed the windows upstairs I had water all over my hardwood floors. I cleaned that up real quick before I headed outside to pull 2 large tree limbs 200 feet to the driveway in the pouring rain and I had to get my telescoping limb cutter to pull another one down that was hanging like Damocles' Sword right over my front walkway, just waiting for somebody like the postman to walk under it before it struck.
Thankfully, it appears that nothing hit the house. The large one on my doorstep may have glanced it, but I would have noticed the bang if it actually hit it. It looks fine.
I'm wet. I'm tired. I'm sick of the rain and especially the violent storms we've had this year. And I doubt very much that I'll be helping my friend on his house at all again today with thunderstorms predicted well into the evening.
Crap.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Never thought about it before to tell the truth. But having that knowledge is good. And no there is nothing sentimental attached to tax returns. I'll go through and double check what I set a side of my stuff and shred it in the next few days. Anything I need to keep, I've got a folding box that I can put it in.
The rest I need to shred is just old forms and old letters that my mom had to write for whatever reason for me or my brother or my dad which at this time are all useless. Shredding is easier in case there are SIN numbers on them or birthdates.
Combo of the winds and the windows being open is probably what woke you.
At least nothing was damaged with the falling limbs and such.
Sorry the weather is sucking so much down there right now for you.
Suppose to rain up here in a couple of days. Only good thing is this fire season hasn't been as bad as the last couple with the weather.
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Lazy Sunday here.
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As a casual weather-watcher SIX, here is a little forewarning .... every time you anticipate a sudden change in weather, especially hot to cold, expect sudden storms as well. What's happening is that a cold air mass comes swooping down (from Canada) and meets the hot humid air mass that's already there. Since cold air is denser than hot air (As you know, hot air rises) the cold air kind of wedges under the hot air, forcing it upwards suddenly. Those sudden updrafts cause the moisture to condense, wringing out the water suddenly and causing downpours. As the air continues to rise (sometimes to 20,000 ft) it eventually chills and falls back to earth which creates lot of wind when it hits the ground with a "thud" (downdrafts and microbursts). If that happen violently enough you get tornadoes.
Sounds like a hellacious storm. Any reports of tornadoes nearby?
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
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lol.... Speaking of whirlwinds, Sigs
No tornadoes as far as I know, but that is the second hardest downpour I ever remember seeing since I've lived here (the 1st being the time a few months ago when there were quite a few tornado sightings).
I've never really feared leaving windows open before. I've gotten a little water inside on rare occasion, but nothing like this before. The winds only lasted about 5 minutes total... They must have just been at the front of the storm. It's rained pretty steadily all day, and it was torrential for about 20 minutes after the winds. Jeez... that wind must have had the water going practically sideways.
Still way too wet to go out and cut all those limbs down, although they're all dragged to the driveway already so my frontage doesn't look like a complete disaster. They pick up branches on my street every Monday. It's usually early too. I'm hoping that I can get out there tomorrow morning and either beat them to it, or if they see me working on it I can convince them to maybe swing back around so I don't have to have them on my driveway for another full week.
No damage to the house though, so any branches weak enough to fall in a storm is a good culling, IMO. Much rather they fall during a storm than on a nice day where the kids are walking to and from school.
Having a lazy day here. Weather didn't allow me to get anything done with my friend on his house this weekend, which until he comes to help me out is by far the most valuable use of my time since he is unable to do so during the week (which was sunny every day, I might add).
Winter is coming... Hope he doesn't break my heart.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Rain heading my way tomorrow.
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I know you don't like rain - but I'd really appreciate it here!
ETA: and looking at the NA drought monitor which covers through July, you might be just a touch dry. So maybe some rain will keep fires away.
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Been virtually swimming for the last few days here too Brenda. :(
Went through a few more boxes of stuff and got rid of almost all of it. Got one can full for garbage day.
I think I am going to get rid of the patio furniture set I bought years ago. It was a cheap piece of crap I got from KMart and time hasn't been too kind to it. On top of the patio pavers that were all but ruined by the ants, it's just an eyesore right now. I think I'll keep a few of the chairs for now, just to have something to sit on, but that'll be something huge I can get rid of along with the trash this week since I have no plans on ever taking that with me.
Going to try getting through a few more boxes and consolidating my artwork tomorrow. If I get through that, I'm going to try to spend some time organizing stuff in the garage with all those nice boxes I cleared out.
I looked at the "keep" boxes I've got and it's a bit more than I'd like to have. I already have a plan for getting rid of three of them. I don't think I'm going to be able to get rid of more than that though. But I do need to think hard about it because once all that is done I need to keep in mind that whenever I do move I have to pack up clothes, toiletries and kitchen stuff that I use regularly and I'm not packing up now. That's going to be quite a bit of extra boxes on top of what I already have.
Speaking of clothes, I hope to go through all of them next week and get rid of about half of them. When I started doing all of this my plan was to keep any clothes I wasn't going to ever wear again for packing material to protect fragile stuff. But now that most of the stuff is packed I don't have to do that anymore so a lot of that can go in the trash or to goodwill when I get to it.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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So, my neighbor lady is a Mexican born, bilingual American citizen, who, sadly for her, becomes easily anxious. (She's mentioned that to me more than once over the decades and has shared some of her anxieties over diverse things.) After the El Paso shooting she confided to me over the fence that she felt really nervous. Ehhh ... all I could do to relate was to say that a relative and his Mexican-born wife live in El Paso and I was happy to know they were OK.
As far as I'm concerned, all our chances of ending up in a mass shooting in this neighborhood - whether it's a foreign-born terrorist or a gang-banger or a right-wing nutter or a random schizo shooter or whoever - are pretty darn low.
What DOES make me nervous is when the police helicopter circles overhead a few times with their searchlight lighting up the yards --- like what just happened. Sigh. I just never get used to that.
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The chances that anybody in any neighborhood gets caught in a shooting is about as high as getting struck by lightning. I wouldn't spend any time worrying about it. You're much more likely to get in a car wreck on your way home from the doctor.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
I know you don't like rain - but I'd really appreciate it here!
ETA: and looking at the NA drought monitor which covers through July, you might be just a touch dry. So maybe some rain will keep fires away.
We've been lucky in BC this year. Fire season hasn't been too bad. Few places were on evac notice but after a few weeks those were pulled as everything was under control.
There's been snow up around Fort Nelson which is the Northeastern corner of the province.
Not suppose to be a lot of rain if it shows up down here.
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