52 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-10-18”

  2. Evening Joj
    ‘Morning everyone else.
    QoD When will the snow stop?
    My phone says a little before noon.
    I have seen snow like this in Northern Virginia. The bad thing is that snow plows can’t push this much over to the side. There is no place to put the snow on the streets. So?
    Everything in Greensboro, and most of NC is closed.

    Liked by 2 people

  4. When there is that much snow up here, it gets ploughed to the middle of the road and then a big snow blower comes along and blows the pile into a big dump truck and it’s hauled away to a large snow dumping site.

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  6. Mumsee–thanks for pointing out that I wrote ‘Pacific’ ocean. I definitely need my own private editor! My eye sight is way too bad to be able to do that from Hilton Head. 😀

    Liked by 6 people

  7. Good morning! I am on hold with the county sanitation department. It’s a mix of jazzy music and constant cut ins with an apology for delay, etc. I put a mattress by the street for pickup. (It’s lovely seasonal decor.) Just spoke with the nice lady, Kamisha, who said ten business days for pickup. We had Art’s mom’s old mattress on top of another set so the bed was too tall and soft for Art. This will give further options for him when he gets home after surgery.

    Karen was able to get her new Christmas tree in a box brought in, but she told me it was still sitting there unopened, and she thought she might hang lights on the box. Yep! We are right in sync this Christmas.

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  8. In Northern Virginia, there were huge piles of snow in the shopping center parking lot. I judged that Spring was really here when that pile of snow had melted.
    They are showing on the local TV station that some of the major roads are open.
    Like in Annandale, once you got out of your own community, you could go anywhere.

    Liked by 2 people

  9. Chas, if the pile is big enough, you can’t judge spring or no spring by its disappearance. In areas where salt is used on the pavement, the pile can end up largely being a pile of salt as the snow in it melts. I don’t know if rain eventually disintegrates all the salt or if they eventually haul it away, but I have seen those piles sitting well into spring.

    Kare, you have stupid sinuses, huh? Or is that a spell check fix of “stopped up”?

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  11. KI, Chas mentioned it first but he did it gently.

    I have been to the Atlantic but not enough to see it or touch it as one would like. Scuba diving in the Florida Keys does not actually count, I don’t think. Nor does flying over it. Or sailing on a cruise ship though that was a lot of fun. Transatlantic across the northern part so no stops, just ocean. Beautiful.

    And I have been to the Pacific. Did a bit of wading and swimming and body surfing along the Calif coast. The tide pools in Oregon. Very nice. Flew over it several times. And spent a lot of time in the East China Sea but that hardly counts. A short stint of swimming off of Acapulco. Husband would like to live by the ocean but that tends to be quite crowded.

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  12. As to snow, our town just plows it to the middle of the road and people drive around it. The out of town roads get it plowed into the fields where the wind blows it back onto the roads for large drifts at times. Then people get their cars stuck if they are not expecting it, like daughter did. Why were you on that road? I wasn’t thinking, she said.

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  13. Good morning.

    Kitty met kitty last night, and it went fine. 4th Arrow held one of them, 6th Arrow the other. Then both girls set the cats down on the basement floor, where they (the cats) quietly regarded each other, then walked off in separate directions.

    The turtle didn’t seem too keen on the new cat, though — swimming away from the front of the tank to retreat under the basking dock in the back. Turtle and tank are upstairs, though, and we don’t plan to have new kitty up there. She’s staying in the basement/attached garage area.

    6th Arrow has been good about keeping her from the outdoors so she doesn’t go running back “home.”

    It sounds like the company who owns that home back there, formerly our neighbors’, is going to tear the house down. I hate to even think about that — I’ve been in that house several times, and it’s a nice multi-level structure (about four or five “mini-levels”, one might call them) — but with the sale of the home to that paving and construction company, I suppose it was inevitable that they’d eventually boot out the renters/former owners.

    Now there are only three families on this road instead of four, and we all got along, so it’s sad to see one of us having to leave.

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  14. I’ve swum in the Pacific Ocean, when I was a teenager visiting aunt, uncle, and cousins in California. That was only once.

    I’ve only been to two states east of the Mississippi River, and they are well in the interior — no where near the Atlantic.

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  16. I’ve been in the Atlantic a good bit when younger. It was only an hour from where I went to college for my two years away from Atlanta. I have seen the Pacific but never been in it. I have seen the Gulf from Florida, and from Texas (only once from there many years ago).

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  17. I guess it is time for me to call the eyeglass shop and check on the status. They are suppose to call me when they are ready. I am getting antsy to go take the driver’s license test to see if I will be able to drive when Art has surgery.

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  18. I have a stupid knee that I think was sprained during the high-stakes, seasonal sporting event of decorating your front porch. No routine ice skating or ice slipping or marathon injury for me.

    I simply slipped on the large, lightweight, recycled plastics porch mat (bad purchase but it seemed smart at the time and was inexpensive) and took a spill last night, my right knee apparently twisting inward in the process before banging onto the concrete porch.

    Six weeks ago I tripped over a cardboard box in the living room and banged my knees up that time, too, so this is an injury on top of an injury that was finally pretty much fully healed.

    What a klutz.

    Anyway, that right knee was pretty seriously sore all night long so I probably should go in to the doctor or urgent care to get it checked out today, make sure nothing’s torn or broken (I think it would hurt more than it does if that were the case, but what do I know). I can walk but bending it much, especially in certain positions, causes pain and it also feels a bit numb (and looks swollen). I’ve had sprained ankles but never a sprained knee. The skin is really tender.

    Unfortunately, this is the day I’m due back at work after being off a week, but I really don’t think I should drive (being that my right leg is the driving leg). I have a story I can get done from home today so will let my editor know try to get in to see the doctor for an evaluation in the meantime. I’m tempted to just tough it out, but that’s probably stupid.

    Stupid seems to be the word of the day.

    I also need a new mattress. It’s on the list for early 2019.

    Liked by 3 people

  19. DJ, that hurts just reading about it. If you don’t think you should drive, will Tess drive you, or do you have a human who can do it?

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  22. DJ, time to get the glasses checked?

    We thought we needed a new mattress but the prices were a bit higher than we liked. Yes, we spend a third of our lives in bed, but still…. We bought one of those toppers for a fraction of the cost and it has been wonderful. I thought it would be too soft but it does not turn out that way. Very supportive and yet comfy.

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  23. Made it to urgent care, it’s feeling a little better I think. Tess didn’t want to drive and my neighbor offered but hadn’t gotten out of bed yet – since urgent care is only about a mile from my house, I figured I could do it.

    Liked by 1 person

  27. Lovely photo!

    I’ve swum in the Pacific. (Even in summer, it’s always cold, or at least in my experience as a child.) I’ve glimpsed the Atlantic. I’ve been over the border into Canada (Niagara Falls from both sides) and over the border into Mexico (spending the night), both in the days before a passport was needed.

    I don’t know how many states I’ve seen. I’ve not been to the Northwest, but I have lived in the Southwest, the South, and the Midwest, and I have visited New England (where my mother was born). My siblings or I have lived in Arizona, California, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and probably some others. (And one also lived in Nigeria as a young child.) Interestingly, three of my four older brothers have lived in the same town (in California, North Carolina, and Georgia) for at least 25 years, and each of them even lived in the same house 23 years or longer, although one brother is now in a different house than his long-term one. Also, three of my five brothers have had houses built, at least two of them doing most of the work themselves, and another has added onto two houses, remodeled the entire interior of one and a half, and has blueprints to build his own house now.

    The longest I have ever lived in the same house is 14 years, although I have lived in three houses (in three states) that added together equal 30 years; add a fourth house in my fourth state (the house we moved away from earlier this year) and we can get it to 37. But the other 14 years are a mishmash of college, apartments, rental houses, and living with my parents and then just my mom in a mobile home (and that mobile home was on two different pieces of property in the time we lived in it).

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  28. I’ve only lived in two different states. I lived in my childhood home for 22.75 years, and have been in our current home (different state) for 29.5 years. The years between those two homes — 1985-1989 — I lived in six different rental places (mostly apartments, but one rented house). So a lot of moving in those four middle years, but obviously long stretches in the first and last homes.

    Interestingly, whereas the first two apartments were in the state where I was born, the third apartment was in my current state, and then the fourth and fifth rental places were back to my birth state. (And the sixth was back to my current state.)

    The first time I moved to this state was right after getting married. But we only stayed here for two months before moving back to what was for both of us our home state. So those back-and-forths from state to state early in our marriage, with sometimes one or both of us working in a different state than where we resided, was a nightmare income-tax-wise.

    I was glad when we both found employment we liked in the area we currently live, and could finally put down roots in a nice area, buying a house and both being employed in the same state in which we live.

    Now, of course, with my self-employment and homeschooling, I can do those things anywhere in this country. If we moved, we wouldn’t have to be limited to a place where both of us could find work with employers that are in close geographical proximity to each other.

    Not that we’d leave this region, though. My husband doesn’t like the heat — he loves temperatures from about 0 to 20 — so we wouldn’t likely be moving any farther south, though there’s much more of the U.S. to the south of us than to the north.

    Plus, 10 of our 11 siblings are in the Midwest (9 of those 10 in the Upper Midwest, as we are), and both 1st and 2nd Arrows live up here, too, so if we ever move, it likely wouldn’t be far.

    So I probably won’t be able to escape the stupid cold temperatures. 🙂 But I hope we can sometime at least move out of this county with its stupid 40-acre rule for having more than one outbuilding.

    Just had to sneak that Word of the Day in to my post. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  30. No broken bones in Xray and he didn’t think there were tears based on his manipulations and physical exam. Bruising and a sprain. I have a brace and ice packs and written instructions I haven’t read yet.

    I could really use a nap, I didn’t sleep well at all last night. The pain has subsided considerably although some movements still give a tweak of pain.

    I’m not having much luck getting the info for the story I was going to do today (I love it when government officials respond with the bare minimum answers). I’m toying with the idea of asking bosses if I can just call this a sick day and then start in tomorrow, probably working from home but I may be able to get to work later in the week.

    I think my decorating, meanwhile, is finished 🙂

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  31. Oh, except for putting up the hanging plant hooks on the front porch since I have hanging poinsettias that need them.

    Maybe in another day or two? If I’m real, real careful?

    Liked by 1 person

  33. I have swum in the Atlantic, from both its eastern and western shores, and I was much farther south, though still above the equator, on the eastern side. I have now been to the Arctic Ocean, but nobody would voluntarily swim in the Arctic [although the Inuit of the hamlet do apparently swim in the river that runs from the glacier to the fjord during the summer]. I have not been far enough west in North America to either see or swim in the Pacific.

    I have now been in five of the ten Canadian provinces and the largest of the three Canadian territories: Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and, of course, Nunavut. One thing I have found in my travels to remote places is that the other outsiders one encounters come from very diverse backgrounds. In West Africa, the countries represented by coworkers included the U.S., Germany, and Brazil. The national origins of colleagues in Nunavut included Australia, China (via the U.K.), the Philippines, and the U.S., plus the Canadian provinces/territories of British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Ontario, Manitoba, and the Yukon.

    Outside of Canada, I have been to the states of New York (many times), New Hampshire, Maine (memorable for mosquitoes), Massachusetts (paternal relatives in Boston), Vermont (which I chiefly remember for how our brakes started smoking in the mountains), Michigan (more than once), Ohio (where the Eldests are), Pennsylvania (where the Eldests were), Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee (ATI conference in Knoxville, the Underground Sea, and Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga), Georgia (very briefly, just to say we were there), Utah (just in the airport at Salt Lake), Idaho (no need to elaborate 😉 ), and Texas (the airport at Dallas and the city of El Paso). I have been to the northern state of Chihuahua in Mexico, driving through Ciudad Juarez (we actually travelled through there when the army was first sent in to deal with the drug cartels, and saw the armoured convoys) down to the city of Chihuahua, where my father and I worked with other team members in a soup kitchen in one of the poor areas of town. I have landed in the capital cities of Belgium (Brussels), Guinea (Conakry*), and Senegal (Dakar), and have lived in The Gambia.

    *The plane landing in the hamlet in Nunavut was quite dramatic for the 360 turn in front of a mountain, but landing in Conakry was probably the most terrifying. It wasn’t the landscape, as the city is on a river delta, but the short runway. At the end of the runway was a crowded slum, and I could see the faces of the people in the street as we flew over the slum just before touching down on the runway.

    Although I have traveled to so many places, I have had the same permanent address all my life. The longest I have lived anywhere else is in the city where I have been going to school, which has been, adding together the various times I have been there, about two and a half years, with two months in a basement apartment, eight months in a second floor apartment, and twenty-one months in an attic room. The second longest time I lived anywhere else was fourteen months in the West African village. The three months I just spent in the hamlet in Nunavut was the third longest time spent away from home, as I spent three weeks in Idaho and ten days in Chihuahua.

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  34. Chas, I figured if we bought a new topper every year for the duration of the “life of a mattress” we would still save money. I will have to ask Mike where he got the topper, it arrived at our front gate one day.

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  35. Now that I am set to go try for the driver’s license, when I turned on the radio in the car I got the news that everything is opening late tomorrow because of expected black ice. I quickly turned off the radio. It was like burying my head in the sand. I did not want to hear it. Art needs to go with me so that means missing even more work for him. Maybe we will wait until Wed., the last day. I feel so stressed by it all. Everything I do seems to require jumping through hoops.

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  37. I have been a busy bee making Christmas presents…almost done! (Handmade is my theme this year…and it has been fun!)
    That rolled up mattress shipped to your house is a nice one…and you do not need a box spring! The husband purchased an extra long twin size for the back of his truck and he loves it. When he is not camping/hiking/running and truck camping in the National forest, the mattress goes on a frame we purchased online from Walmart.

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  39. If you kept stacking toppers on, one on top of the other, you’d have a really tall bed.

    My antique bed frame is an odd size so I have to have a mattress and box spring made. I was told it would cost $800-$1,000. It’s a lot of money which is why I’ve also put it off. I have some kind of topper on mine, but it’s super soft and tends to move around too much.

    I managed to get 2 hours of sleep, maybe that’ll catch me up from what I missed last night. I feel like I could still sleep some more.

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  40. Thanks Mumsee. I stopped by a mattress store some time ago but couldn’t decide on anything. Also, I’m not anxious to make a long term commitment at this time.

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  41. Nancyjill, I finished the hat (toboggan) I knitted for my brother. I am pleased with it. He has seen it so it won’t be a surprise, but I wanted to ask if he would prefer plain or some stripes added. He said either so I took the easier route and made it plain. It’s a creamy color with some brown flecks in it. I did do a few miscounts on the knit and purl pattern so it is an “original design.”

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  42. I got the last mattress and box springs set I bought online from J. C. Penney online. I bought it during the January sale on such things. That is the best time to buy if you can wait. However, the new sets need to really have time to air out. Fortunately it was a warm and dry winter when I got it so I could close the door and let it get fresh air through open windows. Also I did not get it in January. It took awhile before it got delivered.

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  43. Since we’re counting, I’ve been to Puerto Rico and all but 10 states: Anything from Minnesota to Idaho (unless I count landing and taking off from Boise airport as being “in” Idaho), Maine, Rhode Island, Alaska and Hawaii. Maybe after I retire, Mrs. L and I will take a road trip to some of those states. She’s been to all the Northern Plains states. I’ve also been to Ontario, Canada from Michigan and at Niagara Falls. And of course, growing up 65 miles from the Southern border, I’ve been to Nogales, Sonora several times, but no farther into Mexico than that.

    And since we’re talking about swimming even though it’s December, I’ve swum (or is it “have swam”) in the Atlantic and Pacific, as well as the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas. We didn’t go swimming in the Gulf while in Florida, but waded in up to our knees. Oh, and I stood on the shore of the Long Island Sound with my children on a cold March day.

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  44. I guess I have been in the Gulf of Mexico when visiting PCC for graduation. Or at least to it. We saw dolphins. And the Aegean Sea.

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  47. This is what sometimes creeps me out — I’m seeing ads on FB for mattresses now. I’ve not searched for mattresses, only have mentioned them here today.

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  48. Yes, but you typed in the word “mattress” didn’t you?

    He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows when you’re not sleeping well for the stupid mattress’ sake . . .

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  50. Talked to Carol who said the doctor visited her today and asked her many questions – and she received a call from the wellness social services rep who did the same. I think my email at least got her some added attention. Oh, and today she said for the first time the occupational therapist took her to the restroom. Yay. That had been another one of my concerns I’d mentioned in my email, that the staff seemed content to just let her stay in diapers indefinitely. Not acceptable.

    She is concerned about some chronic diarrhea that she forgot to mention to the doctor. I told her to mention it to the nurses, that she forgot to ask him about that, and see if they can contact him with that question or arrange for him to call her.

    Liked by 2 people

  51. DJ, wonderful that you’re getting her some help! I’ve heard that a patient in the hospital does much better if someone “on the outside” is available and noticing what is going on.

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