Netfoot November 26 Share November 26 3:52 at Enmore. Consulting the doctor now. She wants to reduce my prednisolone dose a little. Good. She has gone off to try and find out if the Azathioprine is killing me. She seems to think it is. I hope she isn't right. Got some tasty soup at home. "Meat-scraps" beef and black beans with carrots, potatoes & onions. Looking forward to eating some. Nothing for the day yet. Have cucumber, pumpkin I can add along with more carrots potatoes, onions, and a tin of whole-kernel corn and another of diced tomatoes. Also dumplings if I decide to make some. But feel so tired & fed up these days I just feel most of the time that I just can't be bothered. 3:58 and the doctor is still trying to find out of the Azathioprine is killing me or not. Will post this now and hope I don't have to sit here much longer. Rush hour had already started and will get only worse for the next couple hours. 2 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8518560
Netfoot November 28 Share November 28 Over at the mall. Feeling horrible, but that's another story. Still no internet/landline as if this morning. Went to the Telco and enquired about cancelling my internet service. There is another internet provider and I asked if I could retain my old landline number but switch to the competition for internet. The clerk asked why so I told her the story and explained that I simply could not go on not having connectivity while they sat on their thumbs. She said "wait a minute". She made a call to someone and after about 10 minutes she hung up and said, "Go home and reset your router. Everything should be fine after that." I told her I've been resetting the router and testing the system several times a day without any success. She said, "Yes, but the guy I was just talking to did something and said you will be OK." Who knows? But she gave me her cellphone number to call if I had any more trouble, so who knows? Anyway, going to go home now and contemplate having a bite to eat. Maybe I will have internet again! But honestly, I am not going to hold out much hope. 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8520164
Netfoot November 28 Share November 28 Home and the net is working!!! Landline still out, but I rarely use that anyhow. More later, but right now I have to call Lacharita over at the mall and give her my thanks! Got home just before the rain came down... 3 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8520171
Netfoot November 28 Share November 28 Internet out again. ☹️ After just over an hour, I was using the net to contact a few people and catch up on the news when suddenly it's out again. But this seems to be working as was my internet banking app a short while ago, so I will kill the browser and try reloading it. More later. Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8520212
Netfoot November 28 Share November 28 Browser reset and that is now working along with everything else. Fingers crossed that all continues to work. When I say "all" I don't include the landline which is still not working. I will try a different instrument later and see if that helps. Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8520247
andidante November 28 Share November 28 Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate! 2 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8520256
Netfoot November 28 Share November 28 27 minutes ago, andidante said: Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate! Ditto! When is Thanksgiving again? Is it today? We don't celebrate that here, but Saturday is Independence Day! Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8520267
andidante November 28 Share November 28 37 minutes ago, Netfoot said: Ditto! When is Thanksgiving again? Is it today? We don't celebrate that here, but Saturday is Independence Day! It is today for the US. Happy Independence Day to you for Saturday. Glad your internet is back on! Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8520282
Netfoot November 28 Share November 28 2 minutes ago, andidante said: Glad your internet is back on! It's scary how much I (we?) have come to rely on that. I'm on the phone to the Telco who want to know my account number. "It's on the top of your monthly statement!" "Yes, but you no longer send monthly statements bu snail-mail; you e-mail them." "So... ?" "So I can't access my e-mails to get that for you because you won't reconnect my internet!" And not just e-mails but my calendar, my record of blood glucose tests, everybody's phone number... When I'm writing a program or configuring a piece of equipment I refer to online manuals... Hard to live without when you use it for so much. And I don't even do Social Media like FecesBook, Insta, Tictoc, Twitter/X or anything but YT and that mostly for watching news videos. I can't imagine how bad it would be for someone addicted to InstaGoogle TweetFace! Now I'm gonna lie down. Feeling sick as a dog. 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8520287
Netfoot November 29 Share November 29 (edited) In bed, fresh from the shower. It is coolish tonight. I'm not feeling 100% but I was feeling worse earlier. I took 2x Panadol and 1x Nexium. Mo is lying on the tiles at the foot of the bed. Still no bulb in the remote lamp so I walked in in the total dark trying to teach the manual lamp. In the process I mashed the puppy who was sleeping in the floor. If you are part black panther and part ninja, you should locate yourself better if you want to avoid getting mashed! Fortunately I only got some part of his tail and only with two of the smaller toes on my right foot. The ones right next to my stumped little toe which I'm happy to say is doing very well and giving no trouble. What is giving me a little trouble is my left middle finger which I accidentally rearranged with a 10" cleaver. Fortunately I was not chopping with it but more slicing. It was an onion and as I pushed the blade of the cleaver down it slid to the left over the curve of the onion and had a most unpleasant conversation with the finger. The blade cut sideways into the finger and was stopped by the fingernail, which it encountered close to the root. To my surprise the bleeding stopped very quickly, the wound closed up and staryed started to heal in an hour or two and the whole thing was virtually a nothing-burger. I am glad about that - it could have been much worse. Let me see if I can find a nice recent photo of the puppy to show you: Hmmmm. Well, as you can see, SNAMU. All Mo'd Up. With no internet (and boy! Have I been overcompensating today? Or what?) I've been reading. Finished what I was reading and started and finished two more of Bagley's books since. Currently on #14 (of 16): Windfall. An unexpected legacy of £40 million is left to a small agricultural college in Kenya. Max, friend to one of the other smaller beneficiaries becomes suspicious of the true identity of another. A visit to Kenya increases his suspicions as unusual events occur. Had an embarrassing moment with the van yesterday. I went out to buy groceries knowing that the tank was almost empty and that I should buy gas. Stopped at the grocery, which was right next to the gas station but which I got to first. Couldn't find what I wanted so I set off to the next grocery (which was again right next door to a gas station), made my purchase, and came home, having completely forgotten to buy gas! Was reversing back to park facing out when, ten feet from my gate, the engine died. Couldn't get it to start up and because it's a slight rise in through the gate, I couldn't push it in, so the van had to spend the night in the street. It could have been vandalized but there was little chance of anyone stealing it. Aussie came and took me to the gas station today, where I bought had gas in a can and brought it back. Problem solved. Went to see Dr. Jacinto on Tuesday. Prednisolone reduced slightly. 35mg every two days down to 30mg every two days. The dinner-time dose of pyridostigmine cut in half to see if it reduced cramping. Which is worse in bed at night. But the biggie is the Azathioprine. Apparently, azathioprine is contra-indicated for cancer patients. They only agreed to give it to me a year ago because I was supposed to be getting a biopsy and then treatment for the cancer. Since that has not happened, they have now had to stop the azathioprine, which is (was) a major part of my MG therapy. So refusal to treat the cancer means I was dangerously drugged with azathioprine. I was told they should have stopped it months ago, but since they have not seen me for the previous four months... Next visit in 4 more months. No, wait! No more 4-month appointments. Have to settle for a 6-month appointment. <sigh> Everybody agrees that the symptoms I have definitely point to cataracts. (Except none of them are actually qualified.) To get treatment from QEH I would have to consult an optician, get a test to confirm cataracts, and have them write me a referral. I'd have to pay the opticians consultancy fee, plus what ever charge was levied got for the cataract test. I have $105 in the bank. Tomorrow is supposed to be a welfare cheque day but I have seen no sign of the landlord so I don't have any cheques. Hopefully they are sitting in his postbox. And hopefully, he shows up soon and gives them to me! Exit Music (For A Film) by Radiohead, off of OK Computer, one of those albums it's difficult to find a single flaw on. I've been looking for 27 years and have not found one yet... (27 years! Can you believe it?) Over two weeks since I was paid in advance for some sofa feet and not yet received the details, far less the lumber to proceed. Sent a message earlier and was told "Friday is good." So hopefully I will underway with that starting tomorrow. The original promise was ~$600/week for 3-5 weeks. So far, it's been what? 6-7 weeks and I've received less than $1,000 in work. And if I'm twisting his arm to get him to give me work he's already paid for, it doesn't seem reasonable that he will have more work next week any time. Look, I'm going to read and kill the lights. But first, let me try this one more time: Edited November 29 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8520479
Netfoot November 29 Share November 29 Landlord called this morning. He had my welfare cheques so I took Mo and off we went to the post office. My landlord is a clever guy. He decided to change the engine oil on his car. Completely drained the old oil out. Then noticed that he didn't have the jug of new oil with him. Genius. He was standing next to a non-functional vehicle and wondering how he was going to get to a gas station to buy oil, and hos he would get back. I gave him every opportunity to ask for assistance. I'd have taken him to the gas station and brought him back. Or I'd have bought the oil for him and brought it back when I returned, providing he gave me the money for the oil. But he just couldn't bring himself to ask for a favour. So I left him there standing beside the immobile vehicle and when I got back, he was gone. But the vehicle was still there. So I surmise he walked to Kendal Hill. A while back I made a pot of tasty soup with beef scraps and black beans, plus carrots, potatoes, onions. Later I added cucumber and pumpkin. But recently I felt I was not enjoying it any more, so I just ran the entire lot through the blender. Very few lumps left after that and I was able to enjoy a mug for lunch. Actually had two sausages and two eggs for breakfast, a meal I love but rarely enjoy. It would have been so much better with toast. And I had the bread, but not the toaster. No word on sofa feet so far... 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8520665
Spunkygal November 29 Share November 29 Why were you waiting for the landlord to ask? I know he’s kind of been flaky to you in the past but I think I would have offered to help. 🤷🏻♀️ Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8520713
Netfoot November 29 Share November 29 (edited) 4 hours ago, Spunkygal said: Why were you waiting for the landlord to ask? I know he’s kind of been flaky to you in the past but I think I would have offered to help. 🤷🏻♀️ I guess it was bad of me but he's been a bit of a dick recently. I hinted broadly but wanted to see if he would ask. He chose not to. ETA: Not to mention, I already had Mo in the car and the two of them don't really see eye to eye. Which is possibly why he didn't ask for a lift, but I could still have bought him the oil and brought it back along with his change... Edited November 29 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8520805
Netfoot November 30 Share November 30 (edited) In bed early. Feeling poorly. Wanted french toast & sausages for dinner - couldn't be bothered to make it so I did without. Garden Patrol was brief. Didn't even think to shine my torch over the wall and see if the landlord's car was gone. In bed without showering. May just skip the shower tonight. Going to read a few pages until my eyes start to close but it won't take long - they are already closing. Mo just came and curled up against my shoulder. Who will look after him after I'm gone? Heidi won't take him. Dr. Kristi is his godmother but I don't see her taking a street mongrel in to live with her $6,000 imported puppers. So she will find him a home, but where? With whom? He's looking out the window. My fuzzy boy. He just stuck his butt right in my face, ad as he moved to the foot of the bed. Edited November 30 by Netfoot 2 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8520878
Netfoot November 30 Share November 30 00:40 -- Landlord's car is gone. He must have got his oil and filled up some time in the afternoon. Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8521143
Netfoot November 30 Share November 30 (edited) I had a rough night last night. But in the 'fore-day morning Mo took up residence in my left armpit, curled into a little circle. I slept comfortably after that. And he has just joined me in bed now, but looking out of the window. I'm glad he wasn't here a minute ago because I looked out and saw two women walking on the other side of the road. If he'd seen them there would have been Olympian levels of barking and excitement. It's nearly three and those were the first humans I've seen all day. And I also saw a car. I live in a very busy corner, but everyone is chilling for Independence Day, so everything is super quiet. I had cheese & tomato (extra fancy!) sarnies for lunch. There is about a ⅓ or ¼ pot of blended soup which I'm keeping hot by boiling it for 15 minutes every few hours. I will have some of that for dinner. Normally, I like soup with bits in that I can chew, but when I lost interest in the soup, the blender made it palatable again. Good thing I hadn't added any dumplings. I'd have had to pick them out before blending and add them back after. My dumplings are hard, like the gods intended so I doubt they would have blended up too well. (When you cut a dumpling in half with your spoon, you should end up with half a dumpling in the spoon and the other half clinging tenaciously to the underside of the spoon.) I wonder if I should add more to the soup to stretch it? I can boil some more carrots, potatoes, onions, etc, even more black beans. Then blend them up and add them in with the original remnants. My friend Jimmy contacted me yesterday and made an appointment to visit my house tomorrow morning. All very formal and mysterious. I wonder what it's all about? I keep telling my friends that they can come around whenever they like. I only suggest that they WhatsApp me first to make sure I'm home. I'm home most of the time but not all of the time. And besides, if they check with me I can keep a look-out for them and open the gate to allow access. Normally that gate is locked. Finished my book and now I will begin Night Of Error (#15 of 16). I don't remember much about this book. I know I've read it but only the most basic of details are in my head. A man dies of "natural causes" on a remote Pacific island but the details sound suspicious to his brother, back home. Setting off for the Pacific to find out more, he experiences a series of violent attacks which only adds to his suspicions.... Books #15 & #16 were published posthumously. There were some additional works published after these but they were completed by another writer "from notes left by the author". I wouldn't object to reading them but I won't go looking to find them particularly. I have not started the new book as yet and will begin it tonight when I turn in. There is a large house fly that has decided to come in and test me. I have warned it several times but it is persistent. If Buddy were here it would be a gonner. He would not tolerate a fly in the house. Mo is not bothered, so he isn't helping me with the fly. I still miss Bud. No, I wouldn't give Mo up to get Bud back. Ok, going to find some sort of game to play on the phone until I get drowsy enough to take a nap. Mo? He's here. Taking his own nap: Edited November 30 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8521378
Netfoot December 1 Share December 1 Garden Patrol was delayed while I searched for a mysteriously missing Croc... No, not really. Garden Patrol simply started with me wearing one Croc and ended with me wearing two. I'm in bed now. Mo is with me, assisting with a glass of milk. I'm feeling much better. Not 100% by any means, but definitely better than last night, when I legitimately didn't know if I would survive the night. And I was feeling even better earlier but then drank a mug of tea. I know it costs 50% more but I think I will have to start buying decaf tea. Which means buying my tea from Massy instead of Popular. I know I can get a box of 80 bags of a good decaf tea for $11.99 whereas the regular version is $7.99 and a box of 25 non-decaf bags at Popular is about $2.25, so even cheaper. (Massy is more expensive than Popular but there are some things I buy from them because I just prefer it to Popular, for those items. Similarly, I prefer PriceLo for bread and Mo chow. And if I want to buy Cuisine bully beef instead of Triple-J <shudder> I prefer PriceLo for that as well.) Listening to Yesterday by the Beatles. This is one from the earlier years of the Fab Four. Fortunately, I like their music across the catalogue - early and late. Watched no movies or TV episodes for a while now. But I acquired a movie called The Invasion starring Nicole Kidman & Daniel Craig, among others. Quoting IMDb: "As a Washington, D.C. psychiatrist unearths the origin of an alien epidemic, she also discovers her son might be the only way it can be stopped." Can't possibly be bad, now can it? Do You Feel Like We Do? By Peter Frampton. This is off their Frampton Comes Alive album, recorded during his 1975 US tour. This was a breakout album for Frampton and is one of the top live albums ever sold. It's a personal favourite of mine. And this track is a standout from that album. I was in Britain when Frampton returned triumphant from his tour, in a chartered Boeing 707 known as "The Starship" with a custom blue & silver paint job. Still nothing on sofa feet. I was paid in advance for these over two weeks ago, but I still don't know what type of feet are required. So that job, when it eventually comes, will be "free" in the sense that I won't be paid for it (because I already have been). So the next payment I can expect is two jobs away. Naturally, I'd like to complete the work I've been paid for and start making towards the job that hopefully will follow. Mo has retired to the floor so I guess it's time for me to read a little bit. He will be back later when the lights go off. But he rarely stays in one place for long. He will move around the bed or the room or the house several times during the night. I still have to lock up, too. 2 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8521534
Netfoot December 2 Share December 2 Came to bed to discover my little ninja curled up on the foot of the mattress. I dunno why he is so snoozy. Normally he is snoozy during the day and a ball of fire at night. But if it means he will curl up and be Mr. Cuddles, I'm for it! Watched that alien invasion sci-fi movie with Kidman/Craig and was quite surprised! It wasn't half bad. Not a superlative example of the cinematic art, but worth a watch if you don't have anything else to do. Mo has moved and is now curled up in my left armpit. He really is a sweet boy. He is the first I've known with the wire hair. So different from the sleek coats of Dotty and Bud. He is just a symphony in wooly/fuzzy inkyness. Listening to Summers In Bloom by Reef. I think this is off their Glow album. This is a great track. I must Google and find out some more about the band. Did buggrall today. Just a little software development to try and see if I can get my idea to work. The plan is to have a program (running as a daemon), which monitors the mouse for activity in the form of movement and clicks and the keyboard in the form of key presses and releases. The program records the timestamp of last detected activity. Meanwhile, another program run periodically at times determined by the cron daemon can check to see when last the computer was used and determine how long since. The idea is for the machine to perform a "wellness" check. I use the computer every day so if X hours have passed and there has been no activity on the machine, it might be time to take it to another level. What exactly I'm not sure. Send me a message on Telegram and require a positive response? Pop up a modal dialog box on the computer demanding same? Eventually I guess it could send e-mails to a list of addresses recommending a human check. The heuristic that determines what duration of X is acceptable might be tricky. Eight hours of inactivity would not be of concern if they were between 11:00 PM and 7:00 the next morning. During the day would be another story. I've always worried what would happen if (say) I slipped and fell in the shower and broke my leg. I wouldn't be able to call for help because there is no phone in the shower. So unless I was able to crawl to the phone..... There is another fly epidemic in the kitchen. Don't know why. Had one a few months ago but the difference is that then, the can of bug-spray wasn't completely empty. It's quite cool tonight and even the gentle breeze in the window is borderline shivery. I'm glad I have my puppy to cuddle with. Eyes starting to close. Might just call it quits right now, blow out the candles and call it quits for the day. Felt pretty good all day; drank no tea. Google says you can remove the caffeine from regular teabags by dunking them in boiling water for 30 seconds. Could this be true? I have 30-40 regular bags here that I would prefer not to chuck away. Yep. Eyes closing down. Time to go. 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8522451
Netfoot December 2 Share December 2 (edited) Just acquired 13 episodes of a TV series called Danger UXB. This show was produced by Thames Television in the late 70s. I recall watching it on ITV Southern when it first aired. I lived in Brighton at the time. It is about the WW-II Bomb Disposal efforts in Britain (UXB equals UneXploded Bomb). When it was released, it received much acclaim for it's realism and accuracy. One of the startling things that the show highlighted was that none of the early bomb disposal personnel received any training at all. On 26th of March, 1979, I watched an episode that featured the 2 Kg "Butterfly Bomb". This was an anti-personel device, designed to injure and hopefully kill bomb disposal engineers. The next afternoon, as I sat at home reading, there was a loud explosion and the house shook! I didn't know what to think. But that evening, on the TV news, came an explanation. Someone who watched the Butterfly Bomb episode recognized that they had one on their mantelpiece. It had been there for 35 or more years, since the war. Several generations of kids had played with it since, and the family was quite surprised to discover what it was. The bombs were thrown out of the aircraft with the casing folded shut (right hand image) and in the way down the "wings" would fold out (left hand image), which activated the device. Upon landing, the bomb was armed and the tiniest movement of the wings would cause detonation. The Brighton bomb had failed to deploy it's wings when falling and therefore remained unarmed and inactive for all that time. It was a miracle that in 35 years of being played with by many people, nobody had thought to fold out the wings! A bomb disposal team were brought in and they carefully placed it in a reinforced container on a trailer in the road outside their house. It was then subjected to a controlled detonation, which shook all the houses in the immediate vicinity, including the one where I sat, reading. So I can honestly say I have heard the noise and felt the shock from a genuine, WW-II bomb going of close by. Understand that the thing was not detonated in my street. It was at least one street away and still I heard it quite loudly, with all my windows closed and at least one row of houses between it and me. And the house also shook, even at a distance. I just can't imagine what it I would have been like to have that go off in your hand, as it was designed to do. Sadly, the Butterfly Bombs got more children than Bomb disposal engineers. Sad that they got anybody, but doubly so that the kids were vulnerable. Edited December 2 by Netfoot 1 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8522757
Netfoot December 3 Share December 3 Tomorrow will be three weeks since I was paid in advance for sofa feet. I don't like being paid in advance and want to fulfill my obligation as soon as possible. But despite telling my friend this and him promising I'd get the job details no later than last Friday.... Watched a movie today called Blitz. It's a new flic, set in the time of the blitz in London. Now, I don't know why the movie was called that. Because while it's true it is set with blitzed London as a background, it has little or nothing to do with the blitz per se. The show was about a little boy, sent out of the city as a part of Operation Pied Piper, a British government initiative during World War II that evacuated children and other vulnerable individuals from cities at risk of bombing. The kid jumps off the train and sets out to return to his mother. It's a show worth watching but if you think you will learn anything substantial about the actual blitz, you will be disappointed. Been reading my book. Brother of an oceanographer whose death appeared suspicious now engaged in a survey in the southern Pacific to try and find what his brother was up to and perhaps find the truth about his death. Only, I have a nasty suspicion that the dead brother ain't dead! Yes, I've read this book before but have no recollection as to what is about to happen. My suspicion is not because I've read it before and know. I just think that given the evidence that had surfaced so far, the best explanation as to who killed the brother is that nobody did. The brother is described to be an absolute unscrupulous, self-serving arsehole. I'm willing to bet he is faking his own death to get his brother to carry out the survey he himself couldn't afford to finance. And it's working. I will read a bit more shortly and see if I have to revise my theory or not. Mo has just arrived and gone directly to the window. He spent a long time looking out the window at crack o' dawn this morning. Thankfully he also spent a lot of time snuggling with me as well. I'm feeling much better today. And another day without drinking any tea. I know I am supposed to avoid caffeine. Dr. Kristi ripped a strip off a while back when she caught me with a six-pack of cokes. But I didn't think a couple mugs of tea a day would be problematical. It appears I was wrong. Not yet tried the 30 seconds of boiling water to decaffeinate the bags. Mo now curled up leaning on my left shoulder and attending to his feet. And nuts. I cooked rice for my lunch. Added some corn. When the rice was finished, I put it in a bowl and stirred in some pepper sauce. Then I added a tiny tin of "curried tuna" to the top of the rice and ate it with a very small spoon. The tuna had zero taste of curry but it was slightly spicy. All in all, the meal was not too bad. Dinner was a cheese sandwich. Mo had chow today. I intended to cook the rice with bully beef and share it 50:50 with him at lunch, but he came along and demanded his lunch forcefully before I even started the rice, so chow it was. He actually started to demanded his lunch at 6:00 AM, but I refused to feed him six hours ahead of schedule. By 11:30 he was very insistent. And when he finally got his lunch he really was not too enthusiastic about it. Unka Rudy says he is getting fat. I don't agree. I wish he was! He had always been very slender/skinny and I have always felt I'd prefer him to be just a little bit less emaciated. He may have put on a couple of pounds but I like how he looks now. And fat is the last thing he is! I'm getting real fed up of showering in the dark and without a shower rose. But with even the sofa foot income drying up and a $200 increase in rent staring me in the face from 1st of February.... Ok, I will spend a little time in the south Pacific and then get some sleep. 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8523323
Netfoot December 3 Share December 3 Tea! Went to PriceLo to buy bread and guess what I saw? PHD evaporated milk in 1 liter cartons. Cases of them! I bought two. I blanched a teabag in boiling water for 45 seconds, threw out the water and brewed up afresh. Had to let it draw a little longer than usual, but eventually.... Tea! First mug in several days. Have been feeling OK for the last two days or so, so it remains to be seen if I start to feel bad again. I expect to drink two more mugs today. I sure hope this works. I enjoy a mug of tea.... 1 minute ago, Netfoot said: I bought two. Liters, not cases... 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8523606
Netfoot December 4 Share December 4 (edited) Two mugs of tea later and no I'll ill effects. Mind you, the 45 second blanching process for the teabags requires me to pour an inch of lovely, dark tea away down the sink. Made a pot of pasta spirals with corned beef, cabbage, onion and diced tomato in sauce. I ate half for lunch and about 15 minutes later I ate the other half for lunch. Mo got a splash over his chow as a sweetener. Speaking of Mo, he is curled up in my left armpit. He is licking blood from a small wound caused when he chomped my left wrist earlier while playing a game whose rules are unclear but seem to involve him attacking my hands and feet. Now he is looking out the window. With lunch and dinner both eaten at lunchtime, I put some store bought burger patties to defrost for dinner. But come dinnertime and I wasn't in the least hungry. Prolly because I ate two lunches? So the defrosted patties are in the fridge and I guess I'll have burgers for breakfast? Mo now curled up behind me. I'm yawning already. I lay in bed reading this afternoon but did not nap. While I read, one of my Crocs vanished. It was located in the garden later. The sound of the neighbor's dog barking drifted in through the window. Mo immediately jumped over me and has been looking out the window ever since. No, he had jumped back over and is curled up against my back again. Listening to Heroin by Billy Idol. From the Cyberpunk album. Still yawning and not even ten o'clock yet. Just dropped the phone over the side of the bed onto the tiles. The damned phone is nothing but a pile of glass chips held together by urgent need. Mo has moved down so he is now curled up butt-to-butt with his head down by my knees and his tail laying along my back. I'm going to post this before I drop the phone over the side of the bed again. Edited December 4 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8524024
Netfoot December 4 Share December 4 (edited) Just had lunch, followed by a blanched cup of tea. Irva cup of blanched tea. Mo is licking my left arm for reasons of his own, but it makes the phone wobble back and forward. I took two potatoes and made chips. They didn't come out very well, but my chips never do. Passable is about as good as I can get. Along with the chips, two hamburgers. I put a little onion through the mandolin and set that to caramelize. The patties went on next and to my surprise they didn't automatically shrivel up to the size of a hard dollar. When the second side was almost done, I put on some slices of English cheddar, a tablespoon of water went into the pan and A lid covered them all up. In about 20 seconds the cheese was lovely and melty and the patties went into two salt breads that I had inexpertly toasted in a pan earlier. Onions on top then covered. By no means the best burgers I've ever had, and as previously stated, not the best chips either. But I've been jonesing for a cheeseburger for a while and they were good enough to satisfy that need. Since I have two more patties in the fridge and more bread and more cheese (and more potatoes, for that matter), I may have another two cheeseburgers for dinner tonight. But no more chips. Meanwhile I banged into a box or a container of some sort and have received a small cut in my right calf. It's only about ½" long but I can't stop it from bleeding. I've tried bandages (quickly soaked through), styptic pencil (no noticeable effect) and now, elevating the leg. The bleeding has stopped but in a very tentative way. I fear it could restart at any moment. This happened once before and I had to stop taking my warfarin for three days or so to let that earlier wound start to mend. It's a PITA. I'm really having a hard time reading now. The printed word and on-screen text. It's like looking through a light fog. Night time is fun too, with all bright lights surrounded by a large halo. The nature of the halo appears to be affected by it's colour. Red lights are surrounded by a halo of red dots whereas white lights are surrounded by a halo of white, streaks, radiating outward from the center. I suppose the red dots might be very short streaks? Also keen to try other colours. There is a bright green light across the road but the actual light itself is not visible, only the green colour cast on the wall. But a neighbor has just put up his Christmas lights and as in previous years,they are very bright and vivid with several colours, including s bright blue. I will have to open the gate and take a stroll down a little closer to their house. Elevating that leg seems to be doing the trick - the small wound is still not bleeding. I had a fairly good sleep last night but since I am in no hurry to move the leg, I just may doze off now. If I do, I will probably have a hard time getting to sleep tonight so I will try to avoid that. Edited December 5 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8524535
Netfoot December 5 Share December 5 (edited) In bed with a puppy in my armpit. It's late - after midnight. Watched a movie today called Elevation. It's a new sci-fi movie And not too bad. Violent alien creatures have taken over the planet, killing most of the human population. But for reasons unknown, they will not venture above the 8,000 foot elevation mark. So the survivors live up in the mountains. The monsters are effectively bullet proof but a scientist believes that bullets can be easily treated with a coating that will penetrate their armoured, scaley exterior and trigger a reaction in the creatures that will quickly kill them. All they need to perfect this miracle process is certain chemicals in the city. Well below 8,000 feet... Mo is now curled up behind me. He has not eaten all day. I have offered him chow several times but he turns up his nose at it. Presumably because he would prefer steak. Well, he gets steak when we have steak, bully beef when we have bully beef, and chow when we have chow. Yes, I could open a tin of bully and give it to him, but what do I do when there is no bully and only chow? I paid my phone bill on 15th November. I confirmed two things with the Telco at that time: The bill was fully paid, balance outstanding is $0.00. The fee going forward is $149.99 per month. Just received a bill from the Telco. Balance $177.88 total. Question: if you start at $0.00 and your monthly bill is $149.99 how is it that 18 days later your bill is $177.88? Listening to 25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago from their album Chicago (frequently called Chicago II). A great band and this is undeniably one of their iconic early tracks. They produced a large number of albums (I think their latest is Chicago XXXVIII) but their first two (Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago a.k.a Chicago II) are two of my favourites. Also a compilation album called Take Me Back To Chicago but there were two compilation albums with this name, with different track listings, of which I only have one. The one I'm talking about is the one with the (mostly) green cover. Mo is now behind me with his head on my lower calf and his back legs rubbing against my butt. After one, now. Will read a bit of my book. Doubt I will get far, but I'll give it a go. Croc recovery in progress: Look at that poor little toe. Stumped into unrecognizability. I got the toes of a barefoot West-indian at the best of times. But that toe? Too much. Edited December 5 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8525149
Netfoot December 5 Share December 5 Six o'clock in the morning and a huge racket outside. Neighbor has positioned Big Bessie right across the footpath from my wall. Mo went mad and decided to tell her how displeased he was. He is doing standing jumps to get up to where he can talk to her face to face. If only for an instant. So he jumps again and again, talking at the top of the jump. And talking in a loud voice. She is also replying in a loud voice. He is being very silly. She isn't doing anything to cause him distress, other than just being there. And what does he want to do about it? She could swallow him whole and not even have to bite him in two! Anyhow, got him to shut up about it but now I'm wide awake. Guess I'll go watch a movie or something and consider brewing up. 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8525251
Netfoot December 5 Share December 5 Just finished my book. And yes, The dead brother wasn't dead after all! So tonight, I will begin the 16th and final book in the set: Juggernaut. In Britain, a large truck is calked a juggernaut. The truck in this story is longer than a football pitch and weighs 550 tons. It carries a huge generator across an oil-rich African state at a maximum of 5 miles per hour. But as civil war erupts and the juggernaut collects more and more refugees, the two embattled sides in the war see it as a valuable political prize, to be acquired at all cost.... Mo finally ate the chow for lunch. I knew that if I held strong, hunger would eventually make him eat it. He will get more for dinner and then from tomorrow, maybe, he will get something different. Like a sweet rice. We don't have much to put into rice other than some beans, carrot, cabbage and bully beef. But we should be able to make that somewhat palatable. Not much in the way of cash available. I think $38.63 is what we can afford to spend. So I won't be buying much in the way of groceries. Not until we get some more coin from somewhere. Watched Godzilla Minus One. Stupid name. The screen showed: G - 1.0 so it isn't a minus it's a dash. Pretty good, considering the practically non-existent budget they had to work with. But then, they weren't trying to satisfy the whims of every Victim Group in the world, nor promote The Message. It was all in Japanese but it was well subtitled. I don't usually have a problem with subtitles, if the movie is a good one. Of particular interest to an aviation enthusiast was the depiction of the Kyushu J7W Shinden, a very rare pusher canard design from the WW-II period, with (I believe) a six-bladed prop. 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8525496
Netfoot December 6 Share December 6 There is quite a stiff breeze in the window. And it's chilly. But then, it is December... Had sausages for dinner. Not tried these before. They were marked "Italian Pork Sausages". They were good, except..... They had a very tiny taste of aniseed. I don't particularly like aniseed. But this was so slight a thing that half the time I was doubting myself as to whether it was for real or my imagination. Watched a movie about soldiers in the trenches in WW-I. They never said where. The Somme, Ypres... Freezing cold mud and hot bullets. Everyone with a SMLE rifle and a typical British "Tommy style" steel helmet. When I was at school we drilled with "smelly" rifles and also the Number 4 rifle. These were very similar but the #4 was newer than the SMLE. The SMLE was WW-I vintage but the #4 was more WW-II vintage. SMLE (Short Magazine Lee Enfield) above, Lee Enfield #4 below. Both have full length furniture on the barrel but the ends of the barrels are slightly different. The #4 rear sight is fitted further back which increases the sight radius and improves accuracy. Read an account by a member of the BEF who made it back from Dunkirk but left his #4 in France. The army docked his pay £9 to pay for a new rifle! Nine quid! About a dozen of our #4 rifles were fitted with Morris tubes and we used to fire them on the range with .22 ammo. I became quite proficient with those old rifles. I was also quite good at teaching newbies how to shoot. Never got to fire an actual .303 round out of one because in those days .303 rifle and .45 pistol ammunition was disallowed due to it being "military" ammo. Which it was back in WW-II. It no longer is, of course, but it's only been 80 years so I don't suppose they have gotten around to updating the regulations as yet.... Listening to Ball And Chain by Big Brother And The Holding Company. Janis really wails on this number. Hard to believe that she recorded only four studio albums, two as lead singer for Big Brother And The Holding Company and two as a solo artist. And that the last of these (Pearl) was released three months after her death at age 27. What a terrible shame that she was so insecure and so driven to self-destructive behavior. Mo is snoozing on the tiles right beside the bed. I can understand him doing that on a hot night. Because he wears a fur coat I can imagine the cool tiles being very pleasant in warm conditions. But tonight is quite cool, bordering on chilly! I hope he will come and curl up against my back and keep me warm! Mind you, when he does come a-snuggling he doesn't stick it out all night. Many a time I've awoken in the dead of night to find him standing on the bedside table, looking out the window. But he does return to snuggle several times during most nights. Tomorrow I might try cooking a simple soup. Bully beef and spuds. Might run it through the blender or leave the spuds chunky. I think I may be able to find some black beans or possibly lentils to add as well. If so I may blend the potatoes and then add the beans/peas afterwards. Doing some serious yawning. Will end here. Probably won't try to start the final Desmond Bagley book tonight. Will do a jigsaw puzzle on the phone or something to let the sleep start to settle in my eyelids. 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8525828
Netfoot December 7 Share December 7 (edited) Last night was chilly. Thankfully, I had a nice, hot water bottle to keep me warm. Unfortunately, it wasn't with me 100% of the time but I'd say 45 minutes out of each hour was pretty good. Binged a fun TV series today. It was only 6 episodes and they were 30-minute episodes at that. So, not so long overall, but worth a watch none the less. It is called The Sticky and is about the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Robbery. This was a real thing that happened in 2011 (I think). The show makes it perfectly plain that it didn't happen as depicted! Starring Margo Martindale and Jamie Lee Curtis plus other less well known actors, I'd say if you have 30 minutes a day for the next week, it wouldn't hurt you to give it a go. Sent an e-mail to the sausage makers to see if they contained any aniseed. No reply yet. Don't really expect to receive one, if I'm honest. If I don't I could send another e-mail saying I have an allergy and demanding full disclosure. But I really don't care much, one way or the other. But speaking of food, I put a pack of dry black beans to boil in some chicken stock and after a while I was about to add some bully beef when I noticed a pack of two smoked ham hocks in the fridge. I bought them about a week ago and forgot about them. I took one and cut away the ham from the bone. Then I carefully pared the thick skin from the meat. The skin got cut into thin strips and put into a pan of hot oil while the ham got diced and added to the black beans. I then added diced potato to the beans and added water to the pan to deglaze the ham skins and make a gravy. This went over Mo's chow for his lunch. When the potatoes were cooked I put them through the blender, leaving the ham & black beans untouched. Added a little corn starch & water to help thicken the broth, which it did. Had a mug of potato & black bean soup with diced ham hocks for my lunch. There isn't much ham but enough to add a smashing amount of flavour to the soup. I am pleased to note that the strong metallic taste I used to get when ever I ate something is gone now. Or perhaps I am simply used to it now and don't notice. For dinner I had the last of the Italian sausages in the last of the bread. Not really hot dogs because the bread was common salt bread and the sausages were cut in two to fit. Wurstbrot maybe? A little mayo, ketchup & pepper sauce to dress them and they were great. And I had a small bowl of soup for desert. I really don't like hot dog rolls so I prefer to use regular salt bread or (extra special) use a good, crusty baguette and cut it to length to match the sausage(s) you have on hand. Unfortunately, the great baguettes we used to get prepared and frozen from Martinique and baked in a special machine locally? They dried up during CV19 and as far as I know never returned. No biggie, I can hardly afford bread as it is. And yet, with 4 more hamburger patties sitting in the freezer, I will have to get at least a 6-pack of salt bread some time soon. Why Can't This Be Love by Van Halen. Followed by Rock Lobster by the B-52's. Mo now curled up behind my back, between me and the wall. He usually prefers to be in the other side, where he can bogart the fan. Maybe a little cooler than normal? Wait! Now he has retired to the tiles. We are out of chow for his vittles so I guess we start cooking rice for him from tomorrow. There is plenty of rice in the house and also 6-7 tins of bully (I was stocking up). I can eat soup but puppy prefers something to get his teeth into and this particular batch of soup doesn't even have bits in that you can chew. Other than the black beans them selves which I saved from the blender, but I don't think they really count for much with Mo. Don't get me wrong - he likes the soup but prefers it on top of something as a gravy rather than just as a liquid to lap up. I can cook him a big pot of rice to last several days. No, I can't because the big pot is full of soup! 😕 Garden Patrol. What can I say? Did not get stuck into book #16 last night, so I guess I will have to do so tonight. I've read this one more than once but my recollection of the details is hazy. I suppose it makes sense. I've read the earliest books from the 60s more times than the later books from the 80s so the later books are not so well detailed in my memory. I've been drinking tea made with blanched tea bags and can't say I've noticed any I'll effects. This can mean one of two things. The blanching really does eliminate the caffeine. Caffeine had nothing to do with the bad-feels I was experiencing. I could experiment to see which by simply drinking a few mugs of unblanched tea and see if it makes me feel like I'm about to die. But honestly, I think I will keep blanching the tea bags and try to buy decaf bags in future. I know Dr. Kristi would not be pleased to catch me drinking regular! Which reminds me I have to get my usual Christmas gift for Dr. K. and her family: Quality Street chocolates. It won't be a very big box. I usually give her a separate, personal gift, but that has gone by the wayside in recent years. She won't be mad for not getting her a personal gift. She will be mad at me for getting her anything at all! But hey! Standards must be maintained when ever possible. Anyway, I will begin Juggernaut now. Edited December 7 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8526882
Netfoot December 8 Share December 8 (edited) Woke early this morning, up before six. I felt well rested for a change but I prefer to sleep in until eight or just before. I certainly don't want to be in the road before eight and preferably not for a while after! Traffic. Mid morning we had a brief but heavy shower. It wasn't long before Mo presented himself to be towelled off. I started with the towel but I quickly realized he was as dry as a bone! The little trickster was not playing in the rain at all. He just wanted a rub-down. Later, I wandered I to the bedroom for what reason I don't recall. On the way, I saw this: That is the top sheet off the bed, dragged halfway down the passage and abandoned. Along with what looks like a load of dust bunnies from under the bed. The little scamp has a habit of stealing my socks, pants, tee shirts and all. But now the bedclothes are at risk? Suppose he had managed to get it outside and I didn't notice. I'd have found the top sheet out on the grass, rain-sodden, when we went on Garden Patrol! As it is, I spent the entire time scanning for the kitchen spatula.... I transferred the last of the soup to a smaller pot after using it to boil a package of lentils to rehydrate and soften them. Use the bigger pot to make a two-day batch of rice with bully and some of the lentils. Tasty. Would have been better with some fresh veggies to add to the pot. Had a small portion for lunch with a small bowl of soup as a starter. Helped myself to small bowls of soup several times in the day and by dinner there was only one small bowl left. So I had that and another small portion of the rice for dinner and a mug of blanched tea for dessert. Watched a couple TV episodes today, including the first episode of 3 Body Problem. Don't quite know what's going on there but it is intriguing enough that I will watch. Tried watching Black Widow because I actually like Jennifer Lawrence. (As an actress. As a human, she is an idiot.) But naturally Marvel ruined the show by making the Black Widow showpiece movie all about everyone else and how inconsequential she really was. That and the plot was so crap I gave up long before the halfway point. And I hate to give up on a show, but sometimes it is the only sensible thing to do. Got a call from my woodworking friend. I was surprised. I was going to send him a WhatsApp early next week. Apparently he has been very ill, lying immobile in bed for a couple of weeks. <browser just crashed twice so I am saving here to avoid losing everything but I will be adding to and extending this> Anyway, he's back at work from next week and says he will come and see me Monday or Tuesday. Seems he wants some items a little more complex than sofa feet. He mumbled something about towel racks or towel rails but I am not sure what exactly he has in mind. And he is also expecting to have need of a batch of sofa feet as well in the not too distant future. So, he said he is coming on Monday or Tuesday and he will bring some money. I already owe him the unusually specific sum of $423.75 so it will be interesting to hear what he wants made. Listening to High Hopes off of The Division Bell by Pink Floyd. This was after the departure of Roger Waters. Not one of Floyd's best received album but with a worthy track or two none the less. And a bad Floyd album could probably be expected to sell a couple million copies..... I've got $38 odd bucks and I want to go shopping early next week. Some eggs, cheese, bread and fresh vegetables. Eggs will be $7-8, cheese more like $11, a loaf of sliced white or a bag of a dozen salt breads about $7.50 and veggies depending. Got spuds, but carrots about $3.50 a pound. Cucumbers $4-5 per kilo. Half a small cabbage $6.... That $38 won't actually go very far. Next Friday is a welfare cheque day but the entire amount is earmarked to pay the phone bill. The welfare cheque won't be enough, but I have money set aside to make up the difference. Good thing I have quite a lot of groceries. 2-3 bags of rice, several nice potatoes, 4-5 packages of pasta, 6 tins of bully, a couple tins of tuna (small ones), 8-10 English pork sausages... But not much fresh veggies, only two eggs, one tiny piece of cheddar... But a growing shortage of spices. I have some granulated garlic and lots of paprika but not much in the way of cilantro, basil, thyme, rosemary or any other herbs and spices. Oh well. There are people who have no spices and no food to put any spices on. They not only don't have bedclothes for the puppy to steal, they don't even have a puppy! When I go to see Dr. Kristi and I am wingeing to her about being wobbly on my feet or having a metallic taste in my mouth or twinges in my chest, I always feel I'm wasting her time with trivia while real patients suffering from real problems wait for her to find the time to help them. Going to post this now, then read for a bit before sleep. Mo is on the tiles but I think he can be reliably expected to join me within the first minute after the lights go off. Like when I put my dinner bowl on the floor when I was finished with the meal. Mo was out by the gate barking up a storm. I put the bowl down noisily and started, "thousand and one, thousand and two...." He was polishing that bowl in four seconds! Edited December 8 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8527428
Netfoot December 8 Share December 8 (edited) Must have slept with my head in an awkward position because I woke up with a stiff neck, a pain running down my spine and a bad headache. Thankfully most of that has passed, leaving me only with the stiff neck to worry about. We had bully beef rice & lentils for lunch. Mo got a couple Vienna sausages chopped up in his and I got the last two (very small) eggs, boiled, with mine. There is more in the pot but not sure if there is enough for both of us. If not, Mo will get priority and I will have something else. Pasta. Chips. Oatmeal. Something. Wandered into the bedroom to find Mo asleep on the tiles. Lay on the bed to type this and I heard some weird noises from under the bed. Mo had vanished so I suspect he crawled under, where it will be darker and possibly cooler? I will try to get a photo of what ever is going on under there. I am not going to try to see directly. Not with this neck. Yep. There is a puppy under there, in the gloom. Along with dust bunnies, sweetie papers, stolen bottle-tops and assorted biscuit packaging. I need a few things from ye olde shoppe. Low in sugar. Out of mayo (which I admit is a luxury I could do with out). Almost out of butt fodder (which is a luxury I can't do without!). No eggs, bread, no diced tomatoes, low in onions. Greatest shortage of all: cash! I was told last December that the documents regarding my mum's estate would be submitted to the probate court before Christmas. Early in January I asked and it was confirmed: the documents had been submitted to the probate court. This was done once before in 2016. The court sat on the documents for five years then declared that there were some errors in the documents. These would have to be corrected and the documents resubmitted. There were errors because In the five years they wouldn't look at our case, they changed all the requirements. It took two years to get the corrections made. I was told last December that the probate process could take up to 6 months; maybe even 12 months! Well, it's now 12 months. Anyone want to bet that absolutely nothing had been done to progress this affair in that time? Don't worry I didn't believe it when I was told last December it would be "six months, maybe even twelve!" Because those words were spoken by a lawyer. I've had a lot of promises made to me by a lot of lawyers in the last 14 years and not one of them was telling the truth. (6th January will be 14 years since my mum died.) The fact that this latest lawyer was actually a family member just made it all the more likely that they were lying. There is a strong breeze, blustery, in the window and it carries a hint of rain. It doesn't look rainy outside. The sky is partly overcast but the clouds are white and there are patches of blue peeping through. But I'm pretty sure there is rain in the wind. A big patch of blue is bearing down on the house from the east but I suspect we will get at least a shower before we're done here. It wouldn't normally be a concern but if the wind continues to blow, the rain will be swept in and the bed will get wet. I will stay here and read and if the rain comes I will shut the window. Should I nod off, the rain will wake me so the window will still get closed. Yep, there is the rain now! So yes, I will read. Maybe the Monster under the bed will come and come out and play! Wow! That was quick! Rain over, sky mostly blue, and I have not even had a chance to save this, far less pick up my book... Edited December 8 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8527748
Netfoot December 9 Share December 9 (edited) Remember I said I'd had the last two eggs as part of my lunch? Found the egg-carton on the lawn during Garden Patrol, torn to shreds by the little pirate who stole it out of the trash. The pirate who hunkered down like if he expected a bone-breaking beating. The pirate who got a pat on the head and a chuckle under the chin instead of any kind of beating at all. The pirate who almost never gets spanx and when he does it is never severe enough to suit the crime - what ever it was. Speaking of food, there was enough rice for Mo and I to each get a meal. But there is none left. I think we will try a couple non-rice meals tomorrow and then either cook more rice or try a veggie stew. Rice is more likely because we don't have much in the way of veggies. We got spuds but little else. Mo is in bed with me. He is alternating between curling up against my back and standing on the bedside table and looking out the window. Listening to Everyday by Dave Matthews Band. I like Dave Matthews. Been working off and on trying to develop a script that will analyze my disk drives and display a breakdown. Currently, I have three physical drives in the system. They are partitioned into as many as 6 partitions. Some of these are combined into MD RAID-1 mirrors. Those mirrors are defined as physical extents (PEs) in a volume group (VG) controlled by Logical Volume Manager. In the VG are multiple logical volumes (LVs) in which I have built filesystems - mostly ext4 type. (I used to use ReiserFS but... <browser just crashed five times in a row> ...since ext4 came out and provides journalling and ever since Hans Reiser murdered his wife, updates to ReiserFS have been few, so I have switched. Keeping my eye on Btrfs (Butter/Bitter/Better filesystem) which has its own volume management system separate from LVM but not sure that it would suit me.) All of the above to say that the collection of physical, raid and logical partitions on my machine can be a bit difficult to keep track of, especially since I don't mess with them that often. (Two of my RAID arrays were established in 2015!) So a utility that will produce a full list of everything that is going on, disk-wise would be valuable. So far it is identifying the physical hard drives, listing the partitions on each, plus identifying the RAID arrays and the physical partitions that they are comprised of. Output is fairly disorganized at present but it's all there. Next task is to identify all volume groups and the physical or RAID partitions that make them up. Then list the logical volumes created in each VG. LVs are the most active partitions on my system. I create them much more frequently than installing a drive or repartitioning one. And I resize (grow) them even more regularly. Just made one 64 Gbytes bigger only yesterday. Anyway, that's what I've been doing most of the day. Tomorrow I gotta look out for my woodworking friend. He said "Monday or Tuesday" which could mean a fortnight from now, but it's already been a month, so hopefully not. I'm concerned because he prepaid $423.75 which is a very specific price, so I assume he knows exactly what he wants for the money. And I do not! Any way, Mo is now curled up against my butt and Barry White is crooning Can't Get Enough Of Your Love Babe so I'm going to read for a little and position my head very carefully on the pillows before blowing out the candles and getting some shut-eye. Edited December 9 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8528011
Netfoot December 9 Share December 9 A corned beef & onion sauce paired with macaroni made a meal for Mo and I for lunch. I gave myself slightly more of than I gave Mo but when I had finished the macaroni there was quite a bit of the sauce left in my bowl so I added it to the top of Mo's bowl which was still cooling and waiting for him to come in to be fed. So he had slightly less macaroni than I did, but he had noticably more sauce with it. Not sure what we are doing about dinner tonight. Probably spuds because we have a good supply of spuds to hand. I also have a small piece of white cabbage and some small onions. And possibly a carrot, but I don't know if it is any good. So I could boil the spuds, cabbage and carrot (?) but I am not sure what to serve it with. I have a very small tin of flavoured tuna (Thai chili or something). I may have a larger tin of plain tuna but I think I ate that last week. There is a tin of something called "ham" but it would probably be more like SPAM, most likely. Any way, we will find something to eat tonight. And tomorrow I can boil more soup. Lentils, potato, ham hock, what ever. It would be good to buy some groceries but cash flow is on the low side. No sign of my woodworking friend. He could still come this afternoon after work, and he did say "Monday or Tuesday" and past experience suggests he might have meant "Next week Friday". I go to QEH next Tuesday for 8:00 to find out the latest excuse as to why there still has not been a biopsy. As my meds will be low by then I will also go to the QEH pharmacy to renew some of my meds. And on the way home I can stop at Edgar Cochrane pharmacy to renew the rest. Don't think I will get done in time to see Dr. Kristi before she leaves for the day at midday. I like to keep her abreast of what happens (or doesn't) during my QEH visits. But that is increasingly difficult. I used to just send her a WhatsApp with the details but a fee months ago mw WhatsApp messages stopped going through to her. Since I mostly used WhatsApp to send her puppy-pictures it's really her loss, but now to let her know what is happening I have to go see her in person. Which always makes me feel I'm wasting her time when needy patients are waiting. So if I can't see her next Tuesday after QEH I will maybe try Wednesday. Anyway, will have to go looking for supplies soon. There is food in the larder but there are gaps in the list of what we've got. I can hear Mo barking outside the window. He woke me at about 4:40 this morning which at this time of year is the dark of night but he wanted out so I opened up the house. He roused me again at 6:30 so I got up at and made a mug of tea. I notice these days I'm getting up a couple hours earlier than my preferred 8:00 AM. Maybe I'm going to bed too early. 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8528690
andidante December 9 Share December 9 26 minutes ago, Netfoot said: I go to QEH next Tuesday for 8:00 to find out the latest excuse as to why there still has not been a biopsy. As my meds will be low by then I will also go to the QEH pharmacy to renew some of my meds. And on the way home I can stop at Edgar Cochrane pharmacy to renew the rest. Don't think I will get done in time to see Dr. Kristi before she leaves for the day at midday. I like to keep her abreast of what happens (or doesn't) during my QEH visits. But that is increasingly difficult. I used to just send her a WhatsApp with the details but a fee months ago mw WhatsApp messages stopped going through to her. Since I mostly used WhatsApp to send her puppy-pictures it's really her loss, but now to let her know what is happening I have to go see her in person. Which always makes me feel I'm wasting her time when needy patients are waiting. So if I can't see her next Tuesday after QEH I will maybe try Wednesday. I can't believe it is taking them so long to do a biopsy! I hope they get that done soon for you so that you know what is going on. And get some treatment! Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8528709
Netfoot December 9 Share December 9 1 hour ago, andidante said: I can't believe it is taking them so long to do a biopsy! I hope they get that done soon for you so that you know what is going on. And get some treatment! I think it will be 20 months. And I have no expectation that anything will happen next week. So in the mean time, because I am not getting treatment for the cancer, I can't get the meds normally recommended for the myasthenia gravis! 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8528762
Netfoot December 10 Share December 10 I boiled some potatoes and served them with sausages. Mo plowed through his in a real hurry. I took my time and savoured mine. The meal was simple but turned out so much better than I anticipated. Listening to Aladdin Sane, title track of Bowie's 6th studio album, one if my favourite albums and one of my favourite tracks. The piano on this is something that I wish, every time I hear it, that I could claim as my own. Got a message from my woodworking friend this evening. He said that it was a wild day and he was only just getting home three hours late. And this is his first day back after a period of illness, so I can see why the office could be chaos. Anyway, he says he has an appointment with the sawbones first thing tomorrow and he is coming to me immediately after. Been watching TV episodes today, feeling irritable because my beard & 'tache need removing. I don't grow hair on my face because I like hair on my face. I do it because I hate scraping my face with a razor sharp (literally) piece of steel. Periodically, it becomes necessary to remove it. However, in the spirit of the holiday season, I don't like to shave just prior to Christmas. Santa is due some respect, after all. Hey, got a call from the lawyer who told me last Christmas that the estate would be probate "in six months, maybe as much as twelve!" Apparently the private court has delegated the case to some lawyer who is questioning the signing and witnessing of the will. One witness (Joan) is now diseased and the other witness (Doug) is making ridiculous claims about how it went down. Doug says he did not witness anything with Joan who he never met, but with me. I did not witness the signing of mum's will but I did arrive at her house one afternoon in time to see Doug & Joan departing. So I know that Doug & Joan did meet and I believe that this was the only time Joan ever visited the house. I conclude the will was signed and witnessed by Doug & Joan just before I arrived. What I don't understand is Doug confirms the signature is his, and Joan's signature has also been confirmed as legitimate, so.... ? Anyway, probably another six months to a year, right? Phone is at 4% so I'm going to save now. Mo was snuggling with me just now, but he has run off. But I'm sure he will be back. 3%! I'm gone ... 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8529053
Netfoot December 11 Share December 11 (edited) Watched two films today. The first was a silly 2022 movie called Day Shift starring Jamie Foxx as a pool-man. What nobody knows is that this job is cover for his real occupation: Vampire Hunter. Kind of silly but kind of fun in its own way. The second was a 1983 sci-fi movie called Brainstorm with Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood as principle actors. A team of scientists have found a way to record the five senses of a human subject onto tape and play the tape back into someone else. The recipient would experience exactly what the originator did while recording, in 100% perfect, 5-sense reality. It isn't long before the government and the military see ways to pervert this technology to facilitate torture and brainwashing... Lunch was a simple rice with bully beef, lentil peas, shredded white cabbage and the usual seasoning. Mo and I enjoyed it well! My friend arrived late this afternoon with a new job, and it is not the usual. He has a number of small, steel plates that he wants me to drill a series of nine holes into, in a particular pattern. I have not tried it yet because the hour was late and I had to get to the grocery. By time we got back, the light had started to go. I don't see any problem. I have a good drill press and so long as I jig the location of the plates, I shouldn't have any trouble. I will try to reuse a jig I have here from the last job. It is tempting to try to stack the plates up and drill several at once but only the top plate would get any lubrication so I won't do that. The only problem that could arise is if the plates turn out to be hardened steel. If they are, they will be very difficult to drill and drill bits will burn out faster than mayflies! Another of those blood-blisters turned up in my mouth again. Right inside my lower lip: It is smaller than the previous ones. Normally they are gone (burst and deflated) by the next morning but I decided to try and hasten the process. With a tee-pin, I ran it through like a swashbuckler! Didn't feel a thing, but the blood was everywhere. Why do I always remember I'm on warfarin after I do these things? Listening to Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes. So yes, I went to PriceLo for salt bread (alas, no chow for Mo, and no PHD evap either! 🙁) and on to Popular for additional items: carrots, cucumbers, onions, pumpkin, NZ cheddar, mayo, sugar, butt fodder, one solitary tomato, a sack of ketchup, three small plantains, and what else? Can't remember everything but I did buy a 1½ oz. bag of honey-roasted peanuts which Mo and I will share as soon as this post is saved. He is asleep on my feet at the moment but he can easily be roused by just crackling the bag of peanuts. Speaking of Mo, when I went out to talk to my friend, would you believe a pair of my Jockey shorts were lying on the driveway just by the gate? Mo was jumping up and down like a lunatic but as soon as I asked him what the shorts were doing out there he quickly slunk away. When he is guilty of something (which is entirely too often) he has the most guilty demeanor you could imagine! Mo had the very last of the chow for dinner and I had two cheeseburgers. Salt bread with a ketchup, mayo, mustard, pepper sauce & garlic aioli, with steam-melted cheddar on the patties with a nice slice of actual tomato. I had two. I enjoyed them so much I will enjoy two more for lunch tomorrow! I will also boil up a soup. I will use the other ham hock, potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, lentils, onions, possibly cucumbers (I want some greens stuff but couldn't find any pak choy). I think the thing to do is to boil then blend/liquify the potatoes, pumpkin and lentils but leave the cucumber and carrots to be chewy bits. Might even make dumplings! Mo will get the ham skin and the bone and probably most of the meat. (It is fatty. Good for flavouring the soup, but perhaps a little too much to be good eats.) Anyway, it is getting on towards midnight. I want to read a bit and before that can happen: honey-roasted peanuts! Wakey-wakey, Mozie-pozie! Come see what daddy's got! Edited December 11 by Netfoot 2 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8529765
Netfoot December 12 Share December 12 (edited) In bed. Mo is curled up at my shoulder. I just finished the 16th and final Desmond Bagley novel. No idea what I'll read next. Gastronomic plans for today did not proceed as originally conceived. I did not cook soup. I made a cup of rice which Mo had for his lunch and dinner. I had a tuna cutter for lunch rather than the two cheeseburgers I had planned for. I had them instead, for dinner. But first I cooked a batch of chips. They were the best chips I have ever cooked! Light, golden brown, crispy on the outside and fluffy in the inside. The only thing I did differently was use more oil. In order to economize I usually shallow fry my chips. (Also, this is the method my mum used.) But I used more oil for a deeper fry and the chips came out better. Whether because of this or despite this, I can't really say. Beginning at eight this morning I started drilling steel plates. Aligned and clamped the jig and drilled all 14 plates centrally. The. Realigned the jig and drilled the four holes immediately surrounding the center hole. One last realignment and the four holes on the outer perimeter were drilled. Then using a deburring bit I removed the jaggies from around each hole. I was done by ten. The deburring took longer than the drilling! The keyhole and the slot were on the plate originally. The nine holes in the X pattern are mine. No difficulty. I told my friend they were done and invited him to bring more plates for me to do. The 14 he bought were all he could find to buy yesterday. The lingering problem will be the little bits of swarf that will be turning up everywhere from stuck in the bottom of my feet to embedded in my spaghetti Bolognese, for the next six months! Listening to Money For Nothing by Dire Straits. Great track from a great band. Strange lyric, but didn't Knopfler work at Curry's before musical stardom came his way? Only recently discovered that Sting voices a couple parts of this track. Pension should drop tomorrow. I will get $26.06 after setting aside the rent. This with the $38.63 in the bank and the few could in my pocket will give me about $65 to spend. Friday is welfare cheque day and I will use that plus money set aside for the purpose, to pay the Telco. Then Tuesday is QEH to be told why after 20 months they still don't plan to do anything about the kidney. And to refill one of my prescriptions. And Edgar Cochrane pharmacy on the way home to refill the other. Need to get some 4mm bolts for use in a VESA mount for a monitor. The one I'm using now is so cloudy I can hardly make out anything on the screen. Add the cloudiness from the cataracts a dvinam struggling to use the computer. But I have a smaller monitor that is clear and bright. Only, it has no base So I will have to make my own VESA stand for it. Also want to see Dr. Kristi before she goes off for Christmas. So probably want to do that before Christmas week. What day of the week is Christmas this year? Dr. K. might start her Christmas break from the week before - which would be next week. Anyway, I have a very sleepy puppy right here next to me, but the moment I start to climb out if bed to go for a shower, he will wake up and rushhhh out of the house. I will have to wait for him to come in again before locking up. So I am going to start that process now. By the way, my stiff neck from a few mornings ago? Still painful. Edited December 12 by Netfoot Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8530736
andidante December 12 Share December 12 1 hour ago, Netfoot said: Then Tuesday is QEH to be told why after 20 months they still don't plan to do anything about the kidney. And to refill one of my prescriptions. And Edgar Cochrane pharmacy on the way home to refill the other. Also want to see Dr. Kristi before she goes off for Christmas. So probably want to do that before Christmas week. What day of the week is Christmas this year? Dr. K. might start her Christmas break from the week before - which would be next week. Christmas is on a Wednesday this year. Snuck up really fast I honestly hope they have better news for you at the QEH this time. It should not take 20 months to get a biopsy done! Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8530788
Netfoot December 12 Share December 12 7 hours ago, andidante said: Christmas is on a Wednesday this year. Snuck up really fast OK, thanks! Well, that means Dr. Kristi will probably take her Christmas vacation starting at the end of the previous week. If Wednesday is Christmas, no body will be working on Tuesday because Christmas Eve, so I doubt she will be coming to work for one day when she can start her vacation on Friday the previous week. I go to QEH on the Monday 16th (I said Tuesday in my last post for some reason) and she works full day on Mondays. So, with luck, I can complete my Outpatient task and collect from the pharmacy at QEH, not waste too much time at Edgar Cochrane and go see her at her clinic before she leaves for the day. Hopefully, I can be waiting my turn for the QEH pharmacy and waiting my turn at QEH Outpatients as well, both at the same time! 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8530895
Netfoot December 12 Share December 12 Four cups of rice are on the boil. the ham-hock, lots of lentils, lots of carrot, lots of belly-pumpkin. That should be four meals for Mo and I. given how much "stuff" is in there, it shoulf be four generous meals! I cut the meat from the ham-hock and divided it into 12 pieces. Mo can get four pieces of meat with each bowl of rice. For the last bowl, he van get the bone, which has more than a littrle meat clinging to it! The rain is bucketing down and has been for a while. t is so loud on the wriggly tin that I had to turn up the volume on the computer. The phone is at max volume and when the alarm went off a short while ago, I didn't notice for over 2 minutes! Sure hope it lets up soon. I've never built a boat and it's too late to start now! Hmmm. Jokes aside - Maybe I should build a boat! 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8531018
Netfoot December 12 Share December 12 (edited) Lunch went well. Mo enjoyed his rice with chunks of ham and leathery ham skin. I didn't have any meat in mine but the rice itself was infused with that smoked ham flavour. I wax supposed to boil a plantain to go with my rice... but I forgot. I will have it when I eat more rice for dinner. The rain has finally stopped and the sky I can see out the window is all blue, except for the moon, waxing gibbous. Pension has dropped as hoped. They gave me a list of dates when the pension would drop - every four weeks on a Monday. However, it has consistently dropped four days earlier on the Thursday. I think this is because several bank holidays are on Monday. If the pension dropped on the official due date it would not be available until the following day. Essentially a day late. If it dropped one or 2 two days early the banks would be closed so it would still not be available until the Tuesday, if the Monday was a bank holiday. Three days early would be fine, because that would be Friday. Unless it was Easter weekend, in which 3 days early would be Good Friday, another bank holiday. So four days early, unofficially. But so consistently I basically take it for granted. Which is not a smart thing to do, because doing so just might bite me in the butt one day. Just finished watching a movie called Uglies, starring a handful of actors & actresses who look sort of vaguely familiar but whose names I don't know and don't particularly want to. Set in the future, the world is peaceful and prosperous because the technology has been developed to alter everyone so as to make them attractive. This eliminates stress and aggression, leading to a better world. The technology is being heavily pushed with several high-pressure social engineering techniques. But some people have determined that the treatment not only makes you attractive but also docile and compliant. And those who elect not to be treated are hounded as social pariahs and hunted by the authorities. Cuddling with Mo (when he isn't looking out the window) and putting this phone to charge. Better post this first... Edited December 12 by Netfoot Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8531263
Netfoot December 13 Share December 13 (edited) Azathioprine!!! On the 26th of last month they took away my azathioprine. (It is an integral part of the treatment of my MG but is contra-indicated for those who have cancer, confirmed by biopsy or not). I make it 16ish days I've been off the azathioprine now and safe now to partake in grapefruit products. I may buy myself a grapefruitee tomorrow if I see one for a reasonable price. Grapefruitees are grapefruit-flavoured carbonated drinks (from a company that makes drinks called Fruitees). And I like to drink one now and again but I have not had one for years because if you are on azathioprine, grapefruit is forbidden. But since I've been off the azathioprine for 16 days, I might just splurge and buy one. Or even a carton of a real grapefruit juice. What makes it even sweeter is that in the last couple weeks, for some inexplicable reason, the strange, sometimes chemical, sometimes metallic taste of everything in my mouth, has gone away! Dinner was rice as previously described but with the addition of a small plantain. Mo got rice with ham. There is a lot left and I think we will probably easily get two more meals out of that pot. There is more meat for Mo and a nice one for the final meal. I have two more plantains but I also have some sausages. Speaking of sausages! Remember I said I thought I'd detected a very mild hint of aniseed flavour in the sausages I'd eaten? The makers got back to me. The sausages contain fennel which has a taste similar to anise, aka aniseed. So I'm not going ga-ga after all. Or maybe I am, but not about the sausages. Started watching a movie called Jumpin' Jack Flash which I liked when it first came out in 1986. Computer whiz-kid starts getting messages from British spy in trouble. Unfortunately, one of the principle actors has, subsequent to 1986, become an unbearable asshole. So instead of a fun rewatch of an old favourite, it's become a ridiculous collection of bad slapstick that I can barely bring myself to stomach. What is worrying me is I also have the classic Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore movie Ghost to watch but the same unbeatable asshole is cast in a principle role in that film also. (By the way, when in NYC some years ago for a TARcon, I went out for pizza with TWOP poster @mpstar and her brother. Later, he and I went to see a show which was essentially the same storyline as Ghost (although the name might have been different). I'm not a theatre person but I thoroughly enjoyed that show and was particularly impressed by the sophistication of the set. I saw @mpstar herself, in early March, here on the island. She was on a cruise which stopped here for the day. We had lunch. I've got a nice photo of the two of us but I won't post it because I don't have her approval to do so. I may have posted it back in March. She doesn't check this forum much, I don't think, but I still won't post it. You shouldn't do bad things to people even if you don't think they will find out. Listening to Art For Art's Sake by 10cc off my (and Gretta's) favourite album of theirs: How Dare You. Mo is curled up behind me and appears very sleepy. Just as the light faded this afternoon I ran out and made a Croc recovery. It was well hidden in some grass: At the same time I recovered a sock. Sodden, of course. I have a collection of at least half a dozen socks that have been rescued, dried out and gradually made a pile on my desk. Perhaps it is time to return them to the laundry basket. But each time I say so, I have one wet one that needs to dry out before it can be reintegrated into society. And by the time it dries, I will have forgotten all about reintegration and the pile on my desk just grows a little taller. My new book is a sci-fi by Robert L. Forward in collaboration with his wife Martha. It is called Marooned On Eden. RLF was a hard scientist (physicist) in his day-job and his novels often present strange and interesting concepts which might be a little mind bending but are always based in real scientific possibility. Part of his Rocheworld series (five books about an expedition to explore planets orbiting around Barnard's Star). This book is about the explorers struggling to survive when their lander is damaged investigating a planet and they are unable to return to their orbiting platform as originally planned. I would go for a shower but I can't face showering in the dark tonight. I think I may have to bite the bullet and forgo some groceries in favour of a light bulb. Or a bayonet to screw converter which would allow me to use one of the bulbs I already have to hand. Either way I am posting now and will read a bit before crashing out. Not long; I'm already yawning bigly! Edited December 13 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8531446
Netfoot December 13 Share December 13 Went to the post office this morning, after rescuing a pair of Jockey shorts from the driveway. Cashed my welfare cheque. Next welfare day is the 27th but the cheques have not been delivered yet. Not sure that the landlord will be around much the days before so the cheques may end up sitting in his box until he resurfaced after the holiday. Postie has been known to deliver on 1:30 AM on Christmas morning (seen him myself), but if the landlord isn't here to pass on the cheques... Right next door to the PO: Massy Supermarket. Two weeks ago I popped in there and checked on the price of some tea bags. A box of 80 regular, for $7.99 whereas the same bags, only decaf, $11.99 for a box of 80. Went in today but they had none of the decaf bags. The regular bags are now $13.99 for 80. A different brand of decaf bags was 17.99 but for only 70! Came away with no tea bags. Went to the hardware store. Tired of bathing in the dark. Wet tiles in the dark are a good way to fall down and break my olde arse! Instead of buying a bayonet bulb, I bought a bayonet to screw converter. A bulb would have been $12 and change, whereas the converter was $14 and change. But the converter allows me to use existing bulbs I already have. If I had saved two bucks to buy the bulb, I'd have had to spend another $12 to replace it when it eventually failed. And while I was at it I bought an actual bulb for the bedroom. What I can't understand is why I didn't follow the same logic as for the bathroom and buy another converter? Stopped to buy PHD evaporated milk. None to be had. So after 6 months of none in the shoppes they became available for one day and now no longer available again. Bought a tin of condensed milk to be going on with. Price is down from $3.19 to $2.99 Deposited the cheque into the bank account, bought four M4x30 screws and a handful of washers ($3.00 the lot) and brought Mo home. He ate his lunch and so did I. I had a plantain with mine, he had ham-hock with his. There is easily enough left for us to get dinner tonight and possibly enough for one of us to get a meal tomorrow as well. There is money in the bank for me to pay the $177.88 phone bill and there will be $37.05 left on account, plus 85¢ in my pocket. Acquired no food today but for what it's worth, the lights in the bathroom and in the bedroom are functioning again. Still waiting for details on the towel racks to be constructed. Sort of what we used to call.a Clothes Horse but smaller maybe? The plan is to use broom handles as the rails but I can use rectangular rails and router a round-over on the two sides. It would depend which would be more expensive. A broom handle? Or a ¾"x1½" board? Last year when I checked, a broom handle was $1.50 but two weeks ago 80 regular teabags were $7.99 and they were $13.99 today! Mo has just arrived so I am going to play with him for a while. 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8531884
Netfoot December 14 Share December 14 (edited) Of course, a heavy rain began to fall just as I decided it was Garden Patrol time. But by time I got the tea brewed and put it to draw, the rain had largely stopped. So all I had to do was locate my kidding missing Croc and off we went! Avoiding the worst of the puddles and ignoring the chilly drizzle, we did not dawdle. Mo investigated only those leaves that were of greatest concern and we returned to shelter not much the worst for wear. The sock recovered yesterday us is not yet dry. Maybe tomorrow. The pile of previously rescued socks is currently nine socks high so when this latest one is dry it will make ten socks or five pairs. Time for bed: I press the button on the remote and a properly lit bedroom welcomes me. Later I will enjoy a properly lit shower! (The bathrooms are not in the remotes.) I think I will have to save up and splurge on a shower rose next, with a new tin opener second in the list. Why, if this madness continues, a new kettle, toaster and microwave might be in my future! Oh, wait. What's this? The guy who witnessed mum's will has agreed to sign the document required by the probate court but (warns the lawyer) nothing is going to happen this close to Christmas so "...it could be another six months, possibly a year..." Which is exactly what they said to me last December. So maybe no new shower rose for a while? Mo got a big bone in his rice for dinner and ran off to work on that. There is easily enough rice for himself to get lunch tomorrow. I might fry it up with something extra to make it nicer for him. He now lies behind me on the bed and seems quite content. Listening to When The Levee Breaks by Led Zeppelin, off LZ4 (technically an "untitled" album). The hollow sound of John Bonham's drums was achieved by placing the kit at the bottom of a stairwell and hanging the microphones above, on higher floors. The musicians who produce today's fully synthesized, sampled, auto-tuned and AI massaged music have no idea what the pioneers had to do to make the groundbreaking sounds they achieved, back when they used valve-amplifiers, not because it was cool and retro, but because solid state had not been invented yet! I still owe my friend $423.75 and I still don't have any clear picture of what he expects for the money. And such a specific sum worries me too. Mo has moved: I think you would have a hard time finding a puppy more secure in his existence. Edited December 14 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8532362
Netfoot December 14 Share December 14 (edited) Anyway, time to test out that new light bulb in bathroom. I will go for a shower now and lock up on the way back. Last night I had to lock Mo out twice and twice he came under the window demanding to be let back in. Hopefully, none of that tonight! Edited December 14 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8532368
Netfoot December 15 Share December 15 A couple of posts ago, I jokingly said something about buying a kettle (amongst other things). Jokes aside I think that may be more of a priority than I previously thought. With no kettle, I've been using a small saucepan to boil water for tea. I put enough water to full the mug and a little more, put it on the stove and set it to boil. I put the mug on the counter in the kitchen (it normally can be found beside my desk from the last time I had a cuppa), get the teabag, milk and sugar and place them to hand and retire. After a few minutes, I return to the kitchen to pour out the water and bring the mug out to the desk, where it draws for a few minutes before I drink it. (We often do our Garden Patrol while the tea draws.) This evening, I was sitting at my desk after dinner when I began to smell something akin to burning food. I knew there was no food on the stove because Mo and I had eaten everything that was edible. And it couldn't be... I glanced down and realized the mug was missing from it's usual place. Which could only mean it was sitting next to the stove waiting for the water to boil. I rushed into the kitchen to see the saucepan on the fire, completely dry but fortunately not yet red hot! So the saucepan was saved but my being distracted at my desk could have ended badly! I've already been in a house that burned down. I lost everything I owned, experienced six weeks of very painful surgery and 27 months of torturous physio- and occupational therapy. A pukka kettle either whistles like a banshee when the water boils, or shuts itself off. You shouldn't forget the first but it doesn't matter if you forget the second. I think the ideal kettle would do both! (I may try to design an alarm circuit that detects when the kettle shuts off (current flow would fall from quite high to zero) but first I will have to get a kettle! Believe me, I've looked into it. And it's $100+ for any half-decent kettle. So not happening soon, but more of a priority than (say) a toaster. Ten socks recovered from pirate-pup (one by one, over time) and returned to the laundry basket. Four pairs and two unmatched, single socks. I honestly don't know why I have not sold him by now. Oh, yes I do. Because of moments like this morning when I woke to find him snuggling up with me. And as I prepared to climb out of bed, he reached out one paw and put it in my arm, to make me stay long enough for us to have a lovely little, extra cuddle! Watched two movies today. First was 10 Cloverfield Lane. A young woman is in a car accident and wakes up to find herself confined in the basement of a man (played by John Goodman). He tries to convince her that she can't leave because while she was unconscious, the country has been taken over by invaders. Russian, alien... Nobody is sure. She does not find him persuasive! I seem to recall that three members of allied aircrew who bailed out over Germany during WW-II were secreted in a man's basement to save them from capture. When they finally did get out, the war had been over for nine years.... The other movie was Limitless starring Bradley Cooper. Access to a limited supply of a mysterious drug which greatly expands his brain power allows him to transition from unproductive writer to Wall street whiz-kid and beyond. Marred oy by the (thankfully limited) presence of an asshole called Robert De Niro this is a jem of a movie which should have done much better at the box office than it ultimately did. It also spun off a TV series of the same name (in which Bradley Cooper played only a cameo role). That show was another jem and once again did not receive the recognition it deserved. Running with the same premise as the movie, it was cleverly delivered with a carefully measured dose of comedy that made it a very enjoyable watch. And the complete absence the asshole only makes it even better. I should see if I can get ahold of it! Mo is curled up on my shoulder, bogarting the flow of air from the fan. This is his usual, preferred spot. It isn't a hot night but it isn't particularly cool, either. This morning he was curled up on the other side of me because it was cooler in the wee hours and rather than bogart the fan, he was using me as a windbreak. Listening to Where Did You Sleep Last Night by Nirvana. This is off their Unplugged In New York album, probably one of those MTV Unplugged albums. (I have another that features 10,000 Maniacs. I quite like Natalie Merchant, both pre- and post-10KM.) So, Mo got the last of the rice today. There was enough that he got both lunch and dinner. I cooked chips for lunch and they came out quite nice again! I'm even more convinced that I'm better at deep-frying them than shallow-frying. Only problem: I thought I had a whole bunch of spuds in the fridge but it turns out I only had four, so I had two for lunch and left the other two for another day (tomorrow?). For dinner I found an open bag of macaroni in the fridge and boiled that. Made up a sauce of onion, corned beef, tomato sauce and diced cucumber. It tasted good! And Mo got a good scoop &ba half over his rice. No idea what to do tomorrow. I got some pasta bowties and more corned beef, more onion, more cucumber and even some diced tomatoes (as opposed to just sauce). Don't want to do rice again because we've just come off a rice-jag, can't do spuds because we don't have any many, and not sure if we have enough pasta for two meals for two. Guess I could take my $37.05 down to Popular and see what I can find to buy.... The $423.75 is like a monkey on my back. Until I work it off I can't expect any other paying job! Anyway, going to read now, as it's nearly eleven and I don't want to be reading all night. 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8533045
Netfoot December 16 Share December 16 First thing this morning, I popped Mo in the van and we went to Popular. Stopped on the way to big gas. Had to drive to the pump with the fill cap on the side away from the pump. Asked the attendant if the hose would reach and got a lot of chat. It may no longer becso, but once soon a time the hose would reach around the vehicle to the far side. I usually pull in with the fill cap right next to the pump, but that wasn't possible today. In any case, I only asked a question, and didn't appreciate a lot of rudeness from the attendant. But at least the price of gas has gone down from $4.22 to $3.88 per liter. I know who I thank for this! Bought an 8 lb. bag of spuds and two tins of condensed milk. Bank now contains $8.08 with another 85¢ in my trouser pocket. For lunch, we had macaroni twists with a sauce made from corned beef, onions, diced cucumber and red kidney beans. The beans were a little different. They were a gift from someone and they came in a box! That's right, not a tin but a box. Cardboard with a metal foil lining. Fold up the top, tear along the dotted lines, and voila! Never seen that before Anyway, that sauce went on the pasta and Mo and I chowed down with a will. A small amount of sauce remained in the pan so I tried to think of something suitable for dinner that could start with the remaining sauce. Worked on my disk space analysis program and made some headway but it is a tricky problem so I am not progressing fast. Still, what progress there is, is satisfying. Also, spent some time organizing my trip out tomorrow. QEH Outpatients (don't forget the appointment card) and the pharmacy as well (don't forget the new prescription, and the empties because they want to see the empty containers from last month before they will dispense the new meds. Don't ask me why.) will also go to Edgar Cochrane for more meds (bring empties for this too). And finally, Quality Street for Dr. Kristi. Won't take them with me because they will melt in the car. If there is time when I get to her on my way back, I will pop home (I live only minutes away from her clinic), collect from my fridge and pop back. Also need book, power bank for phone, USB cable for power bank, lunch meds, bottle of water to take them with, towel (Ford Prefect was 100% correct about towels) and.... I think that's the lot. I have heard of this Canadian dish called "pouteen" (I think). Chips with gravy. Never had it but it sounded like it could be good. Added some tomato sauce, diced cucumber and extra corned beef to the left over sauce from lunch. Sliced some potatoes and put them to fry in batches in hot oil. Reached for the spatula.... Nowhere to be found. Used a pair of tongs and a ladle to make do, in the absence of the spatula. Stuck a fingertip into the hot oil twice and burned myself on the hot tongs thrice. The chips came out crispy and nice again. First two potatoes were placed in Mo's bowl and a generous scoop of bully sauce poured over them. Pot the third spud in the oil and delivered Mo's chips to him. Two potatoes later and the other half of the sauce over the top and I was having my own share. (Mo's bowl was long since empty.) Well, it wasn't really gravy so it wasn't really pouteen, I guess. I was good. 8 liked it. 8 will eat something like that again. However! The sauce reduced the crispyness of the chips. Having gone to such lengths to get them crispy, I'd have preferred if they'd stayed that way. I think next time I might serve the sauce in a bowl beside the chips. That way they would be crispy right up until they get dipped in the sauce and will still be crispy when popped into my boca. So after a slight delay to let the pouteenish settle, I got my torch and went out on Garden Patrol. And as expected, there was the spatula that was not where it should have been when cooking dinner. As you can see it is considerably worse for wear. I honestly don't see this spatula surviving another excursion. So I caught young Mo and gave his butt a very severe spanking, with the very same spatula. When he started crying I stopped, stuck the spatula in his face so he couldn't help but see it and then spanked his butt again. I have not seen him not heard his voice since. When it was time to lock up I just locked up and went to bed. I'd have been OK with him being in the bedroom but as it happens he is outside still and I'm OK with that too. I am sick of this and I hope the next time he comes in to the kitchen and I just show him the spatula, he runs away in fear. He is s naughty little puppy and I can live with that. If I had a dollar for every time he has stolen my shoes I'd be able to buy a new pair! And that's OK because he doesn't destroy them. He does destroy things when he steaks them, but not usually things that are important. But the repeated stealing of the spatula and chewing the bejaysus out of it is not in order. I mean you got blistering hot oil, dinner ready to burn unless you turn it now, you reach for the spatula.... and instead of it being where it should be, it is outside in the yard for the whistling frogs to piss on! OK the appointment at QEH is for 8:00 I the morning. (Who deliberately sets an appointment for 8:00 AM so you have to drive through rush hour traffic?) will want to get up early so I can get the van out of the yard without the puppy going walkabout. Actually, the way I feel right now, I'd throw his ass over the gate and see if he was smart enough to survive until I let him in again. But I know that he most likeky isn't smart enough to survive and I would be terribly upset if anything happened to him. Which is why I am going to open the door before reading. If he comes in before I lock up again, that's fine. If not, well, I will see him in the morning. 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8533942
Netfoot December 16 Share December 16 (edited) Opened the door and he quickly appeared and slipped inside. He had taken his usual place in bed but he is noticably subdued. All will prolly be back to normal by tomorrow, but hopefully any sight of the spatula will bring disquieting memories to the surface. Speaking of the spatula, it remains to be seen whether it can function. I mean, it will obviously stir soup but can it flip an egg? I can only trim off so much of the raggedy, chewed-up bits before it ceases to be a spatula at all! It's full moon tonight, by the way. Edited December 16 by Netfoot 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8534009
andidante December 16 Share December 16 Good luck tomorrow Netfoot! Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8534020
Netfoot December 16 Share December 16 6 hours ago, andidante said: Good luck tomorrow Netfoot! Thank you. I'll let you know how it goes. 1 Link to comment https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/23729-small-talk-the-welcome-mat/page/103/#findComment-8534103
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