Small Talk: We'll Be Right Back

[Prevailing Wind]

9 hours ago, DMK said:

Thanks dad (he’s allergic to sulfa too).

My dad and I went the other direction - he was immune to poison ivy and so am I.

 

[Haleth]

9 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

My dad and I went the other direction - he was immune to poison ivy and so am I.

 

Oh, you are lucky.  It used to be I'd just look at it and be covered head to toe.  I have lots of scars on my arms and legs from poison ivy.  

[Prevailing Wind]

4 hours ago, Haleth said:

Oh, you are lucky.  It used to be I'd just look at it and be covered head to toe.  I have lots of scars on my arms and legs from poison ivy.  

My late friend would have mental issues along with the itch. And it would recur since the apartment management wouldn't do anything about the poison ivy around the building. All Bill would have to do is walk by it and it would start to affect him.  When he started ranting about stupid stuff, his kids would make him take a Benadryl, which helped a great deal. It was the weirdest thing.

 

[Prevailing Wind]

To continue the vodka discussion from the ANNOY thread...

I buy the cheapest-ass vodka there is ("Taaka") and put a bunch of drops of lavender essential oil in it, attach a spray top, and use it instead of Febreze.  I used to pour it into a separate bottle until I realized the Windex trigger spray thingie fits on the vodka bottle, too.

I have some old, leftover Smirnoff from when I last baked at Harvey Wallbanger cake. (I did manage to use up all the Galliano LOL). I'm pretty sure the alcohol has evaporated. I should throw it out.

I knew a guy who said he drinks vodka straight, out of a shot glass, but he waits until the body heat from his hand warms it up. He said it was really good slightly warm.  I never cared to try that. I'm not really a vodka person.  Like I said, my best use for it is a Febreze knock-off.

[CoderLady]

Mythbusters tested whether or not cheap vodka could be filtered into tasting like top shelf vodka and the answer was "no." They put a bunch of cheap stuff through multiple filters and had an expert blind taste the results. He could always spot the crap.

To me, all hard liquor tastes like I thought the contents of the plastic bottles under the kitchen sink would taste if I as a toddler managed to get into one. I've never been able to shake the "Oh, shit" reaction to drinking flammable liquids but there are plenty of wines in the world, so I don't really feel deprived.

[Tom Holmberg]

15 hours ago, CoderLady said:

To me, all hard liquor tastes like I thought the contents of the plastic bottles under the kitchen sink would taste if I as a toddler managed to get into one. I've never been able to shake the "Oh, shit" reaction to drinking flammable liquids but there are plenty of wines in the world, so I don't really feel deprived.

As a little kid I tried some of my parent's slivovitz and wanted pull my insides out.

Never tried Malort but can't imagine it's much worse.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Tom Holmberg

[Bruinsfan]

I remember Dad letting me have a sip of his Budweiser when I was a little kid, which was quite effective at eliminating any desire I might have had to drink alcohol during my most of my teen years. It took a college trip to the French Quarter to overcome that aversion.

[Prevailing Wind]

My mother's parent were German immigrants, my father's were Polish. We had beer in the house, but it was to be consumed only at mealtimes. Dad preferred iced coffee as a cold beverage. When I was a tot, I had my own beer glass. Only about an inch was poured, but I grew up like a European kid, having alcohol from an early age. When it came time for the bustin' loose teen years, I already knew how to handle alcoholic beverages, so it held no fascination for me.

Later, I developed an allergy - one-third of the way through a beer and my sinuses would swell shut.  For several decades, I was the designated driver.  Apparently, I got over it, because I can drink again.  Not that I do very much.

[mmecorday]

The back to school commercials are slowly infiltrating the airwaves. I went to Walmart the other day and the aisles where all the summer stuff had been were stocked with stationery, notebooks, pens and other school necessities. I've always heard that once the Fourth of July comes around, you can stick a fork in summer because it's done. I am totally fine with this because since I became a middle-aged, post-menopausal woman, my tolerance for hot temperatures is next to nothing. 

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, mmecorday said:

The back to school commercials are slowly infiltrating the airwaves. I went to Walmart the other day and the aisles where all the summer stuff had been were stocked with stationery, notebooks, pens and other school necessities. I've always heard that once the Fourth of July comes around, you can stick a fork in summer because it's done. I am totally fine with this because since I became a middle-aged, post-menopausal woman, my tolerance for hot temperatures is next to nothing. 

To me it just means Halloween is coming! We start decorating the inside of our house on the 1st of Sept.

[mmecorday]

That's a good way to look at it, @peacheslatour! My favorite months of the year are the last three! 

[Prevailing Wind]

3 hours ago, mmecorday said:

The back to school commercials are slowly infiltrating the airwaves. I went to Walmart the other day and the aisles where all the summer stuff had been were stocked with stationery, notebooks, pens and other school necessities. I've always heard that once the Fourth of July comes around, you can stick a fork in summer because it's done. I am totally fine with this because since I became a middle-aged, post-menopausal woman, my tolerance for hot temperatures is next to nothing. 

But putting out fall merchandise does nothing to alter the temperature. I wish it did; my electric bill wishes it did, but, unfortunately, it doesn't.  I'm gonna go to a cool, dark room and cry.

 

[Annber03]

When I was a kid, I'd always get so bummed upon seeing the school supplies stuff in the stores in mid July. I'd be like, "Summer's not over yet!"

2 hours ago, mmecorday said:

That's a good way to look at it, @peacheslatour! My favorite months of the year are the last three! 

Same! 

[Haleth]

I heard that some districts in this area are going back to school on 8/3.  Yeah, summer's about over. 

[Prevailing Wind]

Ours go back early August, out early May.  Makes it hard for the football teams to practice in 100+ degree weather.

[dleighg]

Here in NY, they go back just after Labor Day, but don't end until mid-late June. It meant that after AP exams (in early May), kids taking them twiddled their thumbs until the end of year/graduation (not to mention had over a month less class time in preparation). Weather-wise, it makes sense though, as they are out of school during the hottest part of summer.

[Prevailing Wind]

When I was in school in Miami, back in the mid-50s to late 60s, we started the day after Labor Day (so the first week was short & gave us a chance to get back in the groove) and ended the first full week of June.  We graduated right after the Six Day War and our guidance counselor said he was as happy that day as Moishe Dayan.  Most of us had to ask who Dayan was, as we weren't paying attention to the news - we were GRADUATING HIGH SCHOOL, dammit!

[Annber03]

Our schools usually started back the last week of August - and we usually started on, like, a Wednesday besides, and even then the first day or two we often got out early anyway because of the heat. Which made it all seem rather pointless - why a) send us back mid-week, and b) send us back at a time when you know it's going to be hot enough to where we'll have to get out early anyway? Either put AC in our classrooms so you don't have to do that, or just hold off and let us go back after Labor Day instead. It didn't make sense. 

[jennifer6973]

When I went to school,  we got out late June and started the day after Labor Day.

When I moved to Florida,  they started the beginning of August and got out in early May.

 

They once had to make a law after one school district started back in late July, saying school was allowed to start before August 1st. 

[Gramto6]

Back in the dark ages when I was in school, we went back the day after Labor Day. Depending on when Labor Day fell, we usually had a day off a couple days later on Sept 9 which was California's Admission Day.  (The day CA became a state.) We got out the first week in June.  It was kind of cool going back to school and having a holiday almost immediately!

Edited July 16, 2023 by Gramto6
added on to post

[Prevailing Wind]

School's supposed to start the day after Labor Day, so when the parents schedule their vacations from work, they get an extra day for the Family Road Trip.

Although, after two weeks on the road, some parents (mine) were ready to use that extra day to find a divorce lawyer.  Never happened, though. They just bickered for exercise.

[Browncoat]

My high school usually started mid-August, and we were finished before Memorial Day.  Then the state passed the so-called “King’s Dominion Law” that mandated that school start after Labor Day, so teenagers could continue their summer jobs for the holiday weekend.  School districts without amusement parks,  and with bad winter weather had to petition for waivers to start earlier in case of snow days.

[SoMuchTV]

5 hours ago, Browncoat said:

My high school usually started mid-August, and we were finished before Memorial Day.  Then the state passed the so-called “King’s Dominion Law” that mandated that school start after Labor Day, so teenagers could continue their summer jobs for the holiday weekend.  School districts without amusement parks,  and with bad winter weather had to petition for waivers to start earlier in case of snow days.

Not sure if you still live there, but the KD Law is starting to erode.  Even some of the sunnier districts are creeping start dates back into August now.  I think TPTB have figured out that if you don't need to bank snow days, you'll need hurricane days.  Or in some cases both.

One thing I noticed is that some colleges (both mine in the 1970s and one kid's in the 2010s) did not take a Labor Day holiday.  I remember the chirpy rep at the parents' orientation meeting telling us "we labor on Labor Day!"

[Browncoat]

5 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Not sure if you still live there, but the KD Law is starting to erode. 

I do still live there, and I did notice that.  The dates of K-12 schools only matter to me because I would prefer to avoid getting behind a school bus on my way to work!  I think most schools around here start in August.

[Leeds]

On 7/14/2023 at 12:26 PM, mmecorday said:

That's a good way to look at it, @peacheslatour! My favorite months of the year are the last three! 

Ugh.  I think I'd rather take the overarching gloom of the first three months of the year over the unrelenting commercialization and over-indulgencies, greed and ubiquitous signs of family dysfunction of the last three.  Sorry.

Edited July 17, 2023 by Leeds

[peacheslatour]

7 hours ago, Leeds said:

Ugh.  I think I'd rather take the overarching gloom of the first three months of the year over the unrelenting commercialization and over-indulgencies, greed and ubiquitous signs of family dysfunction of the last three.  Sorry.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of that stuff either. My husband is a Chistmasholic so I don't look forward to that at all. He's already mainlining Hallmark's Christmas in July.

[Prevailing Wind]

I had my right knee replaced in January 2001.  In December, I bought a live tree and put it up in my living room. And I enjoyed the hell out of that tree because I knew it was going to be my last.  It was just too much. I haven't "done" Christmas at home ever since.  Now that my brother is gone, my SIL swears she's not doing it anymore, either.  She WILL do Thanksgiving for the whole family, but no more Christmas at her house.  This coming December, we're all driving to Lake Lure, NC to a rented house.  Carmen and I feel certain her son & DIL will get there early & set up a tree, etc.

[DMK]

On 7/16/2023 at 8:34 AM, mojoween said:

I hate the Citizens Bank ad where people are trying to use money who have never actually *seen* money before, because when we were on vacation last week, nearly every store charged a surcharge if you used any type of card.

Cashless society or surcharge, can’t have both!

I’ve started writing checks again! I’ll be damned if I’m rolling over and taking that surcharge. 

On 7/14/2023 at 4:56 PM, Annber03 said:

When I was a kid, I'd always get so bummed upon seeing the school supplies stuff in the stores in mid July. I'd be like, "Summer's not over yet!"

I love it now. Because it’s still hot AF out and all the summer stuff is on sale. Beach chairs, canopies, swimsuits, and all the accoutrements…

[Haleth]

The only thing I'm looking forward to toward the end of the year is the birth of my second grandchild. 🥰  (Unfortunately they live 2000 miles away.)  Except for that I dread the end of summer and the coming of winter.  The summer solstice makes me sad.

[crazycatlady58]

5 hours ago, Haleth said:

The only thing I'm looking forward to toward the end of the year is the birth of my second grandchild. 🥰  (Unfortunately they live 2000 miles away.)  Except for that I dread the end of summer and the coming of winter.  The summer solstice makes me sad.

We have a feels like temperature of 103. By afternoon they expect it to be worse. My thermostat is set at 80. I am praying for an early winter.

[Prevailing Wind]

In Metro Atlanta, we've been having relatively normal temps for this time of year, but we've gotten an "air quality alert" - the smoke from the Canadian wildfires has arrived.  My little town is about 8 miles from downtown Atlanta & local news has a "weather cam" here pointing toward downtown. Yesterday, the air was so bad, you could barely see the outline of the skyscrapers, and it's worse today.

Stella wants to go out & chase squirrels, but I won't let her. The bad air would affect her, too.

[chessiegal]

3 minutes ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Stella wants to go out & chase squirrels, but I won't let her. The bad air would affect her, too.

Same issue here in the Mid-Atlantic. No matter how much I explain how bad the air is, my Jinglebelle is not impressed. She's also not willing to wear a n95 mask to be outside. 😅

[Prevailing Wind]

Does anyone know what happened to FriendPeridot? She hasn't posted in almost a year. I hope she's OK.

[proserpina65]

Regarding the Mounjaro discussion from Commercials which Anger, Annoy, etc:

  10 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

Quote

You can't do diabetes differently and it's irresponsible to try an say you can with a pill. I know people who do try to do diabetes differently usually when they first get it and it doesn't work. I don't like the commercial trying to say you can. You just can't do it differently.

You can actually do diabetes differently.  You can manage it without medication (which is extremely difficult).  You can take daily medications like glimiperide and metformin.  You use injectable medications which may or may not be daily.  There are various newer drugs like Ozempic and Jardiance which are generally used in conjunction with other medications.  And, of course, there are insulin injections, which is what most of us are trying to avoid.

Since diabetes affects different people's bodies in different ways, there are a lot of different methods of managing it.

  10 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

Quote

there's a voiceover asking a doctor or Walgreen pharmacist if sweets are off the table who tells him that with proper management nothing is off the table. Ah, that's most definitely not true. While you can have some sugar (depending on which kind you have and how bad it is) and can do the numbers to have some sweets. 

Actually no type of food is completely off the table if you're managing your diabetes.  The quantity is the issue.  As it is with weight problems as well.  I speak from experience here.  I haven't seen the commercial, so I can't say if they put it badly, but the concept is true.

[mmecorday]

My grandfather had Type 1 diabetes. He took daily insulin injections to manage it. This was back in the 1970s when a restricted diet and insulin were about all that could be done about it. He loved ice cream but he couldn't have a lot of it. He would scoop out a small portion from a half gallon carton with a serving spoon and slowly eat it over the kitchen sink. It would take him weeks to finish a single carton. We grandkids knew not to eat the ice cream in the freezer because 1.) it was Pappy's ice cream and 2.) it was often in the freezer so long that it would get frost bitten.  

[tres bien]

On 6/12/2023 at 11:41 AM, DMK said:

I’m allergic to sulfa drugs. Oh, the raaaaaaash it gives me, I look like a strawberry. Thanks dad (he’s allergic to sulfa too).

This is interesting. I'm also allergic to sulfa drugs. I didn't know it was a thing till I got violently ill from it

[peacheslatour]

2 hours ago, tres bien said:

This is interesting. I'm also allergic to sulfa drugs. I didn't know it was a thing till I got violently ill from it

I'm allergic to codeine. I didn't know until I got my wisdom teeth out.

[chessiegal]

6 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I'm allergic to codeine. I didn't know until I got my wisdom teeth out.

Me too. I didn't know until I fell off a finger pier getting off our boat, and grabbed a line while I fell, even though I'm a good swimmer. Doctors said it was instinct. Anyway, I pulled a tendon off my shoulder blade. The doctors at the ER gave me Telenol 3 (contains codeine) for the pain. It made my face itch, so they told me to stop taking it, as it may be a precursor to an allergic reaction.

[mmecorday]

Quote

I'm allergic to codeine. I didn't know until I got my wisdom teeth out.

I don't think I'm allergic to codeine, but I don't like how it makes me feel.  

[peacheslatour]

12 hours ago, mmecorday said:

I don't think I'm allergic to codeine, but I don't like how it makes me feel.  

It had me on the floor sweating and shaking.

[Gramto6]

I went into Anaphylactic shock with Paxil! Not an experience I ever want to go through again!!

[Bruinsfan]

Yikes! That's scary. Thankfully my own allergic reaction to a medication was much milder, hives on the sixth day of a ten-day routine of Augmentin (Amoxycillin). I recently found out that's the preferred treatment for infected cat bites though, so thanks to the reaction the more nervous of my cats had to moving I ended up on routines of two different less common antibiotics instead.

[Tom Holmberg]

On 7/21/2023 at 8:17 PM, peacheslatour said:

I'm allergic to codeine. I didn't know until I got my wisdom teeth out.

Allergic to propofol (also aspirin).  Ended up in intensive care overnight after a colonoscopy.  I turned blue.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Tom Holmberg

[DMK]

On 7/21/2023 at 5:27 PM, tres bien said:

This is interesting. I'm also allergic to sulfa drugs. I didn't know it was a thing till I got violently ill from it

I knew it was a thing because my dad was allergic to it but I didn’t know he had passed that allergy onto me. It’s weird how that works. My mother is allergic to penicillin but I didn’t inherit that allergy. 

[Prevailing Wind]

In the "annoying" thread, chessiegal said: "The green color is so unappetizing. When I was in junior high, one of my classmates did a study on how color affects how we perceive taste. She took vanilla pudding and added different food colorings and had us taste them. I think green was one color people didn't like. And they were all the same vanilla pudding."

I used to work with a bunch of (mostly) women doing data entry on the swing shift. When someone had a birthday, my mom would bake a cake & I'd take it in. The cake was devoured.  Then Dolores got a divorce and she requested a green & orange cake, so Mom made it with pretty garish colors. Same cake, same icing, just unusual colors.  Half the cake was left behind. Nobody wanted to eat an orange & green cake.

There's also a discussion of using carpeting in the bathroom. I used to go to the carpet store's remnant room & buy pieces to use in my bathroom and then just thrown them out when they got grody. They were cheap enough that it wasn't a great loss.  Then I had an "unintended release of water" and I ended up getting rid of all the carpeting in both bathrooms and the hallway.

BTW, if you report it as a flood, insurance carriers tend to deny the claim - they hear the word "flood" and stop listening....which is why you should always refer to it as an "unintended release of water."

[peacheslatour]

 

Quote

Then Dolores got a divorce and she requested a green & orange cake, so Mom made it with pretty garish colors. Same cake, same icing, just unusual colors.  Half the cake was left behind. Nobody wanted to eat an orange & green cake.

When I was in design school we were taught that fast food restaurants and even IHOP and Dennys use these kinds of colors to get people in and out quickly.

[Leeds]

2 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

There's also a discussion of using carpeting in the bathroom. I used to go to the carpet store's remnant room & buy pieces to use in my bathroom and then just thrown them out when they got grody. They were cheap enough that it wasn't a great loss.  Then I had an "unintended release of water" and I ended up getting rid of all the carpeting in both bathrooms and the hallway.

BTW, if you report it as a flood, insurance carriers tend to deny the claim - they hear the word "flood" and stop listening....which is why you should always refer to it as an "unintended release of water."

 

This sounds like for a euphemism for what happens when your male room-mate has poor aim.

Edited July 25, 2023 by Leeds

[nokat]

17 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

 

When I was in design school we were taught that fast food restaurants and even IHOP and Dennys use these kinds of colors to get people in and out quickly.

Oh yes, those were the colors to get people to eat quickly. 

[janie jones]

22 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

I used to work with a bunch of (mostly) women doing data entry on the swing shift. When someone had a birthday, my mom would bake a cake & I'd take it in. The cake was devoured.  Then Dolores got a divorce and she requested a green & orange cake, so Mom made it with pretty garish colors. Same cake, same icing, just unusual colors.  Half the cake was left behind. Nobody wanted to eat an orange & green cake.

Was the cake itself orange and green, or just the frosting?

The first time I ever heard of carpet being in a bathroom was when I saw the movie Sexy Beast, and Ben Kingsley peed on someone's bathroom carpet in an act of aggression.

Carpet in the bathroom just seems impractical. What happens when the toilet overflows? I don't even like those rugs that hug the toilet, or even one in front of the sink. We just have one next to the shower to catch drips.

[Bruinsfan]

In the house I lived in as a teenager the master bath was carpeted. That was Not Good. The closest I'll come to having that is memory foam bath mats over tile.