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Small Talk: The Polygamous Cul-de-Sac


Message added by Scarlett45

 I  understand the fear, concern, heartbreak, and stress in this current situation. I ask that we please remember the politics policy. Keep politics, political references, and political figures (past and present) out of the discussion.

Stay safe and healthy. 

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11 minutes ago, Irate Panda said:

I don’t have any exact plans at the moment but when I get better I’d like to take a trip by train in the Grand Canyon and Sedona areas.  I would also like to try the California Zephyr which goes Chicago, Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, Emeryville (San Francisco).

Oooo that sounds amazing. 
 

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7 hours ago, Irate Panda said:

Has anyone ever taken any overnight/ multi-day train trips?  If so did you enjoy them? 

I took ViaRail from Toronto to Vancouver and back.  Absolutely loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat.  I did have a room which made all of the difference.  Tight quarters but I had my own bathroom which was nice.  You have to be prepared for delays since both Canadian and US trains share the tracks with freight trains.  Do not count on being on time EVER.

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13 hours ago, Irate Panda said:

Has anyone ever taken any overnight/ multi-day train trips?  If so did you enjoy them? 

Yes, but I was about 10 so that was 69 years ago!  It was a regular train, with my Grandma and younger brother.  She got a sleeper car. We went from NJ to Salt Lake city to visit the uncle and family.  Two nights on the train I think.  So no comparison to today, but, brought up a nice memory.  Grandma brought a valise with food for breakfast and lunch (bagels, cream cheese, jelly, bread, etc, and I guess nothing needed refrigeration or she didn't care and we didn't get sick) and then we ate dinner in the Dining Car, very fancy.  I guess.  I had tapioca for the first time.  I remember stopping in Chicago for a long time, our car unhitched from anything else and then rehitched and more travel.  I remember the porters. It was a great adventure.  I am guessing modern train travel is similar but better.

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3 hours ago, lookeyloo said:

I am guessing modern train travel is similar but better.

Depending on what class you choose to travel, amenities are different.  The cheapest way is just to go coach, sit up in your seat and sleep.  They eat in a cafe car, meals are not included.

A roomette is a small, private compartment.  Two seats face each other with a fold down table in between.  A narrow bunk folds down from the ceiling and the two seats make into a single bed.  Meals are included.  Shared bathroom and shower in each car.  Meals are included in the price in the dining car but your car attendant can bring them to your room.

A bedroom normally has two nice chairs and a private bathroom but no shower.  A larger upper bunk is brought down at bedtime and the bottom bunk is a good size.  Meals are also included in the price and are in the dining car.  Shared shower in each car.  It's a hoot to try and shower on a moving train!

Some of the upgraded services have private viewing cars depending on the train.

I was not on Amtrak but I have heard that the food is excellent.

There are even grander accommodations (rooms in a private car with couches) but I imagine the are pretty steep in price.

Everyone except coach has priority boarding.  Each car has a private attendant to make up the beds each day.

I rather enjoyed the dining car.  Tables are for four so they pair you up with strangers.  Had some great conversations!

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21 hours ago, Irate Panda said:

Has anyone ever taken any overnight/ multi-day train trips?  If so did you enjoy them? 

Yes and yes. If you are in the right frame of mind, knowing that you will be confined to a smaller space and you are good with lots of down time for reading, conversation, watching spectacular scenery or browsing the internet, it is an amazing way to travel.

I have always upgraded to have a roomette, so that I have privacy, and I have never done it alone. But I am thinking about doing a cross country trip alone in a few years.

Disclosure should be that I prefer trains to cars or flying. I used to live on the Acela corridor between DC and Boston, and I also like the train from Portland to Vancouver BC. I just find it more relaxing.

If you are considering it, I recommend doing a smaller trip first, then trying the longer trips. There is something to wonderful about train trips.

Edited by Ms.Lulu
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When DH was alive we travelled all over Europe using the Eurail Pass. Sometimes  we would go from point A to point B and then back to A just to sleep on the train overnight. I really enjoyed those trips but these days they are in the past. I love trains, but in these times I think my  major travel days are over.

Do it but yes, take a short trip first to make sure you are suited to train travel.

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Ok, I am here. I can’t watch because son and husband are watching a movie on the only tv so I was counting on participating in the live chat which I thought might be hopping. 
p.s.   I had too much wine. Hope I can stay awake. 

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1 hour ago, GeeGolly said:

So the site updates seemed to have taken place and my font size does not change when I click on the 3 choices. And the default just goes between dark and light.

I'm too old for small font.

I’m able to get the large. I can’t handle all these ads, though. 

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49 minutes ago, GeeGolly said:

This is largest for me. ⬇️ Ad Blocker helps with ads.

image.png.5991303d937cab3c746bd0537e717b33.png

Have you tried it again? I just switched mine to “largest” and it worked . It didn’t earlier. I’d like it larger though! 

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1 hour ago, ginger90 said:

Have you tried it again? I just switched mine to “largest” and it worked . It didn’t earlier. I’d like it larger though! 

The difference between the 3 is negligible. Still way too small. ⬇️

image.png.c4f4a0299dbfd3aede8e2a7fd83c5d9b.png

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7 minutes ago, SunnyBeBe said:

The only way I can get into the threads is to click on an outside link. That brings me here, but if I try to get here from on the site home page, nothing happens.  How did you get here?  

You 'know' @emma675 right?  She might be able to help you.

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23 hours ago, GeeGolly said:

The difference between the 3 is negligible. Still way too small. ⬇️

image.png.c4f4a0299dbfd3aede8e2a7fd83c5d9b.png

Have you tried using the page zoom feature on your browser?  I increased mine to 110% and that helped a lot.  It's pretty easy to do, but if you need help Google how to do it on your particular browser for the instructions.

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28 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

Have you tried using the page zoom feature on your browser?  I increased mine to 110% and that helped a lot.  It's pretty easy to do, but if you need help Google how to do it on your particular browser for the instructions.

Just did it. It helped a little. Thank you. Actually - much improve. Thank you!

Edited by GeeGolly
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I still have no access to the forums.  Now I have to go off the site and Google the name of the show.  I have no navigation ability on the site itself, except I can view my notifications and get to the thread by clicking on it,  Does anyone know if it’s still being worked on? 

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Hmmmm….I’m on my IPad.  I’ll try other devices.  …………….so,

It’s my iPad.  It works on my phone…android.  I wonder what about my iPad won’t let it display….omg, this is annoying.  ………so,

I can open some things, but not others.  About half open and half don’t.  I’ll try calling Apple support tomorrow and ask if they know what’s causing it.  

Edited by SunnyBeBe
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I swear that iPods in general are not set up for a lot of things that folks normally do. I have a computer-phobic friend that only uses an iPad and is forever calling me to say how she can't see this or can't do that.  When I tell her to look it up on her husband's laptop, all is well.  But she expects me to figure out how she can do the same things on her iPad!

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1 hour ago, Cetacean said:

I swear that iPods in general are not set up for a lot of things that folks normally do. I have a computer-phobic friend that only uses an iPad and is forever calling me to say how she can't see this or can't do that.  When I tell her to look it up on her husband's laptop, all is well.  But she expects me to figure out how she can do the same things on her iPad!

I have a friend that does the same thing to me!  She tries to do chat boards and messaging from her iPad and is always losing posts, then gets frustrated and wants me to help her stop it from happening.  I told her that tablets are not optimized for web usage.  They're more like cell phones in that they are primarily app-based.  Before I got a laptop I used to take a tablet with me and found that out myself the hard way.  When I got a keyboard case for it and hooked a mouse up to it, it actually helped because it made navigating it a little more like a regular computer.  But now I just use a small laptop for web usage when I need something portable.  And I only use a tablet when I want to use an app and like the larger interface.

45 minutes ago, SunnyBeBe said:

Does everyone have power today?  It’s 10 degrees here in NC.  This is quite uncommon for NC.  

We are at 10 degrees in CT right now, which is actually much lower than normal for us at this time.  Fortunately my house didn't experience an outage, but there were about 100,000 reported across the state at the worst point.  We had a few blinks in power and one actual shut-off that lasted under a minute.  Fortunately we live off a major roadway so unless a tree falls on those lines (and that has happened) and the entire area is affected we usually don't have any outage unless a local tree falls on our street.  But despite that we have had a few outages in the past few years - one in 2020 that lasted a couple of days!  I think it's just incredible that in this "day and age" we are still at the mercy of trees falling on power lines. 

We are always worried about power outages now.  It seems like we didn't used to have so many.  It seemed to happen only once in a blue moon.  Now we have these kinds of storms several times a year.  We have a generator but it's one of those that you have to hook directly up to appliances, etc. and keep it outside with the line running inside.  We were considering getting a whole house generator but they are just too expensive for us.  Fortunately one of my husband's rich clients who spends Winters in Florida has graciously given us the go-ahead to use his house and refrigerator should we ever be without power for any length of time in the Winter.  He of course has a whole-house generator.

Oh, and we didn't get any snow.  The snow line was well above us this time, thankfully.  My close friend is coming to visit for the holiday today and this could have turned out to be a disaster.  It sucks thinking that so many people were planning their holidays only to have them ruined by a falling tree.  And all those stranded travelers!  What a horrible time for this to happen!

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Merry Christmas, everyone!  We're safe at home this year, thank goodness!  So grateful we aren't on many of these highways this year.  We see so many accidents and it's nice not to have to go through that this Christmas.

Hope everyone has a bright, warm, and cheerful holiday.  Please be safe and take your time if out running the roads this weekend.  🥰☃️🎄

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58 minutes ago, Rabbit Hutch said:

Merry Christmas, everyone!  We're safe at home this year, thank goodness!  So grateful we aren't on many of these highways this year.  We see so many accidents and it's nice not to have to go through that this Christmas.

Hope everyone has a bright, warm, and cheerful holiday.  Please be safe and take your time if out running the roads this weekend.  🥰☃️🎄

Same to you and everyone!  And may you and everyone stay safe from wild weather, angry people, crazy drivers, dangerous illnesses, etc.

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I love my ipad. I don’t even use a laptop anymore. 
 

i can deal with cold as long as there is no snow. 
 

happy holidays everyone. I can’t believe how fast 2022 went. 2023 is practically here.
 

today is my birthday and it was pretty good. 
 

good night everyone.

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11 hours ago, oliviabenson said:

I love my ipad. I don’t even use a laptop anymore. 
 

i can deal with cold as long as there is no snow. 
 

happy holidays everyone. I can’t believe how fast 2022 went. 2023 is practically here.
 

today is my birthday and it was pretty good. 
 

good night everyone.

Happy belated Birthday!!!

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17 hours ago, oliviabenson said:

I love my ipad. I don’t even use a laptop anymore. 
 

i can deal with cold as long as there is no snow. 
 

happy holidays everyone. I can’t believe how fast 2022 went. 2023 is practically here.
 

today is my birthday and it was pretty good. 
 

good night everyone.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!

 

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On 12/27/2022 at 12:03 AM, MaddyMaeboxerbabe said:

My birthday was Thursday…63…the time has flown by!   Happy Birthday to my fellow December baby @oliviabenson!     

Happy Belated  Birthday to MaddyMaeboxer and Oliviabenson !  What a month you’ve had!!!
 

And Happy Birthday to Angeltoes coming up tomorrow!  My brother’s is the next day.  
My family is chalked full of December and January birthdays.   A lot to celebrate!!! 
 

🎁🥳🌟🌺🎂🎈🪅💐😁


 

 

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Long-ish vent below:

 I don’t have many friends due to social anxiety, awkwardness and autism. It’s hard for me to make friends as I’m painfully aware people sometimes see me as strange or eccentric. But, there are 2 friends I’m pretty close with. And one of them is a major braggart and it’s starting to get to me, so much so that I’m having a hard time feeling happy for her when she brags. My other close friend is more humble, so when she shares an accomplishment on social, I’m super happy for her (because she’s not full of herself and doesn’t need constant validation). 

For example — both friends have recently earned degrees. Friend one kept us *constantly* posted on her grades, her workload, and my gosh how did she have time to handle her full time job too 🙄?!? The other friend simply shared when she got her degree. I was happier for friend 2 because she didn’t brag her way through her program, she just did it. 

Friend one has gotten on a lot of peoples’ nerves. She doesn’t seem to notice that the more she brags, the fewer likes she gets. Every little thing she does, she brags about. People get sick of it, sick of her and she then complains “why don’t people like me”.  I don’t know how to tell her it’s because she talks about herself constantly and brags too much about every little thing like she’s 4 years old. She’s a 40 years old woman who has a good career, is smart and can be compassionate but constantly seeks attention on social media.

We’ve been friends for over a decade and I’ve stood by her through her worst times, but I’ve about had it. She also seems to have forgotten I exist unless she contacts me to brag about something she’s done or tell me about something she’s acquired. She never just asks how I’m doing (which I’ve done for her her here and there just to see how she is but I get ignored, unless there’s something she has to brag about). 

I just had to vent this. My social media is deactivated so I can take a mental health break from it all. Friend one, who claims to be a champion of mental health and suicide prevention, hasn’t even noticed I’m gone (don’t worry, not thinking about that, just kind of feeling lonely, disregarded and sick of social media bragging in general). I’ve read that braggarts often have poor self esteem and must brag to feel better, but I’m sick of it. A lot of people are sick of it. And she doesn’t “get” it, that she puts people off by her bragging and that we’d be much happier for her accomplishments if she’d stop over-sharing them.

Edited by TurtlePower
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