Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

This blog will pay for itself.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

No Justins, No Peace

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

A consequence of cucumbers

Good lord, these people are nuts.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Evening Open Thread

Saturday Evening Open Thread

by | 154 Comments

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It’s STILL raining. My chickens are getting webbed feet.

Today I had an eye exam, and I went to a different place that did a ridiculously thorough job, or else they were using old-school methods. The technician tried to do that thing where they blow puffs of air into your eyeball from an instrument that is terrifyingly close, and I could not NOT blink, no matter how hard I tried, so they had to do the pressure check in a different way, which also involved a thing coming frighteningly close to my eyeballs, but at least there were no air puffs.

I must have an overdeveloped sense of ocular preservation. I wouldn’t dream of attempting to wear contacts. I can’t even do mascara.

The optometrist also dilated my pupils, and for hours everything looked like how Frodo sees things when he wears The Ring of Power, minus the Nazgûls and Ringwraiths. But there were Orc-like folks about.

I’m just about back to normal now, and good thing too because there are some worthwhile ball games on. The Hawgs vs Texas A&M is awfully interesting.

What are you up to this evening?

Reader Interactions

154Comments

  1. 1.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    Celebrating the Little Brown Jug coming home and hoping the Tigers can clinch the AL Central.

    Oh, and basking in the glow of having this draft of the novel done.

  2. 2.

    raven

    Wondering if I’ll get my damn Georgia-Florida tickets before both teams implode and I can’t sell them!

  3. 3.

    MattF

    Sounds very old-school to me. I get my intraocular pressure measured regularly at an ophthalmology group practice, and they always use local anesthetic drops. Don’t feel a thing.

  4. 4.

    Steeplejack

    Usual mundane Saturday night: Web surfing, background TV, housecat interaction as necessary. Had an early dinner and am sipping my way through a good bottle of cheap red wine.

    Finishing up a rerun of Law and Order: Criminal Intent—Stephen Colbert is the killer!—and will then join Mizzou-South Carolina in progress.

  5. 5.

    dance around in your bones

    Betty Cracker, you have become mi favorita front pager. In fact, I am still scrolling through your palmetto bug post.

    We had gigantic cucarachas in Albuquerque and learned to stomp the fuck out of them post haste.They used to scuttle around in the basement bedroom I lived in and I used to be afraid to go to the bathroom because of dodging the cockroaches. I got to the place where I could stomp on them barefoot and not even blink.

    @Steeplejack:
    I saw that episode! Colbert made a very believable killer…….

  7. 7.

    Suffern ACE

    I also need multiple takes to get the glaucoma test and get eye drops in. I like to think of it as “still alive with reflexes like a cat”. Although the longer I live and the more I learn about cats, the less ego boost I get from that

  8. 8.

    Jacks mom

    Watching the gathering storm here in southern colorado. It’s supposed to be epic. The weather peeps are interrupting every 5 seconds to tell us “ITS GONNA RAIN”.

    I love a good thunder and lightening show.

  10. 10.

    different-church-lady

    The technician tried to do that thing where they blow puffs of air into your eyeball from an instrument that is terrifyingly close, and I could not NOT blink…

    Glaucoma test. I can’t do it either, but apparently it’s safer than the other methods, since nothing actually touches the eye.

  11. 11.

    gbear

    I’m pretty good about being able to tolerate the equipment that has to touch your eyeball. It’s actually kind of cool to watch it come in and ‘dock’ with your eye.

    They also dialated my eyes at a recent appointment, so I had to wear some nerdy sunglass lenses that just sat inside of my eyeglass frames. I did find a really cool use for the sun filter though; my bedside mini-stereo doesn’t have a dimmer switch, but if I put those lenses in front of the readout, it dims the dislplay down perfectly. I can still read it, but it doesn’t light up the room if I want to fall asleep to music.I’d been searching for ages to find something to dim that display.

  12. 12.

    different-church-lady

    While we’re on the “old school” thing… this summer I was working a trade show booth for a company that makes optometrists equipment. There a bunch of new digital thingies, but they still make a lot of the old school analog-mechanical (HIGHLY mechanical) exam machines — the ones with the million dials and lenses you put in manually.

    And as I was idly twirling the knobs on one of them I realized I was fulfilling a life-long dream — ever since I was a kid I had the urge to be able to just play with one of these things! And now I could!

  13. 13.

    Mustang Bobby

    Had a fun day with my friends in our antique car run down to the Keys. I made it there and almost back again without rain… I was .5 mile from the house when it came down like a cow pissing on a flat rock. But that’s so Miami.

    Here’s hoping the Tigers clinch the division.

  14. 14.

    Nicole

    Went to Belmont racetrack. The greatest race caller of all time, Tom Durkin, retired this summer and the track was giving away Tom Durkin bobble head dolls. My collection of bobble head dolls of race callers is at last complete.

    I have one. Of Tom Durkin.

  17. 17.

    Nicole

    Also, I had an eye exam this week, too. Puff on the eyes, dilation, yup. Me too. My eyes are okay except for being very dry, which is now wreaking havoc on my ability to wear contact lenses. I wear lovely lenses that are for sleep time only- they reshape my corneas so I don’t need glasses or contacts when I’m awake. But I can’t wear them at night anymore and I’m bummed to think I’m going to have to go back to glasses.

  19. 19.

    gbear

    @dance around in your bones: The first time I visited Texas I spent a couple days staying with a friend in a trailer park where the cockroaches were the size of mice. One night the only place to stay was on a mattress that was on the floor. The next day, I called up Northwest airlines and paid an extra $300 to have my flight back to MN moved up so that I could get the hell out of TX. When I got home, I left all of my luggage in the front yard and didn’t bring anything into the house until I’d inspected it and shook it about a dozen times. That was in 1982 and I still get the willies thinking about it.

  20. 20.

    Phylllis

    @Nicole: I can relate. I had strabismus surgery back in May & was hoping to be able to go back to contacts. The eye doc put the kibosh on that, since bifocal contacts would have my eyes back to working independently, defeating the purpose of the surgery. Oh well.

    ETA: Do I see a glimmer of a Gamecock pass rush?

  21. 21.

    Josie

    @dance around in your bones: I can relate. When I go to the bathroom in the middle of the nght (I’m old folks), I flush the john to be sure there are no giant cockroaches hiding up under the rim. I have found them there and have a horror of one being there that I haven’t gotten rid of. Likewise in the shower, I check the floor and ceiling when I turn on the water. I keep a really clean house and have the bug person bi-monthly, but in South Texas that helps not one damn bit.

  24. 24.

    suzanne

    We are having another severe storm. Two of my neighbors lost trees—one was right next to a house and looks like it may have damaged the foundation. Flooding, no power. This year has been incredible. In a bad way. Climate change ahoy.

  25. 25.

    Mnemosyne

    There’s pretty much nothing a doctor can do to my eyes that bothers me, probably because I’ve been seeing eye doctors for so long. My first optometrist was a smart man — he showed Yogi Bear cartoons on the wall behind him to distract you, plus you got a coupon for a free soft-serve ice cream at the deli next door.

    I’m still debating laser surgery next year, because I can’t tolerate contacts (dry eyes) and I’m REALLY tired of glasses. Plus I don’t want to have 20/200 vision in the retirement home someday.

  31. 31.

    lamh36

    Watching Happy Endings marathon, in between channel surfing and watching Will & Grace, and just random web surfing until the next Hallmark Channel movie comes on tonight.

  33. 33.

    MattF

    @Mnemosyne: My free advice is to get more careful about that as you get older. Lots of things go wrong with your eyes once you get to ‘senior’ status.

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    Now that mom (scant few years shy of 90) is driving her spiffy new wheels she and I bought last week, she wants to give her old car (’95 Accord) to my step-sister’s son (mom’s step-grandson). He’s a senior in college someplace in upstate NY.

    So mom had her mechanic check it out and was assured it was perfectly roadworthy and sound for a little old lady like her. (It looks like an average 20-year-old car which was never garaged, but all the parking lot dings and similar are strictly cosmetic, as if a college student getting his first wheels ever really cared about that stuff.)

    But step-sis and her hubby insisted that their mechanic check it out. That mechanic gave two thumbs all the way up. Hubby then started in on “Why does he need a car? I never had a car in college.” Being that I pop in once a year and then scuttle back to 6000 miles away, having zero contact other than birthday calls with anyone but mom during the interim, had no reticence about immediately saying to him “You didn’t have a cellphone in college. Why does he need one?”

    Got the cold glare from him in return, but that was enough to bring step-sis into the majority side of the vote. Kiddo’s getting the car.

    Only met the kid once ever, so no reason not to play the fun role of black sheep uncle.

  38. 38.

    Sprirula

    Yeah Betty, had the same eye testing recently myself. That “wind tunnel” thingy made me flinch every time. Afterwards I was told my results were “unremarkable’. I told the the ophthalmologist that was no surprise. I’d heard that all my life.
    Oh, the eye drops well I saw Nazguls, Wraiths and Orcs too. My friend told me “those are just staff here at the clinic”. Okay, maybe.
    But there were definitely Orcs. Definitely. You can’t fake Orc. Its the smell. That gasoline smell…it smells like….shit, what was I talking about

  39. 39.

    Gene108

    If only we got points for winning the half or leading through most of three quarters…

    NCSU did better than I thought against FSU…our turnovers broke our back against a better…

    I also do not get the hype about Winston. He is as money as the hype makes him out to be.

    I saw Ward play, when FSU came to Raleigh, and he was flawless. Blitz him and he’d roll out to buy time and hit the deep ball.

    Given the dreck that routinely plays QB, I have no idea why no NFL team took a flyer on him. With his size I can understand not drafting him in the first round, but he should’ve been taken in later rounds.

    Ty “freakin'” Detmer had a long career in the NFL and he had neither the athleticism nor arm of Ward.

  41. 41.

    dance around in your bones

    @gbear: You know, I’m not afraid of bugs or snakes or anything damn thing. I have dealt with tarantulas, black widows, rattlesnakes and various other bugs – and critters.

    You know what has pissed me off the most lately? ANT invasions. We battled them for two weeks. We won :)

  42. 42.

    JR in WV

    Got dinner in the oven, watched the final minutes of the HAwgs v A&M while cooking the casserole prep, laptop on counter behind stove, oven on, HOT!

    I was really hoping one of the unranked teams would pull off the upset, either NC State or Arkansas, but not to be. Good Friend ran cross country for NC State, she’s like 6’4″ with long legs. At least WVU didn’t lose today, bye week.

    Gonna watch the Big 12 game after we eat. Pasta casserole, green chilies, garlic, Italian crushed tomatoes, cheese. Always a little bit different. Had a G&T while thinking about dinner, out of tonic now ;-( but that’s life.

    I can always switch to Bourbon, or Tequila shots, or just stay calm and go to bed early.

    Graded the road this afternoon, tractor should have done all the work, but I’m pooped!

  43. 43.

    mai naem mobile

    @suzanne: our backyard looks like a lake. The dogs are having a ball playing in the mud. I think its 4 hrs straight of super heavy to steady rainfall. I have a feeling our insurance rates are going to go up next year because of all the damage.

  47. 47.

    dance around in your bones

    @Mnemosyne:
    No, I did NOT! When I see those mothermamas I just squash them like the killers that they are.

    They wouldn’t have any mercy for me, I’m sure.

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    @MattF:

    I’m still only middle-aged (45) so I have some good years left. Frankly, my eyes couldn’t get very much worse as it is — IIRC, I’m -7 in one eye and -7.5 in the other (-6 and above is considered severely nearsighted). In fact, my sight has gotten very slightly better over the past 5 years because (if I understood my doctor correctly), the natural changes to the shape of my eyeball are stretching it back to a less nearsighted shape.

  50. 50.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    Hubby sounds like a killjoy. The kid’s getting a free car! Yes, there will be insurance, which Dad might be on the hook for, but c’mon.

  53. 53.

    Violet

    @different-church-lady: I’ve been getting some kind of “A/C adapter is the wrong adapter” notice for ages now. It’s not. It came with the computer, straight out of the box. Anyway, the battery seems to have died today. Says 1% plugged in and charging, but never goes higher than 1%. Apparently there’s something I can do with the BIOS to check the charger but I’m updating some drivers at the moment to see if that might do anything.

    Might just be the battery is gone but it seems a bit all of a sudden. And with the weird adapter message, I’m wondering if there isn’t something else at play.

  56. 56.

    lamh36

    Welp, now I’m watching Wonder Woman on some random syndicated channel.

    Brings me back to when I watched these old episodes in my Wonder Woman underoos.

    Man, I loved me some Lyle Waggonner as Capt Steve Trevor but MAN the dude was horrible at his job, be it spy, soldier, or whatever. He always seemed to fuck it up and need Wonder Woman to save him.

    I mean I know it was the whole point, but damn at the least they coulda made him more competent.

    Ah…whatever though. I love this show.

  57. 57.

    Steeplejack

    @Violet:

    Sounds like a dead/dying battery to me. And when they go they can cause weird error messages.

    One thing you can try is to physically remove the battery from the laptop, dust around the edges and make sure there’s no accumulated dust in the battery cavity. That revived one of my old machines (for a while).

  59. 59.

    muddy

    I thought I had great ocular preservation for the opposite reason that you state, Betty. I have no problem holding absolutely still. Once the doctor was going to cut a chelazion off the rim of the eyelid, and he says to me, Don’t blink or flinch! So I didn’t. He seemed quite amazed that I didn’t. Hey, he said not to move and he had a scalpel at my eye. Of course I didn’t move! Apparently most people do though.

    As far as the dilating goes, when I had it last year it spurred an important question about hallucinogens for me, which I have not yet figured out. I had just come home with pupils dilated and the tree guy comes to ask about what I want cut. I went out without my sunglasses, and then was blind when I looked towards the sky. I was trying to peek through the tiniest crack in the lids, but it was still way too bright. Then I wondered Why, when you take acid you aren’t blinded by light when your pupils are like black basketballs?

    I asked one of my sisters (a retired nurse) and she says that probably I was blinded, but didn’t realize because I was so high. She got really mad because I couldn’t stop laughing. I said I have tripped my damn brains out, but I certainly would have noticed that I was blind! For the christ’s sake.

    Anyway, this mystery has not yet been explained to me, and I can’t believe it took me that long to wonder about it.

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    100% agreement. Didn’t even mention here that the dash was once replaced so there is no way to determine actual mileage, but my guesstimate is no more than 90K, which on that car of that vintage is bupkis.

  62. 62.

    dance around in your bones

    @Josie:

    Cockroaches don’t have much to do with a clean house, so don’t feel bad.

    @Steeplejack: Thanks, Steep – I have been going through big changes (one is a job so incredible I can’t even talk about it!) and the other is…..well, I was driving home from a dental appt and this song and as you may remember my husband died 3 years ago so I had to pull over to the side of the road and sob.

  63. 63.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Steeplejack: Also check the contacts between the charger and the laptop. The circular ones usually don’t have a problem, but if it has multiple contacts(such as usb2) that can cause problems.

  64. 64.

    Mike in NC

    Had a fleeting glimpse of the sun today while out shopping. There are several bags of cypress mulch sitting in the driveway, waiting for the rain to stop. I bought them two weeks ago.

  65. 65.

    dance around in your bones

    @Mnemosyne: That’s so funny, In my household (3 grandboys) I’m known as the granny spider catcher. We put them outside “where they live” after goggling at them for a while :)

  66. 66.

    raven

    @dance around in your bones: Our friend died Thursday after a three year fight with brain cancer. My bride was very close with her and was a stalwart during the battle. The funeral is tomorrow evening and it seems strange after such a haul.

  70. 70.

    Jacks mom

    Still waiting for that epic storm. We have some girls growing in the back yard so I’m very watchful. Almost harvest time.

  73. 73.

    Violet

    @Steeplejack: Yeah, could be the battery. It’s an obvious guess. Except the adapter message seems to be a known issue according to the google, so I don’t know. I recent blew compressed air around the battery cavity. Maybe I blew something into it? Worked fine for a few weeks after that, though.

    @efgoldman: Apparently there’s something in the BIOS that you can check and/or set to deal with this adapter issue. I’m always nervous dealing with the BIOS, so haven’t ventured that far yet.

    @different-church-lady: It’s a Dell Inspiron N5110. I think it’s about three years old. Can’t remember for sure. Maybe two. I’ve had problems with power issues with Dell laptops so I’m not surprised this is an issue. Battery is original battery.

  77. 77.

    gelfling545

    I had an eye exam this past week. For years they could not do the glaucoma test because of my absolute phobia about anything touching my eye but this current doctor does the air puff thing & that I can manage so good there. Unfortunately I’ll, at some future date, have something touching my eyes big time as the word was I have the beginnings or cataracts – no need for surgery yet but at some point… This has had me freaked out since Wed. as I just can’t imagine how I’ll deal with it. Yes, I now people have the surgery all the time but, well, phobia.
    Speaking of ridiculously thorough exams, I had my teeth cleaned at the local community college school of dental hygiene where the student took my blood pressure, pulse & complete medical history and completely examined the head & neck area & took a complete set of x-rays – all for free. Good deal.

  78. 78.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dance around in your bones:

    When I lived in NYC, I remember reading somewhere that the building where Jackie Kennedy lived was overrun with cockroaches.

    I lived in an apartment building at 14th and 5th, and it was also overrun with cockroaches.* I must say, I felt a little better about things after reading the Jackie story.

    *Worst moment: collecting packages of freshly-laundered bed and bath linens from the laundry on the first floor, opening the brown paper packaging, and seeing hundreds of roaches scurry up the walls. UGH! It’s been almost 50 years and I still get the shudders.

  81. 81.

    another Holocene human

    Your rain came my way. Feeling kind of recharged after a successful union training. Agree with my friend there that Obama admin whiffing on immigration was a big mistake. Disagree with his opinion that Holder was forced out of admin. I think he’s intended to move on for a while and it’s likely he won’t get the exit he wants anyway.

  83. 83.

    lamh36

    Secret Service stumbled after gunman hit White House residence in 2011

    The gunman parked his black Honda directly south of the White House, in the dark of a November night, in a closed lane of Constitution Avenue. He pointed his long, semiautomatic rifle out of the passenger window, aimed directly at the home of the president of the United States, and pulled the trigger.

    A bullet smashed a window on the second floor, just steps from the first family’s formal living room. Another lodged in a window frame, and more pinged off the roof, sending bits of wood and concrete to the ground. At least seven bullets struck the upstairs residence of the White House, flying some 700 yards across the South Lawn.

    President Obama and his wife were out of town on that evening of Nov. 11, 2011, but their younger daughter, Sasha, and Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, were inside, while older daughter Malia was expected back any moment from an outing with friends…

  84. 84.

    Corner Stone

    Also, there is something really nasty going around my part of TX right now. Achy bones/joints, fever, sore throat, general lethargy.
    Violet, Keith G, hope you guys stay clean. It’s a real drag.
    Anything that can slow my son down is a real nasty piece of work.

  85. 85.

    Anoniminous

    for hours everything looked like how Frodo sees things when he wears The Ring of Power, minus the Nazgûls and Ringwraiths.

    The Nazgûls are Ringwraiths. Nazgûl (servant) is what they are called in Black Speech, Ringwraith in Common, Ulairi (Those of the unlight) in Quenya. It is supposed their name in Sindarian is Ulaer. Their name in Dwarvish is unknown.

    (And this has been your moment of Tolkien fanboiousity.)

  86. 86.

    madmommy

    I detest the puff test, which is most commonly used now, because the technicians can perform it with their fancy machines. Worked for ophthalmologists for years pre-kids and we did it old-school style.

    Everyone should have a dilated exam every year or two, and yearly if there’s a family history of diabetes, glaucoma or macular degeneration. After years of wearing contacts followed by refractive surgery I am back to glasses, and bifocals at that! I can live with it because I can see fine without my glasses as long as I don’t have to read anything, which is a massive improvement over the -7.0 in each eye I had before the surgery.

  87. 87.

    Gene108

    @Mnemosyne:

    I always thought improving nearsightedness is a sign of going to need bifocals in the future.

    My eyesight ticked up a bit better from -6.75 to -6.5 and I believe that is what the optometrist said.

    I hope I am wrong.

  90. 90.

    Suffern ACE

    I went to see Box Trolls today. Something seemed amiss. The aspirational working class was the villain, the aristocratic boobs remained on top, and it made cheese into something akin to heroin.

  91. 91.

    Chris T.

    @Gene108: Pretty much everyone needs something by age 50, often by age 40. The lens becomes too inflexible to allow for multiple focal lengths. If you needed distance vision lenses (standard myopia) before, then you wind up needing bifocals unless your “natural” focus is appropriate for close stuff.

    In my case, my natural focus is about 4 or 5 inches away from my face so I need bifocals, although I still just take them off and hold pages really close to read actual books.

  92. 92.

    dance around in your bones

    @Corner Stone:

    OK, I replied to you earlier but I don’t know what the fuck happened. I have 3 grandboys to take care of tonight.

    Anyway, I am hesitant to reply to you for fear you will mock me. Or marry me LOL

  93. 93.

    satby

    @MattF: @Mnemosyne: Yeah Mnem, my eye doctor suggested I skip laser surgery since as a blue eyed redhead cataract surgery was surely in my future. And they implant new lenses now, so that even my 83 year old mother has perfect vision.

  94. 94.

    Nicole

    @Phylllis: What’s strabismus surgery? I mean, yes, I know I can google, but tell me anyway.

    My eyes have always been too dry to be a good candidate for lasix, which is why the contacts were such a good solution for so long (uncomfortable as heck to wear, but I was asleep so I didn’t know). It bums me out that they’re aggravating my eyes too much now, even while I’m asleep. :(

  95. 95.

    tybee

    @raven:

    i dunno about that “no good years left”. a good friend of mine, a retired professor from SSU, paddles 300 miles each year in the “Everglades Challenge”, a race from tampa bay to key largo. 300 miles in 6 days. in a kayak.
    he’s 5 years older than you and he ain’t slowing down much at all.

  96. 96.

    lamh36

    @lamh36:

    …Secret Service officers initially rushed to respond….Then came an order that surprised some of the officers. “No shots have been fired. . . . Stand down,” a supervisor called over his radio. He said the noise was the backfire from a nearby construction vehicle…That command was the first of a string of security lapses, never previously reported, as the Secret Service failed to identify and properly investigate a serious attack on the White House. While the shooting and eventual arrest of the gunman, Oscar R. Ortega-Hernandez, received attention at the time, neither the bungled internal response nor the potential danger to the Obama daughters has been publicly known. This is the first full account of the Secret Service’s confusion and the missed clues in the incident — and the anger the president and first lady expressed as a result…

  97. 97.

    Corner Stone

    @Violet: It knocked my sister, my ex and my boy out like it was the Mike Tyson of bugs. He slept 11+ hours last night, which is unheard of.
    I’m hoping my mom doesn’t come up next.
    Personally, I could use some damn sleep any time about now.

  99. 99.

    Mnemosyne

    Heading out for dinner (at Damon’s, for you locals). The place opened in the 1930s and I think the waitresses have been there for the same amount of time, but damn do they know how to cook a steak.

  101. 101.

    Gene108

    @lamh36:

    I think they should go back to blocking off Pennsylvania Ave, like they did in the mid-1990’s after a gunman opened fire on the White House.

    Just do not let anybody get that close. Period.

  102. 102.

    PurpleGirl

    Before reading the thread…

    Currently watching original Star Trek, episode Charlie X. I saw the actor who played Charlie (Robert Walker) performing in Midsummer Night’s Dream at my junior high school. Star Trek is on MeTVN and the channel is 1239. It often takes me 4 or 5 tried to get the damn channel clicked in the remote. Damned Time-Warner redid channel assignments and that’s where it ended up. Starz ended up at 581. At least that isn’t hard to click in on the remote. Tonight is supposed to be the last of first series of Outlander episodes.

  103. 103.

    dance around in your bones

    @Corner Stone: HaHaha – I love that you respond to me, but marriage? in Texas? My sister lives there; I visited recently; no no no no

    Well. I’ll keep the option open ( :) I love little boys.

  104. 104.

    NotMax

    @

    Nitpick, but that’s Robert Walker, Jr., who bears a striking resemblance to his actor father.

    Curious if you happened to notice if the Thasian ship appeared as a blob or a cigar shape.

    If the former, then it is the original version. If the latter, the remastered version. (Of course even if the original, could still be edited for time in order to cram in more ads.)

  106. 106.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    I got home Wednesday (?) night, in very good shape. Fulfilled my minor goal of sleeping at least one night in each of the six New England states. Spending time with you and Mrs. EFG was one of the highlights of the trip, and if I come back next spring, as I currently hope, I’d love to get together again.

    You’re right, it was a long drive. I logged 3220 miles altogether. Fantastic weather everywhere. Just a great, great trip.

    Thanks for worrying :-)

  107. 107.

    PurpleGirl

    I recently had an eye exam. The glaucoma test doesn’t bother me. There was also a second test that used a different machine that also has your eyes up close. Maybe to see the retina or for cataracts. I promised the opthalmologist that I would be having another eye exam at Elmhurst’s medical clinic but that I needed the prescription exam now since I broke my glasses and wanted to get new ones. The Elmhurst appointment won’t be for another three months.

  109. 109.

    NotMax

    @PurpleGirl

    Was just recently in your neck of the woods. Went to Office Max and Home Depot in Elmont to pick up some stuff for repairs/enhancements to mom’s place.

    FSM, there are a lot of traffic lights on Hempstead Ave.

  111. 111.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    Sister died after fighting breast cancer for 6 yrs, 2 remissions. A long slog but after the third time coming back she had enough. Don’t blame her at all, it was a hard slog, 2 major ops, chemo for most of the six years and she still lost the battle. Sometimes the fight is more than we can tolerate.

  113. 113.

    raven

    @Ruckus: Yep, my old man was similar but with the ticker. He was a marathoner and fitness maniac. When he had his first heart attack he made this incredible comeback. On the second one the wires holding his sternum together broke and they had to go back in again. I believe that was it, he gave up.

  114. 114.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    Yea, I got my first HA out of the way already. But I’m not ready to go yet, I want to give this retirement thing a whirl for a while, see if boredom is all it’s cracked up to be. And for that I’ll have to stop working. And I guess I’m only half ready for that yet.

  116. 116.

    PurpleGirl

    @raven: Well according to an AARP insurance commercial (IIRC), you’re in your 60s, have a good long life ahead of you and big plans.

  118. 118.

    dance around in your bones

    @Howard Beale IV:
    I love that song, but it’s more about letting a girlfriend go than trying to pull your husband up off the floor while he is dying.

    gads. sometimes life sucks.

  124. 124.

    dance around in your bones

    Omnes, I love Leonard Cohen more than you can know. I am always trying to turn on younger people to Cohen.

    Hallelujah

    ok i know everyone has heard this. so sue me, i’m not mclaren.

  125. 125.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    Not sure there is any causation or correlation but I’m willing to risk it. Besides the VA thinks I may have cancer anyway.
    Life is a bowl of cherries. Mine for the last 20 or so has been filled with sour, moldy cherries but still…..

  133. 133.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @dance around in your bones: We all have those nights. They seem to be more common as we age. That song featured in a movie I love. It is a remake of Bob Le Flambeur. The total soundtrack is wonderful – Cohen, Hallyday, and French Hiphop. Who can fight that?

  135. 135.

    dance around in your bones

    I’ll look that movie up – I think I’m more emotional than usual since many things are changing in my life.

    But! I have the opportunity of a lifetime – to be a live in companion to a lil ol Southern lady (google the Pagoda House Santa Barbara) and you’ll see what I mean. Corner Stone asked me about it it but I didn’t want to tell him; but I trust you and Steeplejack.

    I may fall asleep listening to Leonard Cohen, I love him so much. Singer/songwriters – that’s my thing.

  137. 137.

    Ruckus

    @dance around in your bones:
    I’ve had a couple of pretty decent relationships, the longest one lasted almost 20 yrs to a wonderful woman, who I still adore to this day. But we couldn’t figure out how to live with each other any longer, so we had to let each other go. I’d have given up a lot to have found that partnership, and it would have been worth it. No sour apples here, life is what happens, for me it’s, like the good parts and endure the shit, for what else is there?

  138. 138.

    dance around in your bones

    @Ruckus: I don’t know what to say about that except my husband was my best friend in my life,and he made me laugh, and he understood me, and he loved me warts and all,,,,,I find myself longing for that kind of love again.

  139. 139.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
    My generation is really no different that any other, there may be more of us, some of us have embraced completely screwed up politics, some of us are racist, some of us are selfish assholes, half of us are smarter than the median but the other half are not….. The list is endless.
    But these traits have been going on for eons, we just have recordings now of some of the more egregious examples of the bad side of every generation. As you showed by your link.

  140. 140.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @dance around in your bones: When I was in college, my fraternity had one and only one unbreakable law. No one disrespected, inconvenienced , or otherwise bothered our cook. She had worked in the restaurant industry since she was in her teens. She knew everyone in the area. She retired and got bored. As a result the took the part-time job with us. We had wonderful food that cost far less than our budget anticipated. We made her an honorary houd mother and bought her a ticket to visit her sister in Florida every Christmas. Once she retired (again) from our place, she took a position as a companion to one of our graduate’s mother. They traveled everywhere. Me, I am glad that Flo got that opportunity; She could cook spring lamb or raccoon, drinks shots, dance on a table, but she hated bad language.

  145. 145.

    dance around in your bones

    @Ruckus: Thank you so much, Ruckus, I should have included you in my appreciation of Omnes and Steep. because I have learned a lot from reading your comments.

    Y’all are so great.

  146. 146.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @dance around in your bones: We all did. Fancy kids carried bags from the street to the kitchen because she bought stuff. She made wonderful meals for us for far less than our budget figured for food. The Florida trips were covered by her savings. So was most of our social budget. When we found out that she was going to be X’s grandmother’s traveling companion, we all were trilled. X did well.

  148. 148.

    Radio One

    one thing I’ve learned belatedly is…don’t fuck around with your vision. Eyesight is one thing that can degrade very slowly and can even be imperceptible for a long time, and then take many years to rehabilitate once the damage is done. And then things like testing eye pressure almost seem like a lark compared to the treatment for retinopathy and glaucoma.

  149. 149.

    Wally Ballou

    Just watched a mightily entertaining baseball game in Seattle. Mariners win it 2-1 in the 11th on a walkoff fielder’s choice by Austin Jackson, meaning they still have a chance to clinch a wild card spot if they win and Oakland loses tomorrow.

    Once again my Tigers shit the bed in a big way, losing once again to the lowly Twins and keeping their magic number stuck at 1. It would surprise me not at all if they lose again tomorrow and the Royals win, forcing a Monday game for the division title.

  150. 150.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
    Linky no work. You fix?

    Anyway, it’s always good to have a hobby, fetish, whatever that is not dangerous and can lead to some places that you like, that without devotion, will never have surfaced. Me I’ve only had dangerous hobbies, and they frequently have hidden costs and long term consequences, let alone the ones that are staring you in the face/smacking you about the head and shoulders.

  151. 151.

    Gretchen

    I’m the same way about my eyes – they have to practically hold me down for the glaucoma test. I had to have cataract surgery recently, and the doctor assured me that I would be completely comfortable, they give you a little relaxer and most people have no trouble. Once in surgery, she realized she wouldn’t get it done if she didn’t put me out. She was not getting anywhere near my eyes otherwise.

  152. 152.

    Gretchen

    @gelfling545: Me too. I cried for days when I was told my vision was so bad I’d need the surgery. I even tried to convince myself I didn’t really need to see. It was fine once the doctor realized she’d need to knock me out, and promised me she’d do the same for the second eye. Bonus – they can calculate the lens needed from the curvature of the eyeball, and insert the new lens. I now have 20/40 vision and don’t need glasses to drive. Very strange after a lifetime of being very nearsighted. I can even see the clock at night without getting my glasses first.

  153. 153.

    Mnemosyne

    @gelfling545:

    This has had me freaked out since Wed. as I just can’t imagine how I’ll deal with it.

    They’ll give you drugs and you’ll be fine. ;-) I had a pretty major dental phobia (now under control since I have a good dentist) and they had to give me nitrous oxide to do a filling. I didn’t think it was doing much, but they went in with the novocaine needle (one of my least favorite parts) and I thought, “Huh. That kinda hurts. Interesting.” instead of leaping up from the chair shrieking.

  154. 154.

    Mnemosyne

    @Gretchen:

    I’m assuming they gave you something pretty similar to what they gave me for my colonoscopy/endoscopy combo procedure. They said, “Okay, we’re going to start the drug,” and I woke up in the recovery room.

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