Lapping water pantomime
Frozen water bowl
From staunch garden correspondent Marvel:
The week-long night-time freeze has broken here in the Willamette Valley. Now it’s 40s highs and 30s lows with a certain amount of rain every now and then — so much more civilized.
The seed catalogues are starting to arrive — I toss most of ’em but keep the Territorial Seed book because I find the pictures & descriptions useful. We usually only buy seed for corn, peppers and parsnips (and buy starts for the rest of the garden), but it’s still a welcome Winter ritual: paging through the Seed Dream Book like little kids leafing through a Sears catalogue before Christmas.
Attached: a photo and small haiku written for a frozen morning hereabouts.
***********
The gardening catalogs have been arriving here since before Thanksgiving, but it’s been so abnormally warm north of Boston that I’ve been able to resist their blandishments (so far). But I’m already making lists from Laurel’s Heirloom Tomatoes 2016 online catalog (excellent garden porn!). Every year, I swear I’ll buy fewer plants so I can get a better harvest from each one — I actually did nibble the tally down a bit last summer — but every year there’s more “got to have” varieties, plus all those new old types to explore…
What’s going on in your garden(s)/garden planning, this week?
SiubhanDuinne
Nice.
OzarkHillbilly
Well, seeing as I am most definitely NOT getting my greenhouse built this month, I guess I have to clean out/straighten up the cold storage room, set up the grow lights and fan etc for all my seed starting. But not yet. First I have to go thru all my left over seeds from last year and see what I still have, what I liked, what not so much, etc. THEN I get to have the fun of picking and choosing what I want to grow and ordering new seeds from Baker Creek and Renee’s.
After last years infection of Tobacco Mosaic Virus destroyed my sweet peppers, I have vowed to not buy any plants ever again. If I don’t grow it, it won’t be planted in my garden. If I hadn’t busted up the leg, I’d be erecting the greenhouse right now and wouldn’t have to be near as careful with my planning- I could just start butt loads of stuff and pick and choose until the garden was full. It wasn’t meant to be I guess.
C’est la vie.
A few for sure plants are the Italian Sweet Pepper mix from Renee’s, the Green Zebra, Amish paste, and Orange Icicle paste tomatoes from Baker Creek. Despite all the rain last year, the Green Zebra were still phenomenally flavorful with a rather citrusy tartness, not to mention gorgeous with an almost incandescent green meat. The Amish and Orange Icicle were just flat out the best producing paste tomatoes I’ve ever had.
I’m gonna give the Paul Robesons another shot this year. The plants produced well enuf until the blight got everything but the flavor was…. Not there. I am putting it down to all the rain we had because everything I’ve heard or read says they are among the best tasting ever. If I have another less than desirable result I’ll chalk it up to “not the right climate” and move on.
ThresherK (GPad)
My grandma gave me a copy of ‘”The Egg and I” when I was a.youth. Doesn’t it have seed pr0n in it, too?
HeartlandLiberal
Here in south central Indiana, the weather has been abnormally warm and mild through the first week of January. But overnight, a low pressure system and cold temperatures swept up the Ohio Valley, and we awoke to four inches of snow on the deck, and blowing snow and gusting winds.
Our 18 year old cat, Buckey, died two weeks ago. Our remaining cat, Spencer, keeps demanding I open the door onto the deck, so he can look out in confusion and disgust, and finally turn around and come back in.
So a bit of winter has blanketed us this morning.
I suspect my wife will cancel the duplicate bridge game at a local retirement home this afternoon, but I and a friend plan to brave the elements, in order not to miss the Indiana vs. Ohio State basketball game at Assembly Hall here in Bloomington. The last game vs Wisconsin was a nail biter, Indiana won by one point after a three point shot as the buzzer sounded by Wisconsin, thank $DEITY with no foul by the young Indiana team. I am still trying to grasp that so far Indiana is 3-0 in Big Ten conference play, and that right now with out a key player who had knee surgery, and is done for the season.
I hope it clears up by Wednesday. We were running errands three weeks ago, and a young woman eating french fries ran a red light, hit us, sending us in a 360 spin across four lanes of traffic thru the intersection. Totaled our Mercedes. We have been shopping for a replacement used one, targeting a 2011 E350. Not fond of test driving a car in the snow. By the way, did I mention how much I hate haggling with car dealers over price?
tybee
@HeartlandLiberal:
wow. i assume no injuries?
Raven
Tons of rain, mostly warm and the collards and kale are fabulous!!!
Gindy51
@HeartlandLiberal: @HeartlandLiberal: Here in SE IN (by Batesville) we had a spit of snow that freaked my greater Swiss Mountain Dog pup out big time. His first snow and he acted like he was a tropical flowering plant. Ugh.
No snow on the roads here as it melted after the 50 degree day we had yesterday, roads too warm to stick. Not sure about walkies, we may have to drag Hannibal (they always end up the opposite of their name) out in the snow but the other Swissie (Daenerys) is a snow hound and the pyr/lab mix (Mouse, the old fart lady dog) loves her some snow. She’s 9 so hopefully this WON’T be her last..
Garden, shmarden not even thinking about it till April.
Schlemazel
Colder than a well diggers ankle out here on the tundra (-7) and I have hope of even thinking about gardens. There apparently is some sort of sportsball contest to be disputed out there so I may root for frostbite just because.
The county did not finish work this fall so our front beds are still torn up. They will re grade in the spring but that will be too late to transplant the flowers back next year. We may decide to do something different depending on the final slope.
Lastly, because it is a question I expect we will all here a lot in the next couple of days, let me be the first to ask you – you want to go in on Powerball tickets with me?
PurpleGirl
Raining on and off in NYC today. Don’t have any specific plans for today.
ETA: It’s expected to be raining and cold most of the week. Hoping that any snow we get is light.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: Speaking of Liver Eating Johnson, when I lived in WY, Crazy Woman Canyon was just down the road from me and I’ve spent more than a little time there then and time to time after. It is beautiful and local legend had it that it got it’s name from the story as told in Jeremiah Johnson.
HeartlandLiberal
@tybee: No serious injuries. Triggered severe TMJ episode in wife, dentist did CT scan to confirm no broken bones or teeth. Still under care, one tooth seems to be causing pain. I just ached for three or four days from back being wrenched as the impact spun us. We were lucky. The young woman, too, was not injured. My neighbor across the street happened to be waiting in his car on other side of street. He parked, let me lean on him, I was pretty shaky, and served as witness for the officer. The young woman was very mature and nice, admitted her fault. She had just picked up fried at the McDonalds a block away, and looked down to get one, and looked up just in time to realize, as she said, “oh my god I am running the red light…” Bang.
A reminder that life is fragile, and EVERYTHING can change in an instant.
Two nights ago, our son, who does not live with us, but is a street person living with a family he is friends with, got home to discover his dog, which he has cared for for three years, was hit by a drunk driver who jumped the curb while his friends had taken the dog out to do her business, and was killed. I helped him and we took the dog to vet for cremation, we will get the ashes so he can bury them by all the cats in the wild corner of the yard that hosts a 22 year cat pet cemetery.
currants
I’ve looked at the Laurel’s website before but it (the site) drives me crazy (scrolling down, and down, and down, and down…). However, so many people rave about her tomatoes, including AL who’s in a similar zone to me, that I think I’ll try them this time. She’s got a very helpful symbol system–so it’s easy to choose plants that will tolerate cool or hot (rumor has it we’ll get a very hot summer this year).
Schlemazel
@HeartlandLiberal:
I hope you insisted the police tag her for running the light. We got creamed by an assclown who admitted to the cop he was under the dash fiddling with his wiring when he hit us at 40 MPH. Cop asked if I wanted him tagged but I said no not seeing the point; his insurance company dragged the settlement out for many months and were complete jerks about it. I think it would have gone better had I said yest to the ticket.
Glad you are OK and hope the TMJ thing resolves quickly, hope the car search is not horrible.
BillinGlendaleCA
@HeartlandLiberal: About 9 months ago, I got rear ended by a young woman reaching for her coffee. I was pretty shaken, but my car only had a couple of scratches on the bumper; her car fared much, much worse.
Punchy
@HeartlandLiberal: I blame the French.
bemused
I have a Garland Grow Light, an early Christmas gift, planted basil seeds first week in Dec and they are now ready to snip leaves. I try to grow as much basil as I can in our short zone 3-4 summer season and freeze what we can’t eat up to use in the winter. I have the 24×14 grow light on a table along with favorite house plants that I propagate. Happily, the house plants nearest the lights are benefitting too. I haven’t had much luck propagating new plants from a climbing Jasmine until now but the Jasmine starts are growing beautifully.
I’m having fun with the grow light and looking forward to starting tomato and other veggie seeds. I just wish it had a timer to turn the light off at the right time.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Are you recovered and mobile again? Congratulations!
OzarkHillbilly
@currants:
If you are interested in something a *little more substantive* than rumor, You can check out NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. The 3 month outlook takes you out a year. And take note, I do say a little more substantive. I have found it to be helpful, but that does not mean “80 or 90% accurate”, just that it can help you see coming trends.
currants
@OzarkHillbilly: :-) I suppose I should correct myself: by rumor, I meant my local meteorologist, Dave Epstein. I’m a weather nerd — my home page is NOAA….
Gvg
Cold wet 61degrees her in N Fl but not as cold as predicted down to 30 or 40’s. They have been wrong several times this winter so I wonder why. Dreary out so I hope to stay in most of the day. Not much in garden plans this year for second year in a row. We hope to buy and move into town closer to schools and grandparents as child is school age. Will then need to sell house and I need it to look normal and finished which means no vegetable garden with it’s sometimes past prime looks and not weeded this week because life. We tried last year but still haven’t found a house worth moving for.
My garden porn catalogs are the North American rock garden seed exchange and th North American Lily society exchange. In a good year I sometimes do the Scottish exchange too. I have never been able to stop collecting antique roses and have been keeping the last years purchases in pots waiting to move.
If it stays moderate I may pick oranges to give away at work. Once a tree gets big enough to produce, it gives more than a family can eat and if they fall off and rot it attracts pests. Besides people love it so when I give them out. Too much rain this year watered down the taste though. Ok but not outstanding.
greennotGreen
My garden currently consists of three loads of top soil freshly spread over the red clay left from the house excavation. Although the house isn’t completely finished, the birds, cats, dogs, (and a frog) and I are moving in Wednesday. I do not look forward to the constant mopping and vacuuming after the dogs since their yard will be nothing but trees and mud till the spring. But living in my new house and not having to drive 45 minutes back and forth every day from old to new – that I’m really looking forward to!
MomSense
I was listening to the PRI show Living on Earth this morning. The host interviewed Frances Moore Lappe about her book Debunking the Myths About Hunger. It was an interesting interview and I recommend it to the gardeners here.
ETA to fix the incorrect auto correct of the author’s name.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
The word today is THANK GOODNESS FOR PREPARED MAMA’S!!
The ones who have Plans A, B, and C!
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: The Doc said I could lose the crutches this week but I have another month to go in the boot. I also have daily exercises to do now to ensure flexibility in the joint. Difficult to say the least, as I still have a fair amount of swelling. Now that I have the OK to walk on it I find I have a new different kind of pain too, a constant burning sensation in the bone.
So it goes.
rikyrah
POWERBALL JACKPOT WEDNESDAY:
$ 1.3 BILLION
MomSense
@rikyrah:
This is getting wild. Of course I’m going to buy a ticket.
greennotGreen
@bemused: I am extremely fond of my Sunburst Light. Not as attractive as your Garland, but it puts out a lot of warm, really sun-like light that’s a great antidote to a gray winter day. I’ve used it for supplementing daylight for my succulents, but it would be great for getting a jump on spring, too.
Because I grow under lights as well as a greenhouse (actually, everywhere there’s light,) it’s a good thing I don’t live in Kansas. Last night I even drank loose leaf tea!
Schlemazel
@rikyrah:
about $420mil after taxes – I guess I’ll buy a ticket, the odds of my winning improve greatly if I do although buying 2 wouldn’t improve the odds much.
I expect a bunch of people suggesting we pool money will be hitting me up Monday and Tuesday. My one car pooler always does but he expects everyone to put in $20 and he fumbles around with it so I always say no to him. If the people I work with all toss in a couple of bucks I guess I’ll do that because I don’t want to be the only one left there if they won.
scav
Winter reading here is a borrowed copy of a book entirely about hardy geraniums. That and lusting over pruning saws will have to suffice for now. Rochester is eerily green, albeit clearly in winter mode.
bemused
@greennotGreen:
My spouse and I with our aging eyes enjoy the extra bright light in the kitchen/dining area of house.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: Did the chances of winning rise with the size of the pot or are they still worse than the chances of drowning in a tornado?
Poopyman
It’s 9AM on January 10 and it’s 62 degrees here in balmy Southern MD. Somewhere we’re going to pay for this, possibly later this week when we drop into the teens.
greennotGreen
@scav: Rochester, Minnesota or New York? I’ve never been to Minnesota, but I was pleasantly surprised at how nice Rochester, New York was when I visited a few years ago. Lovely parks, downtown in the process of rejuvenating (where our hotel was located,) not awful traffic (that I remember, anyway.) Don’t know how it would be under many feet of snow, but it sure has its charms in summer.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Glad you’re losing the crutches at least. Good luck with the patience factor.
Elizabelle
@HeartlandLiberal: Sorry to hear about your car’s demise, and especially about the loss of your son’s pet dog. That’s absolutely horrible. He is in my thoughts.
Cars can be replaced.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
@MomSense:
Just heard that a person is 23 times more likely to become president than win the lottery. I wonder if they factored Baud! into that equation?
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: It’s better now that I can actually carry things. It means I can do things all by myself.
Elizabelle
@Poopyman: Enjoying the symphony of wind chimes outside. Have doors to deck open. It’s fresh and breezy out there in No VA, with an undernote of warmth.
Good coffee drinking weather.
rmthunter
Sadly, no space for gardening in the new place, not even a porch for a container garden, but I remember when I was a kid how we used to pore over the seed catalogues: about a third of our large back yard was devoted to a vegetable garden, and another section to flowers, not to mention the borders and beds in front. The seed catalogues were a little bit of magic on snowy winter days.
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly: Great to hear it.
Baud
@rikyrah:
@MomSense:
How soon before one of the Republican candidates proposes the lottery as his plan to fight income inequality?
I hope an undocumented worker from Mexico wins.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Here in Detroit it started snowing around 8:30 and it’s accumulating. Yesterday afternoon it was 45 degrees and we took doglius for a sniff around the neighborhood. But it’s supposed to snow for a couple of days and stay cold for a week. Can’t complain. It’s been unusually warm this winter and we’ve seen negligible snow.
Tomorrow I have to take a 2 hour trek across the state for work and back, which will be pretty slippery.
Today will be difficult. I’m going to see my step-mother in the hospital. She had a severe stroke 6 days ago. Conscious and apparently recognizing faces and speech, but otherwise incapacitated. Probably permanently. She’s had terrible medical issues over the last 2 years and this is by far the worst. She was recovering from her second broken spinal vertebra in a year when the stroke occurred. She is the kindest and sweetest tempered person I know. Unfailingly cheerful and positive. This is a terrible blow to my father and I just don’t know what to do for him. He’s devastated.
If it sounds like I’m trolling acquaintances for sympathy, I am. This is awful and I don’t know how to handle it. In the last 9 months I lost my mother, a great uncle and a great aunt.
Germy
We like watching “Finding Your Roots” with Louis Gates. Last week they had the guy from Modern Family on, and they discovered a black forebear, a gutsy black woman who applied for and got a homestead grant.
This week one of the guests will be Bill O’Reilly. My problem with that is the fiction he consistently puts out about his “humble” upbringing. (His father was actually a well-compensated white-collar guy). I’m sure Bill will continue that line of bullshit about growing up “working class” in Levittown.
It bugs the shit out of me because my parents really were working class, and struggled to pay bills. Almost lost the house at one point because they couldn’t pay the mortgage. We didn’t have a lot, and didn’t go on vacations. So it bothers me when people like O’Reilly cosplay.
Baud
@debbie: I’m trying to decide whether to continue my run if I win or use the money to buy some small island country to be president of.
Baud
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
You have my sympathy. That’s too much all at once.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: The thing about lottery’s that pisses me off is they are just another way to shift more of the tax burden away from the rich. You won’t see either of the Koch brothers standing in line for a Powerball ticket this week.
Poopyman
@Elizabelle: Yes, the wind’s picking up and the clouds are scudding northward on a stiff southern breeze, but change is in the air.
Germy
@Baud:
Well, Ben Carson said homeschooling is a solution to our nation’s education problems.
Germy
@Baud: If you invest in a small island country you’ll be underwater in a few decades. Please stay in the race so we can push Bernie to the left.
Germy
@OzarkHillbilly: So many times I’ll see a big lottery winner around the age of sixty or so who announces proudly that NO, they won’t be quitting their job. And I always think “Quit your job and give it to someone who really needs it.”
Poopyman
@Germy: Maybe he means Hawaii? They’ve got big mountains. And coffee.
Germy
@Poopyman:
OzarkHillbilly
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Just be there. Don’t say anything, just be there.
Soylent Green
My bird sanctuary — the area around my finch and chickadee feeders — is occupied by pocket gophers. They are still actively tunneling through my yard in mid winter. I tried flooding them out last summer, without success.
Glidwrith
Hell, my tomatoes haven’t even died off yet. My Roma is going nuts and is producing multiple ‘maters. I did finally manage to kill off the Early Girl and the grape vine is finally dropping its leaves.
Decided to convert the dragonets sandbox to raised bed this year. Going to try potatoes again. The purple-fleshed ones didn’t bear at all and I got the same number of potatoes out of the ground as what I planted.
Of course, it always helps if the planters one picks actually have a hole in the bottom for drainage…..
Germy
@Soylent Green: Do you have an indoor cat? I had the same gopher problem. I took some of the clumps from the cat’s litter box and dropped them in the gopher holes. Apparently, there was enough scent of cat pee to convince the critters to relocate.
JPL
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Ozark is right. Just be there for each other. Hugs.
scav
@greennotGreen: The NY one, which I’ve seen in quirky charms of its winter, but somehow never when leafed out. Crunching over an iced-over beach near Sea Breeze, always manage to get to the museum and East Ave, the little theater, the various Shrines of Wegmans . . .
Ultraviolet Thunder
@OzarkHillbilly: @Baud:
Thank you. Dad always says “Family is family” so it’s time to pull together for him. I appreciate the sympathy.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m glad to hear that you are mending, although slowly. Take care not to overdo.
Schlemazel
@debbie:
and yet there are hundreds more lotto winners than there have ever been Presidents. Chances the same as being hit by lightning? Sure but that has happened many time too. You don’t really need to understand the odds beyond knowing that they a really, really, bad – worse than even the NYSE if you can believe that. If you can spend two bucks on a lark it’s as good a waste of two bucks as many others. I worry about the folks who can barely scrape the $2 together setting fire to the rent money though.
I will ignite my $2 (maybe a couple more in the office pool) this week just to have the fantasy of walking into my bossed office, getting up on his desk, bending over and announcing, “KISS THIS GOOD-BY, YOU ARE NEVER SEEING IT AGAIN!”. Thats worth two bucks to me. YMMV
Baud
@Poopyman:
I’ve been planning on seizing Maui in my capacity as a sovereign citizen.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
PRESIDENT?!?! I’d go with “Commander General and divine supreme leader for life”!
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
In much more likely to walk out my door and get eaten by a bear but it would certainly be a kick to become a billionaire overnight. My office mates and insure all buying tickets and promising to share if any of us win.
Baud
@Schlemazel:
I’m saving that title for when I take over this blog.
Denali
@Ultraviolet thunder,
So sorry to hear this. Hope things get better for you all.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ultraviolet Thunder: And you have my sympathies. It is always tuff as there is no one size fits all solution.
When my mother began her decline she was in and out of ICU with periods in rehab and always far from home. My Alzheimered father was inconsolably lost with out her until I hit on the magic formula of lying.
The first words out of his mouth every morning were, “Where’s Mother?”
I learned to answer, “At the grocery store.” That always reassured him and gave him the security he needed. 5 or 10 mins later he would ask again and I would give him the same answer and again he would be reassured.
MomSense
@Baud:
Pretty sure that is what Trump is promising. Heard one of his supporters say that he is going to give them the American Dream. Belief in Trump’s saving you is just like playing the lottery for real.
Schlemazel
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
How horrible for your dad and family. Please accept my electronic sympathy. I hope she will get better but if not I hope you can support each other and find peace at the end. I have found most people here to be sincerely gracious and caring when I have whined about my problems so you shouldn’t worry about looking for a little support here. Ozark is right on.
MomSense
My phone is driving me crazy or maybe my thumbs need me to drink more coffee before I try and operate this smaht phone.
MomSense
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Really sorry. It’s so painful to watch our loved ones struggle. Sending you a big virtual hug.
Poopyman
@Schlemazel: This is strategy as well. How much are my fantasies of winning worth? I’m still spending less than I (and especially Mrs. P) spend at Starbucks every week.
But yeah, not everybody who plays these lotteries has that luxury, and they’re the ones fueling these obscene jackpots.
Poopyman
@Schlemazel:
Isn’t that one taken by Li’l Kim?
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: If I was still on a crew I could see doing the pool if only for the joy we might get from as @Schlemazel: said, collectively mooning the riding boss on the way off the job site.
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
After my grandmother died my grandfather was devastated, they had been each others lives for more than 65 years. I would visit him every week and I learned never to ask “How ya doing grandpa?” because the answer was always, “I wish I could die.” I never found the sort of interaction like you did that would have brought him comfort so in that little way the Alzheimer was a blessing. Hard to think of it that way and I know when my mom started slipping I was looking for any positive, its a shitty thing to deal with.
Baud
@MomSense: I’d put more credence in winning the lottery.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel: As tuff as the Alzhiemers was, yes in that way it was a blessing. It could also be funny as hell. On one of the mornings my little bro was watching Pop, the old man was doing the dishes and singing:
“Old MacDonald had a farm
Eee I Eee I Oh.
And on this farm he had a…..
Oh Hell, a whole lot of shit!”
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Schlemazel:
I wonder how common ‘I wish I could die is’. My grandmother (father’s mother) is 98, active and living in an assisted living center. Grandpa passed away in ’93 just short of their 60th wedding anniversary. Grandma has said more than once “I don’t know why the Lord keeps me on this earth”. I think she feels out of place and wants to be with her Claude. This might be common for people whose lives have been reduced to too little of the present and a lot of the past behind them.
I’m getting the sads now. Gotta stop thinking about this.
Thank you all again for the kind thoughts and support. It does help.
Schlemazel
@Poopyman:
I had a long talk with a lottery official here years ago (I had sent them an email to answer a ‘bar bet’ sort of question about splitting pots that the office was debating and she called me up). She was very open and the call ended up taking over an hour! It turns out the MN lottery has done a lot of work on who buys & how much they spend. Apparently they use the info to intentionally not target poorer people. One of the things they found was that there is no correlation between income & over spending on lottery until you get to very high income levels. They looked at the fact that more tickets are sold in poorer neighborhoods and discovered that was the result of more convenience stores/gas stations in poor neighborhoods so people with more money had to go there to buy. But I was surprised that they were making that effort.
Another Holocene Human
Yeah, I know it’s off topic, but this is bullshit:
Cops: Rapper’s detainment at Buckhead bank a misunderstanding
This man is taken out of his car, on the ground, handcuffed because he ‘fit the description’; well now they’re backpedaling and say it was all a mistake.
No. Cops don’t drag white people out of their cars and cuff them. They call them and politely ask them to come in for questioning.
Besides which, did not the report come from the bank? Couldn’t they just call the bank and ask if this guy has an account there? WTF.
Schlemazel
@Poopyman:
I was thinking of Cohen’s character in “The Dictator” but couldn’t remember anything after “Admiral General”. As ruler for life there will be no “l’il” anything in my view!
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
That is a fantasy worth spending $2.
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
Its nice that you can find the humor in that.
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
I know how I would feel if I lost the love of my life, it is a thought I don’t want to contemplate.
gelfling545
@scav:
My nephew is currently living not entirely contentedly in Indiana . He has announced that his next career move must be to a place that has a Wegmans. We send him care packages from time to time.
debbie
@MomSense:
As a member of corporate America, hasn’t he been saying that since the 1980s?
ruemara
@Ultraviolet Thunder: My deepest sympathies to you and your father. Remember, she’s still here and so is he. Just having you there to listen and support will be a treasure.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel: It’s laugh or cry, might as well laugh.
My wife and I regularly argue over who gets to die first. If it does end up being her, I won’t be far behind.
debbie
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
You have my sympathies. It’s a really tough situation. If you follow your dad’s lead, I think you’ll be fine, or as fine as you can be.
OzarkHillbilly
What have the Romans ever done for us?
Well, there’s the lice, fleas, bed bugs, bacterial infections from contamination with human faeces, and 25ft-long tapeworms, a misery spread across the empire by the Roman passion for fermented fish sauce.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
That is too much loss in a short period. I wish your stepmother the best and peace and strength to you and your dad.
HeartlandLiberal
@Punchy: Yes If only she had been eating Freedom Fries, we all would have escaped the incident with no vehicle damage, despite the impact.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sounds like the Romans gave us modern conservative philosophy as well.
MomSense
@debbie:
It’s all such BS. He is just like those get rich real estate infomercials.
I heard a snippet of an interview with my senator Angus King. I was so mad I wanted to spit. He was talking about the “skills gap” here in Maine which isn’t supported at all by the data. As someone who is looking for employment I will tell you that there are a ton of low wage unskilled jobs available and the few skilled positions are offered at insultingly low wage levels. Maine has some of the best schools for engineering, nursing, education, and STEM in the country. We have a shortage of good jobs and low wages relative to other states. We do not have a shortage of skilled workers. Between this BS, his vote against paycheck fairness, his pushing of the both sides/ bipartisan lie, and his student loan interest rate fuckery- I am really regretting my strategic vote for him in 2012.
redshirt
Anyone who criticizes you for spending 2 bucks a couple of times a year on big lottery jackpots needs to stuff it. 2 dollars is well worth both 1. the chance to win, albeit microscopically small, and 2. the pleasant daydreams of how you’d use the money to crush your enemies.
Baud
@redshirt:
Mathematically, if the pot is high enough, $2 is actually a fair investment.
redshirt
Also, supposed to hit 50 hear at New Gondolin with 3 inches of rain and 50 mph gusts. Crazy weather for 1/10. I like it, but since I live in ski country, I’m sure many of my neighbors very much don’t.
danielx
No gardening, though I would vastly prefer it. Boreas has finally put in an appearance in central IN…was 50 degrees yesterday, started blowing last night at 11, snowing at 2 am and today it’s 22 degrees with winds gusting to 30 mph with light snow continuing. Good day to watch IU play Ohio State…on television with fireplace going. Although I am reasonably certain I will be hearing at some point about the bathroom paint job over which I have been procrastinating…
“‘l will get it done soon!”
“By ‘soon’, do you mean this week, this month, this year, this decade? Help me out here.”
“You just moved the completion date back by a week; I don’t use that bathroom anyway.”
rikyrah
YOU POISON ME AND I HAVE TO PAY YOU?!!!
GET-THE-PHUCK-OUTTA-HERE
………………………………………..
Residents ordered to pay for lead contaminated water, state of emergency declared
POSTED 11:22 AM, JANUARY 6, 2016,
BY KFOR-TV & K. QUERRY AND CNN
FLINT, Mich. – Residents in one Michigan town are furious after being forced to pay for water they say they can’t use.
“I just paid a water bill, $311, shut off notice or they was gonna turn my water off. I can’t drink it,” said Tonya Calhoun.
Calhoun says she paid her Flint water bill, but she’s far from satisfied with the liquid flowing from the tap.
The water supply has a high lead concentration, which could be harmful if ingested.
However, a judge ruled that residents must pay their bill despite the fact that, in many cases, they only use it for bathing.
“The water is just no good, you know, and we have to take our showers in this stuff,” Bill McCluskey told WNEM. “We itch after that. We have to buy water. It’s not fair.”
City residents say they are insulted by the city’s demand to pay up or lose service all together.
“Why am I paying you $311 for some water that I can’t even use? Can’t cook with it. I can’t do anything with it and the funny part about it is, you know it’s harmful,” Calhoun said.
However, city leaders say it is important for residents to pay for their bills, whether they feel it is justified or not.
redshirt
@Baud: Agreed. Now, that said, there’s no point in buying two tickets or ten tickets or Gad forbid more than that. That’s a waste of money. But one ticket? Why the heck not?
PurpleGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: You’re right. When NYS began its lottery in the 1960s, it was sold as providing EXTRA money for education.It is now education funding for the state and maybe a couple of other things too.
danielx
@redshirt:
Not to mention the charities you could found….The Benevolent Society for the Protection of Cats and Poetasters.
Baud
@redshirt:
Now, one caveat is that, if the pot is high enough, more tickets are sold, which increases the possibility that you have to split the jackpot, which reduces the pre-jackpot value of a ticket. But that’s math I can’t perform.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
The fucking nerve. I just saw on MHP that people are getting water shut off notices for failure to pay for their own poisoning.
The Gray Adder
Nip. Organic nip. In the garden. For my kittehs.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@OzarkHillbilly: Yup. That’s the most important thing – getting them into a reassuring, old-routine, train of thought.
My MIL seemed to think I was an old suitor from her young-adult days, near the end. I just went with it.
Cheers,
Scott.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Ultraviolet Thunder: It’s good of you to be there for him. It matters.
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
HinTN
@OzarkHillbilly: Thank you for making me laugh. My best friend’s father was the prototypical absent minded professor. Taught chemistry at the local college, raised a big garden, worked us kids in both body and brain, could get confused at the drop of a hat. Of course he got Alzheimer’s. In the early stages his wife said he was fine because he had a new friend every minute. Later was rough on everyone. God bless UVT and all you denizens of this here space.
CaseyL
@Ultraviolet Thunder: I think that’s one of the worst things about getting old ourselves, our parents/uncles/aunts are always a couple decades (or more) ahead of us. For your dad, about the only thing I can think of is to try and keep him busy doing something that engages his attention. It won’t make the feeling of devastation go away, but will give him something besides the sadness to think about for a while.
Do you know if your step-mom will be able to go home at some point? If so, you might want to see what resources are available to your dad for home health care aids, and getting the house refitted to accommodate a disabled person.
Steeplejack
Lotto theory: As my investment adviser once told me, “You cain’t win if you ain’t in,” so I often buy a ticket when I get gas for the car or if I’m at the grocery and the line is short. But only one ticket; if lightning is going to strike, it will know where to land. It amazes me slightly that my brother, who is, let’s face it, a rich doctor, as well as a reasonably savvy investor, will peel off a twenty for ten tickets, thus improving his odds from one in a bazillion to the much more plausible ten in a bazillion. But he buys tickets only when the jackpot gets above some floor that he has set internally, I suspect around $100 million. So we all have our different lotto investment strategies.
He and I do talk occasionally about what we’d do with a lotto windfall, and the current jackpot is truly mind-boggling. For a single winner, after all taxes you’re talking about well north of $400 million in the Scrooge McDuck money bin—hell, you might have to build an extra bin or two—and even after spreading it around extravagantly to family, friends, charities, distant acquaintances, scam artists and that girl you might have had a crush on in seventh grade—not to mention nuking your local Republican Party—the sighthounds would still get their own wing (and staff) in the radically upscaled Sighthound Hall, and the housecat would get a full-time attendant to monitor her heated workstation and turn her over when she gets too warm on one side.
Steeplejack
@gelfling545:
I love Wegmans! One of my (few) complaints about where I live now is that I have two Wegmans locations just out of convenient reach. They’re both 15-20 miles away—about half an hour in usual traffic—and I just can’t force myself to make the pilgrimage. But when I happen to be in the area and stop at one I love it, and I always find myself thinking, “Why don’t I make the effort to come here more often?” But I never do.
gene108
@rikyrah:
I think Gov. Snyder should live in Flint, until the problem is fixed. He may find a way to solve things really quickly then.
Another Holocene Human
@MomSense: Wow, that sucks. More condescending BS from the upper crust who don’t have to live it.
redshirt
@Steeplejack: With my powerball winnings I’ll create a rural Venture Capital company, funding deserved small businesses in my area.
This will no doubt make me popular, allowing me to run for and win a Senate seat, which I’ll then use as a springboard to run and win the Presidency.
At which point I will declare a state of emergency, ban the Republican party, and occupy all wingnut states and organizations.
At last, we will have peace and prosperity. Thanks to the lottery!
Steeplejack
@redshirt:
Why not just push Baud! over the top and then run things from behind the scenes? Then you wouldn’t have to show up at state dinners and all that ceremonial crap.
redshirt
@Steeplejack: Better idea. The old “Sheldon” technique.
Baud? How much?
currants
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Ross, I’m so sorry. Sometimes the least (and the most) you can do is show up and be who you are. And sometimes circumstances make that hard too, but when it’s possible, it’s the thing that helps the most (you, yes, and others too). I’ll be thinking of you.
ETA: or, had I read the whole thread, what everyone else is telling you is right: they’re on the money.
Steeplejack
@redshirt:
With his already existing support and momentum, $50 million ought to do it.
J R in WV
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
You certainly have my sympathy! And no need to beg for any, you have it coming in spades.
Feel free to start a conversation here if you need to. Most people are very compassionate, and will help you out when you give them a chance.
My Dad died about 1 pm on election day, November, 2004. Then shrub got re-elected that evening. I was in Houston TX where Dad was treated at M D Anderson, and where my GOP brother lived. My brother was big enough to not say anything as we watched the election returns. So we still get along OK.
Hang in there, it will get better.