To nobody’s surprise, I am still allergic to oak-leaf mold, especially damp oak-leaf mold, but at least there’s several bags waiting on the curb for tomorrow’s first-of-the-season monthly pickup. (Yeah, yeah — if I wanted compost, I could pick some up for free when the city’s finished cooking it. And oak leaves make lousy compost, because tannins.) Soon’s I finish this, I’m treating my leaky sinuses to a nice nap…
.
BREAKING NEWS: I have been feeling unwell the last two days – tired, headache, foggy brain. I have been concerned about COVID infection, but it was hard to imagine how: we have been so careful.
I just discovered 5 minutes ago that I HAVE BEEN MAKING DECAF COFFEE FOR 2 DAYS.
— Claire Potter (@TenuredRadical) April 11, 2020
ETA: Best entry since the Great Orme goats in the Sara Teasdale prize competition!
A road in the Far East of Russia, a driver who kept good distance and one of the world’s most endangered big cats, an Amur tiger pic.twitter.com/Me6SHn0IlP
— The Siberian Times (@siberian_times) April 15, 2020
RobertDSC-Mac Mini
Some good news was shared with me last night. I have distant family in Fresno that have C-19. After a couple of visits to the hospital, they are at home and resting. The state has OK’d them to be out and about, but as it was told to me, they don’t have as much energy as before. C-19 took a lot out of them.
I’m just glad they’re at home and alive.
Baud
I initially thought that was a video of you.
Tenar Arha
@RobertDSC-Mac Mini: happy to hear such good news. Good healing to them.
LuciaMia
Im a tea drinker,and I feel decaffeinated tea is an offense to nature.
Poe Larity
Unable to partake of a highly cafenated lifestyle anymore, a friend said of my decaf “it’s like kissing a picture of a beautiful woman”. Thanks.
What we’re missing is a Johnny Cash song about decaf.
.
schrodingers_cat
I had a really shitty day.
Sab
@LuciaMia: Decaf tea lets me drink tea before bedtime.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: I’m sorry.
Roger Moore
If you keep it up for another week, you’ll be back to normal. At least that’s about how long it’s taken me to get over my caffeine withdrawal symptoms.
p.a.
I’m a tea guy by taste, but w/o a cuppa joe or 2 in the am I feel like a deflated balloon.
Amir Khalid
Angus the golden is the best squeaky-toy player in music.
CaseyL
@schrodingers_cat: That sucks, and I’m sorry. Hope tomorrow will be better.
LuciaMia
@Sab: That can be solved by our good friend alcohol! (Homer Simpson)
Anne Laurie
@Baud: HA! Nope, I can barely play the
radioYouTube.Also, I look like Nanny Ogg, but with better dentistry. (Not better teeth, but modern dental implants are amazing… )
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Thanks.
Gin & Tonic
@Roger Moore: About 20 or so years ago, due to a very hectic travel schedule and a bunch of commitments I went nearly three days without coffee. I was a wreck, and still remember that.
Yes, I’m an addict. What of it?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@RobertDSC-Mac Mini:
Happy to hear it!
WaterGirl
@Baud: I wanted to write “So say we all” but I was afraid it would sound flip, which wasn’t my intention.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@schrodingers_cat:
Sorry you had a bad day : (
NotMax
Rhythm for the ears, eats for the eyes. A touch of musique respitimento.
:)
mrmoshpotato
Zergnet is still trash. And that’s a big kitty.
Baud
@Amir Khalid: dogs are awesome.
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: Sorry. The first week I was confined to my home I felt angry and upset nearly every day. Things felt mostly better until this week when for some reason I started feeling angry and hyper again.
Roger Moore
@Gin & Tonic:
I have given up caffeine a few times, though obviously with relapses. A few years ago I had a health scare*, and during the follow up testing found my blood pressure was on the high side. It wasn’t high enough to justify any medical intervention, but I decided it would be a good idea to get it a bit lower. Part of that was giving up caffeine. As I said above, I was in withdrawal for about a week, but since then I haven’t missed it. I can wake up as easily now without caffeine as I could with caffeine before. And I definitely don’t have problems falling asleep from having coffee too late in the day.
*Despite a battery of tests, the doctors were unable to find anything obviously wrong with me, but I’ve been more careful since then.
NotMax
Near obligatory for a coffee klatch.
:)
schrodingers_cat
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
@Barbara: I had a conversation with my parents talking to my mother about Modi is like talking to a table.
Sure Lurkalot
@schrodingers_cat: I thought I read you cooked up a storm of delicious food. I hope you at least have a nice dinner. And I’m curious how you store all those dishes! My freezer is stuffed….
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: Ugh. I can only imagine.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Mmmmmmm pie.
Banana cream pie?
Brachiator
@NotMax:
I always liked this one, from How to Succeed in Business.
Coffee Break
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
तुम बिलकुल समजा नहीं बेटी
JMG
Alice made a Moroccan vegetable stew with coucous tonight. Sqaush, potatoes, onion, diced tomatoes, chickpeas, olives, lots of cumin and garlic. Fantastic. We are trying to have more meatless dishes to keep variety going. Before the lockdown, we’d have one a week. Now at least two.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
I hope tomorrow is better.
Kelly
Martin napping during mandolin practice.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/M5Y1ky5KtZnvd4Le6
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
Hey, I could use some help. Will you go watch my latest video and give me some tips? Is the pace of the intro ok? The volume ok? Narration? Outro ok? Etc, etc. I promise it’s non-political and non-covid. It involves a Lichtenberg Woodburning device. And if you like the vid give me a thumbs up–that would be awesome! Thanks!!!!
https://youtu.be/Rib28ESiX1M
raven
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: The flying images at the start seem a bit fast. I’m not sure why you would want to show someone how to do something so dangerous?
BR
By the way, speaking of leaf mold, be careful around mulch piles and compost piles right now. Use a mask if you do. There have been reports that COVID-19 patients are sometimes also positive for aspergillus (a common fungus that decays organic materials), and that the two tag team.
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
@raven: I’m not really showing them how to do it. I’m more showing the effect of what it does. A lot of people like watching those kinds of videos. I don’t show them the device, how I created it or how I manipulate it and that’s all on purpose.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: Fascinating video. I look forward to seeing the next steps and the finished product.
Only one comment/correction, and it’s a proofreading one: At the very end, the last caption has it’s. Should be its (no apostrophe).
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
@SiubhanDuinne: ok thanks!
MomSense
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ:
Done!
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Was hoping to find you online in a lighter thread.
Not exactly canon however occurred to me you might find it amusing, albeit some of the new lyrics are forced. (Video sadly of below optimal quality.)
While never came anywhere within many country miles of having the body, nice to know where the stage voice of my prime has comfortably resettled.
:)
raven
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: Just my first reaction especially with all the warnings. I think it’s cool but maybe lighten up a bit? What do others think?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
lamh36
HA! Somone elsewhere said this latest Biden has an “Avengers…Assemble” vibe to it. And LOL…and it TOTALLY DOES…LOL
https://twitter.com/chrislongview/status/1250533904408285185
oatler.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj3atizERPU
Yutsano
@lamh36: Maybe it’s just my bitterness, but I wish Hillary had been in that ad somewhere. It’s badass nonetheless!
opiejeanne
@schrodingers_cat: I am so sorry.
Anything that we can do to help?
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: It’s amazing the protective shell people build. My partner visited his sister yesterday. She has gone full OANN. He’s been miserable all day. Knowing there are people who would not care if your life is miserable and your rights taken away is frightening and discouraging. Knowing they would take away the rights of your friends and neighbors is as well.
Hang in there you are not alone.
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
@Dan B: my kid is Trans and gay, and he knows that at least half of my family is anti-LGBTQ Trump supporters. It depresses him that they would take rights away from strangers much less his rights as their kin. I don’t know what to say to make it better because it enrages and depresses me too. All I can do to is support him and if that means I cut them out of our lives, then so be it. All that to say I understand exactly how you are feeling.
mrmoshpotato
The garlic has lost its pungency! (Watching The Last Man On Earth)
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax: Is that YOU??? If so, wow. If not, wow anyway.
I’m a sucker for G&S parodies, and The Mikado always lends itself well to modernised mockery.
I sang Pitti-Sing in a (very) local TV production, some 45 years ago now. Have always yearned to do Katisha, but although it’s the right tessitura for me, my voice just isn’t big enough to do the role justice. Alas.
lamh36
Had to show you guys the stuff my sister made for me! She’s started a new craft business.
Just in time for Lab Week, even if we can’t celebrate this year, she made me this mug.
She also made me this thermos to congratulate me on my upcoming graduation from my grad school!
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/1250208061555388421
satby
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: I enjoyed it!
trollhattan
Sweden broadcasts video of their moose and reindeer migrations.
Helpful tips:
Reindeer = ren (pl. renar)
Moose = älg (pl. älgar)
This raises the bar for Yule Log orders of magnitude.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: I’m only interested in Moose and Squirrel videos.
O. Felix Culpa
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: I might slow down the entry of your works at the beginning, but I really enjoyed the presentation. It was fun watching how the fire traveled through the wood. I’ve never seen this particular craft before. Thank you for sharing!
stinger
@lamh36: How great! Not being a lab rat myself, the pun is new to me — and I love puns!
joel hanes
When I was working for Apple, supporting chip design simulation, I absolutely required a cup of triple-strength Peet’s Sumatra or Major Dickason before showering in the morning, a cup of corporate coffee upon arriving at work, and another at 2:00 PM. That would fuel nine or ten or eleven hours of concentration and bug tickets and code construction and testing. Such weeks culminated with considerable beer on Friday nights.
But every Saturday was low-caffeine day – sleep in, one cup of a nice Oolong in late morning. Several naps. Accomplish nothing except washing dishes and clothes and making a meal.
Now I’m retired, and one cup of regular-strength Peets in the morning is all the caffeine I can handle without getting jittery, and Saturday is just another day.
Mai naem mobile
That tiger looked huge so I looked up Amur tigers. The males get to be around 700 lbs. That is freaking huge. Even bigger than Tunch.
joel hanes
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
To be finding secret location of mooseberry bushes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@joel hanes: That must be on the Sunset Strip, Moose and Squirrel have returned.
BigJimSlade
@schrodingers_cat: Not to belittle your shitty day, but it reminds me of a Red Meat comic. The strange character in a bolo tie says:
When life gives you poop
Make poop juice.
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA: @joel hanes:
Boris+Natasha, at edge of woods. Look kareful.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mai naem mobile: I started that Tiger King show people are so het up about, and among the many depressing things was the stat (which I’ve seen repeated a lot so I”m assuming it’s true) that there are more tigers in captivity in the US than in the wild all over the world.
If I prayed, I’d pray for Amur tigers.
Mai naem mobile
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: gave you a thumbs up. I think it could have been a 10-15 seconds shorter. I had no idea that’s how you get that effect on wood. Pretty cool. If not for a small fire by my lab partner in my college chemistry lab I would want to try this at home.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: Looking at the vid up top, did Mr. Whiskers get out again?
Mai naem mobile
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: probably the same stat with cheetahs and leopards. I don’t understand how anybody can kill the big wildlife animals that we all know are endangered. They’re unique and beautiful animals. If nothing else don’t you want them to exist for your kids to see?
BigJimSlade
@Kelly: I love it!
Ohio Mom
Schrondinger’s Cat: I imagine it is a double whammy. First, it is deeply discouraging to find out something ugly about someone we love. It’s inevitable, because people are always mixed bags, but there are degrees of ugly. Supporting a fascist is right up there, sadly.
Second, it is maddening to offer someone your heart-felt thoughts, the best of what you have (in this case, your principled disgust at Modi) and have them reject it without any consideration. What else do we have to give each other except to share what is most important to us? For someone to reject caring about what we have to say is to reject us in some portion.
No wonder you describe today as shitty.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Heh. Absolutely not me. Spookily close, though, to the timbre of the voice of my long ago onstage days (although the bottom of my lower range was a tad deeper).
Without giving too much away to any who haven’t watched i, two inspired moments in the video: the walk across the stage and the aside after singing about knives.,
Ohio Mom
Lamh 36: Are you graduating this spring, already? Are you yet another who will be missing a graduation ceremony and all the related celebrations? If so, Phooey.
Amir Khalid
China Global Television Networks spotlights three doctors who have become unlikely media stars in the pandemic: Anthony Fauci, New Zealand’s Ashley Bloomfield, and Malaysia’s own Noor Hisham Abdullah. Dr Fauci you guys already know; Dr Bloomfield and Dr Noor Hisham are the directors-general of their countries’ respective health ministries.
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
@satby:
@MomSense:
@O. Felix Culpa:. Thank you all for taking the time. I appreciate it.
@Mai naem mobile:. Thanks for watching it. The reason I advise against it is 1) people have died and burned down their houses and 2) I don’t want to get sued. But it is popular and the crafts one can make with it are beautiful and usually sell well.
ZeeLizzee
Wednesday was hard. Learning about Alain was a shock, and came on top of the news of another friend’s death.
But the best part of the day came as I was driving home and saw a BOBCAT cross the highway exit ramp in front of me!
I’ve lived in CT and western MA my entire 50+ years and this is my first bobcat sighting. Such a treat.