The internet has been out for hours, and I just hooked up the phone to the laptop to use as a hotspot to tell you I couldn’t post. Now the internet is on, and I have no excuse and because I didn’t think about what I wanted to post before starting this is going to be random as all get out. Also, since I knew I was not going to have to post I took a half an edible.
Joelle is doing light years better, walking all over the place and doing her exercises and she even did a load of laundry and carried the basket herself while I was napping- I’ve been on laundry detail the past two weeks and still think I should be for a while longer, but if she wants to do a load and thinks it is safe, well, good. Her knee surgeon will not complain. Another sign of improvement is she showered again today, and putting on her compression socks was the easiest it has been.
I forget if I said it here, but I used to think the real test of a relationship was going to Ikea and then going home and putting together a piece of their furniture. I now think the ultimate test is putting compression socks on your partner after a knee replacement.
Speaking of recovering patients, dad had a check-in at the hospital and they say he is doing very well, they didn’t need to change any medicines, he has another cardiologist appointment coming up, and while he was there one of the doctors remarked again that he does not know how he is alive. I was talking about this with one of my buddies from the world of warcraft guild (I think I have mentioned how we have all been gaming together and in touch since 2004 and reunited for the release of classic servers in 2019- if not, I have now) who is a pharmacist, and he mentioned some study that says patients have better outcomes with younger medical personnel. Have not looked the study up because my internet was out and I could not activate the vpn to get into the library servers, so I will have to verify that later.
Here’s a feel good story:
A federal judge is signaling that Rudy Giuliani’s contempt hearing next Friday might not end so well for the former New York City mayor and onetime personal lawyer for President-elect Donald Trump as two Georgia election poll workers try to collect a $148 million defamation award they won against him.
Judge Lewis J. Liman in Manhattan issued an order Friday in which he was dismissive of what he described as attempts by Giuliani and his lawyer to dodge providing information to the election workers’ lawyers.
And he said the litigants should be ready at the contempt hearing to explain why he should not grant a request by lawyers for the two election workers that he make adverse inferences from evidence in the case that would put Giuliani’s Palm Beach, Florida, condominium in danger of being surrendered to satisfy the defamation award.
All together now, “AWWWWWW.”
Joelle and i finished Season 5 of Yellowstone which really went off the rails, but at least we have conclusion, Tyler Sheridan is making so much money off 1883, 1932, and Yellowstone that I would be shocked if there was not a spin-off with Beth or another season in between 1932 and Yellowstone. We’ll see.
Joelle said the most wonderful thing to me yesterday, and she came up behind me and whispered in my ear “I want to watch Game of Thrones next.” I immediately got thrilled thinking I was going to have to rewatch Downton Abbey or some period piece for the next two weeks with her (we only have one tv hooked up to the streaming services, so if we are watching something at night it is together) before our next pick. Don’t get me wrong, it’s pleasant and relaxing and fun with all the animals in there with us, but it’s also a relief to know her pick was something I am so excited to see.
I immediately warned her- “The show is great, but you need to understand that every character you like will be killed by in the most gruesome manner possible in the most surprising way imaginable, but it is ok because all the character yous hate get the same treatment.” Which, now that I think about it, is probably how the next four years will be under Donald Goffrey Baratheon. So I have been champing at the bit all day to start watching it to get her hooked, and got all the work and chores out of the way and then the internet went out. But it is up now, so off I go. Take care, people.
War for Ukraine Day 1,038: Inching Closer to Awareness
Trivia Man
I’m a firm believer that nobody should get married until they take a long car ride together.
Steve LaBonne
Good on Joelle! I will be a knee replacement patient one of these years and her example is inspiring. And good to hear about your dad (I have had open heart surgery so I can identify there as well).
coin operated
Start living together full-time in an RV…you’ll know your partner really well after the move is complete.
mrs coin and I are on year 10 doing the full-time RV thing..she just might be a keeper!
Happy to hear about Joelle’s progress…keep it up.
Mr. Bemused Senior
So glad to read of Joelle’s progress.
I gave up on Game of Thrones, too depressing. Arya survives, though, so that’s something.
Phylllis
Glad to hear that both Joelle and your dad are doing well. Hubby and I mostly just watch movies together, although during the pandemic he did get hooked on World on Fire and Atlantic Crossing, both on Masterpiece. I have an inkling Leslie Manville and the lead actress from Atlantic Crossing had a lot to do with that tho.
bystander
Knee replacement was one of the best things I’ve done in life. PT is your friend.
wombat probability cloud
Delighted that Joelle and your dad are doing well. I stopped watching GOT when the dog was murdered, I think early in the first season. Dirt naps for bad people are ok, but innocent pups: couldn’t continue even though I understood it was to establish the cruel nature of particular characters.
MCat
@wombat probability cloud: That’s what stopped me too. Just don’t hurt the doggies.
Poe Larity.
Given the recent study on taxi drivers and spatial awareness benefits, I posit that taking your spousal unit to Ikea very week for knee therapy and spatial awareness will lead to many more years. Fuck boring mall walking.
And when it is finally time to go, you can have a favorite couch picked out.
KatKapCC
I’ll be interested to hear who Joelle’s favorite characters are. Overall I think the show did an incredible job with casting, and some of them are just wicked good. Peter Dinklage, of course, and also Lena Headey, Maisie Williams, Gwendoline Christie, Iain Glen…so many great performances.
Dangerman
Ages since I stepped foot in Ikea. Not coincidentally, ages since Swedish meatballs. Not sure I’ve ever bought anything in Ikea other than Swedish meatballs.
I’ve been jonesing Sukiyaki. There is a Japanese Tradition around NYD involving Sukiyaki and I’m fairly sure sake. Don’t recall the name. Kind of a flush of the past year if it sucked. And last year sucked.
Dangerman
Ages since I stepped foot in Ikea. Not coincidentally, ages since Swedish meatballs. Not sure I’ve ever bought anything in Ikea other than Swedish meatballs.
I’ve been jonesing Sukiyaki. There is a Japanese Tradition around NYD involving Sukiyaki and I’m fairly sure sake. Don’t recall the name. Kind of a flush of the past year if it sucked. And last year sucked.
NotMax
Eye exam and ordering new specs at Costco, followed by a quick shopping dash there outside of the usual monthly one.
A deterioration in vision (minor, but increasingly noticeable) during the past year or so prompted scheduling the exam.. Luckily, had saved up several Costco gift cards which had been given me over the years for just such an occurrence.
NotMax
FYI. Starlight, star bright.
Nukular Biskits
T-storms rolling through the Gulf Coast have cut power several times this afternoon/evening.
So … you’re not alone.
Kayla Rudbek
@Trivia Man: I would add “ride a tandem bicycle, paddle a canoe, and wash the dishes together” to that list. Then ask the following questions: 1) do you like each other? 2) are you good to each other? 3) are you good for each other?
TBone
Home renovation (including bathroom and kitchen), while you are living in it together, is a true test of the strength of a relationship – especially when you do a lot of the work yourselves as a team.
RevRick
Glad to hear that Joelle and your dad are improving. The human body can take a lot of abuse.
Something I never thought much about until recently was how much pain our ancestors as recently as the mid 19th century routinely endured. Our serf peasant forefathers and foremothers were physical wrecks by age 36, because of all the backbreaking manual labor they had to do. Wounded soldiers during the Civil War had limbs sawed off while they were fully awake! Yikes. Six percent of all people in Restoration Era England died of rotten teeth!
What I’m saying is thank God for all the advances in medicine and pharmacology which enable knee replacement and open heart surgery.
hitchhiker
My favorite love stories all involve doing home repair with mr h in the 24 years since he broke his neck.
I am pretty much hopeless with tools of any kind; I can’t even hold onto their names in my head long enough to go to the garage and get one. Wrench? Crescent wrench? Ratchet? Allen wrench? The list itself defeats me. And I’m scared of the drill.
Before his injury, he was fairly handy and had what I think is a normal collection of tools. Then he lost the use of his right hand (which used to be dominant) along with the kind of core strength you need to sit on the floor without falling over. He can stand up, but not for too long. He’s very, very stubborn.
This means that when we do a project together, we have his knowledge and three working hands between us, but mine are weak old lady hands and don’t know what they’re doing, so he has to carefully explain every move to me and then supervise while I do it wrong a few times.
We’ve hung shelves, repaired clogged drains, built various things out of wood — usual homeowner shit. We both approach these events sort of warily, because we’re generally extremely independent types who prefer to do our own projects, but for this stuff we need each other, and we need each other to be fucking cheerful, patient, and understanding.
That’s what makes it so funny. We should make videos, for real. The two of us tangled up on the floor trying to deal with plumbing issues is the best. :)
Matt McIrvin
@NotMax: It was going 0.064% of the speed of light, which for a human-made object of considerable size is booking. That’s fast enough that relativistic time dilation from speed alone amounts to a loss of about a microsecond every five seconds.
SFAW
Thank you for this. [I semi-expect SubaruDianne to have the same sentiment.]
WTFGhost
Glad to hear Joelle’s doing better.
NotMax
@RevRick
It’s estimated that throughout history right up until the early 20th century the cause of one-third of all human deaths was from tuberculosis.
As for the amputations, n some cases laiudanum and morphine were available and in others a generous downing of whiskey was used to try to mask the pain.
Lily
If you can pick out a white paint color together, one of you or both are probably faking something.
Thanks for the great news about Joelle and your dad.
NotMax
Open memo to Prime video.
Please, please stop trying to push concussion ball on me with annoying frequency.
Thank you.
NotMax
@Lily
“Eggshell or ecru? Just decide, dammit!”
//
Lily
well said
and great writing
BRyan
@SFAW: YES! So glad to see used properly! (Now do “begging the question.”)
eclare
Ugh. I think I lasted about four episodes into Game of Thrones. The violence was too much.
And I loved The Wire and Dexter, so I don’t think it’s me.
eclare
@hitchhiker:
That is wonderful.
JML
Game of Thrones was great, until they ran out of source material and started flying off the seat of their pants and GRRM’s outlines. Great show…rough ending. Of course, Martin can’t finish the books either, so…
I’ve got the illness induced insomnia going where since I did nothing all day I’m not tired enough to sleep. Lamest vacation ever. At least so far I don’t have COVID (my sister tested positive on Christmas, but so far I’m negative)
NotMax
@eclare
You hung in there longer than I. Repulsive series.
matt
Musk says ‘hateful unrepentant racists’ must be removed from Republican Party as visa feud deepens
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
Yes! I was thrilled to see it used properly!
Betty Cracker
Woke up about an hour ago and could not go back to sleep, so I’m sitting on my dark porch with a cup of coffee listening to gators booming in the sloughs. (Click here to hear/see what that sounds/looks like.) Crowing roosters and croaking frogs are contributing to the soundscape.
So glad to hear Joelle and Papa Cole are on the mend! And that internet service is restored so y’all can resume streaming.
Is anyone watching “100 Years of Solitude” on Netflix? Bill and I are several episodes in and are impressed so far. The Gabriel Garcia Márquez novel upon which it’s based is one of our favorite books and the only novel in our respective top 10 reads of all time that we share in common. I hope the show sticks the landing.
@Kayla Rudbek: Three great questions to evaluate a relationship! My spouse and I are a solid “yes” on the first two and a “maybe” on #3 because we could both probably do better at restraining each other’s worst impulses. Oh well, it’s worked out for 30 years, so I’m going to call it a success.
@hitchhiker: That’s lovely; y’all really should make videos! This part — “we need each other to be fucking cheerful, patient, and understanding” — covers home repair and so much more! For every marriage and all levels of physical ability, really, but the greater the challenges, the more grace required.
eclare
@NotMax:
Thank you.
Betty Cracker
@matt: Hilarious!
eclare
Sitting here in bed with a satby rescue, William, getting scritches. All is good.
Baud
@matt:
Sounds like a murder/suicide threat.
SomeRandomGuy
@NotMax: if football is ad-supported (“or pay the upcharge”), they have a lot of cash at stake. Personalized ads, for someone like Amazon, that has your buying (and maybe lots of your viewing) habits, are wildly lucrative. And, of course, football is very popular.
So… in case you were wondering.
MagdaInBlack
@matt: Elon certainly is not taking the pushback well. He has now told the maga to “go fuck yourself in the face.” Nope, not handling this well at all.
You love to see it =-)
Also, Good Morning from Chicago-land, where it will be a balmy 51 today.
NotMax
@SomeRandomGuy
Methinks they doth promote too much.
lowtechcyclist
Not that you’d have a party left after you removed them all, including the one that’s a few weeks away from being President again.
lowtechcyclist
Decades ago, I came up with a very short list of necessary conditions for a successful marriage:
Mutual trust and respect.
Shared or compatible goals/values/worldview.
That’s it. Ten words.
This assumes that we’re talking about two people who at least superficially like each other, and enjoy spending time together and doing things together. Because you don’t get to thinking about marriage without getting at least that far.
But if two people respect and trust each other, that’ll get them through those stressful situations that people are talking about here.
OTOH, if they don’t have compatible goals and values, or if the ways they see the world are just too different, it’ll likely cause tidal stresses on the relationship that will ultimately tear it apart, no matter how much they try to make it work.
At least, that’s how I see it.
ETA: And if you don’t feel sure that the other person respects you, or you don’t feel you can trust them, run like hell. Duh.
Gloria DryGarden
@matt: is he offering to remove himself, then?
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
For perspective, if I’ve done the calculations correctly, that’s about 17 times escape velocity. Yeah, that’s pretty damn fast!
sab
@lowtechcyclist: 25 years into my second (happy) marriage after 10 years in a horrible first marriage, your words are very wise.
TBone
@hitchhiker: that is a very sweet story that I can really identify with!
sab
@eclare: I lasted into season 3. My baby sister bailed when they threw the ten year old out the window in season 1.
Chris Johnson
@MagdaInBlack: If they all literally kill each other, can we have Harris/Walz? ; _ ;
Miss Bianca
@eclare: To this day, I have resisted Game of Thrones, against all the blandishments of friends who keep telling me, “You’ll LOVE it!”
No, from what I’ve heard about it, I *won’t* love watching a bunch of characters get raped and murdered in all manner of gruesome ways. GRRM sounds like one sick MF to me.
@matt: Oh, that’ll end well.
RevRick
@eclare:
@NotMax:
Our son got MrsRev and I hooked on the repulsive series and we watched it until the bitter end. As a matter of fact, after the first season was over, I asked to borrow his set of books and plowed right through them.
We also loved Dexter and The Wire.
karen marie
Welcome to Cox in Arizona. Recently my internet went out at 1:10 every night, starting on a Friday. First night I figured it was Cox doing maintenance. Second night I was irritated because I hadn’t downloaded the audiobook. Third night it went out again but I had gotten smart and downloaded the book. That morning I called Cox and even though I knew it was pointless I let them send a technician. He poked around outside, played with my router, then told me it was probably old wires in the building walls for which the complex was responsible, not Cox. That night it went out again at 1:10 am, as it had been doing. I called Cox again and was told the issue would be escalated. Monday night, same thing – 1:10 am, no internet. Each morning I unplugged the router, plugged it back in, and internet was back.
And then, like a miracle, it stopped going out at 1:10 am. I woke up Wednesday morning and did not have to reset the router to have internet.
These motherfuckers been pulling this shit for the 12 years I’ve been here. One summer there were constant brief outages throughout the day. It went on for almost three months. The first month they kept telling me it was the wires in the walls of my apartment. After multiple tech visits they finally copped to it being their problem and that it was affecting quite a large section of Scottsdale.
Then there are the periodic, very short, intermittent losses of internet that last for five to 30 seconds. That usually goes on for a week before it stops happening.
They cannot blame the weather, because there is none. It’s only hot or not-hot.
My recommendation is “turn it off, then turn it on again.” As with my nightly 1:10 am issue, that apparently was the way to go. Otherwise, good luck.
DSC
can’t recommend Lioness enough (another Taylor Sheridan show)
all about some really tough women–Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman–Hesgeth wouldn’t know what hit him
link to the trailer for season two
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc1Basl-pMU&t=2s