The "What's on your mind?" Thread -2017

[Willowy]

Argh, there are some people I just want to slap! Or worse. . . I just mowed the ditches---it hasn't rained recently so they're very dry and the grass hasn't grown but still looked kind of ratty, and of course I had to collect the usual bunch of empty bottles and cans, and, worse, the not-empty bottles full of tobacco spit . But that's done, so now I'm sitting out front enjoying the weather, and some fool just drove by and threw 2 bottles out of his car . Fortunately they sounded empty but I'm still incensed. RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! Jerks.

I got the bottles. They're Gold Peak sweet tea bottles and one has a couple inches of something that MIGHT be tea. . .or might be tobacco spit. . .eww. I wish I could do a DNA test and dispense a little vigilante justice .

 

[DreamerRose]

I hear you. People walking their dogs throw dog poop in my hedge along the sidewalk. Frankly, I don't mind the poop so much because it just decays and becomes part of the dirt. But the plastic bags never go away and everyone can see them. Just take it home, you guys!

 

[kashmir64]

Gold Peak sweet tea bottles

That is my absolute favorite drink. But it wasn't me..honest.

I understand where you're coming from. I hate garbage. My friends and family think I'm too anal about it. Sorry, but garbage belongs in the dumpster. NOT in my car, or laying around the house, or in the yard or even in the street or a parking lot.

 

[Willowy]

Heh, I'm rather fond of it myself, although I like the peach flavor best. . .lemon second. It's a little bit too sweet for my tastes, though, but out of any other drink available at a gas station it's the best .

The worst part is that if they didn't throw it in my ditch, it would go into one of the unmowed ditches surrounding a cornfield. Where nobody would pick it up and it would sit there for the next 50,000 years or however long plastic takes to degrade, and eww. Well, if we ever run out of plastic we can just dig up rural ditches and recycle all the bottles :/.

 

[NewYork1303]

Carrot loves this time of the year!

 

[Mother Dragon]

Carrot loves this time of the year!



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View attachment 189629

Those are terrific photos! He's a real looker. It looks like Carrot enjoys outings just like Darwin does. Does Carrot get really excited when he sees his harness?

 

[Mamanyt1953]

OK...last night, something happened. I'm going to try to put it into words, but there really aren't any.

Into the clearing between the buildings they came,
wisping out of the woods,
slinking along the foundations,
by ones and two they came
as silent as the night.
Never have I seen them all,
not in one place, never before.
Sweet calico Dulcie and Tortie Kit of the plumed tail,
Ginger and white DiCaprio came next, then
Black and smoke Midnight Louie, his long coat immaculate
Deep ginger Fast Eddie arrived, with Little Bit on his heels,
and finally, Joe Grey, looking so like his namesake.
They lay quietly, waiting...
I did not see The Old Man arrive,
Could not tell from where he came,
But he is not to be mistaken.
His tuxedo coat is scruffy with age,
But his head and half-tail were high
as he paced onto the grass and sat.
Then, then...
each cat, in turn, approached him,
touched their nose to his,
and slipped away into the night until
The Old Man sat alone and somehow
Majestic.
I do not know what it is that I have seen,
Or why the gooseflesh runs like foxfire on my arms,
But there is Magick in the air tonight.

 

[amysuen]

There's nothing scheduled after work all week and no pressing problem or work that needs to be done in the back of my head. I'm stressed out about the lack of stress, worrying that I've forgotten something!

 

[DreamerRose]

OK...last night, something happened. I'm going to try to put it into words, but there really aren't any.

Into the clearing between the buildings they came,
wisping out of the woods,
slinking along the foundations,
by ones and two they came
as silent as the night.
Never have I seen them all,
not in one place, never before.
Sweet calico Dulcie and Tortie Kit of the plumed tail,
Ginger and white DiCaprio came next, then
Black and smoke Midnight Louie, his long coat immaculate
Deep ginger Fast Eddie arrived, with Little Bit on his heels,
and finally, Joe Grey, looking so like his namesake.
They lay quietly, waiting...
I did not see The Old Man arrive,
Could not tell from where he came,
But he is not to be mistaken.
His tuxedo coat is scruffy with age,
But his head and half-tail were high
as he paced onto the grass and sat.
Then, then...
each cat, in turn, approached him,
touched their nose to his,
and slipped away into the night until
The Old Man sat alone and somehow
Majestic.
I do not know what it is that I have seen,
Or why the gooseflesh runs like foxfire on my arms,
But there is Magick in the air tonight.

That is beautiful!

 

[Alejandra Rico]

OK...last night, something happened. I'm going to try to put it into words, but there really aren't any.

Into the clearing between the buildings they came,
wisping out of the woods,
slinking along the foundations,
by ones and two they came
as silent as the night.
Never have I seen them all,
not in one place, never before.
Sweet calico Dulcie and Tortie Kit of the plumed tail,
Ginger and white DiCaprio came next, then
Black and smoke Midnight Louie, his long coat immaculate
Deep ginger Fast Eddie arrived, with Little Bit on his heels,
and finally, Joe Grey, looking so like his namesake.
They lay quietly, waiting...
I did not see The Old Man arrive,
Could not tell from where he came,
But he is not to be mistaken.
His tuxedo coat is scruffy with age,
But his head and half-tail were high
as he paced onto the grass and sat.
Then, then...
each cat, in turn, approached him,
touched their nose to his,
and slipped away into the night until
The Old Man sat alone and somehow
Majestic.
I do not know what it is that I have seen,
Or why the gooseflesh runs like foxfire on my arms,
But there is Magick in the air tonight.

That is so beautiful....
It would make a lovely poems book combined with nice drawings, kinda like what was done with Tom Bombadil's poems by Tolkien.

 

[arouetta]

Or that mystery book by J. K. Rawling, the fairy tales she wrote and illustrated.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Thank you. Both of you.

 

[arouetta]

So my boys need to learn moderation.

Midway likes playing with the water dish. Not the water in the dish, the dish itself. He'll hook a paw under the rim and lift it while watching the water level and move it around. While he sometimes spills water on the carpet, he never overturns it fully or dumps all the water out. Fine, whatever. But today he moved the dish from the baseboard to the center of the hallway where I nearly stepped on it. Boy, moderation. You can scoot it, just don't scoot it to the middle of the hall.

Montressor needs his lovies. He'll steal an item of clothing and he will wander around meowing plaintively while having the fabric firmly clamped in his mouth. Then at some point it will be dropped, usually on our bed. Fine, whatever. But today when I went upstairs to do laundry I found five pairs of my husband's socks on the bed. Boy, moderation. You don't need five pairs, one will do.

 

[NewYork1303]

Those are terrific photos! He's a real looker. It looks like Carrot enjoys outings just like Darwin does. Does Carrot get really excited when he sees his harness?

When I open the cupboard it is in he comes running and starts purring the moment I get it out. His sisters aren't as thrilled by theirs.

 

[arouetta]

I saw a moth on my door when I got home. Is it a Gypsy moth? A quarter is one inch, so that should let you see the size of this moth.

 

[Margret]

SING IT! I worked for AT&T Global Sales and Service. I was the one on the other end of the phone when someone living here called their mother in Djbouti and talked for an hour and 45 minutes without a calling plan. I can recognize being called truly foul names in about 23 languages.

How did they manage to call overseas for nearly two hours with no calling plan?

As for what's on my mind right now, I'm thinking of how doctors make up for what Medicare pays them by ordering a lot of tests and unnecessary return visits. I have insurance and Medicare, but it's still my money they're taking. What ever happened to "Take this and call me if you don't feel better when you're through."?

Maybe I better not get started on doctors or I'll get kicked off the site!

On the other hand, every once in a while there's a huge campaign, shaming doctors for ordering "unnecessary" tests, and the result is that doctors ignore their instincts and don't order tests that ultimately prove to have been necessary. My Uncle Chuck worked in construction all his life. By the time he retired he was all bent over from arthritis in his spine. My back would start hurting just looking at him. Then, after several years of this, he started to have stomach pains -- really bad stomach pains -- so he went to his doctor and said his belly hurt. The doctor said, "Well, Mr. C------, you have to understand that when you're all bent over like that there's less room for your organs, so they start hurting from being all squished together like that." A reasonable hypothesis, except that he'd been bent over like that for years and this was the first time he'd complained about his belly. However, the doctor went with the obvious diagnosis, without ordering any "unnecessary" tests. Then one night, in the middle of the night, Uncle Chuck woke up in horrible pain. He couldn't even make it out of bed so his wife could take him to the emergency room. Aunt Evelyn had to call her two strong sons-in-law to help her get him to the E.R., where Uncle Chuck died from the ulcer that had just perforated. The ulcer that would have been treatable had it been diagnosed when Uncle Chuck first went to the doctor for belly pain.

That particular doctor felt so guilty about losing this patient that she left the profession, by the way. I would rather she had learned from experience and stuck around.

So update on the living situation: we found a travel trailer and we are going to sign for it tomorrow!!! I'm really excited! It is a 2016 Starcraft AR-One Maxx 30BHU. It's 36 feet long and has 2 slide-out rooms so we will have a lot more living space than a lot of travel trailers!

Me standing in front of it (I look awful. It was over 90° when this was taken so I was all sweaty):

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Floor plan:
View attachment 188904
Living room/kitchen:
View attachment 188902
Kitchen cabinetry: (lots of storage!! Even more storage cabinets to the right too, justg couldn't fit them in the picture)
View attachment 188903
And if we do end up getting a cat to live in the trailer with us, I found a cat enclosure that I really like online that I can order and assemble (might have to get one for our current cats in the house too so they Don't get jealous lol ). The door part fits into any window so the cat would be able to go outside whenever he chooses . In the picture it is just free-standing though. And it also has a larger access door for us humans too. Maybe it would be a good place to keep the litter box? I will probably put a large sheet of plexiglass over the top of it so that rain wouldn't be much of an issue.

View attachment 188899

GORGEOUS! And the trailer "ain't" half-bad, either! I like your idea of adding a catio to give the cats more territory.

Your trailer is beautiful. Both inside and out. I like your cat cage, also. I would love to have one.

Muffy

Hekitty has now learned to open the Temptations containers. AND she knows how to open every door in the house (except for the deadbolts on the front and back door, thank goodness). I'm going to have to get creative with storing the treats very soon. Like within minutes.

Have you tried those child-proof gadgets for cupboard doors?

Margret

 

[Margret]

It can be really nice to know you aren't crazy. I'm paranoid delusional, and that's not a joke. I'm on an anti-psychotic to keep the delusions in check, and even with that my paranoia level is higher than most people's.

I don't work as a cashier very often, since the person holding the phone doesn't get called up when they need additional cashiers. Lately though they've been putting me on the sales floor more often, so I'm starting to do more cashier work. I hate it. First, I'm an extreme introvert. Working on the sales floor, I can take mental breaks between customers by focusing on the merchandise. Working as a cashier, you always have to be in people mode, there are no mental breaks. Second, while everyone on the sales floor is trained as a cashier, that's about an hour's worth of training on your orientation day. Then they push you into the shallow end by letting you work for an hour or two under supervision and then you're in over your head. But when you do it a lot you learn all the little things that can go wrong and how to fix them. When you are like me and go months between being called up to run a register during a busy time, you don't learn the hows and whats that happen. And if you are like me and never called up, you've forgotten half the cashier orientation that took place 10 months ago.

So today two women were in line, they had three transactions between them, and the first woman gave me an employee discount card that was issued by another store. I scanned it (remember, 10 months ago) and then she pulled out a state sales tax exemption card. I told her I had no clue how to do that and told her I'd call a manager over. Nope, no need to do that, it's only a few bucks, she's not going to worry about that.

Then before I ended the transaction I remembered something I heard at some point and asked for the employee discount card back and her ID. She spent forever looking through her bag, quite some time and then she said I could just remove it. That triggered my paranoia, the bag was like a cosmetic bag size and she was taking her sweet time and she didn't seem to want to deal with a manager. I told her I didn't know how to do that (which was the truth) and I'd have to get a manager to do it. Right after I said that she found both the card and her ID and the names didn't match. So I told her that I would have to get a manager to approve it and she was still insisting there was no need for a manager, I could just remove the discount. That heightened my paranoia, three times now she's told me there's no need for a manager, she'll take a financial hit instead.

She also said she had a Target red card but she wasn't going to be using it today (which I've heard more than once) but she was paying with cash. Hit #3 on my paranoia problem, no financial paper trail to follow her. By itself I wouldn't have thought anything of it, but added on top of her seeming stalling and not wanting to deal with a manager, yeah. The manager looked carefully at both cards and the woman said that the card actually came from a friend that helps with camp supplies, yada yada. He very politely handed the card back to her and helped me remove it, went on his way. The other two transactions were also cash transactions.

I didn't have a chance to talk to him privately, but I was released from the register shortly after and while heading back to my area I ran into a different manager. He said that if I was that bothered by the whole thing I could just either call for AP on the radio or knock on the door to their office. He really, really downplayed it though. Still, I was bothered, knowing it could be just my imagination -or- it could be something like a stolen card, so I went and knocked on AP's door.

And it turned out that the manager who had been helping me at the register had also stopped by AP's office and told them what happened and given the name that was on the employee discount card. I confirmed that was the name I saw and I remembered one item that was bought. It was in the third transaction and it was a plushie doll and it didn't have a tag, just a clearance sticker affixed to the actual item. With my paranoia at the level it was, I read the description that popped up when I punched in the clearance number to make sure it matched what was in my hand, that's why it was memorable. The two AP guys scrambled for note paper when I said that I remembered one of the items and told them what it was and which transaction had it.

So between their scramble to grab note paper and that the manager went there before I did, my paranoia wasn't a delusion and was seemingly justified. Makes me feel a lot better about my current mental state.

Ouch! I'm sorry to hear that you're being deliberately thrown into stressful situations at work.

Not to contradict you, but your reaction to the woman behaving suspiciously wasn't paranoid at all. She absolutely was behaving suspiciously, and you handled the situation perfectly. They darned well ought to be giving you a raise!

Margret

 

[Margret]

We usually have a shopping cart that holds torn underwear and sock packages, loose underwear and socks, things without tags that can't be hanged, things like that. Every now and then one person gets assigned to fixing all that, we empty the cart, we cheer, and the next person neatening up where socks and underwear are comes right on back with more torn packages. We've always had problems with the customers dropping whatever they've tried on into that too. One time one of the managers wrote in big letters on a piece of paper "Do Not Put Clothes In Here" and taped it onto the shopping cart and it did not slow down the flow of clothes being dropped in there.

As far as I can tell, some people are so averse to reading that it almost amounts to a religious objection. Sarah Byng, Who Could Not Read And Was Tossed Into A Thorny Hedge By A Bull Poem by Hilaire Belloc - Poem Hunter

Well, Grandma is being bounced between the hospital and rehab center. At rehab her blood pressure drops, and they send her to the hospital. The hospital gives a quick fix, and sends her back to rehab. It's exhausting for me, and I'm not even the patient!

---BIG SNIP---

Getting sleepy and need to go back to bed (why can't these people be 24/7 like my store? Things would be so much easier.) Anyway, posting will be irregular while Grandma is going through the merry-go-round of rehab-hospital-rehab-etc. I hope everyone has a good day.

So, no one has told the nursing home that Grandma needs extra salt?

Margret

 

[Mamanyt1953]

How did they manage to call overseas for nearly two hours with no calling plan?

>GREAT BIG HONKING HUGE SNIP<






Have you tried those child-proof gadgets for cupboard doors?

Margret

You don't have to have a calling plan to call overseas on AT&T. All the calling plan does is reduce the rates. For instance, to call Australia without a plan is about $3.50 a minute, with a plan it is around $0.09 a minute. And the rates to Australia and Great Britain are VERY reasonable. Some of the middle Eastern countries are as much as $20+ per minute without a plan, and $5-ish with. So a calling plan makes a huge difference. But you don't have to have one to make the call, you just have to pay the bill.

I thought about the child-proofing thingies, but most of them require installation of some sort, and the complex won't allow it. There are no knobs on the cabinets, or I'd just bungee them shut.

 

[Mother Dragon]

OK...last night, something happened. I'm going to try to put it into words, but there really aren't any.

Into the clearing between the buildings they came,
wisping out of the woods,
slinking along the foundations,
by ones and two they came
as silent as the night.
Never have I seen them all,
not in one place, never before.
Sweet calico Dulcie and Tortie Kit of the plumed tail,
Ginger and white DiCaprio came next, then
Black and smoke Midnight Louie, his long coat immaculate
Deep ginger Fast Eddie arrived, with Little Bit on his heels,
and finally, Joe Grey, looking so like his namesake.
They lay quietly, waiting...
I did not see The Old Man arrive,
Could not tell from where he came,
But he is not to be mistaken.
His tuxedo coat is scruffy with age,
But his head and half-tail were high
as he paced onto the grass and sat.
Then, then...
each cat, in turn, approached him,
touched their nose to his,
and slipped away into the night until
The Old Man sat alone and somehow
Majestic.
I do not know what it is that I have seen,
Or why the gooseflesh runs like foxfire on my arms,
But there is Magick in the air tonight.

Another lovely one. It reminds me of the theme of CATS. The Heavyside Layer.