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

[tallyollyopia]

What ticked me off to no end is that often when a child is killed or severely injured by the mother's husband/boyfriend the mother is arrested for child endangerment because "she knew or should have known he was a threat". Why were there no similar charges? Is it just blatant sexism, since the genders were reversed?

On the flip side of that, there was an interesting case back when I was in high school. This woman (a night nurse) got called to work because of an emergency and her boyfriend was the only one who could watch her kid. Well, she got to work and it turned out the person on duty had panicked prematurely, so she was able to go home early. When she got home she found the boyfriend masturbating over the sleeping child--and she killed him. No prison sentence or public outcry for "letting her" get away with it either.

I am glad that everybody seems to have a wonderful Mothers' Day.
I have been busy setting up a GoFundMe page for my son and his family.
Ray is a long distance truck driver with an impeccable record of 15 years. For once he took his son Chris, age 26, with him on the truck to show him what it's like to be on the road for 10 days straight. He also keeps a small dog with him to guard the truck when he is absent (potty breaks, meals etc) or sleeping.
On Friday he was involved in a bad accident near Beaver in Utah on Hwy 15, authorities are surprised that anyone survived as the truck turned over, Ray actually was already out of the truck by the time authorities arrived, looking for his son, they both had their seatbelts on, and both of them ended up in the hospital: Ray with a cracked vertebra and lacerations that took 10 stitches on his head plus some more, also bruises all over. Chris has a compound fracture on his femur, two cracked vertebrae, his scalp was torn off his scull, lacerations and bruises all over. Ray has been released from the hospital and Chris is out of ICU. Chris has had his leg set with a rod in it, his scalp has been replaced and sewn back on and he will have a skin graft on Monday where the skin was torn off his leg and hip. The dog suffered from burns from hot motor oil on his body and face and is utterly confused, he had spent two nights in a shelter of the Humane Society.
Ray's wife Laurie had come from their hometown of Reno, NV to see both of them, a nine hour trip. She and Ray will go home after Chris' surgery on Monday, they can't afford to stay in a motel until Chris can be released, who knows how long that will take, weeks probably.
Ray will not be able to work for a while, Chris suffers with severe Aspergers and is unable to hold a job and Laurie has a lung disease that also keeps her from working. Ray does not know if he will still have a job when he is able to work again as he had started with this company only a month ago. In the meantime the bills are piling up. He is also beating himself up over the accident and having caused the injuries to his son by taking him with him.
If anyone can help this family while Ray is unable to work they can donate at


Click here to support Ray's Medical & Emergency Fund organized by Irena Weygold


please spread the word. I have also put it on my facebook page
For me this is not a good Mothers' Day, it must be worse for Laurie.
All those who have family around them today send a few good thoughts to Ray and Chris and if you can then donate, any amount will help. Thank you.

This is, my social media site, so I can't spread the word, but I did donate as much as I could. (It's not much, I'm afraid, we're still watching every penny, but it's all I can do.)

Watching a Fear Thy Neighbor rerun, sometimes on this show when one neighbor is being interviewed for their side, they lie through their teeth in a clumsy attempt to make you hate the other side, but it's so clumsy of a lie that they sound ridiculous. The one I'm watching, the old woman just sounded so stupid when she tried to make you hate the other side by saying "My cats never crossed the property line to their side!" Yeah, sure, cats are super-respectful of human created property lines. Suuuuuure. It was not a surprise when the other neighbor said "They were using my garden as a litter box."

What is Fear Thy Neighbor? I've never heard of it. (Then again; I don't watch much TV.)

oh, my Dears! I have Done a Terrible Thing. I went into the utility closet to put some things away, and someone crept in behind me and hid, and I Locked the Cat in the CLOSET! Oh, there were pitiful meows, and scratchings at doors, and yowlings! Took me a minute to find her. Let her out, apologized abjectly, but was held hostage emotionally until Temptations were forthcoming. I am happy to report that All Is Forgiven now.

(I found the smileys again!)

I have a worse one for you;
It was when I first Adopted Artie. He was so frisky, and inquisitive.
I was working, and out of the house 12 hours per day.

My morning routine was: Up early to feed, play, brush Artie, get ready for work. I went into my store room to get a bottle of water for my lunch.
I left wet and dry food out for him all day. Artie usually greeted me at the door when I came home.

Fast forward 12 hours later: I came home, no Artie greeting me. Looked ate the food area, nothing eaten from either dish. Looked at the litter box, not used.. Started calling him everywhere!
"Artie, Artie, Artie, where are you?"
looked under the bed, under and behind furniture, in my clothes closet..
NOTHING...
Kept on calling him.. looked again in clothes closets, under bed, in corners, under furniture...
Even looked outside the apartment, on my floor, to see if he was hiding in a corner.. I was getting frantic..
Opened the doors to my laundry area.. even looked in washer and dryer.. behind and underneath the water tank. NOTHING...

Finally, I thought I heard a faint meow...
I opened up the store room... the only place I did not look earlier... and Artie was there!!
He must have snuck in when I was quickly getting my water..
It was pitch dark in there, and he had jumped on top of my 'granny' cart, making it fall halfway across the entrance. He was hiding on a shelf in there..

As soon as I opened the door, he ran right out!! Yelling at me..

I felt terrible..

The sweet, scared little boy.. and such a good boy. He was locked in there for 12 hours, no food, no water, no litter box.. He managed not to pee or poop for 12 hours!!!!

To this day, Artie is still kind of afraid of that closet. He wants to go in to investigate, but when he sees me come near it, he runs out.....

Needless to say, I cuddled him, covered him with kisses, and felt so bad..

Since then, when I leave he house, I make sure I know where he is....

Man, we had a terrible time with Slipper doing that. She'd get locked in closets, drawers, bathrooms, bedrooms, and somehow even got shut in the linen closet once (which is quite a feat since the door doesn't close properly and is always cracked). I miss her.

 

[tallyollyopia]

Alas, the other day I did Another Terrible Thing. I lost my grip on a pot I was taking out of the bottom cabinet and dropped it, breaking the Sacred Kibble Dish! However, today I have redeemed myself by repairing said Dish, and the kibbles are now where they belong. Hekitty was NOT fond of the Blue Willow salad plate as a substitute! She deigned to use it but under very vocal protest. Last I saw her, she was face first in the Sacred Kibble Dish, purring loudly enough to rattle the dishes in the drainer.

The only horrible thing I ever did was to step on my little Persian's tail. Oh my, did she ever scream! And she usually does not say a word, she only whispers. I thought the cat was mute, that she did not have a voice at all. I sure found out differently. Lately she has been calling, this really weird me-aorrr in a lower register, she sounds like she is some huge mongrel tom. Usually she does that when she is in another room as if she were looking for me. Then I answer her "what are you calling me about?" and after a while she sashays into the room where I am as if she had never said a word.

The first time Rose ever spoke she had snuck in the car as AWM and IB were heading to McDonald's. They had no idea how she'd gotten in the car, but they were far enough from home when they saw her that they didn't want to turn around, and putting her out was not an option. Well, AWM used to have a seat cushion in the backseat (she had it for when she drove for the PO and never took it out), and Rose was sitting on the cushion. AWM turned, the cushion slid across the backseat, and the next thing the two of them knew Rose was in IB's lap meowing. Or, as AWM put it, "If she could talk human, it would have been four-letter words, I guarantee it."

One day we had some workmen in and out of the house, doing things with the phone lines in the basement. After they left I couldn't find Jasmine. I was horribly worried because she has a habit of trying to sneak out the front door whenever it's opened and they'd been in and out for hours. I looked all over for that cat, searched, called, went outside and called her, couldn't hear her crying, I was getting frantic! Then I finally heard her. She was in the basement, and it appeared that she'd snuck down there the first time a workman went down; she had obviously been there for hours, with no food, water, or litter box, and I'm afraid that she was not as stoic about it as Artie. She had found a place to relieve herself. She was very glad to be found and let back upstairs, but the strange thing is that she begs to go back downstairs! Apparently she's decided that, since I shut the door behind me whenever I go down, I must be doing something really fun down there from which I am cruelly excluding the cat. She cried piteously the entire time I was laboriously bringing a heavy box upstairs this morning. And for some strange reason, I seem to be less than sympathetic to her distress. Poor abused kitty.

Margret

The cats keep trying to get into RB's room for much the same reason, and we're just as sympathetic.

Well that was interesting. Cat's out of the bag...information came out about our future and it's not looking rosy right now. 70 lives could be at stake this summer/fall. We knew it was coming despite being lied to from corporate. Now we know. People are taking information and searching elsewhere for jobs. Just disgusting how they lie. They left two huge projects hanging because they decided oh they don't want to pay-then refused to pay the workers down there-luckily someone is footing the bill to pay both SC and GA. otherwise those two projects would be scrapped...and they STILL could scrap those two jobs.

Now the thing that makes me angry is people have been paying extra on bill for almost 8 years now to pay for this bondoogle of a project=so where the HELL did that money go?!! Dirty Rat _______s! I honestly don't see our future in a company where many of our vendors told us to pound sand and still having issues with key elements of said industry. If our vendors flipped the bird at us so to speak what makes you think anyone is going to want to contract us to build ANYTHING?!!

Good questions.

I don't believe in the Closet Monster but I don't like the closet door open, that yawning black patch at night gives me the willies. Besides that it's an invitation for various kitties to make themselves at home there and I don't like that either. there's enough cat hair elsewhere that I don't need it in the closet too. As is, I have to rake the carpet every day to get the cat hair off, vacuuming does not do the trick although the brush rollers get full of hair including my own. i have discovered that the shampoo applicator's brush is a marvelous thing to get cat hair off the carpet. I take the shampoo can off and use the dry brush on the carpet, it's unbelievable how much embedded hair comes off. You can then just peel the hair off the brush. I suppose any other hard brush would do the same thing but this one I already had and now it gets more use than just every once in a while
I still can't figure out this damn new way of doing things. I've managed to make the pictures smaller but not how to attach them to the rsponse. Have to put that into a second response, here goes.

Wow--those pics looked like the lint roller. (We roll a giant lint roller across the carpet and furniture before running the vacuum. Easier to keep clogs from happening that way.)

I got a cashier at work in trouble today.

Long story short, she had to suspend my transaction to deal with a previous customer and apparently didn't un-suspend it properly. I wasn't charged for some of my groceries. I only realized it when the total didn't match my estimate and after paying I moved to the side and compared items to receipt. I'm not risking my job by walking out with unpaid items, went to customer service to figure it all out. The total of the unpaid items, before discounts, came to roughly $43. The lady at customer service said she was going to let management know.

Well, if your work is anything like mine, she got a stern lecture and now she knows how to do it, and no lasting, long-term damage done.

I ran into this story the other day, and it immediately reminded me of all the people here who regularly have to deal with rude people, and smile, and bite their tongues. Enjoy it, everyone. Think of it as vicarious vengeance: Man gets revenge on rude people in coffee shop with a hilarious power move

Mamanyt1953 , I don't blame you at all for disliking Walmart; I do too. And I know you pretty much have to do your grocery shopping there. But I don't think Walmart owns the bank, or the hair salon, or Subway. Those businesses just happen to be located inside the Walmart. So go easy on yourself.

Well, after having a March with less than an inch of precipitation (March is normally our snowiest month in Colorado) we had a major snowstorm on the very last weekend of the month; the kind of wet, heavy snow that breaks branches, especially if all of the trees have leafed out because the weather has been unusually warm, which they had. Typically we'll get a branch breaker once every two or three years, but we had one last year, and then we had one at the end of March this year, and then on Thursday this week, we had another! They say don't plant your new rose bushes until after Mother's Day, when it becomes safe. Guess what -- it doesn't. Fortunately, I hadn't gotten around to putting in a new rose bush yet, but that's just procrastination, not foresight. Worse, wildfire season began before the end of March this year, because it had been so warm and dry, and we apparently have an arsonist running around loose.

A couple of weeks after the March branch breaker I heard a story on Colorado Public Radio. That storm hit really hard in the southeastern corner of the state. Farmers down there were still digging out the 30-foot snow drifts, looking for dead cows. And they still had no idea how many of their cows were dead and how many had just strayed because the snow was so deep that they could just walk over the fences.

Margret

Wow. That's worse than down here--we may lose a significant percentage to the fire ants (which are having no trouble adapting to our changing climate), but we know what to look for and how to prevent more from being lost.

Global warming is a bitch. It's cold in places where it should be warm or even hot and then again it's downright hot where it should be just getting to be spring. Yep, that's what global warming is: freaky weather everywhere even if the deniers are out in force.

Hehe, I say to climate change deniers: why is the Orange City Tulip Festival the 3rd weekend in May? All of the tulips are entirely gone; mine bloomed around April 20th. The only tulips at the festival are the ones that they dug up and refrigerated and then re-planted right before the festival. It's been like that for at least 15 years now. But back when they set the date for the festival, that date must have made sense.

Also, in the Little House books she mentions getting 10 feet of snow on the railroad tracks and we don't get that much around here anymore. I know one area isn't scientific proof but something has clearly changed here.

 

[tallyollyopia]

I hope you are feeling better today.

My Walmart has a McDonald's inside and they recently moved out because they were infested with mice. I never eat at McDonald's but I did enjoy sometimes buying a ice cream cone after I've done my shopping and taking a rest. I like the Walmart in the next town over. It's bigger and cleaner than the one in my town and the people are nicer. I like Walmart if it is a nice one. This one has a Subway in it. I like the fresh popcorn and soft pretzels that they sell. Their veggy subs are good, too.

I've got to tell you, our local Wal Marts are ticking me off. Many of my customers are regulars and their hours are insane (they're getting two hour breaks with six hours on either side), they've purposefully stocked damaged cat food (how do I know it was damaged? Dry cat food does not come in a brick and wet food is not supposed to have damp/slimy packages), and many of the lamps for sale have frayed/damaged/ nicked plastic coatings on their cords. In both of them!! One might be due to a bad manager, but both? Both indicates a much larger problem. I'm on the verge of calling for a week-long boycott to remind them that their customers have power--the power to shop somewhere else.

I feel really, really bad.

To start off, my cats have "their" bowls when food is first put down. Once the initial round of eating is over the cats play round robin with the bowls for the next 12 hours. They don't care who eats where, which makes monitoring feeding pretty difficult.

When I tried the new cat food (Rachael Ray Nutrish), the cats were in love. All three gobbled it up. I was thrilled and since I found coupons on Coupons.com, I printed out coupons like crazy and started stocking up. The amount of food eaten went down, but since the new food is supposed to be more nutritional I just figured the cats were getting full on less amounts, like they did when I could afford Blue Buffalo.

Last week, we noticed one of the cats seem to look a little skinnier. So we started watching him carefully. Turns out he pretty much stopped eating it. Forget switching over a three week period, this was an emergency, I immediately ran out and bought a bag of the old stuff (Purina Cat Chow). Washed all the bowls to get rid of the scent, vacuumed where the bowls were to try to get rid of that scent and I've been doing free feeding instead of measured feeding since. Plus every time we see the cat, he immediately gets put in front of a bowl to encourage eating. Not that he needs much encouragement, he loves Purina Cat Chow and he's always loved eating in general more than he should.

I kinda want to switch to something better, people here say that Purina One is better. But after this, I'm also afraid to. Even though this would be made by the same company, the taste might not be the same and he might stop eating again. I was so afraid of taste change making him not eat I decided against the Purina Kitten Chow that I thought might be better in the short term to get him back where he was. He's really finicky, he refuses all cat treats. I had a coupon for Sheba Perfect Portions and got that for cat treats. Gave each cat a spoonful of pate and tender cuts, the other two gobbled it up, while he sniffed it, smacked the side of the food with his paw, scratched on the wall like he smelled something bad, and then walked away. This was before we realized he wasn't eating the dry food, so he was hungry, but he clearly didn't like wet food. He's that finicky.

On the plus side I went to the local shelter and said I had some cat food to donate. They were happy and told me where to put it. When my daughter and I walked back in with six bags of the 6 lb size of Rachael Ray, their eyes about bugged out of their heads and they went from happy to ecstatic.

Jasmine will only eat Luvsome canned food (Kroger store brand), and none of the fishy varieties of Luvsome. This effectively gives her just three flavors that she will condescend to eat. When it comes to kibble, however, she'll eat anything I put out, so I concentrate my spending for high-end cat food in the kibble category. And any time she decides she doesn't like and therefore won't eat today's flavor of canned food I have to remove her kibble bowl because when she pigs out on kibble it makes her sick to her stomach.

The thing that originally brought me to TCS was the fact that Aristocats canned food (which she had been eating before) had disappeared from the stores and I couldn't find anything that she would eat (and I had tried everything I could think of). I finally found out that Aristocats was the Kroger store brand (by calling the customer support number I found on an old box) and that they had lost the right to use the Disney names, so it had been renamed Luvsome. But before I found that out I had a cat in serious danger of starving to death.

Healthy food is only healthy if it gets eaten.

Margret

I say that a lot.

Just popping in quick. I'm sure you a have seen the news. My employer has locked us out of our job. I'm picketing 8-9 hours a day. It's been scary because we can't do anything. The salary people still talk to us. This is coming from the investment company that loaned the bankruptcy money. They are known union busters. They must be so upset because thet couldn't bust this union.

I may not agree with the vote but I remain solid in supporting whatever decision the majority makes.

We had one guy drive by yesterday calling us "have a nice life You a $$ holes"

Friggin bonehead. Luckily no one has thrown anything at us. Many people don't know that we are a custom welding and machine shop. They think we make washing machines and computers!

Wow. When the people at the fiberglass plant picketed a few years ago people brought them gatorade and sandwiches. I guess it's because down here we don't see a lot of unions helping, so we encourage the ones that are.

I also heard from @foxxycat who says that the unemployment benefits are being expedited which is excellent news.

It's discouraging that people yell and (might) throw things at striking employees. I don't recall that being the case years ago, when unions were more common. For all the problems associated with unions, they are supporting workers against exploitation and their demise in this country has left a lot of people hurting.

Anyone can FILE for Unemployment Benefits, if the person is eligible is another matter. Never ASSUME you are not eligible because you are usually wrong. Even somebody who has quit a job may be eligible, it depends on why the person quit and that possibly varies among states. Also, somebody who has only a part time job but is available for full time work can file and possibly get part benefits. Spread the word, that law is nationwide. Yes, I'm an expert on this after 20 years of determining eligibility.

Just wanted to say we are not Striking! !!!!!!!


We got locked out! For now wait for the next move. Union will file charges against the company for unfair labor practice. They walked out of mediation meeting. We are willing to forgo raises But not stripping of benefits. The salary people already lost those benefits. They should have unionized.

In this political environment-it would be in the best interests if all working class people unionized. Many companies are doing away with ot. They instead hire two crews for two different week shifts. This is bad news for workers. Pretty soon we won't have any jobs that offer more than 30 hours a week.

I picketed today for a good 9 hours. Filed for unemployment benefits. Enlisted in job search. Going to look at training for vet technology. Let the state help with costs.

Good luck to you!

Thank you segkat for your help. Yes I've spent all Friday when everyone left for the day using up PTO since I don't think rhey will pay it. I elected to stay the day so I could research this unemployment thing. Some salary person said that I need to research and not listen to half truths. Ok whatever.
I also hung around so I
could keep an eye on salary people. They have been breaking rules left and right.

This week we noted many people taking tons of smoke breaks. If it was us we would have been written up. They also had someone driving a fork truck who normally wears high heels and in the office. I don't know if rhey had experience.

We also heard three salary people gave their notice.

The company is forcing salary people to do our jobs which is ridiculous. The arrogance of these pinhead people amaze me.

The ones welding now used to weld but now thwy are engineers. I tell you I'd be madder than a wet hen if those people forced me to go work on the shop floor. No air conditioning. Dirty and hot. Shake my head.

I tell you what person will want to work for a company who doesn't give a rats behind about them??!!! The arrogance!!!!!

I agree--but some people will put up with anything for a paycheck.

 

[artiemom]

If you had state disability (not all states have that) I could probably look it up, but I suspect you have disability through Social Security which is different, I don't know how to look it up and probably would not interpret all of it correctly. Federal law has different wrinkles.

thank you, but I am ok, for now.....fingers crossed.....

 

[artiemom]

tallyollyopia !!!! You're BACK!!!! All of us were extremely worried/concerned about you!! Are you ok???.. I have not even read your responses.. As soon as I saw your name, I was ecstatic and wanted to welcome your return.....

 

[segelkatt]

tallyollyopia - I had tried the lint roller too but it only grabbed whatever was on top, not what had been ground into the fibers of the carpet. These stiff bristles even bring up cat claw sheaths so I can vacuum them up. Unbelievable what hides in your carpet. I also have a rug with a carved border and that had been flattened by walking on it. Now the carving shows again. This is better than a carpet rake which has plastic bristles which are too soft to really dig in.

 

[arouetta]

So today I actually had to report for jury duty.

Waking up 7 hours after 500 mg Seroquel is not fun. At least enough of it had worn off that I wasn't stumbling around like I was really drunk, just somewhat drunk. And as usual, when I must be up early, my husband jumped into the shower seconds before I was planning on getting up and showering. I don't know how he does it. Early is a variable time and I never tell him my planned schedule but somehow our brains always think parallel when he's home and I need to be up for an appointment and we are both in need of a shower.

I'm used to the courts in another state, just having moved to a new state last year, and in the other state jeans will have you being told to go home and change by the deputies manning the metal detector. So I opened my closet and wondered what the heck I was going to wear. I have jeans. I have work pants, one of which is not denim, but I'm pretty sure that one was in the wash. I am slowly putting together an office casual wardrobe, but one dressed up enough that if I land a job that requires a blazer my office casual clothes will work with that requirement. I do have some casual dresses but I haven't gotten around to buying the proper color tights to go with them. I have nothing else in-between when it comes to below the waist.

So I pull out a pair of slacks, they are gray pinstripe. My office casual clothes are at the back of the closet and that was the pair in front. I do have a variety of shirts and started looking at those. Some are sleeveless, which is a no-no according to the jury form. A lot are black or have a significant amount of black. When I'm wearing monochrome I don't like to pair a top that's black when the bottom is gray. It doesn't look right to me. Even the one with splashes of blue didn't look right.

I dug out the white button-down shirt and put it on. And realized that somehow I missed it when trying it on but the sleeves billow below the elbows but are tight at the wrists. I don't like the Popeye look. Tossed it on top of the Goodwill bag and started looking for a different shirt. Finally decided to take off and put away the gray slacks and pull out a black pair. While digging through the back of the closet I remembered that I out-shrunk both my two black slacks and my black skirt and I haven't washed and hemmed the replacements yet. So I'm stuck with gray. Finally decided on a green button-down that the buttons start so far down it shows a bit of cleavage, but not too much cleavage.

And again, I'm used to courthouses in a different state, there if you take in any sort of electronic device or anything capable of taking pictures, the deputies tell you to turn around and lock it in your car. So I left my phone behind. Turns out here you can take it in and play with it all you want outside of the actual courtroom, you just have to turn it completely off in the courtroom. And the reason for that is not to prevent recording but because the radio waves electronic devices put out does affect their sound recording system. Well I brought the Tao of Pooh to read with me. And just like the last time I tried to read it I gave up during the second paragraph because I look at things analytically and taoism is intuitive and I have difficulties with the concepts.

After waiting forever a clerk came in and called out juror numbers. And didn't call about a third of us. The other clerk left the room to find out what was going on. Turns out there were two court cases that day that required juries and those not called were for the later case. More waiting.

I saw an interesting concept when it comes to social situations. Even though the room went from packed to a lot of places on the benches to sit, people who left for the bathroom would still sit in the exact same spot they had been. Even if getting back to the original seat involved passing by other people sitting on the bench. No one chose an empty spot that was more accessible.

And then after what seemed forever, a clerk came in and said that the judge for the later case said we weren't needed. For a few seconds I was thinking what the heck, and then I realized that either there was a continuance or the person chose to plead guilty at the last moment. The clerk said to call the reporting line again tonight, but that we were safe since there never are cases on a Friday.

Well at least I'll be getting paid $15 for my gas and time.

 

[amysuen]

2.5 more hours then I've got a 4 day weekend! Kind of...

The daycare is officially "closed" tomorrow but our grandchildren (5 and 2) will be here because their parents couldn't get off. My in-laws arrive around noon tomorrow, which will be interesting... Jonah graduates Saturday morning and we're having a "family" party in our backyard in the afternoon. Sunday he and 2 friends are having a "friend" party at a park, so we've got 2 parties to prepare for. Maybe Monday I'll actually have some time "off."

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I got another bookcase ordered, AND had enough in the budget to order the fabric for drapes, the sheers, and a second curtain rod for the office/library/ guest room! All I need now is one more bookcase and the bedspread, and I'll actually have a whole room done, more or less how I wanted it. I'm not thrilled with the bedspread I'll be getting, but it isn't bad at all. It will certainly do just fine for now! Everything will be here by June 1st, so I'll have to get the sewing machine out and run up those drapes!

 

[tallyollyopia]

tallyollyopia !!!! You're BACK!!!! All of us were extremely worried/concerned about you!! Are you ok???.. I have not even read your responses.. As soon as I saw your name, I was ecstatic and wanted to welcome your return.....

Well, one of my coworkers had a death in the family (car accident, no warning), another has been fighting food poisoning, and we've been fighting with the doctors. Grandma got put on a "heart-healthy" diet, which means little to no salt (and I've already mentioned the problems with that), and the doctors can't figure out why her sodium is low. (Gee, I wonder. ) On top of that, she's been swelling; no one knows why. (She swelled so badly that the pressure burst her legs open.) She's on a diuretic to reduce the swelling--but it's not having any affect. Anyway, between the two situations I've been stretched too thin to do much other than collapse when I get home.

tallyollyopia - I had tried the lint roller too but it only grabbed whatever was on top, not what had been ground into the fibers of the carpet. These stiff bristles even bring up cat claw sheaths so I can vacuum them up. Unbelievable what hides in your carpet. I also have a rug with a carved border and that had been flattened by walking on it. Now the carving shows again. This is better than a carpet rake which has plastic bristles which are too soft to really dig in.

I can see that.

So today I actually had to report for jury duty.

Waking up 7 hours after 500 mg Seroquel is not fun. At least enough of it had worn off that I wasn't stumbling around like I was really drunk, just somewhat drunk. And as usual, when I must be up early, my husband jumped into the shower seconds before I was planning on getting up and showering. I don't know how he does it. Early is a variable time and I never tell him my planned schedule but somehow our brains always think parallel when he's home and I need to be up for an appointment and we are both in need of a shower.

I'm used to the courts in another state, just having moved to a new state last year, and in the other state jeans will have you being told to go home and change by the deputies manning the metal detector. So I opened my closet and wondered what the heck I was going to wear. I have jeans. I have work pants, one of which is not denim, but I'm pretty sure that one was in the wash. I am slowly putting together an office casual wardrobe, but one dressed up enough that if I land a job that requires a blazer my office casual clothes will work with that requirement. I do have some casual dresses but I haven't gotten around to buying the proper color tights to go with them. I have nothing else in-between when it comes to below the waist.

So I pull out a pair of slacks, they are gray pinstripe. My office casual clothes are at the back of the closet and that was the pair in front. I do have a variety of shirts and started looking at those. Some are sleeveless, which is a no-no according to the jury form. A lot are black or have a significant amount of black. When I'm wearing monochrome I don't like to pair a top that's black when the bottom is gray. It doesn't look right to me. Even the one with splashes of blue didn't look right.

I dug out the white button-down shirt and put it on. And realized that somehow I missed it when trying it on but the sleeves billow below the elbows but are tight at the wrists. I don't like the Popeye look. Tossed it on top of the Goodwill bag and started looking for a different shirt. Finally decided to take off and put away the gray slacks and pull out a black pair. While digging through the back of the closet I remembered that I out-shrunk both my two black slacks and my black skirt and I haven't washed and hemmed the replacements yet. So I'm stuck with gray. Finally decided on a green button-down that the buttons start so far down it shows a bit of cleavage, but not too much cleavage.

And again, I'm used to courthouses in a different state, there if you take in any sort of electronic device or anything capable of taking pictures, the deputies tell you to turn around and lock it in your car. So I left my phone behind. Turns out here you can take it in and play with it all you want outside of the actual courtroom, you just have to turn it completely off in the courtroom. And the reason for that is not to prevent recording but because the radio waves electronic devices put out does affect their sound recording system. Well I brought the Tao of Pooh to read with me. And just like the last time I tried to read it I gave up during the second paragraph because I look at things analytically and taoism is intuitive and I have difficulties with the concepts.

After waiting forever a clerk came in and called out juror numbers. And didn't call about a third of us. The other clerk left the room to find out what was going on. Turns out there were two court cases that day that required juries and those not called were for the later case. More waiting.

I saw an interesting concept when it comes to social situations. Even though the room went from packed to a lot of places on the benches to sit, people who left for the bathroom would still sit in the exact same spot they had been. Even if getting back to the original seat involved passing by other people sitting on the bench. No one chose an empty spot that was more accessible.

And then after what seemed forever, a clerk came in and said that the judge for the later case said we weren't needed. For a few seconds I was thinking what the heck, and then I realized that either there was a continuance or the person chose to plead guilty at the last moment. The clerk said to call the reporting line again tonight, but that we were safe since there never are cases on a Friday.

Well at least I'll be getting paid $15 for my gas and time.

I hope it didn't cost more than that to get there.

2.5 more hours then I've got a 4 day weekend! Kind of...

The daycare is officially "closed" tomorrow but our grandchildren (5 and 2) will be here because their parents couldn't get off. My in-laws arrive around noon tomorrow, which will be interesting... Jonah graduates Saturday morning and we're having a "family" party in our backyard in the afternoon. Sunday he and 2 friends are having a "friend" party at a park, so we've got 2 parties to prepare for. Maybe Monday I'll actually have some time "off."

Good luck with that!

I got another bookcase ordered, AND had enough in the budget to order the fabric for drapes, the sheers, and a second curtain rod for the office/library/ guest room! All I need now is one more bookcase and the bedspread, and I'll actually have a whole room done, more or less how I wanted it. I'm not thrilled with the bedspread I'll be getting, but it isn't bad at all. It will certainly do just fine for now! Everything will be here by June 1st, so I'll have to get the sewing machine out and run up those drapes!

Sounds awesome! Please post pics when you have it set up!

 

[NewYork1303]

Nature's Variety changed my dry cat food.

Now it has peas in it! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I worked so hard to find something without peas and now they've ruined it.

 

[tallyollyopia]

Nature's Variety changed my dry cat food.

Now it has peas in it! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I worked so hard to find something without peas and now they've ruined it.

I'm sorry to hear that.

 

[tallyollyopia]

Okay, to brief everyone on what I've been doing when I was gone. Grandma's been having trouble; we thought that the lupus was attacking the skin because of the sores on her forehead and the fact that her legs have been swelling to insane levels. (So insane that they actually burst open.) So, then we thought the lupus was attacking the kidneys--but the kidneys are fine. (I'm not sure how they know the lupus is out of remission if they don't know what it's attacking.) In the meantime, at work, one of my coworkers has had a death in the family and another is still recovering from a nasty bout of food poisoning. On top of that, I only just finished my series of 10 hour training days--and my manager broke two ribs. Also IB's grandfather (not mine, and not related to me) died, so he had to come down for that. He had to go back up for work, but he's coming back for the funeral. Rose may be coming back to live with us permanently--I'm not entirely certain what's going on there or why. So--I've been spread a little thin, and it may be a little while before I can come back again. (I've got four ten-hour days in a row, starting tonight.)

 

[arouetta]

Ick. Make sure you carve out time to take care of yourself. That's not a luxury, that's a necessity. As they say, put your own oxygen mask on before you start trying to put one on someone else.

 

[Willowy]

OK, another discussion for the grammar/pronunciation nerds!

I was looking up some random word and stumbled across a blog or forum post (or whatever it was, lol) in which the writer said that their pet peeve was "tr" pronounced as "chr". The examples they used were "chroo" (true) and "chruck" (truck). OK, it looks funny spelled phonetically like that, but I honestly thought that was how you're supposed to say "tr". I can't even think of another way to say it. Well, with much imagination I did come up with saying it more like "tuh-roo" or "tuh-ruck" but that seems very awkward and I'm pretty sure I would take notice if I heard anyone say it that way. Maybe it's a different accent?

So, what say you? How do you think "tr" should be pronounced?

 

[arouetta]

OK, another discussion for the grammar/pronunciation nerds!

I was looking up some random word and stumbled across a blog or forum post (or whatever it was, lol) in which the writer said that their pet peeve was "tr" pronounced as "chr". The examples they used were "chroo" (true) and "chruck" (truck). OK, it looks funny spelled phonetically like that, but I honestly thought that was how you're supposed to say "tr". I can't even think of another way to say it. Well, with much imagination I did come up with saying it more like "tuh-roo" or "tuh-ruck" but that seems very awkward and I'm pretty sure I would take notice if I heard anyone say it that way. Maybe it's a different accent?

So, what say you? How do you think "tr" should be pronounced?

English has dialects. The most obvious is British English vs. American English, but even within the US there are dialects. On top of the dialects are accents, so two areas can share the same vernacular but different ways of saying it, or vice versa. I did read once that the ideal accent for radio/TV work is the midwest accent, which is basically considered to be unaccented, as it adheres to the printed word much more closely than other US accents.

One example of local dialect would be that I'm convinced that most of the US doesn't know how to say the word "coyote" right, because where I grew up said it without the ending E. Ky-yot, not ky-yot-ee. You say the second where I grew up, you were clearly referring to the Roadrunner's nemesis.

For how to pronounce it, you would say "tr" without the "uh" you put in your examples. Pay close attention to your mouth and tongue. "T" is said with your teeth partially apart and your tongue leaving the roof of your mouth. "Uh" is with your teeth open wider and your tongue close to your bottom teeth. "R" is with your teeth open the same amount as "T" but with your tongue close to the roof of your mouth and pulled back a bit. To say "TR" together you would simply pull your tongue back a little while at the same level with your teeth staying as they are. The sound would come out and change in one fluid motion. To insert that "Uh", you would have to say "T", open your mouth wider and drop your tongue, and then bring the teeth back close together while pulling your tongue back and up.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

And it helps if you have teeth. Jes' sayin'

 

[Willowy]

Haha! No matter how I try to say it, it either comes out with 2 syllables or as "chr". Like I said, I'm pretty sure that's the only way I've ever heard it pronounced, or maybe it's subtle so that's just what my ears hear. Funny.

My grandma used to say "warsh" for wash. I don't think that's Midwestern, or at least I haven't heard it from many people. I wonder where she picked that up.

 

[Willowy]

Oh, yeah, they also say 'ky-yote" here, or just yote. I can't get used to that---it's a word with Spanish roots, my parents speak Spanish so I grew up with it, and you have to say every vowel in Spanish. Plus I grew up in Japan where you also say every vowel. So that one just hits my ears all wrong, lol.

 

[segelkatt]

Yep, weird way to pronounce some words. Regionally it can really differ. "Warsh", now that's southern, I heard people say that in Texas and was wondering where the "r" came from.
Where do people say "Mashashoosetts"? In Massachusetts. Ever listen to Bernie's speeches?
New Yorkers say "Noo Yawk". They seem to not be able to pronounce "r's" at all. I had a friend whose name was Pat Arthur. She made a plane reservation and it was noted down as "Pat Hawthorne", she grew up in New York City. When I asked for her at the airport because I could not find her I was told she was not on that plane so I went home. I got a call from her asking why I was home, that she was waiting for me at the airport (this was before cell phones). So I had to go back to pick her up. We went to the counter to find out what was going on as she certainly had been on that plane and we had a good laugh once we figured out it was her NYC accent that caused the misunderstanding. What she really said for the longest time was "A-tha". After many years in California she managed to say Ar-tha, but never could say the "er" sound at the end.
When I first came to the States a neighbor asked me that since I was going to the store if I would pick up a bag of "Aish Potatoes" for her. I did not know what that was but figured there would be a sign telling me about the various potatoes. I could not find any and so went home without any potatoes saying they did not have any. It was not until much later that I figured out that she had said "Irish potatoes" which were plain ordinary white potatoes, I would not have known that either.

Coyotes: In Texas they said Ky-ots, in SoCal where most people pride themselves on saying Spanish words with the correct pronunciation they say "Ko-yo-tes" but I have also heard "Ka-yots" or Ka-yo-tes" or "Ka-yo-tees".

It makes it difficult for foreigners to understand what people say when it differs a lot from what they have learned as "proper English". Then they learn the regional way of speaking but again are lost when they visit a different part of the country. Native speakers don't have that problem, they can usually understand English in all its forms, I said "usually", there are some that are so different or so full of colloquialisms that they sound like another language altogether (try Cockney or what used to be called Ebonics). Then there is twang, and sing-song, and talking through the nose and in the back of the throat, on top of which is the speed of one's speech. Oh my, it gets more difficult to figure out what is "proper English".
Mid-Atlantic is what newscasters speak or West Coast now because by the time people have brought all their different ways of speaking to the West Coast it has been so blurred by exposure to all the other ways they hear that there is no regional accent left. Television has helped a lot as people are exposed to it every day all the time.

True and other words starting with "tr". Don't know how somebody came up with 'tshr" but that is so small a difference that I would probably think of it as a speech defect if I heard it just like some people lisp and every "s" sound comes out as "th". So what? As long as it's understandable.

arouetta - did you study linguistics? Those are usually the people who know HOW a sound is formed with their lips, tongue and teeth.