The "what's On Your Mind?" Thread -2019

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kashmir64

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Excuse my ignorance..what a packrat??..we dont have things like that here.
A packrat is a huge rat almost chinchilla looking. The only one I measured was approx. 18" long - without the tail- and I would guess 4"-5" tall. They usually live in the wild, but if a house can be found, they are there. They do exactly what their name implies. They will tear out your insulation, wires, basically anything they can and build a home out of it. And for some reason, they love the plastic wire casing in vehicle engines.
I haven't killed one recently. Probably the 3.5' snake I saw before it turned cold either ate the one that was hanging around or it just left. I tried to Google an image, but none showed the adult size and a lot of them were just plain old rats. But next time I get one, I will post a picture if it's allowed (it will be dead, so I will have to clear it with Ann first).
I jokingly call them a R.O.U.S.. We usually throw them for the crows. The crows up here had 747's for parents.

ETA: Imagine a Black-footed tree rat on steroids.
 
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susanm9006

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A packrat is a huge rat almost chinchilla looking. The only one I measured was approx. 18" long - without the tail- and I would guess 4"-5" tall. They usually live in the wild, but if a house can be found, they are there. They do exactly what their name implies. They will tear out your insulation, wires, basically anything they can and build a home out of it. And for some reason, they love the plastic wire casing in vehicle engines.
I haven't killed one recently. Probably the 3.5' snake I saw before it turned cold either ate the one that was hanging around or it just left. I tried to Google an image, but none showed the adult size and a lot of them were just plain old rats. But next time I get one, I will post a picture if it's allowed (it will be dead, so I will have to clear it with Ann first).
I jokingly call them a R.O.U.S.. We usually throw them for the crows. The crows up here had 747's for parents.

ETA: Imagine a Black-footed tree rat on steroids.

Well they sound particularly unpleasant. I don’t know if we have those in Minnesota, haven’t heard of them anyway.
 

Graceful-Lily

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Rats are amazing. If I didn't have a dog, I'd probably adopt some again. There are quite a few in shelters near me.

What's on my mind? My hair lol. I decided to try wearing my natural hair (meaning no braids, straightening, twisting, or anything - just afro). I'm not sure how long I can keep up with it like this but protective styling has made me lazy. Hopefully by doing this, I will learn even more about my hair type and how to care for it properly.
 

Sidewinder

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I just spent several hours researching TV apps and I even signed up for YouTube TV, only to discover that I could NOT get the football game I wanted to watch. I don't know if it's a tech issue, or the outfits involved are at odds, or what... I sure miss the good ol' days of simply turning on the TV to watch a game, none of this complicated business of pushing a million buttons and going through a hundred different screens or pages. Honestly, I have a hard time keeping up with modern technology, and it tries my patience as well... I went ahead and canceled the YouTube TV subscription, no point in paying for it if I can't get my football matches, and I'm not interested in the other programs offered. 🤮

Meh, just a minor rant about modern technology... so advanced it's back in the Stone Age. Guess I'll try a digital antenna next, but it chaps my... er... self knowing that I already paid extra for fast Internet SOLELY to avoid "buffering" through a TV app, pfffft. Maybe I can get a refund, or ratchet down to the most basic web plan, since I'm not under contract... go with a digital antenna aimed toward Tucson and hope for the best, aye? Better yet, forget TV altogether and get outdoors more often, that would probably be the best and healthiest option. My friends & I grew up with a code: "Say what you mean and mean what you say." Seems like modern business reps never heard of such a code... enough said. :mad:
 

raina21

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I have been really absent lately and have been trying to get back to posting here. A lot of good things have happened this year, but these last 2 weeks have got to be the worst 2 weeks of my life to date.

All of last week I had the flu, it was so bad that I missed an entire week of work and I had a fever of over 101°F for 4 days straight. Also, the 2nd night I was sick, I couldn't keep anything down (not even water). At one point in the night I got up to go to the bathroom (which is only about 3 feet from the end of my bed) and the last thing I remember was walking through the bathroom door. I passed out (due to severe dehydration) before I actually got to the porcelain throne. When I woke up, all I remember feeling was the fabric of my shower curtain and I was groggy and very confused as to how my shower curtain had gotten into my bed, and then I opened my eyes and realized that I had passed out. The top half of my body was dangling face down over the side of my bathtub with my face pressed up against the inside of the tub, my arms hung limply, stretched out above my head, and my rear-end was sticking up over the edge of the tub. I was so weak that I couldn't move any of my limbs. All I could do was scream for my fiance (who was sleeping downstairs in order to avoid catching the flu from me, he was also about to leave for work when I woke up. I guess he didn't even hear me fall when it happened). He came running up the stairs and he had to literally pull me out of the bathtub because I couldn't move. He picked me up and put me back in bed. Thankfully, my dad was a few minutes late to pick him up for work. If he had been on time, I don't want to think about what might have happened to me.

My dad came back to the house a few minutes later with 2 huge bottles of the adult version of pedialyte and some anti-nausea medicine and told me I had to drink all of the pedialyte by the end of the day. He also made me chicken soup and made sure I ate a little. The anti-nausea stuff worked pretty well and I was finally able to rehydrate myself.


Then, 6 days ago on the 19th, I got some terrible news. My dad came to my house and told me to sit down and that he had some bad news. Then he told me that a dear friend (practically family) that I've known all of my life had passed away suddenly. He had just graduated from college and he was basically traveling the world before he had to come home and settle into adulthood.... He was a known party-boy... He was in Taiwan and he and a few friends were partying on the beach at night and he took some kind of hallucinogenic and he was on a bad trip. He kept chanting "water! Water! Water!" And trying to go into the ocean. His friends tried to stop him but there was no stopping him. He ran out into the ocean and drowned. :bawling2::bawling2::bawling2::bawling2::bawling2: one of his friends called the police in Taiwan pretty much immediately after he went out into the ocean. But by the time they got there, he had already drowned but the police were able to find his body. I don't know when the funeral will be. His family is still trying to figure out how to get his body back to the US. My whole family (and obviously my friend's family) is a mess over this. I have been crying all week. I broke down crying in the middle of my shift at work yesterday and I just couldn't stop it. I can't stop thinking about what happened to him. I had just watched his snapchat story the day before he died and I just keep thinking about how that was the very last time I ever saw him alive and that I will never ever see him agian. For god sakes he was only 22 years old. He had so much life left to live! :bawling::bawling2::bawling::bawling2::bawling:
 

Mia6

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Sidewinder Sidewinder I no longer have tv because it'a too expensive. I don't really miss it but in your case maybe you could get some channels so you could watch all the games you want, then cancel after the Super Bowl?
 
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