News from Forum Participants

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

My Uncle had a litter of beagles. He was an avid rabbit hunter and would used to take the dogs in the back of his pick up truck. One day one fell out of the truck and hit its head. After that if you went to his farm where the dogs ran free you have to stay in the car with the window only part way down and wait for my uncle to come out and tie the dog up, or the dog would jump in through the window and start biting you. It did not seem to matter how often you went to his house the dog would do the same thing over and over again

Except for one other dog that I encountered one time, that did not know me, that was the only dog ever that did not like me.

Wonder how many dogs end up with brain injuries.

Seeing dogs with jobs (like hunting or herding sheep) amazes me. Total dedication.

Came across a video channel of this guy and his sheepdog, and the comment section of full of people accusing him of "abuse" for "forcing the dog to work"....

and I thought to myself, "Have these people never been to a farm or rural area?"

Well, one of the next videos on the playlist was the guy giving the dog the choice of staying home for the day or working. Every time the guy said the word work, the dog would get so excited and revved up, he was ready to burst through the door before the guy could even get it opened.

[Doc]

My Uncle had a litter of beagles. He was an avid rabbit hunter and would used to take the dogs in the back of his pick up truck. One day one fell out of the truck and hit its head. After that if you went to his farm where the dogs ran free you have to stay in the car with the window only part way down and wait for my uncle to come out and tie the dog up, or the dog would jump in through the window and start biting you. It did not seem to matter how often you went to his house the dog would do the same thing over and over again

Except for one other dog that I encountered one time, that did not know me, that was the only dog ever that did not like me.

Wonder how many dogs end up with brain injuries.

Seeing dogs with jobs (like hunting or herding sheep) amazes me. Total dedication.

Came across a video channel of this guy and his sheepdog, and the comment section of full of people accusing him of "abuse" for "forcing the dog to work"....

and I thought to myself, "Have these people never been to a farm or rural area?"

Well, one of the next videos on the playlist was the guy giving the dog the choice of staying home for the day or working. Every time the guy said the word work, the dog would get so excited and revved up, he was ready to burst through the door before the guy could even get it opened.

I took care of the dog of some friends for a couple of months last year while they were out of the country. It is a Yorkie. He was really down because they were here. Then I came across a channel something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t36lxBkp-Mc on youtube. He started watching it a got interested in it Even barked some. SO I looked some more and found out that terriers are bred to hunt and killed rats. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2Pyu-Cj0gg

He liked it so much after that when the TV was off he would look at the TV bark then look at me. While watching it he would bark constantly at the tv and get quite animated. Then when the action slowed down he would wander off to another room for about 15 to 20 seconds then suddenly remember "Rats" and come running back into the room barking. I would leave the TV on when I went out and come back a couple of hours later and he would still be barking at the TV.

So yes working dogs are born to work. I once had a red healer that had to stay home alone. He literally tried to eat the house.

Plus years ago I had a border collie. I came home(Rental) from work one day to find the dog jumping up and down behind the door with a 5 foot wide piece of the kitchen linoleum in his mouth Telling me in dog speak "Look what I did!! Look what I did!! Isn't this so cool!!"
It was so funny I could not really get mad about it. And that is how I Learned to replace a linoleum floor.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Plus years ago I had a border collie. I came home(Rental) from work one day to find the dog jumping up and down behind the door with a 5 foot wide piece of the kitchen linoleum in his mouth Telling me in dog speak "Look what I did!! Look what I did!! Isn't this so cool!!"
It was so funny I could not really get mad about it. And that is how I Learned to replace a linoleum floor.

The eternal need for approval from dogs.

Nothing like the "go f-yourself" energy cats have going.

[Parodite]

Happy to have bought a Kawai K500 piano for my youngest daughter, a gift for passing her highschool exams cum laude with music and spanish as extra classes. She decided to go study math, physics-astronomy next year in Amsterdam Uni after a sabbatical of travel and work. Of course this piano will live in our livingroom so I plan to use/abuse it as well, back to reading scores! Lost that ability years ago but happy getting back to it. Will take time and patience (always my biggest challenge) as my brain got cranky and foggy with age

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Happy to have bought a Kawai K500 piano for my youngest daughter, a gift for passing her highschool exams cum laude with music and spanish as extra classes. She decided to go study math, physics-astronomy next year in Amsterdam Uni after a sabbatical of travel and work. Of course this piano will live in our livingroom so I plan to use/abuse it as well, back to reading scores! Lost that ability years ago but happy getting back to it. Will take time and patience (always my biggest challenge) as my brain got cranky and foggy with age

Congratulations to you and your daughter.

[noddy]

noice.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

After about 2 years of delays, my father finally retired. I am happy that he was given an unexpected but big, well deserved send off. I'm glad he also let himself be appreciated for a career-well-done. It wasn't quite the inauspicious mail room beginnings, but the man started in the industry as a personal driver at 17 and worked his way all the way to the top. But the part he never wants to admit to is that it only worked out because he is amiable, people like working with him & for him.

For me, I have already appreciated all the time he put in. Years of walking and long commutes and all sorts of hours. Then, unlike my siblings, I remember the early years where he was nowhere, still going through college and working 2 jobs just to pay for the rest of us.

So I also appreciate that when he says he can't do the commuting anymore, he can't do it. They offered him some senior consulting thing which would have required him to show up every 2 weeks or so, and he turned that down. I understand that.

But I think it a mistake for financial reasons (edit: what I mean is that I think it always better to have the extra income coming in) and for his own well being.

It does him well to be around people and active, especially as he is still capable of it, and I worry that he's not really planned it out what it means to be retired. On the very first day, he came over to bother me telling me how great retirement already is only for him to show up hours later to dejectedly say how bored he is.

The hope is that he finds something to keep him occupied and he doesn't just shut down in a vegetative, isolated state. Whether that's a part time job or a hobby or the gym...I suggested going back to school since CT state universities wave most fees for senior citizens.

[noddy]

Ive know lots of men like that - a lifetime of living for work, they dont know who they are when its all gone.

wont be my problem, work has always funded my hobbies, I could fill up several lifetimes with creative amusements.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Yep, not quite that dire here yet "I'll hang out with my kids & grandkids more" is great--and welcome-- but it's not really a plan.


----------------------

In other news, I've contracted COVID.

Outside of a stuffy (and slighty bloody) nose; there's nothing else. The first night was very mild chills and trouble sleeping but once I took some tylenol and got some rest in, I've been fine and couldn't distinguish this from a mild cold- don't even feel that run down.

The mess is tracing the people we came across before first symptoms to warn them to watch themselves.

[noddy]

One positive about the overkill covid response has been most companies being far more sensible about folks staying home if they have the flu.

Used to really annoy me when the "company man" type dragged himself to work coughing over everyone - now he gets told to stay home until it passes.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

One positive about the overkill covid response has been most companies being far more sensible about folks staying home if they have the flu.

Used to really annoy me when the "company man" type dragged himself to work coughing over everyone - now he gets told to stay home until it passes.

Agreed-- from a distance of course.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

The rain is relentless. It's rained here every weekend since August, and often throughout the week. Even this summer was particularly wet; I think we are sitting at 2nd or 3rd wettest year on record.

So there's no where left for all this water to go except right at the house. It's a man vs nature battle, so far I'm keeping it at bay but all the defense positions are faltering. I do not think I'll be able to hold off a deluge if there happens to be another sizable storm without respite.

-----------

I've been weaning off caffeine. I'm getting awfully close to being able to try going to zero for a week. It's going surprisingly well. When I first started dropping, I suffered brain fog for an afternoon but it dissipated rather quickly and has not come back with each drop.

[noddy]

I dream of rain, we started getting 100F + the moment spring startted, its been a brute of year already and summer hasnt started.

coffee - I used to have an all day problem with, I long since changed to one cup first thing before my drive to work, then black tea after that.

cant say im healthier for it, but i am drinking less milk and sugar.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

That sounds like hell to me.

I love the rain; my favorite type of weather. While I appreciate that most people don't, I've never found it depressing like a lot of people. The connotation just doesn't stick for me.

Yet even I am getting fed up here. We have another speculative 2+ inches coming our way.

The drive way destroyed, the sump-pump crapped out; part of the gutters decimated; and now I find out that one pipe leading water away from the house has collapsed, which is how it got in in the first place.

I've replaced the pump and fixed the gutters. Nothing I can really do about pipes at the moment. I think the well needs to be reassessed too.

Since September when there was a breach in the furnace room, I've set up a perimeter of sandbags and barriers and redirecting all water to buckets with a wet vac on standby.

So it's becoming a full time job, which is not making the rain all that fun.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

coffee - I used to have an all day problem with, I long since changed to one cup first thing before my drive to work, then black tea after that.

cant say im healthier for it, but i am drinking less milk and sugar.

Yep. Health isn't the primary motive here but I'm sure it just can't be good in the long run.

[Doc]

I dream of rain, we started getting 100F + the moment spring startted, its been a brute of year already and summer hasnt started.

coffee - I used to have an all day problem with, I long since changed to one cup first thing before my drive to work, then black tea after that.

cant say im healthier for it, but i am drinking less milk and sugar.

I used less than an ounce of 2% milk, and stevia Works for me. I also lost about 40 pounds in the last year. I thought I wasn't so over weight then I found out an athletic weight for me was about 30 pounds less than I thought it was. And I do feel healthier now. I couldn't live without the coffee.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Congrats on the weight loss.

I've never been a "can't live without coffee" guy, but I was trying to think of when it became habitual and it was my last time overseas when I lost around 30 lbs in the span of 4 months. I think it was a compartmentalizing way to not acknowledge my constant starving and feeling lousy. And the kicker is that I still don't know how I was starving, I was eating three meals a day plus snacking plus the most consistent drinking of alcohol in my life (which meant most nights a glass of wine at dinner and if we went out to pubs, several pints.)

-----------

As for you 'milk and sugar' people: couldn't do that, together it makes me feel lethargic and lousy.

--------

We've been trying more mindfulness about what we actually like eating and where we can shave off some money with the rising food prices.

For me, the ideal day starts with two or three scrambled eggs and occasionally sausage or bacon but it's not a requirement. From there, I can adapt.

If I had my way, I'd probably eat more fish and less chicken.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

I'm 99.7% set for Christmas but I was supposed to get the last few things today and nope; I've contemplated running out right now in a rush, trying to beat the clock.

It just means I'm already dreading the madness of traffic and fellow-last-seconders tomorrow.

Still, it probably is for the best; driving in a rush would do me no good. Hopefully, as some of it is food based, I can snag what I need very early on and avoid most of the trouble.

[noddy]

I made the mistake of hitting town the day before christmas, nearly died 3 times in random car crazyness from frazzled punters pulling out in front of me.

food will be cold cuts and nibbles, too hot for cooking.

>If I had my way, I'd probably eat more fish and less chicken.

yes, the one advantage of living coastal - fish for me always comes frozen so their is a layer of chore involved with cooking it and its never quite at its best.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Yes, it was a day of panic on the roads but I went unscathed.

I grabbed everything I set out for except botching the birthday card for a relative born around this time of year. We usually wait until Christmas to hand it to her, so she's just gotta wait longer.

We started out the consumer season strong and orderly but we capsized sometime mid-December. Too many other things going on, including some bad health news for the holidays in the family. Nothing dire but a reminder of what's always around the corner. Merry Christmas! Hah.

[Nonc Hilaire]

Mrs. Hilaire was born just after Christmas and harbors a lifelong resentment. Her birthday was always ignored or forgotten, and was usually given one ‘combination’ present instead of one for each holiday - disappointing for a child.

It’s still tricky to elevate her birthday in the shade of Christmas/New Year/Epiphany.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Mrs. Hilaire was born just after Christmas and harbors a lifelong resentment. Her birthday was always ignored or forgotten, and was usually given one ‘combination’ present instead of one for each holiday - disappointing for a child.

It’s still tricky to elevate her birthday in the shade of Christmas/New Year/Epiphany.

Yes, that is a tough one. Have a friend whose older brother is a Christmas baby, and according to him, it explains his brother's constant need for attention. Nice guy otherwise.

New Years Eve babies, in my experience, tend to take it a little better.

Ya know who has it rough? The siblings who are all born at roughly the same time. I'm familiar with someone whose family birthdays are all in a row. Four siblings, all something like the 23rd to 26th of a month. One cake, shared presents; survivor wins. And well, frankly, the parents really were set to one routine I guess.

As for my relative, the birthday is much earlier in December, so there is a gap. Its just become more practical to start of Christmas with a pre-Christmas birthday celebration.

[Nonc Hilaire]

New Years Eve babies, in my experience, tend to take it a little better.

I think I was a New Year’s Eve baby. Born in September.

[noddy]

i know a christmas eve baby, woe unto those who give her a combined present, for they will never be forgiven.

[Doc]

Mrs. Hilaire was born just after Christmas and harbors a lifelong resentment. Her birthday was always ignored or forgotten, and was usually given one ‘combination’ present instead of one for each holiday - disappointing for a child.

It’s still tricky to elevate her birthday in the shade of Christmas/New Year/Epiphany.

Same with my Wife. Though she is cool with one present as long as I don't forget to give her a card.