Free as in Bird
August 28, 2023 7:42 AM Subscribe
Free Bird is a song by Lynyrd Skynyrd, released on their 1973 debut album. The notorious now cliched encore request for "Free Bird!" stemmed from Skynyrd's 1976 live album One More from the Road, where Van Zant can be heard asking the crowd, "What song is it you want to hear?" The calls for "Free Bird" led into a fourteen-and-a-half-minute rendition of the song. In 2016, an attendee of a Bob Dylan concert in Berkeley, California, shouted for "Free Bird" to be played, and Dylan and his band unexpectedly obliged.
Happy Monday, friends, here's your Free Thread.
Stairway to Freebird!!!!!
posted by Oh_Bobloblaw at 7:54 AM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Oh_Bobloblaw at 7:54 AM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
This FPP could really use the acapella Andre Braugher version from the film Duets.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:05 AM on August 28, 2023
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:05 AM on August 28, 2023
The late former keyboard player for Lynyrd Skynyrd, Billy Powell, looks like my former brother-in-law.
Carry on.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 8:08 AM on August 28, 2023
Carry on.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 8:08 AM on August 28, 2023
My workplace bocce team Los Palominos is playing our semi-final game today, wish us luck
The chirpiest team of the tournament lost their game on Friday, that means the worst we can do is face them for bronze. I've been letting some nasty trashtalk simmer till the outcome of today's game, but when I pull that cork it's going to be glorious.
posted by elkevelvet at 8:08 AM on August 28, 2023 [9 favorites]
The chirpiest team of the tournament lost their game on Friday, that means the worst we can do is face them for bronze. I've been letting some nasty trashtalk simmer till the outcome of today's game, but when I pull that cork it's going to be glorious.
posted by elkevelvet at 8:08 AM on August 28, 2023 [9 favorites]
Idalia is on her way, so I'm gonna head out and start battening down the yard. Godspeed, west coasters.
posted by saladin at 8:11 AM on August 28, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by saladin at 8:11 AM on August 28, 2023 [9 favorites]
After a jetfueled start, my job search has slowed down in the past week. I am trying to breathe and remind myself that a) this is a marathon, not a sprint, and b) it is the week before Labor Day and a lot of companies may be just saying "ugh, let's wait until after Labor Day to deal with this" and things might pick up again.
Still discouraging to go from "I have 6 invitations for interviews and one of them has even lead to a part-time temp job" to "three 'we're-moving-on-with-other-candidates' emails and otherwise crickets" when you have 30 damn years of job experience.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:12 AM on August 28, 2023 [11 favorites]
Still discouraging to go from "I have 6 invitations for interviews and one of them has even lead to a part-time temp job" to "three 'we're-moving-on-with-other-candidates' emails and otherwise crickets" when you have 30 damn years of job experience.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:12 AM on August 28, 2023 [11 favorites]
Back in the day, I was at a club enjoying a performance by a local alt/new wave/punk band. At one point someone in the audience called-out “Freebird!” The band immediately leaped into an uncannily accurate playing of the into of the song, got about 15 seconds in, stopped, and the guy on guitar said “Anybody can play that shit.” The crowd cheered and the band continued their show.
I can’t say I’m much of a fan of either the band or the song.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:12 AM on August 28, 2023 [12 favorites]
I can’t say I’m much of a fan of either the band or the song.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:12 AM on August 28, 2023 [12 favorites]
I got into a writers' colony retreat in two weeks, so I am pretty chuffed about that. Hoping I can inch further to the end of my novel that I have been working on FOREVER for about four years now.
posted by joannemerriam at 8:16 AM on August 28, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by joannemerriam at 8:16 AM on August 28, 2023 [7 favorites]
At my sister-in-law's wedding last month, the goofy, scholarly groom with a huge LP collection constantly asked the DJ (a friend of his afaik) to play "Foghat!" I don't remember hearing any Foghat that day, or "Free Bird".
Lately I've been getting tunes stuck in my head just from reading MetaFilter OPs. There was "Cannonball", of course, and The Price is Right theme thanks to the Bob Barker obit. post, and, most recently, the very essence of Yacht Rock.
I've also been working on mecha model kits and started wondering about something while shopping online for a replacement kit and a few supplies. During that shopping excursion, I wound up ordering from a mom & pop shop in Massachusetts called Gundam Pros. I've ordered from a few similar shops in the past, mostly with "Gundam" in the name; plus it seems, like so many other hobbies, Gunpla and other robot kits really took off during the worst of the pandemic. Anyway, what I've been wondering is this: are Gunpla-oriented hobby shops the new vehicle-plastic-model-oriented hobby shop? It seems like you don't see the latter much any more, but I'm not in that hobby space.
posted by May Kasahara at 8:20 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Lately I've been getting tunes stuck in my head just from reading MetaFilter OPs. There was "Cannonball", of course, and The Price is Right theme thanks to the Bob Barker obit. post, and, most recently, the very essence of Yacht Rock.
I've also been working on mecha model kits and started wondering about something while shopping online for a replacement kit and a few supplies. During that shopping excursion, I wound up ordering from a mom & pop shop in Massachusetts called Gundam Pros. I've ordered from a few similar shops in the past, mostly with "Gundam" in the name; plus it seems, like so many other hobbies, Gunpla and other robot kits really took off during the worst of the pandemic. Anyway, what I've been wondering is this: are Gunpla-oriented hobby shops the new vehicle-plastic-model-oriented hobby shop? It seems like you don't see the latter much any more, but I'm not in that hobby space.
posted by May Kasahara at 8:20 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
If I log off here tomorrow
Would you still remember me?
For I must be browsin' on, now
'Cause there's too many posts I've got to see
But if I post here with you, girl
Things just couldn't be the same
'Cause I'm as free as a thread now
And this thread you cannot change
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
And the thread you cannot change
And this thread you cannot change
Lord knows I can't change
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 8:20 AM on August 28, 2023 [18 favorites]
Would you still remember me?
For I must be browsin' on, now
'Cause there's too many posts I've got to see
But if I post here with you, girl
Things just couldn't be the same
'Cause I'm as free as a thread now
And this thread you cannot change
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
And the thread you cannot change
And this thread you cannot change
Lord knows I can't change
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 8:20 AM on August 28, 2023 [18 favorites]
We had a lovely family mini-break to launch boy theBRKP into the return to school. Part of it at an amusement park, part of it with my sibling and his family. My niblings are five and both of them are hell on wheels in a good, utterly exhausting way. My SIL is counting down the days to pre-school and seriously considering moving them from half to all day (I am encouraging this). Kiddo did a fantastic job playing much-older-cousin with the two of them. We returned with a bounty of fresh farm eggs and vegetables.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 8:23 AM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 8:23 AM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
I may have said this before in other threads, but if so, I'll say it again: the best treatment of the song's subject by a southern rock band is the Allman Bros.' "Ramblin' Man", and the best endless-guitar-solo-coda song by a southern rock band is The Outlaws' "Green Grass and High Tides." But I've made my peace with the F-bird, because I realized that the best part of it isn't the guitar riff; it's the very beginning with the organ/piano duet that just rolls in in the most grand way.
Countess Elena, I totally get cardio fatigue. I've had some success with a recumbent exercise bike that is fine for TV watching, and it didn't cost me nearly $2K, although I had to wait for a sale.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:25 AM on August 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
Countess Elena, I totally get cardio fatigue. I've had some success with a recumbent exercise bike that is fine for TV watching, and it didn't cost me nearly $2K, although I had to wait for a sale.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:25 AM on August 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
My legal grow girls are hit and miss this year. Two of them have gotten gorgeously bushy and huge but are not as deep green as I wish the leaves would be. (I practice more or less benign neglect with my cannabis plants. They get very good water, very good fertilizer/food, but really after that, they're on their own.) I am growing Violator Kush and Pink Lemonade. (My Headband seeds did not sprout, which is a pity because Headband is a dope stone.)
I mean, honestly when you can access good legal weed, growing is more a hobby than any real desire to circumvent the current LPs. (And though they are getting bogged down by the excrecable amount of taxes, there are some smaller LPs who are making good shit. For example, Triple Burger by Tribal is my current smoke and holy shit, it's heavy. I LOVE it.)
As a part of my marketing budget for my one-woman cannabis education business, I sponsored the movie Thelma & Louise, which is/was showing as part of a summer movie series at my local independent movie theater. When I paid for the sponsorship--which was part of a new projector fundraiser--I got access to an amazing list of movies the theater are planning to run the rest of the year so I could choose the most appropriate one. And as much as I kinda wanted to sponsor Big Trouble in Little China, The Council of Friends (a group of friends who I ask about feedback on stuff I want to do professionally) suggested that given my target market is women 40+ looking for change, Thelma & Louise was agreed to be the most apt. I had to do an intro video for the movie showings and as someone who hates to be on camera, it was a challenge! Public professional visibility is something I struggle with and in the age of social media, it is a necessary evil.
posted by Kitteh at 8:27 AM on August 28, 2023 [7 favorites]
I mean, honestly when you can access good legal weed, growing is more a hobby than any real desire to circumvent the current LPs. (And though they are getting bogged down by the excrecable amount of taxes, there are some smaller LPs who are making good shit. For example, Triple Burger by Tribal is my current smoke and holy shit, it's heavy. I LOVE it.)
As a part of my marketing budget for my one-woman cannabis education business, I sponsored the movie Thelma & Louise, which is/was showing as part of a summer movie series at my local independent movie theater. When I paid for the sponsorship--which was part of a new projector fundraiser--I got access to an amazing list of movies the theater are planning to run the rest of the year so I could choose the most appropriate one. And as much as I kinda wanted to sponsor Big Trouble in Little China, The Council of Friends (a group of friends who I ask about feedback on stuff I want to do professionally) suggested that given my target market is women 40+ looking for change, Thelma & Louise was agreed to be the most apt. I had to do an intro video for the movie showings and as someone who hates to be on camera, it was a challenge! Public professional visibility is something I struggle with and in the age of social media, it is a necessary evil.
posted by Kitteh at 8:27 AM on August 28, 2023 [7 favorites]
Tony Soprano was wrong. Yelling "Freebird" at a band is actually the lowest form of conversation.
posted by emelenjr at 8:28 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by emelenjr at 8:28 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
I've often wondered if there are any musicians in any genre who aren't tired of people yelling "Free Bird!" at their shows. Some guy was yelling it at a taiko drumming performance I was in...
posted by Foosnark at 8:30 AM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Foosnark at 8:30 AM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
There was a little two guitar jazz combo that played the restaurant I worked at in the early 00's on Sundays.
One week, there was a table of people near them a bit into their cups who started shouting "Play Free Bird" between songs.
One of the guitarists said, "Hey man, be cool: we're jazz musicians. We play jazz songs."
The room was quiet for a second and it seemed his point had been made.
Then one of the drunk dudes shouted, "PLAY 'GIANT STEPS'!"
I sent him a drink on the house.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:36 AM on August 28, 2023 [34 favorites]
One week, there was a table of people near them a bit into their cups who started shouting "Play Free Bird" between songs.
One of the guitarists said, "Hey man, be cool: we're jazz musicians. We play jazz songs."
The room was quiet for a second and it seemed his point had been made.
Then one of the drunk dudes shouted, "PLAY 'GIANT STEPS'!"
I sent him a drink on the house.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:36 AM on August 28, 2023 [34 favorites]
First day of classes, first day as a full-time instructor instead of an adjunct. Just a little bit nervous.
posted by tommasz at 8:38 AM on August 28, 2023 [18 favorites]
posted by tommasz at 8:38 AM on August 28, 2023 [18 favorites]
Empress Callipygos
I am starting week 3 of my new job after 4 months of searching. You have my sympathies and encouragement! Hope it speeds up for you.
posted by mmrtnt at 8:39 AM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
I am starting week 3 of my new job after 4 months of searching. You have my sympathies and encouragement! Hope it speeds up for you.
posted by mmrtnt at 8:39 AM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
I have COVID for the first time (first time with symptoms and confirming test) :(
I feel like I should get a prize for making it this long, like maybe a personal pan pizza or something
posted by daisystomper at 8:50 AM on August 28, 2023 [20 favorites]
I feel like I should get a prize for making it this long, like maybe a personal pan pizza or something
posted by daisystomper at 8:50 AM on August 28, 2023 [20 favorites]
Believe it or not there is already a hopeful sign, no more than 30 minutes after my comment above!
Ten days ago someone had reached back out to me about a job application; she was a recruiter from the staffing service who'd posted the ad. She was a bit rushed - she worked remotely and was calling from her car - but we had a positive conversation, and as is often the case with staffing services, she also thought of a couple of other positions that I may be even MORE qualified for. However, she added, there were other people taking the lead on those gigs, and she wanted to bring them in the loop. She told me a lot about her agency and it sounded like a dream of a place, so I was all in. She said great, she'd get to the office and reach back out; she wanted to target a videocall that afternoon, but would have to check with her colleagues first to set that up. I changed into a corporate-drag-appropriate shirt and waited.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaand nothing.
I followed back up with her a couple more times over the next couple days, and got no response. I took some initiative and sent my resume into the staffing service in question, and even applied to a couple of the postings from other people - nothing.
Then just now, I texted her one more time to check back in again, and to say that I was also interested in even just a general "hey, here's me" interview with the service's New York office; should i reach out directly, I asked? And - I got an apologetic text back, saying that they'd had a couple of their clients who'd posted jobs ask if they could put the search on hold until just after Labor Day, and THAT was why things had fallen silent. Could we speak again the 1st or 2nd week of September, she asked?
And that's given me a good idea in general - quietly submit my resume into the general-talent-pool at a few staffing agencies, and then wait until just after Labor Day and then call to follow up at a few, and set up "hi, here's me" interviews with them. Let SOMEONE ELSE do the hunting for a change.
But in the meantime the person I thought ghosted me actually was just flakey and has come back.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:51 AM on August 28, 2023 [13 favorites]
Ten days ago someone had reached back out to me about a job application; she was a recruiter from the staffing service who'd posted the ad. She was a bit rushed - she worked remotely and was calling from her car - but we had a positive conversation, and as is often the case with staffing services, she also thought of a couple of other positions that I may be even MORE qualified for. However, she added, there were other people taking the lead on those gigs, and she wanted to bring them in the loop. She told me a lot about her agency and it sounded like a dream of a place, so I was all in. She said great, she'd get to the office and reach back out; she wanted to target a videocall that afternoon, but would have to check with her colleagues first to set that up. I changed into a corporate-drag-appropriate shirt and waited.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaand nothing.
I followed back up with her a couple more times over the next couple days, and got no response. I took some initiative and sent my resume into the staffing service in question, and even applied to a couple of the postings from other people - nothing.
Then just now, I texted her one more time to check back in again, and to say that I was also interested in even just a general "hey, here's me" interview with the service's New York office; should i reach out directly, I asked? And - I got an apologetic text back, saying that they'd had a couple of their clients who'd posted jobs ask if they could put the search on hold until just after Labor Day, and THAT was why things had fallen silent. Could we speak again the 1st or 2nd week of September, she asked?
And that's given me a good idea in general - quietly submit my resume into the general-talent-pool at a few staffing agencies, and then wait until just after Labor Day and then call to follow up at a few, and set up "hi, here's me" interviews with them. Let SOMEONE ELSE do the hunting for a change.
But in the meantime the person I thought ghosted me actually was just flakey and has come back.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:51 AM on August 28, 2023 [13 favorites]
I just hate cardio ... so much. So, so much. It's not even the effort -- it's the boredom.
I hear that. I hate just about all exercise that's just exercise, and has no other point. Gyms, exercise equipment, fitness classes... I only succeed with exercise that has a purpose. Example: instead of weight-lifting... I choose yard work, or throwing boxes at a food bank. The one physio activity I actually like is bicycling. It still makes me feel like a 12 yr old, especially when I go exploring, taking new detours, etc. I did a nice 29 km yesterday, that included one spontaneous detour from the planned route. Just because. (I heart Google maps on my phone)
Best wishes to the job seekers. Still digging retirement; I do not miss work, and that particular angst when one is between jobs. Especially in the last several years of my career; ageism is a thing.
posted by Artful Codger at 8:56 AM on August 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
I hear that. I hate just about all exercise that's just exercise, and has no other point. Gyms, exercise equipment, fitness classes... I only succeed with exercise that has a purpose. Example: instead of weight-lifting... I choose yard work, or throwing boxes at a food bank. The one physio activity I actually like is bicycling. It still makes me feel like a 12 yr old, especially when I go exploring, taking new detours, etc. I did a nice 29 km yesterday, that included one spontaneous detour from the planned route. Just because. (I heart Google maps on my phone)
Best wishes to the job seekers. Still digging retirement; I do not miss work, and that particular angst when one is between jobs. Especially in the last several years of my career; ageism is a thing.
posted by Artful Codger at 8:56 AM on August 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
Sunday I helped my friend move books
He has been running a used bookstore for the past 5 years or so, he's in a small town in a rural area, to call it a labour of love would be a gross understatement. He finally decided to pack it in and move on. To put it in perspective, three of us with three vehicles packed out two loads to his place (my old pick-up was filled pretty good both times) and I'm not sure we handled even a quarter of his inventory
It is weird to schlep box after box of books, you really get to thinking about the world and where we're at. At one time in Edmonton there were several *decent* used bookstores and they've all been gone for over 20 years.
posted by elkevelvet at 9:00 AM on August 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
He has been running a used bookstore for the past 5 years or so, he's in a small town in a rural area, to call it a labour of love would be a gross understatement. He finally decided to pack it in and move on. To put it in perspective, three of us with three vehicles packed out two loads to his place (my old pick-up was filled pretty good both times) and I'm not sure we handled even a quarter of his inventory
It is weird to schlep box after box of books, you really get to thinking about the world and where we're at. At one time in Edmonton there were several *decent* used bookstores and they've all been gone for over 20 years.
posted by elkevelvet at 9:00 AM on August 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
Came in to post the Parquet Courts doing, glad to see Abe beat me to it.
Just yesterday I was bombing around on a bike with a big speaker bouncing along to Borrowed Time ...
posted by kaibutsu at 9:24 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Just yesterday I was bombing around on a bike with a big speaker bouncing along to Borrowed Time ...
posted by kaibutsu at 9:24 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oh, another very, very intriguing job-hunt incident:
Last night I was on LinkedIn and saw a local staffing service post an ad that a "global non-profit" was looking for an EA. The salary was right, and I'm amenable to non-profit work, so I tweaked my resume and cover letter a bit to play up my previous non-profit experience with the International Rescue Committee. I sent in my application.
And as I was finishing that up, I noticed the ad mentioned the zip code for the workplace. I Googled that - gotta make sure that it's not in like Westchester, or somewhere where I'd have a hellish commute.
Well - that zip code is in Midtown, and is a highly localized zip code that covers only a couple buildings in a certain city block.
....And the IRC is in one of those buildings.
....Honestly, if this job hunt wraps up with me heading back into the IRC, that's gonna tickle me in a place I can't reach.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:26 AM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
Last night I was on LinkedIn and saw a local staffing service post an ad that a "global non-profit" was looking for an EA. The salary was right, and I'm amenable to non-profit work, so I tweaked my resume and cover letter a bit to play up my previous non-profit experience with the International Rescue Committee. I sent in my application.
And as I was finishing that up, I noticed the ad mentioned the zip code for the workplace. I Googled that - gotta make sure that it's not in like Westchester, or somewhere where I'd have a hellish commute.
Well - that zip code is in Midtown, and is a highly localized zip code that covers only a couple buildings in a certain city block.
....And the IRC is in one of those buildings.
....Honestly, if this job hunt wraps up with me heading back into the IRC, that's gonna tickle me in a place I can't reach.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:26 AM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
I have told my Freebird story here before so apologies to those of you who have heard it. It's a good story and true!
My dear friend Rick died much too young in the 90s. At his memorial service, after his many friends had gotten up and spoken tearfully, after everyone had looked at all the photo albums and gathered some of his ashes (I put mine in a few of those little bottles that ginseng tonic come in and later I made a reliquary for them out of an old TV set with the screen bashed out, which even later was mysteriously stolen from my house, so yes that was then and this is now) his father, who was a minister and officiated at the service, put a slide show up on the screen. And he hit play on the sound system and. . Freebird started. We all looked at each other, nobody from that crowd of punk rockers and hippie kids, artists and students and general layabouts, entirely sure what to do here.
His father said, I don't know much about this song but I know Rick loved it; he was always yelling Play Freebird!
So we all listened to Freebird, every minute of it. And I have never cried at Freebird before or since but I did then, even though part of that might have been from holding in the laughter. And if I believe such things, which I'm never sure I do, I know that RIck was laughing his ass off in the afterlife.
posted by mygothlaundry at 9:35 AM on August 28, 2023 [27 favorites]
My dear friend Rick died much too young in the 90s. At his memorial service, after his many friends had gotten up and spoken tearfully, after everyone had looked at all the photo albums and gathered some of his ashes (I put mine in a few of those little bottles that ginseng tonic come in and later I made a reliquary for them out of an old TV set with the screen bashed out, which even later was mysteriously stolen from my house, so yes that was then and this is now) his father, who was a minister and officiated at the service, put a slide show up on the screen. And he hit play on the sound system and. . Freebird started. We all looked at each other, nobody from that crowd of punk rockers and hippie kids, artists and students and general layabouts, entirely sure what to do here.
His father said, I don't know much about this song but I know Rick loved it; he was always yelling Play Freebird!
So we all listened to Freebird, every minute of it. And I have never cried at Freebird before or since but I did then, even though part of that might have been from holding in the laughter. And if I believe such things, which I'm never sure I do, I know that RIck was laughing his ass off in the afterlife.
posted by mygothlaundry at 9:35 AM on August 28, 2023 [27 favorites]
I am in the middle of a job search due to being so bored and disconnected from my job. But also stressed by it.
Mostly I am looking for remote+ some kind of green or eco-focused industry + writing/editing/proposal work. I hate working in the office all the time and i want to feel like I'm helping improve...well, anything.
posted by emjaybee at 9:39 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Mostly I am looking for remote+ some kind of green or eco-focused industry + writing/editing/proposal work. I hate working in the office all the time and i want to feel like I'm helping improve...well, anything.
posted by emjaybee at 9:39 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Going to see my doc at 2:00 this afternoon. This distressingly melanoma-like spot appeared on my forearm last week (well, that when I first noticed it, anyway,) and I really need to get a “yep” or “nah” vote from someone with a little more training than my friends.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:40 AM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 9:40 AM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
Kitteh you grow outside or indoors?
My spouse has been growing what I like to call indoor tomatoes (a certain plant is legal here now, but I haven't shook the feeling that it's illicit). I love how the growing itself has become a hobby for him, and how much he enjoys the process. The basement tent thing is fine, 'cause an outdoor grow is a no-go for Reasons.
But I HATE the electric bill. hate hate hate. The lights are supposed to be energy efficient or something, idk, I didn't want to meddle in his hobby or second-guess his choices but... cries in Eversource electrical companyhostage customer
Wonder if I could piggyback on his setup to grow some regular edibles like non-scandalous herbs or actual tomatoes or something without messing with the airflow or whatever
posted by Baethan at 9:41 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
My spouse has been growing what I like to call indoor tomatoes (a certain plant is legal here now, but I haven't shook the feeling that it's illicit). I love how the growing itself has become a hobby for him, and how much he enjoys the process. The basement tent thing is fine, 'cause an outdoor grow is a no-go for Reasons.
But I HATE the electric bill. hate hate hate. The lights are supposed to be energy efficient or something, idk, I didn't want to meddle in his hobby or second-guess his choices but... cries in Eversource electrical company
Wonder if I could piggyback on his setup to grow some regular edibles like non-scandalous herbs or actual tomatoes or something without messing with the airflow or whatever
posted by Baethan at 9:41 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
One of my friends from high school, Natalie, liked to tell the story of how she was conceived at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. She crashed her car on Oct 11, 2001 and will be 18 forever—but her grave marker reads “FREE BIRD,” and that still brings a tear to my eye.
Yesterday was a dreampop day; today seems like it’s going to be my day to celebrate friends who died (before this was posted, I listened to old voicemails from my dear friend Liz and read old texts from my dear friend Allison). Tell people you love them while they are still alive to hear you and love you too.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:50 AM on August 28, 2023 [10 favorites]
Yesterday was a dreampop day; today seems like it’s going to be my day to celebrate friends who died (before this was posted, I listened to old voicemails from my dear friend Liz and read old texts from my dear friend Allison). Tell people you love them while they are still alive to hear you and love you too.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:50 AM on August 28, 2023 [10 favorites]
you grow outside or indoors?
Outdoors only! I do not have the patience to set up an indoor grow. With an outdoor grow, I can just let the plants do their thing with much less fuss. This book inspired me to try my hand at growing full stop because much like so much information with cannabis, everything is very...male? Anyway, this is my third outdoor growing season and I honestly just enjoy the process. Cannabis plants are really cool.
Like, the cannabis industry is very bro-ey I find and most male growers are horrified that I don't sink a shit ton of money into an indoor grow. Listen, I grow what I need for me. They can worry about themselves.
posted by Kitteh at 10:00 AM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
Outdoors only! I do not have the patience to set up an indoor grow. With an outdoor grow, I can just let the plants do their thing with much less fuss. This book inspired me to try my hand at growing full stop because much like so much information with cannabis, everything is very...male? Anyway, this is my third outdoor growing season and I honestly just enjoy the process. Cannabis plants are really cool.
Like, the cannabis industry is very bro-ey I find and most male growers are horrified that I don't sink a shit ton of money into an indoor grow. Listen, I grow what I need for me. They can worry about themselves.
posted by Kitteh at 10:00 AM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
West Coast Floridian here, one of several on the Blue. We're watching Idalia trudging up through the Gulf. Right now the infamous Cone of Uncertainty has it making landfall as a Cat 3 major hurricane up north of Tampa, kind of on a parallel with Ocala. But given that the last three have made abrupt right turns earlier than expected, I'm pretty nervous. An early right hook could bring it right on top of us, and we're less than a mile inland.
The last one tore up a relative's house on Sanibel Island literally three days before they were going to put it on the market. We're looking at putting ours on the market and leaving this hellscape in late spring. Just hope the house is still intact by then.
posted by martin q blank at 10:01 AM on August 28, 2023 [7 favorites]
The last one tore up a relative's house on Sanibel Island literally three days before they were going to put it on the market. We're looking at putting ours on the market and leaving this hellscape in late spring. Just hope the house is still intact by then.
posted by martin q blank at 10:01 AM on August 28, 2023 [7 favorites]
If too many people call out “Free Bird” at a Jason Webley show, he will play this.
posted by mbrubeck at 10:03 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by mbrubeck at 10:03 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
West Coast Floridian here, one of several on the Blue. We're watching Idalia trudging up through the Gulf. Right now the infamous Cone of Uncertainty has it making landfall as a Cat 3 major hurricane up north of Tampa, kind of on a parallel with Ocala. But given that the last three have made abrupt right turns earlier than expected, I'm pretty nervous. An early right hook could bring it right on top of us, and we're less than a mile inland.
My dad lives in Cedar Key. He texted me to say he and my stepmom are evacuating tomorrow. My dad has been in law enforcement of some stripe or another my entire life and never evacuated for previous hurricanes because it was his job to keep an eye on things but now it's his turn as a civilian to leave.
posted by Kitteh at 10:04 AM on August 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
My dad lives in Cedar Key. He texted me to say he and my stepmom are evacuating tomorrow. My dad has been in law enforcement of some stripe or another my entire life and never evacuated for previous hurricanes because it was his job to keep an eye on things but now it's his turn as a civilian to leave.
posted by Kitteh at 10:04 AM on August 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
Sunday I helped my friend move books
I helped an Egyptologist friend move once, and she had a lot of books, and there were multiple flights of stairs involved. We decided that weekend that the heaviest books are the ones in German, because longer words mean more ink.
posted by Foosnark at 10:05 AM on August 28, 2023 [8 favorites]
I helped an Egyptologist friend move once, and she had a lot of books, and there were multiple flights of stairs involved. We decided that weekend that the heaviest books are the ones in German, because longer words mean more ink.
posted by Foosnark at 10:05 AM on August 28, 2023 [8 favorites]
Outdoors only! I do not have the patience to set up an indoor grow. With an outdoor grow, I can just let the plants do their thing with much less fuss.
Thanks for the book rec! I was planning on an outdoor grow next season, but New York's regulations are surprisingly unfriendly, given the intention of the law: your grow "may not be plainly visible from public view, including from the street [...] or on the grounds of the [...] private residence." Which means I'd need an outdoor greenhouse, which defeats half the purpose of growing outdoors to begin with.
I still might stick a couple in pots on the back deck and hope the neighbors don't narc, but the way our yards are situated, there are about half a dozen households who could conceivably see into our yard.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:11 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Thanks for the book rec! I was planning on an outdoor grow next season, but New York's regulations are surprisingly unfriendly, given the intention of the law: your grow "may not be plainly visible from public view, including from the street [...] or on the grounds of the [...] private residence." Which means I'd need an outdoor greenhouse, which defeats half the purpose of growing outdoors to begin with.
I still might stick a couple in pots on the back deck and hope the neighbors don't narc, but the way our yards are situated, there are about half a dozen households who could conceivably see into our yard.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:11 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
I've got a friend who lives just south of Clearwater and I don't think she's worried enough, I really hope she'll be okay. Fortunately her house is about 40 feet above sea level...a small comfort.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:14 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:14 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
My gals are in big fabric pots on my deck behind our privacy fence. Truthfully, my only real worry is that as they mature, shady folks might decide to liberate them from my yard. It happens pretty regularly to home growers, I hear.
What makes legalization so funny is that I learned just how many of my friends were growing pot all along and now it's not uncommon to hear neighbours compare notes about their own grows!
posted by Kitteh at 10:15 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
What makes legalization so funny is that I learned just how many of my friends were growing pot all along and now it's not uncommon to hear neighbours compare notes about their own grows!
posted by Kitteh at 10:15 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Surely you could get some bamboo in pots and use those to screen from view the plants you're really wanting to grow. Don't plant bamboo directly in the ground unless you plan on always having bamboo there.
posted by hippybear at 10:15 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 10:15 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
The fires here are getting under control. There are two fires that have done a lot of damage. This article from the local paper give a good overview. I really feel like we, as a household, dodged a bullet that a whole lot of other families did not.
posted by hippybear at 10:18 AM on August 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 10:18 AM on August 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
Here's a free video of a bird!
I made a little nature watch camera and have been filming a li'l hummingbird who comes to visit.
posted by jazon at 10:24 AM on August 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
I made a little nature watch camera and have been filming a li'l hummingbird who comes to visit.
posted by jazon at 10:24 AM on August 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
Don't plant bamboo directly in the ground unless you plan on always having bamboo there.
Which is why it's actually against the law to plant many kinds of bamboo here. But in any case, yeah, there are lots of solutions that involve what I'd describe as more effort than I'm willing to go to for what's really a because-I-can grow.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:26 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Which is why it's actually against the law to plant many kinds of bamboo here. But in any case, yeah, there are lots of solutions that involve what I'd describe as more effort than I'm willing to go to for what's really a because-I-can grow.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:26 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Because a) this is a free thread and b) it's common knowledge Gen X is, let's say well-represented in our ranks...
Remember how a few years back, they fixed the terrible mix on The Replacements' Don't Tell a Soul?
They did that for Tim now. New box set coming out with an improved (i.e. not tinny garbage) mix by Ed Stasium.
Here's the improved version of "Left of the Dial."
More info on the coming box set.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:35 AM on August 28, 2023 [9 favorites]
Remember how a few years back, they fixed the terrible mix on The Replacements' Don't Tell a Soul?
They did that for Tim now. New box set coming out with an improved (i.e. not tinny garbage) mix by Ed Stasium.
Here's the improved version of "Left of the Dial."
More info on the coming box set.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:35 AM on August 28, 2023 [9 favorites]
In a punkish college club I once yelled, "Play some Skinnerd!" from the mosh pit. In all honesty I was big, drunk, and trying to provoke a sneering too-cool punk into further roughhousing. The lead singer was awesome however and yelled back, "OK smartass!" and belted out a credible sped-up Gimme Three Steps. I loved that band.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:35 AM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:35 AM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
For one glorious summer, I hosted a radio show on CFRC called "Left of the Dial" to celebrate the heyday of college rock. It was so much fun. Guess what the theme song was?
posted by Kitteh at 10:37 AM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 10:37 AM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
Because a) this is a free thread and b) it's common knowledge Gen X is, let's say well-represented in our ranks...
Remember how a few years back, they fixed the terrible mix on The Replacements' Don't Tell a Soul?
Hey now. Lots of us geezers are OG fans of the Placemats. Great news about Tim!
posted by Thorzdad at 10:48 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Remember how a few years back, they fixed the terrible mix on The Replacements' Don't Tell a Soul?
Hey now. Lots of us geezers are OG fans of the Placemats. Great news about Tim!
posted by Thorzdad at 10:48 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
For one glorious summer, I hosted a radio show
kindred spirits, Kitteh! for me it was co-hosting a midnight show on campus radio, we had so much fun!! we did a regular segment called Anything But Sheryl Crow and the caller got to choose my co-host's Sheryl Crow selection, or let me pick something. I did not keep score but it was close..
posted by elkevelvet at 10:50 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
kindred spirits, Kitteh! for me it was co-hosting a midnight show on campus radio, we had so much fun!! we did a regular segment called Anything But Sheryl Crow and the caller got to choose my co-host's Sheryl Crow selection, or let me pick something. I did not keep score but it was close..
posted by elkevelvet at 10:50 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
I finally, after over a decade of depression and severe anxiety, scheduled an appointment to talk with a therapist this week. I basically had a panic attack when my friend and I were heading out to pick up a couch for my new apartment. Why that triggered a panic attack I have no idea but she helped me through it and offered me her therapist's information. I'm both excited and kinda terrified about it but I know that this is something I need to do.
posted by downtohisturtles at 10:54 AM on August 28, 2023 [18 favorites]
posted by downtohisturtles at 10:54 AM on August 28, 2023 [18 favorites]
downtohisturtles, I am glad you called. Make sure to have that talk this week, too!
You deserve to feel good.
posted by wenestvedt at 10:58 AM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
You deserve to feel good.
posted by wenestvedt at 10:58 AM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
Erm, this is another mostly german comment, but I feel frei right?
So, this weekend I visited the nearby Poetenfest. It's mostly a book-selling campaign, but I found a book I kinda found curious: "Trip mit Tropf" (uh, "trip with infusion" I guess?), a biographically inspired fable about a bunny and a wolf being treated in the same forest clinic for (never mentioned) cancer and bullet wounds, respectively, until the hunter responsible for the bullet wound comes in for round 2 and the bunny saves the life of the wolf by inadvertently deflecting a shot with her infusion pole, and the writing tickled my funny bone?
Bear, scratching her chin: "So, if it's not the wolf codex that binds you to this rabbit - what might it be?"
Wolf, crossing arms: "I don't understand the question."
Bear, staring at wolf, who is staring right back: "I think it's more likely you don't understand the answer."
Then it started to rain and the author had a session in a dry place advertising a reading of her book. How do you read a comic? Never been to one. Well she had a laptop and powerpoint and did all voices herself! I was still muchly impressed and there was a lot of applause and she read the whole thing.
Anyway, I learned it took a few attempts to find a publisher because nobody could figure what the target audience might be. And there's still no english language publisher for about the same reason. But there ARE almost a dozen translations and kids apparently love the book.
Course there's no english review I could link here. But I can link the first chapter I guess.
posted by flamewise at 11:04 AM on August 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
So, this weekend I visited the nearby Poetenfest. It's mostly a book-selling campaign, but I found a book I kinda found curious: "Trip mit Tropf" (uh, "trip with infusion" I guess?), a biographically inspired fable about a bunny and a wolf being treated in the same forest clinic for (never mentioned) cancer and bullet wounds, respectively, until the hunter responsible for the bullet wound comes in for round 2 and the bunny saves the life of the wolf by inadvertently deflecting a shot with her infusion pole, and the writing tickled my funny bone?
Bear, scratching her chin: "So, if it's not the wolf codex that binds you to this rabbit - what might it be?"
Wolf, crossing arms: "I don't understand the question."
Bear, staring at wolf, who is staring right back: "I think it's more likely you don't understand the answer."
Then it started to rain and the author had a session in a dry place advertising a reading of her book. How do you read a comic? Never been to one. Well she had a laptop and powerpoint and did all voices herself! I was still muchly impressed and there was a lot of applause and she read the whole thing.
Anyway, I learned it took a few attempts to find a publisher because nobody could figure what the target audience might be. And there's still no english language publisher for about the same reason. But there ARE almost a dozen translations and kids apparently love the book.
Course there's no english review I could link here. But I can link the first chapter I guess.
posted by flamewise at 11:04 AM on August 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
My little girl's elementary school's PTA is hosting a movie night in a few weeks, and they've asked us to vote for which movie we want to see. They have, wisely, provided us a menu of choices - perhaps anticipating my first impulse, which was to demand Breaking the Waves.
The choices are :
Turning Red (PG)
The Little Mermaid (PG)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (PG)
The Super Mario Bros Movie (PG)
Minions: The Rise of Gru (PG)
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (PG)
DC League of Super-Pets (PG)
Strange World (PG)
If I ask her, she'll pick Spider-Man because she's absolutely gaga over Spidey and His Amazing Friends on Disney+. But that's the one where everyone is like 10 years old and the villains go around stealing birthday cakes and planting stink bombs to ruin the Halloween parade. So she'd probably be a bit overwhelmed.
The rest of these she doesn't know, and I don't know several of them myself. (Including the Spider-Man movie because apparently that's the second one, not Into the Spider-Verse.)
So, not knowing what else do to, I will vote for whatever gets the most votes here.
posted by Naberius at 11:14 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
The choices are :
Turning Red (PG)
The Little Mermaid (PG)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (PG)
The Super Mario Bros Movie (PG)
Minions: The Rise of Gru (PG)
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (PG)
DC League of Super-Pets (PG)
Strange World (PG)
If I ask her, she'll pick Spider-Man because she's absolutely gaga over Spidey and His Amazing Friends on Disney+. But that's the one where everyone is like 10 years old and the villains go around stealing birthday cakes and planting stink bombs to ruin the Halloween parade. So she'd probably be a bit overwhelmed.
The rest of these she doesn't know, and I don't know several of them myself. (Including the Spider-Man movie because apparently that's the second one, not Into the Spider-Verse.)
So, not knowing what else do to, I will vote for whatever gets the most votes here.
posted by Naberius at 11:14 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
FWIW, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is shockingly good. (95% fresh on RT).
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:16 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:16 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
nobody could figure what the target audience might be. And there's still no english language publisher for about the same reason. But there ARE almost a dozen translations and kids apparently love the book.
I swear, I opened the link and by the second page my children had magically appeared to look over my shoulder. Kiddo 1: "I wish we could read it."
posted by Baethan at 11:16 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
I swear, I opened the link and by the second page my children had magically appeared to look over my shoulder. Kiddo 1: "I wish we could read it."
posted by Baethan at 11:16 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'd probably vote "Turning Red"
posted by flamewise at 11:16 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by flamewise at 11:16 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse! The animation is FANTASTIC!
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 11:17 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 11:17 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yesterday, for the 8,052nd time, I accidentally destroyed something of my partner's. In this case, three clay planters containing baby sprouts he'd been carefully nursing from seed in an effort to stay sane and make something grow during Texas hellfire summer. They were his tiny symbols of hope in an awful wave of climate desolation and he was understandably apoplectic. We're so many clumsy incidents past the point of "just an accident," and he's sick of it and I'm sick of it. I'm an athletic person, and I like to think I'm in tune with my body, but every time this happens (often) it sends me into a spiral of self-hatred, which is where I'm hanging out today. I think my rising sign is Marmaduke.
In better news, I have a meeting tomorrow with someone at a now-defunct radio station in Boston about absorbing their recorded archive into the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. So even if I destroy everything I and/or my partner own, at least I'm counterbalancing it with some bigger-picture cultural preservation.
posted by mykescipark at 11:24 AM on August 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
In better news, I have a meeting tomorrow with someone at a now-defunct radio station in Boston about absorbing their recorded archive into the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. So even if I destroy everything I and/or my partner own, at least I'm counterbalancing it with some bigger-picture cultural preservation.
posted by mykescipark at 11:24 AM on August 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
I did drag myself into applying for two jobs this weekend. One of them I applied for because someone else said to and that they were a good organization, but I don't really qualify for the job and I don't expect anything to come of it, and it involves a lot of things I do not have experience in or feel comfortable doing. The other one actually sounds like it lines up with my experience and doesn't use the words "first point of contact," or phones/front counter, or anything major financially. I note that I found the actual listing of what the person does online and it was a complete mishmash of shit, but that figures for her.
I don't really have any hopes for this and I don't really care and my hope is long since dead here, but I don't hate #2 right off the bat, at least. I give myself credit for actually applying, since I've delayed at applying for job #1 for at least a month (it has no deadline) and got #2 in before the deadline. I did take myself out for expensive dessert afterwards for filling that shit out. Especially since the online systems were excruciating and inaccurate, like literally I had no ability to put "degree in English" in, for example.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:25 AM on August 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
I don't really have any hopes for this and I don't really care and my hope is long since dead here, but I don't hate #2 right off the bat, at least. I give myself credit for actually applying, since I've delayed at applying for job #1 for at least a month (it has no deadline) and got #2 in before the deadline. I did take myself out for expensive dessert afterwards for filling that shit out. Especially since the online systems were excruciating and inaccurate, like literally I had no ability to put "degree in English" in, for example.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:25 AM on August 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
Into was great. My 17-year old son thought Across the Spider-Verse was even better.
And re: Christopher Cross. Yes, Ride Like the Wind does have the bonus Micheal McDonald going on in the chorus, (who's voice ruins everything IMO), but I think Sailing is the most Yacht Rock you can get.
And I have this imagined scene with MTV's Nina Blackwood interviewing Christopher Cross at some music festival thing. For reasons that just make it funnier, I give Christopher an English accent. And I have performed this monologue for my children many times.
But, Christopher is a bad-ass criminal who has to flee across the border, so who can say what his real voice is.
posted by Windopaene at 11:28 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
And re: Christopher Cross. Yes, Ride Like the Wind does have the bonus Micheal McDonald going on in the chorus, (who's voice ruins everything IMO), but I think Sailing is the most Yacht Rock you can get.
And I have this imagined scene with MTV's Nina Blackwood interviewing Christopher Cross at some music festival thing. For reasons that just make it funnier, I give Christopher an English accent. And I have performed this monologue for my children many times.
But, Christopher is a bad-ass criminal who has to flee across the border, so who can say what his real voice is.
posted by Windopaene at 11:28 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Christopher Cross is a guitar badass. Rick Beato's interview with Cross [50m] is just this insane litany of "oh, and I was playing with them, and later on stage with those other guys".
posted by hippybear at 11:31 AM on August 28, 2023
posted by hippybear at 11:31 AM on August 28, 2023
RE: job interviewing. Spouse is still actively interviewing even though he accepted an offer as the start date for his new employer got pushed back ("equipment issues") and his is not treating it as a done deal until he physically sets foot in the building.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 11:35 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 11:35 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Naberius: Can you cast an antivote? Super Mario Bros is TERRIBLE. It looks cute and I'm not bothered about the voices but the storyline was so halfassed.
Though I might pick it anyways... Have you been to one of those movie nights before? For my kid's school I'd vote for the movie with highest percentage of child-mesmerizing scenes, cause they start a mosh pit¹ during boring scenes. Eg, the Bad Guys had way too many boring talking scenes, and some mild chaos ensued. Super Mario bros might be sufficiently bright and shiny and busy to occupy an auditorium of small human perpetual motion machines. Your kiddo's school might be calmer, though...
¹ less of a purposeful mosh pit, more a natural consequence of a bunch of kids trying to run as fast as possible in one area
posted by Baethan at 11:38 AM on August 28, 2023
Though I might pick it anyways... Have you been to one of those movie nights before? For my kid's school I'd vote for the movie with highest percentage of child-mesmerizing scenes, cause they start a mosh pit¹ during boring scenes. Eg, the Bad Guys had way too many boring talking scenes, and some mild chaos ensued. Super Mario bros might be sufficiently bright and shiny and busy to occupy an auditorium of small human perpetual motion machines. Your kiddo's school might be calmer, though...
¹ less of a purposeful mosh pit, more a natural consequence of a bunch of kids trying to run as fast as possible in one area
posted by Baethan at 11:38 AM on August 28, 2023
Bonus (wonderful, weird) Michael McDonald content: CBS Evening News tells the story of the otherwise average and normal 11 year old girl with an enduring fandom/obsession/crush for Michael McDonald.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:44 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:44 AM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
I post art here from time to time and this would be a very different painting for me; I live in British Columbia and we are having the worst fire season in recorded history here.
I had started a painting sort of as an exercise concerning the colour red but then fires got really, really bad and and the meaning of the piece changed.
My response to what's going on here, a small 16 by 20 inch painting, which as I said, is very different for me.
Take care everyone and thank you for this lovely thread.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 11:56 AM on August 28, 2023 [7 favorites]
I had started a painting sort of as an exercise concerning the colour red but then fires got really, really bad and and the meaning of the piece changed.
My response to what's going on here, a small 16 by 20 inch painting, which as I said, is very different for me.
Take care everyone and thank you for this lovely thread.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 11:56 AM on August 28, 2023 [7 favorites]
butts.
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 12:07 PM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 12:07 PM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
> Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse! The animation is FANTASTIC!
movie so pretty i cry. i cry all through movie. i cry at gwen stacyverse. i cry at mumbattan. i cry at illicit homebrew transdimensional anarchist zine-slash-poster portal. i cry at beautiful upside-down conversation. so pretty, everything so pretty, even through tears.
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 12:10 PM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
movie so pretty i cry. i cry all through movie. i cry at gwen stacyverse. i cry at mumbattan. i cry at illicit homebrew transdimensional anarchist zine-slash-poster portal. i cry at beautiful upside-down conversation. so pretty, everything so pretty, even through tears.
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 12:10 PM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
spider-man: across the spider-verse is why eyes were invented. the animation in spider-verse is an indictment against how reality looks, because non-spider-verse reality is fundamentally inadequate when put up against spider-verse. spider-verse is prettiest thing.
why is prettiest thing too many spider-mans? i do not know! i did not expect prettiest thing to be too many spider-mans! but when i ask the movie "why, movie, why is it that the most beautiful thing is spider-mans?" the movie says
why is prettiest thing too many spider-mans? i do not know! i did not expect prettiest thing to be too many spider-mans! but when i ask the movie "why, movie, why is it that the most beautiful thing is spider-mans?" the movie says
shh shh shhhh. look at the spider-mans, look at the spider-womans, look at the outside-of-binary-gender spider-folks, have more spider-folks, pretty pretty spider-folks. be quiet and watch the prettiest thing.posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 12:23 PM on August 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
and listen to some tunes. they're good tunes.
Here's the improved version of "Left of the Dial." yt
I personally like the "All for Nothing, and Nothing At All" mix better- less emphasis on the guitar riffs and the Westerberg vocal noodling at the end is not really needed. But if I had heard this one bunch, it'd be fine.
Also I'd vote for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, but it is kinda scary for small kids. DC League of Super Pets is fine too.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:35 PM on August 28, 2023
I personally like the "All for Nothing, and Nothing At All" mix better- less emphasis on the guitar riffs and the Westerberg vocal noodling at the end is not really needed. But if I had heard this one bunch, it'd be fine.
Also I'd vote for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, but it is kinda scary for small kids. DC League of Super Pets is fine too.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:35 PM on August 28, 2023
just got back from Scotland after roughly 10 days staying with recently-widowed Mum. It was good to be back, and even better to visit old haunts like Portpatrick. Hung out with my sis in her tiny hamlet in v. North Yorkshire (obligatory Colin the Cat tax photo). Fun times, slightly jetlagged.
Seems we must've been one of the last flights out of the UK before NATS snarled completely, too. Busiest flight day of the year, after all.
posted by scruss at 12:39 PM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
Seems we must've been one of the last flights out of the UK before NATS snarled completely, too. Busiest flight day of the year, after all.
posted by scruss at 12:39 PM on August 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
butts, lol.
Come on, bombastic lowercase pronouncements -- you know very well that "butts" without "lol" is nothing....but "butts lol" is goddamned art.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:43 PM on August 28, 2023
Come on, bombastic lowercase pronouncements -- you know very well that "butts" without "lol" is nothing....but "butts lol" is goddamned art.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:43 PM on August 28, 2023
✶｡ 🎀 𝒷𝓊𝓉𝓉𝓈. 🎀 ｡✶
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 1:07 PM on August 28, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 1:07 PM on August 28, 2023 [11 favorites]
I go to a small local dog park. It’s nice and grassy. The dogs pee and poop and chase each other to their heart’s content. Good doggo’s all around!
Never did I expect to turn up and find people sitting on the ground picnicking with their small dog right in the middle of it. Like full on eating their dinner, sitting on the ground. With their kids running around and picking daisies before handling food with unwashed hands. Am I missing something? Is this just what we do now?
posted by inflatablekiwi at 1:09 PM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Never did I expect to turn up and find people sitting on the ground picnicking with their small dog right in the middle of it. Like full on eating their dinner, sitting on the ground. With their kids running around and picking daisies before handling food with unwashed hands. Am I missing something? Is this just what we do now?
posted by inflatablekiwi at 1:09 PM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
I will vote for whatever gets the most votes here.
Another vote for Turning Red. It’s awesome, and I’m just a weeee bit surprised it’s on the list.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:16 PM on August 28, 2023
Another vote for Turning Red. It’s awesome, and I’m just a weeee bit surprised it’s on the list.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:16 PM on August 28, 2023
I am not having a picnic at the dog park, ever.
But I am an old, so who knows what we do now...
posted by Windopaene at 1:40 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
But I am an old, so who knows what we do now...
posted by Windopaene at 1:40 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
I spent the weekend at a film festival, saw several neat things. Unfortunately the organization running the show seems to be struggling; I don't know whether it's funding troubles, interpersonal conflict, post-pandemic slump, the strikes, or all of the above. But I hope they're able to do it again next year.
posted by mersen at 1:46 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by mersen at 1:46 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Week before last my son and his gf went off camping and to a big music festival. They came back this past Wednesday. Thursday they were tired. Friday they were sick. By Saturday morning they both tested positive for Covid. They live with me - as do my daughter, her bf and their toddler - but there really isn't a whole lot of interaction.
The toddler started getting sick on Thursday night. Is it Covid or something unrelated? Sure seems like a normal cold. She's in daycare, so who knows? Am I sick? I can't tell. I'm tired and headachey and a little stuffed up, but I often am. I'm a little dizzy, a little more out of it, maybe, then usual. The rapid test was negative, but I always test negative for everything even when I absolutely have it (see pregnancy back in the day, and existence of Covid son.) It's all part of being an alien: I don't show up on your puny human tests. I tested negative back in 2021 and the doctor told me he didn't care what the test said, I had Covid and please get out of his office and go home.
So today I'm in my office with a mask and a closed office door and I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing here. Do we even have a Covid protocol? Not at my workplace anymore. What's the etiquette? I don't know what to do. I looked to see if anyone was offering proper testing, not just the rapid ones, but nope, that's no longer a thing. I guess I just have to wait and see if I get sicker and then hope my new boss lets me stay home with only one line in the test window. If we can even get more rapid tests.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:54 PM on August 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
The toddler started getting sick on Thursday night. Is it Covid or something unrelated? Sure seems like a normal cold. She's in daycare, so who knows? Am I sick? I can't tell. I'm tired and headachey and a little stuffed up, but I often am. I'm a little dizzy, a little more out of it, maybe, then usual. The rapid test was negative, but I always test negative for everything even when I absolutely have it (see pregnancy back in the day, and existence of Covid son.) It's all part of being an alien: I don't show up on your puny human tests. I tested negative back in 2021 and the doctor told me he didn't care what the test said, I had Covid and please get out of his office and go home.
So today I'm in my office with a mask and a closed office door and I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing here. Do we even have a Covid protocol? Not at my workplace anymore. What's the etiquette? I don't know what to do. I looked to see if anyone was offering proper testing, not just the rapid ones, but nope, that's no longer a thing. I guess I just have to wait and see if I get sicker and then hope my new boss lets me stay home with only one line in the test window. If we can even get more rapid tests.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:54 PM on August 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
Thinking of former company chicanery keeps me from thinking of current ongoing disasters:
BigCo president (2k+ local employees, 40k+ worldwide) sent out an email about some training opportunities. On several people expressing interest, said president replied, "Oh, never mind, that's just for members of the Young Leadership Council." The... what? (Yes, that was the actual title they chose.)
Turns out, there was a super secret, hand picked group of employees that were being groomed to take over the company. They got training and promotions to the exclusion of almost everyone else. And wouldn't you just know they were young, white, male, and mostly of a particular religion that matched the executives.
The legal department at the company always looked stressed. And my (over 40, atheist) next promotion was hastily approved, as were many others.
posted by SunSnork at 2:18 PM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
BigCo president (2k+ local employees, 40k+ worldwide) sent out an email about some training opportunities. On several people expressing interest, said president replied, "Oh, never mind, that's just for members of the Young Leadership Council." The... what? (Yes, that was the actual title they chose.)
Turns out, there was a super secret, hand picked group of employees that were being groomed to take over the company. They got training and promotions to the exclusion of almost everyone else. And wouldn't you just know they were young, white, male, and mostly of a particular religion that matched the executives.
The legal department at the company always looked stressed. And my (over 40, atheist) next promotion was hastily approved, as were many others.
posted by SunSnork at 2:18 PM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
If we can even get more rapid tests.
OK I'm not the most covid-cautious person on the planet by half, but even I still like to test before/after events and any time I feel overtired or ick. And one cannot buy a rapid test near me anymore. Not at the drugstores, not at the grocery. What the actual fuck.
Hope your household are all feeling better soon!
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 2:22 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
OK I'm not the most covid-cautious person on the planet by half, but even I still like to test before/after events and any time I feel overtired or ick. And one cannot buy a rapid test near me anymore. Not at the drugstores, not at the grocery. What the actual fuck.
Hope your household are all feeling better soon!
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 2:22 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
This just in: Los Palominos is advancing to the finals! We clawed our way to a 21-20 victory.
I've been preparing some chirp-backs for over a week, someone from an opposing team has been pretty obnoxious with the chirping and I was holding off till today's game but said team was relegated to the bronze match and I think the guy has earned some Grade A shit-talking. Anyone know some good, offensive Italian specifically? Heading over to Google Translate.
posted by elkevelvet at 2:39 PM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
I've been preparing some chirp-backs for over a week, someone from an opposing team has been pretty obnoxious with the chirping and I was holding off till today's game but said team was relegated to the bronze match and I think the guy has earned some Grade A shit-talking. Anyone know some good, offensive Italian specifically? Heading over to Google Translate.
posted by elkevelvet at 2:39 PM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
Do we even have a Covid protocol? Not at my workplace anymore. What's the etiquette? I don't know what to do.
No, those are gone. Had that discussion on work Slack last week (I note my organization used to have very good covid protocols) and until you test positive, there is no more protocol. Come to work, wear a mask if you like, we're done with that. Sigh.
The lady I'm dogsitting for has been at a conference for a week, and guess what's happened there. So far she says she's fine and I probably won't be at the house when she returns late tomorrow night, but seriously, this kind of shit is why I've lost all desire to travel and it has not come back. I know, this is our lives now, but still.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:04 PM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
No, those are gone. Had that discussion on work Slack last week (I note my organization used to have very good covid protocols) and until you test positive, there is no more protocol. Come to work, wear a mask if you like, we're done with that. Sigh.
The lady I'm dogsitting for has been at a conference for a week, and guess what's happened there. So far she says she's fine and I probably won't be at the house when she returns late tomorrow night, but seriously, this kind of shit is why I've lost all desire to travel and it has not come back. I know, this is our lives now, but still.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:04 PM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
I got my cat stair done functionally but it still needs some cosmetic work, wrapping up loose ends. But I'm done with it for now, tired of it actually, and the great news is... I put it in place and my boy cat went to it and used it without even needing any encouragement or assistance. He immediately recognized it as an aide for him to reach his favorite window spot.
As anyone who owns cats knows, YOU NEVER KNOW IF THE CAT WILL ACCEPT YOUR OFFERING. So I feel blessed. And after a rest I will do the finishing touches and feel even more accomplished than I do right now.
posted by hippybear at 3:26 PM on August 28, 2023 [16 favorites]
As anyone who owns cats knows, YOU NEVER KNOW IF THE CAT WILL ACCEPT YOUR OFFERING. So I feel blessed. And after a rest I will do the finishing touches and feel even more accomplished than I do right now.
posted by hippybear at 3:26 PM on August 28, 2023 [16 favorites]
I hate just about all exercise that's just exercise, and has no other point.
I can only run away from something or run after something. So I played soccer.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:55 PM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
I can only run away from something or run after something. So I played soccer.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:55 PM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
Obligatory Doubleclicks.
And apropos of nothing here's David Tennant giving a melodramatic reading of Man I Feel Like a Woman.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 4:21 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
And apropos of nothing here's David Tennant giving a melodramatic reading of Man I Feel Like a Woman.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 4:21 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
hippybear, the fact that your cat accepted your offering is a HUGE accomplishment. Well done.
Today spouse had to take up a really nice Persian rug and send it to be cleaned because Menace the a**hole refuses to stop pooping on it. I kid you not, I have tried MULTIPLE types of litter, boxes and places and may have to banish her to the sunroom for the next few months to retrain her.
The irony that it is now Menace giving us problems while Mayhem behaves is not lost on me. I suspect I may have to figure out zoning and give each of them separate territories at this point. They are siblings but they don't particularly enjoy each other's company and the passing of Wigford seems to have made things worse.
Part of me is tempted to adopt another cat to offer neutrality, but I know my allergist would be VERY DISAPPOINTED in me.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:54 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Today spouse had to take up a really nice Persian rug and send it to be cleaned because Menace the a**hole refuses to stop pooping on it. I kid you not, I have tried MULTIPLE types of litter, boxes and places and may have to banish her to the sunroom for the next few months to retrain her.
The irony that it is now Menace giving us problems while Mayhem behaves is not lost on me. I suspect I may have to figure out zoning and give each of them separate territories at this point. They are siblings but they don't particularly enjoy each other's company and the passing of Wigford seems to have made things worse.
Part of me is tempted to adopt another cat to offer neutrality, but I know my allergist would be VERY DISAPPOINTED in me.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:54 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Both Spiderman: Into and Spiderman: Across are absolutely stunning. I am not a Marvel fan and I was utterly blown away at how beautiful both films are. I especially loved how how the animators nailed the ink bleeding through the pages.
And yeah, I tried not to sob through both movies. Inclusive, love, loss, joy, friendship, carrying heavy burdens with grace... I adore those films and cannot wait for the third one.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 5:34 PM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
And yeah, I tried not to sob through both movies. Inclusive, love, loss, joy, friendship, carrying heavy burdens with grace... I adore those films and cannot wait for the third one.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 5:34 PM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
It's Bare Minimum Monday and I'm sneaking out early to go on an afternoon hike. Maybe I'll watch a movie, too. I am a big fan of the Spiderverse creators' first show, Clone High, which I was overjoyed and very surprised to to see rebooted this year. (The rebooted episodes were disappointingly tame but I'm still grateful.)
posted by tovarisch at 5:41 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by tovarisch at 5:41 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
I've been getting strange emails lately.
First, this year the cooking ads exploded outta nowhere. But that might even have an explanation: After a long absence, I went back to look for recipes on PinchofYum , a longtime favorite, several times.
The company I bought my electric bike from sends me some emails every week asking me to buy one of their bikes. They only have my email address because I already did. I hate to get ads for things I own.
But it's the menstrual product emails that are puzzling. I assume they know I'm male, but I know they know I'm over 70. I'm supposed to be getting incontinence ads.
Also, last Monday I was busy leasing a new car. We had leased 2 Prius Primes over the last 6 years, but needed to get something with more capacity, so got a RAV4 Prime. I remember probably this year there was an FPP about Toyota's in-app purchases, but I'm pretty much a Toyota person.
I mostly like it so far, not too much to complain about, and it has some new features I like.
But, when I get in the car, it doesn't know me. I needed to get the app.
So I get the app, and the first thing it needs is my cell number, and I don't have one. I have a cell phone, but I don't have a cell phone number. [Long story short, my contract was cancelled & I didn't get around to getting a new service. Also, I love it that I don't get any more texts]
And there is no way to proceed without a number. It's not like the iPhone where if you don't enter your AppleID you get a red checkmark on your Settings icon. You can just ignore that and use the phone. But every time I get in the car I have to log in as Guest. I need a cheat code.
posted by MtDewd at 6:09 PM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
First, this year the cooking ads exploded outta nowhere. But that might even have an explanation: After a long absence, I went back to look for recipes on PinchofYum , a longtime favorite, several times.
The company I bought my electric bike from sends me some emails every week asking me to buy one of their bikes. They only have my email address because I already did. I hate to get ads for things I own.
But it's the menstrual product emails that are puzzling. I assume they know I'm male, but I know they know I'm over 70. I'm supposed to be getting incontinence ads.
Also, last Monday I was busy leasing a new car. We had leased 2 Prius Primes over the last 6 years, but needed to get something with more capacity, so got a RAV4 Prime. I remember probably this year there was an FPP about Toyota's in-app purchases, but I'm pretty much a Toyota person.
I mostly like it so far, not too much to complain about, and it has some new features I like.
But, when I get in the car, it doesn't know me. I needed to get the app.
So I get the app, and the first thing it needs is my cell number, and I don't have one. I have a cell phone, but I don't have a cell phone number. [Long story short, my contract was cancelled & I didn't get around to getting a new service. Also, I love it that I don't get any more texts]
And there is no way to proceed without a number. It's not like the iPhone where if you don't enter your AppleID you get a red checkmark on your Settings icon. You can just ignore that and use the phone. But every time I get in the car I have to log in as Guest. I need a cheat code.
posted by MtDewd at 6:09 PM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
Welp, I'm here to tell you that Pacific Tomato Soup in the tetrapacks is definitely not good to eat 12 years past its best by date, no matter how great the packaging still looks. So that's a data point. ( I didn't eat it, all I had to do was look at it.)
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 7:29 PM on August 28, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 7:29 PM on August 28, 2023 [8 favorites]
My husband also learned Free Bird so he could unexpectedly comply, heh. If you skip the guitar solo it's not hard to play.
posted by subdee at 7:34 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by subdee at 7:34 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
So I get the app, and the first thing it needs is my cell number
This is why I intend, despite the supposedly bad "economics" of it, to spend whatever's necessary to continue maintaining my mid-2000's car for as long as I'm fit to drive - because it doesn't have any of that ludicrous crap in it. It is what it is, and maybe I'll miss out on some nifty newfangled features, but it's fun and pretty problem-free and the manufacturer can't keep bugging/threatening/extorting me.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:48 PM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
This is why I intend, despite the supposedly bad "economics" of it, to spend whatever's necessary to continue maintaining my mid-2000's car for as long as I'm fit to drive - because it doesn't have any of that ludicrous crap in it. It is what it is, and maybe I'll miss out on some nifty newfangled features, but it's fun and pretty problem-free and the manufacturer can't keep bugging/threatening/extorting me.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:48 PM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
The irony that it is now Menace giving us problems while Mayhem behaves is not lost on me.
The names alone seem to be an indicator that both are problematic?
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:18 PM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
The names alone seem to be an indicator that both are problematic?
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:18 PM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
Things are not going as planned for me, and I am exhausted. Where do you go to give up?
I know it will get better, but right now I can't feel it.
But, I love this time of year (in the Northern Hemisphere). The light is beautiful, and everything smells nice. We have two kilos of chanterelles that my neighbor gave me. And I'm going to try to make my own prunes and umeboshi from plums from the garden. The prunes are because I saw a Tasting History video where Max claimed that the prunes in medieval Moroccan cooking were probably made out of cherry plums, which are one of the sorts I have because my trees are ancient.
The umeboshi are more of an experiment. I am using mirabelle plums, which are not the right sort, but store bought umeboshi are so expensive, so it's worth trying.
We have a very large and popular dog park that is also very popular for picnics. I don't go there with my dog very often any more, but my sense when I did go there was that the dogs were doing their stuff in the wooded areas, as they naturally prefer, so it was OK to sit and eat in the meadows. It's weird, because there is an other dog park quite nearby, and there, the dogs shit all over the place. Why are the dogs in the first park acting more naturally? I have no idea.
posted by mumimor at 11:39 PM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
I know it will get better, but right now I can't feel it.
But, I love this time of year (in the Northern Hemisphere). The light is beautiful, and everything smells nice. We have two kilos of chanterelles that my neighbor gave me. And I'm going to try to make my own prunes and umeboshi from plums from the garden. The prunes are because I saw a Tasting History video where Max claimed that the prunes in medieval Moroccan cooking were probably made out of cherry plums, which are one of the sorts I have because my trees are ancient.
The umeboshi are more of an experiment. I am using mirabelle plums, which are not the right sort, but store bought umeboshi are so expensive, so it's worth trying.
We have a very large and popular dog park that is also very popular for picnics. I don't go there with my dog very often any more, but my sense when I did go there was that the dogs were doing their stuff in the wooded areas, as they naturally prefer, so it was OK to sit and eat in the meadows. It's weird, because there is an other dog park quite nearby, and there, the dogs shit all over the place. Why are the dogs in the first park acting more naturally? I have no idea.
posted by mumimor at 11:39 PM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]
I mean, I just got my fourth parking ticket in one week. And I'm broke.
posted by mumimor at 11:52 PM on August 28, 2023
posted by mumimor at 11:52 PM on August 28, 2023
So sorry it feels so tough right now, mumimor.
...I am calming down from the panic of a few days ago. The more I think about it, the more I think things just slowed down because it's like 4 days before the Labor Day weekend, and I think everyone who has a job to offer is sort of kicking the can down the road and putting things on hold until after then. And ironically it also may have fueled the panic on my part, because it's this weird looming deadline and made me all "aaaaaaaaaaahh it's going to be Labor Day and I haven't gotten anything lined up yet TIME IS RUNNING OUT". Technically my current temp gig ends "sometime after Labor Day", and the thought that that's going to be going away just wigged me out a bit. Also the interviews were coming so fast and furious earlier in the month that the "it's about to be Labor Day" slowdown also threw me off.
But with now TWO staffing agencies telling me "yeah, things just got put on hold until after Labor Day, let's touch base after that" I'm a little more confident; and I think that panic kind of burned itself out, because today I'm feeling like "feh, let's just do the bare minimum this week". I'll still check out the postings on LinkedIn and Indeed and stuff, but I'll only apply to anything that really makes me say "ooh!" instead of being in a state of "aaaaugh must get something!" We'll focus on polishing up the LinkedIn profile (because THAT'S apparently a thing I need to do now, sheesh) and maybe joining the "talent pool" at a couple of staffing services and making appointments to go meet them in person next week.
Financially I haven't even dipped into my savings. So I'm still in a good place there. Before getting laid off I was already thinking of doing some kind of mental reset on my spending habits, and this just became a boot camp - and that's been going REALLY, REALLY WELL. I'm getting a lot more mindful and intentional about my spending; hitting up my Buy Nothing Group if I need something, or going to a thrift shop. I've REALLY cut down on the food expenses, just by doing meal planning; my monthly grocery bill went down about two hundred dollars from last month to this one just from my planning ahead a tiny bit and trying to use stuff that was already in the fridge or pantry and stuff that was coming in from the CSA each week. And I'm still eating just as well as I did before.
I've also started paying a lot more attention to the Free Stuff happening all over the city - some of which is this amazingly cool stuff I never knew was out there. Someone in my book club mentioned events at something called the Morbid Anatomy Museum; I'd thought it was all about death and had been avoiding it, but she mentioned a couple of really cool-sounding free events that I've signed up for (something about tarot, and this lecture about food and religious cults; and something all about Jello salads).
And I am REALLY getting into the library, to the point that even after I get a job I'm going to keep that habit up.
Ironically I am now getting even more out into the flow of the outside world after my layoff than I was with my job. That's been interesting to think about.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:28 AM on August 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
...I am calming down from the panic of a few days ago. The more I think about it, the more I think things just slowed down because it's like 4 days before the Labor Day weekend, and I think everyone who has a job to offer is sort of kicking the can down the road and putting things on hold until after then. And ironically it also may have fueled the panic on my part, because it's this weird looming deadline and made me all "aaaaaaaaaaahh it's going to be Labor Day and I haven't gotten anything lined up yet TIME IS RUNNING OUT". Technically my current temp gig ends "sometime after Labor Day", and the thought that that's going to be going away just wigged me out a bit. Also the interviews were coming so fast and furious earlier in the month that the "it's about to be Labor Day" slowdown also threw me off.
But with now TWO staffing agencies telling me "yeah, things just got put on hold until after Labor Day, let's touch base after that" I'm a little more confident; and I think that panic kind of burned itself out, because today I'm feeling like "feh, let's just do the bare minimum this week". I'll still check out the postings on LinkedIn and Indeed and stuff, but I'll only apply to anything that really makes me say "ooh!" instead of being in a state of "aaaaugh must get something!" We'll focus on polishing up the LinkedIn profile (because THAT'S apparently a thing I need to do now, sheesh) and maybe joining the "talent pool" at a couple of staffing services and making appointments to go meet them in person next week.
Financially I haven't even dipped into my savings. So I'm still in a good place there. Before getting laid off I was already thinking of doing some kind of mental reset on my spending habits, and this just became a boot camp - and that's been going REALLY, REALLY WELL. I'm getting a lot more mindful and intentional about my spending; hitting up my Buy Nothing Group if I need something, or going to a thrift shop. I've REALLY cut down on the food expenses, just by doing meal planning; my monthly grocery bill went down about two hundred dollars from last month to this one just from my planning ahead a tiny bit and trying to use stuff that was already in the fridge or pantry and stuff that was coming in from the CSA each week. And I'm still eating just as well as I did before.
I've also started paying a lot more attention to the Free Stuff happening all over the city - some of which is this amazingly cool stuff I never knew was out there. Someone in my book club mentioned events at something called the Morbid Anatomy Museum; I'd thought it was all about death and had been avoiding it, but she mentioned a couple of really cool-sounding free events that I've signed up for (something about tarot, and this lecture about food and religious cults; and something all about Jello salads).
And I am REALLY getting into the library, to the point that even after I get a job I'm going to keep that habit up.
Ironically I am now getting even more out into the flow of the outside world after my layoff than I was with my job. That's been interesting to think about.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:28 AM on August 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
Although the birthday is well past, I feel that I finally entered my forties today. I purchased and ate Grape-Nuts, and I liked them. With Splenda and berries, but even so -- it is a thing truly unrecognizable to the former self.
posted by Countess Elena at 5:56 AM on August 29, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 5:56 AM on August 29, 2023 [4 favorites]
And I am REALLY getting into the library, to the point that even after I get a job I'm going to keep that habit up.
There was a time (like 23-ish) when I was in Topeka Kansas and was mostly living on a little trust fund from my fathers passing. But I lived like a block and a half from the library and I was there every other day if not every day. I went through every Black and White Russian/French artsy movie they had, razed through their CD collection, turned in and got new books every time. Started picking something from each aisle, almost random stuff. Rock gardening, Asimov on Shakespeare, home construction, linguistics, so much random stuff. Think my father would have approved. Spent the weekends partying at the gay bar but that's another story. The library time was like yes I have watched all 15 hours of the "mahabharat gita"... lots of free time on my hands then.
posted by zengargoyle at 6:33 AM on August 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
There was a time (like 23-ish) when I was in Topeka Kansas and was mostly living on a little trust fund from my fathers passing. But I lived like a block and a half from the library and I was there every other day if not every day. I went through every Black and White Russian/French artsy movie they had, razed through their CD collection, turned in and got new books every time. Started picking something from each aisle, almost random stuff. Rock gardening, Asimov on Shakespeare, home construction, linguistics, so much random stuff. Think my father would have approved. Spent the weekends partying at the gay bar but that's another story. The library time was like yes I have watched all 15 hours of the "mahabharat gita"... lots of free time on my hands then.
posted by zengargoyle at 6:33 AM on August 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
I went through every Black and White Russian/French artsy movie they had, razed through their CD collection, turned in and got new books every time. Started picking something from each aisle, almost random stuff. Rock gardening, Asimov on Shakespeare, home construction, linguistics, so much random stuff.
Exactly! I realized a lot of my spending was being driven by boredom and a casual "ooh, let's try that" kind of wanting to find something interesting, and I've channeled that instinct into the Brooklyn library card catalog instead. I just got word that the 2 Auden poetry books I wanted are ready for pickup today and I'll be heading over this afternoon.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:58 AM on August 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
Exactly! I realized a lot of my spending was being driven by boredom and a casual "ooh, let's try that" kind of wanting to find something interesting, and I've channeled that instinct into the Brooklyn library card catalog instead. I just got word that the 2 Auden poetry books I wanted are ready for pickup today and I'll be heading over this afternoon.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:58 AM on August 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm jealous of all my friends who are retired, unemployed, or too disabled to work, as they are all having fun long lunches, taking long walks, going to spin and swim and embroidery classes at 10 a.m., and enjoying themselves. I find it irritating when one of them calls me up at 3 p.m. and is all, "You busy?" Yes. I will be at work. 8-5, every day. Until I die. I will ALWAYS. BE. BUSY. So yeah, I get that you can get more into the world when you're not chained to work.
However, my library, after standing up to some trans bigots, has now gotten three bomb threats in a week (also fun when they are located next to several schools) and had to close when the entire staff got covid. I don't think I'll be popping in there for awhile now.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:04 AM on August 29, 2023 [5 favorites]
However, my library, after standing up to some trans bigots, has now gotten three bomb threats in a week (also fun when they are located next to several schools) and had to close when the entire staff got covid. I don't think I'll be popping in there for awhile now.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:04 AM on August 29, 2023 [5 favorites]
When I was very young my Aunt and Uncle had a cat named Skynyrd, and I didn't actually learn about the band Lynyrd Skynyrd until long enough later that now whenever I hear about it I think about the cat and not the band. Skynyrd, the cat, lived well into his 20s.
The library I work at held 2 successful Drag Story Time events, and even though there was some online vitriol and some anonymous letters with violent anti-trans rhetoric, the nay-sayers weren't brave enough to put their bigotry on display for the whole town to see, so there were exactly zero protesters. Just lots of appreciative families.
I'm still struggling with burnout relapse. But I have a counselling appointment lined up in a month (because that's the soonest I can get without it being an emergency). I'll just keep on riding the waves until then.
I like this whole Free Thread thing. It's nice to have a place where I can just put a few thoughts for the week and then let them be.
posted by eekernohan at 7:18 AM on August 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
The library I work at held 2 successful Drag Story Time events, and even though there was some online vitriol and some anonymous letters with violent anti-trans rhetoric, the nay-sayers weren't brave enough to put their bigotry on display for the whole town to see, so there were exactly zero protesters. Just lots of appreciative families.
I'm still struggling with burnout relapse. But I have a counselling appointment lined up in a month (because that's the soonest I can get without it being an emergency). I'll just keep on riding the waves until then.
I like this whole Free Thread thing. It's nice to have a place where I can just put a few thoughts for the week and then let them be.
posted by eekernohan at 7:18 AM on August 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
It's weird, because there is an other dog park quite nearby, and there, the dogs shit all over the place. Why are the dogs in the first park acting more naturally? I have no idea.
mumimor, you raise a question that compels me to think on the dogs over the years and their pooping ways: a Sheltie with a troubled past who gradually became a good bloke of a dog, he was sweet and true with a tendency to startle easily (a naturally skittish breed I think, but he came to us from squalor and it took a year till he showed joy and then one day he realized he could bark and never really quit). He had this appalling way of slowing mid-trot and just kind of shambling along the trail as he squeezed out the business, leaving it to his human to flick it to the bush with a handy stick. But wait there's more: this distressing waddle of his coupled with random placement turned into precision targeting during winter walks on the trail, when he unerringly dropped that turd into the cross-country skiers' track requiring me to retrieve/flick carefully and with great skill, all the while nervously watching for oncoming skiers. He died too young, something got him in the guts (specifically, in the back end, resulting in great difficulties with his bowel function).
The lab/shepherd occupying the house currently assiduously pulls over for her business, she is as you put it a natural pooper.
We often grab the partner's son's two dogs on the way to a walk: a Pomeranian and a giant black galoot of a beast, dangerous for his wild enthusiasm and tendency to crash into a person at great speed but otherwise a gentle soul. Pomeranian has hardened cat-like poops wherever he damn well pleases and pisses everywhere, I call him the Vile Thing. Dingleberries hanging from his butt all the time. The great black oaf is approaching his first birthday and he has the sense of a puppy, coming from a breed that wins no contests for intelligence I'm guessing: eats everything, and his guts produce prodigious amounts of loud, wet shit on the regular. He does pull over, I will give him that, but he often backs into the grass or snow bank and once he's done and bounding away we are graced with what can only be described as how Chewbacca-fur might look after a shower, it's the worst.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:27 AM on August 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
mumimor, you raise a question that compels me to think on the dogs over the years and their pooping ways: a Sheltie with a troubled past who gradually became a good bloke of a dog, he was sweet and true with a tendency to startle easily (a naturally skittish breed I think, but he came to us from squalor and it took a year till he showed joy and then one day he realized he could bark and never really quit). He had this appalling way of slowing mid-trot and just kind of shambling along the trail as he squeezed out the business, leaving it to his human to flick it to the bush with a handy stick. But wait there's more: this distressing waddle of his coupled with random placement turned into precision targeting during winter walks on the trail, when he unerringly dropped that turd into the cross-country skiers' track requiring me to retrieve/flick carefully and with great skill, all the while nervously watching for oncoming skiers. He died too young, something got him in the guts (specifically, in the back end, resulting in great difficulties with his bowel function).
The lab/shepherd occupying the house currently assiduously pulls over for her business, she is as you put it a natural pooper.
We often grab the partner's son's two dogs on the way to a walk: a Pomeranian and a giant black galoot of a beast, dangerous for his wild enthusiasm and tendency to crash into a person at great speed but otherwise a gentle soul. Pomeranian has hardened cat-like poops wherever he damn well pleases and pisses everywhere, I call him the Vile Thing. Dingleberries hanging from his butt all the time. The great black oaf is approaching his first birthday and he has the sense of a puppy, coming from a breed that wins no contests for intelligence I'm guessing: eats everything, and his guts produce prodigious amounts of loud, wet shit on the regular. He does pull over, I will give him that, but he often backs into the grass or snow bank and once he's done and bounding away we are graced with what can only be described as how Chewbacca-fur might look after a shower, it's the worst.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:27 AM on August 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yeah, EmpressCallipygos Topeka was a small enough town that just walking through the library was enough, capital of the state and all that, not really big enough to pick things off the shelves.
Yeah, jenfullmoon Topeka was home to
Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is an American, unaffiliated Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, that was founded in 1955 by pastor Fred Phelps.
The "God hates fags people". Wanna have some fun, live there in the early 90's and be at the gay bar on the weekends. That town was it's own bit of hell.
posted by zengargoyle at 7:34 AM on August 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yeah, jenfullmoon Topeka was home to
Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is an American, unaffiliated Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, that was founded in 1955 by pastor Fred Phelps.
The "God hates fags people". Wanna have some fun, live there in the early 90's and be at the gay bar on the weekends. That town was it's own bit of hell.
posted by zengargoyle at 7:34 AM on August 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
About an hour after I wrote my last comment the covid got me. I’ve been in bed since 3 yesterday afternoon and I have no plans to leave.
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:43 AM on August 29, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:43 AM on August 29, 2023 [5 favorites]
Sending you positive mind atoms, mgl.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:47 AM on August 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:47 AM on August 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm jealous of all my friends who are retired, unemployed, or too disabled to work, as they are all having fun long lunches, taking long walks, going to spin and swim and embroidery classes at 10 a.m., and enjoying themselves. I find it irritating when one of them calls me up at 3 p.m. and is all, "You busy?" Yes. I will be at work. 8-5, every day. Until I die. I will ALWAYS. BE. BUSY. So yeah, I get that you can get more into the world when you're not chained to work.
Yeah, so the flip side of that is that at some point our money is going to run out and we may end up homeless or going hungry or something. I was trying not to think about that today, but....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:03 AM on August 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
Yeah, so the flip side of that is that at some point our money is going to run out and we may end up homeless or going hungry or something. I was trying not to think about that today, but....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:03 AM on August 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
(something about tarot, and this lecture about food and religious cults; and something all about Jello salads)
I knew there was a reason I didn't trust Jello!
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:04 AM on August 29, 2023
I knew there was a reason I didn't trust Jello!
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:04 AM on August 29, 2023
Bonus (wonderful, weird) Michael McDonald content: CBS Evening News tells the story of the otherwise average and normal 11 year old girl with an enduring fandom/obsession/crush for Michael McDonald
She doesn't know my but I'm her brother.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:30 AM on August 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
She doesn't know my but I'm her brother.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:30 AM on August 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
I find it irritating when one of them calls me up at 3 p.m. and is all, "You busy?" Yes. I will be at work. 8-5, every day. Until I die. I will ALWAYS. BE. BUSY. So yeah, I get that you can get more into the world when you're not chained to work.
My niece just posted a cheerful thing on FB about how nice it is for fall to come around and for there not to be more school waiting (She just graduated). I could not help but reply, "Yes, but that fun ends when next summer comes and you do not get two months off. Then, or again. Until you retire, in like 50 years."
#killjoy #UncleNoFun
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:41 PM on August 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
My niece just posted a cheerful thing on FB about how nice it is for fall to come around and for there not to be more school waiting (She just graduated). I could not help but reply, "Yes, but that fun ends when next summer comes and you do not get two months off. Then, or again. Until you retire, in like 50 years."
#killjoy #UncleNoFun
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:41 PM on August 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yeah, so the flip side of [retirement] is that at some point our money is going to run out and we may end up homeless or going hungry or something. I was trying not to think about that today, but....
We're in the youth of our old age; retirement is pretty sweet right now, and we are active and reasonably healthy. But I can feel the ground tugging at us, warning of new aches and pains, chronic diseases, complaining joints, dimming senses, declining physical and mental abilities... And of course the financial worms that want to nibble on us while we're vertical but on a limited income: medical and dental expenses, grocery inflation, house/car/insurance/upkeep bills.... ($1k dental bill this week)
I've always joked that we only need 15 yrs of retirement savings; if I make it to 80, I can be society's problem. (I can say that in Canada). And, to be honest, there's not a lot to post-80 life that appeals to me right now. Many over-80 people I know live small, unhappy lives, constrained by their ailments, and dominated by their Dr appointments. (Exhibit A, my almost 90yr old Mom).
Gather ye rosebuds...
posted by Artful Codger at 2:21 PM on August 29, 2023
We're in the youth of our old age; retirement is pretty sweet right now, and we are active and reasonably healthy. But I can feel the ground tugging at us, warning of new aches and pains, chronic diseases, complaining joints, dimming senses, declining physical and mental abilities... And of course the financial worms that want to nibble on us while we're vertical but on a limited income: medical and dental expenses, grocery inflation, house/car/insurance/upkeep bills.... ($1k dental bill this week)
I've always joked that we only need 15 yrs of retirement savings; if I make it to 80, I can be society's problem. (I can say that in Canada). And, to be honest, there's not a lot to post-80 life that appeals to me right now. Many over-80 people I know live small, unhappy lives, constrained by their ailments, and dominated by their Dr appointments. (Exhibit A, my almost 90yr old Mom).
Gather ye rosebuds...
posted by Artful Codger at 2:21 PM on August 29, 2023
Yeah, retirement kind of sucks.
I so wish that I had a rewarding job. That I could be doing the thing that I've loved. But my language is not very sought after in these days of the web, (Delphi), and I'm old and lazy, and unlikely to give 110% to any employer...
Not to mention the 9 months I have had of near-death health issues, the remnants of which would have made going to work pretty non-feasible. But, three weeks until my surgeries that may be able go give me some of my life back.
Just not sure what job I will ever to be able to get that is worth the hassle. I probably have enough money to make until until I die, though my dad lived until 96 or something. I'm not in that good shape. But I do miss feeling useful.
posted by Windopaene at 2:42 PM on August 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
I so wish that I had a rewarding job. That I could be doing the thing that I've loved. But my language is not very sought after in these days of the web, (Delphi), and I'm old and lazy, and unlikely to give 110% to any employer...
Not to mention the 9 months I have had of near-death health issues, the remnants of which would have made going to work pretty non-feasible. But, three weeks until my surgeries that may be able go give me some of my life back.
Just not sure what job I will ever to be able to get that is worth the hassle. I probably have enough money to make until until I die, though my dad lived until 96 or something. I'm not in that good shape. But I do miss feeling useful.
posted by Windopaene at 2:42 PM on August 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
I... don't miss feeling useful. I delude myself, maybe, that I still have experience and skillz that would be appreciated... but I just can't be arsed to make the necessary commitments and investments (money, effort) to be a competitive worker.
There might be a part-time gig out there that would make use of my experience, pay halfway responsibly, and wouldn't just treat me like an apprentice. I would want a gig where I'm mentoring, and not just stealing an entry-level opportunity from a young person.
There are other outlets for my skillsets; I'm hanging out at a maker-space, and thinking about volunteering at some repair cafes.
But for now... in retirement I'm useful to myself and Mrs C, and I don't have anyone stealing my time. I have house and personal projects. Several good friends. I learned to stick-weld this summer! I've had more bike rides! Yeah.
(very best wishes on getting past the health issues)
posted by Artful Codger at 4:04 PM on August 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
There might be a part-time gig out there that would make use of my experience, pay halfway responsibly, and wouldn't just treat me like an apprentice. I would want a gig where I'm mentoring, and not just stealing an entry-level opportunity from a young person.
There are other outlets for my skillsets; I'm hanging out at a maker-space, and thinking about volunteering at some repair cafes.
But for now... in retirement I'm useful to myself and Mrs C, and I don't have anyone stealing my time. I have house and personal projects. Several good friends. I learned to stick-weld this summer! I've had more bike rides! Yeah.
(very best wishes on getting past the health issues)
posted by Artful Codger at 4:04 PM on August 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
In his retirement, my father did volunteer assistance with tax returns through some local agency in his area. He also volunteered as a docent at a local science museum, as he'd been a chemistry professor in a previous life.
There are a lot of ways to be useful in retirement that don't involve a paying job and the commitments associated with that. Those are but two examples that I know of through familial experience.
posted by hippybear at 4:22 PM on August 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
There are a lot of ways to be useful in retirement that don't involve a paying job and the commitments associated with that. Those are but two examples that I know of through familial experience.
posted by hippybear at 4:22 PM on August 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
It's so strange, half a year ago I was longing for retirement, now, not so much. I have ideas, the world seems brighter. And weirdly, it is because of the triple crises of climate, biodiversity and demographics. I've been focused on building a better world since I was a teenager in the seventies, probably very inspired by a good teacher in biology and physics. When I was a student at architecture school, I designed a sustainable city, something that confused my teachers endlessly (you know, grand ideas had ended, it was the reign of Thatcher and Reagan). And then I came out into an unreal "real life" where greed was good, and along with a very bad marriage, I felt marginalized and weird. I started working as a journalist because no-one in the construction industry understood what I was on about when a friend and I designed a sustainable house in the late -90s, and from there I came into research and teaching, both architects, engineers and literature students. And then partially also into publishing both books and journals. I haven't had a bad career till now, it was just not the career I had imagined. It is a career that has given me lots of experiences. (Read Ithaka here)
And now, things are different. I haven't changed, the world is changing, and suddenly what I believed in all along is being sought after. I'm carrying decades of debt, depression and PTSD, which is why I sometimes feel overwhelmed. I dread the talk I have to take with the bank later today. And the tax people, and the utilities people. But I have hope for the coming years of work.
Last night, I was at a public debate, as part of a panel. And it was good. I found new friends. My current publisher was there and he suggested we just tape me ranting about the environment and get a transcription made (I know that would be a terrible idea, but I took the compliment).
Time to go to work, where the problems are sky high. But we just have to keep marching on. I won't give up, even though I felt like it Monday.
posted by mumimor at 12:05 AM on August 30, 2023 [6 favorites]
And now, things are different. I haven't changed, the world is changing, and suddenly what I believed in all along is being sought after. I'm carrying decades of debt, depression and PTSD, which is why I sometimes feel overwhelmed. I dread the talk I have to take with the bank later today. And the tax people, and the utilities people. But I have hope for the coming years of work.
Last night, I was at a public debate, as part of a panel. And it was good. I found new friends. My current publisher was there and he suggested we just tape me ranting about the environment and get a transcription made (I know that would be a terrible idea, but I took the compliment).
Time to go to work, where the problems are sky high. But we just have to keep marching on. I won't give up, even though I felt like it Monday.
posted by mumimor at 12:05 AM on August 30, 2023 [6 favorites]
I have had this stuck in my head for months and months: Ladytron - Seventeen [Official Music Video] - YouTube. Partly because it's in my music collection and is a good tune. Partly because it's like a whole bunch of my university years.
They only want you when you're seventeen
When you're twenty-one
You're no fun.
I have come to notice that that riff (or something very very close) is a staple of things that get played at football games. I've strangely been watching a bunch of football (American "pointy sports ball"). And I've been hearing that musical phrase over and over and over.
Earworm reason discovered....
posted by zengargoyle at 4:51 AM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
They only want you when you're seventeen
When you're twenty-one
You're no fun.
I have come to notice that that riff (or something very very close) is a staple of things that get played at football games. I've strangely been watching a bunch of football (American "pointy sports ball"). And I've been hearing that musical phrase over and over and over.
Earworm reason discovered....
posted by zengargoyle at 4:51 AM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
I would retire tomorrow if I could. Feeling a sense of purpose? Feeling useful? I perform my job with all of the mindfulness and understanding of a dog trained to do a little dance. I'm already bordering on useless, but would love to be in a situation where that didn't make anybody mad or disappointed.
I think about retirement all the time. This week, I'm looking up properties in Parabita, Italy. It looks like we could buy a pleasant little home for around 60,000-80,000 Euro and cost of living is low.
I honestly doubt I will make it out of my 50s before I become completely unable/unwilling to work.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:27 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
I think about retirement all the time. This week, I'm looking up properties in Parabita, Italy. It looks like we could buy a pleasant little home for around 60,000-80,000 Euro and cost of living is low.
I honestly doubt I will make it out of my 50s before I become completely unable/unwilling to work.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:27 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
(For context, the above is not an I'm-too-good-to-work rant or even an I've-worked-enough rant. It's an "I'm pushing fifty, my autistic burnout is getting worse, and I do not have a solid plan for that" rant.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:07 AM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:07 AM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
Y'all, I'm not near retirement and I don't want to be, I'm the regular kind of unemployed and it's freaking me out and trying to focus on stuff I can do for fun that doesn't cost money is something that was keeping me from freaking out and THAT was what I was trying to concentrate so I could stay chill during my job interviews. THAT'S why I was talking about the library and their free classes and making myself lunch, because for me the alternative was "blindly applying to 682 Linkedin job postings a day out of desperation."
Jenfullmoon, I know that this is time that I have and you don't right now, but BE-FUCKING-LIEVE ME I would much rather have less time, and a steady income like you've got.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:07 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Jenfullmoon, I know that this is time that I have and you don't right now, but BE-FUCKING-LIEVE ME I would much rather have less time, and a steady income like you've got.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:07 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
My grandfather killed two birds with one stone and spent retirement (I guess, I never knew it to not be the case) tending a large backyard vegetable garden. A good 90% of the years veggies came from there, either fresh or canned or pickled or frozen. Only a month or two of the year might be having to buy some veggies. And it kept him strong, he was a large man in the way that his hats still would just fall down below my eyes. He plowed that garden by hand with an old wrought iron push plow. Many of days were spent shucking corn or stringing beans or pealing neighbors apples or going out to the field to fetch dinner. Kept grandparents busy and greatly reduced food budget. Guess it's good if you have a big back yard. Like OMG I think at 15 he could still grab my head like a basketball and pick me up and move me out of the way. Sadly (or not) I missed those genes and turned out small and scrawny....
posted by zengargoyle at 6:32 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by zengargoyle at 6:32 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Sobering pictures sent to me by my dad this morning about Idalia's impact on Cedar Key. From what I can gather from historical records, Cedar Key hasn't had a more or less direct hit since 1950. So many familiar buildings inundated with 7+ feet of water. Most current houses have to built on stilts--the one my sister and I spent summers in was built on the ground and is now nearly covered by water--but even then my dad remarked that Cedar Key will never be the same after this, and he doesn't know when they will be allowed back in the town to assess damage.
Like, I am not close to my dad but I feel terrible for him. This is heartbreaking.
posted by Kitteh at 6:36 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Like, I am not close to my dad but I feel terrible for him. This is heartbreaking.
posted by Kitteh at 6:36 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Sorry to hear that kitteh. I know the emotional loss of the home/community won't be so simple to overcome, but I hope at least the insurance/disaster relief payments make it right financially for your dad.
Is he going to try and keep a place there, or give up?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:44 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Is he going to try and keep a place there, or give up?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:44 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
DOT, I hope insurance/disaster relief will help but I hear about insurers taking less and less chances on insuring places where flooding and other natural disasters are happening more frequently.
My stepmom is from one of the handful of original families who moved there as fishermen over a 100 years ago so if they had to move, she would likely be against it. Sadly, Cedar Key is living on borrowed time as the Gulf continues to heat up. Shepherd and I agree--even though we won't be here to see it--by the end of this century, it might be partially underwater or worse.
posted by Kitteh at 6:57 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
My stepmom is from one of the handful of original families who moved there as fishermen over a 100 years ago so if they had to move, she would likely be against it. Sadly, Cedar Key is living on borrowed time as the Gulf continues to heat up. Shepherd and I agree--even though we won't be here to see it--by the end of this century, it might be partially underwater or worse.
posted by Kitteh at 6:57 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Climate change is a pressing, practical, immediate consideration, much earlier than many folks suspected.
Even as I'm looking into semi-retiring into some inexpensive small town in Italy, we find ourselves looking at heat maps of climate impact, checking elevation to try and assess sea level rise risk... even my fantasies have grim climate change components now.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:27 AM on August 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
Even as I'm looking into semi-retiring into some inexpensive small town in Italy, we find ourselves looking at heat maps of climate impact, checking elevation to try and assess sea level rise risk... even my fantasies have grim climate change components now.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:27 AM on August 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
We are over here on Lake Ontario so I am interested to see what our future area will look like by the time I am old and grey.
posted by Kitteh at 7:30 AM on August 30, 2023
posted by Kitteh at 7:30 AM on August 30, 2023
I have a great song chorus about Lake Ontario.
Sadly, no actual verses.
posted by Windopaene at 8:33 AM on August 30, 2023
Sadly, no actual verses.
posted by Windopaene at 8:33 AM on August 30, 2023
But I do miss feeling useful.
I have never had a single useful moment at any job I've ever had, in ~30 years of job having. The ONLY useful things I've ever done have been well outside of the work world. But they all required the sums of money given to me for being utterly, completely, pathetically useless for 50-60 hours a week every week.
Guys I think it's maybe all bad? Like all of it? We made a bad world, y'all.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:20 AM on August 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
I have never had a single useful moment at any job I've ever had, in ~30 years of job having. The ONLY useful things I've ever done have been well outside of the work world. But they all required the sums of money given to me for being utterly, completely, pathetically useless for 50-60 hours a week every week.
Guys I think it's maybe all bad? Like all of it? We made a bad world, y'all.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:20 AM on August 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
Well, my last job was writing software for a vital signs monitor. Slap it on, hit a couple of buttons, and transfer the data to the hospital's medical records system. It felt like I was doing important work. Make nurse's workflow better. Don't have a bug that will kill someone. And that felt good. Because nurses are just the best, (OK not all of them, I had a couple of bad ones). But nurses do all the heavy lifting, literally, and the fact that I was able to make their jobs easier felt really good. And I do miss that feel.
posted by Windopaene at 10:39 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Windopaene at 10:39 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Nope, agreed, being unemployed is worse :/
That said, my day is kind of sucking, New Therapist seems to have flaked and bailed on Zoom today (gee, I hope I don't get charged for that), they are begging people to answer the phones, I got handed a huge pile of returned mail, and people keep insisting on asking me shit I don't know and not taking "no, I can't do that" for an answer. And I still have the rest of the day to drag through being Bad Jennifer, again.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:18 PM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
That said, my day is kind of sucking, New Therapist seems to have flaked and bailed on Zoom today (gee, I hope I don't get charged for that), they are begging people to answer the phones, I got handed a huge pile of returned mail, and people keep insisting on asking me shit I don't know and not taking "no, I can't do that" for an answer. And I still have the rest of the day to drag through being Bad Jennifer, again.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:18 PM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
Most jobs are fake. I have tremendous envy of people whose work produces something of value.
But I'm middle-aged now and it feels easier to play out the string than try and overcome how empty my work feels now.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:19 PM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
But I'm middle-aged now and it feels easier to play out the string than try and overcome how empty my work feels now.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:19 PM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
First therapy session went well. She basically just asked questions about my life and my issues. It felt good to get it all out in the open but I'm feeling kinda raw right now. I'd only ever talked about it with a couple people before and never all at once. So we'll see how this goes.
posted by downtohisturtles at 12:20 PM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by downtohisturtles at 12:20 PM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
This video from Cedar Key shows the storm surge.
It's scary.
Sorry for your family Kitteh
posted by yyz at 12:57 PM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
It's scary.
Sorry for your family Kitteh
posted by yyz at 12:57 PM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
You go Bad Jennifer.
Sometimes you need to do that.
posted by Windopaene at 1:59 PM on August 30, 2023
Sometimes you need to do that.
posted by Windopaene at 1:59 PM on August 30, 2023
This video from Cedar Key shows the storm surge.
It's scary.
JFC, that terrifies me on a primordial level.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:25 PM on August 30, 2023
It's scary.
JFC, that terrifies me on a primordial level.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:25 PM on August 30, 2023
Well, my last job was writing software for a vital signs monitor.
Small world! The last fulltime job I had, prior to retiring (mass layoff in 2019->pandemic-> screw this, I'm retired) was working on a centralized patient management system (software) that accepted data from networked vital signs monitors and would issue warnings if the patient seemed to be collapsing. It IS cool to work on stuff with immediate and important applications.
(and yeah, nurses are amazing)
posted by Artful Codger at 2:52 PM on August 30, 2023
Small world! The last fulltime job I had, prior to retiring (mass layoff in 2019->pandemic-> screw this, I'm retired) was working on a centralized patient management system (software) that accepted data from networked vital signs monitors and would issue warnings if the patient seemed to be collapsing. It IS cool to work on stuff with immediate and important applications.
(and yeah, nurses are amazing)
posted by Artful Codger at 2:52 PM on August 30, 2023
Wow, that storm surge.
It's Florida though. The highest point is like 230 ft above sea level. google says 345 feet, over by Alabama. Stay safe any local mefites!
Climate change is real y'all.
posted by Windopaene at 8:51 PM on August 30, 2023
It's Florida though. The highest point is like 230 ft above sea level. google says 345 feet, over by Alabama. Stay safe any local mefites!
Climate change is real y'all.
posted by Windopaene at 8:51 PM on August 30, 2023
No, Bad Jennifer is "Jennifer who literally can't interact with humans without pissing someone off and gets written up again." Today's Bad Jennifer was being hit up by two people who pestered me all morning to get someone into something I couldn't get them into and wouldn't let it go when I said, "no, I can't just sneak you in," I was forced to enquire at great length of my manager exactly WHY I can't just "sneak them in." I *think* I got out of this without anyone reporting me for my bad behavior, but all days are like that here.
I did hear from the therapist, she brain farted, apologized, and rescheduled for Friday :)
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:20 PM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
I did hear from the therapist, she brain farted, apologized, and rescheduled for Friday :)
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:20 PM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
I woke up this morning to the notice from my student loan servicer that my loans had been forgiven.
It's an emotional moment, because those things have been around my neck for thirty years--and on the standard repayment plan, they were going to remain essentially until I died. I've griped about all that before, the death-march of compound interest, the cruelty of the Department of Education in how they deal with non-permanent/non-total disability. And I would've continued griping about it until the day I died.
But now it's gone. The government has literally confirmed what we all knew: Money is fake, debt is an illusion, or more properly it's a form of power. It's just...usually that works against me, and today it worked in my favor, which is a weird, weird feeling.
If you have loans, and you haven't dug into the SAVE program, please do so, especially if you're middle-aged and have been paying these things forever like me.
posted by mittens at 5:14 AM on August 31, 2023 [13 favorites]
It's an emotional moment, because those things have been around my neck for thirty years--and on the standard repayment plan, they were going to remain essentially until I died. I've griped about all that before, the death-march of compound interest, the cruelty of the Department of Education in how they deal with non-permanent/non-total disability. And I would've continued griping about it until the day I died.
But now it's gone. The government has literally confirmed what we all knew: Money is fake, debt is an illusion, or more properly it's a form of power. It's just...usually that works against me, and today it worked in my favor, which is a weird, weird feeling.
If you have loans, and you haven't dug into the SAVE program, please do so, especially if you're middle-aged and have been paying these things forever like me.
posted by mittens at 5:14 AM on August 31, 2023 [13 favorites]
zengargoyle, I really like the music and video for Ladytron's 'Seventeen', too! I also like the music and video for Ladytron's song, 'Destroy Everything You Touch'.
I didn't own a television around the time that MTV and music videos became a phenomenon, and I sometimes feel like I have missed out on something. The industry created some incredibly creative, innovative videos back then. Yes, I can find most of them relatively easily on the 'tubes these days, but I do feel that it does not have the same feeling of discovering them for the first time in their original context.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 5:48 AM on August 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
I didn't own a television around the time that MTV and music videos became a phenomenon, and I sometimes feel like I have missed out on something. The industry created some incredibly creative, innovative videos back then. Yes, I can find most of them relatively easily on the 'tubes these days, but I do feel that it does not have the same feeling of discovering them for the first time in their original context.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 5:48 AM on August 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
Just had the Snowbirds roar overhead in formation.
Forgot about the air show this weekend.
Where did the summer go?
posted by yyz at 8:38 AM on August 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
Forgot about the air show this weekend.
Where did the summer go?
posted by yyz at 8:38 AM on August 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
ah yess the mandatory annual jingoistic military public masturbation fest. i do not consent.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:20 AM on August 31, 2023
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:20 AM on August 31, 2023
Multicellular Exothermic, they are just random things in my music library and I hadn't even thought to look them up until figuring out the earworm thing. Watched a few videos, not bad, Ladytron is so so so past the MTV age of actually playing music videos. Past like 1987 or so I've never seen a band's video. No TV or no cable and MTV sucked.
Never knew what bands/performers looked like. It was an experience going out with my bff-ex-wife-not-wife to this Hollywood bar with blacklights and tables covered with florescent water soluble finger paint where I saw either Thrill Kill Kult or Meat Beat Manifesto. Shit was wild and mostly naked and in bondage gear. Never even had a clue and it was still in MTV age but never shown. Nowadays and since forever.... don't worry over MTV, it only lasted for a few years before turning into absolute shit. Yay YouTube!
Only sorta like maybe the other Ladytron stuff, it's like "not bad" maybe.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:22 PM on August 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
Never knew what bands/performers looked like. It was an experience going out with my bff-ex-wife-not-wife to this Hollywood bar with blacklights and tables covered with florescent water soluble finger paint where I saw either Thrill Kill Kult or Meat Beat Manifesto. Shit was wild and mostly naked and in bondage gear. Never even had a clue and it was still in MTV age but never shown. Nowadays and since forever.... don't worry over MTV, it only lasted for a few years before turning into absolute shit. Yay YouTube!
Only sorta like maybe the other Ladytron stuff, it's like "not bad" maybe.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:22 PM on August 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
mittens, that is amazing news. Congratulations!!!
Last evening I learned that I friend I made in a different lifetime ago when I had a blog and wrote regularly (I still write every day, I stopped writing publicly when kiddo came along) died suddenly from a heart attack. He was 55. I never met this friend in person, but in the years that I knew him he was funny and kind and encouraging and just an all around good human. I am quietly gutted.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 12:46 PM on August 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
Last evening I learned that I friend I made in a different lifetime ago when I had a blog and wrote regularly (I still write every day, I stopped writing publicly when kiddo came along) died suddenly from a heart attack. He was 55. I never met this friend in person, but in the years that I knew him he was funny and kind and encouraging and just an all around good human. I am quietly gutted.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 12:46 PM on August 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
Simone Giertz built a "love machine" that shreds your love messages.
Make of this concept what you will.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:58 PM on August 31, 2023
Make of this concept what you will.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:58 PM on August 31, 2023
a "love machine" that shreds your love messages.
I want to build one of those, and leave a long note that starts out explaining in lengthy detail (enough to more than fill the 5-second grace period) that I'd hidden a treasure and how I'd gotten it and why I hid it. Then happily imagine the reader's scream of anguish when the shredder kicks in before they have a chance to read the retrieval instructions further down the page.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:49 PM on August 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
I want to build one of those, and leave a long note that starts out explaining in lengthy detail (enough to more than fill the 5-second grace period) that I'd hidden a treasure and how I'd gotten it and why I hid it. Then happily imagine the reader's scream of anguish when the shredder kicks in before they have a chance to read the retrieval instructions further down the page.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:49 PM on August 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
Almost forgot.
Freebird was my high school graduating class's theme song.. in friggin 1987. Probably tells a lot about my high school.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:33 PM on August 31, 2023
Freebird was my high school graduating class's theme song.. in friggin 1987. Probably tells a lot about my high school.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:33 PM on August 31, 2023
Just came back from urgent care where the Covid was confirmed despite negative tests. She said about 50% of the negative tests are false negatives with this strain. I do not have pneumonia, which is good, I have a prescription for antibiotics in case the sinus infection symptoms have not let up by next Tuesday and I have been told to go back to bed.
Fuck this summer. I've spent three weekends this summer in bed and not in the fun way. My son was told that he had been out for five days and he had to get his covidy ass back to work today, symptoms or no symptoms, or probably lose his job. This country; the hits just keep on coming.
posted by mygothlaundry at 4:15 PM on September 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
Fuck this summer. I've spent three weekends this summer in bed and not in the fun way. My son was told that he had been out for five days and he had to get his covidy ass back to work today, symptoms or no symptoms, or probably lose his job. This country; the hits just keep on coming.
posted by mygothlaundry at 4:15 PM on September 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
So. I tend to stay on generally good terms with my exes, but there were two cases where things were just so bad I went no-contact scorched-earth (the first one we were just a bad combination, the second guy left me for someone else after cheating on me ON VALENTINE'S DAY).
...A few years back I was bored and Googling one of them - and discovered he had just been incarcerated for possession of child porn. I was so floored that I actually went straight into Meta Chat to talk to people to try to process the shock. I think he's out of prison now - living in a different state - and I regarded the whole thing as a sad and tragic chapter in someone's life.
Just now I was bored and Googling the OTHER ex. And I just learned - he was arrested a month ago for solicitation of a minor online. He got caught in an undercover child-exploitation sting where he thought he was talking to a 13-year-old and went to meet her at a mall only it was a cop waiting.
...I am SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY questioning my judgement right now.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:42 AM on September 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
...A few years back I was bored and Googling one of them - and discovered he had just been incarcerated for possession of child porn. I was so floored that I actually went straight into Meta Chat to talk to people to try to process the shock. I think he's out of prison now - living in a different state - and I regarded the whole thing as a sad and tragic chapter in someone's life.
Just now I was bored and Googling the OTHER ex. And I just learned - he was arrested a month ago for solicitation of a minor online. He got caught in an undercover child-exploitation sting where he thought he was talking to a 13-year-old and went to meet her at a mall only it was a cop waiting.
...I am SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY questioning my judgement right now.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:42 AM on September 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
Well, at least they're the ones you went scorched-earth with.
posted by mollweide at 9:22 AM on September 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by mollweide at 9:22 AM on September 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
a "love machine" that shreds your love messages.
And it won't work for nobody but you.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:35 AM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
And it won't work for nobody but you.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:35 AM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
I think I just invented a recipe. It isn't perfect yet, and it is absolutely inspired by things on the web, but I haven't seen this exact combination: a "lasagne", where the pasta is replaced with thin slices of celeriac, with a mushroom gravy and bechamel and pecorino rather than ricotta.
The thing is we have an absurd amount of wild mushrooms that we were gifted, and seriously have to eat mushrooms all the time every day. I already froze a bunch. So we have to improvise. We've had risotto with mushrooms, simple pasta with mushrooms, mushroom toast, omelette with mushrooms, fried rice with mushrooms. Tomorrow I'm probably going to make some form of hot and sour soup with mushrooms.
I haven't dried any yet, because we also have an insane amount of plums and I'm trying to make prunes and umeboshi that took up the oven space, but I'll probably be drying some tomorrow.
What I want to say is that everyone should try the celeriac "lasagne". I cooked them for a while in salted water before layering them -- a bit more than what I would normally describe as blanching, but not much, maybe 3-5 minutes. This made their taste neutral, but the texture was genius. If you are gluten intolerant, this will improve your quality of life majorly. A non-gluten and even vegan bechamel will be fine. Where I see room for improvement is that I regret putting a tiny bit of tomato sauce in the gravy. I should have used pulverized dried mushrooms instead. But now I know.
posted by mumimor at 11:35 AM on September 2, 2023 [6 favorites]
The thing is we have an absurd amount of wild mushrooms that we were gifted, and seriously have to eat mushrooms all the time every day. I already froze a bunch. So we have to improvise. We've had risotto with mushrooms, simple pasta with mushrooms, mushroom toast, omelette with mushrooms, fried rice with mushrooms. Tomorrow I'm probably going to make some form of hot and sour soup with mushrooms.
I haven't dried any yet, because we also have an insane amount of plums and I'm trying to make prunes and umeboshi that took up the oven space, but I'll probably be drying some tomorrow.
What I want to say is that everyone should try the celeriac "lasagne". I cooked them for a while in salted water before layering them -- a bit more than what I would normally describe as blanching, but not much, maybe 3-5 minutes. This made their taste neutral, but the texture was genius. If you are gluten intolerant, this will improve your quality of life majorly. A non-gluten and even vegan bechamel will be fine. Where I see room for improvement is that I regret putting a tiny bit of tomato sauce in the gravy. I should have used pulverized dried mushrooms instead. But now I know.
posted by mumimor at 11:35 AM on September 2, 2023 [6 favorites]
Kiddo just tested positive for covid. We knew something was up when he voluntarily decided to go upstairs and take a nap. Spouse's new job starts on Wednesday and he is complaining that he has a headache.
If anyone needs me, I'll be hiding in my office trying not to panic.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:31 PM on September 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
If anyone needs me, I'll be hiding in my office trying not to panic.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:31 PM on September 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
Oh lord, I‘m so sorry, theBigRedKittyPurrs. The covid whipped through our household this last week and it did indeed start with headaches and exhaustion. The only ray of hope I can hold out is that it really didn’t affect everyone equally. I’m at day 7 and just starting to feel better. But my son and I were by far the sickest; everyone else was okay after three or four very tired and achy days. Here’s hoping you have the same comparatively mild strain we did.
posted by mygothlaundry at 5:12 PM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by mygothlaundry at 5:12 PM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
Freebird was my high school graduating class's theme song.. in friggin 1987.
Mine was some shitty, syrupy Peter Cetera-era Chicago ballad. Not even one of the less-horrible ones. I wanted "Comfortably Numb."
posted by kirkaracha at 9:31 PM on September 2, 2023
Mine was some shitty, syrupy Peter Cetera-era Chicago ballad. Not even one of the less-horrible ones. I wanted "Comfortably Numb."
posted by kirkaracha at 9:31 PM on September 2, 2023
I actually like some Cetrra-era Chicago but also yeah I get that. That is not what you want in that moment.
posted by downtohisturtles at 3:20 AM on September 3, 2023
posted by downtohisturtles at 3:20 AM on September 3, 2023
mygothlaundry , thank you. Kiddo is already feeling much better (and cooler) and seems to have gotten a super mild strain. Spouse’s headache is gone and both of us are testing negative and feeling OK (which means nothing in my case, I can’t seem to get a positive on a rapid test for love or money so I have to go by symptoms).
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:13 PM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:13 PM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
It's wild seeing the new COVID wave tear through, not because it's shocking (because sadly this is a pattern now) but because only a subset of infected people seem to be making the connection to COVID and getting tested.
Positive mind atoms to all the folks fighting the 'rona right now.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:32 AM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Positive mind atoms to all the folks fighting the 'rona right now.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:32 AM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Whenever I encounter an oasis, I always wonder if there's a corresponding homesis.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:32 PM on September 4, 2023
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:32 PM on September 4, 2023
only a subset of infected people seem to be making the connection to COVID and getting tested.
Getting tested? Okay, so in my town, COVID home tests are $12, I'm not sure if there is one or two in a pack. There is no free PCR testing anymore, and there are no more waves of free tests getting sent out.
Even if you do test and test positive, there is nowhere to report your test to. They're relying on wastewater to trace infection rates now because we never developed any official testing protocol in the US and even if we had it would have been widely enough ignored to be useless.
As has been the best advice for forever, "if you're sick, stay home" is the best we can do. We can suggest masks, but all the social pressure that is gone so that's entirely up to individuals, whether sick or healthy.
I have a stockpile of tests in my cupboard that, given the continual extension of test dates, I will assume will serve me will if I feel I need to test. But once those are gone I'm not sure I'm going to spend a meal's worth of money on determining whether I have THAT particular illness when I'm feeling sick when there's no point.
posted by hippybear at 2:40 PM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Getting tested? Okay, so in my town, COVID home tests are $12, I'm not sure if there is one or two in a pack. There is no free PCR testing anymore, and there are no more waves of free tests getting sent out.
Even if you do test and test positive, there is nowhere to report your test to. They're relying on wastewater to trace infection rates now because we never developed any official testing protocol in the US and even if we had it would have been widely enough ignored to be useless.
As has been the best advice for forever, "if you're sick, stay home" is the best we can do. We can suggest masks, but all the social pressure that is gone so that's entirely up to individuals, whether sick or healthy.
I have a stockpile of tests in my cupboard that, given the continual extension of test dates, I will assume will serve me will if I feel I need to test. But once those are gone I'm not sure I'm going to spend a meal's worth of money on determining whether I have THAT particular illness when I'm feeling sick when there's no point.
posted by hippybear at 2:40 PM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
We heard there was an outbreak (not a shock, all the school districts are now in session, of course there is going to be an outbreak) and since I now casually track covid outbreaks the same way as I track measles (since I cannot be vaccinated) and the flu (because having the flu SUCKS and I never want to experience that again either) and our original weekend plans involved kiddo being around his 80+ year old grandparents, it made sense to test him. Grandparents don’t care if he makes them sick as “they have had a good life” but there logic stops there - so the argument that they are assholes for putting the burden on their grandchild if he accidentally kills them is completely lost on them.
We have been really fortunate that our GP has a ton of rapid tests and essentially begs us to take a couple of boxes on our way out, so we are still pretty well stocked.
But as I can’t seem to get a positive result even when it was clear I had covid I have no idea why I bother. So I get the pointlessness of the exercise.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:58 PM on September 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
We have been really fortunate that our GP has a ton of rapid tests and essentially begs us to take a couple of boxes on our way out, so we are still pretty well stocked.
But as I can’t seem to get a positive result even when it was clear I had covid I have no idea why I bother. So I get the pointlessness of the exercise.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:58 PM on September 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yeah, I do not test positive either. Both times that I have definitely had it I have been diagnosed by a doctor saying "you have Covid." The rapid tests - and we are now out, as a household - do not work on me and nobody even does the slow tests, or whatever they're called, anymore. Also, everything hippybear just said. There are no more tests available and even if you can find them, nobody cares. You get five days, max, from positive test to back at work in the USA. I guess Jill Biden better be back on the clock next week.
Right now I'm pretty much assuming that everyone has Covid. Everyone.
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:13 AM on September 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Right now I'm pretty much assuming that everyone has Covid. Everyone.
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:13 AM on September 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
The people who seem concerning aren't the "Maybe I have COVID... it's hard to verify anymore" people (because as noted, they are apt to proceed as though they do, which is all they could do if they had verified.
The people who seem concerning are the [fingers in ears, sing-shouting] "This is OBVIOUSLY the flu, lalalalalalala nothing else it could be!" people.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:17 PM on September 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
The people who seem concerning are the [fingers in ears, sing-shouting] "This is OBVIOUSLY the flu, lalalalalalala nothing else it could be!" people.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:17 PM on September 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
Yup, if the influx of "hey is there a cold or a flu going around" posts on my local subreddit just reminds me how much people are flat out memory-holing a virus that ain't going anywhere in our lifetimes and will continue to evolve. I expect I will see the same here as winter approaches.
posted by Kitteh at 12:23 PM on September 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Kitteh at 12:23 PM on September 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
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I am having trouble getting back in the saddle for my exercise routine after a brief staycation. But I gotta do it because I am very proud of the progress I made, even without calorie restriction. My arms have changed shape, and even though they are not exactly a gun show yet, I am pleased with the comparison of what I see. Besides, I have to do it if I'm going to keep my cholesterol down without drugs.
I just hate cardio ... so much. So, so much. It's not even the effort -- it's the boredom. All the podcasts and the playlists in the world can't rub it out. Maybe Peloton would work, but I don't have two thousand dollars or the patience for recalls. (Are they even still going?)
posted by Countess Elena at 7:52 AM on August 28, 2023 [6 favorites]