Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
I don't know, Joy. Not sure what you mean.
Jim wrote: "I don't know, Joy. Not sure what you mean."Jim, I finally figured out what you meant. You had said:
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"Another way to get to this sort of discussion is when a topic with the book in the 'about' section creates a link. Clicking on that brings it up along with other groups & topics that list the book. I don't use it regularly, but occasionally it can be interesting to explore a book that way."
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In other words, when you start a topic at a group, there's a line which says: "This topic is about_______". Then there's a box in which you must type a book title OR an author's name.
I tried it just now with a topic about Journey's End by Renee Ryan.
You can see my topic in one of two places:
1. See my topic at the bottom of the book's page.
2. OR see it at my group at: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Thanks for the tip, Jim.
PS-I also started at topic entitled: "Did you find _Journey's End_ (by Renee Ryan) interesting?"I didn't include it at my group. I used the following page https://www.goodreads.com/topic ...... and clicked on "Start a new book discussion".
Bad start to the morning. A big, black plastic bag of hard plastic parts was in the middle of the Interstate & I clipped it this morning. The guy to my right did, too. Both of us lost the corners of our bumpers. I called it in to 911, so hopefully they'll get it cleared right away. Tough bag. People were still dodging it as I left. There was just too much traffic going too fast for us to pull it out of the way, though.I'm not sure if I'm going to file a claim or not. It's just the front skirt under the bumper that got torn up. I have to replace it since it covers some fluid reservoir which is exposed along with a few little rubber hoses. It looks like the part is only $200 or so new & the color really doesn't matter since it covers the whole front up to the grill.
I'm making my last payment on it next month. The first day I drove it to work a kamikaze deer took out the same corner. Hopefully this is it for the accidents!
Here are some pictures of my back yard with the crazy gourds taking over the back fence. Also a picture of the front of my poor car.https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...
Your deck looks inviting and what a great view of the yard beyond it but what happened to your fender?
I now read what happened to your poor car. We are still dealing with our "accident" and go to trial Sept. 15th. Wish us luck.
It is a pretty view out our back doors, Nina. We're not terribly happy with the gourds hiding the barn so much. We like being able to see into the barn & what the horses are up to. The goats too when they're out. Especially the goats.The goats were out the other evening when Josh put the horses in their stalls & got ready to trim up Indy's feet. Marg wasn't out there yet, so he took a quick walk around with the dogs. He got back in to see Rosie pluck his hoof knife out by the handle. She had it in her teeth & was running around with it stuck out of the side of her mouth. Luckily, she dropped it when he yelled at her. I can't believe he armed my goats! They're trouble enough without doing that!!!
;)
Good luck with the trial. I'm going to stop by the body shop I used when the deer got me before. Hopefully they'll be able to fix me up without breaking the bank. I forgot that I redid our insurance & raised the deductible up to $500, so it's probably not worth making a claim.
Jim wrote: "Bad start to the morning. A big, black plastic bag of hard plastic parts was in the middle of the Interstate & I clipped it this morning. The guy to my right did, too. Both of us lost the corners o..."That's a shame, Jim. A real tough break. I wonder how the bag got on the road. Probably fell off a truck.
Jim wrote: "Here are some pictures of my back yard with the crazy gourds taking over the back fence. Also a picture of the front of my poor car. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s......"Jim, you have a beautiful piece of property there!
Thanks, Joy. You're likely right on the bag. The body shop said about $360 to fix it next Monday, so I'm planning on it. I guess I'll have to put off getting another chainsaw again for a while.
As a child I loved the old "Little Colonel" books and after reading them decided I would love to live in KY. After viewing your place I wasn't far from wrong.
Jim wrote: "Thanks, Joy. You're likely right on the bag. The body shop said about $360 to fix it next Monday, so I'm planning on it. I guess I'll have to put off getting another chainsaw again for a while."Jim, it's these little "extras" that break the budget! I'm starting to think that we will soon have to give up "eating out" at restaurants. Nowadays, the cost is getting prohibitive.
I know what you mean. A few hundred here & there & pretty soon it adds up to real money, doesn't it?;)
I can't complain.
When I go to the "Dollar Store" I can't resist the bargains. I always buy my greeting cards there but I end up buying much more.
I fixed the dryer. Yuck. I HATE working on appliances. I figured out the exact part that was bad (Thermal cut-off) & drove 30 min into town to get it. They told me I should get the kit since usually the first goes bad when the High-limit thermostat isn't working properly. So I drove back home, tested & it was bad. (Kudos to Biagi's!!!) Unfortunately, even though they sold me the dryer & I had all the numbers, they gave me the wrong kit. It was another hour round trip to get the right part. It only cost me $43, but I lost the entire morning. Well, with the amount of laundry & all the rain we're getting, 4 days without a dryer is pretty rough.
Jim wrote: "I fixed the dryer. Yuck. I HATE working on appliances. I figured out the exact part that was bad (Thermal cut-off) & drove 30 min into town to get it. ... they gave me the wrong kit. It was another hour round trip to get the right part. It only cost me $43, but I lost the entire morning. ..."Jim, did you figure in the cost of gas? LOL Some days you can't win for losing!
Our dryer is electric, Joy. That makes it easier to work on since I can unplug it & lean it over to get at the guts more easily. I don't like messing with gas connections. Since KY has one of the cheaper rates for electric & no natural gas way out here, the only other choice would be propane. I might prefer that, but it would be too expensive to get into since 250 gallon tanks now have to be buried - an iffy proposition around here with all the rock.Dryers are pretty simple. With a multimeter & a few other common tools, anyone can diagnose & fix the most common problems. Getting the right parts can be tough, though. We bought ours new when we moved in here in 2007. I was busy & it cost me $100 to have a fuse replaced in 2012. IIRC, I had to replace the 220v receptacle then, too. It's been a good appliance.
Jim wrote: "Our dryer is electric, Joy. ..."I meant the cost of the gasoline when you had to drive to town 2 times. :)
Joy, I go to the dollar store about once a week. They often have good books for a dollar besides the cards and my husband gets his supply of tea.
Nina wrote: "Joy, I go to the dollar store about once a week. They often have good books for a dollar besides the cards and my husband gets his supply of tea."Nina, I never thought to look for books at the Dollar Store. They have a nice selection of note pads. So inexpensive ! I use them to write reminders to myself and to make shopping lists. Assorted colors too!
Oh, gas is cheap, so it probably only cost a couple of gallons - $4 at today's prices. Considering how much I drive, not even noticeable. Even our trip up to MD & RI wasn't really noticeable. We put 2000 miles on the car, but I'd normally put almost half that on in 2 weeks of normal commuting anyway & we weren't using the truck & trailer, so the bill was a little higher, but nothing like it was just a few years back.
I'm being lazy this afternoon. It's pouring out occasionally, so too wet to do anything outside. I've glued up all the candle sticks & don't want to knock them about doing another project, so the shop is off limits for a while. I guess I could vacuum. Our house can always stand more vacuuming with 5 dogs, 4 humans, & 3 cats living in it, but I don't feel like it. I have some egg plant that needs cooking. I guess I'll go do that. I thought I'd fry it all up & then I can use it in either plain or stick it into Egg plant Parmesan or Moussaka. I wonder how well it freezes? Anyone know? I hate it when it's gooey plain or with tomatoes on it, but no one else in the house likes it & I have a bumper crop this year.
Jim wrote: "Oh, gas is cheap, so it probably only cost a couple of gallons - $4 at today's prices. Considering how much I drive, not even noticeable. Even our trip up to MD & RI wasn't really noticeable. We pu..."I think we paid about $2.15 a gallon for gasoline yesterday.
Jim wrote: "... I have some egg plant that needs cooking. ..."I love eggplant. Aren't you lucky to have it in your garden! Egg plant Parmesan is good and Moussaka is even better!
An easy meal to make is pork tenderloin. Ed bakes it in the oven. It comes all marinated. Tastes great.
Joy, Could you tell me how Ed makes the pork tenderloin. I have one in my freezer and have never made it before but it was on sale and so I couldn't resist buying it.
Nina wrote: "Joy, Could you tell me how Ed makes the pork tenderloin. I have one in my freezer and have never made it before but it was on sale and so I couldn't resist buying it."Nina, I know he bakes it in the oven. Tomorrow I'll ask him how long he gives it. He's asleep right now.
Nina wrote: "Joy, Could you tell me how Ed makes the pork tenderloin. I have one in my freezer and have never made it before but it was on sale and so I couldn't resist buying it."Nina, Eddie says that he follows the directions on the wrapper. It's a matter of baking it in the oven. It usually takes less than a half an hour but, of course, it depends on the weight.
Well, thanks but there were no instructions on my meat/just wrapped in regular brown paper from the butcher. I will google and get the instructions. Let you know how it turns out. Today I am baking a homemade Dutch peach pie/locally grown peaches. I have already made two peach cobblers that everyone seemed to like. Good thing about summer are the fresh produce products/tomatoes/peppers/and fruit. I am having a party for twenty five a week from Sunday. Wish me luck.
YUM! ---- Nina, who is coming to your party?
Joy, We attend Mass at seven thirty in the morning on Sundays and after Mass some of us meet afterwards in the Sacristy and have doughnuts and coffee and so we have become close friends due to that situation so they are the main ones coming and several friends from when we lived in our condo building and our ex next door neighbors from when we lived in the eighty two year old house in Kansas City and my cousin and her husband and four people that are our now neighbors and then my daughter and her husband. I think that adds up to twenty five.
I plan to serve Bar B Que sandwiches, potato salad(one I'll make) and the other from Costco/a slaw and baby spinach and dried cranberries and honey roasted peanuts salad and baked beans heated in the crockpot/olives/pickles/liverwurst/smoked cheddar cheese/also ham sandwiches/poviticia bread/brownies/apricot bar cookies and wine/beer/limeade and I have forgotten what else. Wish you lived close as I'd invite you and your husband.
Nina wrote: "I think that adds up to twenty five.... I plan to serve Bar B Que sandwiches, potato salad(one I'll make) and the other from Costco/a slaw and baby spinach and dried cranberries and honey roasted peanuts salad and baked beans heated in t..."Nina, you are the hostess with the mostess! LOL
Do you get nervous when you entertain? I tend to get very nervous when I entertain friends and acquaintances in my home. That's why I hardly ever do it, except for some very special people, especially lately. I wish I could do it with ease.
I got a new mower, a Cub Cadet zero-turn with a steering wheel instead of the levers since I have steep hills. I really like it, although it had a few issues that I had to correct immediately.On the plus side, the zero turn via front wheels is awesome. While it looks a lot like the old riding mowers with the motor on the back, it actually has 2 sealed hydrostatic transmissions, one driving each rear wheel. The front wheels turn more than 90 degrees, so it really will turn on a dime. It has a 22 hp Kohler engine, so mows faster & better than my old John Deere. The height adjustment is greater & it really sticks well to hills going across them. I'm not sure what the slope is along the road, but close to 40 degrees. It has a lot more traction than the old mower, too.
On the negative side, it's very light in the front end & that can make it difficult to turn going up hills as it tends to do wheelies, so I'm experimenting with weights in front. I'm not sure how much I can put on without straining the frame. Then there are the safety features. I detest most of them.
- Before I could even test it properly I had to take the seat apart, remove & permanently close the seat switch. Any shifting in the seat would cut the engine & mower deck off. The engine would catch again, but I'd have to stop, backup, & reset the mower switch. What a PITA!
- The plastic deck output flap-thing started getting cut up before I put an hour on it. I cut most of it off & now it's out of the way & I can cut close to things on that side.
- The stamped deck is rounded on the output side, but the left side had a square bump at the base of the deck which kept catching on the fence. I cut it off & ground it smooth. Very weird protuberance.
- To mow in reverse, I have to turn the key back a notch & push a button to turn off the safety. Kind of a pain, but I only have to do it once & then it stays off until I restart the machine. (That's far better than the John Deere which wanted me to keep my thumb on a switch the entire time I backed up. How that makes things safer is beyond me, but it was one of the first things I disabled on it.)
Anyway, I mowed most of the lawn the first night I had it & then mowed around the edges of the fields, the barns, & the goats' pen last night. It did great. Takes a little getting used to since the rear wheel cuts inside the turn further than the mower deck, but it certainly did a better, faster job around bushes & trees. I have a lot of those, so it will save some time.
Jim wrote: "I got a new mower, a Cub Cadet zero-turn with a steering wheel instead of the levers since I have steep hills. I really like it, although it had a few issues that I had to correct immediately. ..."Jim, I just now sent a copy of your post to my grandson. He has a landscaping business and mows a lot of lawns. He'll understand your post better than I. :)
Nina wrote: "Anything that helps, right!"When I can afford & justify it! I really should get a commercial mower, but they're twice as much & don't have the front wheel steering feature I need. As it was, I stretched what I wanted to pay by almost 50%. I sure hope it lasts as long as my other mower.
Joy, I'm sure he'd want a commercial mower. You can tell him I got 600 hours out of my last mower before it started burning oil so badly. I'm sure he'll laugh. That was 8 years of mowing for me & he probably puts ten times that amount on his over the course of a single season.
Is anyone watching the Clinton/Trump debate tonight?
Nope. Wasted hot air. I'm voting for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate. No chance he'll win, especially since the popular vote doesn't elect the president, but hopefully enough of us will vote for him that it will get the main 2 parties to give us decent candidates. Trump & Clinton should both be in jail, not running for president.
Jim, that's an interesting choice. How will Gary Johnson's name get on the ballot?
I'm going to answer my own question by quoting the following:============================================
"One of the biggest hurdles that third parties face when it comes to winning the election is ballot access. A century of the two party duopoly has resulted in extreme laws that make it incredibly difficult and costly for third parties to even appear as an option. As a result, most third parties are unable to get on the ballot in a majority of the states. Only the Libertarian Party will have managed to get on the ballot in all fifty. Thus, Gary Johnson is the only third party option with a legitimate chance of winning the election."
FROM: https://alibertarianfuture.com/2016-e...
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Unfortunately, most people would have to look that up as well. It would have been great to see him in the debates, but they say he isn't polling at 15%, so wasn't allowed. Part of the problem is that people equate 'Libertarian' with 'crazy', but Johnson was a 2 term moderate Republican governor of NM & very successful at it. Term limits kept him from running a third time. He's certainly a better choice than Trump or Clinton.
Thanks for that information, Jim. I'll be glad when the election is over!
I agree, Joy. My sister in law's young friend was visiting here from Italy a couple of months ago and he was wondering why we have two people running that no one likes. She didn't know what to answer him.
Nina wrote: "I agree, Joy. My sister in law's young friend was visiting here from Italy a couple of months ago and he was wondering why we have two people running that no one likes. She didn't know what to answ..."Nina, that reminds me of the old saying: "Nice guys finish last." :)
"Nice guys finish last" is attributed to Leo Durocher who wrote the book:
Nice Guys Finish Last (his autobiography).
BTW, "Nice Guys Finish Last" is a song by American punk rock band Green Day.
I took yesterday off to go for a ride with Marg & some friends out at a local horse park. It started off well. Chip was sound & excited, but about an hour in he went lame. I walked him back to the trailer & then the real trouble started. He was girthy (swelling under the skin caused by the girth) & began to tie-up (super muscle fatigue in the hind end). By the time we got him back to the barn & could get some bute in him, he was all broken out (sweaty) & miserably lame. A few hours later, all was fine, but I guess I now have a pasture ornament. He'll never leave the farm again & I'll probably be limited to occasional bareback rides. We're looking for a replacement since it's a good time of year. A lot of people are looking at their hay & figuring out it costs a fair amount to keep a horse over the winter. We've got plenty, so it might work out well, although I really don't have the money right now. Still, if a great deal falls into our lap, we won't pass it up.
We finally got in for some lunch about 2pm & I wanted to take a nap afterward. I had just gotten to sleep when work called because a server locked up & I had to walk my backup through a hard reset. This is the second time in a few weeks. It's an old server, but I've kept it because it has some services that are a complete PITA to move, but I'll have to now.
On the plus side, I talked to Erin's high school Ag teacher & he wants some of my gourds. He said maybe 50 or 60. I'm sure I have over 200, so he said he'd talk to the Extension Agents when he saw them that evening. Hopefully they'll each want 50 or 60 & I'll get rid of most this weekend.
Jim, exactly what is ailing poor Chip?
Navicular is the main problem, Joy. It's a bone in the middle of their hoof with a lot of tendons & such going around it, so it's kind of a bug-a-boo. It just means there is an issue around it & no one really knows what it is or how to fix it. We've been trying to alleviate it for most of a year now with rest, special shoes, different hoof trimming, pain killers, & some protective boots. We thought we had it down to a manageable level, but apparently not & likely won't. His sister & grandfather got it at about the same age. We'll try to keep him comfortable for as long as we can. That might be another year or 10, no way to know for sure. Likely his life will be shortened a lot by this condition, though. In the meantime, he'll still cost a fair amount in time & money to keep while I'm without a mount. No fun.
Jim wrote: "Navicular is the main problem, Joy. It's a bone in the middle of their hoof with a lot of tendons & such going around it, so it's kind of a bug-a-boo. It just means there is an issue around it & no..."Thanks for the reply, Jim. One web page says: "navicular syndrome pain often gets more severe with work and less severe with rest." http://www.thehorse.com/articles/1004...
So I guess, Chip will be doing a lot of resting, poor thing. It's tough seeing our pets get ill and old. The most we can do is keep them comfortable so we have no regrets when they're gone.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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Yes, it was a great movie, Nina.