Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
Nina wrote: "Linda, did you sing Jingle Bells as you rode in your new car through the snow. Hard to imagine as we're back into the sixties and seventies and predicting possible eighty by Sunday. Here, I wish it..."Ha, that's a good one Nina!
Warm weather for a few days. Lots of snow on ground. Now, we will have to be concerned with snow on the roof and the skylights.
Linda wrote: "White and so is our other car (Honda Accord). Finally have a car with the camera for back up driving!"
White is a good color for a car. I like the idea of the backing-up camera! I hate backing up! I always go to the "pull-through" spaces in parking lots, no matter how far I have to walk to get into the store.
We got a lot done today. Josh wasn't using the backhoe when I got there. He'd tried, but the stabilizers had the road feet turned down so he kept slipping. Not surprising since it was raining lightly on all that clay. We turned the stabilizer feet & still wound up slipping around, but it was better.I had the worst time with it at first. It's a Cat backhoe & the joy stick controls are half swapped from what I'm used to. Josh managed to find the switch so they became what I was used to. I tried to learn the other method, but muscle memory kept betraying me. So happy since I was scared to go near the house with them the other way. I'd have put the bucket through the house.
We got out all the stumps. Had to chew through one nest & dig down a good 4' for all of them, but we got them all. Then we got the worst of the grading done on the west side. If I do say so myself, I did pretty good using the backhoe to grade the slope.
We found that the electric to the shop which was supposed to be 18" down was only about 4" down. We were suspicious, so I dug shallow & slow with both of us watching closely & found it before I ripped it out. Still works, too.
Anyway, we have to touch up some of the grading, dig up the septic, & then grade the north side which is going to be tough due to the gravel lane. It's supposed to be warmer & dry tomorrow, thankfully. It wasn't too bad this afternoon, but we were both frozen when we knocked off for lunch around 1pm. It was in the mid 30s then. Now it's in the high 40s.
I'm a real fan of the Oxford comma & have detested the way it's been ignored, especially in news reports. A lot of people say it doesn't make that much of a difference, but it does, as the state of Maine just found out. http://mashable.com/2017/03/15/oxford...
Joy H. wrote: "Linda wrote: "White and so is our other car (Honda Accord). Finally have a car with the camera for back up driving!"
White is a good color for a car. I like the idea of the backing-up camera! I h..."
You'd like the back up camera. Very cool. Fred backed into the garage. I'm not ready to do that with our without a camera!
Yes, I've heard of that special comma (the last one in a series), but I had never heard it referred to as "Oxford". I know it can make a big difference in a law case.
Jim wrote: "We got a lot done today. Josh wasn't using the backhoe when I got there. He'd tried, but the stabilizers had the road feet turned down so he kept slipping. Not surprising since it was raining light..."It must be nice to have Josh as a workmate, Jim.
I think all cars should have that back up camera. Too many children have died because of the lack of it/two of I know about personally. Sadness terrible that could have been avoided. Good for you to buy one of those cars. Enjoy it.
Oh exactly. Don't want to run over anything living! The other benefit, if you are backing out of a spot ever so slowly because you are parked next to a large truck and can't see a car coming down the road or parking lot - this helps a great deal!
It's a gorgeous day! Not even sure why I'm indoors. Oh yes, we were making a homemade sauce. This time I'm not drinking wine as I cook. Saving the glass of wine while we eat our dinner. Yes, I'll add a tablespoon of wine soon. I generally wait until the sauce has cooked close to 2 hours. Then, I'll go outside for some sunshine.
It's so good to see the sunshine again! Temps are up in the 40s! Hope all this snow will melt away soon.
Linda, did you every add a touch of cinnamon to your spaghetti sauce? It enhances the flavor.
I couldn't get the title of the second movie you suggested/only the word Angel. Could you post it again?
Nina wrote: "I couldn't get the title of the second movie you suggested/only the word Angel. Could you post it again?"
"Angel in the House" - https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Angel-i...
We are going to a casino today, a 2.5 hour drive to Vernon Downs Casino and stop at The Turning Stone Casino. We aren't big gamblers but the casinos still give us some deals (big gamblers get better deals).
Today we have a free night stay. Both casinos gave us "comp" play just a few bucks each. However, Fred (my husband) got a special comp of $25. That's a lot for us to receive!! We also have $20 off on a meal at Vernon and each have $10 for meals at Turning Stone. Lunch and dinner.
On our way we stop at a park or 2 to see if we can spot any birds. Then on the highway we (mostly me since I'm not driving) will count how many hawks we see. Last year we spotted a couple of bald eagles flying along the Mohawk River.
Returning home we may stop here - http://www.eriecanalcruises.com
but nothing may be happening on a Monday in March. Looks nice though!
Pack a camera, our Fire Kindles, walking shoes and we are on our way.
Have a good day everyone!
Have fun, Linda. Sounds like fun.We've gotten the worst of the grading done around the kids' house done now, but there's still a lot of work to do trying to clean it up. We've got a lot of extra dirt on the west side, but will spread that out to minimize the fall from the shop to the back yard & clean up some of the areas where stumps were. The best news is we managed to pull the grade down far enough that we won't have much of a well around crawl space entrance.
Looking at the grade from the south & west sides of the house, it looks like it falls pretty well, but from the north end, it doesn't very weird optical illusion. I've never been able to justify buying a transit, so we used a water level to find the exact fall. Years ago I made up a couple of hose ends that are just foot long pieces of clear tubing. We put those on the end of their hose, filled it with water & each took a tape measure around to check the grade & found we had 9" over 50' - the length of the kids' hose. Pretty close to perfect, especially for eyeballing it.
The north end of the house was/is tough. The lane was covered with over a foot of stone & we had to dig down right next to the house with the backhoe at an angle to create a gutter for the water. I managed with only one tiny dent in the base of a window where a rock snatched the bucket at full extension.
We piled almost a dump truck load of extra gravel. One of the previous owners thought gravel was the answer, but it was so thick that it never packed properly so the stone dust just sifted down & out of the top 4" or so. The kids couldn't wheel their trash cans out but dragged them through loose gravel. Anyway, we'll use a bit to finish up the grading, but most will make its way to my gravel pile so I won't have to buy a dump truck load this year. That's about $300 worth, about what the backhoe costs for a day.
We found the septic tank, too. It was right where we thought it was, but only about 3' down & even had a clean out, although that was buried under a foot of clay. I have no clue how we missed it. We put a marker where we thought it should be & I took out the top of the clean out with my first bucket full with the backhoe! The septic guy is supposed to come out Tuesday.
We got in about 7pm & had my birthday dinner of corn beef & cabbage with red potatoes. It was delicious! Cheese cake for dessert & then we played 500 Rummy for an hour or so.
Today is clean up everything we can & make sure we're done with the backhoe which will go back tomorrow. We'll still have some more grading to do because the clay ground is still drying out, but we've done pretty good.
Sounds like a great weekend, Linda! Have a good time.
Jim, glad to hear you had a good birthday celebration.
Nice to feel good on your birthday and have lots of the yard work behind you. Enjoy this Sunday. Eighty degrees here but we still need rain/seven inches below normal. Four inches since Oct. and only four inches of snow all winter. That's the official count but we doubt we have over two here. We are watering and watering and my husband must repair our fence in back. Something keeps chipping off the top of it.
I didn't know they have casinos in Upstate NY or do you consider you live in Upstate?
Nina wrote: "I didn't know they have casinos in Upstate NY or do you consider you live in Upstate?"Nina, the nearest casino to me is about a half hour south of us in Saratoga. I've never been there but my sister goes.
https://saratogacasino.com/
The Vernon Downs Casino, where Linda is going, is nearer to Utica, NY:
https://www.vernondowns.com/hotel/
They are both considered "upstate".
It was a gorgeous day today. Up to 50 after starting at 29. Got the worst of the grading all done at the kids' house. Fixed their phone line that I took out, put a small hole in their siding. (I don't feel bad, Josh put in a bigger one!) Best of all, we got the grade down so the crawl space access is actually accessible! No more needing Josh to hang me by my belt so I can use both hands while working in there.
We broke a record/eight seven degrees and not even spring and this isn't So.CA. We are too warm/AC in the car of course. Enjoy your spring weather while we are in summer.
We had nice sunny day here too. I WISH we could have Nina's temperatures!
Trip was good. We had a set amount to spend and didn't spend it all! Meaning, we won a little here a little there to keep us playing. Saw 6 hawks and 1 bald eagle. We were driving at the time so no pictures. Most lakes and ponds were snow covered so no snow geese. They should be migrating soon if not already.
Nina, you had great weather! I'm enjoying the sunny weather here but not 87!!
Joy H. wrote: "Nina wrote: "I didn't know they have casinos in Upstate NY or do you consider you live in Upstate?"Nina, the nearest casino to me is about a half hour south of us in Saratoga. I've never been the..."
Saratoga Racino - the casino portion - was better years ago. Odds of wining were better. Horses - harness racing. Eat a hot dog, bet on a horse. :) Can go outdoors to watch the horses in good weather.
Linda, glad you had a good trip. I was pleased to see robins on the grassy area of our yard where the snow had been plowed off. A sure sign of spring!
Weather. Can you believe we've had one inch of rain in the last six months? We are hoping to break that pattern this weekend. Wish us luck.
Good luck with rain. Yea! Robins. Funny they don't head up this way for a few more weeks. Robins were in the Clifton Park-Saratoga area 2 weeks ago.
Today, back to work. Expect an easy day. Having lunch with one of my clients and her CAREGiver (I'm a coordinator). Then, will have to catch up on work from Friday. Busy but easy day.
Enjoy your day everyone.
Sunshine here. Hope it keeps up.
One thing we have lots of where I live is sunshine. People complain if we have a string of three cloudy days in a row.
Nina, you need a few more clouds to bring you rain! :)
We're hoping rain will visit us over the weekend. Joy, have you ever heard the expression "finishing school?"
Used to be finishing school for girls & prep school for boys, didn't it? I went to a prep school that was strictly for boys until shortly before I left when it became co-ed. Our sister school was just for girls & was often referred to as a finishing school, although they stressed academics, same as ours. They did have more courses on what I guess would be home economics & decorum. When we had joint dances & dinners, there was always a lot of stuff about proper utensils & manners. I think salt cellars were the worst part. Never did like those.
In movies I recall sending their daughters to Europe to finishing schools to learn what Jim stated about proper utensils, manners, how to be polite and "polished."
I seem to remember that finishing schools meant girls then didn't have to go to college whereas the Prep school idea was to get boys ready for college. Am I right?
Nina wrote: "I seem to remember that finishing schools meant girls then didn't have to go to college whereas the Prep school idea was to get boys ready for college. Am I right?"Sounds right to me, Nina.
I've always thought of finishing schools as a snobby thing. Just like the "coming out" balls were for young debutantes. It was a way to keep the money inside the wealthy class, letting the rich girls meet the rich boys.
Ha, "coming out" balls! Wonder who first started that phase.
Last night I thought there was music outside. Not a very populated block but sound does travel up the mountain. I peeked out my bedroom window around 10pm and glad I did. Although the sky seemed grayish the many stars were very low and bright. There was one star blinking rapidly. If it weren't so cold and windy I might have put on my robe and gone out on the porch. Instead I went back to bed happy to see the sight.
"Coming out" means there is a new set of rules for socializing & it's time to start meeting a broader circle of people with an eye toward the future. That doesn't mean mixing with completely different circles, though. We generally don't invite employees to family functions, but do invite various levels of acquaintances depending on the event. It's similar to a lot of rites of passage to adulthood, just one more social convention among like-minded folks. Religions do it all the time & are every bit as exclusive. No one calls them snobby & few call them ridiculous even though they're usually hoping an imaginary friend will perform magic, something we generally ridicule in children after the age of 7 or so. No, we're supposed to 'respect their beliefs'. I don't see 'coming out' as any sillier than a bar mitzvah or christening.
Such conventions certainly can get out of hand. Americans often took English traditions to new heights of idiocy. They were far more Victorian than true Victorians from what I've read. It was only in New England that even the ankles of furniture was hidden by skirts. The English thought that was ridiculous snobbery.
As for learning decorum & such, I think it's a good idea. Too many societal 'laws' are unwritten, so it's refreshing to see them actually taught in a codified way. It means a lot to some people & that's the way the world works. If you want to socialize with people, you need to fit into their conventions. So, if you have to salt with a stupid little spoon instead of a shaker, it's best to be able to do it deftly.
I never cared much for many of the conventions, but knowing them means moving freely among various circles. My cousin's wedding was one of those hoity-toity things, a Catholic wedding at St. Patrick's in Manhattan. The ceremony was so long they provided seats for the bride & groom. The reception & dinner started at 7 or 8pm & it was after midnight before we ate the salad course (a backward way of eating a meal). My daughter rode to the 'alter' on a horse & was married by her Ag Ed teacher. The reception was in a tent & was self-serve fried chicken, corn on the cob, & potato salad. I enjoyed the latter far more.
But that's life. Some days you find yourself dining at the Ritz in a suit while other days you're squatting in a barn covered in dung eating a sandwich.
Sometimes it is fun to have it both ways. I was married in a small Catholic church that formerly was a Masonic temple. It was an early Mass and because my father couldn't find his white shirt he ran next door and literally took the shirt off the back of his neighbor and therefore in all that commotion I was late for my wedding. It was a Low mass so didn't go long and then we had the wedding breakfast at an old mansion and later on the wedding reception at my home/all very casual. What I remember is the wedding cake was tinted light blue to match our dining room wallpaper. My mother was a decorator at heart. Much later one when one of my daughter's was married, she went horseback riding with one of her visiting cousins and rushed home then and ran upstairs to change and came down and was married in our dining room. We had brisket sandwiches and baked beans and potato salad and wonderful tasting wedding cake as her friend at work made it with her own eggs from the farm chickens. As aside; my daughter then worked at King Radio that was part of the Bendix corp and working at that place later were the Garmin men. Bendix turned them down as far as their inventions. Stupid.
Good sighting Linda. Should be fun. Hope the birds cooperate.
My current reading passion seems to be Swedish author's books/like "A Man Called Ove," and "Britt-Marie Was Here," by Fredrick Backman and "The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden," by Jonas Jonasson.
Nina wrote: "Sometimes it is fun to have it both ways. I was married in a small Catholic church that formerly was a Masonic temple. It was an early Mass and because my father couldn't find his white shirt he ra..."Wonderful memories, Nina.
Jim wrote: ""Coming out" means there is a new set of rules for socializing & it's time to start meeting a broader circle of people with an eye toward the future. That doesn't mean mixing with completely differ..."Jim, both weddings sound nice. St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan is fabulous. However, your daughter's wedding riding on a horse is very different and truly shows love of horses and down to earth style. A reception of fried chicken is yummy! May I ask what type of gown or outfit your daughter wore? Did wedding guests dress casual?
Nina wrote: "Sometimes it is fun to have it both ways. I was married in a small Catholic church that formerly was a Masonic temple. It was an early Mass and because my father couldn't find his white shirt he ra..."Like Jim's daughters - who had fried chicken, the brisket sandwiches and casualness of the reception at home gives a certain warmth and homey feel. No pretentiousness. The fact your daughter went horseback riding instead of staying home and preparing herself for hours says a lot about her personality - one that enjoys life and does what she likes.
Linda wrote: "...May I ask what type of gown or outfit your daughter wore? Did wedding guests dress casual? "You can ask, but I have no idea what kind of gown it was. Lacy & wedding-like with layers & some frills. It was a real drag getting her on her horse & staying there. The material was very slick & Topaz was excited which made it even tougher. I led her to Josh & the guy performing the ceremony.
When I was about to help her off, my wife yelled, "Stop! Photo op!!!" which made everyone laugh, so we posed for a while as everyone took pictures. She originally planned to get back on him & let Josh lead her away, but we nixed that & let her walk back up the hill with Josh.
Yes, fairly casual. I just wore my normal work clothes for the office, khakis, a button-down short sleeved shirt, docksiders & no socks. (It was July.) A few guys wore suits, including Josh, the groom. Most gals were in decent dresses. Some wore Renaissance style clothing since they were from the SCA. Arwen, the harpist did - nice long flowing, deep blue gown with silver trim that made her look like an elf queen from the Lord of the Rings. She's an albino with long white hair. It was a pretty colorful, laid back crowd. 50 or so I guess. They wanted to keep it small.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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Finally have a car with the camera for back up driving!