You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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Watcha Doin' - 2017.1 edition
That brother in law didn't speak to his parents for 7 years and only occasionally to the rest. Then last year when his wife left him and he got divorced all of a sudden he needed his family and now theyre all best friends. Too much butt kissing over the past year for my taste. There's 7 billion people in the world I don't have time for morons. I'll be civil at gatherings and the like but to be whatsapp chums nah don't need it.
I try to avoid drama, but it seems to find me. This move has been stressful, and then I ended up sick. I had a couple of friends insist that it was all stress and anxiety. When I explained my illness (which I've had before), they negated everything with, "No, it's just stress and anxiety." I finally said, "I think I know my body better than you do." And that shut them right up.
Speaking of moving... the BIG move happens tomorrow. I will likely have little online time between now and Friday sometime. My internet at the new house is being installed on Friday.
I'm hauling hay I sold. Probably shouldn't be online but this is my 15mph wagon. Such an interesting view on humans. You get the I'm not slowing down and will pass you with oncoming traffic to the no oncoming traffic but I'm too scared to pass a big load of hay and everywhere in between. I like to guess what type they are as they come up from behind when I see then coming. I have to swerve slightly for my mirror to catch the full view
Had the rare pass in the village. Bold move. Village always has cars parked on roadside so I hug centerline to prevent passing. Snuck right by me
My partner talks about all the drivers when he gets home from work after driving his tractor. The roads near where he works are so narrow but people still go too fast down them. Cyclists are the worst though around tractors.
@Janice - it can be really frustrating when an illness is labelled by others in that way. Years ago i had a back problem and my friend with a vague interest in psychology told me it was becauese subconsciously i didn't want to drive. We wwren't friends for much longer although that wasn't the reason for that happening. Hope the move goes smoother tomorrow. Then you can breath and enjoy your new home which has been a long time coming
Janice and Sarah, I also hate when people label illness or try to insinuate that there isn't anything wrong with you. I have had that a bit over the past few years. I am suffering from two chronic health conditions and have had people say to me "well, you look alright to me" and "what is actually wrong with you?" I think people literally expect me to stay in bed 24/7 and because I don't, they think I am making it up. It really annoys me how some people are so judgemental. So many illnesses give you symptoms that are largely internal, yet if you appear fine from the outside, people often don't believe you.
I completely understand what you ladies are going through. My daughter has an "invisible illness" as well and I find so many aspects of people's responses to it frustrating. First, don't tell me she "looks fine". No kidding... This happens all the time. When I say she can't do something...oh, but she looks fine. Or when someone hasn't seen her for a while...oh, she looks good. Yes, we know she looks fine and good. Thank you. Good thing we don't walk around with our insides showing.
Second, don't try to diagnose her or ask me if I'd had such and such test or tried such and medicine or seen multiple different specialists. Yes, we've tried it all. We have done everything the actual doctor has told us to do. I hate when people suggest we should try something else like we're not doing everything we can and they could do it better.
Finally, don't act as if it's the only thing about her. You can ask her about other things when you see her too. Yes, I understand, you want to know how she's feeling, but you can imagine how frustrating that is for someone to have to answer that question constantly and you have nothing else to say to her? Plus, who constantly wants to talk about not feeling well? Just let it go.
Ok...rant over. :) Thank you for listening. lol
I totally understand Lisa and Kristie and agree with you.Travis, my family has been so full of drama for the past 18 months, that I finally had enough at the beginning of summer. My solution was and still is: I keep my cell phone off, the door locked, and don't go onto FaceBook. I've reached an age where I am sick to death of drama and negative vibes. So until my family gets some sense and/or calm down, I prefer my cats company, my books, and you all here in YLTO.
My cats don't make me feel bad and inadequate or hurt my feelings. They just want attention, loving, and tell me all kinds of stories (of which I don't know what they're saying 1/2 the time.) I just get a kick watching their faces as they talk - wonderment, anger, and mischievousness are the emotions of today.
My books don't fail me until I get into a book that make my eyes bleed, but that's only rarely.
Kristie wrote: "I completely understand what you ladies are going through. My daughter has an "invisible illness" as well and I find so many aspects of people's responses to it frustrating. First, don't tell me ..."
Kristie, your daughter's experiences with her illness and how other people react to it sound so familiar to mine. It's frustrating on so many levels.
I'm with you guys as well. The number of times I've heard "have you tried....?" *grrrr*
Janice, I know you probably aren't checking GR, but I just wanted to say that I hope the big move goes well today! I survived yesterday at work. Everyone was pretty well quiet all day and not a lot of talking going on. I've tried to break the ice a little this morning by telling them a funny story about the dream I had last night. It is still awkward, but maybe a little better today. That's my hope anyway.
Thanks Kimey. I'm just checked Goodreads and then the computer gets shut down. My internet will be installed sometime tomorrow.
In case any of you need a laugh today too, here is my dream story...I was dreaming that I was in bed and there was a HUGE spider and web above my head. I thought it was going to get me or something and I jumped out of bed and ran to turn the bedroom light on. Only, that last part was in real life. I literally jumped out of bed from a sound sleep and flew across the room to turn the light on. I stood there for a minute with my heart racing, realized I had been dreaming and have now freaked the dogs out in my mad dash to get away from the dream spider. Its a good thing Addie wasn't sleeping on the side of the bed like she normally does, I would have accidentally knocked her off in my panic fueled escape.
Lol, thanks for sharing that KimeyDiann :DI had a spider related dream recently too, but I didn't go as far as actually jumping out of the bed ;-)
I can't say I've ever done that before, at least not that I'm aware of anyway. I have no memory of this, but my husband told me that he leaned over to kiss me on the forehead when I was asleep one time and I sat up and started hitting him and wouldn't stop! lol.
I've done anything quite like that before although I used to get sleep paralysis which is the only odd sleep thing I've experienced. Oh and it is truly odd. And scary. With that the dream still goes on around you whilst your awake but you can't move or talk/cry out. I have a vague recollection of talking about it on here before. I went out with a guy ho did a lot of marathon canoeing and after big races when he was asleep his muscles in his arms and shoulders would twitch alternately as if he was still canoeing. Then you have those people who go eat snacks from the fridge, text people, go out for walks, climb out the window etc. while they are asleep. Some weird stuff can happen while you're asleep. I find it fascinating.
I find it fascinating too. I may have experienced sleep paralysis... I know I've been "trapped" in a dream before and I'll know I'm dreaming but can't seem to wake myself to get out of it. And of course that has only happened in bad dreams when I want to wake up and make it stop. lol.
Hello from home! I have a lot of catching up to do.Sorry to hear about all the family dramas. And I understand the "invisible" illness issues too. I watched my Mum go through 10 years of being diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Hope the last day goes well today, Peggy :)
I've had sleep paralysis a few times, used to sleep walk for 6 years of my life, and had night terrors for a year when I was 6. Those were weird, as I was still dreaming (trapped in it somewhat) but interacting with my parents as if I was awake. Sleep is one of the things that is least understood psychologically and neurologically. I keep looking up articles even now trying to learn about night terrors, and no one seems to know. Kinda cool there are still things to learn, but frustrating as well.
My old housemate's little sister was a champion taekwondo competitor in Aus, and he woke up a few times when we were in Uni (before he moved in with us) to her kicking through the wall in her sleep. He always was worried for her future boyfriend, although I've never heard of her husband complaining now, so maybe she got over it when she stopped competing. Our other housemate at the time is a MMA/BJJ grappler/teacher, and his wife woke up to him choking her in their sleep, but managed to wake him up. She decided that meant she should learn too so she could get out of the choke hold if he did it again.
I've heard of sleep paralysis, but have never experienced it. I hope I never will! I think I once read that people who believe they were abducted by aliens actually suffered from sleep paralysis, where they dreamt about aliens or being operated on but were 'trapped' in their dream and that made it very real. Perhaps mostly for people who already believe in aliens or who have certain other tendencies. I'm not sure about the details anymore, it's been a long time.
Oh! And welcome back Rusalka!! How's the jetlag? What was your favourite part of your trip?
Sorry, I forgot to say the sleep paralysis I have had was waking up from a dream (usually with something pinning or holding me down), and not being able to move my arms or legs, or make a noise. So waking up (possibly not fully awake but I remember it as awake), but then not able to move, then panicking, and realising I could not scream or yell out. It wore off after probably less than a minute but it was terrifying.This was when I was still at home, so probably between 16-20, so after the terrors, and the sleep walking that stopped at 12.
Peggy wrote: "Oh! And welcome back Rusalka!! How's the jetlag? What was your favourite part of your trip?"Thanks Peggy! We arrived last night in Melbourne after the last planes had left for the night, so had a nights sleep already.
The flights were not too bad, only 4.5hours from Prague to Dubai, then 13 hours from Dubai to Melb, so I only had a nap and slept well last night. Lexx woke up at 5am however. It's nearly midnight now, so hopefully it works itself out over the weekend. I usually get jetlag tomorrow time. I'm back to work on Monday. Boo.
I have stuffed my ankle though. I noticed it going from Berlin to Prague, and it just got worse. As I only had a few days left, I dosed myself up on ibuprofen, strapped it, and limped around the city with it getting excruciating at night. Kept changing in Prague from foot to ankle, but seems to have settled on my tendon down the back of my heel. It's nasty but hopefully I can rest it a bit over the weekend. I blame the cobblestones.
Best thing.... urgh. Was thinking about this earlier...
- Seeing Twelfth Night (one of my favourites) at the Globe in London
- Going to the National Bird of Prey Centre in Ireland, holding heaps of owls and falcons, and going for a walk with a hawk for an hour.
- Finding a 13th century ruined castle, on the edge of a lake out of an Arthurian legend and the cliffs of the Atlantic, in a sheep paddock on the most southern tip of Ireland, off the recommendation of two really drunk Irishmen in the pub the night before.
- The Black Forest was beautiful.
- This one surprised me, but the Roman style (yes) baths in Baden-Baden.
- And the food tour we did on the last day of Prague, being taken around to the best and regional food spots by a local guide. Should have done it on the first day, as we got pages of recommendations out of it. I actually now would really recommend doing one of these if you go to a major European city for a couple of days, and do it as soon as you can.
Welcome back Rusalka. Your ruined castle recommendation made me laugh. I love it when things like that happen.A food tour sounds awesome. We got in to the habit of having a tour on the first day of being somewhere to get recommendations and more of an idea of the layout of the city. We got an excellent Indonesian restaurant recommendation that way when we were in Amsterdam last year. Never done a food tour before but I could get in to that although not sure how veggie friendly they would be.
I single handed the boat this morning while my partner was at work. Only a week to go before we go on to the River Avon for the first time and head in to Bristol harbour. I'm really excited. Just got an anchor sorted just in case although there is absolutely no chance that i could throw it overboard - it's so heavy. I'm sure we won't need it though. I experienced some very rubbish boat drivers today during my trip. Nowhere else can someone be in charge of a 20 tonne vehicle without being taught how to use the thing. I was going over an aquaduct which isn't really big enough for two boats to go over at the same time. I was already on it so i had priority and this other boat started on to it. I tried to hand signal (and shout) for them to reverse back but they just didn't seem to get what the problem was. They ended up stopping but just inside the aquaduct but in my way as it's a 90 degree bend coming out of it. As they weren't going to move, i just carried out and pulled off an awesome manoeuvre around them without hitting them or the side or getting stuck in the shallows. Almost wished I'd filmed it. Lol.
Welcome back, Rusalka! Sorry to hear about ankle (ouch!) and hope your jet lag works out before you have to return to to work. It sounds like you had an excellent time. I love the food tour idea. I will keep that in mind for the next time I travel overseas.
I missed the ankle bit. Ouch. Hope it eases off soon. Did you hurt it, overuse it or is it a an old injury flared up?
Thanks Kristie. I think it needs to rest. And yet another sign to get off my arse more at home, not just on hols. The tour we went on asked for things like allergies, dietary requirements, and whether you drink alcohol or not. I think it would be harder to do a Veggie tour in some places like the Czech Republic (if I don't see cabbage or potato for a couple of months I will be happy), but others would be fine.
Our tour group was awesome, who then found out where everyone was going after Prague (besides us) and sent them recs for those cities as well.
Jeez... good work!! That sounds like a tight maneuver. I am surprised they don't have to learn the "river" rules to comply with insurance. I mean I had to sign my first born away in Ireland and the UK to drive a car. It is a bit silly.
Hope those of you in Texas are okay! And if you need to evacuate, please do!
Sounds like you did some amazing things Rusalka!
Oh, yikes, Sarah! Glad you were able to maneuver that. Some people are not good drivers, whether in boats or cars. I once got held up in rotary because a woman turned her car around because she wanted to get off at the exit before. I explained to her that she would need to turn back around and go in the correct direction and just go all the way around the rotary to the correct exit. She initially argued with me because her exit was behind her. She couldn't seem to grasp that the rotary only went in one direction and made a circle. Then, she couldn't turn her car around because she didn't want to hit the curb, so her car was stuck sideways blocking the entire rotary. Needless to say, that there was quite a lot of traffic building up around the rotary. I finally got out of my car and got in her car and turned it around for her and explained that if she just followed the rotary she will come to her exit again. I don't know how she ever got her license.
Wow, Rus! Your trip sounds so awesome! I'm glad you had a wonderful time, but too bad about your ankle. Hopefully it improves after a weekend of rest. Nice work on handling the boat alone in that situation, Sarah! What is the need or lack of need of an anchor for your upcoming trip?
Kristie wrote: "I once got held up in rotary because a woman turned her car around because she w..."
Maybe she was from a rural area like me where round-a-bouts are extremely rare. lol. I remember the first time I came upon one, it about scared me to death. I didn't even know intersections like that existed. But I think even then I understood they were one-way! And in my defense, I was away at college for the first time and was like 19-20 years old.
OH! Roundabouts? I had no idea what a rotary was. Thanks Kimey.I come from the land of roundabouts. Like, in complete seriousness, my city is known in Australia for it's roundabouts. Everyone else jokes about it, but they are wonderful things and our traffic is amazing comparatively around the country. IF you can use them, it just takes one jerk to stuff it for everyone.
Oh, and also in my defense, getting a drivers license where I did required the simplest driving test ever known. It was simply, back out of a parking space, make a left turn out of the parking lot. Go to the red light, turn left, go to the four-way-stop, turn left, go half a mile, turn left, turn right into the parking lot, park, done! No parallel parking, 3-point turns, etc. I think I just figured out why no one in the city where I work seems to know how to drive in traffic.
We have roundabouts basically everywhere and more and more intersections are replaced by them (though usually not the superbusy ones).Funny, I never thought you could get a driver's license and then come across new situations. I thought everything was trained for. But it makes sense in larger countries that some things you can only learn in theory.
My test was similar, Kimey. This was just unbelievable. It was clearly marked that you had to go in one direction and every other car was going in that direction. She literally couldn't fit through in the opposite direction. I can see making a mistake, but she was unable to grasp it. I'm not sure how she even got turned around in this one. You enter at an angle so you basically have to go in the correct direction, unless you do a U-turn while entering. (Not sure if everyone calls them u-turns! Sorry about the rotary. lol It is a big roundabout.)
No worries, Kristie lol. And I am good with u-turns!
Yes, Peggy. I learned about rotaries / roundabouts in class and practiced them before my test, but I wasn't tested on it in my actual driving test (that I recall). It depends where you are tested and what road conditions they have locally.
I hadn't heard of rotaries before either. Yep, plenty of roundabouts here.Hire boat companies take deposits and give basic instruction to hirers but it isn't really enough.
On the canal Kimey the water doesn't flow and it isn't very deep or wide. So no anchor is required. But the river is much wider and deeper and has a current which will vary depending on weather and runoff. There are also sluice gates and weirs. If the river is in spate, there is potential of being swept away in a direction you don't want to go and could go over weirs etc. Also if your engine cut out for some reason, you would have no control of the boat. So in these emergency situations, we would throw an anchor overboard which would bring us to a stop so we don't go over any weirs. It's all very unlikely to happen but it's good to be prepared.
I'm home alone tonight. My partner has gone to a gig with a mate and is staying over. I will be cooking something nice for me, having a nice glass of wine and doing some reading. Perfect. Well, almost. I have had a headache all day which I cannot shift which is putting a dampener on things.
Hope you can get rid of that headache soon, Sarah. Such a waste of a nice, quiet evening if it's ruined by a headache. Otherwise, it sounds just lovely.
Sarah wrote: "I'm home alone tonight. My partner has gone to a gig with a mate and is staying over. I will be cooking something nice for me, having a nice glass of wine and doing some reading. Perfect. Well, alm..."I hope your headache clears up soon, Sarah!
What an awesome trip, Rusalka! Thanks for sharing some highlights.Hope the move is going well for Janice. Super busy I bet!
The Texas Gulf is about to get slammed by Hurricane Harvey and inundated with insane amounts of rain. Like a year's worth of rain in a few days. Yikes.
Hope everyone stays safe in Texas.
Kristie wrote: "Hope everyone stays safe in Texas."Thanks Kristie. So far only rain, expecting heavier rain later this afternoon.
Do we have many members in Texas? I just saw the news about the hurricane heading in. Scary stuff.
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You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
Proof: The Science of Booze (other topics)The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles (other topics)
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles (other topics)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (other topics)
The Little Prince (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Michael J. Sullivan (other topics)Joe Hill (other topics)
Kazuo Ishiguro (other topics)
Kazuo Ishiguro (other topics)
Kazuo Ishiguro (other topics)
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My plan is to stay in my office as much as possible today. I can't handle this drama. I ended up having to take my anti-anxiety medicine after I left work yesterday. Hopefully it won't be too bad. Our boss is out of town today and I know he plans on talking to the one that was doing the shouting when he gets back tomorrow. The only thing is, he needs to talk to the one that was being shouted at too, because she actually deserved it. She's the one that I've mentioned before that enjoys belittling others. But, our boss loves her so I don't see anything happening there.
Distancing yourself from the drama brother is a wise decision, Travis. It is so hard when it is family though.
Take pictures of the cocoon for us. I'm so amazed by the process of caterpillar to butterfly and I love seeing the cocoons.