Watcha Doin' - 2017.1 edition Showing 3,301-3,350 of 5,020

[Anne (Booklady)]

Is it for me today :( I'm going to lay down and then read for a while. I'm still feeling achy, tired, and now chilled. See everyone tomorrow.

[Lisa]

Anne (Booklady) wrote: "Is it for me today :( I'm going to lay down and then read for a while. I'm still feeling achy, tired, and now chilled. See everyone tomorrow."

Take it easy, Anne. See you tomorrow.

[Kristie, Moderator]

Feel better, Anne.

I've won a few, Travis. I think you need to enter a lot to win any. Also, I think you need to review them or you don't win any more.

[Travis]

I was just curious. I find searching the giveaways is a good way for me to find new releases and I can sign up for the giveaway and add it to the tbr simultaneously

[KimeyDiann]

Aww, thanks for thinking of me, Anne. I had to go out of town for a couple of days after all of that happened so I managed to escape a little of it. It hasn't been too terrible, but it is tense around here. I hear the sounds of whispering all to often and it drives me crazy. For the most part I try to stay in my office. I've been pretty busy lately so I haven't exactly had to try too hard. lol.
Hope you feel better soon, Anne!

I've won two GR giveaways. One a couple years ago and one just recently. I haven't received the most recently won book though. I get emails that books on my TBR are on giveaway and sometimes I enter, sometimes I don't. It just depends on the mood I'm in. I had several emails for giveaways this week, but I haven't entered any of them. I just haven't wanted to take the time to do it. lol.

[Cherie]

I won a Netgallery book and reviewed it, when I first joined but I have never won any of the giveaways. I still enter once in a while. Mostly, I get notices for books that are already on my TBR list. I don't go out of my way to search through the lists very often.

[Janice, Moderator]

I used to win Goodreads giveaways when I first joined GR's. I've probably won a half dozen. But I haven't won any in several years. I think that they have become more popular and consequently, more people are entering them.

[Tejas Janet]

Sadly, I've never won any book give-aways, but then I don't enter many either.

As a kid, one time our english setter got skunked on a bird hunting trip, and my dad gave her a Lysol bath. That made her sick and didn't seem to do much to stop the stink. One of his hunting buddies that he trusted Gabe him this advice. Per usual in my childhood, I had no say in n the matter.

[Travis]

I had an English Setter once. One day I'll have another. I love those dogs

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Never won a giveaway.

I guess i need to experience a skunk to understand the smell. I may regret saying that.

Are English Setters smarter than Irish ones?

Hope you feel better Anne, and that work's tension dies down Kimey.

And European magpies are quite different to Aussie ones. I never heard them sing, and they look different. I was so happy to see "real" ones when I got home. Ours are similar to crows and ravens, but we have both of those too.

[Anne (Booklady)]

Good Morning Everyone! I'm feeling a little better - the achy and tired feeling is still there, but the chills are finally over. Thanks for the well wishes. :)

Rus, trust me you never want to experience skunk smell. I remember when I was little our Irish Setter got loose from her pen and I chased her. Long story, short: She was after a skunk and it sprayed both me and Ginger. Mom had to throw away my favorite pair of jeans, because the smell never came out of them.

Kimey, I'm glad things have settled down a bit at work.

[Sandra, Moderator]

Rusalka wrote: "I guess i need to experience a skunk to understand the smell."

Forget about it.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Lol. Okay, okay, I will abandon that ambition :P

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Sorry Margo, I forgot to respond. I'm not really one for "holiday reads" as such. I read what I've been meaning to read but am thankful I have time to read them! Burial Rites was one of these, I have been meaning to read it for ages, been told by many people to read it, and promised my mother and aunt (don't argue with the sisters, people) I would read it by the end of the year (I probably still owe the two librarians a book review).

So I read it. I probably would have prefered to read it over a couple of days snuggled on the couch instead of travelling for the whole immersive experience. It was not light and fluffy, and it affected me. But that's okay. I stared out the window for 20 mins through the outskirts of Dublin to clear my head. And you can't complain about that ;)

[Margo]

Rusalka wrote: "Sorry Margo, I forgot to respond. I'm not really one for "holiday reads" as such. I read what I've been meaning to read but am thankful I have time to read them! Burial Rites was on..."

@rusalka - Glad you got to it :-) I'm not a light and fluffy book lover myself but that one left me unbelievably depressed. I think the tone of the audio book added to the general feeling of doom. Hey, you were only about 80 miles from me when you finished it!

@anne - glad you're startig to feel better. I'd say that skunk was unforgettable!

[Margo]

Heading across to Galway in a while for a pre-procedure check up. Hubby is driving but it's a pretty bumpy road so I am not looking forward to the trip :(

[Anne (Booklady)]

Thank you, Margo. How is your back doing? Still in pain, or has it let up any?

[Janice, Moderator]

Tomato juice is the prescribed remedy for counteracting skunk spray. I suspect that the acidity of the tomatoes is what does the trick. Dogs seem to love skunks and porcupines, and they always bear the shame of messing with them.

Nasty smell, Rusalka. I had to google it, but the human nose can detect the smell 3.5 miles downwind.

[Travis]

Nah you can buy skunk off or skunk b gone. Can't recall the name but it works. I haven't had to use it. These barn cats get sprayed so often it's their problem but I know people with house pets that say it works great.

[KimeyDiann]

I've always heard the tomato juice remedy too. Thankfully I've never had to try it.
And I absolutely believe you can smell a skunk from a few miles away! If there's ever one that's roadkill, you can smell if way before you see it.

Is anyone here going to be affected by Hurricane Irma? I saw reports of some deaths yesterday on some of the Caribbean islands. Judging by the forecast, Florida is going to get hit hard. My husband is in South Carolina and they are getting ready to evacuate. He stays in a camper and is planning on heading home with it after he gets off work today. Irma shouldn't be all that strong by the time it gets to where he is, but I can only imagine what the flooding will be like in the "low country."

[Kristie, Moderator]

I'm in Virginia and will probably see some of the effects of Irma. We might get some wind and rain, but it won't be anything like further south. I don't expect any real damage or flooding in my area. My biggest concern will probably be if my fights get cancelled on Monday night.

I feel so sorry for everyone getting hit by these hurricanes. We now have Jose following Irma and Katia sitting in the Gulf of Mexico. They aren't as big as the first two, but still it will be horrible if the same areas get hit again. Right now, they expect Jose to be small and possibly go out to sea and Katia is expected to get bigger and make landfall in Mexico. I'm praying those two stay off the coast or just fall apart.

[Peggy]

About skunks, in Dutch we call them 'stinkdier' which literally translates to 'stinky animal'.

[Esther]

Travis sivarT wrote: "Does anyone ever win a Goodreads giveaway book here. In 5 years of trying I got one book I think the first time I tried and no since. Honestly I figure it's pointless but sometimes I like to browse..."

i have won about 5 of them. and I do not try that hard. I only remember to go there when I get an email saying one of the title of my to read is in there. When this happens I have a quick look and enter a few more.

[Kristie, Moderator]

Oh, that's funny, Peggy!

[KimeyDiann]

Peggy wrote: "About skunks, in Dutch we call them 'stinkdier' which literally translates to 'stinky animal'."

Perfect name!

[Tejas Janet]

Gee, it's appliance repair central around here lately. First, the downstairs AC unit went on the fritz. Then my coffee grinder pooped out. Next, the dishwasher wouldn't run. And then the refrigerator stopped cooling. Ugh.

Skunk smell is like rotten eggs on steroids. And it stings if it gets on your skin or in your eyes.

Travis, my English setter, Amber, wasn't really bright. But she had a ton of heart and was pretty. She could run for hours at a time. Amazing.

[Mariab]

Ok. Not able to read all ypur post, but I hope Rusalka and Anne are beter now and all are safe from the hurricane...

Birds... We have a LOT of them here (SA), especially parrots; they are a clever noisy bunch and used to breakfast very early in the morning

[Margo]

Wow, wild parrots sound very exotic and colorful to me :-)

[Margo]

I'm in the clinic waiting for procure. All of the waiting drives me insane!

It's a beautiful morning here. What's it like for everyone else? Anyone experiencing Irma?

[Peggy]

Good luck Margo!

It's grey, windy and rainy here, but that has nothing to do with Irma. Irma is all over the news here though, as Saint Martin is partly Dutch.

[Sandra, Moderator]

TJ, how annoying! I hope the fridge is the last in the chain.

[Sandra, Moderator]

I've been following the news about Irma obsessively. It is so sad and scary. We are not even near the area affected or the one at risk, but still.

[Lisa]

Margo wrote: "I'm in the clinic waiting for procure. All of the waiting drives me insane!

It's a beautiful morning here. What's it like for everyone else? Anyone experiencing Irma?"

Best of luck, Margo.

It's raining here today. The weekend is not looking too good either.

[Lisa]

Irma has been all over the news here too. It's horrific! What's even more scary is two more hurricanes have now formed. One is heading towards Mexico and the other, Jose, is currently heading towards the Caribbean.

[Travis]

What's odd is usually a major hurricane disrupts things to where there is a break but this is like semi automatic hurricane season as soon as one is rolling hard another starts and heads out . You have all the doom fearers out there but I did see a Bible verse that was pretty scary with describing the current world. That said, I'm pretty sure I've seen at least a dozen other times that verse has also described things perfectly so probably not time for the apocalypse. I remember being in elementary after Andrew about destroyed Florida and this hurricane is following same path and is much stronger.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

I've been following Irma as we had people we still kept in touch with on St Martin/Sint Maarten. They are okay but house ruined. The street we stayed on on the French side no longer exists. Apparently on the French side it's been 95% destroyed. Not sure of the stats on the Dutch side (Peggy may be able to help) but looked pretty destroyed as well. I hate to think what Barbuda is like, as that sounded like it had been pretty much wiped from the map.

Jose is following the same path, and will likely hit all the same islands, and then up to Florida as well. "Only" a category 2 or 3 hurricane now, but those islands need that like a punch in the face. No shelter, no electricity, no water, no airport, trapped tourists, and another severe, destructive and life threatening storm. At least Beardy Branson can hide in his wine cellar again.

I hope any one or any one with friends or family in Florida stays safe. It's going to be nasty, but hopefully both storms have lost some power by the time they get to the States.

Apparently this is all because the Caribbean and the Atlantic are much warmer this year than usual. Higher sea temps, more hurricanes of greater intensity. If only someone had warned us about 35 years ago about what happens when the world starts warming up...

[Tejas Janet]

Right, if only we'd known about climate change earlier. Oh wait...

Hope the procedure brings relief, Margo. Sorry you're dealing with back pain on top of all.

Glad Anne and Rusalka feeling better.

I fixed the dishwasher, yay, with some help from Google. Also discovered installation error of the water out line and corrected that. Maybe will help keep it running properly.

Hubby got fridge running again. Temp control switch failed. He rewired it in with the freezer switch as a work around. No luck with the air conditioning, but thankfully it's cooled down quite a bit, and we can run the unit upstairs okay to be cool at night if needed. Hate to do it, but going to have to hire a repair tech : (

[Janice, Moderator]

Such devastation!

My nephew and his family live in Jacksonville, Florida. They've decided to stay put.

I also have a cousin in Florida. She's an RN and has committed to helping out at the hospital. She has to bring a suitcase of clothes and her own food and water.

Regardless of whether or not they're in the direct path of the storm, they will get battered with rain and wind.

[KimeyDiann]

That stinks, TJ. Glad you managed to fix at least a couple of the problems.

Hope your procedure goes well, Margo, and that you get some relief!

The devastation these storms are causing is just heartbreaking. I was afraid this would be a bad hurricane season since there practically wasn't one last year and it was so warm this past winter in the Gulf of Mexico states.

The company I work for has two big projects in South Carolina. It was decided yesterday when the storm was still tracking more east to shut down both sites. My husband works on one of those and he came home last night. My dad is working in southern Georgia and I think he was leaving today or tomorrow coming home. Those areas aren't going to get hit near as bad as Florida according to the most recent outlook, but tornadoes and flooding are still a very real danger.

I actually have a trip planned to go to the panhandle of Florida next week. Right now the forecast shows that our trip should be okay, but if Irma continues to move a little more west and a little more west, we may be cancelling.

[Sandra, Moderator]

And now also the 8.2 earthquake in Mexico, with already more than 60 fatal victims.

[Kristie, Moderator]

I saw that too, Sandra. They also had or maybe still have a tsunami warning due to that earthquake. The world has gone wacky. Wild fires, droughts, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes... scary stuff.

[Tejas Janet]

And I was reading today how the US wildfires are posing air quality health hazard in large swaths of northwestern US in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. High quantities of smoke and ash particulate. I hadn't realized about how bad it was. Hotter than normal temps are creating conditions that trap the smoke. Yet more scary, bad news.

[Tejas Janet]

Also from fires in British Columbia.

[Margo]

@tevas janet - sounds like you've a disaster with appliances! Luck you and your husband are both handy or you would have had three repair bills. Take a bow :-)

Hope everyones family stays safe. Janice you must be very proud of your cousin. I have great admiration for all the front line worker who are willing to put themselves at risk.

My procedure went really well. The doc has asked me to make a desicion on having surgery to decompress the disc. I need to do some reading, ask some questions. I am seeing my neurologist in november and her opinion will be vital. I have so many issues getting around already that I don't want to risk making things worse. On the other hand less pain could be a big bonus. Anyone have any experience with disc decompression surgery?

[Lisa]

Sandra wrote: "And now also the 8.2 earthquake in Mexico, with already more than 60 fatal victims."

I heard about that on the news last night. So scary!

[Sandra, Moderator]

We are using this web page to follow the hurricanes. It is really good:

https://www.windy.com/?26.274,-69.346,4

You can see very clear where Irma and Jose are. Katia was yesterday in the Mexico gulf, but it seems it degraded to tropical storm as soon as it took land in Mexico. One less at least. Specially now that Mexico doesn't need more problems.

[Sarah]

Hi everyone,

Sorry it's been such a looooong time. I'm actually heading off to uni next Sunday 17th and who knows when I'll get back online. I'm still reading but I'm more so reading what I fancy rather than going through my yearly challenges now. I'm hoping to be back around xmas time and set up another yearly book challenge and set my sights lower for those challenges lol.

Hope your all well. I'll check in again soon.

xx

[Lisa]

Sarah wrote: "Hi everyone,

Sorry it's been such a looooong time. I'm actually heading off to uni next Sunday 17th and who knows when I'll get back online. I'm still reading but I'm more so reading what I fancy..."

Good luck for university, Sarah! I'm sure you will have an amazing time! xx

[Margo]

I got the lurgy!! This group is the only place I have been in contact with it so I am blaming you guys for my night on the toilet lol

[Janice, Moderator]

Margo, you are having a time of it! You have a tough decision to make about the surgery.

Nice to hear from you Sarah. Good luck at uni!

Re: earthquake in Mexico. My friend is building a house in the area. She said that they didn't get much damage and that if the epicentre had been 100 miles north, they would have had much more damage. Her workers brought their families to her place which is high up and safe. I understand they are waiting out a possible tsunami.

I haven't heard any news from my nephew or cousin in Florida. I'm a bit nervous for them both.