Watcha Doin' - 2017.1 edition Showing 4,151-4,200 of 5,020

[Travis]

We're scheduled for snow and blowing snow this weekend. Problem is they aren't predicting accumulation totals yet so I guess that means somewhere between a dusting and 5 ft. Hopefully closer to the dusting

[Sandra, Moderator]

Rusalka wrote: "but the government made a 19 cent loss in their removal. "

That is hilarious!

[Sandra, Moderator]

Travis sivarT wrote: "We're scheduled for snow and blowing snow this weekend. Problem is they aren't predicting accumulation totals yet so I guess that means somewhere between a dusting and 5 ft. Hopefully closer to the..."

Hopefully is just some dusting, Travis. To early to start shoveling...

[Kristie, Moderator]

Too funny, Rusalka! So silly to bill you for that!

[Sandra, Moderator]

Maybe fans of Michael J. Sullivan already know, but there is a Riyria Revelations group moderated by Michael and his wife Robin:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

[Sandra, Moderator]

It doesn't seem to be very active, though.

[Cherie]

Rusalka wrote: "I was telling Lexx about the conversation we were having about shoveling and weeding and fines. He said that his Dad got an invoice sent to his property once.

The invoice had a 45 cent stamp on t..."

The weed issue is over blackberries that want to grow under/through the fence and grab people, and any grass or weedy looking stuff higher than 24 inches. They consider it a public nuisance and a noxious growth hazard or something like that. I cannot remember the exact wording. I have a three foot mound of dirt that has grown over with grass that likes to get about 2 feet tall in my side yard if I do not keep it down with the weed whacker (string trimmer). I am sure that they do not realize that it is growing on a mound. The problem is that the street and sidewalk is actually 2 feet higher than the ground inside my fence, so when the weeds are at their tallest, it looks like they are almost as high as the 5 foot fence. The blackberries have been pretty much cleaned out, but you know what they are like. If you take your eyes off them for a minute, they are taller than you are. I think they send out the rookie cops just to give them something to do. "Hey - go see if that old woman on 33rd has cut the weeds back this year." The fine is a couple of hundred dollars, if you actually get a ticket. I have never gotten a ticket and the last time I had a problem with the grass, was when my string trimmer was broken. They graciously give you two weeks to get things cut down and the debris carted away.

There is a 24 inch raised flowerbed between my wood fence and the sidewalk that I used to plant flowers in. I stopped planting flowers and filled it all in with bark dust because people kept walking/stepping in the flowerbed and stepping on the plants. The kids like to walk on the paving stones that support the raised bed. If they fall off, they bang into the fence and step down into the gap between the raised bed and the fence. That is where all of the trash goes too. When the city raised the street level and put in the sidewalk, they filled in the space between my old fence and the sidewalk with dirt. The dirt rotted out the boards and we had to build a new fence. Before we did it though, we put in the retaining wall to make the flower bed and provide a space between the dirt and the new fence, which we built 5 feet tall. One summer, a couple of years ago, someone dropped a lit cigarette in the bark dust and I was lucky to come home from work and catch it just at the point it would have caught fire. It was still smoldering. The buss stop was not originally next to my house. I have never figured out why they moved it, really. It used to be a block down at the traffic light.

[Sarah]

After Sandra said about her YLTO anniversary I was trying to work out how she knew. Anyway, I found where it tells you how long you've been in the group for. I knew roughly when I joined anyway. But I was surprised by how many comments I had made - 12,475. I talk a lot it seems.

[Peggy]

I've made 7392 comments since August 15, 2013. That's 1555 days and on average 4.75 posts per day. 7392 sounds like a lot, but 5 a day is not so bad!

I joined only 3 months before you Sandra :)

[Rusalka, Moderator]

That still is very weird to me, Cherie, that they fine you. And how annoying with the rubbish, and scarey with the cigarette butt! Lucky you got home right then!

Fun fact. What you call a string trimmer or a weed whacker, or what the guys in the UK would call a strimmer I believe, we call a whipper snipper.

[Sarah]

| remember you mentioning the whipper snipper when I saw you. I much prefer that name for it. It doesn't seem very Aussie though - it's twice as long as our word! ;-)

[Sandra, Moderator]

Peggy wrote: "I joined only 3 months before you Sandra :)"

Almost twins. :)

[Sandra, Moderator]

Sarah wrote: "After Sandra said about her YLTO anniversary I was trying to work out how she knew. Anyway, I found where it tells you how long you've been in the group for. I knew roughly when I joined anyway. Bu..."

Well, being a moderator comes with a lot of talk too. :)

I anyone else is interested to know, click on the "members" link in the little menu on the right (in any thread) under the group logo and find yourself. Since you are online, it would be quick and easy.

[Margo]

Rusalka wrote: "That still is very weird to me, Cherie, that they fine you. And how annoying with the rubbish, and scarey with the cigarette butt! Lucky you got home right then!

Fun fact. What you call a string t..."

Very similar to a term, almost out of use now it is so old fashioned, for an annoying young person - whipper-snapper.

[Travis]

I joined November 28 2012 and am 4900 comments. Not nearly as many as I would have guessed. But I do go awol sometimes

[Sandra, Moderator]

So your YLTO birthday is soon, Travis.

[Sarah]

Travis sivarT wrote: "I joined November 28 2012 and am 4900 comments. Not nearly as many as I would have guessed. But I do go awol sometimes"

I'd have expected you had more comments than that too.

[Cody]

Rusalka wrote: "That still is very weird to me, Cherie, that they fine you. And how annoying with the rubbish, and scarey with the cigarette butt! Lucky you got home right then!

Fun fact. What you call a string t..."

It is a strimmer :) but don't you also call hurricanes willy willies?

@sarah, this chat reminds me of a simpsons episode when they are in Australia and Homer points out a bull frog, the australian guy next to him says 'bullfrog that's weird, I'd have called it a chazwazzer'

I think the main reasons some think Australian words are shorter is that they take a lot of letters out of some words but them add them into others, for example when I was in Australia a while ago, I stayed in Manley and we went to Warringah Mall :P

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Cody wrote: "It is a strimmer :) but don't you also call hurricanes willy willies?"

Lol. No, we call willy willys, willy willys. Hurricanes are called cyclones. Willy willys are like small tornadoes. They can be like 30cms across in my backyard, or 10ms across.

Once they start causing damage we tend to call them tornados. It's a respect thing. You start ripping shit up, you can have a non-childish name ;)

We lengthen things that are too short. So names that are short get an y or an o on the end. Like Dave. Dave becomes Daveo. Long things get shortened. Eg. Afternoon to arvo. If something has the ability to paint a picture with more words, then you do it. So I could say I'm busy. Or I could say I'm flat out like a lizard drinking. Now, for us who know the saying, we just say now I'm flat out, but that's based on the assumption you know the whole story. Whipper snippers are perfect. As they describe what the thing does (snips by whipping). But shortens the words. AND adds a prefered ending to a word (er).

I completely agree with your point Cody, as explained above. I am confused though with the example of Warringah Mall. Not sure if you know it's located within Warringah (the area/electorate Manly is in), and it's a mall. I'm guessing that's the missing link.

[Lilisa]

@Cody - I like "Molliewoof!"

[Cody]

Rusalka wrote: "Cody wrote: "It is a strimmer :) but don't you also call hurricanes willy willies?"

Lol. No, we call willy willys, willy willys. Hurricanes are called cyclones. Willy willys are like small tornado..."

LOL brilliant :)

I suppose my point was that could have been waring Mall but (as you described above) that wasn't quite good enough :P

I do love the way you taunt the crap hurricanes haha

[Cody]

Lilisa wrote: "@Cody - I like "Molliewoof!""

thank you :) she is lovely, hope you are well :)

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Lilisa wrote: "@Cody - I like "Molliewoof!""

Me too :D

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Cody wrote: "I suppose my point was that could have been waring Mall but (as you described above) that wasn't quite good enough :P

I do love the way you taunt the crap hurricanes haha "

LOL when you have so many things here that can kill you, you have to laugh at them ;)

I have no doubt the locals will shorten it somehow. And Warringah isn't too bad. It's not like it's Woolloomooloo ;)

[Kristie, Moderator]

I apparently just had an anniversary on Halloween. I joined Oct 31, 2014 and have made 4348 comments. That's about 4 comments a day for the past 3 years. I feel like I'm chattier than that. Maybe I started out slow. lol

[KimeyDiann]

@Cody, an underground fence is a wire that puts off a radio signal. The dog then wears a collar that is programmed to receive that signal. If he gets within range of it, the collar, depending on the type you have, gives off a sound, vibrates, or emits a shock to let him know he's at the boundary. You have to train your dog to where the boundary is and most people put little flags up around the boundary area while they are in the training stage.

[KimeyDiann]

string trimmer, weed whacker, strimmer, whipper snipper... in the southern US we call them weed eaters. I think that is a brand name, but that's what we call all of them. Whipper snipper is definitely my favorite of those options though!

So what do you call the actual act of cutting the weeds? We say "I need to weed eat the yard." or "Have you weed eated yet?"

[KimeyDiann]

Another question directed towards those of you in England. I'm listening to The Girl with All the Gifts and there has been several mention of different roads. It made me wonder, what do the letters at the beginning of road numbers mean? The A1 and the M1 are two that I remember being mentioned.

[Janice, Moderator]

We say that we're flat out too, but I don't think the bit about lizards has been truncated from the saying. Lizards aren't at issue here. We can be busy as beavers though.

[Janice, Moderator]

I've been a member since Dec 24, 2010. Seven year anniversary coming up with almost 26K comments.

[Peggy]

Isn't M for Motorway? Not sure about the A though.

[Travis]

We weed wack our yard with the weed whacker. Unless you're all professional then you use a string trimmer. Occasionally we weed eat

[Travis]

Actually just as often we say we need to trim the yard

[Lisa]

My YLTO birthday is next month. I joined on December 10th 2012 and I've made 7072 comments. Well, 7073 now :)

[Cody]

KimeyDiann wrote: "Another question directed towards those of you in England. I'm listening to The Girl with All the Gifts and there has been several mention of different roads. It made me wonder, wha..."

Weed Eated sounds odd lol, i think if you asked that here, people would just nod knowingly and smile!

@Peggy is correct, M is for motorway, these are the much larger roads that cross the country, and the main places you are expected to go the speed limit and beyond.

I am not sure what the A stands for but it is basically a dual carriageway designed for quite a lot of traffic but a longer motorway would not be suitable, if you google broadway, Manchester this is a city a road and the limit is 40, the ones in the country i think you can go the speed limit speed limit.

B roads are country lanes

[KimeyDiann]

I joined September 15, 2014 and have made just over 2,030 posts. I'm apparently a lot quieter here than I realized. I guess I just read through everything a lot more than I actually post. And I do go awol sometimes too.

Thanks for the explanation, Cody. I quite like the letter distinction. We have interstates which I think would be M's and we call I-#, then highways which would be A's and called Highway #. Odd numbered highways and interstates are always north-south and even numbers are east-west.

[Sarah]

M is for motorway. A is for A roads - main roads smaller than motorways but not country lanes. B is for B roads which a smaller roads typically found in the countryside and link between the A roads. That's what it stands for here any way.

[Peggy]

We're drinking our second home brewed beer. It turned out very well! At least that's what we think, but we may be biased. We're having friends over in a few weeks and they'll try both, I wonder wgat they'll think of it.

[Cody]

KimeyDiann wrote: "I joined September 15, 2014 and have made just over 2,030 posts. I'm apparently a lot quieter here than I realized. I guess I just read through everything a lot more than I actually post. And I do ..."

it sounds similar except you are on a larger scale, our longest motorway, as far as i am aware is the m1 which goes london to leeds and is about 300 miles.

i do not think there is a method for labelling our roads though, certainly not east to west like yours

[Cody]

Peggy wrote: "We're drinking our second home brewed beer. It turned out very well! At least that's what we think, but we may be biased. We're having friends over in a few weeks and they'll try both, I wonder wga..."

i hope you brewed a lot of them then!

[Peggy]

Haha, only 10 bottles. You can only do so much in your kitchen ;-)

[Cody]

Peggy wrote: "Haha, only 10 bottles. You can only do so much in your kitchen ;-)"

i have been to the netherlands and know 'how much' a lot of you can do in your kitchens hahaha

joking aside i have never brewed my on beer so i lhave no idea how much space it takes etc :P

[Sarah]

Oops. Just seen Cody has explained road letters already. I should have read the whole thread first before commenting.

[Cody]

Sarah wrote: "Oops. Just seen Cody has explained road letters already. I should have read the whole thread first before commenting."

lol please do not worry, i also think your eexplanation was a lot more succinct than my ramblings :P

[KimeyDiann]

Thanks for the explanation, Sarah!

Cody, you made me curious so I looked it up. The longest interstate highway in the US is I-90 which is over 3,000 miles long and connects Boston to Seattle.

[Lisa]

There was a nasty air accident today not far from where I live. A helicopter and a light aircraft collided in midair. There were four people involved, two in the helicopter and two in the light aircraft and all four sadly died :( Scary stuff!

[Cherie]

KimeyDiann wrote: "@Cody, an underground fence is a wire that puts off a radio signal. The dog then wears a collar that is programmed to receive that signal. If he gets within range of it, the collar, depending on th..."

No, Kimey - the flags are only the visual signal. It they are really mean, like my ex-brother-in-law, they just turn the voltage up on the shock collar and let the dog figure out where he can go and where he can't.

[Cherie]

KimeyDiann wrote: "string trimmer, weed whacker, strimmer, whipper snipper... in the southern US we call them weed eaters. I think that is a brand name, but that's what we call all of them. Whipper snipper is definit..."

Black & Decker makes one called "Grass Hog". It is my tool of choice. I have owned several and I like the ones that still have to have an extension cord because the cordless ones never hold the charge long enough and I refuse to buy the gasoline ones. They are too heavy and have to be serviced every year. I like the single spool model best. The dual spool was rubbish! I have worn out two, given one away and thrown one away. I am currently on #5.

[Sandra, Moderator]

Lisa wrote: "There was a nasty air accident today not far from where I live. A helicopter and a light aircraft collided in midair. There were four people involved, two in the helicopter and two in the light air..."

That is so sad, Lisa.

[Cherie]

I just say that I need to run the weed eater.

I have been on GR since Sept of 2011, but in the YLTO group since October 2012. 10.8K comments. The glorious orange harvest moon always reminds me of my October anniversary because that is the first badge I got, from one of Rusalka's monthly challenges.