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RJ - Slayer of Trolls
(new)
May 21, 2018 09:22AM
My hallway smoke detector started "low battery" beeping at 3 am this morning. Why does it always happen at 3 am and not 6:30 pm?
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Of course it happens at 3:00 a.m. Randy. We have three in our house and it took me a while to figure out which one it was, also in the middle of the night. 😵
We hit 90 today before lunch, but I still got a lot of little chores done. The big, dead ash tree is cut off the path in the woods along with a smaller one & a small maple. I picked up some more rocks for the fish pond which is doing well. Haven't put them down yet, though. Instead I went for a ride with the girls. Chip is no longer jumping due to progressive navicular, but we did have a good splash & swim in the pond.Tango, the young OTTB Erin has now, thought Chip was crazy to go in the scary pond. He's still ready to jump over a mud puddle. Marg got Pumpkin to go in & he loved it, but he wanted to go swimming too & she was riding in a saddle so she nixed it. He said fine & started to roll. She pulled him up & whacked him, so he tried bucking in the water & charged out.
T.S. Alberto is coming. It's been a wet week, and getting wetter. So glad our new roof is finished. This is the second time in memory we've had a storm named Alberto.I got up about 5 this morning. Didn't hear any rain; went outside to check, before getting dressed. It was sprinkling. "Good," I thought, and went back to bed. No doubt about if it's raining now. We have a TS watch and our governor has declared a state of emergency. There doesn't really have to be an emergency - that makes federal funds available, just in case.
Good luck with Alberto, Buck. Hope the new roof stays put & you stay dry without any damage.
This is from Update #2 from the Sanibel Police Department: "Alberto is stronger with 50mph sustained winds, but has now passed Sanibel Island. It is technically moving away, currently located about 150 miles to our west northwest of the Sanibel Lighthouse, moving northward and accelerating. Banding rain is likely today, with locally heavy downpours.... A tropical storm warning remains in effect, but should be lifted later today. Dangerous surf conditions will likely continue through Memorial Day."We live about 10-12 miles up the Caloosahatchee River from Sanibel
Glad it missed you.I put up burlap to cover the front of the run-in shed to within 3' of the ground to keep out the sun & flies. It's just the loose weave stuff that's used for tree & bush rootballs so it only lasts a season, but it really helps. Anyway, Tango & Pumpkin have never seen such a thing before. They thought I'd hung monsters between them & their food for a few minutes. Chip & Topaz paid no attention, so the other 2 finally figured it out. Fun to watch.
Here's a video of Chip & I playing in the pond along with Pumpkin & Marg. It's about 1m30s. https://www.facebook.com/jim.maclachl...
Erin is on Tango who wouldn't go near the pond, although he did settle down enough to eat some grass. At first he was just horrified that we'd even contemplate going into the pond. He's a young OTTB, so generally jumps mud puddles.
Jim wrote: "Here's a video of Chip & I playing in the pond along with Pumpkin & Marg. It's about 1m30s. https://www.facebook.com/jim.maclachl..."
Sorry, this content isn't available right now
The link you followed may have expired, or the page may only be visible to an audience you're not in.
Well that's a drag. I made it public. Maybe you can see it now.
Tomorrow the Ren Faire opens. It will run for 7 weekends. It's always been a lot of fun & I already bought a season ticket, so I intend to drop by several times. It's supposed to be a hot, clear weekend. We got all the rain out of the way during the week, so I'm way behind on mowing. I guess I'll just go for a couple of hours in the morning, although they don't open until 10am, pretty late in the day for me.
I got an unwanted notification from Goodreads telling me to follow Sarah Jessica Parker. Then I got an email from Goodreads telling me to buy tickets for a movie about Mary Shelley because I am "a fan of Frankenstein."I sent an email complaining about this spam to support@goodreads.com and got this reply: "Thanks for contacting us. As you know, we're testing new ways of letting our members know news like new movie releases or when a notable person joins Goodreads. There isn't currently any way to opt out of these type of notifications, but we’ve passed your feedback along to our team."
Has anybody else received these spams? If so please let Goodreads know that they need to provide a way of opting out.
Are there other good websites out there similar to Goodreads without commercial promotion?
Buck wrote: "I got an unwanted notification from Goodreads telling me to follow Sarah Jessica Parker. Then I got an email from Goodreads telling me to buy tickets for a movie about Mary Shelley ..."I am not looking forward to this. I already dislike the movie ads at the top of every book page. I mean, this is Goodreads, not Goodmovies. I also would not appreciate being told who to follow.
Omg. I have not received these, and I certainly hope I never do.
And yes, Susan, I agree, this is not GoodMovies.
:sigh:
Well, I just got the Sarah Jessica Parker spam. I get excited when I see a notification because ~ up until now ~ it meant that someone was interacting with me. How disappointing to click and see an advertisement.
I reported it as spam.
I got the SJP spam & wondered about it a little, but I get weird friend requests fairly often & thought it was something similar. I thought the name sounded familiar, but just deleted it. I googled her & now see why the name was familiar. I don't know why I'd care about what she reads. This sucks.:(
Susan wrote: "Well, I just got the Sarah Jessica Parker spam. I reported it as spam."
I didn't know I could do that. I did start a topic in the Goodreads Feedback group entitled Spam Notification (the goodreads people added Follow Notable Person to the topic title). How do I report it as spam?
Thanks Susan. I reported the spam email. Next I will report the spam notification.I hope everyone who receives these spam message and/or notifications will let Goodreads know it isn't appreciated.
Mod
These things don't bother me so far. They need to use advertising to survive. I am very much disturbed by the way some of the ads load slowly and cause the page layout to change while I'm reading it. Many times I've tried to click on a link on my iPad and while I'm clicking the page layout changes so I actually end-up clicking on the ad instead.
GR has access to much more information about what books I like than their parent company Amazon has, yet Amazon is much better at targeting relevant ads to me. I like the fact that GR's ads so far are so completely irrelevant to me that I can easily ignore them and am not tempted to buy their wares.
I chuckle often at the suggestions GR sends me. Like "Because you liked this book on Advanced Calculus, perhaps you would enjoy reading Peppa the Pig!".
I've got a book and a basket full of ripe mulberries, so a little ad is not going to ruin my day!
Ed wrote: "These things don't bother me so far. They need to use advertising to survive ......"I don't mind book advertising ~ as long as it's in the right place. But I don't think notifications are the right place.
I agree with Susan & Buck, my mailbox isn't the place for ads. Like Ed, I've also clicked on the wrong thing because our Internet is so slow & the ads take so long to load. I know GR needs ads to survive so I won't block them, but I don't care for them intruding, either.
I might have to look into new front tires for my new mower. I've only had it 2 years & I've put 3 plugs in one tire & 1 in the other. These are just not up to dealing with black locust, multifloral rose, & plum trees. I do have a plug kit, so can do it myself fairly quickly, but it's a hassle.I bought a fairy princess to replace the ugly plastic waterfall in my new pond.
I think I'm finally done.
I too received a goodreads notification to follow Sarah Jessica Parker.I was bemused by this. I never watched Sex and the City, and there is basically no overlap between the books I like and the books she likes.
John wrote: "You should check out the new Michelin X Tweel Turf Airless radial Tire. Just saw a demo at my local John Deere dealer, they are pretty amazing...."Very cool thanks, but they're rear tires. My issues seem to be confined to the smaller front tires which can't be solid. I need all the shock absorption & traction I can get. It's a good idea, though. I didn't see any smaller sizes, but will look around. I'm sure they make better tires.
My lawnmower is a zero-turn Cub Cadet, BTW. I had a little John Deere for a decade, but the motor blew & they don't make a zero-turn with a steering wheel that operates the front wheels any more. Only Troy-Bilt & Cub do. I need the front wheels to hold me on the steep banks I mow. A regular zero-turn can't hold on them. I had to add weights to the front to get this Cub to do it, but it works pretty well. My field tractor is a John Deere, a 5103, which has a 6' Woods single spindle mower.
Jim ~ Your pond is beautiful. Is that a bunny rabbit I see among the fairy people?
Thanks, Susan. There are 2 bunnies. The one on the front left has a gnome riding it. The one below the fountain is just standing up being adorable.:)
Mod
Hot weekend! I got the forsythias trimmed & the worst 4 plum trees along the road pruned by 11am. That was 3 pickup truck loads of branches. I was lazy & just dumped them in front of the brush pile. I'll push them in with the front end loader before I start mowing tomorrow. It was already 84 degrees but felt a lot hotter as the humidity is very high. It's not bad in the woods as we found out when we went for a quick ride around the place. Flies are getting bad, though.It's up to 92 now & brutal out there even just sitting on the lawn mower. I mowed all the field fence lines with the little mower & hope to get most of the lawn done before I come in for dinner. Tomorrow I need to finish the lawn & mow the fields.
Marg wants to go riding at a local park first thing. I guess we'll do that. It doesn't open until 7am, so I should have time to get the bills done & call Mom before we leave at about 6:30 or a bit later. Probably later. Except for her school bus run, Marg hasn't been on time for anything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-C-I...
The story of my life.
:)
I got a pie yesterday. The day before I was out in the barn & saw some people stopped on the other side of the road. A young couple had run out of gas, so I drove over with a gas can & gave them a gallon so they could get to town. I would have done it for anyone, but they had a couple of young kids in the car & it was hot, so I was even more happy to give it to them & they thanked me profusely. Told them they were more than welcome & forgot about it. The next day the wife shows up with a butter creme custard pie that's hot from the oven. Had some last night & we finished it off tonight. It was fantastic. I'm tempted to stand out on the road offering gas to all passers by...;)
It was a busy day. Marg & I left the house with the ponies at 6:30 & went for a ride at a local park. Then I came home & finished mowing the place - all the fields & lawn mowed. Yay! It was hot, though. I had to take a couple of breaks. It was 96 out & the humidity was high. Not terrible in the shade, but sitting on the tractor in the sun about baked me.
Hey y'all, if you're considering getting the anti-shingles vaccine, Shingrix, I do recommend it. Cuz shingles is miserable. But be warned that the side-effects of the vaccine are no picnic either. My husband was pretty low for a couple of days after the first dose, and I'm even worse off than he was after the second. Just plan on it, though, and you'll be ok. (I thought I'd be ok since I had no reaction at all to the first... but it doesn't work that way.) And who knows, maybe you'll be lucky and have no reaction to either dose.
Cheryl wrote: "Hey y'all, if you're considering getting the anti-shingles vaccine, Shingrix, I do recommend it. Cuz shingles is miserable. But be warned that the side-effects of the vaccine are no picnic either. ..."I didn't know there was a choice. I haven't gotten it yet, but plan to. Thanks for the heads up.
Mod
:snort:Yeah, we have an AWOL mod in a very active group... we're carrying on fine, but I wish she'd appointed a successor! It's been about a month so far, I wonder at what point it's time to contact GR?
Ty John, for the laugh and then for the data.
Mod
I don't know what the length of time is to pick up from an absent moderator. I know a few groups have done it here, but they languished quite a while.I'm happy that I'm alive & doing fine again. On Saturday, I was trimming the plum trees & one of the thorns got me on the side of my ankle right between the bones. Soaking it didn't help so I had to go to the doctor on Monday & have pretty much spent the last 2 days laying around with my foot up watching movies & crocheting an afghan. Fine in short doses, but I'm about to go crazy. Unfortunately, if I put my foot down, it blew up like a balloon.
I trimmed the weigela bushes yesterday (like forsythia, but they bloom a few weeks later & have white & pink flowers instead of yellow) but that was all my foot could take. I picked all it up & trimmed up our Princess tree & the magnolia bush today. The foot hasn't swelled up again too much. Yay!
It's too hot to do much, but the little I do want to do really needs to be done. We're supposed to get some rain tomorrow. Hopefully that will break this heat spell. We've been in the mid 90s both in temp & humidity, I think. It's brutal out there.
Geez Jim, are you superman or something? Is there anything you *can't* do?
Cheryl wrote: "Geez Jim, are you superman or something? Is there anything you *can't* do?"Far too many things. Heinlein impressed me early on with his assertion that “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
No invasions & I tend to get lost at sea. (I once mistakenly started going into Centerport rather than Huntington harbor. Yeah, I'm that bad!) I might be able to come up with a bad limerick & I don't want to try dying gallantly, but otherwise I like to fiddle with most things. I'm not great at a lot of them, but it's fun trying to learn. Mom didn't raise me to believe much in men or women's work or that any sort was bad.
Besides, I was raised on & now own a farm. Unless a person is gushing money out of every pore (I'm not!) being handy is the best defense against being broke.
:)
I am still unable to gas weld aluminum. Very disappointing, although I'm getting closer. I spent half an hour fiddling yesterday. It looks so easy on the YouTube videos. Guess I better watch some more. I really want to since our horses get a lot of aluminum shoes now. I've welded steel horseshoes into all sorts of useful things: a grill table for our Weber grill, a mat, S-hooks for the porch, mailbox/bird feeder stand, boot scrapers & pulls. About all I've managed with aluminum horseshoes is some napkin holders & not all are suited to that.
Yeah, it's either too cold or then slumps into liquid. Very tricky. I had much better luck with some flat pieces I scrounged out of the trash. I feel stupid. I knew that a uniform thickness would help. It was actually fairly easy then. So, I guess I can weld aluminum, but am still having trouble welding aluminum horseshoes. I think I'll concentrate on cutting them to create better surfaces...The horseflies are out in force. A green-head got me on the shoulder. Itchy! They usually stick closer to the horse barn & woods. It's rare they bother me at the shop. Wish it was rarer!
;)
Mod
Sad news. A division of the American Library Association has voted to remove Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from a major children's book award over concerns with how the early-to-mid 20th century author portrayed blacks and Native Americans.Laura Ingalls Wilder is best known for her Little House on the Prairie series. I guess some awards are now contingent upon the changing times.
:(
Mod
Not sure how I feel about that. I'm not for erasing history, but you don't have to celebrate all of it.
A local statue is being removed because it shows an American Indian in a submissive pose relative to a Spanish priest. To me it is just a an accurate depiction of the way things were. To others it is a celebration and supports the idea that whites should be on top.
That statue doesn't bother me. But, I come from the south, and I was always very offended by statues of Robert E. Lee. So I can understand how some feel offended.
Mod
Some say they do it to impress the ladies. But to me it just looked like fun!
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