Been Blue? Bummed? Tell us about it.413 responses total.
Eighteen items already.
I don't want/need a job for another 14 months, and I'm already stressed out about whether I'm going to find one.
I emailed my dad's wife yesterday to see how he was, as I haven;t heard a peep for weeks (she had asked me not to call, just to use email). She responded that he passed away two weeks ago. I just don't get it.
Oh, Katie how awful! She must be a very hurting person to have to hurt others that way.
She's not, that's the thing.
I guess that was ambiguous. I meant to quote the "Hurt people hurt people" concept. The idea that someone must have a big-time hurt inside themselves to go around hurting others.
katie, really sorry to hear about your dad. since you say your stepmom isn't a hurting person, do you think your dad put her up to her actions (i.e. not communicating with you) Sometimes when people are sick or hurting, they just can't bear to be with or deal with people, even people they love. It is just the way some people react when they are confronted with bad things, to close themselves off. you shouldn't take it personally, I'm sure it had no reflection on his love for you or anything. Again, condolences
Maybe she was just too sad to contact anyone?
My God, that's a real bummer. I'm very sorry for you, Katie.
Sorry to hear about your dad, Katie. Definitely not a good thing.
Seems that for much of my life Lofn has been guiding my heart in the wrong directions.
Katie, I'm really sorry.
I was finally able to go to one of my stepson's football games last night. But it was called off on account of the thunderstorm. I was able to pass him the sweatshirt I got him from the Smithsonian by asking his coach to call him to the locker room door. I'll get another chance to go to a game in 2 weeks.
TWO UNLUCKY RESPONSES MISSED.
I'm sorry to hear of your loss, Katie. I take it all arrangments had been taken of, also without your input.
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I cant even imagine what you are going through, katie. You have all my sympathies though
Thanks, everybody.
IBB I've been receiving spam email on my grex login from somebody using a yahoo mail. They address the mail not to my or my login but to: Undisclosed.Recipients@cyberspace.org this apparently bounces these emails all over grex. why does this work? isn't there a way to block such methods?
The To: line is a part of the message. It has nothing to do with who the message was actually sent to.
Grex *should* be rejecting mail that says in the RFC 822 headers that it's to "Undisclosed.Recipients@cyberspace.org". That's a generic address, one of a bunch that are only used by spammers. You should forward any such mail to "uce". I found one other such sample of the tail end of that file, so I can believe that something can go wrong with the check. I'm not sure what - when I tried to recreate it just now using the sample message somebody else sent to uce, the check caught it just as it should. Grex should also be rejecting mail with invalid .com return addresses - but versign may have broken that.
<remmers curses verisign>
I get undisclosed repicient spam at grex frequently - in fact I set procmail to filter on that string. I stopped forwarding spam a while ago (to uce) but will start again if it will be helpful.
I'd not seen the "undisclosed_recipient@cyberspace" before; I have seen something like "<undisclosed recipients>", which Pine seems to use when there is no "To:" or "cc:" field in the message text. That is, it shows up when all the addressees were blind carbon-copy (bcc) addressees.
I get some legitimate mail to undisclosed recipient (though not usually at Grex) from friends who use mail lists hosted at yahoo or some other commercial sites.
Boy and I are having problems. My feet are cold. I'm starting to hate a particular co-worker of mine.
re 21 Oh boy, mdw is telling people where they should forward their mail. Quick boys, run for cover!
relationship issues
I have a code. AAAA-CHOOO
IBB I had to miss Tango lessons because I was unable to find a parking space downtown . . . stupid drivers aside.
IBB the job-related panicking is trying to set in. Also, because I made a careless, meant-to-be-funny remark to a good friend who had been having a terrible week and was really pissed off by my remark. Finally, because my monthly getting-to-see-Don event always gets severely interrupted by other people and friends when it takes place in Michigan. The time we got to spend together was wonderful, but there wasn't nearly enough of it. Which leads me back to the "I only have to be in Boston 11 more months" as an attempted cheer-up, which leads straight back to "oh shit, I have to find a job for around then." Hmmm. Time for bed.
I am *still* looking for my main stereo remote, and it has not turned up.
Re 31 That's funny - I just discovered that about Dave and myself - when we are in Michigan together, it's about 90,000 times more stressful, as we're both contending with family too . . .and alone time is pretty much nil.
Bad cold... the usual annoying symptoms.
33: Yup. We didn't do *too* badly--we got a hotel room for two of the three nights I was there, and we used the Wings tickets as an excuse to run away from everybody. But still <frustrated sigh>
I am severely bummed because my wife just called and said she heard from our son that he may have to have major surgery. Apparently he has an enlarged spleen and it may rupture. Not good news.
Good karma on Gareth, Bruce.
Sorry to hear that bruce. I hope everything goes ok for him.
Thanks. He said he'd call me back once the doctor decided what to do. Right now, he said, they were planning on taking him to the hospital "downtown" via ambulance and then deciding from there. (I don't know why there's a different hospital he might go to, since he works at one of the biggest in the area, but there you go, it's the military.)
IABB an acquaintance, who was a very experienced caver, died when his rappel spool opened while he was descending a 213 foot pit in a Virginia cave.
Re #39: Sorry to hear that, Twila. Keep us posted. Rane - that sounds awful.
sorry to hear that bruce and twila. be thankful that bruce works for the government now, because I bet he has really good health insurance
re #42: I doubt it applies to Gareth, who's in the Air Force if memory serves, but active duty military personnel should get decent medical treatment, too.
zoundz .. bru/anderyn .. sorry for that news .. good medicine to gareth adn faith to you two.
It's not just a cold, it's the flu!
Gareth is having a cat scan today. He's freaked, a little, because the tests so far have been negative on what could be causing this. The one doctor wants to do an immediate spleenectomy, since they're very worried about a rupture. So I guess we'll wait and see what they have to say after the cat scan.
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I hope everything works out for Gareth. I am really sick today. I have a fever, a cough, runny head, stuffy nose. er something like that. I cant sleep because of the cough. and the sneezing.
I'm not feeling that sick right now, although I had a nice fever and the chills last night. But damn, this looks like it would be a perfect day for a 2+ hour bicycle ride.
I am jacked up on an antibiotic cocktail. wooooooo....
I have an icky cold. If I don't take nyquil I can't sleep through the night (I wake up every couple of hours), and if I do take nyquil I wake up really groggy and stay that way for at least 3 hours. Doesn't mix well with 2nd hour's new attempt to test my authority. I think I've figured it out... each new class I take on decides to test my resolve on what kind of bs I'll put up with and what I won't after about a week... when I start teaching they are really nice cause they're in shock, and then they decide that the chances that I might be more of a pushover than Craig are just enough that its worth a try. Needless to say, 2nd hour got a new seating chart a couple of days ago. That'll teach em. :)
good news. Gareth still hurts, but they will not haveto remove the spleen. They are going to do more tests, but have sent him home from the hospital. The pleen is larger than normal, but shows no sign of rupture, nor disease.
IBB my brother decided to not come and get this dog tonight, like he was supposed to. He also didn't have the decency to call me to tell me this. So, I guess he will be forking out the dough to store his dog in a kennel from now on. Tuff luck.
IBB I have that icky cold too...took sone stuff a couple hours ago that doesn't seem to be helping with the sinus pressure or runny nose.... /s/sone/some
<jiffer passes out hot compresses, hot tea with honey and lemon, some chicken noodle soup, and copies of The Jughead comics to all the sick people>
IBB Schwarzenegger got elected Governor, and my car (yes, my beat up nine year old car that was fairly cheap to begin with) got stolen tonight. I'm somewhat surprised to find that I'm more upset about the election, but maybe I'll become more upset about the car next time I want to drive somewhere. The cop who did the report on the car theft said cars like mine generally show up abandonned within a few days of being reported stolen.
Someone stole your 9 year old car? Weird.
Sorry to hear about both of those things Steve.
Sorry to hear that, Steve.
That sucks. Still, it's a better response than a friend got when his 1977 Chevy got stolen--the cops just laughed and hung up on him. Good luck finding the car. (Not much helpful I can say about the election.)
Re #56: Sorry to hear that. It's hard to imagine why someone would steal a nine year old car. Maybe joyriding kids? The funniest car theft story I ever heard was from a guy who had an old VW Beetle. The body was in reasonably good shape but the brakes were multiple-pumpers, really shot. It was once stolen and found abandoned in the middle of an intersection a block down, where the thieves had finally gotten it to stop.
The cop said it was almost certainly joyriding kids, and that old Saturns get stolen so often that they run the plates through the system whenever they see one. I think this is really weird. I was so convinced that nobody would have stolen my car in a parking lot with lots of newer and nicer cars that I wandered around the parking lot for 15 minutes convinced that I must have forgotten where I'd parked, and then asked the store if they'd towed it for some reason, before I finally called the police.
Why do old Saturns get stolen more often than other cars? Is it a regional thing? (I think Camrys and Corollas are high on the most-stolen list out here, but always figured my 12-year-old wagon was an unlikely target. Hmm. I'll bet you that a manual transmission also serves as an anti-theft device. :))
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Mine had a manual transmission, too.
GM cars have for years had a reputation for being very easy to hotwire.
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I got the bill from my lawyer today. The last time I talked to her was some 6 months ago, before the divorce was finalized. The bill is for $3300. I find this pretty disturbing, since I often asked her what the status of my account was, and was always told, "Don't worry about it". The impression I had was that the retainer ($1000) was still covering what I needed for the divorce. I don't have $3300 extra. I sure wish I'd known I was running up that kind of bill while it was happening. I don't suppose she depends much on repeat business. I also presume she knows how to collect on bills of this type, and generally that she knows what she's doing. For *her*.
(John, take a minute to consider the question, "What would I have done differently?" Could you _really_ have done without your lawyer's advice and assistance at any point in the proceedings? If not, then not knowing was just one less thing to worry about. Talk to her about a payment plan.)
I could have not gone on vacation last month, and made other choices, based on the money I really had versus what I thought I had. I am not a careful planner with money, but I do try not to spend what I don't have. I didn't complain about the money; I complained about asking about the money and not being told, and now being surprised by a fat bill. I wouldn't have done anything differently with regard to handling the divorce itself. I will indeed have to ask about a payment plan. I don't have much choice.
Your mistake was accepting the answer "don't worry about it." The appropriate response is, "I have to worry about it. I have limited resources, and I have to plan appropriately in order to assure that I can pay the bill."
I'm sorry; I misunderstood your plaint. I agree with you, and Eric has good advice.
I get burned again and again and again, but I still trust people, with very little reason in a lot of cases. I trust my mechanic, I trust my doctor and dentist, I trusted my therapist. I fight off the impulse to trust my ex-wife despite two years of proof that I shouldn't and can't. I don't believe I am going to change. This won't be the first time I'll be paying off a big bill I didn't expect. Probably not the last, either.
Joe slipped in. It's not your fault if I don't make myself clear!
The runny nose & cough isn't so bad. Just wish I was asleep right now...
negotiate with your lawyer ... there is ltos of wiggle room in bills like that.
Re the divorce bill, JIm's lawyer charged him (in 1981) $15,000, twice what he earned in a year before taxes. The jury cut that in half (he had already paid half). I expect the lawyer will let you pay when you can pay as it is much cheaper than trying to get you to pay when you cannot pay. Scott's runny nose sounds more like a cold than the flu. I had a runny nose for at least a week after a few days of flu-like symptoms but not fever.
My problems are only serious because they're mine. Reading through Sindi's item about lymphoma helps me to put things in perspective a bit. Last night I talked to a divorced woman with three kids who makes $15,000 per year, who's ex keeps dragging her back to court for expensive items she cannot afford, trying to impoverish her into giving him custody of their kids. That's more of a problem than I've got. This item is full of worse items than I've got. I'll be calling my lawyer this morning to see what we can work out.
I'm sure you can work out something. It's in their best interest to give you a payment plan you can live with.
Re 77: Yeah, I've decided it's a really nasty cold rather than the flu. Although I did manage to get up to 99.8F last night... and this morning after being awake most of the night I felt like death warmed over. Well, more like death as a cinnamon bun, microwaved too long and then allowed to sit on the counter until it's become too solid to eat. Yeah, that's what it felt like. :P
They told me not to worry about fever unless it went over 101. If you have the same cold I had it takes about 5 days to get to the runny nose stage (after the stuffy head and sneezing stage) and another 5 days of runny nose and mucus (gradually getting better). It helped a great deal to stay overheated and rested. Viruses don't replicate well at high body temperatures. Wear a hat and warm socks, stay under blankets if you can. Jim was taking a lot of hot baths which helped him for a bit each time.
my fave treatment for a cold: fluid and exercise my fave treatment for the flu: PIZZA.
What does the pizza do for you? Stress control?
Breakup with the guy.
My car still hasn't shown up. :(
My palms and soles are now a bit numb, not just tingly fingertips. 2 more months of this. Could be a lot worse.
re83: exactly!
Imminent breakup with the boy if things don't get better SOON. Last weekend left me optimistic, but it's been a long, bumpy road.
Bad week for relationships, I see. Sarah: is distance a major factor in the problem(s) y'all are having? Sorry to hear, bees.
I was thinking the same thing - it must be a bad week and you'll excuse me while I stand on this side of the room.
IBB the Red Wings game I didn't watch last night turned out to be really good. I should have just pretended that I am physically capable of grading papers and watching hockey at the same time. ;) IAB as a simple result of sleep deprivation and having spent such a large amount of time grading this week.
IBB concert tickets for a show I really want to see have already gone on sale and sold out!!! Bloody e-bay!
I wonder if I have the same cold as Scott. I have been sick since sunday. I cant sleep at night because the sneezing and coughing are keeping me up. Well I can sleep a little bit until the NyQuil wears off. I missed two days of work this week and made my co-workers listen to me hacking the other three. bleh. I am really tired of being sick.
I have been fighting a severe headache that pain killers only take the edge off (and only when taking much more than recommended), and gastric upset for almost 2 weeks. I get the nausea that usually warns of low blood sugar, but the very thought of eating makes me want to gag. I force myself to eat (having low blood sugar means eating regularly even if you don't want to) half the time I feel even more nauseated. Makes going to classes with intense note taking requirements real fun.
I'm bummed because there is very little dignity vomiting in a public toilet.
My cold has gotten a nice chest cough, but overall it's much better. Finally had a decent night's sleep last night.
Oh man. I think edina wins! public puking is terrible.
(wondering out aloud for a moment: why do some say 'man' and others 'boy' when referring to an SO?) IBB because one of my recent job interviews sent a rejection... had talked with my vocational coach about the importance about asking more questions about the company, esp. to show interest.
Lynne - the distance makes it easier for him to work through his issues but harder for me to work through mine. :-P We're trying to find middle ground.
Re 98: Because the term "boyfriend" strikes us as embarrassing and silly, once past the age of about 16. So we grasp desperately at other nomenclature, none of which is particularly good. Still, I refuse to get married just because the English language is lame. :)
Re #98 - "the boy" always struck me as cute, and I hate a lot of the other terms. He used to refer to me as "the grrl", so it makes sense.
The state budget has sprung another $900 million hole, which means more midyear budget cuts and more layoffs at work.
r88: "why does this always happen TO ME?!"
IBB lately I've been bummed a lot. I'm working 7 days a week and getting paid for 2, and its wearing on me hardcore. I guess an essential part of student teaching is being very busy and very poor. And wishing one was really in college again... I don't have as much time to see people, and the little time I get to spend with friends doesn't always live up to my expectations as far as the connection and how much fun we have. I haven't had enough time to exercise this week, which means less endorphins which is translating to a less happy Anna. I think I'm way less unstable than I was the first couple of weekends, though. I'm tired of this dull sense of frustration. Ugh.
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#104: where/what level are you student teaching? My girlfriend's in a fourth grade classroom right now and (sort of) surviving. Comes home at four and works on lesson plans until 11 at night every day. How's your cooperating teacher? Cara's has never had a student teacher before and is a little, um, territorial.
From quite a few family & friends who've done it, my understanding is that teaching is considerably harder/longer hours the first few years. (After that you've got files of reusable lesson plans, experience with what works/ what doesn't/how long it takes, knowledge of all the mistakes to grade the papers faster, etc. Plus (hopefully) decent fit & relationships with the other teachers & admin's, better personal finances, & bit of seniority (in case of cutbacks). IBB our main server threw a hard drive. Now when to do the surgery and how much to trust the "rebuild RAID array while server is up" feature?
resp:101 fair enough-- Julie has a key chain with a pic of her on one side and a hand-made sign the other that says "Jon's Best Girl." (Of course, I have two great girls in my life.)
re 107: Yep. True. I've been teaching junior high for over 2 months and I'm already aware this is NOT the job for me. Well, more that the age group isn't.
jr. HS is like corralling feral cats. i'm presuminmg 5th-8th grades. 9/10th grades and up can be rewarding hardest job i ever enjoyed - might go back.
IBB it's 10:20 am on Sunday and I've already been at work for 1.5 hours. Revenge (in the form of outlet mall shopping) will be mine!
I remember what I and my peers were like in junior high school. I wouldn't want to be around me at that age.
Exactly. And I'm in a catholic school. You'd think this would mean the kids are more disciplined. Nope... it means the parents are not teaching the kids manners and right behavior at home, and they expect us to do it for them. Sorry, but I can't teach 100 7th and 8th graders how to act like civilized human beings. I can teach them English and History, though. My plan is to move on to greener pastures as a school librarian.
why can't you teach manners and right behavior?
<tries to picture remmers as a rowdy junior high school student. fails.>
<imagines remmers as a junior high RAGTIME RENEGADE> what a RASCAL he musta been!
Re #109: My dad taught 6th grade for a while and didn't like it. He
switched to 5th grade, which he found a lot more pleasant. ("It's still
okay to like your teacher at that age," he said.) Now he's switched to
being the school librarian, and he's really loving that.
IBB one of my favorite local coffee shops is going out of business and I was there for its last day, which was today. This was a mom and pop coffee shop run by a local couple and their college age daughter, a cool place where they had local jazz bands play for free and had art shows, where local artists could hang their paintings and art on the walls. It was a community gathering place that had a lot of local flavor. So what happened? The building that housed this coffee shop was sold, and the new owners had another prospective tenant who was willing to pay twice the rent that this couple that owned it were paying. They couldn't afford to pay double the rent and their lease wasn't renewed. So who is this new tenant thats going to pay twice the rent? Yep, you guessed it. Starbucks. The corporatization of america continues. There are plenty of Starbucks around here as it is, and I like Starbucks coffee, but do they have to target for take over every local coffee shop that does good business. I mean of course Starbucks can pay twice the rent, they charge twice as much for their coffee and cappucinos! Its sad that there are now fewer and fewer locally owned mom and pop places anymore, and everything decent location is being taken over by big multinational corporations that can pay twice the rent.
Re #114 - because teachers aren't getting paid to do the parents' jobs. This is a HUGE complaint between parents and teachers. It's not a day care or a school of manners. If parents wouldn't raise their children to be beasts, teachers would have it a lot easier because they'd spend less time teaching manners and more time teaching subjects.
I was reading an article in one of the Seattle "alternative" papers about Starbucks' growth, and was intrigued by some comments from a Starbucks executive. He explained that Starbucks is trying ot fit into its customers' daily routines, rather than making their customers fit Starbucks into their daily routine. If crossing the street to get to Starbucks wasn't in the cusotmer's daily routine, he said, it shouldn't have to be. Thus, having two Starbuckses across the street from eachother was justified. I think this would make a great advertising slogan. "Starbucks: not worth crossing the street for."
re119: "because teachers aren't getting paid to do the parents'
jobs."
wanna bet? well, not paid *well* anyway. you gonna straighten
those parents out, are ya?
I'm slightly bummed that the new injectors haven't made my VW any easier to start in cold weather. I suspect the engine is just worn to the point that the compression is too low for good cold starting. However, since this is mainly a summer camping vehicle for me, and starting is acceptable in warmer weather, I figure I might as well drive it as-is until it's time for a new engine.
Try a block heater?
A block heater would help, I'm sure. I couldn't use it easily at home, but I tend to camp places that have electricity so it could be helpful in that situation. However, I so rarely camp in cold weather that I'm not sure it's worth the considerable hassle of installing one.
Re #121 - what I meant was that teachers are paid (not well) to teach subjects and be role models. While they may end disciplining and teaching manners to spoiled brats, they shouldn't HAVE to, and some parents (who are alerted to their child's hellish behaviour) have an "I don't care... you spend eight hours a day with them... YOU teach them manners" attitude. If parents would do their jobs, the teachers could do THEIR jobs more effectively and would probably stick with the profession a lot longer. That was my point.
IBB a really comfortable pair of shoes that were also nice-looking has completely bit the dust, and I have no idea where I can find anything like them despite watching for years.
re125: get use to it or quit.
re 125:
I'll counter that by saying that those who are good at their jobs (in
general; this is in no way unique to teachers) are those who are good at
dealing with the environment that's there, not just the environment they'd
like to exist. I have seen some teachers handle that sort of situation
wonderfully.
I don't think that "counters" #125. In fact, it supports it. The fact reamins, the teachers have to "handle that sort of situation", but you'd have more teachers doing it effectively if parents did their "job" more effecitvely.
well i guess we'd better start totally changing american culture then.
Is that the solution you recommend for every problem that America faces?
yep.
re #131: It seems to me that Rane is the one advocating for a substantial change in American habits and happyboy is the one recommending dealing with things as they are, rather than as we'd like them to be.
If Americans always dealt with things as they are, there'd be no United States.
Some people seem to think that improvements are either undesirable or impossible. Why must we settle for "things as they are"?
I'd say that actually changing things is working with the environment, while complaining that something can't be done because the environment hasn't changed isn't.
IBB I've been trying to spider the web sites of spammers to drive up their bandwidth bills, but every site I've gotten to has already been taken down before I can do my part. ;-)
IBB it will probably be a week until I can get a C-PAP machine. Red tape...
Sarah pretty much said what I was trying to get at. I will teach the subjects required. I will give them extra help if they need it. I will grade their work fairly. But I can't be a parent.
Re: 138, don't count on getting it that fast. When STeve got his he went in for the sleep study which determined that he needed one. Then he had to set another appointment for another sleep study to determine which pressure setting was needed. He had his stroke at the end of September 2001. He got the referral to the sleep study program in mid October, he finally got the machine in January. And that was with his neurologist playing interferance to get him through the system faster, before having another stroke.
Re 106: I am student teaching in the small town of Holt, Michigan, which is just south of Lansing. I am in a classroom with 4 Geometry classes and an Algebra 2. I am in a building with grades 10-12 in it, and we have students of every grade level in every single one of our classes. My "focus class", or the one that I am the main teacher of from the beginning of the year until I leave, is 3rd hour geometry. They're fun. They're smart, if not always well behaved. We've also had more time to work out our kinks with each other than the other classes which I haven't taught much (I taught 2nd hour for two weeks). My cooperating teacher is cool (and I don't just say that because he's sitting on a desk 5 feet away ;) ). In some ways my student teaching placement is idyllic... I'm in a school where I really like the educational environment, and the math department is really cool. How is Cara's CT territorial?
IBB I spent ten minutes this morning checkign out local computer jobs. Guess I'll be stuck with this job for a while. :\
IBB the AA News is still publishing C. Potter's "reviews."
The AA News used to have a worse critic than Potter. Can't remember his name though.
Didn't get the Albion gig.
I dont really understand why the AA News keeps Christopher Potter on staff. I havent ever met a single person who liked his reviews except for a couple people who like him because his tastes are exactly opposite from their's. i.e. if he likes a movie, they hate it. If he *really* likes a movie, they *really hate it.
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147: That's generous of you...
It's insulting to Mr. Stern.
Comcast seems to have shut me down again. I'm still waiting for an accounting of the money I've paid them already. At this point, I will be cancelling my cable service, but retaining the broadband service.
Christopher Potter's reviews always told me whether I wanted to see something or not. Whether I agreed with his tastes was irrelevant to that crucial issue.
I am really really grouchy because after having my advisor tell me to include a specific manuscript in preparation with my postdoc application, giving him a sample packet on Saturday of the materials I intended to send, and working my ass off to get everything together and sent off yesterday, I came in to an email this morning informing me not to include said manuscript and reprimanding me for wanting to. In addition to an email instructing me to run additional pointless controls (examining fluorescence response in pure water and organic solvents because the results in buffer weren't good enough to reflect the environment in a cell. But, you know, organic solvents are a *great* mimic of intracellular conditions. Rrrrgh!)
I had to reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows and all of my programs and such. This has been utter hell.
Unfortunately it's routine maintenance for Windows systems. After two or three years they start to suffer from creeping cruft and get slower and slower. (For a humorous look at this, see http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~sue/475/cruft.html)
Well, this was due to a bug that got in, despite pop-up blockers, Norton Auto-Protect, Spybot, etc. *sigh*
IBB I ordered a book from a third party seller through amazon.com. I was expecting it in the mail, and I got an email directly from the third party seller saying they didn't carry the book in stock. So if they didn't ahve the book, why were they listing it on amazon? Probably so they could get my name and address, which they now have obviously, to put on their mailing list. They re-credited the money back to my credit card but it still doesn't make it any less annoying. Plus I was looking forward to reading that book too... :( ,
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IBB every time I go to perform at the Erebus Haunted House, my mood falls and I can't help but think about someone close I lost some years back. So I spend the night contemplating a pilgramage to her grave.
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Less than two weeks, and I've already finished the 900+ page new Neal Stephenson book.
I've been waiting for over two months now for an import CD I ordered from Amazon.com. The estimated delivery date is now "Oct 24 - Nov 13". It hasn't shipped yet.
Ewwww. I had a similar experience this summer with amazon.co.uk.. My new rule is: if Amazon US or UK doesn't say "ships in 24 hours" or "ships in 3 days," I go looking for a source in the originating country, unless I'm feeling *really* patient -- hopefully a source which has the disc in hand.
IABB I didn't update my calendar to reflect the rescheduling of the Grex BOD meeting.
likewise
DAMMIT. A fabulous few weeks after the boy's major bout of depression, and now the depression is back... no warning, just BAM. He's gone from loving and sweet to snapping at me almost overnight. Fortunately, I JUST went through this, so I know what to expect, but that doesn't make it easy. I wasn't ready to deal with another bout so soon. I wanted to be happy for a while. :( I feel bad for him because he hates it as much as I do, and he knows how much it affects me, but he still won't take his damn medicine because he hates taking medicine. *sigh* I would have been fine with it popping up again if it had just WAITED. :(
Does the medicine have side effects?
Would he take medication if he had diabetes of high blood pressure?
good question.
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Michaela - is he bipolar? My hair is too damned short!
IBB I'm all geared up to get done some things I've been putting off for too long, but I can't do it now because the cello lesson my next-door neighbor is giving would be really badly affected by power tools.
IBB my life is overwhelming me right now. I want a quiet vacation in the middle of nowhere, with no electricity, no phones, nothing! just nature, a few hungry bears, and other flea infested animals.
I can recommend some good USFS cabins in SE Alaska.. If you want grizzlies, though, you'll either have to go further north or over to the mainland.
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Talk to Special Agent Smithers, he'll get you a 10% discount on the cabin and a skiff to get back and forth to town.. In real life, unfortunately, the only serious crime I was ever involved in (as the victim) I proved totally useless as a witness.
Can I come with you, jiffer. Three 300 level computer science classes plus Calc II with History thrown in for fun is leaving me little time for anything else, including eating, sleeping, and talking to my family.
IBB Elliot Smith aparently committed suicide. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/03-10/22.shtml
Sindi - the only side effect he reports is a lack of creative juices, which sucks since he's a writer and musician. Brooke - I'm not sure. He REALLY hates taking daily medication. It's the routine of it that bothers him. I'm used to taking my daily pill, but he never gets used to it. He was on it for three months a couple years ago, and it helped, but the fact that he had to take it every day started to grate on him and override the benefits. :-P Mynxcat - no, he is not bipolar. He suffers from Major Depressive Disorder, which is a lighter version and lacks the manic periods (thank god). Back to Brooke - I'm really not sure what he'd do with diabetes or high blood pressure medication. He'd probably take it since it's not something he can "ride out" like the depression. He knows the depression is just as biological as a heart defect, but it's that damn stubborness about daily medicine. I love him, but I want to slap him. ;)
not wanting to take medication is apparently common. I know I hate taking medication even for a headache, and my daughter is the same way. Unfortunately, sometimes you need to take medication.
They'd suck to be me. I'm on three daily medications. I can't take them all at the same time, unfortunately, but I've got it down to taking the one at waking up time and the other two at bedtime. That seems to work and I don't forget. Since they're blood pressure/thyroid related, I can't forget them, or just not take them.
Sometimes losing weight, or cutting down on salt, can eliminate the need for blood pressure medicines. My mother discovered that if she never ate sugar she did not need epilepsy medication.
I've done the cutting down on salt and lost some weight, but I have to watch it because my Dad had a stroke at forty-four, so the meds are probably going to be a constant. This is not a big deal, really.
It's better than a stroke. ;-)
I used to hate routines too, because my parents spent so much time on them, and it seemed like wasted time. But mostly because it felt controlling, and I hated to be controlled. I got over it by realizing that taking care of myself and providing structure for myself is a way of, if you will, being a good parent to myself. Not taking care of myself is being an abusive parent to myself. But, I was in my thirties before I accepted that.
I know what people mean by hating "routines", but one has to admit that they save a lot of mental uncertainty and time. I think the answer is to use the mental processing and time saved by routines to do new nonroutine things. It is only sad when the routines themselves become the purposes of one's existence.
I'll start an item about routines... IBB I just realized my haircut looks a lot like Ellen Degeneres's. Feh.
I think Ellen degeneres is hot. And her hair's pretty cool.
Glenda and I are in the same boat. I have the vacation time, I just don't have the time without school. Unless you count Xmas time (no thanks), or the week of Masters (golf tourney), I guess I will have to wait till May to get in that Vacation. At which time I am sure I will be visiting AA instead to see if some of my friends have new additions to their family by then. IABB the dress I am making for my neice is not behaving, stupid velveteen.
My grandmother was taken off life support today. Don't know how long she'll last.
I'm sorry, Twila.
I don't know anyone else who has both a grandson and a grandmother. I hope your grandmother is not in pain and that you are taking this okay.
I seem to have misplaced $5 today. Either that or I spent it and can't remember where or on what. In the time it took to make a simple salad this evening my back caused me so much pain I had to sit down and ask my niece to finish setting the table for me.
I'm feeling pretty sick today. I'm at work, but have warned my manager I might not make it through the day.
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STeve is home sick today. He was sick yesterday. He was going to make his wonderful chicken cataccicori (I know I murdered the spelling on that) for dinner yesterday, but felt so lousy that he finished the chicken soup he made on Saturday while Staci and I ordered pizza (Damon was out gaming with friends).
IBB I took some Tylenol3 last night and still slept terrible due to my neck/back muscle being pulled. Oddly enough Excedrin helped.
I was sick Saturday (tired, achy), then felt fine yesterday. This morning I felt terrible (diarrhea, bad stomach), and also (strangely) couldn't get enough to eat. I had lunch at 11, then again at 1:30, and have felt fine ever since. I hope it lasts this time!
Try a hot water bottle for pulled muscles, or a hot bath. Aspirin relaxes muscles too.
Ahh..maybe it was the asprin in the Excedrin.
(Aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen are non-steriodal anti-inflammatories (NSAID); acetominophen is not. The first three can help heal muscle-pulls, sprains, etc, while acetominophen merely dulls the pain. Sodium naproxen is the active ingredient in Aleve.)
IBB I got my new drivers license in the mail (the old one expired this month), and the picture came out lousy. They only took one picture, and they should have taken three or four and chosen the best one. It'll be a pain in the ass to have the picture taken again, and I'll have to pay more money to get a new ID issued. But it is either that or have this horrible picture of myself in my wallet for the next four years *sigh*
You should be pleased - people will look at it when you present it for ID and say something like "you look MUCH nicer than that picture". Think what they would think if the opposite were true....
Heh. :) The SoS offices in K-Zoo let you see your picture on a little monitor so you can approve it. If you hate it, they'll take a new one. I'm in love with that service since my last picture would have been horrid.
The Ann Arbor office has that little monitor, too. Trouble is, I was so blinded by the flash I probably would have approved a photo of Saddam Hussein, let alone the crappy photo of me that ended up on the license.
I deliberately didn't smile for my picture this time. I figure when some cop pulls me over and looks at my license, I'm sure as hell not going to be smiling, so the picture might as well match.
I pulled a "Flash" and held up a mask of Nixon in the instant the picture was taken. Unfortunately, they looked at the picture and, quite puzzled, decided to take another.
They don't let you chose the picture you want in Ohio. And I change my hair so much, I rarely ever really look like my picture anyways.
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I got about 2 hours sleep due to pills that I have to take through Friday. Tried to sleep again after taking the next pills (before they took effect) but it sounds like someone outside has been sawing up a tree with a chainsaw and dumping the results into a truck. I can sleep Sunday all morning.
The hard drive which appeared to die in our main server has, after being swapped out, worked perfectly. Ditto the server, leaving us wonder which component(s) actually failed - after well over a year of uptime, too, so diagnosis may well be impossible. While torture-testing the "failed" drive this morning, another drive on the same SCSI bus failed...and that failure persists.
It's the solar flares.
The solar flares definitely messed up the ISP I'm working for these days. They knocked out our link to the (Canadian) mainland, cutting us off from the rest of the world for most of the afternoon. On top of that I'm told I missed a fine display of northern lights last night. I went out to look around midnight but either I was too early or I need to go someplace with a better view of the northern sky.
I hit a deer this evening. No one was hurt, but I did a lot of damage to my car. I'm not sure if it'll be totalled. AAA claims (over the phone) said probably not but the tow truck driver and police officer said probably yes. The front end is smashed in, the hood is bent, the windshield is smashed, and the air bag went off. Over the weekend I had $550 of repairs done to the car. It is a 1992 Taurus; tpryan sold it to me 2 years ago.
I'm sorry to hear that John. I know that when my Jeep was crushed by a tree (and subsuquently totalled) AAA gave me some of the money back for repairs that were just done on it. I did have to provide receipts. Dealing with the total loss unit was not a very pleasant experience, but it was partially due to the guy I was dealing with being fired mid-process. Overall I've been quite happy with AAA and making claims.
Three years ago, I totalled my Mercury Topaz due to black ice. It was a 1989 Topaz, three years older than the Taurus. I seem to have a thing for killing cars that are 11 years old. Goose, when the Topaz died, that's when I bought your old car.
Impression: Broad-based right paracentral mixed disc protrusion at the L3-L4 level results in recess stenosis. Grade I anterolisthesis at the lumbosacral junction secondary to bilateral pars interarticularis defects of L5. This results in moderate neural foraminal compromise bilaterally. Concentric annular tear within the posterior aspect of the L4-L5 disc. :( :( :(
Hi! I'm willcome here!
and welcome as well ... welcome to grex!
Re: #213
Ouch...but glad you're not hurt. Meg's gotten fast & generous pay-outs
from AAA when her cars have been wrecked - keep us updated ('specially
since i just renewed with them...:).
Re: #216
Even allowing for my medical illiteracy, that doesn't sound too good.
How's the treatment prospects?
Re: #216 Ouch. Looks like a lumbar-lami on the horizon. Bummer, Eric.
Yep, slipped disc. Those are not fun, and you have my sympathies. (Saw similar medical language when I had mine a year ago.)
re 216: Ouch! Sorry to hear that, Eric.
John, glad you're ok. Eric, feel better soon!
I'm glad you're OK too, John. And Eric - that sounds like what I had; at least the L5 part. Is the pain in your leg?
Ew! Ouch Eric! Good luck with healing. IBB for minor reasons, mainly that my microbiology test may be upped to the 14th instead of the 26th....We had to vote in class concerning this. I need my procrastination time! And this time I wasn't procrastinating that much. Grrr, so I seem to still be procrastinating. Don't get an education.
Re #213-214: Remember that the insurance company's first offer is just that, an offer. It's subject to negotiation if you can show that a) cars like yours are selling for more than they're offering you for yours, and b) that your car was in good condition. You will have to be persistent, though. Insurance companies don't make money by being generous.
We underwent a reorg here. Reorgs are never good. Apart from that the internet nazis have blocked my personal email site. Bastards
AAA gave us the NADAguides.com value for our car that got totaled - and then also reimbursed us for our deductible after they pried that out of the at-fault driver. This was pretty fair - especially since we had paid less than the NADA value for the car at the time of purchase.
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That can be pretty annoying.
NADAguides.com says my Taurus is worth about $1800. If AAA gives me that (minus my deductable) I will be very pleased. When I totalled my Topaz, I got about $600, I think, and that was after they waived the deductable. The body shop where I had my car towed said it will almost surely be totalled because an airbag, itself, costs around $1500 to replace. re resp:226: I tried to dispute about the Topaz, but got nowhere at all. I was plenty persistent but it did no good. I thought I was supposed to get enough to replace the car with a comparable one. It's not easy to find a car for $600 that one would be willing to drive.
It's not easy for $1800, either.
I have a slipped disc (l3-l4), a ruptured disc (l4-l5) and bone damage to the vertebra (l5). What's a lumbar-lami? Fusion of vertebrae?
http://www.esurgeon.com/scripts/content/treatmentoptions/back-decompressive lum barlaminectomy.html
Thanks, all. Fortunately, though I have regular back pain and cannot stand up for twenty minutes at a time without considerable discomfort, I do not have leg pain or numbness. Yet.
jep, what happened to the deer? Was it killed or did it run away? If killed, did you get to keep it for processing?
IBB I've had severe insomnia for a week. I'm about to try melatonin since the usual stuff is only keeping me asleep for three hours. :( This is really starting to aggravate me.
damn, other ... taht really sucks. was tehre some incident in the past that mght ahve contributed to your current grief? i have a littel numbness in middle-toes, now and then. nothing in my past, though, that would indicate a current problem.
re resp:236: Bruce, the deer was killed. Someone stopped to see if I was all right, then politely asked me if I minded if he took it. I let him take it and he came back with his sister, and they took it away. I don't know how to process a deer and also, since I live in an apartment, wouldn't have any place to store the meat anyway.
Yum, venison. I do love venison.
Bumper-tenderized! The old beater Volvo I recently bought hit a deer a few weeks before I bought it. The damage was limited to a smashed right front turn signal, which the previous owner replaced before selling me the car.
The deer was not damaged?
It ran off, so apparently not seriously.
John - I've always wondered what it would be like to be in an accident where the airbag opens. Do you think it helped prevent you from being hurt? Could you see over it, and could you still steer? (My car predates airbags, so forgive me if these are dumb questions.)
I've never been in an accident with airbag deployment, but from what I've heard they don't stay inflated like in sitcoms. They inflate, and almost immediately deflate through vents in the bag. I'm curious about John's experiences too, though.
there is a place outside of clinton you used to be able to take the deer to and they would process it for you for a fee.
About the airbag... no, it didn't do me any good. I did get a slight welt, about 4 inches long and resembling a scratch, from the airbag deploying. My 7 year old, sitting in the front seat next to me, was completely uninjured. The airbag went off with a "bang" and a little bit of smoke, and afterward, briefly made me think the car was on fire. The police told me that 90% of reported car fires in accidents are from the airbag deploying and are not really fires. I didn't realize the airbag had gone off until I had the car stopped. It was later that I sorted out my impressions of the accident and tied the "bang" sound to the airbag. Accidents are confusing because a lot of unfamiliar things are happening all at once. (The crash, the fate of the deer, the airbag going off, making sure my kid and I were all right, the damage to the car, making sure we got out of the road so we wouldn't get hit by another car, etc.) The airbag inflated, deflated, and then hung from the center of the steering wheel. It was not in the way of me steering. It definitely wasn't an obstruction for me seeing out of the car. If I make it to where the car is stored right now before they take it away, I'll try to take a few pictures so you can see what the airbag looks like after it was deployed.
I have not been a believer in air bags in the past, and am not one now after my experience of Tuesday night. I think driver-side air bags are enough of a danger to enough people that they should not be standard equipment on vehicles. If I were given the choice, were I to buy a new car, I'd choose to not have an airbag. Passenger side air bags *kill* children. I definitely don't want a safety device on my car which might kill my son. If I get a newer car, I'll be trying to find someone who can disable the passenger side airbag for me. I'd prefer not to get a car that new. On my old car, the air bag shouldn't have gone off. A newer car has sensors which would have prevented the air bag from deploying for that type of accident. How are those sensors going to work on present-day new cars when they're 10 or 15 years old? I wouldn't bet on them working very well. Once the air bag goes off, the car is essentially ruined. The assessor told me it costs $1500 just to replace the airbag, once it's gone off. Insurance companies typically total the car, even cars only a couple of years old, *just* because the airbag went off, according to the man who originally towed my car.
did you have those *deer whistles* on your bumper? they cost about 7 bucks (no pun intended)
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"Deer whistles" have been tested, and they do not work to prevent car-deer collisions. It has been shown from analyses of accidents that air bags save many more lives than they cost. Children that are so young they might be injured by an air bag should NOT be seated in the front seat. (I think I also read that air bags are being given smaller charges to compromise on the chances of injury by the accident vs by the airbag, but of course older airbags are not being recalled.)
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Resp:248 - if the car is totalled because it costs too much to replace the airbag and since you dont like airbags anyways, why not just fix the car and *not* replace the airbag
I was in a collision that crunched the driver side of my car and the front. Airbag went off, saved me from the windshield and was replaced along with the panels when the insurance company had the car fixed.
My mom was in a very similar accident a few years ago. Some idiot kid triggered a multicar collision that resulted in several totalled cars including hers. The one thing that saved her life and saved her from serious injury was the air bag system.
re251: SOURCE PLZ.
re resp:253: The person who decided the car should be totalled told me he'd counted $5500 in damage before he stopped. About $1500 of that must have been the airbag. I'm not much interested in putting $4000 or more into a 1992 Taurus with 140,000 miles. I'd be interested in a source for resp:251, too, if it's available and you don't mind, Rane. I'm inclined to believe you on statistics... but am also inclined to distrust airbags because they *are* such a danger to children and small adults. Whether they're a good thing overall or not, the fact is, the risk to my son goes up a lot if he rides in the front seat of a car that has an airbag, compared to one that does not have one.
For example, http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/airbags/208con2e.html
I thought happyboy was asking for a source about the futility of deer whistles.
He didn't say which assertion. For deer whistlesm try http://www.usroads.com/journals/rmj/9705/rm970503.htm
I like the taped dog-barks. :)
Isn't the back seat safer to ride in, with or without airbags?
...ant reach teh brake pedal ....
Re #262: "We want to make sure parents are clear: Old air bag, new air bag, no air bag, kids are safer in the back seat properly restrained," said Ellen Engleman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board. http://www.sptimes.com/2003/08/27/Worldandnation/New_air_bags_safer_fo.shtm l
re 213 and followup.
John, good to hear you are okay.
Thanks!
Had cat-owner friends staying here over the weekend, and my nose started running. All those years of being a cat owner... and I always had a slightly runny nose. Huh.
IBB we just got a call from the Drs office. Staci has mono. Now I have to get STeve and Damon in to get checked (I probably won't need to be checked, I had it in high school). And I get to figure out how to keep HER rest. She is bummed because Huron Players (she does backstage tech stuff) is getting ready to start rehersal and set up for theater competition.
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oooooOOOOOOOOO00000000!!!!!!
We kind of wondered when she would get it. Seven of her friends have had or have it during the last few months. The friends that we refer to the cuddle puddle, rather than the "Hi, how are you, we should get together for a movie sometime" friends. I knew it was just a matter of time, but hoped...
I have mono. Woo.
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*cuddle puddle*
heh.
NEW PORNO TERM!!!!
With all her concubines, how could she even begin to guess the source...?
::laughs::
you're only laughing because i love you.
Amen to that. (And for the record, I love you too ;P)
/sniff
/**cudddle puddle**
The flu that's been going around caught up with me-- should have expected it as members of my extended family (in town) had been sick and then my daughter ran a fever a few days ago. So I'm taking some extra vitamin C (in addition to my usual supplement the psychiatrist ordered) and seeing if taking an echineacea(sp?)/goldenseal supplement will help. Also drinking more fluids... chicken broth, water, grapefruit juice-- stuff like that.
no fu sht? no flu shot?
Because a flu shot prevents every type of flu.
And what a lot of people call the flu is typically not the flu.
Flu shots only prevent what their makers decided is/are the most common flu(s) for the current year. Each year we get a new mutation.
Some protection is better than no protection at all. However your choice should depend upon your risk. There is some risk from the flu shot itself. But some people are at greater risk from flu that others. So - place your bets. I get the flu shot.
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I'd mentioned that I hit a deer and totalled my car. Now I'm dealing with the insurance company. AAA offered me $900 for the car; $1150 minus my deductable. I said that wasn't enough. They offered me $1200 ($1450 minus the deductable). I said you cannot buy a running car for $1450. I said KBB.com evaluates my car as being worth $2000. They said I can't use KBB.com because they don't sell cars. I protested that that's how people *decide* what to charge for cars, and asked what my options were. They said to get them 5 ads for similar cars and they'll consider whether they should give me more. I found 5 ads for 1992 Taurus's, for $3000, $2500, $2200, $2000 and $1800. Supposedly they're supposed to give me an average of what similar cars sell for. They said they will now take up to 2 more days to evaluate my car again. If they give me $2050 (the average minus $250), I will consider myself ahead of the game. If they give me $1800, I will consider it a fair settlement. If they stick with $1200, I will be bummed. I'm also bummed that it's taken over a week (accident was last Tuesday) to get the dang insurance settled. It's not the worst thing in the world, but it's annoying.
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I'm amazed that your insurance company is going along with haggling over the payment. When we had a car totaled, it took several months to get the insurance, which I would expect in any case. They have to get the police report, to start with, and then inspect the car themselves, etc.
When I had my car totalled, I got my payment within 2 weeks. And this includes the time that the first check was lost in the mail, and they issued me a second check. I have been led to believe that that is a pretty normal timeframe. And I got about $3200, after my deductible, which was higher than what I'd paid for the car, to start with
Gary's insurance paid out in about 3 weeks. He was in a brand new Jetta within 4 weeks.
People on chemotherapy are instructed not to get any vaccines because there is a chance of getting infected by the weakened virus used in them.
Yes, there are still some 1992 Tauruses out there. I was driving one of them until a week or so ago. I'm surprised I seem to have found an effective means of disputing the payout for my wrecked car. (If I have indeed found means.) Why would it take months to get a claim completed? It took about a week to get my check, the last time I had a totalled car. What would someone do who didn't have another means of transportation while they waited for their claim check? It seems to me that could be quite a problem.
Try reasoning the other way around.. Imagine you're an unscrupulous insurance company with a strong financial interest in keeping your payouts as low as you can get away with. Now imagine you've got a customer who didn't have any other means of transportation and for whom being carless was creating a serious problem. What do you think would be an effective way of getting him to accept a lowball payout?
Do you have to pay higher premiums after you wreck a car?
I probably will this time, since a collision with a deer is considered to be your fault. Three years ago, my rates didn't go up because the other driver was at fault. I'd slid on some black ice and stopped; she'd slid and crashed into me.
I have a library book on Roadside Michigan, which devotes several pages to roadkill. Apparently there are a lot of roadkilled snakes and turtles because the like to crawl out onto the warm asphalt in the morning to raise their body temperatures. Raccoons are the most common roadkill in S. Michigan (I would disagree - I see more squirrels). And the author says it is difficult to avoid deer because they suddenly dart out onto the road. Coyotes are now found in Lansing and the ones that got this far east apparently come from a line of ancestors that learned to avoid cars, and you don't see them roadkilled. I wonder if they teach their kids how to cross the road. Occasionally there is a roadkilled vulture - they feast on roadkill.
I hit a 4 point buck tonight with my 92 taurus, scared me to death but not much damage to the car (can't open the passenger's door), couldn't find the deer I hope it's not hurt too much.
It's open season on '92 Tauruses. Huzzah! Go get 'em, deer.
92' taurus must be deer magnets. Need to take one up north to the cabin during hunting season for bait.
One factor that delayed our insurance payment was that the car was totaled in Ohio and the paperwork went through the Ohio State Farm system before it got to ours in Michigan. The local Ohio police were also very slow in getting their report to our insurance carrier. I presumed that this sort of bureauocratic bungle was par for the course.
Re #289: As someone who is currently driving around an '86 Volvo, I'm amused by that question. Re #295: This is why it's a good idea to have a car rental rider on your collision insurance. If you're actively costing the company money while waiting for them to pay up, they're a lot more likely to work out a deal with you quickly. Re #302: State Farm also consistently has one of the highest rates of consumer complaints about slow payments, fraudulant actions by adjusters, etc. You might want to consider switching insurers.
re 288. Looks like you did some good research. Also consider presenting them with the recent repair bills. New brakes on a car should make a difference between an $1800 car and a $2200 car.
re resp:299: Now there's a coincidence! re resp:301: Shall I inquire about keeping the car, Bruce? You could tow it to your hunting cabin and see if any deer are fooled. re resp:304: As this was suspension work, I think the repair bill might reduce the perceived value of the car, not increase it. I did mention I just had $550 in repairs done on the car. My claims adjuster called; she'd promised to be back in touch in 2 days, but requested to be given until Monday. Maybe she'll be kind to me. I said okay, but added that it's costing me a lot to drive my old pickup truck. It's costing AAA, too; the car is at a lot somewhere, they're paying for storage for it, and they can't take it anywhere until they settle up with me.
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My good modem bit the dust, and it's something like a week to get through the RMA system.
IBB Art Carney died this week at age 85. If you ever saw the classic Honeymooners tv show, Carney was Jackie Gleason's sidekick. He was Gleason's second banana for year on the Jackie Gleason Show and the Honeymooners. Later he originated the role of Felix Unger in the Odd Couple opposite Walter Matthau as Oscar. He also won an academy award for playing the lead in "Harry and Tonto", a wonderful movie about an old man who travels across country with his cat. Coincidentally, the original 39 episodes of the Honeymooners are being reissued as a DVD set this week. If you are a student of tv history, and great comedy, this is a must have. And not the least because of Art Carney, who was Ed Norton, and stole every scene he ever did on that show. Gleason as Ralph Kramden and Carney as Ed Norton were later memorialized in cartoon form as Fred Flinstone and Barney Rubble. Art Carney RIP. He was one of my favorites.
wow- my '92 taurus is wirth *taht* much!!! time to sell!!! i suppose i oughtto replace theexhaust manifold first, though.
Take it hunting first!
Re #308: Not to take anything away from Art Carney, Richard, but it was Jack Lemmon who played Felix Unger in The Odd Couple.
Art Carney apparently was in the Broadway production of "The Odd Couple" until he had to pull out due to drinking problems.. Or at least that's what one of the obituaries I came across said..
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Interesting that the Michigan Outdoors/Practial Sportsman shows mentioned that the averge cost of a deer taken in firearms season costs on the order of $1,600-$1,700 each. (after license, travel, lodging, etc). Almost as much as a '92 Taurus.
RE#313 -- Explain please?
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Re 311, 312: Right, Art Carney originated the role of Felix Unger on Broadway. Jack Lemmon played the character in the movie.
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And in the TV series.
Ah, thanks for the info about Art Carney on Broadway. My apologies for correcting you, Richard.
Stupid Red Cross website... I'm on a short course of prednisone, so I checked the website to see if I could still donate blood. The website claimed that medications were generally not a problem, here are some exceptions. Of course after getting to the donation center and sitting around for 15-20 minutes I finally get asked about medication, and get a quick "oh, of course you can't donate now". Bahstadss... fix your damn website. I'm happy enough to donate, but I'm getting pissed at the organization.
A mediocre movie from the 1970s about the life of Scott Joplin had an excellent performance by Art Carney as John Stark, Joplin's publisher.
One of the side effects of prednisone is depression... I suspect that's why I'm in such a bad mood today. :(
depression is a little bit different than a bad mood. you're not thinking about opening a vein or anything, right?
Nah. It's an uncharacteristic sort of bad mood, but nothing worth worrying about.
One of the causes of depression is continued overcast weather. May I ask what the prednisone was prescribed for? I have taken it for fleabite allergy as well as lymphoma. In my case it caused no depression but lots of agitation and difficulty sleeping. The fleabite pills came as a 7-day kit in which you decreased the dose each day so as to avoid sleepiness when discontinuing it. I had extreme fatigue for two days after discontinuing a very high dose (100 mg) but the fleabite dose is only 5-10 mg.
I took it for an dermitological allergic reaction. I took it for about a week and noticed no side effects at all. Staci took it for 3-4 days for poisin ivy, she had a very bad case which got infected, again no side effects.
Persistent cough after a really nasty cold a few weeks ago. The prednisone was prescribed to reduce the inflamation in my throat.
Also try gargling salt water to disinfect.
Shouldn't be any infections, since it's been several weeks since all the other cold symptoms ended.
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He sucked in Hamlet.
resp:303 I will agree with the comment about State Farm-- I switched to Progressive when they jacked my rates after a few accidents.
The accidnet bummer-ness continues; I lost the title for the car and had to order another one. It'll be a couple of weeks before I get the money from AAA.
Exhausted. Sad.
Went running yesterday and me knee didn't like it all. Hope it's fully recovered by tomorrow.
Decided to tear apart my office and rearrange everything, but in the process found that the big butcher-block desktop needed to be reglued in the middle. So now I'm going to have an incredible mess and no office for a day while the glue cures.
#335...trish, why sad?
School was wearing me out, on top of relationship troubles. Feeling better now. :/
Welcome back, bees. Seems like you've been absent lately...
Yeah. My brain is pretty much the consistency of fried eggs by the end of the day. Much to think about these days.
ham and .... ?
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(I assume you're referring to Meg Geddes' turkey recipe. I haven't seen Meg around these parts for a mighty long time, but it's possible that the recipe is to be found somewhere in the cooking conference.)
or many m-b0x gen.cf incarnations. last saw meg at a small-bar-rock-n-roll palace on michinga avenue in detroit .. oh, say, 4 months ago. she's doing web stuff for rockers.
I bump into Meg at the grocery store now and then, but never online. :(
I'm bummed for mutiple reasons: 1) Hospital bills from my Ma's eye surgury 2) Paying for a car that got trashed, and now a replacement. 3) Spent a weekend trying to upgrade a friend's PC with WinXP and couldn't get any of his USB/WiFi stuff to work.
Well, I *did* get a job for the holidays, but it's stalled thanks to a farking background check. Grrr...
To be more specific, I started, because my boss really needed someone, but the mall management wouldn't let me continue without the background check.
hey, are you gonna be one of those hillshire farms sausage and cheese hostesses?!
A shopping mall is requiring background checks? For what kind of position? If it's retail, then what is it in your background that caused you to fail it?
was it that time you wagged yer sausage at the mall?
I'm bummed because I have a cold. I don't feel too bad from it, but have a heavy cough. Also, I slept about 3 hours last night, for no particular reason. I do fine on 5 hours, but 3 makes for a hard day.
Re #351: I didn't get the impression he'd failed it, just that he was sort of stalled while waiting for it to be completed.
The only mall-type thing I can think of that might require a background check would be some sort of Santa/Elf thing. They will cheerfully check the background of anyone who might come into contact with children these days.
Or a security position, is what I was thinking.
IBB http://www.aclumich.org/modules.phpname=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=12 puts focus on me individually where it should be focusing on Grex.
I kept getting a 404 (not found) error.
Oops, left out a ? http://www.aclumich.org/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=12
resp:354 resp:355 exactomundo, Santa. I've done the gig before, and I was doing an excellent job. The background check just needs to go through. The boss is coming to our apartment with the paperwork-- she really wants me to be back to work.
Someone I knew through a gig I do, but who has moved on and was just in town briefly, and whose name I cannot remember, introduced me to a friend of hers when we randomly met this evening while I was out shooting pool with other friends. The friend was absolutely stunning and I think I have no way of actually arranging to meet her again. :(
whore
Re: Background Checks My impression is that retail losses to sticky-fingered employees are *much* higher than what you'd need to cost-justify background checks.
The question is whether a background check would actually predict how likely someone is to steal merchandise. I knew a guy who had a succession of low-paying retail jobs, all of which he stole from, but he was never prosecuted, just fired.
I wouldn't call it a "background check", but there is the technique of calling a few former employers listed on his resume to verify basics & ask a few "would you hire him again?" sort of questions...
Most places won't answer such questions anymore.
I was under the impression that most employers would still answer questions where the answer was factual, rather than one that called for an opinion -- e.g. reporting that the employee was dismissed is safe but giving a personal opinion of the employee's performance is discouraged lest it expose the previous employer to a suit from a litigious and vindictive former employer.
I have been told by employers that they (and other employers) will only answer questions about dates of employment.
In some instances, telling someone that an employee was fired can result in a lawsuit, even if they were fired.
On what grounds, I wonder?
I know my office will only say that we were employed there, or are employed there, not any other information.
The Brunswick company has this year stopped making Flexible Flyer sleds with runners on them. Naturally, this is the year my child has asked for a runner sled. Hopefully the sleds are still available in stores such as Dunham's. I saw them a few weeks ago. I guess I'll be out looking tomorrow.
Kiwanis has used sleds so let us know if you need one.
I didn't like runner sleds as a kid. The snow where I lived was always too soft for them. The best sled I ever had was a plastic toboggan. Of course, it was impossible to steer, but crashing into trees is part of childhood. ;>
I know all about sleding into trees. I did my sleding at my Aunt's place. She had a hill in the back yard that ended in a cluster of small trees. If you didn't turn in time, you'd run right through them, invariably ripping some fomr of clothing. I messed up three pairs of pants in one Winter. Ah, those were the days.
re resp:373: Sindi, how much is Kiwanis charging? Are the sleds in good shape?
I have no idea as I have not gone there. They usually have cheap sleds.
Muscles aching. I feel like I've done heavy lifting and had shots in my arms. Throat pain. Coughing. No fever. I was fine this morning. By 1:00 I was spacing out and feeling weird. Might have I acquired the influenza that has been running amok and I did not get a shot for?
Sounds like you have what Jim had and it will last a couple of weeks. He also had no fever. He had partial laryngitis for a few days. Try hot baths. You will feel tired and probably need to take some time off work in order to get better faster. I don't think this is flu. There are lots of different viruses going around right now.
Thanks. Alas, time off is not an option. Getting the kids ready for exams and I'm being evaluated this week.
Hmm.... then you should be able to take some time off in about a week, when the kids are all out sick with what you've got. ;/
Too late. We had 19 kids out today and 2 went home with fevers.
Ah. So you all got it about the same time.
The wife of a former colleague and current "town mate", apparently in good health to look at her, died suddenly on Sunday. She was only 48. Unbelievable. :-(
condolences
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IBB former Illinois Senator Paul Simon died today of complications from heart surgery at age 75. Senator Simon was one of the few unabashed liberals in the Senate who never tried to be anything but what he was. I worked for Senator Simon when he ran for President in 1988, in Atlanta and in Iowa. He wore a bow tie and repeatedly ignored his own political advisors who said he looked nerdy and old fashioned wearing a bow tie, and that he should wear regular ties. Wearing regular ties wasn't part of who he was, and Simon was a man of great integrity, and he wasn't going to change his look or his views to satisfy other people. Simon's bow tie became the symbol of his campaign, and appeared on his campaign buttons and tshirts. I met Senator Simon and thought he was one of the most genuine, most decent of any politicians/lawmakers that I have known or seen. I was proud to work on his campaign. Senator Simon's last public act was this past Thursday, when-- critically ill-- he spoke directly from his hospital bed in a telephone interview and endorsed Howard Dean for president. It was that important to him to make this clear before he was too sick to express himself or had died. Senator Paul Simon RIP. A great american.
that's sad.
re resp:384: My condolences to her friends and family, Kevin. It's shocking when someone as young as that dies suddenly.
It is truly sobering. They have 4 kids, young middle school through just graduated from high school. I don't know details. I admit to the weakness of wanting to know details, looking for answers, as if there are any. An auto wreck one can at least fathom. Having lost a mom on Christmas Eve, I know how painful this will be to them. For those who believe in such things, prayers for God's healing would be appreciated.
Bummer. My condolences.
the 4-6 inches of snow that fell last friday is all gone, victim to Pittsburgh's sun (!!) and the rain that fell last night.
I'm bummed that I've been unable so far see any of the second half of HBO's "Angels in America", due to other commitments.
time for Tivo, John.
You're probably right. I've been thinking about that. We have a VCR, but VHS quality stinks.
It's available via Bittorrent, at http://69.93.27.226/~suprnova/torrents/762/angels.in.america.chapter.6.hbo. hdt v.xvid-sfm.[BT].torrent, if you're into that sort of thing.
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Don't ask me.
Re resp:395: VHS isn't so bad if you're willing to run in SP mode. Of course, SVHS is even better, but seems to have mostly fallen out of the market.
Maybe I'm just fussy, but I don't care much for VHS quality even in SP mode. Can't hold a candle to broadcast or DVD.
I have Comcast cable, so my picture is lousy no matter what. (I've also noticed that "DVD quality" varies widely. I've watched some DVDs that had pretty obvious compression artifacts.)
Car repairs on the Taurus with 225,000 miles came in $250 more than I had guessed, due to a need to replace the oil pan gasket. Ah well, if it runs another 10,000 miles I'll come out ahead, comparing repair costs to replacement costs.
I'll do the charcat high milage tauras chant-dance for ya ken (hey ya hey ya) oh yea I'm bummed I've got a cold (I hope) =^-.o^=
Re resp:402: Good luck! I'm always impressed by people who get cars up over 200,000 miles.
(Hey, just think...13,000 more miles and your car will have travelled the distance from the earth to the moon!)
Re #404:...especially without any major engine work. My old Subaru got to over 180,000 without major engine work, but succumbed to rust. Give some credit to the engine manufacturers!
I drive a Volvo - I'm 13K away, 12K as of next week.
My Volvo has about 180,000 miles on it. I say "about" because the speedometer head has been replaced once, and the vehicle speed signal is intermittent. The actual milage is probably higher.
My beloved green Schaeffer Prelude ballpoint pen, for which I obtained green ink a couple of years ago, has stopped working. When I turn the bottom, the ink ball doesn't move out, and so I can't write with my pen any more. Worse than that, it seems I can't get another one. I went to both OfficeMax and Staples today and they didn't have them. Staples (where I got it) doesn't even *have* Schaeffer pens. I did a search for "Schaeffer pen". The Schaeffer company was bought by Bic some years ago, but as of a couple of years ago, it still existed as a division. Apparently it's been merged out of existence or something. The BIC WWW site, bicworld.com, doesn't list any products under the name "Schaeffer".
I'm glad I don't have neurotic attachments to things quite that silly.
It was a false alarm; the company is called "Sheaffer". I can even have my pen repaired. (It's covered under a lifetime warranty.) Yay! Silly it may be. I have very few attachments to objects, though. I think the world can tolerate that I love my pen. I use it constantly, all day, every work day. It is obviously time I get a backup or two. The Sheaffer Prelude ballpoint costs about $30. They make fountain and roller ball pens, as well as ballpoint pens like mine, and they also make retractible pencils. I got my first Sheaffer pen and pencil set several years ago, and then didn't use it for a few years. Since I started using it, I really miss it when I have to use another pen. That first pen was stolen from my desk and I was unhappy when writing for several months before I obtained another. When you find something that really suits you, you don't want to give it up. My pen really suits me.
It's been almost a full year since the last update of Waiting For Bob. I guess it's not coming back.
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