BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Jan 26 - 09:31 AM

The only trouble I have to complain about is that,
where I live, the Wi-Fi is down.
IN order to get on the Internet, I have to drive a few miles.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: r.padgett
Date: 17 Jan 26 - 12:11 PM

So much gerrymandering going on and I am denied access to facebook and X is being divisive and censoring posts is this down to MCAfee? in place and settings?

The world and me are mad ~ I am furious

UK local elections can cause some curious behaviour

I am just afloat btw? they would prefer me dead it seens

Ray

No no I'm ok thanks

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 17 Jan 26 - 02:11 PM

MaJoC, I finally remembered the name of the UK TV series about family disputes about a will. It is called I, Jack Wright.

[A convoluted method for remembering was: woke up suddenly to a violent midnight thunderstorm, couldn't get back sleep, went to the computer, re-read some of the posts in this thread, finally tried to go back to sleep, then trying, trying to remember any of the actors' names in the show. Bingo! Gemma Jones and John Simm. Both brilliant as always. Apart from a couple of other actors whose faces were familiar, the rest were new to me. Then I finally went back to sleep.]

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Jan 26 - 01:48 PM

My region is expecting a really large snowstorm which will strike on Sunday and continue into Monday. It could shut things down for a while.
I just got in some more groceries.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jan 26 - 05:27 PM

Keb, good to have the groceries in place! That storm is sprawling across the US; we're expecting our share of it to shut things down starting late Friday or early Saturday. It takes barely a thin layer of ice down here for drivers to slither all over the place. At least hopefully your populace are less prone to panic and your municipalities take better care of the roads.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jan 26 - 10:55 AM

As the storm looms I'm taking the steps to be comfortable through the next three icy cold days. Took a shower and washed my hair (while I don't shower daily and I wash my hair about every 4-5 days, I don't like to shower when it's super cold just because) so I can stand myself by the end of the weather event. Laundry washed so I have enough clean underwear and socks all weekend. Hoping the power stays on because the bidet in the master bath has a heated seat and heated water and that is so much better than a cold seat and just paper. :)

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: JennieG
Date: 24 Jan 26 - 03:04 AM

Meanwhile in Oz, keberoxu, we are preparing for a seven-day heatwave with temps reaching 40 deg C - 104 deg F for those of you who still use old money - and above.

In my book summer is to be endured, not enjoyed.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: r.padgett
Date: 24 Jan 26 - 03:50 AM

UK has bad weather winds, cold and rain/snow for a while

Starmer and news upset at DJT's comments about US not being supported by deaths in Afghanistan and not enough support from other countries including UK ~ uproar and the "armless and legless" in UK very upset, of course!!

WE in UK have been fighting in Afghanistan and alluded to by Rudyard Kipling among others "The Malabar's in harbour~~" "the time expired waiting for his orders for to sail" up to six years conscription it seems

DJT looking for the EU countries to increase armed forces and points at US bearing brunt of Ukrainian conflict V Russia quite true

Greenland and Denmark will ultimately concede on access by US to minerals initially by exploration ~ hope for peace

Ray

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Jan 26 - 03:51 AM

Jennie lives in the Outback, where temperatures are higher than the coast. Here around Sydney Harbour we're expecting 28-34 (82-93) in the next 7 days. About 10min ago, at 7 30pm Sataurday our reading was 23.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: JennieG
Date: 24 Jan 26 - 04:23 AM

Not the "Outback", Sandra - we're a long way from the outback! We live inland, only a few hours west of the coast, in north west New South Wales.

As the song says, Australia is a big country.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Jan 26 - 05:08 AM

Picky, picky!

Anything past the Blue Mountains is Outback to us Harbour City people.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jan 26 - 01:24 PM

Beyond the black stump, eh Sandra?! What about anything north of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which would include Jennie and me? (That's if Jennie still lives where I think she does - northwest of here. :-)

The forecast is that the temperature will get up to 33 deg C here today only but that is not anywhere near as bad as the 40 deg C couple of days we had a few weeks ago.

I hope everyone is well prepared for weather extremes, wherever you are.

Briefly, I have been going through a bit of a challenging time here. Hubby had a fall a couple of weeks ago and although he is walking around he has to take it all very carefully. Meanwhile I am doing all the running around for him. He didn't leave the house for almost ten days but he has been out a few times in the last week. I think the walking around is helping a bit but he isn't due for another X-ray for another month. Meanwhile his Mum has had worsening dementia for many years and looked like she would not be long for this world when we saw her last. She passed away this week but because of Hubby's minor back injury he can't endure a nearly four hour drive up the coast to go to her funeral. Luckily the funeral place will be streaming the service so we will be able to watch it from home. It would be hard to miss your own Mother's funeral but he seems to be holding up at present.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: JennieG
Date: 24 Jan 26 - 03:49 PM

Yes, Helen, we're still here - beyond the Sandstone Curtain! Today's forecast here is for 40 deg.

Sad news about your hubby's mum, but a long drive while in pain is not good. Having the funeral streamed, at least, will mean he doesn't miss it completely.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jan 26 - 05:05 PM

Thanks Jennie. He has been surprisingly calm about it but his Mum has been not of this world for many years. She loved butterflies, so I think of her sitting in Heaven's garden, watching the butterflies with her loving husband who passed away about 30 years ago. I never met him.

For my Mum's funeral 26 years ago we sang this hymn:

I Come to the Garden Alone

so that song has been playing in my head this week for Hubby's Mum.

I looked at the Bureau of Meteorology's
MetEye temperature forecast map and Central Oz is going to be like a furnace and you will get the eastern edge of it for a few days. Scary! Especially as you are on the cooler highlands so it will be more of a shock than for us down here.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jan 26 - 05:15 PM

And we sang this at Mum's funeral as well:

Jo Stafford & Gordon MacRae - Whispering Hope

Another uplifting and beautiful song.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Jan 26 - 05:46 PM

Helen, I'm sorry that your husband isn't able to tolerate the long drive to the funeral. Do you think there will be family members there (sometimes they are a form of family reunion)? Are there any other methods of transit that would involve less sitting? A train or flight?

Our competing temperature extremes this week are challenging northern and southern hemisphere Mudcatters. The Texas power grid is supposed to be more robust after the 2021 catastrophic failure; even if it is in good condition along my side of the street we all have our fingers crossed that freezing rain doesn't take out limbs in the trees along the right-of-way where the power lines run (along the creek behind our houses, where they never go in to thin out the risky trees in the way they do along streets).

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jan 26 - 06:06 PM

Thanks SRS. I suggested the train because the usual Christmas plan, before she went into the nursing home, was for Hubby to drive up with me, celebrate the family gathering and then next morning I would catch the train back and he could spend more time with his family. It worked well.

The look I got from him when I suggested the train was a look of horror, but the last time he caught a train was decades ago and they were affectionately known then as the Red Rattlers - clackety-clack and a rough ride. The express long distance train is a smooth ride but I really don't know for sure whether it would feel ok for him, although he could walk around a bit as needed.

We can travel up another time to catch up with the family. Some cousins live down south but I haven't seen them more than a couple of times in the 25 years since we were married. [Side note: a few of his close family are a bit challenging to deal with, IMHO, but some of the others are worth spending time with.]

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Jan 26 - 05:59 PM

Condolences to Helen and hubby on mother-in-law's passing.

My part of southern New England is coming up on ten inches of snow,
and it isn't ended yet, the snowfall.
At least we seem to have been spared the ice storm further south.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: JennieG
Date: 26 Jan 26 - 12:33 AM

Helen, both of those songs are lovely.

Looking at reports of weather in Toronto, Canada, and thinking of our son who has been living there for over 20 years now. Their weather is the opposite of our heat, right now.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 26 Jan 26 - 02:22 AM

Thanks keberoxu & Jennie.

Weather extremes across the world. Scary! I just saw a news headline saying that some places in outback and south-east Australia will hit almost 50 deg C, and I know that won't be just on one day. It will be for a few days.

It makes sense for places like Coober Pedy in South Australia to have homes and hotels etc built underground where some of the older, now abandoned opal mines were. That's one way to escape the searing sun. I have visited there but I haven't seen the underground places.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: r.padgett
Date: 30 Jan 26 - 01:40 AM

The Big T's sailing down the Alley Alley O ~ on way to intimidate the Ayatollahs # be careful they are not a timid race and who is he anyway?

Ray

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 30 Jan 26 - 03:57 AM

Yesterday Hubby and I watched his Mum's funeral on the online streaming video from the funeral parlour. It was a very strange feeling not being able to travel up the coast to attend in person, but one of his nieces and her husband also could not make it due to health issues.

She was a good woman, clever, funny, good at a lot of different crafts, and she loved butterflies. At present we have a little tribute shelf for her with photos, a craft item she made for me, and a stained glass butterfly lamp I bought for her which I had given back to me when she moved from her house to the nursing home.

An odd moment was the choice of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah, sung by an uncredited male singer. The lyrics of that song are a bit confronting in parts. An odd choice, IMHO.

A beautiful piece of music was an unaccompanied choral rendition of Amazing Grace with melodic variations in each verse and beautiful harmonies. It was also uncredited but I would love to know who the singers were. Different singers took the solos in each verse.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Jan 26 - 10:31 AM

Hallelujah has so many verses that they're never all sung in one performance. Did they choose the typical ones you recognize?

I'm slowly clearing out extra stuff here in order to remove that chore from my kids (decades from now, I hope) and to give me more use of the whole house. I take my eWaste to the university library where they have a large bin, there is nothing here in my village that accomplishes the same thing, but I've reached the point where I've decided that whether or not I can lift and carry all of the stuff (tote bags or backpack), I'd look like a fool doing it. I have ordered myself a folding utility wagon and will be known as the old woman with the wagon as I continue my activities, but pull along rather than carry in a backpack (I'll still hike with a pack, but how long I plan to travel and how much I carry is for future cogitation).

I think this falls under the category of 'keep doing what I want and figure out how to do it without hurting myself.'

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 30 Jan 26 - 01:32 PM

This is the verse of Hallelujah which annoyed me:

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

But, I find Leonard Cohen really annoying to listen to anyway - sorry to all his fans - so it was unpleasant for me from the get-go, even though it was sung by someone else. If it had been Jeff Buckley it might have been a bit better for me, but still a strange choice of song for a funeral. The funeral home actually has it as one of a few recommended songs or pieces of music. Very strange to me.

As for clearing out stuff: well done, keep up the good work SRS. That issue is what wakes me up in the middle of the night because we have a shed full of stuff to throw out. I'm thinking the only way to really tackle it is to call in the junk removers.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: r.padgett
Date: 02 Feb 26 - 03:59 AM

I am not a Cohen fan and yes Helen this verse is a man's fantasy and doesn't make pleasant reading

Ray

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 02 Feb 26 - 04:34 PM

Thanks Ray. I agree: it's not pleasant reading. My Ma-in-Law was a lovely lady, with a few quirky aspects including her sense of humour, but very clever with arts and crafts, and very loving towards her family and her dear, departed husband. That song is totally not her.

I can think of so many other pieces of music or songs which would have paid a fitting tribute to her. She loved Andre Rieu's music, and I've been listening to a couple of Sandy Denny albums in my car this week and when her beautiful song Like an Old Fashioned Waltz came on, I cried partly because it is about flowers. (Note: Ma-in-Law was a florist at one stage in her life.)

Oh well, I'll just have to let go and listen to the music myself as a tribute to her.