The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[litfan10]

Sitting here, drinking raspberry zinger while watching it rain outside again. At least nothing like the mid states, now southern east coast.
Be safe and well all.

 

[MrPixel]

Busy day, as outlined. Everything ticked-off 'cept the hairdresser - closed today - and mowing the acre at the studio. C wasn't up for cleaning out the flower bed at the guest house, so (with her permission!) I just mowed it all down into mulch fixins. Had pizza for lunch, now time for a short nap, then head off to do the studio lawn.

 

[WrongFrog]

It's been a mostly indoor day for me, apart from the usual farm chores. I cleaned out the back half of the house, mostly, stripped down the littles rooms and closed the vents for the summer. I miss them like crazy when they're gone, but there's no point in cooling rooms that no one is sleeping in. Did some laundry and dishes while dictating into my phone- that's going to be fun to edit later.

I'm bored and restless and feeling a little malicious, which makes for fantastic words per hour without a single redeeming quality in sight. I have an entire pitcher of iced coffee (raspberry mocha this time around), dinner's already started, and all I have left to do today is finish the laundry and write.

 

[colddiesel]

I just got back to Australia from visiting my elder sisters in Washington State. They are 98 and 96 and it was the eldest's 74th wedding anniversary. I reverted to my old role of being the child 10 and 12 years younger than them whose every move and comment required instant correction from his sisters! But all in all we are pretty fit, mentally alert, arthritis and increasing deafness aside. Good to see them, it's not often you can reminisce with folk about the 40's, or in their case the 30's.

 

[NotWise]

Busy day, as outlined. Everything ticked-off 'cept the hairdresser - closed today - and mowing the acre at the studio. C wasn't up for cleaning out the flower bed at the guest house, so (with her permission!) I just mowed it all down into mulch fixins. Had pizza for lunch, now time for a short nap, then head off to do the studio lawn.

It sounds like C's foot has recovered enough for her to get around.

 

[MrPixel]

Yep! Thanks! She's doing real well around the house, and managed a bit of light landscape maintenance since we got back from the cabin last Friday. PT starts tomorrow; the only thing she's avoiding right now is driving, not sure yet if she can smash the brake pedal hard if she had to.

 

[NotWise]

Yep! Thanks! She's doing real well around the house, and managed a bit of light landscape maintenance since we got back from the cabin last Friday. PT starts tomorrow; the only thing she's avoiding right now is driving, not sure yet if she can smash the brake pedal hard if she had to.

The only people I've ever known to like PT were dancers. Maybe they're all masochists, but they live with the pain of PT to do what they want.

 

[MrPixel]

Not her. She likes her PT crew, having dealt with a balance issue earlier this year. While it helped on its own, it highlighted the foot problem and the managing therapist recommended the corrective surgery.

Both of us have had great experiences with this PT wing of our local major health provider. Mine was for post-op spinal fusions, and after a stroke. They're great to work with.

 

[dmallord]

Ok, 999 and 000 on a rotary dial phone makes sense if you want to prevent little kids from making an emergency call, and it makes 911 easier to dial, but how many people here (looking at @MillieDynamite) have not used a rotary phone?

Here's something even worse (I don't know if it was like this in the UK or Oz) Who remembers letters/names being used in telephone numbers?
I distinctly my parent's party line phone number as Niagara Frontier 2-2315 or NF2-2315 (632-2315) That was done to make connections easier for operators who had to hear people speak the number they wanted

And with that Coffee is on!

Hey, I do! I remember telephone booths, too. Before lines were run to the rural areas, we drove into town and used those booths to call other folks.

However, I don't remember the alphanumeric code of any of the places I lived. I remember all the phones were black, and they were 'rented', not owned by Bell Telephone Co. You could get a colored phone for an extra charge. Being out in the sticks, you could call your town and one town over, but to go further out, it was long distance. A call out was something like, "Hey, are you going to be home Saturday? Good, see you at noon." That type of call might get you a $2.50 phone charge for long distance. Expensive. Calls that went out of state - hell of a bill.

I recall one place having multi-party lines. That one had four users. Each user had a distinct number of rings: shorts, longs, and some you knew who should pick up the phone. [They rang in multiple houses to let you know your call combination of rings, so you didn't answer another person's call. Some rich folks had two party lines and rarely did a person have a private line, but they were available.

To place a call, you picked up, and as etiquette dictated, you listened first to see if the other party was on the line. [You could hear the conversations back then.] Dial "O" for the operator, and after three calls like that, there was a charge as well if they looked up the number and gave it to you. If they connected you, another charge.

Trying to think back to those days...I can't recall getting more than a call a week at most. Not much news to gossip about for most people in those days. Phones were basic emergency tools.

 

[Duleigh]

Good morning -
A quick look at the weather shows that North America looks ok, with only a line of broken storms running from Billings Montana north to upper Saskatchewan which is rumored to not really exist. In Oz it's mostly clear with some storm activity north west of Streaky Bay running up to Yalada, then another storm system on the northwest shore around Bidyadanga. In England I see broken clouds and a storm or two, mostly in Scotland centered around Inverness. A quick look around the globe shows only one hurricane off the Japanese shore and the best surfing so far is in Perth Oz today.

Coffee report: Dark. Continued mostly dark today with Arabica dominating the forecast and a potential cream and sugar in the lightweight areas.

Welcome to Hump Day.

​

 

[WrongFrog]

I'm getting a slow start- the bed is very comfy and warm and I don't want to move. I would love to have breakfast in bed, but alas, my magic wand was misplaced by the mail, and i can't summon it to me.

 

[MillieDynamite]

So don't concern yourselves with my absence. 'T'isn't that I'm upset with anyone, you see, dear friends. In dealing with my sadness (Txrad), I have had a very productive week on my writing. I finished the first part of a new trilogy in my Just a Friendly Series; Just a Friendly Transformation #1 Femininity Awakens is off to my publisher for editing and publication, and I'm now outlining Mark/Marcella and her wife Emily's next adventure. First, a few posts here, a cup of Irish Cream, and then back into the maelstrom of productivity.

It's my horn; I'll toot it if I want to.

 

[Duleigh]

It's my horn; I'll toot it if I want to.

Busy week here too. Finishing up the third book of a series here - hoping to go to press in 2 weeks. Andi's Dream - All Ashore

 

[dmallord]

Well, I'm a bit embarrassed reading all the physical exercises going on out there.

There is nothing to note in the activity here. It was an eight-minute walk back and forth across the house. [The Outside temperature is 102, so it was indoors.] That was exhausting, but it was a part of the home therapist's demands. The other day, he and I walked our block, 1/4 mile in 15 minutes. That, too, was exhausting.

Spent the day watching the courthouse trial for Donald Trump. Like watching paint dry while luxuriating in several cups of fine TxRad memorial coffee. I got my 'kitchen sink' leg exercises in as I listened to the reporters try and fill the void as the paint dried at the courthouse.

Finalized two stories and sent them for editing assistance. One in Transcripts, and one in Celebrities, two categories I've not submitted stories in yet. When those post, I will have crossed off eighteen Lit categories. Lots more to go to complete a bucket list created two years ago.

Peace out, old-timers, and whatever the expression might be current for those of you a lot younger.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I managed to do some chores today that haven't been done for a long time (if you leave that pile of paperwork long enough, you can throw half of it away...) And cooked dinner.

Though I'm a bit worried about my parents - both have had increasing amounts of annoying medical issues over the last couple years, especially my mum. She's always complained if any health providers referred to her 'having a fall' because only elderly people 'have a fall', younger people just 'fall over'.

She's admitted to having a fall. Sounds pretty nasty, onto gravel, gashes and bruises everywhere. I'll visit in a couple days. Anyone know of a handy list for people in their 80s that sets out 'if you have any of these symptoms, get medical attention'? I apparently know everything or nothing, depending on whether they agree with me...

 

[NotWise]

She's admitted to having a fall. Sounds pretty nasty, onto gravel, gashes and bruises everywhere. I'll visit in a couple days. Anyone know of a handy list for people in their 80s that sets out 'if you have any of these symptoms, get medical attention'? I apparently know everything or nothing, depending on whether they agree with me...

You don't really expect that to change, do you? It sounds like you don't need to worry about them being hypochondriacs.

Watch the falling thing. My mom (now 96) broke her arm, dislocated her shoulder and broke a femur in various falls. Falling was also the first sign that she needed living assistance.

We're leaving for Chicago noonish tomorrow: a ball game at Wrigley Field on Friday afternoon, a dance show on Saturday, and we might just eat all day on Sunday before we come back Monday.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Sadly (and I say this with both respect and experience) one gets to the point where one’s very life becomes a ‘medical condition”. Sympathy and best wishes to them.

 

[NotWise]

Someone's been taking a deep dive into my catalogue. It's been fun to watch. They even dug out One Night in Gormaz, Oscar's Place, and Love is Enough. They haven't reached The Third Ring yet.

 

[Duleigh]

Someone's been taking a deep dive into my catalogue. It's been fun to watch.

I'll see that on occasion, stories written nearly 20 years ago suddenly getting a vote or maybe even a comment and held up to compare with current offerings.

 

[NotWise]

I'll see that on occasion, stories written nearly 20 years ago suddenly getting a vote or maybe even a comment and held up to compare with current offerings.

Mine aren't that old. Oscar's Place is one of the older ones. I think that was from summer, 2017. It was based on a chapter in a novel I started writing in 2010 and eventually lost to a disk crash. A story or two and my only novel here owe something to that old book.

I also spoke too early. Now they've gotten to both of the Third Ring stories. They seem to be enjoying them.

 

[WrongFrog]

I made a gallon of sun tea this afternoon. Put the final touches on some things to get them ready for submission. Made a decent dinner, cleaned up the house, finished laundry, and got all the animal stuff done. I even managed to scoop and throw a few loads from the house pasture into my fall garden beds so it can compost.

Feeling pretty good about things, all told.

 

[NotWise]

Sounds like a full day. And you have time to write?

 

[WrongFrog]

Sounds like a full day. And you have time to write?

Talk to text is my bestie. I can be doing any number of things while I'm just babbling away. I have my phone on a lanyard, so I just set up the document I want to work out, hit the speech function, and go.

The nice thing about never leaving my house for anything but essentials is that there's no one to look at me funny. The critters don't count- if they take it too far I'll put them in the freezer.

 

[Duleigh]

Todays weather report!
Windy Color Radar shows mostly clear skies with a big old wad of storms in the midsection of the country theres storms all over North Central Texas and stretching north through Oklahoma to North Platte Nebraska, a second bunch of storms is beating up Amarillo & Dumas TX. A Third storm center is over Jackson Mississippi.

In Oz there's scattered high clouds across the island from Melbourne to Broome

In England, the UK is completely covered in clouds. There's no rain on the radar

2 More Days Until Hurricane Season! So until Jun 1, all Hurricanes are illegal (I'm looking at YOU Japan!)

Mr. Coffee is cranked up and coffee is on. As Tex pointed out there's only one thing needed to enjoy coffee: a cup.
The Tea Pot is also full for anyone who would like to experience The Leaf.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Todays weather report!
...
In England, the UK is completely covered in clouds. There's no rain on the radar

Plenty of rain on my window, though!

Lots of rain forecast this summer. I'm growing lots of lettuces and herbs on my kitchen windowsills (and possibly tomatoes), to get that summery feeling.

You don't really expect that to change, do you? It sounds like you don't need to worry about them being hypochondriacs.

Watch the falling thing. My mom (now 96) broke her arm, dislocated her shoulder and broke a femur in various falls. Falling was also the first sign that she needed living assistance.

Definitely not hypochondriacs! I have great sympathy with them being 'bored of seeing doctors', and thinking "A&E is horrible, I don't want to go there", but they're often kinda necessary...

At least they live in a sensible place with a dozen neighbours who all see each other coming and going. And they could fit an elevator in, if needed. Though I imagine they won't order one until after it's needed...

I'm feeling very much of the sandwich generation atm. Seems every week one of my friends' parents dies, not to mention getting to my friends dying too. It's some comfort to know I have at least five friends living well, who would have died 20 years ago from cancers, but still. Fuck cancer, pancreatic cancer in particular.