The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[Duleigh]

Good Morning

Not much to talk about today. My brother-in-law, the retired cop, was in town yesterday, luckily I was called into a meeting by the county to prepare for Hurricane Season so I had to sacrifice an uncomfortable meeting for a fun filled joyful discussion among friends. My brother-in-law understood why I had to disappear for a few hours.

Coffee is On!

 

[Candy_Kane54]

It's hot here today, already 80 degrees F at 8:30 AM. Even the hummingpecker is staying in the shade today.

 

[NotWise]

No... it doesn't. I still haven't learned how to use many features on my iPhone 9. I can call and answer but the rest is somewhat Greek. I manage to mess up most messages trying to listen to them. I tried a few text messages but gave them up. The doctors keep sending me crap to log into their portals. I shake my head and just show up for my appointments written on my paper calendar hanging by my forty-year-old landline. Those guys wanting to buy my houses who call the landline and ask if they can send a text–'sure go ahead,' I tell them. Sometimes, I can't help myself having a little fun.

Are you telling me the thing can take pictures? When did that start?

Your attitude must be fairly common. The staff at my doctor's office is always surprised that I've confirmed appointments via texts, checked in on line, etc. I like my cell phone -- until I wait too long to charge it, and it turns into a brick.

I don't wear watches or have an alarm clock anymore, and the last thing I learned to do with my phone was answer phone calls. If I do get a phone call, it's either pre-arranged, or its from someone my age or older. Who else uses a phone as a phone?

 

[MrPixel]

Well isn't that special... C is now into her second day of sick. Flu sick... the whole nine yards of it, too. I am finally adjusting to taking care of three plus the household all at the same time. I guess her foot surgery two months ago was good practice. I messaged the doc, and she said there is a one-day flu going around and just do the normal fluids, etc., to shorten the recovery. She is already getting better, so maybe there's hope she'll be able to help pack-up and clean the cabin for Friday's departure.

Dog has been both good and just awful on this trip to the cabin. He's apparently got some issues going on in that dog brain. He had a seizure last week - his third one in a year - and Daddy had to get on the floor to comfort him. He had a panic attack in the van during the drive here, and broke the barrier to climb into C's lap - 80 pounds and quite strong. She's sporting some ugly bruises from it.

Campground is empty other than us and the owners. There was supposed to be a day visitor yesterday and I was hoping for somebody to talk to, but they were a no-show.

...sigh...

Thanks for the coffee, D. Now that everybody is tended-to and all is quiet, I'm going to work on a writing inspiration.

 

[NotWise]

We're burning again.



According to the caption on the photo, the light in the center just above the horizon is the sunset reflecting off the smoke. I suppose the rest is mostly flames. This is from the same area where, in 1950, Smokey the Bear was found as a cub.

 

[Duleigh]

Is that near Ruidoso?

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Eeek! Good luck to all nearby.

 

[NotWise]

Is that near Ruidoso?

It's the South Fork fire, burning near and in Ruidoso. The photo was taken by a resident waiting for family at an evacuation center.

 

[dmallord]

Your attitude must be fairly common. The staff at my doctor's office is always surprised that I've confirmed appointments via texts, checked in on line, etc. I like my cell phone -- until I wait too long to charge it, and it turns into a brick.

I don't wear watches or have an alarm clock anymore, and the last thing I learned to do with my phone was answer phone calls. If I do get a phone call, it's either pre-arranged, or its from someone my age or older. Who else uses a phone as a phone?

I gave up watches in the 1990s, not because of portable phones, though. I retired. I had enough things with times on them to find the time: microwave, stove, cable box, mantel clock, and even a car display. Three-quarters of the time, my cell is plugged into the wall and sitting there.

It rings and is filled with texts and voice messages from unwanted solicitors about one thing or another. Unlike the landline it doesn't seem to fill up and need deleting so it must have that Tardus effect–bigger on the inside than on the outside!

I've also noticed when out that everyone seems to be thumbing away on their phones. One walked into my path yesterday, oblivious to oncoming traffic at the grocery store. Never looked, 30-ish dope, stepped off the curb with some sort of death wish.

Those wildfires are all over the news. The planet seems headed for bad times. Yet, we still have climate change deniers. Sad. Seems pretty evident there is a trend we can't ignore.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

It's the South Fork fire, burning near and in Ruidoso. The photo was taken by a resident waiting for family at an evacuation center.

I do hope everyone is OK.


So. Ole Trusty Honda has officially been declared dead.
The good news: they're giving me more than twice what I thought it was worth, based on the blue book value.
Bad news: they'll only pay for the Audi until Monday, then it's out of pocket if I still need it.
But, ok-ish news: the rental company is supposed to charge me the discount rate, which like 40% off the advertised rate.

I test drove an Accord Hybrid today and learned I'm truly a Honda girl.
I'm getting a slightly older but fancier one shipped to the local CarMax, and am already approved for the loan.

It's been a roller-coaster week.

 

[NotWise]

It's been a roller-coaster week.

And we're only half-way through it.

One of my girls is a Honda girl, too. The first car she bought was a beat-up old (like 1981) Honda, and everything since has been a new Honda. I think she got that attitude from a boyfriend who thought they were fine machines.

 

[MrPixel]

Hondas are durable and reliable. Four out of five of our car purchases over the past 20 years have been Hondas, two Civics and two Elements. (Also had a '77 Accord, '80 Civic four-door, and '82 Accord four-door in a prior life.)

Civics were for commuting, and both never had to see a service department since I did my own fluid changes. Acquired consecutively since the first one was a base model (LX) and I was annoyed by basic features it didn't have; shortly traded in on a Civic Hybrid of the same year. Sold it about a year before retiring since I was already working from home and there was no need for a commuter car.

The Elements? We love our Elements. 2003 has 220K miles, 2008 has 185K. The '03 is showing its age and is currently mothballed. Nothing major, just a bunch of little stuff. I used to do all of my own wrenching, but don't have the inclination to do much more than oil changes these days.

The 2008 hasn't been perfect, but that's not Honda's fault. We bought it in 2013 not knowing it had been in high water. After patching up the suspension problems and a bad starter all due to the flood, it's our daily driver now. Both have the original clutch. Love 'em, and are at a loss if we have to replace one or both since the last year for 'em was 2011.

My two beefs with Honda are, first, their bad habit of discontinuing great models, like the Element. Second is the Takata airbag debacle. We had three separate recalls to fix that on the 2008, and the closest dealer is an hour away.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Sitting in the rain, not with coffee, but with a coffee mug and a litre of Bushmills, watching the skyline of a foreign Old Town, maybe three lights on as far as the old eyes can see and quiet - amazingly quiet for a major city. It started to rain and I moved, then it shifted, so I moved again (no umbrellas) and found a comfy chair where only my bare legs are getting rained on. It’s actually rather pleasant, maybe even productive.

Ah, a fourth light just came on, maybe a kilometre away. And now it is off, no doubt a weak bladder staging a 45 second coup. Another flickers - on, then off, on again, off again - I have no idea. Is there a story there?

Nice way to spend a sleepless night.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Can't really blame Honda for the airbag issue. That went on for years with so many different car builders as they found the replacements were as bad as the originals.

Rain... It's trying to do something, but it's been a very dry autumn and winter so far. Summer could be rough here as well.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

And we're only half-way through it.

One of my girls is a Honda girl, too. The first car she bought was a beat-up old (like 1981) Honda, and everything since has been a new Honda. I think she got that attitude from a boyfriend who thought they were fine machines.

Four out of five of our car purchases over the past 20 years have been Hondas, two Civics and two Elements.

I meant the roller-coaster since the deer incident last Thursday. I was just thinking that another way this whole thing worked out ok is that today is a holiday for me, and because it fell on a Wednesday, I'd already planned to take tomorrow and Friday off. So I had time today for the test drive and talking with the insurance company, and I have time tomorrow to do a couple more things to finalize the settlement, which means I'll get that check faster.

Maybe this is just faulty memory on my part, but in the last 15 years, somehow all my major life/family crises have happened pretty close to when I already had planned time off. Which didn't make the crisis itself easier, but it sure was nice to not have to scramble around about work stuff, too.

And about Hondas: the new one will be my 3rd, of 5 vehicles ever. The first one wasn't planned, but it lasted 6 or 7 years until it got totaled by a teenager driving a Saab station wagon. Ole Trusty Honda was 17, and the only non-basic maintenance work I had done was replacing the starter last year. Ime, they're reliable, durable and comfortable to drive. (I actually liked driving the one today better than the Audi)

 

[Duleigh]

Gawd - the TOADS out there!!! One moron called pantychewer or something like that didn't like the gun I used in a story. He said it didn't exist. Luckily I checked my gunrack - it's still there. SMH...........

 

[NotWise]

TOAD = Tony Orland and Dawn? I checked an acronym finder and that's as good as they gave me.

 

[JGittes]

My first car was a 1972 Honda 600 coupe. I bought it in Champagne/Urbana while attending USAF weather observation tech training, followed by Rawinsonde weather balloon training at Chanute AFB in Rantoul, IL. Somehow, we occasionally stuffed five guys into it for short road trips. Got stuck once on a soft road shoulder. We all got out, picked it up, and put it back on the road. During the 1973 - 74 gasoline crisis after the oil embargo, I sold it for nearly twice what I paid. As I recall, it cost roughly $1300 and sold for $2100.

 

[Duleigh]

TOAD = Tony Orland and Dawn?

Terrible, Opinionated, Arrogant Dork. It's like a Troll but they think they're helping.

A second Hurricane larva popped up yesterday east of Nassau (the island, not the awesome county south of Georgia), it's name is 92L and the winds aren't bad yet (30kt) but it's heading west. I'll be heading into the County Watch Office later, listen for me on 7.198 megahertz (N4AFV at the controls of W4NAS and if you can understand that, you're pretty awesome.)

Speaking of High Frequency radio, has anyone heard from @Handley_Page lately?

Coffee AND tea are on, grab your favorite.

 

[MrPixel]

Speaking of High Frequency radio, has anyone heard from @Handley_Page lately?

No. He was last on three weeks ago.

I uploaded a Nude Day story last night, and it just dawned on me that I might have used a prohibited word as a tag: "prostitution". Is it on the blacklist? I forgot how to get to the tags word cloud to check for myself.

But that's not the worst of it - it's going into LW. It has to. It's absolutely an LW story. If I pulled some tomfoolery like trying to post it in EC, Laurel would slap my virtual hand and put it where it belonged. She's done that before. Most of my LW-but-not stories are in Mature because, well, the "gotcha" is how elderly the super-sexy FMC is, but this one has something else for a twist, and the characters have Millennial names.

The LW haters are going to have fun with this one. Donning my Nomex underwear.

 

[NotWise]

"Prostitution" isn't a prohibited tag. A quick search on tags produced 51 pages of stories tagged with "prostitution."

I've been worried about HP. It seemed like he was losing interest in us, so his absence wasn't unusual.

 

[MillieDynamite]

So, my story Vengence is Mine got banned on Amazon back in 2017, and my publisher was told it would have to be reworked to be posted there. We didn't. It ran its course at other locations. It still has sales, though not robust ones. I modified it for here to be in last year's Crime and Punishment event and wrote a prequel for this year. My pub resubmitted it, and now they say it is published under a different imprint elsewhere. It is published elsewhere, several elsewhere, but it is still the Red Kitty's Publishing imprint. He's been in a battle with an AI email bot on it for two days. Right now, he's about ready to pull every story down at Amazon over it. But Amazon makes up about 1/4 to 1/3 of all the sales. He sent them as close as he could get to satisfying their demands. They want a contract from the other publisher releasing their claim on the story (a company that doesn't exist) to release it for publication. We are only putting it up there so people can buy it either before or after they read the prequel.

I really hate Amazon at times.

I feel like a cup of tea. I don't look like one, but that's how I feel. Darjeeling, please, hot and straight!

 

[Rustyoznail]

Handley's had his fair share of health issues as well. I'll flick him a note and see if he replies.

Friday Friday Friday... Unfortunately Monday looms behind it. There's a job going at the local water board for a bit less money, but I wouldn't have to deal with the public.

That is very appealing. I'm starting to have trouble holding my snarkiness back, at times. I'll contemplate the idea over coffee.

 

[Duleigh]

Handley's had his fair share of health issues as well. I'll flick him a note and see if he replies.

Friday Friday Friday... Unfortunately Monday looms behind it. There's a job going at the local water board for a bit less money, but I wouldn't have to deal with the public.

That is very appealing. I'm starting to have trouble holding my snarkiness back, at times. I'll contemplate the idea over coffee.

Friday is the 5th Monday of the week.

You get to waterboard people for less money? I'll do it for free!

Here's your coffee

 

[NotWise]

Handley's had his fair share of health issues as well. I'll flick him a note and see if he replies.

Friday Friday Friday... Unfortunately Monday looms behind it. There's a job going at the local water board for a bit less money, but I wouldn't have to deal with the public.

That is very appealing. I'm starting to have trouble holding my snarkiness back, at times. I'll contemplate the idea over coffee.

@Seadog777 last posted on any forum on May 9. He tended to come and go, so I'm not sure whether he might also be a concern.