Recent Comments

1. 4 days ago on Drabble

   I like rain. He does not like to go out and drive in rain any longer, so we stay home and I get work done!!!

2. 4 days ago on Lola

   I just won’t eat pumpkin – spiced or not. (A personal matter.) I make him a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and an apple one for me.

3. 4 days ago on Lola

   We are craftspeople, but we rarely go to Hobby Lobby.

   Husband needed a certain type of fabric to help cover the front of our RV van as it gets inundated with leaves and pollen (depending on the season) from the huge tree in the backyard of our neighbor. (We were going to volunteer half the cost of taking it down, when I heard from her that they hate the tree also – when they moved in they tried to get it cut down but back then, at least 10 years ago, they were told it would cost US$25,000 – so the tree stays there and we have to keep the front of the van covered as we have had to have the motor for the vent system replaced twice due to the leaves/pollen backing it all up – also fills the hollow inside of the front doors with leaves and pollen which will cause rust – all coming in from the front.

   Hobby Lobby had the fabric – Joanns did not. No other fabric stores, so Hobby Lobby it was. I was absolutely amazed that it was filled with fall items and NO summer items. I understand the idea that seasonal items have to made in advance for decorations and such, but it seemed crazy to us to have removed all the summer items for fall items when it is not even June yet! (Also thought it should NOT be a 45 minute wait to have fabric cut with only employee in the department, despite having 5 cutting tables.)

4. 4 days ago on JumpStart

   Husband and I live in detached suburban house. We have twice weekly garbage pickup and recycling on one other day each week, but only put regular once a week. For decades I have dealt with the garbage (husband would say “ick” and “ugh” at putting out the garbage. Schlepping the cans out and then bringing them back.

   During Covid and since two things have happened – Early in Covid we stopped putting out the garbage in can so we did not have go back out of the house and take the empty can in. We generally put out one 13 gallon bag a week from the house (other than the basement and garage – his workshop areas which only get tossed out when full) – so why was I carrying out a mostly empty full sized garbage can every week – and we have more garbage since start of Covid from being and eating home more. And husband who was always disgusted by the idea of dealing with garbage started taking it for pickup. Why the change? It has two parts – he realized how much work I do around the house (plus until about a year ago I was the main income as he quit his job/retired early and I kept working part time self-employed) and started helping me – plus – some weeks it was his only chance to walk outside.

   We used to have a small box for our recycling. At some point about 6 or so years ago they changed it to larger can. I used to put the recycling out weekly, but since the larger can I got lazy and it only goes out when the can is full – which is about 6 weeks worth of cans and the few jars. Paper is stacked on husband’s boyhood worktable in side entry porch for tying up. Small paper bags (from Chinese takeout) hold the soda cans he has had to drink when he has low sugar so we can easily return them to store – when he trips over them too much around every 3 small bags or so.

5. 4 days ago on JumpStart

   NYC until recently had businesses just leave their garbage out in bags – since “like” forever. There has been an ongoing problem with animals getting into the garbage. They finally decided to require all commercial garbage to be put in cans or dumpsters – none left out just in bags.

   The process has not been going well.

6. 4 days ago on Stone Soup

   NO data stored on computer hard drive. I do daily data backups onto alternating E and F drives – there are NO auto backups; I run all the backups myself. I then do weekly backups onto alternating G and H drives. I then do monthly backups of entire computer onto alternating external hard drives 1 & 2 (one is odd months, 2 is even months). Data is kept on thumb drives not the hard drive so it can easily be used on another computer if the computer crashes (such as to use on my laptop which I am on right now) or one of husband’s computers.

   We each started working with computers back in the early 1970s. I learned FORTRAN programming using punch cards back in high school. (The compiler was a separate machine as big as the computer itself. Put the program cards into one end of same, get the processed stack of cards out the other end to feed into the computer itself.) We both learned (together) BASIC programing on remote station to mainframe computer while in college. Just getting that program to show “boom” or a cute teddy bear drawn with letters to form it on the screen was a big deal.

   We also do not like sending info into the cloud for storage – all is stored in house. When husband was still working I would bring thumb drive backups once a month to our safe deposit box during weekly bank visit. Since I am with him all the time, and our payments are direct deposit other than my clients, no longer go to the bank weekly so same goes to vault box less often.

7. 4 days ago on Stone Soup

   Husband drills them repeatedly all over the place before we toss them – and rarely do so, generally we put into the new computer to make transferring easier.

   Then again – getting rid of a computer drive (or any computer equipment) is a major to do. We have to drive to the township’s refuse drop off. One is stopped at the first checkpoint – and ID of both of us is checked and we are given a permission slip to proceed. I am presuming that in addition to checking that we are residents of the township (required to drop off here) they are also checking that we meet the other requirements for driving in – vehicle must be non-commercial, and “Vans must adhere to the following: must have a backseat installed, a side door with windows, no top racks, no interior doors separating the driver area from the cargo area, no shelving, mounted corkboards, etc.”. When we pass their test we get to drive on with our permission slip.

   We then reach the drop off area – our pass from the first point is checked. (If we had not stopped there – how the heck could we have gotten to here?!) We are directed to a parking space. We then remove the items from our van and throw them into the various bins – presuming one can figure out what each bin’s label actually means. We then have to return the pass to the first stop location when we leave.

   I am not sure that Ft Knox has as good security system as our township’s electronic garbage drop off!

8. 4 days ago on Stone Soup

   Happy Dog might have asked where you live, as in NYS for probably at least a decade the only way for doctors to submit prescriptions to pharmacies is directly through a special setup. NO handwritten prescriptions are allowed (other than for veterinarians). This is to prevent fake prescriptions on stolen or duplicated prescription forms.

   This has lead all sorts of problems. Doctor’s employees transmit the wrong medication, the wrong dosage, the wrong brand or generic (for insurance or for a prior problem with a med before), and so on. As an example – husband is Diabetic and takes insulin. The insulin comes in “pens”. In addition to the insulin pens he also needs to get, separately, needles for the pens – one needle used each time he takes the insulin. We are on traditional Medicare with a good supplemental plan. In the past he has paid nothing for the needles they are completely covered.

   When we went to the doctor earlier this year he did not need additional needles so we asked that the prescription be held until he needed them. Earlier this month he was coming to the point where he would soon need more needles. So I telephoned the doctor’s office and spoke to the section which handles prescription renewals and she sent the prescription through. We got a call from the pharmacy that prescriptions were called in and this one were ready. The pen needles were US$25? Huh? Turns out dr office employee put them through as generic. Generics are $25, the brand name ones he has been getting are free? So had to call the doctor’s office again, explain. They had to contact the pharmacy again. Original presc had to be canceled and new one sent though. Husband’s glucose levels – which he works hard to keep in range – went shooting through the roof that morning due to all of this.

   (When we picked up the prescriptions I thanked the pharmacy employee who had helped us profusely. )

9. 4 days ago on Stone Soup

   I have clients I can fax to – if they can figure out how to work the machine. I have clients I can email to – well, one of them at least. The rest of them it is telephone and postal mail.

   We have several members of our reenctment unit (in early 70s husband and I are close to the oldest members, but there are a couple yet older than us) who do not have computers.

   The national of my embroidery group has changed this year to all renewals and new members joining is to be done online – only. This is far from the youngest group of women and some older members, again, do not have computers. (Plus I think it a poor idea to have tell potential new members who come to a meeting to go home and join online – instead of taking their info and dues payment while they are at the meeting.) I grumbled about this change to our chapter president (I am the treasurer and will be dealing with all this – and when I renewed my membership after working with computers for around 50 years had trouble figuring out how to renew – so I have some interest in this situation) who has gotten annoyed with me about it as she sees no problem. We have discussed having a laptop computer brought to the meetings in case someone wants to join at meeting.

   There is no understanding any longer for those who do not use a computer and/or do not have Internet.

10. 5 days ago on Pluggers

    Seems to husband and me that it must be illegal to say that one cannot fly the US flag!

    Why do people buy in places with these crazy HOA groups? I don’t think they have them here.