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Post by Spock on Mar 31, 2012 13:45:42 GMT -6
... cuz that's just nuts. Why are you PUNishing us in this topic? Isn't there one for that already!?
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Post by Phalon on Apr 16, 2012 6:16:58 GMT -6
PUNishment must be doled out wherever and whenever necessary, Spock. Make the punishment fit the crime, I always say....although most times the punishment I dole out is the crime.
Just a quick "hi" and "bye" and "enjoy your day" this morning, Sweet Taters. I just got my Internet connection back a few minutes ago after storms took it, and the electricity out Saturday. Thankfully, the electricity was out only a short time. Internet, I can live without for a while; electricity is a different story.
Later, Taters.
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Post by Spock on Apr 16, 2012 8:54:24 GMT -6
... electricity is a different story. ... Must be your 'electric' personality ...
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Post by stepper on Apr 16, 2012 16:26:56 GMT -6
Electric, eccentric, they’re so close!
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Post by Phalon on Apr 18, 2012 4:41:59 GMT -6
Electric...eccentric... I'll take either, actually, as long as it's not one of those icky math trics. Pfft! I metric one day, and I didn't like him.
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Post by stepper on Apr 18, 2012 17:10:27 GMT -6
His wife is very nice - one day you'll get to meter.
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Post by stepper on May 4, 2012 17:31:57 GMT -6
This weekend we get mooned. Next weekend in the US is the 20th letter carriers 'Help Stamp Out Hunger' annual national food drive. In our neighborhood not many will donate, but I've done it for several years - put out a bag or two of suitable food stuffs that the carriers pick up for local food banks. Actually, I make a shopping trip specifically for this cause; it's one of those things that bothers me. How can we ignore the fact that even here there are people who go hungry? I can't fix it all, but I can help a little, so I do.
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Post by Spock on May 5, 2012 14:58:42 GMT -6
... I can't fix it all, but I can help a little, so I do. That's all any of us can do. I wonder what they will do for this cause when the close down the Postal Service?
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Post by stepper on May 6, 2012 21:06:10 GMT -6
They'll do what every other charity group does. They'll send post cards and "free gifts" and cards and return address labels and what ever, asking you to donate to their cause since they sent you something you didn't request or order. After all, it's such a worthy charity and does so much good. Some of them do too, but I could hardly afford to purchase all the free stuff they send. You have to be selective and refuse to be guilted into donating.
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Post by Phalon on May 15, 2012 6:05:59 GMT -6
I'd miss our post office if it closed. It's small - only two windows - but is housed in a large historical building that's structurally interesting. And the people working there are really nice! Our town is a walking route for the mail carriers. There aren't street-side mailboxes; the mail carrier delivers mail to either boxes or slots at homeowner's front doors. Weird, I suppose, that I think it lends kind of a personal touch.
I don't know though, if our postal service here would go to the lengths for their customers that it does in the smaller town with a smaller post office where I work.
Last week, Hubs set some bills out for the mail. "You can't mail them like that", I said. He had 39 cent stamps on them; he found them at the bottom of his briefcase, and who knows how long they've been there. They had flags on them and he didn't even notice the value, thinking they were "forever stamps". We were out of stamps with the current value, (I'm not even sure what it is anymore).
I took the bills to work, thinking I'd just buy some stamps from my boss, and cover the invalid 39 cent ones. "Oh, no", says my boss, "don't waste your stamps. Just paperclip the envelopes together, and attach a dollar with a note that says 'please put the proper postage on these, and mail'.
I was skeptical. She said she does it all the time; a co-worker that lives in the same town, says he does the same. So I run everything to the mailbox next door, (the nursery and bosses' house use the same mailbox), hoping our bills will actually make it to where they're suppose to go.
The next day, there was an envelope in their mailbox with my change inside. I don't know if anyone else in larger cities has ever experienced this kind of service, but I thought it was pretty neat.
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Post by Mini Mia on May 15, 2012 15:43:02 GMT -6
They do that here too. I put the coins in a baggy and use a clothes pin to clip it to the mail. I get any change coming back to me the next day. I love small country life.
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Post by stepper on May 15, 2012 18:33:57 GMT -6
They'll deliver boxes to the house, but here there's a communal box. You go down the street to the box to get your mail. I have no idea how'd they react to finding money clipped to a letter that was 6¢ short.
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Post by Spock on May 16, 2012 22:11:09 GMT -6
... I have no idea how they'd react to finding money clipped to a letter that was 6¢ short. If it's short, just write some more in it to make it longer ...
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Post by Phalon on May 18, 2012 4:50:21 GMT -6
Not being clairvoyant (or able to see dead people), I've always been short 6 cents.
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Post by stepper on May 18, 2012 18:26:21 GMT -6
SIL has Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus.
It's one of the antibiotic resistant staph infections. They had her in isolation, and we've been told they're taking her to surgery. Hopefully that means the infection area is contained and they can cut it out. She's a nurse so she's exposed to lots of stuff - I guess one of the bugs got through.
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Post by Mini Mia on May 18, 2012 20:39:55 GMT -6
SIL has Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus.
It's one of the antibiotic resistant staph infections. They had her in isolation, and we've been told they're taking her to surgery. Hopefully that means the infection area is contained and they can cut it out. She's a nurse so she's exposed to lots of stuff - I guess one of the bugs got through.
I just saw in the news that there are a couple of women who have the flesh eating virus. I guess it was a matter of time before diseases got stronger than the cure. I pray she recovers quickly, and there is minimal to no damage done.
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Post by stepper on May 19, 2012 8:56:33 GMT -6
Thanks. The operation is done, but I don't have details yet.
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Post by Phalon on May 19, 2012 21:18:11 GMT -6
Hope it all went smoothly, Stepper, and that your sister-in-law is fine, and her recovery short.
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Post by quettalee on May 19, 2012 21:38:50 GMT -6
Yep...what they said, Uncle Step!
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Post by stepper on May 20, 2012 8:06:12 GMT -6
The prognosis is pretty good. Turns out she had two spots on her back that are close together. They lacerated both with slits that were shaped \ / - I told her they should have done the stitches to resemble eyelashes.
They say she’ll be in isolation for another three days while they make sure they’ve dealt with it, but now that it has raised its ugly head, it can reoccur any time the bacteria gets an opportunity to colonize. Even a bruise has to be watched to ensure there are no further problems.
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Post by Mini Mia on May 21, 2012 19:21:33 GMT -6
Hospitals are getting more and more dangerous for giving patients diseases they didn't come in with. Dad died from a staph infection and pneumonia. To this day I think the hospital killed him. They blamed his cancer. His cancer doctor informed us that after removing the cancer/s that they had found, months earlier, there were no signs of cancer in his body whatsoever. Nonetheless, the cancer could be responsible for his not being able to fight off the infections.
Dad had a port that the nurses hadn't noticed before putting an IV in his arm, and then just left it in instead of removing it. It caused the staph infection. And we're not sure if they turned him like they're suppose to to prevent pneumonia. Anytime we commented on his condition, we were informed we were to take to the cancer doctors, because his cancer is what was killing him. I don't trust hospitals, doctors, nurses, etc. anymore. It's all about the money now. 'First do no harm' has been left by the wayside.
Mom went in for gall bladder surgery, and when they moved her from one bed to another, her arm dragged across the sheet and ripped open. They wrapped it in a clear Saran-like plastic sheet, and left it on the whole hospital stay. (The meds Mom takes for her Wegener's Granulomatosis causes her skin to peel away whenever she bumps against anything.) I got the feeling it was to protect her from all the diseases that run amok in the hospital. Thankfully they haven't killed her yet.
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Post by Mini Mia on May 21, 2012 19:24:14 GMT -6
The prognosis is pretty good. Turns out she had two spots on her back that are close together. They lacerated both with slits that were shaped \ / - I told her they should have done the stitches to resemble eyelashes.
They say she’ll be in isolation for another three days while they make sure they’ve dealt with it, but now that it has raised its ugly head, it can reoccur any time the bacteria gets an opportunity to colonize. Even a bruise has to be watched to ensure there are no further problems.
So glad she's doing well. I pray the staph doesn't rear it ugly head ever again.
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Post by stepper on Jul 29, 2012 14:43:57 GMT -6
This was prompted by Phalon’s post about her brother’s Christmas tree. And by my reaction to it. You see, twice now in recent history she’s had to go through the homes, the memories, possessions (precious and brick-a-brac), belonging to family members who have passed. She shared these experiences with us, her mom’s books…her brother’s Christmas tree, and I’m thinking this has got to be nearly universal. Not, thank goodness, that we’ve had to go through this situation twice in such a short time, but that we have been or will be faced with culling through the possessions of someone who as passed. It got me thinking about what was important to me in terms of personal possessions and how will those who come after me view these things. Will they know what mattered to me? Will they even care?
The ‘things’ that really matter to me are the ones connected with my family. My grandmothers’ hand blown glass swan for instance – a reminder that my predecessors labored in the glass business for at least a few generations – has been on a Christmas tree every year since her birth in 1895, a tradition that I’ve maintained. I have a ceramic kangaroo. It belonged to my father and its’ ‘pouch’ was the receptor for the things in his pockets as far back as my memories go. And a three-piece dark brown suit that surprised me because hanging in my own closet the day it arrived was its twin. I already had the exact same suit – but wore his until the day it no longer fit me. The half used roll of Wint-O-Green mints still in one of its pockets will mean nothing to the person who gets it next. From mom I have a few of her unprofessional but way better than I could have done ceramic pieces. And since Christmas was especially important to her, the Christmas pieces are the most important to me. I have a few other things like the silver serving tray we all gave my parents for their 25th wedding anniversary and it’s a nice tray, worth more in dollars than anything else I’ve saved, but it doesn’t ‘matter’.
What will my relatives think of my “stuff” – and what will they do with it all? I have a friend whose mother died recently. One of her comments was that she had to move her mother from an apartment to an assisted living home. The move forced her mother to dispose of most of her possessions since the space in the assisted living facility was so much smaller than the apartment. This, for my friend, made disposition of possessions so much easier – there wasn’t all that much left. One thing the mom was able to keep when she moved was her cat, which became a point of concern for her. My friends’ mother decided the cat, which was old for a cat, should be put to sleep. The mom couldn’t bear the thought that her kitty might end up in a shelter which would keep her in a cage for a while before putting her down anyway – alone, abandoned, and forgotten. And what if someone else agreed to take her? Would they be aware of her quirks – could they let her be happy? So the mom decided the best thing to do was have the cat put to sleep if it outlived her. And it did outlive her. But my friend, when faced with actually having the cat put down had a dilemma. She couldn’t take the cat, but there was nothing wrong with it either. The nurses in the assisted living center took care of the cat while the estate is being settled and the cat took over the reception desk, greeting all comers. She’s quite a hit with visitors and residents. She also took possession of one of the chairs behind the desk and made it her home. You can find her there, greeting people as the come in. And it turns out she has a talent for comforting the folks who live in the home – especially those behind the locked Alzheimer’s door. She gets tons of love and attention, and it seems she gives more than she gets. So by agreement of all, the cat is now an unofficial therapy cat and everyone is happy. Maybe it’s best not to worry. Write a will to say who gets what if ‘it’ matters or to keep the peace – divide things up fairly – and let those left behind decide what to do. They are the ones who have to live with the results and, after all, it’s only ‘stuff’.
So here’s your chance if you’ve ever thought about it. Do you have ‘stuff’ that matters? Do you have plans for what should happen to it once you’ve passed? Care to share?
And Phalon gets a pass on this one. (I know you try to respond to many of the posts.) She’s already sort of told us about sorting through her mother and her brother’s estates.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 20, 2012 6:27:47 GMT -6
Dang, Step. I meant to, but never got around to commenting. I'm citing a lack of time as the reason....probably due to the following:
Bad Habit 261: Getting up when your alarm goes off, turning on the coffee pot, and laying down on the couch "just long enough to let the coffee brew".
It does not take 1 to 1 1/2 hours for the coffee to brew.
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Post by stepper on Aug 20, 2012 16:28:39 GMT -6
That would sort of cut down on your time. Did you take a thermos with you? I'd hate for all the coffee to go to waste.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 21, 2012 6:26:42 GMT -6
Do you honestly think I'd let that happen? Oh, no, no, no. It's amazing how quickly a person can slug down a few cups when pressed for time. And there's always my to-go cup for that final sludge-on-the-run hit.
This has been going on for maybe two or three weeks, actually. I'm pretty sure it has a lot to do with the days getting shorter. Though it's always dark when I get up, it used to get fairly light shortly after. Now dawn doesn't break until around 7am.
Ironically, today, when I could have slept an hour longer, (Chicago trade show today - the show doesn't start until later, and they're an hour behind us), I was up at my usual time.
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Post by stepper on Aug 21, 2012 17:00:21 GMT -6
Doesn't it give you a head ache when you slam caffeine?
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Post by katina2nd on Aug 23, 2012 21:14:28 GMT -6
No idea where to post this, so here will have to do. Has this place shrunk since my last visit .......... yeah I know it was a while ago, sorry about that. Anyway, back to my question; couldn't see any of the forums until I logged on, now there's no "100 last posts" thingy and I'm sure there's less forums then I remember .................. or am I just going nuts. "Yes you are" I can hear a chorus of voices replying to my last question. Just noticed it doesn't say who's on line either.
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Post by Mini Mia on Aug 24, 2012 0:23:14 GMT -6
I took down the announcement, but, it's because of trolls. Check out the Feedback & Complaints board for the thread to get your answer, Kat.
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Post by katina2nd on Aug 24, 2012 1:52:14 GMT -6
Thanks Jox. Just checked the F&C board, been having some fun by the looks of things. At least there's one good thing, I ain't going nuts after all.
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