Ray's House of Love (Volume II)

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sassandgroove

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I am sending good vibes to your grass seed.

I am working on my knees. I went to the gym yesterday and used the bike and the weight machines. I maybe over did it a little b/c I am sore, but maybe sore is good.

So our power was out last night from about 6 to 11. Hubby doesn't take it well which just gets the whole house grumpy. I wish he'd just go with the flow and enjoy a candlelit evening with me.
 

Maryn

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Oh, I'm with you. A power failure can be a small adventure. When our kids were little, it meant eating as much ice cream as you wanted, having candles and/or a fire as our light source for reading aloud or telling stories. It was fun. As adults, it means candles and/or a fire, and usually a bottle of wine and conversation of the sort we don't have in front of the TV or computer.

Beats the hell out of a grump. You listen up, Mr. Groove!

We're overdue for a power failure; it's been years since we had one longer than a half hour.

Maryn, wondering where the lamp oil is
 

Russ Mars

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I, too, get a bit grumpy when I can't access my electronic world. Sad but true.

A few days ago, my internet went down. Even on the extremely rare occasion that happens, it usually comes back up quickly, but not this time. It was early in the morning so I couldn't contact the phone company (DSL) and whine. After a few hours, I was practically pulling out my hair. Then, as I walked down the hall outside my bear cave, I noticed that a connector between two very long sections of phone line running along the edge of the hall floor had been pulled away from the wall and pulled apart. Mind you, this connector was heavily taped with black electrical tape. The tape was completely chewed through and pulled away from the connector. Yeah, a cat. There are eight here, so I didn't know which one to kill. But, at least finally knowing what the problem was, I could fix it quick and get back online. I did.

About five minutes passed and the internet went down again. WTF? I jumped up from my desk and dashed back out into the hall. There was the culprit, Theadosha, chewing at the connector. Startled, she looked up at me, eyes wide as if to say, "WHAT?" I shooed her away. (I talk big, but there's no way I'd really kill a cat.) Again I fixed it, went back into my cave and closed the door. A few more minutes passed and, yep, it happened again. When I returned to the hall this time, she ran off immediately and into a room at the other end of the hall. From there, she peeked around the doorjamb at me. It was a game and she was messing with me! Hmm.

Repairs made again, I returned to my cave and closed the door. But, instead of sitting down, I waited by the door for about 30 seconds and yanked it open. There she was again, just beginning to mess with the connector. She jumped up and ran off to the end room to repeat the peekaboo game. She's nuts!

Then I had the brilliant idea of coating the connector with Tabasco Sauce. Now, she spends hours lying on the floor next to the connector, staring at it with a forlorn look on her face, but she hasn’t messed with it since. Cat with OCD?
 
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Maryn

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I wish deer were that smart. They chew on my garden, not having read the labels proclaiming various plants deer resistant. So I did some online research and concocted a vile brew (which includes dish detergent and Tabasco, among other things) which I sprayed on the plants. The deer took one nibble and let them alone.

Until it rained. That night, they ate well, chewing some plants all the way to the ground. My five-foot dogwoods are now maybe 18 inches tall.

Maryn, living where it rains a lot

P.S. Thought of you last night, Russ. A character in a movie is nicknamed Pismo.

Too bad I don't have wild kitties in the yard, isn't it?
 

pandora1983

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Power outages usually make me a tiny bit excited. Let me explain-I come from hurricane alley and we have hurricanes all the time there. So I generally associate an outage with a hella' big storm. And I love storms! Love, love, love. They make me a bit more aware and excited.
Then after I've exhausted all my non-electrical toys/activities---I want my power back. Especially if it is night time and I don't have sufficient candles.
 
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Komnena

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It's been nearly four years since Hurricane Ike took our power for a week. I remember watching the pine trees doing the hurricane dance and asking the existentialist question "I'm a thousand miles inland, why is there a hurricane outside my door?" I listened to my little battery powered radio by flashlight. One of my friends somehow managed to sleep through the racket. She didn't believe me at first when I told her a hurricane had gone through our city.
 

sassandgroove

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My dog Hoshi is so stinky (how stinky is she?!) I not only had to give her a bath on a tuesday night but now she smells like dog shampoo and STINK! But she's still cute.
 

sassandgroove

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It's been nearly four years since Hurricane Ike took our power for a week. I remember watching the pine trees doing the hurricane dance and asking the existentialist question "I'm a thousand miles inland, why is there a hurricane outside my door?" I listened to my little battery powered radio by flashlight. One of my friends somehow managed to sleep through the racket. She didn't believe me at first when I told her a hurricane had gone through our city.
I remember that, it passed by me first..and I remember you posting about it.
 

Komnena

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And if you'd told me a day earlier that the National Guard would be in my city because of a hurricane I would have sat down and laughed my head off.
 

Maryn

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In that case, it's good she didn't tell you, because you'd really miss your head, I bet.

We lost power for 13 days once. It stopped being fun fairly early, when we ran out of clean clothes and couldn't wash any even by hand, because it was winter and they'd freeze rather than dry. Luckily the kids were able to visit their grandma. Mr. Maryn and I stayed at the house, where I baked every day (gas oven, and a screened porch which served as a refrigerator-freezer) and took a shower every evening. (Mr. Maryn showered in the morning.) We think that's what kept our pipes from freezing, a heat source every five or six hours. Some neighbors were not so lucky.

And I wanted to throttle people complaining that their cable was out. You try getting out of the shower with wet hair when it's 25 degrees and tell me which is worse.

Maryn, who didn't mean to go off on a rant--oopsie!
 

Komnena

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Yes, I would miss my head.
Eek, Maryn!!!!!
At least with Ike it wasn't freezing.
The last time it froze badly enough for widespread power loss we found ourselves living in a little island of electricity. I made it a point to thank the electricity crew when I encountered them in a restaurant.
 

Maryn

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I would think that someone's sincere thanks goes a long way in making the hard work and long hours following a major outage more bearable. Puts a human face on it.

I did my miles in a different section of the Erie Canal than usual; construction makes it easy to get to my favorite spot but pretty difficult to leave it unless I want to head farther from home. This too shall pass, I hope. While there's always a lot of road work once winter ends, currently two of the four major streets I travel are torn to pieces. I have to rethink my route to get anywhere!

Maryn, not all that good with thinking
 

Trevor Bruhn

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Ah-ha! Erie Canal pretty much pinpoints the storm: it was '97 or '98, the Mother of All Ice Storms? I was in Albany, which missed it, but had a couple of cases in the Utica area, which didn't. I remember talking with some folks who were living like the M's.
When Pandora said
And I love storms! Love, love, love. They make me a bit more aware and excited
what I was reminded of was those bone-chilling spells that can hit Montana in December or January. When it gets near 40 below (F) at night and maybe warms to 20 below by mid afternoon, you know if you screw up you could be dead pretty quick. So you don't screw up. If anyone has read Stegner's Wolf Willow, the fictional part is about a cold blizzard like that, in Sask. just over the line from Montana.
New York never got cold like that.
Trevor, whose only weather precaution now is umbrella-checking
 

Maryn

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Did I ever tell you about the umbrella we bought when we vacationed in New Orleans? It was pretty expensive, an impulse purchase in a tourist area when we hadn't expected rain. Trouble is, it wasn't waterproof. It broke up the big drops into a fine mist which it let right through. We returned it and demanded our money back, which they were not happy about. Usually we were all meek, but that got us riled, an expensive umbrella that wasn't waterproof.

Trevor, I've only been in cold like that a few times. No thank you! I don't find the winters here all that bad, just a couple months too long. The grey skies get to me more than the cold or snow.

Hey, the regulars in this thread might be able to help me in a small quest on behalf of The Kid. She's interested in watching some of the great films of the 50s. Nominations?

Maryn, who could only come up with a few
 

Russ Mars

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Hm, 50s movies...

Sweet Smell of Success and Carmen Jones are a couple that come to mind at the moment.
 

Trevor Bruhn

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My teenage decade--when I lost it at the movies (TY Pauline Kael).
Anatomy of a Murder. On the Waterfront (young Marlon). Shane. Blackboard Jungle. Hitchcock: Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest.

Trevor, who had to go back to the definitive lay-or-lie guide today, with eternal gratitude to the canal walker
 

Maryn

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You know, of course, that I only wrote that lay-lie thing because I'd looked it up dozens of times and was getting pretty fed up at my inability to remember it and be sure.

Good movie suggestions, gentlemen! She's seen the Hitchcock, among the earliest viewing for the family movies we started when the kids were ten-ish. I could not have been more proud when the fourth grade teacher asked the class to name an actor they liked, and everybody but The Kid named someone current.

She named Jimmy Stewart. Which reminds me, it might be time to watch Harvey again. I love that one.

Maryn, online at night(!)
 

mario_c

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Someone else remembers Pauline Kael! The woman who taught me to be a critical thinker about movies, and so much more.

Anyway, so far we've had a hurricane, an ice storm and a tornado and I've had two blackouts (not counting when the power company replaced a utility pole), running two and 4 days each. I like reading by candlelight, playing guitar, plus my vinyl player runs on batteries so I still have entertainment. But I spend a lot of time at the cafe charging my phone, which is my lifeline to the internet (a very utilitarian one). And then there's the throwing out the spoiled groceries, which is not fun.
But it reminds you of what's important, and who's really in charge of the world. Unplugging like that is good for you, true. (But I'm always happy to plug back in. :D)
 

Komnena

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You've probably already seen these
Ten Commandments
Searchers
Shane
Buccaneer
South Pacific
Stalag 17
Night to Remember
Old Yeller
High Noon
Horse Soldiers
King and I
Far Country
True Grit
Shootist
 

BeatrixKiddo

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...[FONT=&quot]I presume there are benefits to adultery especially when committed with a much younger man (or a woman)[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]...

I don't think the one being cheated on feels the same way. There are so many women in the world...who are single.


My 84-year-old mother lives in a two-story house and I wonder if having to make many trips a day up and down the stairs has contributed to her longevity. Her mother had to do the same thing, and she made it to 100...

She must have awesome calf muscles for her age. Stairs are a great workout. Hard on the knees sometimes, but I'm always amazed at how much I'm puffing away when I take the stairs at work. (Of course, I'm horribly out of shape and all stairs wear me out.)

Then I had the brilliant idea of coating the connector with Tabasco Sauce. Now, she spends hours lying on the floor next to the connector, staring at it with a forlorn look on her face, but she hasn’t messed with it since. Cat with OCD?

Heh. That's hilarious. A cat with a connector fetish.
 

Maryn

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Morning, ma'am, and thanks for the titles.

I just had a really funny wrong number. Let me precede this with the information that strangers do not have my cell number. It's friends and family only, and it seldom rings. So when it rang fairly earily this morning, I assumed it was a wrong number.

But what a great wrong number.

"Hello?"

"Hello. Is this Henry? Of course it isn't Henry--unless he has some transgender secret he's ready to share with the world. So, do you, Henry, or have I got the wrong number?"

Cracked me up.

Maryn, grinning
 

sassandgroove

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Hey, the regulars in this thread might be able to help me in a small quest on behalf of The Kid. She's interested in watching some of the great films of the 50s. Nominations?

Maryn, who could only come up with a few
One of my all time favorite movies is Brigadoon with Genen Kelley and Syd Charise. I saw it when I was 10 or 11 and it really captured my imagination. I own it on DVD.
 
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