The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

[Brightdreamer]

Agreeing that there's no such thing as "ready" to lose someone you love (counting pets as "someones", because they are not things).

Hooray for pushed appointments!

And it's Monday afternoon. Sunshine has been holding for a while, so I think I'll try my luck weed whacking.

Also finished off Season 2 of The Wilds. Not bad, though parts of it feel a bit forced and stretched and I'm not sure they need the third season they're angling for - I think it risks growing a bit repetitive, but I'll probably still watch it. It's got several good parts and some nice ideas going on, and the characters go through some decent personal transformations and hells.

Okay, off to get yard clothes on and fire up the ol' whacker...

--

Later the same Monday. Weed whacking was accomplished; burned through most of two batteries, but got the back yard done and a bit of the front. (Tried to avoid going too near the sibling's room, in case she was sleeping, but I do need to whack the front yard at some point.

Deciding what to do with the evening. Should try transcription, I suppose, but I'm just not feelin' it lately; they've changed their metrics and such to the point I'm not sure how much effort I want to put into the place. (Mostly a loosening of standards/relying more on auto-fixes after the live transcribers get done, if I understand correctly. Something about it just feels like a downgrade, though the pay's about the same.) Also trying to figure out what to watch between now and the return of Stranger Things; maybe get in some movies or something. Or use the time to edit and write... nah, that's crazy talk...

(And to end the day, my little MP3 player just died. Sudden black screen, no amount of poking or prodding or charging effort revives it. It's a stupid little thing, since I can use my phone in most instances, but I like having something less expensive to carry with me when I'm doing yard work or shed stuff around messy materials or other things I don't want to expose a smartphone to.)

 

[Friendly Frog]

Funny, after days of waiting for the promised rain, which of course never came, I decided to plan in a gardening day. ... Only to wake up to a sneaky, silent rain that made everything júúúst wet enough to make the planned trimming of hedges unpleasant. Honestly...

 

[zanzjan]

My poor birdie has an infection in the bone in her foot, and needs to have her leg amputated. )-:

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for wet hedges and bone infections!

Tuesday morning, overcast, but supposed to be dryish today. Will try to finish the weed whacking at some point; sibling said it didn't bother her, though I expect her to complain anyway.

Mergh...

Ordered another MP3 player to replace the dead one.

Not a ton on the agenda, overall. That probably means I should be doing more. Maybe I should get back to editing that story, another old Sisyphus I'm cleaning up to sub-ready format if I ever find a place that wants it.

 

[MaeZe]

Oh dear! Can birds stand on one leg?

 

[Brightdreamer]

Oh dear! Can birds stand on one leg?

Well, flamingos seem to do okay with that...

 

[E.F.B.]

True to form, after a whole month of clear night skies, that will be the one moment that's going to be clouded for sure. Never fails. Gonna have a look though, but I don't rate my chances much. Ah well, if those clouds finally bring rain, I ain't complaining.

Shockingly, it didn't cloud up here, but the moon didn't get above the trees, so all I could see was a vaguely red dot between the leaves.



Just attempted making a nuisance of myself with Facebutt again since things have changed since getting that phonecall last month. I opted to be contacted via chat this time instead of email, not realizing that they would IMMEDIATELY connect me to someone. I guess that's better than sitting around, waiting for an email or phone call, so I rolled with it. It involved a lot of waiting for 5-7 minutes at a time as the guy looked at his resources (aka the same articles I can find on my own) but now they have more screenshots, and VIDEO EVIDENCE that this idiotic thing isn't working even though everything is in place that should allow me to make my Insta a sales channel. He's escalated to the investigation team that, let me guess, is probably the same one that emailed me previously and gave me 5 minutes to respond before closing the case because I couldn't respond that fast. I'll do my best to respond asap this time, but am expecting that they'll probably wait until I'm in the shower this afternoon, or some other inconvenient time, and I'll miss it again.

Oh, re the low water pressure issues I'd mentioned at one point that our house was having, Mom bypassed the water softener system and we have full water pressure in the house again. Once we have the money for it, we'll have to get someone out here to service the water softener as it's not pretty clear that it's the issue. Honestly, I'm mostly just irked that when it was installed, the installers didn't give us an accurate idea of what kind of maintenance the thing needed. I guess because they don't offer maintenance themselves, maybe they didn't even know.

Ugh, I don't even know what to do with the rest of the day. The Facebutt stupidity and especially back-and-forths with their customer service people tends to wear me out emotionally, so then I don't feel like doing much.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for low water pressure and tech support issues!

Tuesday afternoon, and variable shades of overcast have so far not produced rain. So I managed to both fetch yesterday's mail and get the front yard weed whacked to the best of my iffy abilities. Just about out of weed whacker line, too. And I really need to order another face shield, as goggles alone don't cut it... (I had one around here, but it vanished when someone moved it to parts unknown.)

Sigh. It's always something.

Now I'm sitting for a bit, trying to decide if I want to edit or want to take a quick nap.

 

[Friendly Frog]

Enough sun so the hedge was dry when I started, yeay!

I can get used to these hedge trimmers, mind, undoubtedly much to my father's horror. Suddenly so much more pruning becomes feasible.

Shockingly, it didn't cloud up here, but the moon didn't get above the trees, so all I could see was a vaguely red dot between the leaves.

Yeah, ultimately I didn't even take a look because the moon would have been really low here too and behind the trees. So that with the cloud cover made it clear it was not going to work out for me. But there will be others, hopefully at a more clement hour.

Did get a few spots of rain out of it, so I'm not complaining. Some of the bushes starting to feel the drought so I'm probably going to have to step up further with the watering.

He's escalated to the investigation team that, let me guess, is probably the same one that emailed me previously and gave me 5 minutes to respond before closing the case because I couldn't respond that fast. I'll do my best to respond asap this time, but am expecting that they'll probably wait until I'm in the shower this afternoon, or some other inconvenient time, and I'll miss it again.

Heh. I guess even Facebook doesn't know how their software works.

 

[CMBright]

A walk about a block or so to the nearby park/splash pad with the kid. There about an hour, then called Spouse for a ride back. Kid had a great time running around. I had a good time reading.

 

[E.F.B.]

Heh. I guess even Facebook doesn't know how their software works.

Ironic, isn't it? Well, the good news is, they sent me an email at a time when I could actually get to it, and I think it's a different department than the unhelpful one. They say they know the source of the problem, gave me specific instructions, and I had time to respond to it. They wanted either a screenshot or a screen recording of me trying to confirm the connection on both my FB and Insta so I went with the recording so there's no question that I'm doing as instructed (fingers crossed it sent properly!). They also asked for, and I gave, explicit permission to clear the issue manually if it was still happening. Fingers crossed they can actually fix it! I've been fighting so hard for this, it would be so great if they fixed it by my birthday on Thursday. Talk about a great gift!

 

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for trimmed hedges, exhausted kids, and tech support!

And Tuesday winds down, with some sun (finally). It really doesn't feel like Tuesday, dang it... I feel cheated out of a day off, and I can't put my finger on just why.

We cleared the season finales of 911 and Lone Star. The latter actually had more punch than the former, which felt a bit like a softball of a wrap-up. Still decent shows, and both have evidently been renewed.

Anyway, making sure earphones are charged and ready for work tomorrow; it's the new phone's first trip to work. Also should download my Overdrive options, so that's done ahead of time.

Going to have to shop my way home after work. Two stores. because I just plain can't load the frellin' bark at Freddy's into a shopping cart; I need the flat things they have at Home Despot, plus I think they're a bit cheaper anyway. Also need a paving stone for Mom; when we moved the humm feeder due to the collapsing branch, it got moved over a place where we don't have a paving stone.

Wish I could find a way to fit more than six bark bags at a time in the car, but I just can't wrestle that many, especially when I'm going to have groceries in the trunk. (Could get a couple in the trunk otherwise, though getting them back out with out them ripping open might be an Issue.)

--

And winding down the day at last. The sibling was having cell phone Issues. So I tried to help, only to have Issues myself. I think Tracfone was being a jerk... all the sudden it seemed to fix itself, though. Fingers crossed it stays fixed; her tolerance for tech has nosedived over the years (which is sad, because she used to be really into it; part of her overall depression and other Issues that nobody seems willing or able to help her with), and problems only make it worse.

Tuesday, you can't end enough for me...

 

[E.F.B.]

More tech support progress! They emailed this morning and said they cleared the connection issue on their end and told me to resubmit my Instagram account for review for Shopping. I did, and the process looked different in a good way this time. I was able to choose my commerce account to connect to (it hadn't shown me that, before), and choose my catalog. The review process can take anywhere from a few days to 2 weeks, but the customer support team indicated that if I run into any problems in the process, my case is remaining open and I can contact them at any time with updated info/screenshots/screen recordings.

Honestly, I think it helped that I laid it on a bit thick when I initially contacted them, emphasizing my status as a micro business with no employees, therefore it's just me trying to jump through these hoops, therefore taking away from precious work time. I also hinted that I was frustrated enough to delete my FB business page entirely if I couldn't get Insta shopping to work. That would mean that I couldn't buy ads, which would hit them in the wallet. They keep saying in their emails "we really care about your small business's ability to grow!", so it's apparent that my initial message has been passed along to the new team since I haven't said a word about my business being small since then, and I think it got through to them that they need to take this seriously and fix it. Sometimes, making a total nuisance of yourself (while still being patient, kind, and vocally appreciative when they do help) really is the way to get stuff done.


ION: I had an oopsie with our nail polish collection via accidentally dropping one bottle onto the others, and it shattered inside the plastic bin we store them in. I managed to save most of the bottles, pulling them out before they got messy, but about five of them got purple all over. I took them and the bin to the sink, thinking if I could rinse them off before the nail polish dried, they'd be fine. Turns out, water made the nail polish set IMMEDIATELY (go figure...) and my hands ended up coated in purple that I couldn't wash off. Panicked a bit, then remembered we had nail polish remover, so I scrubbed with that until I got the majority off. I'm currently sitting here with all the windows open and fan on to get the fumes out of the house. I've also rubbed a bunch of moisturizer into my hands because the scrubbing got them pretty dried out.

On top of that, mom's not been feeling 100% this morning, so I've been doing a lot for her, plus the house behind us finally sold, to a family with kids and a dog from the sound of it (can't see them through the trees now that the leaves are back), so the lab mix is going bonkers because they've been out there doing yard work and talking to the neighbor closer to them. I let the dog in, I let the dog out, I let the dog in, I let the dog out, I yell at the dog to come in because she's barking too much, I let the dog back out when the neighborse go inside. Not much sitting and getting stuff done for me. Seeing how it's noon already and I've gotten nothing done, I'm about to call this a break day and go catch up on Youtube or something.

In weird news, I started to hear a sound out the front window that sounded just like a guineafowl about to start into its alert noise. (The lab mix heard it too and went outside to bark) Thing is, the neighbor with chickens hasn't had guineafowl for years, and I even went outside and didn't see a thing. Weird.


tl;dr: It's only noon and it's been an interesting day.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for tech support progress!

Boo for nail polish disasters and ghost gunieafowl!

Wednesday afternoon, gusty now and again. Work was massively understaffed, but not much one can do about that. Shopping existed afterwards. We now have six more bags of mulch and one heavy-as-heck paving stone that isn't going anywhere until after the mulch is down, because no way am I moving this sucker twice. Now I'm chilling in the brief window between unloading the car and starting dinner.

--

And it's Wednesday evening. Dinner existed (a lazy dinner of chicken sausage and baked bean and potato salad and potato chips), and I got two bags of mulch spread out back so I could haul the paving stone out of the car (which I swear was heavier than two bags of mulch), so that's done. Unfortunately, that means I probably need to buy at least two more bags of mulch for the other mulching I need/want to do on various pathways. Four, maybe... or six if I want to redo where I park... yes, mulch is my answer to everything in the yard.

Also need to clean off the tarp that I use when I haul trash cans, because it got mulch blood on it (it's the red mulch, so when rainwater gets in the bags, and the bags get into the car, and the tarp under them bunches up... looks kind of like blood. Er, not that I have a lot of experience with blood on blue tarps, mind you...)

 

[MaeZe]

This is so weird. I took the trash out and noticed the mouse in the trap in a bag was showing at the bottom of the can. I know the bag had been closed.

As I was contemplating what was going on, IT MOVED!! Yikes, so creepy. Its head was smashed by the trap. It didn't move when I put it in the baggie or took it out to the trash.

I pondered my options: Getting the long grabby thing I have and taking it to the edge of the yard to look inside and release it, smash it dead as a mercy killing, or ignoring it and just putting the larger trash bag on top of it, let nature take its course.

I went with door number three and put the trash bag on top of it. If the thing's head is indeed smashed, it's not going to live if it's set free. And it has to be still stuck in the trap or it would have been all the way out, the outside can wouldn't be much to get out of, not to mention I didn't know how I could release it from the trap without getting my hand close to it. The larger trash bag on top will give it some warmth as it dies a slow death.

That was a hard choice given I put it in there a couple days ago and it's not dead yet. But I don't think I could have smashed it clean and proper like.

Shit happens and then you die I guess if you're a mouse.

Now I'm going to drink this glass of wine and try to forget I saw it.

 

[Brightdreamer]

I notice you neglected the fourth option - applying garlic, salt, and holy water to stop whatever undead rodent abomination was attempting to resurrect in the trash bag... (Garlic for vampire, salt for zombie, holy water for to cover bases for any general emanation of evil.)

And it's closing in on bed time, because work tomorrow. Going to try to do a little random writing while I keep an ear on Dad's phone conversation (so I can take the phone away when he's done), maybe get a little reading in...

Totally forgot to clean off the tarp before I got dark, so I'll have to do that tomorrow, because trash day is Friday.

Also probably need to pick up upholstery cleaner for the back seat to deal with the mulch blood stain... dang it... (Not sure if I should wait until after I buy more mulch, though, because I will need more mulch.)

 

[Friendly Frog]

It's Thursday here and unless I miscalculated I think I owe EFB a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Have a good one!

Sometimes, making a total nuisance of yourself (while still being patient, kind, and vocally appreciative when they do help) really is the way to get stuff done.

Oof, still, one would think this day and age, the technology would be there that these things wouldn't be so involved and labourious.

Turns out, water made the nail polish set IMMEDIATELY (go figure...) and my hands ended up coated in purple that I couldn't wash off. Panicked a bit, then remembered we had nail polish remover, so I scrubbed with that until I got the majority off. I'm currently sitting here with all the windows open and fan on to get the fumes out of the house. I've also rubbed a bunch of moisturizer into my hands because the scrubbing got them pretty dried out.

Yikes, I hope you saved what you could.

I once had a discussion with someone whether dried-out nailpolish can just be tossed in the bin, I said it was technically a paint-remnant so therefor it should go the recycling center with other hazardous material (as are the local recycling guidelines). The other one scoffed that it was just nailpolish. But dude, it's not exactly watercolours, is it? This stuff sticks. I know the local art academy uses it in plastic etching. It's easy to underestimate nail polish.

... I just realise I bought a new colour last month and I haven't even used it once since because of all the garden work I have been doing.

This is so weird. I took the trash out and noticed the mouse in the trap in a bag was showing at the bottom of the can. I know the bag had been closed.

As I was contemplating what was going on, IT MOVED!! Yikes, so creepy. Its head was smashed by the trap. It didn't move when I put it in the baggie or took it out to the trash.

CONTENT WARNING for following paragraph: BUGS.
If its head's smashed and it's been there for three days, I'm thinking it's not the mouse itself moving but the new tenants. I've seen it before (with the glorious fascination only 8-year olds can muster for such ghoulish things) and if a cadaver is small enough but infested enough with carrion eaters, their movement can move the body. Either way, it's creepy as hell.

 

[zanzjan]

Ok, ew. I was warned, but ew.

I need more coffee.

Happy possible birthday, EFB!

 

[MaeZe]

It's Thursday here and unless I miscalculated I think I owe EFB a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Have a good one! ...

CONTENT WARNING for following paragraph: BUGS.
If its head's smashed and it's been there for three days, I'm thinking it's not the mouse itself moving but the new tenants. I've seen it before (with the glorious fascination only 8-year olds can muster for such ghoulish things) and if a cadaver is small enough but infested enough with carrion eaters, their movement can move the body. Either way, it's creepy as hell.

Happy Birthday, E.F.B.!

Definitely it wasn't bugs. It wasn't just writhing. I'm debating if I should look inside the trash again when I take it out to the curb for tomorrow's pick up. Morbid curiosity since I can't see myself opening up the trap to release it or smooshing it humanely.

[reader beware] I have a creepy bug story. When I was a kid I had a teacher with a really cool shell collection. She said she buries them if they have anything organic in them like the previous resident. She lets the worms, et al take care of the organic matter, no mess, no smell.

At the beach I found a nice clam shell with the dead clam still in it. I buried it in the backyard. Not sure how long I waited, more than one day. But not long enough because when I dug it back up there were large worms squiggling away in it. It was so creepy I tossed the shells and let out a scream. I don't remember any more about eventually retrieving the shells. But to this day those I can still see those creepy wiggling worms in my head.


Continuing the house mice saga, I heard them in the house again and still no more mice in the traps.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for possible birthdays!

Boo for creepy images!

Break time at work, Thursday, and another one bites the dust... newest hire leaves next week.

For those keeping score, that drops us to five on our shift.

And the bare minimum to run the sort is... five.

I so need out of here...

 

[Friendly Frog]

Ok, ew. I was warned, but ew.

I need more coffee.

Sorry! Should I have used more specific warnings?

 

[Brightdreamer]

And it's later the same Thursday.

Sibling got a call to cover a shift at work at the last minute, so I had to swing by a store on the way home to grab something she could eat for her lunch. Assuming she gets a lunch. They're so understaffed she's not sure if she'll even manage bathroom breaks, let alone the lunch break she's supposed to have.

But that means she's not here for dinner, so it's scrounge-your-own/use-up-leftovers night, which is fine by me.

Still feeling unaccountably irritated by the work thing. The manager just had this look like he's sorta given up; there has yet to be a sign of replacing the people who have already left.

 

[E.F.B.]

Thanks for the birthday wishes! It was indeed today, and now I'm officially 30, which is super weird because I totally don't feel it. The day... was honestly slightly meh because mom's been feeling not great lately and dad's been upset about that since we'd all really love the ongoing health drama to be over, and then the beagle peed on the floor. But then we went and picked up chocolate strawberry ice cream cake, I found a dollar bill on the sidewalk, and I got a video game I've been wanting. Then, when we got home and were eating supper, the beagle peed on the floor again because he went to the backdoor once and we didn't see him, therefore pee.

So, honestly not a whole ton in the way of actual celebration when one parent gets wiped out from sitting in the car for a few hours and has to go to bed for a while after eating supper, and the other has to go do a breathing treatment immediately after cutting the cake, and then Skype wasn't working on my aunt's end, so we had to reschedule that. But at least I'm alive and there was cake.

 

[Friendly Frog]

Cake can usually make up for a lot things.

Today is De-Junglefy-Aquarium Day. Yes, I said I wasn't going to anymore, but dad is out of the house so he can't complain about the number of plants I intend to remove. In some tanks the fish can barely turn without brushing against plants and that not really fair to the fish. He had his chance to do it himself but surprise (to no one) he couldn't find the time. Also, what does it take to get rid of the &µ^%$ duckweed?

 

[Brigid Barry]

Sorry! Should I have used more specific warnings?

I use the /spoiler for potentially disturbing imagery. To date I can't recall using it for anything else. People get upset over different things so using the /spoiler gives them the opportunity to screen. As much as I understand rodents are pests, I also don't want any creature to suffer needlessly and that's a thing that I'd rather not read if I can avoid it.

Sorry the birthday thing wasn't great, but at least there was cake. Happy belated birthday, I hope you get to talk with your aunt soon.


Started feeling crappy after work Wednesday and ended up going to bed early. Thursday morning I woke up feeling like a hot bag of wet garbage. I knew I'd be calling out sick anyway but did a home Covid test. "Read after 15 minutes" my ass, that positive line was there in under a minute. It could have been from PT (everyone is supposed to wear a mask but what are they doing before putting the mask on), work (clients aren't asked to wear masks) or my husband or daughter brought it home. Yesterday was horrible - all I wanted to do was sleep but fever dreams keeping me awake, and I haven't eaten much of anything in the last two days.