TPBM 102: One past the Worst Thing in the World

TPBM can't abide rats.

TPBM can't abide rats.

My friends' adorable pet rats are OK. Other rats, not so much.

TPBM sees the bigger rodent picture.

I see rats everywhere!

TPBM has an app for that.

Yes. It's called Facebook. 😄

TPBM has a different app.

I have all sorts of apps. Not all about rats.

The person below me has very few apps.

I've yet to give in and get a "Smart Phone", so I don't have any apps at all.

TPBM has a love/hate relationship with at least one app

Love my Kindle, hate the Kindle app (always trying to sell me something.)

TPBM developed their own app.

// >8 SomeGuyInVirginia: I've disconnected my Kindle, so it's now offline. Some of the audiobooks which I bought are no longer available from Audible, and I don't want them remotely "deleted" from the device; I did pay for them after all! //

It depends on how you define "app."

It's a nuisance call thwarter, and I'm giving it away for free. Here it is: give everyone in your contact list a ring tone, including one for text messages if applicable. Then set your default ringtone to be silence (and don't vibrate.) That's it.

You'll still get nuisance calls, but unless you're looking at the screen when one comes in, you'll not know about it. And, if you do see one, DO NOT swipe to hang up. If there's no indication (to them) that they reached a working number, they'll eventually stop calling. They will occasionally leave a voice mail message, and you can report those if you wish. I've gone from almost 20 nuisance calls per day to not knowing about any of them. In the past six weeks, I've had 2 nuisance voice mail messages.

TPBM has another brilliant (if I say so myself) idea.

If I call a company or government or local authority department, I always preface the call with "This call is being recorded for quality and monitoring purposes". A small 'victory' perhaps, but one that makes me feel a whole lot better. Occasionally I really do record the call if it's something I need a record of.

TPBM will continue the theme of their good ideas.

I have more of a wish than an idea - I would love to play a Diablo II-style Sandman PC game. Imagine a dungeon crawl set in The Dreaming. Side quests to find a soul in hell, or a book in Lucien's library.

I have lots of ideas for things that don't exist.

TPBM has ideas too.

A friend of my parents blows a whistle into the receiver whenever she gets a sales call. She's very satisfied with the results.

TPBM will tell us a secret.

The reason my mother's tuna and macaroni salad tastes better than yours is because when she gave you the recipe, she deliberately left out an ingredient.

TPBM can guess what.

Is it either the tuna or the mac?

The person below me can share a good chili mac recipe.

Yes! Eat at Hill Country Barbecue in D. C. and mix the chili and mac and cheese together. That's as close as I come to cooking.

TPBM can do better.

I love to cook. But now that I am a household of one, it is a little trickier. If I make something that serves six, I'm going to eat it six times. For fussier recipes, cutting it down to one or two portions is usually more trouble than I want to take on.

TPBM has leftovers in the freezer.

No. My leftovers will keep in my refrigerator for no more than two days. If I haven't eaten it by then, it goes out.

TPBM almost always leaves a restaurant with a container full of leftovers.

Sure do, but I take everything with me, even bread.

TPBM forages.

Yes, through the kitchen drawer were I keep old plastic bags and take-out menus.

TPBM can make it thunder and lightning.

That's what she says ...

Actually, I lied. I'm too well grounded to cause that kind of ruckus.

TPBM has flying dreams.

Sometimes, and I love them. I had a flying dream once where I was circling an old house with a mansard roof. That weekend I saw a painting of the same house at a local flea market. Wackiness!

TPBM dreams impossible dreams.

I did, although at the time I didn't know they were impossible. I'm old enough now to know most of my bucket list ain't gonna happen.

TPBM is more cheerful.

Depends on your point of view. I have no bucket list. And I'm still disappointed that I wake up each morning. On the other hand, I have no desire to hasten the inevitable. It's more like I don't give a rat's ass either way.

TPBM is really, actually more cheerful.

Really sorry you feel that way, WHL, but I suppose there are, at least, advantages to lacking a fear of death. Despite three conditions requiring medication and another, at the last count, six other pathological states, mostly age related, I am really, actually more cheerful and wake pleased to find the sun shining on another day. I take no credit for this good fortune. I would be happier if we (English) had a properly functioning competent and responsible government that stopped banging on about 'the will of the people', but there you go, at least we don't have Trump.

I am looking forward to a performance of Wagner's Ring in a month or two

TPBM is looking forward to something different.

I am looking forward you telling us about the Ring cycle performance in a month or two. If you start listening now, it should be over by then.

>24 WholeHouseLibrary: Dood, have you ever tried anti depressants? They really can work wonders.

TPBM loves gospel music.

Um, I like some of it, but can't say I love it. I do enjoy the lively songs when you can't help clapping and stomping along.

TPBM cheered when the Thai soccer team was rescued.

Indeed I was. So good to be happy about something, especially these days.

TPBM feels ____________.

Mostly with my fingers.

TPBM senses ____________.

A disturbance in the Force.

TPBM is adverse.

Most would use the term obtuse, but others would say my tongue is often acute.

TPBM is comfortable with geometry.

Nah, know nothing about it so I'll have to go off at a tangent here.

TPBM knows their sines from their cosines, and why we should even be bothered.

Not a clue, and not interested enough to do a web search.

TPBM still has contact with high school friends.

Yes, through that imperfect communication device, Facebook. My 50th high school reunion is next year, but since I haven't been to any of the other ones and it will be a couple of thousand miles from where I live, I don't think I'll go. A fixed income can't fix everything.

TPBM reunites. Or fixes. Whatever.

actually, I'm reuniting with my childhood best friend tomorrow for the first time in twenty years. A mutual friend passed away recently, so it's time to connect and chat.

TPBM also fixes whatever.

Yes -- " whatever" looks easy to fix.

TPBM knows how to fix an ailing (computer) mouse.

Same as you do for a sock with a hole in it- get a new one.

TPBM makes do, repairs, and patches.

That's how I was brought up. I have a garage full of tools and bits and pieces to fix things and it goes against the grain to bin broken stuff. I admit that iPads and the like have me beat though. And I do throw away holey socks.

TPBM travels light

I did this trip. I saw a couple of interesting books in Kindle Unlimited so I took the 30 day trial and read some of them. It's a lot lighter than the books and free too!

I just cancelled the trial.

TPBM loves media mail after breaking a handle on the suitcase on the first book trip and not knowing about media mail.

I've never used media mail but it sounds useful.

TPBM will tell us about their first paying job.

I sold magazines over the phone. It was kind of a rip-off, but what did I know, I was 16. I remember reciting the memorized script to my dad and he asking me, "Don't you feel guilty?" In my defense, I don't remember being very good at it.

TPBM has a skeleton in their career closet.

Not that I'm going to mention here! My first paying job was as a Master carpenter's assistant's assistant. I spent one summer building a rich man's house that was designed to look like a simple, rustic, 10,000 square foot cabin. I loved it. I wasn't very good but I did work hard and, at the end, I earned the high praise of 'Well, at least you're not the idiot I thought.'

TPBM has another tale to tell.

I harvested peas in Delaware one summer for the Green Giant. Thus, I take it seriously when someone blesses my 'lil pea-pickin' heart.'

TPBM thinks TPAM is not the idiot they thought; and will share the rest of that cogitation.

Well, in his defense, Larry's not like the other children. Clearly a witty and very interesting and nice fellow, but definitely not someone I'd expect to tolerate a lot of bureaucracy. Okay, so maybe my first statement is off he mark by several orders of magnitude.

My very first (and second) job(s) was/were in the produce section of a grocery store (different ones.) My favorite job was one I picked up shortly after getting out of the hospital after my motorcycle accident. I couldn't go back to my job at the foundry, because I couldn't walk. Through a mutual friend, I was introduced to an organ builder who needed a part-time assistant, and initially, it required a lot of sitting. So, I would wire up consoles and relay boards, and had set days off for my physical therapy. Eventually, I could "walk" without help, and I was able to help with other tasks: crawl around the pipes replacing leather seats, tuning, voicing pipes, repairing bellows... Absolutely my favorite job. Didn't pay near enough, but I loved the work.

TPBM has had an extraordinary job (or possibly boss) at some time in his/her life.

//Aw, bless both your lil pea-pickin' hearts. Your bribe tip love offering is in the mail.//

Yes, I've had both extraordinary jobs and bosses. There are really exceptional people out there.

TPBM thought they would have to break up a fight during dinner.

Sort of. If I eat in the kitchen I can see my bird feeder through the sliding glass door and while I was eating I watched a black squirrel and a grey squirrel chase each other up and down the branches of the tree, not allowing either one to get into the feeder.

TPBM still wears a watch.

Not in about twenty years. There are clocks on damn near everything, so I didn't see the need for one anymore.

That being said, I spent days searching for a widget that 1) displayed seconds; and 2) also displayed the date and day; and 3) didn't take up a whole lot of screen space. After eliminating hundreds, and downloaded and tested maybe twenty, I found only one that fit that criteria. If the display was somewhat larger, I'd be completely satisfied, but this will suffice.

TPBM is willing to pay more for quality.

I'm willing, but often not able.

TPBM pays without question.

Question everything. Why, you may well ask? In my case, I have limited room. Sure, the mid-century nod credenza would have a way cool tee-bee stand, but where would I put it? And I don't have a tee-bee. So that's one thing down.

TPBM is satisfied.

Only when the work day is done and I'm sitting with a good book and a glass of wine in hand.

TPBM is humble.

I'm the most humble person in the entire world and have won many awards for it, all of which were my due, because of the very humblitude I express 24/7. People have tried to be as humble as me, but naturally they failed.

TPBM is irritable.

Yes. I'm still jet-lagging after being back home since Friday. It was only a two-hour time difference, but blech.

TPBM is never bothered by jet-lag.

I'll let you know tomorrow, as I'm crossing time zones tonight.

TPBM is bothered.

More bewildered than bothered - and certainly not bewitched. I was brought up to believe that those who aspired to government were rational, thoughtful people who considered the well-being of their country their most important responsibility. Nowadays that ain't necessarily so.

TPBM couldn't - or maybe could - care less.

I care, but feel helpless when it comes to the current insane political climate. I don't know if a return to some kind of normalcy is possible.

TPBM has the answers.

Pray we don't have WWIII and pray that Russia doesn't annex us in the short term, vote Republicans out at the midterms, vote the bloviating orange gasbag out in 2020. Pray that sane voices in Europe keep the white supremacists there in check.

Who, me, a yellow dog Democrat?

TPBM knows what a yellow dog Democrat is.

I didn't know before, but based on your description of the doctrine, apparently I am one now. I have voted both parties at different times, depending on what candidates are on offer, but I think we deserve better candidates than what we've been getting.

TPBM knows it's a jungle out there and can give an example.

Congress, red in tooth and claw.

TPBM seeks redress from wrongs.

From LT (if it IS lts fault and not my own systemʻs), in order to get
my "Your Books" function put back in the order that I had it in: Alphabetical by title. It is putting my
"Your Books" -- and everybody elseʻs, it seems,
in a weird order by "date of accession"that shows no column at all for "Author"?!

TPBM has recently seen something weird about LTʻs presentations (and perhaps knows what has gone wrong with mine!)

//Don't know why it happened but all you have to do to get an alphabetical sort by title is to click on the 'Title' column heading.//

Sorry >59 rolandperkins: I can't help and I haven't noticed anything weird. Well, at least not on LT.

TPBM thinks a conspiracy is in progress.

There must be, otherwise how would a whole gang of both deerflies and mosquitoes know to wait outside my front door to swarm me together?

TPBM has a different plague.

I put conspiracy in the bit bucket to avoid looking at any stories about it. . . I have also almost completely stopped listening/reading news as I can't tell the difference between "conspiracy", "fake news", "opinion", "propaganda" and all the rest of the related questionable topics of this ilk.

TPBM ignores ALL this as the expression about history is " what goes around comes around!"

Oh well. . . he sighs in frustration.

edited to modify the TPBM paragraph

And there is no new thing under the sun.

TPBM counts on Karma.

one two three four five six seven fate ...

TPBM smiles.

:)

TPBM has a hearty laugh.

// >59 rolandperkins: I've noticed lots of Gateway Timeouts lately, and touchstones not working for books I know are there. //

I'm sure all of these Gateway Timeouts are my fault, since I've been moving thousands of books around in the physical world. Sorry!

TPBM is wondering whether Frederik Pohl has anything to do with it?

// >68 bnielsen: I'll just have to peddle faster on the treadmill attached to one of the servers. . believe that and I know a bridge that is for sale - someone has been trying to sell it for over 100 years!!//

I didn't know who Frederik Pohl was so I searched him online and I believe he could be responsible for the shenanigans.

TPBM is up to no good.

How do you know? I'm sure I switched my webcam off.

TPBM believes that the NSA / GCHQ will know if they type "Osama bin Laden" (even on LibraryThing)

// >71 abbottthomas: one word about your webcam. . . tape! Your daily tip from the Electronic Luddite.//

I'm fairly sure they, on a purely electronic level, probably do. On the other hand, it will likely be dismissed and ignored. As a copyeditor, I do searches on all sorts of questionable topics. So far, no one's come knocking. But this may set off alarms:

Louisa May Alcott

Or maybe it won't.

TPBM doesn't lose a whole lot of seep over things like that.

I'm not sure I want to discuss my seepage (of any kind) on this forum.

TPBM has made embarrassing typos...

Numerous times. Most often the most common one you can probably think of.

TPBM is keeping cool.

Trying to. At least I work in an air conditioned office these days. Very unlike the days I worked for a geologist in the field in any and all types of weather.

>71 abbottthomas: Ha. You can't hide in this day and age!

TPBM bought a lottery ticket for tonight.

I did! And somebody in San Jose, California won. San Jose, those guys are already all millionaires!

TPBM looks at the lottery as the two dollar cost of a grand dream, but still secretly hopes to win.

Only when I romanticize the thought. Last year, one of my sisters shared a winning million-dollar lottery ticket with three of her friends. Divide by four and take out the taxes, and she netted maybe twice her normal income. If she had been a stock broker, that'd be a large pile of money, but she's a dog groomer. Do the math. Depending on where you live, you end up with about 60% of the winnings.

TPBM runs number sequences in his/her head.

1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, 312211, ...

But I'm not sure I know how to buy a lottery ticket. I look at it like a two dollar cost.

TPBM gives luck a chance.

Oh yes, too much of what I've seen in life has been up to luck to disregard it. Of course, I live within walking distance of a large casino and the last time I went was Christmas 2016...

//>79 bnielsen: I can help. Send me $1,000 and I'll buy your lottery tickets for you and will let you know when you win something. No problem.//

TPBM keeps it in the bank.

I certainly wasn't going to leave it in the stock market.

TPBM is clever with finances.

If I were, I would have never married. ThiMs stole and hid money from me during the almost 25 years we were married, then made sure that I was going to have the most expensive divorce possible. MrsHouseLibrary likes expensive getaways and planned cruises without regard for our finances. It took her just several months to squander her substantial (in my opinion) inheritance. Now, it'll take nine months to pay off her medical out-of-pocket expenses. My mother will "shed her earthly coil" probably in the next month or so. She wanted me to visit her before then, so my oldest brother paid my airfare because I couldn't. It was a nice visit, all factors considered.

So, I guess not.

TPBM finds joy in the little things.

The little things, the simple things, simple pleasures are best. After a boat load of cash, dating a supermodel, crushing mine enemies and hearing the lamentations of their women.

TPBM give us their own trivial joys, harmless, convivial joys.

I'm particularly fond of that whole 'crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you, and hearing the lamentations of their women' thing. But that's me, I'm a people person.

TPBM is more of a dromedary person.

I hear the milk is good, but I consume too much dairy as it is.

TPBM is over the hump.

Considering work a hump, yes, I'm over it. Being retired is the cat’s pajamas, the bee’s knees, the eel’s hips, the monkey’s eyebrows, the sardine’s whiskers, the gnat’s whistle. I do not miss working at all.

TPBM has another expression for being retired.

The best part about being retired is Monday morning (for those of us that worked a "normal 5 day week".

TPBM bought a calendar since this retired person never does the same thing on the same day and the memory can't keep things straight (that's me, not TPBM).

I have a calendar app on the home screen of my smart phone, but since I don't use my phone much, it's not a perfect system. Thinking of getting one of those weekly calendar whiteboards for the fridge so I can have appointments in my face regularly. As it is, I have a small whiteboard where I write what fresh vegetables are in the fridge so I remember to use them.

//Retirement is the best thing that ever happened to me. Now I finally know what I wanted to be when I grew up//

TPBM mostly plays games on their phone, not that I'd be talking about myself or anything.

No, I really use my phone as a home office and utilize a wide range of functions (including games). If I had to choose between a phone or a laptop, I'd choose the phone.

TPBM has a favorite game app (mine would be Lyne).

I have several games on my tablet that I visit regularly, but the one I spend the most time on is Jeopardy.

The others are mostly crosswords, music trivia, and puzzle games.

//aaaand now I'm going to have to check out Lyne :)//

TPBM prefers jigsaw puzzles.

As a phone app, not so much. But the low-tech kind, there's no such thing as too many pieces -- for me, at least. MrsHouseLibrary prefers ones that have just a couple hundred pieces. I hope it's a side effect of her chemo treatments. If so, it should clear up in about a year, as she's on a fortnightly maintenance schedule of "maintenance" and hopefully will remain there for a very long time. The last four puzzles I've done has been solo efforts. She gets them out, but doesn't attempt to put it together. I'm hoping to do a 10,000-piece puzzle some day (not a bucket-list item for me, though).

After getting the border done and certain unique features mostly solved, TPBM sorts the rest of the jigsaw pieces according to their shapes.

Yes, the border is a must! And distinctive features, as you say. But after that, it's often just trial and error, especially pesky areas like sky. By the way, I use a computer game jigsaw, where I can set the number of pieces, and variability of shape. There's also an option to have 'random orientation' as in real life, but (shudder) that's one option I don't choose - my one concession to an easy jigsaw life is to have all the pieces the right way up to start with; it's still a challenge!

TPBM connects coloured dots, or plays solitaire, or something else they will tell us about.

I have a version of the spider solitaire, written i TCL/TK. It has a couple of funny bugs, that I've looked for in the tiny, tiny source file (less than 90 K). And the 90 K include the graphics of the solitaire cards! I haven't found the error, so maybe it is in some of the library routines? Anyway, because of the bugs I can almost always solve the solitaire, but not easily, so it is an amusing way to spend half an hour once in a while.

TPBM also enjoys exploring harmless bugs (software or RL)

It's that time of year where I hear people screech "oh my what the heck is that thing?" and it's ALWAYS a dobson fly.



We don't have a lot of very large bugs here in New England, so these are a shock to some people.

TPBM has bigger bugs.

No! That! Right there! That's why I like to be surrounded by asphalt and concrete! I'd rather have muggers and roaches than those damn bugs! That is some Hieronymus Bosch stuff!

TPBM likes everything to be fluffy.

Pillows and cushions, sure; MrsHouseLibrary, you betcha!; sandwich bread ... that depends on whether it's the bread itself or mold. Roast beef certainly should not be fluffy.

TPBM likes to rough it.

Yes, I do. But I always bring my two particularly favorite pillows. Because a good sleep is primary.

TPBM has a different primary.

Well, two is the only even primary number, so that makes it different than all the rest.

I've created a spreadsheet that helps me add to its own list of primary numbers. There's no formula that will determine them for you, but this will suffice. If you ever want to know whether a number is a prime, just ask me.

TPBM doesn't consider that to be too geeky a thing to offer.

Nope, although it's beyond my ken, I do not think it's too geeky or too anything else.

TPBM stopped to smell the roses and got sidetracked.

Not recently. I need to do that more often.

TPBM gets sidetracked because they forget what they walked into a room to do.

All the time. I'll even walk into the pantry and forget what I was looking for. As my late MiL said, "I miss my mind."

TPBM knows there's something they've forgotten, but so far can't remember what it was.

Thanks for reminding me!

TPBM thinks that all learning is remembering.

I've been told that. Which means I'm in serious unlearning mode these days.

I went looking for a link to an article about memory and forgetting which I am sure I posted to FB, but such a critter does not even exist in the browser history.

TPBM is sure about some other unverifiable thing.

You mean like that $100 SGiV still owes me? Absolutely!

But I have as much chance of getting it as I do of collecting the judgement against ThiMs or the back child support she owes me. That judgement is growing at 10% per year, so she now owes 7x it's original value. I really could make good use of use of that money now, but looking at it realistically, I'll never be able to collect it. Seven times zero is still zero.

TPBM knows I was only joking about the hundred dollars, right? It's really five hundred.

No, I donʻt try to figure whether a
casual remark is said seriously or in jest.

TPBM was 21 years old before she/he ever even SAW a $100 dollar bill (or its non-American equivalent).

I'm not sure I've EVER seen a £100 note! I've seen a few £50 notes but they're a PITA to spend, no-one has change.

TPBM will tell us what their weekly income was/is at age 21.

I don't remember weekly, but it was about $5000/yr. Yes, no extra zeros or commas, five grand a year. Give or take. I remember hoping a raise would bring me up to $6K, but I had to change jobs before that happened. So, maybe $100/wk, before payroll deductions?

TPBM can guess the year.

How about between 1969 and 1971. Am I close?

Well 1968 and 1969 I was driving an ice cream truck for 6 days/week in the summer between college years and making $150/wk.

Once I graduated, with a minor diversion of to the US Army for 9 or 10 weeks (erroneous induction due to a bad back) I started messing with computers in 1970 for the grand sum of $5500/year and I had to work 6 days/week to get that. I was 23 then. That works out to $105/week more or less. Should have kept pushing ice cream.

TPBM also had that same situation . . . at least no college loans!!

///>108 ulmannc: I was 21 in '72, so pretty close!///

Quite similar. While at school, aged 17, I worked a manual local Council job in the summer holiday and earned £22 a week. The next year, having left school, I worked the summer in a hotel where I earned £12 a week for 54 hours. (Though I did get a free lunch).

TPBM has a similar tale to tell.

My first paying job was as a grill cook in a local diner. I think I got paid around $2.90-$3.00/hour. It was fast paced, hotter than hell in the summer and I had to walk about a mile to work at 5:30 in the morning and walk home smelling like a giant french fry. Ah, the good old days.

TPBM didn't end up where they thought they would.

Well, as a child I didnʻt THINK I would end up as a Hawaiʻi resident* but I did HOPe so. But at age 43 I did become, and still am a Hawaiʻi resident! By that time my early hopes were forgotten, but I have since recalled them.

TPBM has had the experience of unexpectedly living in a place she/he
once hoped for.

*My wonderful wife, Leialoha, is both a Hawaiian and a Hawai'i resident, and my two sons are part-Hawaiian Iʻm only a resident.

In one respect, yes. I've got a nice, big, real fireplace. There's not much opportunity to use it, though, because I'm in central Texas.

Now, other things I imagined I'd have in a house (just never tried for) are: a hand-cranked telephone, a hand-cranked phonograph, and a grandfather's clock. And, I've got them by the luck of the draw. When WholeHouseParents-in-Law died, their belongings were distributed among the three daughters by lottery, and MrsHouseLibrary got those three items, other mementos, and more than half of her father's books.

The fact that they happened to have these items was not a factor in my reasoning to ask MrsHouseLibrary me. Seriously, what does reason have to do with true love?

TPBM knows.

I do. Nothing!

TPBM begs to differ.

I never "beg" to differ; I just go right ahead and differ.

TPBM would rather have a post-declaration argument than a casual "Right-you are!"

No! If the other person is right I'll concede. Or at least I'm sure I would if I were ever wrong.

TPBM has on their bossy pants.

No, I do better with Glossy Rants.

TPBM can lower a subject by raising it.

Maybe. But I donʻt remember anyone ever grieving "How did we get onto this topic?"

TPBM knows affable ways of changing a conversation topic.

Ooh, is that your cat/dog/bird? How cute!

TPBM agrees.

Come on, you know I would never utter those words.

TPBM much prefers to see animals in their natural settings, which clearly, eliminates "indoors" as their environment.

Lions and tigers and bears, yes. And all birds. As I've gotten older, my opposition to zoos and animals in circuses has become almost absolute. Still, I'd take a bullet for Parker, that furry little poophead, and wouldn't give him up come hell or high water. I know he's better off with me than on his own and I know also that I'm better off with him, as well. Lovers come and go, but me and Da Floof! are here to stay.

TPBM is allergic.

Maybe, but not TO anything that Iʻm clearly aware of at present.

TPBM has been medically cured of an allergy.

Newp, and with all the rain I've had to take a generic claratin every day this summer.

TPBM is homeopathic.

No! I'm suspious as to where they get the "pure water" they use.

TPBM read >112 rolandperkins: and was appalled to learn that hopes can be recalled (like a Lexus car with a faulty speeder).

I certainly was appalled! What is this world coming to?

TPBM attended a family reunion this summer?

I attended a family wedding, but most family there were from my brother-in-law's side of the family, as he had a lot of brothers and sisters who all had kids. On my side, only my baby sister (mother of the groom) and I had kids, and my kid is on the other side of the country (so am I, but I can decide to travel without asking for vacation time). A week after I left town, there was a family reunion for my cousins and the two surviving aunts (including my mother), but I hadn't known the date when I booked my tickets. I have a whole lot of cousins, but the general feeling is the reunion is really for the aunts. When they pass, no more summer reunion picnics. Because of where I live I'll probably not see most of my cousins again, only the ones who will be able to make it to my mother's funeral. She's 95 and frail (if feisty) so that's gonna happen probably sooner than later. When I left to fly home, Mom said, "I'll probably never see you again."

TPBM has more cheerful musings.

Wish I did. Two weeks ago, I had to fly to Florida to say goodbye to my mother. Just diagnosed with lung cancer, too far along to do anything about. And, she's good with that prognosis. At 94, feisty understates her energy level, but now it comes in phases. And due to the cost of keeping MrsHouseLibrary healthy, my oldest brother paid for my plane ticket and put me up at his house. Hard times, hard times, come again no more.

TPBM has better news.

not much better, but better than that, at least.

This past weekend was our annual family voyage up to my uncle's cabin in the Great North Woods of NH. This year marks the 25th year in a row, but due to some health issues among various family members it might be our last. We had fun anyway, as always, and my cousin has a new baby this year so life goes on.

TPBM is hanging in there.

Trying to. So far today, it's been a struggle.

TPBM will post something more upbeat.

TPBM will post something else.

TPBM has another.

I'm not good with the pictures, sorry. But my drawn-out bathroom remodel is coming to close. We have a toilet again! Wednesday we'll have a second toilet, and a shower! No more showering at the gym!

TPBM knows better than to take on DIY projects.

Beyond buying sturdier shelf pins because too many books on a shelf collapse the shelf, I do know better. Of course finding the money to hire the folks to do the work is another matter.

TPBM wishes that the excessive rain in their part of the world would cease so that the grass would stunt.

YES! My boss hasn't mowed the lawn at work in 6 weeks, and cites the frequent rain as the excuse cause.

I've taken to singing the theme song to the show "Monk" in an effort to subliminally encourage the lawn mowing.

"It's a jungle out there.
Disorder and confusion everywhere.
No one seems to care, but I do...
Hey! Who's in charge here?"

TPBM wants more rain.

Since my state is galloping back to drought status and I have barely left the building because of the amount of wildfire smoke in the air (the wood ash on my car looks like we've had a sprinkling of snow), yeah, I could go for a few serious downpours around here. Or even half an inch, which is what's normal for the month of July but we only got .09 inch. Nothing at all so far this month. In an average year we only get 20" of rain, but I suspect the last five years will start pushing that average down.

TPBM gets 20" of something sometimes.

I could say so many rude things here, but I'll refrain.

20" is the optimum length for wood in my fireplace. It's been no cooler the the high 90s in central Texas for ... seems like forever. Now that I've got a break from editing books, I've been splitting firewood from a couple of dead/diseased oak and elm trees from a couple of years ago. Give them a year or two in this climate, and it takes just a couple of swings of a 20-lb sledgehammer onto a splitting grenade to reduce a 16" diameter tree trunk to several very nice pieces of firewood. At my age, it takes only 3 swings to drive home the fact I'm too old and out of shape to be doing that work in this heat. Three swings, and I rest inside for a good half hour before another whack at it.

TPBM knows better.

Yeah, but I regret nothing!

TPBM counts the golden hours.

Are the golden hours in the twilight years?

TPBM is in their prime.

31 is a prime number, so yes!

TPBM celebrated an even-number year recently.

Yep, 66. But in a few months I'll be just as odd as ever.

TPBM numeroligizes.

Not me. I'm too grounded in reality.

But, I've got numbers running in my head that fill up the idle moments, except for when I have an ear worm.

TPBM diesn't have time for thumb twiddling.

Times, yes, but I've found that it's really unhealthy for me.

TPBM has change for a fiver.

I'd have to break open my piggy bank because I rarely keep cash around. Want quarters?

TPBM tries to use up their change when they make purchases in cash.

Yes, I don't know why but for some reason it's very satisfying to give exact change.

TPBM rarely uses cash these days.

Less than I used to, certainly. Contactless is just too easy. I sometimes worry that everything I do is noted in a data bank and might be used against me.

TPBM doesn't write cheques anymore (checks, that is!)

My truncated purchases are more likely to be Debit Card or Cash than they were a few months ago.

TPBM can remember when banks gave interest on a CHECKING account.

Mine still does, and I despise it. It always trips me up in reconciliation. Not worth the few pennies.

TPBM is a gatherer.

Of bills, it seems. Otherwise, we're downsizing lots of things now. Our windowsills were so cluttered with knickknacks (junk, in my opinion), we couldn't close the blinds anywhere in the house. So, I took a picture from the street while MrsHouseLibrary was changing her clothes. Goodwill has LOTS of our junk now. We're also down to about 1,500 books.

Segue: MrsHouseLibrary was in remission a whole two months this time; just spent three days in the hospital, and will be receiving an aggressive radiation treatment along with a new round of chemo.

TPBM is a fairly decent chess player.

Well, not bad ... but I'm peerless at backwards Cribbage.

TPBM is a card ...

Queen of Hearts (in my dreams). Actually, more like the Joker, in a non-Batman sense you understand.

TPBM, if they could choose one playing card to be, would be the...

Remembering Lonnie Donegan, the Jack of Diamonds - a hard card to find.

TPBM played in a skiffle band.

// Ah, leapfrogged. I'll just pass then.

Not a band, but I'm a country boy and made do with what's at hand.

TPBM graced Carnegie Hall.

No, but I've been to the Carnegie Museum.

TPBM enjoys visiting museums.

Used to, but havenʻt kept up with it in my later years (Iʻm 87). Favorites are the Fogg Museum (Harvard), Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Frick and Athensʻs Byzantine Museum.

In a museum, TPBM sticks mainly to American and Western European art.

No. There's not much of those genres in the the Museum of Mortuary Arts (Houston) or the Printing Museum (also Houston). Waco has the Dr. Pepper Museum ... no art there, I'm told.

In art, I am especially fond of the Hudson River School style, plus the bookmarks MrsHouseLibrary does under the influence of chemo drugs.
I have no capacity for drawing anything that looks like something.

TPBM has wanted to be a graphic artist.

Not since I submitted a pencil sketch to an advert at the back of a magazine at age 12. A salesman appeared at our door and tried to sell my parents on a by-mail art school headed by Bernie Van Gohe and Marvin Rockwell.

TPBM has had their portrait painted.

Yep, about 10 years ago. Then I thought 'what in the hell am I going to do with this'. It's in storage.

TPBM has been involved in a museum heist.

Acquitted!

TPBM witnessed a historical event.

In lieu of that, TPBM knows the rule of grammar regarding the article preceding words that begin with h.

Not only witnessed, but participated in! I'm one of the voices heard on Chuck Berry's "My Ding-a-Ling". Of course, whether this is a historic event could be a debate that runs and runs..

To answer the other question, putting "an" in front of words like 'historic' and 'hysteric' is (in my opinion) pretentious, and also a very widespread misunderstanding of how that particular combination arose and why it should no longer apply...

TPBM went to a famous gig..

The first two performances of the Beatles' final tour. Got our picture in the paper, above the fold. John Lennon apologizing for saying "We're more popular than Jesus" was below the fold.

Also, the concert at Milwaukee's Summerfest when George Carlin did "The seven words you never hear on television" and was arrested as he stepped off the stage.

TPBM understands either performance or the fold.

Yepper. I saw Carlin in Las Vegas just before he died and he was a bitter crank. I liked him better when he was drinking. I also saw Bowie right before he had a heart attack that killed him. I should probably stop going to concerts. My god, Bowie's warmth came through even in an arena.

//>162 PhaedraB: That is very, very cool.//

TPBM has a secret identity.

Well not now! You blew my cover. I suppose I'll have to go into the witness protection program again.

TPBM works for the government.

Used to: first the City and County of Honolulu government (Reference Librarian); then, after 6 years of teaching, administration, and library directing in Tonga, for the State of Hawaiʻi government (first, childrenʻs librarian then
Reference Libraian in the Main (Public) Libraryʻs Language, Literature and History section.

TPBM has done at least one of the following kinds of library work:
Public Services
Reference
Cataloging
Childrensʻ Service
Computer Applications

When I was substitute teaching I was the librarian for a day and got to do a little of most of those things. Mostly I was cataloging all day. It was much better than teaching an emotional support class!

TPBM works/worked in a school system.

Nope, but my Mom was a substitute teacher.

TPBM was an Honors student.

Had I bothered to apply myself at all, perhaps I could have been. All through my school years, I steadfastly refused to do homework, reports, and the like, but always tested well. I had other interests to pursue.

Can't say I'm proud of myself for that, but I've done all right for myself.

TPBM is/was a polymath.

No, I shyed away from Math/Sciences in high school, and became a Classics (Greco-Roman) major in college. But, post-college, I expanded out into Social Sciences/History; in later decades Iʻve tried some scientific reading; the current one is Stephen Hawkingʻs "A Briefer History of Time"

TPBM understands Hawkingʻs
view of time.

In theory, yes.

TPBM just wants the facts.

That's me! I'm very Friday-esque about receiving information.

TPBM groks that reference.

We're old, aren't we.

TPBM can explain.

Dragnet, of course. Detective Joe Friday.

TPBM can explain 'groks'.

It was introduced in Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, supposedly a Martian word meaning profoundly understanding something on an almost metaphysical level.

TPBM knows what religion was based on Stranger in a Strange Land. May you never thirst.

I donʻt know: Having read of
Heinleinʻs being anti religionist--(just read of it, not discovered it in his writings) I took a dislike to him, and he landed deep in my TBR pile; I still INTEND to read a promising Heinlein title.) So, as yet I know nothing about his vocabulary and nomenclature.

I'm afraid I don't, despite having a great regard for Heinlein (as a writer he was in a different league - nay, a different PLANET! - to Asimov). Read "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" to see how Heinlein, writing of a moon-based human culture of the mid-21st Century, got a convincingly alien-yet-familiar feel to the near future, unlike Asimov's "Foundation" series which simply transplanted early 50s America into a galactic context supposedly thousands of years in the future.

TPBM can answer Phaedra's question.

yeah, the Church of All Worlds folks have been a strong underground presence for quite some time, and their ranks are still growing as far as I know.

TPBM is grounded.

Hello, charmed. I don't believe we've met.

TPBM is at loose ends

Well, sort of. Trying to start a new book, going out to lunch with the President of the Friends of the Library and then both of us meeting for our annual review meeting with the Friends of the Library's investment broker in a couple of hours. I don't want to start too much else, as I'm just beginning to enjoy some serious alone time for the first time since about June 20th.

TPBM is an introvert and needs alone time to charge their batteries, so to speak.

Yes, but you're never alone when you're schizophrenic.

And there's no time to charge the batteries. MrsHouseLibrary is back to needing 24x7 care, and in a few days, I have to go back to Florida to attend my mother's funeral. Too much to arrange and take care of in the interim.

TPBM meditates.

I do, but seemingly the practice is of less and less quality as years go by, which is not what I expected.

TPBM expects the Spanish Inquisition..

I always expect it, except I expect it in regards to work, not religion.

TPBM expected more during a recent trip.

Well, I haven't been on a trip recently but, I try not to have expectations. That usually leads to disappointment.

TPBM will be eating leftovers for lunch today.

Nyet! I probably won't eat lunch, but dinner will be awesome. Last night I had cranberry and pecan chicken sliders. When I cook for just me, I have peanut butter and yoghurt.

TPBM sticks to the appetizers when they eat in a restaurant.

Often, because the portions in American restaurants are too large for me.

TPBM likes 'em big.

And how!

TPBM knows where the abbott has got up to.

If you mean an LT member, I donʻt. If you mean a Sir Walter Scott novel, large libraries would still have it --possibly moldering on the shelf.

TPBM has read at least one of the following:

Guy Mannering
The Abbot
Peveril of the Peek
Ivanhoe
The Talisman
( all by Sir W S)

Ivanhoe, for sure.

TPBM remembers the Ivanhoe comic strip.

No: i used to scan (rarely read all the way through) Classics Comics, but donʻt recall an "Ivanhoe" (Read it from cover to cover in the 9th grade.)

TPBM thinks Classics Comics should never have tried to do an "Iliad".

Eh, I don't think they should have done any. Although at least the story made it into communities that probably would have given the books a pass.

TPBM reads the Torah in Hebrew.

The little Hebrew I know is self-taught; never had a course in it; so: only a few selections from the Torah.ʻʻ

TPBM owns Bibles in at least 3 languages.

Nope. I've got two bibles. One was a gift from my parents to me and my first wife. It was their last-ditch effort to save our heathen souls. I use it as a reference book when I edit books and someone makes a reference to a passage. The is a copy of the Jeffersonian bible (all the good stuff, and none of the magic or nonsense.)

I'm an atheist; no offense was intended to those who feel otherwise.

TPBM is a polyglot.

Is that the same thing as a tadpole?

>192 WholeHouseLibrary: I've got a few Bibles, but never saw the need to read anything other than the King James version. So very beautiful.

TPBM is a polygamist.

Polyandrous. Currently unattached, though.

TPBM has thoughts.

My waking hours are full of them.

TPBM sleeps like a baby.

Yeah - tossing and turning, poohing into my nappy, waking up frequently and bellowing for mummy...

TPBM sleeps like a cat.

yep, taking up more room in the bed than should be physically possible.

also some of these:
Cat Laws of Physics

TPBM sleeps like a log.

I did last night and I did not want to get up this morning! Monday:(

//>197 Darth-Heather: loved the cat laws//

TPBM eats like a bird.

More like a baby bird. Yesterday I bought chocolate crispy rice cereal and ate a bowlful with gusto. And sliced bananas.

//>197 Darth-Heather: I disagree with the cat law of motion as it omits two sub laws: 1) if you are a cat, the floor is always lava; 2) the shortest distance between two points will always require walking across a human and stepping upon some part of the human body that hurts the particular human upon which the cat steps.//

TPBM sees poetry in motion.

Nope, but maybe poetry in just sitting in a box?

TPBM laughed at the joke.

Yes I did.

TPBM is craving buttery popcorn.

Why did you say that? I went and popped some and am eating it now. I prefer just plain with a dash of salt.

TPBM has something interesting to put on popcorn.

No, I like it simple, as well.

TPBM likes it complicated.

yeah, I have a lot of different flavor combos for popcorn. My current favorite is to pop it in a paper bag with some rosemary-infused olive oil, then hit it with a dash of Krazy Mixed Up Salt.

Krazy Mixed Up Salt

TPBM prefers pretzels.

Milk or dark-covered pretzels. Or Pretzel Goldfish in home-made Chex Mix.

TPBM makes something from scratch that most people buy already prepared.

Mayonnaise. I admit there is usually a jar of Hellmann's in the fridge but I do enjoy making my own. Calming.

TPBM attends adult education classes.

No, but I should be eligible for free tuition at a college nearby in two years time. Can't wait! (Wait; is that considered adult?)

TPBM has opinions.

Maybe I do; maybe I don't. What's it to ya?

TPBM responds in kind when confronted.

yes, I cut through all the preliminary stuff and jump right to Force Choke.



TPBM avoids confrontation.

Of course I do! Are you trying to suggest I don't? Who are you to insinuate such a thing, huh? Come round here and say that to my face if you have the guts.

TPBM is a pacifist (NOT a "passive-ist")

On a personal level, always, at a national level, not necessarily; the last 'justifiable' war for the US, IMO, was the Korean War.

TPBM has had a productive summer vegetable garden.

The selection at my local grocery store has been above average. I'll go and pick up some honey crisp apples and kale to offset a nice ham, and I'll pay in hard-earned cash dollars so that I can feel a little of what the early settlers must have felt.

TPBM spoons their own yarn.

No, I spoon with MrsHouseLibrary.

TPBM forks over the paycheck.

"Fikes", as per Victor.

TPBM can't stand sitting ...

I sit too much.

TPBM runs.

Sometimes it's the runs,
Sometimes it's the sits.

What a world

TPBM knows how to spell relief ...

R-O-L-A-I-D-S of course.

TPBM remembers Speedy from TV commercials and the product.

Alka Seltzer of course, because sometimes you ate the whole thing.

TPBM is/was a Pepper.

I am. It's the only dark cola I like although I've gone the diet DP in the last several years and only one about every 2-3 weeks.

TPBM overcame their soda addiction a long time ago.

I keep making rules about it, first no artificial sweeteners, then no HFCS. For awhile that meant only one brand and flavor was easily available to me and one day I decided I really didn't like that brand all that much. Now I have a soda maybe once every couple of months, so the rules are minimal. I usually have plain sparkling water in the fridge, though.

TPBM is not so complicated.

Well, it's complicated. The only soda I really like is Coke in glass or plastic bottles. Everything in cans is vile. Although I will have a can of Coke at work if I'm really tired, because it's free. But it is vile.

TPBM will drink anything.

Just about anything non-alcoholic; but I much prefer cold to warm or hot, Drink 3-4 glasses of iced tea at a time, but only once a week. Coffee only twice a week, and I sometimes forget the second one. My favorites, cold, are Gatoraid, and Arizona grapeade.

TPBM drinks (as I used to) pepsi-cola and coca-cola, but never "diet".

Neither. I avoid all colas, and aspartame is my enemy!

TPBM - like me - prefers smoothies and fruit juice and pressés over what the Americans call "soda" (and we call "pop", soda being a sparkly water that you have in whisky, often dispensed from some kind of weird gizmo).

That sody-pop rots yer teeth! I drink tea in all it's forms - puts a good healthy coating of brown on the pearlies.

TPBM still has the original set.

Mostly.

//>223 Tid: the people in the area where I live also call it pop.//

TPBM will tell us the name of something or saying that is local dialect from their neck of the woods.

A southern Oregonism is, if something is expensive it is 'spendy'.

TPBM has another one.

In my German family, small shreds of paper or fabric and such are called 'schnibbles.'

Et tu, TPBM.

A Southern term of affection for someone you know, not a stranger, usually relating to their having endearing or eccentric quirks is "You're a mess." Or, telling someone about this person, "She's a mess."

Et tu, TPBM.

In Wicked Awesome New England we call little bits of stuff "peetons" - it comes from the nearby French-speaking provinces usage of the term "petit un", meaning 'little thing'.

TPBM has another.

In Devon, instead of saying "Where's she gone?", they say "Where's she to?"

Keep going, TPBM

A New England saying (in a Gerald Warner Brace# novel)* is:
"Be a doozer!" - an aging New Englanderʻs prediction for an approaching blizzard. The more standard version might be: "Gonna be a beaut!"

>TPBM knows of an old-time dialect-saying that seems to have become obsolete.

#knew author.
*The novel, Winter Solstice begins on Dec. 21 (ca. 1955). The theme is that all of oneʻs life may reach a nadir, along with the weather ,on the winter solstice, but will eventually, gradually move toward a zenith.

In tidewater North Carolina, oldsters say 'feelin' po'ly' for 'I am unwell and it's all that damn Grant's fault.'

TPBM married the same person twice, either actually or a type.

I married four different people, none of whom were much like each other. I don't know what that means. My motto: "This time for sure, Rocky!" Actually, the last one was a keeper, but he up and died on me.

TPBM has been married more than once, too.

Nope, most likely I never will marry.

TPBM never says never.

There is too much freighted danger in that word. Spoken from experience.

TPBM has had a different experience.

Well, since everything is relative I try not to say never or always. That doesn't mean I always succeed.

TPBM is looking forward to a long holiday weekend (Labor Day in US).

Yes! I'm on the road and not sleeping well. I'll be home on Sunday. Whoo-hoo!

TPBM lives in hotel rooms.

I used to when I worked for the geologist. We did a lot of field work, rain or shine, and could be out 3 days out of the week sometimes. I got sick of cheap hotels and long days.

TPBM is ready for fall weather.

More than ready for my favorite season! Summer in central North Carolina stinks.

TPBM's favorite season is spring.

It is here. April is glorious, everything in bloom. I remember once looking down the street at all the lush green and flowering trees and thinking, holey moley, I get to live here.

TPBM digs winter.

No: much prefer Spring and Summer, and even Fall. And where I live now (Oʻahu) doesnʻt have a traditional New England-type winter.

TPBM has had attacks of not only "Spring Fever", but even "Winter Fever" and "Fall Fever".

Well, I'm not that passionate as a rule ...
But I've had Cabin, Beaver and Disco fever.

TPBM knows how to "Get Down"

Let me count the ways.

//>240 PhaedraB: I abso-tutely love snow and the cold. Bring those blizzards on.//

TPBM knows how to let go.

Not really, but I often tell myself to.

TPBM has let go of at least one of the following:

coffee; alcoholic beverages;

tobacco (chewing); tobacco (smoking); pepsi-cola; tea

///>243 SomeGuyInVirginia: From my balcony I can see snow on the mountains, but we rarely get much here in the valley. I'm way happier for it to be a scenic delight rather than something I need to clean off my car.///

I 'let go' tobacco* decades ago but still miss it. I used to feel cool smoking Gauloises or Gitanes. I was sitting on the steps of the Albert Memorial in London's Hyde Park a couple of days ago and suddenly realised that I could not see, or smell, a single person smoking and could only see one fag-end on the pavement. O tempora, O mores!

TPBM vapes

*Never chewed. Ain't no spittoons in this neck of the woods.

Don't be ridiculous! It's AS BAD for you as cigarettes.

TPBM is a fairly disciplined person.

Oh indeed. £25 per half hour for a caning, but a good whipping will have to be negotiated, especially if you require me to wear stiletto heels while punishing you.

TPBM got caned at school.

Nope. Not even at our Catholic (8th grade) school, ---and at that time (1943-44) Catholic schools were still notorious. even among Catholics, for corporal punishment! The last corporal punishment (not on me!) I can remember in the U.S. was in our 4th grade public school -- not by a teacher of exceptional strictness!

TPBM believes in school corporal punishment as a last resort only.

I don't think so, not even as a last resort, because I wouldn't trust any school to administer it evenly across social and racial lines, much less sexual orientation/gender lines. In theory yes, but practically, nope. Same way as I like the idea of nuclear power logically but don't trust it in the hands of people.

I can only remember one time a student had corporal punishment administered when I was a student - a boy, and the teacher, Mr. Tafoya, took him into the hall, told him to bend over and hold his ankles, then whacked him with a paddle that had holes drilled into it.

TPBM was in a Catholic school and got their knuckles rapped with a ruler with a metal edge by a nun.

Yes, and not quite. One nun was quite fond of breaking pointers (dowels with black rubber tips, essentially) over the hands of inattentive students. She averaged over one per week. I also recall her yanking a student from his desk by his ears and (without letting go) lifting him off the floor, her arms fully extended above her head, all the while screaming damnation and hellfire at him. His crime was a minor misstatement of a catechism answer. That was my second step in questioning the infallibility of the god-existence premise. WholeHouseLibrary here; atheist; not afraid of going to hell.

TPBM knows why deer love carrots and will only eat strawberries if nothing else is available.

Because they don't have any cream for time strawberries.

//>251 WholeHouseLibrary: Catholics have got to start letting their clergy get laid. I've never spoken to anyone who remembers Catholic School fondly.//

TPBM gets all Zen.

We'll see.

TPBM groks.

May you never thirst.

TPBM hungers.

Not so much. Just ate a sandwich and chips.

TPBM had a much more interesting lunch.

No, Iʻm still on the breakfast menu; (whoo, itʻs 9:10 A. M! here! I sometimes put breakfast off to be a brunch.

TPBM eats 4 meals a day.

Two, tops.

TPBM had their caviar imported.

Have only tasted caviar once -- decades ago, and I donʻt know if it was imported.

TPBM doesnʻt especially like caviar.

I think it was David Niven, who when serving in the British Army, 'liberated' some caviar which he had served up to his men. When he asked if they had enjoyed their meal, one soldier complained that "the bloody raspberry jam tasted of fish". I can't afford it anyway.

TPBM has expensive tastes

Once in a while. I enjoy good tea and some of it isn't cheap.

https://www.betjemanandbarton.com/en/30-darjeeling

TPBM considers tea at $40 / 100 g a steal.

Absolutely. I'd have to steal it in order to be able to afford it. $40/3.53 ounces is a tad rich for my blood.

TPBM splurges occasionally and will tell us what they splurge on.

I will splurge sometimes on yarn if I want to make something special for someone.

TPBM is frugal.

Celebrating "Old Hoss" turning 300,000 miles this week, so I guess so.

TPBM thinks I should begin shopping for another vehicle.

no way - if it runs, it's fine.

TPBM would trade in for something new.

I would, if I could.

TPBM either could or can't.

Since two tenses are used in 265, my answer depends on the chronology. (If itʻs a car,
I canʻt--donʻt own one.)

TPBMʻs most successfyul trade brought her/him a make of car that is now obsolete.

My Motability car should have been renewed after 3 years, but I've had it for 6 and the lease runs out in just over a year. By that time I shall probably be travelling everywhere by bus (as I do mostly now).

TPBM envies British bus services.

Donʻt remember riding a bus during a short visit to England (London only, 1973-74). Several rides on the "tube". I didnʻt dislike the tube or especially admire it.

TPBM misses the old (surface) "street cars".

I like all forms of mass transportation. The Newark Subway (what's left of it) is several trolley cars that run on overhead electrical wires. Sometimes, I'd take a bus to get to it. I'm also still quite familiar with the NYC subway system.

Our city is actually considering erecting several aerial gondola stations to help people get around. Yea, sure. Not over my house.

TPBM would happily commute by dirigible.

If I had a commute that warranted it, sure. But with my current commute of less than 15 miles round trip, I think I'll pass.

TPBM has a commute a bit longer than that.

No, it's less than two miles at the moment.

TPBM works at home

Yes, then I go to my paying job.

TPBM will tell us their favorite genre to read.

Mystery, by far, 49% this year. This year is an exception because I'm re-reading the Alphabet Series by Sue Grafton, but still far and away my favorite genre. I usually average about 20-25%.

TPBM will us THEIR favorite genre to read.

That's difficult as there are so many! However, I'd say my favourite books of recent years have been by Bill Bryson and Stuart Maconie so I guess 'humorous travel writing' would cover that.

I pass the favourite genre baton (BATTon? baTONN?) to TPBM

Itʻs starting to look like Mystery/Detective is becoming my favorite genre currently -- judging by quantity. But I still think non-fiction on History, Politics, or Religion is,in quality, my favorite.

TPBM has read at least 12 mystery/detective genre works in the past two quarters.

Let's jump start this thing - yes. 29 from January - June, 24 from the rolling 2 quarters March - August.

TPBM has recently seen an unusual animal for their neck of the woods.

Yes, we have at least one pair of Sand Hill Cranes that have decided to reside near a marsh near my home. They are quite large birds and are not supposed to live in our area.

TPBM feeds the birds.

//You're lucky to see them, morningwalker. I recently spent 3 weeks in Montana during prime Sandhill Crane season and only saw one juvenile. My friend is now sending me photos of flocks of them on her farm. They're taunting me, I tell ya.//

Yes. We aren't supposed to put out feeders during bear season, but I have a spot on an upper level that Bruno can't get to.

In the summer we get families of cardinals and grosbeaks, which apparently my cats feel require supervision so they spend most of the morning watching the activity out there.

TPBM also has a Cat TV.

//>279 Darth-Heather: We called it Fish TV - a cat condo near our fish tank.//

//>280 karenmarie: ha ha yes! My fuzzbugs would love to watch fishies.//

Even better. A Catstronaut launch facility: http://buttersafe.com/2018/09/06/

TPBM has seen this IRL (probably without the helmet).

Indeed - though it wasn't a vacuum cleaner!

TPBM will hazard a guess (in vain) as to what it was, or else has a similar story.

//>278 karenmarie: Haha yes they seem to be. The first time I saw them I had to get binoculars to see what they looked like and identify them. I narrowed it down to sand hill cranes but saw they weren't supposed to be in our area so I thought they were just passing through, but that was 3 years ago and they are still here. They have a very distinct call too so I know that's what they are.//

"TPBM . . ." on 284?

>285 rolandperkins: The whole 284 is just a comment, so >283 Tid: with something that makes a cat go crazy is still on.

The few cats we have had in my family (lifetime) were (amazingly?) sane!

TPBM once gave a new cat a name -- which was rejected by others in the family.

Yes. I wanted to call our new cat Plet (Danish version of Spot). The rest of the family decided on Tiger (because of its stribes, I guess. Maybe also because it didn't have any spots.)

TPBM has a smiliar tale to tell.

Once, a stray kitten adopted me on a visit to my grandparents. I wanted to call her Cricket since her meows sounded like chirps, but we settled on Wuk (Star Wars Wookie) because, when I bought her in, she was the dirtiest, ugliest little thing. She cleaned up perfectly, though.

TPBM has another tail to tell.

So many tails over the years. I've been adopted by so many pets so many times.

TPBM has recently adopted someone.

No, but a woman in my book club recently adopted a blind kitten. Her name is Dray, short for Andrea. She's adorable and gets around nicely. She doesn't like to be picked up, though, and goes into a panic, claws out, if anyone tries.

TPBM is thinking about getting another pet.

We planned to get another cat months ago, when Hobo passed away. But then Cherise was diagnosed with kidney cancer, and I am afraid it would be too stressful for her to get to know a new friend. We are going to wait and see what happens with her, but eventually will have to get Reuben a buddy - he misses having Hobo to pal around with.

TPBM is going ahead with the plan.

Surely you jest!

TPBM has a better plan.

I'm not sure it's better but I have lying around on a SD card somewhere.

TPBM has something else on a memory card.

I know I had pictures on some but I'm not sure where they are. I had forgotten about them as storage places. I think they were pre-zip drives???

TPBM may need to evacuate when Florence hits.

no, but my best friend lives in Richmond and she might have to. I hope if she does that she and her parents and her two adorable kittens will come stay with me until it is safe again.

TPBM lives in the danger zone.

Not prime, only peripheral. That said, I am ready to put Parker in the cage and ride due west and straight on till morning.

TPBM will ride it out.

We're in central NC and anticipate a white-knuckle ride. It's still too soon to know what path it will take when it makes landfall (which they're currently saying will be north of Wilmington). We've got a generator, supplies, daughter safely home, and have done pretty much all the prep we can do.

TPBM has never been in a hurricane, fortunately.

We "rode out" Hurricane Lane, with help from the storm itselfʻs dwidnling to a tropical storm; the same is now expected from Hurricane Oliva
in the next few days.

TPBM can remember hurricanes of either two, three, or four decades

I visited Biloxi, Mississippi a couple of years after Camille hit and was surprised at how much damage was still apparent. Whatever storm was supposed to hit Pensacola Florida when I lived there veered off. I went out for a social engagement when the remains of Fran hit Greensboro, North Carolina, in '96, which was a dumb thing to do and I'll never do it again. In '99, the weather reported Dennis was moving out to sea, so we went to a camping event in Virginia. By the time we got there, Dennis was heading inland so after a disastrous attempt at putting up a campsite, we spent the night in a hotel -- thank goodness they still had rooms. I lived pretty far inland when Floyd hit, but entire eastern half of the state flooded. The flooding came as far 30 miles east of where I lived. Then I moved to NY, but back to NC in 2010. Sandy mostly missed NC and clobbered NY instead.

Now I live in an inland mountain valley. No hurricanes, just wildfires. My son, however, lives in Mobile, Alabama, where he works for the phone company. He's considered essential personnel so he isn't allowed to evacuate.

TPBM has their own trials with the weather.

July (I think) 1954. Lavallette, NJ. My folks rented a same bungalow on the block adjoining the beach every year. Can't recall the street name, but the house number was 9. I was two (2); my younger brother was a mere two months old, and there were three older brothers. I also can't recall the name of the hurricane. The police had evacuated everyone who lived on the houses facing the beach, and everyone who lived in the first three houses on each street. These evacuees were placed in the remaining houses on the block. I think there were ten people in our three-room duplex bungalow.

I managed to slip out the back door undetected, wearing only a diaper. I apparently walked up the street to the boardwalk and strolled several streets north (or south) when I decided to go for a swim. The boardwalk was a good six feet above the sand, and normally, there was over a hundred feet of beach before you'd get your feet wet. At this point, though, the bottom couple of feet of the stairway were under water.

A couple walking in the boardwalk watching he hurricane approaching noticed me taking another step down into the water, and grabbed me. Now, I was only two, and I never spoke a word until I was maybe three and a half. I'm guessing that they asked me where I lived, or maybe my name, or where my parents were. Of course I didn't answer, except to point. I pointed down the boardwalk, and they followed me. Eventually, I pointed to a particular street, and they kept following me. I pointed to the 9, and toward the right-side of the bungalow, and they knocked on the door.

My parents didn't know I was gone. Completely startled to see me, they just let the couple give them a tongue lashing they felt they deserved.
My mother died about a month ago. I got to see her a few weeks before that, and it was one of the things I apologized for. (It was one thing in a very long list.)

Let's keep the theme going. TPBM has a weather (or not) related story.

Yes. We have a large creek that flows past our town and last winter it froze and then we had a lot of rain and the ice on the creek broke up and jammed and the entrance to town was flooded and a parking lot in a small plaza just outside of town flooded and a couple cars tried to drive through it and got stalled. Then all the flood water froze and the cars were frozen in the parking lot for about a week. We even made the national news!!

TPBM will continue or will pick a new topic.

Hurricane Irene

While I didn't think the resulting flooding from it wold hit the main floor of my house, (about 7' above ground level,) I was pretty damn sure it'd be deep enough that staying in the house and still expecting to get to/from the car out on high ground for work (especially at night) would be VERY iffy. Grab a couple days worth of clothes, etc and head off to work. (Storm hit while I was there.) Check into hotel I usually stayed at while out of house for floods the next morning.

Now as I said, I'd stayed at this hotel before, and I'd always gotten a room in the same area. As the river wasn't too far off, lower/back end of parking lot would get some flooding, but never more than enough to keep that section from being usable. Water never got more than about 1/3rd of the way into it.

Woke up the one night to get ready for work, and the water was all the way up to curb at upper end of lot. Took walk thru lot and out to the highways service road. Some water in side lot, and section of the road covered by water. Knew then and there I had better grab my stuff , load it in the car, and check out even tho I'd taken the room for two more days yet. Did same, went off to work.

Next morning I had to drive past that hotel up on the highway. Slowed down to take a look. That whole area was under water. Knew I'd made the right move checking out as I'd have never gotten back to the hotel easily to get my stuff.

I also knew, because of how high the water got at the hotel, that my main floor very likely had gotten hit. When I finally got back to the house to check on things, going by the water line, I had just under 3' of water covering it.

TPBM has something more cherry related to weather.

// >301 WholeHouseLibrary: I think it was Hazel. I was living in what is now Newport News VA near the Mariner's Museum. A big tree was blown over and brushed our house but caused no damage. Two feet to the right and the bedrooms would have been a real mess! I was about 4 or 5 and it was the first time I can remember seeing the roots of a very large tree!//

I was a teenager in 1985 when Hurricane Gloria brought torrential rain and wind to NH. It was like camping after the power went out - we cooked on our camp stove and hung the camping lanterns in the dining room to play board games.

A tree was blown over in my grandparents yard, and where the roots pulled up they found the gold bracelet that my great-grandmother had lost many years before.

TPBM has a positive outlook.

I try, but that thing called life sometimes makes it hard. I'm staying positive today because I am leaving tomorrow morning to visit my best friend in Gettysburg.

TPBM has been to Gettysburg.

I have, on a jr. high school trip.

TPBM has been to Studio 54.

Nope, I didn't visit NYC until 1980. However, I was in the line to get into Limelight in Chicago, but was turned away. I thought I looked pretty good, so I was ticked. Anyway, we went back to our neighborhood near Wrigley Field where we went to the old Cubby Bear (when it was still a dive bar with music) and danced the night away.

TPBM has been to an historic venue.

yep, saw the Pixies at the Rathskellar in Boston (aka The Rat).

Rathskeller

TPBM has been to CBGB.

No, but I spent an inordinate amount of time at places like Gerde's Folk City, the Bitter End, the White Horse Tavern, the Gaslight Cafe, Kettle of Fish, and the Bottom Line. I'm still primarily a folkie when it comes to music.

TPBM prefers ___________ in his/her musicl taste.

Ooh, where do I begin? No! Not Andy Williams, though he is infinitely preferable to Perry Como, Englebert Humperdinck, et al. It would be easier to say what I'm NOT so keen on : opera, 19th Century Classical music, rock music after about 1985, and raw unelectrified delta blues.

TPBM can be more specific about their musical taste.

>309 Darth-Heather: I just read a campy thriller called Wicked Stepmother. A lot of it was about the Boston music scene in the early 80s, and several scenes took place in the Rat.

>312 SomeGuyInVirginia: See >1 abbottthomas: :-)

//>312 SomeGuyInVirginia: oh that's cool!//

>314 Darth-Heather: If it's still here, I'll send it to you. I may have included it in a bunch of books I donated to the lie-berry.

>313 bnielsen: "I'm no dirty rat, see!" (Delivered in best James Cagney voice.)

To jump back to >311 Tid: my musical tastes are surprisingly broad. My dad was into big bands, jazz, and Frank Sinatra (mom was a Sinatra bobby-soxer). Listening to those growing up left an indelible mark. I still will listen to the Beatles anywhere anytime. Went with my sister to see a tribute band on the 4th of July and we sang ourselves hoarse. In the car, I listen to a small-town country and western station that plays stuff as far back as the '20s; I wonder if my grandmother listened to the same stuff on the radio, dad said she was really into National Barn Dance. But I listen for Woody Guthrie and the singing cowboys and the bluegrass. Never knew how many country artists covered Beatles songs until I found this station. As for current pop music, it's mostly pretty boring, but there is some interesting stuff out there. Unfortunately, when I hear something I like I usually don't know the name of the artist. #old

My brother-in-law was shocked that I listened to a C&W station. TPBM has shocked someone, too.

yeah, all the time. My MP3 player is a mix of everything from Neil Diamond to King Diamond. Life is too long to like just one thing, right?

TPBM sticks with the classics.

Harvardʻs definition of "Classics" was
"Greco-Roman Classics" in my college years, and that became my concentration.* But I did manage to work in a course on Milton, and
a course on the second half of 18th century British Literature, which amounted to a course on the classic Samuel Johnson.

TPBM believes that at least one of the following does not deserve to be called "classic":
Walter Scott; Emily Dickinson; Stendhal; Edward Lear; Lewis Carroll;
Ring Lardner

*concentration: Harvardian for "major".

Well, classic something.

>310 WholeHouseLibrary: I'm more CBGB than Gerde's Folk City. Way more. Waaaaay more. That said, I listened to this album by Horty Barker so much as a yute that my mom hid it from me. She got it as a gift, because she knew Horty from when she was a girl. His singing, and the songs, absolutely mesmerized the 11 year old me, and took me back to a much older age. This kind of folk music I love.

TPBM is a stickler.

Eh, whatever.

TPBM got rickrolled.

No. I had to look it up, and haven't even ever heard of Rick Astley. Live and learn.

TPBM has some exciting weather news to report.

Yes, it's going to be less humid and a little cooler in these parts this week! It may not be exciting to some, but it is to me.

TPBM likes pumpkin _______.

carving. And chunking.

TPBM eats them.

I make a mean pumpkin cake and a dairy-free, tofu-based pumpkin pie.

TPBM makes other things.

Eyes. Eyes. (At Johnny Depp, if you must know..)

TPBM is adept at making _____________

Cheesecakes. On a related note, I now need to buy bigger pants.

TPBM makes something else.

Soup. I love fall for just that reason. Time to gather everything inside and have a pot of soup simmering on the stove for the evening meal.

TPBM enjoys visiting museums.

Fortunately, yes. You can't swing a cat in this town without hitting a museum.

TPBM keeps a cabinet of curiosities.

Sort of. Most would refer to it as the junk drawer.

MrsHouseLibrary often refers to my office as the junk room. Have to admit, she's probably right about that.

TPBM is more into the feng shui style.

I'd like to be, but I'm in a two room apt now with way more than two rooms worth of stuff. I do remember to orient the bed so my feet aren't pointing at the door, though.

TPBM is a minimalist.

Sure, but non practicing.

TPBM has a pressure washer and can tell me why it is useful. (I got one as a gift, but am undecided on keeping it versus returning it to the store.)

I share one with my brothers. I use it to clean: the windows I can't reach; the garbage, recycling and green bins; my front porch and steps; the patio stones in the back yard. I also use it to hose down the fence between me and my neighbour who allows his cats to use the fence as a litter box. With the pressure washer, I can get in between the slats and hose both sides of the fence.

TPBM has a better, more effective way to eliminate the stench of cat urine.

As Howard Cosell once said (and perhaps ONLY once): I donʻt know.

TPBM remembers little or no trouble with cat urine.

Au contraire, my last cat had...issues. A little Simple Green works great in the washing machine to take out the smell. Pine Sol works well, too, but then everything smells like Pine Sol. Which might be ok outside.

TPBM has outdoor solutions.

It would probably involve a shotgun.

TPBM celebrates the small stuff.

The last small stuff I can remember celebrating
was Honoluluʻs victory, leading to this yearʻs world championship in Little League Baseball; and, at that, only mentally.

TPBM has played Little League baseball.

I'm a girl. We weren't welcome back in the day.

TPBM broke boundaries.

Acquitted!

TPBM broke records.

Na, I tend to stay on the sidelines.

TPBM is an extrovert.

No, although my saying I'm am introvert always surprises some people.

TPBM has an 'indoor voice'.

And I use it all the time, except at Open Mic Night. No one has ever said to me anything remotely like, "You sing pretty good!"
I know. I don't care anymore. Yet, I truly am an introvert, but when required, can hide it.

TPBM is bothered by large crowds.

Well, only by SMALL crowds that are LARGER than expected.

TPBM saw her/his largest crowds ever at
a sporting event.

Aharr. Twas probably a big European football night at Liverpool, mateys.

TPBM has never been keel hauled nor walked the plank, ahar.

Nay, mateys; the case was dropped for "not sufficient evidence".

TPBM believes that "there is honor among pirates" and that they would give a keel-hauling prospect a fair trial.

Aharr. Dar's more honor among pirates than politicians fer sure.

TPBM is participating in the treasure hunt.

Yes I do, i am still hunting for the chests no 8, 11, 13 & 15. 4:24pm GMT
I feel it's a pity i can't speak like a pirate

TPBM owns a treasure: antique books

//>346 EMS_24: Not a hint, but advice for 15 (if you want it!):Go for something easy rather than complicated.)//

//>347 abbottthomas: Thank You! My first idea was a map. Now i' m looking for a book with a Jim as character. Think it's rather easy one for Native English speakers. I don't see hints asked for #15 at the 'avast'-page. I'm not familiar with a lot of the stories of (children's) adventure books, can't think of one containing a cook. And what is complicated... two times the treasure that a lot of people thought that was the hardest, was an easy one for me (and reverse) Never mind, i' ll find out sooner or later// 6.26pm (5.25 GMT)
so: it was Sooner. Got it! it's famous, we had a tome at home, can't remember i read it myself, my brother did. Didn't know that the story had to do with pirates //

//>348 EMS_24: Well done! Sorry to be unforgivably anglocentric ;-(//

// >349 abbottthomas: No apologizing needed, its me who chooses to participate in an Anglo/American website. //

I have only a couple as I've already passed along most of them to good homes. The oldest is a an 1858 copy of Lectures of Lola Montez (Countess of Landsfeld) including her autobiography. It's a bit foxed, but I've got trade paperbacks from this century that are far worse.

TPBM will tell us the oldest book they've held.

It just happened about 30 minutes ago. It is some kind of German religious book but not a bible. In fact my wife was given 5. . 2 are very large, 2 are small and 1 is tiny. One of the big ones is dated 1585. The others are early 17th century. Now I have to figure out what to do with them.

TPBM has an idea!

I have enough trouble reading English!!

I try not to have ideas, they so often end badly.

TPBM has a head of cotton wool.

Apparently. In the last post I made in Pedant's Corner, I typed "their" instead of "they're," much to my embarrassment. Being Pedant's Corner, no one was gonna give me a pass on it either. My brain does not work the way it used to.

TPBM has an embarrassment of ____________.

Pennies. If it were dimes , quarters or half dollars (imagine!), it wouldnʻt embarrass me.

TPBM has a collection of 1964 half-dollars.

I know what they are! I know what they are! (I'm a Brit...). The last, or possibly penultimate, US coin with actual silver in? I did actually have one once. I still have my mint condition Morgan dollar though.

TPBM knows why so many Morgan dollars still survive in mint condition (I don't!)

//>356 Tid: ahhh, penultimate is one of my favorite words!!//

Nope. I'm clueless. (I didn't even know what a Morgan dollar was!!)

TPBM rarely uses cash for purchases.

Almost never. I got out of the habit of carrying cash when I lived on Capitol Hill. Plus, I'm po.

TPBM is rich and generous. I mean, generous to me. Like, they'll give me cash.

Sorry. I'm generous, but I'm not rich. Do you need a loan until payday?

TPBM has had a very productive morning.

A productive day. I went to the farmers market, then headed downtown for lunch and for rush tickets for a matinee at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I saw Sense and Sensibility which, although a bit talky, was well done. I'm going to try to get rush tickets for some of the evening performances this week. Every year for a few days they offer $10 tickets with a donation to the food bank. Really, it's the only time I can afford to go. I haven't seen a show in the outdoor Elizabethan theater yet, so I'm going to try to get in to one of those. Of course, at this time of year the temperature drops after sunset, so I'll bring a blanket.

TPBM saw something else.

No, but I will go to see the first play of the season at Playmakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill with friend Louise,

Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood, By Ken Ludwig, Directed by Jessie Austrian

Merry men, Maid Marian, and much merriment - Original Music by the Red Clay Ramblers’ Jack Herrick

Come along for a rip-roaring romp through Sherwood Forest with all the thrills and romance you could ever ask for! Flying arrows, clanging swords, and perilous feats of daring fill this not-so-ye-olde tale of everyone’s favorite outlaw.

TPBM can't wait for _____________.

A production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street showing at the local theatre in October. Even though Johnny Depp won't be in it we have some amazingly talented people for such a small town.

TPBM was recently caught in a downpour.

Yes, driving into work yesterday morning. I was surprised by how many soaked people I saw who didn't have an umbrella, because it had been raining earlier when they must have left home.

TPBM lets it go like water off a duck's back.

ACK! Preempted!

>365 WholeHouseLibrary: I tend to internalize things, until I can't.

>364 SomeGuyInVirginia: Not when compared to the hurricanes of the past couple of years, no.
But, a few nights ago, a 2-hour storm dumped between 3 and 6 inches of water on central Texas. A town less than an hour's drive east of here got almost 9 inches. Sure do wish all that water could have come somewhat evenly distributed over that past couple of months!

I've got a battery-operated lawn mower. On the average, I can mow my 1/3rd-acre lot in 2 to 4 days, depending on how tall the grass has grown. I got more than half of it done before the rains came. Now, the ground is still soggy to mow the grass and what had been cut already needs to be redone. (Le sigh.)

TPBM hired out the lawn-care chores to others.

Nope, I can't afford to have hired help.

TPBM has bought their candy for Halloween.

Well, I have bought candy from the Halloween displays. >>> It's mostly gone now. I don't know where it went!

TPBM has an inkling.

No, I purchase only fully grown inks. I've had enough of accidental blots.

TPBM owns and uses a fountain pen.

I think it may be somewhere? I don't write anymore though - those particular motor skills have now deserted me.

TPBM can't do something they used to be able to.

Sleep. If I can't slip into the arms of Morpheus, I'm going to let Prince Valium have a go.

TPBM has diamonds on the soles of their shoes.

I wish I did, but certainly love the song and album.

TPBM has been to a book sale recently.

Sad to say, I've been in a book store only once in the past year, to purchase Anne Fadiman's most recent book.
I'll be at that same indie book store (depending on how MrsHouseLibrary is doing) on Oct 9, to purchase her husband's George Howe Colt newest book. They've been incredibly kind to me over the years.

TPBM has developed/fallen into a friendship with an author (or ten, or any number in between) as a result of being here in LibraryThing.

No, but I did marry the author of a book I loved who I didn't meet until years after I read it.

TPBM has had a close encounter with an author.

I met Mollie Katzen, author of the Moosewood cookbooks and got her signature on several that I own. It was hosted at a locale college and after her talk we got to eat food prepared using her recipes. It was yummy!

TPBM has too many cookbooks.

Well... yeah... prolly. I never use them for cooking. I like to look at the pretty pictures in the newer ones and enjoy the oddities in those that are 100 years old.

TPBM has other reference books that are just for fun.

An old copy of the Nouveau Petit Larousse Illustre - nice line drawings. A couple of two volume editions of The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary - good for philological notes. And atlases - much more fun than Google Maps.

TPBM feels themselves an anachronism.

You mean my insistence of using my fountain pen and ink blotter? I scoff in your general direction, Sir! Why, I have put aside my quills a fortnight ago, and haven't looked back.

TPBM is an early adopter of technology.

Not me! I was well taught by my former employer. Being an early adopter of ANYTHING was grounds for reprimand, suspension and dismissal.

The government agency we submitted material was so far behind in technology that going from an abacus to a comptometer was an earth shaking move. They made Luddites look like forward looking technologists.

TPBM worked with agencies that were always behind the 8-ball!

As a Brit, I only understand the literal meaning of that, in relation to pool!

TPBM will explain the metaphor.

It means being in a bad or hopeless situation or kind of not up to speed.

TPBM is always on their toes.

Nope, that sounds painful.

TPBM has made themselves a spot of breakfast.

I'm considering it. Cereal with sliced banana or leftover pizza?

TPBM has an easy choice.

Top of the stack. Throw in the microwave whatever frozen dinner is on top of the stack in the freezer. I put more thought into that P-Bitty is going to eat.

TPBM eats on a balcony.

No, but there is a small upper deck on my house I could eat on.

TPBM is afraid of __________.

Spiders and other disgusting-looking crawly things.

TPBM is afraid of something different.

No, I quite like differences - as long as they don't discomfort me. I fear things that stagnate and stay the same...

TPBM is afraid of ________________

Fear itself. Very spooky.

TPBM fears a painted tiger.

no, but I do fear creepy dolls like this one:



Movies like Puppetmaster or Child's Play or anything with scary clowns give me nightmares.

TPBM is not afraid of the dark.

I crave the dark. It's difficult to find.

TPBM has stumbled in the dark.

//>388 Darth-Heather: Ever since I was a kid, movies about dolls that come to life have always scared the hell out of me. I am probably the only kid who had to be sedated to go see The Nutcracker at Christmas.//

//>390 SomeGuyInVirginia: me too!! Damn thing is creepy with those big teeth. When I was little I refused dolls with their creepy staring eyes and would only play with stuffed animals. I'm still mostly scared of people-like things. Especially Michael Meyers.//

"So the darkness shall be light, and the stillness the dancing." T.S. Eliot

TPBM will kindle a little light.

Havenʻt kindled it yet, but thereʻs probably some light in Brother Lawrenceʻs "The Practice of the Presence of God"; another good possibilty is Robert Ellsbergʻs All Saints . . .

TPBM has, in the past year or so, read at least one book by:
(a) A Catholic author; or (b) A Muslim author;mor (c) a mainstream Protestant author; or (d) a Taosit (philosophy) author.

It's possible, but none of the books were of a religious nature, so I don't know.

Nor would this atheist care. As far as I'm concerned, anyone can believe any damn thing they want.
But when it comes to policy, religious beliefs should be left out of the considerations.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but unless they're based on verified facts, and thoughtful, compassionate contemplation of the pros and cons of an issue, they should keep their opinions to themselves.

TPBM likes jellybeans.

yes, but only the black ones. I usually just get spice drop gumdrops instead and then I eat all the clove ones first.

TPBM bought halloween candy already.

Not yet. I'll get it when I carve my pumpkins.

//>397 WholeHouseLibrary: Well put.//

TPBM has been to a corn maze.

Yes, one time when our daughter was youngish, with my husband and in-laws. Frankly it was hot and frustrating. I get my sense of accomplishment out of reading books, not wandering a path between rows of corn trying to find my way out.

TPBM has had a better experience with a corn maze.