I don't think anyone will agree to stop at Grandpa's Cheesebarn on the way home either.
It's not very cold. It's supposed to be in the 80s later this week.
My thoughts keep turning to Evangelion.
It's chilly here on Arrakis at just past 7pm, nevertheless I'm sitting outside at a beach side bistro near my place and enjoying some cold beers because it's been a rough week and it's still not over.
By chilly I mean 67f. I'll have one more and attempt to walk home without getting hit my a car.
My dad is having his rotator cuff surgery tomorrow, so I'm spending the week at his house. Meanwhile, I installed the bidet seat correctly and am definitely getting one for my house as well.
Fun times!
I've been hit by a car while walking but I've never used a bidet. So I can't say which is better.
You'll also need to try getting hit by a car while using a bidet, for thoroughness.
I don't even have a ground floor toilet.
That's so silly. Use a mobile bidet.
Made it home safe but somehow twisted my knee and it hurts real bad. May have to skip the personal training at the gym for a few days.
13: Knees are fragile -- hope it's feeling better soon.
Thanks, considering I had knee surgery in December2022 and worked hard in physiotherapy and even more with a personal trainer since August I'm a bit bummed by this.
Moby, have you stopped at Grandpa's Cheesebarn? I've passed it (or at least the sign on the highway) all my life and never gone in.
I had physical therapy this morning for my neck and shoulders and after one more week of that I'll switch to my lower back, since that feels worse now. Both involve learning to strengthen my core, which would be a good thing in general. I'm taking steroids and muscle relaxants so I'm in a simmering fury but not particularly pain. Odile has pointed out that I always get nesting instincts halfway through a round of prednisone and the container of bathroom primer I just picked up suggests she's right.
My therapist wants me to plan a short trip away from the family to have time to myself because I don't think I've done that in the last five years, so I'm making plans to go to our state's Shaker historical site for two days. It's funnier if I call it a bachelorette weekend but the real question is whether I should aim for the next weekend Selah is supposed to go with my ex even though I'll probably still be getting over the sinus infection I think I'm getting now. Whine whine whine.
16.1 answered elsewhere, I see. That'll teach me to keep up with TFA maybe!
13: if it helps at all I fucked mine up on intensive week last summer but I've been doing some stretching and changed my squat technique and it didn't bother me in ballet yesterday nor with the iron today.
16: weekend away after five years (!!!!!) sounds great, even if you're nursing a sinus infection. Here's to many more after that.
16: It wasn't really answered in the other thread because I just got back. But we didn't stop on the way home either. I'm not a domestic tyrant and no one else wanted to go.
Anyway, Ohio is descending into bad Simpson's parody. There was a guy with one of those lawn care trailers, low metal mesh walls and a ramp you can let down you to allow lawn mowers to be pushed up into the trailer behind your grass clippings. He had the trailer lined with a tarp and filled with manure. Not composed manure, but fresh and liquid. The tarp was for the bottom and the sides, but the top was entirely open. He was moving at highway speeds on an interstate.
It's been a while since I lived near farms, but I think it was pig shit.
I just got back from three weeks in Japan so Evangelion and bidets have both been on my mind. Hokkaido is gorgeous and cold and has more gay bars than you might expect.
The all-you-can-eat seafood buffet near me is called Hokkaido. I've never been because I have concerns with the concept of an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet.
Land of Bad isn't remotely as bad as one would expect.
Speaking of all-you-can-eat seafood...
Sad news:
I regret to say that my Mom died around 6:30 AM on February 15th, as I was preparing to go to the airport to see her. She died peacefully in her childhood home, beside her loving husband of 69 years. My Dad has been nonverbal for several years - he almost never speaks, although he does respond to things other people say to and around him. But the final night, he took her hand early in the night (on Valentine's Day) and was still holding her hand the following morning when she passed.
Alive and well. Spent some time at the shop this weekend; half the staff traveled for the long holiday, and the remainder was sick (save one) with a bug going around. My wife's band practice was scheduled against the shift, so I covered - and it wasn't bad. Kept busy and enjoyed the interaction, both with the one healthy employee and the customers visiting the shop.
My wife began the year in the doldrums, but turned the corner about a week ago. It was good to be a part of the solution - as always a little frustrating that being in the doldrums meant that she wasn't really receptive to the same solutions earlier. It'd be nice to be able to reduce the time spent being miserable. The bits of clearing obstacles from her path, etc., were appreciated, but didn't carry over into the next day. (The same proved true for the weekend trip that we wedged in at the last minute - great in the moment, but no real lasting impact.)
I'm glad it wasn't too bad a spell this time, but it sucks to see someone's brain tearing them down, and being unable to effectively intervene.
30: Condolences. I'm sorry that you weren't able to get there in time, but I'm glad that your dad was able to offer comfort at the end.
30: I'm so sorry. That's a touching detail about your dad holding her hand.
My condolences to you and your dad.
I did go to see Mom for a short weekend visit three weeks before, after we first learned that she was dying, and I got to talk with her then, while she was still pretty coherent. So while I was hoping she might hang on a few hours longer so I could say goodbye again, I did get a chance to say what I needed to back then.
I had planned this trip in advance as a slightly longer trip to take advantage of the President's Day weekend. She stopped breathing briefly earlier on the 14th, but the visiting nurse and medical aides who were there at the time managed to get her restarted. So I knew her remaining time was probably short, and that may have also cued my Dad in. As it was, I got to spend time with my sisters and Dad, and to spend time sorting out family records and memorabilia that I want to keep.
Thanks, everyone, for your condolences.
I'm with my wife and son and we're visiting my parents and my brother during school vacation week. We went out and had dinner together and my dad wrecked his truck on the way home, crashing into a parked car. Nobody hurt in the accident, but Parkinson's plus a wine with dinner meant he probably shouldn't be driving. We've been trying to get him to switch to Uber/Lyft, but they're kind of marginal in this exurban area. He definitely needs to stop driving but that's a major hardship (and likely means my brother will be acting as chauffeur a lot).
37: I'm sorry for your loss, glad you got to say goodbye.
39: At least no one was hurt, and you have some leverage in the argument. I'm sorry, though - that's so tough.
37: I'm sorry for your loss, glad you got to say goodbye.
39: At least no one was hurt, and you have some leverage in the argument. I'm sorry, though - that's so tough.
A mechanical advantage of 2, to be precise.
My condolences, Dave.
If you hit a parked car in the exurbs, it probably belongs to someone awful.
||
You may be asking yourself, what has the US Supreme Court done today to undermine civilization? Two decisions, two instances of choosing black/white federal law over the more murky state law arguments presented by litigants. First, there was a Georgia murder case, where the defendant had been acquitted by reason of insanity of one count and found guilty but insane on the other, which arose from the same killing. Georgia wanted to say that since the two findings were irreconcilable -- they were probably the result of horse-trading in the jury room, imo -- they should both be thrown out. Nope: Justice Jackson explained that as a matter of federal constitutional law, an acquittal is an acquittal is an acquittal, and can't be vacated on appeal. Second case was about maritime insurance. The policy required New York law, but the insured filed suit in Pennsylvania and wanted to apply Pennsylvania law, arguing that Pennsylvania public policy with respect to insurance trumped the contract clause.* Justice Kavanaugh explained that whatever might happen in an ordinary land-based case, this was federal maritime law, and we don't do state law public policy exceptions in federal maritime law. Because the point of federal maritime law is uniformity and predictability. Thomas concurred so he could talk trash about the 1957 maritime case that seemed to open the door to state-law arguments, as commentators have been doing since 1960 at the latest.
* It's evident that under New York law, the insurer owes nothing, because the insured breached a warranty, which breach had no impact on the actual loss. (The insured was supposed to maintain the fire suppression system. The boat ran aground. It did not catch fire.) One can assume that under Pennsylvania law, this comes out the other way, at least potentially.
|>
(I'd bet pretty much anything on the insured having had no idea that this was what they were agreeing to when they bought the policy. The insurance company, formed in Germany and based in the UK, probably did. I've long railed about the casual way in which commercial lawyers approach choice of law provisions in negotiations -- as if the law is going to favor the home team, not as if they're making substantive choices about the way the kinds of disputes that might arise will be resolved -- but here that probably wasn't up for negotiation. An insured would have just assumed that NY law was reasonable, and how different could it be from the law of Pennsylvania anyway, one might think never having looked anything up.)
Pennsylvania is the "burn it for the insurance money" state.
Georgia wanted to say that since the two findings were irreconcilable -- they were probably the result of horse-trading in the jury room, imo -- they should both be thrown out. Nope: Justice Jackson explained that as a matter of federal constitutional law, an acquittal is an acquittal is an acquittal, and can't be vacated on appeal.
Presumably Georgia's preference was not to release the defendant and close the case, but to declare a mistrial so they could put the defendant in jeopardy a second time (but we can't call it double jeopardy)?
47 Yes, exactly. Retrial on both is what Georgia wanted to do, and thought it's law permitted. (Although it's never done it this way before.)
Defendant will be confined to a mental hospital until he's not insane. But not an actual prison.
44, 45: Those both sound surprisingly not-bad. (The first case: no double jeopardy, yay. The second case: I'm assuming it basically made sense based on the facts of the case to apply New York law. If that's just because of a contract clause then it sounds fishy but if it's also because the insured was located in NY or accident occurred there then it's more reasonable. I'd default to assuming that federal law makes sense if it's an interstate issue, and I know that maritime regulations are fairly strong and safety-oriented.) Am I missing something?
Re: the OP, I'm doing OK. Could be better, but nothing worth complaining about except maybe work. For months now I've been working on this project and telling myself that everything would be better once it was over, both in terms of enjoying my current job and finding a better one. The problem is, progress towards completion seems asymptotic.
I'm planning to teach one of the grad students in my old department how to drive this spring, which should be interesting as I'm not a particularly excellent or enthusiastic driver. She's an international student pursuing (and likely to receive) asylum, not having a driver's license is screwing up her ability to take some of the better campus jobs her visa would allow, and driver's ed programs are just way too expensive here, so... keep us both in your thoughts and prayers.
I really wish there was someone around here who could teach her how to drive a standard transmission, given how much more helpful that would be in other countries (including her home, if that's even possible again in her lifetime), but automatic is better than nothing.
I said I would start taking her out to practice in parking lots as soon as she passes the test for a learner's permit. Here's hoping that gives me enough time to relearn how to parallel park.
I'm planning to teach one of the grad students in my old department how to drive this spring, which should be interesting as I'm not a particularly excellent or enthusiastic driver. She's an international student pursuing (and likely to receive) asylum, not having a driver's license is screwing up her ability to take some of the better campus jobs her visa would allow, and driver's ed programs are just way too expensive here, so... keep us both in your thoughts and prayers.
I really wish there was someone around here who could teach her how to drive a standard transmission, given how much more helpful that would be in other countries (including her home, if that's even possible again in her lifetime), but automatic is better than nothing.
I said I would start taking her out to practice in parking lots as soon as she passes the test for a learner's permit. Here's hoping that gives me enough time to relearn how to parallel park.
My state representative just called and said he's stepping down asked me if I want to run for his seat. I've thought about it, but am pretty strongly leaning against. While it tickles my sense of ambition, I think I can have more impact in a city council of 15 than in a legislature of 400.
Best wishes whichever you try. But a 400 seat assembly for a state just seems like it wasn't supposed to work.
Do it Franklin! You'll never get a better chance! Only reprobates can save the world! (And even if it's a shitshow it'll open doors for whatever you want to do.)
My dad's old friend and a different guy who was his next door neighbor were both in the state legislature. They're both dead now.
OT: If I walked past a possum and it didn't play dead, does that mean I don't look threatening enough?
It didn't charge me or anything. Just sort of looked up and then ambled on.
(And even if it's a shitshow it'll open doors for whatever you want to do.)
The problem is that it really is a shitshow. Constant partisan warfare over hot-button national issues. That just doesn't seem fun. But in city government I get to advocate for bike lanes and street trees and housing and not having a casino downtown. A lot of times, people even listen to me.
My dear American friend, perhaps you are altogether too effective in your fervor for bike lanes and housing, and you are being, as the people in your country so charmingly say, "kicked upstairs."
59: Not that you would know anything about scheming.
Not that I would know anything about GETTING ARRESTED AND TORTURED BY MY BOSS. Fucking amateur.
Save the world, Franklin! One obscure state committee meeting at a time!
Last Monday my car got rear-ended and I developed a concussion. It was a big pickup. I was stopped at a red light, and he was trying to turn left at 25 miles an hour. He went into my bumper and rear hatch. I avoided screens completely for 6 or 7 days and now have things on nighttime mode or f.lux and am minimizing screen time. The local hospitalreferred me to what seems to be a scammy concussion clinic. Famous 86 year old doctor and another neurologist are very part time. Mostly staffed by NPs. I do not want to be a snob about this and considered them because they had near-term availability. But they seem sketchy.
I saw my PCP, and she said if I was still having trouble after a week to make a neurology appt. I did contact the local concussion clinic. I don't want to be a snob about NP/PA but it looked like these weren't really supervised nor did they have on-point training. The one ai was scheduled with had been working at a Minute Clinic and other walk-ins until about a year ago. So, now I need to figure out a neurologist plan. The hospital I.used to be employed by has a huge backlog. 3 months for an appt after a stroke even. There are other hospitals within the system Imcan look at.
My manager had a big concussion as a basketball player in college, so she encouraged me to move forward with intermittent FMLA reduced work hours to avoid pushing myself too hard and experiencing a setback. We have short term disability now and I have a lot of ESL to supplement it. But this really sucks. Looking at flow charts and PowerPoints is more than I can take but that's not really different in kind than before, just degree.
If any Boston-area folks have experience with specific neurologists, good or bad, I'd welcome an e-mail. Please comment here first so that I know to check that e-mail.
Tick,tock
https://www.commonspace.eu/news/russia-postpones-construction-new-roads-due-lack-money
64: That's awful. Hope you feel better soon. But I don't know anything useful.
2046 is even better than I remembered. And a lot hotter.
39: my dad wrecked his truck on the way home, crashing into a parked car
When the similar happened to my parents (mom totaled car hitting parked car and someone's porch) they wanted to continue driving (nether should have been). I convince everyone to not give them any help in procuring a new vehicle, and they dropped the idea. Fortunately they were in a retirement community in their small city and could easily rely on a combo of community transport and taxis for their few trip needs. Unfortunately, they would almost never do the latter except in an emergency citing the "exorbitant" cost just for "one little trip to the hairdresser's" or whatever. Even after I set up an account with the taxi people charged to me where they only had to provide a code they resisted. What the exercise brought home to me was how buried/ignored the actual costs of having a car are for most Americans.
In their case by giving up the car the car they:
1) Got to keep the ~7,000 they got from insurance.
2) Did not have to pay the inevitable extra money beyond 7K for whatever vehicle they procured.
3) Did not have to pay new insurance (at what I assumed/hoped would be a large rate given the palpable risk of having them on the road).
4) Did not have to pay for the garage space at the retirement home.
5) Did not have to pay for gas--admittedly quite small given the shortness of their trips.
Just the insurance money alone would have covered years of their travel. I would point out that with a car the trip to hairdresser was probably a hundred dollars but to little avail.
When my dad couldn't drive, were no taxis in the town and he never learned to use a smart phone so Uber/Lyft was not going to work. But he declined very rapidly and stopped trying to drive.
52/58: Two thoughts:
1. If it's a partisan shitshow, maybe there are paths to quietly get less partisan stuff through while everyone else yells, like single-stair?
2. Does your city council have term limits? It seems like something that would be pervasive in the state, but who knows. If so, it would be a good thing to do when you can't be on the council anymore.
Sorry to hear about the concussion BG; it sounds like the one good part of the experience is that your manager is sympathetic, but otherwise no good.
I would point out that with a car the trip to hairdresser was probably a hundred dollars but to little avail.
I occasionally do those calculations myself and reach a similar conclusion. I have a car and average around 1 trip a week, which makes the per-mile cost extremely expensive. But, for now, it's worth having just to have the option of driving when necessary.
All the best to you BG.
68 great film that. I struggle to think of one of his films that is not hot
73: We have a second car that only moves about weekly. But it's long paid for and insurance is pretty cheap. Our son is allegedly learning how to drive so he practices in that car. Plus, if I go hiking, I'd need to rent a car and have it sit in the woods. Plus, I really enjoy the freedom of absolutely not giving a shit if someone hits me in a low speed collision.
It is just past the 7th anniversary of my mother's death (so just after T's inauguration) and during some barrage of Trump news the other day I recalled my last cogent conversation with her . Hospice called and said she was in decline so I popped over as I was the closest sibling. She rallied briefly when I came in and said: "Oh. I've been so out of it; I haven't even seen a paper in several days, what's the idiot up to?" My response: "Idiocy." We did not really continue the conversation as I had a lot of logistics to arrange and she lapsed back into sleep, and I then had to get back to work/home. She passed several days later while my sisters were there so that was my last real interaction.
Just so tired of how much of my mental/emotional* space is tied up in that rancid motherfucker and it just saddens me that it intruded on our lives in that particular way. She was a very politically active person and the fact that seeing her country embrace pure fucking evil was what she got to experience at the end.
*Admittedly much of it by "choice."
76: Did not mean that to read as sadly as it probably seems. Until almost the very end my mother was quite with it and we had many good conversations about any number of topics .. but of course many of them on the malfeasance of Republicans. She was considered a shocking maverick among all the nice old Republicans* at her retirement place--a good churchwoman somehow gone astray politically.
*Evil irredeemable motherfuckers I mean. The massive inherent tension between those two accurate descriptions is part of what has sent our media--and discourse in general into the looneysphere.
Oops, this is supposed to be the non-political thread.
Particularly nice weather we're having!
I think I remember when you got that car, Moby. IIRC, your wife unilaterally accepted the car from her parents after you thought you had agreed to refuse it. You came home to it in your driveway. Urple's suggestion, that you park it in some supermarket parking lot and then wait to see who brings up the car first, might be my favorite Unfogged comment ever.
That was the car I wrecked on 1/6. This car is older.
I assume urple left us because his services as a couples therapist were so in demand that he had no time.
The guy I hit was less cheerful about it.
Car accidents everywhere! I totaled a car on Nov. 12. (Well, actually, the nitwit who rear-ended me totaled my car.)
Moby, you're talking about this year, right? I mean, you didn't smash your car into the Capitol building, did you?
It was 1/6/2021. I was watching the news before I left the house and my head wasn't on the road.
58: I hear you saying that the state legislature doesn't sound fun. On the other hand, you're a competent decent person with good politics -- if you can talk yourself into doing it, there's an argument that you're doing a good thing by getting as much power as you can. As well as vacating your current spot in local politics to start developing another new-to-politics activist who themselves might be able to build a career getting some stuff done.
I'm hoping we can find another competent decent person with good politics to take the slot. Its a safe blue seat, so its not like my running is necessary to fend off the borg. As long as we can find someone to run.
Probably the biggest obstacle is that my wife is really not a fan of the idea. She was never enthusiastic about this politics thing to begin with, and I'd rather not make her put up with me running in a third election in as many years.
On the other hand, the Dems in the ledge just beat back Right to Work today and it looks like they had some fun.
89 Reviving that old time coalition is always satisfying. IMO it only works on the one issue, but it's still good.
I clipped my wing mirror in our underground parking garage the other day. The whole thing smashed off and there was plastic everywhere. However, I was able to reattach everything and it's working fine (including the heaters and the motorized controls for moving the mirror). There's just one tiny chunk of plastic that's snapped off. I suspect it's not worth getting a replacement mirror, so I may just glue it back with some epoxy.
My bumper is held together with gorilla tape. But I was able to do this from under the car, so you can't see the tape.
I'm quite annoyed re: 91, even though the space I was bringing that car out of was tiny, and another car was partly blocking me, but it's just not the sort of thing I do. I drive a small, cheap car and I drive it carefully.
I don't think I can afford to not have a car. I don't do a lot of miles--in fact, most of the past 4 years I've cycled more miles per year than I've driven--but there are at least 4 short journeys a week that I make taking my son to various clubs and sporting activities that would be very difficult to do any other way. There is a car club car/Zipcar that is stored near where I live, so I could get a membership for that and use it, but the actual running cost of my car is around £90 a month* for insurance, petrol and annual maintenance and I'd definitely spend significantly more on car club fees or on public transport and taxis.
I've been hoping my car will get through another 18 months or so, and I'll replace it with an electric or hybrid that's leased rather than owned.
* I bought it used for cash, 8 years ago, so the car itself has no payments of any kind.
I keep getting hit by parking garage pillars. I don't know why they hate me. It's a large part of why I started taking the bus. I learned to drive in a town with one stoplight and no parking garages.
I had to be in the city for an event from 4-5 and grt yo a suburb for 5:30, so there was no way to take the train, so I did a Lyft with scheduled ipick up for 4:40. The first car bailed when thry figured out where i was going. So I got a ride at 5:00. 30 minute trip took 45 minutes during rush hour, and I was 15 minutes late.
Outside of the inner core those services aren't always reliable. I mean, if you live in Manhattan, taking the subway and taxis as needed is wonderful.
We really need for frequent rail and a North/South link. Until then, ???
I went seven years without a car when it was just me. Got a dog (now passed) and a kid and have to force us to ride bikes when we can. I keep saying that when this car dies (Honda Fit, 150,000m, so it could be another hundred thousand miles), I'm never buying another car. I get a whole lot of pushback on that, but I'm also the only one who can afford a car, so we'll see.
We have two eleven year old vehicles with 80000 miles each, and they're fine, and I hate car payments and I will drive them into the ground.
We have.a 17.5 year old vehicle with 90,000 miles. I will probably drive it into another parking garage pillar.
Rich or no, I'm going to do a better job of training the dog to run alongside bikes.
94: Right after I bought my current car the pillar in my own carport jumped out and hit me. I got it fixed, but then barely like two years later it did it again, and the repeat performance was too embarrassing for me to deal with, so I've been driving around with a dented front bumper ever since.
I hate owning a car, and I'm not good at it, but where I live it's fairly important to a reasonable quality of life. When we lived in Hollywood, M didn't have a car. He met a lot of interesting people on the bus, but I don't think he built any lasting friendships, so I don't feel like I'm missing out on much.
In theory, I should have an electric bike. The problem with theories is that they don't account for my low level of coõrdination.
I met a guy on thy bus who was later arrested for brandishing a hatch in the park. He looked the part.
Anyway, our bathroom is very nearly done. All plumbing fixtures now work.
Weird sad thing, although not terribly personally close to me.
I've been lifting weights since this summer in a tiny little gym two blocks from my apartment which I've been calling Sleazy Disco Gym because the owner/personal trainer was an absolutely ridiculous goofball idiot -- a bright spot in my day was eavesdropping on his absurd interactions with his training clients. I wasn't friends with him beyond saying hi when I walked in to work out, but I really enjoyed the steady buzz of attempted minor drug dealing/completely TMI discussion of his and his clients sex lives/pet care/occasional forays into oddly sane mentions of current events that would inevitably degenerate into something weird.
Anyway, he died in a car crash (I believe? Death is confirmed, car crash was gossip) earlier this week. Forty-something healthy cheerful guy. Like I said, he wasn't a friend but I'm sad anyway.
Oh god, how awful. I hate how fragile we all are.
109: I hear someone has a solution for that.
I had to be in the city for an event from 4-5 and grt yo a suburb for 5:30, so there was no way to take the train, so I did a Lyft with scheduled ipick up for 4:40. The first car bailed when thry figured out where i was going. So I got a ride at 5:00. 30 minute trip took 45 minutes during rush hour, and I was 15 minutes late.
Outside of the inner core those services aren't always reliable. I mean, if you live in Manhattan, taking the subway and taxis as needed is wonderful.
We really need for frequent rail and a North/South link. Until then, ???