Post a good thing that happened in your life today

[Mr Standfast]

1 hour ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Betty, your mom was one of those Oklahomans who weathered The Dust Bowl in the '30s, one of our toughest Americans. Be proud.

Grapes of Wrath is a favourite film.

[Betty LaRue]

2 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Betty, your mom was one of those Oklahomans who weathered The Dust Bowl in the '30s, one of our toughest Americans. Be proud.

I am, Ed. After the dust bowl was over in Oklahoma, we had a severe dust storm on the farm when I was 8. Mother wet sheets & blankets & hung them in the doorways. Entrances and inside doorways. I remember how shocked I was at how quickly they turned to mud. I remember grit between my teeth & in my eyes. The wind howled at the corners of the house & made the scariest, high pitched racket…starting at a low moan, then ramping up. One of the loneliest, most desolate sounds I ever heard. It lasted two days.

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

first time in our 22+ years, wifey & I have

TWO itineraries planned in advance:

 😲__ 😲__ 😲

a. Nov 12-night Merida MX roam-around

b. Dec 7-night NCL Caribbean itinerary

the latter is our first of many cruises as

paying passengers, my stock $$ is effort

to recapture costs, not expecting much

profit under conditions these days.....

any comments related to how well cruise

images license on Alamy appreciated...

[Rebecca Ore]

A local hardware store had hose menders.   Yesterday, I found out my garden hose was leaking in one spot.   We've been leaving it connected to an open water tap, but I think I'm going to be doing checks to make sure the water tap to the hose is shut off when we're not using the sprayer on the other end.   Ah, sigh.   The hose has lovely brass fittings and wasn't cheap, imported, I think, from Mexico.   If I couldn't get a hose mender locally, I was looking at importing from Lee Valley Tools or buying a new hose here.  The hose mender I bought this morning cost 50 cordobas, which is around 1.50 US.  From Lee Valley Tools, it would have been almost $4 US plus shipping.   I'll see how the cheap one works.

 

My neighborhood coffee shop now has tiramisu at the coffee shop on the corner, along with near world class coffee.  Next corner north is the hardware store.   Across from the coffee shop is a baker's supply store.

[geogphotos]

1 hour ago, Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg said:

first time in our 22+ years, wifey & I have

TWO itineraries planned in advance:

 😲__ 😲__ 😲

a. Nov 12-night Merida MX roam-around

b. Dec 7-night NCL Caribbean itinerary

the latter is our first of many cruises as

paying passengers, my stock $$ is effort

to recapture costs, not expecting much

profit under conditions these days.....

any comments related to how well cruise

images license on Alamy appreciated...

 

 

Around Merida you should try to cover what is happening with Tren Maya - huge infrastructure and construction work going on and no doubt associated hotels and transport links. 

 

I took some snaps through a bus window and one was the very first to license from our 7 weeks Mexico trip.

 

Have a look there's not much on Alamy or anywhere else.

 

 

 

The Tren Maya (sometimes also Mayan Train or Maya Train) is a 1,525-kilometre (948 mi) intercity railway in Mexico that will traverse the Yucatán Peninsula. Construction began in June 2020 and the railway is scheduled to begin operation by December 1, 2023. The railway begins in Palenque in Chiapas and travels northeast towards Cancún in Quintana Roo via two routes that encircle the peninsula. The project aims to connect tourist destinations in the Caribbean with lesser-known sites inland, including historic Mayan sites from which it derives its name.^[1][2]

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2023 by geogphotos

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

19 hours ago, geogphotos said:

Around Merida you should try to cover what is happening with Tren Maya

thanks for tip mate

you're a real chum you are

if I understand online info correctly, nearest station

Tren Maya Estación Teya

is ~6 miles southeast of city center & has

grand opening 48 bloody hours after we depart !!

😫___ 😫___ 😫

Most of our shooting is city center & north

of city center -- buy will be on lookout for

promotional posters, etc.  Ta!  jg

[StokeCreative]

On 29/09/2023 at 22:11, Mr Standfast said:

Grapes of Wrath is a favourite film.

Just read the book for the first time. Havent seen the film since I was a kid, must try and track it down

 

[Mr Standfast]

59 minutes ago, StokeCreative said:

Just read the book for the first time. Havent seen the film since I was a kid, must try and track it down

 

 

Seen the film but not read the book. Might put that right,

[Martin L]

1 hour ago, Mr Standfast said:

 

Seen the film but not read the book. Might put that right,

Do it, it is the best book I have ever read

[Allan Bell]

Had my covid - 19 booster jab this afternoon 3.15pm.

 

The bad part - it hurt like hell.

 

OK now 9.00pm.

 

Allan

 

[Betty LaRue]

12 hours ago, Martin L said:

Do it, it is the best book I have ever read

You’re right, superb writing, in spite of how the book made other people look down on us Okies even years later. I remember when my husband was stationed at an air base in California. We were always as well-dressed as anyone when we were out. People would be friendly & chat with us until they asked where we were from.

When we said, Oklahoma, the friendliness turned to frozen expressions & all of a sudden we were beneath them & the friendliness ended.

[Ed Rooney]

 

I was friends with Louis Waldon and another actor who grew up as Okies in California. The Grapes of Wrath was a comment on The Great Depression, not America at its best. I reread the Steinbeck novel a few years ago. 

[Mr Standfast]

On 04/10/2023 at 12:07, Martin L said:

Do it, it is the best book I have ever read

 

Started...

 

To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.

[Martin L]

55 minutes ago, Mr Standfast said:

 

Started...

 

To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.

👍

[NYCat]

A beautiful shower this morning in my own bathroom. My previous apartment had a tub and I thought I might miss it although I almost never used it. After a week of taking a shower while standing in my neighbors tub I really appreciate moving around in my rather large shower stall and no stepping over the edge of a tub. Both would be ideal but NYC apartments are small and every inch counts. 

 

Paulette

[Betty LaRue]

On 06/10/2023 at 14:09, Mr Standfast said:

 

Started...

 

To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.

As a child growing up in Oklahoma, I never paid much attention to the red dirt until the summer on the farm when I was 8. It was hot, & the only body of water around was the windmill-fed cow tank. How the cows managed to get red dirt in the water, I’ll never know. My sister & I splashed around in the cow tank to cool off. Nothing like cow slobbers.

I outgrew my swimsuit, so Mom sent me down in white underwear, nobody was around. My sister still had a swimsuit. When I was done that first time, my undies & undershirt was stained red clay color. Once stained, it couldn’t be washed or bleached out.

That stuck in my head forever. When we were looking for a house to buy in Oklahoma City, if the realtor pulled up in front of a house where I could see red dirt, I told her to keep driving. Because red dirt tracked in on carpet was bad news.

The house we bought had brown soil, but if we dug a hole deep enough to plant a tree, we got into red soil.

[Michael Ventura]

7 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

As a child growing up in Oklahoma, I never paid much attention to the red dirt until the summer on the farm when I was 8. It was hot, & the only body of water around was the windmill-fed cow tank. How the cows managed to get red dirt in the water, I’ll never know. My sister & I splashed around in the cow tank to cool off. Nothing like cow slobbers.

I outgrew my swimsuit, so Mom sent me down in white underwear, nobody was around. My sister still had a swimsuit. When I was done that first time, my undies & undershirt was stained red clay color. Once stained, it couldn’t be washed or bleached out.

That stuck in my head forever. When we were looking for a house to buy in Oklahoma City, if the realtor pulled up in front of a house where I could see red dirt, I told her to keep driving. Because red dirt tracked in on carpet was bad news.

The house we bought had brown soil, but if we dug a hole deep enough to plant a tree, we got into red soil.

 

Well it is fitting since I always remember reading the meaning of the name Oklahoma is "red people".   Must be from the iron rich dirt there.  Found this on Wikipedia:

Oklahoma is based on Native American (Choctaw) words "okla humma" which translates as "red people."

[NYCat]

The dirt at the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi is red. When a new little elephant orphan comes in grey it takes some time for it to match the other elephants. They take dust baths to protect their skin from sun and insects.

 

Baby elephant taking dust bath

 

Paulette

Edited October 12, 2023 by NYCat

[spacecadet]

11 hours ago, NYCat said:

The dirt at the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi is red. When a new little elephant orphan comes in grey it takes some time for it to match the other elephants. They take dust baths to protect their skin from sun and insects.

 

Baby elephant taking dust bath

 

Paulette

Red elephants. I love it.

Don't they sometimes paint elephants red in India, for religious purposes? Perhaps it's just this......

[Betty LaRue]

A farmer’s field in Oklahoma.

[Bryan]

After much discussion and general procrastination we have finally agreed plans for a family holiday next year. Locations mooted included the south of France, Italy, the Belgian coast etc, but for reasons beyond my ken we, actually they, settled on a holiday village in Wales. It will probably rain, but we'll have our sons, their partners and our grandchildren together for a week so should be good. Many years ago we stayed on a farm in Wales with our kids and both sets of our parents. I recall helping with the haymaking and having to retire due to a bad case of hay fever. It's a long way to drive, but we'll probably break the journey. 

[zxzoomy]

Young footballers, who also play a range of other sports to increase their physical fitness, at Bredgrove Park Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK. I tried to run about with them and I will take their advice to go back to the gym as an elderly man, aged 71. They were wild and such fun to be with, though varied in their reactions when they knew I had always known I was gay since I was ten years old. They lined up against the fence here and I knew I was shooting into the sun but so be it.

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by zxzoomy

[Steve Hyde]

On 15/10/2023 at 21:08, Bryan said:

After much discussion and general procrastination we have finally agreed plans for a family holiday next year. Locations mooted included the south of France, Italy, the Belgian coast etc, but for reasons beyond my ken we, actually they, settled on a holiday village in Wales. It will probably rain, but we'll have our sons, their partners and our grandchildren together for a week so should be good. Many years ago we stayed on a farm in Wales with our kids and both sets of our parents. I recall helping with the haymaking and having to retire due to a bad case of hay fever. It's a long way to drive, but we'll probably break the journey. 

Where are you staying Bryan?

[gvallee]

Sooo, after months in the wilderness, we are finally in a big town to deal with various repairs. Stress is an understatement. Those spaghetti motorways with traffic jams at any time of the day, any day.

Being claustrophobic, I nearly had a panic attack when I found myself in a lift in a strange concrete block of appartments taking my drone for repairs. I relaxed when the repairer took one of his rescue kangaroos out in the corridor. What!? In a flat?!

This post is in the good thing thread because I enjoyed the human inter-action. The problem when you live in a motorhome and the garage needs it for a couple of days, you are basically homeless. So we booked into a hotel and took Ubers for various errands. So far, the drivers' nationalities were: Bhutan, Venezuela, Scotland, Pakistan (x2), India, Italy.

It is fascinating to hear these people's stories, how they ended up in Australia and their circumstances. Some are silent either because of cultural reasons or shyness, some are exhuberant, some totally disinterested in their customers, some are curious, some are fascinated. Hubby having travelled the world since he was 17 yo, is usually able to share his long ago trip and vivid recollections in the driver's country. It makes for good listening. A window on humanity.

 

[NYCat]

1 hour ago, gvallee said:

Sooo, after months in the wilderness, we are finally in a big town to deal with various repairs. Stress is an understatement. Those spaghetti motorways with traffic jams at any time of the day, any day.

Being claustrophobic, I nearly had a panic attack when I found myself in a lift in a strange concrete block of appartments taking my drone for repairs. I relaxed when the repairer took one of his rescue kangaroos out in the corridor. What!? In a flat?!

This post is in the good thing thread because I enjoyed the human inter-action. The problem when you live in a motorhome and the garage needs it for a couple of days, you are basically homeless. So we booked into a hotel and took Ubers for various errands. So far, the drivers' nationalities were: Bhutan, Venezuela, Scotland, Pakistan (x2), India, Italy.

It is fascinating to hear these people's stories, how they ended up in Australia and their circumstances. Some are silent either because of cultural reasons or shyness, some are exhuberant, some totally disinterested in their customers, some are curious, some are fascinated. Hubby having travelled the world since he was 17 yo, is usually able to share his long ago trip and vivid recollections in the driver's country. It makes for good listening. A window on humanity.

 

 

Lovely. New York City is like that. Maybe the best thing about living here. No kangaroos though.

 

Paulette