Post a good thing that happened in your life today

[Betty LaRue]

8 hours ago, Michael Ventura said:

Betty, your winter weather package 📦 is just too much, very kind of you but we just got another four inches of fresh snow over night.  My daughter just called, from her night shift at the hospital, wanting me to get her.  Her car is front wheel drive and I have a small SUV.  Our snow plowing services are not as great as they are in north and Midwest.

Gripe, gripe, gripe. Try to do a favor fer someone. Geez. 😂 Sorry about that, Michael. This past week has been pretty brutal for a lot of states. We're down around 15 degrees at the moment at 2pm.

So what did I do to counteract the wintertime blues? I baked a coconut cream pie. It’ll be cooler & set in about an hour or two, then I’ll have a slice while it’s still warmish.

.

Edited January 19 by Betty LaRue

[Michael Ventura]

45 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Gripe, gripe, gripe. Try to do a favor fer someone. Geez. 😂 Sorry about that, Michael. This past week has been pretty brutal for a lot of states. We're down around 15 degrees at the moment at 2pm.

So what did I do to counteract the wintertime blues? I baked a coconut cream pie. It’ll be cooler & set in about an hour or two, then I’ll have a slice while it’s still warmish.

.

 

I know you were only trying help...much appreciated! 😄.   Now that coconut cream pie sounds wonderful, send some of that!  We have a bitter cold day tomorrow and then by mid week, it will be downright balmy, in the 50s.  So all this white stuff will be a muddy slop.

[Betty LaRue]

7 hours ago, Michael Ventura said:

 

I know you were only trying help...much appreciated! 😄.   Now that coconut cream pie sounds wonderful, send some of that!  We have a bitter cold day tomorrow and then by mid week, it will be downright balmy, in the 50s.  So all this white stuff will be a muddy slop.

Funny how one or two biggish snows satisfy quickly and then you are so DONE with it.
Oh, if you were here, I’d serve you what my son-in-law calls “a LaRue piece of pie.” That’s a 4th of a pie. When he started dating my daughter & I served him a LaRue piece of pie for the first time, his eyes bugged out. He ate every bite & thereafter said he wanted a LaRue piece of pie. His mom served slivers, probably about 3 bites.

And yes, when I eat a piece that big, it’s the only thing I eat, with a glass of iced tea. Winter or not. Gotta blame my mom because that’s what she served. When we were raising 3 teenagers, I never made one pie, I made two. Often a cherry & an apple, or a lemon meringue & a coconut cream meringue. Sometimes other flavors like chocolate & butterscotch. Or apricot. Lots of peach & blackberry cobblers. (I won’t mention the fried pies that were gobbled as they came out of the pan)

Edited January 20 by Betty LaRue

[Ed Rooney]

 

Bone jaw. Pardon my French, but looking out the window at another cold damp dark day has chilled my brain. Should I slip on Mister Puffy and try for a morning walk with a RX100 secure in a hadwarmer pocket or should I just make some more coffee?  These are the hard winter retirement decisions I face here in northwest England. 🤔

 

Edited January 20 by Ed Rooney

[NYCat]

3 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Bone jaw. Pardon my French, but looking out the window at another cold damp dark day has chilled my brain. Should I slip on Mister Puffy and try for a morning walk with a RX100 secure in a hadwarmer pocket or should I just make some more coffee?  These are the hard winter retirement decisions I face here in northwest England. 🤔

 

 

This is about the only thing i dislike about feeding people's cats. I can't skip a day and stay home. The kitties get hungry every day.

 

Paulette

[Allan Bell]

5 hours ago, NYCat said:

 

This is about the only thing i dislike about feeding people's cats. I can't skip a day and stay home. The kitties get hungry every day.

 

Paulette

 

They won't starve if left for a day. They cannot tell their owners you let them go hungry either.😔

 

Allan

 

[Betty LaRue]

4 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

They won't starve if left for a day. They cannot tell their owners you let them go hungry either.😔

 

Allan

 

Aww, Allan, Paulette has too soft of a heart to allow a kitty to go hungry. Besides…she doesn’t want to walk through a door the next day & get attacked by a hungry tiger/cat. 😁 Cats hold grudges way more than dogs do.

A cat I once had that always ignored my parakeet, decided one day to attack its cage. I watched as she stalked across the floor. I walked over & stood by the cage. The cat was so intent it paid no attention to me, its eyes were on the bird. She sprang for the cage. I put my hand out & blocked her leap. She fell to the floor scrambling, & from that day forward never had another thing to do with me. I even had to get my husband or one of the kids to call her to eat because she refused to come if I called her. Talk about pi**ed. Before that day I was her person. I guess she felt I betrayed her. But who knows what a cat thinks? I don’t.

Edited January 20 by Betty LaRue

[NYCat]

Nobody knows what cats think. I think their intelligence is overrated. (Don't tell any cats I said that). They are gorgeous airheads. No good cat-sitter would skip a feeding and I am the best. 😉

 

Paulette

[Allan Bell]

18 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Aww, Allan, Paulette has too soft of a heart to allow a kitty to go hungry. Besides…she doesn’t want to walk through a door the next day & get attacked by a hungry tiger/cat. 😁 Cats hold grudges way more than dogs do.

A cat I once had that always ignored my parakeet, decided one day to attack its cage. I watched as she stalked across the floor. I walked over & stood by the cage. The cat was so intent it paid no attention to me, its eyes were on the bird. She sprang for the cage. I put my hand out & blocked her leap. She fell to the floor scrambling, & from that day forward never had another thing to do with me. I even had to get my husband or one of the kids to call her to eat because she refused to come if I called her. Talk about pi**ed. Before that day I was her person. I guess she felt I betrayed her. But who knows what a cat thinks? I don’t.

 

17 hours ago, NYCat said:

Nobody knows what cats think. I think their intelligence is overrated. (Don't tell any cats I said that). They are gorgeous airheads. No good cat-sitter would skip a feeding and I am the best. 😉

 

Paulette

 

Sorry I was part joking as I knew Paulette would not let them suffer.

 

Allan

 

[Betty LaRue]

17 hours ago, NYCat said:

Nobody knows what cats think. I think their intelligence is overrated. (Don't tell any cats I said that). They are gorgeous airheads. No good cat-sitter would skip a feeding and I am the best. 😉

 

Paulette

Yes you are! I always said you can own a dog but a cat owns you. I had 5 cats through the years, childhood on. They’ll roll over for you to rub their bellies then punish you when you do. So you freeze & wait for them to release their teeth & claws. Heaven forbid don’t recoil or you’ll be shredded.

[Allan Bell]

1 minute ago, Betty LaRue said:

Yes you are! I always said you can own a dog but a cat owns you. I had 5 cats through the years, childhood on. They’ll roll over for you to rub their bellies then punish you when you do. So you freeze & wait for them to release their teeth & claws. Heaven forbid don’t recoil or you’ll be shredded.

 

We had a neutered tom which we got for our daughter at her bequest but who looked after it?

 

I used to play with it a lot and whenever it grabbed me with it's claws and teeth I could see the claws were only just out of the sheaths and it's bite was so soft only just touching my skin.

 

Allan

 

[Betty LaRue]

1 minute ago, Allan Bell said:

 

We had a neutered tom which we got for our daughter at her bequest but who looked after it?

 

I used to play with it a lot and whenever it grabbed me with it's claws and teeth I could see the claws were only just out of the sheaths and it's bite was so soft only just touching my skin.

 

Allan

 

Yes they can be gentle. Or not. I learned that being lured in to give a belly rub to only do a couple of strokes then get out with my life. Some cats are just big limp lovers, others are feistier.

[Michael Ventura]

9 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Yes you are! I always said you can own a dog but a cat owns you. I had 5 cats through the years, childhood on. They’ll roll over for you to rub their bellies then punish you when you do. So you freeze & wait for them to release their teeth & claws. Heaven forbid don’t recoil or you’ll be shredded.

 

Yes, my daughter's cat is very sweet until you rub an area deemed unsuitable for rubbing.  Head, yes.  Along the spine, closer to the tail, yes! Ribs and belly, NO!  I think it is just an instinct to protect their organs.

[Rebecca Ore]

2 hours ago, Michael Ventura said:

 

Yes, my daughter's cat is very sweet until you rub an area deemed unsuitable for rubbing.  Head, yes.  Along the spine, closer to the tail, yes! Ribs and belly, NO!  I think it is just an instinct to protect their organs.

 

Exposing the belly is "I trust you," not "I want you to rub when my most vulnerable organs are."   

[Betty LaRue]

8 hours ago, Rebecca Ore said:

 

Exposing the belly is "I trust you," not "I want you to rub when my most vulnerable organs are."   

That seems reasonable.

[Allan Bell]

7 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

That seems reasonable.

 

It is said that cats do not like to sleep on their backs but our cat used to get in our daughters dolls pram and go to sleep with legs sticking up in the air flat on it's back.

 

Allan

 

[NYCat]

My cat Panda loves to lie on her back. Looks pretty silly. Sometimes she lets me pet the belly. It helps to start under the chin.

 

Paulette

[Michael Ventura]

 

Not sure my daughter's cat completely trusts me.  Shot this yesterday with my phone.  He was enjoying the sunshine while on his window bed.

[Bryan]

7 hours ago, Michael Ventura said:

 

 

Not sure my daughter's cat completely trusts me.  Shot this yesterday with my phone.  He was enjoying the sunshine while on his window bed.

☺️

[NYCat]

Definitely checking you out.

 

Paulette

[Bryan]

We survived windy winds last night, the only casualty a flower pot blown over, I confess I was a tad concerned when heading for bed as the wind sounded pretty fierce outside. In fact I don't think that it was particularly strong here, but a 90 mph gust was recorded in Northumberland.

 

Then today our trusty gas engineer came out and replaced the three way valve in our central heating system.  He's not the cheapest, but he's the only guy that I have come across who really does appear to know what he is doing with our aged hot water tank system. Everything working fine at the moment.

[sb photos]

9 hours ago, Bryan said:

We survived windy winds last night, the only casualty a flower pot blown over, I confess I was a tad concerned when heading for bed as the wind sounded pretty fierce outside. In fact I don't think that it was particularly strong here, but a 90 mph gust was recorded in Northumberland.

 

Here in Buckinghamshire the wind started building up from mid evening. It annoyingly caused the front door letterbox flap to tap away, that had never happened before. Monday morning I found a large amount of Pyracantha berries had been blown off and were deposited by the from door, as were flakes from the sides of a large terracotta pot by the front door. All else was OK. Some roads had water just level with the pavements. 

[gvallee]

Talking about driving, I had my dose of adrenaline today. We had decided to visit a remote railway depot of the Indian Pacific Railway line called Cook, located at the end of a 105km dirt road. Warning sign at the entrance: road not maintained, 4x4 only, dry weather only.

It started well enough, although slower than predicted. Only 30km from arrival, black clouds started to gather. A sense of unease hit us. Quite rightly, because it destroys dirt roads, if you are caught on one when it's wet, the fine is several thousand dollars per wheel, including the spare wheel.

When wet, it usually takes one week for the road to dry off and be usable again. To top it off, the temperature was 45C/113F, feeling like 47C/116F! Talking about cooking in Cook!

We pushed on, hoping for the best. The road deteriorated. The belt was slipping and screeching with the heat and the dust, the dashcam was beeping in protest, bull dust holes were so deep we could reach Europe. Finally, a screw from the overhead cab aircon unit fell on my head, leaving me wondering what had attacked me.

Cook was such a forlorn place that we could not contemplate being stuck there for a week. We saw some rain falling in the distance on the left hand side of the road, we turned back. The race was on. We made it just in time.

When I looked towards the back of our bus, I saw that the plastic cover of our split aircon had collapsed on the bed and a thick coat of red dust was covering everything...

 

 

Edited January 23 by gvallee

[Dave Richards]

On 23/01/2024 at 06:00, sb photos said:

 

Here in Buckinghamshire the wind started building up from mid evening. It annoyingly caused the front door letterbox flap to tap away, that had never happened before. Monday morning I found a large amount of Pyracantha berries had been blown off and were deposited by the from door, as were flakes from the sides of a large terracotta pot by the front door. All else was OK. Some roads had water just level with the pavements. 

No problems to report but I remain concerned about a very big tree in my next door neighbours garden. The trunk divides about 5ft above ground level with a large cleft that collects rainwater. The two trunks then rise to around 50ft and do whip about in the wind. Even worse when the tree is in full leaf. I just have visions of the trunks splitting one day and demolishing my garden cabin. Good news that it hasn’t happened……. yet!

Edited January 24 by Dave Richards
added text

[Gervais Montacute]

Bought a new camera today. First one in 10 or 12 years. Arrives tomorrow.