Post a bad thing that happened in your life today

[gvallee]

7 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

I'm not a positive addition to Merseyside or the UK, but Gen -- you two are an important positive addition to Australia.  The Oz governors should see that. This situation is not right!

 

Don't put yourself down Edo, you do contribute to the UK through your images and spending (rent, food, etc). And you do feed Liverpool seagulls. And entertain lonely Eleanor. 

[Michael Ventura]

31 minutes ago, gvallee said:

 

Don't put yourself down Edo, you do contribute to the UK through your images and spending (rent, food, etc). And you do feed Liverpool seagulls. And entertain lonely Eleanor. 

 

Both you and Edo are assets to the host countries, you both probably leave way more money in the system and economy then you take. And you are both good people!

[John Mitchell]

The Canadian government plans to take in 500K immigrants by 2025, which is a big number in a country of 39 million. The main concern is of course the added stress on the already stretched healthcare system and other social services. The other is the high cost of living here. For instance, Canada has taken in a lot of Ukrainian refugees, and many are having trouble getting by, even with government assistance. Immigration has become a complicated matter. When my family moved here from England in the 50's, things seemed a lot simpler. But maybe they weren't...

[Betty LaRue]

15 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Get well soon.

 

Allan

 

2 pills and I have it knocked back. Thanks, Allan.

[Betty LaRue]

37 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

The Canadian government plans to take in 500K immigrants by 2025, which is a big number in a country of 39 million. The main concern is of course the added stress on the already stretched healthcare system and other social services. The other is the high cost of living here. For instance, Canada has taken in a lot of Ukrainian refugees, and many are having trouble getting by, even with government assistance. Immigration has become a complicated matter. When my family moved here from England in the 50's, things seemed a lot simpler. But maybe they weren't...

When I lived in Oklahoma City, it seemed a flood of Californians were selling their small two bedroom houses out there and moving to Oklahoma to retire, buying 3 or 4 bedroom brick houses with cash from their California sale and having 2/3 of it left for retirement. Why buy bigger? Room for their children and grandchildren to visit.

Of course, they had to trade earthquakes for tornadoes.

[Ed Rooney]

 

California to Oklahoma -- The Grapes of Wrath in reverse. Who'd a thunk it?

[John Mitchell]

15 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

When I lived in Oklahoma City, it seemed a flood of Californians were selling their small two bedroom houses out there and moving to Oklahoma to retire, buying 3 or 4 bedroom brick houses with cash from their California sale and having 2/3 of it left for retirement. Why buy bigger? Room for their children and grandchildren to visit.

Of course, they had to trade earthquakes for tornadoes.

 

Parts of BC get quite a few refugees from crowded California, which now has about the same population as all of Canada. Those powerful US dollars can go a long way here with the favourable exchange rate.

[Shergar]

On 05/11/2022 at 01:52, gvallee said:

Thank you for your good wishes. The Forum is a terrific community.

 

But I'm sad to report that the bad luck continues. Hubby is very sick. Like me, he's rarely ill, apart from our Covid bout. I think it's the stress and shock that we might not get our visas renewed. He has been fighting so hard for such a long time to get us permanent residency.

 

Meanwhile, my previous 'old' laptop has been stored in a cupboard, shaken around over corrugation, stored in extreme heat and now humidity. A few keys won't work anymore. I know about '1' in the keypad but apparently also some letters. Hence some accounts not accepting my password. As they display only ****  I don't know which letter is not working. I will test it tomorrow. So I have only 2 attempts left to log onto my French pension before being locked out. I need proof of pension for our visa. Imagine if I get locked out having to call France with the time difference to wrestle with their rigid bureaucracy while struggling to hear... Please stars, align for us.

 

 

Sounds like As one door opens another slams in your face Gen . I hope your luck changes soon . 

 

[Betty LaRue]

Gen, I’m sure you and hubs will find a way to make lemonade out of the lemons you’ve been handed. So sorry the beloved country you’ve adopted seems to want to kick you out when you are such a wonderful ambassador for it.

That's the way it seems to be for seniors these days. We are the throw-away generations, starting when we hit the 60s.

What a waste of wisdom and talent.
Look at Grandma Moses.

Betty

[Betty LaRue]

9 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

California to Oklahoma -- The Grapes of Wrath in reverse. Who'd a thunk it?

I know, Ed. Whoever would have thunk it.
When my husband was posted in CA (Air Force), we were treated like trash the second the natives found out where we were from. Now they are coming hat in hand grateful for the low cost of living and the super-friendly people who welcome them with open arms, like we personally did the couple that bought their home 2 houses down from us. They responded by inviting the neighbors to take shelter in their basement tornado shelter when the tornado sirens blew.

I expect it was so we could show them how to get out of the rubble if a twister hit their home. (Just kidding, they were great!)

[gvallee]

10 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Gen, I’m sure you and hubs will find a way to make lemonade out of the lemons you’ve been handed. So sorry the beloved country you’ve adopted seems to want to kick you out when you are such a wonderful ambassador for it.

That's the way it seems to be for seniors these days. We are the throw-away generations, starting when we hit the 60s.

What a waste of wisdom and talent.
Look at Grandma Moses.

Betty

 

Thank you Betty. It's 3am and we can't sleep. So we are glued to our tablets. 

Gen

[Rebecca Ore]

22 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

Yikes! Good luck, Gen. It's amazing how difficult huge, rich countries like Australia and Canada with relatively small populations can make things for people who are seeking residency through legitimate channels. It's not like there isn't plenty of room for newcomers, especially ones who are going to enrich society in various ways.

 

P.S. Illegal immigration problems in the US are another story. Best not to discuss. 😬

 

One of the realities of the real world is that some countries have a lot of land area that's either desert or tundra or both.  Nicaragua has the lowest population density of Central America, but a third of it is really wet all the time, with April being the only dry month, and other parts are extremely hot and have volcanos. 

 

One further complication for US citizens anywhere is that more of us are scofflaws than go through the channels.  My application for residency had its own complications.  I've learned the hard way not to pay any attention to what males from my passport country tell me.  I paid no bribes, pulled no connections though it probably helped that one of my references was FSLN (the other one burglarized my house, so even).   An Australian friend said that there are more US citizen illegals in Australia than Asians.  Canadians tend to be another form of gringos who think short cuts in the process work and ignoring the law against tourists and foreign residents getting involved in politics is just fine and will never have  repercussions.   Between USAnos, Canadians, and the Dutch, it's no wonder other countries are cautious about foreigners.  They remember that Mexico lost half its territory by encouraging US citizens to settle in Comanche territory. 

 

One reason those countries are rich is natural resources and relatively low populations because of freezing weather most of the year. 

 

If everyone in Central America move to the US, it would be less than 100 million people.   And all of them aren't moving and the smarter ones prefer Canada and Spain.  Some are coming back to Nicaragua. 

 

I was told I was being scammed by someone helping me that I wasn't paying; that I needed to use a lawyer I'd heard nothing good about from people who actually used him;  my other lawyer's secretary screwed up the translation paperwork.  The woman at the Nicaraguan Consulate in Washington who approved my basic paperwork told me I wouldn't have any problems.  The gringos told me Nicaraguans didn't know what they were talking about.  My FSLN friend said I wouldn't have any problems.  Her brother told me he'd have to speak to someone.  I got residency without him speaking to anyone.  This is in Nicaragua, a country my passport country has been invading periodically since 1854.

 

You're renewing in a country where you speak the language and have lived in the country for quite some time.   You may be right, but assuming my application for residency was simple and uncomplicated compared to what you're going through, sigh.  It was uncomplicated because I had the right documents prepared and didn't cut corners and didn't pretend to be a tourists for years on end like every other foreign resident of the town I moved to.  But I was terrified that all the gringo guys predicting that I would be denied and would have to get their pet lawyer to make it work, were right.  

 

I'm living in a country my passport country is punishing for not overthrowing Ortega and which my passport country has promised to fix by force if necessary under certain conditions.  Australia is one of my passport country's best buddies.

 

If my passport country invades my country of residence, I'll have to leave.  It has published a plan for doing this (RAIN Project).  I have to pay $52 US every six months to live here.   I have to go to Managua every six months to verify my address and pay my $52 for the next six months ID card.

 

Sorry to seem hostile, but....

 

 

[Bryan]

3:30 in the morning and I can't get back to sleep. I have no difficulty in going down when I head to bed between 9:30 and 10, but if I wake up during the night I find it very hard to find sleep. I guess this is a consequence of growing old, as a young man I would sleep solidly until the alarm rang in the morning.

 

No matter, the bad thing relates to our lounge ceiling. I was persuaded, against my better judgement, to give it a coat of paint. In my view it didn't need painting, but in the interests of domestic harmony I agreed to do the job. The existing paint job used  a silk finish, so it had a slight sheen to it, while we decided to go matt. Unfortunately the matt paint looks just like the silk finish when it is wet, so it proved to be very difficult to see what had been painted and what remained to be done. Add to this the problem of having to move furniture and protective sheets as I moved around the room, made finding where I had last painted to be next to impossible. Once dried, the resulting paint job revealed areas that I had missed, and having spent some considerable time in cleaning the paint roller, I was loathe to use it again. So we had to patch using a brush. 

 

The resulting job is just as white as it was before, I can detect no improvement in that sense, but there is a matt rather than silk finish. Thinking positively, it rained all day and the paint job kept me busy and gave me some exercise, but what a waste of time !

 

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by Bryan

[Betty LaRue]

I will choose a sharp razor to my throat over painting a ceiling. I have painted many over my life and I always ended up paint splattered and with a painful neck. Hate, hate it.
My sympathies are with you, Brian.

[Steve F]

12 hours ago, Bryan said:

in the interests of domestic harmony I agreed to do the job

 

Sounds familiar.... Poor you!

[Allan Bell]

3 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I will choose a sharp razor to my throat over painting a ceiling. I have painted many over my life and I always ended up paint splattered and with a painful neck. Hate, hate it.
My sympathies are with you, Brian.

 

Why would Bryan want your symphonies?   Oh No!   I see sympathies.

 

Allan

 

[Allan Bell]

2 minutes ago, Steve F said:

 

Sounds familiar.... Poor you!

 

When it comes to domestic harmony I am quite happy with myself.

 

Allan

 

[Bryan]

2 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

I will choose a sharp razor to my throat over painting a ceiling. I have painted many over my life and I always ended up paint splattered and with a painful neck. Hate, hate it.
My sympathies are with you, Brian.

Thanks Betty, but  since buying a telescopic roller pole, I can do the job walking across the floor, so, under normal circumstances, when it definitely needs a new coat of paint, it's not so bad.

 

I do have unhappy memories of climbing up and down steps, or using a plank between supports, painting using a brush - but things move on.

 

I once fell off a set of steps which collapsed and I landed on my back on the floor.  I was badly winded and my wife was very concerned, but no long term damage resulted.  

[Betty LaRue]

6 hours ago, Bryan said:

Thanks Betty, but  since buying a telescopic roller pole, I can do the job walking across the floor, so, under normal circumstances, when it definitely needs a new coat of paint, it's not so bad.

 

I do have unhappy memories of climbing up and down steps, or using a plank between supports, painting using a brush - but things move on.

 

I once fell off a set of steps which collapsed and I landed on my back on the floor.  I was badly winded and my wife was very concerned, but no long term damage resulted.  

I have always used telescopic poles on the roller for that job, but I still had to look up to be sure I was covering, running dry, etc, and my arms wore out along with my neck. So far, I never found any aid that made that job anything but a nightmare.

The longer the pole, the more strain on a woman’s arms. Maybe not a problem for you muscled men.

Then I always had to cut in the edges and around lights with a brush. That requires a ladder. And sometimes I get dizzy looking up and lose my equilibrium.

I sometimes got help painting from my husband, but he wasn’t a self-starter and considered my asking the same as nagging. I  usually just carried on with it and considered it a blessing if he joined me. If he’d ever looked around and said, “I Think I’ll paint the ceiling”, I would have had him committed for observation!

But he sure was fun to go fishing with, and he always complimented me on a job well done. He earned a decent living and was a steady worker, so I can’t complain. (Too much)

[NYCat]

I had a rather sad visit to the vet yesterday with my cat Possum. He only weighs ten pounds now and was always a fat fellow. A year ago he was almost eighteen pounds. I know he is at the end and it is turning out a bit easier than other cats who have had ghastly illnesses. Possum is just fading away. I was relieved the vet didn't suggest steroids or subcutaneous fluids. Now I just wait until he no longer seems happy. He wanted up on the bed this morning and purred as we cuddled so all is well for now. I just need to try different varieties of food to tempt him.

 

Paulette 

Edited November 17, 2022 by NYCat

[Betty LaRue]

2 hours ago, NYCat said:

I had a rather sad visit to the vet yesterday with my cat Possum. He only weighs ten pounds now and was always a fat fellow. A year ago he was almost eighteen pounds. I know he is at the end and it is turning out a bit easier than other cats who have had ghastly illnesses. Possum is just fading away. I was relieved the vet didn't suggest steroids or subcutaneous fluids. Now I just wait until he no longer seems happy. He wanted up on the bed this morning and purred as we cuddled so all is well for now. I just need to try different varieties of food to tempt him.

 

Paulette 

That's sad. I know I was at that delicate balance with my little Yorkie, when she developed kidney disease. I knew when the balance tipped (seizures) and did what I had to do. Hardest thing ever. I spent a lot of time petting her, running my hands over her to commit her feel to memory, smelling her fur for the same. She’s in my heart, now.

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, Betty LaRue said:

That's sad. I know I was at that delicate balance with my little Yorkie, when she developed kidney disease. I knew when the balance tipped (seizures) and did what I had to do. Hardest thing ever. I spent a lot of time petting her, running my hands over her to commit her feel to memory, smelling her fur for the same. She’s in my heart, now.

We've only ever had one pet, a dog that we took in when its owners separated and couldn't look after it.  I was against the idea, but the sight of my two sons in tears was enough to change my mind.  So I had a love/hate relationship with this creature, who turned out to be an intelligent and friendly animal, although rather too keen on wandering off when our backs were turned.

 

12 years later, when it was clear what was the kindest thing to do, my wife and I took him to the vets and I confess, tears flowed again. 

 

I'd like to think that, in the fullness of time,  somebody would do the same for me, but that would require a change in the law.

 

 

[Betty LaRue]

3 hours ago, Bryan said:

We've only ever had one pet, a dog that we took in when its owners separated and couldn't look after it.  I was against the idea, but the sight of my two sons in tears was enough to change my mind.  So I had a love/hate relationship with this creature, who turned out to be an intelligent and friendly animal, although rather too keen on wandering off when our backs were turned.

 

12 years later, when it was clear what was the kindest thing to do, my wife and I took him to the vets and I confess, tears flowed again. 

 

I'd like to think that, in the fullness of time,  somebody would do the same for me, but that would require a change in the law.

 

 

They do tend to worm their way into your affections.
I’ve always been an animal lover, cats, dogs, birds. When I was two, some kid sat me on a huge white dog called, of course, Whitey. I rode him, clutching his fur, until his rolling hide dumped me after a few steps.

Yes, I remember it, along with some other incredibly young memories. The earliest, I was about 8-10 months old, a clip of about one or two minutes. Then a half dozen or so at two, most everything at three. Very mundane happenings, but somehow I guess they stood out to me.

[gvallee]

My $114 sale was refunded today 😪

[Michael Ventura]

7 minutes ago, gvallee said:

My $114 sale was refunded today 😪

😥