Post a bad thing that happened in your life today

[geogphotos]

My wife woke me up very early saying that she had to get up because the cosmos was about to die. Heavy!

 

Realised that she meant she was going to water some plants. 

[Mr Standfast]

1 hour ago, geogphotos said:

My wife woke me up very early saying that she had to get up because the cosmos was about to die. Heavy!

 

Realised that she meant she was going to water some plants. 

Never underestimate a wife with a purpose! 😊

[Allan Bell]

2 hours ago, geogphotos said:

My wife woke me up very early saying that she had to get up because the cosmos was about to die. Heavy!

 

Realised that she meant she was going to water some plants. 

 

In a state of half wakefulness I would find it very scary.

 

Allan

 

[geogphotos]

18 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

In a state of half wakefulness I would find it very scary.

 

Allan

 

 

 

Indeed, I thought global warming was bad enough! 😁

[NYCat]

4 hours ago, geogphotos said:

My wife woke me up very early saying that she had to get up because the cosmos was about to die. Heavy!

 

Realised that she meant she was going to water some plants. 

 

Tee hee. Laughing emoji here..

 

Paulette

[Betty LaRue]

Hit over 100 degrees yesterday. Will do again today & tomorrow. Summer is definitely here.

[Michael Ventura]

54 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Hit over 100 degrees yesterday. Will do again today & tomorrow. Summer is definitely here.

 

I guess we are next, usually what you get, we get (in the Mid-Atlantic) a few days later.  We have enjoyed the mildest start of summer in my memory.  Most days have been below average temp and humidity....I think the heat and humidity is coming this weekend.  But we do have the smoky skies from the Canadian wildfires and that is not so fun either.

[NYCat]

3 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Hit over 100 degrees yesterday. Will do again today & tomorrow. Summer is definitely here.

 

Uh oh. Coming here too I guess. Today is really gorgeous. Since my new TV is not being installed I have the day free to roam and I walked a mile up Fifth Ave. to Madison Square Park. Why, oh why, oh why can't Washington Square Park be like that. We are plagued with homeless addicts and dealers. Definitely what we term a "needle park". Madison Square Park is a treat. Beautiful and peaceful with lots of babies, dogs and toddlers. I thought I might walk home but I had gone into Eataly (amazing place with Italian specialties of all kinds) and I saw a salmon focaccia that made me suddenly hungry so I bought one and took a bus downtown. As we entered Greenwich Village I saw how wonderful the good parts are and it gave me hope that my immediate neighborhood, including the Park, will recover.

 

Paulette

[Betty LaRue]

8 hours ago, NYCat said:

 

Uh oh. Coming here too I guess. Today is really gorgeous. Since my new TV is not being installed I have the day free to roam and I walked a mile up Fifth Ave. to Madison Square Park. Why, oh why, oh why can't Washington Square Park be like that. We are plagued with homeless addicts and dealers. Definitely what we term a "needle park". Madison Square Park is a treat. Beautiful and peaceful with lots of babies, dogs and toddlers. I thought I might walk home but I had gone into Eataly (amazing place with Italian specialties of all kinds) and I saw a salmon focaccia that made me suddenly hungry so I bought one and took a bus downtown. As we entered Greenwich Village I saw how wonderful the good parts are and it gave me hope that my immediate neighborhood, including the Park, will recover.

 

Paulette

It’s a bit amazing sometimes when one moves into a neighborhood that functions well, then over some years it changes so much, sometimes drastically.  
When we bought our home on a cul de sac in Oklahoma City, there was so much to like. Everyone on our street talked to each other. Waved, stopped to chat when they saw you out tending flowers or whatever. I often walked across the street & down two houses to visit with an old widower, Luther. Loved him. He’d be sitting at the opening of his garage in a lawn chair & when he saw me coming, he’d run to fetch a chair from his garage for me. We’d sit & discuss my photography , gardening (he was a Master Gardener) & shared politics. There was a neighborhood food store a couple of minutes away. Also a steakhouse, a movie theatre, a great cafeteria. All walking distance if one wanted.

The theatre closed. The cafeteria went out of business, and the steakhouse sold to a lesser type restaurant, then finally was razed for a car wash.  Neighbors moved, the new ones coming in kept to themselves. 

Luther had a heart attack & died while taking a shower.

The area began looking shabby. From being the newest on our street, we became the oldest to live there.

Then we moved states.

 

[sb photos]

4 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

It’s a bit amazing sometimes when one moves into a neighborhood that functions well, then over some years it changes so much, sometimes drastically.  
When we bought our home on a cul de sac in Oklahoma City, there was so much to like. Everyone on our street talked to each other. Waved, stopped to chat when they saw you out tending flowers or whatever. I often walked across the street & down two houses to visit with an old widower, Luther. Loved him. He’d be sitting at the opening of his garage in a lawn chair & when he saw me coming, he’d run to fetch a chair from his garage for me. We’d sit & discuss my photography , gardening (he was a Master Gardener) & shared politics. There was a neighborhood food store a couple of minutes away. Also a steakhouse, a movie theatre, a great cafeteria. All walking distance if one wanted.

The theatre closed. The cafeteria went out of business, and the steakhouse sold to a lesser type restaurant, then finally was razed for a car wash.  Neighbors moved, the new ones coming in kept to themselves. 

Luther had a heart attack & died while taking a shower.

The area began looking shabby. From being the newest on our street, we became the oldest to live there.

Then we moved states.

 

 

What you have described is I believe sadly a sign of the times. When we moved into our current house it was new and a high percentage of families had children at various ages. As my daughter grew up she became friends with our neighbours children then us with the adults. Now nearly everybody keeps to their selves. I will attempt to chat to the newer neighbours as they clean their cars or tend front gardens but it appears the technique of conversation is lost. I have better conversations with strangers while walking. Is this countrywide?

[spacecadet]

3 hours ago, sb photos said:

 

What you have described is I believe sadly a sign of the times. When we moved into our current house it was new and a high percentage of families had children at various ages. As my daughter grew up she became friends with our neighbours children then us with the adults. Now nearly everybody keeps to their selves. I will attempt to chat to the newer neighbours as they clean their cars or tend front gardens but it appears the technique of conversation is lost. I have better conversations with strangers while walking. Is this countrywide?

AFAICS, populations are much more mobile in the US and people move, even great distances, much more often than in Europe, often for economic reasons (for example, job security is much more precarious). So a place can change much more quickly. "There goes the neighbourhood" becomes self-fulfilling. Add in far greater inequality and you begin to see what's being described.

[NYCat]

I have to put in something nice I saw on my way up Fifth Ave. in the Village. A very young man was taking a picture of what seemed to be his family and a woman passing by offered to take one of them all together and he joined his family. Such a nice little thing to do. Only took a moment and I'm sure was appreciated.

 

Paulette

[Michael Ventura]

Deleted...wrong thread

Edited June 30, 2023 by Michael Ventura

[Betty LaRue]

6 hours ago, sb photos said:

 

What you have described is I believe sadly a sign of the times. When we moved into our current house it was new and a high percentage of families had children at various ages. As my daughter grew up she became friends with our neighbours children then us with the adults. Now nearly everybody keeps to their selves. I will attempt to chat to the newer neighbours as they clean their cars or tend front gardens but it appears the technique of conversation is lost. I have better conversations with strangers while walking. Is this countrywide?

I believe a lot of the disconnect is caused by our devices. When I was a small girl, hardly anyone had televisions or even air conditioners. I think I was around nine when we got a window water cooler which didn’t work as well on humid days. Humid was the norm in our area.

On hot days/evenings, it was common to see people sitting on their front porches sipping iced tea…talking to neighbors. My stepfather & the man next door hung over their common fence & chewed the fat (colloquialism) almost every evening. 
Now it’s stay in under the aircon, watch television, mess with our devices…and disconnect with face-to-face interactions.

[Michael Ventura]

6 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I believe a lot of the disconnect is caused by our devices. When I was a small girl, hardly anyone had televisions or even air conditioners. I think I was around nine when we got a window water cooler which didn’t work as well on humid days. Humid was the norm in our area.

On hot days/evenings, it was common to see people sitting on their front porches sipping iced tea…talking to neighbors. My stepfather & the man next door hung over their common fence & chewed the fat (colloquialism) almost every evening. 
Now it’s stay in under the aircon, watch television, mess with our devices…and disconnect with face-to-face interactions.

Yes, I think that is a pretty good assessment.  I get along with my neighbors but rarely have long chats, mostly a hello and a wave as we get in or out of our cars.  And kids just don’t go outside like we used to.  Growing up, I spent most of awake time outside.  No AC or screens to watch inside.  I mean there was TV 📺 but not much to see much of the time.

[Betty LaRue]

10 minutes ago, Michael Ventura said:

Yes, I think that is a pretty good assessment.  I get along with my neighbors but rarely have long chats, mostly a hello and a wave as we get in or out of our cars.  And kids just don’t go outside like we used to.  Growing up, I spent most of awake time outside.  No AC or screens to watch inside.  I mean there was TV 📺 but not much to see much of the time.

I grew up riding my bike, roller skating on the sidewalk, climbing trees & scampering on our roof like a monkey, making mud pies, going to the play park a block away with my sister. It was an innocent time when kids were safe roaming around. Playing red rover during the day, jacks on the front porch, boys playing mumblypeg with their pocket knives or playing marbles. When dark fell, all the kids gathered on the street corner & we played kick-the-can until our moms yelled for us to come in. By then, I was one big mosquito bite.
We got a TV when I was around 10 but I seldom watched it except for Gunsmoke & The Mickey Mouse Club. Later, just into my teens, American Bandstand, where I learned rock & roll dancing.  Commercials embarrassed me greatly…how could a housewife wax on so stupidly over laundry detergent?  Before that, we listened to shows on the radio.

I also was a big time reader of books from about 8 yrs old, & it wasn’t unusual for Mother to tell me to get my nose out of that book & go play outside. Every week, I brought home an armful of books from the library, (nothing like the smell of books in a library) which required walking a mile each way. I didn’t have a basket on my bike! It was destroyed from bike wrecks. I lived with skinned knees. It was small town living, about 11,000 people. Downtown thrived & we often piled in the car on a summer evening, parked downtown & people watched or got out of the car & window shopped. That was our TV equivalent. If we kids were lucky, we got a five cent ice cream cone on the way home.

[NYCat]

The Covid restrictions got us in bad habits about being social. It has taken me some time to do more, see more people. By the way, a whole lot of people were looking at their phones when sitting under the trees in Madison Square Park. Not me.

 

Paulette 

[Betty LaRue]

35 minutes ago, NYCat said:

The Covid restrictions got us in bad habits about being social. It has taken me some time to do more, see more people. By the way, a whole lot of people were looking at their phones when sitting under the trees in Madison Square Park. Not me.

 

Paulette 

I don’t ever take out my phone while out, unless I get a call. And I often don’t hear those when my phone is buried in my purse! Oh, I forgot…sometimes I take a picture with my phone, lol.

Edited June 30, 2023 by Betty LaRue

[Allan Bell]

6 hours ago, NYCat said:

The Covid restrictions got us in bad habits about being social. It has taken me some time to do more, see more people. By the way, a whole lot of people were looking at their phones when sitting under the trees in Madison Square Park. Not me.

 

Paulette 

 

It amazes me the number of people from school age up who walk around looking at there mobile phones. Nearly bumping into other people and lampposts etc.

 

The main thing that makes me feel sorry for them is they are not seeing anything of the world they are passing by. Nor saying hello to people they are passing by.

 

Allan

 

[gvallee]

7 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

It amazes me the number of people from school age up who walk around looking at there mobile phones. Nearly bumping into other people and lampposts etc.

 

The main thing that makes me feel sorry for them is they are not seeing anything of the world they are passing by. Nor saying hello to people they are passing by.

 

Allan

 

 

I am addicted to my tablet (indoors). I had to leave it in a shop for one day for repairs. Instead I tried to use my phone but was wondering how one can see anything on it. News are unreadable with adverts popping up and hiding text, fonts too small, can't rotate certain screens, and so on. I guess people in the streets must use them for something simple like messaging or e-mails? 

 

[spacecadet]

12 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

I am addicted to my tablet (indoors). I had to leave it in a shop for one day for repairs. Instead I tried to use my phone but was wondering how one can see anything on it. News are unreadable with adverts popping up and hiding text, fonts too small, can't rotate certain screens, and so on. I guess people in the streets must use them for something simple like messaging or e-mails? 

 

The UK Guardian website is free, and free of ads- you get the occasional popup soliciting voluntary subscriptions but nothing like as annoying as the usual popups. They have an Australian office, so there's quite a lot of local content.

 

13 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

It amazes me the number of people from school age up who walk around looking at there mobile phones. Nearly bumping into other people and lampposts etc.

 

Allan

 

They could be doing any one of hundreds of things. Some are even useful. I have an exercise app which I refer to in the street; there's also a free offline GPS streetmap (Organic Maps) very handy in a place I don't know. I'd have a paper street map anyway, so there's not much difference. I don't use mobile data so that's about it. You do need your bifocals though.

Edited July 1, 2023 by spacecadet

[Allan Bell]

1 hour ago, spacecadet said:

The UK Guardian website is free, and free of ads- you get the occasional popup soliciting voluntary subscriptions but nothing like as annoying as the usual popups. They have an Australian office, so there's quite a lot of local content.

 

They could be doing any one of hundreds of things. Some are even useful. I have an exercise app which I refer to in the street; there's also a free offline GPS streetmap (Organic Maps) very handy in a place I don't know. I'd have a paper street map anyway, so there's not much difference. I don't use mobile data so that's about it. You do need your bifocals though.

 

Possible but the people I see mostly are just looking and talking at their phones while walking and not looking where they are going. Specially school kids coming home from school.

 

Allan

 

Edited July 1, 2023 by Allan Bell

[spacecadet]

20 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Possible but the people I see mostly are just looking and talking at their phones while walking and not looking where they are going. Specially school kids coming home from school.

 

Allan

 

The are probably just managing their time. School is much more stressful than it was in our day. Better to be able to talk to your friends right away, rather than having to wait till you meet them. Their world is different..

Even we now talk to the family on Zoom every week now- including to New Zealand.

But looking where you're going is preferable. I woner if there's an epidemic of forehead-lamppost coincidence injuries.

Edited July 1, 2023 by spacecadet

[gvallee]

Do cry for me Argentina 😭😭😭

We are going through a forecast unseasonal very heavy rain event across Australia. To start with, I was enjoying it, that feeling of being cocooned, with the heating on in our bus. Tonight, the ground around us is flooded but it's not alarming. Humidity is 97%.

Our bus is 7m long. A leak developped from a 1cm sideways strip in the ceiling. So the bus was 6.99m dry. Guess what was under that 1cm strip? My laptop which I had left running, taking a short break from continuous editing for Alamy over the past day and a half.

When I got back to it, I saw water on it but didn't think it was too bad. Unfortunately, it died. I was in the middle of editing what I feel are possibly the best pictures I've ever taken. I took so much care that I spent about a day for only 6 pics or so, including keywords research as it's not a subject I'm used to. As I was still working on that batch to upload, obviously I have no backup.

Currently, the laptop is standing upside down with the battery off attempting to dry. Anyone having any advice if it will ever recover? Please someone say yes. Feeling dejected. If it's not Sod's Law, what is it? 😭😭

 

[Allan Bell]

1 hour ago, gvallee said:

Do cry for me Argentina 😭😭😭

We are going through a forecast unseasonal very heavy rain event across Australia. To start with, I was enjoying it, that feeling of being cocooned, with the heating on in our bus. Tonight, the ground around us is flooded but it's not alarming. Humidity is 97%.

Our bus is 7m long. A leak developped from a 1cm sideways strip in the ceiling. So the bus was 6.99m dry. Guess what was under that 1cm strip? My laptop which I had left running, taking a short break from continuous editing for Alamy over the past day and a half.

When I got back to it, I saw water on it but didn't think it was too bad. Unfortunately, it died. I was in the middle of editing what I feel are possibly the best pictures I've ever taken. I took so much care that I spent about a day for only 6 pics or so, including keywords research as it's not a subject I'm used to. As I was still working on that batch to upload, obviously I have no backup.

Currently, the laptop is standing upside down with the battery off attempting to dry. Anyone having any advice if it will ever recover? Please someone say yes. Feeling dejected. If it's not Sod's Law, what is it? 😭😭

 

 

 

Gosh Gen that's a bummer.

 

Only advice I can give is try to make sure it is bone dry before trying to turn it on again. Other than that is to have the laptop connected to a remote hard drive and save your work frequently.

 

Allan