What are you doing?

[justplainbill]

Spent about $70 on a variety of meat curing salts (34.5 lbs) and a meat pump (syringe). Reading this forum can be expensive.

 

[Barbara L]

I'm trying to get caught up on some of my DC reading (mostly this thread and Today's Funny for now) and being glad to be home for awhile now. A friend's husband was out of town for a couple weeks, and for a few reasons we spent much of the last couple weeks there, including many over-nighters. I don't care how much you love someone, it is hard to be away from your own bed and pets and your own ways (that aren't bad but aren't something you necessarily want to put on display for everyone).

 

[Kylie1969]

I am about to head to a new butchers we have found that has meat at much cheaper prices than other butchers and supermarkets and the meat is meant to be top quality too...I look forward to checking it out

 

[Dawgluver]

Zhizara, I'm so glad you are well. I was thinking of you.

+1

So glad to have you back, Z!

 

[Zhizara]

Thanks, Dawg! It's sooo good to be back. Being cut off makes you realize how much you depend on the company of others.

 

[simonbaker]

Just ordered take out for supper tonight. We just got home from visiting my mom for 2 nights & 3 days. It was great to see 2 of my brothers & 2 of my sisters. The neice just had a new baby boy. Great fun had by all. Good to get home & put my feet up.

 

[Kylie1969]

Have been to the butchers and bought some lovely meat, then when to the supermarket to get a few bits and pieces

I then made some custard tarts

Now going to sit outside and enjoy this lovely sunny day...it is glorious out there and quite warm already, 24c

 

[Cheryl J]

I am about to head to a new butchers we have found that has meat at much cheaper prices than other butchers and supermarkets and the meat is meant to be top quality too...I look forward to checking it out

Sounds great Kylie, hope you had fun checking out the new shop and got some deals!

 

[Cheryl J]

Zhizara, glad to hear you are back and OK, and made it through with minimal damage. I can hardly imagine going through such a time....

 

[Addie]

It is three in the morning and I just finished watching an hour long special on Prince Charles's Highgrove organic gardens. The whole thing is totally organic. Nothing goes to waste. Even the water for the plants. All the waste water from the house is purified through natural means and used to water the plants. All plants that are removed to make room for other wild plants that are coming up, go into the compost piles to go back into the earth. I could spend months in those gardens. They showed a picture of what it looked like when he first bought the property. Absolutely blank.

The Prince talked about how the press reacted to him when he first started talking about organic gardening. They thought he was a wacko. Now the whole world is talking organic gardening. I could go on about how great this piece on the Prince was, but I won't. I was absolutely enthrall with the whole thing.

 

[Kylie1969]

Good evening guys

It has been a lovely Spring day here!

I have spent most of the afternoon out in the garden enjoying the sunshine

 

[LPBeier]

Zhizara, glad everything is okay.

It is almost 4:30 am and I am just home from a rather scary adventure. I have been having a lot of stress and pain the last week or so - totally out of control. I thought today I was starting to get a handle on it when tonight at 8 pm I started to get severe chest pains, shortness of breath, pain in my arm, puffiness and dizziness.

DH called 911 and I was taken to the ER. A heart attack was ruled out fairly quickly but they are still saying there may be some sort of heart problem. I have always considered that my most viable body part....everything else keeps breaking down . I had to wait 6 hours because of something the doctor said about one little heart cell can die and it will take 6 hours for it to show up in the blood and EKG tests (I am probably way off on that, I was after all on morphine while he was explaining it). So DH came home and I was given a recliner and some blankets in a quiet corner to wait it out. I had a really bad coughing spell related to my asthma and they kept checking my chest for fluid.

I am okay, but they want me to get more tests done and take it easy for a few days with NO STRESS being at the top of the list. Not my strong suit!

Oh, my ER nurse happened to be one that worked with my Dad on several visits. He said he remembered me and how was my Dad. He was visibly shaken when I told him Dad had passed away. He said I took very good care of Dad and I said so did he! He was Dad's favourite nurse and we saw a lot of them over those three years!

 

[Zhizara]

It is three in the morning and I just finished watching an hour long special on Prince Charles's Highgrove organic gardens. The whole thing is totally organic. Nothing goes to waste. Even the water for the plants. All the waste water from the house is purified through natural means and used to water the plants. All plants that are removed to make room for other wild plants that are coming up, go into the compost piles to go back into the earth. I could spend months in those gardens. They showed a picture of what it looked like when he first bought the property. Absolutely blank.

The Prince talked about how the press reacted to him when he first started talking about organic gardening. They thought he was a wacko. Now the whole world is talking organic gardening. I could go on about how great this piece on the Prince was, but I won't. I was absolutely enthrall with the whole thing.

I'll be looking for it, Addie. I enjoy the royal family, and I consider Queen Elizabeth to be my queen. I grew up with her. I'm so impressed with how she's handled the crises in her family.

 

[Zhizara]

I got a PM this morning from Aunt Bea, and wrote her back about my adventures with Hurricane Isaac.

Here's a copy of my reply:

I kept busy with Sudoku and books. Fortunately, just before the storm, I received 4 books I had ordered from Abe Used Books, I was able to read until 7/8 pm, and by flashlight after that for all but the last night.

It didn't do my blood pressure any good. More drama than I want.

Being without Internet was traumatic.

I was so excited after the lights came back on that I almost immediately turned on my laptop so I could let everybody know I was okay.

BUT

NO Internet!!!!!!!!!ACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It never had occurred to me that the Internet wouldn't be there. I had absolutely no way to contact anybody.

I have a cell phone, so I was able to talk to my best friend, Adena back in Florida. I suppose I could have asked her to sign in for me and post a message, but when I checked yesterday afternoon, just in case, AND it opened right to the post I was reading when the power went off on Tuesday.

I got my TV back on yesterday late afternoon. It took some tech support, but after a couple of false starts it worked.

BUT

By the time I was ready for bed, the color went flooey. No pink tones at all. Everything was purplish blue and Green!

I hoped that it would have reset itself when I turned it on this morning,

But, nooooooooooooo

I tried resetting the color, but it wouldn't let me make adjustments, but when I gave up trying, I noticed that the color was normal again, so it apparently got my message and reset itself.

Now that everything is operational again and back to normal, I'm still working on the kitchen.

I went shopping yesterday morning, and picked up meats and a newspaper. I had no idea what has been happening in the rest of the world, and I was hoping to find some information about the situation with Cox Cable.

The message I got when I contacted Technical Support sounded like it was going to be awhile before I got back online, so I was so happily surprised to find myself back in DC.

I learned a few lessons:

Charge up the cell phones!

I was at least able to make necessary calls, but had to wait for them (I have 2) to get charged up to be able to work with tech support to get back to normal.

I'm pretty rattled right now. It will be awhile. I still have food to get rid of, but won't be able to do anything about it until they get the trash cleared out. We have a Trash chute on each floor, and there were smelly bags all around it and the trash backed up all the way past the fourth floor.

It's not a big deal, at least its frozen again and won't smell. I'm glad I got Fabreeze!

I think I'll copy some of this to the "What are you doing?" thread.

What's going on in your world?

I'll talk to you later, Aunt Bea.

XOXOXOXO

Sally

 

[Zhizara]

Wow, LP! Scary, and more stress to top you off.

Maybe if I send some calming vibes your way, it'll help me calm down from all the excitement of the hurricane.


{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

 

[taxlady]

(((Hugs Laurie)))

 

[Addie]

I am sitting here in total frustration. My land phone is dead. the main phone is connected to my fax and the other one is the extension. The main one died. And without that one I can't even use the extension. So I have to buy a new phone system. I am thinking of shutting down the land line for good. It will save me some money. The only reason I have kept it is for the 911 calls and the fax. I can use the cell phone for that but it connects me to the State Police and they will connect me to the Boston EMS service. An extra step that I don't have to take with the land line. Also I will have to notify everyone to call my cell phone. Not many folks have it. First I have to learn to memorize it. I don't even know it. I only use the fax to send my sugar readings to Winthrop once a week. I can print them out and send them over with the empty pill cards I send back once a week.

Have any of you gotten rid of your land line and only use your cell phone? My daughter has and it seems to be working for her. I would love some feedback on this. The one good thing I like about the idea is that if someone calls me that is not in my contact list, their number automatically is stored and their name. I don't have to write it down and then enter it. No more little Postit Notes floating around all over the place.

 

[Andy M.]

My daughter also uses her cell as her only phone.

Addie, could you email your sugar readings to Winthrop?

My phone doesn't save phone numbers and names. I have to add them to my contact list with their name. I have a recent calls list but no names for new numbers.

 

[Alix]

Or you could text your reading to him if a cell phone is your only device. I've noticed text plans seem to be much more flexible than air time plans these days.

As for what I'm doing, well, I'm sitting here listening to the dishwasher run in an otherwise silent house. The girls are both off to school this morning and Ken is back to his regular schedule. I'm enjoying the peace, but there is a little part of my heart that is sad every year when September arrives and my girls are back to school. I miss them.

 

[taxlady]

Addie, both Stirling and I have cell phones, but we keep a landline. We keep an old fashioned phone that works without a power outlet. It is the one that works when the power is out. Cell phones run out of battery charge. Ask Zhizara.

I once had a battery pack that would start my car. It charged with a wall plug. It had a DC outlet, like the cigarette lighter, that you could use to charge a phone. Something like that would get your phone through even a week or two of no power.