Welcome to my pond - Swim, wade, or sit on the bank

[LittleLakePhil]

We don't do normal.....

 

[FridayYet]

Thank you my friend!

 

[FridayYet]

We don't do normal.....

So True...

Still got your grandson with you?

 

[LittleLakePhil]

So True...

Still got your grandson with you?

Nope dropped him off this weekend..... He started school today.

 

[AmyPaperlady]

I'm almost 3,000 posts behind, so someone let me know if i missed anything important.

Dunno if it counts as important, but I'm back, too And I've actually been talking. Here're the important posts...

Phew! I need a lily pad...

Finally caught up! Did you know that, if you've been gone awhile, "Go to First Unread" only goes back 4 weeks? So I had to try to remember when I'd last been here (way back when I was doing the online test scoring--May, sometime) and gave up going back at page 6,000 (turned out it'd been farther back, because Liz's recap covered stuff I'd missed... Where is @DwayneNLiz, anyway?). I've been reading since August 18... No quotes, because 20,000+ posts is just a few too many to do that with... I will admit that I was tempted to quote every time someone complained about backlog, thoughView attachment 1128326

Hello to Fields, Shaw, bobbi, broomie, and orr! I feel like I've known you for awhile, now, though you'll have no clue who I am, unless you read some backlog--and maybe not then, because I don't talk much (and didn't find the Pond for months after our previous hangout petered out). I read everything, though not from OCD--just from sheer nosiness If Cap hadn't exploded, I'd be saying hello to another wrong-year birthday twin. Ah, well...

Deb, your jewelry is awe-inspiring. Not my style at all, but absolutely gorgeous. Not as gorgeous as Katee, though.

A bit annoying that we had 2 Pondites in Blighty at the same time from 2 different directions and were never at the same place at the same time (though I will admit that, since I hadn't been on here since May, I'd forgotten that he was going to be there, and I didn't know when he was until I was catching up with backlog) But I've got pics! Unlabeled, as of yet, and may stay that way, but still. I was rather rubbish at remembering to get people pics, so they should be more interesting to non-h2g2 folks. https://www.flickr.com/photos/amy_paperlady/collections/72157684860571873/

There were other things I was going to comment on, but it's nearly 1:30am (wanna bet I'll remember everything as I'm falling asleep, and will forget once I'm back on my laptop?View attachment 1128326

Oh, I remember one thing! Could some of you with rain send some this way?
View attachment 1128327
At this scale, we're where the coast meets the Oregon border...

View attachment 1128328
The yellow thing is us... No fire is close enough to be a danger (from yellow to Klamath is 20 miles), but it's just a bit smokey...

Dang... Looks like I'll need to get one of the free air masks that are being given out at various places around town. While I don't have breathing difficulties normally, and, indeed, my main problem is less lung-based and more nausea, this smoke sucks (doesn't help that it's not only unseasonably warm, but unclimatically warm--it was 90+ Saturday! 80+ today! Normally, in the height of summer (which, temp-wise, is normally the next 4-6 weeks anyway), we might get above 70... (Made the summer we lived in Redding quite interesting...) No AC, and I can't exactly open up all the north-facing windows...

Anyway, enough fire-related stuff, and more things-of-interest...

Some of you may remember that we were talking of relocating here in the next few years. Well, this past week, Tom (hubby) and Tim (a friend of ours who may relocate with us) flew to Nashville on a scouting trip. They looked looked all around in a 50-mile radius (I'd thought the plan was just to look around Sumner county, which is the exact opposite side of Nashville from Rav (and a friend of mine from h2g2, for that matter), so, alas, no meeting-in-proxy (I learned of the radius the night before the 9am flight back...) So the Paper Clan may be in Tennessee before 2020 (a date that keeps coming up for Tom, both as the actual year, and in the form of "2-3 years") We had a realtor over the day before I took Tom and Tim up to the airport, and know what we need to do to make the house more desirable--mostly tidying, changing window trim--curb appeal stuff...

...And getting rid of the coop.

Now, I wasn't planning on bringing my birds across several state lines. It's not worth the hassle for mutts and hatchery birds. So rehoming was going to need to happen anyway. And there has been an increase in predator activity, possibly due to territory bumping, so I have less birds to rehome than I did before I went to the UK (though not anything near bobbi's attrition rate) It's just having someone tell me that the birds need to go... But I'll finally be able to have calls after the move and getting set up, so totally worth it! May need to make tons of blackberry jam and fudge for trading, but stillView attachment 1129186

Oh, and I just realized that I'd hinted at my powers of tour-cursing while I was PMing with Rav, and I hadn't explained yet! So, since I was waiting to tell until I was caught up, since I figured it'd amuse everyone, here goes...

Now, the purpose of my trip was to meet people that I've known online for a decade or more (some since 2001!), and, as such, each of the 3 Saturdays I was there was a Meet with a day portion (that ended up being tour-based) and a evening portion (first one in a Wetherspoons (pub), second in my friend's brew tap, and the third in a restaurant, 'cause it was in Edinburgh during the Fringe and so everything was packed (this is relevant later)) So, the first Saturday was the London Meet. in my planning, I found the London Walks Brunel Tour, which, for reasons, was relevant to h2g2. The plan was to then join another London Walks tour of the British Museum. Both tours are the don't-book-just-walk-up type, which turned out to be a good thing. The Brunel tour was excellent, and I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, being London in summer, it rained in the middle. Enough that the whole group was stuck under a tree for long enough to erase the cushion that should have allowed us to catch transport, eat, and make the tour (15 minutes to make a 45 minute journey...) But, hey, weather happens, and I was with native Londoners, so I got to see the must-sees anyway.

The next Saturday was Manchester. I'd found a free walking tour by poking around Tripadvisor--it actually ranks higher than paid tours! Well, the h2g2 folks turned up, 8 of us. So did about 54 other people. J (tour guide) says his ideal tour size is 20-25, though he usually has less. The tour was wonderful--it just takes a bit more time for that many people to cross roads and gather 'round to hear excellent stories. But still, I'd only contributed 8 to the crowd, counting myself, and I came out of the day with a new friend (I ended up inviting J to the evening bit--he's the young man in my avatar, actually...) who was not weirded out by all the references to me finally being at a meet in 3D form (though he did ask) or scared off by the heckling that ensued during Pastey's impromptu brewery tour (you'd think everyone had known each other most of this century or something)

The next official tour I was supposed to go on wasn't meet related--in fact, it was to be in the one place I was all on my own in, York. Since I was stopping in York for a few hours on my way up to Edinburgh, I needed to leave my luggage somewhere--and since I wasn't with anyone, "someone's boot" (trunk, to us) wouldn't work. While there is a left-luggage place in York, it's not affiliated with the station, though it's a very shot walk away, and I'd have plenty of time to make the free walking tour that would even let me climb around on walls. You know how Google maps sometimes gives you a cardinal direction for the first bit instead of a simple left or right? I guessed wrong. Over an hour later, I was back at the station with its wifi (York has free wifi! Inside the town wall, which neither the station nor the left-luggage place are in...)--the tour had been due to start 45 minutes after I'd first arrived... I decided to check the left-luggage place's website for directions--and it clearly stated to turn right out of the station. Once I'd done so, and actually left the station proper, the place's sign was visible, and I got there in 5 minutes... (It was not visible from the place I'd turned left at, so looking both ways would not have helped.) After missing the tour I'd wanted completely, I recovered in a Costa's (free wifi) and found that there was a tour of York Minster (I'd either just missed other walking tours, or they would be still going on during things I'd already reserved and paid for online) that I had time for. That one hour tour ended up being an hour and a half... The other York tours, that I'd prebooked to avoid long lines, did turn out fine, time-wise. Then again, York's Chocolate Story is all in one building, and Jorvik involves being in an automatic cart thing.

The Scottish Road Trip had one actual tour--poured.

The last Saturday was Edinburgh during the Fringe. I'd found a free tour again, and just barely made it (thanks to parking). The tour went on well for a bit--until I managed to lose the guide So did the other h2g2ers, and we managed to find each other, so that worked out OK. I did find it amusing that the person I know as lostinscotland was the one to take us to somewhere to eat, an after he had to leave, our guide around Edinburgh was the mostly blind person (It is very amusing to see someone turn around to chastise someone for hitting them in the ankle, then watch them deflate when they spot the white cane. Even more fun is to watch someone panic and leap back a couple of feet when seeing a white cane coming--and Mouse can see just well enough to catch that, as wellView attachment 1129204 )

After all that, I've determined that tours in vehicles and tours staying in one building are OK, but walking tours, especially ones I've planned on joining, will be cursed by me joining them

 

[LittleLakePhil]

He wants to stay here..... My son doesn't do allot of "outdoors" stuff with him..... Too busy climbing the corporate ladder.... He has him enrolled to do every kind of sport known to man........ No time to fish or that type of stuff. Honestly I think he does to many sports.

 

[LittleLakePhil]

Dunno if it counts as important, but I'm back, too And I've actually been talking. Here're the important posts...

Better start reading......

 

[Debs Flock]

You aren't wearing a Catholic school girl uniform are ya?

How'd you know?

Over the suspenders, i hope

You know about friction right??? Just rub something it'll get hot

I just can't I JUST CAN'T

Do. It! You know you wanna.

Duct tape hurts....

Agreed.

Only the first time........or so I hear.

Starts to dry out, back comes the rain...


Hey, all...

Hi from me, too.

Hi there! You & dad doing okay?

Got back in town last night..... How's everyone?

Still good at it. You?

 

[AmyPaperlady]

Better start reading......

At least Friday knows my usual pattern of silence for ages, and then wall-o-text

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Maybe that's why I have trouble sleeping when hubby isat work...No one to put my feet on...lol

Me too! I have ice burg feet. I stick them on the hubby every night. We always have to be touching feet or can't sleep. Sucks when he is on the road!

I'm almost 3,000 posts behind, so someone let me know if i missed anything important.



As they say in the medical field, I'm stable. (Well as stable as an unstable person can be anyways.)

Hey Friday! ! Hope things are settled down for ya a bit!