The Coffee House

[terri]

I’m off to Maine in the morning, for a few days, then back to Maryland. I miss this girl.

View attachment 283808
(Credit: Lazy Lobster)

MLW’s leave expires next week but she’ll continue to stay with MLSIL at night. MLSIL had the second/last drain removed yesterday.

I’ll continue to shuttle back and forth until after the surgery to remove the colostomy bag. I’ll take care of housework during the day and any issues that come up, while MLW takes the evenings. Family first.

Pretty kitteh in her regal perch!

Yes, it's not been great timing for a family health event, but what can you do. Roll with it like you have been. Sounds like it's coming to the end, at least.

@cgw: spring is ever nigh! It's 17°F outside right now which is an improvement from last night's single digits. We're rumored to be facing temps in the 40s and a few sunny days at the start of next week.

It's been a snowy winter here too. The warmer temps mean a slushy thaw. I'll be on the lookout for the crocus and hyacinth shoots.

 

[snowbear]

Pretty kitteh in her regal perch!

Yes, it's not been great timing for a family health event, but what can you do. Roll with it like you have been. Sounds like it's coming to the end, at least.

Lookout Mountain, waiting for daddy to come home! Maybe MLSIL will want to do some recovery at the Maine house.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

A big chunk of my day was spent learning what has been going on around North America regarding airline accidents. Really, what I wanted to know about was the Toronto "Delta flight 4819" (aka "Delta CRJ-900"), but what I found out was that roughly speaking, there have been quite a few accidents and incidents going around. Seems like a good time to stay home. . . .

I can also say that the weather around that flight (roughly 24 hrs before and after) was colder than I realized.

The attached picture was taken the night following the crash. The clear sky was probably caused by cold weather. You can actually find stars (even in the noise) if you look closely.

 

[smoke665]

Our week in the barrel. Headed out Tuesday for the gulf at 7am, at 7:30 we broke down. 7 hrs later we were rolling again. Stopped at what I thought was the halfway point to overnight. Took Phoebe out for a walk and somehow she managed to step all four paws in some kind of grease/tar substance. 30mins of scrubbing with soap and water later, she's cleaned up. Since in my mind it should only be 3 hrs, we slept in. Next morning, plug in the address on the GPS it say 5 hrs, apparently the stress of the previous day must have muddled my brain. Then a bad wreck on the interstate and construction delays, raised the eta to 7 hrs. Finally pull into the resort mid afternoon, name is right, address right, but there's some discrepancies on the confirmation. Check in at the office, the lady looks at her computer and sure enough she says "oh you're registered at our other location" 100 miles back the way we just came. Apparently reservations for both locations come from this address Fortunately a few key strokes and she switched us. Then last night the temps dropped to 29, and sometime around dawn, the LP ran out, had to switch tanks in the cold. So I'm more than a little apprehensive about today!

 

[SquarePeg]

Well, that was really rude! Got an email yesterday afternoon, layoffs are coming tomorrow, check your email in the morning. Not a single wink of sleep. Going through all sorts of scenarios on how to mitigate retiring early with much less than planned. Checked the email this morning, and all it had was a link for a meeting later in the morning. Glad to say, I still have a job, but not happy with how they went about it.

Ugh. BTDT many times - you have my utmost sympathy. I’m glad you weren’t impacted. Their process sounds flawed and cruel.

My former company had those type of announced lay offs almost quarterly for about 10 years back around 05-15. I survived at least 30 rounds of cuts. In each, we knew the cuts were being announced and would wait for that in or out phone call all morning, hearing through the grapevine which of our coworkers were cut. It was the most stressful period of my life! Couldn’t plan for the future, didn’t dare spend any money, was always updating my resume… it did prompt me to go back to school and finish my degree but it was a totally toxic time and took a real toll on my mental and physical health. It definitely eroded my trust in the company and even a decade later it was a big part of my decision to take the buyout offer, knowing it could easily start up again if there’s another downturn in the economy.

Our week in the barrel. Headed out Tuesday for the gulf at 7am, at 7:30 we broke down. 7 hrs later we were rolling again. Stopped at what I thought was the halfway point to overnight. Took Phoebe out for a walk and somehow she managed to step all four paws in some kind of grease/tar substance. 30mins of scrubbing with soap and water later, she's cleaned up. Since in my mind it should only be 3 hrs, we slept in. Next morning, plug in the address on the GPS it say 5 hrs, apparently the stress of the previous day must have muddled my brain. Then a bad wreck on the interstate and construction delays, raised the eta to 7 hrs. Finally pull into the resort mid afternoon, name is right, address right, but there's some discrepancies on the confirmation. Check in at the office, the lady looks at her computer and sure enough she says "oh you're registered at our other location" 100 miles back the way we just came. Apparently reservations for both locations come from this address Fortunately a few key strokes and she switched us. Then last night the temps dropped to 29, and sometime around dawn, the LP ran out, had to switch tanks in the cold. So I'm more than a little apprehensive about today!

Yikes you had a bad run of luck there. I hope that turns around for you.

 

[nerwin]

I been baking a lot lately, I almost need another oven. It's really just because I need something to my mind focused on something otherwise I start to spiral so if I can learn how and make good food...is it a bad thing?

 

[CherylL]

I am making a coconut cake tomorrow. My daughter hates coconut, but the grands love it. The middle grand loves toasted coconut and I've toasted some up every so often just for her. We will see how the cake works out. I made oatmeal, coconut, butterscotch chips, chocolate chip cookies last month. Made some without coconut for my daughter.

 

[snowbear]

Arrived in ME a couple hours ago.

The deck:

 

[jeffashman]

Ugh. BTDT many times - you have my utmost sympathy. I’m glad you weren’t impacted. Their process sounds flawed and cruel.

I was going through the process of mentally tallying up the subscriptions I would need to cancel for an early retirement, like Fickr, AZ Prime, My Office 365, Costco, etc. We would be able to survive, but not at the level we are hoping for. At my age, trying to get another job is next to impossible, because ageism is rampant in the technology world, and I've only been laid off once, 25 years ago when the dot com bubble burst and everyone canceled their training budgets. I've grown to really dislike activist investors and the wreckage they leave behind in the pursuit of money. Hoping this is just a one-off event and it won't happen again.

 

[smoke665]

@jeffashman I can only imagine the stress level. Out of my entire working life I only worked for someone else 8 years. It was a good company, so much so that I tried to buy in, but the owner turned me down. I left to start my own business and never looked back. I was never much on taking orders or direction anyhow...

 

[nerwin]

I ate 3 of banana bread muffins tonight.

I have a problem.

 

[snowbear]

So sorry, Jeff. My first retirement (from County Government) was due to impending Reduction in Force. I was lucky enough to at least get most of my pension and was already working towards GIS degree.

This one was a few months earlier than planned but it was to help get the new house updated. I’m losing less than $90/month in SSA. Nothing in the 401k since it was very short term but it paid closing costs and a few other things for the house.

I planned to be the office poltergeist but getting the house and some health issues changed that. MLW wants me to play offline (no employment) now. Our situation is different in that MLSIL has a Fed Gov’t pension and SSA pooled into the household once she sells her place and moves up.

I’m glad the blower gets delivered today.

 

[terri]

I been baking a lot lately, I almost need another oven. It's really just because I need something to my mind focused on something otherwise I start to spiral so if I can learn how and make good food...is it a bad thing?

Are you kidding? It's an excellent way to spend your time! Baking is both an art and a science so you really have to engage your brain.

Your pizza crusts always look amazing.

 

[snowbear]

Baking is both an art and a science so you really have to engage your brain.

Just like cartography!

I went out and shoveled about 6' of driveway to make room for the delivery. Driver here in 20 minutes.

Zoe still hiding under the bed (long story involving firemen in the house and a lot of banging) though she came downstairs and rubbed up against me when I opened her can of food, this morning (of course!).

Measured the windows and deck doors. MLSIL wants Roman shades on the combo door/window in the living room; MLW prefers baloon shades. I suspect we will have Roman in living room and baloon in our bedroom. I get to decorate the entire basement so I'm staying out of it.

 

[snowbear]

I'm done with the driveway for now; I may try to get down to pavement, tomorrow. It will take some getting used to it, but I'm happy. Now it's time to have a cup of coffee.