Home » Discussion Forums » Blog Post Discussion » Weather. Etc.
| Weather. Etc. [message #48254] |
Fri, 10 February 2012 21:06  |
 b_twin_1
Messages: 2592
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
Senior Member
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Weather. Etc.
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: Weather. Etc. [message #48255 is a reply to message #48254 ] |
Fri, 10 February 2012 21:11  |
b_twin_1
Messages: 2592
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
Senior Member
[Moderator] |
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He stands there with a vague, far-off look on his face, going squirt. Squirt. Squirt. Squirt. Squirt. I actually thought there might be something wrong, but the vet said blandly, oh no, some of them are just like this.
Gah. It's like male alpaca. You're trying to shift them from one paddock and they go past the communial poo pile and, "Oooo! Must go to the loo!"
So they stand there and a MICROSCOPIC STREAM comes out and tinkles away for FIVE MINUTES (sometimes). Arrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!!
The number of times I have grumbled about the INSUFFICIENCY of their urinary tract structure...!
(And, OF COURSE, the rest are milling about waiting also and when the first one is JUST ABOUT finished then another one will decide that it is all a great idea and settle in for their turn. *headdesk*)
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: Weather. Etc. [message #48256 is a reply to message #48255 ] |
Fri, 10 February 2012 22:06 |
elizabeth
Messages: 15
Registered: August 2011 |
Junior Member |
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Gah. It's like male alpaca. You're trying to shift them from one paddock and they go past the communial poo pile and, "Oooo! Must go to the loo!"
So they stand there and a MICROSCOPIC STREAM comes out and tinkles away for FIVE MINUTES (sometimes). Arrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!!
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Perhaps I should trade in my cat for an alpaca. Or a hellhound. Instead of microscopic streams or squirts, my cat releases a flood of liquid. I'm fairly certain that if I measured his urine (ew), the volume of said urine would be greater than the volume of said cat. All of this would be fine if he could be depended upon to flood only the litter boxes. Unfortunately he is certain that my bed is also in dire need of hydration. Especially if the bed has pajamas on top of it.
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that the scarf I wrap around my ears has not only to be wool†† but it has to be large enough to protect my chin and throat as well. Winter. It’s a skill. Ugh.
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I had no idea winter was a skill until I moved to Minnesota for college. Honestly, I had no idea of winter. During my first term snow fell on October 1st, and I called home in total shock. When it was still snowing in late April, I called home and cried.
My MN friends taught me how to dress that winter. In January they informed me that I was no longer allowed to leave the dorm unless I was wearing: silk/fleece pants under my trousers, wool socks, boots, 1-3 sweaters, a winter coat rated to at least -20F, hat, mittens, and a scarf wrapped around my neck AND face. I couldn't get out the door without someone calling, "Where's your hat? Mittens? Okay." I was a little horrified, but I think it probably saved me from frostbite.
These days I don my layers automatically, though I've been avoiding them this year (winter in MN? it was in the 40s last week!) Today I happily headed out in my purple all-stars, jeans & fleece jacket only to find that it was -8F windchill and my eyelashes were frosting over before I got to the car, which was parked in my garage. Note to self: look at weather forecast before leaving house.
[Updated on: Sat, 11 February 2012 09:10]
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| Re: Weather. Etc. [message #48258 is a reply to message #48254 ] |
Fri, 10 February 2012 22:30 |
elizabeth
Messages: 15
Registered: August 2011 |
Junior Member |
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…the history teacher who turns into a manticore and eats the students that piss her off?
Oh. Um. Well, maybe we could have an outtake—? I admit I found the prospect rather appealing myself . . .
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Please, please, please, please, please have an outtakes section!* That way you would have a place for any philosophers dining with erudite eggplants AND monstrous teachers dining on students.+ Not to mention the puce-carpeted corridor with 13 and a half cupboard doors^, 4.8 of which conceal goblins!
* on the blog or website? perhaps not so much 'outtakes' as fantastic ideas that belong to some quite different stories currently locked in vault 31 at the Story Council Headquarters...
+ My seventh grade religion teacher was clearly a kraken.
^ All with puce doorknobs, of course. Except for the cerulean door, which has fuchsia.
[Updated on: Sat, 11 February 2012 09:19]
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| Re: Weather. Etc. [message #48259 is a reply to message #48254 ] |
Fri, 10 February 2012 23:35 |
EMoon
Messages: 662
Registered: March 2009 |
Senior Member |
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Weather. I grew up in the semi-tropics--the southern tip of Texas. Winter vegetables, citrus orchards, rose farms. Hurricanes. A frost was an economic horror; a freeze (the famous "'51 Freeze" was a disaster. Farmers pulled/cut their vegetables just before it hit, knowing it was coming, and brought bushel baskets to the hardware store where my mother worked because they knew they weren't going to be able to pay their bills. My mother made a huge vat of vegetable soup (using the tub of an old washing machine) and gave jars to the store employees.
So when I was in high school I got a chance at a scholarship at Michigan State in East Lansing--I had to go up and take a test. I flew all night (no jets--prop planes) and over Kentucky...I looked down and the ground was pale. Miles and miles of pale in the moonlight. And my first thought was "I didn't know the ground was covered with sand in Kentucky." They'd had a blizzard in East Lansing; I got there in the afternoon. I'd never seen snow before. It was so BEAUTIFUL. Why didn't people take it out of their back yards and pile it in their front yards to make them even more pristine white and beautiful?
That night, we were supposed to walk from the dorms over to someplace for dinner. There were no clear sidewalks. I was wearing a South Texas suit and heels (of course) and didn't have galoshes. Nobody told me. I shivered through the dinner, shivered back to the dorm, and couldn't get warm in the bed for hours. (Later found out it was about zero F. The snow made funny noises where I stepped on it.)
Later I learned to deal with cold and snow, and even camped out in snow, but I had to be taught (gloves and hat and proper boots. Cover all exposed skin. Etc.)
E
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| Re: Weather. Etc. [message #48260 is a reply to message #48254 ] |
Sat, 11 February 2012 02:27 |
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Diane in MN
Messages: 2728
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
Senior Member |
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Which provides an additional reason to hurtle briskly because I need to get home before I come out in hives. If wool-weather goes on too many days I insinuate a fleece hood between the scarf and me.
When you feel comfortable enough about knitting to indulge in *really expensive* yarn, you can make yourself a cashmere hat and scarf. Yum. In the meantime, the Wintersilks silk balaclava is a nice warm anti-itch underlayer that doesn't break the bank (although it doesn't do much for your hair). I may need mine tomorrow morning; we're having a cold snap (read: hey, it's winter after all) and the temperatures will be below zero by morning.
The thing that I find both very funny and VERY FRUSTRATING, ESPECIALLY WHEN WE’RE TRYING TO GO TO BED, is how long it takes them—Darkness in particular—to empty his bladder.
Of course they don't necessarily WANT to empty their bladders. They have to save something for the next interesting thing down the road. 
But they’ve been playing silly buggers with the concept of pensionable age, and I’m not eligible for my free bus pass till I’m 62 years, seven months and twenty days old.
Bunch of unmentionable idiots . . . I reached the magic age of official seniorhood a year ago. No free bus pass, of course, but now I can get my Met HD tickets for $2.00 off. Whee!
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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| Re: Weather. Etc. [message #48266 is a reply to message #48255 ] |
Sat, 11 February 2012 10:18 |
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| b_twin_1 wrote on Fri, 10 February 2012 21:11 |
He stands there with a vague, far-off look on his face, going squirt. Squirt. Squirt. Squirt. Squirt. I actually thought there might be something wrong, but the vet said blandly, oh no, some of them are just like this.
Gah. It's like male alpaca. You're trying to shift them from one paddock and they go past the communial poo pile and, "Oooo! Must go to the loo!"
So they stand there and a MICROSCOPIC STREAM comes out and tinkles away for FIVE MINUTES (sometimes). Arrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!!
The number of times I have grumbled about the INSUFFICIENCY of their urinary tract structure...!
(And, OF COURSE, the rest are milling about waiting also and when the first one is JUST ABOUT finished then another one will decide that it is all a great idea and settle in for their turn. *headdesk*)
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Unlike ferrets, which can't go fast enough so they can get back to PLAYING WITH THEIR TRASH YAY TRASH I LOVE TRASH!
O.o
Smooshes!
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| Re: Weather. Etc. [message #48268 is a reply to message #48254 ] |
Sat, 11 February 2012 11:10 |
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Mrs Redboots
Messages: 943
Registered: October 2008
Location: London, UK |
Senior Member |
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Ooh! Grass! Ooh! Tree! Ooh! Dustbin! Ooh! Wall! Ooh! Another tree! Ooh! More grass! Ooh! Rock! Ooh! Corner of something! Ooh! Bollard! Ooh! Corner of something else! Ooh! Fence! Ooh! Particular bit of hedgerow! Ooh! Another particular bit of hedgerow! Ooh! Signpost! Ooh! Gate! Ooh! Stile! Ooh! Bank of stream! Ooh! Hillside! Ooh! Shrubbery! Ooh! Large ancient rusty piece of something that has been sitting there for years and is a message board for miles of local dogs!
When I was a small girl learning my measurements, we learnt a little rhyme that went:
"Julius Caesar said with a smile,
One-seven-sixty yards in a mile" (is this true in America? I can't remember whether it's your weights or your measurements that are different to ours!).
Anyway, we went on holiday and stayed in a boarding-house (as one did, in the 1950s) whose proprietress, a Mrs Rose, had an elderly dachshund called Rufus, whom we were allowed to take for walks in the evening. By the end of the holiday - bear in mind we were at the age when bodily functions were considered screamingly funny - we (my cousins and I) embarrassed our mothers by chanting rather loudly in public:
"Mrs Rose's Rufus said with a smile,
One-seven-sixty piddles in a mile!"
Talking of sixty, my husband found it not all bad - you do get to get free prescriptions and eye tests. And I don't get my buss pass until 2016, which mings.
Mrs Redboots
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
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| Re: Weather. Etc. [message #48274 is a reply to message #48254 ] |
Sat, 11 February 2012 12:59 |
claning
Messages: 266
Registered: February 2010
Location: California |
Senior Member |
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I’ll be SIXTY next November. SIXTY.
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Having been there (fairly recently) I'll add my voice to those saying that sixty is quite survivable. And at times even pleasant.
I have friends who are very into "New Age" philosophy and they take great delight in celebrating when a woman becomes a "crone" -- that is, a woman of wisdom and experience. I rather like that definition myself. (Of course, in reality wisdom doesn't automatically come with age but it's nice to feel I may have some stashed away somewhere.)
O Chris Laning <claning@igc.org> - Davis, California
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| Re: Weather. Etc. [message #48279 is a reply to message #48254 ] |
Sat, 11 February 2012 14:20 |
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Mrs Redboots
Messages: 943
Registered: October 2008
Location: London, UK |
Senior Member |
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My husband may not have minded turning 60, but he hated turning 61!!! Men are funny.... And my mother won't let us complain about being old, because compared to her, and especially compared to my father, we aren't.
But what I actually came back to say was that one can knit (or, indeed crochet, if that is one's skill, or purchase, if you have neither skill!) fingerless gloves that have flaps to transform them into mittens, so you can lift back the flaps to have access to your fingers when you need them, as when you pick up after your dog, or close them again when said job has been done.
Mrs Redboots
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
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| Re: Weather. Etc. [message #48281 is a reply to message #48268 ] |
Sat, 11 February 2012 15:48 |
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Black Bear
Messages: 3216
Registered: September 2008
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA |
Senior Member
[Moderator] |
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I think this is true in America--we just don't use metrics, so both our weights and our measurements follow the old "English" system. Yards, inches, miles, pounds, ounces.
Elizabeth, not to impose on you or your cats, but if you've not already you might want to get your cat checked for kidney function problems and/or diabetes. My Big Cat's diabetes only became known to me when he started peeing what seemed like gallons and going in inappropriate spots. I'd not noticed an increase in his drinking water at all (probably because I've got 3 of them, and one is a heavy drinker to begin with.) But the excess urine was the clue, and it was the tip off as well both times he's come out of diabetic remission...
"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.
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| Re: Weather. Etc. [message #48296 is a reply to message #48293 ] |
Sun, 12 February 2012 09:03 |
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Mrs Redboots
Messages: 943
Registered: October 2008
Location: London, UK |
Senior Member |
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| Diane in MN wrote on Sun, 12 February 2012 04:44 |
| Mrs Redboots wrote on Sat, 11 February 2012 10:10 |
One-seven-sixty yards in a mile" (is this true in America? I can't remember whether it's your weights or your measurements that are different to ours!).
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Measurements are the same (one doesn't forget 5280 feet or 1760 yards to the mile, and when I was in school we had to learn rods and maybe even furlongs to the mile as well), and I think weights are the same, too (although we don't use "stone"), but some volume measurements would be different. Of course if we used metric measurements it would all be the same, but I probably won't live to see that change.
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Thanks. We use a queer mixture of metric and Imperial, which is very confusing - petrol is sold in litres, but distances and speeds are in miles, largely, I think, due to the cost of changing all the signposts (in the Republic of Ireland, at one stage, distances were in miles and speeds in kilometres, which was even more confusing, but they are totally metric now, so when you cross the border there are great signs warning you that speeds and distances are now miles, cue a great deal of fiddling with the car to change the displays!).
I do find following American measurements difficult, as I think in terms of weighing solids and measuring liquids, which appears to be the other way round in the US. I do have a set of measuring cups, and very useful they are, too, but less so when it comes to butter.... I just have to wing it somewhat!
[Updated on: Sun, 12 February 2012 09:04]
Mrs Redboots
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
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| Re: Weather. Etc. [message #48323 is a reply to message #48317 ] |
Mon, 13 February 2012 09:43 |
Birdreader
Messages: 48
Registered: August 2011
Location: Chicago |
Member |
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You can always measure butter (or any solid fat) by using a glass liquid measuring cup. You fill the cup up to the level minus the amount of butter you need. ie 2/3 cup butter - fill a 2 cup measure to 1 1/3 cup of water - add butter up to the 2 cup line and spill out so the water. The method would work for the metrics as well.
Birdreader
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