We’ve been warmer than most of the Mediterranean countries for about 2 weeks now…and haven’t had any rain in over a month.
Both of these things are pretty unusual.
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2023/06/new-weather-record-set-no-rain-for-34-days-but-storms-ahead/
Getting the heat out of the house is getting pretty trixy and work is just a hell hole now.
I am only mentioning that coz I was actually going to make the post about it being festival season now.
Music festivals, county fairs, large scale medieval larping…why not, it’s the season for all the things like that.
Problem is….I kinda forgot what all I had to say about it as my brain got cooked during the day……except that the whole idea started with this festival I was considering going to as it’s nearby…and the headliner I think would be fun.
Ha! Lionel Richie headlining…you know…I would actually pay to see that…I think it would be pretty good.
However…with the weather expected be sunny and 30-some C on Sunday….I’m kinda thinking paying $80 to go mooch about in open, unshaded spaces with thousands of other people is really quite an expensive way to get severe heat stroke when I could just get it for free in my back yard and maybe get some work done.
Lionel will have to make do without me.
Anyways…anything interesting happening near yous…a festival or whatever?
Alternatively…is your glowing yellow orb also overstaying its welcome already?
How goes it?
Happy Friday 🙂
whoops…forgot to crop the lead pic…
It’s been in the low 90s here all week. We finally got a little rain to cool things down. My wife’s library had to shut down on Wednesday due to broken AC. The interior was 85 degrees.
I was going to have a pleasant Father’s Day weekend, but that’s not going to happen. My mother-in-law screeched incessantly about getting a smartphone, and, much like the last time my wife got her one, can’t make it work. Part of it is basic stupidity, part of it is deafness, and I think the other part is that her mummified sticklike fingers can’t actually activate the screen. I told my wife not to cave to her unceasing bitching, but I was ignored because my wife will do literally anything to shut her mother up for five minutes. One of her old cronies stumbled by and told her she didn’t need that, she should just get a flip phone. WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT SHE HAD
At the same time my wife and daughter attempted to install a deaf person landline phone to replace my MIL’s existing phone that dated from the Eisenhower Administration. This was similarly unsuccessful, largely I think because the house is very old and the old copper wiring is corroded or damaged. They tried to get a faux landline that actually connects to the cellular network. Somehow the cellular company managed to switch off Internet access.
So I will spend tomorrow trying to figure out some way this horrible old woman can call my wife on an unremitting basis and bitch. Because that is literally the only thing she uses her phone for. Having her be phoneless is absolutely wonderful and I’d forgotten what it’s like to actually watch a movie or show without a constantly ringing phone, but I have to go over and waste my time to provide her with a service to allow her to do something I don’t want her doing.
My weekend will suck, is what I’m saying.
Not if you can install a secret kill switch you can control.
On the phone, I mean. I don’t advocate straight up murder.
That is literally why my wife and daughter both accompany me. Straight-up murder, I mean. They operate as a tag-team to get me away from my MIL when it’s clear that I’m going to beat her to death with a chair.
The only thing that’s kept her alive this far is the fact that she’s utterly terrified of me. I just don’t bother talking to her. I just glower. My wife says when I’m angry it radiates off me and everyone starts treating me like a rabid Rottweiler. Which is fine. Even the thought of my MIL puts me into a simmering rage. My MIL doesn’t like to have me around and if it weren’t for the stress it puts on my wife, I’d never go there again.
But she gets my wife away from any support and then browbeats her about stupid stuff, like “all of my friends have smartphones and I need a smartphone” or “what is satellite radio I think I need satellite radio” or a thousand other stupid things. So my wife caves and then it’s “I can’t work this smartphone you need to show it to me again.” FUCKING CHIMPANZEES CAN WORK SMARTPHONES THATS DOCUMENTED FUCKING FACT
She’s warped my wife so much over decades using guilt that, very honestly, my wife can’t think straight when her mother is around.
And I can’t think straight around her either because she’s told my wife for years that I’m trash and my wife could have done better and why did she marry me. For the record, I make triple what my wife’s father made on his best year, nobody in my family has been in jail four times, and my both wife’s father and sister actually came to me (and some of my family, which is utterly fucking humiliating) to beg for money to rescue them. “Trash” has a very clear definition and it doesn’t actually apply to me.
Okay, happy hour ain’t happy and I’ve started drinking way too early. I have a lot of scar tissue here.
…mostly just want to offer some commiserations because that sounds like a lot to deal with that isn’t made any easier by knowing that you wouldn’t have to if you were even fractionally that shitty of a person…which is the sort of thing that always makes me think it would be real handy if karma was the sort of thing you could withdraw & spend rather than merely bank
…but…based on what might be considered analogous examples…I strongly suspect that some people develop habits relatively early in life that at the time they think get them their way but rely on either some exhaustible resource…like goodwill…or superficial charisma…or on other people’s indulgence &/or deference…à la “the kindness of strangers”…& can’t adjust when their shit stops working…so they see their world shrinking & retreat into either overt bullying or behaving like toddlers so that everyone in their orbit has to pander to their whims or nobody gets a moment’s peace
…at least in the cases I’m thinking of there’s a sad & sort of desperate irony that what they want is for people to give a shit about them but because they don’t know how to not be an asshole they’re constantly terrified that nobody will on account of they know at some level how they’d treat someone who behaves the way they do
…so they work every lever they can invent to cast them in the role of someone who deserves/requires special treatment…while treating the people they rely on the most the worst…it’s a form of cognitive dissonance that’s arguably over the line into a form of insanity…like…they hate that those people have a clear sight of how awful their existence is…& the hate they feel for themselves gets repurposed into treating like garbage the only people left willing to deal with them on an ongoing basis
…either way…wish I could say I had something to say that might be useful/constructive beyond “don’t actually murder her, you’d be missed around here & probably at home”…but…old dogs…new tricks…not a great track record?
That’s an accurate description of my mom who no longer has the superficial charisma nor the “respect your elders” Asian angle that I used to bend over backwards to obey.
wow…so you are hot and bothered
thats not great…
as she doesnt know how phones work isnt simply blocking her number an option?
not like she’s gonna know why it isnt connecting right?
She gets hysterical if she can’t make calls. At 88 years of age she has a packed social calendar of doing absolutely fucking nothing which requires both Internet and phone. She’ll go bother her neighbors (very sweet gay couple who she totally thinks are going to hell and yet if she needs something she has no issues with exploiting their goodwill) and make them call my wife. Bruce is a good guy — he doesn’t deserve to deal with that shit. He’s also tried to teach her to use a smartphone, and he’s an occupational therapist. If he can’t teach her, nobody can.
give the neighbours your new number and tell them not to tell her (50/50 odds on that one..nice people blab)
if she get hysterical and nobody knows about it….coz her phonenumbers blocked
is she really hysterical?
i mean…does a falling tree make a sound if you cant hear it?
i’m not the best on ethics…and she sounds like a pain in the arse
Oh, farscy. “Pain in the ass” doesn’t begin to cover it.
My wife wants her to have a phone because if she doesn’t she can’t call for medical support. My MIL does understand that she needs to be able to call for help.
I personally give absolutely no fucks. The second she dies, my life gets immeasurably better. My problem is my MIL’s grandmother lived to be 104. My MIL has had Stage 4 cancer and is still somehow converting oxygen into carbon dioxide. Hell, my FIL bought a life insurance policy on her then and he’s been dead for four years now. I’d say the odds are 50/50 of her outliving me if I don’t kill her first.
ooo wagyu……..okay yeah…i’d join a line for that too
with the limited number they seem to have on offer tho…..i’d say you probably chose smartly in bailing…..odds are by the time you made it to the front they’d only have the regular stuff left
I agree. If I had to wait another hour and didn’t get a burger, I would be pissed/hangry. There were easily 100 people ahead of me when I got there at 10:40am.
Have a similar situation with my MIL. I have said to her more than once, “Remind me why I’m solving your technology problems so that you can complain more about how we don’t do anything for you.” I’ve given up on smiling and ignoring.
I adore mother/monster-in-law stories, because I’ve heard so many, but have none of my own. I know that our mothers, in their day, were quite capable of wreaking all kinds of damage to in-laws. But with us, it was like, “he’s of a different race, strange, and the same sex, even more strange, and he’s extremely deferential, not like that ungrateful [opposite-sex, same-race, so therefore wide-open for constant abuse.]” Also, no children involved.
One of my sisters had the best monster-in-law. I loved her. She wasn’t too bad to my sister, but she was merciless to one of her other daughters-in-law.
At a holiday party: “[Her son A, married to this woman] told me that [Child B] is practically failing out of second grade. If only you were a better mother. Have you ever considered a special-needs school? If you need money we can…”
I thought the recipient of this comment was going to go Chernobyl in front of me, and the mother-in-law used to do this all the time, she had no filter, she thought she was like Dear Abby. So I guided the mother-in-law away and said, “I see there’s a cousin of yours here I haven’t met. Why don’t you take me over and introduce me.”
I tried treat myself today. I waited in line for an hour for a fancy burger with HZ3 and have nothing to show for it. The line barely went down by half by the time I decided it wasn’t worth it. It was the most hipster shit I’ve ever done in my life and I’m a little bit bitter about it. At least the people in line were friendly and the weather was really nice (sunny but cool).
https://www.instagram.com/p/CtfMPaAvjvf/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
not sure why my reply to you ended up above yours…lol
Thanks for covering the Happy Hour @farscythe. 66 degrees Fahrenheit and rainy in the ‘Burgh. I was hoping to make a trip downtown tomorrow evening to hit up one of the Italian markets but Taylor Swift is in town playing two nights and I don’t think I want to deal with that mess. Guess I’ll just sit in my sisters back yard and drink instead.
word is bond 🙂
i have to get my sexy fresh bread from the farmers market tomorow
last chance im going to have for a week….the chaos has descended upon my little 60 some k inhabitants city (really only a city coz we have a cathedral…wierd law)
the fair opens tomorow….and the rest of the festival kicks off wednesday and keeps going till saturday night (well…sunday morning might be more accurate)
thats right….. motogp is in town and give or take half a million people are going to invade over the coming days…about a third of them for the race…and the rest are here for the festival
Post some fair pictures!
ill see what i can snap tomorow…i may also be using the word fair wrong….its basically a travelling attraction park….with lots of churros…….me no likey that smell
they do have a 60 meter tall tower like structure which hoists a flying carousel up there…..and then spins at 100 km an hour
figure i dont want to be anywhere near that thing once the festival starts and the drunks decide to have a go
dunno how far puke travels from 60 meters up at 100 km/h……but im thinking its a fair fucking distance…and i dont want churro bits in my hair
@Farscythe, here’s the Lionel Richie mashup you didn’t know you needed. Crank it at your next backyard rave.
lol…ive seen dj cummerbund in my recs but mostly ignored it
coz you know…..just a mash up
this is genuinely good tho… seems like maybe i missed a rabbit hole
thanks mate 🙂
You might like this event, @Farscythe: The Race Avenue Criterium is Sunday. Our house is just off the corner of a major turn, and we can see it from the front porch or the backyard. They are super fast on those bicycles. https://raceavenuecriterium.com/
They only downside is that boys (Chiweenies) lose their tiny minds all day from the noise. They girls are, of course, ladies about it.
used to take part in those kind of races…not in the us obviously
me mum only recently told me letting me race bikes scared the shit out of her and aged her fifty years
welp…considering just today a racer died….i can see her concerns now
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jun/16/gino-mader-swiss-road-cyclist-dies-aged-26-after-crash-tour-de-suisse
to me at the time it was just good fun…..never won anything…concussed myself a few times…and surprising everyone as im oversized….im a good climber…nothing special on the flats…bit of a wuss on a downhill….but i will power up a hill like nobodies business
i just get angry at the fucker and go
come to think of it it was a fun way to see europe too..
you know…staying with guest families and all that shit
i never made it to actually getting paid for riding……but i was at free bike parts and riding wear level plus the connections to have willing temp families across europe
maybe i should have stuck with it…
thank you whom ever fixed my lead pic
im guessing it was myo
but it is just that a guess
if it was you let me know when you need stroopwafels and assorted vegan sweets….coz i will send you a care box….we have an assortment of them nowadays
nevermind i just learnt what shows on the main page and what shows on the post are different things
nother bit of wierdness..lol
care package offer still holds true tho
I have had a crazy busy week & ready for a cocktail. Ripped out a huge deck over a ravine & now rebuilding it including 3 beams between 15 to 25 ft long and weighing around 500lbs. Not fun to move & less fun to hang off boards trying to line it up. My whole body is sore & we are far from half way there.
Our best music festival turned to shit about 3 years before Covid. It is finally returning under new management and back to a pretty good lineup. My buddy from Hawaii is threatening to come for a day or two of the show. We went for at least 10 years straight and this is the 50th anniversary.
https://bumbershoot.com/
buddy?…threathening?
oh i know that kind of buddy this should be fun in an i am too old for this shit but still gonna do it way then