SNOT: Saturday night open thread. Total open thread. Tell us some things.
It has been a long week. Petty work stuff, new medication that may or may not be working, I think coffee now gives me heartburn, and one of the dogs has a bum leg that will require a Vet visit on Monday.
So how the hell are you?
Roadshow rabbit hole
Rant, rave, educate, inform, ask, and answer.
I’ve dipped my toe into running again after basically quitting for years, and it feels… pretty good. I’ve got some shoes that feel pretty good, I’m not carrying as much weight as I was a year ago, and I’m starting to feel why I used to like this.
I can’t say I’ve ever understood the concept of running as an enjoyable activity. Now, bicycling for 40 miles until rivers of sweat are running off of me and I want to die–that’s fun.
Biking is a blast, but the challenge for me has always been the cars. On a dedicated trail where you can go for miles, it’s tremendous, but the need for always thinking on roads about some chucklehead who can’t understand space — not so much fun.
Where I run there are plenty of sidewalks and not much car dodging, and I’m not nearly in good enough shape yet to even think about traversing country roads and picking my way along farther away highway shoulders.
Have been hit by a car. Can confirm.
I’ve been bicycle commuting for a while now, and while my weight hasn’t changed, my stomach is a bit flatter.
I’ve been considering giving running a try again, but I don’t think I have the time to do it consistently
I miss running. I was my fittest between 27 and 37 when I ran 10-16 miles a week (my best pace 7:30 a mile.) Combined with being a gym rat (3-4 times a week), I was lean and muscular like the soldier I had aspired to be would.
Now I’m just chunky which isn’t great. Started the cardio again because it is the best exercise for keeping fit, but not running as I stopped running because I severely sprained my left high ankle tendon and it still aches.
Just came here to say that I currently have 7,571 songs in my iTunes library. If I played all of them nonstop, it would take 22 days. I’m cleaning up the metadata on the library (a project I’d been threatening to do for years) and at one point I noticed the count.
@butcherbakertoiletrymaker I think it would be fun to designate a month or two and listen to them all!
We still have mice. My son helped move out the washer and dryer that we had moved to the kitchen last year when we had it renovated. Turns out the contractor neglected to put back the baseboard and there is a pretty big gap between the wall and the floor. Sigh. Home repairs, grrrr.
Maybe get some snakes for the mice?
I’ve seen a young Black Snake in front of my house a couple of times recently, and wondered whether it is going to try to get inside to ride out the winter. Maybe it can take care of the crickets that sneak in.
Our office building has mice. My boss saw one the other day and asked me what was going on with the mice. Um, IDK I told the property manager and they sent the pest guy. What else would you like me to do about this?
Apparently peppermint oil spray keeps them away. Search for peppermint spray for mice, and a bunch of options appear. That will be plan B if the stuff my son is bringing tomorrow to seal it all up fails.
Just be careful, as the peppermint oil spray will also not be good for your pets.
I managed to spend lots of quality time this week on my tingling leg, what the rest of my future might hold, and my eventual shuffling off this mortal coil. I just wrote out a long response with details but I doubt any of you would find it of much interest. Rest assured I have no plans on going anywhere just yet.
One of the things I found is this:
https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA4b2MBhD2ARIsAIrcB-QUtZTrFpLTmAp9k7lObL1WYtx3d9_fD5uZrj0aJBKG2TAVleGsDGIaAiyDEALw_wcB
Why the URL is so long I don’t know. This is the Social Security benefits calculator. You jump through many hoops to set up an account. The site is often down, and I would expect nothing less, and if you do manage to set up an account I’m sure a determined 12-year-old in Belarus could hack into it quicker than you or I could get through the first stanza of Adele’s superhit “Easy on Me.”
BUT, it shows your earnings history from the very beginning (mine went back to when I was 16!) and it will calculate your benefits depending on when exactly, to the month, you want to retire, or at least file for benefits. It’s nifty.
If current plans hold, by the time I am eligible to draw benefits in 2051, if it still exists I expect my social security check to be like “great, now I can buy that box of cheerios.”
I also expect the govie to raise the age requirements like 10 years between now and then.
If it even still exists.
lol…
we’re always gonna be like 30 years away from being eligible…
Great story (found the link over on Buzzfeeed, on one of their “Photo Stories you may have missed this week” articles), on the woman (Chantal Regnault) who photographed the early Ballroom scene in NYC from 1989-92, during the height of the AIDS crisis & the years when the rest of the LGBTQ “Nightlife Scene” was largely shut down;
https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/chantal-regnault-voguing-and-the-house-ballroom-scene-of-new-york-city-1989-92-photography-281021
The photos are BEAUTIFUL, as is the interview explaining how the photographer ended up becoming an insider in the Ballroom world–in spite of herself being a Cis white woman.
It’s a GOOD story, and one full of love, as you can both see & read💖
The shots are seriously beautiful–you can easily understand why the performers wanted Regnault to take their pictures😉
Hello, sorry I’ve been absent. It got super busy at work and I didn’t feel like doing a whole lot of extra thinking or typing. Then things let up and I’d fallen out of the habit of checking here. I missed everyone and I’m fine.
Today I went to a memorial service for a cousin who died suddenly at 39 over the summer. It was a giant pile of suck.
Boggs is fine. Work is fine. Everything else is ok.
I’m sorry for your loss. That is a big pile of suck and way too young.
Deepest sympathy @Pumpkinspies. Glad Boggs is okay. You have been missed here at DS.
Glad you & Boggs are good, and allllll the Hugs & empathy for the loss of your cousin, PS. It’s so young, and you’re absolutely right about the suck💔💖💝
I met with a local community member who I think I am actually becoming friends with to have dinner and talk through a grant proposal she’s working on.
I’m really excited that I think I’m close to making a friend as an adult and this is difficult when you are a single person without kids. It’s still difficult when you have kids, etc, but at least you can see sometimes if some kid your kids is friends with has a cool parent to be friends with.
Making friends as an adult isn’t easy.