What are you doing today?

[User.191]

I’ve been in the States longer and my accent is mostly gone. I have turned into one of those obnoxious people who simply parrots the accents of whoever is in the majority. Can’t help it. If I read out loud it’s pretty much English with a little American Midwest thrown in for spice.

So where are you from, then?

 

[Clix Pix]

I very often am still awake at 2:00, 3:00 or even 4:00 AM if in the midst of reading a really good book that I just can't put down..... I, too, have wondered if anyone passing by has noticed that there is still a light on here at a time when most people are snugly in their beds snoring away..... When I've finished the book, I set it aside and finally turn out the light and tuck myself in, I do so with the realization that I don't need to get up at any specific time, I can sleep in as late as I choose. I am definitely a nocturnal creature, not a morning one!

And, yes, I've noticed that as I've been getting older that I am more cautious and thinking ahead when it comes to situations which could result in a fall which could then bring on something worse.....so I try to avoid that as much as possible. Days in winter when it's icy out there or there's snow on the ground underneath which I can't tell if there is ice, I don't bother walking the block and a half up to the mailbox kiosk to retrieve my mail. it can wait. Some things that I didn't think a second thought about doing when I was younger I sometimes now pause and reflect on and assess potential problems before I've actually gotten into the situation. Isn't getting older just so much fun?!!!

Answering MissNomer's question, although probably not addressed to me, which came in while I was writing my response to LizKat's post: I'm in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, have been here since 1968.....before that, I was born in Western Pennsylvania, but lived for the first eight years of my life in a small town in Ohio not far from Steubenville as well as not far from the West Virginia border across the Ohio River from us and the Pennsylvania border a bit further from us.... Pittsburgh, PA was really the closest big city. We then spent about eight years in a growing suburb of Chicago that was a pre-planned and designed community, and then eventually moved back to Ohio, where I finished high school and then went on to college in West Virginia before coming to DC for graduate school. The years spent in that suburb of Chicago were really during the time of my most formative years and I think it was while living there that I became much more of a city/suburban sort than a small-town sort of person. I am definitely not a rural person at all!

 

[User.191]

I very often am still awake at 2:00, 3:00 or even 4:00 AM if in the midst of reading a really good book that I just can't put down..... I, too, have wondered if anyone passing by has noticed that there is still a light on here at a time when most people are snugly in their beds snoring away..... When I've finished the book, I set it aside and finally turn out the light and tuck myself in, I do so with the realization that I don't need to get up at any specific time, I can sleep in as late as I choose. I am definitely a nocturnal creature, not a morning one!

And, yes, I've noticed that as I've been getting older that I am more cautious and thinking ahead when it comes to situations which could result in a fall which could then bring on something worse.....so I try to avoid that as much as possible. Days in winter when it's icy out there or there's snow on the ground underneath which I can't tell if there is ice, I don't bother walking the block and a half up to the mailbox kiosk to retrieve my mail. it can wait. Some things that I didn't think a second thought about doing when I was younger I sometimes now pause and reflect on and assess potential problems before I've actually gotten into the situation. Isn't getting older just so much fun?!!!

I'm a mid 50s teenager with the body of a thrice over octergenerian...

 

[Clix Pix]

Having celebrated my 76th birthday a few weeks ago (why is it that every time I say that I hear the song "76 Trombones" in my head?! LOL!) I definitely am of a certain chronological age but as for my "real" age, yeah, it varies.....

 

[User.191]

Having celebrated my 76th birthday a few weeks ago (why is it that every time I say that I hear the song "76 Trombones" in my head?! LOL!) I definitely am of a certain chronological age but as for my "real" age, yeah, it varies.....

Wow - congrats for being so young!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Ordered myself a green screen, should get it delivered to my door by tomorrow evening. Video meetings are going to be way more convenient in the future!

I probably won‘t even bother with actual green screening à la background replacement for quite some time, just happy to block off the view of my home a bit. Chatting with friends and family that I would totally invite into my home for real is one thing, online meetings with strangers and others something completely different.

Why not just use the blur function?

 

[Apple fanboy]

Having celebrated my 76th birthday a few weeks ago (why is it that every time I say that I hear the song "76 Trombones" in my head?! LOL!) I definitely am of a certain chronological age but as for my "real" age, yeah, it varies.....

You don't come across that old online. But I mean that in a good way! Your basically the same age as my Dad pretty much.

 

[Pumbaa]

Why not just use the blur function?

I’ve written too many lines of code to trust software.

 

[DT]

I probably won‘t even bother with actual green screening à la background replacement for quite some time, just happy to block off the view of my home a bit. Chatting with friends and family that I would totally invite into my home for real is one thing, online meetings with strangers and others something completely different.

I actually love to have rando, and sometimes, confusing things in my background during a video chat ...

 

[thekev]

Hahaha, well, there's this Jeep thing, where a Jeep owner leaves a rubber duck on someone else's Jeep, sometimes with some words of wisdom written on it. So we parked, noticed another Wrangler (blue with a big offroad setup), not sure if it was them, but this little fellow was on the car when we can out ...

View attachment 4714



Hahaha, it's this whole nutty Wrangler sub-culture


View attachment 4715

If I owned a jeep, I would make it a werecar

so the rubber ducky would need to be more like

 

[Eric]

If I owned a jeep, I would make it a werecar.

That jeep has never seen such bullshit.

 

[thekev]

That jeep has never seen such bullshit.

Honk Honk Honk!

 

[Eric]

Honk Honk Honk!

Great episode.

 

[lizkat]

The years spent in that suburb of Chicago were really during the time of my most formative years and I think it was while living there that I became much more of a city/suburban sort than a small-town sort of person. I am definitely not a rural person at all!

I've had one foot in the city and one in the sticks since the mid-1980s, so I can appreciate aspects of both and have some sense of the potential downsides of both as well. But I was born in the boondocks about 40 miles from where I eventually (and coincidentally) bought a fixer-upper to retire to and meanwhile spend weekends in. So while I still do really miss NYC sometimes (and loved both Chicago and San Francisco where I also spent some "prime time"), I find the quiet of the country pretty appealing these days, even if I have also liked being only three hours from my old stomping grounds down in the city.

For variety from the boondocks, I'm still close enough to the city for the occasional shopping trip, and to places like Ithaca upstate here --think that's only 90 miles or so, anyway an easy day trip.

I'm not driving a car any more, by choice --never wanted to become one of those geezers you get behind who's 85 years old and driving 30mph in a 55-zone with a double yellow line preventing passing for 40 miles at a stretch, gawwwrrrr!! -- so my transportation options now are those of public transport and other ad hoc or pre-arrangements on the private side, but so far that has worked out ok for me. I live near the edge of a village where some friends live, so "hitchhiking" a ride to town or over to Oneonta is no more complicated than making a phone call or two to find out when someone's next heading into civilization lol.

I was used to public transportation in the city for 35 years anyway (except weekends when I grabbed the car out of the garage there and took off for the sticks) so I don't have the aversion to bus or train rides that some of my friends even here in the sticks seem to have. I never did understand that really. Planning ahead a little is not all that challenging.

Anyway also feel lucky that our four-county library system has not only lots of e-books but a $250k mobile component that stops once a month in every hamlet or village that doesn't have a bricks-and-mortar building, and will bring books you've ordered from anywhere in the system. It's only about a quarter mile from my place to where that thing parks in a nearby village.

And thank goodness for Instacart and the behemoths like Walmart and Amazon for re-ups on pantry items. As for other shopping, I'm way past that age where divesting becomes the alternate obsession. Except for Apple gear of course, and all the damn dongles, cables etc needed to get my stuff to talk around its hardware incompatibilities.

All that said, I have my moments when I wish I could put on a jacket and walk two blocks to pick up Szechuan stir fried whatever...

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I've had one foot in the city and one in the sticks since the mid-1980s, so I can appreciate aspects of both and have some sense of the potential downsides of both as well. But I was born in the boondocks about 40 miles from where I eventually (and coincidentally) bought a fixer-upper to retire to and meanwhile spend weekends in. So while I still do really miss NYC sometimes (and loved both Chicago and San Francisco where I also spent some "prime time"), I find the quiet of the country pretty appealing these days, even if I have also liked being only three hours from my old stomping grounds down in the city.

For variety from the boondocks, I'm still close enough to the city for the occasional shopping trip, and to places like Ithaca upstate here --think that's only 90 miles or so, anyway an easy day trip.

I'm not driving a car any more, by choice --never wanted to become one of those geezers you get behind who's 85 years old and driving 30mph in a 55-zone with a double yellow line preventing passing for 40 miles at a stretch, gawwwrrrr!! -- so my transportation options now are those of public transport and other ad hoc or pre-arrangements on the private side, but so far that has worked out ok for me. I live near the edge of a village where some friends live, so "hitchhiking" a ride to town or over to Oneonta is no more complicated than making a phone call or two to find out when someone's next heading into civilization lol.

I was used to public transportation in the city for 35 years anyway (except weekends when I grabbed the car out of the garage there and took off for the sticks) so I don't have the aversion to bus or train rides that some of my friends even here in the sticks seem to have. I never did understand that really. Planning ahead a little is not all that challenging.

Anyway also feel lucky that our four-county library system has not only lots of e-books but a $250k mobile component that stops once a month in every hamlet or village that doesn't have a bricks-and-mortar building, and will bring books you've ordered from anywhere in the system. It's only about a quarter mile from my place to where that thing parks in a nearby village.

And thank goodness for Instacart and the behemoths like Walmart and Amazon for re-ups on pantry items. As for other shopping, I'm way past that age where divesting becomes the alternate obsession. Except for Apple gear of course, and all the damn dongles, cables etc needed to get my stuff to talk around its hardware incompatibilities.

All that said, I have my moments when I wish I could put on a jacket and walk two blocks to pick up Szechuan stir fried whatever...

Yes, Szechuan stir fried.........sigh. Yum.

 

[Pumbaa]

Managed to get a vaccine appointment booked for later this week. Really happy to get it months earlier than expected. Really sad to officially be part of a high-risk group. Not a young slim warthog anymore.

 

[Alli]

So where are you from, then?

You name it. I'm an Air Force brat. By the time I graduated high school I had lived outside of the US more than inside. Good thing there's no Chinese accent to pick up. We moved to London when I was less than a year and remained there until I was 5. Upon return to the States the boy next door ran inside after meeting me shouting "mommy, mommy! There's a new little girl next door, and she speaks a foreign language!"

I actually love to have rando, and sometimes, confusing things in my background during a video chat ...

My son has a wall of sneakers. Literally. It's about 4 feet high and 5 feet long. (Yes, he has a problem.) But he claims it's made for some good conversation.

 

[lizkat]

My son has a wall of sneakers. Literally. It's about 4 feet high and 5 feet long. (Yes, he has a problem.) But he claims it's made for some good conversation.

I should think it would be a fun break from the usual background of video calls! For the heck of it once (and because I'm no great shakes at photography anyway), I decided to take snapshots of just my kinfolk's feet, footwear and nearby objects on the ground --pebbles, flowers, tree roots etc.-- at an extended family reunion one year. To my surprise the resulting photo array ended up getting downloaded by everyone who had been there... they all thought it was hilarious, and even filed best guesses and joshing remarks about who had hung out down by the lake and who stayed up by the pavilion where the food was and so forth.

 

[thekev]

You name it. I'm an Air Force brat. By the time I graduated high school I had lived outside of the US more than inside. Good thing there's no Chinese accent to pick up. We moved to London when I was less than a year and remained there until I was 5. Upon return to the States the boy next door ran inside after meeting me shouting "mommy, mommy! There's a new little girl next door, and she speaks a foreign language!"

My son has a wall of sneakers. Literally. It's about 4 feet high and 5 feet long. (Yes, he has a problem.) But he claims it's made for some good conversation.

It's easy to end up with multiple pairs if you run on different terrain. Personally I wear through all of them no matter what brand or how many I purchase. I don't even have a fraction of that, but try walking/running (and about to take up mountain biking) ~150/month (and increasing). You too would go through many shoes, assuming you don't do that already. COVID pretty much knocked it into overdrive. I work remotely now, and I need something to get me out of the house as much as possible.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

COVID vaccination day for me today. Hope I don’t feel like shit afterwards as I have meetings this afternoon and tomorrow morning.