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Post by staytuned on Dec 13, 2021 13:03:51 GMT
Good morning, everyone! Unusually warmer temps this week around here. 12 more days til Christmas!
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kritter
Mod Squad
When we lose sight of how we treat animals, we tend to lose sight of our humanity
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Post by kritter on Dec 13, 2021 19:39:07 GMT
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Post by chapeaunoir on Dec 13, 2021 21:33:19 GMT
We went out with some friends to a favourite restaurant - they wanted to eat in the outdoor area (since Covid a lot of restaurants have regular established outdoor seating with canopies and heaters) - the DH and I bundled up since it was in the upper 30s, blowing and raining. We were really surprised at how well protected from wind and rain and nicely warmed the area was! They gave us flowers for Jamie - they went through what we did in October losing their 21 year old cat. We're all catless now.  Due to playing with me new-to-me espresso machine I drank so much espresso yesterday that I couldn't sleep last night. I finally gave up and went to the 5:00 a.m. Orange Theory class - the coach was peppy but you could tell it was EARLY as everyone who showed up just chugged through the workout in concentrated silence, but at the end we were all wider awake and more cheerful. On the way back, it was just after 6:00 a.m. and I was amazed at all the people out in the pre-dawn darkness in the pouring rain, running, dog walking, hurrying for the bus, etc., but then I used to be out at 6:30 a.m. riding my bike or busing it to work in the dark, it's just been a while. My coffee grinder (an inexpensive one) is not up to my new-to-me espresso machine so I'm getting a new one for me as my Christmas present to myself - no more of these electric things, I'll get a good hand grinder with specific grinds for espresso that won't have wiring shorting out or parts I can fix and replace. Spent some of my owlish night hours after all that coffee shopping. The rest of my Xmas shopping is almost done already. |
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Post by labbypaws on Dec 14, 2021 0:31:11 GMT
We were right around 54 this afternoon. Looking at the clothing the walkers/runners were wearing. Some in shorts and t-shirts (even walkers) and others wearing parkas, hats, scarves and gloves or mittens.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Dec 14, 2021 7:27:13 GMT
We joke that the people in shorts and T-shirts in 48 degree weather are from Alaska trying to cool off.
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Post by staytuned on Dec 14, 2021 14:36:30 GMT
There are guys around here who wear shorts and tees with maybe a shirt over those or windbreaker when it's in the 30s and below. To me, it's not a sign of "macho", it's a sign of stupid exposing oneself to hypothermia and possible frostbite.
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Post by labbypaws on Dec 14, 2021 16:08:53 GMT
My legs would be raw if I wore shorts under 50 too often.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Dec 14, 2021 19:41:45 GMT
The DH and I see this with bike riders all the time - you'll see the 'fitness' riders in shorts and short-sleeves in cold weather because they think they're supposed to wear shorts on the bike. Meanwhile, bike racers who DO put in huge miles in all weathers are either in tights or long riding pants and long sleeved jerseys and jackets, or grease their legs if they're old school - and bike racers on the whole tend to be a tough and at times rather rough lot.
Seeing those pink, goosebumpy legs - brrrrrrrrrr! When I was younger, though, I was able to wear less (but I always covered my legs), so there is that.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Dec 14, 2021 23:50:58 GMT
Ugh - on my way to the post office I saw wet snow mixed with the rain. When the DH left for work this morning he said the roads were not icy, but he took it easy on the downhills just in case (it's pitch dark when he leaves). Hopefully it won't drop too far before he leaves work or he'll be riding in slush and ice.
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Post by denise15601 on Dec 15, 2021 15:48:40 GMT
My grandson's band concert was last night and I feel so bad that I was afraid to go. But my daughter said that it was packed and she only saw about 15 masks.
Jaxson understands that grandma is a scaredy-cat.
Our hospitals are now treating patients in the hallways since they are out of rooms. It is worse now than it has ever been.
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kritter
Mod Squad
When we lose sight of how we treat animals, we tend to lose sight of our humanity
Posts: 19,863
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Post by kritter on Dec 15, 2021 16:46:27 GMT
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Post by jesmelric on Dec 15, 2021 19:12:02 GMT
There are guys around here who wear shorts and tees with maybe a shirt over those or windbreaker when it's in the 30s and below. To me, it's not a sign of "macho", it's a sign of stupid exposing oneself to hypothermia and possible frostbite. When it's cold here I see young guys jogging with shorts and a tee shirt and I'm wearing sweat pants and a sweater and two jackets and gloves and earmuffs  And I don't care how I look I just want to be as comfortable as possible. We haven't had much cold so far this season though. We are hitting 80 or above most days and have broken several records. I am wearing shorts most days lol. I feel bad about complaining, though. DD in Portland is sick of the rain and cold. It makes it hard feeling festive though. I made cookies in the cookie press Friday and it was so warm the dough was way too soft. I added more flour, refrigerated it, nope. They came out blobby but at least they tasted good.
I had a good weekend. DH and I went to a few garage sales and one estate sale Saturday. We found some electric things (a bullet mold for him, a vintage apron for me) and a few things for ebay. Mom, my sister and I had a really nice visit. We watched the Alastair Sim version of A Christmas Carol and I guess because she has watched it so many times in her life mom really remembered it and enjoyed it alot. And then we had some blobby cookies 
Sunday we had beautiful weather and ran some errands and I made some good finds at the Goodwill. Sunday evening we watched a movie on Netflix. It's called Two. Bizzarro. For anyone interested I'd say PASS.
The positivity rate for Harris county is 4.6% right now. I'm hoping it will stay low at least till after the holidays, we are having a few people over Christmas Eve. All are vaccinated and/or had the virus recently with the exception of my 2 nieces. So they will have to mask up in the house, but it looks like the weather should be nice (KNOCK ON WOOD!) so hopefully we will mostly be in the backyard. I"m nervous about it but also it's like well, will we never see people again? I'm still dealing with the parosomia, it's been almost 10 months. I would say it's about 60% better so that is good. But that last lingering 40%, ugh I'm sick of it.
I'm all done with my Xmas shopping, and almost done wrapping. I just have youngest DD stocking stuffers to wrap and birthday presents for DIL who's birthday is New Year's day. DH is taking vacation starting Monday and will be off till the 3rd. So he's looking forward to that. We got the Falcon fixed today, if we have nice weather over his vacation maybe we can take it out for a bit  |
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Post by labbypaws on Dec 15, 2021 20:53:11 GMT
Denise I am surprised they didn’t zoom it. My cousins are in church choirs and they were broadcast. Same with work concerts.
Great weather this week but the clouds rolled in today. No rain but I prefer sun.
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Post by chapeaunoir on Dec 15, 2021 21:52:04 GMT
Snow may fall (though it's just raining here right now)! Enjoy some wonderful Debussy.
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Post by denise15601 on Dec 15, 2021 21:52:08 GMT
Denise I am surprised they didn’t zoom it. My cousins are in church choirs and they were broadcast. Same with work concerts. Great weather this week but the clouds rolled in today. No rain but I prefer sun. But that would be a smart thing to do. Our area schools have dropped their mask mandate and my grandson's school board is largely comprised of anti-maskers and anti-vaccine idiots. |
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Post by zoesam on Dec 16, 2021 2:23:04 GMT
100MPH winds today. What fun At least we have power. Had a teeth cleaning appt & when the dr was doing the oral cancer checks, I asked him to see if he could tell why I've been hoarse for over a week. He says I have a viral lesions in my throat :-(. Greaaatttt. So, I think I'm going to get a COVID test JIC, even tho' neither of us thinks it's COVID based on symptoms. Yeah, right. Doing that turns out not to be so easy, esp when there's 100MPH winds. Half the pop up type testing stations were closed & all the Walgreens are booked out for days, but you can't know that until you fill out the long form with all the questions & personal info. So frustrating! I must have stopped at 8 places trying to get one since I was out & about. No luck. I scheduled one for tmw, but I had no idea how hard it was to actually get a test when I wanted it. |
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Post by denise15601 on Dec 16, 2021 3:26:31 GMT
Good luck Zoesam!
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val2525
Chaos Manager
Posts: 30,720
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Post by val2525 on Dec 16, 2021 5:13:16 GMT
100MPH winds today. What fun At least we have power. Had a teeth cleaning appt & when the dr was doing the oral cancer checks, I asked him to see if he could tell why I've been hoarse for over a week. He says I have a viral lesions in my throat :-(. Greaaatttt. So, I think I'm going to get a COVID test JIC, even tho' neither of us thinks it's COVID based on symptoms. Yeah, right. Doing that turns out not to be so easy, esp when there's 100MPH winds. Half the pop up type testing stations were closed & all the Walgreens are booked out for days, but you can't know that until you fill out the long form with all the questions & personal info. So frustrating! I must have stopped at 8 places trying to get one since I was out & about. No luck. I scheduled one for tmw, but I had no idea how hard it was to actually get a test when I wanted it. Check with the pharmacies by you and see if any sell the take home testing kits. I saw them in the HEB pharmacy last week when I was checking in for my booster shot. |
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val2525
Chaos Manager
Posts: 30,720
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Post by val2525 on Dec 16, 2021 5:17:09 GMT
I finally finished signing up for my 2022 health insurance. I'll be a contractor again next year so I was able to use the Marketplace. The office plans sucked for 2022 and were insanely expensive, so it wasn't a hardship to go back to contract work. (I really didn't want to work full-time anyway, LOL.) This year the silver plans are a rip-off but the gold plans were great and in many cases cheaper than the silver plans, and with better coverage.
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Post by blissfullymiserable on Dec 16, 2021 15:11:14 GMT
Zoe I hope you're able to get tested sooner rather than later. I need to shop around for cheaper health insurance. It's United Healthcare so my plan is to slide into a cheaper plan with them... at some point.
Trying not to flip out but my payout sent today was only $33 and I haven't an under $200 sales day in weeks. Not sure what happened.
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Post by denise15601 on Dec 16, 2021 15:57:59 GMT
Zoe...I was wondering about the home test kits since they are supposedly free and available???
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val2525
Chaos Manager
Posts: 30,720
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Post by val2525 on Dec 16, 2021 16:35:47 GMT
Zoe...I was wondering about the home test kits since they are supposedly free and available??? They weren't free at HEB, but they weren't that expensive, maybe $20-$25 each? |
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Post by RetroMonde on Dec 16, 2021 16:36:39 GMT
Jes- tell your daughter she's experiencing an old-school, classic Portland winter. This cold, wet weather pattern is what was normal my entire life- we had cold drizzly rain from Halloween thru July 4th. About 5 years our weather began to change slightly. Since I'm a gardener & plant nerd I noticed the change in the order of our landscape shrubs & flowers bloomed. It used to be more of a progression, spread out over 2-3 months in the Spring. Now everything seems to bloom sooner and is more clumped together time-wise. It makes exciting floral explosions for a couple of months but then the yard is exhausted by June, lol.
Zoe- 100 mph winds?? Wow & UGH!! We get weather advisories for 25-30 mph gusts. Stay safe & hope you find a test soon.
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Post by labbypaws on Dec 16, 2021 16:41:04 GMT
Great day here near Philly. Shorts and T-shirt for walking.
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val2525
Chaos Manager
Posts: 30,720
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Post by val2525 on Dec 16, 2021 16:42:27 GMT
Cloudy, humid and stinky here. Stinky because they're finally doing the final section of the parking lot resurfacing, the section outside my building. They towed two cars this morning, folks who didn't move their cars in time. I made sure I moved mine though!
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Post by blissfullymiserable on Dec 16, 2021 17:02:40 GMT
Currently 49 and low will be 37. Finally getting some winter weather. Decided it was time to close the windows last night which remimds me.... need to pull out the down comforter.
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val2525
Chaos Manager
Posts: 30,720
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Post by val2525 on Dec 16, 2021 18:36:00 GMT
That's really bad when PHX is cooler than SA  |
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val2525
Chaos Manager
Posts: 30,720
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Post by val2525 on Dec 16, 2021 19:08:34 GMT
I think it's safe to say Simon feels safe and secure here.  LOL!  All 3 cats take turns sleeping in the bed. I bought another one for them for Christmas |
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Post by denise15601 on Dec 16, 2021 19:35:24 GMT
Zoe...I was wondering about the home test kits since they are supposedly free and available??? They weren't free at HEB, but they weren't that expensive, maybe $20-$25 each? Oops I mean that our insurance companies are supposed to reimburse us for the full cost. |
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Post by denise15601 on Dec 16, 2021 19:38:07 GMT
It is 66 degrees today! Windy but wonderful. Was wishing that I had some yard work to do. I could take this all winter, please.
So far in Dec, we had 1/10 of an inch of snow, while last year we had record-breaking snowfall in Dec.
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And I don't care how I look I just want to be as comfortable as possible. We haven't had much cold so far this season though. We are hitting 80 or above most days and have broken several records. I am wearing shorts most days lol. I feel bad about complaining, though. DD in Portland is sick of the rain and cold. It makes it hard feeling festive though. I made cookies in the cookie press Friday and it was so warm the dough was way too soft. I added more flour, refrigerated it, nope. They came out blobby but at least they tasted good.
