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Just call me Vick Tory! I finally found a roundabout way to the high rent district at the top of the hill. Today was sunny and breezy with the temperature dropping as a fresh east wind picked up. After striking out last time I decided to try another approach. The sun was nice and I was warm enough in my old parka and an extra layer of fleece, but the brisk freezing wind reminded me that a watch cap might be a good idea. A couple miles through residential streets brought me to a nice walking trail up a small canyon. It starts out well maintained but soon turns to mud. After half a mile or so the trail kind of ends in some ferns, but after poking around a bit there's a game trail down to the creek and enough rocks to get across. Another few yards on is another water crossing and then a greasy winding uphill goat track through a heavily overgrown patch of alder. Around a couple bends and up one final pitch, and the trail joins with a pretty good dirt road. And sure as shit there's a gate across the end right at the street. No problem to hop, but I thought I'd look around. A quarter mile back the other direction I scared up a small herd of elk that hangs out in the hills near town. We've crossed paths before. Not wanting to push them, I climbed up on a boulder and roasted a blunt while they drifted down to the creek for a drink. The wind stung my face and hands even sheltered by the ferns and trees.
By now the trail was down to a muddy track. The canyon had become a mishmash of slopes and gulleys, and my only clue for orientation was the glow of sundown through the canopy. After another quarter mile or so, I found several likely looking scrambles going up a steep escarpment. I was not optimistic but picked the least sketchy one. But within a dozen yards was hanging from branches and decided I didn't want to work that hard. Back at the trail I thought about turning back, but the path kept going and was recently traveled. Another few hundred yards and a U turn brought me to a small dirt bike play area and the end of the road. But back at the U turn there was a game trail continuing up through the ferns. Hmmm. I decided I had about ten more minutes to play and then it was time to retrace my steps. After a short scramble up a steep draw I spotted some Christmas lights through the greenery. Another hundred yards brought me to the end of a city street. This one was gated too but there was a well trampled walkaround. And wonder of wonders, no sign so its legit. After wandering a bit I finally recognized a street name and got my bearings. Then an easy stroll down the other side of the hill, along another creekside trail, and back to the shack. After an extra long ramble yesterday and today's adventure my dogs are barking. Its in the mid 20's out there and dropping. Hibernation sounds real good right now but the shelves are bare so its time to get my ass to the store. Pot roast is on sale at Slaveway and I think a big pot of stew is in order. Tomorrow I plan to bundle up and watch weather cams from under a pile of blankets. |
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Good morning everyone.
Duckie, I'm sorry you've got the 'rona. I hope your case continues to be mild. I got most of the rest of the Christmas shopping knocked out yesterday. I need to get one more gift for my son and some stocking stuffers for him and the rest of the adults, and then I'm done. I'll take care of those items before or after my haircut today. I also need to pick up some good rum. I'm out, and I'm going to need some drinks on Christmas. I have bourbon and whiskey right now, and I'm not really a fan of either. It's 18 degrees, with an expected high of 28. Tomorrow we're supposed to get freezing rain. Today will be cloudy but dry until late tonight, when we may see a snow shower or two that will turn to freezing rain. Well, that's all the news that's fit to print from 'round these parts. I hope you all have a great day. |
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It's like 30 degrees right now, but after 1pm or so it's supposed to drop down into the single digits...and then -3 tonight. So it will be colder than my exes hearts outside! 1-3 inches of snow expected. Probably won't melt in a while because of the cold temps. Usually around this time of the year I have the choice to travel down south, but due to some unfortunate circumstances I have to stick around up here for this! What will I do to entertain myself???
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It was -12 when I woke up and we got about 7 inches of snow. Last night just as Mrs. Larsen and I were getting into bed, the game camera went off and the mountain lion was just outside our window. He did his usual route between the houses and then under our lower deck.
Wolfette and Hubby made it here last night after a really slow drive from Cementville up to the tunnel. On this side, it was not as bad but still slow. They will be here until Saturday and we will do Christmas with them a day early. |
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The highs here have minus signs. Lots of snow yesterday; fortunately I work from home and they cancelled the kid's school for yesterday and today so I barely had to leave the house. Mrs. Plumbean had to drive to work and back though and she was in a shitty mood after the drive home. Tomorrow might be the worst day because of big winds, we'll see how it goes.
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We're at 41° and getting wet. Suppose to be torrential rains later with flooding and at some point very high winds. We're safe from flooding pretty much, but the winds always worry me. The temp is suppose to climb with the wind speed. Tomorrow is suppose to be in the 50s with the highest winds after the rain stops.
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Hoo! Its cheek freezing and breezy out there today. Sure glad I got that door fixed. The hummingbird feeder was frozen solid at bedtime last night so I brought it in to thaw. There was quite the lineup in the drivethru when I went out to hang it this morning. Its probably frozen again by now so I'll bring it inside for awhile to get ready for the dinner crowd. The pipes are wrapped and the hose bibs capped, but the kitchen sink is on an exterior wall so I left that cabinet open to let a little more warmth in there. Cheap insurance.
I went nuts at the grocery last night and got a roast so big it still has a brand on it. So the oven will warm things up a little more in a couple hours. I figure roast beast with fresh bread and random veggies. And I got one of those extra sinful brookie things for dessert. A layer of M&M cookies on top of chocolate brownies, the stuff is like crack. I've been valiantly resisting for two entire weeks so I don't feel too bad. Just have to keep the sugar rush below the OD limit, is all. ETA: Nope! Not frozen yet and it looks like lunch hour is still happening. I'll check it again in an hour or so. Those little buzz bombs need to tank up before bed time. Last edited by Jaglavak; 22nd December 2022 at 02:06 PM. |
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It was -7 when I woke up today. Not planning on doing a lot outside the house today. Took the Santa Fe to the body shop yesterday and got the estimate on repairing the deer damage. Scheduled to have the work done in late January. Going to do Christmas Eve with Wolfette and Hubby tonight and then Christmas day early tomorrow before they head back to Cementville.
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Still cold, survived five hours of power outage in the night (full report in the PNW Got Snow thread) and thoroughly disinclined to do much of any damned thing today. I have foods, I have yarn, I have books and hopefully the power stays on (should, the outage was from the insane winds we had going on--not even joking but some of those gusts were rattling the entire shed house!) so I can watch trash tv and wait for my kitchen water lines to unfreeze. The crapshack is likewise froze up, usually dripping the faucets here in the shed keeps the main supply open in there but not this time--I'm very fingers crossed nothing busts in there because that would be a fucking disaster. The crapshack does not have a main shutoff for the water aside from actually shutting it off at the street so if a pipe busts in there I have no water at all here in the shed unless I can sweet talk a neighbor into lettiing me run a hose or something and I'd really rather not if I can help it. It would also mean a spendy ass repair I can't really afford right now so if y'all can keep some Happy Thoughts going for my ancient pipes that would be great lol.
Huh, a fire truck running lights but no siren just turned into one of the side streets down the way a bit, hope all is well down there. That's likely to be a paramedic call. |
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Yeah, got the fingers crossed for when things finally thaw out for sure. I'm about running out of kosher salt--I always mean to pick up deicer but never remember so the big box o'Mortons gets some heavy lifting. It's especially important this year since Bear has a hard time navigating any slippery surface and I don't want him to hurt himself on the front steps. Awww, Bear!
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I hope everyone is staying warm. Our wild weather has mostly ended, although we're still being terrorized by wind. There is a good chance that we'll get some snow this afternoon, and that would be really nice.
![]() Me and Mr. Duck are feeling a lot better today. In fact, we're feeling good enough to sort of appreciate having to have the lowest-key Christmas ever. I'm spending a lot of time reading, under a blanket, with a thermos of herbal tea beside me. Tomorrow, if we're up for eating more than we have been, we'll cook a faux traditional dinner: Stove Top stuffing in a roast chicken, roast potatoes, frozen brussel sprouts, served up right with cranberry sauce from a can. ![]() Best wishes to you all! ![]() |
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Good morning and Merry Christmas Eve to all of you.
I'm glad your power was restored, Smartie, and I hope the pipes have finally thawed. Duckie, I am glad that you and Mr. Duck are feeling much better. I honestly wouldn't mind a low-key Christmas like yours. I spent most of yesterday running errands but didn't get the grocery shopping done. When it was time to grocery shop, I was just over the lines, the slippery and sloppy parking lots, and just being out in that mess. I plan to go to the grocery store in about an hour. We're going to get rain, lots of rain in the next few days. The snow elevation is going to climb to eight thousand feet. I wish all those that celebrate a very Merry Christmas. For those who don't, I wish you a peaceful, easy day. |
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It's 24, no wind, and sunny as ever out! Most of the snow and ice we had has melted unfortunately, but we'll likely get more come January. I am just happy that Christmas will be nice and chilly, and that we had a liiiiittle bit of snow to celebrate.
![]() Christmas Eve is going to be just me, Kyoudai, the dog and a couple Christmas specials. The only two I bother watching is Rudolph and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Thank god we have nothing else to do, as I have some pretty serious sinus pain today that was plaguing me last night in the form of a migraine. I'm pretty exhausted, but I'm going to try and enjoy the day as much as possible!! Merry Christmas Eve to all who celebrate! ![]() |
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Well, on the one hand the pipes did thaw but on the other hand that PVC pipe in the crapshack that caused the original problem absolutely DID cut loose in a catastrophic manner--I went into detail in the Got Snow thread. I'm goddamned exhausted right now and I've only been up a few hours. This sucks and I need a shower but can't have one until I can score a water supply, which is possible but not until the hose thaws out. Good lord, can things BE more janky around here? Squalid Manor, it is where I live.
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Happy Merry Joyous to all celebrating whatever wherever lol. I have water, thanks to my kind neighbor and a thawed hose, the dehumidifier is drying out the parts of the crapshack that got inundated and I have good plans for dinner. Costco sells this shelf stable packaged sourdough bread, it's not the greatest of sourdoughs but it doesn't take up room in the freezer and doesn't have to be thawed out--just toss it into the oven for ten minutes and it's good to go. So I'm making up a goodly batch of lamb and lentil soup with plenty of onions and garlic and cheeeeeeez and I will nom it up with a will! Also with buttered hot sourdough bread to mop up the bowl. Oh yeah...
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Merry Christmas, all! Bread is in the oven, soon to be followed by roast and spuds. And a big ol salad and mashed sweet potatoes and broccoli and fresh cooked cranberry sauce and some straight up frozen sin for dessert. If I don't survive, at least I died with my bib on.
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My mom had a whole house generator installed--runs on propane (she had a second tank dropped in just for the gennie) and she just had a power outage that lasted a couple days but everything ran like normal for her. I'm super glad she got that, and that my sister and BIL are living on the property with her, they're a huge help to her aging in place.
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Merry Christmas all! ...Ignore the timestamp.
![]() I had a wonderful Christmas! My mother came over with a couple gifts for Kyoudai and I, and I made her some hot cocoa. She then made us a small dinner (with my minimal help) and hung out with us for a few hours, before heading off! She then headed off to do Christmas with her boyfriend, leaving us to wake up out of our food comas, then head off to my friend's! I gave her a gift which I'll post pictures of later on, and hung out talking and watching basketball (she loves the Memphis Grizzlies!) and it was a fabulous time. Now, I am home and in bed, with a happy, warm, sleeping dog at my hip, and a good day behind me. I hope everyone had a really amazing Christmas!! ![]() |
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Good morning.
My Christmas was busy, warm, and good. Santa spoiled the littles, the Christmas prime rib roast was excellent, and it was nice having the family gathered. Now, we can all get back to normalcy. These last weeks have been frantic and I'm exhausted! I'm off today since it's a federal holiday and the most I plan to do is laundry. I also need to make a vet appointment for Polar. Wishing you all a peaceful and relaxing day. |
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and that you have a good relationship with your neighbor so you have access to water. I hope you can get a plumber out there ASAP. as of yesterday afternoon it's back above freezing: so now I am thankful for rain rather than anything frozen. I haven't had a walk in weeks. ![]() but the days ARE getting longer..... |
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Trash Day can dawn with a rosy sky here in Parallel Hell. We still haven't had the latest sunrise, that actually happens next year. But the evenings are lengthening, albeit slowly, and brighter days are to come.
Today is compostables and I was finally able to get rid of all the leaf mold I pulled out of the gutters on the garage. Glad I did it when I had good weather, all that snow melting would have been running down the sides of the building. |
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Sorry to hear you have Covid, Duckie. That stinks! Bad luck on the molar, Wolfie.
The Thaw has started; 40 is predicted for tomorrow, which should make things messy, but more bearable. I have to drive tomorrow to the library that we're closing as of early January, but then I can come home and pretend to work. Working from home on Thursday, and my last day off is Friday. God knows how and when I'll get time off in 2023. My retiring coworker and I would cover for one another, but now I will have no one. ![]() |
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Take your time off and if the place burns down while you're on vacation it might just point out how much some backup is needed. How about some glamping at the Off Grid Inn?
We're under the pineapple express so its been breezy and rainy all day. The wind is supposed to kick up again tonight. But everything is either strapped down or already blown away from last week, so I'm good to go. I took a lap around the yard earlier. Aside from that its been indoor projects today. Oh well, if thats the price of greenery and mild winters, I'll take it. |
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I'm phone shopping and I keep googling reviews and trying to figure out what a phone with a 6.6 inch screen actually looks like (too big?), if 13 mp camera is good enough or what about 50mp? and do I really need 5G?
I've got a list going and I'm going to buy one THIS WEEK I swear by all that's holy. I dunno why I don't want to do this. ![]() |
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Most mobile providers have already or are in process of shutting down 3G and 4G parts of the networks so you absolutely DO need 5G. A 13 mp will take a picture that is so large in raw format you don't even have a display big enough to hold the entire thing--you do snapshots, that's a perfectly good resolution for anything you'll want to use it for. Megapixels over a certain amount are just for bragging rights and professional photographers who would be using a DSLR anyway so don't sweat the camera. Price is the main thing, and the prices you quoted me are just fine. I'd go with a Samsung, they're pretty much industry standard for Android and they have this neat little app that lets you completely mirror your old phone's setup on a new phone--I did it with my new A32 and it took about ten minutes and all my apps, games, books and the rest of it were transferred from one phone to the other, easy peasy. Just pull the trigger--anything you buy is going to be light years better than what you have now!
Well, the back fence finished blowing down last night in the wind, yay. I have it braced up for the moment and will get a bit more bracing done before the weather socks in again. Man, the hits just keep on coming! On the plus side, the owner of the houses next door is up here doing some work on some problem tree branches and he's formally okayed me keeping the van on what's technically his property so that's awesome, one less thing to worry about. He told me he's talked to both his tenants and they're both looking to stay long term and he's committed to not raising their rent for as long as they stay so that's also awesome because they're both nice chill women and good neighbors. Cross fingers and toes that the PVC plumbing repair option works--I'm finishing up my coffee then I'll be climbing around up in the crawlspace of the crapshack sussing out all that's going on up there. If it's set up the way I'm about 98% sure it is then I can cut both those shit supply lines inside the main body of the place and cap them. 24 hours to cure on the repair and I'll have someone ELSE turn on the water at the street so I can shut it down fast if it turns out there's more damage than I thought. If that's the case then it will be an expensive repair BUT I can also make some improvements since I'll be footing the bill no matter what. I can have them bring up the main at more or less the same spot, put in a proper main shutoff and a separate shutoff for the crapshack and also a proper hose bib. In for a penny, in for a pound, right? But all things being equal I'm really hoping a pair of 67 cent PVC caps will do the trick. |
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Well, PVC repair is partially accomplished--I didn't know it, but there's PVC and there's CPVC and they are NOT the same size at all. So I tried to glue down the cap on the first pipe but it didn't work and I had to go back to Home Despot. I also fucked up and cut the second one too close on the wrong side so it's not possible to put a CPVC cap on it now because I am stoopid. So for my sins I had to cut the galvanized part of the second pipe and got a compression fitting and a cap that was supposed to fit. I thought it was half inch, guy at HD was convinced it was 3/4 so silly me I trusted the expert lol. Got back home and as I was scritching away with my little hacksaw it occurred to me that A) this was gonna take forever since I had to work over my head with my crappy shoulder and B) I live next door to a whole houseful of GODDAMNED BLACKSMITHS and the chances of them having multiple angle grinders was about 146%. So I went over and sure thing, neighbor lady scared up a grinder and came over and cut that thing off in no time. Which was when I found out it is indeed half inch pipe and the 3/4 compression fitting ain't gonna...fit. So I chalked that one up to experience and instead went out to brace up the back fence some more. Yay. I'll go hit the HD tomorrow and exchange the bits that don't fit for the bits that do. Neighbor lady is unconcerned by my continued use of her water supply but I don't want to wear out my welcome.
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Mrs. Larsen has something, but just got a negative Covid test. The big symptom is coughing. This probably came from our youngest nephew, the Nickanator. We got to the house on Christmas day to find out that he was sick (and probably wouldn't have gone if we had known), but once there we were kind of committed. She'll retest again tomorrow.
I am on tea supply duty and will probably be making her favorite soup for lunch. |
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Welp. It finally happened. The kids up the block got a drone for Christmas. A nifty little quadcopter with a video cam. Which no doubt synchs with phones and links to Snapchat. Now no window is safe, not even second floor. They're not bad kids but they are still kids. Oh well, welcome to the shiny bright future.
Other than that, the Great PNW Rain Festival continues. I've got a couple errands to run tomorrow before the world closes up shop for New Years. And then batten the hatches until next year. But right now there's a plate of nachos in the oven. Leftover taco meat and shredded cheddar and salsa roja and diced bell pepper and shrooms and a dab or two of sour cream on the side. I should probably go ahead and strap on the old defib electrodes now to save time. |
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Smartie, I was so sorry to hear you had fence issues which I hope is fixed and that you can get done whatever needs done with the plumbing. do I understand you may not even need a plumber to come out?!
I have it narrowed down to 2 phones and both Samsung Galaxy: A13 and A23 but also looking at the Motorola Moto 5 stylus 5G mainly until I figure out if a stylus is something I'd ever use. (watching youtube reviews of it) Wolf, I hope Mrs. Larsen gets better soon and @thylacine I'm glad to see you back. a damn shame about your trees! ETA: the stylus seems stupid and I bought the A13 whew! now let's see if I can get it delivered and then activated with no problems. fingers crossed! Last edited by JackieLikesVariety; 30th December 2022 at 05:23 AM. |
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I don't like to talk about my health situation much. Most of you know what it is. But I'm not attention seeking at all, and even though it's pretty much all I think about, not talking about it keeps me in a sort of denial that is the only way I can cope. I know some of you are disappointed I don't share more, but that just doesn't work for me.
Part of this is as little contact with my medical team as possible. They know this and support me in it. It's consisted of one or two telehealth visits a month. I just had one. I'm starting to have more pain, and this visit has sent me over the edge of terror. I know I'll be able to tamp it down probably within a few hours, but for now it's awful. Having no future is really difficult to deal with. There are so many things I wanted to do. Plus knowing I'm going to suffer. And my mom. My god, leaving my mom. I'll be better in a little bit. Just have to distract myself enough. |
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Awww, Helena, I'm so sorry the devils are after you.
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I know you much better than you know me Helena but you matter here and my time zone difference means I can be about when others aren’t. I can also hear all the hard things and not be harmed by them as well as talk about fluff and know without it being said that there is hard stuff behind it. We could even talk so I can laugh at your silly accent and the way you say emu. *
Attention seeking is a terrible way to describe someone who needs attention that should be stricken from the language. Psychiatrists invented it to describe those they couldn’t help easily, lazy bastards. You need and deserve attention Helena, no trying to protect us. You protect your mum if you need to, we can take care of us. Anyone who objects can suck my big toe. That’s not at all sexual, my big toe is gnarly. *I may whinge about the heat though and possibly the spot where I whacked my shin with my sledge hammer. You think you know pain, hah! |
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