Weekend!
Maribou will be leaving for a wake this weekend and getting back Sunday… which means that I have a Friday Night and an All Day Saturday in front of me. Moreover, I did the Costco run last weekend. And the PetSmart run isn’t until next weekend.
Which means that the only errands I have to do this weekend are:
1. Groceries
2. Laundry
So I think I’ll just sit on the couch and try not to drool too much as I play vidja.
I don’t even really have a set of things that I’d like to do because, hey, Maribou is going to be gone away. Wanna see a movie at the theater? Wanna go to the mall and sit in the food court and complain about the posers at Hot Topic? Wanna get some of those neon railings for the car and then go cruising up and down Nevada Avenue?
Nope.
I’m going to sit. In the basement. In the dark.
I can’t wait.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Image is Tristan and Isolde Drinking the Love Potion by Gautier Map from the Messire Lancelot du Lac. He did most of his stuff in the 12th and 13th century so I figure it’s in the public domain.)
I’m going to a wake. A very very small wake. For two different people. Both of whom died last year and both of whom I’d known since I was in my late teens.
So that’s the big thing. No idea how that will go, there are few enough of us that we’re basically like, “well, we’re old, so it probably won’t be all that exciting, otherwise what’s supposed to happen is what happens.”
Sunday I’ll be watching TV at Dman and Carol’s house, Monday I’m supposed to have lunch or dinner with a friend to celebrate our mutual friend’s birthday. (Mutual friend is also invited but seeing as she lives in New Zealand she will probably be about 9 months late.)Report
I am thinking about building a boat. It has rained about 7 inches in the last six hours and is raining very hard right now. Most of the roads are closed and I am very happy that Mrs. Dexter went to the store yesterday so we have food and don’t need to go anywhere. The news is showing giant road jams. The rain is supposed to last until tomorrow so we are homebodies. The one good thing about our floods is that we don’t get raging water like those canyons in Colorado.
At the risk of giving more proof that I am an out of the loop luddite will you tell me what “gifs” are?Report
If you build a boat @dexter I will follow!
(I have been planning to build one for a while now…)Report
Oooh, what kind of boat?
You should film some part of the process and make a gif.Report
@dragonfrog, The boat is going to have to wait because part of our driveway is under water and I can’t get to the road.
Fema makes us buy flood insurance because they want us to. Most of BR is in trouble but, while our driveway has about a foot of water on it, the house is still about six feet above the water. If our house floods Baton Rouge is toast. My garden is under as are the blueberry bushes and I am starting to worry about the Mother in laws house.
And it is still raining hard and I mean hard by Louisiana standards. This is basically a failed hurricane, all water and no wind. At least I won’t have to spend the next week clearing the back yard of trees and fixing the fence.Report
Oh gosh, I hope you’re all alright.
Around here recent weeks have seen what probably counts as “somewhat more than a drizzle” by Louisiana standards, and basements and sections of major highways flooded.Report
@dragonfrog, We’re fine. Called the mother in law and her house is okay. It would take a lot more to flood our house. This is the highest I have ever seen the water here and it is still about five feet below the house . South of here the people will get flooded, but our land is graded well and normally about fifteen feet above the Comite.
I am not sure we can get out, but I have no place to go, and there is this thing in Brazil that we are watching on tv so we aren’t bored.Report
@dragonfrog, We are no longer fine. The Mother in laws house has about six inches of water and the driveway has almost four feet so we can’t get her back to our house. Her car and my wife’s car both are sitting in about four feet of water. Our house is still about two feet above the water but the water is still rising and it still fucking raining. All my carpenter tools are under water and the water is still rising and it is still raining. Oh well.
The weatherman just said that they had to get a new color to signify how much it has rained. Some places have got more than 25 inches. I will stop ranting now and hope that it stops raining.Report
Oh, jeez. This is awful. Stay safe.Report
I was going to bitch and moan about doing landscaping work in the sunshine and heat but… no. Be safe, Dexter.Report
Oh gosh I’m sorry to hear that – be safe!Report
JEEZ! Good luck!Report
Well, it finally stopped raining and the water has dropped about two inches in the last four house and is now only four and a half feet in our yard but not before my mother in law got two feet of water in her house, my uncle got about one and a half and my cousin who lives next to my uncle got an unknown amount because he left for his son’ s house and whose house is now taking water and they are waiting to get rescued but don’t know when because there is a long waiting list.
Besides the damage to the houses we lost four cars, three lawn mowers and I had about three thousand dollars worth tools that are now under water and another two or three thousand worth of wood that has floated to parts unknown.
If someone sends me their email address I will send some pictures. They will be coming from my wife’s account because I don’t have enough computer chops to do it from mine.
And to top the whole mfing thing off, my computer is dying of old age and I am writing this on my wife’s and I am not doing it well.Report
Are floods common in your area, or is this wholly unexpected?
Are you covered for floods?Report
@oscar-Gordon, My wife’s family has owned this property since the twenties and this is the first time that there has been water in the field in front of the house let alone five feet..
We have flood insurance as does my uncle, but my mother in law dropped her’s years ago because the property never flooded.
This new computer is hard for me to get a handle on.Report
It didn’t flood even in 1927, but it’s flooding now? Wow.Report
Looking at the news and maps, it seems like it’s not the Mississippi per se that’s flooding, but the stalled storm has overwhelmed a bunch of tributary creeks and rivers just east of Baton Rouge. (that eventually go into Pontchartrain for the most part).Report
I’d also want to look at the maps and see if any construction has altered the flood plains nearby.
I’m glad to hear you’re covered, and doing ok, all things considered. Hopefully that will help you so you can help your in law.Report
The water has dropped enough that I brought my truck back to the house. I had it parked on the bridge but did not want to leave it there one more night.
As far as my mother in law is concerned my wife’s family is extremely tight and there are electricians , carpenters and a very successful ac guy so she will only have to pay for parts because labor will be free. And probably the new ac will not cost her anything,
Funny/sad story is that her large lawn mower that was parked in a shed with no door is gone as in not to be seen, So if anybody sees a large zero turning yellow lawn mower floating by we would appreciate a call.
I lost about 400 board feet of red oak and black walnut that floated away. I have not checked on my tools which spent over 24 hours under water and we have not checked on the duct work or tried the ac yet, but hopefully they weren’t tore up too much,
So, all things considered we are doing okay and much better than many other people.Report
That’s good for your in laws.
Depending on the the tools, you may be able to salvage them, and if not, that’s why you have insurance.
I’ll keep an eye out for any wayward mowers, but seeing as how I’m up near Seattle… if I did find it, that would be a story to tell.Report
A gif is pretty much a small animated image that you see on the web all the time.
If you get on a webpage and they have a little picture of an attractive person who winks at you or a cat falling off of a table or something, it well could be a gif.Report
Also paired with gelly to make sandwiches.Report
Taking Bug to Disneyland, may Ganesha have mercy on my soul.Report
Done with Disneyland, fun all around.
Although I lost my phone (Samsung Galaxy 6S). I’m hoping someone turns it in to lost & found tonight. I was able to get to a laptop & sign out of everything remotely and lock up the phone with a lock screen message, as well as suspend service to it.Report
If you go to lost and found and make a report, there is a good chance you will get it back.
When they find lost items, they catalog and store them, and have 3-4 people working full time just trying to contact the owners.Report
They also said if I’m home by the time they find it, they’ll ship it back to me for free. That’s awful nice of them.Report
Disney lives off of customer service. (In some ways, they have no choice. You’ve seen the crowds and lines. Without insane customer service, people would probably die.).
I’ve been on their cruise, and they don’t skimp there either. Of course, they cost 60% more, but good lord.Report
I remember a Disney employee going way out of his way for us. (I don’t recall the details, but it involved driving us to our hotel. Maybe one of the kids wasn’t feeling well?) And then refusing a tip, because, after all, customer service is his part of his job.Report
Well, 24 hours later, and no phone. The battery was almost toast at the time, and there is a solid chance it came out of my pocket while on the Symphony Swings, which means if it didn’t fly into the water or smash into something, whoever finds it will have a phone with a battery about a month away from catching fire (damn thing would get hot as hell and burn through battery life whenever it lost network, which lately was anytime I was out of LOS of a cell tower – I was going to take it in for service this week).
First phone I’ve lost, and I’ve been carrying cell phones since the mid-90’s.
I did try the locator service, but it came up empty (battery was almost dead, so not surprising). I went ahead and sent a wipe command. If someone does find it and gets it to power up, it’ll nuke itself. I’ll call AT&T tomorrow and report it lost and see if they can get my old Galaxy S3 back online. I’ll limp along on that until I can free up some disposable income and get a Nexus phone (if I have to get a new phone, might as well be done with contracts, etc.).
As noted, Disney has been awesome. For as much as they all kept the pleasant and helpful shine going, I hope Disney pays them very well.
Bug had a blast. He loved the Goofy Flight School roller coaster, and really liked the Radiator Springs Racers ride (and I quote: “I loved it! Well, I cried a little, but I still loved it!” – honest to god quote from a 4 year old, don’t say it’s fake!). He also liked riding the monorail, especially since he got sit up in front (which, I noted, was the monorail in Zootopia; also, I wonder why monorails aren’t a viable light rail option, much smoother ride than steel rails?). We’ll probably take him again in a few years, when he’s tall enough for the few rides he could’t go it. Perhaps we can drag along some cousins or friends as well.Report
I have acupuncture today, which is nice, I guess. Other that that, the wife and I have been doing a massive purge and donate, which I need to take to WEAVE, the ASPCA and Goodwill, etc.
Seriously, every closed and bookshelf. Just going through and getting rid of anything we don’t love.Report
“I’m sorry, Johnny, but Mom and I have put a lot of thought into this. Now, say goodbye to Fluffy and your sister, and be on your way,”Report
This weekend was supposed to be that of the big move, but renovations have their own schedule, so instead it will be the weekend of picking up the twice-delayed hardwood, tiling the laundry room, finishing the basement subfloor, some number of second coats of paint, and bringing a few electrical things at the old house up to (or at least within hailing distance of) code.
At least, I really hope we can finally get the hardwood.Report
My weekend is a bit up in the air.
I might be getting aboard a plane for a quick back and forth to Palo Alto.
If not, then likely a weekend of rest, with a few live music/event venues here and there.Report
Like you, I have few obligations. Ahhhh. I will do some more packing and cleaning in anticipation of the move in about four weeks. Grocery shopping and baking. Also, prep required for my trip to Japan in 12 days!!! We have sun this weekend. Maybe I’ll have a glass of wine on the back porch tonight and look for meteors.Report
I’m up in Auckland this weekend visiting my parents.Report
Season 24 of football officiating begins with a clinic on Saturday. Man, I love this time of year. Of course, the Bears showed evidence last night of a truly horrendous season in the offing, so that will temper the glee somewhat. Looks like Sunday afternoons may be otherwise occupied this fall.Report
I’m spending time looking into “cutting the cord”. Of course I need a new TV since my current one is a 36 inch cathode ray tube tv that weights like 200 pounds. Preliminary results suggest that I may not be getting much savings over the current cable bill.
I think with Sling TV and Prime I’d cover pretty much what I might want to watch. Warrants further investigation.Report
This is what we do, and it seems to work for us. And by us I mean her. I pretty much only watch football and baseball and then use an HD antenna to pick up random shows. This is great when I have insomnia, as I don’t want to be fooling around with Prime or Hulu or Netflix trying to pick a show to lull me to sleep. Defeats the purpose.Report
We cut the cord a year ago and apart from a couple of shows you just can’t get it’s been painless. Saved a flipping fortune too.Report
I’m too into live sports to cut the cord. And while I’d probably be better served to actually plug away at the growing list of shows I need to catch up on rather than channel surf and watch a “Law and Order” episode I’ve already seen a dozen times, there is something I enjoy about the latter sometimes. Savings would probably amount to less than $1000/year — which ain’t nothing to bat an eye at — but a few outings to watch games at the bar or restaurant quickly add up.
But as an avid sports fan, I’m not the ideal cord cutter.Report
@north @aaron-david
My Best case scenario…and this is only prelim, is that I might save 50 dollars a month. Not a massive saving but still. I still need to noodle through the tv purchase, set up, etc.Report
We got rid of cable and used that money to pay for Amazon Prime and Netflix. We have money left over and we miss nothing.
(We don’t really watch live sports, though.)Report
What do you do about internet?Report
We’ve been using the same local ISP since 1997. We never bundled that monthly expense in with our cable bill so we never had to unbundle when we cut the cord.Report
Hmmm not so slam dunk for you then.Report
Spent Sunday afternoon helping make decisions to keep IOC-sanctioned sport fencing alive and well in Colorado. We must be doing something right — the Colorado Division executive committee members were retained by acclamation.Report