Thread Drift

[ny biker]

Hello Deb, im so sorry about your grandchild. I'm glad things are turning around for and I hope you continue to feel better. Please do check in when you can,

[Catrin]

DebS, thanks for checking in, it is good to hear from you. I'm very sorry to read about your grandchild and I totally agree on being able to share with people who have common ground/experiences. It's important.

On a completely unrelated topic, we've broken 2,000,000 views on this thread

[Catrin]

Oh my, certainly sending warm thoughts and prayers to your friend, Sky King!

[Blueberry]

[WARNING: DON'T READ IF YOU ARE VERY UNCOMFORTABLE WITH DEATH - sharing my med school experiences...]

To my Cadaver:

Sometime early in my fourth month of medical school, on our calendar appeared a small, non-description event that said "Meet the Cadaver." I don't think any among us were quite prepared to walk into the room with cold, stainless steel trays on wheels, lined up neatly, each with a blue body bag zipped up on top. The smell in the room was almost that of new plastic - which is, oddly enough, how dilute formalin can sometimes smell to me. We were given a brief introduction by our clinical faculty. We were told that each cadaver in the room was someone who was a resident of my state and who had donated his or her body to the medical school to be used in our education. We were then told to unzip the bag, and take our first look at our cadaver. There is nothing in daily life that can possible prepare one to be staring at an embalmed body under such circumstances. I first looked at you with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity.

As I sit here, prior to beginning our dissection, I can't help but wonder who you were. What kind of life did you lead? What made you make the extraordinary decision to gift your body to medical education? You have given our group of 9 students an amazing and unparalleled opportunity to learn about the human body. I hope you somehow knew before you died how grateful we are.

Soon we will make our first cuts. It seems like a violation, an intrusion into a very personal space we were never intended to invade. I hope that you can forgive us. I can think of no better way to honor your gift but to treat you with the respect due any human being and to learn as much as I positively can from you. That is, after all, what we were told your wishes were.

[Catrin]

Hang in there Crankin! Hopefully soon this will all recede and you will be happily settled in.

[Pax]

Hope you catch a break soon, Crankin.

I wonder if anyone in the history of modern housing has EVER moved into a new/different place and not had it be a painful experience? Every place we've ever bought has been fraught with annoyance, difficulty, additional expense, uncertainty... and yet we just keep buying and fixing up places. Sure hope the current one is the very last one.

[Crankin]

I feel much better after venting here! The good thing is, the kitchen is done (DH just has to hang the microwave), and it looks gorgeous.
We actually haven't had any really horrible buying or remodeling stories. Our remodel of this house's kitchen and bathrooms, went smooth as silk, done in 6 weeks. Yes, we discovered a lot of stuff that had been done wrong in this house, along the way, but that was really our fault. We bought this house very impulsively, and it's really the first house we've had that was older than 10 years. So, we have had to fix a lot of stuff here, but, we've also enjoyed living here. We had the basement finished and built a huge custom screened porch on our last house, and those things went well, too. I just think I would have been less stressed if we had spent the $ for the general contractor; that way, when you come up on a problem, they supply the alternative fixes, you choose, and it's not all on you. You are esentially exchanging time for money, which in this case, I think is worth it.
I decided to skip the group ride today, which had been rescheduled from Wednesday. We have a high wind advisory, with gusts up to 45 mph, constant breeze of 15-20. It's sunny out, and not that cold, but I hate riding in the wind. Going to yoga, maybe a hike later.

[ny biker]

I think I've mentioned this elsewhere -- everyone who buys a house needs to rent Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. It just sums it all up.

My last big project for my condo is replacing the wall-to-wall carpet with new wood floors. It needs to be done soon, while I have lots of stuff already packed up in boxes. And I bought new 8x10 wool rugs a couple of years ago when they were on sale and I thought I'd be moving ahead with the floors soon, so they're rolled up in one of my closets taking up valuable space. But I'm so overwhelmed at the thought of their having to move everything around in every room AND every closet in order to do the work. They say it will only take two days but in a way it's the biggest project I'm having done. I still have lots of things that need to be packed up. I'm trying to psych myself up to get it done soon.

[emily_in_nc]

Sorry there have been hassles and unexpected things with the new condo, Crankin! We have built three new houses plus one condo now so have dealt with all sorts of things. And we've bought two existing houses. One was older and needed some work, but that was mostly cosmetic, all easy things for us to DIY (paint, wallpaper, etc). One was only a few years old, and we did NOTHING to it. We liked the way it was decorated and left everything exactly the same. When we sold several years later, we had to have a window replaced that had the seal broken (dual-pane) and a couple other minor things, but really, that was our easiest house overall.

It's a trade-off. Since we've been renters, we've dealt with a new set of hassles, but it's different. I miss being able to paint and put things up on the walls and having my own space, but I don't miss some of the hassles and responsibilities that came with that. I am sure we'll own again one day, but we are not in a hurry. Our next home may just be a motorhome so we can continue our travels while having our own space.

[Catrin]

Interesting discussion on tourists. I do enjoy being one but there is also the impact of living in an area that attracts this curious species. When I visit home (East Tennessee) there are a few places I would love to visit but haven't seen in years due to the traffic from all of the tourists who also want to go there.

[Pax]

I'm learning the seasons here, there are three: tourist, snow bird, and locals... so far I'm LOVING locals season (Oct-Dec and March-May). The rest of the time its gridlock from the tourists (Summer) and simply awful drivers and long lines at restaurants and grocery stores due to snow birds (Winter). And when I say awful drivers I mean truly utterly should no longer have a license type drivers.

[shootingstar]

I'm learning the seasons here, there are three: tourist, snow bird, and locals... so far I'm LOVING locals season (Oct-Dec and March-May). The rest of the time its gridlock from the tourists (Summer) and simply awful drivers and long lines at restaurants and grocery stores due to snow birds (Winter). And when I say awful drivers I mean truly utterly should no longer have a license type drivers.

Suck in all the energy there, Pax during local season!

There's a running joke where I am that a sign of a true Calgarian: they show tourists Banff, instead of our own city. Banff is the town, national park + Rocky Mtns., 150 km. north of us. Clearly many big prairie cities that are landlocked aren't the same draw. However I live near a local site which can be where locals would take visitors... a bike-ped bridge. In non-winter seasons, the bike-ped path gets very crowded near our end. Yes, the city has installed a bike counter within the last 2 yrs. ...to measure traffic.

There is a run/marathon nearly every weekend when it's not icy/snowy. Last weekend, unfortunately I didn't have my camera when I biked: There was a run with joggers all wearing Santa Claus' outfits.

I had a work colleague who lived year round in heart of cottage country, with lakes, resorts, etc. about 200 km. north of Toronto. I was intrigued that her family chose a cottage...in Quebec..which is a bit of a drive for a family with children. Distance would be well over 500 km. southeast. (They wouldn't fly, no local airport.) But that was their way of avoiding local tourists.

[lph]

When it comes to warm clothes, style and fashion mostly go out the window for me once it gets cold enough. I've acquired a fair amount of practical, warm stuff for hiking, skiing or working outdoors, but none of it is particularly attractive unless you go for the lumberjack look ;-)
After some years I felt the need for a "civilian" coat for dressy occasions in cold weather, and now have both a ankle-length wool coat with a mouflon collar and a knee-length down coat. They're surprisingly "un-warm", probably because I don't have warm "civilian" boots to go with them, and overtrousers look weird with a coat. I usually have to choose between looking nice or being warm ;-)

[Pax]

think of it as keeping mary warm in bed on a cold night…she should be thanking you .....and yeah flip-flops ftw!!!!

She used to be a furnace, just a tiny little ball of heat, menopause did the opposite to her and she's always cold now. Bodies are weird. LOL

[Catrin]

Enjoy!