What did you do today?

[Spicoli43]

No mouse today. Two more consecutive mouse-free days & we're home free.

Got three telemarketing calls spaced 10 minutes apart, around noon.
I asked one What is your business address? & after prompting from persons unknown he gave me the address of a house next door to mine that I moved out of in 1990.

None of them can say what county they're in but this might be normal for us US citizens.

Everybody can improve their Improvisation Technique & this is one reason I am benefitting from these tireless con artists. Bring it on, guys & girls!

I want to get a landline just to mess with telemarketers. I could try with the cell, but the voicemails I get are all bot recordings...

 

[Spicoli43]

Yeah, that was a long article. I'm thinking of getting the digital version if I can read it on my computer or have my brother read it (since he likes to cook). I wonder if stuff can be made in the air fryer or pressure cooker because our oven doesn't work.

Contact them before ordering, Air fryer on bake might work.

 

[Guzzle]

The pitch is a bot, press 1, & if whoever answers can tell you what is 1 + 2 it is a real person {for now}.

 

[zannej]

I get a lot of the auto-hangup calls. You pick up and hear click click and they either hangup or it starts ringing another line to make it seem like you called them. I always hang up immediately. Sometimes there is dead silence for 20 seconds (the longest I've waited before hanging up). Now if I get 10 seconds of silence I hang up.

Even though its afternoon, its still cold so my cats and dogs are piled on.

I'd had an older version of Sketchup on my laptop but somehow the forced windows updates deleted it. My sketchup models are still available but the program itself is gone. That annoys me because I had some things I wanted to mess with.

I started cleaning the toilet earlier but Mom wanted to use the bathroom. She started freaking out about the "blue stuff" in the bowl and "Won't that ruin the septic tank?" I said "No" and she then remembered the blue stuff is not supposed to go in the toilet tank because it ruins rubber and plastic parts. I'm waiting for my allergy meds to kick in before I go back and start cleaning again.

 

[Guzzle]

I think with these silent calls they are listening for whatever they can pick up; how many people, adults or kids, women or men. If I were them I'd record this info for the next TM who calls.
Speaking into the silence I try to be creatively & bizarrely obscene.

It's hard to tell what works, these TMs change their strategies over time to adapt to what the called people do.
Lately, I speak very slowly & act like I can't get my breath & I repeat back to them what they said as if trying to comprehend it [but I'm stalling for time].
They are hoping for someone not competent so this last routine should work.

 

[shan2themax]

Ugh!!!! That's how I feel currently. I am so sick of my back and the word fibromyalgia I could spit volcanoes. My house is crazy, my heartbroken daughter moved back in with her 2 pups (i think i told this already). So there are now 4 adults, 4 dogs, and 4 cats in approx 1150 sq ft of "living" space.
I cant figure out when she is happy or sad or pissed off. So I am trying to just give her more space.
My mom had a MD appt yesterday and the lady was finishing up the paperwork for the woman in front of us (after the lady walked off) and after a minute or 2 of waiting, my mom said "well I guess this lady doesnt want to take care of us today". I explained that she was fi ishing up scanning everything in, she said well I know that.... I'm just talking. I said well you are being rude, she has to finish that first. then we get up there and she asks her name.... to which my mom doesnt say anything so I say her name.... and then she said.. "this is my daughter Shannon, she thinks I am old and senile and dont know my own name" I told her she was ridiculous and absolutely not going to humiliate me in public.

This was all AFTER I had to call the office to say she was going to be late AGAIN.
Anyways, we got home and I asked my daughter to help her get back inside because my back was killing me and I had to lift her wheelchair into and out of my car yesterday which just made it worse. And it went downhill after that because she told my dgtr that she would just take my side, and my dgtr told her she wasnt going to take sides but the she needed to get out of the car if she wanted help inside. And my mom said I had a very skewed view of the world because I told her that she wasnt going to tell me something that had just happened didnt and I needed to toughen up and get over it.

I am exhausted... like for real, people are exhausting

Anyways, looking forward to Friday (that's when I am cooking) gonna make a brisket and a ham, sweet potato casserole, and then my daughter is making macaroni and cheese and broccoli casserole and friend green beans. I am also going to make a cheesecake tomorrow so it will be ready for Friday. I work Thursday, people better keep hands out of it lol
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas if you celebrate it.




Ps..... I have found crunchy pb&j to be best in snap traps, they have to work a little harder

 

[Eddie_T]

Crunchy PNB for mice sounds like a good idea. My son caught several with Goldfish crackers. I think he was using glue traps. I caught one in my car with a Cheerio glued to the bait pan.

 

[zannej]

Guzzle, they may be listening for that. So we start answering with "meow" and make different weird voices.

Shannon, that sounds so incredibly frustrating. From the outside it's easy for someone to say just stick her in a home, but I know how it is to love people who are unreasonable and even cruel at times and not be willing to do that. But, it sounds like she really needs some sort of attitude adjustment. Sadly, she sounds too stubborn for any family therapy to work and I doubt you have time. I hope your daughter will recover from her heartbreak.

I finally finished cleaning the toilet. Using toothpaste worked out well. I had to sit on the floor because my back bothered me too much to bend and my knees hurt if I kneel. So, the toothpaste killed any nasty smells and actually helped with cleaning. I couldn't find the toilet brush so I used lysol wipes. I had to stick my arm into the bottom of the bowl to scrub and the water was so damn cold my arm and hand turned red. I washed up with warm water and a lot of soap. But now the toilet is sparkling. I may have spoken too soon because I just heard my brother heading to the bathroom...

 

[Guzzle]

"well I guess this lady doesnt want to take care of us today".

"this is my daughter Shannon, she thinks I am old and senile and dont know my own name"

Maybe she feels her time is short.
It may also a slam against you "not taking care of her", two birds with one stone.



My "senile" retort [not reply] would have been "Am I right, Mom?" Seize control by asking questions.
I don't mind getting revenge on deserving souls but your mom is giving it back to everyone, even bystanders.
As a kid, with my mother's verbal abuse & mind games, it was a decade before I bested her. She then laughed but it was not from amusement, it was denial & astonishment.

With these barbs, your choice is to absorb, deflect or duck.
Best is a retort where she lands, figuratively speaking, on her own butt, like in Judo.

BTW, I have two daughters [mostly raised apart from me, not what I wanted] & we don't speak at all. There's no point. My time is short.

 

[Eddie_T]

For whatever reason care receivers tend to be at odds with caregivers blaming them for all.

 

[BuzzLOL]

Sometimes burglars call to see if anybody is at home... if you answer, they skip your house for now...

I use peanut butter to glue half a chocolate covered peanut to the trap trigger... mice love those things!
(I have my traps adjusted to a 'hair-trigger' and a whole chocolate covered peanut it too heavy)
(China made traps are poorly made and as bought an elephant could prolly step on the trigger without setting it off)

 

[shan2themax]

Guzzle, I am sorry you didn't get to be a part of their lives. I have never met my dad and I am sure now that he knows 100% I am his (ancestry dna) that he has his moments. Even though he has ways to reach out and doesn't.

However, several years ago, In a heartfelt discussion with God one night, he brought something to my heart..... Pray for him, pray that he knows me and loves me and I will ensure you have eternity to get to know him.....
What is a few measly decades or even years, compared to eternity. So.... I am ok with it. Eternity sounds much better than the possible heartache of another parent being present but also absent.

I have often found that women can be horrible and vindictive when it comes to children and their dads. Too many times I have heard adults talk about how there mom kept them from their dad, or the dad was present but the mom was demeaning and such.
Anywho, we all have traumas that we go through, and we have to learn to live with those traumas.

My mom actually thinks she can live on her own. I think it is a terrible idea but if that is what she wants to do at the end of her life I have no control over that. She has been asking my aunt about how rent is charged in the elderly high rise she lives in. My only request would be that she take 100% of everything she has with her. Because that would be unfair to leave it here and I would like to use my screened in back porch for what it was meant for.

I really try to be patient with her, and I am trying so hard to make the end of her life better than alot of it, however it's hard when she is so reactive and it never fails that when I feel the worst, she wants the most from me.
She told me yesterday that she had wanted me to call her physical therapist and see why no new appointments had been made. Even though she never wants me to interact with her healthcare providers.
I just need a break from it all in order to reset and regroup.

 

[Guzzle]

Regarding God, I was dealt some bad cards, but God might say, "I also gave you the resources to deal with them."

I'd have preferred no bad cards, but keep the resources.

There was a lawyer at the gym & I asked him how I would have done suing my parents for a number of things back when I was a kid.
At least they would have been publicly humiliated in open court.
He said I would have needed an adult advocate.

Women don't seem so bent on revenge as men.

 

[Eddie_T]

I read that it would take around 32 years to count to a billion so I am going to leave a trillion alone.

 

[Spicoli43]

I used my Chocolate refiner for the first time today, making a batch of 60% Dark Chocolate... 60% Cacao Nibs, 30% Cane Sugar and 10% Cacao Butter... The first pic is right after I added the first half of the Nibs or so, the second pic is after 4 hours, and the finished batches after 10 hours. I poured the batch onto the 2 Stainless trays and added shredded Coconut and Candy Cane...

In the future when I have molds, I'm going to mix the final ingredients in a bowl before putting the mix in the molds, but this was a test batch for every step, and I couldn't be happier...

Tomorrow, I'm going to make a plain batch and a batch with crushed up Coffee Beans. I can tell this will be a fun hobby, and the best part is I can create 3 oz. All Organic bars for just over $1 each when they cost $2.50-3 plus in the store...

 

[BuzzLOL]

I read that it would take around 32 years to count to a billion so I am going to leave a trillion alone.

A billion pennies is only $10 million... a years pay for professional sports people now...

 

[Guzzle]

Found out my Onkyo CD player didn't work anymore so I had to hook up this notebook computer to some patch cords to an amp to play Christmas music on Youtube.
We have much vinyl & a Garrard player so I need to find an RIAA preamp for mag cartridge. Or fix the old receiver in the basement.
Ho, ho, ho. . .

 

[BuzzLOL]

Regarding God, I was dealt some bad cards, but God might say, "I also gave you the resources to deal with them."

Women don't seem so bent on revenge as men.

Religions fuel most of the mass murdering, all the religious terrorism (9/11, etc.), and most wars... will be glad when all religion is gone from plaguing us...

Women can be plenty vengeful... especially jealous/religious women...

 

[Guzzle]

I read that it would take around 32 years to count to a billion so I am going to leave a trillion alone.

At one count per second. You can count faster than that but you should start now!

 

[BuzzLOL]

We have much vinyl & a Garrard player so I need to find an RIAA preamp for mag cartridge. Or fix the old receiver in the basement.
Ho, ho, ho. . .

Have the same problem... my Garrard I bought in 1970 in Vietnam... new 5.1 receivers don't have the preamp... have a couple old stereo ones with a channel out for the speakers, wonder if the preamp in them works for both channels...
Also need to get the computer hooked up to the 300" TV projector, but the computer WiFi isn't working right, so can't put it close to the TV... the projector also has WiFi and YouTube, but the built in Android (cell phone type) operating system doesn't get everything or all the streaming the computer does... plus the computer has ad blocking...