Post by Glencairn on Sept 22, 2017 23:44:52 GMT -6
Nyiah, I like the heat, but Russ and Quin are definitely miserable and would love to have the cool weather instead.
Good idea with the ice bottle for the cage. I have put ice in Wicket's (my dog) water bowl while I had him at work with me and he seemed to like that, though I was lucky and he didn't try to sit in it or get himself wet with the cold water. He picked a spot on the back of the couch that is right above an air conditioner vent and has been pretty firmly attached to the spot all night.
Ugh, 95* today, a few degrees warmer upstairs, it was pushing 100*. Downstairs was 90* most of the afternoon. It's slowly starting to cool off on both floors. We turned the sprinkler on in the front yard for the kids to run through to cool off, it got the living room window wet. The water was so cold compared to the air temperature inside that the window FOGGED UP. Wild, lol.
The rabbit's being kept as cool as ice packs under the cage & a frozen 2 liter in it can, but he's still really grumpy during the day. Like anyone else would be, he's much happier & wanting for attention late at night when the temp gets substantially cooler.
Even the cat's finally given up and just lays somewhere all day. The kids laid some ice packs on him this afternoon, he did his "Oh, that's niiiice" 'melt' effect, where just when you think he can't get any flatter & more comfortable, he does.
The bird is still the only happy ass in this house. He's very pleased with the 90's in the bedroom, no shits given & happy singing & chatting non-stop. Most people would have a cow knowing he's in an environment warmer than 80-85, but he's had almost 20 years of practice soldiering through summer heat like it's nothing. So long as it's not a drastic & abrupt change, & they have sufficient water for hydration & bathing, they can actually handle heat quite well. In the dead of winter, when it's in the low 60's/upper 50's in here even with furnace & heaters full blast is when he turns into a grumpy asshole, he doesn't like the cold.
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Nyiah, LOL! It sounds like your bird and I have that in common. My parents came back from the cabin in northern Wisconsin yesterday, too. It tends to be much cooler up in the north woods, but it was ridiculous there, too. They don't have a/c there and said it was just miserable. They are right on the river that feeds into a nice lake, but their boat is out of commission right now, so they couldn't even go out on the lake to cool down. It seems like everyone is getting it with the heat. On the other hand, my folks are ready to head back north at a moments notice because it is supposed to get drastically cooler pretty quickly there. My mom said that in the next day or so it is supposed to be in the 40's at night and much more reasonable during the day (though I don;t remember what temperature range she said it is forecast to be around).
I don't know if geoengineering is a reality, but I do know in 68 years on this planet I have never seen temperatures fluctuate 30* in one or two days. We went from triple digit weather to low 60's in one day, and that ain't normal.
Now we are breaking records for early snowfall.....I don't think we'll get our usual Indian Summer this year!
Russ and I were talking about the issue with the kids and since he is in charge while my dad is gone, he said that we might be having a company sit-down to discuss the kids at work policy.
That was going to be my next suggestion, since you 'teach' people how to treat you! LOL Best set the ground rules early and avoid more problems/ hurt feelings. Sounds like you've got this under control quite nicely! (Don't forget the surgical mask for those sick kid days!)
Nugget, I love the idea of having a surgical mask to wear when the sick kids get brought in. I hadn't thought of that, but I think I will have to get some. We have scheduled a talk to address this, so I hope that will be enough. We'll have to see how it goes. Ultimately, it is my parents business and they will have final say about it, but they seem to agree with the no sick kids idea. Or, if nothing else (and because they do offer the same level of flexibility to the others that they do for me), if a sick kid absolutely must be brought in, since I come in a bit later than everyone else, a phone call in the morning before I leave and I will just have to have a day off. I don't like the idea, because that will hurt us financially, but I guess better to take one day and avoid getting sick than to catch whatever the sick kid has and end up being down for a week or so.
Holy crap things have gotten drastically more expensive than when I was in high school. Quin just got her order forms for her class ring and her cap/gown/tassels and now I have to come up with about $350.00 by October 3rd. We have been saving up a bit as we can, knowing that this was an expense on the horizon, but we didn't realize it was all this early in the year. And the cost is crazy. My class ring (which is nearly identical to the one Quin wants to order) only cost about $100 and my cap and gown were rental for the gown (I don't remember how much, but pretty cheap, $20-ish) and $15-20ish for the cap because we got to keep it.
Glencairn,It's so good to know there's no inflation! Being retired, there are years where there is no increase because of that factor. I like those years best! This year there was a three dollar increase in SS, and my premiums went up several dollars more because of my 'higher income bracket'....lol
Nugget, It sounds stable and I would love to have things at a stable level. Tomorrow we have a meeting at the school for parents of seniors who are planning to go to college. Quin was fuzzy on the details, but we know it is a financial aid/FAFSA information meeting. I am half dreading it. The initial meeting we had about financial aid stuff at the end of last school year was fairly vague and just "this is some of the stuff you can expect, we'll go over it more later" and now it is later.
Ugh, I have some arthritis in a few spots that some MRI's I had done found and one of the spots that has flared up more frequently lately is in my left knee. I am hoping that it feels better by Sunday because we have to do a lot of walking to get to the parade area from the parking area for Quin's competition parade.
On the other hand, whoever came up with (or brought back) Aspercreme with Lidocaine is a freaking saint (and if they aren't, how do you nominate someone for that?) because that stuff is amazing. Just taking a tylenol or aleve or putting regular aspercreme on it hasn't helped, but the one with lidocaine in it works wonders.
Sorry that I went AWOL for a few days. I wasn't feeling very good on Saturday and by 2 a.m. I was in extreme pain and ended up in the emergency room worried that it was the same thing that required surgery last summer (it felt almost exactly the same). We got there and the doctor ran a huge bunch of blood tests and screens and sent me for a ct scan and checked to see if it was the same problem. It wasn't (thank God!) but also couldn't figure out what was wrong. They gave me a shot of dilauded while they waited for my blood tests to come back and when that didn't reveal any clues they said that it is possible that it is just the start of a stomach bug that they have been seeing a lot of recently that has symptoms like I came in with. They gave me another shot of dilauded "for the road" and a prescription for some Norco and sent me on my way with instructions to come back if it got worse and if not, to follow up with my doctor.
I left about 8 a.m. and we ended up not getting to go to Quin's parade on Sunday afternoon (though we will be going to the rest of them even if I am bleeding out of my eyeballs - I won't miss her last season of marching band). I spent all day Sunday hurting and got bad nausea by Sunday evening and all day today. It is finally starting to let up a little, but I still feel pretty rough. Hopefully tomorrow will be the end of it and I'll be back on my feet.
Thanks! I am feeling mostly better, but this has lingered almost all week. Definitely not as bad as the other night, but I'll be much happier when it is completely gone.
In other news, this is going on in my town right now. The whole town is currently on lockdown while there is an ongoing manhunt for a former police officer of our town (who was also a county sherrif's deputy at one point, as well) who has made a series of poor life choices leading to a whole string of felonies. He is now roaming free while every law enforcement agency in the area helps hunt for him.
What is the saddest thing is that this is the father of the boy who died of cancer a couple of years ago that I posted about. He was best friends with Quin's boyfriend, Dillin, and when he died his dad seems to have started on his path to losing it. The boy's mom (and this man's ex-wife) and Dillin's mom have been best friends for as long as Dillin remembers and he is sure for longer than he's been around, and this whole thing is extremely hard on their families. It is a really emotional thing for a lot of people in town who have known the family and are watching someone who used to be a friend destroy his life more with each new bad choice he makes.
School has been on a soft lockdown for the past few days and went on a full lockdown today and has been canceled for tomorrow. For everyone else, it has been strongly recommended that residents stay inside their homes and keep all doors and windows locked. This isn't something that is being enforced as an ultimatum, but strongly encouraged. The police are still out searching and for people who ask, are escorting people to their homes and even doing home sweeps if people are worried about going inside. One person, who lives very close to one of the more recent spots where the guy was spotted, posted that she got home and didn't see anything visible indicating that anything was wrong, something just "felt off", but she couldn't really explain what or why. She said that she asked the police to escort her back to her house and go in first to ensure it was empty and safe and they agreed and did that for her. Someone else said that they were able to receive that same help when they requested it, too.
Hopefully it will all be resolved quickly and safely. Right now everyone is pretty on edge, though.
And, problem resolved. The manhunt ended around 7:30 or 8-ish this morning. The man went into a house and was holding a family hostage for a bit and finally let them go while he stayed inside in a standoff with the police. They had his dad talking to him and he finally surrendered peacefully. That question of whether he would surrender peacefully or not was one of the biggest concerns with finding this guy. But, he did and all of the ordeal is over for the rest of us in town. Everyone has been extremely on edge and stressed and it is a relief to not have to worry about what might happen now.
Glencairn,That is so very sad. When that much emotional pain encompasses someone it can drive you crazy..... I'm glad he was apprehended without anyone getting hurt.