TPBM 109 - A PT boat and a dead president; that's all I got

The previous question was about whether TPBM has ever eaten flowers.

I can't say that I have, but I have neighbor-friends whom, in the 32 years I've lived here in Central Texas, have never mowed their lawns -- front nor back. Instead, they create fresh salads from the feral plant matter (mostly weeds) that exists there.

TPBM has had a hand in creating topiary.

If you mean the random whacking down of various and sundry plants around here then yes, otherwise no.

Excellent title, by the way, Mike!

TPBM will be planting a vegetable garden soon.

// Thanks Karen, you're too kind. //

I shall not be doing so. As a matter of fact, the last dozen or so of the interlocking cinder blocks that were the borders/walls of my raised garden will be going to the property of one of MrsHouseLibrary's sisters in a few weeks. Currently. they're stacked at the end of my driveway. The soil that they enclosed was a mixture of ground up tree limbs, a few hundred bags of topsoil (over the course of many years) and decayed plant matter that grew there when I maintained the garden.
Both ThiMs and MrsHouseLibrary were avid garden enthusiasts. That is not to say that they were active gardeners, however. They both cajoled me for a decent garden area and selected which plants they wanted to grow there, but did absolutely nothing to prepare the area, plant the seed/lings, nor maintain the space. They sure loved to show it off, though.
That and the fact they were both female and had been married to me were the only things they had in common. But, I digress.
The mound of dirt that remains would be slowly shrinking and spreading out across my back yard, except for the fact that, in the process of removing trees and plants killed off by February's glacial encroachment and recedence, and removing a lot of lawnmower blade-wrecking rocks, I've trenched around the pile of dirt to use it to fill several dozen ankle-twisting holes in the yard.
I can use all the dirt I've got, but there are four other major interdependent outdoor projects that must be addressed before I can finish leveling out the yard.
Regardless, no gardening for me this year, and probably never again.

TPBM didn't fall for that "we found mushrooms on Mars" story from last week.

Sorry to say it passed me by. I believe less and less of what people tell me nowadays - my Amazon Prime sub being renewed automatically, the £300 charge on my Mastercard to a foreign country, the illegal activity on my broadband, it goes on and on. At least the little Martian blobs don’t look as if they could handle a death ray or a light sabre.

Only thing I could think of for the thread title was the Me109 - the Third Reich’s response to the Spitfire and the P51 - but WHL’s is much better, thinking of which.....

TPBM thinks JFK might have enjoyed using Twitter.

TPAM has it slightly backwards (but that's ok) - Me109 - debut 1937, Spitfire - debut 1938, P-51 debut - 1942...as for 109 my first thought (probably because I just recently finished a biography about her) was Meitnerium - element 109.

Hmmmmmmm....JFK and Twitter .... I don't know, what little I've seen of Twitter doesn't square with what little I know of JFK.

TPBM first thought concerning the number 109 was the police call code for suicide.

//just placing my mark here//

Nope. My mind is still trying to deal with 'why didn't everyone just stick with 999 for all emergencies?' Yeah, yeah, practicality, clogging up call centres and so on. The pertinent point is - my brain can't cope.

TPBM has managed to finish a heap of outstanding hobby projects in the past year or so. (Not me - I started a heap, which are now awaiting completion.)

Not really. My life changed very little during the pandemic. I still had to go to the office every day.

TPBM always has a project in process.

Dozens, if not hundreds. This morning, I’m tearing through my recipe collection. The pages that hold the cards have begun falling apart and I got replacement pages. Tossing entries that I will never make and starting a pile of cards that will either be used this year or tossed as well.
Caressing the cards written in my mother’s hand.

TPBM has a recording of a parent’s voice.

30 years old, on a DVD of the VHS tape of our wedding. I can almost still hear their voices in my mind. My husband told me on Mother's Day that he really missed my mother's laugh, and I had to agree. Sigh.

TPBM has recently found a photograph that they thought they'd lost.

I haven't looked through old photos lately because they tend to make me sad.

TPBM dances around the house.

I don't dance. Blame the motorcycle/car accident back in '73. It destroyed the majority of about eight inches of the nerve in my right leg. There's a significant enough mental effort into standing still and/or walking for me, although at this point people will probably notice only that I have a limp. Regardless, dancing is a skill I'll never develop -- much like playing the harmonica or any wind instrument, I suspect.

TPBM rocks around the clock.

C’mon! With my knees? I am old enough to remember the local youth slashing the seats at the Hall Green Odeon when Bill Haley and his Comets appeared on screen.

TPBM quite enjoys mayhem.

In books, not in real life. I prefer quiet, predictability, and No Surprises.

TPBM truly does enjoy mayhem.

No, I'm like you >14 karenmarie:. No Surprises. That's why I make lists, plan ahead and envision events I plan so I will be prepared. People must be well fed and entertained.

TPBM will attend a real (as opposed to virtual) event this summer.

Not in the summer, but last weekend, and in October, but you never know.

The late MrsHouseLibrary's extended family had their (except for last year) annual family reunion. There were almost 30 there, and I was the sole representative of her father's branch of the family tree.

This October, I'm going to attend my high school 50.1 reunion in New Jersey. It was supposed to be last year, but sanity prevailed. I'm thinking I just might drive there this time. I've been saving for it for two years, so perhaps add some side trips -- visit my brother in Maine, a niece in New York, a cousin in Pennsylvania ... maybe. Just realized I'm going to have to stop and do laundry along the way. Note to self: start collecting quarters. Do they still take quarters? Have they switched over to credit cards only? Second note to self: Find out how it's done.

TPBM is a detail, process-driven sort of personality.

I don’t even know what that means. And it sounds like I don’t want to.

I can tell you that laundromats do still operate on quarters, just more of them; at least in my neck of the woods. Since it caters to people on the low end of the economic scale, I doubt it will switch to electronic payment options this year.

TPBM has dirt beneath their nails today.

With my job, it's unusual if I don't have some dirt under my nails.

TPBM won't be/didn't (depending on time they reply,) watch(ing) the lunar eclipse.

Coincidentally, just as I was reading this thread but before I got to post >18 rastaphrog:, my husband walked into the study to discuss our plans for seeing the eclipse tonight. So ... we plan to.

TPBM has a sure-fire way of getting rid of termites (that doesn't involve destroying furniture or moving out of the house).

Are you okay with human sacrifice? DM me for details.

TPBM has theater tickets.

// >20 SomeGuyInVirginia: I may be desperate enough soon.//

// >19 humouress: We missed the eclipse. a) It was too cloudy so no-one in Singapore saw it. b) Horizons in Singapore tend to be quite high. We're very lucky in that our horizon has trees and not high-rises but by the time the moon cleared it, the eclipse was over. Not that we would have been able to see it anyway.//

Assuming that >21 humouress:’s desperation is termite related rather than thespian, I’ll answer >20 SomeGuyInVirginia:.

Not yet, and not any time soon. London theatres are starting to stir into action but many can’t make money with a socially-distanced half-full house so are keeping their doors closed. Covid related risk insurance is unavailable which also inhibits theatre managers. Anyhow, the prospect of an auditorium with scattered blobs of masked household groups is unappealing, as, for that matter, is the train ride into town.

I’ll stick with old movies on the telly for now.

TPBM has a favourite movie they happily watch over and over again.

Love, Actually immediately comes to mind, as does Damn Yankees.

TPBM also has a favorite movie they happily watch over and over again.

Just the opposite, I almost never revisit favorite movies because I'm afraid that being familiar with them would spoil them for me.

TPBM worked on a movie set.

I know a few who have, but my closest experience that way was working on the stage crew in high school. Beyond that, the only set I've worked on was an Erector set when I was a kid.

TPBM would rather have N gauge toy trains instead of HO gauge.

I never played with trains but my brother had a toy electric race track and he would let me race him (of course he always got the best car and almost always won). It was fun trying to control the speed on the corners so the car didn't fly off the track and disappear into a corner and lose the race.

TPBM is expecting guests.

Hah!

I mean, no. My family is a continent away and we are currently 'not' in lockdown but the 'rule of two' (among other tighter restrictions) is in place so you can only meet one person at a time.

TPBM is (still) thinking of taking up a new hobby.

>27 humouress: I'm thinking about learning to play guitar.

My PCA friend is a musician (13 instruments!) and teacher.

TPBM has paid for an online class.

// Hey there, Morphie! Good luck building up those callouses. Once you get past that, it's a breeze.//

Yes, yes, I have -- but not for me.
After my youngest son graduated high school (2007), he and a friend decided that they wanted to open a Game Stop store in the area. And my son being the brainiac of the pair, decided he needed to know accounting and related subjects to manage the business. He enrolled in an online school, no problem. But when it came to paying for it -- despite him being legally an adult, a parent was required to secure the student loan, which I paid off ten years later. My son, well, he kept at it for six whole weeks and just stopped.
I hear that's fairly common.

TPBM never welshed on a bet. (I swear, I didn't know it was spelled that way until just now. I always heard "weltched" when people said it. Not to self: consult a Thesaurus; this is likely to cause an uprising!)

Absolutely not! That wouldn't be Southern. Of course, it helps that I only bet small amounts.

TPBM has had it up to here with ________.

... here being an arbitrary point from the ground. Where is the Standards Committee, dammit?

TPBM has been there.

Probably not; I'm only five foot. And a half.

TPBM knows where there is.

There is here, of course.

TPBM can't get enough _________.

dry air today. (I washed a carpet yesterday and want it to get dry during the day). Carpet diem :-)

TPBM prefers carps to carpets.

Newp. Don't want to clean either one.

TPBM has run out of steam.

Yup. I’ve got two grandchildren today. Fortunately, the 11yo is devoted to the 2yo and they are finger painting without my needing to have eyes on. The fatigue is probably more the wood cutting we did yesterday and the 2yo up and chipper at 6 this morning. My back hurts!

TPBM aches elsewhere.

Perpetually. Don't want to go there.

TPBM is prepared for any emergency, except for perhaps nuclear war and alien invasions.

Yes! When the lockdown started I packed my shelves with box wine and the Peyton Place series in Hungarian because I figured that would take me longer to get through. Is that you what you meant, or was that more of a 'do you keep your spare tire inflated' question?

TPBM will improvise during the apocalypse.

As John Gorka sang:

I'm from New Jersey
I don't expect too much
If the world ended today
I would adjust; I would adjust

Sometimes I sing that at an Open Mic Night because there are only two lines in the entire song that are nut not true of me personally.
Afterward, the audience has to tell me which lines those are. I give them very broad hints during the song, and five chances to identify the correct lines. If they didn't answer correctly, I punish them with another song.
There's a very good reason why I'm introduced as Mike, The Song Butcher.

TPBM is befuddled that it's currently cooler in Texas than it is in the northern states.

// I’d go for watching too much TV or having an Italian mom. Tempted by Italian ancestry but I don’t see the young WHL glued to the box, so has to be that.//

Is it? Fascinating. I'm currently sweltering here in Singapore; the Weather Channel tells me it's currently 28ºC but feels like 33 (or 89F, according to my calculations).

TPBM saw the eclipse today (safely). I've only just found out there is/ was one, but not on this side of the world.

//>40 abbottthomas: You seem to know a lot about WHL's life. Hmm.//

Yes. I'm still seing it actually. Even took a couple of photos of it. And of course this included pictures of the dark side of the moon.

TPBM thinks Eugene should be careful with the axe.

//Ooh - could you post some of your photos here please?//

// The local news media beat me to it :-)
// https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/viden/natur/se-billederne-i-dag-daekkede-maanen-en-fje...
// That's exactly what it looked like from my back door a few minutes before I posted >42 bnielsen:

He'll be fine as long as he and Maxwell Edison don't don't team up.

TPBM holds the secret to life itself.

For eighteen and a half years, I did -- every day and night that we possible could. I still love her more than salt.

//>40 abbottthomas: and >41 humouress:
The good abbot doesn't know me nearly as well as you might think from reading all these TPBM posts over the years. Mom, or MEL as we were apt to refer to her, was, much to the chagrin of her mother, English/Irish (with a single instance of Dutch in her ancestry. My grandmother believed he was Irish, based on the immigration papers of his grandfather. It was a few decades after my grandfather died that my grandmother learned from the family in Ireland that they were "Englishmen living in Ireland." She felt betrayed, saying that she had "raised a bunch of bastards."
There is some Italian on my father's mother's side, but it's four or five generations back, and it's a very long story, so I'll spare you.
So yeah, I watched too much TV when I was young. Mostly, my siblings and I watched Chuck and Bill Gates (no, not that one) replace tubes in the back of the TV more often than we watched shows. Chuck and Bill were also the school bus drivers for the parochial school we attended. They fixed TVs in the evenings and on weekends. //

TPBM holds the keys to success, but seems to have no idea where the lock is.

*sigh* Yeah. And watching my eldest being equally clueless even though I can see that he has an amazing set of keys.

TPBM will dispense sage parenting advice.

//>46 WholeHouseLibrary: I feel I have been a bit misled. If I'd known that "watching TV" meant looking at moonlighting bus drivers taking the set to pieces rather than I Love Lucy, Bonanza or Dragnet, I think I would have come to a different conclusion. Did you and your siblings chip in with helpful advice, I wonder?//

Pick your battles and only threaten what you're willing to go through with.

Learned the hard way with my now almost-28-year old stubborn and opinionated daughter.

TPBM also has some sage parenting advice.

You are only expected to get through one day at a time. And prayer helps.

TPBM will chime in with more wisdom.

I don't have kids, but if I did I wouldn't have a television in the house. I'd also try to keep them off social media, if that's possible without actually having to travel back in time.

TPBM has more sage parenting advice.

Don't let them outnumber you. Remind yourself often that there's lots of stuff they don't know. Feed them good quality food and enrich their minds too. Brush them often to avoid mats. Clean up after them without feeling taken for granted.

I mean, I am a cat parent, but some stuff is the same, right?

TPBM has better advice.

The thing about knowing a lot of stuff is that it limits you. Being clueless give you the freedom to be bold and fearless in life.

TPBM will provide an example, please.

//>48 abbottthomas: Don't get me wrong, good abbot. There was Romper Room (with Miss Barbara), the Sid Caesar Show, Tobor, Howdy Doody, Sky King, Fury, Rin Tin Tin, Toast of the Town, Jackie Gleason, The Tonight Show with Jack Parr (then Steve Allen) ... and the McCarthy Hearings. So yeah, way too much TV.
Regardless, the technology for creating vacuum tubes hadn't changed much in those thirty-plus years, and they burned out often enough that you could buy replacements for each in hardware stores even, and have a few spares sitting in the pantry shelf right next to the light bulbs. Not us, though. My father's aversion to electricity was almost as bad as his reaction to the sight of blood (another story for another time.) He wore two pairs of rubber gloves and would utter, "Lord, into Your hands I commit my spirit" every time he had to replace a fuse. Curiously, one of his older brothers - a Jesuit priest and ham radio operator with 3 (but 2 at the time) PhDs in his resume - was quite adept at, and comfortable with, handling any task involving electricity and electronics. I learned it all from him. He also fixed the TV occasionally; had his own tube tester even. //

Know far too much. Far too smart. Been through too damn much. In my mid-50s and it still limits me. However (always "however" or "and" never "but)", my sense of humor pulls me through. If I couldn't laugh at myself and life... SMDH.

TPBM has a different personality trait or life skill that has helped them get through the trials and tribulations of life.

Walking and alcohol (not at the same time though) Neither are a trait or skill, but I find they help.

TPBM has other coping skills.

I find that drinking does help, but being drunk does not. I've also found that there are a vast array of options to choose from to feel better when you don't feel well. So choose your groove.

TPBM has an item in their house that makes people pause and respond WTF?!

I used to. It was my first wife, ThiMs.

One of my sons had a girlfriend whose parents were enthusiastic collectors of taxidermied animals from Africa. MrsHouseLibrary was greatly disturbed to see these creatures, but I have to admit seeing the torso of a chimpanzee was reason enough to leave in disgust.

TPBM has a low threshold for ____________.

Loud noises. Especially unexpected ones like fireworks on non-holidays. They are ubiquitous in our neighborhood and can, at times, set my nerves so high it takes me hours to calm down. I don't know why. It's not like there's gunfire here in this white bread exsuburb. Nor that I grew up with gunfire around or have PSTD. I do have ADHD and anxiety which make me sound sensitive.

A ticking clock can get on my nerves on certain days and someone clicking a pen can drive me right up a wall. Fireworks and loud cracks of thunder though... that's lizard brain time.

TPBM has a high threshold for _____________.

Pain. Not sure how I got that because I'm pretty much a total wuss.

TPBM lives in a house with stained glass windows.

The only ones I know of who have (possibly) are gawd, and Ray and Alice Brock - and their dog Facha. Makes me wonder if the stones they shouldn't cast must be of stained glass as well.

TPBM reads a daily newspaper.

I read The Times on weekdays. I'm not entirely sure why as the paper is a shadow of its former self. Things went downhill after they stopped putting the personal column on the front page and replaced it with headlines and irrelevant photographs. On Saturday I get the Financial Times which still produces high standard and non-partisan journalism with a much more international feel than the rest of the UK press.

TPBM regularly reads a local newspaper

// >59 SomeGuyInVirginia: My glass windows are centainly stained. Does that count?

//>62 bnielsen: Yes, especially if it's from nicotine and the blood of martyrs.//

>61 abbottthomas: Yes, since moving to Lynchburg, Virginia a few months ago I read the daily digital edition of the News and Advance. Ditto the Wall Street Journal. There's not much overlap in the coverage.

TPBM has subscribed to the same newspaper for more than 40 years.

// >64 SomeGuyInVirginia: The only thing I know about your new home town is that it's a mighty rough road from Lynchburg down to Danville. Do take care if you take the train!//

//>65 abbottthomas: Is that a Kenny Rogers thing? So far I'm loving Lynchburg. It's at the foothills of the Shenandoah mountains, so there are a lot of outdoor activities. There are also three colleges here in town, two of them secular, and there's that young vibe you get in a college town. It's one of the few towns in Virginia that the Union army never took, and you can still buy a nice house for $250,000.//

// >66 SomeGuyInVirginia: Not any more because now we’re all going to move there.//

Well, not 40 (because we’d have been teenagers) and not me but my husband has been getting the Straits Times since before we got married (except for the couple of years that we lived in NYC) so for at least 25 years.

TPBM likes having to stay at home.

Yes, I've really enjoyed the forced aloneness. Too much so, perhaps. I'm going out to a Friends of the Library Board meeting this morning - the first in-person meeting since last March and lunch out tomorrow, which makes this week entirely too busy.

TPBM has been starved for company because of having to stay home.

I've been starved for company long before the pandemic. Between major depression and anxiety (caused by what was then undiagnosed ADHD which I've had for 45+ years) plus physical disability causing me to be homebound, I've had little to no company for 5+ years. Not just because I don't get out but because I self-isolate.

TPBM has/had a bad case of cabin fever during the pandemic.

Yes, but I didn't realize the degree of my cabin fever until I got my shots and started getting out in the world without worrying much. I found a lot of the lockdown to be very pleasant, but I suppose I'm more of a social animal which comes as much of a surprise to me as it would to anyone else.

TPBM has a cabin in the woods.

If I don’t mow this year, it’s possible. Lots of volunteer locusts already.

TPBM will come and help harvest the blackberries next month.

Kentucky's a bit of a slog from central NC, but thank you, Ruth!

My great-grandmother had huge blackberry bushes, and when we'd visit Iowa as kids we'd pick buckets of them. Served warm with cream and sugar - the best!

TPBM has a fond memory of their grandparents or great-grandparents.

*I use speech to text and often hit post before I read what the computer put down.

God yes. I knew both my great grandparents, and they introduced me to good and evil in the world but I didn't know it at the time; to the young me it was just life. My great-grandmother was sweet, and kind, and giving. My great-grandfather was a whiny punk who forced those that he knew and who loved him to serve him. To this day, anytime I pass a sunflower I always say hello to my great-grandmother, a woman I love to this very day and only met a few times. That's probably one reason why my great-grandmother and I seemed to just hit it off immediately, when she was in her upper 80s and I was in my low aughts. One of my fondest early memorues is of sunflowers. My great grandmother loved them and they were everywhere, and when I was a kid I used to walk through all her sunflower plantings just by myself and be in a different and magical world.

TPBM also has a magical memory.

// >73 SomeGuyInVirginia: That is magical. Thank you for sharing.//

//>74 humouress: Thank you for being so generous and kind.//

>73 SomeGuyInVirginia: Lots, which is probably why I'm such a mess.

TPBM has 50 ways to love your leaver.

Nope. I was always the leaver. That saved a lot of emotional angst.

TPBM is just starting to get out and about again after getting fully vaccinated against Covid.

Ack! Simulposted!

>76 SomeGuyInVirginia: I never actually kept count, but yes, there are various methods to excavate a protruding rock from the ground, but it mostly depends on the shape of the rock itself and the location of other objects in its vicinity. The employment of a fulcrum and a well-placed lever -- sometimes two -- required a certain finesse that, when employed often enough, becomes a dance of a sort; a certain Zennish quality of becoming one with the tool, the rock, the Earth itself. Bliss!

>77 karenmarie: Definitely! For the record, I'm fully vaccinated. I actually took myself on a dinner-and-movie date on Tuesday. The incentive was that my neighborhood lost power before noon and it wasn't expected to be on again until almost midnight. Did I mention that it's an all-electric neighborhood? I've also been playing at Open Mic Nights on Mondays and Thursdays.

TPBM is astounded to learn that I wrote the above before I've had my morning coffee.

Not really. No idea which post you’re answering ;0)

TPBM has a small person (niece, nephew etc) in their extended family who has achieved something special recently.

My almost three year old grand claimed she now has rocket boosters and proved it by zooming all around the back yard.

TPBM still has plants that need to go in the ground.

ooooooohhh crap I forgot about those.... (hangs head in shame). I bought some annuals but put them inside the back porch and haven't watered them. I'd better go check on them :(

TPBM never neglects the plants.

"She Who Must Be Obeyed" is in that category. Three greenhouses and many gardens keep her busy AND very disgusted when the long legged rats (aka deer) have destroyed them.

TPBM has a cure for long legged rats that does not involve hunting (township does not allow it) or 8 ft high fences (ditto from the township again).

I seem to remember that Our friend, WholeHouseLibrary, is something of a deer whisperer. Maybe he can help.

TPBM knows more than I do.

Doubtful, good abbot. You are the veritable cornucopia of knowledge in the TPBM threads.

As for the deer, it's possible that one could purchase gallon jugs of coyote urine (from the Big Box hardware stores, I'm told. I've never used it, myself, but hear it's effective over time. Of course, you'll not want to use your yard after you do. I can't imagine how they collect and harvest it either, and really, I don't want to know.

As for the deer, I've had to stop feeding them. Rats. Not the expletive, the rodents. The deer would share the corn with rats that came within inches of their faces. Enough was enough. I still leave water out for the deer and any other critter that thirsts, but we're done as far as them giving away food meant only for them.
They're going through six gallons of water each night. Makes me think I should put out a third feed bowl of water for them. Two teeny, tiny fawns this year so far. Unsure whether they're twins as I've only seen them at some distance and they were in with the herd. Happy to report that Things 1 and 2 are doing well and often come to laze around in my yard during the heat of the day.

TPBM has got big plans for the weekend.

//>82 ulmannc: short of the 8ft fences, it's really difficult to deter them once they know where to find the goods. most people around here have not only tall but electrified fences, but the rabbits and groundhogs sometimes still get in. I have tried the predator pee that you can buy at garden stores, but it didn't work that well. i've had better luck hanging bars of soap and dryer sheets around; they don't like the soap smell//

Not big plans. I will probably have my family over for a picnic and then take Monday off as a vacation day so I can have a long weekend. I do need to paint my den sometime soon so I may start that too. Such exciting plans!!!

TPBM is so over the whole fireworks thing.

No, still a fan but official shows are scarce on the ground now that I'm in a rural area. When I lived in the high-rise in Alexandria, I could watch firework displays happening all up and down the Potomac river.

TPBM will go boating.

Highly unlikely. In addition to the fact that I don't know anybody who owns even as much as a kayak, there's nothing but thunderstorms predicted in the area for every day for at least a week. Where there's thunder, there had been lightning. And I am firmly in the crazy, but not stupid column. At least, that's the word on the street.

TPBM's greatest personal athletic accomplishment was _______________.

>88 WholeHouseLibrary: Hmmmm.....well I can think of a couple that would tie for first place...one would be doing a solo night time climb (actually just a very stiff hike - there's a trail to the top but on that moonless night it was difficult to see where the edge of the trail ended and a possible fall began) of Mt. Fuji in October many years ago. I got to the top at 1 AM. It was very cold and all I had for additional protection were a pair of gloves, a sock cap, and a windbreaker. I found a spot out of the wind and ran in place for 3 1/2 hours until the sun came up.

They say the gods watch out for fools as long as they find them amusing.

TPBM has amused the gods on at least one memorable occasion.

The "gods" wrote the message in Italian. We were in the Italian Dolomites and were past a point where our English (Roger Bacon) guidebook said there was no plants worth looking at beyond a particular gate because the goats and sheep had eaten everything. Being curious we went on. The trail split. One way was 10 km and the other way was 4 km. We went the short route.

Suffice it to say that the sign was translated for us AFTER we got to the bottom(the trail is considered precarious and dangerous). Not even the goats and sheep would use it as it was so steep and narrow. We dropped about 2000 m very rapidly. Once we got to the bottom we could hardly move. The leg pain lasted 3 days. We now know what a red dotted line trail means on a map in Italy! That was 30 years ago - - - that long ago?!

TBBM has had their own experience with red dotted . . .

Not red dotted exactly, but I was a parent chaperone on a 3-day trip for daughter's 4th grade class to the North Carolina coast in 2003. We visited Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and I made the mistake of climbing to the top. It took a while, and I was winded. My legs started hurting that Thursday night, ached all the next day, and finally fully cramped on Saturday. I felt every second of my 50 years. 257 steps, equivalent to climbing a 12-story building. Doubled of course...

TPBM has another experience with red dotted or 12-storied...

You all go ahead. I'm going to stay here and smoke a cigarette.

TPBM has done something else outrageously athletic.

yeh, in third grade I finally, after much frustration, climbed a rope to the top of the gym.

I know, pretty cool, right?!?!

TPBM can top that.

*sigh* No, not really. About a decade ago, I thought I'd cross the monkey bars at my son's kindergarten but I discovered I have no grip. I mean how can you have no grip?

But I was, at one point many years before that, winner of the Masters diving silver medal at the South of England championship (in my age group and we won't talk about how many other contestants there were).

TPBM lives on past glories.

No, but I miss some of the things I no longer seem to do, or can't do anymore.

TPBM finds listening to a nice steady rain helps them fall asleep.

Rain always knocks me out, it's as if I'd taken a pill or something. It's been that way with me since I was a kid. When I was about 8 we went to Hawaii. This massive deluge came through and I slept so soundly that my parents couldn't wake me up.

TPBM springs from healthful slumber fully refreshed.

Looks like none of us identify with this enviable situation. I usually sleep well and wake early but am far from bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I really need those first couple of mugs of tea.

TPBM has found that Covid restrictions have been associated with more troubling and dramatic dreams.

I must admit to having a dream, twice with a few alterations in the last several months, where my daughter and I are trying to get back to one of the main roads here, on dirt roads, in my old Volvo, and always getting cut off and having nasty people act threateningly.

TPBM has happier dreams.

Sometimes, and they all involve MrsHouseLibrary. Also, the bad dreams, but for different reasons.

I've been distracting myself lately with the itinerary for the Grand Tour. My high school class's 50th reunion was last year, (omit the obvious), so it's being rescheduled to the first weekend of October. I've decided to drive there (northern NJ) instead of flying and renting a car. I've expanded the plan to include places far and away from there, plus visit family and friends (including a few LTers - or is that LTites) along the way, or on the way back.
I figure, it's the last time I'll probably be able to do something like this, so I better do it big. The current route, which does not include a dip into west central Florida, is almost 6,000 miles. That's approximately 15 days of just driving and geocaching. This may take a while.

TPBM also has a tendency to make overly ambitious plans.

Always. I’m trying to find the perfect spot for everything and organise the house. Mind you, we only moved in in 2007.

TPBM is beautifully organised (this does not include my husband’s solution of throwing everything not immediately necessary away).

At home, no. I moved here in March and it just occurred to me last week that I should be unpacking the big boxes first because they're full of stuff that needs to be placed, rather than the small boxes that are filled with things that go on things. At work I like to be so organized that my day goes like clockwork. This usually involves a lot of on-the-fly readjustment.

TPBM has prepared for any eventuality.

I can barely prepare for work the next day.

TPBM speaks two languages.

No, but my daughter can - English and music. I admire people who can read music and immediately translate those notes into actions to make the proper sounds come out.

TPBM just finished a book that is not one they would normally have even started and are surprised at how much they liked it.

I wish! Pretty much all my reading now and for the past couple of years has been very 'on brand'. By that, I mean cheesy mysteries and popular science writing.

TPBM just finished writing a book.

I did not, but I just had to verify my identity with the IRS which was only accomplished after much scribbling and travail. Does that count?

TPBM has a gizmo that fortells the future.

So, you wrote an autobiography? A memoir, perhaps?

That gizmo is called a brain, although Leroy Jethro Gibbs swears it's his guts.
We all have one,but no one is quite sure how to work it.

TPBM knows where the owner's manual is.

//>105 SomeGuyInVirginia: Ah, jeez. That reminds me. I'm way overdue on getting that done, too.

Is that a big issue this year? The IRS making people identify themselves?//

//>106 WholeHouseLibrary: ... waiting to find out ...//

There seem to be one or two on offer. How about this?

The Brain: A user’s manual

TPBM just wings it - never looks at the manual.

//>107 Morphidae: I don't think so. My taxes for last year were much more complicated than in years past. I think, at least I hope, the IRS just wanted to make sure it really was me. Not to worry (he said on the way to the gallows).//

//>110 SomeGuyInVirginia: Ah, I think I know what happened. We didn't need to file for 2018 or 2019 but did for 2020 so MrMorphy could get his missing stimulus check.* I bet that set off a flag.

* They send his 1st and 3rd but not his 2nd?!? //

First I wing it. Then when it's not going right, I look at the manual.

TPBM thinks >99 WholeHouseLibrary: should keep us updated with postcards when he goes on his Grand Tour.

I think I shall. Of course, they'll take the form of posts in a separated thread, and not necessarily daily. Drive time (400 - 500 miles/day), geocaching, journaling, determining the next day's route ... takes a lot of time - plus at least an hour a day playing the guitar, well, I'm pretty sure I'll skip a day or two here and there.
I'm going to cut about 1,400 miles of it off this weekend. The first leg of the trip was to visit my step-son and family in Sweetwater, and return/give them photo albums, some papers and mementos, and see them -- possibly for the last time. And Saturday night, it seems, is the only chance I'll get to see both of the granddaughters. Plus it'll give me more room in the car for other things I need to bring. There a pair of paintings done by my maternal grandmother's cousin/best friend, that my kids absolutely don't want. So, I'm giving them to my brother in Maine, who will eventually pass them down to his son and grandson. That grandson -- not quite a year old, and more than three feet tall.

One Two more things - I've got ten more pages in my current blank book that I use for journaling. I use both sides of the page (eventually) and keep a table of contents for a synopsis of what I wrote on a particular day. The writing pages get numbered, and the TOC pages are alphabetic. The last page is A, the penultimate page is B, etc. until the numbered pages meet the lettered pages, then I turn the book upside down and continue in that manner until I fill up the book. I just bought book #6, which will begin with The Grand Tour.

And that reminds me, I must bring a few extra cartridges for my fountain pen. Had to order the current batch online because it's impossible to find the ones I need in any store anymore. I get about 15 pages per cartridge.

TPBM has realized that I tend to be ... chatty.

It's fascinating to those of us who can't do all the words and stuff as well as that...

I'm in awe of anyone who can stick to journaling to that extent!

TPBM is more prolific.

Newp.

TPBM is ____.

... laughing.

TPBM feels _____________. (And really, don't hold back.)

Vulnerable.

Had my vaccine a while ago but even so am more at risk of dying of COVID than an unvaccinated 30 year-old. Exponential rise in COVID infections here in the UK. All restrictions lifted next week so I’m keeping my head down. No Freedom Day for me!

TPBM will cross their fingers.

//>113 WholeHouseLibrary: Don't suppose you have a stop in the Twin Cities/Minnesota planned?//

I could, but I don't see what difference it would make. I'm not at all a believer in superstitions, that I'm aware of.
But, I tried just for you, good abbot, and alas, I'm afraid the best I can do is to get the middle to almost lay atop the index finger, but not cross. Too much guitar playing, I guess. Or age. Or both.

>118 Morphidae: Considering that one of my destinations is Crazy Horse (was there in 1993; want to see how things have progressed,) and then head east, I'll be doing that on Rte 90; no reason I can't hang a left when I get to Alberta Lea.
Or maybe head to Austin and cut the diagonal.
Let's do it.

TPBM can touch the tip of their nose with their tongue.

>119 WholeHouseLibrary: I can! I can!

I have to wonder how many of us got our upper lip/under nose area soaked attempting this feat?

Aha!

TPBM tried to touch their tongue to their nose and failed.

//>120 Morphidae: Ha! I got as far as...

"... tried to touch their nose to their...."

...before realizing there was something wrong. LOL! //

//>117 abbottthomas: Fingers, toes, and eyes. It's not a pretty picture. Of course you have to make it through the pandemic, what would we do without you? With the vaccine and our lovely thoughts, if you do succumb to the virus it would just be willful obstinancy on your part.//

>119 WholeHouseLibrary: I used to could.

TPBM still can _____.

Sit up and take nourishment. Oh, and ride a bicycle, because you know what they say about riding a bicycle.

TPBM knows what "they" say.

yep 'watch out where those huskies go and don't you eat that yellow snow".

Still good advice.

TPBM isn't inclined.

I’m in the mountains… well, hills. Of course I incline. I was just up on the roof and inclining like crazy.

TPBM has been on a hot tin roof.

//Mine in >120 Morphidae: got skipped?

We don't have to go back but I still want to know who tried...//

//I tried, Morphy, and touched my nose between my nostrils. I feel like I accomplished something.//

>125 2wonderY: I've been on hot roofs, but not made of tin. I am so much not a Pet Person that I would never emulate one, even a literary one. (also one of the many reasons I never saw "Cats" -- the play nor the movie.

My particular hot roof was one that covered the chicken coop addition (part of the original structure) of the barn in my parent's back yard. Originally, the property was an apple orchard with the owner's house up front. The roof of that chicken coup was rotting, even the joists, so my father and I -- and I'll never know why none of my many other siblings were involved -- tore off the shingles, removed the felt, the decking and the rafters, then replaced then all -- on a cloudless, breezeless Saturday in late July in New Jersey. Rafters in place, decking firmly attached, we rolled out and cut full lengths of felt and sat the 5-galllon black metal buckets of tar on them -- to help the paper lay flat, and to soften the tar.
Then we took a break. Went to the house, made some lunch, and before we got back to work, Dad -- who rarely drank, but when he did, used a ceramic mug shaped and glazed to look like Friar Tuck, which he then placed into the freezer, along with a beer (Knickerbocker, I think,) and can of Pepsi for me. He also juiced a lemon and that went into the refrigerator. After that, we returned to the barn, bringing an oven thermometer and the kitchen timer, which he set for 45 minutes.
We applied the tar, laid out an entire length of felt, tapped in some roofing nails and repeated the process until the entire roof was covered. We had to wear gloves to keep our hands from getting burned, and kneeling to drive in a nail was torture. And then we did it again with actual roofing material -- black. And we went five minutes beyond the timer.
That oven thermometer -- it read 145°.

Back at the house, the Pepsi came out of the can like slush, and Dad poured the lemon juice on it. He also poured his beer into his mug, and we stood outside to quench ourselves. He took a couple of gulps, I imagine, and immediately, I could smell beer in the air, and I wasn't all that close to him.
And that homemade lemon Pepsi -- best damn soda I've ever had -- and the scent of lemon permeated from my pores.

TPBM has been in even hotter environs.

// >120 Morphidae: Nah, didn’t even bother. Been there, done that before. //

Ugh, I can't begin to imagine what tarring a roof is like in summer. I was in Las Vegas once when the high was supposed to reach 116°. I walked out of the hotel and remember thinking that it felt very pleasant. Of course it was 10:00 a.m., there's no humidity whatsoever, and I was in the shade. By noon it was just dangerously hot. I went into a hotel to buy tickets to see Al Green perform that night. The guy behind the counter asked how he could help me, and all I could say was, 'It's hotter than the freaking sun out there! Two tickets please.'

TPBM has been over the moon.

No, but I've been around the block a few times.

//>128 WholeHouseLibrary: that reminded me of the scene in Shawshank Redemption of Andy getting them cold beer after they tarred the prison roof. So of course I had to watch the movie again to see that part. Oh Andy, Andy, Andy.//

TPBM has a movie they could watch over and over.

Quite a few, actually - Damn Yankees, Bringing Up Baby, Guys and Dolls, Independence Day, etc.

TPBM has a TV series they could watch over and over.

>132 karenmarie: Not me, but my husband has seen the original Star Trek so many times that all you need to do is show a clip a few seconds long and he can not only tell you the episode title and plot, he also can give you the names of guests stars and various bits of trivia.

TPBM has a favorite LP/CD (digital album if they must) they could listen to over and over.

//your husband should meet my husband, Morphy - they'd be in hog heaven talking about Star Trek. Even now my husband will see an actress/actor in another series (before ST or after ST), recognize them, and show me what they looked like on that Star Trek episode and what their character name was. Boggles the mind.//

Well, I have one CD that has a specific instrumental piece that I use to help me get through the times of unbearable grief that still occur since the death of MrsHouseLibrary. It's actually the opening and closing piece of music in a movie called Arrival, staring Amy Adams, who in many ways, reminds me too much of her. They look, sound, and behave (in real life) more like each other that Karrell's actual siblings do. Seriously, looking at them, you'd never imagine they were related to each other at all.

The piece is titled "On the Nature of Daylight" featured three times with variations on a double CD called The Blue Notebooks by Max Richter. I'll loop one 6-minute track and just let it repeat for hours, overnight if necessary. Cathartic. Two cellos, two violas, and one violin.
There are a few versions of it on that you-tube site, one of which I'm listening to now -- it's 21 minutes long! Gorgeous piece of music!

TPBM listens to ___________ for on-the-road music. (Example: Tom Petty wrote a song about listening to "Runaway" by Del Shannon - with the volume cranked way up - while cruising down the highway. Both of those are excellent on-the-road tunes.)

Podcasts. Especially those podcasts about books no longer in print, like Slightly Foxed or Backlisted. If neither of those serve, then anything by Aretha Franklin recorded before 1980. At defening levels.

TPBM saw Aretha Franklin in concert.

No - I've seen some of the great ones but haven't been quite that lucky.

Actually one of the best concerts I've ever seen was Neil Diamond. He's quite a showman and keeps the audience engaged the whole time. (actually I can say the same about King Diamond....)

TPBM has eclectic taste.

>137 Darth-Heather: Oh, yes. My favorite is popular music from all the decades from the 40s to the 20s, especially the 60s - 90s.

Ella Fitzgerald, Glenn Miller, Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Monkees, Simon & Garfunkel, Aretha Franklin, The Beach Boys, The Mamas & The Papas, The Jackson 5, Paul Simon, ELO, Queen, Elton John, Billy Joel, Madonna, Phil Collins, Prince, Paula Abdul, The Bangles, Janet Jackson, Journey, Tina Turner, Backstreet Boys, Salt 'n Peppa, Gloria Estefan, No Doubt, Shania Twain, Christina Aguilera, Alanis Morisette, Jewel, Natalie Merchant, Rihanna, Maroon 5, Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Pink, Norah Jones, Amy Winehouse, Destiny's Child, Katy Perry, Avril Lavigne, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Adele, Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Little Nas X

But I also like Classical, Disney, Showtunes, Movie Soundtracks, Adult Contemporary, Guitar Rock, 60s - 80s Rock, "Yacht" Rock, plus some Country, some Hip Hop, some old Rap (not any new stuff), some Punk, some Alternative, some Blues, some Punk, some Funk, some Disco, some Techo, some Gospel, some New Wave, some New Age, a little of this, a little of that...

TPBM has a wide food palate (unlike me, I'm picky.)

Not at all. In fact, it is undoubtedly quite narrower than yours. Remove all red and most purple fruits and vegetables, all forms of onion, pepper, garlic, most spices and herbs, alcohol, an anything high in tannic acid. All deadly to me. Caffeine though ... my doctor says I have too much blood in my caffeine system. I'm perfectly fine with oranges, lemons, vinegar. Go figure.
I recently learned of someone who became allergic to celery.
Sure hope I didn't violate a HIPPA law there!

TPBM can digest cast iron.

I can! And I can chew glass, and tin foil, and pull a train using only my pinky. It's true, it's all true.

TPBM collect traveling circus memorabilia.

Despite being surrounded by all sorts of old junk, The International Circus Pop-up Book by Lothar Meggendorfer is the nearest I can get. A 40 year-old reproduction of a nice piece of Victorian paper engineering.

TPBM ran away with the circus, or came close.

//>122 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thanks Larry - so far so good!//

The closest I ever got to running away was to escape another bludgeoning from my next-older brother by hiding in a crawlspace under our back porch.
Being a mere 15 months younger than him, I became the object of his sibling rivalry. He's calmed down finally.

Beyond that, I remember watching episodes of "Circus Boy" on TV as a kid, and I occasionally play a tune at Open Mic Night(s) -- 3 every week -- called "The Kid" by Buddy Mondlock. It's about a kid (hence the title) whom I suspect was a tad ADD, and joined the circus.

TPBM actually pays attention to the lyrics of songs, or at least reads them in the liner notes of vinyl albums or CDs. Not at all sure what one does when their collection is entirely digital.

I only pick up the bits that I can sing along to and value gusto more than accuracy.

TPBM has a song that they often sing in the shower.

I take quick showers in the morning so I'm not really in the mood to sing, but I do break out in song occasionally while walking with my dog, Bob, on the trail when we are all alone. One of my go tos is Mercedes Benz by Janis Jopin. You know, because I don't need musical accompaniment with it.

TPBM is a talented singer.

//>144 morningwalker: Ermagerd!!! I.love.that.song! I sing it all the time.//

I am not a talented singer, but I do okay in a chorus. Having just moved to a new town, I'm looking forward to joining chorus as an entree into whatever social life exists here.

TPBM sings solo in church.

// >142 WholeHouseLibrary: AZlyrics, lyrics.com, etc? //

>145 SomeGuyInVirginia: That presumes one has a reason to be in a church. does it not? Let's see... my mother's funeral 3 years ago; my father's funeral; in 1997; my youngest sister's wedding some ten years before that... curiously all in the same church in Venice, Fla. So no, not in a church.

Carnegie Hall, though, sure. While doing PT a few hours 3 days a week to learn to walk again after my motorcycle accident, I filled the rest of my time working for a pipe organ builder -- couldn't go back to working in the foundry, obviously -- and so yeah, I spent a LOT of time in churches tuning the pipes when I wasn't otherwise wiring up relay boards and such.
But we had to deliver a 17th Century French harpsichord to Carnegie Hall for a concert some four days later. The owner lived somewhere around Croton-on-Hudson, and the only reason I was there was that after the harpsichord was delivered, we could then go replace some leather seats on a magnificent Tracker organ elsewhere in NYC.
So, while my employer was discussing with the stage manager the arrangements for a tuner for the instrument and eventual retrieval of same, I wandered (as best one can do while on crutches dragging a dead-weight limb) toward the front of the stage and began singing very quietly, because, how often does one get an opportunity like that? I did the chorale from an oratorio called "The Seasonings" S.½ tsp. by PDQ Bach; "By the leeks of Babylon..."
Personally, I thought I did okay, considering 1) I couldn't sing to save my life, and 2) it was hardly more than a whisper. Yet, just after I completed the first "E I E I O," I heard someone say, "Stop it." at a volume barely louder that I had emitted. It was some guy up in the balcony. I swear, the acoustics in that place is astounding!

146> Haven't been to that site. I just type in the name of the song and the lyrics will (possibly) present themselves. I screen-scrape them into a text file and break them up, inserting tabs for where the chord changes occur.
Once I stack the verses and lay out the chorus and such, I may put it aside for a while. Regardless, I'll eventually work out what key it's in and the chords. If I decide it's something I want to do at an OMN, I'll copy it into a Word doc, reformat it, and boldface the chords. By that time, I've become quite familiar with the piece and what it's about. I do a fairly unique interpretation of "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen.

We all know the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, but TPBM will explain, in 25 words or less, the Meaning of Life.

I think, therefore I am and since I am there must be some meaning to my life. What that meaning is, I can't answer that. Sorry. In my defense, has anyone ever explained the Meaning of Life? That was too hard WHL.

//>145 SomeGuyInVirginia: I'll think of you singing it next time I'm belting it out on the trail.//

TPBM has eaten a Mallo Cup.

Actually, eating Mallo Cups is what gives my life meaning.

During lockdown, TPBM didn't brush their teeth for 2 days or more. (Five, personal best. Not proud of it, but personal best.)

>149 SomeGuyInVirginia: I didn't brush my teeth or hair for more than two something all right. Let's say days and leave it at that, hmm?

No mentions of science projects or needing an AquaScum 2003, please.

TPBM has not showered/bathed for a week or more at some point in their adult life. (It should have been at least somewhat voluntary. For instance, I was bedbound in the hospital, so that wouldn't count.)

Oh yes, up to a week or 8 days has happened many times. It's not a crime, after all. TMI: PTAs and dry shampoo, if truth be told.

TPBM has used bar shampoo and conditioner to reduce their plastics use and has an opinion they would like to share.

//>151 karenmarie: TMI: Ah, in our house known as (sans abbreviation) pits, tits, and naughty bits.//

>150 Morphidae: //Well, there was the week I went camping with the Girl Guides. To be fair, it was in a field and under canvas and was the only time I've been camping. My kids, on the other hand, (used to, in pre-covid times) have a yearly school camp where there are bathroom facilities but usually come home with their changes of clothes intact.//

//My husband gets to bring them home when they come off the coach, not me.//

//>153 humouress: LOL. It reminds me of stories of how astronauts smell after a long stay at ISS //

// >152 Morphidae: I like that better, Morphy! I got my phrase from my MiL.//

>151 karenmarie: I was not aware that such bath products came in a bar form, so no I don't. And I'm not likely to, as that would require additional soap dishes in two bathrooms. Besides, I recycle damn near everything I get when possible.

Opinion: A solar eclipse is a rare and awesome thing to witness. In contrast, a lunar eclipse is merely a cheap and tawdry spectacle.

TPBM has viewed the diamond ring effect.

You mean when I see a big rock and I get doe eyes and a glitter bomb goes off in my head?

TPBM saves articles from the newspaper.

Only obituaries of family members or articles relating to family members. I have a scrapbook of sorts of items for future members who may do genealogy.

//>149 SomeGuyInVirginia: snicker, snickers.//

TPBM has recently been to, or will be going to a family reunion soon.

Well, if funerals or memorials count, then yeah, 3 years ago, we buried my mother and 3 months later, we had the memorial for MrsHouseLibrary.

On the cheerier side, my high school class's 50th reunion was a year ago, but they (wisely) opted to postpone it to this coming October - and they're not putting it off any longer. So, I'm driving there (northern New Jersey), starting shortly after Labor Day. It's a 1,700+ mile drive, but I'll be putting over 3,000 miles on the car before I get there. I'm calling it the Bodacious Meandering Wanderlust trip, or BMW for short. There are a few LTers I am going to meet along the way, although the specific route is entirely uncharted at the moment.

TPBM makes overly ambitious plans.

If that is a nice way of saying that I unnecessarily over-complicate things and make things harder than they need to be, then yes.

TPBM is doing themselves a favor.

No, I don't believe in favoritism on any level.

TPBM will tell us their favorite Gene Hackman movie.

I can't. Choosing a favorite movie of his is impossible.
My favorite scene, however ... his portrayal of the blind man in "Young Frankenstein." He adlibbed the last line: "I was gonna make espresso."

TPBM has actually been to a movie theater in the past six months.

I haven't, and my ginormous new television has taken away any incentive I might have had. Although I do remember there was a time when I looked at going to the movies as my way of going to church - I sat in a communal area and communed with the gods. Good times.

TPBM was in a movie.

Yes, I was, and it's somewhere out on the inter-web. Don't ask me where, though, because I just spent the past couple of hours searching for it.

It was a project of my younger brother's back in the late 60s, and once the interweb came into wide use, he dug out that 8mm film and paid a hefty sum to have it converted to digital format. I watched it once. It's a silent-film style melodrama, and the only reason I'm in it is because 1) he can't count (created more roles than he had friends.); and 2) I was the only one around who was taller than the female lead.
I've always been a details sort of person, so on the day of the shoot, initially, I was an unofficial technical advisor. What can I say? I was bored. And really, I've never been a center-stage, take-the-spotlight kind of person (until I met MrsHouseLibrary.) I was the guy who manned the spotlight; always behind the scene, never part of it. Painfully shy, even all the way through high school. But, I rallied for the cause, because I'm that guy.

TPBM will regale us with an account of personal derring-do, please.

Oh my! I just can't think of any personal derring-do I might have done. Sad, boring old life. I guess that's why I read books, so I can experience other's derring-dos.

TPBM has eaten snails.

yep, my grandparents took us camping at the beach every summer and we always had to get the big ones and cook them on the fire grate. She had special little forks used to pry them out of the shells. Then dip them in garlic butter - mmmm!
Better than clams - I don't like the clam bellies.

TPBM prefers calamari.

I select radio button D - none of the above.
It seems that none of them can be cooked without using something that'll kill me outright.

TPBM knows the secret to making hard-crusted bread without also making it dense enough to be more useful as a book press.

Always cover the pan.

TPBM has cooked on the same stove for more than 40 years.

30, not 40 years, Larry. It’s still as good looking as when I bought it, all black and steel. I’ve been informed that natural gas is not environmentally friendly anymore. But at least I’ll be able to cook the thawing foods, if the power goes out.
I’ve started replacing chromed plastic parts that break, with carved wood. So it’s got a slightly steampunk aura now.
My much newer steel fridge has got me scratching my head. I magnet check everything now. The sides take magnets, but the door panels don’t. The manufacturer assured me they are steel, but you can understand my doubts.

TPBM can explain how this steel isn’t magnet holding.

Magnets are attracted to ferrous metals. As I understand it, steel is an alloy. So, depending on which other metals are added to the iron, you get varying degrees of attraction. Stainless steel refrigerator doors are made of a steel containing up to 10% (I think) nickle and other non-ferrous metals - - enough to render all but the very powerful magnets useless.

Finally! I knew that some day, things I learned working in a foundry for a year would pay off. YES!

TPBM also celebrates the small victories.
And maybe explain why, after 45 years of having not given it a moment's thought, I would remember stuff like that.

Acid flashback? If not one of your own, I'll lend you one of mine.

TPBM went CBGB back in the day.

Nah! CBGB was after the day for me.
I frequented places like The Bottom Line and Gerde's Folk City. Great shows!

TPBM saw _______________ at the Philmore ________ (East/West).

My turn? I didn’t go to the big venues. Still, saw groups like Muddy Waters in smaller places.

TPBM was or would have been a hippie living on the land.

Pfft! No; I like my luxuries too much. And I haven’t been t all successful trying to grow my own herbs and veggies.

TPBM is following the Paralympics.

//>169 2wonderY: We also have an older (30-ish years?) but in really great shape gas stove. Why is it not environmentally friendly? For some reason, I always thought of natural gas as more friendly than electric?//

>175 Morphidae: //It puts carbon into the air. And now daughter claims there are other local kitchen air quality issues. I guess it depends on how your electricity is generated, whether it has a lower carbon footprint.//

I am not following the Paralympics, bad me. I rarely watch sports anyway, and got an overload with the Olympics this summer.

TPBM enjoys watching the birds at their birdfeeders.

So is my grandson. He is 2. The "di di" is here.

The train driver tooted the horn at him

TPBM's grandchild likes trains too

All aboard!



TPBM takes public transportation.

Not since March 2020. My parking app for the local rail station has just been inactivated for lack of use.

One of several things I don't know when I'll do again. The 'Freedom' days have had a rather hollow ring. Everything that I am allowed to do carries more risk than not doing it. And now we are told that our vaccine-induced immunity is beginning to fade after six months. Ho hum!

TPBM is, unlike me, bloody, bold and resolute

Yes, I trust the scientific method, and have large non-fiction divisions in my library. And I read.

TPBM has been known to pick up a book or two in their lifetime.

I have. And while it's bought me a great deal of pleasure, it's never bought me an equal measure of peace.

TPBM knows what the future brings.

Autumn Leaves.

TPBM has another season in mind.

Rosemary.
It's on my "Truth" list, as in, "You can't handle the truth!"
Not only is it deadly to me, I can't even be around it.
MrsHouseLibrary planted several of them in the raised garden and near the back door. Once they established, anytime I mowed the lawn around them, my skin would get itchy, my eyes would get red and puffy .... I initially thought it was from stirred-up dirt and sweat. But, it also occurred at other times, always as I went out the back door, always when I got near the raised garden. If I could smell it, I would have a reaction. They're gone now. Had to mask and goggle up, wear a long sleeve shirt and gloves as I fit garbage bags over them before I dug them all out. Miserable work.

Oh wait! Season, not seasoning. My bad!

Okay, TPBM, same question as above.

>184 WholeHouseLibrary: // Coincidentally, I'm reading The Clockwork Boys where Slate, the main protagonist, smells rosemary whenever something happens that will affect her fate. The stronger the effect, the stronger the smell and it makes her sneeze violently.//

No, I am so ready for fall weather. Sick of hot and humid!!!

TPBM has plans for Labor Day, or is just going to enjoy the day off.

I’d rather have the sun than wet and dreary which is what it turned to here yesterday. The weekend is complicated. 1st daughter is coming into town to escort me to eye surgery. Which means I need to clear the accumulations from the guest bedroom and consider meals. 2nd daughter will be in town, but only to finish packing and moving away. It’s heart wrenching, but I’m trying to swallow my dismay and cheer them on. (I moved here last year to be close to them and grandbaby.)

TPBM will offer something funny to cheer me up. Thanks!

Well...
Here's something I had posted around eleven years ago -

http://www.snotr.com/video/3578

TPBM could possibly offer something else for 2WonderY.

>187 2wonderY: I feel your pain. It's very hard when loved ones move away. I hope you can visit them often.
Life is hard...



TPBM has had a fresh tomato sandwich this summer.

Despite a rather cold and dull summer my out-door tomatoes have done well, thanks to using a blight-resistant variety but I’ve not thought of putting them in a sandwich. Chopped in a Greek salad, sliced with olive oil and a spritz of balsamic vinegar or fried in butter usually. My last tomato sandwich must have been 65 years ago.

TPPM will reminisce about childhood food (unless they want to discuss tomato blight).

//>187 2wonderY: I empathise - our grand children are in LA. Much too far from S.E.England.//

>189 morningwalker: //That made me laugh! Thanks! After I posted yesterday I had to wrestle with my health insurance company. They mistakenly reported to the surgical center that I had dropped my policy. Grrrr.//

// >189 morningwalker: What is summer without a big fresh tomato sandwich (even if it does mess up my digestive system a bit on the 3rd or 4th one)//

Childhood food... fruit that tasted like fruit, our grandmother making silver dollar pancakes for breakfast, family dinners every night at the dining room table, which was properly set. Bone-in hams, turkey for Thanksgiving, homemade chocolate chip cookies, popcorn freshly made in the dutch oven, lemon drops or malted milk balls in the milk glass dish in our grandmother's bedroom. Sack lunches with tuna salad sandwiches, an apple, 2 cookies, and a pint of milk purchased at school. Leftover roast turned into roast beef hash with the meat grinder that I still have...

TPBM will also reminisce about childhood food.

Milk in glass bottles, with the cream risen to the top.
Also, powdered milk.
In a family of ten, my folks had a couple of gallons of milk delivered every morning. Before we could use it, we'd have to mix up a gallon at a time of the powdered milk and mix them together. I recall one particular Saturday when I was maybe eleven, and I'm not sure why anymore, but collectively, we drank twenty (20) gallons of milk.
To this day, no one in my family is lactose intolerant, and it may be why I had no problem switching to fat-free milk some forty years ago. Mind you, I still get whole milk because sometimes it's necessary, but I drink way more of the fat-free variety.

Oh! And Macintosh apples! No such thing as eating too many of them. Theyr'e the black coffee of fruits for me. It's almost harvest time.

Same question: TPBM will also reminisce about childhood food.

You had to bring up powdered milk. Blech! (11 kids in our crew). We drank it straight. So when I accompanied my dad to his uncle's dairy farm in Wisconsin one summer, I was blown away by the taste of the real stuff.

TPBM will continue the theme.

Powdered milk! We had that growing up in Africa, though my parents used evaporated milk for their coffee. When we moved to England, we had fresh milk in glass bottles delivered on the milk float early in the mornings and I could guzzle the stuff. In winter, the ice would sometimes pop the foil caps off and in the summer holidays my mum would foolishly rely on us kids to bring the milk in before it went off in the heat while she was at work. Here in Singapore, we’re lucky to find a couple of brands that aren’t reconstituted but even those don’t taste the same.

I do remember my mum’s lamb casserole in Africa was delicious but when we moved to England, I don’t know if it was that the meat was less lean or because she was experimenting with that new invention, the microwave oven, but it never tasted the same.

TPBM will continue in the same vein.

I too grew up on powdered milk >195 2wonderY: Blech is right (only 6 kids but not much money). I rarely drink any milk today because of it. We had it with either large bags of puffed rice cereal, puffed wheat cereal or Corn Flakes. I never liked Corn Flakes because they turned to mush as soon as the milk hit them. Blech again! Loved Thanksgiving though when my mom was up early cooking (the only time she cooked because she worked outside the home) and the windows would steam up and all the delicious smells filled the house all day. Stuffing, pies, turkey, squash, cranberry relish, all the trimmings. Yum.

TPBM will continue or change the topic.

newp, I can go on and on about Thanksgiving recipes all day - it's my favorite cooking extravaganza. We have dinner on Thanksgiving day with my mom, then we eat leftovers the next day while I prep for our annual Friendsgiving on the following day for the usual 20 guests. Then we watch football and eat more leftovers to round out the four-day weekend.

I change parts of the menu every year so that I can try different recipes, but the staples are turkey (brined with apple cider and thyme), mashed potatoes with chive, and both bread stuffing (with apples and cranberries) and traditional pork stuffing (neither of which fit in the turkey so they are cooked separately and are really just vehicles for gravy consumption). Sides and desserts change every year.

TPBM has a favorite recipe to share.

French Cherry Pie

Crust

3/4 cups of sifted flour
1/4 cup of margarine
1 tsp salt
blend with pastry blender
sprinkle with VERY COLD water (the colder the better - the less chance it has to meld with the flour and thus a crisper shell) - form into dough ball, roll out and place in pie shell. Trim around the edges and poke holes with a fork to eliminate chances of blisters.

Bake at 375F for 12 minutes - remove and let cool thoroughly

Filling

one 3 oz package cream cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Cream these together until a uniform blend

1 can of cherry pie filling
1 tsp squeezed lemon juice
pour lemon juice into cherry pie filling and stir until well mixed

1 cup whipping cream and a tbsp of whole milk - whip until stiff and then blend very gently with the mixture above ( in cookeese - fold in :-) )

Pour this into pastry shell, spread evenly - using a tablespoon, carefully spoon out the cherry pie filling and set it on top of the filling. Depending on whose brand of cherry pie filling you purchase you may have to kind of sort the cherries from the filling as you are spooning it out and place the cherries last

Chill thoroughly - serve

If you do this right, the biggest problem you will have when you serve it is getting a piece for yourself. :-)

TPBM has another recipe for a palate pleaser

I do not, mostly because I'm new to cooking and I have nothing to offer, except this which I thought of myself and make at least once a week, and it will feed me for a few days.

One potato
Two onions, but I do love onions
A few carrots
A few stocks of celery
At least a quart of chicken stock (bullion is fine), but two quarts is also tasty
Salt and pepper to taste
Spices to taste; I often add curry

Cut the potato into six parts and the onions into four. Put the celery through a mandolin because celery adds a very distinctive flavor, and cut the carrot into 2-in chunks because it will make everything very sweet, and if it's chopped up any finer I think the soup is too sweet for my taste.

Put everything in an instant pot and cook on high pressure for 1 minute. Ladle into a soup bowl with a chunk of artisanal bread. Gussie it up as you see fit and voila! I found it to be surprisingly good to eat.

TPBM will share a favorite recipe or reminisce about a fond foodie event.

Currently I can collect some of these on an almost daily basis a five minute walk from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprinus_comatus

A bit of oil on a heated pan and they are delicious on a piece of bread.

TPBM also likes mushrooms (when edible).

I like mushrooms when they are cooked, but raw they just taste kind of like spongy...wet Saturdays? As for cooking with mushrooms, I am not much more advanced than boiling things and making hamburger helper So I've never even tried a recipe that calls for mushrooms. I will say, that 6 out of 10 times I can make really lovely scrambled eggs. So there's hope. And where there's not hope, there is cream of wheat. I think I love cream of wheat more than all other breakfast foods combined. Except for Bloody Marys.

TPBM will also tell us their favorite breakfast food.

//>198 Darth-Heather: I wish, maybe I'll have a favorite recipe in elebenty years?

Okay, first you have to realize that we are Southern and Southerners are all mad. So, my mom asked a friend of my grandmother's to spend a few weeks with them in Washington, DC to get out and see the world after her husband of several decades died. This was my Aunt Mildred, who my mom said laughed at all the jokes at the play they saw at the Kennedy Center, even the off color ones. To this day, my Aunt Mildred is sacred to me.

My mom is a superlative cook, even by southern, 1960's standards she could master any recipe, no matter how complicated. She made Christmas cookies that took days to put together and had a genius for producing she presenting food. So the day that my Aunt Mildred gets to my parents, she's talking about a lady she and my grandmother knew extremely well and my mother had probably met briefly, once, many years ago. Mom doesn't yet feel the draw. The point of the story was, this lady had invited the local preacher over for dinner and had served only one meat. It was a scandal! A dinner for guests and only one meat?!?! Only anarchy could follow.

So my mom makes suitably surprised and affronted sounds, sends my Aunt Mildred upstairs to take a nap, and goes to the local grocery store to buy beef, and lamb, bacon, and chicken, enough to last a week. She had planned on a delicious roast beef for the first night's dinner, and I say delicious because when it was my birthday that was always what I asked for, and vegetables, and salad, dessert, and iced tea, but then she met the 19th century in the form of my beloved Aunt Mildred, and never, not one time after that, did she ever have anyone over for dinner when there weren't at least two and almost always three meats on the table. She used to tell me that someone was coming over and I would ask what she was serving and she said, three meats! For Thanksgiving we always had turkey, and duck, and ham.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it. //

//>203 SomeGuyInVirginia: Larry - I've said it before and I'll say it again, I wish I'd been able to meet your mother. Your father too, but this story's star is your mother.//

//>204 karenmarie: Thanks Karen, that story always cracks me up.//

>202 SomeGuyInVirginia: Coffee, and lots of it.

As far as the chewable stuff, and since it's only me in the house now, I've stopped doing that Taylor Ham (pork roll) and fried egg on an English muffin thing. You can only get the Taylor Ham in one-pound rolls now, and it doesn't freeze/thaw well, and goes bad after a week, so realistically, I'd have to toss half of it away. It's not cheap either.

My go-to (not to-go) Saturday morning coffee shop closed its doors at the end of June. They made breakfast tacos exactly as I required them, for years. (It's not why they closed.) The venue reopened a few days later under a new name and owner, and I'll never go there again. It takes 20 minutes to get coffee, and the breakfast tacos were made somewhere else. It took 40 minutes to find out they had laid mine (wrapped in foil) on a ledge somewhere. It was cold, and they had nothing to reheat it with, although they tried (somehow.) They said they did though. There was a strip of mostly raw bacon in it. Won't be back; haven't found another place that'll let me stay for a while to write.

Otherwise, I vary breakfast between shreded wheat and one of three other cereals, eggs and either bacon or mild sausage. But I've actually gotten fond of oatmeal. Not the instant stuff, nor the steel-milled variety, but one that takes about 5 minutes to cook. I add to it some sliced up cooked bacon and a tablespoon of brown sugar.

TPBM has a favorite sub/hoagie/gyro/etc. shop, and will tell us what they prefer to order there.

>202 SomeGuyInVirginia: Double espresso but no more than 2/day or sleeping becomes a tad exciting.

I ran into a wonderful local roaster when having a double at a wonderful little restaurant that "disappeared" as a result of the pandemic ( best mushroom soup around per my opinion). The roaster retired (well his 90 year old father, the accountant, business manager, passed on so. . .). Never fear. . he sold his equipment, customer list and recipes to an organic (have no idea what that means these days) and the beans are as good as ever! Thank goodness.

Too many things have changed in the last few years. TPBM has something that hasn't changed since 2020 in the food/beverage realm.

I'm combining >206 WholeHouseLibrary: and >207 ulmannc:. Favorite sub shop is The Whole Darn Thing (their slogan is "I can't believe I ate the whole darn thing") and my favorite is the #14. Hmmm, something that hasn't changed I guess is that I usually eat leftovers for lunch.

TPBM is feeling unproductive today.

Absolutely! I'm supposed the begin the BMW* Tour on Friday. It will likely be delayed because TS Nicholas will be paralleling my travel route, if I'm lucky. The prediction models are trending more westerly, which will put me more in its path. So, I'm going to give it a day or two to blow past me.

Now, to answer that question again. Boy howdy, yeah! I have done nothing as far as what to take with me for a month on the road. Not at all sure how to pack two large paintings to deliver to my brother in Maine -- and that's not even the reason for the trip. And instead of working in it, I'm writing this.

The late MrsHouseLibrary always planned our traveling adventures, as far as the wheres and whats were concerned. My forte was logistics -- the how to get to a destination, where to stay once we arrived, public transportation or car rental, the actual order in which we'd go to the various venues while there. We were each other best traveling companions. Trying to figure out all of this on my own -- I'm flailing; making some progress, but taking way too long in working it all out.

>208 morningwalker: Having said that, I may just have to take a detour and find that sub shop.

Not that I'm planning on going there again, but does TPBM know the way to San Jose? Asking for a friend.

* BMW Bodacious Meandering Wanderust

Yes, yes indeed, I do know the way to San Jose (Woh, woh, woh -oh! Woh, woh -oh! Woh-woh, woh!)
Thanks for asking.

TPBM can read a topographic map.

I am actually taking a class in GIS and Map Technology right now. This week's topic is satellite photo imagery that is used to make topo maps in 3D. If you like maps, download the free Google Earth software - the new version has quite a lot of attributes and is easy to use.

TPBM has a favorite map.

I don't have a favorite map, but being the guy that corporations go to predict or ameliorate black swans, I will only say that I love maps in a way that I simply don't understand. I do have a love greater than maps, though. I adore the visual representation of information in a way that, to me, is mystic. And this is why Whole house library And I have been friends for the past decade. WHL to simply gets it.

TPBM will tell us the first, second, and fifth thing they would do if they ever won more than $100, 000,000 million dollars US, cash take home, in the lottery.

1. Call our broker to get the name of a top-notch lawyer and top notch financial person, and tell all three about the windfall.
2. Work out with them how to keep it secret, private, and under wraps as much as possible.
3.
4.
5. Set up a trust for Jenna.

TPBM would do things differently.

Sure! It would all go as a down payment on the hospital bill for the coronary I'd have from learning I won that much.
And, in the off chance that the above didn't occur, I'd pay off the major debts of family and friends, and donate the rest to worthy causes - like the Prickly Heat Foundation. Excessive funds has never been a motivating factor for me.

>212 SomeGuyInVirginia: True. I was able to accurately read maps long before I knew the alphabet - before I spoke, even. Full disclosure: I'm not (or wasn't) a child prodigy; I just never said a word until I was almost four.
And, I'll see you in mid-October, my friend.

TPBM would have other plans for what to do with those winnings.

Hmm ... put it towards redoing the kitchen, raise the roof so I can put bookshelves in the attic (more books!), set up a trust fund for the kids. And hide it from them money-grabbin' mucky paws. ;0)

TPBM loves a rainy night.

I'll let you know in about a month.
My roof was replaced two weeks ago and it hasn't rained since.
I'm about to leave here for a several week's-long road trip, so I presume it'll rain before I get back. "We'll see," said the Zen master.

You can follow my progress in the Green Dragon thread: WHL's BMW Tour
I've forgotten how to link to other threads. Sorry.

TPBM is so lovin' that cuppa cuppa.

Me too!

TPBM grinds their own locally roasted beans for his double espresso each morning!

I grind my medium roast non-local beans every morning for my not espresso every morning - that's as close as I can come. I use our wonderful well-water, too.

TPBM is worried about the potential coffee shortage.

There's going to be a coffee shortage? Nobody tells me anything!!

TPBM has visited Salem, MA at Halloween time.

yep, many times. The schticky stuff gets old after awhile though. I recommend visiting there in the spring when the cherry trees near the harbor are in bloom.

TPBM has already bought pumpkins.

Not me. They don't travel well.

MrsHouseLibrary was fond of Cinderella pumpkins (deep ribs, come in various colors.)
She was also fond of somehow inserting Gumby and Pokey figures in things she did and post them on her FB page. When we went to Ireland, she made them tiny passports and luggage; also took a picture of then sleeping on the plane ride over there, in Blarney Castle, etc.
One Halloween, she (and of course I got involved) took pictures of them carving the pumpkin, and somehow, it got out of control and they had a pumpkin guts fight. It was quite messy. It's a good part of why our relationship was as good as it was.

TPBM does silly stuff like that.

>221 WholeHouseLibrary: I don't but not because I don't have the time or desire. I don't have the ability. Between being housebound and not being able to sit at a table (or really have anything table like), my craftsy-side is *VERY VERY* frustrated. Can't cross-stitch yet because I need bifocals. I've wanted to draw since I was little but it takes patience and practice, practice, practice which drives my ADHD brain insane. I might go back to crochet yet I worry about my shoulder and arm as I have repetitive motion issues with it already.

TPBM has a fantastic idea for being craftsy (and silly) when you have multiple... challenges.

Take up Jackson Pollock-style painting.

TPBM can navigate by the stars.

// >223 humouress: Things that make you go hmmm... //

There was a time when I could absolutely navigate by the stars; knew their names, brightness, stories associated with them. I like to think I still can, but to be honest, it takes a lot to get me out to look at the stars at night anymore.

TPBM has been around the world.

Yup more than once. Courtesy of my job and personal choices that old saying - "every book is new until you have read it, every country is unexplored until you have left your footprints in the dirt, and every mountain is unclimbed until you have stood on its summit." has turned out to be a summary of my approach to life.

TPBM has climbed a few mountains too.

Literally speaking, only hills, and under protest. Not my thing at all.

Figuratively speaking, yes, and it's glorious getting to the top.

TPBM collects something unusual.

I'm not sure how unusual it is, but I collect snowmen. My mom started it when I was small, and now I have hundreds. Figurines, plaques, sweaters, socks, window stickers, pencils, kitchen ware, lights, and so on and on and on. It wasn't my idea to start with, but I am still gifted with several every winter between my birthday in November and the Christmas holiday. I don't really take them out anymore, because I hate dusting all those knicknacks and crap.

TPBM collects something more interesting.

I've inherited collecting elephants, in a similar way. My husband had a few unusual elephant ornaments when we got married so, when we moved house, I put them together as a collection as well as some things we had brought home from a trip to Thailand. So everyone assumed I/ we collect elephants and the collection keeps growing (and now we do collect elephants). We also have a carved teak elephant from Sri Lanka (the benefits of living in Asia) that stands about chest high to me - of course the kids used to 'ride' it when they were small.

TPBM is pet-sitting.

I'm not pet sitting. I'm also, apparently, not doing a great job of paying enough attention to my beloved Parker. Because every evening he jumps up on my side table and does that weird marrowing thing where I know I either have to a; push him off or, 2); wait for him to start chewing on my elbow. I love the little shithead and we've had several discussions on why we can't have upholstered furniture. It can't be just me, can it?!

TPBM will give us today's top headlines in rhyme.

It may seem rude, but dude, we're screwed.

TPBM will attend a cultural event this weekend.

yep, I'm going to a local brewery's release of their new IPA; I think beer is made with cultured yeast.

Plus they are having a Russian food truck on site too.

So thats TWO kinds of culture at the same event :)

TPBM is home watching baseball.

No, but my sister is a Dodgers fan and is thrilled that the Dodgers beat the Giants to win their division.

TPBM's favorite author has a new book coming out soon.

Not that I'm aware of, but I got to visit with them (husband and wife) while I was on the BMW Tour. Absolutely gracious people.

TPBM writes/blogs/journals/composes/scribbles on a regular basis.

I don't, regularly, but I should. I have come across journal entries of mine from decades before and have always been struck by my not remembering anything that I was talking about. I encourage journaling the same way I encourage early rising and vegetarianism - they sound like awfully good ideas and I hope that other people benefit from them.

TPBM, will tell us what steps they have taken to put themselves on the map.

Actually, this week is the final for my class on Spatial Relations (aka map making) and my final project involves a wilderness hiking map created with Google Earth. It has markers for trails I like, and my uncle's secret hidden cabin retreat in the Great North Woods; shhh don't tell him, it's supposed to be a secret...

TPBM has a secret too.

I do.

TPBM is training for an event.

I have my annual wellness physical appointment a week from Friday, if that counts. Didn't have one last years because, well, you know....
Because of that, I'm sure they'll double up on everything, so I'm studying overtime for the urine tests. Hope there aren't any trick questions this time. I hate it when that happens.

TPBM has a plan.

>238 WholeHouseLibrary: Not so far but I have a plan for a plan.

Awhile ago *COUGHlastChristmasCOUGH*, I bought myself a goals journal. I am picking up that baby up in about 45 minutes and I've promised myself to work on it for 15 minutes a day. No matter what.

TPBM has recently made a promise to themself.

Sure have! Never, ever drive more than 300 miles in a day - ever again!
Except for marrying ThiMs (my abusive first wife), it's the stupidest thing I've ever done, where 500 to 600 mpd was the norm. I fear I have permanently damaged my legs - both of them.
I'm working on it, though; just have to pace myself.

TPBM is no stranger to irony.

Sure, irony is always with us.

>240 WholeHouseLibrary:'s post reminds me how small the UK is. There are few directions from home which wouldn't have me in the sea well before I had covered 600 miles. Hope your legs are improving, WHL.

TPBM lets the train take the strain.

600? 15 would be the maximum number of miles I'd be able to go before falling in the sea. I could do it in 6, since we're not in the middle of Singapore.

We just recently got our local MRT (Tube equivalent) station, which is 5 minutes walk away and opened a couple of months ago. I could let the kids come home on the train - but there's a pandemic going on so I might as well continue to run Mum's Taxi Service.

TPBM enjoys long distance driving.

Ahem... May I refer you back to my >240 WholeHouseLibrary: post?

But now I've got a bigger problem. Stupid chainsaw tricks. If an infection sets in, you can call me Berek.
Yeah, the pinky and ring finger of my left hand. Plus, I'm diabetic; not a good combination. "We'll see," said the Zen master.

TPBM groks the Berek reference.

Berek Halfhand from the Thomas Covenant books.

TPBM is about to make a change

Yes, I'm incrementing the message count by 1 in this thread.
Hard to believe that this is only the 5th response in two and a half weeks!
I recall when over a dozen per day was the norm.

Other changes: The hand is doing quite well, all factors considered. The pinky is more stiff than anything else. The ring finger, though ... the topical antibiotic dissolved the scab below the middle knuckle, so I've applied a pair of butterfly bandages to keep the skin together, then taped a pen to the underside to keep me from flexing the finger. Didn't have any pop-sickle sticks available. It suffices. And no infection, so I'm happy.

TPBM might have used _____________ instead.

I have some aluminium plant labels which would work quite well without being so bulky but, hey, your solution shows true frontier spirit - use what is in front of you! Glad to hear that you are mending.

By the by, a week or two ago on another thread - https://www.librarything.com/topic/336145#n7636527 -
you mentioned a security key-related story which I had hoped you might share. You did say it was long and maybe you need all your fingers in working order. Hope springs eternal ....

TPBM types with only two fingers

Mostly. Typing class was required of all girls in high school, but I deliberately failed to learn. It helped me avoid the clerical path, until my last employment when I took the job just to be working for the feds again. By that time, cut and paste was around to save me.

TPBM likes the color orange only in season.

I'm not sure what the season is for orange, but I don't mind it at any time. I have an aunt who always seems to wear orange when she's dressing formally.

TPBM has a special occasion coming up which will necessitate dressing formally.

Not in Texas, darlin'
Even weddings and funerals are come-as-you-are events.
Well, more formal for the bridal party and the stiff, but for everyone else it's casual attire or you'll get laughed at.

TPBM knows someone who own their own tuxedo.

I do! I’ve always thought of tuxedos as white rather than black and what I wear as a dinner jacket but US usage is much more common in the UK now.
I don’t get to wear it much but it is preferred wear at some country house opera performances, Glyndebourne, Grange Park Opera and the like and still expected at the wonderful Wexford Opera Festival.

TPBM can tie their own - or someone else’s - bow tie.

The closest thing they have to bow ties in Texas is something called a western string tie. It's a bow tie with legs. I've been here 32 years now and have never so much as seen one on a mannequin, even.
The next closest thing would be a bolo tie, which is a rope with ornamental weights on each end draped from the back of the neck and held together by a metal slide usually adorned with a piece of turquoise.

I have no frame of mind to possess nor manipulate any of these three neckpieces. That being said, I can tie a Windsor knot like nobody's' business!

TPBM can tie a one-handed bowline knot.

I have tried, honest, but I just can’t get the hang of it. I can see that it would be a useful skill should I fall in the water, breaking one arm as I fell and be fortunate enough to have a nearby rescuer with a rope……

I’m going to have to rely on not falling in in the first place.

TPBM can boast other rope skills.

Well, considering my last name, it's kind of expected that I do.
And whereas, yes, I can create my family's namesake knot, I refuse to have an audience when I practice it. I'm adept at over three dozen knots, and I whip the ends of the ropes to prevent them from fraying.

I'm also quite good at untangling and untying ropes and cords. There's only one that I haven't been able to make whole and usable again. It's a 40' length of 1"-thick cotton fiber rope that I used to tow someone out of a ditch. Didn't realize it had a very loose overhand knot in it. Now it's a very tight overhand knot. I've been trying to get it loose for a good twenty years now. Hardly budged, but I'm not giving up on it.

One thing I don't do with a rope is practice lassoing anything.

TPBM is tenacious when ________________.

I suppose that I am showing tenacity by scrolling back nine days to find, and answer, the most recent TPBM post. Don't know why it has all gone so quiet in November.

TPBM has a theory.

I'm sure Guy Fawkes has something to do with it. And probably something in the works of de Selby can explain it better.

TPBM thinks the theory is bonkers.

I think most things called theories are bonkers. Don't understand why "theory" is a category that applies to them. Most are just outright bull***t.

TPBM has a fine-tuned bull***t detector.

Nah, mine's rather overwhelmed. I have two boys, one will become a teenager in three weeks and the other will only be a teenager for a couple of years more. The fine tuning went a long time ago.

TPBM has already put up their Christmas decorations. Or not.

How ever did you know? I’ve rummaged in some boxes and passed stuff on to daughter. I use jewel colored fruit ornaments in bowls for fall which transition nicely to the Christmas season. But no; it’s not December yet. Oh, wait! It is now….

TPBM overwinters tender outside plants successfully.

>258 2wonderY: // I'm just psychic ;0) //

Not in Texas, darlin'
It's a whole different climate here, and when the glacier descended on us back in February, if the plant wasn't indoors, it didn't survive (for the most part.)
Granted, in a lot of cases, even the indoor plants didn't survive because half of the state lost power for an extended period time - weeks, in some cases.
As for me, personally, I lost all the vegetation in my yard that wasn't a Live Oak tree, and remarkably, one of the two pine trees that mark my front property corners. Ack! And an Ash tree - the one tree that I was really hoping would crack under the weight of the ice and snow. I've developed an allergy to Ash.

MrsHouseLibrary was the botanist-minded one. After she died, I gave away all (both inside and outside) of the non-tree vegetation. Then I took everything off the windowsills so I could finally drop the blinds and have some privacy.

TPBM is perfectly comfort with having an occasional voyeur. (I promise not to judge you, no matter how you answer.)

//>260 WholeHouseLibrary: The deer been spying on you then?//

//261: Always. I had the blinds open in the French doors in the living room (they're between the panes) the other day, and three of them peered into the room for a good five minutes.//

//>262 WholeHouseLibrary: Ah. I had no idea.//

>260 WholeHouseLibrary: Clearly, too personal a question to ask. How dare you!

TPBM can explain such rudeness.

You are always at risk of something like that if you talk to yourself, I guess.

TPBM has still not got used to (and indeed avoiding) people walking along the street apparently deep in conversation with themselves - they are using their cell phones, of course.

It happens fairly often that I hear someone speak, and assume they are talking to me, only to get a baffled stare when I reply - it turns out that they have a bluetooth thingie in their ear that I didn't see, and they are actually on a phone call.

TPBM is sending their wishlist to Santa.

Ummm ... no.

I haven't even put away my Festivus Pole from two years ago.

Around here, people pay good money (between $150 and $500) to have other people hang lights on their houses instead of doing it themselves. If they were more my age, I can imagine a justification for paying someone for that kind of service, but most of the people I see looking to have it done are 40 or less. Of course, they have to pay them again to have the lights taken down before the end of January.

TPBM has better ideas for that kind of money.

yes, Festivus poles for everyone!

TPBM has big holiday plans.

Just the Feats of Strength and Airing of Grievances stuff. And I have a feeling that'll be merely exercising and talking to myself. Of course, you're never alone when you're schizophrenic.

TPBM is doing all their holiday shopping online mainly to avoid the holiday music.

//Only 5 more days until Beethoven's birthday!//

I tried doing exactly that, but one grocery store visit exposed me to Mariah Carey and Wham, plus the annoyingly repetitive Feliz Navidad. The only one I kind of like is Mele Kalikemaka.

Anyway, now the background music in my head is that stuff. Sigh.

TPBM still goes to a mall.

What's a Mall?! They seem to all be closed around here or turning into medical centers.
TPBM has to go a long way to find one as all the close ones are gone.

Nah, it's the opposite way. All the local malls are filled with people. Wearing masks, but they still stand it the way so shopping that should take a couple of minutes drag out to infinity.

TPBM likes other people, even when shopping.

Yeah, I do. I'm very much the introvert - cherish my "me" time - but I also enjoy getting together with other people, especially if live music is involved.
Mind you, I don't mean going to a show - I mean no more than a dozen people doing the pickin-n-grinnin thing, or what is sometimes referred to as wooden music.
Despite of, or maybe because of, years of Thanksgiving dinners with 70+ relatives, I avoid large crowds. Perhaps it's the times we're living in, but this started decades ago. I like people, but in limited numbers.

TPBM is a hugger by nature.

No, but it’s a habit I learned at college and introduced to my core family. We were a no-touch group till then. I recall my mom holding me just once.

TPBM loves candy canes.

>275 2wonderY: //That sounds a lot like me, and my family.//

No, I do not like candy canes. I've never seen the point of rock, though at least candy canes are smaller and slimmer and there's a chance that the kids will actually get to the end of one. Their school bags tend to come home after the Christmas/ end of year party with a sticky mess inside - even candy canes start to dissolve in Singapore's heat and humidity - and there'll be a half eaten stick in the fridge for a week until it gets thrown out.

TPBM has made mince pies for Christmas this year.

no, Christmas is traditionally a time to make tortiere - ground pork and potato pies.
I cheat though; I buy premade refrigerated crusts because I'm terrible at making pie dough.
My Memeres would NOT approve.

TPBM can explain to me what is in a mince pie.

>277 Darth-Heather: Sure. Mince is short for Many Ingredients Nobody Can Eat - it's kind of a highbrow SPAM but not as tasty. :-)

TPBM has received a Christmas Letter where the sender has admitted last year's Christmas letter was a pack of lies.

>277 Darth-Heather: // From BBC Food: Mincemeat, the traditional filling for mince pies, is a spicy preserve comprising a mixture of dried fruit, apple, suet and candied fruit and spices steeped in rum or brandy. It has been part of British cookery for centuries and did originally contain meat, though now the only meat present is in the suet.

//

//And don't forget the brandy//

>278 alco261:
No, but I have over 40 years of letters that were inserts (2 pages in length) of Native American-themed holiday cards, all from my friend from college. It's a form letter, with almost no variation from year to year in the order of the things he mentions - except that work evolved into retirement and his involvement with the Boy Scout Council (and associated activities) has morphed into how he's the executor of the estates of 5 relatives, all of whom lived in different states.
He was part of my itinerary on the BMW Tour, but even though I was a mere hour's drive from him, he told me that he simply didn't have the time for me to visit. It's okay; maybe next year - if this COVID thing quells.

TPBM, like the Dude, abides.

Had to look it up. Nah! Looks painful.

TPBM still has some Halloween candy/treats.

I do! Ferrero Rocher balls. I bought them for me but would have been willing to hand them out as a last resort. Thankfully didn't even come close. I have to keep them covered or else Parker will get into them because Parker loooooooves anything crinkly to chew on.

For Halloween, TPBM put together a great charcuterie board.

It may be the reason I haven't had any trick-or-treaters in 20 or so years.
"Look, Mom, I got a cheese ball!"

TPBM already knew how to pronounce "charcuterie" without looking it up.
(I still can't pronounce it after hearing it maybe a dozen times.)

I don't think I pronounce it right either, but the one I made this year for Thanksgiving looks like this:


So it's tasty regardless.

TPBM is tired of holiday music already.

I have a thing for Christmas, so no. What is it that thing is called again? Oh yeah, obsession.

//Holy cow, Darth, that looks like something out of a magazine! Gorgeous!//

TPBM knows what they will be doing during the hour of their death.

Probably watching the side of the cliff growing taller as I fall off it in my attempt to nag a 5/5 rating geocache. (That's Difficulty/Terrain - a D5 means damn near impossible to find, and a T5 means treacherous and vertical approach.) The most dangerous one was a mere 4/5, but I don't remember the circumstances or where it was; it's in my log history, though, so I must have done it.

TPBM's memory is as sharp as a proverbial tack.

>286 WholeHouseLibrary: 'Proverbial' meaning 'hypothetical'? Okay, I can work with that.

TPBM will be home for Christmas (you can count on them - but no snow necessary).

Newp, I'll be a casserole bearer. I checked the weather; no snow so the drive will be easy but at least it won't be 70 the way it's been lately.

TPBM will have a white Christmas.

Just another regular day for me. Two days earlier though - FESTIVUS!!!

>287 humouress: - Proverbial, as in the idiom.

TPBM has absolutely no trouble sleeping at night, and can tell us how they manage to accomplish such a thing.

1. Working to exhaustion during the day. 2. Excellent pillows, and lots of them. Solid foam rubber. 3. A beer doesn’t hurt, either.

TPBM will offer their formula for good sleep.

>289 WholeHouseLibrary: // In that case, no.//

;0)

I like it to be cold, even during August, and bury myself under a lot of blankets. I also sleep with a fan on.

TPBM has fallen asleep in a public library.

I basically grew up in the Nashua Public Library; we were fortunate to live in a city with a good library, and my parents took us there more regularly than church, which is really saying something about their priorities.

I remember crying often as the only restriction was that I could take out as many books as I could carry, but often found more available than I could physically manage.

I spent as much time as possible in the library, and have dozed off there more than once.

TPBM has lit the menorah.

Considering I had to look it up, I can say with conviction that I have not.

Didn't Liberace have one on his piano?

TPBM is preparing for Feats of Strength.

Liberace had a candelabra. Same basic purpose, different significance.

Preparing? I work nights in a supermarket. I do feats of strength 5-6 nights a week.

TPBM is planing for a quiet holiday.

yes, looking forward to it! My husband's parents have passed, so there is a lot less pressure to rush around to different households. We will enjoy dinner with my mom and sister, which involves much laughter and cups of tea.

TPBM is still waiting for a package to arrive.

(Well, the best one has already arrived.). I thought that I had ordered a cashmere pullover from Marks and Spencer online, but when I went to check on the status I realized that I hadn't hit the payment button. So, no.

TPBM knows why fashion models always look so miserable.

Of course - they starve themselves and are always thinking about the food they are missing out on.

TPBM has been a fashion model.

yes, and I had to starve and think about food all the time. It didn't last very long; I like food too much :)

TPBM looks miserable for other reasons.

I have good and bad days. Mostly, they're about the loss of MrsHouseLibrary, but I'm working out the coping strategies that are at least mildly successful.
I look real miserable when they don't.
I just spent a couple of hours playing the guitar, so although the left hand looks like I should be miserable, I've been using that hand vibrator tool to break down the scar tissue, and I seem to be doing alright there, except for the outside edge of the pinky by the second (middle) knuckle - lost all sense of touch there. Annoying, but not anything I'm going to lose sleep over.

Just had a phone call from my youngest son; wanted to know if we were doing the traditional (sans last year - you know why) holiday breakfast of Taylor Ham, fried egg, and Swiss cheese on English muffin thing this year.
Yeah, we can, but I hadn't even thought about it. So, it's on - just him, the oldest son and his girlfriend. As much as I'd love to have the middle son here too, he's refused to get vaccinated, and I refuse to put him at risk. His choice. I'm so looking forward to the Airing of Grievances!

TPBM doesn't suffer fools.

>300 WholeHouseLibrary: I don’t. I try not to say it because, you know, they can’t help themselves but apparently my face is very expressive. So both objectives achieved.

TPBM has made a fool of themselves recently (and is willing to admit it).

// >296 Darth-Heather: Yes! I am! I ordered from a Singapore site assuming it would be be produced here but it seems to be shipping (literally?) from Spain. It’s supposed to take 10-15 days and, yes covid, but. And international tracking always seems to drop the ball between countries.//

//>301 humouress: same! all of my orders have come except the one I purchased through Etsy. I didn't realize until after I placed the order that it is coming from Lithuania. It shipped right away but looks like it's been stalled in customs for a couple weeks. The delivery estimate is Dec 18 - Jan 30...//

//>302 Darth-Heather: It arrived today!! You should post questions like this more often.//

//As I walked out of our gate this morning with our dog, there was a car parked with its nose to our gate and a guy balancing a long tube on its roof. Later, around lunchtime, as someone rang our bell, I thought "I wonder if ...?' but there hadn't been any deliveries. One of the kids went out to the gate to answer the bell - and came back with a long tube, which was the package I was expecting. Maybe the delivery man brought it right to our gate in the morning and got turned around. Or maybe it wasn't mine?//

>301 humouress:

A fool of myself? Probably every stinking day! And proud of it.
There's a reason they call me: Mike, the Song Butcher.
I've often been surprised at how some of things I've done have apparently inspired others to take chances on things they've only otherwise gave passing thought to. And, I learned yesterday the the Scout troop my sons belonged to (over ten years ago) still has a challenge at every monthly camp-out in my honor. Called Mr. Lynch jokes. It's basically: Who can tell longest, most convoluted story - with a punchline at the end?
Apparently, here in central Texas, I'm the Rube Goldberg of storytelling.

TPBM is best known for ________________. (Don't be shy!)

Not being shy. Which always surprises me because I think of myself as a shy person.

TPBM always stands and fights ________.

No one? Well okay; wanted to give others to respond.

So, there was no need for the ______.
To respond now: Yes, yes I do.

I used to be more passive in my response to situations, which is just part of why I was able to remain married to ThiMs for just shy of a quarter century.

Things change. Evolution takes place over generations; anything that modifies in a single person or thing is either a metamorphosis or an adjustment in attitude. I've always rooted for the underdog; now, I'm apt to get more aggressively involved. There's a LOT of stupid out there.

TPBM hopes to sleep in the new year.

I sure hope so. 365 days without sleeping isn't something I would look forward to!

TPBM plans to do something on New Year's Eve besides stand in a corner and count to a million.

God willing and the creeks don't rise, tomorrow night at midnight I will be asleep for the first New Year Eve of my entire life. Or not. I heard one of those streaming services has all the Die Hard movies so, maybe that, too.

TPBM will be in Times Square tomorrow at midnight.

Well, now it's tonight for us.

No, considering it's half way around the world and travel restrictions and all that. But we will be at a good friends' house seeing in the New Year together. But we'll first wish their Kiwi and our Aussie relatives.

TPBM will be celebrating the New Year safely.

Safely and boringly, at home with my husband and three kitties. We'll probably be asleep way before it becomes 2022.

TPBM has high hopes for 2022.

Hard to agree, I fear, but it would be difficult for it not to be better than 2021. Still, I’ll whistle a happy tune…….

TPBM will offer a more optimistic view.

Happy New Year to all!

Happy New Year, at, at to everyone in this thread! We may not have connected in any actual sense, but I read your posts with the same interest that I do the morning headlines.

I do have high hopes. I also have just hopes. I hope that 2022 is at least better than the dumpster fire 2021 was. Although dumpster fire isn't really accurate, because a lot of really great things happen to me, anyway, in 2021, but as far as a Journal of the Plague Year kind of thing then I know that 2021 was sort of a downer. So, here's to a better 2022!

TPBM can make things happen.

Well, I’ve got matches…

TPBM is staying warm enough.

Yes, but it took my winter wool socks and slippers, turning on the propane stove in the Sunroom, AND making and drinking a cup of hot chocolate. I was that chilled.

TPBM saw snow recently.

Only on that TV thing. We could have had snow, but despite being in the mid-20s (several hours at a time) in this area, there was no precipitation -- not like last February, when the glacier came through.
Instead, the revelers started prior to the cluster of the earlier notable holidays, and right up through, but not including last night, to shower the area with the remnants of their sometimes colorful, but always wall-shaking, incendiary devices -- and we've been in RED fire danger conditions for the past several months.
I swear, I suspect a good fourth of those explosions were actually half-sticks of dynamite.

TPBM enjoys long, meandering sentences.

Well of course I love meandering sentences!

TPBM found a treasure in all the trash.

I sure did.

Took some scrap empty cardboard boxes and some of that heavy scrap brown wrapping paper that things are shipped in, cut both of them into strips, bent the cardboard into a rough shape for a hill and used a hot glue gun to hold everything in place.



Once I had the rough shape to my liking I did a quick check with some scale trees to get a sense of how it might look.

Then I took the cut up strips of wrapping paper, painted them on one side with a dilute solution of Elmer's Glue and laid the strips over the cardboard frame glue side down and let everything dry.



Next I gave the hills a spray painting



...and once that was dry I painted the surface with another coat of dilute Elmer's Glue and sprinkled on a mix of ground texture.



I decided the trees I was thinking of using were too big so I changed them for smaller ones ...and presto chango - scrap cardboard and paper, with the help of a little glue, paint, and ground cover becomes the first of a couple of rolling hills for a backdrop in one of my model railroad dioramas.

TPMB also found some treasure in the trash

Not treasures as much as unwanted odors. I don't create a lot of trash, so it's taken over two weeks for the kitchen trash can to look "full."

Had to do some grocery shopping today -- the milk in the refrigerator actually got "chunky" from sitting idle for too long. Mind you, I love to drink milk, but it's usually the fat-free stuff, and I leave the whole milk for when something I've eaten irritates my innards, or if I have shredded wheat for breakfast. And probably 90% of the garbage I create is a on a grocery shopping day.

So, I tried to compress what was in the can, and some scrap of something from a maybe early last week made its presence known in an unpleasantly odoriferous manner, and now it's all outside in the non-recyclables trash can, all but ready to be hauled away on Monday morning.

TPBM has accidentally (or maybe purposely -- who am I to judge?) made treasure into trash.

// >317 alco261: Nice! The construction looks pretty solid. What's it for? //

>319 humouress: it's part of a backdrop of rolling hills for a model railroad diorama I'm building.

>317 alco261: Sweet! The trees are perfect sizes for it. Reminds me of a hill in back of my grandmother's house. It had one blasted tree on the top and I always knew it was haunted. I still sometimes dream about it and the fields around it.

Well, it almost happened yesterday. I ordered a large sticker for my shower door which I decided to try and put up at the end of the day yesterday. Unfortunately, because it was a bit unwieldy, part of it got wrinkled before I managed to stick it down and in trying to readjust it I started stretching sections of it. I gave up with it last night but my son had a lot more patience than I did (now there's a thing I never thought I'd say) and managed to rescue it for me today.

Although, looking at it now, I've positioned it too high. Ah well. There's no way I can successfully take it off now without spoiling it.

TPBM will tell us of an occasion when they made the best of a bad situation.

Well, I knew this guy who was an alligator wrestler. One day while taking a snooze in the shade, an alligator snuck up and bit both his ears off.
I felt sorry for him, adn I told him so -- the guy, not the alligator -- because now he couldn't keep his hat from falling over his eyes; and it disqualified him for ever being a pirate because he didn't have a place to wear a gold earring. Here's what he said to me: HUH?

TPBM suspected as much.

I suppose that qualifies as a shaggy-gator story.

TPBM knows why the dog is shaggy

Just a guess: It wanted to emulate the carpets that were so trendy in the late 60s?

TPBM has another possible explanation.

My customary ‘go-to’ for this sort of thing is Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (18th.Edition). It advises that the name derives from the shaggy dog that featured in many stories of the genre in the 1940s which is not really any sort of answer. Maybe >325 WholeHouseLibrary: is right!

TPBM plays Wordle and, maybe, will share their preferred starting word.

// >326 abbottthomas: *sigh* book bullet //

Actually, I have never heard of Wordle, because other than here and one other site (xkcd), I don't belong to any social media traps -- don't use Google, Amazon, eBay, etsy; I don't tweet, hoot, or holler either. If I want something, I'll go to a store and buy the damn thing. No sense in ordering something and wait weeks for it to get shipped, only to have it stolen out of my front yard by some pirate because the delivery guy is too damn lazy to place it near the front door and ring the bell.

But, I looked it up, and they want you to start with a 5-letter word. Thought about it... took my time... pondered... words come too easy to me, so to make it a challenge, I decided on: EERIE. If there were as 6-letter version, I'd chose: DOODOO.

The most challenging game (other than TPBM) that TPBM has ever attempted to play is ____________.

Dunno! Rugby fives maybe, or Mah-jongg. I played a lot of board games in my youth but not any more. Time now though to kick the can down the road. I should manage that.

TPBM is having a dry January.

Sure, but it's not like I gave up drinking. I've had an entirely dry life; I don't can't drink. Alcohol is another item on that long list of things that give me ulcers.

Wait! You were referring to the weather, weren't you? (My coffee just kicked in.) In that case, my response is:
Well, it was until this morning. And fortunately, there wasn't much. I had to have my roof and gutters replaced several months ago and the downspouts now all terminate in new places, all of which threaten the foundation of my house. Last time I spoke to the contractor, he gave me a tired story about supply chain issues and lack of manpower, yadda, yadda; but promised he'd have the gutter guy out there "tomorrow." That was Nov 16; still waiting.
Meanwhile, in walks around the neighborhood, I've come upon three other gutter installations, and spoke to the boss man. They haven't had any problem getting materials.

TPBM knows of a contractor with actual integrity.

Apparently they’re rare on the ground. Although my husband has been using the same contractor since before we were married who came recommended by his aunt. He’s a nice man and we’ve always found him reliable.

Now that I’ve finally discovered it (the game is taking the world by storm and I heard a BBC WS article on it) TPBM will tell us their favourite starting word for Wordle.

I've been having good luck with STARE - it has the most common letters, so I can rule them in or out right away.
I have gotten them all in four except once.

TPBM hasn't tried Wordle yet.

I refer you back to my >328 WholeHouseLibrary:
I don't plan to, either. I've got several distracting, time-wasting game and puzzle apps on my phone that I don't need others.

TPBM shuts off the Mobil Data "feature" on their phone before playing games.

// I have it on only when I send an MMS text message, geocaching, or when I'm trying to identify items (stars, planets, comets, satellites, ISS, HST) in the sky.//

What is this Mobil Data feature of which you speak? My phone doesn’t play games.

I was going to point out that one advantage of Wordle is that you can only play once every 24 hours with each game lasting only a few minutes. It is also both free and ad-free.

I spoke too soon! The radio news has just informed me that the New York Times has just bought the game for “a seven-figure sum”.

TPBM can juggle.

I seem to be adequate at juggling my finances, but that's about it.
An accident I had when I was four rendered me unable to grasp most items with my right hand. Mind you, I'm a hard-wired righty -- I even "write" with that hand. The CIA says my penmanship is more secure than any of their encryption methods.
Unable to grasp a ball to throw it; can't hold on to a baseball bat; can't use a guitar pick; using a hammer is a bit of a safety hazard for anyone around me. Yet oval-shaped handles (axes, for example) end up being a quite secure fit.
I've tried training myself as a lefty. At some point, I was able to sign my name using the left hand, and it was more legible than the right, but I just tried it and it wasn't worth the effort.

TPBM enjoys personal challenges.

"enjoy" is a strong word for it.
I will be 53 when I finish my Bachelor in Geoscience degree, so maybe "glutton for punishment" or "masochist" are more accurate.

TPBM is treating themselves to something today.

Our local farmers market. It's the first time I have driven any distance since a broken rib put me in the hospital for 10 days. . . great bread, great cheese (the sharp cheddar got 1st place at the Pennsylvania Farm Show last month) and pico de gallo (can't spel).

No 'sorries' on the rib - another 3 or 4 weeks and I'll be able to pick up my grandson!

TPBM found some local goodies for a treat today.

Cucumbers. For unexplained reasons, -- I know what they are; just don't feel like enumerating them -- for the past several weeks, the grocery stores I tend to frequent rarely have cucumbers in stock, and when they do, they're generally the size that you would see in jars. So, I'll buy two or three and hope they get me through to the next time I go.
What I haven't found at all -- in months -- is green beans. With my quite limited range of non-perishing (that's me that would do so) foods, I gotta tell ya, I'm getting really tired of broccoli.

TPBM has been neglecting __________.

... all kinds of things. Where would you like to start?

TPBM has finally got around to something they've been neglecting (and actually made a start on it).

Plowing through books in my library and reading them! Who knows, I may find some that I have no idea why I bought it. Besides, I need shelf space. I have about 15 boxes under a bed on the 2nd floor, 10 boxes in the library and every shelf in the library is packed. Let's not even talk about what is sitting in the aisles. Hopefully this little "exercise" will free up about 10 ft of shelves.

Is there anyone on LT that does NOT need more shelf space?

TPBM knows exactly what they will do with the books coming off the shelves (and not putting them in the recycling bin by the garage).

PS: Look at my home page and you will see how the books are packed in!!

Yes! Put them on those other shelves! There's one whole room in my new house that I hope to turn into a library. Whoo-hoo!

TPBM did the No Buy January thing. I got close but broke down and bought lunch one day.

Gee, I thought it was a lifestyle, not a choose-your-month thing.
I bought gas today. Last time I had to fill up the tank, it was still October. Much better than the two-or-three-times-a-day routine I was required to do on the BMW Tour.
It turns out that forty years or so ago, the least maximum distance a vehicle was required to be able to travel without requiring to fill the tank was 400 miles. Somewhere along the way (prior to 2013) that cruising range dropped to 300 miles -- which is pretty much what an all-electric car can do presently.

TPBM's next vehicle will be powered by ________.

Unicorns! That ride rainbows and shoot lasers out of their horns! I mean, why not?

TPBM had dinner with a king.

Why yes. Yes I have.
But it's been quite some time since I dined in at the BK Lounge.*
He's quite creepy looking.

TPBM rubbed elbows with ___________.
(ThiMs did, with Carol Channing, who was dining with George Burns at a dinner theater in NYC we happened to be at.

* That was the tongue-in-cheek reference for any Burger King establishment in NYC when I worked there (in the city, I mean) some 40+ years ago. Back then, they used real flames to broil the burgers. Now, they do it all chemically.

This is another example of the British and the Americans being divided by a common language. I have never mingled with the rich and famous but if I had, I would have rubbed shoulders, not elbows. Rubbing elbows makes me think of our apology for a Prime Minister who, throughout Covid, when not at a Downing Street party, has tended to dive at people he meets with his right elbow stuck out before him. Curiously, he does this even in situations where I would not have expected him to shake hands. ......Sorry, this is turning into something that belongs in Pro and Con!

TPBM has recently made an environmentally positive change in their habits.

I don't believe in coddling the environment. Sink or swim, baby!

TPBM is full of grace.

Why yes, I was born on a Monday. How did you know?

TPBM knows someone who is full of it.

>347 WholeHouseLibrary: Oh yeah! Lungs are about 83% water and most of the people I know have two of them.

TPBM recently had a bad case of the D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F.'s (dillygaffs) but they got over it.

Does it show? I really don't care. So, apparently no.

TPBM is double-jointed.

Nah, I gave up pot after college.

TPBM had been on a long strange trip.

No. Our forefathers taught us not to take anything that would make us weak or stupid.

Although, that BMW Tour was pretty damn long on some days, which caused my legs to weaken. And I still haven't recovered from it, which strangely, makes me feel very stupid. So, in that sense, yes.

TPBM hates indecisive answers.

Well, on the one hand, I do. My mum, for example, can never give a straight answer which is extremely frustrating. But, on the other hand, I am indecisive (aka a well-balanced Libran) so if I'm asked a question I have to prevaricate. So, I guess I don't know?

TPBM will answer for me.

Your Honor, my client has strong feelings regarding the matter. She pleads an unequivocal 'maybe' and is quite unanimous in this.

TPBM has lied to a judge.

>353 SomeGuyInVirginia: // Thanks! I didn’t know I could be so decisively indecisive. I’m quite impressed :0) //

I never have lied to a judge. I'd like to think it was because I was, at heart, an honest person. But honestly, it's probably because I've never had to lie to a judge.

>354 humouress: *bow*

TPBM is expecting snow.

Up to six inches Friday night. After two weeks of gardening weather. Gotta adjust my travel plans accordingly.

TPBM stops for hearses.

In my childhood (London) I remember people standing still and men removing their hats when a hearse passed by. Doesn’t happen now.

I definitely never cut hearses up, and rarely sound my horn as I overtake.

TPBM plans to be drawn to their rest in a horse-drawn hearse.

The location of my cemetery - yeah, I inherited a 1/3rd ownership of a 150+year-old family cemetery in east Texas when MrsHouseLibrary died - is in a considerably agrarian-enough location that, depending on how recently the road has been re-graded and how much it's rained in the previous couple of weeks, a horse-drawn hearse, or a seahorse-drawn hearse may be the only options available.
That presumes that a hearse is the only vehicle type available. I've buried both of my wife's parents and a brother-in-law there. The "hearse" was an open-bed Cadillac Eldorado that could only back up to the entrance gate. It's up to the immediate family of the deceased to take the dearly departed the rest of the distance - both horizontally and vertically - and take care of the landscaping duties. I did it solo.
My kids are going to have it easy. When I go, my ashes are going to be added to the less-than-half-full urn (currently sitting on the buffet in the dining room that as never been used to dine in), and they'll only need a post hole digger to get us down four feet - my requirement. The urn itself is made of corn starch, so with a good soaking rain, Karrell and I will be free of our confines in not too long. Her only request was that, as she's never gone anywhere without taking her poseable Gumby and Pokey characters, they accompany us. They are currently the urn's honor guard.
So, whereas a "hearse" is a possibility, the foot well of one of my son's cars will be the likely conveyance.

TPBM has a simpler plan.

Nope. I want all the trappings of a state funeral and a Requiem. I'm going to be sorely disappointed if I find my remains in the footwell of anybody's car!

TPBM recently had their palm read.

I am not a believer in cheiromancy or, indeed, any other form of fortune telling. If you looked at my palm you would see that I had Dupuytren's Contracture. Some claim it suggests that an ancient forbear was raped as well as pillaged by a Viking. Alternately the condition is blamed on alcoholic excess.
I couldn't possibly comment.

TPBM inherited something else.

I did. Twelve acres of tobacco in a floodplain, and a vague sense of disquiet. I blame the union army and a punitive taxation scheme.

TPBM gets it right the first time.

Of course I do! No, wait - there's that whole first marriage thing.

TPBM was the first one in their family to _______________.

Are you kidding? I'm southern! No southerner is going to admit to being the first in his family to do anything unless he's gone to the moon. I am the first blonde male in my family to make passable biscuits while not being under fire. Yes, that is my claim to fame.

TPBM has been featured on television or radio about something else.

Yes, but it was nothing interesting.

TPBM stood on the edge of eternity, blessed the Gods, and cast their soul out.

Where it has been washed clean in the river of eternity and returned refreshed to me.

TPBM is clinging on tightly.

//>364 SomeGuyInVirginia: you don't get off the hook that easily, Larry! Now we want to know why you were on tv/radio?//

White knuckling it, but I'm not sure why. I really have to give up the news.

//>366 Darth-Heather: it's boring I promise. The local newspaper interviewed me because my dad was overseas doing stuff.//

TPBM can eat lemons.

Sure. Lemon meringue pie is yummy! (Or is that the sugar?)

For some reason both my kids, when they were young, loved eating lemon wedges neat. I have a wonderful video of my younger son eating a lemon wedge, grimacing away and continuing to eat.

TPBM is cooking with gas.

And a good thing too! The power company is replacing poles on my street and I couldn’t use the electric kettle to make my tea this morning.

TPBM has narrowly escaped some similar tragedy.

Ermahgerd! NEWP! I moved to a Podunk country town because of the cheapness and the relative safely. Well, apparently me and every other cheap bastard in the DC metro area decided to do the same thing. So now my city is lousy with 'aesthetic upgrades'.

TPBM is fine with cracked sidewalks.

I'm in Texas, what's a sidewalk?
As to your #367, every day. I absolutely love lemons. I use it as a salad dressing. I buy a couple of dozen of them every time I go the store. I'll squeeze one into a 12-oz glass, fill the rest with some crushed ice and water, and drink it at night. As a result, my dentist has applied a clear resin to my teeth three times now because it's eaten away the enamel.
#368 - nope. I live in an all-electric neighborhood.
#369 - Does a tornado count? You may have seen it on the news last night.
The first contact was at the intersection of two highways a mile and a half from my house. Total havoc there, but I had sunny skies and there was so little wind that my wind chimes didn't make a sound. Then it hopped almost two miles to the northeast and landed in one of my son's neighborhood. He lost a board in his fence, and the electricity has yet to be restored. Lots of houses without roofs or walls, though. It then disappeared, and suddenly hit the ground 12 miles away at the Kalahari Resorts. Mostly, it rearranged the cars in the parking lot with the speed and deftness of a street-corner huckster going through his Three Card Monte routine. Then out by my in-law's farm, and each of the ensuing towns heading northeast.

TPBM had a blissfully uneventful day.

Well, I did not. I tune into the Oscars because I think at the most it's going to be dull but it will chill the time. Then I see a truly beloved personal childhood hero walk up in front of 11 billion people and slap a comic. I am not okay with that.

TPBM Will tell us about a really great comic novel they've read recently. I just finished Will Thurber's Owl in the The Attic. Not my favorite of his but still very funny and well worth reading.

Nobody?
I didn't reply until now because I'm still reading the first book where I've actually gotten beyond page 10 - in over 5 years. My mind's been elsewhere. If you happen to find it, could you sometime send it back? I'll buy the ticket.
So, I'm three chapters into Letters from the Earth by Mark Twain. It was one of the books originally in the collection that belonged to WholeHouseFather-in-Law, and Karrell won it in the lottery of contested inheritance. One of her sisters acquired a signed edition of a Mark Twain novel (not sure of its name.) Alas.
Regardless, LftE is sarcasm at its finest.

TPBM thinks they may have actually seen my mind, if only briefly.

Dunno, is it a good one? I might hang on to it, should I come across it.

TPBM went maskless (legally) in public recently.

>373 WholeHouseLibrary: I'm not sure. People often remark being out of their mind, so I got the impression that minds must be larger than persons. But the mind I saw was quite small. Could you specify how large a mind we should be looking for?

>374 humouress: Sure. I go maskless all the time. (I'm in Denmark, so Covid-restrictions are currently a thing of the past.

TPBM is often confused, but never small-minded.

I'm in the middle of a course on Physics, so definitely confused. My mind feels like its gotten bigger but I expect its just swelling from the pressure of all those calculations.

TPBM has a generous spirit.

>372 SomeGuyInVirginia: Will? Brother of James maybe? :-)

I’ve been thinking about this - I’d really like to think so but I suppose you’ll have to ask an independent third party.

TPBM ploughs her / his own furrow.

Daughter owns the tiller and won’t let me touch it. I’m a no-till proponent anyway. I do dig my own holes.

TPBM has buried their treasure. And made a map.

The problem is that I don't know what safe place I put the map in.

TPBM will be riding today.

I wish! It's as beautiful outside today as a Disney film set. Sometime this summer, I mean I do live in freakin' Virginia horse country!

TPBM collect treasure maps.

Never come across one. Just looked on Google and there is a surprisingly large choice ranging from £2.99 to £143.00. It is interesting that in almost every example the path to the treasure is the most indirect way possible.

TPBM takes short cuts.

Only if I'm in a hurry. Otherwise, I tend to think of the journey as equally important as the destination.

TPBM is going somewhere in life.

Given my views on an after-life, or rather the absence thereof, there is no contest between journey and destination. I ain’t goin’ nowhere. I do hope there is more of the journey though.

TPBM is confident that we will all be reunited on that new and sunlit shore.

I think I hope that when mankind made music, the universe decided to give us some kind of break.

TPBM would be happy with eternal rest.

Me! That's me! I take great comfort with the idea that when I'm gone, my ashes will be added to the same biodegradable urn in which MrsHouseLibrary currently occupies about half. Said urn will then be buried beneath our headstone in her family's cemetery (of which I am now one third owner.) There, we will snuggle together until the Sun spends the last of its nuclear fuel and explodes, enveloping the three innermost planets and making us star stuff once again.
That's the plan. The last sentence is a certainty. If nothing prior to that actually happens, I won't know or care.
It seems it's going to be a while before I die, though. I'm not in any hurry, but I'm not at all afraid of it either.

TPBM ain't afraid of no ghosts.

Well, there's a short answer and a long answer. The short answer is, 'yes'. The long answer is, 'yyeeeeeeesssss!'. I mean, why not? If you're going to be afraid of something, be afraid of ghosts. Putin may very well drop a nuke in Ukraine but it's highly unlikely that you'll ever see a ghost.

//>386 WholeHouseLibrary: That's really beautiful, Mike.

TPBM regularly consults a psychic.

To be honest I've never felt the need. I have checked on-line for local services - just in case, you know? - and there is one possibility within 3 miles. She lives just next to the local cemetery and very close to the sewage works. She surely must get a lot of interference from the former. She provides a photo and looks very like my mental image of Madame Arcati. I'll keep her in mind.

TPBM has visited a haunted house

I would have to suspend a whole lot of disbelief to say that I have. With that as my disclaimer, I have to say the one in Disney World was spectacular!
In my late teens in New Jersey, "haunted houses" would spring up in nearby towns in the weeks leading up to Halloween. Lots of screaming and gory-looking stuff, gallons of red "blood" all over the place, actors behaving menacingly, et cetera. It was all fun, until the last room.
Several dozen of us at a time had to sit on the floor and watch a ten-minute film (as video wouldn't be available for almost another thirty years,) about the need for us to find our personal savior, ad nausium. Really -- the most frightening room in the whole haunted house. Had there been any indication that this event was organized and being run by an evangelical church, I would have refused to go.
Beyond that, I've been in a few places -- hotels and people's homes -- where ghosts and the like were claimed to be -- I even spent the night in a few of them -- but bupkis. I've had much scarier nights dealing with my first wife, ThiMs.

TPBM can dispel (or verify - your choice) a rumor.

Look, the kids have been telling everyone that I'm short (now that even my 13 year old has overtaken me). The fact is that I'm 5 foot and a half (or, in metric, 1m 53).

TPBM has recently taken up a new, satisfying (or spectacularly unsatisfying) project.

im like- 16 yrs

A bit of a mixed bag. I'm taking a Google certificate course in project management and I was actually enjoying everything until I got to the module on Agile management, which apparently Google approaches with the knee-walking humility of the true believer. I was still buzzing along merrily until the instructor called the Agile Manifesto, a loose conglomeration of rules thought up by stoners and anarchists and usually my favorite kinds of people, called the agile manifesto the 'ultimate source of truth'. At which point I actually heard and felt my interest in the subject skid and crash into a cement wall.

TPBM is possessed of a mind broader than mine.

>392 SomeGuyInVirginia: That sounds horrible

I couldn’t cope with that! I can’t imagine what an Agile Manifesto might be. I know that I am too old and should just drift along quIetly to the end.

TPBM feels bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

>393 _luh_Baddie_bae: Welcome! We don’t get many young people here. When you post you can just comment as you have done but you have the right if not the obligation to carry things onward by responding to the lead of the person above you (TPBM is ‘the person below me’) and send the conversation any whichway you want.

You're joking, right? I made a second pot of coffee about two hours ago, and I still feel like a brown bear in February.

TPBM knows of a cure for the Summertime Blues.

Yes! But it requires the constitution of a 17-year-old and a lot of regulated substances. Or, strangely enough, confirmed reservations to a really hip restaurant. But I digress.

TPBM never drinks caffeine after noon.

>394 abbottthomas: Thanks for the welcome! and thanks for the info!

Hello, I don't think we've met before. I drink caffeine in the mornings, and usually in the afternoons, and at least one or two cups at dinner. This may be why I have adopted the phrase, "I'll sleep when I'm dead."

>394 abbottthomas: My mom, the most grounded and centered person I've ever known in my life, swore that a house that we lived in when I was a child in Georgia was haunted. Something about a candle being lighted, but until the day she died this practical, utterly sensible woman swore that that joint was haunted. So even if I can't believe in the divine, I hope for the weird as some kind of baseline.

TPBM has guessed the winning lottery numbers.

I got two out of seven right last week and won £2.30 - 20p less than my stake. It’s my little contribution to the redistribution of wealth.

Have you thought what it would mean to spend eternity lighting a candle just to spread unease? You might come to wish for one of Hieronymus Bosch’s demons to poke you with its pitchfork just for a change.

TPBM can think of something agreeable to do to pass eternity.

Yes indeed. It's called "the ~2600 books on my e-reader." Maybe not eternity, but it's a start.

TPBM plans to visit their local garden center soon.

Uh. I’m about done with my spring purchases. I’ve been concentrating on two things:
1. Planting my slopes with anything except grass.
2. Adding pollinator friendly species.

As a result, I have bees everywhere this spring. Last year they just weren’t around.

TPBM has seen bees knees.