One suspects one is growing absent-minded -- or being perceived as growing absent-minded -- when one's spouse stands at the cupboard with a bag of Xmas candy in her hand, and says she is hiding it from me so that I don't eat it all right away. I'd prove her wrong, except I no longer recall which cupboard that was.
@GrahamLewis Perhaps the "absent-mindedness" is a subconscious trick from your mind to not eat the candy.
Squirrels will do that, too, pretending to hide nuts in one "cupboard" when they know the other squirrels are watching. Then when the other squirrels rush the spot, the hide the nuts in the real "cupboard." My advice would be to stay vigilant. That's the way of the squirrel.
If this was taking place in The Simpsons and Marge was hiding candy from Homer, Homer would find it and his brain would say "Eat-the-candy-eat-the-candy-eat-the-candy-eat-the-candy..." Of course, real life isn't always like cartoons.
Helen Keller nearly got run over by a frickin train at age 9. She only survived because Mildred gave advanced warnings and Helen was slipped through the tracks of the trestle bridge and had to hang on to a support beam for dear life while the train thundered over her head. And Helen was blind and deaf. Not knowing if her teacher and her sister (cousin?) had survived. She’s hanging on a support beam, over a giant chasm. Meaning Anne would’ve had to rapidly sign to her the situation, plan and squeeze her through the cracks. Onto a beam of wood. With a frickin train barreling at them. Over a chasm, I must stress again. That they barely survived through because Mildred saw it coming early enough. And Helen devoted maybe two paragraphs of it in her memoir. Christ… I can’t even begin to… Wow. Source: https://www.holloway.com/g/helen-keller-the-story-of-my-life/sections/chapter-xi?login_success=1 —— “I see the train!” cried Mildred, and in another minute it would have been upon us had we not climbed down on the crossbraces while it rushed over our heads. I felt the hot breath from the engine on my face, and the smoke and ashes almost choked us. As the train rumbled by, the trestle shook and swayed until I thought we should be dashed to the chasm below. With the utmost difficulty we regained the track. Long after dark we reached home and found the cottage empty; the family were all out hunting for us. ——
That cybertruck that detonated in Las Vegas came from my neighborhood. I used to drive by the guy at the same time each day, always a block away from where the news says the truck was rented, so I know it was the same one. I can't imagine it being anyone else. There are only a few of those around here and they stand out. There are three that I spot, and I know the area each frequents. Well, one belongs to a plumber and it goes all over, but I usually spot it at a common overpass. This is the truck I would spot most often. I would drive by it and always think "There's Elon!", just amusing myself with the idea that the guy drives his own truck around and is coming home from work just like me. If they're looking for a source for the explosives, I would try Cheyenne. That's the closest place to here I know of that sells fireworks year round. I've made the drive there in 2 1/2 hours. It's not that far . . . That's not a normal trip time, haha. I don't know how I did it, really. It was early in the morning, zero traffic. That's the last time I'll see that truck. I'll notice its absence.
Wow. All I've heard in the news here about that is one headline: "suspected terrorist incident". Every news service will doubtless have its own slant. Some are saying "possible terrorist", others are saying "patriot who loved Trump". I don't want to go into that. I'd only wish to express my sorrow that such things happen, and offer my condolences to the families of those who were injured (last I heard, there were seven injuries - I haven't heard of any fatalities, which is a blessing). Here's wishing for their swift recovery. I'd like to offer my condolences to the family of the driver, too. I don't know why he did it, but he was a human being like me and had a family that surely loved him. And now they'll surely be surrounded by the media, which is the last thing they need in their time of grief. Police inquiries and other formalities can't be avoided, obviously. But as for the nosey-parkers in the media: show some decency and let the family grieve. Alone. They're not going anywhere. They'll talk to you when they're ready.
Oh, the irony. "I'd be safe and warm/If I was in L.A." From California Dreamin' by the Mamas and Papas. Warm, yes. Safe? Doubtful.
A 3.8 earthquake off the coast of Maine just shook my desk, bookshelves, and wipe boards adorning my office walls. I'm on the second floor but nobody on the first floor felt it. They thought I was crazy but are now eating crow. This is only the second quake I've felt in 40+ years so it's a real rarity in my area. I'm sure @Iain Aschendale and our other Pacific Rim friends have more dramatic stories. Richter is logarithmic, right? So a 7 is a thousand times stronger than the 4 I just felt?
Something like that, log never made sense to me. Edit: This is an official publication of the Japan Meteorological Agency (yes, earthquakes and tsunamis officially classify as a form of weather here. Some agency needs to cover it) showing the intensity of earthquakes on the shindo seismic intensity scale. Basically it takes all of that logarithmic voodoo, chucks it out the window, and tells you what you feel during a quake. Much, much easier to undestand and even estimate with decent accuracy. See that picture under 5 upper of the fallen cinderblock wall? In 2018 there was a lower 6 quake in Osaka that toppled an unreinforced (and illegally erected) cinderblock wall near a school, killing a nine-year-old girl who was on her way to classes. My uni suffered moderate damage, including some broken windows, and was mostly closed for a week.
The Richter scale isn't really used anymore. It's usually reported on the MMS (Moment Magnitude Scale), but yeah, it's something like that. But Japanese earthquakes might be reported using the Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale, which is different to the other ones... I prefer the scale that goes from Meh to Oh, Shit.
Glad we don't have to mess with that here. We're kind of blessed in the northeast US, weather wise. We get the snow, cold, heat, and hurricanes, but all of those things get got much worse in other locales.
At breakfast this morning, I asked my wife if I didn't sort of remind her of my old black leather jacket, a bit gray and worn around the edges but still always in style. I don't know if I've ever before seen someone do a spit take with hot coffee.
I had a pretty good lunch. I bought this awesome rye sourdough, and made a toasted tomato sandwich with Canadian bacon (do any of you eat peameal?) and provolone cheese. My niece helped. She fried the bacon. She almost got a job in Washington state that would have started next week but that fell through, so she is here with me for a while. Then for supper I had 4 cookies - two chocolate chip and two snicker doodles. I don't feel too bad about it since it's been months since I had a cookie.
Alas, I am on a diet, so I'm not allowed bacon or cheese (or sugary cookies). :-\ I haven't had cheese in years, and I don't miss it. Ham and/or beef, on the other hand ... sigh. After a couple of years without those, I gave up and decided to have ham or beef for 3 days a week. I'm not exactly overweight, but I'm only a few kilos below my max weight (I'm 152 pounds and my max is 159), so I don't want to go there again. Maybe I should give up processed meat, but without it, I can only eat peanut butter sandwiches (I hate other spreads other than mayo or mustard), and there are only so many ways you can make a PB sandwich interesting. They are dull, dull, dull. Yes, I've tried avocado on toast and hated it. I've made a few omelets, but they're dull. The only way to make omelets interesting is to fry a sausage inside, and sausages are the most fattening food you can eat. Eat, drink, and have berries, for today we diet ... groan. Making a diet interesting is hard. :-\
Never heard of it Louanne so I had to go look it up. Sounds interesting and they say "sold mainly in Ontario." Wish I had tried it when I was in that region last year. Me too. Constantly. Twenty years ago I weighed 115 pounds which was about the time I quit smoking. It's been a constant battle since then to keep the weight off. (But rather be heavy than stink like smoke.) I'm 5"6" and currently at 145 pounds and trying to get under 140 and hopefully stay there. Once I accepted the fact I would never be 115 pounds again and gave away all my skinny clothes, I found I could be happy with 139 (like that's a whole lot different than 140 ) That's not too bad for my height and most of my current clothes fit at that weight. I do a modified keto (no more than 50 grams of carbs a day) and feel I can keep up with that if I exercise as well.
Alas! Daisy Lee, I'm only an inch or so taller (I think?), but 7 pounds heavier. *thinks* I don't get it. I eat (fairly) healthy (no more than one takeout meal per fortnight and no more than one meat portion per day), and I exercise daily. Granted, I work at home 3 days a week, so I can't go for walks on those days. But on other days, I go for long walks, and on one or two days per week, I walk more than 4 km (2.5 miles). So, what am I doing wrong? Ah, well. It is what it is. *shrug*
My niece has really impressed upon me the importance of having protein everyday. Overall, I do eat better when she is here. The cookies were an aberration! Oh dear, I love a good avocado toast. I like to make a bean stew in tomatoes with a lot of vegetables. It's vegan, and delicious.
