Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

[raison de arizona]

[AndyinPA]

I cleared that kind of thing, masculine, out early, but I've got lots more, after nearly a year.

[sugar magnolia]

If there's a local dental school you might ask them if they have any use for the dentures. Maybe not a dental school but a dental prosthetic company?

[Slim Cognito]

I had a hard time tossing hubs dentures, but I took a deep breath and did it.

[bill_g]

If there's a local dental school you might ask them if they have any use for the dentures. Maybe not a dental school but a dental prosthetic company?

We do have a dental college here up at OHSU. I'll ask. Good idea. Thank you so much. (big hug)

[AndyinPA]

We gave my husband's used hearing aids back to Costco. They were happy to have them.

[bill_g]

Well ratz! It's ant season again. I left a dish on the kitchen counter last night, and the ants found it. Time to break out the Terro Traps, and get some new ones. Vacuum good. Wipe the cupboards out. Clean up around the cat food bowls. Try to get ahead of them.

Met with the lawyer yesterday. Signed, witnessed, and notarized my will and my DPOA. I can check that box now. Gave her one of the teeshirts I had made with Mrs' image printed on it. Now she can say "done that, got the teeshirt to prove it".

Which also brings up: Teeshirts - they're here! All 32 of them including the special order triple X ones the big boys in spud miner country require. They arrived well ahead of our famdamnly gathering at the end of March. I did a preview of them with boy child #2 and DIL when they returned the Corolla. They look great.

I've billed out at least fifteen hours a week for the last three weeks. It keeps me distracted, and satisfies the need to be around people. I'm doing the wierd estoteric stuff the other guys were never fond of. That's fine. I'll take the Wizard's Work. I offered my old office back. They said No. It's still mine. But, I've made it general knowledge to the other guys if there is something in there they need, just let me know by email you're "borrowing" it.

It's coming up on lawn and yard care season. I treated myself to a new Toro push mower. Easy start. Bigger wheels making it easier to shove around. Much quieter. I'm not keen on the blade. It doesn't mulch as finely as my old one. I may it swap it soon.

Time for my annual physical too. Kaiser keeps sending me remind-o-grams by voicemail, email, and text now. Gotta git 'er dun. My prescriptions are going to expire.

Still haven't quit smoking, but I am down to half a pack these days. I can feel the difference. Gotta git it to zero though. I do not want to be one of those guys dragging an oxygen bottle around in ten years.

I'm still toying with the idea of visiting Newfound land this year. My passport expired. Have to get that accomplished first. Haven't decided if a week is enough, or a month. The famdamnly are scratching their head wondering why I think Newfoundland is the place to be, but no one has said flat out it's an absurd idea. One of my brother's thinks it's great, and is considering tagging along. It's tempting.

Okay. Oward with the day.

[BeastofBourbon]

So, Bill, why is Newfoundland the place to be?

[bill_g]

No reason. It came as a whim. It floated to the front of the brainskull and got stuck there. It keeps teasing me. Let's go meet some Newfies!!! Maybe go fishing where it's cold and wet all year round, the wind gets sideways, and only crazy people think it's a destination. It's like Portland only colder.

Mrs and I couldn't travel at all the last two years because of her pain, and she wasn't a happy traveler in the years prior either. I've never wanted to visit Disneyland. Ever. But, the polar opposite places fascinate me. Always have. Let's go visit the desert and howl at the moon. See how many coyotes we can get to respond!!! Let's go to the smallest, shittiest looking fishing town on the coast, spend a night, and hang out with the townies. Who's with me?!? Let's go up into the mountains, chop some wood, build a fire, hang out, and drink beer. Go nekkid bathing in a stream!!!

None of those places met her fancy. Roughing it meant renting a kichenette and cooking our own meals. I took her with me on business trips to Boston and ATL, but she wouldn't go to the coast without reservations at a Best Western or similar. And no country music bars. She would head for the door as soon as Merle started playing on the jukebox.

I can go where I want now. And Newfie sounds fine to me.

[pipistrelle]

Still haven't quit smoking, but I am down to half a pack these days. I can feel the difference. Gotta git it to zero though. I do not want to be one of those guys dragging an oxygen bottle around in ten years.

My dad quit when he started having heart attacks and strokes and was diagnosed with diabetes. When he was around a smoker, he'd "bum" one or two, but quit doing even that. He lost the hacking cough we thought was going to kill him (he had it since at least his 40s), which is one reason I never started. He regretted not trying to quit sooner, but smoking is what a lot of his generation did.

Keep at it. I don't think you'll be sorry.

(As a side note, I'm sorry to see both of Obama's girls have taken up smoking. It's something I don't see a lot of the younger generations doing. Vaping, yes, but not smoking.)

[AndyinPA]

Newfoundland is a wonderful idea! I love that part of the world. We went to the Bay of Fundy and fulfilled one of my husband's life-long dreams.

I was lucky. Hubby loved to travel, and we both loved train travel as well. I'm going to one of the places that was nearly at the top of his bucket list in June, Svalbard, a very remote Norwegian archipelago, at the top of the world. There are more polar bears than people. I'm tempted to take a teeny, tiny piece of his ashes along--he wanted so badly to go there.

[Frater I*I]

(As a side note, I'm sorry to see both of Obama's girls have taken up smoking. It's something I don't see a lot of the younger generations doing. Vaping, yes, but not smoking.)

I smoke because I don't trust air I can't see and for the minty clean breath it gives me....





I'll see myself out

[Reddog]

(As a side note, I'm sorry to see both of Obama's girls have taken up smoking. It's something I don't see a lot of the younger generations doing. Vaping, yes, but not smoking.)

I smoke because I don't trust air I can't see and for the minty clean breath it gives me....





I'll see myself out

IIRC Obama was a smoker. I don’t know when, or if, he quit. It is a shame that his daughters have taken it up.
As for myself, I thought I was the only smoker on here. Neither of my children smoke. I always said “I set a good, bad example”
I quit for 4 years after my daughter was born, and smoked in the house since then.

[pipistrelle]

IIRC Obama was a smoker. I don’t know when, or if, he quit. It is a shame that his daughters have taken it up.
As for myself, I thought I was the only smoker on here. Neither of my children smoke. I always said “I set a good, bad example”
I quit for 4 years after my daughter was born, and smoked in the house since then.

From Essence circa 2020-this is the whole article:

President Obama reveals that he quit smoking because he’s afraid of First Lady Michelle Obama. During a recent conversation with United Nations General Assembly attendee Maina Kiai, the president joked with the UN official saying, “I haven’t had a cigarette in probably six years… that’s because I’m scared of my wife.” In 2009, Obama admitted that despite efforts to fully quit, he still struggled with his smoking habit. “I’ve said before that as a former smoker I constantly struggle with it,” he explained. “Have I fallen off the wagon sometimes? Yes. Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No.” The president also told People that reports of him being a smoker were always made into a bigger issue than it really was. “That was always a little over-hyped,” he said. “You know, I’d sneak maybe three, four cigarettes a day, then I could go three or four days without one.” The president finally broke the habit in 2011 and although he says it’s his wife who whipped him into shape, Mrs. Obama credits their daughters as the main motivation behind his quitting. “I know that his ability to ultimately kick the habit was because of the girls, because they’re at the age now where you can’t hide.” she said. “I think that he didn’t want to look his girls in the eye and tell them that they shouldn’t be doing something that he was still doing.”

[Reddog]

Oops ETA

I quit for 4 years after my daughter was born, and haven’t smoked in the house since then.

[bill_g]

I hit to milestones this week, and didn't even know they were milestones to reach until I got there. Surprise!

Milestone 1: I went three days without talking to a person. I talked to the cat. I talked to myself. I talked to the computer, the TV, and even the radio. But, no face to face time, and not even phone time. Whoa! I cannot remember a time that has happened to me. The closest I've gotten is working at a remote site for a day by myself. I still had Mrs at home before and after the trip. I've had impersonal days like traveling by air where I didn't really interact with people. I kept to myself with only the briefest conversations possible (do you want fries with that? etc ...). I simply don't recall ever not talking to anyone for a couple days.

And weirdly enough, as soon as I realized that, an email came in, and I was on the scent of a problem at one of my legacy customers. People drought over.

Milestone 2: Seeing my parents naked. Not really, but close. During the quiet time this week I started going through some of my own accumulated stuff like all those tubs and boxes of my parents belongings. You know - those boxes you have never opened since the funerals. They've been in the closet all this time. Let's dig them out, and start going through them. Bingo! Memory Treasure Central. One tub was nothing but photos and slides. Envelopes, cigar boxes, paper sacks, and albums. Stuffed full. And then I came across a square well creased brown paper bag barely a quarter inch thick. In it were BW pictures of Mom sexy posing for Dad back in 1951. None of Dad except an attempt at a selfie with both of them in the frame. Kind of.

Who knew about these besides Mom and Dad? We will never know.

[AndyinPA]

I like talking to myself. I think I'm a good conversationalist. My son asked me recently if I don't ever have any internal dialogues.

Came across some of my mom and dad's love letters when he was in the service, but I didn't get very far. It seemed way too personal to me to read them. My husband dug our old love letters out of the attic a few months before he died and had re-read all of them. I don't even know if I can read those again, and I know I don't want the kids doing that. One of these days, the shredder.

[bill_g]

I like talking to myself. I think I'm a good conversationalist. My son asked me recently if I don't ever have any internal dialogues.

Came across some of my mom and dad's love letters when he was in the service, but I didn't get very far. It seemed way too personal to me to read them. My husband dug our old love letters out of the attic a few months before he died and had re-read all of them. I don't even know if I can read those again, and I know I don't want the kids doing that. One of these days, the shredder.

I did throw out the entire carton of Mom's letters. Back in those days people wrote letters to each other, and Mom had a lot of people she cooresponded with regularly. It was a very heavy box, unsorted, and clearly made a good mouse home at least once in the past decade. Still being in a nitrile exam glove rich environment, I donned the PPE before digging too deeply into it. Like you, I didn't read very many before deciding their fate.

I did find a pack of French playing cards though. They were a gift apparently from my mother to hers. Year unknown. Intact, unblemished, and complete. They were a modern reproduction of Jeu de cartes equestre (equestrian card game) Louie XIV edition circa 1672. It features drawings of Greek and Roman nobility on horseback. The artistic quality was typical of the period - crude and unlifelike. It took me a moment to figure out the R cards are Kings, D cards are the Queens, and V are the Jacks. The Aces were all marked as 1 displaying mythical beasts like unicorns, griffins, and flying stags. The paper stock is very thick making the cards hard to shuffle. The coating is still good, and the cards are almost difficult to handle. I played a couple rounds of Solitaire, and then put them away as a keepsake since I've played cards with both these women at one point or another in my life.

[RTH10260]

I hit to milestones this week, and didn't even know they were milestones to reach until I got there. Surprise!

Milestone 1: I went three days without talking to a person. I talked to the cat. I talked to myself. I talked to the computer, the TV, and even the radio.

You need a dog! One that will always want to have the last word!

► Show Spoiler

[Rolodex]

For Christmas I bought myself a NOK Box set up (they have several levels of sets; I just got the basic paperwork since I already had all the office supplies). {NOKBOX is a commercial name, but NOK=Next of Kin}

I'm pretty organized, but I don't really have everything, every piece of info all in one place. It's slow, but I started working on it last week. I'm going to keep the files/paperwork I need to access (insurance documents, etc) in my file cabinet where I'm accustomed to looking, but I'm making copies to put in the central box. The kit does include directions to explain where things like old photos/documents/keepsakes are, like Bill's tub. It seems pretty complete. The best thing so far has been that it comes with a pouch to place labeled keys in. I don't have many keys (I barely use any any more) but I know my kids would never find the key to the safety deposit box. *I* know it's at the bottom of my wooden "in box" under a pile of papers, but no one else does. LOL

Anyway, it's tedious, but I know so much of our family "business" in my head and I need to document all that for the kids (we're going some time, that's a given) so I can be assured they'll know what to do with everything and it won't bee too complicated. It's complicated enough without having to just find things.

[AndyinPA]

Brings back memories. We had a husky once.

She taught me, don't fall in love with a dog, until you've read all about their personalities and needs!

Great dog, though.

[bill_g]

I hit to milestones this week, and didn't even know they were milestones to reach until I got there. Surprise!

Milestone 1: I went three days without talking to a person. I talked to the cat. I talked to myself. I talked to the computer, the TV, and even the radio.

You need a dog! One that will always want to have the last word!

► Show Spoiler

Oh, no thank you. I have dogs on all sides of me. I can get all the dog talk I want. It's an utter dog talk cornucopia here. Cola, a blue and green eyed shepherd mix, is the sweetest. Territorial and protective, quietly and with determination challenging anyone that approaches his house. Rarely takes a step beyond their yard. Ellie is a Terrier Terror - highly protective and barks at the slightest provocation. An absolute pain in the derrier. And when it gets free, will run for blocks. Teacup is a tiny red Pom no bigger than a teacup. All hair and no body. A kilogram if that much. A glutton for loving attention. And then there is Chester the Basset Hound. Another sweet animal, but goddamnit don't get him going.

[AndyinPA]

[bill_g]

For Christmas I bought myself a NOK Box set up (they have several levels of sets; I just got the basic paperwork since I already had all the office supplies). {NOKBOX is a commercial name, but NOK=Next of Kin}

A NOK box. Not a bad idea.

Thank you!

[bill_g]

Brings back memories. We had a husky once.

She taught me, don't fall in love with a dog, until you've read all about their personalities and needs!

Great dog, though.

Well, they are four legged people ...