Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 31: Calmly through the day

[MissConductUS]

I've started a new one. Please join us and share the boring and mundane things happening in your world. It will be calming for all.

Here is a link to the prior thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5077459-come-and-tell-me-your-dull-and-unexciting-news-30-calmly-through-the-day

Welcome to all regulars, lurkers, and new contributors! Everyone is welcome to join.

We get a good few bats here zipping around the floodlights that are on until 10pm at the local all weather field. Late night swim at the local outdoor pool means you can see lots of bats while you swim too, as the pool is floodlit. They probably live in attics or belfries or maybe under one of the local overpasses.

I spent Friday moving stuff out of my three season porch to make room for a pair of movers to get a couch, chest of drawers, bedside locker, and armchair into the apartment up the back stairs. I also moved the kitchen table and chairs out of the way. Then the movers brought everything up the front stairs. They did such a good job, I'm going to hire them to bring my old couch downstairs if I decide to get rid of it. DD and I are going to move the TV to another spot in the sitting room.

Spent Saturday afternoon and evening suffering from allergies. We had a high mould count. I lay on the new couch with a damp washcloth over my face. It's extremely comfortable.

Before the allergies kicked in, I went to the Farmers' Market and bought some tomatoes and garlic. I'm hoping the tomato seeds and the garlic will grow. The wind changed overnight and I can open my eyes and breathe through my nose again - I made it to Mass, which wasn't looking very likely yesterday evening.

They restocked the bulk section at my local Whole Foods, so I bought almost all three pounds of their puy lentils. There will be lentil soup for dinner when we finish the chili I made tonight. I am so ready for cooler weather. The squirrels have been busy burying nuts in all my deck plants. I look forward to a bumper crop of seedlings in the pots in my south facing windows next spring.

havoc condolences on your loss. I hope it was a comfort to you and your mum to attend the funeral via Zoom.

Deathray it took me four years of trial and error to find my way to a mall half an hour away in the car when I first moved here, back in the days of paper maps. Even now, I am never sure I'll be able to get home after dropping people off to the airport - there's a point where you have to be in the right lane or you're committed to going the very long way round, and the times I've tried taking an exit from the scenic route I've ended up going in the wrong direction too.

Lovely beach and heron photos! I normally only see squirrels and rabbits when I go out for a walk, plus the ever increasing numbers of chipmunks, and I've seen a hawk perching in the back yard tree. This is the traditional last weekend the local beaches will be open for swimming and manned by lifeguards, and the localmpools have their last hurrah too. It's Labor Day tomorrow.

Thanks, Math and everyone re the funeral. It's such a reminder of the passage of time. The end of an era in a branch of the family tree.

Math, i would not be swimming if bats were flitting around overhead. Not.

Stopped by a Japanese fest late afternoon. It was very meh. Don't advertise being a family friendly event but disallow strollers inside the events/marketplace building... and that was discovered after paying $10 entry. So, after buying Havoc $8 french fries to snack on we headed to a park not too far away. It has a great playground with tonnes of families and is a very multicultural area. Havoc soon found a few kids to run around with and baby and I were kept very entertained by them. Last stop was to watch planes take off for a bit and the first one that flew over us was huge and quite low. It's quite fun. There were a lot of mozzies and moths out, so didn't stay long and it was late anyway.

Labour Day tomorrow! Where has summer gone????

I have drawers/pots of doom everywhere, you never know when you may need that random button, battery, screw etc

@havoc I buy nuts for baking either ground or chopped. I really can’t be bothered with the faff of doing it myself and it means I can add a variety to things like brownies. If you were closer I would be taking you at your word and asking for a coffee and brownie mid afternoon.

@Penguinsa thatched roof animals? Not seen them, though a local heritage round house has a deer with full antlers over door, but think it was made from willow. Funeral sounds perfect, no one needs a long drawn out affair and the informal part that follows is as important for the close family.

@MissConductUS I was very much tongue in cheek when I said I’d be chasing my son out the door. It will be very odd to have an empty nest one day. I guess you just have to console yourself with the fact you have done a good job if your baby birds can fledge and fly away.

@Deathraystare I need an admin assistant to tell me what happening when and deal with all the life admin. Life would be so much easier and none of my balls would get dropped. Imagine being presented with your morning coffee and a detailed run down of your day each morning.

On the subject of bats, I have always seen them if I walk outside at dusk. When younger I could hear their sonar but not anymore. As a child one flew into my bedroom and couldn’t get out. I scooped him up and popped him out. He was smaller than my palm, very soft, silky and cute. The ones at our local zoo are about two foot across though, don’t know about the different types.

Oh my god, Dandy...your bat story has given me the creeps! 😂 I am absolutely floored you touched it with bare hands. 🫣
I have a large bag of walnut halves in my freezer. I like each half broken into 4 pieces. Weird? 🤔
Yes, you would definitely be welcome to pop by. I think I'll make pancakes in the morning. 😊

When I was little, maybe 4, I remember we didn't lock our back door (maybe not even the front), and my bff's mum, they were next door neighbours, would come by for coffee most mornings. It was knock knock and just enter.

Lovely heron picture, Lemons. I haven't seen any herons at the reservoir since last spring.

Havoc, my MIL's funeral wasn't on Zoom, but they did record the graveside bit and upload it for people who couldn't come. She asked for a Quaker-style service, where the people who knew her sat in a circle and talked about her life. It was lovely. I may do the same.

Math, I get mold allergies, too, but they don't start until the leaves fall and start to rot. Do you have mold in your apartment building?

Penguinsa, I looked at that website. The gardens look fabulous. It must cost a fortune to run a place like that. Do they receive money from the government or is just supported by ticket sales?

Dandy, DS has been looking at apartments in the Boston area on line. They are very expensive. We may have to help him with the rent for a year or two to get a decent place. I have to talk to DH about that.

The clean-out continues. Yesterday, DH went through more of his clothes and all of the coats hanging in the front hall closet and the laundry room. He came up with two large bin bags to throw out and one bin bag for the church clothing fest.

In laundry news, I was washing the sheets yesterday and decided to try the pillow cycle on the new Miele. It runs for an hour and 28 minutes, is very gentle, and uses hot water to kill the dust mites. It did a very good job, and the pillows are now much fluffier. It also gave us a message on the screen that the detergent cartridge is almost empty. DH has seen a YouTube video on how to change them, so we'll give that a go later today.

It's labor day here in the US, so we both have the day off.

@mathanxiety

I love Bats! Someone posts on youtube or face book cannot remember which and the bats are very photogenic!

MissC it's an old building so there's likely a bit of mould somewhere. Saturday's mould was everywhere outdoors after our spell of heat and extreme humidity followed by the storms we had. Sunday's air was refreshingly dry. I get the leaf thing too - it's the only drawback of the autumn imo.
Enjoy your day off! I'm also sorting through stuff and making my three season porch much more efficient as a storage place. I have filled three bags for Goodwill but they're closed today, so I'll have to take them tomorrow. The new chest of drawers will easily hold what's left of my clothes, and I'll keep the closet racks for DD's mountains of clothes as she graduates in December and plans to return unless she has a job offer elsewhere. If your DS is looking for accommodation in the Boston area, I recommend Jamaica Plain ; )

Holding a bat is one thing I'd like to do, DandyDandylion, but they carry rabies here so it's not going to happen.

Sorry the Japanese fest wasn't a thought-through event, havoc, but you seem to have salvaged some fun out of the evening all the same.

Dandy?

Yes please Havoc, I’ll hop on a plane and be right with you!

When I held that bat I was a naive child who hadn’t heard of rabies but it didn’t bite me and was just glad to be released. Nowadays I’d be wearing a full hazmat suit 🤣

We get bats in the garden sometimes, usually at dusk. Whizz around like mad they do. We live fairly rurally (about 10 mins from nearest town) so quite a lot of wildlife. Had a fox saunter through the garden few weeks back. We do have quite a few houses around us though so no idea where he came from or where he was on his way to either.

Had a visit from my little brother today, brothers are twins and 45 years old but he’s the youngest one (by a whole 15mins!) so he’s always the little brother 😁, he lives abroad at the moment so lovely to see him. Flies back tomorrow tho ☹️.

Hazmat suit for sure!
We also have rats, mice, squirrels, raccoons, skunks and coyotes. I've seem lots of rats/mice, haven't been able to identify, this summer while out walking.

Rats are much stockier with thicker tails and protruding teeth. I am only an expert as I have cats who like to leave me presents. If you see them scurrying about outside they are more difficult to separate. Rats obviously also larger on average but the largest mouse I have been gifted was bigger than the smallest rat. We have one killer cat who has also brought me birds, rabbits and squirrels. I sometime wonder how he gets them all through the cat flap.

Dandy, when I've seen them it's been on walks in the neighbourhood with dc. Now that I think about it they've scurried rather quickly, so might be mice. 🤔

Have put our house on the market.

I think the one we went to is just privately financed MissC from family money, and visitors though not sure. I think the government helps when there is no alternative and a listed place is at risk but someone else may know better than my guess.

DD is in Venice with her friend, left at 5.30am yesterday which woke Floof up who decided it was an excellent idea to wake everyone up for breakfast.

Boiler engineer came yesterday and today but wrong parts so back tomorrow.

Preliminary dates for new job and surgery but both subject to change and very tight for being able to do both. Went to hospital for endo specialist yesterday.

Oh, good, Penguinsa. I didn't want to ask, but I'm so glad to know you've got promising news. So, you did get the job, too?

It was 2 1/2 hours getting both dc to sleep last night. Tag-team crying. 😭
They did same 7:30am. 😭

In my frazzled and tired state I brushed baby's teeth with Havoc's tooth brush. (No teeth yet, but same process).

But, I was initially awoken from a dead sleep by Havoc, head on my shoulder, saying, "Mummy, thank you for love me." 🥹🥹🥹

Thanks Havoc Yes it looks promising but will be glad when all is signed and sealed. Sorry about the difficult night but that is so lovely of Havoc

That's good news (and exciting) about your new job, Penguinsa. I hope the move isn't too disruptive for everyone, and your treatment plan.

I had the updated Pfizer covid jab last night, along with the new flu jab. My arm is a bit sore, but other than that I feel fine.

This morning I had my new patient appointment with the allergist. He was lovely, and lives just down the street from me. I could walk to his house, and used to run past it regularly. He spent over half an hour with me, had his nurse give me a pulmonary function test, and sent me off for blood work. There aren't any meds he can add to what I'm taking now, but once the blood work comes back, he'll know what I'm allergic to, and we can talk about doing allergy shots.

I'd have to go weekly for the jabs for six months, but it might be worth it. They can do them at 8:00 AM, so I'd still get to work at a reasonable time.

DS has started on-boarding for his new government job. He has to get fingerprinted tomorrow.

Dreary cleaning.
Delivery from Ocado
Ready meal for dinner.
Soaps in the evening.

Welcome, @Bignanna, and thanks for sharing your cleaning, grocery delivery, dinner and TV watching news. Have you been lurking, or did you just jump into the thread? From your username, can we assume you have grandchildren?

This may be a little too exciting for the thread, but I managed to guess the Wordle in one go today. I sent screenshots to all my DCs, who are no doubt shaking their heads sadly.

👏 👏 well done math

Glad the allergist went well MissC. Hope the results help you.

Hope new job and surgery dates work for you Penguina you deserve some luck!

Met a social worker at an adoption workshop for friends/ family (of someone adopting) last night as someone close to me is going through adoption process. It was very informative.

My work is changing but I'm not sure I like it at all but never mind.

That reminds me, I need to find out when the local flu/covid jab clinic is. I get allergies but they come and go. Yesterday after a bad nights sleep they were off the scale, but slept very well last night so fingers crossed they will have subsided without me needing to open the medicine cupboard. I already rattle without adding allergy meds to the mix. The best treatment I have used on my horses is immunotherapy, injections starting little and often and then on a regular 4 weekly big dose.
Finger prints for a government job, we wouldn’t get away with that here. We have data protection laws that mean finger prints can only be put on the database if a criminal conviction has occurred. Otherwise those taken have to be destroyed after a certain time period, I think.

I do wordle everyday @mathanxiety and with different start words I have got it first 6 times. Now always use the same one though so unlikely to happen again. I imagine they collect data on the most common word people start with. I wonder if the person deciding the word each day gets a kick out of choosing one commonly used.

Good luck to your friend @Lemonsandlemonade , we need more foster/ adoption families.

@DandyDandylion, DS's fingerprints won't be kept after they're checked against a database of convicted criminals. They just want to make sure he's not in that database. We have the same legal protections here.

It was cool overnight and very foggy among the mountains this morning on my way to work.

The cats have a new cave to hang out it. So far, it's drawing a lot of interest. I'll get some pictures when I can.

https://cattasaurus.com/

Been a busy start to the term. Just had 10 minutes sitting in the car outside DC swimming waiting for earbuds to charge, so had a quick catch up. I’ve done a food shop but have an 8pm and 9pm DC pick up to do, plus lunchboxes for tomorrow before I can relax.