Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 36: Calmly through the day

[MissConductUS]

A quiet and friendly corner of MN to share the very dull day to day happenings of our lives. No criticisms, political discussions, or controversies here. Think of it as neighbors (I'm a Yank) chatting over the garden fence or having a cup of tea while the kids play together. Everyone is welcome.

It will be calming for all.

Previous:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5477400-come-and-tell-us-your-dull-and-unexciting-news-35-calmly-through-the-day?page=1

I received a replacement part for my vacuum cleaner today, the hinge broke on it yesterday. It’s used 2/3 times a day and our other one is bulky and awkward. Very pleased to be able to use it properly again. Also very impressed that you can order individual parts of Shark vacuum cleaners instead of having to repurchase the whole unit.

I thought I took two lots of pork chops and one pack of bacon from the freezer....turns out i got two lots of bacon. Oops. Pork and vegetable stir fry instead of roast pork chops for tea Lol

Welcome, @CalmWriter and @shellyleppard, and thanks for sharing your dull news.

I vacuum a lot, too. My go-to machine is a Miele canister vacuum. I have two of them - one for each floor of the house. I also have a cheap Chinese stick vacuum for quick jobs.

Shelly, we (DH actually - he's the primary cook) do a chicken vegetable stir fry regularly. I think our bacon is what you call streaky bacon in the UK.

A bit about me - I have a 25 year old DS and 23 year old daughter. DH and I retired last fall. We live in an area of New York called the Hudson Highlands and have been on MN for about ten years.

@MissConductUS thank you for the warm welcome. You live in a beautiful part of the world 🌎 !! I buye"proper" thick cut bacon from our local butchers. Its the only one my sons will eat!
@CalmWriter well done on fixing the hoover....i find it satisfying to fix things myself. If I can lol

Good to know! I have a Shark as well. I like that I can handwash the filter and canister. It saves $ as well as better for the enviro. Although, maybe you can do that with others...🤔

I found £5 I'd forgotten about in an old handbag

You normally can with most brands. We have 2 Sharks, one is cordless and is useful for a quick twice daily flick around, the other is a plug in, big bulky thing that gets decade old dust out of shag pile rugs. Both are brilliant.
We normally dissemble both once a year and fully clean the filters, replace the scent pods & ensure it’s all nice and clean.

They sell every part online so if your battery needs replacing, collection tanks, folding hinge (that’s what broke on ours), rollers or the anti hair wrap bit breaks, it’s all individually replaceable so you don’t have to spend money on a whole new one, just buy the part you need

I have to pop the filter out to wash a lot more frequently with mine. I know it needs to be done when I notice the suction isn't as good.
I have book-marked replacement filters on Amazon and I really should buy them before they're no longer sold as the model ages out.
I have a wand vacuum for small jobs, the kids use it which is great, and I pop the filter out and scrape it clean with a fork and bang it on the inside of the garbage can to clean it. 😂

@MujeresLibres, that's a bit of luck! I'd say that fiver needs spending on a treat for you.

I looked out my kitchen window this morning and saw this chancer hanging off the bird feeder. It's a squirrel-proof model. When something as heavy as a squirrel pulls down the perch ring, the covers slide down and close off the seed ports. Hanging off the bottom like that isn't going to get him anything to eat.

DH mowed the lawn yesterday, so it looks tidy. There's a county nature preserve on the other side of the stone wall. Our house is surrounded by it on three sides, and we have wetlands behind us. We see lots of wildlife in the yard - turkeys, turtles, snakes, frogs, etc. It was nice for the kids growing up.

A post-cataract-surgery problem called posterior capsule opacification has been blurring my vision; today I had laser treatment which has cured it - in and out of the local hospital in under an hour. I walked there and back along the local canal bank. I've been organising my holiday, booking trains and ferries. I am now cooking the supper: a potato, fennel and cheese bake. I'm in England, but I rather think, @MissConductUS , that I once passed through your area on the Lake Shore Limited.

I had that after my cataract surgery. I asked if they did a random pattern when they burned it off, and he said they do it in a diamond shape. So we've got diamonds in our eyes!

Ooh, what is this thread all about, can I join? Dull news for today is that I am up to date on my taxes.

@FlorbelaEspanca, if you took the leg of the trip that routed to NYC instead of Boston, you did indeed pass through the Hudson Highlands. I’m about a mile east of the train tracks.

@BubblesandFairies, of course you can join. Everyone is welcome.

Thanks for new thread @MissConductUS Lovely to have all that wildlife.

Welcome to all the newbies.

I have been gardening every day last 3 days and DH has been painting the beach hut mini tool stores we have two of.

This is where it all began 6 years ago:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/mumsnet_classics/3999476-Come-and-tell-me-your-dull-and-unexciting-news?page=1

I'm amazed you were able to find the original. Some of them are no longer on the site. It's quite something that it's still rolling along six years later. I think it's due to how contentious some MN threads are, AIBU as a prime example, naturally controversial subjects like taxes and benefits, etc. I think people see this thread as a safe space where they don't have to put their armor on before participating.

We're still under an extreme heat warning, so DH and I went to the supermarket, Trader Joe's, and the warehouse club early this morning. It was still hot out. I also watered the front garden, which is holding up pretty well.

DS, who lives nearby, is coming home to spend the holiday weekend with us, so we got all of his favorite foods. He lived with us for three years or so after graduating from uni in 2022, then found his own place last fall. DD got married in 2024 after graduating from uni. Our SiL, who we adore, is a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and they just bought a house in Georgia after he completed a master's degree in computer science, which the army paid for. So we don't see her in person that often, but we do a family FaceTime Meeting every Sunday night.

Miss, time flies, doesn't it? I wonder if @reallyspicycurry is still online? 🤞

Having a special breakfast here... just because. Liege waffles, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, berries.

It's raining a bit and 15c. I just saw the news updating about the heat dome back east. I really hope it doesn't move this way.

Had a lovely day, did a bit of gardening, it was pleasantly warm but not too hot like last week.
Will have a look at that classics thread when I get chance, is there anyone still here?

Were you one of the originals?
Math was and, I think, Penguins joined fairly early.

My lovely car got through its MOT today with NO issues - it's done 150,000 miles and the last two MOTs have had a few issues - not today! Plus I got £10 off for being a loyal customer so £39 later... my car is roadworthy for another year. I was so pleased with it, I took it through the car wash on the way home as a treat! 😂 I know it's small beans, but I need my car for work (plus I love my car!) so it really was a relief.

I just checked the weather station on our deck. It’s 104 F, which is 40 C, and that’s the ambient temp, not the “feels like” temp, which is higher. It’s nice and cool inside. We replaced our central air conditioning unit a few weeks ago.

DS should be here soon to stay over for the weekend. I’ve just ordered our favorite takeaway pizza from the very good local pizza place. And one of the cats is here for a cuddle.

@Arlanymor, well done on the MOT. What kind of car is it?

Picture is of the weather station on the deck, which is off the second story of the house. There’s a display screen in the kitchen that shows all of the data.

That's a gorgeous photo - I feel calm just looking at it! What a fab colour too. I live near the beach and the older I get the more I realise how important it is to make sure that nature is in your life.

It's an Audi Q3 Quattro - 2012 model so not remotely new by any stretch of the imagination but such a workhorse. I have pulled people out of ditches, I have driven up and down mountains, I have helped countless friends move houses. I have picked my goddaughters and their millions of friends up after school. I have done food bank deliveries in it. I have gone to Ireland and to France with it. It's just such a good car. Has never failed to start. And when I walk back to it after getting some food shopping and press my bleeper and it says: "Hello!" (well the lights wink at me - I think it's saying "Hello"!) it just makes me happy.

I've just filled up the old thread so that we don't get random posts on it.

@Arlanymor, I think you've been very lucky with that Audi. Ages ago, I had a BMW 2002 that was fine until it hit 80,000 miles, when it started to eat me alive in expensive repairs. I traded it in for a Toyota and have been driving Japanese cars ever since. We've been a Subaru family for ages and love them. They have a factory here in the US, so I think their prices are lower than in the UK.

It's gone down to 101 F/38 C on the deck, which means a feels like temp of 50 C.

DS rolled in an hour ago. We have to get the windscreen on his car replaced tomorrow after a rock cracked it. And oddly enough, the same thing happened to him a few weeks ago. Fortunately, it's fully covered by his insurance.

I know what you mean about needing to be close to nature. I love living in the woods. The deck runs down the entire long side of the house. I braved the heat to take pictures from each end. I love sitting out at that table in the morning with a cup of coffee, listening to the birds. It's glorious in the fall when the leaves change color.

I grow a lot of plants on the deck in the summer because this area is overrun with deer, who will eat almost anything if they're hungry enough.

For the UK friends here:
I saw this at the top of my page. I think it's worth passing along, especially since quite a few here have extensive experience with the medical system.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/764079#main-content

Hello everyone, and thanks for the new thread, @MissConductUS.

I'm a returning old-timer, missed a whole thread after breaking my arm earlier this year - nothing too dramatic, just a stupid accident, but it put me out of action on a major scale as it’s my dominant arm. After lots of physio I'm back to more or less normal usage now, thank goodness.

Nice to see so many new joiners to this soothing thread, and very thread-worthy chat about vacuum cleaners! I also have a cordless Shark, as well as two (😳) Mieles. But one of the most useful is the tiny handheld vacuum I bought from Amazon for about £20 which deals with all the annoying little bits of dust and spills in small crevices that the big hoovers can't cope with.

ETA - just checked and I was on that original thread under another username 😂