What did you do today? 2016 version

[RobbieB]

Thought I'd do a little tree trimming and got out the "chain saw onna stick" and it broke before I even cut one branch. POS. Into the trash!

Went to Home Depot and bought another Echo. I love Echo, the saw works just as good as the weed whacker and I've got lots of branches in the yard for "yard waste day"

Worked up a good sweat and now cooling off with some ice water before I go back out and load them into the bins. Got my exercise today!

 

[ls99]

Spent about two hours kayaking in the early morning mist, vaguely following the shoreline until the sun came out.

Later hanging out at the mancave, sitting on the deck admiring the scenery, watched an egret soar over the the treeline, glide gracefully to land in the creek about 20 feet away. It waded around for a while then took off in the direction of a lake about 3 miles away.

A perfect day.

 

[Gumby]

Spent about two hours kayaking in the early morning mist, vaguely following the shoreline until the sun came out.

Later hanging out at the mancave, sitting on the deck admiring the scenery, watched an egret soar over the the treeline, glide gracefully to land in the creek about 20 feet away. It waded around for a while then took off in the direction of a lake about 3 miles away.

A perfect day.

Idyllic. I look forward to days like that.

 

[Philliefan33]

The rafting company that I hobby-work for also runs a paintball place. Tonight was free for employees, so I joined a couple of dozen others to shoot at each other. I've never played paintball before and I wasn't very good, but I had fun.

 

[rodi]

I'm sitting here watching teenage boys play video games and drinking waaaay too much soda. Older son had a few friends spend the night last night so I dropped some of the strictness on video game restrictions and eating healthy food. The friends are good kids, and a good influence... despite the junk food and video game stuff. (They're straight A students in academically rigorous classes.)

When they leave in a few hours I'll reimpose the mean-mom mode and make my son's do chores, practice piano, etc. Bwa ha ha ha ha.

 

[Hermit]

Had my satellite internet service replaced today. I went from HughesNet to Excede. I am expecting it to be quite an improvement. Only time will tell.

 

[bbbamI]

Replenished the booze stash by taking our semiannual journey. Our city (the voters) finally approved liquor sales; hopefully we can buy local soon.

 

[NW-Bound]

So, I talked to my neighbors over the fence, and learned that the cat I caught on surveillance video stalking on my roof was indeed their cat. It was definitely trying to catch the rats getting out from my roof at night. They aren't called roof rats for nothin'.

They also said that they found two dead rats floating in their pool last week. They suspected that their cat chased the rats into the pool. Theirs is an outdoor cat, and she's got her own door to come and go as she pleases. Even so, there are more rats around here than this cat can handle. There's also another cat that patrols the backyard fence, but I do not know who it belongs to.

Darn, the house that has the orange trees serving as food station for the rats is a couple of houses over, and I don't even know which house that is. I guess I need to find a way to poison those trees so they die.

Meanwhile, I should get some catnip for that nice kitty.

 

[Marita40]

All this discussion about rats on this thread is really a turn off I'm afraid. It is a disgusting situation, one I can't even imagine. For one thing your neighbors should never let the cat tangle with the rats if they value the cat's life. Evidently they don't. How sad.

 

[travelover]

Replenished the booze stash by taking our semiannual journey. Our city (the voters) finally approved liquor sales; hopefully we can buy local soon.

Wow, seriously still dry towns in Texas? I just got back from Oregon and everyone seems to be growing their own plants.

 

[NW-Bound]

All this discussion about rats on this thread is really a turn off I'm afraid. It is a disgusting situation, one I can't even imagine. For one thing your neighbors should never let the cat tangle with the rats if they value the cat's life. Evidently they don't. How sad.

Yes, rat infestation is disgusting. I have to deal with this, and thought that I would share info about it. A while back, some posters have had the same problem in their attic, but they did not follow up so we know how it ended.

Anyway, I will stop posting about this here, and may start a new thread so as to stop talking about this subject here.

About cats attacking rats, the cats I had were indoor, and they would not know how to hunt. On the other hand, some cats are following their instinct. Feral cats survive on what they hunt. Perhaps larger rats can be a danger to the cats, but these roof rats are no match for any cat. They are not as big as the Norway rats that stay mostly on the ground, or live in sewer. Knowing now that there are outdoor cats chasing the rats, I know I am correct in never using poison bait.

PS. The neighbors had 2 dogs before adopting this cat. I recall now that they mentioned their dogs that roamed the backyard got some rats before. They are closer to that neighbor with the orange trees, so suffer from this for a while, but I am the unfortunate one whose attic got invaded.

 

[bbbamI]

Wow, seriously still dry towns in Texas? I just got back from Oregon and everyone seems to be growing their own plants.

Yep....well as far as liquor goes.

Years ago, you'd have to join a restaurant's 'club' (called a Uni Card) in order to get anything with alcohol in it. At that time you couldn't buy wine or beer anywhere in town. Those rules changed, but buying liquor didn't...until this year.

 

[Ronstar]

Went to a Chicago Cubs game, and helped Bobby Hull up the stairs to dinner


Sent from my iPhone .using Early Retirement .//82339)

 

[rodi]

Walked the dog on the beach, cleaned house, vegging now since I didn't get much sleep last night. Older son had friends overnight... and they haven't figured out the whole "indoor voice" thing. LOL. (Son is now napping... not sure how much sleep he got.)

 

[Huston55]

There IS such a thing as a free lunch, and we got one today. We had one of those lunch cards where after you eat there a dozen times, you get one meal free. As always, we split a roasted chicken wrap. That was fun. We left the same tip as always plus a little extra, but it was still a lot of fun to know that the lunch itself was free.

Then he did his laundry while we watched a "Tiny Houses" show from Netflix. We were aghast at how truly tiny those houses are. I would cry if I had to live in one of the smallest ones they showed, that was only 96 sf.

Made me realize (again) how extremely happy and fortunate I am to be living in my dream house, a house that is the perfect size for me and has everything I want or need. Right here. I hope I never have to move because I am getting really used to this.

I LOVE that show!

They have the greatest ideas (multi-use furniture & features) and it's a great way to inexpensively provide housing; and, I think Zach is a genius. But, alas, no way could I get DW to live in one, not even a 500SF one (giant by Tiny House standards), which I could absolutely do. So, we just have to stay in our MASSIVE 1200SF.

 

[harley]

Went to a Chicago Cubs game, and helped Bobby Hull up the stairs to dinner

Did you shoulder check him into the wall when you got to the top?

 

[Just_Steve]

Anyway, I will stop posting about this here, and may start a new thread so as to stop talking about this subject here.

.

I for one am interested in the outcome.

 

[Ronstar]

Did you shoulder check him into the wall when you got to the top?

No, but I think we both would have collapsed if I had. He because of old age. Me because of too many beers.

 

[misshathaway]

I for one am interested in the outcome.

Me too. Start a varmint thread.

 

[cooch96]

Took a Lamborghini gallardo and a Ferrari F430 for a few spins around a track, and performed minor surgery on one of our hens with a swollen comb.
The super car driving was a complete success: I squealed the tires but didn't cause any damage to those lovely machines. I also found out I'm a Lamborghini guy, much to the shame of some of my true gear-head, Ferrari-Phile friends.
We shall wait and see how the little hen recovers from her amateur comb-hacking. If it gets worse, we will dub the comb off entirely.
Today is harvest day for our D'Anjou pear tree.

 

[Ronstar]

Took a Lamborghini gallardo and a Ferrari F430 for a few spins around a track, and performed minor surgery on one of our hens with a swollen comb....

I'll bet you are the only ER.org member that has done these things in the same day. BTW, which car performed the best?

 

[Huston55]

Took DW to High Tea in SF yesterday for her birthday.

It's actually a few days past her birthday but, we're still celebrating.

 

[Philliefan33]

I got DH to loosen up the purse strings for a bit of a bathroom remodel at our vacation home.

It was his idea to begin with, but then he got sticker shock and didn't want to go though with it. The bathroom is not bad at all, but it has a tub/shower surround and DH wants to replace that with a shower to accommodate my parents (and him, I think). He wants a shower with grab bars, that can be entered without having to step high over the side of the tub. We are having Lowe's do the work. When we went to the store the first time, the consultant asked what we wanted to "invest" in the job (ha ha) and DH said $3K - $5K. Consultant said that most jobs of our scope run $5K - $7K. So we go through the process of selecting tiles/doors/ finishes and it comes out to $6800.

DH wanted to walk away, and make it a DIY job or find other contractors to piece-meal the job. I offered to go through our selections and give up some options. We did that, but DH wasn't willing to give up some of the more costly items (such as a nice swinging shower door). Finally the consultant threw in the shower head and grab bars for free and I got DH to say yes to ~$6800.

After years of LBYM and DIY, will be nice to have someone else do the work on a project that has a few little luxuries. Too bad it is in our second home and a bathroom I very rarely use!

 

[Walt34]

About four or five days ago DW got an iPhone 6s. She has now turned into one of those zombies with her nose buried in the thing playing games or something. Yesterday the 10-year-old little brat grandniece showed her how to download free games. Oh well, at least she sticks to the free ones. For now....

There can be an upside to this. Yesterday driving home (a bit over 2 hours) I noticed that there was little of the usual chatter that can be distracting when in heavy traffic, not a good time to talk. And the Honda has a USB charging connection in the console so no need to buy a separate car charger.

 

[NW-Bound]

Uh Oh. Just make sure she puts the phone away when at the dining table.