Weird coincidence, but just this morning I saw a library Instagram video where their carts played the first few notes of Rockit. Well, it was another song I didn't recognize sampling Rockit.

I completed a DIY project that should have been done years ago, but I am extremely happy to have completed. Took me 2 months to do, some of which was ADHD, some of which was other more-timely things needing to be done. I built a wall along one side of the stairs going to our basement so I could add a much-needed hand-rail. A few months back we had a tornado warning and I realized that my MiL would have challenges getting down into our basement if we really needed to take shelter, as she has a dodgy foot and therefore trouble with stairs. I painted the wall to brighten the stairwell too. Now it feels like it has always been there... which it should have been.

Trying to schedule hay delivery for this week. Our hay farmer wanted to deliver last week, but we had out-of-town guest staying with us and it was too much.

Need to schedule the sheep shearing, but it is still very warm and autumn is expected to be a warm one, so that can wait for a month of so.

Still need to clean the barn.

Ok, I have typed my way into feeling lazy and overwhelmed so I should do some chores!

We're due to renew our, but our landlord wants to do a vague "walk-thru" first, so we've been cleaning the place like crazy. I'm exhausted.

I'm glad to hear you're back to full speed, mightshould. Music is indeed balm for the soul.

I'm doing well, busy at work as it's coming up to the end of the quarter. My social life has been great, it often picks up during the summer. Lots of outings with friends doing all manner of things, including quite a few operas, which I love. I'm in the best shape I've been in for a while. I went on a yoga retreat in July and it gave me the impetus to take better care of myself. So lots of raw food, daily exercise, I'm still not getting enough sleep, but that's not due to stress or anything, it's because I don't go to bed early enough.

Rudi turned 9 recently, and he's still a little arsehole. But I love him with all my heart, even though he treats me with contempt and disdain.

Jon, I feel your pain, my cleaning lady closed her business a couple of months ago, and I am hesitant to bring in someone else. I find that little and often is the key, using that ten minutes until my show starts to tidy or wipe down, or sticking in my earbuds and listening to a really meaty podcast while I do the bigger tasks.

Terrapin, when I was a kid in Australia the shearer used to come and shear our pet sheep, Sugar, with hand shears. My sister and I used to stand and watch, singing "Click Go The Shears Boys", a song all Aussie kids learn. He must have heard it at every home or farm where there were kids.

Heya Senyar!

We don't do any singing, which is both good and bad, I think. With only 6 sheep it takes less than an hour, and while our shearer does hand shear occasionally she uses electric blades on our ewes.

Our town has its agricultural fair this weekend, so there will be lots of people around. Since turtlegirl is no longer the superintendent of sheep & goats we usually only go on Sunday for our traditional "Fair date" which includes going on the Ferris wheel, getting a maple creemee and saying hi to friends and neighbors volunteering on Antique Hill. However, turtlegirl isn't so sure she wants to go this year as the event often attracts people who wear TFG clothing as well as vendors who sell such items, and we aren't so sure we want to be around that this year.

Update: We survived our "walk-through" and have a place to flop for yet another year.

Hooray! And our place has never been cleaner.

Life has been keeping everyone busy with life things, it seems. In my opinion that's a nice change from bouncing from handling one issue to facing the next.

I'll count this as a win.

Pips and jonmc; congrats. There's nothing like someone visiting (or inspecting) for motivation to clean up!

Hey there, hartelijke groet from the Netherlands.
Metachat still holds a special place in my heart. But there's so little going on that I don't check often.

I moved to a more rural part of the NL. And started running again. Great way to enjoy the forest across the road.

I visited my 15 yr old daughter in the Cotswolds. I have an ordnance survey map on my 'phone which shows the right of way paths. A bit of an adventure to run those: through hedges, across fields. Only returned after 3 hours of running. That really was _too_ much. But still...

joke, we hiked half the Cotswold Way in 2023, and are planning to return in 2025 to complete it. What a beautiful part of the UK. I hope your daughter loves it.

Thankfully my name is not Joke. Which is a perfectly normal first name in the NL btw. But sounds a bit strange in english.

Yes it's a lovely surroundings. The way little valleys, patches of wood, tiny villages built with natural stone alternate.
The 'right of way' paths feel like a little adventure. Of course there are the offical walking paths. Like the Cotswold Way.
But there's a fine mesh of other 'right of way' paths. There often hard to find. But with gps there's little chance of really getting lost.
Some parts you encounter locals walking the dog. But some parts the land owner clearly doesn't like people walking the path. And they put obstacles, parts that are very muddy. Even a motorcycle crossway right across the path.
I've gotten almost stuck in the mud, had to cross thorny hawthorne, nettles, barbed wire.
Those hindrances were really not that fun. So I understand why I didn't encounter any locals in those parts.

Strangely my daughter doesn't care for the outdoors at all. Even though you'd say it's objectively beautiful.
Perhaps a case of "you don't value what you've got"

Sorry, autocorrect which I didn't do a good job of checking.

(on preview 'job' had also become 'joke'. ugh)

I do recall how you pronounce it though!

That's impressive you know how to pronounce it. Our secret little language: dutch.

When walking the Cotswolds Way, what did you day with luggage? Did a travel agency bring it for you from B&B to B&B?

did you do

There are groups that support walkers/hikers. They pick up your bags at one B&B/Inn and take them to the next place you are staying. Very helpful and convenient. We took our backpacks with some food, water, change of socks, and some other preparedness gear for the walking, and our bags would be waiting when we arrived. So great.

That sounds like a wonderful experience.

Btw my 'right of way' paths took my through fields with: a dog, horses, cows.
I said 'dag hondje' to the barking dog, opened the gate and it was alright.

This article gave me pause wrt cows https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/12/the-hell-and-horror-of-cow-attacks-i-told-my-husband-to-leave-me-to-die

I saw that article, and we are always careful when going through fields with cows.

I was pleased to see the month of August end, honestly. My sons and I all caught Covid (I had it once before there were vaccines, they've never had it). For me it felt like a horrible sinus infection and I felt like crap for about three days. Son 2 had a hard cough; Son 1 was off but not too bad.

Then, while parked at work, a woman lost control of her car while driving much too fast for a shopping center parking lot, and smashed into three cars, my Son 2's being one of them. It was totaled. We are still dealing with insurance. Cars are so expensive these days, and though his car was old (2007) it was a Toyota in great shape with all the bells and whistles he bought used two years ago. He's quite peeved. Luckily no one was hurt!

We lost one of our cats to a suspected tumor/cancer and he was my only boy cat (I still have four girl cats). I love all of my pets, just some are a bit more special than others, and he and I had a connection. I didn't deal well with this loss (it's not yet been a month).

Jonmc and Pips - nothing like someone coming over to activate a cleaning frenzy! I do my best work when a repairman is coming, lol.

Jouke, my aunt and uncle had a beef cattle farm and I learned early to keep my eyes on the cows when we walked through the pastures. Their bull was much easier going than some of the cows!

Terrapin, my Other Half and I attended a big county fair, and it made me angry that there were no less than ten kiosks selling TFG's crap, and only one for Harris/Walz. I can completely understand where turtlegirl is coming from.

Mightshould, enjoy your days off! I'm looking forward to a vacation in two weeks.

I had a meyer lemon for the first time, squeezed in a glass of sweet iced tea. It was tasty.

Huh, never heard of. Sounds nice.

I had my first bokbier of the year. Beer that is traditionally made in autumn.
I guess a bit like the first pumpkin spice things being offered in the US.

I've heard of Meyer lemons but they're not available in the UK, so I've never tasted one. Our best lemons (and, of course, the most expensive) are Sicilian lemons, which have very fragrant zest, and flavoursome juice. The basic ones I buy in a pack of six in the supermarket are South African.

Happy I decided to see what's up.
I am running a small regional Democratic campaign office. We got the lease and opened the office Sept. 1, which feels like 6 months ago. The volunteer coordinator left, and the other main person is out of the country. So, yikes! I haven't done this before and there's no manual.

Canvassing with candidates and other volunteers, handing out signs, training volunteers, holding events - like Debate Watch parties - learning about candidates and helping them any way we can. It's been exhausting, also a lot of fun and feels worthwhile.

The dog is coping surprisingly well with spending more time alone. She's 3, and was terribly anxious and unsocialized when I got her; I'm proud to have trained her to be more confident. She comes with me to the office sometimes, but has stayed home alone as long as 9 hours.

I believe it would be a disaster if the Orange Fascist gets in office again, so please, do whatever you can do.

The weather in Maine right now is spectacular.

Staying up late here, watching TV, some cable channel is playing "Sanford & Son," very comforting.

Rough day for sports deaths, losing Dikembe Motumbo, a great defensive basketball center. And of course Pete Rose, a great athlete who earned his nickname "Charlie Hustle," but who was kind of an asshole off the field. My dad said as much when I was a kid, but when Rose was barred from the Hall of Fame, said "It's not the moral hall of fame, there's guys in there who've done worse." You be the judge.

My gosh there's an actual conversation on MetaChat!

Pete Rose, assholery aside, interests me because he was the last player-manager in baseball, and it seems unlikely there will be another. It's such an interesting role that I hated to see it go. Not that I disapprove of changes in the game though -- I want a great big huge change, I want them to let women play, but I doubt I'll see that in my lifetime. Wikipedia informs me that somebody wrote a book about player-managers; I'll have to grab a copy.

I mostly think Halls of Fame are dumb, but I did enjoy touring the baseball one a few years ago. But I would have enjoyed it just as much if it had been called Big Baseball Museum of Baseball Stuff or something like that.

Only thing going on now is that I am dreading the upcoming election and its aftermath since I work in our state capitol building and who the hell knows what angry dumbasses will be out and about. Got at least 2 more years until retirement, *sigh*

theora5, I'm in europe. So it's none of my business who the americans decide should be their leader.
But with the ukrainian war on our doorstep and Putin having his eyes on more and the US having such a decisive role in Nato we do have a vital interest in there being a US president who you can work with.
So: I applaud your commitment.

I understand but regret the phrase The Orange Fascist.
We in the NL are orangists. For koningsdag and voetbal matches we deck ourselves in orange.
Don't paint him with our brush!
:-)

(jonmc, I'm glad you're healthy again)

Thanks.

I also heard that John Amos, who played the patriarch on Good Times probably the first American TV set in a housing project, which also had a great theme song has passed on at 84. Another piece of my childhood gone.