TOTALLY RANDOM POST II

[moose eater]

Awesome, moose. Mission accomplished.

I'm now considering a pool, maybe $5/square, wagering on how many more years or months I can do this stuff.

The meniscus in my right knee (the knee they surged on 34 years ago) felt like it got pinched when I was lifting or moving something heavy. Can't even recall what it was I was lifting.

Right ankle area, especially around the Achilles tendon, feels quite often like someone's stabbing it with an ice pick or such when I walk on it.

Lower back feels some pressure at times when lying on it, which has had me wondering about a gentle, controlled, backward 'rolling fall I had, and whether or not there's maybe bone spurs at the site of the previous triple laminectomy, as that might scar or pierce the dura, and explain some other light-headedness symptoms... or maybe it was being relentlessly high every day that caused it.

It'd be a good thing to have the spine repaired (again), and be doing some of this stuff in further defiance of the cancer 4 or 5 years from now, but I've got a hunch that whatever the spine surgeon in the SW does or doesn't do after our initial consultation, he'll probably render some sort of advice on weight-lifting (and other activities) restrictions.

 

[D. B. Doober]

I returned home from a week in the bush and a fine (though painful) lake trout retreat into the Wrangell-St. Elias Nat'l Park, at a cabin my sons and friends and I have stayed at through the years.

Caught some nice fish, let some go free, but brought three of them home for consumption later. Gave one whole-side fillet of a nice fat youngster of a lake trout to my older son for him to share at a dinner soon with his friends.

But the next day, upon entering the house, I noted what I initially perceived to be the smell of burning trash, and I was tempted to holler up through the woods to the neighbor's that their trash-burning was penetrating my HRV intake and to be more considerate.... like maybe burning trash when the wind is stagnant or going up the hill in the opposite direction toward their parents' home instead.

When my wife got home my second day back from the bush, I mentioned the heavy burning trash smell, and she said, "You know what that probably is? While you were gone, I needed some soil for the veggie and flower starts, so I took some of the (thrip and aphid-infested) garden soil from the bucket(s) on the back porch that had been frozen all winter, and to make sure there were no pests onboard, I baked it in the oven."

Smart woman most times.

I didn't ask her what temperature or how long she'd roasted the dirt for, but GODDAMN(!!!), the smell was about identical to burning rubbish.

She had the right idea. Not sure where she got the specifics for the burning... errr.... roasting of the soil mix, but I'm guessing that based on the smell, there are ZERO thrips' or aphids' eggs or larvae still living in the dirt she cooked.

And the starts for this year's garden look great.

Now I'm going to go lay down again for a while, hoping my right ankle and right knee, as well as lumbar spine, recover more quickly from my 'fun' in the bush.

And I'm glad that I didn't holler up through the woods at my neighbors.

Appointment now set with the spine surgeon guru in the SW USA in early June. In the interim, my body and I seem to be at a bit of war with each other. Nothing that good drugs and 15-year barrel-aged Panamanian rum can't handle, though.

Hope you Are well friend it's been awhile

 

[tobedetermined]

It'd be a good thing to have the spine repaired (again)

I can agree with this. I am counting the FUCKING days. June 13. Yes, it is even a Friday the Thirteenth but I don't give a shit because I am not the slightest bit superstitious and I am really, really tired of being a partial invalid.

 

[moose eater]

I can agree with this. I am counting the FUCKING days. June 13. Yes, it is even a Friday the Thirteenth but I don't give a shit because I am not the slightest bit superstitious and I am really, really tired of being a partial invalid.

My nearly lethal radical prostatectomy took place on a Tuesday the 13th, and at about 5 AM, in the basement of the facility the surgery took place at (their basement/dungeon was their surgery complex), a nearly ancient looking Philippine nurse took my hand and told me she sensed I was tense and that if I wanted to tell the Doc (who'd shown up with dark shadows under his eyes reminiscent of a bad painting of Dracula) that I wanted to delay or cancel the surgery, that I could/should do that.

I don't recall feeling any greater anxiety about that surgery at that time than others, but have wondered if maybe she could sense something that I couldn't quite discern.

Many times that strange exchange has run through my mind, and I've wondered how much different my life would currently be, had I backed the fuck away.

My wife's currently making a specially requested variation of a keto blueberry cheesecake bar recipe at the moment, with a keto cookie-type crust that includes grated coconut and ground pecans with lots of butter, then a thin layer of brittle-hard dark keto chocolate, then the blueberry cream cheesecake filling. I'm betting I feel better nearly immediately after a couple of those.

 

[moose eater]

A guy stole a bunch of copper wire from the University of Alaska Fairbanks... and apparently dropped his wallet on the ground at the scene of the crime.

I bet there was a short while of him panicked, asking himself, where did I leave that wallet??!!

The police helped to answer that mystery when they arrived at his home/residence and located the stolen copper wire there as well.

There are a LOT of disorganized, scatter-brained, ignorant people lacking sufficient focus in the prison system.

 

[CharlesU Farley]

I think we've all felt like this at one time or another :

 

[moose eater]

 

[Betterhaff]

25,000+ guests
wonderful

 

[CharlesU Farley]

On those rare times when I have to go into town and interact with humanoids, I feel like this more times than not:

 

[tobedetermined]

I guess I am a bit nostalgic about being housebound for the last few years. I was going through some photos . . .

Six years ago today we were driving in the Shimuwini Road in Kruger and I looked down a wash at a pile of rocks that I had looked at dozens of times both this year and 2 years previously.

This time, something was different . . .

 

[Betterhaff]

who picks Trump’s ties?

 

[CharlesU Farley]

Harley has taken this interior decorator shit _way_ too far:

 

[Betterhaff]

if you have a few good ones you don’t need all that lol

 

[CharlesU Farley]

Harley, after she's taken some prednisone for cervical spondylosis:

 

[moose eater]

The 72% 'dark' chocolate bars with micro-bits of finely chopped almonds and dehydrated blueberries from Kroger's Private Selection are only 3.3 grams of net carb per square.... which is a good thing.... Because they're WAY tasty.

 

[CharlesU Farley]

 

[CharlesU Farley]

This is from a company called Precision Grading here in WNC. This guy's been dedicating his work to repairing the massive damage from the Hurricane in the Mountains and works strictly from donations via Facebook. He doesn't charge the people he does things for anything whatsoever.

I thought what he did for these folks was simply outstanding:

"I had an idea… lol. A huge thank you to Smoky Mountain Cowboy for allowing me to experiment and add my own creativity to Bob Graham’s already inspiring artistic reuse of materials found washed down the valley from Helene."

I planted two huge, old trees today. Upside down. With the log end burried about 6’ in the ground… Upside down but beautiful. Resembles our lives since Helene I felt.

It looks awesome on Bob’s property.. Josh is going to carve them up and make them even more unique. Bob is going to plant gardens on the bottom of the stumps, which are now 10’ high in the air."

I don't think there's anything better than making art out of misery.

 

[CharlesU Farley]

Without us getting a FEMA check, all the money to fix the driveway (8k) would have had to have come out of Harley's retirement account.

Just like Hyman Roth in The Godfather, we're retired and on a fixed income :

 

[pop_rocks]

This is from a company called Precision Grading here in WNC. This guy's been dedicating his work to repairing the massive damage from the Hurricane in the Mountains and works strictly from donations via Facebook. He doesn't charge the people he does things for anything whatsoever.

I thought what he did for these folks was simply outstanding:

"I had an idea… lol. A huge thank you to Smoky Mountain Cowboy for allowing me to experiment and add my own creativity to Bob Graham’s already inspiring artistic reuse of materials found washed down the valley from Helene."

I planted two huge, old trees today. Upside down. With the log end burried about 6’ in the ground… Upside down but beautiful. Resembles our lives since Helene I felt.

It looks awesome on Bob’s property.. Josh is going to carve them up and make them even more unique. Bob is going to plant gardens on the bottom of the stumps, which are now 10’ high in the air."

View attachment 19189131

View attachment 19189130

I don't think there's anything better than making art out of misery.

oh wow thats wild man!
ive seen people take stump wood ilke that and carve it into things too or plane it down
sometimes there are really cool patterns in that part of the tree

ps, i like your boots! thumbs up pardner

 

[CharlesU Farley]

This is an interaction I had with ChatGPT and if all you old fucks don't realize AI _is_ the future, you're in for a _very_ big surprise.