General Discussion, Sunday, March 11, 2018

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

116 Responses to General Discussion, Sunday, March 11, 2018

  1. czarowniczy says:

    We’re back to springtime again, green tree frogs on the kitchen window eating bugs attracted by the light over the sink. They’re totally oblivious to the cat on the inside window ledge who can’t figure out why she can’t get to them.

    Liked by 10 people

  2. The Tundra PA says:

    The immensity is hard to imagine, or capture. That’s a dog team in the bottom left corner. An Iditarod team stretched out is about 70 feet long.

    As Saturday closes in on Iditarod, Nic is in Kaltag and has at least a 2 hour lead over Mitch and Joar. And they have a 3 hour lead over the next pack of about 10 teams. The Yukon River is being pretty gruesome this year, and everyone is expected to have a good 4-5 hour rest at Kaltag. The race will change tomorrow when the teams head for the Bering Sea coast at Unalakleet, about 70 miles from Kaltag.

    Liked by 10 people

    • czarowniczy says:

      Mt Dad was up in Greenland when the government was building that huge Cold War bomber base under the ice. I still have some B&W 8x10s of the dog teams they used to get around, I posted one once years ago next door I’ll see if I can do it again. There’s one where the dogs, bedded down in the snow, were visited by a polar bear. Dogs won.

      Liked by 5 people

    • czarowniczy says:

      Oh, so you’ll rant to the bakery staff but lurk around here…

      Liked by 2 people

    • lovely says:

      Thanks Tundra. It is so hard to capture the expansive beauty of nature. I think mountains are always deceptive even to the naked eye if you don’t grow up around them.

      Go Aliy!

      Liked by 1 person

    • The Tundra PA says:

      Go Aliy! Go dogs! Go Aliy! Go dogs!

      Liked by 1 person

      • czarowniczy says:

        Brought to mind when, just after we invaded Afghanistan, people working with the military working dogs deployed were asking in-house (at first) for donations of booties for the dogs as Sam was woefully short and the terrain there was damaging their feet. They also needed paw conditioning lotions, blankets, leads. harnesses, feed bowls…all part of gutting the military to keep Clinton’s ‘great econmy’ afloat.

        Liked by 1 person

        • The Tundra PA says:

          Working dogs are a special bunch, with needs the average pet owner will never know about. Booties have changed the way sled dog breeders think; tough feet are not as important as they once were.

          And thank God for Trump, who is restoring our great military!

          Like

          • czarowniczy says:

            We were gutted during Clinton’s term and it was playing catchup while we worked during Bush II. Obama was no help either, we had carriers off-line for reactor work that was backed up as the monies were going…elsewhere.
            The crappy terrain in Afghanistan wasn’t good for dogs, especially those used to the more cushy US bases and deploying them without proper equipment was unforgivable – but then the DoD’s always had a bad rep for how they treat their dogs.

            Liked by 1 person

            • The Tundra PA says:

              Are you watching the series “Seal Team”? I love the Belgian Malinois that is part of the team.

              Liked by 1 person

              • czarowniczy says:

                We did for the first year as their ‘office’ portions were filmed in Czarina’s old and now abandoned state complex. She’d see an interior and go: “OH! LOOK! That’s X’s old office, or that’s Y’s old office, or that’s the walkway between Village A and Complex B!” We particularly liked it when we saw the walkway and bench where one of our cats found us in about 1998.
                I am not a Malinois fan, they’re nice but I’m a GSD fan from the git go. See Zauber on my garvitar. I’ve always thought of Malinois as a ‘GSD-lite’, I really enjoy the GSD’s daily attempts to take charge of me. It was a game and GSDs enjoy playing it.
                As much as Zauber loved to play I don’t think I could ever get him to pull a sledge. Sit in it maybe…cal Uber – most likely.

                Liked by 1 person

  3. ZurichMike says:

    Good morning, all! Long time, no see (read). I have become more of a lurker online in the last year — too much stuff going on at work and weekends.

    We had guests from the US over for dinner yesterday evening and they stayed the night. The dad is a longtime friend of mine and was here on business; his daughter is doing her junior year abroad and the two stopped by for a tour of Zurich and a nice 4-course meal at our place. I have to say I was so pleased that this 19 year-old young lady was poised, attentive, knowledgeable, and a good eater, too! It’s so nice to see a younger generation that have been raised properly!

    Today a nice rest is in order after they leave after breakfast. “What are you having for breakfast?” you might ask. Well, eggs fried in bacon grease. And bacon, of course! I rant down to the bakery earlier for fresh croissants and rolls. Table is set. They will be up for breakfast in a bout 30 minutes.

    Liked by 12 people

  4. Wooly Covfefe says:

    I said the other day here, I’m surrounded by wonderful and respectable people.

    I mean that. Not just in real life, but here, too. It’s quite a blessing, knowing this.

    And it’s kind of hard to believe sometimes, in both cases. Our crew at work is a family, too.

    Liked by 8 people

    • stella says:

      With all of the evil we see, it is difficult to remember that MOST people are wonderful and respectable. It is always the evil and horrible that is reported, not the good and normal.

      Liked by 6 people

      • Wooly Covfefe says:

        I hesitate to call myself good and normal.

        😀

        Wonderful and respectable, sure. I told my dad that, years ago. He browses the internet, but isn’t involved in any forums, though he knows about them. I told him my desire was to always, when commenting, be respectable, respectful, kind, and honest.

        I chose to be here, because of that in all of you.

        Stella, I’m so glad you made this site, and that I found it.

        Liked by 4 people

      • czarowniczy says:

        Blood, gore and misery sells otherwise the commercial networks wouldn’t provide it as they do. Case in point: GGS and I were on the I-10 Friday afternoon and there was an accident on the 2-lane bridge that forms the border between Mississippi and Louisiana. Traffic was creeping at 5 MPH for miles and by the time we got to the accident police and rescue hadn’t arrived but the entire backup was due to rubberneckers slooooowing down to see the passenger injured in one of the cars. In the rearview the traffic was jammed up for miles, at the top of the bridge there wasn’t a car in sight, everyone was back to doing 80.
        I can remember as a kid being at the sight bof an airplane crash where military and civilian police were running around trying to keep onlookers from picking up pieces of the plane…and crew and passengers…as souveniers. Gotta add ‘wierd’ to the ‘good-bad’ mix.

        Liked by 1 person

    • lovely says:

      Amen Wooly. I’m going to a friends house for dinner this afternoon and will be seeing a few of my old friends, all wonderful people. Our friends are an oasis in this world, I feel the same about Stella’s place and you lovely people here.

      Liked by 3 people

  5. nyetneetot says:

    Mornin’ stella! (Smiter of those that ought to be smote) 😎 🍸 (Long Island Iced Tea)
    Mornin’ WeeWeed! (Master Mixologist Extrodinare) 😎 🍸 (Old Fashioned)
    Mornin’ Menagerie! 😎 |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| (Jack Daniels – Single Barrel )
    Mornin’ Ad rem! (Queen Felis catus) 🐱 🍸 (Flaming Lamborghini)
    Mornin’ Sharon! 😎 🍸 🍸 (earthquake)
    Mornin’ ytz4mee! 😎 🍸 (cosmopolitan)
    Mornin’ waltzingmtilda! 🙂 🍸 (white wine and perrier)
    Mornin’ partyzantski! 🙂 |_| (Tom Collins)
    Mornin’ texan59! 🙂 |_| (Black & Tan)
    Mornin’ ZurichMike! 🙂 🍸 (fuzzy navel)
    Mornin’ Col.(R) Ken! (hand salute) 🙂 |_| (Boilermaker)
    Mornin’ czarina33! (aka czarina) 🙂 🍸 (Lynchburg Lemonade)
    Mornin’ czarowniczy! 🙂 |_| (Wild Turkey Rare Breed)
    Mornin’ letjusticeprevail2014! 🙂 |_| (Irish Car Bomb)
    Mornin’ Patriot1783-ctdar! (aka “ctdar”) 🙂 🍸 (grasshopper)
    Mornin’ tessa50! 🙂 🍸 (flaming volcano)
    Mornin’ waltzingmtilda! 🙂 🍸 (sidecar)
    Mornin’ varsityward! 🙂 |_| (Godfather)
    Mornin’ MaryfromMarin! 😀 |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| (Mortlach)
    Mornin’ Wooly Covfefe! (aka “Wooly Phlox” aka “taqiyyologist”) 🙂 |_| (Roy Rogers)
    Mornin’ Howie! (aka “doodahdaze”) 🙂 |_| (Classic Daiquiri)
    Mornin’ TwoLaine! 🙂 |_| (Gin & Tonic)
    Mornin’ Sha! 🙂 🍸 (Lemon Drop)
    Mornin’ BigMamaTEA! 🙂 🍸 (Harvey Wallbanger)
    Mornin’ cetera5! (aka “Cetera”) 🙂 |_| (Blackberry wine)
    Mornin’ The Tundra PA! 🙂 🍸 (Gentleman Jack Whiskey Sling)
    Mornin’ lovely! 🙂 |_| (Backdraft)
    Mornin’ michellc! 🙂 🍸 (Salty dog)
    Mornin’ auscitizenmom! 🙂 🍸 (Kiss on the Lips)
    Mornin’ Margaret-Ann! 🙂 🍸 (White Russian)
    Mornin’ Auntie Lib! 🙂 🍸 (Tom and Jerry)
    Mornin’ holly100! 🙂 🍸 (Jack & Coke)
    Mornin’ Pam! 🙂 (Not even water)
    Mornin’ Ms.Tee! 🙂 🍸 (Mojito)
    Mornin’ koolkosherkitchen! 🙂 🍸 🍸 (Cuba Libre)
    Mornin’ ImpeachEmAll 🙂 |_| (Flaming Dr. Pepper)
    Mornin’ Monroe! 🙂 |_| (Stinger)
    Mornin’ Les! 🙂 |_| (Rusty Nail)
    Mornin’ shiloh1973! 🙂 |_| (Jack Daniels)
    Mornin’ TexasRanger! 🙂 |_| (Whiskey Smash)
    Mornin’ Ziiggii! 🙂 |_| (B52)
    Mornin’ oldiadguy! 🙂 |_| (Rum & Coke)
    Mornin’ smiley! (“stuck in spambucket”) 🙂 🍸 (Spanish coffee)
    Mornin’ derk! (“Stellars”) 🙂 🍸 (Kamikaze)
    Mornin’ Jacqueline Taylor Robson 🙂 🍸 (Shirley Temple)
    Mornin’ facebkwallflower! 🙂 |_| (Night Train Express)
    Mornin’ Ms. Cindy! (aka “Ms Cynlynn” aka “ms cynlynn”) 🙂 🍸 (1970 ducru beaucaillou)
    Mornin’ sandandsea2015! 🙂 🍸 (1961 Château Montrose)
    Mornin’ amwick! 🙂 🍸 (Blue motorcycle)
    Mornin’ hocuspocus13! 🙂 🍸 (1970 Chateau Latour)
    Mornin’ Sloth1963! 🙂 🍸 (1971 Moulin Touchais)
    Mornin’ MTeresa! (Ex-lurker) 🙂 |_| (Albanian Raki Moskat)
    Mornin’ rheavolans! (aka “Rhea Salacia Volans”) 🙂 |_| (Hot Buttered Rum)
    Mornin’ joshua! 🙂 |_| (Mudslide)
    Mornin’ John Denney! 🙂 |_| (RumChata)
    Mornin’ litenmaus! 🙂 |_| (Stolichnaya elit, no ice)
    Mornin’ kinthenorthwest! 🙂 🍸 (A Lonely Island Lost in the Middle of a Foggy Sea)
    Mornin’ TwoLaine! 🙂 |_| (Smoking Bishop)
    Mornin’ patternpuzzler! 🙂 🍸 (Old Lady)
    Mornin’ Senatssekretär FREISTAAT DANZIG! 🙂 |_| (Red Russian)
    Mornin’ G-d&Country! 🙂 🍸 (Blind Russian)
    Mornin’ Gary! 🙂 |_| (Yuengling)
    Mornin’ valeriecurren! 🙂 🍸 (Flaming Sambuca)
    Mornin’ Lucille! 🙂 🍸 (Peach Schnapps)
    Mornin’ Lburg! 🙂 🍸 (Lburg lemonade)
    Mornin’ davidhuntpe! 🙂 |_| (Baileys Irish Cream on the rocks)
    Mornin’ skipper1961! 🙂 |_| (Brompton’s Cocktail – No cherry, no umbrella, no plastic monkey)
    Mornin’ mightyconservative! 🙂 |_| (Benjamin Franklin’s clarified milk punch)
    Mornin’ whiners and complainers! 😛 (No drink for you!)
    Mornin’ to people posting that I missed. 😳
    Mornin’ to all you lurkers! 😕

    Also just in case someday; mornin’ to Elvis Chupacabra, F.D.R. in Hell and sundance! :mrgreen:

    Breakfast!

    NEW and IMPROVED breakfast with extra bacon for ZurichMike!

    Blueberry Scones

    Liked by 8 people

  6. stella says:

    This is an old – but interesting – article about an alternative that could be used for Social Security, or other, retirement savings plans.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/merrillmatthews/2011/05/12/how-three-texas-counties-created-personal-social-security-accounts-and-prospered/#6e0109903283

    But the Alternate Plan takes a different approach, one I call a “banking model.” Employee and employer contributions are actively managed by a financial planner—in this case, First Financial Benefits, Inc., of Houston, which both originated the plan and has managed it since inception.

    The contributions are pooled, like bank deposits, and top-rated financial institutions bid on the money. Those institutions guarantee an interest rate that won’t go below a base level, and could go higher if the market does well. Over the last decade, the accounts have earned between 3.75 percent and 5.75 percent every year, with an average of around 5 percent. The 1990s often saw even higher interest rates, 6.5 to 7 percent. Thus, when the market goes up, employees make more; and when the market goes down, employees still make something.

    Like Social Security, employees contribute 6.2 percent of their income, with the county matching the contribution (Galveston has chosen to provide a slightly larger share). Once the county makes its contribution, its financial obligation is done. So there are no long-term unfunded liabilities.

    And there’s more – including a more than adequate death benefit.

    Liked by 4 people

    • Wooly Covfefe says:

      It’s nobody’s fault that there are retarded people among us, other than God’s.

      They are the best people among us, and the most innocent and kind.

      Christ said that about the poor, essentially. They will always be here.

      And they change us, and reveal who we are to ourselves.

      Liked by 1 person

    • Wooly Covfefe says:

      It’s interesting to me that mental retardation decreased at the exact same rate per capita that autism rose.

      Oh. That’s because they just renamed it. Leftists like renaming things. They think it’s magic to rename things.

      Like

      • stella says:

        They aren’t the same thing, Wooly. Many autistic people are very intelligent.

        Like

        • Wooly Covfefe says:

          I know. I know several of them personally. I didn’t mean to offend.

          They aren’t the same thing, but they classified all of them as the same thing, and called it a “spectrum”, and monetized it.

          Those folks will always be with us, too. For a bit.

          Like

  7. stella says:

    Very moving story. Don’t skip it!

    Bookstore employee writes this on Facebook after “little old lady” shocks everyone at the register

    http://dailyheadline.com/an-old-lady-paid-for-a-customers-books-then-she-said-this-and-left-him-tears/

    Liked by 7 people

    • auscitizenmom says:

      Wow oh Wow. DO NOT PASS THIS ARTICLE UP!

      Liked by 3 people

    • Lucille says:

      That will certainly be a story the young man will relate many times during his life. How wonderful to be able to tell everyone a good story rather than one which caused pain.

      Amazingly enough, Stella, I was coming here this a.m. to post the following:

      One Important Reason Why You Should Be Kind to Everyone
      By Candace Cameron Bure – March 7, 2018
      Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. – Ephesians 4:32
      https://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2018/03/one-important-reason-why-you-should-be-kind-to-everyone/

      Liked by 3 people

    • lovely says:

      Love it.

      Thank you Stella.

      Liked by 2 people

    • This makes me think of that sweet Evoni Williams. The Waffle House waitress that cut up her customer’s ham because he was unwell. It wasn’t her job, but she was being kind. It doesn’t take much effort sometimes, just a little thoughtfulness! (I think that’s the longest word I’ve ever typed)

      Liked by 3 people

    • Sharon says:

      Yes.

      I hope I can be “thrilled about everything and comfortably bananas” as the years wear on.

      I do tend to be thrilled about things that most don’t notice or mention. On my refrigerator, I have as many 6 X 8s of cloud formations in Minnesota and Idaho and Wyoming and Montana as I do of family.

      Liked by 5 people

    • auscitizenmom says:

      My friend is a lot like that. She was very upset. We were in the vet’s office to put her old kitty down, who could not be helped at all. She saw a woman crying and asked what was wrong. The woman had a puppy that was ill and the vet wouldn’t try to treat it unless she paid $500 up front. She was sobbing her heart out. My friend got up and gave the vet her credit card to put the $500 on. The woman thanked her profusely and later called to tell her that they puppy was going to be fine.

      Liked by 4 people

    • Wooly Covfefe says:

      “She’s lovably kooky.”

      Three words describe most of Stella’s place.

      Liked by 3 people

  8. The Tundra PA says:

    Iditarod update:

    Good morning Stellars! The race is going as recently predicted for now. The front trio of Nic Petit, Mitch Seavey and Joar Ulsom have left Kaltag on their way to the Bering Sea Coast for the last third of the race. Nic has about an hour lead on the other two, but they shortened his two hour lead by cutting rest at Kaltag. Nic’s dogs got 6 hours, while Mitch and Joar’s dogs got 4 and a half. It is a risky proposition to cut rest at this point in the race; we’ll see how much of a price they pay for doing it. After the front trio, there is a 3 hour gap and then the chasing pack of about six teams. Pete Kaiser is at the front of that pack.

    From Kaltag to Unalakleet is a winding trail of 70 miles over the coastal hills which often has deep and blowing snow. The mushers’ arrival at the coast could easily be greeted with a nail-you-in-place type of blizzard which could shut the race down for 6-12 hours. That is probably what the chasing pack is hoping for, to hold the front trio still until they can catch up. Just such a scenario is exactly how Libby Riddles won the 1985 Iditarod, becoming the first woman to do so. A blizzard had the whole race held up at Shaktoolik, and she was the first one to say “I’m going anyway.” And she did. And she won.

    Go Aliy! Find your rocket gear!

    Liked by 8 people

    • lovely says:

      Godspeed Aliy!

      Liked by 3 people

    • Sharon says:

      Thank you for explaining terrain and related strategies.

      Sometimes I pull up Google Earth, zero in on some section of earth (like the Alaskan coast, the Kamchatka Peninsula, or Patagonia – and just move over it slowly-slowly-slowly – seeing what I can see or discover. Google Earth is a wonderful education and a terrific tool in so many ways. And free!

      Liked by 4 people

    • The Tundra PA says:

      One more lovely photo of Aliy. She is currently in 11th position; Pete is in 4th; Mike Jr. is in 32nd.

      Update on the front end: Nic has reached the coast–about 20 minutes ago–and now has a 22 mile lead on Joar, who has an 8 mile lead on Mitch. And the trio behind Mitch (Pete Kaiser, Ritchie Diehl, Ray Reddington Jr) are on his heels and about to overtake him as their dogs are moving about a half mile per hour faster.

      Reaching the coast portends a different type of race. From here on, much of the trail will be on bare, wind-swept ice. A hard and fast surface, completely different from the soft snow and hills they have been plugging through for the last day. Mental strength is called for from the dogs as they face wide open territory with no visible trail, frozen sea ice, often wicked and howling winds. It takes tough dogs and tough mushers to complete this race, and even more so to win.

      Go Aliy!

      Liked by 3 people

  9. Lucille says:

    Lunga House – A Scottish Seaside Castle – Lunga Estate, Craobh Haven, Lochgilphead, Argyll, Scotland

    Liked by 4 people

  10. Lucille says:

    Scottish SPCA News | Animal News |
    Scottish SPCA looking to reunite cat with owners after being found in freezing temperatures

    Liked by 5 people

  11. auscitizenmom says:

    I am sooo disappointed. Yesterday, the weatherguessers said that it should storm and rain around 11:00 AM today. By this morning, that has been pushed back to about 5:00 PM with a 5% chance of rain……….which means, it ain’t happenin’. 😦

    Liked by 2 people

  12. lovely says:

    Some good old time beauty 🙂 .

    Liked by 2 people

  13. Wooly Covfefe says:

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Gil says:

    The crayon candle came out pretty messy but the kiddo loves it. I used a bon maman jam jar and all those broken crayons filled the whole thing.
    I made soft lemon cookies today and had them sitting on the counter for the frosting to set. Came back downstairs and someone small had eaten half of one. Oh well he ate the other half and is playing it off outside.

    Liked by 4 people

  15. auscitizenmom says:

    lilbirdee12’s prayer:

    Our Heavenly Father, Your children come to you tonight to ask for healing and peace throughout our country so that we may return to being One Nation Under God. Guide us to be leaders in Your Kingdom, spreading Your Love and Salvation to all. Forgive us our sins and deliver us from evil.

    Lord, we ask for a blanket of protection over all our troops and law enforcement who serve to defend and protect us. Bless our representatives with the strength and wisdom they need to achieve the path You have chosen for us.

    Please place Your Guardian Angels of Protection around Donald Trump and Mike Pence and their families as they seek to lead America back to You.

    Grant us patience, Lord, as the evil ones try to anger us and cause us to fall.
    Spread blessings over Israel and Netanyahu.

    We humbly ask that You please comfort those who are grieving and in pain.
    Thank you Father, for Your Love and the gift of Life.

    In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

    Liked by 3 people

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.