AC guy is here, and guess who needs to buy “a whole new unit? Nothing is compatible since they changed all the refrigerants.”
I’m supposed to be at the beach. Buy a house, they said. You’ll build equity, they said.
I’m going to just go lie in the fetal position under the covers.
Took some pictures of the house today because it was so pretty out:
Also, look what finally decided to bloom:
Got a bunch of weeding that needs to be done, and I need to pull that big green thing up that was one of the many things to sprout from the packet of wildflower seeds I sprinkled in that bed, and man did it take root and grow.
What are you all up to?
We’re now in the third day of nonstop downpour:
I think I’m gonna need another willow tree.
Spent the day in the big city taking Lily to the animal hospital for her chemo, and other than a little weight loss, everything is going great:
NEW WORD: FLOCCULATION!!!!!
She has been shedding a bit more and her fur feels coarser, but the doctor said that is normal and not to worry. It’s also 5 kajillion degrees outside, and I would be shedding if I could.
The weight is something to keep an eye on, but she is still eating every day. I think the weight drop may be attributed to her going off the prednisone, which made her eat like a horse. They prescribed some mirtazapine to stimulate her appetite (holy fucking shitballs is that expensive), so I will keep an eye on her.
Regardless, she has been cleared for the beach, and was issued a regulation nautical bow by the nurses:
On the way home I stopped at the Brown’s Orchard and Cider Company and picked up some cooking apples for dad, some gala apples for my mom, and I picked up a five lb bag of Gingergold and a fiver of Honeycrisp. The Gingergold were so good I can honestly say they were life changing or life affirming or something. I actually pulled over to eat it so I wouldn’t be driving distracted. IT WAS THAT GOOD.
It’s nice to know nothing unsettling happened in the news today while I was busy with Lily.
*checks headlines*
I’m going to go water my plants and pretend everything is ok.
I’m tired. It was 100000 degrees today again, and the humidity was horrible. It just sucks the life out of you. Tomorrow is another long day because I have to head up to Pittsburgh to take Lily to chemo (three weeks just flies by). But at least she is still alive and super happy, and, as you can see, right where she is supposed to be as I write this:
I think I am going to take the people at PVSEC some tomatoes tomorrow. Who doesn’t love tomatoes?
I’m also rushing to get everything done before leaving for the beach next Friday (and if one more asshole mentions the fucking tropical storm trying to put the kaibosh on me I am gonna cut someone). Just so much to do and so little time.
I spoke with Alain the other day and we put the brakes on whatever site changes he had in mind. Other than maintenance and maybe fixing the edit function, we’re not doing anything for a couple weeks. I’ve spoken with a couple of the older (I don’t mean age) commenters who offered to help with the front end stuff, and we are looking for a targeted roll out of around October 15th. Two priorities are a solution for the video ads and the comment system, but there is a bunch of other stuff that needs to be fixed and changed. As I was telling others, I would love nothing more than to go back to 2007 and have this:
But we just can’t. With so many different mobile sites, etc., it’s just impossible. The other reason things are such a pain in the ass is because I refuse to use offsite commenting. I do that for some very real reasons. This website is an archive of us. Our interactions, our conversations, our thoughts. We’ve gone through too many personal emergencies and life events for all those to just disappear, and that isn’t even going into all the funny things people have said. I want it to stay that way, and I can not guarantee the safety of comments on an external site. The other reason is because I will refuse to comply with any requests from the authorities to give up usernames, emails, and ip addresses. That’s just not going to happen.
So, it limits us in some ways.
The other problem (for me, at least) is replicating the problems some of you encounter. I had my boot drive crash the other day, replaced it, and had a clean windows install. I installed malwarebytes, which is always the first thing I install, then downloaded chrome, firefox, safari, etc. I then checked Balloon Juice with clean installs of them all, reloaded and refreshed multiple times, and I never got an audio ad. I never got an ad stretching outside the borders.
That doesn’t mean I don’t trust you that it is happening- my own brother got an audio ad last week and texted me. It’s just it makes it really hard to address when you can’t see it happening or replicate it. And I know how annoying it is. Fucking CNN with those god damned autoplay clips drives me god damned mental. So I am working on it. I don’t want you all having a lousy time here.
At any rate, we’re going to fix some things and upgrade some things and you all will have a say, but it just isn’t going to happen right now. Alain has a lot of shit going on, I have a bunch of shit going on, and it will take a little time.
So that’s that. Have a little faith in me, I give you my word I will not fuck this up. I love this shitty little website as much as you all do. And I just realized I forgot to turn the damned sprinkler off.
Thought I would take some pictures:
Lettuce:
Gratuitous Rosie pic:
Another backyard pic (look what those pole beans have done in no time in the way back bed):
I got some sun and DONALD TRUMP IS MAKING ME FUCKING GRAY:
What are you all up to?
Just got back from Pittsburgh where the family + Tammy went to dinner for their 50th anniversary. We started the festivities by opening a bottle of champagne left over from their wedding that my father kept in the dark and saved for this occasion, which if you ask me requires an almost fanatical level of preparation to plan 50 years in advance. I don’t even plan a month ahead because it stresses me out:
Unfortunately, the champagne looked like one of those glasses of brown water at a congressional hearing when an oil or gas company has ruined everyone’s well water, and it smelled and tasted (so I am told) like a vinegary sherry. Dinner was good, but not the best I have ever had, but I would go back. The whole thing was nice and mom and dad had a good time, and dad turned into the kissing bandit after a few drinks:
We took a group photo, and all of the pictures turned out like hell, but whatever:
The middle half of the picture is my GINORMOUS FUCKING HEAD, and my family sort rotates around the gravitational pull of my melon. Did I ever mention that they had to special order my hats in the army and my drill sergeant once quipped “Private Cole your head is so big if you were a cowboy you would need a 12 gallon hat” which I still think is one of the funniest things I have ever heard.
At any rate, Happy Anniversary mom and dad.