TPBM 111 - 7 in binary - the last of this title theme we'll see for a while

So, the previous query had to do with wasting time on the computer (or something like that.)

Sometimes. But most often, it just seems that way.
I'm playing at three (and sometimes four) Open Mic Nights per week. I could play the same set at each, except participation varies. In one quite popular venue, I'm lucky if I get to play two songs. At another this past Tuesday, I had to do two half-hour sets.
I told you that to tell you this: Since I can't possibly keep all those songs (over 260 at the moment) in my head, I print them all out. Years ago, I used a typewriter to do it. For the past30 years or so, I find the lyrics and dump them into a text file using Notepad. There, I format them to fit a single screen, if possible, and figure out which key the song is in, and which strange, squirrelly chords are formed. Once I figure that all out, if I decide I'm going to actually use it, -- Aside: Approximately 10% of the songs I've worked out I consider to be publicly playable. End aside. -- I'll copy over into a Word document, and have to reformat the spacing, line lyrics up again, highlight the chords, etc.

So, you might consider that a waste of time, but hey, I'm retired. Time I what I've got, and as there is literally nothing on my bucket list, other than grocery shopping, any time I spend doing anything is not wasted, even if that thing is nothing.

TPBM has the world's longest bucket list.

I would have, if I had a bucket list. Instead I have sticky notes, virtual sticky notes, Notes (on my phone/ computer), To Do lists .... etc. You get the picture. But I don't seem to be able to cross stuff off very often - even when I can find the relevant list. I've recently come across a list from years ago (actually, it's on the whiteboard on the wall in my study; I just don't register it any more) and there is actually stuff I've done. But there's stuff still outstanding.

TPBM is planning to travel somewhere exotic (for them) soon.

I've always wanted to visit the far-flung Isles of Langerhans, but it's not going to happen. I'm diabetic.

TPBM has a great recipe for ________________.

(Not quite what I had in mind by ‘exotic’, but never mind)

....... a cold aubergine and tomato salad with pomegranate molasses and garlic.

TPBM is wary of eating anything that their grandmother wouldn't have recognised.

not at all - my grandmother ate some truly awful stuff. I suspect it was from having lived through the Great Depression.
She made me breakfast once, which consisted of frying english muffins in Crisco until they were the consistency of wood. That's how she liked them...

Thanks to Better Homes & Gardens and The Joy of Cooking, I am a passable cook.
(>5 abbottthomas: that sounds wonderful!)

TPBM is feeling adventurous.

I'm going to have a culinary adventure. It will involve pumpkins. There will be a soup.
The only way I ate pumpkins before was in a pie.
If I survive the soup, I will report back.

TPBM is going out for coffee and cake.

Did someone mention coffee? Just say when and where, and like Tom Joad, I'll be there.

TPBM usually has more restraint.

Well, I usually look before I leap.

TPBM throws caution to the winds.

No, but I helped winnow seed yesterday at the college gardens. Instead of a breeze, we had a machine that created an updraft in a transparent column. It still seemed magical.

TPBM relies on magic.

Any technology developed to a high level is indistinguishable from magic.

Despite that, TPBM can often tell the difference.

Even as a wee child I was suspicious of magic tricks. I remember being taken to a show where this guy was "levitating" a lady on the stage. I asked my father in a very piercing voice, "If he can levitate her, why can't he levitate her dress and her hair?"
To which my father replied, "Must you always ruin things for other people?"

TPBM is more considerate.

Apparently not.
Saturday, I went to a live show in a theater. Pretty decent seat, orchestra, dead center, about ten rows from the stage. For the price I paid, it damn well should be! Lots of people being ushered to their seats, and a couple happened to have the seats in front of me. Well, the guy was directly in front of me. Long hair, about six foot, four ... obliterated my view of the stage. I guess he kind of realized the problem, and offered to slouch and lean off to one side. Mind you, I decided I could have done the same (minus the slouching) and before I could respond, his wife/girlfriend/partner said, "Or, you could have me instead." I thanked her and declined, offering up that I really wasn't into that lifestyle. Awkward pause. He slouched down, and they left at the intermission.

TPBM is infinitely more considerate.

I try to avoid the problem by sticking with theatres that have a decent rake on the auditorium floor or by going for seats at the end of rows. Doesn’t always work, of course. Particularly with opera, modern productions are not infrequently better when heard and not seen which deals with the difficulty.

TPBM knows what I mean (about opera, that is).

Can't say that I do. On reason is that I just had my first sip of coffee for the day. The other is that I consider opera to be the disco of the classical music era.

TPBM groks that.

Dancing in the aisles, do you mean? Without - mostly - a glitterball?
I don't see opera like that.

TPBM whistles a happy tune

Yes, why not. Music makes the heart lighter.

TPBM is musically adept.

Kind of, sort of, yeah.
Just like I can't read whole words, I can't read music, either.
I know only one human language (and eleven dead programming languages), but I can transpose music between any two keys without any trouble.
I am introduced as Mike, the Song Butcher for very good reason. I've been playing at Open Mic Nights for over fifty years now. It was a rare tune that I would get through without screwing up the lyrics or play wrong chords. And up until 2021, no one would say that I any semblance of a singing voice. Aside: I have a very funny and completely true story about Karrell's reaction to me "singing" a song to her. But not today. End aside.
In late Sep 2020, I had a mislabeled box of broth that I used to make a big batch of chicken soup. it was mostly onion juice and that caused my mouth, throat, esophagus, stomach and beyond to erupt into hundreds (four-digit hundreds, likely) of ulcers. It was maybe four months before I could speak using just breath. My vocal cords took much longer to heal, so it was perhaps March or April '21 before I could begin to speak normally.
And when I tried singing, I had a vibrato in my voice -- never had one before! And I actually could carry a tune!
So now, I'm playing at four Open Mic Nights every week, and people seem to really like it.

TPBM has been to concert recently.

I was fortunate to see a great local singer/songwriter recently - Ryan Montbleu is delightful in concert and we enjoyed his show in a nice small theater. Ryan Montbleu Official Website

TPBM has plans to attend a live entertainment event soon.

Hmmmm... not anytime soon but maybe in a few years for a Love Live! concert I guess.

TPBM knows how to program.

I spent over 30 years coding and doing root-cause analysis on other people SPTs (Stupid Programmer Tricks). That being said, I'm pretty sure that all 13 programming languages i still know have gone the way of Latin, except possibly for COBOL. Regardless, my coding days are over.

Speaking of live concerts ... I'm doing four OMNs every week now. Last night, I was the sole musician to show up, so I played the entire two hours of the show without a break. The last tune was a request, so I said I'd do it only if some of the audience members got up on the stage to sing it. Two did. It was a pretty damn good night.

So, I went to a concert not knowing that I was the whole show.

TPBM rolls with it.

Yeah. Plans are over-rated.

TPBM has car issues.

At the moment, no. Okay, maybe a leaky something involving the AC, but so far, none of the dye has leaked out after two months, but as the Zen master says, "We'll see."

On the other hand, last Friday, I had my water softener fixed ($600.) That morning, the hot water heater sprung a leak. (Another $600.) I replaced it myself, except the pipes from the wall needed to be replaced, and they were the original ones (almost 50 years old), and sweated. I used to be able to do that, but it's been decades since I tried. Not worth the risk, I called a plumber. Well, it's evening, and I got an answering service. They took my information and said the plumber would get back to me. By 3 p.m. on Saturday, no one had contacted me. I called again; got the same runaround. I called a different plumber who said they could be there late Sunday morning. By this time, I'm smelling like New Jersey, so yeah, that'll work. And they were prompt, and efficient, and less than two hours later, the water heater was full; just wait 45 minute and I'll have a reliable amount of hot water. Sweat off two pipes, extend a pair of new pipes a few inches out and install threaded fittings (for next time, by somebody else) -- over $1,000. The original plumber called me Monday morning. Turns out, they don't work weekends; sure wish the answering service had mentioned that.

I've got my tree guy coming Friday to give me an estimate for some maintenance work and the removal if my last pine tree. Said tree died this summer, and it leans over my neighbor's driveway where they've got a car, a truck, and a camper parked. I don't care what this one's going to cost me; they're the best neighbors I've ever had.

TPBM should be so lucky.

I am so lucky. I have a plumber who has been out twice. Once to run a camera down my sewer line and the second time to light my water heater. It extinguishes itself now and again. Usually I can re-light it myself.
He has refused payment both times, because he doesn’t charge for those types of things. Though we did discuss replacing the HWH in the near future along with a couple of other items.
I recommend him to the neighborhood. He has always satisfied.

TPBM has had a domicile crisis this year too.

Thinking more about WHL’s good neighbours rather than tradesmen, earlier in the year our next door neighbours from both sides announced within a week or two of each other that they were moving. Both families had been there for around ten years and were ideal neighbours - considerate, friendly and not noisy despite having small children. Both had had extensive building work done when they first moved in but the works were well managed and caused no trouble.
As is often the case nowadays around here, completion took ages so the buyers have only just moved in. We have been a bit apprehensive but so far so good. At least there probably won’t be any more major building work but we would have been happier to keep the old neighbours.
We wondered what people thought of us with ‘For Sale’ boards on either side of our house :-)

TPBM has a tradesman-from-hell story to share.

(Maybe that was why completion took so long 😉)

Heck! Christmas is coming. Why work over old griefs?

TPBM has cheerful plans for the Holiday season.

Why, yes I do! I find the Airing of Grievances during Festivus (23-Dec) to be particularly cathartic, and this year will be no exception. Plus there's the traditional Taylor Ham and Fried Egg on an English Muffin meal, and that's never a bad thing.

TPBM has some relatively obscure holiday tradition they'd like to share with us -- no judgement here.

After much consideration and Googling I have come to two conclusions.

First, that WHL and his family are missing a serious opportunity if they don’t start an Airing of Grievances podcast. It would be sure fire winner at this festive season.

Second, that I now know much more than I need to about the Taylor Ham/Pork roll divide. Have anthropologists properly studied New Jersey sandwich rituals?

Not at all obscure, but we always manage at least one game of Monopoly before the board is overturned. TPBM has a preferred board game.

We get an amazing amount of fun out of Rack-O. It’s been a while since we’ve played; and of course the grands are older now. I think I’ll pull it out for the holiday gathering.

TPBM is a card shark.

Yep, I'm a whiz at Cards Against Humanity. Fortunately, the rules are made up and the points don't matter, but I WIN anyway :D

TPBM makes their own rules.

Oops! My response was preempted!

>31 Darth-Heather: Only in untrodden (for me) territory, unless there's someone else with me who knows better.

>30 2wonderY: More of a card minnow, I suspect. Mind you, I have Cribbage and Hearts loaded on my phone, and I play each several times each day -- plus Sudoku and a few others.
However, I haven't played card games with another human being since perhaps 2008. I taught MrsHouseLibrary how to play standard Solitaire, and once she had the hang of that, Double Solitaire, which she truly enjoyed. Beyond that ... not so much. Growing up in a family of ten, we played a lot of card games, primarily, and board games. Cheap entertainment. I seemed to have been lucky when playing poker, but when actual money was involved, I was wracked with guilt. Ill-gotten gains. I much prefer a game where everyone starts out with an equal amount of poker chips. That being said, I haven't played cards with/against anyone in years.

I used to be very good at chess, and I have three boards and sets of pieces. One I got as a holiday present from my folks in 1967; the other two are to more portable. Karrell never played Chess. My kids all knew how to play at some point -- one even still has a board similar to the one that Spock and Kirk used on the original Star Trek series. But I can't get them to join me in a game of anything anymore. It's one of the things I mention every year in the Airing of Grievances.

I have a large part of the closet under the stairs packed with board games, including 8 additional packs of Trivial Pursuit cards. I'm pretty sure they're all going to be headed to the Half-Price Books store, where I may get a dime for each of them.

TPBM always plays it close to the chest.

>32 WholeHouseLibrary: **Oh yeah!! Double solitaire! I come from a big family too. Multiples of us would spread out on the living room floor and play smack-em-down rounds. Good times!**

Which leaves me with ...?

TPBM isn't ready for the holidays.

Gosh, no. We planned a kitchen renovation last year and finally got it off the ground in April but it's still not finished. And we've invited folks for Christmas lunch, not to mention both my kids have birthdays before then. I didn't get to bake myself a cake, which I thought I would be doing and it's not looking good for baking them for the kids. But the tree is up - the boys decorated it and did a pretty good job.

TPBM has the best garden decorations for the holiday.

Decorations? Not my thing. The most I ever do is a pencil dropped into a (cleaned) can of brown beans. It's been sitting on my mantelpiece for the past three or four years now. Festivus, you know; very low-keyed stuff.

TPBM has already watched "It's a Wonderful Life."

Not yet, but I did find myself unexpectedly up after midnight last night compulsively watching “Die Hard 2”. A feel-good Christmas movie? I’m sure someone must have done a body count*.

TPBM has their own idea for seasonal watching.

*I can hack burnt-out plane wrecks and dead SWAT teams but the icicle in the eye? Eeeuughh!

I haven't found any Festivus-related movies.

It's possible that TPBM might know one or three.

I found this list that helps a bit: A Festivus Film Guide to Unusual Holiday Movies

I haven't seen any of these yet but will have to track down the one with Danny DeVito.

TPBM is enjoying a holiday tradition.

Yup. We've invited people for dinner on Christmas day and are starting to feel the mad panic that takes over trying to get ready - after we sort out both kids' birthdays, which fall in the week before Christmas.

TPBM celebrates Christmas in July.

I've heard that some people do that; never understood why. I don't even acknowledge my birthday, so holiday celebrations are definitely out. The only reason I do Festivis is because gives me a reason to clean up the first floor of the house. My sons (the Three Wise Guys), and now their girlfriends, expect me to cook them that Taylor Ham and Fried Egg etc, thing I mentioned in #28 above. So, I make an effort to get the part of the house they'll see somewhat presentable.

Although, I do get a bit teary-eyed every Dec 8. It's the anniversary of the patenting of barbed wire.

TPBM also has trouble forgetting weird, trivial facts, but can't remember what they had for breakfast today.

There are a lot of weird, trivial facts sculling about in my brain. I don’t think I really have a lot of active influence in remembering them, or forgetting them for that matter. They seem to bubble up unbidden like sulphurous bubbles in a geothermal pool.

As to breakfast, I remember perfectly. I have kefir yoghurt on blueberries every day.

TBPM thrives on variety.

🎄Happy Christmas everyone!🎄

If I could, I would. Take this breakfast theme, for example. In a week I might have eggs and sausage (very mild), oatmeal with some bacon and dark brown sugar, or shredded wheat, or any of three other cereals (depends on which box has been opened. And coffee -- always black coffee. If I'm out, I may grab a bacon and egg (add potato if it's not seasoned) taco or two. That's pretty much it.

TPBM is almost as astonished as I am to get to the cereal aisle in the grocery store and see how little shelf space is used for cereals that are not coated in sugar.

If I had one of those constant-read glucose monitors, I'm quite sure it'd send out alarms to my phone by my passing by all those boxes of sugar to get to the sugarless stuff.

I think I am too old for astonishment. I was born into and spent my early years accepting food rationing. Not a lot of sugar around! I remember Weetabix and Shredded Wheat. Frosties, Coco-pops, Ricicles (twicicles as nicicles) came much later.

As old folk are prone to say, about corporal punishment, cold baths, cod liver oil, etc., etc.. - “It never did me any harm!”

TPBM remembers fondly something their granny used to cook.

Actually my wife's granny make a very delicious apple cake with crumbled almonds on top. I'm sorry to say that I mostly remember my own grannys cooking for some sausages that came wrapped in some weird metal foil. They gave off a weird smell when frying that gave me an instant headache :-(

TPBM remembers fondly something someone's granny used to cook.

My husband’s grandma, Edna, would go out to the woods and shoot some squirrels. Back in the kitchen, after dressing and removing any shot, the meat would be boiled, then fried in a batter, then finished in the oven. Ambrosia!
She also loved to go fishing, but that was before my time.
Edna was remarkable.

TPBM has a male relative who prepared a special food.

Apparently, none of us have anyone like that.
I had an uncle whose favorite food was raw hamburger meat. This was back in the 50s and 60s. There were all kinds of warnings about food-borne illnesses associated with under-cooked meat, too. He claimed that, right out of the refrigerator, that risk was close to 0. Who was I to argue? I was a kid in grade school; he had three PhDs. He didn't die from food poisoning; he died from an aneurysm; pretty much everyone on my father's side goes that way. Dad said it was the gentlemanly way to go.

TPBM has/had a parent who regularly expounded great (and silly) wisdom.

My mother always vigorously promoted the nutritional value of sugar. Fortunately for her she was neither diabetic nor obese.

Talk of the gentlemanly nature of aneurysms reminded me of the playwright, Simon Gray’s, memoirs, The Smoking Diaries. In the last volume, Coda, he wrote of his experiences of terminal lung cancer which was cut mercifully short by a ruptured aneurysm. See more, if you wish, here:

https://www.librarything.com/work/6488548/reviews/39581068

TPBM is feeling cold.

Yes I am. It’s been raining all day and temperatures are at the lowest end of normal range and due to fall another degree before dawn. Currently it’s 24°C outside and of course hubby has the air conditioning running (also at 24°C because I literally can’t tolerate it any lower - I start sneezing and sniffling). I’m about to dive under the duvet for the rest of the night.

TPBM likes seeing the dawn in/ has a special dawn ritual.

No and yes. I don't like seeing the dawn, except on rare occasions, because that means I've been up all night. The ritual is: I go to bed. I'm afraid my circadian rhythm is more like 30 hours, so every once in a while, I'll get up fully refreshed and watch the sun rise. Most often, I get four to five hours of sleep per night if I'm lucky.
I've got a friend who reports she's completely asleep within ten minutes of her head hitting the pillow. That is the only thing I despise about her (out of jealousy.)

TPBM is much more disciplined in their sleep ritual.

Would you call it a ritual that I arrange my pillows just so as I get into bed? My bed has two king size and two standard pillows. I lay the king sized pillows along the length of my body. I lay on them and around them and the other two are for my head. And they are expensive pillows - solid foam rubber.

TPBM can sleep anywhere.

Anywhere, yes. On a long-distance bicycle trip in 1977, ThiMs and I slept on a pile of rocks the size of Idaho potatoes behind a closed down gas station in northern Alabama. It wasn't as uncomfortable as one might think. I've also slept in old iron mines (American Revolution-era) about 20 miles from where I used to live in New Jersey.
As for anytime ... I'd refer you back to #50, but I'm afraid we'd get caught up in a temporal loop, and really, I hate it when that happens.

TPBM is expecting _____________.

Someone to respond at least two weeks ago. Deep sigh. This thread seems to have run its course.

I've got new siding on my nearly 50-year-old house. Still has to be painted, but that should happen later this week.
And since this very large dumpster was sitting in my driveway, I carted over three tons of rocks from my yard into it; realistically filling about one third of it with rocks; the rest is old siding. My new best friend is Aleve.

Also must report that I've had COVID for at least ten days now. I feel absolutely fine. The only symptoms is a now-occasional cough, a nose that flowed (not dripped) what seemed like clear water for two days, followed by a loss of taste. That's coming back now, but things taste odd. Sadly, in taking a test every other day, they're all coming back positive still.

TPBM has been up to ______________.

Getting the house back into shape after a partial renovation, including putting books onto shelves once they've come back from storage and updating my LT catalogue.

TPBM is enjoying the latest LT Treasure Hunt (2024 Valentine's Hunt).

Yes! I've also enjoyed having some days off. So the pile of unread newspapers is now gone. I'm reading some Jussi Adler-Olsen crime novels and I'm currently at #2 of the five I have on my shelf, but I can see the series holds a total of 10, so I have some to go :-)

TPBM is on a different kind of hunt.

sigh. yes. I know there's a dead mouse *somewhere* in the laundry room, but can't seem to locate it for disposal. The cats are supposed to be helping me track it down, and they run all over the place, sniffing at corners and underneath things but I never find one in the places they indicate.

TPBM is hopeful that we can keep this thread going.

I am. We've managed to successfully resuscitate it in the past.

TPBM is following the Six Nations rugby.

Can't say that I am.
I'm tracking my COVID infection. Tested positive again this morning - no need to wait that 15 minutes; the test line went solid red in less than ten seconds. Alas. Regardless, except for minor nasal congestion and unexpected sneezes, and few things taste like thy should, I'm doing fine.

I'm also tracking the work being done on my house. Painters are here today. So far, they're still putting up the shielding to prevent the paint from splattering the windows and the rock fascia (which is most of the exterior.)

Oh yeah, I'm also tracking the progress of a small home equity loan. If it's approved, I'm switching all my accounts to this new bank. It's not going to be a swift transition. I have to arrange for my direct deposits to the new bank, and that will take a while after I have new routing and account numbers. Then I have to set up my bill-paying preferences, etc. It's never simple.

TPBM is making large changes in his/her/their life.

>58 WholeHouseLibrary: (Not watching the rugby? Shocking! I'm sorry you've got covid but glad that you're not suffering the symptoms.)

>58 WholeHouseLibrary:. Maybe. I've started using my private mail account more. (Because I won't be working for ever and thus I'll lose access to the work mail address some time in the future.)

TPBM is considering larger changes than that :-)

Let's say I'm up to my ankles in all kinds of changes, and there's no end in sight.
Spent Monday night in the ER, for example. It was a major issue at the time; no so much anymore. Nothing to do with COVID -- that's all over and done with.
It's hard to keep my head wrapped around all the things I've got on my plate, and some require that other things occur first, and then those other things then require the "some" things need to be done in a particular sequence. And they're not necessarily related things. I'm okay at project management (to a point), but there's no one to delegate any of the work to. It's exhausting.

I did, however, play at an OMN this evening. haven't picked up the guitar in about three weeks now and played two songs cold. (No rehearsal, and I've never played either of them in public before.) Overall, it went surprisingly well. But, about a month ago, I sang a duet (for the first time ever!) with a woman performer whom I've come to admire, not just for her singing and songwriting, but because she's a genuinely nice person. This Sunday, she and her family are relocating to one of those northwestern states. She will be sorely missed by many, many people. It was difficult for me to say goodbye to her.

Here's a surprise for you all: I'm going out on an actual date in about 13 hours. Like I said, up to my ankles in changes. What I didn't mention is that I'm doing a hand stand.

TPBM has a simple life.

Yup - I delegate the stress. My youngest seems to be especially good at that (he's at that age). (Though I know what you mean about having to do things in a particular sequence - it's usually to do with where I can move a pile of stuff to so I have space to organise it and put it away. And so on.)

Good for you! The good parts, I mean, not the ER visit and such. I'm sorry your friend is moving away. Good luck on the date.

TPBM is taking the plunge on something they've been planning for a while. Or just something new. (Myself, I want to get back to springboard diving.)

Plugging a couple of medium size poles into the ground and tying them to a tree with a rubber robe to see if I can straighten the tree a bit.

>61 WholeHouseLibrary: good luck with going on a date while doing a hand stand :-)

TPBM has a large garden.

Past tense - HAD a large garden. In an effort to 1) get me out of the house; and 2) make the yard easier to maintain, it took a few years (2019 through 2023) to remove the walls (in this part of Texas, if you didn't have a raised garden, there is no place for roots go) and level out the dirt.
But, when we did have a garden, we grew beans, carrots, cucumber, loose-leaf lettuce, pumpkin, a few other things I can't remember (no coffee yet), flowers, and at the end, Karrell planted 2 rosemary weeds. I call them weeds because I can't get near them. It seems I'm allergic to them. I think that for all the years we had that garden, I had a few carrots and one quite bitter cucumber from it. The deer ate all the rest before we could get to them.

As for your tree-straightening effort, some of it depends on the variety of tree it is, but most of it is dependent on how old the tree is; the flexibility of the trunk. You may want to consider adding a wad of cloth to where the rubber meets the tree; cushion the trunk from having a permanent indentation if it's a thin-barked type.

TPBM had better luck with gardening.

>64 WholeHouseLibrary: heck no. plants aren't safe with me; i forget to tend them.

outdoor plants have even greater challenges - we live in a wooded rural area, so have to contend with caterpillars, deer, woodchucks, and other creatures. I tried a patio tomato planter, which seemed to be succeeding until a rotten little chipmunk came along and took one bite out of each tomato. I surrender. Native plants only, in my yard.

TPBM is more nurturing.

Depends on the rodent. Woodchucks and moles - fine. Possums that want to nest under my one step up from the ground deck - no. And raccoons that want to nest under the deck and lounge ON the deck, on the furniture - a big NO! Spent a portion of time last year catching critters and chicken-wiring the entire perimeter of the deck.
I may have left critters under said deck, though I tried not to. No matter; any odor is gone by now.
That raccoon was really obnoxiously comfortable. And the neighborhood toddlers thought he was a large cat!

TPBM is attending an art exhibit this weekend, as am I.

Yes, we are going to see paintings of Max Beckman in our municipal Art Museum.
(I don't often replay, as you know, but I still follow the thread)

TPBM is attending some performance this weekend

I guess I am. Back in 2022, when my NJ high school class finally had it's 2-year-delayed 50th reunion, a friend of mine brought me to a living room gathering of musicians and singers, where I also performed. Occasionally, they do this online using Zoom. They scheduled one for Sunday afternoon. To paraphrase Tom Joad, "I'll be here."

There seems to be an issue with playing music on Zoom through a computer. No problem using my phone, but with the laptop, I would have to pay something in the vicinity of $180 per year for everyone to hear my guitar. Not worth it for the two or three times I'd need it. What I don't understand is how they can filter that out. I can hit a note, and I can sing that same note, but they'll only hear the voice.

TPBM can explain how the manage to suppress the specific non-vocal tones.

Consideration of such things is much above my pay-grade. Maybe it's something to do with AI. Can we talk about something else?

TPBM suspects that most kitchen appliances listen in to everything.

Well, if mine are (and we paid enough for them) they're not being co-operative.

TPBM is going to do some unusual exercise.

Clearing out a storage unit of building materials and equipment. The scaffold bucks are too big for my vehicle, so granddaughter and I carried them one by one around the corner to the unit I’m keeping. Well, granddaughter carried them two by two, bless her!
(Resting on a heating pad before we tackle the rest.)

TPBM has stuff they really need to dispose of, and will confess in detail, to make me feel better.

>71 2wonderY: (Hah! Not going to trick me into that!)

There is not enough time in a week, nor probably enough room in these message areas for me to enumerate the items that clutter my house.
As it is, I'm having four guests (family) here in a few weeks to view the total solar eclipse. One couple will be here for three days (and sleeping in their camper in my driveway,) while the other couple will be in my house for a full ten days. There's an F-1 motorcycle race the following weekend, and they're coming for that as well.

I've recently had all the siding (48 years old) replaced on my house, and have just secured a loan to pay for the new windows (previously replace when I bought the house 35 years ago.) They'll be installed in two stages sometime in May. That means there'll be another dumpster in my driveway. It is my intention to get rid of the two remaining cairns of rocks (4 and 5' tall cylinders, 3' in diameter) all into that dumpster, plus, I suspect a lot of items that will make that clutter list a whole lot shorter (I hope.)

So, I'm hiring a crew for two days to do a deep clean (must investigate what that actually means) of my house. They'll need wide shovels to remove the first several inches of dust.

TPBM lives a much more Spartan-like existence.

Well, I don't have a dumpster nor a cleaning crew to hand - both sound pretty Sybaritic accessories to me, but I guess you didn't mean that.

TPBM envies WHL for his forthcoming view of totality. If I drove about 150 miles westward I could see a tiny partial eclipse for 3 minutes before sunset - always assuming it wasn't raining.

WHL, that poor bastard! Said view of totality is predicted to be completely clouded over in both the European and GFS weather models.
In short, the eclipse will likely be eclipsed by an occultation of di-hydro-oxy vapor.

TPBM may have a few suggestions for entertaining disgruntled house guests for eleven days. They were so looking forward to standing in the dark in the middle of the day.

Give everyone a shovel and put them to work!

TPBM expects to view the eclipse.

What eclipse? Where? When?

Of the next ten eclipses, upto June 2030 none of them will be over where I (currently) live, so no. The nearest will be number 9.

TPBM can solve global warming.

Give everybody a large fan and tell them to get outside and get busy. Fanning stuff. Actually, this will not only solve global warming, but the health benefits are enormous.

TPBM is the kind who lives their best life by trading in the government issue fans for a large butterfly wings contraption they can wear around town.

Nice one, Larry. Do you know, it has never occurred to me to do that.

TPBM is already flapping away.

... And boy, are my arms tired!

Today, in addition to being the "official" deadline to reporting one's income for tax purposes in the US of A, is the birthday of both my youngest son and MrsHouseLibrary. She would have turned 65 today. I'm working on only happy memories, not consistently successful at it, but progressing.

TPBM is anticipating ____________________________.

A possible change of my night off. Sometime in the near future there will be no night crew in at all one night a week. It'll be one of our "dark nights" when we don't get a load, but we have no idea which one it's going to be. If it turns out to be Friday night, that'll be great for me. Working Saturday night only once in awhile, I'll be getting a lot of "weekends" off.

TPBM has big plans.

I do. I'm hoping to visit both coasts of the US later on in the year and - even bigger - help the No. 1 sprog settle into university (fingers crossed).

TPBM has fond reminiscences of that time of their life (and will share).

The time of leaving for university? In the part of the steadfastly holding in to Imperial Units, we call that college. University is what one attends after getting a Master's degree in order to earn higher degrees. It always strikes me as odd when I hear barely teen-aged kids (in movies, primarily) all excited about going to university. But, I've digressed from the thought presented above.

I have both good amd bad memories from back then. The first being that it was a few years between finishing high school and starting college. Being one of eight surviving siblings, if you wanted to go to college, you got $500 from the folks, and the rest was up to you. So I worked for a few years and saved every cent. In the meantime, I pondered about what I wanted to do with my life. Being a interpretive park ranger seemed to suit my predilection toward mindlessly yammering all the while, so I ended up applying for college in the Adirondacks, near Saranac Lake. And two months before I was supposed to start there, I ended up in the hospital with a broken hip and a paralyzed leg. A year and a half later, in February, my father drove me up there. Just our luck, the thermostat in the car stuck in the closed position and the temperature was somewhere between -20 and -30°F.
Arriving at the college, the normally stately sign at the entrance of the college, was adorned with the sign of a tourist trap venue in Lake Placid. Together, the signs read: Paul Smith's College -- Land of 1,000 Animals. Boy, did they get that one right!
I spent that, and the summer semester (3 5-week-classes) in the dorms, got married to ThiMs during the break, and moved to a cabin by a lake about 3 miles from the college. There were many pleasant memories from those days, all offset by lies and deceit. It was a gift, and a curse.

TPBM has better memories from back then, or will admit to their lack of recollection due to the amount of herbals consumed back then.