So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Hercule]

All this week I have been covering someone who is on leave, where I work. It has meant early starts, as in six o'clock start. My alarm is set for five fifteen but this morning I woke at four fifteen, my aching bladder forced a trip to the bathroom, then sleep would not come, that is until ten minutes before the alarm went off, by then I was in a deep slumber. I should have got up when I first woke but I felt cheated out of an hour's sleep.

I experience that on many work days - I typically get up at 6am. Its the worst when the alarm actually wakes me up. It usually doesn't.

In my experience being awake an hour or two, or so, before you have to get up is entirely different from actually getting up. Being a light sleeper I regularly see early hours, but if I actually got up then I'd be dragging by lunch time.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

I experience that on many work days - I typically get up at 6am. Its the worst when the alarm actually wakes me up. It usually doesn't.

I usually get up at 6:00, too. I don't need an alarm, I have two cats looking for breakfast to do that for me.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I sincerely hope you're able to keep your medicaments to a minimum as you grow older.

I'm 37, getting 38 in August, and still on a good way!
No overweight, no heart-trouble, no stress with any women, no kids, etc..

Just Sertralin for my head.

 

[Turnip]

The last time, when I collected my medicament recipe, the new doc´s assistant viewed my data in the terminal and said surprised:
"Ooh, you got only one (medicament)!"

That´s old, overaging german smalltown, LIVE.

You should visit Christchurch, UK...

 

[Trenchfriend]

You should visit Christchurch, UK...

What´s the point?

 

[Turnip]

God’s waiting room…

 

[Trenchfriend]

God’s waiting room…

I read wikipedia, about. Got it.

 

[GHT]

God’s waiting room…

Close, but a little further along is New Milton, that's the waiting room then further along still is Milford on Sea, that's the departure lounge.

Like me, a lot of the residents around, come here to enjoy the agreeable climate in their retirement. They plan to spend their last years here. The reason that there's so many geriatrics is because with old age comes amnesia. Poor old souls not only forget what they came for, they forget that they are expected to pop off too.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Yes, the pipe-zippo is a beautiful thing indeed - such a simple change, yet so effective.

I was surprised, when some days ago I saw these cheap gas (not Benzin) storm lighters with jet-flame in drugstore at the checkstand for 1.99 EUR!

The ones with these funny rubber-coated cases in different colours. I can´t actually say, if they are refillable, but I will have a closer look in the next days.

What´s ticking me off, is, that I don´t need any lighters. But the Piezo ones are nice.

 

[Turnip]

Back in the day when arcade games were the hottest sh.t in the bowl you could trigger free games with those piezo igniters on some of them…

 

[Hercule]

I usually get up at 6:00, too. I don't need an alarm, I have two cats looking for breakfast to do that for me.

We know what that's like. Ours just turned 14 and has a touch of senility. She usually comes looking for someone to feed her around 2am and about 5am. If I or wife (she never bothers son) don't comply she'll knock something over or off. She's always been a little terrorist that way. A very hard habit to break. Very high maintenance.

 

[Hercule]

Like most, I like and can appreciate the creativity behind some of the commercials seen on TV and heard on radio, enjoying them perhaps even more so when I can identify with their tongue-in-cheek elements. But I find myself kind of offended by Progressive’s “Progressive can’t save you from becoming your parents” commercials. As someone who has become his father (and I readily admit that), am I to be anathema or somehow chastised into embarrassment for taking after my father and mother? Who doesn’t assume attributes and mannerisms of their parents as they mature? (I've come to savor most those I can recognize in myself.) One would have to be awfully hard bitten not to. It’s a pretty judgmental, if cynical, stance if you ask me. How dare you! “It’s relatable for a reason” the “Dr Rick” character says at the end of one of them. Really? As fodder to embarrass and be made fun of, to somehow injure one’s self-esteem? Yes, I can relate to the things portrayed. Quite a few of them, actually. And in real life I have been made fun of for some of them, by loved ones and strangers. Such is the jaded society we live in. Will I change because of it? Nope.

Thank you for enduring my rant. I’ll continue to knowingly smile when those commercials come on, but I’ll also continue to be irked by them.

 

[Fifty150]

Shock and awe. My jaw dropped. I can tell by the look on her face, this was an unpleasant experience. I tell her, "Look, you don't have to do this. I won't tell anybody."

She put about 6 little cans of tomato sauce into a pot. Then rinsed the cans into the pot. So now the tomato sauce is diluted with water. Then she puts a package of dry spaghetti right in. On the stove it goes at high heat. As it begins to boil, she puts in a pound of raw ground beef. Then the teaching began. "You have to keep an eye on it. Stir so that you break up the meat, and the noodles don't clump together. If it gets too dry, add a little more water. You don't want a soup. But you don't want to burn it either."

This was the "world famous spaghetti" from her parents' restaurant. I don't know if it's actually a restaurant if there's no seating. They actually don't even call it a restaurant. I've only heard her brothers call it "the store". No plates. No silverware. Only take-out pizza - and their "world famous spaghetti". The sign out front actually says "WORLD FAMOUS SPAGHETTI". The customers don't even get to go inside. No bathrooms. They stand in line outside. No delivery. It's too dangerous. Food delivery drivers get robbed and shot in this town. Not this part of town. The whole town is dangerous. Bulletproof glass, and steel bars like a check cashing store. Only her Dad, and her brothers work there. And they are armed. Her Mom and sisters never go there. It's a bad neighborhood.

Her family was from Istanbul. Not Constantinople. Her parents and elder siblings came from The Old Country. Her, and the younger siblings were Born In The USA. The brothers try to dress and act like rappers. the girls try to act like Kardashians. As with a lot of 1st generation immigrants, her parents are very conservative, and are not so pleased by the crime, violence, drugs, and moral turpitude they find in America. And they're also very displeased with their daughters wearing yoga pants and tank tops.

How do I fit in? I don't. A guy I know told me, "when you get there, here's the number, call my cousin" Which cousin? What's his name? Who do I ask for? "It doesn't matter, Who ever answers, just say that you're a friend of mine, and I told you to call." This guy I know, it turns out, he's actually never even met these people. They're related. Third cousins, of an uncle's 3rd concubine, or livestock was traded and bartered between their ancestral villages. It goes back to their grandparents. But that's the way of people descended from ancient cultures. I'm a traveler. I'm associated. They offer harborage, refuge, and hospitality.

I'm no Angel. My friend's uncle isn't Lot. Detroit, however, could pass for Sodom. Or at least parts of it can pass for Sodom. The part where this family sells pizza and pasta. I spent a little time hanging out there with them. Bad parts of town are the same all over The USA. Drugs. Gangs. Violence. Abandoned properties. People passed out on the sidewalk, laying in pools of their own filth. Poverty. Desperation. People who will buy $5 slices of bad cheese pizza, and $5 coffee cups of bad spaghetti. This neighborhood is so bad, you can't even find a fast food vendor with a $1 menu. As a "side hustle", my new friends also sell single cigarettes through the "pizzeria". anyone who can't afford to buy a full pack of cigarettes can buy 1 cigarette for $1. Liquor stores sell $5 ziplock bags filled with an airline size bottle of alcohol, a child size juice box, and ice cubes. You see people on the corner drinking cocktails out of sandwich bags. You don't want to know about everything that you can buy on the streets with a $5 bill. $5 is the fixed price for a lot street level bartering and trading.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I´m proud of myself!
I installed a new toilet seat for my Ma, yesterday. The first time, I did this kind of home improvement. All fine, because one of the easier constructions.

But I´m feeling old, because you even don´t need own tools, these days and I have to accustom with this!

 

[Hercule]

I´m proud of myself!
I installed a new toilet seat for my Ma, yesterday. The first time, I did this kind of home improvement. All fine, because one of the easier constructions.

But I´m feeling old, because you even don´t need own tools, these days and I have to accustom with this!

Good for you! In this day and age of everything being so complicated it is very rewarding to be able to do things for yourself.

 

[GHT]

Shock and awe. My jaw dropped. I can tell by the look on her face, this was an unpleasant experience. I tell her, "Look, you don't have to do this. I won't tell anybody."

She put about 6 little cans of tomato sauce into a pot. Then rinsed the cans into the pot. So now the tomato sauce is diluted with water. Then she puts a package of dry spaghetti right in. On the stove it goes at high heat. As it begins to boil, she puts in a pound of raw ground beef. Then the teaching began. "You have to keep an eye on it. Stir so that you break up the meat, and the noodles don't clump together. If it gets too dry, add a little more water. You don't want a soup. But you don't want to burn it either."

This was the "world famous spaghetti" from her parents' restaurant. I don't know if it's actually a restaurant if there's no seating. They actually don't even call it a restaurant. I've only heard her brothers call it "the store". No plates. No silverware. Only take-out pizza - and their "world famous spaghetti". The sign out front actually says "WORLD FAMOUS SPAGHETTI". The customers don't even get to go inside. No bathrooms. They stand in line outside. No delivery. It's too dangerous. Food delivery drivers get robbed and shot in this town. Not this part of town. The whole town is dangerous. Bulletproof glass, and steel bars like a check cashing store. Only her Dad, and her brothers work there. And they are armed. Her Mom and sisters never go there. It's a bad neighborhood.

Her family was from Istanbul. Not Constantinople. Her parents and elder siblings came from The Old Country. Her, and the younger siblings were Born In The USA. The brothers try to dress and act like rappers. the girls try to act like Kardashians. As with a lot of 1st generation immigrants, her parents are very conservative, and are not so pleased by the crime, violence, drugs, and moral turpitude they find in America. And they're also very displeased with their daughters wearing yoga pants and tank tops.

How do I fit in? I don't. A guy I know told me, "when you get there, here's the number, call my cousin" Which cousin? What's his name? Who do I ask for? "It doesn't matter, Who ever answers, just say that you're a friend of mine, and I told you to call." This guy I know, it turns out, he's actually never even met these people. They're related. Third cousins, of an uncle's 3rd concubine, or livestock was traded and bartered between their ancestral villages. It goes back to their grandparents. But that's the way of people descended from ancient cultures. I'm a traveler. I'm associated. They offer harborage, refuge, and hospitality.

I'm no Angel. My friend's uncle isn't Lot. Detroit, however, could pass for Sodom. Or at least parts of it can pass for Sodom. The part where this family sells pizza and pasta. I spent a little time hanging out there with them. Bad parts of town are the same all over The USA. Drugs. Gangs. Violence. Abandoned properties. People passed out on the sidewalk, laying in pools of their own filth. Poverty. Desperation. People who will buy $5 slices of bad cheese pizza, and $5 coffee cups of bad spaghetti. This neighborhood is so bad, you can't even find a fast food vendor with a $1 menu. As a "side hustle", my new friends also sell single cigarettes through the "pizzeria". anyone who can't afford to buy a full pack of cigarettes can buy 1 cigarette for $1. Liquor stores sell $5 ziplock bags filled with an airline size bottle of alcohol, a child size juice box, and ice cubes. You see people on the corner drinking cocktails out of sandwich bags. You don't want to know about everything that you can buy on the streets with a $5 bill. $5 is the fixed price for a lot street level bartering and trading.

That is just about the most depressing post that I have ever read on this forum. Strange as it may seem, I warm to the sentiment behind it.

 

[Fifty150]

That is just about the most depressing post that I have ever read on this forum. Strange as it may seem, I warm to the sentiment behind it.

I cringed myself. It almost felt like Jerry Seinfeld coaching a Pakistani cafe owner.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Losing your debit card and having to wait on a new one which takes five to seven business days from the time THEY start the ball rolling which could be God knows when! I just realised that my request is probably sitting on somebody's desk at the bottom of the stack.

Meanwhile it's a pain in the arse not being able to access your money when you want it. Instead of being able to use the ATM having to go to the bank to draw out cash only during business hours.

And then I won an auction on eBay completely forgetting that my card is linked to my eBay account. I told the seller that I would try to pay on the 19th, the earliest that I could expect to receive the new card which in any case hadn't arrived yet. I get the feeling it will take the full seven days or longer to get here which will now be Tuesday the 24th. I lost my card on May 12!

 

[GHT]

Meanwhile it's a pain in the arse not being able to access your money when you want it. Instead of being able to use the ATM having to go to the bank to draw out cash only during business hours.

Pain in the arse? The British influence gets everywhere. Not funny though, losing a debit card, I hope that the card was all you lost.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Pain in the arse? The British influence gets everywhere. Not funny though, losing a debit card, I hope that the card was all you lost.

It's pretty insidious. I almost said "cash point." I had the card locked immediately so I didn't lose anything. The worse part is being in limbo for nearly two weeks.