Ian Abel

and if you check items to "quote" the "quote" tag covers the top of page arrow so you have to use the scroll bar to get back to the top of the next page if you're needing to move to the next page. Seems something is broken, it used to be that when you used the next page navigation or any selected page # you'd be automatically placed at the top. Now you're placed at the bottom of the page...

Not wanting to be too insensitive but isn't a waiting list to be dead rather pointless, unless they've come up with some way for you to stay alive beyond your "due date". If they HAVE, I'm sure lots of us would like to know how to do that!! 🤯🤪❓

HUMP day... Not much to report from yesterday. Mrs spent time with a grand-niece, somehow the schools had TWO days off for MLK observance this year, no !@$!@$!@$ idea why that was/is necessary! RANT ON The story (so far!) Rental property scheduled for some pest abatement in late December. Renter had identified a company to perform task, contacted them, had them inspect/quote. Company sent email contract to renter to electronically sign, she said NO, contact/have landlord create account as they(we) want to be billed directly. Company have me set up account, send me email contract, I sign and return. Work scheduled and completed. Company extract charge from RENTERS credit card as they had it on file - NOTE: Even though she had NOT signed anything! No problem, had her deduct from January rent. Company send her invoice stating PAID, she provides it to me for our records. done deal, right??? NOOOOOOOOOO... I'm NOW getting email reminders to pay the outstanding invoice and the possibility of a late charge. My "account" with them shows the charge and the service provided. I've called "support" who sound like they're based in the expected/ubiquitous "foreign location". After 20 minutes on the phone with them, including on hold TWICE while the individual checked with a supervisor, I was informed the local office needed to handle it. Can't get them on the phone, they're never there. Left voicemails, no response, sent nasty-gram no reply. How is it possible for a company to have the explicit data for the same service done on the same day/time at the same address, by the same service tech., not realize they're double billing!! BOTH invoices show exactly the same datag with a photo of the same tech! They're IDENTICAL! If you hear of a pest control company building in a Minneapolis suburb mysteriously catch fire or have shite thrown at their door, it wasn't me 🤣🤣🤣 RANT OFF -2c overcast and windy first thing, zero the expected high. Carry on.

CHewsday, AWOL, and late posting <phew> Busy working days and weekend was busier than expected for reasons known only to higher powers! Saturday a great dinner out with Trevor and Meagan at a local Korean restaurant. Sunday up 'o crack sparrow to sing with the schola at the MLK services, THAT was tiring. Quick nap early afternoon then a trip to the rental property to review the attic carp. We want/need to have the attic re-insulated and that means all the carp we decided to leave/store there after we moved has NOW to be sorted/chucked and/or stored here. Wasn't as bad as expected, so we're starting to determine when to start on it. Given we head to AZ for a week next Tuesday, there's probably not much will get done before that trip. Weather all over the charts here, we had above zero temps the latter part of Sunday and yesterday, including some rain, until the temp dropped then it turned to light snow! -1c and overcast first thing, supposed to remain overcast all day with a high of +1c. Onward.

Arrrgghhh... AWOL from posting yesterday too panicked. Been crazy busy with large amounts of "panic additions" to client reports due to end-of-year and the need for departments to suddenly add all kinds of new accounting data, resulting in new lines, to be added to myriad reports! That was my Thursday "work time". BIN men didn't come again, no clue as to WHY, they showed up before sunrise TODAY! Also, schola rehearsal last evening, with the "pre" happy hour, fist of the year. Today still in busy/panic mode with reports. Later, who knows, nothing planned but some relaxation post work. Tomorrow we're taking Trevor and Meagan out to dinner at a very good/authentic Korean restaurant. Celebrating his "arrival day" as we do every year. We get to remind him that we were almost snowed in at the airport waiting for his arrival that year as it was mid-blizzard! 🤪 Sunday the schola singing at the MLK services so up early for me. -10c first thing a lot of very slippery roads as it thawed some yesterday. -5 expected high, the weekend will be "warmer" the dizzying heights of as much as +3c!! WOW. Tally ho.

Actually, a few places here recycle old light strings, I used BIN rather too liberally, for BIN, read recycle 🤪 I think - though can't confirm as of right now, that Home Depot take light strings for recycle. Whether any of the places truly recycle them or not is up for discussion

No, but what it DOES do, is determine if I'm going to BIN them or not. Often with some older strings of lights, they'll end up broken/damaged simply as a result of getting them untangled and off the tree. Since I'm moving over to all LEDs anyway, if a string deems itself "temperamental" it gets BINNED. 🤣

Amusingly, I can recall WAY TOO MANY times, where I've been called from various levels of client staff over the decades, and the fix has actually been to turn it off and back on again. This is notably a very popular and frequent requirement with the last zillion updates for Winblows 11!!!! 🤪🤯 HUMP day. Yesterday pretty much nothing to report other than Jemma picking up Whitney and hanging around for a chat for an hour or so. Work entailed some minor report changes. Then I was instrumental (read: given the task of) in removing the lights from the christmas tree, testing before storing same, and then heaving the tree out onto the pile of snow next to where the BINs will reside this evening. Tree will be taken by BIN folks, thank you. Today likely quiet also, with the Mrs spending some time with one of her grand nieces. -3c first thing, high overcast, forecast for a high of 1c and expecting some snow later Onward.

Have to agree, the prices are starting to get way stupid IMHO. As my dad would've said - "I don't want to buy the entire bl00dy factory!"

Chewsday and little to report. Long Island client rousing and posting some minor requests for changes <yawn> Jemma due in this morning to collect Whitney after her London trip. Seems they were 2+ hours delayed out of Heathrow yesterday evening, so not into NY until past 10PM. Will be interesting to discover the reason for that delay... Christmas decorations being removed gradually by the Mrs yesterday and today, with my primary role being the removal of the lights from the tree, testing and storing same for next year's deployment. At my grammar school the irony of the English department was that the head of department was a Mr. O'Donovan, such a broad Irish brogue that it was impossible to understand him 60+% of the time without him repeating himself! 🤪 Separation, AND REQUIREMENT TO TAKE, were language and literature, required until 'O' level. The most boring (apologies to any fans of same) and uninteresting read we had IMHO was "The Canterbury Tales", a true yawner if ever there was one. Only other thing I remember from the deluge of "literature" presented, was "A Tale of Two titties Cities" (schoolboy humorous title revised)! We waded through endless Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens and Burns as I recall. Weather first thing overcast and gray/miserable looking, -6c with a high of -1c expected. Tally ho.

Monday... Successful weekend overall. Friday, Zoom with friends now winter-relocated to Arizona, planned our trip there for the end of January, a week in a warmer climate (at least temperature wise!) Saturday, enjoyable dinner/movie night with neighbors, very excellent Indian take-out obtained, and plenty of wine consumed. Sunday, Brendan dropped Whitney off, both he and Jemma now out on trips. A few to-do items handled, then late afternoon and evening spent at the Mrs sisters' birthday gathering, Actually for both her AND her hubby, my BIL. Just family and a very nice get together. Working today, quiet so far. Weather all weekend has been sunny but cold, -14c first thing, expected to make 0c if we're lucky! Onward...

POETS/BIN day! No BIN trucks yesterday, everyone waited/watched in anticipation, to no avail. <sigh> Nothing much else happened. The snow is actually becoming a problem here (horrors!!) mostly because there's less and less space to pile it up as the plows come by. Today they have additional equipment out pushing the snow onto the front garden areas, to get the streets wide enough for the school buses room to navigate. Jemma finished her OE on the 767-400 yesterday and since her January schedule doesn't start until 17th., they tagged her (her choice to accept/pick it up) for a round trip to Heathrow tomorrow as they're short of pilots, lots calling in sick with this winter weather. I don't even want to tell you how much she'll get paid for the overtime-type flight, it's staggering!! 🤯🤪 She'll drop Whitney off tomorrow morning before heading to JFK to start the trip. Tonight, our first Zoom happy hour evening with our friends who've now deserted to Arizona for the winter, whimps 😀 Tomorrow, a concerted effort to get all Christmas decoration down and packed away. -14c and sunny first thing, high of -8 expected. Enjoy the start of the weekend

BIN day PAH!🤪 Last week, having missed the BIN day as they'd NOT shifted it one day due to the holiday, and they arrived almost at sunrise, so NO CHANCE to get the BINs out once I heard the trucks. Fast forward to this week - we got over a foot of snow in the 24-hours up to late last evening and had to wait until our "guy" came to plow the drive etc., which we didn't expect to happen until late at night. Yours truly, needing the facilities around 1:30AM then moved the BINs to their required spot, this was planned, I'd just check if I got up and move them once the driveway was cleared. GUESS WHAT!!! It's now closing in on 11AM and the BIN trucks have not been heard, even though all the schedules say they will pick up on the regular day i.e. today. I'm sure its snow/weather related, but last week was pretty much the same/as bad, and the buqqers were here o'crack sparrow!!! <GRRRR> That's MY rant for the day. Otherwise, fairly quiet here, especially given we had a 24-hour+ continuous snow event, so we weren't going ANYWHERE! The Mrs did take a short walk during a break in it yesterday and reported it "looks lovely" out. Pretty much up to our bums in snow as can been seen from these morning shots. -11c first thing and sunny, high expected to reach -1c Tally ho.

Happy New Year, one and all... Been quiet here since I last posted, a few days of little activity much relaxing and a lead-up to NYE which was just the Mrs and myself enjoying our own company. Yesterday was the scheduled "family Christmas", time when everyone could get together this season. We had a lovely time, plenty of food, drink and chatter. Fun with the dogs and even Bob, who was most appreciative of his catnip presents 🤣 Star prize (which everyone had already known about EXCEPT ME!) was a wine chiller/mini fridge for the bar for me. Been considering using muddling tokens for one of those for a LONG time, so now I've spare tokens to fritter away. Back to work today, quiet so far as I'm sure the client staff are all recovering from being gone over a week and need to get their proverbial ducks in a row before bothering me too much. Weather here has been mild-ish (for this part of the country!) but summed up today best by a picture; That's not dust on the lens, whopping snow flakes, and forecast to get 6-8+ inches time it ends tomorrow morning. Jemma is due to drive to the airport in this carp to do a 3-day trip!! 🤯 -5c first thing and wasn't snowing then high of +1c possibly. Tally ho.

Wednesday... (not HUMP as only a 4-day week here as most places I suspect). Quiet day yesterday, nothing really to report. Slowly working up the changes for Long Island client, otherwise, nothing! Today we're supposed to take the Mrs grand-nieces for holiday lights drive/viewing, that's scheduled for after 6pm. -3c and overcast first thing, supposed to remain cloudy all day. High of 2c expected. Carry on.

Afternoon... Good Boxing Day, slept in, then mid-afternoon Trevor and Meagan came over, plenty of nice things to eat and drink a played a couple of games they had with them. Today, back working, pretty slow pace as the client key contacts are off until Jan 3rd. I've a few things to untangle for them but plenty of time to do it and take it slowly 🙂 Nothing else happening, I think the Mrs may make a grocery run, otherwise a relaxing evening ahead. -16c and mostly sunny first thing, high of -1c expected. Later.

Christmas done and dusted, though to be far given it was just the Mrs and me, it was very low key! Sore throat still playing a major roll in anything being done 😒 Nice simple meal of some ham with a glaze the Mrs made, some green veg and a salad. Plenty of egg-nogg with lashings of Amaretto, probably could have just done with the Amaretto 🤣 Watched "Love Actually", one of our regular Christmas fares and also "Grumpy Old Men", somewhat a Christmas movie and given it's set in Minnesnowta, has some handy colloquialism to get a laugh. Today, as always, we do Boxing Day, Trevor and Meagan will be over, with their two dogs, so Whitney will get a playtime with friends. Weather is becoming "winter normal" -19c at newspaper time, sunny no wind, expecting a high of -11c "LOVELY"!! Happy Boxing Day

Merry "Eve". Yesterday was relaxing but did include a trip to the grocery store to assure ourselves we have enough comestibles to tide us over for the couple of days we will pretty much be on our own. Plenty of stuff we really should avoid, also plenty of nice cheese, and a small ham to cook tomorrow. We've decided having a quiet time will be excellent, so long as we don't start imbibing TOO EARLY 🤣 Friends were over for dinner and the Mrs made a very passable Shepherds pie, though with no Shepherds available at the store she opted for beef instead! Watched the "British Arrows Awards". A LOT MORE public-service/charity commercials this year than most taking the prizes it seems. Still very nice to be able to stream it in the comfort of home. Today, a bit of cleanup after last evening, and preparing for guests tonight. There's a RUMOR we're going to make mince pies shortly, I'm hoping so, as mum always used to make the Christmas Eve and we do that pretty much every year. Besides, I really, REALLY like them <yum> Tonight we're off to the Christmas Eve service followed by a few friends and Trevor & Meagan returning here for our traditional "eve" Chinese take-away. NOt singing, as the choir aren't this year, and also since my sore throat is still in full swing, I won't be getting up at 7am and braving the blqqdy cold morning to sign tomorrow. Still brass-monkeys cold here with a first thing temperature of -24c, sunny (OF COURSE!), and a high of -19c forecast. Merry Christmas/happy holiday/bon chance, whatever suits you.

Indeed, been there, done that, AND, probably possible in the next couple of days. Doesn't actually turn to snow, rather tiny ice crystals. HOWEVER, that entails; 1) some numpty (yours truly) racing outside in stupidly cold temperatures 2) with a pan of boiling water - needs to be done as fast as possible for best effect 3) and chucking said pan contents into the air. 4) depending on wind speed/direction and a lack of planning for those parameters, can be a very chilling experience! Not the BEST sequence of events to attempt once you're aging some, and there are slippery surfaces and steps to negotiate., WITH a pan of boiling water 🤪🤣 Best left to the young and foolish, though I HAVE done it a couple of times in the past.

I continue to live in hope that one day folks will be able to file lawsuits for "stupid"! These two are second I think behind the idiot lady who filed a lawsuit because the coffee SHE SPILLED in her lap was served too hot in a McD drive-through!

@AndyID certainly agree re: level of care, never had a complaint (other than "old school" surgeon doing an appendectomy with a full cut across the belly!!) however, the COST is tragic. I'm just glad I've always had excellent (still pricey!) health insurance everywhere I worked, those having to pay high prices I really feel for. POETS, except I'm off already, taking the day and that makes FOUR DAYS of something approaching peace and quiet.... MAYBE! 🤣 Yesterday, sore throat remained annoying as it is today. Taking all the suggested attempts at remedy, doesn't really do much though. Whitney dropped off by Brendan - we didn't realise how much we've missed her as we've not seen had her stay for several weeks now. He's off to Chicago first thing today, he and Jemma having Christmas with his parents. Jemma is in mid-flight as we speak coming back from Athens. just entering North American airspace. With strong jet-stream, the flight is currently looking like it'll be around 11 hours!!! Added to that, she gets to land at JFK with a strong gusting cross-wind as forecast right now - that'll make her "happy" 🤪 We're off to do some grocery shopping to cover the next few days - now looking forward to that as it's currently -20c/real-feel -28c and blizzard warnings due to high winds and plenty of powdery/dry snow on the ground. This evening friends coming over and we're watching the British Arrows Awards we usually go and see it at a local art center, but this year for the FIRST TIME it's optionally available on a streaming service. Combination of the weather and not really wanting to have to plan/schedule for a performance, it seemed very sensible to go for a $16 streaming fee, rather than even the seniors fee of $12 apiece in person. Win, win. Weekend will be variously busy and quiet given we're not having Christmas till Jan 2nd., due to family missing in action until then. Suits us. Lots of relaxing. Weather (as already mentioned) is STUPID here, -24c first thing, blowing a near gale continually, high showing a forecast -16c. Merry Christmas/happy holidays/whatever you choose to celebrate, to all ERs, their families and friends.

Very late today.. Long Island client in full panic mode hoping to get all the updates/changes they need before they buqqer off tomorrow for 4+ days. Twas BIN day and dragging them out last night before the snow was plowed was a real treat/challenge!! Yesterday, fine snow all day, and through the late evening, seems like 6-8 inches final for the day. SoDDing cold also. The evening dinner with our Indian neighbors was delightful, and every dish was "not spicy" according to the lady chef. Even so a couple of them were definitely at least what I'd classify as "medium spicy" when we order out! I don't recall any of names the dishes other than Palak paneer and we also had some very nice home-made roti and a beet raita. Spoke to Jemma today, on her 48-hour layover in Athens, sounds like fun. She flies back tomorrow to JFK then to Chicago to be with Brendan and his parents over Christmas. Mrs off to have an afternoon get together with some friends, I'll hold down the fort... Still fighting with a very sore throat, so will be giving choir rehearsal a pass, and that may also mean I'll be out of commission for the Christmas services, we'll see. White Christmas...uh, YEAH I THINK SO!!! -25c getting the newspaper, bright sun but at that temperature no-one cares. Sun all day today may reach a balmy -19c for a high, but still at 21c at noon so I doubt it!!! 🤯 Onward.

Happy birthday @BR60103 Also, sad to see another loss this year 😒 though I wasn't well connected with John. HUMP day, though not really as I'm taking Friday off (Long Island client will be AWOL so no point showing up!) Yesterday, busy with increasing load of report changes - mostly a result of the "auditors" (E&Y) deciding YET AGAIN, they want to essentially chuck all the current report formats up in the air and see how different they look when they land - at least that's how it appears they decide on the changes they request - wot a useless lot. Mrs went out for her book club in the evening and I was left to fend for myself...except for some "tidying up" that was SUGGESTED!! 🤪 First thing today I had my annual review, not exactly anything startling as I'm simply consistent in filling the coffers for the big/bad corporation! They rewarded me with a 3% increase. Better than the proverbial poke in the eye, I guess. This evening we're going to the next-door neighbors for dinner - will be a real treat as they've been talking about it for a while - Indian family who are just delightful and we'll get a taste of "real" Indian food 🙂 Other than any work/report activity, the day itself is going to get interesting, as we're supposed to get as much as 8 inches of snow, already snowing lightly first thing, so we'll see, as it doesn't appear heavy enough to accumulate that much. Cold making up for it, REAL COLD i.e. -23c first thing, and rising to a startling -15c for the high. Warnings of severe weather/frostbite conditions abound. Other than the walk next-door, I'm not going anywhere... Tally ho.

Chewsday... Late on parade, year-end efforts and as a result report changes, by the Long Island client, are ramping up big time! Yesterday uneventful. Started steaming my head and it seems to be the one thing that is helping all ailments, and the ONLY thing not suggested by anyone in the medical profession! Definitely on the BLQQDY COLD side here first thing, at -21c, but sunny, not that THAT makes any difference at these temperatures. -12c the forecast high. Storm warnings for the next couple of days with "significant" snow fall expected. Everyone advised to travel early for Christmas as the roads and airports may be backed up. OK, so who ONE EARTH do they think has the ability to re-arrange their Christmas travel plans because the weather is taking a turn, Fat chance re-arranging any flights for sure as they're all booked solid. Oh well, onward.

Morning, just, here... Weekend replete with various events, issues and some general annoyance! Friday, awoke with red/sore eyes and baggy eye lids making me look about 95!! As I was heading out for a few items for our evening party decided to "drop in" at the Urgent Care (A&E equivalent). After a fairly extensive investigation, was decided I had "Conjunctivitis (nonspecific)" whatever the HELL that means. Told it wasn't contagious, party can continue, use cold compress for itching and swelling, take some prescription antibiotic eye drops in case there was an underlying/undetected bacterial infection in the eye! PAH TURDYCURSES! "Christmas Vacation" party was deemed a success by all attending, unfortunately Brendan and Jemma couldn't come as he's still in quarantine due to COVID +ve 7 days back. Attached, the Mrs and myself who were declared a VERY passable Uncle Lewis and Aunt Bethany. Saturday and Sunday SUCKED, eyes feeling worse, pretty much sat around bothdays applying cold compress and whining! Doesn't help that it was also hard to get a decent sleep. Today the eyes finally feel somewhat better, but NOW my sinus issue has made a bid to p!ss me off even more. What a cluster. Long Island client also ramping up for year-end with some changes to misc. reports rolling in. Weather blqqdy cold at -19c getting the newspaper in, had snow off and on ALL weekend continuing occasionally today. Does make for a nice winter wonderland out. High forecast to be a blazing -9c!!! Onward...