Follow
Share
Read More
Find Care & Housing

5K Comments

Newest
First Oldest
First
49 50 51 52 53
I was planning to sleep in late this morning. I purposely decided not to sleep my usual time. I went to sleep this morning at 2:00am.  The sunrise woke me up nice and bright at 6:00am...  early till 2am, I was busy downloading lots of free ebooks or on sale $0.99 maybe due to Memorial Holiday. I was finding series of books for $0.99. Series!

Okay, confession time. I was looking at each and every free or $0.99 sales to see if their audio books were also on sale for $1.99. When I do find it does, I read the summary and then listen to the audio sample. I once bought a book series and the audiobooks - only to find out I couldn’t stand the narrator. .. I found one interesting series on sale for both - and the narrator had a nice voice but spoke with a very, very Pronounced “sssss” at the end of the word of ‘s’ sound. Her ‘wants’ ended up with ‘wantsssss’. I couldn’t even finish the end of the audio sample. .. In college, in the speech class that I dropped out of, I learned that was a common problem among speaking - the sssss sound. The instructor showed us how to not do that. I adjusted my speech to avoid the ssss. I still sometimes find myself falling back to it.
(2)
Report
I was at the pharmacy today and I was told there is a new shingles vaccine out and that you should get it even if you had the old one (which I did have a few years ago). I'm going to get the new vaccine. I definitely had chicken pox (still have the scars) but I haven't had shingles and I'm praying not to get it. It's miserably painful under the best of circumstances and yes there can be complications. So sorry for the loss of your brother, Gershun.
(3)
Report
Niece in Colorado just FB messaged me. She's treating herself and her mom (my older sister) to a 7-day Hawaiian cruise next year in May. Her mom has always wanted to take the Hawaiian cruise. Niece is inviting me. She knows that her mom and I are close - bookworms, nerdy, bookworms... not adventurous (as in hiking, canoeing, etc..). I said yes, I want to go!

I might have to purchase+miles for my airline ticket to about $700.00 which will save me another $700 from just completely buying my ticket. My tax refund can cover that ticket. Oh.... Oops, I thought I was going to have to cancel my trip to Texas this year. I just remembered my boss will be covering for that ticket.

I just need to google if it's feasible if I should go on a cruise if I have vertigo problem. I hate to spend the whole time hiding inside the cabin... Actually, I have never ever had any desire to go on a cruise. You're stuck on a ship for days and days. I mean, I do have my books which I spend all my free time reading anyway. But... I would like to experience a cruise at least once in my lifetime.... Eek... I'm already panicking... Did I forget to mention that I'm terrified of water??? (I still panic when the bathtub water starts rising above my ankle.)  When I go to the beach here on island, and wade into the water, I start panicking when the waves hit me anywhere above my knees. And we have Tame waves not like one sees in Hawaii or Virginia. Excited but scared...
(5)
Report
Book, go and have fun! Just don't watch the Titanic before you go. Just saying.........:P
(5)
Report
Gersh, you cracked me up. I was chuckling as I read it. Good thing I could never finish watching that show. I've tried so many times. I much prefer to read/watch the documentaries on it. Fascinating stuff. Sad, too... They have the modern day version with regards to that Italian cruise ship captain and his crew abandoning ship without even telling the passengers. I believe he finally went to trial last year and they found him guilty. When I watched the news stories on it, it reminded me so much of the Titanic. I think it was the contracted out workers who helped the passengers get off that ship, too. It's been a while. My memory may be fuzzy on that detail.
(1)
Report
Remember all the disaster movies from the 1970s - Poseidon Adventure - towering inferno - earthquake ?
(6)
Report
Not sure the decade but.... Birds attacking people. Dogs attacking people. Clowns killing people. Dolls killing people. Lightning causing natural disaster. A volcano eruption in the middle of a city... unnatural tornadoes...

I think the one that scared me the most and found believable was the plants/vines creeping slowly to kill people. I sometimes talk to plants and trees, telling it how pretty it is. I don’t think I ever got over my fear of that old black and white movie.
(2)
Report
Book, I talk to trees too. I had two huge, bushy pine trees outside where I used to live. I lived at that place for almost thirty years. We moved this last October. These trees started out waist high when I moved in and now they are 60, 70 feet. I cried when we moved. This may sound dumb but I felt like they were my friends. They even comforted me when my dear Mom died. I still miss them.

Remember that movie The Birds. There is a place here where I live where the crows gather. Thousands of them. It's eerie. Especially when you consider that a group of crows is called a murder. :P
(5)
Report
Book, you are surely to heaven not talking about The Day of The Triffids, are you? Believable?????

Think this through. Those triffids would first of all have to see off Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed and giant hogweed. Our natural earthbound plant life wouldn't put up with triffids for a moment, don't you worry.

Gershun, trees are true landmarks in our life and there is nothing remotely dumb about being attached to them. Hugs to you.
(4)
Report
CM, I'm not sure of the title. I was in elementary age. My family loved watching scary movies - Alfred Hitchcocks, the ever-depressing Twilight Zone, etc... But I remember that the movie was a black-and-white film. So, it must be an old re-run film before 1980's. I just remembered that they always showed it moving at nights.

I can tell you factually, since I've experienced it personally, that One tree can sure shake itself hard while all the other shrubs and tall trees are not moving, no wind blowing their leaves. This happened a few years ago. I - the cowardly one of my whole siblings - stared at the shaking tree with its leaves making such a racket behind me - turned my back to it and Pretended I didn't see it doing that. =)
(1)
Report
CM,
And I'm guessing big, strong and handsome Howard Keel didn't put up with triffids either
(3)
Report
I just watched a great doc/movie on You Tube called "Krakatoa, The Last Days August 1883". It's based on interviews with actual survivors and diaries, including those of a scientist that was there. Very well done and SO interesting....
(4)
Report
I remember a movie as a kid
Krakatoa east of Java
(1)
Report
I remember all those old scarey movies,, I still love "animal" horror films! The one that scared me for life was Frogs.. handsome Sam Elliot.. lonely southern mansion in the swamp;; almost put me off camping!!
(3)
Report
Speaking of trees, decade or so ago I finally got a chance to go back to the city where I grew up from the age 2 to 22 after being away for 30 years. The house still resembled its old self, but was missing was the grand old chestnut tree out front.

Just seemed so weird not having that tree there any more, in fact, many of the big old trees were gone from that street... sad, it just didn't feel like "home" as I remembered it.
(3)
Report
I watched a story once where they were talking to a former logger. He said he had what he referred to as a supernatural experience where he started hearing the trees scream when they were being chopped down. He knows people think he is a wack job but he believes firmly to this day that he heard what he heard. He has since found a different line of work.
(4)
Report
Book if you'd held your nerve and looked more closely at the tree I expect you would have spotted the varmints making it shake - squirrels having a boundary dispute, or wood pigeons getting it on would be my prime suspects, and I'm sure your trees have similar inhabitants. I mean, it could have been the tree having a good scratch and ridding itself of some insects it didn't like, but I think they have subtler mechanisms for doing that.

Trees are our friends! Whatever it was up to it certainly wasn't shaking its fist at you :)
(2)
Report
CM, we don't have squirrels, raccoons, skunks, monkeys, etc. in our island. We have lots of snakes, iguanas, geckos, turtles, coconut crabs, chickens, dogs, cats, pigs, etc...
(1)
Report
Pigs! Brilliant! I would LOVE it to have been little pigs, in jackets, out gathering acorns..!
(1)
Report
Do people eat coconut crabs?

Raccoons make all sorts of racket. Kinda surprised the my little raccoon family live is a rotted out stump so close to the ground.
(3)
Report
Yes, people do eat coconut crabs. It's just big crab that eats coconuts. They tend to dig holes on the beach and the dirt ground further away from the beach. My brothers used to drive out at night along the roads near beaches. The crabs come out and waddle across the road. They would stop the car, jump out, grab the crabs and throw it in the trunk. Usually, there's a container to put it in. My niece and her husband were returning home from a party late at night. They saw the crab crossing the street and the grabbed it, threw it in the trunk (no container.) When they got home, they put it in a container and fed it until they were ready to cook/eat it. They were so proud to have caught their very first crab that they took a photo of it and posted it on FB.
(2)
Report
Seems like if they eat coconut they would be a sweeter meat?
(1)
Report
I don't know. I hate eating crabs. It's so time consuming just trying to get those tiny bits of meat out of their skinny legs. I don't have the patience to crack it, and suck on it. Those tiny leg meat just doesn't fill me up. I tend to bypass crabs at parties. Plus, I'm a picky eater. My family loves to eat the inside of the crab - as in the inside icky stuff. Not just the legs. I cannot do that. I will only eat the legs. They say that I'm missing out on the good stuff.
(2)
Report
I don't eat crab either, for the reason bookluvr noted. What I know about coconut crab I know from watching survival shows. Apparently the flesh has a slightly coconutty flavor which is delicious. Or so I've heard...
(1)
Report
Used to love crab, but in the last few years I have developed a severe allergy to shell fish. Ugh. Used to love crab legs, shrimp etc. So now I don't eat it. But I still love catfish, tilapia and other fish.
(2)
Report
I completely forgot to do this until I heard it again from the mainland radio news talk. Russians are hacking normal people's routers. They're not targeting companies, just individual people like us. Through our routers, they are able to obtain all our passwords, online logins, etc... into all our online banking, orders, etc....

There is a very simple solution. Please reset your router. Turn it off for 60 seconds. Then turn it on.
(2)
Report
I have a less convenient but more secure (I hope) take on this, Book.

I try to work on the assumption that if I would mind any data of mine becoming public, I shouldn't put it on the internet. *Anywhere* on the internet. There is no such thing as a totally secure site.

Obviously this is a bit impractical if you ever want to shop online; but at the very least never allow even a trusted organisation to "save your payment details" for next time.

I'll resist online banking for as long as I can; but the trouble is that the banks love it and eventually it won't be optional. Think of the overheads they save! Financially it makes sense for them no matter how many helplines and complaints lines and reporting lines they have to staff; not least because when there is a problem and the lines go berserk people can't get through, so they give up and go away and just have to sort out their own problems - the new house they now can't move into, the contract they can't deliver on time because they can't pay for supplies.

We had a biggish problem a few weeks back which is still being sorted out. It wasn't the Russians. It was an - you have to smile - "upgrade."

I don't think you need to buy in wholesale to the wicked Russians targeting ordinary innocent members of the public like you and me because they are so cruel and unfeeling story. The world is quite scary enough with spotty Herberts buggering about in their bedrooms and thinking it would be fun to hold a whole country to ransom; and technology having got so far ahead of almost everyone's understanding they may well do this by accident.

We are in strange new territory. God knows what the answer will be; but people will find a way - they always do.

Keep a couple of days' cash in the house.
(2)
Report
It seems to me that having a secure re-loadable card that is totally separate from your bank account would be the most secure option but for some reason they aren't popular and seem to be less trusted by merchants. It bothers me that all your bank information is linked to your bank/debit card and hackers are managing to raid data stored by the businesses where you've used it and even the banks themselves.
(2)
Report
Well, PayPal kind of works like that, doesn't it? I hardly ever use it, don't do enough online to bother, but I do have a PayPal account that's linked to a bank account that only ever has a tiny balance - in fact, the bank account was the one I used for mother's petty cash, so it's as basic as can be: no direct debits or overdraft facility or regular payments into it or anything like that. If anyone went to the trouble of hacking into that I think they'd be pretty disappointed :)
(1)
Report
CM,
Keeping cash in the house...$1.00 today.
(2)
Report

Recent Questions


Popular Questions


Related Questions

Start a Discussion
Subscribe to
Our Newsletter