And now what did you do TODAY?

[naamanf]

Yuge cougar fan. 

[swt61]

Obviously I have no issue with cross generational relationships.

[robm321]

Mountain lions freak me out the most. They can outrun you, out climb you and they are masters of the ambush. Just part of mountain living though. Fortunately, they are shy and mostly come around at night. 

That spider, though, HELL NO!!

[Dusty Chalk]

2 hours ago, naamanf said:

Yuge cougar fan. 

As long as they're wearing yoga pants, amirite?  

[TMoney]

Fleet week in SF with Grahame. USS Michael Monseur first up. 

[TMoney]

After seeing the new hotness it is pretty wild going 20+ years back in time to the older gen destroyers. 

[swt61]

Was talking to my Mom on the phone, when something flew in the front door. I caught it out of my peripheral vision. Assumed it was a big moth, so I kept talking to my Mom. Once I hung up, I went into the bedroom to investigate. Whatever it was, Suzy had it trapped under a nightstand. I flushed it out, to find it was a big ol' scrubjay. Took a little work, but got the poor bird back outside relatively unscathed. 

Edited October 6, 2021 by swt61

[swt61]

Nothing compared to my other neighbors...

Had six of them inside the fence yesterday. 

I don't believe these are of the jive variety.

[Grahame]

Remember to follow all weapons health and safety instructions.

 

 

[swt61]

Turkeys back in the yard today. I don't think they liked Suzy's welcome.

[TMoney]

Went to a friend’s wedding last night. First wedding I’ve been to since COVID. So much fun.

[Grahame]

Watched The Blue Angels do their fleet week thing from Tiburon.

[Voltron]

Currently at our first concert since covid. Wilco outdoors in Napa with proof of vaccination. Feels weird but good.

[Sherwood]

8 hours ago, Voltron said:

Currently at our first concert since covid. Wilco outdoors in Napa with proof of vaccination. Feels weird but good.

I recently went to my first concerts since COVID, and had a similar feeling.  Some of the "weird" has already been worn off by a half dozen international flights, but I didn't know how much I missed live music until I went back.  God, this pandemic sucked.

[swt61]

1 hour ago, Sherwood said:

God, this pandemic sucked.

And that reminds me of something else I really missed,  since the start of this damned pandemic.

[Grahame]

^

A live local band while you enjoyed food and drink?

In this case,

http://theincubators.net/

Americana from Petaluma, hence the name?

("Petaluma, home of the inventor of the incubator"

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19130525.2.43&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1 

)

Contactless tipping (both from the venues QR code accessed menu, or from the QR code Venmo prompts on stage) may be a side effect of the pandemic, or just the way of the future.

Enjoyable, nevertheless.

 

https://youtube.com/c/TheincubatorsNet

 

 

 

 

 

[TMoney]

I too finally got out to my first show post-lockdown to see Phoebe Bridgers at the Greek in Berkeley. It was so much fun to be part of a big crowd again.

[Craig Sawyers]

Well we went to the theatre this week - a matinee performance of The Mirror and the Light. This is the last of a trilogy of plays about the life of Thomas Cromwell, based on Hilary Mantel's books.

The play was awesome. But the theatre was packed to the gunnels, no need of proof of vaccination or a negative covid test. So if the national average was present, one in ten was not vaccinated. And since the government has abandoned mandatory mask wearing (as a courtesy to others only), only half the audience were wearing masks.

We found the whole experience very disquieting.

Going to the theatre was very much our thing pre-covid, at least once a month. But the gung-ho attitude of our idiot leader regarding public safety makes us very wary of repeating the experience any time soon.

[Voltron]

Now we know what the loud CRACK BOOM! was a few weeks ago on a very windy night. This is up the gully on our property.

Miraculously, it did not crush the drainage pipe. 

[Dusty Chalk]

Mother Nature didn't call Miss Utility?

[Craig Sawyers]

That is pretty impressive! Are you going to get a tree surgeon in to remove it?

This isn't a problem so much in UK properties, where the garden is like a postage stamp by comparison, even on otherwise impressive properties.

[Craig Sawyers]

Well that was a result. We pay for a landline phone from Virgin Media. We have been paying £27 a month for a long time.

I decided to look at alternatives, and Direct Save Telecom came up with £19.50.

So I phoned Virgin Media, quoted the alternative prices to them - and with zero negotiation the slashed the charges by £10 to £17 a month. And because of where we are in the billing cycle, they will refund £9.60 and only charge us £7.40 for this month.

No idea why I haven't done this years ago!

[Craig Sawyers]

Meanwhile, in the UK we have an ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) system for traffic offences. They send you a photograph of the offence to support the fine.

This guy got a fine for driving in a bus lane in Bath. Strange, he thought - I've never driven in Bath:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/18/motorist-fined-number-plate-t-shirt

[ktm]

If they send you a photo of an offense, sent they a photo of some cash.

Only fair.

They have red light cameras here managed by a private company. Since they are not

really the government and they didn't give them any authority, people just ignore the 

tickets. You'd think if they hired them to this, there would be some kind of legal backing.

[blessingx]

On 10/17/2021 at 1:22 PM, Voltron said:

Now we know what the loud CRACK BOOM! was a few weeks ago on a very windy night. This is up the gully on our property.

How many times its own weight can an ant lift again?