The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[NotWise]

At $950 a bottle it had better be nice!

 

[MillieDynamite]

"There is no bad whiskey. There are only some whiskeys that aren’t as good as others." -Raymond Chandler​

 

[Candy_Kane54]

It's another beautiful morning and for the first time this year it didn't get below 32 F overnight. The snow is seriously melting although the snow on the north side of houses and hills is still there.

I've got a fresh pot of coffee going and the teapot is hot. There are some chocolate chip cookies (mmm ... chocolate) on the counter. I'll be over in the corner enjoying a hot cup of Earl Grey and a chocolate chip cookie as I try to put more words on paper.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

"There is no bad whiskey. There are only some whiskeys that aren’t as good as others." -Raymond Chandler​

Chandler clearly never tried to drink Tesco Value Whisky when that supermarket first brought out its economy range. If fifty plastered students won't swallow it (including a couple who have drunk lab alcohol), you know it's bad. We made it into ersatz Baileys in the end, which was at least drinkable. It's the only way to make Camp Coffee pleasant, too.

I'm trying to fend off a cold, so may indulge in a whisky tonight. In the meantime I'm on my fourth cuppa of the day and still tired.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Ah, tried is my permanent state these days. Between Donnie, keeping track of Mum and Dad, pleasing Jo, writing my stories, doing my paid work, and keeping a spotless house, I'm all frazzled at the ends. That house keeping thing, yeah, that might be more in head than in my life. LOL

Chandler clearly never tried to drink Tesco Value Whisky when that supermarket first brought out its economy range. If fifty plastered students won't swallow it (including a couple who have drunk lab alcohol), you know it's bad. We made it into ersatz Baileys in the end, which was at least drinkable. It's the only way to make Camp Coffee pleasant, too.

I'm trying to fend off a cold, so may indulge in a whisky tonight. In the meantime I'm on my fourth cuppa of the day and still tired.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Ah, tried is my permanent state these days. Between Donnie, keeping track of Mum and Dad, pleasing Jo, writing my stories, doing my paid work, and keeping a spotless house, I'm all frazzled at the ends. That house keeping thing, yeah, that might be more in head than in my life. LOL

Heh. I have a cleaner regularly and the house is still in a right state in between. Too many meetings about care and support, and not nearly enough support to provide...

 

[MrPixel]

I have a cleaner regularly and the house is still in a right state in between.

C and I have discussed having a house cleaner multiple times in our 35+ years, even once... I think... actually having somebody for about a month or so. The most recent discussion went something like:

"You want to think about hiring a house cleaner? I'm really not up to doing much any more."​

"Sure. We can think about it once we seriously do something about the clutter."​

"In other words, 'never'."​

"Yep."​

 

[MillieDynamite]

Cleaners cost money, so that being my end of the deal, I wouldn't feel right if Jo provided the bread for the work.

Heh. I have a cleaner regularly and the house is still in a right state in between. Too many meetings about care and support, and not nearly enough support to provide...

 

[MillieDynamite]

So, before they went belly up in business, the folks (my adopted parents) hired a house cleaner. The night before she visited to do the work, Mum and I would clean the house because Mum couldn't stand the thought of the house cleaner thinking we were bums.

C and I have discussed having a house cleaner multiple times in our 35+ years, even once... I think... actually having somebody for about a month or so. The most recent discussion went something like:

"You want to think about hiring a house cleaner? I'm really not up to doing much any more."​

"Sure. We can think about it once we seriously do something about the clutter."​

"In other words, 'never'."​

"Yep."​

 

[MrPixel]

Housekeeping is a sore subject around here. Not that we currently have issues with it, but because last summer we abandoned our "vacation cabin". This was attributable to the resort owners welshing on their side of the deal by not cleaning or poorly cleaning the cottage after renting it out when we weren't using it. Last season we were spending our entire time there cleaning and, frankly, sanitizing everything after finding disgusting messes. It was a huge financial sacrifice to walk away since we had pre-paid a 5-year lease and only used half of it, but it boiled down to an "OK, that's enough!"

It's a triple shame, because I did a whole bunch of writing there, and on top of that the cabin and resort were fertile sources of inspiration for a number of my LitE stories. Oh, well.

 

[Belegon]

ZJust got back from the cancer center... today was chemo day, so I sat and readd for 5 hours wgile they pumped in most of the poison and then I have a little black shoulder bag with a pumpo and meds, and that will get pumped into me over the next 45 hours. Friday I go back and they remopve the pump and I'm pretty much free for the next 11 days. Except I have a pysch appointment on Friday, which I'm fine with because I usually leave there feeling better about myself.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

We try to get the floors enough to be hoovered, but beyond that, often the cleaner can't clean as much as usual as there's too much clutter. But she's looked after us for 15 years now, sometimes with adult daughter too - after previous cleaner turned up with her saying "I am moving back to Bulgaria, but do not worry, this is X and I teach her everything she needs to know about your house." Which is also how the two previous cleaners turned up. It took us a while to find a good one after we moved and original lass returned to her country - she was great, informed us that she was single and thus put all her sexual tension energy into her cleaning!

Spouse often frets about tidying up: I'm not able to do it; so it goes. Spring cleaning? Still working on 2020.

 

[MillieDynamite]

To explain what a group of nerds, my family, my wife included, we had a discussion over the holidays about the birthmark on Topper's chest. That's what I said. We discussed, debated, and argued about a patch of not-so-white hair on a stallion from the movies and early TV from way back between 1933 and 1950something and how visible or not it was. And for those that don't know, Topper was a white Arabian stallion performer in the Hopalong Cassidy movie and TV series and played Silver in films and on TV. He belonged to William Boyd, the Hopalong Cassidy! Boyd loaned or rented (probably rented) Topper to the Lone Ranger folks. I'm sure he also received money for the horse being in his movies. However, I have no way of proving that.

Below is a screen capture Pops did to show the mark to my disbelieving Mum. It's pretty low resolution, having been made off a colorized 720 copy on his laptop and using the print-screen function to show here.



It is just above the breast collar for those that can't make it out, it is slightly heart-shaped but looks more like the shape of canoe in the black and what counter part.

 

[NotWise]

To explain what a group of nerds, my family, my wife included, we had a discussion over the holidays about the birthmark on Topper's chest. That's what I said. We discussed, debated, and argued about a patch of not-so-white hair on a stallion from the movies and early TV from way back between 1933 and 1950something and how visible or not it was. And for those that don't know, Topper was a white Arabian stallion performer in the Hopalong Cassidy movie and TV series and played Silver in films and on TV. He belonged to William Boyd, the Hopalong Cassidy! Boyd loaned or rented (probably rented) Topper to the Lone Ranger folks. I'm sure he also received money for the horse being in his movies. However, I have no way of proving that.

Below is a screen capture Pops did to show the mark to my disbelieving Mum. It's pretty low resolution, having been made off a colorized 720 copy on his laptop and using the print-screen function to show here.

View attachment 2480690

It is just above the breast collar for those that can't make it out, it is slightly heart-shaped but looks more like the shape of canoe in the black and what counter part.

What did your discussion conclude?

 

[MillieDynamite]

That on old TVs's low resolution, you can't see it, but you can on higher-def sets and the movie screens of yore. It wasn't important, it wasn't an angry battle of the cans and cannots, it was just us geeking out! Then, we settled in and watched a couple of colorized versions of the 1930s movies.

What did your discussion conclude?

 

[Kumquatqueen]

To explain what a group of nerds, my family, my wife included, we had a discussion over the holidays about the birthmark on Topper's chest. That's what I said. We discussed, debated, and argued about a patch of not-so-white hair on a stallion from the movies and early TV from way back between 1933 and 1950something and how visible or not it was. And for those that don't know, Topper was a white Arabian stallion performer in the Hopalong Cassidy movie and TV series and played Silver in films and on TV. He belonged to William Boyd, the Hopalong Cassidy! Boyd loaned or rented (probably rented) Topper to the Lone Ranger folks. I'm sure he also received money for the horse being in his movies. However, I have no way of proving that.

Below is a screen capture Pops did to show the mark to my disbelieving Mum. It's pretty low resolution, having been made off a colorized 720 copy on his laptop and using the print-screen function to show here.

View attachment 2480690

It is just above the breast collar for those that can't make it out, it is slightly heart-shaped but looks more like the shape of canoe in the black and what counter part.

Ah, a concentration of melanocytes from mildly-disrupted streams of neural crest cells meeting at the fetal midline! See also blazes down a horse's face (lack of colouration, in that case).

 

[Smuttyandfun]

 

[Belegon]

View attachment 2480805

This is just about how I felt after the first sip THIS morning. See, today was a chemo-Wednesday and I need to be at the hospital cancer center by 8:30. My son had to work at 7:30. So he dropped me at the hospital main entrance at about 7:15. The cancer center doesn't open its doors until 8 am. The hospital's little coffee shop is right there by the main entrance. I knew that If i could just wait until after they drew the blood for my labs and they sent me upstairs to the infusion center, the lady that volunteers on Wednesday would have tea and a pillow waiting. but that was going to be at least 45 minutes. I shortly gave in and purchased a large coffee because it just smelled way too good to wait. And it was. The little one in the picture doesn't look the slightest bit like me, but the hands up and the expression are a very good representation of how I felt about 7:45 this morning.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

ZJust got back from the cancer center... today was chemo day, so I sat and readd for 5 hours wgile they pumped in most of the poison and then I have a little black shoulder bag with a pumpo and meds, and that will get pumped into me over the next 45 hours. Friday I go back and they remopve the pump and I'm pretty much free for the next 11 days. Except I have a pysch appointment on Friday, which I'm fine with because I usually leave there feeling better about myself.

Hang in there, sir!

 

[Belegon]

Hang in there, sir!

Thank you, Penny! I have every intention of it.

 

[MillieDynamite]

@TarnishedPenny, I remember a friend of Jo and I attempted to kill herself by taking an overdose. Another friend told her to, "Hang in there." It was all I could do not to laugh, and I worried about her trying to hang herself next.

Hang in there, sir!

 

[Belegon]

@TarnishedPenny, I remember a friend of Jo and I attempted to kill herself by taking an overdose. Another friend told her to, "Hang in there." It was all I could do not to laugh, and I worried about her trying to hang herself next.

well, all ya'll don't need to worry about me being suicidal... I've experienced the suicide aftermath of a couple of old friends and I won't subject my family and loved ones to that.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I wasn't implying that, just when @TarnishedPenny said, "Hang in there," I couldn't help but remember that unfortunate choice of words.

well, all ya'll don't need to worry about me being suicidal... I've experienced the suicide aftermath of a couple of old friends and I won't subject my family and loved ones to that.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

This is just about how I felt after the first sip THIS morning. See, today was a chemo-Wednesday and I need to be at the hospital cancer center by 8:30. My son had to work at 7:30. So he dropped me at the hospital main entrance at about 7:15. The cancer center doesn't open its doors until 8 am. The hospital's little coffee shop is right there by the main entrance. I knew that If i could just wait until after they drew the blood for my labs and they sent me upstairs to the infusion center, the lady that volunteers on Wednesday would have tea and a pillow waiting. but that was going to be at least 45 minutes. I shortly gave in and purchased a large coffee because it just smelled way too good to wait. And it was. The little one in the picture doesn't look the slightest bit like me, but the hands up and the expression are a very good representation of how I felt about 7:45 t

Wishing you well, and I hope you're feeling better soon.

 

[Belegon]

I'm on what they call "Maintenence." They don't expect me to get better but they are trying to prevent future levels of sickness that would be uncomfortable. I got the results of my latest CT scan today and things are seeming rather steady. The colon mass doesn't seem to be growing and the three lesions on my liver and the spot in my lungs haven't grown. (very good news!) I have developed a kidney stone, but it's a small one and the biggest issue is what feels like lower back pain but is not my spine but the kidney stone moving around. I admit to that being a little frightening simply because my father had kidney stones and I remember that they caused him quite a bit of pain. My best hope there is to increase my fluid consumption and hope I pass it before it gets much bigger.