Off Topic!, For all our "general" off topic tendencies Options

[bwalter]

Seraphina, you are truly seraphic. I am so impressed with you personally - and I'm also (as always) impressed with the care, the financial resources, the intelligent oversight that European countries devote to their citizens' health of mind and body. The United States is shameful, SHAMEFUL among First World countries in this respect - the only First World country, in fact, that has no national health care, but does have an odious system of health care insurance that would be worthy of a South American junta. I could rant for days about the rotten social services in the US, the horror stories of no safety nets, etc etc, , but moving on....

Cvl - PLEASE start yr thread. I have my answer ready! Pick me! Pick me!

[naydi]

*shouldn't be here... you don't see me... just a figment of your imagination*

forgive the repeat, but I am just in love with this song right now

..that's 2000 and 9...


an older love as well...

bound for the floor**



**(I'd never seen the video before - glad to see it somewhat matches my sentiments around the song...[though i'm more prone to address adults ])

[naydi]

Your welcome, it's my pleasure to bring everyone the joy of VDO. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Vurtgirl

Well - Since you put it so sweetly, I'll be good and refrain from mentioning the changed garments thereafter...

[naydi]

[

Nobody frickin' cares. Make an announcement about CI, or go back to the "Heroes" board.

(Sorry. Had to get that off my chest. Sincerest apologies to 'skampy, who has a job to do, and Rowe, you can go ahead and punch that Master "delete" key now. Thank you.)

!!!


*post just came up on it's own.... erm herm... please ignore the tired yet childishly indignant young black woman behind the curtain*

EDIT: oops - see what happens when you post at 2:39 in the am after working all day? please note that the reference to childish indignance was in relation to my not wanting to go to bed... my agreement with the announcement sentiment, however, I consider to be completely fair and carefully well-reasoned!!!

[CvlSrvnt]

Cvl - PLEASE start yr thread. I have my answer ready! Pick me! Pick me!

I gotta run to work and won't be back until laaate, so feel free to start without me. I'll try to jump on the board tonight for a minute.

[peachybc]

Well, this is definitely off topic....

We have a critter in the attic. I can hear the dang thing munching away on, I guess, wood! We've been putting moth balls up there to get this dang squirrel to move on, but it seems bound and determined to move in! I can't get up into the attic right now because there's a heavy desk that blocks full pull down of the attic door. So, I'm spending time pounding on the ceiling, opening the attic door a crack and spraying room deodorizer up into the attic, slamming the attic door closed. LOL Anything I can think of to stop the tooth of destruction going on up there until we can get up there tonight! I know it's cold out critter, but the attic is freaking off limits! Go build a tree nest like your supposed to! Errr grrr.....
PeachyBC

[naydi]

"...the tooth of destruction..."

_________

I just watched an Animal Planet (or maybe Discovery?) special with three different people matching wits against encroaching squirrels in various settings. Seriously...had typed out a post sharing that the word squirrel translates in Greek to the phrase shadow tail. Then I realized that no one'd really give a good d'mn. Well, that's about all the good I can share of what was learned from the special; but with a hearty HUZZAH! I wish you good blessings in your doom'...er.... ..Courageous and Sure battle!

Yep.

Should go great....

*cough*




they'd probably appreciate some lovely Brazil nuts as a house-warming

EDIT: hmmmm.... that's a lot of "good"s.... apparently the internal thesaurus t'aint workin yet today...

[peachybc]

Naydi,

I had a pet squirrel as a kid. It was saved after the tree and nest it was in was felled. All in the nest died but the little guy I took in. He didn't even have his eyes open yet. It was a 24 hour watch for feedings with a baby bottle. Nicky (yup that's what I named him.) was a grand creature, incredibly smart. Stayed with me all day either on my shoulder, or when it was time to sleep, he'd curl up in one of my pockets. Loved that little guy. I even learned to speak squirrel! I can still do that.
Maybe I should start screaming a squirrel warning call! That would really freak out the dog!

Love critters but this attic pal has got to go. We have to find a way to inch ourselves over to the corner and block off the end of the gutter, which is how it's getting into the attic. This will be a fun evening. Hubby and I crawling around in the insulation, making sure to step on the rafters and not fall thru the ceilings! LOL Oh yeah...looking forward to it big time. NOT!
PeachyBC

[naydi]

You'd be surprised. I had that done to me several times as a child, and yet when the Sociable Cervix stepped in during high school and offered to remove me, I declined the opportunity (surprised myself on that one, having silently wished to be elsewhere on a daily basis for years).

Really???? Amazing.... Best brief moment of power before the permanent dynamic shift: Being taken unsuspectingly -you know, a la the dog who's afraid of going to the vet in the cartoons- to the Malden Court House to get them to place me in a home somewhere. Headed back to the household that day with her forging some dysfunctionally twisted 'us against the world' bond with me after the woman (don't know to this day if she was a judge, lawyer, Social Services drone, or what) completely turned the whole thing around and upside down due to her obviously displayed inability to actually listen to her child, or to the woman for that matter... That was a good day.

*h-aaaaaaah*

[rowenaaine]

Nobody frickin' cares. Make an announcement about CI, or go back to the "Heroes" board.
(Sorry. Had to get that off my chest. Sincerest apologies to 'skampy, who has a job to do, and Rowe, you can go ahead and punch that Master "delete" key now. Thank you.)

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha

Oh, that was FUNNY!

As a matter of fact, where's the "ANNOUNCEMENT: KATE AND VINCENT ARE BACK TONIGHT"??? Oh, that's right, they're NOT back tonight. Or next week..........GRRRRR



Yep, I'll delete the thread. Eventually.

[naydi]

I understand, my beater was my brother. My folks didn't admit it until a few years ago (when I was 45). I had a difficult time even then to admit it to them face to face when they asked. Has he changed, not much, or at times, only for a short time...to look good.

How odd??? That's so strange that he would be an abuser without parental participation. But, as I type this, I'm remembering the story of the woman who finally jumped out of a window one day to escape her rapist brothers as written in the 'log book' at the Casa Myrna Vazquez battered women's agency hot line. The book was kept as both a teaching tool for other hot line workers and as one of many methods of cleansing for those who had taken the calls. The only bright spot in the whole exercise being that the stories were obtained because a woman had actually been able to make the call. My family preferred the more subtle, yet just as tried and true, emotional battery. She's not changed that much, but what she gets away with unashamedly has, forcing different changes whether she likes it or not. I'm glad for you that you've been able to find an internal, peaceable way to take control of your life. A prime example that the solution for all people doesn't necessarily have to involve picking up the sword, so to speak...

[naydi]

Ooooh... I'd love to own a pet squirrel! That whole fear of rodents thing people have, I just don't get. Of course, somewhere living in Boston Common is a squirrel who's p'ssed at me. Walking through one day, (something I admit to not doing nearly enough.. heading 'downtown' as we like to call it, is just such a pain in the a**) I looked at the little guy and decided to do a 'tnck 'tnck 'tnck just for the h'll of it. Didn't dawn on me that the sumbitches there'll actually come over!!! Nope - didn't have morsel on me. Still feel guilty every time I think about it... A feeling compounded about 'ooooh' I'd say about 100, right about now, times EVERY SINGLE DAY walking to and from my car over one of the little bridges past the resident and visiting ducks living in the koi/duck pond on the condo building grounds. I keep meaning to take a picture of it... I tell you, in the warmer weather, there's nothing like the feeling of a crowd of ducks stepping all over your bare feet jockeying for position while you dole out a loaf of bread. The canadian geese that had moved in too; not nearly as vicious as their reputation. Though one of the braver of the five caught my finger a little bit snatching bread out of my hand when I took a little too long turning my attention back to the crowd to the left. They do keep track... Everyday I leave the house saying, sh't I've got to buy bread - and everyday I've come home saying sh't I meant to buy bread! The fact that they DO get fed at least two times per day doesn't stop them from sending out the "HEY - Somebody's here!!" call amongst themselves complete with swimming right toward you. Lord forbid they not remind you of your failure to show your care for them each and every time.... dagnabit

Well, whatever you do - can you have the camcorder ready just in case anything unfortunately hilarious should happen to take place in the Battle for Attic Supremacy?

[CI fan]

Nobody frickin' cares. Make an announcement about CI, or go back to the "Heroes" board.
(Sorry. Had to get that off my chest. Sincerest apologies to 'skampy, who has a job to do, and Rowe, you can go ahead and punch that Master "delete" key now. Thank you.)

Way to go Cvl !!! This CI waiting game is so frustrating....and then to get an announcement about Heroes??? Who cares???? Nobody on this board!!!!

[peachybc]

A camcorder! LMHO!!

We don't have one, which I'm sure is a good thing at the moment. I can just hear my husband's snarks about my filming him as he creeps and crawls his way over to the corner of the attic on his stomach! And me with, "Woohoo! I got a great butt shot, honey!"

Dayum...sounds like the varmit is bringing logs in up there! Must be building himself a small log cabin! Geesh!

I love feeding birds too. Several years ago I went through the application process with the National Wildlife Federation and got our yard approved as a Backyard Wildlife Habit. That means our yard is now registered with them as a sanctuary. We provide food, shelter (er hummm natural that is, we didn't agree to open our home to the wild bunch!), and water, nesting areas. We don't use pesticides or harmful chemicals, plant only native plants, leave as much of the environment natural as possible. We're lucky to have a half acre of land, most of it natural, native woods with a stream and a creek. Lots of wildlife around here, although the deer have been forced farther out because of human population.

I've spent many a happy hour building stone waterfalls in the stream and creek to aerate the water. The effort was immediately rewarded with native minnows (called stonerollers), all the various birds, dragonflies flocking to the waterfalls, racoon footprints show they are enjoying them, even the snakes enjoy them.


If anything exciting happens with our adventure tonight, I'll be sure and report back.
PeachyBC

[naydi]

^NICE! and inspiring... Since moving in, I've made the determination that wherever I end up buying there WILL be animals either a duck pond or a more natural open setting for all as you've described... Oh Yes. It will be done. Hmmm... Just remembering the landscaping company belonging to the ambitious side of the family on which I was, unfortunately, not born. Parris Creative Design LLC in Concord, NH. No website - apparently don't need one given their deep roots in the community. Had to have been 300 to 400 people easy in attendence to my cousin Mark's funeral on Pats Peak, where he died. There's two RNs -his brother and sister- on that side, too, about 1/2 a generation above me. It's too bad they live so far away... Will be keeping the company in mind, though, if, once I've figured out where to live, it's within reasonable distance.

[DonnaLucy]

I happen to be the expert on squirrels and other creatures inhabiting attics. We always seem to have a squirrel or two or three getting into the area above our living room. They literally pull off a piece of my wood shingle to get in.

Going up into the attic may not be the answer. They are impossible to catch. You could set uo a trap, but I'm thinking that killing the little guy is not you, especially considering the pet story.

What works for us is to wait until you know that the critter is out of the attic. Squirrels leave the nest during the daytime to gather food. Then block the entryway from the outside with very strong material - they have strong claws & tremendous strength for their size. Make sure they can't get in another way, too.

Good Luck!

[Seraphina]

Aww, thanks you guys , you`re all really sweet. I think I can say things are better for elderly here than they are in the US, but it`s no Utopia here, but I think you all understand that. Waiting lists are long and there are nursing homes that don`t deserve to exist.

Anyway, I have my "own" patient! It`s this woman that I got along really well with already. There is no need to really make her undergo a whole lot of neuropsychological tests yet, because it`s clear what goes wrong, but she really wants to talk to someone about her past and I get to do that in a structured way. We`ll try to write down the story chronologically, which will give a nice indication of what she knows, how long she can focus on something and more importantly, she seems to...repeat a few things which makes her stories sound kind of "empty" (because if you try to dig deeper she just repeats something) so it will show if she really remembers everything. Which we then can put next to some information that still needs to be gathered from her son to check if it`s correct. Enough about that .

Critters....not my specialty though .

Of course I`d like to hear how everyone else is doing!!! So how are you all?

Edit: Cvl, what you described is exactly what neuropsychology is also about! It`s more the research side, I`m choose the clinical side, but obviously that kind of stuff is what gives the information that is used in the entire field. Research is so extremely important *thumbs up*

[peachybc]

I happen to be the expert on squirrels and other creatures inhabiting attics. We always seem to have a squirrel or two or three getting into the area above our living room. They literally pull off a piece of my wood shingle to get in.

Going up into the attic may not be the answer. They are impossible to catch. You could set uo a trap, but I'm thinking that killing the little guy is not you, especially considering the pet story.

What works for us is to wait until you know that the critter is out of the attic. Squirrels leave the nest during the daytime to gather food. Then block the entryway from the outside with very strong material - they have strong claws & tremendous strength for their size. Make sure they can't get in another way, too.

Good Luck!

Hi DonnaLucy,

This squirrel is busy making it's nest up there during the daylight hours. Then quiet as can be at night. I'm pretty sure it's a squirrel, since that's who I've seen scurrying across the roof. Doubt it's an opossum or a raccoon, although neighbors did have an opossum nest in their house -- ground floor area though.

We don't want to trap the dude just block it's entrance into the attic. Can't get to the end of the gutter easily from the outside because it's 3 stories up from the ground. I'm not climbing a ladder that high and neither is my husband -- no matter what he thinks! So, we're going to try to block off the end of the gutter from the attic. If that fails, I'll see if our gutter cleaner dudes will come out and rig up a wire mesh attachment to the end of the gutter and the existing gutter guards. If that fails, I'll call the County Extension office and find out what they have up their sleeve. The moth balls worked great until recently. I won't be surprised to find out the critter moved them or got rid of them! Squirrels are extremely bright and very persistent!

All's quiet at the moment. That's a relief. That gnawing sound was getting on my nerves!
PeachyBC

[Seraphina]

Woohoo Cvl! Well said! I couldn`t agree more!



Edit: Was my post moved? Because I think the thread is gone, but more importantly I did NOT post this comment in this thread. And I was logged off all of a sudden...

[peachybc]

Seraphina,

Moderator Rowe said earlier today that she was going to bleep the "Announcement" thread. She must have moved your post into here.