Happy New Goat! (January 2024 scapegoat blame thread)
8You can blame anyone you like for the last 13 hours without a blame thread, but I’m going to say that officially it shouldn’t be @IndifferentDude, who served honorably and should not be held responsible for me looking the other way.
That said, the votes were cast so you are welcome to pass the blame on to our New Year, New Yew (I know a yew isn’t a goat) @pakopako even though they haven’t yet acknowledged any responsibility for the title.
I understand if you still want to point the finger at me for the delay. That doesn’t mean I won’t just shift the blame to @pakopako though. I have enough on my plate already.
- 29 comments, 133 replies
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/giphy goat on plate
@extramedium well not what I had intended but I take it you will need all these goats for blame for what is going on in your life?
Someone needs to be blamed for rebel moon.
I mean I should have done this last year but I just could not get through it
@unksol Is it as bad as I’ve heard?
@blaineg I have fallen asleep trying to watch it through multiple times. It’s like the blandest star wars smash up. And the last three episodes were already repeates of the original three.
Literally a few lines “he’s a simple farmer” and “that ship cannot be destroyed by a few small fighters”
I… Don’t know what he was thinking
@blaineg @unksol I see the Star Wars references, but also more of a take of the 1980 Battle Beyond The Stars, at least for the initial premise.
@lonocat @unksol I’ve heard this was supposed to be his “Star Wars killer” since he got booted from making an actual Star Wars show.
Sounds like that was a wise decision.
@blaineg @lonocat I hadn’t heard the bit about getting booted from star wars but I don’t really follow entertainment news. I only know who he is because the Snyder Cut fiasco and the ridiculous Netflix advertising.
I want some new sci-fi but I’m not thinking this is it.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I am willing to wager one TrackR that @pakopako will disdain participation in this thread until at least January 31. And that’s OK. It’s not about the Goat per se, after all. It’s about venting (or celebrating) over Things this month.
To wit: BLAME. Home Depot’s misconfigured website persisted in putting the wrong Zip code on my order for a new built-in oven, despite my having overridden and corrected that Zip no less than three times while placing the order. So when the unit finally straggled into town, the delivery disservice threw up its hands in dismay and could not figure out how to get it to a destination less than five miles from the Zip that HD’s own website mis-assigned. (I’ve tracked the error to their website code’s insistence on “wanting to know my location”, and then getting it wrong.) Eventually, I gave up waiting for them to figure out what went wrong, and called HDCS. Their solution? Cancel the order and then reorder it with the Zip manually corrected. Only then were they able to get a fresh delivery attempt assigned. In theory, it will arrive on Thursday. This is a very pretty theory, but I won’t be able to say how it smells until the crate is on my hand truck and coming up the driveway.
This is not my first experience with the vagaries of doing battle with broken code on the HD website, but it may very well be the last time I give them a chance to annoy me with it…
@werehatrack interesting. I’ve never had an issue with Home Depot. Granted the largest thing I’ve ordered to the house was some 10 inch saw blades. The tiller I picked up from the store. But it went to the right store.
Granted I never click the know my location box from anyone’s site. I always manually enter it, only if needed for a delivery. Or let chrome do it.
Since it’s an appliance I would guess A bug in how they transfer the address to the freight company in your area?
@werehatrack
Disclaimer I do not work for home depot:
specifically the where are you info could be in one database table, the delivery address could be in another table. The person who wrote the database query could have a bad outerjoin that just happens to misbehave for your situation. It’s wrong,but 99% it’s close enough. Be it bad data or a bad link.
It does happen. It takes a long time for unique situations to get resolved. Just to get to the techs then it’s impacting x number of customers.
Well that’s low impact/low priority other things to do. But if it’s repeatable behavior. Oh that can be dealt with asap. I love closing those.
https://xkcd.com/806/
@unksol This is not rhe first repeatable bug that I have spotted in their code. They ignored the prior reports, so I am not going to try to report this one. Perhaps they will fix it when they have had to lose enough sales over it. I have no investment in them, and can shop elsewhere most of the time.
@werehatrack fair enough. I’m not sure who the competition would be at this point. There’s probably more options in an urban area
Lowes is well Lowe’s.
Menards has it’s own issues. Great for wood and other things
UNBLAME: Via the addition of some drilled holes, door hinge pins, and magnets, I have finally added security latches to the bedroom closets’ sliding doors. Without them, our hyperactive young cat Dude3 had found the upper shelves in the closets irresistible as a destination, removing their utility for the storage of much of anything. Now I can stash the stuff back up on those shelves and have some hope of not discovering that it has once again migrated to the dustbunny-infested floor in disarray a few hours later.
@werehatrack lol. Crusher has pulled down multiple shirts that others then peed on. I threw out a suit, although it was just from JCP and I never intended to wear again. I have been looking at barn doors/sliding doors to close it off.
All of the terrorists constantly climb the office closet. Got up to/broke shit in the utility shelves. Are constantly on top of something.
@ExtraMedium Yew
Ewe
@Kyeh You know…I didn’t think it looked right when I typed it, but @pakopako said nothing, and you…you think you know a person. I think we all know who’s to blame for that situation.
@Kyeh Also in my defense, while I did make the mistake you’ve accused me of, it still correctly states that that a yew isn’t a goat and your photo above only confirms that statement.
@Kyeh Geez, i hope that yew isn’t in Northumberland, England, cuz there are some real tree-hating miscreants over there!
https://apnews.com/article/hadrians-wall-sycamore-gap-felled-tree-05975a763c90648b4594d6e64b42e9f2
@ExtraMedium YOU are absolutely correct, you did say a yew is not a goat. Nor is a ewe. Don’t mind me - I’m a compulsive editor and it takes over once in a while.
@ircon96 Oh, I know - that’s just infuriating!!!
@Kyeh It’s why we can’t have nice things.
@ircon96 @Kyeh
That’s just ridiculous what that kid did! What in the world goes through someone’s mind doing something like that. Like, what an angry child! Tell me that’s not some sort of cry for help…
@ircon96 @Lynnerizer Yeah, I wonder what happened to him.
@Kyeh @Lynnerizer I found an updated article from December (it happened in Sept), sounds like they’re not doing much about it yet, legally, but supposedly they’re still investigating. It mentions what they did with the tree, also, while they’re trying to come up with a final plan for it. They have hope that they might get some shoots to spring up around the trunk, but it’ll never be the same tree, sadly, more like a shrub with multiple stems, assuming they can get it to grow at all.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/who-cut-down-the-sycamore-gap-tree-everything-we-know-142752089.html
@ircon96 @Kyeh @Lynnerizer
Just Im-ing people who might like to participate in the meh exchange. Sign up ends February 1st. Make sure to add your meh user name when you
@ircon96 @Kyeh @Star2236
) and sending packages from Amazon and Nuts. It’s been my pleasure but I’m not sure how all the recipients felt about it because not everyone responded.
I can’t wait to see what everyone gets! 
Thanks for reaching out Star. I realize it’s past the sign up date but I’m just now seeing this. I went back and forth on wether or not I was going to join in on this gift exchange. It’s always been a struggle because I have to ask for help (which I hate to do) with getting everything ready and shipping it out. Both times I’ve ended up over spending ($100 plus, probably because of guilt
As it turned out my guy ended up having emergency eye surgery Jan 29th and I’ve just started leg wrap treatment that’s more difficult than expected so I would’ve been stuck had I signed up. Like I’ve always believed things do happen for a reason! Glad I listened to my gut!
Again Star, thanks for reaching out. That’s what I love about Meh, it’s the people that make it special and the camaraderie!
For me, that’s just as much fun!
@ircon96 @Star2236
@Lynnerizer - I’m sorry you and your guy are still going through a lot of physical troubles. I hope you’re both better soon!
@Kyeh @Lynnerizer @Star2236 Yes, Star, i want to join Lynn in thanking you for thinking of us. I’ve been mostly AWOL from the forums lately, so i missed this earlier. Good luck with it, though, it was nice of you to volunteer!
And Lynn, like Kyeh, I’m sorry to hear about the health issues you guys are dealing with. I hope you can both hang in there!
@ircon96 @Kyeh @Lynnerizer @Star2236 I am so sorry your family and you are dealing with serious medical issues. I hope things improve sooner rather than later. And it is disappointing when the recipient of your exchange box doesn’t post or acknowledge all the effort you put into it.
@ircon96 @Kidsandliz @Kyeh @Lynnerizer
I hope everybody starts to feel better too.
Also thanks you all for the kind words. I’m really taking running this exchange seriously.
Blame: My Internet is out.
I was trying to play The Rock because I own my blurays but it wouldn’t let me skip the horrible ads. Which was making me angry. But I had the remote upside down. Cause I never use it so tiny fault me
@unksol
So you learned, That only works when the TV is also upside down?
@phendrick I suppose reverse orientation would be better? Oriented 180 degrees
It was dark, the buttons were on the correct side, but I was hitting back on the chapter instead of forward.
If you remember the shit companies pulled on DVD or Blu-ray… You can understand why it would easy to get frustrated when you just want to watch the movie.
@unksol Gotcha, you had 180 degrees of yaw instead of roll (or even pitch).
@phendrick I mean no one thinks the buttons belong on the bottom.
This does mean the IR was bouncing off me too the tv though. That’s… That’s fine.
@unksol Maybe not all bad. Besides the usual benefits of an occasional light tan:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5505738/
(Neat note there: body heat can power garments…)
@phendrick I assume neither of us fully understand that study. The daily news always goes for sensationalism which is unfortunate. But there is a caveat
In addition, FIR induced cell hypertrophy and inhibited proliferation of A549 (lung), HSC3 (tongue) and Sa3 (gingiva) cancer cells by G2/M cell cycle arrest through the over expression of ATF3 gene [96]. The ATF3 gene is involved in responding to changes in the extracellular or intracellular micro-environments, cellular homeostasis, cell cycle, and cell death [97]. However IR radiation did not affect the expression of the ATF3 gene and cell hypertrophy in A431 (vulva) or MCF7 (breast) cancer cells. These results indicate that FIR radiation suppresses the proliferation of cancer cells depending on the specific cell type and may be an effective treatment in some kinds of cancer.
I’m missing all those areas but I will cheer for any advances.
TBF, neither @IndifferentDude nor @pakopako is to blame for the latter being the Goat this month; history has demonstrated that once nominated, the electorate is often unimpressed by protestations of unwillingness, so a failure to object (or even take a position) cannot be construed as anything other than what it is; lack of overt presence. Is our January Goat lurking in the shadows, devouring every word in this thread and saying nothing? Perhaps. Is the thread being ignored because the nominal Goat is (blissfully?) unaware of what has transpired? Also possible. Do I know the answer to this or any of the other truly pressing problems like “What’s for lunch?” Nope. Does this distress me greatly? [checks BP, 107/61] Also nope. So I guess that makes this an Unblame post, no?
@werehatrack TL;DR
@Kyeh
@Kyeh @werehatrack imagine if our politicians ran for blame instead of power/fame lol
@Kyeh @unksol @werehatrack “All the responsibility, none of the power.”
I think every politician would go back to being a lawyer.
@Kyeh @pakopako @werehatrack you say that like it would be a bad thing? They’d do less damage, and some would have to go back to “running” businesses (some small) where they can only hurt their employees. And in theory be regulated on how much abuse they can do.
This is of course dependent on any sort of competition even from their own party. Which often doesn’t happen. People just vote the ticket
Wait, what is this now?
(Do I at least get a sash?)
@pakopako Probably just a bunch of sass. (You’re not a pageant winner, anyway, R U? But, maybe by the end of the month…)
@phendrick I have come in 2nd a few times
@pakopako they used to get a trophy. But at some point someone got lazy.
Just a goat/dead goat badge.
Technically you can do nothing. I just posted cat pics for a month/checked the blame thread
@unksol Badges? I don’t see no steeeenkin’ badges.
@pakopako @unksol Hey @extramedium where is the goat’s goat badge??? The goat is alive and kicking and needs their badge.
@Kidsandliz @pakopako @unksol Blind. The whole lot of you. Badges look fine to me, and certainly has nothing to do with the fact that I just changed them because I’d previously forgotten.
/giphy prove it
@ExtraMedium @pakopako @unksol
/giphy blame the time warp
@ExtraMedium @pakopako @unksol Oh wait. I should have blamed the goat
/giphy goat time warp blame
@ExtraMedium @pakopako @unksol Hmm this one is better than the one I kept above so not risking my luck again.
@pakopako verified alive. Now entertain us! It doesn’t take much.
@unksol
/giphy back in the hole
@pakopako nobody is checking groundhogs till next month
@ExtraMedium @Kidsandliz @pakopako @unksol
got an earworm from just watching that gif; might as well do the youtube version!
/youtube Rocky Horror Show, Time Warp
@ExtraMedium @Kidsandliz @pakopako @unksol
And now for some reason i’m thinking about pasta for supper.
@ExtraMedium @Kidsandliz @pakopako @phendrick @unksol What, no Meatloaf?
@pakopako @phendrick @unksol @werehatrack
So in other words, out of all the losers, you were the best!
@ExtraMedium @Kidsandliz @pakopako @unksol @werehatrack Mostly enjoy Meatloaf as a Monday special.
@unksol That’s what the groundhogs want you to do.
@macromeh @phendrick @unksol @werehatrack First place amongst last place!
@ExtraMedium @Kidsandliz @pakopako
@unksol
Blame since you haven’t had any since Wednesday…
There appears to be no way to report predatory/false ads on YouTube without signing in… At least on a TV. This should be so easy just click the report button
Nope just 100% medicare/drone/tech/AI generated scams for ads
The fuck are you allowing Google? Oh you can do whatever you want? Time to cancel that
Blame I am sick again 17 days after I was sick last time. And I wear a mask. And I am vaccinated. Fricking sucks. It took all my will power just to feed the cats this morning.
@Kidsandliz Lo siento.
Pero los gatos dice gracias.
@phendrick yeah well had I not done that I would have had 4 cats walking all over me, pawing at the covers, meowing.
@Kidsandliz
That’s a bummer and I totally feel for ya. Pretty much going through the same thing.
Hope you’re feeling better now, and stay well throughout the rest of this miserable flu season.
@Lynnerizer I feel better than I did. Still sick though. Hope you feel better too.
I blame YYYYYOOOOOUUUUU!
@mothmer
/giphy reverse curse
I’m pretty sick and when I got up to cough my head off and do something about sweating to death yet another night, I decided to hit my click button since I ruined yet another streak the other day… I totally missed it is a mehrathon until I saw the ink thread. That is how little attention I paid to the homepage. Apparently my brain is totally useless right now (although I am sure some would say what brain
)
/giphy going back to sleep
@Kidsandliz Hope you get better soon. You didn’t miss much. Another money grab by meh trying to get you to buy stuff they have sold before that you would have bought then if you really needed it.
$ 10 difference between the cost of the IRK and what you have to buy wasn’t awful but still rather have a reasonably priced IRK scattered throughout the meh-rathon like in the old days which I miss terribly.
@Felton10 @Kidsandliz
You aren’t alone Felton, I think it’s safe to say WE’RE ALL missing those FUN FILLED Meh-rathons from days gone by!
@Felton10 @Lynnerizer Yes… there were games, contests where frequently everybody was a winner, etc. It was an event and not just a sell the same junk day.
Blame. Wed morning at 6:13 the power went out. Got up and saw that we had 6" of new snow. The house is all electric (lights, heat, well water pump, etc.), but we have a propane cook top in the kitchen and a wood stove in the basement family room. The DSL was also out, so we were limited to the sketchy cell signal that we get inside the house.
)
Often such outages get fixed by the utility fairly quickly so I made a fire in the wood stove and waited until after noon to finally relent and get out my backup generator. I wheeled it out of the barn (through the snow) to the house, hooked it up and got it running.
Then I went inside to see if everything was working OK. The refrigerator was running and my wife had some lights on, so great! But then I realized that some of the lights that were on were not attached to circuits that the backup generator powers. (Scratches head…
So I went back and checked the electrical panel and finally realized that the utility repair crew must have turned the mains power back on while I was futzing with the generator. SO - I shut down the gen, unhooked everything and dragged it back up the hill (through the snow) to the barn.
(BTW, do not fret - my backup generator attaches to a subset of the house circuits via an approved lockout, so no chance of back-feeding to the mains power.)
Country living!
@macromeh Sounds like a routine you should practice regularly, anyway.
Glad you got that in.
@macromeh Glad you got your power back pretty quickly. I believe you’d call this the winter exercise program.
@phendrick @Kidsandliz
I actually had dug out the gen, put in fresh fuel and started it up to prep for the season just last weekend.
I thought that anal retentive ritual would surely protect us from any power outage happening, but no…
Blame/unblame?
Coco started hopping around/obsessively pawing at her mouth growling/drooling over by some carpet. Like she was attached to something. I naturally panicked and grabbed a towel to tackle her before she could cut her tongue off with a carpet fiber wrapped around it or worse. She… Did not appreciate this but appeared no longer attached.
Then had to shoo as many as I could out of the room to get to her in “peace”.
She was still having a thing/acting like she ate a string. But would let me scootch up to her/grab her/hold her, push her mouth open and check. Like 6 times. She kept acting like it and I kept worrying it was too far back/thin/I missed it.
She’s calmed way down now and I never saw anything. I think she just has a bad/sensitive tooth.
Hand wise. Meh. I’ve done worse getting a bolt loose so. Much prefer this to a hour plus drive to a vet ER for nothing either nothing or a critically wounded pet
@unksol Oh no! I hope she’s okay, and I hope you washed out the cuts really well - cat bites can get pretty badly infected.
@unksol Cool. Cat claw tattoos. Tell her she needs to be a bit more artistic next time or you aren’t going to use her as a tattoo artist again.
Watch out if she swallowed that carpet string. If she starts having stomach or intestinal (you obviously aren’t going to be able to see if she is pooping) issues or stops eating (which may also be hard to tell in your household) she could have gotten her intestines tangled with the string which is why cats shouldn’t play with ribbons and other strings that they can swallow or that shred easily enough to swallow since when things get in the back of their throat far enough they reflexively swallow - yeah when you are trying to pill them I realize it doesn’t seen like that is true
@Kyeh no bites. Just some surface scratches and scrambling. Also she’s not like feral or aggressive. She sleeps next to my face. Been here… I think 2017 probably on here. I went aggressive because I thought she was going to hurt herself and she scrambled. Currently dead Asleep in my lap.
If you’re thinking of taxoplasmosis. Need to get infected from somewhere.
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/toxoplasmosis_catowners.html#:~:text=Cats get Toxoplasma infection by,for up to two weeks.
But yes a cats fangs can definitely introduce bacteria deap enough to cause a serious problem.
@Kidsandliz which is why I jumped her lol. But I am pretty sure it’s something else. Nothing new the carpet was there and she’s never shown any interest. She does have a good kick though/kinda needed it to stop right then if it had been that
@Kyeh @unksol I once got a bone infection in my thumb due to a cat bite - one fang was all it took.
@Kidsandliz @unksol @Kyeh With that many cats around I would think you’d have some thick leather gloves at the ready just as SOP.
@unksol no, I didn’t mean toxoplasmosis, just plain old nasty mouth bacteria.
@Kyeh well again. She didn’t even remotely try to bite.She wouldn’t she just growled/scrambled cause I had to grab her. And she was stressed.
@macromeh there are some leather gloves in the garage but they are not for cats.
Once a stray cat climbed in a lady’s car and when she started it it got crushed in the pully… They wanted to take it to the vet so I got my thick neoprene water proof gloves on, scruffed her… Maintenance guy cut the belt… Teeth right through that glove like butter.
Now I have to call the cops cause. Job. Animal bite. Rabies. Ugh
@unksol I’m glad you and she are both okay.
@Kyeh @unksol Over my lifetime I have had 19 cats and never once has any of mine bit me in an intentional, doing to have you for breakfast kind of way. They have occasionally set their teeth on me as a warning, baby kittens have chewed on me gently while teething or playing, but I haven’t had the kind of scared, determined, defensive or aggressive bite that was meant to do damage you can sometimes get from a cat. The few “real” cat bites I have had have happened with the volunteer work I do. One of those a fang hit my thumb bone and I got an infection - BUT - that was a scared cat I knew pretty well at a shelter who more or less bit me by accident because were it on purpose much more of my hand and thumb would have been involved with more teeth.
It is the puncture wound aspect of a cat bite that greatly increases the infection risk from all the mouth bacteria (and yes cats have a lot of that). This is the same as the puncture wound aspect of stepping on nails, sticking a pitchfork being used to toss hay bails down to where the cows were through your toe (that was at 10 or 12 at a neighbor’s barn helping a friend do her chores, we were scared to tell what had happened, cleaned it up ourselves and hoped no one noticed the hole in my sneaker. I was just plain lucky it didn’t get infected - pitch fork tine went completely through my toe and out the other side), and similar stupid ways you can puncture yourself (or kids can puncture themselves) or cats can do when fighting and sometimes play fighting (eg when they have had enough playing and the other cat ignores the signals and bite).
My feral never even bit me when I first caught her (at 5 mo) and tamed her down. Being acutely aware of cat body language and responding appropriately and quickly I think has prevented me from being bit in a serious way regardless of volunteering at cat shelters for years. Cats don’t usually bite until driven to it. Even being scratched - there is being lightly warned with claws and shallow scratches (like what the photo shows) and then deep claw marks meant to do damage. Cats are far more likely to lightly scratch first as a warning before resorting to light warning biting before doing either of those in a serious way.
And I will take a cat bite any day over an alligator, shark or bear one. Got bear snot on my face once through a tent as I was being sniffed while I slept (well wasn’t sleeping when I smelled the bear) at Yellowstone. Very relieved that was a snift, drip snot and move on situation as I couldn’t do anything about it.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh cats will almost always scratch first if threatened. It’s way safer for them. Biting is the last ditch effort. But she wasn’t even doing that she was kicking/running. And if I hadn’t panicked she probably would have been calmer
@Kyeh @unksol Yeah sorry - I left out the rear leg trying to push off, windmill leg to get away action where their claws are used for traction not purposeful damage.
Unblame. Some of you know what werehatrack Face 1.0 and 1.9 looked like. This is Face 2.0, current build, not quite ready to release but most of the features functional.
@werehatrack Glad you healing without a ton of complications. That has to be a relief.
@Kidsandliz There are some issues that still need to shake out, but the appearance is going to settle in close to this. Much of the area is still very sore.
BLAME. The power went out this morning just long enough to force me to go around and shut down all of the systems that have a UPS. The outage hit about 7,000 homes and businesses in this area, it wasn’t widespread. From the buzzing of big switches kicking in and out in the distance, I’m guessing that a distribution line got fouled;
Blame. We have barely even a light brushing of snow (doesn’t even really show up on grass, bushes, trees…) just barely on roofs and the street and this city is acting like Armageddon has arrived. Up north we wouldn’t even consider that it snowed. Sigh.
When I lived in Texas for five years it was amusing to see how they handled black ice (hit the accelerator, right?). The roads were lined with cars and trucks askew in the ditches. I grew up in Southern California (don’t say “SoCal,” you sound like an idiot), and I was fine on the roads.
@amycomp
I can’t say you are “Local to Socal” (with a rhyme)?
Of course, you hit the accelerator! You don’t want to spend any longer driving around on that stuff than you have to, do you?
Same logic applies to rain here.
Rain also seems to make it even harder to make out all those white letters of “S T O P” on those signs that were put there to block the view.
@amycomp @phendrick
But it doesn’t rhyme.
@amycomp @Kyeh in Texas it does. And the accent is on the first syllable in both.
@amycomp Several years ago, I had to drive to DC in February, and I was running up I-81 in Virginia on a road that had more vehicles in the ditches (and against retaining walls, etc) than were in motion on the road surface. Six of the vehicles in the ditches were upside-down snow plows.
I made it to my destination several hours ahead of schedule.
I grew up in Miami, and have lived in Houston for 42 years. It rarely snows here, but we do get some ice now and then. We had some yesterday afternoon, in fact. And I was out driving in it. Surprisingly, the vast majority of other drivers were displaying a remarkable level of sanity for once. It was almost boring.
As for a certain geographic locale, I have much more colorful terms than “SoCal” that I employ when referring to it, and I try really hard to avoid needing to go there. But I was booked on a cruise from the “Port of Los Angeles” last February, and thanks to what some swear is a long-running curse, it is possible that you may have me to thank for the weather that gave San Bernardino (etc) that blizzard. (You’re welcome.)
@amycomp @werehatrack HAHAHA I was accused of bringing Oklahoma thunderstorms with hail to Northern Idaho which only very rarely even gets a thunderstorm, let alone hail. Happened the week after I got there.
@amycomp @phendrick So - rhyming with “yokel?”
@amycomp @Kyeh “yokel” is not a word commonly heard around here. Generally “cowboy” is used, but that can be construed positively or negatively. As in “lookin’ for trouble, cowboy?” Also, “dude” and “bro” have been encroaching, but those don’t sound Texan.
@amycomp @Kyeh @phendrick Back in the early '80s around here, “goat roper” was a relatively common pejorative as well. As was “dime store cowboy”.
BLAME. My order of Galaxy by Harvic thermal sets arrived today. Packages say “This is an underwear garment. Not intended for sleepwear.”
So underwear /= to sleepwear? WTF not??
So the elites always sleep in their nice silk PJs. But now they’re going to mandate how we sleep? I live alone, so who cares? I’m betting more people here sleep in underwear than pajamas? (At least when it’s not ass-freezing weather.)
/giphy cold donkey
@phendrick Sleepwear has to be tested for fire resistance in order to be legally sold in some jurisdictions. (Don’t ask me where, but I suspect it’s a place where the state knows that damn near everything is carcinogenic, and wants to make effing sure you’re paranoid about it.)
@werehatrack ok, that 'splains it. So, are all the boxer/briefs, etc., sold here also flame retardant? I’m at the age where I can fall asleep anywhere, anytime, wearing anything. How about my dog’s throw blanket? (Lord, protect me from myself!)
@phendrick I maintain that they should just post a big Prop65 warning for the whole state at every point of entry, with the addendum “We make no effort to find out where this stuff is, or how much is present, and nobody else is going to tell you anything useful about it either, but we wanted to make sure to tell you. Have an appropriate day.”
@phendrick Oh, and all of the controllable road info signs should run that same Prop65 warning as a high-speed unreadable scroll for at least 30 seconds once a day. All of the state-level elected officials should be required to recite it accurately from memory before making any public statement or address.
Blame: Weather.
Unblame: weather.com nailed it, in using emojis as good (IMO) as any found on Meh:
Video at https://weather.com/news/weather/video/much-of-country-is-seeing-miserable-weather
[vid might be a little slow to load; short ad to suffer through]
BLAME. BIL (Rick) flew from Boston to San Francisco last week on business, then came here on Wednesday to NW OR to visit family for a few days before returning home Monday. My wife picked him up at the airport and took him to their parent’s house to stay. By Thursday he was showing cold/flu symptoms; by Saturday my wife was sick. I have been caring for her since, and by Wednesday she seemed to be improving. But this (Thursday) morning, I woke to a headache/body aches and a generally run-down feeling.
Fricking Typhoid-Rick!
@macromeh
@macromeh Test yourself for the plague. This sounds exactly like what happened to two friends so far this month; both types they came up positive. The up-side is that the flu would have been worse than the dose of plague that they got.
@macromeh Sorry you are sick. Hope you feel better sooner rather than later. Round up all your trackrs and send them to the Rick.
@werehatrack Turns out you were right. My wife’s sister called and said she had tested positive for Covid, so my wife took another test and she tested positive this time. She had tested when she first started feeling bad almost a week ago, but it was negative. I guess I don’t need to test - will wait until I feel over and done to verify.
Second time around for us - we brought the crud back with us from California when we went to our son’s graduation from grad school in May 2022.
BLAME. And due to the weather much of this deep south rat hole, arm pit of the nation city has little to no water. We have none in this part of town. Whole own town has a boil water notice - well if you happen to have any that is.
Thanksgiving weekend, Sunday night, my husband had excruciating back pain, in the middle of his back, right side of his spine. He couldn’t get comfortable. We have a Nautilus mattress, an air mattress with an air pump for either side. His side had a slow leak, so I let him have my side and I slept on the sofa.
Monday morning, I was up first as usual. I hear him calling me. I go into the bedroom “Don’t get mad” he says.
He tells me he’s been peeing blood since Thursday.
We get dressed, head off to Urgent Care, who says “you need to get to the emergency room”, so off we go.
He had to pee in a cup.
They ran two CT scans. The first was a regular, the second was with contrast (dye).
They found a mass on his right kidney (6 x 5.0 x 5.1 cm - about 2 inches; an adult kidney is about 5 inches, so the tumor is a good size) and a 1cm lesion on his right liver. We went home.
Amazingly the pain was gone and his urine was clear by Tuesday.
He had an appointment for a cystoscopy to look at his bladder in December to make sure his bladder wasn’t involved. That’s where they put a camera up his penis and checked the bladder out. I watched, he didn’t. But there was no problem found.
They made an appointment to see a surgical oncologist (last Wednesday).
We had our annual physicals mid-December and the doctor asked about the liver, had anything been said about the lesion. No, no one had.
She put in a referral - they should call you back in three days. But they didn’t. I called to make the appointment on 12/23. Then 1/2. No call back.
Then we had the surgeon appointment on 1/10. He explained about the options. There were four. The first two weren’t discussed because of the size of the tumor. It needed to be removed, which left two options. Resection (where the tumor and some of the surrounding tissue is removed) or complete removal of the kidney.
He asked about the MRI for the liver. He told us that he couldn’t do anything until we knew what that lesion was.
I told him I haven’t been able to make the appointment, they never call back. He put an expedite on it. They didn’t call us, so I called them on Tuesday (two days ago). Finally spoke to someone who could make the appointment. The appointment was yesterday at a facility an hour away. We could have gotten one closer, but the first available would be at the end of February.
So, the results came in this morning. The lesion on the liver is benign. The cancer has not spread!
And now we wait for them to call about the surgery. The surgeon had said six to eight weeks after he got the results from the MRI of the liver.
Anyway, unblame for the good liver news!
I have to mention that had it not been for the blood in the urine and the pain Sunday night (the surgeon remarked that it was most likely a blood clot passing through), we’d have had no idea this was happening. I guess most kidney cancers are found by accident, when they’re looking at something else.
@lisaviolet My oldest brother had an unexpected episode of intense abdominal pain on a flight home from Chicago. IIRC, it was about 25 years back. The scan showed a grapefruit-sized tumor on one kidney. Resection was not an option; the whole kidney had to go. It was benign, and he had no other tumors after that. This is apparently not all that unusual.
@lisaviolet That sounds like it was/is scary and frustrating for sure. So they know it is kidney cancer or does he need surgery to find that out? Also the designated comprehensive cancer centers often are more up to date than many other places when it comes to cancer or potentially cancer. You might want to look into one of those if where you are going with him isn’t one.
@Kidsandliz It’s a Kaiser Permanente specialty clinic. The surgeon has good reviews.
Because of the size of the tumor, they’re pretty positive it is cancer, but after the surgery is done, tissue samples will be sent to a pathologist to be sure.
@werehatrack That makes me hopeful.
@lisaviolet You can get pathology only second opinions (where you don’t personally have to go there). MD Anderson Cancer Center does that. Each time I have done that small things about the biopsy have changed. In one case that small thing mattered as it impacted chemo. In the other case it didn’t make any treatment difference.
@lisaviolet Did some quick reading and presuming it hasn’t spread (so good the liver isn’t involved) any kidney tumor 7cm and smaller is considered stage 1 which is a good thing. I didn’t realize it could be that big and still be stage 1. I know it will be nerve wracking waiting that long to find out what is going on.
@Kidsandliz Wow, the tumor size - cancer stage is good news!
I shared that with Brian, he’s pleased to hear something good about all of this.
Thank you for your research.
@lisaviolet I know. I was shocked too. Stage 1 though, as I said, depends on whether or not it has spread - but that something can be bigger than his and still potentially be stage 1 is seriously good news. That his liver was benign though is encouraging. A cancer diagnosis (or potential one) is an emotional earthquake with plenty of after shocks (I’ve had 3 major ones so far). That he has to wait so long to find out anything definitive is nerve wracking though for both of you.
@lisaviolet hope you guys are doing ok. Lost grandpa and dad to cancer but… You know. It’s not your life partner.
@unksol Thank you.
@lisaviolet How are things going? This sounds so scary, but I truly hope everything goes well with his surgery and recovery.
(I can’t believe they’re being so lax about getting back to you with answers! That’s infuriating!)
@Kyeh Just processing the information as we get it. I was unhappy that it took almost a month to get the mri, but we did get in the next week after the appt with the surgeon.
We are lucky that the results hit our member dashboards as soon as they come in, so we have an idea what to expect.
We’re optimistic.
UNBLAMES (Two!)
First, today I finally got the date set for some surgery that I have been pursuing for several years. (Some of that time was spent selecting a surgeon, much of it was swallowed up by navigating the bureaucratic quagmire that is the process of getting approval for it, aggravated by the fact that the initial choice of surgeon proved to be ill-advised, necessitating a second search. That took another couple of months, at which point some of the bureaucratic crap had expired and had to be redone.) The date will be May 17th. Mostly-functional recovery takes 30-60 days, and near-full recovery takes 90 in most cases, but the nature of the work places special demands that makes travel inconvenient for another three to five months afterwards. (Not impossible, mind you, just inconvenient.)
Second, today I finally got the puzzle pieces to match up and get me set up for the imaging that my cardiologist (I have one, now) wants before he can determine if it will be necessary to do any interventional work prior to that aforementioned surgery. A stent might be involved, at worst, but I strongly suspect that he’s going to recommend that we revisit the imaging in a year to see if the not-yet-verified potential problem has gotten worse. This will be a great relief to get out of the way regardless of the outcome, not that I’m worried. I came through nine hours under general anesthesia back in December without any issues, so it’s not like there are a massive number of red flags being waved.
Things would have been much easier if I had done this a decade ago. But back then, I would have denied that I wanted it, and if that had not been the case, I would not be where I am today. All things considered, that last bit probably deserves an Unblame of its own. Not all changes are for the worse; some bring unexpected delight, sometimes beyond prior imagination.
Unblame-wife and I went to see the Guess Who in concert tonight at the local venue where we have seen well over 100 plays, concerts etc over the years. Nice cozy 2,000 seat hall where we have seen John Fogerty, Rick Springfield, Foreigner, Paul Anka, Lion King, George Carlin, Little Richard to name to few).
In order to use the name of any old R&R group has to have at least one original member and in the Guess Who it was Garry Peterson who was the drummer.
@Felton10 I saw the original group in the 70’s. Some stoner seated near us kept asking where Roger Daltrey was.
The next day, I got into an impromptu Abbott and Costello routine when someone asked me who I had seen perform:
Who did you see last night?
Guess Who.
No, just tell me…
Ah, the 70’s…
@macromeh Got these tickets during black friday sales event so they were back in row 16 (not bad although our subscription series seats are in row 2 which took us 15 years to move up to). Anyway disadvantages to being closer-were in the first row when we saw Three Dog Night and could see how old they really were and even worse there someone as old as us sitting next to us in tie die shirt and headband who was probably on something who kept standing up and yelling yeh.
Blame!! Some dumb fuck decided it would be funny to pull the fire alarm in this apartment building at 3:45am. No fire. It took until just now (4:39) for someone to turn the alarm off. We had to wait for maintenance to get here from across town to do that. How stupid is that? Someone here or the fire department needs access to turn it off.
@Kidsandliz If I had to take a guess about the nature of the perpetrator, I would put my two cent bet on it being the departing visitor for one of the socially active residents, after a somewhat less than fulfilling evening. I once heard the manager on duty at a hotel discussing how much he hated having a certain class of customer getting rooms there via online purchase, because those “guests’” clientele were often inebriated and wont to pull the alarm as they left - or exit via an alarm-generating door to the same effect.
@werehatrack If that is the case there are cameras all over the place. Of course the office generally refuses to look at who stole packages from outside our door, problems in the parking lot… I doubt they will spend the time to look at them today to see who pulled it in the middle of the night even though it would be easy to scan them as the halls would mostly be empty. All the owners care about is money. Nothing else.
@Kidsandliz @werehatrack but the fire department cares about false calls/roll outs. The cops do too. It costs money so as long as they know there are cameras they should request them.
Now is it worth investigating? Cost/benefit analysis… Might just be a grainy shot. I would lean toward the police/fire department putting up a post saying can you identify this person.
Camera screen shot.
And a message about how false reporting is a crime/cost your local fire department
@Kidsandliz @unksol In some cities, false alarms incur a substantial fine.
@unksol @werehatrack In this town we are lucky that 911 even answers the phone. We are the murder capital of the country (per capita). The new owners don’t give a damn about us. We are replaceable dollar bills (this is hud). We were told the parking lot is not their problem (they own it); that is what we have insurance for. I am down to one hub cap, had my car broken into, we have cars stolen, catalytic converters stolen, guns being shot off in the parking lot including one time when I had just crossed it (dark out) but before I had gotten into my car, homeless in the building (and all over the parking lot)… And even though we have cameras inside and out in not one instance has anyone been caught, identified, nor has footage been sent to the police. I am on waiting lists to get out (and some places are worse than here) but they are long.
@Kidsandliz @werehatrack I assume to another HUD development? Not sure where you work, any chance on another state?
@unksol @werehatrack On the list in another state (one where most of my family lives with better health care). Work online.
@Kidsandliz I bet no 40 year old man can do this
@adamsandler Do what?
Unblame-WARNING-THIS POST CONTAINS POLITICAL COMMENTARY.
Besides wasting money on Meh, I have taken to writing letters to the editor in my local paper-been pretty successful as they have published more the 50% of the ones I have written-over 70 in the past 10 years and given that the will only publish 1 every 30 days-not a bad %.
Anyway just got one published 3 weeks ago and with Ron DeDumbass ending his campaign really wanted to write one to give him a proper send off, but with the aforementioned limitation didn’t think they would publish one if I sent it in. Decided to try anyway and much to my surprise, they published mine along with other celebrating the demise of our awful Governor and even worse candidate for President. Here is the letter of mine published today.
After loss, expect more draconian laws
When the history of the 2024 presidential campaign is written, I am sure there will be at least a footnote regarding the campaign Gov. Ron DeSantis ran.
It will credit him with running one of the worst, if not the worst, campaign in modern political history. It was a total waste of time, resources and money.
My excitement at DeSantis’ demise is tempered by the fact that he will return to Florida as a bitter and defeated loser and take his anger out on the state’s residents by pushing even more draconian laws.
Particularly galling to me was DeSantis’ speech ending his campaign; he had to get in one last shot at Dr. Anthony Fauci. Here is a man who has devoted his entire life to protecting the health of the citizens of the United States, starting while DeSantis was still in diapers.
DeSantis chose an unqualified quack – who also peddles conspiracy theories – to serve as Florida’s surgeon general. In addition, there have been 90,000-plus COVID deaths in Florida. Both of these realities attest to the fact that neither DeSantis nor the surgeon general is qualified to comment on anyone else’s action or make any medical decisions themselves.
DeSantis’ ongoing disparaging comments about Fauci, a great public servant, are disgusting and despicable.
@Felton10 He is a flaming asshole. A dangerous, smart, asshole.
I experienced his refusal to fix the unemployment website during the pandemic, hire any additional customer service representatives (they worked remotely do deal with the increased load - it took 3 mo from filing to even get any unemployment, finally about 18 mo later he finally subcontracted some of that to a company where those folks could do next to nothing), cutting off the federal pandemic money months and months early, and then not take into account when we had to enter 5 job searches each week starting in June (while pandemic money was still being paid to most states, but not FL) the demand it would put on the already broken website. Literally all I did for 2. 5 days (it is not open on the weekends and was only open 8-6pm weekdays) was to try to get in to upload my search. No dice.
As a result I didn’t get the rest of my unemployment for 6 months - and that was curtesy of a FL state representative (Anna Eskamani, she is outstanding in her willingness to help anyone) where the school I worked remotely for wasn’t even in her district and I didn’t live in state. Had I relied on the state it would have taken a year or more to get that money. The state contacted me 11 months after the problem to address the issue (apparently they hadn’t noticed I had finally been paid and sent in all the required work searches - and no I didn’t get my money twice although I was tempted to demand an interest payment). He found nothing wrong with that. Currently FL only gives 12 weeks of unemployment at one of the lowest rates in the nation. He has stated anyone unemployed is lazy. He is a giant, dangerous fuckwad.
Unblame.
For the bored:
https://www.patatap.com/
Move the mouse/touch, TYPE, click, tap some more…
Be sure to have your sound up.
“NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO…”
@phendrick That’s cool!
I’m a little sad it only recognizes letters (no numbers or punctuation), but really it’s quite expressive as it is. Also, I noticed that spacebar changes the colors and the sounds! (I count like 6 different sets of colors/sounds.)
Sorry to be a pest suddenly lots to say lately.
BLAME-been feeling shitty since last Saturday evening and finally went and got a COVID test and yep-I GOT IT.
So on Paxlovid for 5 days. Most amazing thing is the loss of taste. Can’t even taste a Wintergreen lifesaver.
@Felton10
Ugh! I hope you’re better soon. Is this the first time you’ve had it?
@Kyeh yes-first time and it sucks big time. Thanks.
@Felton10 I got over my only known bout quickly, and have since been exposed at least twice without catching it. May you prove equally fortunate.
@Felton10 Hopefully since you have lost your taste you won’t taste how absolutely nasty Paxlovid makes everything taste. And I hope you get your taste back only after you are done with that drug. I found it started to make a difference 24 hours after starting to take it. I hope you have the same result. Like you I had never had it (and had all the vaccinations). I am just grateful I got it so much later since the earlier versions were far nastier for far more people. Hope recover quickly and your wife doesn’t get it.
@Kidsandliz Yeh-everything with this is a new adventure-things hurt on my body that never did before-my tastebuds were not in great shape due to my diabetes, but even the things I could take before (fruits etc) have disappeared completely. Worse yet I am at my computer having to do work getting out the last of the 1099’s when I feel like shit.
@Felton10 My wife and I have just recovered from Covid. Second time around for us.
My experience with Paxlovid was not great. The first time getting Covid (May 2022), my doctor prescribed Paxlovid, but my wife’s doctor would not give it to her because she was not yet 65. There was no noticeable difference in our recovery, but I experienced some unpleasant side effects (horrible metallic bad taste in my mouth plus bad diarrhea for several days). This time I didn’t bother with it and had similar (or maybe even slightly shorter) recovery time.
Both times the symptoms for us were just like a bad cold, not really terrible. YMMV.
@Felton10 Sucks when you have to work when you feel like crap. Been there done that have the t-shirt working full time though chemo. My sympathies.
@Felton10 @Kidsandliz Oh, right - really bad timing, just as you’re heading into your busiest season of work. I hope you feel better fast!
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh Just 1099’s, W-2s and quarter and year end payroll tax forms have to be prepared and send out to gov’t (federal and state) and people who are supposed to get them by end of January today. And of course, still had a couple of clients who didn’t get me the info until today.
Worked a little bit, took a nap, and now back at work. Think paxlovid after three doses (have to take 10 total-2 a day) is kicking in somewhat.
@Felton10 @Kyeh Glad to hear it is kicking in. That should mean you’ll recover faster.