December 2019 Chat Thread

[shades]

late at night
a shepherd
woke his wife

I saw...heard
angels sing
in the sky!

it’s the wine
she mumbled
or UFOs!

[Bean]

Ha! Like it. It's always interesting to see what you'll present us with at the start of the month, Shades!

[3piggles]

Love it 🎄🦃🎄
We got 5 inches of snow from the first of three storms, so while everyone is outside clearing snow, we'll just get more. Maybe we'll have snow for Christmas, this year 🤗

[Bean]

Oooh snow - pretty!

Did you manage to go swimming?

[amber89]

Ooh my God!! Snow!!!
I want some too!

Can I come over to play?
I can help with the shoveling afterwards.

[3piggles]

Come on over, Amber 🤗 I think we got about 10" between the three storms. We had an inch or two melt or blow away, before the last round, so I'm adding that to what's out there. I love how the men all get together and postulate about the amount of snow, but not measuring it. It's like a fish story. These are the 'all the snow they had to clear' stories 🤗

Yes, we went swimming. The pool was busy, and parking was hard to find, but we got in our laps, and both felt better for it Hubby had been out shoveling and snow blowing for several hours, and I think the swimming helped reduce the effects of all that.

New Ipswich and Rindge, in the Monadnock Region got 3 feet of snow. Nearby towns reported up to 19", so we were lucky. Surfers were surfing off the coast, though the waves were only 3-5 feet.

[bazookagoof]

Is it me, or is some of that snow pink in color? It looks that way on the handrails and in that first pic.

[Bean]

I think there are some red Christmas lights on the outside of the house, casting a hue!

Glad you managed your swim, 3piggles, it looks like quite a storm! The kids are crossing their fingers for snow here. They enjoy it anyway, but would especially like a white Christmas - I don't think there's much chance of that looking at the longterm forecast, but given we're not going anywhere this year, bring it on!

[3piggles]

I'm not sure why the snow looks pink. Perhaps the grow light overhead, just inside the door, is casting that pink glow. It's an LED grow light that looks like a Union Jack, so there's definitely red in it

It was a fun storm, really. Vic gets tired from all the snowblowing and shoveling, but enjoys doing it. As I said, he was going back out to do more, because he was bored. Also, the other men are out, and they stop and talk. It's not as if we had to move feet of heavy, wet snow, that bogged down the snow blower, and weighed a ton to shovel. I'm sure we'll get at least one of those, and Vic will be out every hour on the hour, just so the snow doesn't get to be too much to handle. Those aren't fun, but the light, fluffy flakes are

[Bean]

Sounds like a good social outing for Vic, as well as a good workout! I'm sure he'll be happy to just start the car and head out once the snow's gone though!

One week until our general election. I've just never seen so much apathy - having an election just before Christmas when most people just wanted to stick their heads in the sand over our current political mess, is not going down well!

[3piggles]

I'm not sure which is worse, apathy, or the divisive anger that drove our last election. Going through the parking lot to vote, the number of nasty, mean signs, mostly degrading Hillary Clinton, were overwhelming. I was actually scared, as to have that much hate gathered in one place is scary to me. This town when almost 80% for that monster, which also doesn't give me good feelings about being out alone. If I went shopping by myself, I'd probably go back to Nashua, where only about 45% voted for him.

Do you think the election will accomplish anything, replace the conservatives with liberals, or anything like that? That seems to be happening slowly, over here, with states electing liberal governors, senators and congress people for the first time. Don't know if it will make a difference, but it's nice to know some people in those states are actually thinking about the issues.

I understand it's a short shopping season, school breaks, work vacations, etc., demand a whole lot more immediate attention than the lastest bunch of politicians making empty promises. It's a terrible time to be voting

Our presidential primary is on Tuesday, Feb. 11. NH has some strange need to have the first in the nation primary, though as one of the smallest states, the idea that we set the stage for everyone else is a bit off the mark.

Democratic candidates are dropping out of the race. This always happens, as there are just so many of them, they can't all get enough funding to keep going. By February, the field should be much smaller.

[bazookagoof]

Dec 5, 2019 21:55:04 GMT 3piggles said:

I'm not sure which is worse, apathy, or the divisive anger that drove our last election. Going through the parking lot to vote, the number of nasty, mean signs, mostly degrading Hillary Clinton, were overwhelming. I was actually scared, as to have that much hate gathered in one place is scary to me. This town when almost 80% for that monster, which also doesn't give me good feelings about being out alone. If I went shopping by myself, I'd probably go back to Nashua, where only about 45% voted for him.

Not going to lie, when I was in West Virginia I saw plenty of houses (if you can call them that, they were complete dumps) that had pro-tRump signs on them. The nasty side in me wanted to knock on doors and ask the (probably) toothless inhabitants: "I see you live in utter poverty. Since you voted for that orange traitor, how's that working out for ya?"

[Bean]

Haha! But you didn't?!

I saw a similar depressing news feature with loads of people using food banks and many saying they thought Boris had some sensible ideas so would give him their vote... The Tories' approach to welfare is awful, and no other party has as little idea what life is really like for people who weren't born into a safety net of privilege.

I'm not sure what will happen, 3piggles, but I can't see it bringing revolutionary change. I wouldn't be surprised if the Tories still got the majority, but I'm not sure it'll be enough to lead without having to buddy up with another party, and that's what they want to avoid. Labour have more allies, so maybe they'd have a chance if they joined together with another big party. There's so much mud being slung too, it's utterly tiresome. Anyone who has to resort to putting someone else down to put themselves forward, clearly has little of worth to actually say.

[bazookagoof]

Dec 6, 2019 7:16:23 GMT Bean said:

Haha! But you didn't?!

tRumpers aren't known for their sense of humor or tolerance. Best to leave things be. 

[3piggles]

tRumpers aren't known for their intelligence, or their ability to tell realty from falsehood. The very wealthy tend to vote republican, because republicans always make their lives so much better, at the expense of all the others who voted them into office. There really is a fool born every minute, and they all vote republican As them why, and they'll tell you republicans look after them and their right to hunt, carry guns, get away with crimes, hate people, etc. KKK leader David Duke is taking credit for the KKK getting tRump the presidency. The NRA is taking credit. Every group that is out of control, and is being stifled by political correctness, voted for him. The idiot Christians voted for Li'l Georgie Bush twice, because he promised to overturn the constitutional ban on prayer in the pubic schools. Really?

[Bean]

Sometimes it doesn't help to dwell too much on these things! If we end up with a hung parliament (pretty likely), I'm hoping I can tune it out effectively and get on with enjoying the time of year!

The Christmas decorations will probably be going up today - wish us luck finding tree space!

[3piggles]

I wish I could tune out the whole 45 admin., and all the good the Republicans stopped or overturned even while Obama was president. Our laws on environmental protections, human and civil rights, and so much more were either blocked or overturned 😡😡😡 Now, with primary season starting there's no end to political ads, news items on the impeachment, etc. Aarrgghh!

I do hope you get some decision on Brexit, good or bad. It's not doing the country any good to have Brexit uncertainties hanging over them endlessly.

Good luck finding a tree, and making a space for it 🎄

[Bean]

Well, we found the tree in the shed (it's artificial) but have managed to squeeze it onto the living room and it's all looking pretty festive now.

We've decided to skip Christmas cards this year and have sponsored a rescue guinea pig with the money we would have spent (usually the kids make our cards, but postage costs a packet) and will email festive wishes instead. We've done it before, but still send them occasionally as I know lots of the older generations like them, and they often don't have email. Hey ho, the world will still turn!

[3piggles]

Ours is artificial, too. We're too freaking old to trapes around in the cold and snow, cutting a tree, dragging it home and trying to make the best of it, and for $35/tree for a precut one we still have to put on top of the car, drag it home, set it up, etc., artificial really works for us Our's is predecorated, so all we have to do it take it out of the box, pull out the squished branches, and plug it in. Makes the holiday a whole lot better

Our daughter and family is coming up for Christmas Eve, so we'll do our Christmas breakfast then. I'll add some minute steaks, so it's hearty, but we'll do eggs, bacon, sausage, waffles, etc., for dinner. It will be fun. They have so much family to visit on Christmas day, it was either Eve or the day after Christmas, and I'd rather get it out of the way. I think for most families, once Christmas is done, they don't really want to have to visit more family, just to meet all their obligations. Also, with us, the weather is always a factor. So the more we can pack into a short amount of time, the more likely we are to actually get it done!

[bazookagoof]

We go with a artificial tree ourselves as well. I do adore a real tree, but all those needles getting all over the house and trying to balance it on the stand is a hassle.