Let's Babble Our Way to Post #4,000,000 And Win Prizes Too!

I have jsut heard a few bangs here also but they are from the next town which is Laguna Hills and that wraps all around Laguna Woods where I live. I haven't noticed any scared kitties yet. 

Well Mercy came out and is just staring out the windows from a safe distance.  Mook fell asleep about a half hour ago.

I don't have anything about some revelry and people having a good time. Last year you couldn't have started a fire with a can of gas and a blow torch we were so wet. Have at it. This year the bit of rain we got will keep things safe.

It's also hard for law enforcement to sneak up on someone here. Lots of open space and roads visible for half a mile of more. The two cars patrolling the road are keeping things from getting to far out of hand.

Margd said:

 
@Tallyollyopia   I have problems with faces as well and recently learned about prosopagnosia.  It's a condition that some people have that makes it difficult for them to distinguish faces.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia   i took an on-line test (ok, ok, I know they don't mean anything) and learned I have a mild case of it.  It's very hard for me to distinguish different characters in movies or TV shows at first and this, in turn, makes it hard for me to follow the plot sometimes.  So you are not alone!

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I've never even heard  of this before--but I was reading what  they said and--it's like yeah, I have that. It's so weird, I just thought I was slow!

LTS3 said:

 
Back to work tomorrow

Not looking forward to this week because my co-worker is on vacation all week so I'm on my own doing everything... in two facilities

This is exactly why we need at least another full time person. If one person is on vacation or something, there's still two people to handle all the work. I am going to get some help from one person but he also has lab stuff to do so I'm not sure how much he will actually be able to do. I'm only going to do the main important stuff. Everything else will have to either wait or be done by the lab people themselves.

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I feel your pain. My schedule is all messed up this week; today I had first, tomorrow I have third, Wednesday I have second, and on Thursday I'm back on third again.

Margret said:

 
I just checked out one of the links from the Wikipedia article, and I think you may find this website useful: http://www.choisser.com/faceblind/   It's written by a guy who has this problem and he talks about adaptive techniques.  But it's basically book length; I haven't read the whole thing.

Margret

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Thank you. I bookmarked it so that I can read it during my free time. 

Kittens Mom said:

 
So after a short rainstorm dark has brought out the low IQ subset in my community.  The sheriff dept. has been racing up and down the main road with sirens off and no lights I'm assuming in response to call ins about illegal fireworks.

You know it takes a special kind of stupid to be setting of flying flame throwers out here. But it takes greed for our state and county government to continue to allow the sale of fireworks that are illegal to use. Yep they do that.

I feel bad Mercy is hiding. she gets no sympathy we just go on with life in the house. Mook is out and about. Life happens and getting your pets acclimated to it is a good thing.

I have wondered for a long time when celebrations became excuses to consume excess alcohol or do things that would not normally be socially acceptable. 

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To your question I point out the party of Carnival--a week long drinking celebration with costumes. Referenced in The Cask of Amontillado. 

My computer club used to meet at the Colorado School of Mines.  For a long time it appeared to me that young people went there specifically because they knew that sooner or later they'd get to blow something up.  Every year on E-Days (E for "Engineering") they used to have a student-run fireworks show.  I went once.  People actually cheered when fireworks went into the stands!  That's when I decided I was never going to that celebration again.  Then one year a tree in the yard of a local house was accidentally set on fire, and they had noise complaints from five or ten miles away, and they switched to a professional company to run the fireworks.  I still don't go, though.

Regarding Carnival, "The Cask of Amontillado" is from the mid-nineteenth century, but Carnival is much older than that.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival.  I think that as long as there have been rules of conduct humans have looked for excuses to get drunk, eat too much, and otherwise let off steam.

Margret

We have Carrot under the blankets with us tonight. If that's what makes him comfortable, I'm good with it.

Well Mercy came out and is just staring out the windows from a safe distance.  Mook fell asleep about a half hour ago.

I don't have anything about some revelry and people having a good time. Last year you couldn't have started a fire with a can of gas and a blow torch we were so wet. Have at it. This year the bit of rain we got will keep things safe.

It's also hard for law enforcement to sneak up on someone here. Lots of open space and roads visible for half a mile of more. The two cars patrolling the road are keeping things from getting to far out of hand.

Margret said:

 
My computer club used to meet at the Colorado School of Mines.  For a long time it appeared to me that young people went there specifically because they knew that sooner or later they'd get to blow something up.  Every year on E-Days (E for "Engineering") they used to have a student-run fireworks show.  I went once.  People actually cheered when fireworks went into the stands!  That's when I decided I was never going to that celebration again.  Then one year a tree in the yard of a local house was accidentally set on fire, and they had noise complaints from five or ten miles away, and they switched to a professional company to run the fireworks.  I still don't go, though.

Regarding Carnival, "The Cask of Amontillado" is from the mid-nineteenth century, but Carnival is much older than that.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival.  I think that as long as there have been rules of conduct humans have looked for excuses to get drunk, eat too much, and otherwise let off steam.

Margret

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I want people to have fun. I'm not the hall monitor but when it starts endangering your home or someone else's property you have to wonder what's wrong with people. I constantly hear they want government out of their lives yet they do everything in their power to ensure big brother has to step in to save them from their own stupidity.

Today south of Albuquerque someone started a small grass fire burning tires. Really ?

If I went out tomorrow morning and filled a barrel with trash and started a fire in it I would have the fire marshal up my backside in minutes. So somehow it's ok to allow people to stand out in the dark and shoot who knows what were and their best defense a 50 foot hose with questionable well water pressure.

Apart from a few bangs the fireworks have been mainly like a low grumbling, sort of like far away thunder. My cats totally ignored that and only raised heir heads at the few bangs. It's almost 10 pm so I don't think there will be much more and I'm going to bed early for a change.

Margret said:

My computer club used to meet at the Colorado School of Mines.  For a long time it appeared to me that young people went there specifically because they knew that sooner or later they'd get to blow something up.  Every year on E-Days (E for "Engineering") they used to have a student-run fireworks show.  I went once.  People actually cheered when fireworks went into the stands!  That's when I decided I was never going to that celebration again.  Then one year a tree in the yard of a local house was accidentally set on fire, and they had noise complaints from five or ten miles away, and they switched to a professional company to run the fireworks.  I still don't go, though.

Regarding Carnival, "The Cask of Amontillado" is from the mid-nineteenth century, but Carnival is much older than that.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival.  I think that as long as there have been rules of conduct humans have looked for excuses to get drunk, eat too much, and otherwise let off steam.

Margret

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I can understand disliking fireworks when people are reckless with them. And its unfortunate that each year many people get severely hurt because some stupid person didn't know what they were doing (or they were too drunk to know or care what they were doing) when lighting off fireworks.


I personally love fireworks... to a point. I have been lighting them off on the fourth of July since I was 12 (so about 10 years) and my dad taught me how to do it the right way. Always in a safe place away from people and things that are flamable. We go to Koontz lake each year on the 4th of July and we always light our fireworks off on the end of our 75ft pier, so, they are launched into the sky out over the water (but not near any boats, obviously). The person who lights the firework has to get away fast though, so we have a rule that no drunk people are allowed to light anything.

Some people don't run back after they light the fuze, but I do. Because that's what you're SUPPOSED to do. They think they're super cool and tough for not running away but they're just stupid and if they get their bloody hands blown off its their own fault.

This year one of my dad's friends brought some of these mortar shells that were literally the size of softballs. They were the biggest single-shot fireworks I had ever seen. And I was out on the end of the pier trying to light one of the smaller mortar shells and he just plunked one of those giant ones into a tube in front of me and told me to light it after I lit the smaller mortar shell. I was really kinda scared to do it, but I figured it'd be okay since the one that he told me to light had a REALLY long fuze. So I figured I'd have time to get away. So I lit mine and then lit the one he gave me really fast and started to run back. I only made it 15ft before that thing launched. And I am telling you, the THUNK noise that that thing made when it launched was DEAFENING and I could barely hear out of my right ear for the rest of the night. After that I decided that I'd let everyone else light the fireworks for the rest of the night.

Raina21 said:

 

Margret said:

My computer club used to meet at the Colorado School of Mines.  For a long time it appeared to me that young people went there specifically because they knew that sooner or later they'd get to blow something up.  Every year on E-Days (E for "Engineering") they used to have a student-run fireworks show.  I went once.  People actually cheered when fireworks went into the stands!  That's when I decided I was never going to that celebration again.  Then one year a tree in the yard of a local house was accidentally set on fire, and they had noise complaints from five or ten miles away, and they switched to a professional company to run the fireworks.  I still don't go, though.

Regarding Carnival, "The Cask of Amontillado" is from the mid-nineteenth century, but Carnival is much older than that.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival.  I think that as long as there have been rules of conduct humans have looked for excuses to get drunk, eat too much, and otherwise let off steam.

Margret

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I can understand disliking fireworks when people are reckless with them. And its unfortunate that each year many people get severely hurt because some stupid person didn't know what they were doing (or they were too drunk to know or care what they were doing) when lighting off fireworks.


I personally love fireworks... to a point. I have been lighting them off on the fourth of July since I was 12 (so about 10 years) and my dad taught me how to do it the right way. Always in a safe place away from people and things that are flamable. We go to Koontz lake each year on the 4th of July and we always light our fireworks off on the end of our 75ft pier, so, they are launched into the sky out over the water (but not near any boats, obviously). The person who lights the firework has to get away fast though, so we have a rule that no drunk people are allowed to light anything.

Some people don't run back after they light the fuze, but I do. Because that's what you're SUPPOSED to do. They think they're super cool and tough for not running away but they're just stupid and if they get their bloody hands blown off its their own fault.

This year one of my dad's friends brought some of these mortar shells that were literally the size of softballs. They were the biggest single-shot fireworks I had ever seen. And I was out on the end of the pier trying to light one of the smaller mortar shells and he just plunked one of those giant ones into a tube in front of me and told me to light it after I lit the smaller mortar shell. I was really kinda scared to do it, but I figured it'd be okay since the one that he told me to light had a REALLY long fuze. So I figured I'd have time to get away. So I lit mine and then lit the one he gave me really fast and started to run back. I only made it 15ft before that thing launched. And I am telling you, the THUNK noise that that thing made when it launched was DEAFENING and I could barely hear out of my right ear for the rest of the night. After that I decided that I'd let everyone else light the fireworks for the rest of the night.

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I have never had the luck of lighting fireworks.  I personally LOVE anything that goes Bang. BUT I also want people to use their head. I have a coworker who like you has been setting them off for years. He takes them out in the middle of this lake and he told me they were really impressive. I always wondered how they get these to light off. He talked a bit about how to set them up and be smart about it. He had some 2" diameter cherry bomb type fireworks. Must have been a blast. We had neighbors across the way lighting them off in the road. We live in a deadend area so it was no wheres near my house. I did stay viligent and stepped outside every 15 min to make sure nothing caught fire. its been so dry and windy but no issues last night. They all lit off straight up. I think fireworks belong in a sandpit personally or like you at the end of a pier or on a boat/party boat etc. And yes no drunk people should touch them.

My cats sat straight up for one of the loud booms but after that it was nothing. They are used to loud noises. We have Harleys and other loud vehicles going by everyday. Fireworks get lit almost every weekend. So I don't even pay attention.

I saw the fireworks in Boston on Channel 4 this morning-WOW they looked impressive this year! The air was perfect without humidity and the view was perfect!

Well it went on until the wee hours of the morning. But we're all here and there seems to be no scorched earth.

I love things that go bang too. They just don't belong in the middle of a drought. Luckily the rain last night got everything good and hosed down. It was 52 degrees this morning. Dang. My thermostat on the furnace bottoms out at 48. Surprised it didn't kick on. Mercy got the trots. Pure nerves I think. She's such a tender little morsel.

Raina21 said:

I can understand disliking fireworks when people are reckless with them. And its unfortunate that each year many people get severely hurt because some stupid person didn't know what they were doing (or they were too drunk to know or care what they were doing) when lighting off fireworks.


I personally love fireworks... to a point. I have been lighting them off on the fourth of July since I was 12 (so about 10 years) and my dad taught me how to do it the right way. Always in a safe place away from people and things that are flamable. We go to Koontz lake each year on the 4th of July and we always light our fireworks off on the end of our 75ft pier, so, they are launched into the sky out over the water (but not near any boats, obviously). The person who lights the firework has to get away fast though, so we have a rule that no drunk people are allowed to light anything.

Some people don't run back after they light the fuze, but I do. Because that's what you're SUPPOSED to do. They think they're super cool and tough for not running away but they're just stupid and if they get their bloody hands blown off its their own fault.

This year one of my dad's friends brought some of these mortar shells that were literally the size of softballs. They were the biggest single-shot fireworks I had ever seen. And I was out on the end of the pier trying to light one of the smaller mortar shells and he just plunked one of those giant ones into a tube in front of me and told me to light it after I lit the smaller mortar shell. I was really kinda scared to do it, but I figured it'd be okay since the one that he told me to light had a REALLY long fuze. So I figured I'd have time to get away. So I lit mine and then lit the one he gave me really fast and started to run back. I only made it 15ft before that thing launched. And I am telling you, the THUNK noise that that thing made when it launched was DEAFENING and I could barely hear out of my right ear for the rest of the night. After that I decided that I'd let everyone else light the fireworks for the rest of the night.

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This is the right way to do fireworks! My husband has all these stories of watching drunk people light them from when he was a kid. I think everyone in those stories is fairly lucky to b alive and to have all of their fingers.

Do any of you remember the MORON who lit one on his head from Maine last year? the mother tried to sue someone and we all jumped on her saying if you were there and your son was drunk why didn't you take it out of his hands or even call the cops if he was out of control? I tell you some people really are DUMB. Personally I think we all know right from wrong and we all know how things go when we don't use our heads. I don't think its the government's job to bail out people who do stupid things. I just shake my head at that stupidity. Facebook lit up like crazy last year and telling her that she has no business suing anyone.

http://pix11.com/2015/07/05/bad-ide...aunching-fireworks-off-the-top-of-his-head-2/

http://redalertpolitics.com/2015/07...irework-off-head-thinks-government-prevented/

Just wonder where these people come up with these STUPID ideas. That's why I think we really need to work on abit less drunkenness to avoid these types of accidents or at least keep them away from flames or things that go BOOM!

We know about the double-posting issue. :nod: The Tech group is trying to solve that problem. It doesn't happen all the time. It was really bad yesterday morning, my time. I was double posting, double PM'ing and even having problem when moving a thread from one forum to another. :nod:


Looking at the first post in this thread, our next giveaway is at 4,000 posts and that will be a TCS t-shirt. 5,000 posts will be the final one and the prize for that is a TCS teeshirt + tote bag + a $100 Amazon gift card. Not too shabby.

I am glad that this is getting fixed.

On a dif note-I ordered a body harness for sweet Honeybee and she HATES it. The last time I tried to put one on her she spazzed out. This time I am using tons of TREATS! I got it over her head but that's as far as she will allow it. She bites. so yesterday or the day before I distracted her with treats and snapped it on her on both sides of the hips-she fell right down=so I need to readjust it or buy a bigger size. its a dogs xs, She looks so cute in it. I haven't been able to get pictures due to I don't want her to take off with it not latched-my only fear is she gets away and gets hung up on something. I am still looking for a breakaway type but then again that defeats the purpose right? I got my thin welding gloves and tonight I will put it on her again. I give her treats every step of the way. She still growls and spits but because I feed her-she tolerates it until she slashed my finger. Poor Bee Kitty wish she knew this is for her best interest. I want to set up a running cable type setup but I haven't figured out how to set it up so she doesn't try to climb the tree or whatever trouble she can get into.

for such a docile cat she sure turns into a spitfire in a FLASH!

I love this thread.. I love babbling, over nothing at all. I think we have made a lot of friends this way, and can really get to know each other. We can just 'talk' about anything we would like to. It is almost as if you can have a quick conversation with a friend. 

I hope when the contest is over, we can still have something similar to "The Babbling Thread" and continue our friendship. 

@AbbysMom   for looking into the double posting and the crazy spacing (typing) issues. It was really bad late yesterday. That is why I gave up. I thought it was my browser, so I shut it down and restarted it. 

Today is a lazy rainy day. i tis really coming down pretty good right now. I think it will be a pretty lazy day. I have not had one for so long. It will feel strange to just stay home, and do almost nothing.

I still have to swiffer the floors, put laundry away, make a salad for supper, and wash a load of towels.. other than that, I think I will relax and enjoy myself and Artie. It will be a strange day... I cannot remember when I did nothing!!

It has been a long time. I really do not have any errands to run. House is fairly clean. I could purge a closet, but we will see on that. 

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Artie had a bad day yesterday, last night also. He did not eat much yesterday, and was moping around.

I did not think the fireworks bothered him much, but I guess they did. 

Last night, there were several cherry bombs, and close neighbors who had them. He jumped so many times. The first 2, he was on my lap, but after that, he jumped off, and walked very fast around the apartment. He could not find a place to hide from it. Funny, he did not go under my bed. 

I put the TV on much louder than I usually do, had the 2 air purifiers on, and the AC. I thought that would help. It did not. At one point, he was crouched on the table next to me, I reached over to pet, him, and he jumped a mile. He was very skittish even after they stopped. 

I expect him to be wiped out today. Fireworks are just too much for him. poor baby...

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I volunteered to take an open shift at the shelter, on Wednesday evening. I do not care for the evening shifts because of traffic, and because I am an old fuddy duddy. I like to be home, nice and cozy in my night clothes. 

Our humane society does not have a physical, stationary, base of operations. I guess it really started as a group of people who love cats. They all somehow grouped together, becoming foster parents. Petsmart came along, and offered them their adoption area. The humane society has grown a lot. We are all volunteers. I am new at this.

There are so many cats in foster care. There are a lot of volunteers,some with permanent shifts, some with rotating shifts.  I am just a fill in. I usually respond to a general e-mail request to fill-in..

The site at PetSmart has 12 small cubbies in cat area. Those 12 cubbies can be extended to 6 larger cubbies by opening up a portion of the dividing wall. That is what we like to do, sometime demand is so high, that we cannot, as it is not fair to the cats. The litter box and scooper stay in one area, if it is open. The access room is double locked so no escapes. There is one locked door into the area, a small entrance hall, and where the cats are, there is another locked door. This way there is no escape. You can keep the inner door open, as you wish, but it has to be closed when you leave. 

There is also an isolation room. According to state law, a cat needs a Vet exam prior to entrance into isolation, where there are kept for 48--or is it 72 (?) hours. Then they are re-examined by a Vet and deemed healthy for the general public. Then they are moved into the general viewing area. 

Anyone can come in to see/play with the cats. I do feel bad for them because they are on display with a glass wall.. it is unnerving for some of them. That is why we let them out to play.

Our shifts are 2hour shifts. On weekdays there is a morning and evening shifts. Both feeding and cleaning. On weekends it is a bit different. Saturdays, shifts range from 10-4 or 6pm depending on how many volunteers are available. On Sunday it is just 10-4..The middle shifts just play with the cats, show them and talk to people. All the shifts do that, but the morning and evening ones are the most involved with cleaning litter boxes, sweeping cubbies, feeding, and possibly changing bed linen. We also have a log sheet on each cat, along with our comments and of course the Vet exams. 

And we also have names for our cats. We have taken in so many who are just abandoned, owners either pass away or move into an assisted living center and cannot take care of cats, so some who are just dumped because they are sick. Not quite ferals, but as long as they can be domesticated, then ok..they really do a good job at helping cats of all kinds. They even got in touch with a TNR group for my cousin who had a family in his back yard. They were easy to trap and were just dumped. These kitties were taken to a different shelter who had more room for them. 

We are a no-kill shelter. The president is awesome. She takes into her own home all the unadoptable cats, the ones who are too sick, or too old to be adopted. Some of the volunteers do that also. 

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Guess I have been babbling long enough. Have to get on with my hopefully peaceful, tranquil day....

Artiemom-I love your babbling about the cats. I think this helps give the general public a bit of behind the scenes at a cat adoption fair and how much is involved with each cat.

Have you heard anything more about sweet Sunshine?

I am glad there are more people like you who offer to care for kitties with no home. I wish we had something like this in Rochester but I don't think they have set up pet adoptions at our local Petsmart. We have a new Petco getting built as I speak. They are putting a new strip mall in next to the Super walmart on Rt 11 in Rochester. We never had a choice of shopping unless we drove to Portsmouth. now its not a big deal since the highway got widened to 3 lanes. What used to take easily 30 to 45 min from Rochester to Portsmouth now only takes me 20 min or less.

I wonder if this new Petco will have adoptions. I will have to check this out when they get up and running. They are looking for people to apply for jobs there. It would be great if many pet stores offered to put a few cats up for adoption. It would be fantastic for people to adopt locally.

Hi everyone sorry I haven't been around much spent most of the weekend in the pool, making coconut ice cream, grilling and trying to stay cool. Sam went to the vet he gets neutered in two weeks booster shots and microchip. Took him outside on his harness and leash yesterday it wore him out all the different smells and things to see. My oldest girl eevon was barking at him as if to say "hey! You can't be out here! Everyone the cats out!" She was so confused my poor old lady. The fireworks drove all the animals crazy scared everyone but they didn't go on really late. The AC is on today it's supposed to be close to 100 so we thought it best, Sam woke me up at 2:30 with pitiful meows I pet him, showed his food bowl, took him to the water, the cat box finally I dumped out the food and put fresh he ate and went to sleep behind the toilet. He has been really meowing this morning until I turned on the air and now everyone seems happier. We had a leak repaired in the air conditioner last summer and had it charged it was running all the time but it wasn't very cool was really hoping we might get a new unit since the air conditioner and furnace are both pretty old but no luck. Since it's cooler now I'll turn my pc on and post a few pictures :-)

Hi everyone! 

Yesterday was off and on scary for the cats.  Mostly the loud booms that occasionally happened in the afternoon didn't really effect them.  Th non-stop pops and whistles once the sun went down was too much.  Eclipse hid under my bed.  Fluffy was too distracted to play even though she was excited to see her favorite toy. 

My scale is having issues.  Not sure what the problem is.  I put in a new battery this morning and it said 175. then a bunch of horizontal lines appeared and 0.0 so I got on it again and it said 250. Guess it's time for a new one.  Does anyone have any recommendations?

I enjoy hearing about everyone's shelter experiences. 

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Sam doing his own style of yoga

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Out in the backyard with his siblings

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Mommy and Sam

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Feeling today. My supervisor just informed me that tomorrow we have to move stuff to the new facility. I'm working by myself all week with some occasional help and there's no way I have 2+ hours to pack stuff up, wait for the transport guy to get here and load up the van and move everything over, head over to the other building myself, and then unpack everything on top of everything else I have to do in the main facility This week is just a bad time to do anything extra and my supervisor is well aware of that. I have a feeling she's only doing this because the lab head made a big stink about it and she has to placate him and do what he wants. Sometimes I feel that that my supervisor won't stand up to the lab head when he demands too much at the last minute.