Araucaria Appreciation Thread

[rmcrae]

Happy New Year's Eve John!

 

[Triple G]

 

[MusicMan321]

Happy new year!

 

[Araucaria]

Happy New Year Thad, RM, Gary, Andrew, and everyone!

I had a good New Year's Eve. The Cuban Lady next door brought me a Cuban dinner, with mojo pork, rice and black beans, yuca, and a salad with avocado, tomato, lettuce, and cucumbers. Of course everybody set off fireworks like crazy, and we must have had an inversion or something, because the smoke didn't clear until the early hours of the morning,

Right now we're having the coldest weather of the winter so far. It was 47 yesterday morning and 50 today. But it's finally sunny after several cloudy days. But yesterday it went up to 70 and it was a nice day, with no humidity. Rob would be proud of me, I took a bike ride around and saw a little bit of what Santa brought to some the kids. I saw a little redneck boy shooting his brand new air rifle with his daddy and little sister with him. And I saw another little boy riding a go-kart with his daddy with him.

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve, and that you will have a great New Year.

 

[Araucaria]

Thad, about your comment about FSU in the Orange Bowl. First, you have to understand that I'm a Florida Gator, and that Florida State is our archenemy, so I generally don't care if they lose. However, they lost to Georgia, the Gators' other arch rivals. For me, the best outcome of a game between those two teams would be a sloppy game with lots of mistakes by both teams, ending in a miserable tie. As for your comment that FSU proved the playoff selection committee right, I'll put on my faux neutral analysis hat, and say maybe you're right, but the game might have, ahem, also proved that Georgia should have been selected for the playoffs.

 

[Thad1527]

Thanks for explaining! "I forgot" about the bad blood between SEC schools at football season.

I made a brief Mummers Parade visit early in the day. I saw several "wench brigades," fairly large groups of men, women, and children wearing similar colorful dresses. The group in Barbie pink might have fit into the Palm Beach palette. Or not. Other brigades wore other colors: purple-and-blue, orange, red-white-blue. Matching bonnets, of course, and painted faces. I should have taken pictures because this doesn't happen everywhere. I left around 11:15 am so there was much much more to follow

I was home in time to see the Winter Classic, the annual outdoor hockey game, on TV. This year it was in Seattle at T-Mobile Field, home of baseball's Mariners. Seattle shut out Vegas. I do have posters up of Oliver Bjorkstrand of the Kraken AND William Karlsson of the Golden Knights so I wasn't too concerned who won.

Happy January!

 

[frankifab]

Hello Johnnie I hope that you have a Fun Tuesday later buddy

 

[Araucaria]

Good Friday morning Frankie and Thad!

Thad, it sounds like the Mummers Parade is an all-day event. It sounds like a fun event, but I can't see watching a parade for that long. Have fun on your trip for the Pride Night hockey game in Nashville. I've been to the Great Smoky Mountains, Knoxville, Oak Ridge, Chattanooga, and even Memphis, but I've never been to Nashville. Hope you have a good time.

I was a good little hausfrau yesterday, doing my domestic chores. I went to a laundromat to wash my clothes, because my washer is broke. I'll have to buy a new one (or a new used one) sometime in the coming year. Then when I got home and hung and put away my clothes, I changed my bedsheets and all the towels in my house. I don't even want to think about how long it had been since I changed them. Then I went grocery shopping at ALDI, and then to Publix for what I couldn't get there. I also made a stop at the Dollar Tree, where I bought a bunch of food items for the food pantry at MCC. You can buy a lot of food items there, and I figure that buying a bunch of canned and boxed goods at $1.25 each goes a lot further and feeds more people than buying a few items at $5 apiece at Publix.

Weatherwise, it looks like it's going to be up and down for the next few days. On Saturday it's supposed to go up to 80, but it'll be windy and stormy. Then it's supposed to be cloudy and a bit cooler, and back up to the low 80s on Tuesday with more wind and storms, then again getting cooler. It's going to be a sloppy few days.

 

[PalacePaul]

Good evening, John. I'm glad you were able to do a lot of house work yesterday. I often have a hard time doing it.
I didn't know you have ALDI stores in the US, too. We've had them in Spain for a few years, but I think the company started in Germany. Actually I've never been to one but I hear it's good; my aunt buys a lot of stuff there.

Last night we had some rain, and some intermitent rain again during the day. It is like a miracle, given the extrem drought we are suffering.

 

[frankifab]

Hello Johnnie
it sounds like you had a lot of work to do in your home , it takes patience and a willingful spirit to do all of that work ( I also struggle and have a hard time doing it )

If only there were laundromats here where I live , I've got clothes to wash ( I do it by hand ) but I cannot do it because we've got a lousy water service in this place

I hope the weather gets better soon

Have a pleasant Saturday later

Thanks for witing to me

 

[The Loner]

Just wanted to drop by and show some appreciation to one of my favorite posters on here. Hello, sir. ☺

 

[Araucaria]

Good Wednesday morning/afternoon Loner, Frankie, and Paul!

First, let me say that I didn't have any tornadoes or severe weather that materialized here. I saw that Dan was worried about tornadoes where he's at, which is farther upstate. A line of storms went through here last night, and another line went through Saturday afternoon, but no severe weather here. Actually it's typical for these storm systems to lose a lot of their punch by the time they move down the state into South Florida.

Paul, we've had ALDI stores in the United States since at least around 2000. I find they're good for buying a lot of common items for cheaper than at other chains, though you have to watch out for some high-priced specialty items, and they don't stock a lot of items, so you still have to do some of your shopping elsewhere. From what I understand, there are at least two, and probably more, unrelated companies that run ALDI chains. The story gets complicated, and it seems the ownership changes in different countries. There's a lot about it that I don't know.

Frankie, wow, it sounds like you're barely one step ahead of the days when women took their laundry down to the river and scrubbed their clothes between rocks. It's a lot of work to wash all your clothing by hand, since apparently your water service is unreliable. Hope you don't have to put in too much time and effort for that.

Aww, thanks, Loner! I'm glad you like what I'm posting.

This morning I'm supposed to have a friend come and pressure wash the sidewalk and walkways in front of my house. It seems that Code Enforcement is breathing down my neck over the "discoloration." From my way of thinking, that's awfully damn nitpicky, but I guess I've got to do it. Hopefully they'll leave me alone after this, at least until the rainy season in the summer, when the grass grows faster than I can mow it.

 

[Triple G]

Good morning, John

Good to hear you have not had severe weather. Ours has been cool and it's 34F as I write this. Tomorrow is to be 33. A little windy which is predicted to pick up tomorrow.

Haven't been posting much lately as I am tired all the time and spend much of the day sleeping. Up early today for folder duty. Then will probably sleep the afternoon away.

No sidewalks here, just dirt.

Got to get going.

 

[frankifab]

Hello Johnnie , fortunately there haven't been severe weather issues where you live

Well , washing clothes by hand is not that hard ( it can be sort of challenging sometimes though ) the easiest items are suit pants , shirts , t shirts , jeans , light denim jackets all kinds of underwear ....
I prefer to wash the heavy clothes by machine as it requires more strength , supposedly my relatives will come to an agreement to have a water tank installed on the rooftop so we would have better water pressure later on

Hopefully you will be free from The Code Enforcement for a while after today


I hope you have a pleasant Thursday later my friend

 

[Araucaria]

Good Thursday morning, Gary and Frankie!

My friend came over and did the pressure washing of all my sidewalks yesterday. It cost almost $200, but it was worth it to get code enforcement out of my hair. I can see why people move out into remote areas to get away from municipal ordinances and even worse, homeowners associations. I'm tempted to do it myself, but I'm getting a bit older, and if you're going live away from everyone else, you have to learn to be more self-reliant than I tend to be.

Keep bundled up against the cold, Gary! I hope you have a good heating system to keep you warm. Yeah, you feel like you're not doing anything when you're tired and sleeping all the time. For some reason I was feeling tired and taking long naps for a couple of days earlier this week. It was probably the weather. We had lots of cloudy, overcast, coolish, and just generally gloomy weather. That makes you feel like not wanting to do anything.

Frankie, I hope you can get your relatives to get you that water tank to help with water pressure. I guess it isn't that hard to hand wash an occasional item, but it's a lot easier and faster to use a washer. I know that makes clothes wear out faster, but that's more work, so I'd leave the hand washing to special items. Plus the heat from clothes dryers also damages clothes.

 

[Triple G]

Good morning, John.

It was 32F this morning. The heat pump took some time to get the house warm.

 

[Thad1527]

Hi John! I'm home!

Nashville was fun. I shopped in Publix! They are there, with Kroger and Food Lion. (We have Food Lion in Delaware, about 10 miles away)

Aldi is here and we now also have Lidl, a similar European discount grocery.

So I'm not going hungry. But I do need to do laundry this week.

I'm very glad that ordinary things are my main concerns! I count my blessings.

Hope your MLK weekend goes well!

 

[PalacePaul]

Aldi is here and we now also have Lidl, a similar European discount grocery.

I've been shopping at Lidl for years. If you have one where you are, try Perlenbacher beer

 

[Araucaria]

Good Sunday afternoon, Gary, Thad, and Paul!

Gary, I hope you're keeping warm out there, 32 degrees is too cold for me! It sounds like your temps are rebounding, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep your house warm.

Thad, I'm glad you enjoyed your hockey trip to Nashville. Publix was solely a Florida chain for many years, until they started expanding into several other Southeast states. We don't have Food Lion here, but there were some in Tampa when I lived there. They seem to cater to Southern food tastes, from what I hear. Kroger doesn't have any stores in Florida, but they've been advertising a grocery delivery service down here lately. I hadn't heard of Lidl, but I'll check on them if they ever open any stores down here. Also down here are a couple of chains that cater to Hispanic customers, especially Presidente. I should probably check them out, since they're supposedly good on tropical fruit selection and have very inexpensive cuts of meat.

Paul, I'll check out Perlenbacher beer if I come across the Lidl chain, either here or elsewhere.

Well, the up and down weather here continues. We unexpectedly had record highs on Friday and yesterday before the rain set in. It was raining and only in the 60s Thursday, followed by 87 on Friday, and 85 Saturday before the rain lowered it back into the 60s. This morning we had thunderstorms, and it's still raining and in the 60s all day. And tomorrow it's supposed to warm up again, and wash and repeat...

I wanted to go to visit a private garden that belonged to a locally famous man who was a curator of a local botanical garden and extension consultant who died. The garden was supposed to be open this weekend for the last time before it was closed permanently. But I've been unable to get out there because of all the rain. Oh well.

 

[Thad1527]

It's 38°F here now, going down to 24°F tonight. I decided to stay in.

Tomorrow is a holiday. No bank or library. But I have a few books and cash on hand, and food, though markets will be open.

I'm sorry the wetness ruined your garden plans!