Couch 247: Choose Cheese!

I am also in a legal cannabis state. There's a dispensary on every corner, they're as bad as Starbucks.

The staff (in my very limited experience and from conversational anecdotes from friends of a similar age and experience level) can be super helpful, answering questions and helping figure things out. Sometimes they even have an "honored citizen" discount. Heh.

ETA: Ha ha ha- for kicks I looked it up and there is a Cannabis for Dummies on Amazon.

*checks SD’s gift off my Xmas shopping list*

I don’t mind accordions. It’s bagpipes I can’t stand.

H's cousin plays bagpipes. I think he actually got a college scholarship partially based on his playing? Or at least that was a possibility. We saw him play a couple times, including once at some Celtic festival. That was enough really. I'm sure he's very good, just enough bagpipes. H's uncle also participated (not playing pipes, but some other role), so I got to see him in a kilt, which is...something I did not need to see.

I’m sorry little you had to go through that.

Making you give up your instrument was wrong. It may have reinforced feelings of inadequacy or unworthiness. It makes sense you would take a protective stance of keeping your distance to avoid further hurt or disappointment.

Thanks, sweetie.

This is where i always disagreed with my t's. I felt ignored, discarded, misunderstood - but not unworthy. I KNEW they disregarded my value - they often told stories about how women didn't matter. I could see the prejudice for what it was. It turned into a wall between me and the rest of the world. I snuck out best i could, but familial comforts are hard to give up, such as they are.

We're concerned about a possible mold issue, so have a mold inspector currently going through our house and testing things, like with moisture meters, flashlights, etc. Aside from initial greetings, the only thing he's really said to either of us is "What is it?" while pointing at one of the guinea pigs. Which is sort of amusing to me.

I am very anxious as to what he'll find and hope he gives some sort of report by the time I have to leave for Dr. T in an hour (he's been here 2 hours already). H will be here, but if it's bad news, kinda hoping to know before session, or at least partway through (like if H updates me).

I like playing bagpipes but it is definitely more fun to be playing them than listening to them. (I am not good at playing - but I had a roommate who was in a drum and pipe band and she taught me some)

I am envious of those of you who will be witnessing the eclipse!

Yikes LT, I hope everything goes well with the inspection! We had a mold issue in a previous house we were renting, thankfully it was confined to one area in the living room, the landlord hired a mold remediation company and they got it all cleaned up and dried out and then the landlord fixed where the wall was leaking. We hadn't seen it because it was behind a couch, but once it spread out to the side of the couch we saw it. They tented the area with this industrial-strength plastic sheeting or whatever, so we didn't have to leave or anything, we just didn't go into that room.

it's supposed to be happening in about an hour or so where I am. I read it will be about 70% here. I didn't bother getting glasses or anything to try to look at it because I don't trust them!

Sending you virtual love.

I’m glad you could hold on to knowing your value, despite it all.

How long do they usually last for? I remember once in primary school we made pinhole cameras, never actually used them though.

Hope you get a good report, if there are issues it can be treated, if the underlying issue is looked at.

The site I read on says it lasts about 2.5 hours, from when it barely starts moving in front of the sun through covering it completely and then moving off again. I think we're going to see a ring of the sun here or maybe something like a crescent moon? - well those brave enough to look with the glasses anyway - since it won't be total where I live.

Then again it's cloudy out there right now, so we may not see anything except the sky getting darker for a bit.

There’s some clips of it online from chile. With the people whooping it reminds me of the scene from Independence Day when they come to welcome the aliens on top of the
building.

Sorry for being off today.

Every (partial) eclipse I can catch a glimps of, I try to. The best one was during a physics lecture, we were allowed to go outside to watch. You have this whole huge area of science students all staring up with glasses and after half a minute people start going "okay, soooo, as expected, what are we doing now?". It is weird to suddenly have the place go dark though.

I don't know/want to do the math on whether all eclipses last for the same amount of time, but for a partial one it takes like 15-20 minutes or something.

CBS is tracking it from mexico thru texas on up, so you get to watch it basically on repeat!

It is something to experience it live once though, the birds go quiet and stuff, it just feels different.

If you really want to see it - there are youtube videos of it passing over various places. Where I am is in the path on the edge - it got darker and quiet and I looked at it - saw the moon and sun, did not burn out my retinas because I was wearing the little paper glasses, came back in and was underwhelmed. I think the 2017 one was a little better here - but even then I was not all that whelmed

It's definitely underwhelming if you know what you're looking at.

Today is a grief anniversary for me, so I reached for poetry.
Then I tried to check my haiku 'workings' using Google Translate.

I stopped myself just in time...

Not translating, just counting syllables.

Hugs, Lost...

Thanks, Artie! Glad you didn't have to leave.

So, he found some mold above the ceilings of both our bathrooms that have showers--neither of the vents go to the outside (so he said as part of remediation, they should vent them out there). They're on different floors (our house is weird because it's a split-level townhouse). Also, he found some mold behind the bathroom wall in the main bathroom that D uses. Plus some water damage in our dining room ceiling (we had a leak there years ago--fixed pipe but not ceiling)--he didn't see any mold (we gave him permission to drill a hole where he could insert a camera), but he said it would be good to replace that just to be safe.

I'm in the process of contacting remediation companies now to get an estimate--a few have been recommended. No idea if insurance will cover any of this--it seems very complicated when it comes to things like mold and water leaks (like they'll cover one specific scenario but not another).

I imagine we'll have to leave the house for a couple days while they do this, but no idea. I was hoping it would all be, say, in the basement, where they could have just blocked it off and worked while we stayed here. With it being in a few of the main living floors of the house, I don't see how we could make it work.

Thanks, Lemon! See update above this.

Sorry to hear that, LT.

I hope you're able to get it sorted with the minimum amount of upheaval.