Soda Shoppe July 1 , 2025

patricia19 · July 16, 2025, 02:47:17 PM

OLM, MG's Oscar, has medical issues. The only thing he shares with Farrah, is a possible barometric pressure change issue. I hope things work out for MG and Oscar, and that he gets better.

Farrah's not sick. She's always been finicky, and now as a senior, she's 68 in human years, she's gotten more so, even dare I say crotchety. She likes her treats, places she considers hers, and expects treats for existing.

Furthermore, she had a rough start in life, and when I got her as a permanent foster, she spent literally months under the bed and everyone called her my ghost kitty. It's only been the last few years that she's settled and expecting to be indulged.

Amy · July 17, 2025, 09:38:45 AM

Good morning..

Couldn't get in earlier but the site seems to be working fine now. We are getting a beautiful soft rain at the moment. I was to water the front garden but that is now being taken care of.

MG , I hope you find something that Oscar will eat.I remember all the things I would try with Babe from t-Bone steak to hand feeding her mashed sardines. Not an easy job for you.

Patricia, Farrah is a lucky girl that she has you to look after her!

Better get busy.

Enjoy your day and stay safe.

OnLonelyMountain · July 17, 2025, 10:28:26 AM

Good morning,
Its supposed to be a tad warmer, but with a bit stronger breezes. Then it looks like we'll have a week of upper 70°s. Today I'll start back on wood cutting chores while it's still cool.

My daughter called yesterday and we had a lovely chat. She'll call again soon, probably while she's out running as its quieter. Three kids make phone conversations difficult at home.

Have a great day!

patricia19 · July 17, 2025, 01:37:43 PM

Good morning all.

Amy · Reply #94 - Re: Soda Shoppe July 1 , 2025

Good morning..

Beautiful day out, temp is 44° at the moment and I hope the fry days are in the past! We had a good down pour yesterday bring the water tote up a good six inches! Now the grass will grow...

Made blueberry muffins yesterday and today I will do some more baking.

Rick, is it cooler there? I turned off the a/c and opened up windows last night.

OLM, we liked in the lower 70's when we were working.

Patricia, I see you're hanging in. Cute photo.

Callie and Phyllis ,everything ok ?

Better get this day started.

Enjoy your day and stay safe.

OnLonelyMountain · Reply #95 - Re: Soda Shoppe July 1 , 2025

Good morning Amy, and all!Its 55°F, clear though a little hazy. Tne PNW fire map jumped from 3 to 18 this last week. I didn't check the accumulative acreage burned, buildings or homes destroyed, and even people who've lost their lives. I just gofire by fire and pray for those impacted. 😭

Ron arrived in the night. He said something about starting to put up insulation. He'll be here 1 day. He went yesterday to buy me a screendoor at our local Home Depot. They didn't have it in stock. I ended up ordering it. It will be here in about 2 weeks.

Amy, lower 70°s is perfect.🙂

Have a lovely day everyone. Missing hearing from so many of you. Hope you can let us know how you're doing soon.

RAMMEL · Reply #96 - Re: Soda Shoppe July 1 , 2025

Quote from: Amy on Yesterday at 07:23:19 AMRick, is it cooler there? I turned off the a/c and opened up windows last night.

AHaaaaaa - Some relief at last. In the lower 70's last night, and we're to get a two day break (according to the "reliable" weather man.) The house with it's plaster walls is still hot so the A/C doesn't get a break. At this stage of my game I have no pressing obligations, so I'll just step outside a time or two and enjoy what I can. Have a good one everybody.
Amy - Hope that "big rain" you had will help with those fires. Hate to hear about fires wiping out places - very sad.

phyllis · Reply #97 - Re: Soda Shoppe July 1 , 2025

Thanks OLM for thinking about me. I am OK but I am a little cross that life is giving me problems lately. I do not do well in this weather! Heat is up in high 90s and either the sun is baking us or severe storms are drenching us. I promised myself I would not complain about the weather but keep breaking my promise.

Broke a tooth so had to yell help to the dentist. He gave me choice of going to dental surgeon and having what was left cut out or he could drill off jagged edge and I could adapt. I told him that surgery would probably kill me or bankrupt me so I am trying to adapt to loss of my tooth. Just paint me green and call me the "wicked witch of the west".

Other than that I am doing fine. Thanks for thinking of me. Missing Jane, too. Hope she'll be back soon. Take care while you and Rob are building your tiny house up in the beautiful woods and allow me to be envious of you living in such a beautiful place.

CallieOK · Reply #98 - Re: Soda Shoppe July 1 , 2025

Good Morning. Did I read my name mentioned?

July has been full of family, various repairpersons and crazy weather - and I really don't have anything to say about baking, yard work or construction - which most posts have been about.

Sorry $:-\$

patricia19 · Reply #99 - Re: Soda Shoppe July 1 , 2025

Good morning, 65 presently, blue skies, and we're heading back up to 78 today. We still have our fires, but the various overnight rains have helped. We're down to only five fires, down from the previous seven, and those range from 3 percent to 55 percent contained.

Meet and greets, are done, Claire has been released from the medical wing and is back in a new special care unit in the Scottsdale nursing facility. The care dog has been returned to help someone else in need.

Morning routine was late but is now concluded, and the plumbing company guys are starting the vertical shift two doors away from me and the other set of guys are patching the walls outside my door preparatory to them or our maintenance repainting. This drain dismantles and replacement stated in April and are expected to end in late August or possibly September.

My new plants are doing very well. The new grow lights are having a noticeable effect, especially with the philodendrons and cacti. The cacti soil mix has some riders as every day I find a couple of feathery purple mini plants I'm assuming are mushrooms. They show up an inch or so the past two days and by mid-afternoon are full on drooping, so I've been plucking them.

I haven't really gone anywhere this week or had any packages, nor done any serious deep cleans or decluttering. I'm trying to clean as I go instead of setting aside a day to do this or that because I've been terrible at keeping a set schedule. I grew up with a family who practiced serious spring and fall deep cleaning inside or out in our acre garden. And none of us three kids have kept that tradition. One is a procrastinator, one always paid others, and I work best under a deadline.

Hi Callie and Phyllis! No one needs to follow a discussion, I never seem to, as everyone is always busier than me. I'm totally in awe of what so many are able to fit into 24 hours, but that isn't me. I just enjoy seeing what everyone else is up to. I had never had any issues with my teeth, until after fifty.

Rick, air conditioning isn't a priority in the arctic, so when we're having late eighties or early nineties, or more, we just plow through and stay lubricated.

Amy, good morning and here's another for you.

MarsGal · Reply #100 - Re: Soda Shoppe July 1 , 2025

Good grumpy morning everyone.

The weather service with all its expertise promised four days of mostly dry weather and mostly sun. It lied. Once again this morning I woke up to a very wet parking lot and solid cloudy skies.

Phyllis, the humid, rainy weather (and I suspect barometric pressure) plays havoc with my back. It is making things more difficult to finish rearranging and pitching stuff after getting my new bedroom furniture. Oscar doesn't do very well, either, in this kind of weather.

Yesterday, I spend a good bit of the day either reading or watching TV. Today, I am looking forward to both my grocery order and my monthly Amazon shipment arriving, and I will be trying to find a few more things to throw out.

Also yesterday late afternoon, the black cat (on close-up he looks a very dark chocolate with black or even darker chocolate striping) showed up at the patio window again. This time he was hissing loud enough for me to hear him and throwing himself at the window. I was able to get a good look at his ears, but could not find any notches. Fortunately, he didn't stay long. Something caught his attention farther up the building. I still suspect he belongs to one of my neighbors because when I see him coming and going to the wood patch below, he is going to or coming from the apartment complex. I haven't decided whether or not to talk to the apartment manager.

Amy · Reply #101 - Re: Soda Shoppe July 1 , 2025

Good morning..

Starting off at 52° and a/c is off!!Nice to have the windows open but I am thinking it won't last long, just a nice break from frying weather.

Laundry to do and weed pulling..all those fun jobs :)Need to package up the tarts to go to friends but that can wait till later.

Rick, thankfully the fires are not near us but my friend in Manitoba sure has smokey days! Stay cool.

Patricia, I ran into one of "those" people yesterday on a phone call. She was trying to sell something and after 4-5 no thank yous I hung up the phone. Can't fix stupid with duct tape either!

Best get this day on the road..

Enjoy your day and stay safe.

OnLonelyMountain · Reply #102 - Re: Soda Shoppe July 1 , 2025

Good morning all!
So good to hear from you.

Rick, I always feel better when I can get out and get fresh air. Glad you are getting that now.

Phyllis, good to see you! The heat wipes me out too. I completely understand. I can't be "cheerful" when I can't breathe and feel like I'm going to simultaneously pass out and throw up. I don't know if thats how it effects you, but it won't be complaining as far as I'm concerned, its commiserating. 😁 I can relate to the tooth thing too. The weed killer Roundup causes teeth and bones to dissolve, become brittle, etc. I've been assaulted with it a few times and have had terrible decay suddenly show up, as well as had a tooth "fall apart." My non-toxic dentist retired during covid. I haven't been able to find a safe one since. I have to live with it. Its definitely enough to try ones patience and grieve one's heart!

If my sharing about my house building adventures brings you pleasure, that gives me joy.🥰 Yesterday we finished running the electrical wiring for lights in all the exterior walls. It was just the runs from the switch boxes to the light boxes. We have one short one left on an interior wall. Our focus is trying to get the exterior walls ready for insulating. It gets unbeabably hot in there with this heat. About noon we had one wire left to do in an exterior wall: the coaxial cable for the internet signal booster! I was so excited! First, before we could install it we had to figure out where all three components would go and not interfere with each other. We don't want to drill the holes in the wrong places. So we erected the outdoor antenna, on it's telescoping 20' pole outside and ran the coaxial cable and extension cord through a window. The booster is the only thing that gets plugged into power. Then we tried all different placements of it and the interior antenna until they didn't interfere with each other and the booster glowed a happy green. Yay! I checked my cell and my ipad, I was getting 2 bars sometimes and a much more stable 1 bar at the least. So we went outside and moved the antenna. Which meant we had to reconfigure the inside pieces. When we finally got the green light again, I was getting 2 bars consistently all over the house and I could get 3 in the hall!😆 Not that I'd be using my devices in the hall. I was pretty thrilled. Now here's a secret I haven't told: Ron was pretty skeptical about the boosting system and thought it was a waste of money because "we'd never get it to work out here." He's a very practical person, not given to what he thinks of as my "harebrained ideas." But when we started getting 2-3 bars it lit a fire under him. All the sudden he wanted to know what I'd learned that could get 3-4 bars. He actually read the installation manual!!!🤣🤣🤣 We were off to the races! Him wandering around outside, me driving my side-by-side (the heat was doing me in, I could barely walk) and checking locations with the signal finding app. We determined a really good location that was 150' from the tiny house. He's going to get a 150' roll of coaxial wire and bring it back tomorrow! Of course moving the antenna there will require another round of musical components to find the location where they won't interfere with each other. But having read the manual (finally) he's quite confident that he knows just where to place them. We have to wait until he brings the extra coaxial. I won't have power in the tiny house for a while, but I'm so much closer to having good, if not great, internet right here in camp that I'm almost giddy!🤣 Then just because we're the curious type we drove around to some of our cell spots to see where the signal was coming from. The results were kind of surprising. When that finally gets up and running I'll be sure to post some pictures of my tiny house and mountain property. You are welcome to feel envious; I get that too, missing out on so many things that others take for granted as I do. I welcome you to my woodland world in my heart.🥰

Hey Callie, I've missed you! Don't feel left out. Throw out a wild hair topic and share! I love to read what everyone else is doing! It doesn't have to be the same subject matter. I grew up in a family of 6 kids and conversations were always multi-subjected. If thats a word? Many faceted is probably better😁. For me its more about the contact than the content. What others are doing, even if it may seem ordinary to them, is interesting to me because its about them. Not me. I have enough of me in my isolated world. Just hearing from you, knowing you're o.k. and taking care of yourself or being able to meet you here to empathize over any struggles you might have is all good to me.

Patricia, I always love your informative and wise posts! A great cartoon too.😁 Glad to hear Claire is improving and your fire situation is getting better. Yesterday there was a 50 ac. Fire some distance north of me. They put it out, however with the high winds and land formations thick choking smoke engulfed us at bedtime. Its cleared out this morning.

MG, sorry to hear you're having a grumpy start. I hope the grocery order and Amazon shipment lift your spirits. Hugs to you!

Amy, I used to use weed pulling to vent😁 I'd be out there grousing under my breath, yanking them out. I'm sure the neighbors thought I had a few loose screws. 😆😆😆 Effective though. I'm sure your butter tart recipients feel the love with every delicious mouthful!😋

Have a great day everyone!

MarsGal · Reply #103 - Re: Soda Shoppe July 1 , 2025

Another episode of "Adventures with Grocery Delivery" brought to you by Giant Direct. My groceries were delivered, all of it, but with three extra bags, all refrigerator goods, that weren't mine. Finally got through to Giant's customer service. They tried every which way to Sunday to get a hold of the delivery person, no luck. They can't even find the order (order number is on the bags), so I got to keep the groceries, only I didn't. My refrigerator/freezer is full enough so my upstairs neighbor won the grocery giveaway. She has a very erratic work schedule and is usually out the door by now, so she got lucky. She really, really appreciated that I thought of her. Made my day.

OLM, I assume you know a thing or two about exterior cables to antennas, etc. I remember my ex, a ham radio operator, and former service tech used hard line at house long ago. It was non-conducting metal (aluminum, I think) through which he threaded his antenna cable. Kept the squirrels, rabbits and such from chewing the wires. Found this, but there are, I'm sure, other sites with recommendations and info. https://www.cablesandkits.com/learning-center/outdoor-network-cable

Raining again.

OnLonelyMountain · Reply #104 - Re: Soda Shoppe July 1 , 2025

MG,
Thank you! My husband may know about it, he mentioned encasing it in pipe, but I'm copying and sending him your post just in case. Most Excellent!!! Now you've made another person's day!😃

I hate destructive rodents and we certainly have a plethora. Its why I don't shoot most snakes. We passed a yellow striped snake of greater than 1.25" diameter on our drive yesterday. It alarmed my husband when I got to the size and scale pattern in my description. He thought rattler. But I'd checked the tail: long,skinny, pointy. Definitely not a rattler. I think it may have been a bull snake. None the less, Ron hollered, "Stop!" He got out and tried to find it. It was long gone. Racers or garter snakes don't get that big. Bull snakes do a great job on rodents. I was concerned about the chipmunks, squirrels, pack rats, mice and red diggers maniacal chewing. [/b

Random Image

User

Shoutbox

Soda Shoppe July 1 , 2025

patricia19

Amy

OnLonelyMountain

patricia19

Amy

OnLonelyMountain

RAMMEL

phyllis

CallieOK

patricia19

MarsGal

Amy

OnLonelyMountain

MarsGal

OnLonelyMountain