Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey) 5 November 2017

Thank you Diane for starting the week. A lovely picture.

Lindy, I am glad Bonnie's adventure had a satisfactory outcome. A rather

expensive time for you, but must be worth it for peace of mind.

Hello to everyone.

I am finishing a segment of my freelance project by Tuesday, and I'll make time to start posting again when I'm done with that.

Lindy and AQ: I've enjoyed your lovely holiday photos. All of them were very interesting.

Annette: I'm sure you enjoyed Robert Reich. I've never seen him, but I know he can be quite engaging. Hope all is well with you. 

OG: Hope you enjoyed the supper and concert.

Rosy: Nice to see you posting again.  

I hope Bonnie the dog is okay now.

Hey Diane: Thanks for starting us off. I was just reading your first post about the moon when my OH called me out to see the it - gorgeous!   Robert Reich was indeed engaging. It was a free event and they had to turn many people away.  Anyway, you know how short he is?  Well, he came out onto the stage and started off with: "Well, as you can see, the Trump Administration is wearing me down." (Lots of laughs). Then: "I'm really 6'2"."  Even more laughs. He then got serious and went on to tell how he'd been to several of the so-called red states way back in the primaries to talk to folks to hear what their concerns were and what they were thinking and was surprised to hear that many were considering voting for either Donald Trump - or Bernie Sanders. The rationale being they felt ignored by Washington and wanted someone - anyone - to shake things up.  He was pretty exasperated with the current Democratic party - said he's often in meetings with Dems in DC and says, essentially, that they just don't get it; that it's "like talking to the wind."  Like Biden, he's optimistic about the future - his reasoning being that things were much worse in the 60s and the public eventually started taking notice of what was going on (but I'm not sure if the divisions were the same). He did say that the current crop of students that he's teaching (he wears lots of hats) is the most politically engaged he's seen in decades, and that people are generally paying more attention.  (There was an item on . He also harkened back to the days of the robber barons and reminded people that huge reforms came into force after that. His main beef - as we can all agree - is that there's waaaaay too much money in politics, etc. He spoke for about 40 minutes and then had a Q&A, but I couldn't stay for that.  Condoleeza Rice will be at the University in January and I think I'll go see her too.   Don't you just love the recent revelations about the Dems; campaign, especially the Donna Brazile claims. But didn't she sneak Hillary the questions before one of the debates (of course that was after Bernie had been sorted).  I remember the fiasco with Debbie Wasserman - not my favorite person at all. What a farce it all is. I haven't read any details or analysis of the Brazile book yet; fled to the garden for a couple of hours then we watched Mash reruns instead of the news!  She'll probably be on the Sunday talk shows; what do you think her motives are (apart from selling her book)?

Apologies to all for political detour there!   :-)

Lindybird: Gosh, you had to pay VAT on top of that fat call to the poison center?  What an expensive walk on the beach that was! In this country, somebody would've sued someone by now for polluting the coastline and/or endangering wild life (and pets!).

Our clocks go back an hour tonight - the extra hour sounds good; if a bit discombobulating. Will have to do the rounds of all the electronic gizmos tomorrow.  Glad our TV cable and phone companies take care of those devices for us...

Good morning - wondering how Bonnie is today.  Had a wonderful evening - more about it later as we are actually up in time for church, so things to be done!

Good  Morning.  Thanks to Diane for her beautiful picture to start us off again.  I had to go outside to fetch something from the car last night, and was stopped in my tracks by the sight of the moon, looking like something in an ethereal painting. Beautiful and haunting.

Bonnie has coughed a little in the night: she has probably hurt her throat and it's now dry and scratchy. But she's not coughing all the time, so we're going to see how things go. She managed some food and the Vet recommended nothing too greasy. The vets bill also included for an injection she gave her for anti nausea, and of course the consultation. We don't have her insured, as pet insurance these days is very steep indeed, so we'd rather just pay up and hope we never have any major incidents.

My OH is struggling with his back and leg pain and has an appointment for Wednesday with the chiropractor, who has been the only person who can give any relief. He thinks he aggravated it by lying upside down underneath our Youngest's kitchen sink whilst installing him a new one.  I still have a sore and dry throat which still doesn't seem to be developing into anything, so at least I don't have a cold. We are both walking wounded, LOL!!

Was just going to write that I hoped you'd had a good evening, OG.

Annette -- Similar discussions are going on here, it seems that everyone is ready to vote for change on the political front, almost irrespective of the danger of putting someone how shall I say, "unsuitable" in a position of power. It's good that people are talking more about politics, especially the younger ones, but I'm shocked at how no one seems to think badly of anyone, once they have been convinced by hype that they are the solution to all our problems.

EDIT --  We've been told that the substance on the beach is from a ship which went down in the Irish Sea in the 1990s. Apparently, every now and then it disgorges more of its cargo.

Diane - Thinking of you, working away at getting your project finished. Is it cold there, yet?  We're having colder temps this week as after a mild autumn, we finally seem to be entering our winter now.

Rosy - Thank you.

Today's pic:

I'm relieved about Bonnie, LINDY xx

Morning all. Also glad for Bonnie. We have had cats for years and know what it is like when something goes wrong. We have decided that our current cats will be our last due to age and health. A glorious day here if chilly. Now running on laptop as I think I downloaded some malware – probably key logger so pc is off to be sorted tomorrow. Oh's next appointment with the consultant is 30^th November so our week in Cornwall is safe. Tomorrow will be one of our best days for a while. We had a final cheque from the bike insurers so closing the Executor account! Also British Gas finally got themselves sorted out and we will be getting a £0.00 Final Bill. We are finally finished!!!!!

LINDY.  So pleased Bonnie is well on the recovery road, if not you and your OH, so wishing you both well soon.  Benson is the first dog we have insured and it has been worth it as he ad an eye op when he was a year old and more recently an op to remove a pice of grass from his windpipe. We never insured the Goldies and would have lost out if we did.  

Drove to Dochgarroch this morning and saw snow on Ben Wyvis for the first time this winter. Late this year as we usually see it before October is over.