Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 24 November 2019

Wishing a happy Thanksgiving to our friends across the pond !

Oh, goodness!! I remembered it yesterday, then forgot it today!!

)__)---)__)--)(---)(-- Happy Thanksgiving to all in the USA!! _)--)(--)___)--)(-)_-_)(__)

I forgot as well! Enjoy your turkey, all of you on the other side of the Pond.

Best wishes from us too - I remembered three times - then forgot three times! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thanks all!  I've been looking at the Grapevine live traffic cam and watching all the LA-bound drivers being turned around and sent back north due to snow closure.   I feel sorry for the truck drivers, who are on schedules and trying to earn money, but the forecasters have been telling us for days that there was a big storm coming with snow and that it could shut down the I-5 at the Grapevine for Thanksgiving. I imagine these are out-of-town folks who didn't get the info.  :-(

Lots of rain here again overnight and this morning.  Might go for a walk around the neighborhood.....

It must be a novelty for you, ANNETTE,walking in the rain :-)

Yes, Heather. I have to resist the temptation to stamp in puddles! :-)

Don't resist, Annette!!

I’m not a happy bunny today. In an hour’s time our electricity will disappear for “maintenance”. Thank goodness we have a gas stove and thus can at least boil water for coffee. I was planning to go Cmas shopping but our shops have gone berserk about something called Black Friday. Now we don’t have Th-giving DownUnder so why should we import a frenzy? I hate crowds. Some shops are advertising up to 95% off.  Surely it is stuff they can’t sell! Sorry. Rant over.

Those with excess rain, please can you send it here. Forecasters are predicting a hot and dry summer, hotter & drier than usual. Gee, thanks. Since summer started early this year, that’s not the best news in our hot dry state.

Enjoy your day/night. I hope to be back tomorrow.

AQ - UK seems to have adopted Black Friday with a vengeance as well. Such a frenzy! I was listening to something on the radio this morning - previously people used to get into debt in January, after Christmas excess. Now they are getting into debt in November, before Christmas has even arrived. Why can't we leave this sort of import firmly in the middle of the Atlantic? And apparently all these wild promises of discounts etc are largely a figment of some marketing department's imagination - items are often available far cheaper if you shop around!

I have spent far more time than usual sitting in my car and listening to the radio in the last couple of days, due to <very sweary words!!> emergency road works. Last night it took me an hour and thirty-five minutes to progress half a mile to get home. This morning it took me an hour and five minutes - on a different approach road - to cover probably about the same distance. No reports of this chaos online ... Unfortunately I live right on the main road, which is the main non-motorway route to Eastbourne and carries a tremendous amount of traffic. There are two ways to approach my home - I have now tried both of them and they are both <more sweary words!!!> I have to go out early tomorrow - it will be OK going, but probably awful again getting home. And I have a meeting tomorrow evening from which I will need to get home ... if only there were some sort of report which would tell us how long this emergency is going to last, it would go a small way to easing the frustration. Grrrrrrrrr

Seems there are several rants on here today - thank goodness for this Forum where we can share our frustrations without upsetting our neighbours!