Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 6 November 2022

Head-cold seems to have gone at last – left me very tired. OH managed to get my prescription from the pharmacy on Thursday, but I think we were just pottering in the house the rest of the day. Yesterday our hairdresser came for the two of us – it was an earlier appointment than our usual which threw me for the rest of the day, but we did find ourselves with a bit of time in the evening and make our mincemeat ready for mince pies! OH had hoped to mow during the dry weekend, but there is a lot of dew on the grass and not enough wind to dry it so far.

AQ – glad the clever son in law fixed your connection problems! Sorry the parade was washed out – glad you did not have storm damage!

LINDA – sorry family are upset about young man changing his name – I hope they will calm down and accept him for who he is – more than a name! I hope engineer will do more than scratch his head and produce high quotes! You certainly need working heating there at this time of the year – do you have any alternative, such as a fan heater? __later – glad to see young man sorted it!

DIANE – I hope your house will hold together till workers are available next spring – encouraging news re car prices!

HEATHER – didn’t realise the Danes are returning – at least it is motivation for HW! Glad the heating got fixed – we are still awaiting the plumbing repair on our filtered and chilled water, so buying drinking water!

RUSTY – Our Mahonia is lovely too – quite heavy with flower and so cheerful in the dreary season. Lovely jasmine photo.

ANNETTE – glad your Daughter got safely moved downstairs with your help – hope the pain subsided! When our Dau#2 remarried in 2018, she and her husband both changed to a hyphenated combination of both their original surnames.

PAT – glad you enjoyed a day at the seaside with a friend. It wasn’t cold here – but quite windy much of the time.

All the aching bits are improving again – I’m used to things hurting myself, but I hate to see my Son in such pain. Even OH says he has a painful leg this morning!

Glad the aches are subsiding, OG. Hate waking in the morning myself, and gingerly moving bits of me to see which one hurts most!

Sunny here, and the wind died down, so much so that after I served lunch I was surprised to find my OH sitting outside!! A sure sign of climate change as that would normally be remarkable in October!! We both sat for a bit but I came in eventually, as it was hard to read the newspaper in the bright sun.

The young name changer had a boy child only a month ago. His wife, who is beautiful & clever, is a very passionate vegan and feminist, & I guess that she has said that she won't change HER name to his in spite of the marriage, which is fine, but it sounds as if changing things is some sort of compromise after an argument over what goes on the child's birth certificate. The trouble really is that as the young man has a sister, he is the only one carrying on his name for the branch of the family and of course that includes his son. It's not an "odd" name nor hard to pronounce and I find it very sad. His grandfather would have been horrified.

Thrilled to see that the Ukranians have been successful in reclaiming one of their cities. This has been a heartbreaking war with such losses on both sides and all for one old man's vanity.

LINDY We moved to Shetland in October "93. I sat outside writing my Christmas cards on Nov 30th. I wrote in every card that the weather was beautiful and wonder if they believed I was sitting outside at the end of November in the most northerly part of the UK.. I was wearing a jacket but it was blue sky and sunshine!!!

Talking of surnames, we have no children and my OHs Sister always lived at home with her parents and was never going to have children. My OHs Dad had a sister who married but no children and besides she did take her husbands name. I can honestly say that we are not bothered about the family name!! Don't want to be unthinking but that is the way it is.

AQ: That sounds like a really awful storm - too bad about your neighbor's gate, I guess. Immigrants to the U.S. also anglicized their names - at least in those days.

Meanwhile, good election news from Arizona re the Senate. Now we wait for Nevada and, if that doesn't go "our" way (my way!) it'll be on to the Georgia rematch in December.