Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 24 September 2023

By the way, folks: Funding will run out for the US federal government on Saturday of this week. It's increasingly likely that the government will shut down, creating chaos here. The far-right flank of the Republican Party has siezed control of the House of Representatives, and prospects are grim for passage of the necessary bills to keep the goverment operating. This will affect the global economy.

Diane: That's a LOT of birds. Tracking them must be so interesting; wonder who does that and how. Too bad your local pests are so aggressive.  EDIT:  I gather Social Security and similar won't be affected.  McCarthy is an utter fool.  

Rosy: Good to see you! But what a pain about the site. I've not had any trouble at all... Is this one the only site that's giving you problems? Have you tried to empty your browser's cache (no idea if that would help, but it's something I've been told to do on the odd occasion I've had trouble accessing a site).

Rusty: Hurray for a successful day. Too bad about the limited leftovers though.. :-)

Have a good Sunday everyone.

Unknown said:

By the way, folks: Funding will run out for the US federal government on Saturday of this week. It's increasingly likely that the government will shut down, creating chaos here. The far-right flank of the Republican Party has siezed control of the House of Representatives, and prospects are grim for passage of the necessary bills to keep the goverment operating. This will affect the global economy.

If all this stuff was going on in some South American country it would get referred to as a banana republic.  Someone needs to sort out these nutters.

Good morning all from a sunny but blustery Suffolk.

I arrived home yesterday after another stint of nanny duty in S E London. However I am still coughing a lot despite a second prescription for a different antibiotic, so need to call the docs tomorrow. I don't think I will get to Yorkshire as planned on Friday and my coughing would drive everyone mad.

Rusty belated birthday wishes and it looks like your party was a great success.

OG - Like everyone I am angry on yours and Js behalf for the treatment he has had from the school.

Diane I hope you start to feel more positive after your stern talk to yourself.

Everyone else - thank you as always fro your posts.

Have a good week all.

Rosy - I see a number of us are having problems with the site, me included. I usually find leaving it open and then refreshing when I look again (a couple of times, usually, in a day) takes me to the last post I looked at. I do get 'signed out' quite often, which is a pain. If I am going to post, I always check first! I also 'copy' before I post ... just in case.

Rusty - Glad you enjoyed your birthday party. Sounds as though your catering went down well - literally! And the children seem to have had a good time. That means the adults enjoyed themselves as well. Glad there were some 'leftovers' for you to enjoy in peace afterwards.

Diane - As a dedicated listener to World Service, as I know several others on here are as well, we hear about the US economy and it seems things are becoming more localised and impossible to manage. It's much the same here. Our second largest city, Birmingham, recently declared itself bankrupt because it's not able to fulfil equal pay claims, and can no longer afford to support anything other than essential services. What is our world coming to?

Pat O said:

I do get 'signed out' quite often, which is a pain.

Agree the site does play up. Two tips that may assist I have found is.

'1. Before going anywhere....Look at the top of right on page if ' Join and donate' is showing Ok but if it says 'sign in' then just click and that 

usually takes you straight to sign in details Doh

2. To get to latest message, scroll to bottom and click the BLUE arrow after last numbered page showing

Apologies if you  already know....

Thank you DIANE !
Bit of a drama here this morning - I came downstairs to find a starling panicking and flapping in the kitchen. I opened the window to let it out and then discovered it's calling cards in the dining room, kitchen and family room which leads off the kitchen. It must have fallen down the chimney in the dining room... Lots of soot and one of my pair of Wedgewood small bowls lying on the dining room floor, broken. Oh dear....

Oh dear indeed, Heather. What a shame about the bowl. Hope there wasn't too much other mess to clear up. Edit: I reread you comment and see that it was one of a pair -- swearywords!!

Good Afternoon everyone, and thank you most kindly to dear Diane for starting us off again. Birds are on the move here, too and we have seen geese in quite large groups heading South. Those are massive numbers you have though, and like Annette I immediately thought "who counts them al!?"

It's changeable here. We snatched an hour in the garden in the dry, to move a few plants and ditch some dead ones before stopping as it went black on the horizon, and since then it's been showery and sunny, alternately.

I rang my cousin as we try to keep in touch although she lives in the South, and we only get to see each other every couple of years of so. We both lamented that we had not asked our parents more about the family history as of course there are gaps. I offered her some of the photographs I've recently been labelling but she said that she has boxes full of them, herself!

Lindy - I know what you mean about family photographs. Since my sister died in December I have been looking at some of my albums and thinking, 'When I go, nobody else will have any interest in these'. I will pass some with my sister in them over to my brother in law, but he won't be interested in other members of our family, and my niece would bury anything I passed on to her in the total chaos of her house. It's sad - but I can see they will be ditched when I go. Sad to think I'm the end of the line, but I guess many of us have to face this dilemma at some stage.

Just watched the end of the Solheim Cup. Well done, Europe! Now we move on to the Ryder Cup next weekend. Can we make it a double?????

OG - I join everyone in agreeing that it's really too shabby of the school to treat J so casually. What a pity there's no one to complain to. I'm so sorry to hear about it.

Harelady - You don't sound too well and I'm glad you've cancelled some of your visiting. You mustn't have shaken it off properly. Do take care of yourself.

Diane - The western world seems to be in as much of a mess as the rest of it. I just get so mad that with all the knowledge and technology available nowadays, there don't seem to be any decent leaders to take us forward into the future, which a few years ago I was (maybe naively) hoping might be a new golden age. To think that we could have put an end to poverty, slavery and starvation by the next 100 years, but it has been squandered by greedy power hungry idiots all over the world makes me beyond mad. Like a lot of those before me, I now want to get off this ride and wash my hands of them. (End of rant)