Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 24 September 2023

Today's quote:

Two Things to Make Your Day Better:

1. Do not watch The News.

2. Stay off the bathroom scales.

Lindy - I do both those things LOL!!!!!
Thank you for starting us off Diane and I hope this week helps the thinking and deciding process for you. Great to have so many birds on migration. Shame you can’t see them because of all the trees,
Harelady - so sorry you are still not feeling brilliant. I hope the doctor can do something for you.
Heather - oh dear. How unpleasant. When things like that happen (for me it’s spiders in the bath) and you live on your own, it’s you who have to deal with it isn’t it? Well, at least the starling went out eventually but the cleaning up would be that last thing you needed and then to find the broken bowl. How upsetting.
This morning I hung the washing out and then pulled up my cosmos and emptied 2 pots. I filled the garden waste bin. Fortunately it is collection day tomorrow. After lunch the friend who is having the big operation tomorrow called to return something I had lent her. She is outwardly being very brave. When she left I decided to seize the day and I cut the grass! I have just had a nice shower and will be setting off in about 45 minutes to the Indian restaurant. They do a Sunday 3 course special for £14.99. The first course is popadoms and dips it had to be said.

HEATHER: I am so very sorry about your beautiful bowl. Not a good experience for you. I know it's really difficult to handle wildlife challenges when you live alone. Very upsetting.

I can deeply empathize with you. There's a very large female raccoon who desperately wants to spend the winter inside this house with me, and she's exploring every strategy for getting in. She chewed her way in once and was wreaking havoc. When I found her in my dining room, she stood up on her hind legs and stared me in the eyes. That's what they do when they are testing someone to see what the person will do next. I yelled at her, and she scurried out. I made repairs, and I was not happy.

We have an epidemic of rabies among raccoons right now, and I can't afford to get bitten. Rabies shots are $20,000 and insurance doesn't cover the cost.

Last week I purchased 3 different kinds of humane animal repellent sprays to try to discourage her. They appear to be working, because I haven't heard or seen her. The repellents won't harm her at all; they just produce odors that small animals hate and/or find irritating, so they leave.

ALL: Please don't judge me harshly. Raccoons are a very common problem here in Indiana. They are very smart and relentless. My friends in Indianapolis have a fancy, expensive home but they can't keep the raccoons out of the attic. The critters can get in a 4-inch hole. I don't know how they do it.

Diane: Geez. A raccoon in the dining room! Or anywhere in the house! Not desirable at all. They are very persistent and disruptive once they get into a property. Assume you're not on Medicare yet, because Part B covers rabies shots (not that you'd want to be bitten under any circumstances). But $20K? I know UHC/Blue-Cross etc. cover post-bite shots.... Still, who needs to be spending time, energy and money on all that repellent. Good Lord.

Heather: Charming to see vestiges of trapped starling but hey, at least it's not a raccoon.

Lindybird: Great advice, though I don't find the scales anywhere near as depressing as the news.

Rusty: Don't remember you mentioning ailing friend, but do hope she does well. Don't like spiders in bath either (would almost prefer a raccoon).

Harelady: You've been doing a lot of going hither and yon for family lately. Maybe time to take care of yourself?

It's 11 a.m. and I'm still in my nightie. Granddaughter's b'day today; grandson and wife due home from honeymoon on Tuesday. Daughter's bday next week.....

DIANE – thanks once again. How wonderful to have all those migrating birds passing through/arriving – especially the noise of the Geese. Sorry to read about the potential shut down and state of the economy. Our govt is trying to cut back on various promised plans for expenditure – chaos everywhere, unfortunately. Difficult to imagine a Raccoon getting through a 4” hole! Sorry she is prospecting again this year!

HARELADY – sorry the cough is persisting – hope you find something that really works to soothe it!

PEOPLE WHO GET LOCKED OUT – maybe you have the site open on two devices at the same time – try leaving from one of them.

HEATHER – poor birdie – and poor you with that mess to clean up! A Starling did that to our two elderly “maiden aunts” one time but luckily we were there visiting so EE was able to catch the bird and clean up for them – they were very nervous about it.

PAT – Dau2 has requested the family photos when I go – I was almost tempted to offload them all last week, but would like to tidy them somewhat to hand them over!

ANNETTE – too many birthdays all at once – we have to post S-i-L’s card tomorrow.

Had an “Open Sunday” at church today – BBQ was rained off, but they cooked indoors. Not many visitors, but it was considered a worthwhile exercise.

I am back from the Indian restaurant. We had a good time with lots of chat and I was very happy with my choices.
Oh Diane - a raccoon. That would be too much for me I am sure. What a tremendous amount to pay for a rabies shot. I have just looked up the price of a rabies injection here. I know you have to have them if you travel to certain counties. £67 for the course. That’s not NHS. That’s paying privately. Why is it so expensive in the USA? Better not get into politics on either side of the Atlantic. I, like others, get a lot of information from the World Service and I also listen to Americast - a BBC podcast. You can download BBC Sounds for free anywhere in the world and the podcast appears weekly on there. I also listen to Newscast - another good podcast about mostly UK news. I do t actually watch the News any more. It’s too depressing.

Ah yes! ,Racoons run rampant here also. Last spring I kept hearing noises under my sun porch but mostly ignored it. One morning while changing the sheets on my bed I saw a movement in the corner of my eye, and there were 4 identical baby racoons hanging onto the side of my large tree near my bedroom and the mother waiting for them below. I realized that she had probably had her babies under the porch and nursed them until they were old enough to leave. I have had many animals under my porch but this was a first time it was used as a nursery! They are adorable when they are young. Another time my sister and I were baking Christmas cookies and we were putting the cookie sheets out to cool on a bench at the side of the porch when I saw little hands reaching up and taking handfuls of cookies, When we ran outside it was a big old racoon stuffing cookies in her mouth as fast as she could.! She just ambled away......

DIANE – Thank you for starting us again. Every Sunday morn I click and there you are with a new week, no matter how bad your day/week has been.

OG – Is there someone you or J can complain to? Aussieland has a free service called an Ombudsman to deal with complaints. I have read of a number to call if one is not happy with hospital diagnosis. A friend has called the Electricity Ombudsman. I wonder if there is something similar UpOver.

LINDA – You wrote “I rang my cousin. . . ” and I thought Oh no and as I read on I realized it was not AC.

PAT – I was given a box of photos from my mother’s cousin. I think many photos (unlabelled of course) are of her father’s family and thus no relation to me or mine. She was single, no known rellies and I must discard them. . . one day. However some photos were a goldmine and have been important in tracing my ancestors back in UK.

I have trying to find time to write up the stories and summarize the family research for both sides of my family. I have 8 grandparents and their origins are from several countries. So far I have finished two and shared them with sisters, daughters and, to my surprise, a large number of nieces & nephews. When I finish my lot, there are OH’s to keep me busy.

Good morning. Did I mention that OH whacked J's knee with my wheelchair yesterday ? It was very painful, but seems to be almost okay today. He had a lift to school and could phone for a lift home if necessary.

A call at 7:45 to say door fitters are off sick. Postponed to Wednesday which is okay with us. One of our cleaners then phoned to say she has broken a tooth, so the two of them want to come early after lunch before she visits dentist - easy to fit in by having early lunch since it's just we two at home, and will actually make it easier to fetch J after school if he needs!

Schools will be closed for next three days due to strike action by ancilliary staff. He has put in an application for an advertised part-time job elsewhere - hope he will at least get an interview.

Weather is basically warm, but windy and showery at times.- nights are variable so difficult to know wheher to change to thicker duvet - seems a bit early for that yet.