Kickin' more than ever. Been pretty busy lately and had nearly forgotten about this place, but now things have settled down a bit and I thought I'd drop by and hopefully manage to stay around.


Hey Kiln. Yeah, it's been quite a while. Been working and traveling, and moved to a new place and started studying again last year. Now I'm just enjoying the summer before it's time to start on my thesis.

So what's new with you guys?

I fractured my rib...

And have a chest infection...

This is not fun.

Hope you´re better soon, Vital

Not much going on here. I've got a son who is about to be a year old and it's been a crazy ride so far. It's definitely interesting being a parent.

Vital, that sounds like a painful combo. Get well soon!

Gosh, has Kiln been a dad for almost a year already?!?

Ouch, that doesn't sound very pleasant. Hope you have a speedy and good recovery, Vital.


Congratulations, buddy! I actually worked a bit on/off at a kindergarten for around four years, so I have a little bit of insight into how crazy that ride can be - it's really rewarding though!

Yikes, Vital. Coughing with a fractured rib must be awful. I hope you feel better soon.

I’ve been having some adventures with my teenaged kids while school’s out, then recovering from said adventures. It’s been a great summer so far.

Thanks. He's hard to manage but also a lot of fun.

Hey y'all!...*Waves*...

It's been a while, eh?...

Well, as I have much friends that are awesome, I just wondered if you'd all been so kind as to wish...Birthday wishes etc...So I'm here to thank you...

Errr...

I'm so not back though...

Life has been...Irksome, for a while now...So I'm just not really people-safe at the moment...

I'm hoping to be back with fun-Badger at some point...But it's so not yet...

I really very much hope all is well with you all...

Laters maters!...

Gallifrey McBadgere Stands!

Wonderful to hear from you McB! Sorry you're having to chart your way through some storms. Just remember you have friends here who miss you and look forward to the return of our cheerful Badgere!

Hey McB! Glad to hear from you! Have missed your zaniness on this forum - it just seems so dull without you (no offense meant to everyone else, but you're just not McB).

Hope to see you back in full manic blast again soon!

Glad to hear that you're okay McBadgere, it's been a while. Life is often challenging for me as well, just keep your head up and check in when you feel like it.0

Don´t worry, McB. When you feel you´re able to fully return, we´ll be here waiting for whatever shenanigans you may wanna ditch on us

Hey McB! It’s great to hear from you. Sorry about the irksome part. We’ll still be here whenever you’re ready.

It’s been a good summer in Grits world. As always when you’re absent I’m thinking of you and wishing you the best.

Oh, dear Odin.


One thinks one will be prepared, but when it happens, one finds out that one wasn´t ready. Not by a long shot. I thought I had more time. I thought I could do so much more at the farm with my dad. I thought I could enjoy this fall too from the cottage.


Turns out, no such luck.

mirocu, despite your somber tone, I expect there is an element of tongue in cheek. It's great news that you have a job interview! I so hope it goes well and the job is something you'll like.

mirocu!!! You gave me a scare!! Best of luck with your dire circumstances. Sometimes change is for the better.

It is

Of course I wanted a job, the only problem is that now I´m used to sleeping in and doing whatever I want and I have a hard time imagining that going away

But at least I know the place from when I visited it while in school. And I guess I could use a bigger paycheck each month. After all, there are more NES games out there....





Sorry But it was rather frightening news, wasn´t it?

What a let down! The way you set us all up, I thought someone close to you had died.

Like your Dad. Or the cottage had burned down.

Then I open the spoiler and breathed a sigh of relief!

Now I'm a little bit peeved at you for making me feel worse than I already do! (Fighting a naaaasty cold for the past three days).

I´m sorry, h-e-r!

Maybe I was a tad overly dramatic.... Besides it´s just an interview, but since they get a contribution if they hire me now I don´t think they´re gonna pass it up. We´ll see

Edit: Went to the interview, nothing strange. But if they hire me I´ll only substitute for someone who´s sick so I don´t know if I´ll be there a week or six months. Bleh. I hate back-and-forthing. I want something steady, d-it

Well take the job, then *get rid* of one of the regulars. You have the backhoe to bury the body deep!

SageRose x 2

Rest in peace Robin Williams!

Yes, I will never forget his crazy "Nanonanonano . . ."! Nor his genius turn as the Genie in Aladdin.

The guy was brilliant and always fun to watch, yet never really mean in his jokes (not like some so-called comedians I've seen over the years). His more serious stuff was pretty good, too.

Did he do it himself? He wasn´t too old, right?

He was 63, which to me sounds not at all old. I refer you to the rest of the internet for details. Very sad.

63 is no age at all

------------------------------------------

So. Apparently I have a job on Monday..

Don´t know what to feel, really. I liked being free but I guess I would have to get one at one point anyway. Might as well be at this place I already am familiar with.

Congrats on the new job!

I get what you're saying about how you feel about it. I have a similar conflict with mine - I love doing it, but I kind of resent the time it takes me away from some of my other favorite things to do.

Never enough hours in the day . . .

mirocu - I caught your post early and just now saw your update. I'm so pleased that it sounds like you'll be back to work - more money for NES & TES & FO and other silly things that only folks like us understand.

Let me echo Rider with a big Congrats!

Congrats, mirocu! Good luck on Monday.

Thanks, guys!

The mixed feelings in no small part come from the fact that I´ll be working for the company that bought us up and put us down, but one can´t hold a grudge for too long, can one? Besides I somewhat feel I´ve done enough at the old place and needed something new now. Bye-bye to 5 minutes by bicycle though and hello to 30 minutes by car

I´ll be substituting for someone who´s long-term sick and what I know this far is that I have til Christmas. I may get after that but I also may get shorter than that, depending on if it works out and when that guy comes back. They may need me anyway so we´ll see.

Just too bad I only got a little more than a year off as I have more stuff I needed to do. Like 3-hour breakfasts and morning walks in the crisp, autumn air...

So, I have just survived the first week at my new job!


T´was pretty good all in all but it really ended on a high note as I yesterday and today got to work alone which is what I prefer. Good crowd and decent stuff to do. Could have been much worse but maybe I should wait before I say too much....

Next week one guy from my last work comes back, he´s been away for three weeks to work someplace else. Him and I weren´t the best of friends so maybe there´ll be trouble. Then again, all the other guys are new so maybe it won´t be too bad

So encouraging to hear that your '1 week on the job' report is a positive one! I hope things continue to go well and the outfit you're working for realizes that every company needs a 'Rocu!

I actually heard some positive stuff today. One guy told me my immediate boss had said it was a relief that someone who already knew his way around this business came along so they didn´t have to get yet another one up from scratch

That's always a plus in any job! Way to go!

It’s the first day of school in Grits World. Both offspring in high school this year. Back to school always reminds me of my favorite things about the season. Autumn seasonal beers! Bring on the pumpkin and spice everything!!

*looks down at our join dates* High school already? Gosh they grow up fast.

What´s so high about school anyway, I wonder...?

It's "high school" only in dressage!

I´m foreign so it´s ok if I don´t get it



Or... pretend not to get it, rather...

It's definitely 'high' school where i live

Sunday, we celebrated my niece's 14th birthday. My sister, my better half and I got her a bass and Rocksmith 2014, plus some assorted accessories. We anticipated it would make her happy but what happened is that she is now addicted. And I think that shortly she'll be much better than me, despite me having played for almost a year now. She can play that thing like a pro and SING at the same time. And I mean sing well. I'm so proud!

stargelman, sounds like an excellent choice in gifting then!

Last fall I talked my Mom into making a major switch.

She had been using computers (first my old Mac Performa, then my old laptop, then her own Macbook). She never quite got into the whole computer thing. I started watching her with it and realized that she was having trouble seeing the cursor on the screen. As her vision worsened, it became harder for her because she was seeing less and less of the screen.

That's when I realized the iPad would be much easier for her - smaller screen more appropriate for her visual field, and no cursor to lose. So I got her the iPad mini because the smaller screen was close to what she could encompass in a single glance.

it's still a struggle for her, but much, much less so. All she has to do is locate an item of interest then tap it with her finger. No more trying to locate it, then locate the cursor, then relocate the item . . .

From there it was a simple step up to the Apple TV. Once she was used to a new way of watching TV (at her convenience, rather than the networks', and without having to set up any complicated equipment to record beforehand), she was off and running, starting with the entire Twilight Zone series with Rod Sterling.

The month of September is the iTunes Festival, located in London. Thirty days of top artists throwing concerts. All free on iTunes. Available on the Apple TV. So I noticed that yesterday Tony Bennett was playing. Mom loves TB. She loves that whole Rat Pack era - Frankie, Dean, Dino, and let's not forget Sammy. Tony is one of the old diehards (she also went to high school with Ramsey Lewis, who is incidentally still making music these days, though both are pushing 80 now). I told Mom about it, and showed her how to access the concert. Said it would be live on the Apple TV at 3 pm. Now I had to go to work, but I reminded her before I left.

She didn't seem too enthused about it, but she did watch it. And when I asked her about it this morning, she said she enjoyed it, though the opening songs were a little too "updated" for her. But his classics were still the same classics she enjoyed when she was in her late teens and early 20's.

As for me, what am I excited about. On September 16, at 1:30 pm Central Time, Chrissie Hynde is playing! You bet I'm going to be watching that one! I grew up with the Pretenders and Blondie (and Queen and many other greats) playing on the radio in high school, on the bus, in the car when I was taking drivers' ed, and just about everywhere. So I'm going to have my own blast from the past in just a little over a week from now . . .

Surprisingly enough, tech stuff like ipads are not only for the young

In fact, the whole touch screen stuff are much easier for older people like my mom. It's the tactile interaction that is the main underpinning of these things. Remember they spent a lifetime manipulating physical items like pens, books, and such to make things work. Retraining their muscle memory as well as thought processes to work with virtual items is more difficult. Touch screen devices like iPads bridge that gap for them.

The hardest part, really, was getting my mom used to the idea that she can indeed do everything on the iPad that she had been doing on the computer (which wasn't much).

I'm just delighted that she took advantage of her Apple TV iTunes Festival access to enjoy an artist that she has liked since her youth.

I know many of you have probably given me up for dead, and you were very nearly right. As you probably have already guessed, I suffered another stroke last fall. What the first one didn't take from me, the second one did.

This second stroke was a bad one. I can only use my right hand to type, "hunt and peck" style typing; (so this will say pretty much what I sent in emails to Liz/Kobby/Acadian/McB/Blackie/DE/etc. to get it posted quicker).

My hair turned white overnight, (the color has just started coming back in the last couple weeks, so I must be improving). They had me on steroids for a while, and I blew up like a balloon - hope that goes away. I can walk, but fall easy. I have a lot of trouble concentrating, remembering things I did 10 minutes ago, etc. I had some severe depression for a while - not just because I am totally disabled now, but on top of that it was hard to see myself looking this way. I don't even recognize myself in the mirror anymore.

After the second stroke everything here went all to hell. My email/internet has been shut off since last fall. My husband lost his job before all/any of this happened (some of the stress that caused the strokes), we were already living on our savings. No one was hiring then, especially not someone my husband's age.

When the savings was all gone, we lost the internet/telephone/cable TV. My husband pawned our car titles just to keep eating/mortgage/electric paid. By New Years the house was going into forclosure, by March water and electricity was shut off (for two months before a local church helped us out and got everything turned back on again at the end of May). We lost all the cars but one (Bob's SUV) to the Title Pawn. Not funny how quickly life can turn it around on someone.

Bob got a temporary job and just got the house out of forclosure July 30th - and got the internet turned back on yesterday (finally!), right before the job ended.I'm hoping Bob finds more work soon, because I won't be able to work anymore now.

So yeah, I have been depressed as hell. I have friends in other states more than in TN - friends I needed a phone or internet to contact. I felt so isolated without either, and couldn't leave the house without someone taking me till just this past month. My vision is still blurred, but I have been able to get out and about a few times on my own (going to doctor's offices, but at least I was out on my own - even if I was driving like the Brady girl that "Very Brady" movie).

The Internet installer left at 4:00PM yesterday, but they didn't get the Email working till just now. I spent all last night up reading all the posts on Chorrol (here) that I missed since I've been off here - was freaked out as hell when I saw that someone got on there pretending to be me! Who would do that?

Whoever it was, their English was really iffy, just like FlowerBoom's was (who I was instrumental in getting banned from here last year, so he was my first thought when I saw that). I was really glad most of you who know me well could see/feel the difference. That was really shocking to me, that anyone would have done that.

I hope and pray that jackass didn't hurt anyone in my name, especially not Liz. Liz said she cried when she thought I was alive - I cried when I read where she said that. I care a LOT about all of you, Liz especially because she can be hurt easier than most.

You can have no idea how much I have thought about you all this past year laying in that stupid bed - wondered and worried how you all were and wished I could contact any one of you somehow. You all were in my thoughts every single day. I have missed you all beyond even friends I know IRL, wish I did really know you all IRL.

I have missed you all so much

Welcome back, mALX. What a relief to hear from you! I'm so sorry for both the medical and financial troubles and sure hope you continue to improve on both counts.

Having just received an e-mail from your old em account and seeing that this post is from your real chorrol account, I think I can safely certify you as the real you this time. Yes, it was traumatic for many of us with that imposter - even more so since we so desperately wanted it to be you!

Again, welcome back, my friend!