Modern Vespa

Tha Halloween party host has discovered a portion of our shenanigans which may or may not have been fueled by an excess of whiskey and googly eyes available on site.

So, my mom started going down hill rapidly last Friday, got a call from my sister at work that she asked me to come...I skidaddled, but had to stop for gas and home on the way to pick up overnight stuff.Arrived in time for some last words and be there while she passed. Pretty intense. The next day the family went to dinner, but realized my wallet was missing. Did I drop it at the gas station? Or changing clothes t my house, or my mom's house? Couldn't find it at mom's so assumed it was hopefully at my house. I didn't want to freak out and think someone found it and was emptying my accounts, so didn't start freezing my half-dozen credit cards.

It wasn't at my house either. Of course then I wonder if I looked well enough the first time, but, well, I was an hour away. My cousin who lives nearby offered to look, but to no avail. I was due to drive down today and was anxious for another look. Lo and behold, I spotted it under the bed I'd slept in. Made my day to say the least. It was a pretty awful time to have an extra layer of stress on top of coping with a death.

fledermaus, so sorry to hear of your mom's passing. Loosing a parent is terribly hard no mater what our age. We will always have a hole in our heart where they were and maybe that's a good thing as their memory is always with us. My greatest sympathy for you and your family.

So sorry to hear about the loss of your Mom. Sincerest condolences.

Sorry about your mom fled

Been playing with the Glowforge at work.

I think I previously posted about the high-end crochet hooks that had been discontinued. They had a "final sale" of their inventory last week, and I bought seven more of them, bringing my collection up to 13 total hooks (out of 17 possible sizes).

I've been wanting some way of displaying/organizing them. Before the last sale, when I had six of them, I found a bamboo test tube stand on Amazon that held 12 test tubes. I figured it would work for the hooks, and it was fairly cheap ($20), so I got it. The holes for the test tubes were bigger than I would have liked for the crochet hooks, but it still worked. But now that I have more than 12 hooks, I needed a different solution. I could have ordered a 24-tube stand, but even if I had every size available, I'd end up with seven open spots on it. So I decided to design my own and laser cut it on the Glowforge.

I produced my first attempt on a piece of old acrylic that I've had for over 20 years (and who knows how much older it actually was). It worked ok, except I didn't have the cut settings correct and it didn't fully cut through every piece. This made the parts fit too snug, and they ended up breaking.

I refined the design, and found some thin (2.5mm) MDF boards that are used for cabinet shelves that we weren't actually using. Not being entirely sure of the tolerances of the laser cuts, I had the slots too wide, and it wouldn't hold together. I again refined the design, making it much closer.

It's still not perfect, but it will work. I can use super glue or wood glue to stabilize it. Or I could even slip a small piece of paper between the pieces if I wanted. I'll probably seal the laser cut edges with either clear modeling paint or clear fingernail polish, either of which might close up those tolerances better. I'm also thinking that if I paint the edges with clear paint, and put it together when the paint is wet, that the paint will act as an adhesive.

I was searching online for some shoes and finally got the ones I wanted but millions of dumb shoe ads kept popping up as I cruised around the internet so I spent a few minutes searching for "sexy lingerie" and clicking on lots of ads and websites and now whenever an advertisement pops up, at least the pictures don't bother me.

Reading Jess' last post in What's pissing you off today? thread made me think back to when I bought my wife her first iPhone. I gave it to her as a birthday present, we turned it on and got it set up and off I went to work. I got a text later in the day along the lines of "Where do I find the punct . . . oh, found it". I love that the Apple ecosystem "just works".
Happy memory.

My wife has a job interview tomorrow with my employer.

She submitted her application on October 2. They emailed her last night to set up a video interview for this afternoon or tomorrow.

Keeping our fingers crossed, and hoping for the best.

We know the hiring process takes a while here. I applied for my job in July, and didn't get the call for an interview until late September, and my start date ended up being November 4 (2.5 weeks of that was my notice period at my previous job, and a few days to decompress). When my Director was hired a year ago, she said the process took three months. Based on that, we're figuring that the job offer, should it come, will probably be at the end of this month, possibly the beginning of December.

I had a window seat, extra legroom and an empty seat next to me on a flight yesterday.

A memory to be forever treasured.

My most treasured memory from an airline flight was from my second ever flight in the Fall of 1986 I was flying back to school from Wisconsin to Florida, and the attractive young blonde woman in the seat next to me pulled out two different issues each of Playboy and Penthouse and proceeded to flip through them, looking at the pictures. Her boyfriend/husband on the other side of her kept admonishing her to put them away because someone might see. She kept telling him that only I could see them, and asked me if I minded. Being a healthy 18-year-old male, I told her that I didn't mind at all.

She kept offering to let me look through the issues that she wasn't looking at, and I kept declining, as I was enjoying reading the book I had (9½ Weeks). Part way through the flight she said, "you're probably wondering why I'm looking at these." When I said that I was, in fact, curious as to why, she replied, "I have to look at the pictures." She then got flustered, and asked if I wanted to know how to tell if a woman has had breast augmentation. I said sure, and she opened the magazine to a photo with two women in it. She then pointed out how each breast was identical to the other in each pair. She went on to say that natural breasts are never identical, but "fake" ones are.

I figured she was a medical student doing research for cosmetic surgery or something.

Speaking of flights and cheer, I'm at the airport now, about to board a flight to Europe.

That's definitely cheering me up.

My mood may differ by the time I land, of course. It's a long flight.

Let's hope you get an attractive blonde woman sat next to you reading Playboy.

Well....I just found a 1/4 drive ratchet wrench at Harbor Freight for $10 to help with removing my GTS's valve cover bolts, etc., and also a cheapo set of four socket adapters so I can use a 3/8 extension on it.

$15 bucks total, but I wouldn't give them my phone number (AGAIN) at the checkout.

All three pleased me.

I came across this on facebook and had to chuckle in embarrassment at how accurate it is. Considering how much time I spend converting units on MV in a given week, I needed to share it.

Garage time always cheers me up. Weather is starting to get cold here (19F two mornings last weekend) so time to swap the winter wheels/tires onto the Subaru. Summer performance tires hate cold temps. You can pull chunks out of the tread if you fpget on them too hard in cold weather. After swapping the wheels/tires, I did a engine bay detail. This is zen-like activity for me.

Loving the fact my Eddie Bauer (they had a half off sale ya know) flannel stretchy jeans arrived today which means I can ride in tomorrow since it's Friday and we can wear civilian clothing instead of the stupid camo we have to wear every other day

Hey, you "grew up with it", it's the best!

New psychedelic seventies seat cover.

I'm cheered up by the fact that nothing is pissing me off, so I have nothing to post about in the new What's Pissing You Off thread.

Edit to add:

The fact that Gemma and Walter are getting along is also cheering me up:

Fledermaus, Dave,

Please accept my heartfelt condolences on the loss of your mother. Your prior posts portrayed her as a wonderful plucky soul. She produced a fine son.

The wallet adventure, welcome to being a progressively older fart.

God bless you Dave and your family in your time of morning. I have enjoyed our times together on scooter rides - you are a great guy.

Bob Copeland

The Springbok Rugby team went on a tour of Pretoria yesterday.
Four of us went to greet them as they passed by.
As it turned out, we were a minute or so late, so we cheekily filtered through the traffic and followed them in the procession, becoming part of the sights the crowd enjoyed.
As long as we stayed behind the row of Traffic Officers forming the rear of the cordon, they were happy to let us follow...
In the spirit of the moment, I even got a temporary tattoo of the country flag...

I figured out how to turn off Threaded Conversations in Outlook on the MacBook.

Fud,

Thanks for the photos. Tato, special touch.

Bob Copeland

After three days of Airline hell (which I mentioned in That Other Thread here) my bag finally made it to Porto late last night. I opted to pick it up myself at the airport, rather than add any more drama by trying to have it couriered to me.

My wife and I got on the Porto Metro this morning, made our way out to the airport, went through an elaborate security screening that actually got me back in to the international baggage claim area, and then ultimately into what basically amounted to a janitor's closet with about a dozen lost bags. The guy that escorted me into the secure area asked me which bag was mine, and I was briefly panicked because it didn't look like it was there. But on the end, behind another bag, was my black duffel, looking not much worse for wear.

"That one!" I said, pointing. The guy fetched it, compared the number on my baggage claim check, agreed it was the right bag, and had me sign a receipt.

I then carried my bag back through the baggage check area, into the "Nothing to declare" line, and exited out into the airport lobby.

I could carry on at length about dealing with airlines here, but this is the What's Cheering You Up thread, and so I will just shut up now.

I'm happy to have my bag back, and some actual clothes to wear.

"Did you pack this bag yourself sir?

Has this bag been out of your possession since you packed it?"

Indeed.

Her celebration of life ceremony was actually pretty amazing. Took me out of a pretty bad funk that morning with the show of people, hugs, and well, love.

I didn't have the word "plucky" in my comments about her life. My cousin, though told a new story though. Some (maybe many) years back, she was in the bank my cousin worked for (though different branch). My mom came in, saw a guy standing in the back with a cap and hoodie on, and she gave him a good dressing down for his bad public appearance-She had a bug about hats indoors. She never knew it, but the guy she was speaking with was the backup man for a bank job.

Thanks for the kind words, Bob.

Babybels. You just can't eat one and have a bad day.

Sometimes it's all about perspective.

"credible and substantiated threat of violence" against the building i work in, so telework until further notice.

also known as "logged in on my laptop and available on teams while the cat and I watch old episodes of Top Gear and The Grand Tour".

Case in point.

He seems pretty engrossed!

Just got word we are teleworking again tomorrow (with a 4 day weekend to follow) and he was beside himself.

Prime suspect

wouldn't surprise me in the least; he's been known to voice his extreme displeasure beginning at 0330 when he knows it's drill weekend, and/or i'm skipping the usual scheduled telework day each week to go in because one of my troops is on status and i have to helicopter-parent the crap out of some of them.

What's making me happy today is the image in jess' newfound bag;

That would be my post-work "business card" with my name and contact details on the other side.

Waking up to this - Deep Cove, North Vancouver. Up for a brief holiday visit. Staying at a BnB a few minutes walk away. Just gorgeous.

Customer had an issue so I'll be spending best part of next week in Nice. The weather forecast for next week is so much better there than here.