Just need to talk to my friends (217)

Hi, an umbrella policy covers a loss or law suit over and above the limits of you regular homeowners or auto policy. Good to have in case of an accident.

Carl, I'm so sorry you had damage to your car and your house. I hope the insurance and repair process will go smoothly.

About to get ready for my first outing in a long time. I will go to Springfield and pick up my granddaughter to met my son and DIL for lunch. After lunch granddaughter and I will go have a pedicure and whatever else her heart desires ❤️. I’ve been awake since two this morning and hope I keep my eyes open for the forty minute drive. Once I’m there, I’ll let her drive.
Ron

Carl you sound like someone with experience with driving when sleepy.

Sounds like a plan. I'm about a fifth scotch myself.

I'm back from my wonderful trip.

I'm sorry to learn about all the tornados and hailstorms.

I had to rest my knees but they feel better today, but still hurting. Toilets are low in Italy so getting up from the toilet was a painful challenge at times.

Tulips on an island on Lake Como

Tulips

Name of the tulips

I have more photos to post later.

Iris

I couldn't get on this morning. Did anyone else have an issue?

I wasn't able to get on this morning. We only had winds and rain from the storms, thank goodness. Several tornados not too far from us with total devastation. It just messes with your mind to have blocks of houses one minute and the next nothing. Hopefully everyone else got by as well as we did. The bonus has been a cold front it ushered in. Its 56 degrees here, that's unheard up temperature. I hope to remember it this summer with its blistering hot.

Carl I love the game of purchasing a car. Even though your car is in less than ideal shape, they'll sell it and make something off of it. I have no issue walking out of the show room and driving off - matter of fact I almost always do! I go in knowing what I want, what it costs and what my trade is worth. They hate that! Good luck.

Iris I bet your entire body is tired. That was one beautiful trip you took. You'll rest up and be ready for another adventure somewhere.

Lorita do you have your winter coat on? This weather is something. I hope you've been protected from the big storms.

Ron how did your day out go? I bet tonight your able to sleep!

jfkoc isn't it interesting what you find out about your past when you loook into your ancestry? DH's mother (whom we've always questioned her mental status - that's being nice, she's flat out cray cray on several levels) told stories of his past relatives. We'd assumed them true, we were wrong! Just looking into DH's ancestry the stories we were told of people / places / etc it just wasn't that way. Even worse she's written them out to be true. Ugh.

HB you keep busy & your mom keeps you busy. There is nothing wrong with busy, but doing what you want to do is sometimes a novel idea! I'm glad your taking sometime to do that for yourself this week with your friend.

GG when are you heading back to Charleston? Will you stay very long or just help with the move and leave?

I know I'm leaving others out, forgive me.

Time to pretend I've got dinner going and go get something started! I think weatherwise we're ok for the evening, I hope everyone else is also. Let's be safe everyone.

To turn off the speech reader (TalkBack) on an Android tablet, 

press and hold both volume keys simultaneously for a few seconds, or navigate to Settings > Accessibility > TalkBack and toggle it off

. When TalkBack is active, tap once to select items and double-tap to activate, and use two fingers to scroll. 

Our last day was spent on Lake Como, where George Clooney has a 25 room villa, now worth approximately $100 million. We went by too fast for me to catch a photo. The police keep the public away.

Lake Como

Lake Como

Housing on hillside above Lake Como

On returning to our hotel, we stopped at a village called Stresa, which was more residential and less touristy. But it still had fabulous items to purchase. Here are some purses in a shop window. Italy is famous for leather goods.

Beautiful glassware in a shop window

A store like Home Depot

View of New York skyline from Newark Airport, on the way home to LAX.

I've visited many countries. It seems to me that Italians are the most relaxed of all the nationalities I have met. The majority of the people were very nice and friendly.

Iris

So many hailstorms and tornadoes! I'm glad all of you are safe. My fingers are crossed that you all weather the upcoming storms safely. I'm sorry about the damage to your car and house, Carl. I hope all of that gets resolved quickly and not too painfully.

Iris - your trip was fabulous! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I love Italy, but then again, I'm biased.

The move in Charleston is successfully completed!! Mop up tomorrow and then San Francisco on Friday. My mom-in-law isn't super thrilled with her new apartment because she had to put too much stuff in storage. But she does know it's for the best. We'll see what the next month looks like.

We're still aiming for Dark Sparkle on Friday night, but it might be too ambitious. I made back up dinner reservations just in case. 🙂 There's a tapas restaurant we both really like, so we could just go there, have some sangria, and call it a night.

Good morning, Ron.

Thanks, GG. Good job on moving MIL. I envy her. I'll need a keeper soon enough and I won't have one.

I'm buying a Subaru Forester, a compact sport ute. I have driven large sedans most of my life and the sport ute will be an adjustment, but it's easy to get in and out of, safe, and reliable. It's underpowered and not very pretty, compared to the cars I'm used to, but the only large sedans made now are really expensive and I don't drive fast anymore so I don't really need one.

I hear you about the Charger, Lorita. I had a '69 Satellite for several years and liked it a lot. I bought it in 1972 for about $1200 and sold it to a cousin when I bought a '77 Caprice. It may still be on the road somewhere for all I know. I saw a similar car in Branson in front of the Trump store, painted orange with numbers like the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard.

It's 40 degrees and clear out there, high in the 60's predicted. I think I'll try to sleep some more before the sun comes up. Have a nice day!

Good morning. The rain is over on my end of the porch. We're expecting a little sun later and a high around 60F.

Carl— I'm sorry for all the damage to your car. I do hope you like your new Subaru; I have a few friends who would drive nothing else.

Ron— I hope your outing went well yesterday. How are you feeling after the surgery? Do you notice any improvement? Do you have any PT?

Eaglemom— To answer your insurance question, I think you might want to talk to an independent broker who can consider what you need and price it through different companies. I know my BIL and his wife carried an umbrella policy when they were working in medicine but it's since been dropped. That said, homeowner policy rates are skyrocketing in places where risks are high. In some places companies are pulling out of states with the highest risks. The year we sold mom's place in FL, her homeowners was set to increase $600 and a new flood map put 4 sqft of her guest room in a flood zone. She'd been making a decent amount renting it, but this trend made it not worth the aggravation of being a landlord.

Lorita— Hitting an animal is a sick feeling. Deer are very active around dusk and through the night. They're a real menace during the rut in November— they're like teenaged boys. My neighbor who works a late shift and walks his dogs around 2am says our cul de sac has had upwards of a dozen hanging out then.

Beth— Your pictures are like something out of the White Flower Farm catalog on my desk. Alas, it serves as a kind of menu for the local deer population. I think I'll be limiting myself to pots on my front step. Maybe geraniums or zinnias as they mostly ignored them last summer. Thet did chow down on smelly petunias and even field mums.

The parking kiosks can be a challenge if you're not a regular. Last week I had to help a couple of older folks with the parking kiosk at the train station. Their app wasn't working, so I had to wait behind 3 people who had no idea what they were doing. None. I was getting nervous about the train leaving. I was able to talk the first 2 through it, but the third guy was really struggling. He didn't know his license plate number and called his wife to ask. Why? His car was parked steps away. The he didn't know how to tap his credit card and kept hitting the Mastercard logo instead of the chip. I thought my head was going to explode. This should not take 10 minutes a person.

Judith— The genealogy stuff is fun, but I sometimes wonder how accurate it is. My mom and her sister had different results and yet they were identified by the test as full siblings.

Iris— Thanks for taking us along on your trip. I joined DH on a business trip in France years ago; he'd been away a week when we met up, so I did some laundry while he was in meetings. I didn't realize the laundry closed for lunch and was surprised to find myself locked out. Oops.

GG— I'm glad the move went swimmingly. I hope she adjusts easily to her new digs.

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Mom and I shopped yesterday. I spent the time reading packages. She spent her time making me crazy zig zagging around the store despite my best efforts. Ugh. She also insisted on bringing only 3 shopping bags and taking the smaller cart despite me suggesting otherwise. As usual, she ended up using a couple of my bags and putting the overflow in my cart. Ugh some more.

Yesterday was the third time in a week that she was no using her POC when I arrived. Her latest excuse was that she was brushing her teeth. I reminded her that the cannula goes in her nose not her mouth.

Off to play with babies.

HB

Good morning.

Lorita, what speech does your speech reader read?

The cathedrals in Italy are so beautiful and have lasted so long because they are made of Italian marble.

I don't make scrapbooks. My photos stay on my phone. After a trip I rarely look at them again.

Here in SoCal we are being warned that rattle snakes woke up from hibernation early due to the hot spell we had several weeks ago. I live in the city, so hopefully I am far from where the rattles live.

GG, I have a feeling that your MIL will adapt quickly to having a less cluttered and more orderly space to live in. Every time I am in a hotel room, I love it and I don't miss all my stuff. Decluttering is ongoing.

Carl, the Subaru Forester is very popular in SoCal. I think you will enjoy driving it.

HB, I would be one of the older adults trying to figure out the parking kiosk. I was proud of myself, ordering at the kiosk in McDonald's, it was my first time being successful. I had tried before but had to give up and order at the counter.

Judith, I hope you have a good visit at the dermatologist's.

Now I'm getting ready to pick up my two cats from the pet hotel.

Iris

Good evening

wow Iris

Judith, one of my tour guides was Scot. She was offended that I called her English. Here's what I found from AI:

AI Overview +6 Use Scots or Scottish for people and things from Scotland (e.g., Scots language, Scottish people). Scotch is generally only used for specific products like Scotch whisky, Scotch beef, or Scotch eggs, and using it to describe people is often considered offensive. Scots is the noun for the people; Scottish is the adjective. Scots (Noun/Adjective): Refers to the people (plural) or the language. Example: The Scots are known for their history. Scottish (Adjective): The most common, formal adjective. Example: Scottish literature, Scottish Highlands. Scotch (Product Adjective): Used only for specific items (whisky, broth, eggs, beef, tape). Scot (Noun): Singular noun for a person.Why "Scotch" is Avoided for PeopleWhile historically used for people, Scotch is now largely considered outdated and, to many, offensive when applied to people or things other than the specific products listed above.

This might be more than you care to know, but it's interesting.

Good for you, Carl, with your new car! I think you will soon like the warning beeps.

GG, being in assisted living is like bring in a tour group. All you're responsible for is to show up on time. Everything is done for you. I like that. I believe your MIL will like not having to struggle to get to her daily tasks. She can relax and enjoy her life again.

Iris