On My Mind

I have fallen in love with on demand video! Few or no commercials while I "binge" through several seasons of good TV shows or catch up on last year's movies or enjoy great oldies. Pause it whenever a kid shows up or Mom needs something and restart when things calm down again. Go to sleep while watching a show, just restart it later. Wake up in the middle of the night, play an old favorite to get your mind off the pain and fall asleep again.

I have "cut the cord" and have no cable or satellite service, just 26+ local channels of over the air TV and streaming services. I like that you can take a service or premium channel for just a month or two. I keep Amazon Prime with Noggin (for the 4 yo) and Hulu (only $6/month) all the time and rotate adding DirecTv Now, Netflix, Starz, Showtime, HBO, and CBS All Access. DirecTv Now and Showtime during football season; Netflix and Starz during the summer when the kids are here; others during the winter and spring when there's a "sale" price to catch up on a favorite series. Still so much cheaper than cable!

You Americans seem to have it so much better than we do here in Canada, I tossed the cable when I realized I seldom turned on the TV for days on end and I really don't miss it. The problem is I'm too far from the towers to get OTA signals easily and my savings were almost negated by having the rates for my phone and internet raised because I'd one less service in the bundle.

If you ever do miss it and if your internet speed is good enough for video, then I suggest you try out Amazon prime when it's offered at a reduced price (usually $49.99 for a year), along with an Amazon fire stick (reconditioned ones available for $29.99, and often the new ones on sale for that price). There's quiet a large catalog of shows and movies included in Amazon Prime and you can rent movies for $0.99 to $3.99 for 48 hours from the time you begin watching. For me, the free shipping has always made Prime a good deal; when I was working I purchased a lot of technical books and now that I'm older the shipping on all the "stuff" I purchase from Amazon that's just not available in my small town still makes it reasonable. The video is just a very nice bonus. With the fire stick, you can download apps like Hulu or ImDbTv (free old TV and movies) or purchase subscriptions to channels like Smithsonian and Noggin that integrate into the fire stick. Mom likes the older movies and TV so we play it a lot these days.

After I loaded up ImDbTv I started watching the original Dallas, a show I used to watch on Friday nights with my parents. I didn't remember any of the first couple of seasons and was wondering why when it suddenly occurred to me that I wasn't allowed to watch Dallas when it first came on. Daddy didn't allow me to watch "filth" (just about anything with sex scenes) until I was 15.

A good way to get some extra discounts is to become a student. At least here in the south a lot of state universities and community colleges offer free auditing of classes for seniors. With a student ID, you can take advantage of a lot of student discounts (like Amazon Prime for $49.99 a year and computer software); a lot of the state park service programs in our area are half price for students. Not sure if this holds across the country, but it's working for me here in TN!

On my mind....
The next time the enemy reminds you of your past, remind him of his future.

< , , >

Igloo 572 is on my mind.

Due to Tropical System in Gulf of Mexico NOLA has already been affected by flooding.

Whether this system intensifies rapidly as predicted before landfall the rainfall alone is so troublesome for NOLA.

From across the Gulf I am sending a prayer and 🤞🏻to you and your city.

Stay Safe Iggi.

FYI: Jul 16-18 are Amazon Prime Days. The basic Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote is $14.99 (Alexa is only activated when you push a button, not always listening). Several Ring products are also discounted with the basic Video Doorbell just $69.99

Try riding one of these EQ out while sitting on the toilet, 4.9
Roflol.....

Send,

Noooo! Say it ain’t so!

Do you need to install a seat belt on your toilet?!?

All kidding aside, are the tremors, aftershocks, whatever they are, getting stronger?

Tremors, coming every minute, daily, do vary in intensity, this morning being a strong one. But not just one, several stronger ones, then it barely calms down.
I was tracking them yesterday because some were felt above a 3 on the scale.
So yes, yesterday they were getting stronger, and then this morning a 4.9.

It is important to note:
1) Technology has increased so more earthquakes are being recorded.
2) Nothing has fallen from shelves yet, no damages, as we are 150 miles from the epicenter.
3) People pay hundreds of dollars to get an "E" ticket to Disneyland to get a ride this thrilling.
4) For me, facts are comforting so I know how to survive this. Others just go on with their daily activities. Some others are more afraid with facts.
5) earthquakes/uses.gov click on latest earthquakes above 2.5

Gotta go take things off the bathroom shelves now.....

Whatever one calls them, quakes, tremors, swarms, clusters, shakes, aftershocks, preshocks....the earth is moving.

Hubs and I reviewed how to relieve stress last night which included keeping self clean and belongings organized. Use of humor. Being brave.

7) Many smaller tremors are rumored to release the pressure that would cause a bigger EQ. (Do not know the current facts on this idea).

Tonight my mind is on weather challenges. So much of the country is facing high temperatures while here in the mountains we are coping with flash flooding. Although there may be some property damage, there's no reason for anyone to be injured or killed by the floods. It's harder to escape high temperatures, particularly if the power fails.

TNtechie....That's really nice of you to care about the heat the country is facing when your'e in the middle of flooding yourself.
Here in Missouri,it's so hot it makes you sick to be outside very long and it's hard to breathe.
I just pray everyone's power stays on for the AC and there's no power outages anywhere.

On a road trip in the southwest - high desert. 105 degrees.

It’s hot, dry wind. But having a good time.

Where does one get a seat belt for their toilet, Lizzywho?

Send,

LOL! I don’t know but if you need one I will research that.

Maybe Amazon? You can find anything on Amazon.

What about duct tape Send? ,,,,You could tape yourself on~

We’ve noticed that our newish (Moved in 6 months ago) next door neighbors have been parking one of their cars in front of our house lately, under the big city owned tree. We don’t mind it one bit but just find it a little odd because they’ve got 2 cars and a 2 car garage. They park one car in the driveway (plenty of room for 2) and one in front of our house. They don’t park in front of their own house. Only thing I can think of is, they are both teachers and now that they are home for the summer, maybe they noticed that every week day the same woman parks there for about an hour and eats her lunch & reads a book. And shortly after she leaves, another woman parks there. These ladies have been parking there on their lunch break for years & I’ve seen them eating and reading enough to know that they are harmless & just on their lunch breaks. Maybe they dislike that people park there without a parking permit? Have to buy a permit to park on the street in my neighborhood even if you live here.

We actually like that they’ve started parking their car in front of the house because we are 2 houses down from the neighborhood park and lots of people from outside the neighborhood park in front of our house which doesn’t bother us but they often leave trash and dirty diapers on the lawn.

worriedinCA - I hope the park near you won't turn into another homeless encampment site.

That will never happen Polarbear. We did have a few homeless guys hanging out there, sleeping on the bench but it didn’t last too long. The residents here won’t tolerate it. There’s a busybody neighbor no one can stand named Bruce, we all call him the mayor of ***** park. He calls the cops and reports everything and everyone! And chases people out of the park after dark. Almost got run over doing it one night too. The cops don’t like him either because he’s always calling in petty nonsense & wasting their time. Anyway the city has some new overnight camping ordinances so the homeless can’t sleep in the parks anymore. So between that and Bruce, our park is safe. I don’t think more ordinances are the solution but then again I have no solution for the problem myself so I shouldn’t talk.

Send,
maybe sit on the loo facing towards it so if you fall asleep you can rest your head on the tank 🚽

Does anyone else find it weird that there is a toilet emoji?

Worried there must be a Bruce in every neighborhood of every city! We have a neighbor who called the police on us for parking in front of our own house because she liked to park there because of the big tree. Thank God we don't live there anymore.

However, my now neighbor called the police on us for parking our travel trailer in front of our house once and he still had plenty of room to park a car in front of his house, although he only has one car and no family or friends visit him.

I guess some people just like calling the police!

Because our town is on the Interstate highway, we used to have people sleeping in the pews of the church sanctuary (during the day or night) until our Senior Pastor started living at the church 15 years ago.  He has a sofa bed in his office. (His family lives in a much larger town 50 miles away b/c his wife didn't want to move to a rural area.) Since he started doing the "watchman rounds" of the church and attached parochial school during the day and at bedtime, we haven't had anyone sleeping in the pews lately.  And now, because of the school shootings, the church and school doors have to be locked 24/7--even during church services.  The ushers have to be posted in the hallways so they can let people in for church services.  How sad that our society has come to this....that a church can no longer keep its doors open to the public without someone coming and stealing something.

Isn’t that the truth Shell? My parents neighbor has a Bruce too and he’s their next door neighbor. He’s an angry retired cop full of health problems. He called the sheriff on my brother for shooting a BB gun at cans in the backyard. Definitely a nuisance but not illegal. The houses are on 1/2 lots and he wasn’t shooting toward the neighbors house. Nothing came of it.

Some people take street parking very seriously! I can not believe you’ve had 2 neighbors call the police on you for parking in front of your own house. That is just ridiculous! Out here, people get tired of others parking in front of their house. Every other week I swear someone is in the neighborhood watch Facebook groups complaining about not being able to park in front of their own house, or someone is complaining because a neighbor has put trash cans or cones on the street in front of their house to keep people from parking there. The problem is neighborhoods are getting overrun with people cramming 10-15 people in to a small single family home and there isn’t enough parking for all their cars so they park in front of the neighbors houses. I don’t blame people for getting fed up but it’s something you Just have to deal with because it’s a public street. I do think that the homeowner should have first dibs in front of their own house. It’s common courtesy but not everyone agrees with that. My neighborhood went to permit only parking because the neighborhood was tired of the employees from all the surrounding doctors offices parking here. There’s too many doctors offices and not enough parking for their patients and staff so the staff parks elsewhere. It solved the problem alright but now we have to pay for annual permit in order to park in front of our own house! We bought one the first year but haven’t since. We haven’t gotten a ticket yet (hubby parks his truck in front of the house. We are *those* neighbors with 4 cars for 2 people. Classic car is in the garage. Hubbys old beater is in the driveway with mine, truck is on the street).

I’m really surprised that a church is locking up so people can’t sleep on the pews! We’ve got one here that has become a hub for homeless addicts. It’s great what the pastor does for these people but what they do to the area is not great. It’s next to the library and they urinate and deficate on the lawn....and do drugs in the presence of children.

Worried,
I am seeing the same thing in my city as far as 2 to 3 generations living in one small house with tons of cars. Of cause, we are 2 people with 3 cars. I always park my Jeep on the street but my sig other parks his truck in the driveway with my Sidekick. Our travel trailer stays in storage and we bring it home to clean it and pack it when we get ready to go camping. However, now we have to park the trailer in the driveway.

It is crazy what people will call the cops on; don't they realize that they are wasting resources on petty things...resources that could be used to save somebody's life! And the really crazy part is--those same people usually won't call the cops when a real crime is happening that was the case with my neighbor who called the cops on me in my last neighborhood. Some guy was severely beaten in front of her house and she didn't call the police and she was home and awake, (but man she would call the cops on us for whatever she could think of). I called the cops because I seen it with my outdoor cameras; four guys beating one guy and he was on the ground. It is all just crazy!!!

Back in my younger days when I rented a house in the city I learned to take street parking very seriously. I had one car and a driveway so I thought the street parking issues would not have any impact on me but I was so wrong. My next door neighbor liked to park in front of his house blocking his own driveway which was next to mine. In fact, he like to block both driveways with his car so the sidewalk to his house wasn't blocked. I spoke to him several times about not blocking my driveway but it didn't do much good because he decided he wanted me to park in the street too. Apparently he didn't like renters. Not only was I renting the house I was living in, but the lady in her 80s who owned the house across the street had converted the upper story of her house into a nice apartment where her son lived for many years. After his death she rented the apartment. The landlady parked in her home's driveway and her renter parked in front of my/our house (parking only allowed on one side of the street). His plan was to block my driveway so I parked on the street and made it harder for the apartment renters to find parking.

I would knock on the door and ask him to move his car when I got home from work each evening until finally he stopped answering his door. So I called the police and had his car towed. He really lost it when the city posted signs saying not to block either driveway (his or mine) and stopped talking to me. I guess I made it worse when I agreed to allow the apartment's guests to park in my driveway (blocking me in) when they had company over. If I wasn't going anywhere, being blocked in wasn't a problem and I had the neighbor's phone number if I needed out.

So one morning I came out to go to work and there was the jerk's car parked in my driveway blocking me in while his driveway was empty. He told the police he couldn't be towed because he was in the driveway, not blocking it from the street. Wrong. One final tow before he decided to leave me alone. I think the police must have lost the paperwork on his car or something because it was more than 3 days before it was back.

Isn't that the definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face!!
My neighbour is a dweeb in a much less irritating way - after I complained that he was blowing his grass clippings all over my entry way when he cut his lawn he began to leave an increasingly wider section of grass along the driveway uncut. The boundary is probably 1' along the drive and I willingly mow 2' but I refuse to go beyond that so there is a jagged strip of unmowed grass - anywhere from 1" to 6" - along the front of HIS property. It doesn't bother me at all (well, not much🙄), IMO it makes him look like a fool.

Well Bruce strikes again! Last night hubbys best friend was over and they were hanging out in the garage during their “Guy stuff” if you will. I went out around dusk and saw a white Honda in front of the park at dusk with 2 people inside. Came back outside over an hour later and it was now dark and the Honda was still there. Stayed out chatting with the guys and all of a sudden there was Bruce & his dog in the street about 4 feet from the car, the driver’s window was down and he was clearly telling them to leave. One of these days he’s going to upset the wrong person......

Funny thing about Bruce is, he makes sure everyone is following the law and the park rules yet he takes his dog in to the park despite the fact they aren’t allowed there. And he never has the dog (a friendly collie) in its leash. I wasn’t present to witness this but one afternoon when he was making his rounds the park, his dog bit a motorcycle cop on the leg as he drove by the park! The cop must not have been driving that fast. The cop gave him a ticket!

Shell you just reminded me about the brawl I saw in front of the park a few years ago! It was during the day so Bruce wasn’t around to break up the fight LOL! I was the one who called the cops. I was sitting out front reading a book while the kids played with the kids who lived next door at the time. I heard loud yelling all of a sudden & looked toward the park...I don’t know how to express this without being offensive but....I saw a junky old van and a man & 2 women I can best describe as looking like trailer trash, in a very heated argument. They were not from the neighborhood. I had never seen them or the van here before. One of the women was in the driver’s seat of the van with the door open. All 3 were screaming at each other and screaming obscenities and a racial slur (N word even though they were all white). The blonde woman outside the van started grabbing the brunette woman in the van by the hair & trying to drag her out. They were in the middle of street swinging at each other and screaming. Then an older woman who appeared to be the mom of the woman in the van got out and hobbled over to them with a cane! She wasn’t even old, maybe early 50s? Cue all 4 out there hitting each other. Best I could tell, the 2 women were fighting over the man. They left just before the cops arrived. We found some broken jewelry and a phone in the street where they had been parked. Interestingly, I only saw the blonde woman from behind, never saw the front of her during the brawl. A few hours later, I saw her and the man walking towards the park and she was visibly pregnant! Then the van came back and they were all talking civilly. The blonde woman got in the van and the man and the brunette went and sat on the park bench & were talking. It was the craziest thing!