Photo-a-Day Cats

351/365
351/365

There are only two weeks left in this photo-a-day challenge. My forth consecutive year’s worth of bad pictures. On September 1st, do I start year five? A little part of me was thinking of doing year five on film. I still might, but it will be a ton more difficult, and it will be crazy expensive. I was thinking of taking a digital pic and a similar film pic each day to sort of remind myself of when each film pic was taken. I don’t know. I still might try it. I think it would require quite a bit of tripod fun if I did it on slow film. We’ll see.

Emergency Plan

Daily writing prompt
Create an emergency preparedness plan.

What kind of emergency?

For a house fire the plan is to get outside and meet on the street at the end of the driveway. Back in the dark days of the cold war in the 80’s the plan was to just go outside and hope that the Soviet warhead that destroys Boston, or Hanscomb Air Force Base, or Pease Air Force Base hit close enough that it rains radioactive debris on us enough to kill us quickly so that we don’t die slowly of radiation poisoning.

So, you know, the plan is pretty dependent on the emergency itself. Let’s ask Google Bard for some ideas, shall we? I asked, “what is a good emergency plan?”


A good emergency plan is one that is tailored to your specific needs and circumstances. It should include the following elements:

  • A list of potential emergencies that could affect your area. This could include natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires, as well as man-made disasters such as fires, explosions, and terrorist attacks.
  • A plan for what you will do in each type of emergency. This could include things like evacuating your home, sheltering in place, or taking shelter in a safe location.
  • A list of important contact information, such as the phone numbers of emergency services, your insurance company, and your family members.
  • A plan for how you will communicate with your family members during an emergency. This could include things like designating a meeting place, using a communication app, or creating a code word.
  • A plan for how you will care for your pets during an emergency. This could include things like having a pet carrier, food, and water on hand, or designating a pet-friendly evacuation shelter.
  • A list of supplies that you will need in case of an emergency. This could include things like food, water, first-aid supplies, and flashlights.

You should also practice your emergency plan regularly so that you know what to do if an emergency does occur.

Here are some additional tips for creating a good emergency plan:

  • Get involved in your community’s emergency preparedness efforts. This could involve things like volunteering for a local emergency response team or attending disaster preparedness trainings.
  • Stay informed about the latest emergency preparedness news and information. This could include things like following your local emergency management agency on social media or signing up for their e-mail list.
  • Make sure your emergency plan is updated regularly. This is especially important if you move or if there are changes in your family’s circumstances.

By following these tips, you can create an emergency plan that will help you stay safe in the event of a disaster.

https://bard.google.com

Bard agrees that it needs to be specific to the emergency. Ain’t i smart? So hurricanes are tape up the windows and hide in the cellar, fires are get out through whatever means necessary and meet at the end of the driveway. Earthquakes don’t happen around here but if they do we get under a door frame and ride them out. For the pets the plan is to… grab the pets. For supplies it’s grab a water bottle from the Poland Springs dispenser, grab a few boxes of protein bars, grab the laptops (because, duh), grab a guitar (because, duh), and grab the car keys (the hybrid, preferably) and scoot the heck outa dodge.

How’s that for preparedness, eh? Quite a bit better than going outside and hoping for heavy fallout.

Services

I am working in the office today. I’ve had a few meetings and I just wrapped up my lunch. I have another meeting booked for 45 minutes from now but I will be leaving for the day shortly after it starts. Today is my Uncle Jim’s wake. It’s actually a lot closer to my office building than it is to home so working from here actually makes getting there a ton easier. Otherwise I probably would have taken the whole day off. I took tomorrow off as I will be going to the funeral in the morning.

It’s so sad the way my mother’s family has fallen apart over the last year. Three of the four siblings passed away within nine months of each other. Only the baby in the family is left and she has some health concerns of her own. It’s been a tough year for the extended family. I am one of 22 first cousins and most of us are on a facebook messenger chat together. Anytime I get a notification of an update to that chat I get scared. It shouldn’t be like that, but it is. Hopefully we can all find a way to generate some happy news in the next year. I don’t know how, but maybe we can figure it out.

Speaking of happier news, Harry is coming home tonight. He needs to have some work done on his car and he is taking it to a shop near us because he couldn’t find a shop near Burlington, VT that could schedule him any time soon. We’re not sure how long he’ll be home. It will be at least as long as the car fix takes. Hopefully he’ll watch a Doctor Who or two with me. I bet I can talk him into it.

Okay, lunch break is over. Time to go back to work for the shortened afternoon.

Some Words Bug Me

Daily writing prompt
What is a word you feel that too many people use?

There are some words that people use that just bug me. More it’s words that people misuse. I’ll share a few and you all can get cheesed off at my insolence.

  • Brand. People don’t misuse this one, they just use it in corporate speak mode and it makes me want to punch a puppy in the face. I need to promote my brand on twitter. Bite me. Call it your business like a normal friggin’ capitalist and stop being so damn pompous. I sort of blame Mashable for this one. Not because it’s their fault but because that was the first site that I read regularly that used that word in this way all the time and it sort of spun up this particular annoyance in my tiny little brain.
  • Myself. There is nothing wrong with this word, but people use it incorrectly all the time and it makes my skin crawl. Joe and myself are going to the store. No, assmunch. Joe and I are going to the store. You would never say “myself is going to the store” would you? No. So stop using it wrong, you pricks. It’s English, do it correctly or shut the hell up.*
  • Nuclear. I am looking at you, George W Bush, you effin’ moron. Nu-Clear. Not Nu-Cular. Asshole. There is only one “u” in “nuclear”. Stop pronouncing it as if there were two. It’s a tiny little two syllable, seven letter word. STOP FUCKING IT UP!
  • Irregardless. That is not a word. If you use it you should be punched in the face. Simple.

Rant over. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.


*In the interest of fair play, I did not proof read this post. Why? So all of the spelling and grammar errors will be posted and all you folks can have a good laugh at my hypocrisy. Enjoy!

Unexpected Weight Loss Milestone

I had all of these milestones in mind when I had the weight loss surgery. You know, things that would mark the progress as I lost weight.

20 pounds, 50 pounds, clothes becoming too big for me and having to replace them with smaller sizes, you know, things like that.

At some point I reached the my-wedding-ring-doesn’t-fit-anymore milestone. At the time I thought that maybe I might hit that milestone twice. I’d have the ring resized and then continue to lose weight and have to have it resized again. After that first time though, when it was reduced by two ring sizes, the pace of weight loss slowed and then leveled off and then my weight started creeping up again. Just a smidge. I thought, rightly so, that I would not have to get the ring resized a second time.

Then earlier tonight I was in line at the check out at the grocery store and I was mindlessly spinning my wedding ring around my finger. It feels loose but not loose enough to slide over my knuckle without a push. Then, right on queue, it slid over my knuckle without a push. It was just, poof, on the wrong side of the knuckle.

Well shit, boys and girls. Maybe I am going to need to get the ring resized a second time. I think it’s okay for now, but maybe in a couple of months?

I should also note that I bought the belt that I am wearing right now back around Christmas time. It’s been on the second hole for the entire nine months or so that I have been wearing it. Then on Sunday when I was getting dressed for the wedding I tightened it to the third hole. My belt was just getting too loose.

The scale has been telling me I am maintaining an approximate steady weight. Not really gaining, not really losing. Maybe… but at the same time I might still be getting a smidge thinner… just a little bit, slowly as the days roll past.

Interesting.

It makes me curious what my September 4, 2023, 16 month weigh in is going to look like. We’ll see in a few weeks, okay? I’ll let you know.