Where is Wednesday??

charlotte989875

Almost noon eastern and no Wednesday post yet?! How’s everyone doing today? SSDD here. It’s super cold (but at least the sun is out) and I only have today and tomorrow left to work this week! I’m so glad I made it a short week. 

My Mom and I have plans to ski on Friday and it looks like we’ll get some more snow between now and the - which is good because I’m not interested in fast, slick conditions. Give me slow, soft slopes for my first time back! 

How’s everyone fairing? 

ILoveBeachMusic

SSDD here too. I do have my stretch session today - postponed from yesterday because of the snow. Need to finish my book club book today because we are meeting via Zoom tomorrow evening. Anxious People in case anyone is interested. It is ok. It's by the same author as The Man Called Ove (which I haven't read). This is the second of his books I've read. Not really a fan but I seem to be in the minority.

We finished the Americans last night and started the fourth season of Outlander. I think that is all I'm doing is watching NetFlix!

VarunaTT

I hit the front door of work running!  I sat down a few times to start, but had another fire come up.  Whew.

It is 12 degrees here, which is balmy compared to the negative temperatures it's been the last week now.  The roads are terrible.  I'm trying not to be pissed at the city/state; beyond the weather issues, they can't get all the positions for seasonal drivers filled b/c our state legislature is completely ridiculous.  I had to drive to a branch office an hour and a half away on Monday, so Tuesday I stayed home b/c I wasn't tempting fate again.  It's snowing again, so I'm not sure how much of today I'll make it, but I had to come into the office.

Other than that, SSDD.  I should've had my eval yesterday, so I'm hoping to have it today.  I've reduced turnover by 42%, created and implemented a new training program that is now being used to create our new firm software (hallelujah) and taken on new responsibilities, so I'm hoping for a nice raise.  IDK though, since I had the big bump in September, they might not do it now.  I have the new rug coming in this week, but held off on the tables, b/c I'm just not sure about them.  I also drunkenly bought myself more birthday stuff, but they are pure indulgences that I've wanted for years and a health program, so I'm okay with it.

CharmedPam

Yeah c-c-c-cold!  But glad I made it into work for some normacy.  

Q:  anyone else having usps problems ?  Like no mail in the last 5 days? (Edit to add; yes Monday was a Holiday)

new question:  I need an hour long show to get into.  Preferably   netflix but can probably log into prime.. dont have hulu.  I need this show to motivate me to want to get up and workout every day. If its slow going or boring, I may talk myself into staying in bed and going back to sleep.

MyNameIsNot

I'm on the struggle bus today. I had a sort of networking chat yesterday that could have potentially connected me to a future role. I let my anxiety get the better of me and acted like a bumbling idiot. I've been spinning into an anxiety ball and it's really messing up my mood. Hopefully I can just sink into a project and distract myself. Otherwise, SSDD. Still no snow, but coldAF. Glad to be WFH. 

@ILoveBeachMusic, my book club is tomorrow too! I'm only about 30 pages from finishing ours, Ring Shout. It's ... different. 

@CharmedPam, Have you tried Firefly Lane? It's a little soapy, but very addictive. 

MNNEBride

We missed all the snow as it went South of us.  However, we've been below zero for several days.  On Sunday, it was 28 degrees warmer in our deep freeze than outside!

Woke up Monday to no water coming from the hot faucets in the Master bath.  Called a plumber and they had it going in 30 mins.  Turns out we have a short water line that feeds our master vanity sinks.  Those lines run under/next to where they installed our radon mitigation.  The fan for the mitigation pulls cold air over those lines.  We'll have to be sure to take precautions with those when the temp drops below zero.  Oh the joys of learning a new home!

I had a busy couple days at work.  Yesterday late afternoon, I volunteered at our vaccine clinic.  It was fun and nice to be out among people (we were masked, goggles and social distanced).  At the end of the clinic there was one dose left and I was able to get it!  Yay!  DH received his at a local pharmacy (he's over 65) on Monday afternoon.  He stayed home from work today and yesterday with lots of fatigue, headache and some GI symptoms.  Hopeful it's short lived.

CharmedPam

I saw the preview on Netflix for Firefly Lane. I was thinking of it.  Its with Katherine Heigl but also temp Becky from Roaeanne too right?  I mean I coulda looked up her name...

mrsconn23

CharmedPam said:

I saw the preview on Netflix for Firefly Lane. I was thinking of it.  Its with Katherine Heigl but also temp Becky from Roaeanne too right?  I mean I coulda looked up her name...

Sarah Chalke.  She was also on Scrubs.  

mrsconn23

DEFCONN'S AT SCHOOL.   6.5 days seemed so long.  LOL  He's not at school tomorrow though because he has to go to see an eye specialist and it's going to take about 2 hours in the middle of the day. 

SSDD otherwise.  The sun is half out, but it's so bright because of all the snow.  

I ordered new shoes that I'm excited about and a bluetooth headband so I can listen to my sleep sounds at night without my ears hurting.  My AirPods make my ears sore and I can also lose them in bed if one falls out.  But DH hates white noise and I sleep better with it.  

NBSquared2017

My Peloton was delivered today!! I’m so excited to get to work. 

ILoveBeachMusic

I agree @CharmedPam try Firefly Lane. I finished it yesterday. It is only 10 episodes so you'll have to find something else to watch. Have you watched The Americans? H and I finished it last night. 6 seasons. It is a spy/KGB in Amerca show so if you are into that kind of thing. Yay for the Peloton @NBSquared2017. I don't have one but DD has one that I use when I visit. I spin when I go to the Y (which I haven't since last March) so I love using her Peloton. 

short+sassy

I was also way too cold this morning!  There are a lot of bridges in the NOLA/suburbs area, which are susceptible to icing over, and a bunch of my coworkers were late getting in because of road and bridge closures.

Our electricity provider is Entergy and I'm side-eying them hard.  Well, harder than usual.  They kept threatening to do rolling blackouts on Mon. and Tues. because the energy usage from low temperatures was straining them.  Fortunately, they didn't do that.  But excuse me?!?!  Please explain to me, Entergy, how you are so GD pathetic that the temperature dropping below freezing for half a day (max.) strains you this much.  FTR, roughly half the houses in NOLA are heated with gas anyway.  And, let me point out that you all haven't had blackouts in the past for much longer cold spells.  I think they are liars who are setting their customers up, to use this as an excuse to spike our electrical rates again.  They did something similar in Nov.

But onto (potential) good news.  My H has a job interview tomorrow!!!  I know a job interview is a far cry from an offer.  But he has a major (many years) gap in employment and am shocked he even got an interview in his previous IT skill set.  Sad to say, but I am.  He isn't lazy about working.  But he is VERY LAZY about looking for work and I have about a semi-truck full of resentment about that.  Anyway, sorry to turn this good news negative, lol.  It's just been so long since he's had a f/t job, I pretty much gave up that it might ever happen again.  My glimmer of hope (crossing fingers). 

OliveOilsMom

I'm here too.  SSDD.  We had a glorious day of 43 yesterday and now the cold has reached us too.  Tomorrow we are to get more snow after it mostly all had melted away from yesterday's high temp.

Yoga later.

MissKittyDanger

mrsconn23 said:

CharmedPam said:

I saw the preview on Netflix for Firefly Lane. I was thinking of it.  Its with Katherine Heigl but also temp Becky from Roaeanne too right?  I mean I coulda looked up her name...

Sarah Chalke.  She was also on Scrubs.  

And How I Met Your Mother

MissKittyDanger

It was cold a.f this morning but luckily the sun was strong enough to not get friggen frost bite.

I found 2 blazers I want:
Animal Print Single Button Blazer | Black/Camel | Rickis

Ponte Single Button Blazer | Black | Rickis

Finally getting my bra situation dealt with this weekend. We're hoping to see M's nanny, so we're arranging from that before I book my appt because I'm also getting fitted.
I'm so annoyed about this whole bra deal and my current bras.

VarunaTT

Rush Limbaugh is dead and I'm GLAD.  There's only been 1 other death I haven't kept my trap shut about and the other one was Scalia.  May their outsides in death start to reflect their inner racist, misogynistic, homophobic, bigoted, ugly souls.

banana468

I have a haircut later and hopefully I'm not too tired.  I couldn't sleep from what felt like 2:30 til 5:30 but I think I managed some shut eye that didn't actually feel like it.  

Today is Ash Wednesday so I'm avoiding extra food, had a piece of mahi for lunch only and I would really love to eat about 3 crullers. 

And tomorrow we get snow and ice ice baby.

Jen4948

Yay, finally I'm actually "logged in."

I have been at my parents' house the last few days because the power went out at mine. I've heard that it's back on but there are leaks at the building and alarms are going off. Also, there is supposed to be another freeze tonight. So I'm staying here one more night.

I hope everyone else is okay!

ei34

Perhaps UO but I preferred Sarah Chalke to Lacy something (?) on Roseanne.
Glad you’re doing okay @Jen4948
Had chicken tortilla soup on tap for today when I menu planned over the weekend but Ash Wednesday snuck up on me, so switched to lentil soup.  The kids got a kick out of ashes scattered on top of our heads instead of foreheads this morning at mass.

Just back from the beach (summer is actually my least fave beach season!) and the Atlantic was positively roaring.  Even she knows the weather needs good leaders to stand up for it.  

NBSquared2017

VarunaTT said:

Rush Limbaugh is dead and I'm GLAD.  There's only been 1 other death I haven't kept my trap shut about and the other one was Scalia.  May their outsides in death start to reflect their inner racist, misogynistic, homophobic, bigoted, ugly souls.

I just read somewhere that he used to read off the names of gay man who died of aids and play horns and celebrate it?

gross. 

VarunaTT

NBSquared2017 said:

VarunaTT said:

Rush Limbaugh is dead and I'm GLAD.  There's only been 1 other death I haven't kept my trap shut about and the other one was Scalia.  May their outsides in death start to reflect their inner racist, misogynistic, homophobic, bigoted, ugly souls.

I just read somewhere that he used to read off the names of gay man who died of aids and play horns and celebrate it?

gross. 

Yes, he called it "AIDS Update" and put it to "I'll Never Love This Way Again" by Dionne Warwick.

OliveOilsMom

Jen - I've seen some of the pictures and it is insane!  Fish tanks frozen, toilets frozen, icicles hanging from inside building.  Glad that you are safe, I hope everything will be fine at your apartment.

CharmedPam

My heart goes out to you Texans

@ei24 yes!  Loved her more than old Becky and then when the revival hit, Lacy’s bad acting was so apparent! Btw, i NEED to be in that pic. 

short+sassy

VarunaTT said:

NBSquared2017 said:

VarunaTT said:

Rush Limbaugh is dead and I'm GLAD.  There's only been 1 other death I haven't kept my trap shut about and the other one was Scalia.  May their outsides in death start to reflect their inner racist, misogynistic, homophobic, bigoted, ugly souls.

I just read somewhere that he used to read off the names of gay man who died of aids and play horns and celebrate it?

gross. 

Yes, he called it "AIDS Update" and put it to "I'll Never Love This Way Again" by Dionne Warwick.

I feel like he was one of the main people who laid the foundation in the early days, for the divisiveness we see in our country today.

Maybe my views are skewed because I was a teenager and young woman when he first came on the scene, so I guess I don't have a lot to compare it to.  But I feel like, politically, most people were more moderate before him.  Or at least pretended to be.  He and his popularity opened the door to public right wing extremism.  It grew over the years and pinnacled into the nightmare of the Trump administration.

VarunaTT

@short+sassy I absolutely agree with you.  The Clinton conspiracy fear-and-hate-mongering started with him and never stopped.

Casadena

short+sassy said:

I was also way too cold this morning!  There are a lot of bridges in the NOLA/suburbs area, which are susceptible to icing over, and a bunch of my coworkers were late getting in because of road and bridge closures.

Our electricity provider is Entergy and I'm side-eying them hard.  Well, harder than usual.  They kept threatening to do rolling blackouts on Mon. and Tues. because the energy usage from low temperatures was straining them.  Fortunately, they didn't do that.  But excuse me?!?!  Please explain to me, Entergy, how you are so GD pathetic that the temperature dropping below freezing for half a day (max.) strains you this much.  FTR, roughly half the houses in NOLA are heated with gas anyway.  And, let me point out that you all haven't had blackouts in the past for much longer cold spells.  I think they are liars who are setting their customers up, to use this as an excuse to spike our electrical rates again.  They did something similar in Nov.

But onto (potential) good news.  My H has a job interview tomorrow!!!  I know a job interview is a far cry from an offer.  But he has a major (many years) gap in employment and am shocked he even got an interview in his previous IT skill set.  Sad to say, but I am.  He isn't lazy about working.  But he is VERY LAZY about looking for work and I have about a semi-truck full of resentment about that.  Anyway, sorry to turn this good news negative, lol.  It's just been so long since he's had a f/t job, I pretty much gave up that it might ever happen again.  My glimmer of hope (crossing fingers). 

There's a huge natural gas shortage across the whole US right now due to the widespread storms.  Oil rigs are being shut down which means lower daily supply of natural gas available, plus gas/electricity infrastructure in a lot of US is not built to withstand freezing temps.  Electric power is often generated by burning coal, but the steam operations that allow that are powered by natural gas (so even if your home is not heated with gas, you still rely on gas to produce the electricity that does heat your home).  Most states don't' have their own power grid (Texas being the exception of course) so even though your local weather isn't as cold as it has been before, power availability is driven by a lot more than your local company/weather/etc,  and since your power grid is actually one big system that encompasses like 15 states, it may not have anything at all to do with the company you pay for electricity .  So many industrial facilities are being totally shut down right now so that the natural gas can be diverted for residential heating.  

It's also possible that Entergy is a shitty company.  But just know that there is WAY more going on that affects what they're doing right now!

P.S. I work in this space and it's a big part of the reason my week is so insane.  

short+sassy

@Casadena, thanks for the explanation!  I had no idea.  Entergy is a super shitty and shady company, so my default is to always assume they are up to no good, lol.  I'll cut them a little slack on this then.  But just for this, lol.

They bribe the local commission that regulates them with lavish gifts and trips.  Nobody even pretends they don't.

They want to build another power plant in the city, which is highly unpopular because it's generally not needed and out of their own mouths have said it will increase bills.  They actually hired ACTORS to attend a city council meeting about it (pre-pandemic).  The actors pretended to be normal citizens living in the city and, in the meeting, spoke highly about wanting this power plant.  I'm not sure how Entergy thought they would get away with that.  But they didn't and it became a huge scandal.    

In Orleans Parish, our bills have one nebulous line item that is called a "base rate charge".  It's a variable charge that at least doubles the bill.  Or if it is a smaller bill, it will triple/quadruple it or more.  I had to call their customer service three times before someone was finally able to tell me what it was.  That's the cost they pass along when they have to buy energy from somewhere else.  But it's not directly tied to the kwH a customer uses, which means it's more of a blank check to skirt regulations.  They didn't tell me the second part of that sentence, lol.  But that's my guess as to why they do it that way.  I even asked the rep how is that amount determined, because there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it as compared to the kwH used in the same month.  She told me it was a "complicated formula" that had a lot of factors, so she really couldn't explain it.  For an energy company they sure like to keep their customers in the dark (haha).

And where do they usually buy their energy from for that "base rate" charge?  Themselves.  But it's a different "division".

Casadena

Wow, what an absolutely insanely shitty company.  It's very possible that they are leveraging the current energy crisis situation to take advantage of customers even if it's not needed (based on your commentary!!).