Good morning All. Coffees on.

[awkward-yet-sweet]

7 minutes ago, Willow said:

After that she’s going to get old standby meals.  Pizza, pasta, pork chops and burgers....

 

Oh dear me, perish the thought.  Such lowly fare! 🤣  Seriously, some days I'm about ready to lurk in a restaurant parking lot to steal somebody's hamburger.  I enjoy our home cooked food here, but some days I would love to indulge in the standard American diet.  But we've got too many mouths to feed for beef to show up on the table very often. 

[Ivy]

1 hour ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

Gimme my month/day/year and my pounds/gallons/feet.

Really, it's a stupid system.  But when you're used to it, you're used to it. 

I know  what a foot is.  I mean, I"ve got 2 of them.  A meter is something like a yard - but more.  Makes a difference once you get out there a bit.  

A gallon is a lot  more than a liter.   But our booze is all in metric.  What is a fith a 1/5 of?  I might order a "pint" but I won't get it.

 

For the most part, and for most of us in daily life it's all in our heads.  When I was in the army in Europe we talked about some place being so many "clicks" away, and we understood.  Speed in KPH is always so impressive, until I realize what is going on.

We in the USA are just stubborn.  What is there, one other country that uses "Imperial" measurements?  

 

And an American gallon is still different than an "Imperial" gallon.  When I was a kid an American gallon was different than a Canadian gallon.  If we were mixing fuel, there were 2 different recipes.  Do you guys still use "Imperial Gallons"?  I mean we both have "Dollars" but they're not the same either.  (Just so you know, I think y'all's money is a lot prettier.)  It's a crazy world for sure.

 

And while I'm on it….  Why are we in the US "Americans"?  I mean Canada and Mexico…  It used to bother me.  But when I went to visit in-laws in Ontario, the TV referred to those south of the border as "The Americans".  It was weird.  When I was up there it didn't seem all that different than here.  But then, y'all don't have the GOP.  Guess you're working on that too.

 

Sorry folks.  This is what happens when I stay up past my bed time…  'night y'all.

[Mmindy]

@Willow I counted 7 meals listed in your post, something for every day of the week. Throw in a fish or meatloaf and you can mix the weekly rotation. 
 

Mindy🌈🐛🏳️‍⚧️🦋

[awkward-yet-sweet]

1 hour ago, Ivy said:

Really, it's a stupid system.  But when you're used to it, you're used to it.

 

I think the volume measurements may be more arbitrary than the rest.  But I find a lot of the distance measurements to be very human.  Think about it... a foot is easy to understand.  An inch is approximately a thumb joint.  A yard is relatively as long as an average guy's step (my husband is crazy accurate - only one yard off in 400 yards when he paces vs. using a measuring wheel).  In metric measurements, you go from a meter to a centimeter.  What's inbetween that is useful?  Like for building stuff? 

 

Actually, going back to volume, I think gallons are nice.  A liter is a essentially a fancypants quart.  A gallon is nice because you can carry it easily...again, a human dimension that's in the "just right" range.  And if liters are great, why is wine in 750 ml bottles?  Like, we couldn't get a whole liter? 🤣  And how are we supposed to get 5 glasses of wine out of a bottle?  GF gets TWO.  Something is wrong with wine math. 😏

 

Then there's temperature.  I get that Celsius seems nice and neat... 100 degrees between freezing and boiling.  Except that we humans don't use most of that on a daily basis.  If you're experiencing the top half of that scale, you're in deep doo-doo.  But Fahrenheit is more relevant to common human experience.  It is only rarely under 0 or over 100 here.  When it is, its automatically a signal of "hey, this day's gonna be crap" in a way that "37.7" just doesn't convey. 

 

I'm not sure whose empire "Imperial" is supposed to refer to now.  The British?  They lost theirs...probably due to adopting the metric system 🤣 

 

I probably need to go to bed too....

[Davie]

Well, this sucks: scheduled cataract surgery for two weeks and my insurance got canceled today. Something about a form I didn't submit that they never sent me in the first place and my representative is out of the office this week. Catch 22 caught me, I guess. Say a prayer--gonna need outside help for this one. And my birthday is next week. Laugh if you want to--but I'm not. Ugh.

[Ashley0616]

Yeah I'll catch y'all on the flipside. 

[Mmindy]

9 hours ago, Davie said:

Catch 22 caught me, I guess. Say a prayer--gonna need outside help for this one.

@Davie I am praying for you and I hope things are worked out for you. 
 

Hugs

 

Mindy🌈🐛🏳️‍⚧️🦋

[Mmindy]

Good morning everyone 

 

Yesterday evening was a horrible experience for a small town just East of my city. Just after dark a tornado struck Winchester, IN several people died and the emergency services are still searching buildings. Daylight has revealed the worst possible scenario. 
 

We had heavy rain and medium hail. I’ll have to look at our camper to see if we have hail damage to it. Last year it was hit by baseball sized hail, and took Camping World 6 months to complete the repairs. 
 

Since the roads are closed coffee will be air dropped. 
 

Prayers for those affected,

 

Mindy🌈🐛🏳️‍⚧️🦋

 

 

[Ivy]

Yikes! Tornado and hail.

And @Davie that sux with the insurance.

Life here has been pretty tame lately.

[Willow]

Good morning 

 

I only got up once during the night as the nurse call button was silent otherwise.  Meaning she was able to take care of herself.  The call button was for her pain pill and that was an hour after she could have had it.  And she was still asleep (or doing a really goo fake) when I got up at 8 to make a pot of coffee.  That woke her up although she claimed to have been awake for a while.  She was surprised when I offered her a pain pill so I guess sleeping in our bed was much more comfortable than a hospital bed.

 

Ah the Metric system verses the old British system.  It just goes to show we have never completely given up on the British Crown.  The metric system is scientific, everything is in units of 10.  No trying to figure out dividing by 60 or 212 or zero being 32.  A foot was the length of the Kings foot.  A yard the length off his arm and like was pointing out by @awkward-yet-sweet thumb joint and other units of measurement were decreed by the King to stop merchants from cheating the people.  Go try to buy a cord of fire wood.  Some places you’ll get a real cord.  4x4x8. But many sellers it 4x8xone 15” stick. Far from being a real cord.

 

We find it hard to deal with but we also find learning a new language difficult. We always think it terms of what we know then try to translate.  Even US automakers have made the switch to metric.  Think about it. Do you buy a 350 cubic inch engine or a 4.6 liter when you go to the dealer?  Do you pull out your 7/16 wrench or a 10mm these days?  Little by little we are moving to the metric system.

 

Now Harley Davidson’s are a huge hold out. 105 cu in engine not a metric bolt to be found.  They refer to other brands as metric bikes. So if you insist on being non-metric, you’d better ride a Harley! (Maybe an Indian, I’m not sure about them)

 

have a great day, enjoy your coffee.

 

Willow

 

[KathyLauren]

10 hours ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

In metric measurements, you go from a meter to a centimeter.  What's inbetween that is useful?  Like for building stuff

 

I'd much prefer to work in metric.  If I am building some random thing for myself, I often do.  112.2 cm is just one number.  The imperial equivalent is 3' 8 3/16", which is four different numbers.  I only use imperial when building house-y stuff, where I have to work with 8' ceilings and 16" stud walls.

 

@Davie, I hope you are able to work out your insurance and surgery hassles.

@Mmindy, Hail and tornadoes!  Yikes!  I am glad that you are okay.  Sorry to hear about the folks down the road.

[Adrianna Danielle]

Date with my now transgirlfriend Selena went good.Found out her boyfriend is also cool about it too.We plan going to a lesbian bar Next week Tuesday which does allow us in and will be our first time

[awkward-yet-sweet]

I guess we were lucky yesterday. We only got a little bit of hail and some rain.  Lots of wind, and we lost a couple of trees.  Most of the bad weather went elsewhere. Seems like a good portion of the country had bad weather last night.  It has been a weird spring. Tornadoes as far north as Indiana and Wisconsin in March... and I doubt we are done yet.  Cloudy and cool here today, like it usually is after storms.

[Ashley0616]

Well this whole week hasn't went good. This time my alarm went off and got my son up and apparently so tired that I fell asleep again and he went to sleep too. The same time an hour late for him to be at school. I don't know if it's the time change or if it's going to sleep an hour later or both. My ex finally got a job and gets off an hour and half later. I'm about to tell her that we can't let her have them an extra hour because it's effecting everyone. Even my younger son is feeling it. 

[Davie]

19 hours ago, Davie said:

Laugh if you want to--but I'm not. Ugh.

Well, reality is not as bad as my imagination says it is. I met with a counselor and I have to reapply. Forms. Injury by a dozen paper cuts, but nothing deadly.

[Ashley0616]

Well I talked to my new therapist and he is wonderful! He doesn't think that I have bipolar and thinks it's borderline personality disorder. He is going to run the test on the 29th of this month and I will see. I did some research on it and it's a good possibility my moods change to quick for bipolar. He also thinks that too by the upbringing I went through. He did say I'm not crazy so that's some good news! The two are similar in some ways but not all. There is a difference between borderline personality disorder and multiple personalities disorder.

[Willow]

Good morning 

 

First cup from a fresh bag of beans was good.  Second cup about to be poured.  So when we talk about a cup of coffee, who uses the traditional cup, if anyone and do the rest of us all drink from an oversized mug?  When I make a 10 cup pot, we get four full mugs out of it, not 10 cups.  I have never measured the actual size of my favorite mugs, I should try that one of these days.  The thing is, should I measure it in ounces or milliliters? Centilitliters, deciliters or liters?  Certainly even a liter would be too big as would a quart, but I could maybe use a pint.

 

Got you all, except for @Mmindy , throughly  confused yet?   Then there are pharmaceutical terms we all take medications ever read the dosage.  And if you inject yourself how much do you inject? Milligrams per milliliter with a syringe marked in tenths of a milliliter.  We all use both systems of measurement we just don’t pay much attention to it we are told take this pill, use this patch or inject this much and we just do as the endocrinologist tells us.  
 

wife update:

 

Well first full day home went well.  She even took my advice and did some walking.  Inside, not outside , but that’s better than sitting in bed or in a chair all day.  Her mood is coming around.  She’s doing things for herself instead of total reliance on me, which is good.  I have one more week at home then I have to go back to work. My paycheck was rather pitiful and the next one will be worse right when I need to max things out.  But summer is coming so I’ll get all the hours I can handle and a $3.00 per hour increase beginning in May and running past Labor Day.

 

i know the asst mgr will want weekends off starting in May.  She is a part-time photographer and will be getting requests for Prom, graduation and Wedding photos plus she does pictures for a Harley Week event.  Good thing about that, if you can call it good is I’ll get the Holiday hours which pay time and a half.

 

I’m concerned about a rather big hospital bill.  We’ve never had two weeks in a hospital since going on Medicare.

 

otherwise, I have been using my job income to pay off my debts.

 

Willow

[KymmieL]

Sorry I haven't posted much. Life has been alright this week. As always I have a fantastic session with my therapist on Monday. I am finding out about my life that I never realized. It is hard but needed, She is helping me through it all. I am starting to understand why I am, how I am. Maybe understand why I kept my true self locked away for over five decades.

 

Realized I was out of shielding gas for my welder, when I didn't get the shhhhh when I pulled the trigger. So, Tues stopped on the way home for lunch and got a refill. after getting back to work I get a text from my youngest. I have a big black box from Fox Shox. My shock was back from getting rebuilt. So, the next couple nights I put that back on. Now, I am waiting on getting extended brake lines. It already has longer hoses from a Ford super duty. those are even short for my suspension drop. So, I am looking at either a set for a 4-6" lifted super duty or custom. But this weekend its welding time.

 

Clear and 17 now. Got about 6" of white crap Wed-Thurs. mixed with rain in the beginning. but farther south in Colorado they got hammered. Talked to a vendor down in Denver on Wed and they had 10" already, with move coming down. Thursday and Friday heard a lot couldn't make it into work.

 

@Willow glad everything is going smooth for you. continued good wishes for you and your wife. I would love to attend bike week down their. Having been to Sturgis multiple times both with and without a bike. I'll tell you that if you are a Harley or even a motorcycle fan. Nothing bets riding down main street downtown Sturgis. I would like to experience other rallies. Daytona spring and fall. Myrtle beach, Arizona bike week, even Liconia. Also ride some Iconic roads, Tail of the dragon, dragons backbone, A1A, PCH CA to WA, Blue Ridge parkway, Iron mountain road, and more. Just ride.

 

This is getting long, So I'll cut it off.

 

Hugs, to all my friends,

 

Kymmie

 

 

[KymmieL]

Just realized yesterday that 12 and 40 years ago. I was in the same place St. Pattys day. And no it wasn't drinking green beer. I was at Lackland Air Force base.  12 yrs ago it was for our oldest sons graduation from basic training, and 40 yrs ago I was was also at Lackland AFB, for tech school.

 

grand memories there.

 

Kymmie

[Mmindy]

Good morning everyone,

 

Happy Saturday and I hope you take time to sleep in every now and then. 
It’s a beautiful sunny spring day here in central Indiana, if it stays like this for another week, I’m going to have to mow the lawn. The new tulip garden is pushing through the mulch enough that it the temperature drops into the 20° degree range, I’ll have to cover them with light weight moving blankets. 
 

I love reading and catching up with everyone here. It really is like sitting at a table, sharing coffee and talking.

 

@KymmieLonce you’ve ridden Iron Mountain and Needles Hwy in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the other rides you mentioned are cake walks. Each of the different Bike Rallies have their own unique experience, but the Black Hills of South Dakota are the pinnacle of cool. 10 years ago my best friend and I rode the Continental Divide up through the Rockies starting in Arizona North through Idaho and then East over the Chief Joseph Hwy in Wyoming which is one of the best sections of the entire three weeks of that trip. We made a commitment to ride the speed limit or a few mph below that. The views and vistas are so much more pleasant when you’re not worried about the road conditions. It was a major bucket list trip. We camped most nights and only checked into hotels 4 or 5 nights to take a good shower and sleep on a bed. 
 

Coffee refill? 
 

Mindy🌈🐛🏳️‍⚧️🦋

 

 

 

[Birdie]

Lunch date went nice, I did have to run him off after my leg pain got too much. 

 

I made a nice salad with radishes, walnuts, and apples. Topped it off with vegetarian pizza. 

 

Nice that the pizza delivery person said, "thank you ma'am" as I handed him the money. 💞

 

I let my friend take the rest of the pizza home with him because it's not good for me. 

[Mmindy]

@Birdie, I'm sorry your leg started hurting and hope you continue to recover.

 

The lunch date sounds like it went real well and I'm happy for you.

 

Hugs,

 

Mindy🌈🐛🏳️‍⚧️🦋

[Willow]

Good afternoon 

 

another nice day here.  Spent time reading out by the pool.

 

So, the traditional size of a coffee cup is 177 ml.  My favorite coffee mug is 473 ml.  Ok, 6 verses 16 ounces.  So my 12 cup coffee maker is 72 oz compared to 64 oz of coffee typically drunk.

 

@KymmieL I too found it amazing how far back in my life the first signs of having gender dysphoria could be traced.  But I have a question, you mentioned being at Lackland for Tech school.  And even back in the late 60s your Tech school was at Lackland, but what about Basic?  Where did you go for Basic?  No family member ever came to my graduation from Basic or Tech School but then I didn’t really expect my father to come to my graduation from College, but he did.  He did not come to my wedding.  Gee, anybody got a guess why I never thought I had a good relationship with him?

 

Willow

 

 

[awkward-yet-sweet]

3 hours ago, Willow said:

 He did not come to my wedding.  Gee, anybody got a guess why I never thought I had a good relationship with him?

 

Sadly, you aren't the only one who had an inattentive father.  My father basically didn't want me, because I was born a girl.  He doted on his sons, but didn't want his daughters.  He paid more attention to my sister because she was the youngest.  Me... he coudn't have cared less.  Maybe if I had been interested in going into a law enforcement career, or marrying some nice Greek Orthodox boy, he might have liked me.  Maybe.  But an artist who wasn't interested in dating (at least, dating boys) he didn't want that.  And when they figured out that me and my sister were lesbians, they disowned me as being a bad influence and essentially an abomination.  Some days I feel like telling my father "Hey, you got another boy after all!!!"  But I know I'd still be unwanted.  I guess it is pretty obvious why I suck at adulting, and why I turned out super clingy and needy in relationships 🤣😓

 

My sister has a bit of contact with him and with my mother these days.  I guess since she's a deputy sheriff now she sort of matters to them, but I haven't talked to either of them in years.  It kind of sucks being descended from a parent who is locally well known and respected...and all the time you know that underneath the facade he's an egotistical creep. 

 

I get mixed feelings watching my husband with his daughters....its evident how much he loves them.  He gets hugged by the whole horde when he comes home, reads them bedtime stories, helps them choose clothing, praises their work on their chores.  All the stuff my father never did with me.  I feel joy that my stepdaughters have a good father and are growing up right....and sadness at what I didn't have. 

[Birdie]

2 hours ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

My father basically didn't want me, because I was born a girl.

 

Slightly different here, but same scenario. 

I was born the youngest of three 'boys'. I of course was the only one born intersex AMAB.

My older brother was disowned and thrown out at 16 because my father found out he was gay. 

 

We were being raised pretty much by grandma since my father was seldom home much. Grandma was raising me very much as a little girl. Puberty brought wide hips and boobs compounded by the fact that I was born without a penis, and my father freaked out. His little 'boy' wasn't turning out very 'manly'.

 

I was forced to see a sports doctor and started testosterone treatments. I was told how I was deformed and an embarrassment. That my 'condition' must be hidden at all costs. 

Having witnessed what happened to my older brother I obeyed. I spent the majority of my life living my father's lie. 

 

No matter what I did I couldn't measure up. I wasn't strong or masculine even with testosterone. I just wasn't meant to be 'manly'.  

The relationship between my father and I dissolved entirely since I couldn't measure up. 

I stopped taking treatments when I moved out, but continued living the lie I had been taught. 

It was about 20 years before my father finally reached out and wanted to try again. We have a shaky relationship now, but I know better than to tell him I'm living as a woman. I keep those details to myself. 

 

I was born a disappointment to him, and he has struggled with that his entire life.