The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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Glad to hear you now have a diagnosis, Windigo! Hopefully that will help them to figure out how best to treat you.

I had yet another follow up for my busted ankle, and got another 6 weeks added to the timeline for recovery. It’s mostly healed, just seems to be taking it’s sweet time for the bone to fully heal. I’m still in the boot, but I can walk with only one crutch now. My husband is very, very glad that I can now carry my own beverages and he no longer has to hear me asking “can you bring me a glass of water?” multiple times a day.

I am frustrated that it’s taking so long, and yet also very excited that in another week or so, I should be able to try walking without crutches in the boot. I hope it goes well!
 
We are up to 14 confirmed tornadoes from yesterday. That's not what I expect in December.

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CD
 
Now I understand you guys want to cheer me up and that's appreciated ❤️, however being told my illness is managable after having been put on the ICU for it 5 times at 35 already doesn't feel supportive. You have to understand Ulcerative colitis is just the less severe version of Crohns, not a completely different illness.
Yes, when things go well Crohns can be managable but Crohns can also be a very serious illness. I am so far not one of the people who have an easy ride and are very succesful despite the Crohns.
That doesn't mean my life is over or that I am a pessimist ( anything but, according to those who know me) but I don't like being told my illness is managable when it's not been that way at all.
Not everyone with Crohns is the same .
 
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I think some kind of critter is in the outside wall in my office. I heard it fall yesterday, and now I occasionally hear something moving. If it is a critter, it apparently can't get out, which means it will die inside the wall, and will probably smell really bad for a few weeks. I hope the smell doesn't make it into the office.

My house has a weird history with critters. I had a five-plus pound bullfrog come through my dog door one night, and came home from a business trip to find my house full of honey bees another time.

CD
 
caseydog said:
I think some kind of critter is in the outside wall in my office. I heard it fall yesterday, and now I occasionally hear something moving. If it is a critter, it apparently can't get out, which means it will die inside the wall, and will probably smell really bad for a few weeks. I hope the smell doesn't make it into the office.

My house has a weird history with critters. I had a five-plus pound bullfrog come through my dog door one night, and came home from a business trip to find my house full of honey bees another time.

CD
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I think that’s pretty much scientific proof you’ve built your house over a cursed graveyard or portal to Hell.
 
Raining here now, but it’s supposed to turn to freezing rain and then snow later on. We’ve got a couple days worth of groceries and plan to hunker down. We’re under a couple weather advisories.
 
Mid-50’sF and sunny today here, but colder temps are coming.
 
caseydog said:
I think some kind of critter is in the outside wall in my office. I heard it fall yesterday, and now I occasionally hear something moving. If it is a critter, it apparently can't get out, which means it will die inside the wall, and will probably smell really bad for a few weeks. I hope the smell doesn't make it into the office.

My house has a weird history with critters. I had a five-plus pound bullfrog come through my dog door one night, and came home from a business trip to find my house full of honey bees another time.

CD
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I have to giggle, sorry but having lived in old houses all my life I'm so used to the unexpected. I've lost count of the number of times I've found ants swarming in the house instead of outside of the house (i hate ants). The only option is to get the vacuum cleaner out, to hover up some ant killer powder and then the ants... The window will literally be black with them.

I've also had bats in the house, pheasants, wild rabbits, the odd bird down the chimney (rather common in the UK) mice a plenty, squirrels and a hornets nest in the roof (we left them be), bumble bees nesting in the roof space between the slates and the ceiling wall and so on. That particular house also had bats in the roof as well and way too many birds to count. It was easier to define what didn't live in the roof than what did.

One place we lived had field mice (a protected species in the UK) that lived between the first floor and the ground floor and also in the 5ft wide stone walls. Amusingly now, we thought putting stuff up high would keep stuff safer from them, so they just climbed down from the ceiling to the shelving instead ending up in a box of cereal (a packet of Shreddies). They had clearly gotten stuck in the box having chewed their way in from the top, so had had to eat their way out at the bottom! They also removed all the labels from the tins of food in that pantry, so meals became a case of multiple choice. We did end up with some really odd combinations, lol.

And we have a frog that lives in the toilet system where we are currently. Periodically in the middle of the night, you'll meet it sitting on the toilet seat and it will disappear into the toilet bowl... sooner or later the water tank on the toilet will start croaking again and the whole routine starts again.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
I have to giggle, sorry but having lived in old houses all my life I'm so used to the unexpected. I've lost count of the number of times I've found ants swarming in the house instead of outside of the house (i hate ants). The only option is to get the vacuum cleaner out, to hover up some ant killer powder and then the ants... The window will literally be black with them.

I've also had bats in the house, pheasants, wild rabbits, the odd bird down the chimney (rather common in the UK) mice a plenty, squirrels and a hornets nest in the roof (we left them be), bumble bees nesting in the roof space between the slates and the ceiling wall and so on. That particular house also had bats in the roof as well and way too many birds to count. It was easier to define what didn't live in the roof than what did.

One place we lived had field mice (a protected species in the UK) that lived between the first floor and the ground floor and also in the 5ft wide stone walls. Amusingly now, we thought putting stuff up high would keep stuff safer from them, so they just climbed down from the ceiling to the shelving instead ending up in a box of cereal (a packet of Shreddies). They had clearly gotten stuck in the box having chewed their way in from the top, so had had to eat their way out at the bottom! They also removed all the labels from the tins of food in that pantry, so meals became a case of multiple choice. We did end up with some really odd combinations, lol.

And we have a frog that lives in the toilet system where we are currently. Periodically in the middle of the night, you'll meet it sitting on the toilet seat and it will disappear into the toilet bowl... sooner or later the water tank on the toilet will start croaking again and the whole routine starts again.
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I am a nature lover, and birds, bees, frogs... animals in general are fine with me. AS LONG as they stay outside!!! If they come inside, it's game on. Last winter, rats got into the engine compartment of my MINI Cooper in the garage, and built a nest on top of the engine. Picture Bill Murray in Caddyshack. It was all-out war. Having a lot more money than your average rat, I won. :okay:

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CD
 
Yeah, I join you as a Nature Lover. Caracas, 1300 mts above sea level, tropical climate, hey, if there are no wonderful critters, then you´re not living the life.
My son walked into his bathroom one night, closed the door, and there was a bat hanging from the towel rail.
I walked into the kitchen, various times, and saw snakes, rats, mice, scorpions - all there. We even had an invasion of giant locusts one year. Let them be - they´re not doing me any harm.
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We’ve had bats and mice and we’re overrun with ants a few times a year, skunks and possums and raccoons as far as the garage, but my favorite used to be in the summers when, out of nowhere, some strange dog out running loose would stick its head in through the dog flap just to have a look round my kitchen.
 
caseydog said:
I am a nature lover, and birds, bees, frogs... animals in general are fine with me. AS LONG as they stay outside!!! If they come inside, it's game on. Last winter, rats got into the engine compartment of my MINI Cooper in the garage, and built a nest on top of the engine. Picture Bill Murray in Caddyshack. It was all-out war. Having a lot more money than your average rat, I won. :okay:

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CD
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We've had wild rabbits write off one of our vehicles. We'd seen them under the vehicle repeatedly especially when it was raining. We never thought much about it until an ASB light came on one the dashboard. New wheel hub needed, not cheap either. We paid out, accepted it etc. Then the following year the same thing happened but there were a few other 'little' things like there was definitely an oil leak, but every time I dipped the engine oil, it was absolutely fine, exactly where is had been previously. The vehicle had never ever used oil, (infact, it didn't even blacken oil, it would come out the same colour it went in. The garage had told us to keep the vehicle because of this, many years earlier and they were correct. It had over 277,000 miles on the clock when we finally had to call it a day. Another issue was that the handbrake wasn't holding and also the tow bar electrics had stopped working. I crawled under the vehicle and saw the damage immediately. There wasn't an electrical cable longer than 5cm or 2 inches. Every corner teeth could reach had been gnawed clear of that rubberized foam the underneath of vehicles get/got (?) sprayed with to lessen minor stone damage underneath... and I could smell petrol which was worrying me.

So it went off to the garage to get their verdict. They rang up to say they had stopped counting the damage. The rabbits had destroyed the electrics under the car, they had finally gone through the handbrake cable, they were well on their way with the brake pipes, the fuel tank had a currently minor leak, again teeth damage and that oil leak, that was from the gearbox... they had finally got through on one corner of the gearbox! My mark 3 Vauxhall Cavalier 2.0 CDi was no more. Without the New gearbox, there was over £3,000 of damage in parts alone. And they confirmed that the damage didn't go up into the wheel arches, or into the engine bay which it would have done with rats, mice or squirrels. It all stopped just over 30cm above the ground, hence the conclusion rabbits. Their teeth grow continuously and they have to gnaw to grind them down otherwise they die. Our insurance refused to pay out and we had to foot the entire bill for a new car.

We decided on a car supermarket and started by lying on the ground by the drivers door... "nah, the rabbits will have a field day with this one,", another make and model ticked off.

It came down to an Audi A4 or a Volkswagen Bora. We went with the Audi. There was very little exposed under that car but we did have to get a tow bar fitted.

We also installed a rabbit proof cage that we parked in. Low enough to step over but too high for rabbits and with a meter of mesh in the ground all the way around, they weren't getting at the underneath of any car in there.
 
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