Monday, January 29
Jan. 30th, 2024 01:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
More beautiful weather.
I went to town today, for pottery.
I picked up a "tie rack" (via Marketplace) that is basically a series of pegs on a board that I intend to use to help organize my necklaces.
Then I went to pottery. At first, it was just D and I, and we talked about her Dad, who WAS dying from a leaking aneurysm, but it looks like it sealed itself, and he's back to being himself.
It was a disturbing story she had to tell, because basically she and her siblings were told that he had maybe a few days to live, but their reaction (to me) was very disturbing.
Their response was to give notice to the lodge that he wouldn't "need" his apartment, because they figured if they did things before the end of the month they wouldn't have to pay for February, even though HE WASN'T DEAD YET.
Then, while he was in the hospital, they went about clearing all his stuff up, dividing it all up, and so on. EVEN THOUGH HE WASN'T DEAD YET.
I asked D why everyone was worried about emptying his apartment and such, instead of...you know...maybe spending some time with him, since he was lucid and awake and waiting to die in the hospital?
She said that her siblings "were only willing to help empty his place if we did it that week, because they said they wouldn't come back to do it later". Wow.
So I asked "you mean, if he didn't die that week, but he was still maybe going to die later, they weren't coming back at all, to see him or help with the apartment", and THEN she says "well, really I wanted it all just dealt with so I could still go to Mexico on time".
Wow. What do you say to that? No dead or dying beloved parent is going to stand between this woman and her trip to Mexico!
So, he is now living with her. He might live a few weeks, or he might live a few years. He might not even die from the aneurysm. He can't go back to the lodge because he gave up his suite, and they...ahem...got rid of all of his belongings (maybe even his clothes?).
D seems upset that he is now forced to live with her due to them...jumping the gun there, and she seems even more upset that he might live for YEARS now, and worse yet, it might interfere with her TRIP TO MEXICO.
I'm beginning to think that maybe even crustaceans would feel more emotions over the potential death of their parent.
Then the "former dog walking friend" who is ALWAYS THE EXPERT (or at the very least, will only talk about things that she IS an expert upon) showed up.
D is on a waiting list to get a puppy from a litter that was just born, and she's very excited, and also knows nothing about dogs.
LUCKY FOR HER, the former dog walking friend is the PREMIER WORLD EXPERT ABOUT EVERY ASPECT OF DOG TRAINING!!!!
I had to listen to her for the next two hours straight talk about dog training, in a voice that you can only imagine as the PINNACLE of confidence and leadership.
Dear god, every week this woman comes in and sucks all of the air out of the room. You can't escape the sound of her voice, it's a small studio.
I think it's time for me to start working at another time, if I can. I can't take it any more.
Also, D, who used to seem interested in being my friend, now seems to be absolutely in LOVE with my former dog walking friend. From the sounds of things, the FDWF is going to take D under her wing when this puppy arrives, and really be there for her. They're going to walk dogs together now, and hopefully they will be very happy together.
I did my best to make handles for the mugs I threw last week, and to not stab anyone to death.
I did a frantic, huge grocery run, and came home.
My Sweetie helped me put everything away, and we talked a bit.
He's going to try to look at a restaurant supply place to see if they have any big steel sinks that fit what we were talking about for the mud room.
It was already pretty late, so he had to go to bed pretty much right after the groceries were put away.
I am trying to understand something about West New Guinea, which is the other half of "New Guinea" (I explored Papua yesterday, the Eastern half of the island).
It is SORT OF part of Indonesia (against its will), though the entire island of New Guinea is considered to be part of the continent of Australia, and all of it was accessible by land bridge at one time when ocean levels were low.
West New Guinea is trying to be an independent nation (still under Indonesian rule), and is now formed into six provinces.
This region WAS a Dutch colony (along with much of what is now Indonesia). Most of what is now Indonesia was released, and the Dutch retained West New Guinea. At one point when there was a movement towards independence for West New Guinea and the Dutch were ready to let this happen, Indonesia stepped in, pretended like they would "help" West Guinea until they could have a referendum to ratify their own government, but, um....just didn't let them do it.
So now they are STILL fighting for independence, and there are genocides taking place against the people of West New Guinea.
Indonesia controls journalism and tourism to West New Guinea due to the desire for self-rule (so, in other words, Indonesia is trying to keep West New Guinea from getting any kind of support or coverage to the rest of the world of their situation).
A highway is in progress to try to connect the cities, since traditionally all of these cities were only accessible by sea, not over land.
The fauna and flora are abundant, and it's all a crazy mix of Indonesian and Australian species which is found nowhere else. There are kangaroos and other marsupials, presumably also left there when the ocean levels rose, cutting the island off from the rest of the continent. There are MANY species of plants and animals and birds that are found nowhere else.
The people of the interior are very different than those who live on the coast. Those of the interior are nearly "untouched" tribes.
There are large deposits of copper, as well as some gold and petroleum.
Like the rest of the island, the main food is the sweet potato, and there are other cash crops like coffee and cacao and timber.
This is a very good short video about the political situation.
https://youtu.be/BpeR7YrM2nU?si=8TzogctwUa_ZrlbR
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_New_Guinea
More beautiful weather.
I went to town today, for pottery.
I picked up a "tie rack" (via Marketplace) that is basically a series of pegs on a board that I intend to use to help organize my necklaces.
Then I went to pottery. At first, it was just D and I, and we talked about her Dad, who WAS dying from a leaking aneurysm, but it looks like it sealed itself, and he's back to being himself.
It was a disturbing story she had to tell, because basically she and her siblings were told that he had maybe a few days to live, but their reaction (to me) was very disturbing.
Their response was to give notice to the lodge that he wouldn't "need" his apartment, because they figured if they did things before the end of the month they wouldn't have to pay for February, even though HE WASN'T DEAD YET.
Then, while he was in the hospital, they went about clearing all his stuff up, dividing it all up, and so on. EVEN THOUGH HE WASN'T DEAD YET.
I asked D why everyone was worried about emptying his apartment and such, instead of...you know...maybe spending some time with him, since he was lucid and awake and waiting to die in the hospital?
She said that her siblings "were only willing to help empty his place if we did it that week, because they said they wouldn't come back to do it later". Wow.
So I asked "you mean, if he didn't die that week, but he was still maybe going to die later, they weren't coming back at all, to see him or help with the apartment", and THEN she says "well, really I wanted it all just dealt with so I could still go to Mexico on time".
Wow. What do you say to that? No dead or dying beloved parent is going to stand between this woman and her trip to Mexico!
So, he is now living with her. He might live a few weeks, or he might live a few years. He might not even die from the aneurysm. He can't go back to the lodge because he gave up his suite, and they...ahem...got rid of all of his belongings (maybe even his clothes?).
D seems upset that he is now forced to live with her due to them...jumping the gun there, and she seems even more upset that he might live for YEARS now, and worse yet, it might interfere with her TRIP TO MEXICO.
I'm beginning to think that maybe even crustaceans would feel more emotions over the potential death of their parent.
Then the "former dog walking friend" who is ALWAYS THE EXPERT (or at the very least, will only talk about things that she IS an expert upon) showed up.
D is on a waiting list to get a puppy from a litter that was just born, and she's very excited, and also knows nothing about dogs.
LUCKY FOR HER, the former dog walking friend is the PREMIER WORLD EXPERT ABOUT EVERY ASPECT OF DOG TRAINING!!!!
I had to listen to her for the next two hours straight talk about dog training, in a voice that you can only imagine as the PINNACLE of confidence and leadership.
Dear god, every week this woman comes in and sucks all of the air out of the room. You can't escape the sound of her voice, it's a small studio.
I think it's time for me to start working at another time, if I can. I can't take it any more.
Also, D, who used to seem interested in being my friend, now seems to be absolutely in LOVE with my former dog walking friend. From the sounds of things, the FDWF is going to take D under her wing when this puppy arrives, and really be there for her. They're going to walk dogs together now, and hopefully they will be very happy together.
I did my best to make handles for the mugs I threw last week, and to not stab anyone to death.
I did a frantic, huge grocery run, and came home.
My Sweetie helped me put everything away, and we talked a bit.
He's going to try to look at a restaurant supply place to see if they have any big steel sinks that fit what we were talking about for the mud room.
It was already pretty late, so he had to go to bed pretty much right after the groceries were put away.
I am trying to understand something about West New Guinea, which is the other half of "New Guinea" (I explored Papua yesterday, the Eastern half of the island).
It is SORT OF part of Indonesia (against its will), though the entire island of New Guinea is considered to be part of the continent of Australia, and all of it was accessible by land bridge at one time when ocean levels were low.
West New Guinea is trying to be an independent nation (still under Indonesian rule), and is now formed into six provinces.
This region WAS a Dutch colony (along with much of what is now Indonesia). Most of what is now Indonesia was released, and the Dutch retained West New Guinea. At one point when there was a movement towards independence for West New Guinea and the Dutch were ready to let this happen, Indonesia stepped in, pretended like they would "help" West Guinea until they could have a referendum to ratify their own government, but, um....just didn't let them do it.
So now they are STILL fighting for independence, and there are genocides taking place against the people of West New Guinea.
Indonesia controls journalism and tourism to West New Guinea due to the desire for self-rule (so, in other words, Indonesia is trying to keep West New Guinea from getting any kind of support or coverage to the rest of the world of their situation).
A highway is in progress to try to connect the cities, since traditionally all of these cities were only accessible by sea, not over land.
The fauna and flora are abundant, and it's all a crazy mix of Indonesian and Australian species which is found nowhere else. There are kangaroos and other marsupials, presumably also left there when the ocean levels rose, cutting the island off from the rest of the continent. There are MANY species of plants and animals and birds that are found nowhere else.
The people of the interior are very different than those who live on the coast. Those of the interior are nearly "untouched" tribes.
There are large deposits of copper, as well as some gold and petroleum.
Like the rest of the island, the main food is the sweet potato, and there are other cash crops like coffee and cacao and timber.
This is a very good short video about the political situation.
https://youtu.be/BpeR7YrM2nU?si=8TzogctwUa_ZrlbR
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_New_Guinea
no subject
Date: 2024-01-31 05:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-31 08:02 am (UTC)This was at pottery, so I go there to unwind, and the one person now is often there at the same time (it's a somewhat loose class where people come and go over a general time slot we are appointed to). She talks long, loud, and hard about her great, vast knowledge that she bestows upon whoever is standing there.
A few years ago, I had met her in a dog park, and we got in the habit of walking together once a week. Either she wasn't quite as bad back then, or I didn't notice because we were walking with our dogs.
At some point in time, I realized that I was doing all the work in being her friend. If we got together it's because I called/texted, and if we met it was always me who had to drive somewhere to meet her, not the other way around.
I never cut her off, all I did was invite her to meet at our house once or twice, and when she declined, I decided to stop doing all the work and see what happened.
You know what happened? Nothing. She didn't ever text or call to invite me to her new home three miles away from us when they moved, she never invited me to walk dogs with her, and never took me up on my offer to come see our new house when we moved it to our property.
So, I see her at pottery now, and I'm polite to her. I try to do the "boring grey wall" when she gets going about how amazing she is (I'm starting to think she's a type of narcissist, that maybe isn't malignant but sure doesn't seem to give a shit about anyone else if it doesn't give her what she needs).
So, that's the background on her.
The other woman is someone who I've been kind of friends with over this past winter, and I generally do like her.
I have been confused about her reactions to the things happening with her parents, as she SEEMS to care, but then seems to care a lot more about how it's going to affect her life, but she also doesn't set healthy boundaries and refuse to, for example, take them into her home where she would be the sole caregiver.
I don't blame her for not wanting her Dad to live with her, but then, why would she jump on the bandwagon when her siblings wanted to get rid of his things and let go of his apartment? She more or less left herself wide open for this to happen.
I will likely still spend time with her sometimes, but her reaction to these events will affect how I see her.
She is probably not coming back to pottery for a while anyhow, as she is going to be busy with her Dad and her new puppy when it comes. We'll see how things go, if she bothers to keep in touch or not.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-31 08:19 am (UTC)Restaurant supply is a good source for steel sinks. We got the kitchen sink there. It was hard to find an aproned steel sink, and the resturant supply cautioned me that the sink would build up a patina. It did, and that's fine with me.
Maybe that's where I could get a replacement for the nasty laundrette sink??
no subject
Date: 2024-01-31 08:59 am (UTC)We did look at Home Depot, and they have kind of a wussy steel sink with no apron or drain board that is mounted into a cabinet, and is still pricey for what you get.
Still, those have the advantage of being convenient, and the cabinet might be useful in a laundry area.
You can sometimes find used steel sinks via Marketplace.
We also do have a plastic double laundry sink that will be in the laundry one day, but I don't know how durable the finish will be. We'll see. Maybe by then we'll just want another steel sink.
This makes it sound like I'm planning for a lot of filth. Which, you know, does happen sometimes. A steel sink in every room!