Thursday, February 15
Feb. 15th, 2024 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Very good sleep last night, and waking to sweet kitty inquiries.
A very quiet day, which was pleasant.
I talked with Sister E for a while. Her MIL is a bit anxious and confused with being in new care facility. It must be so hard to have issues with vision, memory, and so on, to wake up each day not knowing for sure where you are, who is taking care of you, or where anything is.
Sunshine outside, and I was able to spend time just being with Wonder, the ponies and goats. Dandy (pony) enjoyed being out in their bigger pasture, and got the zoomies.
I truly didn't do much of anything today, which is fine sometimes.
My Sweetie got out of work a little early and was trying to run some errands (picking up the mail, looking at another truck in person this time). I made a phone call to the company that installed our windows about the one that cracked, and he ended up having to go to the place in person to clarify things since the person working there couldn't seem to figure out which window we were talking about (we had it made there, thought they could understand which one needed replacing, I was wrong).
Hopefully we can get that sorted out. It's not a huge deal, but it IS a cracked window.
When he came home we (mostly he) put together the drawers from Ikea that will become storage in the mud room.
He seems really interested in a specific truck that he went to see today. It is used, but still very low mileage, and lots of warranty extras still on it, and so on. It would be a good truck for us. He's going to talk to "our" mechanic to get his opinion, since he is a pretty stand up guy.
We might go look at it together this weekend.
Then we watched an episode of "The Expanse".
The Maldives is the smallest Asian country, and an archipelago of islands (1,192 coral islands). It is VERY low, with the highest point being just under 8 feet above sea level.
It has been inhabited for about 2500 years ago, was visited by Arab and Persian traders roughly 1000 years ago (who brought Islam, that is still the majority religion today. Before that it was Buddhist.), and became a British protectorate in 1887.
It became an independent country in 1965, and established a Presidential Republic in 1968.
"The Maldives were devastated by a tsunami on 26 December 2004, following the Indian Ocean earthquake. Only nine islands were reported to have escaped any flooding,[58][59] while fifty-seven islands faced serious damage to critical infrastructure, fourteen islands had to be totally evacuated, and six islands were destroyed. A further twenty-one resort islands were forced to close because of tsunami damage. The total damage was estimated at more than US$400 million, or some 62% of the GDP.[60] 102 Maldivians and 6 foreigners reportedly died in the tsunami.[57] The destructive impact of the waves on the low-lying islands was mitigated by the fact there was no continental shelf or land mass upon which the waves could gain height. The tallest waves were reported to be 14 feet (4.3 m) high.[61]"
Apparently sand theft is a huge issue (apparently this is a thing all over the world, since sand is pretty useful). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_theft
Also, garbage disposal is a huge issue with so little land mass. An island was created just for disposing of garbage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thilafushi . A great deal of garbage is produced from tourists.
The islands, as one might have guessed by them being made of coral sand, have a rich ecosystem of coral reefs, though of course those are struggling. Efforts are being made to protect and restore them.
Human rights (Shariah law): Human rights in the Maldives is a contentious issue. In its 2011 Freedom in the World report, Freedom House declared the Maldives "Partly Free", claiming a reform process which had made headway in 2009 and 2010 had stalled.[124] The United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor claims in their 2012 report on human rights practices in the country that the most significant problems are corruption, lack of religious freedom, abuse, and unequal treatment of women.[125]
Cowry shells used to be the money of this nation, which traded in coir for ropes and ambergris for perfume. Today the main economy stems from tourism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldives
A pretty good video about the city of Male (where most of the people live), on the main island of Male.
https://youtu.be/6H3ldwvjXbE?si=-YYomhx7U9RaXdSy
Very good sleep last night, and waking to sweet kitty inquiries.
A very quiet day, which was pleasant.
I talked with Sister E for a while. Her MIL is a bit anxious and confused with being in new care facility. It must be so hard to have issues with vision, memory, and so on, to wake up each day not knowing for sure where you are, who is taking care of you, or where anything is.
Sunshine outside, and I was able to spend time just being with Wonder, the ponies and goats. Dandy (pony) enjoyed being out in their bigger pasture, and got the zoomies.
I truly didn't do much of anything today, which is fine sometimes.
My Sweetie got out of work a little early and was trying to run some errands (picking up the mail, looking at another truck in person this time). I made a phone call to the company that installed our windows about the one that cracked, and he ended up having to go to the place in person to clarify things since the person working there couldn't seem to figure out which window we were talking about (we had it made there, thought they could understand which one needed replacing, I was wrong).
Hopefully we can get that sorted out. It's not a huge deal, but it IS a cracked window.
When he came home we (mostly he) put together the drawers from Ikea that will become storage in the mud room.
He seems really interested in a specific truck that he went to see today. It is used, but still very low mileage, and lots of warranty extras still on it, and so on. It would be a good truck for us. He's going to talk to "our" mechanic to get his opinion, since he is a pretty stand up guy.
We might go look at it together this weekend.
Then we watched an episode of "The Expanse".
The Maldives is the smallest Asian country, and an archipelago of islands (1,192 coral islands). It is VERY low, with the highest point being just under 8 feet above sea level.
It has been inhabited for about 2500 years ago, was visited by Arab and Persian traders roughly 1000 years ago (who brought Islam, that is still the majority religion today. Before that it was Buddhist.), and became a British protectorate in 1887.
It became an independent country in 1965, and established a Presidential Republic in 1968.
"The Maldives were devastated by a tsunami on 26 December 2004, following the Indian Ocean earthquake. Only nine islands were reported to have escaped any flooding,[58][59] while fifty-seven islands faced serious damage to critical infrastructure, fourteen islands had to be totally evacuated, and six islands were destroyed. A further twenty-one resort islands were forced to close because of tsunami damage. The total damage was estimated at more than US$400 million, or some 62% of the GDP.[60] 102 Maldivians and 6 foreigners reportedly died in the tsunami.[57] The destructive impact of the waves on the low-lying islands was mitigated by the fact there was no continental shelf or land mass upon which the waves could gain height. The tallest waves were reported to be 14 feet (4.3 m) high.[61]"
Apparently sand theft is a huge issue (apparently this is a thing all over the world, since sand is pretty useful). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_theft
Also, garbage disposal is a huge issue with so little land mass. An island was created just for disposing of garbage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thilafushi . A great deal of garbage is produced from tourists.
The islands, as one might have guessed by them being made of coral sand, have a rich ecosystem of coral reefs, though of course those are struggling. Efforts are being made to protect and restore them.
Human rights (Shariah law): Human rights in the Maldives is a contentious issue. In its 2011 Freedom in the World report, Freedom House declared the Maldives "Partly Free", claiming a reform process which had made headway in 2009 and 2010 had stalled.[124] The United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor claims in their 2012 report on human rights practices in the country that the most significant problems are corruption, lack of religious freedom, abuse, and unequal treatment of women.[125]
Cowry shells used to be the money of this nation, which traded in coir for ropes and ambergris for perfume. Today the main economy stems from tourism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldives
A pretty good video about the city of Male (where most of the people live), on the main island of Male.
https://youtu.be/6H3ldwvjXbE?si=-YYomhx7U9RaXdSy
