Saturday, February 24
Feb. 24th, 2024 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Lovely weather.
I managed to be the "voice of reason" while my husband was flustered at things today. Usually that's him being reasonable.
We were supposed to be at the dealership by 1 pm to pick up the truck, and when I got up right away it felt like we were going to have to really push to get there by then. My husband was flustered, and I said, what's the big deal, why 1 pm? Apparently that's when "our" sales guy left for the day. I said "well, call him, why can't someone else hand us the keys, that's all we need from them".
Any you know what? That worked out fine.
Our plan was to drive the car to town, get the keys for the truck, and continue onwards to the larger city to do other things; BUT my husband was all flustered about what to do with the truck.
So, I said "Ask the dealership if we can just leave it parked in front. They don't have a fence or a gate anyhow, and they know we're coming for it. Believe it or not, that worked out just fine too.
When my husband called the registration office in town near the dealership, they weren't going to be open. He got flustered and said "that means we can't drive the truck home this weekend". I said "calm down, there must be a registration office in the city that's open, and we're going there anyhow".
Guess what, THAT worked out too! Imagine that!
Then we went to the fabric recycling place, which was interesting. Some "upcycled items" were for sale, but good lord, they wanted 80 dollars for a scarf made out of old sweaters. It was nice, but not THAT nice.
I could see in the back big bales of fabric that were likely going somewhere else, no idea where. I talked to a front desk person about the things they accept, and if they took things like old leather jackets and wool sweaters that were coming apart. They did.
They also had an adjoining thrift shop with wearable clothing, and bins of clothes that had been taken apart and were pieces you could buy by the pound. Great for crafters. They also had zippers and such take from old clothing, patterns, ribbon, etc.
So, this gives me an idea of what they can use.
I didn't buy anything today, but I looked. Nothing jumped out at me.
Traffic to a place to eat was maddening. Very slow due to some work being done on water mains or something right on the main arteries. It took us forever.
Then we went for supper, and I ended up ordering an enormous bowl of soup that was likely meant to be shared, but ate it anyway. I was very surprised that I didn't have to pee like a racehorse the rest of the day, and no idea why I didn't.
We went to a kind of grungy, basement dwelling video store that sells DVDs (and isn't really cheap, but has better movies than the thrift stores because it will buy them). We found a few that should be fun.
We drove back to the dealership, put on the new plates on the truck, and drove home.
We came home and watched "Death at a Funeral", which, if you haven't seen it, is hilarious!
Myanmar (formerly Burma) is another country in the Southeast Asian Peninsula. It's earliest cultures were Indo-Burma speaking people who lived in city-states.
Gradually became absorbed into the Pagan Empire in the 1000's. The other power in this region was the Khmer Empire. The region was mainly Hindu/Buddhist.
Repeated attacks crumbled the empire in 1287, leading to centuries of scattered people with no unified government or civilization.
A few states gradually formed some coherence (Ava, Shan, and Hathawaddy), but those also crumbled.
It went on like this for some time, war with Siam and China and internally.
Eventually Burma lost territory to the British in 1826, and most of what was left in 1852, and the rest was annexed by 1885. British Burma lasted until 1948.
During the second World War, Japan did invade, and were met by American troops in Burma. Some of the people of Burma fought with the Japanese, some fought with the Allies.
Between 1948 and 1962, things looked okay, with an elected government and hopes of peace.
Then between 1962 and 2011 there was a coup, the country was under military rule as a "one party" socialist nation, though within that time there were multi=party elections and some pro-democracy movements.
MORE civil unrest. It's kind of ongoing now. There have been attempts at establishing some kind of democracy, some kind of stable party system, and it keeps falling apart. The unrest is causing countries that were trying to invest/offer aid to pull out as "not good" leaders would only benefit from their money, and it's trying to create another kind of military to control the civil unrest and try to have some kind of stability to even begin to rebuild a real government (allegedly, though in reality it's likely just trying to retain control as a military government with a more or less Dictator in charge.
This is a country of gross abuses in terms of human rights, pretty much NO ONE is doing well here, there are child soldiers, instability, sex trafficking and human trafficking of all kinds. Genocide.
Oddly enough, it's economy is doing great! In large part from the manufacturing of opium and meth. They do have lots of rubies, but many companies refuse to buy them, knowing it only fuels the crappy government at the expense of the people who mine them, and that none of the money goes for good things.
I'm having trouble understanding how this is possible, but apparently they have a booming tourist trade.
The country is mainly Buddhist, and Christian and Muslim people are discriminated against.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar
A very good video about the modern political status of Myanmar:
https://youtu.be/Vv3oh_--FS8?si=lf_urAFRtpzOfnqL
Lovely weather.
I managed to be the "voice of reason" while my husband was flustered at things today. Usually that's him being reasonable.
We were supposed to be at the dealership by 1 pm to pick up the truck, and when I got up right away it felt like we were going to have to really push to get there by then. My husband was flustered, and I said, what's the big deal, why 1 pm? Apparently that's when "our" sales guy left for the day. I said "well, call him, why can't someone else hand us the keys, that's all we need from them".
Any you know what? That worked out fine.
Our plan was to drive the car to town, get the keys for the truck, and continue onwards to the larger city to do other things; BUT my husband was all flustered about what to do with the truck.
So, I said "Ask the dealership if we can just leave it parked in front. They don't have a fence or a gate anyhow, and they know we're coming for it. Believe it or not, that worked out just fine too.
When my husband called the registration office in town near the dealership, they weren't going to be open. He got flustered and said "that means we can't drive the truck home this weekend". I said "calm down, there must be a registration office in the city that's open, and we're going there anyhow".
Guess what, THAT worked out too! Imagine that!
Then we went to the fabric recycling place, which was interesting. Some "upcycled items" were for sale, but good lord, they wanted 80 dollars for a scarf made out of old sweaters. It was nice, but not THAT nice.
I could see in the back big bales of fabric that were likely going somewhere else, no idea where. I talked to a front desk person about the things they accept, and if they took things like old leather jackets and wool sweaters that were coming apart. They did.
They also had an adjoining thrift shop with wearable clothing, and bins of clothes that had been taken apart and were pieces you could buy by the pound. Great for crafters. They also had zippers and such take from old clothing, patterns, ribbon, etc.
So, this gives me an idea of what they can use.
I didn't buy anything today, but I looked. Nothing jumped out at me.
Traffic to a place to eat was maddening. Very slow due to some work being done on water mains or something right on the main arteries. It took us forever.
Then we went for supper, and I ended up ordering an enormous bowl of soup that was likely meant to be shared, but ate it anyway. I was very surprised that I didn't have to pee like a racehorse the rest of the day, and no idea why I didn't.
We went to a kind of grungy, basement dwelling video store that sells DVDs (and isn't really cheap, but has better movies than the thrift stores because it will buy them). We found a few that should be fun.
We drove back to the dealership, put on the new plates on the truck, and drove home.
We came home and watched "Death at a Funeral", which, if you haven't seen it, is hilarious!
Myanmar (formerly Burma) is another country in the Southeast Asian Peninsula. It's earliest cultures were Indo-Burma speaking people who lived in city-states.
Gradually became absorbed into the Pagan Empire in the 1000's. The other power in this region was the Khmer Empire. The region was mainly Hindu/Buddhist.
Repeated attacks crumbled the empire in 1287, leading to centuries of scattered people with no unified government or civilization.
A few states gradually formed some coherence (Ava, Shan, and Hathawaddy), but those also crumbled.
It went on like this for some time, war with Siam and China and internally.
Eventually Burma lost territory to the British in 1826, and most of what was left in 1852, and the rest was annexed by 1885. British Burma lasted until 1948.
During the second World War, Japan did invade, and were met by American troops in Burma. Some of the people of Burma fought with the Japanese, some fought with the Allies.
Between 1948 and 1962, things looked okay, with an elected government and hopes of peace.
Then between 1962 and 2011 there was a coup, the country was under military rule as a "one party" socialist nation, though within that time there were multi=party elections and some pro-democracy movements.
MORE civil unrest. It's kind of ongoing now. There have been attempts at establishing some kind of democracy, some kind of stable party system, and it keeps falling apart. The unrest is causing countries that were trying to invest/offer aid to pull out as "not good" leaders would only benefit from their money, and it's trying to create another kind of military to control the civil unrest and try to have some kind of stability to even begin to rebuild a real government (allegedly, though in reality it's likely just trying to retain control as a military government with a more or less Dictator in charge.
This is a country of gross abuses in terms of human rights, pretty much NO ONE is doing well here, there are child soldiers, instability, sex trafficking and human trafficking of all kinds. Genocide.
Oddly enough, it's economy is doing great! In large part from the manufacturing of opium and meth. They do have lots of rubies, but many companies refuse to buy them, knowing it only fuels the crappy government at the expense of the people who mine them, and that none of the money goes for good things.
I'm having trouble understanding how this is possible, but apparently they have a booming tourist trade.
The country is mainly Buddhist, and Christian and Muslim people are discriminated against.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar
A very good video about the modern political status of Myanmar:
https://youtu.be/Vv3oh_--FS8?si=lf_urAFRtpzOfnqL
no subject
Date: 2024-02-26 05:36 am (UTC)What made monsieur so jumpy?
no subject
Date: 2024-02-26 06:27 am (UTC)I have no idea why my sweetie was so unsettled by ordinary setbacks that just require some thought. He's usually more tenacious in problem solving than that.
It made me wonder what would have happened if I hadn't jumped in, would he have just shrugged and given up for the day? Did he sort of not want to go anywhere that day but had no way to express that feeling?
Like, why would the dealership NOT find a way to hold the keys for him, just because the one guy was leaving? Why would he NOT ask if it was okay to park the truck in front until later in the day?
It was weird.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-26 07:20 am (UTC)There used to be a hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant that made a wonderful soup like that. I would have that and nothing else, then slosh around for the rest of the evening.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-26 07:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-02-26 08:00 am (UTC)At least he was willing to do what I suggested and the day worked out better than he thought it would.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-26 09:28 pm (UTC)