Issue XVIII June 3rd 2003
Editorial.
Hi Folks,
We were getting worried there for a while, the summer we seemed to get at Easter disappeared to be replaced by non-stop rain! However, today that bright yellow globe appeared back in the sky and we have our fingers crossed that it will stay warm (and dry) for another while. Any colour I have, I can assure you, is rust, it's certainly not a suntan!
lil'chic has arrived back in the states after her Irish sojourn. She was very thankful to have fully utilised her brand new umbrella she bought especially for her trip, I think she was of the opinion that we arranged all the rain just in honour of her arrival! Of course being lil she didn't arrive without mishap, poor lil and bubba arrived knickerless! Yes!, the airline lost their luggage. However, that wasn't all, they managed to lose it on the way back again too. Now, that *is* service for you!!
I thought Maggs might have written an article to tell you all about her lil' invasion but I think she is still recuperating, you never know, we may find out all about it next month.
On the home front, the sprogs are healthy and well. My new microwave is still functioning all right, which is probably a minor miracle in itself. The only damage I've noted this month is the soap dish in the bathroom which had to be replaced. I am sure they are storing up something major, this can't last. I suppose they don't count me having to replace two beds that they have worn out.
I am distraught of course, I had a revelation that made me finally realise that my poor little baby sprog is fast growing up. I was standing beside him in the kitchen and looking at him I was about to send him upstairs to wash his face, when it finally dawned on me that his upper lip wasn't dirty it was his moustache growing! This has arrived hot on the heels of girls calling at my door for him <sigh> He's only thirteen! So, I now have three hairy monsters to live with.
I'm still studying, I start the second half of my A+ Certification course on Monday. Wish me luck! I will be doing the final exam about three weeks after that. I can't make up my mind whether to do the Network+ Course after that or to try a more involved Web design one. I used to be indecisive.... I'm not so sure now <S>
Well, that's all the gossip for this month folks, see you all soon!
Lynda
Any comments. articles, tips etc, please mail to LyndaAtCasual@Compuserve.com
Contents.
Editorial.........................................................................Lynda
Inlaws, Outlaws, Friends & Relatives.........................Taffy
A long time ago.............................................................Cookie
Mad cows and No Internet!.........................................Tracey
Lil'bits from Ma'am......................................................Maureen
Political Debate.............................................................Judge Bill
INLAWS, OUTLAWS, FRIENDS & RELATIVES.
With the dog days of summer approaching, and the kids out of school, trips
are being planned, and bags are being packed. It's holiday time! With our
gadabout society, most of us will have company at some point or another, so it's
time to throw the dirty underwear out of the living room and add another
cup of water to the beans!
I've already had company, and now that they are gone (no dirty underwear
remaining in the living room), it's my turn to lock the door behind me and "hit
the road." Yes, I'm driving rather than flying. I have a few stops to make along
the way between Denver and Michigan, including visiting two very
special Casual Chat members!
The first stop will be in Wichita, Kansas, where I'll meet HUBCAP--Cappy, as
most of us call her, or Hubbers as MICHAEL calls her--and her sweetie pie
husband, TATER, whom we hear such nice things about. No doubt we'll talk till
our chins fall off. In Wales, it's called "a good chinwag." Cappy is a
fascinating woman who has had an interesting life, which she claims isn't
anything special. I beg to differ. In fact, there's a family story that has
inspired me to write about it, which will be either a short story or a script.
More about that later. Meanwhile, I'll get a look at those famous (or infamous?)
belly dancing pictures of her, although she's already E-mailed them to some of
us.
Wow...what a knockout! Subtly sensual, and a lot of class.
After my 500 mile trek to Wichita, which will take about 5 hours <s>, I'll point
my car north and drive for 700 miles to the area near Indianapolis, Indiana,
where that fun Hoosier chick MIZ LIZZIE lives! She writes those charming
homespun articles here in Casual News, so I'll have to go into town with
her to see if there really is a "Liar's Bench," where the locals congregate to
spin yarns. If things get slow, we can always take some hooch and go sit in the
corn field and listen to the corn grow! If there's any hootin' and hollerin'
heard all the way down to the next neighbor's farm, it will be us telling jokes
and having an information exchange (not considered gossiping). Believe me, I can
expect anything when I get there. She assured me she will be the one to answer
the door since she's given the maid the week off. Hee hee. I'm looking forward
to seeing her daughter, CATHY's new house, as well as the farm and all the
animals.
Then on to Michigan for a family reunion and big birthday shindig for my mother.
That's about another 300 miles, or so, and that will take me about 2 hours. I'm
still uncertain as to my routing coming home, but there's a chance I will meet
someone else from Casual-- : - x (Not telling.) Yes, I've met several people
from here over the past year and a half, and overall, everyone has been exactly
what I expected. A great bunch, to say the least. STRANGELILBEBE--Bebe--visited
me here in Colorado last September, so we plan to hook up again fairly soon. By
the way, that wild redhead is getting married in a few months. Like so many of
us, her life story reads like a book--albeit it one
where truth can be stranger than fiction--so it's about time she has the life
she so richly deserves!
Hugs as I pull out of my driveway....verrrooooom,
Taffy
A LONG TIME AGO
A long time ago when I was a bitty girl of six my father died.
Back then most people still brought the bodies home for display and since we were very poor daddy came home. He was placed in the living room for display. My mother put a cot in there for me to watch over the body so no rats of mice got to the corpse. I guess closing the coffin lid was beyond her understanding. There I was trying to stay awake and watch my daddy's corpse, I had learned in church that the prayers of little children are ALWAYS answered so I got up and knelt down and prayed to God to restore life to my daddy!
Then I shook the coffin! I think I shook it a bit too much because the body fell out and on top of me! His limbs seemed to grasp me! Then I screamed Daddies Alive!!!! I don't recall any thing after that but I do know that was my first and last night watching daddy!
Oh well Win some, lose some !
Cookie
A WINTER WE’D LIKE TO FORGET, SPRING, WORKING WITH THE PUBLIC, SARS AND MAD COW AND NO INTERNET… LIFE IN TORONTO!!
Well, as most of you know, here in Toronto we endured one of the coldest winters on record!! January 9th the deep freeze set in, and didn
’t lift until sometime in February, and then only for a few days before the temperatures dropped again. It snowed and snowed and snowed, but thankfully our Mayor didn’t call in the Army this time to help us clean the mess up!! We somehow managed to clean it up ourselves.Now, being the first winter in my house, meant something new for me
…shovelling snow!! Somehow I survived it all, and couldn’t bother shovelling my half of the driveway at the bottom, heck I don’t own a car so who needs it cleared off?The beginning of April brought something rare. Freezing rain. It rained for two days, snowed, rained some more. It was interesting trying to navigate my way up the steps to get in my front door!! Due to the harsh winter we had, there was no salt to be found in any of the stores. I had to wait until it warmed up slightly before attempting to clear some of the ice off the steps.
Spring has brought plenty of rain to us this year. Unfortunately, it’s taken awhile for the temperatures to rise. We’re looking at temps nearing 70 this week, so I do hope this signals Spring finally!!
Now, as some of you may have heard, I did something really really stupid in April. I told the phone company where to go!! Well..they took me literally and disconnected BOTH my phone lines, which left me with no internet access for 3 weeks!! The withdrawal symptoms were terrible. Especially that first night!! I did call the phone company back and ask them to reconnect my 2nd line, which they reported they
’d be happy to do for $55.00. You can well imagine, I’d have none of that and I can’t repeat what I said to them!! I must thank Becca for letting the staff here know what happened, and Cookie for doing my game for me while I was gone. I can happily report that I have a home phone AND my internet is hooked up via cable, which is much faster than dial-up.
Work got very interesting one day when a young punk threatened to kill me one day when I was driving the bus. Needless to say, my bus was out of service, and I refused to return to the route. My employer was great, accommodated me with whatever work I wanted and I won’t be returning to that route any time soon. You never know how you will react to something like that until it happens. It’s a very scary experience, and one that I hope not to repeat any time soon.
Now, you’ve all heard about Toronto and our SARS epidemic. You can’t turn on a news program or read a paper without hearing about it. I think the worst thing is that folks have been so misinformed about this terrible disease. I work with the public daily and don’t have SARS. Unless you visit a hospital (which is pretty much impossible these days), you probably won’t become infected. Those infected have been our health care workers, who have been exposed in hospital settings. We thought we had it under control, but a new cluster has started. Unfortunately, a friend of mine’s father has SARS. The man was in the hospital where a new outbreak started. He had a double lung transplant in January, was in a re-hab hospital for therapy and his roommate passed it on to him. SARS has killed those that had weak immune systems to start with. Any healthy person who has contracted it, has recovered, although it is devastating to deal with.
My friend’s Dad is in critical condition at the moment, his Mom developed a fever on Saturday (one of the key factors of this disease), and is also in hospital, but they don’t believe she has SARS. My friend is in quarantine, showing no symptoms.
Now, not only do we deal with SARS...but apparently ONE cow in Alberta tested positive for mad cow disease and the world has gone into a panic about Canadian beef!! While many farms in Western Canada are affected, that’s only because they are tracing the origin of this cow and testing ALL cows for the disease. Please don’t tell me I can’t have steak!!
Well that’s about it from Toronto…it’s been an interesting beginning to 2003 to say the least.
Tracey
LITTLE BITS FROM MA'AM
I have been missing in action the last two publications. Tech
and I have been on the road with our house on wheels and sometimes the Internet
connections are not the best. We are using our cell phone for connecting and it
is very "slowwwwwww" Better than complete withdrawal. Eh?
Update on "DA BOSS" I talked to Trisha aka twista last night and she is doing
well after her knee surgery. She is going through physical therapy and I do
believe some of those folks have been called a name or two. <sweet smile trish>
I and the rest of the staff, wish you a speedy recovery and wish you all the
best in the world. "We" have some plans for you when you get mobile Trish!! <eg>
In April we were in Laughlin and Las Vegas Nevada. We were able to see several
shows and really enjoyed the trip. We found a few things that needed to be
addressed regarding the RV. There was a problem with the "levelling jacks" and
we would wake up in the morning and the RV was <ahem> not level. I don't think I
am going to mention the area of the RV that was out of balance, THAT is another
story in itself.
In May, Tech and I were busy with the preparations for the Jazz Jubilee. Tech
volunteered, well not by choice, <LOL> to assist my brother in the RV area of
the Jubilee. Seems they needed someone with "authority" to keep the lane for the
RV entrance clear of other vehicles and in the past, most of the folks would
just leave due to frustration and idiot people. I am happy to say, Tech
"prevailed" and just one vehicle got past his barricade and they did not stay
long <sweet smile> The activities at the "Beer Garden" where my site is located
was extremely busy. The last two years I have had to manage the day shift and
have almost given up my "Bar Wench" duties, <big sigh> I really enjoyed serving
drinks to the bands but I was needed to take a manager's shift. We had some
great bands and good times, however this is the first year I have had big
problems with bad manners and behavior and just dang rude. Times are changing I
guess, and hope it was just an "off" year.
Forum News.... Not much change regarding the forum. I think we run on
"auto-pilot". Tracey has changed her game format starting this month, so look
for changes. The Judge has a political debate/theme on Thursday evenings, so
look for that event. The Owl's Roost is growing in number and I have had an
opportunity to drop in a few times. Great bunch and a lot of laughs. Becca has
done a fantastic job with the research and presentation of "Are We There Yet"?
There have been some very interesting locations discussed. Gin, Welcome back to
"Remembered Times" we have missed you during your time away. Cooks, Tracey,
Renae, and Lynda have the rest of the week schedule in order. SCATTS is back
every other Friday with Juris and Dar. Please check the FHP and or Newsflash for
dates of those events.
Again and always, a "Big Thanks" to our fantastic staff. Without all of you,
Casual Chat would not be here.
Hugggs until next month !!!!!!!!!
~Ma'am~
POLITICAL DEBATE
Well, everyone we have made it through the first month with the political debate. As many of you know we moved from every other Saturday at 8:00pm (Eastern) to every Thursday at 8:00pm (Eastern).
So far it has been a great success. For the month of May we had
an average of 10.5 people come to the debates.
This month we have covered everything from "Gun Week" to "NY Week". I would like
to thank both Trisha, and Maureen for getting the Political Debate up and
running, but also our watch dog Cookie, whom I say "keeps the peace". I also
want to thank the many different people who come to the debates, and let others
know how they feel.
When I brought up the idea for a debate, the concern of
disrespect came up, and may I say no one has shown disrespect for others during
the debates or discussions. I continue to ask for topics for the debates.
If you have anything that interests you, and you feel it would be good for the
debate, please feel free to e-mail it to me at yank100@cs.com. I look forward to
the many times to come here at the casual chat forum, and once again I would
like to thank the many participants of Political Debate.
Yours for the forum,
Judge Bill~[Moderator]~
That's it for another month Folks! I hope you enjoyed this exciting issue! Be safe and keep well, until next month!
Come on Everyone! Get those pens busy for next month. Lets have a bumper edition! Mail all your contributions to me at LyndaAtCasual@Compuserve.com
We want all your contributions, don't be shy! This is a paper by the members for the members......that means YOU!
Please remember, this is a fun/interesting/informative addition to the many features on offer at Casual Chat, critique is welcome but nothing that attacks members, personalities or other fora will be.
Lynda [Editor]