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Post by Phil Maurice on Dec 24, 2017 3:51:32 GMT -5
Thanks for all the kind wishes and happy Christmas Eve from the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria. I am typing this missive from the tastefully decorated lobby of the Hotel Stefanie, Vienna's oldest hotel. Our fourth day is a much needed day of leisure. At around 3pm today, most of the city's shops will close for three days for the holiday. Yesterday, we visited the city of Budapest, beginning our exploration at the famous Heroes' Square, with statuary depicting the seven tribal leaders who founded Hungary in 896 CE. The monument was constructed in 1896 to celebrate the country's 1,000th anniversary! Only stock images for now, I am afraid. We saw many breathtaking examples of architecture in Romanesque, Baroque and Neo Gothic styles. Fisherman's Bastion on the hilly, or Buda, side offered spectacular panoramic views of the city centre and the famous Danube River. The patina-ed fellow at the centre is King Stephen I, who converted the Hungarians to Christianity around 1000 CE. Following a break for lunch, we walked to the Christmas Market in the city centre where throngs of visitors enjoyed unique Hungarian crafts, art, food and more. As darkness fell around 4pm, the city was brilliantly illuminated with thousands upon thousands of Christmas lights creating a marvelously festive atmosphere. Three hours by bus brought us back to Vienna for a light meal and cocktails at one of the many historic cafes that dot the city. Our next engagement will be tomorrow night, Christmas Night, when we will dine at Schonnbrunn Palace, the summer home of the Hapsburgs, with 1500 rooms. After dinner, we will enjoy a concert at the palace. It promises to be a magical evening.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 24, 2017 11:36:48 GMT -5
I hate that. It's annoying when I think of how great this country is in so many ways, and yet, we don't begin to give mental health the attention, time, and resources it deserves. Stigma is a big issue for a lot of people. Even when they have access, people don't want to get treatment because they're scared of what other people will think if they find out. I find this is pretty much a function of middle-classed and working-class people who are afraid that their work-mates or family will find out that they, gasp, are in therapy. For people with serious mental illness' it's not about stigma. It's either that their illness makes them believe that they don't have a problem (it's normal to them) or, and this is far more often, they can't afford or don't have access to treatment. This frequently leads to self-medication with illegal drugs (they're cheaper and easier to get than prescription medication).
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 24, 2017 13:59:53 GMT -5
A nice thing about living in Canada: when the freezer breaks on Christmas eve, you don’t even have to change your plans... You just put all the frozen goods in a cardboard box on the balcony, where it’s minus five degrees.
I summon the eco-friendly freezer!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2017 14:22:15 GMT -5
A nice thing about living in Canada: when the freezer breaks on Christmas eve, you don’t even have to change your plans... You just put all the frozen goods in a cardboard box on the balcony, where it’s minus five degrees. I summon the eco-friendly freezer! been there done that, not on Christmas Eve, but in winter in Maine. -M
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Post by hondobrode on Dec 24, 2017 15:52:37 GMT -5
I'm living that in Iowa, though so far it hasn't been as cold as it used to be.
When I sold frozen food door to door I encouraged customers to utilize their frozen porches for overflow.
Buy more, buy now
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Dec 25, 2017 11:55:43 GMT -5
So, the other night after work I stopped to pick up some beer; nothing fancy, just some Busch domestic swill
As I was walking to the register I see Fritos.
I love Fritos.
Of course there's a new twist on the classic, being Jalapeno Fritos.
Well this I can't ignore.
Sale - 2 for $ 5
These are added to the beer, and, I think I'll pick up some more V-8 with black pepper, and get some Clamato as well.
My late night dinner consisted of
"tomato beer" Busch with Black Pepper V-8 and Jalapeno Fritos.
I smiled gladly as I watched the news in front of my fire.
Good times.
Highly recommended
Gotta love the simple little pleasures
My father in law introduced me to "red beer". I like beer and I like V8 but I like them separate. That's the Yankee in me apparently. Those Fritos sound great. I'll be looking for them at the store next time I go.
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Post by Mormel on Dec 25, 2017 13:04:05 GMT -5
I've been watching episodes of Star Trek TOS on Netflix with my mom and having a blast with them. I had never seen that many episodes of TOS in the past, and it's really refreshing to see these kind of 'mysterious phenomenon of the week' stories, as opposed to the continuity-heavy space politicks eps of each successive new series right up to Discovery. It's just so much fun.
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 27, 2017 14:40:43 GMT -5
I've been watching episodes of Star Trek TOS on Netflix with my mom and having a blast with them. I had never seen that many episodes of TOS in the past, and it's really refreshing to see these kind of 'mysterious phenomenon of the week' stories, as opposed to the continuity-heavy space politicks eps of each successive new series right up to Discovery. It's just so much fun. I feel that way when I read Bronze Age Superman books. They are primarily done in one. Love it.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 28, 2017 8:38:13 GMT -5
My faith in humanity, which is usually running low, got a much-needed shot of rejuvenation yesterday.
Late afternoon yesterday, as I was getting ready to make dinner, our doorbell rang. My wife went and got it, and it was one of our neighbors from a nearby street, one we've seen around but have never actually met. She seemed very upset and when my wife asked what was wrong, she started apologizing profusely, as she had been turning around in another neighbor's driveway and had accidentally backed into our mailbox, breaking the post (which was just plastic and probably extremely brittle in the single-digit temps we had yesterday) in half and scattering our mailbox and newspaper box all over the sidewalk. After a few minutes of my wife trying to calm her down (and it was difficult, as this woman is Hispanic and the language barrier, while not impassable, was not the easiest to overcome), the woman went out to the sidewalk, gathered up our broken items, and put them in a small area of our yard near our retaining wall.
Later that evening, our doorbell rang again, and it was the same woman, this time accompanied by her husband. They had gone to Lowe's or Home Depot and bought all of the items needed to replace the post and put the boxes back up, and they just wanted to know if it would be OK if they waited until morning (today) to come back and fix it, while again apologizing repeatedly for the accident. My wife of course told them it was OK (it was pitch-black outside and the temp was hovering around 5 at that point), so it is likely I will have a new mailbox post up today.
This woman could have easily driven off, as it was dark enough at the time of the accident and no one was outside to even see what she had done, or she could have simply told us about it and left us to deal with the issue, as we don't even know what house she lives in, just that she lives nearby, but she didn't. She owned up to her actions and set about making it right with us, and I am really grateful for that. We've had other neighbors have their mailboxes taken out by drivers and never know who did it, but in this case, we happened to get hit by someone with a conscience and manners.
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Post by Pharozonk on Dec 28, 2017 21:14:37 GMT -5
Checking in from India!
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 29, 2017 9:07:40 GMT -5
Checking in from India! How is it so far ?
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Post by hondobrode on Dec 29, 2017 9:40:39 GMT -5
Yeah tell us
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2017 10:07:57 GMT -5
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Post by Pharozonk on Dec 29, 2017 11:24:18 GMT -5
Checking in from India! How is it so far ? Pretty decent so far. It's more of a "visit the relatives" trip than an actual vacation so we stayed at my cousin's house in Bangalore for a bit. Grabbed dinner and some drinks at a nice restaurant with my parents so a decent start to my time here.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2017 0:09:15 GMT -5
We're getting the first biggish snow of the year, and man are the roads nasty. I could feel the car sliding the entire trip home from work. White knuckle driving at its best. The last leg I was behind a plow/sand truck so it wasn't so bad, but I still averaged only 20-25 mph the entire way home. The township roads out by work were the worst, hilly, covered in snow and slanted for drainage with nice big 10-15 foot deep gullies/ditches on each side of the road, so you constantly feel like you are sliding off towards the side of the road with that looming drop. My tally of cars that had slid off the road that I saw on the way home was 4, plus some accident down the road from work in the other direction as I was leaving that has 3-4 cruisers and 2 ambulances responding to it, so it had to be bad. I wouldn't have been out in this stuff if I didn't have to work, and it was just starting as I was driving in this afternoon. I don't mind this weather as long as I don't have to be out driving in it, but man I hate driving in this stuff.
-M
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