What’s on your mind?

[kazmac]

Where there's a will there's usually some way, regulated pricing or no. I don't use a lot of electricity in summer (forced air in winter means the blower motor switches that up) and so I've actually had electricity bills in August where the array of individually minor items related to supply, delivery, surcharges and tax actually start making the base charge look disproportionately huge. I have no clue what some of those little fees are for... "in lieu of a desired and denied rate hike" is what I file it all under when I see those things rising.

Heh I noticed my Part D healthcare monthly hit went down by by a buck or something but the deductible went up by around 80 bucks and I don't even have to take any drugs yet, so that's sitting there waiting for me like a set of serial jacks in the box whenever I might end up with a prescription for eye drops or a seasonal allergy etc. So far I've been lucky the past couple years, but I remember the doc scrounging around for samples when I needed eye drops one year and they were going to total up to over a hundred bucks and me still with an untouched deductible in September.

The prescription prices and deductibles for Part D are freaking ridiculous.

Setting boundaries with my mom today.

Mom: Put both feet down about mom loaning the car to the uninsured mother-daughter (The insurance risk, plus that mom no longer has collision insurance etc.) Of course, mom hung up on me.

Then eldest sister agreed with my decision and explained everything to mom and was hung up on too.

What's skanky is that the daughter "friend" is harping about this to mom and mom is afraid she'll be landlocked now because we will not loan the car. Other people can drive you around mom.

Also learned that I need think proactively at work, I messed up bad on Tuesday because I did not know the protocol. Admitted my mistake and asked for help. Ultimately, I was removed from performing these type of requests which I completely understand, but Wednesday was awful.

This year has to get better...

It's Friday!

@Apple fanboy I hope your day went well.

And I hope everyone here is fine.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Banish them! Like me lol.

Went to work as we had to bring in a handyman to install new furniture at the office including a massive white board. Chucked a lot of stuff, damn but things can accumulate in two and a half years. Didn't help that I am fighting a cold and struggling on 3 hours of sleep. Hitting the sack soon after this post - no really!! At least can go in for only a half day tomorrow. The semester starts in two weeks and after an awful last semester hoping for a better group. Not that there weren't some outstanding students last term but it just takes a couple of rotten, entitled little .... well anyhow.

Be well my friends.

As a teacher, I used to be absolutely amazed at how strikingly different each group of students was from one another; for they each had a sort of collective identity, as well as their respective identities as individuals.

And the tone of that collective identity sometimes - but not always - depended on the character of a few key individuals, characters who were able to exert influence on their peers, or classmates, for good or ill.

Sometimes, too, if you had a critical mass of decent, engaged, intelligent students in a group, the influence of a few such characters was much more muted, or they lacked the space, or a sufficient number of willing disciples, or minions, to be able to influence matters to any extent.

But, yes, if you have a group, where there is a sufficient number of "rotten entitled little...", some of whom who also have charismatic personalities, it can be difficult for the others to gainsay them, and can make for a very unpleasant teaching (and learning) experience.

And these entitled ones have had excuses and exceptions made for them all of their lives, and have often coasted until then on the strength of privilege and position, confident that life will continue to look out for them.

Yes, I do remember this from my teaching days.

 

[Apple fanboy]

The prescription prices and deductibles for Part D are freaking ridiculous.

Setting boundaries with my mom today.

Mom: Put both feet down about mom loaning the car to the uninsured mother-daughter (The insurance risk, plus that mom no longer has collision insurance etc.) Of course, mom hung up on me.

Then eldest sister agreed with my decision and explained everything to mom and was hung up on too.

What's skanky is that the daughter "friend" is harping about this to mom and mom is afraid she'll be landlocked now because we will not loan the car. Other people can drive you around mom.

Also learned that I need think proactively at work, I messed up bad on Tuesday because I did not know the protocol. Admitted my mistake and asked for help. Ultimately, I was removed from performing these type of requests which I completely understand, but Wednesday was awful.

This year has to get better...

It's Friday!

@Apple fanboy I hope your day went well.

And I hope everyone here is fine.

It was a challenge is probably the best thing I can say about it. Still productive.
Hope things with you mum improve.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

The prescription prices and deductibles for Part D are freaking ridiculous.

Setting boundaries with my mom today.

Mom: Put both feet down about mom loaning the car to the uninsured mother-daughter (The insurance risk, plus that mom no longer has collision insurance etc.) Of course, mom hung up on me.

Then eldest sister agreed with my decision and explained everything to mom and was hung up on too.

What's skanky is that the daughter "friend" is harping about this to mom and mom is afraid she'll be landlocked now because we will not loan the car. Other people can drive you around mom.

Also learned that I need think proactively at work, I messed up bad on Tuesday because I did not know the protocol. Admitted my mistake and asked for help. Ultimately, I was removed from performing these type of requests which I completely understand, but Wednesday was awful.

This year has to get better...

It's Friday!

@Apple fanboy I hope your day went well.

And I hope everyone here is fine.

Not at all surprised at the "skanky" reaction of the "daughter friend" re the car; not recognising that this has been a very decent favour, and one that calls for genuine gratitude, but instead, behaving in this entitled manner and viewing being granted the car as an inalienable basic human right.

But very typical of them - and very disrespectful towards both yourself and your mother - and almost exactly the sort of behaviour I would have expected given their outrageous entitlement thus far - to attempt to upset your mother with this.

One way to put a stop to their nonsense would be to consider asking them whether they would be fine with paying extra insurance, and petrol (gas for Our Transatlantic Cousins) and whatever else by way of running costs that it costs - or takes - to keep that car on the road. That would put paid to this tosh pretty quickly.

Well done, setting boundaries. And don't accept whinging and whining from them either - the was what I meant by the risk of having people adapt their lives to the assumption that they will have unconditional and untrammelled access to the car, they come to think of this as a right, something that is now "theirs", rather than yours, generously given as an occasional favour.

 

[Clix Pix]

🗣 Everyone who drives n Maryland, D.C., and Virginia are freaking jerks.... like where are you guys going!!! 🤬

Why, don't you know that everyone who lives in DC, VA and MD is some sort of Very Important Person, someone who is always in a hurry to get to a Very Important Meeting or whatever.... /sarcasm

Actually, traffic around here is just getting worse and worse. We are plagued by the ongoing growth of the area and its population, by the unfortunate reality that DC attracts tourists, who get really confused driving around the city itself, but also in the suburbs, and by the fact that many families have two or three cars because our public transportation system still leaves much to be desired. People have to get to work, they have to take the kids to daycare and later pick them up at the end of the day, and some also drive their kids to school and pick them up afterward from there as well until the kid is old enough to have his or her own car.... Then there are those who are just trying to get from some point up North to some point down South and go trekking along on I-95, which can be a bit confusing for the unwary who aren't aware of changes in the traffic patterns.....

Frankly, I find it much easier driving around in Baltimore, where the signs are large and thoughtfully positioned overhead so that one can see a block or more ahead if this is the street one needs to turn on, and their system of one-way streets seems more efficient than what DC has to offer. There's still lots of congestion there, too, though, especially around the Inner Harbor area, but it's somehow more manageable.....

As for NY and NJ.......Oy, vey!!!!! Yeah, driving around that whole area is definitely a huge challenge, too!

 

[Clix Pix]

The prescription prices and deductibles for Part D are freaking ridiculous.

Setting boundaries with my mom today.

Mom: Put both feet down about mom loaning the car to the uninsured mother-daughter (The insurance risk, plus that mom no longer has collision insurance etc.) Of course, mom hung up on me.

Then eldest sister agreed with my decision and explained everything to mom and was hung up on too.

What's skanky is that the daughter "friend" is harping about this to mom and mom is afraid she'll be landlocked now because we will not loan the car. Other people can drive you around mom.

Also learned that I need think proactively at work, I messed up bad on Tuesday because I did not know the protocol. Admitted my mistake and asked for help. Ultimately, I was removed from performing these type of requests which I completely understand, but Wednesday was awful.

This year has to get better...

It's Friday!

@Apple fanboy I hope your day went well.

And I hope everyone here is fine.

Whoa, right there -- the mention of "uninsured" would put paid to lending my vehicle to anyone, regardless.... Uninsured in what ways? Auto insurance (presumably they don't have a car of their own, or they wouldn't be asking to borrow yours, so that makes sense), Life insurance? Health insurance? Actually, I suppose it is possible that they DO have a car of their own but it is pretty much always in use by one person at the time the other person would like to be able to go driving somewhere? At any rate, whatever kind(s) of insurance these people lack, you don't want to have to be involved in any sort of situation involving one of them and your mother's car..... That is just a disaster waiting to happen!

I really hope that you are somehow able to get it across to your mother that lending her car to anyone is risky in the first place and it sounds as though there are several risk factors in play here, so all the more reason to say "no." One additional factor is that your mother no longer has collision insurance on her vehicle. That's risky, too, and something over which she has control, unlike, if she allows it, dealing with situations/adverse events which might come up with these "friends" who want to drive her car whenever they want it....... As you mentioned, there are other people who can provide a ride somewhere when your mother might need it -- people who actually have their own car and insurance, too.

 

[kazmac]

Whoa, right there -- the mention of "uninsured" would put paid to lending my vehicle to anyone, regardless.... Uninsured in what ways? Auto insurance (presumably they don't have a car of their own, or they wouldn't be asking to borrow yours, so that makes sense), Life insurance? Health insurance? Actually, I suppose it is possible that they DO have a car of their own but it is pretty much always in use by one person at the time the other person would like to be able to go driving somewhere? At any rate, whatever kind(s) of insurance these people lack, you don't want to have to be involved in any sort of situation involving one of them and your mother's car..... That is just a disaster waiting to happen!

I really hope that you are somehow able to get it across to your mother that lending her car to anyone is risky in the first place and it sounds as though there are several risk factors in play here, so all the more reason to say "no." One additional factor is that your mother no longer has collision insurance on her vehicle. That's risky, too, and something over which she has control, unlike, if she allows it, dealing with situations/adverse events which might come up with these "friends" who want to drive her car whenever they want it....... As you mentioned, there are other people who can provide a ride somewhere when your mother might need it -- people who actually have their own car and insurance, too.

I am thinking auto insurance but it might be life and medical insurance too.

I did not ask, nor do I want to.

Thanks for the input. It's been a week I would rather forget on every level.

Happy I heard the local Blue Jays today, they are very active when it is warmer outside.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I am thinking auto insurance but it might be life and medical insurance too.

I did not ask, nor do I want to.

Thanks for the input. It's been a week I would rather forget on every level.

Happy I heard the local Blue Jays today, they are very active when it is warmer outside.

The very best of luck with it; I know those weeks very well, not least because of the sustained stress of being responsible for your mother - who is at the stage where she, herself, is difficult, which makes the challenge, and responsibility of caring for her even more difficult.

Actually, I remember the absolute stress, of the time, circa 2012-2014 when my mother used to roam at night - an activity, on occasion, that happened as frequently as a few times a week - and that means other stuff which crops up, and which you would normally easily enough handle, also adds a disproportionate amount of stress and strain to your everyday life.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Which colour temperature to go with for the kitchen spot lights.
D60
D40

The electrician has left us one to play with that has a switch to change it.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Which colour temperature to go with for the kitchen spot lights.
D60
D40

The electrician has left us one to play with that has a switch to change it.

What are the differences between them?

Are there differences in terms of the actual colour of the light itself, and the actual amount of light it gives?

 

[circatee]

Time to decide on the quality of hardwood floors for upstairs, and to remove the carpet.

Not sure why exactly, but, a tad bit nervous about the project...

 

[LizKat]

Which colour temperature to go with for the kitchen spot lights.
D60
D40

The electrician has left us one to play with that has a switch to change it.

I've discovered that I loathe harsh light in a kitchen... sometimes spots are more functional than decorative though, so it could depend on what your other lighting in the kitchen will be.

 

[D.T.]

Which colour temperature to go with for the kitchen spot lights.
D60
D40

The electrician has left us one to play with that has a switch to change it.

I'm not familiar (and can't find a reference) with those light specifications.

Usually it's measured in Degrees Kelvin, if so, what's the K for the D40 vs. the D60?

 

[Apple fanboy]

What are the differences between them?

Are there differences in terms of the actual colour of the light itself, and the actual amount of light it gives?

The colour of the light. Warm or blue.

Makes a big difference to how the room will feel in the end.
[automerge]1578772435[/automerge]

I've discovered that I loathe harsh light in a kitchen... sometimes spots are more functional than decorative though, so it could depend on what your other lighting in the kitchen will be.

Under cabinet lights and a feature light above the island.
[automerge]1578772505[/automerge]

I'm not familiar (and can't find a reference) with those light specifications.

Usually it's measured in Degrees Kelvin, if so, what's the K for the D40 vs. the D60?

Sorry, abbreviations. D4000k or D6000k. Yes measured in kelvin.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

The colour of the light. Warm or blue.
View attachment 888058
Makes a big difference to how the room will feel in the end.
[automerge]1578772435[/automerge]

Under cabinet lights and a feature light above the island.

Which does Mrs AFB feel more comfortable with?

I'm with complete agreement with @LizKat in that I, personally, also loathe (and that verb is not too strong) harsh light in a kitchen (or almost anywhere).

Something warm but mimicking some of the spectrum of natural daylight may work; around two decades ago, we got one of those 'daylight mimicking' lights for the kitchen - as I am pretty certain that my mother suffered from (as I do) some version of SAD, and it worked a treat as everyone seemed brighter in the kitchen.

I've discovered that I loathe harsh light in a kitchen... sometimes spots are more functional than decorative though, so it could depend on what your other lighting in the kitchen will be.

Agree, also, that appropriately placed spot lights - especially focussed on areas where cookery preparation is taking place, or anything equally functional - may well work better in a kitchen than harsh overhead lights.

However, top of my list of personal dislikes in lighting matters are those ghastly fluorescent (and flickering) lights; I can barely articulate how much I detest them, and, if in an office of my own, will invariably prefer to use task lamps, or desk lamps, rather than any form of fluorescent overhead lighting.

 

[Huntn]

I’ve verified that having a glass protector on my iPhone is worth it. I ended up with a nick in the glass protector after a drop. I don’t know what it hit on the way down, but I though it went straight to the floor.

The colour of the light. Warm or blue.
View attachment 888058
Makes a big difference to how the room will feel in the end.
[automerge]1578772435[/automerge]

Under cabinet lights and a feature light above the island.
[automerge]1578772505[/automerge]

Sorry, abbreviations. D4000k or D6000k. Yes measured in kelvin.

I’d lean for warmer, but actually I’d have to see what they actually look like in the room to pick.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Not that keen on warm light. Kind of yellow and turns everything cream. Thinking I might go for the ones you can change them on. That way we are safe if it doesn’t quite look right.

 

[S.B.G]

How to get ants out of cat pants.

 

[Huntn]

Not that keen on warm light. Kind of yellow and turns everything cream. Thinking I might go for the ones you can change them on. That way we are safe if it doesn’t quite look right.

There are degrees of warm. Bottom line is personal taste.

 

[D.T.]

Sorry, abbreviations. D4000k or D6000k. Yes measured in kelvin.

Holy smokes, I'd never go over 5K, and most of our chill areas are in the 3K range. In our main bathroom in the master bedroom, I mixed them, so there's be a relaxing, single warm light in the center, over the spa, or much whiter triple lights over the sinks / mirror and in the closets. So you can get bright details where you need it, or more mellow lighting as needed.

 

[kazmac]

When your mechanical pencil takes a mechanic to put said pencil back together after it falls apart when extracting it from the packaging... 🤔

 

[Jessica Lares]

I haven't seen a bookstore that crowded like I did today in many many years. Probably because it's January, but wow.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Not that keen on warm light. Kind of yellow and turns everything cream. Thinking I might go for the ones you can change them on. That way we are safe if it doesn’t quite look right.

What does Mrs AFB feel most comfortable with?

While it comes down to personal taste, (and I, personally, prefer warm light and love that cream colour indoors, I intensely dislike harsh lights), some rooms - and, more importantly, some areas of some rooms (desks, work surfaces) require different lighting to other rooms and spaces.

In other words, what works in the living room, or lounge, will not work in the kitchen.

But, this is something that you (and Mrs AFB) will have to live with, hence, it is your preferences that matter most when exploring this matter.

 

[Apple fanboy]

What does Mrs AFB feel most comfortable with?

While it comes down to personal taste, (and I, personally, prefer warm light and love that cream colour indoors, I intensely dislike harsh lights), some rooms - and, more importantly, some areas of some rooms (desks, work surfaces) require different lighting to other rooms and spaces.

In other words, what works in the living room, or lounge, will not work in the kitchen.

But, this is something that you (and Mrs AFB) will have to live with, hence, it is your preferences that matter most when exploring this matter.

She hates warm light. But also dislikes blue!

In other words we’ll get the ones with the switch.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

She hates warm light. But also dislikes blue!

In other words we’ll get the ones with the switch.

That makes sense.

Besides, as she is the person who will spend most time with whatever light system you choose, her preferences re light really matter.