Hello! Laundry is chugging along, I have sorted out some papers that I think coordinate nicely so more grist for my card mill. Haaaaa. Each time I go to the basement I try to bring something back up with me for the recycle bin, or a box to take to the 2nd floor for packing at some point. I think 🤔 am getting close to full to the brim for my trash can which will be collected tomorrow morning. Anther week before they pick up recycling and sometimes I wish that was a weekly service. I have mixed up another carafe of cold brew coffee which will be ready tomorrow morning. Tai Chi later today. I would like to make a start on the bill paying and paper sorting today and start on this idea I have stuck in my head for a quick card front. Likely it will not be as pleasing as I imagine it in my head.

Patsy, it is amazing how people find anything and everything to fight about. Good for you trying to bring some sanity to the process. Best wishes to you. Don’t let them suck the happiness and satisfaction out of your art. Hate squabbles.

Jackie, ah, a bank holiday. We have one coming up soon, Labor Day. The traditional end to summer. To me a selfishly happy day, my library will be open on Sunday afternoons once again and have some programs scheduled in the next few months that sound very interesting to me. I LOVE your gnome. Truly and absolutely LOVE him. Nuf said.

Best wishes everyone. I must get up and move again. I fear I sit too long when I settle in.

Hugs.

Lin

JACKIE, I LOVE it! I was enchanted by the trolls in Norway, and I just love your Kenny. I think I sort of figured you had one, and sure enough!!!
SANDY, I was not sure about the silver dress until you sent the photos. Now, I thnk with the lei, the ear or hair flower, and your lovely face, that's my preference for the wedding! And I agree, since shorts and long dresses are the general evening mode in most of Hawaii, you'll have use from both dresses! You truly have a lovely figure!!!
ANNE, no matter what color lipstick I apply, they all turn bluish, so now I'm into nude shades, since they are less noticeable working their way up into those furrows in my upper lip! I start to look like a clown in reds!
PATSY, do you think my DD's gallery eventually disappeared because she could not get herself to become pushy and disagreeable? Her empathy was always with the artist!
LIN, what are you into today? I know you never sit still!
JERI, what's doing with your leg? Hope you're feeling better.
I'm up over 2 pounds from the weekend. Oh well, I shan't worry as eventually it will come off!

News from the WH is just pure meanness!
Buzz
......................always believe something wonderful is about to happen!................................

Hello again, sunny mild day here. Went to Home Depot with John. They were featuring cactus and succulents as the plants of the month. Interesting but not my cup of tea.

I decided not to volunteer in the reading program at the school. I feel like a major jerk, but I want to do something else this fall and winter. It is fun and the kids are so sweet and very cute but I have an urge to be elsewhere. Maybe at the historical society or the public broadcasting station here. I need to do things like that just to be around interesting people. I still participate in !eague of Women Voters, maybe that is enough.

Still viewing various tributes to McCain. The more I see, the more I feel the loss. What a magnificent human being.

Sandy: your dress will be beautiful. It will be a very happy event. Great choice and as usual, you were wise to think these things out.

Labor day next week? Goodbye summer, come back next year tourists,
Anne: is your mums blooming?

Patsy

Just letting you all know that my aged iPad appears to be on the blink again. So far so good here, but I cannot use the email anymore or the mail. However, I'll have another go at fixing later on today. Wasted a lot of time rebooting etc etc so far. So if I disappear again you will realize it's this infernal machine and not you, my MFP pals.
We have a heat warning in effect. Today is supposedly the hottest day of the year this afternoon. Apparently cool to the west, but here, hot air moving up from the South. I now know for sure I could never live in say Florida and further south. To add to the humid heat I've been eaten alive each time Jill and I put our noses out.
Enough of self pity. My old chrysanthemums are in full bloom PATSY, but my rescued one has masses of foliage but so far no buds, I live in hope and every day I peer at it!
Anne.

Help, everything is going bonkers. If an earlier message appears ignore because the one above LIN has only just appeared after posting much earlier!
General consensus from Anne and sons, the iPad is ready to be chucked out!
Let's see if this posts. Sorry to be such a pain in the butt,
Annie.

Just letting you know that I've got an email stating my accounts been locked for security reasons and to protect me and others. Back after Michael or Mark have looked into this for me. Grrrrrrrrrrr
Take care of yourselves,
Anne.

Called my bank and they advise me it's probably a scam. Don't press anything! Change password etc.
I've had problems ever since MFP had their problems! However I will still disappear until the lads have had a look.
Anne

A busy day and suddenly time to cook my evening meal and settle. Grocery shopping, dog walking and a pedicure in the mix amongst other things and tomorrow I've a hair appointment just as I'm liking the way it's sitting.... typical! The air is cooler and I'm sneezing for England so again feel Autumn is just round the corner even though we are promised more heat in the next week or so.

Anne ~ That sounds very much like either a scam or your virus protection kicking in for some reason but best to wait for the boys to check. The pedicurist and I had a long chat about modern technology and the adverse effects it's having on us all. I don't think we ever heard the word stress on a daily basis when we were younger but today it's the norm.

Patsy, Don't worry, I do have my moments with George's barking even though I've been told shouting at him to be quiet just has him thinking I'm joining in so he does it all the more! We all have our limits!! Our Costa Coffee shops give away bags of used ground coffee for customers to put under shrubs in the garden and I do put mine in the wormery to be churned up into compost so it could be John is in fact keeping your indoor plants alive if he is sneaking in the occasional drops!

Lin, Not sure but I think my Hydrangea is a lace cap variety and certainly does fill a gap! My dad also loved to grow them in his garden and I remember taking him a local blue variety that was that colour because of the acidic soil but within a month of it taking in the London air it turned pink.... pollution I'm guessing!

Sandy, did you win the big one finally? Think of all the dresses you could buy!

Well, my last big sneeze has given me a sore throat and Brady the monster cat has been put out once because he was doing his best to tear the wallpaper right next to me because I didn't follow him into the kitchen to fill his food bowl but is now back in through the catflap so I'd better go see what he's up to.

Greetings to Buzz and Jeri.
Jackie

Oooooooh lovely flowers, Anne and Jackie! You are nurturing gardeners, I can see that! It is overcast and cool here. I do think fall is here. It might get warm again for a few days but the season is changing.

Our town has rapidly been changing gears. We used to be a small town whose economy was based on fisheries and logging. This has completely changed now. We are a mid-sized town whose economy is based on tourism and now a big data collection service. We now have a Walmart. Lots of brew pubs and a specialized boutique brewery. Our downtown is full of empty storefronts and the viable businesses have deserted the downtown area for the big malls near the Walmart etc. I do miss the old Astoria of only 10 years ago.

It is hard to keep from worrying about the scams that appear on our iPad etc. it takes me awhile to reason things out. Just to be clear...this is how our elections were scamed during last presidential election. It must be pretty easy. We all need to keep a weary eye on all email and notices of strange activity. So glad you were cautious, Anne.

Fog is settling in now. I hear the fog horns on the river.
Patsy

Home from a pleasant walk in the woods with the noisy gang and now enjoying my morning coffee hit before going out again for a hair appointment. On the way home from the woods as I drove on a narrow section of road a car came straight at me off a wider passing area but luckily it was only our wing mirrors that knocked as she tried to squeeze past. I leaned out of the window to straighten mine in time to see the young woman from the other car get out letting a dog run free then put 2 fingers up at me so I got out of my car too and called out that if she had paused at the wider section it wouldn't have happened...... apparently I'm a stupid old cow that should mind my own business which made me laugh and despair at the same time. Hey ho, it's becoming a disfunctional world to my mind.

Anne, that's a beautiful hydrangea of yours and the exact colour my dad used to grow in his London garden. You're right, nails or ericaceous compost do the trick if you want a blue one. I'm sure your boys will ensure everything is hunky dory in your home before they go away and Jilly is small enough to cope with just garden exercise if necessary so stock up your fridge/freezer and I expect the time will fly by.

Sandy, I see we posted around the same time last night so missed yours. No win.... never mind, it's saving itself for a huge amount and hopefully for you!

Patsy, your town is going through similar changes to mine as our high street, such as it is, rapidly disappears apart from a few charity shops and estate agents (Realty). Banks are closing their branches telling us we all bank online which of course means the majority of older generation, including me, has no access other than cash from a hole in the wall because actually we don't trust online banking. Then our town planners approve every kind of out of town big store that kills off the smaller more personal ones because, we are told, it means more employment for the area but my experience is staff have to multi skill and are expected to be in at least 2 places at once..... result, angry and frustrated customers who can't get served which probably then spills out on to our roads!! I am just so glad the majority of my life has been during a relatively peaceful time and amongst my generally considerate and polite generation.

Buzz, don't give up on us, so long as we know you are ok. Sorry to read you are dealing with changes and hope it's not impacting on your life too much. I'll look forward to a post that isn't disappearing or bouncing!!

Must get on or I'll be late for my hair appointment. Hi Lin and Jeri and anyone else checking in.

Love you all.
Jackie

Good morning. I had a lovely day with all my morning and afternoon Tai Chi classes. Not as much fun trying to obtain my frozen organic vegetables on discount. I had to go to three locations of that grocery store to finally locate them. Clerk said the warehouse was likely out of stock on that item. So a bit of a waste of time but I did ultimately get my stock which should last a while.

Bonus! My Tai Chi instructor has room on her calendar today for me! Wahoo! A lesson this afternoon. Very much looking forward to it. Library ladies this morning. At some point I need a trip to the post office and the credit union. I actually go to the bank/credit union every few weeks to deposit a check or to get cash. I have given up using ATMs and debit cards in general.

A department store chain, Younkers, closed its doors late yesterday afternoon. It had been purchased by BonTon some time ago and they filed for bankruptcy of course. We had hoped some other company might rescue Younkers since we are running out of department stores, but no, a liquidator just finished selling everything. Three huge spaces are now empty in three of our malls. All are two-level anchor spaces. No idea what will happen next. We have huge shuttered ex-K-Mart spaces around town and now the only Sears store that I visit (because Land’s End has a spot there) is also going out of business. That will be two anchor retailers lost in one mall within a few months.

We will have to shop online soon as there will be no alternatives.

Anne, I hope someone arrives to mow your lawn today. And I trust it will not need trimming while your boys are out of town. Hello little watch dog Jilly. Love your plant by the way. I bought a little plant yesterday while flying through all the grocery store. I am told to totally ignore it and it will be fine.

I tried to add the photo twice and it failed so I will try later.

Buzz, sorry you lost your post but glad you stopped by.

Sandy, I like to plan ahead too. Many friends like to fly by the seat of their pants and do things last minute. That makes me crazy. Sorry about the Bingo jackpot. I am never lucky with those types of things. Best wishes for your next try.

Patsy, so sad to hear of the changes in your town. I live in a suburb of our capital city so there was never much of a downtown here. We have a historic Main Street and I love all the little shops. Unfortunately, that area is also declining. More than the normal turnover of mom/pop shops Empty spaces and now two bead/jewelry stores are quitting. One just shut the doors, the other is doing a going out of business sale. Also the paper crafting store, which was saved from extinction not long ago when someone bought the store and revived it is now also closing down. The owner has had mammoth personal problems and tragedies in the last year and said she cannot go on. Sad all the way round.

Jackie, my goodness, what a horribly rude person. No sense whatsoever. I can see how tempers seem to be at the boiling point at a drop of the hat these days. I am glad she didn’t attack you! Hugs for George. And I agree, isn’t that always what happens, time for a haircut just when you have some good hair days but if you don’t have the cut, it will not behave at all.

Jeri, hello! I hope you are receiving treatments now and are feeling better.

I must run away now.

Hugs.

Lin

Posted from my phone. New plant buddy.

I log on, thunder starts roaring! But I'm smiling ear to ear as I recognize a huge musical talent while watching amazing Max play his one man band!!! Thank you SANDY!
JACKIE, the rudeness of that 2 legged wretch on the road does not surprise me one bit! She must be getting lessons from my Peculiar President's tweets!
ANNE, since 82 is truly NOT 32, don't mess around! Lawn mowing wet lawns should be verboten!
LIN, so sorry about your papehr shop closing! Seems it's a whole new world we will have to get used to!
We saw Book Club, tonight, in our lovely new auditorium! It seemed amusing, but walking in I developed a miserable cramp in my left leg, leaving me crippled for nigh onto 20 minutes!
I crawled over to a chair, sat down, stood up, sat down again, and promptly fell asleep! I did not recognize Candice Bergen, who seems to have matured less gracefully than the others, but I may watch again Sunday afternoon, when it will be repeated.
Volley ball is difficult when players don't show up, and I don't feel prepared for an "Olympic" match! WOW! thunderstorm right on top of me, here! Night!...
Buzz