MrsDoyle

One Thing After Another.

Written by LG Lazarus, lol.

Look for volunteer opportunities. In my town I found a litter-picking group that met once a week. Then through members of that group I joined another one that maintains flower beds and planters around the town. Then joined an effort to rehabilitate an environment project on a nearby farm, and ended up in the beekeeping team. Another group I was in for a few years organises gentle walks for elderly folks. I learned a huge amount from all these things, and none of it cost me anything but time.

Stage one: Effortful noise when rising from a low chair/sofa

Stage two: Inability to rise from a low chair/sofa. Beanbag? Nooooo….

My own turning point was finding myself unable to get out of the bath by just standing up. It was comic but also terrifying. I eventually worked out I could lever myself up with my arms. Phew.

Thunderpants. Made for thunderbums. https://www.thunderpants.co.nz/

https://www.thunderpants.co.nz/ Available in UK and US!

The slogan for the “full-back” knickers I wear is “They won’t go up your bum.” And they don’t! (Insanely comfy, jaunty colours, sturdy. Expensive but worth it.)

There’s no headphone jack… but I just Bluetooth audio to my hearing aids, so it’s not a problem.

My phone has two SIM slots (Oppo Find X3).

TOO LATE.

The story had a bit of a happy ending - I paired the yarn and needles with a “learn to knit” book, and donated it to a raffle a club I belong to was holding. The winner of the kit was thrilled!

Yeah. I knitted gorgeous socks and scarves in hand-dyed merino for some good friends. Come Christmas they obviously thought, oh MrsDoyle likes knitting, let’s get her something knitting related! A selection of the cheapest, nastiest acrylic in hideous colours and some needles. Oooooh. Thank you so much.

Oh yes. Yes. I went to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival a few years back. I live nearby, but met people there who’d come from all over - Europe, Japan, the US. All three days sold out. The yarns were so beautiful! And oh so expensive. But you were there in person, fan-girling with you favourite dyers and pattern designers! Spend spend spend. The nearest cash machine ran dry. Such an expensive hobby. But I can’t stop.

UK as well, fascists have been spouting bullshit here for decades.

I had an ex boyfriend I’d stayed in touch with phone me to say he was now a Christian and part of his new-found faith was contacting people he’d treated badly in the past and apologising. So, he realised now that he had not been a good friend, and he was very sorry for any hurt he’d caused me. I accepted the apology and we chatted a bit.

A few weeks later he called again, this time to ask me to sign an affidavit affirming that he was a good person and had been a good friend to me. This was to support his effort to gain custody of a baby, who may or may not have been his, from his most recent ex, along with her two sons, who definitely weren’t. I said absolutely NOT and told him why. He hung up, and I haven’t heard from him since. Such a great friend, lol.

Never mind computers (my first one, in I think 1985, had two floppy drives and an amber screen, very fancy), it’s phones that blow my mind. I grew up with a heavy black bakelite dial phone that lived on a special bench in the hall, and now I do video calls with my family on the other side of the world from wherever I happen to be. Toll calls used to be a huge deal, you had to call the operator, we didn’t even have direct dialling. I watch TV on my phone, not even Star Trek had that!

Some of the churches where I live have a big banner outside that says, “Try praying”. It strikes me as comically desperate. Imagine a car dealership with a “Try driving” banner, a restaurant with “Try eating”.

I was searching for a fix for some MS bullshit and clicked on a link that had a good answer… and lo and behold, Reddit. “Came for the cats, stayed for the empathy.” Yes, they still have that on the banner. Lol!!

I deleted my account during the “strike”, and this was my first time back. I couldn’t upvote the poster, and for a second that made me sad.

My father, a union organiser: “You can love the company all you like, but the company will never love you back.”

Stood me in good stead down the years.

I feel like I must be the only person in the world still still using Piratebay! I switch between that and Kickass Torrents and have done for years. They’ve been through a variety of guises but seem to have settled down now. I use Tixati to leech and seed, never used a VPN and never had any trouble from my ISPs. It’s been interesting reading the comments though, might look at some of the suggestions.