To be honest, I'm not up on the very latest in Lasik surgery, but I do know there have been advancements in eligibility too. I wasn't eligible 25 years ago when I last checked, but today might be different, not that I intend to find out.
Fine Motor Skills....
- Thread starter wil
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1885 hitchikin through the Yukon Territory coming back from Alaska.... I go into the bank....there is one 'adding machine' that old beast with the long rows of numbers you input the entire column at once and pulled the lever for the mechanical links to add it all up...internally almost exactly like an abacus. I got my solar calculator out of my pocket and told them how much my total was.... (my teller was fourth in line for the machine...I wasn't waiting)
A Cup Of Tea
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You're really old...
uh...still no edit button on my screen... 1985.... took me a hundred years to hitch...it was slow...glad my abacus didn't run out of batteries...
HaHa! ACOT, that's cruel ...
I went to my bank to transfer some money from my account to my daughter's account. "Have you done it before?" the teller asked. "Yes." "Well it doesn't appear as if you have here." "Oh, believe me, I have." I replied. But apparently not. 'The computer says no' (A line from a comedy sketch) and lo, I've never transferred money into my daughter's account before ... so I have to go through the whole id procedure and answer the security questions. "Can you remember your last transaction?" "Er, maybe..." "Can you remember the cost of your Direct Debits?" No! I set up the debit so I wouldn't have to remember to pay the feckin' thing! "When was the last time I wrote a cheque?" "When we used quills," I quipped, thinking 'When the person behind the counter had a higher IQ than the ambient room temperature.' Look at the details! She lives at the same address! Same surname! Same home phone! (And see that mobile? I pay that contract, too! By Direct feckin' Debit, so look that up and tell me I've never paid my daughter's bills!)
Roll back the clock and I remember working in the UK when we had power cuts due to industrial action. You're in the grocery store, and the man behind the counter is totalling your bill with a pencil on the back of a scrap of paper. The lights go out. "Bugger," he says, flicks on a torch and we complete the transaction. Pulls out the drawer and gives me my change...
Roll on the clock and I'm in the supermarket and we have a power cut due to the fact we haven't made provision thirty years ago to replace our electricity supply, so we have an energy crisis. We've shut down our mining industry so we can't even fire up and old coal-burning power stations. They're museum pieces anyway. The one's that aren't luxury apartment blocks are actual museums. The conveyor belt stops, the barcode reader stops beeping, and the teller looks up blankly. The manager flicks on the PA to make an announcement, but of course we can't hear him, cos that's down too. Now I'm quite prepared to believe the teller is capable of grabbing a scrap of paper (not sure from where) and totalling my bill by head and hand. But so what? The card reader's down and even if I've got enough cash to cover the bill (unlikely) the till won't open. I've been here for nearly an hour. A lot of people have. Some of them get annoyed. The manager is reduced to shouting from the back of the store. People shout back. The aircon's down and the fridges have turned off. Temperature's rising (and fever is high, according to J Lennon's 'Cold Turkey'). There's people stuck in the lift (elevator). People queueing down the road to get into the car park are stuck cos the barrier's inoperative (we have a barrier to stop muppets taking a shortcut out through the one-way entrance) but of course they don't know there's a power cut and the other drivers who can't proceed because the queue is blocking the junction are just as perplexed and getting impatient...
So, being a good-natured sort (I am really, you know) I abandon my shopping and cut across the road to the old greengrocer's that became a charity shop that became a coffee shop, for a shot of ... ah, gimme a break!
I'm that old too ... I can remember when George used to come down our street with his greengrocer's van and serve you off the tailboard almost at your door! Fruit and veg – I believe you chaps call it 'pro-duce' or somesuch – weighed on mechanical scales, with weights, and George totting it all up in his head!
That's progress. Of course, on the upside, I can buy out-of-season qumquat ("Come-what?" George would have asked), or a bunch of flowers, or something else that's been shipped half way round the world and has a carbon footprint to match Godzilla, grown on slave farms in Third World Countries, and which required a prodigious amount of aviation gas or ship's diesel fuel which impacts on global demand which is why speculators began buying up oil reserves which is why the price of a barrel went up which is why we've got an energy crisis which is why THE FECKIN' LIGHTS HAVE GONE OUT!
So it goes ...
I went to my bank to transfer some money from my account to my daughter's account. "Have you done it before?" the teller asked. "Yes." "Well it doesn't appear as if you have here." "Oh, believe me, I have." I replied. But apparently not. 'The computer says no' (A line from a comedy sketch) and lo, I've never transferred money into my daughter's account before ... so I have to go through the whole id procedure and answer the security questions. "Can you remember your last transaction?" "Er, maybe..." "Can you remember the cost of your Direct Debits?" No! I set up the debit so I wouldn't have to remember to pay the feckin' thing! "When was the last time I wrote a cheque?" "When we used quills," I quipped, thinking 'When the person behind the counter had a higher IQ than the ambient room temperature.' Look at the details! She lives at the same address! Same surname! Same home phone! (And see that mobile? I pay that contract, too! By Direct feckin' Debit, so look that up and tell me I've never paid my daughter's bills!)
Roll back the clock and I remember working in the UK when we had power cuts due to industrial action. You're in the grocery store, and the man behind the counter is totalling your bill with a pencil on the back of a scrap of paper. The lights go out. "Bugger," he says, flicks on a torch and we complete the transaction. Pulls out the drawer and gives me my change...
Roll on the clock and I'm in the supermarket and we have a power cut due to the fact we haven't made provision thirty years ago to replace our electricity supply, so we have an energy crisis. We've shut down our mining industry so we can't even fire up and old coal-burning power stations. They're museum pieces anyway. The one's that aren't luxury apartment blocks are actual museums. The conveyor belt stops, the barcode reader stops beeping, and the teller looks up blankly. The manager flicks on the PA to make an announcement, but of course we can't hear him, cos that's down too. Now I'm quite prepared to believe the teller is capable of grabbing a scrap of paper (not sure from where) and totalling my bill by head and hand. But so what? The card reader's down and even if I've got enough cash to cover the bill (unlikely) the till won't open. I've been here for nearly an hour. A lot of people have. Some of them get annoyed. The manager is reduced to shouting from the back of the store. People shout back. The aircon's down and the fridges have turned off. Temperature's rising (and fever is high, according to J Lennon's 'Cold Turkey'). There's people stuck in the lift (elevator). People queueing down the road to get into the car park are stuck cos the barrier's inoperative (we have a barrier to stop muppets taking a shortcut out through the one-way entrance) but of course they don't know there's a power cut and the other drivers who can't proceed because the queue is blocking the junction are just as perplexed and getting impatient...
So, being a good-natured sort (I am really, you know) I abandon my shopping and cut across the road to the old greengrocer's that became a charity shop that became a coffee shop, for a shot of ... ah, gimme a break!
I'm that old too ... I can remember when George used to come down our street with his greengrocer's van and serve you off the tailboard almost at your door! Fruit and veg – I believe you chaps call it 'pro-duce' or somesuch – weighed on mechanical scales, with weights, and George totting it all up in his head!
That's progress. Of course, on the upside, I can buy out-of-season qumquat ("Come-what?" George would have asked), or a bunch of flowers, or something else that's been shipped half way round the world and has a carbon footprint to match Godzilla, grown on slave farms in Third World Countries, and which required a prodigious amount of aviation gas or ship's diesel fuel which impacts on global demand which is why speculators began buying up oil reserves which is why the price of a barrel went up which is why we've got an energy crisis which is why THE FECKIN' LIGHTS HAVE GONE OUT!
So it goes ...
Life she is a changin...
A Cup Of Tea
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Look at how impatient we've got! I remember when (I could be old) when we had to wait to pull the food out of the ground!
That's not true but there was a time you know.
That's not true but there was a time you know.
Still do. We have an 'allotment' – d'you know them? They're called 'community gardens' in the States, I think. Bit slow off the line this year, but we got potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, strawberries, other stuff. I do the heavy lifting, with the aid of a strimmer and tiller – there's useful progress for you!
strimmer?
EdgyDolmen
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Wil - That unit was made by Friden! My second machine...
ACOT - Have a two acre garden. Excess to food bank...
Thomas - I think that bank has a branch here
ACOT - Have a two acre garden. Excess to food bank...
Thomas - I think that bank has a branch here
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Two acre garden? Impressive. Reminds me of the inferiority of my balcony pots of tomatoes, herbs, and peppers.
Wil: Brushcutter in your parlance, I think.
ED: Two acres! I've just been watering. We're not allowed hoses, so its a walk to the cistern with a couple of watering cans. Dread to think how long it would take me to do two acres. Then again, kids in Africa walk 4 miles for dirty water ...
Saw a doc. on TV about an ancient irrigation project in the Sahara. A water channel that runs from the mountains, miles, some of it underground, to an oasis. The elder who's the boss creeps along the tunnels on all fours, the roof inches from his head and the walls from his shoulders. The water's over his elbows. He cuts the grasses etc. that will in time impede the flow. He says the tunnels are haunted, and is visited by spirits. It was fantastic. You can understand how spooky it is. A flash flood and he's done for.
At the oasis he has a dead tree trunk in the middle of a sand circle, with various small stones dotted here and there. When the shadow reaches the stones, he moves the boulders in a network of sluices to redirect the water to the farmer's fields. The stones are placed just so, so everyone gets their rightful amount. A position of great responsibility, and he is held with deep respect. His family have done it for generations.
Oh, and we grow tomatoes and courgettes. Sunflowers and artichokes. Various berries that look after themselves. Runner beans. One guy's got a small vineyard. A ginger cat that treats the place like his own. I just found a mess of pigeon feathers on the footpath.
The guy behind us has got bee hives and gave me a pot of honey. Payback for being stung four times in 20 minutes! Man, you shoulda seen me dance when I next heard a buzzing... Helped him get a swarm off one of our plum trees once, which was fun.
ED: Two acres! I've just been watering. We're not allowed hoses, so its a walk to the cistern with a couple of watering cans. Dread to think how long it would take me to do two acres. Then again, kids in Africa walk 4 miles for dirty water ...
Saw a doc. on TV about an ancient irrigation project in the Sahara. A water channel that runs from the mountains, miles, some of it underground, to an oasis. The elder who's the boss creeps along the tunnels on all fours, the roof inches from his head and the walls from his shoulders. The water's over his elbows. He cuts the grasses etc. that will in time impede the flow. He says the tunnels are haunted, and is visited by spirits. It was fantastic. You can understand how spooky it is. A flash flood and he's done for.
At the oasis he has a dead tree trunk in the middle of a sand circle, with various small stones dotted here and there. When the shadow reaches the stones, he moves the boulders in a network of sluices to redirect the water to the farmer's fields. The stones are placed just so, so everyone gets their rightful amount. A position of great responsibility, and he is held with deep respect. His family have done it for generations.
Oh, and we grow tomatoes and courgettes. Sunflowers and artichokes. Various berries that look after themselves. Runner beans. One guy's got a small vineyard. A ginger cat that treats the place like his own. I just found a mess of pigeon feathers on the footpath.
The guy behind us has got bee hives and gave me a pot of honey. Payback for being stung four times in 20 minutes! Man, you shoulda seen me dance when I next heard a buzzing... Helped him get a swarm off one of our plum trees once, which was fun.
A Cup Of Tea
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Just got mine, have started tilling which is a bit rough since the patch has been untouched for a couple of years. Not sure what we'll be putting down but we have 10 little pumpkin sprouts that are waiting for some beds. Everything is pretty new to me so things are taking a little long, but I'm in no rush.
Beekeeping sounds so cool, my aunt used to keep bees. and I would love to try it. It's not allowed in our area but I heard a rumors it can be overturned. I should start campaigning now.
EdgyDolmen
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Nothing inferior about pot plants
All kidding aside. I still grow various things at home in containers.I have over 40 acres, two grown boys, two daughters-in-law and four teenaged grandchildren and all necessary equipment. I mostly sit back and watch the kids these days...
You should, we need them bees!
By 'necessary equipment' d'you mean a chair on the porch, a corn-cob pipe and a shotgun across your knees?
EdgyDolmen
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Re #37 - Sans pipe...you got the picture
We've got two hives in the yard, kiwi, strawberries, figs, cherries, plums, and various berries....planted tomatoes and ground cherries (ya gotta find these...they are cherry tomatoes that taste like fruit... broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, radishes, lettuces, snap peas, sugar peas...
No tiller, no strimmer, just a shovel and a hoe...
No tiller, no strimmer, just a shovel and a hoe...
Yay, gardening talk. I'm the main volunteer landscaper at out temple. I used to do a 20m by 20m veggie garden plot and give it all away to devotees, the food bank, and to use for Sunday lunch. (It's becoming a parking lot starting tomorrow.) I grew all the regular stuff that we can actually grow here in this northern climate and shorter growing season. Fruit is limited, but the apple trees do have quite a lot this year. Plums ... we can grow Pembina plums, but they're sticky for pollination, and one of the chief pollinators died out. I have yet to replace it.
We have a smaller backyard plot. I love to grow kale and swiss chard, because both are hardy to about -5C, so we can still have fresh organic well into October. Some years we get frost as early as August, so tomatoes need to be picked green and ripened off in the basement.
Arthritis has slowed me down substantially.
We have a smaller backyard plot. I love to grow kale and swiss chard, because both are hardy to about -5C, so we can still have fresh organic well into October. Some years we get frost as early as August, so tomatoes need to be picked green and ripened off in the basement.
Arthritis has slowed me down substantially.