Sunday, November 12th

[Cornflake]

Happy Sunday. Having spent an hour and a half at church yesterday, I'm leaning towards skipping it this morning and going to the botanical garden. It's a good place for a walk.

Enjoy the day as best you can.

Wordle 876 2/6*

⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

[PaulKay]

The eyeball recovery is coming along. Not clear yet, but improved.
Eric will stop by today for practice. I should be able to do that with the one good eye.
The Packers will very likely get their asses handed to them today again. Fortunately they won't televise it here, so I'll watch it afterwards on the NFL+ app.
If they lose, I'll just watch the condensed version which usually takes about 30 min.

[drlj]

Looks like a pretty day shaping up. Lots of sunshine and fairly moderate temperatures.
I will be doing some saddle work on a guitar today and who knows where that will take me?
Enjoy it.

[Marty]

Nov 12, 2023 9:06:17 GMT -5 drlj said:

Looks like a pretty day shaping up. Lots of sunshine and fairly moderate temperatures.
I will be doing some saddle work on a guitar today and who knows where that will take me?
Enjoy it.

Probably to the repair shop tomorrow. 

[millring]

I was out til 9pm last night doing Amazon. In a twist I didn't see coming (because we were led to believe that Amazon would be picking up more and more of their own delivery)...

...all of a sudden, the Claypool routes that were heretofore Amazon-free are suddenly getting a full load of Amazon to deliver. The three regulars had their route times nearly double. If that's not bad enough, they will not be paid any more for that extra load. Their routes cannot be adjusted to reflect the increase until February. That means they will be working almost twice as many hours without compensation.

[howard lee]

I slept until 7:45 this morning! Wow. Had a very social day yesterday. The child is with friends in upstate NY, a friend from out of town surprised us with a visit in the afternoon, and then we went to a birthday party last night and were up late. I hardly do that anymore. I hardly want to do that anymore.

It's a chilly, sunny day in Brooklyn; the high temperature will be about 47°F. It's errand and chore day for me: groceries, laundry, some "paper"work. The coffee is good, The Bluegrass Album Band is on the stereo. RIP Tony Rice, JD Crowe.

[howard lee]

Nov 12, 2023 9:13:18 GMT -5 millring said:

I was out til 9pm last night doing Amazon. In a twist I didn't see coming (because we were led to believe that Amazon would be picking up more and more of their own delivery)...

...all of a sudden, the Claypool routes that were heretofore Amazon-free are suddenly getting a full load of Amazon to deliver. The three regulars had their route times nearly double. If that's not bad enough, they will not be paid any more for that extra load. Their routes cannot be adjusted to reflect the increase until February. That means they will be working almost twice as many hours without compensation.

Doesn't that bump right up against illegal?

[drlj]

Nov 12, 2023 9:12:16 GMT -5 Marty said:

Nov 12, 2023 9:06:17 GMT -5 drlj said:

Looks like a pretty day shaping up. Lots of sunshine and fairly moderate temperatures.
I will be doing some saddle work on a guitar today and who knows where that will take me?
Enjoy it.

Probably to the repair shop tomorrow. 

One never knows. I have a hammer. What could go wrong?

I bought shoe laces from Amazon with same day delivery. I feel so dirty!

[Marty]

Good morning

39F-55F mostly sunny.

Usual Sunday stuff but with dinner out to celebrate Cheri's Birthday.

My shop has entered another stage of arrangement. With so many old guitars gone I have storage outside the shop proper for those that I still have. Now Tyler's bench is back but will not take up needed space or obstruct my movement from one end to the other. Plus his bench size is smaller and like mine he can now work from both sides. This is so I can teach him without taking up MY bench space and I can use his bench when using heating blankets or the neck press.

[Marty]

Nov 12, 2023 9:13:18 GMT -5 millring said:

I was out til 9pm last night doing Amazon. In a twist I didn't see coming (because we were led to believe that Amazon would be picking up more and more of their own delivery)...

...all of a sudden, the Claypool routes that were heretofore Amazon-free are suddenly getting a full load of Amazon to deliver. The three regulars had their route times nearly double. If that's not bad enough, they will not be paid any more for that extra load. Their routes cannot be adjusted to reflect the increase until February. That means they will be working almost twice as many hours without compensation.

SOMEBODY is getting paid, it just ain't you. 

Like maybe a Postmaster General and his cronies.

[Cosmic Wonder]

Morning. Going to see Les Mis this afternoon. Last time I was at the theater I fell and banged my knee up enough I could barely walk for two weeks. I’ll try not to do that again. After that we need to grocery shop for some stuff for thanksgiving, which will be at our house. And maybe get take out for dinner. That’s all folks.

Mike
Wordle 876 3/6

⬜🟨🟩⬜🟨
🟨🟨🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

[drlj]

Nov 12, 2023 10:24:18 GMT -5 Cosmic Wonder said:

Morning. Going to see Les Mis this afternoon. Last time I was at the theater I fell and banged my knee up enough I could barely walk for two weeks. I’ll try not to do that again. After that we need to grocery shop for some stuff for thanksgiving, which will be at our house. And maybe get take out for dinner. That’s all folks.

Mike
Wordle 876 3/6

⬜🟨🟩⬜🟨
🟨🟨🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

We saw Les Miz twice in Chicago years back. Thoroughly enjoyed it so much the first time that we had to see it again. I hope you see a good production of it. Stay on your feet.

[t-bob]

Walking around
It’s day for jazz music
Bach Chopin, as well

Enjoy your days

[billhammond]

I'm coffee'd, Egg MCcMuffin'd, Chapsticked, car-washed and grocery-shopped. Trader Joe's was a madhouse, and the checkout gal tried to give me $25 in change when she owed me $75. Fortunately, I noticed!


Settled in to watch some feetsball.

[Dub]

Nov 12, 2023 9:20:28 GMT -5 howard lee said:

I slept until 7:45 this morning! Wow. Had a very social day yesterday. The child is with friends in upstate NY, a friend from out of town surprised us with a visit in the afternoon, and then we went to a birthday party last night and were up late. I hardly do that anymore. I hardly want to do that anymore.

It's a chilly, sunny day in Brooklyn; the high temperature will be about 47°F. It's errand and chore day for me: groceries, laundry, some "paper"work. The coffee is good, The Bluegrass Album Band is on the stereo. RIP Tony Rice, JD Crowe.

There are many wonderful albums made by a great many talented artists, but in the world of bluegrass there are a very few that stand far above the others in quality. The Bluegrass Album is one of those. What was intended as a one-off studio album became the first in a series even though each band member had their own bands and they never toured as a group. These masters of their craft and of the bluegrass genre put together albums in which every note was perfectly placed and executed, every harmony perfectly done and everything with such taste and conviction that they will forever stand as the acme of the genre.

Other [bluegrass] albums that rise to this level are rare. I would say the Scaggs & Rice album made long ago by two young masters coming into their greatest powers is among those rare albums and perhaps the instrumental album Foggy Mountain Banjo by Flatt & Scruggs around 1960. There are albums that include wonderful tracks but few are so masterfully done as these.



On edit: I’d left out a word.

[Marty]

Breakfast done, shopping done, groceries put away and now it's time for a sit down before early nap time. We have dinner reservations for 5:30.

For some reason traffic is really busy today. We take Minnehaha Ave to The Little Oven and then continue down it to HyVee. While it is a major East/West street for our area it's never crowded but today coming back to St Paul from HyVee Oakdale it was packed. They must have closed off some other East/West street.

[amanajoe]

Up early, nice day outside (but very breezy). Spent an hour and a half lasering some stars out of walnut for the ISSDA (Iowa State Sheriff's and Deputy's Association) for work since the laser there is on the fritz again (can't seem to get them to just go buy a new one!).

Put a chuck roast in the oven to slow cook all day, while Sue baby sits it, as it slowly becomes a pot roast dinner (really looking forward to pot roast sandwiches later in the week, too). I'm going to try and go out to get together with a song circle at the Iowa City American Legion this afternoon. I guess playing 3 hours with Joe and Debbie Byrd a week ago Saturday wasn't enough to wear me out for the rest of the year as I thought.

Hope everyone is healthy, I see that the membership postings have become a bit scarce as of late.

[Dub]

Nov 12, 2023 9:13:18 GMT -5 millring said:

I was out til 9pm last night doing Amazon. In a twist I didn't see coming (because we were led to believe that Amazon would be picking up more and more of their own delivery)...

...all of a sudden, the Claypool routes that were heretofore Amazon-free are suddenly getting a full load of Amazon to deliver. The three regulars had their route times nearly double. If that's not bad enough, they will not be paid any more for that extra load. Their routes cannot be adjusted to reflect the increase until February. That means they will be working almost twice as many hours without compensation.

John, I should know this as my youngest brother spent his career at the USPS, but how are carriers paid. Are they on a fixed salary? An hourly wage? Piece work? Are additional hours really not compensated at all?

Are there no contractual work limits? What does the union say? If work is falling behind, does the USPS bring in time-study people? How do others in the bargaining unit feel about this?

Talking Union

Now you want higher wages
Let me tell you what to do
Got to talk to the workers in the shop with you
You got to build you a union, make it strong
Stick together, boys, 'twont be long

You'll get shorter hours
Better workin' conditions
Vacations with pay
Take your kids to the seashore

Now it ain't quite that simple
So I’d better explain just why you got to ride on the union train
'Cause if you wait for the boss to raise your pay
We'll all be waiting 'til Judgment Day

Be dead and buried
Gone to Heaven
Saint Peter will be the straw boss then.

Now, you know you're underpaid, but the boss says you ain't
And he speeds up the work 'til you're 'bout to faint
You may be down and out, but you ain't beaten
You can pass out a leaflet, call a meetin'

Talk it over
Speak your mind
Decide to do something about it

Course, the boss may persuade some poor damn fool
To go to your meeting and act like a stool
But you can always tell a stool, though, that's a fact
He's got a yeller streak a-runnin' down his back

He doesn't have to stool,
He'll always get along
On what he takes out of blind men's cups

Well you got a union now, you're sittin' pretty
Put some of the boys on the steering committee
The boss won't listen if one guy squawks
But he's got to listen if the union talks

He'd better
He'll be mighty lonely
When everybody decides to walk out on him

Suppose he's workin' you so hard it's just outrageous
And they’re payin' you all starvation wages
You go to the boss and the boss will yell
"Before I'd raise your pay I'd see you all in Hell"

Well, he's puffing a big cigar, and he’s feeling mighty slick
‘Cause he thinks he's got your union licked
Then he looks out the window, and what does he see
But a thousand pickets, and they all agree

He's a bastard
Unfair!
Slave driver
Bet he beats his own wife

Now, boys, you've come to the hardest time
The boss will try to bust your picket line
They'll call out the police, the National Guard
Tell you it's a crime to have a union card
They'll raid your meeting, hit ya on the head
Call every one of you a goddamn Red

Unpatriotic
Moscow agents
Sabotaging national defense.

Well out in Detroit here's what they found
Out in Frisco here's what they found
Down in Bethlehem here's what they found
Out in Pittsburgh here's what they found

That if you don't let red-baiting break you up
If you don't let stool pigeons break you up
If you don't let vigilantes break you up
And if you don't let race hatred
Break you up you'll win

What I mean, take it easy, but take it

[John B]

Nov 12, 2023 10:24:18 GMT -5 Cosmic Wonder said:

Morning. Going to see Les Mis this afternoon. Last time I was at the theater I fell and banged my knee up enough I could barely walk for two weeks. I’ll try not to do that again. After that we need to grocery shop for some stuff for thanksgiving, which will be at our house. And maybe get take out for dinner. That’s all folks.

Mike
Wordle 876 3/6

⬜🟨🟩⬜🟨
🟨🟨🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

That will teach you to try to match Tina's moves (well, the actress playing Tina) while dancing in the aisles during the encore.

And contrary to LJ's advice, stay OFF your feet. No dancing this time.

[John B]

The first annual chili contest at the office is on Tuesday, so I'm prepping today. I am opting for non-Texas chili. Got the beans in the pressure cooker, then will brown up the bison chunks, pressure cook them in some broth and beer, and then start the recipe in earnest; which involves starting with Carroll Shelby's chili mix and adjusting for flavor and taste. Then into the slow cooker until Tuesday.

We purchased a used VW Golf for our newest driver, who turns 16 later this month. 90 days later he'll be able to drive by himself, at least under IN law. A few more driving lessons will help. Today, after the beans are done, will be a lesson in how to change a tire as I noticed this afternoon one of them is flat. We test drove a number of cars, and with the scarcity of used cars these days I was happy to find one that was well-maintained with relatively low mileage. As a bonus, the one we went home with did not have any cigarette burns in the seat, cracks/tears in the door handles, and the rearview mirror was firmly attached to the windshield.

Yesterday, on the way back from the car-buying trip to Kentucky, I stopped by the spot in the road called Yorkville. In 1831 my 4X grandfather settled with his family there, and began holding church services in their home. In 1850 one of his sons donated land to the church and in 1852 the first St. Martin church was built there. In 1915 or so a new church was built on the site.

As a bonus, yesterday was also St. Martin's Day.