Random 5 for July 14, 2024 – Dumpster, first aid, seafood, death, update

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It’s gone! It’s gone! – The dumpster departed the driveway on Friday amid much fanfare! It was a fancy model with two portopotties. The good part is that it kept the contractors out of my powder room. The bad news is that it smelled. With 90-degree weather, even with a clean out, I could smell it. I did a snoopy dance all evening.

Which one is less expired? – We don’t keep an updated first aid kit. We rarely use it except for band aids and antiseptic. Almost everything in it is expired. Some by a few months and some by a few years.  I got poison ivy and went to see what we had. No calamine lotion but there were two tubes of cortisone cream. One expired in 2019 and the other in 2022. Except for foods, I don’t believe that most things expire (especially band aids!). They may be less effective or less tasty (spices) but they are better than nothing. I used the more recently expired cream until I went to the drugstore for calamine which is much better for poison. I doubt I’ll use it again before it expires in September 2025. You can bet on that.

It’s official! I’m not a seafood person. – I always preferred shellfish to fish but lately, I’m not keen on that either. My neighbor told me about a seafood market that has good crabcakes. (I like a good crabcake without all the breadcrumb fillings.) It was an act of courage for me to enter the store. It stank. I bought the crabcakes and they were excellent, but the store odor turned me off. If I go again, I’ll have to wear a clothespin on my nose. I rarely crave seafood and old favorites like shrimp and lobster don’t hold their former allure. Is this aging?

Loss – In the blogging world we make friendships that last longer than blogs. Unlike other social media, most bloggers are exactly what you expect. Their personalities come out in their posts and their comments. (It’s hard to be a consistent Nigerian prince when commenting.) I have a few friends that date back to the beginning of my blog. One hasn’t blogged in ten years. We connected over shared experiences. She took a demanding job and went to Facebook for short updates. I kept in touch there. Her husband was diagnosed with esophageal cancer last October. She kept her friends updated on The Caring Bridge (great place to post health updates for all friends and relatives to read). I followed them through chem and radiation. Then different chemo and various other treatments as they tried to stop the spread. They tried to get into clinical trials. That didn’t happen and he died this past week after enduring very painful treatments that did not work at all. What I have learned is that this is a bad cancer. By the time you have symptoms, it’s advanced. She posted a tribute to him, and I cried like a baby reading it. I never met either of them but knew them well.

Short bathroom renovation update – It’s going ok. The shower tiling is almost done. After that, things will happen fast (so they say). I haven’t been committed to any mental institution. Yet but there is still time.

So how was your week.

 

65 thoughts on “Random 5 for July 14, 2024 – Dumpster, first aid, seafood, death, update”

  2. So sorry for your friend’s loss and yours! I know what you mean – I have people I only know through online, but I feel like I know them as well as I know some of my in-person friends. Like you said – personality comes through in commenting, as well as posting. Yay for the dumpster being gone!!

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  4. I can see you with your mocha in hand waving goodbye to the dumpster. 🙂 I’m not a big fish person at home because of the lingering smell so I much prefer to eat fish out. I’m sorry for your loss, and although I know we have made great strides with cancer it seems like it is still beating us. We got bad news yesterday on a family member was treated, then survived surgery, only to find out it has spread. Glad your reno is on schedule.

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    • I am sorry for your family member. Locally we have 2 great fish restaurants. We used to go to one frequently, then I tired of it. Maybe it’s just stages. Right now we haven’t been out to eat much. It’s expensive and you don’t always get great food. I’m a basic chick. Give me a really good pizza and a cold beer and I’m happy.

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  7. We finally bought a first aid kit after years of having weather casters and public safety officials reinforce the importance of having one. I’m not sure why it took us so long. I agree, most of those things do last well beyond their dates. They didn’t worry about expiration dates on the show “Lost” after all. 😆 We both love fish and seafood, have a local fish market we visit regularly, but the smell in there is always way too potent for us. I agree — it’s not a great odor. You must be so looking forward for the renovation to be finished. – Marty

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    • When I was a kid, our first aid kit was Merthiolate, peroxide and band aids. Now there are cortisone creams, sting cartridges, and band aids in every size and configuration. Yet whatever we need is always sadly expired.

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  8. Yeah, I agree on the smell of seafood. I bet my cats would love it though. Their noses would twitch non-stop. Sorry about your loss though. But I hope the bathroom gets finished soon!

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    • According to my vet seafood isn’t good for cats. Foods that say tuna or salmon aren’t too bad but when it says white fish, she says that it’s fins and scales of a lot of fish. When I had Jake, he was diabetic. He loved tuna but it definitely was a once in a while treat. My current crew doesn’t get it often. I don’t really know if they like it. As for the bathroom, sigh! Last big project for sure.

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  10. I have a fellow blogger that is MIA. She had two blogs: one a general blog with cheerful stories and memes mostly, but the other blog was about her teenage daughter with a personality disorder. The daughter was placed into a psychiatric hospital for a while and hated her mom so much that upon her release, she went to live with her grandfather. If the daughter issue wasn’t bad enough, this poor blogger had MS and breast cancer. She called herself “Ms. Lucky Duck” … I really would like to know why she doesn’t blog anymore. I reached out on both of her blogs and used the e-mail address from one of her comments, but did not get a response. I think she likely passed away, but from which of the above health issues?

    I like seafood and we used to have a big fish market where they had fresh seafood delivered daily. My mom would eat salmon patties and tuna salad, but not fresh fish, but this place advertised battered fish and chips during Lent so I said “I’ll treat us” … the dinner was delicious but I was sure I came home with a lingering fish scent in my hair/clothes, etc.

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    • When we visit the NJ shore, we always got food (sometimes to make and other times they cooked it for us) at a fresh seafood marked by the bay side. It was always wonderful. While it smelled fishy, it wasn’t a bad smell, like this shop had. I also followed a blogger. She would be about 90 now. I followed her during her 80s through all sorts of things. After her husband died, she downsized even more (she had a condo before). Her posts became more sporadic. I’ve often wondered if she’s alive. She was a fabulous writer.

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      • We had an English-style fish and chips store near where my grandmother lived … they wrapped the meal in newspaper, like they do in England. I thought it was a cool idea then – now, the older me says “all those germs and what is in that newspaper ink?” 🙂

        That’s too bad about your blogging friend. A fellow blogger who is a wildlife photographer was good friends with a blogger/woman who photographed only Great Blue Herons. They communicated by e-mail as well. He mentioned to me he had not heard from her in several months and she wasn’t responding to his e-mails. He didn’t know her family, not even her address. So I played detective for him and Googled around, found she had a gallery showing her heron photos in Boston over Christmas (2023), so I told Wayne to contact them on Facebook, ask if he could get her contact info or in the alternative ask if she was sick/did she pass away. They were very nice and responded right away. It turned out she had been hospitalized suddenly and passed away, so Wayne “reported” that on his blog as they had many of the same WP followers. He was quite upset about it as they’d been blogging friends for years.

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  11. I mostly just read on here. I think the well has gone dry. I have been on blogging sites for years and feel I have shared 99 % of my life happenings.

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  12. Nice to get rid of that big red dumpster.

    I polished my nails a few days ago. After ruining a couple of fingers, I took out some polish remover that was way past its expiration date. You wouldn’t think it would get too old, but it did. It was totally useless.

    I love all kinds of seafood, but I like it very fresh. Seafood shops can smell awful. I agree.

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    • Some items get weaker. My nail polish remover is definitely at least 5 years old. After the pandemic I never got back into the swing of nail polish.

      This is going to sound weird but my high school cafeteria made a great haddock platter. Steamed buttered potatoes and stewed tomatoes. I loved it.

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  13. I wouldn’t like the smell from a fish market either. I only buy the frozen breaded fish from the grocery store. Also like canned tuna and make tuna patties. Glad to hear the dumpster is gone. Sorry to hear about your friend’s husband.

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  14. Sorry about your blogging friend’s husband. I know what you mean about not meeting someone in person yet knowing them. Hope the bathroom reno goes fast now. 🙂

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  15. I think the fish thing is aging… I will blame it on that. I ate tuna fish right out of the can with a fork (white albacore) and now I can’t even look at a can without wanting to urp. Grouper and any of the supposedly mild white fish that I loved… nope. Still enjoy crab legs, shrimp without the shell and Robert Duvall’s Mom’s crab cakes.
    So sad about your friend’s husband. I am sorry.
    I think it’s true that when the tiling is done you will be on the fast track to being done. We had to wait quite a while for the the glass for the shower. It was a lot of WAITING!
    Our week was HOT… then cloudy… than rainy… then like being wrapped up in hot wet wool blanket!

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    • Glad I’m not the only one with the fish thing. They did say the glass for the shower will take the longest and it can’t be ordered until the shower is completed. I’m hoping I can rig a shower curtain so we can use it if everything else gets done before the glass door comes.

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  16. Aw, sorry to hear about your friend’s husband. Cat Daddy has a friend that he’s scared to contact “because he heard a rumour that he’d died, and he doesn’t want to try to contact him and find out that it’s true”. So he just, erm, does nothing. I’m tempted to take his phone when he’s not looking and do it on his behalf.

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    • It’s a blog-like place you can put health updates so your friends and relatives can see it. Otherwise, keeping everyone updated can be exhausting.

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    A very eclectic Random 5.

    So sorry about that woman’s husband and it once again reminds you what’s important. Health is wealth. He was lucky he had her to be there with him. I’m sorry it made so sad. On a brighter note…

    shellfish…I love it too and crab cakes are a favorite of mine. But I too hate when a store smells like low tide. It’s more than you want to know.

    Glad the bathroom is coming along and you didn’t mention one cat.

    Are they all at camp? If so, it’s a good thing Gracie has a Speedo. 🙂

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  19. Hurrah that the mobile porta-potties are gone but sad about the news from your blogging friend. Since the pandemic, losses seem to be mounting (or maybe we just hear about them more through our blogs). Sending gentle thoughts of comfort. Good luck this next week with the completion ever so much closer.

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  20. When I worked I often had to work with outside agencies that audited my laboratory. I was prepping for an onsite visit with an auditor (by phone only, at this point) when he found out he had esophageal cancer. He had to leave work shortly after this, and he didn’t make it either. Even though we had never met I had definitely enjoyed our phone conversations and his diagnosis and death affected me greatly. I get it.

    Glad to read your renovation continues to move forward!

    Deb

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  21. Great rejoicing over the end of the dumpster. So sorry for your loss. And I can recommend a little dab of Vick’s under the nose when heading to a potentially unpleasant smelling place.

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  22. YAY on the exiting of the dumpster/potty! Interesting idea to keep contractors from using in-house facilities but then there’s the aroma to deal with so there’s no sadness on its’ departure by you OR the neighbors. Glad the project is moving – they never move like they SAY they will or as quickly as we WANT them to but at least there’s movement. Sorry about your friend’s husband – cancer is awful. Period. I think some of the best friends I’ve EVER had I’ve NEVER met – blogging is wonderful that way…….like interests, like thoughts and feelings, ease of conversation – it’s just all good and if it doesn’t work out, you just don’t follow them anymore. Easier than long goodbyes. On seafood – I’m sneaking up to the big 80 but still love lobster and shrimp BUT have pretty much given up on “fish” otherwise. Our tastes definitely DO change with age though.

    Hugs, Pam

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    • I used to love fish and chips. Still do but around here the fish is dripping with oil. Hard to find a good one. I’ve met several bloggers who have stopped by on their way to somewhere else and I’ve never been disappointed.

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  23. Interesting week.

    Someone tried to assassinate Trump. I can’t wait to hear what the conspiracy theorists have to say. I’m sure they’ll come up with some fantastical theories.

    Glad your dumpster is gone and things are moving along. I’m with you on Seafood Shops. They stink almost as bad as dumpsters. Just a different type of stinkiness.

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    • I’ve been thinking of a conspiracy theory myself! 🙂 Not all seafood shops smell bad. I don’t know what makes the difference. Cleanliness? Better exhaust fans? To be honest this place smells outside. I’d hate to live next to it (and yes, it’s squashed in a row of homes.

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    • Me too. The tile would be done but there were some Keystone Kops moments at the start the resulted in a 2 day delay and the tiler called off sick one day last week. Holding my breath and keeping my fingers crossed. He should be done on Tuesday but I’m not counting on it. The template was done so that could go in but the flooring won’t until the tiler is done.

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