Introverts, how is your day?

[Pseudonym]

Thankee kindly. And that's what I'm hoping, having someone who knows what he's talking about will make them think twice about trying anything iffy.

[Pseudonym]

 What's the shortcut for the normal smiley now? Both : ) and : smile : are coming up with the spray painted version. I normally type : smile : (without the spaces obviously) to get the normal smiley...? Normal meaning 

[Carol the Dabbler]

How did you do that -- is it on the menu?  I used to use : smile: as well, and wish it still worked -- lots quicker than hunting in the menu.

Added:    Oh, right, there it is.

[Pseudonym]

But I thought the : smile : was still working after the update, has it always been the sprayed smiley?

[Pseudonym]

I used a car wash today, one of those big automatic ones, never used one before. Bit scary to see the big metal arms swinging towards the windscreen.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I went through one of those once. Bit scary, yeah, and I suspect potentially dangerous as well.  Since then, if my car needs washing I do it by hand. And if Alex wants to use one of those automatic ones, I hop out and meet him at the other end.

[Pseudonym]

I don't generally wash my car, I figure it rains enough to do a fair job, but since I'm trying to part exchange mine I was informed by my mother that I needed to wash it so it looks decent. I park on a main road and it's dark when I get home, so the idea of standing on a main road in the dark trying to wash my car didn't fly - not to mention I normally look, act and feel like a zombie by the time I get home. I stumble across the road, groaning, with my eyes all sunken. (Attractive!) 

It was surprisingly easy and painless once I knew that the blower wasn't going to come straight through the windscreen like it seemed it would. I think I'd be iffy if I was in a brand new expensive car, you're trusting a lot on the sensors not failing. 

I'm going hiking on Sunday to that cool castle I mentioned here a while ago (Carreg Cennen). I arranged a lift with a someone in the same group who lives nearby but I've never met. The general consensus is that when car sharing you put money towards petrol. The problem is how much? It's one of those things that make me, and most British people, cringe. Don't want to offer too little, don't want to offer too much. How much is enough? Not to mention when I agreed to the car share I thought we would be picking up other people, I didn't realise it would just be me and a stranger in the car together for 40 odd minutes. I'm not great at small talk, I'm more of a 'sit in silence and listen' person with folks I don't know well. 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

For sharing cost of petrol, I’d say up to half of what it costs to drive that distance since there are only 2 of you. For example, if the total cost to drive there and back is 5 quid, you chip in 2.50 quid. Since you won’t know the exact amount, guess based on what you know of your car. If there happens to be more people in the car than originally expected, your individual cost goes down.

[Pseudonym]

True, but I think it's usually more casual than that in practise, just like 'here's a fiver' or 'here's a tenner...' It's hard to tell how much it's going to cost because it's not far but through a lot of lanes.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I generally figure that the driver is not only doing the driving, they're also paying for the wear and tear on their car, so I'll pay for the gas.  Most cars nowadays get around 30 miles to the gallon at 60 mph on highways.  In city traffic they don't go as fast, but they use more gas per mile, so I figure two gallons (8 liters?) per hour, regardless.  And if there are other passengers, we can split the cost.

I rarely wash my car either, but we lived for a couple of years in southern California, where it does not rain from April to October.  We drove out there in late December, and by the time we got through the desert to LA, it looked like we had a brown car.  Fortunately, we had given our old house one last quick cleaning after the moving van left, so I had a bucket and some rags in the car, and was able to get the poor thing looking presentable even before we moved out of the motel and into an apartment.

[Pseudonym]

Guys, I'm off on an expedition to a castle in the snow. Wish me luck that I don't get stranded.

[T.o.b.y]

25 minutes ago, Pseudonym said:

Guys, I'm off on an expedition to a castle in the snow. Wish me luck that I don't get stranded.

Sounds great! Have fun! I envy you. 

[Pseudonym]

Should be good, except British roads are a disaster when it’s snowing so it could go horribly wrong... still, have to have an adventure now and then!

[Pseudonym]

I'm back, I survived, and I had a brilliant day.  Bit bruised and battered, will probably be massively aching tomorrow, but I finally got to see plenty of snow, and also came across a brand new little lamb who had just been born. I did nearly have an accident from laughing too hard, but just about managed to hold it back!

[Carol the Dabbler]

So -- tell us about it?

[Pseudonym]

The original walk was cancelled due to the weather, but the organiser said he was still going to try to go if anyone wanted to meet him. He took someone in his car, and I had a lift with the original guy I was going with, so there were four of us in total. We did a big circular trek through the mountains around the castle; snow up to our knees in places, huge fields full of virgin snow, not a soul in sight, no sound other than the wind. It was like we were the only people in the world. Stunning scenery, I would have taken so many photos had my phone not decided to play up due to the cold. Everything was monochrome. I was with three strangers, but we got on really well, with plenty of laughing and joking as we went along. Everyone fell over at least once. 

Here's the last photo my camera managed to take before dying completely, it's not great but sets the scene. It's the view we had much of the day, with the castle, atop a cliff, looming over us.  

And the path up to the castle itself, before we circled around. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Wow!

[Carol the Dabbler]

But how was that tiny lamb able to deal with knee-deep snow?

[Pseudonym]

It wasn't all knee deep, the sheep were mainly gathered around a feeding trough under some trees so it wasn't too deep there. Must have been a hell of a shock for the poor little thing, going from warmth to snow. 

[Arcadia]

Snow day!!!! First snow of the winter, and it's not even winter anymore, but I'll take it because it means I finally have a little free time to visit with y'all. Everything's closed/cancelled/postponed, I get to stay home, yay! Plus it's really pretty. Hope my daffodils survive it, though, I was planning to murder some of them for a bouquet later this week.

Beautiful pix, Pseud. All things I love; castles, snow, cliffs. Ahhhhh.

[Pseudonym]

YAAAAAAY, SNOW DAY! (For you, not me. Sun here.)

[Van Buren Supernova]

So I cancelled my friend's self-made appointment. (He knew I'm back so he booked himself and another friend a meal appointment with me --> aaaand that's why I hardly tell him). Coincidentally, my mom was in town so I told him it's a no go. Anyway, since I'm long distanding, the priority is of course always SO and mom and I always tell him just that despite his (still) complain.

But since yesterday mom had gone back and SO is working. And I have to get out of the house because there are people. Actually have couple of free days but decide not to contact him or any other friends, and sent stuffs I happened to buy for them through post with addresses I'm not so sure if still applicable (too risky to buzz them!). I just don't feel like hanging out because I have no energy to get us updated, even for short lunch. Have a lot of problems lately and dislike sharing unhappy news as it would burden me more.

So I opted to hang out alone at dog cafe or shelter, coffee shop, library or like today, ride for hours with no apparent destinations.

As said always, I'm going to die friendless.

[Arcadia]

I hear you. I've got a few more days of a grueling schedule, and then an entire week with only one thing on my calendar ... and my brother just called to announce 1) he's coming for a visit tomorrow (okay, not so bad, I'll still be working so he can stay with Mom) and 2) he wants me to drive down to his house during my "week off" for a family get together, which also just happens to be the same week as my birthday. I know he wants to show me some birthday love (no one else will) but my first reaction was "Noooooooooo! Not ... people! Not more driving!!!!! I just want to be alone and unscheduled for a whole week! Wahhhhhhh!!!"

But I suppose I'll do it because, y'know, family is important and all that......

[Pseudonym]

There's something disturbing about a stranger being able to look at your house from the other side of the world. I just had an order from Australia, but the guy didn't put in his post code or state so I had to Google his address. Up pops the address, along with a photo of his house, and Google street view. I know it's harmless, but there's something disturbing about that, that he orders something from literally the opposite side of the world and I'm looking at his house. 

When I used to work for Virgin Media fixing TV faults we could see what the boxes were doing by the signals bouncing back. So you'd be saying 'the green light should be on now... and the red just started to blink... you'll have the welcome message on the screen....'  and quite often people would get a bit freaked out that we were secretly watching them. 

[Hikari]

Today's Word of the Day (not making this up) from Dictionary.com:  "Solitudinarian: a recluse; one who seeks solitude."

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/

"Introverts" is easier to say, though.