Speedy's Cafe - General Chat about anything you like!

[Fantasy Lover]

I read all of the books by Rick Riordan so more than 20 fantasy books.

[besleybean]

We have a ton of them on our school library shelves!

[Van Buren Supernova]

On 3/26/2022 at 12:43 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

though he did read the entire Lord of the Rings to me just a few years ago), and most of that is mystery novels

He did what??? That is.. dedication!

On 3/26/2022 at 1:59 AM, Fantasy Lover said:

I read all of the books by Rick Riordan so more than 20 fantasy books.

It's certainly very fitting with your user name. Do you like other Fantasy books?
Personally, I'm not really into Fantasy, but I do like The Song of Ice and Fire, although I don't really categorize it as Fantasy as there is a lot of realism in them with some sprinkle of magic and dragons. Harry Potter is okay for me and once in a while I enjoy those like Miss Peregrine's.

My favorite genre is Scifi, but not those hard space cowboy or alien scifi, I think the more accurate category would be Speculative Fiction in Dystopian category, and I picked my recent books from Goodreads suggestions (based on previous books that I read). 

The latest I read was 1984 by George Orwell. It's really embarrassing, I thought I was reading Animal Farm (by the same author). I chose AF because I thought it is a 'lighter' read, I would like to read 1984 someday, but not now, as I feel depressed enough with the current world situation, but I have to admit 1984 being banned made me curious. Still, I wouldn't want to read it too soon.
So there I was, happily thinking I read Animal Farm, and until I had finished the book and wrote the review, I went on to read others' reviews and found out we were not talking about the same book! And I had, indeed, read 1984. No wonder it was so depressing. I won't re-read it again as it's exhausting, but it's a brilliant book.

Before that, I had just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 and The Giver, Goodreads seems to give me great recommendations but I need to look for something lighter, unfortunatelu my kindle library is limited to older books.

[Fantasy Lover]

I used to like Harry Potter, the Twilight saga, the hunger games trilogy, the divergent trilogy, the maze runner trilogy and the Lord of the rings trilogy.

[Carol the Dabbler]

6 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

He did what??? That is.. dedication!

It was the only sensible way to handle it, actually.  The Hobbit movies were being made, and we wanted to reread the book before seeing the movies, so I read it aloud and we discussed it as we went along.  When we were done with that, he wanted to continue with LotR, which I consider a bit tedious, so I said fine, if you do the reading.  It was actually kind of fun that way.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Hey, where is everybody?  Our electricity was out for a day and a half, and when it came back on I checked the forum expecting that I had missed some stuff.

Our typical power outages last two or three hours, but this time there was a derecho (a storm front of unusually strong winds) that knocked down numerous trees, including many that fell on electric lines.  Our local rural electric co-op had to restore electric service to about 20% of its customers.  Fortunately Alex and I didn't lose any trees, but a large shrub in our yard looks like it got run over by a gravel truck.

Alex had walked down to get the mail (the boxes are at the entrance to our development, a mile from our house).  He encountered some rain on the way down, but about the time he got to the mailbox, the wind started.  On the way back, he had to detour around numerous fallen trees, got blown off the road a few times, and got soaked to the skin.  But he made it back in one piece, thank goodness!

One thing about a power outage in a rural area is that your plumbing doesn't work, because the pump at the bottom of your well runs on electricity.  We've started to think about having a generator installed.

 

[besleybean]

I am here...not much happening!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Hi, Bev!  

 

[Fantasy Lover]

I'm here as well, I'm going to have my birthday party this evening.

[Caya]

Happy birthday! 

[kimber8ada]

Glad you weren't hurt, Carol!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Happy birthday, FL!  Hope you have a great party.

Thanks, Kim, and I'm glad Alex wasn't hurt!  I forgot to mention that a farm just down the road lost their brand-new pole barn -- it's now just a pile of rubble.  So a lot of people were lucky that no one was hurt.

 

 

[Fantasy Lover]

Thanks guys, it was quite fun ^^.

[Carol the Dabbler]

On 5/26/2022 at 1:26 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

One thing about a power outage in a rural area is that your plumbing doesn't work, because the pump at the bottom of your well runs on electricity.  We've started to think about having a generator installed.

  

On 12/17/2016 at 3:54 AM, T.o.b.y said:

Also be prepared and keep a stash of large water bottles in the basement.

That also occurred to me, so there are now a dozen one-gallon (roughly four-liter) jugs of water down in ours.  That should be enough for close to a week if we don't flush until it's absolutely necessary.

We routinely have large jugs of drinking water in the house, so that was already taken care of.

 

[Arcadia]

On 5/26/2022 at 1:26 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

Hey, where is everybody?  Our electricity was out for a day and a half, and when it came back on I checked the forum expecting that I had missed some stuff.

Our typical power outages last two or three hours, but this time there was a derecho (a storm front of unusually strong winds) that knocked down numerous trees, including many that fell on electric lines.  Our local rural electric co-op had to restore electric service to about 20% of its customers.  Fortunately Alex and I didn't lose any trees, but a large shrub in our yard looks like it got run over by a gravel truck.

Alex had walked down to get the mail (the boxes are at the entrance to our development, a mile from our house).  He encountered some rain on the way down, but about the time he got to the mailbox, the wind started.  On the way back, he had to detour around numerous fallen trees, got blown off the road a few times, and got soaked to the skin.  But he made it back in one piece, thank goodness!

One thing about a power outage in a rural area is that your plumbing doesn't work, because the pump at the bottom of your well runs on electricity.  We've started to think about having a generator installed.

 

Wow, I wonder if that was related to the storm that went through here about the same time. I was driving when it hit; terrifying. A couple of times I thought my car might get blown off the road. But as far as I know no one was hurt, even though tons of trees went down. One was blocking my home road, but fortunately a neighbor was out with a chainsaw by the time I got there. I've still got the debris on my roof; haven't had time to deal with it.

The funny part is, the power company was out just a few days before, marking all the roads where they plan to bury the lines so they won't have so much trouble with the trees causing power outages any more. Bad timing.... all the marks were washed away.  One step forward, one step back.......

[Carol the Dabbler]

9 hours ago, Arcadia said:

I wonder if that was related to the storm that went through here about the same time.

It went through here Saturday, May 21, right about 4 pm.  Looks like we're about 500 miles apart.  So at roughly 100 miles per hour, that'd be around 9 pm at your end, give or take an hour or so.  Judging by the way the trees fell, it was headed your direction!

9 hours ago, Arcadia said:

the power company was out just a few days before, marking all the roads where they plan to bury the lines so they won't have so much trouble with the trees causing power outages any more. Bad timing.... all the marks were washed away.

Well, at least they have good intentions!  Doubt we'll see electrical service going underground around here any time soon.

 

[Arcadia]

On 6/10/2022 at 6:45 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

It went through here Saturday, May 21, right about 4 pm.  Looks like we're about 500 miles apart.  So at roughly 100 miles per hour, that'd be around 9 pm at your end, give or take an hour or so.  Judging by the way the trees fell, it was headed your direction!

Not the same one, then, as I was driving on a Monday about 4 pm. But the date's about right. Maybe it took Sunday off?

[Carol the Dabbler]

I text people all the time, using their 10-digit cell-phone numbers, but now I need to text to one of those 6-digit text-only numbers.  How do I do that?  I don't even know what those 6-digit numbers are called, so I don't even know what to ask on an internet search!  

 

[Pamela]

22 minutes ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

I text people all the time, using their 10-digit cell-phone numbers, but now I need to text to one of those 6-digit text-only numbers.  How do I do that?  I don't even know what those 6-digit numbers are called, so I don't even know what to ask on an internet search!  

 

Say what? I've never heard of that. Six digits?

[Caya]

"As the popularity of text messaging rises, [note: yeah that page has been around a while apparently] it is common to see advertisements or contests where you can text a word or phrase to a short, six-digit number. These short numbers, also known as common short codes, operate in the same way as a regular phone number when you send a text to it. Texting a short code involves the same process as texting a regular number."

(source)

[Carol the Dabbler]

Thanks!  I'll try that.

Funny thing is, one company told me I could text them at a certain six-digit number -- and before I got around to it, they texted me from a (somewhat similar) five-digit number.  But I guess big companies have lots of regular phone numbers too.

8 hours ago, Pamela said:

I've never heard of that. Six digits?

You've never seen those ads that say you can accomplish something-or-other by texting a certain code to a certain number?  Those numbers are typically shorter than ten digits.

 

[Pamela]

12 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Thanks!  I'll try that.

Funny thing is, one company told me I could text them at a certain six-digit number -- and before I got around to it, they texted me from a (somewhat similar) five-digit number.  But I guess big companies have lots of regular phone numbers too.

You've never seen those ads that say you can accomplish something-or-other by texting a certain code to a certain number?  Those numbers are typically shorter than ten digits.

 

When I get texts from my pharmacy they come from a five or six-digit number, and the verification codes from my bank come from a five-digit number. And yes, I've seen some of those ads, now that you've reminded me. This sort of thing isn't available for real people, though, is it?

[Carol the Dabbler]

2 hours ago, Pamela said:

When I get texts from my pharmacy they come from a five or six-digit number, and the verification codes from my bank come from a five-digit number. And yes, I've seen some of those ads, now that you've reminded me. This sort of thing isn't available for real people, though, is it?

I've only seen those numbers from companies, but that doesn't necessarily mean they aren't available to individuals.  Judging by my examples and yours, it may be that the five-digit ones are for outgoing texts and the six-digit ones are for incoming.  The latter may be something like In-WATTS (i.e., toll free) phone numbers, which cost a lot more than a regular number.  Most people would have very little use for them, so they'd see no reason to fork over that much dough.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

On 6/6/2022 at 1:01 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

... there are now a dozen one-gallon (roughly four-liter) jugs of water down [in our basement].

I learned something else in the process of filling those jugs of emergency water:  Ordinary one-gallon plastic jugs (such as milk is sold in) do not age gracefully no matter how carefully you store them.

I had washed some empty milk jugs about five years ago and stored them in our basement, thinking they'd remain usable indefinitely.  (I knew better than to store them in the attic, where it gets hot.)  But as I was filling some with water a few weeks ago, I was surprised to see that several had pinhole leaks.  In the process of finding a dozen usable jugs, I rejected seven, and as I was squashing the leaky jugs flat for the recycling bin, a few of them actually shattered!

If I had saved all the one-gallon plastic vinegar jugs that I've emptied and discarded since they stopped using glass, I might have a dozen, and their nice thick plastic might remain usable indefinitely.  But how much vinegar can a person use?  I am now in the process of accumulating a dozen new milk jugs -- which I will need to replace every couple of years.

Nothing lasts forever.  *sigh*

 

[Arcadia]

On 6/26/2022 at 4:41 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

I learned something else in the process of filling those jugs of emergency water:  Ordinary one-gallon plastic jugs (such as milk is sold in) do not age gracefully no matter how carefully you store them.

Okay, this is good to know! One of my storage jugs is in fact a milk jug. The other is clear plastic -- apple juice jug, maybe? Something. I'll used them for comparison purposes. Check back in a couple of years.