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Post by Operetta on Oct 3, 2024 20:17:19 GMT -5
Just recovering from the summer and getting ready to head back to Japan. Our office is getting renovated, which started during our busiest month of the year. Great timing! But the reno is complete now. We won't be getting to move in though before we leave, so everyone else will have to move our stuff in for us. XD
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Post by tierasa on Oct 3, 2024 20:31:20 GMT -5
I got a promotion, so I'll actually have one of those offices instead of hiding in my file room. I'm looking forward to decorating it with all of my awesome Japanese goodies. I'm definitely ready to be out of our temporary digs on campus though. A two-person room rotated between our entire office is chaos. I'm ready to have my real desktop back.
EDIT: I also went back to school. I figured my dad would want that for me.
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Post by Angel_of_Music on Oct 4, 2024 22:44:19 GMT -5
As stated in my last post....I'm taking driving lessons XD
Second lesson back on October 1st went really well. My instructor arrived at the apartment to pick me up, but instead of her driving to the driving school, she had ME drive to the driving school. This included two round abouts, which I did well with. She took me the back ways to the school and once there, I got to perform parallel parking. I did five of those very nicely. She took me out on to the two exam courses to prepare me for what I was in for. I just have to remember to watch my speed, watch my mirrors, watch my lines and remember to come to FULL and COMPLETE stops at the stop signs and be either at the line or just a tiny bit behind it. So far I've been doing good with that. After that she had me drive to the one shopping center and to the Kohl's. I practiced parking. First it was in an empty bank lot and left turns first. She showed me what I was doing and helped me perfect my left turn ins, which I got better with. Then she had me do one to the right and I did well. Next was backing up, which I did good. Then into the main parking lot. She picked a spot first to the right between two cars and I was good. Back up, go around the lot and she found a spot to the left and I got it. Yay! Then on to the 'big person' road...the highway. She had me stay in the one lane and we took the 10 mile drive from the shopping center all the way down to another town I know well enough. I made a nice merge off of the highway to the exit ramp, made the left and I knew where we were going, so that made it easy for her. Nice back way back to the apartment. Got back to the apartment, made the nice left hand turn into the driveway and end of lessons. My instructor is really happy with my progress and says that I'll do well on my exam.
Now, Dad took me out on Wednesday. He had me drive and I got to pick where we went. So we made a trip to the storage unit. I grabbed one bin, my 'witch' hat, bag of table cloths and my Lucius Malfoy cane/wand. Got out of there and he had me drive all over before he told me the way to Quakertown. Good lord. We went to the car wash there and I got to experience the car wash from the driver's side XD Once done there, back on the highway, but we stopped at Spirit Halloween. Now, he said 'okay, pick a spot'. He didn't specify!! I pulled straight into a parking space, no turn in. Yea, I cheated, lol. We went in and snooped a little and he got a prop skull for when he demos Frontier medicine with the scouts and I got two of the Lilo and Stitch blind bag keychains. Done there and I got to back out of the spot. Did a nice back up/turn and was good. We get back to the apartment and the usual line up of cars on the sides of the streets is there. Crap. Tight when two cars are trying to get by going opposite ways. I get to where I need to be for the driveway and have my signal on. There's a car parking at the curb in back of another car out front of the apartment. That car stopped, was not moving, I was clear, I started to make the turn and JUST as the front end of the Buick is three feet into the driveway entrance...the car at the curb starts to back up!!! I was not about to hit the gas and DART into the driveway. Dad would have killed me and/or I could have lost control. No. As it is, the backing up car literally BUMPED the Buick and then stopped. Dad told me 'it's okay, it's not your fault, just pull up and stop, it's not your fault'. So I pulled up half way into the driveway, parked and Dad got out and dealt with the 'Karen' that got out and started going off on him. The thing is? SHE WASN'T DRIVING!!! At the one point she went 'do you want me to call the cops?' and my Dad went 'by all means, go ahead' in a 'go ahead, make my day' tone. He then said 'there's no damage to my car, no scratch, no dent, nothing. Is there any damage to your car?' and the woman turned to the woman who WAS driving and asked 'is there ANY damage to the car? Any damage at all?' and the woman who was driving looked and said 'no, there's no damage, not even a scratch'. My Dad said 'there, there's no damage to either vehicle, she's not upset about it, have a nice day', turned and headed back for the passenger side. He got in and I went 'Karen?' and he went 'oh yea'. So once he was in and door was closed, I pulled around and...end of driving day. He said I did really good...despite the 'not on me' oopsie at the end. Here's the thing, the car was NOT moving when I had started to pull into the driveway, the back up lights of the car did NOT come on til AFTER I had started to enter the driveway. Yup, not my fault.
Today Dad came over and we took a quick 'jog' out. Just a simple run to Quakertown as he needed to go to the GNC. So he took me the back ways, which included the one round about. I did good with that. He then took me down a side road that took me on to route 309. I took that the rest of the way to Walmart and...oh yea that was interesting, but I did good. Again no merging, just stayed to one lane. Got to GNC and I did a nice parking. Dad got out and went in, I stayed in the car. He came back and said 'okay, you are actually very nicely centered in the parking space. Now you get to back out of the space, not pull through'. So I put the car in reverse and I very nicely backed out without hitting any of the cars in the spaces behind me. Yay me. He had me go through the Walmart area, just out front where pedestrians were crossing and I did very well with that. Around to the movie theater to the back entrance of the shopping area, made a right and back way back. This included three round abouts...one of which was one I had taken on the way out. I did the first two nicely and we get back to the one I had taken on the way out and....there was a cop sitting there. Oh fun. My Dad was going 'slow down, impress the cop'. Haha. So I made the slow, gentle entry into the round about, the nice smooth turn and the nice smooth exit out of the round about, a little gas and up the hill. Yay XD Start down the back way back to the apartment and instead of going down the way he usually takes, he takes me back to the light on 5th street, but coming at it the way I did, it's up a slight hill. He didn't tell me how to make the turn and not have the car roll back. While sitting at the red light with my right foot on the brake, I moved my left foot over til it was on the brake and then I moved my right foot over to the gas. When the light turned green, I gave it a little gas while easing off the brake at the same time and made the turn perfectly. Dad went 'wow, I didn't even have to tell you how to do that turn.'. It made me feel good. Got back to the apartment, cars once again on either side of the street and this time no 'Karen'. Made the turn into the driveway and end of lesson. Was out for about an hour and a half and he said I'm doing really well.
Tuesday October 8th is my final lesson and my exam. During the first hour I can work on anything I'd like to maybe work on and if I'm comfortable enough, she'll have me do a little lane merging. After that...exam time. I know I can do it, I just have to remember to watch my lines, watch my mirrors, watch my speed, full and complete stops at the line at stop signs, and breath. I say 'watch my lines' because apparently in the Buick I tend to hug the white line a little. I think because the Buick is longer fronted and a bit wider than the Soul, I tend to want to try and stay to the right a little more because I don't want to be too close to the middle line. I did better though with that today. i know i'll get better in time though.
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Post by Mr. Pooka on Oct 5, 2024 19:20:32 GMT -5
Oooo, I've got some catching up to do!
I meant to take a couple days off... sort of a 'turn it off and on again' sort of refresh but must have gotten stuck in some updating loop... I literally have no idea where all the time went!
Super happy birthday to everyone I missed, which seems to me a lot of summer people!
...really not to much to catch up on my end, mostly working on some RPs and Sphinx Projects...
Blueberries were pretty good this year and I've got a couple bags in the freezer, (-8 I also picked a bag of bunchberries this year, cuz I stumbled onto a huge area of them... if anyone isn't familiar, they are an easily identified bunch of red berries preceded by cute white flowers. They are almost tasteless and have a hard crunchy seed in the middle, not exactly a market favorite. ...but, that being said, they are actually quite nutritious and have a hidden super power, which is that they are loaded with Pectin, perfect for mixing with other berries to make jams. (as a 'part of our history' note, they were also an easily picked and commonly harvested native berry, very healthy and a common pemmican mix in!)
I'm planning on heading out tomorrow with the camera though! It's perfectly fall around here... (and our power will be out most of tomorrow for some kind of maintenance, so even more incentive to get outside!)
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Post by Sweetintoxikation on Oct 6, 2024 18:25:17 GMT -5
I haven't been doing a whole lot myself.
Though I am teaching myself how to water color. ^^ That's been fun.
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Post by wolfrysk on Oct 7, 2024 14:16:41 GMT -5
Hihi!
Haven't been up to too much myself. We've been working on getting the grandparents' home prepped to sell and on PI I've been busy busy working on several adoptables. Halloween is a popular time XD
We avoided Helene here, but I'm sure a lot of you have seen Milton is heading this way too. It is hitting on the west coast and going north and I'm on the south east coast so that's good (though still going to be a heck of a lot of bad weather)
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Post by melodysangel on Oct 7, 2024 14:25:35 GMT -5
ive been on an emotional roller-coaster and am both overwhelmed and burnt out.
I was gardening at my parents today and slowly trying to get mine sorted. Need hubby to help with the digging and splitting.
Trying to take advantage of this windy season of awesomemess
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Post by Angel_of_Music on Oct 8, 2024 14:20:42 GMT -5
Well...ladies and gents. I had my final driving lesson today. My instructor picked me up at the apartment and because of construction going on out front of the apartment, she pulled in and around to the back lot of the apartment parking. So this meant I got to pull out of the driveway. I made a right out of the driveway and then we went left and she took me the long way along the back roads to the driving school. We had an hour to kill honestly and since I felt confident enough, we didn't have to brush up on anything. We got to the school and she had me do a couple of parallel parks, then she had me do the two driving courses, which aren't that big, but just enough for a course. Got back to the school and she had me pull next to some bushes and we went over the controls real quick, then went inside. We had a little wait for my examiner, but once he was there and all set, off we went. The exam went well and he was impressed with my parallel parking job and then we went out on the road. He was very impressed with my zipper merge right after the light and we did the course. Got back to the school, he said 'okay pick a spot on the right and pull in'. I found a parking spot, lined up and pulled in nicely and put it in park. He looked at me and said 'well, I can see that you are going to do very well on the road. You got a perfect score, a 0. Well done.'. I...feel so good. So we went in and made it official. I'm in the system, so in about 6 to 10 days I should be getting a card in the mail to which I can take that to where I got my permit issued and I can get my official driver's license. Yup, I passed my exam and get get a real driver's license, no longer just a photo ID...a real license. Me with the car I was driving for lessons and exam and my certificate Me with their 'I passed my driver's exam' sign My certificate....I should get a frame |
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Post by PookaWitch on Oct 8, 2024 14:38:19 GMT -5
Super congrats Angel_of_Music! I know how hard it can be to try learning driving past your teen years (TBH I never learned how to drive. So you're braver then I am. ^_^ ) I love hearing what you guys have been up to. Mr. Pooka pretty much covered it for us. RP and drawing a lot for me. Par for the course. |
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Post by Angel_of_Music on Oct 8, 2024 18:54:40 GMT -5
Thank you  It was a loooooong time coming. Having had my permit three times now and the first two times having them expire because parents weren't able to help me out that much, then with what happened last year, my Dad made it 'his mission' to get this done. When I had my permit the second time, he kept saying he was going to get me enrolled in the driving school and...that never happened. At least this time it happened. I had a great instructor and I really felt relaxed. PookaWitch oh believe me, if I could have stayed that way, without getting my license, I'd probably be fine with that, but given that if I wanted to go to Walmart or someplace up that way, I'd have to talk to my Dad and see what day was okay with him. Same for if I wanted to go to a movie or something. Now, granted, since I have my license now, he's not going to just hand me the keys to the Buick and say 'have fun', but at least when I am able to have the Buick here and he trusts me enough with it, then...yea...I'll be able to make those trips to Walmart and the movie theater and be able to go see some people and if I get invited to something, I'll be able to drive myself there and not have to wait for a ride from Dad or have said person come get me. If I still lived in Pottstown, I'd be fine as far as Walmart, movie theater and grocery store because I can just take the bus to the movie theater and the other grocery store. Plus this way with having a car....means I can go to Ren Faire as much as I want >.> |
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Post by Mr. Pooka on Oct 11, 2024 16:20:00 GMT -5
...finally mostly caught up with all the boring rl stuff...
While its still a bit to hot, the fall has been lovely up here! I've got a couple outdoor things to get accomplished and I'll have to take some pictures, (-8 We went out one day just for the view, but it was pretty dark and dismal for photography (though still lovely!), and we had an out of town appointment just the other day which as also a lovely drive! ...we don't get to head the Sault direction often and couldn't have asked for better scenery, (-8 (we were on a schedule though, and it was dark by the time it was all accomplished, so no pics again!) We did see lots of bald eagles though... they show up from all over when the salmon are running, (-8 (I've also got to get out and fight the eagles for my share of salmon in the next couple of days!)
...and I think I've got the life balance of Sphinxes and Wilderness adventure just about balanced again till the snow gets here, (-8
*watches Pooka finish a cool something new and heads to get a copy and play...*
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Post by melodysangel on Oct 14, 2024 13:14:53 GMT -5
Happy thanksgiving <3
We are crashing today. Yesterday was filled with shenanigans from both families and included apple picking in the rain >>
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Post by Operetta on Oct 14, 2024 19:29:15 GMT -5
Happy Thanksgiving to our northern friends!
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Post by PookaWitch on Oct 19, 2024 13:42:19 GMT -5
So, it's our 28th wedding anniversary today, and Mr. Pooka bought me a 'little' present. He still needs more stuffing. lol I had to check and I can 'just' sleep in my bed without moving him... he's heavy! (And I don't have a pokeflute.) |
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Post by Sweetintoxikation on Oct 19, 2024 17:34:53 GMT -5
Happy Anniversary!!!
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It was a loooooong time coming. Having had my permit three times now and the first two times having them expire because parents weren't able to help me out that much, then with what happened last year, my Dad made it 'his mission' to get this done. When I had my permit the second time, he kept saying he was going to get me enrolled in the driving school and...that never happened. At least this time it happened. I had a great instructor and I really felt relaxed.