I suggested to His Reverence that we might sing "Crown him with many crowns" on Sunday to see if that will ward it off. Also, refill the hand sanitisers.
However, I came here this morning to say that joy is unconfined, peace and harmony rules: my granddaughter has found exactly the right kind of porridge oats! I collected them yesterday and gave them the crucial test this morning. Put some in a bowl, added milk and a little sugar - and they tasted just as they should do.
On the box, in a mix of lower and upper case letters, it says:
Scott's porageoats
original
Scottish-milled oats
My d-in-l also sent home with me some home-made soup, two portions of lemon tart, and I'd had some of her home-made bread with coffee whilst there. So I'm afraid there's nothing to consign to the All saints hell this morning!
TICTH Marks & Sparks' online registration for their Sparks Card. I clicked on all the appropriate links, but when I got to the personal details page, the pull-down menu for "Title" wouldn't pull down, and as it was a required field, it wouldn't let me get any further.
Chuffing technology.
I think it may need to be all M&S online whatsits C-edTH. Tried to send a gift via their webpages just now. Filled in lots of info, including faffing with the address fields which weren't working well, and then it won't let me finish and pay for the darn thing.
TICTH the people who tried to scam me of all my money this morning. They rang up, claiming my router had been hacked, and led me through various security procedures. Even though I was careful not to give details out I was suspicious, and finally snapped when they told me to get out of the room with the computer because of the radiation coming out of my router. At this stage I closed everything down and contacted my bank, who confirmed it was a scam.
TICTH the people who tried to scam me of all my money this morning. They rang up, claiming my router had been hacked, and led me through various security procedures. Even though I was careful not to give details out I was suspicious, and finally snapped when they told me to get out of the room with the computer because of the radiation coming out of my router. At this stage I closed everything down and contacted my bank, who confirmed it was a scam.
People ringing you up claiming there's something wrong with your home computer or router are *always* - and I mean *always* - a scam.
Well, yes - you were attacked, in effect, which is why such intrusions belong in Hell. TBTG that you had the sense to realise in time what was happening.
I tend not to answer my phone when it rings, partly because it's often a job to get to the thing in time, anyway! If a message is left, or if I should recognise the 'last number', I'll call back. I guess this costs me more in the long run, but I don't mind.
These days I don't even have my answering machine (yes, an actual machine, not voice mail) turned on. For a long time, about 90% of my incoming calls have been scams or sales calls or political. My city had municipal elections a few days ago, and the Arizona primary is next week, so I'm assuming that the calls telling me for whom I should vote have increased. Almost all of the numbers showing up on caller i.d. are "unknown" or a number only (that I don't recognize) with no name. If I'm near the phone and recognize a name or number I'll probably answer, or if I'm away and check caller i.d. once I get home, then I'll call back. Most people who know me in real life know that I prefer email.
Same here, Moo. My phone provider lets me block any incoming number I choose, and they also have a spam call filter. None of the callers ever gets as far as to say what they actually want, and from the less experienced I occasionally hear perplexed silence. Which pleases me.
I was not happy to be woken by one of those Windows scammers yesterday. I hesitated while thinking about how to mess with his mind this time, and he came back, "Are you there, sir?" "NO!" I replied. Slight hesitation, "Sir, sir, are you there?" "NO!" Slam.
heheheheh. Some day, I want to have enough presence of mind that I start ordering a pizza from them.
I had a friend with the opposite situation. Her number was very close to that of a pizzeria. Most of her pizza calls were from people who'd had a few. She gave up trying to convince them they had a wrong number and started taking their orders. "Thin or thick crust? Do you want pepperoni on that?"
heheheheh. Some day, I want to have enough presence of mind that I start ordering a pizza from them.
I had a friend with the opposite situation. Her number was very close to that of a pizzeria. Most of her pizza calls were from people who'd had a few. She gave up trying to convince them they had a wrong number and started taking their orders. "Thin or thick crust? Do you want pepperoni on that?"
I did that once, but you never get to see the results. When we lived in Fife our number was close to a taxi company, and one filthy wet night, a somewhat ebriated person demanded a taxi in Rosyth. I told him to wait outside for it. He may still be there.
In our old parish, we had a number that was apparently very close to that of a brothel. The number of men who would not believe that "Kathy," "Lisa," or "Trixie" were unavailable--and that we were a church-- was astonishing. (never the same name twice, either)
My parents' phone number was not only an anagram of a taxi company (drunken requests in the middle of the night) but also of the local branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland (requests for overdrafts).
I stopped it in time, and my money is safe. Yet I'm surprised at how shaken I am by the experience; in a way I was sort of attacked in my own home.
You were attacked in your own home. I'm glad you escaped.
I let virtually all calls on the landline go to voicemail, because virtually all calls on the landline are scammers. If it's real, they can leave a message, and I might respond.
Our phone number is recycled from a builder's merchants that went bust a few years ago. our call screener has a message to that effect which cuts them down a lot - although the likes of Google and Yellow Pages don't have it any more, some people still have it on old lists.
We once got shouted at over the phone by a person who needed a plumber! They'd called Directory Enquiries, who had given them our number - the surname was the same, and the street was the same, but it really wasn't us!
I used to be parish secretary at St. X Church; there was another church of a different denomination named St. X. The other St. X, for some unknown reason, didn't have a listed telephone number, so of course I got all of their calls.
One indignant caller got angry when I denied our having a Montessori School -- she insisted that it was "downstairs." I tried to explain that we were on one level, no stairs. I had another call from a doctor's office returning a call about a sick child at the Montessori School. (How can you leave a message at a doctor's office, asking them to call back about a sick child, and not leave a number?!?)
That same church had a booming business in weddings, as well as a hall they rented out for receptions, and a catering service. One Monday morning I checked the answering machine messages. A bakery had called with a question about where to deliver a wedding cake. I wonder if it ever arrived at the reception.
The north American banking system... In much of the civilised world you can transfer money between personal accounts in different countries with a few key strokes at the computer, and it is done. Unless we use services that charge large fees, to send emergency cash across the Canada-US border we must drive into town, buy a paper money order at the bank that goes through a Dickensian Bob Cratchit type process to prepare it, and then mail it, hoping that it won't take more than a week to get there. However, once it gets there, our daughter can scan it with her telephonious electronic talking device and then send it to her bank. I figured that I could do the scanning right here and email it to her, and then she could send it to the bank herself. We'll see if that works, but how much more difficult would it be for the bank to do the whole wretched operation, with no paper involved? This has been commonplace, worldwide, for donkey's years. I know Americans are terrified of money laundering, and this is one of their cunning defences against it, but I'm not donald trump dealing with Deutsche Bank - I'm simply trying to help a struggling mother buy a new washing machine. It's not money that we're trying to launder, confound it all.
TICTH services that either:
1) Say they are available in your area until you get around to putting an order in when suddenly they are NOT.
2) Have on Facebook that they are still open during the outbreak but are clearly NOT.
TICTH the di*kheads who, despite the need to restrict travel to that which is essential, persist in roaring around the streets on ridiculous, and incredibly noisy, quad bikes, oblivious to other traffic (admittedly sparse), pedestrians (also sparse), and cyclists (quite a few more than usual!).
Still, they don't have to wear crash-helmets, so, if they fall off and kill themselves, it's evolution in action...
*hushed and reverent voice* - do you by any chance mean the POTUS?
If so, you're right that he doesn't (TBTG) post on here. Twitface - now that's another matter...
How do we know that??? He's been known to post under fake names before (e.g., John Barron). Or he could lurk but not post, but that's dubious since he can't restrain himself.
Please stop going on and on and on and on and ON about Coronavirus and asking whether we've all washed our hands in the last 30 seconds.
If you don't shut up, you won't die of Corona. I'm going to kill you first. 🤬
I certainly second that one! I phoned the surgery to make an appointment and had to listen to a long warning message - twice - before I could speak to a person.
Always wash your hands before using a telephone, you don't want to infect the person answering your call.
TICTH over 70s who are stuck at home and have too much time on their hands. Not all of them. Some are doing good things like quietly getting on with phoning neighbour. But some are writing dubious theology and insisting I disseminate it through congregational means. And of course I won’t, but really.....
Seriously, though, I know it is hard for those who have always given a lead to be told that they can’t run around organising things (they can organise things, but not run around, so not do it the way they know). But at least in my communities, it is giving the Gen X ears and younger the chance to show that if not told to fill pre-determined roles, but given a problem to deal with, they are pretty good at taking initiative. I hope all the old soldiers who complain that no one cares about the village will realise this and eat their words. Not sanguine.
I don't know if I should consign myself or my host congregation. I have just received a fucking email from them in which they offer to bring communion to any family who asks, in their home, when we are under a fucking lockdown. They have previously invited people to stop by the church office to chat, during the "please isolate yourself please please PLEASE but we won't fine you yet" period we had last week.
I know, I know, it's the Lord's Supper. But they are talking about home visits to anyone who asks--not to people in extremis. No social distancing (at least, none mentioned.) No minimum number of people present. No mention of consecration from a distance or any other work-around. Multiple home visits, given that the congregation is large and they are setting no parameters beyond "you asked for it." Are they expecting God to miraculously prevent them from becoming disease vectors?
I think this falls under "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Tell me I'm wrong.
Comments
However, I came here this morning to say that joy is unconfined, peace and harmony rules: my granddaughter has found exactly the right kind of porridge oats! I collected them yesterday and gave them the crucial test this morning. Put some in a bowl, added milk and a little sugar - and they tasted just as they should do.
On the box, in a mix of lower and upper case letters, it says:
Scott's porageoats
original
Scottish-milled oats
My d-in-l also sent home with me some home-made soup, two portions of lemon tart, and I'd had some of her home-made bread with coffee whilst there. So I'm afraid there's nothing to consign to the All saints hell this morning!
I think it may need to be all M&S online whatsits C-edTH. Tried to send a gift via their webpages just now. Filled in lots of info, including faffing with the address fields which weren't working well, and then it won't let me finish and pay for the darn thing.
(Edited for grammar.)
I feel like throwing the lot out......
People ringing you up claiming there's something wrong with your home computer or router are *always* - and I mean *always* - a scam.
I tend not to answer my phone when it rings, partly because it's often a job to get to the thing in time, anyway! If a message is left, or if I should recognise the 'last number', I'll call back. I guess this costs me more in the long run, but I don't mind.
That, IMHO, sounds a most Delightfully Evil Thought...
I did that once, but you never get to see the results. When we lived in Fife our number was close to a taxi company, and one filthy wet night, a somewhat ebriated person demanded a taxi in Rosyth. I told him to wait outside for it. He may still be there.
I let virtually all calls on the landline go to voicemail, because virtually all calls on the landline are scammers. If it's real, they can leave a message, and I might respond.
One indignant caller got angry when I denied our having a Montessori School -- she insisted that it was "downstairs." I tried to explain that we were on one level, no stairs. I had another call from a doctor's office returning a call about a sick child at the Montessori School. (How can you leave a message at a doctor's office, asking them to call back about a sick child, and not leave a number?!?)
That same church had a booming business in weddings, as well as a hall they rented out for receptions, and a catering service. One Monday morning I checked the answering machine messages. A bakery had called with a question about where to deliver a wedding cake. I wonder if it ever arrived at the reception.
Then, hieing me to The Electric Interweb to catch up on the news (and the Ship), I completely forgot about the pizza. For an hour.
It was as black as coal, so has been inserted into the firebox, to perform that useful function instead.
Baked potato, and Pork PIE, but - wait! What's that smell of burning??
1) Say they are available in your area until you get around to putting an order in when suddenly they are NOT.
2) Have on Facebook that they are still open during the outbreak but are clearly NOT.
Thanks
Still, they don't have to wear crash-helmets, so, if they fall off and kill themselves, it's evolution in action...
Which I picked up for about tuppence from a Jumble Sale, somewhen back in the previous century...
If so, you're right that he doesn't (TBTG) post on here. Twitface - now that's another matter...
The Great Orange God-Emperor (aka Trump) actually lurking on our pristine decks, and perhaps even posting ?
This cannot be borne, so please pass the WHISKY.
Seriously, though, I know it is hard for those who have always given a lead to be told that they can’t run around organising things (they can organise things, but not run around, so not do it the way they know). But at least in my communities, it is giving the Gen X ears and younger the chance to show that if not told to fill pre-determined roles, but given a problem to deal with, they are pretty good at taking initiative. I hope all the old soldiers who complain that no one cares about the village will realise this and eat their words. Not sanguine.
I know, I know, it's the Lord's Supper. But they are talking about home visits to anyone who asks--not to people in extremis. No social distancing (at least, none mentioned.) No minimum number of people present. No mention of consecration from a distance or any other work-around. Multiple home visits, given that the congregation is large and they are setting no parameters beyond "you asked for it." Are they expecting God to miraculously prevent them from becoming disease vectors?
I think this falls under "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Tell me I'm wrong.