Cookies are bad for your laptop.

I'm eating a Christmas cookie, and a crumb fell on the touchpad of the laptop. I dab it with my finger to pick it up, and now my touchpad doesn't work. Restart. Still doesn't work. It does have an amber light in the upper left, so I don't think it is broken. I dug out the traveling laptop, the one I use in hotels because there's nothing personal on it, and google "Disable touchpad". Turns out if I tap the upper left corner of the touchpad, as one does as there is a crumb there, it disables the touchpad. Tapping it twice re-enables it. I've had this laptop 3 or 4 years, never knew that.

Earlier, I was attempting to book a hotel room so that we can visit the granddaughter for her birthday. The hotel's website was acting up and I was unable to reserve a room, but at one point a price came up less than what I normally get. So last night, I tried again, their website was acting normally. I copied the url and opened it in a private window. In private windows, the browser can't read your existing cookies. The lesser rate came up again. "Holiday rate" it said, even though we aren't booking until mid January. I was able to book the room at the lesser rate. I tried again for a second stay, we're going to Chicago in February, but it didn't work. Maybe the hidden promotion only lasted until the end of January. But, in the future, I'm going to book in a private window just to see what happens.

Now is the winter of discontent. OK not really but it is time for the final tabulation of my yearly spending. Not just discretionary but all spending.

Even though I track spending during the year it is with much trepidation that I open my year end summaries.

2023 will be a bust given the purchase of my big blue trike but that is the exception. The review is more about my budgeting.

So, holding my nose here I go!

PS: I should add that I am fortunate in that I can still afford some splurging...for now.

It took a couple of years but I just got a message from Amazon Prime that TV shows and movies will no longer be ad free. I must pay 2.99 more PER MONTH to go ad free.

Guess Who Finally Showed Up
 

Old man Winter finally made an appearance in Nova Scotia this weekend. After a green Christmas and New Year, I only had to dust out our 1/4 mile driveway once in January. Most of our precipitation came as rain.
Mother Nature, cue the Stones:"I used to love her, but it's all over now "
The easy part was shoveling the approach to the door step. It was only about 3 feet deep at the most. The yard was pretty much blown clear. However it took another half hour to punch a hole through the drifts to the barn with the tractor. I haven't summoned the courage to look at the rest of the lane.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1707134173.jpg

It reminds me of 2015. We got nothing before mid January the got dumped on.
I'll try to get some more pics this afternoon.

Best
Les

$7 million for 30 seconds! :eek: :eek:

So after a couple of hours of pushing and blowing snow, we could get a vehicle out if we were desperate enough to try. Dental appointments for the wife and granddaughter are canceled. Strangely the blowing snow advisory has ended. Ha!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1707144787.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1707144787.jpg

The wind is supposed to ease off a bit this afternoon. Fingers crossed.

Best
Les

Good luck with that! Stay safe.

I'm looking at the floods in Cali right now. Yikes.

I live on higher ground so flooding highly unlikely here. I cannot imagine what it must be like in Cali right now.

The wildest thing is we live in western Nova Scotia. We only got the edge of the storm. The eastern end and Cape Breton got better than 3 feet. :eek:
I try to keep sight of the fact that in 6 weeks it should be maple season.

Best
Les

I love the smell of the sap cookers in the woods!

@Flatbutt1 - I'll tell you what it's like in So Cal. Wet.
This is a pic of our rain gauge from 1 Feb, a less than 24 hour total.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1707154132.JPG

I haven't emptied the gauge yet this morning but it's sitting at 1.75" right now and it's still raining. Should rain all day and into tomorrow too from the looks of the sat pics.

I guess I spent another 3 hours on the tractor this afternoon. Although the wind is forecast to keep blowing and gusting for another 24 hours the temperature is at the melting point so it should stay put. 20 plus liters of diesel in the last three days. I'll have to clean it out again in the morning. Maybe they won't cancel school. The granddaughter did enjoy the drifts I put up.

Best
Les

That's a tough go E. The temp got up to 39 degrees here today. I used to burn 4 tons of pellets as recently as 10 years ago. Thus far I've burned less than 2 tons.

In praise of high performance cornering... whether it be cats or rally drivers.

https://imgur.com/gallery/1S1n2Nq

Great clip of the cat and rally car.

When I looked out the window this morning I was pleased to see no accumulation in the door yard. After breakfast I thought I'd just run the tractor up the lane to clear any bit of snow which might make the walk to the school bus slippery. HA!
The whole lane had drifted in to the height of the berms on the east side. I managed to punch a path up through and have another couple of hours of work before I go to the nursing home to play this afternoon.
:mad:
I guess we were back ordered for snow from January.
Edit: I ended up doing another 3 1/2 hours getting the packed snow scraped and blown out.
It drifted a bit while I was at the home. At least I had a good time playing and singing for the folks.
Best
Les

Hot honey pizza? :eek:

Holy farkin heck!
 

At 16 seconds

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/watch-amazon-driver-escapes-death-after-barreling-amtrak-train-slices-truck-in-half/ar-BB1iGq1O

Dude just shakes his head as if in "man I'm havin' a day!"

This might could be fun
 

Florida Man Games!

https://www.thefloridamangames.com/

https://people.com/evading-arrest-among-events-at-florida-man-games-cops-volunteered-as-chasers-8383726

Einstein School of Medicine gets a $1 billion dollar donation and goes tuition free for as long as it lasts. Sacred feces!

THIS is a Mom in action

https://nypost.com/2024/03/24/us-news/fearless-nyc-mom-adriana-alvarez-fights-teen-daughters-hulking-alleged-kidnapper-down-four-flights-of-stairs-in-insane-video/

Why oh why do writers make men on TV so freakin' stupid? For example, I was cruising through the offerings on streaming and came across Cedric the Entertainers show The Neighborhood. Wow. What a study in caricature stupidity. IDK if that's the point but it's not watchable.

I know some truly stupid men but none that are like what I see on TV.