-=> Quoting Damon A. Getsman to Nancy Backus on 06-May-2015 08:47 <=-

 DAG>> More of just a day to be a beach bum, maybe cook some hotfrogs,
 DAG>> throw some recreational spheres around, all of that jazz.  ;)
 NB>> That sounds like fun... did you get to, and did he enjoy it...?
 DAG> Alas, plans got pre-empted last weekend.  Not sure if we'll get a
 DAG> chance to try again this weekend.  I'd like to do something nice for
 DAG> him, because there was a carnival around that we were going to try to
 DAG> hit early this week, and that fell through, too.  At least he didn't
 DAG> know about it; I learned from a fellow parent friend not so long ago to
 DAG> not really inform the little guy about what may be planned until it's
 DAG> actually going down, just in case something like that comes up.  Saves
 DAG> on the shattered dreams for the day kind of scenerios.

How old is he, again...?  At some point, he ought to be able to learn how
to take disappointment in stride... but that does take some maturity. :)
It does, though, help if one wasn't setting one's heart on it... ;)  

 DAG> A few fires
 DAG> got set on the contract work that I was doing that made keeping up with
 DAG> the beach bumming impossible.  I ended up having to do a work crunch
 DAG> on Sunday that blew it out of the water.  Should've tried harder to get
 DAG> out on Saturday, I suppose, but I was busy catching up on chores most
 DAG> of that day. Anyhoo, it will definitely be happening soon here.

That sounds a bit of a "good news, bad news" situation... :)  Good that
the work is picking up, bad that you didn't have the time available for
the fun things...

 NB>> Something one just can't see ahead of time... and sometimes one just
 NB>> doesn't have a lot of choice in circumstances until things get more
 NB>> under control...  Hopefully you'll be able to find a better location
 NB>> for your and your son's needs and wellbeing...  :)
 DAG> Well, with the hours cap on my contract just having been quadrupled,
 DAG> it looks like I'll be able to start getting a savings account ready for
 DAG> a scenerio like this fairly soon here.  Needless to say I'm pretty
 DAG> pumped about the whole issue.  This paycheck to paycheck crap gets old
 DAG> rapidly, especially when one has a charge to look after.  It may
 DAG> actually be time to stop just looking at general neighborhoods and
 DAG> start looking for rentals somewhat soon here.  I'll keep my fingers
 DAG> crossed on that.  They're only lifting the hours limit for a few weeks
 DAG> while more fires are being put out, but I believe that after a few
 DAG> weeks of that there may be more contracts that need some work done on
 DAG> them. 

Sounds quite promising...  paycheck to paycheck is better than no
paycheck at all... but it certainly is nicer to have a reasonable amount
coming in regularly...  :)

 NB>> That's a shame... so the stress was mostly just on the way there...?
 NB>> and relieved by the camping itself...?
 DAG> Well it was on the way there and back.  So approximately 5 hours of
 DAG> shite were mixed in with 3/4 of a day out in the woods, half of which
 DAG> was sleeping. It was relieved by the camping, but then the way back was
 DAG> worse than the way there, so it almost negated everything.  After I got
 DAG> back and was able to chill out for awhile I think it was still a net
 DAG> positive, though.  If not for me, at least for my son, who had a couple
 DAG> of other kids to play with.  They had a great time, when they weren't
 DAG> in the van.  It was great to see him playing hard nonstop with the
 DAG> other kids the whole time there.  Definitely something that he needed. 

So, if I understand correctly, you went with some others in a van to go
camping...?  A couple of families with kids...?  Was this some sort of
organized program, or something that people just got together to do...? 
Sounds like a long trip... hard for kids to be cooped up that long...

 DAG> Heck, I'd deal with a net negative as long as he was getting something
 DAG> like that.  My old bones can take some aggravation to make sure that
 DAG> his childhood gets as much suckiness pulled out of it as possible.  ;)

Yes, at least he and the other kids had a chance to run and play... and
sleep outside for the night...  ;)  Too bad it wasn't a little longer in
the camping phase, for the long trip there and back...  

 NB>> Sounds like you just have to learn not to let your imagination run away
 NB>> with you...    Or move to someplace where the danger is less (or you
 NB>> don't know about the dangers [g])...
 DAG> Oh definitely.  I haven't mentioned that one of my hobbies is
 DAG> writing fiction, which normally devolves into horror sometime by the
 DAG> tenth page or so. I've got a great imagination for that stuff and it
 DAG> does, definitely, get out of hand sometimes.  ;) 

Just gotta remember that fictional isn't necessarily reality...  ;)

 DAG> Here is real great for the imagination, being nestled cozily in
 DAG> between two active volcanos and on a fault like that's quite a ways
 DAG> overdue for a magnitude 8+ quake in a city that isn't prepared for
 DAG> that sort of tumbler what so ever.  The chances are either 30 percent
 DAG> for it in the next 50 years or 50 percent in the next 30 years. 
 DAG> Can't remember for sure, the dyslexia is getting me.  ;) 

That still gives at least 50% chance that it WON'T happen...  :)  Maybe
not even in your lifetime...  ;)

 DAG> Either way, for that magnitude of a quake it's scary as hell for
 DAG> someone with an imagination like my own.  I just hope I'm not in any
 DAG> sort of brick structure when that goes down, if I'm still here. 

Sometimes you just have to curb the imagination and not let it run away
with you... 

 NB>> It doesn't hurt to have similar threads happening in different echoes...
 NB>> there's at least a potential that way of engaging different people in
 NB>> the conversation(s)... eg Maurice is here and in Asian_Link, but not in
 NB>> Memories... and some are only in Memories...  :)
 DAG> That's very true.  Didn't think about it like that.  It's nice to
 DAG> have different people jumping in from time to time.  :)

Quite..  :)

 NB>> I made a habit a long time ago of saving messages to and from me (and a
 NB>> few others, on occasion) for any echo I was active in.  It just makes
 NB>> finding the information a little easier.  :)  I also save my Reply
 NB>> packets, just in case I need to re-send something... that saved me a
 NB>> number of times when I'd written out an involved genealogy message...
 NB>> no re-typing needed, just an extract and insert into a new message.  :)
 DAG> I used to do that quite awhile ago, but I definitely got out of the
 DAG> habit. The interface that I use to get on my BBS is a little bit
 DAG> difficult for cutting 'n pasting, so I think if I were to do that I'd
 DAG> probably try coding something right into the interface that would help
 DAG> me deal with it a little bit easier. Then again, using a QWK method
 DAG> like you're talking about would probably make that quick 'n easy, too.

Offline readers are quite the godsend at times, to be sure... :) 
Especially since I'm in DOS, not exactly what you'd call a multi-tasking
environment...  ;) 

ttyl        neb

... Actually, cats are quite good at domesticating humans.

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