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nancypullen · 2 months ago

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Still Alive

I haven't posted in ages because I've been blue and no one likes a whiner. I've spent my entire life being a cheerleader for others, encouraging, lifting, and seeking silver linings - but I seem unable to do that for myself. So, I apologize for the lack of blog posts, but they wouldn't have been fun anyway.

When I need a lift I usually turn to gardening or art. Gardening here has been one disappointment after another. I'm used to planning and executing beautiful floral landscapes, doesn't seem to matter what I do here - I get diddly squat. Interesting enough, I don't see any other yards with a bounty of flowers or pretty spaces, lots of Knockout Roses but that's about it. Remember the German Pink tomato plant that I brought back from Lancaster? It's incredibly healthy and over 6 feet tall. It's been producing yellow blossoms since May without a single fruit. But look what I spied this week....finally!

Three tiny tomatoes on the eve of September. What the hell? If I'm very, very lucky and I don't make eye contact with them or say something stupid like, "I can't wait to taste a fresh tomato", I might get to pick them. I'm not holding my breath. The pumpkins have been blooming like crazy, not a fruit in sight. Without baby pumpkins by September 1st, there will be no Halloween pumpkins. Just another disappointment. I did everything I was supposed to do. I babied them, tried hand pollinating (I have yet to see a female bloom so I guess I was hoping for a same sex miracle), gave them expensive fertilizer - nothing worked. I truly think our biggest problem here is a lack of pollinators. It's very rare to see a bee, and I actually make a note in my journal when a hummingbird appears because it's also rare. I don't see moths or even beetles. Side note: I don't miss those @#$%!& Japanese Beetles. I don't know if what the farmers spray just kills everything in the area, or if there's more that I can do to attract those helpers. Guess I'll research it this winter, ever hopeful. Since gardening has not been uplifting, there's always art. I decided to try my hand at working with air dry clay. I saw some fun projects online and thought I'd give it a whirl. My plan was to make some ghosts that I could put a little tea light under. The first step was to build some sort of frame that the clay could drape over to be shaped and then to dry. I used a bottle of paint and a ball of aluminum foil. As always, my surly assistant was judging me.

That particular ghost started to crack while he dried. I think his bottom half was too heavy. I tried to just turn the crack into a smile, but it didn't work. I tried a second one with a simpler bottom, but had the same result.

I obviously need to read some tips and figure this out. Instead I grabbed a log of polymer clay from my stash and decided I'd just bake myself a ghost. That's when I had to figure out how to make a frame for him that could be baked. I found a little bud vase and some more foil, and it worked! This is him after being removed from the oven.

I gave him a quick coat of paint because the polymer clay was a translucent sort, not white. Then I grabbed this tissue paper...

and cut out some candy corn. With a little Mod Podge we have ourselves a Halloween ghost!

Okay, he's far from perfect, but after two failures I was tickled to have a whole ghost. Don't judge me.

Yesterday morning I decided to try making another ghost with the air dry clay, but not one that is hollow inside. Just a little ghost statue that I can paint. I was busy shaping him, my head full of ideas, and started making pumpkins on either side of him. Bad idea, it looked like a penis. I removed all but one small pumpkin and he is currently drying and waiting for my paintbrush.

Don't judge it just yet. It will be smoothed and shaped a little more. I also want him to look a little droopy because my plan is to paint him to look like a patchwork quilt. There's a children's book somewhere in that, right? A little ghost who wants to go haunting but all of the white sheets are taken, so he swoops under a quilt on the bed and because he's so cute and colorful no one is scared of him - Patch, the Ghost Who Couldn't Spook. Obviously, I have too much time on my hands. I've still got plenty of clay left, so maybe I'll make a pumpkin or two. I've got some autumn themed paper napkins that I could Mod Podge onto them. That might be cute to set on a window sill or even on my little porch table. Can you tell I'm ready for fall? Can't get here fast enough. I made this to post on September 1st, but why wait?

I've seen a couple of articles saying that fall will be delayed this year because temps are expected to stay warm into October. I might kill someone if that happens. We have a trip in October, perhaps France will have better weather? I hope I come home to freeze warnings.

Another reason I'm looking forward to autumn is that I am cautiously hopeful.

It's so refreshing to see decency and joy making a comeback. I'm afraid to trust it. I put our sign close to the front porch so the Ring doorbell can monitor it. This town is filled with big Trump signs, even a banner at the "Christian" gift shop on the main street. We're outnumbered here, but not scared. Don't even think of mentioning the pitiful state of the flower bed. In more good news, the cutest grandgirl in the world has started first grade. She's loving it, and on day two she lost her wiggly front tooth. I think the snaggle-toothed stage is so cute. She certainly enjoys visits from the tooth fairy. Since I can't share pictures of her sweet face, I'll share her back-to-school sign that she held for first day photos.

She wants to be part of the Wild Kratt team when she grows up. If you're unfamiliar with Wild Kratts, think of a cooler, hipper Marlin Perkins (times 2, because it's the Kratt brothers). Any other boomers out there that loved Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom?

That's where I learned that elephants can't jump. Still waiting for that to come up on Jeopardy. Anyway, I'm glad she's an animal lover. I don't trust people who don't like animals. That's enough from me for now. I needed to get something posted so the kind folks who thought I'd kicked the bucket don't need to look for my obituary. OH! That reminds me. I had a dream a few nights ago and couldn't wait to tell my sister about it. Preface: Since it's a mystery what happens to us after we die (you can claim to know, but you don't know) I'm always curious about what others think. Mickey and I had been discussing what we hope will happen, so that's probably what prompted my dream. Anywayyyyy, in my dream I was in a hospital bed and Mickey was standing beside it. Side note: my hair was dark and I looked younger, so I guess I died a while ago. Mickey was saying those awful things that people say to the dying, like, "You can go now" and "It's okay for you to go..." I would probably wake up from a coma just to let him know that I don't need his permission. But in this dream I took a deep breath and then burst into a cloud of pink glitter. The cloud swirled around and around and then flew out an open double window. This window opened onto the most beautiful landscape of rolling hills and flowers and cartoon bluebirds were flitting about, singing. I'm sure a psychologist would have a field day with that dream, but I found it oddly reassuring. I wouldn't mind it one bit if I turned into glitter and flew away on a breeze. There are certainly worse ways to go. Just my luck I'd end up as the glitter on a grade school art project or some dollar store party decorations. Still, at least I'd have a purpose. I'm still kind of in the camp that we have lessons to learn here and if we don't learn them the first time we have to come back and learn them the hard way - so be nice. Speaking of lessons, I probably needed to see this calendar page yesterday.

Okay, now I really am finished. It's 5 o'clock and my stomach is telling me that it's time to start dinner. I hope that wherever you are and whatever you're doing, it's bringing you joy. If you can't reach joy from where you are, I hope that life is at least not causing you pain. Stay safe, stay well, hang in there. XOXO, Nancy

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allycat75 · 2 months ago

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Important events that actually took place on September 9th and were in no way a figment of a sad, delusional man and his advisors' imagination in order to continue a nefarious and daft lie.

1543- Mary Stuart, at 9 months old, is crowned Queen of Scots

1675- New England colonies declare war on Wampanoag Indians

1753- 1st steam engine arrives in North American colonies

1776- Congress officially renames the country as the United States of America (from the United Colonies)

1817- Alexander Twilight, probably first African American to graduate from a US college, receives BA degree at Middlebury College

1836- Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his influential essay "Nature" in the US, outlining his beliefs in transcendentalism

1850- California becomes a state

1880- President Rutherford B. Hayes visits San Francisco

1888- Easter Island / Rapa Nui in the Pacific is annexed by Chile

1892- Edward Emerson Barnard at Lick Observatory discovers Amalthea, Jupiter's 5th moon

1904- Boston Herald again refers to NY baseball club as Yankees, when it reports "Yankees take 2," Yankee name not official till 1913

1908- Orville Wright makes 1st 1-hr airplane flight, Fort Myer, Virginia

1908- Russia annexes part of Poland

1911- 1st European post delivered by air (Hendon to Windsor, England)

1921- Guatemala, Honduras and San Salvador agree to Central American Union

1922- Turkish troops take the Greek-held Anatolian city of Smyrna during the Greco-Turkish War

1926- National Broadcasting Company created by Radio Corporation of America

1936- New York Yankees beat Cleveland Indians, 12-9 at League Park to clinch AL pennant on the earliest date in history

1939- Nazi army reaches Warsaw

1942- Compulsory work for women, children and old males in Batavia

1944- Allied forces liberate Luxembourg

1945- 1st "bug" in a computer program discovered by Grace Hopper, a moth was removed with tweezers from a relay & taped into the log

1950- 1st use of TV laugh track by "The Hank McCune Show" in the US

1951- 1st broadcast of soap opera "Love of Life" on CBS-TV

1955- Don Zimmer, hits 4,000th Dodger home run

1956- Elvis Presley appears on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the 1st time

1957- US President Eisenhower signs 1st civil rights bill since Reconstruction

1960- Pakistan ends India's run of 6 consecutive Olympic field hockey gold medals with a 1-0 win over their sub-continent rivals at the Rome Games

1963- Alabama Governor George Wallace served a federal injunction to stop orders of state police to bar black students from enrolling in white schools

1965- LA Dodgers future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax throws his 4th career no-hitter and first perfect game in a 1-0 win over the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium

1966- The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act signed into law by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1st federal safety standards for vehicles and roads

1967- 1st successful Test flight of a Saturn V

1969- The Official Languages Act comes into force in Canada - making English and French the country's official languages (replaced 1988 by new Official Languages Act)

1971- Apple Records releases John Lennon's second solo studio album, "Imagine" in US; it tops the charts in US, UK, Australia, and 3 other countries

1972- West German equestrian rider Liselott Linsenhoff follows her dressage teams gold in Mexico City with the individual dressage title at her home Olympics in Munich

1975- Paul McCartney & Wings begin their "Wings Over The World" tour in Southampton, England; 65 concerts in Europe, Australia, Canada, and United States, runs through October of 1976

1978- Ayatollah Khomeini calls for an uprising in the Iranian army

1979- 31st Emmy Awards: "Taxi"; "Lou Grant"; Ron Leibman & Ruth Gordon win

1983- Radio Shack announces their color computer 2 (Coco2)

1985- President Reagan orders sanctions against South Africa, targeting apartheid

1987- Larry Bird of the Celtics begins an NBA free throw streak of 59

1987- Gary Hart admits on "Nightline" to cheating on his wife

1990- George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Helsinki & urge Iraq to leave Kuwait

1990- Liberia president Samuel K Doe is captured by Mr Johnson's forces

1991- Mike Tyson indicted for rape of Desiree Washington

1993- Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization exchange letters of mutual recognition

2010- A court in the Philippines orders Imelda Marcos to repay the government almost $280,000 for funds taken from the National Food Authority by Ferdinand Marcos in 1983

2012- Armenia wins the 40th FIDE Chess Olympiad

2015- Apple unveils the iPad Pro and iPhone 6S in San Francisco

2015- Queen Elizabeth II becomes Great Britain's longest-reigning monarch at 63 years and seven months, beating the previous record set by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria

2017- Egyptian archaeologists announce the discovery of a 3,500-year-old tomb of a goldsmith and his family in Draa Abul-Naga, Egypt

2018- CBS chief Les Moonves departs the company after six more women make allegations of sexual abuse in "The New Yorker"

2019- Poet John Milton's own copy of Shakespeare's First Folio of 1623 has survived with his annotations according to scholar Jason Scott-Warren in Philadelphia library, could be world's most important modern literary discovery

2020- San Francisco Bay area blanketed by dark orange skies and smoke due to California wildfires

2021- Tom Brady becomes first player in NFL history to start 300 regular season games as he guides Tampa Bay Buccaneers to an opening day 31-29 win at home to Dallas Cowboys

ALL of these are more important than something that never happened on this day.

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cleliacleliadatura · 5 months ago

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I was so obsessed with Turin that while there got a tattoo of the city's symbol on my foot with my close friend from the summer Claudia, who was from Switzerland. She spoke ~6 languages: Swiss-German, French, Italian, English, Spanish and German.

Fluently.

Andrea backed out of the tattoo idea last minute.

One of our trio's favorite songs to listen to while exploring on breaks was Starships by Nicki Minaj. We managed to escape from Italy by train to her grandmother's log cabin in the Swiss Alps, where she made us homemade streusel. It was surreal.

I'll never forget how perfect the crust was, and how fresh the berries were. She didn't speak a word of English to us.

Claudia also took us to a real fūtbol match, in Bern, where the fans wore yellow shirts with black stripes and everyone had huge mugs of really good cheap beer. Thanks to her friendship, it was as if we were locals for a brief moment in time.

Later that evening, someone dropped acid in our drinks and we wandered around cow fields til 3 am, laughing hysterically at the moon.

Skateboarders in a park nearby got us to join their tag.

We even went, briefly, to a silent disco of germanic EDM.

Not cool, the getting drugged part. Against our will. #strangerdanger

To this day, the person who I suspect did this to us runs through my mind. As expected, looked disheveled, was a man, and had a sketchy backpack with a hurried gait. Too classic. We were too busy soaking up the ephemeral reality of being young, happy, full-of-life friends in a new place surrounded by nice people to truly pay attention.

Pay Attenzione! Bernadette would tell me as my thoughts wandered when we went out for an aperitif and I almost tripped on my face.

Where were they? Was I not "paying" enough in some way for the gift of thought, or was her statement an innocuous warning-not a lifetime premonition...

Regarding the tattoo....

Years later thoughts of guilt washed over me-I was told tattoos brought evil spirits and energy. A portal to hell.

Did I bring this to my life because of a tattoo, or for touching an ancient statue Bernadette explicitly told me not to touch?

That was the most brazen dumb American thing I ever did-the bronze outdoor statue. It has a name, but I don't want to share it. Supposedly it has centuries of evil, sadness, despair and dark magic funneled into it from the sadness of lost and oppressed souls.

Almost like a moth drawn to a flame, I placed my hand on the monstrous replica. Like wanting to see if a hot stove was truly scalding.

I really regret that decision.

As I type this, the lights flickered and skipped a beat.

Typical when the wavelength of that memory visits me, as if to remind me I haven't escaped some ill begotten curse or karmic debt.

Probably more appropriately deemed dharma.

As the Yoga teacher in Ahta said in a perfectly lyrical silvery tone, "Resistance in the left side of your body is for all the things you haven't done, the words left hanging, contracts unfulfilled"

I wished I'd never heard those words.

The hot flush of cowardice consumes me.

Pictured above... my friend Francesco, who took me to see The Flaming Lips. Not pictured, Claudia.

I had a secret Canon Rebel T3 camera, but the security detail confiscated all my awesome pics from being on stage as a munchkin.

Francesco helped me break free from Incubus, graduating to the next level of Smashing Pumpkins, another grunge 90s rock band favorite for Italian men-so it seems.

Grieving the loss of Jack in my life lead me to line dancing in Piazza San Marco as cotton-eyed joe blasted for some random event of time in which Venetians & Wyomites found a common ground....it could've been worse...

But at the time, all I wanted was for him to be there, too.

Not with her.

I was only 20.

Maybe Harry was right, maybe 2012 really did bring about the end of the timeline as we knew it thanks to the Mayan Calendar celestial implosion.

Something like that, probably should've paid better attention to such a cosmically riveting universal event.

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robronsecretsanta · 6 years ago

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Under Atmospheric Haze, Just Some Stratospheric Strays

Aaron and Robert spend their Christmas Eve-Eve together at Leeds’ German Market.

Merry Christmas, @aarondingel 🎄

All it took was some gentle persuasion. Well, if you can call a quick fumble in-between meetings and a sex sated, raspy grunt of “suppose I’ll have to say yes now, won’t I?!?,” persuasion.

It doesn’t take much for Aaron to give in to Robert’s extroverted propositions. Especially when he’s flashing that famous winning smile with Aaron’s sparkly, satisfied eyes reflecting right back. The same was happening, now. 50ft in the air in the centre of Leeds. High on overpriced German beer, frankfurters in a bun too big to even fit your mouth round, fancy festivities, and a pre-snog in the back row of the Everyman Cinema like lovesick teens - because of course, on Robert’s agenda, it had to be the place with the plush, leather seats and a hefty price.

“You’ve enjoyed yourself tonight, haven’t you?” Robert proudly pried, slightly turning to the side where his spent husband had his red hood covered head leaning against his shoulder.

Although he’s already wrapped a new novelty jumper for Aaron to open on the morning of the 25th and is internally screaming with giddiness just thinking about it, Robert had insisted he wore the Santa hoodie for the occasion. It carries bittersweet memories but it’s also a damn good garb in the name of all things Christmas and it’s no use stuck at the back of the wardrobe kept safe and collecting dust.

(Robert also sussed Aaron had clung to that hoodie as a way for him to privately recollect and draw comfort from it for a year straight, and that brought him double the bubble of warmth and contentment.)

“How did you guess?!”

Aaron met his eyes with an undeniable smirk painted on his face. There was no getting past this one.

“Hmm, not sure. Could be the fact I’ve not seen you this relaxed in a long time. Or could be your competitive streak I had the pleasure of witnessing during a game of ruthless Hook A Duck with a ten year old kid.”

That earned Robert a light slap to the stomach followed by Aaron cuddling inches closer, one hand let loose and the other nestling against his husband’s knee. Robert’s teasing always ended up being more endearing than insulting, that he can vouch for.

Aaron chose to overlook a witty remark back and that had a lot to do with Robert reciprocating his hand movement with a gentle thumb rub. He swore he lost control of a steady heartbeat in that standstill second. After all these years and marriage signed on paper, it still feels like the first time. It still feels so right he can’t focus on anything but the way their tips touch, the solid connection moulding his senses, the overbearing scent he’s grown to harmoniously depend on.

“Yeah, alright, it’s been nice.” He opted for a flippant eye roll and a blasé attitude. “Summat different innit?! Better than being at home dealing with teen problems and dodgy business when we should actually be prepping for our first Christmas in our family home in two days time.”

Miles better in fact. It’d been the most carefree and genuinely chipper he’d felt in weeks. Yeah, okay, walking hand in hand with zero inhibitions around a crowded winter village full of fairy lights and wooden stalls, finished with a cosy indoor log fire retreat reeking of stale ale and a ride on the big wheel, had been a whole lot of light fun and a boost to the ole spirit system - both the festive and the self-credibility kind - but he wasn’t gonna let Robert know that. He didn’t want to give him the benefit of the doubt and make his self righteous ego any bigger than it already was.

A soft stare and a lopsided smile was what Aaron was faced with when he lifted his head back up. Robert’s eyes had always been Aaron’s uttermost favourite feature for as long as he can remember - the mesmerising sapphire sea green shade setting his soul alive, stamping on his beating heart and rapid pulse - and now, beneath the electric hues of purple and muted lustre shadows, he recalled the intoxicating thrill washing through him when he first realised there was no other visual he’d rather wake up to for the rest of his life.

“Remind me to bring you back here next year,” Robert simpered with a hint of unabashed adoration flashed across his entire face, bringing Aaron out of his brief daydream. “If it’s gonna bring out this soppy side of you I’m already booking the taxi.”

“Shut up,” Aaron scoffed. Failing to hide the spreading flush of his cheeks even in the now moonlit sky.

“No, I’m serious. I’m glad you agreed to it, in the end,” Robert’s voice lowered and his expression earnest. “It’s rare we get to spend proper quality time together now. What with you running the scrapyard whilst I con Graham for all he’s worth. Plus, it’s our first Christmas as a married couple so we’ve gotta start it the right way.”

A mediocre market filled with tacky mementos, sickly sweet air pollution, and rowdy groups of work do gatherings wasn’t the imagined idea of the most high class, romantic Christmas Eve-Eve celebratory date. It wasn’t exhilarating but it worked, because he had Robert beside him. Robert with his windswept hair and goofy grin and gangling limbs and ability to make anywhere feel like home.

“Yeah,” Aaron delicately whispered.

To an outsider, the audible silence weaved between them could be misjudged as awkward but to them, it was laced with meaning. Responsive words weren’t always needed. Especially here, in their own intimate bubble; both metaphorically and legitimately. (They were lucky to bag a carriage of their own on a hustled and bustled Sunday.)

This moment here, so placid they were able to drown out the rest of the world as though they were the only two to exist; even above the noise of jingling bells, booming kids, and classic renditions of songs, was worth its weight in gold.

“So, family home, ey?” Robert’s the first one to break the quiet; nudging Aaron and raising his brows with a light chuckle as though his brain’s been overriding with deep thoughts and he’s attempting to disguise it. “Never thought I’d get to hear that.” Yeah, he definitely had.

“Mad innit?!” Aaron met his eyes for the second time. “Bit different compared to last year.”

“What, when I embarrassed myself in front of an entire pub and then almost met my fate in the hands of a car bumper?”

Aaron didn’t answer, again. Just shook his head frivolously. He knew it probably still affected Robert. He knew he still reacted sensitively and this was a chance for him to momentarily mull over the weight of the situation. How it played a pivotal part to where they are currently, in the here and now.

“You know, I was thinking. Maybe we’d be able to bring our own family here one day. Use the little ones as an excuse to have a go of the swings and the carousel without looking deranged.”

That cheeky demeanour with a hint of hushed emotion had returned. Robert tended to change the subject once he’d evaluated and moved along the lines of his thought pattern. Only now Aaron was the one to be stirred. A shudder travelling down his spine all the way to the forefront of his mind where he instantaneously imagined Robert holding the waist of their toddler, faces radiating with infectious glee and laughter as they waved to the video camera Aaron was holding. Protecting and nurturing, just like the brilliant dad he’d seen him grow to be.

“Maybe. But first can we just savour the peace and quiet whilst we still have it.”

“Good idea. As long as you can admit I most definitely made the best decision of having a night here and I was right to convince you all along.” Robert really wasn’t going to let this one go.

Aaron still wasn’t going to profess the truth, but he was right. Tonight had been a dream. A dream that had somehow converted to real life. Real life he’d have never panned out for himself. The PDA. The gorgeous husband. The aimless yet wholeheartedly significant conversation. The state of serenity and security allowing him to let loose and lap up the jovial atmosphere. The plans for the future. The man he desired and was unconditionally devoted to, returning that with twice the emphasis; looking at him like the stars had gravitated towards his entire being. Having everything he ever needed, right here.

Robert drew Aaron even further towards him so their proximity had reached its pinnacle. Aaron couldn’t help but notice just how perfectly well their bodies fit together as he leaned into the arm wrapped around his shoulder. Their bonded torsos was like a moth to a flame. Like a drug he couldn’t ever get enough of.

“Maybe I can convince you to spill with a trip upstairs when we get home,” Robert was still rambling on in the depths of defeat.

That caught Aaron’s attention, an unavoidable lip bite and a blood rush to the top of his skull right down to his toes, but he still wasn’t giving in.

“You really are a stubborn git, you know that?” Robert accentuated every last syllable. “Good job I love you.”

And with a puckered kiss to his temple, a smooth thumb running over his knuckles, Aaron breathed a sigh of ease with a soft snigger. “I love you too, idiot.”

Maybe, just maybe, he could get used to every Christmas being as traditional and timeless as this.

#robron #robron secret santa #robron fanfiction #emmerdale #emmerdaleedit #aarondingel

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fretitan · 6 years ago

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WE NEED WOOD ! | Self Para

S CLASS JOB REQUEST Requested by Oak Town Citizen Description:

My stupid husband was unable to get wood as he claimed to have injured himself before traveling into the WAAS FOREST in OSHIBANA TOWN. We need it to help us make dinner and I cannot go myself as I must watch my new born baby AND my husband!

I need a weeks worth of medium sized wood for burning! If its heavy, please ask someone to come with you!! Oh, and be careful! My husband claims he saw a monster of some sort, got scared, and fell over!!

REWARD 10,000 JEWELS

Wait, how was this an S class mission? Titan wondered to himself as he looked at the job request on the bulletin board in Sabertooth's mass hall. Ask someone to come with you if it's too heavy? Rubbish. This is a one man job! Titan was quite a proud man and would not ask for help from anyone when it comes to doing jobs and tasks. His pride as a man depended on it, for the most part. Titan grabbed the paper off the bulletin board, "This one's mine!" And so that's how Titan accepted this job.

The Waas Forest wasn't too far from the guild's mass hall, so he didn't spend much time on travel. Now it was time to get down to business, not to defeat the huns, but to get this woman her hard wood. Something her husband couldn't get her. This was a job for a real man, or well, someone considerably stronger, to say the least.

And so, Titan got down to business. First order of said business was to wear gardening gloves. Splinters and crying from getting splinters wasn't manly in Titan's eyes, so it's best to avoid such a situation from happening. Second order of business, cut down the trees with his beautiful battle axe, because normal axes were too mainstream. Battle axes are also more a e s t h e t i c ! Oh yeah, Titan also brought a battle axe with him. He never uses it since he's got some pretty decently ranged magic to use for the usual jobs he'd accepts, so this bad boy was just sitting on his wall collecting dust. There comes a time in a man's life where he needs a battle axe for no apparent reason, and so Titan got a battle axe.

Chop chop, and down came the trees! Cutting them down was the easy part, chopping them into smaller pieces with precision German engineering- I mean normal precision and not German precision, was what Titan struggled with. He'd have to sanction the tree into three sections, then from there, chop them into halves. Sounds easy for the normal wood chopping husband, but Titan was neither a husband nor good at cutting wood. What more was that he was using a battle axe. It wasn't exactly the idea weapon to use.

"Shit, How do I do this?" He looked at the logs while scratching the back of his head. Right then, the bushes to his left started shaking! Could this be one of the monster's the puny man's wife warned me about? He waited in anticipation for the creature to emerge from the bush. Titan was so ready for this, and out came a. . . little.. tiny.. rabbit..? Wow, way to kill the mood. Titan let out an audibly loud sigh, "I was excited to fight a big, hairy, scary and maybe even smelly monster, but this is all I get? A teeny tiny rodent?" Titan mocked the tiny bunny rabbit.

The bunnies ears twitched when he heard the rodent. The bunny looked at Titan and let out a monstrous roar, like a big giant demon roar. Wait, what the fu- ?! Titan jumped a little, what the hell just happened? Did that bunny just roar? That wasn't all, though. The bunny wasn't done. The bunny started growing bigger, like a moth coming out a cocoon, but less gross and it wasn't coming out of a shell. You could literally hear the sound of bones breaking, or was that cracking from the rabbit's rapid anger growth. It was absolutely disgusting, but now Titan understood why the requester's husband tripped and fell while running away. Any normal person would run away from just the sounds alone. Vile.

By now the rabbit was about 10 feet tall, and crazy buff. Titan didn't expect this kind of development. Kind of disturbing, but he possessed holy magic, so he could technically perform and exorcism on himself, or even dowse his eyes in holy water after this is all over. The bunny looked Titan straight in the eye and flipped him off. Wow, talk about rude. Titan looked almost dead inside, he didn't want any of this. He regret taunting the rabbit, he regret all his life decisions that led up to this moment.

With a sigh, Titan picked his battle axe up and pulled his arm back, winding up for a strong throw of the axe. Bullseye! The rabbit got hit with the battle axe, right in the middle of the forehead. It died on the spot. This was almost not worth the emotional distressed caused to Titan. He had to pull the axe out of the creature's forehead before he could continue chopping up his wood. He tried to finish up chopping the wood quickly so he could go home and forget any of this ever happened.

Titan wrapped the wood in twine and string he'd brought to help keep it all together. He could easily carry that amount of wood with both of his strong man arms, but the hard part about this was the rabbit. He had to take it with him, and the only way he could do that was to fasten it to his back with his axe. It was touching his body, and he felt sick to his stomach, but he couldn't show his true emotions because that was anything but manly. He wanted to cry because he could feel it on his back, and the fact that most of it's body was dragging against the ground. He could feel everything.

Reaching the house of his employers with wood and rabbit in tow, Titan had the bright idea of presenting the beast to them! Hopefully they'd take it off his hands because if he had to bring it back to the guild, he'd probably not make it back to the guild with his sanity in tact. "I've got your wood, ma'am!" Titan tried to muster up all the energy he had left to sound cheerful. His employers were very happy with his work with the wood, the woman even ogled a little at Titan's beautiful body, which Titan himself pretended not to notice. "Oh, yes, Ma'am, I also managed to slay the beast that frightened your husband." He smiled at her as he took it off his body. If you think sonic is fast, the time it took him to take the rabbit off his body was about 100 times faster. The woman's expression went from shock to joy, "We'll eat for weeks!" she exclaimed. Wait, people think this this looked appetizing? Titan was going to lose his lunch, and probably even his appetite for dinner.

The woman took the rabbit off Titan's hands and paid him what he was owed for the wood. Titan thanked the woman for her patience, and secretly for taking that vile creature off his hands and went on his way. Before he departed for Oak Town, however, he stopped by the nearest creak and washed his axe off the blood it had on it. Today's job was a success, but it just wasn't worth the mental scarring. Never again.

ooc note: Click on ‘By now the rabbit was about 10 feet tall, and crazy buff.’

#fretitan #We need Wood!#Self Para #I made an illustration for this #skip to the end to see what to click #hope you guys enjoy my extra-ness #job request

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schmidtchristmasmarket · 4 years ago

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The Christmas traditions around the globe show us the diversity in the world, so it’s no wonder that we found some of these traditions surprising or hard to understand. In order to cherish and appreciate the Christmas spirit shown in different forms, let’s make a holiday trip, and visit 5 countries with interesting and a bit weird Christmas traditions.

Fried Caterpillars - Christmas Dish In South Africa

Traditional Christmas dishes such as mince pie and turkey, are not on the menu in South Africa. Actually, families in South Africa look forward to prepare creepy crawlies. Fried caterpillars are one of the weirdest holiday dishes in the world but there are a few reasons for this custom.

The first reason is the poverty in this area, so people needed to find the easiest and cheapest way to always have a dish on a plate for holiday such as Christmas. However, the second reason is that the Pine Tree Emperor Moth or Christmas caterpillar is cover in very festive hues - people of South Africa believe that eating this caterpillar will bring you extra luck in the coming year.

Shoes and Carrots In The Netherlands

Instead of eagerly putting Christmas stockings next to the fireplace with some cookies and milk for Santa Clause, Dutch children place their shoes by the fire in hope that Sinterklaas ( Santa Clause) will fill the shoes with gifts and treats in the night.

Also, a part of this Christmas tradition is to leave some carrots in the shoes for the white horse named Amerigo, who is the companion of Sinterklaas. In the past, naughty children would be left with a potato instead of the gift, but potato punishment is no longer considered an appropriate way to educate a kid.

The Poop Log In Spain

The interesting Christmas tradition comes from the land of tango and sangria. Meet Tió de Nadal, the Christmas log. He is made from a hollow log, with stick legs, adorable smile, and a red hat. The tradition says that every evening between December 8th and Christmas Eve, the Spanish children feed the log small treats, and tuck him under a blanket to keep him warm.

On Christmas Eve, children are tasked with beating the log with sticks while singing traditional Christmas song which include lyrics such as poop log, poop nougats, Hazelnuts, and mato cheese, If you don't poop well, I'll hit you with a stick, poop log.

The weirdest part takes its place after the beating and singing. After this act Tió de Nadal magically poops out presents and candy, and then, no longer needed the log is thrown in the fire for warmth.

The Big Yule Cat In Iceland

Maybe cat doesn’t seem surprising at all, but this Christmas tradition from Iceland certainly does. Traditionally, a giant cat is said to roam the snowy countryside at the Christmas time, and the farmers would use the Yule Cat as an incentive for their workers, so hard workers would receive a new set of clothes, but the lazy ones would be devoured by the gigantic cat-like beast.

This Christmas tradition leads to the custom that everyone in Iceland gets new clothing for Christmas to avoid an unsavory demise.

Brooms And Witches In Norway

Considering Norwegian folklore, Christmas Eve is the day when evil spirits and witches take to the skies for mischief and general tomfoolery. As we all know, the favorite mode of transportation for witches is a broom, so it is a tradition for Norwegian families to hide not only brooms but any cleaning supplies attached to sticks.

This way witches won’t be able to find them and to start visiting Norwegian cities.

Pickle Hunt In Germany

The Christmas tree tradition we all embrace today have started in Germany back in the 16th century, so it is not surprising that Germans still have some funny and weird customs relating to the Christmas trees. One of these is to hide a pickle somewhere in the branches of the tree, and give a gift to whichever child in the house finds it.

There are some who believe that this custom is not German at all. According to one legend, the Christmas pickle originated in Spain when two young boys were held as prisoners inside a pickle barrel. After Saint Nicholas rescued them, the boys were brought back to life.

No matter in which story you believe, we can all agree that the pickle Christmas tradition put a smile on our face.

These are 5 Christmas traditions we picked as a interesting examples of different customs united in the same holiday we all love.

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ecotone99 · 6 years ago

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[HM] Faking a Murder in Moonville Tunnel: A True Story of Teenage Debauchery

I also posted this short story on Medium.

Faking a Murder in Moonville Tunnel

A True Story of Teenage Debauchery

A Quick Preface

During my early teenage years, I was absolutely obsessed with World War Two history. I collected two entire sets of vintage combat fatigues and field gear—complete with M1 Garand rifle and a sidearm revolver—and participated in World War Two battle reenactments whenever possible.

Since I was probably the youngest person in the universe with a desire to take part in historic battle reenactments, I was mostly running around a field with middle-aged guys in American and British military uniforms, shooting blanks at middle-aged guys in German wehrmacht uniforms. (Side note: shooting at Nazis is fun regardless of situational context).

I also wore my fatigues to school on the anniversaries of major battles and events. As one would imagine, donning moth-bitten old army uniforms and constantly spouting-off dates of historical remembrance doesn’t exactly make you the most popular kid in school. When I reached my late teens, my interest in social debauchery began to outweigh the battles of yore. So followed plenty of beer and plenty of trouble. By the time I graduated high school, the old 101st Airborne and 1st Infantry uniforms were packed away in dust-covered rubbermaid totes.

Murder at Moonville Tunnel

On some Friday or Saturday nights during the summer after graduation, my friends and I would make the one-hour drive to an abandoned railway tunnel called Moonville. Deep in the woods by way of an old gravel forest road, it had a local reputation for being haunted.

College kids would drive up from nearby Ohio University in Athens. They came in search of ghosts; and boy did Moonville deliver (at least when my friends and I were around). Those kids are probably telling folks to this day about the paranormal phenomena they witnessed deep in the woods of Ohio in an old abandoned tunnel … In reality it was my friend Dustin making spooky noises and rolling boulders into the creek; or my friend Kyle walking across the far entrance of the tunnel in an old wedding dress; or even just an explosive rustling of bushes and growling noises—enough to send even the most cool and collected frat boys running for the safety of their sedans.

On other occasions, we’d take unsuspecting friends for their first visit and put them through the usual rounds of teenage scare-tactics—yelling BOO, making spooky noises; boilerplate stuff. Teenagers having teenage fun. Until—as teenagers often do—we took it too far…

On a Saturday that could have been any other given Saturday, a bunch of us were hanging around the parking lot of the local Wal-Mart. Someone suggested we drive down to Moonville Tunnel. A group of four or five girls in our little crowd had never been before; so the boys began our usual rite of preparedness, telling them that the tunnel is haunted and that they were likely to run into a few ghoulish entities from beyond our earthly world.

A few of us—Kyle, Dustin, Greg, Dewey, Joey, and myself—went into the Wal-Mart to grab a few supplies for our journey. While we were standing in the checkout line, a terrible, insidious light bulb burned to life inside my brain. I told my three friends about my newly-hatched plan and thus, the cogs began to turn.

Back outside in the parking lot, Greg and I told the rest of the group that we were going to have to sit this one out: We had been called in to do some work early the next morning, we told them. Bummer.

Leaving the Wal-Mart, we turned onto Bridge Street and drove twenty minutes to my house. I dug into my closet and pulled out an old army ammo crate. I grabbed an en-bloc clip filled with .30–06 blanks, a handful of .22 blanks, and loaded my old blank-firing M1 rifle and .22 pistol into the back seat of my friend’s truck.

Operating through a spy network of covert texts sent via Motorola RAZR flip phones, Greg and I timed our arrival in Moonville—down the miles of dusty and unmaintained county roads, deep into the forest, to the makeshift parking area—to precede our group of friends. We drove past the parking area, farther into the woods, until we found a pull-off with enough space to hide the truck.

Carrying our weapons of mass disfunction, we backtracked toward the trailhead to Moonville Tunnel. We crossed a bridge over a wide creek, into and through the regular parking area at which our friends would soon be arriving. It was next to a wide creek with a bridge over it. The entire parking area was a muddy quagmire at the time. We carefully rock-hopped through the sludge until we reached the beaten path of the trailhead. Once we’d hiked the half-mile back to the old creepy tunnel, we took up positions in the heavy underbrush.

Thanks to our two insiders, Dustin and Kyle, our timing was impeccable. We had settled into the leaves not more than ten minutes before we heard familiar voices coming up the trail from the parking lot.

As the caravan of our buddies traveled across the path in front of us, I noticed that Kyle’s mom and dad—Carl and Robbie—had joined the group. Carl had a habit of encouraging (rather than discouraging) these types of activities. I knew he was in on the plan when the group reached the middle of the tunnel and I heard him instruct everyone, amidst protests from some of the girls, to turn off their flashlights and “see if any ghosts come out.”

We took this as our cue. Greg and I crept to the entrance, pointed our blank-loaded guns toward the decrepit ceiling of the tunnel, and I whispered, “One … two … three—” BAM! BAMBAMBAMBAM!

The sound of cannon-fire, screams, and laughter filled the tunnel as friends slipped in the mud, spun in circles, cried for their mothers, and struggled to regain their grip on reality.

Everyone who was in on the joke—Greg and I included—burst into a fit of laughter and the rest of our friends quickly realized they’d been bamboozled.

This is probably where the prank should have ended.

About an hour later we were in the main parking lot. Most of our friends had already left for home, but a few of us were still standing around and talking. I was going to hitch a ride back with Kyle and his parents, and had just loaded my things into the back of their truck. Just as I closed the door, a car pulled into the muddy parking area. My friends and I looked at each other. “College kids,” someone said.

“You outta get out that pistol and fuck with em,” Kyle’s dad suggested to me with a boyish grin.

It took no more cajoling than that for the rest of us to jump onboard with the plan—even though at the current moment there was no more “plan” than the suggestion of “getting out the pistol and fucking with” the college kids.

I discreetly opened the truck and harnessed my little revolver in a shoulder holster underneath my jacket as Carl approached the college kids. He introduced himself and told them we had just arrived as well; that we were getting ready to check out the supposedly haunted tunnel; and that we were first-timers.

I approached the group and took stock of them. There were five total: One big, tall corn-fed fellow who could have been a linebacker, a short guy in glasses who was about as wide as he was tall, and three innocent-looking girls who looked like they had just moved into their freshman dorms.

Of the five of them, I only remember the name of the short guy in the glasses: Dakota. An interesting name, which might be why it stuck with me after all these years. Or it could be because Dakota’s introduction prompted Dustin to spontaneously (and untruthfully, I might add) tell the group of strangers that he happened to live in North Dakota, where he was a professional bull-rider. His name was Mike, by the way, and he was only in Ohio to visit his cousin, Jeremy [Kyle] here. One of the girls went to shake his hand in greeting, but when they reached for it, Dustin held up an empty jacket sleeve (his hand was pulled back inside of it) and told them he had lost the hand in an accident on his family’s ranch as a child. “Kinda messed up of you to try to shake my nub,” he told her. When she issued an embarrassed apology, he accepted.

As the group of college kids were enamored by Dustin’s tall tales of Dakotan bull riding and lopped-off appendages, Carl leaned back and whispered to me, “Act like you’re hammered drunk.”

Thus, I mentally consumed a pint or so of corn whiskey and assumed the name of Sam. “Nice to—hic—meet ya,” I slurred to them.

We started down the trail. Dakota told us that he had been to Moonville Tunnel several times. He knew all kinds of interesting facts about its history. There was an old mining village beyond the tunnel that was abandoned in the late 1850s, he told us. You had to cross a stream to get to it. There have been several recorded deaths, one in 1958 when a brakeman fell onto the tracks. We learned quite a bit from Dakota on our walk back to the tunnel, and in return, we filled his head with as many lies as it could hold.

Finally we made it to the tunnel, walked through it, and approached a stream on the other side. “The mining village is just a little farther, past this creek,” Dakota told us. “Just need to cross on this log.” He pointed to a mossy fallen tree that spanned over frigid, rushing water.

Carl turned to me. “Sam, your drunk ass is liable to fall off that thing and drown yourself.” I took the hint, and after a couple of lines faux-protest, I consented to stay behind with Carl, Kyle, our friend Dewey, and Kyle’s mom Robbie. The college kids, along with Dustin and a few of our other friends, crossed the creek on the log and disappeared into the woods on the other side.

As soon as we figured they were out of earshot, we started to conspire. Of course, Carl was the first to offer a suggestion: “We should wait for them to get halfway across that log and fire the blanks at them so they fall in the creek.”

I imagined news headlines of a tragic accidental drowning, all caused by a group of prankster teenagers who would learn a valuable life lesson by way of spending their twenties and thirties behind bars.

“I have a better idea,” I said.

About fifteen or twenty minutes later, we were back in the tunnel and patiently waiting. As soon as we heard voices coming down the trail, Kyle and I started to argue.

Somehow, despite the fact that we were but a simple troupe of Appalachian hillbillies with zero acting experience, I swear the performance that would follow could have won an Oscar:

“I saw your number in her goddamn phone!” I slurred to Kyle. Dewey was holding him back against the wall of the tunnel and Carl was holding me back on the opposite side.

“Bullshit,” Kyle replied, “you’re fuckin delusional. Every time you get like this you start accusing me of this shit, you paranoid asshole.”

The back-and-forth continued until the group of strangers and friends approached our impromptu stage. Dustin and our other buddies hung around, (not in on the plan at this point themselves); the college kids passed between Kyle and me with confused caution.

Our improv routine escalated.

“Boys, calm the hell down,” Carl told us. Then to me, “Sam, you’re drunk.”

“So what if I’m drunk,” I told him. “He knows what the fuck he did.”

Kyle started to push Dewey away to get to me and Dewey tried to ‘calm him down’ in the same manner as Carl. “Jeremy [Kyle] goddammit, he’s drunk, let it go—”

“I ain’t lettin shit go, get the fuck off of me—”

The college kids hung a few feet away in the tunnel and watched as Kyle tried to get past Dewey.

“This is the last time,” I told Kyle, “the last time I hear about you trying to fuck her behind my back.” I reached into my jacket and started to pull the revolver from its holster.

Carl’s entire demeanor changed from the moment my arm reached in my jacket to produce our primary plot device:

“Jeremy—Jeremy he has a gun—HE HAS A GUN JEREMY, GET BACK—”

Cue collective gasps from the college kids. Carl wrestled with me and pleaded for ‘Jeremy’ to run, but Kyle’s character wasn’t having any of it.

“Oh, you need a fuckin gun huh? Pussy ass little bitch—” he made it past Dewey and halfway across the tunnel with fists raised when suddenly I ‘managed to free my hand from Carl’s grasp’ and aimed the pistol at my faux-foe.

A cacophony of noise erupted in quick succession:

“NOOO!” screamed several of the college kids as they saw the pistol being pointed at their new friend Jeremy.

BANG! went the sound of the first shot as it reverberated through the tunnel like a stick of dynamite exploding in someone’s living room.

And then there were the screams. The most awful, blood-curdling cries of terror that you could ever hear. The kind of screams that stay with you for the rest of your life—even as you write about it over a decade later.

Kyle dropped to the floor of the tunnel. I fired two more shots, and with each of them his ‘lifeless body’ convulsed a half a foot into the air.

Carl’s performance continued. He left me and rushed to Kyle, who was stifling laughs between his best attempts at a dead guy impression. “Robbie, call 911!” Carl yelled. “Robbie, he’s not breathing! Call 911 right now!”

I collapsed against the wall and began to ‘drunkenly weep’ at the sight of what I’d done. The gun fell to the ground.

Carl turned and grabbed the lapels of my jacket, slamming me into the concrete wall. “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GONNA DO NOW?!” he asked me. “HE’S DEAD, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO DO?!”

“I don’t know,” I cried. “I don’t know, I can—we can—we’ll put his body in the creek and—oh god, I’m so sorry … I’m so sorry …”

Carl started to laugh. We turned and saw that the college kids had already made it to the other end of the tunnel. They paused at its opening, disoriented and panicking.

“We-we-we need to g-g-get to h-higher ground!” Dakota screamed.

“Run down there and scare ’em,” Carl told me.

Something in me, a little voice, thought for just a fraction of a second that maybe we had already taken things too far … but the laughter of my friends on our end of the tunnel was like an addictive drug. Laughter, which, either didn’t reach the ears or the consciousness of the college kids. When I took off down the tunnel, they saw me and screamed all over again. They pushed each other out of the way and stumbled in the mud trying to turn, and then fled down the trail toward the parking lot. The laugher in my ears waned and with it, its effect. I thought, These people are going to be traumatized for the rest of their lives if they leave here believing someone was murdered.

I holstered the pistol and continued out of the tunnel and down the trail, trying to catch up with them. By the time I reached the parking lot, they were already in their car. Dakota was behind the wheel, and the big linebacker was in the passenger seat.

Their car was stuck in the mud. Wrrrrrr …. wrrrrrrrrrr … The front tires were spinning backwards with the speed of a straight-lane dragster, but the car wasn’t budging from its mire.

As I entered the glow of their headlights, I saw both of their eyes grow to the size of baseballs.

“Stop! Stop, it was just a joke!” I yelled, waving my hands.

From inside the car, they saw the guy who just killed his friend running toward them, shouting nonsense, and waving his arms wildly.

The passenger door opened and the linebacker tumbled out and ran at a full sprint into the opposite tree-line until I heard a SPLASH as he swam across the creek near the main parking area to the other side.

Dakota panicked and put the car in drive, suddenly propelling it forward into a boulder on the edge of the parking area and smashing the front fender.

I finally reached their car and they screamed in unison before I held up my hands. “Guys, this was all a joke. It was all a joke, I’m so sorry. There were just blanks in the gun. My friend Kyle—uhh, Jeremy—is coming out of the woods right now.”

Dakota was sobbing. “I don’t care,” he cried. “I don’t care, I don’t fucking care I just want to go.”

All three girls in the back were sobbing.

My god, what have we done, I thought.

“It was just a joke,” I repeated. “We thought it would be—”

“Just a joke?” I heard a voice behind me. I turned to see the linebacker towering over me, clothes dripping, face covered in briar scratches. “It was just a joke, huh?”

About that time my friends were running back into the parking area from the trail.

“Uhhh, listen man,” I stammered. “I don’t want any trouble, we were just—”

“You don’t want any trouble? Don’t want any TROUBLE?!”

He started to raise his fist but Dewey pushed me out of the way and stepped in front of him. “Get in your fucking car … and go back to Athens.”

Several other friends stood behind Dewey and the linebacker eyed them all.

Dakota called from the bruised Camry … “C-come on, let’s just get out of here.”

The linebacker took a deep breath and pushed past Dewey. He went to the front of the car and pushed, along with a couple of our friends, while Dakota was finally able to back the car into the gravel road.

The linebacker paused at the open car door and turned to look at us one more time. “Just so you know. We’re calling the sheriff when we get back to Athens.”

He got into the car and they sped away, trailed by a contrail of flying gravel and mud.

We were silent; everyone realizing the gravity of what had just happened. Well except maybe for one of us: Carl started laughing his ass off.

“What?” Kyle asked him.

“Hell,” he said once he’d caught a breath. “They’re gonna call the sheriff and tell em they met some guy named Mike, who’s a one-armed bull rider from North Dakota, and saw his drunk friend Sam shoot a guy named Jeremy.”

submitted by /u/tomedwardsmusic [link] [comments] via Blogger http://bit.ly/2VxhuFs

#Blogger #Story

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moth-who-speaks · 3 months ago

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German Log #1

2024/8/24

Greetings and Goodbyes:

Hallo - Hello

Wilkommen - Welcome (formal)

Guten Tag - Good Day/Afternoon

Guten Morgen - Good Morning

Guten Abend - Good Evening

Guten Nachmittag - Good Evening (formal)

Auf Wiedersehen - Goodbye

Introductions:

Wie heißt du? - What is your name

Ich heiße 'name' - My name is 'name'

Wie geht's - How are you (informal)

Wie geht es du - How are you (formal)

Gut - Good

Schlecht - Bad/Poorly/Sick

Very - Sehr

Eh/so-so - So la la

#Moth's language logs #Moth's German logs #German #language study #language #languages #German languages #langblr

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allushomesecurity-blog · 6 years ago

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Roaches Exterminator Throughout New York

There are tons of insects and pests that can enter your house, however nothing is worse compared to the cockroach. Cockroaches have the tendency to be one of the most frightening as well as will definitely make your skin crawl. They're absolutely hideous and unbelievably unpleasant. Once your residence has actually been ravaged, you'll wish to keep your family and friends as far away as possible, up until they've been totally gotten rid of.

Of course, cockroaches are far worse compared to you might ever picture. They can transferring diseases and also can make you unwell. When you have actually detected cockroaches in your home, you will certainly wish to reach Waverly best Exterminator firm, so we could remove them right away!

Rat Exterminator Waverly

And Mice Although cockroaches are terrible, rats and also mice can be far even worse. This holds true, since these animals are bigger and also far more damaging. They're also unbelievably unsafe, because they tend to carry diseases and many of these illnesses can be deadly! If you have extreme allergies, you remain in even more difficulty. These critters could dramatically raise the amount of allergens in your house. Their urine as well as droppings can add to this and may activate asthma or various other wellness associated issues.

These pets are also with the ability of harming your home significantly. They're known to eat on anything and also whatever that they encounter. They will eat throughout your wall surfaces, if they're not stopped ahead of time.

Bed Bugs Exterminator Waverly

Although bed bugs have not been recognized to be harmful to humans, they're still incredibly problematic and tremendously annoying. This holds true, as a result of the ridiculous actions of these insects. Bed bugs hide away during the day and just appear at night. As quickly as you try to relax and also go to sleep, the lights will be shut down as well as the bed bugs will arise. They'll be incredibly hungry and also you will become their main dish.

Bed bugs have a pressing craving for blood as well as this will come to be extremely evident, when you find bites around your body. Although these insects aren't almost as damaging as roaches as well as rats, they could still leave behind excrement as well as a moldy odor. Once more, they have to be eliminated quickly, or they'll spread like crazy and overrun your residence.

Carpenter Ants Exterminator Waverly

Many customers do not fear ants as well as merely eliminate them, before heading on their way. Although these insects aren't harmful and do not send illness, they could still be really aggravating! Not only will they eat your food as well as make your skin crawl, but likewise these critters can seriously damaging your residence's structure. The issue occurs, due to that carpenter ants in fact nest within timber.

Termites Exterminator Waverly

Termites that cause damage to New York homes are subterranean termites. There is another type of termites called drywood termites however usually they are not a risk.

Subterranean termites are little, soft bodied pests that build large nests in soil or trees and have underground tunnels that can rise to 100 metres far from the nest. They can not endure in the open.

Termites have fantastic survival instincts and have actually existed for many countless years with the most ancient species coexisting with the dinosaurs.

They are discovered in regions of the USA both in rural locations. There are over 300 species of termites however not all are a hazard to homes.

Termite Damage

Termites cause extensive damage to the structure of homes and industrial structures, along with lumber fixtures, fittings and floor coverings.

What Are Termites Attracted To?

Moisture

Termites are like people, they can live quite a very long time without food however will pass away really quickly without moisture.

That's why they continuously search in great deals for moisture. They are far more drawn in to a home where the soil is consistently wet. For instance leaking taps, a/c drainage or irrigated garden beds.

Termites are likewise attracted to hidden areas around the home where moisture exists such as cavity walls, under baths or restroom cabinets, damp walls from dripping shower recesses and other damp locations.

Food Sources

A termite's sole food is cellulose (sugar molecules) which is discovered in trees, logs and plants. It is likewise still present in the wood utilized in construction. This is why wood wall and roofing frames are susceptible to termite attack.

They likewise assault other materials in a house that include:

Wood decking and floor boards Lumber fences, gate posts and gazebo in direct contact with the soil Skirting boards and architraves Restroom and kitchen cupboards Fixed lumber furnishings Carpet strips and the carpet itself Cardboard boxes Papers, magazines and photo albums stored in garages or sheds

We Are Waverly Finest Critter Control Business!

An infestation by any one of the previously mentioned pests will confirm to be exceptionally bothersome as well as should be gotten rid of swiftly. Although some bugs can be eliminated with commercial sprays, others are much more stubborn as well as will stay, no matter the techniques as well as products you make use of. We are the top parasite control experts in Waverly as well as our professionals have actually been skillfully educated to get rid of all bugs from your home.

Our group of professionals has actually been around the block often times as well as they have actually seen several of the worst-case situations. Despite the scenario and also its extent, our professionals will certainly have the ability to remedy the issue, so you can get back to your normal life and also recover your home and sanity!

Our business has actually placed in a thorough amount of effort ensuring that all of our strategies as well as chemicals are safe and also reliable. When using our services, you could rest assured understanding we will never utilize damaging chemicals in your home. We choose not to place our families as well as pet dogs in injury's way and we will deal with each and every one of our customers with the same courtesy.

When utilizing our solutions, you will likely want to see to it that your good friends and next-door neighbors do not know why we're there. Some bug problems can be humiliating and also we recognize this totally. We Remove Termites, Spiders, Bed Bugs, Rats, Ants, Roaches, Wasps, Gopher, Flys, Mosquitos, Ticks, Fleas, Moles, Scorpions, Squirrels & Bats. Our solutions are carried out in a hidden fashion, so nobody will ever before understand about your insect issue!

Exterminator Near Me Waverly 14892

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travisxpxg936-blog · 7 years ago

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Eliminating German roaches is hard

Our trees are underneath assault. You'll find a number of insects that feast on trees; some are lethal for them, with no regarded defense. For most of those bugs, the sole Resolution is reducing down all infested trees and quarantining the world where by they are discovered. Here are a few of them. Bark beetles are devastating to conifer trees. They can be found throughout North The united states and bring about a huge sum of injury to them. They get rid of trees by girdling them so they can lay their eggs. The girdling of those trees, whether they're nutritious of not, kills them by halting the movement of sap. They are One of the worst pine tree invaders in The usa. Gypsy moths are one of the worst hardwood tree insect pests. They have killed numerous acres of hardwood forest given that their introduction to this country. They hatch while in the spring from eggs laid in trees and will immediately defoliate an entire a single. The first time may not destroy the tree however it can if it occurs sufficient moments. Emerald ash borers are an unique species of beetle at first from Asia. While the Grownups will try to eat compact portions of foliage, it's the larvae which have been the actual issue. They feed around Find more info the internal bark of ash trees, girdling them, and preventing the transporting of water and nutrients with the tree. They may be to blame for killing millions of trees during the U.S. considering the fact that their arrival, and the necessity for rigid quarantines in various states to avoid the distribute of this beetle. The quarantine makes it illegal to move ash trees, firewood, and logs that could contain the emerald ash borer. Asian longhorned beetles are large black and white beetles originally introduced right here from Asia. They feed on a wide variety of hardwood trees such as chestnuts, elms, maples and willows. They're going to chew holes in the bark of a tree and lay their eggs inside the hole. If the larvae hatch, they bore deep Within the tree, and feed on both equally the heartwood and sapwood - which interrupts the foods supply. When these beetles mature, they eat their way out of your tree to go and uncover another, and restart the cycle. The actions with the Asian longhorned beetle kills healthy trees. And they've no organic enemies in America, so they may have the probable to eliminate lots of trees, if not introduced under control. Tent Caterpillars are pests that not merely can defoliate hardwood trees but in addition: Make Unattractive tents, and wind up all over sidewalks and walkways where individuals have to handle them. Each time a tree is infested with tent caterpillars, they will often defoliate it completely. And when this isn't a Dying sentence like These handed down through the bark beetle and Asian longhorned beetle, it does acquire its toll. Only one defoliation is usually not lethal to some healthier tree, but if performed adequate periods, it may get rid of a tree. Wooly Adelgid is a pest that assaults hemlocks and balsam firs. They are customers on the aphid family that feed to the sap of conifers. They suck sap from these trees at the point where the needle attaches to your branch. The tree loses these needles and is weakened by this feeding, which can inevitably eliminate the tree. You'll find a host of other tree damaging pests in North The united states such as the bronze birch borer, drop webworm, japanese pineshoot borer, locust borer, plus the mountain pine beetle. If the thing is one of these pests or have trees affected by them, it is vital to go ahead and take actions advisable to aid combat them.

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ppvwilfredo5-blog · 7 years ago

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The Madison Square Backyard's (MSG) Chief Executive Officer Doctor O'Connor On Q4 2016 End results.

Speculative landscapers may have terrific enjoyable by committing a perimeter or even a whole landscape to a singular bloom different colors, white is a specifically well-known option. Within this bright weather, this landscape is specifically where you intend to be actually: wonderful pool, colourful florals, a bottle from red wine as well as the table actually set for supper. Garden Statues generate focal points that help to establish your yard's character. It is actually nearly like making a shelter in the yard through backyard decorative items, backyard statues and garden fountains. This actually works effectively - (I have an abundance of squirrels that eat all of my figs, tomatoes, peppers, pecans, etc.). Moth balls will likewise always keep canines as well as rabbits away from your plants as well as from your yard. The 17th-century landscape guidebook through Ji Cheng, The Made from Gardens (Yuanye), encourages that the rocks utilized for the optimals from synthetic mountains ought to be actually bigger at the top than below, and fitted together to ensure 'they will certainly possess the appearance of will skyrocket in to the air.' (3) The impact along with such mountain ranges is commonly equivalent to that from the Gothic sanctuary, where the purpose is actually to combat the weight from the rock through offering it the appearance from agility. If thus, produce keep in mind from those components as well as think about exactly how you may incorporate all of them into your very own yard. You may likewise make an effort washing your yard by transferring away dead logs and also huge rocks that function as resting spots for slugs as well as various other harmful pests in your garden. Found in what made use of to become a backyard source retail store along White Plains Method, Basil's 1st shop amazed numerous Manila dwellers with its own genuine as well as wonderful Thai food. But this sort of landscape has a restricted amount of plants in connection with its own area, and is actually greatest used in a yard. Acquire the children included through asking them to coat your pots, merely to incorporate a pop from colour to your garden. To the facility from the yard I why not find out more planted irises, both Shivery and german, peonies, delphiniums, flowers and also time lilies. Having actually paid for the entryway cost, which is a decent rate wherefore you obtain, our company went into the backyard. Therefore leave all of them in calmness, they are sparing you cash, as well as keeping the yard eco tidy. Odds are, when you gathering following year for the yard party the top quality from the images will increase significantly as the competitors kicks up a mark. Also, you might accentuate such backyard yards through additionally taking into consideration adding bird swings on the tree or even putting up a birdbath in your garden that are actually a few other good examples from innovative landscape landscaping ideas.

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theburnishedopal · 7 years ago

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Goats and feathers in the Meisner NaturPark

The Meisner Naturpark lies to the south of Kassel and Gottingen, in the federal state of Hesse, Germany. The area is well known for the legend of Frau Holle, the character from one of the Kinder- und Hausmärchen, the fairy tales collected by the Brothers’ Grimm. Frau Holle, or Old Mother Frost, bestowed good fortune on those who helped her with housework. In making her bed, she shakes out feathers, which fall as ‘snow’; for this reason, when snow falls in Hesse, people say that “Frau Holle is making her bed”. Frau Holle is another version of the goddess Freya of the Norse myths. In the Meisner Naturpark, you can visit Frau Holle Lake, a small reedy pond in a hollow with a cool microclimate. A large wooden carved statue of Frau Holle stands proudly at the far edge of the lake. Apparently she incited anger from some feminists who claimed that the male carver had carved her boobs too generously. Whether it’s the boobs or the proud gaze, the lake is guarded by her presence and she imbues the region with intrigue.

Our group was guided by one of the knowledgeable park rangers, supplemented by the local expertise of ecologist Dr Loos. The park is a well-managed mix of traditional farming practices, calcareous grasslands and subalpine beech and birch forest. Goats are used on hundred-year-old field terraces to graze and maintain rich species diversity. Among other interesting and rare plants, we saw bee orchids (Ophrys spp.), which mimic feeding insects with their dark hooded flowers, attracting real insects to their nectar to obtain pollination services. The plant even uses the same pheromones as the insects themselves in order to attract them. A biological marvel, sitting serenely by the trailside.

In the calcareous grasslands we found classic species; clover, buttercups, birds-foot trefoil, euphorbia, and plenty of insects, including what I thought was a six-spot burnet moth (zygaenid family), but is in fact not six-spotted at all and is a German cousin. As our trail wound through the rocky limestone outcrops, we also heard a yellowhammer,, and found it at eye level sitting in an oak tree.

This limestone can prove fatal to livestock. Coming upon a large sinkhole, we learned of a farmers’ two cattle, pulling a cart, fell through the hole many years ago, almost taking the farmer with them. Their bodies lay on the floor of the limestone shaft for many years. We lay on our bellies on the soft turf, which was full of skipper butterflies and blues, and army-dragged our bodies over to the edge of the hole to peer down and catch a glimpse of a cattle skull (no luck).

As well as the yellowhammer, we saw tree pipits and buzzards, and learned of the presence of eagle owls in the region, although sadly we didn’t encounter them. Up on the highest point of our trail in the subalpine beech forest, we saw thousands and thousands of lupins, which were planted there in the fifties to conceal the damage done to the region from mining and logging. Now the lupins were everywhere, as they are an American species and act semi-invasive in this spot in Germany. In full flower, they did brighten things up, so I can understand the previous park managers’ intentions.

#Meisner #ecology #beeorchids #frauholle

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ibloggingkits-blog · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on Blogging kits

New Post has been published on https://bloggingkits.org/the-bugs-of-the-sector-could-squish-us-all/

The Bugs Of The sector Could Squish Us All

The questions that children ask about technology aren’t always clean to reply. Sometimes, their little brains can result in huge places that adults forget to explore. That is what stimulated our series technology Query From An Infant, which makes use of kids’ curiosity as a jumping-off point to research the scientific wonders that adults don’t even suppose to invite approximately. The answers are for adults, but they wouldn’t be feasible without the wonder that handiest a baby can deliver. I need the babies on your lifestyles to be part of it! Ship me their technology questions, and they may function the muse for a column. And now, our Toddler.

Q: What weighs more: all the human beings or all of the Bugs? — Carson S., age 4

This answer1 is perhaps first-class illustrated by means of two unrelated research whose authors likely by no means guessed they’d be used collectively. In 2012, scientists estimated the worldwide human biomass (i.E., how much all of us weigh) at 287 million metric lots.2 Five years later, an extraordinary organization of scientists got down to estimate how lots The sector’s spiders had been ingesting. They came up with a horrifying (if really inexact) estimate of four hundred million to 800 million metric lots’ really worth of prey each year. In other words, simply the subset of Insects eaten by spiders final yr possibly outweighs all the people on earth. Even if the humans are, normally speak, a touch higher off in the long run.

So all of the Bugs clearly weigh extra than all the human beings. however, as you hug your knees and lightly rock, attempting now not to the touch any of the filthy, trojan horse-protected surfaces that surround you at all times, you have to understand that this obvious win for bug kind mask a few severe issues for the Insects and, as a result, for us. Seems, there are fewer Insects than there was once — each in general weight and in phrases of species diversity. And we humans are responsible.

but first, allow’s back up a minute and communicate a chunk approximately why it’s viable for Insects to outweigh people. The sheer number of Insects within the international is a bit tough to fathom. “There are an estimated 10 quintillion bugs at the globe,” stated Julie Peterson, professor of entomology at the College of Nebraska-Lincoln. “That’s 10 with 18 zeros after it, and that’s simply bugs. That’s no longer counting different arthropods like spiders and mites.” bugs — along side ticks, centipedes, spiders and all of the other land-residing creepy-crawlies that we colloquially name “Bugs” — probable constitute as tons as 80 percent of the species on this planet. In contrast, human beings are a single species, made from (as of this writing) 7,386,922, a one hundred ninety individuals.

To make those tremendous numbers less complicated to understand, permit’s flip to an anecdote: Elizabeth Borer, a biology professor on the College of Minnesota, instructed me approximate 982 take a look at wherein an entomologist named Terry Erwin went to Panama and started taking samples of the beetles he observed in one kind of local tree. To do that, researchers fog a tree with pesticide the manner an exterminator would possibly fog a house, and then they count and categorize the unlucky Bugs that fall out. Erwin located more than 955 species of beetles in just 19 trees. no longer 955 person beetles. Species. Based totally on what he knew approximately the prevalence of this form of tree inside the Panamanian woodland and the superiority of beetles in comparison to different types of insects, Erwin came up with a lower back-of-the-envelope calculation that every hectare of Panamanian woodland could be domestic to as many as forty one,000 species of insects — thousands and thousands, perhaps masses of hundreds of thousands, of people residing in an area now not tons larger than multiple football fields.three And this is why Bugs, as an entire, beat human beings in a pound-for-pound weigh-off. character Insects can be small — the most important species, such as New Zealand’s grasshopper-like large weta, top out round 70 grams, Peterson stated — that’s approximately the dimensions of a jumbo chicken egg. but even if you take what Peterson thinks is probable an underestimate of the average trojan horse size — 0.05 milligrams, say — it still adds up by the time you multiply it through 10,000,000,000,000,000,000. that is a numbers recreation, and the Insects are very a whole lot beforehand.

Granted, all of these numbers come from extrapolation and estimation. Scientists frequently do studies like Erwin’s, going to a vicinity and taking samples that tell them what number of Bugs live in a tree, or on one rectangular meter of ground. Take enough samples like that, and also you begin to get an idea of what’s regular for a particular kind of atmosphere. Then it’s just a matter of identifying how tons of that ecosystem covers the Earth and doing the mathematics, Peterson said. The estimates additionally assume that there are quite a few insect species we don’t yet recognise about. One million species of insects have been named and documented, their kind specimens sealed in jars or illustrated in books. There can be more than four million species yet to be catalogued.

And if all of that isn’t blowing your mind, do not forget what those quintillion Insects imply to The world. For starters, they’re an critical a part of the food chain — bird fitness, specially, relies upon on computer virus fitness. Insects also are pollinators, and that’s no longer just bees. Wasps, ants, flies and beetles all get in on that hot plant reproductive gadget motion. And whilst not all of the food we devour relies on pollinators, some of the absolutely true stuff — almonds, avocados, many fruits and nuts, and the alfalfa that feeds our meat animals — does. Then there’s the function Insects play in decomposition. Dung beetles keep the U.S. cattle industry $380 million every 12 months by using breaking cow poop down into dirt, a provider that still allows to position nitrogen — an essential supply of plant meals — lower back into the soil.

Bugs matter, and if scientists realize how many Insects are in a square meter or what the ones Insects weigh, they could get an concept of ways succesful the prevailing trojan horse populace is of doing all of the jobs Insects do. that is what scientists mean once they talk about “biomass.” if you recognize how a whole lot material a unmarried dung beetle is chargeable for decomposing, then understanding what number of dung beetles there are helps you recognize how a great deal can be decomposed. in case you know what number of pounds of Bugs a unmarried chook eats, you then recognise how many birds can live off the Bugs in a Panamanian tree. And the answers to those questions are quite crucial, due to the fact they let you know sensible facts — like whether or not birds can continue to exist in a given habitat, or whether the poop goes to start piling up in your farm.

That means biomass is both a degree of the health of an insect community and of nature as an entire. And this is in which the wacky science of weighing Bugs starts to overlap with the existentially stressful technological know-how of watching helplessly as ecosystems fall apart. Invertebrates, a set that consists of bugs, are poorly studied by using conservation biologists, at the least in comparison to their numbers, and the fitness in their groups can vary plenty through place and species. But the studies that does exist suggests that bugs aren’t doing well. For example, the Global Union for the Conservation of Nature (the group whose research performs a massive position in figuring out which species we consider endangered) tracks best 3,623 species of terrestrial invertebrates — Bugs, essentially, plus worms and some mollusks. but of these, forty two percentage are threatened with extinction. “We’re probable dropping species faster than we will give them names,” Peterson stated.

And you may see this in particular organizations of species, as nicely. A 2015 have a look at took benefit of a protracted history of statistics documenting populations of moths and butterflies in a covered grassland in Germany. It discovered declines within the wide variety of species recorded, from a excessive of 123 within the 1870s to seventy one by the early 2010s. What’s extra, habitat-unique species had been more likely to have been lost. within the 1870s, 50 percent of the moth and butterfly species had been generalists: animals that may thankfully live in many places. via the 2010s, 68 percent were generalists. The species that were specific to those German grasslands dwindled faster. Peterson stated that this pattern is pondered in lots of other locations. Resilient generalists survive, at the same time as the species which could’t adapt as without problems flounder. And that’s terrible for human beings, because the most resilient generalists are the species we bear in mind pests — cockroaches, say, or mosquitoes. “As we lose insect variety, we’re seeing an boom in pest species,” she stated.

We’re dropping pollinators. We’re dropping the food other animals consume. We’re losing the Bugs that bury poop and useless matters and help return waste to the soil.

And the culprit, inconveniently, is us. The largest chance to insect species is habitat loss because of agriculture, logging and infrastructure improvement. And that makes stopping the loss of insects tough, Peterson told me. Often the those who need the Insects the most — for example, the Nebraska farmers who rely upon burying beetles to function undertakers for the lifeless frogs and mice that assist make their farmland fertile — also are the people whose livelihoods depend upon destroying the ones Bugs’ habitat. This beetle was local to the prairie, Peterson said. There’s now not plenty prairie left and, therefore, now not many beetles. However the beetles helped make the wealthy prairie soil, which made their habitat a high-quality location to transform into the farmland that wrecked the beetles’ personal homes. In the event that they die off, that’s now not suitable for farmers. however farmers also can’t simply prevent farming, because a prairie can’t feed people.

There are not any easy solutions. In Nebraska, Peterson said, the Environmental Protection Enterprise now requires farmers who want to apply insecticides to first ensure that there aren’t burying beetles on their land. In the event that they locate those helpful Insects, farmers must use a greater steeply-priced insecticide which could kill pests whilst defensive the beetles. Peterson sees this as a alternate-off: Spend a little extra money now on insecticide so you don’t have to spend as tons on fertilizer later. But the international is complete of hundreds of thousands of conflicts like this — as many as there are species of bugs, probable. There’s nearly no way to make every body, insects and people, satisfied. The Insects would possibly weigh more than us — for now — however we won’t absolutely sense that weight until it’s long past.

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