What are you doing today?

Reading car reviews online. And I'm not even seriously in the market for one. Off to bed in a bit. Too old to stay up until midnight. Whats the point? Not like I'll do anything different on NY eve than any other night. Probably just fall asleep watching repeats of QI on Dave!
 
Apple fanboy said:
Reading car reviews online. And I'm not even seriously in the market for one. Off to bed in a bit. Too old to stay up until midnight. Whats the point? Not like I'll do anything different on NY eve than any other night. Probably just fall asleep watching repeats of QI on Dave!
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Any model in particular that you find interesting?

Happy new year btw!
 
Apple fanboy said:
Reading car reviews online. And I'm not even seriously in the market for one. Off to bed in a bit. Too old to stay up until midnight. Whats the point? Not like I'll do anything different on NY eve than any other night. Probably just fall asleep watching repeats of QI on Dave!
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Once upon a distant time, Decent Brother and I would go out and have a few beers on New Year's Eve; other years, I would see in the New Year with my parents (and the inevitable glass of wine, my father staying up to greet my mother and I with a Near Year's warm hug and kiss before heading cheerfully off to bed, in order to be up, bright eyed and bushy tailed, unnaturally sprightly, to watch the Viennese New Year's Concert the following morning).

And then, there were the years - quite a few - when I saw in the New Year with colleagues while working or deployed abroad.

And now, I am at home, a bottle of wine to hand, seeing in what is - to my surprise - a third consecutive New Year where a house that once rocked to the joyful sound of shared laughter - laughter with, not laughter at - is silent except for the classical music I am listening to.

Happy New Year.
 
Scepticalscribe said:
Once upon a distant time, Decent Brother and I would go out and have a few beers on New Year's Eve; other years, I would see in the New Year with my parents (and the inevitable glass of wine, my father staying up to greet my mother and I with a Near Year's warm hug and kiss before heading cheerfully off to bed, in order to be up, bright eyed and bushy tailed, unnaturally sprightly, to watch the Viennese New Year's Concert the following morning).

And then, there were the years - quite a few - when I saw in the New Year with colleagues while working or deployed abroad.

And now, I am at home, a bottle of wine to hand, seeing in what is - to my surprise - a third consecutive New Year where a house that once rocked to the joyful sound of shared laughter - laughter with, not laughter at - is silent except for the classical music I am listening to.

Happy New Year.
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Happy New Year to you. Already in bed with the electric blanket on.
 
Had a very pleasant day except for an unexpected notification from my condo association about not just the (expected) rise in our customary condominium monthly fees but also a rather unexpected and large "special assessment" on top of them. Ouch! It's understandable, though -- this community and its fourteen buildings are not getting any younger -- built in 1984 -- but this was just not a happy surprise on the Eve of the New Year in which we'll be expected to fork out all the money. For me it'll all work out, some adjustment of the usual monthly budget, some rethinking of purchases I'd thought of making in the New Year so that they will either be postponed or eliminated..... But I think some owners in this community are going to be really shocked and absolutely NOT happy about this at all.

All that aside, the weather here was again surprisingly mild and pleasant so spent some time outdoors, plus I ran a couple of errands and got them out of the way. I had a third errand in mind but fortunately had sense enough to belatedly ring up the store and check on their hours, to be sure they were open at all and/or if they were going to be closing early. Good thing I did, as they were indeed planning to close about a half-hour after the time that I called, so that was that! With the kind of traffic we have in this area, there was no way I could have been assured of getting to that store before it closed, and so I'll just go over there some time next week, no big deal..... I'm just happy I did ring them up and check with them before setting out, as I would have been VERY annoyed to have gotten there and found that the store was closed.

Looking forward to saying "goodbye" to 2021 in a few hours and welcoming in 2022! I always stay up for this and watch the events from NYC on TV during the last five or so minutes to be able to catch when the Waterford Crystal Ball actually descends, marking off the final seconds of the last year and then joyously marking the moment that the brand new New Year arrives.

For us in the US, 2022 is still on her way...... For you guys in other countries, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
 
Got in two speed walks and checked out the old trail at the nearby park. Hubby was right: it leads to the new-ish trail.

We just finished New Year's Eve dinner/Birthday Dinner for Hubby. I always joke that we celebrate it on NYE because it's his birthday in Taiwan where he was born on the 1st.

Feeling tired and contented and about to go offline. So: Happy New Year to all!
 
ronntaylor said:
Got in two speed walks and checked out the old trail at the nearby park. Hubby was right: it leads to the new-ish trail.

We just finished New Year's Eve dinner/Birthday Dinner for Hubby. I always joke that we celebrate it on NYE because it's his birthday in Taiwan where he was born on the 1st.

Feeling tired and contented and about to go offline. So: Happy New Year to all!
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Happy New Year to you too!
 
Not sure I'll manage to stay up to midnight here, but like many others I'm certainly extra happy about starting a New Year. For once I didn't even toy with the idea of making any New Year's resolutions, just holding a wish that everyone may have a happy and peaceful 2022.
 
Scepticalscribe said:
Sipping coffee and watching the New Year's Day Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with the New Year's Concert.
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And no don’t remembering your Father who I recall used to share that passion with you?

Here I’ve taken advantage of the mild weather and removed a tree come bush from down the side of our house. A load of ivy to which will no doubt spring up again as quickly as it gets removed.

A shower after lunch then a walk this afternoon as the sun is almost breaking through.
 
Apple fanboy said:
And no don’t remembering your Father who I recall used to share that passion with you?

Here I’ve taken advantage of the mild weather and removed a tree come bush from down the side of our house. A load of ivy to which will no doubt spring up again as quickly as it gets removed.

A shower after lunch then a walk this afternoon as the sun is almost breaking through.
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Yes, - that's well remembered! - this morning and afternoon, my thoughts were of music, but mainly of my father.

Every year, on the First of January, that is, if I was at home, we used to watch this concert together.

And, once he retired, we used to attend concerts together regularly; not just classical music concerts, but also jazz (which he adored), - and he also loved the "easy listening music" of the 40s - as well as more modern music (a Michael Nyman concert we attended comes to mind).

And he always used to love to seek out music of countries that he visited.

Music was in his soul, and others in his family also had this passion for music; his sister, my aunt, aged 97, who reluctantly retired as a postmistress having reached the age of 80, was actually a fully trained - or qualified - music teacher, a very fine musician and an excellent pianist.
 
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We wound up going for Thai with our best friends, but we were home at 7:30. That left us time to do our usual evening of watching Midsomer Murders.

Today…no plans. Just enjoying the deck as always and wondering if we’re really going to get a bitter cold snap tomorrow.
 
It is going to rain all day. So will be watching some bowl games and doing some small maintenance items around the house that I haven't gotten to.

Also, today is great day to change the batteries in your smoke detectors. If you don't have a smoke detector, go buy one. Today.
 
Herdfan said:
It is going to rain all day. So will be watching some bowl games and doing some small maintenance items around the house that I haven't gotten to.

Also, today is great day to change the batteries in your smoke detectors. If you don't have a smoke detector, go buy one. Today.
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Mine are wired into the mains, but yes everyone should have at least one.
 
Apple fanboy said:
Mine are wired into the mains, but yes everyone should have at least one.
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As are mine, but I always send out an email blast to my customers wishing them a Happy New Year and to change their batteries. We have several older clients that we do this for every year because they can't climb up and do it.

And yes hardwired detectors have battery backups, but most are good for 10+ years.
 
DT said:
Almost all hardwired detectors also have a battery for power backup as a notable number of fires originate from the electrical system (i.e., the house also loses power, disabling the detector).
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No one in my family will ever forget the death in 1973 of a close friend, his wife, their infant son and his wife's young twin nieces. He was just 37 years old at the time, with a promising career ahead of him at the New York Stock Exchange. He and his young family all died from asphyxiation due to toxic fumes from a smoky fire later found to be due to faulty circuitry in a TV set, which had been turned off but somehow ignited plastics and wiring coverings and eventually led to a smoldering fire of other furnishings in the den.

A neighbor walking his dog late that night saw the smoke coming out of the side of the darkened house and called the FD, but the smoke had already killed everyone inside. Our friend apparently did wake up and knew something was wrong, but was already too dysfunctional from the fumes to do more than remove his son from the crib and head down a hallway towards a bathroom, where their bodies were found. The other three victims were found in their beds. "Fire damage" per se to the home was confined to about half the area of the den.

Ironically, 1973 was also the year that a patent was issued for the first battery-operated residential smoke detector, which went into mass production in the USA in 1975. Sadly, it's not clear that the family might have been saved even if they did have one of those early detectors, since the ionization kind is not as good as photoelectric sensors at detecting a smoldering fire.

You can bet your behind that everyone in my family does use dual sensor smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. They're not a panacea, but your chances of survival of a house gone up in flames are improved by at least 20% even if you use the cheapest ionization-type of detector. Your chances are way further enhanced if you get the hard wired dual sensor kind (photoelectric and ionization detection with a carbon monoxide sensor as well) and batt backups.
 
Wrapped up my 2021 52-Week project on another forum, and am doing year-end reorganization of my photo files and setting up new folders for the images which I'll be shooting in 2022.

I definitely followed my personal ritual of watching the old year go away and the new year appear, thanks to New York and the traditional Times Square event, but was annoyed when for some reason the show I was watching didn't show closeups of the Waterford Crystal ball as it was making its descent through the final seconds of 2021 and arriving at the first second of 2022. Must be some protocol that the different broadcasters have to follow and maybe positioning for the right angles to get those kinds of shots is something that is swapped around among them each year. Whatever.....

The smoke detector in my condominium apartment unit is hard-wired, but probably could/should be updated now since it is the original one which was installed at the time the place was built.
 
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