Post your GOOD NEWS
 

I'm tired of talking about the referendum, Brexit (some people's friends and family are still not talking to each other since the result), the new UK Prime Minister election, the new US President election, immigration, global warming, the economy, blah, blah, blah . . .

Just for a change, how about relating some nice little snippets of personal news (and not "Accomplished Members" type of stuff)? We all must have had something pleasant happen in our lives recently, surely? Even small things lift the spirits.

Well, in case anyone's interested, I'll kick off with mine. My daughter and her new husband bought three scratch cards and they all came up trumps (!), I mean 'won money' - totalling over five thousand pounds...

Edited in on Feb 1st 2018: Dammit! I just tried to edit a small typo from this post and half of it has disappeared! I can't retrieve it, nor remember what I originally wrote. I hope this doesn't mean trouble, like another hacking!!

I swam in the ocean today for the first time this summer. It was wonderful.

I just saw a portly groundhog pass by my front window in the driveway and before I could get the .22 rifle to dispatch him, he got away.

My wife and kids get back this week from a long trip abroad! I'm cleaning, and making other preparations, including, if all goes as planned, piling the kids' beds with balloons.

And

written by rearranging thousands of snippets cut from Shakespeare's plays, will get its premiere in June 2017 . The prologue was workshopped here. In preparation, I'm working hard at polishing. I will probably bore you all frequently about this between now and June.

Last week I had a lovely afternoon and evening on a roof terrace overlooking Stockholm with four people I love including one daughter and two beautiful grandchildren. And a delicious supper there with grilled tuna and an excellent white wine.

Then I went with one of said beloveds for a week in beautiful Ålesund, Norway.

Also I slept until past noon today.

Also I bought six books today.

Ah, it's not all doom and gloom, as I suspected. Thanks for sharing your happy moments, Bob, Charlie, Max and Janice.

Max,
You're being very modest. What You Will is a BIG thing, not a little one. Congratulations on its world premiere next year.

Bob,
Lucky you. Swimming in the sea is indeed wonderful.

Let's hear more happy little events, please.

A nice buck, three does and two fawns are in my yard just as the sun is setting which highlights their reddish coats, and the sun really sets off the fawns spots. Eat your heart out Remington and Rockwell.

I saw a baby skink twice yesterday. They are far too fast to grab let alone photograph.

There were two raccoons washing their little raccoon paws in the guard-dog's water bowl on the back porch this evening. Guard dog, a border collie, was cowering in her igloo. I had to clap my sandals together to chase the miscreants away.

I used to think they were cute, but they eat chickens. The good news? They hightailed it back to the forest!

I sing of the joy of the Great Discovery; the moment when something suddenly makes itself known. Like my first day at school, when the teacher called me to the front of the class, introduced me and then said "a little bird told me you can read". I can recall the terror - I'd always been told that school was where you learned to read. Then she handed me a little card, buff-coloured with scruffy corners and a two-tone illustration - "can you tell me what that says?"...

Mo-ther see kit-ty. Kit-ty can play ball. I can play ball too. See me play ball with kit-ty.

And she smiled "Good girl! You can read really well."

I can still feel the clunk of the epiphany. Reading was only another word for "telling a grown-up what it says" - like the label on the sauce bottle, like the headlines in the Daily Herald... who knew?

And last night it happened again. A new laptop. Thin as a crisp and already agog with Windows 10. Switched on - to be confronted with an empty screen and a sniffy exhortation to wait while the system was being updated, to expect switchings off-and-on and not to interrupt. I didn't.

Then, when that was all over, I found a desktop screen that bore no resemblance to anything I had ever seen before and no apparent way of getting at any of the stuff that it had assured me was there. There was a link on the toolbar to something called Cantona or Cantata or something (I don't know for sure because I accidentally killed it) but no way of finding the programmes I had had installed by the local expert. Audacity? Auslogics?

I clicked and clicked, getting lists of things like Amazon and Booking.com and ways to access x-boxes and online solitaire. I clicked again and again on the pale approximation of the Windows logo and nothing suggested access to my programmes, never mind creating desktop shortcuts. Then, right at the bottom, I saw, and clicked "all Apps" - and there they were!

I know technology has to advance and I am grateful for what it can do, but why tinker with the established language? When did programmes become Apps? And - hey! - have Apps really only been programmes all along? Aha!

I've still got to find a way to make shortcuts and how to prime its innards with flash-driven history, but for now, rejoice with me! I have found that which was lost!

Good news? Hmmm . . . Well, I haven't had any BAD news recently, Jayne. Will that do?

Max, I agree with Jayne: that sounds like a big deal!

It’s been a hot and dry Summer in upstate NY. Nice -- but we needed rain badly. This morning I awoke to the thrum of a steady rain on the roof and in the leaves, with the occasional muffled clang of a fat drop from the oaks falling on a gutter. I love to sleep to the sounds of rain. I rolled over in bed and fell back to sleep. I had the most soothing dreams; I got up late.

Now, the woods smell fresh and the world feels scrubbed. I hear the flowers drinking.

That smell is called "petrichor". Thank you Michael, for reminding me of it.

And thank you, Annie, for teaching me the word -- which I should not be surprised you know!

Fabulous news from your daughter and you, Jayne! And congrats to all on your good news or lack of bad!

My good news is that after months of various degrees of on-again off-again pain (not going into the complicated details), I'm hopeful now that I've found the right meds. Also good news on the writing front which I'm not going public with just yet; and happy the Northeast heat wave is over at last!

OK. Mouse to bottom left corner of screen. See that funny blue windows thing that pops up? Click it. Then select "All Apps." Pick the app you want.

While it's up, move your mouse to the bottom of the screen. See that bar that comes up? Look for the icon of the app you're running. Right click on it. Select "pin to taskbar."

Et voila! Now it'll always show up when you move your mouse down there. Left click it when it does, and you're golden!

HTH,

Bill

I had a rara avis sighting the other day. I encountered a Mr. Robert Schechter (you may have heard of him) on my Facebook page. He scampered off before I could get a picture.

My elder daughter has been repeatedly intubated for surgeries in recent years, causing severe damage to her vocal cords in the process. After a year of speech therapy, for which our insurance finally agreed to reimburse us just month (hooray!), Jenn's vocal cords are now functioning at 85% of normal. When she started speech therapy, they were only functioning at 5% of normal.

She will probably never sing again--she used to have a lovely alto--but she can now talk without getting hoarse after only two or three minutes. Which is wonderful, because she has a lot of worthwhile things to say. We're all delighted.

Especially Max, Julie and Terese, big congrats.

Happy birthday, Jayne. Though belated.

And to my other friends, thanks for heeding Jayne's call and accentuating the positive.

I’m happy to have turned 78 a few days ago, having survived 10 years after the diagnosis of prostate cancer, 9 years since the surgery (it took me a year to fall apart and reassemble).

Also this month, within the last few days, I watched the fire keep gripping the ridge of the foothill my place faces and the ten hour battle by copter drops of water and retardants to knock it back. In ‘08 I had to evacuate twice, the second fire reaching just a few feet from the house. I am sooooo lucky, and grateful!

Oh, and a year ago I lost 30 pounds, but with a minimum of effort managed to find them again.

Met our second grand-dog this weekend. Probably a terrier/yellow lab mix.

Soul-restoringly cute.

Medical news puts everything else in perspective, doesn't it? That really is wonderful news, Julie, Terese, and Ralph. And I'm glad the rest of us are finding things to celebrate, too.

I'm really heartened to read everyone's posts here. Thank you ALL for sharing your personal good news, whether big or small.

When it comes down to the 'glass half empty/glass half full' mindset I am of the latter persuasion, as anyone who's acquainted with me will know, so I believe there is always something pleasant around . . . if we look for it.

I have a little wooden sign hanging up which says "Laugh Every Day", and I do, about something, . . . anything!! :D

Jayne

Well, Jayne, whatever his faults (and they are admittedly YUGE), one good thing about Donald Trump is that we can rely on him for a laugh a day, even if it's only nervous laughter.

And here's a very small thing that made someone happy. It was Clovis's 9th birthday a few days ago, and we bought him some minced steak as a special treat. We eked it out over several days, and he was in doggy heaven compared to the stuff he usually has to eat.

But I'm sorry to say that the story has a sad ending. He's come to the end of the minced steak. We don't quite know how to break the news to him.

Not a lot of good news for me this year, but I'm happy to finally be teaching a college course at the end of the month. It's "only" English 101, but given that I arrived quite late to academia, and my first long-term goal was to teach, it's a satisfying feeling.

Great thought Jayne, and nice to hear so many good reports. I'm enjoying some family time in Maryland, including meeting up with Ed Shacklee yesterday. And every day I get to see goldfinches and hummingbirds on my parents' feeders.

Shaun,

I know how you're feeling. I was late going into teaching too, but had a twenty-year career that I really loved.

Brian,
Ah, the lovely Clovis, bless him; the most intelligent dog I've ever met! He's so clever that I have a suggestion: why not keep some minced steak in the freezer and give him some for his dinner on the last day of every month. That way, he won't need to look at the calendar as he'll automatically know it's the 1st of a new month the following day.
It won't cost you too much - and he's well worth it.

Mary,
Let's get together again sometime when you're home again. I met the lovely Ed at West Chester - a definite cause to rejoice! :)

Jayne

My wife's family dog, Barney, was so old and sick (several years ago) that he was scheduled to be "put to sleep," as the saying goes. During what we thought would be his last day on earth, my wife's father treated him to huge quantities of minced beef. Not only did he enjoy it with the greatest of gusto, but it seemed to revive his health and energy to such an extent that his euthanasia appointment was canceled. He had another good year before it had to be rescheduled, this time the meat having no effect. (He was fifteen years old, I believe).

Well, Jayne, I have some Big News (as in, good), Bad News, Annoying News.... but let me just say that today I slept in, stared at the blue sky, read a book, and simply reveled in the pleasures of doing nothing. Haven't done that in a while, and it felt so good!

Charlotte

I went to a "Meet-Up" event Tuesday. It was a chance to try out Virtual Reality on the Oculus Rift with the "Greenville Old Geeks" group. That was happiness #1...
I invited my teenage son to join me. He agreed and we had a great time together. That was happiness #2 AND a miracle...
The event was held in a place called "Synergy Mill Makespace" which is a community workshop where members can use all sorts of equipment, like 3D printers, saws, laser cutting gizmos etc... I met some nice people and found this amazing resource. Happiness #3

Jayne, I never won beans on a scratch card, so I send congratulations to your son and daughter!

Also to Max on the Shakespeare collaboration in the works.

And pleased to see that nature provides new glimpses of joy everywhere.

I watched a fawn nurse its mother down by the pond below my house and saw the fawn a little later in the tall grass, only the top of his back and his nose visible as he grazed just at daylight.

Saw and heard a cardinal bird. High pitched note. Heard that first. Flew (bounced almost) from roof (or tree) to tree to bush, then away across small roadway to tree, then away entirely.

We have a huge lime tree in the garden and I moved my car close to it to leave more space on the drive for friends to park their cars, as we had a party at the weekend. I completely forgot that the tree exudes a sticky substance, and my car ended up totally plastered with a thick layer of tacky goo.

My dear husband has been outside washing the car for ages, while I'm sitting here with a nice glass of wine.

(I've always worked hard and kept busy but there are two things I won't do: wash a car or mow the lawn! Has there ever been a thread called 'Things I Hate Doing', I wonder?)

. . . And speaking of husbands (not like mine) I'll be tempted to bump this thread in a few months' time when there's good news that Helen is out of prison in The Archers, which might mean something to some of you ;) If not, see the link for the riveting storyline.

Jayne

Or when Rob's in...

Oh yes! Or he's trampled to death by a mad cow . . . or something.

I have another bit of good news to relate . . .

I'm Chairman of our local U3A (University of the Third Age) and a member was looking after her 13 year-old grandson and brought him along to our monthly meeting. He asked her, "How old is Jayne?'' His grandmother said, "I'm not sure, but I think she must be in her 60s.''

The delightful boy replied, "But she looks about the same age as my Mum." His Mum is 45!!

It made my day year :D

Jayne

In my nation we have a cottage industry where people in artificial metal tunnels use big friendly machines that whirl and oscillate soapsuds over automobiles for the price of a cheap meal. I used one when a daughter parked under 2,000 pigeons one night. We can send you floor plans, but you have to drive on the other side to use them I suppose. (Just a tease. Smile)

Bravely battling with Windows 10, I have discovered that the clue to mastering it lies in the translation. Once you can work out what “they” are now calling the thing that you’ve been sucking eggwise from the moment of first-doc, you’re Win-ning.

Now it is Messrs Hewlett Packard that are driving me to the back door of the booby-hatch. They keep sending pop-up messages which make no sense and which defy blocking and uninstallation. Dear hearts, why do you keep sending me a message welcoming me to my new device? I can click on the cross at the top, or on the box saying “done” and it disappears, only to pop up again a few minutes later, going “Boo!” like a look-at-me toddler.

And now – the Good News. It was that last analogy that gave me the clue. Tired of greeting its every appearance with “George – don’t do that” I bethunk me of a way of besting it, based on hard-won parenting skills.

You see, reacting to it with any sort of click clearly encourages it. Now, in every session, as soon as it makes its first appearance, I take it firmly by the cursor and march it uppards, beyond the top limit of my desktop screen, and leave it there. I can just see the edges of its little blue toes peeping over the edge of the Naughty Step, but it can’t come down till I say so. Gotcher!