USMB Coffee Shop IV

[TheGreatGatsby]

 

[Foxfyre]

Good night, afternoon, morning wherever you are darlinks. I really do love you guys. May the Coffee Shop always be a virtual family for those who need or enjoy one here. Meanwhile we pray or send positive vibes or keep vigil for:

Harper, the inspiration for the vigil list.
Kat for wellness
JustAnotherNut for wellness
Mindful's daughter diagnosed with cancer.
Nosmo King for healing and health & wholeness.
Gracie & Dennis for the best possible housing solution.
Beautress for continued recovery & wholeness.
Dragonlady for the best possible outcome for her knee.
Ringel - special thoughts on 8/10, the first anniversary of Mrs. R's passing and for a trouble free and successful procedure today.

And we keep the light on so others who have been away can find their way back and we hope they will.

Photo is captioned Benson AZ. Wondering where our good friend peach174 is these days?

 

[Manonthestreet]

 

[gallantwarrior]

Gosh, it's been a while since I logged on to the CS. Apologies to all, I can't even begin to read to catch up. It's been a very non-busy busy summer. I've been battling some demons and have discovered that I am running out of summer now.
I hope everyone here is doing well and taking care of yourselves.

 

[Foxfyre]

Gosh, it's been a while since I logged on to the CS. Apologies to all, I can't even begin to read to catch up. It's been a very non-busy busy summer. I've been battling some demons and have discovered that I am running out of summer now.
I hope everyone here is doing well and taking care of yourselves.

So glad you checked in GW. I always think of the Coffee Shop as any other gathering place. If you have time you 'catch up' with everybody but usually don't have that kind of time and just pick up from where you are. But when we don't hear from you for awhile, I worry. You are off the grid and all. So glad to know you're okay and I hope you're handling those demons. We all have some of those.

 

[Ringel05]

Got home from the hospital about 45 minutes ago, surgery yesterday went well. Sure enough they found old scar tissue and a partial skin blockage that had grown back over my lifetime since it was first treated when I was a baby. Will be wearing this catheter for a week then have a couple of months recovery to look forward to. Otherwise I'm doing pretty well and just glad to be home.

 

[Dragonlady]

It's been a week and it's only Wednesday.

I'm getting lots of sales, but I'm having problems with shipping. The Post Office in both Canada and the USA is in a total mess. Outbreaks at the main Ontario Canada Post sorting plant in Brampton, all but shut down the place over the winter, but I thought all of that stuff was behind us.

I had to go to the Post Office 3 times last week to find it open. They're having staffing problems. With schools and child care centres closed for lockdown, schools not opening until after Labour Day, and no summer camps or programs going on here, people can't leave their kids and just go to work. The woman who was there when I finally found it open (for 3 hours), came in from a town 45 miles away.

I'm told that several US customs hubs are closed or slowed due to outbreaks - Chicago is shut down. Stuff entering the country in Chicago is being rerouted to other customs hubs for processing, slowing all the other customs centres down. Mail is sitting in customs hubs for 30 days or more.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Hamilton fabric shopping. Also elastic, thread, and blades for my cutters.

 

[Foxfyre]

Got home from the hospital about 45 minutes ago, surgery yesterday went well. Sure enough they found old scar tissue and a partial skin blockage that had grown back over my lifetime since it was first treated when I was a baby. Will be wearing this catheter for a week then have a couple of months recovery to look forward to. Otherwise I'm doing pretty well and just glad to be home.

So glad it went well, but wow, it must have been a bigger deal than most of these kinds of procedures. You will take care of yourself and follow doctor's orders yes? And if you need anything, Hombre and I are here.

 

[Foxfyre]

It's been a week and it's only Wednesday.

I'm getting lots of sales, but I'm having problems with shipping. The Post Office in both Canada and the USA is in a total mess. Outbreaks at the main Ontario Canada Post sorting plant in Brampton, all but shut down the place over the winter, but I thought all of that stuff was behind us.

I had to go to the Post Office 3 times last week to find it open. They're having staffing problems. With schools and child care centres closed for lockdown, schools not opening until after Labour Day, and no summer camps or programs going on here, people can't leave their kids and just go to work. The woman who was there when I finally found it open (for 3 hours), came in from a town 45 miles away.

I'm told that several US customs hubs are closed or slowed due to outbreaks - Chicago is shut down. Stuff entering the country in Chicago is being rerouted to other customs hubs for processing, slowing all the other customs centres down. Mail is sitting in customs hubs for 30 days or more.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Hamilton fabric shopping. Also elastic, thread, and blades for my cutters.

Sounds like a mess. Our post offices are open here as are UPS and Fed Ex centers so we're getting our deliveries pretty much on time and have no problems shipping. But who knows when we'll be shut down again with all the associated problems with that.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Just listening to the news and it would appear the the latest mandates are once again slowing hiring of staff.

 

[Dajjal]

 

[Dragonlady]

Today, being Friday the 13th, there is a gathering of motor cycle riders in Port Dover, Ontario - a town of 13,000 on the shores of Lake Erie less than an hour's drive from here. While there is one of these gatherings every Friday the 13th, this is the first one since March of 2020. It is anticipated that 100,000 people are going to show up for this one. I can't imagine where all of these people are going to congregate.

The entire public beach front isn't more than 300 feet total, including the marina. They don't even have enough restaurants or beachfront food stalls to feed this number of people. The whole thing sounds like a recipe for traffic jams, frustration, and people getting way too edgy.

My youngest daughter wanted to go to see what what one of these things are like, but when I told her they're expecting 100,000 people, she decided to see if she could work a shift this weekend instead.

I went to one of the Friday the 13th gatherings back when we had a cottage less than 10 miles from Port Dover. That was back in the 70's. I wasn't impressed and never went back. There was nothing wrong with the event, it just wasn't my thing, and I never liked going to Port Dover much anyway. Lake Erie at its most polluted at that time. I was there the summer before last and it's much nicer now than I remember. Much cleaner too.

 

[LA RAM FAN]

Hey Foxdyre and beautress and anybody else,take a look at this video and start watching it at the 51.00 minute makr and listen to the song and tell me your thoughts on if it gave you goosebumps as it did me,thanks.

Uplifting inspiration video for the times

video not working anymore so you can watch it here if you go to the 51 minute mark.

www.usmessageboard.com

 

[Dajjal]

 

[Oddball]

Saturday morning!

Where's the Earth-shattering kaboom?

Let the cartoon begin!

 

[Foxfyre]

Hey Foxdyre and beautress and anybody else,take a look at this video and start watching it at the 51.00 minute makr and listen to the song and tell me your thoughts on if it gave you goosebumps as it did me,thanks.

Uplifting inspiration video for the times

video not working anymore so you can watch it here if you go to the 51 minute mark.

www.usmessageboard.com

Sorry I couldn't get it to work.

 

[Foxfyre]

Just listening to the news and it would appear the the latest mandates are once again slowing hiring of staff.

Our problem here is that the increased federal unemployment benefits won't end until Sept. 4, our state policy is to not require people to go back to work when jobs open up, so a lot of people just don't. It has improved since many of the mandates were lifted but most restaurants, retailers etc. who were forced to lay off staff are now having trouble hiring and are working seriously short handed. And they aren't able to pay a whole lot more since they're all cash starved at least until all the customers have money again. Tough situation for many.

 

[Dragonlady]

Our problem here is that the increased federal unemployment benefits won't end until Sept. 4, our state policy is to not require people to go back to work when jobs open up, so a lot of people just don't. It has improved since many of the mandates were lifted but most restaurants, retailers etc. who were forced to lay off staff are now having trouble hiring and are working seriously short handed. And they aren't able to pay a whole lot more since they're all cash starved at least until all the customers have money again. Tough situation for many.

Our problem here is that many of the child care centres closed during the pandemic and many haven't re-opened yet, because they're re-staffing too. My daughter's roommate is a certified early childhood educator (child care worker) and she just got hired by a child care operator, but hasn't started working yet, so that centre is just getting ready to re-open.

There's no summer camps open here, and even day camp programs aren't running. Our schools don't open until after Labour Day so people with young children have no care for them, unless they have family who can help out. This situation isn't unique to Canada.

Despite all of my shipping problems this week, the lost package has been delivered, and UPS came through for me and delivered my package on time!!

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

 

[LA RAM FAN]

View attachment 525397

That is totally amazing if it is fir real and not photoshopped.