The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[2Jedismom]

The Texas Ren Fest is $21 adult, $10 for child, 4 and under is free.

[RMDupree]

Good luck, 2J!!!!

[Corin Stormhands]

The loons, Norman! The loons!

You hang with us and you're worried about loons?

[RMDupree]

[300winmag]

Bay will not touch grain with Bute in it, no matter how much molasses I put in. Perhaps other kinds of pills, but he hates bute. I have to syringe it.

The only "syringe work" I've done with horses is helping Marl with wormer. The stuff she uses is apple-flavored (at least it smells like apples to me, so I assume it tastes like apples), and all the horses just slurped it down without any fuss. Except for her favorite pony, Malabar, who is too smart for his own good, and enjoys being contrary. (I'm still looking for a picture of him in my extensively-disorganized collection of images).

He fought me every step of the way, just to be cantankerous. I knew that the first dozen horses didn't mind, so it was not like it was awful stuff. The brat even tried to spit it back at me. Finally I got some in him, but he still wiped his mouth on his leg, just like someone would wipe their mouth on their sleeve. I hated him for all of five minutes after that session.

[HairOfTheDog]

Ponies are funny when they do behaviors that would be worse in a horse. When I try to worm my pony, she starts this rapid head bob behavior so I can't get the wormer in. I just sit with her, holding the syringe against her lips with the hand that is holding the halter, until she stops.... sometimes it is a few minutes of that antic. Forcing it makes her worse, 'so what's the hurry?' is my take on it.

Bay is easy to worm, which is good, because he is too tall and strong for me to hold onto if he pulled that stunt.

[RosieCotton]

You hang with us and you're worried about loons?

Umm...point taken...but the Hobbit Holers are NICE loons!

[RosieCotton]

Report in as soon as you get back!

[SuziQ]

Made some money in college typing term papers for other guys in the dorm.

When SSQ got his PhD in 1980, there were several wives who were typing their hubbies' dissertations. I told him I loved him very much, but I was NOT TYPING that thing! He laughed and understood, and I had a good excuse anyway, having just delivered our #1 son!

We paid a nice young lady who worked in the Stat Dept. to do it, and it looked very professional. She had invested in the special ball for her IBM selectric that handled the various symbols necessary for typing Math oriented projects. She was making a nice second income doing these!

[SuziQ]

Mmmmmm.....Operation Chocolate

Am working on that again today! I just got back from the store and got 9 pounds of that yummy candy molding chocolate! Now I gotta make a bunch of Krispy Rice bars.

[SuziQ]

My FIL, rest his soul, used to call it "s--t on a shingle".

My late f-i-l used called it the same thing! Was your f-i-l in the Army? That's where Grandaddy said he used to have it all the time.

[RMDupree]

Yup, he was! Served in Korea.

[Wneighbor]

We need to moot anyway! A picnic somewhere where the kids can play on a playset or something while we visit would be best...

Yes, we do need to do that. I am back to working 2 half days at the school now and since I've got to find some supplemental income I can't exactly schedule anything until I find the part-time job.

[Wneighbor]

I learned my keyboard skills through OJT. I'm pretty fast, very accurate, but my form would get me flunked in a typing class. The classes today should also include ergonomics, to avoid the dreaded (I have it, and it's dreaded) carpal tunnel syndrome.

LOL, as you know, in drafting you don't have to be a great speed typist. However, I do get students in who literally don't get assignments completed because they can't navigate around a keyboard or screen menus fast enough to do the work.

I also introduce ergonomics into my classes. Most students just look at me glassy-eyed and go to sleep. I wonder how many will end up with some of these repetitive motion pains?

[Overtaxed]

What I'd like to know is why did no one complain about carpal tunnel syndrome using those manual typewriters?

[Scott from the Left Coast]

That hits the nail right on the head.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Pints are all-occasion

(see how good I'm getting at succinct? Pretty soon I'll be downright terse. Or is that dwarfish?)

[Wneighbor]

I've seen it get rather heated (as whistle players can get, at times).

Really?

we never noticed.

[Wneighbor]

That hits the nail right on the head.

Done deal buddy.

[AnAmericanMother]

What I'd like to know is why did no one complain about carpal tunnel syndrome using those manual typewriters?

Having typed on both, I have a few ideas -- The repetitive motion injuries are not just from repetitive motion, but from "locking" the hand and arm in a particular position for long periods of time. The old typewriters required you to move your hands and arms to hit the carriage return, as well as put new paper in, adjust the carbons (remember carbons? :-D ), etc. etc. (not to mention untangling the key arms when you typed too fast!) Plus the force required was such that you had to use the moving weight of your hand, not just your fingers.

Now you can type for pages and pages and pages, and never move your wrists out of the "down and locked" position. Hence the gel pads under the wrists to get them back into proper alignment . . .