I miss this group

[hchi...@hotmail.com]

I have to say that the mix of people who made up this group from 1995 on, for
close to a decade, made for the brightest and most free group I have ever run
across. I'm on forums, and recently poked my head into facebook again, and they
simply are not the same. The range of topics gets limited, and more adventurous
posters either abandon quickly or get kicked out. Other forums are less forums
than filtered sounding boards for the viewpoints of some rigid moderators.

If the group could somehow make it into a forum type setting where cancelbots
and trolls were excluded, I would love it. I recognize though that it is
unlikely.


A toast to absent friends.

[The Real Bev]

Having participated in starting a moderated newsgroup (and moderating it
for a while) I can heartily NOT recommend either the process or the
result. The moderation software is NOT user-friendly, and ultimately
something stopped working such that even the truly-computer-savvy people
involvedcouldn't get it working again. Even before that, there was very
little traffic. Apparently it was more fun to carry on the squabble
that started in 1999 than to get back to the way the group was back in
the dark ages when everybody was decent and helpful.

RS seems to have moved elsewhere, operates similarly, and is just as
annoying.

> A toast to absent friends.

Too many. Perhaps they're still subscribed, but don't bother looking
unless there are posts. A possible solution suggests itself...

ObFrugal -- Costco seems to be the most economical place to go for
glasses/contacts. Certainly better than any of the chain optometrists.
Can anyone suggest a better option?

--
Cheers, Bev
"No matter how cynical I get, it's just never enough to keep up."
--Lily Tomlin

[hchi...@hotmail.com]

An ObFrugal! As Obi wan said, "I have not heard that name..."

I need to get some Stetson frames. I've come to realize that the larger lens
size is much more what I am comfortable with. Do they have those? Although...
I now have a detached vitreous humor in one eye, and the eye doctor I used who
has her practice at Walmart guided me through at no charge, with repeated visits
to make sure the retina was ok. She is simply dedicated and when a regular
customer has an issue and she knows the insurance company is going to be a
problem, she works on her terms. No way will I walk away from that.

Now if I could only find some bell-bottoms. :-) (An aside - a friend who loved
his embroidered peasant shirt from the late '60s, early 70s has decided to
attempt to make his own replacement from scratch. He just made a couple of
outstanding quilts, and I expect him to be successful in the making. He may or
may not decide to wear the resultant product, that is up to him.

If the group gets traffic, I fully expect the return of the sith.

[The Real Bev]

Sure you have!

> I need to get some Stetson frames. I've come to realize that the larger lens
> size is much more what I am comfortable with. Do they have those?

Not a clue. Maybe Zenni or Goggles4U have them, although they seem to
carry only styles that are fairly current.

> Although...
> I now have a detached vitreous humor in one eye, and the eye doctor I used who
> has her practice at Walmart guided me through at no charge, with repeated visits
> to make sure the retina was ok. She is simply dedicated and when a regular
> customer has an issue and she knows the insurance company is going to be a
> problem, she works on her terms. No way will I walk away from that.

I think that can be fixed -- eye surgery is amazing, but I don't want to
think about the details.

I'm considering getting my nose reamed out so I can actually use it for
breathing. Anybody here had it done?

> Now if I could only find some bell-bottoms. :-)

Every once in a while Old Navy has them -- for women, at least. Would
those work?

> (An aside - a friend who loved
> his embroidered peasant shirt from the late '60s, early 70s has decided to
> attempt to make his own replacement from scratch. He just made a couple of
> outstanding quilts, and I expect him to be successful in the making. He may or
> may not decide to wear the resultant product, that is up to him.

Well, Hallowe'en is just around the corner.

> If the group gets traffic, I fully expect the return of the sith.

So I'm the only one who thinks those movies, along with Harry Potter,
are boring?

--
Cheers, Bev
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the
American Public." -- H.L. Mencken

[root]

I am afraid that many of those absent have died.

If I remember correctly, Harry, you stopped active participation because
of RS. I know that kill filing isn't the whole solution. Isn't there
some way that we can all agree to just ignore his ilk?

[Michael Black]

What you do is cut a slit at the bottom of an existing pair of pants, and
then sew in a triangle of other material, so they bell out. At least, I
remember that being done in the early seventies (when you actually could
buy bell bottomed pants).

> (An aside - a friend who loved
> his embroidered peasant shirt from the late '60s, early 70s has decided to
> attempt to make his own replacement from scratch.

I think my mother did that once, though it wasn't a peasant shirt.
Carefully open it up, and copy what remains.

I suspect some of this stuff is explained in books from the early
seventies, where frugality might be an issue. I'm too lazy to check, but
Rolling Stone had a sewing book out back then, that might have such
tricks.

After all, the reason tie-dye came to the counterculture (it had existed
previously) was that artists in San Francisco had no money, so they'd buy
at rumamge sales and the Salvation Army. That's when they started wearing
"odd" clothing, since if they were buying used, might as well dress up in
that band jacket or whatever. But shirts were in more limited supply,
except for white collar shirts. So they started tie-dying those, a little
more interesting than just dying them one color.

Michael

[Michael Black]

On Thu, 25 Aug 2016, The Real Bev wrote:


>> Now if I could only find some bell-bottoms. :-)
>
> Every once in a while Old Navy has them -- for women, at least. Would those
> work?
>

I don't think surplus is what it once was. It's either less available
(the "surplus" stores now selling all kinds of things but not actual
military surplus), but also expensive. There was a point, early nineties,
when I stopped wearing surplus army pants because the price was no longer
good compared to new pants, though there was a sturdiness in the surplus
pants. EIther supply has shrunk, or demand gone up, though I don't see
people wearing it these days so I can't imagine the latter.

And yes, I'm aware you are talking about a new store selling new goods,
but the name sounds like it should be a surplus store.

Michael

[Michael Black]

He landed elsewhere, for a long time, basically playing the same role
there, though the topic different. Even got accused of using more than one
name. And come to think of it, he disappeared at some point, and I've yet
to see him posting in any of the newsgroups I read.

Michael

[Dennis]

On Thu, 25 Aug 2016 00:07:21 -0700, The Real Bev
<bashl...@gmail.com> wrote:

>I'm considering getting my nose reamed out so I can actually use it for
>breathing. Anybody here had it done?

I had a nasal polyp that was blocking a sinus from draining removed
earlier this year. Seems to have done the trick, as the sinus
infection that I had been fighting on-and-off for two years prior has
not returned since. Not much fun for a few days after, but it was
pretty much healed in about two weeks. Performed out-patient by an ENT
Dr. at a local surgery center, under general anesthesia. IMHO, steep
charges for a 30-minute outpatient procedure - the bills (insurance
copays and deductibles) are still trickling in 5 months later - close
to $2K out-of-pocket so far. But worth it, I suppose.

Dennis (evil)
--
I'm a hands-on, footloose, knee-jerk head case. -George Carlin

[Beaver...@live.com]

I had somehow miraculously snapped out of my near lifelong nasal spray addiction last year after a nasty bout of summertime flu. Then my roommate got another cat and it came raging back.

[Beaver...@live.com]

I get really depressed when I think of how awesome and fresh the internet was from 1998-2001-ish.

alt.support.shyness is COMPLETELY dead and alt.true-crime are almost dead.

Facebook - it's nice to know I have so many friends but it's also very shallow, like if I wanted to find someone to hang out with outside of local music events or something. And I have so many people hidden but it just keeps getting worse.

[Gary Heston]

In article <v3msrbptouhkg49hg...@4ax.com>,

Far too many. Cheers!

ObFrugal: I paid off my second house last month and am now debt free.

Gary

[Gary Heston]

In article <alpine.LNX.2.02.1...@darkstar.example.org>,

Michael Black <et...@ncf.ca> wrote:
>On Thu, 25 Aug 2016, The Real Bev wrote:

[ ... ]

>I don't think surplus is what it once was. It's either less available
>(the "surplus" stores now selling all kinds of things but not actual
>military surplus), but also expensive. There was a point, early nineties,
>when I stopped wearing surplus army pants because the price was no longer
>good compared to new pants, though there was a sturdiness in the surplus
>pants. EIther supply has shrunk, or demand gone up, though I don't see
>people wearing it these days so I can't imagine the latter.

[ ... ]

The supply was cut off. Those helpful congress critters passed a law
prohibiting the sale of used military clothing. I have no idea what is
done with it.

The local surplus place has some ex-mil items from European sources;
I've seen Swiss and Italian items there.

Gary

[wilm...@gmail.com]

News to me. I recently bought a military jacket insert. You want something warm? This is it. https://www.amazon.com/Field-Jacket-Liner-Drab-Genuine-Military/dp/B006RKPAFM/ref=pd_sim_sbs_193_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0JRW2YEPNJKHWB13CASQ

[The Real Bev]

On 08/25/2016 10:39 AM, Michael Black wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Aug 2016, The Real Bev wrote:
>
>>> Now if I could only find some bell-bottoms. :-)
>>
>> Every once in a while Old Navy has them -- for women, at least. Would those
>> work?
>>
> I don't think surplus is what it once was. It's either less available
> (the "surplus" stores now selling all kinds of things but not actual
> military surplus), but also expensive.

We used to shop regularly at a real surplus store. It was fun looking
through stuff. If they trusted you you could go in the back and see
REAL cool stuff! They closed down several years ago, but there's still
a big neon (not turned on, o course) SURPLUS sign out in front.

It took maybe a decade more before the REAL hardware store closed.

> There was a point, early nineties,
> when I stopped wearing surplus army pants because the price was no longer
> good compared to new pants, though there was a sturdiness in the surplus
> pants. EIther supply has shrunk, or demand gone up, though I don't see
> people wearing it these days so I can't imagine the latter.
>
> And yes, I'm aware you are talking about a new store selling new goods,
> but the name sounds like it should be a surplus store.

Chain. Cheap clothing with some semblance of fashion. Some of their
jeans are OK. Cheaper version of The Gap, a sister organization.

--
Cheers, Bev
"If your mechanic claims that he stands behind his brake jobs, keep
looking. You want to find one willing to stand in front of them."

-- B. Ward

[The Real Bev]

He's still in several that I read, under various names. The annoying
thing is that perhaps 15% of his posts aren't stupid or rude.

[The Real Bev]

On 08/25/2016 01:38 PM, Dennis wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Aug 2016 00:07:21 -0700, The Real Bev
> <bashl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>I'm considering getting my nose reamed out so I can actually use it for
>>breathing. Anybody here had it done?
>
> I had a nasal polyp that was blocking a sinus from draining removed
> earlier this year. Seems to have done the trick, as the sinus
> infection that I had been fighting on-and-off for two years prior has
> not returned since. Not much fun for a few days after, but it was
> pretty much healed in about two weeks. Performed out-patient by an ENT
> Dr. at a local surgery center, under general anesthesia.

Nice when a medical procedure makes you better off. Anaesthesia: I
used to throw up all the time (once for two days, ended up needing an
electrolyte top-up in the ER), but they have GOOD stuff now so that
doesn't happen.

> IMHO, steep
> charges for a 30-minute outpatient procedure - the bills (insurance
> copays and deductibles) are still trickling in 5 months later - close
> to $2K out-of-pocket so far. But worth it, I suppose.

I see most of the Medicare+Blue Shield billings and am horrified.
Granted, you get whatever discount you can haggle if you pay cash, but
even then they're awful. Just having Medicare cut the bill from $350 to
$85 would be good enough, and then they pay 80% of that. I haven't met
a drug deductible yet, but the [Blue Cross Plan D] negotiated prices are
good enough all by themselves. Docs/Hospitals/Pharmacies are apparently
OK with that, which means that SOMEBODY is really getting soaked.

[The Real Bev]

Yay. OTOH, you're now ripe for a catastrophe. Keep your eyes open!

[The Real Bev]

On 08/25/2016 06:36 PM, Gary Heston wrote:
> In article <alpine.LNX.2.02.1...@darkstar.example.org>,
> Michael Black <et...@ncf.ca> wrote:
>>On Thu, 25 Aug 2016, The Real Bev wrote:
>
> [ ... ]
>
>>I don't think surplus is what it once was. It's either less available
>>(the "surplus" stores now selling all kinds of things but not actual
>>military surplus), but also expensive. There was a point, early nineties,
>>when I stopped wearing surplus army pants because the price was no longer
>>good compared to new pants, though there was a sturdiness in the surplus
>>pants. EIther supply has shrunk, or demand gone up, though I don't see
>>people wearing it these days so I can't imagine the latter.
>
> [ ... ]
>
> The supply was cut off. Those helpful congress critters passed a law
> prohibiting the sale of used military clothing. I have no idea what is
> done with it.

They probably sell it to third-world armies at a profit. Haven't you
noticed how spiffy many of them look? OTOH, maybe it's included along
with the pallets of cash...

> The local surplus place has some ex-mil items from European sources;
> I've seen Swiss and Italian items there.

I'm reminded of seeing two full gravel trucks passing in opposite
directions...

[The Real Bev]

On 08/25/2016 11:03 PM, wilm...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Thursday, August 25, 2016 at 6:36:17 PM UTC-7, Gary Heston wrote:
>>
>> The supply was cut off. Those helpful congress critters passed a
>> law prohibiting the sale of used military clothing. I have no idea
>> what is done with it.
>

> News to me. I recently bought a military jacket insert. You want
> something warm? This is it.
> https://www.amazon.com/Field-Jacket-Liner-Drab-Genuine-Military/dp/B006RKPAFM/ref=pd_sim_sbs_193_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0JRW2YEPNJKHWB13CASQ

I have a hat with a MIL-spec label :-)

[barbie gee]

besides people like RS, many newsgroups including this one, start getting
spammed and overtaken, such that there's no content anymore worth looking
at. In addition, there are very few newservers anymore, and most ISPs
don't bother w/ nntp either.

Google Groups really isn't the same to use an a good oldschool newsreader.

[wilm...@gmail.com]

On Friday, August 26, 2016 at 12:09:28 PM UTC-7, The Real Bev wrote:
> On 08/25/2016 11:03 PM, wilm...@gmail.com wrote:

> >
> > News to me. I recently bought a military jacket insert. You want
> > something warm? This is it.
> > https://www.amazon.com/Field-Jacket-Liner-Drab-Genuine-Military/dp/B006RKPAFM/ref=pd_sim_sbs_193_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0JRW2YEPNJKHWB13CASQ
>
> I have a hat with a MIL-spec label :-)
>
> --

Do you wear it hanging on the outside? Howwwdy!

With your snazzy hat you'll need matching boots. Might I suggest, Combat Boot, Gore-Tex Intermediate Cold/Wet Weather Black Leather, Genuine U.S. Military Issue?
https://www.amazon.com/Gore-Tex-Intermediate-Weather-U-S-Military/dp/B01C37D356/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1472273848&sr=8-9&keywords=surplus+boot

[Dennis]

On Fri, 26 Aug 2016 12:04:50 -0700, The Real Bev

<bashl...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 08/25/2016 01:38 PM, Dennis wrote:
>> On Thu, 25 Aug 2016 00:07:21 -0700, The Real Bev
>> <bashl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>I'm considering getting my nose reamed out so I can actually use it for
>>>breathing. Anybody here had it done?
>>
>> I had a nasal polyp that was blocking a sinus from draining removed
>> earlier this year. Seems to have done the trick, as the sinus
>> infection that I had been fighting on-and-off for two years prior has
>> not returned since. Not much fun for a few days after, but it was
>> pretty much healed in about two weeks. Performed out-patient by an ENT
>> Dr. at a local surgery center, under general anesthesia.
>
>Nice when a medical procedure makes you better off. Anaesthesia: I
>used to throw up all the time (once for two days, ended up needing an
>electrolyte top-up in the ER), but they have GOOD stuff now so that
>doesn't happen.

Yeah, modern anesthesia is a big improvement over the old days but
kind of freaky. IME, it is like a light switch: click - I'm out; click
- I'm awake in recovery, with no sense of passing time. I mean, even
when I'm deeply asleep in bed there is dreaming and I awake with a
sense that time has passed. Not so under anesthesia. It probably has
something to do with the memory blockers they mix into the brew.
However, I was surprised that it took almost a week to completely
regain my strength/endurance afterward. My doctor said that was within
normal expectations, though.

Dennis (evil)
--
What government gives, it must first take away.

[The Real Bev]

On 08/26/2016 10:01 PM, wilm...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Friday, August 26, 2016 at 12:09:28 PM UTC-7, The Real Bev wrote:
>> On 08/25/2016 11:03 PM, wilm...@gmail.com wrote:
>>>
>>> News to me. I recently bought a military jacket insert. You want
>>> something warm? This is it.
>>> https://www.amazon.com/Field-Jacket-Liner-Drab-Genuine-Military/dp/B006RKPAFM/ref=pd_sim_sbs_193_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0JRW2YEPNJKHWB13CASQ
>>I have a hat with a MIL-spec label :-)
>

> Do you wear it hanging on the outside? Howwwdy!

HAH. Proper MIL-spec labels are sewn in. It's a beige wide-brim cloth
sun-hat.

> With your snazzy hat you'll need matching boots. Might I suggest,
> Combat Boot, Gore-Tex Intermediate Cold/Wet Weather Black Leather,
> Genuine U.S. Military Issue?
> https://www.amazon.com/Gore-Tex-Intermediate-Weather-U-S-Military/dp/B01C37D356/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1472273848&sr=8-9&keywords=surplus+boot

This is California. I don't think they have milspec flip-flops, but I
could be wrong.

--
Cheers, Bev
You know it's time to clean the refrigerator when
something closes the door from the inside.

[The Real Bev]

I think it depends on how much they give you. The first 3 times I had
steroid injections for my protruding disk I could have driven home. The
last time I was woozy and slept for most of the first day.

[Bob F]

On 8/27/2016 8:46 PM, The Real Bev wrote:

> I think it depends on how much they give you. The first 3 times I had
> steroid injections for my protruding disk I could have driven home. The
> last time I was woozy and slept for most of the first day.
>

Skip the steroids, and research stem cells. Of course, you will have to
pay yourself.

[hchi...@hotmail.com]

Every time I have had general anesthesia I have noticed that my mental function
slips a little. I recover most of it, but not all. I suspect they swap the
smarter me with one that is less smart while I am out and won't notice it.
Damned lizard people.

[The Real Bev]

Stem cells can fix protruding disks? I didn't realize they can deal
with injuries -- which I assume is what caused my protruding disks;
I've done a lot of falling in my life, and I figure it just finally
showed up.

[Bob F]

On 8/28/2016 11:41 AM, The Real Bev wrote:
> On 08/27/2016 11:25 PM, Bob F wrote:
>> On 8/27/2016 8:46 PM, The Real Bev wrote:
>>
>>> I think it depends on how much they give you. The first 3 times I had
>>> steroid injections for my protruding disk I could have driven home. The
>>> last time I was woozy and slept for most of the first day.
>>
>> Skip the steroids, and research stem cells. Of course, you will have to
>> pay yourself.
>
> Stem cells can fix protruding disks? I didn't realize they can deal
> with injuries -- which I assume is what caused my protruding disks; I've
> done a lot of falling in my life, and I figure it just finally showed up.
>
>

I have read that. My doctor recently started doing stem cell injections.
I'll keep them in mind if I ever need such help.