Daily Ooos; Monday, June 7

[faerywings]

Welcome to a new week! Do you all remember Sally/cellomom? She loved Mondays, loved 'em! and said they were a fresh start. I am going to channel some of Sally and get ready for a bright new day and week ahead.

We have another hot and humid day here and some T-storms this afternoon possibly. If I am going to work outside, I should probably get out early. I got so much done yesterday. I planted one bucket of marigold seedlings and I still have another bucket to put out as soon as I see where the yard needs more color. We bought a "patio" eggplant that wasn't looking so good so I had to carefully extract it from the pot/cage it came in so I could plant it in the ground. Its poor roots were so tangled. I fertilized and watered it so my fingers are crossed it comes back. By the time I was done, I was covered in dirt and mulch and somehow managed to spray myself in the face with the hose haha!!
Caitlyn and I made waffles for dinner which was a perfect idea and we played "Super Fight" after dinner. It is a card game with you draw cards to create a fighter and then have to battle (argue) why your fighter would win over the others. One of my fighters was a Sumo Wrestler that was hangry and Scott had a cat that could summon anything from a hardware store- so he summoned the Snickers bars from the candy aisle to throw at my wrestler. It was too bad that his cat was made from sand and my wrestler could blow 200 mph winds.

I have so many things I need to do today and I wrote nothing down so I can't remember it all. Does that mean I don't have to do them? I can't do what I can't remember, right? Cripes, I hope it was nothing important.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day and a fresh start to the week!

 

[faerywings]

Sorry, @taxed4ever I found a new person I want to live with. Do I need anything special when I move to Sweden, @tanteva ? I bet whatever you pay in taxes, it is comparable to the money we pay for health insurance/medical bills (I bet right there we pay more), tuition (Do Swedes still get free college?), and then all of the holidays and vacations. No wonder you are one of the highest-rated countries in Happiness.

Kay- how are you holding up today? Not too achy? I have a crick in my shoulder and neck but that is because I slept funny but I will keep an eye on it if I decide to head outside. (If, she says..."if" she goes outside. haha!)

@nancyr how is my poor Luther holding up in the heat, I know he doesn't like it.
Good to hear that you had a great time watching hockey. How funny to not be able to find you iron. If Caitlyn didn't use it for her sewing projects, I wouldn't even know if we owned one.
The wedding sounds fantastic- so relieved that they didn't get the storms from the day before. What did they have at the mashed potato station? Just different toppings?

@felis I am sure that you will do your dad's section of grass when you aren't sneezing so much. Right now it seems like the pollen counts aren't bothering me like they were a few weeks ago. Do you know what you are allergic to?
I don't mind the weeds but the moss is a pain. Since it just lies on top of the dirt it gets ripped up if you walk on it and then it makes everything muddy when it is wet.
I don't mind slugs and bugs in the garden other than the red lily beetles that destroy the plants and then come back next year to do it all again. I think I came across my first cicada carcass on the lawn. I haven't heard them so maybe we won't get too many of them. @nancyr have you heard any by you? I would think you would be a bit earlier than us up here.
Awww, look at all of your kitties! I want to pet them all! Can you do that for me, please?

hugs!

 

[tanteva]

@faerywings All education is free, including university. But at some schools (especially Uni) you need to buy your own books, but no tuitions or entry fees. The actual education is free. Health care is basically free as well. There's a roof on how much you pay for a year, about $135 for health care, and about $280 for medicine. Some medicines are completely free, like insuline. Dental care is for some unknown reason NOT cheap. No roofs there.

Hubby took his MasterCard to work today - and I had no bananas! Imagine my PANIC. Found some cash and went and got me some bananas. All is right in the world again.

Now I need more coffee.

 

[faerywings]

Gary pays more for one month of insulin with insurance than you pay all year for health care and medicine.
Mind boggling

 

[taxed4ever]

Happy Monday Morning ladies!! Just a quick pop in here today as I am off to Nanaimo today to do a bit of shopping. It will be nice to just spend some time shopping on my own. I haven't driven anywhere too far away for so long, I hope I remember where to go LOL. My sisters have been keeping me busy with making T-shirts and now I need to replenish my stash. Its been fun doing all these new things. I do miss my digi scrapping and will try to find some time to get a page done soon. Yesterday was rainy and cool and now today the sun is out, but the heat pump had to be turned on as it was really quite chilly in the house this morning. What a change in the weather from last week, where we were scorching hot! It was Mason's Birthday this past Friday and he had a really nice time with his cousins, it was super hot there and so they got the bouncy castle out and filled it with water balloons, they all had a blast cooling off with those. I hope to hear more about their weekend soon when Heather face times with me.

@faerywings - Yup I can't blame you for wanting to move to Sweden!! Sounds like a super amazing place to be and wonderful Health Care and Education!! Your waffles for dinner sounded yummy! I haven't had waffles for ages! That card game sounds like so much fun, you are such a great family always finding things to do together! Hope you remember all the things that you wanted to do today!

@tanteva - Funny that your Dental is so expensive when all other things are basically free for you there! We are fortunate to have great Dental coverage through my DH's work, so its pretty much free for us. I will have to make sure I get all the work done on my teeth caught up before he retires and we end up having to pay. . Glad you found some money so you could have your bananas!!

Well I better get going and get dressed before I get a face time call then out the door, will try to be home before hubby gets home from work. Hope you have a lovely Monday everyone!

 

[tanteva]

It's fun comparing countries like this. I've been trying to figure out how much we do pay in taxes, but it's kinda complicated (and I'm not an adult LOL). Income taxes vary from town to town, but it's between 29-35%. Then if you are really well payed there is a special state tax as well.

In addition, we pay taxes on almost everything, like food, gas, magazines/newspapers, books, services and so on. This too varies. Most are 25%, but e.g. food (groceries), restaurants and hotels are 12%, and books, magazines/newpapers, travel and concerts are 6%. These taxes are already included in the price, and you never think about it really.

For services (like when the guys were here and fixed our roof) there are some tax deduction that you can do, up to a certain amount every year - don't remember how much. (Maybe around $5000-6000 I think).

I know so little about these things - just started working extra after being at home for 12 years. I'm learning as well as I'm explaining to you. I'm more or less in shock that someone gives me money for doing things. LOL

One thing I think is strange in other countries is that basically nature isn't free. Here in Sweden we have "Allemansrätten" Right of public access. Nature is free to access - of course under some responsibility to not be a complete idiot and destroy things and so on. You can download a pdf here if you want to learn more about it: https://www.naturvardsverket.se/Om-Naturvardsverket/Publikationer/ISBN/8500/978-91-620-8522-3/ The idea that the owner of the land can stop others from entering is so strange to me.

 

[tanteva]

Found this video as well:

 

[bcgal00]

Good afternoon everyone. I've been busy working and editing some photos, along with all the dog stuff. I also finished off my book "Sinister" by Lisa Jackson which I enjoyed. I'm heading to the dog park after work today. I found a dog park a little further away but I really love it and more importantly, the dogs love it. It's worth the 15-20 min drive to get there. It's huge, with one big main area that most go to but then also fenced and gated big areas too if you want to work on some training or just calm your dog down and have some quiet time. They have a couple of little pools for them to splash in and big tree stumps for them to jump around on. I love the people too.

Remi has had less "zoomies" in the evening (racing around the house at warp speed, her way of working off excess energy) since I started bringing her there last Friday. She tires herself out much more at the new park than the neighborhood one I was going to before.

Not much else going on aside from binge watching tv, taking bird photos and doing off leash work with Remi in the school soccer field behind us.

I'll catch up on personals later, I want to get back to work so I don't fall behind, to be sure to get out to the dog park early enough before dinner. BFN.

 

[nancyr]

Good afternoon - yesterday I finally caught up on sleep and rest. And my son and fiancé came down and we went out to dinner to celebrate his first day at his new job. He said he liked the people and has a lot to learn but he is happy. We walk to the restaurant and on the way the kids found two free kids bikes to take home to the cousins. It is so cool they could faceTime and show the bikes so they knew what they were getting. Always happy to recycle. My older son called too and said that he was happy in NJ Devils that now play for the Islanders won their game. (sorry Trudy if you read this). So was a great day to chat with both sons. Glad they still call their mom. I did get out for a walk and boy was it humid. And yes Luther does not like it but so does not like to be left. My DH stayed home today as he has an eye appointment so he went to the store for us. Yea. I almost went yesterday but just could not face going. This afternoon we had severe thunderstorms come through around 3pm. It is still raining. We were going to go up for Livie's T-ball game but nope weather was not good. So I was looking for some new show to watch and I had heard about a documentary on Formula1 racing. OMgosh it is so good. And not because of the crashes but because of the stories of the drivers and owners. It starts in 2018. The thing that is so good is that they have made such progress in safety for the drivers that the crazy crashes take out the cars but not the drivers. But strange to me is that there are only 10 teams and each get two drivers and the drivers on the same team do not necessarily like each other. Anyway. I like it a lot. They also take you around the world to each of the races so I get to see all these new places. I also watched the new Apple products announcement. OMgosh they are so cool. I want everything! Now tonight it is hockey and scrapping.

@faerywings Chris hope you got out before storms! I love marigolds. It must be so good to see the colors. Yes it is still hot. I love waffles and mostly any breakfast items for dinner. Your card game sound fun!

@taxed4ever Trudy your T-shirts are so cute. And yes it is good to learn new things. Have fun shopping by yourself.

@tanteva Eva like I mentioned I don't mind paying taxes when they pay for the necessities. I laugh at how you say all land it free. We had that with the native Americans and you see how well that worked. Also people in American cannot always be counted on to have a lot of common sense when it comes to the beautiful natural places in our country. I am glad to pay for park rangers to make sure they are kept safe for future generations. Glad you got your bananas.

Rae so glad you have found such a great park for the dogs. I am sure they are so tired when they come back. Love the bird photos!

Have a great day all!

 

[tanteva]

@nancyr I think you are on to something there. The Allemansrätt is working in Sweden because we've inherited the tradition. It's been this way in Sweden since forever, and it's something we're used to. Almost every summer there are one or two articles about foreigners who has misunderstood this freedom, and maybe cut down a tree to build a fire or camped on someone's front yard. We kind of laugh at them for not understanding these basic rules - not realizing how unique these rights are.

We do have "park rangers" in a way too - putting it in quotation marks, since they are called something else, that I don't remember right now LOL (And they can't be park rangers since we don't have parks LOL). Any way let's call them "nature keepers". They oversee the forests and keep track of things that happen. Certain parts could be marked as "protected" because there grows a certain plant there, or it's important to protect some kind of animals. Like they have been planning forever to rebuild the road from where we live into the town where I work - sure needs to be done - it's a curvy, 2-lane road, with far more traffic than it's built for. But it's been put on hold because of some butterfly that is threatened of extinction. I think it's habitat would be destroyed with this new broader road and they need to re-plan the whole thing. So there are both governmental and local community nature keepers that oversee and protect forests, lakes, environment and so on.

This is what I love with the internet. Getting to learn more about other countries, and comparing. And also, I think it's important to think a bit over things that we take for granted. Like for me - it's just natural that I can take a stroll in the forest - not really thinking about how lucky I am that I can do it. We take so much gifts in life for granted.