h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How are you?I haven't seen you on hootoo for awhile,i will send you an email soon.
Take care
Carino

Had to pst a new password I forgot the last one it has been so long.

Nice to hear from you again, what's happening?

I'll be back soon got to prepare for work....

How's it going at work and are you enjoying it?
It's a pity it's only short term though,maybe something might pop up in the meantime
Nothing much exciting has happened,apart from an incident in june this year,which i will email you about.
I have been doing some decorating again,i'm hoping to get some railway sleepers from a reclaimed timber yard,i'm just wating for them to get some in,i'm going to make a fire surround,i have seen it done on one of those DIY programmes,it looks very authentic,i don't like
the modern stuff.
My son is still in the butcher trade,his boss is retiring next year and wants him to take over the business,but he's unsure.
He brought me home some squid the other day and i had to clean it,i have never done it before,anyway i chopped it up and made it into ring shapes and deep fried it in batter,i squeezed some fresh lemon over it and served it with salad,it was lovely
I did tell you nothing exciting has happened
Apart from work,what have you been upto? have you seen your family yet?

Will be seeing the family for xmas. Working the hours I do makes the days get confused I'm always wondering what day it is....

I have been working on the new photo printer for HP have you seen it in the market? Sells like hot cakes..

I never plan to try squid yuck... as long as you like though go for it.

I am making some improvemnets to that guide entry I have, it is in the flea market now and eventually in the guide, I hope.

Got to go now

God luck I'll be around for awhile

dim26trav

OH,that is cool seeing your family,how long has it been?
What hours do you work?
I can imagine it screws up the old system!
I worked nights ONCE and i mean once,i couldn't do it.
Nope,i don't know about photo printers,i could ask the children,they would know,honestly tom,i have know idea about them.I'm sure they sell really well.
As for the squid,don't knock it until you have tried it,my grandaughter,who is 10 years old,loves onion rings and basically,that is what they look like when presented on a plate with the trimmings,she loved them!
I read your entry and thought it was good,but i was not surprised,you have so much knowledge about the english heritage more than any english person i know.well
written.
English was never my best subject at school,maybe it was my Celtic influence i rarely followed Henry

Well i find that people who dont understand their own history are likely to be victims of ignorance. No I dont expect people to know everything but the basics would be usual. American history is the same way people here and even some academics just dont get it about their own history.

I grew up in a Methodist preacher's family and Methodism goes back to the Anglican church. So to study it I needed to know about the founding of that church and that led to other things before too long I was well versed in English history.

Is it true that the English still pay a church tax? It seems so bizarre to me (being an American and all).

I guess I just love history, there I said it. If you dont, then please forgive my passion.

Well i have some knowledge of english history,enough for me to get by,i'm not totally ignorant to it,i had/have more interest in the celtic history,as you know both my parents are celts,i have read books on cromwell and william wallace and the potato famine in ireland.
Yes i think the english church do still pay a tax,they get a lot of funding as well.
As a catholic i don't follow the english church.
I went to mass this morning,with my grandaughter (sunday)she is preparing for her confirmation,which is next month.
It was a lovely sermon,although the priest did tend to waffle on a bit,which was irrelevant to the service and as you can imagine all the kids were getting restless,it was a double mass,as it was remembrance day also.All in all i felt good,

Everyone has to have a passion Tom,otherwise it would be a dull world,wouldn't it? So your forgiven

OH! you reply to my email fast enough,why not here?
Don't tell everyone your speaking to a 'DUMBELL' i get it and can, on the odd occasions getting wrong.

Carino

While you must have some regular schedule of beeing on hootoo, I dont. Am very busy today at work (like right now) and will get back to you in about 5 hours.

GTG
Tom

Well now is the time. I'm really sorry that you feel so put out over my lack of response. I dont get to hootoo as regularly as I used to and that explains the 13 hour delay(at least) before I responded.

Last night I was very busy, (unlike many other nights when I have time to lounge around at will). My job is coming to an end in about 5 days and the incoming supplies are dodgy at best. Well last night I got a whole stash of them dumped on me and that meant I could actually DO my job instead of imitating a fence post.

Aside from expending anger at me for this supposed slight, is there anything I can do for you?

So your work has finished now then?
Anything else on the horizon?
Sorry i haven't replied sooner,i have had more important things to deal with.(sorry for my last post) i was a bit hasty.
I have been visiting my sister's mother in law,who is dying of cancer,she's in a hospice at the moment,she never had a days illness in her entire life,never drank or smoked,but her husband of 50 years,died last year and within months her health deteriorated,she was then diagnosed with fourth cancer,which doctors have never treated before.Anyway she is a very dignified woman and is refusing any further treatment,she says she has had enough and has basically given up,refusing drugs and food etc;..it is so sad,cos she is a wonderful,kind and very caring person.
Thanks for asking if you can 'do' anything for me,but i don't think you can.
maybe i should go and rattle some rosary beads
and chant something from the gospel

Yes the old job was never going to last forever anyway and while there were rumors about it lasting longer they never materialized. All of our tools(the machinery that we used for our work) are going to Singapore, so they can make the printers there. HP has a reputation as one company that cannot seem to get outsourcing right but maybe this time. The new picture printers are the ones, I worked on.

Frankly I would have to respect her wishes, that's what happened when my father died, he had no will to live, his body just gave out. Even good people have to die though and a dignified death is valuable enough to desire. We here in Oregon are fighting the national government to keep our death with dignity law on the books, so far it has worked very well and I think (correct me if I'm wrong) UK has such provision also(?)

As far as my work there is always hope. Actually I have already applied for a position with our state lottery comission as a field service technician. They operate electronics gaming in bars and restaurants around the state. This will be the third time I've applied to this place and maybe that's the lucky time. The pay is good but the benefits are the best!. It has been decades since I was covered by health insurance. I will be interviewing with the same person I saw last time for a similar position. Dont know if this will be beneficial or not.

A simple prayer from a humble christian availeth much. Intercessory prayer works also I can at least do that much.

Good luck with everything

Hey good luck with service technician post.
Mother in law has requested to go home and her family want her there,due to not being with their dad,when he died in hospital,doctors have said it will be days and to prepare themselves and
thankfully she will go in her sleep.
I don't know about the law
and a dignified death,i don't know what you mean entirely.
All i know is that my brother in law,is happy to see her alive,as long as she is not in any pain(which she is not,due to the drugs.)she is seeing things and imagining stuff,but the next day,she is so aware..the family reckon,she is hanging on until her house is sold,because the goverment take 40% from the sale,if she dies before its sold! How bad is that?

Here in Oregon there is a 'death with dignity' law which allows doctors to prescribe drugs for the purpose of allowing the patient to end it all in a dignified way at home without pain. Our US government is attempting to force Oregon to change this law and it is about to be being argued in our supreme court. I really hope the US attorny general loses and we get to keep our law in this state.

In my own father's case he actively chose to end it all by not eating for awhile and it took almost a week with great pain. His whole body functions were just shutting down and it really was time for this to happen one way or another. While he wasn't in a hospital he was in a nursing care facility I feel it is always better for someone to be as comfortable as possible given the circumstance when they die, especially if there is anything of control at the end. (Obviously there are circumstance where that is not possible.)

I dont understand about the 40% though, is this some inheritance tax? or just tax on profits?. We have almost a $million exemption in our death taxes, used to be $600,000 but it has been raised. Is this some remnant from the socialists who ran the UK for awhile? HOw much will the house sell for? alot? and what if it sells before she dies can she split the money without paying the taxes? Oh what a headache.

My own version of tax reform is to throw out all the 30,000 or so pages of the tax code, offer one exemption for the first 50,000 income and no other exemptions taxing everything at about 5%. It would so over pay the government here that it would embarrass them. As it is we spend so much time and money trying to avoid taxes that we might as well pay them anyway. (I could go on and on about this so I will spare you the boredom)

I hope for the best

dim26trav

My mother-in-law has gone,she past away last night.(10th)
The good thing is,she managed to sign,so the family get everything,apparently the goverment get inheritance tax,if she were to die before!
The guy who was buying,found out,she was dying and wanted to reduce the sale of the house,but his soliciter said it was unethical.how sad is that?..he got it for £145000.the family aren't
bothered about the money,they would rather have there mom!

I can only imagine the various taxes someone might have to pay. Here our property taxes are relatively high and anything we can to reduce them... If they had an agreement already made and the buyer went ahead and asked to lower the price here, our real estate people just wouldn't even have allowed it. (they may not be lawyers but they need to keep their licenses), however if an agreement had not been signed that might be another story altogether. I hope your memories of your mother are pleasant ones so that the mourning can go better. From what you've written it seems they will. Even so this is a combined relief and sadness both together. I will keep you in my prayers.


I am currently writing a guide entry about Oliver Cromwell. When it is ready I hope all my friends will read it. I know there is a ton of stuff written about him already but hardly any from an American perspective. Is there anything in particular that you like/dislike about him? There are many connections to early America, that I would explore and I'm relatively sure that our 'founding fathers' would be very aware of his successes and failures.

It was my sister's mother-in law who died,not my mother,but she was like a mother and a grandmother to my children.
We went past her old house,where she lived for all her married life (during the funeral journey) the guy who bought it,had diggers and was taking up her prized lawn,flower bed and brick wall,it was so sad to see!
I never liked Oliver Cromwell,simply because of his so called 'laws of war'..killing thousands of priests and friars in Ireland.
And he banned mince pies and christmaspuds, WHY? he sounds like a real bah humbug.
Merry Christmas tom and a healthy new year




carino

My query about Cromwell was to note that it seemed his intentions were of the highest order, being a puritan and all. However high his intentions were, the outcome was horrible as you noted. I know that his reputation in this modern day is somewhat south of our own president Bush (although not much).

If we judge a person by their intentions, we must think of Cromwell in a better light (we dont though). Likewise our president Bush and Blair who I assume started out with the best of intents but made a horrible muck of it all. Only history will determine whether these two were fools or evil men.


What do you think of the Scottish separatist movement trying to take control over the North sea oil?

At this moment in time,i have no interest in either, england, scotland nor ireland,so i can't comment on either topic,i just want a world thats not divided..peace be with you.
Carino

I'm sure that you have more important matters to deal with so feel free to do what you need to do.