Happy Caturday and welcome to the open thread! Today’s visitor, courtesy of reader Sowmya D., is living the high life:
Nikolai Devinovich is a four year old Siberian Forest Cat. He lives an adventurous yet contented life. He’s in a Jameson Box. He’s stoned. It’s legal here.
Quite a look—and body position—on that cat! 😂
Caturday already? I’ve been off since Wednesday. Woke up this morning not even sure what day it was.
Something the book of face served up to me last night. Couldn’t not share.
😂😂😂 Love pikas!
That was fabulous!
Love this video! We used it at our local hockey games to get the crowd going. Always wondered if the pika was naturally doing those mouth movements or if some computerized wizardry was involved.
I was wondering the same thing. Though I suspect there’s some editing involved. I googled pika videos just to see what they sound like (a bit like a squeaky toy…). Was hoping to find the original footage but didn’t.
Pikas do naturally look most of those ways when they sound off. However they don’t do the long one note mouth open or the several short ones in a row. So it’s a little of both!
❤️
Gets me right in the feels. So happy the guy realized puppy was missing mom and littermates then went back to get all of them.
Oooh I want to rub that fluffy belleh! What a gorgeous boy. And clearly he’s treated like a king, which is only right and proper.
I’ve got some housecleaning to do before my haircut, lunch at a local restaurant, and grocery shopping. Might be able to finish weaving the toddler blanket on my loom too, before I succumb to my afternoon nap. The weather has gotten sunnier, if not exactly warm, and that has helped my glums considerably.
Hope you all are well. Hugs.
I can remember when I could sleep in a position like that and still be able to walk the next day…
Work continues on the Shortcakery. I have decided to repaint my bedroom as the rest of the refurbishments made it look shabby, but that’s IT! For some reason local tradesmen seem oddly reluctant to respond to emails or phone messages, but I finally found a tiler – now all I need is an electrician, plumber and carpenter. I can’t wait until mid-March when all the upheaval will be over. A curious detail I noticed when I began painting the woodwork: a former resident of the Shortcakery really, REALLY liked turquoise or perhaps got hold of a job lot of turquoise paint. It was used in every room in the house except for the bathroom, probably because it hadn’t been built yet!
The house I sold in October had a bright mint green layer of paint underneath the visible layer of soft white. Every single room on the main floor. Not pretty, delicate, pale mint green, much closer to your turquoise. It looked like the 50s mint green you used to see on exteriors of restaurants and diners. But inside.
Last year, I had to get my parents downsized, which meant moving them to a new house and selling the old house. They had lived in the old house for almost 30 years and so, the house needed a lot of “re-freshing” – plumber, electrician, drywaller, carpenter, painter.
Every single tradesperson I spoke with said they were backed up for months. They all said the same thing – they can’t find anyone to work and they were doing all the jobs on their own (when they would normally have a crew of 2-3 people).
Seems like the generation of people in their 20’s who would normally do this type of work want to do different things.
So, rest assured that it’s not you. This is a problem pretty much every where.
Well yes, they want to do different things when they’re not paid to match the cost of living (while of course the contractor charges as if they are).
You took the words right out of my mouth!
It’s not about the wages. The tradesmen I talked to paid fair wages for the work being done.
It’s more that fewer people want to learn a traditional trade, like electrical or plumbing.
They’d rather do things that involve tech.
The issue is that all the people I talked to said they are concerned that in 15-20 years time there won’t be enough trained people to do the work that will be needed.
Give the massive layoffs in tech right now, they’d be wise to reconsider learning a trade, and keeping an eye on business news; no matter what, they may need to learn something new before their working lives are over.
No employer will ever admit that they underpay.
In rational market, when there is huge demand to the point that you have customers on waiting lists for months, wages go up to attract labor to those fields. That isn’t really happening in construction when you take into account the increases in cost of living, particularly rents. (Let’s face it, young people in the trades can’t afford home ownership, especially not at the start of their careers.)
People who would rather “do tech” were always going to wind up in that field. They’re not the same people who would otherwise have chosen the trades.
It doesn’t help matters that for injuries sustained on the job, there is basically zero support. Both in the US and Canada, the rejection rate for workplace injury claims is around 80% now by state/provincial worker’s compensation boards. This is because many compensation boards are underfunded from not raising their premiums they charge employers.
People see the writing on the wall that taking dangerous job is not the best idea when you have other options.
Kermit – are you an employer? Because I am, and it’s pretty insulting for you to say that “no employer will admit they underpay”. Wages are essentially public information for people applying for jobs.
10-15 years ago, current “tech” jobs did not exist. Those people would have taken alternative jobs, perhaps some in plumbing, carpentry, etc.
In the state I live in, the worker’s compensation insurance is actually overfunded and we’ve been getting annual premium refunds for the past 5-10 years. But I sincerely doubt that an 18 year old is thinking about worker’s compensation and I do not think this factors into their decision making about taking a job.
All of the tradespeople I spoke with said that they could find people to take the job, but very few people could stick with it – showing up to jobs on time (often early in the morning), showing up to work consistently, etc. They said people would last a few days to a week and then just stop showing up for work.
I think it’s inappropriate to start an argument in this forum.
If you were insulted by my comments, perhaps you should reconsider that your own comments can be considered insulting by people who work in the trades when you make blanket statements about the lack of worth ethic and discipline.
In my experience, I have found that only certain employers tend to consistently complain about the lack of professionalism of their staff. You don’t tend to hear this kind of derogatory talk from widely recognized, good employers like say, Costco.
On my end, this is where my engagement stops.
I did NOT make any blanket statements about work ethic and discipline. These were direct statements made to me by drywallers, painters, concrete installers, and carpenters.
You were the one that made a blanket statement about these employers underpaying their employees without any shred of evidence.
Working at Costco has almost nothing in common with working in a trade. I’m also positive that Costco finds it difficult to find qualified entry level staff.
There are a multitude of industries that are suitable for entry level employees that literally did not exist 5-10 years ago. If you’re 18 today, you can be hired to do Tik Tok videos or drive for GoPuff. These “new” jobs offer incredibly flexible schedules, independence, fun work environments, etc.
If you own a painting or drywall company, it’s hard to compete with these new “tech” jobs.
I feel like Nikolai today. Don’t want to move.
All is quiet in Duckieville. Little Duckie is getting a bit nakeder each day, and I have a heating pad on top of her cage. I hate moulting time.
I’m keeping my New Year’s resolution about writing more, and now I look forward to it. Nothing to share yet, but I’m enjoying that time.
Cleaned out the deep freeze on Friday, for defrosting, and found a turkey! So I’ll be doing turkey for Sunday dinner, and hubby’s coworkers will wonder what he did to deserve turkey in his lunches this week. Also need to make a batch of cookies for Valentine’s Day. I promised his coworkers.
Off to fold laundry and then write. Have a great weekend, everyone.
How’s your dad doing, Duckie? We’re still sending healing purrs.
Dad says he’s fine and remembers everything that happened that day, but we know otherwise. He’s scheduled for an EEG at the end of the month.
He’s so handsome! Always love his name. I wish I was that contented. Rough night last night with whatever form of yuck I have. Pretty sure it’s not Covid, probably good old fashioned sinusitis/upper respiratory infection. Wicked cough, congestion, and headache. Took doggos to the park so they could at least get a walk in this weekend before it rains tomorrow. Both are now curled up together on a blanket on the loveseat napping. Have a few errands to run then I’m ensconcing myself in the recliner with a good book for the rest of the day. Good luck Alice with the Shortcakery renos. They’re always so much fun (not!) and always finish on time and under budget. You can stop laughing now. Iabout finished everything inside and now need to get a landscaper to deal with yards. All the rain has made the weeds grow like, well, weeds and it has gone from slightly untended to need a machete to get through jungle.
I don’t have much of a garden – it’s just one tiny flowerbed and some containers and boxes – but when I had a close look at my roses for the first time in months I was appalled to find that they were crawling with greenfly. In February!
The gorgeous Nikolai Devinovich looks lost in thought, maybe imagining an interesting and successful hunt .