The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[Songbird76]

So, today is my birthday.
And, I officially entered my 7th decade of existence in this crazy-whacky, silly world…!!!!!!!

Happy birthday!

 

[StarWarsGirl]

It's so weird here. You also used to have to pay a tax for owning a TV or Radio, even if it didn't work. That changed now, but when I moved over here, I had to go to school to learn Dutch and also about the basics of Dutch culture. I had to take a test and score at least 80% on the part about Dutch living, and those were some of the things you had to know for the test. The things you have to pay taxes on to own, the social services offered to make it better to live here (like the nurse who comes to teach you how to take care of your new baby), and things like the public transportation system, and school mandates, etc. I thought it was pretty ridiculous to make people pay a yearly tax just to own a radio that didn't even work. What's the point??

About as ridiculous as the rain tax was here.

You used to have to pay a tax for the portion of your property that covered the ground so that the rain couldn't hit it. They were literally taxing. The. Rain. That tax went almost immediately when we got our current governor.

 

[Figgy1]

10 days until Halloween

 

[Figgy1]

 

[donaldtoo]

@donaldtoo -- I just saw that your birthday was yesterday.

But 24 hours later, the sentiment is still the same, so --

View attachment 673930

Hahaaa…!!!!! Perfect…!!!!!!!
Thanks so very much, Minnie…!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

Happy Birthday!!!!

Thank you very much…!!!

 

[93boomer]

Our deer and turkeys both congregate in large groups that have to be shoo'd off the road around here

My Mom had 15 wild turkeys in her backyard yesterday. She said they were really big.

 

[donaldtoo]

I have found that bunnies won’t stay still in the road when a car comes along. Neither will squirrels. I’ve never hit one, but I’ve come close. We have so many here, we’re constantly dodging them.

Yep, there are a ton of squirrels and other wildlife in our neighborhood too, let alone all the fauna in the woods along that country back road that wander out onto it. But, yes, those critters will bolt, all of a sudden.
And yes, unfortunately, I’ve smashed my share of ‘em over the years…I’m just glad it wasn’t a large deer.
I drive through the affluent neighborhood across the road to get to the country back road. Not a morning goes by when there aren’t groups of deer in a coupla’ front yards.
They have 2 18-hole golf courses, and most of the properties abut those or a wooded area, and most have no appreciable fencing.
On the other hand, our neighborhood is development locked, and most have privacy fencing, so almost no deer wandering around in our neighborhood.
And, of course, there’s alway that fleeting, cringe instant when you either know the little critter cleared, or you feel and hear the thump…!!!!!

 

[Songbird76]

About as ridiculous as the rain tax was here.

You used to have to pay a tax for the portion of your property that covered the ground so that the rain couldn't hit it. They were literally taxing. The. Rain. That tax went almost immediately when we got our current governor.

The Netherlands has a history of weird taxation. For a long time, houses were taxed by how wide they were. So you see in Amsterdam, for example, a lot of the row houses, the houses are all really narrow, but really long and with several floors. They would only be taxed by the width, not by the total area, so those extra floors and how deep the house was didn't count. There's a house there that's like 2 meters wide. And in Germany, it went by how big your windows were, so people had these teeny tiny windows. People generally find a way around it.

 

[donaldtoo]

Might be a bit late @donaldtoo but hope you had a good one!

Thank you very much…!!!
No worries, as I didn’t even bring it up until last night. Wasn’t even goin’ to, and then I figured it was the big SIX-O, so I might as well…!!!!!
Thanks again…!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

Happy Belated Birthday!!

Thank you so much…!!!

 

[Goofyernmost]

Didn't do much for my 70th, but next year is my 75th. All I hope for is to still be here for it.

 

[donaldtoo]

Three things... First Happy Birthday and welcome to the part of life where everyone is younger then you. Second, rest in the idea that you saved Elmer Fudd from years of being outsmarted by that Silly Wabbit, Finally, Three... Your Grandparents did that dinner prep a lot differently then mine. My grandfather had a jack knife and he would pick up the chicken and with one swift motion pop off their head in a movement resembling peeling a potato. The head would drop and he would toss the body down on the ground and watch it run around the yard headless until the nerves gave out and they dropped then my grandmother would pick it up and throw in into very hot water for a while and then start to pluck out all the feathers.,

I had the joy of witnessing that early in my youth after I had spent a large part of my summer feeding them and gathering eggs every morning. They actually thought that I would eat the chicken dinner later that day. I wasn't about to eat my chickens. How primitive did they think I was anyway. I'd prefer to buy them at the grocery store where they were wrapped in cellophane and all the chickens lived a long life and passed away with family all around.

Thanks very much for the birthday wishes…!!!

As far as the bunny goes, I lost not a single wink of sleep over it.
Wait…….what kinda’ sicko am I…?!?!?!

As for the chicken/Guinea noodle soup…..varied “harvesting” methods, same end result…!!!!!
I also remember the hot water before plucking, and the lopped off heads goin’ to the hounds and cats.
I ate the heck outta’ that soup. Everything made from scratch, including the noodles. Just amazing.
Mom is able to replicate it pretty well, but, she uses store bought noodles, so not quite the same.


We never spent enough time with the farm animals to get close to ‘em (except maybe the hounds), as we only visited from No Cal on summer vacations, until we moved back to Texas.
We also fed the chickens, slopped the hogs, rode in the bed of a pickup tossin’ hay out to the cattle, etc.
The hunting and the fishing, too.
We used to go set lines in the evening in the San Antonio river (way south of San Antonio down near the farm), and then go check them about 3a.
We pulled in many yella’ cat, channel cat, and the occasional alligator gar.
Just more good times…!!!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

The 7th is not much different than the 6th decade.... the 8th decade is a little more challenging. That is, a long way off so no need to even think about that right now.

Yep, not thinkin’ much about that right now.
A lot can happen in 10 minutes, much less 10 years…!!!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

My wife made a big deal out of my 50th, all friends and relatives showed up for a cookout. She had left before my 60th but my kids and sister did it up pretty big, but that was just a few months after I had flown all 10 of them to WDW, bought them all 7 day tickets and rented a 6 bedroom villa plus two rental cars. I had driven down ahead and met them there with my car. I didn't think about it at the time but now that I reflect on it, hell ya, they should have done it up big.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

The Netherlands has a history of weird taxation. For a long time, houses were taxed by how wide they were. So you see in Amsterdam, for example, a lot of the row houses, the houses are all really narrow, but really long and with several floors. They would only be taxed by the width, not by the total area, so those extra floors and how deep the house was didn't count. There's a house there that's like 2 meters wide. And in Germany, it went by how big your windows were, so people had these teeny tiny windows. People generally find a way around it.

Yeah, I was just reading a summary of Netherlands taxation. I'm taking Federal Income Tax and just had to compare the US with another country, (I wisely chose Canada) so I was curious.

Yeah, that made my brain hurt.

 

[donaldtoo]

Happy birthday!
View attachment 673966

Nice…!!!
Thank you very much…!!!

 

[Figgy1]

The Netherlands has a history of weird taxation. For a long time, houses were taxed by how wide they were. So you see in Amsterdam, for example, a lot of the row houses, the houses are all really narrow, but really long and with several floors. They would only be taxed by the width, not by the total area, so those extra floors and how deep the house was didn't count. There's a house there that's like 2 meters wide. And in Germany, it went by how big your windows were, so people had these teeny tiny windows. People generally find a way around it.

Some of those strange taxes go back to the Middle Ages. They figured if you could afford glass which was VERY expensive at the time you were rich and could afford to pay taxes on them. I believe it was England that taxed per window at one point so people close in their windows to avoid paying

 

[donaldtoo]

About as ridiculous as the rain tax was here.

You used to have to pay a tax for the portion of your property that covered the ground so that the rain couldn't hit it. They were literally taxing. The. Rain. That tax went almost immediately when we got our current governor.

Sounds similar to some initial impervious coverage restrictions here. Any roof overhang more than 2 feet counted against your impervious cover calcs. Even though a roof overhang, at bare minimum, is a least 8 ft. above even a flat lot. Most, many, many more feet above that. That got done away with here real quick, too.
Funny thing also, one very affluent neighborhood here still counts an entire swimming pool as impervious coverage, whereas all the others just count the pool coping.
Yes, because a pool doesn’t contain water in the first place…!!!!!

 

[Figgy1]