Ooh, tell me about it! (We had folks who insulated the walls with old underwear--that is, where the insulated at all. I can only hope they washed it first)
Ooh, tell me about it! (We had folks who insulated the walls with old underwear--that is, where the insulated at all. I can only hope they washed it first)
I thought I had heard all the construction nightmare stories, and then...
That HAS to take the prize for the most bizarrely inappropriate building material ever!
Oh, this was an (extremely) amateur job, done totally off the books, with no permit, in the basement, as they installed a illegal bedroom OVER TWO INCHES OF STANDING WATER which were rusting through the steel beam column support for the living room immediately above. We discovered this fact after we tore out the mess. But almost worse than the underwear insulation was the 1970s orange shag carpeting together with the extremely splintery knotty pine woodwork, complete with horseshoes. I'm surprised we didn't find cattle skulls down there.
I think it used to be fairly common for homeowners (and freezing tenants?) to use whatever they could get their hands on. Cloth, paper, etc. Newspaper insulation even gives approximate dates for the work. IIRC, I heard about that on various renovation and history shows.
But yes, thorough washing and disinfecting is to be hoped for, and shredding the garment to the point where it's not immediately recognizable.
After the day I had today (a ScanFest in which the two departments I needed were running late and I had to wait hours in a TV-dominated room - death to "The Price is Right"!) I may invest in another one or similar.
And maybe a universal remote, just in case you *do* want to watch something of your own choosing? Though I don't know if that would work--i.e., would the remote have the right code available?
Hospital waiting is not the symptom of an overstretched system, it a plan to embed health information in the visiting public.
I wish health information would have been on the TV while I was trapped in that room, BroJames. Would have been more enjoyable, and I do like learning things related to health! Unfortunately, the infomercial I was tortured with was about a device to shave the peach fuzz off a lady's face. Over and over and over again.
I agree - but somehow it's considered "the bride's prerogative".
Mind you, I once had a bride who arrived too early, so I told her car to take a turn round the block. Unfortunately it was a football day and they got stuck in a traffic jam ...
The North East Man was almost late to ours. He put on the kilt socks which I had lovingly knitted for him, and realised they had bits of wool sticking out, and didn't look very good. So he spent 20 mins hunting down a pair of nail scissors and then carefully cut all the ends off. By the time he had finished he was running 30 mins late.
Someone was positioned at the door of our church to wave my car past, but fortunately the North East Man narrowly beat me to the church.
He apologised to the minister but explained there had been a problem with his socks. The minister pointed out he was was wearing them inside out, but I'd arrived by then, so no time to take them off and put them back on the right way.
When I bowed my head for the first prayer, I spotted the socks. The socks I had spent hours knitting. And that, dear reader, is why half way through my marriage ceremony the only thought in my mind was "I'm going to kill him...."
We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary this year.
Hospital waiting is not the symptom of an overstretched system, it a plan to embed health information in the visiting public.
I wish health information would have been on the TV while I was trapped in that room, BroJames. Would have been more enjoyable, and I do like learning things related to health! Unfortunately, the infomercial I was tortured with was about a device to shave the peach fuzz off a lady's face. Over and over and over again.
But wait! order within the next 15 minutes and receive this set of nickel-plated podiatry spatulas at no extra cost!! That’s over two hundred dollars value for just $5.99!!!
I agree - but somehow it's considered "the bride's prerogative".
Mind you, I once had a bride who arrived too early, so I told her car to take a turn round the block. Unfortunately it was a football day and they got stuck in a traffic jam ...
I once had an early bride, who arrived literally before anyone but me. She and her bridesmaid decided to hide in the Portaloo (spell check makes that Portillo 😂) which was the church's only convenience.
Being the wife of an organist, I was totally paranoid about being late, and consequently arrived a minute or two early. My Beloved was apparently telling jokes in the vestry, when the best man (his brother-in-law) popped his head round the door and said, "she's here".
Re the TV remotes, I'd be worried that turning a "public" TV off would elicit howls of rage from the other inhabitants of the waiting room.
Hubby and I were married during the worst snowstorm that had happened in over 20 years. That is what you get for wanting a December wedding. The bride, groom, and wedding party made it on time, but we delayed the start of the wedding by 30 minutes so the guests had time to put chains on tires and drift in though the snow and sleet. Bless them most everyone showed up.
A similar story to ours Graven Image - we went into, and came out of the church in bright sunshine. Then we, our families and friends gathered at a local pub for a reception/ceilidh during which there was a terrific blizzard and deep snow. Our wedding ended with a lock-in and folk unable to go home until the next day!
We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary this year.
Tangent/ And may I say that your story about how you came to stop ironing his shirts is still one of my top laugh-out-loud moments on the Ship./Tangent off
TICTH motoring infractions. D. was stopped by an (admittedly very polite*) policeman who informed him that our equivalent of an MOT (a little sticker on the windscreen) was out of date, and when D. produced his (still current) Newfoundland driving licence, he was told he should have changed it for a New Brunswick one, eliciting two separate fines.
It also made us late for choir practice before church - why did they have to stop him on practically the only occasion this week when he had to be somewhere???
I think the "MOT" thing is maybe a fair cop - he told me he was aware of it but had been putting it off (!), but I think he genuinely didn't realise you needed a different licence for a different province if the old one was still valid.
Could do without having to disburse the $$$ though.
Exactly. There was a notorious wedding in St. Magnus about 35 years ago when the bride was half an hour late. It was a very fancy affair: she had the choir (one of the tenors happened to be her boss); she'd gone to Paris to get her dress (quite something from Orkney in those days); and she arrived by horse and carriage. Maybe the horse broke down ...
The other notable thing about the service was that she was coming up the aisle to the theme from Chariots of Fire. As you can imagine, the waiting congregation was treated to variants of every film score D. could think of (with "Why are we waiting" being worked in in ever-less subtle ways)!
Might he have had a case for cancelling the wedding (or at least postponing it to another date), on the grounds that the B & G were incapable of making Solemn Promises?
Might he have had a case for cancelling the wedding (or at least postponing it to another date), on the grounds that the B & G were incapable of making Solemn Promises?
I have heard of that being done. A marriage is legal contract, and if one or both are not of sound mind, they can't make a legal contract. Too bad - so sad...
My priest has a policy that if any members of the wedding party are more than ten minutes late they get charged in increasingly high amounts. He said merely telling them this policy has worked in keeping everyone on time, and I don’t think he’s ever had to enforce it.
I once sang for a high school friend's wedding, accompanying myself (at her request) on the guitar. On the morning of the wedding, she disappeared into the restroom for a half-hour. I was told to fill in the time, but didn't really have the repertoire for it. Nevertheless, I did my best.
After that, I declined to be the only musician performing at any wedding. If I'd known about that policy, though...
My priest has a policy that if any members of the wedding party are more than ten minutes late they get charged in increasingly high amounts. He said merely telling them this policy has worked in keeping everyone on time, and I don’t think he’s ever had to enforce it.
I once sang for a high school friend's wedding, accompanying myself (at her request) on the guitar. On the morning of the wedding, she disappeared into the restroom for a half-hour. I was told to fill in the time, but didn't really have the repertoire for it. Nevertheless, I did my best.
After that, I declined to be the only musician performing at any wedding. If I'd known about that policy, though...
I'd have rubbed my hands, thought "captive audience", and reflected that there are some folk songs with a lot of verses, ideal for this sort of situation. Mostly with a death count (well, it is folk music) which would make the Kray Brothers have an introspective moment.
The other notable thing about the service was that she was coming up the aisle to the theme from Chariots of Fire. As you can imagine, the waiting congregation was treated to variants of every film score D. could think of (with "Why are we waiting" being worked in in ever-less subtle ways)!
Good man, and standard practice IMO. My choir take bets what I'll work into the "twiddly bits" reflecting on the weather. Rain is easy - Any umbrellas?, Pennies from heaven, Singing in the rain, etc; The sun has got his hat on, You are my sunshine for when the weather gods are kind. The very worst wedding lateness is when it is just a nothing day - apart from lLook for the silver lining there's bu**er all appropriate repertoire and one is forced into more esoteric stuff like a number originally sung by Melina Mercouri, lauding the joys of the port of Piraeus, but which was recorded in English by Petula Clark with a totally different story line, known as Never, never on a Sunday
I used to work at a church and would hear the minister explaining to the entire wedding party that if he smelled any alcohol on the breath of the groom or groomsmen, or indeed on the breath of anyone involved in the wedding, he would not be the officiant. He knew that he had no real control over any of it and he didn't want to acknowledge that the bride and bridesmaids could well be drinking beforehand but, to my knowledge, everyone took him quite seriously and didn't overindulge beforehand.
A suburban church in Sydney is very popular for weddings. Often multiple weddings in the one day. Late for the wedding meant it was cancelled so next wedding ran to time that day.
When D. was a student in Bristol, he was organist of a church that was very popular for weddings, and they might have several on a Saturday afternoon. If one or more of the brides was very late, the knock-on effect could send the vicar into a panic in case the last one fell outside "canonical hours".
I'm not sure what the latest legal time was, but he said that on occasion the service (and presumably the music) was rather more presto than andante!
I like the story of a Vicar who had a simple and well-known procedure for matrimonial tardiness. If the bride was between six and ten minutes late, that was OK, he might instruct the organist to drop a verse or two, and shorten his address. He always built a little "wriggle room" for this sort of thing. If it was up to fifteen minutes one of the hymns would go completely and the Psalm would go if more it was between fifteen and twenty minutes late.
If they were more than twenty minutes late and there was no wedding to follow they got Psalm 119. All of it.
Comments
I thought I had heard all the construction nightmare stories, and then...
That HAS to take the prize for the most bizarrely inappropriate building material ever!
Yours and my experiences sound aesthetically different, but equally depressing. Old underwear for insulation? Yikes!
Weird. Hadn't heard the term, until a Yahoo horror story today. (Don't leave cowboy builders home alone while you go on vacation! (:paranoid:) )
Now the term is scurrying around here, too,
I think it used to be fairly common for homeowners (and freezing tenants?) to use whatever they could get their hands on. Cloth, paper, etc. Newspaper insulation even gives approximate dates for the work. IIRC, I heard about that on various renovation and history shows.
But yes, thorough washing and disinfecting is to be hoped for, and shredding the garment to the point where it's not immediately recognizable.
This is the one I had: https://www.amazon.com/TV-B-Gone-Universal-TV-Control-Keychain/dp/B0006GD9CE.
After the day I had today (a ScanFest in which the two departments I needed were running late and I had to wait hours in a TV-dominated room - death to "The Price is Right"!) I may invest in another one or similar.
I wish health information would have been on the TV while I was trapped in that room, BroJames. Would have been more enjoyable, and I do like learning things related to health! Unfortunately, the infomercial I was tortured with was about a device to shave the peach fuzz off a lady's face. Over and over and over again.
You gave out to all and sundry how you'd been planning "the day" for 2 years but you couldn't get to the church on time? Really?
Mind you, I once had a bride who arrived too early, so I told her car to take a turn round the block. Unfortunately it was a football day and they got stuck in a traffic jam ...
Someone was positioned at the door of our church to wave my car past, but fortunately the North East Man narrowly beat me to the church.
He apologised to the minister but explained there had been a problem with his socks. The minister pointed out he was was wearing them inside out, but I'd arrived by then, so no time to take them off and put them back on the right way.
When I bowed my head for the first prayer, I spotted the socks. The socks I had spent hours knitting. And that, dear reader, is why half way through my marriage ceremony the only thought in my mind was "I'm going to kill him...."
We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary this year.
I'm sure Mrs. BT (married to me since March 1982) has often felt like that ...
I once had an early bride, who arrived literally before anyone but me. She and her bridesmaid decided to hide in the Portaloo (spell check makes that Portillo 😂) which was the church's only convenience.
Being the wife of an organist, I was totally paranoid about being late, and consequently arrived a minute or two early. My Beloved was apparently telling jokes in the vestry, when the best man (his brother-in-law) popped his head round the door and said, "she's here".
Re the TV remotes, I'd be worried that turning a "public" TV off would elicit howls of rage from the other inhabitants of the waiting room.
Does it matter?
No, I suppose it doesn't...especially if the Victim is unaware of the source of their Anguish...
Tangent/ And may I say that your story about how you came to stop ironing his shirts is still one of my top laugh-out-loud moments on the Ship./Tangent off
It also made us late for choir practice before church - why did they have to stop him on practically the only occasion this week when he had to be somewhere???
I think the word I'm looking for is "bollocks".
* This is Canada, after all ...
O the Shame!
O the unwanted need to disburse $$$...!
O ballcocks, indeed!
Could do without having to disburse the $$$ though.
The other notable thing about the service was that she was coming up the aisle to the theme from Chariots of Fire. As you can imagine, the waiting congregation was treated to variants of every film score D. could think of (with "Why are we waiting" being worked in in ever-less subtle ways)!
Nice one. D.!
(BTW, did the bride come all the way from Paris by horse and carriage?)
I have heard of that being done. A marriage is legal contract, and if one or both are not of sound mind, they can't make a legal contract. Too bad - so sad...
After that, I declined to be the only musician performing at any wedding. If I'd known about that policy, though...
I'd have rubbed my hands, thought "captive audience", and reflected that there are some folk songs with a lot of verses, ideal for this sort of situation. Mostly with a death count (well, it is folk music) which would make the Kray Brothers have an introspective moment.
Good man, and standard practice IMO. My choir take bets what I'll work into the "twiddly bits" reflecting on the weather. Rain is easy - Any umbrellas?, Pennies from heaven, Singing in the rain, etc; The sun has got his hat on, You are my sunshine for when the weather gods are kind. The very worst wedding lateness is when it is just a nothing day - apart from lLook for the silver lining there's bu**er all appropriate repertoire and one is forced into more esoteric stuff like a number originally sung by Melina Mercouri, lauding the joys of the port of Piraeus, but which was recorded in English by Petula Clark with a totally different story line, known as Never, never on a Sunday
I'm not sure what the latest legal time was, but he said that on occasion the service (and presumably the music) was rather more presto than andante!
If they were more than twenty minutes late and there was no wedding to follow they got Psalm 119. All of it.