"Your dad is so fat".... Primal Papa's Journal. page 49

[namelesswonder]

Shoveling can be a really good work out. You just have to take your time and take breaks so you can tell when your body needs a break (avoid overdoing it). I wouldn't think shoveling would induce a heart attack, but I've never had one

I say pay for someone local to shovel, if you don't want to. Nice to support someone in the community. Kids will often do it for a fair price.

[Primal Papa]

Shoveling can be a really good work out. You just have to take your time and take breaks so you can tell when your body needs a break (avoid overdoing it). I wouldn't think shoveling would induce a heart attack, but I've never had one

I say pay for someone local to shovel, if you don't want to. Nice to support someone in the community. Kids will often do it for a fair price.

Men drop dead all the time from heart attacks when shoveling.

As far as kids go.... maybe where you live.... where I live kids won't do anything for money. At my last house, which was much smaller and easier to shovel, I never once in 12 years had a kid ask to shovel or cut my grass. I even put the word out on my street that I was willing to pay.... Lots of places near me don't have enough workers because kids won't take the jobs.

[namelesswonder]

Kids in my neighborhood used to get our early to try and get shoveling gigs! I was too lazy, heh.

My dad had a heart attack just over a year ago (Thanksgiving 2011). He is an avid bicyclist, but he was at home just getting ready for work when his happened. Intense cardio could be a trigger for a heart attack, I feel, but probably not if you are careful.

[Primal Papa]

So, I started back in earnest today with Primal.... all the holiday stuff is gone, so it should be much easier.

My whole family loved the "Chilighetti" except my one daughter, who runs and hides when she hears anything that is even close to chili. My plan was to go to the YMCA today, but I really didn't need to, as I got a lot of exercise shoveling 2 - 3" of slushy snow for 2 hours. That stuff was HEAVY, but I couldn't take the chance that it would freeze up overnight. That would be brutal.

I got in a little tiff with the guy who drives the snow plow for the township. Just when I was done, they showed up and were going to plow in front of my driveway. I stood there and refused to move. I asked the guy to not do my driveway as I just cleared it, and if he did clear it too, I would have another 45 minutes of work to do. Him clearing my driveway area would NOT help anybody.... I live in a very wide cul - de - sac. All it would do is make more work for me. It would not have affected my neighbors one bit. I also mentioned that I had had a heart attack and didn't want to keep shoveling for another 45 minutes.

So I asked nicely, and he said he was clearing it anyway. I said he would have to run over me. He said he was calling the police. I pulled out my cell phone and said "Here ya go". Then he called me a name I won't post here, and drove away.

[Primal Papa]

I don't know if this is an Irish thing or a thing my wife's family does.... but this happens a LOT.

Someone will die, and then someone will call us.. sometimes people I have never heard of, from my wife's family ( and I have been with my wife since 1997 ).... to tell us that someone who is like a 27th cousin, twice removed, that knew someone's grandmother way back in 1922, has passed away. Not even my wife will know who it is..... but here is what makes it even weirder.... these folks will ask us - well, really, my wife - if we plan to be at the funeral?

Like tonight, we got a call that my wife's cousin's cousin died... and we don't even know who the person was who called. She told my wife who she was, but my wife had never heard of her. Now, my wife had never even met her cousin's cousin, and in fact, isn't even close to her cousin, so why would we need

A: To know at all

B: to attend the funeral

But we get calls like this about twice a year. We were once called about somebody who died, that not only did my wife not know the person, she had absolutely no idea who the person who called to tell us was..... and seriously, how do they have our phone number anyway? These aren't scams.... my father in law usually knows of the person who died. A few years ago, somebody called and said "You really should be there."....... meaning the funeral... event though we had no idea who it was. "There" being over 1000 miles from where we live, LOL.

I have heard that obituaries in Ireland are called the "Irish Sports Pages".....

Our Life In The Country: The Irish Sports Pages

http://bostonirish.blogspot.com/2008...ith-death.html

Apparently people in Ireland collect obituaries of people they have never met.

I have first cousins that I wouldn't attend their funerals.... I kind of look at it like this, with possible exceptions, "If I haven't seen or talked to you in 10 years, you just weren't that important in my life"..... It's sort of the same feeling I get when I clean out the garage or the attic..... If it has been in a box for 5 years, then there is no need to keep it.

Maybe it is an Irish thing. Maybe it is just my wife's family; I don't know. But in any case, it seems rather strange to me.

[Primal Papa]

I literally almost made a very expensive mistake for tonight, though I doubt my family would let me..... We are all headed to see Carrie Underwood. They are all going for the music, and I'm just going to stare.

( I thought the show was tomorrow )

[ssn679doc]

They are all going for the music, and I'm just going to stare.

And a good reason to own binoculars/opera glasses!

[naiadknight]

My great granny croaked over the summer. At that point, I was well into being unemployed with no prospects. I didn't have the funds to travel to some tiny little East Texas town 2 hours on the other side of Dallas for a woman I had seen maybe 5 times in my LIFE, at most. For a closer relative, maybe.
Once every couple years, my parents will say "oh, thus and so died, you should go to the funeral." My rule of thumb is that if my answer is "who?," I don't go to the funeral.

[Pebbles67]

Carrie Underwood! I'm so jealous. I would love to look like her, so I would probably stare as well.

[Richardmac]

How heavy is the snow with you? I really want snow. I know its a pain and disruptive to every form of transport (except sledges) but I love it at christmas and we havnt had any yet. We are gettibg temp fluctuations from 2 to 10 and rain, but no snow.

Richard