@CoffeeQueen I live at the shore and am always amazed at the critters that we have. We're an island so knowing that these things either arrived via water or a bridge makes me laugh. Last year I was riding my bike home from work and came across a cat and I was trying to shoo him out of the road. It was not a cat lol. It was one of those skunks with the fancy fur that looks parted in the middle like a guinea pig. A few years ago a possum came in through our cat door on the 2nd floor and again, thought it was the cat.

Work. Had an epiphany: The amount of money I now want from mystery shops, etc. is the amount that I wanted from a wage job that I recently released. That job was efficient, and I would have continued indefinitely at the rate of two shifts per week (when work is available). But the scheduling system changed and recently required a minimum of three shifts per week every week (when work is available). Mandatory late night work followed by mandatory early morning work is perfect for people who do not need sleep. I am not one of them. "Eureka!" (I practically chortled, in the style of a zany game character who chortled that). Now, finally, I have my own goal, and my own foundation for a new work plan.

Just for giggles, I rummaged around a few message boards and put together several hypothetical, profitable work days for different types of shoppers: The ones who do not work before noon. period the end. would be profitable with nine or ten shops with short visits between noon and seven pm, and reports after that. The shoppers who work all day would be profitable as of nine am, super profitable by noon, and so profitable by five (before the dinner and drinks shops) that they could take a few weeks off after they finish their reports. The most casual of shoppers would be profitable if they did the am shops, took a break with a cuppa (with or without a cuppa shop), meandered through the business district and its shop offerings until about three or so, and had another cuppa break (with or without a cuppa shop), and did a dinner shop before enjoying the candle-lit bubble bath and delving into the day's reports.

Today is an open house and I'm getting out of town...taking a nice back road drive (never traffic) leading to Ventura Habour, cute restaurants and boats, will walk bring a book and enjoy the day.

Going over to the ranch/farm remodel to look at the newly installed tile. Trying to keep cool in the BLISTERING heat.

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

The night before last a possum got trapped and GAVE BIRTH while in the cage. We had to let her go, we couldn't relocate her like that. Luckily possums have no problem taking their offspring everywhere they go.

Coffee, Last summer, our dryer vent grill of 29 years came off the brick under our back deck, leaving a nice, 8" x 10" opening into our crawlspace while our dryer vent hung down in the crawlspace near this opening. I warned my hubby that come Fall & Winter, all the creatures of the woodlands that abuts our back fence were going to tell their neighbors about our inviting, warm real estate for the Winter! Sure enough....in late November, I heard some scratching under the house. Well, we tried scaring the critters out and blocking the opening with a large brick until we could get it fixed, but the critters must have still been inside and somehow pushed the concrete brick out so they could keep going out and in! So, 4 days before Christmas, we finally got someone to come re-establish the connection of the dryer vent to a new vent grill and secured it to the outside...all is good, right?? So hubby & I decide to set a trap under the crawlspace with some cut apple pieces...this was on Christmas Eve....next morning hubby says, "Want to see what's in the trap?" It was a dirty, ugly, very scared possum!! I told this critter, "Well, you sure are ugly, but you are one of God's creatures, and hubby is going to drive you about 4 miles away into some woods so you can forage and roam to your heart's content!", and off they went. We set the trap again that afternoon, and caught possibly the mate the next day!!! Off my husband drove it to where he let the other one out the previous day. We've kept the trap set since then, but no more critters!! PHEW!

Anyhow, today....clean house and wash clothes, that's it!

I had a productive day today. Everything was done by noon. A- on my grad school quiz.

Time for a free Cinnabun, Honny ?

@Jenny Cassada your skunk story is hilarious. I live in fear that a skunk will wander into the cage but so far so good. Maybe because we have the cage on the porch because that's where we keep the cat food for our outdoor cat.
@guysmom possums start out ugly but we've been trapping and moving them (to the same place lol) for years now and I've gotten fond of them. They are starting to look cute to me. They are really some of the most harmless creatures. We just don't want them living and breeding under our house. The other day I was driving down the road and saw a possum that had been run over. I said "awwwww".

We got the poor little raccoon moved. Poor little bugger had no idea where he was or what to do. He wandered off finally. He's a town raccoon so I'm sure it's going to be an adjustment to live out in the country.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

I had a productive day today. Everything was done by noon. A- on my grad school quiz.

YAY! Congrats on the A- from your grad school quiz....you go, girl!!

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

@guysmom possums start out ugly but we've been trapping and moving them (to the same place lol) for years now and I've gotten fond of them. They are starting to look cute to me. They are really some of the most harmless creatures. We just don't want them living and breeding under our house. The other day I was driving down the road and saw a possum that had been run over. I said "awwwww".

Well, I reckon anything can grow on you over time! I agree about not wanting them to breed under one's house!! The only "cute" possum I can say I've sever seen is this one from the Geico commercial: [www.youtube.com]

Hahahaha

wales, that's half the story. I am not into this class. This was my 4th quiz of the term: B-, F, F, A-.

The quizzes are open book!

I realized today that the practice tests at the end of the chapter are what we are quizzed on.

Time for roasted vegetables.

@walesmaven wrote:

Time for a free Cinnabun, Honny ?

Honny,
I needed 7 semesters of statistics and probability to not have to take a doctoral prelim exam in the subject to get my econ degree. ALL of the last 4 courses had open book exams. The professors knew that even seasoned pros often used a book to be certain when selecting a method for a particular problem.

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

@guysmom possums start out ugly but we've been trapping and moving them (to the same place lol) for years now and I've gotten fond of them. They are starting to look cute to me. They are really some of the most harmless creatures. We just don't want them living and breeding under our house. The other day I was driving down the road and saw a possum that had been run over. I said "awwwww".

This may be to gruesome for this forum, but last summer we had a possum come to drink from our cats outside water bowl, ewww, and promptly crawled under my patio furniture and died.. When I got up in the morning my H had left a note to check and see if it was still there. It was, again ewwww, after some research the internet said to leave it for 4 hrs to make sure it wasn’t just 'playing possum'. It wasn’t. Double EWWWW. It was a Sunday and all the info said to just put it in the trash, so we did. It was HUGE and got it’s dying juices on my furniture covers so they had to be tossed too. Scrubbed the cats water dish like nobody’s business.
When I told the story to the kids and family members, their first question was, "how did it die?" (Face palm emoji here) How the heck was I supposed to know that!

Work. Tiny projects at home. Starting a book by a new-to-me author.

O.M.G.@eveb. How awful for you.

Early job. Plan late summer/early fall nature trip (off-season prices and, more important, cooler temperatures). Gaze at empty spaces in closets which were last seen years ago. (There are four sorting projects left. Without the leg injury, I would have finished this sorting and seen my closets again a year ago! But it is what it is.)

Dentist Appt., cleaning and then calling Spectrum as WIFI is out in my house, making Appt.. for them to fix it
sooner than later. Day is mine, will take more clothes to Goodwill and continue with the organization of my house.

Shopping related activities on the computer, printing things, creating spreadsheet, updating other spreadsheet, creating route, emailing schedulers, downloading apps for said route. I did do one load of dishes though.

I am hooked on the gas station app shops. The meter shops in my neighborhood are snapped up but not actually completed. I was able to snag 3.

Today is phase 2 of the Platinum Project.

After shops I'm getting a pedicure, then packing, getting checked in for my flight tomorrow, etc. And of course a bunch of easy cell phone shops close by had fees increased to $20 but I'll be gone.

Work. Flat tire. Tire service. We are iwaiting for the tire place to open. Eventually, we will begin the mystery shop portion of the day.

Calling for a junk removal shop, taco Tuesday lunch, went to Trader Joe's for my Cheese Blinze fix and will schedule shop for Thursday or Friday. Schlepping last box of clothes to Goodwill, then rest all day. Spectrum fixed and gave new equipment yesterday for wifi, works great, guy fixed phone due to mountains and dropped calls, included no fee for service call.....).

Maybe the cat was sick of possum slobber in his water bowl and poisoned it.

We have a bird bath on our back deck that is really meant for our squirrels to drink out of. I refilled the water the other day when it was really, really hot, rinsing it out very well and filling it, and shortly thereafter a robin came and bathed in it. An hour later a squirrel came down to drink and literally wrinkled his nose at it after taking one sip (normally on hot days they slurp for several seconds). That must have been one stinky bird.

@eveb wrote:

When I told the story to the kids and family members, their first question was, "how did it die?" (Face palm emoji here) How the heck was I supposed to know that!

I mean seriously, what if the cat smelled possum slobber and decided to pee in the water dish and find water elsewhere? All cat owners know that cat pee smells so heavily of ammonia...and possums...well, I am guessing they are not smart creatures.

Squirrels... and possums... and cat piss. Oh, my!

And, this is exactly what i needed to read today. You knew about the tires. You did not know about the absence of air conditioning in the vehicle and the uninterrupted blazing inferno I mean sun overhead. So there I was, baking away (not necessarily bad, if I happened to be half-baked) and searching in vain for shade. I just wanted to stop the car, sit in shade, let me and the car cool down, and begin the rest of the journey in a few degrees lower than Hell.

There was no shade! Well, there was-- on private property. 'Please, sir, could I sit some more?' Or not. I really did not want to sit on a snake or be lunch for the mosquitoes. So the unrelenting heat led to the migraine, and the migraine let to this silly post, and the day is a little less bad now.

Back to your regularly scheduled thread now.

After much research I ended up buying a Certified Used Honda CR-V. Thanks to knowledge gained completing car shops and my husband, who was the "bad cop" during the negotiating process the whole thing was pretty easy. Just took a long time.

The second bleaching resulted in a gorgeous strawberry blonde. Next week or the week after will be the final bleach and dye.

Work. Laundry. Clean something.

eta.

So I was thinking about my current IC goals, and I rummaged around the internet for perspectives. I posted a link to one person's story about discovering and doing restaurant shops.

[ptmoney.com]

I have not located a clear statement of intention, and I would like to know: was the Mystery Shopping Industry ever intended to provide each and every mystery shopper with a living wage or designated life? If so, then each and every mystery shopper is entitled to a living wage or designated life. If not, activists should stop trying to get everyone on a bandwagon, into a shopper union, or otherwise interfere with individuals and their needs, wants, and choices. It is never necessary to criticize- overtly or covertly-- any shopper. It is always a good idea to respect each shopper as an individual, an independent contractor, and someone who is free to choose as they will.

I will continue to search for more information...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2019 02:49PM by Shop-et-al.

Celebrating that the lower level apartment will be leased long term (at least a year) instead of going onto Airbnb. Found a wonderful, fellow lol (little ole lady) who teaches school nearby and shares many interests and enthusiasms with me and the existing, long time, housemate. Also, groceries, wine shop, bank, and finishing a hotel report.