Saturday April 15th (aka Tax Day?)
 

Morning! |waves|

Is it Tax Day or do they give you til Monday because it's the weekend? JR should know |couch|

Still in a bit of a funk, but not as bad as the last few days. We have guys here working in the pool house & fixing up some stuff around the outside of the house, which really just means I have to be awake for the rest of the day.

Gonna try & work I guess.....

A month or so ago I was at a red light left turn lane at around 3 am that didn't seem to be changing so after waiting a long time I made the turn. Got a red light camera ticket that just cost me 165.90. :(

Pool party this afternoon and then back to driving humans, their dogs and their food around.

Hi

Been dabbling around with various backend stuff and some galleries.
It's ok weather here, but damn cold.
My dog is bored, but it's on her. She got a minor injury while she was taking a bath and now she has that walk that suggests she has trouble. (Is halter the word? That's what translate says, but I thought the english word for "jumping around on one foot, sortof" was different.

Saturday, so I'll crack a beer or two

Have a nice evening

J:)lly

Good Morning :)

Wife took off early this morning for the weekend. Went ahead and did some work since I was up but need a nap. So after I have that nap it will be time to unbox and set up the drum set |rimshot|

You actually have to the 18th to complete it :D

They changed my dialysis day, so I had dialysis two days running while the schedules mesh (Thursday and Friday). So have had about 14 pints of blood drained off in the past two days (a "normal" person only has about 8 to 10 pints). Consequently, Friday evening I felt like shit, and just dozed. Today I didn't feel much better, but at least I'm up and about now, spent most of the day sitting in the chair dozing again.

Hopping is the word you want. A halter is an animal harness.

In that context, I would go with limp. If you hurt your leg, you limp on it or favor it. Hobble is close too. Halter .. hmmm... a lead that you attach to a horse, a type of woman's top (straps up around the neck versus over the shoulder). I know there are others, but this is the most common. Limping or hobbling around will paint the picture you seek.

We went to Easter dinner about 50 miles away with the in-laws. Nice meal, but crowded. Finnish weather can be so unpredictable this time of year. Snow one minute, sunshine the next, cold wind and cloudy after that. Rinse, lather, repeat in any order. Nice and brisk today. Spring is out there somewhere. We already changed the tires on our car to the summer ones, too. We made a stop at the cemetery where my husband's grandparents are buried to place flowers on their grave (A very important part of every holiday here).

The sad part of the holiday.. Finland used to have government mandated holidays where all shops but the tiny ones were closed. Banks and big stores closed, government offices (duh!), and the transportation people ran on Sunday schedules.

This worked nicely for this small country. People work hard here and having those days off meant they could spend time with family. Normally, everything here would be closed from the morning of Good Friday until Tuesday morning - a nice 4 day weekend. But, a small vocal group of mainly immigrants didn't like it and kept after their reps to change it. And change it they did in January 2016. Now the stores are free to set their own hours. They were open Christmas Eve and even Christmas Day. Most stores are also open every day this weekend. Of course, management isn't there - just the lower paid retail clerks... read women (mainly), lower paid, with families. The stores were not crowded at all - just the restaurant which didn't fall under those rules ever. I know times have to change, but this is one change I really don't like.

:) I think my definition covers both of those. |couch|

We have a similar system here, however it is not obligatory. Up until a few years ago most shops were closed Good Friday and Easter Monday. However not so now. Banks and state close for four days, but most shops are open as normal. The reason here however is not "immigrants" but simple economic necessity. Internet shopping is really popular in Britain, bricks and mortar businesses need to be open all hours to scrounge back what custom they can. It is "open bank holidays, or more customers leave you for your online rivals". We have had so many big chain stores go bankrupt, many who have been around for over a hundred years, that no one dares close incase they are next.

Besides, Easter and Christmas are both religious holidays. I don't think atheists should be allowed those days off, and there are more atheists than Christians in Britain nowadays, so make the buggers work!

P.S. I should point out that I was brought up a Christian, and I think I still have the membership card somewhere. If it means extra holidays, food and drink, and lots of chocolate, I think I'll dig it out and say I believe.

Actually, you have until Tuesday this year. The 18th.

.

Thanks.|bow| That is the actual word that came to mind.
Stupid me had to get into doubt and wanted to check.
I couldn't find limp anywhere on online dictonaries and my hardcopy (which I trust) is in a box somewhere still.

Never doubt what comes to mind straight away

Exactly like here.

Here we're closed Thursday, Friday and open a few hours on Saturday. then closed until Tuesday.

We however got open stores on Sunday since the 90's (I think).
It was called Brustad-bua (after the Rep Sylvia Brustad who got the law through).
BUT, there are strict rules on size and whats not.
So most stores don't bother.
For instance, if I need something today I have to walk for over an hour. (Don't own a car. I live, literally, right in the center of this town).

I abandoned my Christian faith in my teens. I started to think and noticed it just does not make any sense. (No offense if any of you do believe, I also respect that other people do believe. I have no right to state my opinion as the truth. But neither does the other side so they should respect me as well :) )

Ranting now. The point is, despite I am not a Christian (I even left the state curch) I do like the calm holidays with closed shops and slow life.

So I totally agree with you Pagan and it's a pity it came to that in Finland.

Jolly

I call it Americanization. About 1/3 of of television comes from the US, and another 1/3 from the UK. Since I moved here 5 years ago, I have seen the beginnings of Black Friday sales (Black Friday being the day after Thanksgiving, when most stores expect to be in the black as far as sales go. We don't have Thanksgiving here in Finland!). We now see rebel flags, American style diners with food seasoned to the milder Finnish palate, and an increase in American clothing being sold here. Heck, we even have Steve 'N' Seagulls that play bluegrass versions of heavy metal. American cars are highly prized too - if you can afford the gas! So of course, the next logical step is to keep the stores open 24/7 if at all possible, and do it 365 days a year just like they do in the good old USA. The Brits are almost as popular, btw.

Here's a bit of Steve 'N' Seagulls just for a laugh - https://youtu.be/e4Ao-iNPPUc

Not that long ago, many people here had cabins by the lake, and most would take the month of June or July off to go to the cabin. Many workers had a full month of vacation time. Even our city offices now shut down for the entire month of July. That time with the family or by the lake is treasured but there is now a movement to do away with that ritual. Seems people think we should be more 'American'.

The 2 main grocery store chains have reported a small increase in sales the first year of non-regulated hours. What they didn't allow for was having to hire extra staff or pay people to work full time versus part time, and that has hurt the bottom line. Daycare over the holidays is also tough. The daycare centers are closed, but many of the mothers have to work. What to do with the kids? It's great if you have someone to leave them with, but not everyone does. I much prefer the old way -- being closed on the holidays and allowing people some quality time with their families.

(Warning - Ecchi gets a bit serious here - borderline rant.)

In my youth I worked in retail for many years. It is the "lowest of the low". Pay is usually "minimum wage". And there are a lot of people wanting each job, so there is a lot of unemployment in the retail sector. In short life is shit for a shop assistant. Little money and if they loose their job probably a long period of unemployment before getting another one.

When I started in that business it was illegal to sell non perishable goods on a Sunday. By the time I left the business this law had been revoked. There were (and still are) a few restrictions on Sunday trading, but not many, and nearly all shops open Sundays nowadays.

When the law changed, the effect on us at the bottom end of the ladder was tremendous. It was a Godsend. More jobs were available, we could make more money by working more hours, and in some instances store even had to pay a higher hourly wage to attract more staff.

When I see posts like your two posts (and I know you don't mean it this way, but it is the way it is) I see relatively well off people protecting their "rich" lifestyle and comforts at the expense of the poor. After all, there are plenty of poor people, what does it matter if a few starve, as long as us "better off" people get a nice holiday.

Bloody hell, the Finnish people have a milder palate than the Americans? I did not think that was possible! America the country with beer so bland you don't know if it is beer or water from a rusty tap; the country with coffee so tasteless you wonder why the bothered with the bean; the country where "spicy" food is so "unspicy" you begin to think the only spice they have in America is salt. And the Finnish people like it milder than that? How do do make food that mild?

I think you both have good points.

I can't speak for Finland, but in Norway things are a bit differently.
You hardly have any work that is that 'rock-bottom'. There are strict rules on minmum-wages and working-hours.
When our current government tried to lift the Sunday-rule (to free for all kinda thing) they had to fold it because people didn't want it.
The workers didn't want it, the majority of voters didn't want it and basically the only ones who wanted it was our prime minister and the owners.

But I really see your point Ecchi.
It's odd though, we're so afraid of immigrants coming here "to kill our culture", but we are really into adapting everything from USA. Which seems to not be 'killng culture'.

It all beats me.

I think it's stupid that stores are closed because some dude apparently died on a cross. Other than that, It's a nice calm holiday.

J:)lly

http://thumbnails101.imagebam.com/54...4543677439.jpg

Sunday "no open" is also a religious thing, as God demanded a day of rest. However it is a stupid one, because God demanded that his day of rest be Saturday. Mankind basically said "Well we prefer Sunday - so fuck you God." And if there is a heaven, I cannot see God letting in anyone with that attitude!

Worse than that, we changed it to fit in with an existing rest day that worshipped a pagan god (Roman I think), about that, God (the Christian/Jewish/Muslim one) said "I will punish you, I will punish your children, and your children's children, and your children's childrens children. Unto the fourth generation will I punish you."

So basically, we are all going to hell because of Sunday trading laws.


|couch| (It is great having had a Christian upbringing and going to a Roman Catholic school. It means I can pretty much quote the Bible to prove God agrees with me whatever I am arguing!)

It's good our upbringing has some value, still. (protestant here (if that's how that Luther-thing is written in English))

Jolly

Yeah Lutherans would be protestants. However, not all protestants are Lutherans. Protestant is "Anyone who believes in the Christian God as laid out in the Bible, except Roman Catholics". The word was coined when the first "non-Roman Catholic but Christian" religion started. It's base is protest-ant, someone who protests (about the way the Catholic church runs religion).

BTW, I think it is high time this thread had one of these:
|buddy|