Please bear with me. It all ties together eventually! The Alien that has taken over the body & mind of my W*fe took upon herself the job of feeding the numerous stray cats on our small estate. Over the past year silly rumours about cats spreading Covid (Facebook - of course!) has meant that more cats than usual have been booted out of their homes. We feed most in the garden but 4 have taken up residence in my house. Getting up very early on Friday 5th I sleepily came downstairs but halfway down trod on a ginger moggy who helped me nosedive the remaining half a dozen steps. Luckily I always seem to bounce well & no bones were broken. Shaken up a bit I also lost full use of my left leg & was left doing a b*m shuffle as a means of getting around making household tasks more complicated. Although still talking with a limp & walking with a stammer - I am feeling a lot better & eagerly await to see if my W*fe celebrates Valentines Day on her home planet.
I misled you slightly re my b-in-law's funeral His other half had died about 18 months ago & he missed her so much that he decided upon a slow, liquid suicide. The cheapest cremation funeral is usually no cheaper than £6000 & the few I have attended I have found tacky, rushed & impersonal. Alan discovered that a local funeral parlour was advertising a no frills cut price event costing £999. They took his body to a local crematorium, told us he would be processed at 0830 & the family linked up on 'Facetime' - whatever that is - to give him a send off. The bill was eventually £1500 but I assume that was to cover matches, ashes urn etc. My youngest son wants to give his uncle a Viking's burial on the Thames when all is back to normal.
On Sky TV in England at present we have found an American series called 'Resident Alien'. This explains everything! Menopause is a myth & our women when they reach a certain age - are being taken over by similar but female (I hope!) aliens. As a Detective I really should have worked this out sooner.
Take Care.
Catastrophe -Virtual Funeral - Resident Alien!
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PierrePanache
- Posts: 30
- Joined: 23 Feb 2015, 19:59
Re: Catastrophe -Virtual Funeral - Resident Alien!
I'm very happy to learn how quickly you bounced back from your trip down the stairs. 
There is little doubt in the minds of the most casual observers that aliens are among us. Books on this phenomena were written many years ago; the most popular one I can recall is Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray. To be perfectly honest I've not read that book but I have been a casual observer for more than 7 decades and can attest to the blatant truth stated in that book title.
As for the alien affinity to creatures of the feline species, I assure you there is a reason women are often cited as being "catty." My own personal experience with the ordinary house cat variety is less than congenial. They are an independent lot and have no regard for what humans would consider personal space. As their alien counterparts are prone to be, cats are fundamentally bipolar in behavior. They are purring for attention one moment and attacking with extended claws the next. It may be possible that cats live in a permanent state of menopause. The only antidote for all this chaos might be for you to acquire one of those world famous British Bulldogs as a companion. That may not bring a return to domestic tranquillity, but it certainly will put those catty creatures in their proper place.
Thank you for the clarification regarding virtual funerals. Facetime is the Apple Computer equivalent of Zoom. Uhhh, that means they are both in the business of providing virtual meeting places on the Internet. Dozens of other companies, both popular and obscure, provide similar experiences. This is an old technology that traces back to the days when Web Cams and instant messaging were two separate items. Now it's all combined and much more sophisticated. The few virtual gatherings I've attended were better than not being among the attendees in person, but something about the technology involved makes it all less personal. It's not the kind of thing I'd prefer for a funeral, but in these days of raging pandemic it probably is the best alternative.
I'd comment on "Resident Alien" but I seldom watch television and am unfamiliar with the show.
There is little doubt in the minds of the most casual observers that aliens are among us. Books on this phenomena were written many years ago; the most popular one I can recall is Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray. To be perfectly honest I've not read that book but I have been a casual observer for more than 7 decades and can attest to the blatant truth stated in that book title.
As for the alien affinity to creatures of the feline species, I assure you there is a reason women are often cited as being "catty." My own personal experience with the ordinary house cat variety is less than congenial. They are an independent lot and have no regard for what humans would consider personal space. As their alien counterparts are prone to be, cats are fundamentally bipolar in behavior. They are purring for attention one moment and attacking with extended claws the next. It may be possible that cats live in a permanent state of menopause. The only antidote for all this chaos might be for you to acquire one of those world famous British Bulldogs as a companion. That may not bring a return to domestic tranquillity, but it certainly will put those catty creatures in their proper place.
Thank you for the clarification regarding virtual funerals. Facetime is the Apple Computer equivalent of Zoom. Uhhh, that means they are both in the business of providing virtual meeting places on the Internet. Dozens of other companies, both popular and obscure, provide similar experiences. This is an old technology that traces back to the days when Web Cams and instant messaging were two separate items. Now it's all combined and much more sophisticated. The few virtual gatherings I've attended were better than not being among the attendees in person, but something about the technology involved makes it all less personal. It's not the kind of thing I'd prefer for a funeral, but in these days of raging pandemic it probably is the best alternative.
I'd comment on "Resident Alien" but I seldom watch television and am unfamiliar with the show.
Re: Catastrophe -Virtual Funeral - Resident Alien!
Being twice a widower, and going through a lot with both, I think I'll sit this one out if you don't mind.
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PierrePanache
- Posts: 30
- Joined: 23 Feb 2015, 19:59
Re: Catastrophe -Virtual Funeral - Resident Alien!
Many apologies Kellemora - we all tackle grief & illness in different ways. I have always laughed when I should have cried & vice versa! It's coming up to a year that this pandemic has been upon us & my way of coping with being shut inside is not everyone's 'cup of tea'.
It is Monday morning & my home telephone has not stopped ringing with at best invasions of privacy - at worse downright attempted scams. I only keep a house 'phone to keep in contact with elderly relatives who either have no mobile or who do not know how to use them properly.
Dennis - just to clear up my comment about Boris J. Yes I am a fan of Jeremy C although there was a time when my leanings were to the right of Genghis Khan - that I considered him to be a terrorist sympathizer. I rarely talk religion or politics as my views confuse me so there would not be much hope that others would understand. I shall not criticise Boris at the moment as I would not like his task & could by no means - do a better job. I would like to see all our politicians coming together to fight this crisis & to stop trying to score points re the next election.
Damn telephone is off again so I will return later, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Take care you two
It is Monday morning & my home telephone has not stopped ringing with at best invasions of privacy - at worse downright attempted scams. I only keep a house 'phone to keep in contact with elderly relatives who either have no mobile or who do not know how to use them properly.
Dennis - just to clear up my comment about Boris J. Yes I am a fan of Jeremy C although there was a time when my leanings were to the right of Genghis Khan - that I considered him to be a terrorist sympathizer. I rarely talk religion or politics as my views confuse me so there would not be much hope that others would understand. I shall not criticise Boris at the moment as I would not like his task & could by no means - do a better job. I would like to see all our politicians coming together to fight this crisis & to stop trying to score points re the next election.
Damn telephone is off again so I will return later, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Take care you two
Re: Catastrophe -Virtual Funeral - Resident Alien!
Although our roots are planted somewhere on your side of the big pond, the political scene in both our countries is different. For example, a British Conservative isn't the same as an American Conservative. The concept of calling a "Vote of Confidence" is very appealing in it's name, but totally unheard of in our system. We both have strong systems and I am coming to the belief that the only shortcoming in our politics is that it is dominated by two parties. I like the idea of multiple parties wherein head to head combat requires the agreement of at least a third entity. In any case I can appreciate your reluctance to discuss politics. It can lead to much misunderstanding and hard feelings. That's not our purpose for being here.
My telephone service comes in two flavors. What used to be called a land line is now carried over the same cable as our television and Internet connections. It's horribly expensive but convenient to have all those services in one package. The cable provider has an anti-spam option which I can enable or disable at any time. Like Google, they know everything, or at least everybody who has been reported as a spam robot. Thus the caller ID displays warnings on incoming calls to alert us of possible scam callers. The other media for voice communication is the cell phone network that is built into my smartphone - which I consider only to be a clever phone, by the way. That method of telecommunications is done using wireless technology and operated by a provider that is different than the cable company. The wireless people offer the same spam/scam filtering with one difference. If it is a known spam number they will not even ring the phone. They simply record it in the phone log. Thus, with all this filtering I seldom am bothered by unsolicited phone calls. So far neither of the two services have misidentified the incoming calls. I always am connected to people I know or expect to call.
Isn't technology wonderful?
My telephone service comes in two flavors. What used to be called a land line is now carried over the same cable as our television and Internet connections. It's horribly expensive but convenient to have all those services in one package. The cable provider has an anti-spam option which I can enable or disable at any time. Like Google, they know everything, or at least everybody who has been reported as a spam robot. Thus the caller ID displays warnings on incoming calls to alert us of possible scam callers. The other media for voice communication is the cell phone network that is built into my smartphone - which I consider only to be a clever phone, by the way. That method of telecommunications is done using wireless technology and operated by a provider that is different than the cable company. The wireless people offer the same spam/scam filtering with one difference. If it is a known spam number they will not even ring the phone. They simply record it in the phone log. Thus, with all this filtering I seldom am bothered by unsolicited phone calls. So far neither of the two services have misidentified the incoming calls. I always am connected to people I know or expect to call.
Isn't technology wonderful?
Re: Catastrophe -Virtual Funeral - Resident Alien!
No reason to apologize Pierre! I've spent most of my life working in and around death.
It just happened to be Valentines Day when I responded, which has always been a hard day for me, due to old memories.
I'm also our family genealogist, so entering the dates of those relatives who have gone beyond is a daily task for me.
Our family florist was fairly large, so we had a lot of customers, so much so, I usually made 4 to 8 casket sprays per day myself. My yearly average for making casket sprays never fell below 800 per year. Plus we had about 10 family members die each year, and now that number is up to around 20 per year, counting all the kids and their kids since then. Keeps me busy keeping up with many of them as I can.
As far as Spam Phone calls go. Many of the Robocallers use other peoples phone numbers and change this many times per day. I have over 1,200 numbers on my Blocked Call list, and when I get up to 1,220 I have to take 20 off to make room for more.
I also use services like NoMoRoBo and others to help weed them out. The only problem with those places is they cannot block known working residential phone numbers, so this is what the spammers are using as their caller ID number.
What needs to take place is a system like caller ID that also displays the actual phone number the call is coming from.
I've got calls that showed they were calling from my own phone number, so I have my own phone number blocked, which only blocks someone calling that says they are calling from that number, not someone dialing my number.
It just happened to be Valentines Day when I responded, which has always been a hard day for me, due to old memories.
I'm also our family genealogist, so entering the dates of those relatives who have gone beyond is a daily task for me.
Our family florist was fairly large, so we had a lot of customers, so much so, I usually made 4 to 8 casket sprays per day myself. My yearly average for making casket sprays never fell below 800 per year. Plus we had about 10 family members die each year, and now that number is up to around 20 per year, counting all the kids and their kids since then. Keeps me busy keeping up with many of them as I can.
As far as Spam Phone calls go. Many of the Robocallers use other peoples phone numbers and change this many times per day. I have over 1,200 numbers on my Blocked Call list, and when I get up to 1,220 I have to take 20 off to make room for more.
I also use services like NoMoRoBo and others to help weed them out. The only problem with those places is they cannot block known working residential phone numbers, so this is what the spammers are using as their caller ID number.
What needs to take place is a system like caller ID that also displays the actual phone number the call is coming from.
I've got calls that showed they were calling from my own phone number, so I have my own phone number blocked, which only blocks someone calling that says they are calling from that number, not someone dialing my number.
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PierrePanache
- Posts: 30
- Joined: 23 Feb 2015, 19:59
Re: Catastrophe -Virtual Funeral - Resident Alien!
Yes - my home telephone is also part of a package. Before the pandemic I would let all calls go through to 'voice mail' & reply to genuine callers. This worked out fine until our sleep patterns changed to cope with lock downs. We do have time together as a family unit but my wife Carol prefers to sleep from 0200/0400 until early to mid afternoon, my daughter Holly prefers from noon until 2000 ish & I sleep the hours of 2300 ish until 0500. I go back for a couple of hours when my wife appears as she is not a morning person!
A further complication arose when dealing with the last days of my b-in-law as he would get very angry & abusive on getting our recorded message as he knew we were all probably at home. My wife took early retirement from British Airways, my daughter was between jobs & I have retired twice now & thought it was feet up time. Both girls wish to return to employment, as in fact I would, if any jobs were around safe to do. Carol is 11 years younger - well in some ways she is!
I keep very quiet when Carol is sleeping so dive for the telephone when it rings. I then sort out the wheat from the chaff usually with colourful language & promised Irish curses.
I should have realised that as the Iron-Oxide Maiden from 'Ampshire was no longer on site that it meant she had passed. I also somehow received a 'Friends of BF' notification that the lovely brandtrn had also passed. Two lovely beings that will be sorely missed. I am a great believer that if someone is remembered/thought about then they are alive again for those minutes in time.
Please note the extra 'u' in colourful & I shall always think of Rusty when I use the English spelling of such words!
I shall sign off now before getting offers for the film rights of this post - I usually write under the banner of 'clarity & brevity' - I wish!
Take care lads & happy pancake day.
A further complication arose when dealing with the last days of my b-in-law as he would get very angry & abusive on getting our recorded message as he knew we were all probably at home. My wife took early retirement from British Airways, my daughter was between jobs & I have retired twice now & thought it was feet up time. Both girls wish to return to employment, as in fact I would, if any jobs were around safe to do. Carol is 11 years younger - well in some ways she is!
I keep very quiet when Carol is sleeping so dive for the telephone when it rings. I then sort out the wheat from the chaff usually with colourful language & promised Irish curses.
I should have realised that as the Iron-Oxide Maiden from 'Ampshire was no longer on site that it meant she had passed. I also somehow received a 'Friends of BF' notification that the lovely brandtrn had also passed. Two lovely beings that will be sorely missed. I am a great believer that if someone is remembered/thought about then they are alive again for those minutes in time.
Please note the extra 'u' in colourful & I shall always think of Rusty when I use the English spelling of such words!
I shall sign off now before getting offers for the film rights of this post - I usually write under the banner of 'clarity & brevity' - I wish!
Take care lads & happy pancake day.
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PierrePanache
- Posts: 30
- Joined: 23 Feb 2015, 19:59
Re: Catastrophe -Virtual Funeral - Resident Alien!
Obviously I meant Shrove Tuesday & thanks again Kellemorra for being understanding towards a Brit with foot in mouth disease!
Re: Catastrophe -Virtual Funeral - Resident Alien!
I lived up by Chicago for 72 years. During that time I unwittingly and unwillingly created what can be called an advertising profile. People who track your whereabouts in cyber space know who you are by means other than the obvious. That profile gets circulated and sold to any interested parties and the most common result is targeted ads which include spam type phone calls. Thus after all those years being tracked in the Windy City my collection of followers became quit large. Most of the tracking done over the Internet is transparent, but the telephone calls frequently show a caller ID. Gary is correct in saying that many spoof legitimate numbers to be displayed, but most don't bother. Thus I've become aware of some familiar robotic callers just by seeing their number displayed. One of those old spammy friends had headquarters in a nearby suburb which I thought was interesting. One number in particular called my cell phone often but not so often as to be irritating. There were many complaints about this number in Google's vast memory banks and I was tempted a time or two to actually answer and read them their fortune. But, in the end, that would only encourage them.
When we moved down here to the St Louis area we changed Internet providers and we changed cell phone service providers. In other words our advertising ID's were completely different due to the relocation. A whole different group of spammers called us at our new location but we were not completely operating in the stealth mode. Our communication devices were identical to what they used to be and those clever sleuths who keep track of such things thus knew us by the equipment we were using in spite of the fact we did it all from a different location. The most amazing outcome of all this is that one robotic advertising company which was close to my home in Chicago. They discovered my new cell phone number and started calling me here. I was shocked to say the least.
The solution is to let the landline ring unless we recognize the number. The ringer is on low so that it doesn't disturb a sleeping person, but even that can be disabled if we chose to do so. The wireless telecommunications are all filtered now by several different services before the phone rings. Once in a while, as happened yesterday, a number will get through and not identified as spam nor anybody we know. After doing some research I have discovered those numbers appear to be legitimate residents who either misdialed my number, or were spoofs. Doesn't matter. I don't answer unless I know the number.
Brainformation Forums has had a presence on the Internet for more than sixteen years as of November last. Two people other than myself inspired me to create this site, one of them was Rusty (Sue). We were all members of a similar site at the time called Ask-It-Here and we were looking for an alternative. Back in those early days Sue was a prolific poster but her presence on the boards diminished over the years. She was my main interface to the British Isles and did a marvelous job administering to the needs of those people. During the course of those sixteen years several dear friends and contributing members passed on to become a Guardian Angel of ours. When you look through the archived versions of this site you will see their rank designation as such, meaning they are no longer with us. I have yet to promote brandtrn, but that is on my to-do list. I'll do it as soon as I implement the new software for this site. And, that can be a while.
When we moved down here to the St Louis area we changed Internet providers and we changed cell phone service providers. In other words our advertising ID's were completely different due to the relocation. A whole different group of spammers called us at our new location but we were not completely operating in the stealth mode. Our communication devices were identical to what they used to be and those clever sleuths who keep track of such things thus knew us by the equipment we were using in spite of the fact we did it all from a different location. The most amazing outcome of all this is that one robotic advertising company which was close to my home in Chicago. They discovered my new cell phone number and started calling me here. I was shocked to say the least.
The solution is to let the landline ring unless we recognize the number. The ringer is on low so that it doesn't disturb a sleeping person, but even that can be disabled if we chose to do so. The wireless telecommunications are all filtered now by several different services before the phone rings. Once in a while, as happened yesterday, a number will get through and not identified as spam nor anybody we know. After doing some research I have discovered those numbers appear to be legitimate residents who either misdialed my number, or were spoofs. Doesn't matter. I don't answer unless I know the number.
Brainformation Forums has had a presence on the Internet for more than sixteen years as of November last. Two people other than myself inspired me to create this site, one of them was Rusty (Sue). We were all members of a similar site at the time called Ask-It-Here and we were looking for an alternative. Back in those early days Sue was a prolific poster but her presence on the boards diminished over the years. She was my main interface to the British Isles and did a marvelous job administering to the needs of those people. During the course of those sixteen years several dear friends and contributing members passed on to become a Guardian Angel of ours. When you look through the archived versions of this site you will see their rank designation as such, meaning they are no longer with us. I have yet to promote brandtrn, but that is on my to-do list. I'll do it as soon as I implement the new software for this site. And, that can be a while.
Last edited by yogi on 16 Feb 2021, 22:59, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Catastrophe -Virtual Funeral - Resident Alien!
My wife has her Schmartz-Fone set to only ring if the number is in her contacts list. So she never gets spam calls anymore.
Unfortunately, I can't do that, because I have new clients that call, or past customers, or just some old friends wanting to make contact again. So I have to let every number ring that I have not blocked myself, or that doesn't appear on lists like NoMoRoBo, etc.
Now that Valentines is over, we can go on with our business of talking about the dead and dying, or those with gory things in their green teeth, hi hi. Kids used to put a sign up on the fence of one of our local cemeteries, it simply said "People are dying to get in here!" One of my favorite songs is "Ajax Mortuary!"
I have to grin about all of this, the end of my rope is in clear sight!
Unfortunately, I can't do that, because I have new clients that call, or past customers, or just some old friends wanting to make contact again. So I have to let every number ring that I have not blocked myself, or that doesn't appear on lists like NoMoRoBo, etc.
Now that Valentines is over, we can go on with our business of talking about the dead and dying, or those with gory things in their green teeth, hi hi. Kids used to put a sign up on the fence of one of our local cemeteries, it simply said "People are dying to get in here!" One of my favorite songs is "Ajax Mortuary!"
I have to grin about all of this, the end of my rope is in clear sight!