What made me unhappy today ?

I'm unhappy (and furious) over news I've heard over the weekend. :(

Last Friday night, while a group of about twenty people were sitting down to dinner at one of the oldest synagogues in my home town of Melbourne, an utter nutter poured flammable liquid on the front door and tried to set the place on fire. Luckily someone inside noticed the smoke, raised the alarm, and everyone made it out the back door and called the emergency services. No-one was killed or harmed (save possible trauma and/or smoke inhalation), but the damage is considerable. Police have CCTV footage, but no-one has been arrested or charged.

On the same night, a Jewish-owned restaurant was besieged by so-called "protestors" who hurled abuse, chairs and tables, and nearly broke windows. The police were called. No-one was arrested or charged.

On the following morning, cars were set alight in another part of town. I've no idea why. Once again, no-one has been arrested or charged.

This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. It's been happening ever since October 7th, and the police shrug and do nothing. Why do we fund the police for doing nothing? :mad:

Ahem. Sorry to rant. Back to your previously scheduled programming ...
Did a quick news check, looks like one man's been charged in the arson attack and three have been charged in the restaurant incident:


 
Thanks, Set2Stun. I haven't seen those stories, and I checked the local TV news daily, but they haven't said anything. I simply cracked. =( Coming on top of a firebombing of a synagogue last year (after which all our politicians, from both right and left, predictably visited and said "This will never happen again") ... plus a whole bunch of other, less high-profile racist incidents ... it's very sad and infuriating to see it happening again. :(

Yes, I know politicians can't do anything about people being stupid and racist. That's just one more reason I'm sad and angry. They're just using ordinary people's grief for their own political gain. *shrug* But hey, that's democracy for ya. :-\

The police here seem to believe that many of these attacks are committed by underworld figures who are "hired" by other actors in this little saga. It's scary, especially given that one of these synagogues is only two suburbs away from where I live. :(

That sucks Rath. It's overwhelming and frustrating when you start to see major red flags like that and can't do anything. It feels like every day sometimes with the global news stream.

I'm feeling a bit mouldy with the world right now too. I'm housebound, can't walk very far, but not bad enough to qualify for an NHS wheelchair because I can walk small distances round the house most of the time. This means I also don't qualify for a wheelchair assessment so I'm left kind of guessing about what would be suitable for my needs. I'd kind of given up for now because I don't have a reason to have to leave the house but the cheapo attendant chair I have for hospital visits is falling to bits so I risked buying a new one online but with a self propelling option too. I let myself get a bit excited about it, imagining that it would feel a bit like riding a bike again, freewheeling, and I could get spokey dokeys and maybe not go far but at least manage a bit on smooth surfaces and... it actually really sucks. It's painful and slow and I can't manage it at all. It gives me a tiny bit more freedom to, say, adjust my own position in a room and maybe move up and down the sandwich aisle myself in the food court which is definitely something, but I let my imagination get ahead of me and now I'm feeling REALLY out of sorts.

That really sucks, Woof. *offers hugs* Yeah, cheapo anything probably isn't great. It especially sucks that the NHS doesn't think you qualify for a motorised wheelchair. =(

Hopefully you can find a better solution soon. Is there a way you can show an NHS representative (or someone?) what a shoddy cheapo wheelchair you have to put up with, so that they can do something? *shrug* I don't know, I'm just conjecturing.
 
The police here seem to believe that many of these attacks are committed by underworld figures who are "hired" by other actors in this little saga. It's scary, especially given that one of these synagogues is only two suburbs away from where I live. :(

That's a strange theory they're working on. Who would bother hiring when there are so many angry, media-fed fuses to light for free? Or are things not quite there yet in Aus?

Is there a way you can show an NHS representative (or someone?) what a shoddy cheapo wheelchair you have to put up with, so that they can do something? *shrug* I don't know, I'm just conjecturing.

That's sounds very reasonable and rational... We don't do that anymore in the UK, especially not on healthcare. Everything's so grossly underfunded and mismanaged that the bones get picked with power and leverage instead and I have neither of those. Guess I need a dastardly plan to get some.
 
That's a strange theory they're working on. Who would bother hiring when there are so many angry, media-fed fuses to light for free? Or are things not quite there yet in Aus?

I'm guessing the angry and media-led are still sensible enough to realise that trying to burn people alive is a Really Stupid Idea™. (At least I hope they are!) So, they hire would-be killers online ... presumably in what the media calls "the dark web". (Insert evil, maniacal laughter here).

That's sounds very reasonable and rational... We don't do that anymore in the UK, especially not on healthcare. Everything's so grossly underfunded and mismanaged that the bones get picked with power and leverage instead and I have neither of those. Guess I need a dastardly plan to get some.

I hope you can get some help from some source, even if not the NHS. Having to deal with a cheap wheelchair can't be fun. :(

As for the phrase "dastardly plan" ... I'm sorry, but can't help but be reminded of Baldrick and his cunning plans. (Alternatively, cue the "mwahaha" again).
 
TMW you thought, at worst, you were Blackadder but realise you're Baldrick and you don't even like turnips 😭

There aren't really any aspirational characters on that though are there? I could cope with being Flashheart or Bob I suppose.
 
I wouldn't mind having to be Lord Flashheart, as long as I could also be Rik Mayall into the bargain. ;)

(Rik played Lord Flashheart and other roles in Blackadder)
 
Unhappy is the wrong word, but I've been doing some classical music in my guitar lessons this summer and it's really, really hard. Play this note louder, this note softer, play this note off your second knuckle, Homer, play this note off you big knuckle, Homer, remember, Homer, you have to sustain this note for a measure and a half, but it's in the middle register, so you have swap these two fingers, without muting it. Homer, have you any experience with neopolitan chords? No, teacher, I have not. Please, enlighten me.

I should have stuck with the kazoo.
 
Unhappy is the wrong word, but I've been doing some classical music in my guitar lessons this summer and it's really, really hard. Play this note louder, this note softer, play this note off your second knuckle, Homer, play this note off you big knuckle, Homer, remember, Homer, you have to sustain this note for a measure and a half, but it's in the middle register, so you have swap these two fingers, without muting it. Homer, have you any experience with neopolitan chords? No, teacher, I have not. Please, enlighten me.

I should have stuck with the kazoo.
This inspires me to pick up my bass, and unhappy I ever set it down. It's not a question of achieving this level, it's the journey I drifted away from. I took the road more travelled and that made too much of a difference.

 
We had a lightning strike in the neighborhood five hours ago. Everyone's got their power back on but me.

I'm okay playing around with flashlights and candles and hurricane lamps. That's an adventure. But I'm concerned about the food in my fridge and freezer. And I've got a project deadline tomorrow I can't make because my house wifi won't work without power.

And please, please don't tell me my house's wiring is fried and I have to pay a ton to get it repaired!
 
I hope you have backups of all your work, Catrin. Fingers crossed that your wiring is OK.

As for food in your fridge and freezer ... it may be wise to eat it as quickly as possible. I had to throw away an entire box of ice-cream (and other food too!) once after this happened to me. It was not pleasant.
 
This was actually yesterday, but...

Trying to get to work was a nightmare. My bus was delayed by roadworks (again) and a journey that should have taken 20 minutes ended up taking 40. So I was 20 minutes behind before I even started. I more or less caught up somehow, but then when I checked the bus times home, the bus I normally catch was running at least half an hour late and the one before it was running so late it was only expected to arrive 7 minutes after the one I was supposed to be catching - that's over half an hour late. So I legged it to the station and got the train home instead. Again.

And this is all happening BEFORE they shut the main road and divert the buses for a minimum of 3 months for some major work that's due to start in the next couple of weeks 😒
 
But I'm concerned about the food in my fridge and freezer.
We experience fairly frequent power failures. As long as you don't open the freezer anymore than absolutely necessary, things will stay frozen a long time. Even if food partially thaws, it can be refrozen. If worse comes to worst, and you have a lot of frozen food, look around for a business that rents out on-site freezers to hunters and others.
 
We experience fairly frequent power failures. As long as you don't open the freezer anymore than absolutely necessary, things will stay frozen a long time. Even if food partially thaws, it can be refrozen. If worse comes to worst, and you have a lot of frozen food, look around for a business that rents out on-site freezers to hunters and others.
I haven't opened my refrigerator (or its freezer drawer) or my basement deep freeze once since the outage happened. It's been 17 hours since . . .

Electrician is supposed to come out sometime this afternoon. Hope to God he does.

Meanwhile, I'm working at the library getting my phone and my laptop charged up.
 
A couple of winters ago, our part of town experienced a long outage on a night when temperatures dipped to -35 F. We have an efficient woodstove and fared well enough with wood heat and candles. Some folks got mighty cold that night.
 
A couple of winters ago, our part of town experienced a long outage on a night when temperatures dipped to -35 F. We have an efficient woodstove and fared well enough with wood heat and candles. Some folks got mighty cold that night.

Now I'm glad that the coldest temperatures I've ever experienced were 33.8 F. Wow. I can't even imagine -35 F.

Hope those folks had good heating and an electric blanket, at least.
 
My rural street has been closed by cop cars all day. That's not what made me unhappy. What made me unhappy is that it is because a at 3 am last night a car plowed into a tree and burst into flames and all three occupants perished.
 
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