The Drop In Centre 3

[spyke]

I was today years old when I first tasted rhubarb. It was in a strawberry- rhubarb puff pastry tart. I'm sure I would have disliked it intensely as a child, but my senior citizen self loved the contrast from the sweetness of the strawberries that played off of the slight astringency of the rhubarb. 

It is more than likely that I will spend the next few days searching high and low for rhubarb so that I can recreate this delicious treat. 

Do any of you fabulous DIC chefs have any recipes that you care to share? 

[Mikiesboy]

2 hours ago, spyke said:

I was today years old when I first tasted rhubarb. It was in a strawberry- rhubarb puff pastry tart. I'm sure I would have disliked it intensely as a child, but my senior citizen self loved the contrast from the sweetness of the strawberries that played off of the slight astringency of the rhubarb. 

It is more than likely that I will spend the next few days searching high and low for rhubarb so that I can recreate this delicious treat. 

Do any of you fabulous DIC chefs have any recipes that you care to share? 

Stewed rhubarb with custard is an old English favourite. And Apple, strawberry, rhubarb crisp is wonderful too. 

[Kitt]

Who keeps trying to burn Canada down, and HOW does the smoke cover NJ???  It's worse here than when we have our own firest fires!

[MichaelS36]

It's pretty horrific here. Warnings not to leave the house without a respirator mask. This morning the sky isn't bright orange at least. Though there are buildings we cannot see. 

We have an air purifier going which seems to help somewhat, but some rooms we've closed off stink of smoke.

There are lots of fires north of us all across the country. Sadly wind and weather are not bound by maps or hand drawn borders. 

[Mikiesboy]

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”

—Beverly Sills (1929-2007)
opera soprano

[Kileoli]

1 hour ago, MichaelS36 said:

It's pretty horrific here. Warnings not to leave the house without a respirator mask. This morning the sky isn't bright orange at least. Though there are buildings we cannot see. 

We have an air purifier going which seems to help somewhat, but some rooms we've closed off stink of smoke.

There are lots of fires north of us all across the country. Sadly wind and weather are not bound by maps or hand drawn borders. 

That looks pretty scary and it's a huge area considering how big Canada is.

[Mikiesboy]

It's no wonder there's so much smoke.

[chris191070]

The wildfire on the moors near us, is pretty big.

The sad part it was started deliberately, someone setting off fireworks.

[Mikiesboy]

1 minute ago, chris191070 said:

The wildfire on the moors near us, is pretty big.

The sad part it was started deliberately, someone setting off fireworks.

That's awful. I hope they can get it under control. 

[chris191070]

1 minute ago, Mikiesboy said:

That's awful. I hope they can get it under control. 

They are getting there slowly.

[spyke]

42 minutes ago, Mikiesboy said:

It's no wonder there's so much smoke.

That map looks absolutely terrifying. It's like 1/3 of the country is on fire. 😥

[Wayne Gray]

3 hours ago, MichaelS36 said:

It's pretty horrific here. Warnings not to leave the house without a respirator mask. This morning the sky isn't bright orange at least. Though there are buildings we cannot see. 

We have an air purifier going which seems to help somewhat, but some rooms we've closed off stink of smoke.

There are lots of fires north of us all across the country. Sadly wind and weather are not bound by maps or hand drawn borders. 

When I was in San Diego years back, there was a huge fire to the south of us. So much that ash rained on everything for days. Soot and particulates were so bad that people with asthma were being hospitalized, and even those without respiratory conditions were if they spent too long outside.

While inside our apartment, one of my roommates remarked, "Hey. We don't have a filter, and the air in here seems a lot better than it is outside. How come?" I looked at him. "Because we're the filters. The stuff that was in the air is stuck in our lungs. At least for now. We're healthy, so we'll cough it up later - probably in the shower." His face was something.

Be careful, guys. I'm glad you've got a filtration system. 

[Mikiesboy]

31 minutes ago, Wayne Gray said:

When I was in San Diego years back, there was a huge fire to the south of us. So much that ash rained on everything for days. Soot and particulates were so bad that people with asthma were being hospitalized, and even those without respiratory conditions were if they spent too long outside.

While inside our apartment, one of my roommates remarked, "Hey. We don't have a filter, and the air in here seems a lot better than it is outside. How come?" I looked at him. "Because we're the filters. The stuff that was in the air is stuck in our lungs. At least for now. We're healthy, so we'll cough it up later - probably in the shower." His face was something.

Be careful, guys. I'm glad you've got a filtration system. 

We just ordered a bigger one which will handle the house.. what we have is from Michael's hobby room for his spray painting.  It'll arrive tomorrow, cuz they say it's not over yet... geez. 

[Reader1810]

49 minutes ago, Mikiesboy said:

We just ordered a bigger one which will handle the house.. what we have is from Michael's hobby room for his spray painting.  It'll arrive tomorrow, cuz they say it's not over yet... geez. 

Reports indicate conditions will be much better by tomorrow, which I hope is correct. *fingers crossed”

You and Mike, take care. 

xoxo

[Flip-Flop]

Quote

9 hours ago, Mikiesboy said:

cuz they say it's not over yet...

 

Weather conditions across North America, and the rest of the world are in a nasty flux right now. Heat domes are forcing changes around the globe. Weren't we warned about this happening, for decades? Very sad indeed! 😟 Please try, and stay safe everyone❣️

Edited July 17 by Flip-Flop

[Mikiesboy]

24 minutes ago, Flip-Flop said:

Weather conditions across North America, and the rest of the world are in a nasty flux right now. Heat domes are forcing changes around the globe. Weren't we warned about this happening, for decades? Very sad indeed! 😟 Pleases try, and stay safe everyone❣️

Mother Nature putting her foot down because of how we treat our home?  Maybe. 

[kbois]

It's sad when you have to go no contact with a family member, but when someone accuses me of "taking over" because I moved some pictures, bought some cabinets for extra storage, put our large TV in the living room, threw out food that had been expired in excess of five years, rearranged some stuff in the kitchen to make it easier for me to cook for your mother, who, by the way, is the reason you sent out a boohoo text almost 2 years ago concerned about her not being able to do stuff by herself, so my husband sacrificed his life in Florida and moved here without me, granted we were having issues and the separation ended up being a good thing, then I made the decision to move back in order to salvage our marriage, which we've done, and you have the audacity to call us freeloaders when we shell out close to $2000 a month in groceries and incidentals directly related to caring for a 91 year old woman who has dementia, and instead of being an adult and actually talking to us because your mother told you that we yell at her, which, when we asked her if that's what she told you she denied it, you call us to throw false accusations at us. 

Guess what? You want to take over your mother's care, by all means do so. Have fun coming over everyday to give her meds, feed her, clean up after her, take care of her cat, and everything else we do on a daily basis. See how long you last. Blocked and deleted. Goodbye. 

Rant over. Rage mode downloaded, used and sent to trash folder. 

I hope everyone has a good day. 

[Mikiesboy]

1 hour ago, kbois said:

you call us to throw false accusations at us. 

You're one of the good people in the world. I know you do your best to help your family and in laws. The woman in question is aptly named, just saying.  xoxo

[Kitt]

I had similar experiences when my mom was ill. SIL had the whole extended family convinced I was trying to empty my parents bank accounts and sell their house for personal profit.

Some of the family still does not speak to me 20 years later. Know what? I don't miss them. If they were stupid enough to believe a woman who was dying of brain cancer during the pre diagnosis stage, I dont need them.  Bro has tried since SIL passed to right the damage she did, but like I said, life is too short and I don't need the manure. 

Do what is right for you, hubby and mum in law, to hell with the rest of 'em!

[Mikiesboy]

Went out for a walk today, no mask required. We had rain, but i doubt it affected our fire situation in Ontario. 

We got an air purifier, which is interesting. It's been going for a few days now, and normally, it shows 0 or 1 PM (particulate matter) in various micrometer sizes. Like 1 or 2.5 or 10. However, last night when we dried and seasoned our cast iron frying pan, it when from 0 to 170 in a couple of minutes. The warning light went from nice blue to bright red. Once we turned off the stove and the pan cooled down, it returned to 0 or 1. But that was interesting.  

Anyway, good to know the air is pretty clean. It should help Michael with his allergies too.

Hope you're all well and are having a nice weekend. 

“Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.”

—Conan O'Brien (born 1963)
TV host, comedian

[CassieQ]

On 7/16/2026 at 8:32 AM, MichaelS36 said:

It's pretty horrific here. Warnings not to leave the house without a respirator mask. This morning the sky isn't bright orange at least. Though there are buildings we cannot see. 

We have an air purifier going which seems to help somewhat, but some rooms we've closed off stink of smoke.

There are lots of fires north of us all across the country. Sadly wind and weather are not bound by maps or hand drawn borders. 

Some of it seems to be moving south.  We had some warnings about air quality here and one day, I had trouble seeing the mountains and my eyes started to burn whenever I was outside.  If it was that bad down here, I can't imagine how much worse it was up north.  

[Mikiesboy]

37 minutes ago, CassieQ said:

Some of it seems to be moving south.  We had some warnings about air quality here and one day, I had trouble seeing the mountains and my eyes started to burn whenever I was outside.  If it was that bad down here, I can't imagine how much worse it was up north.  

You should wear a good mask if it's like that. It was bad up here.

Some people seem to think it's easy to put these fires out.  Sadly, it isn't, like the wildfires out in L.A. last year. 

I know more firefighters have been hired, and they are buying more water bombers and helicopters.  But these are not campfires, they are massive.  Let's hope things improve soon for all our sakes. 

Look after yourself. 

[Flip-Flop]

1 hour ago, Mikiesboy said:

Let's hope things improve soon for all our sakes. 

We received a a temporary break in our weather very early this AM. Temps dropped from Mid 90's to mid 50's, and air pollution dropped by 2/3's.❣️ The air quality will get slightly worse in the next few days, but not nearly as awful as the last 4 days have been. The fire smoke had been extreme here lately, and we have  had very little, to no rain for ten days. We had a couple of heavy, but short rain showers late afternoon Sat, and they helped a lot. Next week  should bring cooler temps.   Fingers crossed. Take care, eyeryone.

[spyke]

6 hours ago, Mikiesboy said:

Some people seem to think it's easy to put these fires out.  Sadly, it isn't, like the wildfires out in L.A. last year. 

Wild fires are not easy to put out.

Years ago some folks on ATV's wrecked and the ATV's went up in flames and lit a swamp (some know it as a bog) about 7 miles from my house on fire. Now you would think that a swamp being wet wouldn't catch on fire, but there is a lot of dry combustible fuel underneath all that water and once the dry perimeter catches fire, it burns downward and ignites the fuel that is deep below the water. That fire burned for almost 4 months before we had enough rain to extinguish it. There's nothing that could have been done. 

The best thing I can wish for our Canadian family is that you get copious amounts of rain over the wildfire areas in the very near future. 

[Mikiesboy]

17 minutes ago, spyke said:

Wild fires are not easy to put out.

Years ago some folks on ATV's wrecked and the ATV's went up in flames and lit a swamp (some know it as a bog) about 7 miles from my house on fire. Now you would think that a swamp being wet wouldn't catch on fire, but there is a lot of dry combustible fuel underneath all that water and once the dry perimeter catches fire, it burns downward and ignites the fuel that is deep below the water. That fire burned for almost 4 months before we had enough rain to extinguish it. There's nothing that could have been done. 

The best thing I can wish for our Canadian family is that you get copious amounts of rain over the wildfire areas in the very near future. 

Fires are normal in nature. Some of them should burn. That's interesting about the swamp. Wow.