I was going to go out to a movie theater tonight for the first time in over a year to see Rifftrax Live. Bought my tickets and everything. Now we’re in the throes of Tropical Depression Fred and there are flood watches and tornado warnings all over the place so I can’t go.
Dammit. I was looking forward to doing a fun thing for the first time in a long time.
[quote=“carlb, post:94, topic:947770”]…this is also the one that is in the attic, so whenever there’s a problem I have to shinny up the scuthole, walk most of the length of the house hunched over to see if it might possibly be something I can fix, do the same on the way back, and shinny back down before I call the a/c contractor.
Guess which unit went on the fritz last night just before bed? in August. In South Florida.
[/quote]
Ooooh - and why the hell do new houses have attic access only in the ceiling of some truly inaccessible closet? OK, old houses too - the house I grew up in was built in the 1950s and its attic access was in a coat closet. Our current house (built 1995ish) and previous place (built 1988ish) both had the trapdoor in the master bedroom closet.
Come ON, people: either you never need access to the attic at all - in which case, why bother with the hatch at all, or you need access that you can get into without contorting yourself in painful ways or ruining all your clothing. A drop panel, nicely framed, in a hallway, is truly not that much of an eyesore. I’m not even asking that all houses come with pulldown stairs (something we put in the previous place, and my parents finally put in their house). Just a trapdoor that you can get to using a stepladder without crawling through clothing.
Oh - and fuck HVAC systems in general. Friends of ours have a home warranty program through Sears. 2 years ago their AC died in the middle of June. It was 3+ weeks before it was fixed - Sears finally agreed to replace that part of the system. THIS summer a different part of it died - and they were told by Sears that it was OK to use a different HVAC contractor (after a month). Then Sears weaselled out of paying more than a token amount.
My friends will not be renewing the contract.
To get to the attic in our 1930s house, you have to go through an actual door and up an actual staircase.
I’ve done Rifftrax Live a couple of times and it was a blast. I’m sorry you’ll be missing out. 
Based what I saw on Facebook last year when some ‘collectibles’ company was advertising various animal-themed Nativity sets (and also when I posted a picture of my Peanuts “Christmas Pageant” Nativity scene), there’s a certain subset of the population that gets very, very upset when Sweet Li’l Baby Jesus is portrayed by anything other than a human baby.
Deepest sympathies.
To access the attic in my post WWII little bungalow, you need to go halfway down the basement stairs with a quite tall ladder, as it’s a hatch on the ceiling.
It’s an over story and a half climb, in a one story house, on stairs.
No, I have never been up there.
I’m betting some Fundie Christian got their sacred undies in a bundle about this.
Now, now, Fundie, you don’t really think Jesus was white, do you? Do you? Well, the power of Christ compels me to tell you you’re an idiot.
And really, it’s a short jump from “doesn’t look Caucasian” to “looks suspiciously like Rocky The Flying Squirrel”…
Just yesterday, I searched on Amazon for 18-volt batteries – you know, the big ones that power my cordless hedge trimmer and weed whacker. Amazon made a few perfectly logical suggestions for multi-packs of that battery and also chargers. However, they then suggested a bottle of personal lubricant!
Worse yet they were doing Hobgoblins tonight. They even had an original hobgoblin from the movie and director Rick Sloane was going to be there. Now I’ll never find out if he was actually high on crack when he came up with the idea for the movie. At least not until they release it on the website.
Maybe “hedge trimming” and “weed whacking” is slang for something that might require lubricant?
I really suspect it was the word “batteries” that returned that suggestion although I was only searching for 18-volt batteries, nothing smaller.
I think the GeForce GTX 1070 that came with my computer is dying. Video crashed and system rebooted while playing The Sims 4; now there’s a bunch of lines though the display and only one display output works at a time.
I had a nice bowl of vanilla ice cream with raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries. After which there seemed to be something stuck between my front teeth. I thought it was probably a bit of raspberry stem or something.
No end of brushing with an electric toothbrush, and no end of prodding with a flossing tool seemed to help. It was really obnoxious, and I couldn’t really close my teeth together in the normal way. I worked at it with increasing desperation.
The good news: with a determined effort with a flossing tool, I got it out. I feel much better now – the semi-emergency is over.
The bad news: “It” wasn’t a piece of fruit stem. It was several hard pieces of what looked like old dental filling. And now I feel something like a hole in the back of one of my upper front teeth. I HATE HATE HATE dental visits, especially in this Time of the Great Plague, but apparently one will be necessary. At least it’s no longer a semi-emergency. Gahhhh! 
I guess the VRAM has gone bad. This should be here by the end of the month:
Sorry for always being about my kids. I don’t have much brain space left for anything else right now.
So I am shopping for a new daycare. I would love to keep the kids at the current daycare but I can’t afford to send them both there. It’s just too expensive. I am trying to find someone responsible and caring to take care of the baby. The big girl will go to school soon and we were able to get her into after school care at school. This whole process is hindered by what seems to be a policy across all the daycares. No one wants to tell you their rates. It is NEVER on their website. Even if you ask them point blank, they’ll hem and haw. Seriously, I don’t want to waste our time. I just want to know if I can afford you and then we will see if I actually want to use you.
In that vein, I found a retired nurse that had opened a daycare during covid. She seemed really nice… at first. Very affordable too. And then she went on a tirade about vaccines. That one is a hard pass.
I don’t blame you. I’m grateful daily that I’m not raising little ones in these difficult times.
I was more upset that all the figures had antlers, including Mary and Jesus (Ouch!!!)
Depends on the setting, right?
I mean, I think the moose-themed Nativity set might be funny. I’d buy one.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t set it out in my house during the Christmas season, because the creche set in my house is a teaching tool.
So, if the moose-themed set is intended to mock, well, yes, that would be annoying.
If it’s not, hey, that’s funny.
Our house, built in the 40s, has a small attic access in a small closet in one of the upstairs bedrooms. I have to remove the hanger rod to get a small step-ladder in there so I can get to the opening. Last time I had to go up there was about 3 years ago, and I hope to never go up there again.
Just imagine if it was a noose-themed Nativity set!!!