Hey, how’d you get a Madface in my quote? I was kind of mad, sure, but I didn’t put one in there. 
I don’t have actual details since they’ve been transmitted through the Three Relatives of Doom¬, but apparently Grandma got home-hospitalized* for pneumonia during the two weeks I wasn’t here. The one thing all reports agree upon is that she’d refuse to cough when asked to or to let the doctor listen to her chest. It was something she could control and by Jove she was going to control it! Eat, she eats like food is going to run out, but she’s always done that when she thinks of the food as being “paid by someone else”, in this case the home - never mind that she’s paying for the home.
¬ So called because in case of a 1" flood in the bathroom the reports would vary between “oh there was some water but insurance will cover any damages although we should be on the lookout for possible suits from the downstairs neighbors” (female cousin), “it was all flooded!!! I can’t stand this woman!!! The whole place was flooded!!!” (aunt) and “there was water everywhere, we cleaned it but now I hurt everywhere! I can’t stand this woman!!! My mother was the worst mother ever! I hurt everywhere!” (Mom, who hurts everywhere with or without floods)
- Her old folks’ home includes a hospital plant.
Sorry, I was grilling up some steaks for dinner, and posting from my (only barely adequate) phone. I don’t remember hitting a colon key at any point in the process, but I’ll take the fall.
Feel free to report me for altering the text within a quote tag.
Although, technically, because it doesn’t appear in that portion of my post with your name and a link to what you posted, I could be off the hook…
Thanks for posting this. It seems obvious but I live in a town that almost never gets snow and the 6 inches we got last Friday is still hanging around turning into ice. Your advice got me home from the bus stop in one piece.
Crazy phone!
I’ve been walking on ice for 47 years now, and I still almost wiped out today (with winter boots on, no less). Ice is hard to walk on!
Update: Jokum is not going to be euthanized tomorrow. Not the quite a miracle, but we found a rescue/training/rehab facility that will take Jokum (free of charge) and work on resocializing him (due to living on the streets he is reactive to other dogs). I will be going with the woman who arranged it to take him to the center tomorrow morning. If I wasn’t full up at home, I would have adopted him myself.
You know, you screen potential adopters, but there’s only so much you can do. It’s a municipal facility. They can’t do background checks or home inspections the way private rescue groups can. Poor Jokum left us the first time a happy, loving and well-adjusted dog. He was picked up stray. We have no idea how long he was on the streets. He came back happy and loving toward humans, but not well-adjusted toward other dogs. He also has scars that were not there before. The worst appears to be from being tethered outside by a collar/chain around his neck that rubbed his skin to the point where the fur no longer grows. Yet, he still wants to snuggle up to any human that will give him affection.
There is a special place in hell for people who abuse their pets.
Totally agreed.
So I smelled gas on Saturday and called the utility company. The service guy found some leaks in my fuel line and of course shut off the gas. Well, there goes central heating. I immediately called to set up repairs for Monday (which actually didn’t happen until today, but that’s not what this rant if about). We are having well below average cold temps (in the low 20s at night) and I’m struggling to keep parts of the house somewhat comfortable with an electric fireplace and two oil-filled radiators. I’m also concerned about my pipes freezing and trying to make sure that doesn’t happen. But here is my rant:
The fuel line has been replaced. Now an inspector has to come out and approve it so the utility company can turn my gas back on. But there’s a dispute going on between the utility company and the code enforcement office. So I’m told that an inspector may come out tomorrow from 8 to 3 but they can’t guarantee that. In fact, they can’t say someone will even be out this week. What the hell? Do they realize it’s fucking cold? Could they call a truce until the temps get back to normal? I just don’t understand how fucking the customer over benefits either one of them. It’s not like I can just get a new utility company. Or call in another inspector. I can’t affect what they do in any way so how is screwing me over going to help solve their dispute? Fucking hell.
I’m sure your local TV station would love to cover your story asap.
I woke up coughy, sneezy, achey, wheezy. Dammit.
I had to do some reprints last night (with new ink cartridges), and everything went perfectly. I even got the “out of paper” notice on both computers at the same time. It’s nice when technology works! Having a wireless printer has really been nice overall…I love how much more desk space I have now that the printer is in another room.
Wow, must have been a wild night with four dwarves. 
When my DH was installing our new printer he discovered that if the network is configured a certain way on the computer it won’t work with the printer. I THINK he said if the computer has the network as public the printer won’t work but if it has it as private it will. (Possibly I have this backward.) You might take a look at that. He only discovered it because one of our computers was one way and the other the other way and one worked and one didn’t.
ETA boy that last sentence is wordy and confusing!
Wordy and confusing, but useful. I wonder if that’s my problem–I usually just end up carrying my laptop over to the printer and plugging it in long enough to print because I don’t want to screw around with figuring out why it’s not working wirelessly.
In a disturbing trend Mojo is once again preparing for surgery - right before Christmas.
Last year he scratched his cornea just before Christmas, this year he tore his CCL. He also managed to fit in a second cornea scratch mid year just for kicks. If he keeps upping the ante like this we’re going to get to a point where we have to trade him in on a newer model ;).
Can someone tell me how to keep a 90lb boxer calm and quiet for 12 weeks??
We’ve already moved my home office from the basement to the main floor (no stairs), lowered our bed by 8 inches so he doesn’t have to jump and put a small ramp in to a bathroom area in the back yard. Tomorrow is surgery day.
I get that you love your dog, and get a lot of affection and so forth in return, but the rest of the people in the universe AREN’T getting any benefit from him so could you try to keep him from being a nuisance to them???
I walk every day for exercise, and follow a particular path because it’s the only one that has sidewalks the whole way and only involves crossing a busy street once. It also means I pass the home of the Hound From Hell twice a day. 
Actually, I don’t even pass by its house exactly, the damn mutt comes charging across a one acre empty lot from the far side, right up to barely arms length from me, barking and snarling madly. So far it hasn’t actually attacked me, but the threat is palpably there, and I feel it is only a matter of time. I’m thinking of starting to carry some sort of weapon to deal with it. Maybe a spray bottle with, what? Ammonia?
Not that I want to hurt the dog, but I’m tired of being scared by it, twice a day, every damn day.
Dog owners, you need to control your dogs! And teach them the limits of what they are supposed to “protect.” How you do that I don’t know, but people should not have to fear being bitten when all they are doing is walking down a PUBLIC SIDEWALK.
Thanks – I needed a good giggle. 
Smartass. 
Made some yummy peppermint tea - I swear there is a 15 second timeframe to drink it. Too soon, it’s too damn hot. One second too late, it’s too damn cold. Bah.
This is good news for the dog. But I can see the other side of it, too. The shelter space that aggressive animals take up displaces spots that non-aggressive animals could be in. If we can agree that animal adoption companies have limited resources, then I would argue that those resources are best spent on the most adoptable animals first.
So I say, worry about the dog-aggressive ones after all the non-dog-aggressive ones have been homed. It’s not a question of fault, it’s not a dog’s fault that it was abused and became aggressive toward other dogs. But it’s a question of the most efficient resource allocation. I’d rather use that time and those funds to rehome 5 nice dogs than 1 aggressive dog.
We had our gas meter replaced last weekend; the guy came in and checked over our water meter and furnace, told us that our furnace had a fan belt that was badly cracked, and that our furnace is in really great shape. This was all done in about half an hour, in the coldest day of the year so far (it was -27ºC/-16ºF that day). They really shouldn’t be screwing around with your heat in the cold - that’s not acceptable.