I’m not going to go through the bother of peeling off labels on tin cans and glass bottles while being charged four dollars a month for the honor. If recycling works and is viable I’m all for it. I have more important things to do. No cost? I might be down with that.
Ironically this also points again to what I was writing about. While the antagonistic woman in the OP obviously prefers a one-sided game, (i.e. one set of rules for her, and different rules for everybody else), and while she exhibits a presumptuous bossiness that she couldn’t tolerate from others, you’re similarly inclined to give me posting instructions that I doubt you’d accept if I were giving those same instructions back to you. Or would it be okay with you if I also directed you to only limit your comments to those that are in strict agreement with mine?
Peeling labels off? Being charged? Well that would put a crimp in anyone’s desire to recycle. Are you sure you have to peel the labels off? I remember having to do that back in the dark ages, but I can’t imagine why that would be required anymore.
But just for the record–you don’t have to do anything like that around here. Recycling is free to residents. Or included in taxes already so you don’t have to pay extra. And since we have private garbage service here, recycling means that you can contract for a smaller regular pickup. If you recycle your paperboard as well as the other stuff, it reduces your garbage volume by a LOT.
You think I’m telling you what to post?!
I was just noting that you were generalizing about a woman you’ve never met and claiming that she would do things in the future, which is predicting the future. Perhaps you can indeed know what people are going to do without having met them or can predict people’s future actions with complete accuracy. But I doubt it. If you want to refute that, please do.
The rest of your post is complete non-sequitur as far as I can tell. Since I didn’t ask you to agree with me (actually I’d prefer if you didn’t since I can barely parse your posts), I don’t see why you would ask me to agree with you.
Come on, really? The recycling center in my town is only open one and a half days a week, and I manage to recycle; I just finished sorting plastics 1s from 2s for when I go tomorrow, actually. And to make it all the harder I’m a Republican, so you know it’s difficult for me to overcome my natural inclination to destroy the environment;)
Hey I spent 2½ years on this board trying to disabuse people of the notion that Republican = anti-environment. I sing the praises of Theodore Roosevelt at the drop of the hat and I remind people I am an extremely active Green that was a Republican until this year. Even now I am not a Democrat. I just happen to really like and believe Obama is the best man for the job of President since Reagan and hopefully he will prove even better and more popular.
So please keep reminding people that Green/Recycling is not a Republican or Democratic issue. It is an issue for anyone that cares about Clean Air & Water and the future.
The second people I know to put Solar Panels up are creationists that border on ‘Fundyism’. Being Green does not mean liberal by any stretch.
By BIL recycles far more than anyone I know but he does it to save money. He is a plumber that heats his house with wood, recycles a huge amount of copper and iron and buys a lot of stuff used. He also recycles his plastics as the township made it easy for him and he makes sure his batteries get recycled as he has always had well water and takes water table contamination very seriously. He does not consider himself a Green and he voted for Bush twice despite my trying to reason with him.
Jim (Sorry for the ranting nature of this post.)
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
So last Sunday night we had our Christmas musical at church. We had been invited by some other friends to come over after for some drinks.
The Pittee’s family would also be there and had asked us to come over BEFORE the musical. We declined saying we just wasnted to relax. So then they called and asked if they could pick us up. We said thanks we had a ride. Then they called to say they saved us a seat. Can’t hardly decline saved seats in a packed church.
So after it was all over we were trying to make our exit but the Pittee and family were hovering. It was obvious they wanted to know where we were going and what we were doing. The asked what we were doing Wednesday night? Want to watch the game Friday? We thought our kids would come over to play tonight…?
Actually we had a babysitter coming over so we could spend some kid-free time with some old, good friends. They weren’t invited. DON’T MAKE ME SAY IT!
So long story short we slipped out and had a wonderful adult-time oasis in this season of madness.
We opted out of church Wednesday. Since we didn’t see them we didn’t have to deal with the invite. Last night (Friday) the kids went with Gramma for the night and me and the wife went out for dinner and to pick up a few things. Never did get back to them about coming over to watch the game.
So we are driving past PetSmart and have to stop to let a family cross…The PITTEE’S!!! OH NOES!! WTF? They say hi and wave us over. Geesh. We stop and they have their kids and obviously we don’t have ours. “Wanna come over?” We declined saying we had shopping to do. “Wanna have dinner tomorrow?”
ok?
So now we are spending Saturday night with them. Egads they are persistant.
At the risk of repeating what others have already said, if you didn’t want to spend Saturday night with them then the proper response to “Wanna have dinner tomorrow?” should have been, “I’m sorry we already have plans.” They are not entitled to the details of those plans (which could be "anything that doesn’t involve being with you). Repeat as needed until they get the idea.
Or, as a friend of mine used to say, “Be evasive. Tell them to fuck off.”
You know, that’s why women invented headaches. Start having them if you’re too pussy to just say, “sorry, no.”
You can always come down with a case of Convenient Flu.
Do I need to go back and pull out all of the posts that expounded on this woman’s personality traits? Some people offered FURTHER details of what she’s REALLY like, her REAL motivation behind her actions, what she is likely to do if given further opportunities, what would discourage her from continuing her abuse, etc. There is a LOT of speculation about this woman by people who don’t know her, but who know somebody like her. Are they also mind-readers? I see much of that as an attempt to offer insight into the woman’s weird logic so the OP can be better informed. I (like others) have my own experience with people like her and thought that would also add to the OP’s insight. But I specifically wanted to point out that she needs an uneven playing field and she won’t ever be content with people like herself, because I thought those points were significantly important in the OP’s understanding of the situation.
I accept that you can opt to disagree with me, but when you go so far as to take me to task in that very arrogant tone, or to summarily dismiss my insight because I don’t have concrete evidence, or to suggest I should limit my writing because I lack knowledge, or because it doesn’t fit with your own limited understanding of this type of person, (and yes, that’s what it seems you’re saying), I do take issue with that.
From here it seems you did … thus,
That. I do take issue with that. And get this: despite appearances, there is no “we.”
@Newcrasher, you have my sympathies. Personally I got better with dealing with this type of person when I discarded those horrid feelings of obligation. I agree with those who say you don’t owe the Pittee’s anything at all, not even an explanation. I learned to simply say “no thanks” and then was willing to let the BIG awkward silence just sit there between us. It feels a bit odd at first, but definitely gets better with practice. (And other times I opted to throw a raging fit to scare them off, which is a fantastic way to blow off a little steam IYKWIM. But hopefully you won’t have to do that?) Anyways, best of luck finding a satisfactory way to deal with this.