Some dressing oils begin to turn rancid faster than other ones. Name-brand dressings may use a more expensive oil that doesn’t keep as long as the cheaper store brands.
Not food related, but rancid anyway.
I am divorced, not my choice, but I did not contest it, I did the right thing, paid for all legal fees - even though I was not compelled to, I thought because I had money and she did not, paying all expences might initiate a truce, hopefully ending in a peace agreement.
Boy, was I wrong. I’ve not been served yet, because she does not know where I live, but she just attempted to take full custody of my (our) beautiful children, roughly the only people who bring joy to my life. We’ve had joint custody for over two years.
I’ve some breakups before. The little ones, with a teen romance ending in a teen friendship. The medium ones where 20 to 30somethings break up, but are mature enough to remain friends.
This is a 14 year relationship, ending in my late 40s.
I gave my ex-wife examples of every relationship I have had in the past where we agreed, despite our differences to remain friends. I wanted to remain friends, after all we got married, we liked each other!
But when I asked her to try, despite our differences, to make an effort, her response was “I’m not your support system” - which is not what I was asking for.
Fastforward to now: we are divorced. I hate it. She wants to take my children away - I lose my parental rights - but is now using the “we should be friends” line.
Presumably as a feint, so that I don’t contest my parental rights. Court case coming up, she instigated it without even discussing the possibility with me.
People can just be so fucking shit, sometimes. Thanks for reading my “nice guy” rant.
A Few Things
Maintenance knocked on my door last week and came in with some guy in a suit who took photos. I asked the maintenance man what was going on. He saod this was an annual thing and that I had been notified. I checked after he left. I never received a physical paper. No signs were posted. They did not call or text. They did not send an e-mail. I didn’t receive any notifications on the buidlng website used to pay rent or request maintenance.
After work Friday, I saw an e-mail saying the annual inspection was on Monday March 24th. I panicked for a while. Then, I decluttered like crazy. I got a lot done over the weekend. I threw out a lot of stuff. I filled three big boxes with stuff I wanted to donate. My Gobhi hauled them off to Goodwill. I worried I still hadn’t done enough and took off work Monday.
I have lost a lot of sleep. My everything hurts.
Maintenance did not come on Monday. I was out with my Mom today. If they came while I was out, they left no note or sign of their presence. It appears the visit last week was the annual inspection. As management has not contacted me since then, it seems I passed inspection. I am glad to have decluttred. I could have done without the days of intense labor and all the panic though.
Rant #2
The dog my SIL brought into the marriage with my sister had to be euthanized today. He was a senior dog and his health had been declining over the past twelve months. When I visited in January, he was having problems moving his back legs. Somehow, they got a sort of dog wheelchair thing. He only needed to move his front legs. I am sad that he is gone. But, that is not the rant. My SIL was NOT in the room with him when he died. WTF? I understand the decision to end your dog’s life is very difficult.I understand holding them while they die is difficul. I do not understand not holding your dog in their last moments. My sister texted me that the dog was gone. I expressed my sympathies and asked how everbody was coping. My sister shared that my SIL was doing badly and chose not be in the room while the dog she has had for fifteen years died. Again, WTF?
Rant #3
Today was Mom’s last day in Philly. I had requested today off as soon as I knew the schedule of her visit. We went to Reading Terminal Market. It is a wonderful, huge indoor space of mostly food vendors and restaurant stalls. We had fun there. Then, Mom wanted to walk around. It turned out Chinatiown was only a block or two away. We had fun there too. We went back to her hotel and talked. All of this was delightful and the opposite of a rant. The rant is that Mom is eighty one and her mond is starting to go. This surprised me. She has seven diferent things wrong with her spine. Due to scoliosis, it presses on one lung so badly that it is collapsed. She has an artificial knee. I always figured she would die suddenly of a heart attack. But no, it looks like we’ll all have the fun of having her mind turn to mush. Dad had Alzheimer’s, so we’ve had to go through it once before. Oh joy.
It’s not for us to judge how others deal with overwhelming grief.
Lowes canceled my order, but honestly, never mind.
OK. Though I have to say that’s the most cryptic rant I’ve seen in a while.
But since you mention Lowes, that’s another example of a failed expansion into the Canadian market. A big Lowes opened up a few years ago in a new shopping center near here, and I thought it was cool to have an alternative to Home Depot and Home Hardware.
And now they’re gone. Interestingly, that space is now occupied by Rona, which I always thought of as a little neighbourhood hardware store, but they’ve apparently been growing big time.
It reminds me of when Target made a major expansion into Canada, and were advised by Canadian marketing experts that they were making some bad decisions. Said experts were told to go away and tend to their igloos – Target was a tremendously successful American retailer and knew exactly what they were doing. I don’t remember if it was a year or two years later that they exited the Canadian market, their tremendously successful American tail between their legs as they limped out after a loss of over $5 billion. The Canadian retail marketplace is not the same as the American one. Walmart is one retailer that fully understands that. They’ve been tremendously successful here.
I’ve been doing some yard work that’s been neglected for several years for a variety of reasons. And apparently, the yard is fighting back.
So far this week, I cut my right forearm - not a lot of blood, but some - then did something near my left elbow that left a weird, elongated bruise, then got a big-ass splinter under a fingernail. And that says nothing about the aches from raking and pruning and wheel-barrowing debris into the woods so it can rot in peace.
Why am I not wealthy enough to afford a landscape crew? It’s so unfair!! It didn’t hurt like this 20 years ago, dammit. All those ads showing seniors smiling as they plant veggies and flowers - they’re all LIES!!! But getting out in the fresh air is nice, I guess.
Gardening involves my three least favorite things: Heat, dirt, and bugs. I guess I’ll have to be one of those old knitting ladies.
Lowe’s actually owned the Rona brand from 2016-2022. It’s now owned by an American private equity firm. Those years probably corresponded with their attempt to bring the Lowe’s brand into Canada.
Rona and Reno-Depot (whose name is disappearing on favour of Rona) are everywhere in Quebec. The CANAC brand of stores is actually Quebec owned and operated, and Home Hardware is Canadian owned.
I do that all the time. In one memorable instance, I think we had five unopened boxes of powdered sugar in the pantry, because I kept buying more thinking we were out or my wife would put it on the list thinking we were out.
I am, as I have mentioned, in the process of decluttering. I have donated 3 large boxes of stuff to Goodwill this week. I have 2 full large boxes ready to donate. I have a small box of Spawn Manga serie and other action figure to donate. I am filling a third large box.
Most of the plastic bins the mover’s used were not very sturdy. Many have warped or collapsed in some way. Once I empty the stuff out of these bins, I fill them with trash and take them to the building dumpster. Some of the bins are still in good condition. I was storing two in the kitchen in case I needed them during the decluttering. One bin is sealed with a lid. The bin on top of it has no lid.
I woke up this morning to find that somehow a mouse has gotten into the open bin. It cannot get out. I understand that the bin’s sides are too smooth for even a mouse to climb. I gather it cannot jump nearly high enough to get out. I am genuinely confused as to why it cannot, and does not just chew a hole in the side. Years ago, we had a hamster named Rocky. Despite all the love, attention, food and supplies given to him Rocky would not stop trying to tunnel through the walls of his enclosure. He eventually succeeded. I know from nights of gnawing sounds in the wall before I saw rodents in my kitchen, they can get through plaster and dry wall. This is a very thin, relatively soft plastic. Why doesn’t he just chew his way out?
This leaves me with a dilemma.
I really would strongly prefer not to kill the mouse. It is a cute lil’ furry animal. If it wasn’t crawling with filth and disease, if it wasn’t going to pee on me and bite, I would pick it up and pet it. If I do have to kill it, I would excedingly strongly prefer that it be in a quick and painless way. I do not have any snap traps left. I do not know how to do the deed.
I will probably end up carrying the bin, with live mouse, to the dumpster. If I do that, I need to do so without any other tennants, maintenance or management seeing,.I am not sure how to go about that either.
On the upside- When they moved to Florida, my sister’s first husband (fathering my niece was his only actual contribution to the family. He was an uninterested and absent father) gave me a gun box. He knew I had no guns. But, he thought I could use a metal box with a combination lock and padded insides. I found that gun box while decluttering. I remembered the combination. I removed the padding. I now keept in in a kitchen drawer. It is a great mouse proof place to store junk food that will not spoil and cannot be enjoyed until reaches room temperature. I had been looking for a metal box for just that purpose.
If it won’t chew its way out, maybe it won’t bite? 
Poor wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie! 
Maybe drape a napkin over it before a quick trip to the dumpster? Is anyone really going to be able to see what you’re disposing of?
The plastic storage bin in question is about 3 feet long, by 2 feet wide, by 2 and a half feet tall. Unless, I very carefully place a napkin over the live mouse and it stays under the napkin and silent while I carry it down two floors and around the corner, I will be discovered.
Eureeka!
It just came to me! I can just dump the trash from the nearly full bag in the kitchen trash can into the bin right before I carry it down. This will effectively conceal the mouse. The noise of paper rustling, metal clanking etc should conceal any noise.
Bon voyage, mousie!
Which one of our board members took a live mouse outside to dump it & had the mouse turn around & make it back into the house before he did?
& what’s the chance of having just one mouse in an apartment building? I’d get yourself some more traps
…but the mouse came back, the very next day. The mouse came back. They thought he was a goner!
I am out of snap traps. I saw good snap traps much cheaper than they are on Amazon at a store in Chinatown yesterday, I was with my Mom at the time. The family does not know I have mice in my apartment. I do not want them to know. I could not think of another plausible reason to buy mouse traps. Without a snap trap. I do not know how to quickly and painlessly kill this mouse without a trap.
It will almost certainly re enter the building. There are plenty of other apartments. So I cannot say whether it will come back to my place.
I am still decluttering. I made massive progress over the past week or so. When I am done decluttering and the remaining boxes are stacked in an out of the way place, I will call maintenance about many things- including mice.
New Rant- With wind chill it is 32 outside. I do not understand this. Yesterday, I spent a long time walking around in shorts and a short sleeve t-shirt and wasn’t cold. It is supposed to reach the 80’s pn Saturday. I am confused.
In good news, the mouse and a bin full of trash are now in the dumpster. Somebody saw me walking down the steps with a large bin and opened the front door for me.
See Disney’s new animated musical
… or by it’s working title, “Rat Ptooey!”