May Glowers Bring (out) Grim Pills [May mini-rants thread]

The BBQ Pit
81

So, I missed the season’s last episode of Sleepy Hollow because I had something else to do. Then I heard they killed off Abbie Mills–once the co-lead. And did it clumsily. (Well, most of the writing has been clumsy for the last two seasons.)

Since I hadn’t seen the episode & won’t watch it on Hulu, I didn’t bother to start a Cafe Society thread. Just made a post in the Complaint of the Month thread here in The Pit.

So, I’m back in the Complaint of This Month thread. Because Fox has decided to renew Sleepy Hollow. Why? Ratings weren’t that great & most reviewers agree that the show’s decline after season 1 was remarkable.

82

That’s the saddest thing I’ve read in a long time. :frowning:

(Uh, also, that part of you is not “horrible” at all.)

83

Actually, you should have posted that cats ARE strange. All of them, always!

The vet must have used some strange mind drugs on Steve, because suddenly he likes me. He lets me look at him without running away and he is eating out of my hand. If he wasn’t still dragging his kitten around, I’d wonder if the vet gave me someone else’s cat. (He can’t actually drag his kitten around anymore, she’s too big. He grabs her by the scruff and they walk together to a mutually agreed on destination.)

Lacunae Matata I am the last person in the world who should offer relationship advice, but I’ve been getting a little (OK, a LOT) worried about you. You are a good person, you are loving and caring and you want to make everyone around you happy. This is good until you do it at the expense of your own happiness and health.

After my BB had his heart attack and surgery, I did wait on him hand and foot. For a while. Once he was able to climb 3 flights of stairs and have sex, all I did for him was help him up until the end of the 6 week restriction about using his arms. He was on his own then. He’s back to 100% now.

I have a club friend who also had bypass surgery at about the same time. He didn’t want to walk or climb stairs or do PT because it hurt. His wife was much nicer than me and didn’t push him. After all these years, he’s only back to about 65% and can’t ride because he can’t hold his bike up.

I know that there is a BIG difference between what happened to your Tony and heart patients who have routine heart surgery (which includes having their sternums split and veins transplanted from their legs to their chests), but sometimes tough love does help them get better.

You are in my prayers.

84

Hee hee hee.

Sorry, just coping with Lacunae’s troubles by finding humor wherever I can…

Btw, as a guy, I’d like to say that I’ll get away with whatever I can, but if called on it by a strong woman will straighten up and fly right.

Eventually… (Well, first I’ll be all shocked: “I’ve been doing WHAT?”; then indignant: “But… I’ve got earth-shattering pains!”; eventually, sheepish: “Yeah, mayyybe…”; and finally apologetic)

But we can be trained! Or at least house-broken.

85

Thanks all. I’m actually feeling better today, because Tony finally grasped that I have been pretty damned sick lately - not lazy! And he acknowledged that he just thought it was allergies, or that time of the month or something. A little contrition on his part, and a little understanding, was all it took, really.

Of course, our discussion also moved to the fact that I expect him to do for himself, as he is able. It won’t be much, to start, but it will get better as he does more.

In other news, I broke my toe. Fourth toe, left foot. It’s only useful for finding furniture in the dark!

86

Maybe he just has a sweter disposition now that his teeth aren’t hurting all the time.

87

digs You are a very bad person who will probably come to a very bad end. I really shouldn’t love you as much as I do :slight_smile:

Lacunae Matata Baby steps. I didn’t mean to imply that you should just stop everything right away. It will take baby steps at first. I’m glad that you are feeling better now.

I don’t know if I should feel badly about this or not. I’ve had Steve for 5 years. I’m pretty sure that he got his teeth checked while he was being TNR, that vet was always good about checking health problems while kitty was out.

Its possible that those teeth were hurting all those years. I really hope that is not the case. I’m going to choose to believe that this vet used some sort of happy drugs on Steve because he’s dozing next to me and I can’t move because I don’t want to bother him. (I really need to go powder my nose.)

88

Last night W10 wanted to install again.

At this rate I’ll have to dust off my old Unix books and learn Linux :frowning:

89

Flatlined – it’s possible that it was simply a reminder to Steve of how much better his life is WITH you than without you, and that that could change. So he’s showing a little gratitude now.
Of course, that will wear off quickly, so enjoy it while you get it.

90

So the Mrs has wanted a new phone for a while. She wanted a new iPhone but they’re like $900 and I’m always very skeptical of signing a 2-year contract with anyone, especially Verizon. You’ve got a salesman who doesn’t eat unless he makes sales unsurprisingly promising you that you’re not going to get screwed when the truth is that the contract is so long and obscure that neither one of you can read or comprehend it.

Anyway, such is life, sometimes you get screwed, if you stay indoors ignoring the world and living a bronze age existence you’re screwing yourself out of a lot of good experiences so I told her to do whatever she thinks is best. And she did a lot of research and her phone has stopped connecting to wifi properly and yesterday she brought it up again and I told her to do whatever she thinks is best. So she went and got a new phone. A Samsung Galaxy S7.

And that’s fine, it sounds like she got a good deal. She’s financing it which sounds hokey but it’s like $28/mo and they waive some $20 monthly service fee. It’s definitely not going to break us. She likes the phone, everyone is happy.

But back to the bizarre wireless sales model. Totally out of left field, completely unrelated to her phone or wireless service or any want or need she left the house seeking to fulfill, she came home with a TV. You buy the phone, they give you a TV. Great, right? Free TV. Right? But we already have a TV. A nice one. A big one. I’m not taking down my 55" 1080p smart tv to put up a 32" 720p dumb TV. I’m not taking down my older 50" 1080p dumb TV in the basement, either. If I wanted a TV in my bedroom I’d already have one but I don’t. I definitely don’t want a TV in any of my kids’ bedrooms. Where then? The hallway? The bathroom? The kitchen? The backyard? It’s a white elephant. Why can’t the phone just have A PRICE? Why can’t the service just have A PRICE? Why does it have to be a game show?

91

A TV? How odd! (But, I do need to replace my phone, and The Boy needs a television for his apartment, so… hm.)

Meanwhile, back at the farm, one of the credit cards has been compromised. At least the issuing company has a great fraud alert system, and the bogus charges were flagged within minutes. But ugh.

92

'Cos that’s the only way you have to know that “THE PRICE IS RIGHT!”

Sorry, it was just too easy for me to pass it up…

93

You are so right. I was the one who rescued Steve from the horrible, mean people at the vet’s office. I brought him back to his safe place and gave him food.

Today, he was sitting next to me, I reached out to rub his ears and he bit the hand that feeds him. Whatever, at least he is willing to lay next to me.

94

When my wife first moved to Madison (WI) she was amazed that “Crazy TV Lenny” was giving away bikes with almost ANY purchase. Everyone told her “Welcome to town. First thing, buy a tiny B&W TV, get a $200 bike!” So she did. Great bike – A 10-speed Giant with Shimano derailleurs. And this deal went on for years. Thirty years later, and you’ll still hear people say “Check out my new road bike, but I kept my Crazy TV Lenny Special, it’s still working.”

Oh, found an old ad. It was 1980, so you could also get a bike with a waterbed.

Too bad. We were all hoping the kinder, gentler Steve was a permanent condition…

95

Ah Verizon. I added two new phones to my account (friends and daughters for making honor roll). They told me I qualify for a FREE tablet! $300 value! FREE! FREE! FREE! (Did I mention Free?) Said ok. Got the first bill. Am being billed monthly for the “free” tablet (not just the access fee, but an actual hardware payment fee). Went back to ask about it. Was told, “YOU SIGNED THE PAPERWORK!” Guy was yelling at me about how if I didn’t want it, I shouldn’t have signed. Seems when he said I could get a month to month contract instead of 2 years, the tablet was no longer Free. I wasn’t told that part until after my daughter got completely attached to the tablet.

Free, my ass. Which ain’t free, either.

Then there’s the case of the phone insurance. See, for a low monthly fee of $9/month, you can have your phone covered if anything happens to it. Except accidents. My friend stepped on hers (she’s on my plan - long story) and cracked the screen. I wanted to use the insurance to get a new one.

First person I spoke to said yes, I have insurance, but the deductible was $149. Um… the phone is only $140. Why would I pay more to get a new one? What kind of insurance has a deductible more than the cost of the phone? Steaming mad, I went away to calm down.

Spoke to a second person. They said I could pay off that phone for $114 and then “upgrade” to a new phone for $6/month payments (new phone being same phone as old phone), but then there would be a charge of $20 for the connection fee, and I’d have to pay the upgrade phone’s tax now. That added up to more than the $149 deducible. (Oh… And the monthly cost of the phone’s hardware payment is currently $10.41/month and the ‘upgrade’ would only be $6 because the cost of the phone has come down over time (I got all this within the last 6 months)) And getting the upgrade phone would take a few days because reasons.

Took another break to calm down. Spoke to a third person. She said the second person was wrong and the payoff on that phone was $169 but that her manager said they would honor the $114 quoted (because I had the transcript of the chat and could PROVE she said it!)

Took another break. Went to chat and said I was going to use the insurance after all. She gave me a web page to make my claim.

Claim company says I owe a $49 (not $149!) deductible for the phone. I can do 49! How the *@#& do the Verizon people get the rate wrong by $100? I signed up for the return. Had the new phone the next day and was able to transfer everything over. Thank goodness the Asurion people did a decent job getting me the new phone.

Verizon sucks rocks. But I live in East-Bum-Screw-Nowhere (not to be confused with West!) and can’t even get cable. MiFi is the only way to get data, so until I either get more neighbors or technology changes, I pay over $300 for phone and internet with no way out.

96

Steve is still willing to sit next to me! When I’m awake and looking at him! With the dogs in the same room!

This is a really big deal :slight_smile:

He probably bit me because he didn’t see me reaching out to touch him. He didn’t break the skin, so all is good.

Can I pit Houston traffic and badly designed roads, or is that so over done that everyone’s eyes glaze when I start? On the way to work, there is an off ramp from the left side (fast lane). I have to get on the freeway and cross 97 lanes (OK, maybe only 6) to get there in 3 miles. Why the heck couldn’t the freeway designers put the dang thing on the right where it should be?

And why the heck do they dump incoming traffic in the fast lane as well? There is a very good reason that traffic is always fucked up in Houston. Most people don’t do well with 0 to 100 in less than a mile.

97

Cats is weird.

I told my housemate about Steve. She’s going to tnr the stray/feral, Bob, that she’s been feeding and is worried that he’ll no longer love her. If he’s a feral, he’s a very affectionate one and will fall asleep on her lap.

Lucy, the rotten little kitten she adopted, has abandoned her and prefers our side of the house now. She’ll hop on my lap, snuggle in and purr, purr, purr unless I pet her somewhere unapproved (could be anywhere at any time) at which point she’ll sink her claws and teeth in. Of course, if I don’t pet her she sinks her teeth in anyway. Lucy’s a brat.

98

I wonder if your housemate will be able to do the Release part with Bob. If he’s loving and a lap sitting cat, you might have another housemate.

Steve hated me long before I had him fixed. Steve isn’t a rescued stray, he is a wild animal who is living in a house. I doubt that his mama was a housecat, from his behavior, I think he is at least 2 generations from a housecat. Please encourage your roommate to have Bob fixed, even is he can’t have a real home.

That’s honestly the kindest thing that anyone can do for a cat. Also, roomie should start looking for rescues that would take Bob is you guys can’t.

Yeah, he sounds like an adult cat and those are hard to place, but a lap cat would probably rather live in a house with a handy lap than on the street.

As to Lucy, she sounds like our Missy the Brat. She wants attention on her time and only how she wants it, thank you very much.

99

Turns out Bob is way too smart for us mere humans. Vet day is Thursday and for the past two weeks Bob has disappeared from Tuesday evening until Friday morning. Friday through Tuesday he’s a regular visitor and gets lots of love and Fancy Feast. Bugger.
I suspect Bob is at least a second generation stray. He’s a lover and a fighter (kicks the crap out of my cats - grrr) There’s a local population of bob-tailed cats scattered along our road.

Lucy is a tortoise-shell. Need I say more? She is also one of a local population of torties that are pretty much identical - recognizable by their one side light, other side dark faces. We have two and another friend has one. Hard to tell any of them apart even though they are years apart in age (and all neutered)

100

You know, Perkins, if you’re going to have only one server and one host working at 3pm on a weekday, at least one of them should probably be paying attention to the actual business of the restaurant.

Walked in, stood there for 3-4 minutes, no one in sight. Oh, no, I’m wrong. The young man chatting up his girlfriend is actually the host and finally comes over to seat me. Hey, thanks for making me feel welcome!

Then the waitress keeps disappearing for long stretches. At the end, two of us are standing at the register for about 5 minutes, neither of us having gotten our checks or even a follow-up from the waitress :mad: , and I’m poking my head in the kitchen from both sides looking for someone to ring us up and let us leave.

Complained via their website, got a call from a manager saying they were really busy cleaning up from a group of 30 that had been there at lunch. Well gosh, when I poked my head in the kitchen, I didn’t see piles of dishes or anyone working on anything. Neither the host nor the waitress were anywhere in sight.