Took the bus to get some groceries. My neighbor was on the bus. She asked me to get her a 2 liter of pop. She gave me 1.75.
I had heavy stuff and that made it heavier. When I looked at it, it was diet. She doesn’t drink diet. So now I have to spend money next week to return it on the bus. I used my food stamp card to buy it. And she wants her 1.75 back.
You sound like a sweet person who is too easy to take advantage of. Allow me to introduce you to the concept of “no”. There are innumerable variants, but one that applies very well in this situation is “I’m sorry, I’d like to help, but with my other groceries it would be just too heavy for me to carry”.
In fact just today I got a carton of iced tea that was only 1.75 liters, and that thing is big and heavy enough that I didn’t even bag it, I just carried it out in the cart (yes, I lowered myself to using self-checkout – the regular lines were too long). IMHO asking someone who is going to the grocery store on a bus to pick up two liters of anything – which weighs nearly 5 pounds – is just obnoxious.
Yeah, I assumed my audience would automatically get it and be a bit shocked.
You’re a better man than I. 
… or Dunce …
I pity that wall…
Since shortly after I lost my old dog, I’ve been looking for a foster. Not a permanent commitment. Not a replacement. But a companion for my other dog, a project, a buddy to take my mind off her absence… that sort of thing.
And, given how many dogs in need I run into in my line of work, I assumed it would be easy.
First thing, when I sent an e-mail to the rescue where I got my old dog (not the one where I work, but the one I’ve volunteered with for years), I said I’d like to take a foster if they had anyone in need. They said they’d look, but I’ve never head anything back. They’ve gotten a lot smaller in recent years and do almost exclusively purebred or designer puppy mill/breeder releases, which is why I had my old dog in the first place (she was a return and none of the current fosters were up for a large old black mixed breed).
So I tried another rescue in the area that does senior dogs and… I don’t know. They were hard to get ahold of and when I finally did make contact, the person said she’d send me a foster application and some dogs to choose from and she never did and by that time, I was sick of trying to chase them down.
So then, we had two dogs tied to the gate in the snow overnight. Both seniors. One clearly not doing very well, so we took him to the vet immediately and the vet said he had a large inoperable tumor, was in pain, and should be put to sleep… but we couldn’t do that right away because, although he was abandoned, he had to be on stray hold because we had nothing from an owner signing him over. I was going to take his companion, who is old and lumpy, but in decent shape. But we weren’t going to separate them while the one was still alive.
… Turns out, with some pretty basic pain meds in his system, the dog with the tumor is doing great. He still has that tumor and it can’t last forever, but he’s happy and energetic, eating, wagging his tail, getting into trouble… and we’re not going to euthanize a dog like that. So there’s no reason to separate them and the dog with the tumor isn’t good with small animals, so he couldn’t live safely and peacefully with two cats and a chihuahua.
No worries- I had my eye on another pair. Two boys who had been let out of their home when paramedics came to take their human away. They had been picked up by animal control and one had originally been adopted from us, so he was chipped to us. The story is, the human’s not coming back out of the hospital, so we took both boys. 7-8 years old, sweet, happy, middle-aged dogs with graying faces… right up my alley. So I made my plans and begged to have them brought over for a cat test, which the kennel just couldn’t get around to doing for a few days. And when they did, one of them failed decisively. Damn.
So today, I brought my little dog to work to meet the next candidates: a large senior-ish bloodhound who used to live with cats, but was abandoned in the midst of a messy divorce, and a pair of older dachshund mixes who lived their whole lives with one old man, never socialized or exposed to much, and who are terrified and bitey in the kennels.
But THEN, this lady comes in… absolutely bananas. She has a chihuahua mix puppy in her arms and has a whole story about how she bought this puppy from a breeder in Texas because she wanted a puppy who would be a lap dog, but they scammed her and gave her a puppy with lots of energy instead. Pro tip: puppies of every breed have energy and need training. The kennel manager says we have no space. This lady starts making a scene, yowling about how if she takes the dog anywhere else, the dog will surely end up dead or turned over to someone who plans to subject her to a life of abuse/dog fighting/scientific experimentation.
So, since my dog was right there next to me and I could introduce them quickly and since I knew a four-month-old chihuahua mix puppy who loved everyone would be adopted in a heartbeat and since this lady was clearly a lot more willing to escalate the melodrama than any of us were willing to stand there and deal with it… I said I’d take her.
And she was perfect. She and my cantankerous chihuahua played and followed each other around and she was such a joy.
And then a family came in who had adopted from us several times before and, while they were filling out paperwork to look at dogs, my puppy was jumping at the baby gate trying her damnedest to get to their kid and he was reaching over and petting her. So we let her out and it was an instant connection. She and the kid were rolling around on the floor together, mom and dad were smitten with her, and they were just right for her. She went home with them.
So the moral of the story is… I still don’t have a foster dog. We didn’t end up meeting the bloodhound or the dachshunds because the puppy showed up, so we’ll try again for that tomorrow.
The universe is working on this, no doubt.
Isn’t this the week you told your new boss you couldn’t go to work because it was too cold?
Actually, I apologize for my snarkiness. It was completely uncalled for. People have to eat.
You tried to do her a favor, and made an error. Presumably you’ve apologized. I think you’ve done your bit - no reason that you can’t give the receipt to the neighbor and she can return/exchange the pop.
Just to add a vote for SAS shoes. My DH has the opposite problem, super skinny feet, and can only wear SAS. If there is a store anywhere near you, in our experience the people who work at their stores are all very good at their jobs and will work really hard to find the right shoes for you, offer to email you when sales are on, etc. Good luck!
China is a huge country. Huge. There’s no way that this is Monty’s school, right?
She can’t return it, I bought it with my EBT card and the money would have to be put back on my card. Tis okay, another neighbor is going to buy it from me.
Also ranting about catching a cold, sneezed at least 20 times yesterday. A good sleep has me pretty much recovered.
Spouse looks in freezer “What happened to these little cups of ice cream treats they’ve melted down and looked deflated?”
Through gritted teeth I replied. Well see that pan on the stove the one with the flat lid? For reasons I can no longer fathom I slapped my hand on it not realizing YOU just took it out of the 350F oven.
Confused? I’m using the frozen cups to cradle on my hand and as they melt, back in the freezer they go and I grab another. I expect to be doing this for the rest of the fucking day. Tyvm.
This is why I always keep a couple bags of frozen peas in the freezer. Altho I usually make my own burned hands with no help; sorry you had help.
Aloe vera gel is good for that sort of thing.
(My gf has (on more than one occasion 
) taken a pan out of the oven and
then forgotten…)
I was hoping I could keep my 2001 Subaru going for another year. Sadly, it looks like this is the year I have to get a new car. Nothing bad, it’s just going to cost more to fix everything wrong with it than it’s worth.
I’ve never bought a car myself before. My only two cars were both my older sisters’ cars that my dad played middleman for. He’s dead and my sisters are both keeping their current cars. Guess I have to head to the credit union to see what kind of loans I qualify for.
My hair is long, past my bra. Over a year or so ago, my ex bought me a blow drier.
Well today I press the fast on the blowing option. It sounded…louder. then the burning smell.
Now its back to using my space heater.
You must be right because today, someone brought in seven filthy, skinny, half-frozen puppies she’d found in a tote on the side of the road. Dog boss said no room (and I was on the phone with a customer at the time). So we gave her some phone numbers and sent her on her way. Animal control said no room. At least two other shelters had no room, so she called us back in hysterics because she had nowhere to go with these puppies. It’s seven degrees out.
Guess who now has seven stinky puppies and is in BIG trouble with the dog boss. Sorry not sorry. They needed a safe, warm place to go and I have one. I will probably have to figure out how to get them neutered on my own, though (all seven are boys!). I’ll make some phone calls on Monday… and I guess I should check to see how many testicles have dropped.
It’s a long way from my intended “maybe I’ll take just one really geriatric dog to foster” intentions, but… I mean, come on.
You are good people.