Curly, you do know that I likes you, right? How rare is it for a rescue person to like a breeder? Its happened here.
However, I think that your opinions are sometimes wrong and you might need to ratch it down a little bit.
Back when I was living in my car, I spent money on canned cat food. When one can’t afford to buy something off the dollar menu at Burger King, owning a pet is an indulgance. It was worth it to me. It made me feel good to do something for my cat, even if it was just for the moment.
I’d guess that is why many poor people overspend on presents for their kids. It feels good to give a loved one/pet something they like.
I think we are now going to start talking about why poor people stay poor. I used to buy cheap shoes and they wore out very quickly. I couldn’t afford better shoes, so I would just buy the cheap ones over and over.
Once I got a good job and was able to buy good shoes, it was much cheaper in the long run.
I’ve saved lots of money by buying good shoes, but poor people can’t do that. They just have to buy the same cheap crap that breaks and falls apart all the time.
Back when I started doing rescue, I used to resent paying to have my neighbors’ cats fixed. Seriously, it was to the point that I would chase said cats away from the food. After a while, I figured out that it wasn’t the cats fault. Their owners were idiots and the cats needed care.
I think its the same thing for human kids. The ones who are causing the problems are unsocialized, but its not their fault. They would be good kids if only they had someone who cared enough to socialize them.
Drinking while listening to NPR? Hail’s bails, ah’m shhhhure doin that ever’ day, yeah! That Melissa Block, dude, total Babraham Lincoln-- high five me, bro! Bro, where you goin, mon? No, well, yeah, I drank a little during Morning Edition and then The Writer’s Almanac. Hey, I haven’t been drinking the hard stuff since All Things Considered…
Because I am as tired of this BS as Roddy is and only because it’s you flatlined, I’ll respond to this bit.
(Don’t cat breeders do rescue? It’s quite common in dogs …)
Anyway, the difference is, you bought your cat food with your money. I bought dog food when I was poor. Never had to live in a car, but then living in a car in Washington pretty much means you are going to die the next winter …
Anyway, what I am protesting is the boulder rolling down a hill idea that people “deserve” luxuries, whether they can pay for them or not. Your former neighbor, California, is going to hell in a handbasket in so many different way because of this. When The Engineer retires, we may have to move to Arizona in order to be able to live on our pensions. That we worked for, lo these many decades. What he makes now, and what we have set aside, should be plenty but every year, we can afford less.
Sure, my opinions can be wrong in the eyes of others, but they are just that - opinions. (And it doesn’t help when someone takes one sentence out of discussion and builds a strawman around it.) Whether or not we are going to have a decent quality of life in our old age, after working towards it all our lives and having never been irresponsible, while watching others demand we give more and more to the welfare programs - can you get why someone using food stamps also buying $100+ in decorations with cash in sandpaper on the soul? Tinsel is not a necessity of life. I’m tired of being expected to be happy to buy it for people I don’t know.
That was one of my first thoughts…all the blades are still attached though, and turning the auger by hand (with minimal ice in the bin, of course) causes ice to exit as would be expected. The couplings on both the bin and the drive end appear to be in decent shape (the teeth aren’t worn or nicked); however, there is a very tiny amount of a smudgy black material around the drive coupling. It sort of reminds me of the stuff that came out of my blender’s base when its motor died. I’ll probably take you up on that offer once the holiday craziness eases up – I’ve located the motor at a reasonable price, and I have no problems with minor appliance repair.
I was able to track down the motor part number fairly easily, and I’ve located it at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, the diagrams I’ve managed to locate – both at Sears/Kenmore and Whirlpool – aren’t very clear as to how the motor should be removed. Looking at the interior door under the ice bin, I can see a thin plastic plate that appears to be secured in the area of the drive coupling with two screws. That can’t be the only thing holding that together though.
Okay - here’s my kvetch: My nephew-in-law has the native wit of a kumquat. He could fuck up a wet dream. Also? He can’t paint.
If I were to ask him to paint cartoon characters all over the effing planet? Totally down with that. But asking him to accept money to put a couple of modestly even layers of primer and paint onto a few walls? Yeah - the three-year-old and the mentally deficient dog could have done a better and faster job. (I know that painting artistically and painting walls are two different skills, but really - painting isn’t exactly rocket surgery, and the two skills overlap quite a bit. And the “I don’t know how to paint” excuse doesn’t really fly. This is the second house I’ve painted in 44 years. There’s a modest learning curve, but it’s not really all that hard to figure out that too much paint? Drips. And that Aunt Red quite likely doesn’t want the purple accent color from the teen girl’s room dotting the white ceiling. Nor that paper towels used for wiping up wet paint really shouldn’t just be dropped willy nilly all over the subfloor.)
Did I mention that DaNephew was a fine arts major? And that I know good and damned well that he had to paint at least two wall murals as part of a class in the recent past? Wouldn’t one actually figure out just a tiny bit about the physical properties of paint during that exercise?
So now, we’re in a time crunch, and (now, with the big kids off school all week, so that I actually CAN do stuff like this,) Boy 2.0 and I spent 6 hours at the new house today. Together, we accomplished more painting, wall prep, and floor prep than nephew-in-law accomplished in 3 months. Seriously.
My mother, a year after the former Mr Kitty’s death, asked me if I thought he’d still be alive if I hadn’t “left him.” Never mind that she knew exactly the reasons surrounding the dissolution of our marriage, or that in the context of the conversation that particular question made absolutely no sense whatsoever. When I expressed incredulity at her brazenness, she said “that question just keeps me up at night, and I wondered if you ever thought about it.”
No. No, that thought had honestly never occurred to me, thanks.
We can box our moms up and send them to some remote island, ok PH?
Possibly the mini-est rant ever
To the organizers of the retreat I just attended
I know you were concerned about transportation space for baggage and that is why you were continually urging everyone to pack lightly.
But when I e-mailed you and asked if the house had a washer dryer the correct response would have been Washer yes, dryer no…not YES IT DOES!!!
Especially in light of the limited clothesline space … in the tropics,during the rainy season…on the ocean.
Nothing ever got dry
I’m sure shit like that happens, but who decides to start sending someone money based on an unverified story? It’s wonderful to see people are that generous, but come on, do you know how many legit charities are out there that have people literally dying for want of donations? I’m never going to understand people am I?
If that was about my post…it was in Las Vegas, Nevada. We had slot machines in convenience stores, grocery stores, laundromats…very few places DIDN’T have at least a couple of one armed bandits. This was quite a shock to me. I didn’t travel much around Nevada, but apparently having some slot machines in most places where you’d get coins as change was pretty common. Plus, of course, the casinos were full of slots, but you sort of expect them there.
Oddly enough, the owner of the convenience store chain would sell booze and tobacco and have slots and arcade games in his stores…but he wouldn’t sell rolling papers. I guess he felt that he had to draw the line somewhere. And while you could get hookers and blow in the neighborhood of the store I worked in, the owner and managers were always watching out for illegal activity, and would call the cops if they saw anything suspicious.
Dearest pussycat,
I applaud your rodent relocation efforts. Unfortunately, you have the order reversed. Catch them inside (I know they exist, I’ve found the droppings) and take them out. Do not catch them outside and bring them in! No, not even stashing them in the pantry is acceptable. Yes, the dog appreciates your efforts (even if I don’t) but sadly, I had to disappoint her yet again when I captured the flying squirrel you left for her and took it back outside.
As ever your servant,
slumtrimpet
Look, pal, I’m trying to build up my larder for the winter. The rodents keep longer if they are alive until I get around to killing and eating them. Your pantry is an ideal place to stash them, as it is already climate controlled and full of rodent food. If you think I’m bringing in food for the DOG, you have lost whatever tenuous grasp on sanity you ever had. Those rodents are for ME. Do you think that I even want a dog in the house, much less feed it? If you absolutely must do something about my food supply, then you may kill and dress my catches, mince them, and saute lightly in butter. Serve with a side of heavy cream, with perhaps some catnip for seasoning.
Finally, do you think you’re my SERVANT? Don’t get ideas above your station, slave.
OK, I understand that casual racism/culturism exists. I’m sure that I have committed such acts myself. But today, it caused a WTF???
I am chatting with a co-worker about a phone call she took for me. She was complaining about the heavy accent of the caller. I explained that this is a client in Miami, one of a number of Miami clients we acquired lately, and they primarily speak Spanish. (Unfortunately, we only have one co-worker who speaks Spanish fluently.) She then made a comment that it was a good thing Jewish people speak English, otherwise we’d need to find someone who “speaks Jewish”. :eek:
I causally mentioned that I, in fact, do speak some Yiddish (not “Jewish”), so we’d be OK on that front. (I didn’t feel the need to mention Ladino, it would’ve confused things; I also did not mention my Jewish background or that our Technical Specialist is Jewish.) However, I had to seriously fight the impulse to verbally slap her down for the comment. It wouldn’t change anything, and would just make us all uncomfortable. sigh
PLEASE let’s not allow curlcoat to hijack YET ANOTHER thread with her patented hatred of the poor and children. She’s done it quite enough for any person’s lifetime.
Dearest pussycat,
Deepest apologies. I stand corrected.
(but you did tell me you like the dog. She is your biggest fan, unlike the slug brothers. She even wags her tail when you sink your claw into her forehead)
Your slave (who will endeavor to up the Fancy Feast to case loads, rather than mere multipaks)
slumtrimpet
