September Mini-Rants (Can't Even Be Bothered)

The BBQ Pit
81

vacation planning sucks. I’m not thrilled to be doing 90% of the planning for a vacation involving 3 people. I’m annoyed that one of the people claims not to have opinions, and then makes faces when we talk about getting up in time to go whitewater rafting at 9 am.

Nevertheless, I have made motel reservations for all but two of the nights of our journey-- and firmly assigned responsibility for those two to someone else. We can argue about food while we’re traveling. I’m only a little nervous that we are going to spend time driving in circles, because I couldn’t tell what a logical order to do things in would be. And I"m a little afraid that we’ve got more museums and fewer hikes than would be ideal, but since we’re not buying tickets till we get there, we can swap things out as we go.

82

Exactly! This is why its such a conundrum. We really do love Steve and would feel horrible if we let him suffer because we didn’t have him treated…but what if he really is taking a big step forward in the slave training program?

The bottom line is that all cats are jerks, they just show it in different ways.

83

Any chance the vet would make a house call and you pop Steve with a kitty Valium before s/he arrives?

84

It’s the sort of detail that sticks for a cat lover. I also remember that Buttercup fetches escaping kitties, although, given it was Lucky, I’m guessing she hasn’t had to fetch for a while as, IIRC, you have him closely confined.

ETA: It *is *possible he’s getting over being feral. Tiny Kittens has turned around cats older than Steve was on capture into loving house cats.

85

Look, I’m not going to impugn the good intentions of those who say "Prayers and good wishes to those in (Texas, Florida, wherever).
But, that’s not going to do any good.

If there is a God, he’s perfectly aware of what’s going on, and if he’s not doing anything, than the hell with him. People there don’t need prayers, they need money and muscle. So back up your prayers with one or both, or shut up.*

*That said, I’m sure there’s some out there putting their money where their mouth is. Maybe even most.

86

I’m wondering if there’s going to be a sort of compassion fatigue. There are going to be a lot of people hurt by Hurricane Irma. Will people be as willing or able to respond to pleas for help for Florida right on the heels of all the Texas ones?

87

I agree that Steve could be making a big breakthrough. However, things have been a little chaotic around here lately and nobody has been drinking the water they are used to. He could be having issues over that. Or, now that my library issues have been taken care of, I am just worrying about something small to keep my mind so occupied that I forget to worry about the big stuff.

You are right about Lucky not being able to escape anymore, blind cats don’t run. Buttercup is still very watchful when he’s moving and if she thinks he’s making a move for the stairs, she will lay at the bottom of the stairs, block him with her body and then give him some sloppy dawg head licks. At that point, he gets grossed out by the dawg drool and returns to the “safe” area, or he thinks “warm body, this is a good place to take a nap”, and cuddles up on her.

Very odd behavior for a grayhound, but very sweet.

88

Yeah. Dogs are just weird.

89

Really, lady? You were ‘not involved’ in the incident in April when you rammed my car? You’re trying to pull this shit now?

You gave me your details, remember? You wrote them down for me (and left a nice big corroborating paint smear on the car). You were standing right there, in the road, even when the driver who had been turning in front of me showed up and gave me her details and in front of us both said she saw the whole thing, if I needed a witness.

I suggested (as the damage was pretty minor) not going through insurance, and if you’d just pay to get my lock fixed, which you broke, I’d call it quits, and never mind about the dent. That would have been far cheaper than going through insurance, and having your premiums hiked up, for both of us. No, you said, you wanted to get it done properly, and you were going to report it. I gave you my details, including my number. You didn’t call before the end of the day, when I got off work, so of course I called my insurance and let them know, what else was I going to do? You didn’t call me, but apparently, you changed your mind about reporting it (I suspect when you got home and discussed it with your husband and realised it wasn’t really going to be free to get your bumper fixed).

You were paying no attention whatsoever while driving; hell, I could see you in the mirror with your head turned round, talking to the kids in the back seat as you drove into the back of my car, so I suppose it’s no big surprise that you don’t think as well as don’t pay attention.

But dammit, this is crap timing. I’ve just moved house, and as my insurance paid out months back, I chucked out that bit of paper with your details on it just two weeks ago, when I moved. I remember doing it, because I thought it was all finished anyway (I could have sworn one of the agents had said that it was fine, you hadn’t contested it), and it felt a little voyeuristic keeping it past necessity.

90

I’ve been in a few collisions. Each time, I exchanged information with the other driver. And each time, when reporting the incident to my own insurance company, I passed the other driver’s information along to the claims department (I also copied it into a document I keep on my computer). Are you unable to obtain the information back from your claims adjuster?

91

Yeah, I did give them all the info at the time- just thinking that it would be nice to be able to show that I have all her details; address, car registration etc. written down in her handwriting.

It just seems that way it’d be harder to argue that she had nothing to do with it, and I didn’t just find her details on some database.

92

Assuming that your car has been fixed, I think its all good, Filbert. Her insurance company was involved in less than a day after you reported the claim.

Good news here in Houston: Mail Service has been restored in many areas, including ours.

Hurray, we got mail!

Oh, what’s this? It looks like a jury summons for me and its for tomorrow. Lovely. Here’s a number to call to find out if the case is still scheduled, AND their phone system worked, which is more good news. Government services are being restored, this is honestly wonderful.

The rant? The trial is still scheduled and I am expected to be there. Seriously? The freeway system is still seriously borked, my car floated away and I’m now driving a 4-wheel company truck just to be able to get to work in half an hour instead of 7 minutes. The court house would normally be a 20 minute drive, but I’m not sure that I can make it in an hour.

I will be there, but I am already pre-emptively annoyed because I just know that we will be sent home because a judge or a lawyer couldn’t manage to get there.

93

So we’ll be attending Extended Family Wedding in early October exactly a week after getting our new rescue dog. I wanted her to come here after the wedding (which is in a neighboring state) but her rescue organization doesn’t have any transport scheduled after this one. It’s an evening wedding, we can’t afford to stay overnight, we’ll be leaving rescue dog with our 11-year old husky…and I’m having palpitations over all this because I think it’s unfair to leave a new-to-us dog alone for that long. Neglect is a part of her history and this would be playing right into that…?

I also need to buy a “casual cocktail” outfit for this wedding, which I’m sure is going to go great with my orthopedic shoes.

94

Don’t go…obviously you have health issues…beg off sick…send a nice card and a check…your new family member deserves your attention

95

I ordered my husband some underwear - the kind he likes isn’t available in local stores. No biggie.

I got a 15% discount by providing an email address and subscribing to their ads. No biggie.

I placed the order yesterday. I’m being deluged with emails from them already. Time to unsubscribe. EXCEPT when you click the Unsubscribe link, it takes you to their website so you can buy more underwear. There’s no place to say “Stop sending me this crap!!!” I’ll order from them in the future, because they seem to have the best price on his preferred unders, but I don’t need to get multiple ads daily for thongs and bikinis which are nothing like what I ordered.

Yeah, I can just delete the stupid emails, but I don’t want them to come. GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

96

Will your internet provider let you have multiple mailboxes? If so, set one up just for places that require you to sign up, but you don’t want to see their crap all the time. Mine has the same name as my real account, but with a “J” for junk inserted. Like if my real address was MaryDoe@somplace.com, my secondary would be MaryJDoe@someplace.com

I sign into that mailbox once a week (unless I’m the process of some transaction that requires some back and forthing) and usually can delete everything in it right from subject lines without even opening the message. Takes maybe half a minute.

97

Don’t go! That was easy; wasn’t even your decision. “Sorry, internet says I can’t go.”

My wife and I still get someone mentioning how nice our wedding was, and as soon as they leave, we BOTH say “I had NO idea they were there!” The day is a blur of adrenaline and emotion (and alcohol and carrot cake).

My point? The only person who’ll even have time to disapprove of your not being there there is one old biddy with a stick up her butt (your mom maybe? Aunt Irene on her third flute?) who would’ve criticized you for your shoes anyhow.

98

Set up a filter that sends them to their own folder and marks them read [I do this in Thunderbird] That way they don’t hit your attention at all, but in a pinch you can find and read through them. I actually have a specific email addy I use for all commercial contact [and one that is specific for gaming, and one that is for ‘business’ -lawyers, anything that needs my real name on it, and one that I use for everything else, message boards, email groups and the like, social contacts I guess you would call it.] I tend to have filters set up so my messages get sorted into folders so pretty much anything that ends up in general incoming usually is spam of some sort or brand new and needs to be set up into a folder of its own.

99

Dear Ice Cream Place:

When I spend over six dollars for a small dish of ice cream, I think I’m entitled to a spoon to go with it. Is a glorified toothpick an acceptable substitute? No, it is not. The fact that your company’s name is on it doesn’t impress me. I’ll go elsewhere in the future.

Sincerely, Customer

100

Seems like a hasty move. An interim step might be, oh, I don’t know, just blue-sky’ing here, maybe…
ask for a spoon?