Mine don’t either. They’re idiots. That’s why I come here!
As to drivers and handypersons…I live in a fairly close-knit little neighborhood. Two of my neighbors are handicapped and don’t drive: I or someone else will drive them to appointments or grocery shopping. I sometimes work long hours, so I have a couple of people with keys to my house who will let my dogs out and give them a little love if I work a 10-hour day. If I have some sort of emergency (or vice versa) I have several people I can call.
In my experience, being close and cooperative with friends and neighbors is critical - not only for safety and having a back up, but because having a local “village” of IRL folks nearby who will get your back for whatever is what makes a community a community.
Oh god, I just had to deal with this yesterday. Took my car to Les Schwab for desperately-needed new tires. Mentioned that I had a bearing problem on my right-front wheel so that the guys would know what that noise was. Sat around there for almost three hours (really glad I brought my Kindle) while they installed the new tires (I guess the siping took longer than I thought it would). Guy finally comes back with an astonished look on his face and informs me that my wheel bearing problem was the absolute worst he had ever seen on a wheel that hadn’t already fallen off.
Me: "Wait, you mean the whole damned wheel could fall off?
Him: “It could fall off in another mile. I’m surprised it hasn’t already.”
So I had them fix that too, which meant leaving my car there for the rest of the day. Since I didn’t want to sit there all day, I had to walk my ass all the way back home (wasn’t carrying any cash so couldn’t catch a bus), and then walk my ass all the way back to pick it up when they were through.
The upside is that I don’t have to listen to that awful racket any more. And I’m confident I’ll be able to stop my car in the snow. And the car is handling so much better that I actually had a bit of trouble with it at first.
Why should I pay for a handyman to run to Home Depot? Talk about a waste of money and time!
I did pay a handy man to replace a toilet since my back does not approve of me lifting large, awkwardly shaped items. That was money well spent, since I was able to have him pick up the toilet at the store, install it at my house and cart away the old one. That is 3 chances to throw out my back that were avoided, and it was done while I was at work. A win all the way around.
However, I refuse to pay someone to do simple tasks that I am can do with minimal effort.
Psst. I dislike the Ottawa valley, Ontario winters, am not particularly enamoured of the Leafs (although my dad is a fan, so I grew up with it, and all jokes aside, there are worse teams around…but I do love the Canucks) and we have very divergent politics. However, on the basis of your second last sentence: Wanna hookup?
Joking aside, I miss being single in the whole “if I want cereal for dinner and burgers for breakfast, I can do it” thing. Also making a mess with my craft stuff. I remember the first time I lived alone I stocked up on gatorade, and made chicken soup to freeze tincase I got sick. I loved living alone, my scissors were always where i lfet them
I talk to my mom across the country weekly; if I missed the call more than once she’d probably reach out for someone to check on me, though my closest ‘relative’ is ten hours’ drive away.
If I wasn’t around to feed them, the cats have each other…for food, after they’ve finished me off.
I don’t have friends that drop by, mostly hear from my neighbors when they need something; maybe I should get a job outside the house so I’m missed if I’m missing?
Cooking anything that wasn’t really meant to be cooked in individual portions means either eating the same thing two or three nights in a row, or having to throw out unused ingredients or spoiled leftovers.
You will never finish an entire loaf of bread before it goes stale.
I solve both problems by setting aside all I know won’t eat and freezing it the day it’s made. Frozen bread makes perfectly fine toast, leftovers frozen in meal portions are great a few weeks after when you’re not sick of them anymore.
Um, because most professionals expect to be paid for their services?
Likewise. Aside from the three days I took off in 2010 for some minor surgery, and scheduled vacations, I haven’t missed a day of work in more than 15 years. At my current job, I have never even been a few minutes late. If I just didn’t show up, somebody would know that something was wrong.
Reliability has its downside. The upside is that, if you’re late one day, you usually don’t get in trouble. It’s seen as an oddity —“Eh, shit happens”. The downside? That same cutting of slack. Most of my career, I’ve been a breakfast cook, and that means that I’m the very first person into the kitchen at the start of the day, and it’s up to me to fire everything up. And the key thing there is that nothing gets cooked until the equipment is hot.
So I’ve had to have discussions with employers and coworkers about what to do if I’m not there on time.
What not to do: Assume that I’m just running behind, and wait 15-20-30 minutes for me to show up before calling. This is a bad idea. Because once I get there, it’s going to be another 20-30 minutes before the kitchen is ready to start serving food. And those customers who show up exactly at opening time are not going to be happy about having to wait.
What to do: If I’m not there right on time, call me RIGHT NOW. If I’m not there on time, it means that I’ve probably overslept, so call right now and wake my ass up. If I was just “running behind”, I would have called to let you know and tell you I was on my way.
This. Yes, I’m a professional cook. Yes, at home I eat frozen pizza, microwave burritos, ramen, and PB&J sandwiches. Because, since I’m cooking only for myself at home, I refuse to spend 30+ minutes cooking something that will only take me 10 minutes to eat. And I can’t buy fresh ingredients in small enough quantities that they won’t go bad faster than I can eat them (unless I want to pay insane prices, and visit the grocery store every other day). And, after cooking for 40 hours during my work week, I don’t want to spend my days off in the kitchen cooking and packaging portions to put in the freezer. Fuck that.
