Community | Piss and Moan

Jury duty

Posted on July 19, 2023 by backuphill

Civic duty, but….

There has been a change in the way you have to find out if you are to report for jury duty and I don’t like it. I don’t know what other places have to do or go through for this process but from my experience here locally there has been a definite change and I don’t like it because it keeps you in a hold pattern for two weeks.

It used to be that you filled out the form, sent it in, then called at the appointed time to find out if you needed to report for the next week. For the second week, typically, it had been that you would have to call a second time for that week but not always.

So, I had a vacation planned last week and I also got notice that I would have to call for jury duty that week too. So, any plans I had (luckily just a staycation) were immediately out the door and I couldn’t plan anything either because I wasn’t sure if I would have to report. I called at the appointed time and they said call again in two days.

For the entire first week, and now for the entire second week, they have you calling every two days to see if you are going to report to the courthouse the following day. They are literally stringing you along for two weeks instead of just releasing you when they have nothing on the docket.

Highly irritating!

So, I have been in limbo for two weeks, playing jury duty roulette with vacation plans and work because they have a different way of doing things now.

Stupid.

Forced charity

Posted on July 13, 2023 by backuphill

Charity is great, but when it is forced charity, well, that Pisses me off. Then it isn’t charity, it’s just big business charging you a fee (read that as “tax”) to cover the cost of doing their business. So, I am going to Moan really loudly about this.

Cascade Natural Gas in Washington has asked the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission for a fee that will basically recoup the cost of it’s service to people who can’t afford it. Rather than covering that cost themselves and using it as a write-down on their taxes (I am sure they will do this too – as in, double dip), they are going to charge all their customers an extra fee on top of all the other fees to pay for a program most people don’t even care about.

There is no option to opt out. There is no option to opt in. It’s just, “Let me reach into your pocket once again and take your money without consent.”

I say without consent because the WUTC is an unelected, oversight board that is filled with people appointed by our governor (Democrat) and approved by the state senate (Democrat). Essentially, there is no recourse for customers because these things get hard stamped approval because – liberals.

I shouldn’t be forced to pay for something someone else can’t pay for. That’s robbery. That’s a tax. That’s coercion at it’s worst.

And, once again, it’s government approved.

Good eating

Posted on March 22, 2023 by backuphill

Photo by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi on Pexels.com

I like to eat way too much.

Check that statement. If you read that or make that statement in the wrong way, there is the impression that I consume more than I should (which, I suppose, is true to some degree), but that isn’t what I mean.

I like the act of eating and the taste of good food, way too much.

I was thinking last night about a kind of strange thing, or maybe not. It was in reference to food, good food. So, I’ll pose the question to the group, and don’t take health considerations into account. Ignore that for a moment and purely make a decision on variety, quality, and taste.

If you could only consume food from one restaurant menu for the rest your life, what restaurant would it be?

This is a challenging question. I would think you would want to choose one that serves a variety of types of food. Limiting yourself to one style or type of food would get rather mundane. As much as I may like Chick-Fil-A or Taco Bell or Wendy’s or whatever, the variety of food offerings isn’t diverse enough.

Instead, you probably would consider places that have more casual dining menus, places like Denny’s or Applebees or Red Robin or IHop or …. I am sure there are more to choose from and the list could go on.

For me, I guess the first choice I would make would probably be Applebees (unless presented with a better choice). I like the variety they offer and I have never really had a bad meal there.

So, what about you? What would you choose?

Unnecessary apology #5

Posted on March 17, 2023 by backuphill

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Kinda late with this one today, but I was busy…

Once again I am here to humbly ask your forgiveness. Once again I am sure I have offended and disappointed someone out there, so let me issue this unnecessary apology just so I can cover all my bases in all instances from now until the end of time.

I bathed. Yes, I took a bath. It was a full bath tub and I actually enjoyed it.

Sorry if that makes you mad. Sorry if that makes me “less manly” or “more feminine.”

I didn’t take it to get clean. I took it to relax. I took it because it was time to be alone and in the quiet. Call it “self-care,” whatever the heck that is.

But, here’s the thing, and I am sure there is the part that will really rile some environmentalist or climate change activest’s feathers…

…the bath tub was FULL! And, it was full with HOT water!

Like, I put as much hot water in there as possible without making it spill over the edge as I lowered my body in.

What a waste, right? Too much water and too much energy was used. I am such a bad, horrible, irresponsible person.

I am sure there are poor thirsty people somewhere in the world where I could have sent all that water. Probably some farm or garden or some dried up lake/stream that supports a lower life form that could have used that water.

What’s that you say? Oh, sorry, I had my head underwater. I couldn’t hear your protests…

Not sorry, sorry.

Unnecessary apology #3

Posted on March 15, 2023 by backuphill

You don’t have to admit it, but I know you have done this one too, especially if you have your own children. I’ll admit it for you. Today’s apology goes out to all primates because it’s probably not fair or cool or proper or appropriate or politically correct of us humans to imitate your eating of a banana (or at least what we think you might look like when eating a banana).

It all started that one day, way back when my daughter was just a wee one and she was finally able to eat semi-solid food. Of course, one of the softer foods to serve a wee one is a banana.

So, as she was strapped into the high chair and I was doing the thing from Unnecessary apology #2, I was prepping for my primate impersonation….

…Assume the posture, make primate noises and sounds, imitate primate mobility, make primate faces, consume banana in the primate way…

All for the entertainment of a wee one. Smiles, giggles, and claps ensue from the wee one.

Goal achieved.

Except, now thinking back, it was wholey inappropriate of me to assume that I could or should take on primate charateristics. How rude and insensitive of me. I am sure they (the primates) would be offended had they seen me.

Apology served.

Unnecessary apology #2

Posted on March 14, 2023 by backuphill

I don’t know if there is a term for this, but I probably have to apologize to someone, somewhere for it. Maybe the apology is owed to the young for being patronizing or maybe it is to the older folks for stooping so low as to “not act my age.”

So, today, I apologize to whomever needs to hear it – young or old.

I am sorry for talking like a baby (or very small child) to a baby.

Again, I have to admit it, but it comes as a rather natural reaction to revert back to this way of communication when someone small is involved. I just can’t help myself. The “goo-goo, ga-ga’s” just kind of fall out of my head. Is baby talk natural? It must be because we all tend to do it…and I don’t even really like babies all that much.

I find that I hate myself a little more after having regressed back to infantile language skills, but for whatever reason it seems to work in my meager attempt at communication to elicit a smile from the newly present humans.

So, please, small human, accept this unnecessary apology.

The Power of Stupidity

Posted on February 8, 2023 by backuphill

I came across an article title the other day that almost screamed for me to read the article. I couldn’t avoid it. I looked at it. Ignored it. Went back to it. Ignored it some more, and then finally caved and read it. This article, “Bonhoeffer’s “theory of stupidity”: We have more to fear from stupid people than evil ones” ended up making some great points, but it also confirmed what I have been thinking for a long while. I tried to avoid the confirmation bias, but the author is of like mind I guess.

Like I said, I didn’t want to read it. I already know the power of stupidity. I was a high school history teacher so I saw, heard, and witnessed it on a daily basis. But, for the most part, those days were silly and harmless and easily laughed off as adolescence doing and saying adolescent things.

The problem is now I am not in a classroom and in the “real” world of people, where the adults are supposed to be rational, logical, and somewhat levelheaded. Instead, what I see is a place that is really scary because the number of stupid people has grown exponentially over the last decade or so. Those students that were stupid in my classroom have gown up and they haven’t grown out of their stupidity.

Now they tout their stupidity like it’s a badge of honor. Now they are adults, spouting stupidity like a fountain in Vegas and haranging people who don’t fall in line with their stupidity because they are now self-appointed culture and social justice warriors. Their numbers grow and grow and grow because now they can use their social media channels the “cancel” those whom they can’t have an actual, rational discussion with.

One or two stupid persons is easy enough to deal with, but when they become a mob not so much. One or two stupid persons are easy enough to avoid but when they are members of your family it becomes a challenge to tolerate spending time with them. As a whole, it is getting harder and harder to exist in a society where stupidity now seems to rule the day. You can’t avoid them at home, at work, in your social circles, in your government, in your medical institutions, in your educational endeavors…the list just gets bigger and bigger.

I tried to influence those I taught so many years ago. I now fear (and see) that my efforts failed.

So, how do we get our society back? How do we recue the nation from the stupid people who now exist in every facet of our daily lives and, unfortunately, even control it?

Share your thoughts. Share an experience with a stupid person that left you shaking your head. Share an experience with a stupid person that left you in dispare for the future. Share a thought on what can or should be done to fix this menace to society/humankind.

I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Totally obvious

Posted on January 20, 2023 by backuphill

I got to thinking (I know, kinda dangerous). The other day I totally went off the other day about bad parenting and what I thought was bad parenting, because I watch it happen every day right before my eyes. I have been reading some posts on another blog that basically takes info from polls and puts them into an article summarizing the thoughts of others. So, why not try that here?

So, let’s start with what I posted the other day as the basis. Respond in the comments and let me (and others) know what you think.

What two things make it totally obvious that a parent has no idea what they are doing or is just simply a bad parent?

Fury fuel

Posted on September 23, 2022 by backuphill

Trying out something new. I have been playing with the idea for a while and then I thought, “What the hell! I don’t have anything to lose by doing it.”

So, if you click on that Menu button on the upper right of the page, you’ll see a new button to donate via PayPal.

If you feel led to do so, send me $5 of your hard earned money. I’ll appreciate ever so much!

Just think of it as fuel for my fury.

With just one more cup of coffee I can produce content that will make you think, make you laugh, make you shake your head in disgust, make you see something from a different point of view.

Really. With just $5.

Pretty good deal if you ask me.

Emergency state

Posted on August 19, 2022 by backuphill

The Washington governor is the most ridiculous ever. This isn’t an over the top, exaggeration type statement. It’s a fact. Case in point: He still has his “emergency powers” and will not let them go. The state legislature doesn’t even have a way to check his power (not surprisingly, the Dems in the state actually refused to change the state constitution to give them, the legislature, a check on the governor).

As the dreaded c-word has basically run it’s course, the governor – Jay Inslee – continues to make rules and dictate what will happen in the state even though an emergency no longer exists. Nevermind the fact that the “emergency” was over at least a year ago, but now the CDC has basically said that nearly everyone in the US has “immunity” to it. 95% of Americans have had sh0ts or actually had it. As such, they have dropped nearly all precautions instituted/recommended. They even said they basically blew it when it comes to how they responded. The governor, however, has refused to say when he will give up the powers and certainly makes it clear there are no plans to do it any time soon.

Here’s the thing though, the governor (and by extension, Dems in general) don’t want to let go of this “emergency” because it has given them extraordinary, unchecked power to control nearly everything in the daily lives of the population. It has made it easier for them to cancel opposition or put up roadblocks to keep people from questioning their authority.

Folks, this had drug out way too long. There may have been a need at one point, for a short period of time, but this has turned into the most egregarious power grabs in history. Whomever thought allowing a governor to have unchecked powers missed the mark entirely.

Mark my words, there will be more “emergencies” in the near future.