Complaints | Piss and Moan

Cold breeze

Posted on February 10, 2020 by backuphill

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I am not one to often complain about the temperature. I have, for most of my life, seemed to run at a higher temp than most so I don’t find myself shivering when it comes to “normal” temps. I am generally comfortable between 65-75 degrees.

Friday night, however, I found myself freezing, indoors, at a local restaurant. Red Robin might serve hot food, but the restaurant was cold enough to refrigerate food without a fridge. I am pretty sure the inside temp was only 7 degrees above the outside temp.

The outside temp was running somewhere around 43 degrees. It was windy and the rain was coming down in sheets – sideways. The walk from the car to the building was less than pleasant and I found the lower half of my body rather damp. The upper half was well shielded in my standard Helly Hansen jacket.

But, upon arriving at the table, my immediate comment to those there with me was that it was cold in the dining area. They agreed, as they had been sitting there for about 10 minutes waiting for everyone to arrive.

The rest of the evening, everyone was wearing jackets, sweaters, and shivering. Not exactly an inviting atmosphere for dining…

…or perhaps this cold temp was on purpose so that it would push people to leave sooner on a busy Friday night. If that’s the case, it is even more obnoxious. Upon checkout at their little computer thing, I did leave a review about the internal temp of the restaurant. Hopefully it caught someone’s attention.

Not in the mood

Posted on February 7, 2020 by backuphill

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Before your brain goes there, let me just say that is not what I am talking about.

I just simply not in the mood to deal today.

Honestly, I’d just like to insulate myself from the world and do nothing.

I don’t want people around. I don’t want interaction of any kind.

I only want to do what I want to do, and it has to be something that is mindless and relaxing. It has to be fun (by my standards).

I am not in the mood to adult. I don’t want any responsibilities today. None.

Can I just sit here and sulk while I am at work, while I have to do everything that is exactly opposite of what I just said I wanted?

Whack-a-mole car

Posted on February 6, 2020 by backuphill

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Whack-a-mole can be kind of a fun game. But, after a while it gets rather tiring and you just wanna give up and rip the whacker off the game and just whack anything that moves.

I have gotten to that point with my teen daughter’s car. I am tired of playing whack-a-mole on maintenance issues that never seem to stop. I swear this car has become a “money pit” for repairs. Just when you think you have it fixed and it should be good for a while…not so much.

UGH!!

Anyone have a couple thousand dollars they wanna donate to just buy a different used car for her? Didn’t think so. I don’t either.

After having the alternator and battery replaced in the last two weeks, now we have an apparent coolant leak. It’s not running out onto the ground. It doesn’t appear that any hoses are busted. So, that leads me to believe it is probably going into places in the engine it doesn’t belong.

UGH!!

Did I already say that? Sorry. I am just not sure what else to say.

Fact check

Posted on February 5, 2020 by backuphill

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“Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts.”

The rise of fact checkers has never been more needed. We need to make sure our politicians are being truthful (because we all know their not, no matter what side their on). “The spin” is always in play and, quite frankly, can be rather disgusting when it gets right down to it.

So, I appreciate that we have people and organizations who do some fact checking. BUT, they are not exactly infallible. While they purport to be “unbiased,” they are not. We still need to watch for bias and we still need to be aware of leanings. Sure, they may not be as obvious in their bias as some media outlets, but it is still there. Example: simply by choosing what and what not to fact check and then report it could display bias.

Factcheck.org is one of my go to places for fact checking. It’s comprehensive and it appears to have little bias. However, there is still a problem. I’ll use the 2020 State of the Union Address from last night as a demonstration of what I was saying in the last paragraph. The linked article above only covers issues that the president got wrong or embellished. There is nothing in the article that points to where he was correct or telling the truth.

To me, that isn’t a balanced fact check. If you’re gonna do the job, do the whole job – line by line and tell us what is correct and what isn’t. Support it good research. Fact check it all. Once the speech is published in its entirety, fact check the whole thing. Don’t pick and choose what and what not to check.

So, if you are looking for more info, you can also check other places. Get a well rounded view of what is going on and what happened. Get info from every perspective, including from places deemed to have little bias. You can, again, use the president’s address from last night as an introduction to the site. The site is Allsides.org.

I know I have talked about these websites before. But I can’t help but make sure you have a place (or places) you can go to get information that is tainted as little as possible with bias. With a flood of information from anywhere and everywhere on the internet, you need to make sure that what you are consuming is as accurate as possible.

We can’t afford to be ignorant. We must be well informed.

Do your due diligence.

Uninvited

Posted on February 4, 2020 by backuphill

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OK, am I crazy here? Am I being unreasonable?

If you have guests staying in your home, do you think it is inappropriate for them to invite guests over to your house? Essentially, guests are inviting guests into your home.

Furthermore, what if all the guests are family?

So, some family is now living in my home for an undetermined amount of time. It’s been less than a week since this change. One of the conditions of moving in was that they were not allowed to have guests over, because having people in your space is one thing but then to have those people inviting strangers into your home because they are their friends, is just a whole other problem. This condition seemed to be understood.

Anyway, last night I overheard a conversation where the newly homed family members (in my home) were making plans with other family members who don’t exactly live nearby, but are within driving distance of their own home, to stay at the house. I believe the conversation went something like, “Well, you can come and hang out for the evening and we can probably find a place for you to crash. Driving home that late doesn’t make sense. I am sure we can find room. It’ll be fun. You can just go home the next day.”

Excuse me? Fun for whom? Have you checked with me yet? Is this OK with me? You are making plans for me and my home without checking with me first. How is that OK? I mean, I have already altered my life to allow some family to stay in the house, do I really need to rearrange my life just so more family can stay in my house? Really?

Does it make a difference in this situation if the family members involved are your adult children and grandkids? One adult child has moved in with her 11 year old daughter. They are inviting our middle son and his family (wife, 3 boys under 7) to stay at the house too. Mind you, there is barely enough room for the people already staying in the house…

Am I crazy here? Am I being selfish?

I liked my nest empty. I want it back that way. That’s not to say I don’t love the kids and grandkids, but come on…it’s kind of the principle of the thing, isn’t it?

Babysitting

Posted on February 3, 2020 by backuphill

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I have known for quite a while I don’t like little people. That’s why I didn’t become an elementary teacher. I just couldn’t handle it. It drove me nuts.

Then I had my own child and I survived the little people stage. It wasn’t as challenging as I thought it would be, but I was glad when it was over. I definitely didn’t want to repeat it again. It’s one thing to watch your own young kids. It’s another to watch someone else’s, no matter who they are.

So, naturally, I hate babysitting.

But, I find that I am required to do so once in a while for a family member. Mostly it is because I feel obligated and can’t really say no, even though my selfish heart really tells me I should. I have no desire, at all, to spend time with little people. None.

Unfortunately, my sister needed some help this last Saturday and thus, I am obligated to watch my 3 year old niece. She is smart. She is relatively well behaved. I still don’t like it. I can’t wait for nap time to come.

Like really.

Nap time for her. Nap time for me.

Why do I say yes to this torture……??

Becoming rather taxing

Posted on January 31, 2020 by backuphill

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The state I live in, Washington, has no income tax. It’s against the law.

What you’ll read in this article is that our legislature is trying apply a tax on businesses with employees who are paid more than $150k a year. All in the name of battling homelessness.

Sounds great does’t it? Not so fast.

The Seattle City Counsel passed a “head tax” on Seattle business last year (you’ll also read that in the article too). That tax was aimed at large corporations whom they feel are exploiting workers and causing the housing costs to go up. So, they would tax these companies X number of dollars per employee, over a certain number of employees. If I remember correctly, it was $550/per employee for really large corporations and $250/per employee for smaller ones. Small business were exempt, supposedly. The counsel soon rescinded that because they did it illegally by holding secret meetings, behind closed doors, etc etc etc.

Now, instead of the local group trying to unfairly tax corporations, the state legislature is taking up the issue and calling it an “excise tax”. As one person interviewed in the article calls it, “New coat of paint on a bad idea.”

The City of Seattle, King County, and others have tried to pass an income tax on high earners ($400K+) several different times. It has consistently been voted down by citizens and the courts as illegal and against the state constitution.

This new effort by the state legislature is essentially moving the high income earners tax from the earner to the employer. Thus, it is an income tax, they have just prettied of the terminology to try and disguise what it actually is.

Our Democrat friends, who constantly like to have their hands in our pockets are at it again. Our Democrat friends are now also playing a different game at every level of politics – if you don’t like the definition of a word, give it a different one and shame everyone who disagrees with you. (I use the word “friend” very loosely.)

This issue is no different. They want their hands in our pockets again….and they don’t like the definition of “income tax” so they just keep renaming it in the hope that no one is paying attention.

Spinning

Posted on January 29, 2020 by backuphill

grayscale of woman in black flat sandals walking

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Keeping the plates spinning today will be challenging at best, but maybe a pending disaster is inevitable anyway.

Work like if busy as hell and personal life is in disarray.

Challenges seem to be coming from all directions and dealing with them would be much easier if there weren’t other challenges already being dealt with. Or challenges on top of challenges. Or challenges loaded onto the plates that are already spinning.

A plate spinner can only keep up for so long…

“Emergency”

Posted on January 27, 2020 by backuphill

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Why is someone else’s “emergency” suddenly mine?

How does someone’s repeated poor choices, bad decisions, and terrible money management become my problem?

Why am I forced to suffer the consequences of others’ stupidity?

These questions, unfortunately, will never be answered. I am just unlucky enough to have to ask them on a frequently repeated basis.

I had to buy a used car this weekend so that I could loan it to a family member for a short period of time. Because they have no transportation and desperately need to keep their job, which is needed to keep other disastrous things from happening…which might still happen anyway.

It’s something I really didn’t have much of a choice in because I am damned if I do, and damned if I don’t.

Huh? sigh

Posted on January 24, 2020 by backuphill

It’s only 11:13am and it has already been one of those days. On a Friday, no less. Aren’t Friday’s supposed to be easy?

It’s already a “throw your hands in the air” kind of day.

It’s an Arsenio Hall “Things that make you say HMMMM…” kind of day.

At work.

At home.

With family.

Relationships.

I’m tired.

I’m ready to pack it in.

I’m ready to go some place warm with a tropical breeze, by myself, kick up my feet, and throw back a few cold ones.

Photo by Melina Vargas on Pexels.com

Can I return this day? I don’t want it any longer. It’s only slightly used and in like new condition. I still have my receipt.