Complaints | Piss and Moan

O Canada…

Posted on September 13, 2018 by backuphill

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Our neighbors from the northern land!

Improve your driving we shall command.

Your lack of skill comes as no surprise,

Violate the laws and you won’t be free!

From the border you come,

O Canada, you speed on the freeway.

God you’re rude and pushy too!

O Canada, we won’t stand to let you speed.

O Canada, we won’t let you speed for free.

A little ode for our Canadian neighbors, sung to the tune of their national anthem. If you live in the upper left corner of the United States, you can totally relate to this little ditty. Shoot, if you live anywhere within reach of the Canadian border, you can probably relate. Am I wrong?

Total generalization here, but the general consensus (or commonly held stereotype) is that Canadians are generally a docile and friendly people. If you are actually IN Canada, I have found this to be true for the most part. They are nice people. However, in my experience, the are not great drivers.

Once they cross that border in the US, that stereotype goes away and another becomes the reality. They apparently forget all rules of the road and all manners while shopping. If you live within 200 miles of the border in Washington, this is a well known fact.

Reality is that Canadians are rude and self-absorbed. Two areas this is blatantly obvious: driving and shopping. This is displayed in driving because they speed, weave in and out of traffic, cut people off, tailgate, and otherwise display poor behavior with abandon because there is apparently no consequence for it, even when they get pulled over. The other area is shopping. The clog up our stores (especially close to the border) and purchase weird amounts of milk and gas (can we thank socialism and price controls for that?). They are pushy. They are usually very loud. They sometimes appear to not even understand the purchasing process…I mean, really?

So, how about we try this? Shop online and we’ll ship it too you. We want your money, but we can do without the bad driving and invasion of our stores every time you have a holiday in the land of maple syrup and Mounties.

Punctuate that!

Posted on September 12, 2018 by backuphill

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The downfall of society is coming (well, some would argue it is already here).

Dramatic much? No, I don’t think so.

Language is important. Unfortunately, people are lazy and that translates to poor language skills, as well as a plethora of other bad habits. So, what is the deal with the lack of punctuation in nearly every social media platform? Yes, the option to punctuate is available but it seems fewer and fewer people are choosing to do so. Maybe we can blame it on Twitter – 140 characters is rather limiting and why waste it on punctuation? I get it, but at the same time it isn’t cool.

Grandmothers and small children are being eaten, for the love of everything holy! Some classic examples of why punctuation is important:

“Let’s eat grandma!” vs. “Let’s eat, grandma!”

“We just ate Timmy.” vs. “We just ate, Timmy.”

Oh, and while we’re at it, how about we throw in some capitalization as well?

Anyway, I read an article not long ago that said if I use punctuation in text messages, like a period at the end of the sentence, that I am angry. WTH? Who made up these stupid rules? That’s a pretty big ASSumption to make when I am just using the rules of writing because I don’t want to look like an uneducated dumbsh*t. Got me?

its the little things people and little things matter we ignore the little things and i just dont think were going to recover from this catastrophe see what i mean its annoying isnt it dont make up rules just cuz youre freaking lazy to write properly

Punctuate. Communicate properly.

I’m too old for this

Posted on September 10, 2018 by backuphill

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I recently attended a mini family reunion on the other side of the state. It was a quick one, just over a weekend so two nights was all I was staying. I was also going alone, kids were busy and wife had to work, so I didn’t need to take the usual stuff. I wanted to travel light and quickly.

So, I threw a few camping type supplies into the car and some clothes, and off I went. Tent, sleeping bag, clothes, food.

Well, I regretted “go light” as soon as I climbed into the tent to sleep. I didn’t include the usual stuff like a sleeping pad or an air mattress, like I would have if someone else was along with me. What was I thinking?

My body doesn’t handle the same things it could when I was younger. Apparently my brain thinks I am still young enough to do this crap, my body obviously let me know that wasn’t the case. Comfort? Yeah, not so much. Sleeping on the ground and having an old body (or at least feeling old) just doesn’t add up to much sleep.

Lesson learned? Take the comfortable stuff. It isn’t over-rated.

Shut up and leave me alone

Posted on September 7, 2018 by backuphill

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Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep…

Snooze.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep…

Snooze.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep…

OK, fine. Shut up already. I’m up…

Every stupid day of my life (or at least it seems that way).

Alarm clocks are the worst invention ever. OK, maybe not the worst because getting to work on time is a must, so let’s just say they’re the second worst.

Do I really need this job? I could get rid of the alarm clock…

Apparently you’ve got nothing better to do

Posted on September 6, 2018 by backuphill

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So, apparently, there are people out there with nothing better.

Nothing better to do than engage you in an effort to try and pick a fight on the internet.

I believe they call them “trolls” these days.

Obviously, you can’t avoid them completely, especially if you have an opinion and express it. I know we all have one now and again, and we express them knowing full well that you may be entangled in an argument that will go nowhere but in circles. Yeah, that’s fun…just like a ferris wheel only dumber.

I especially love those kind of trolls that seek you out and ask you questions just so they can try to “get you”. Not gonna do it. Crawl back under your bridge or rock, into your hole, walk back down into your dark and dank basement (we all know where you are, really).

Please, continue to live out your existence lonely and in your underpants.

What you say vs. what you do

Posted on September 5, 2018 by backuphill

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There are lots of people out there these days that say one thing and do another. We would like to think that “our word is our bond” but that isn’t really how it works any longer. “The handshake” used to be all you needed, now it means almost nothing.

“Your actions speak so loudly that I can’t hear what you are saying.”

You say you will do this. You do that.

You offer a service. I pay for that service. You don’t provide said service.

There is nothing more irritating than people who don’t do what they say they will do.

I am not a fan

Posted on September 3, 2018 by backuphill

How did you spend your Labor Day weekend?

Me? Oh, well, thanks for asking…I spent it laboring way too hard. It was one of those projects where I had no choice. You know, forced to do something you really had no intention of doing but are forced to do it anyway? Sucks hardcore and that ain’t no lie.

If you can read and understand the picture above, 2016 & 2017 are pretty normal readings for our house. Obviously then, you can understand that starting in February of 2018 something is going wrong. August broke the camel’s back…

No, that little blue dial isn’t a fan, it’s the water meter for the house and it isn’t supposed to look like that!

So, there was nothing left to dig, dig like you are Indiana Jones on an archeological hunt for the lost leak. By the way, whomever planted all those rocks in the yard is a damn idiot! But, that is a subject for another day. Anyway, I dug. And dug. And dug some more.

It’s hard to get the scale from the angle of the picture, but that is about 20′ and about 36″ deep. Dug by hand, well, not just my hands but my arms, shoulders, back, and a shovel. Yeah, can you feel my pain now? No, literally, the pain…my arms and hands go numb now…anyway…

The leak has been repaired and hopefully the water meter readings go back to normal. What sucks is the repair was relatively cheap ($35) in comparison to the bill ($295+) and effort (pricele$$) to find the leak.

So, to sum up, Labor Day shouldn’t be taking quite so literally.

Don’t mind me, trying to get anywhere…

Posted on August 31, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by David Whittaker on Pexels.com

Passable roads are nice. Summer is nice. So do we have to ruin one to make the other possible?

Summer is apparently the only time road construction can get done. Added to that, it also can only be done during the day and not at night, which is weird considering we have this cool technology called “lights”. So, with technology available to do construction at night while traffic volumes are reduced significantly, why are we still doing it during the day while traffic volume is at it’s highest?

I suppose someone (or maybe just LIFE in general) is out there conspiring against me and all the other people that have to get somewhere…

“Free” garbage

Posted on August 28, 2018 by backuphill

abandoned aged architecture black and white

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Apparently it is now acceptable (not really but people must think so) to leave your garbage wherever the hell you want. Forget the garbage can. Forget taking it to the dump (or whatever you call that place that collects garbage). Forget being a rational, decent person, and taking care of your crap yourself.

No, now all you have to do is haul your unwanted crap (i.e. garbage) to the edge of the road (i.e. sidewalk) or the corner of your property, or worse – in front of someone else’s property, and put a sign on it that says “FREE”.

What kind of conversation does one have to have with one’s self that would make this acceptable? “Good lord, I have a bunch of crap. Actually, it’s just garbage, but I don’t want to take the time or effort to dispose of it properly so I think I’ll just drag it over *scanning* there and put a FREE sign on it. Surely, someone will see this pile of crap and take it because it is, after-all, free.”

Have you ever had that conversation with yourself? If your answer is anything other than no – you’re a damn idiot! STOP putting your crap out in the hopes that someone will take it. It is is garbage and you don’t want it, it is garbage and no one else wants it either!

I literally saw an abandoned six-person dining room table and 5 chairs sitting on the sidewalk in front of an open field, within the city limits. Yes, that’s right, some moron drove their truck to the side of the road and set up the dining room furniture on the sidewalk with a sign that said “Free”. Like WTH, right? I’ve seen couches, chairs, freezers, fridges, stoves, cribs, cars, weight benches, exercise equipment…the list is never ending…

And then there are those people who drive to the end of a gravel road or drive out the middle of nowhere on a dark night and dump their garbage in a pile like they are at the damn dump! Seriously? When did nature become your freaking personal garbage can? GRRRRRRRR!!!! Don’t even get me started….

Come on people, get your sh*t together and stop acting like the world is your oyster – ‘cuz it ain’t! You gotta share it with the rest of us and the rest of us are getting pretty tired of your selfish crap.

The “Poor Me” Society

Posted on August 27, 2018 by backuphill

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Well, there are a whole lot of people these days that you just can’t seem to make happy or placate in any way. We have become a society that immediately jumps on social media or goes to a media outlet of one kind or another to vent the “injustice” one has just suffered.

“Poor Me”

Got a bad meal? Poor me. Post about it on social media and post a nasty review on Yelp (or other place to do a review).

Got treated unfairly? Poor me. Rage post on all forms of social media.

Life generally sucks for ya? Poor me. Complain to everyone over social media.

Got discriminated against because I’m *insert laundry list of issues*? Poor me. Call them out on social media.

*insert laundry list of issues* offended me. Poor me. Everyone else should be offended too.

Life is hard. Poor me.

I don’t have what others have. Poor me.

*this* isn’t what I expected/wanted. Poor me.

We have a problem people. I am not sure if this is a generational thing, but it is sure starting to feel like it is. We have a whole generation of people who just can’t cope with whatever challenge or difficulty comes up in their lives. If it is hard or they meet resistance, they just quit – or rage on social media so everyone can feel their “pain.” Instead of meeting it head on, fighting for it, working harder, working smarter, or making do with what they have been given and where they have been given it, they instead try to generate outrage from everyone else so that their problem will be fixed by someone else.

We really need a change. We have allowed it to happen and that’s a shame.