Environment | Piss and Moan

I’m too old for this

Posted on September 10, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by Raj Tatavarthy on Pexels.com

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.

I don’t wanna rock

Posted on September 4, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by Ir Solyanaya on Pexels.com

Rocks are great for mountains and landscaping.

Rocks are not good when you are digging a hole or a trench.

Rocks are not good when they are loose on a roadway and flip up to chip your window.

Rocks are not good when they are in your shoe.

Rocks are not good when they somehow end up in your food.

Rocks are not good when you get hit in the head – whether it was thrown or falling from a mountain.

Rocks are not good when you are sleeping on the ground and they are under you.

Rocks are dumb when you inscribe, paint, or write a message on them.

So, really, other than the first two things what are rocks good for?

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

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

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.

Hack hack cough cough

Posted on August 21, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by Trinity Kubassek on Pexels.com

afe;anu;aenuBGJVABFV;A;nabn;uanb;nr;an. anfaournajnv. uanpouvannurafknajhrh. $$%$^&#!

Oops, sorry…

It’s so damn smoky here in WA that I can’t hardly see my keyboard. Air quality sucks and visibility sucks even more. Those beautiful mountains that are normally in the distance, snow capped peaks and such, are all gone. It is like we are suddenly living on a flat Earth (stop it! Stop. It. I know what you’re thinking – that was a simile).

I.Can’t.Breathe.

I.Can’t.Think.

Someone stop putting the fires out every year so we can breathe a little easier next year. Yeah, that is actually how it works. Just saying…

Anyway, give me a shout out if you can’t breathe as well. Or give me a shout out because you can take in lungs full of clean air and have the energy to shout.

Cockroaches, AND weeds

Posted on August 17, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by zhang kaiyv on Pexels.com

Alright, you all know the joke about the only living thing being able to survive a nuclear holocaust is a cockroach, right? Well, I think we can add one more thing to that list…and they’re living in my yard (and likely yours too). As we work in the flower beds or mow the lawn, we all refer to them as – “F$%*#@ weeds!” We just get tired of them always being there.

Weeds. Weeds! How is it that the grass can turn brown and die, but there are weeds flourishing in my yard? One the side of the road? In fields everywhere? How is it that they can get NO WATER and still live? They can’t be killed! You spray them with killer. You burn them with flamethrowers. And they just keep.coming.back. How can this be?

So, I think we need to change the joke. We can just simply say that there will be two living things on Earth after a nuclear war…cockroaches and weeds. It will be a perfect world where two of the most unwanted, least desired, most indestructible life forms will live in our place. Perfect.

Lunch at the park

Posted on August 9, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by Scosche on Pexels.com

I see you, dude.

I see you in your jacked up, shiny, big tired, over-sized pickup, that you’ll never take off road. Your windows down and engrossed in some kind of reading. But…

But, before I noticed you in that truck I SMELLED you. Yes, I smelled you!

Yeah, your stench is undeniable and totally recognizable. Because while you are sitting there with your windows rolled down, the breeze is wafting the smoke of that joint in your hand all over the other people sitting in their cars trying enjoy their lunches. Thanks, jerk.

Then after we have all suffered through your bad habit, which is illegal to smoke in public, you start your vehicle and drive off, also illegal. Nice.

I guess there are very few places you can go these days without having to deal with this sort of entitled, “it’s my right,” behavior. No courtesy for others, just “all about me.”

#smh

Moss knows no bounds

Posted on August 8, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Photo by Daniel B on Pexels.com

Well, except for a rolling stone, supposedly. If you are familiar with the quote, then that will make sense. Otherwise, it won’t. Anyway, I think here in the Pacific Northwest moss would give that rolling stone a challenge, for sure.

Moss is everywhere. In the trees. In the grass. In the shade. In the sun. On the roof. On the sidewalks. In the driveway. On the windows. Dare I say, even some have it on their cars. Hanging low. Hanging high. It is freaking EVERYWHERE!

A couple years ago I tried to kill the stuff in my lawn. Guess what? Yes, it died briefly. Along with the grass that was barely hanging on because of it. Then it came back in the fall, thicker and more robust, like it was just taking a breath before it decided to take over the rest of the yard. So, I gave up. I am just letting it take over the lawn…I mean it’s green, it’s soft, and it needs to be mowed less often than real grass…

The war on moss is not over, but the battles have certainly no gone in my favor. I will continue to battle, right after I take a nap on that soft stuff in the shade.

My love/hate relationship with toilet paper

Posted on August 7, 2018 by backuphill

What to do…what to do…well, this blog is going in the toilet…

The picture above was from a recent trip to the men’s room at work. Yes, I needed to “cop a squat” and empty the main tank. There were so many choices for toilet paper that it was a little overwhelming. However, there wasn’t really a choice because they all were of the same relative quality, which got me to thinking about my love/hate relationship with TP.

It’s too thin. It’s too thick. There is not enough on the roll (or worse, there are no rolls at all). The roll is too big to fit in the dispenser. Use too much and you plug the toilet. Use too little and you’re sporting a brown racing stripe in the undies. Sometimes protects the fingers and other times you’re using TP to wipe the fingers before your next wipe on the rear end.

At least one of these problems occurs during each visit to “the can” and you *literally* sit there fuming. So why is that we can’t figure out an alternative to this stuff? Yes, there are “adult wipes” but they plug the toilets or sewer systems. There are bidets, but that hasn’t caught on in the US and I am still not sure what you are supposed to do about a wet ass…(as you can tell, I have never been presented with this option).

Anyone else feel me on this love/hate relationship? What do you think is the solution?