Environment | Piss and Moan

Unwrapping the aftermath

Posted on December 26, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by George Dolgikh on Pexels.com

Well, folks, the stockings are down and the presents opened. It was chaos from the start and there is a ton to do now that all are gone.

Not sure about your family, but mine appears to just swoop in to open presents and consume food before jetting off to other places and people to visit, which leaves a tornado of debris scattered about the house and hours of cleaning after the fact. That isn’t to say that there weren’t also hours of prep before everyone even showed up…so when taken all into account there were probably four times as many hours preparing for and cleaning after than there was actual time spent with family.

Don’t get me wrong, time spent with family was great and the joy did finally come as the smiles and laughter filled the room. It did finally come. BUT, it was soon lost in the time spend cleaning floors, dishes, the fridge, taking out the extra 100 pounds of garbage, and putting the furniture back where it belongs.

Does anyone else have that feeling after Christmas where the “What did we just do?” dread of having to put life back to normal appears that it will take an inordinate amount of time? Like maybe you’re the only one that will be working into the wee hours of the night just so there will be some resemblance of normalcy the day after?

Yep, I’m THAT dad

Posted on December 19, 2018 by backuphill

blue and gray concrete house with attic during twilight

Photo by Benji Mellish on Pexels.com

Temperature is an important thing. It can’t be too hot and and it can’t be too cold. That is why I commissioned as scientific study (not really) of the atmosphere in the house and I have set the thermostat to the perfect temp for every occasion and every moment of the day.

So, SO HELP ME if someone touches the freaking thermostat! Period. It was perfect where it was at both in temperature but also on energy consumption. Leave it alone!

I swear the next person I see touch the thermostat…IMA BOUT TO COME UNCORKED!! I’m gonna break their fingers, and the next person after that (since they didn’t learn from the previous example) will get their fingers cut off and feed to the dog (ok not really, but it sounds good)!

Just. Leave. It. Alone.

If you’re hot, wear less clothing. If you’re cold, wear more clothing. Just don’t touch the thermostat.

Anyone else have to deal with this? Am I insane? It is really that hard to just not touch?

I didn’t order the combo

Posted on December 14, 2018 by backuphill

person riding a bicycle during rainy day

Photo by Genaro Servín on Pexels.com

Ever get something you don’t want?

Living in the upper left corner of the US means we get a lot of a combo I don’t like.

I don’t mind rain.

I actually kinda like wind.

I DO NOT like them together.

When rain falls, it should fall straight down. Then it is easily avoided (for the most part) by making sure you are under something.

When it is windy AND raining at the same time, well that presents a problem. No longer can you get under something to avoid getting wet. Instead, the wind causes the rain to go sideways and even sometimes lifts rain that has already fallen on the ground right back off of it! That is just plain ridiculous.

Anyway, the upper left corner could use less of the sideways rain and more of the straight down rain.

What weather combo do you not like?

Hail (to) the garbageman

Posted on December 12, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by Emmet on Pexels.com

If you are a home owner, you have probably done this at least once. My guess is probably more than once. What is it, you ask?

It looks a little like this…

You’re laying in bad dead asleep. Blissfully not a care in the world when you are awakened by a familiar noise. You listen for a second and then realize that familiar noise is the garbage truck up the street. IT. IS. GARBAGE.DAY. and you forgot to put out the can(s)!

So, you bolt from bed, desperately trying to clothe yourself (or maybe not, if you’re that kind of person) and put on some sort of foot covering as you awkwardly and progressively work your way through the house to the cans that need to be taken to the street.

Now, if you are quick, hopefully you made it to the street before the truck comes rambling up to scoop up your cans as you stand there in the driveway or next to the road, disheveled like you just randomly dressed in clothes you found in the dumpster behind the thrift store. But if you are not…well, my friend, you are just SOL.

Maybe, just maybe, you get lucky and make eye contact with the garbage collection officer and he acknowledges you and comes back to empty your can. That is a glorious day and the victory feels like you should just stop there for the day and not risk further misfortune.

But if you are not that lucky, you get the walk of shame with a full can and another week of stinky garbage. You might as well crawl in the can and wait. There is no coming back from this defeat.

So, don’t be that guy. Get the garbage out and hail to the garbageman.

Cold and wet

Posted on December 10, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by Andrew Haimerl on Pexels.com

OK, I am done with winter.

Particularly the cold and wet part of it.

The upper left corner of the US doesn’t get a lot of snow, at least on the coastal side of the mountains, but the rain seems to be endless. And the dark lasts forever, but not like Alaska dark forever. Just “I went to work and went home in the dark” forever.

Sheesh, we haven’t even made it to the winter solstice yet…

I.am.done.

Home office chills

Posted on December 6, 2018 by backuphill

photo of person covered with brown textile

Photo by Noelle Otto on Pexels.com

My job allows me to telecommute two days a week and let me tell you that I am gonna take advantage of that in any way possible since I have to drive through the worst traffic in the US, to the tune of 45 miles one way to work. So, having the chance to telecommute is not going to go untakenadvantageof (yes I know that word is made up, but it should be a real word).

Anyway, the disadvantage to my telecommute at this point is that the house is too small to have my “home office” actually in the home, which means it is currently set up in my garage. It isn’t a totally bad deal except…

…except the garage isn’t completely insulated and on rare occasions the temperature of the upper left corner of the contiguous 48 actually dips below freezing. As such, the “home office” gets rather chilly. This morning the “home office” was 41 degrees before turning on the heater and when I started working, over an hour later, it was 46 degrees.

My “home office” requires a continually running heater and a stocking cap. And a perpetually warm cup of coffee for the hands.

Oh the sacrifices I make to work from home.

I can almost see clearly

Posted on November 30, 2018 by backuphill

Anyone else hate driving with windshield wipers? Yeah, me too. Which is a problems since I live in the northwest where liquid falls from the sky more than it doesn’t.

I want my windshield to act as though it has that RainX stuff on it all the time. I don’t like to apply the stuff because it takes time and effort, so why can’t the glass technology just be that way? Why can’t I just not have to drive with windshield wipers permanently?

If that were the case, I could see clearly all the time, even when liquid falls from the sky in a torrential kind of way.

Get to it glass people!

Clicking of the body clock

Posted on November 12, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by Buenosia Carol on Pexels.com

So, yeah, there was a holiday in the US yesterday. It was Veteran’s Day (thanks vets for all you have done and do) and so today is a day off from work.

However, the body clock does not know it’s a day off so it promptly woke me at the normal time as if it were a usual work day. Thanks internal body clock, I didn’t need that.

As such, I have obliged the body with normal coffee consumption but perhaps the only redeeming factor in the early wake on a holiday is that I can take a nap later in the day. But, I would just rather be sleeping now.

#smh

Dust much?

Posted on November 7, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by Sebastian Voortman on Pexels.com

Who the hell is supposed to dust around here?

Anyone else have this problem? You know, the one where you wake up one day and there seems to be a layer of dust on everything?

At work, there is a cleaning crew and I would assume they are supposed to dust, but apparently not. I can understand not dusting the inner portions of shelving and whatnot, I don’t expect that every nook and cranny be dusted. But do you think you could maybe run a cloth across the top of the book shelf once in a while? I mean, serious, it doesn’t have anything on top of it!

Seriously folks, there is enough dust on top of the shelf to qualify as an indoor, organic planter.

I’ll take care of my home, but I don’t expect to have to do it at work too.

Fall colors = a close simulation of hell

Posted on November 2, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

“Ooh they’re so pretty!”

“I just love fall. Crisp air and all the pretty colors on the trees.”

…said no one ever! Well, at least by someone who has the major task of raking all that “pretty fall color” out of their yard. Or, if you are in the Northwest, there is the forever piles of pine needles clogging up everything in sight! Sheesh.

As long as the days are dry and the weather is moderately mild, you can cheat and blow them outta the yard into your neighbor’s yard fairly easily. Once it get wet, as in rain, you need a freaking jet engine to blow them things loose.

So, if you don’t (or can’t) stay on top of the task, you are left raking – back busting, blister inducing, getting all wet and cold hell. After hours of sweating and bagging, you can see the lawn. And then the next wind storm comes and the process starts all over again. Welcome to fall hell…

Trees suck. We should cut them all down.