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Something different

Ever get that nagging feeling like you just want something different? Like, you don’t know what exactly but everything feels like if you could just do something, have something, something different than what you are doing or have now that things would feel better?

Nagging.

I just have this feeling.

Unsettled about something. I feel like I need a change, for something different that whatever is going on in my life right now. I don’t know.

Stagnation at work? Home life just not cool? The weather getting nice and I am stuck inside all the time? *shoulder shrug*

Can’t put my finger on it. Can’t wrap my head around it.

I just feel it.

Washer dryer

Posted on 28 Days Ago by backuphill

Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

Laundry for most is a chore, one that needs to be done (typically) once a week. Most people hate it. I am most people. That being said, there is another laundry task that is hated even more than washing the clothes you wear each week….washing the sheets on the bed.

Now, I know there are a lot of people who this task on a fairly regular interval because the thought of sleeping in your own body filth grosses them out. However, I would also bet that those people are probably women. LOL In my experience, men can go far longer with unwashed sheets than women can. Generalization, yes. Truth? Yes.

Anyway, back to the hated task.

The first problem with washing the sheets is it takes so dang long and it is such a friggin’ hassle. Strip the bed. Wash. Dry. Make the bed. The problem with this whole thing is the washing and drying part. In the process of making this happen, something happens in those damn machines that makes the process that much more infuriating. The washing machine twists and tangles everything all together and pulling them out of the washer to put into the dryer is a long string, of seemingly never-ending, moist fabric. It’s like that magician that pulls the boxers out of his pants and the clothes just keep coming.

The second problem with washing the sheets is that you typically have to dry them twice, which makes the process even longer. Because the washer likes to twist them into “ropes” or tangle them into balls of fabric, the dryer doesn’t undo the difficulties it just exacerbates them. Again, as the sheets tumble around in the dryer the dryer likes to make this twisted and tangled and bundled into a mess that has to be unwound if you want everything to be dried. Thus, once the first cycle is done, you have to basically take everything out, check to see if it is dry and then throw it back in for another cycle if not yet dry. Plus, if you have any actual clothing in with the sheets they will almost always end up balled up in one of the fitted sheet’s corners and almost always will still be damp. How does it know to go to the corner? A mystery for sure! But one that just adds to this unpleasant chore.

So, inventers, my challege to you is to make a washer and dryer that will not bind up the sheets, tangle the clothing, knot up towels, or clump items together like a rubics cube puzzle that has to be solved. Just wash and dry the items contained within.

That is all.

Unusual recall

Posted on March 21 by backuphill

A bit of a curious solution to a vehicle recall.

A while back I got a recall notice for the Ram truck. The notice said that the tailgate could randomly open while traveling…obviously, that is an issue because you potentially could lose whatever you are transporting in the back of the truck (provided it isn’t secured properly). The repair was to have the latch replaced, free of charge, at the dealership.

OK.

Made the appointment and took it in yesterday. The guy scheduling the appointment said it took more time to do the paperwork than to do the recall. Curious statement.

I was at the dealership all of 15 minutes. They never even moved the truck from the parking spot I parked it in.

Apparently, the recall just meant they needed to check if something needed to be replaced. I was told they open and closed the tailgate several times and everything appeared to latch correctly so nothing was replaced.

Ummm, I wasted my time on that? I could have done that. They really needed to have a repair person check that?

Is it really a recall if you just open and close it and replace nothing?

Unnecessary apology #1

Posted on March 13 by backuphill

I’m sorry. I did it inadvertently. It was just a knee-jerk reaction.

During this month of honoring women, I want to apologize to all women.

I have been or am guilty of gender appropriation.

You see, when I have climbed under the house to access a dark, dank, and mildy creepy crawl space I have at times “screamed like a woman.”

I know, I know. I am not proud of it.

I shouldn’t do it because I am a man and things like this shouldn’t faze me.

To be honest, spiders don’t really freak me out. BUT, in the context of being in a dark, confined space and feeling the creepy crawlies on the back of your neck or by your ear, well, that is just going to get a reaction most guys aren’t proud of.

Please, accept by sincerest apologies for oppressing you by appropriating your screams.

I’ll do better.

**There will be more posts in a new series I am going to call, Unnecessary Apology. Keep an eye out for them and let me know if you agree or not.**

CD situation

Posted on March 10 by backuphill

CD. Compact Disc.

Do you remember those things called CDs? Remember when that was the next best technology and you were buying hundreds of those things? Remember when storage of those things became an issue?

Recently I was reminded of all those things…because I was cleaning out the entertainment cabinet and I had to remove FIVE folders that are capable of holding 100 discs at a time. All but one is full and the last one is 3/4s full.

Those folders hold all the discs I ever bought, plus the CD case art (from and back). Once upon a time it was difficult to store all those cases and moving them to the folders seemed like a great idea. Plus, those CD jewel cases were brittle as heck too, as soon as you dropped one it was inevitably broken and didn’t work correctly.

Well, now what the heck am I supposed too do with all those CDs?

Disc drives on computers are getting harder and hard to come by. Shoot, even cars don’t even really come with CD players any more. Converting them to digital takes time and storage (though I had already gone through every disc I had at one point and pulled all the songs off the discs I really wanted). So, now I am stuck…do I just trash them or do I donate them? Do I try to sell them?

UGH

There is a ton of money locked up in those and throwing them away seems like a waste since I purchased all the music, even if I don’t listen to it (well, all of it). Do you know what I mean? If I were to get rid of them, it feels like something would be lost but at the same time nothing would be.

What would you do?

Silly regulations

Posted on February 27 by backuphill

Not the dog, but the same breed.
Photo by Ricardo Pu00e9rez-Saravia on Pexels.com

I was doing a little research this morning and seeing about scheduling an appointment to put the dog down (quality of life is diminishing fast for the ol’ gal). So, I was looking at a couple of vet clinics in the area. It appears they are still sticking with the silly regulations imposed during “that time that shall remain unnamed”. As nearly all other businesses and areas of life have returned to somewhat normal functioning, apparently vet offices are sticking with the stupid regulation of having customers wear a face mask while in the office.

I don’t get it. It didn’t make sense when it was started and it still doesn’t make sense now. Why would you keep an owner of a pet from entering a clinic with their pet? Why wouldn’t they want to minimize the anxiety pets feel just by being there, let alone (in most cases) the car ride there?

Let’s be honest, a vet clinic isn’t a “healthcare facility”. Sure, it is for pets but they don’t wear face masks so making pet owners wear face masks while it is literally them and possibly another person or two in the room is ridiculous.

Anyone else found this regulation highly unusual?

Phone books

Posted on February 13 by backuphill

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Pexels.com

Truly an amazing piece of publishing…it’s unfathomable how these things are still being dropped off at our doorsteps, isn’t it?

So, the end of last week brought a dude up the driveway to the front door of the house (this is unusual in and of itself since most years it never makes it past the garage door) and he dropped off a double wrapped (in plastic bags) phone book. A completely useless block of paper. Wait, ok, maybe not completely useless – maybe it could be used to start fires or a booster seat for a toddler, or doorstop or a block under a table leg or something…

At my house, it literally gets unwrapped and dropped straight into the recycle bin.

Anyway, it amazes me that these things are even produced any longer.

Imaging being a phone book ad salesperson. What kind of conversation do they have to have to be successful? “Look, I realize no one is going to open this thing and look at your ad, but if you could just spend a small piece of your advertising budget on this pointless square on page X that would be great and I can then try to feed my family.”

Do these things still get produced just for the “older people” because they can’t handle technology? Someone in my family suggested this when I mentioned we got the phone book brick. Maybe that is truly the case. It only takes seconds to find any of the information in the book when you use the internet and do a search. Perhaps that is just too much for an old person to handle.

Anyone else still get a phone book delived to them every year? Anyone actually use it?

Burned bridges

Posted on January 25 by backuphill

Well, the time has finally come and home is no longer a dreaded place. The subject of many of the rants on this blog has now burned a bridge and there is no chance of home turning into a place of total turmoil again (well, there is a large caviat to that I guess. More on that later.) It’s tough to go all the way back in time and cover all the ground that could be covered to properly put this whole thing into perspective, but that would be a lot of work and I am not sure you all care that much to have a complete picture. If you have been around the blog for a while, you can probably put things together with just the few posts mentioned here today.

I have tried to help those who couldn’t help themselves. I have been trying for many years and it finally came to a head this last weekend. The trouble with this is again that it is self-inflicted and someone thinks, yet again, they are the vicitim. Really, it is by choice and being unwilling to take any advice. Unfortunately, it’s the five grandchildren that will suffer the most.

When my step-son and his five kids were allowed to move in back in November there was hope that maybe there would be some changes in their lives that would lead to a postive outcome (and it might still but seeing that at this point is hard to imagine). Things that have been discussed here previously (see above as well as the following) was about wasted food, not parenting the grandchildren, and the outright disregard for sanity in parenting.

It finally all came to a head last Saturday.

The night before (Friday) by son had been up a large ortion of the night with the youngest grandchild because she was sick. As requested, he let us know he needed more sleep (he requested an hour) and we agreed to take over childcare duties so he could get some sleep. That request was abused and turned into four hours.

As a result, the five grandchildren were left in our care and we did everything we could to keep them occupied, busy, loved, dressed, fed, and entertained. We kept them from going in to wake their dad, even though he totally went beyond the time requested and agreed upon. At one point in the morning, the second oldest (age 6) got a little too rambunctious with the middle child (age 4) and repeated hit him “accidentally.” The 6-year old had been warned repeatedly and was asked at one point to stay on his bunk bed as a time out until he was released. Again, there was unusual noise and I checked on the commotion…the 6-year old was on the floor wrestling the 4-year old, having him pinned below him and him crying. I took one step into the room, delived a single swat to the backside of the 6-year old with my hand, which sent him crying back to his bunk.

He and I chatted about the incident not five minutes later and he admitted that he disobeyed, that he was playing too rough with his sibling, and that he hadn’t “accidentally” hit his sibling either. He went to far as to admit that he deserved the swat. He was back to playing and didn’t cause any other issues the rest of the day.

UNTIL. Until, he skipped into the room while his dad was making dinner and blurted out, “Grandpa hit me.”

I was there. He’s six, so his recollection of the events and why he got the swat weren’t entirely accurate. My son then proceeded to say, “Stop hitting my kids.”

Long story short, the discussion after that point corrected the events as told by the 6-year old, involved a threat of calling the police if I continued to discipline the children in a way that he didn’t agree with, and an ultimatum that said they’d move out if I (well, we, because my wife has spanked them too) didn’t bend to his parenting style, which includes the lack of discipline.

Mind you, he has virtually no place to go except one friend’s house which is not ideal for any of them.

So, I recommended finding a new place to stay since I was not going to do what he wanted me to do.

My wife and I had already had the discussion that this would likely come up again. There was a blow up about it a week prior where he basically packed up the kids with no coats, no socks, no shoes, and no food, and left the house for about 12 hours. We were clear when he left the first time that nothing on our part would change since we love the grandchildren and we are constanly having to step in to pick up the slack. We had the agonizing discussion that the threat of law enforcement would eventually be used and how we would respond to it…the conclusion was that we would ask that they move out, knowing full well that that wouldn’t be the best thing for the grandkids considering the turmoil they have endured over the last several years. But, we also knew he would refuse to leave them behind with us.

At this point, they haven’t returned. As far as we are concerned, he has burned his bridges with us. We, his mom and I, have been there and picked up the pieces enough. We love our grandkids, but for him we are done. If it really comes down to it, we will take the grandkids back to live in our house but he will not be welcome.

A tough decision, but we see no other way around it. We aren’t going have someone (even our son) threaten us and force us into living and “grandparenting” into a style we believe is wrong.

Home is more peaceful these days. It sucks considering what our grandkids are going through.

But, we couldn’t be held hostage in our own home either.

Totally obvious

Posted on January 20 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?

Two times

Posted on January 11 by backuphill

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

What do you look forward to during the day? For me, there are two times during the day that I look forward to the most. Obviously, there are other times I look forward to – the end of the work day, meals, sitting on the couch to watch a show or play a video game…but there are TWO that stand out the most for me. Those two times are climbing into bed, pulling the covers over me, and when I first climb into a hot shower.

I suppose looking forward to climbing into a hot shower can be any time of the day, but for me it is usually in the morning. I start (for the most part) the day with a shower. Most days its early. That part is the downside of getting into the shower, but the feeling of the hot water running over my body and the tingle/sting on my skin is the best. It really makes me want to stay in the shower all day! Alas, I can’t. So, I savor the moment for a little while and then move along.

The second time of day to look forward is climbing back into bed. The feeling of the mattress against my back and then using the arm to sweep the covers back over my body to envelope me in warmth (once the coolness dissapates). Snuggling down into the bed and “burrito-ing” is the best! You can just feel the day just go away at that point. All is calm, all is forgotten.

What are your two times? What parts of your day do you look forward to?