Thursday, February 28, 2013

Maybe it will be okay after all.

I think I blogged about my neighbors house getting robbed a couple of weeks ago. Last night I was in my kitchen when I saw a guy enter their house and walk around with a flashlight. Which freaked me out. Mr S. went out to confront the guy who turned out to be the neighbors grandson.

Today when I was out watering my lawn (because there is no rain in the universe) - the neighbor to my right came over to chat about golf. And whatever. I kinda like the old guy. We didn't really get to know him until our fence came down. And I like to tease him about giving me his pristine Stingray Corvette. Which is mostly just teasing because it's grey (therefore not a color) and you see how much love Corvettes get on this blog. Right? The body is in perfect condition though.

Anyway, I asked if he heard us out last night with the neighbors grand kid. They live directly in front of the one that got robbed. He went on to tell me he thought they ripped all the lights out of the house.

Me - What?

Him - I don't know for sure, but that's what I heard.

Me - Why would they do that?

I mean, this lady's house hasn't been updated in maybe decades. And she is like 80 years old. He goes on to say.... I remember when that family bought that house 30/35 years ago. The people fell behind on their mortgage and they got repossessed.

Me - THAT HOUSE?

Him - Yeah. They ripped all the copper piping out.

Again I say - that house. And I point to it.

Him - Yeah he confirms.

Me - Just like now then. That is weird.

Doing rough math, that would have roughly been the 80's. I find the whole thing fascinating because I thought this recession had the sole reputation for copper theft. Who would have even known that copper was that valuable back then. History really does repeat itself I guess.

Almost as good as Yak shaving day.





Tightrope.



Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

What do you think?

Remember a couple of weeks ago Mr S. went in for an eye check up and his doctor had a full on breakdown in front of us? I mean, this guy was crying for shits sakes.

I'd known him for quite a few years, so I wound up giving him my personal email. I mean, what else do you do? The whole thing was awkward for everyone.

All of a sudden I start getting spam from his office. Not once, but twice.

Mr S. decided on updating his reading glasses and when we went to pick them up, the doctor was just switching out patients and he noticed me there. I kind of just glared at him. Because in the tech world - that was a dick move. I would have just let it pass, but he persisted in trying to engage me.

I would have done it more privately, but finally I was like - Can you take my email out of your database?

Him - but I thought you wanted me to mail you.

Mr S. chimes in - Not with Spam.

This is where the doctor goes full retard.

Him - I didn't do that. I swear on my life.

I didn't want to argue with him. I mean, how else did my email get into their database? So I continue. Okay, can you just please remove it. When someone tells you they are giving you their personal email, that isn't an account for spam.

Him - I didn't do that and I can't believe you are reacting this way.

Okay, okay - please just remove it. Obviously this guy is really dug in.

Men, I swear - sometimes you make it so hard for yourselves. He could have just said he was sorry and moved on. But he had to dig in and double down. This whole thing could have been over by now. But no!

We get back to the house and a little while later, who do you think calls? His eye doctor. Who wants to talk to me. Which is just the weirdest thing ever. I'm not mad. I think it was a totally socially awkward Seinfeldian thing to do. But aside from that - all I want is not to get spam from him. That's all!

I'm not sure what to do at this point, because he said he was going to call back. How weird is that?! I don't know what to say to him. For effs sakes.

Monday, February 25, 2013

HEY! Didn't we invade a whole country to steal their oil? If only our government were as useless when trying to steal from it's own citizens. Presidents Days isn't even a driving holiday! Most people don't have it off.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Dear World - you dissapoint me.

You know in California we have these idiotic plastic bag bans at supermarkets, right? You can get a plastic bag anywhere else, but the one place you have to buy a zillion small things - you have to bring your own bag or buy a paper bag. Which drives me batshit crazy. Sure I sometimes have bags in the car which I forget about until I'm in line.

This whole thing just pisses me off because this problem really ramped up when they wanted plastic bags to degrade faster. So, they started making them two hair lengths thick. Which made them so they couldn't even hold one orange without the bag ripping wide open.

People like me started using 2 or three just be able to walk out of the store without a box of tissues ripping open a bag. All of a sudden the streets were littered with plastic bags. Thin tiny wispy ones. But still. Now we are in a complete ban.

So, imagine my surprise this weekend when I ran into this at Lucky's. A Mylar looking bag right next to the ones they are selling patrons to comply with the ban. You know that is going to catch my attention. WTF - I say. Turns out, 2/3's of this bag is made of polyethylene. The exact same material they are screaming about now that wont break down and kills whales and kicks puppies. Only this thing is far thicker than the ones we used to get from the stores before the ban. After all, it's suppose to keep your cold stuff cold.



Let me just point out the green bag says "Reusable bag for a greener America"


I see they are also placing paper bags in the front isle for people to purchase. Which makes me want to run to the restaurant supply store and start selling paper bags at a discount out of the back of a van.




I've even started fantasizing about having a bag or two made up that says something like NO BAGGER NEEDED. Or something perhaps more clever than that. If I bring my own bag - I think I should also be able to bag myself. Putting bagger out of a job. So far I've been using trade show swag bags.

And then! I can't get an effing plastic bag to take my groceries to the car - BUT! I can get two watermelons in a mesh bag. Because it's to hard to say 2 for the price of 1. They need a bag!


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Every day I repeat this mantra:

Don't go tits up until my refi goes through. You see... in the new America it takes 3 months to get a refi though. With the same bank that currently holds the mortgage. I'm not even changing banks!

Ah - I remember the days when you could close a sale on a house tip to stern in one month. Inspections - everything. Now, for some reason I have to hold my breath that the economy doesn't fall off a cliff before April. I mean, it seems to me people are already starting to figure out thing are not well in unicorn village.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Autorama 2013

















Gee. Ya think?

"Maybe the payroll tax is a bigger deal than any of us thought," Brian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones, told Bloomberg. "
From here.

Sometimes I just can't stand these losers. How can you not think this was a big deal Brian Yarbrough? Didn't you see the daily reports telling us this would shave up to 3.5% off of GDP? It is one thing to be a shill, but another to be genuinely shocked at this outcome.

What is a "big deal" is that this guy works for a brokerage house and he doesn't understand the effects of this particular flat tax. A 2% increase is going to make people feel worse the less you make. It's 2% whether you make 20 thousand dollars or 120 thousand dollars. The tax will hurt people way more at the lower income range. It doesn't really take any education to realize this. I talked about this here. I knew if I felt pinched by the tax increase, everyone making less than I do would also be hurting. This was almost an entire month ago!

When I saw the leaked Walmart emails, I like was - no shit sherlock! (which is what this guy is referencing). Yet someone who is paid to be an analyst finds it so confusing. It's like unicorns don't actually exist or something.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Killing me softly.



Whenever I go to Sacramento I have to try and kill myself. I mean, the long route. Through clogged arteries. Sacramento is burger central. This one is from my current fave Squeeze Inn. Usually I try to stop at the closest one to the Bay Area, which is Galt. But apparently most of the Squeeze Inns are closed on Sunday. So, we wound up at one inside the city. And yes, that is really cheese rolling off the side.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

With love from my inner tard.



I can't explain my inner tard. I don't know where it comes from. All I can say is - these things make me laugh. The more over the top the better. It just makes me happy in a funny way.

The Autorama in Sacramento only has so so cars, but they always have these loud car competitions. And there is just something I love about that. The same reason you go to stadium concerts. To feel sound hitting your chest. You could totally feel the sound from this van.

Art Set.









Saturday, February 16, 2013

Fishtank bear?



Today's been one of those days where everything goes wrong. I'd planned to do something else today, but Jasmine came down with a belly ache 2 days ago. So we decided to stick closer to home so we could check on her throughout the day. The thing with her is she drinks more than any other bunny we've had. So when the eventual belly ache comes, we have to be extra diligent to keep her hydrated.

So, we took in the lame home and garden show we were going to on Monday. It all turned out well because my camera's battery was full dead. I didn't realise it until I went to take a shot.

The Chrysler has some problem with a vapor lock. Which occasionally causes it to stall after it's just been filled with gas. Which it did. Some guys came to help Mr S. push me out of the road. For a moment I felt good about the world. I was telling Mr S. - the one thing you can usually count on with people. They will help you out of traffic. It's easy do-gooderism. Only takes a couple of minutes. You feel happy, the stalled person feels happy. When I've helped push people out of the road it makes me feel happy. And well, I also get to where I wanted to go. So it isn't exactly selfless. But it still feels good.

Not four stop signs later did I stall again. I flip on the flashers and we go to push again. Only this time the guy behind me was a dick. First he honked the horn. Which got him an "I"M BROKEN DOWN yell." I'm already out of the car at this point. Well move! Me - You can see my flashers are on! He went to say something else. I flipped him off then went to trying to get the car out of the middle of the road.

Which totally wiped out the good feeling of the first time. It's like the world said - oh, that made you feel good! Here. Take this one then. Balance, byatch.

But I did get you fish tank bear. Which sounds like the worst idea ever.



Friday, February 15, 2013

I should have some interesting stuff for you this weekend.

Best meteor vid ever. And I mean EVER.


Meteorite Strikes Russia, Injures 400 people.

There are some other good vids at the link.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

My mood has taken on a whole new tone lately. I've started calling people who are clearly socialists - Comrade to their faces. Maybe it will get my ass kicked, but, it is what it is.

It's kind of awkward, because they are still trying to hide the depths of our socialist economy. And most people in California don't really understand much about socialism. I imagine their brains duking it out. Is she calling me a friend, or a commie?
Why do the people who spam me have to be suck suck asses? For some reason it makes it particularly annoying. Wait- they actually made something that wasn't annoying any more, back into something that was annoying. Spam is such a part of daily life, you kind of get used to it. But all of them are buttcrawlers now.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Woke up this morning to cops swarming my neighborhood. I guess my diagonal neighbor got broken into and ransacked, possibly last night. And I'm on the good side of town.

I guess it was a lucky break for the robber. One more set of houses and he would have met up with a cluster of houses with gun owners.

I guess it's also time to update the security cameras. Mine were just to protect our property. All the neighbors seem to know I have them, so I might as well not hide them anymore. Many years when I put them in after being vandalized you still seemed creepy to have them. Now I guess people have softened and you get to guard the whole neighborhood. Because the neighbors sent the police right over to my house.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Puttin slippers on your rabbits toes.




Rabbits hate stuff on their feet. So, she put up with this much longer than I expected. As soon as I turned her over, they were off. Maybe tonight you'll get slippers on your rabbits ears. Because she didn't seem to mind that at all. Which is weird, because they don't like stuff on their ears either. (shrug)



Friday, February 08, 2013

Dirty Bird!



Yes. The turkeys are still entertaining me. It's just odd for a reasonably sized city to have flocks of turkeys. Anyway.

I stopped to get a shot of them at this house because they are an eccentric couple who own a mini pig and have odd decorations out all the time.

What happened though - the bird went to shake like a dog, and this huge dust cloud fell out. It was the weirdest thing. I've never seen that happen before. Is that normal?

Alright. I have a freaky story.

Today I went with Mr S. to his eye doctors appointment. Which should have been a very non-eventful thing. He was just having a check up to see how his eyes are holding up after the Lasik he got a few years ago.

Honestly right now, I don't much care about talking with people to see how they are feeling about the world. Everyone is in happy land. And I think it's all a front and bullshit. Or just uninformed. So, this should have been double non eventful. I just like going to the appointments because we've known this guy for a long time and I talk to him about all the new eye technology. Like Augmented Reality contacts. It's eye geeky.

So, I was teasing the doctor about needing glasses. He looked really fatigued. It seemed like reasonable small talk. And then..... all of a sudden he had this mental breakdown right in front of us. Crying and the whole thing. I was hugging him. Mr S. of course if feeling a little jittery because I'm making his eye doctor cry, and he's shoving crap into his eyes.

In my mind I was trying to figure out how to get off the landmine I'd just activated. Because it was just so unexpected. Yet still be supportive. I mean, I feel bad for the guy. All of us feel like life didn't turn out the way we'd planned. It's really hard on people. And it sucks.

After we left Mr S. turned to me and said - I'm not letting you talk to my surgeon if I need to have surgery. I don't need that guy crying. Which made me laugh. I mean, people will talk to me about anything. I'm not judging. It was the most genuine moment I've had in a while with someone. And in some ways it made me feel better about life. Not about his misfortune, just - that feeling that everyone is doing fine and you are not. I don't think most people are doing fine. I think people are making the best of a bad situation.

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

The funny thing about California right now is - we have all this brand new vacant retail space that hasn't been occupied ever. Modern, beautiful. Yet, new buildings and apartments are flying up at a rapid pace right next to them. It's confusing. These places have been empty for years. Other than not having new paint smell they are great spaces. Still no businesses though.

I guess some money is finally entering the system.

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Some days, all I can think is - four years is a really long time.