Frog and Goat

Well, things have been busy. Mostly the only thing I have been able to think about posting is a rant. My rant isn’t very well formed but here it is anyway:

Have you ever noticed how GD tone deaf some folks are on Facebook? For instance, your friend posts that they had a wonderful time at X and they link to X. Then some dumbass friend comments, “where were you”. FOR CCCCCCCCHHHHHHHRRRRRIIIISSSTTT’s sake, you stupid mook.

Or another one I like: A local brewery uses Facebook to tell their followers which food truck will be in the parking lot on whatever evening. Then some idiot says, “where’s that restaurant”. It makes me want to hunt them down and assault them with the beer bottle they’ve obviously been sucking on way too hard.

Feel free to add your own peeves into the comments.

I ran errands this morning beginning with the post office. Normally, if I have to interact with postal people I go to a tiny post office way out of my way because the post woman is professional, fun and quick. Today, I had a bunch of things to do in the ville and so I went to our regular post office. Which is where all other post offices send their workers and customers to die.

The line was practically out the door and by the time I left it was. Examples of how my soul was rendered: woman did not know the zip code and then talked on her phone; man wanted to know what denominations of stamps he had in his large envelope because he couldn’t see the tiny print (and he drove there); woman was packing quite adorable baby shower gifts but couldn’t find the tape or the correct box size; woman had about 5 things and a money bag in her hand and I was behind her–she waved to someone in the back–she’s a regular and that locked money bag worried me about how long she was going to take. Finally, someone from the back came out and asked if anyone was dropping off something that was completely ready to go (me) or were picking up parcels. I fell over myself thanking her and sprinted (seriously) out of there.

Then I went to the pet supply store to get Lucy a new scratcher. I was in and out of there in less than 5 minutes. Bliss. The bliss was destroyed by the MORONS who shop at the big box wholesale store. I always have a straight-forward list when I shop there and I pretty much follow the same pattern as I navigate the store. I can get in and out of there in 15 minutes from the time my tire hits the parking lot to the time I pull out of the lot. Except today I discovered an entire section had been moved. It makes sense where the stuff was moved to, but for heaven’s sake. Then I could only buy quart-size storage bags in quantities of 200+. Yeah, I don’t need anything in that quantity. I got behind several packs of people who just stopped in the middle of the aisles. These are the same people who do not signal when driving and drive over the yellow line into my lane. I am convinced these actions are all correlated.

Also, the kid who was following his Morlock mother and grandmother? You did not sniffle, cough or limp. Therefore you are not sick enough to stay home. You weren’t calculating up prices per unit so you weren’t out on a home-schooled practical math exercise. You were truant. Get back in school and study. You do not want to end up like 90% of the bozos who live in this town.

The other day someone called me and started off the conversation with “I know you know all the good places to eat in Richmond” and then the conversation ended with think up some restaurants in this specific area of Richmond that serve a late lunch, is something different than what we would normally do and (unsaid, but true) it can’t be expensive or too far into the city because OH MY GOD we don’t drive in the city and how on earth would we park on the street?

So, I gave it some serious thought and expanded the search a little because the specific area is at a mall and there’s nothing but chain restaurants in the immediate surrounding area. I looked on some websites to double-check lunch availability and I thought about price and I thought about parking lots. Then I sent an email with restaurant websites of about five suggestions. My criteria and list were:
A) interesting
B) not a muther-effin’ chain
C) a little different from their usual pattern of eating (see B above)
D) not expensive
E) off-street parking

I got an email back today. They went to Olive Garden. I banged my head against the wall.

We woke up this morning without electricity. We have no idea why not, but we assume it’s because the power company can’t handle the demand at 6am in 16 degree weather. Yeah, because they are a power company and demand doesn’t increase in the winter. I’m guessing we were without for three solid hours.

We found out our generator can’t run the heat strips of our HVAC system which is a real pain in the butt. We already knew it wouldn’t run the AC as witnessed by our several day camp-out last June. The better-half built a fire this morning and even though I don’t like waking up without power, I did like having a fire through the morning.

I will say when it is cold outside we find out how poorly insulated our house is. There are many things we like about our house and many things that we despise. One of those things is the CHEAP-ASS BASTARD who built the house. Seriously, from the septic system that had to flow up hill, to the broken seals on windows (yes, they broke those before the people before us moved in. And, yes, no one has fixed them.) to the lack of insulation (or at least inferior R-values) there’s just so much slipshod around here that it ticks us off sometimes. Today I was on the floor in front of the stove and cold air was pouring in from somewhere. No idea where it was coming from because we actually know that area is sealed. Perhaps there’s a big hole behind one of the cabinets. Seems likely.

I know the builder isn’t the only one to blame. Apparently, the county’s building inspectors during the late 90s were high on the same crack pipe as the builders. I can only hope now that every Tom, Dick and Harry can’t get a loan and houses aren’t popping up like mushrooms that someone will think back to when houses were built with pride. Maybe I’m smoking the crack pipe too, but a girl can dream.

I interviewed with a college on 7/13/12. I received an email last night telling me I hadn’t been selected for the job. No shit. After six months of hearing nothing else from them, I figured that out myself.