Actually we’ve been taking him for walks pretty regularly, both for exercise and for general exposure, we haven’t managed every day, but certainly most days. We make a habit of NOT walking by the psychotic german shepherds, cause not only does that mean I have to convince him to pass them, but also to pass by an elderly chihuahua who thinks he owns the street (damn pipsqueak comes barrelling out of nowhere yapping away, only to stop mid street, about two feet from Apollo’s nose to crouch and shiver, only to break out yapping again if Apollo tries to approach, which happens every time cause Apollo wants to be friends with EVERYONE). The prong collar solve the pulling problem. In-fact he’s walking pretty much loose leash with no problems and little distractions now. Very cool.
Month: June 2011
Fail
My neighbor across the street, kitty-corner on my right (the ones with the psychotic german shepherds), were out mowing this evening. Pretty normal, except it was mom tonight instead of dad, again, not out of this world, except she had the youngest sitting on her lap, side-saddle fashion, with only mom’s arm holding her on. Youngest is TOPS 3yrs old, I’m betting barely two though I’ve not actually met the kid to be sure. Regardless, young enough to have small enough limbs to EASILY fit under the guard around the mower blades, and young enough to not have a CLUE how to fall and get out of the way if mom’s arm slips.
They say to just lay there….
….don’t antagonize him, and he’ll leave. Don’t fight back. But every time we turn around we get more proof that doesn’t work.
Electric cars
While I’m on the subject, everyone goes on about how an electric car saves you money, and officially the .GOV is pushing companies to try to find a way to save oil (at least they keep saying they are), but there’s a side to getting rid of gas burning cars (or any kind of fuel burning vehicle) that I think the general public tends to forget about. The federal government, and most (if not all) states, make quite a bit of money off of gas taxes that are paid at the pump. So what happens when that source of income dries up?
Well, things like this. At first glance it makes sense. You use the roads you should pay a tax to help pay for repairs…..right? But how are they going to collect this information?
Most, if not all, new cars already have a black box of some sort that records a few seconds of data in the case of a crash, but in order to track your miles driven it would have to keep track of much more AND send that information off to the government periodically. You don’t even have to be paranoid to see ways for this to be abused, and thats just by the folks who would legally have a right to the info. What happens when some crook figures out how to access the data and uses it against you in some way?
Addicted to what now??
Go and read Marko’s post:
I’m not addicted to oil. I’m addicted to being able to drive into town on my own schedule. I’m addicted to being able to haul home a week’s worth of groceries with two little kids in tow without having to wait for the fucking bus with eighty pounds of filled plastic bags in my hands. (That’s disregarding the fact that I live out in the sticks, and the nearest bus stop is four miles away, which is one hell of a hike with the aforementioned two little kids and week’s worth of groceries.)
And that pretty much sums it up. Ok, I don’t have kids, but public transportation doesn’t run anywhere CLOSE to where I live, sure I could bike to the closest stop, but it’d be an hour ride one way, then, since the public transportation system here sucks, it would be a couple hours on the bus to get where I’m going, and considering what winter looks like here its rather not an option between November and April. Rinse repeat for the ride home. Sure I could put baskets on the bike to carry stuff, but again, there’s no where that close to ride too. Closest pharmacy (that carry’s some groceries at a high price) is a 15 minute drive away, closest grocery store is a 20 minute drive in the opposite direction. And yes, thats DRIVING, in a CAR, mostly at speeds of 55mph. Ok true it was my decisions to buy a house in the boonies, but the closer in to the city the more cramped you are, the smaller the house, and the more it cost so that didn’t make sense either.
They get around to making an electric car that I can charge off a wind turbine or solar panel in less than 8 hrs, that’ll run more than long enough to not only get me to work and back but also run some errands in between, THEN I’ll buy an electric car. In the mean time even the hybrids are so high priced as to be ridiculous and don’t get THAT much better gas mileage then my Caliber that I bought for about 1/2 the price of the hybrid!
Amazon recommends
since I mentioned Amazon I have to gripe…..why ever, since I bought a dog bed on there, does it insist on telling me I need to buy a ukulele??
Books I read
I kinda started this a while back while talking about the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. Thing is I read so many different sorts of stuff that its a little hard to keep track of occasionally. A wander through my Amazon wish list is a perfect example of this. There’s some 30yr old westerns, a bunch of Louis Lamour reprints, urban fantasy everywhere you look, a good dash of sci-fi, mysteries, some recipe books, some stuff on how to live off the land…..and thats just the books, it doesn’t include all the other STUFF that makes it onto the wishlist there.
David Weber is a very good author, and if you even sorta like sci-fi you’ll like at least the earlier Honor Harringtons (for more info see my previous post). I do think though that he may need to stop writing for a bit, all his main charactors, no matter which series, are turning into a version of Honor, rather drastically.
Since I’m on the topic of sci-fi though…..how about Mike Shpherds Kris Longknife series? The story of the proverbial “rich brat” off to make a name for herself in the military….or is it? Kristine Longknife learned at a very young age that life hurts, and that addiction is even worse, but when she tries to escape the family legends by joining the military she discovers that the legends have their own skeletons in the closets, and just how legends are made after all.
I suspect (though its not on the books anywhere) these might have been written for the older teen age group, but they’re an enjoyable read all the same. Kris tumbles into some frustratingly painfull situations only to discover that some relative pushed. Her escapes are wonderfully dramatic, but she’s going to run out of planets eventually. By book 8 I admit to having become a bit bored with the standard formula, but not so much that I won’t go find number 9 when it comes out.
Its monday
My sister-in-law gave me a sourdough starter and instructions for an Amish Sourdough Cinnamon Bread last week, and today (well, technically yesterday, but you know….) was the day it was ready to cook with, so I get everything together, portion it all out, mix it up, put it in the oven and wait ever so patiently for it to be done baking.
Decide, while I’m waiting, to re-type the instructions as the page is a bit beat. Realize as as I’m typing that I never added either the salt OR the baking powder to the mix. Its already been in the oven for 15 minutes at this point, way to late to pull it out and mix in the missing stuff. Oh well, shall have to see what it ends up like. If nothing else I can try again in 10 days!