Random bits and thoughts
The upside to having my mother now on Facebook is I no longer need to send her photos and what not separately, she can see them and show them with my dad and it’s much easier.
The downside to having my mother now on Facebook is that she freaks out every time I gripe about getting sick, and every time I gripe about work, and…..
*sigh*
Speaking of Facebook, there’s a video going around of a Comcast worker doing work on the side of the road and a bunch of cars almost hitting him. The general FB opinion is that the Comcast worker is EVIL and why didn’t he put out more cones, and OMG!!! GONNA BOYCOTT COMCAST!!!! Meanwhile I’m looking at this video thinking those morons are going WAY TOO FAST for road conditions and they better hope their insurance companies never see this video……
A few months ago I ordered custom muzzles for both dogs. Arty needs one for vet visits, and I’d been trying to train Apollo to wear one just in case but hadn’t been able to find a premade one I liked. The company offered the option of matching leashes (both leashes and muzzles made out of biothane), so I ordered one for Arty (we’re really picky about the leashes we use on Apollo). Everything arrived, and I love the muzzles. The leash….well, the biothane is awesome, but the clip they used is cheap crap (one reason we’re picky about Apollo’s leashes). Since its technically a custom piece I decided it wasn’t worth griping at the company, I’d just replace the clip at some point with something heavier. But I figured the cheap one would last the winter at least……
I was wrong. Last Saturday, while I was at work and Husband was taking the dogs out for one last potty before he left for work, the clip on Arty’s leash somehow popped open (I suspect ice in the spring, and the cheap spring not being enough to keep it closed anyway), resulting in him taking off in mad-cap zoomies down the road.
Apollo saw him taking off, got all excited, and bounced off the end of HIS leash (another reason why we’re picky about his leashes), at which point HIS COLLAR CLOSURE popped open and he took off after Arty. They were easy enough to catch, they only got a couple houses down the road before the excitement wore off, so everyone’s home and safe.
We’re not quite sure what happened with Apollo’s collar, in theory it’s possible that we just caught a large enough chunk of fur in the closure, resulting in it not closing properly. However this collar is 4yrs old and I’m having a hard time believing that we’ve never gotten large chunks of his fur caught in it before. Which makes me think that even if we DID get fur caught in it the closure itself is failing. Which wouldn’t be a huge shock since it IS 4yrs old and gets put on him and taken off him multiple times a day. But it is frustrating. So until I can find a new collar I like for him we’re double collaring him. His current collar (which, when closed, can’t slip over his head) and his old martingale (which, even when fitted properly, he’s proved he can slip out of if he really wants), in hopes that the double collar will be enough to keep him restrained.
And no, neither dog has all that great of a recall. Normally we do have a GREAT emergency recall. But Arty was in psycho zoomie mode cause he’d been cooped up in the house due to the cold, and Apollo wasn’t letting him go by himself. We’re back to using Arty’s old leash, not the end of the world, but annoying. Lotsa fun….
My work has been typical Christmas madness. This is the time of year when I tend to really hate people in general.
And then I had to explain to a casual acquaintance that the use of “frenzied beasts” (by a mutual acquaintance) when referring to Black Friday/weekend crowds was not racist. Her argument consisted of “but it’s OFTEN racist!!”. I pointed out that context matters. She asked if there were any terms that I thought were ALWAYS racist. I said I always consider “nigger” to be racist, but if the community as a whole really wanted it taken that way they needed to stop using it in media. To which she responded that it’s alright if black people call each other “nigger”, cause context mattered! To which I responded “so why are we having this conversation again? Cause you just proved my point”. She hasn’t spoken to me since.
Speaking of retail, and people in general. Please take some thought as to how you treat people in front of your kids (or grandkids or random children around you). A while back I had a lady approach me looking for a particular product. She was pushing a cart with a kid in it, probably less than 5yrs old, though I suck at guessing ages. Kid called her gramma. She told me that she was looking for two specific products, either of which would work for her project. I told her that I wasn’t familiar with the one, but the other is right over here if you’ll follow me. As I turned to lead the way I hear the kid say “you must be new here if you don’t know….” at which point gramma shushed him. I pretended to not hear, though I’ll admit that what I wanted to do was snap at the kid about manners (which wouldn’t have been useful, but yah).
But someone in this kid’s life has said that to people who are trying to help him/her. And not just once, likely it’s been said multiple times. The kid rattled it off word for word. 5 yrs old or less and he already thinks that’s how you treat people who’re trying to assist you. Oh sure, he doesn’t understand the context of it. Doesn’t matter. With that as his guide how do you think he’s going to grow up?
Winter
Arty gets cold faster than Apollo, and the single digit temps we’re already getting this winter are a bit much for him, but he has fun for as long as he lasts. Apollo on the other hand doesn’t understand why we can’t spend all day out there!
We’re definitely getting a much more normal winter this year, instead of the incredibly warm one we had last year.
Small Business Promo
I mostly try to avoid putting up identifying information about me and mine on here, though I know if you really wanted to find me it wouldn’t be hard. But sometimes it has to be done.
My mom has been trying her hand at selling her handi-work, with the idea of using it as a 2ndary income after she retires. If you’re in Massachusetts proper you may be able to catch her at a local fair. But she also has an Etsy Store. She’s also on Facebook (Carolyn’s Jean Bags) if you prefer.
Now, I’m working with her to try to get better photos of everything, it’s a bit hard long distance, but I think the ideas are getting across.
She’s been making purses and bags (and clothing, and halloween costumes, and at least one prom outfit for me) for as long as I can remember. Her stuff is well made, and should hold up well to abuse.
As you’re buying gifts this holiday please consider buying from small business and local craftspeople. Sometimes it costs more, sometimes it doesn’t. But it means so much more to them!
Home On The Range Blog?
Last post I remember seeing she said something about taking a break from blogging. Which is completely understandable. But I didn’t realize she was going to lock down the blog either. Anyone know how to contact her? It sounds really shallow, but I’d never bothered to download at least a couple recipes…….
But his tail was wagging!
I actually started this post a couple years ago. Got distracted and never finished it. So here it is.
I was following links this morning, as is my wont when I’m bored. Where I ended up this doesn’t really matter to this story.
They were talking about a fairly recent incident that made major news about a dog attacking a child. Again, which incident doesn’t matter (though I’m sure most of you saw it, the kid’s protector was unusual), but one of the comments caught my eye: “maybe my dog body language skills aren’t up to par, but the dog didn’t look aggressive, he was even wagging his tail!” Ok, I paraphrased, but you get the point.
It’s a fairy common comment on dog body language “he’s wagging his tail, so he must be happy to see me!”.
After I wrote the above I had to go to work, and never finished the rest of this post. Recently the next video came across my feed. It’s a long video, and although it’s not bloody, it’s the stuff that horror movies are made of if you have an understanding of canine body language. Just watch the first 30 seconds, don’t torture yourself with the rest of it.
Those dogs were playing. I wouldn’t be surprised if they still thought they were playing when they were dragged away from mother and child. And yes, both mother and child were bitten. If you do watch the whole thing please don’t tell me what the mother SHOULD have done. Watching the video it’s easy to tell what she SHOULD have done. In the heat of the moment? With her child to protect? I understand exactly what she did.
One more video. This one is my Apollo, at about the age of 1.5-2yrs of age. Watch it first without sound.
[videojs mp4=”http://scaryyankeechick.com/picture-s/videos/apollo%20tail.mp4″ preload=”true”]
Tail’s going a mile a minute. Gotta be a happy excited dog right?
Now turn on your sound, turn up your bass (or if you’re watching on a mobile device, plug in your headphones, or you won’t hear a thing), and watch it again.
He was watching the cat I called Evil Kitty out the window. If you look you can actually see the cat at one point. He was actually quite pissed.
A wagging tail has more to do with excitement than friendliness. The dog might be wagging his tail hard cause he’s excited to see you. Or he might be wagging his tail hard cause he’s over-stimulated and excited to play and can’t stop. Or he might be wagging his tail hard cause he’s pissed and mad.
And for some reason this is something that many dog owners can’t seem to understand. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a madly excited charging dog, with the owner shouting behind “Oh, he’s friendly!”. Well, his tail was wagging, but that doesn’t make him friendly, sorry……
Dogs bite for a huge number of reasons. Actual aggression, fear, pain, prey drive, play…….a wagging tail isn’t a good indicator of whether a bite is likely to happen or not. The whole dog and the entire situation has to be looked at.
Winter is here
In true Upstate NY fashion we’ve had a few flurries of snow prior to today, but nothing really stuck (luckily, since it wouldn’t be out of normal for it to have done so).
Yesterday it hit 70 degrees by noon, and I was running around at work in short sleeves and sweating.
By 3:30 in the afternoon the sky had gone dark, winds came blasting through, and the temp dropped by 20 degrees in half an hour. Freezing rain by the time I was driving home. Sleet by the time Husband was driving home.
Woke up this morning to white grass, though it’s not otherwise sticking…..yet.
The prediction is that tonight it’ll really start accumulating, 6″ to over a foot depending on exactly where you are (which keeps changing every time I look at it). Last predicted accumulation map I saw put us in the 6-12″ category. We’ll see what we actually get.
Of course, this was predicted by Thursday, with the Winter Weather Warnings going out on Friday. Saturday at work I personally sold 4 snow-blowers, one co-worker sold 3 before I even got there, and another co-worker sold another 3 while I was helping other customers.
Plus snow shovels, ice melt, ice scrapers, and wood pellets.
I think last winter made the area lazy…….
Edited: Monday morning, 8am, looks like 6″ or so. Hard to tell with the wind causing drifting, but I doubt its more than that, so far anyway. They’re saying another 6″ to 12″ today……
Parvo Outbreak in AZ
Now those of you dog owners who pay attention know that parvo outbreaks happen not infrequently, and unless it’s local to you most of us don’t pay a lot of attention any more. As long as your dog is vaccinated you’re not likely to have problems.
Unfortunately this outbreak in AZ might be different.
At least one veterinarian is reporting that they’re seeing VACCINATED dogs sick with parvo.
Now before everyone completely panics, the dog in the picture is being held by a rescue, and so it’s entirely possible that this dog had only been vaccinated shortly before actually getting sick (many rescues vaccinate on intake since they don’t know the dog’s history prior). Which means that the vaccine wouldn’t have had time to convince the immune system how to work. However there’s no way to be sure from the posted information. And they’re saying that they’ve seen multiple vaccinated dogs sick.
If you’re in the AZ area, or traveling through the AZ area, please take extra precautions. Even if you’re not a dog owner, if you have friends or family who do have dogs consider taking a minute to dip the soles of your shoes in bleach water. Parvo is a nasty disease with a high fatality rate.
Oh, and if your dog has diarrhea don’t take him to the dog park. Just…..don’t.
Grump Grumble…..
I shared a “both candidates suck so I don’t care who you voted for, lets go get drunk together” meme on Facebook a couple days ago. For the record, I don’t drink alcohol, but this election had me considering it.
A couple liberal FB friends decided that what that really meant was that I loved Trump and therefore needed to be yelled at. The discussion didn’t go well and I’m now short (at least) two FB friends. Or maybe that should read: The discussion went pretty well and now I don’t have to watch at least two folks whine about Trump any more.
For the record: I’m pretty sure Trump will suck as Prez and I’m just hoping he manages to do something to curb the trend to send out stuff to China, but I’m not holding my breath on that either. However I’m really not worried about him deciding to round up minorities for re-education training either. We didn’t get registration and concentration camps after 9/11 (when the general public might have been amenable) we’re certainly not going to get them now. Nor am I especially worried that he’s going to start removing rights from minorities either. Among other things the large majority of those laws are at the state level and I figure Trump’s ability to convince states as a whole to do that is pretty much non-existent. Since most of the folks I know who voted for Trump did so while figuratively holding their noses and with the understanding that he was going to require some close watching, yah, the fact that he won so many states doesn’t change that figuring. I’ll also note that for all of the media’s uproar over Trump’s treatment of women the worst they could find about Trump and gays was that a guy who used to work at a business Trump owns is suing because he feels he was treated badly by his co-workers after coming out as gay. There’s zero evidence that Trump had anything to do with it except for owning the company, and since that’s the only such suit I can find it also doesn’t exactly show that such was normal for Trump owned businesses.
Nor am I overly worried about Pence. One, he’s the VP, and two, he’s not Cheney. Stop wishing harm on Trump and you aren’t likely to have to deal with Pence. Now Bannon…..but Bannon isn’t signing laws into being either, so that’s a different worry anyway.
But apparently telling people that they need to spend more effort actually learning how the government works is “name calling” and telling them not to get their panties in a twist is “offensive” and telling them that offending further their friends and neighbors who are their local home support is a really bad idea is “making fun” of them.
And the fear-mongering has really got to stop. Yesterday I saw a headline that stated “If Trump forces Muslims to register then Jews ought to register with them cause Jews know what its like!!”. I didn’t read the article. But yah, thats helpfull for actually getting things done…….
In other news my work got in their first delivery of live Christmas Trees on Tuesday. I came home from work covered in pine sap, pine needles, and swearing about my new dept head (its not going well, but I finally remembered him from my previous time of employment with the company, short form, I’m now carrying solely purple and pink pens on the sales floor and it’ll be interesting to see how long it’ll take him to notice). Along that note: I know that the big box store with the orange aprons advertises that they carry fresh cut Christmas trees that are delivered regularly. But the reality is (at least here in Upstate NY) that they get a couple deliveries the week before Thanksgiving and that’s it. By the time you’re buying that live tree a week or so before Christmas that tree has been cut for over a month……
The aftermath
My FB feed is full of people FREAKING OUT, cause Trump won and that means that the racists bigots EVIL won and we’re going to all get put in concentration camps and DIE.
Many of these are the same folks who posted meme’s to the effect of “if you’re voting for Trump just unfriend me now” and “only racists vote for Trump” and so on.
People, just stop freaking out. Spend some time learning just what exactly the President can and can’t do, legally. Spend some time taking a closer look at your friends and co-workers, Trump didn’t win out of a vacuum. It is extremely likely that a noticeable percentage of people you know voted for him. Were they racists or bigots before they voted for him? Did they sympathize and support you while you struggled with something? Why do you think they’re going to be different now?
When you were 5 years old, and you called someone a poopyhead and threatened to not be their friend anymore, did it fix the problem? So why do you think calling people names and placing labels now, and threatening to not have anything further to do with them, now that you’re an adult, is going to change things now? Infact, stop and think for a minute what your response tends to be when someone calls you names. I managed to not say that on FB in response to some of those memes, the restraint was hard to come by.
I’ve posted several links on here detailing why such a large percentage of the US was going to end up voting for Trump. And the reality is that racism, bigotry, and his stupidity about women, didn’t really have much to do with it.
And really, if it’s wrong to vote for Trump solely because he’s a male going up against a female, then it was wrong to vote for Hillary solely because she’s a female going up against a male. And telling me that I should have voted for her because I’m female and she’s female and “FEMALE PRESIDENT!!!!!” isn’t going to change my mind on that either.
I have to admit that a large portion of my feelings on the matter follow along this line:
I’m also seeing a lot of liberals this morning talking about how now is the time for reconciliation and “reaching across the aisle”. Ha! Remember when Obama got in, and “Elections have consequences”, and he had a “mandate” and you shoved Obamacare down America’s throats even though a lot of us didn’t want it? Yeah… It is probably going to be like that……..
All that stuff I’ve heard over the last few years about the OBSRUCTIONIST republicans blocking your sainted president from doing what he wanted? No shit. That’s how our government works. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, and there is a president who wants to do stuff you don’t like, you’re going to expect the people you voted for to try and stop him. And then Trump will probably still cram through some Executive Orders you don’t like. Yep. We know exactly how that feels.
On that note, this is why if the idea of an executive power in the hands of That Other Asshole terrifies you, maybe then the executive shouldn’t have that power at all. Because eventually The Other Asshole Team is going to win, and do to you, what you did to them.
So liberals, remember laughing off and excusing things like Fast & Furious or the IRS targeting political opponents? Oh, silly republicans, the president has a phone and a pen and shut up! Uh huh… That kind of behavior seems terrifying now that somebody like Trump has it, doesn’t it?
Serves you right.
But all of us need to remember this:
This is not the end of political or electoral history. To put Trump’s victory in context, reflect for a moment how often you’ve been told that some election result shows a sea change in American politics. 1994 was the “year of the angry white man,” touted as a new wave of white conservative power thwarting Democratic choices. Ask Bob Dole how that turned out. 2000 and 2004 were the years of “permanent Republican majority,” sold as another end to Democratic chances. That lasted into Obama’s victory in 2008, sold to us as the crest of a demographic wave that would crush the Republican party. Apparently not.
“This is the hugest change ever” is popular with media and pundits. It gets clicks. It hasn’t been true so far…….
Our values endure: Our values do not die just because you might interpret an election as rejecting them (more on that later). You don’t hold on to your values because they’re popular, you hold onto them because they’re right and just and they make you who you are. America’s history is full of popular fidelity to our stated values ebbing and flowing, and of Americans stubbornly holding on to those ideas in the dark times…….
We must be prepared to fight against policies that conflict with our values. But that requires, first, some soul-searching about what those values are, whether we have already compromised them, and whether we have been effective and credible advocates for them. The rule of law, the equality of all people (feeble or powerful) before that law, freedom of thought and speech and worship, strict limits on the power of the state over the individual — those are a few I care about. I’ve been arguing for a while that neither major American party is a reliable friend to those values. It may be a little late to speak out for them if we stood by while “our team” demeaned them. But as I believe in grace and redemption, I believe in the possibility of a renewed commitment to values and a new fight for them……
Third, it might be a good time to reflect on how we talk about race, gender, and sexuality. Trump struck a chord by fighting “political correctness.” I’ve argued that blasting political correctness often involves whinging that we can’t act like a dick without being called a dick any more. But it would be foolish not to inquire why Trump’s message resonated. The steadily growing social consensus against bigotry is a good thing. But people are flawed — okay, people are assholes — and the consensus gets twisted and distorted and expressed in foolish, counter-productive ways. Some of America’s admirable opposition to bigotry has been filtered through human frailty to become obnoxious, counter-productive, petty, and sanctimonious, an obsession with form over substance. I’m not saying you shouldn’t explain what pronouns you prefer. I’m suggesting that maybe the way you convey the message might have an impact on your audience’s receptiveness to other messages. It’s just possible that “we’ll grind these bigots under our heel until they talk right” is ineffective and might actually be more about our character flaws than winning. I’m saying there may be a better way.
Go read both. Take the time to read the links out, especially the ones from Popehat. Stop freaking out. Stop calling people names. Stop it. If you don’t like it, then fix it. Screaming about how “the other side is going to kill us” isn’t going to do it.