TIPLESS WORLD As businesses pushes us into a cashless society, they are also charging us an extra service fee for the privilege of using a credit card! "Oh you want change for a twenty? Let me figure out how that works". Perhaps that requires an extra charge for the ability to do basic math.
SERVICE WORLD Furnace/AC install went well until about 11 pm when the brand spanking new heatmaster started to do a little shimmy/shake along with powering up and down every time it turned off. Run, run, swoop down slow, slow then run, run slow, slow stop. Mesmerizing as one waits for the furnace's fan symphony to finish clearing its throat three times before turning all the way off. Sigh. HVAC folks out the next day to REPLACE the igniter which started the whole "let's replace the whole damn thing and quit replacing an igniter every year. As I understand it; they do not ship the latest igniter with the brand-new furnace, and it came separately. Huh? So, if you don't know that, you learn the hard way. Always comforting when the repair guy (not the install guy) has to keep looking at the instructions. Maybe they should come to the install party together? Nobody got a tip, but from experience, I did postdate the check a couple of days. Going local we at least can get service within a reasonable time.
Not so much with handyman/woman people. If you're working for yourself and are frantically, and frequently advertising your ability to fix anything, just call, you should probably make yourself available. We have had mixed, well actually lousy adventures with handy persons. One lasted a few years, did several jobs and then ghosted before finishing the bench for the deck/pergola. I have to quit paying these people before everything is done, but we had had good history with him. I even checked police and obituary reports to see if I was banging on an empty drum. Nothing, so that mystery remains.
Another one did some bigger jobs and even came out to the lake house to build a firewall and a couple of other projects. We gifted him with one of our precious all-beef sticks and paid his bill in full. All we needed was our key back. Another mystery disappearance. I think he lost it and was embarrassed. Dumb. Both of these guys did take some shortcuts so not a great loss unless you really need something done. Asked an electrical engineer friend to help on a couple of small electrical jobs, but obviously not a long-term solution.
Found another possibility at the lake whose wife was frantically advertising his awesome skills. Gave him a shout when we realized upon purchase of a new generator, we had never purchased one in the box before. I was hoping for some assistance with the 220 lb. metal monolith. It wasn't about how to put it together, but more about how we could move the damn thing to put it together. While I was sending ghost texts out to the universe, the OH came up with creative solutions like hanging the beast over the tailgate to put the feet and wheels on and tying cables to it and run it down a ramp to the ground. I was playing second chair so my assistance consisted of fetching tools, reading instructions, pulling, sliding moving things on command and being very helpful when the OH ran into a roadblock on the wiring by pointing out we could move the battery box. It works and no cuts, bruises or broken bones -Success!
Of course, when we finally heard from the newbie handyperson, we went back and forth a couple of days before connecting. He diagnosed my non-working basically new dishwasher within ten minutes, and we arranged a couple more jobs agreeing to meet in the am before we had to leave. No show. I finally texted and the response was he had an appointment at 9. Ahem. Step one of running a business COMMUNICATE! I sent a long text and said we'd like to work with him, but we need to communicate on changes to schedules or I might as well nip this in the bud. We agreed to a meet next Wednesday pm so we will see if it's a hit or a miss and move on.
POLITICAL RANT I'm assuming everyone has been privy to the shit show last week with our dumpf and his mini-me, judy. After inexplicably voting with our mortal enemies (for 80 years) on the Ukraine war they then tried to ambush Ukraine's premier, who despite being outnumbered, rendered our fearless leader and wannabe mafia don petty and asinine. Which immediately got Ukraine massive support from the EU. judy's ranting about saying thank-you reminded me of an old grannie reminding President Z to thank his auntie for a totally inappropriate birthday gift. Perhaps he even offered notepaper so he could communicate his gratitude for holding off an invading dictator and saving democracy. Wow. Well at least our mortal enemies were happy.
Also, as for all the massive layoffs of government workers (with prejudice by saying it's a performance issue), who the hell do you think is going to do the work that we, I don't know, pay government to do? It will affect everyone. Of course, since they have also outlawed science, health and charity maybe people don't get it yet. I have a family member who has often made the comment that they consider a compliment, "well you work for government, but I know you work hard". Where did this mentality come from? Name one business that has a 100% productive and perfect workforce. Just like other businesses, the majority are decent people doing their job. As someone who has worked in management and personnel I have definitely disciplined and fired government workers, just like every other business manager doing their job.
But no sweat, the house passed a budget proposal that has the potential of cutting 880 billion out of Medicaid and 7,000 social security workers are also being laid off. Their thinking is the disabled and poor need to find a job with medical benies. Good luck with that. Maybe muskie should get back to running his crumbling empire and get out of the "people's business". Technically the government workforce has not grown proportionately for 50 years, and I can attest that every government job I ever had was in a vastly understaffed situation with the emps doing several jobs to keep things afloat-at less pay than the private sector. Humorously today, the trade-off was you were protected by Civil Service. However, you know who collected a paycheck without working? Right, political appointees usually with ridiculous demands of preferential treatment, ignoring established rules and procedures and causing general chaos. I have examples unfortunately.
THE BACKYARD MENAGERIE Nothing like new goodies like corn cobs to entice all types of beasts to the backyard. The birds have reigned supreme for many years and those below have grabbed what left-overs fall into their realm. It's always a hierarchy thing where the sparrows get knocked out by the starlings who fade for the crows who bow to the cardinals who acquiesce to the bluejays. We have even had some raptors who snatch a more meaty offering but that's nature. This year we added the corn and are hosting about 13 deer but also, ducks, rabbits, coyotes, a giant racoon and some other weird blobs that hover over the golden treasures that are impossible to identify. Suffice it to say, we are becoming popular. Though the racoon has sometimes moved right onto the deck after leftover seed and does not seem too spooked by humans. Come Spring all that goes away and the only beasts enjoying free meals are my hummers (hummingbirds). Could cause a riot at the door. Peace out.....💚 💙💛
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