Weekly RANT

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OK,

It's raining here, and I'm late, and I've got a long drive, and I'm just generally an old grump anyway.

So, here's something new for everyone. A place to put your particular rant of the week. (Only one allowed per week; if you need more than that, just CHILL)

Oh, come on, you know you want to do this. Just blow off a little steam, here, where nobody pays attention to you anyway. Whatever bur is under your blanket today will do just fine. Pet peeves, gripes, sour grapes, etc.

Just no politics. That would be cheating, since it's everbodies' gripe anyway. It has to be something you have no control over, something that shapes or affects your daily world. (I know, first thing, somebody's gonna gripe about all these rules)

Just to give you the idea, I'll go first:

I bought a new lawnmower last week. When I got on it for the first time the other day, I noticed that the speed control was in little symbols. A turtle for slow, and a cutesy little bunny for fast.

I mean this is on a fairly large riding mower, for cryin' out loud. and now, every time I use it, I have to be reminded that Sears does not think I am capable of understanding the terms "fast" and "slow"

Yeah, yeah, I know, it's actually a good idea. You don't have to read, or speak English to understand the controls. Hell, you don't even have to be potty-trained!

---

OK, so it's not much of a rant, after all. I'm sure you can do

-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), April 12, 2000

Answers

Next week's rant is gonna be about this damn program that cuts off the end of all my posts! This never happened with Navagotor. Is Bill Gates really the Anti-Christ?

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-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), April 12, 2000.


Ticks and chiggers are out early. Nuff said.

-- helen (handbasket_helena@hotmail.com), April 12, 2000.

Well, I dunno. Chicks and tiggers sound better than this nasty cold weather. Lon, you realize that for nine months of the year (or more), all you'll hear from me here is how nasty it is to live in this awful climate, right?

Hmph, snow in mid-April to kill my poor two-lips :-(

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), April 12, 2000.


Lon, you using IE5?
Remember how we used to always sign off with
xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx ?
That was because those same cybergnomes would munch the ends of all our posts, so we had to offer them digital sacrifices.

Later, after Mac told us about the LineEaters, we found we could just add lotsa blank spaces and blank lines, and the gnomes would accept that fluffy dessert.

And now, with IE5, all we need to add is one hard return!

Anyway, we can relate :-)

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), April 12, 2000.


Rant of the Week: Filing [and I don't mean filing the Income Tax.]

I HATE filing. Yeah, I filed my income tax the other day, but NOW I have to file the file. How long do we REALLY have to keep this stuff? Do I REALLY still need the 1997 Income Tax Instruction booklet in the file?

Do I really need the instructions on the iron I never use? Do I need the instructions on the vacuum cleaner that broke two years ago? They're STILL in the file, but do I now need to clean the file so I can do the filing?

What about those credit-card statements, or receipts? Sometimes I file them, and sometimes I don't. Of course when I did my taxes, the software asked me how much I spent on my daughter's tuition in 1999. That wasn't in the checkbook, so I must have charged it. Hmmm...it isn't in the file. I called the school. Nope...THEY couldn't give out that information [even to her MOTHER] because their privacy regulations don't allow it. I called the credit card company. Well, they couldn't give me data on September, 1999 for 48 hours. Please call back. Why didn't I file that month? I checked out the website for the college, multiplied the hours taken by the charge per hour, added up the fees, and entered the total into the software. HUH? After hours of searching it didn't amount to ANY credit?

Medicare forms: I handle my mom's bills. Actually, I MIShandle my mom's bills just as well as I MIShandle my own. However, I DO file them. Sometimes it takes 6 months for medicare to pay a bill, so I put the bill in the "HOLD" file. Once medicare pays it's portion, I clip it to the bill and wait for Blue Cross to pay. Once Blue Cross pays, I review the file and see if mom owes anything. If nothing is owed, I move the file to the "CLOSED" file. If something is owed, I move the file to the "OWE" file. [Don't tell me it would be easier to just pay the bill. This would invalidate ALL the procrastination devices that I've learned to perfect through the years.

What about all those receipts for books at the school bookstore? After the semester ends, we can sell them back, ya know. They go into the "SCHOOL BOOKS" file. A semester is five months long, ya know.

What about all those letters you've been meaning to answer? They go in the "CORRESPONDENCE" file. One day soon I'll respond to that letter my Aunt Gert sent in her Christmas card in 1983.

Files, files, a file for everything. I HATE to file, and my desk is now devoid of wood, so I NEED to file.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), April 13, 2000.



I get to rant for free?! OH Goody!

For those of you who keep track of these things, I have four children. To be more specific, I have four teen-agers; three boys and one girl.

Here's my rant: The oldest is fond of reminding us that he's 18 years old (like that confers some magic something or other than exempts him from listening to his parents.) But in this kid's case, he's 18 but can't hold a job, won't do his laundry (now his room stinks!), won't keep up with his school work and doesn't give a hoot about the fact that he gets speeding tickets regularly. The last ticket was a doozie-he neglected to show up for court and a warrant was issued for his arrest!

So, dear friends, can I kick him out of the house now or do I have to be polite about it and give him an "opportunity" to grow up whilst still at home? (I can tell you that I've always wanted to see what it was like to throw someone's possessions out into the front yard!)

Rant off for now! Linda Mc (formerly newbiebutnodummy)

-- LindaMc (jcm@telepath.com), April 13, 2000.


Linda,

LTNS Girl! How are you doing? I have often wondered what happened to you, as you seemed to have dropped out of sight. Well, as you can see, I'm now a sheeple and not cannot-say. Glad to see you are still around.

Oh, as for your son, I honestly have no idea what to do. Maybe if you toss his stuff out (on a dry day) so that he has to clean it up, he'll catch the drift and clean his act up just a little bit.

Donna

-- (Sheeple@Greener.Pastures), April 13, 2000.


Donna! I didn't recognize you! Congrats on the nuptuals! (I saw your picture in the album. Cute man!)

Yes, I did drop out of sight. I'd had more y2k than I could stomach. Then my dad's health worsened and he passed away early in January. It's been kind of a dismal year so far.

LOL about the dry day! When he's being 'poopy', I want to throw it out no matter the weather! Perhaps he'll grow up and become civilized. (I know I did!)

Chat with you later...Linda

-- Linda Mc (jcm@telepath.com), April 13, 2000.


Linda, I find my sons socks all over the house. Stuffed behind cushions, under tables, in the middle of the floor. Never a pair, either. Just one sock here, one sock there, one sock elsewhere. I think it's a teenage boy thing? His laundry basket sits empty, his clothing all over the floor in his room. (along with his homework, usually crumbled in a ball, also on the floor)

His favorite statement is "you don't understand"...usually followed by something mumbled as he walks out of the room. He has two chores he needs to do each day. He never remembers to do them. Then I mention they need doing..and he says "I know I know.."

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), April 13, 2000.


Hi Linda,

We tried "tough love" on our second teen. The previous year he had lost a sister, lost his first girlfriend and lost his direction. When he was sixteen, he was told that he could live his own life in our home with the following exceptions:

Nothing illegal.

No sex in our house.

Nothing that would interfere with the raising of his younger sibs.

When his dad threw him out for having sex with his current girlfriend in his bedroom, it nearly killed me.

He is now twenty-five, engaged to a lovely lady and we get together often for cards or just to visit. He says that throwing him out was the best thing we could have done.

I'm not advocating this avenue for all teens--they are all different and need different "guidance". I guess my pet peeve for this week is that his younger sibs are now teenagers and I don't seem to have gained enough wisdom with the first two!

I always pray that the girls don't get pregnant and the boys don't suicide. Those are rather permanent impacts on their futures!

May you retain your sense of humor and your love for your son.

-- Lois Knorr (gknorr@attcanada.net), April 14, 2000.



Lois:

My oldest moved out when she was 17. I had made it clear that to stay she had to abide by house rules. She didn't want to abide. She moved in with friends. I helped her out financially when she got stuck with unpaid bills, car broke down, etc. She just moved back home last August [age 20]. She now comments on what a fool she was to move out simply over some rules. She's attending college full- time, working part-time, helping with chores, etc.

In contrast, my SO's brother has three girls who are in their mid 20's who still lay around the house all day and party all night. They don't bother to get a job and count on mom and dad to bail them out of trouble.

Every decision has pros and cons. If we force the kids to leave home, we force them to become responsible. However, we worry a LOT more. Of course THEY also worry a lot more, and sometimes that ain't such a bad idea.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), April 14, 2000.


I think that male adolescent socks & shorts are governed {sp?} by unique laws of physics. Am I the only female who wonders why we travel far into deep space and neglect some of the obvious phenomena of our time?

-- flora (***@__._), April 14, 2000.

Hey 'nita,

I've been wondering...

Would you like to adopt?

-- flora (***@__._), April 14, 2000.


Flora, perhaps far in deep space is where we'll find the answers to male oddities. Like a planet MADE of men's socks,..where the ancient humans used to live, but had to flee to Earth..because the planet was caving in, and all attempts to plug the wholes by dropping socks into them failed. They can no longer remember why they are dropping socks on the ground,...but they do it instinctively still.

One for the X-Files? :-)

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), April 14, 2000.


Three was my limit, Flora, but I can ASSURE both you and Kritter that socks and other items of clothing periodically disappear into a parallel universe DESPITE the gender of the owner. I'd even go so far as to state that the AGE of the owner is not a function of the phenomenon. [I make no confessions here, but I've been known to engage in household tasks on a cold day wearing one yellow sock and one blue sock.]

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), April 15, 2000.


That's why I only get black socks and white socks......otherwise, it gets too difficult.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), April 16, 2000.

OH YEAH!

I just KNEW this thread was gonna be popular with our crowd.

We just got back from the crawfish boil. Had six thousand pounds of the disgusting little critters, and cooked up every one of them.

We had a Cajun band for two days, and Kit danced 'til he dropped! At first he was kinda shy, and just sat. But an aide from the Opportunity Center in Fredricksburg noticed him and came over and got him dancing. Then she introduced him to about six of her kids and they had a BALL! (Who says Angels don't walk among us?)

We had gone in our RV, and camped where the folks were gathered for the two-day roping event. They all had big horse-trailers and each had at least two beautiful roping ponies. They tied them to the fence in front of our motorhome, so that when I awoke in the mornings, I faced a whole row of horses-butts. I kept thinking I was at one of my wife's family reunions!

We went from there to the rougher country a little west (see my postcards from the road), and enjoyed some great Texas scenery and perfect weather. We met some nice folks from Victoria, BC, and upstate New York, who were down in God's country to see the birds.

Anyway, we had a tun-o-fun and are ready to go again. So really, I don't have a rant right now, and I don't know what I'm doing on this thread, anyway. But I do have a teen-aged son, so it won't be hard to come up with one soon.

----------------------------------------

-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), April 18, 2000.


Lon,

But you do have a rant. Your rant is how much horses-butts look like your wife's family (reunion).

Oops... did I say that? Sorry, just trying to link Lon in with the rant.

Sheeple

-- (Sheeple@Greener.Pastures), April 18, 2000.


You just wait til I figger out this scanner. I got pictures of both me and Kit. You wanna see horses butts - I'll show you some horses-butts!

Wait a minute, this isn't turning out like I meant.

Oh, well, truth in advertising..........

--------------

-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), April 18, 2000.


Well, this week has been the kind of week that just calls for a rant.

As many of you know, my sister is ill - I'm quite concerned and madder than a wet hen that her ______ doctors are taking sooo long to treat her! Mom has a concerning spot on her cheek that the doctors have left for a month, now - since she's had a previous (and successfully removed) melanoma, I don't understand their snail's pace in her case either!

And to top it all off, my cat hasn't been seen in over a week... not at the SPCA, not reported to vet's, no sign of her at all. :-(

Moreover, it's been rainy and cloudy all week - you'd think we lived in Cascadia!

*rant off*

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), May 28, 2000.


Rant accepted.

My sypatheses to your sister ... let her know we are thinking about her.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), May 28, 2000.


Thanks, Robert, I'll do that

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), May 29, 2000.

Tricia, we'll be thinking about your sister and your mom too. I hope they get good care soon.

-- helen (home@the.range), May 29, 2000.

Thanks to all who shared my concern, both here and in chat. Truly trouble shared is trouble halved and joy shared is joy doubled!

Mom finally had her questionable mole taken off on Tuesday. I'm not sure when we'll hear if it was cancerous, and ir it was, whether or not they got it all; but at least it's off!

My sister is *finally* getting some treatment for Graves. It isn't the treatment of choice because she's not well enough for that, but they expect to be able to do the treatment of choice in about a month if the current treatment stabalizes her enough by then.

All your prayers and concern have been most welcome - God bless you, too!

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), June 03, 2000.


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