This evening, I'm sweeping the floor and some lady stops out in front of our house and rolls down her truck window and casts a disgusted look toward me (the lights were on inside and it was getting dark out.) Then she backs up to our driveway and motions me to come out in the rain, which I do. I walk out and she starts chewing me out that our dog doesn't have a dog house. (He does, and it is completely accessible, but he seems to like the cold and the rain... besides, it was 50 degrees or more out today.) I told her that he did have a house. I've never seen this woman in my life. Then she starts in about how he can't reach it!! I said, "Look, ma'am, he's on a 50 foot run, and he can go anywhere in this yard he darn well pleases, and that house, as well as his food and water, are completely within his reach. Then she looks at me like I'm some sort of liar. I point to the cable run and tell her it stretches the length of the yard and he can go anywhere within 15 ft. or more of either side of the run. I wanted so badly to ask her which was more humane, to let him sit in the rain with his tongue hanging out and thoroughly enjoying barking at passing cars or to bring him inside and put him in a little kennel because he is incapable of being housebroken. For crying out loud, he's a spitz, and he loves to be outside, even more so in cold weather. When we first moved here, we had at least 5 locals stop and tell us that the "coyotes and raccoons" were going to get him (we probably had way more coyotes back home and he was never bothered by them!!!) and nosy people stopping to ask if our dogs had their shots because they didn't see their tags on their collars (I don't put the vaccine tags on their collars because they are too prone to getting caught or lost.) GRRRRRR! I was a little miffed.... we've even had a couple of nosy people insinuate that we did something to harm the dog because he only has one eye (he lost the other in a fight over dog food more than 5 years ago, at which point we rushed him in the middle of the night to the vet hospital and spent several hundred dollars to get him patched back up.) I hate living in town!!!!! That dog gets attention, fresh food and water, shelter, and if it is too cold, he comes in and sleeps on a pile of rugs in his kennel with a chew toy and food and water... he's cost us an arm and a leg in vet bills ever since we rescued him more than 7 years ago, and it ticks me off when people around here don't seem to recognize that dogs are dogs....seem to think that it is somehow more humane to leave an animal locked up in their houses while they're gone all day than to let them have free run of the yard because something "might" hurt them. My kids smother that little dog with attention, which he just eats up. Just because he wants to lay out in the rain and get soaked, I'm being cruel???? d*
I had a golden retriever years ago. When he was a pup he had this thing where he'd foam at the mouth when ever he rode in a car. No idea why I guess he was excited or something. I can't remember how many people came up to me and told me he needed a drink of water or to go to the vet or whatever. Acted like I was abusing him. He was fine he just freaked out on car rides.
No I do not think you are being cruel.
How much you want to bet that the same woman has on many occasions passed a homeless person and has not given that human being a second thought? I wonder if she would open her home and house someone who was out in the cold rain with no food or shelter?
Next time someone does that to you, stick your finger up your nose, move it about, remove it from the nostril and flick towards the person annoying you. Repeat if you think it would help.
rofl rofl Gee, the gall of that woman - like StinkerBell says, she probably doesn't care about the human race, wouldn't life a finger for them. I don't like living in town either - glad both our places are way out in the country.
Quote from: ScottA on January 08, 2008, 08:26:35 PM
I had a golden retriever years ago. When he was a pup he had this thing where he'd foam at the mouth when ever he rode in a car. No idea why I guess he was excited or something. I can't remember how many people came up to me and told me he needed a drink of water or to go to the vet or whatever. Acted like I was abusing him. He was fine he just freaked out on car rides.
Scott, I had a dog that did that too. She rode from OK to TN with me one time and seemed to get a little better with it after that... she was just nervous. I've never had anyone act like that dog was abused, though. This is a new thing once we moved up here. There's a hound and a chow I see roaming around loose every now and then, but our dogs are always on our property. However, every time some neighbor finds dog crap in their yard, we get accused of letting our big dog run loose...we've even had hate mail tacked to our front door one time (ironically, during the time our big dog was being accused, he'd been with us on a trip back home!!!) Our big dog, the beardie is in the house most of the time. The little one is not at all a good house dog, and I figure if he's ten years old and not housebroken, it isn't likely to happen anytime soon. He is happiest when he's outside as long as he gets some petting and such every day. If he's inside, he has to be in a little kennel because that's the only place he won't pee. The girls are crazy about him even though he's a little neurotic and blind as a bat... I don't know what this gal's problem was. (I was concerned that she was driving because she obviously couldn't see the bright orange 50+ foot cable run that the dog's 15 ft. leash is attached to, which wasn't more than ten yards from where she'd stopped her truck. Grrrrr. I can't wait to move. I don't care if we have to move in 2 ft. of snow, I want out of here before winter is over.
Quote from: StinkerBell on January 08, 2008, 08:34:47 PM
No I do not think you are being cruel.
How much you want to bet that the same woman has on many occasions passed a homeless person and has not given that human being a second thought? I wonder if she would open her home and house someone who was out in the cold rain with no food or shelter?
Next time someone does that to you, stick your finger up your nose, move it about, remove it from the nostril and flick towards the person annoying you. Repeat if you think it would help.
May have to try that, Stink. Our neighbor just to the south of us doesn't like my garden because she claims it attracts mosquitoes in the summer (go figure, they're the state bird, and it is not like there's a place in this state where you DON'T get mosquitoes.) She is also the one who hinted that if we got chickens, we'd be "breaking the law". Of course, there's no such law, but these are all city people who moved here to get out of the city and want to turn around and make it just like the city!!!!!
Other fun suggestions to make your neighbors talk.
Buy the biggest pair of undies ever made. I am talking tent size....Hang this undies out to dry in the yard on a clothes line.
Paint your house polka dots, I suggest a color combo or orange and purple.
Place a few headstone in your front yard. For fun you can place names like "I.M. Gone"
You see I value my neighbors so very much that if they want to talk about me, I want to make sure they really have something to complain/gossip about. I wouldnt want to make a liar out of them.
I'm glad I'm not in the city anymore... my house that is rented out was in a neighborhood - we all had wooden fences around the back yard. The people directly behind me put in a doughboy pool in the corner against the fence next to my backyard - they dug a big hole, unreinforced, so the pool would be deep & then put decking around it. When people would walk on the deck, they were looking over into my back yard all the time - that wasn't so bad, but my flower bed started eroding into their hole, making the fence start to fall down... they sold & the next people who bought it had 3 large German shepherds - these dogs barked non-stop - you couldn't walk in your house or backyard without them lunging at the fence, making it more unstable. One time some friends & I were talking to that neighbor, standing next to the fence - one of the guys had his arm resting on top of the fence - while we were all standing there talking, one of the dogs jumped up & bit him in the arm - right next to the owner. I should have reported the dog but trying to be a good neighbor, didn't say anything... anyway, I worked 12 hr nights in ICU & slept during the day. One day the dogs were barking & barking & my oldest son (10-11y/o) was afraid they would wake me up so he got a can of hairspray & pointed it through a knot in the fence - when the dog came up to it he lighted it the same time he sprayed at the dog. The dog was barely singed (I don't recommend doing that, but hey, he was just a kid) you can imagine, the police were called immediately & he was charged with something, don't remember what...
I had a neighbor next to me who kept his yard meticulously... I kept my yard pretty nice, too. We had sycamore trees in between the houses on the property line - well, they were messy, all these sticker balls would fall off & leaves - he would rake them all up & into my side of the flower bed in my yard - after it got to be a foot tall I asked him, politely to stop raking all the stuff into my flower bed, he continued to do it - I must have asked him at least 3 different times over the matter of a couple years... one day he had just finished "manicuring" his yard & flower beds, raking everything into my flower beds & I saw him drive off... I was so angry, I got the rake out & raked all that crap all over his lawn & flower beds... never did see his face when he came home or talk to him after that - probably was priceless rofl rofl He was the one that would yell at my kids if they happened to run across his lawn into our yard... neighbors... >:(
The last time I lived in town was over 10 years ago.
DH and I were still in college and lived in a trailer park with a bunch of other college kids.
No one ever paid attention to us. We paid our rent on time, parked in our own driveway and never had loud parties. ;D
Over the years I have been very blessed with mostly goo dneighbors but once I rented from a lady whose daughter was a crack dealer and she had dobermans, which were kept inside until I paid the deposit and rent. Well the dobermans would chase my kids every day when they got off the school bus. I made planty of complaints to no avail. I moved within 30 days. My other evil neighbors liked to call the dogs and then shoot at them. My dogs are not stupid so they jsut stayed home. One day they were actually locked inthe porch all day because I forgot to let them out befor eI went to work. Well low and behold that crazy lady said my dogs killed her cat and her two BF's testified to the same thing. She took me to court fo the vet bill and al the expenses of raising the cat. Now this is the same woman who stole a kitten from me a year or two earlier and I didn't mind I was giving that kitten away anyway. But anyway I said I am NEVER paying tha old bag told the judge that too, so now I have a judgement against me for the crazy cat lady's bill I don't care. BUt then after I moved that damn crazy lady and her BF started coming here on my new street calling the dogs and trying to get them in trouble again. I live in town now so I do have to be way more careful. Well my other neighbors all have kids and cats and dogs and my dogs don't bother them at all, the game warden watches them sit peaceable when the wild turkeys are eating my yard bushes to nothing and the deer make themselves at home here. So that stupid crazy cat lady is out of luck but I still put the dogs inthe hosuse when I am not home because you never know when she might just make another false accusation against them. There is another crazy lady who thinks I am the MOST horrible person in the world for using a tick collar instead of the expensive drops. I tried the expensive drops and my dogs have such thick long hair it didn't work they were still covered in ticks so after a long and miserable evening listening to her tell me what a horrible pet owner I was I said oh yeah well the tick collar is bad but I think the ticks are far more harmful. Then there was the time another neighbor lady said I was starving my horse, now this horse is in the same pen with the other two and she actually eats more. BUT she has something wrong with her that when she doesn't get the selenium salt block she gets really skinny really fast as soon as she gets her salt she gets fat again. So I explained to her that I got the salt and she would be fat again in a day or two, now this lady was actually pretty nice and kept offering to give me a bag of grain and I knew it would be better donated to anotehr person who actually was having trouble buying feed, so I declined her offer but she stuck with it so long that I finally said OK I will take the grain well she came back in a couple of days because a friend of hers was thinking of getting a horse and mine were up for give away to good homes. The horse was fat already and she never brought the grain after all. I did give away the horse to teh lady's friend who I made it very clear that the selenium was a strict requirement and what would happen if the horse didn't get it. So that was a ggod ending. Now if the neighbor who puts their little dog out at 4 am and lets it bark until daylight would just shut that damn dog up everybody would be happy. I am so lucky tht my neighbors now are reasonable people!!! They do have a crazy beagle though it comes over here acting all tough to my big dogs but they know better than to bite it so they just walk over to the door so I will let them in. I am always worried though that they will bite it.
Strange thing about this place, too, is that this was "country" and has become more of a suburb. I don't understand why folks move out of the city to get away and then want to make it JUST LIKE THE CITY. I consider it a "town", but most of the locals do not. Listening to the radio yesterday, I heard Chicago's mayor talking about shortening the city's curfew to 10 PM. (ie. No minors on the streets after 10 PM.) Suddenly it just went all over me and I was furious that this was even an issue that the city of Chicago would waste time and taxpayer money on. My beefs with it were: 1) even minors are US citizens and should be given rights as such, 2) It is the job of parents, NOT THE GOVERNMENT, to keep kids off the streets late at night, and 3) the money to enforce the rule would come out of taxpayer's pockets. Living this close to big cities like Chicago and Milwaukee, I feel like I am in a Communist country.
Where we lived in OK, even though we had a few nosy neighbors (one old man two doors down kept telling everyone that we were living together, but weren't married, which wasn't true) most of them were really good folks and we got along great with them. Nobody told anybody else what to do with their property, or what they could/couldn't build or do. The wacky neighbors two doors down in the other direction were always building some weird addition to their house that they never finished... including building a peaked roof over their low-sloped modified gambrel roof, which has to be one of the strangest looking houses I've ever seen. The neighbor across the street had a little goat that ran in and out of their house. We had chickens in our back yard that roamed our yard, the alley behind the house, and the vacant lots behind the house. If you have to live in town, it wasn't a bad place to live...in spite of being really hard to sell a house because of the neighbors with the weird roof who didn't mow their lawn.
We have a curfew but it isn't enforced unless the cops see a kid they want to harass. And it is actually doing more harm than good because the predators jsut offer the kids a house to go to where they are out of public view.
The world is full of people who don't have enough business of their own to manage so they will try to manage yours. They congregate in communities where there are lots of people, therefore lots of business to manage. If you see this person again you should nominate her for President of the HOA. If you don't have an HOA you should form one just for her. d*
I used to be the chairman of our neighborhood association. It started when the city was planning to renege on a promise to develop a park in our neighborhood and instead sell it back to the developer that gave the land to the city in exchange for a zoning variance. Yah.
I served as a wartime chairman. We organized the neighborhood to go to city counsel meetings. Dan and I did the legal research on this sort of thing and I was the mouthpiece. We got a grant for some playground equipment and got our park.
But after that the monthly meetings became whining sessions. The seniors in the neighborhood came to the meetings saying "Someone" (Meaning me) should get this done, get a traffic light, get them to stop doing this, etc. I thought of making buttons that said, "I am Someone!" and handing them out before the meetings.
Maybe I should have collected protection money. ::)
rofl rofl rofl Desdawg, there is a HOA, not that I want to belong to it, but they demand money from us annually anyway. No, before I have a chance to nominate her, I plan to get the heck out of here. Besides, I don't have anything against most of my neighbors and wouldn't wish that on 'em! I've tolerated it for almost three years now... just about more than I can take. I was raised in the sticks and want to go back so bad I can't stand it. Civilization is somewhat overrated (OMMV, as Don would say.) When we moved up here, my husband and I struck a deal that if after two years I hated it, we'd move. I figured he was happy with his job, so I didn't want to complain, but last February, he came in from work one day when I'd just spent three hours shoveling snow so that he could park... he got stuck trying to get in the garage and had to get out and spend another 45 minutes clearing the little path to the garage. He came in and threw down his stocking cap and announced that he'd rather be a shade tree mechanic in the south than a mechanical engineer in the cushest office in the north, and he's been looking since then. He quit looking in June when he got an offer from our alma mater, but then they withdrew the offer at the last minute (after us packing more than half our belongings, etc., and waiting 6 months for the official word to move.) After that, he went gung ho and really started putting resumes out there. He's had 6 interviews already this week, and another one today, and two between tomorrow and Monday. At the moment, he's courting at least 7-8 different positions in and around OK, and I think he'll surely get at least 2-3 offers out of it, and then hopefully we can move for Valentine's Day. I think it'd be quite a romantic gift... next to doing dishes, the fact that he and I are on the same page with where we want to live and what we want to do is about as romantic as it can get. ;D
Homegrown, I wish you luck. It is not the best time to try to sell the home you have right now but some are doing it. Living in the City is kind of like taking a beating. It sure feels good when it ends. OMMV.
What no one liked my ideas? sheeesh :)
You'd do well in a Home Owners association ruled community, Stink.
I left the race for VP a while ago (which I was not very good at), and became a project manager contractor (which I am good at). I never have to worry about getting a corner office or if that content-free brown-noser made Director. I get paid overtime, though I rarely have to work it. I don't get to go to the company picnic. Boo-hoo.
The kids will be going to college soon and Dan and I will ditch the house for the farm. Then its a studio in town close to the client and back home on the weekends. The more telecommuting the better.
The three hours to get home on Friday (Or Thursday) and back again is offset by having a close apartment and a nothing commute during the week. I'd get mileage and the apartment is an expense as long as I follow some simple rules. The point is that this is all part of the "Go to Hell" plan. I own my farm free and clear and the small house I build there will be paid in cash. I manage my own retirement plan and can switch clients to keep things fresh and interesting. In my line of work, moving around is a good thing.
City politics won't matter, just like that corner office. I'll rent, so I don't need to be in an HOA separating pepper from fly - um - pepper. The more I can look at in town and say, "That's not mine," the better off I will be.
Maybe I can get a mini CSA going with the employees of my clients. Here comes Drew with this eggs and lettuce! Let's extend his contract! :)
From one of our local papers:
http://www.mankatofreepress.com/local/local_story_014002029.html
Don't you just wished you lived in that city?
??? d* d*
As far as 'junk' cars go the only ones around here that have ever bothered me are those that people park in the front yard where most folks have landscaping. We had one of those once. The old car sat crossway for over a year collecting dust, bird droppings before the owner finally had it hauled away to a scrap salvage recycling yard.
On the other hand, I hate regulations; city hall never seems to be satisfied with status quo. When they introduce new regs, or start changing the old permitted things I get agitated. When we were looking to buy in the 80's we bypassed one subdivision as they had an ordinance against shop compressors and air tools! Criminey!! It's a good thing I read fine print.
I don't like billboards but tolerate them along highways and main drags. My city doesn't allow them at all and limits business signs to 32 sq. ft. I used to think that was dumb, but at least everybody is on the same playing field. There's no competition to have a bigger sign than the next competing business.
The landscaping permit dollar limit stinks.
As for the city owned boulevards requiring grass only, that stinks too. Especially because the city probably requires the home owner to mow the grass. I wonder if you have to water it too? I don't see a problem with rock, but then rockscaping is common in the SW.
(https://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q75/djmillerbucket/2750/newroof1.jpg)
The white stuff near the house is snow.
Quote from: Drew on January 11, 2008, 01:06:01 PM
I left the race for VP a while ago (which I was not very good at), and became a project manager contractor (which I am good at). I never have to worry about getting a corner office or if that content-free brown-noser made Director. I get paid overtime, though I rarely have to work it. I don't get to go to the company picnic. Boo-hoo.
The kids will be going to college soon and Dan and I will ditch the house for the farm. Then its a studio in town close to the client and back home on the weekends. The more telecommuting the better.
The three hours to get home on Friday (Or Thursday) and back again is offset by having a close apartment and a nothing commute during the week. I'd get mileage and the apartment is an expense as long as I follow some simple rules. The point is that this is all part of the "Go to Hell" plan. I own my farm free and clear and the small house I build there will be paid in cash. I manage my own retirement plan and can switch clients to keep things fresh and interesting. In my line of work, moving around is a good thing.
City politics won't matter, just like that corner office. I'll rent, so I don't need to be in an HOA separating pepper from fly - um - pepper. The more I can look at in town and say, "That's not mine," the better off I will be.
Maybe I can get a mini CSA going with the employees of my clients. Here comes Drew with this eggs and lettuce! Let's extend his contract! :)
Sounds like good planning, Drew.
We had one of those junked car yard ornaments for a few years. ;D My mom had an old Astro van that died in our driveway right after we bought our old house. We tried to help her get it running, but she's a little OCD and wouldn't give up when it was time to give it up. We even offered to haul it to her mechanic (which would've cost a fortune we didn't have, but at that point we were willing to go into debt to get it out from in front of our picture window.) She wouldn't let us do that, and it didn't belong to us, so we couldn't very well sell it to a salvage yard, and yet she wouldn't take it home or let us take it to her mechanic. In the first five years of our marriage, that stupid van was the #1 point of contention, and every Saturday morning, DH would get up and look out the window, and start railing on me about it. Mom's home town had an ordinance about no junk cars, so she left it in our yard because there were no city ordinances, and she ignored multiple requests to get it out. (Seriously, that is probably the #1 reason we live in Wisconsin in the first place because DH wanted to make sure that she could not leave another junk vehicle in our yard again!) When we'd ask her when she was going to move it, she'd get defensive and angry... what it boiled down to was that her mechanic had told her he was tired of patching it up and not to bring it back to him, and she still had tons of crazy sentiment wrapped up in this doggone non-working van. Finally, when we put that house on the market and got an offer, the realtor gave mom an ultimatum that she'd either haul it off by that Thursday or the deal wasn't going to go through. She knew it was killing us to make two house payments and she finally had to do something. She made one call to a local salvage yard, and they paid her AND came and hauled it in! Shoot, if she'd done it 5 years earlier, she could've gotten quite a bit more for it!!! Even that process wasn't without tears and irrational behavior, but at least the van was finally gone. Neither DH nor I can talk about it without getting our hackles up over it because neither of us understands why we could beg her to move the thing for 5 years and she could rant and rave like it was somehow our fault it was in the driveway in the first place, and then all it takes is a realtor telling her to get rid of it and she does. We should have sold that house 5 years earlier, I guess! I don't think now either one of us would put up with that... we'd have sold it to this neighborhood kid who kept asking to buy it, or we'd have hauled it to her front yard and dropped it off and let her deal with it. So, maybe living in WI has been good for us in that it helped us develop a little more backbone about what we would and wouldn't put up with? ??? ;D Anyway, we've both already given mom the talk that if/when we move back toward home, she will not use our house as a dumping ground for her yard sale finds or a free weekend bed and breakfast.
Good for you HGT.
I've owned a few cars, motorcycles and Jeeps that I was dearly attached to at the time. But I never let sentiment get in the way when common sense dictated it was time to move on. There are a couple I do wish I could've hung onto, but it wasn't possible.
Someone once said that 'you should never love something that can't love you back'. Wise enough advice.
Quote from: MountainDon on January 15, 2008, 05:14:59 PM
Good for you HGT.
I've owned a few cars, motorcycles and Jeeps that I was dearly attached to at the time. But I never let sentiment get in the way when common sense dictated it was time to move on. There are a couple I do wish I could've hung onto, but it wasn't possible.
Someone once said that 'you should never love something that can't love you back'. Wise enough advice.
I've only had one that I was that dearly attached to, and I bawled when I sold it. It was a 1971 Chevy Cheyenne that I bought from my Grandpa when I was 15. It still smelled like him inside it, even after I had it all those years. I sold it right before we moved up here because it needed a little work (broken carrier bearing bracket, no biggie, and a few wiring issues that really needed to be resolved.) We couldn't afford to pay our bills because DH had been laid off his secondary job, and I was staying home with the kids, and knowing that we'd be moving within a few months and would have to pay to get a tow dolly to bring it up here, and I was afraid of the salt on the roads here in the winter rusting out the undercarriage. I sold it to an old man who is a collector. He was supposed to send me pictures when he got it restored, but that never happened. I figure he got it running and sold it for a mint... kicked myself many times since for selling it, but we didn't have anything else valuable enough to sell and get tuition money/ bill money. I was so desperate I sold it for a lot less than it was worth because we lived in such an out-of-the-way place, I was afraid that no one else would drive that far to see it and I'd end up changing my mind and having to borrow money. In the short run, it was the best thing we could have done because I didn't have to borrow... in the long run I still wonder. I loved driving that old truck. It sure was pretty. Copper with white. Drank gasoline like it was going out of style, though... with that big 350 engine. BUT, it never sat dead for months/years on end in the yard. I drove it up until right before I sold it... and then garaged it until it sold. By the time the guy came to get it, the battery was dead, but it was a good truck. I put nearly 300K miles on it.
My first car was a '66 Mustang. It was white with pony seats and had the 289 engine. I bought it from my sister-in-law for $2,500. I was 25 and had just gotten my license to drive a car. I lived in the City all my life so I took the bus until I bought a motorcycle. My wife-to-be finally took em out in her '77 Corona and said, "I'm tired of doing all the driving! You learn!"
Jerry was our mechanic. He fixed cars in his back yard in Belmont, which must have tweaked the yuppies quite a bit. The Mustang would no longer go into reverse, so we took it in. "It's time to sell the car, kids," he said, "I can fix it, but it's going to be something else real soon." Never had a mechanic as honest and compassionate since.
I'm not a car guy, but I did like driving it. Years later I saw it on the road. Someone had restored it and painted it shiny blue. I was glad to see someone was taking care of it.
I later had a Honda Civic Si that someone stole right out of my driveway on Father's Day. The car turned up stripped in Richmond. The thieves are coyote poop now. At least that's my version.
Gotta commend you Drew. For a city boy you're doing pretty good. :) I know that in the big city a license isn't necessary as there is pretty cheap transportation and no place to park. Nope -- I couldn't do the big city for a steady diet.
I couldn't imagine remaining a virgin...non-driver for 25 years. I grey up in the stix. I had a 41 Chevy pickup and a 54 Willys sedan way before I had a drivers license. I got a learners permit at about 15 1/2 if I remember right but had already been terrorizing the woods with the old truck and car. I couldn't always count on the pickup starting so I had the blacksmith make a crank for it - it still had the crank hole in the front and the teeth on the front of the crankshaft. Yup - I cranked it a lot of times.
The old Willys was so rusty I cut the back end off of it and built a wood trunk. I put tire chains on it and probably made a real muddy mess in the winter. It got about 6 miles to the gallon...of oil. Hard picking up chicks in a rig like that. You can't even pretend to be cool. [crz]
That was me, too, Glenn. I drove on the dirt roads and on the farm by the time I was 12. If you can navigate terraces without dragging high center, you're doing alright... if anything, it made me a better driver. Never forget the first time I drove on paved roads, though. I was thirteen, and we'd gone out for dinner in Shawnee, OK, and all of the sudden mom got sick and said I had to drive. It was Friday night and the Kickapoo Street riffraff was already in full cruise, and she made me drive all the way home in the midst of that Friday night crowd. Scared me silly. I just knew I'd get pulled over because I looked too young, but I guess the cops were all too busy chasing the trouble makers hanging out in the HumptyDumpty parking lot.
Cool.
My mom's first driving experience was in Wisconsin probably in the 40's. She drove horses plowing the fields of their farm. Her dad got a big new shiny tractor and her first try at driving it, it ran up on a stump. She just yelled out, Whoa -- finally got it stopped I guess.
QuoteI couldn't imagine remaining a virgin...non-driver for 25 years
I can't either. I've been driving since I was 11 and my husband teases me that I was so
old.
When our son was about 4, DH started letting him steer while he dumped protein blocks out of the back of the pickup. (Put it in low range 4WD and all the boy had to do was hang on). I dearly wish I had a picture from one of those feeding trips. You could see the trail where he'd weave and wander all over on his way up the hill. ;)
At 8 he's now an old hand and drives an automatic comfortably. One of these days when he gets just a little more height on him, I'm going to teach him to drive a manual on my Metro since it's so small.
My kid brother, on the other hand, sold his car shortly after he and my SIL left Nebraska for Boston. Insurance was expensive, parking was expensive and they rarely went anywhere that the bus/train/bikes coudn't take them. They've been living in Dublin Ireland for a couple of years now and have nothing but their bikes. Neither of them miss cars except when they fly home and need to bum rides everywhere. lol
I started driving when I was about 12. Gramps let me drive the forklift he had at his hardware store. From there I went to learn driving his big duley (sp) trucks. Nowadays I bet OSHA would have shut his business down. I also survived growing up sitting in the back bed of a pick up truck too... Don't get me wrong I understand that doing that in the city or on a hwy is stoopid, but a back country road to the neighbors house or up to the lake....
I got my permit when I was 15 1/2, didn't drive before that... we used to always ride in the back of pickups, too - lots of fun! None of us ever fell out... ;D
A couple years ago, one of the guys on the ranch was driving down a gravel road with his kids in the back f the pickup. He hit a soft spot in the gravel and rolled. It was dumb luck he didn't kill both of those kids. [noidea'
I never knew anyone who got sick or died from lead poisoning, but it still strikes me as a dumb idea to let kids chew on lead-based paint.
Yeah, it can be unsafe at times - I was driving with my kids asleep in my car one night, when a drunk driver rammed into the passenger side of my car - totaled it. The drunk was driving a pickup with a bunch of teenagers in the back - they were thrown out - minor injuries, only. We only got minor injuries, too.
I'm surprised no one was killed, Sassy. Whew! I think I'd tear someone's head off if they hit me with the kids in the car!
Yeah, I got out of the car & started yelling at the driver - "you could have killed my kids!" over & over... to top it off, he's drunk, trying to get me to not call the police, says he'll take care of everything. Lots of people saw the accident & the police & ambulance were called right away. Then when the police get there, he talks his underage girlfriend to say she was driving, because he already had drunk driving convictions & she wouldn't get in as much trouble! So she gets arrested, but then some of her friends blew the whistle on the guy. My kids were just little at the time, one was lying across the back seat asleep & the other had his head in the front seat & was sitting on the floor sleeping & actually slept through it (that was before seatbelt laws were so stringent) I got whiplash & the seat belt hit me across the chest pretty hard but other than that - probably another reason I have chronic neck pain...
Yeah it is suprising how many of "us" started driving with tractor's. I started on one and my son now 13 started when he was 7. Thank goodness he uses common sense and realizes a tractor is not an Indy pace car. I guess that is one of the advantages of living in the country. It is a shame that more kid's can't live there for a little portion of their developing years.
I remember riding in the back of Pick-up's. Face it usually the family's were too large to all get in the cab when most farms only had trucks because it was a combination work/recreational vehicle in it's time. I still take my kids in the back when we are off the main roads. They enjoy it.
My mom tells stories about riding to TX in the back of the truck under blankets when she was a kid... there were five kids, and so the two youngest sat up front with Grandma and Grandpa, while the rest of them (and aunts, uncles, and cousins at times) huddled in the back together. I rode in the back all the time, too... I remember one time I'd been to my dad's and my step-brother and step-cousins had all been there, and then my step-mom went on a crazy drunk spree and threatened to kill me, and I demanded to go home. I refused to ride up front with Dad or the crazy one, and so all of us kids piled in the back of the truck and watched the stars all the way to Oklahoma City where my mom was waiting to meet us (because I'd called her and told her that i was coming home come heck or high water and to meet me there -- I think it was around midnight when we got to the meeting point.)
My parents used to bomb around the countryside in an Austin Healey Sprite with me in the boot (No, not the trunk) in a moving box. When I got older my sister and I would stick one foot between the driver and passenger seats so that my dad could hold them down while my mom drove.
Since then I broke someone's windshield with my face while riding a bicycle, been rear ended on a motorcycle, and have been chased down a few times on my motorcycle by road-enraged drivers. I'm no squid; I rode with bike safety nuts and took it seriously. I came into each of these situations with lots of technique and less than enough luck. Except that I lived. That's a good thing.
I miss my bikes but I won't ride anymore. The traffic is just different. Cell phones and larger vehicles in town are part of it. There are more rolling stops at stop signs than before. Someone who went to traffic school told me that a drunk driver will drive drunk an average of 300 times before s/he is caught. I don't see people accepting more responsibility for themselves.
When we were kids my parents had a truck and camper no way they were having kids in the cab!!! Not even one, and they had a camper that fit so that the tailgate would close over the door and they would only let us out if it was convienient for them, and way way back in the old days we had a coffee can for bathroom privleges we sure were happy when they actually got the one with a porta potti and when they finally got one that flushed with a real holding tank we were really having things then. You would think I would hate riding in a camper but now whenever I travel all Ithink about is that nice comfy bed that you could watch the world go by get up and move around or just take a nap. They had an intercom too but that was only one way in other words they could listen to us and talk to us in the camper but we couldn't talk to them, and we could only hear their conversation if they pushed the call button!!! We rode in the open back too but they had really strict rules about sitting right up next to the cab an the floor not wheel wells, no hanging out the sides or back, etc. I think I like that camper idea for traveling with kids though.
I've been curious about that, Tanya. Is it legal for someone to ride in the back of an RV or camper without a seatbelt? I know it sounds like an obvious question, but I am constantly amazed by this world.
Drew, I think it is legal in an overhead camper or in a motorhome, but not in a pull-behind... at least, that's my understanding. Sometimes the rules don't make a lot of sense. When I was about six, two of my cousins and I rode to TX in the back of an overhead truck camper, and by the time we got to our destination, all three of us had black eyes... curious how that happens. [crz]
With our kids, the rule is that they buckle up, even if it is a short distance, even if we're not getting on the main road, even if we're just pulling around the block so that we can park in the garage. I figure if I ever let them get away with not buckling up, they'll think they can get away with it any time. OMMV
Here anyone riding in any portion of a motor vehicle under the age of 18 is required to have safety restraint. And anyone in the front seat regardless of age. If you had safety restraints in the back of a truck then I guess it would be OK. But how many pick-ups have seat belts with no seats in a truck. The only exceptions to the seat belt law is that vehicles manufactured before 1967 didn't have them so it is not required that you wear one. I guess the law makers figured that due to the age that the only time they would be driven was in a parade and would not be of a real danger. Go figure.
I've got the same policy, HT. Our habits progress, both in positive and negative directions.
After 10 years on a motorcycle I was grateful for the seatbelt!
That, and the radio. And staying dry. And the metal doors.
It's technicaly illegal to ride in the back of a truck here but it's not generally enforced so far as I can tell. If you're an illegal alien you are considered cargo I belive since they tend to pile them in the pack of trucks by the dozen.
My RV has seat belts all over the place, except for the toilet. The Dinette has them as well as the sofa bed. But I don't think we've ever had anyone in those seats while underway.
We use to have a small class c motor home. I have neighbors (one a sheriff the other a police office, married couple) who I ask a few questions. Also asked Police in the Mt Shasta area too )on vacation about open bottle violation. I asked if I had wine the night before and placed the unused portion in the fridge is that considered an open container violation. They all said no. When it comes to an RV the rules are not clear. If you are in the cab area and have no seat belt on the police can pull you over. If your in the living area like the dinette not only do you not have to have your seat belt on you can be drinking a glass of wine and they really can not do anything about it. The trade off is though if someone breaks into your RV they treat as a home invasion. It is all very confusing. BUT! BUT! a toilet seatbelt might be a good idea.....lol
Arrrrggghhhh! Back to the original reason for this post! >:( I stopped to take a break from working on the house this afternoon to see the county sherriff's vehicle pulling up to our house. I walked out to meet them, and they told me that they had a complaint from one of my neighbors about my dog being out in the cold. Granted, it is really cold today... but he didn't go out on his run until 1 PM, and then had only been out a few hours, during which time his water was thawed and he had access to a dog house and food. I'm guessing it is the same lady who stopped and bawled me out last week because the dog was sitting in the rain. When I was standing there talking to the cops, Ornery dog started barking and wagging all over, excited to see company. They looked at him and kind of laughed and said, "Well, we're not saying that there's any problem with the way the dog's being treated, but you can pretty much expect more problems with this neighbor if you don't keep him in your house." I told them my suspicions that this was probably the same lady who chewed me out a week ago when it was 50 degrees because he was sitting outside of the dog house in the rain. They just laughed and shook their heads. I am moving... that's all there is to it. I absolutely hate living here.... We've lived here for three years and this woman never once stopped to introduce herself or have a civil conversation and yet rather than come down here and rationally address what she sees as a problem, or to find out if there actually IS a problem, she calls the cops on us. Thankfully THEY were good-natured about it. We brought the poor, mistreated mutt in and put him in his kennel.... One month... I want to be out of here in one month!
OK let me get this straight...It's OK for homeless veterans to freeze under a bridge all night but they will actualy send out the sherif to investigate if a dog is cold or not? This country is doomed.
Yep... not one, but two officers. When our car was vandalized with slurs right after we moved here, they only sent out one, who dismissed it as "just kids". I am getting out of here... feel like the sane person in the nut house plotting an escape.
Welcome to Nazi Germany. Next thing you know they'll be wanting your kids to report suspicious activity in your house.
Glen, some schools already do this....... :-\
And if you home school your kids, then the neighbors will report the suspicious activity... probably the same neighbors who fault you for a dog too stupid to come in out of the rain. :(
They had the cops standing by with hand on gun at the last parent teacher conference I went to-- yes --- specially for me, and I don't even consider myself a criminal. I only told them what I thought. Imagine me now.
That's why I like to avoid the ignorant masses and choose my friends myself. Civilized people can be a real pain. Grrrr. [crz]
I found a property in the area we're looking that was 40 acres... in the middle of nowhere... it's lookin' better by the minute!
Quote from: Homegrown Tomatoes on January 19, 2008, 06:06:56 PM
Arrrrggghhhh! Back to the original reason for this post! >:( I stopped to take a break from working on the house this afternoon to see the county sherriff's vehicle pulling up to our house. I walked out to meet them, and they told me that they had a complaint from one of my neighbors about my dog being out in the cold. Granted, it is really cold today... but he didn't go out on his run until 1 PM, and then had only been out a few hours, during which time his water was thawed and he had access to a dog house and food. I'm guessing it is the same lady who stopped and bawled me out last week because the dog was sitting in the rain. When I was standing there talking to the cops, Ornery dog started barking and wagging all over, excited to see company. They looked at him and kind of laughed and said, "Well, we're not saying that there's any problem with the way the dog's being treated, but you can pretty much expect more problems with this neighbor if you don't keep him in your house." I told them my suspicions that this was probably the same lady who chewed me out a week ago when it was 50 degrees because he was sitting outside of the dog house in the rain. They just laughed and shook their heads. I am moving... that's all there is to it. I absolutely hate living here.... We've lived here for three years and this woman never once stopped to introduce herself or have a civil conversation and yet rather than come down here and rationally address what she sees as a problem, or to find out if there actually IS a problem, she calls the cops on us. Thankfully THEY were good-natured about it. We brought the poor, mistreated mutt in and put him in his kennel.... One month... I want to be out of here in one month!
I would have to laugh them off the place my dogs love the cold being Newfoundlands it is in there blood. Mark
(http://photos.imageevent.com/willy/winterfeeding/websize/SNOW%20DOGS.JPG)
That's what I'm saying... this dog is a spitz, like a smaller American Eskimo. He absolutely relishes the cold weather. His coat is so thick it's hard to find skin under there (although we did because he had a bath and grooming less than two weeks ago.) Last night after dark, I snuck him back out and let him loose again for a while (less than an hour). I made sure to get him in quickly lest psycho-dog-lover-woman was cruising the neighborhood looking for things to complain about by the rather bright light of the moon! Even our big beardie likes to go out and roll in the snow. Summer is much harder on either of them than winter is. That's OK, I'm moving one way or the other!
What a coincidence-- our moon was bright too.
Our dogs are black and white and must think they are part skunk because they chased one for the second time and got sprayed for the second time. Did I mention that they are hard headed. Have to figure it out for themselves.
the only thing you can do with a skunk is shoot it...Traps are no good...Your cats will keep going in the trap for the stinky food..*LOL*
Homegrown....I hope you get the 40 acres...that sounds wonderful.. where are you moving to?
DH hasn't officially accepted the offer yet. In fact, he is at another interview today in OKC... but the job in Wichita has the best relocation package of any job I've ever seen (in addition to paying for the whole move, they also will buy our house if it doesn't sell within 60 days, and with the housing market the way it is right now, that is a lot of peace of mind!) The area I'm looking at is south of Wichita... if you get far enough out of town, the prices come down considerably. It's not quite home, but a heck of a lot closer. Besides, I looked around at land prices near my hometown, which is east of OKC, and boy! has it gotten high-dollar. I can't believe anyone would pay $9K an acre for that area, but that is what a lot of the listings are running. Shoot, about 12 years ago, my grandma sold one of the prettiest farms in the area for $1K an acre... I wish she'd listened to us and kept it then instead of being pressured into selling it. (It was bought by a private prison, and they built a women's prison on our family farm... saddest thing I ever saw. >:( The prison company really put a lot of pressure on Grandma to sell, and told her that she'd be holding the town back if she didn't, etc., and brought up many times how she was too old to take care of the place alone, etc.) If the offer in Wichita is the only offer he gets, we'll probably jump on it, and even if the company he's interviewing at today makes him an offer, unless they can match the relocation package and the vacation offered by the Wichita company, we're probably moving to Kansas. I've warmed up to the offer much faster than I expected... I really want to be back in Oklahoma, but even the biggest companies he's interviewing with there have pretty much told him that they won't offer that kind of relocation. Considering there are 119 homes for sale in our current area in WI, and a lot of them have been on the market at least since last summer, I can't see us risking being stuck with a mortgage payment here and a rent/mortgage payment there, too. Because of our exorbitant property taxes here, our house payment would be hard to make concurrently with another house payment of any type...even with good relocation benefits. The last thing in the world I want to happen is for us to move to temp housing in the OKC or Tulsa area and then in a couple of months when the money for temporary housing runs out and our house here still hasn't sold, we're homeless with two little kids and a newborn. To me, it is the only practical and responsible thing to do, and setting emotions about red dirt and my favorite state aside, the two main reasons for moving south were: to have land and to be closer to family. This move will get us about 10 hours or more closer to family, and we can actually afford land there, whereas if we stayed in WI, I don't think we could ever afford land, even though DH makes good money. It is too easily eaten up in the cost of living and taxes here. So, that said, I hope we get 40 acres in Kansas, too...:D Soon!
My poor dog is suffering having to be inside all the time... (though when I took him out in 20-30 minute increments yesterday, I put him in the outdoor kennel so that if the crazy lady came by, she'd have to trespass in order to even see him, and then I could call the cops on her for prowling around on private property.) Besides that, did I mention how COLD it is here???
Quote from: glenn kangiser on January 21, 2008, 03:36:47 AM
What a coincidence-- our moon was bright too.
Our dogs are black and white and must think they are part skunk because they chased one for the second time and got sprayed for the second time. Did I mention that they are hard headed. Have to figure it out for themselves.
Well, Glenn, they probably come by the hard-headedness honestly... :)
Ahhh Essence of Pepe Le Pu!
Quote from: Homegrown Tomatoes on January 21, 2008, 08:20:03 AM
Quote from: glenn kangiser on January 21, 2008, 03:36:47 AM
What a coincidence-- our moon was bright too.
Our dogs are black and white and must think they are part skunk because they chased one for the second time and got sprayed for the second time. Did I mention that they are hard headed. Have to figure it out for themselves.
Well, Glenn, they probably come by the hard-headedness honestly... :)
That was very low, Homegrown. I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you a time out. [crz]
The Kansas deal sounds pretty good.
;D Ah, but you see, Glenn, that was good-natured teasing because I mean that you are hard-headed in the nicest possible way, and deep down I might possibly even harbor a hint of admiration for it. ::)
That said, the only thing worse than the smell of a dirty, wet dog is the smell of a dirty, wet, skunk-sprayed dog... sure takes long enough to wear off... You'd think they would learn, but I'm convinced that some dogs actually think of it as perfume. We used to have a red heeler who was all the time getting sprayed by skunks... I used to wonder if he was trying to herd them?
I am pretty set on the moving thing. DH hasn't called yet from OKC after his interview (I expect him to call between 2-3PM before he gets back on the plane.) However, during the previous interviews with this company, they did say that they don't offer the relocation benefit of buying your old house if you can't sell anymore. They did put him up at the Marriot, which he said was really nice and he could see all of downtown from there.... I figure if they want him badly enough, they'll match what the other company is offering him, and if not, that's OK, too. There are also two companies in Tulsa interested in him, but they're not moving fast enough, and we're going to end up making a decision and moving before they ever get on-site interviews set up, at this rate. I've already set up tentative plans for mom to come house/kid/pet sit for us so we can go hunting for a place to live next month if we decide to move to Wichita. The kids are excited at the prospect and keep packing all their junk into random boxes and covering it in Scotch tape... what a mess.
Ahhh, she admires me. :)
These dogs have Queensland in them also. I had to run out to the Jeep in my moccasins the other night and two of them were walking on and biting at my shoes and the third was jamming me in the rump with her nose. Quite cold and wet. They are a bit hyper especially if you haven't been around them for a bit.
With the economic downturn in progress, it is good that he can find more than one offer. Hope the best one works out.
sounds about right for those ornery devils... ours was a great dog, especially for us kids. When I was about 15, my grandpa was having surgery in Kansas City, and I was taking care of the farm for them while they were gone. Red the cowdog was never one to bark or bite (unless he was playing rough), but he was great about looking out for us. An elderly friend of my Grandpa's had come to help me get the peaches in, and he had gone out to the orchard right after sun-up. I'd pretty much forgotten he was even there. Meanwhile, I was canning peaches and tomatoes as fast as possible when I heard Buford (the family friend) hollering for help out in the back yard. He was screaming, "Call off your dog! Call off your dog!" I went out back and told Red "Enough!" and he let go. Buford had reached for the door handle without knocking first, and Red lunged without so much as growling first and snatched Buford's hand, pulling him away from the door, growling, and chomping down pretty hard. By the time I ran out the door, the dog had dragged Buford halfway across the yard. He left a few dents in the old man's hands, but I guarantee you Buford always knocked from then on. ;)
Quote from: Homegrown Tomatoes on January 20, 2008, 01:45:25 AM
I found a property in the area we're looking that was 40 acres... in the middle of nowhere... it's lookin' better by the minute!
You'd
better not be looking in NW Kansas, because that piece is
ours! As soon as the sellers realize it's not worth 50% more than market value. ;)
edited to add: Oops! Just got the last page and realized you're not getting
that remote.
Hee hee, not quite. Hope you get your place, too. Hope the sellers come to their senses soon. When sentiment is involved, sometimes folks expect you to pay for their nostalgic feelings about a place, not it's actual worth. No, we'll be getting as close to the OK state line as we can while still maintaining a decent commute to Wichita, if we do end up moving there. DH had another interview today in OK, and it also looks like they'll make an offer...don't think they can match the other place, though, but we'll see... besides, OKC is so sprawling that it is really hard to get out of the city and still be within decent driving distance (unless I want to be next door neighbors with my dad, which I don't) :o You know that old saying "familiarity breeds contempt"?