What Irked You Today?

[Russell C]

My irk:  the neighbor right across the street. The ancient saying about "children should be seen and not heard" applies to neighbors as well. Best neighbors there are, in my opinion, are folks you occasionally chat with over the fence, they keep an eye on your place when you are away, they'll give you the shirts off their backs in dire emergencies, and you do the same with them. They don't do anything weird, no need to be concerned about what they do. Neighbor across the street is increasingly unable to keep the noise contained, and what I see going on over there (including the person's visiting relatives) is increasingly more irrational when it comes to various activity they wouldn't do if they had any common sense. The activity way late at night is more suspicious lately - this morning, for the first time ever, it woke me up at 2:30am. This is the type of thing to be concerned about, where if it gets further out of hand, their problems start becoming everyone else's to deal with. Such as, do I need to keep my garden hose fully out so that when they finally set their house ablaze, I can quickly put out the sparks landing on my roof.

Edited September 3, 2024 by Russell C
typo

[89AKurt]

I wanted to wash perhaps a hundred pounds of mud off Blue Cloud.  I forgot this is the Labor Day holiday (since I've always been self-employed and nobody ever paid me to go on vacation) so of course people gotta wash their cars.  When I showed up all the bays are being used, and the cute PT convertible that looks clean to me is waiting.  I park in the shade of a tree.  Audi pulls in, clean as a whistle, then parks perpendicular to me, l show that I'm #2 in line, he is #3.  A minute passes, then my Gemini says "what the **** are you doing, guys drive out of their way to find a mud puddle, then race back and forth through it, to get *the look*".  So I left.

Can I get two irks today?  Got to Williams on empty.  No paper towels in any of the windshield dispensers.

Can I get 3?  Trash deep in the forest, couches, mangled awnings, textiles, cans, in general decades of accumulation is out there.  The cost of gas would cover the minimum dump fee.  At this site I found several truss plates in the trees (for you know what) but only 2 rusty cans.  I leave a site better than I found it, it's therapy, and someone's gotta do it.

[Tom Geiger]

10 hours ago, Russell C said:

My irk:  the neighbor right across the street. The ancient saying about "children should be seen and not heard" applies to neighbors as well. Best neighbors there are, in my opinion, are folks you occasionally chat with over the fence, they keep an eye on your place when you are away, they'll give you the shirts off their backs in dire emergencies, and you do the same with them. They don't do anything weird, no need to be concerned about what they do. Neighbor across the street is increasingly unable to keep the noise contained, and what I see going on over there (including the person's visiting relatives) is increasingly more irrational when it comes to various activity they wouldn't do if they had any common sense. The activity way late at night is more suspicious lately - this morning, for the first time ever, it woke me up at 2:30am. This is the type of thing to be concerned about, where if it gets further out of hand, their problems start becoming everyone else's to deal with. Such as, do I need to keep my garden hose fully out so that when they finally set their house ablaze, I can quickly put out the sparks landing on my roof.

There always has to be some jackass neighbor!   I have mine behind me, Gary the leaf fiend.  He has this huge walk behind leaf blower that must be 25 years old and hence, makes more noise than legally allowed these days.  There is a stretch of land between us that is owned by our HOA,  was supposed to be a road that was never developed.  So everything on my side of his driveway is HOA and everything on his side belongs to him. Simple, easy!   Except Gary wants to own it all!  The HOA does have their lawn mowed weekly, but Gary chases away kids, dog walkers, and anyone else who he considers trespassers.   

So Gary walks that loud obnoxious blower around all year long.  My house is 100 feet away and it sounds like it's inside. And the minute we have guests either on our rear deck or in our pool,  he breaks out the blower just to be obnoxious.

During Covid I had a huge cherry tree blow down during a storm.  I learned of it because Gary called to inform me, with the question, "When will I clean it up because it's on the grass".  I tell him he just told me about it so I didn't have a plan, but reminded him that it's NOT his grass.  I put an ad in Marketplace  for free cherry wood if you cut it up and take it away.  I had a guy respond and show up to retrieve the wood.  He drove his pickup truck up on the grass on the HOA property.  No sooner out there and Gary appeared, waving his arms at the guy.  I went out there and he's telling the guy to get off his lawn! His idea is the guy should have parked at the curb and walked the wood the  300 or so feet from tree to truck.  I snapped.  I gave Gary a good piece of my mind, that the HOA told me they didn't care if I did donuts in that field and to get the heck back in his house!  The potential wood harvester told me it was too intense for him and left!  It took me two weeks to find another guy who wanted the wood.  This time I was with them the entire time, and made sure Gary kept his distance.  We have not spoken since.

Two weeks ago we had company and we were back in the pool.  Out comes the leaf blower!  He heads right for the back fence line, and I stood up and met eyes with him... he turned around and made a beeline for his house.  

Edited September 3, 2024 by Tom Geiger

[Danno]

On 9/2/2024 at 2:02 PM, crazyjim said:

Ballpark hot dogs, Bush's baked beans, potato salad, and corn on the cob for dinner tonight.  Oh - the dogs are spiral cut.

If your dogs are spiral cut, what on earth did you do to your cats?

?

[Ace-Garageguy]

34 minutes ago, Danno said:

If your dogs are spiral cut, what on earth did you do to your cats?

?

Shredded for taco filling.

[peteski]

All this talk reminded me of my food irk:  From time to time I enjoyed eating Hillshire Farm's Li'l Smokies or Li'l Polskas links.  Those were very tasty little sausage links with a coarsely ground meat inside.  I haven't had them for few years, and when I recently picked up a package and warmed them up I was in for a huge disappointment.  They have totally changed their recipe. Instead of that moist coarsely ground filling, they are basically smoky flavored hot dogs.  No more coarse ground, slightly greasy meat - they are filled with pink slime which has no texture at all.   Another of my little pleasures is gone. Darn!

[HomerS]

Made my twice a year for my check because I'm on BP meds.  The lady at the desk put me on hold to check to see if I needed any other tests....nope, just the regular check up.  Saw the Dr today and she asked why I didn't fast.  Um....because YOUR front desk actually checked and told me I wasn't due for other test so I snarfed breakfast burrito and coffee (w/ cream and sweetener).  Now they want me to make another appointment to get labs drawn.

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, peteski said:

 ...No more coarse ground, slightly greasy meat - they are filled with pink slime which has no texture at all...

That's the new improved meatless soy protein and powdered insect filling.

Welcome to the brave new world.

                                                                     Oh...the humanity !!!!!!!!!

Edited September 4, 2024 by Ace-Garageguy

[espo]

14 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

That's the new improved meatless soy protein and powdered insect filling.

Welcome to the brave new world.

                                                                     Oh...the humanity !!!!!!!!!

I just lost my appetite. 

[TonyK]

I killed a mole today and that irks me and I feel really bad. In the past I manage to catch one and walk way down the street to the creek and let it go there. It's an area where the houses are away from it so they'll be safe and not bother anyone.

Been chasing this one for a week and noticed new activity from earlier today so used my hose method and got him. Problem was, he was blindly running and about to get away so I had to quickly act with my shovel and decided to just end it. Still feel real bad about it. I'm not a killer of things.

[JollySipper]

Thank you for having a conscience......... It's what separates us from the animals.  

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, JollySipper said:

...having a conscience....what separates us from the animals.  

Not all of us.

[jaymcminn]

I get off of a fairly arduous work day yesterday and am just kicking off my shoes when someone starts simultaneously ringing the doorbell and pounding on my door. I open the door and it's some genius trying to sell me... something, I never found out what because I ripped him a new one for blowing past the not one but TWO "no soliciting" signs prominently displayed in front of my house. I guess posting signs only works if the jagoff pounding on your door knows how to read?

Edited September 5, 2024 by jaymcminn

[Ace-Garageguy]

9 minutes ago, jaymcminn said:

...I guess posting signs only works if the jagoff pounding on your door knows how to read?

Not necessarily even then. 

[HomerS]

On 9/5/2024 at 1:52 PM, jaymcminn said:

I get off of a fairly arduous work day yesterday and am just kicking off my shoes when someone starts simultaneously ringing the doorbell and pounding on my door. I open the door and it's some genius trying to sell me... something, I never found out what because I ripped him a new one for blowing past the not one but TWO "no soliciting" signs prominently displayed in front of my house. I guess posting signs only works if the jagoff pounding on your door knows how to read?

I let them waste their time and let them do their pitch before I tell them we rent.  I own my house, but it's more fun to waste their time.

One guy kept pushing lawn care....I said I don't even mow the grass so why would I care!  (My teenager mows it)

Best one was the kid who rolled up on a hoverboard and wanted to sell me pest control.  I told I have access to Chlordane....sure its highly toxic but it works.  He probably had to look up what that stuff even was.

Edited September 7, 2024 by HomerS

[Tim W. SoCal]

On 9/3/2024 at 4:53 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

Shredded for taco filling

Cat tacos, cat chile and Kung Pao Kitty, YUM!

[TonyK]

When a person comes to the door and his "pitch" is telling me how many of my neighbors are customers of whatever it is they're selling. Oh okay, then I must do it too!

My favorite was the guy who warned me that I'd have a major bug problem some day after I told him I've lived here 20 years and not a problem yet. You just wait, he said. Still waiting.

I usually don't answer the door but they catch me when I'm outside or working in the garage with the door open.

[espo]

On 9/5/2024 at 12:52 PM, jaymcminn said:

I get off of a fairly arduous work day yesterday and am just kicking off my shoes when someone starts simultaneously ringing the doorbell and pounding on my door. I open the door and it's some genius trying to sell me... something, I never found out what because I ripped him a new one for blowing past the not one but TWO "no soliciting" signs prominently displayed in front of my house. I guess posting signs only works if the jagoff pounding on your door knows how to read?

This has seemed to work for us. 

[oldscool]

On 9/3/2024 at 10:24 AM, 89AKurt said:

I wanted to wash perhaps a hundred pounds of mud off Blue Cloud.  I forgot this is the Labor Day holiday (since I've always been self-employed and nobody ever paid me to go on vacation) so of course people gotta wash their cars.  When I showed up all the bays are being used, and the cute PT convertible that looks clean to me is waiting.  I park in the shade of a tree.  Audi pulls in, clean as a whistle, then parks perpendicular to me, l show that I'm #2 in line, he is #3.  A minute passes, then my Gemini says "what the **** are you doing, guys drive out of their way to find a mud puddle, then race back and forth through it, to get *the look*".  So I left.

Can I get two irks today?  Got to Williams on empty.  No paper towels in any of the windshield dispensers.

Can I get 3?  Trash deep in the forest, couches, mangled awnings, textiles, cans, in general decades of accumulation is out there.  The cost of gas would cover the minimum dump fee.  At this site I found several truss plates in the trees (for you know what) but only 2 rusty cans.  I leave a site better than I found it, it's therapy, and someone's gotta do it.

I feel your pain Kurt. As to irk #1, it has rained so much where I live that car washing is meaningless anyway. #2 has been universal in my area since the Covid outbreak. #3 has always been an irk for me as I believe in the saying "leave nothing but footprints". I see you have a bike. I just bought a fat tire bike to ride in the woods if and when it ever stops raining.

[89AKurt]

13 hours ago, oldscool said:

I feel your pain Kurt. As to irk #1, it has rained so much where I live that car washing is meaningless anyway. #2 has been universal in my area since the Covid outbreak. #3 has always been an irk for me as I believe in the saying "leave nothing but footprints". I see you have a bike. I just bought a fat tire bike to ride in the woods if and when it ever stops raining.

We in Aridzona do rain dances to bring it on!  Don't tell anyone, but I was totally a poser with the bike this time.  It's primarily a back-up, but there will be places where it will be great for scouting a better campsite.

[rattle can man]

someone doing 25 in a 40 and braking for no reason. That and people stopping for green lights.

[stavanzer]

12 hours ago, rattle can man said:

someone doing 25 in a 40 and braking for no reason. That and people stopping for green lights.

Yes, I see this more and more, here in California. It's like people have forgotten how to drive. (or never learned.....)

[Falcon Ranchero]

1 hour ago, stavanzer said:

Yes, I see this more and more, here in California. It's like people have forgotten how to drive. (or never learned.....)

People are absolute crazy around here, too. My mom has me drive to school on some elaborate route instead of the highway, but you still can't escape stupidity.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Having to be an adult for the next 90 minutes and watch two grown people argue like little children. 

Edited September 11, 2024 by Ace-Garageguy
CLARITY

[stavanzer]

I had a Job Interview at 3pm this afternoon.

They called me at 12:30 to tell me that they had already filled the job. 2.5 hrs before the interview they called?

Is this a 'thing' now? Who does this? I had a ride set up, suit pressed, everything...

I'm not happy!