Get Your Grump on Thursdays - Was (What's chapping my @ss today?)

[johnmdesigner]

Can you elaborate on this (I’m a bit dull in the head these days). I did spend 5 years in your neighborhood in the 1980’s training at St Luke’s, now apparently Mt Sinai West. After all, when it comes to healthcare bigger is better, right? But that’s an entirely different grump.

Well we do frequent a number of restaurants around here. The table manners range from appalling to nonexistant.
Never seen anyone eat with their phone before.

[Saab2000]

Well we do frequent a number of restaurants around here. The table manners range from appalling to nonexistant.
Never seen anyone eat with their phone before.

No, but I’ve observed people taking calls on speakerphone in restaurants. If I owned a restaurant there would be a sign upon entry stating that this sign is your only warning. The next communication will be to ask you to leave if you take a call in the dining room. I did see this at a hotel (Austin NAHBS actually) which stated that there would be zero tolerance for rowdy behavior or excessive noise and that the sign stating such was the only warning.

The other day a gentleman took a call in the restaurant and immediately left to complete the call elsewhere, in a more appropriate location for a call. I really appreciated this. Manners matter.

[defspace]

We moved into a house less than two years ago. Between freezes, disease, multiple severe wind events, and tropical storms, we have lost every single tree. There was a productive 24" dia pecan in the front yard that shaded the house. Now there is a patch of mulch. It's heart breaking.

[bigbill]

Along with defspace, I'm trying to bring a dozen rose bushes back to life. While we were in Wyoming this summer, some critter chewed through the main irrigation line before the rose bushes, so one spot became a bog, while everything downstream didn't get watered. We live in the Mohave Desert (Mojave in California, Mohave in AZ) and the rest of the yard is desert landscape so the rose bushes are the only plants that are critical.

[Tom]

Day late so I'll complain about two things.

I figured I'd come back from Italy refreshed and recharged and ready to hit the ground running. Get back on the bike, put finishing touches on the greenhouse (floor, benches, paint the sill). Nope. Covid. My get up and go done got up and went. The brain fog is real. I practice piano for 15 minutes and need a lie down.

The bear. A bear has been seen twice now within a half mile of my house. Once right a the end of my street. Do you think it could come and hang out in my back yard for a bit? Heck no. I hope it makes it to a better bear location without running into some bonehead, though.

[72gmc]

I've decided not to complain about the raccoons that are visiting my roof this year, until now. I'm pro-wildlife but not excited about trash pandas on the roof, although it is a moment to look up through a skylight in the middle of the night and see that little mask looking back at you.

[echappist]

I've decided not to complain about the raccoons that are visiting my roof this year, until now. I'm pro-wildlife but not excited about trash pandas on the roof, although it is a moment to look up through a skylight in the middle of the night and see that little mask looking back at you.

Those burgling masks are reserved for pros, and who's to argue that raccoons aren't pros at the art of thieving?

At least they are on the roof and not inside the attic.

There were times when I heard footsteps running across the ceiling of the duplex we rented in MKE. Could never figure out what that was.

Day late so I'll complain about two things.

I figured I'd come back from Italy refreshed and recharged and ready to hit the ground running. Get back on the bike, put finishing touches on the greenhouse (floor, benches, paint the sill). Nope. Covid. My get up and go done got up and went. The brain fog is real. I practice piano for 15 minutes and need a lie down.

The bear. A bear has been seen twice now within a half mile of my house. Once right a the end of my street. Do you think it could come and hang out in my back yard for a bit? Heck no. I hope it makes it to a better bear location without running into some bonehead, though.

Wishing you a speedy recovery!

[rwsaunders]

I've decided not to complain about the raccoons that are visiting my roof this year, until now. I'm pro-wildlife but not excited about trash pandas on the roof, although it is a moment to look up through a skylight in the middle of the night and see that little mask looking back at you.

Dan...if setting traps, you are never quite sure what you will capture but if you get the raccoon, a .177 caliber air rifle is your friend. Hell, forget the trap and go Rambo.

[72gmc]

Dan...if setting traps, you are never quite sure what you will capture but if you get the raccoon, a .177 caliber air rifle is your friend. Hell, forget the trap and go Rambo.

It's a pair, and we've learned they are visiting rooftops around the neighborhood. Lots of friendly trees near homes around here. I had a contractor on my roof early in the summer, and he reported no damage, so I'm going to do another check and decide if I need to do more than a roof cleaning and fascia board work. Photo taken by my neighbor.

Screenshot 2024-09-20 at 10.05.33.jpg

[j44ke]

The contractor and the raccoons are probably in cahoots.

[72gmc]

The contractor and the raccoons are probably in cahoots.

I thought about that. Like wondering if our “ant guy” actually trains the ants to ensure future business. A gambit I’d have to respect.

[Scott G.]

I thought about that. Like wondering if our “ant guy” actually trains the ants to ensure future business. A gambit I’d have to respect.

[I]Watch your step, be careful of little lives. They especially like honey, tuna and cookie crumbs. So put down bits of those on the floor, and watch closely from the moment the first scout finds the bait and reports back to her colony by laying down an odor trail. As a little column follows her out to the food, you will see social behavior so strange it might be on another planet.

Edward O. Wilson (2014: 94-95)

[Tom]

We had raccoons denning about 40 feet up in a poplar behind the house for a few years. The cubs are adorable. Mom would never climb that tree, she went up the one next to it and then transferred where some branches were near each other. To see her do that when the trees were waving back and forth in a thunderstorm was something.

They stopped denning there and a couple of years later they must have had a family reunion. One day there were about ten of them just hanging out, draped over the branches.