Miscellaneous Monday
This is my favorite thing that Maya has shoved in my face and made me watch recently. We had a good laugh. It starts with ‘my mom with the cat she didn’t want’, and we agreed, that’s Ted with Mulder. If you enjoyed this video, watch the next one, where mom makes kitty a beautiful dress and sings to her.
Friday I slept until 7:15!!! I rarely am able to sleep that late, and it was DELICIOUS. I felt so well rested.
I had a relaxing day, which included using a reverse vending machine to recycle some cans for CRV (California Redemption Value), which was kind of novel but a bit time consuming. You have to put one container at a time, and wait for it to be accepted, then put in the next one. It’s convenient, it’s right by one of our local grocery stores. But I’ve tried to use it 3 or 4 times, and this was the first time it was not down for maintenance (maybe that means it was full before? I don’t know.) Will I continue to do this, or will I go back to putting them in the blue recycling bin? Hmmm. Maybe if I put that money in a specific account for a specific purpose it will make it more fun. Like money for makeup or vacation or something. Also on Friday, I had to go to the post office to buy postcard stamps, and though they close at 5pm, I got there at 5:02, and they didn’t even mention it to me, just sold me my stamps and were friendly. I thanked the teller who helped me, acknowledging that it was after hours.
Ted told us a funny Canada story. He was talking to a coworker and saying that he’d like to see Montreal, and the coworker said he was mugged in Montreal. The thief held him up at gunpoint, and took all of his cash – about $300. Then he said, “wait, you’re going to need some cash to get a cab back to your hotel” and gave him about $40 back. HA! I mean, there’s nothing funny about being held up at gunpoint, but the guy being thoughtful about the situation was funny.
Friday night, Ted had plans with some friends, so Maya and I got takeout and sat with the TV. We watched the first episode of Daria, which I haven’t seen since it first aired, and Maya had never seen before. Awesome.
Speaking of Daria, blog friend Daria had a post the other day that included a meme of Sisyphus pushing his rock up the mountain, which reminded me of a weird random thought I had last week, which was that Sisyphus is STILL pushing that damn rock up the mountain, and also Prometheus is STILL having his liver eaten every day by an eagle. I mean, wow. In honor of their eternal suffering, here are some memes I found.
Saturday I went to the #TeslaTakedown protest at our local Tesla dealership. I expected there to be maybe 20 people, but there were hundreds! Perhaps as many as 500 people! The beautiful weather was probably a factor, plus the fact that it was International Women’s Day. They protest there every Saturday at Noon. The protest was organized by our local chapter of Indivisible. I felt very heartened by it all, and am looking forward to going back next Saturday.
After that, Ted and I went to our local Ace Hardware store and bought a new outdoor grill! YAY! Our old one is SO OLD, the line that brings the gas to one of the burners has rusted out. So it was time. It will be delivered on Tuesday. We were just there buying a new garden hose (that asshole squirrel George Bush had eaten a hole in our old one) and decided to look at the grills, and when the salesman told us they would assemble it for us AND take away our old one, we were SOLD.
We spent Sunday adjusting to the time change and disappointing salesmen. We looked at sofas at two stores, but did not buy anything. We also test drove an electric Chevy Blazer, which also, we did not buy. We saw a couple of decent sofas, but nothing that we loved. We liked the Blazer, it was a very smooth ride, but wow, spendy. We’re lucky to be in a position where we do not NEED a new sofa, nor do we NEED a new car. Then we stopped and got takeout for dinner, then came home and watched White Lotus.
I hope you had a lovely weekend, and that you are adjusting to the time change stupidness as gently as possible.
36 Comments
AC
You see how considerate Canadians are? Even the thieves.
Our bbq is sitting under the snow. It is 22 years old. I hope it works for another year.
J
I hope your bbq lives through this summer and a few more too! LOL about Canadians. You all have such a reputation for being polite, that’s why this story made me laugh so much.
Jenny
Daria! I used to watch that years ago. Does the first episode have that weird teacher with the scary eyeball? Good show.
Wow, that protest sounds fun. I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t get 500 people at a protest like that down here. And, I like that Canada story- yet more proof that life is more civilized up there.
I forgot to tell you- I got your postcard last week! Thank you!!!
J
Yay! I’m glad you got the postcard. And yes, we are in a blue state in a blue county, so lots of people showing up.
Regarding Daria, YES, the teacher with the freaky eye was in the first episode. So awesome.
PocoBrat
I chuckled at that muggling story–but it felt very White Lotus, you know!? Really close to the line of being uncomfortable.
Love the pic of you at the Tesla protest, J–and so glad you’re taking back the flag too. We can’t let the dumbasses use it for their hateful cruelty.
Those cat videos! That cat’s expression is so bewildered. Haha.
J
Maya, while I was standing with my little 8 1/2 x 11 sign that said ‘SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY’ and holding my flag, an earnest young man came and tried to help me fix it to right side up. At first I assumed he was being a dick and pretending to be nice just to turn it over, but no, he didn’t know the symbolim of the upside down flag. He was very polite and thanked me for telling him that it is a distress symbol, and our country is in distress. I think he just thought I was feeble and hadn’t noticed, like having toilet paper stuck on your shoe or something.
nance
I felt SO SORRY for that cat.
Today is my cats’ birthday. They are actual brother and sister, and their documentation was very complete, having been born on someone’s porch and surrendered to a shelter. I will not be dressing them up as their celebration.
Thank you for protesting at the tesla dealership, and for the symbolism of the upside-down flag. I see that elon has gone full hitler now with the new haircut. He’s such an attention whore.
Living in Ohio, I feel like Sisyphus every damn day. But I keep writing letters to my republican congressmen anyway. Sigh.
J
Happy Birthday to your kitties, Nance! Was there a celebration at the Dept? We had celebrations for Gen and Mulder’s birthdays, and they loved them.
I’m getting a little worn out by writing postcards (it’s getting spendy) so wondering, do you hand write letters, or send emails? I only have Democrats to write to, so I write and urge them as best I can, but I feel like they are already on my same side.
I kind of think the cat in the video is enjoying herself. She is obviously very patient.
nance
I write emails. I do get snail mail replies from my House rep, however. I have yet to get a single reply from my Senator, former lt. governor who replaced the current VP, and only one general form reply email of crap from the moron who replaced my hero Senator Sherrod Brown.
I’m hooked into so many networks, and they all send me issues to write my reps about. I just click and start writing. Usually, there’s a form letter, but I don’t use that; I write my own so that it has a better chance to get read.
J
Thank you for the info Nance, I’m getting tired of making phone calls, though that is the quickest thing to do, so I’m not sure why.
Ally Bean
I like the Tesla Takedown event. I’ve no idea where our regional Tesla dealership is, now that I think about it. Yesterday I did see a lavender-colored Tesla with FL Disney license plates parked in front of Whole Foods. I paused to look at the car, not out of admiration, but because of the how one vehicle could represent so much potential offensiveness.
J
LOL, one car says SO MUCH! So many liberals bought Teslas here, to be eco friendly, and now they are stuck with a very unpopular car. There are stickers you can buy that say “Anti-Elon Tesla Club”.
Lisa's Yarns
I love that there was such a great turnout at the Tesla protest! When I saw the picture my first thought was how sunny and beautiful it was and how wonderful you looked with the sun shining down on you! We had lots of sunshine here yesterday and it was a balm to my soul. We were able to walk to church and then the boys and I walked up to the grocery store/starbucks for an afternoon treat and I got warm in a long sleeve shirt! It’s been a weird week as we had 10″ of snow on Wed and now it will probably hit 60 here today.
J
I’m hoping that this Saturday will be a big turnout too! I’m glad that you had beautiful weather this week!
Ernie
I’ve never heard of the show Daria. It sounds like something Mini and Curly and I would enjoy watching. I”ll have to figure out whether or not the very few streaming services that we get offer it. Did you see SNL over the weekend with Mike Meyers doing Elon? I saw a blip of it on my favorite news program this am. It was hilarious. The cat video was hilarious esp with the POV of my mom who didn’t want a cat. The minute I’m retired from my daycare, I’ll be shopping for couches. (had a typo there of ‘coaches’ and I often do that, perhaps because I type Coach so often, but I do not plan to shop for another Coach, so I’m glad I caught it). Our couches are 19 years old, but if I replace them too soon they will be drenched in baby spit. Our weekend was a whirlwind road trip to Omaha. 6.5 hours there early Sat and 6.5 hours back Sunday afternoon. As a result, I’m catching up on laundry today and went grocery shopping the minute we got home last night at the unfortunate time of 7:30 pm. We had a lot of fun visiting Tank though.
J
Daria is on Paramount+, not sure if it’s anywhere else. We’re enjoying it, and it’s pretty quick, only 23 minutes or whatever, so not a big committment. I would not buy a new sofa either if I had your job! Or if I had to, I would definitely use a slip cover until retirement. I did not watch SNL. I tried last weekend, and I couldn’t get through the scene, I just dislike Trump/Musk/Vance TOO MUCH. (I think the 3rd person was Rubio last week, not Vance, but he is also an asshat sychophant.)
Margaret
I’m not even sure where a Tesla dealer is around here but I am a member of Indivisible and need to get more involved! I love gray kitties; that’s a gorgeous one. I enjoy looking at furniture and cars but hate committing to a purchase. I still like my 2018 Subaru Forester! (low miles too)
J
I think our cars have decent mileage considering how old they are…2005 and 2008. I dislike looking at cars, but Ted likes it. He went and looked at cats with me, so it was fair. 🙂 The gray cat in the video is very beautiful, and also decent.
Suzanne
Oh my goodness, even the THIEVES are kind in Canada! What a story!
Hmm. I don’t think I ever watched Daria when it was first airing! I wonder if my kid would get a kick out of it too? One thing I am dying to watch with her is Clueless… especially since one of her teachers worked Clueless into a lesson recently. If the teachers think it’s age appropriate, who am I to object, right?
J
FUN to watch Clueless with your daughter! My daughter LOVES clueless. And Mean Girls.
Nicole MacPherson
I feel so patriotic right now.
Those memes are perfection!
J
Thanks Nicole!
Daria
Daria has glasses, like me ! Lol
Thanks for the shoutout!
The thief story is something else. I feel like that’s Canada. The US would have been like “just walk” lol although I don’t know.
J
LOL, I think in the US the thief would have conked the poor guy on the head. No way they would have left him with cab money.
Kyria @ Travel Spot
I am glad that your protest had a lot of people! Okay, that sounded weird. I mean, I am not glad that you had to protest, but I am glad there was a good turnout. There is nothing sadder than just a few people with signs; it is much more robust when you have hundreds!
I think the can thing is good, but annoying that you can’t just dump them in and have them counted or something. Do you get actual cash, or do you get a credit or something? In Argentina, if you buy beer, when you go back to the store you take your empties and they credit you back the “CRV” charge. Of course, we always just ended up buying more beer so we never broke even! 🙂
J
I remember when I was a kid, we would bring our soda bottles (glass) back to the store, and you could turn them in for cash. A 6 pack of Pepsi was $1.20, and then the CRV was another $.60, so with 3 six packs of bottles, you could get a new 6 pack. Bottles are still $0.10, but it would take more than 3 6 packs to buy a new one. The app puts the money on your Paypal account, to answer your question.
I took 20ish cans once recently, but the machine was down for maintenance, so I went to the customer service counter. They helped me, and gave me cash, but I had to sign something and it took them away from other tasks and they were busy and had to count the cans on their counter, so it was more of a pain than the machine even.
Stephany
Ugh, did you hear about the weird Tesla spon-con at the WH this week? It’s sooo weird the pull he has over Trump. It’s not illegal to boycott, nor is it illegal NOT to buy a very expensive car. UGH. I’m proud of you for going to that protest! I am signed up with Indivisible and I need to make a point to go to the next protest they have. This is important!
The Canada story cracked me up!
J
Yes, I heard about Trump ‘buying’ a Tesla. They are both such tools. Trump has been bought and paid for, and he doesn’t even try to hide it. Disgusting and illegal. Not like NOT buying a Tesla, which as you say – NOT illegal.
I hope you find a protest and that there is a lot of support there. I know you are in a red state, so likely less support than here. A lot of the Tesla owners here feel horrible, because they bought the cars to try to help the environment, and now look. Of course, anyone who was paying attention knew what an ass Musk was at least as far back as 2018, when he trolled the diver who was working to get the soccer team trapped in underwater caves in Thailand out, calling him a pedophile because he said Musk’s robot wouldn’t work. My friend’s son worked at Tesla for awhile, and they are a horrible employer. Wanted employees to work 12 hour days, 7 days a week. Such BS.
Karen Meg
What a hilarious cat video! Beautiful cat, too. My daughter would love to have a cat but we’re too allergic.
That’s amazing that you had such a massive turnout at the Tesla protest. I see it tanking all over, for good reason.
Ted’s story about his colleague being mugged in Montreal is funny – a polite Canadian, perhaps a francophone even! Montreal is a beautiful city though, you should really visit.
My lease is up for my car in August, with everything going on I will likely stick to non-N. American cars. I wish my Audi wasn’t a bit of a lemon. Thinking about whether to go electric.
J
I don’t blame you for not wanting a N American car right now! We love our Toyotas, though I know a lot of the manufacturing may be done here.
Ted is too allergic, no cats here either.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
Haha even the thiefs are friendly in Canada. Hilarous.
What a great turn out at the demonstration. You look liek you mean business. Did you imagine Musk coming around the corner?
J
LOL, he would be PISSED, right?
San
We have these reverse vending machines everywhere in Germany to recycle your bottles, etc. I have never seen them here – where did you see it?
Kudos for going to the protest at the Tesla Dealership. I am so happy to hear how many people showed up!
Oh and yay for sleeping in.
J
Hi San, the recycling machines are pretty new here. I have seen them in front of Safeway grocery stores so far.
Even more people were at this week’s Tesla takedown! It’s finally getting coverage on our news, too.
Anne
We had those “vending” machines in Iowa and they are not easy to use, I agree.
We do not have Tesla dealerships in our state (one reason E*** is trying to buy the SC election…) so I will have to vicariously protest through you! Also, TOTALLY get it on the car thing. I *could* replace my 13 year old car, but it runs just fine (knock wood). No car payment works for me. 🙂
J
I LOVE not having a car payment! I am keeping track of car repairs to make sure it’s not more than a car payment. So far not even close, which is a really good thing.