Octopus Overlords

stessier wrote: ↑Wed Mar 27, 2024 6:11 pm Easy fix - move to a neighborhood with an HOA. I guarantee you'll hate that more though.

That's high on our list of dealbreakers. HOAs aren't very common where we're shopping, thankfully. One house we looked at had a mini HOA that was strictly tasked with maintaining a shared private road. The fee was low and it had no authority beyond plowing the road and occasionally refreshing the gravel. That would be tolerable.

Luckily, the neighbors on all sides of me have nice, neat yards that are well-kept.

Fortunately, I rent, and that means that the yard and outside areas aren't my responsibility. They're the landlady's. Unfortunately, the landlady doesn't take care of them, either. Somewhere, my neighbors are typing up posts on on other forums (Squid Suzerains, perhaps) about how the people in the peach-colored house leave their yard a mess.

I've gone out of my way to meet my neighbors, to get to know them a bit, and to ensure that they're aware that the outside is out of my hands.

It's not exactly outside your hands it's just not your responsibility and you choose not to take care of it.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 2:05 pm It's not exactly outside your hands it's just not your responsibility and you choose not to take care of it.

I've rented my entire life. Starting to do noticeable maintenance work that isn't part of your rental agreement is almost always a bad idea. It takes very little time before it's fully your responsibility, including getting calls to take care of problems and facing criticism when you don't do it, or when you don't do it the way they prefer. In fact, sometimes it's not just a bad idea, it can cause genuine problems, including eviction.

I don't choose not to take care of it. I choose not to walk into a briar patch.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 11:33 am the people in the peach-colored house leave their yard a mess.

I assume by "mess" you mean the natural kind (tall grass, tree branches overgrowing, etc.), not that you dump junk in your yard.

gilraen wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 3:10 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 11:33 am the people in the peach-colored house leave their yard a mess.

I assume by "mess" you mean the natural kind (tall grass, tree branches overgrowing, etc.), not that you dump junk in your yard.

Trees, grass, weeds, hedges that look like jungles, you name it. Horrifically peeling paint and crumbling siding. But I don't dump junk in my yard. Ever.

My downstairs neighbors, on the other hand...

I can no longer remember the joke that precedes: "Rectum!? It nearly killed em!"

I was reading useless news and came across an interesting article, technically Hawaii isn't protected by the NATO organization. It is in the Pacific not the North Atlantic. NATO was formed before Hawaii became a state. I mean the rest of the US would protect it but the rest of NATO is not required to. Makes you wonder about the other states not touching the Atlantic. They are covered because they are part of the continental US.

Can't you just see 10,000 screaming Samoans rowing across the Pacific in their outriggers invading Hawaii?


I'm also not sure of Oklahoma where I currently abide.

Do the scream the entire way, or just at the beginning and end? Asking for a friend.

Guam is a bigger worry than Hawaii.

Ha, I won 12 bucks on the Powerball last night.

So long, losers!

Okay, I'm back. Turns out 12 dollars isn't that much.

Its more than nothing. Or was. You could have bought a pair of Bea Arthur under-roos.

You’re a dollar off.

Now only $13 about half original price.

Zarathud wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 2:30 pm You’re a dollar off.

Now only $13 about half original price.

Please forgive me.

Zarathud wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 2:30 pm You’re a dollar off.

Now only $13 about half original price.

People think you’re joking that you got me a pair of these for Christmas one year….

No joke. Those underpants were even sold at GenCon.

Have you exaggerated about some food someone fixed for you because you want them to feel good but in reality you thought was mediocre at best and now the fix it for you all the time?

Me either.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 01, 2024 8:03 pm Have you exaggerated about some food someone fixed for you because you want them to feel good but in reality you thought was mediocre at best and now the fix it for you all the time?

Me either.

My grandmother was the embodiment of the grandmother cliche in all the best ways. She was the tiny little old lady with the pure white perm who always had a smile, always had a story, always had some wisdom to share (and most of it was genuine wisdom - even if I was too young to appreciate it at the time.) She was also an incredible cook. She raised nine kids, starting early in the Great Depression and finishing by around 1950. By the time I lived with her, she thought absolutely nothing of hosting a holiday and cooking full meals for 70+ people (nine kids, plus nine spouses, plus their kids, plus their kids...) It is absolutely beyond me how she managed to cover a ten foot table with homemade, from-scratch (really from scratch) deserts, and lay multiple meat dishes on the main table, and an array of sides, all while humming happily and managing a troublesome ten-year-old (me) at the same time... at 75 years of age.

Nobody ever had to talk up her food to make her feel better.

And then there's Michelle's mom.

Michelle's mother is the nicest lady, and has been the closest thing I've had to a mother over the past 29. She's a rural Indiana housewife, and has always aspired to the Hallmark Channel version of what that means. It makes her happy, and more power to her.

She is, however, a pretty bad cook. She doesn't know it. She thinks she's Aunt Bee, and tries to cook from scratch... at least part of the time, and some of the ingredients. Her attempts at recipes skip ingredients she doesn't recognize, resulting in completely flavorless dishes that she then flavors with salt. When her husband had to stop eating salt, she replaced it with... love? Her pies... well, her chocolate cream pies are a retail crust with instant pudding in them. Her fruit pies are... well. Whatever is supposed to turn the liquid thick she either skips, or uses incorrectly. The result is a soaking wet crust full of fruit juice with little bits of fruit floating in it. I'm not kidding. And she tries to fix it by baking it longer, so the end result is a badly burned crust that is as soggy as if you'd dropped it in a bucket of water.

When she was younger I used to make suggestions, some of which she took, others of which she ignored. But to her, the aspiration to be June Cleaver is what brings her joy, and now that she's close to 80, I indulge that fully. It's always the best thing that I've ever eaten, and I always get pressed to take more. Which I do.

She's a wonderful person, doesn't have too many years left, and I'm not going to do a thing to interfere with her happiness. Even if it means flexing the truth a little.

Feels weird when I think about it...Im over half a century old.

What happens if you and her live another twenty years?

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2024 12:15 am What happens if you and her live another twenty years?

If I'm still in Indiana in 20 years, I'll eat it as a form of self-flagellation.

Well, I know I certainly moved up in the world with a move from Arkansas to Oklahoma.

4:45 am and I haven't slept yet tonight. Thought I'd try sleeping without any pills. So I'm having a cup of coffee and see how that works.
All that laying in bed and you start thinking all the time. I thought about feeling sorry for myself for the last 3 hours. Yep. Time to get up and kill aliens on Xcom!
Finally! A use for that emoji!

Woke up 20 mins ago and can't fall asleep. Do I get up now and just start working or try to fall back asleep? The thought of working the next 12 hours isn't very appealing but there is certainly enough to do....

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2024 5:47 am 4:45 am and I haven't slept yet tonight. Thought I'd try sleeping without any pills. So I'm having a cup of coffee and see how that works.
All that laying in bed and you start thinking all the time. I thought about feeling sorry for myself for the last 3 hours. Yep. Time to get up and kill aliens on Xcom!
Finally! A use for that emoji!

Nice timing! I'm playing the original Terror from the Deep using OpenXcom. It's...difficult. My first game ended when my first mission resulted in 3 fatalities just taking a single step out of the transport, followed by an absolute crap show of poor play resulting in all 14 soldiers dying and losing the transport.

I had no interest in trying to save that game, so I started a new one. No one gets off the boat until a dye grenade has been thrown to cover the transport exit. So my first combat turn involves opening the door, chucking a grenade, closing the door and hitting "end turn"

hepcat wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 7:09 pm

Zarathud wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 2:30 pm You’re a dollar off.

Now only $13 about half original price.

People think you’re joking that you got me a pair of these for Christmas one year….

Harebrained is just a few blocks from my house - I walk past it when I get a haircut. I had no idea what they did so I had to look it up. It was surprising!

GreenGoo wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2024 8:36 am

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2024 5:47 am 4:45 am and I haven't slept yet tonight. Thought I'd try sleeping without any pills. So I'm having a cup of coffee and see how that works.
All that laying in bed and you start thinking all the time. I thought about feeling sorry for myself for the last 3 hours. Yep. Time to get up and kill aliens on Xcom!
Finally! A use for that emoji!

Nice timing! I'm playing the original Terror from the Deep using OpenXcom. It's...difficult. My first game ended when my first mission resulted in 3 fatalities just taking a single step out of the transport, followed by an absolute crap show of poor play resulting in all 14 soldiers dying and losing the transport.

I had no interest in trying to save that game, so I started a new one. No one gets off the boat until a dye grenade has been thrown to cover the transport exit. So my first combat turn involves opening the door, chucking a grenade, closing the door and hitting "end turn"

Me too. The XCom part anyway, not the not sleeping part. I fired up a game of XCOM:Enemy Unknown again yesterday and just took out the Gangplank battleship before going to bed last night. Slept like a baby.

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2024 9:45 am

hepcat wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 7:09 pm

Zarathud wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 2:30 pm You’re a dollar off.

Now only $13 about half original price.

People think you’re joking that you got me a pair of these for Christmas one year….

Harebrained is just a few blocks from my house - I walk past it when I get a haircut. I had no idea what they did so I had to look it up. It was surprising!

I could use matching Blanche socks. You know, if you have the chance.

I thought the full ensemble was sophia sock, dorothy underwear, blanche shirt and rose garter belt?

You did, did you?

LordMortis wrote: ↑Wed Mar 27, 2024 4:35 pm I'll trade you!!!! How would you like a neighbor who piles up his trash on the fence line and lets it is sit and blow off his property for a month at a time, leave oil stains all up and down the street, aka in front of your house, raises three attack dogs, works on loud and smelly cars and motorcycles out of his house for his living, has kids who can't play in the back or front yard because he's got all his work piled everywhere, so they spill in to your yard and scream at the top of their lungs outside your window, burns garbage in his backyard, lays his crap on the fence, has trees overgrowing in to your driveway, has customers who empty their garbage and throw their butts out on your lawn, etc... etc... etc... As he rents from a slum lord, I keep hoping he'll move out but he has it made. I'm sure his housing is subsidized and his business is off the books, so he's not going nowhere. And even if he did, I bet he'd keep this place as his place of business and leave his dogs here to protect his property. Not that there was crime around here until people like him started moving in.

If one thing will ever drive me back to work, it will be to earn enough money to get out of here. Only it seems this is increasingly the world we live in. Like a shit damn broke in 2008 and it just keeps getting deeper and spreading.

He's been noticeably gone for 11 days now. I'd totally forgotten what normalcy is like. I'm actually noticing other neighborhood dogs and loud horn honking neighbors but they don't distract me at all. I know it's too much to hope he's not on a two week vacation but Pancake this is sooo nice. Hopefully, he at least stays gone long enough for the weather to hit a warm dry streak so I can weed/spray the fenceline before he returns. 11 days of relative quiet and no industrial smells. 11 days of people not trampling on my lawn. 11 days of children not screaming outside my window. 11 days of not working on car engines and motorcycles. 11 days of not picking up garbage off my lawn and drive. 11 days of no unattended attack dogs going crazy all day long and especially if I am outside doing anything.

Maybe he died in his house and at any moment now you'll be hit with a smell that wont go away and he'll have gotten you one last time from beyond the grave.

He packed up one of the boats he was working on going into the weekend before last. Someone came back once, presumably to get or feed his dogs that had/have been locked in the garage. It might have been him. It might have been one of his lackeys. I really try not to be a nosy neighbor, even as he makes it almost impossible; so I'm not sure who it was nor if they took the dogs or if they are still unattended (but quiet and indoors).

LordMortis wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 7:15 am He's been noticeably gone for 11 days now. I'd totally forgotten what normalcy is like. I'm actually noticing other neighborhood dogs and loud horn honking neighbors but they don't distract me at all. I know it's too much to hope he's not on a two week vacation but Pancake this is sooo nice. Hopefully, he at least stays gone long enough for the weather to hit a warm dry streak so I can weed/spray the fenceline before he returns. 11 days of relative quiet and no industrial smells. 11 days of people not trampling on my lawn. 11 days of children not screaming outside my window. 11 days of not working on car engines and motorcycles. 11 days of not picking up garbage off my lawn and drive. 11 days of no unattended attack dogs going crazy all day long and especially if I am outside doing anything.

Don't call me Pancake.

Just some cteness to help you through your hump day

I so want me a red panda. They are adorable. What's the critter at the end? We needed a bit more of it.

TheMix wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 10:11 am I so want me a red panda. They are adorable. What's the critter at the end? We needed a bit more of it.

I used to know what that is but Ill have to look for it now as I cant remember.

EDIT: I think its a mouse lemur....could be a gremlin..wouldn't feed it after midnight or get it wet to be sure.