OT - NO POLITICS Subs, taxes and frozen pipes edition

[caz16]

Mrs. 103 and I have two dogs presently, and fencing in our yard is one of the best things we've ever done.

We are both experienced dog owners, and had dogs with our families before we got married. So, we have a little experience with this. The simple fact of the matter is that even if you train your dog to stay on your property, that training will not be rock-solid overnight because training takes time. If you get a puppy, the training will absolutely take time as young dogs can be rebellious and willful just like adolescent children. If you get a rescue dog (all of mine/ours have been rescues from various places), the training will take time as you try to correct bad habits, or teach older dogs who were possibly never properly trained at all. It only takes once for your dog to chase after a horse and buggy for you to wish you could go back in time and put up that fence. Otherwise, the only time your dog will be able to safely leave the house will be on a leash with either you or your husband on the other end of it. We lived in an apartment for a year and a condo for four before we moved to the house we live in now. We put up a fence a few years later and our dogs' lives have been much better. Running free beats being on a leash every time, and you will enjoy playing with your dog more. You can still walk your dog around the area, but also let him run as well. Fenced in yards are also ideal for doggy play dates.

Mrs. 103 once decided to let Lola out into the front yard off leash one morning before work because the back yard was too muddy. She wasn't worried about Lola running off because Lola always does what she's told. But Mrs. 103 didn't expect a red fox to be trotting through the neighborhood, and since this is officially 'Lola Country,' she took off down the street after the fox. Thankfully, the fox eluded Lola and she eventually decided to come when she was called. That doesn't happen in a fenced in yard.

Bear in mind that you will still need to supervise your dog to some degree even if you have a fence. Small animals such as skunks, rabbits, groundhogs, woodchucks, squirrels, etc. WILL find their way in. I tell people that the fence is to keep my dogs in, not necessarily to keep other animals out. If I let my dogs out at night, I have a floodlight that I turn on, and I go out ahead of them to scare off any 'trespassers.' We get rabbits mostly, but if you've never had to de-skunk a dog at 11pm, trust me - you don't want to.

I'm not a fan of electric fences, shock collars, or anything like that. In THIS dog owner's opinion, a good old-fashioned chainlink fence is the way to go. If you want any further evidence that a fence is a good idea, visit any dog trainer out there. I've never once heard of a trainer whose training area didn't have some kind of fence.

Are you an experienced dog owner? What kind of dog are you getting? How old? From a breeder or a rescue?

Regardless of your answers to any of these questions, a fence - in my opinion - will only make your experience and your new family member's better. It will be worth every penny. Trust me.

Thank you so much, this has decided it for me. A fence will be worth it. I haven't had a dog for many years but we always had fences when we did. We need a hypo allergenic dog, so my hopes of a rescue are limited but I will try that - I have been keeping an eye on the dogs up for adoption just in case the right type comes up. If not, a puppy will be our choice. Thanks again!

 

[rfournier103]

Thank you so much, this has decided it for me. A fence will be worth it. I haven't had a dog for many years but we always had fences when we did. We need a hypo allergenic dog, so my hopes of a rescue are limited but I will try that - I have been keeping an eye on the dogs up for adoption just in case the right type comes up. If not, a puppy will be our choice. Thanks again!

You're most very welcome!

I have a passion for dogs and always want what's best for them. I know that any dog would be blessed to go home with you. Keep me posted on how everything goes!

 

[Alicat]

Politics aside, what President Carter his done with Habitat For hHumanities and other charities over the years is beyond incredible.

 

[eightspokedb]

Politics aside, what President Carter his done with Habitat For hHumanities and other charities over the years is beyond incredible.

Oh no .... Sending all my healing Blessings to a treasure of a human....

 

[Ladyfan]

Politics aside, what President Carter his done with Habitat For hHumanities and other charities over the years is beyond incredible.

He is such a good man.

 

[NeelyDan]

Ironically given Ali’s art adventures of late, I have picked up a paintbrush for the first time in my life - in an effort to bring a little non-work element into my life. I’m attempting the Bob Ross wet on wet oil painting technique. Things learned so far:

1. Prep matters as much if not more than anything that follows
2. Even if you don’t think you’re heavy-handed, you are likely

It’s fun.

 

[RoccoF14]

It’s fun.

That bolded part, is the only thing that matters.....Nice work. Way better than I could ever do.

My gig is painting toy soldiers. Its a fantastic diversion.....

 

[NeelyDan]

That bolded part, is the only thing that matters.....Nice work. Way better than I could ever do.

My gig is painting toy soldiers. Its a fantastic diversion.....

Preach my dude - in fact, letting go of any need to perform is one of the forms of mental release I speak of. I have an insanely high stress job/career that has been built mostly on a complete (unhealthy, arguably) inability to under-perform. It’s brought me professional success, but also exhaustion - and to suck, free of fear, is ridiculously therapeutic for me.

 

[Alicat]

Ironically given Ali’s art adventures of late, I have picked up a paintbrush for the first time in my life - in an effort to bring a little non-work element into my life. I’m attempting the Bob Ross wet on wet oil painting technique. Things learned so far:

1. Prep matters as much if not more than anything that follows
2. Even if you don’t think you’re heavy-handed, you are likely

It’s fun.

View attachment 653538

I love it!
I paint with acrylics. I follow an artist on YouTube who does weekly live paint nights. She incorporates a new lesson every week so people can work on a specific technique.

I am horrible at blending so I really need to work on it this week.

I’m currently working on a black and white flower painting. I prepped the base background color last night and need to lighten it up with a second layer with a sponge.

I also painted a very bright lemon-yellow background and will be transferring an image of Maleficent on it so I can practice my detail painting.

It has really helped me keep my mind clear especially with what I am working on at school. Can’t wait to see what else you paint!

 

[Kate08]

Had lunch at the Newbridge today.

#blessed

 

[eightspokedb]

Tomorrow is Paczki day..... sugar high all day long!!!!

 

[Terrier]

First-generation, 2007 iPhone sells for more than $63,000 at auction

The Apple relic sold for for an eye-popping $63,356.40 Sunday — more than 100 times its original price of $599 in 2007.

nypost.com

 

[Shaun]

Had lunch at the Newbridge today.

#blessed

i would kill to be able to go there or la hacienda in somerville.

as good as the food is here it’s not the same as home.

 

[Fenway]

i would kill to be able to go there or la hacienda in somerville.

as good as the food is here it’s not the same as home.

I would kill to go to Somerville’s La Hacienda as well but they took the $$$ and ran 7 years ago

Somerville restaurant closes after more than six decades

Somerville’s La Hacienda restaurant has closed its doors after serving its customers for more than six decades. Louis DiCecca, 47, who owned the Italian restaurant at 46 Medford Street with his brother Frank DiCecca, said they didn’t reopen after their vacation because they got a real estate...

www.boston.com

Can't blame the family - $5 million is a lot of money

 

[Mione134]

Had lunch at the Newbridge today.

#blessed

I live right by there! Still delicious!

 

[Fenway]

About this time exactly 20 years ago I got a call from the owner of a satellite truck in Somerville and the owner just said NBC needed to do a live hit from Rhode Island for the Today Show and all the RI trucks were not available.

To this day I wish I had said no.

Details were still sketchy as we headed south on I-95 but watching a steady stream of ambulances racing north toward Boston did not give me a good feeling.

It was awful to be there.





WPRI Channel 12 was doing a story that night on nightclub safety - chilling

 

[McGarnagle]

Went to Vegas for the first time this weekend. I was skeptical about what it'd be like going into it, but it was actually more fun than I anticipated.

Only could do a 2 night long weekend from Saturday to Monday, and really only saw one side of the strip and one show, so I'll have to go back some day to see more.

 

[sooshii]

Tomorrow is Paczki day..... sugar high all day long!!!!

It’s fasnacht day down here. Yum!!

 

[Dueling Banjos]

Went to Vegas for the first time this weekend. I was skeptical about what it'd be like going into it, but it was actually more fun than I anticipated.

Only could do a 2 night long weekend from Saturday to Monday, and really only saw one side of the strip and one show, so I'll have to go back some day to see more.

Love Vegas.

Hoover Dam is a must, evening in the desert, Red Rock Canyon, drive up to Mt Charleston.

Prob my favorite thing out there is a short roadtrip up north, you take 95 all the way to Tonopah, turn west and take 395 down to Death Valley and back to Vegas. Few days in desert resort in Beatty didn't hurt either. I am going back in late May.

 

[Aussie Bruin]

About this time exactly 20 years ago I got a call from the owner of a satellite truck in Somerville and the owner just said NBC needed to do a live hit from Rhode Island for the Today Show and all the RI trucks were not available.

To this day I wish I had said no.

Details were still sketchy as we headed south on I-95 but watching a steady stream of ambulances racing north toward Boston did not give me a good feeling.

It was awful to be there.





WPRI Channel 12 was doing a story that night on nightclub safety - chilling

Horrible. The speed at which that entire building went up in flames is astonishing, lack of a sprinkler system was crazy, and topping it off is the alleged story of the band member who got out of the nightclub but then went back inside to fetch his guitar and died. I'm a guitarist and I like my guitars, but not that much. Poor souls.

 

[Ladyfan]

I love it!
I paint with acrylics. I follow an artist on YouTube who does weekly live paint nights. She incorporates a new lesson every week so people can work on a specific technique.

I am horrible at blending so I really need to work on it this week.

I’m currently working on a black and white flower painting. I prepped the base background color last night and need to lighten it up with a second layer with a sponge.

I also painted a very bright lemon-yellow background and will be transferring an image of Maleficent on it so I can practice my detail painting.

It has really helped me keep my mind clear especially with what I am working on at school. Can’t wait to see what else you paint!

I have NO artistic talent. My older sis got it all.

In honor of President's Day, this is one she did of George Washington (she did this one many years ago)

 

[LSCII]

i would kill to be able to go there or la hacienda in somerville.

as good as the food is here it’s not the same as home.

La Hacienda closed a while back. They had the best pizza.

 

[BMC]

About this time exactly 20 years ago I got a call from the owner of a satellite truck in Somerville and the owner just said NBC needed to do a live hit from Rhode Island for the Today Show and all the RI trucks were not available.

To this day I wish I had said no.

Details were still sketchy as we headed south on I-95 but watching a steady stream of ambulances racing north toward Boston did not give me a good feeling.

It was awful to be there.





WPRI Channel 12 was doing a story that night on nightclub safety - chilling

A few years later I happened to drive by the spot where the Station once stood. There were little memorials placed on the building's footprint by those who had lost someone. It was incredibly sad to see.

 

[Glove Malfunction]

It's still baffling to me how many people in our company don't understand the basics of where and how to save documents on the computer.

I get excel workbooks entitled "Copy of Staff List Template (008)"

Or calls from people saying they don't know where to find a document because "it doesn't show up in Recent Files anymore"

Last week, I called a woman having trouble logging in to the community user portal. Our login has a 2FA feature, where she chose to receive her passcode via email. I was able to determine that she was switching from the passcode entry page to her web-based email USING THE SAME BROWSER TAB, because she didn't know how to open a new browser tab. Well of course, the code you get when you leave the passcode page won't work when you open the login again. Like, how the hell do you get (or keep) a job in an office setting when you can't perform some of the most basic computer tasks?

 

[jgatie]

Last week, I called a woman having trouble logging in to the community user portal. Our login has a 2FA feature, where she chose to receive her passcode via email. I was able to determine that she was switching from the passcode entry page to her web-based email USING THE SAME BROWSER TAB, because she didn't know how to open a new browser tab. Well of course, the code you get when you leave the passcode page won't work when you open the login again. Like, how the hell do you get (or keep) a job in an office setting when you can't perform some of the most basic computer tasks?

Then you have the other end of the spectrum. My supervisor never has less than 80 (Yes, EIGHTY!!! No exaggeration!) tabs open on his browser. He will share his screen and take an inordinate amount of time just trying to find the tab he wants to show. Drives me and my team absolutely bonkers.