On topic: Teaching kids engineering

'parroting'.

streets.

Pre-school is taxpayer funded daycare. It's purpose is to free the parents of the responsibility of raising their brats.

are.

was 5 or 6

It was common to have an adult section where messy fingers wouldn't get at the books. When I was a kid it was fairly easy to get permission to use the adult sections. One just had to act responsibly in the library.

later in school.

hands on it.

problem solvers.

that

job

I should do that to annoy the owners of the incessantly barking dogs, next door.

Ya think?!

I was paying $35 a week in VT. I bought a decent mower when we moved here, so I'm back to doing it myself. The professionals do a far better job than the neighbor kid, and they trim and clean up too.

I used to pay $.50/hr. Minimum wage was $3something. At $10/hr we would never have gone out.

Yeah, it is something like that. :-(

Hi Keith,

Riding lawnmower? Those are really kinda fun -- not really work at all anymore. (Even self-propelled mowers come close...)

In general I agree... although I bet you can cajole most kids into doing as good of a job if you pay them a bit more provided they have access to the tools to do it with (e.g., a string trimmer).

Yeah, but at the time would you have paid $3? :-)

Do you have pets? Locally dog sitters get ~$30 per day for two visits (probably ~15 minutes each, although there is certainly some drive time to get out to the house as well). I was surprised when I first learned this... (I only brought a cat to the marriage, my wife brought two dogs... :-) )

I was amused at an advertisement for a live-in house/petsitter where you were still paying them to stay at your house -- but while dogs and cats were great, they specifically refused to housesit if there were going to be any humans around. :-)

I suppose all of this seems cheap compared to the ~$3,000/month it costs to have someone in assisted living these days. Both my stepfather and my grandmother-in-law are in that situation now -- my stepfather's own estate being slowly eaten away, whereas my GIL's bills are paid for by medicare.

---Joel

Honda walk behind. I only have .4 acres; too small for a rider.

...and pay as much as a pro. They know how to hustle and have their own equipment.

Probably not. Certainly not as often, which wasn't all that often.

Two cats. They pretty much take care of themselves, at least for a few days. We generally get a neighbor to look after them if we're gone more then three of four days.

;-)

That's tough on everyone, but it's better than me paying for it. My mother's estate was pretty flat when she died (at 95) too. I told her decades ago, when she was complaining about not leaving us much, that I wasn't owed anything more than I'd already received. Sure, I'll take what's left over if the other choice is the state, but other than that it's hers to do with what she wanted. ...make sure that her wishes were known. She did.

that

job

I found a NOS Radio Shack 25 W power tweeter that's supposed to have full output at 40 KHz. Now I need to build a sweep generator that runs between 20 KHz and 30 KHz, and a good amplifier.

given that

paying job

That would just hurt the dogs. ...and make them bark even more.

The owners either claim not to hear them bark, or that they aren't bothered by it. They wake me up, several times every night. It's getting really old. Everything from one yard with 20+ Chihuahuas, to a pit bull, a so called trained attack german Shepherd, and a little beagle.

Other neighbors have talked about either poisoning them, or shooting them. One hot head has hinted at shooting the owners.

Please don't harm them, it's not their fault but their owner's. Call animal control instead. Having this many dogs doesn't sound quite normal and there is also a possibility that they aren't well cared for. Dogs that are loved and treated well do not bark incessently. We've got three big ones and they don't bark.

Big dogs tend to bark less than ankle-biters. They're all around much better pets. Little dogs have a Napolean Complex. The little bastards next door have it in spades.

Yes, that's one reason why I don't like little dogs much. Even the ones that know us since half a decade or so throw a hissy fit every time we walk past with our dogs. Probably ticks the off that big ol' Rottie doesn't even turn his head to look at them. A Shepherd and a Doberman that we pass and that are loose in their front yards just look at us, yawn, and doze off.

And in this group, you have it in spades, you little effeminate Chihuahua heel nipping pussified bitch.

Bwuahahahahahahahahaha!

AlwaysWrong is *always* so wrong.

You should get that checked.

We have tried to deal with the people, and animal control has been called several times.

The dog owner's response was to set a crappy stereo outside and turn it wide open, since the noise ordinance doesn't take effect till 10:00 pm. Then another one tried to drown them out.

I can't even work in my back yard without the 'Attack dog' across the street barking constantly and lunging at their fence. It tries to get over their fence when I walk out to my mailbox to get my mail. A real guard dog only barks when something is wrong. On top of that, the morons have called the Sheriff's office and claimed that I have been opening their gate to let the dog out. A stupid deputy threatened me. He said that if the gate was opened again, "I'm going to come back and take care of you myself." I told him that they were yelling across the street at me that they were going to let the dog out to attack me, and was called a liar. I told him that if the dog entered my yard for 'any' reason, I was going to kill it. They are why I've been installing security cameras, with microphones. I have to get a DVR to record the loud fights they have. Sometimes they wake up half the neighborhood, but they are always quiet by the time the cruiser can get here.

This was a nice neighborhood before they four of them moved in on her mother. Two welfare cases, and two illegitimate and destructive spawn. They were breaking loose pieces of the road and throwing them at cars. The man claims to have a bad back, to get welfare. I've seen him do things that no man with a bad back would try.

BP should use him to soak up the oil spill. :(

Ooooh, posting those on YouTube might give you some leverage to get them to take better care of their dogs. :-)

Or maybe not; those people sound like real losers and may well be "untrainable."

That too you might record and then mention to him that you were thinking of forwarding it to "the appropriate agency" (if you know who it is) if he doesn't behave a bit more upstandingly.

---Joel

better

These little bastards make it almost impossible to use our back porch. Whenever we're out they're *constantly* barking (kinda like DimBulb, but not so mad). The Jack Russel has attacked us in our yard. The owners just tell us how he'll never bite. Yeah, sure, lady. He gets once.

Other than the dogs and a couple of late parties (no real issue AFAIC) they're not bad neighbors. The kids are fairly well behaved, though some of the neighbors give them a hard time. They ran into more problems with the neighbor on the other side and had to go to court (I think she might have even had a night in jail), so they're trying to sell their house. It's not a good time, though, and they've added a *lot* of stuff they'll never get their money back out of.

A real guard dog doesn't has nothing to prove.

Don't kill the dog, unless you have to. It's really not the poor dog's fault.

Sounds like a real winner. Perhaps one of DimBulb's relatives.

better

They could try plugging the hole. DimBulb at 5K' would look good on the BP video.