Well, the two yrs here in the apartment with electric cooking, central forced air & heat we've only averaged about $90 monthly on an electric bill. Every now and then we see a $120 month but these are exceptions. Been kind of pleasantly surprised myself in how low our electric costs have been. Of course, I am recalling living with her sister, bro in law, and their two boys with electric bills running from $300 to $600 monthly using gas (cooking as well) and firewood as heating. Then, atop that her sister was still mooching money off her and needing her to
help her cook.
The bro in law not even apologizing for bashing her light blazer suv into a barn post after he had been told to let the vehicle set due to snow conditions, was her last straw. And yes, I had assertively told him to let it set. I knew she had tried
rocking it out of the snow entombed drive, in low 4 wheel and it was spinning, fish tailing and just seemed to have been acting as though it wanted to stay stuck.
She had arranged for her dad, just down the hill, to get her to & from work. Ah but the bro in law had to show how
great of an exceptional know it all, be all to end all driver he is. Damage included the passenger front door smashed and warped out around the post so it could open the once but then not close proper, the front fender nearly into the wheel well, the back passenger door glanced but still buckled enough to realize it wouldn't open.
Yes she had left the keys in the vehicle. It was an oversight on her part, she didn't figure anyone to be dumb enough to try ripping it out of the ice and snow race car driver style. I don't drive but even I knew better, knew it needed to come out slow, gradual and avoid or be aware of how to control skidding. *shaking my head* He never bothered apologizing in any way, let alone offering to pay for repairs.
She let her insurance total it out as repairs would have paid for its total Blue Book value on low end, which it was fairly low end anyway. They had no problem in totaling it out, the agent even said she thought that was best. Did bro in law's insurance do anything? Ha! What insurance? Wife's insurance settled for state uninsured kitty's ante.
Another reason she had left the keys? Well, I being the husband what didn't learn from Never Again Volunteer Yourself, volunteered to dig it out and let her dad bring it in to her. Knew he could drive it well enough as he got short listed to drive military convoy vehicles in any weather, any conditions. Besides that he had years beyond experience to know sometimes shit happens no matter how good you genuinely happen to be.
Prime example, he never saw the truck (pickup) that t boned us in her big heavy Ford blazer, in town. He was completely shook from that too. The state trooper on scene told us he thought Mr. Coors was driving the other driver, probably missed the big red light and rammed on in blindness.Yes, my wife was a bit upset over that too. But given what the trooper told us and what followed, we knew it wasn't her dad being out of line in his driving. Shit happens.
Now, me and her are awaiting her windfalls to start coming due. Then, we're going to be looking for something in the $30 - $40K range, a bit of land, maybe a piece out and away from folk. We want to have our dogs and be able to let them roam within reason. We could have before had some not decided on being assholes.
Turns out the dog that we got told was
attacking the couple's wife unit was not even one of our dogs. Also stands to reason, *****, possum, fox, coyote, skunk all will eat chicken or leave it lay after killing it. Gee, we had each one of those predators in spades where we lived.
They could just ask the sheep farmer over on their other side. He killed coyote often enough and as a matter of course, loved our dogs coming up and getting in his flock. That's what our dogs were bred to do specifically, be sheep protecting dogs. They go hide in a flock, look like sheep and wait for a wolf, coyote to come in and then run off or kill wolf/coyote. We knew they watched out for his flock, and a herd of cattle up along another hill. Never saw any of our dogs kill a chicken, always carrying a long cold and dead chicken to one of us. "Look, one of the little ones got, got, mom, dad. We're sorry but can you fix the little one?"
So, yes, .. We want a place we can have a small pack of larger dogs roaming and keeping us safe. Also getting a herd of cats as well, won't be having any rats on the place nor mice. Might even bring in a ferret or two just for fun. Soon, Beast Master once again I shall be, claiming my rightful name of Dar.
She has been getting knick knacks, yarn, more yarn and oh yeah more yarn here. I've put my foot down, she can have the house. I get the barn and outbuildings. I'll have a small pottery studio at the very least. Get there day by day, little by little.
For now, think I better, ...
*(garbage panda, what I wrote I do not consider any kind of slur, Hillbillies, Southerners call raccoons that from little up without any thought of it meaning any form of human being, white, red, green, blue, purple, yellow, black. In this case I say fuck you to political correctness because it is misappropriating what I am actually saying and taking it to seem I'm saying something else. I am both Souther & Hillbilly, if anything I ought to raise a stink about how I'm being discriminated against by not allowing me to say what I mean without need or fear of it being censored, made to look as though I'm saying a slur for ******, which I'm not. I do have black friends, some I consider family. Some of them I call *****. I know the other way of saying it means trash, in any skin color, social status, economic status, religious status. I am in this case not slurring any human being, yet political correctness damn sure will make it out I am. And fuck Spell Check as well and its Auto-Correct algorithm that is for shit.)
EDITED BY MODERATOR RACIAL SLURS REMOVED
Poor kid. In any fracas between the gov't and Native Americans, my sympathies are completely with the Native Americans... but that one guy seems to have just wanted to be an asshole to a teenager, and that is just wrong, no matter how you look at it -- one teenager is NOT the freaking government! Just goes to show you that every "race," every religion, every nationality, has members who are assholes. Just can't avoid it -- they're human beings, so the 10% rule applies, and there's just no getting away from that 10% who fuck everything up for everyone.
