Thursday, October 22, 2015

Ms. Crankypants is in the house

Sigh. My niece, a just-graduated double major in business management and HR management, just got a slap down from me on Facebook. Silly girl posted a meme about how Denmark residents get all this wonderful stuff like shorter workweeks, a year paid maternity/paternity leave, 2 years of unemployment compensation at 90% of your salary, while we in the U.S. get...nothing.

I simply pointed out that Denmark has a 55.6% marginal tax rate (actual rate after deductions about 48%) plus a 25% VAT that applies to pretty much everything, including food. Someone has to pay for all those goodies.

Heh. She's on Facebook now, and has deleted her post.

Silly grads of liberal private liberal arts universities can't handle the truth.

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Slow ride in, partly due to stupid slow drivers in front of me, going 20 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone on city streets, giving me no way around.

I was on surface streets instead of the freeway out of an abundance of caution. Last night my right front tire fell into a monster, unseen pothole. Taking surface roads home because I could see the freeway backed up, I was stopped at a stoplight. The unseen pothole was six inches in front of me, apparently.

Stopping in a parking lot down the road, I took a look and couldn't see any visible damage. The tire seemed to be okay. Looked again this morning - so far, so good.

Still, I joined AAA this morning. It's been on the to-do list for a bit, with a plan of joining in January.

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The local weather guy pointed out last night that it was the last day that sunset would be before 6 p.m. until next May. Boo. On the bright side (pun intended), when the clocks change in a few weeks, my early mornings will be lighter, at least for a few days. Time to start taking vitamin D again.

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Speaking of light, I'm in the process of changing most of the bulbs in the house to LED. I have a stock of 100 watt incandescent bulbs, but there are a couple of fixtures that are hard to reach, and a longer lived bulb makes life easier.

CFLs are of the devil. I want my light now, not ten minutes from now.

As long as I was switching, I thought I'd change over the living room lamps. They are on timers, and the lamp that is on both in the evening and in the early morning hours tends to burn through incandescent bulbs every six months or so.

Long story short: initial, 60 watt equivalent LEDs have a gorgeous, golden light, but not enough light, if you get my meaning. The 100 watt equivalent LEDs give enough light, but are much whiter on the spectrum.

Sigh.

The 60 watt can go in the high sconces (2) and the foyer light (3, I think), plus my desk lamp upstairs. The 100 watts can go in the studio floor lamp (1) and the overhead lights in the basement and my closet. Until I can find a warmer 100 watt, and until the prices on dimmable LEDs comes down, it's back to incandescent light for the living room lamps and dining room overhead.

Trying to be energy efficient is a pain in the rear.

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How is it almost the end of October? I still don't have the fall decorations out, other than one two table runners and a candle that I just bought this year. A Christmas vacation project needs to be a thorough going-through of the seasonal décor box, and sorting/culling the fall stuff down to one, shoebox or so sized container, exclusive of quilts and soft goods. More space in the condo, but less flat surface, if you know what I mean.

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Ms. Crabby needs to get to work. Today I pledge not to be helpful to anyone but myself. The majority of this week has been spent catching up from vacation and walking people through things they should really do themselves. Time to work on my own work.

1 comment:

melissa said...

Which reminds me. We know a young girl, have for years, and she's very well-educated. She went off on how wonderful Bernie Sanders was the other day, and I about choked. Told her briefly what I thought about the Christians snuggling up to him, and she gave me a very long-winded response. The girl has no clue. I dunno, Lucy. Stupid folks out there.

Best to shake your head and look the other day sometimes. Hope you have a wonderful weekend, though. :)