It's My Party and I'll Complain If I Want To Complaint Thread

Summerhorse · June 2018

kyoto kid said:

Subtropic Pixel said:

kyoto kid said:

...never mentioned that glyphosate is directly dangerous to pollinators, neonicotinoids, and other poisons often used alongside herbicides in gardening and agriculture on the other hand, are. However, extensive use of herbicides to control milkweeds in the Midwest has been devastating Monarch habitats. Similarly wild flowers which bees often gather pollen and nectar from, are often susceptible as well. Industrialised farming relies heavily on these compounds to control unwanted plants and insects and these chemicals don't suddenly stop at the field's edge, but are often carried off downwind of the treated area. There are towns which have higher rates of respiratory ailments in areas where the industrilaised agriculture is present.

Glyphosate has been linked to cases of non Hodgkins-lynphoma in people who have worked in the lawn care/gardening/landscaping industry. True, a one time use will not endanger you unless you neglect to take any precautions as mentioned above. My personal solution would be a weed whacker once a month or as needed.

Indeed always consult with the landlord/property owner first.

Spent several years proofing medical journal articles and along with the work I did for my friend, learned a few things that make me look for other solutions than using dangerous chemicals whenever possible.

Exellent points. Also https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/mar/29/crop-pesticides-honeybee-decline

Unless it is wind polinated, it is almost always bee polinated. This is not a trivial matter if you like strawberries, peaches , plums, tomatoes, peppers, apples.....

Saldaz · June 2018

Dam, store closes at 2 pm on sundays

TSasha Smith · June 2018

I hate this tablet because it is broken. Bummer.

Charlie Judge · June 2018

Saldaz said:

Dam, store closes at 2 pm on sundays

I remember when they weren't open at all on Sunday

Subtropic Pixel · June 2018

kyoto kid said:

Subtropic Pixel said:

kyoto kid said:

...years ago had a friend who was a landscape technician. Helped him with compiling, editing, and typing the documentation from his handwritten notes for his case against a company that makes glyphosate herbicides and organophosphate insecticides. It was concluded that both contributed to him becoming highly sensitised to toxins (and he wore the recommended protective clothing/masks as well as followed the proper handling procedures). He no longer can stay in a city for more than a day or two, or even small towns (particularly near rural areas where these and other chemicals are routinely used on fields). Granted he was exposed to them far more than the average home owner but over time they can present a hazard to one's health.

First of all, Gryphon needs to decide if the danger posed by the unkempt weeds (snakes, fire ants if they are near where he lives, rats, or other rodents/predators that might be nesting nearby) are worth making waves with his landlord.

I inferred that he doesn't want to be "that renter". His next step might be to call his county or code enforcement hotline to report the situation...but sometimes, government bureacracies won't do anything unless the complainant gives their name. See above about "making waves".

So the next question for him is whether or not this is a problem that can be self-solved, given ALL of the risks (exposure to a chemical, being discovered by the landlord, neighbors, etc.). I am firmly in the self-solving category. If I lived in his apartment complex, I'd probably just do it and then there's no more complaining. A treatment takes a week to kill the weeds, then it's probably good for another month. Personally, I would buy a gallon jug of Roundup and apply it right around the house or patio going out only as far as necessary to restore safety to the area. My impression is that he only has a few square yards to treat. The risk is vanishingly small, but the benefits are potentially huge. I'd do it early in the morning before anybody wakes up. The sprays will be dried by the time anybody comes out to walk their dog.

As to "dangers" of Glyphosate, I don't believe any of that. I've been using the stuff for 20 years. Just be careful with chemicals! Don't breathe it, don't eat or drink it, don't roll around in it while it's wet, wear your eye protection, keep your damned mouth shut when you're applying it, wash up with soap and water when you're done, and launder your clothing too. Most of those are the same precautions you'd use when putting gas in your car or truck.

Also, Roundup does NOT kill bees or any other insects. It can't. Roundup is an HERBICIDE, not a PESTICIDE. I do use some pesticides on occasion, because I live in the real world. The sod webworm can denude certain types of turfgrasses in just a month or two, the tomato cutworm and the corn catepillar can DEVASTATE garden crops in less than a month. The key to not killing bees is to apply pesticides BEFORE the plants go to seed, or wait until after the flowers have dropped.

But Roundup is an herbicide, so although it might remove a pollen source, it certainly won't kill the bee population. Bees are pretty smart. I've never ever seen a bee trying to get pollen from a dead plant or from an area where there are no blooms on the plants.

The upshot is, if you have tall weeds in your outdoor living space, you could cut them down with a machine, pull them by hand, kill them with a simple salt solution (that's what Glyphosate is), or get somebody else to use one of those methods. Gryphon has options. It just comes down to his personal calculations. Cost, risk, hassle; these must be balanced. He can decide.

Personally, I'd write to the landlord first, but if nothing is done, I'd take action myself. I once painted the bathroom and kitchen in an apartment that I lived in. Had to remove the ugly wallpaper first. But then I kept the place for a few years before I moved out, so it was worth it. The landlord never complained that I had left the place in better condition than I had gotten it.

[opens closet door]

... extensive use of herbicides to control milkweeds in the Midwest has been devastating Monarch habitats. Similarly wild flowers which bees often gather pollen and nectar from, are often susceptible as well.

This may be possible, but then there are people like me who actually grow the milkweed, purely BECAUSE it brings the Monarchs. The milkweed is basically a Florida weed; as are most plants that serve certain species of butterflies either as a host plant, nectar plant, or (as in the case of the milkweed), serves both functions. And for the Monarch, it is the only plant they will use.

I am also an avid gardener. A few years ago, I started growing bee-attracting flowers AMONG my tomatoes, peppers, and pumpkins. If you build it, they will come. Being a homeowner does afford me some pretty cool advantages.

And let's not just assume that all people will indiscriminately kill everything in their path. Many communities now have nearby greenspaces that were DESIGNED into the community. Mine does! These homes were built 30 years ago, so this kind of thinking is not really new.

kyoto kid said:

Industrialised farming relies heavily on these compounds to control unwanted plants and insects and these chemicals don't suddenly stop at the field's edge, but are often carried off downwind of the treated area. There are towns which have higher rates of respiratory ailments in areas where the industrilaised agriculture is present.

This may hold some truth, but this all started because I suggested somebody might be able to solve their safety problem with a gallon of Glyphosate for control around his domicile. There are safety reasons and other legitimate purposes for it in this case, and it is not part of the problem of industrialized agriculture to which you refer.

I have NEVER had an accident where Glyphosate killed my wanted plants in my garden or landscape. Neither from either a pump sprayer (which is very easy to control tightly) nor from a hose-end sprayer (which basically BLASTS mass quantities of solution across much larger areas). "Overspray", at least in a consumer setting such as mine does happen. But at the concentrations I'm using, it's NOT an environmental problem, and never has been. My roses and hibiscus grow just fine next to the weeds I just killed with Roundup. Of course, it does pay to figure out how to work your equipment properly.

kyoto kid said:

Glyphosate has been linked to cases of non Hodgkins-lynphoma in people who have worked in the lawn care/gardening/landscaping industry. True, a one time use will not endanger you unless you neglect to take any precautions as mentioned above.

"Has been linked".

Did you know that broccolli "has been linked" to death? It's all in the language used, of course; which can often be shaped (misshaped?) by the underlying agenda of the article-writers. By the way, I am a broccolli lover. Grilled over fire with a little bit of real butter on it; yum!

kyoto kid said:

My personal solution would be a weed whacker once a month or as needed.

For very small or young weeds, this may be fine. But for weeds the size that Gryphon is up against, this is the way to wear out a weed whacker for all but the smallest jobs. Wacking green plants that have grown to any substantial size wears outs equipment quickly because the thing that makes plants plants (cellulose) is very very tough when green. The motors get clogged/overheated, batteries wear down, and you use a lot more filament and fuel.

I find that proper control is a 2 part plan. First, kill the plants and wait for them to turn crispy brown. Dry plants will be very brittle and will make short work for even the weakest weed whacker. Even though dead plants are drier, they will produce less overall dust (because they require less work to return them to the soil). If you're especially unmotivated, you could even leave them alone and let normal traffic break off the dead plant parts and return that organic matter directly to the soil. Everything lasts longer, including the operator's lungs.

kyoto kid said:

Indeed always consult with the landlord/property owner first.

In an ideal situation, I would agree. Gryphon's situation may not be ideal, and therefore may require creativity. And a midnight spraying or two.

kyoto kid said:

Spent several years proofing medical journal articles and along with the work I did for my friend, learned a few things that make me look for other solutions than using dangerous chemicals whenever possible.

I suppose it comes down to one's own definition of "dangerous" and "whenever possible". I still think the medical reasons for doing/not doing something can be way too easily overblown, and then overblown beyond all reasonableness, simply because that's what humans do best.

Look at the bad rap given to things like butter and coffee over the years. Supposedly, the researchers and proofreaders were really good at their jobs back then too, but now we learn that real butter is much healthier than the margarine that we were all pushed to in the 60s/70s. may actually be good for us long term. And we've also now learned that coffee is no longer evil, and may actually be able to slow down demntia and/or some cancers.

Were the nay-saying researchers really that incompetent? I don't know, but at the rate of incorrect info we've been getting from researchers for the last 40+ years, I wouldn't be surprised if they next tell us we should start drinking Glyphosate directly from the container! And Pepsi will come out with a "juice-pak" version of it, with a little straw that you poke through the foil sealed hole! Hey, it could happen!

TJohn · June 2018

I always take anything I read on the internet not with a grain of salt, but with an entire cellar.

kyoto kid · June 2018

...ah should never have brought it up. I'm not going to respond in like as this is not the platform for such further discussion. Lets simply agree to disagree on the topic as we each have our own convictions and will not see eye to eye on this.

I deal with these kinds of discussions in the news blogs and forums every day to the point it just wears me out, particularly after all the research, fact finding, and in the case of bad theories, debunking involved. However I tend to care about this world and thus keep at it rather than just shrug my shoulders and let things get worse.

Yeah guess I'm just another one of those crazy "tree-hugging-save-the-whales" types, maybe that's the reason I ended up out here in Portland.

...back to the woods, tchuss.

McGyver · June 2018

Broccoli has been linked to many deaths... Let us not forget the Giant Broccoli Monster Attacks of 1998.

And people wonder why kids hate broccoli...

The evil eyeballs were from my Googly Eye Photo Defacing Kit at ShareCG

TSasha Smith · June 2018

I find out the YMCA outdoor pool is full of water and sunlight. I forgot my sunscreen at home but at least I got my swimsuit

Mistara · June 2018

Summerhorse said:

kyoto kid said:

Subtropic Pixel said:

kyoto kid said:

...never mentioned that glyphosate is directly dangerous to pollinators, neonicotinoids, and other poisons often used alongside herbicides in gardening and agriculture on the other hand, are. However, extensive use of herbicides to control milkweeds in the Midwest has been devastating Monarch habitats. Similarly wild flowers which bees often gather pollen and nectar from, are often susceptible as well. Industrialised farming relies heavily on these compounds to control unwanted plants and insects and these chemicals don't suddenly stop at the field's edge, but are often carried off downwind of the treated area. There are towns which have higher rates of respiratory ailments in areas where the industrilaised agriculture is present.

Glyphosate has been linked to cases of non Hodgkins-lynphoma in people who have worked in the lawn care/gardening/landscaping industry. True, a one time use will not endanger you unless you neglect to take any precautions as mentioned above. My personal solution would be a weed whacker once a month or as needed.

Indeed always consult with the landlord/property owner first.

Spent several years proofing medical journal articles and along with the work I did for my friend, learned a few things that make me look for other solutions than using dangerous chemicals whenever possible.

Exellent points. Also https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/mar/29/crop-pesticides-honeybee-decline

Unless it is wind polinated, it is almost always bee polinated. This is not a trivial matter if you like strawberries, peaches , plums, tomatoes, peppers, apples.....

doobie weeds

TSasha Smith · June 2018

A spider was taking a shower when I wanted to shower. I left the bathroom before either of us could scream.

McGyver · June 2018

Miss Bad Wolf said:

A spider was taking a shower when I wanted to shower. I left the bathroom before either of us could scream.

Well... At least it was a clean spider.

Saldaz · June 2018

Miss Bad Wolf said:

A spider was taking a shower when I wanted to shower. I left the bathroom before either of us could scream.

what if you were taking a shower when the spider wanted to shower?

TSasha Smith · June 2018

Saldaz said:

Miss Bad Wolf said:

A spider was taking a shower when I wanted to shower. I left the bathroom before either of us could scream.

what if you were taking a shower when the spider wanted to shower?

Good question, but I guess I would leave but not sure.

LeatherGryphon · June 2018

For me it would depend on the size and aggressiveness of the spider. I still remember quite vividly the day in Florida that I swung the business end of a broom onto the floor on top of a four inch diameter spider with a body the size of my thumb. When I lifted the broom he charged at me with his front four legs raised. I retreated. I did not leave the broom for fear it could be used against me.

But usually when a spider and I meet in the shower, he goes down the drain, usually not his choice of exit. Having lived in Florida I tolerate spiders in the trees, bushes and even the garage but when they get into the house, they're fair game.

TSasha Smith · June 2018

I do not want to go to bed, I want to stay up all night, but then I did take a sleeping pill so just waiting for that to kick in.

TJohn · June 2018

LeatherGryphon said:

For me it would depend on the size and aggressiveness of the spider. I still remember quite vividly the day in Florida that I swung the business end of a broom onto the floor on top of a four inch diameter spider with a body the size of my thumb. When I lifted the broom he charged at me with his front four legs raised. I retreated. I did not leave the broom for fear it could be used against me.

But usually when a spider and I meet in the shower, he goes down the drain, usually not his choice of exit. Having lived in Florida I tolerate spiders in the trees, bushes and even the garage but when they get into the house, they're fair game.

Was he/she fuzzy? Sounds like tarantula behavior.

LeatherGryphon · June 2018

Tjohn said:

LeatherGryphon said:

For me it would depend on the size and aggressiveness of the spider. I still remember quite vividly the day in Florida that I swung the business end of a broom onto the floor on top of a four inch diameter spider with a body the size of my thumb. When I lifted the broom he charged at me with his front four legs raised. I retreated. I did not leave the broom for fear it could be used against me.

But usually when a spider and I meet in the shower, he goes down the drain, usually not his choice of exit. Having lived in Florida I tolerate spiders in the trees, bushes and even the garage but when they get into the house, they're fair game.

Was he/she fuzzy? Sounds like tarantula behavior.

I didn't notice. I was at the far end of the broom handle and rapidly moving away and was not interested in determining its sex.

I remember one other instance of spider "surprise". I went to college at Florida Institute of Technology and they had a swamp ("botonical garden") on campus that made excellent refuge for the students who wanted to partake of wacky tobacy (this was the late '60s). There were well worn paths through the foliage but once in a while one had to move a palmetto frond out of the way. After one long fruitful session of partaking with fellow partakers I was returning to the dorms at the end of path when I lifted a palmetto frond and there on the underside of that leaf, staring me in the face, not more than three inches from my nose, was the biggest, juciest, fattest, blackest, ugliest arachnid with malice on its mind that I had ever seen! Well, that's what my mind at the moment was assuming anyway. I don't really remember what happened next, I've apparently blotted out that memory.

TJohn · June 2018

LeatherGryphon said:

Tjohn said:

LeatherGryphon said:

For me it would depend on the size and aggressiveness of the spider. I still remember quite vividly the day in Florida that I swung the business end of a broom onto the floor on top of a four inch diameter spider with a body the size of my thumb. When I lifted the broom he charged at me with his front four legs raised. I retreated. I did not leave the broom for fear it could be used against me.

But usually when a spider and I meet in the shower, he goes down the drain, usually not his choice of exit. Having lived in Florida I tolerate spiders in the trees, bushes and even the garage but when they get into the house, they're fair game.

Was he/she fuzzy? Sounds like tarantula behavior.

I didn't notice. I was at the far end of the broom handle and rapidly moving away and was not interested in determining its sex.

I remember one other instance of spider "surprise". I went to college at Florida Institute of Technology and they had a swamp ("botonical garden") on campus that made excellent refuge for the students who wanted to partake of wacky tobacy (this was the late '60s). There were well worn paths through the foliage but once in a while one had to move a palmetto frond out of the way. After one long fruitful session of partaking with fellow partakers I was returning to the dorms at the end of path when I lifted a palmetto frond and there on the underside of that leaf, staring me in the face, not more than three inches from my nose, was the biggest, juciest, fattest, blackest, ugliest arachnid with malice on its mind that I had ever seen! Well, that's what my mind at the moment was assuming anyway. I don't really remember what happened next, I've apparently blotted out that memory.

McGyver · June 2018

When I first met my wife, it was at Stonybrook university... She had known about my affinity for creatures and had heard about a lot of my animal misadventures and stuff like that, she knew my mom had "owned" a lot of exotic pets (lizards, snakes, a bat, a few rats and a tarantula), that my step grandfather owned a pet store and she thought it was interesting that I was very into nature and got along with all sorts of unusual creatures (for the most part)... I just assumed she was cool with anything that I was...

So one day we are leaving her dorm to go to lunch and on the stairway, she passes one of the biggest wolf spiders I've ever seen... I actually thought she saw it and wasn't interested... It was so obvious, if you splayed it out its legs could occupy the diameter of a White Castle burger patty... The body was about one of my pinky segments long... Pretty damn big, and dark brown on a plain white wall... You couldn't miss him.

So I stopped to check him out while she continued down to the next floor... I thought about how other people treat large spiders and decided he was probably safer outside. I called down to my wife (who wasn't my wife yet, just a really cute, smart girl I liked) and said something like "hey, I don't think this guy is safe here... I'm gonna move him outside"... To which she responded something like "Hu?... Yeah, sure hurry up we're gonna be late" (always in a hurry, even back then)...

So I coaxed the big tickley spider into my hand cupping both hands so as not to hurt him or damage him (and not get bitten too, although it isn't much of a bite, still why risk it). I come down the stairs and I say something like "does he live on these stairs? You didn't seemed bothered by him, like he is a permanent resident here... " which she didn't remark on but glossed over and went right on into a suggestion for a couple of other restaurants to go to if we missed the lunchtime menu at the one we were headed fior.

I'm guessing she didn't notice me walking with both hands cupped together... Which, honestly wouldn't be the strangest thing she'd have seen me do at that point.

So when we get outside, I pull off to the side by some bushes and say something like "I'm gonna let him go over here" ... And she sort of follows me... So I figure I can open my hands, because one the spider was really panicking and two if he took off he was safe enough there.

Thinking she knew what was going on and was not focused solely on getting crab cakes at a lunch menu price, I said "you wanna see him before he runs off?"

For the life of me, I can't think of what she may have thought that meant or what she thought I had in my hands, but I suspect all that she was thinking was "crab cakes"... So she comes over semi-curiously as I open my hands, thus revealing what to her probably looked like one of those giant radioactive mutant spiders from a 50s horror movie.

If you were alive or anywhere on this planet on that day in June of 1991, you heard that scream.

About twenty six thousand years from now that scream will arrive in the Mitdjorik system and the Krinnlutz will tuck their earstalks down in fright and go "What the hell was that?!?"

To this day, although she barely remembers the details of that, if my wife sees me with my hands like that she will step back and say "get that out of the house"... I learned that day, that although my wife loves nature, finds most of it adorable and cares deeply for its well being... Just as long as it stays at least two feet away, further if it's carnivorous or poisonous.

I have a large sign hanging in my brain library that says "WARNING: THE WIFE IS NOT COOL WITH LARGE SPIDERS"... Just so none of the the brain cells forget that fact.

Well... That's one if my spider stories.

carrie58 · June 2018

TSasha Smith · June 2018

Spider taking a bath.

TSasha Smith · June 2018

I tried to change my tablet’s name to my kindle fire but I cannot figure out how to put amazon App Store to it. It does not have google play but something actually called AppStore.

is the AppStore for iOS devices only? Somehow this tablet has the latest iOS os.

TSasha Smith · June 2018

I have to sit in the back of the van as the house lady said someone else always sit in the front. Probably the house lady’s favorite client?

Chohole · June 2018

Miss Bad Wolf said:

I have to sit in the back of the van as the house lady said someone else always sit in the front. Probably the house lady’s favorite client?

That would actually be illegal in the UK, unless there are proper seats in the back of the van, with safety belts .

TSasha Smith · June 2018

Chohole said:

Miss Bad Wolf said:

I have to sit in the back of the van as the house lady said someone else always sit in the front. Probably the house lady’s favorite client?

That would actually be illegal in the UK, unless there are proper seats in the back of the van, with safety belts .

There are those safety belts and I am using one. I feel like some people do not like me and I do not understand why?

TJohn · June 2018

Miss Bad Wolf said:

I have to sit in the back of the van as the house lady said someone else always sit in the front. Probably the house lady’s favorite client?

Maybe the one she feels like she has to keep an eye on because they can't be trusted?

TSasha Smith · June 2018

I am afraid something is wrong with me. I feel like “normal” tasks get so much difficult for me. Those activities should be “easy” and not “rocket science”, but they seems more complex than rocket science. I do not understand things.

Mistara · June 2018

sundried tomatoes are slimy

dont want slimey

Mistara · June 2018

Miss Bad Wolf said:

I am afraid something is wrong with me. I feel like “normal” tasks get so much difficult for me. Those activities should be “easy” and not “rocket science”, but they seems more complex than rocket science. I do not understand things.

sleeping pills might be effecting you?

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