Off the beaten path

 I have some fond memories of growing up and going to what Yonkerites referred to as the Austin Dump.  I don't know whether this was an official dump or just some unofficial location where folk just got rid of stuff.  Every once in a while my Dad would take my Mom and me and my aunt to visit the Dump so called because it was off of Austin Avenue just on the outskirts of town.  There was a cool blind hill on the road over there and you better slow down because you never knew what was on the other side.  A Sasquatch?  So we went on these free shopping sprees at the Austin Dump because that's what poor Yonkerites did back in the day.  Interesting forays.  People threw away some good stuff.  I still have a nice wooden shelf with sliding doors where I keep light bulbs and whatnot.  Shop at your local dump.  A forgotten poor family hack but you saved money.

I never got the issue with dumping.  Is it simply ignorance?  Do people not know you can go to your local recycling center to get rid of unwanted stuff?  They take practically everything.  I've gotten rid of those big old school tvs, a stereo system, patio chairs, folding tables you name it.  I mean if you're going to make the effort to take a beaten up old sofa to the outskirts of some woodlot why not just go to your recycling center instead?  Ain't that hard.

A trip down memory lane.  Pour yourself some Christian Brothers, sit back and just ponder;)

Money can't buy happiness but it does pay the bills

 Wondering when Tangerine Man will get around to the economy a major concern of most normal presidents.  Many Americans struggling to keep up with their bills very little in the way of actual savings.  I'm actually relieved when I go to the mailbox and it's nothing but junk mail.  Sometimes I read it.

Yonkers - some of the highest property taxes around yet the City of Gracious Living is very slow at fixing the pothole problem.  Other communities have dealt with the ravages of this past overly severe winter but drive around Yonkers and there's still the same craters in the road.  Will City Hall spring for a broken axle?  Does Sidewalk Enforcement need more funding?  Where are the taxes going?  Just asking.

Another puzzlement.  Why are there still Trumpers around?  Those bumper stickers should have come off by now.

We never had to go to shelters

 

The cats be coming to us.  Cats be coming from Brooklyn.  Maybe it's because we offer a better menu.  We don't just throw an open can of Friskies on the sidewalk which is probably against Yonkers Code Enforcement anyway.  I'm not a famous cat influencer like Jackson Galaxy but I do my part.

Good suction for 5 minutes

 Three's Company misunderstood conversations.  This is the Z-man Consumer  Reports.  Recently got the Horsepower Duck which promised to be a handy little hand-vac.  Manual says 16-20 minutes run time which would be fine for my purposes but it always dies out after five minutes.  Just now I used it to vacuum up all the cat hairs and dust on my stair treads.  Got halfway through and had to recharge the thing just to finish the job.  Couple summers ago bought that As Seen On TV Arctic Air device which is like a mini portable AC just add water.  Gave off good cooling action for a while but the coils and interior became all rusty in no time and I wound up throwing it all out.  Excuse me while I go Flex Seal my pipes.

Readers of this blog know what a bad winter I endured.  Frozen pipes and a broken smart water meter which ain't cheap courtesy of the City of Yonkers.  Had to call the pros in.  Last two weeks my shower was giving me a problem.  An old diverter valve the flap broke off.  Whenever I took a shower it was like someone peeing on me so yesterday got a new one at my local hardware store and tried to install it myself.  Got a touch more complicated than the YouTube how to video so easy a 10-year old could do it in five minutes so I called a professional plumber.  Again.  The plumbing community loves me.  I'm helping put their kids through college.

Does anyone know of any As Seen On TV products that are actually decent?  A cat crapper?  Anything?

Blizzard of '26

 

Life in Yonkers.

SHEIN now accepting donations and UPS not taking claims seriously

 To round out a previous post.  Shopping at the online retailer SHEIN is a Jekyll and Hyde experience.  The products that I have bought all have good quality and were delivered either very fast or in a timely manner.  That's the Jekyll side.  The Hyde side is Customer Service.  That's really only if you have a problem or issue and pray you don't.   First you encounter the ai bot of course but even when you decide to engage with an actual human agent they talk like bots too.  Pre-fab cut and paste generic responses.  In two cases they sent me the message my orders were delivered only I haven't found them to this day.  It's hard to find a SHEIN phone number from the site or app so you wind up messaging them.  You go in a circle with different agents.  They can't seem to progress beyond "our records indicate" and make no serious attempt to resolve the issue.  Many people across the web have posted about never receiving their packages from SHEIN despite SHEIN insisting the carrier delivered them.  SHEIN then does not offer refunds or replacements even when the customers request this.  In my book if an online retailer accepts your money and you never receive the product that's a donation not a business transaction.  Which leads me to UPS.

Filed a claim with UPS for my lost items.  Received a confirmation e-mail stating that an investigation has begun and that I need to do nothing in the meantime and they'll contact me in 8 business days.  I replied to this that I could not retrieve the image the driver supposedly took as proof of delivery.  A few days passed and today they sent me a final e-mail saying they closed my claim because they were unable to contact me to assist in the investigation this despite them having said as I just noted that I don't need to do anything while they look into the case.  Also there was no box in the original claim application for my phone number.  At any rate they still obviously had my Gmail address so what's wrong with that?  UPS messed up and won't do right.  They used to be a top-notch carrier.

The moral of the story is that it's better to go to an actual physical store and buy things.  The other thing is in this Era of Trump nobody is wrong.  I think maybe Bill Clinton started that.

An important change to my homeowners policy

I was informed today by mail in addition to my new Declarations Page that there has been a reduction in coverage in my homeowners insurance to wit not covered bodily injury ot property damage caused by illegal animals or pets.  Wild by birth or nature, a bird of prey, venomous or poisonous snakes and reptiles, chimps etc.  What do they think I'm running a zoo here?  BB can have my Great Horned Owl and Copperhead.  When I was growing up I was bitten by a feral kid.  Would he be illegal to own today?  How are the cats doing?

Excuse me while I go feed my Sasquatch. 

Maybe Sasquatch took your package into a portal

 The pros and cons of online shopping would make for a too lengthy post but some of us adventurers encounter the occasional "delivered but never received" quandary.  Happened to me a few days ago and it wasn't theft as I was having my pipe session on the front porch at the time.  The website gives helpful pointers in such a situation.  Did you check behind the holly tree in the backyard maybe?  OK so then you check parts of your neighborhood and do some casual walks and some casual talking.  Some light research of mine indicates it's not mostly theft but technical reasons.  Maybe the driver accidentally butt-scanned something dunno.  So now you contact Customer Service and as a rule they never want to help you.  Maybe not a telephone call could be a live chat.  It's obvious they don't want to do any actual work even though they have all the logistical information at their fingertips.  "Our records indicate that your package was delivered on..." so now it's a kind of philosophical conundrum.  You have it but you don't.  It's quantum.  Then maybe you file a claim with your carrier and they're looking into it.  Mystery open.

Shopping is funny.  Maybe you can find a chair already made but sometimes you have to put it together yourself.  Happened to my brother.

Good time to travel no? Hop on a flight

 What was the bone of contention again to cause the entire Government to shut down?  Health care for illegals?  Release of the Epstein Files?  A UFO cover-up?  I forget.  Trump likes to break his own records.  Longest government  shutdown in history.  Second longest also held by Trump during his first term.  Trump doesn't like the government being open apparently.  Homan and ICE still doing their work though come rain or shine.  Meanwhile Pelosi's retiring after 100 years in the Congress.

My toilet bowl started glowing last night.  Are they retesting the nuclear program in Yonkers?

Because he thinks he's all that

 Usually off-year elections ain't all that interesting but the main focus this time was Zohran Mamdani's early win in the NYC mayoralty race.  The Groper had a respectable showing at 42% but his political career is over.  Sliwa continues to run for things but probably couldn't even get Sidewalk Inspector for Yonkers.  Mikie Sherrill handily won the gubernatorial race in NJ and a Democrat lady won the governor's race in VA.  Other key races across the land went to the Democrats.  Trump had a typical solipsistic take in his post-election analysis.  Republicans lost heavily in part because his name wasn't on the ballot.

WHY does Trump worship still exist and are there really going to be free bus rides in NYC?

Donald Trump's America

 What would Norman Rockwell have done with this?  ICE goes viral.  Maybe these are the trainees who signed up for the 50K bonus.  At one point in the video (entire video about 4 minutes long) one ICE agent looks like he's trying to hump the poor guy.  In the middle of a busy Chicago street!  Horns honking, even a funeral procession passing through at one point.  Plenty of other ICE Follies vids on YouTube.  Compilations, best of moments.  A blend of Keystone Cops, Benny Hill and if the Little Rascals were grown up.  You can't make this shit up.  If I were new to blogging I'd probably use this as my blog title.

Homan should be hauled before Congress.  I sure hope these assholes don't come to Yonkers.   How long will it take to restore a normal fully functioning democracy again?

So when does Trump take over Yonkers?

Scanning my daily Trump feed and there's always something that jumps out.  Today it's Trump threatens to take over the city of Chicago.  The possible scenarios I can come up with to justify the feds taking over any police force are scant indeed.  Say 90% of that police force is racist or else extremely incompetent or corrupt.  With Trump policy however one of the cardinal guiding principles is to take the most drastic action first.  To fight crime why don't Trump and Vance just put on superhero capes and come to a town near you?  If this is conservatism then I have tits;)

Does Trump have plans for a Greater Israel?

 Bibi has a dream, a vision for a Greater Israel.  Not a fan of the 2 State solution.  In it he gets all of Gaza of course, Lebanon, parts of Syria and Saudi Arabia, the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, Iraq, part of Yonkers?  He sees this as a Biblical mandate, a spiritual mission.  Pure Zionism.  Bibi's Greater Israel Project.  What's in it for Trump?

MAGA MIGA and MAHA

 Sounds like a science fiction movie.  Pass the popcorn. 

Don't mess with the Zohran.  Former dishonored Governor of NYS Andrew Cuomo yesterday lost the Democratic NYC Mayoralty primary race to this guy Zohran Mamdani who I never heard of.  I'm guessing Cuomo has some kind of law background to fall back on or maybe his brother Chris can help.  Maybe he can become the custodian at an auto dealership or slice deli meats.  It appears a fair number of New Yorkers still wanted him as Mayor but that's it for the comeback groper.  Maybe he can run for Yonkers Sidewalk Commissioner.

Trump is at war with his own country

 It might be any day now Marines come up the Hudson River to land at the Yonkers City Pier.  As I said in my last post the majority of today's conservatives ain't that freedom loving to begin with.  Yes I'm looking at you Hannity.  They have no issues with the Trump Administration censoring pro-Palestinian speech on campus.  They're ok with the Administration monitoring the social media posts of foreign students.  They're down with the possible militarization of major US cities in response to the growing ICE protests.  No libertarian concerns whatsoever.

One of the first things any would be dictator/fascist does is go after freedom of speech.  MAGA is just a bunch of gutless wonders, a cult at this point.  In my view Trump is a hater and a joyless prick no matter how FOX News and Dr. Phil try to spin it.

The PBS thing is to distract you from not getting your $5,000 DOGE check

 Trump is the everything but the cost-of-living president.  Trump also wants to defund NPR through executive action.  Actually ending taxpayer funding for both NPR and PBS would require an act of Congress as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created by that body in the first place.  I don't listen to NPR so don't have much to say.  As for PBS let's say they do have a political slant most of the shows on PBS have nothing to do with politics.  Saw a sewing show once that put me to sleep.  Bob Ross takes the edge of a rough day and you have your penguin documentaries and cooking shows and music specials.  Also a lot of stuffy British fare.  Don't watch PBS as much anymore.  Heavy channel-surfer or just watch YouTube.

When is Trump gonna take over Yonkers?

Warehouse cat. Union job.

 

Yonkers has a bit of a rat problem.  Messy neighbors.  Yards that look like Sanford and Son's.  A cat will wait patiently for over one hour to catch one rat.  He's on vacation btw.

The dork with a chainsaw

 I'm just waiting for some sense of normality from this Administration but we're not getting it.

You gotta be careful with those things.  Musk had a chainsaw at CPAC but I recently bought a polesaw at Lowe's last summer to cut up some dead branches in the backyard.  Dealt with a lot of dead branches down through the years from Yonkers storms.  The polesaw is a version of a chainsaw a handy tool for dealing with unwanted small trees on your property or at least when the limbs pose a problem.  Only used it a couple of times.  Tricky getting the chain tension just right.  Came off a couple of times while testing it out no harm.  I wouldn't hire Musk.  A nerd with a power tool scares me.  Don't know if he even knows how to use a condom.

The weird theater is becoming tiresome.  Will Trump sign off on the House plan to cut Medicaid and break a campaign promise?  Maybe it's time to free himself from Musk.  This bromance can't last forever.

Trump reminds me of Mr. Mayhem on the Allstate commercials

 Shock and Awe.  The DOGE.  Have Musk and Trump showered together yet?  Do we really need cancer research?  When am I going to get my tax refund?  Will Trump change the street cleaning days in Yonkers?  Layoffs of thousands of federal workers.  When can I expect my first DOGE check?  Will Medicaid still cover nurse visits?  When is ICE coming to Yonkers?  Trump wants Zelensky to pay the money back with rare earth minerals.  Like what?  Hannity was more interested in what Musk had to say.  Why does Musk want the personal details of millions of Americans?  When are we going to Mars?

Chaos.

But does he know how to install an attic ladder?

 On a budget. Contractors charge too much.  So I woke up this morning to find the front gate wide open, went out to close it and found a homeless Mexican sleeping on the front porch in the corner with his own bedding and about three of those reusable shopping bags.  Regardless of the situation I ALWAYS go downstairs first to set the coffee and then feed the cats I mean if the house isn't on fire or something.  We called the cops they came and the man got up and took his stuff and left.  I asked the lady cop if they take him anywhere and she said no.  Homan might offer him a nice place to stay with three square meals a day and running water dunno.  The homeless guy left empty peanut shells all over the place snacking during the cold night.  Also left his bedding on the sidewalk which I had to throw out.  Code Enforcement you know can't take a chance.  Welcome to the Big YO.  What would Hannity have done?

Patio needs a little work.  Does he do masonry?  Ho ho ho and a bottle of Jose Cuervo.