March 25, 2019

Gripes and Grievances--February and March.

I don't actually have as many grievances in February as I had in January, so I'll combine it with March. But I think it's good to get some of this out in the open. Clear the air and all.



+Valentine's Day. It's going to seem petty, I'm sure, but that's what this post is for: petty grievances I need to get off my chest.
I don't get Valentine's Day. I think it's a perfect and fun holiday for kids, much like Halloween. There comes a point where you just have to let it go, though. I don't expect anything for Valentine's Day. We've definitely celebrated with gifts, fancy dinners, etc in the past and we even got engaged on February 14th. It's just not something I insist on celebrating. And then, when you have a baby...am I supposed to dress him (yes, him) up in hearts or whatever? I mean, maybe if I had a girl. But I've noticed that in school, boys just love giving their superhero and Lego Valentine's cards to each other. It's not about the frills. Especially because I don't think we even left the house on V-Day. To buy a heart onesie for one day at home seemed like a waste of effort and money.
So I was very confused with what I was supposed to do with a baby boy. Scott and I only tend to celebrate when we're apart for deployments, by sending gifts and care packages.

+The people who bought our house paid for a well inspection. They paid $600+ because it was something they wanted. That's fine and within their rights. However, the company did the inspection wrong, were completely negligent, and gave them the wrong information. They tried to say it would be a $1,700 fix. It cost Scott $14 to fix it.
These people paid $600+ for the incorrect information.
It's a gripe, to me, that the housing market is maintained by crooked inspectors and unlicensed "professionals" and you don't know who you can trust. Colorado Springs has grown so quickly that everything falls through the cracks and no one asks questions. You don't even need to be licensed in Colorado to be a home inspector.
The upside was that Scott spotted their incompetence right away and he said They have no idea they're inspecting the well of someone who just got a masters degree in hydrology. That's not even to brag; it's just fact and happenstance that that's what happened here. I can't even imagine how many people they rip off a week.

+Also, our real estate agent isn't anyone we'd brag about or recommend. It took us a long time to find him and he wasn't even that great.

+Car dealerships. From promising military rebates, to refusing to budge on a price and letting us walk away over $200, I'm so annoyed by them. We even set up an appointment and said we would buy the car that night (they offered us a deal and we communicated through email) and they weren't ready when we got there. We had to leave because they couldn't promise to get us into finance until after 8pm that night. Then we went back another night and they almost still weren't ready, even though we set up an appointment. We kept at it because they were offering a considerably better deal than we'd seen at any of the other dealerships. (Side note: I love car shopping with Scott. He's not afraid to walk away and I appreciate that. There will always be a near identical car at another dealership. There is no shortage of vehicles to buy or people trying to sell them to you. It's especially fun when they keep calling back and asking what else they can do and you just tell them they had their chance already. They never know what to say.)



+Twitter battles. I don't know why I comment but sometimes I can't help myself. Anyway. I gave up Twitter for two weeks and then felt better.  I don't have over-indulgence issues with Facebook because it's lame. I don't get that way with Instagram. But I can get lost in a Twitter thread for 30 minutes. It's pointless.

+Winter is something I'm pretty much over at this point but I know the heat and humidity will bring about a whole new world of complaints from everyone on social media and in real life. So I don't quite wish for summer yet. However, due to winter weather, the gym closed early one day. This was their notification system:



In the world of emails and texts and whatnot, that's what L.A. Fitness decided to do. Morons.

+I'd forgotten how many people in this part of the country smoke cigarettes. It's disgusting. Like, every other person you meet smells like smoke. And they're always smoking in their cars and throwing the butts out the window. You'd get a fine for that in Colorado or Wyoming because you'd be starting a fire. People have no idea. I heard a podcaster say months ago about how It's 2018, and if you still smoke cigarettes, I don't even know what we can say to you anymore. I concur.

+People who refuse to go outside in the winter or in general with a baby. I can't with that. I've noticed that just in the last two weeks, people have started to voluntarily leave their houses in Pennsylvania. "Poor" Wells has been outside almost every day of his young life. We started walking the dogs together when he was 3 or 4 days old. Someone told me they were stuck in their house all last summer with a newborn (kid was born in April). How? Why? Do you hate yourself? Who chained you to your couch? You did that to yourself. The only days last summer and fall when I didn't take Wells out for a walk were the days when the wildfire smoke would blow into town. In fact, I remember when he was 5 or 6 days old and I wanted to take the dogs out and it was going to start raining. By the time we drove to the trail, it was pouring. We waited ten minutes and it got worse. Finally, I stayed in the truck with the baby while Scott took the dogs with an umbrella. It was very disappointing.
Most days in winter, embarrassingly, my biggest decision is Do I take him? or Do I wait for Scott to get home? On the really bad days in Wyoming, I would wait for Scott to get home. Here, if it's really windy, miserable, blowing snow, absolutely freezing (below 20 degrees F), etc, we'll skip a walk but I never feel good about it. On days when it's questionable, I put on his snowsuit and put him in the Ergo with a blanket over him. On days when it's warmer, he goes in the stroller.
We came across a couple on a walk a month ago (a 50 degree day in February) and they said something about telling him some day that it was once warm enough to take a walk in February when you were a baby!!!!! 



I also feel bad for the dogs of Pennsylvania who want to be outside running around (not all dogs do) and their owners won't take them out. I don't understand how they live with the guilt, to be honest.
I can't remember if I mentioned it here before, but I say to Wells You're tougher than this because you're a Wyoming baby pretty often. He's going to grow up with me brandishing his Wyoming birth certificate any time he whines about the weather.

Alright, that's enough for today. Apparently I feel pretty strongly about that last one.