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What part of "no dogs" don't people understand?
Yesterday I did a 15 mile run on my usual course and started about 8 am (amazing I got out of bed that early). I saw a number of dogs when I started the run and I thought they were violating the no dogs regulation; I later found the sign and it said that after 9 am they were violating the regulation. Even after 9 am, there were a number of dogs there. To top it off, some dogs were off leash which is never permitted. Dogs on the path are just another obstacle I have to avoid. If the regulations were enforced, maybe people would stop bringing their dogs.
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Being handy is a double edged sword
I grew up learning how to fix things around the house, from the simple changing a light bulb to the complex installing a ceiling fan (which almost took out my head when my dad hadn't quite secured it and yanked me out of the way just in time). Then when I owned my own house, I taught myself about network wiring, replacing a garbage disposal, and then stereo installation. Being handy, does however, come at a price. Just because I can do something doesn't mean I want to, but I can't justify paying someone else to do something I can do myself. There are exceptions to this, but things like fixing a toilet don't justify calling a plumber for $65 an hour to replace the flush handle or something like that. I don't enjoy many aspects of do-it-yourself work, but since I have the knowledge, I do it anyway. My next little project is to figure out why the toilets occasionally run (it has something to do with the stupid chain from the lever to that plastic flap); I dread it, but I'd feel like an idiot calling out a plumber to do a simple task like that.
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Did another class action suit against Microsoft really hurt?
Today's newspaper is reporting that Microsoft has settled a lawsuit with city and county governments in California. It has the same premise as all the other anti-trust suits against Microsoft in that Microsoft is a monopoly and used it to overcharge for software. I had to almost laugh with the settlement agreement...Microsoft will pay $70 million for qualifying computer hardware and software. Let's see, I bet most of that software will be Microsoft software. Now who is the big loser in this suit? I think that would be the taxpayers, as usual.
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$25 to control my air conditioning?
My local electric company, SDGE wants to pay me $25 per year to put a control on my central air conditioning unit that would allow them to turn it off in case of extreme demand. I haven't used the A/C in the almost 2 years I've lived in my house, so this would sound like a great deal. However, what happens if this year I really, really want to spend the insane amount of money to cool my house and it happens to be on the same day there is an extreme energy shortage? I won't be able to do it. Some of you may be thinking that it would be selfish for me to want to turn on my A/C when there is an energy problem, but I'm entitled to use it once in awhile as I conserve as much as I can all the time. When we first moved in, we have ceiling fans placed throughout the house so we wouldn't have to turn on the A/C and we have a programmable thermostat so that we only heat the house for a few hours a day when it is cold. While I don't want to use my air conditioning, I don't want anyone else to be able to say when I can't use it. If that makes me a bad person, so be it.