start a victory garden and ration your IRRATIONALLY ANGRY feelings, part 3

A windstorm knocked down the fence between our neighbors and us in the fall of 2019. They're finally getting a new one installed today, almost four years later. My kids were pissed that for the duration of deep covid, when everyone was stuck at home, *that's* when the fence was missing, when privacy was at a premium. And now, with three of our collective kids out of the house at college, and only one left in high school here, *that's* when they're finally getting around to putting the privacy fence back. We like our neighbors, it wasn't a big deal to us (adults), it wouldn't have been a big deal if they had never replaced it. Hence the "irrational" part, because why now, neighbors? You should have done it years ago, when it would have served more of a purpose.

i hate it when they show things in the little between-projects shots in The Repair Shop that aren't being worked on that week

websites that require you to click on Sign Up to get to the sign in page for existing accounts

the armenian alphabet

Regular-length albums pressed out onto three sides on vinyl so you have to hover over the damn thing and change the record every 13 minutes.

people who assume a question is being asked as an attempt to "bail" on them and not just a question so I can be planful.

example:

"what time did you want to do dinner tonight?"
"why - you got something else you're doing? If you want to reschedule, just ask to reschedule?"
"No - so I can add it to my calendar properly!"

"it looks like I am working on <xxx> assignment - I haven't done this before, so I wanted to ask a few questions about what is expected."
"if you don't feel comfortable taking this on..."
"NO, I DO, but I am just want to understand the assignment a bit more!"

Omg I'm with you, I hate that shit. That is one of my mom's favorite passive aggressive tools in her arsenal and it drives me bonkers:

"What time did you want us to be out there for dinner on Sunday?"
"Oh I take it that means you are too busy..."
"No, I'm just planning ahead so I know what time you'd like us there..."
"Just forget it then, we'll do it some other time."
*seething rage*

i've started saying "stop selling" to my mother as a joke, i.e. when I agree to something, you don't need to keep securing my approval

lol

omg yes my mum does this too
invents an absolutely nonexistent subtext & then we somehow end up having to re-plan the same plan just to reassure her that there are no ulterior motives

utter insanity

'drone shows' and people wanting to see them / having positive things to see about them is making me extremely IA

"what if tacky and boring, but 100 feet high with lights"

get those ugly pieces of trash out of the sky thank you very much

I thought you were talking about ambient drone for a moment and was getting very IA

Drones > fireworks

I was about to object to the judgy tone and remembered what thread this is

(Like, I can relate to not liking something, but I don't usually try to police what other people like. But this is IA so rock on, folks)

Drones > fireworks

I continue to be mystified by adults who are excited to see fireworks. I feel like if you've seen one or two big fireworks displays you don't really need to see any again.

On the other hand, several years ago I was in Disney World on the 4th of July and my family got to do a bunch of rides with nearly no wait times while almost everybody else was busy staring at multi-color explosions, so maybe this is all for the best.

i am a grown-ass woman who still loves fireworks, never grew out of it, cannot explain it except imo they rule?!

I was never much into fireworks even as a kid, but if I had been at that San Diego fireworks show where they accidentally shot off everything they had in one minute flat, I would have considered that a peak life experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgvXVYg3HXA

I was taken into a fireworks pit (cotton jammed into my 5yo ears) to watch Chinese pyrotechnicians who’d come to Minnesota in a post-Nixon ‘cultural exchange’ set off the Aquatennial fireworks, the most elaborate done to that date. If you want to instil a lifelong love of bangers, that’s a pretty good place to start, seeing the techs choreograph the display so well.

my current IA is an idiotic relative who uses the hashtag #blessup for literally everything

photo of weak looking tea in a paper cup: #blessup
photo of a manicure -#blessup
photo taken inside shuttle bus taking her to her job - #blessup

i dont know why but it drives me insane

sounds like you need to #lightenup #blessup

I put blessup on my fries and they still taste like shit

Brian Blessup was the best part of Black Adder, though

and I do enjoy the music of Blessup Union of Souls

achoo

blessup

My favorite singer is Blessup Dearie

'Fess up, you like blessup.

If they’re white, it’s a bit off because it could be taken as Writing With A Blaccent.

100% that also

"can I call you?" almost always invariably turns into something that didn't need to be a call and then lasts 10 minutes longer than it should because of that

A relative of mine texts me with 'Call me'.

When you're cutting a cake and someone requests a very thin slice. The slice can be near transparent but there is inevitably a follow-up complaint of it being WAY too much.

Also, people who order diet soda from fast food restaurants.

how ungrateful moths are to be put outside

we have a new lightbulb outside our backdoor and it is white like a near-death experience. Even the moths arent foolish enough to believe that it is the sun.

from a moth's perspective, moving indoors with all that electric lighting must a real move up in the world

I don't like cake. In my half-century of sentience I have probably been handed a few thousand slices of cake, and I have wanted maybe five of them.

Almost every birthday cake I've ever had is drier and sweeter than what I wanted on my plate. Pie? Pie is cool. Tarts? Bring them on. Ice cream cake usually okay. German chocolate can work because the coconut brings moisture.

So if I feel it's acceptable to just say "no, thank you," great. But if the social sitch is that I have to pretend to accept a piece of cake, yeah - I'm gonna want the smallest possible piece of dry-ass cakitude you can manage.

I cover mine in ice cream and eat some of that so it looks like the cake has been eaten. It's a twist on the old hide the vegetables under the mashed potato trick.

But, yes, pie is perfectly acceptable.

xps with fireworks the thrill is "how the fck do you bundle up explosive powders to make those incredible blast patterns?" whereas with drones it's some dweeb with a piece of software placing dots in 3D, then the drones fly to those dots and you see the 3D picture, great.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7HT7ZYLgYpQ/hqdefault.jpg

people who go to live sporting events with me and want to do nothing but talk about completely unrelated things for two hours.

I'm not saying "small talk is banned" at a sporting event, but there's a difference between occasional small talk and spending endless amounts of uninterrupted time trying to engage me in a discussion about shoes or a new sushi restaurant while I'm trying to immerse/focus on the match I'm watching. Particularly soccer, which doesn't stop.

I don't multi-task well and having to actually actively engage in long discussions about other things almost completely pulls me out of the match. Not everybody operates this way but I hate having to remind people that the reason I'm not real responsive to their lengthy discussion of the best sashimis we've ever had because my team is attacking the opposing goal and it's exciting.

also cross-reference with the same behavior at a concert. I didn't pay a ton of money to not listen to the show

people who do small talk at gigs, especially when the band is playing a song they don't know, that is entirely rational anger though

yeah this drives me crazy too

I outright moved three times at the Obituary show a few weeks ago because I'd originally decided to hang in the back as I have mild claustrophobia, and literally nobody back there was listening and all were having loud conversations, to where I Finally moved up and just decided to deal with my personal discomfort, where people were actually listening to the show. much better experience.

some people just seem to go to events to be seen at them.

p bad if your annoying convo is audible ABOVE loud death metal!

Well, you have to yell to be heard above the music!

if I was the band I'd stop playing so everyone could hear the guy saying loudly "I'm more into toes, man"

people who go to weekend music festivals in the woods and then post about how much they 'grew spiritually' or 'learned to love' or whatever

MDMA is quite a drug

Man that Seven Mary Three set stirred up warm things inside of me