My Dog Just Scratched Off a Tick and Ate It (What do I do now?)

Toilets are so simple but yet when the flapper does not close properly, you have to spend so much time fussing with the length of the chain and the bending of the handle lever to get everything to work once again. In the meantime, you have to deal with the constant gurgling and hissing of the toilet while your wife yells at you to do something about it. Usually at 2 in the morning.

I used to not like sticking my hands in the toilet tank but since I learned that the water there is fresh tap water and that it is not possible for sewage to seep into there, I feel better about it.

I have to keep the lids closed on my toilets because my dog will often wander in there to drink out of the bowl. I do not understand why my dog insists upon doing that when it has it's own bowl of fresh water to go to. It seems to be something that dogs just do. Maybe dogs believe that the toilets are there to provide drinking water for them. Speaking of my dog, it was scratching this morning and a fully engorged tick came off of it. Before I could do anything about it, the dog just licked it off the floor and apparently ate it. Not sure what to do about it now but I guess problem solved?

If you have one of those newfangled cars with the electronic keys that start the engine and let you open the doors when the key is in your pocket - DO NOT LOSE IT. Especially when you are 250 miles away from home.

This happened to me. I was about 5 hours from home and staying at a hotel. It was a comedy of errors. Coming out of the hotel in the morning, my car wouldn't start. So I figured the little circular battery inside my key fob was dead. I got somebody else to take me to the office and was going to take the key fob to Radio Shack or CVS or someplace like that at lunchtime to get one of those batteries. But I ended up misplacing it and lost it. It will probably turn up someday but for now it is lost.

So I get the VIN number off the car and call the dealership, hoping that they can make me a new key. Not so easy. In order to make me a new electronic key, I have to take the car to the dealership.

So 250 miles away from my house, I call AAA for a tow truck to take me to the nearest dealership which is about 10 miles away. Only the tow truck can take my car because I parked front end to the curb and there are cars parked next to me on both sides. Because it's a front wheel drive car, the tow truck has to grab the car from the front. I have no keys and can't get into the car to force it into neutral so that we can push the car out of the space.

Finally, we decide we have to force our way into the car by bending and then busting out a window. Turns out also that the car battery is completely dead (which was the real problem) because not even the dome light is coming on when we get the door open.

Now the car gets towed to the dealer and I am confronted with employees shrugging their shoulders and sadly shaking their heads. Never a good sign when you bring your car in to get worked on. They are not going to be able to help me right away because they are getting ready to close for the night. So one of them was good enough to drive me back to the hotel.

Now I had checked out of the hotel that morning and I just realized that I had left my luggage in the co-workers car that I was visiting with that day so I had to check into the hotel with no spare clothes or toiletries. I could not reach her by cell or email and did not have her home number. So once I was checked in, I had to walk about two miles in the dark along a busy highway until I found a supermarket and a Kohl's department store in which I was able to buy some extra clothes and toiletries. I walk all the way back to the hotel and once I get back there, I realize that I forgot about a razor blade and also socks. Not wanting to wear the same grubby socks with my suit the next day and not wanting to appear unshaven, I walk all the way back to the shopping plaza.

By now, I am hungry and I see a Buffalo Wild Wings. So I stop in there and because I don't like their chicken wings, I get one of their bacon cheeseburgers which are actually quite good. I'm sitting at the bar and so I order their pumpkin beer. I start feeling good so I order a second beer and then a third. The Red Sox game is on the TV. Or more accurately, on the 69 different TVs they have all over that brightly lit restaurant.

By the time I leave there, it is past 10pm and now the Kohl's and the supermarket are closed. So no razor and no socks. I have to walk all the way back to the hotel and I am able to buy a razor for triple the normal price at the front desk. But I now have to wear my socks for a second day.

Next morning, I have my co-worker drive me to the dealership and give me back my luggage. I then have to wait there all morning while they figure out what to do about the missing key fob. Apparently, they do not have the fob in stock for my model car so they have to wait until around 2pm to have one delivered from some other location. In the meantime, I'm trying to get work done with my laptop in the waiting area occupied mostly by bored housewife types who are watching Oprah, and those other loud-voiced daytime TV talk shows at full volume. There is no place there for me to plug my laptop in so my battery is running low. One of the car salesmen takes pity on me and allows me to work at one of the sales reps desks who is out for the day.

So now everybody that works there is thinking I'm one of the new car salesmen because I'm sitting out there in the sales pit/showroom trying to get work done on my computer. I debate calling the local office and just working out of there but I just want to hit the road as soon as my car gets fixed as I have 250 miles to drive from where I am (New Jersey) to New England.

Finally around 5:30, they have my car fixed. New battery, oil change, tires rotated and a new key fob ($150) and programming ($75). Total bill around $600. I now have to pay another $75 when I get home to have my spare key fob reprogrammed. I don't get home until around 11PM that night.

So those keyless cars are a great thing until you actually lose your key fob. Then all hell breaks loose and you have to come up with a lot of money.

I have nickels and dimes all over the place. I'm really lazy when it comes to pocket change. All I really worry about is the quarters. The nickels and dimes just get tossed into my cup holders or on a shelf in my closet or they fall in between seat cushions, under my floormats, in my coat pockets. I don't really have a lot of pennies because when I get them, I just dump them into those little plastic trays that most convenience stores and such have by the registers these days or in tip jars, etc. It's mostly dimes and nickels and they are everywhere - all over my car and all over my house.

I am thinking about paying somebody to just come clean all of them up. I know it doesn't make sense but that's how bad the problem is getting to be. I guess I could just leave them be and let them keep piling up but It's just aggravating, that's all.

It's leaf raking time and I always say to myself - why bother? I had them all raked up last weekend and my lawn looked all nice and neat. This weekend, it's like I never raked at all. I know I should go out there and rake them as all my neighbors have done, but to me, it seems such an exercise in futility.

One year, I just let all the leaves fall so that I could rake them up all at once and be done with it. But it was a disaster. Just as I was about to rake, a big snowstorm hit and I wasn't able to see my lawn again until the following March. When the snow finally melted, my yard was a complete mess and my neighbors got really upset with me because everytime the wind picked up, they would have leaves blow into their yard from my yard.

Halloween candy is everywhere too. CVS and Wal-Mart is selling it for 99 cents a bag. Does anybody else notice how the "snack size" candy bars are getting smaller and smaller? I think this only results in everybody eating more candy. Because when the candy bars are so small, it's easy to justify having four or five of them - or more, at a single time. Now this adds up to much more than a standard size candy bar. So you psychologically think you are eating less when you are actually eating more.

Used to be that when it was trick or treat time, the little kids would be happy to receive one candy bar or one Reeses Peanut Butter cup because back then, they were full size.

Now because they are "fun size" or "snack size", you feel like you are being a cheap bastard just handing out one. So you end up dumping handfuls of them into the kids sacks and even at that, they are usually grabbing for more at the same time you are dumping into their bags. I am thinking that I must have close to 10 pounds of "fun size" and "snack size" candy bars ready to hand out on Halloween. That's because you never think you are going to have enough so you overbuy.

It is not a good sign if you see an ambulance, a police car and a fire truck at a neighbors house at 4 o'clock in the morning. That is what I saw a few nights ago about four houses down. But I guess I am going to have to wait until I see the police/fire blotter in my hometown paper to find out how it turned out but I'm thinking whoever it was died because there were a whole bunch of cars parked over there yesterday.

City/suburban life is weird like that. Entire families can grow up and die just several hundred feet away from you and you won't ever know their names unless they happen to stencil it on their mailboxes. When I was growing up, you knew everybody who lived on your street. It's not that way anymore. People just keep to themselves and their own inner circles which usually revolve around family and work.

I think the reason for this is that at least in suburbia, both spouses are working. The only "housewives", if you can call them that, are either those in the poorer neighborhoods who are able to rely on welfare and food stamps so they never have to work or do anything and those in very wealthy homes where going to work is an option.

So because both spouses are working, you just don't have a "neighbor-friendly" climate because everybody is just so darn busy all the time. Also, kids are kept indoors these days by their video games and other distractions. When I was growing up, the kids were forced to play outside and that forced parents to socialize a lot more than they do these days.

That said, isn't it ironic that the parents on welfare and food stamps appear to have the highest standard of living of anybody? They never have to worry about a thing. All their basic needs are provided for and they never have to worry about doing any work. Not even yard work or home repair. They don't even have to worry about shoveling their walkway when it snows out. They just call their landlords up to deal with all that. So all they ever have to do is sit around the house and enjoy themselves while everybody else provides for them. Of course, they will still find things to bitch and complain about and they make crappy parents also because they are just so lazy and slothful.

Every now and then I rediscover new music from my past that I end up liking more the second time around. Good example of this was Men At Work's "Business As Usual" album that came out in 1982. The first time around, I remember being really annoyed by that song called "Who Can It Be Now" as it played over and over again. I did like the follow-up single "Down Under" a little more but didn't go crazy over it.

However, I am playing the entire album on my iTunes lately and discovered that I like those songs and all the other tracks a whole lot more these days. Songs like "People Just Love To Play With Words", "I Can See It In Your Eyes" and "Underground" sound pretty good to me here in 2013.

Poor a little wine in his dog bowl to go with the tick.

I think the occasion calls for white.

Seriously, Dogs are equipped to eat meat that has been rotting for a few weeks. I don’t think you have much to worry about.

Just make sure the head of the tick didn’t stay inside the dog. Check him for signs of infection and if you see a spot getting infected take him to a vet. Other than that he should be fine.

One of my high school teachers locked his keys in his car. After hours of trying to open the door using coat hangers we decided to break out the back window. Immediately after breaking the window someone noticed the window on the other side was rolled completely down.

a new key fob

I'm curious. What does "fob" mean regarding smart automobile keys.

Out of all the possibilities I am aware of none seemed to apply to automobiles. I tried all the following but only the last one could possibly apply.

Freight On Board
Fresh Off the Boat
Friendly Order of Battle
Fuel On Board
Full Of Baloney
Full Of Beans
Foreign Objects
Foot Of the Bed
Flat On Back
First Order of Business
Family Owned Business

This must be it ... Frequently Operated Button

Fob (as in key fob) doesn't stand for anything at all. It's simply a word and it originated hundreds of years ago from the German word fuppe - which means "small pocket".

Back in those days, people used to carry pocket watches on a chain. The chain was called a "fob" and many men's suits at the time had a small pocket called a "fob pocket" to contain such watch and chain.

“...a new key fob ($150) and programming ($75). Total bill around $600. I now have to pay another $75 when I get home to have my spare key fob reprogrammed.”

Volkswagen?

__________________

Is there something about my car that I should know?

You don’t indicate whether or not you’re married. I suspect not, so I suggest that you do that. That way, you would never get into all this stuff, especially on trips to New Jersey, knowing that she would never believe a word of this
BS.

Sam, you are a Class of ‘97, coming up on your 16th anniversary.

You are a tough bird, and a good egg.

The dog will be fine, the neighbors ticked off about your leaves, but hey, “Down Under” can be a rocking fine tune!

Your day was better than the day 99.% of the people on the planet have.

You have hot water.

You have a flushing toilet.

You live better than royalty did 110 years ago.

By the way, next time your vehicle pulls a stunt like that, threaten to turn it into a refrigerator at the local scrap yard.

Works for me every time.

I discovered that one thing you don’t ever want to do is let one of those electronic keys accidentally get into the laundry.

That was an expensive mistake.

Volkswagen?

__________________

Is there something about my car that I should know?
*******************************************

Yes, don’t lose the key. That’s about a replacement costs.

I just had one removed from ,,, my uh,, chest. I’m in Northern Wi, where there is a massive population of the da*n things, this one apparently crawled from my labrador’s body(sleeping at the foot of my BED!) and embedded itself in my uh ,, right chest area.
Dash to the medical clinic this morning. Just my
luck, the MD was cute and young!
Now on antibiotics. 90% chance it’s Lymes. Help!

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