draggonlaady

This is copied from a newsletter sent out by my insurance company. Emphasis NOT added by me.

To help keep our administrative costs low--which benefits all program participants like you--we are asking you to renew your policy either online or to return your renewal payment and paperwork through the mail. Payments made over the phone or submitted by fax will include a $5.00 convenience fee.

Seriously? It's worth $5 to have someone pick the form up off of the fax machine instead of opening an envelope? How is there ANY BLOODY DIFFERENCE in work level for the insurance co's employee? This strikes me as a completely arbitrary excuse to add fees.

Incidentally, it's actually less convenient for me to send a fax than it is for me to send an envelope. So this is 2 ways a loss as far as I'm concerned, and chances are I'll never fax these people anything.

I am... shocked. I saw this headline, and went to the article expecting it to be yet another breed-specific ban proposal somewhere. In case you don't recall, I am flatly opposed to breed-specific dog bans. If you want reasoning behind that, feel free to ask. Instead, the ban is actually aimed at sexually intact dogs, and felon owners. Shockingly enough, in a recent study in Oregon of dog bite risk factors, the single strongest association with bite risk was being sexually intact--breed type didn't even make the list until number 4 or 5. Second on the list after sexual status? Average income of the neighborhood; the lower the income, the higher the bite risk. I'm a bit uncertain on the 20# limit--I'd as soon there was no weight limit and it applied to all dogs of all breeds, since in my experience I'm much more likely to be bitten by a Chihuahua than a Great Pyrenees, but I can see the point in different damage potentials.

Watsonville City Council put more teeth in vicious dog ordinance
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_14879792

Also, what color crack do you suppose this gent is smoking? What does this even MEAN?

"We have a tendency to overreact," (Councilman Greg) Caput said. "I do want to do something. ... A Christmas turkey can weigh 20 pounds or more so I have a problem with that."

Marvel at my restraint.

I did NOT say "What did you expect us to use? Pre-school toys?" when a client observed "That looks just like real dental equipment."

In the words of Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald, "It's been my experience that when their legs fall off, that's a bad sign."

The virtues of second-home ownership were not something I ever grasped. I grew up in Michigan, where many of our neighbors had a cottage or cabin "up north" -- the vast stretch of the state where it was even colder than it was in our neck of the woods. These primitive structures could be used for summer pleasures like swimming in freezing lakes and swatting away flies the size of hummingbirds, and for utterly mystifying winter pursuits like ice fishing and cross-country skiing. My parents were displaced New Yorkers. Our primary winter sports were reading and brooding.

Daniel Gross

"I burned all the hair off my hand last week when I caught my gloves on fire while sawing off the side of my house."

No, of course you don't get any context.

I was on my third pair of clean pants by 9:30 this morning. Dead foal before 8, then a vaginal prolapse and the cow pissed all down my leg.
Had to finish a spay that my boss started, because he was in the restroom vomiting.
The bull for vaccines ended up being a bull and 4 cows and can you preg check those too? (er, no. we have no time to do that today, sorry.)
It's now 10:30, I'm tired, I can't feel my arms, I haven't had coffee or breakfast, we tried to get hold of the afternoon horse surgery to put it off until next week so my boss can go home, but they showed up at the same time as the cows, adding to the chaos (we really don't have room for 3 trailers in the same spot!)
And now I'm gonna go lance an abscess on a cat's foot. It is a stinky day.

Addendum

So before noon, I'd also had to euthanize a very sweet old dog.

My boss went out to the barn to sleep since we couldn't get in touch with any of the afternoon people to cancel things so he can't go home.

I did get a lunch break, which is good--now there is food in my belly, also 800mg of ibuprofen.

Now to go cut the third eyelids off of a horse...

Article by Mike Fonda Sr.
( Published in The Horse Magazine )

say or hear things like this at work, which are actually relevant to your job?

"And I did it all without getting blood splatters on my khakis!"

And the day's prize for poor headlining goes to:

"Police say man shoots ex-wife, and current boyfriend's step father"

The article says he shot his ex-wife's current boyfriends's step father, but the headline sounds as if he shot his own current boyfriend's step father. Also, using "shoots" instead of "shot" makes it seem as though it's an ongoing or regularly occuring event. It's not an impressively well-written article either, so I'll just stick with the headline.