There was a sawdust litter I was using up in Chicago that I haven’t seen anywhere else. It worked great, but the downside was that it tracked everywhere because it was so easily carried on the fur.
1 Like
If you keep a litter box in the bathroom, I use World’s Best. It’s a little spendy but it’s flushable and septic safe which is super convenient. I typically scoop the box 2-3x a day and it’s no big deal. It’s nice not having to worry about bags or disposal. The downside is I need to vacuum the floor of the bathroom much more frequently.
I used to have an electronic litter box but after a while it became way too much of a hassle to deal with (and the special pans it needed were super expensive).
If it’s dry food, try mixing in a little water to soften it up a bit.
1 Like
Stands to reason. Fuck Today.
3 Likes
My kids are in college now, but we still try to help out at the local comprehensive public* High School occasionally.
(Somebody’s gotta, since most of the parents of the kids bussed there every day from the inner city certainly can’t - very few city parents have the ability to get to an affluent white suburb and back, from Murder Town, on a week night. Gee, bussing is so great! Yay equality!)
There was a school/community meeting last night, which the school principal attended, along with two parents from the local area, one from the city, and my spouse, parent of two alumni. And of course the obligatory representative of elderly racist curmudgeons who haven’t got children and have dedicated their lives to sabotaging education because property taxes on the childless help pay for it. And nobody else, because all the liberals were home shouting at Trump on the Internet and all the conservatives were at home shouting at the liberals instead of getting involved in the local community and actually making a difference.
The High School principal is a notable anomaly in the local education system, since our decades long flirtation with zero tolerance tends to select for brutal sadists and mindless rule followers who will probably be revealed as paedophiles twenty years from now, but I digress.
Anyway, news from the High School!
The school has a new student, just released from the prison system, and of course ex-con children have to attend the public comprehensive High School because no magnet or charter school will take them and they aren’t wealthy enough for private school (rich kids don’t go to jail, duh). The comprehensive public schools are still trying to fulfill the social goal of educating every child to enter their doors, even though it’s increasingly difficult since magnet, charter and private schools are siphoning off all the kids who are growing up with books in their homes. Gee, School Choice is so great! Yay freedom!
The parent support association provided some more clothing for students unable to comply with the dress code due to poverty and parental neglect, which was much appreciated by the principal since that’s an ongoing problem. Don’t know how much longer that’ll happen, since unfortunately the parent support association is down to two members, probably because the parents of the children in a comprehensive public school often don’t really have the ability to be PTA moms, what with the poverty and teen pregnancy and working multiple jobs and no cars and all that.
The football team has canceled their season, although the school was (until bussing started in '78) an athletic powerhouse, because the principal was afraid that our 130 pound largest defensive lineman would be maimed by the 270 pound offensive linemen he was being lined up against (did I mention how the privileged kids whose nutritional, psychological and physiological needs are being met don’t attend comprehensive public High School?) and of course there’s the ongoing unfunded cost of getting the team players back and forth from the city (their opponents typically arriving in private SUVs with “dump Trump” bumper stickers, wielding state-of-the-art parent-supplied sporting equipment), the problem that many children are already working full time for less than minimum wage, leaving them no time for sports (or study) and so on and so forth.
There is so much broken, and so much complicity, and it makes me so angry I want to burn down all the houses of every Republican and Democratic voter, which is not a useful or achievable agenda. We are a wealthy state in a wealthy nation, and we are purposely wrecking our own future by segregating education economically, when we could easily fund the best education in the world for every. single. child.
* America. Public means taxpayer (under)funded.
15 Likes
I feel really bad for those kids. It’s amazing to hear people talking about selling out their kids futures when talking about the deficit while underfunding public schools.
In Ontario the province provides extra funding to schools that have lower income families in attendance. That’s good, but wow does it have problems. There’s an option to send kids to French Immersion (lessons are taught all day in French), but that option starts in Senior Kindergarten. That means that a lot of kids go to whatever school they are zoned for in JK, then switch schools in SK. Of course, just like where you live, any school with a special program is populated by wealthier families. Even though there’s no cost, it still works out that the whiter, richer kids end up in French immersion.
So my brother teaches at a school where the income level of all of the students from SK up is very, very low. But the school’s overall income level is considerably higher because it’s got several JK classes of kids who won’t be staying. Of course parents of kids who think of the school as a one-year temporary daycare don’t contribute, so the school doesn’t benefit from this.
The difference is probably considerably less than the one you are describing, but it makes me really angry that these wealthier families are (through a complex system that isn’t really their fault) actually reducing the funding for the school with lower income families. Probably the reason this gets under my skin so much is that I am part of the problem. My older daughter goes to French immersion and my younger one is going to be starting school next year. Where will she go? To a school with a very low average income except for the JKs. Then, obviously, we’re going to want to get her into the same school as her sister.
I guess the only solution is to make sure I contribute a lot to her “temporary” school, in recognition that it’s a permanent school for many other kids that are less well off. I just wish that people would recognize the problem of relying on parents to fund schools instead of funding them with public money. Public schools are may be the single best investment we could possibly be making (okay, clean water is probably better). It’s maddening that we aren’t investing sufficiently.
6 Likes
Ugh, cheating students on an exam. Why?
7 Likes
I finally got around to plugging a small gap in the garage roof flashing. (There are suspicious wood shavings that drop from time to time that make me think small rodents.)
I got out the can of Great Stuff expandable foam that’s barely been used, carefully cleaned out the spray tube, nozzle, top of the can. Removed the screen that’s going to be a pain to put back, clambered out the bedroom window (not as flexible as I used to be), clung on to window frame (not great with heights), stuck the can into place, pulled the trigger … a tiny dribble of foam slowly oozed out. Clambered back in the window.
It seems that the problem is down in the valve of the can, so this almost full can is probably a complete waste. I’ll have to go buy another one. (And waste most of that one too.)
And now the rain is on for the rest of the day.
6 Likes
Stuffiness in my ear along with sinus ouchies! Mucinex not helping… back to the doctor ASAP.
7 Likes
For me, Mucinex is good for bronchial congestion but not so much for sinus; N-acetyl-cysteine works wonders for that. (Whole Foods and some vitamin stores sell it.). Combines with pseduoephedrine (the Sudafed™ that works!), pretty much all non-allergy congestion disappears.
3 Likes
Thanks. Maybe I’ll give that a try!
1 Like
Pressure cooker turned out not to have been depressurized. In the burn ward with 2nd degree burns over most of my arms and belly.
Still a few positives: nothing hit my face, hands, or below the belt. I basically shielded everyone, so nobody else got hurt. And I got some pretty awesome drugs.
Still- rough night, and I’m gonna be here a couple days.
21 Likes
Whoa, sorry man.
5 Likes
That qualifies for both the Purple Heart Eggplant and the Medal of Honor Parboil, doesn’t it?
We appreciate your service.
7 Likes
That sucks! I’m really glad it wasn’t worse!
2 Likes
Sorry to hear it. I’m glad you have people taking care of you.
3 Likes
Holy crap that’s awful! Our Fagor has has an interlock that prevents you from opening it if it’s pressurized. Did yours fail or does it not have that feature?
1 Like
Fuck, that sucks.
Glad it wasn’t worse. 
1 Like
ow. ow. ow. ow. ow.
4 Likes
Thankfully, the burns aren’t that severe, it’s just that they cover a lot of area. Basically, I’m under observation until they know it’s not likely to get infected.
Apparently, my sister uses it without the pressure valve- so it’s just a pot. Someone screwed the thing back in last time it got washed. She called me to help when she couldn’t open it. I’m just thanking the gods it was just the water bath to sterilize the jars, and not sugary sweet napalm.
Blueberry jam still came out nicely.
15 Likes
