Y'know what really grinds my gears?

[sheridan]

Dogs might be noisy and a bit thick, but they're not out there exterminating the smaller wildlife just for laughs.

Hmmm, I think the main reason for that is because cats are generally let out on their own while dogs are usually on leads.  My addition to the debate is my hatred for those extra long leads that irresponsible owners use to use up the whole pavement / footpath / etc.

On a more positive note my theory is that cats and dogs have had a hand (pay) in domesticating humans, and vice versa.  Dogs helped provide protection and aid during hunting in the paleolithic while cats protected grain stores once we started having those.  When I was last in rented accomodation both we and our neighbours had cats.  The letting company sent somebody to check for pest control once per year (about the only bit of maintenance they ever carried out without a struggle getting them to visit) to no avail - we had no mice or rats for the half a decade we were there.

[sheridan]

p.s. I say 'my' theory but both the cat and dog theories are pretty widespread, though I've never seen both mentioned in the same place.

[paddykafka]

Excluding the two weeks recently spent in hospital after emergency - and as it turns out, life-saving, abdominal -surgery, I have been trying since the start of August, to get the Gas Central Heating system sorted out in this Dublin City Council flat.

First thing to note is that the power company which was offering a reasonable deduction on my bill - if I went with the dual-fuel gas & leckie option with them - required me to switch from the already installed pre-paid meter to a bill-pay meter. Between the jigs and the reels and jutting back and forth with DCC, the power company itself, and the gas network supplier as well, it took the best part of almost six weeks before I could get the meter changed.

Then I was told by the gas guy who installed the meter, that DCC would have to come out and top up the water-heating system, as well as bleed the radiators before I could actually, you know, so much as take a fucking shower! Shortly thereafter and just as I was all set to make an appointment with the bloke from the water section of DCC to do the necessary, I was taken ill and that put the mockers on everything.

So this last Monday, I finally got around to re-scheduling an appointment with DCC for them to carry out the works. Cue much confusion from the chap with whom I spoke to on the phone. The "I'm not sure why they would be the people who would be called out" kind of confusion. To which I could only reply: "well they're the folk whom the gas guy said I would need to be called over."

So I finally got a call from the water section today, to say that they had a plumber in the area who could see me in about an hour, if that was convenient. I confirmed that it was indeed convenient. Four hours after that call - with no sign of a plumber appearing, I rang back, only to be told that, actually, I would have to contact the Heating Section and make an appointment with them to check out the boiler. And if they couldn't get the system sorted, THEN the water / plumbing people would have to be called upon.

So that means because there is no one answering the phone in the Heating section this afternoon, I will have to call them on Monday and will most likely be left waiting for another several days without either heat or shower power. I swear to Christ, the movie "Brazil" has nothing on the utter incompetence that seems to reign supreme in most facets of life, here in the Emerald Isle.

And to top everything else off, the horrible, junkie, crack-smoking, verminous scumbags that are coming into this block, have now taken to shitting on the interior stairs at the back of the building as well. 

[Dandontdare]

I feel your pain having dealt with council/housing association repairs for the last three decades - last week our toilet inlet pipe sprung a leak so we had to turn off the water or the long suffering lady below us would get water dripping through her ceiling again (we've flooded her house twice already, once when she'd only just redecorated). If we needed water, we'd have to put a pot under the leak, do what we need quickly, then shut it off before the pot overflowed.

Called them on Friday but it's not an "emergency" so they said they'd try to come Monday and someone would call me back to confirm. No call (obvs), but my manager kindly sorted a day off on Monday. Rang at 8am to make sure they were coming and was told no - best they could do was Thursday. As I had the day off anyway, I went into town - soon as I get off the tram I get a text - "the plumber is on his way and will be with you shortly" - had to spend a tenner to get a taxi home and beg the plumber to wait when he called to say he was outside.

[Funt Solo]

My boss is all like "a week off nearly drove me nuts - I'm so glad we're all back at work, aren't you?"

Must ... resist ... urges!

[Vector14]

I think I've heard the same thing from almost every boss I've ever had.
Very Strange how the higher people climb in the company heirarchy the more they seem to dislike spending time with their own families.

[The Legendary Shark]

My boss is exactly the same, but whereas she's sat in the farmhouse all day "doing paperwork" I'm the one out in the rain and up to my ankles in cold slutch looking for a hypothetical dead chicken (don't ask...).

[Jade Falcon]

My bar-steward of a neighbour.  The scumbag can't even walk across the floor without sounding like a Red Square military parade.  Or that every day there is near constant noise.  I have put four complaints in and the housing officer says he doesn't realise he's doing it.  I've replied that if after those number of complaints he doesn't realise, he's either stupid, or more likely lying.  If anything its got worse.  The other day it was so bad I shoved my rarely used hi-fi on loud.  This in addition to my other problems at the moment is the last thing I need.

On a lighter note...some of the 'in' language that has appeared over the last years.  Instead of people saying "Well" at the beginning of a sentence now, I absolutely loathe "Welp", or even "Whelp", but the word that's really stupid in my mind is 'yeet"

[Funt Solo]

I absolutely loathe "Welp", or even "Whelp", but the word that's really stupid in my mind is 'yeet"

My pet peev is people doing the disco call. I was struggling to figure out how to write it down, but you can hear complete bastards doing it en masse at the start of this video. I realize I'm not being reasonable, but if there was a button I could press whereby anyone who ever made that sound had their head explode ... I'd press it.

As for neighbors making noise - it always makes me think of this: Billy Balowski: The Young Ones (from 2:50).

[Jade Falcon]

Another one, all these short and reel videos on Facebook.  Some of them are ok, but the worst and most irritating is these so called 'auditors' who seem to be a bunch of small minded prats whose sole object in life is to wind people up.  Usually fond of the sound of their own voices they won't let anyone speak.