One lousy cent!

I’d heard about this on the news last week, but I just saw this post on Twitter, which reminded me that I needed to post about it here: City threatens to put a lien on the home of a woman over an unpaid 1-cent bill.

Just when I thought there was no Massachusetts city more evil than Malden, I hear about this crap.  Sheesh!  I wonder if they are also crying poverty down in Attleboro, and have that stupid $2/bag garbage tax, too?  Yet they spent 42 cents to mail this old lady a bill for a lousy penny, and are threatening to put a lien on her home if she doesn’t pay it.

It’s enough to make people throw stuff at their tv’s, maybe knocking them off of their tv stands.

Too bad the city of Attleboro doesn’t take PayPal for tax payments and the like. If they did, and I were this lady, I’d pay that way…and make the city pay the PayPal fee…LOL!

Gotta love them gub’mint bureaucrats!

It doesn’t feel like autumn any more

So now I’ve changed the theme on this blog to the winter one.  I got it from Simply WP, they have some nice free themes, plus, they can make you a custom theme for a reasonable fee.  Check ‘em out!

Yeah, it’s pretty cold in these here parts.  I’m ready for the heated blanket right about now. Seriously, given the high cost of heating homes this year, having a good blanket like this will indeed pay for itself.

Maybe it will NOT snow here much this year.  After all, we prepared ourselves…we got the snow shovel out of the storage space yesterday.  It’s only when you DON’T have the necessary stuff, that you get hit big time!  Right?

We shall see!

North Shore Music Theatre – pre-BB King concert

Mobile post sent by catmommy9 using Utterli.  Replies.

Important Recall Notice!

Did you buy one of those prepared holiday (turkey or ham) dinners from Stop & Shop?  If so, you need to know about this:

Stop and Shop is recalling butternut squash in prepared turkey and ham holiday dinners. We are asking the media for assistance in making the public aware of the following:
· The recall applies to 24-ounce sides of butternut squash packaged in holiday meals
· The recall is being issued because the squash contains an undeclared egg allergen and because of other quality issues
· The recall applies only to sides of squash packaged in holiday meals and not to any other products
· Customers are asked not to consume the squash, but instead to return the squash to their local Stop & Shop for a $12 refund
· Starting tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. a customer hotline will be available at 800-767-7772. Information is also available on the Stop & Shop website: www.stopandshop.com

This was posted on MyFoxBoston.com yesterday, so the refunds start today.  Please spread the word to anyone you know who might have purchased one of these meals.

We missed it!

The “wonderful” Malden holiday parade, that is.  The one that passes our house, causes us to be trapped because they close the street and we can’t get the car out, and plays awful music.  Who is worse, the Aleppo Shriners’ band, or the Malden High School band?  It’s so hard to decide!

Anyhoo, the parade was scheduled to take place this past Saturday evening.  The town actually bothered to put up signs this year to let people know when the streets on the parade route would be closed to traffic.  It’s a good thing they did, because we had plans for that evening…the Granite State Baseball Dinner.  It started at 5PM, and we thought we’d be able to leave the house between 3:30-4PM and get there on time.  Nope…turned out that they were closing off the streets at 3.  Since I forked over $150 for the tickets, our only option was to leave early.  We decided to leave even earlier than 3, just to make sure we didn’t get trapped in anyway.  We trust the City of Malden government about as far as we can throw it.

As a result, money that we might have spent in Massachusetts was instead spent in New Hampshire, at the Wild Rover Pub, to be exact.  We got there several hours before the dinner opened, so we hung out and had a light lunch and a few beers.  The dinner was wonderful, I will post more about it over on my baseball blog.  And we got home long after that travesty of a parade was over.

Oh, as we were leaving the house, we saw several city street sweepers on pre-parade duty.  How can they afford to have this lousy parade, and pay street sweeper people and the like overtime, when they are also crying poverty and making us pay the stupid garbage tax?  Ticks me off to no end.

I wonder if the city is going to cry poverty some more, and cut back on things such as snow removal on the smaller side streets?  That would be a royal PITA, as we have to use one of those side streets to access the parking space behind the house.  Shoveling the car out is bad enough…I wish we had one of those carports so we can at least avoid that chore. Especially if we have to shovel our way all the way out to the main drag. Oh, and this HAS happened in the past, when no one plowed that street, and we were on our own when it came to getting the car out.  We had to not only shovel the car out, but the whole damned street.  I think the city should reimburse us for doing what their guys were supposed to do.  But we know they won’t.  They don’t care.
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On another note…although I rag on Massachusetts a lot here, there are a few good things about this state. I was watching TV earlier today, and I saw commercials about how K-Mart will be open on Thanksgiving Day.  But the small print on the ad said something like “only where allowed by law” or such.  Despite repealing the Sunday alcohol blue laws a few years ago, there still are some blue laws left on the books.  You still can’t buy booze on any of the summer holidaze.  And there are also laws which limit what types of businesses are allowed to be open on major holidaze, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Malls and many retail stores, K-Mart included, are NOT allowed to be open.  I think that is very nice, because retail employees are people, too, and don’t they deserve to have a day off to enjoy the holiday?  Especially Thanksgiving, because they will ALL be at work the next day, and every day hereon in until Christmas, putting up with obnoxious customers and the like.

I’m not sure what the rules are about supermarkets, but most of the ones here have signs saying they will be closed.  I agree with this…I feel that people should get everything they need BEFORE the holiday, and that includes food.  Only the most essential services need to be open…fire, police, hospitals, etc.

But I suppose that enough people from Massachusetts will be driving up to New Hampshire on Turkey Day to shop at K-Mart and the like.  Sad…would it kill ‘em to wait another day?

I’m so glad I’m out of retail, and if I ever had to go back, I wouldn’t do it in a state where everything is allowed to be open on Thanksgiving and Christmas.