Walking the Dog....tip

I sure love my dog. Asha is a black lab mix we invited into our home from the pound. She’s really still a puppy at 8 months. She is a handful; more then Sophia who was our poodle Scottish terrier mix, who got hit by a car about a year ago. Here is a tile stepper tribute to our missed family member. It’s still hard to talk about her.

I wanted to share a tip. Asha darts side to side and sometimes lunges from a stand still. Obviously she’s still being trained; however she has surprised me early in the morning, when I’m still sleepy and holding my coffee. I just want to keep her safe and not hit by a car, so I found a way to hold the leash that seems to tighten as she pulls and she hasn’t surprised me by jerking it out of my hand since.

It’s simple enough. I put my two middle fingers coming from underneath through the handle of the soft leash. Then I separate those two fingers and double them back over the two sides that form the handle. The two sides wrap the fingers snuggly. The leash will not just fall out of your hand and frankly, it will not be pulled out either.

And please clean up after your pets please.....Thank You! ~D

VW woes

It’s a start. And I have to start somewhere, so here is my first blog. I really don’t like complaining, first of all it doesn't get you anywhere, but I am tired how consumer we are and how we are being lead like stupid cattle to the slaughter. We work hard for our money, scrimping and saving to buy high ticket items such as a car and their disposable. When did this happen? My 2003 has less then 35k miles and the inside is falling apart. I even heard this about the line before buying, but thought it was just a fluke. They must have gotten a lemon. I’m really just tired of it. The roof liner is hanging here and there with orange glue sticking all over when you try and tuck it back into shape. My electric window went out, I tried to re-align the cable but of course the PLASTIC (now they use a compressed foam that rapidly bio degrades, not even close to being as tough as plastic) was mangled by the cable as one would expect…engineered to a fault, so I had to replace the inner door with motor. I also taped up the deteriorating speaker from vibrating over the radio. The other speaker needs fixing too. This isn’t the first thing I fixed either; there was the arm rest which I had to glue the hinges. And soon after that, knowing how fragile this cars interior parts are, I specifically used my thumb to leverage any torque on the latch for the glove compartment.

Well one day I didn’t let my thumb set before pulling the latch and that was all it took. Just one more thing to fix and actually I forgot to mention the head light covers, which one just flew off on a trip across state for a job interview. I siliconed my own cut cover and heated to contour plexi cover. Most people don't notice, or tell me to change the other which is yellow'd.

Sorry, it is just not right. I took engineering classes and I know a few things. Car companies engineer parts to break. And cars that are engineered for countries that cannot afford to buy one as often, they are engineered to last longer. Welcome to the consumer world.

Unfortunately we need to make a stink. Bitch more and not put up with just getting what we get. I know it is so bureaucratic and time consuming, but it isn’t right. We deserve better. It use to be. So what’s changed? Why do they get away with selling us substandard product to us and we are paying top dollar as far as over all consumers of the world. It’s not just the car companies, but computer and software companies as well. We just need to unite as consumers and let our voice be heard. Stop selling us untested, cheap products! Continue to use the internet and research and I guess ultimately don’t buy it unless you have to. It seems kind of like a boycott, but hopefully it will make the producers of the products we want more weary of us as comsumers and not just our buying power, but our voice of what we want and expect from the product the seller as a whole. Force them to listen by hitting them where it will hurt. Their bottom line.