Dogs in the house, Comcast sucks still, Gun to my head

Last night on the way home I stopped to grab the dogs.  They will be with me for a few days while Ali is out of town.  Even though we got home as daylight was starting to fade both of them hung outside for a good half hour.  Lately I have been propping open the lanai screen door so they can come in and out as they please.

Taking the dogs to daycare is a weird thing.  Nicki acts like she no longer likes going there.  When I park the vehicle she will just stay planted, acting like the last thing she feels like doing is going in there with all of the noise and activity.  Lately I have had to take Sadie in first and then come back out and physically lift Nicki out.  Supposedly once Nicki is at the dog daycare she acts fine during the day.  Of course I wouldn’t expect them to tell me she hates it either.

I really would like to be able to just let the dogs stay at the house by themselves like they did for years.  The only reason daycare started was because of Nicki’s issue with holding it for a full day anymore.  At the house they can relax indoors or out.  After 10 years I have become pretty in tune with Nicki’s body language.  It clearly tells me “Dad I’d really rather just stay home”

So yesterday I get this form letter from Comcast stating that they are making “adjustments” to customers that only have internet service, such as I have for the last couple years or so.  The rate starts at $40 a month for gimped service and scales up to $115 (before taxes) for their top tier level.

I currently have the Blast package which according to the letter would pull more than $75 a month  out of my pocket JUST FOR INTERNET SERVICE.  Now, I just negotiated the promo package for tv and Blast internet for $49.99 for 6 months last week, so this SHOULD not apply to me.  However I would not be surprised at all if Comcast somehow f’s up and starts billing me at the higher rate which will initiate a very swift and vocal response from me.

I forgot to mention that I do indeed have Comcast tv service piped into the bedroom now.  As I suggested from the get go, removing the filter from my line fixed the problem.  Of course the convertor box they gave me doesn’t even have a HDMI output, meaning the picture quality is non-hd.  I really don’t know when I will have occasion to use the service except trying to catch a MNF game on ESPN, and maybe using the On Demand rarely.  Otherwise I just don’t need it.

So I read yesterday the Senate voted down the bi-partisan gun bill.  Obviously the very deep pockets of the NRA lobbyists once again were successful in overruling what to me, is basic common sense.

I have never owned or even fired an actual gun, my $35 air rifle is the closest thing I have to a firearm in the house.  However my disinterest in guns doesn’t mean I think individuals should not be able to own a weapon, after all it is a constitutional right.  However as is the case with my position on many things, I like to apply logic to situations.

I do think there is something wrong with owning assault weapons.  I can not see a legitimate reason for an individual to carry a weapon intended to kill people by the dozens, in seconds.

As far as limiting the size of an ammo clip, 30 rounds isn’t enough?  Is it because you like to have longer bursts of Rambo moments or just because your arm starts to hurt after slapping in clip after clip?

However the biggest thing that annoys me is the NRA being so resistant to the universal registration of gun ownership.  You can not convince me there is a downside to this.  Own 100 guns if you want to, to me, asking you to simply register their ownership is a very small price to pay in my book.

You will hear gun nuts say that registering their weapons is a conduit for the government to come and take their guns down the road.  Please, if things would someday get to the point where the government would try to take away registered guns from individuals we would have much larger problems to deal with.

Others will cry “big brother” or it is an invasion of privacy.  Again, I would ask these people to step into the reality of 2013 and the Patriot Act.  You have no real privacy, if you think you do you are living in the Matrix.  Asking gun owners to register their weapons is a blip on the screen in terms of what the government already knows about you.

So anyway, I find it very disappointing but not surprising that once again doing the right thing, taking a small step towards curbing gun violence, was scuttled thanks to the cancerous tumor in our legislative system, aka. lobbyists.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ROrpKx3aIjA

The fertilizer plant explosion is just incredible.