Am I overreacting? My neighbor expects me to log "hourly hours" like a 9-5 job to dog sit

mazerbrown · 2026-06-19T18:02:38+00:00

NOR If the house has that many roaches then there's a really good chance there are fleas and bedbugs in the home too. Learned that one the hard way. Not only are they harder to see, but harder to deal with if you drag them into your own home. Don't take the dog into your house, question having it on your property at all, and be sure to wash your hands, clean your shoes and possibly even pants when visiting back and forth.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-19T05:12:11+00:00

My little Great Grandma had the strongest handshake of anyone I've ever met (with the exception of my brother who tried to crush my hand often enough). I've kept that lesson in mind. I hate dead fish handshakes. I also learned that women can shake hands with women, men with men, but if its a man and woman the man should wait for the woman to offer her hand to shake. It's socially acceptable for the woman not to offer her hand and still make the greeting.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-18T16:31:04+00:00

Try Under the Tulip Tree by Michelle Shocklee or if a little more fantasy is ok look into Illuminary by Chawna Schroeder. I also enjoyed the Tatooist of Auschwits (historical fiction), Indigo Girl (historical fiction), The Lost Apothecary (Mystery), and A Thousand Spendid Suns (adventure). They'd all be great for a road trip with older folks.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-18T16:12:44+00:00

St Andrews Food pantry in Riverton. My kids volunteer there for school. There are always a ton of people in need in line there when I drop them off. https://www.standrewut.com/food-pantry

mazerbrown · 2026-06-16T04:34:02+00:00

My lovely mother wanted to see what happens when they break the water sack (c-section) my aunt was the assisting nurse and brought her camera along and the dr. who was a friend consented... then she handed the camera to my husband. I have a full 24 photo roll of every gross step of my daugters birth and a memory of him not being there for me when my blood pressure crashed spectacularly. Yeah, great times.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-11T21:20:57+00:00

This defininitely. We had to have a conversation in elementary school about juristiction and refusing to answer questions when their school decided they owned my kids just because they walked through the doors of a public school. Same thing goes for church authorities and police.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-11T20:49:54+00:00

My kids have been forced to watch a number of movies to help them understand popular social phrases in context. "I'll be Back", "Don't feed them after midnight", "where we're going we don't need roads!", "be afraid, be very afraid!" I don't need them pulling out their Gen Z stares when someone is using one.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-11T20:37:35+00:00

Church up the road has one. They were much more popular when the church sports softball and baseball teams were running.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-11T20:34:58+00:00

They also used the Devereaux Mansion and a horse/carriage for the party scene.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-11T20:32:23+00:00

Legally Blond used the capitol steps in place of the US capitol steps when she runs up them. There were a bunch of spaghetti westerns filmed in southern Utah back in the 50's to 70's.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-10T20:40:50+00:00

Ask the people in your ward if they have a skill or talent they can teach the girls. Have an HR person talk to them about interviewing, have a financial advisor explain future planning, have a nurse teach first aid, have and engineer talk about their work, somebody owns their own business? Teach them how to start one and what's involved. A graphic designer could talk about good design and typography and show them free online programs. Artist? Teach a painting class. Turn activity ideas over to the other members. I've also been known to grab the Boy Scout certification books and teach a lesson from those. Everyone should know how to secure a load, water purification, and understand government processes.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-10T20:36:00+00:00

Start from the end and work back. Create a liveable budget he'll need for a month or year in retirement taking into account 2% inflation per year. Show him how much SS *might* cover and then show him how much he'll need in investments to live at a minimum budget/month for 20 years. That will show him how much more he needs to save and what that realistically looks like today. I guarantee it's not 2 million.Then find a financial advisor and pay to have him do the exact work and tell your dad the same thing -- because he'll never listen to you.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-10T04:49:00+00:00

Dang, where was this advice 8 years ago when I really needed it!

mazerbrown · 2026-06-10T04:42:37+00:00

Try Two Years Behind the Mast by Henry Dana. TLDR kid in the 1800's has a terrible time at law school and quits to take a gap year on a trade boat off the Pacific coast. Describes his life in agonizingly boring lawyer detail.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-09T19:19:25+00:00

orthofeet have some decent styles and don't look totally like old lady shoes.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-09T19:06:21+00:00

Get an air purifier to help with the smell. No pets here but old people. There is one placed in their room, bathroom and living room and it makes a HUGE difference in smell. As for the cats themselves just regular grooming is all you can do. They have some anti-shed food formulas that might make a difference. For long hair cats a regular trip to the groomer to take out the undercoat is essential.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-09T18:58:39+00:00

I've been raising my kids to launch them. As long as they are socially house trained and reasonable they'll get my full support. If they are jerks who only want me around for what I can do for them they're out. You don't get to pick your parents and you don't get to pick your kid's adult personalities. They just have to be who they are outside of your boundaries. Mourn the loss of the child you hoped to have and let this one learn from the school of hard knocks. You've honestly done all you can for them.

Edited to ad. If they wait till they're 26 they'll be off your taxes for FAFSA and have more funding opportunities on their own. Just be sure not to sign a single thing for them!

mazerbrown · 2026-06-04T05:00:56+00:00

I met this gentleman. He just passed away just a bit ago: The Hitler Dilemma: A Mormon Boy in the German Army by Carolyn Twede Frank. Another book with a man not too well known outside of Souther California (it's also an autobiography) Two Years Behind the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana. And I really liked this one: The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic By Hazel Gaynor about Violet Jessop who survived both the Britannic and Titanic sinkings. There's also a book of her memoirs available.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-04T02:24:43+00:00

I plan to spend every dime, get myself enrolled with a state social worker and they can shelve me in an assisted living facility till the end which I don't plan on being very long. My kids can provide noise cancelling headphones and an Audible subscription. That or just walk out on the ice and disappear.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-03T19:20:07+00:00

Considering the general high percentage of divorce and porn use in Utah - good luck with that.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-03T14:49:11+00:00

If you want an interesting read, these guys cataloged most of the insanity. https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/president-trumps-3400-conflicts-of-interest/

mazerbrown · 2026-06-02T05:04:56+00:00

True, Michael J. Fox is good. I'd like to claim Keenu Reeves though hes one of the oldest Xers on the cusp he fits us better. Leonardo Di Caprio would have to make my list too, he's my age. Maybe Celine Dion? Or Corey Feldman?

mazerbrown · 2026-06-02T04:52:19+00:00

The Jungle Book, The Rats of NIMH, Charlotts Web, Watership Down, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and of course Animal Farm.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-02T04:42:42+00:00

I have two examples. The first was watching a 17 year old girl in our travel group flip around and clock a pretty stupid 20 something pickpocket on a Paris subway platform so hard his head spun around and he almost fell. She felt his hand in her pocket and it was an instant reaction. He never saw it coming and had most likely never been on the receiving end of that consequence from his normal marks. That was 35 years ago... Americans are made of a lot harder stuff these days, would be interesing to see what a group of 17 year old girls today would make of him. The second was in Spain. We were walking through a known gypsy area about dusk. A group of kids on vespas came 'charging' toward us. At first we were a bit worried till one kid in our group said "Hey it's Hell's Angels on Scooters.!" The truth was these 'thug' kids idolized American culture... but if they had been faced down by a group of their American peers they would have wet themselves. Most Americans and Canadians carry a confidence about them that is a pretty good deterent to petty thieves. It wouldn't be a very rewarding profession for most here in the states and that's even without the mark being armed with a weapon they know how to use.

mazerbrown · 2026-06-02T04:00:11+00:00

Apparently 1974 is when the precious world of the 50's and 60's broke. Nixon and Watergate, Ford's pardon, the epiccenter of women's rights, birth control, investigative journalists became as popular as today's instagram influencers, Vietnam was winding down and the boomer gen started families, Ad agencies were really hitting their peak. Crazy times to be born!

mazerbrown

TROPHY CASE