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Tag Archives: dogs

On workmanship

As you know, the house has undergone rather extensive repairs after the great waterfall incident of one-three.  It might have sounded better if we were still in one of the zero years.  The “great waterfall incident of one-three” doesn’t sound nearly as good as the “great waterfall incident of aught-three.”  Oh well.

Anyway, extensive repairs.  The house is livable again.  I moved back in over the weekend.  Yaris is both happy and sad as I expected.  But she did score a new Kong toy in the ordeal and she gets to enjoy peanut butter without toast now.

Having had all these repairs done to the house, I have come to know intimately how nice it is to have tradesmen who know what they’re doing.  Like actually know what they’re doing.  Not just talk big and then do a half-ass job.  Half-assery is one of my pet peeves.  Especially if I am paying for a good job and get a half-assed results in return.

Now, I realize that licensed, good contractors and tradesmen are relatively expensive to hire and maintain.  But they take pride in their work and it shows in the outcome.  You don’t have to deal with broken shoddy craftsmanship, broken phone lines, and poor wiring.  These are things that I’m dealing with now.  And it annoys me. 

I’m not expecting things to be perfect, by any means.  But I expect broken and/or chipped tiles to be replaced before they’re cemented and grouted.  You should be checking the tile as you’re laying each piece.  If it’s chipped, you don’t use it.  Or you cut away the damaged part and use the good part.  You don’t lay chipped tile. 

I expect the grouting to be complete and without gaps.  If holes are found in the grout, I expect it to be fixed. 

I expect things like the phone line to be intact after the job is done.  Our phone lines were touched because they had to replace a bunch of drywall.  If you have to disconnect the phone lines to do your work, fine.  You should mark the wires so you know how to put them back.  And phone lines aren’t hard to wire.  There are two wires.  TWO.  WIRES.

I expect things to be done with minimal complaining.  You bid for the job and you got it.  If you realize that you’ve underbid, you don’t leave the job half finished.  If a change order is necessary, then you talk to the client about a change order.  If I should not be required to babysit your every move to make sure the job is completed as agreed.

And as for things like electrical and plumbing, it’s probably better to have a licensed tradesman do the job.  They know the code and the proper technique.  A general contractor may be able to complete the job, but there’s a good chance that they’ll do it wrong.  And then you have a major problem on your hands.

And contracts people.  Contracts.  Don’t hire anyone without a proper contract.  It protects you and it protects them.

And why has all this been a problem?  Because my parents decided that price was more important that workmanship.  They had their reasons.  I’m not sure if they’re regretting it now.  You think everything has been completed and you can stop worrying about the house, but no.  Because the job was poorly completed and possibly more things are wrong.

In which Yaris is blasé about the whole thing

Yaris is a very mellow dog.  Yes, she does have her moments when she’s terribly excited and will tear around the house or whatever in her excitement.  Yes, she does forcibly unpack her bags in excitement when I come and collect her from our neighbor, who is so very kind to dog sit for me when I’m away.  Yes, when Yaris forcibly unpacks her bag—really it’s just one, I don’t know why I said it was plural before, I dedicated the KPCC tote bag for her things—when I pick her up from our neighbor’s house it’s really counterproductive because she’s excited to see me and to go home but now she can’t go home because I have to pack her bag again.  But overall, Yaris is a pretty mellow dog.

So really, I shouldn’t have been surprised when she did this.  Well, actually I wasn’t.

Hmm, no.  I’m not going to show you what she did just yet.  First, I’m going to tell you about Mishka.

You know who Mishka is right?  Mishka is the talking husky.  Here, I’ll show you.

Mishka is an exceptionally vocal husky.  She also has her own youtube channel, which can make for fun times if you have a dog of your own.

Thus, my brother sent me this not too long ago.

That’s a video of Noushka reacting to a Mishka video.  I figure my bro sent me the clip because Noushka is a GSD, like Yaris, and she seemed really confused by Mishka’s talking.  Or really she’s probably just trying to make sense of all the noise.  Or possibly, she’s trying to figure out where the sound is coming from.  No one seems to really know.  But anyway, it’s fun to watch and to speculate what head-tilting dogs are thinking.

And so, I thought maybe Yaris would do something similar.  And since my bro so nicely sent me the video, I figured I would just play it for Yaris and see what kind of reaction I’d get.

Now, I say that I thought maybe Yaris would do something similar, but…I don’t think I really did.  Because one time, Yaris and I went into a Petco to find her a new harness because she nearly chewed through her old one in a fit of anxiety (this was close to the time when my neighbor first started dog sitting for me and before Yaris developed a close relationship with my neighbor’s son who relieved her of some of her anxiety from me leaving her with then-strangers).

Well, we walked into the Petco and they were having an adoption event for small, stupid, yappy, noisy dogs.  And true to form, the moment we walked in, the small, stupid, yappy, noisy dogs started to be yappy and noisy (because they are already and were always small and stupid, they don’t suddenly become that way when someone walks into Petco).  Yaris, on the other hand, completely ignored them unlike many other dogs who were stirred into a frenzy and barked at all the noise coming from the entrance of the store.  All the dog handlers and Petco employees were duly impressed with Yaris’ mellowness in the face of annoying, small, stupid, yappy, noisy dogs.

Can you tell I don’t like small dogs?  I’m not sure if I made that clear.  ANYWAY…

With this as the background, I wasn’t really expecting a lot of reaction from Yaris as she heard another dog howling.  I mean, she can’t see or smell this other dog.  She can only hear the other dog.  This pales in comparison with the plethora of annoying, small, stupid, yappy, noisy dogs that she could hear and see and smell and did not react to.

So without further ado…here’s her response to the video I played for her.