Crazy neighbor spending

[mm1970]

I agree with the environmental slant.  Why wealthy people feel they should be able to abuse the environment more than the poor I dont understand.  its like that cunt dicaprio.  Bangs on about saving the environment while fucking about on a private jet and a load of fucking huge yachts.

In California, some neighborhoods are saying F you, to anyone that suggests conservation. In fact, some areas, water usage has gone up!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/rich-californians-youll-have-to-pry-the-hoses-from-our-cold-dead-hands/2015/06/13/fac6f998-0e39-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html

I live in Santa Barbara.  It's fairly liberal but of course there are a fair number of conservatives here too.  I fall squarely in the middle, which means I'm left of center for the country, far left of my home town, and a little right of center for this town.

I was going for a walk with some lady friends - one who is in her 70s, and one who is probably in her late 50's.  I've walked with the 50-something a few times, and the 70something a lot (known her for 15 years) so I knew she was conservative.

We got to talking about the drought, and the water restrictions.  I talked a bit about Navy showers and using a bucket to collect cold water at the beginning of the shower.  (Honestly, I stopped collecting the water because we don't have plants to put it on).  The 50-something is a property manager for a man who owns a multi-million dollar estate in the county.  She comes out with "it is right for the government to tell my boss that he has to let his million dollar landscaping die because they want him to conserve water?"

I said "yes.  Because, water for people to drink, eat, and shower is more important.  He can replace his landscaping with water-wise landscaping."  She wasn't very happy about that opinion.
Of course we also had a discussion about school funding.  In one sentence, she noted that she went to the public school on my street, but insisted that she should not have to pay school taxes because she did not have children.  I pointed out that she's paying off her own schooling.  She insisted she should get a discount.  I told her "it's called Prop 13!!"  I've got neighbors who pay 1/8 what I do.

[Abe]

I feel it's fine for the estate owner to water his plants, as long as he pays a fair rate for the water. Australia has a semi-market based water system that apparently has worked well during their multi-year drought (well = still having water, not having fancy gardens). Let's see how much he likes those plants when other taxpayers aren't subsidizing them. If he decides they are worth several thousand dollars per month, the government can use that for water conserving measures elsewhere.

[BPA]

I'm all for people having their own ideas of how to run their lives, but when they get all uppity and put down the values of others who have been following the general philosophy from the beginning, they deserve to be facepunched.

I don't see the OP as jealous at all.  In fact, I think that way of thinking says more about the spending habits of those who make the accusations than anything else.  Pure projection. 

Spend all you like, but don't get down on the rest of us who actually read the blog and follow lifestyles similar to MMM. 

[ilsy]

Are some of the posters here seriously suggesting that we shouldn't make fun of people for driving 100 yards? *double checks the address bar*

Well, I'm new, so I should probably keep it to myself that I drive my kids to school in my 2013 Subaru instead of walking 200 yards to school. I just guess whoever is going to make fun of me doesn't live in a climate with several foot of snow in winter (and I guess the people in the subject do live in a place where there is snow on the streets in winter). Just FYI, I do shovel my own driveway. But in my neighborhood there are no sidewalks, so walking to school would be on the streets that might be plowed or might be not yet. And even if they were, it's still very hard to walk on them, they are icy, there are huge mountains of snow on the side preventing 2 cars to go by, let alone to go by when there are people walking. But even if we make it on the residential roads, we need to walk about 80 yards on the busy minimum 40 m/hour road. There is a sidewalk there, but it's rarely shoveled. So all 3 of us would need to have an additional pair of shoes and pants to change when we make it to school. I guess this is still manageable. But I'm sure at some point the school principal will approach me saying that my "street walking" isn't very safe for my kids and will politely ask me if I need any help with transportation before he complaints to CPS. 

But even if there is no snow around, I would have to admit that I do drive my kids. I don't waste time on buckling and unbuckling them, since they are out of car seats now. But we are working on being more independent and prepare our own food which takes precious time in the morning and leaves no time for walking. And at this point of life making my kids more independent is more important to me than making sure they can walk, they aren't toddlers. I figured since they shovel with me, they probably would pass the walking to school test. And since I drive after that to work, 200 yards won't make a significant difference, takes me longer to find a parking lot at work sometimes.

Having said that, my annual budget for a family of 3 is 22k and I lough at my neighbors who pay for gym memberships, are absolutely not-fit, but outsource shoveling and moving.

[BPA]

@ilsy:  Thank you for not treating the rest of us like we are clued out freaks because we might make different choices than you.  That attitude is my particular beef. 

Just curious: do all of the kids in your neighbourhood get driven to school?  We get a lot of snow here too and I've never owned a car.  I am lucky that there are sidewalks, but after a heavy snow they aren't often shoveled by school time the next morning.

[JrDoctor]

I agree with the environmental slant.  Why wealthy people feel they should be able to abuse the environment more than the poor I dont understand.  its like that cunt dicaprio.  Bangs on about saving the environment while fucking about on a private jet and a load of fucking huge yachts.

In California, some neighborhoods are saying F you, to anyone that suggests conservation. In fact, some areas, water usage has gone up!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/rich-californians-youll-have-to-pry-the-hoses-from-our-cold-dead-hands/2015/06/13/fac6f998-0e39-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html

Given how unnaceptable it is to be a member of the KKK in the US here is my 4 point plan to sort this problem
1.)Buy used KKK outfits of ebay in bult
2.)Paint a picture of the earth or a tap with water coming out with it on both sides on the outfits
3.)Gather a possy
4.)Lynch anyone being inconsiderate enough to overuse water and fuck over there fellow man

That or tax/increase the price of water to truly represent its scarcity, its unbelievable how cheap we have it in the developed world.

[Catomi]

Are some of the posters here seriously suggesting that we shouldn't make fun of people for driving 100 yards? *double checks the address bar*

Well, I'm new, so I should probably keep it to myself that I drive my kids to school in my 2013 Subaru instead of walking 200 yards to school. I just guess whoever is going to make fun of me doesn't live in a climate with several foot of snow in winter (and I guess the people in the subject do live in a place where there is snow on the streets in winter). Just FYI, I do shovel my own driveway. But in my neighborhood there are no sidewalks, so walking to school would be on the streets that might be plowed or might be not yet. And even if they were, it's still very hard to walk on them, they are icy, there are huge mountains of snow on the side preventing 2 cars to go by, let alone to go by when there are people walking. But even if we make it on the residential roads, we need to walk about 80 yards on the busy minimum 40 m/hour road. There is a sidewalk there, but it's rarely shoveled. So all 3 of us would need to have an additional pair of shoes and pants to change when we make it to school. I guess this is still manageable. But I'm sure at some point the school principal will approach me saying that my "street walking" isn't very safe for my kids and will politely ask me if I need any help with transportation before he complaints to CPS. 

But even if there is no snow around, I would have to admit that I do drive my kids. I don't waste time on buckling and unbuckling them, since they are out of car seats now. But we are working on being more independent and prepare our own food which takes precious time in the morning and leaves no time for walking. And at this point of life making my kids more independent is more important to me than making sure they can walk, they aren't toddlers. I figured since they shovel with me, they probably would pass the walking to school test. And since I drive after that to work, 200 yards won't make a significant difference, takes me longer to find a parking lot at work sometimes.

Having said that, my annual budget for a family of 3 is 22k and I lough at my neighbors who pay for gym memberships, are absolutely not-fit, but outsource shoveling and moving.

Well... I live in Michigan. Does that count? We walked last winter, even in single digits F. And yes, I put snow pants and boots on my kids, and yes, those had to come off when we got to school and it was a minor pain. But still probably less of a pain than having to preheat my car (can't wear puffy coats in car seats), buckle them in, and deal with the car line. I will drive if the sidewalks were totally iced (I was carrying the infant and didn't want to fall) or if pickup time coincided with a thunderstorm. Or if it was below zero with wind chill, because the infant was too young to self-report temp.

I find it really surprising that there are no sidewalks that close to the school. Can you petition to get some installed? I'd think it would be a potential safety concern for quite a few children.

ETA: ah, reading comprehension failure. There is a sidewalk, but it is rarely shoveled. Eh, I'd still walk it. But I'm just headed home again after dropoff.

[zephyr911]

Well, I'm new, so I should probably keep it to myself that I drive my kids to school in my 2013 Subaru instead of walking 200 yards to school.

*interminable list of caveats*

We're still gonna point and laugh, but not because we don't like you. I'd suggest joining us... if you can't laugh at yourself, why live at all? ;)

[cavewoman]

I agree with the environmental slant.  Why wealthy people feel they should be able to abuse the environment more than the poor I dont understand.  its like that cunt dicaprio.  Bangs on about saving the environment while fucking about on a private jet and a load of fucking huge yachts.

In California, some neighborhoods are saying F you, to anyone that suggests conservation. In fact, some areas, water usage has gone up!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/rich-californians-youll-have-to-pry-the-hoses-from-our-cold-dead-hands/2015/06/13/fac6f998-0e39-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html

I live in Santa Barbara.  It's fairly liberal but of course there are a fair number of conservatives here too.  I fall squarely in the middle, which means I'm left of center for the country, far left of my home town, and a little right of center for this town.

I was going for a walk with some lady friends - one who is in her 70s, and one who is probably in her late 50's.  I've walked with the 50-something a few times, and the 70something a lot (known her for 15 years) so I knew she was conservative.

We got to talking about the drought, and the water restrictions.  I talked a bit about Navy showers and using a bucket to collect cold water at the beginning of the shower.  (Honestly, I stopped collecting the water because we don't have plants to put it on).  The 50-something is a property manager for a man who owns a multi-million dollar estate in the county.  She comes out with "it is right for the government to tell my boss that he has to let his million dollar landscaping die because they want him to conserve water?"

I said "yes.  Because, water for people to drink, eat, and shower is more important.  He can replace his landscaping with water-wise landscaping."  She wasn't very happy about that opinion.
Of course we also had a discussion about school funding.  In one sentence, she noted that she went to the public school on my street, but insisted that she should not have to pay school taxes because she did not have children.  I pointed out that she's paying off her own schooling.  She insisted she should get a discount.  I told her "it's called Prop 13!!"  I've got neighbors who pay 1/8 what I do.

We use our shower water bucket to flush the toilet for pee. Just an idea :-)
But if you let yellow mellow, we're sitting similarly because I don't do that

[Papa Mustache]

I don't mean to be judgy about my neighbor, but I'm gonna. The family of four at the end of the next block, who in 2013 bought $1.1 million, 6,250 sq. ft. mansion in a neighborhood where you can buy a really nice home for $300k, had a professional snow removal team clear the drive for them this morning so they could drive their kids to school in the Land Rover. The school is within sight of their house (about 100 yards).
Oh, and they left the Tesla parked in the garage.

Trickle down economics at work!!! ;)

[bzzzt]

Also, I think it is crazy to outsource snow shovelling.  The only way I'd consider it is if a couple of neighborhood kids were trying to get some work out of it.  If you hate snow shovelling and household chores so much then it might make more sense to live in a condo or apartment.

I wish neighborhood kids would still come around to shovel driveways. I did it when I was young, but I've lived here for 3 years and never had one ask.

I have a quarter acre corner lot in a neighborhood with sidewalks, a 36' x 30' driveway, a 24' x 16' patio, and a 24' x 4' sidewalk on the side of the house. I hate shoveling. I don't even like it when there's enough to get out the snow blower. I'm a complainy-pants.

[ShoulderThingThatGoesUp]

Also, I think it is crazy to outsource snow shovelling.  The only way I'd consider it is if a couple of neighborhood kids were trying to get some work out of it.  If you hate snow shovelling and household chores so much then it might make more sense to live in a condo or apartment.

I wish neighborhood kids would still come around to shovel driveways. I did it when I was young, but I've lived here for 3 years and never had one ask.

I have a quarter acre corner lot in a neighborhood with sidewalks, a 36' x 30' driveway, a 24' x 16' patio, and a 24' x 4' sidewalk on the side of the house. I hate shoveling. I don't even like it when there's enough to get out the snow blower. I'm a complainy-pants.

For one storm last year I was sick, my wife was sick, and all I wished for was some 14-year-old to offer to shovel my 15 feet of sidewalk and my steps for $10. No luck.

I had to get an inhaler that night. It cost a lot more than $10.

[gillstone]

I think the OP doesn't realize that really stupid purchases and poor planning are a hallmark of Spokane residents.  Its like one long mustachian nightmare.  A giant suburb with no real industry that spreads like a cancer over beautiful landscape and covers all it touches in meth labs, strip malls and McMansions.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2015/12/18/i-am-not-your-father

[Papa Mustache]

I think the OP doesn't realize that really stupid purchases and poor planning are a hallmark of Spokane residents.  Its like one long mustachian nightmare.  A giant suburb with no real industry that spreads like a cancer over beautiful landscape and covers all it touches in meth labs, strip malls and McMansions.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2015/12/18/i-am-not-your-father

Isn't it like that in most metro suburbs? Endless sprawl.

[stlbrah]

bedpan + cathetar