Hi --
Sorry I've been "gone" for so long -- more about that in my latest TLDR on my "Puff H. Bailey" blog. :wink:
Badger sounds like a really good service dog, and it sounds like he'd qualify as an "emotional support animal" as well, but if I understand correctly, being a service dog is all he needs to get into places where only service dogs are allowed to go -- I guess the rules about "emotional support animals" are still somewhat fuzzy.
Yep -- I'd say a favorite food would make the best possible birthday gift for a beardie. It would certainly brighten their day.
The night before our trip weekend before last, we had just finished feeding Puff a huge meal of roaches so he'd be prepared to be alone for two days and one night with lots of salad and some Repashy Grub Pie, and when he was back in his tank and saw us putting the rest of the bugs away, he came running over to the front of the tank all excited, and I was like, " :shock: Seriously? You're stuffed, and you want more?" But I guess I shouldn't complain. The healthy appetite just might have saved his life over the last few months.
Too much of the same routine for too long can definitely put your brain in "neutral" -- and in my case, I'm afraid it can even contribute to my depression, much as I hate to admit it, because I tend to like my nice comfortable predictable stay-at-home-most-of-the-time lifestyle. My life has been anything but routine for the past couple of weeks, and I have to admit that a break from the normal everyday stuff can be a pretty effective antidepressant, but within unknown and unpredictable limits -- too much "adventure" can also stress me out and push me off the deep end. No easy answers. :?
We've had some similar problems to yours with our trash pickup -- a few years back the city switched to a different service provider and it turned out they wanted our trash receptacle in a different place and weren't picking it up because it wasn't where they expected it to be, but no one told us. There's only the two of us and we recycle as much as we can, so we could go several weeks without trash pickup if we had to -- but I don't like paying for services I'm not getting -- like if they only picked up the trash half the time this month, than do we get half off on our bill? Nooo, and I hate having to call and hassle with them too. Like you say, it sucks -- but at least not too much for us lately. Once they got things up and running, the service has been pretty reliable. and we have curbside recycling now too.
And of all the bills we pay for our utilities, the trash bill is the smallest one and the least of our worries.
On the other hand, best not to get me started about the telecommunications bill (
). My husband did a bunch of research about what else is available, and it turns out that we're stuck with the one we've got even though they keep screwing us over with their bait-and-switch marketing and billing tactics, because nobody else in the area provides the same quality and type of services for the price.
One good thing about it though -- I guess maybe we'll still have cable TV (albeit ridiculously expensive cable TV) by the time the new Dr Who series starts, and I may be able to watch it after all.
:roll:
So as long as we're not down to our last dime, I guess the best thing for me to do is to just quit complaining about the bills and go cuddle our beardie, and just be grateful that he seems to have dodged another bullet where the adenovirus is concerned, at least for now... :mrgreen: I guess things could be a whole lot worse...
(Oops. There went another TLDR.
)