Don’t get your service contract for your furnace from the same folks that sell you oil. Now we know. After all, they have not only no incentive to make sure your furnace runs efficiently, but plenty of incentive to make sure it doesn’t.
Since our furnace folk failed to show up (twice) to fix our air conditioning, we had someone else came out. He actually made it on less than an hour’s notice to give us an estimate. Instead he ended up putting together a temporary fix that at least lets us run the A/C, although we have to empty a bucket of the condensation run-off once an hour or so (so, we turn it off at night).
He checked out the furnace while he was here because it got flooded by the runoff leak. When he opened up a part of it soot puffed out; he looked at the built-up, rusted-out interior and said, “this hasn’t been serviced in a while, has it?” But the thing is–it has. Apparently they just weren’t doing much service when they serviced it. At some point the guy said, “I don’t care if you get a service contract with us or someone else, or don’t get one at all. But I tell people, ‘for the love of god, if you get a service contract, don’t get it with the company that supplies your oil!'” (They also had it set for minimum fuel efficiency, apparently.)
Long story short–we’re looking at replacing both A/C unit and furnace. The A/C unit has reached the end of its viable lifespan (been running about 15 years apparently) and the furnace not only is fairly old, but has been very poorly maintained, and now flooded.
So, the meerkat story. Here’s the thing: some nine-year-old girl climbed over several barriers at a zoo to pet the meerkats, and naturally got bitten. Her parents had two options–have her get rabies shots, or have the entire family of meerkats euthanized and tested for rabies.
Apparently their poor little baby shouldn’t have to suffer through rabies shots–even though they might have freakin’ taught her that there are consequences for her actions–so they had the meerkats euthanized. It’s enough to make me sick. People can be such selfish asses. Basically what they’ve now taught their daughter is that her comfort is more important than the lives of others.
Of course, the fact that they don’t hold her responsible for her actions goes a long way toward explaining why she’d do something that stupid in the first place; she’s already learned that it’s okay for her to ignore the rules. It would have taken her some time to clamber over all those barriers, yet apparently either her parents weren’t paying any attention to her during that time or didn’t stop her. These all say interesting things about the parenting skills of these two.
Link found on FARK.
Wow, I’m suprised the zoo was willing to go along with the euthanizing. You’re right about how this was a perfect “actions have consequences” teaching moment.
Unfortunately it sounds like the zoo didn’t have a choice. They can’t force the parents to give their kid the shots, and if the kid doesn’t get the shots, I gather the law says they’re required to do the testing. And rabies tests involve testing the brain tissue, which can only be done after the animal is dead. It was entirely the parents’ choice, and they made the irresponsible, selfish choice. Grrr…