doggy poop III

After thinking about my earlier post I decided that it was a good idea to appeal to the dogs and I have put up the following notice outside my house. This should get interesting. I'll post the results.

Dog poop the sequel

Last night was the regular meeting of our neighbourhood tasking forum. This is the platform where residents can bring concerns to our town coordinator, neighbourhood manager and the police. The forum covers all residents in our ward. These events are not usually well attended and last night was no exception. By the time it was over I was thoroughly depressed. Too many items still outstanding from last time and loads more genuine concerns to add to the list. My wife has a way of interjecting at crucial times with practical suggestions and ideas. Last night without warning she raised the dog poop issue and asked if we could display a warning notice on our property addressed to the dogs because clearly many of the owners cannot read. This humour was lost on most of the audience except the town coordinator who could see why and to his credit offered to look into it. A couple of years back I did a poem on similar lines which was published in our local free paper. The depths us amateur poets have stoop to get stuff published. Anyway I thought I would publish it again here, I hope you enjoy.

Dear Dogs,
Hello, Fred, Spot, Zoe and Rover,
are you a dog with an irresponsible owner?
Do you run free, bark and whoop?
does your owner have a poopa scoop?
I thought not because they don’t care
but to kids in the park it’s not very fair.
Your mess you see can make folks sick,
so could you please their conscience prick?
Next time you go for your walk in the park.
if they’ve got no scoop, please start to bark.
Or better still be a good dog,
stay at home and do it on the bog.

whuff whuff.

Txtin 4 dumis 2

Our local evening newspaper ran a piece last night on texting. With the headline “Sub-text of youth’s new language” When I read the headline I thought they must be reading the blog. It appears some phones have a predictive text facility but some youngsters use the first word that comes up. Usual high standard of reporting from Express & Star with a list of words that the user might enter and what you might get. Things like book for cool now how on earth are you supposed to figure that out. And I thought I was getting the hang of it. Back to the drawing board Bob or is the keyboard?

Dog poop is back

Nothing is more likely to put me in Victor Meldrew mode than irresponsible dog owners who do not clean up after their pets. At the front of my house is a grassed area with some bushes and trees which is a very pleasant outlook. Since the introduction of fixed penalty fines and the introduction of some other council initiatives we have been dog mess free for several years. Recently I have noticed our front drive as become a doggy bog once again. Because of the way our house is situated we would not normally see out the front of the house, so the perpetrators can get away with.
Some years ago my wife caught one of the dog owners in the act so to speak and promptly told him off. The wayward fellow dared to suggest that we were not animal lovers. This comment enraged my wife who promptly verbally attacked this owner and followed him to his home finger wagging and giving him a good ear full.
I might have to monitor our driveway to catch the culprit and name and shame him/her on the blog.

hav I fnd d way?

To communicate with my grandkids.
And I thought I was alone in thinking that texting for dummies was unique to me. I did a google search and there are plenty of us who appear to be in the same position.
Try this link http://www.allinfoabout.com/text_messaging_sms.html my thanks to "all info about” For the following list of useful text abbreviations I don’t think my grandkids read the list though.

Text messaging shortcuts

Abbreviation Meaning
<3 heart
404 I haven't a clue
ADN Any day now
AFAIK As far as I know
AFK Away from keyboard
ARE Acronym-rich environment
ASAP As soon as possible

There about three pages of this, so well done to them.
Just to add to the complication eldest American grandchild tells me her mobile puts some of the words in when you enter the first letter. And I was just getting the hang of this. I still don't think they think their grandad is cool about this blogging stuff.

Texting for dummies

I don’t speak the same language as my grandkids. They were born and brought up in Brum but they have developed a new language all of their own and their mates of course. I refer to the use of mobile phones and in particular the way that they text me. Hw R U is OK ,got it, no probs there but the text are now so complex I take longer to try to work out what they are saying than the message itself. This method if writing is now spreading to emails so I recognise I better learn it fast. I was just wondering if anyone had written a book on what these abbreviations were and what they meant. It might be a good project for me, should keep me quiet for a couple of years.
I’m no dummy when it comes to the use of new technology and in fact taught them their early skills in the use of computers. Now when I ask for help I get the “oh must I look” a quick run over the keyboard,if I’m lucky, and if I should dare to ask to show me again I get the impression I am some kind of sub being who should no better than to ask. Such is progress.
Se ya lt8r ad n al Where’s that dictionary texting for dummies by btbcbrmy?

Pensioner power! I luv it.

Last night was the regular meeting of our town committee. This is usually a civilised affair with a few councillors a couple of dozen members of the public and a few council officers. Last night though it was standing room only. I was late getting there and all I could see was rows of elderly people listening to a petition being read out eloquently by one of our senior councillors. It appears that a bus company has without consultation removed a bus service to one of the most deprived neighbourhoods in Sandwell. This action as in effect cut off the residents better than a 6ft. snow fall. The chair who I know was doing her best to move the meeting on but the old folk were having none of it. It was good to see Age Concern being there to advocate on their behalf. Eventually the residents succumbed and left the meeting after being given assurances that everything would be done to get their bus service replaced. I’d like to bet that this happens pretty quickly because there’s nothing like a bunch of pensioners who are angry about an injustice. I also think our MP’s surgery is likely to be pretty busy next Friday and Saturday.
Our new councillor was there doing his bit and raising one or two very important issues our Lib Dem councillors though were absent. These were the party who only a little over a week ago were telling the electorate they were strong voice on the council. No voice last night.