I suspect that if you are an average person, such as myself that you might shake your head from time to time wondering why… Why do people do that? What purpose does this or that serve? How can this entity or business get away with that practice? You get the idea, right?
I find that my mind tends to wander and random thoughts pop in and out, or I’ll see something that I simply don’t understand. Not understand in the sense that I could Google it and get an answer, but more about human behavior and the lack of courtesy or manners. While Google might have an answer for that, I’ll share my examples in no particular order. I don’t have a prepared list, so I’m just going to wing it.
Last night during my shift at work, while it’s not a sight I haven’t seen before, I still find myself perplexed as to WHY this continues to happen. Ladies, I’m talking to you! I know you’ve witnessed this too, but no one will ever confess to being the culprit. Why do some of you feel it is perfectly acceptable to not flush the (public) toilet after you’ve done your business? It’s one thing if you did flush and maybe not everything went down, I get that. What I’m talking about are the obvious logs you leave behind with wads of toilet paper. So when the unassuming next person walks in that’s the first thing they see, a full bowl of nastiness, to which most people will go into the next stall to see if that one is in better condition.
Why do you not flush? Are you in too much of a hurry to push a lever while you’re putting yourself together? Don’t blame your kids as the culprit. Why does the next person shy away from flushing it when they notice the unsightly mess? Did I miss the memo on that? The memo that must have read: Don’t ever under any circumstance flush a toilet if you didn’t make the mess! Is this why the line up for the ladies bathroom is so long? Four stalls out of eight are unflushed and nobody wants to be that person to flush it then use it.
Come on ladies, we are better than that! Public bathrooms can be gross especially if you go in and the seat is wet with what is not splash back from a powerful flush. There are usually seat covers for your protection and toilet paper that will dry the seat before you sit and to act as a barrier if you don’t want to touch the handle. While it occurred to me, maybe some ladies think the toilet is one of those self-flushing toilets. Might I suggest that you make sure the bowl is empty before you leave the stall, you know out of common courtesy. We all poop, it is not a contest, nobody is coming to measure or take pictures for the world record. Please pay it forward and flush and for the love of god, wash your hands. Don’t just run the water for a few seconds and assume you are good to go.
While I’m on this topic, I will admit to not being a “Chatty Cathy” in the public bathrooms. I’m there to do my business to get out, that area is not a social hangout for me. I do appreciate the ladies that are chatty and I especially appreciate when there is music playing both of which helps to muffle the noise taking place in the stalls. By all means, chat it up, just don’t expect me to join the conversation.
Moving right along….. Property Tax. I do understand the principle behind it and I understand inflation and this is just another means of the government making money from the taxpayers. What bothers me is the fact that each year the price of the property tax goes up as if to suggest that the land is somehow worth more, yet the size never gets bigger, nor have there been any upgrades to make it worth more. It’s not like the government is coming out to perform the landscaping, snow removal, mowing the grass, trimming our hedges, installing a pool or supplying us with a shed to justify the constant price increases that they arbitrarily assign to our plot of land.
The size of the land is never going to change, neither should the price. Perhaps a tiered pricing based on size should be considered. That is just how my mind works. I don’t think it’s fair for a person that has a half acre plot to pay the same or more than a person with a full acre plot. It doesn’t make sense to me. I’m sure there are factors that I am not considering simply because I am not aware.
The idea of being taxed to death doesn’t sit well with me. We pay more to the government then we are allowed to keep just for the privilege of being a homeowner. Once you purchase something (other than a subscription) and you’ve paid the tax, you should be free and clear unless you’ve returned it. That transaction I understand. The idea that you buy the land, pay the tax, you now “own” the land, but you still pay $2,000/year in tax to the city doesn’t make sense.
I did a bit of research to help wrap my mind around this and this is what I found for the area I live in.
Property taxes are the main source of revenue for the Municipality and are based on 3 components:
- Your property value, as assessed by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC)
- The applicable Municipal and County tax rate, as determined by the Municipality and the County based on their budgetary requirements
- The education tax rate, as determined by the Province.
While that helps a bit, I still think that the cities/financial planners should do a better job budgeting and stop spending money that doesn’t belong to them. Stop hiring their friends/family’s company without considering other options that may be less expensive. Find better alternatives to snow removal that doesn’t result in a yearly pothole season and fixing the same potholes from the previous year.
I don’t know…. I’m not a big fan of tradition and following along with the idea that just because that is how something has always been done, so let’s not change it mentality.
That is a good segway into laws and how people are so hung up on” that’s what was written when the forefathers of the nation created those laws”, we must abide by them. Let’s not forget that so much has changed since then. The world is a much different place now and I think that some laws should be reworked as they no longer apply after 300 years. But what do I know….
I think this is a good time to end this rant. I know there are more topics I will discuss, but this is a segment that will have to be continued.
Thanks for listening and allowing me to vent ~ Hannah
Reinbeck Studio, Creative Space 