this is ted. ted is my brother’s cutie patootie corgi mix puppy. he went to the vet to get neutered a little over a week ago, and ended up getting sick. he’s been back to the vet twice since he got neutered, and today they admitted him…he will be at the vet on IV antibiotics until wednesday. he has some swelling/pain in one of his back legs, which the vet thinks may be due to an internal abscess, but they’re not sure yet. if it is, it’s going to require surgery, which will probably cost $1000+. as it is, my brother is already paying $500 for the vet stay
my brother is a great guy, and he’s going to graduate from college in may. in the meantime, he is working as a part time leasing agent for an apartment complex, and doesn’t have a lot of money to spare. for those of you who are familiar with the personal & family drama i overshare on the internet, i am currently working part-time in a retail job & am having a hard time making ends meet. my parents got divorced about a year ago, my dad has been in and out of hospitals for his own physical & mental health problems, and my mom lost our house back in may, so as you can imagine, they don’t have much to spare either.
ted has been an amazing companion for my brother, who is dealing with his own depression & anxiety. if anyone is able to help pitch in to cover teddy’s vet bills, we would greatly appreciate it. for anyone who is able/willing to pitch in a couple of dollars, my paypal is biprivilege@gmail.com. i would also appreciate if you’re able/willing to share this. i will update with more info as i get it / if a gofundme gets set up
In all the interactions, whenever ‘rape’ is brought up, it does not feel like an honest question posed, or a problem that people yearn to discuss. It is not asked. Rather, it is stated to me. The people involved then feel like an interview panel, where one interviewer hurls a complex topic at you, saying, “discuss!” and the others just watch. As I begin to answer, I notice people’s eyes on me. Eyes thirsting to see how I tackle the question, so they can either get their answers about rapes in India or note how Indian women talk about rapes in India.
Wanna know the thing I’ve learned about this year that’s changed how I look at the world more than anything?
Pinsetters.
You know, the machines at bowling alleys that set the pins back up after you’ve knocked them down.
The thing about pinsetters is that they’re oddly difficult to get ahold of. In fact, most models of pinsetter haven’t been manufactured at all since the 1970s; the majority of bowling alleys get theirs secondhand, and competition for the increasingly rare supply of spare parts can be fierce.
You probably knew that there were once over a dozen different varieties of bowling that were popular throughout North America; what you might not know is that most of those varieties have gone extinct not because nobody is interested in playing them, but because the particular kind of pinsetter they require can no longer be obtained in sufficient quantities to keep bowling alleys in business. Indeed, the most common reason for a bowling alley to go under isn’t lack of customers, but having pinsetters that can’t be repaired when they break down because the parts and the institutional knowledge required to do so no longer exist!
Like, people will cross the planet to get their hands on replacement pinsetter parts. It’s like a goddamn post-apocalyptic scavenger hunt out there to keep these ancient contraptions in working order.
For bowling.
I’m sure it’s a metaphor for something or other, but hell if I can figure out what.
Do you instead mean that maintenance parts for older pinsetters aren’t
manufactured anymore? Because it looks like there’s still an extant
pinsetter manufacturing industry (Brunswick still makes them, for
example) and modern varieties can handle pinsetting for all pin games.
I said most models aren’t manufactured anymore, not all. And it’s absolutely not true that modern versions can handle pinsetting for any game; most duckpin and candlepin variants are badly short on compatible pinsetters, for example, and even pinsetters that can do Canadian five-pin are often hard to find. About the only context where it’s not a major issue is if you assume “bowling” is synonymous with “American ten-pin bowling”.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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