Grumpy Kludges

Our internet service provider sucks (I'm looking at you Wild Blue). Apparently we live in an area so "remote" that the only internet service out here is via satellite. We live 10 minutes from a very nice suburban housing area and 20 from a major metropolitan city. And yet we can't even get dial up. Granted the telephone wiring in this house probably hasn't been updated since the house was built in the 70's and probably couldn't handle dial up to begin with... We would still like the option though.


But anyway the "Data Allowance", which by the way we were not informed of until about 4 months into our contract, just  usually ends up running out around the middle of the month. We don't use Netflix (although it would be really nice too, due to the fact that we don't get public TV due to our "remoteness"), we don't game, and we don't Skype. Our data gets eaten up by Facebook photo uploads, blogging (just recently) and auto updates to software. Which really SUCKS!

Not to mention if it rains or gets to windy, we end up with intermittent service. So I have been unable to upload the photo's for the promised dress tutorial. So that is now on hold until the Data plan renews itself at the beginning of next month. But I do have a replacement.


 Welcome to the first instalment of Grumpy Kludges! For those of you who don't know what a kludge is, then I offer you the following definition from Wikipedia, a kludge is a workaround or quick and dirty solution that is clumsy, inelegant, difficult to extend, and hard to maintain, yet an effective and quick solution to a problem.

My husband, Grumpy Daddy is a self proclaimed genius. He is easily one of the smartest people I know. In fact he's so smart that he becomes a complete idiot. Let me explain, he over complicates everything... EVERYTHING. I asked him for a composter. You know take our organic trash and turn it into yummy mulch for our vegetable garden. First off that was two years ago. His temporary solution was to stick everything into a empty cat litter bucket. That was about 5 months ago. That's cool, it sort of worked until it became full... Then it began to stink. It had turned into the Bog of Eternal Stench. Instead of composting it was mummifying.

It got moved to the side of the house for a party and I forgot about it. So I started asking him again. Here's what I had in mind:

$82.99 @ Target

Apparently I forgot that Grumpy is a certified mad scientist and extremely cheap to boot. Here's what I got:

Sort of like what I wanted... I guess.

Detailed map of his Genius

So far it seems to be working like a composter. Fingers crossed that it doesn't turn into a much larger Bog of Eternal Stench.

~Knotted