Minor rant thread. Post your rants o' the day here!

Re: pharmacies, this is one area that I really grapple with in terms of if capitalism has improved it or impaired it. I love that I can go into a Walgreen's at any time of day, anywhere in the country, know exactly where I'm going and get exactly what I need - whether that is a case of beer, birthday card, nail clippers, a hammer, compression socks, gallon of milk, my antidepressant, or pseudoephedrine. But I hate what all of that has done to the pharmacy itself. 

We use a small pharmacy that is in an urgent care. They'll deliver within a 5 mile radius for free, and often times it is the pharmacist who delivers it. She's wonderful. Supposedly they have another pharmacist who works there, but I've never seen that person. And while they do have nail clippers and kitkats, that is about all that they have outside of the actual drugs that we are trying to get. 

I'll throw in the recommendation to look at both Mark Cuban's pharmacy and Amazon pharmacy when you're looking. For monthly maintenance prescriptions, it can be much cheaper.

Just redeemed a bunch of Apple gift cards I got through work yesterday, and they showed up in my account balance fine.  Put in an order for a new iPad and some accessories.  It let me apply the balance to make the payment.  Got all the way to the end, and got a "Payment authorization failed" error.  Spent time talking to three different people in support to find out that it is likely because they were large gift cards, they may not be able to be used less than 24-48 hours after being added to my account (probably a security thing).  Information that would have been useful to have when I redeemed them in the first place.  They offered to connect me to the iTunes department who might be able to get them authorized, but by this time, it was going to be too late to pick up my purchases at the local store tonight anyway.

At least I didn't drive all the way to the store, pick out my items, and then have the payment fail there.

Just got done voting. 1.5 hours. Ugh. At least it's done. 

People who do the speed limit in the limited-access express lane should be force fed their toenails. 

Dark at 530pm. berkeley this.

jimbob_racing said:

Dark at 530pm. berkeley this.

One of the things I hated most about living in the Caribbean, it was almost this bad all year round. I was driving to work while the sun was rising and if I didn't book it directly home real quick after work, arriving home at sunset. Yet my mom always talks about how the winter darkness is so depressing (while getting a couple hours more of Riddick movie sunlight all year round isn't?)

I didn't get my rad "I  voted" sticker. They ran out.

Damn it. I forgot to vote. Had a bunch of stuff came up and fall allergies are kicking my ass. This is first election I have missed I think since college. I mean it doesn't really matter for officials in this state cause the state is only going to go one way and city elections already happened but I wanted to vote on some of the amendments to the state constitution.

I have new gear that I need to install in two different data centers.  In order to do that, I need one guy to provide me with switch ports that I can use and a second guy to actually go plug the stuff in.  The plug-stuff-in-guy has been ready to go, but I have been waiting for literally a month and two days for the first guy to tell us what ports to use.  First Guy sent me an email this morning with the info for one of the data centers.  I forward that along to Second Guy so he can finally do his part. 

Second Guy is out on vacation from today through next week.

Crap.  Two rants in one day....  Today is my eldest's 16th birthday.  I was supposed to pick her up from school early so she could take the test and get her learner's permit.  As I was getting ready to leave, I went to the firebox to grab her birth certificate.  It's not there.  Turned the house as upside down as I could in about 30 minutes and it's just gone.  I should have made sure we had all that stuff a month ago, but I just assumed it was where it was supposed to be.  I'm pretty much the worst parent ever.

On interstate near St. Louis.  Guy goes by with totally smashed in rear end in Civic.  I see only one tail light on the car.  Temporary paper plate on car.  Wow, how's that legal?

Further down the road I merge into left lane to pass a slower guy.  Speed limit  70mph - we all kinda running 70-75 mph.  

I look at junker - guys slowing down cause there is a bumper in the road - let's call him Mr. No Tail Lights.  I'm jamming down from 70 to 20 and I pull onto side of road to not rear end the guy. He took off so I couldn't even flip him off.  

Almost hit him - almost would get a new truck - wife reminded me to get a camera.  

It was a change the shorts moment. 

Whole berkeleying department calls off... I come to work get bitched at before ass meets chair 

Scheduler berkeleys up... I get bitched at by two separate managers and three customers

Parts department berkeleys up for the 2,348,331 time this week... They bitch at me

Warranty admin changes her mind about how something should be done, doesn't tell anybody. I get bitched at 

The "shop foreman" ie the most recent reincarnation of Jesus himself has never heard of/conceptualized of replacing a coil boot so sure lets make an $1800 spark plug job how could that be a problem... Customer only going to bitch at me

Entering hour four of tires/alignment? Sure why could that be a problem 

Don't get me wrong I make my fair share of mistakes I'm human but I also make up 1/4 of my department and on an average month am responsible for 3/4 of sales... There should be some STRONG shut the berkeley up from the top but no not in the car business. I've never worked for other people well but the door is calling my name hard today. 

I've also begun dating sing PHG and I broke up... that is a rant in and of itself. 

Holy crap. Helped a buddy change his brakes. That was the worst I've ever seen rotors rusted onto the hubs.

Ended up having to bash them repeatedly with a 20# sledge to break them free.

Beer Baron said:

Holy crap. Helped a buddy change his brakes. That was the worst I've ever seen rotors rusted onto the hubs.

Ended up having to bash them repeatedly with a 20# sledge to break them free.

That was mine on my first Miata. We went through 3 sledges before giving up on that tactic for fear of breaking something else on the car. I can't remember exactly how we did it, what we braced it against, but we used a bolt with two nuts and slowly ratcheted it. When it finally came off, it sounded like a bomb went off. 

I signed up for an HDPE day tomorrow. Unfortunately my wife has been pretty sick for the last week. Coughing constantly, can't sleep, etc. I've been feeling a little sick for the last couple days and I'm berkeleying exhausted. As much as I want to go tomorrow just isn't going to happen. 

Still trying to kick the upper respiratory infection the walking Petri dish brought home for Halloween. If I could go in and get my lungs scraped or vacuumed out, that would be awesome.

berkeley project fatigue and post-covid neuro problems. I'm so close to being able to start my motorcycle, but I've got a ground or negative terminal connection that I can't seem to make work, and can't remember what it looked like when it came apart. Hopefully the xs400 forum chimes in somewhat quickly and uses small words...

mtn said:

Beer Baron said:

Holy crap. Helped a buddy change his brakes. That was the worst I've ever seen rotors rusted onto the hubs.

Ended up having to bash them repeatedly with a 20# sledge to break them free.

That was mine on my first Miata. We went through 3 sledges before giving up on that tactic for fear of breaking something else on the car. I can't remember exactly how we did it, what we braced it against, but we used a bolt with two nuts and slowly ratcheted it. When it finally came off, it sounded like a bomb went off. 

We did the repairs in the parking lot at work. When the rubber mallet didn't work, I started getting really nervous about how hard I was going to have to bash this. I really did not want to damage the rotors but not get them off.

Ongoing issue past couple weeks:

Things going on sapping my emotional energy. Lack of mental energy seriously impedes my usual workouts (lifting and climbing). Working out is really good for my mental health, and can't really do that how I want.

Gonna have to change things up, I guess. Running feels good. Planning to bug out early and go to the skatepark if the damned plumber ever shows up like he was supposed to at 8am.

it's been four months

Also Kid #2 is 12 and has real, live temper tantrums near daily. He loses his crap and screams for no reason for an hour or more right at bedtime. If I do nothing I get fussed at. If I gently move him to isolate him somewhere, I get fussed at. If I try to talk him down, I get fussed at. I told him that if a 12-year-old me had tried it, there would be a hole in the wall shaped like me. Maybe that's what he needs.

All those stories passed down as I was growing up about how once you hit 40 you can throw your back out picking up a paperclip and take a month to recover are true.

In reply to tuna55 :

Ignoring it or accepting it only encourages it. You need to show in no uncertain terms that this type of behavior is not acceptable. 

At that age, I had very good luck with dumping a pitcher of ice water over their head, though I started at a much younger age. It puts out the fire almost instantly. Doubly true when they are the ones that have to clean up the water. 

Toyman! said:

In reply to tuna55 :

Ignoring it or accepting it only encourages it. You need to show in no uncertain terms that this type of behavior is not acceptable. 

At that age, I had very good luck with dumping a pitcher of ice water over their head. It puts out the fire almost instantly. Doubly true when they are the ones that have to clean up the water. 

 

 

We've tried a variety of things, and zero of them have made it stop even temporarily. No matter which thing I try, I get in trouble for it.

In reply to tuna55 :

Who are you getting in trouble with? If it's the wife, then your battle is already lost.

Unless both of you are on the same page and consistent in your discipline it will not work. Lines that the child is not allowed to cross must be clearly defined and consistently enforced by both parents at all times. Without that, you end up with confused children who don't know how to behave and bewildered parents who aren't sure what went wrong.  

tuna55 said:

it's been four months

 

Also Kid #2 is 12 and has real, live temper tantrums near daily. He loses his crap and screams for no reason for an hour or more right at bedtime. If I do nothing I get fussed at. If I gently move him to isolate him somewhere, I get fussed at. If I try to talk him down, I get fussed at. I told him that if a 12-year-old me had tried it, there would be a hole in the wall shaped like me. Maybe that's what he needs.

I've known a few people whose children were sensitive to preservatives or food coloring. One of my friend's kids would constantly bounce off the walls and furniture totally out of control. My niece had terrible mood swings. Once those were cut from their diets they chilled the berkeley out. Something to think about.