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

Someone stole our truck last night.

The police found it nearby pretty quickly, but what was a mechanically solid 27-year-old truck with 90k miles and peeling clear coat now has its bumpers shoved into the bodywork, fenders fouling doors, etc...

I replaced the booster and master cylinder a few days ago, which in addition to improving the braking fixed a vacuum leak curing a high idle and the tendency to hold 3rd too long. It wasn't mechanically perfect, but it was *really good*. It's the second vehicle where I ever got the to-do list really down to details, and I *just* got there. Foo.

In reply to Jesse Ransom :

Dang man I'm sorry to hear that

After a trip to the doc-in-a-box clinic, it was determined that the oxycodone has stopped me up. I had to call out sick today as it feels like a giant redwood is making it's way through my lower GI tract. It was almost as painful as my kidney stone.

After lots of water and a big dose of Miralax, it now a waiting game

You know what really sucks when it comes to driving a manual? It's WAY harder to not E36 M3 yourself on the drive home when you need to use both feet to drive. I made it, thankfully, but it was way harder than it needed to be. 

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

I won't take any of the 'odones. They all plug me up like a sewer full of roots and I'd rather be in pain than deal with that. 

Good luck getting the drain unclogged. 

Codones make me violently dizzy, like...laying on the ground isn't close enough to the ground so I never take them.

Tramadol is usually what's prescribed for me, it works but jacks me up like 40 cups of coffee. Other than that the side effects are nil.

Maybe that's an option?

Mrs Toyman: Boss wants me to work an event the week after Labor Day. 

Me: We are going to be in the mountains for a family event and you have a wedding to do that Friday don't you? Tell them you already have plans. 

Mrs T: But it's the boss. 

Me: And? If they wanted you to be there, it should have been on your schedule months ago, not 5 days before we leave town. Tell them you have plans. 

Mrs T: I could fly out of Charlotte on the 2nd and fly into Charleston on the 5th. 

Me: I'm not driving from Creston to Charlotte to take you to the airport. I'm not changing my plans because they are too inconsiderate to make theirs in a timely fashion. They need some boundaries and you are going to have to set them or they will continue to jerk you around. Tell them you have plans. 

Mrs T: We could take two cars to Creston. 

Me: Not unless they are paying the mileage and fuel expenses. That's a 12-hour round-trip and taking two cars because of their incompetence is stupid. No. Tell them you have plans. 

We shall see how this ends up. At this point, I hope she quits. 

In reply to Toyman! :

Tell her boss, " Your failure to plan does not constitute an emergency on my part"

Streetwiseguy said:

Ashyukun (Robert) said:

We leave for a weeklong vacation in a few days. Because we could swing it and knew The Dancer's nephew had never been abroad (or at this point, even on a plane) and there were good deals to be had, we helped pay for her sister and her son (the nephew) to come along as well, so we'll be spending about a week with them on a cruise ship and around Europe (though obviously in different cabins on the ship). Yesterday when talking with her sister on the phone in preparation for them flying down to meet up for the overseas flight, politics came up and the two started arguing about it. I really hope that they can leave that thread alone for the duration of the trip, otherwise it's going to be a miserable week. 

 

Step up.  Tell them that if either one starts up on politics, you will take your nephew and have a good time wandering the boat with him, after locking the two of them in the other cabin. 

That's pretty much what I was figuring on doing, aside from locking them in a cabin (since that's not really feasible AFAIK). There's really not any point to their arguing anyway- neither is going to change the other's views without something really life-changing happening. I get the desire to try and bring someone around to see your point of view, but I've pretty much never seen it happen through discussion or arguing- it's pretty much always been something internal or (as I said) life-changing. 

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

That was one of the more annoying things when I was on Percocet after my Achilles surgery- along with essentially being a zombie for the few days I needed that level of painkiller. It was especially bad for me- since I'm lactose intolerant I've pretty much never had to deal with that before. 

My 20-plus-year-old Honda powered mower quit last night.  That in itself is not the rant.

The rant is this:

The entire air-fuel intake system is held onto the side of the engine with 2 long bolts, everything from the inner part of the air box all the way down to the head.  There is no other locating / alignment device except the 2 bolts.

The bolt-on part of the airbox has a shroud that covers most of this up, including 2 linkages, the choke actuator, and the PCV hose, none of which have any slack.

Which effectively means that you have to stack the following items up:

• thermal spacer
• metal heat shield
• gasket
• carb - with linkages and springs connected
• choke actuator with linkage in correct orientation, which puts it in spring tension so it slips out if you move it 1 mm too far
• gasket
• metal heat shield / brace
• bolt spacers
• airbox / shroud with PCV hose connected to the back, which you can't because it has no slack and is covered by the shroud

AND YOU HAVE TO KEEP THIS ENTIRE STACK TOGETHER AND CORRECTLY ALIGNED BY MAGIC UNTIL YOU GET AT LEAST ONE BOLT THROUGH IT.

It's a berking 1-lung lawnmower engine with a single-barrel carb on it, engineered by one of the best small motor manufacturers on the planet.  There is absolutely no acceptable berking reason this task should be this difficult.  If they were studs it would take about 2 minutes to assemble, but instead it takes 2 hours of cursing.

In reply to Duke :

I can't even imagine what a PITA bolts would be. Studs FTW.

In reply to Duke :

I just went through this. It helps to have the top cover off the mower. You may as well pull the top cover because the little strainer in the tank is probably full of gunk. 
 

I build up the carburetor assembly including the hoses on the bench.  I moved that entire assembly over to the lawn mower in my left hand using thumb and index fingers to hold it together, hooked the throttle and return spring, and then presented the carburetor to the engine and started threading a screw into the engine. Once you get the carburetor mounted, hook up the hoses to the block and fuel petcock. It's a little backwards to how it "should" go together. LOL
 

In reply to tester (Forum Supporter) :

I will try that method, thanks.  The fuel hoses aren't the real issue; the killer is the PCV hose.  It's not easy to disconnect the engine side, either.

I just noticed an article on Yahoo Finance saying something like "Subway Enters Fast Food Wars".

I got all excited as I used to go there often until $12 became the new $5 almost overnight.

Queue the sad trombone sound "only available when using their app and only until September 8th".

Berk you, if I have to use an app to eat I can pick up the materials at the market and us their self checkout in the same amount of time and hassle.

In reply to RX Reven' :

I hate Subway for ruining the sub business.

I could buy a sub for $3 all day long until Subway came along and doubled that price overnight.

Then Quiznos arrived and doubled it again.

A few months back I had a hankerin' for a sub on the way back from a day long ride. I stopped at the sub shop but couldn't do it. I couldn't spend $9.50 for a sub that I was almost guaranteed to be disappointed in.

In reply to Peabody :

Yep, the Reven' family just did a road trip from Los Angeles to mostly Oregon with a little Washington thrown in.

In trips past, we'd find a Starbucks / Subway pairing and I'd jump out of the car to get a samich while the wife and two daughters went through a Starbucks drive-thru.

This time around I literally, literally had 75% of my $12 foot long consumed before we were even back on the freeway so I'm done...now I just buy a pack of beef jerky from the Quickie Mart while filling up to hold me over until we can have a decent dinner. 

I'd love to know what happened...why did Subway's prices go up far more than the general huge food price increases we've seen (labor representing a bigger percent of Cost of Sales for them perhaps.)

There are many companies that don't need to spend a lot on advertising because they've built up a big base of happy customers (for me it's Marriott, Dell, Mazda, etc.)...Subway has pi$$ed away their customer loyalty; sad.

In reply to RX Reven' :

In general, Subway is pretty crappy to its franchises as well.  Forget what all i heard, but they think nothing of putting a new store directly across from an existing store. 

In reply to Toyman!, Antihero and Ashyukun (Robert) :

This is the first time I've ever had hydrocodone. I will say that it was very effective in relieving pain from a kidney stone but I couldn't function after I took it.

I also didn't realize that it would make me so backed up. I only took it Monday and Tuesday last week and once more on Wednesday of this week. But boy howdy did it stop up the works.

Things are moving again, albeit slowly. I think the Miralax is doing its job. I just want to get back to normal. 

First, I apologize for just thinking about the consumer.

I recently turned 60 and the fine actuaries over at the SS Administration give men of my age a 50/50 of 20.04 years.

If suddenly having to pay $12 for a $5 sandwich is the new normal, I'm not entirely sure wishing for many, many more years is smart.

RX Reven' said:

In reply to Peabody :

I'd love to know what happened...why did Subway's prices go up far more than the general huge food price increases we've seen (labor representing a bigger percent of Cost of Sales for them perhaps.)

I have wondered the same thing. Curious that all the fast food chains around here have jacked their prices up as far as they have in the last four years, while the locally owned drive-ins and burrito shops have only gone up a dollar or two.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

Greed. Do you really even need to ask? It's like the corporations don't understand the Internet exists, which connects people all over the world, and has shown that places like Subway, Burger King, and McDonald's have been paying way higher wages (and benefits) and maintaining lower prices on menu items in other countries for decades. 

Although for the life of me, I've never understood how Subway stayed in business. Ya, the people I know that own franchises do surprisingly well, especially considering at my last count there were over 20 freaking Subways within a 12 mile radius (owned by all of 6 people/businesses at that), but I don't get it. It's never been good tasting, it's always been way cheaper to buy actual lunch meat and buns at the store right next door to wherever they are located and make a decent sandwich, they're just everywhere anyway. 

But I haven't eaten at one since I was old enough to have a say in where we ate, so maybe I'm not the best judge. 

Starbucks is another one that's always confused me. The coffee sucks and is overpriced to begin with, but then they triple the daily recommended calories to put out sugary garbage that tastes like E36 M3 and delivers instant heartburn, and yet, they're everywhere and always have a line. 

America, where mediocrity is treated as royalty, I guess

stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) said:

After a trip to the doc-in-a-box clinic, it was determined that the oxycodone has stopped me up. I had to call out sick today as it feels like a giant redwood is making it's way through my lower GI tract. It was almost as painful as my kidney stone.

After lots of water and a big dose of Miralax, it now a waiting game

That sucks.  Go for a run.

I've had chronic constipation for a few months that can cause other symptoms as well, the least desirable being bladder pressure and testicular pain.  The fun part is, no idea what's causing it.  Last year I went through just about every antibiotic imaginable, so I've speculated that my gut bacteria were just... gone.  Still, I've been on probiotics for months and tried several things to become regular again and it hasn't been effective.

Today is probably the first time in 2 weeks I've taken a E36 M3 that wasn't induced by a run.  Running is one of the few things that will shake stuff loose, almost guaranteed.  The other thing that will definitely move stuff, but maybe not purge the system, is pancakes for breakfast.

Subway depends so much on the franchisee.  There was one just down the road from my shop, and everything was fresh, and clean and neat and delicious.  New operators now.  Not good.  Not fresh, not clean, not neat and delicious.

Price wise, everything restaurant-ey here is twice what it was pre covid.  If you don't do taco Tuesday, or Whopper Wednesday, or whatever, and just buy the special, lunch is $15.00.  Sit down with a waiter?  $22.00, unless you have a side salad or something.  Then, it's $28.00.

I'm pretty sure the food service industry is still deeply berkeleyed from Covid times.

I've had two orders from smaller vendors in the last couple months where they sent me an email with a tracking number right away, but then they didn't actually ship the order for a week or more. 1. Let me know if the item isn't in stock before I order. 2. Don't pretend you are shipping something when it's not available. 
 

It seems very shady to me.