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

In reply to Duke :

I find the safety valve in the regulator can cause the low heat like you're seeing. I think the safety valve in the regulator is a government mandate, so all newer grill may have that type of issue. 

Shutting down the burners before the closing the tank helps minimize the issues, but it still sometime happens. 

When mine seems to be lower than normal on the highest setting (usually seen/heard right after lighting), I do the following:

- Close the burner valves.      
- Close the tank valve.    
- Loosen tank connection to release pressure.  
- Reverse the process tightening the tank connection.  
- Opening the tank.  
-Turn on one burners.  
- Light the burner.  
- Light next burner.

Insomnia sucks

No Time said:

In reply to Duke :

I find the safety valve in the regulator can cause the low heat like you're seeing. I think the safety valve in the regulator is a government mandate...

Hmmmm, absolutely no surprise there.

I did all that, except for turning the gas valve on and waiting a minute or two before lighting.  I'll give that a try.  I do usually turn the burners off before closing the gas valve.

I also have a gas gauge that goes between the tank and the regulator.  I removed that, but it made no difference.

Sold my well-maintained, limited edition of a very popular sports car to a guy about three weeks ago (I don't want to out him by giving more details). He had the money but no appreciation for what he was buying. I know, I sound like the wine connoisseur who looks down on the guy chugging an expensive Chateau Lafite. I had told my wife the car would look like E36 M3 within a couple of years, based on the photos he showed me of his previous car of the same make. Yesterday he sent me a photo showing the fairly extensive damage from him backing into something solid. I just have to keep repeating to myself, "It's not my car anymore. It's not my car anymore...." And block his number on my phone.

In reply to BenB :

Not just the lack of appreciation but he sent you photos to rub it in? Oof.

iansane said:

In reply to BenB :

Not just the lack of appreciation but he sent you photos to rub it in? Oof.

Yeah, I'd have been too mortified to even think of doing that.

I'm really tired of people cold calling me to offer their services. A guy from a large financial institution has called me 3-4 times in the last couple months. I've been busy or in the hospital every time he's called. It finally dawned on me that I don't have an account with his company. I had made an appointment with him this morning but I sent him to voicemail when I saw his call. I'm going to block his number too. 

Living in the Philly area and embedded in the youth hockey scene here, my shock and sadness upon hearing of the Gaudreau brothers killings over the weekend has turned to simmering anger as details are released of the incident and driver... Something totally preventable and lives snuffed out due to alcohol and aggressive driving.  

Sooo, it was yack up a fur ball for both of you today, I see.

At least it was on the front porch.

Moving. 
 

I don't know how/when/why we acquired so much stuff. 

In reply to Old_Town :

DWI/DUI pushes the ol' rage button like absolutely nothing else can. Saw way too much when I worked on the ambulance. 
 

It's honestly simple-

Grow the berkeley up, turn in your keys, and call yourself a berkeleying ride, or go jump off a berkeleying bridge with a cinderblock tied to your foot. 
 

Save us all the trouble of dealing with your stupidity. 

My  Caddy 346 engine had the mechanical oil pressure gauge screwed into a blind hole on the block.  After rebuild, I put it in the correct spot, but the fitting was 7/16-14 and the hole was 1/4" NPT.  NAPA moved 3 miles away so I went to O'Reilly's a few blocks away.  Showed the counter guy the fittings, explained what I needed and we walked over to the fitting display.  He took my 7-16 thread and screwed it into an M-12 female, then hands me a bag of five.  I said "That doesn't fit".  Yeah it does; and he screws it in again.   I backed it out a few turns and wiggled the thing in the hole.  "Doesn't fit, gonna leak.  It's an 82 year old Cadillac, nothing Metric about it."  But when you put it in all the way, the head will seal it.  "OK, thanks for your time."

OK. lemme look.  Click - click, What year?  "1942"   Series 60, 62, 65 or 70?  "70, but it's not in there."   Click - click, yeah, we don't have a listing for that.   "I knew that".

Is there anything else I can do for you today?

AARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH !

Went to NAPA and had to wait two days for the guy that knew how to read the books came in.  WTF?

In reply to 914Driver :

Did he take you to the spin racks? What's frustrating about that is they probably have an AGS( they previously used Edelman) branded assortment bin in the back with way more adapters.

I had something similar recently when I walked in holding two v belts from my Defender. They asked what vehicle they were for. Uh, '90 Land Rover Defender but it won't be in the catalog. That's why I brought the belts. He came back with the constant torque lawn mower belts.

barefootcyborg5000 said:

Moving.  I don't know how/when/why we acquired so much stuff. 

When DW and I first moved in together, we shared a 20 foot truck with a friend who was also moving nearby in the same city.

We lived in that 2 bedroom apartment for 3 years.  When we moved back east, DW and I needed a 20 foot truck to ourselves and we abandoned some of the crappier furniture out there.

We moved into our current 4-bedroom house 3 years after the move back east.  We needed a 26 foot truck, plus a number of minivan trips.  That was 31 years ago.

I joke with DW that if we ever move again, we're buying all new stuff in the new location, and burning this house down.

I'm only half joking.

Last time we moved, 25 years ago, we did it all on a single hay wagon, probably 4 trips. The house we moved out of is our closest neighbour.

We are never moving again

Duke said:

barefootcyborg5000 said:

Moving.  I don't know how/when/why we acquired so much stuff. 

When DW and I first moved in together, we shared a 20 foot truck with a friend who was also moving nearby in the same city.

We lived in a 2 bedroom apartment for 3 years.  When we moved back east, DW and I needed a 20 foot truck to ourselves and we abandoned some of the crappier furniture out there.

We moved into our current 4-bedroom house 3 years after the move back east.  We needed a 26 foot truck, plus a number of minivan trips.  That was 31 years ago.

I joke with DW that if we ever move again, we're buying all new stuff in the new location, and burning this house down.

I'm only half joking.

 

When my wife and I moved into our first place, everything we owned fit it a pickup. 

6 months later we bought a house and it took 7 truckloads. 

25 years later it took a POD plus 10+ trips with my 20' enclosed trailer and countless other carloads. 

Now, 15 years after that, I wouldn't know where to start. Just moving the vehicles would be a PITA, not to mention the shop. 

I've been alternating between my s10 and the Mazda 5, trying to do 1-2 loads a day in the evenings. Off work early today and going to see how much I can tackle this weekend, possibly renting a box truck next week should I deem it necessary. I'm optimistic I can get it done without. Eating an elephant out here. 

Antihero said:

Insomnia sucks

Agreed it is 95+ here tonight and I slept about three hours, then I spilled gas down my leg and into my boot on the way to work on the bike. Went home showered and came in to at least 20 emails that need immediate responses. 

In reply to Duke :

LOL, when I bought our house nearly 34 years ago it was a couple of my buddies pick up trucks and what I could fit in my work van.  When we did the kitchen renovation / family room addition in 2018 my line was "you'll take me out of this house feet first" and I'm going to stick with that.   

It's amazing how much we accumulate over the years but then we've also cleaned out my grandparent's, my wife's great aunt's and her parent's houses in that time.  Some of the cool stuff made it's way to the island house and a couple of my grandfather's legit antiques found a "permanent" home in our family room.  It all seemed like a great idea at the time.

In reply to barefootcyborg5000 :

It's even more fun when the old house and new house are 300 miles apart... 

When we moved in here The Dancer was adamant that we weren't going anywhere for a good while, and when we did move again it would be the last time. That move took several trips with a medium-sized UHaul since it involved getting things from storage from my old house and moving everything we had at the smaller 2-bedroom house we were renting at the time (plus a UHaul car hauler since I still had the Elky then). Moving now... would likely require at least two trips with largest non-CDL UHaul, with the garage alone likely taking up the better part of one. 

Going through a backlog of rants from the trip: Google Maps (and/or Apple Maps) badly needs an option when getting directions for whether it's daytime or nighttime, especially when you're getting walking directions. The one night we spent in London after our cruise before our flight home the next day, we walked from our hotel to Big Ben/Westminster and then up one of the main roads and eventually had dinner at a nice pub near Trafalgar Square. Since the pub had WiFi, The Dancer pulled up walking directions to try and get a shorter route back to our hotel than just backtracking. Unfortunately it tried to have us go through the Horse Guards Parade which it was not possible to pass through (perhaps the gates are open during the day, they weren't at either time we walked by) so the directions were berked from the start, but more worrisome was that  the route wanted us to both go through a park and down a number of smaller, not-the-best-lit streets to shave a small portion of distance off (what we ended up doing) just backtracking along the major roads. 

Yeah- I'm not particularly inclined to walk through a large park and down smaller streets/alleys in any major city in the dark- especially in a foreign country (though at least one that we, for the most part, speak the language of) and am even less thrilled with that idea with my wife, her younger sister, and wife's pre-teen nephew along. 

In reply to Rodan :

I can't decide if I feel lucky that my move is 9 miles or not. In the one hand, I don't have to load a giant truck, but on the other hand I'm making a ton of trips across town...

three loads down today, stopping for eats, then as many more as I can manage before bed. Rinse and repeat tomorrow. 

914Driver said:

My  Caddy 346 engine had the mechanical oil pressure gauge screwed into a blind hole on the block.  After rebuild, I put it in the correct spot, but the fitting was 7/16-14 and the hole was 1/4" NPT.  NAPA moved 3 miles away so I went to O'Reilly's a few blocks away.  Showed the counter guy the fittings, explained what I needed and we walked over to the fitting display.  He took my 7-16 thread and screwed it into an M-12 female, then hands me a bag of five.  I said "That doesn't fit".  Yeah it does; and he screws it in again.   I backed it out a few turns and wiggled the thing in the hole.  "Doesn't fit, gonna leak.  It's an 82 year old Cadillac, nothing Metric about it."  But when you put it in all the way, the head will seal it.  "OK, thanks for your time."

OK. lemme look.  Click - click, What year?  "1942"   Series 60, 62, 65 or 70?  "70, but it's not in there."   Click - click, yeah, we don't have a listing for that.   "I knew that".

Is there anything else I can do for you today?

AARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH !

Went to NAPA and had to wait two days for the guy that knew how to read the books came in.  WTF?

So, NAPA has all of their paper catalogs electronical-like, now, with hypertexted PDFs.

I always thought you needed to log in to the NAPA professional website to see them.

Nope.  I won't post a link (mostly because I don't have it handy) BUT do a Google search for "NAPA e-catalog rack" and you will find it.

Blow their minds by walking in with a Balkamp number 

Automotive ADD: You need a W201 Mercedes in your life.

Me: No.

Automotive ADD: hey look, there's an AMG C43 that you can afford

Me: Curse you

A rant as old as time...

Kids (3&6)...  Every weekday I just about have to set a bomb off to get them out of bed at 6:45am to get them dressed, fed, and ready for school. Come Saturday morning, they are up of their own accord at 5:45am playing and making all kinds of noise. I miss sleeping in...