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

Nissan made a blue billion D-21 hardbody trucks. I'm trying to buy tires. What an awesome selection.

Nothing like coming out to the car at 5:30 am to head to work and find that someone has been there already and tossed trash and E36 M3 everywhere inside.

Worse is when you realize that YOU left the car unlocked allowing the chain smoking meth heads free access to the inside of the car.

Since this is her first time with an opportunistic car prowl, Wife is of course freaked out. Growing up in the 'hood I've had it happen a few times. Now she's going to be "on-alert" and I have to calm her down a bit.

Luckily, nothing truly important was taken or broken, just a flip out cup holder, bunch of loose change, the vehicle registration/insurance card, her prescription sunglasses, useless radar detector, some emergency supplies from the trunk, umbrella, etc.

So now I get to deal with the DMV to get a new registration card, place a fraud alert with the Credit Bureaus, etc.

The worst part (aside from the thieving and mess) is that they smoked in the car. berkeleying disgusting and it reeks.

In NY you can reprint the registration off the DMV website.

House was "broken" into Sunday during church. Apparently around noon the door was opened, alarm went off, police came and found the front door wide open and still locked. The storm door was opened (not latched) too.

Nothing was taken, but I'm thankful that we have a small TV and an alarm system.

This happened three hours after we departed that morning, so it's not like the wind blew it open. When you slip a credit card into the door jam, the door opened and remains locked, just like this.

Deadbolt from now on.

Also, of note, I live three miles from a police station. If the report on the officer's note was correct, he wrote it an hour after the alarm went off. Granted, he cleared the house (thanks!) and went back and probably radioed it in and such, but that still seems long.

tuna55 wrote: Also, of note, I live three miles from a police station. If the report on the officer's note was correct, he wrote it an hour after the alarm went off. Granted, he cleared the house (thanks!) and went back and probably radioed it in and such, but that still seems long.

Would be long for a 911 call but not long for an alarm notification. House alarms are annoying drudge work for cops, over 99% of them are false positives. You can't be too upset when they don't rush to the boy who never stops crying wolf.

GameboyRMH wrote:

tuna55 wrote: Also, of note, I live three miles from a police station. If the report on the officer's note was correct, he wrote it an hour after the alarm went off. Granted, he cleared the house (thanks!) and went back and probably radioed it in and such, but that still seems long.

Would be long for a 911 call but not long for an alarm notification. House alarms are annoying drudge work for cops, over 99% of them are false positives. You can't be too upset when they don't rush to the boy who never stops crying wolf.

Not "upset", more like "Glad I am armed and use the alarm to notify me".

I actually called the officer to ask clarification and thanked him profusely for his help, and also for clearing the house.

tuna55 wrote: House was "broken" into Sunday during church. Apparently around noon the door was opened, alarm went off, police came and found the front door wide open and still locked. The storm door was opened (not latched) too. Nothing was taken, but I'm thankful that we have a small TV and an alarm system. This happened three hours after we departed that morning, so it's not like the wind blew it open. When you slip a credit card into the door jam, the door opened and remains locked, just like this. Deadbolt from now on. Also, of note, I live three miles from a police station. If the report on the officer's note was correct, he wrote it an hour after the alarm went off. Granted, he cleared the house (thanks!) and went back and probably radioed it in and such, but that still seems long.

Deadbolt for sure. Locks are only as good as their use and deadbolts are really best at keeping out the casual "target of opportunity" burglars. Sadly, unless you bar your windows and reinforce the doorframes you can't keep out someone who really wants in. But those types are pretty rare and usually know what they are after (drugs and money).

The best defense (after being home and armed but that's a paranoid road to go down) is a good sized dog. Many years ago I had a couple of big sweeties and when the ADT alarm guy knocked to try and sell me on his services the dogs greeted him warmly and he apologized for wasting my time.

Nowadays I just encourage my neighbors to believe I'm a dysfunctional vet with too many guns and a drinking problem. They spread the word and even the local low lifes are extra polite to me.

I live in Chicago in what was formerly a very dangerous neighborhood. Now not so much. But we have the landlord who lives in the first floor apartment, and is pretty much always there. Then you have to get through a locked door (just knob) and go up a staircase. Then you have to get in another locked door (deadbolt) to get into our apartment.

I was thinking about it, and I guess that the easiest way for a burglar to get in would be to jump the locked gate in the back, break through the locked back door (door knob again, fairly rickety), then up the stairs and through the back door ot our apartment--again, deadbolt. Don't think that is happening. Or else climb a tree and bust the window on our second-floor landing in our apartment. That would probably be the easiest. But seeing as our building of three units has an ADT sign out, I doubt that would happen either. I thought about starting the service, but decided it was overkill.

Left arm is still stiff and sore from the TDaP shot Saturday. Of course heavy wrenching on the Blazer didn't help that at all I'm sure...

Just went to the bathroom at work. Noticed I missed a spot shaving. Fairly blatant spot too.

Guess I'm going to walgreens over lunch

mtn wrote: But seeing as our building of three units has an ADT sign out, I doubt that would happen either. I thought about starting the service, but decided it was overkill.

I think those signs do more harm than good in most situations. On one hand, they say "if you break into this house the cops will eventually show up" on the other hand they say "Something in this house is worth protecting! Smash here to learn 5 valuable things the owner doesn't want you to take!"

My 13 year old nephew had to interview a relative about 9/11. He called and asked me the questions the teacher gave out, basic where were you, what did you think, ect. Then we got to "Do you believe the gov'ts version of events or that the buildings were blown up with explosives?" I'm probably a bit oversensitive but with all the things we can't teach kids are we really teaching them Truther nonsense?

GameboyRMH wrote:

mtn wrote: But seeing as our building of three units has an ADT sign out, I doubt that would happen either. I thought about starting the service, but decided it was overkill.

...Smash here to learn 5 valuable things the owner doesn't want you to take!"

Flags on vehicles. I'm not talking the little 12" x 12" favorite sports team flags people hang on their windows (though those are stupid too). I'm talking 4' x 6' or larger. American flag, Confederate flag, POW/MIA flag, Don't Tread on Me, you name it. Mostly on big trucks, but motorcycles are not exempt.

I don't know if this is a regional thing, or an military base thing, or what, but I HATE it.

Wally wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote:

mtn wrote: But seeing as our building of three units has an ADT sign out, I doubt that would happen either. I thought about starting the service, but decided it was overkill.

...Smash here to learn 5 valuable things the owner doesn't want you to take!"

...and its all derivative crap that everyone else already has and is utterly worthless.

berkeleying click-bait houses.

Wally wrote: My 13 year old nephew had to interview a relative about 9/11. He called and asked me the questions the teacher gave out, basic where were you, what did you think, ect. Then we got to "Do you believe the gov'ts version of events or that the buildings were blown up with explosives?" I'm probably a bit oversensitive but with all the things we can't teach kids are we really teaching them Truther nonsense?

I think that should warrant a visit to the school. Time to check up on that teachers' agenda.

His mother is going up to see her. In a week of school there have already been a few WTF moments.

Wally wrote: Then we got to "Do you believe the gov'ts version of events or that the buildings were blown up with explosives?" I'm probably a bit oversensitive but with all the things we can't teach kids are we really teaching them Truther nonsense?

A teachable moment in being a good skeptic has presented itself.

Part of being a good skeptic is knowing when to believe the "totally plausible and easily explainable" version of the story.

I am skeptical of many things but there are too many things that have to be ignored to believe that 9/11 was caused by Dick Cheney planting dynamite in buildings.

mtn wrote: I heard someone saying somewhere that they took the sensors and put them in a pressurized pvc pipe with cap, and stuck it in the trunk. I've never seen it in action, just on a forum somewhere, but it seems like it would be a cool idea to try

That's a cool idea, too bad my research strongly suggests that the sensors also report wheel rotation, something they wouldn't do from the trunk.

JohnInKansas wrote: Flags on vehicles. I'm not talking the little 12" x 12" favorite sports team flags people hang on their windows (though those are stupid too). I'm talking 4' x 6' or larger. American flag, Confederate flag, POW/MIA flag, Don't Tread on Me, you name it. Mostly on big trucks, but motorcycles are not exempt. I don't know if this is a regional thing, or an military base thing, or what, but I HATE it.

There is a big clapped out lifted 4x4 around here with a giant USA flag on it... I find it a complete lack of respect to the flag

mad_machine wrote:

JohnInKansas wrote: Flags on vehicles. I'm not talking the little 12" x 12" favorite sports team flags people hang on their windows (though those are stupid too). I'm talking 4' x 6' or larger. American flag, Confederate flag, POW/MIA flag, Don't Tread on Me, you name it. Mostly on big trucks, but motorcycles are not exempt. I don't know if this is a regional thing, or an military base thing, or what, but I HATE it.

There is a big clapped out lifted 4x4 around here with a giant USA flag on it... I find it a complete lack of respect to the flag

This is a pet peeve of mine as well, mainly because I typically see the US flag mounted next to the rebel flag or even worse a NASCAR/brodozer manufacturer flag.

Nothing says "respect" like letting your unfurled flag lay in your rusty truck bed along with your collection of empty PBR and Skoal cans.

I like the flags on hoods of cars. It started with the Puerto Rican day parade years back and spread to the other parades that in the days leading up to it that you would put the flag on the hood tucked into the latch and back. Every so often you get to see someone trying to get to the side of the road after the flag has blown up over the windshield.

SnowMongoose wrote:

mtn wrote: I heard someone saying somewhere that they took the sensors and put them in a pressurized pvc pipe with cap, and stuck it in the trunk. I've never seen it in action, just on a forum somewhere, but it seems like it would be a cool idea to try

That's a cool idea, too bad my research strongly suggests that the sensors also report wheel rotation, something they wouldn't do from the trunk.

Bummer.

Gotta be a way to get around it though, right? Put them on little hamster wheels?