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

DarkMonohue said:

In reply to Peabody :

How likely is it you could find an entire hammer stapler cheap on eBay or Kijiji or Goodwill or what have you? Might be cheaper and/or easier than waiting for parts.

You guys all have parts tools in the backyard to keep your driver tools working, don't you?

Yes, and how I didn't think of that I don't know.

Looks like I found a complete tool for sale on MP for less than the part would cost.

Thanks!

EDIT: I walked the trails this morning, at least the areas I was working, and found one of them.

What are the odds of that?

Probably better than losing two in the same night when I've been doing this job three years and not lost a single one yet.

Who was the idiot at microsoft that decided it was a good idea putting Delete right next to Rename in the file drop-down menu? 

In reply to Rodan :

The same person who decided that the Windows control panel names should be organized in columns but read in rows.

A sociopath.

I am glad I took the fiat to work today. If I had taken the Landy, I would still be there. People in the parking garage were making up their own parking spots today.

In reply to mad_machine :

4 flats would have eased my petty pain. 1-2, well, maybe it was just bad luck? 4 flats? You pissed someone off.

APEowner said:

I thought my truck needed a head gasket which sucked but that actual problem seems to be much, much worse.

That's a very Grand-Canyony looking cylinder wall. 

You have my sympathy.

In reply to APEowner :

The 1.6 Suzuki (G16) engines in the Sidekick/X90, etc do that.

Duke said:

In reply to Rodan :

The same person who decided that the control panel names should be organized in columns but read in rows.

A sociopath.

 

Okay- so I've always known that it was hard to find things in CP but never realized why. It's like REALLY hard

Stapler company got back to me with some really poor responses (about getting parts in Canada) and I said, I'd really like to continue to use your product. If you're trying to discourage that you're doing a good job.

Please send your info, sir, I will submit for a full replacement at no cost to you.

Idiots.

But that is not the rant.

We have a hare scramble scheduled for this weekend but the land owner has pulled out citing liability. In all likelihood, it's politics, but if it's not resolved the idea will be to host it on our property rather than cancel. I'm onside with that but it will probably give me 2-3 days to prep the entire trail section for competition, come up with an interesting layout, then arrow it. Good thing I still have a working stapler.

In the morning stand-up meeting, the list is sorted alphabetically, and I always have to go first.

I'm hoping they hire somebody named Aaron or Alice or something.

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

sorted by first name? Lunacy

remember that shirt project? It got worse. It went from 25, to 26, to 28 shirts. I only had to redo half a dozen cuts or so. And do all the weeding. And placement. About the only thing i didn't do was the actual ironing. Thank berkeley those shirts left my custody this morning.  

Fifty-two minutes.

You tied up the only toilet in the office for fifty-two minutes while the other 5 of us paced around or sat very quietly, and tried not to think about running water.

Fifty-two minutes.

In reply to Duke :

Sorry about that. 

In reply to budget_bandit :

Right? I am used to being pretty much in the middle of the order.

I had to file an insurance claim on the Maverick due to hail damage that happened on May 29th. I found a PDR shop and they sent the estimate to the claims handler June 27th. I also made the repair appointment at that time. The earliest they could get me in was Sept 9th (yesterday).

I just now received a call from a third party appraiser that my insurance company hired to do a damage appraisal.

I've already dropped the truck off and am paying for a rental car. My policy covers a whopping $20/day for a max of 30 days for a rental.

WHY IN THE BERK WASN'T THE APPRAISAL DONE 3 MONTHS AGO?!

I'm done with this insurance company. I've been with them for 22 years and have only had 2 claims in that time which both were not my fault.

They are wasting my time and money. I'm dropping them as soon as the repairs are done.

Wtf ever happened to being quiet in libraries? I'm in the reference section down here and this effing lady is going on and on with the librarian about trying to find some ancient relatives or some bullE36 M3. And he's conversing back with her.  At the regular tables.  At full conversational volume.

So I moved over to the other side of the library away from them and now two homeless dudes are discussing the benefits and downsides to different shelters in the area.

In reply to wae :

Whatever happened to being courteous, situationally aware, and not self-absorbed in general?

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

Identify as Zeus... 

I have no truck, because it was stolen and totaled. The insurance actually handled that part remarkably well.

However, the weird mish-mash of particular insurance company constraints, rental company constraints, and weirdness of the world are making it way more awkward than it ought to be to get through the final furlong of the garage project; excavating for the paver driveway.

I went to rent a dump truck, and I can't rent anything over 12,000 lb GVWR unless it's a moving van.

I found a dump truck that's literally an F-350 with a dump bed. No, no commercial vehicles, which a dump truck is regardless of what it, well, is.

I fell back to renting a pickup and a dump trailer; a more expensive, awkward, and dangerous arrangement than a small dump truck, but my insurance will cover a rental pickup as a passenger vehicle, and liability on any trailer.

But there are no 3/4 or 1-ton pickups available from local rental places because they're all being used in firefighting around here. Except one place. Which does rent equipment to homeowners/individuals. But not pickups; those they only rent to commercial accounts. They seemed strangely confused when I no longer wanted to rent a dump trailer after they declined to rent anything to pull it with.

So I'm renting a 1/2-ton pickup from U-Haul, and a small dump trailer that will mean twice as many trips but fits the 6k lb limit of the truck.

I initially put under "silver linings" that if they'd waited a week to steal my truck, I'd probably have wasted $700 on tires. Now I'm starting to think it would've been worth it if only they'd waited 'til after this job... Or alternatively, I wish I wasn't racing the weather, or I'd just put this off 'til I could find the right van.

I entertained the idea of living with no truck or van at all for about a week. I may be spoiled, but it just seems like as soon as you don't have one, you need one.

This is not a rant, because, you know...love

If you marry a country girl, be prepared to bury her animals. Cats, dogs, horses, etc. Today was horse #3 this year.

Mndsm said:

remember that shirt project? It got worse. It went from 25, to 26, to 28 shirts. I only had to redo half a dozen cuts or so. And do all the weeding. And placement. About the only thing i didn't do was the actual ironing. Thank berkeley those shirts left my custody this morning.  

 

 

She came home and said they forgot the damn choreographer. Can't be doing that. 29. 

Now for the hard part. I've been asked if Disney could acquire something to compensate me for my time, because apparently everyone is very excited about these shirts. I drew a blank. I don't do out food, I already have free park admissions, they won't buy me a gun......

In reply to Mndsm :

I have trouble believing you have all the rare light sabers you want already. OOO DVD copy of Song of the South!! Don't forget they own the Simpsons now, maybe some choice play sets or a pinball machine?

A while back, I bought front uprights for a 2018 Impreza.  I wanted these because they are aluminum (loads lighter), they have a lower-placed ball joint pivot (necessary for my purposes), and the three bolt Toyota style ball joint allows me to build a stronger lower control arm.

They have steel tapered inserts for the tie rods.  The right one did not come with the insert, as it must have stuck to the tie rod on disassembly.

The insert is only available as an upright assembly.

Looking on eBay... ALL right side uprights are missing the insert.  I looked for used outer tie rod ends and none of them have the insert still stuck in place.  I did find a rack that has an outer that has an insert stuck to it, but that'd be a $200 purchase not an $80 one.

In reply to Mndsm :

Write up an invoice. All materials, shipping, etc., at your cost plus 100%. All time at 150% of your hourly pay or equivalent, plus multipliers as appropriate for evening and weekend work. Energy surcharge. Environmental impact fee. And whatever else you can tack on. And then whatever exorbitant total you come up with, add a 35% rush work fee. You should be deep into four figures by the time you're done.

When they say, "but this is too much!", simply reply, in a flat, even tone, "Yes. It is." And maintain eye contact.