Random randomness

[stessier]

I cant get to the laundry mat until my car is running. i looked into hoem service. Nice but they want $2 per pound with a 15lb minimum ouch. I dont think i have 15 lbs worth but I am out of home / yard work clothes. I dont have many clothes so I usually wash every couple weeks. my step mom washed once a week. But i put it off. But ive been out of a car over 2 weeks now.

Fun continues.

I did get some happy news on my mortgage. i was worried about it not paying off but they assured me it will. Thank God. I knew how long it was and how much we pay plus we never missed any payments. So it HAD to pay off.

One thing is I used a couple of amortization calcs online. With the stats of our mortgage all of them listed the monthly payment as about $380 . I pay $447. I put in the right interest and all...strange i pay more than the calcs suggested it should be.

I'd be wary - that math really doesn't add up given what you say you still owe.

[Blackhawk]

I cant get to the laundry mat until my car is running. i looked into hoem service. Nice but they want $2 per pound with a 15lb minimum ouch. I dont think i have 15 lbs worth but I am out of home / yard work clothes. I dont have many clothes so I usually wash every couple weeks. my step mom washed once a week. But i put it off. But ive been out of a car over 2 weeks now.

Are you able to wash things in the tub? It's been several decades, but I've done that more than a few times in my life (that and in rivers, but Smoove would probably give me a finger-wagging on that one.)

[Anonymous Bosch]

I hate wearing XL shirts. Some years before my wife died I got down into L again and loved it. Was proud. But after she passed I jumped back up to XL. Hate it. I mean they look fine and I look fine its me personally that dislikes it. I gained belly fat at 50. I turned 50 4 months after losing her. I think between the loss, the age, and all the mental stuff I just got my dad's belly suddenly. And it wont go away. Doesn't matter if all I have is half a sandwich all day or a plate of spaghetti. It stays.

Dude, we've been over this; what matters is that you persistently consume an obscene amount of sugar:

I can use a 4 lb bag of sugar in a month. a 10 lb in two months.

Realistically, if you routinely consume this much refined sugar and empty calories with no exercise to burn it off… would you not agree that weight gain and belly fat are a foregone conclusion, especially in your fifties?

[LordMortis]

Had me curious. There are 7020 in four pounds of sugar, or about 234 calories a day if consumed in a month. By my calorie counting measures, that's about 6,700 steps a day (around 2 miles at my gait) to counteract (around 7 calories burnt per 200 steps), or would be well over 10% of your total daily intake at 190 pounds in a totally inactive lifestyle, given 10 calories a day per pound.

/wonders how long he will be obsessed with calories and weight.

[Daehawk]

Sugar good ..yummy

As for the tub..no not with my back. I washed some in the sink but with my hands busted a few years back I cant wring them much. they stay pretty wet...they did dry but had a bad smell. For now Im wearing stuff for days..guess week is next

[Blackhawk]

Sugar good ..yummy

Sugar makes fat. Sugar makes XXL shirts.

[TheMix]

As for the tub..no not with my back. I washed some in the sink but with my hands busted a few years back I cant wring them much. they stay pretty wet...they did dry but had a bad smell. For now Im wearing stuff for days..guess week is next

They did dry... inside? Or outside? If inside, I suspect you are going to also get a finger wagging from Smoove.

I believe you should be drying them outside in the sun.

[dbt1949]

Contacted the water department again today to find out the status of my complaint. Turns out it's their problem but they not going to work on it until aug 31st. That's good it's not my fault but I'm going to get waders to get the mail and take out the trash.

[Daehawk]

As for the tub..no not with my back. I washed some in the sink but with my hands busted a few years back I cant wring them much. they stay pretty wet...they did dry but had a bad smell. For now Im wearing stuff for days..guess week is next

They did dry... inside? Or outside? If inside, I suspect you are going to also get a finger wagging from Smoove.

I believe you should be drying them outside in the sun.

Inside. Always inside even when I had a working machine. I have no outdoor line and no good place for one. Maybe one but dont have poles or lines. Used to. But they were on that strip of land my father in law had to sell. The neighbor that bought it didn't do anything for years with the land but then a few years back he did. Cleaned it all bare nearly and bulldozed our old clothes line.

ASFAIK they never had a dryer here. I want to get one one day. but thats not important right now. Car first. I can order food from Walmart. but its taking more money than I like cause I really need to buy stuff Im 'about' out on . if not and I run out then thats another order and it has to be more than $35 or I get a fee. Fee is what Id go for but id still be paying more.

one thing hurts another and so on and so on. I need a car first. then rest will fall in place one by one as time goes on.

[Kasey Chang]

I went to my local Ikea and it's... meh?

San Francisco's got a brand new Ikea... downtown. It's on 5th and Market, ostensibly an iffy spot, but it's a part of downtown revival, and it just grand-open'ed a couple days ago. WIth some time after work, I decided to head over.

It's pretty typical of Ikea, not that I've been in one for a couple years (before COVID). But this one is 3 stories high (basement, main, 2nd story) but the individual floors aren't that big. There seems to be a couple more stories if they really want to expand, but they may need more elevators (only 2).

Somehow I never feel there's enough air in Ikea... I sweat in Ikea if I've been browsing for more than 30 minutes.

I actually grabbed two borosilicate glass containers and 2 types of lids, plus some storage bags for smaller stuff. I was tempted to grab a garlic press, then remembered that I don't cook.

[Kasey Chang]

I was looking at my snacking choices and it's puzzling in several aspects.

I have a long shift on Mondays... starts at 9, until 2, with a small 30 minutes break, but that also includes commute time (the next location is a couple blocks away), not quite enough to eat. So what I typically do is walk by a convenience store nearby, a buy a diet coke and some sort of a snack. I've tried both pork rinds AND a "pound cake" (extra amusement value, pound cake in Spanish is "ponque`", in South America)

There just seems to be a lot more cake, not that I should be eating a lot of cake with my diabetes. I was hungry, and I ended up eating half of that ponque, didn't finish the rest. It just seems to be a lot more food than pork rinds even though pork rinds are physically bigger, but it's mostly empty air.

[dbt1949]

Because I live by myself I hardly ever do any talking and consequently am losing my voice. And here lately I've been doing a lot of talking,or trying to. It is so annoying.

[Skinypupy]

Needed an oil change, figured 9:30 on a Tuesday morning would be a good time for it since everyone else will be at work. Tried four places close to home and the shortest wait was 2 hours.

Are Tuesday mornings peak oil change time or something?

[Isgrimnur]

Were all the vehicles all white? Fleet maintenance.

[Daehawk]

Never had to wait more than 1 min to get into one. Not been to one since the Valvoline one near us closed. it was the only one we trusted. Others have horror stories of needing a new engine after the drain plug was left out to others refusing to honor broken stuff like a side mirror.

[Kraken]

The gas station I go to for all of my car maintenance is always super busy and it's hit-or-miss whether they can take me. But the owner/head mechanic always greets me by name. I tell him what I want, he tells me when he can do it, and I leave the car and walk home (0.4 mile). No paperwork, he has my phone number stored. Last month I asked him to rotate my tires, too, and he didn't do it because they are wearing evenly -- he measured the tread to be sure. I have an honest, trustworthy mechanic who's a short walk from home. Something I'll never find again after we move away from here.

[gilraen]

I like Valvoline near us because it's a drive-thru. They almost always have a line but I don't care that much, since I can just sit comfortably in my car and watch videos on the phone. Certainly not the cheapest but if I wait long enough, they start sending me coupons.

[Daehawk]

Seems rare these days. Ive always had a mistrust of people like mechanics. I mean how do you really know what they say or do is true? I dont know the stuff he knows and Im not there to watch him. We had two good ones. one left and the other that took his shop was good until a year or so ago and the work he did was shit and he claimed it was other problems..and it was his work for sure.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Seems rare these days. Ive always had a mistrust of people like mechanics. I mean how do you really know what they say or do is true? I dont know the stuff he knows and Im not there to watch him. We had two good ones. one left and the other that took his shop was good until a year or so ago and the work he did was shit and he claimed it was other problems..and it was his work for sure.

If you don't know the stuff mechanics know and were not there to watch him, what makes you so certain there were no other possible problems with your vehicle "and it was his work for sure"? Considering that same vehicle is now non-operational for reasons you're unable to diagnose yourself, doesn't this lend credence to his hypothesis that your vehicle may well have been afflicted by other problems?

[Daehawk]

He repaired a window..the auto type. Nothing else was wrong. The same day i got it it wasn't working well. Also something fallen off in the door rattled all the time as metal on metal. Also my door lock was now rubbing something and the motor for it could not pop it open or close most of the time.

I called him and told him and he said it was not his work that caused this and to use some silicone spray on the window. Guess what? It didn't help and the window both came off track yet again even though he said he fixed that and wont go up or down good.

So ya HIS work. You dont have to be stupid to know things or educated in their field. I just know my car enough to know this one.

[Anonymous Bosch]

He repaired a window..the auto type. Nothing else was wrong. The same day i got it it wasn't working well. Also something fallen off in the door rattled all the time as metal on metal. Also my door lock was now rubbing something and the motor for it could not pop it open or close most of the time.

I called him and told him and he said it was not his work that caused this and to use some silicone spray on the window. Guess what? It didn't help and the window both came off track yet again even though he said he fixed that and wont go up or down good.

So ya HIS work. You dont have to be stupid to know things or educated in their field. I just know my car enough to know this one.

If you say so. Though from what you describe, it sounds like it could just as plausibly be accounted for as result of a decrepit vehicle that perhaps did have other problems.

[em2nought]

Because I live by myself I hardly ever do any talking and consequently am losing my voice. And here lately I've been doing a lot of talking,or trying to. It is so annoying.

Singing feels less weird than talking to yourself. "Music soothes the savage beast" right? I seem to feel better when I sing sometimes, even though I know I sound terrible. I like the FSU chant too, something about the vibration I think, probably moves ancient stones somehow tool

[Exodor]

Proprietary cables are the devil's work.

We've been busy getting the last of our stuff out of the old house before the painters start today so we haven't gotten much time to unpack. This morning I woke up early and decided to get my main PC setup at my desk. My monitor doesn't use the standard computer power cord, it uses a cable with a proprietary connector.

Guess which cable I can't find in any of the boxes I marked "cables"?


I often mock Amazon for offering to deliver things much more quickly than necessary but in this case I'm thankful they can get a replacement to me by the end of the day.

[Blackhawk]

My son recently bought himself a monitor with a proprietary cable (or at least a keyed cable - I'm not sure it was actually proprietary) with about a 3' section of cable leading to a freaking inline power brick. That length of cable meant that the power brick was hanging above the floor, all of its weight on the socket in the monitor.

That monitor was returned for other reasons.

[Daehawk]

Ive seen multiple stories on the news lately of companies raising their customer bills to pay for something that they will then use to make money off customers. Today it s a nuclear plant or power company. Raising bills by $9 a month to pay for their new expansion.

That doesn't even sound legal. Why cant they use the money they've already made...profits....to build their own shit they will then turn around and use to further charge customers?

It really seems illegal.

[TheMix]

Power companies raising rates to "update infrastructure" or "expand capability" has always been a thing. I mean, surely you don't expect them to use their profits for that!

[LordMortis]

Power companies raising rates to "update infrastructure" or "expand capability" has always been a thing. I mean, surely you don't expect them to use their profits for that!

DTE will rot in fiery pits of hell. They let everything go to pot over the last decade while the raised rates. Then they skyrocket rates beyond that as dividends start to slip and catch up again with this huge advertising campaign designed to tell us about how great they are at replacing and hardening infrastructure. The first 15 years I lived here, I almost never had a poweroutage. Now any real storm guarantees one and "squirrels" knock out my power seemingly twice a month. Like in the last half decade they got more curious and only then started to find ways to around, you know, a "squirrel cage." So it's bad enough, we have flakey power when we never did before, but I have to hear several times a day how great the service is, when they never used to have to tell me before service went to shit and my rate literally double.

I may join the legion of the last half decade and finally get natural gas generator. If I was still working and WFH, I'd have to. A decade ago literally no one around here had one. Now I'm in the minority without one.

[Daehawk]

Power companies raising rates to "update infrastructure" or "expand capability" has always been a thing. I mean, surely you don't expect them to use their profits for that!

I know thats sarcastic but yes I do lol. I cant charge someone else if i want to ad onto my home or buy new tires for my car. I mean why have profits if they dont use them. Maybe customers should just pay a company enough to keep them afloat and providing power.

[Exodor]

My son recently bought himself a monitor with a proprietary cable (or at least a keyed cable - I'm not sure it was actually proprietary) with about a 3' section of cable leading to a freaking inline power brick. That length of cable meant that the power brick was hanging above the floor, all of its weight on the socket in the monitor.

Cable is out for delivery - so of course I found the original cable while I was home for lunch.

It was <$20 so not sure if I'll bother to return it or just hang onto it as a spare.

[Blackhawk]

I know thats sarcastic but yes I do lol. I cant charge someone else if i want to ad onto my home or buy new tires for my car.

No, but if you want to add on to the home you rent out, or if you provide vehicle service of some sort, you can absolutely raise the rent/rates to pay for the improvements, and then charge them more for the bigger house/better vehicle.

Besides, with the power company you do have an option besides paying - you can always disconnect your service! Candles and wood stoves were good enough for great-grandma! (Yes, that's sarcasm.)

[Daehawk]

My son recently bought himself a monitor with a proprietary cable (or at least a keyed cable - I'm not sure it was actually proprietary) with about a 3' section of cable leading to a freaking inline power brick. That length of cable meant that the power brick was hanging above the floor, all of its weight on the socket in the monitor.

Cable is out for delivery - so of course I found the original cable while I was home for lunch.

It was <$20 so not sure if I'll bother to return it or just hang onto it as a spare.

Now ya got 2 you can lose

[wonderpug]

My son recently bought himself a monitor with a proprietary cable (or at least a keyed cable - I'm not sure it was actually proprietary) with about a 3' section of cable leading to a freaking inline power brick. That length of cable meant that the power brick was hanging above the floor, all of its weight on the socket in the monitor.

Cable is out for delivery - so of course I found the original cable while I was home for lunch.

It was <$20 so not sure if I'll bother to return it or just hang onto it as a spare.

If you haven’t done an Amazon return in recent history, it’s absurdly easy. Often for small things they just give you the refund and don’t bother asking you to ship it back. Or at worst, you spent a minute in a UPS store showing them a barcode. They do all the packing for you.

[em2nought]

Ive seen multiple stories on the news lately of companies raising their customer bills to pay for something that they will then use to make money off customers. Today it s a nuclear plant or power company. Raising bills by $9 a month to pay for their new expansion.

That doesn't even sound legal. Why cant they use the money they've already made...profits....to build their own shit they will then turn around and use to further charge customers?

It really seems illegal.

You'd really like it if you loaned them $100k to build nuclear power plants(the greenest source) and they mismanaged things so badly that they declared bankruptcy. Meanwhile their Washington state customers still have power, and everybody else is just fine except the bond holders. Whoops!

[Daehawk]

My shrubs are overgrown in front. Im waiting until Oct or Nov to cut them back again. Dont want to kill them.

Anyways the one in front of my PC window has a honeysuckle blooming in the top. Its like 3' from where im sitting just outside the window glass. Ive had 2 little green hummingbirds come to feed off that bloom today. Raises my spirit.

[dbt1949]

Just went outside to check my mail and noticed somebody had dropped off some rags and a pillow rags by road and then it moved. Damn if it wasn't an armadillo. It was too excited and wandered off and I couldn't help but sing....armadillo by morning .....

Then I go inside and sit down and this old potted plant had bug jumping all over it, then I remember my skink lived over there.

[Daehawk]

I live in a memory machine. So many memories of just about anything here in my home. Where little dogs and puppies roamed. Where my wife's little feet padded around on cold floors in winter. Where the in laws must have walked talked and had life for half a century before I arrived even.

Then I think of my life even before my wife and this home. I guess in a way im my own memory machine not just this house.

On a side note i was able to look up my dad's house a few years back when it was on the market. He had it built in about 1976 when I was 7 ....maybe a little before. I know it like the back of my hand. But then I saw it online...the inside of it. Totally redone. Walls knocked out....rooms enlarged. New fixtures new this that and other. Not at all as I knew it. Bit sad but Im glad its loved and used. Not torn down or abused or left to rot longing for a family of its own in a way.

Its nice the outside is the same minus one mini barn we used for lawnmowers and such. Its the same paint even and everything. Though I wish they would take care of the driveway more. Its the same sealer dad put on around 1998. 4 years before he died.

[LordMortis]

"squirrels" knock out my power seemingly twice a month.

Like a siren's call, my power went out not too long after I post and it just came back up.

[Blackhawk]

I live in a memory machine. So many memories of just about anything here in my home. Where little dogs and puppies roamed. Where my wife's little feet padded around on cold floors in winter. Where the in laws must have walked talked and had life for half a century before I arrived even.

Then I think of my life even before my wife and this home. I guess in a way im my own memory machine not just this house.

This is the reason that so many people who've been with someone a long time choose to move after that person dies. It's too much to see them everywhere, and makes it hard to move on. Although some people move furniture, change rugs and curtains, and otherwise completely redecorate to quiet those memory ghosts down. My grandmother, after her husband of almost 50 years died, never slept in a bed again - she spent the remaining 30 years of her life sleeping in a recliner. I didn't understand why she did that for a long, long time.

I'd rather not understand.

(That wasn't directed at you - you can't move any more than I can.)

[Kraken]

Power companies raising rates to "update infrastructure" or "expand capability" has always been a thing. I mean, surely you don't expect them to use their profits for that!

I know thats sarcastic but yes I do lol. I cant charge someone else if i want to ad onto my home or buy new tires for my car. I mean why have profits if they dont use them. Maybe customers should just pay a company enough to keep them afloat and providing power.

They're called municipal power companies. I'm fortunate to live in a town with a taxpayer-owned nonprofit electric company. Low rates, excellent reliability, and great customer service because all the employees are locals and they only service one town. It's exactly what you want from a utility, so of course they are illegal in most of the US...because socialism!

[Daehawk]

Ya TN would never allow that with the reds in charge. No broadband is allowed except what AT&T and the like approve...which is no one but themselves. No weed cause weed is bad um k. Like Reefer Madness bad. No anything. Hell our town JUST got liquor stores like 2 or 3 years ago.