The Daily Rant

[Jaymann]

Ever feel like ranting about something whether it's important or not? Have I got a thread for you.

I will start the ball rolling with this one:

I have a car insurance bill that I realized was a couple days late. So I called my agent to make a payment and got a recorded message to leave a callback number (they still haven't called me), but they also mentioned an 800 number to make a payment. Unfortunately they rattled it off too fast for me to catch it, so I had to call back and listen to the message again. Called the 800 number and the robot asked for a key code number off my bill. I entered it correctly but they could not find it. Then it said wait on the line to speak to a representative, so I did. It sent me back to the same recording of my agent that I originally called.

Fortunately I found my login for their website and was able to make a payment that way. What a friggin' run around.

[Kraken]

My brand-new car failed inspection. Our old license plates aren't reflective enough, and must be replaced. That's a safety violation, so it's illegal to drive the car until the fault is remedied. I have seven days to set things right.

We hightailed it over to the RMV and discovered that they don't issue plates on Saturdays, but not before I dropped a license plate bolt behind the bumper and permanently lost it. Went back today with that dangerous license plate hanging by one bolt. Wife complicated the situation by insisting that she wants to keep her old number, which creates a delay of a couple of weeks while they rustle up a prisoner to custom-stamp a new plate. In the interim, I have to display a paper temporary plate in a plastic sleeve in the license plate bracket. Well, one bolt won't hold that floppy not-plate on, and the front plate bolts are different from the rear bolts, because of course they are, so I can't display the paper plate.

We rang up the dealership to see if we could come in and at least get the damned inspection sticker out of the way, but alas, that has to wait for the permanent plates. Fine, can we at least get a replacement bolt? Well, no, they can't do that. That's not a part they stock and they won't take one off another car because that just kicks the problem to someone else. Moreover, license bolts aren't standard from one model to another so it would have to come off another Santa Cruz, which are rare on their lot. I can believe that since the front and back bolts don't even match. So, off to Autozone we go, where after much deliberating I managed to find a $6 four-pack of bolts that fit.

Now I'm stuck driving with a trashy-looking (and, I might add, non-reflective) paper license plate and a rejected inspection sticker. I wonder how many more hours of hassling will elapse before I finally get my real plates and sticker. I think I've spent four hours already from driving in for the failed inspection to now.

[Carpet_pissr]

For future reference you can take the bolt you have and go to any Lowe’s or Home Depot and they have female ‘testers’ so you can try your bolt, and then it will direct you to a specific bin to find the exact same bolt.

There’s nothing unique about license plate bolts is what I’m getting at.

[Jaymann]

Couldn't you have just added reflector tape to your old plate as a temporary solution?

[Kraken]

For future reference you can take the bolt you have and go to any Lowe’s or Home Depot and they have female ‘testers’ so you can try your bolt, and then it will direct you to a specific bin to find the exact same bolt.

There’s nothing unique about license plate bolts is what I’m getting at.

I kinda wanted to get a nice license plate bracket -- you know, the kind with a confederate flag motif, or maybe some pirate skulls -- and they had many to choose from, but they ALL came with hex-wrench bolts, which just added one more complication that I didn't want today.

Couldn't you have just added reflector tape to your old plate as a temporary solution?

The reflective requirement is to make the plate readable at night for the constabulary's safety.

[Jaymann]

Don't you hate it when a service call representative will arrive between 10am and 2pm. You can't really do anything before 10am in case they are early, so you are stuck waiting for up to 6 hours (unless they cancel/reschedule)

Adjacent rant: I got a "rebate check" which is a come on to apply to a service call. Wouldn't you know my A/C went out the next day. Coincidence or...?

[Hipolito]

When I instruct someone to write a certain phrase in a document, I like to put quotation marks around the phrase so that it's clear what I want them to write.

I shouldn't have to follow that up by saying "Without the quotes." But if I don't, then nine times out of ten, they include the quotes ... sigh.

Nowadays, instead of using quotation marks, I'll say "Write the following:" and then tell them what I want them to write. That's worked well.

[Smoove_B]

[Hipolito]

Haha, brilliant!

I recently told someone to redact the locations of homes from a document. What do they do instead? Redact every instance of the word "home."

Kill me.

[Jaymann]

Are you sure they are not an AI robot?

[Hipolito]

Hate to say this, but AI might have done a better job.

[Unagi]

When I instruct someone to write a certain phrase in a document, I like to put quotation marks around the phrase so that it's clear what I want them to write.

I shouldn't have to follow that up by saying "Without the quotes." But if I don't, then nine times out of ten, they include the quotes ... sigh.

Nowadays, instead of using quotation marks, I'll say "Write the following:" and then tell them what I want them to write. That's worked well.

Do you actually wrap the, Write the following:, in quotes?

[Hipolito]

When I instruct someone to write a certain phrase in a document, I like to put quotation marks around the phrase so that it's clear what I want them to write.

I shouldn't have to follow that up by saying "Without the quotes." But if I don't, then nine times out of ten, they include the quotes ... sigh.

Nowadays, instead of using quotation marks, I'll say "Write the following:" and then tell them what I want them to write. That's worked well.

Do you actually wrap the, Write the following:, in quotes?

No!

[Unagi]

[Holman]

Speaking of car inspections...

We had ours done today, and the only bar to passing inspection was that our wiper blades were old and rigid and didn't sufficiently clear the windshield of moisture. The replacement fee at the dealer (where we had the inspection done) was $50.

I knew I needed new wiper blades, but I didn't know this was an inspection thing. I could have replaced them myself before the inspection for maybe fifteen bucks.

I could have refused their offer, replaced the blades myself, and then had a new inspection. But they were closing in one hour and my inspection deadline is Monday, so I took the hit.

[Jaymann]

This one on behalf of my son:

He needs to renew his driver's license so he tried to do it online. They had an old phone number which we have not had in years. It was also a landline so no texts. He clicked "I no longer have that number" and entered his new number. The response was: "We cannot verify your account." He has not been able to get through to a breather, so it looks like he is in for the dreaded DMV visit.

[em2nought]

If i'd wanted "meta ai" i'd have asked for it.

[pr0ner]

Speaking of car inspections...

We had ours done today, and the only bar to passing inspection was that our wiper blades were old and rigid and didn't sufficiently clear the windshield of moisture. The replacement fee at the dealer (where we had the inspection done) was $50.

I knew I needed new wiper blades, but I didn't know this was an inspection thing. I could have replaced them myself before the inspection for maybe fifteen bucks.

I could have refused their offer, replaced the blades myself, and then had a new inspection. But they were closing in one hour and my inspection deadline is Monday, so I took the hit.

Given what my friends who live in Philly tell me about how militant the parking enforcement people are whenever stickers are expired by a day...you made the right choice!

[Holman]

Given what my friends who live in Philly tell me about how militant the parking enforcement people are whenever stickers are expired by a day...you made the right choice!

Once I was expired by three weeks.

A parking official read my sticker (visible on the front windshield) from across an intersection, did a U-turn behind me, and pulled me over.

(Apparently the stickers were color-coded by month, making this easy to do.)

[pr0ner]

Given what my friends who live in Philly tell me about how militant the parking enforcement people are whenever stickers are expired by a day...you made the right choice!

Once I was expired by three weeks.

A parking official read my sticker (visible on the front windshield) from across an intersection, did a U-turn behind me, and pulled me over.

(Apparently the stickers were color-coded by month, making this easy to do.)

I've heard stories from them of people in their neighborhood getting multiple tickets while parked for registration/inspection stickers being overdue by only a few days. It's wild.

[Kraken]

My laptop reminded me today that its battery is good for 10 minutes, tops. I’d buy it a new one — it’s only six years old and works just fine in every other way — but MS says they’re going to abandon the OS a year from now and my machine isn't upgradable, so Ima have to replace it anyway. And no, I don’t want to become a Linux weirdo.

[Jaymann]

Comet A3 is a cruel hoax. I have been getting up an hour and a half before sunrise to look for it, but it was always overcast. This morning I could see the crescent moon in the east and a few stars, and I thought this is it. But the horizon was obscured by trees. So we got in the car to reach higher ground, but by that time I could still see the moon but no stars and certainly no comet. Bah.

But it won't stop me from seeking out the western horizon at sunset on October 9.

[em2nought]

Bought some automatic tranny fluid from Toyota and forgot abought the 3% credit card charge until it was too late. Damn!

[hitbyambulance]

Given what my friends who live in Philly tell me about how militant the parking enforcement people are whenever stickers are expired by a day...you made the right choice!

Once I was expired by three weeks.

A parking official read my sticker (visible on the front windshield) from across an intersection, did a U-turn behind me, and pulled me over.

(Apparently the stickers were color-coded by month, making this easy to do.)

I've heard stories from them of people in their neighborhood getting multiple tickets while parked for registration/inspection stickers being overdue by only a few days. It's wild.

in Seattle they don't even bother writing you up anymore for expired tabs - there are tons of people now who just let theirs elapse. actually... they're not even writing up people for _not having license plates_ - nearly every day on the road i'll see at least one car with absolutely no license plate at all. those ones tend to be driving recklessly as well.

[LordMortis]

I see plateless cars often enough in Michigan to notice them and wonder how they get away with it. We don't have all that inspection stuff I see allya'll talkin' about but we do have police as a source of municipal revenue everywhere. One would think no plate would be a no brainer for them.

[Unagi]

I see plateless cars often enough in Michigan to notice them and wonder how they get away with it. We don't have all that inspection stuff I see allya'll talkin' about but we do have police as a source of municipal revenue everywhere. One would think no plate would be a no brainer for them.

I wonder if it's a police vs city-coffers thing we are seeing.

[Brian]

Bought round trip airfare (Southwest) for the wife and I to Seattle for our upcoming Alaska cruise using my Southwest Rapid Rewards card and literally the next day, Southwest sends me an email stating 6X points when using your RR card. So I missed it by a day.

I did call them and I could cancel my tickets and then repurchase them to get the points but then my Early Bird ($100) would be non-refundable.

I decided to just let it go this time but the gal at Southwest did tell me, "Southwest always sends out its deals emails between Tuesday and Thursday" so I'll know better next time.

[Isgrimnur]

[url=https://www.grandprairiepolice.org/News ... -Paul-Tsai[Line of Duty Death: Officer Brandon Paul Tsai/url]

Published on November 15, 2022

The Grand Prairie Police Department is mourning the loss of one of our officers who died in the line of duty. It is with heavy hearts that we report Officer Brandon Paul Tsai passed away after being involved in a traffic collision.

At around 10:45 p.m. on Monday, November 14, 2022, Officer Tsai was near the intersection of SW 3rd and Pioneer Parkway when he located a vehicle displaying a fictitious paper license plate. Officer Tsai attempted to stop the vehicle which immediately fled. During the pursuit, Officer Tsai lost control of his squad car causing it to strike a light pole.

What cost is worth paying over a vehicle licensing issue?

[LawBeefaroni]

Here they won't try to stop cars with fake/no plates. They aren't allowed to chase and most of these cars are stolen or driven by unlicensed drivers so they'll probably run.

Pretty much no traffic laws are enforced unless it's by speed cameras or red light cameras. Only when they're a pretext to pull over a known offender. And even then it a risky career move.


As a result, even driving a few blocks is an adventure.


I always have to re-adjust my driving habits when I leave town.

[LordMortis]

They aren't allowed to chase

Maybe that's why there has been such an uptick and there are so many noticeable plateless/paper plate ridiculously wrong plates around here. Cops only pull over people they know they can easily get revenue from. I hate to think that's the case. That requires a jaded level I haven't hit... yet...

[gilraen]

Drove around this weekend on several major highways, and at least one announcement board over the highway said expired plate enforcement is on. So apparently it's still a thing, at least in Colorado.

[Blackhawk]

It certainly is a thing around here. I have never seen an unplated vehicle. Of course, it's all small towns, and their revenue comes from traffic tickets. Especially from vehicles without local plates.

[Isgrimnur]

I'm glad Texas doesn't do the 'local' plate thing. Small town bullshit is bad enough without helping them.

[Jaymann]

Christmas edition:

For once I took care of business early and sent everyone in my circle a gift through Amazon, even my ex wife. But it turns out she moved and didn't advise me so I sent it to her old address. Amazon now says the package was delivered. My ex tried texting the new occupant and her old landlady (who lives in the back). The new tenants say they didn't see it and the landlady is not responding. Probably easier to just send her another one than to go crazy trying to run that one down.

[Jeff V]

Couldn't you have just added reflector tape to your old plate as a temporary solution?

Or glitter paint? My daughter would go that direction.

[Jaymann]

Christmas edition:

For once I took care of business early and sent everyone in my circle a gift through Amazon, even my ex wife. But it turns out she moved and didn't advise me so I sent it to her old address. Amazon now says the package was delivered. My ex tried texting the new occupant and her old landlady (who lives in the back). The new tenants say they didn't see it and the landlady is not responding. Probably easier to just send her another one than to go crazy trying to run that one down.

Update: The landlady fessed up. Merry Christmas indeed.