A Day Late But Not A Rant Short (March Mini-Rants)

The BBQ Pit
1

Well, here you go. It’s March and let’s roll out some wee rants we could’ve unleashed earlier if the calendar wasn’t such a hack job. (To be fair, it’s that way because we humans insist on putting a different order to things which were already in order. My hero Calvin knew the score.

Weather in Beijing: How can a place that gets as brutally hot in the summer as this town does get so lethally cold in the winter? I hate having to wear five or six layers of clothing and using those heat packs so I can still use my fingers in the first hour I walk back indoors.

Speaking of indoors. I very well might get arrested if I’m lucky enough (?) to catch whoever it is who decides, what the hey, it’s -8 C, let’s open every window in the building! Mind you, some clown did that three years ago when the temp hit -20 C.

Ah, that’s it for now. I’ll add more as the month drags along.

2

I had forgotten that we get a new rant every month. March!
My rant? EVrey bodys sick. Maybe its the changing weather.

3

Or it could be because some idiot opened the window on a blustery cold winter day (I don’t care that China thinks it’s Spring now; the weaterh says otherwise). I especially hate it when I get to work, go to the “terlet”, and while I’m sitting there with my drawers around my ankles, the window is opened by one of the resident sadists. Brrrr!

4

Getting chilled, in and of itself, won’t make one sick. But getting chilled may lower your immunity.
Great title!

5

There’s still a very contagious covid going around, plus a non-covid nasty cold that seems to be hitting everyone I know.

6

Well, ya know one more now.

7

I write this post in the middle of a massive midnight traffic jam. My usual half hour game night commute will be at least triple. If I’d thought to look up the route before I left, I’d be long home by now, but I thought, lane reduction? I’d gotten through one of those pretty quickly recently, so no issue this time again, right?

Wrong!

Now I have plenty of time to think about the extra wear and tear on my car, extra gas, the cars driving at high speeds on the shoulder, and the extra holdup by the dude who fell asleep behind the wheel (at least, I hope he was sleeping!)…

8

The same way we in Lethbridge, Alberta do: it’s just the way things are. We’ve been down to -40C in winter, and +35/40C in summer. Golfing in a T-shirt, shorts, and sandals; to up to four layers of winter protection, all in the space of six months.

Some weeks ago, it was so cold, my car wouldn’t start, in spite of the block heater being plugged in. It was -40C/F, so that was no wonder—there are some temps a block heater cannot defeat. Anyway, I needed a few essentials, and there’s a corner store about three blocks away, so let’s walk. Wearing a T-shirt, flannel shirt, fleece vest, and a parka, along with a toque, scarf, ski gloves, and a Covid mask (which, I learned, does keep one’s face warm), I set off.

The only exposed skin was around my eyes, which were watering pretty profusely by the time I got to the store. My nose was running like Usain Bolt, but I had my mask on, and I figured if I snot the mask up, I’ll just throw it out. Which ended up happening.

Anyway, when I got home, it took an hour for my fingers to unfreeze, in spite of the ski gloves. My eyes continued to water, and my nose continued to run. Thankfully, neither the bread nor the coffee nor the Coca-Cola (yes, in my house, Coke is an essential) that I bought at the corner store didn’t freeze on that five-minute walk.

But there you go. In my location, an 80 degrees C swing between summer and winter temps is normal. Sounds like your description of Beijing.

9

My condolences!

10

One of my strange proclivities is buying plastic food wrap in gigantic 2500-foot food industry type rolls. I use a lot of it and it’s cheaper that way.

But I hereby pit Resinite, one such major manufacturer, for their stupid “safety” sliding cutters and for changing their package dimensions. The sliding “safety” cutters are the work of Satan, and require two hands, whereas the conventional “dangerous” serrated cutter can cut the wrap with just a quick downward tug. So over the decades (one of those boxes lasts at least five years) I’ve just moved the serrated edge insert thingy from the old box to the “new improved” box.

But the damn boxes have now changed in dimensions. The rolls are still 11" by 2500’, but I have to apply instruments of destruction to fit my old cutter edge to the new box. And no, Resinite, I’m not going to use your ridiculously obnoxious “safety” cutter. There are also instructions to make sure to place the box of plastic wrap at waist height or below. Apparently Resinite believes that the fine folks who work in restaurant kitchens are sourced from homes for the severely mentally disabled.

ETA: This proclivity was partially motivated by the fact that brand-name plastic wraps available in grocery stores weren’t actually very clingy, whereas the commercial stuff was.

11

I do the same thing. My ex-husband once quipped that we’d have to leave the remainder to our children in our wills.

12

When my current roll of plastic wrap was running low (just judging by how light the box was getting) I planned to drive down to the kitchen-supply place where I always used to get them. But alas, that interesting place is no more. So I ordered one from Amazon, hoping it would arrive in time.

It arrived over six months ago. The current roll is still doing fine, and may do so for another month, two months, or two years – who knows with these things! :smiley:

13

Instead of swapping out the cutter, can you just swap out the roll into the box with the good cutter?

14

No. As you probably know with your experience of these things, the cutter is an insert into the cardboard box. The piece-of-shit slider is a thing that is supposed to fit onto the edge. The serrated edge cutter is a piece of cardboard that sits inside the box in front of the roll.

I am indeed going to use the good cutter in the new box, but because of the different dimensions, I have to trim the cardboard part to fit. The metal cutting edge is fine, it’s just the cardboard insert that needs to be trimmed.

Scary thought: this roll of plastic wrap may last me the rest of my life!

.

15

My gf took her mom on a trip to Florida, so I’m doing all her barn chores. This morning Simi was all excited and jumped on me, flinging mud from her foot into my eye. I’ve been splashing water on my eye for the last half hour.

16

We got a puppy 6 months ago. She’s the worst dog. We’ve had lots of puppies and older dogs so we know what we are doing. This one is the worst. Last night my wife and I were talking and lost track of her for 10 minutes. She chewed a dinner plate size hole in the middle of our mattress.

Anyone want an unaffectionate, whiny, stubborn, car sick, poop eating, chewing machine? I can promise you’ll spend lots of money on her!

17

There was a software error when I tried to log in to work this morning. As a bonus, I could receive messages from my team lead but could not respond. As usual during work hours, I had my cell phone on silent. This resulted in missing a call from my team lead. I tried to call back and got connected to somebody who said I should put in a ticke with IT. I did. They resolved the issue. Then, my team lead told me that only leads are supposed to put tickets in with IT. Things are okay now. But, it’s been a very aggravating morning.

18

Blue Heeler or Labrador? I’ve had both and your description fits them to a T.

19

Oh, poor thing. And, NO!

20

Some sort of hound/German Shephard mix. Might be part demon as well.