The question now is how long auntie’s sister will live. The two oldest sisters have lived their entire lives together; never married, never even dated as far as I know. The sister who died was the eldest by a year, and was actually in better overall health recently. My gf’s mom is the youngest of four sisters (82?) and is in excellent health.
Jesus @kayaker that’s a load of crap!
This economy Catch-22 is a pisser. There’s not enough workers at my current job, so we keep closing early (e.g. my hours are cut) constantly.
One of my utilities is behind, and keeps sending me robo-calls demanding money. But I don’t know my current balance … and when I call, I’m put on hold for a while, then told “please call back later” because they don’t have staffing to handle calls.
So. TL:DR I owe money. But I don’t know how much, because not enough workers for call center.
Doesn’t matter, because I don’t have $h!t money, because my job keeps shutting down, because not enough workers to keep job open & alive.
SO FUCK ME!
I suppose you could ask the utility call center if they’ll hire you.
More seriously, don’t they have an online presence where you can check for information about your account?
Yeah, but it’s an enormous P.I.T.A. to set it up. I don’t feel like blowing half an hour (unpaid!) of my own free time, just so your company can skimp on CSRs.
Matter of fact, that’s a separate rant right there: so many money-sucking companies also require their customers to use their own free time, to handle what used to be done by employees.
Sure! I’ll spend a solid hour setting up an account that your CSRs need five minutes to finalize! That sounds like FUN!
And also, a great way to make sure I keep coming back to your business.
See also: self check-out grocery lanes.
Have to finish setting up an account with the health insurance so I can figure out exactly what’s covered if we somehow decide to go to the U.S. For some reason, the standard healthcare is more or less “worldwide”. With the U.S. being one of the major exceptions. I don’t remember the others.
And the cake I baked sunk. Others said it was a good recipe, but I’m rather surprised that it called for only baking sode and didn’t call for an acid.
So now I have a sunken cake which smells like baking soda. Great.
And nothing for breakfast, so tomorrow I have to go to the bakery as the stores are already closed for the day. Joy.
I like self check-out. Then again I was a cashier once upon a time so I feel very comfortable doing it.
I’m comfortable with ordering stations at fast-food places, but grocery self-check doesn’t seem to like me.
At first, I viewed them as another sign of the decline of civilization. But with a little practice, damn, I’m quick!
I can look up “Kumquats” faster than any high school checker can begin to comprehend the fact that he’s staring at a bag of tiny alien fruits, I can scan things in the order I want to bag them, and when the headmistress voice says “Please place item in bagging area”, I can sneer, "Oh, reeeally? What a brilliant idea. Which I why I just did that!"
But the real reason I like it is that there’s often a long line at the “human” cashiers, and none at the ‘ShoppyBots’ (like my new term? You can use it too…). And my blood pressure’s a lot lower when I’m not dealing with a person…
…Until the dreaded “Please see a store minion for assistance.” Arggggghhh!
There was a time when the cashier unloaded the cart and bagged the groceries as well as rang up the prices. I don’t know of anywhere that does NOT have the customer doing the unloading of the cart, and most places also have the customer bagging the groceries. The only difference (from the customer’s perspective) is who holds the scanner. I prefer self check-out because I’m going to be doing most of the work anyway. I’m not convinced by the argument that it throws people out of work: it seems to me that supermarkets and retail in general are understaffed in every area, and that corporate America has decided that it will do anything to get out of paying employees to work. And why should they, when customers will do it for free?
I finally found someone who says he can provide vaccinated workers to fix the ceiling in my spare room where I had an A/C leak a few weeks ago. He came earlier to look it over. He suggested that he drywall? the entire ceiling since there are water stains over a large area surrounding the hole. This will entail taking down the ceiling fan. When I turned on the light in the fan, it started blinking so there is a short somewhere. He said they could take care of that, too. I dread seeing the estimate for all this. I hope I didn’t make a mistake by telling him how hard it’s been to find vaccinated workers. I want to trust that he wouldn’t charge me more knowing that but I guess it would be worth it anyway. And I really can’t talk to another two dozen companies. That was depressing.
Also, I just signed a contract for a new roof last week (unrelated to the ceiling collapse, it’s just time for a new one). I spent all of September trying to get these things arranged and I’m tired of being stressed about it. But that’s not all! I have to get a leaky outside faucet replaced before it gets too cold so I need to start getting some estimates for that this week. Fingers crossed that by the end of October it will all be done.
Trader Joes. They unload your cart and bag your groceries.
…and ask you all sorts of questions: “Hey, you grillin’ out tonight?” “Looks like somebody’s eating healthy!” “Welll, hope you’re eating more than just salsa and popsicles for supper…Wooo! Fist bump!”
You might prefer the quiet as you bag your own…
.
eta:
Omigod, I just flashed back on the time a new teenage checker did the “Comment on the customer’s purchases!” thing (I swear that must be from the first day of training).
“So… this looks good!”
Me: “Should be…” (I start bagging, sensing perkiness)
“Oh, cool, you gonna grilling this salmon with those peppers?”
“No, but good idea.” (I pay, but am still bagging)
“So, where you going from here?”
s i l e n c e
"I mean, you heading home from here?’
“Nope, bye!” I grab bag with one hand, last few items with the other, and I’m a block away before I realize I should’ve said something.
Epilog: I live a couple of blocks from that store, I stop by maybe ten times a week, and I’ve never seen him since. Maybe he got even more personal…
I Haaaaaaaaate when they try to unload my cart for me! I was rarely so thankful for anything as when I found out that our local Publix put in self check lanes. The scanbot and I get along great, I’m fast, I know what I want bagged where and how, and no-one is chitchatting to me. And now they’ve automated (or at least distanced) the alcohol OK, so the person in charge of monitoring self-check can just ok my stuff without any interruption. It’s great.
My old phone pooped out, so I just got a new one.
It’s very schmancy- not anything top-of-the-line, but my old phone was from the late paleolithic era (i.e. like 2015 or so), so it’s way better than what I had before.
Only, it won’t charge properly. Left alone on the charger with no touching except occasionally turning the screen on to check on the battery, it charges at a rate of about 2% per hour. And erratically- like it will be at 67% and then the next time I check, it’s down to 64%.
So I’m going to have to return/exchange it. Not the end of the world, but a pain in the butt nonetheless.
I’m comfortable with the technology, myself, but I don’t care for the aspect of it that facilitates store owners not having human beings on the payroll.
This is day four of my gf’s quarantine after COVID-19 exposure and she remains asymptomatic.
During dinner last night (we ate in different rooms) she coughed at one point, but yelled, “just choking on food”.
Every time I’ve sneezed for the past 18 months, I’ve shouted “Sneezing isn’t a symptom!”
Glad to hear there are some kindred spirits out there.
I feel like I have to apologize if I clear my throat in public, and I live in an area where allergies are quite common. IMO, jumping immediately to “that person is a plague carrier and will kill everyone within two degrees of contact” is unreasonable. Allergies ARE still a thing, as are colds, asthma, reactions to air pollution, etc.
In the very early days of the pandemic, I remember waking up with a sore throat one morning and assuming I’d be dead in a week. I drank a glass of water and my throat was fine, but for it was a scare.