# April glowers bring May flowers (minirant thread) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 1, 2018, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576 "2018-04-01T08:02:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/201 "2018-04-19T15:27:00Z")
Verizon is such a bitch to deal with. It doesn’t matter what the issue is, they make it 10 times harder. I just really hate them. Hope your phone problems get cleared up to your satisfaction. Soon. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/202 "2018-04-19T16:39:14Z")
First, a small but irritating one: Apple has seen fit to change the keyboard controls for my Mac so that the pausing and re-starting commands focuses on Youtube, rather than iTunes. I have iTunes on all day, every day. I watch one or two videos a day. Guess which one I would PREFER to be my default for the keyboard commands. Instead of just hitting the pause/resume key, I now have to open iTunes with my mouse and pause the music - that’s a pain in my ass when I’m trying to quickly pause the music to take a call, or when I’m leaving my desk. This is NOT an upgrade. :mad: The second one is bigger - apparently I have esophagus spasms now. The first time it happened, I ended up in the emergency room at two in the morning, thinking I was having a heart attack. I am VERY grateful that it wasn’t a heart attack, but having something that recurs, that is as painful as a heart attack, and has no reliable treatment is not what I would have chosen for myself. I’m off to see the doctor this afternoon - hopefully he’ll have some good news for me. The spasm came back again last night - yeeow. That is really frigging painful. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/203 "2018-04-19T16:44:07Z")
Do you use Chrome? I had the same issue with my Mac, and it turned out to be an issue with some settings in Chrome. I’ll try to find a link to the site that helped me fix it when I get home today. And my sympathies on the esophagus… My mother has had various problems, including severe spasms while she was trying to eat, and it can be scary as hell. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/204 "2018-04-19T18:38:43Z")
Mrs G and I have been giving G jr. her baby medicine for acid reflux. G j.r screams and wails for a half hour afterwards, but hey, it must be ok right? After a week of this, Mrs G and I decided to take a taste of the stuff ourselves. Holy crap, it tastes like battery acid and physically burns on the way down, leaving a horrid acid aftertaste for an hour. Fucking doctors, the medicine truly is worse than the cure, we’ve stopped the infant abuse since the simple OtC baby antacids work just as well while also tasting like strawberry smoothies. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/205 "2018-04-19T19:20:31Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > Do you use Chrome? I had the same issue with my Mac, and it turned out to be an issue with some settings in Chrome. I’ll try to find a link to the site that helped me fix it when I get home today. Nope - I use Safari. Maybe it’s the same deal, though - I’ll hunt around in my Safari preferences. Good thought! 🙂 > [@](#): > > And my sympathies on the esophagus… My mother has had various problems, including severe spasms while she was trying to eat, and it can be scary as hell. It was indeed scary - we called the Healthlink phoneline, and their response was, “Hang up and call 911, right f’ing now!” :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/206 "2018-04-19T20:05:54Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#): > > Fuck your Sears. There has never been a retailer more deserving to go out of business. > > I need some more 75ft 5/8ths rubber hoses. We aren’t quite into gardening season yet so no one has them locally. I normally buy them on sale for $30. > > I find them on Amazon $50 free shipping but no prime option. 5-7 days estimated arrival. > > Sears has them $40 each. Site claiming free shipping on orders over $50. So 3of them easily over the $50 threshold. Seams like a fair deal. > > It’s not till you’ve enterered all the information into the cart that shipping options show up. Shipping options were something like expedited shipping $35 7-10 days, regular shipping $25 two weeks, free shipping 3-4 weeks, in store pick up free 7-10 days. To me that was very deceptive, free shipping implies to me I’d get standard shipping for free not some service where they ship it at thier convenience. Rather than canceling I figure I’d like them earlier than 7-10 days but in-store pick up will save me $30 bucks over Amazon. > > 8 days later Sears let’s me know the hoses are in. Sears is about 20 minutes away. I schedule to have dinner with a friend at a restaurant a parking lot away at 730 the next day. > > I go into Sears at 7 to get my hoses. There is one person at customer service who is doing double duty as a register. I wait in line while they go through the 20 questions sales process with the two people in front of me. They can’t find the hoses. The system says they are in the store but nobody put in the location. By this point it is 730 and I need to be at dinner. I tell them ‘I’m going can you locate them before i come back’ they assure me they can. > > I go to dinner. Spend a little to much time but get back to Sears at 8:50. Posted hours on the door are closing 9pm. I was at a side enterance so maybe they lock that early. I go to the main enterance and that’s locked too. The manager I dealt with earlier sees me outside the door. He turns his back to me and walks away. > > Lesson learned is I should have just paid more on Amazon. I’m undecided as to wether I’m going to cancel the sears order or not. I don’t even know if they actually have my hoses. When I went to make a complaint on the online order the system is temporarily down… If it helps any, our local Sears closed its doors about a month ago. The sign’s gone and everything. Sorry you’ve had to go to so much trouble! ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/207 "2018-04-19T21:12:43Z")
Store’s closed. Libertarian out front should have told you. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/208 "2018-04-19T21:59:33Z")
Well, I saw my doctor - he figures I just have weapons-grade acid reflux. I guess that’s…good? ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/209 "2018-04-19T22:24:54Z")
Miniest of the rants: there are currently _two_ threads in ATMB that consist almost entirely of people being obtuse about how some of us don’t find endless repetition of the same jokes funny. Both have people taking the opportunity to, you guessed it, endlessly repeat the same jokes. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/210 "2018-04-20T00:19:33Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Nope - I use Safari. Maybe it’s the same deal, though - I’ll hunt around in my Safari preferences. Good thought! 🙂 Apparently, I didn’t see fit to save the link to that site…but I did learn that a ‘feature’ of High Sierra involves the keyboard media controls attempting to switch focus if you move from iTunes to YouTube/Safari. Apparently the focus doesn’t always switch back, or sometimes stops working completely. Yay. (I still haven’t updated to High Sierra here.) ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/211 "2018-04-20T01:17:48Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Well, I saw my doctor - he figures I just have weapons-grade acid reflux. I guess that’s…good? Make sure he checks you for Barrett’s esophagus. A friend of mine had what he and the doctor thought was “weapons-grade acid reflux” for years. Turned out it was Barrett’s, it evolved into esophageal cancer, and he died in December. NB: esophageal cancer is rare. Barrett’s increases the chance, but it’s still rare. ---
**Author:** ![Caractacus\_Pott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Caractacus\_Pott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caractacus_Pott)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/212 "2018-04-20T01:57:56Z")
Very very mini-rant. I’m traveling. I’m watching TV in a hotel in a time zone that isn’t my time zone. I want to find out when “The Big Bang Theory” is on tonight. This hotel’s TV doesn’t have a schedule channel. Go to the local CBS station’s website to see its program schedule. Nope. Not there. The TV Guide website for some reason thinks I’m in Eastern Time Zone and refuses to believe otherwise. Eventually I stumbled on the local newspaper’s website which had the TV listings. Why was this so hard? ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/213 "2018-04-20T02:02:43Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Verizon is such a bitch to deal with. It doesn’t matter what the issue is, they make it 10 times harder. I just really hate them. Hope your phone problems get cleared up to your satisfaction. Soon. Going on 5 years now since my father passed away. His business was set up as a DBA so effectively ended with his passing. I am the executor of the estate, I’m represented and have all necessary documentation. The Verizon business lines are supposed to be transferred to me. I’ve been using them for the past 4 years without issue but the account is still in my fathers name with his tax ID number. I’m an administrator on the account, so can make any changes I need to. It is a very simple transfer of liability to my company, but Verizon can’t manage that. It’s even the most logical decision for them to make. Right now the liable party for the contracts is a dead guy, they have a perfectly healthy person willing to take on that liability. Every once in a while the fact it hasn’t been corrected annoys me, I find my old rep has been replaced, send over the relevant documentation to the new rep, they say they’ll take care of it, it never happens. At this point there is an email chain hundreds of emails long, that just keeps repeating. They just keep failing to do anything. I don’t understand why they can’t just edit the name and tax id on the account. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/214 "2018-04-20T04:00:15Z")
Eeesh. The next time the rep changes and you make the request, and they say “I’ll take care of it,” you should totally say _“Ooh, goody! Can I watch?”_ ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/215 "2018-04-20T11:03:34Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Make sure he checks you for Barrett’s esophagus. A friend of mine had what he and the doctor thought was “weapons-grade acid reflux” for years. Turned out it was Barrett’s, it evolved into esophageal cancer, and he died in December. NB: esophageal cancer is rare. Barrett’s increases the chance, but it’s still rare. I have an online acquaintance who is paranoid he’s going to get Barrett’s because his father had it and eventually passed from it. It’s one of his _hot_ topics along with his digestive and other health-related issues. He doesn’t have many friends either online or off because he’s obsessed. I feel badly for him; OTOH it’'s frustrating initiating conversations with him because he is so obsessed. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/216 "2018-04-20T11:14:19Z")
On a totally different note, my niece’s bridal shower is tomorrow. I’ve been working so much lately that I haven’t had time to buy her a present, so I was going to write her a check. Then my MIL calls saying that she’ll get a present I can give her “because who wants to open a check at a shower?” Honestly, MIL, is the shower is for your granddaughter, NOT you. ---
**Author:** ![slumtrimpet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@slumtrimpet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slumtrimpet)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/217 "2018-04-20T13:44:50Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Well, I saw my doctor - he figures I just have weapons-grade acid reflux. I guess that’s…good? Dunno about “good”, but as a fellow spasm/acid reflux sufferer here’s a few benign suggestions: \*Raise the head of your bed by at least 6inches - more if you can - doctor’s suggestion and it did help some. \*pickle juice? Sounds dumb, tastes crap but it might help. Something about pickle juice helping with cramps… (not a doctor’s suggestion) Take a few swallows (try not to gag) when the pain hits. \*drugs. Proton pump inhibitors like omeprazole. Watch out for side effects though. You have my commiserations. Hurts like a bugger sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/218 "2018-04-21T00:06:14Z")
I need cheering up, someone post a joke.☹ ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/219 "2018-04-21T00:07:52Z")
But this is the RANTS thread. No place for a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576/220 "2018-04-21T00:44:21Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I need cheering up, someone post a joke.☹ [Groucho Marx always cheers me up.](https://youtu.be/NfN_gcjGoJo) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-glowers-bring-may-flowers-minirant-thread/811576.md?page=12)