August Wrong! (Monthly Mini-Rants)

The BBQ Pit
81

I learned to drive in Oregon. After my round trip from Sacramento to Fremont today, I have to ask those who learned in California: does CA drivers’ ed not cover the concept of “following distance”, as in LEAVE SOME?

I could be doing 10 over (yes, I know, I shouldn’t, but my car and I seem to differ on this point) and still have someone practically in my trunk today. In the “slow” lane.

I very much resent the selfish idiots who feel entitled to endanger the lives of other drivers because they couldn’t get their rear ends out the door in a timely manner.

I’m willing to bet that 5-car chain-reaction I saw the aftermath of on the 680 had tailgating as a contributing factor.

82

They need to be taught the thing.

“Only a fool breaks the two-second rule.”

I follow it. Pick a point on the side of the road. When the car in front of you passes it, count to two. If you pass that same point before you’re done counting, you’re too close to the car in front of you.

83

I learned that in driver’s ed in Oregon (and might have heard of it before then via PSA), but I’m seriously wondering if driver’s ed in California bothers teaching such a thing.

84

I learned the 2 second rule when trained in Washington too.

85

I’d always been taught the three second rule.

You PNWers are just too close to my rear!

:grin:

86

Foxit PDF is free and can also edit PDFs.

I gave up on Adobe when faced with the enormous cost of buying the Suite many years ago, now I am an open-source guy for what I can get. (I was decent at Photoshop, but I have not mastered Gimp by any measure)

87

I remember “one car length for each 10 miles per hour.” But that was more than 5 decades ago. I make no claim about the present.

88

That was what was in the Driver’s Ed book, but the teacher told us to count to three, which is a lot easier to do.

89

Foxit PDF Reader is free, Foxit PDF Editor is not free (it starts at $11 a month).

Still, I’ll keep Foxit in mind if Acrobat Reader gets on my nerve too much. I’m not a huge Adobe fan in general. I’ve been supporting Adobe products professionally for nearly 30 years, which is enough for me to have built up a lot of resentment against them.

(I’ve been using GIMP for many years as an alternative to Photoshop; GIMP isn’t just free, but IMHO it is easier to use and more powerful.)

90

Noted the discussion above on weather, spec. Florida’s. One reason I moved (back) to Ohio was to avoid the blistering summers, while here I could enjoy the regular cold fronts (in summer they aren’t strong enough to reach Florida 95% of the time) and go outside and enjoy myself at various vacation spots without getting fried, sauteed, and baked…

So, the instant I move here 3 years ago, I have had to endure smoke and elevated temps and esp. humidity 4 summers running now. Once every 1-2 weeks a front finally arrives, and maybe it will cool things down and clear all the haze out, maybe not. In between there is insane amounts of haze and that smoky smell that just (barely) ruins any attempts or desires to head back out. So now the window of enjoyable weather, anticipated as being from May thru October, now is limited to just May-June and Sept-Oct now, with maybe a handful of days in July-Aug that would permit going out…

That isn’t the reason per se for this mini-pitting tho (tho, to be sure, my forebears and fellow citizens who failed to do diddly-squat to prevent this, and continue to exist in a state of total denial, are worthy of being mentioned here, to be sure).

I had idly noticed last week that Weather Underground had redone their History pages, making them load much quicker. I wanted to quantify the changes in average base temps as well as in dew points over the decades, so go back today…

And ALL of the averages are now completely gone. Recall the recent item about the major news networks going on and on about the heat waves, but not daring to mention for a single solitary second the dreaded Anthropogenic Global Warming elephant in the atmosphere? That a major meteorological site would ALSO deign to sweep all that inconvenient data under the rug is just massively appalling to me.

91

I totally agree that it’s easier.

92

Another federal grant. :sob:

I have six other deadlines to complete by the end of the month, a different federal grant due September 10th, and this new one is a BEAST with very tight turnaround. It’s definitely the most complex project I’ve had to do.

The best I can say for myself is I used last year’s NOFO before this one dropped to have all the preliminary discussions ahead of time, which took 2-3 weeks of meetings. So I saved myself the “what the fuck are we going to do for this project?” headache.

I have less than a month.

I’m so tired of this.

93

I recently signed up for HT+, the Harris Teeter delivery service. One of the supposed perks of membership is free access to Hulu streaming. However, when I try to access it on my FireTV I keep running into problems.

I think the source of the problem is that I have access to Disney+ on a friend’s membership, so when I try to activate a Hulu account I get told that I already have a Disney+ account, and somehow this is preventing me from signing on to a separate Hulu account. While Hulu is supposedly part of my Disney+ access, the programming selection on this Hulu account is limited. I’d like to have access to the full Hulu streaming service, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to do this unless my friend upgrades her Disney+ account.

94

Well @Spice_Weasel, I personally hold grant writers in high esteem. Those who provide funded services seem to value people who get the funding itself. What you do is important all right

95

Hmm. I’m sorry to have made the bad suggestion. My version (on Mac) reads and edits, but I did obtain it quite a while ago.

I see the project has disappeared - I found it at Foxit Editor - Desktop PDF Conversion and Editing Utility · GitHub - but there is no longer any source code there, and the logo on the newer project is different, so I guess they sold out to Big Software…

I did make the unexpected discovery that if you just want to fill in forms, Microsoft Edge of all things can be used to fill in forms in PDF format, not really editing as such.

96

It’s okay, I appreciate the suggestion. Even if it doesn’t do more than Acrobat Reader, if it does as much and is less of a pain in the ass, then I might try it out. :slight_smile:

97

(old man yells at clouds in 3… 2…)

Once upon a time, public places often played background music. You could hear it fine, but it wasn’t intrusive.

NOW EVERYPLACE SEEMS TO PLAY IT RATHER LOUDLY. For some reason, a lot of restaurants play loud background music in the dining area and REALLLY LLLOUD in the bathrooms. Their chosen volume is just slightly louder than I’d play a song I absolutely love on my own speakers.

Do people like this? Is it to deter customers? What’s the deal? I admit that I’m an especially sensitive bunny and I do not like loud noises, but I can’t imagine people are pleased to be shouted at, rhythmically, the entire time they’re out in public.

98

The frustrating story of our attempt to have a mattress delivered. This is a copy of a message I sent to the delivery company

RXO Logistics and posted in edited form in reviews on Google and Yelp.

On July 4, I ordered a queen-size Casper Snow mattress, foundation, and mattress protector through the Casper website. I also ordered and paid $249 for setup and installation of the new set and removal of the old mattress and boxspring. The protector was delivered by USPS and arrived shortly after the order was placed. I was informed that the mattress and foundation would be delivered in 2-4 weeks.

On Tuesday, July 14, I got e-mail and text messages from the delivery company, RXO, that the foundation and mattress were at the local facility and ready to be delivered. I selected the following Tuesday, July 21, for delivery, and on the day before got messages with the delivery window.

On July 21, the delivery truck arrived with only the foundation. The driver didn’t know about the mattress, and suggested that it might have been at the warehouse but not properly labeled. He left the foundation in my garage and told me to call RXO to reschedule delivery.

Calls to RXO’s 800 number are answered by AI, which was of no assistance, and when you finally speak to a human, those agents have no direct access to the local warehouse or knowledge about the actual status of the order. All they can do is say that they will send an e-mail to the local facility and that someone will get back in touch. I was not able to find a number for the local Boston facility; the only number listed is RXO’s main 800 number.

I called after the truck left on July 21, and again on July 23, July 24, and July 28. None of the agents I spoke to could explain what had happened, where our mattress was, or when I could expect it to be delivered. They only said they would send an e-mail to the local facility and that I would get a text or e-mail when it was ready to be delivered.

On Thursday, July 30, I got messages that took me to the tracking page at the RXO website, which said that both pieces were “At Pickup” and ready to be delivered, despite the fact that I already had the foundation.

However, when I tried to click on the link to schedule delivery, I got a message to call Customer Care at (800) 883-4593. When I did, the agent said there was a problem with the order and that he would send an e-mail to the local facility. After I hung up, I went back to the tracking page, where the status was no longer “At Pickup,” which it had been only minutes before, but “Order Placed” and “Reattempt Not Ready to Schedule.” I heard nothing for the next four days.

On Tuesday, Aug. 4, I called again, and after I again politely expressed my frustration, the agent transferred me to the escalation department, where Kiana said she would try to reach the local hub, promising to call me back in less than two hours. I explained that the only acceptable delivery dates would be the following Saturday or Sunday, Aug. 8 or 9, and reminded her that I had also ordered and paid for setup, installation, and removal. She confirmed that.

She did call back within an hour, and asked about the foundation. I said that it had been left here on July 21, and that one of the delivery people had taken a picture of it in our garage to record that fact. She called back about an hour later and said that the delivery would be scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 8. This was confirmed by text and e-mail, and on Friday, Aug. 7, I got messages confirming the delivery window the next day as 10 am to 2 pm.

The truck arrived at about 10:45 on Saturday, Aug. 8. The crew removed our old mattress and box spring, but they didn’t know that a previous crew had brought the new foundation, or that they were supposed to complete the setup and installation, which I had paid for.

They called the office and I explained to the supervisor that I already had the foundation and had paid for setup and installation. He gave the crew instructions in Spanish that I did not understand, but I got the impression that they were about to leave without completing the job.

I asked them to at least carry the foundation (70 lbs) into the bedroom, which I would have had a hard time doing on my own. (I’m 70 years old.) I was afraid I would have to assemble it myself, but fortunately, once the box was in the room and opened, they went ahead and put it together, and unpacked the mattress and put it in place. Despite not being properly informed about what they were supposed to do, they did a good job and were polite and professional. (I tipped them, of course.)

Here is a summary of all the ways in which RXO screwed up the delivery of our order:

  • Did not include the mattress with the foundation in the first delivery. The delivery crew knew nothing about doing setup and installation.
  • Did not recognize on their own that the order was not complete and arrange to deliver the mattress shortly thereafter. If the mattress was at their local facility, as their tracking system stated when the July 21 delivery was scheduled, what happened to it? Why was it not delivered within a day or two?
  • In numerous calls, agents assured me that they would call the local facility, with no result.
  • In several calls in which I was clearly increasingly frustrated (but always calm and polite), agents did not transfer me to the escalation department.
  • When the mattress was finally delivered, the delivery crew once again did not know that they were expected to handle the setup and installation I had paid for, and the supervisor at the local facility wasn’t aware that the foundation had already been delivered. It was only thanks to the kindness and consideration of the delivery crew that I didn’t have to move and assemble the foundation myself and unpack and install the mattress.

I will never again willingly use RXO, and will never knowingly buy products from a company that uses them. I have informed Casper that because of the frustration I experienced with this process, I would have canceled the order if it had not been delivered by Aug. 8, and that they should seriously re-evaluate their relationship with RXO.

99

I’m only okay when it’s a Mexican restaurant and it’s something like mariachi music. I have a Pavlovian urge to eat Mexican food when I hear that. Even if it comes up randomly on TV, I will immediately want chips and salsa. So now that’s part of the experience.

Any other restaurant and any other kind of music, I agree.

100

I got my new glasses. The bifocals work fine seperately. Together its not meshing. They told me to give it a few days. I have an appointment with the eye dr the 25th.