I’m planning a trip in the beginning of September to Nevada to spend a week in Vegas and also see my wife’s family down there. And I’m already stressing about plane ticket prices, and also being gone from work for a week. I hate how vacations can be so stressful. It sucks that I seem more stressed about taking time off work than working.
I am in a “use-it-or-lose-it” situation with my vacation, so I need to take time off, but I swear it’s more peaceful to not take time off. I just hate losing my vacation time.
Also, the trip is more for my wife than me anyway to be fair. I remember when I was younger and didn’t have a job where things fell apart when I left, and how I’d look forward to time off…
I am aware, and I absolutely hate those things. The fact that I’m an Olde Fart who hates new tech just on general principle inflames my hatred all the more. My current thermostat requires batteries to support its ability to have a bazillion different programmed “modes”. This was not my choice – it came with the house. Here is how I have it “programmed”: I set a temperature, and by pressing a whole bunch of different buttons I can finally persuade it to perform the task of keeping the house at that temperature and doing nothing else. That is all I ask of a thermostat.
The wiring from the furnace supplies all necessary current to allow a basic thermostat like the classic analog “Honeywell Round” to function. The problem is, you can’t buy them any more. All you can get any more is newfangled gadgetry with digital displays and artificial intelligence and, of course, the need for batteries. I deeply resent “smart” thermostats that are smarter than I am and need batteries to show off their skills, when all I want is something to keep the house at a steady temperature.
… and another thing (said the Olde Fart, continuing his rant about newfangled stuff) I just realized today that my newfangled new-to-me car has no manual door locks – you know, those familiar push-pull pins that lock and unlock the doors.
Of course, the interior handle will unlock and open the door, but if the electric actuator is bust, how can you lock your car again?
The assumption seems to be that the electric actuators are very reliable. Maybe they are. But at least one of them failed in my old Dodge Caravan and I had to use the push-pin thingie on one of the rear doors.
And what about when the car is all locked up and the battery totally fails. How do you unlock it then? How do you get the hood open to boost or replace the battery? Unexpected total battery failure is something that can happen – it may be rare, but trust me, it can happen.
It seems that cars these days are being designed by kids whose world view is shaped by video games and who can’t anticipate anything more than ten minutes into the future.
I’m been staying in a midrange hotel this last few days. There’s a Keurig machine in the room. The usual sort: [push here] to pop open the cup compartment, put in the K-cup, close the cup compartment, the water compartment lid pops up, fill the water chamber, close that lid, put your cup in place, the [brew] button lights up, push that, various magic occurs, and 2 minutes later you have mediocre sorta-hot coffee.
Worked great the first 3 days. Today: “various magic occurs” includes heating the water but no pumping and hence no coffee. Waah! And yes, I did try going through the whole cycle again, making sure the various compartments were fully snapped closed, rebooting, unplugging, etc. Despite multiple attempts, no help.
But at least I’d awoken real early so the coffee bar in the lobby wasn’t open for an hour. Gaah!
Hidden in your key fob is a physical key. I watched a YouTube video to find mine. If your doors are locked and the battery is dead that key will save your bacon. Or at least plate it for later. The keyhole on the door is either hidden beneath or behind a cap built into the handle.
Thanks. My uncertainty was whether the door key actually mechanically unlocked the door or just activated some electronics. From the feel of it, there’s definitely a mechanical action, like any old-fashioned car door lock. So that, at least, seems to take care of the dead-battery scenario.
I’ve read that by 2027 traditional keys will be a thing of the past; either fobs or digital (phones); which absolutely sucks for me. I have a fob like this where I need to insert the key into the ignition. I also have a ‘dumb’ key, w/o a chip that won’t start the car; it will only lock/unlock the car & run what it allowed from the accessory position (basically windows up/down & radio).
I intentionally lock the ‘real’ key in the car & take the lightweight, ‘dumb’ key with my when I run or am on the water. Sometimes I tie it into my shoelaces so I can’t lose it & I don’t care if it gets wet during a trail run because it doesn’t have any electronics in it. I also don’t run with my phone so that is either left at home or hidden in the car. I hope to never have a car that requires me to have my phone to use.
I know that some cars can’t be locked with the key in them which would leave me vulnerable to theft of anything in the vehicle while I’m out.
Back in 2010, a friend and I took some pottery classes for something fun to do. I made many mediocre items that are still scattered around my house, but one went into regular use: A tall mug, rustic in character, that can charitably be described as looking like it was made by a drunk 4-year-old. I use it for tea.
Well, I used it for tea. This morning as I waited for the tea to steep, I noticed a lot of liquid emanating from the mug. It has developed a leak at the bottom. So I guess now the mug is just a conversation piece.
I am not happy. The tech came to look at my one month old HVAC system which quit working on Saturday. He first checked out the thermostat. He checked the batteries, turned on the AC and nothing happened. He went up in the attic and in a few minutes the air came on. He was up there for several minutes and when he came down I asked what the problem had been. He said the system had come on by itself while he was checking it out. So apparently the system will stop working sometimes and have to reset itself. What the fuck? He said everything is in good working order and he doesn’t know why this happens. He said he saw the same issue yesterday. There is nothing he can do to fix it because nothing is broken.
I was seriously pissed off but let him know I wasn’t pissed at him. I paid $12,000 for this system and I expect it to work every fucking time I turn it on. But I guess if it happens again I just have to wait some time (minutes, hours?) for it to reset. I’m thinking of calling the project manager who sold me the system but I’m too pissed off to think straight right now.
We have an HVAC system (also pretty new; most of it was installed last year) and it has a voltage regulator that ensures that it stays working all of the time. They can be very sensitive to power fluctuations that might not be noticeable otherwise, and they tend to build up over time. If that happens, it can require a reset. But the system we had installed makes sure that doesn’t happen, because it was a problem for us as well at one point.
I manage the Flag Program for our son’s high school band. Basically, if you pay a subscription fee of $60, we install an American flag on your lawn on Memorial Day, Flag day, July fourth, Labor Day, and Veterans’ day. It’s very popular, and several HOAs purchase subscriptions for their neighborhood entrances.
I am dealing with an HOA administrator who does not seem to understand that today is not Memorial day. Normally, I would just extend their subscription by a holiday, because why the fuck not? This person is being so thoroughly unpleasant, and refuses to acknowledge that today is not Memorial day that I am holding the line. I talked with the Band family who did that neighborhood, and told her whom I was dealing with. She replied, “Oh god, she’s horrible.”
Over the weekend I was hiking in the Catskill Mountains, where they want you to sign in and out at a kiosk near the trailhead. I signed in and proceeded up the trail, uneventfully, reached and climbed the fire tower at the top, uneventfully, and returned to the kiosk, where I got the sign-in book out, flipped to the correct page, and–
--noticed movement out of the corner of my eye, and–
--heard a whooshing sound that seemed quite ominous, and–
--realized that a very tall tree was falling not eight feet away from me.
Turns out my Standard Terrified Interjection is “JESUS CHRIST!” and my Standard Terrified Motion is to jump backwards about eight feet.
I was lucky–there were no branches to speak of on the tree and the trunk fell safely on the other side of the kiosk, about sixteen feet away (checks math…8 plus 8…yup, 16). But damn, it threw me off my game. And while it was not the largest of trees, it was over a foot in diameter. If it had fallen at a slightly different angle, or if it had fallen a few seconds earlier, I would have been toast. And this would have been a maxi-rant instead, I suppose.
…“You saw me ranting alone”…
