My in-laws are in health care hell right now. MIL (wife’s mom) is in a rehab facility for a “re-do” of her recent knee replacement surgery as she went and fucked up her new knee before it healed and got a massive infection. Hell, she’s getting vancomycin 3x a day to try and get it under control. So, MIL is fully laid up for a least a few more weeks.
FIL (MIL’s 3rd marriage, no relation to my wife) who attempted to care for her after her first knee surgery (he’s a nice guy but NOT a capable caregiver) has his own health problems. He just had a triple bypass, like a week after MIL’s second surgery. He’s as weak as a kitten from what I’m told.
Now to the rant. FIL’s two kids, both apparently functional adults, seem to have no idea what they’re getting into when FIL is released from the hospital. Everybody on that side of the family seems to think that FIL is going to be able to care for himself. Either that, or they’re just being criminally secretive when discussing his prognosis with MIL. She can’t seem to get anything out of them besides “he’s fine” which is just not cool at all when she’s trapped at rehab, and he’s recovering from a triple bypass.
MIL is freaked out that everybody is unprepared, and they’re being lah di dah about this whole thing. Which I get because her own lackadaisical attitude toward her recovery from surgery is what put her in a position to maybe lose half her leg to an infection or die from sepsis.
At the office building where I work, there is a cat who lives in the parking lot. He is a stray, but not feral, and very friendly. He’s been around for a few years. Someone has provided him with a little wooden shelter and blankets (which are cleaned periodically). He uses that little house too! People feed and pet him every day.
So of course, there is a movement afoot to get rid of the cat. The pest control guy was asking the safety officer if she wanted anything done about the cat. She said she had tried already to have it removed, but with no success. The two of them commiserated over how troublesome cats could be. Why, one might sit on your car and scratch it! Or, what if it had fleas?! So pest guy said he would check with his contacts and let her know if anything more could be done. According to him, the cat would be trapped, checked over, and relocated. I told him to let me know if the company approved the relocation so I could have a chance to find the cat a home.
My blood is just boiling right now. I guess some people see other people getting some enjoyment out of something and have to destroy it.
Yesterday was my birthday. I’m visiting my Mom. She asked what I wanted to eat on my birthday. I wanted Chinese food. We made a reservation. We packed 5 people into the car. I personally packed 3 walkers into the trunk. When we arrived at the restaurant, it took them about ten minutes to seat us. I thought ‘no biggie. It’s Chinese New Year. They are very busy.’ It took twenty minutes or so to get menus. It took another ten for them to take our order. I ordered duck. They were out of duck. Not wanting to rock the boat (or pack all those walkers again) I ordered chicken. They were out of chicken. At this point, Mom and a few others suggested we leave. As we left, the staff made no effort at all to get us to stay. I don’t know if they just suck at customer service or if they are so rolling in dough that they can afford to lose customers and get bad word of mouth.
A few years back while visiting Mom, I bought a very nice pvc diggeridoo for $5. It weighs maybe 2 pounds but is about five feet long. Now that I have a job, I wanted to ship it back to Philly. We took it to UPS. They said it would be “three oh six” to ship and about fifty to box and wrap. I asked where the decimal point was. Apparently he didn’t hear me. It soon came out he wanted a bit over three hundred dollars to ship my instrument. I’ll be starting a thread asking for better options.
A digeridoo is a musical instrument. They have rules for having one as checked luggage.
Your musical instrument can also be checked. The maximum size for checked instruments is 150 in / 381 cm, and the maximum weight is 165 lbs / 75 kg. Anything larger or heavier would need to be shipped via Cargo.
Obviously, weight is not an issue. It only weighs 2 lb. And for size, you said it’s about 5’ long with is 60". That is far under their size limit. From what their site suggests, you can check it as a regular piece of luggage and it just costs what it would cost for a piece of luggage. Which, from what I am seeing, is $30 for the first bag, $40 for the second, and it doesn’t start getting really pricey until you have a 3rd bag which costs $150 (and a 4th costs $200). Compare that to over $300 for shipping it on its own and it looks like a bargain.
The only thing I would be concerned about is how safe it would be. You’d want to pack it in something that would be sturdy enough that it would survive travel in TSA’s not-so-gentle baggage transport system, without making it too large or heavy. Also, I will point out that these are the restrictions for regular checked baggage:
For all regions, except to / from Australia or New Zealand, your checked bag allowance is:
Dimension: 62 in / 158 cm
Weight: 50 lbs / 23 kgs
It’s still under the size limit I believe (depending on how they calculate it exactly). And of course, you’re well under 50 lbs.
To me this seems really viable, though to be safe I would call someone at AA ahead of time just to be sure. You don’t want a surprise when you arrive at the airport.
My in-laws came through over the weekend and spent one night with us. Which would not be a big deal but I had a cold and really didn’t want to host anyone. My MIL will clean wherever she is. I think it’s a compulsion. So this time she cleaned the kitchen and unloaded our dishwasher. Mind you she doesn’t know where anything goes but that doesn’t stop her. Now I can’t find my 1 cup measuring cup. I’m sure it’s around somewhere but who knows what she thought was a reasonable location.
My mother does the same thing! I try not to be offended but it’s like nothing is ever clean enough for her… except her own house when she’s done with her own cleaning. (I really hate when she runs the dishwasher like 1/4 full. Like, seriously, there are 6 people in the house, wait for a meal and it’ll be full again.)
After consulting a 3rd dentist, I’m finally accepting that there’s no saving this tooth. This one seems to think that the cementum overgrowth is just an anatomical fluke, and isn’t the cause of the pain…instead, he thinks it’s very likely that the tooth is cracked. (The tooth is crowned, so there’s no way to tell this by x-ray until bone loss and/or infection show up.) There’s not much tooth left to salvage, so out it goes. At least the office is in-network.
I am likely too far south for this to affect me, but Significant Snow Is Moving Into The Midwest, according to the graphic on Accuweather.
They’re interviewing a correspondent live outdoors from Somewhere In The Midwest, wearing a lightweight jacket and braving…nothing at all. No precipitation is falling. The camera just cut away to show cars traveling on bare dry pavement.
But it undoubtedly will be Weather Hell soon, when WInter Storm Wally Jr. cranks up.
Under the heading of “Innovations That Make Life HARDER”:
I went to the doctor today. Had to park in the garage underneath the building versus surface parking. There was a keypad near the elevator, not a regular “press up” button. I selected the 3rd floor. A voice said “Take elevator B”. Oooookay.
I got on the elevator - and there were no buttons on it to select the floor - just a door open button and a (likely inactive) door close button. I figured I’d gotten on an elevator that just took me up to the lobby - so when I got to the lobby, I got off and looked around for a way to get up to the correct floor.
A messenger got on and said “Anyone going to the third floor?”. I said “wait - that’s me!”.
He informed me that yes indeed, there is no way to control the elevator from inside the elevator.
Installing this system required refitting all the elevators to get rid of user-friendly features like buttons. And the software / hardware for the system itself.
Harder to use? Check
More confusing? Check
Requires hugely expensive outlay? Check
Money saving in the long term? I doubt it
Basically the only benefit I can see is to the manufacturer’s bottom line.
Depending on how many floors there are in the building, it could be a big savings in energy and also in time for the passengers. If there’s a limited number of elevators (which is going to be true no matter what, there’s never enough elevators), it prevents losing the services of one for an extended length of time. And if you’re unfortunate enough to be riding in one, you’ll be fuming at the waste of your time.
I’ve been trying to find a new therapist and been having insurance problems (that whole mess qualifies as a regular-sized rant at least). I got another list of therapists from my new insurance company. I made an appointment. I got an e-mail asking me to fill out a long form (that is normal, a good sign and not rantworthy). I can open the PDF but get a warning banner I cannot save any changes or data entered. I called the office. They said they couldn’t help me. So, you’ve sent me a form I cannot fill out and you cannot help? This is not a good sign.
I’d say it makes life DIFFERENT. These elevators are now commonplace in tall buildings. Still in the minority, but they’re far from rare. Especially in fancier buildings a big percentage of new fits or renovations are this kind.
I’m sure when the elevators with buttons first came in, people were perplexed about how to work them instead of doing the easy obvious thing: telling the operator “3rd floor please”.
Just in case it wasn’t obvious, when you put your floor number into the control panel in the vestibule area it says e.g. “Take elevator B”. You MUST get on elevator B, not just whichever one shows up next. Elevator B already knows to take you to 3.
It’s all about sharing the load between elevators so everybody gets to where they’re going quicker with less wasted time and motion. The taller and / or busier the building the bigger the advantages.
And yes, it’s great fun to watch people encounter these things for the first time and be utterly baffled. That was me about 8 years ago when I saw my first such at a ~30-story hotel in downtown LA.
We had the WHITE DEATH warning going for several days now. 4-7" predicted. Schools closed, office said work from home. We got rain. Man I wish I could be that wrong that often at my job and not get fired!
I told him to let me know if the company approved the relocation so I could have a chance to find the cat a home.
This one seems to think that the cementum overgrowth is just an anatomical fluke, and isn’t the cause of the pain…instead, he thinks it’s very likely that the tooth is cracked. (The tooth is crowned, so there’s no way to tell this by x-ray until bone loss and/or infection show up.) There’s not much tooth left to salvage, so out it goes. At least the office is in-network.