June, no, NOTHING! (Monthly Mini-Rants)

[wolfpup]

@Darren_Garrison

Here is one it allowed. (The other one was extremely similar, but fewer spiders.)

If that was a real picture, I’d say “taken in Australia for sure!”

We once stayed at a quite nice newly built resort somewhere in the Caribbean – I think it may have been in the Dominican Republic. Interesting country – when we frolicked on the beach, the perimeters of the area were guarded by soldiers bearing submachine guns.

Anyway, the bathroom floor was tiled with fairly standard-sized ceramic tiles, maybe 8" square. I was somewhat concerned on one occasion finding the bathroom inhabited by a local spider that was large enough to occupy pretty much an entire tile. I don’t know if it was venomous but it certainly looked evil. The problem was resolved with the aid of a heavy object, probably a shoe. I was not moved by any arguments that “spiders are arachnids, not insects” and are allegedly beneficial to the environment. I’m with Dave Barry, who defines “insect” as “any creature with way more legs than necessary”.

[Ellecram]

My life is just crumbling apart in every aspect lol.
My sink, my socks, my shirts, my hair …

Let’s see:

I need a new car (2013 Chevy Impala with 80,000 miles), bad catalytic converter with engine light on all the time, tiny bits of rust starting, always something important or completely random needing repaired at this stage…)
Don’t want to buy a new car until my town finishes up excavating the streets for multiple utility repairs/remodeling.

First it was the gas company, then water lines, now we are on storm sewers. This has been going on since December 2023 and it’s relentless.

It’s like we live in a war zone with torn up cement pock marked with puddles of tar. I am hoping said car will make it another year and the town will be relatively patched back into shape by then.

Aging body ailments: Have been treating cervical radiculopathy and other related back ailments recently.
Prednisone, physical therapy, home exercises, heating pads, TENS unit, and occasionally crystals (lol).
Moderate improvement so I’m hopeful it’ll eventually resolve.
Currently taking a course of sulfa drugs for a randomly appearing backside cyst. All seems to resolving and it does not need lanced thankfully.

Need a new computer and/or laptop before October. Mine is old and cannot be updated and is starting to have issues anyways.

Need to sell house and find a small apartment. I can’t take care of my house and property anymore. I am pretty much living on the first floor. I’ve been looking for a few months with no luck.
Sigh … not much available in rural Pennsylvania.
I’m not even going to itemize the stuff I need to repair/remodel in my house. I keep trying but it seems to be a losing battle. Handyman is good but hard to pin down.

I need to retire and I am working on it. Social Security is done and retirement with my county agency has been sorted out. All I need to do is the Medicare stuff which I am avoiding like a swarm of stinkbugs.

Funeral arrangements are all done and finalized.

Need to make a list of bills/accounts/misc items for my cousins so it won’t be such a chaotic mess. I have an unholy hybrid of bill paying methods that sometimes makes me cringe.

I keep on trying to keep myself calm and focused but some days it all just feels so overwhelming even though these are just mini rants. Nothing really serious - just everything needs attention.

I am in therapy but I don’t know if it is helping. Maybe a little.
I need a Life Coach or a side by side guardian angel with motivation skills.

OK - rant over. Dang this was long.
It helped to make a bit of a list and share it on the Webz.

[Seanette]

@Spiderman

A couple of the CO detectors were going off; someone in facilities decided the best course of action would be to go around & unplug/remove the batteries from all of them to shut them up. Maybe there was a lightning strike nearby that fried them just enough that they had scrambled brains or maybe, just maybe, possibly the HVAC was acting wonky, especially if there was a power surge/lightning strike nearby.
I reamed them a new one - especially if you have multiple detectors going off you need to GTFO & call 911; until you know the reason that multiple detectors are going off, or can at least rule out that there isn’t CO in the building you need to treat that as a life-threatening emergency!

A pogo-sticking JFC - The stoopit; it burns!!!

Any word on whether there was an actual CO problem? (BTW, I suspect OSHA might take an interest in this level of potentially dangerous stupidity.)

[Spiderman]

Given it’s a couple of days later & I haven’t heard of any issues im guessing it was not an actual CO issue, but with storms & lightning strikes, who knows what got fried & was/not working properly. I know there’s HVAC in the building but that’s it, i don’t know where in the building it is or what type it is, but then its not my job to know that either. It could be electric, but then. I don’t know why we’d have CO monitors if there’s nothing burning that can emit CO

[MagicEyes]

@Eric1

I’m genuinely curious what kind of hair product it is. Is it a hair straightener, relaxer or keratin treatment as a guess?

Verb Ghost Dry Hair Oil, so kind of the opposite. I have dry curly hair, and it makes it a little less dry without weighing it down. I did find some at Ulta, so I bought everything they had. Who knows if I’ll be able to get more when I run out. It will probably be discontinued soon.

[BippityBoppityBoo]

Did you try ordering from the makers website?

ghost™ dry oil | shine + smooth frizz | verb® products

[Spice_Weasel]

I am so pissed off right now.

Two weeks ago I sent an email to grants committee informing them of two different federal grant opportunities on a very tight deadline. I wrote in the email, “if we are interested, please respond immediately as we do not have time to wait for next committee meeting.”

Crickets.

TODAY I get an email expressing an interest, I say too bad, there isn’t enough time to submit, and my CEO I swear to fucking God is like, “two weeks is plenty of time to throw something together.”

NO IT’S FUCKING NOT. This is a federal grant application. I’m estimating 100 hours of work not counting all the dicking around they’re going to do with finding a partner and making program decisions. Then writing 15 pages of narrative for brand new programming and getting a signed MOU and countless attachments submitted. We are wholly unprepared for writing this.

I’m so mad. I’m so tired of people dropping the ball. I’m so tired of asking people for shit and not getting it. I’m fucking furious.

[Eric1]

Some employees like me end up occasionally accosting others in hallways. A lack of human response is always the reason.

I can see what you mean about two weeks being too short to write a grant; some people ought to educate themselves, to be lifelong learners like people on this site.

[Spice_Weasel]

I laid out the facts. She saw reason. Crisis averted.

I’m standing by my rant, though. Because I just got word that the program compliance monitoring for another government grant was past due after I was told it would be submitted on time. It never fucking quits.

I was introduced to my new boss today; she’s great, she has absolutely no desire to micromanage me in any way and is absolutely thrilled to be there. After we came out of that meeting she thought I was a fucking genius. I explained to her that a great deal of my job entails worrying about things. I’m a professional worrier.

[Atamasama]

@Spice_Weasel

I was introduced to my new boss today; she’s great, she has absolutely no desire to micromanage me in any way and is absolutely thrilled to be there.

That’s fantastic to hear.

[LSLGuy]

My mini-rant is a few weeks old, but for reasons that’ll be obvious soon, I only think of it to post at a time I can’t. Somehow just now I finally remembered while I’m already here.

Background:
I wear contact lenses every day that are taken out for cleaning every night and also discarded after about a months’ use. They’re kinda expensive, ~$50 per lens. They come in a 6 lens = 6 month package; one set for each eye. Getting more is a slow process and I usually need a different Rx every 6 months. So I coordinate the eye exam, the lens order, and the running out of my supply of lenses to all match up in the calendar.

Rant:
Back in early June I had changed to new lenses just a couple days previously when one lens fell out of my eye while swimming at the beach. Or more accurately, while I was rubbing all the ocean water out of my eyes, I managed to dislodge one unnoticed at the time.

Crap. Now I need to start the next one 3+ weeks early. And stretch that one to 5 weeks and keep doing that eye that way for 4 more months so both eyes run out together at the time that aligns with next exam, etc. Growl! Better not lose another one from the same eye.

But I did learn a new, and probably limit case, definition for the word “futility”:

Futility: (noun) To search for a lost contact lens in the Atlantic Ocean.

Not that I did any searching that day; I didn’t realize my error until bedtime when it wasn’t in there to take out. But every time since, when I return to the beach I think self-mockingly of trying to look for it. And that’s also when I think about ranting about it here.

[Spice_Weasel]

We have a fly problem. This is where my sensory aversions kick in big time, I refused to even cook in the kitchen yesterday.

We may have found the culprit (a house plant); I think their numbers are dwindling now, but I legit hate killing bugs. I hate it so much. I have always hated it ever since I was a little girl. I hate flies but it still feels terrible to kill them. I found the only way to get them is to spray them with soapy water, which makes it so they can’t fly and possibly kills them. I was spraying and then swatting them so they would at least die fast deaths, but they keep falling into the window cracks where I can’t swat them. So they are dying slow, miserable deaths.

My husband knows how much this bothers me, but he still asked me to take a turn killing them today, and I’m very annoyed about it. I legit took a Buddhist vow this year not to kill anything. He was there. I think we’re going to have to have an actual conversation about this. If he wants help I can deep clean or whatever, but this family needs a sin eater and it must be him.

I really don’t expect anyone to understand this. Just watch Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind which features giant magic potato bugs, and it will all make sense.

[Atamasama]

@LSLGuy

I wear contact lenses every day that are taken out for cleaning every night and also discarded after about a months’ use. They’re kinda expensive, ~$50 per lens. They come in a 6 lens = 6 month package; one set for each eye. Getting more is a slow process and I usually need a different Rx every 6 months. So I coordinate the eye exam, the lens order, and the running out of my supply of lenses to all match up in the calendar.

So, $200 a year? That sounds awful to me. You have my condolences.

And to lose a lens in that situation… Crap.

[Seanette]

Looks to me more like $100/month.

$50/lens times 2 lenses that have a one-month useful life.

Or did I misread?

[WolfpackJeep]

@Spice_Weasel

I’ve been trying to put air in my car tires for a few weeks now.

One of the best purchases I’ve ever made for the garage has been a little air compressor…drop an extension cord, and I can casually stroll around and take care of every vehicle in the driveway. It’s noisy, and a little slower than some I’ve used at gas stations, but it beats gathering quarters or driving around town trying to find a working compressor. And once it has cooled off, it’s small enough to store in the tool chest. Also, if you’re still getting the warning message, do you still have a full size spare? Those can sometimes produce a low pressure warning.

[Atamasama]

@Seanette

Looks to me more like $100/month.

Yeah, I read it wrong. 6 lens = 6 month, so 12 lenses a year at $50 per lens, that would be $600 a year.

If 6 lens = 6 month, that would imply that each pair of lenses lasts 2 months.

Still much more than I assumed in my lazy first reading. (I’d fail that question on a math test!)

[Seanette]

That’s per eye, remember. More like $1200/year.

[Atamasama]

@Seanette

That’s per eye, remember.

Oh, yes, that’s right. I glossed over that. More laziness.

@LSLGuy

one set for each eye

Maybe I need $1,200 a year lenses.

(No, no I don’t, they don’t fix your brain.)

[Seanette]

We all have the occasional bad brain day. You should have seen how absent-minded I was a few days ago.

[Atamasama]

In my defense, I was in an hour and a half meeting just a bit ago where I had to explain to a bunch of supervisors the changes that were happening at our agency due to major system upgrades that are all being done last minute, with poor communication. (We’re adopting OneDrive, upgrading to Microsoft 365, and soon going to Windows 11, and it’s not being explained well by the powers that be.) I’m sort of trying to stave off panic and confusion as best I can, and that took a lot out of me. So my brain is kind of spent.

This isn’t even part of my job, not really, but we had an entire division that wanted me to speak to them, even though they represent a lot of people I’m not responsible for. But I figured someone had to do it.

It ended up taking 3 times as long as expected because they had a lot of questions, and I just hope I actually helped them out by the time it was done.

Oh, and someone was panicking that a server room might be overheating right before I was supposed to speak, and also there was some other work stoppage facing a whole other group… It was a busy day and I’m ready to crash.