Fortunately I’ve already heard from two people on NextDoor offering to help for a much more reasonable rate. I’m going to give it one more shot before bowing to the inevitable and spending a few bucks.
And just to prove that the universe if f*ing with me -
A few weeks ago I noticed that my rather old laptop has not been charging properly. It used to run for a minimum of 4-5 hours before needing to be charged, but now it would only run about 2 hours. So I looked online and found a video showing how to replace the battery, as well as that they were available from Amazon for less than $40.00. So I ordered a new battery, it arrived Friday, and yesterday I took the back off the laptop, swapped the battery, and plugged it in to charge. In the evening I check to see how the charging is going, and the charge light is still showing orange instead of the green that means “fully charged”. I unplug it and press the power button to check on the status of the charging, and the computer doesn’t power up. I plug it back in, and it starts powering up. When I log in everything seems to be okay; the onscreen battery indicator shows that it’s plugged in, and when I check the battery status it shows 100% charge. However, as soon as I unplug it, it shuts down. Apparently it won’t run now unless it’s plugged in.
When I get a chance I’m going to open up the back and double check to be sure I’ve got the battery seated properly. I’m hoping it’s something obvious, because I really don’t want to have to have it plugged in every time I want to use it.
Oh, and Friday morning someone came by and replaced my toilet seat for only $25.00. So at least that’s taken care of.
I’m going to put this out there for my cousin.
She had her car stolen. Twice. The first time the police recovered it. It was at the police impound lot. The police said it was drivable. My cousin took a number of buses to pick up her car only to discover it was missing two wheels. The ignition was trashed (couldn’t start it) and catalytic converter gone as well. Not very drivable…
My cousin got all that fixed, and a month later it was stolen again. She bought a new car. She is now getting mail for overdue parking tickets for the period that the car was stolen. But they couldn’t find the car, although they where putting parking tickets ON THE CAR. The cops want her to mail them the police report.
She gave them the case number of the report. But the POLICE that created the case want her to mail them the stolen car report.
This is one of the most absurd things I seen in a while.
What I’ve had happen is that the connection between cord and case is weak: whatever is inside has migrated somehow. Planned obsolescence or cheap manufacturing, you decide.
Years ago I drove a friend to the police impound lot to pick up his stolen/recovered car. We arrived right after they’d closed for the day, but we could see his car and it was intact.
When we arrived early the next day the car was missing his fancy wheel covers. They were stolen while the car was in the impound lot. Philadelphia circa 1988.
I buy ground beef from Sam’s Club. It comes on a large tray and I divide it up, place it in freezer bags and put it in the freezer. Why oh why can’t the weight be as close to 5lbs as possible. I always look for the tray that is closest to 5lbs but sometimes I can only find trays that are around 4.75lbs. I want 1lb in each bag! Yea, I know it really isn’t that much of a weight difference but like I said I want 1lb in each bag. 
I am weary of the way that stores continue to play games to intentionally obfuscate the pricing.
I rant about this every year or two, so it’s about time for a new one.
Last night I went to Walgreens to stock up on sweets and was faced with their baffling pricing…
Most items had three different prices on them: the regular price, the sale price if you have a myWalgreens card, and the GREAT BIG sale price for when you are not only a member, but you buy two. (the myWalgreens card is actually just virtual–you give them your phone# at the register)
The changing unit cost was printed in ant-sized type next to two of these three prices.
So when I looked at a big bag of Jolly Rancher candy I saw it was, say, $5.99 normally, $4.50 with card, and $3.50 if you buy two.
I had to spend most of my time doing math and deciding if I really wanted two of the things, not to mention that I have to give them my data in order to get those lower prices.
Some things were in massive bags that you never would want two of. Others were labeled with awesome prices if you buy 4.
It’s like this all over the place. The other day at Acme I noticed that all of the boxed cereal was on sale, but labeled “Must buy 4”. Gack. Why do I want 4 boxes of Lucky Charms?
They are gaming the system, and this is one time where I wouldn’t mind if the state would step in and tell them all to cut it out. Display straight prices, with unit cost, like in the good old days.
Unfortunately, we are instead heading back to the way of the Seventies when my mom had to bring a calculator and figure out unit costs that way.
Every single time the had in my area does below $3/gallon, in less than 24 hours it jumps back up to around $3.25/gallon, no matter how low the initial price got. It’s frustrating and annoying because it always happens and my tank is always close to full when it happens. Yes, I have a bunch of fuel points that bring the cost down, but if much rather have it all brought down from a lower starting point.
Yesterday I had a real “at-school-with-no-pants-on”-style nightmare scenario.
Some background: I had to very unexpectedly take in my grandkids for a few days. Unfortunately, I work from home, so getting any actual work done with a 6- and 8-year-old in the house needing to be watched and entertained was impossible… doubly unfortunately, I have a major deadline (tomorrow) that I really needed to be working on. Well, I was working late nights after getting them to bed, and then, yesterday morning, after working most of the night, I needed to run to the store to get some dog food…
…where, in the dog food aisle, I ran into somebody I “knew”. Like, I knew I knew this person… but could NOT figure out why and/or how. She recognized me, though. And struck up a conversation… asked if “the kids” were back… a ha! I know her because of the grandkids, apparently, who I had just finally dropped off the night before. I responded in the negative, and then my mouth just took off on autopilot, and I talked about all of my other kids, their ages… other assorted random shit… really, just like a stream-of-unconsciousness. At some point she saved herself from my insanity and gracefully extracted herself from the conversation. I took my dog food, loaded up on some energy drinks, and left.
I bathed my brain in caffeine after leaving the store, and BAM. Everything that happened in the store snapped into focus… and I have been absolutely mortified ever since.
The person I was randomly babbling at was my future son-in-law’s aunt, who I’ve socialized with (for a given value of “socialized” in my broken, highly-introverted way) a few times… she was asking about my home-from-college daughter and her fiance, not my grandkids. I am DEVASTATINGLY embarrassed.
By the time I made it home, my first words to my daughter were “I owe Amber a huge, huge apology…”
I can only plead lack of sleep and an abnormal amount of stress.
Last week we found out mrs.gnu’s sister has liver cancer. This weekend we learned her mother’s unexplained leg bruising is from leukemia. What joy, a double whammy. Or should it be triple? I’m no signs or symptoms of stage IIIc melanoma for going on ten years now.
I get emails from Amazon to review my purchases but when I click on the link, it tells me that I’m not eligible to review the product because I bought it with a gift card. (I always buy gift cards at Kroger for the 4X fuel points.)
A related annoyance: Sometimes when I’m trying to comparison shop among different products the per unit price for one product will be “per ounce” but for another it will be “per pound” or something similar.
Because they’re magically delicious?
I’ve run into the “Regular/Sale/Member/Multi-Pack” prices before, but only one cost per ounce sign. So which price is that for?
.
I laughed at “Acme”… did you see any coyotes shopping there?
I review tonnes of stuff bought with a gift card. Mind you they are Amazon gift cards-(I also always buy gift cards at Kroger for the 4X fuel points.).
It will give the elves something to snack on when they’re there at night to repair your shoes? 
That’s all I got.
I think that everytime I shop at one. Whenever I shop at a Publix in Florida, I want so very badly to somehow remove the l from their sign.
I got an LL Bean messenger bag for Christmas my senior year of college, and I still have it. Other than the plastic strap clips breaking and being replaced with metal, it’s still in good condition. I graduated in 1999…
I shopped at Acme when I lived in Philadelphia for a few years. The locals all seemed to call it Ac-A-Me. That’s where they bought their soda ( I grew up in western PA where it was pop).
Speaking of LL Bean, I had an ongoing frustration with them this morning. First of all I have a pair of the Bean boots. I LOVE them - they’re one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. So I thought that buying a jacket from LL Bean would be the same experience. Nope! I have two lined rain jackets (different styles) and a lightweight hooded jacket from LL Bean. All three have the crappiest zippers ever! Two of them are always splitting from the bottom and when zipping the other one, it takes multiple tries to get the zipper pin into the slider (I had to look up "parts of a zipper!). And half the time it gets stuck once I get it in. UGH
I have worn one out.
My father gave it to me in, I believe, the 1970’s; though it may have been the very late 1960’s. No plastic involved; all canvas. I used it for various purposes through the years; as a laundry bag and a general schlepper of assorted materials; as a grocery bag once groceries stopped getting upset if you wanted your stuff packed in anything other than a standard grocery bag; and, eventually, to hold the sides of the market tent and assorted tools.
Somewhere along the line the handles gave out; and then eventually a hole wore through that was large enough that tent stakes started falling out of it. That was several years ago, I don’t remember how many; but not more than five. So it made it at least into the late twentyteens.
I can’t bring myself to throw it out. I keep meaning to bury it up in the woods with the cats and dogs.