# Ranters Play in the Pit -- I think it's for the Month of July **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 1, 2014, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072 "2014-07-01T05:16:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Boggette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@Boggette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boggette)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/281 "2014-07-29T14:27:36Z")
I have a smaller car. I pull forward so that there is a couple feet of the space left open behind me. On purpose. I don’t take up 2 spaces. In fact, there’s enough room for me to leave space for the cart. They are parking in my space with their nose against my back bumper. And yes, I do hate backing out of spaces. So I plan accordingly. My plans are foiled at times. Too often, times. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/282 "2014-07-29T14:42:12Z")
Meh, just stand/step on their hood to get your stuff in. That’ll learn 'em. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/283 "2014-07-29T15:57:02Z")
Shall we have a refresher course on how to merge into traffic? If you see someone merging into traffic, slow down and let them in, or move over if you can safely. Their lane is ENDING! Jerks all… ---
**Author:** ![Boggette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@Boggette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boggette)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/284 "2014-07-29T16:39:51Z")
I thought about parking the cart on their hood, but… ---
**Author:** ![zejudge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/d9b06d/32.png) [@zejudge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zejudge)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/285 "2014-07-29T17:06:56Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > A week ago last Saturday, I had a flash of light in the corner of my left eye while I was driving. At first I thought that it was the sun reflecting off of something, but it kept glowing as I drove. Then the light went away, and there was a floater in my eye, that has been there ever since. Every time I move my eye, the floater flashes across the vision in my left eye, then settles in the left corner of my eye. I have a regularly scheduled appointment with my doctor tomorrow afternoon, but I’ll bet she’ll tell me to make an appointment with an eye doctor, which will probably not be available for two months. I am worried that my vision is going in my left eye and I really don’t want to wait that long. > > Well, I guess I’ll just wait till tomorrow to see what she says. > > I never realized how much my eyes flick around while I’m driving till I saw this thing floating across my vision every time I move my eye. **Rick Kitchen** , you probably suffered a posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) , which is considered an eye emergency. I would have it checked as soon as possible at your local eye hospital (if your town has one). Otherwise, your ophthalmologist will see you immediately if you describe your symptoms over the phone. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/286 "2014-07-30T02:42:07Z")
I posted the mildest possible commentary on the situation in Israel. Someone wrote this on my wall: > [@](#): > > The world may need to totally isolate the country of Israel and send their economy to the verge of bankruptcy to force them to give up their colonialist aspirations over the Palestinians land - because that drive is so deeply rooted in their culture and psyche. So basically we should take all money from the Jews because their entire culture is based around stealing land. But he’s not anti-Semitic! ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/287 "2014-07-30T03:54:59Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > A week ago last Saturday, I had a flash of light in the corner of my left eye while I was driving. At first I thought that it was the sun reflecting off of something, but it kept glowing as I drove. Then the light went away, and there was a floater in my eye, that has been there ever since. Every time I move my eye, the floater flashes across the vision in my left eye, then settles in the left corner of my eye. I have a regularly scheduled appointment with my doctor tomorrow afternoon, but I’ll bet she’ll tell me to make an appointment with an eye doctor, which will probably not be available for two months. I am worried that my vision is going in my left eye and I really don’t want to wait that long. > > Well, I guess I’ll just wait till tomorrow to see what she says. > > I never realized how much my eyes flick around while I’m driving till I saw this thing floating across my vision every time I move my eye. I got to sit in the eye clinic for three hours but I did get in to see a doctor. After much PAINFUL poking (using a probe :O) and much painful BRIGHT lights in my eyes, he said he couldn’t see anything indicating that it’s the retina, but he did say that as you get older, the vitreous humor starts to harden and pull away from the retina, and occasionally, it pulls the retina loose with it. He told me to make an appointment for 4-6 weeks, and that if I see a lot of floaters, or bright lights, or if a dark veil drops over my eye, to come in IMMEDIATELY (within 12 to 24 hours). ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/288 "2014-07-30T04:47:10Z")
Well, I’m glad you got in and got seen. It’s a relief you don’t seem to be in immediate danger and possibly not in any at all for your vision. Whew! ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/289 "2014-07-30T15:27:32Z")
Definitely don’t flake on the followup appointment. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/290 "2014-07-30T18:08:15Z")
My mother is meeting me in about 15 minutes in my office’s parking lot. No clue WTF she wants, but considering how very, very badly things went last time … Wish me luck, Dopers! ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/291 "2014-07-30T18:21:25Z")
Speaking of flaking on appointments… I’m pissed. Twice in a month I’ve been no-showed on lunch. Late last month, guy on my late bus says ‘let’s do lunch’ and gives me his email address. I give him a couple of dates and the time I need to go (by my schedule). He names the place. Then he doesn’t show. When I email him back about it, he says he was in a meeting with clients and blames me for not ‘confirming’ with him right before the lunch. Um, NO. We had an arrangement, you knew the time. If you had a meeting come up, it was incumbent on YOU to let me know you wouldn’t make it. No part of the conversation mentioned the idea of confirming anything before the lunch appointment, and I’m not certain why that responsibility would fall on me and not you. Yesterday, friend on the early bus points at a restaurant as he gets on the bus and says “Let’s go there for lunch tomorrow”. A little different, we’ve met outside of work/bus a number of times and had lunch together semi-regularly over the last year and change. I show up. No sign of him. Five minutes later I call his cell phone. I get a woman telling me I have the wrong number. Five minutes after that he calls and says he’s just outside. Five minutes after that, I leave, solidly pissed off. I get back to work and I have an email from him asking why I wasn’t at a completely different restaurant several blocks away. :smack: “I’ll buy you lunch tomorrow!” Nope. Just no. I’m done doing lunch with people for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/292 "2014-07-30T18:55:22Z")
Good luck, **purplehorseshoe**! Standing by for the update… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/293 "2014-07-30T20:55:53Z")
In my city, they’re closing down a bookstore to open a stupid friggin’ underwear store. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/294 "2014-07-30T21:08:47Z")
Thanks, **Dung Beetle**! I guess your good wishes helped – it wasn’t … tooooo bad. She met me in the office’s parking lot, and when I walked up to her car, we had this exchange: {{ hellos and pleasantries }} {{ awkward silence, staring at each other }} _Me_: Sooooo … uh, what’s up? _Mom_: Nothing. _Me_: What’d you want to talk about? _Mom_: Nothing really. What would \*\*\*you \*\*\*like to talk about? _Me_: :dubious: \*\*\*You \*\*\*texted _ **me** _. \*\*\*You’re \*\*\*the one who wanted to meet. Anyway, there’s an outdoor seating area nearby for all the masochists who like to eat outside in Texas July summer heat, and since today was cool-ish (thanks, rainy front! ove ya lots!) we sat there to talk. Lots more awkward silences, lots more staring at each other, but since there were other people around we were both on our best behavior, kept our voices down and the conversation relatively more-or-less civil. We had a few items of business anyway (1. I need them to call the cell phone co. since I stupidly agreed to share a family plan with them back when we were still getting along, and now I can’t upgrade my POS brick and get the hell off their plan until one of them calls to give permission, since it’s not my account, and 2. they have my birth certificate, and they are :dubious:😕:mad: at me asking for it, while I am :dubious:😕:mad: that they think they should have my documentation.) Oh, which reminds me: while she didn’t come out and directly ask about New Guy – a pleasant surprise for me – she did express concern that I wanted my birth certificate back because I was planning to get married. _Me_: “Uh, you know I’ve already been married once. I didn’t need it then, either.” _Mom_: "Well, I’m just concerned that you’re rushing into – " _Me_: “I was with {{ The Other Shoe }} for damn near ten years before we got married. I’m not and never have been in any hurry to be married!” … plus a bunch of other B.S. like this: _Mom_: "What does family mean to you? _Me_: {internally} People who don’t constantly dick you over, ideally. {externally} Blood kin. … which, while true, I mostly said to shut down her unrealistic expectation that I’ll have some complete change of heart about my relationship with her and we’ll have this weepy Hallmark moment or something. Bleah. Then I had some homemade chicken soup, which salvaged the afternoon nicely. (Guess who made the soup for me?) ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/295 "2014-07-30T23:13:00Z")
The eye clinic called me this morning while I was in the shower and left a message for me to call them to make an appointment for six weeks from now. After being on hold for about ten minutes, the woman says, “Um, the next available appointment is October 27.” Me: Um, the doctor said he wants to see me in six weeks. Her:Well, let’s make this appointment and if he wants to see you before then, he can squeeze you into his schedule. Yeah, whatever. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/296 "2014-07-30T23:49:57Z")
I am starting to get arthritis in my knee now. As if having it in my lower spine wasn’t enough. Since an auto accident in 1998 damaged that knee, requiring arthroscopic surgery to address a torn cartilage, I’ve known it was probably inevitable. It has been mostly OK since that surgery healed, but this month it developed a really, really painful part. The orthopedic doctor examined it today and took some x-rays that confirmed two of the bones are rather close together, and have kindly made a bone spur on the inner side of my knee. In response my body has formed a sort of growth over it (I forget the name for it), and the whole area hurts. I can use ibuprofen and moist heat to help with the pain and come back in 6 - 12 months for further evaluation. I forgot to ask why they don’t just scrape off the bone spur, but I’m sure there’s a good reason why an orthopedic surgery group isn’t suggesting orthopedic surgery. I am earning every penny of the insurance settlement I got back in 1998. It seemed like a lot of money then, but it doesn’t feel like it now. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/297 "2014-07-30T23:56:10Z")
To late to edit, but wanted to add that I’m not looking for advice, just wanting to rant about how much I hate the situation, and how I wish I could go back to the nitwit who caused the accident and punch her in the face. ---
**Author:** ![slalexan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@slalexan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slalexan)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/298 "2014-07-31T12:44:09Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > To late to edit, but wanted to add that I’m not looking for advice, just wanting to rant about how much I hate the situation, and how I wish I could go back to the nitwit who caused the accident and punch her in the face. My sister was in a car accident where a cement truck clipped her rear passenger-side corner and caused her to spin out while on the interstate. The truck then caught my sister’so car broadside and pushed her down the interstate for a full mile. My sister was ok, but I’m still mad just thinking about it. She didn’t get very much from the insurance settlement. I pit my stupid need to hang out with friends. We were out late with friends and with Baby Girl last night and it completely screwed up the schedule. She wouldn’t lay down at our friends house so she didn’t get to bed until after 10 and then she decided she needed to nurse every two hours because of how messed up everything was. I am exhausted. Also, a bee got in my car yesterday… Through the air vents! Gah! ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/299 "2014-07-31T17:38:42Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > In my city, they’re closing down a bookstore to open a stupid friggin’ underwear store. ☹ When I wear books I tend to walk funny, but they do absorb more. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072/300 "2014-07-31T17:42:28Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > they have my birth certificate, and they are :dubious:😕:mad: at me asking for it, while I am :dubious:😕:mad: that they think they should have my documentation.) Can’t you just go to the county courthouse/building/whatever you call it and get another copy? That’s what I did and I wasn’t even in the same county I was born in. I didn’t even ask my mom for it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ranters-play-in-the-pit-i-think-its-for-the-month-of-july/692072.md?page=16)