…not even if you were Winona Ryder implanted with a Nice personality…
Thanks. I’m getting to the age where I’m going to fall for this shit at some point.
In the meantime, I worry that aggressively assuming everything is a phishing attack is going to result in me losing the family fortune, such as it is.
We live in a small village of 2000 plus a bit, There are a few mailboxes for the houses, but for the most part people have a PO Boxes. Some on line purchases won’t deliver to the P.O. Boxes but want a physical address, ok got that. What is happening now is that after giving the physical address a couple companies (I’m looking at you Lands End) changed their carriers and go with USPS. Then we get scold letters about giving the correct address from the Local USPO. Jeez, they know everyone here.
Cough cough cough… damn, I can’t come in either.
So this year I have been working on settling by parents estate, and thus far have been able to sell three of their five real estate holdings. One of the remaining houses was their primary residence, and while working on cleaning it up a few months ago I discovered some wind damage to the roof. I made an insurance claim, and it was approved. After discussing the claim with the adjuster, it was determined that a high quality architectural shingle was the appropriate replacement shingle, and the shingle selected is rated for 130 mph winds.
The roof was replaced last week. I have yet to get the warranty information, close out documents, or an invoice from the contractor, and he hasn’t been paid a cent yet. Today, six days after the roof was finished, there is significant wind damage to the new roof after an overnight storm. I’ve contacted both the contractor and the insurance adjuster to inform them of the damage, and right now that is as far as things have progressed. I am fully expecting this to turn into a full blown clusterfuck. We will see.
I really don’t need this hassle right now, but I guess it’s just another thing I need to deal with. The house is about five hours from where I live (my sister lives nearby and noticed the damage), so I get to do a road trip this weekend.
Thanks Google maps for your directions to tonight’s Christmas party at the municipal golf course club. “Get on the interstate.” The next exit is two miles, so OK, I guess? A half mile from the exit, Google says, “You have arrived at your destination.” In other words, park on the freeway, get out, climb down the ditch and over the fence and through the weeds, and walk to the building 1000 feet to the right. Um, no?!!? I’ve never been given really bad directions like that before, so I was really surprised. Plus I was already late when I figured that driving through the small town and FOLLOWING THE SIGNS I got there safely.
I had something like that happened last weekend, on my way to a trailer park.
And one time Google Maps missed two turns, just skipped two roads completely. If I hadn’t known the neighborhood, I’d’ve just kept going for miles out of the way. Oh, that, too was… on my way to a trailer park.
I know the god of wind storms hates trailers, but Google does too?
Over the ditch and through the weeds,
To Holiday Parties we go…!
Too bad Yogi Berra is dead… Google could have him giving directions.
“When you come to the fork in the road, take it.”
Meanwhile, GoogleMaps saved my ass yesterday. I was walking in the woods with our dogs when they chased after a groundhog. It ran into a burrow and I walked off the trail to see what was up. I continued walking off trail, thinking I’d hook up with the trail further on.
Somehow I got turned around and lost. I kept walking but nothing looked even close to familiar. Finally I realized my phone was in my pocket. My gps showed me I’d been walking in the wrong direction. I corrected my course and was home in twenty minutes.
Threw out some unused tags as I was wrapping presents last night. What is with Christmas gift tag makers? Do they actually not use their product? There are one or more of these design flaws on so many tags:
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The spaces to write who the gift is to and from are each about 1/4" long, or shorter
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The area where you’re supposed to write the giver/sender’s names is so dark that no pen (other than white, which I don’t have) will be legible.
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The surface of the tag is so slick that your ink writing will immediately smudge and become illegible when you place the tag on the gift.
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The tag will rip in two when you try to peel it away from the backing.
My mom and sister are flying down to my place this year. So they’re ordering all the gifts online and just having it shipped to my place. Kind of a pain since I can’t tell which items are things I ordered and I have accidentally opened some gifts that are meant for me. Just a mini-rant since it hasn’t really been anything surprising.
I have to say that after ranting about the sheer size of the GIGANTIC wheeled garbage and recycling bins we now have to use, I’m just resigned to leaving them outside like many of the other neighbours with similar garage-space problems. But I love the huge capacity! Last night I filled up the recycling bin with everything recyclable that I had, which was a lot, including a few gallon-sized plastic jugs, and it wasn’t even one-quarter full. So then had an evil idea!
I’ve been accumulating a lot of empty wine and liquor bottles because I’ve been too lazy to take them back for the deposit refund. You’re not supposed to dispose of them in municipal recycling because … reasons. But with this huge bin and automatic robotic lifting and dumping, who would know? Heh-heh. 
Got rid of maybe 100 of them in the bin. Yes, I’m out $10 or $20 or whatever the hell the deposit is, but my aged self is better off disposing of them at my doorstep rather than loading them, hauling them to the recycling store, unloading them, re-packing them into regulation bins, and hauling the whole mess into the store in multiple trips!
You wicked, wicked person. I’ll bet you also return library books late and sneer!
I wait until my huge recycling bin is full before putting it out and once that took so long (about six weeks) that I got a letter from the garbage police. They noticed I hadn’t been putting out “the green bin” and wanted to be sure I was still participating in recycling.
Since I wind up doing a lot of the Christmas gift wrapping, I totally agree with this rant. I just have one thing to add: gift tags with glitter. Because that crap gets everywhere!
The Nannymobile posted another Low Tire Pressure warning on its control screen, advising me that I can still drive as long as I don’t exceed 80 mph. Since I don’t speed to that extent and the tires look good, I should be fine until the next scheduled servicing. But it’s annoying to have that alert come up every time I start the car, and then have to jab at the OK button several times until the Nanny Spirit decides that I’ve been sufficiently warned and turns it off - for now.
Yesterday was mild and only intermittently drizzly so I figured I’d get some air into the tires (the Nannymobile does not indicate which tire it thinks is low). It was more of an adventure than I’d planned.
My usual discount gas outlet, the Murphy Stop surprisingly had a working air machine, and it took credit cards ($2 a hit), so I didn’t have to enter the Cough ‘N’ Go where masks are considered effete, to get quarters. I planned ahead and took off all the tire valve caps to save time (these machines have notoriously short activation periods, to prevent the next person from maybe getting 10 seconds of free air after you leave). However when I applied the hose to the first (rear) tire, the measured pressure started going down. After more futile attempts at getting air in and not out, I finally noticed a sticker saying the machine was calibrated to 32 psi while the tire needed 38 psi. There were buttons to raise or lower air pressure, but they didn’t work, since the machine shut off about 3 minutes ahead of its purported 5 minute air time.
This prompted a drive to multiple other gas stations in search of a working, non-ripoff air machine, during the course of which I found machines blocked by careless parkers, an out-of-order machine and of course multiple stations without any air whatsoever. In desperation I got on the Interstate and found an exit with a 96 Truck Stop. They’ve gotta have air, right? Only when I got off the highway, there was no “96 Truck Stop” in sight. And it had started to rain heavily.
Finally I found a working machine similar to the first one, which I was able to calibrate and use, racing around the car before the air shut off. I even remembered to go 1-2 psi above the recommended level, since the Nannymobile has a habit of continuing warnings unless the psi is elevated past what the manufacturer recommends.
After all that, I turned the ignition/electrical system back on, and the Nannymobile is flashing the same Warning Low Tire Pressure You Will Die message.
Screw the Nannymobile. And Big Air.
I have an inexpensive tire inflation machine I keep in the back of my vehicle so that I can inflate my tires anytime, anywhere. It’s an older model but almost identical to this one:
http://amazon.com/Slime-40051-Digital-Tire-Inflator/dp/B074XHFN6Y
I just put my car’s ignition in “accessory” mode, plug it into my car’s 12V port, attach it to a tire, and turn it on. You pre-program it to the pressure you want and it turns itself off when it’s done. I can usually get all my tires inflated in about 10-15 minutes; I think the 6 minute estimate on the box is for a fully flat tire.
There might be better models and/or a better value for a different device, that’s just the one I have so I can attest to how well it works. I also like that it has a light built into it too so that if I drop a valve cap and it rolls under the car I can find it without pulling out a flashlight or my phone to light up the area as I play hide-and-seek behind a tire or whatever. (You turn the light on and off with a button on top.)
Just as an addition to this, remember that some cars/trucks that have spare tires mounted on the tail gate. Many have plates bolted over the entire inside rim of the spare.
AutoZone sells a ratchet set for $9.99 that makes getting the plate off very easy… so you can inflate the spare too.
I have also apparently purchased the following item:
YZBEDSET Hand Painted Blue Golden Abstract Cloud Landscape Oil Painting On Canvas Wall Art Picture for Living Room Bedroom Office Hallway Hotel and Dining Room Home Decor No Framed,48X96Inch No Frame
A bargain at $556+tax. A little more believable email address this time, although no indication where this beauty is going to be sent:
Frank V Mahr anilyadav645413@gmail.com
I second the idea of getting a 12v tire inflator/compressor. I have a very ancient one not nearly as fancy as the one @Atamasama mentioned, but it still works great, and it’s enabled me to avoid the ripoffs and nuisances of service station air compressors. If they want to charge for air they can stick the hose up their collective asses. I keep it in the trunk and it’s also saved the day once or twice when I’ve been out and discovered a puncture leak. They’re usually slow enough that you can pump up the tire and drive to a repair centre.