The rants go Marching one by one (Monthly Mini-Rants)

The BBQ Pit
41

The lease on our vehicle is ending, and we are in the market for a new car. In the old days, we used to get a newspaper subscription. A couple of days a week the paper would have lots of car dealer ads, which was a really convenient way to get a big picture view of what was out there, models, general prices, and deals. But, like modern people everywhere, we dropped our subscription a while ago.

Then, we moved across country, and didn’t bother to get a subscription to the local paper (Washington Post). If I need one, I can always buy one up at the corner market.

So, let’s go get the Sunday WaPo and look at the car ads! Nope, nothing, nada, zilch. Okay. Maybe they do this on a different day, say, Thursday? Let’s look online and see if we can find out! After many many google searches, I find no information listing what day the WaPo might run dealer car ads. So, let’s call them? Using their general number, the representative can’t answer my question and gives me the number to Advertising. Calling the number to Advertising, I’m directed to another more specific number. I call that number - NOT IN SERVICE!

For all that is holy and FFS, can anyone tell me if the newspaper prints dealer car ads? Apparently not! And if they print the ads, what day is it? And do those ads appear in the available retail, non-subscription version?

BECAUSE I don’t want to waste my time with the online cars.com version of a search engine. I don’t know what I want, I want to see what’s on offer in a handy print form splashed across newspaper pages that I can spread out on my table and circle and write on!!!

What the everlovin’ FUCK!?!?

42

Philly car show is going on through the 13th, there’s pretty much all the cars there.

43

That is nice, and I enjoy auto shows, but can I spread that on my table an identify deals?

44

No, but you can see all the cars in one place and see which one has the combination of features at cost you want. It will at least cut things down for you.

45

Meanwhile, a friend’s dad decided gas prices were too high to keep driving his truck, so he went to trade it in. His daughter asked that he wait until she could accompany him, since he is utterly defenseless when it comes to salespeople. She also pointed out to him that his old truck was paid off.

He came home with another truck. Newer than his old truck, and when she went online she discovered that it’s gas mileage is identical to the old truck. Plus now he has a truck payment.

46

I believe there is some sort of remorse period for that. Hopefully they will be able to fix things, but they don’t have long.

My rant: Hubs likes to make beer. Part of the process is putting the pot in a sink full of ice water to cool the beer quickly. The next part of the process is to take the beer out of the ice water and move beer to fermenting bucket. Hubs has never gotten the “clean up as you go” concept, so he doesn’t bother to open the sink drain which leaves a sink half full of ice and water.

We also have a Maine Coon teenager who loves to play in water. Despite hubs not wanting said feline in the kitchen when he is cooking beer, hubs is incapable of putting the cat behind a closed door.

Today George took his first Polar Plunge and really seemed to be enjoying himself. Hubs freaked out about the cat getting sick so I dealt with the wet cat while hubs wiped down the kitchen.

I’ll bet that if hubs let me put that double sided tape designed to keep cats off the counters, this never would have happened but noooooooooooo, hubs the pushover doesn’t want me to do that because it might pull George’s hair out.

Who else wants to bet that this drama will repeat itself on a monthly basis?

47

Sunday was spring yard work day. I was assigned chainsaw duties. Mostly I was taking out small saplings and dead trees.

The one large dead tree I cut down fell right where I wanted it to fall. But it knocked loose a decent sized branch from a neighboring tree, which fell right behind me, just clipping the back of my head and scaring the crap outa me.

My gf saw the limb fall but didn’t have enough time to scream, “ LOOK OUT!” She complained about me frightening her.

48

Wait, are you dating my wife??

49

Ok, I’ve done something similar to my husband but I had rights to. Basically, he and my deaf brother-in-law were trying to move an upright piano into my parent’s house. The hallway went out of the garage, past the basement stairs and then into a room that was like at a 45 degree angle. They couldn’t make the turn they wanted to do with the piano on its feet. They even tried partially sticking it down the basement stairs to see if they could line it up. It didn’t work. So, my husband, half way down the stairs and supporting a piano decides to tip it up on it’s side. With no communication with anyone. He didn’t yell out, though, if he had, it wouldn’t have mattered because my brother-in-law, being deaf, couldn’t hear him and couldn’t see him around the piano. I felt like I was watching the whole thing in slow motion, expecting my poor husband to get smashed under a piano after falling down the basement stairs.

He didn’t, by the way. My brother-in-law like psychically linked with him, knew what he wanted and slide the dolly under the piano before anyone was crushed. But, man, was I mad at him.

We got a new mattress last week. I like it. It’s a great mattress. We, unfortunately, did not get the old mattress hauled away when the new one was delivered. So I have a mattress in my small house just taking up space. I hate it.

50

Inherited a new(er) car this week. I had a 2001 Honda, this is a 2014 with very low mileage. Awesome right? I hate it.

It’s my first push-button car. There’s no key. This is fucking me up.

I’ve already misplaced the fob within the car twice, thinking I left it behind. And now I read there have been a lot of incidents where people mistakenly left a car running, or got in trouble because it was already running and they didn’t realize it.

So let’s say you’re an engineer tasked with solving that problem. What would you do to make it safer and less prone to those kinds of user errors?

You would invent a fucking CAR KEY!!!

By physically inserting a key you not only can’t lose the fob while you’re driving, it’s almost perfectly fail-safe as far as the engine on/off problem. Good god, we are going backwards with technology. I know some people who like the keyless systems, but so far I can’t see how it’s not a solution in search of a problem.

51

I hated it too at first. Now I just leave the fob in my purse all the time and I’ve gotten used to it. But if you don’t have something like that that you carry all the time, it can be a pain.

In my car, there is a spot for the fob to live while you’re driving around…it’s a little notch down near the cupholders.

52

I try to always be aware where I’m standing in our yard. I’m pretty sure once I hear the crack of the branch breaking, it’ll be too late to get out of the way. I’m glad you’re all right!

53

Thanks! Had the limb fallen 6 inches forward, it would have caught me “head on”. I joked over dinner about spending my twilight years in a wheelchair doing PSAs for chainsaw safety. :deciduous_tree: :carpentry_saw:

54

I keep my keys attached to me all the time. Unless I’m wearing pajamas, they are chained to my pants. Yes, it makes me a dork, but I haven’t been locked out of anything for more than 20 years.

If I had a push-button car that would be no problem. I’d never misplace the fob because it would always be with me. However, even though I have a fairly new car (2017) it still uses a key.

(My key is pretty cool though; it flips out of the housing with a spring, like a switch blade. It’s like a compact car for a greaser.)

55

Always fun when you have two cars , one with key and one keyless. One that’s keyed , one finds themselves pushing at the keyhole…heehee.

56

Waitaminute. I thought you got the Maine Coon for you. Now hubs has become George’s BFF?

57

Okay, I know other folks have ranted about this exact thing, and stuff, but it’s my turn:

What. The everloving. FUCK. Is going on with gas prices?!?

Sweet holy baby Jeebus.

58

Yesterday I filled up my work van with gas, and it cost over $80. It was crazy.

Thank goodness I’m not paying for that gas, I use a gas card they give me. My personal vehicle is a fuel-efficient compact car. It’s more like $30 for me to fill up my car.

But yeah, they are crazy high. And I think it’ll be a while before they go down again.

59

Oil company executives see the Current Unpleasantness as an excuse to price-gouge so they can buy a fifth yacht.

But then I am prone to cynicism.

60

I’ve been telling people the price at the pump went up while I was filling my tank and they’ve believed me.