# Time To Dismember (Rants of September){OLD} **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 1, 2023, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475 "2023-09-01T19:48:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/101 "2023-09-06T04:45:27Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > At least it lets you use a dollar sign. Whenever I try it I get some sort of weird font. You’re probably inadvertently invoking the **[Mathjax](https://www.mathjax.org/)** notation, which will happen if the text is delimited by dollar signs on-both-ends. It’s very useful for posting formulas. ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/102 "2023-09-06T05:53:16Z")
I just found out today that the crappy, low-wage job I held for 13 years may cause me to lose 2/3rds of my Social Security benefit because I have a state pension fund. This wouldn’t be a big deal if it were just _my_ Social Security, but if what I’ve read is true, they’ll also claw back that amount of any spousal benefit I’m entitled to in the (likely) event that my husband, who has paid huge amounts of money into the system for almost 50 years, predeceases me. It won’t put me in eating dog food territory if all our other financial plans hold steady, but there goes my backup plan! ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/103 "2023-09-06T06:42:05Z")
From [here](https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf) _The law protects you if you get a low pension. We won’t_ _reduce your Social Security benefit by more than half of_ _your pension for earnings after 1956 on which you didn’t_ _pay Social Security taxes._ and _The Windfall Elimination Provision doesn’t apply to_ _survivors benefits. We may reduce spouses, widows,_ _or widowers benefits because of another law._ I’m hoping that it only reduces yours by half, not 2/3, and doesn’t touch your spouse’s benefits (or your survivor benefits, if it comes to that) but I could be quite wrong. I don’t know how they account for years in a government-funded job in terms of the “high 35” calculation - e.g. if you work 20 years private sector and 15 government, do they ignore the 15 years entirely? ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/104 "2023-09-06T06:43:14Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Foolishly, I declined, as in theory the ones I ordered should have been here by then. Amusingly, I looked online today - and supposedly they now do have the parts I ordered, in the same hard-to-get-to store I visited Saturday for other stuff. So I ordered 'em. Any bets on whether the box in the warehouse will also ship tomorrow? ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/105 "2023-09-06T09:35:07Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I called them Saturday. The lady said “my supervisor said there should be some movement over the weekend; if you don’t see a change in the tracking Tuesday night, call us again”. > > Unfortunately I forgot to check until after their customer service line had closed for the evening - as you might imagine, the damn thing STILL says “label created, awaiting carrier pickup”. > > It is in a warehouse (I assume) less than 90 miles away. My bet here is that they processed it for shipment, but it got mis-labeled and shipped out to someone else. I don’t know what carrier they use, but at our store we use FedEx and their new site upgrades have had some interesting effects that result in exactly this scenario. I do 90% of the shipping for my store, and have for close on 4 years. I have a routine of moving between the screens I need and using a combo of typing, keyboard shortcuts and mouse clicks to enter everything, generate a shipping label, and then print the label. I am pretty quick and HATE making errors, and up until last month there were no issues that couldn’t be traced to FedEx actually losing/damaging something. Suddenly though we had people getting the wrong thing or extra packages, and packages showing ‘label created’ but no movement otherwise, just like yours. Our store isn’t big and FedEx pickup is 5 days a week, so I’d know if anything didn’t get picked up. It turns out that there is now a significant delay in the new address populating the previous label window, and if you’re on autopilot and haven’t closed out the previous label, you’ll just reprint it and slap it on the next package. I’m sure with a giant warehouse (I assume) like The Container Store they have a different process and stuff may pile up. On the other hand, the company I work for is mostly an online vendor but with 30 or so stores as well. When the warehouse doesn’t have something it’s pointed to a store to ship out from our own stock – a backup warehouse, as it were. I wonder if this is what’s happened to your item? Anyway, I hope you get your stuff soon! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/106 "2023-09-06T12:52:51Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I don’t know how they account for years in a government-funded job in terms of the “high 35” calculation - e.g. if you work 20 years private sector and 15 government, do they ignore the 15 years entirely Yes. No different rhan if you’d been a stay-at-home spouse over the same time. The whole point of SS is “pay in get out. Dont pay in, dont get out” The other government pension you get for the non SS work is supposed to cover for that. But the high 35 calc is of all working years. Somebody who worked age 20-65 has 45 years working. So you could work a non-SS job for up to 10 years before zero years start intruding into the high 35 calc. ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/107 "2023-09-06T15:17:48Z")
I’m lucky (very lucky) in that we weren’t counting on SS for a comfortable retirement. But I was literally the lowest paid worker at my school, my work year was only about 10 months, and my pension doesn’t even cover the costs of my retirement health insurance - we have to pony up another $100 a month for that. When I look at the SS page about government pensions, it says that 2/3rds is deducted from any benefits, including spousal and survivor. When I have a little more energy and time, I plan to make an appointment with them to get the facts, but right now I’m very tempted to keep it from Mr. Legend. He’s still working half-time, so it wouldn’t make sense for him to draw benefits now, but depending on what they tell me, I may encourage him to apply as soon as he fully retires, just so he can get something back for all those years. Right now, he’s thinking of forgoing it so I can get a larger amount as a widow. Hell, maybe he’ll beat all the odds and outlive me! @Mama_Zappa , I’m glad you have a line on the parts you need! In my experience, you will indeed get the package right about the same time as you get them from another source. ---
**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:** [September 6, 2023, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/108 "2023-09-06T19:33:00Z")
Last night, my hair was in my eyes. I kept brushing it away from my face, but couldn’t seem to get a particular one out of my left eye. Well, I shed a lot, so I went to the mirror to find and remove the darn thing. I did find it. It was about two inches long, transparent, and _growing directly out of my left eyebrow!_ WTF? Not cool, Hair! ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/109 "2023-09-06T19:42:32Z")
A little kid(4 years old, maybe?) threw a rock at me this morning as I was riding my bike on Los Gatos Creek trail…WTF? He and his mother were standing off to the side of the trail; she was on her phone and her son was maybe 10 feet away. As I approached I saw he had a rock in his hand and he flung it at me as I passed by. Luckily he was too small and the rock was too big, it only flew a couple of feet and landed on the edge of the trail. I resisted the urge to turn around and have a word with his mother–I decided to avoid the stress of a confrontation and continued on my way. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/110 "2023-09-06T20:15:51Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > It was about two inches long, transparent, and _growing directly out of my left eyebrow!_ WTF? Not cool, Hair! I have one that grows out of my eyelid - right in the middle of my eyelashes. Very bizarre. Happens every couple of years. Had an “old experience” a few months back. Like many of us, sometimes a single hair will grow someplace unusual, and requires attack with tweezers. After my cataract surgery, that got harder to spot (on my chin). This year, it got even WORSE: it started growing in WHITE. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/111 "2023-09-06T20:23:41Z")
Saje - Interesting. I messaged their customer service department, who said that since it hasn’t gone anywhere in the system, they will create a replacement order and that I would receive an email on that “shortly” (this was 4 hours ago; no confirmation email yet). I’ll pick up the ones locally this evening. Any bets as to how many sets I wind up with?? (I’m guessing I’ll have up to 3 sets: the ones I pick up, the original boxful, and the replacements). And no guesses as to how long it’ll take them to properly credit me for the refund. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/112 "2023-09-06T21:06:37Z")
Well, my job is about to get a lot more demanding. Short story is my position is going to be state funded for the next year, so no more squishy hours. I know my CEO assigned this grant to me as a compliment, because she wants to protect my position during a period of cutbacks, but it actually is going to make things more difficult. Like from now on, when I need to take my son to therapy on Thursdays, I have to make those hours up somehow. I know _she_ doesn’t care exactly how many hours I work, but the state will care very much. I already get up at 6am. Do I have to push it up to 5am? Will I ever see my husband again? What about when my son is sick? What about my asthma/PMDD/ADHD/PTSD/depression? My husband and I already deal with relationship tension about our competing career priorities. What if this makes it worse? I’m trying to see this as an opportunity because I’m gonna have the chance to meet quarterly with the state, and it’s gonna push me to get more done, which will probably be good for my career. I’ve actually always wanted to work for the state. I don’t know how one gets a job working for Division of Victim Services but I’ve always wanted to see the other side. Getting to meet with them would be cool. If I really take the grant seriously for its intended purpose - capacity building - I might get to build some real capacity! But I’m still scared. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/113 "2023-09-06T21:17:26Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I know _she_ doesn’t care exactly how many hours I work, but the state will care very much. I’m a state employee and my state absolutely cares. I mean, they’re flexible enough, I don’t have to work the exact same hours every day, but they need to add up properly at the end of the week somehow. You don’t screw around with that. I wish you luck, hopefully it’s not as bad as it seems. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/114 "2023-09-06T21:28:33Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I’m a state employee and my state absolutely cares. Yeah, we had a problem with state fraud several years back, I think someone was reporting distance they didn’t actually travel. It was bad all around. As a federal and state grants administrator (on the nonprofit recipient side) it’s my job to be a stickler about this stuff. ---
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/115 "2023-09-06T21:31:48Z")
Topline is in the Twin Cities. They absorbed my local credit union, but so far they’re ok. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/116 "2023-09-06T23:43:37Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Like from now on, when I need to take my son to therapy on Thursdays, I have to make those hours up somehow. I know _she_ doesn’t care exactly how many hours I work, but the state will care very much. Speaking as someone from a department where most employees are working on multiple grant-funded projects, what you need is a vacation/sick leave account funded by another source. Can you ask for that? On the assumption that it’s just an oversight that it wasn’t offered to you? Ours is a subdivision from the dreaded general funds account. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2023, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/117 "2023-09-07T00:33:30Z")
I think I have this. I just have a _lot_ of appointments for my son right now. Usually my CEO says “don’t put in PTO for _that_” but now I have to. I think. I’m gonna have to check with our accountant to see how the vacation is funded. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2023, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/118 "2023-09-07T00:45:33Z")
I haven;t heard that name, Nia, but it doesn’t sound strange, just unfamiliar. I once did records for a reserve military unit and one gal was named Floydene Earlene Surname. Poor girl, it must have been painfully obvious to her that her father had wanted a boy. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2023, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/119 "2023-09-07T01:09:42Z")
I knew a set of three adult white women about our ages. Bryane, Kirque, and I’m now drawing a blank but her name was equally contrived as her sisters’. It’ll come to me later. It was real evident their parents only wanted boys and rolled snake-eyes all three times. I met Dad a couple times. He was a real piece of work. They were some rather “confused” personalities to put it mildly. Very nice ladies, but each a walking seething volcano of fulminating neuroses. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2023, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475/120 "2023-09-07T01:13:59Z")
If parents wanted boys, they could’ve picked unisex names like Terry, Robin, Chris, Taylor… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-dismember-rants-of-september-old/989475.md?page=7)