Must be a really devoted fan if they’re willing to do that for you.
I wish there was a way you could put people on ‘‘ignore’’ only in the context of certain subjects. Some posters I generally respect a lot have weird idiosyncratic beliefs about certain subjects that just piss me off to read.
Not that I have a single person on ignore, anyway. At least, I don’t think I do. How would I know?
When I read complaints against anonymous individuals like this, I like to imagine that I’m the offending party. I think about what exactly lead to the post and wether the complaints are valid.
So, truce?
ETA: but if it really is true, awkward!
User CP > Edit Ignore List
It’s not the national anthem, but there’s already a perfectly good Canada parody song.
Haha, it’s not you. Believe it or not, I’ve gotten other PMs asking me if it’s them. Yikes. I didn’t mention any names because I respect the person a lot, so even if it is you (it’s not), it’s still a compliment! We can’t all agree on everything.
Dear Joss and Main,
I was seriously interested in looking at bedroom furniture on your website. But your splash screen insists on getting my email address before allowing me to look at anything. I wonder if you have done any research on how many potential buyers this policy is driving way. I can tell you that it is at least one, i.e. me.
So how’s that working out for you? Morons.
So, our lawn mower committed suicide last weekend. Some sort of ‘skirt’ like mental sheet that had been welded inside the body, surrounding the spinning blade area, decided to not be welded on at one end any longer. Truly horrible sounds ensued as this skirt now intruded on the blade’s space, and by the time the motor seized up and died a few seconds later the blade itself was twisted into a new and exciting shape as well as about and inch and a half shorter than it used to be.
I know nothing about lawnmowers, but even I knew the right diagnosis: It’s dead, Jim.
Hubby agreed after some poking around in the guts and swearing. The thing is, this was a cheapo walk behind mover that we probably paid less then $200 dollars for at Sears at least seven years ago. IOW, it didn’t owe us anything. And no doubt repairs, even if possible, would cost that much or more.
So I suggested we just go to Sears and buy the equivalent model: we’re planning to sell this house and move to a condo within two years, so why bother getting anything better? We’ve got dozens of things from Sears – kitchen appliances, washer/dryer, etc. – and they have all been at least decent. Even a POS mover can surely handle cutting a totally flat half acre lawn for two years, heck, generally we only have to cut the lawn maybe eight or ten times a year, given that we have hot, dry summers and don’t water.
But… evidently I don’t understand these things.
Hubby has spent DOZENS of hours investigating lawnmowers. Gas ones, electric ones. Rideons vs. self-propelled vs. pushems. Side vs. rear discharge. Types of grass catcher mounts. Different types of wheel attachments, fercrissakes.
And then he made a chart, comparing the desirability of various features vs. how much you’d have to pay for a model with that feature. The economic sense of getting a ‘better’ motor considering how long we’d need it vs. the possible ‘resale worth’ when it was time to get rid of it.
Much cogitation followed. Finally he announced his decision: we’d get another gas powered mower of the same size and type as the old one. Gee, why didn’t I think of that?
So we ran out and bought one.
Hah. No, now it was time to investigate the particular models. This involved more hours, reading all the ratings and feedback people had left on the models he was considering. (A lot of which did, truthfully, sound like POS with parts made from plastic that should never be made from plastic.)
Finally, this morning, he announced his chosen model and where he would buy it. Guess where?
Sears.
Being wise in the ways of long-time successfully married wives I just smiled and said, “Sounds like just the thing, dear.”
I have to admit that the week’s delay served a purpose:
<Sorry, must have hit the wrong button>
Okay, I have to admit that the week’s delay ended up accomplishing something:
1. This week that model was on sale
2. There was an extra 10% off deal going on for Father’s Day
3. And he got a $5 gift care – I don’t know why.
So overall he spent about $40 less than what he’d have spend last week. Still, pretty lousy as an hourly rate considering how much work he put into it.
It’s the way he demonstrates qualities, like thrift and patience and good sense, that he hopes you will admire. Sometimes, the demonstration is of no more practical use than doing a handstand or climbing a tree in front of a girl you like when you’re a kid, but the impulse is the same: he wants you to think he is valuable, even necessary, and sometimes older men reach a little too far to do that as the opportunities come by less often, and we get too fat to climb trees.
I just went to their site and they did not ask for my e-mail. I looked wherever I wanted to look. I wonder how come they decided to pester you. Weird. Or maybe somehow they knew I wasn’t really shopping.
I also have this husband.
I now make most of the purchases in our household. It saves a lot of grief. He’s still this way for things he purchases for his own use (a laptop, a new car, etc.) but he’s learned to trust in my ability to select the right vacuum cleaner or generator or whatever.
I got to sleep around 1 a.m. last night, then woke up around 3 and couldn’t get back to sleep. Took a sleeping pill, then slept from probably 6 'til noon. Fuck this shit.
Last time this happened, I got my sleep schedule back on track by taking this advice. I hope it helps some of you knuckleheads 
Ditto. Are you sure you were on their official site and not somebody’s fake front-end mirroring their store to phish email addresses?
Followup: I originally went to their paid ad site from a Google search which has a free shipping offer; I discovered this has a different effect than their main site. Also I found out that, even on that page, if I hit the Back button, it gives me the option of continuing without supplying an email. But it will not take me back to the actual previous page, the Google search results. I have to hold down the back button and select that page from the list.
I still dislike it intensely, as a way of presenting one’s business online. But not quite as bad as I had thought.
My brother Ed is trying to do that re. the heater and range in my new house.
I agree that the range needs to be removed. It’s gas. Mom+gas range = better have the fire department on speed dial. I agree that the gas heater should also be replaced by an electric one: I usually travel a lot, the yearly checks are a pain in the ass, and the current heater isn’t even auto-switched, you need to light it up in advance every time or keep the flame going 24/7.
But getting him to understand that I am the “customer” and therefore I decide what kind of range I want is going to be a paaaaain. Apparently he’s worried about the resale value. Of what? I’m planning on selling that house 20-30 years hence, when I move into an old folks’ home! And if any of my nephews wants it, they have dibs over a stranger! And if whomever buys it more than a generation from now doesn’t like the range - they can get a new one, it’s not like it won’t have paid for itself by then. :smack:
Why can’t your mother be trusted with a gas range? Never mind; that’s not relevant. Natural gas is just so much more economical that electricity* that I hate to see you go the more expensive way.
Anyway, you’re an engineer; you should be able to come up with an engineering solution. I’m seeing a solenoid-operated valve that only permits gas to flow when she’s within one or two meters of the range (controlled by a motion sensor or a light barrier). You could even hide an override switch that she doesn’t need to know about.
*Here in the U. S., anyway; I’m just assuming that to be the case in your region as well.
This is a dumb one, but I guess this is the only place I can vent where someone might “get it”.
My mom wants me to go to church with the family on my grandmother’s 90th birthday.
Y’all may not know this, but I have a Der-Trihs-sized problem with religion. A couple of years ago, after attending a service under similar duress, I left boiling with anger and vowed to never go to church again. I understand that these are not bad people, and it’s all my own issue, but it is real. My mother would feel the same if I asked her to attend a Hilary Clinton rally. It is The Thing I Cannot Do.
If I don’t go, I’ll be deemed petty and selfish and branded as the family asshole forever (or until someone else takes the title).
If I do go, I will be filled with rage, because that is the effect church services have on me. Not to mention breaking the promise I made to myself for no good reason.
Grandma will not know if I’m there or not, she is not that tuned in to reality anymore. She’d be just as happy if I told her I was there, but sat in the back.
I think I have to do this. I’m trying to make myself do this. I’m considering ear plugs, or bringing a Kindle, or taking drugs.
How do you deal with irrational anger?
This is probably at least a sizeable part of why he did this. Kind of cute, when you look at it like that.
And, in fact, it demonstrated a bunch of qualities that I do admire and that no doubt played a role in my deciding he was ‘the one’ for me. (The great smile and sense of humor didn’t hurt either.)
It’s just that sometimes… Well, when it’s perfectly obvious to right-brained me that the solution is to turn left, it can be frustrating when left-brained him cogitates before settling on a more elaborate procedure involving three right turns. You know?
Is he an engineer, too? Because I think there is something basic to how engineers look at the world that is the major drive behind this kind of behavior.
It’s like they believe, totally believe, that the world and everything in it is completely rational and logical, and that THEY are rational and logical, and therefore no matter what the current problem, er, challenge is, no matter if they don’t know how to solve it right then, there IS a BEST solution and if they just gather enough info and apply their brains rationally and logically they WILL find it.
And I will happily say I have benefited from this mindset a thousand times over our marriage. He doesn’t get overwhelmed or scared when faced with something having gone wrong. He just tackles it… and usually solves it. In the end. This is great when you’re a near broke couple just starting out and the heating system stops heating. He can DIY and save lots of money that you just don’t have to ‘waste’ by calling in the professionals.
But when it’s a matter of that $5 hand can opener no longer working because some specialized bolt or whatever came loose, you really don’t need to figure out how you can make an acceptable if clunky and awkward to use kludge to fix it.
It’s not worth your time and effort.
I can’t speak for her or her mother, but when my mother’s Alzheimer got worse we had to make arrangement to keep her from being able to turn on the stove, too. Yes, you can burn food just as badly with an electric stove, by forgetting you’ve put a pan on to cook and walking away, but gas ranges have open flames. What if she no longer has the thinking capacity to do the proper things if she accidentally starts a grease fire, or the sleeve of her nightgown catches on fire? Add in possible physical limitations, like slowness or balance problems, and it can be very dangerous. 