What a horrible day today was!

The BBQ Pit
1

I drove up to Windsor, Ontario to drop off the renewal application for my Canadian passport. The reasoning was: my sister had a very hard time finding somebody local who could do a Canadian passport photo; last time FedEx destroyed the old passport and I had to file a new application for a “lost or damaged passport”; hey, day trip!

Construction in Dayton, somewhere along the way that I don’t remember, the last 50 miles in Ohio, and about 15 miles in Michigan. Out of a 200 mile drive, approximately half of it was under construction. And bad signs sent me the wrong way in Toledo. I made an illegal U-turn on the highway because frankly, I didn’t give a shit.

At the tunnel in Detroit, the Border Patrol was searching (apparently) random cars entering the tunnel. Which is OK, except they weren’t letting anyone else go through! They’d cut it down to one line, and everyone else was stuck.

No problem at Canadian customs; just a lot of nosy questions, which I answered without rolling my eyes or anything. So I find a parking place on Ouellette, and head for the Royal Bank of Canada to buy some Canadian money and then use that to buy a money order. (Try to buy Canadian money in Dayton from a bank. Go ahead, try.)

As of May 1st, RBC no longer accepts foreign currency from non-customers. Neither do two other banks, or a credit union. Miserably accepting that I have to buy at a rip-off currency exchange, I walk back toward the tunnel and decide to try one last bank on the way. Scotiabank will sell me up to $500 Canadian! Yes! I don’t even need that much! Sold! Or bought. Whatever.

I’d like to buy a money order for $260 Canadian. They don’t sell money orders to non-customers. :frowning: Fortunately, I can walk kitty-corner to the post office, where I can buy a money order. Halfway through that, someone comes out of the back room criticizing the accuracy of my workers till from yesterday, so I’m just standing there, tapping my toes, knees, dick, elbows, fingers, and nose on the counter while this shit gets straightened out.

I highly recommend the passport photo guy on the ground floor of the CIBC building. “Sit down. Take your glasses off.” click “$14.68, please. Thanks, here you are.” Passport Canada was slow, but steady. (There was a family there with nine kids getting passports for everyone. Wow.)

I’d planned on staying in Windsor for a bit–eat lunch, wander, poke around–but I had already moved into bad mood territory, so after driving in ever increasing circles around downtown, I finally found the entrance to the tunnel. U.S. Customs tore my car apart.

Not like the panels or anything, but the glovebox, under the seats, the trunk (opened the spare tire area and didn’t close it), my backpack. Didn’t search me.

So back through ALL the construction, with much heavier traffic 'cause it’s later, and I decide, “Fuck it, I’m tired of the freeway, I’m going to pick up 68 and go home the back way through Xenia.” Six tractor-trailers had the same idea. I was tail-end Charlie till Urbana. Where I decided I was hungry.

Where I broke a molar in half on a McDonalds cheeseburger. The regular cheeseburger–you know–that one that’s practically pre-chewed except for the pickle piece.

Almost home. “I need beer! I really, really, really, need beer!” Stopped at Speedway, went to grab a six-pack, and it’s warm! “Our cooler broke.”

TL;DR Hey! Day trip! :mad: :mad: :mad:

2

The warm beer was a fitting end to this day :frowning:

3

Sorry your day was suckyloaf on suckbread with extra sucksauce and a side of suck, washed down with a sucks-pack of warm beer.

I certainly hope tomorrow sucks less (although it’s pretty much got to, from the sound of things.)

4

Goddamn, man.

5

Let’s hope you’ve used up your quota of bad luck for the year. Better luck next time.

6

… and then you noticed they spelt your name wrong?

7

Five or six weeks ago, I submitted my résumé to a nearby company. They got in touch with me and said their hiring process started with a couple of online assessment tests. One of them was personality-related, and one was technical (I work in software). I passed those, so they sent me a link to another technical test. I passed that. So, we scheduled an in-person interview; I was there for a couple hours and met with the two people I’d be working most directly for. Afterwards the HR person I’d been dealing with said that they were both impressed and they wanted a list of references to contact. I sent them three and I know that at least two of them responded very quickly. Then we discussed salary and came to an agreement. Then the HR person said there was only one step left, that the CEO had to approve all new hires, so she compiled all the information from the interviews and such, and submitted it to his office. That was two weeks ago. Apparently he’s been in and out of the office and hadn’t time for it yet.

Today I got the answer; nope. No reason given. So that’s how my day went.

When I got my first passport, my name was spelled wrong. I went back to the office the next day and got it corrected. It didn’t occur to me until later that I could have used it to establish a whole new identity.

8

I dropped a full can of coffee this morning. Grounds everywhere.

I think I’m going back to bed and hide under the covers until the Karma Fairy sends me a registered letter that it’s safe to come out.

9

And the mailman will probably try to deliver it while you’re in the bathroom, so you’ll have to go to the post office to pick it up in person…

10

Reminds me of the song: The Down to Seeds and Stems Again Blues. Which I think is the title; but you get the idea.

11

You picked a bad week to quit sniffing glue.

12

You should move to Australia.

13

How does a Canadian passport photo differ from a regular passport photo? Do you have to hold up a bottle of maple syrup or something?

14

It has different size and spacing requirements than U.S. passport photos do. It’s not anything that an experienced photographer can’t handle, but for the low price of a photo, it’s more time and trouble to set up than most want to deal with.

15

It’s generally easiest to just go to pretty much any ATM, unless your card is somehow restricted against international use. I find it’s the best exchange rate, too.

16

Two weeks in April/May for me -

Needed to be towed out of sand, 4/20 - $175
Dog whacks his knee on a rock, 4/21 - $400 and counting
Large rock hits windshield, 4/27 - haven’t done anything yet, but will have to replace it
Flat tire on the 395, 5/2 - $254 to be towed
Put on spare, 5/3 - $65 because hubby couldn’t get the lug nuts off
New tire, 5/4 - $180

Just got home from my fourth trip to the DMV - much cheaper but in a way, more irritating!

17

Buy a lottery ticket. People always say that when I mention some bit of good luck I’ve had. None of those tickets has ever won. Maybe after some bad luck, you’re due.

Break a leg!

18

At least your faithful car didn’t break down. Perhaps, like mine, yours has served you well for many years since it was new, and if it had broken down it would have had to be towed, and might have turned out to require more in repairs than it was worth, forcing you into the situation of having to buy a new car.

Ask me why I bring this up. Go ahead, just ask! :frowning:

19

I signed a new contract two weeks ago for a consulting gig. I made the rookie error of not reading the T&C’s completely as everything was a huge rush (received the contract at noon Friday, Monday was Victoria Day and start date was Tuesday 9am) and when submitting my first invoice this week I was shocked with their very non industry standards payment policies.

First they want monthly invoices vs semi monthly or bi-weekly. That I noticed when signing and I can deal with that. They however invoice the customer the 5th of the month, give them 45 days to pay and pay me 5 days after the customer pays them. Holy ridiculousness!

I am fortunate in that I can survive this, but since my first invoice was only for 6 days that means it’s going to be late August before I get any real money out of this.

Lesson learned and I’ll be much much more careful next gig.

20

Actually, this kinda sounds like why I have the van that was the subject of that post. I made the mistake of buying a Transhit a few years ago, a 2010 so it was five years old when this happened. In October of last year, the transmission dropped dead on the way home from Arizona - $4000 later the piece of shit had a new transmission. The next month, it dropped dead again on the way home from Sacramento. I made Aamco replace it for free AND pay for the towing, and the day after it was done I traded it in. No more Ford products for me.

I hope you are as happy with your new vehicle as I am - LOVE my Ram!