Get Your Grump on Thursdays - Was (What's chapping my @ss today?)

[j44ke]

Maybe Try Again.

I think I could get Cousin Bob to weld up some yellow fencing for less than $180K.
Really, just put up chain link floor to celing with a chicken coop door for the entrance and call it quits.

This "chicken coop" you talk about - can it be made ADA compliant?

[johnmdesigner]

This "chicken coop" you talk about - can it be made ADA compliant?

Sure. I'll print the approval stickers. How does $180K sound?

My wife asked me when our usual subway entrance would reopen after they replaced the elevator.
"Not in our lifetime" was the reply.

We were coming home yesterday on an uptown train when a man got on wearing a Dylan Klebold trenchcoat carrying 20 rollls of paper towels.
He put the paper towels on the seat then proceded to strip. After 3 stops he was down to his skivvies and just 3 people left in the audience.
I wanted to stay for the end to see if the show lived up to all the hype. My wife insisted we try another car.
There we found 4 kids no older than 6 or 7 fighting over who had the right to the candy concession on our train.

Really no need to spend money on useless projects here. Just accept that crossing the street, riding your bike, taking the subway is just a contact sport like Super G or desert motorcross.

[ides1056]

I've been cleaning a rental, a lovely little house built in the '30's before the street was electrified and the hill was owned by Farmer Ball. He gifted the land to an employee and she built the place.
It never crossed my mind to add a clause to the lease precluding splitting kindling on the finished floor. Never mind the dirt it's taken days of scrubbing on my knees to clean, or the smell. I can easily tolerate skunk and it was cloyingly repugnant. Pinesol to the rescue. I had to use a scraper to get the scum off the counters...

oy

[bironi]

I've been cleaning a rental, a lovely little house built in the '30's before the street was electrified and the hill was owned by Farmer Ball. He gifted the land to an employee and she built the place.
It never crossed my mind to add a clause to the lease precluding splitting kindling on the finished floor. Never mind the dirt it's taken days of scrubbing on my knees to clean, or the smell. I can easily tolerate skunk and it was cloyingly repugnant. Pinesol to the rescue. I had to use a scraper to get the scum off the counters...

oy

I live in a house with remnants of the same stupidity.
Our front porch concrete has many ax or hatchet wood splitting reminders.
For some if there is no ownership, it means there is no ownership in their behavior.
Kudos to you as a renter.
I'm not a patient person.

[ides1056]

To top it off I find they were raising snakes in the house. I will have to modify the lease in the future.

"We were coming home yesterday on an uptown train when a man got on wearing a Dylan Klebold trenchcoat carrying 20 rollls of paper towels.
He put the paper towels on the seat then proceded to strip. After 3 stops he was down to his skivvies and just 3 people left in the audience.
I wanted to stay for the end to see if the show lived up to all the hype. My wife insisted we try another car.
There we found 4 kids no older than 6 or 7 fighting over who had the right to the candy concession on our train."

I remember heading up the 110 St hill in Central Park and a guy walking toward me began to disrobe as I repeated, no buddy, no. Down to his birthday suit he went, then grabbed ahold of his Johnson and began to work away. I collected his things and followed him out to CPW where he settled on a bench. The cops arrived and wanted nothing to do with him. They prodded me forward with his clothes like penguins do, pushing one into the water to test for sharks. If he'd gone postal, it would have been even more interesting.

NYC was a tableau vivant, daily.

[j44ke]

To top it off I find they were raising snakes in the house. I will have to modify the lease in the future.

"We were coming home yesterday on an uptown train when a man got on wearing a Dylan Klebold trenchcoat carrying 20 rollls of paper towels.
He put the paper towels on the seat then proceded to strip. After 3 stops he was down to his skivvies and just 3 people left in the audience.
I wanted to stay for the end to see if the show lived up to all the hype. My wife insisted we try another car.
There we found 4 kids no older than 6 or 7 fighting over who had the right to the candy concession on our train."

I remember heading up the 110 St hill in Central Park and a guy walking toward me began to disrobe as I repeated, no buddy, no. Down to his birthday suit he went, then grabbed ahold of his Johnson and began to work away. I collected his things and followed him out to CPW where he settled on a bench. The cops arrived and wanted nothing to do with him. They prodded me forward with his clothes like penguins do, pushing one into the water to test for sharks. If he'd gone postal, it would have been even more interesting.

NYC was a tableau vivant, daily.

We used to live at 98th and West End. Post office was two blocks and two corners away. When I got to the second corner I noticed there was a ring of cops standing there. In the middle was a very large man barefoot and shirtless drenched in sweat that was soaking through his tan pants. He was standing in a classic samurai stance and his hands about chest height was an unsheathed katana. The look on the cops' faces was "why did I come to work today." Meanwhile, people were all around going this way and that, no one appearing to pay any attention to the man with the large sword. I went to the post office. When I came back about 15 minutes later, there was nothing. No cops, no profusely sweating man, no sword. Gone.

Tuesday, in other words.

[bigbill]

When I moved to Kingman in 2018, I was walking out of the post office and noticed a woman I'd call attractive and well dressed. About a month later, I figured out she was homeless with mental health issues. Kingman has more than its share of homeless and mentally ill people due to its proximity to I-40, but she stood out among the unwashed. Four plus years later, she blends in. She's still wearing the same clothes.

My grump, I'm at the end of my third semester of six in my Military History master's program and I'm writing a 5000 word essay the American colonies, 1763 to 1783, and the role of Native Americans west of the Appalachians before, during and after the revolution. Spoiler, it didn't work out that well.

[Scott G.]

My grump, I'm at the end of my third semester of six in my Military History master's program and I'm writing a 5000 word essay the American colonies, 1763 to 1783, and the role of Native Americans west of the Appalachians before, during and after the revolution. Spoiler, it didn't work out that well.

But it could have worked out, find Harry Harrison’s “A Trans Atlantic Tunnel, Hurrah”
An alternate history of a British victory in the American War.

[bigbill]

But it could have worked out, find Harry Harrison’s “A Trans Atlantic Tunnel, Hurrah”
An alternate history of a British victory in the American War.

Much of written history is already alternate. Trespassing colonists caused the French and Indian War, and the British insisting that the colonist not trespass started the Revolutionary War.

[Scott G.]

Much of written history is already alternate. Trespassing colonists caused the French and Indian War, and the British insisting that the colonist not trespass started the Revolutionary War.

Kurosawa's Rashomon should be required viewing in keeping your historians license current.

[bironi]

Just a moan and groan about some snow keeping me off my bike today.
I'll give it a good look tomorrow before venturing on my very routine small city/urban route.
I may reinstall the brake hood mitts for a little excitement.
Hopefully I'm all over the, "Suck it, it's Friday Theme".
Fingers crossed.

[j44ke]

Power outage last night a 4AM. I woke up at the first "pulse" because of the things in our house that chime when the power returns. So I got up to unplug various items (we have surge protectors, UPS devices, panel-connected surge management and even lightning rods) just as a precaution - and then there was a distinctive "bong" followed by a whump and a big flash outside somewhere. So I am guessing there was some kind of surge that blew up a transformer down on the road. Or the transformer was blowing up and surging. Amazing how those surges almost make a musical note - like someone hitting a steel bar with a hammer.

Anyway, 4AM must be my deepest sleep because I never recovered from the sudden need to move and see things and now I feel like I have a hangover. But the power is back on and no scorch marks on the espresso robot that I can see.

[bigbill]

We lose power momentarily a few times a week. We're at the end of the electrical coop grid, sometimes on the main grid and other times on the giant solar array just south of us. The shift between sources sometimes causes a momentary loss. All the appliances in my house have different times; I'm not updating them.

Non-grump, I completed my first semester in my four-semester master's program. My essay on the Native Americans west of the Appalachians and the American Revolution got a perfect score. Five thousand words, fourteen sources.

[dashDustin]

Finally nearing the end of a year-long litigation process. Blah blah yadda yadda. In addition to that, wifey was to receive short-term disability benefits in 2022 following some yadda yadda blah blah. Well, we've finished this year-long process only to STILL not have been paid short-term disability. I get on the phone with insurance company last week ready to light someone up. They send me the letter that was sent to blah blah approving wifey's benefits, telling me that they (insurance company) aren't the ones who cut the check - blah blah yadda yadda was supposed to, and that they (insurance company) have no way of knowing if that had been done. I send that to our lawyer with dates, and amounts that were owed.

blah blah yadda yadda FINALLY says today that wifey is owed money.

this process has been absofuckinglutely ridiculous. and I look forward to when we can share the story.

[johnmdesigner]

Been driving since 1975. Never had an accident.
T-boned last night by a 91 year old driver.
Not liking the Year of the Dragon so far...

[j44ke]

Have my appointment with the auto body shop on Monday. Accident was December 27th. March 4 was the soonest I could get it repaired. Volvo dealer's body shop said May 20th. Both places said they are seeing more accidents than ever. A lot of it is ye olde deer & beer, but the body shop guy said increase is all "people going too fast not looking where they are going."

And it is making things more expensive for everyone.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/b...inflation.html

[johnmdesigner]

It's a 3-door now.

[j44ke]

Nertz. That's one of those dents where the insurance report says "may be unseen damage."

[johnmdesigner]

I’m as green as grass here.
Would they even consider fixing this? It’s a 1997…

[j44ke]

I’m as green as grass here.
Would they even consider fixing this? It’s a 1997…

Insurance companies can be unpredictable. A friend whacked a deer head on and crushed the front of her Honda Element. It was a 2007. Insurance wanted to total it, but she presented all the papers from service done on the car (she's the original owner) etc. and somehow they covered the damage. I forget the repair costs, but they were around $4000 I think.

But yeah, all that to say I expect insurance will want to total it because the impact is right at the rear support pillar, munched the door too, so bodywork might never seal well again, and it is a 1997.

Congratulations though. 27 years. That's like 60 in NYC car years.