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

[rwsaunders]

Yea well, I'd like to disenroll, but I may start riding with an epipen.

I have Benadryl and Atarax on hand (as I now also react more violently to skin stuff--like poison ivy reaction but to all sorts of other more benign plants like mustard, tar weed, oh and most tall grass). Last Thursday I was hit twice within 5-10 seconds by the same bee-like thing--once on my right forehead, once on abdomen. Bad swelling on the area around head/face, and a weirder hard/indurated area the size of my hand over the other one. In years past the extent of my reaction was it hurt when I got stung, and that was it.

Similar experience…stings over the years yielded a bit of swelling and itchiness and then one day, you're stung and you’re out cold and wake up riding in an ambulance. I wish that I could tell you that it gets better, but that hasn’t been my experience. So in the meantime, keep a 2-pack of pens handy as they’re cheap life insurance and potentially great weapons if you ever need to get involved in an airplane passenger rage incident.

[johnmdesigner]

Real estate agents are like fishermen.
And there are two kinds of fisherman.
One gets in his boat and goes out seeking the fish.
The other sits on the bank with his bobber in the water waiting for the fish to come to him.
Sadly, my agent is the latter.
Contract is up. Time to look for another fisherman.

[vertical_doug]

Yea well, I'd like to disenroll, but I may start riding with an epipen.

I have Benadryl and Atarax on hand (as I now also react more violently to skin stuff--like poison ivy reaction but to all sorts of other more benign plants like mustard, tar weed, oh and most tall grass). Last Thursday I was hit twice within 5-10 seconds by the same bee-like thing--once on my right forehead, once on abdomen. Bad swelling on the area around head/face, and a weirder hard/indurated area the size of my hand over the other one. In years past the extent of my reaction was it hurt when I got stung, and that was it.

I ride with a cycling cap under my helmet with visor down as a bug screen. I cannot afford to get another bee sting in my forehead and top of head. I think RWS rides with a bug screen in his helmet.

I keep Benadryl, Prednisone and epi-pens in my lunchbox on my top tube with contact card.

I am very nervous about this fall in the UK as they predict large numbers of hungry hornets due to the drought and hot summer in southeast England.


I either do this, or can look like Mike Tyson used my face for a punching bag

I don't know if yours is related to post-covid, but my allergy developed after my bout with covid. I have two friends that both developed severe allergic reactions post-covid too. It's all weird

[jimcav]

I know if no way to confirm, but all this sting reaction stuff began after i had covid. after some google-image sleuthing, what stung me the last 2Thrusdasy in a row was a hornet. I guess I should be glad it was solitary each time. Same area of trail, so I guess I avoid it, or go back at night and try to spray if I can see an obvious hole for them. Certainly, I plan to go past that area with speed--my last sting I had misfortune to get a stick in my cassette/RD and had to stop--at exact wrong place.

[vertical_doug]

I find yellow jackets, wasps and hornets the worst. They can sting multiple times and getting on of them in your helmet is worse than a bee.... It is why he stung you multiple times. It got pissed.
The venom is generally worse for us too.

[Tom]

Eccchh. Its Thursday somewhere.

After a pleasant two hours on the bike yesterday rolling around casually I pull in my driveway, step off my bike and my back shouts. Out of nowhere, no warning. As the day went on it went into full-on protective spasm and this morning it hasn't come around and I am not getting on the bike on a lovely day. Just as I start getting consistent and making the time to ride, pffttthhhh. At least now it is letting me stretch it out, last night that was out of the question. Getting old has its pluses and minuses for damn sure.

[DBordewisch]

Why do many frame makers never respond to emails? Or only respond once? Then go silent. Unwilling or unable to answer questions like. How long? How much would it cost? So frustrating. That said, a few are professional, concise and prompt. My apologies as it is not yet Thursday. Sigh!

[johnmdesigner]

Enough is enough.

Bottle of Singa Beer (retail) $1.73.
Bottle of Singa Beer in my local Thai restaurant (UWS Manhattan) - $10.00.

I can have sympathy with restaurant owners and rising prices but this is ridiculous. The price for a beer in Midtown is $8.00 and I think that is ridiculous.

I like the green curry at this place and have been going there for years but this is a shitty way to treat your customers. And on top of that you expect a 25% tip for your underpaid staff. I won't be back.
If they don't survive I'll know why.

[Dave Thompson]

Too many establishments have raised their prices in anticipation and/or because they can.

[Tom]

I worked with a guy whose parents owned a restaurant. He said that their food was the loss leader and they made their money off the alcohol.

[bigbill]

A somewhat grump, but not really. Ford is paying to replace the entire fuel system on my F250 Powerstroke engine. That's good. The grump is the thousands of dollars out of pocket to get it from Colorado to Arizona. An additional grump is the two to three weeks before I get my truck back, and the dealer has no loaners. Another good is my colonoscopy this morning; I had one 2mm polyp, which was removed and sent to the lab. The doctor said he had to be very careful to get it out intact because it was so tiny. I guess that's a good sign. I'll wait for pathology before I get too excited. I ride with the senior pathologist, maybe I won't have to wait that long.

The colonoscopy has been on my mind because I was positive on a take-home test, but it was one of those go-no go tests for blood, not the DNA version. The potential of paying out of pocket for my truck repairs ($10k+) was stressing me as well. Now that I may be in the clear, Garro has some MAX OR tubesets....

[72gmc]

That's the spirit, bigbill. Thousands of dollars to transport those tubes, too, but at least they'll be in the shape of a frame.

The only grump I'll allow myself right now is the wildfire smoke that's messing up air quality in Oregon, and I'm going to be there next week. I'm hoping my selfish need to mountain bike is fulfilled, which could be good luck for people in the path of the fire.

[htwoopup]

In my town it is the start of UN Week. Which I think is great even with the frozen zones and so on that are an inconvenience to the locals.

The grump is that I don't understand why every diplomat below the level where they get police escorts (or at least these lower diplomat's drivers) feel like the diplomatic plates not only free them from every traffic law but allows them to ignore human life pedalling in the protected bike lanes. They enter the "mixing zone" (a HORRIBLE idea that the pro-bike Transportation Alternatives thinks are brilliant) without even checking their mirrors or slowing. Between 39th Street and 63rd Street on First today, I was almost T-boned 4 times. Once I actually hit one of these guy's side view mirrors with my wrist as my rear wheel skidded into the side of his car when I couldn't stop in time and did a sharp steer to attempt to avoid him. And he was screaming at me.

[Marvinlungwitz]

Political tinged grump: Blatant attempt by OPEC (SA & Russia) to influence US elections by oil price manipulation. The oil embargo was almost 50 years ago, and what did we do? Buy pickup trucks and SUVs. SMH.

[bdaghisallo]

Political tinged grump: Blatant attempt by OPEC (SA & Russia) to influence US elections by oil price manipulation. The oil embargo was almost 50 years ago, and what did we do? Buy pickup trucks and SUVs. SMH.

The Biden Administration could, of course, remove some of the impediments to domestic production it has put in place.

And the Canadians would love to ship crude south if only the Keystone Pipeline could get approval for its completion.

We wouldn't even need to worry about the Saudis and OPEC do so much.

[Saab2000]

The Biden Administration could, of course, remove some of the impediments to domestic production it has put in place.

And the Canadians would love to ship crude south if only the Keystone Pipeline could get approval for its completion.

We wouldn't even need to worry about the Saudis and OPEC do so much.

That would certainly be the pragmatic solution. Sadly, pragmatism is severely lacking in today’s political landscape.

[mowens]

On behalf of all hatchback/sedan drivers, turn off your fog lights!
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-ne...en-to-use-them
Thank you,
-Mike

[endo shi]

Daycares don't care if your baby is sick and you miss a week. You still pay. I get that. However, a day before our inaugural week of a super pricey daycare and our baby gets Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease (not serious, but contagious). Nothing like burning cash for a week of daycare you've never even tried for a day. Yow.

[johnmdesigner]

My wife and I were on the D train last night when a man threw a bottle in our direction. I don’t know if he was aiming at us or just expressing his bad temper at random, but I made the mistake of giving him a look. He followed us up to the #1 platform at 59th street as I assumed he would. It was rush hour and as he crowded us to the edge of the platform shouting at us, I turned to deal with it. I’m not much physically but I have been attacked before and know what it feels like to be punched by someone twice your size. Luckily it was rush hour and a group of 6 police surrounded him and forced him back against the wall long enough for us to board the train.
I don’t know what to think anymore. Since the Pandemic we have been riding the train but almost every trip there has been some incident we have witnessed. I’ve lived here since 1979 so I have seen my share of ups and downs in NYC but it seems now that no place is peaceful. I’ve been surrounded by teenagers before and managed to stand my ground and talk my way out of it. I’ve even had a gun pointed at me before. But now it seems so much worse. The randomness of the attack does not allow for a rational response.
I’ve never been afraid to go out here and I don’t intend to let this incident change my behavior. But I’m old and tired and just want some peace.

[echappist]

I worked with a guy whose parents owned a restaurant. He said that their food was the loss leader and they made their money off the alcohol.

The beer pricing mentioned upthread really grates. Chances are, they are buying at wholesale and are making a lot of profit on it.

About the only food for which we’d like wine pairing is good Italian food. I like decent Amarones, but their prices can be eye watering ($50 bottle at retail is at least $120 in the restaurant).

Fortunately, the place we went to has a BYOB option, but requires a $20 corkage fee. I thought fine, as we’d still come out ahead. When it came to time to pay the bill, I tipped $20 on the corkage charge as well. D’oh.

At least the policy in Illinois isn’t as dumbass backward like it was (is) in DC: once opened, all content of the bottle has to be consumed or dumped. Can’t take the unfinished wine home…

In that regard, i much prefer the osso buco i had in a place located in a nondescript NJ strip mall. No corkage fee, and the $60 osso buco was done to perfection and fully worth it.

Also add’l grump. Dining options in London over Christmas is atrocious. No more reasonable fare. In its place, there are numerous 150£/person tasting menus that don’t look at all inspiring.