What's messing with your Groove?

[GGT]

Echo must live in the East Coast. It was 78 here today. But of course I'm stuck inside with a head cold so I couldn't go out and enjoy it. Damn library kids and their germs!

Mid-Atlantic weather has been bizarre since Halloween. We still have some rural folks without electricity...and TONS of fallen tree limbs around the county. Townships have sent phone messages to everyone, saying they can bring their debris to a certain site on dates X Y Z. Almost laughable, really, since not everyone has tools to cut limbs and branches the size of their living room, to fit into to the trunk of their station wagon.

I had to wait a while for the tree "surgeons" to help me out, and they could only do the bare minimum by sawing/cutting limbs directly hovering over the street. They'll still have to come back and do much more, but they've been swamped.

[Catgrrl]

If I was rural, I'd use my handy dandy chainsaw and let it season, then have a huge bonfire. We only had smallish limbs fall during Hurricane Irene and we cut back a few smaller limbs last month too. I can't imagine having to cut huge limbs without help though.

Don't get me started on those tree companies that are subcontracted out by the power company. They are contracted to cut only around the top power line, and so leave branches tangled around the cable and other lines. Stupid, because if there's a wind storm a tree is going to pull ALL of them down because they left a weird-shaped tree behind. I'd honestly love it if they just cut down trees anywhere near the power lines/poles. (It would be better if they'd bury all of the lines, but that will be awhile and even then there are some areas here where that would not be a good idea!) As much as I love trees, it pisses me off to see one hacked away to the point it looks ridiculous, with lines through the middle of it. Just tell people to plant trees away from the power poles or face losing their tree in a few years!

It's 45F right now. Brr! But at least it's more appropriate weather for Fall.

[Ominous Gamer]

http://www.highprogrammer.com/cgi-bin/uniqueid/dl_fl

I figured there was some sort of formula for the Driver's license number, but damn.

[Khendraja'aro]

My father's school of which he recently became the principal of has 3 unusable class rooms which have been in that state for 4 years now.

They are located on the gorund floor in a newly-built addition to the main building. Turns out that something is leaking water, thus they had to rip open the floor and install drainage pipes.

The administration responsible for the school (i.e. the district) has taken the building company to court since the whole thing costs 240,000 € to rectify. And that's where it's been the last 4 years.

The reason why it's been in that desolate state for 4 whole years (with a 5th upcoming): The lawyers said that it's not allowed to repair the damage before the court has reached a verdict because that might be interpreted as an admission of guilt.

[Echovirus]

The compressor on our main fridge is shot. It's not a cheap fix, so no telling when we'll get that taken care of.

And Clemson's playing like they weren't prepared to play today. It's pretty sad to watch.

[Ominous Gamer]

creditkarma apparently is very conservative when it comes to calculating your possible credit score. Its been giving me about the same score for a few months now, tipping between good and excellent, but when the dealership ran my credit, the 2 agencies they used produced a score that was 70+ points higher. Turns out I'm a member of the 800+ club. Which should be good news, but not knowing that put me in a lower bargaining position walking in, and I've been going nuts these past months trying to bring my score up before approaching lenders on a home.

[termite]

The reason why it's been in that desolate state for 4 whole years (with a 5th upcoming): The lawyers said that it's not allowed to repair the damage before the court has reached a verdict because that might be interpreted as an admission of guilt.

The Law truly is an ass...

[Ominous Gamer]

Goober died today. The friendliest cat I owned, and named for her fur pattern resembling the Goober peanutbutter and jelly product.


This sucks

[Loki]

Sorry to hear that.

[Timbuk2]

Sorry 'minous.

[Ominous Gamer]

Newegg's Black Friday sales are littered with MIRs. Appears they are stuck in 2005...

[Hazir]

In the area around my home in Amsterdam all Christmas decoration is up. And it's still bloody november !!!!

Yet another reason to hate tourists, besides them renting bicycles and being so clumsy that I actually almost tripped over one who couldn't keep his feet under himself when turning.

[oldmunchkin]

It appears Winter is upon us before Fall is over! We had a horseshit blizzard this afternoon. I walked to the store and it was about 50 degrees with a wind of about 30 MPH. The store is a block south from my apartment. I left the store and went down the alley to the LLS, which is about 2.5 blocks from the store. It was still windy and cold, but no moisture. I sat in the LLS for about an hour, went out the front door and almost landed on my ass. It had started snowing but the streets and sidewalks were still warm, so when the snow finally hit the ground after being blown around, it was more like slush witch then froze. Slick as hell!

The Kid is being a jerk and didn't want Thanksgiving dinner, so Mommymunchkin and I had dinner at my place. We had fun, but it didn't feel like a family dinner!

I have decided that this "getting old" shit sucks big time! No one can quite figure out why I ache so bad all the time. My joints aren't dealing well with all this excess weight I have put on, so my hips and knees are trashed at the moment! I have managed to do something to both of my shoulders, making it difficult to impossible (depending on the shirt or coat) to put on some clothes and all but one of my coats! If I raise either arm too high, or get one or the other of them even slightly behind me, I get a burning pain in the shoulder. FFS, I take so damned many pain drugs you would think this wouldn't hurt...but it fucking does! I am terrified of how damned bad they would hurt if I wasn't on these damned meds!

SRB has decided that The Bear has "emotional and mental problems" and has checked her into a "behavioral clinic" until a few days before Christmas! Well hell yeah she has emotional problems! Her Grandfather and Uncle on her Dad's side are fucking pedophiles, her Great-Grandmother on SRB's Mother's side is a bitch (SRB's wording here) who refuses to return the baby she kidnapped (that's a whole different story), her Great-Grandmother on The Thing's side has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers, her Great-Grandfather on The Thing's side is a racist, elitist, sour, angry man, and The Thing is still sitting here with no job and he isn't trying to find one! Last year, The Bear told Santa that all she wanted for Christmas was "a nice, good Mommy"! SRB is on about her 4th man in 6 or 7 months and says this one she is gonna marry! Yeah right! I agree that The Bear needs counseling, but I don't think she needs inpatient treatment! I think she needs her Mom to stop fucking every man she sees and take an interest in her children! But, as has been seen in the past, that's too fucking hard!

Sorry for the rant, but the last couple of months have flat out sucked for the most part!

For those who don't know or don't remember:
The Bear is my middle granddaughter!
SRB is the Spoiled Rotten Bitch that is my ex-step-daughter and mother of my three granddaughters.
The Thing is my (now) ex-husband!

[GGT]

Sorry for the rant, but the last couple of months have flat out sucked for the most part!

No offense, but this sounds like the same rants you've posted year after year. That messed with my groove, because I'd hoped you'd get beyond all the same shit.


One thing that's been messing with my mind comes after a Thanksgiving spent with my sister and her family-by-marriage. Not once did they mention those less fortunate. Didn't donate any money or food or time to a food bank or soup kitchen or shelter. Didn't look at the spread of food big enough for five families and think it was overboard, or even gauche. Didn't care about the perfectly good food they threw down the garbage disposal...didn't want to be bothered with boiling down the turkey carcass to make turkey soup. Too much trouble. Sent me home with some leftovers I didn't need or want, because otherwise "it would just get thrown away". They know I work in a charitable food pantry, but the few comments I made were totally ignored.

Hard for me to believe this is my sister, raised in the same household, with the same parents that taught us to think of others during holidays and hard times. And when you want to be with family during holidays....it's becoming increasingly difficult.

[oldmunchkin]

No offense, but this sounds like the same rants you've posted year after year. That messed with my groove, because I'd hoped you'd get beyond all the same shit.

Well, some things are never gonna change. I am not apt to move south to stay warm, my son is still gonna be a male and act like an ass occasionally, and SRB is never gonna change but if I want to see Bug and Bear, I gotta deal with her.

The thing with my aches and joint trouble are kinda new. I've never had this much trouble in my life. I can't get a coat on or off, can't get a long-sleeved shirt on or off, and don't understand why my shoulders feel like someone is stabbing me with a hot poker when I move them wrong!

It has always been a problem for me to lose weight. For so long I wanted to gain 10 pounds, but I have gained 60 pounds from my lowest weight. Trust me when I say that is no less than 45 pounds too much! My clothes don't fit and I look like a fucking chubby Munchkin! I know that my hips and knees are fucked up because of my weight, so trying to lose it! BUT, I have NEVER been able to lose weight with diet and exercise. Seriously, I walk 4 to 6 miles a day, and eat and drink less than 1000 calories a day...and I'm still GAINING! All I know is that those damned meds the docs were so fucking sure I needed, have seriously messed with my metabolism! I quit the extra potassium when I realized I was overdosing on it back in April, and I quit the enzymes about 2 weeks later, but the damage was done. Oh well, I guess I'll just be a fat slob that no one wants to be around!

One thing that's been messing with my mind comes after a Thanksgiving spent with my sister and her family-by-marriage. Not once did they mention those less fortunate. Didn't donate any money or food or time to a food bank or soup kitchen or shelter. Didn't look at the spread of food big enough for five families and think it was overboard, or even gauche. Didn't care about the perfectly good food they threw down the garbage disposal...didn't want to be bothered with boiling down the turkey carcass to make turkey soup. Too much trouble. Sent me home with some leftovers I didn't need or want, because otherwise "it would just get thrown away". They know I work in a charitable food pantry, but the few comments I made were totally ignored.

Hard for me to believe this is my sister, raised in the same household, with the same parents that taught us to think of others during holidays and hard times. And when you want to be with family during holidays....it's becoming increasingly difficult.

I can see why that would bother you! Is she the one married to the Greek guy? Is there some kind of cultural thing that keeps them from donating, or are they just ignorant to the plight of those less fortunate?

[GGT]

Loaded question, munch. It's both cultural, ethnic, and generational---I think. Haven't figured it out yet. The Greek in-laws will talk about Greece as a failing nation, saying things like individually, we can make things work, but collectively, we can't. That's "code" for saying family and extended family can care for their own, which is very insular. But they also expect (US) government to do certain things that families can't do on their own, or to take care of those without families. They pay their taxes and advocate for higher taxes (here), and seem to think that's enough (?)

They lament Greeks don't pay taxes the way they should. But it's complicated, because they came to the US as political refugees. And they don't like to talk about it much with "strangers" like me.

[oldmunchkin]

Ok then! Sounds like they really just want to take care of as much of their family as they can, and "someone else" should take care of those they can't and anyone else not in the elite family few!

Or am I just confused?

[GGT]

I'm confused, too. Getting personally involved with poor people isn't something they feel compelled to do...unless those poor people are part of their family (or extended family---which can mean new immigrants from Greece, or anyone with Greek heritage). The rest is partly why they pay taxes, and gov't agencies should/would be in charge of making sure poor (non-Greek?) families have a decent Thanksgiving meal.

My brother-in-law was "encouraged" by his employer to be a secret Santa for a family in need. Office politics aside (and that's a pregnant issue to begin with), he's now got a couple of kids with a single mother and they're asking for things like underwear, socks, crayons, and notebook paper for Christmas! He left me with the impression that he'll buy some things to appease his employer, but is angry that the gov't isn't doing enough for the family (with his tax dollars).

I understand both sides of this issue, and as he sees it, but even if gov't could tend to every citizen's needs, there would still be people in other countries relying on charity/philanthropy. I've tried to ask what he thinks about foreign aid, but we don't get much farther than "That's partly why we pay taxes."

[termite]

Hay Fever fucking sucks.

I never really suffered any allergies (including hay fever) until a couple of years ago I started getting some mild symptoms around October and it was annoying but bearable - but this year it is really dragging me down. Itchy eyes that water so badly people think I'm crying, my sinuses go from fully blocked and throbbing one minute to running like a tap the next and back again. It is also messing with my sleep (I'm already a borderline insomniac) and I'm pretty sure I worked a 60 hour week on about 12 hours sleep (from Monday to Friday).

[Catgrrl]

GGT, you could just have been more direct and asked them straight, "Hey do you have any leftovers you don't think you'll eat? I've been working the food pantry lately and they are in need of donations, so I can take some stuff of your hands". A lot of people don't know that some places will take leftover foods for the needy (and there are many that will not accept it unless it has been cooked by a commercial kitchen staff). Being passive-aggressive doesn't work on everyone; many people only respond to directness. After years of dealing with passive-aggressive family members, I've learned to tune out unless they give me direct responses/choices.

Going to try yet again to get my Christmas decor up. Little Miss Trouble is making it hard to get done. She either gets into stuff she shouldn't or gets annoyed we aren't doing what she wants.

[coinich]

Woke up, had to scramble down the ladder before vomiting in the sink. Bunk beds don't work well for sick stomachs.

[Flixy]

Electric things seem to be failing on me today - my laptop froze in a very weird way, the radio suddenly stopped making sound, and the cyclotron's switching magnet's regulations gave a nice red FAIL notice. Fortunately, for all of them, turning it off and back on again seems to be working just fine. I think my laptop might have overheated (is that possible? it felt hot, and it froze with the display giving weird lines and colours), not a clue what's up with the radio, and the cyclotron might have accidentally sent a wrong signal (too high/ too low) to the switching magnet's PLC. Or I hope its that, otherwise it might actually be broken..

And it appears the secretary at the radiation protection agency doesn't really know anything about radiation, and blindly sticks to following procedures to the letter. Which means if one of the three logs for the same experiment differ starting/ending times by one or two minutes, she will call me and ask which one is correct... like that makes any difference whatsoever (it's only important to know if it was morning or afternoon). Same if the total charge differs by a few µAh, the measurements isn't exact anyway so whether you have 2499 µAh or 2502 µAh really does not matter at all. And now we sometimes have dual beam bombardments (bombarding two targets with protons at the same time), which resulted in a call asking what was up with the log, there must be an error, how can there be bombardment on two targets in different rooms at the same time?

edit: FFS, the cylotron just shut down again, this time because the target-ready signal was lost. Again, no one has a clue why, and it's fairly annoying because I can't reset that one myself (don't have access there). It's reset now, and looks like it's working properly - but that's what it looked like 10 minutes ago, too.

[Nessus]

You haven't hugged it enough. Scientific devices need love, too

[Flixy]

You haven't hugged it enough. Scientific devices need love, too

I kept her warm all night! And I frequently, gently, twist her knobs. And turn her on, quite often!

It is of course telling that the most frequent breakdowns is on the side owned by General Electric, the cold hearted capitalist evil company. But our fuzzy, warm, socialist university side almost always works!

[Nessus]

[Illusions]

Until she leaves him, because he doesn't have a job, or doesn't have enough money for her anymore, because she's become high maintenance...

[Nessus]

It's usually the other way around; after all, these old ladies tend to have several, if not tens, of young new mates at once. But what might comfort her is that there'll always be more!

[Flixy]

She's still young, in the prime of her life, and quite well-endowed (recently got an upgrade to increase her output!). People from all over the world come to see her! She is high maintenance though, a lot of surgery is needed. In fact, they're flying in specialists from, I think, somewhere in Asia next week for that.

Which reminds me of another stupid thing - GE, which operates the targets we bombard, has set the dose limits for their employees on 10 mSv/yr (the legal limit is 20, so that's on the safe side, but good for them). However, there are only a few technicians qualified to work on those targets, and all but one are currently on their limit for this year, and required to do other work. This has happened last year too, and because we are increasing output, more maintenance will be needed. The solution is, however, not to hire more people - but to fly them in from the US. Seems a bit expensive, if you ask me. And one last curious thing: the exact same company uses a limit of 20 mSv/yr in the states - double of what they allow in Europe. That's just odd. Anyway, the result is that we operate about 20% under the maximum one-target current, because otherwise there is more risk of breaking a target and that can't be fixed quickly anymore.

[Ominous Gamer]

Your operating at a lower risk because of their policy. They are forcing you to save them maintenance costs. Even if they have to fly someone in, your place takes that time into account because it delays the needed repairs.

Nothing odd about that, especially coming from GE

[Flixy]

Your operating at a lower risk because of their policy. They are forcing you to save them maintenance costs. Even if they have to fly someone in, your place takes that time into account because it delays the needed repairs.

Nothing odd about that, especially coming from GE

It also costs production time, though. Which gives us overtime, and not everybody is happy about that. And it still is odd that their safety guidelines aren't the same for the exact same company. And most annoying, the new setup still has not been properly tested and calibrated because of this, and it will have to wait until after january 1st, when they can work again.