St Goatrick's Month (March 2024 scapegoat blame thread)

@werehatrack So sorry to hear of the URS, which you are experiencing. Keep testing. Back in Oct, I came down with the Coronny-ronny after avoiding it for three years.

I took the Paxlovid cure and was in the unlucky 15% that got the rebound. The wife had it too, but barely, barely tested positive. Your situation sounds similar.

I wish you the best, and the least amount of suffering and inconvenience.

So the next time you are desperate for a cruise, send me the tickets instead, and I will suffer for you. Why hold your breath and take unnecessary risks on a long cruise, which is little more than a waterborne, communicable disease, incubation chamber?

I’ll do it for you. Whadda deal, eh?

Jackinga

@Jackinga Rats. This morning, I tested positive.

@Jackinga @werehatrack That sucks. Get Paxlovid today (If you wait to long you can’t be given it; if a center says they won’t give it to you go somewhere else until you get it; you fit the group that can get it. Haul your partner with you to get it too.). I also avoided covid and got from being at MD Anderson Cancer Center thank you the governor for not permitting a required mask rule anymore and many (mostly visitors and some patients) were not wearing them. Be aware that Paxlovid can make everything taste really nasty for some people (that included me) but after one day of taking it I started feeling better from what I did. It was worth 5.5 days of nasty taste (you take it for 5 days) not to risk being hospitalized and getting way sicker.

@Jackinga @werehatrack

which is little more than a waterborne, communicable disease, incubation chamber

But they had to go because they were secret testers to make sure the germ factory was being productive at the expected level. Of course now that they found that was true they won’t be able to be germ factory testers until that immunity wears off.

@Jackinga @Kidsandliz

But they had to go because they were secret testers to make sure the germ factory was being productive at the expected level.

And because “no refunds”. The cruise was fun, but one part proved anticlimactic; I discovered that my sinuses are even less thrilled with seawater than I remembered, and the commonly-available designs of snorkeling mask will funnel any leak straight into your nose. But I got in a little fish-ogling anyway.

@Kidsandliz @werehatrack Are you sure that it was Paxlovid that made things taste bad and not the underlying Covid? It takes a while for the wonderful drugs to clear your system of the viral load, donthchaknowed?

@Jackinga @werehatrack Yes. It is a known side effect of that drug that about 35%?? (something close to that anyway) have, and finally getting around to reading the fine print after it started it is described exactly as it tasted to me - bitter and metallic. I didn’t lose my sense of taste nor smell - was lucky covid didn’t affect that (although the newer variants that is less common than it was)

@Jackinga @Kidsandliz @werehatrack Yep, I definitely had the bad metallic taste after a course of Paxlovid. (And also the terrible diarrhea afterward that is another common side effect.)
On my second time around with Covid, I didn’t bother with Paxlovid and there was no noticeable difference regarding symptoms or recovery time.
YMMV

@Jackinga @macromeh @werehatrack Oh yeah. I forgot about the diarrhea. I have a blood cancer of the B cells (which fight viruses amongst other things) which means I have a compromised immune system and so am at high risk for bad things happening. As a result I wasn’t taking any chances and was going to do everything I could to present being hospitalized with this.

In my case it stopped things from getting worse cold in its tracks. Of course this is not the case for everyone although you having had it twice perhaps your immune system was better prepared to deal with it. I had never had it before although was fully vaccinated although for people with follicular non-hodkgin’s lymphoma we only get about 45 days of usefulness out of a vaccination and I was well past that with the newest version of the vaccination.

Walgreens gives it out for free to everyone although at this point I am sure other pharmacies have signed on and been approved. When I needed it, in December, they were the only local ones who had been approved to give it out for free regardless of insurance status.

@Jackinga @Kidsandliz @werehatrack My experience with Paxlovid was in May 2022. It was no charge to me (Medicare) but IIRC the receipt from the pharmacy said ~$600 .
My wife was not 65, so her doctor wouldn’t give her a prescription. There was no significant difference in her (no Paxlovid) and my (with Paxlovid) symptoms or recovery.

@Jackinga @macromeh @werehatrack Research documents over and over that for people with pre-existing conditions or due to being older that taking it decreases the odds you’d have a more serious case it, hospitalization rates and death rates from it. It does not affect the odds of getting Long Covid however.

@Jackinga mmm… now i want fudge.

From uranus, Missouri.

@mediocrebot Brings to mind (why? IDK)
/youtube the lonely goatherd, sound of musIc

@duodec Blame accepted. Feb 29th was Leap Day after all, and as a goat of note, you were naturally airborne, so with your last moments of goathood being aloft, I take full responsibility for your flight plight and your inability to write while alight–all right?

Now that the heavy mantle of goatship has been lifted, you are entitled to a good long ex-goat gloat.

Jackinga

@duodec You could, of course, post your last goaty selection here, along with some blame, and one of us could take the risk of copy/pasting it into your month for the fitting end to your reign of terror um no story honoring month um this is it - goatum.

@CharlieDoggo Just lick your mom as a thank you and cuddle up on her. You might miss your toe if it is gone. She is taking good care of you.

@CharlieDoggo Poor guy, you’re having a tough time of it! Good thing you have such a devoted mom, taking such great care of you. I hope you heal up fast!

@CharlieDoggo @Kyeh Has it gotten better yet?

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh Charlie asked me to post this for him. He will post an explanation w a new blame.

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @tinamarie1974 thanks mom! I had to go to new doktor today. They told mom to stop using the boot, because it made my paw too moist. They made me put on strange hat thing! I DO NOT like it. Hard to do everything.

Mom said I get more special cheesy treats that have cruncy middle and I have to see another doktor. I do not trust!!! This good boi is very nervous

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh so basically the surgical vet I saw today said it is a tricky case. Gave Charlie some different antibiotics and prednisone. Also referring to a specialty surgical center because he dis not feel confidant.

Saw the birth defect, missing 2/3 of one digit and he noticed that the corresponding toe bean grew in upside-down. Thinks my vet is right it needs to be removed, but thinks a specialist should consult. So I am being referred and they will call me to schedule an appt.

@Kyeh @tinamarie1974 Glad it is being escalated to a specialist. That should help you in getting the “best” information and options. Hope things go well as they can with Charlie.

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh yeah thanks much. I am just nervous about him getting cut on and what the long term effects will be on his foot if we have to do surgery.

Secondary concern is this place is VERY expensive. Its where my last pup went and ended up in the ICU under oxygen, had blood plasma transfusions, etc before he passed. Bill was basically $1,000 a day. Again secondary concern, Charlies health and wellness takes precidence.

@Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 Oh, no! Poor pup! I’ll bet he hates that - it’s enormous. I sure hope things go smoothly and his foot gets fixed and healed up fast.

@Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974
@Charliedoggo Here’s a funny photo to cheer you up:

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @tinamarie1974 oh who is that man? He has the same tricky hat!!! Wonder what he did

@CharlieDoggo @Kidsandliz @Kyeh Charlie 2as upgraded to a much better collar.

@CharlieDoggo @Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 Oh, good! That looks much more comfortable.

@CharlieDoggo @Kidsandliz @Kyeh he seems much more relaxed and

@CharlieDoggo @Kidsandliz @Kyeh @tinamarie1974
But does his still pick up all the UHF channels in StL?

@mediocrebot Bot’s eyes must be looking out two different windows.

@Felton10 At this time of year, they were probably mosquito-optional as well. I would not bet on that being the case in May.

@werehatrack If there were any mosquitos, that isn’t what I was looking at.

@Felton10 @werehatrack So were the three of you running wild with the locals emulating them?

@Kidsandliz @werehatrack I wanted to but don’t think my wife would have approved.

@Felton10 Curious about your daughter’s take on the scene…

BTW, on a related topic, it’ll soon be Spring Break on the Florida beaches. Get your SPF ready.

@Felton10 Nudity is overrated, as you probably learned. Most of us look better clothed than unclothed.

Clothing tends to hide the blemishes, the cellulite, the sags, and the damaged parts of us. One can change one’s clothing, but not one’s skin, so there is the variety factor to consider as well. Then there is protection from both the sun and the elements to consider. Most of us benefit from all of the above.

We are a product of evolution, which in our case made us hairless–mostly. That coupled with an ability to sweat and to run long distances with springy, energy conserving leg tendons made us a formidable hunter. That is we could relentlessly pursue any large and dangerous animal to the point of its exhaustion–a decided survival advantage.

But our lack of a coat or fur is a disadvantage for many tasks of daily living. If you don’t believe that try cooking bacon in the nude. You are going to get burned, you just don’t know exactly where.

All that being said, then, you are absolved of any blame for accepting an invitation that was probably not adequately explained nor understood and for any embarrassment that may have caused to those poor folks who had to look at you and your group.

@Felton10
So how did Mrs Felton and your daughter respond when they realized what kind of place they were at and what were their afterthoughts? Are you all going back or considering a membership? (Pretty sure I know the answer to that!) I’m also curious to know what age people you saw and if totally nude is the most popular choice for them. I wonder if that’s a place where swingers hangout or am I just making ridiculous assumptions?
BTW, how was your meal, was the staff clothed?

@Lynnerizer Our daughter is 50 and doubt that anything she saw surprised her. Had my wife talk to my client before the outing was finalized so they both knew what type of places there were going to visit although don’t think any of us realized exactly what we might see.

By the pool (which was filling with suds BTW) was the area were most were totally naked although we did see people in various stages of undress just walking around in the community. We did see overt sex around the pool also.

Estimate that most of the people there were in the 40 to 65 age range with every imaginable body shape-a lot of whom would have been better served to remain clothed.

The restaurant we went to in development where my client was a member was upscale and most of the patrons and wait staff were dressed appropriately. My meal was great-had sea scallops which cost $ 42 so it wasn’t inexpensive by any means.

But while we were checking into the restaurant, right behind me walked in this totally naked drop dead gorgeous blond women would couldn’t have been more than 30 years old. Just the type of women every man thinks he hopes he will see at a place like that. My client told me we were lucky as he never sees someone like that around.

@Felton10 Well thank you for sharing your experience. Never having been to a nudist club before you painted a really good picture! I literally Lol’d when you said that some should have kept their clothes on! I can only imagine!

@Felton10 Is this the same guy who tried to get you to go on the nude cruise ship?!

@Kyeh yes the one and only. In fact two weeks ago he returned my call and was on a cruise that I googled and it was called the Temptation Cruise and showed a picture of a large room where there were multiple beds. Said the cruise was for everyone including swingers.

@Felton10 What a guy …

@Kyeh Actually there was a business benefit to me going with him (which I was sure to tell my wife about immediately) as I questioned him today about him being an owner and found out he hadn’t given me any of the papers showing how much he lost since he became an owner in 2021. But not that big a deal since am still working on returns for those years forward.

@naturallia Have you considered the “Meh” button instead? When something which think you would like, but you really don’t need comes up on a Mehrathon, push the Meh button instead, and move on. Your bank account will thank you for it.

But if wild impulses overtake and subdue your better judgement, then sure, I’ll take the blame.

Got blame? It’s what Goats do.

@naturallia Hmm as almost all of those items have been offered before you could just ask yourself since you didn’t buy them before, why buy them now.

@naturallia The feral ones that sneak out of the bushes are even worse.

@naturallia

@Kidsandliz probably just a hose. I hope. Easy to do in the driveway but I would replace the thermostat while it’s drained. And all the hoses. If the head gasket went that’s trouble.

It’s both extremely cheap if you know a guy. And very expensive if you have to use a shop

@unksol And now UNBLAME!!! Turns out the car shop had forgotten to rebolt the battery stabilizer thing down when they replaced the battery. It was slowly sliding forward, I hit one of zillion bumps in town and when it went up it broke something on the radiator where the thing that the hose attaches to comes out of it. I got very lucky that with my 14.5 year old car you can buy the part and not have to replace the entire radiator. AND because of how it happened they paid for the towing and the entire repair! Great shop even if they screwed up forgetting to bolt the stabilizer thing back on.

@Kidsandliz @unksol Whew! Congratulations; having a trustworthy mechanic is fantastic.

@Kyeh @unksol I know. I feel really lucky. Before them the place I used pretended to do repairs and didn’t. While I caught on to this when they told me 6 mo after one very expensive repair that I needed that repair and I told them they apparently charged me for a repair they didn’t do I had an outside party look at everything I had been charged for and found a number of repairs that apparently hadn’t been done as very old parts were still on there. Got the old manager fired over it and they redid all those repairs. The repair person did a free radiator flush under the table as he was really ticked at what had been done to me (he usually worked on foreign cars and mine was, at the time, a dodge).

@Kidsandliz @unksol They probably did that to women, especially - glad you caught them.

@Kyeh @unksol I am sure they did. I have run into crap like that before. I am glad I caught them. At least the family owned place I am using is honest. There is an oil change place here that is dishonest too. They tried to convince me my transmission fluid was dirty showing fake fluid that wasn’t mine. I am reasonably sure I didn’t get the expensive oil I paid for either. Trashed them big time on google reviews - actually both places with plenty of details.

@unksol
Something something home construction/repair is expensive. Something

FIFY

@macromeh while true. This is like half of the house. Granted I bought it in 2013…

I mean have you seen the interest rates on refinancing or HELOCs? But it will drop eventually.

@unksol Youngsters!
In 1984 I was building my first house. I took out a variable rate loan to cover finishing up at ~11.5% interest. (A fixed rate loan at the time was closer to 14%!)
My neighbor worked at a bank and she thought I was crazy to go with a variable rate, but the rate went down each year after that, so I guess I made the right choice.
Just a few months ago, I had a new (shingle) roof and gutters put on a rental house. When they got into the roof, they found a lot of damaged sheathing, so that had to be replaced also (@$50 per sheet installed). The final bill was around $17K!
The house was formerly my parents’ house (just a modest single level, 3Br, 2 Bath, ~1200 sqft, on a large lot) - they bought it brand new in 1967 for $16K.
Anyway, just a little perspective.

@macromeh well. In 2013 interest on a home was 3.5%. but yes I’m aware of used to be a lot higher.

These days a HELOC or refinancing is around 8-9% and I can get a straight personal loan for that. So. Meh. A metal roof on this size house is a lot more than 17K. But. It is what it is

@macromeh also when interest rate were that high bonds and bank accounts werent an option. It’s just been the stock market for a long time. "Safe"is the indexes

@macromeh I think my sheathing cost might be less peer square but. Yes that could happen. It’s in there and I wanted a full tear off so…eh
In my state there is no option for roofing contractors to be licenced so. Lots of money and they say lifetime warranty but… They can just go away so…

@unksol

also when interest rate were that high bonds and bank accounts werent an option

I’m not sure what you meant by that - CD rates in 1984 were a bit over 10%; the high for the decade was almost 16% in 1981.

And yeah - a lifetime warranty doesn’t mean much when the company goes out of business (I have some experience with that. )

@macromeh meant that bank accounts/bonds WERE an option . Messing up all sorts of ways. I think the closest we’ve been was the 9 percent Ibond

@macromeh @unksol My house was built in 1959. The ungrounded wiring has never been upgraded. The iron pipes are still in service. The roof was replaced in 2009 (after hurricane Ike tossed a tree through it) by an idiot who knew less about composite shingle roofs than I did, and has intermittently leaked ever since; I find more mistakes every time I go up there. I’ll most likely have to get it done again next year. I’m only half tempted to do the job by ramrodding day labor myself. I’m getting too old for that shit. But it would save me about $10K.

@unksol you ain’t kidding

@tinamarie1974 You want someone to flag you in the future?

@tinamarie1974 Oh no! I even tagged you in an unrelated thread - the one about “Dude Whips.”

@Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 lol I set an alarm to make sure I bought something for $20 to make up for the irk. Had a few things open. Still feel asleep so. May be better to not play the game

@Kidsandliz @unksol @kyeh. Yeah the issue is for some reason Meh email goes straight to spam. I never see it. Its just been busy over here, check for an update from the doggo, but he did ask me to post a pic!!

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @tinamarie1974 in mewn you can mark the meh emails to not go to spam. Normally just right click, mark as safe. Or something similar. I barely check my email though/don’t turn them on for meh

@Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 @unksol

in mewn

Huh?

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @tinamarie1974 I literally have no idea. My first though was Swype but that’s not a word so it wouldn’t do that. I’m guessing “in email” but that’s not even necessary for the sentence so…

Hit the m after the n then e, w above a but I and n are to far apart. So. I got nothing. I mix swype and manually typing when it doesn’t get me. Working till 2AM? Lol

@Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 @unksol
Haha - “mewn” sounds like you’re accidentally typing in “cat” lingo. Which wouldn’t be surprising, really!

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @tinamarie1974 I thought about blaming the cats but they just type gibberish to people at work. Or turn on “accessibility” features so I can’t login. They haven’t learned to work the phone

@pakopako here you go:
/giphy another gear between human, scapegoat, and zombie

@pakopako Oh my. Not what I had in mind but I can’t help but to leave it. Might make you think maybe you don’t need another gear after all.

@pakopako Well, we added an extra day to February this year, but if that isn’t enough let’s just say that today is Feb 38, 2024 as part of the March Goat Service.

Hope that helps.

(We might have a wee issue with March passing too quickly with only 22 days though. Which is OK with moi, since that will be the April’s Goat problem.)

@pakopako And as a bonus, we are adding an extra hour of daylight (or something) tonight at 2AM.

@Jackinga @pakopako Yeah but first you have to steal an hour to paste it in later in the day. I hate this kind of cut and paste.

@Kidsandliz @pakopako Steal? No, we didn’t steal, we just created by fiat an instantaneous correction to our time counting system. If you like, you could say that we borrowed an hour, which we will pay back in full in November.

Standard time zones did not exist in the U.S. until at Noon on November 18, 1883, at that moment, they instantly became official. The world adopted time zones a year later in 1884. While folks certainly measured time, local time was a hodge-podge affair with different areas and cities all running their own time zones.

It was the railroads that forced standardized time zones to become adopted. There were schedules to keep. Besides, if you are running a railroad with one track and various sidings to serve traffic in both directions, every engineer and conductor on those tracks have to be on the same standard. It was quickly found to be good practice and far less messy to make sure that a freight train was parked on a siding to allow another train going in the opposite direction to pass.

Daylight savings time was created during WWI as a means to increase productivity, and again in WWII for much the same reasons. It wasn’t until 1996 that there was Federal legislation in the U.S. to create a DST for the Nation as a whole.

Time, you see, is tricky. And complicated too, if you look at the physics of it. Time or more properly space-time is relative.

An accelerating body experiences slower time; so the deeper in a gravity well you are, the slower time would pass for you compared to someone outside relative to that location.

At the moment, you are accelerating at 32 feet/second/second or 1G towards the center of mass of the Earth. If you weren’t, you would fly off at a tangent to the Earth’s rotation. If you want to prove this to yourself, stand on a step or a ladder, then step off. The “fall” that you experience is the acceleration, which is present at all times.

If you were on a more massive planet with correspondingly higher gravity, time would pass more slowly as compared to where you are now. Similarly, if you were on a less massive planet, say Mars or the Moon, even, time would pass more quickly.

Your GPS, which is entirely based on time signals transmitted from orbiting satellites, must make relativistic corrections since time passes more quickly for the atomic clocks on the satellites in orbit than it does for us on the surface of the Earth. If those corrections were not made, then the location calculated by the GPS would be several hundreds of meters off.

Moreover, the ‘now,’ on say, Mars, is not the ‘now’ which you experience. Depending on the orbital positions of Earth and Mars with respect to one another, “Now” on Mars is 5 to 20 minutes in Earth’s past. This is in addition to the fact that time passes slightly more quickly on Mars.

And while we’re at it, the instantaneous present, which is the infinitely fine moment between the past and the future, while we can infer its existence, cannot be directly experienced.

Hold you hand in front of you. You can only “see” your hand in the past. It takes an exceedingly small, but finite, time for the reflected, ambient light from your hand to reach your eyes, and it takes orders of magnitude longer for your eyes, visual nerve network and brain to process that image, which has been in the past all along. So the image of your hand, which forms in your brain, is always of your hand as it was in the past.

Our conceit and maybe hubris is to think that what we experience is reality.

It isn’t.

Like the old joke of someone saying that they would do something rude or illegal for a $1,000,000, but not for, say, $10. It is a given then that they have agreed and the rest is just haggling over the price.

So with the switch from Standard to Daylight Savings time, I posit no harm, no foul; we are just haggling over the gauge.

@Jackinga @Kidsandliz I want that hour back with interest.

@Jackinga @pakopako

I want that hour back with interest.

Watch what you want. It could come with, say, a tornado.

@Jackinga @pakopako But there is harm to your heath and sleep with savings time, especially for the eastern half of the time zone because the light in the morning isn’t timed right for optimal circadian rhythm and sleep (which is even worse the further east you are in a time zone). That is why a ton of medical associations are arguing that we should stay on year round standard time.

@Kidsandliz @pakopako OK, your request is granted. I’m interested.

@Jackinga @pakopako Interested in what? What gear will be between the other three?

@Jackinga Stop being … interesting? Interested-ing?

@Jackinga @pakopako But when will pakopako get the hour back? Is this one of those “in November” situations? Interest-charging entities want to know, so that they can assess the appropriate rates for the borrowed hour!

@Jackinga @pakopako @werehatrack The interest, for 4 years running, will be repaid in a lump sum payment on Feb 29, 2028.

@Jackinga @Kidsandliz @pakopako On a Tuesday? I have completely lost interest. That’s nearly as bad as having extra Monday. (BTDT, BTW. 42 hours of Monday by flying back from Auckland.)(The worst part about it was not being in NZ anymore.)

@Jackinga @pakopako @werehatrack I’d imagine the second worst part was jet lag.

I went from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Bangkok (going the other way it was via Singapore) to Hong Kong (we landed in a typhoon and a China Air flight had flipped upside down on the runway, true Hong Kong style they turned off all the TV’s and refused to tell us what was going on - I had seen China air out the air plane window when we made a shaky landing) to Los Angeles to Chicago (where we dropped off the 18 month old I was escorting - try doing all that with an 18 month old and I was a stranger to her plus my kid who I was told was 5 but was really almost 10. She saved my butt with the toddler since she could talk to her in a language she understood), to Oklahoma City - arriving at 2 in the morning where I stopped at walmart on the way home to get food and was given the, ‘you are a very bad mom having a young kid up at that hour to go grocery shopping’ look over and over. Kid was in awe of all the food. While we were there, over the PA system came, “Attention all employees. Come out come out wherever you are.”. I saw one sleeping on two bean bags chairs he had pushed together. Who knows where the others were hiding. OMG jet lag nearly killed me and my kid once we were back. And of course she was very clingy so I got less sleep for that reason too.

@werehatrack Yes it tastes really truly nasty but the taste is gone within 12-24 hours after the last pill. And, at least in my case, I started to feel better a day after starting it.

@werehatrack @Kidsandliz OTOH, I enjoy a finely crafted IPA, but the Paxlovid mouth was unbearable to me. (And in my case, it lasted significantly longer than 24 hours after the last dose.)
That, plus the added attraction of 48 hours of diarrhea that followed, meant that I did not (and will not) take any for subsequent bouts.

@macromeh @werehatrack I guess I was lucky with roughly 24 hours for that bitter and metallic taste and it seriously sucked big time. I also had the diarrhea, although was barely eating to begin with so not as bad as it could have been, but since I have a seriously compromised immune system where if hospitalized with covid roughly 60% of blood cancer (mine is of the B cells which fight viruses) patients die, I wasn’t taking any chances.

@werehatrack And as Meh Rollover approaches, the bitter taste is already gone, yay!

@Kyeh Kid-me is jealous and wants to play in your snow. Adult-me is glad I don’t have to shovel the sidewalk & driveway.

@xobzoo My Angel neighbor shoveled for me this morning before I got up! She said “I wanted the exercise.”

@Kyeh @xobzoo It looks pretty though.

@Kidsandliz @xobzoo
It is! I just moved my car because I keep seeing news stories showing big broken branches in the road; my big maple doesn’t look like it’s going to break, but it’s still snowing and supposed to continue through the night.
It’s a lot worse elsewhere in the state - some people have been stuck in their cars on I-70 since last night!

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @xobzoo
My daughter (in Arvada) said she couldn’t make to work today. Meanwhile, my wife and I are soaking up the sun in Seaside OR for a few days (where it’s unusually warm for March) celebrating her birthday.

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @xobzoo
Daughter sent this photo:
Arvada CO Snow

@Kidsandliz @macromeh @xobzoo Yes, they closed the CU campus and a bunch of schools. So a lot of happy kids are starting spring break early, because a lot of schools are staying closed tomorrow too.
I’m glad you’ve got nice weather for your getaway!

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @macromeh @xobzoo holy crap! Snow days still exist? They didn’t just make them do virtual learning for fun?!?!

@Kidsandliz @macromeh @unksol @xobzoo They tried to take them away but people protested mightily!

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @macromeh @xobzoo but… But… a day or two of attendance totally matters in the scope of elementary education? How will they ever make it?

@Kidsandliz @macromeh @unksol @xobzoo
The future is doomed …

@Kyeh @macromeh @unksol @xobzoo ACP (free internet) is ending the end of April, and they haven’t been renewing it since mid Feb so many students will lose (or have already lost) internet due to no more subsidy so no more virtual school possible if all kids are to attend.

@Kidsandliz Well, THAT sucks!

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh But at least it looks like the damage is pretty localized.
They could easily have bent other things around it, like the trunk door, which would’ve been much worse.

I share your anger, though.

@Kyeh @xobzoo Yes I got lucky that it is only “cosmetic” damage. Sigh.

@tinamarie1974 So, is it going to stay a secret, or do the rules permit stating what you found?

@werehatrack I am happy to share, especially if it saves someone from the torment I felt. Product is called Grease Lightning and I found it at Wal-Mart for $2.24. I feel quite certain this is the least expensive item I have tried to date and like I said it was the only one that worked

One door cleared up IMMEDIATELY with nothing more than a wash rag to scrub. The other didnt, so I sprayed it down a secomd time and let it sit for a long while then came back w my nifty Ryobi shower tool (more power).

https://www.walmart.com/ip/15724133

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-USB-Lithium-Compact-Scrubber-Kit-with-2-0-Ah-Battery-and-USB-Charging-Cord-with-Extra-USB-Lithium-2-0-Ah-Lithium-Battery-FVG51K-FVB02/327781624?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&pla&mtc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D28I-028_004_CLEANING-NA-NA-NA-PMAX-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-PMAX_SHP&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D28I-028_004_CLEANING-NA-NA-NA-PMAX-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-PMAX_SHP-71700000113461777--&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhtWvBhD9ARIsAOP0Gog0AAjiNmHN42MTHhtrNkepPQUMSPsk04lZAJCxXF9rYDieEAgRF1kaAvjtEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

@tinamarie1974 Neat. I’ve used that cleaner for other things, and it worked well. I guess I’ll get bottle of that (I don’t have any right now) and a scrubby brush to use with one of my electric drills, since I have about half a dozen of those. (I spent $5 each on them, all Ryobi; I had more, but I’ve used a few as gifts already. The guy I got them from had bought one of those pallets of returned tools, and about half of it was drills.)

@tinamarie1974 Good to know!

@tinamarie1974 @werehatrack so do you know if this removes the brown from the bottom of plastic shower curtains? I have been remiss in cleaning that recently and my approach at the moment to all those damn white glove inspections the owners of this hud do (once every three months minimum) is take down my nice one and put up a cheap walmart plastic liner, then reverse the process. Don’t really want to throw my nice one out and looking for a nearly no effort cleaning method that is dirt cheap.

@werehatrack ooohhh am I now officially an internet influencer???

@tinamarie1974 @werehatrack

ooohhh am I now officially an internet influencer???

Well this is meh thus with a count of 3 of us who responded to you the official answer is YES!

/giphy congrats with fireworks!

@Kidsandliz @werehatrack @kyeh. Ill take it!

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @tinamarie1974 @werehatrack there are a bunch of generic brush packs for drills.

Last one I got which may have been excessive was this.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B092H26HGJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Not recommending it since it was probably a Slickdeals thing 2.5 years ago so there’s probably others. And I don’t think it cost that most. But the bristle brushes I used did work well.

That Ryobi one is also going to be way lighter than a 20V drill so if that’s what works for you. And probably less aggressive.

I think last round I went with a home vinegar mix and got pretty clear, but I’ve also fully disassembled the door which is a pain.

May also depend on your water and the soap you use. Lot of hard water here.

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @unksol @werehatrack you are right, this particular unit is so much lighter than a regular drill. Also I got it on black friday and it was much cheaper!!!

I tried the vinegar route originally, as it is what I wash my windows with. It did nothing for my shower doors unfortunately.

@Kidsandliz IDK just try and hit the brown on the bottom with some hydrogen peroxide. Maybe a spray bottle on hand? An oxidizer usually seems to work on that sort of thing.

Failing it washing off it might rub off with some water after. Not sure how I’d feel about someone inspecting my cleaning habits lol. I could use some help

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @tinamarie1974 @werehatrack well and it does have a replaceable pack. It’s just a much lower voltage. I’d like to see them keep those lines up for people who just need light duty/lighter/cheaper tools. Not seeing that much support on any of the lines.

Craftsman v12 line was ok 10 years ago. Ryobi could do it but won’t. Milwaukee 12V is too expensive

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @tinamarie1974 @werehatrack I figured you had to have something that worked better. I may have to try it. Granted the shower door may be the least of my problems.

I also have well water though so it’s more straight hardwater than anything the city processes.

@unksol Thanks for the suggestions. I fucking hate that they treat us like 5 year old inmates and inspect us so often with expectations they don’t have for themselves in their own homes.

@Kidsandliz yea… I don’t understand that. When we were in college it was just the normal security deposit and. Realistically if any one was going to wreck a place. Realy?

@Kidsandliz I guess here there is this clause for tenants here

“When a tenant signs a lease with a landlord, they are obligated by the law to maintain a level of cleanliness within the unit, which would be defined by local health and housing codes and ordinances.”

It is a pretty strong landlord state. But I never had any problems with my landlords coming in. I could see how smaller ones might be more concerned…

My grandparents had a few rentals and one guy had one for years they just maintained the exterior unless he asked, but when he died or left… It was a dump/hoarder level thing. Could have easily had a water leak rotting out a wall… Not saying it’s right but you can imagine neighbors that don’t take care of plates…

And there are of course cleanliness things in the building as a whole that may not be your things. So.

@unksol So it would be appropriate for you to be inspected once a month like they did to me last year and most of the year before (these are military white glove style where they even open our personal dressers, desk drawers…) even though I, the entire time I have lived here, never had ANY lease violations? So far this year it has been twice. The lease says once quarterly. Sounds like your grandparents should have at least inspected once a year.

EDIT And this rant below isn’t directed at you

These sociopaths own 80 HUDs in 23 states and routinely rip off the government by inflating what they use as comparable rent apartments to charge, at least in our case, about 25% more than what 2 rooms, 525sf with heat and A/C only in one room and utilities go for around here, claiming those much nicer, larger places, with security and covered parking behind gates (our parking is open with no lights, no security, pool, party rooms, fitness centers, etc.) were comparable. They were taking people’s rotators left in their assigned parking spot because it “looked bad”, they took and sold to the store on the other side of the parking lot that sells these things, someone’s electric wheelchair that quit (battery was still charged) outside near the handicapped ramp (which they have now removed the curb cut - I have reported them) while he was waiting for a family member to come help him with it (someone saw them do that and I went over and got it back when I heard what happened - they did not tell the guy what they had done with it, they told the store it had been put in next to the dumpster - I suppose 20-30’ away would be considered “next to”)…

We are treated this way because they can. I have read every manual they need to follow when they own HUDs and in NOT ONE PLACE there are any consequences for HUD owners who break the rules, fail figure your rent correctly… Wrong rent has been my problem annually and I have to get the government HUD complaint subcontractors to fix it - always I have been right; it’s not that hard - just time consuming - as I have a lot of doctor appointments and we get medical miles IRS rate subtracted from our income. They can’t seem to handle the excel spreadsheet I put them on in chronological order with the miles and how much, add it up for them…(how they want it) matched up with a pdf of all appointments in chronological order), etc. but there are pages and pages of how we will get punished if we break rules.

There are reasonable ways to deal with people and concerns. I have no problem with a once a year inspection, if you fail, another one in 30 days for failing so you can correct the problems, if you continue to fail then further consequences… but not monthly even when there are no problems. Even if they walk in unexpectedly (the 24 hours notice we are supposed to have is routinely ignored even when it isn’t an emergency which is the only time they can ignore it) they won’t find much here other than maybe some cat fur, a grocery bag of used cat litter I haven’t taken down 4 flights of stairs as I am not going to put it down the garbage shoot in case the bag breaks and someone then gets it on themselves clearing out the shoot if it backs up, a few dishes in the sink as I only do them once a day…

And they don’t fix problems. I have to turn the water off to the sink to keep it from dripping, there are a ton of cracks from the foundation problems that haven’t been touched and it has been over a year since they finished that project, the smoke detector (hard wired) doesn’t work (I put up a battery one), the thermostat and my motel style have no connection with reality so the A/C really can’t get my place below 76 in the living room and about 84ish in the bedroom (we don’t have A/C in the bedroom), Heat in the winter is in the reverse 8ish degree difference so freezing in the bedroom as even on full I can’t get the living room much over 70 so it is 60-62 in the bedroom (and no they haven’t rigged them, I read how to reset to factory settings, did that and it made no difference, something is broken).

I could go on and on but won’t. They don’t think people in hud are actually human and they have stated that “you people” are lazy and living off the backs of others; we should get a job and pay our own way in life… they don’t understand why we own anything nice, if we didn’t waste our money on that we’d have money. I told that ass that I worked hard my entire life for what I had, some nice things I inherited from my grandparents and I wasn’t going to leave that stuff on the curb just to satisfy what they think people in HUD should own. Umm I paid into the system my entire life and until I got 3 major cancers in 7 years, 2 in one year, in a state that didn’t expand medicaid so had to go through much of my retirement savings to pay for health insurance, copays, deductibles, etc. after COBRA ran out, I was doing just fine, saving for retirement, etc. prior to that. Had I not saved for that I wouldn’t be here bitching. I’d be dead and my kid, whom I adopted at almost 10, would have been orphaned again.

End of rant. I am more bitchy than usual as I just found on Friday my breast cancer, which has been in remission for years, has metastasized (I already have a blood cancer with no cure that I got diagnosed with in the same year as BC #2) and I am totally done with cancer crap, my landlord, no money, some asshole backed into my car at the cheap motel when I was at MD Anderson Cancer Center and the security cameras didn’t work so no way to know who (fortunately just bumper damage), and a bunch of other shit. This is beyond goat blame.

@Kidsandliz I don’t think so. Even here. I have never heard about people doing inspections and there’s a pretty long list of when you have enter rights. I meant technically it does say right to inspect in e.1. but I don’t think anyone does it regular. I’ve only ever heard about that happening at move out.

Have to give the tenant notice your coming in, only enter reasonable hours. Missouri must be. Extra special?

"Current through P.L. 1-2024
Section 32-31-5-6 - Landlord prohibited from interfering with access, possession, or essential services; unit entry by landlord
(a) This section does not apply if the dwelling unit has been abandoned.
(b) For purposes of this section, a dwelling unit is considered abandoned if:
(1) the tenants have failed to:
(A) pay; or
(B) offer to pay;
rent due under the rental agreement; and

(2) the circumstances are such that a reasonable person would conclude that the tenants have surrendered possession of the dwelling unit.
An oral or written rental agreement may not define abandonment differently than is provided by this subsection.

© Except as authorized by judicial order, a landlord may not deny or interfere with a tenant’s access to or possession of the tenant’s dwelling unit by commission of any act, including the following:
(1) Changing the locks or adding a device to exclude the tenant from the dwelling unit.
(2) Removing the doors, windows, fixtures, or appliances from the dwelling unit.
(3) Interrupting, reducing, shutting off, or causing termination of any of the following to a tenant:
(A) Electricity.
(B) Gas.
© Water.
(D) Other essential services.
However, the landlord may interrupt, shut off, or terminate service as the result of an emergency, good faith repairs, or necessary construction. This subdivision does not require a landlord to pay for services described in this subdivision if the landlord has not agreed, by an oral or written rental agreement, to do so.

(d) A tenant may not interrupt, reduce, shut off, or cause termination of:
(1) electricity;
(2) gas;
(3) water; or
(4) other essential services;
to the dwelling unit if the interruption, reduction, shutting off, or termination of the service will result in serious damage to the rental unit.

(e) A tenant may not unreasonably withhold consent to the tenant’s landlord to enter the tenant’s dwelling unit in order to:
(1) inspect the dwelling unit;
(2) make necessary or agreed to:
(A) repairs;
(B) decorations;
© alterations; or
(D) improvements;
(3) supply necessary or agreed to services; or
(4) exhibit the dwelling unit to prospective or actual:
(A) purchasers;
(B) mortgagees;
© tenants;
(D) workers; or
(E) contractors.
(f) A landlord may enter the dwelling unit:
(1) without notice to the tenant in the case of an emergency that threatens the safety of the occupants or the landlord’s property; and
(2) without the consent of the tenant:
(A) under a court order; or
(B) if the tenant has abandoned or surrendered the dwelling unit.
(g) A landlord:
(1) shall not abuse the right of entry or use a right of entry to harass a tenant;
(2) shall give a tenant reasonable written or oral notice of the landlord’s intent to enter the dwelling unit; and
(3) may enter a tenant’s dwelling unit only at reasonable times.
IC 32-31-5-6

Pre-2002 Recodification Citation: 32-7-8-7.

As added by P.L. 2-2002, SEC.16. Amended by P.L. 115-2007, SEC.6."

@Kidsandliz but yes. Huds are intentionally designed that way cause governments don’t want to have to deal with them and other things. I’d avoid one of I had the choice.

@unksol

I’d avoid one of I had the choice.

I don’t have a choice as I can’t afford full rent and utilities. The laws in MS are definitely landlord favorable but HUD has their own overlay on this as well. One of their rules includes 24 hours notice to enter the apartment except in an emergency (and that would be 24 full hours, not 5pm for 8am the next morning - these people don’t know how to do math). HUD says nothing about inspections so the owners can do what they want with that.

Our owners gave us 20 pages of 10 point type, single spaces paragraph form rules with 73 numbered paragraphs. Each paragraph has a ton of different things you can’t do, including putting a TV antenna in the window even if that is the only way you can get a TV signal (cement and rebar building so that blocks the signal and so the window is about the only place you can put an antenna and even get a signal. You can’t store metal baking pans and cookie sheets in the oven or put them between the oven and the wall even though cookie sheets don’t fit anywhere else - how is that a safety risk? (so mine are stored in my clothes closet). You are not allowed to store your bicycle in your apartment nor lock it outside (although outside the homeless or others would steal it - I am down to one hubcap due to that). So where exactly do you put it? Curtains can only be white. No bird feeders on the window with suction cups, no hooks in the ceiling to hang plants nor hang them from the curtain rods (which we own not them) in front of the windows, can’t hang TV’s on the wall, no wreaths on your door even if you use the kind of hook that goes over the top of the door or tie it to the door knocker (that is violated on a regular basis and so far been ignored - I suspect the mangers of which we have had 4 managers and 3 assistant managers in 4 years and 1 month - how long the new owners have had this place - don’t know all the rules). They made someone take down some very pretty stained glass windows she had hung from the curtain rods in front of her windows (that really sucked as they were so nice to look at)… and the list goes on and on and on. Rules that make sense I have no problem with like don’t block the sprinklers with stuff.

@Kidsandliz @unksol Now some perspective from the other side of the lease.
First: @Kidsandliz - I agree that your landlords sound like money-grubbing jerks and your situation is awful.
We owned and managed a 4-plex (low-income HUD apartments) for about 10 years. My wife did most of the tenant management and I did the maintenance. In the mix of tenants that we experienced, I’d say that about half were reasonably decent folks who were caught in some rough circumstances and half were just overgrown children trying to scam as much as they could.
The majority of our tenants were young single mothers. Once in, they would inevitably have loser boyfriends who spent much of their time there (and caused most of the trouble). I once went to repair a broken entry door. The 19 YO single mom told me that her 3 YO daughter had slammed it shut with a toy in the way. The door was broken off its hinges and there was a boot print on the outside. Sure…
Another tenant failed to pay her electric bill and got her power shut off. Her apartment shared a wall with a small common laundry room with its own electrical panel. Her boyfriend (I’m assuming) broke through the wall from her apartment and hot-wired into the back of the laundry room panel (I could see burn marks where it had sparked) to an outlet in her apartment.
I could go on with more similar stories, but you get the drift. As time passed, the HUD subsidies and services got smaller, shifting more of the burden of caring for these wayward children to the landlords.

Eventually, the boyfriend of a tenant (not on the lease, of course) fell asleep (passed out) on her couch and his cigarette started a fire. To his credit, he did get her out safely (she was disabled, in a wheelchair) with only some minor smoke inhalation. Her unit was gutted, and the other 3 apartments (and contents) had smoke damage (and water damage from the fire hoses). Our insurance covered us for repairs and some lost rent, but not tenant losses or relocation. We covered rent for storage units to hold belongings while repairs were made. IIRC, HUD covered some costs of relocation/temporary housing for the displaced tenants.
After the all repairs were made and everything looked (more or less) shiny and new, we thought it was a good time to get out and we sold the apartments to some other entrepreneur (sucker ). We have never regretted getting out. Given how the rental laws have changed in this state since COVID, I would definitely not want to be in that situation now.

@unksol PS I appreciate you posting your state’s rules. Mississippi, the arm pit of the nation, likely has different but overlapping rules that are landlord friendly since nothing they do here is consumer friendly or poor person friendly. HUD rules apply across the country in addition to individual state rules. If they conflict HUD rules win that fight.

@Kidsandliz for some reason my brain skipped a beat on that last one, because of the extreme pettiness, and I think went HOA. Obviously no one really chooses HUD, didn’t mean to imply that. I’ve lived next to one development and worked security across from another one but that was a good 10 years ago. They weren’t that bad here. Not great. But. Granted lots of things change in a decade.

And the whole US housing system has huge problems. So does HUD. Having entire developments/concentrations where people can be in the business of HUD is just one of them

@unksol (and this rant ins’t directed at you) Part of the problem here is the asshole, far right, alleged christians of the deep south who apparently haven’t read the new testament. In this state if, you are an adult (even with a family) not working 1/2 time you can’t get food stamps (you can just get them for the kids - well then the entire family eats on less and malnutrition/not enough food permanently brain damages kids which doesn’t help fix the cycle of poverty). No expansion of medicaid and the bill right now in this state (the state senate won’t accept the house bill) under consideration says you have to be working half time to get it (in house bill too) and be below the poverty line (medicaid expansion in ACA leaves no gap) which was not in the house bill. Leaves out anyone too sick to work.

The high functioning sociopaths think the solution to poverty is to kill poor people. I’d imagine that is also why medicare is the only insurance in this country that can’t negotiate drug prices and there is no limit on what pharma can charge (yeah it is changing for, I think it is 5 drugs this year and 10 for each of the next two but then the law ends. The drop in that bucket needs a microscope to find). If you can’t afford drugs to cover chronic conditions you will die sooner. The rich can afford them. The poorest of the poor can get medicaid too which covers them with a really low copay but then you can’t get care at so many places or out of state and that is another issue. Saves the feds money on medicare A, SS, eventually medicaid, SNAP, senior HUD, if people die younger. And we wonder why the USA has a much shorter life span than other developing countries yet does so much of the medical and drug development.

I wouldn’t be living in hud had this state expanded medicaid. I had to spend $92,000 of my retirement savings on private medical insurance, copays, deductible, food (not eligible for snap since not working due to cancer issues) as I didn’t make enough (after I lost my job over cancers #2 and #3 in the same year) for ACA insurance - and that then limited what was averaged in for social security and I couldn’t contribute to retirement plans - didn’t have enough to even live - or get employer match so reduced that too).

I had to choose between rent and insurance until I got into hud (I lived in someone’s very nice she shed so that wasn’t as bad as it sounds but I shouldn’t have had to make that choice). In this hud we aren’t treated like responsible adults until proven otherwise. We are treated like 5 year old inmates in a group home. I have read all the manuals the owners of hud have to follow. There are pages and pages of punishments for residents not following the rules. There is NOT ONE consequence for owners (I suppose if the problems get bad enough over enough years they’d get their HUD approvals pulled). What is wrong with that picture?

The huds around here aren’t kept up for the most part engaging in superficial cover ups for when hud inspects the place once every 3 years, For example here covering up foundation issue caused cracks rather than fix the underlying problem (foundation was theoretically fixed and finished over a year ago and I have a lot of cracks that are new in my apartment so clearly they didn’t compact the dirt under the building - either that or they didn’t do it right). Not fixing water leaks in the wall if they aren’t then dripping into your apartment at a level that isn’t controlled by a towel on the floor (actually the gray - not purple - cardboard dividers that keep apples in place in the boxes they come in do a really nice job of absorbing water. The Walmart here just leave apples in the boxes they came in so I can get them there - but why should I even have to know that?). And my list goes on and on and on.

They are in crime ridden parts of town for the most part as other people don’t want to live around poor people… but do we have security here? Nope. the new owners ditched the one we had (who made a difference). When the doors are broken we have homeless wandering through, sleeping in the closets behind the elevators where the trash shoots are (they panhandle 3 blocks away where this street meets the highway and then walk past here to go through the AmVet donation bins at the other end of this block). We have cars broken into, stolen and catalytic converters taken out of the parking lot that for 2.5 years had no lights. A year ago I was IN the parking lot when guns were shot off after I heard to men arguing. I had been going to my car to take my cats to a friend’s as I was headed out of town to the cancer center. When I got back I interrupted someone breaking into the car two parking spots from mine. Took me a month to get over my anxiety of going into the parking lot after dark (we had two other incidents of gun shots in the parking lot that year, fortunately my apartment is not facing the parking lot).

People shouldn’t have to live like that. But in this country most don’t give a damn because the poor are considered lazy bastards who deserve what they have coming to them who are living off the backs of the hard working people (per one of my medical providers who said the poor don’t deserve health care). And the regional manger of this hud who said if we’d just stop buying starbucks we’d have enough money and he didn’t understand why some of us had nice things - umm I worked hard my entire life since I could get a work permit at 14 plus babysat, etc. as a kid, etc. And various politicians and random people who say the poor have what is coming to them due to their life’s choices. Yeah I chose 3 cancers, one with no cure and I just found out last week another one fucking metastasized to my bones. Right. How this country treats entire groups of people is disgusting. The European countries I have lived and worked in have done a far better job of treating the less fortunate as actual human beings with needs who actually deserve help.

@Jackinga Of course. Influences deserve that as a congrats. @tinamarie1974 busted her butt to get those 3 followers. That is a quite an achievement on meh.

@Jackinga Thank you. Saves me from googling. I’ll do that.

@Jackinga Our solution is much simpler: Lina the Cleana comes every other week and cleans our shower (and toilets and kitchen and …).
(I’m not sure what products or procedures she uses, but whatever they are, it is effective. )

@Jackinga @macromeh Will you pay Lina to come clean my place for me. Pretty please? It’s not especially dirty but it would be great not to have to do it myself.

@werehatrack Yikes.

@werehatrack On my gosh. I better get mine secured as it is loose on one side so I don’t have a similar experience.

@werehatrack I thought that the hood liner in a Dodger (or any other car) was supposed to be fire resistant in addition to being a sound absorbing mat. In fact, if the mat gets too hot, the plastic tabs holding it are supposed to melt and allow the mat to drop and smother the fire-- not add to the conflagration!

Nevertheless, I take blame and unblame, which though isn’t exactly equal with blame outweighing unblame owing to the damaged mat which will need to be replaced with something less flammale and more fully attached.

Could it be that your engine is overheating which caused the plastic tabs holding the mat in place to melt? Or could it be that cracker jack Chrysler parts quality?

@Jackinga @werehatrack

Or could it be that cracker jack Chrysler parts quality?

Hey I got a Dodge Grand Caravan, my only car, to last 25 years and 3 mo including when a teen learned how to drive with it and drove it. It was only getting expensive the last 1.5 years of its life or so. The rest of the time repairs were cheaper than car payments. I so wanted an antique car plate on the ghetto van (what my kid called it - era of the peeling paint and it truly looked like shit) that I hung on until the only buyer was a junk yard (blew and engine bearing in the end).

@Jackinga

Could it be that your engine is overheating which caused the plastic tabs holding the mat in place to melt?

The vehicle is a 2006 model, built during the Daimler/Chrysler era. I think the older ones had a fiberglass-reinforced mat, and I’m not sure what the newer ones use. Either way, at this point the mat is probably not getting replaced with an OEM part because they’ll have discontinued it somewhere around 2014. I might look into finding aftermarket cut-to-fit material instead, and yes, I’ll try to find something that’s not flammable. But as for the clips melting, if things have reached that temp already, having a flameproof mat drop onto stuff that’s getting loads of air from below is not going to stop an engine compartment fire that’s already going on. In this case, the clips were mostly off to the side, and were holding up the part that hadn’t fallen on the exhaust manifold.

@Jackinga @werehatrack lol at sound deadening mats. As I continue to drive a 97 expedition with no exhaust system

@Kyeh Gas prices tend to be good as well. I sometimes stop in the out outside of Houston if I haven’t been forced to fill up earlier. They have like 100 gas pumps or some ridiculous number. The one there about half of the store has a ton of junk food on the shelves.

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh The Buc-ees in Baytown is fairly typical and by no means the largest in the chain. There are several with an even more absurdly latge number of pumps.

For those who might wonder what is in their signature snack “Beaver Nuggets”, think Cheetos minus the cheedle.

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @werehatrack so they are puffs? What flavor?

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @tinamarie1974 Honestly, I only had a handful once, and I’m not entirely sure. Sweet-buttered-popcorny-ish? Like Chester’s Puffcorn?

@Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 @werehatrack I found a puffy snack at Trader Joe’s that’s good if you like that sort of thing:

@Kyeh Just don’t take your service duck to Buc-ee’s. Or you could get banned for life.

Buc-ee’s it seems has zero tolerance for service ducks, even if they are named Wrinkle. Who knew that beavers and ducks were incompatible.

I wonder if this company is insured by AFLAC?

@Jackinga DANG. I blame that manager. He sure left her looking foolish at the end.
(Buc-ee’s has baby clothes?!)

Could I take in an Irk stuffie?

@Kidsandliz Tornadoes give no one time to prepare unless they are within ducking distance of a good shelter. That’s very scary. Hurricanes damage a wider area and present a different threat profile, but they give the experienced resident time to prep for the most common issues. I’ve become used to them over the decades. But a tree coming through the roof can still be an unexpected development.

@werehatrack I saw literally 1/3 of Moore, OK wiped clean (the 1999 force 5 one, they had another force 5 one in 2013). Literally. Foundations were swept clear of anything, who knows where the stuff went. Wasn’t in the yard. I’ve always said of the natural disasters I’d prefer a hurricane as at least you can run away. The others you can’t.

My daughter and I drove up the highway past where the big force 5 Moore one (1999) landed a day and a half after it hit. This one was on the ground around an hour and a half. Brought an airplane wing from Chickasha, OK some 90 miles away. Fortunately there was plenty of warning for our area because it was on the ground so long and no one was killed in Moore (there were people killed in other cities it hit).

Oklahoma City had, while I lived nearby, around 3 or so tornadoes a year and of course until the path was better known, often where I lived was in the path. I found that really stressful. And while we have them where I live now, and I have actually seen one on the ground from way, way too up close (same tornado was up in the air trying to lower 3 times right in a path directly over my house). Once it passed me on the ground when all the branches were falling off the trees from the wind and I literally had no way to turn south away from it - so fortunately now in front of me slightly - I was headed home and fortunately it didn’t make landfall again until on the reservoir) no way is it as stressful living here than there. There there were way too many near misses way too many times a year.

Here they are less frequent but the media events around conditions that might create one raises stress levels even though mostly they amount to nothing and they include TV interruptions for ones way further away from me and the metro area than they did in Oklahoma.

@Kidsandliz In 1992, when Hurricane Andrew hit just south of Miami proper, the Cat 5 winds reduced several entire subdivisions to bare slabs. It rolled school buses over, shredded a multistory hotel to a bare steel frame, and collapsed a Home Depot’s walls and roof; the pallet racks kept part of it off the ground, but most of them toppled. I was there. I watched the wind gusts put so much stress on the sliding glass doors of my parents’ house that they bowed in a full four to five inches in the middle. Had those doors not been immobilized with steel pins through the frames, they’d have lifted out of the track and come sailing in. Tornadoes can pack an even bigger punch than that, though not all do. And some of the “wind gusts” in a hurricane are actually small tornadoes; the staff of the Gold Coast Railroad Museum took shelter in the Ferdinand Magellan (FDR’s armored rail car) and watched as a string of tornadoes came through and tossed all of the rest of their rolling stock, including locomotives, on their sides.

@werehatrack The bare slabs in Moore was really disconcerting. There were so many of them and in most cases no evidence of anything that had been on the slabs or in the houses.

@Kidsandliz It was the same in those subdivs in Perrine; the entire area was scoured clean, with no sign that houses had been there except streets and slabs. Stop signs were bent flat against the ground or ripped out and missing. Street number signs were mostly just gone; those were on safe-crash mounts, and the storm just deleted them.

@Jackinga If you have no other choice you need to get out of your car and lie on the ground in a ditch.

@unksol I call that an onion-peeling job. The first one or two are easy, but from there on in it’s just one layer of tears after another

@unksol @werehatrack I had a similar experience recently: Cleaning the rain gutters on a rental house led to deciding to replace the aging gutters. While the contractor was inspecting the gutter job for his estimate, he found that the roof needed replacing. While he was tearing off the old roof, he discovered damaged roof sheathing that also needed replacement. (No scam - I verified all this and agreed the repairs were needed.)
$17K later…

@werehatrack it’s simple it you know and order the parts. I always have the parts. I may have gotten angry and hit the idler with a framing hammer.

@macromeh @werehatrack your roofing estimates do make me feel slightly better if just for a rental. I mean it’s fine as long as it doesn’t leak. Just some weirdness on the sales pitch. Phrasing. Pressure. I find weird.

But it looks fine I guess and the roof was shot and there are gutters. I’m obsessive. But. It’s all fine. Lots of money

@macromeh @unksol @werehatrack
It looks really good!

@Kyeh @macromeh @unksol @werehatrack That looks like a nice rental. Not like some of the crap I have lived in.

@Kidsandliz @macromeh @unksol @werehatrack I think that’s unksol’s house, that he owns.

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @macromeh @werehatrack yes. I do not own anything to rent. Never will. Weird to post your house but. I bought in 2013 and I have mixed feelings about how much that damn roof cost. And everytime I see that that screw should have driven farther and I is that flashing right and… Is that right over there

I know normal people don’t but. There’s that bit of you that says “well you could have done this” Even though you don’t install metal roofs.

I also find weird the whole"are you happy with the color?" Um. If I say no are you going to redo it now that it’s screwed to my roof?

@Kidsandliz @macromeh @unksol @werehatrack Well, it’s normal to wonder if you should have done things differently, I think. But to a casual observer like me, it looks excellent. I like the way the color picks up that line of contrasting shingles, and I think it goes well with the colors in the stones.

@unksol your home is beautiful

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @macromeh @werehatrack @tinamarie1974
I appreciate it. It looks weirdly better in the pictures. . There’s so many finish issues. And cats. And retaining walls… If nothing else there’s a 97 expedition in white. With no exhaust so you know it’s me… well and the metro is lurking.

But if you know a woman who’s likes cats, doesn’t mind fur in her coffee… But somehow she’s an adult and denied herself a cat. But she’s an adult she can just have a cat. She’s probably in.

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @macromeh @unksol @werehatrack so many kitty litter pails

@Kidsandliz @macromeh @tinamarie1974 @unksol @werehatrack You need to get out more; meet some women who volunteer at cat shelters or the Humane Society or something!

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @tinamarie1974 @unksol @werehatrack
Your new metal roof looks great.
I had the gutters on my home replaced about 2 years ago. While they were up there, I also had them wrap all the roof trim (fascia and barge boards) in matching metal. It turned out pretty good, and now I will never have to paint them again.
Sigh… next is replacing a bunch of the window glass that has developed leaks between the double panes. It just never ends…

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @tinamarie1974 @unksol @werehatrack
Re: kitty litter buckets - we have a bunch of those same yellow buckets around. They come in handy and I really hate to just send them to the landfill.

@Kidsandliz @macromeh @tinamarie1974 @unksol @werehatrack They are excellent buckets!

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @macromeh @tinamarie1974 @werehatrack oh there are stacks and stacks of the yellow buckets. I was like. Free stacking bucket comes with better/cheaper cat litter. Yes please. And they aren’t really recyclable. I did stop when they jacked the price of tidy cat/Walmart is so much cheaper and actually pretty good. And the cardboard box is easier to deal with. But those buckets are pretty good. Just don’t stand on one if you’re a larger person.

@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @macromeh @tinamarie1974 @werehatrack also buckets predate the current hoard. That was just when I had KitKat & Co. You just pull the lid straight off and you can stack like 20 of them in a corner and put like 20 of the lids in corner. I have buckets of network cables. Connectors. Need to change the oil?bucket with lid to take to the recycling center. Need to move a bunch of dirt by hand? Buckets. Need to move water buckets. Need to store a bunch of parts somewhere. Buckets

@Kyeh @macromeh @tinamarie1974 @unksol @werehatrack A friend of mine puts the stuff she scoops out of the dirt boxes into those buckets and then when full puts them in the trash.

@macromeh well that master bedroom front window has a chip/been cracked since I bought it. So has one on the kitchen and one up stairs. Not the hugest priority since the rest needs works.

Really wasn’t expecting it to be that high for the roof/excessive sales pressure. although it did seem to be generally inline with something reasonable and it absolutely needed done. Some shingles were sliding. 25 year old roof. So. I did see them toss a few pieces of sheeting off but not much so. Guess caught that in time

@lisaviolet Glad there is no spread although I’d imagine that the emotional fall out from this will last a while longer as both of you grapple with, and learn to live with what has happened along with fears of recurrence down the road. I hope his eGFR comes back OK.

@lisaviolet I had similar unexpected luck when I did the drop-in thing at the Quest lab near me on Wednesday. Many signs said “Walk-ins with no appointment may have to wait 2 hours”, and I was out in 7 minutes. (Nothing dire suspected, it was just a “how long has it been since one of these?” issue.)

@lisaviolet I’ve been wondering how he’s doing! Really glad there’s no residual cancer.
I hope everything goes well here on out!

@lisaviolet that’s awesome. Hope Brian is doing better. 4 months seems meh But if the whole thing gets resolved that quickly

HIKING! VIKINGS! STRIKE KING [BRAND FISHING LURES]! AWESOME!

@mediocrebot ok. Forgot you were going to do that…

@lisaviolet ok that sounds totally wrong. I’m not actually sure what I meant it made sense in the minute. Point was I’m glad it got resolved that fast

@lisaviolet any updates? I am hoping everything is still going smooth in the absence of one.

@unksol Wow, thanks for asking. Trying to get back into a routine that doesn’t have watching television all day long in a dark room (there’s a glare on the tv, so the blinds are pulled).

He had his first in person visit with the surgeon on Monday and the doc cleared him to go back to work.

Everything looks good. He still has residual glue on his incisions, it’s been pulling on the hair that’s growing back in and that’s about the extent of his discomfort at this point.

In the next few weeks he gets another lab test to see how the remaining kidney is doing, then in September another MRI to make sure everything is still clear.

And today is his birthday! 67 years old.

@lisaviolet @unksol I’m so glad that things went well and he’s doing okay! Hope you both enjoy the day.

@Kyeh @lisaviolet awesome and wish him a happy birthday! Didnt mean to pry but you hadnt been on in a bit.

PANS! GLANDS! CRAYONS! AWESOME!

@Kyeh @unksol Thank you. Things are slowly getting back to normal.

You know as we get older it takes longer to recuperate. It’s just after seven in the morning right now and he’s out doing yardwork that he’d been putting off.

What a guy.

@lisaviolet @unksol Wow - what a guy is right! That’s impressive; I’m glad he’s feeling well enough to do that.

@Jackinga hope everything works out. Terrible news

@Jackinga Wow. I’m really sorry you’re all going through that. I hope she recovers!

@Jackinga The anxiety and stress over this must be off the charts for you and your family. I hope they figure out what is wrong and can “fix” it. That sounds like a very scary, hard experience for your family that is still ongoing.

@Jackinga Hoping it’s something that can be treated and provide a useful level of recovery. As we get older, the hazards increase, and I am reminded of this daily at this point.