Silver maples are a little junky. That’s what we have in front of our house. I hope you are planting quality trees for the time this maple lets you down.
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Silver maples are a little junky. That’s what we have in front of our house. I hope you are planting quality trees for the time this maple lets you down.
My husband’s surgery went well. However, they were running behind so didn’t get home until 8pm. Because of new laws the doctor had to hand write the prescription for pain medication. Thankfully we had some leftovers from a previous surgery because it was too late to fill them.
Glad the surgery went well; hope he has a smooth recovery.
Terry, glad to hear.
Good that it all got done and both home safe and sound. Now both can relax and let healing unfold. Stressful time.
Glad to hear that all went well. Hope the healing goes quickly.
Not sure where to post this.....
Heard from friends in Cedar Rapids, IA today. They were hit with strong winds/tornado on Monday. They have been without electricity since then. She commented they were lucky in that their house is still in tact. Saw in the paper here today that they could be without power for possibly another 5 days.
Imagine.... If you are like me... you have been keeping freezer fully stocked..... everything destroyed!!! And spoiled me.... no air conditioning.
We have relatives all over Northern Iowa. Trees down, electric service down, the usual with flatland high winds.
Two years ago we were in that area for a lily convention and had to stay overnight with my brother because huge storms and flash floods interfered with us getting back to our hotel. Fortunately we had brought our dog with us to visit my brother so we had no reason why we had to get back to the hotel that night.
The year 2020 is showing all of us how fragile our various plans for future security are. Think: freezer full of food, portfolio full of stocks, pension with only 5 years left to go, health insurance tied to employment, reliance on public transportation, etc
Flatline? That was a derecho Monday! Half a million folks in the Chicago area had no power due to that storm. It spawned something like 12 tornadoes in northern IL. It missed my area, but some saw 100 mph winds.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
I feel the same, TT.Quote:
Originally Posted by happystuff
Thanks Simone!
Today heard 100 national guard was sent to Cedar Rapids to help clean up the streets, etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tradd
I pretty much hate people these days.
Just a few examples:
Wood flooring is being installed in the unit directly above me. Saw the materials set up right outside the building front door with tools and such. Bad enough I had to listen to the pounding and power saw all day Thursday and Friday while working, but Thursday it went to nearly midnight. Condo association quiet hours are from 10pm to 8 am. I ended up calling the cops about 11:30pm. This morning the guy doing the work accosts me while I'm going out to my car and starts yelling at me for calling the cops. I simply told him what the quiet hours are and would he like someone to be pounding and sawing over his head while trying to sleep? Young rough looking guy. He finally shut up when I told him I'd keep calling the cops if he was making noise after 10pm. I was armed. I always am, these days.
Grocery shopping the last few weeks. I shop for me and a senior friend at a large chain grocery store near her home. Aisles are still marked one way. People will park their carts in the middle of the aisle while they are wandering the shelves looking for items. I have had numerous people REFUSE to move their carts so others can get by, start screaming when you ask them to please move their carts, and all in all, just effing freak out. I just give them my death stare and walk away muttering loudly under my breath about entitled snowflakes.
There is an elderly woman who has appeared in my complex parking lot multiple times lately, accusing people of taking "her" spot right by the building door. The other one right by the door is a signed handicapped spot. I don't know who she is. She won't say. I don't know if she lives here or not. She doesn't have the complex parking sticker on her car. I've moved my car into the empty spot as it's easier to load dive gear. She screams and screams. I simply tell to to eff off and shut up. The last time she did it, I called the cops AND I called the towing company the condo association has contracted with. The cops came and talked with her. Apparently I wasn't the only one who had called about her. And yes, her car did get towed.
Some idiot at the grocery store decided she didn't like my neck gaiter that I wear as a mask and went after me about it. Her mask was around her chin. She got called an "ignorant twat."
I was walking slowly through grocery store parking lot into the store and got yelled at for walking slow. It was at a stop sign. My knees were really bothering me that day. It was a human jabba the hut that requires a scooter to get around. I'd seen her getting into her car when I pulled into a parking spot. She was not happy when I called her a "fat b----h."
I have absolutely no patience for stupid people and I get nasty, really nasty. I don't start stuff with people (such as those not wearing masks, etc.), but if you start something with me, you're going to get a taste of your own medicine.
When it hit 10 why not just ask them if they would stop laying the floor since it was quiet time? I have been to Chicago many times and find the people rude. Couldn’t pay me to live there. The other things you mentioned have never happened anywhere I have lived.
The stairs to the second floor are nasty and I avoid steps with my knees. I’ve had noise issues with that unit over the years (been here 12 years). I got such a nasty reaction when I asked the people up there once to turn down the music that I’m not even going to ask. If you’re stupid enough to think that pounding and running loud power tools late at night is just okay, then you deserve to get the cops called on you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Teacher Terry
I live far out in the burbs and not in Sh*tcago.
My sister lives in a nice suburb there and people are still entitled and crappy. My theory is it’s because of the sheer number of people.
I have stayed so far away from people that they have no opportunity to really irritate me now.
However, the renters in the house next door tried really hard. Their music could be heard thru two house walls and across the alley between our two houses. I made trip #1 over there to see where the music was coming from but did not knock on their door. Then trip #2 when I could not stand it anymore. Got as far as their front walk and it was suddenly shut off. I suspect a Ring Camera and they saw a short irritated woman walking up to their house. Have never heard it again.
Daily Peeve: Facebook memes widely shared that are no more than a dozen words, yet have spelling or grammatical errors in them. Come on--can't you get a dozen words right before blasting them out to the internet stratosphere??
Trigger for this peeve: A meme a cousin-in-law shared: "There is more airplanes underwater than there are submarines in the sky."
That's a big peeve of mine, as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
I have an opposite problem--when I was out and about, limping and using a shopping cart as a makeshift walker, people inevitably leapt to my assistance, offering to carry things, opening doors, offering their arms..I told one lady I'd probably take her down with me. :|( It was disconcerting and embarrassing to be so obviously needy, when I've always been so independent. (I loved the guy who told me I had a "bad doctor" because I didn't have a handicapped tag...:laff:--giving new meaning to "Dr. Who?") I don't have much complaint about the people around here, in general, but I really appreciate porch delivery.
Your absolutely wright. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
Which brings up a related (albeit extremely minor) peeve: don't people know what wrought iron is? I've seen ads on-line for "rot" iron (that would be rust, to you), "wrot" iron, "rod" iron,... Many people have it but don't seem to know what it is.
Awww... I'm shore there trying there best to spell write! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
I have a pit in my stomach just reading this...:(
Yes, “ rod” iron bugs the crap out of me. But at least it makes a certain amount of logical sense if you’re talking about an old wrought iron fence because it is made of iron rods.Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveinMN
Seeing a lot of humour in the various threads to day - Idahl's bet about Erdogan's group name and now the misspelling. IL, think about it carefully - how would a direct word by word translation of - "rod" iron bugs the crap out of me - sound? Just imagining this made me chuckle.
A friend asked me for a paper serviette recently. As I handed her one, I chuckled and told her some people had told me that it was called a napkin in the US. She laughed outright and told that some visitors to the US had asked for a diaper at a restaurant. Receiving puzzled looks from the staff, the visitors queried their own use of English. Turns out that a napkin in their country was called a diaper. Language is a fun topic to explore.
So funny!Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveinMN
Offshored "customer service" centers. Today I dealt with AT&T out of Mexico. Certain features of my phone are not working in the new year and in another year the phone itself will not work because it will be "too old". I bought it maybe five years ago for $50 and I definitely am not interested in upgrading but it looks like I don't have a choice. Does anyone use Consumer Cellular? They look like they might be the right price point for me for a monthly service plan but I don't know about reception, customer service, and the actual phones.
Y, I hate the foreign customer service centers. Many times I can not understand their English. We have had phones that wouldn’t take updates and freezes up forcing you to upgrade. Ugh!
My sibling is happy with Consumer Cellular. This is from their website re customer service:Quote:
Originally Posted by Yppej
Help is always just a phone call or a click away.
Our knowledgeable, compassionate team is 100% U.S. based. In nationwide studies conducted by J.D. Power, Consumer Cellular has been ranked “#1 in Customer Service among Non-Contract Value Wireless Providers, 9 Times in a Row.”
My customer service rant is this: I identified online a refrigerator I wanted to buy but it had an ice maker. I do not want an ice maker. I called the chat number for the vendor to see if the ice maker could be removed. The little customer service drone checked and no, the ice maker cannot be removed.
I spent around 2 hours identifying this appliance, so it was back to the drawing board. After anotjr hour + I# I stu,beled onto the same model, different model number, WITHOUT ice maker.
The little customer service rep needs more training because he should have told me “lady, here is the same appliance without the ice maker in model xxxxxx”
I hate buying appliances and I usually let DH do that. This has been a chore. I am buying an apartment size refrigerator for my condo and there arent a ton of them out there.
Thanks Jane.
We've had Consumer Cellular for maybe 3-4 years now. We like them fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yppej
CC is what's known as an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) so they don't operate their own towers, etc.. CC resells service they buy from AT&T and T-Mobile. Coverage seems to be better than what most MVNOs using AT&T or T-Mobile offer. You can choose which of the two carriers you want (assuming your phone can use either); if you don't choose, you'll most likely get T-Mobile. So that's reception. The phones are pretty much the same ones you get elsewhere except that CC does carry a couple of models geared very specifically at seniors and, well, people who just want to make calls, not text or check the weather or watch video. And, like most carriers, if you buy the phone through them, it is locked to that carrier for a period of some months and won't (likely) work on other carriers/networks.
One note: they're not kidding you about your phone being "too old." This happened to us and happens to a bunch of other people. The introduction of new higher "speed" frequencies has been accomplished in part by taking old "spectrum" used by few customers and adding it the current standard, LTE. This means towers that used to serve older phones are fewer and further between, which means more calls that cannot be started or that drop. That applies to data, too. Pretty much every carrier now will refuse to add to their network a phone that cannot work over LTE, so eventually you'll need a new one, but there are some inexpensive phones out there which have LTE so you'll have to ante up but you may not have to ante up much.
Customer service has been good, particularly for an MVNO. Sometimes the wait to speak with someone is rather long (apparently CC is popular enough that demand has sometimes outrun their ability to hire CSRs) but once you connect with them, your problem generally is solved even if escalation is involved. Customer service is geared more toward people who are not phone-savvy, which I find slows things down some but suits most CC customers.
Prices are reasonable. We pay $46 a month for both of us with our own phones, unlimited talking and texting, and 3 GB of data that we never use up. Their mobile app and Web site are decently useful and CC is one of the preferred carriers at Target stores in case you need a new SIM or some help setting up some things.
Hope this helps!
Our current fridge (Whirlpool) came with an ice maker. It, too, "cannot be removed". Maybe there's another model out there without the ice maker *shrug*. But we simply removed the cube bin, did not connect a water line to the fridge, and have back most of the space in the freezer and don't have to deal with the havoc that an ice maker can cause. Sometimes the way over the mountain is "around".Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
TY Steve.
I wondered about that, but because I can’t stand in front of the machine and see for sure how much space is impacted by a removed icemaker, I didn’t want to risk it. This is already an apartment size refrigerator, a small one.Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveinMN
Here’s how fancy my 100 year old condo is: it actually does have a water hook up for ice maker! I was shocked to see that. It’s on the wall opposite of the sink.
But I aint gettin’ involved with no ice maker.
But dogs LOVE ice makers, IL! Our friends had to disconnect theirs after their pit bull learned how to empty it onto the kitchen floor when she wanted a crunchy cold treat. It took them a while to figure out why they couldn't find and fix the leak that was leaving a pool in front of the fridge....
oh, funny!Quote:
Originally Posted by early morning
Ice maker nice for a family. But for a couple or single, we did not find we used enough ice to keep the ice fresh that was inside the machine. Our neighbor had a bad water leak from their ice maker. Huge cost since it happened right after they put their house on the market and affected the sale. We opted for more space and no water anything in the refrigerator.
I hate water leaks. Our brand new bathroom had a crack in the pipe behind the shut off valve in the wall. We are now waiting for all the necessary fixes. New entry floor, repair to hall, wall and paint. uggg. However, the work was warrantied for 2 years. Still uggg.
I read somewhere that ice makers are among the top causes of insurance claims due to water damage. I don’t want one in my condo where I’ll be gone for days and weeks at a time.Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetana3
When I mentioned this to my insurance guy he thought that was a perfectly fine idea, and he mentioned the other thing I
should do put a new seal around the toilet because those go bad often, too.