The Daily Peeve / Rant

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Originally Posted by catherine

Thank God it happened after the cold spell. And also, 25 years is a pretty good life for an HVAC system

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I know. And I haven't had to spend any money on it except a "yearly" checkup every other year and having a little freon put in it every 5 years or so. But I was really hoping It would stay functional at least until summer. By then I'll either be ready to sell this house and move back to Georgia, or ready to bite the bullet and stay here.

But there is one other "good" thing about this situation. I paid $56,000 for this house in 2000 and Zwillow.com says current market value is $178,000, so the cost of the new HVAC is a drop in the bucket compared to the current property value.

IL- We use garbage can lids to gather chestnut burrs and sticks then dump either into the can or into the woods. I used to use a wheelbarrow for everything! Now I'm not as strong.

My go-to method for hauling most everything is 5 gallon buckets. Even in our community garden where we have wheelbarrows a loaded wheelbarrow is hard to maneuver up and over a brick border. I just don’t like to mess with them. I like the simplicity and ease of holding a bucket in either hand, they are more maneuverable.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

My go-to method for hauling most everything is 5 gallon buckets. Even in our community garden where we have wheelbarrels, a loaded wheelbarrow it’s hard to maneuver up in over a brick path, I just don’t like to mess with them. I like the simplicity and ease of holding a bucket in either hand, they are more maneuverable.

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Oh yes, the indispensable 5-gallon bucket, my favorite gardening tool after my Felcos!

My senior friend I grocery shop for has been asking me to get a can of Lysol SPRAY disinfectant for months. It's been out of stock, for obvious reasons. I'd check every time I went to the grocery store. Found a couple of large cans at Jewel, the big Chicago grocery chain, where I shop (and where senior friend always shopped). No price sticker on the shelf, but I didn't really think about it. You know what it range up at? $10! Crazy! I don't know what it sold pre-pandemic, as I've not bought the stuff in probably 20 years. Senior friend was so happy to have a can she didn't really care about the cost. She has been well supplied with wipes so I'm not sure why she wanted the spray.

$10 for a big can of Lysol spray. Still boggles my mind.

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Originally Posted by Tradd

$10 for a big can of Lysol spray. Still boggles my mind.

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In stock at Walmart $5.77 19oz. Limited stock at Target $5.99 19oz.

A frequent annoyance is people who think parking next to a motorcycle means they can intrude on the motorcycle's parking space by letting their vehicle hang over the parking space line by several inches or even several feet. Not only is it disrespectful to the motorcyclist, but since the motorcycle was there first it will probably leave first and the intruding vehicle will be left sitting there occupying two parking spaces and making its driver look like the a$$hole they absolutely are.

BTW: I always park a reasonable distance out in every parking lot to leave the prime parking spaces for people who may need them more than I do, and yet 10% of the time some a$$hole will park next to me or in front of me with their vehicle across the line, even though there are plenty of other empty parking spaces available as there were this time.

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I have noticed that as well, GP. We have a lot of bikers visiting in the summer. My aggravation is a few of the extended cab trucks with tow-hitches that take up 2 spaces in a grocery parking lot. To be fair, most do park outside of the usual parking spaces.
My challenge lately is the high rears of the newer SUV's who park next to me. I have to back out of my parking spot almost completely before I am able to see if a vehicle is coming. This happened last Wednesday evening, I couldn't see through their windows which are too high from my sitting position, couldn't see around them and had to creep out hoping any car coming was going slowly; I was doing this all the while I am watching for shoppers walking in either direction and cars across the lane backing towards me. I am getting to the point with the large SUV's of choosing a drive-thru parking spot to avoid being stuck.

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Originally Posted by razz

My challenge lately is the high rears of the newer SUV's who park next to me. I have to back out of my parking spot almost completely before I am able to see if a vehicle is coming.

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It's the same thing with short-nose vans and tall SUVs/pickups that come up on your left at an intersection. They sit there and sit there because they're waiting for traffic to be clear in both directions so they can turn left or go straight across, and all the time they're sitting there you're stuck. You can't pull out and make your right turn because you can't see over their damn hood and you have no way of knowing whether or not a car is coming in the curbside lane.

At least on a motorcycle I can stand up to get my head above their hood, or lean way out above my front wheel to see around them, or move forward at a 45-degree angle so I can turn my handlebars and use my rearview mirror to see what's coming without my front wheel sticking out beyond the curb. In a car you can't do that, you're just stuck until the inconsiderate slob moves.

Now let's pick on the little guys!!!!! On one occasion when I parked at the front on a parking space instead parking in the middle or near the back, some moron in a small (Smartcar size) car parked behind me in the same space with their rear bumper sticking a foot out into the traffic aisle. It was one of those parking spaces with a sidewalk between it and the street, and apparently that moron thought since I was on a motorcycle I could just jump the curb and ride across the sidewalk to get out. >:( I could, and I did, but I shouldn't have had to!

BTW: Normally I park close enough to the end of a parking space so that people driving down the aisle looking for a parking space will see my wheel and not think it's an empty space. That's a common practice because we realize how annoying it is if a cager (car driver) swings wide and starts to turn into a space only to discover the space isn't empty. At the same time we don't want to park all the way back and have our bike get hit by someone who swings wide while backing out because our bike didn't register on their consciousness the way a car would have. Again trucks and SUVs with high windows are a major threat in this regard. So It's a constant balancing act. Supposedly some bikers carry an orange cloth bag with them and put it over the top of their sissy bar as a warning to people who park next to them. I don't have a sissy bar, but that seems like a good idea if I did have one.

One time while I was parked at a restaurant someone backed out of the parking space opposite mine and bumped my rear wheel! Apparently they mis-estimated where my motorcycle was because they couldn't see it over their tailgate. :0! Fortunately they barely touched it and no damage was done, but unfortunately I was inside watching through a window and couldn't get outside in time to stop them. As it was, if I hadn't been parked on the side of the building next to the windows I wouldn't have even known it happened, but it would have been bad if they had bumped it hard enough to move the kickstand and make it fall over.

Arghhhgg, mom! I am mad at my mom (poor woman, ten+ years deceased.)

As part of my task of cleaning out books, I took down from the shelf an ancient Victorian photo album that contained 35 photos of an old house we lived during my childhood. The album is falling apart and needs to go to the landfill. I carefully removed the house photos my mother had placed in the album because I want to sent them to the new owners of the old house.

Well, I’ll be damned. Behind these house photos are old family photos of our ancient family members. I had no idea these were photos she had pasted over. I had no idea this was a legitimate family photo album, I thought it was something she got at a garage sale.

Thanks mom. NOT!!! Thanks so much for giving me more work than I wanted to take on. Granted, there’s not a ton of photos there’s probably about seven images, but I can’t just throw them out because my rule is I don’t throw out pictures of the ancient ones. I will have to figure out who the ancient ones are and maybe send them to people or scan them or something. I thought I finished that project years ago.

Dang, IL. Fabulous find.

You don’t have to do anything. Liberate yourself and throw them away:)).

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Originally Posted by Teacher Terry

You don’t have to do anything. Liberate yourself and throw them away:)).

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haha. Ok maybe.

The wonderful thing is that a few months ago I received a thumb drive of photographs from that side of the family, so I am guessing that this one of the grand old man, the great great grandfather of us all, is on that drive as well and he is the important one because he’s a man you know ha ha Ha. If I can’t figure out who these women are I just might throw them away because as I tell myself, it’s pretty useless if we don’t know who these people are.

I'll bet finding them was a surprise! Hope you figure out what to do with them.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

Arghhhgg, mom! I am mad at my mom (poor woman, ten+ years deceased.)

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Thanks mom. NOT!!! Thanks so much for giving me more work than I wanted to take on. Granted, there’s not a ton of photos there’s probably about seven images, but I can’t just throw them out because my rule is I don’t throw out pictures of the ancient ones. I will have to figure out who the ancient ones are and maybe send them to people or scan them or something. I thought I finished that project years ago.

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Future genealogists in your family will be so glad you did!

Kinda a rant, kinda not.

Someone I’ve been trying to push out of the position in our neighborhood board has FINALLY said he will step out of that position.


He was doing such a bad job for so long he pretty much killed a program that used to be popular in our neighborhood. He’s doing such a bad job that our neighborhood wide strategic plan had residents calling for an audit of the program he was “running.” But he wasn’t “running” it because he’s useless and ineffective.Longtime residents have been shaking their head s about it and washed their hands of the program because it’s so poorly run.

Of course I’m the only one with the fkg balls to push him out.

Soooo, are you able to pick up the pieces and restart the program or is it killed by incompetence?

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Originally Posted by razz

Soooo, are you able to pick up the pieces and restart the program or is it killed by incompetence?

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That is really the million dollar question.

I do not honestly know if the program is a failure because the neighborhood doesn’t care enough about it to make it work, or if it’s a failure because he doesn’t do necessary work.

Two months ago I set myself up as the head of a committee to evaluate the program with my authority being our neighborhood strategic plan which we paid $25,000 for. One of the things that our residents told us in the planning process that they wanted this program to be evaluated. To me it’s pretty clear that there’s enough unhappiness on the ground with it that my board needs to address its problems.

The past two months I have been collecting records for a volunteer database that he did not keep up. We didn’t even know who was a current volunteer. I have acted as his administrative secretary, kind of his girl Friday, in keeping up with communications with our volunteers. I know exactly what they should be doing because I’m one of those volunteers.

I tell my board that I don’t honestly know if this is a viable program, but we have all agreed to give it our best shot and evaluate it next December. The real problem is that our board is unable to pull the plug on anything and they don’t have clear guidelines even though we have gone into it saying we want 75% of our neighborhood involved in this program.

My term of office is up in the fall and I won’t be renewing because I’m moving out of the city. Someone will have to step in to lead this program. If no one steps up to lead it, it’s dead. And really, that’s fine it deserves to die if no one wants to keep it going. But I think I’ve got a lead on somebody who would take over because she’s already told me she tried to get him to resign years ago he wouldn’t and she gave up on the whole program.

It’s desperately hard to get these idiots out of these positions. In my neighborhood the president position turns over every two years and there’s always new board members so they don’t really know how well somethings are being done. Incompetence hide under the radar.

Five years ago we pushed the head of the community garden out after she had appointed herself as the leader for 20 years. It was a very ugly series of events and there was ummm, err,mediation. My team members carried out our part of mediation, I stayed away.

That was absolutely the right move for our community garden because it has thrived since she left. We require new leadership every two years. Yes it is a bumpy road to train new people and yes they have the same ideas that we hear over and over, but that’s OK. They’re enthusiastic about doing things and they take ownership of a corner of the garden and make up it their own. Everyone gets a fair shot at getting a garden bed. These things did not happen under the leadership of the former garden diva.

Orangeburg Sewer Lines, WW2 cheap helping the cause. Now I am helping the economy since the product had a short life span as did my being able to flush the home we bought 20 months ago, till it is replaced next week :(

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Originally Posted by BikingLady

Orangeburg Sewer Lines, WW2 cheap helping the cause. Now I am helping the economy since the product had a short life span as did my being able to flush the home we bought 20 months ago, till it is replaced next week :(

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Sewer problems suck.

I told DH “be prepared for replacing the entire sewer line on our Hermann house because that is what we do, ya know.”

Even if our Hermann house is “new” compared to the 19th century buildings we buy normally, it is still 80 years old.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

Sewer problems suck.

I told DH “be prepared for replacing the entire sewer line on our Hermann house because that is what we do, ya know.”

Even if our Hermann house is “new” compared to the 19th century buildings we buy normally, it is still 80 years old.

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I Hear you on That is what we do.
We have put in a few Wells, 2 Septics and 2 other city sewer lines. Water going in and out the correct way is important. I however was questioning my choices in life as I was cleaning a total back up! Waiting on quote expecting near $20,000 since going into road :(

Some of our neighbors have hired a company to put a liner in the old pipes which cost 5k instead of 20k.

oh wait...
this was supposed to go on the Rave thread. Well.I will leave it here because loading photos takes too much time. I am sad that my little doggo is gone so I ‘spose it fits on this thread...

My little foster dog, the freak of nature as I call her to her face, went for her home visit today and is staying overnight with her new family. She is a “micro miniature bulldog” with dwarf proportions.I will miss her so much!we had her for 6
months, taking her through two surgeries plus recovery of spay surgery plus allergy testing and management of same.

now she is fat and sassy. I did not want to give her up, but my big dog is unpredictably mean to her. Sometimes he loves her, sometimes he wants to hurt her, and she is too small to let him alone with her.

now she has a 12 lb Pomeranian to boss around and she is 2+times the size of that Pom. She will always win!

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Cute little girl.

She is adorable.

She is lovely, IL. I can see why you will miss her!

I hope the little princess lands in the happiest of homes.

She’s adorable!! I hope she gets a great home.

Just let me vent, puhleese!

I cannot understand, and I have lost all patience for, our neighborhood’s website development company that has told us these two things which seem conflicting to me:


Thing one: we will bring your old content over from the old website to this new website

Thing two: We’re finishing up your new website.[much content missing after 4 months of work.] Give us items for our punchlist so that we know what content to bring over.

Dude, dont YOU know what content has yet to be migrated? Do you think I have a list in my head of missing content?

That would be very frustrating!

Peeve. Common sense is totally missing. Went to Einstein Bagels for a refill coffee and a bagel. No you cannot use your refill cup but we will handle and give you a paper cup to use over at the refill station. Then you can pour that coffee into your refill plastic container. So I went to the coffee station and noticed that every customer has to handle the coffee urn handle and the creamer containers to fill their supposedly safer paper cups.

So instead of one employee handling the cup and filling it, I am actually exposed to every customer's "germs". I just thought it was so crazy and went ahead and had my coffee in my own cup.

sweetana, that’s policy everywhere due to covid. I’ve seen people try to do that at a truck stop and stopped by an employee.

(Do know it is because of covid) No one touches the refill cup but me and it touches nothing else. I place it under the spout of the coffee urn. Then I proceed to touch all the handles that are not sanitized. Plus I take the paper cup from an ungloved employee who handles credit cards and money (they did not have a card reader). The safest thing in the place for me is my refill cup that only I have touched.

I enjoyed my coffee and bagel but cannot get over the crazy lengths companies go to follow what they perceive as rules without common sense. The best in this situation would be to have masked and gloved employees (not the cashier) fill the paper cups behind the counter. But that is not their business plan.

First time we have gone to this business since before the pandemic. You can tell we do not visit coffee houses.

Our state is loosening up early April. Masks will be recommended but not mandated. Business rules will pretty much be back to pre pandemic rules.

Ok explain to me how the United
states government got my bank account info and was authorized to drop stimmy money into it.

Did they use my/our Social security accounts which granted, they use to drop in Social Security payment? Do they consider themselves authorized to use my bank account now for ANYTHING?

our first two payments of stim money came in the mail.

IL do you have direct deposit of your income tax refunds?

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Originally Posted by Yppej

IL do you have direct deposit of your income tax refunds?

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nope

besides we never have an income tax refund.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

nope

besides we never has an income tax refund.

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How about a direct debit from your bank account for any federal taxes owed?

The usual route is via a refund, but if you pay electronically from a bank account and owe, I imagine they could have it from that too, but I'm not sure if they are using it. I can't imagine them bothering to save a bank account if one mails in a paper check.

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Originally Posted by Alan

How about a direct debit from your bank account for any federal taxes owed?

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No debits.when we pay the I.R.S we send them a check. So of course they have account info via that, but they do not have my permission to muck around in my account.

I suppose by allowing Social Security payments into my bank account via direct deposit, The Whole of the US Gubmnt now thinks it has access to my account.

DH does not seem concerned about this. I don’t like it.

Lots of entities have access to our bank account. Many people now set up auto withdrawals for payments and bills which is how so many Texans got screwed on their gas bill. I just went in to my utilities and stopped the auto pay feature. I had to go into the IRS site and enter my bank info for the firststim payment - not sure why they would have that info unless you were doing online taxes which I hadn't in previous years.