Rant for the Day (keep it clean)

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I hate "SHOW SOLAR" if you've never heard of it well I just made it up. When I was growing up and talking with my dad about cars he always said "GO before SHOW" meaning that performance was the most important thing.

Here in Pleasant Valley, you see solar being installed on all the houses, always on the front (street side) regardless of which side of the street the house is on... Back in my college days I took a class on Solar and much of the class was focused on getting the proper sun angles to have the most efficient system possible.
The Yahoos having solar installed are not thinking in those terms, they are thinking of placing the solar to SHOW it to the Neighbors driving by!

Yesterday, I noticed the neighbors across the street were having solar installed on their roof, the front of the house is pointing due NORTH and the back of the house is pointing south, the ridge line runs East to West. So if I were going to plan to install solar I would put it on the back of the house to get the best possible sun angle. They installed the solar on the front of the house and the pitch of the roof is such that the sun angle is very poor. They were installing SHOW SOLAR and now the owners will complain that it didn't help their power bill. But my bet is that the installation was done to facilitate the sale of the house at a higher price!

What a waste.....
 
I guess I should have ranted over here about no snow plows or sufficient salt for foul weather in Texas yet we have a budget surplus?! The one time they stepped up was when the super bowl was in Dallas; they plowed enough from the airport to the bowl location but most of the rest of us were iced or snowed in for days. Those were out of state trucks to do the salting and plowing.
Everybody thinks we’ll be back to business as usual on Thursday when temps rise slightly, which takes time.
@UrbanHunter that’s so stupid to put it on the north side.
 
Patchouli said:
I guess I should have ranted over here about no snow plows or sufficient salt for foul weather in Texas yet we have a budget surplus?! The one time they stepped up was when the super bowl was in Dallas; they plowed enough from the airport to the bowl location but most of the rest of us were iced or snowed in for days. Those were out of state trucks to do the salting and plowing.
Everybody thinks we’ll be back to business as usual on Thursday when temps rise slightly, which takes time.
@UrbanHunter that’s so stupid to put it on the north side.
Click to expand...
I might, just might (slim chance) leave the property Friday. And I started that thread for information like you provided. We do get plenty of ice here, and there are a lot of "winter weather trucks"! Somebody calling the shots needs help making their decisions!!
 
I prefer function over looks. It's nice to have both, but I would never want to get solar just for looks. If I get solar, it damn well better perform! Also, I don't want my neighbors looking at my home or coming anywhere near me.

Mom was irrational and cranky today. I checked on her several times and offered to get her food. she wanted to sleep. Then she got up close to the time I needed to leave for an appointment. I was watching a dieselpunkro video tutorial and heard thumping from the living room. I paused and just heard a rhythm and thought it was the bass from the tv playing a commercial. I popped in when I was getting ready to leave and asked if she wanted anything. She started yelling at me that I ignored her and that she had called out to me (which I never heard) and thumped her cane. I told her I thought it was the bass from the TV. She basically accused me of lying and then said "Just leave me here to DIE!" in a melodramatic tone. I told her I couldn't read her mind to know she was trying to get my attention. A little backstory: Last night her sister called to check on her bc I mentioned she was sick. She handed the phone to me so I could explain things because she was too tired. When I tried to hand the phone back to her, she ignored me. I set it down behind her and told her where I put it. She said "Ok". Apparently she either forgot or wasn't listening. I went and paged the phone so she could find it and she had a tizzy. I told her I'd tried to hand it to her. She was in a nasty mood when I left. I called after my appointment to see if she wanted anything from in town but she hung up on me. She also angrily asked me why I told the DOCTOR about her medical issues. Like, why would I NOT ask the doctor if it seemed like stroke symptoms? (he thought it sounded like she was just dreaming and was still half asleep). She was still salty when I got home and tried to offer her food. Eventually she asked me to get her some baby food (we had it for one of the cats). So I warmed up the baby food and got her a baby spoon. She got up after eating it and asked for toast. She's calmed down now.
 
USPS

In an earlier post I mentioned that I reused a USPS Priority bubble envelope. USPS was going to charge $10 because the word "PRIORITY" could be seen on the envelope. Otherwise the cost would be $5.

Wife brought my package back home. I used a black magic marker to mask "PRIORITY" on the envelope. Covered it with scotch tape too so the USPS couldn't find away to remove the black magic marker! :)

Next day the wife took my package back to the Post Office. Same employee as the day before told her because the red and blue coloring of the former priority mailing envelope was visible he'd have to charge $10. Wife brought my package back home.

Today I wrapped the former priority envelope in a yellow envelope, slapped a new address label on it. The wife will try a third time to mail my package.
 
Meerkat said:
Letting other people push my buttons. Not always realizing sometimes people just have bad days.
Practicing what I use to preach to my kids and grandkids." sometimes, it is better to understand than to be understood". Forgot who said it.
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I've noticed that "Button Pushers" go into internal fits when their attempt at button pushing has zero effect on me.
 
I live in a poor county , but the state built this ,i don't know how many millions it cost but I'm guessing a lot .
(Delaware County Behavioral Health building )
Seems to me the problem is with parents not doing their job , I don't believe in therapist that never had kids but are telling kids how to behave .
you might have to enlarge to read what's on the building , I was driving . Typical lib state ,
1675793388826.png
 
kenv1950 said:
I live in a poor county , but the state built this ,i don't know how many millions it cost but I'm guessing a lot .
(Delaware County Behavioral Health building )
Seems to me the problem is with parents not doing their job , I don't believe in therapist that never had kids but are telling kids how to behave .
you might have to enlarge to read what's on the building , I was driving . Typical lib state ,
View attachment 103656
Click to expand...
And libs don't want parents to do their jobs!
 
The Lazy L said:
Building isn't to serve the public it's to generate more government jobs? Bet it didn't cost the locals very much because the County got Federal and State grants (sarcastic mode)
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Your probably right , but I pay state and federal taxes , so I am paying for it in the long run . Yes it creates jobs for the libs .
 
Back in the day...

Work was doing some work that required a private easement. We agreed on the price, Property Owner signed, I signed and I gave them a check. I asked the secretary of the Owner of the company I worked for if she could file the easement with the County? She said yes and did so in a expedite time frame. All is good, so I thought.

Chief Financial Officer's secretary found out what I did and let me know in no uncertain terms that filing easements WAS HER RESPONSIBILITY and no one else! I apologized and told her it would not happen again.

Next project required over 50 private easements. Again prices were agreed upon, documents signed and payments made. I asked the CFO secretary if filing easements with the County was still her responsibility? "YES". She walked into that one I thought as I hand her all the papers. "Needs to filed within the week" I told her.

Year and a half later the CFO secretary quit. On her last day she laid all the UNFILED easements on a random secretaries desk and told her she needed to get these filed. Secretary bought them to me wondering why they were given to her.

We had an employee that was on limited duty because of a knee operation. I gave the easements to be filed to this employee. He could sit at the County Recorder's office as all as needed to record the easements.

Six months later the Owner came to me livid with rage wondering why "WE" hired an attorney to file easements when we had employees perfectly capable of doing it!!!! I explain the above and how or who hired the attorney was unknown to me. Owner did a double blink and left my office.

I later discovered because of the time lapse between acquiring the private easements and the recording of those easements 6 of the properties had changed hands. Which means the company now had facilities on property that we did have an easement for.

All of this (and many other instances like these) could all be avoided if the Owner would allow Department Managers to discipline employees. All the managers (myself included) could do is to ask and if the employee refuses, ask another employees until one says yes and hopefully follow through.
 
zoomzoom said:
My rant.
My bank now REQUIRES a second sign-in verification by either a call-back or text. I despise it. If it recognizes me by id/password and my device via cookies, I don't want a call-back.
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As much as this 2 factor identification a royal pain in the tush, it really is needed to stop crooks from stealing your money. With computers now, they can find your password in less than a minute, and your sign in name is all over the dark web.

it really is there to protect you.
 
How can they find my password?

I understand their side of it but if they recognize my ID/password and device, I'd like the option to turn it off.

Another gripe about it is that their message takes nearly a minute before they give you the pass code. The message is like it's in slow motion. With other places, the pass code is to you within 10-15 seconds.
 
I heard that cyber-crime is the "hot new investment opportunity" for criminals... and even though I don't have that much money in my account, I don't mind dealing with the added security measures. 😒

I have worse things to worry about, like this fraudulent Third World banana republic administration... 😕
 
Some of the high tech dark web computers have a random password locator, which has the ability to scan a million different passwords within seconds. How long do you think it would take to find anyone's password? Two factor ID number can be either texted to you or emailed. If you have poor internet speed, this could be the issue.

To add to your rant, if these crooks used their computer knowledge for the greater good, they would be legal millionaires.
 
I had a sock puppet FB account for playing FB games. I hadn't logged in since 2018 or so and I hadn't checked the e-mail account for it. I saw posts coming from it and realized its been hacked. The e-mail account was canceled due to inactivity but they let someone else have that same address so they were able to change the password and now I can't retrieve the account. There doesn't seem to be a way for me to report it to FB as stolen though.

Also, either the cold or these meds make me lightheaded. Just putting my pants on was a struggle because I'm feeling so weak and cruddy. I'm not having Covid symptoms at least, but this is annoying as hell and I want it to go away asap so I can get things done.
 
havasu said:
Some of the high tech dark web computers have a random password locator, which has the ability to scan a million different passwords within seconds.
Click to expand...
They can generate millions of passwords but don't they only get like 3 chances before the online banking locks the sign in?
If I did this right, do they even have a chance? 26 letters + 10 numbers + 10 special characters.
Here are the viable combinations for passwords that have a password length between 1 and 10. 42 quadrillion combinations for a 10 character password.

46​
2,116​
97,336​
4,477,456​
205,962,976​
9,474,296,896​
435,817,657,216​
20,047,612,231,936​
922,190,162,669,056​
42,420,747,482,776,600​


​
 
zoomzoom said:
They ... 42 quadrillion combinations for a 10 character password.

46​
2,116​
97,336​
4,477,456​
205,962,976​
9,474,296,896​
435,817,657,216​
20,047,612,231,936​
922,190,162,669,056​
42,420,747,482,776,600​


​
Click to expand...
All of the least significant digits are all "6" except the last.
All of the most significant digits are the sequence " 4 2 9" .

Not rant worthy but seems odd.

Ben
 
zoomzoom said:
My rant.
My bank now REQUIRES a second sign-in verification by either a call-back or text. I despise it. If it recognizes me by id/password and my device via cookies, I don't want a call-back.
Click to expand...
Two weeks ago I was notified my card had been declined from 3 different places.
I called the bank and they had frozen my card due to suspicious activity.
Turned out someone was trying to use my card.
A simple 2 step verification is a small inconveniences to protect my money.
The banks all know that every account in the world has probably been compromised and they are trying to lessen the impact on them and you.
The crooks don't have to guess your password they can get it by hacking accounts from any place that takes CC.
There is stolen account information for sell on the dark web.
Read this and see how little the information cost.
How much is your info worth on the Dark Web? For Americans, it's just $8
 
changing gears here, about 10 minutes ago, I was walking into my kitchen for my last cup of coffee. We have a pair of nesting doves on the patio cover just outside the kitchen window, and looked to my left while walking into the kitchen. I snagged my little toe on a main support beam and I didn't think much about it....until I looked down. My little toe is now pointing to the right. I mean 90 degrees from my foot and other toes. It is obviously broken. This is just great! we are starting to pack for a small vacation beginning this Saturday, which includes some hikes.
I don't know when the pain will hit, but I have taken an Ibuprofen and taped my two toes together. The other half wants me to go to the ER, but what are they going to do for me?
Is there a doctor in the house? :confused2:
 
I'm not a doctor, but I've done what you described before. Straighten our your toe. Pull hard. Then tape your toe to the next toe. Make sure you ice it if it swells later, and elevate it at bedtime or recliner time if it bugs you. You'll get a bruise. You'll live. ER would be overkill.
 
I was at a fish & game event near Brooks Texas once. A friend got her fingers caught in the lead rope of a spooked horse. Said fingers ended up all bent out of shape.

There was as ambulance on site and they told her to do the same thing. Straighten them up and tape them together. They wouldn't do it because it would cost her big bucks and a trip to the hospital.

She didn't have any insurance. I did it for her. She ended up with a very slight twist in one of her fingers because she kept taking the tape off so she could work, but no bills, so she was happy.
 
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havasu said:
changing gears here, about 10 minutes ago, I was walking into my kitchen for my last cup of coffee. We have a pair of nesting doves on the patio cover just outside the kitchen window, and looked to my left while walking into the kitchen. I snagged my little toe on a main support beam and I didn't think much about it....until I looked down. My little toe is now pointing to the right. I mean 90 degrees from my foot and other toes. It is obviously broken. This is just great! we are starting to pack for a small vacation beginning this Saturday, which includes some hikes.
I don't know when the pain will hit, but I have taken an Ibuprofen and taped my two toes together. The other half wants me to go to the ER, but what are they going to do for me?
Is there a doctor in the house? :confused2:
Click to expand...
Yikes! I'm sending you virtual hugs and hoping the pain won't be so bad when your brain starts to get the signals from the toe. If you have any popsicle sticks lying around those can help add support as a splint.
 
Roger all those replies, I broke a toe once and there wasn't really anything the doctor could do about it except straighten it out and tape it. Don't waste your money visiting the ER, just keep an eye on the toe as the days go by, and re-tape it after showers or baths. When I broke my toe, I didn't even know it was broken until it started giving me grief days later, go figure... once it was properly taped up, it healed fast enough. Hopefully your vacation plans don't include a whole lot of hiking. Best take some good footgear with you for support. Just my $.02 on the subject... :rolleyes:

Edit: My toe was taped singly, and it healed just fine... the idea was to immobilize it while it healed, but I could still walk around and do regular everyday chores. Whatcha don't wanna do is stress or bang the injured toe while it's healing, hence the suggestion for good protective & supportive footgear. Boots, good running shoes, whatever... 😒
 
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Wingnut, you're spot on. I forced it back into position, which did hurt immensely, then taped it to my "ring (?)" toe. Once stabilized, the pain quit. I've kept it elevated with a thick wool sock. I think I will be ok but as wingnut said, even the thought of touching that toe will send me through the roof.
 
Popsicle stick or tongue depressor splint might help stabilize it as well. I hope it will heal quickly.

Makes my gripe about having a cold seem pathetic. I'm a wuss. Couldn't sleep well last night bc I kept coughing. And my bladder has issues so I had to keep getting up to go to the bathroom. The lightheadedness is pissing me off. I want to be able to do stuff but I struggled to even put groceries away last night. I kept dropping things on the floor.

This stupid cold better go away fast.
 
@havasu
Agree with all that. Buddy tape, ice and elevate. You're going to have a heck of a bruise. Probably don't want to go hiking around anytime soon. Swelling is worse in the next 48-72 hours then it should get better. If you lose circulation, the distal (end) part of your toe is not blanchable (ie.. just white and stays white after you press on it) you should go in, as you could've lost circulation to your toe and are at risk to actually lose said toe.
 
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