The Vent and Rant Thread

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

For the baby spiders check your bananas

Baby Tarantulas. Not as small as like, baby Wolves or the like (by which I mean, baby Wolf Spiders, which are quite small upon hatching but then seem to achieve comic-book like growth in their first week of existence...)

I try hard not to be pissy about sharing space with them, given everything that they eat--which I like even less.

Hitch

[4691mls]

I am glad I do not live in an area where there are scorpions and tarantulas!

Am I the only one who has trouble working the no-touch faucets and paper towel dispensers that are in so many public bathrooms now? I like the concept as it helps avoid the spread of germs, but I have such a hard time activating them. I try holding my hands closer to or farther from the device, holding them still, waving slowly or waving faster, trying to find the magic combination. Sometimes I just give up on the drying part and wipe my hands on my clothes. Then as I'm leaving the next person walks up and is able to instantly activate both the sink and the towel dispenser. Maybe I'm the equivalent of a vampire who can't be seen in a mirror or something.....

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I am glad I do not live in an area where there are scorpions and tarantulas!

Am I the only one who has trouble working the no-touch faucets and paper towel dispensers that are in so many public bathrooms now? I like the concept as it helps avoid the spread of germs, but I have such a hard time activating them. I try holding my hands closer to or farther from the device, holding them still, waving slowly or waving faster, trying to find the magic combination. Sometimes I just give up on the drying part and wipe my hands on my clothes. Then as I'm leaving the next person walks up and is able to instantly activate both the sink and the towel dispenser. Maybe I'm the equivalent of a vampire who can't be seen in a mirror or something.....

No matter where you go, in my experience, there are critters of various types. I recall living one winter in Alaska, and a small mouse insisted on sharing our apartment space with us--and ran across my bare foot one morning, in the kitchen! Gadzooks, that made me jump! Granted, small mice are not quite tarantula- or scorpion-like, but it was a surprise.

Scorpions are just damned mean. They have no tolerance or empathy. I was stung once just for putting my foot down, in the kitchen, NEAR one, in the dark. That hurts. Tarantulas, though, are typically pretty mellow. We had one that lived "here," under the front porch--Hairy Potter--and he or she was really mean.

S/he chased Mr. H one day--Mr. H was trying to get Hairy to NOT get trapped in the garage, right? He had a broom out, trying to "urge" Hairy not to go in there (we didn't want him/her to die, right?) and Hairy CHARGED him, with two legs up in the air, just like some bad 50's Sci-Fi movie. Bob (Mr. H) jumped a foot in the air and I can't blame him. It was hilarious. Of course, i wasn't the one holding the broom or being charged!

Our other resident Tarantula, Quentin Tarantoola, was really mellow. He's cruise through here, and then be on his way--Tarantulas migrate annually. Who knew?

Hitch

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I am glad I do not live in an area where there are scorpions and tarantulas!

Am I the only one who has trouble working the no-touch faucets and paper towel dispensers that are in so many public bathrooms now? I like the concept as it helps avoid the spread of germs, but I have such a hard time activating them. I try holding my hands closer to or farther from the device, holding them still, waving slowly or waving faster, trying to find the magic combination. Sometimes I just give up on the drying part and wipe my hands on my clothes. Then as I'm leaving the next person walks up and is able to instantly activate both the sink and the towel dispenser. Maybe I'm the equivalent of a vampire who can't be seen in a mirror or something.....

This happens to me all the time in hospital restrooms - I end up standing there waving my arms and flapping my hands - but to no avail.

The real injustice is when I grab the door handle (with wet hands) and hear the device behind me dispense a towel to empty air -- maybe I have a 'delayed' aura.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by isarl

Sorry to hear about you and your dad, hope you both make a full recovery soon!

First negative antigen test for me today. Whoohoo! Dad's doing great, but still testing positive. He was about 5 days behind me, so hopefully that will change soon.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Baby Tarantulas. Not as small as like, baby Wolves or the like (by which I mean, baby Wolf Spiders, which are quite small upon hatching but then seem to achieve comic-book like growth in their first week of existence...)

You know, you could have just said "baby wolf spiders" in the first place, instead of "baby wolves" and saved me the nightmare imagery of wolf-sized tarantulas I'm now stuck with.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by ApK

You know, you could have just said "baby wolf spiders" in the first place, instead of "baby wolves" and saved me the nightmare imagery of wolf-sized tarantulas I'm now stuck with.

Sorry!

We do have baby coyotes here. Would that help?

(Also, not to add to the PTSD, but Wolf spiders and Tarantulas are actually pretty similar in size.)

hitch

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

First negative antigen test for me today. Whoohoo! Dad's doing great, but still testing positive. He was about 5 days behind me, so hopefully that will change soon.

Glad to hear it! I just got the notice that I can get another booster. And yes, I will be getting it!

[Rumpelteazer]

It's interesting to see how well the recommendations are for movies and tv series across the various platforms. Netflix gives the best personal recommendations. Amazon can be hit or miss, but it's getting better. Discovery+ just recommends the latest big budget reality tv program, which I never watch.

The most annoying "personal" recommendations I get is from a cinema chain. I suspect they just make recommendations by age and gender. I'm a 42 year old woman so get recommended (Dutch) romcoms and kids movies because apparently all women my age have kids. I've never been to, or clicked on their website on, romcoms or kids movies. The last movies I went to were Halloween Ends, Scream VI, John Wick: Chapter 4 and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

I'm fine with them sending a weekly email about the movies that are coming out, but don't call it "personal recommendations" when they really aren't.

[tempest@de]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I am glad I do not live in an area where there are scorpions and tarantulas!

Am I the only one who has trouble working the no-touch faucets and paper towel dispensers that are in so many public bathrooms now? I like the concept as it helps avoid the spread of germs, but I have such a hard time activating them. I try holding my hands closer to or farther from the device, holding them still, waving slowly or waving faster, trying to find the magic combination. Sometimes I just give up on the drying part and wipe my hands on my clothes. Then as I'm leaving the next person walks up and is able to instantly activate both the sink and the towel dispenser. Maybe I'm the equivalent of a vampire who can't be seen in a mirror or something.....

That usually happens to me, not so much the water faucet but the soap dispenser, It usually takes me several tries, sometimes I even try different ones in the hope that it is not me but the dispenser that is not working.
I’ve never seen paper towel dispensers with no touch, but here usually public bathrooms have a drier that expels warm air, this one usually works well but I usually don’t use it, I prefer to leave with wet hands than stand there waiting for them to be dried.

[John F]

So fiber internet (Frontier) became available to us recently: $50 month for 500Mb. We currently have cable (Spectrum) at 100 Mb at $80 a month. I called the cable company to see if they could lower the price (probably a month ago), and they said, flat out, there are no offers available. So I have the fiber internet installed, call the cable company to cancel, and they say they can lower their price to $35. I say no thank you, and they keep trying to get me to stay.

If they had offered something when I originally called, I probably wouldn't have switched.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by John F

If they had offered something when I originally called, I probably wouldn't have switched.

Right? I hope you tell them that. Companies are stupid. If they weren't going to lower the price, fine. But since they obviously WILL lower the price, how stupid to you have to be to only do it AFTER you lost the customer?

[Deskisamess]

Spectrum is our only choice for fast internet, at $79.99 per month. They know most users don't have another viable choice, so they don't offer any discounts. We've been with them since they were Time Warner/Roadrunner, probably 1998-2000 or so.

Verizon does offer their 5G internet, but anyone in our area that signed up for it hated it. Our regular Verizon cell connection isn't great, so no way we would try their internet plan.

[John F]

Originally Posted by ApK

Right? I hope you tell them that. Companies are stupid. If they weren't going to lower the price, fine. But since they obviously WILL lower the price, how stupid to you have to be to only do it AFTER you lost the customer?

I did tell them. At least three times. It was annoying after the second time.

And it's funny seeing sales in action. At one point Spectrum asks me what I typically need the internet for. I'm pretty sure they were going to say that I didn't need their faster speed and offer me a slower speed at a reduced price. When I signed up for Frontier, they suggested I should get a Gigabit plan.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by John F

I did tell them. At least three times. It was annoying after the second time.

And it's funny seeing sales in action. At one point Spectrum asks me what I typically need the internet for. I'm pretty sure they were going to say that I didn't need their faster speed and offer me a slower speed at a reduced price. When I signed up for Frontier, they suggested I should get a Gigabit plan.

And my $.02 o0n that is, it's none of their damn business. As long as I'm paying for the bandwidth I'm using, that's all they need to know.

Hitch