The Vent and Rant Thread

[Dazrin]

Thank you!

I am still hoping that I won't have to get anything new, my current one is about 2.5 years old and in perfect shape otherwise. If it turns out my current one isn't going to make it I will explore my options more (starting w/ customer support) but for now I was just ranting and worrying it may be required. Hopefully not.

Edit: it looks like it is working ok after a restart. Hopefully that will continue.

[Rumpelteazer]

It's too hot to deal with stupid people in the store.

Today I had a lady who had heard about wireless lights. She thought it was truly wireless, as in no wire at all. So she had the idea to get a thick rope, attach a socket, and get the thingy or lightbulb to make it wireless. I tried explaining to her that wireless in lighting means wireless switching, dimming or adjusting colour. This can be done with a special bulb or electronic box you connect to the light fixture in combination with a wireless switch or, if it's bluetooth or wifi, an app on you phone/tablet/computer.

She didn't want to understand this.

I quickly gave up, told her we didn't have what she wanted and she should look somewhere else.

We weren't the only one with these type of customers. I went to the hardware store and one of the guys had a customer who wanted to hang some drapes on a steel cable. The distance between the walls was almost 5 meters and she didn't want the cable to sag in the middle. Which is impossible at that length (the ceiling was really high so she couldn't attach any supports on that). They guy joked that she needed an "air anchor". Everyone in the store knew this was a joke, a very old one at that, except the customer.

[badgoodDeb]

Point the first lady to this. It's a battery operated LED bulb, so it is completely wireless. But you have to change the battery, eventually!

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Point the first lady to this. It's a battery operated LED bulb, so it is completely wireless. But you have to change the battery, eventually!

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

We did say there were light on batteries, but that's not what she wanted. She wanted a regular LED bulb, a decorative one, and have no electrical cord to transmit the electricity or a battery to power it.

In Dutch we have the saying that someone heard the bell toll but doesn't know where to find the clapper. Which is when someone vaguely heard about something and drew their own, wrong, conclusion. This was a clear case of that.

[Hemmi]

Why do you have to bitch about the schedule the second you're back from your week off???? The rest of us have been working our butts off because you had to be off, we just let go of someone else, and have someone else out for medical reasons. We're very shorthanded so quit bitching about how your weekends off are the opposite of the ones your boyfriend's off. Maybe I'll just schedule you for two weekends in a row to fix that issue. Oh, except you'd bitch about that one too!

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

<snip>

. . . guy joked that she needed an "air anchor". Everyone in the store knew this was a joke, a very old one at that, except the customer.

What I'd call a 'sky hook'.

BR

[Rumpelteazer]

I've had an interesting night. I wasn't able to fall asleep quickly but when I finally had I was woken up shortly after because a neighbour was having a fight over the phone, or himself (I'm not sure). That lasted until shortly before 1am.

Whilst trying to fall asleep again I kept hearing a rustling sound, it moved around the room and every time I turned the light on it went quiet. When I finally managed to start dozing off again I saw a flash of light (with my eyes closed) and heard a very loud bang. I first thought it was someone setting off fireworks. Until I heard all the police and ambulance sirens, followed by two helicopters hovering over the neighbourhood. This morning I read that criminals blew up one of the cash machines in the little shopping center about 750 yards from my friends' place (I saw the flash!).

Falling asleep was impossible with the helicopters, plus the rustling still continued. I did finally found out the rustling was a moth, which I caught and released. The helicopters didn't leave until after 3pm, by that time I was wide awake. Eventually I did manage to fall asleep.

So I only had a couple of hours sleep. I have to work from 10am until 5pm, though with current temperatures and the prediction of cooler weather next week I don't expect it to be busy. After that I have to prepare dinner because my sister is coming over tonight.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

I've had an interesting night. I wasn't able to fall asleep quickly but when I finally had I was woken up shortly after because a neighbour was having a fight over the phone, or himself (I'm not sure). That lasted until shortly before 1am.

Whilst trying to fall asleep again I kept hearing a rustling sound, it moved around the room and every time I turned the light on it went quiet. When I finally managed to start dozing off again I saw a flash of light (with my eyes closed) and heard a very loud bang. I first thought it was someone setting off fireworks. Until I heard all the police and ambulance sirens, followed by two helicopters hovering over the neighbourhood. This morning I read that criminals blew up one of the cash machines in the little shopping center about 750 yards from my friends' place (I saw the flash!).

Falling asleep was impossible with the helicopters, plus the rustling still continued. I did finally found out the rustling was a moth, which I caught and released. The helicopters didn't leave until after 3pm, by that time I was wide awake. Eventually I did manage to fall asleep.

So I only had a couple of hours sleep. I have to work from 10am until 5pm, though with current temperatures and the prediction of cooler weather next week I don't expect it to be busy. After that I have to prepare dinner because my sister is coming over tonight.

Back in the 90's I lived in an apartment building near a busy commercial street. One night I dreamed I was being chased and shot at. The next day I heard on the news that shots were fired during a robbery at a nearby fast food drive-through! Apparently the sound made it into my dreams. At least there were no helicopters and flashing lights.....

Thankfully the place where I have lived for the past 10+ years is much quieter!

[Dazrin]

Yes, I know it's a lot of work to edit that specification properly. I do understand that the deadline is today but that specification is referenced in about 30 other specifications so we really do need to have it.

No, removing that specification and the references to it in the other 30 specifications is not a good idea since you will then have to copy the same information from the one you don't want to edit into each of those other 30 specificaitons - and then edit it 30 times anyway.

Oh, you just want to delete it and the references without worrying about the information. Well, I can't recommend it but if that's what you really want to do.

Enjoy your change orders.

ARGH!

I think I will still copy that information to the specifications I am responsible for thank you very much.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Back in the 90's I lived in an apartment building near a busy commercial street. One night I dreamed I was being chased and shot at. The next day I heard on the news that shots were fired during a robbery at a nearby fast food drive-through! Apparently the sound made it into my dreams. At least there were no helicopters and flashing lights.....

Thankfully the place where I have lived for the past 10+ years is much quieter!

It's usually a fairly quiet neighbourhood my friends live in. Though last week, at 1.30am (the same time the cash machine was blown up but days earlier). A neighbour played rock music very loudly. Just one song, and then it was quiet.

I live in the city center, so I'm used to noise, even if we sleep at the back. The only three quiet nights are on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and on January 1st after 5am (not really a night, but the quiet lasts until the early afternoon so I count it as a full night).

A couple of years ago I was watching a film in bed, and around 11pm there was a loud bang. It turns out that criminals blew up the window of a shoe store, which sells very expensive sneakers, to steal them. Mind you, we've heard from neighbours and shop owners that that store attracts some very shady youngsters. They park their very expensive cars in front of the store, it's a pedestrianized street, and the police won't even give them tickets. Which says enough.

[tempest@de]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

A neighbour played rock music very loudly. Just one song, and then it was quiet.

I wish my neighbors across the street would play only one song and quit. They moved a few months ago, and I noticed right away that I could listen to their music when I’m in my house across the street, but since the school holidays started they have the music going pretty much every day at several hours, during the day I’m not at home so I really don’t care, but yesterday evening I went to watch TV and my tv room is across their house and I couldn’t hear the TV, only the music, and since it is pretty hot at night is when we open all the windows to let the air flow.

I hate noise, I lived in an apartment and hated it because of the noise, the upstairs neighbor loved to watch football with the sound really high, the one across the landing loved phil Collins so almost every weekend it would play, usually when I was reading, and the one bellow loved electronic music, especially at night, this one was the worst because of the vibration.
I moved into a house in a quiet street without big buildings, its almost all houses and for the most part I’m good, except for the music and when the dogs from the neighbors are alone and bark in displeasure. I wish I could have a force field around me to block all the noise.

And I can’t complain at home because I’m the one that chose the house we are in now and the one that wanted to move because of the noise, so I have to suck it up.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by tempest@de

I wish my neighbors across the street would play only one song and quit. They moved a few months ago, and I noticed right away that I could listen to their music when I’m in my house across the street, but since the school holidays started they have the music going pretty much every day at several hours, during the day I’m not at home so I really don’t care, but yesterday evening I went to watch TV and my tv room is across their house and I couldn’t hear the TV, only the music, and since it is pretty hot at night is when we open all the windows to let the air flow.

I hate noise, I lived in an apartment and hated it because of the noise, the upstairs neighbor loved to watch football with the sound really high, the one across the landing loved phil Collins so almost every weekend it would play, usually when I was reading, and the one bellow loved electronic music, especially at night, this one was the worst because of the vibration.
I moved into a house in a quiet street without big buildings, its almost all houses and for the most part I’m good, except for the music and when the dogs from the neighbors are alone and bark in displeasure. I wish I could have a force field around me to block all the noise.

And I can’t complain at home because I’m the one that chose the house we are in now and the one that wanted to move because of the noise, so I have to suck it up.

Noise is psychologically destructive, seriously. Even forgetting torture techniques and the like.

I lived in a quiet-ish neighborhood, for years. A guy moved into the neighborhood with his tween boy, and promptly they got a dog, which they both neglected. A largish dog, part lab, part who-knows.

Their house was next to the community mailbox, kitty-corner from my house (my house was on the outside of a 90-degree angle, his was on the inside, if you get the image). If anyone went to his house, or to the mailbox, and they weren't home--which was most of the time--the dog would start barking.

And never stop. I mean, never stop.

I oncecounteded and coutned the barks. This dog barked >2,000x per hour. Yes, more than TWO THOUSAND times, per hour. And this would go on for 6, 8, sometimes 10 hours a day.

The owner once went out of town, for Xmas, leaving some neighbor to feed the dog, and the dog barked and howled, through Xmas, for 5 days STRAIGHT.

In the meantime, our esteemed City Council had decided that they weren't going to enforce noise ordinances. Other than suing him, what can you do? I repeatedly asked him to do something, and of course, he didn't.

I actually reached the point, after 3 years of this, day-in, day-out, of considering killing the dog. I mean...I'm an animal lover. I was horrified at the thought, but I was losing my mind. I worked from home, and I listened to this, all day, every day. Our HOA refused to pay attention to me, because, wait for it, he was the President thereof.

Finally, he left the HOA/neighborhood, and I told the newly-elected people that if they didn't do something, I was suing them personally. I know, it sounds like I'm some cranky old fart a**h*le, but...you can't imagine what it was like. I could hear it with the TV on, with the air-conditioner running, there was NO escaping it.

This jerk finally met a woman and they moved. Shortly thereafter, we moved to our new house.

The first morning in the new house, I'm wakened by...dogs barking, down the road. I actually started to CRY, and I'm not a crier, ever. I was so freaked out, by years of noise abuse, from that *&^%$# dog and his horrible owner, that I lost it over something as trivial as a few dogs barking.

Spoiler:

(And, of course, what happened? These *&^%$#@ had dogs that barked every single morning, too. I put a note on their door, telling them that if they didn't do something, it would be he police or the courts. I and a few other local residents, the inconsiderate *&^%$#@. It boggles me that people just don't HEAR what their *&^%$#@ dogs are doing. They were HOME for this, mind you--it would start at 5:45 each morning, and go on for two hours while the local kids would walk down past this house to the busstop, about a mile from their homes. EVERY DAY, 5x week, during the 8-9 mos of school season.)

Don't dismiss what noise can do to you. I would have thought it was ridiculous, y'know?--until I lived it. Years of it. I'd go talk to them now. Just tell them the truth--that their music is loud enough to drown out your own TV. That's ridiculous, unless their window is 5' from yours, and I'm sure it's not. Trust me, if you don't nip it in the bud now, you'll probably just be suffering more, later.

Offered FWIW.

Hitch

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Don't dismiss what noise can do to you. I would have thought it was ridiculous, y'know?--until I lived it. Years of it. I'd go talk to them now. Just tell them the truth--that their music is loud enough to drown out your own TV. That's ridiculous, unless their window is 5' from yours, and I'm sure it's not. Trust me, if you don't nip it in the bud now, you'll probably just be suffering more, later.

Offered FWIW.

Hitch

Can I second this. Though we haven't had it as bad as with the dog we've had some times it was fairly bad. When there were still students living nearby and they partied every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night (but they complained about the church tower playing every 15 minutes).

The students are now gone and we've got an agreement with restaurants next to my bedroom that if they expect a noisy party that they'll let us know in advance and that it will be quiet by midnight. It seems a neighbour in the apartment complex across from us at the back of our house has a someone who likes loud gatherings, but it seems the other residents have got him under control now.

Now I only hope that the new tenants of the museum will replace the noisy airco's. When it's hot it's got this weird and very noisy cycle my mind just locks on to and makes it hard to sleep.

[Rumpelteazer]

I'm so hot, and with that I don't mean sexy.

It's still over 30C inside and outside. There's no wind, so it isn't cooler upstairs (like it was every evening in the past week). Even sitting in front of the fan I'm sweating.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's cooler temperature, but not to tonight's muggy night. I don't think I'll get much sleep.

At least tomorrow it'll only be 25C, a couple of days ago they predicted 30C+ for Wednesday, too.

[ZGottlieb]

Vent and Rant might be the names of my next two cats.