Minor rant thread. Post your rants o' the day here!

My rant seems minor by comparison, but it's the name of the thread.

If you're behind me at a 4-way stop, my stop doesn't constitute your stop.  It happened to me twice within 10 minutes at the same busy intersection.  There is consistently a 3 car wait at this intersection and, of course, we're supposed to dose out one car per stop.  The driver behind me rolled through after I made my stop.  Once the guy followed me through and the second time the driver turned left across the intersection and got an earful of horn from the affected driver.

The result of the missed assignments was minor, but I'm worried about the slow erosion of driving skill, common sense, and courtesy that makes these intersections work.  There are a number of "highways" leading out of town with 65 mph speed limits and new stop lights going up as the town grows.   Personally I've seen 3 drivers blow through solid red lights at 65+ within the past 6 months.  Another driver rolled her crew cab pickup this morning in a single vehicle overcorrection after leaving a laser-straight road.  The crash killed one of her kids.

Why don't Americans in general and Texans in particular take driving as seriously as they should?

In reply to Crxpilot :

Because society and car manufacturers keep telling people that cars have never been safer, will stop for them, stabilize them, and protect them from everything. Why should they be responsible when they are constantly told they don't have to be. 

I'm a big proponent of a large spike in the middle of the steering wheel.  

In reply to Crxpilot :

I think it is at least partially due to the joke that we call drivers education in this country.

Got the dreadful news from the doc that I'm cleared to return to work.  Scrounged up five one dollar bills and bought a scratch off in a last ditch effort to preserve my freedom.  That unfortunately failed. 

I start safety training again tomorrow morning then back to the hell that is night shift. 

APEowner said:

Ashyukun (Robert) said:

So much ranting, so little time...

1.

4. The Dancer's grandmother is annoyed with The Dancer and I- because we're the only ones in her family who have not gotten her suggestions to get for us for Christmas. Our one suggestion- a fondue pot, since we've been making a lot of fondue for some reason- was met with, "Oh, you can have mine- it's been years since I've used it and I want to get rid of things anyway," and since it's not something new she's not counting that (even though it's a cool, vintage fondue set that we would be perfectly fine with just getting that from her). We run into this problem every year- we never have much in the way of suggestions for things we want for Christmas since we are relatively practical people and don't really need much- and anything that comes up that we actually need is usually just bought right away or planned and saved for.

Would The Dancer's Grandmother think that a donation to the Dancer's charity in your names was a good gift suggestion?  My siblings and I are all doing charitable donations in each other's names this year instead of gifts.

She already donates to the charity (this week in fact, with it being Giving Tuesday and the local Good Giving Challenge running all this week) a fair bit- she wants actual, physical things that she could give us which conflicts with the fact that we generally don't need more actual, physical things and (unlike many of her immediate family) what we do need (or really want) we do well enough to get ourselves. There's also the fact that we're the only members of her immediate (and most of the extended) family that don't still live in the same town that like 4 generations or more of her family have lived in- so we also have to get home whatever we're given (though this isn't as much of an issue given we're usually bringing more things than we're bringing back, since she has a number of nieces and nephews).

YouTube recently eliminated the Dislike feature on videos, at least the dislike tally of what viewers can see. I'd bet YT personnel can still see it.

Are they afraid some creators will be offended by negative feedback?

I was never a big thumbs down guy but some creators need to know their content may be lacking. Just sayin'.

This is a minor rant, per thread title.

I've been supply chained.

I ordered a complete new dual exhaust for the '77 Grand Prix (the Disco Cruiser).  I ordered it so that it would arrive before Christmas, so that I could spend some of the week after Christmas, when I'm taking time off, installing it.  If I don't install it then, the car will be down for weeks, as I get bored with the work after about half a day, and I have other stuff to do on regular weekends anyway. Yes, I'm a sloooooow mechanic, which is one reason I have a desk job.

So today I get an email from my exhaust supplier, a small business.  They sub out their mufflers to a small shop in Canada. Between border issues, labor issues, and the old car parts market being on fire, the exhaust shop will get their next shipment of mufflers 4 weeks late. which means I'll get my system in January. So not only will it take me forever to install the new exhaust, I'll also have to come up with a new excuse for not spending more time with my family over Christmas break.

(For those of you who struggle with identifying humor, that last phrase is an example of humor.)

The Passat is still in the shop.  Immobilizer issue and been over 2 weeks.

Drove the turbo Miata to work yesterday and was pleased with it, seemed to be running great.  After work I grabbed the battery out of Barney the $600 purple Miata)  to get it charged and tested.   (It's apparently 100% bad of course).  And when I come out of autozone, the turbo car simply will not start.   Appears to be getting no spark.

Left the car in their parking lot an Tiger Mom runs me home, I'll come back today with the trailer.

Step daughter comes upstairs a couple hours later to report that the washing machine is throwing an "E3" code.  Apparently it needs a new drive motor.

I'm tired of adulting and would like a break please.

So, someone bought the lot next to our home and they are in the process of building their new house. It's all framed and a sub-contractor began installing the siding. Now, we live in a development set in the country. It's 500 acres with only 20 houses currently and to protect everyone's investment, there is an HOA. Now I know the issues with HOA's but this one is pretty easy going with very few building restrictions as far as the covanents are concerned. One of the rules is "no vinyl siding on the front facade of the house", it must be brick/stone and/or stucco. When we built, we didn't want any of those we decided on HardieBoard 6" lap siding.  That was allowed so no big deal. Over the years, several new homes attempted to do their entire house in vinyl and the HOA had a discussion with the builders who were never given a copy of the covanents by the owners and explained the rule. 4 homes over the years had to remove the vinyl(usually only a small section before it was noticed, never the entire side of the house) and make alternate arrangements which were to install HardieBoard. An additional expense but now everyone is compliant.

I'm heading out the other day and notice they are installing the vinyl on the front and stop by to let them know it's against the rules. I pull up, introduce myself and ask if they work for the GC or are a sub-contractor. They say that they sub work for Ron the GC. I explain the issue with the vinyl and they are p!$$ed. The foreman gets on the phone and calls the GC who gets very upset. He asks if "the neighbor" said something. Since it was on speaker, I replied "yes Ron, it's Dan". I tried to explain to him about the covanents and rule on vinyl. He was having none of it. He tried to tell me that vinyl was fine as long as they had stone on the front porch area. I read him the rule word-for-word and he still disagrees. Since both the President and one of the board members of the HOA are attorneys, this has been argued and the owners all complied. The GC said that they will do as the owner wanted and build it just as the contract was written up. I told him that it's his choice, I was just trying to save them a whole bunch of time, work and wasted materials. I was politely told to "mind my own business". I was as polite as I could be since these people are going to be our neighbors eventually. I have been down this road before with other builders and although they are never happy with finding out the rules, in the long run it's a time saver not to have to do something 3 times(install vinyl, remove vinyl & install compliant building product).

I think I'm done trying to be a nice guy. It only seems to get me grief in life. Let the owners/builders be ignorant of the rules and have to deal with the consequences down the road.

In reply to lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) :

berkeley em. Not your pig, not your farm.

In reply to lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) :

All that AND why would anyone try so hard to have vinyl rather than avoid it?

Jesse Ransom said:

In reply to lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) :

All that AND why would anyone try so hard to have vinyl rather than avoid it?

why such the hate for vinyl siding?  We've had it on our home for +20 years, and it looks better than the crappy aluminum siding that someone put on it.  And in the same time frame, our neighbors have painted their home twice.  Which will surely come off the wood, again.

Aaron_King said:

In reply to Crxpilot :

I think it is at least partially due to the joke that we call drivers education in this country.

While driver education is pretty lacking I always felt it was more so the populace's general lack of empathy. That sounds really hippydippycommune to say but most people don't give two E36 M3s about anyone else around them and that translates into driving. It's just a 'me first, berkeley everyone else' attitude that people then just don't pay attention to anyone but themselves. It's a bummer.

In reply to iansane :

That's Mrs. P's theory

Jesse Ransom said:

In reply to lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) :

All that AND why would anyone try so hard to have vinyl rather than avoid it?

Cost.

In reply to lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) :

Speaking of trying to be a nice guy.  Sunday night as I was driving up I-65 in Alabama I came up behind a dude towing a boat, a boat large enough to completely obscure his tow vehicle but without any trailer lights.  I passed him and a few minutes later pulled into a truck stop for gas, lo and behold dude pulls in across from me so I figure he might appreciate knowing he has no functional lights and is at risk of being rear ended by a driver who isn't looking for an unlit boat going slower than the speed limit.

Dude was an ass, asked me what business is it of mine, what should he be expected to do about it, and could I kindly mind my own business.  Douchenozzle.  Hope your eventual accident hurts.

alfadriver said:

Jesse Ransom said:

In reply to lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) :

All that AND why would anyone try so hard to have vinyl rather than avoid it?

why such the hate for vinyl siding?

Because it is cheap and relatively durable, but it also looks like cheap was its primary design consideration, durable second to that, and everything else a distant third at best.   It's wavy, the joints and trim are ugly, and it looks terrible from less than 50 feet away.

That being said, I have vinyl siding on the 2 sides of my house that don't face the street.

In reply to Duke :

Not for our house, it doesn't.  

In reply to alfadriver :

I'll have to take your word for it.

Remember that truck I was ranting about about a month ago? The one we'd had for about 2 months due to a weird misfire on cylinders 4 and 8 and had had Bank 2 lifters, Bank 2 injectors, two sets of catalytic converters and a bunch of testing done to it with no conclusive cause? I put the ECM in as the idiot Field Service Engineer said and the misfires went away and we returned it to the customer. Well, it came back today, 1400 miles later, now it has misfires on Cylinder #5 and a rattling noise. Guess I'm overhauling the Bank 1 valvetrain now.

In reply to NickD :

I am officially too adult. Got a dishwasher in the house finally, not a big deal to most but being off grid with limited water has prevented this til now. It's a small countertop model but it'll easily do all our small family needs.

I checked the tracking info several times just to make sure it was coming and went out to the gate minutes later to get it. We are sitting here watching it work because it has a glass front.

I'm.....gonna have to buy a ridiculous car soon or like have a birthday at like..... Disney Land to make up for this ridiculous adultness

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

I think the limited water thing means you should have bought one long ago! My full size dishwasher uses a little more than 3 gallons to do a full load start to finish. I know I use way more water than that when I'm hand washing. 
 

also, I get way too excited to talk about major appliances. 

dculberson said:

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

I think the limited water thing means you should have bought one long ago! My full size dishwasher uses a little more than 3 gallons to do a full load start to finish. I know I use way more water than that when I'm hand washing. 
 

also, I get way too excited to talk about major appliances. 

That is true, this is very water efficient. It uses 6 liters for the whole process. Seems to be working very well.

Funnily enough I meant power and not water. It's not terribly efficient there but most of the power is used by it heating the internal water up( you can just prefill it rather than connect it up) and I think there's an easy way around that. My water heater is small so I have it set just under boiling so you can mix it with cold water and its stretches out the "hot" water. 

They compromised and my new shift is 3:00pm-3:30am . I'm not entirely sure that's better...