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

On the job front, my employees are well paid and all have 20+ years of experience. Yet they have trouble reading email, doing their basic job functions, etc. Today I had a person ask me if they could unsubscribe from an email list because there were too many emails and that he didn't need to see them. I told him to create a rule that would mark them read and then send them to his deleted items folder because once every few months he might actually need to take a look at them. He basically replied that is was unfair that he had to do that. Berkley me! 

In reply to chandler :

Oh it will happen.  The chance to make a big score is a very strong pull for a lot of companies especially ones that are publicly traded.  Gotta make those quarterly numbers!  I really wish there was a way for the longer view to be more valued, it would improve a lot of peoples quality of life in my humble opinion.

I've worked for the largest defense contractor on earth (a lifetime ago) and for a very brief time (about a year) for the largest mechanical / electrical contractor in the US when the company I was employed by at the time was absorbed as part of a corporate merger so I've seen the large corporate game.   I much prefer the independently owned company that I now work for.  My 20th anniversary was yesterday in fact!

Further to whole discussion, I'm all about recognizing opportunity but it's really important to realize what you're good at and play to those strengths.  Don't pretend to be something you're not to try and score that big hit, it could hit back!

barefootcyborg5000 said:

Also, now I'm bleeding because the weather is wrong. Finger split because cold and dry. Does that mean I'm old?

Yep, been happening to me more often in the cold the last few years.

Finger split on a track day in December. Grippier tires and no power steering means I'm wearing gloves from now on.

I've been picking up one of the guys in the morning because the jobsite is up a hill and not Audi friendly . He tells me that when sitting in his car he can tell when I'm close to picking him up because he feels a rumble and a " subharmonic sound that makes him feel afraid" and then 2 minutes later I'm there .

Now my neighbor asked for a ride on Monday and I started to tell him when I usually leave and he stopped me with a laugh and said " don't worry, I know when you start you truck" . He lives 5 acres away.

I'm beginning to think people are trying to tell me that my M-80 Cherry Bomb muffler that I hammered into the stock exhaust when the tail pipe rusted away is not the best in Whisper drive technology and is in fact sort of loud.

Crazy, because the 305 sounds pretty cool when floored at about 4k and above

Oh I'm being a grouchy shiny happy person am I? Let's shove a knife in your left hip, another between your spine and left kidney then cut you down to 10 hours of sleep a week for over a month and see what kind of mood you're in. 

It's the weekend, which means that it's raining again.

I guess the upside to this is that I was at work until 03:30 this morning for a software deployment. Sure, I had a break from 17:00 until 22:00, but that's a long day and I'm feeling kind of sluggish, so I wasn't planning on getting many chores or much project work done today.

I sure would've like to have gone for an easy pace run in the woods, though. It helps me clear my head and enjoy life again, and being a hamster on a treadmill at the gym doesn't have nearly the same effect.

j_tso said:

barefootcyborg5000 said:

Also, now I'm bleeding because the weather is wrong. Finger split because cold and dry. Does that mean I'm old?

Yep, been happening to me more often in the cold the last few years.

Finger split on a track day in December. Grippier tires and no power steering means I'm wearing gloves from now on.

I have always been like this, my fingernail beds like to split and leak when it is cold.  Skin just is not very pliable I suppose

Okeefes working hands cream works wonders for keeping you from cracking in winter

In reply to gixxeropa :

Bag Balm is the E36 M3.

In reply to M2Pilot :

The hellspawn's ass agrees. He asks for it by name.

Antihero said:

tuna55 said:

barefootcyborg5000 said:

Also, now I'm bleeding because the weather is wrong. Finger split because cold and dry. Does that mean I'm old?

I can help!

Super glue your finger splits. It works better than anything.

I was always told to use medical grade/New Skin because the regular stuff has formaldehyde in it. 

 

No idea if true though

I use the typical stuff all the time. It's not sterile, but neither was the thing that I just stabbed through my hand, so eh. 

Apparently my hot water tank has blown.

Yay

In reply to Antihero :

I feel your pain.  I can tell you, though, that they're not that tough to install.  Just did my first one a couple days ago.

My rant: pocket doors.

Working on cars in the cold sucks. Very slightly hit my hand against the car while turning a bolt and my fingernail is now massively bruised.

wae said:

In reply to Antihero :

I feel your pain.  I can tell you, though, that they're not that tough to install.  Just did my first one a couple days ago.

 

My rant: pocket doors.

Mine is an odd thing since off grid was not supported back when, it's just a RV water heater basically. 

It's been on my list to replace since it's 15 + years old, just haven't got to it

Took it out, looked at it and......see nothing.

Connect the water back up .....nothing 

I really really hate not seeing a problem and it magically fixing itself 

If you search for tool boxes on Facebook marketplace, it's 90% scams trying to direct you to a random sketchy website to buy a snapon box for $140. It's been like this for months

NextDoor has now partnered with GoFundMe. I hated NextDoor before, now I loathe it. But it is the only way to keep track of the local lunatics, so I wade in again.

Okay, this is starting to get ridiculous.  If 2024 is going to go like this, there's no way I can keep up the pace...

Since last Thursday:

• Furnace needed to to be fixed (had to clean out the condensate trap)
• Water heater needed to be replaced (started leaking)
• Saab developed a misfire (injector came unplugged)
• Toilet started leaking (tank-to-bowl nut was loose)
• Internet service broke (break in the fibre from moving equipment around to get to the furnace and water heater)
• Forgot that there was a pocket door behind where I was trying to install a handrail (by the grace of God was the door closed at the time, or I guaran-damn-tee you I would have drilled two hols straight through the berkeleying thing).  Plenty of rigamarole to find a bolt that was long enough to go through the toggle but short enough to not interfere with the door.
• Fill valve on the toilet at my friend's pole studio stuck open (swapped out the fill valve last night)

And now this morning, the Saab has developed a pinhole in the radiator.

Man, I know God won't give me more than I can handle, but I'm starting to think He might have a little too high of an opinion of me.

In reply to Antihero :

Does it have a T&P / relief valve on it?  They can sometimes fail over time and dribble.

Not really a rant. More of a decision I have to make. The guy who quit before Christmas just called. He wants to come back to work. Said he had some issues and wasn't in a good headspace when he left on top of his dad being sick and needing help at home. Now that his dad is better and he has gotten his head straight he's ready to come back to work. I sure wish he had talked to me on the front end. I'd have been willing to give him a couple of months off to do what he needed. It makes long-term planning much easier on my end if I know what's going on. I've hired two people since he left. While I can certainly use the help and it will allow me to move forward on some things, that's a pretty good hit on the payroll I wasn't planning on. It's like finding out you have another $4k a month you need to spend without planning it out in advance. The next few months may be interesting. 

Word of advice to everyone. If you have a personal issue, need time off, need time to get your mental processes straight, or take care of a family member with a medical issue, talk to your employer. Not all of us are uncaring shiny happy people. We actually want you at 100% when you are at work instead of 25%. If you are a team member and a decent employee, many employers are more than willing to help you help yourself and your family when needed. While we may not be super happy about it and it may leave us in a lurch, it's better than having to find and train a new employee. I would much rather someone use up all their PTO getting their head straight than have them quit only for both of us to regret it.

I tell all my people the same thing. You look out for me and I'll look out for you. Dead serious. It's a two-way street. 

Even if your boss is a dick, it never hurts to ask and let them know what's up. 

Bad enough that you want is $6/ft for 1/8" flat stock 6" wide, but when it looks like this it's just insult to injury...

In reply to Rodan :

Ouch. I can get steel that quality from the scrap yard. 

Dad's place hasn't received mail in over a week. The neighbors car was parked too close to the mailbox and the carrier won't deliver if they can't reach the box from the mail truck.

I texted them last week and they said they will let the kid know to move the car. Car still there today and no mail delivery.

Called the woman owner tonight and she said the car was locked down because her son was not making payments, it can't be moved. They are supposed to repo it in a few days.

Great.

My refurbished phone from Amazon just bricked 15 days out of the return window.