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

stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) said:

Hotel parking fees are the new airline baggage fees; completely ridiculous and a blatant money grab.

You are charging me nightly to park at YOUR hotel where I have a room at. $15 a night is completely berkeleying ridiculous. Where else am I going to park? The Walmart down the block?

But, I'm not the one paying it. I'm back in Ft. Walton Beach for a Sec+ class on the company's dime. They paid for airfare, rental car and hotel so I can't bitch too hard.

Seattle is terrible for this. It was $50 a night for the one we stayed at.

berkeley that, we ubered everywhere 

In reply to Flynlow :

Update the resume and move on to greener pastures. 

Flynlow said:

Company announced they are closing our site this week, some of its capabilities will be relocated to another site.  In a pretty bleak way, paraphrasing:

"We expect/plan to lose 50% of you...if more than 50% want to go, we are happy if it works out.  But don't expect any special treatment, we are happy to hire locally at the new location."

The meeting was <5 minutes.  So yeah, that was a real pick me up.  The small silver lining is I have a spot...do I move halfway across the country, or look at alternatives?  As an added bonus, we did all this with another site closure 5 years ago, and it was handled with about the same amount of compassion and planning.  I am truly conflicted about my career path forward.  Too soon to retire, but I have a couple other opportunities on the east coast, as well as a business idea or two if I want to strike out on my own, or I could stick it out with current megacorp. 

Why give what little time you are given on earth to aszhats?

I mean, berkeley that

Antihero said:

stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) said:

Hotel parking fees are the new airline baggage fees; completely ridiculous and a blatant money grab.

You are charging me nightly to park at YOUR hotel where I have a room at. $15 a night is completely berkeleying ridiculous. Where else am I going to park? The Walmart down the block?

But, I'm not the one paying it. I'm back in Ft. Walton Beach for a Sec+ class on the company's dime. They paid for airfare, rental car and hotel so I can't bitch too hard.

Seattle is terrible.

FTFY

Antihero said:

Why give what little time you are given on earth to aszhats?

I mean, berkeley that

In reply to Antihero :

I have ~10 years to go towards a significant pension, I don't want to throw that away needlessly.

But yes, that's the route of my dilemma...worked here for quite a while, and we seem to be diverging in our business goals and moral compasses, and more so each year.

I should change cabin air filters more often.

Flynlow said:

Company announced they are closing our site this week, some of its capabilities will be relocated to another site.  In a pretty bleak way, paraphrasing:

"We expect/plan to lose 50% of you...if more than 50% want to go, we are happy if it works out.  But don't expect any special treatment, we are happy to hire locally at the new location."

The meeting was <5 minutes.  So yeah, that was a real pick me up.  The small silver lining is I have a spot...do I move halfway across the country, or look at alternatives?  As an added bonus, we did all this with another site closure 5 years ago, and it was handled with about the same amount of compassion and planning.  I am truly conflicted about my career path forward.  Too soon to retire, but I have a couple other opportunities on the east coast, as well as a business idea or two if I want to strike out on my own, or I could stick it out with current megacorp. 

What has happened to several people I know is they made the move because of company re-location  then were laid off after they got there for a few months.   

Zero loyalty from your company should be expected.   The only guarantee, provided they don't go bankrupt, is a written contract.

stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) said:

Hotel parking fees are the new airline baggage fees; completely ridiculous and a blatant money grab.

Meh.  I file this stuff in the same place I file car dealership processing fees or ticket service charges or shipping / handling.

I don't give the smallest crap how they want to itemize it on the bill.

All I care about is the total bottom line price.  How they get there makes no difference to me.

tester (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Flynlow :

Update the resume and move on to greener pastures. 

You've got a pretty sweet Flynlow compound set up where you are, right?

I think my first step would be to investigate opportunities that don't require a move.

Good luck, man.

Duke said:

stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) said:

Hotel parking fees are the new airline baggage fees; completely ridiculous and a blatant money grab.

Meh.  I file this stuff in the same place I file car dealership processing fees or ticket service charges or shipping / handling.

I don't give the smallest crap how they want to itemize it on the bill.

All I care about is the total bottom line price.  How they get there makes no difference to me.

 

I'm sort of like that but when they first started charging those fees I refused to pay them and never had a problem. That's not the case any more. The very idea of charging a parking fee is ludicrous. Just put it in the price and stop pissing people off.

Once Covid was over I expected to see a lot of low hour motorcycles for sale by people who realized they weren't really bike people. That's happening, and while the bikes do have very low hours, they're at least a few years old. But a lot of the ads say, bike is basically brand new.

No, bike is basically used and at least 3-4 years old. The prices? That's a whole 'nother story.

Since I'm back in Ft. Walton Beach for more company paid training, I again was offered a rental car. The nice lady at the Budget counter "upgraded" me into a "full size" car. Once again I ended up in a Chevy Malibu. This one is a 2024 LT with 13,220 miles, exactly the same as the last one I had here about a month ago but this one is black. Perfect for absorbing the Florida sun.

But that's not my main complaint. My complaint is the power train. It has the 1.5L turbo four and CVT. What a hateful combination. You get the lag from the engine and the lag and indecisiveness from the transmission. It's laughably bad. Trying to navigate Florida traffic is a nightmare. No power to squirt into traffic or shoot a gap. The throttle is annoyingly too sensitive but the sluggish and confused CVT eliminates any quick stab.

I would never buy one of these. GM can't kill it quick enough.

In reply to Flynlow :

Request the lump sum and roll it to an IRA. Seriously, run. You think they will honor that pension for the rest of your life? I don't. 

berkeleying birds. I've been told the door looks like the original primer, not painted, therefore will likely leave a stain. 409 cleaner did almost nothing.

The BRZ was covered in this (literal) E36 M3. Side, top, rear end somehow.

Duke said:

You've got a pretty sweet Flynlow compound set up where you are, right?

I think my first step would be to investigate opportunities that don't require a move.

Good luck, man.

Thanks man.

Yeah, the garage is a little bittersweet at the moment, if I'd known I might be moving, I'd have kept the money in my pocket.  Trying to look on the bright side, I'd much rather live in Richmond, so even if I do go, I'll be back eventually. 

Considering a cheap commuter. I like first gen Mazda 3 hatchbacks. Searching the local classifieds shows 5-1 roached MS3s to regular 3s. And somehow the MS3s are cheaper! 
 

I just want a simple commuter... no turbo. No direct injection. No fuss. 

Replaced the steering stabilizer on the CJ5 back in January.  Inspecting the front end last night and all 4 of the rubber bushings on the brand new stabilizer are cracked and falling apart.  I have driven the Jeep like 3 miles since replacing them, and it's been in the garage the rest of the time.  

berkeleying cheap ass low grade rubber.  And this steering stabilizer was not cheap, I bought it from a (I thought) trusted Jeep parts supplier.  

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

Producing good rubber components requires a lot more effort than most people realize. Unfortunately, most of the replacement market is crap. 

In reply to tester (Forum Supporter) :

True, but I've never had any fail this badly, this quickly.  I have seen decades-old shock bushings removed from cars that looked better than this.  

In reply to Jerry :

The birds are awful this year.  We put out a bluebird box, trying to help the local native bluebird population; unfortunately they love sitting on the side mirror of my shiny blue Mazda3, looking at their reflection in the glass, and taking a big old crapola all over the driver's door.  I've been going through spray detailer like mad trying to keep it from drying on.  I'm about to take down the box, and let the miserable fecal factories fend for themselves.  

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

They make mirror covers specifically to prevent this.

Appleseed said:

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

They make mirror covers specifically to prevent this.

I wonder if some plastic grocery bags would do the trick....thanks for the idea.  

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

Plastic grocery bags work reasonably well if you can keep them on.  They flutter and crinkle with the wind and the birds won't perch on them.

Spring around here is like living in a Hitchcock movie...  I think we're up to 1/2 dozen doves that killed themselves flying into our living room windows so far.

Some berkeleying scumbag rode up on a bike, stole my camera and my hat out of my car, and rode out of the parking lot at my work. In broad daylight. At 8:30 in the morning. Un-berkeleying-real. The hat is whatever, although the fact that he put his old hat in my car and rode off wearing my Cleetus Macfarland hat is pretty wild, but the $800 camera with 2 years of photos from my adventures is what really frosts my pumpkin.

My one coworker also had his garage broken into this morning, by them kicking the overhead garage door panels off the tracks. They stole a bag of empty cans, placed a 12-rack of beer behind the garage like they were going to come back for it, and left the big expensive soundbar on his toolbox and all his tools untouched

This city, nay, this whole damn state, is really circling the drain.

In reply to NickD :

Left NY in 1999, will never take up residence in that gawforsaken "state" again.  Jobs, taxes, regulations.  

I had a pair of Reef flip flops given to me as a gift about 15 years ago.  They were great 'flops, but like all things, eventually wore out.  Mrs. VCH bought me a new pair of Reefs for Father's Day last year.  For the rest of the season, they were fine.  I just pulled them out for the summer and the soles are slippery smooth- so much so that I damn near fell and killed my back walking across the floor with them.  I looked and the soles are dry rotted and coming apart, in addition to being smooth and un-tractiony.  

So, Reefs are apparently garbage now.  Too bad. 

Just ordered a pair of OluKai's, will see if they're better.