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

Watrous, Saskatchewan, the town just south of us is the coldest place on the planet today at -41C. Yay!

Also, my septic lagoon froze again. The good thing is, I'm now certain the cold is the problem.

One load of dishes plus two loads of laundry gave me 2" of water in the laundry sink downstairs. I grabbed the poo-poker 2000 and hiked off to the lagoon. The 4 holes I poked last week were blocked so I opened them up and added a few more for good measure.

Hiked back up to the house. No water in the laundry sink. Opened the cleanout, not a trace of standing water in the elbow. WOO!!! I'm 99.9% sure I don't have a blockage anywhere.

Next weekend is supposed to be above zero.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

It definitely could be that. 

She's explained that she likes the vehicle and feels safe driving it in a foot of snow and in icy conditions, conditions that MIL won't drive her new Mazda CX in btw, but..    it's sooooo old and the WASHER PUMP FAILED!!!!!!

Also said MIL complained she can't go on her dream trip because she can't afford it. Bet you could if you didn't pay $700 a month in a new car right? 

In reply to ShawnG :

There has to be a lot of methane buildup under that ice... Maybe a way to keep a flame going to keep a hole open?

In reply to mtn :

I'll bring my lighter next time...

In reply to Antihero :

All my vehicles are paid for. 

I had car payments once and I'll never do that again.

I had friends asking why I was putting a $3800 L29 crate engine in our 1999 Suburban.

"But it's so bad on gas!!! You should buy something newer"

My answer "go price out a 3/4 ton Suburban at the dealer. I can burn a lot of fuel for $100,000".

That was 5 years ago. Truck is still going. 

In reply to ShawnG :

Hell, they haven't even made a 3/4-ton 'Burb in 12 years

Last time it was super cold and I was home;m, the heat worked alright. This time around, I'm gone and the heater seems to have kicked off entirely, leaving my wife to use space heaters til we (she) can get someone out there. Sucks!

NickD said:

In reply to NY Nick :

Yeah, when I'm not at work, I'm battling snow. My back hurts, my shoulders hurt, snowblowers can't throw over the banks anymore, I'm running out of places to put the snow. You know how in movies where they're sailing on the ocean, and there's always that guy that goes nuts from not having seen land in so long? That's me, I'm about to dive into an 8-foot deep snow bank because I thought I saw a mermaid or some E36 M3.

I feel you, one year I have pictures of me standing in front of my basketball hoop and it's roughly knee height . We had to dig out window wells so the snow wasn't up against the window and dig 3 steps down into our cabin

Sitting bored in a hotel.  Watched Con Air for the first time.

Wow - bad accent, mullet, acting.......Dave Chapelle wasn't any better.

In reply to NickD :

When I replaced the engine, the dealer said you could only buy a 3/4 ton Sub through fleet services.

In reply to Datsun240ZGuy :

Go into it as incredibad. Have fun with its crappyness. Steve Buscemi's definition of irony is soild gold.

ShawnG said:

In reply to Antihero :

All my vehicles are paid for. 

I had car payments once and I'll never do that again.

I had friends asking why I was putting a $3800 L29 crate engine in our 1999 Suburban.

"But it's so bad on gas!!! You should buy something newer"

My answer "go price out a 3/4 ton Suburban at the dealer. I can burn a lot of fuel for $100,000".

That was 5 years ago. Truck is still going. 

I definitely like not having a car payment, and frankly I don't really care if I have a "new" car.

I drive a 97 and an 02 mostly 

berkeley First Energy. Oh we're not making enough profit, better design our own third party payment processor so we can collect fees from making you pay your bill on top of all the bullE36 M3 fees we pile onto your electrical usage rates. Also, we notice one of your accounts only pays the "stay active" fee every month and doesn't use any electricity at all according to our meter readings, so we're increasing that by 33% because berkeley you, you aren't profitable enough.

berkeleying vajajays. 

ShawnG said:

In reply to NickD :

When I replaced the engine, the dealer said you could only buy a 3/4 ton Sub through fleet services.

And all the most recent ones had a tow rating of like 5k lbs. 

Returning to the recent theme about LED lights not lasting long (as I understand, they overdrive the hardware in US spec bulbs intentionally to make them die faster), I've had an occasional flicker in a light fixture for the last few days.  Finally was able to see which bulb it was and pull it.  

I'm guessing heat caused the casing to crack.  It started at the top, not the base, so it isn't from being screwed into the socket too tightly.

In reply to eastsideTim :

At a guess, the driver circuits are designed for 50 hz since that's what a large majority of the world uses. 

Then we dump 60 hz to them and they run hot and fail. 

That's strictly a guess though. 

In reply to Toyman! :

Dubai has LED bulbs that last way longer.  They use more LEDs per bulb, but underdrive them.  The result is a bulb that uses less energy per amount of light put out, too.  Of course, they aren't sold in the US.  As I understand, dimmable LEDs can kind of replicate them, but I have had issues with a slow flicker using them at anything less than full power.

I got the renewal letter from my home insurance company yesterday for this year's coverage.  They want to raise my premium for this year by 50%.  I'll be calling my agent to ask what gives.

ShawnG said:

In reply to Antihero :

All my vehicles are paid for. 

I had car payments once and I'll never do that again.

I had friends asking why I was putting a $3800 L29 crate engine in our 1999 Suburban.

"But it's so bad on gas!!! You should buy something newer"

My answer "go price out a 3/4 ton Suburban at the dealer. I can burn a lot of fuel for $100,000".

That was 5 years ago. Truck is still going. 

Wife had a family member pass away, his wife asked my wife if we were interested in buying his new Dodge Ram as she wouldn't need it anymore.  My wife told me about the deal, my response was "I got a truck, what I need another one for."  She said, "But it's so old (1991 C1500), you need something new."  I told her if I live to be 100 I won't spend $50,000 on my truck, and i'll be damned if i'm spending that much money on a pick up truck to haul trash and deck boards." IIRC list on the Ram was about $60K, and he only owned the truck for a few months.  Modern light duty trucks are amazing vehicles, but i'll never buy one at sticker price.

I mistakenly took the 47lb bag of Purina Pro Plan to the checkout at TSC yesterday instead of our usual 34lb bag. Cha-ching.

To much self-fanfare our local county PD bought a mobile precinct unit to supposedly help bring down crime in remote problem areas. Except their most recent deployment is to already safe grocery store parking lots. I suggested they park that thing in one of our local war zone apartment complexes for a weekend, but I don't have much hope of that.

eastsideTim said:

Returning to the recent theme about LED lights not lasting long (as I understand, they overdrive the hardware in US spec bulbs intentionally to make them die faster), I've had an occasional flicker in a light fixture for the last few days.  Finally was able to see which bulb it was and pull it.  

I'm guessing heat caused the casing to crack.  It started at the top, not the base, so it isn't from being screwed into the socket too tightly.

Call me a conspiracy theorist if you must, but I've used enough light bulbs in my life to recognize that the whole "LED light bulbs last a long time" is just a big fat lie intended to make people feel better about making Big Light Bulb rich.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

I remember early ones that did not put out a ton of light lasted very long.  Once they dialed up the light output, they didn't dial up the durability.

Please stop sending me requests for "paid consultancy sessions". I am not going to talk to a stranger about the work I do that is all aviation and defense based. I don't know if this is a new thing on LinkedIn or what but I went from getting ~a solicitation a month to multiple everyday. Many of them I am not even expertly qualified to comment on. 

1988RedT2 said:

Call me a conspiracy theorist if you must, but I've used enough light bulbs in my life to recognize that the whole "LED light bulbs last a long time" is just a big fat lie intended to make people feel better about making Big Light Bulb rich.

I will not.

I ranted a few years ago about the high price of light bulbs these days. The costs used to be inconsequential, then came compact fluorescents, though they did last longer, now LED's which are even more expensive, but don't have any of the promised long life. I've had both cheap and expensive ones, and noticed no difference in the time they last, and it's never the 7-9 years they advertise. I still have predominantly CFL's in my shop, and probably have enough extras to last a lifetime. When they were being phased out, the ones I like showed up at the dollar store in 6 pack form and I bought them all.