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

In reply to Peabody :

So I just posted the marketplace ad to my wall saying anybody want to experiment, try messaging her. One of my neighbors did. Coincidentally the neighbor that thought my blue Avant was the coolest car I had. After a few hours he got back, "still in talks will let you know". 
 

So she's just terrible at closing a deal. Or waiting on someone that messaged her first. I get the first come first served idea, but if I'm holding out days for someone to get back to me or I'll jump to someone who's ready to go. 

Well the wagon got marked sold this morning around 8am. Interesting as a couple friends messaged her last night and got " in talks I'll let you know" messages back.

Sold or tired of more messages? Either way I'm done. 
 

A bit annoyed still because I hesitated on messaging another wagon and it sold in in a day. 

   I've been unsuccessfully trying to get my youngest kid his driver's license. He's 17. I work second shift and occasionally weekends and there are constant extra-curricular activities on other weekends (and sometimes the ones I have to work.). He had his permit but, I was unable to create the time for him to drive enough with me to qualify for behine the wheel classes at the school. I called discussed, argued, explained... no effect. They said, "That's just Illinois law. He can drive with anyone over the age of 21.". There is nobody else. It's me and my kids. No aunts, uncles, grandparents, whattheberkeleyever, it's just me and my kids. So now it's either expensive driver's school or wait six months until he turns 18 and still have no ability to properly navigate the E36 M3.


   Both kids are planning to go to SIUE for their engineering program. We live three or so hours away from there. My daughter currently drives herself and my son to and from school and any other activities I can't make it to. When she's away at college things will get more difficult. She'll be three hours away and I'll be at work when he needs to get places.

  
   Also, about SIUE, not only is the tuition around $20,000 (per year) but housing is expensive too; it looks like around $800-$1,200 per month, per kid. That's a bit beyond my ability so, I thought maybe I could get a job in St. Louis and just buy another cheap little house near SIUE. But the timing and all of the variables have to go 100% right in order to make that happen. And the youngest kid lacking a license complicates things further. Also, despite filing a quit claim and throwing money at an attorney, my name is still on my ex-wife's mortgage and she hasn't made a payment in well over a year so my credit is ultra berkeleyed... good luck buying a house...


   Speaking of my kids both being over 17, I was not aware that they had aged out of the child tax credit. I still had my tax exemptions set up as if they qualified so, despite having sole custody and claiming them  both, now I owe Uncle Sam $2,583. Due before April 15th. The constant barrage of somehow "not covered" medical bills has kept my net worth close to $0 so, I had to dip into my miniscule 401k to give Ol' Sam his pound of flesh. We'll see if they try to double charge me the way they tried to last year (I had to pay in around $1,000 last year ['23 tax year] due to the divorce and, at that time, shared custody). I've tried navigating the IRS website and calling the help line but, even after hours of effort, I was not able to pay my taxes yesterday. We'll try to climb Hamburger Hill again today, as per usual with every damn thing.


   See what I mean about the interlocked layers?

   There's more but, I'm sufficiently enraged now so, I'm going to go to the gym. 

In reply to The_Jed :

I know there has been a long discussion about the house thing here.  I give you a great deal of credit for not being in jail by now.  I would have gone down for arson, at the very least.

In reply to The_Jed :

I have no kids so I have no frame of reference for your situation. I wish I could help buy saying something motivating but I got nothing.

You're a stronger man than a lot of people. It will get better, we're all pulling for you.

The power at the office was off this morning.

Apparently dumbass forgot to pay the bill. Not just last month since the 1st of the year. 

It was me, I'm that dumbass. 

It's been 30 years since the last time that happened. 

It was the only bill I hadn't set up on auto-pay. 

Not only that, I had no online access to the account.

Paperless billing was not turned on.

Payments have been made through bill pay at the bank. 

I spent almost an hour digging through 2023 and 2024 paid files trying to find a piece of paper with the account number. Since I pay through the bank, I don't file all the bills. At this point, I don't know if I shredded the missing bills from January on or if USPS decided that was another piece of mail they couldn't be bothered to deliver.  I have my suspicions. 

I'm still not sure why I set it up that way, but that has been corrected. All bills will show up via email. Payments will go directly to Dominion and auto pay is turned on. I have enough E36 M3 to worry about without forgetting that again. 

I was able to pay my state bill but, I'm bouncing around between EFTPS and IRS.GOV/Payment while on the phone still trying to pay this berkeleying bill since (again), even though it sucks, it beats prison. Stay tuned to see if I can get it done in under 90 minutes! If I don't I get to DO IT AGAIN!!! Yipee! 

I had to enroll in EFTPS to try to make a payment. Now I have to wait two business days for my enrollment to be certified?


I didn't have to jump through these additional hoops last year... maybe this is some of that "efficiency" I've been hearing so much about... or maybe I just handed them everything they need to steal my identity and now my bank account will find a new hole to be syphoned through.  I guess I'll find out in a few days.

In reply to The_Jed :

You say there's more, but what you've got there is already a lot to unload. On top of the direct effects of all of that, there isn't a person out there who that wouldn't take a mental toll on as well. Normal 'feeling' words (i.e. frustrated) don't seem like they would do justice to describe your experiences. It may not feel like much consolation, but you've also accomplished a lot just in making it through to where you are now and continuing to push forward. That's genuinely something to hold your head high for.

I know you've received advice on some of this (especially the college financials) before, but I do have one quick question on the driving seat time. Does your 17yo have any close friends whose parents who might be willing to help him with that too?

I need to have an argument and throw things. Not at someone, with someone. I found a little place downtown where they put you in a room with hammers and old plates and mugs and you get to smash them. It sounds lovely. 

Do we have a trusted GRMer in The_Jed's neighborhood who is able to offer some driver training to the youngest?

Long shot, but worth asking.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

That's very kind but, after the latest round of all effort-no results, I was told he has to be in possession of a valid driver's permit for six months and accrue a certain amount of hours of driving before he can take the behind the wheel school classes. My kid's permit has expired. He'll be 18 this September. We're going to have to pull off a miracle just to get him a new permit.

In reply to The_Jed :

Are there logistical concerns with the private driving schools option too, or purely financial?

DarkMonohue said:

Do we have a trusted GRMer in The_Jed's neighborhood who is able to offer some driver training to the youngest?

Long shot, but worth asking.

GRM Instructor. 
 

wearymicrobe said:

I need to have an argument and throw things. Not at someone, with someone. I found a little place downtown where they put you in a room with hammers and old plates and mugs and you get to smash them. It sounds lovely. 

Smash rooms. You start at plates. There is a place in Chicago that let's you up the anty to implode old tube TVs. Its beyond cathartic.

Appleseed said:

wearymicrobe said:

I need to have an argument and throw things. Not at someone, with someone. I found a little place downtown where they put you in a room with hammers and old plates and mugs and you get to smash them. It sounds lovely. 

Smash rooms. You start at plates. There is a place in Chicago that let's you up the anty to implode old tube TVs. Its beyond cathartic.

Interesting side story about anger release. When I was in college sophomore to senior year I lived in suites and one of my suite mates would get angry. His anger management? He kept an axe in a duffle bag. And he would go out to the woods next to campus and cut down a tree. 
 

One day he forgot two things. The duffle bag and his keys... He realized quick walking down the sidewalk about the ax and goes back to the suite where he realizes no keys and is knocking on the door ax in hand. Thankfully someone else was there and let him in quickly. 

dan0 said:

Appleseed said:

wearymicrobe said:

I need to have an argument and throw things. Not at someone, with someone. I found a little place downtown where they put you in a room with hammers and old plates and mugs and you get to smash them. It sounds lovely. 

Smash rooms. You start at plates. There is a place in Chicago that let's you up the anty to implode old tube TVs. Its beyond cathartic.

Interesting side story about anger release. When I was in college sophomore to senior year I lived in suites and one of my suite mates would get angry. His anger management? He kept an axe in a duffle bag. And he would go out to the woods next to campus and cut down a tree. 
 

One day he forgot two things. The duffle bag and his keys... He realized quick walking down the sidewalk about the ax and goes back to the suite where he realizes no keys and is knocking on the door ax in hand. Thankfully someone else was there and let him in quickly. 

This is why I go to the gym. I was so angry one day I pulled my left arm out of its socket in a dead lift. If I could get away with it I would just go out and dig a giant hole in the front yard and keep filling it in. 

What I need is to just take a few days off and finish all the work around the house and I would feel better having physically finished something and not sitting in meetings and talking abou things 205 years out. 

Ugh. One more time U-Haul and they're already pissing me off. 
 

After last time and talking with the guy at the place I like he said call us directly. So I did. No auto transports there. 
 

Fine use the reservation system online. 24 hours, pick up this afternoon 4pm, selected location close to me. Add credit card for reservation, about to hit submit and scrolled down slightly... Pickup at a completely different location. WTF! 
 

Cancel and re-do reservation. Pickup up tomorrow morning instead and only 10 hours. 
 

Well as I'm writing this and upset already the seller messaged me back AFTER I told him I have a reservation setup and would be there tomorrow. 
 

I told him forget it. That's my reservation AND cancellation. Good luck with your sale.

So close to a wagon. berkeleying eh! 

Next time, check that the tire shop wrote down the phone number correctly. My bad, but if I hadn't had a hunch and checked today I'd be waiting a few more weeks for them to call me back that the new shoes for the MX5 had arrived.

Kiddo #1 bought 2 sets of wheels a few weeks ago for his Mazda 3. One set were 16" Borbets with practically new Blizzaks. The other set were bare  Mazda 17" wheels (from a Miata, I think). Not a bad deal at $280 total. 

I ordered him some Conti DSWs for the 17" wheels. Today he was mounting the tires and noticed one was cracked. Of course it wasn't the first one, so three tires are mounted. 

When asking some more questions, I found out the other wheels weren't cracked and were able to be balanced, but he said they had noticeable runout. 

Now we have tires that can't be returned and wheels that are questionable (at best) to mount them on, with at least 1 that isn't useable. I need to decide whether to see about having them fixed, or just finding another set of 17s that are good. 
 

I was born deaf. I'm sorry I struggle to hear an understand you. I'll try not to to be so deaf next time.

In reply to No Time :

At least they're 17's. Around here you can't give away a set of 17" rims. A nice set will often struggle to fetch $100

In reply to Peabody :

I wish that was the case, $500 is the average around here,  it I found 3 possibilities around $250. 

If only people could put the offset or vehicle they were used on in the ad...

The wagon listed In January for $1200, that the seller decided was too little and didn't sell to me. Fixed himself in 24 hours, it had a fault code in the original posting. Then put back up for $3500 a month later. Offered two and just got this back. It's been up for 17 days, no sale yet. 
 

dan0 said:

Ugh. One more time U-Haul and they're already pissing me off. 
 

After last time and talking with the guy at the place I like he said call us directly. So I did. No auto transports there. 
 

Fine use the reservation system online. 24 hours, pick up this afternoon 4pm, selected location close to me. Add credit card for reservation, about to hit submit and scrolled down slightly... Pickup at a completely different location. WTF! 
 

Cancel and re-do reservation. Pickup up tomorrow morning instead and only 10 hours. 
 

Well as I'm writing this and upset already the seller messaged me back AFTER I told him I have a reservation setup and would be there tomorrow. 
 

 

I told him forget it. That's my reservation AND cancellation. Good luck with your sale.

So close to a wagon. berkeleying eh! 

Seems like an overreaction on your end. The guy wanted to know you wouldn't flake. If anything you proved him right, and now, you don't have a wagon.