Post a bad thing that happened in your life today

[Mr Standfast]

Space X did a "rapid unscheduled disassembly".  Daft phrase but a fantastic rocket! 

 

Self destruct button worked though!

[spacecadet]

34 minutes ago, Mr Standfast said:

Space X did a "rapid unscheduled disassembly".  Daft phrase but a fantastic rocket! 

 

Self destruct button worked though!

How to spend a gigabuck in 0.002 seconds...............

[Betty LaRue]

4 hours ago, Michael Ventura said:

So this isn't all that bad but more of a story of frustration.  Amazon has been opening these grocery stores in my area where you don't have to go through a check-out (with a human), you just put things in your trolley and use a QR code on your smart phone and leave.  You get a receipt sent to you.  I've tried it twice and it works well.  Anyway, I have been hearing that Amazon backing off on their plans on this chain and closed one, near me, even before it opened.  So on Monday I drove by it and the weather closed in so I decided it wasn't worth stopping and taking some snaps (bad idea)....Yesterday the weather was bright and sunny so I thought I will go by there and get some shots...wouldn't you know, all the Amazon signage was removed from the building.  One of the big signs said, "Just Walk Out Shopping".   A day and late and a dollar short (one dollar would have been about I would have made anyway).

My son said Sam’s here in Wichita is doing it now.  don’t know if you have a Sam’s near you or if it has changed over, but possibly you could check & see. 

[Michael Ventura]

2 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

My son said Sam’s here in Wichita is doing it now.  don’t know if you have a Sam’s near you or if it has changed over, but possibly you could check & see. 

 

We do have Sam's Club near me.  I suppose that is the future, getting rid of the checker jobs.  Looks like Amazon Fresh is in nine states, pretty much in the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast, West Coast states and Illinois.  But I am hearing that this business model is not going super well.

[sooth]

.

Edited October 19, 2023 by sooth

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

found out via travel blog Miami <==> Madrid Iberia Airlines using
British Airways Avios points off-peak quite cheap; had enough Avios
for (2) busn MIA-MAD then (2) premium econ return ~21 days later;

go online & discover British Airways offers no award seating May 20
thru June & only accepts cash at insane price:
$4800US / (2) rt Premium Economy !!

color me dour... 😡 😡
PLAN B: 24-night road trip Miami --> up Atlantic Coast -->
around New England --> down Appalachians --> Miami
using IHG points for HIX lodging includes breakfast...

[Betty LaRue]

18 minutes ago, Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg said:

found out via travel blog Miami <==> Madrid Iberia Airlines using
British Airways Avios points off-peak quite cheap; had enough Avios
for (2) busn MIA-MAD then (2) premium econ return ~21 days later;

go online & discover British Airways offers no award seating May 20
thru June & only accepts cash at insane price:
$4800US / (2) rt Premium Economy !!

color me dour... 😡 😡
PLAN B: 24-night road trip Miami --> up Atlantic Coast -->
around New England --> down Appalachians --> Miami
using IHG points for HIX lodging includes breakfast...

I envy you that trip. Did it from Oklahoma to N Carolina, up to Maine then traveled back through other states to Oklahoma. We traveled as close to the coastline as we could going up to Maine.

[Mr Standfast]

I am tryiing to get through to British Gas. I am number 66 in the queue.

 

 

[NYCat]

The cat siblings that came to me on Tuesday are not behaving like a "bonded pair". I'm now having to set one up in the bedroom with food, water and litter. I think it will be fine in a few days but I got two at once so as not to go through this process of convincing two cats that they can live together. Ah cats! So unpredictable.

 

Paulette

[Betty LaRue]

3 hours ago, NYCat said:

The cat siblings that came to me on Tuesday are not behaving like a "bonded pair". I'm now having to set one up in the bedroom with food, water and litter. I think it will be fine in a few days but I got two at once so as not to go through this process of convincing two cats that they can live together. Ah cats! So unpredictable.

 

Paulette

How old are they? 

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

On 20/04/2023 at 22:32, Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg said:

PLAN B: 24-night road trip Miami --> up Atlantic Coast -->
around New England --> down Appalachians --> Miami
using IHG points for HIX lodging includes breakfast...

...& now online co-workers, ✍___✍___✍___✍___✍

 

PLAN C : (wifey don't want our first road trip in some time to be so long in time AND distance)

 

16 nights, 2-4 nights each in one or more of these, or other nearby, urban areas,

Jacksonville FL, Macon GA, Atlanta GA, Athens GA, Charlotte NC, Asheville NC;

& spontaneous stops between using Atlas Obsucura*, Google queries*

*any other "real time" ways to search for smallish town stops?
thanks in advance

Edited April 28, 2023 by Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg

[Allan Bell]

6 hours ago, Mr Standfast said:

I am tryiing to get through to British Gas. I am number 66 in the queue.

 

 

 

Have you got through to BG yet?

 

Allan

 

[NYCat]

51 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

How old are they? 

 

They are 7.5 and have been together their whole lives. One of the photos of them has them cuddled together. I'm not quite sure why they are having such a problem. The have always lived in the same home and cats are terrible about being in a new place. The female is now VERY affectionate and has the living room and bathroom to herself. The boy is under the bed and moans a little when I talk to him. The owners told me he'd be the shyest but also the most likely to snuggle. If he is more affectionate than she is I'll have little time to do anything besides cuddling cats. Not the worst thing in the world. I'm just not sure how to get them together now. Just wait for them to decide I guess.

 

Paulette

[Betty LaRue]

18 minutes ago, NYCat said:

 

They are 7.5 and have been together their whole lives. One of the photos of them has them cuddled together. I'm not quite sure why they are having such a problem. The have always lived in the same home and cats are terrible about being in a new place. The female is now VERY affectionate and has the living room and bathroom to herself. The boy is under the bed and moans a little when I talk to him. The owners told me he'd be the shyest but also the most likely to snuggle. If he is more affectionate than she is I'll have little time to do anything besides cuddling cats. Not the worst thing in the world. I'm just not sure how to get them together now. Just wait for them to decide I guess.

 

Paulette

I’m sure it is the disruption & upheaval in their lives. As we know, animals (and people) are creatures of habit. The reason some pets leave their new home, given the opportunity, & later show up at the old one. Some, years later.

 

[Rebecca Ore]

4 hours ago, NYCat said:

The cat siblings that came to me on Tuesday are not behaving like a "bonded pair". I'm now having to set one up in the bedroom with food, water and litter. I think it will be fine in a few days but I got two at once so as not to go through this process of convincing two cats that they can live together. Ah cats! So unpredictable.

 

Paulette

 

Maybe they blamed each other for the disruption in their lives?  

 

Meanwhile, here in Nicaragua, the intact tom who's been stealing food decided to try to have sex with my neutered cat Belle, so a course of one rabies shot and three days of antibiotics followed (she's okay).  Luis caught the tom and we were going to have him neutered, but when the carrier banged against the my house door, the carrier door opened.   Sigh.  If we ever catch him again, he's making a trip to the vet.

 

Lola the dog and Siry the time-share cat both understand that they can run the gray tabby tom off with my permission.   Belle now dilates her pupils when Luis gets close since he does all the animals to the vet's runs. 

 

Mixed household.  Siry and sometimes Belle drink from the fish tank, and if there's a floater, someone hauls it out and put it in the passage way where I find the dried up corpse.  I'm now down to one male cichlid.   Luis wants me to get more colorful fish, but I don't want to heat the tank.   The convicts are local.   I can add the local mollies and possibly a school of local tetras without having to heat a 130 gallon tank.

 

Still no sign of Maude, so either she charmed her way into a new household or she died of any one of the complications for outdoor cat in this town. 

 

 

 

 

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

41 minutes ago, NYCat said:

...is under the bed and moans a little when I talk to him. The owners told me he'd be the shyest...

oh Paulette

we have feral cats along our beach walk;
they watch humans walk by but run if
if anyone stops...

I've semi-tamed one all-white beauty
within days via once-a-day small piece

of sliced deli meat in open palm; first

few times had to drop it on ground...
NOW IT PURRS WHILST I RUB ITS EARS

😻___😻___😻

 

[sb photos]

1 hour ago, Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg said:

oh Paulette

we have feral cats along our beach walk;
they watch humans walk by but run if
if anyone stops...

I've semi-tamed one all-white beauty
within days via once-a-day small piece

of sliced deli meat in open palm; first

few times had to drop it on ground...
NOW IT PURRS WHILST I RUB ITS EARS

😻___😻___😻

 

Our current cat, Bran, was a stray who moved in with friends, but didn’t get on with their cat. We were invited round as the friends knew we had recently lost our cat, an ex stray, when he was run down by a fast car. He  likes his ears rubbed too, but now something new. He will often jump on top of a chest of draws on the first landing to gain height, and loves to be stroked there. After a few minutes he wants to play fight, but only on that chest of draws, no where else. Occasionally he will draw blood after getting a little carried away, but its all good natured. He is our fifth cat, all but the first were either strays or just decided to move in with us, and each had their unique wonderful personality. Long ago we part tamed a wild stray that hung out close to a stream side cottage we hired for a break on Exmoor in the UK. We missed each other when it was time to leave.

[Bryan]

Last year we severely cut back a plum tree that had got to be far too big, and yes we should have bought one on a more suitable rootstock ! We knew that it might not survive such a severe pruning, and, sadly, it has not - so I need to remove it. Having recently struggled to take out an oversize conifer I don't relish the task, indeed I'm under instructions to pay someone to do it. However we once paid a contractor to remove an oversize cherry tree and I ended up having to dig out the roots myself. So I'm thinking of spending the money on a cheap chainsaw, thinking of it as a disposable asset, a single use tool. I can buy a 2kw mains powered saw for £55 which gets mainly good reviews. I need to persuade my other half that this is a viable scheme. There might me photo opportunities, man loses arm/leg or other body part using chainsaw, editorial only.

[Harry Harrison]

30 minutes ago, Bryan said:

I can buy a 2kw mains powered saw for £55 which gets mainly good reviews.

I bought a 1.8kw 40cms Makita UC4041A for around £100 for a similar task last year, it seems to have gone up a bit now though, hasn't everything?* It was much better than I was expecting and I've easily logged a couple of fairly substantial fallen trees in no time at all. Easily paid for itself several times over. Roots are tricky as the chain is easily blunted by contact with a stone of course.

 

* No, actually stock photo prices haven't gone up.

Edited April 29, 2023 by Harry Harrison

[Dave Richards]

1 hour ago, Bryan said:

There might me photo opportunities, man loses arm/leg or other body part using chainsaw, editorial only.

Maybe get some body armour to go with it. 😳

[sb photos]

22 hours ago, Mr Standfast said:

I am tryiing to get through to British Gas. I am number 66 in the queue.

 

 

 

What I hate re telephone queues is the regular 'we are exceptionally busy and your business is important to us' message, when in fact that is the new norm. They don't care, they are just reducing business costs by reducing call centre staff. Literally all larger companies operate this way, so if you were to change suppliers you would find the same telephone queues.

[Dave Richards]

1 hour ago, sb photos said:

 

What I hate re telephone queues is the regular 'we are exceptionally busy and your business is important to us' message, when in fact that is the new norm. They don't care, they are just reducing business costs by reducing call centre staff. Literally all larger companies operate this way, so if you were to change suppliers you would find the same telephone queues.

Try getting through to HMRC. They don’t even tell you where you are in the queue. I tried calling them once and ran down my mobile battery.

[Mr Standfast]

18 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Have you got through to BG yet?

 

Allan

 

54.

[Mr Standfast]

2 hours ago, sb photos said:

 

What I hate re telephone queues is the regular 'we are exceptionally busy and your business is important to us' message, when in fact that is the new norm. They don't care, they are just reducing business costs by reducing call centre staff. Literally all larger companies operate this way, so if you were to change suppliers you would find the same telephone queues.

53!

[Allan Bell]

2 hours ago, sb photos said:

 

What I hate re telephone queues is the regular 'we are exceptionally busy and your business is important to us' message, when in fact that is the new norm. They don't care, they are just reducing business costs by reducing call centre staff. Literally all larger companies operate this way, so if you were to change suppliers you would find the same telephone queues.

 

Not to do with phone queues but what I dislike is when I renew my car insurance and they tell me it has gone up by 75%.

 

I ask,   "Why it has gone up so much?"

 

The stock reply is,  "There has been a big increase in theft and damage to your model of car in your area."

 

I ask,   "Why does your company instruct you to respond with that statement EVERY time I ask about the increase?"

 

"SILENCE"     then   ERrrr!

 

I always get a big reduction in the increase.

 

Allan