Post a bad thing that happened in your life today

[Bryan]

Yesterday we drove to Whitley Bay and walked north along the coast, catching a bus back.  There were very few people on the bus, but driving home through Newcastle was a nightmare, as everybody and their dog were out on the roads with queues everywhere.   We normally use public transport but have been avoiding the often crowded Metro system during lockdown. Won't be taking the car back into north Tyneside for while. 

[Thyrsis]

5 hours ago, sb photos said:

 

Good to hear buses from your village are pretty empty. Yesterday Oxford was bearable by weaving about, and sometimes waiting for narrower areas to clear, a bit like moving around in a supermarket. I left Oxford via the Cowley Road, and was surprised how busy it was, during 2020 walking it was acceptable, glad I didn't park off off it and walk down it. Yesterday it was as if the Covid Pandemic had never happened. The busiest I'd ever seen Oxford's Cowley Road was during the 2019 carnival, picture at https://www.cowleyroadworks.org/carnival-gallery-2019/ then scroll down 25 rows and click on the second image from the left. I shot it with a D750 and 24-70 held high on a monopod.

 

The roads in and around Oxford are totally back to normal. We went to buy charcoal today (it’s bbq weather, hurrah) and it took much longer to get there and back because of all the folk heading into town to the reopened shops.

[Ed Rooney]

It's almost 2AM as I write this, and we've just had the 4th false alarm go off tonight. There are 6 firetrucks outside, and I can't count the firemen. These false alarms just won't stop. There was one Eastern Sunday morning, another when I was in the shower, another when I was fixing lunch. 

[Michael Ventura]

Oh man, sorry about that Edo.  When I saw that you just posted in the Bad Thing thread at your late hour of the night, it did get me concerned!  It’s just not right that you go through so many false alarms. And if the real thing happens, you may not react as you should.  
 

hope you get some sleep!

[Betty LaRue]

If Ed posts a selfie of himself 🤪<——looking like this, we’ll understand.

[sb photos]

4 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

It's almost 2AM as I write this, and we've just had the 4th false alarm go off tonight. There are 6 firetrucks outside, and I can't count the firemen. These false alarms just won't stop. There was one Eastern Sunday morning, another when I was in the shower, another when I was fixing lunch. 

 

Not good. The only consolation is that the Fire Brigade charge your landlord for attending false alarms. You would think they would have sorted the problem to avoid the bills.

[gvallee]

7 minutes ago, Sally R said:

Two days ago I was bitten by a suspected redback spider, suspected because I did not feel the initial bite but the symptoms that followed matched redback spider bite symptoms. I was on grass near a lake. I went to get up and put my left hand on the ground as I did so. About one minute later after I'd walked down to the edge of the lake I felt searing pain developing in the palm of that hand. Once home I found ice was the one thing that helped the pain, but once I removed the ice pack the pain was severe again within minutes. After several hours of this I called the health direct info line who advised it sounded like a redback bite and I should go to hospital emergency. It was about 11pm and I was reluctant. As I had none of the dangerous allergic reaction signs, the person advising me said I could see the doctor first thing in the morning, but with her primary advice being to go to the ED. So I went to the doctor first thing in the morning. She was very helpful and ran some blood tests to check things like liver function etc, and from a message on my phone late yesterday the results are ok.

 

This morning the swelling has come down significantly and only slightly painful. The two indicators it was likely a redback were initially not feeling the bite but the pain then coming on after a few minutes (very different to stings/bites from bees, wasps or ants) and the fact that ice alleviated the pain but it got worse again once the ice was removed. Apparently the initial bite can be painful, or is not felt at all, but it gets significantly worse after several minutes or over the first hour. Often no bite marks are visible because of the small size of redbacks. If you are in Australia, or the several other countries where redbacks now live, my advice would be to get medical advice straight away if you suspect a bite. I did visit a pharmacy on my way home and got antihistamines, but should really have gone to a doctor or hospital in the first instance. I did that thing of thinking it wasn't serious enough to go to a hospital, but really it is better to get it looked at quickly, especially as complications of redback bites can be very serious.

 

I didn't think to take a photo of my hand when it was all puffy for stock. Oh well.

 

Oh Sally! It could have been serious. Redback spiders are not easy to spot, especially in the grass. Hope this is all behind you now.

[Allan Bell]

8 hours ago, gvallee said:

Hope this is all behind you now.

 

Sally put her hand on it not her bum.🙃

 

Allan

 

[Ed Rooney]

Sally! Ouch!

 

I'm wondering what the Aboriginal people did about all those dangerous critters? They must have devised some effective home remedies. 

 

Edited April 25, 2021 by Ed Rooney

[Bryan]

Our Morphy Richards steam iron, less than 3 years old and not heavily used, caused the house electrics to trip out when plugged in.   Consigned to recycling.   I would expect a product of this sort to last 10 years or more.  We thought that we were buying a quality item, clearly not.

[spacecadet]

21 minutes ago, Bryan said:

Our Morphy Richards steam iron, less than 3 years old and not heavily used, caused the house electrics to trip out when plugged in.   Consigned to recycling.   I would expect a product of this sort to last 10 years or more.  We thought that we were buying a quality item, clearly not.

Yes, irons and toasters too. It's the bi-metallic strip I assume, one of the few things you can't readily fix. Did you try resetting the house breaker after plugging it in? Just diagnostic really, it's not really useable like that.

Our toaster that used to do it just stopped doing it. So who knows. I think our last iron cost about £5. It gets used at least twice a year

Didn't drop it without owning up did you😇

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, spacecadet said:

Yes, irons and toasters too. It's the bi-metallic strip I assume, one of the few things you can't readily fix. Did you try resetting the house breaker after plugging it in? Just diagnostic really, it's not really useable like that.

Our toaster that used to do it just stopped doing it. So who knows. I think our last iron cost about £5. It gets used at least twice a year

Didn't drop it without owning up did you😇

 

It caused the computer to shut down in use Mark and I'm not prepared to risk damage to the drives. 

 

Drop it, I never picked it up 😉

 

 

[aphperspective]

2 hours ago, Bryan said:

Our Morphy Richards steam iron, less than 3 years old and not heavily used, caused the house electrics to trip out when plugged in.   Consigned to recycling.   I would expect a product of this sort to last 10 years or more.  We thought that we were buying a quality item, clearly not.

It probhably came out of the same factory in China that Phillips kettles come out of plus loads of other famous "home brand names" Bryan.

[AlbertSnapper]

If they built things to last..... .....

......then they wouldn't sell so many !

[Betty LaRue]

My mother had a refrigerator she used for 20 years. She passed it on to another family member who used it another 10 years, and never once needed a repair. It was still working when that person bought new for wanting frost-free and a larger freezer section. Now you’re lucky if they last 8-10 years. I’ve had mine about 6 years and it’s already been worked on once.

[NYCat]

I still use a Zenith TV that must be at least 20 years old. Obviously, I'm not into a lot of the streaming you can do on your TV these days but I actually like the picture better than the new high definition ones. I don't like to see the actors' pores.... though I guess a lot of them have to wear plastic make-up these days. EEeechhhh.

 

Paulette

[Allan Bell]

On 03/05/2021 at 16:13, NYCat said:

I still use a Zenith TV that must be at least 20 years old. Obviously, I'm not into a lot of the streaming you can do on your TV these days but I actually like the picture better than the new high definition ones. I don't like to see the actors' pores.... though I guess a lot of them have to wear plastic make-up these days. EEeechhhh.

 

Paulette

 

That must have been the peak of perfection at the time.

 

Allan

 

Zenith = peak???

 

ITMA

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by Allan Bell

[NYCat]

43 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

That must have been the peak of perfection at the time.

 

Allan

 

 

Yes. It is also stereo sound and that wasn't common then. It's also a good-looking piece of furniture. I paid what seemed to be a lot at the time but definitely worth every penny. Zenith were famous for lasting a long time but I didn't expect decade after decade. Not complaining. By the time I need a new TV they will probably do the dishes for me.

 

Paulette

[spacecadet]

1 hour ago, NYCat said:

I still use a Zenith TV that must be at least 20 years old. Obviously, I'm not into a lot of the streaming you can do on your TV these days but I actually like the picture better than the new high definition ones. I don't like to see the actors' pores.... though I guess a lot of them have to wear plastic make-up these days. EEeechhhh.

 

Paulette

You must have a digibox then! That's pre-digital. We only chucked away a 40-year-old one last year because there was no way to connect it to a digibox-it was pre-SCART.

[spacecadet]

5 hours ago, Bryan said:

It caused the computer to shut down in use

😮

5 hours ago, Bryan said:

Drop it, I never picked it up

😀

[NYCat]

24 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

You must have a digibox then! That's pre-digital. We only chucked away a 40-year-old one last year because there was no way to connect it to a digibox-it was pre-SCART.

 

You are definitely speaking a foreign language. I do have a "thingy" that goes between my TV and the Cable box because it is an analog set. Works.

 

Paulette

[Bryan]

9 hours ago, NYCat said:

 

You are definitely speaking a foreign language. I do have a "thingy" that goes between my TV and the Cable box because it is an analog set. Works.

 

Paulette

Once upon a time you could buy a gadget that allowed the use of a laptop as a TV. We used one in our touring caravan for years. It doesn't work with our new laptop and I can't find a replacement. People use satellite dishes these days, but we would struggle to find room for one in our tiny van, while campsite WiFi rarely has enough bandwidth to enable a person to watch TV digitally. I guess that we could buy a mini TV but that wouldn't double as a computer. Could we live with a smartphone for internet access, possibly?

[Betty LaRue]

Paulette, we had a Zenith TV until about 5-6 years ago. The color was perfect, skin tones beautiful. I always thought Zenith was the cream of the crop. I think we had it about 25 years. Also a piece of furniture.

I have to admit though, when we got our 55” flatscreen, the picture seemed to leap out. It’s particularly good for sports.  Since I’m big-time into college football, I love it.  That one is downstairs, and I have a 60” one upstairs since 2 years ago.

See...when the tornadoes come and Toto is whirling overhead in the sky, Echo and I will be huddling in the basement watching the weather, and Toto flying by. I might even see the Tin Man. I’m sure that will be storm-chaser video-worthy.

Speaking of storms...Norman, Oklahoma, home of the National Weather Bureau, and home to my football team, the Sooners, had a mega hailstorm last week. One car dealership (Honda) with many rows of cars outside, is a total loss. Not a windshield (windscreen) front or back was left intact, and the bodies pockmarked all to heck.  We drove to Norman for football games a lot. Just south of OKC 30-40 minutes drive time from where we lived.

Here comes the roofing shysters.

[Betty LaRue]

My bad thing. Carrying on with the computer fiasco, I’ve been gathering my tax info. Some of it isn’t sent to me by mail anymore, but sent to my computer now, and I have to print it out.

One important form wasn’t printing in proper word form. Instructions on their site said a lot of people were getting little black boxes when they tried to print. Me, too. I even downloaded Adobe reader per their instructions. I can’t begin to say how much paper I wasted trying different things. Then I ran out of ink.

I called them and told them to email it straight to my CPA in a readable, printable form.

I still need my printer for other parts of this tax process, so I went to a shop to buy an ink cartridge. There were many cartridge gaps (Covid related) and they didn’t have what I needed. I had to drive 20 minutes south to finally find it. I should have had it all done today. I think a lot of businesses just trying to stay afloat weren’t placing the orders they needed, since there were few customers. I have an idea that's pretty widespread. I went to an upscale nursery to buy my tomato plants because I wanted the bigger ones.  All they had were smalls in tiny pots.

[Michael Ventura]

11 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

My bad thing. Carrying on with the computer fiasco, I’ve been gathering my tax info. Some of it isn’t sent to me by mail anymore, but sent to my computer now, and I have to print it out.

One important form wasn’t printing in proper word form. Instructions on their site said a lot of people were getting little black boxes when they tried to print. Me, too. I even downloaded Adobe reader per their instructions. I can’t begin to say how much paper I wasted trying different things. Then I ran out of ink.

I called them and told them to email it straight to my CPA in a readable, printable form.

I still need my printer for other parts of this tax process, so I went to a shop to buy an ink cartridge. There were many cartridge gaps (Covid related) and they didn’t have what I needed. I had to drive 20 minutes south to finally find it. I should have had it all done today. I think a lot of businesses just trying to stay afloat weren’t placing the orders they needed, since there were few customers. I have an idea that's pretty widespread. I went to an upscale nursery to buy my tomato plants because I wanted the bigger ones.  All they had were smalls in tiny pots.

 

Betty, I struggle with the constant request from banks and credit card institutions who are always after me to go paperless.  I am an environmentalist at heart and always want to do the right thing for our planet but I need printed documents for my business records and taxes and so if they are not printing them, then I am.  I would rather that they print them but suppose then that they have to be mailed and that is more paper and more energy being used to get them to me.   I know I'm old school that way and I know my kids would much rather do everything electronically.  I am not even sure my daughter has ever used a checkbook.  Anyway, I get your frustration for sure.