Bear Down Wildcats

ASUHATER! wrote:

JMarkJohns wrote:8 years ago next week my sister started work as an in-Home caregiver. She worked that job excellently well, winning city and regional acclaim and honors. 5 years ago her husband decided he wanted to fuck around, so, she did all this for her work with her own world falling apart. She braved everyday and battles and eventually she was given a promotion opportunity, which she grabbed a hold of, won, and hit the ground running, again, gaining regional acclaim, while battling through depression over her loss and her exes gain (a baby with his mistress, so now her children have a sibling not hers).

One year ago, she was aces. Then came a few people retiring and her caseload became untenable, and she was stockpiled with 8/10 of the most difficult care cases. About six months ago, she had a care giver completely screw up and in the flurry of activity, a few small things were missed, and slowly over the last 6 months they have emerged and now a job where she gets 3 strikes is now a job where one strike has accounted for all three Xs. She’s been told she will not be retained and to find new employment soon, because if she isn’t gone by Thanksgiving, she will be fired and company policy is all recommendations for fired employees are basically non-recommendations.

It’s complete and utter bullshit.

She didn’t even make the mistake. The scheduled shift didn’t show up for work. She covered the shift until backup got there, left a list, walked her through what to do, left, only to have the backup with an unfamiliar academy miss one aspect of the new case.

No actual harm occurred. But it doesn’t matter.

So, now, mother of 2 with 8 years of her 32 years invested in this career has been kicked to the curb.

Your career doesn’t give a shit about you.

Damn. This is what boomers don't get. You don't owe anything to your company. You don't mean shit to them 99% of the time. Take care of yourself, your family and your sanity first. Work to live, don't live to work. Work smarter not harder. You aren't required to give every ounce of energy and time and 40 years to some company anymore. Late stage capitalism has ensured that you're just a throwaway drone. I hope she gets back on her feet soon.

This boomer gets it, and got it a long time ago. Good advice. In my career I have worked for two companies (among others) that treated employees like family, one a Fortune 50 company, one a small local company. Both were sold, and boy did things change. A lot of people got screwed. Yes, watch out for yourself. One objection to your advice: work both harder AND smarter. You'll be glad you did.

People who sign up to donate 40dollar bottles of wine for a charity auction evening who then try to pass 22 dollar bottles of wine off as their donation.

And my poor wife as wine chair having to have to email them to exchange for what they signed up for.

I don’t know what’s worse, academia politics or suburban community organization politics.

$22 is a mighty fancy bottle of wine

Had a fine bottle of wine from Costco the other day, only $12. Was quite good.

ASUHATER! wrote:$22 is a mighty fancy bottle of wine

Not disagreeing, but them’s the rules.

Don’t sign up if you don’t want to and if you do honor what you signed up for.

Ultimately I don’t care, im still gonna go, get drunk on sat, and bid way more than retail price on shit that I don’t really need or want. Although the ski in catered condo at squaw valley with lift tickets for three days two nights is pretty bad ass. Credit to wife for taking away my bid pallat last year before that damage hit the credit card.

Genuinely lost my shit on the phone today for the first time in 24 years of practicing law with a couple of big city tall building lawyers who tried to pin their client's fuck up on me. They conferenced me in on a call and when I answered they couldn't hear me, but I could hear them talking shit about me. So when they called back my hackles were up. They tried to pull some 11th hour bullshit. While I was chewing them out, much to the amusement of the rest of the office, I said that I didn't appreciate the late Friday afternoon "gangbang!" I heard it at the same time everyone's eyes went wide around me. Anyway, that shut them up. Their client didn't deliver today and now they're in default.

I picked a bad month for Sober October. Headed to the gym to bang one out . . .

Grubhub can suck my fat hairy balls!!!

BearDown89 wrote:Genuinely lost my shit on the phone today for the first time in 24 years of practicing law with a couple of big city tall building lawyers who tried to pin their client's fuck up on me. They conferenced me in on a call and when I answered they couldn't hear me, but I could hear them talking shit about me. So when they called back my hackles were up. They tried to pull some 11th hour bullshit. While I was chewing them out, much to the amusement of the rest of the office, I said that I didn't appreciate the late Friday afternoon "gangbang!" I heard it at the same time everyone's eyes went wide around me. Anyway, that shut them up. Their client didn't deliver today and now they're in default.

I picked a bad month for Sober October. Headed to the gym to bang one out . . .

Speaking as a big city tall building lawyer, our entire lives are 11th hour bullshit.

A new phrase really pisses me off. It's not as bad as "I met my person" but its close. It's the phrase "we are pregnant". No, sorry. The girl is pregnant. The dude isn't. Doesn't mean the dude shouldn't be clued into the fact that he is part of this. But come on. Pregnancy is a physical condition and guy just isn't.

Picked up some Hawaiian BBQ for a catered work lunch...and proceeded to have the containers leak about a cup of liquid pork fat down my slacks

One of my best friends growing up dad passed away yesterday in his 50's. Man life sucks sometimes. He was way to young.

There are times....moments....minutes....hours....days....weeks....months....years....when it's just damn hard to look at the world and then tell young people that things will get better.

SCOOTERS! Bird. Lime. Razor. Talk about a mixed bag of potential goodness and jungle capitalism's codified stupidity. If I weigh the good with the bad I still hate the fucking things.

OCD note. Walked five blocks to vote for Beto. Counted 298 scooters on the way back. Groan. Sidewalk parking should be by permit IMO, a tax to fund infrastructure improvement to manage the placement of the scooters in a rational way. Municipalities issue permits for street vendors and kiosks on the Riverwalk, why not for sidewalk parking?

We don't have them in Tucson as far as I know, but I'm working up in Tempe for the next few weeks and they're all over the place. They're an eyesore and people just leave them all ove rht e place. I imagine they beat public transportation in terms of speed and convenience, though.

The council should confiscate them and fine them for littering. Confiscated scooters should be crunched and dumped in landfill after recycling batteries and motors.

I would advocate for municipalities to require both scooter companies and users to indemnify/insure the municipality each time a scooter is rented. Finding an insurer to write the policy standards will be the dicey part and will probably form the basis of true use management, hard to say.

Today a 13 year old girl went careening by us the wrong way down a one-way street barely able to steer and balance. She was having a ton of fun obviously while her father rode his own scooter nearby laughing his ass off. What could possibly go wrong? Who will sue whom when it does, and why? Jungle capitalism at work.

My 60 year old dad decided about 2 months ago out of the blue that he is going to sell everything he owns, cash out his meager savings and move to Utila Island off the coast of Honduras. On the surface I'm super glad for him because he's never done anything for himself his entire adult life and he deserves to do something he wants to do.

Unfortunately, after a lifetime of hard physical work in the outdoor heat (thankfully he spent the last 9 years in an office job), and many, many health issues he has the body of someone 15 or more years older.

He can't even claim social security for another 20 months but is planning on living on this Caribbean island off his small savings (after buying property and building a house) and his Arizona State retirement pension of $600.

He has at least a dozen medications and needs regular doctor visits and cardiologist checkups but apparently he's giving that up? I'm just super frustrated because I want him to be happy but him moving to butt fuck nowhere is a terrible decision.

Seems like a really drastic step. Has he been there before? Or did he just throw a dart at a map?

Chicat wrote:Seems like a really drastic step. Has he been there before? Or did he just throw a dart at a map?

He visited for a week last month and looked at properties. He just decided on a place that was cheap basically. Since best case scenario he'll have (eventually) his $1800 a month in retirement and Social security income and maybe $15000 to his name in a bank account.

ASUHATER! wrote:

Chicat wrote:Seems like a really drastic step. Has he been there before? Or did he just throw a dart at a map?

He visited for a week last month and looked at properties. He just decided on a place that was cheap basically. Since best case scenario he'll have (eventually) his $1800 a month in retirement and Social security income and maybe $15000 to his name in a bank account.

Obviously I only know the barest minimum about the situation, but if this was my parent I’d be wondering if there wasn’t something else going on (depression, early onset dementia/Alzheimer’s, cancer, etc) and I’d have some hard probing questions about exactly what was motivating such a crazy life change.

Chicat wrote:

ASUHATER! wrote:

Chicat wrote:Seems like a really drastic step. Has he been there before? Or did he just throw a dart at a map?

He visited for a week last month and looked at properties. He just decided on a place that was cheap basically. Since best case scenario he'll have (eventually) his $1800 a month in retirement and Social security income and maybe $15000 to his name in a bank account.

Obviously I only know the barest minimum about the situation, but if this was my parent I’d be wondering if there wasn’t something else going on (depression, early onset dementia/Alzheimer’s, cancer, etc) and I’d have some hard probing questions about exactly what was motivating such a crazy life change.

Definitely makes sense, but I haven't noticed anything like Alzheimer's, depression though is likely. I truly think he's having a delayed middle aged crisis. He's in pain and for the first time in his life sees something resembling an opportunity to do something different and is latching on to it. He's had a heightened sense of mortality since he's had so many health issues before age 60.

My knee hurts.

I got my bike back from getting new wheels installed (the old ones finally succumbed to rust and neglect) and general servicing a couple of days ago. Yesterday is the first day I had a chance to try it out. So I ride down to the car dealer to pick up my car that is getting serviced.

So, the bike is feeling great and I'm starting to get my feel back but I haven't quite got the Shimano pedal clips working without thinking about them yet. Half way there, I slowed down and pulled over to let a car go by. No worries.

Then as I accelerated THE FUCKING BACK WHEEL COMES OUT OF THE BRACKET, THE TIRE PULL DOWN INTO THE BRAKE PADS, THE BIKE STOPS DEAD, AND I FALL OVER LIKE A TRICYCLE ON A FUCKING [strike]BENNY HILL[/strike] ROWAN AND MARTIN SHOW.




My foot didn't just automagically disconnect from the pedals like it used to do when I was riding all the time, but it was trying to twist out as I went down hard on my shoulder and hip, and this morning I could hardly step out of the bed. Everything else is OK, even my hip with the piece of steel in it. The knee has improved steadily during the day but it still hurts and I expect it will for a few days. I'm not as young as I used to be.

I think I now better appreciate those 'minor' sprains that the basketball guys get from time to time and have to take a game off. I can handle walking around, but I don't wanna do any running or riding for a couple of days.

scumdevils86 wrote:

Chicat wrote:

ASUHATER! wrote:

Chicat wrote:Seems like a really drastic step. Has he been there before? Or did he just throw a dart at a map?

He visited for a week last month and looked at properties. He just decided on a place that was cheap basically. Since best case scenario he'll have (eventually) his $1800 a month in retirement and Social security income and maybe $15000 to his name in a bank account.

Obviously I only know the barest minimum about the situation, but if this was my parent I’d be wondering if there wasn’t something else going on (depression, early onset dementia/Alzheimer’s, cancer, etc) and I’d have some hard probing questions about exactly what was motivating such a crazy life change.

Definitely makes sense, but I haven't noticed anything like Alzheimer's, depression though is likely. I truly think he's having a delayed middle aged crisis. He's in pain and for the first time in his life sees something resembling an opportunity to do something different and is latching on to it. He's had a heightened sense of mortality since he's had so many health issues before age 60.

Dad sold his house for cash in less than 24 hours, quit his job, and will be on a plane to Honduras by the new year. Amazing how fast this all happened...

fuck amazon and fuck ontrac shipping

Gender reveal parties are the latest abomination. Most moronic, narcissistic shit ever. Like having a coin-flipping party and betting on heads or tails. Tails? Tails? You're shitting me! What are the odds??? 50/50 dip shit.

PieceOfMeat wrote:fuck amazon and fuck ontrac shipping

As someone who once worked for Ontrac, i agree.

Had a tooth removed (upper left back molar) yesterday. If I loose one more tooth I'll either have to join a hockey team or move to Alabama.

Why do pens all of a sudden run out of ink when you are writing down a phone number?

azgreg wrote:Had a tooth removed (upper left back molar) yesterday. If I loose one more tooth I'll either have to join a hockey team or move to Alabama.

Come on man. I'm currently living in Alabama and it's not that bad. If you're going to pick a southern state to make fun of it has to be Mississippi.

DrWildcat wrote:

azgreg wrote:Had a tooth removed (upper left back molar) yesterday. If I loose one more tooth I'll either have to join a hockey team or move to Alabama.

Come on man. I'm currently living in Alabama and it's not that bad. If you're going to pick a southern state to make fun of it has to be Mississippi.

I'm pretty sure West Virginia has the lowest tooth per person ratio.

cpt wrote:Gender reveal parties are the latest abomination. Most moronic, narcissistic shit ever. Like having a coin-flipping party and betting on heads or tails. Tails? Tails? You're shitting me! What are the odds??? 50/50 dip shit.

People have parties for all kinds of regular mundane shit now.

I’m just waiting for the social media trend where people have parties and post videos of themselves changing their smoke detector batteries.

“Did you see how Janice decorated her step stool in a Day of the Dead theme? That’s next level Battery Change Party shit right there...”

Alieberman wrote:

DrWildcat wrote:

azgreg wrote:Had a tooth removed (upper left back molar) yesterday. If I loose one more tooth I'll either have to join a hockey team or move to Alabama.

Come on man. I'm currently living in Alabama and it's not that bad. If you're going to pick a southern state to make fun of it has to be Mississippi.

I'm pretty sure West Virginia has the lowest tooth per person ratio.

Louisiana says “Hey der, don’ you be fergettin us coon ass swamp rats...”

azgreg wrote:Had a tooth removed (upper left back molar) yesterday. If I loose one more tooth I'll either have to join a hockey team or move to Alabama.

So, the hole in my mouth where the tooth used to be goes all the way into the sinus cavity and now it's infected. Not only can I smell it but sometimes it leaks into my mouth tasting like I just ate the ass out of a dead raccoon.

Greg, I’m going to stop you right there. After I throw up, let’s talk about oversharing...

.... Dude ....

azgreg wrote:

azgreg wrote:Had a tooth removed (upper left back molar) yesterday. If I loose one more tooth I'll either have to join a hockey team or move to Alabama.

So, the hole in my mouth where the tooth used to be goes all the way into the sinus cavity and now it's infected. Not only can I smell it but sometimes it leaks into my mouth tasting like I just ate the ass out of a dead raccoon.

TMI

OMG, I just nearly pissed myself in laughter from Greg’s vent!

Well done sir. And feel better soon.

Just pulled a groin muscle sitting at my desk.

azgreg wrote:Just pulled a groin muscle sitting at my desk.

It may be time to start doing Pilates.

azgreg wrote:Just pulled a groin muscle sitting at my desk.

“Groin muscle”, eh??

(Wink) (wink)

pc in NM wrote:

azgreg wrote:Just pulled a groin muscle sitting at my desk.

“Groin muscle”, eh??

(Wink) (wink)

Chicat wrote:

azgreg wrote:Just pulled a groin muscle sitting at my desk.

It may be time to start doing Pilates.

I was performing a mind numbing boring task of inspecting 717 hub-rotor shims for the Apache helicopter that have a ridiculous ±.0025" call out. I had my feet back behind me as I sat in the chair. I went to turn in the chair and one of my feet got caught behind the caster as the chair pushed back. My athletic abilities continue to confound me.

No personal offense to anyone here, but I really hate mechanics especially dealer mechanics.

They are as bad as plastic surgeons and cosmetic dentists pointing out every god damn flaw that needs “fixing” and critically urgently right now. Mechanic yesterday makes me feel as if my car is gonna blow up Italian mafia style the minute I turn over the ignition.

Die Wells Fargo! Die! Die! Fucking Die!!

dovecanyoncat wrote:Die Wells Fargo! Die! Die! Fucking Die!!

If only

My car got backed into by a truck in mid-November, causing a dent/gash in the passenger door. So we get it organized with the insurance company to get it in the shop in early December with the promise of a week. Meanwhile they give us a hire car. I'm happy.

So the promised day arrives, and since I've had no contact from the shop or the Insurance company, I call the shop to make sure its ready before I commit to driving down to drop off the rental and cabbing to the shop just to find out that they need a couple more days. This at 9am (on 10 December). The receptionist can't answer whether it is ready or not and the boss is in a meeting. He'll call back as soon as he is out of the meeting. At noon, there is still no call back, so I call again. He's in another meeting. Finally, he calls back at 2:30 (5 and a half hours later!) and tells me the car isn't ready and there is an issue with the insurer.

When I have the nerve to ask why couldn't the receptionist tell me the car wasn't ready at 9:00 so I could get on with my life he started yelling at me - she's too young and new - the info is not on her computer - the issue wasn't discovered until Friday - it is on her computer but - we don't want you to be getting the wrong information. I said the only information I wanted was is the car ready or not - I would be happy to then get a follow up explaining the problem - but all I wanted to know was is it ready; do I come and pick it up or not - surely that isn't too much to ask and surely not a question that requires a 5 and a half hour wait to get an answer?

So I call the insurer, who calls the shop while I'm holding on the line, he comes back muttering about he can't figure out what is happening either, something about maybe a cash settlement, which he refuses to explain and its back with insurers assessor, extends the car rental for another week. I tell him I won't talk to the shop again because of the abusive manager.

So I give the insurer another call on the 17th. And they have no more information, I get the exact same runaround. This time the rental is extended to the 4th of January.

Today I get a call from the insurer. The shop can't fix the door. WHAT? No, its not that they CAN"T, its that they WON"T. Apparently, there are some pre-existing scratches on the front fender of the car, and to match the paint they would have to fix those scratches before they painted the fender. So the insurer is going to pay me what they would have paid the panel beater, and I can then get it fixed where-ever I want (or not). I am OK with that, except that I pointed out those scratches at assessment time (hoping to get them fixed, at my cost, at the same time). They said they couldn't do that and the scratches would not affect the insurance repair.

The kicker is that when I made the call on the 17th, the cash settlement decision had already been made AND DOCUMENTED FULLY in the claim file as of the 16th. So the insurer bled 2 weeks unnecessary car rental that would have MORE than paid for them to fix the damn scratches on the fender.

CalStateTempe wrote:No personal offense to anyone here, but I really hate mechanics especially dealer mechanics.

They are as bad as plastic surgeons and cosmetic dentists pointing out every god damn flaw that needs “fixing” and critically urgently right now. Mechanic yesterday makes me feel as if my car is gonna blow up Italian mafia style the minute I turn over the ignition.

Yeah, well my last car (1997 Honda Integra VTIR - branded Acura in the USA, I think) I got serviced at the dealer's shop religiously. Yes they pointed out flaws that were up to me to fix or not fix, mostly I said yes do it, or wait till next service. I am MORE than happy with MY dealers mechanics and service department. And that is a major part of what got them my repeat business.

After 17 years (yes 17 years!), that car drove like it came off the dealers floor yesterday. I still regret having to trade it in but it was going to start costing me money pretty soon. (I did break a front axle, and they had to have the replacement flown in from Japan - that was the ONLY 'inconvenient issue in 17 years). At trade in time I got more than twice the 'going' rate, and more than the retail price I saw for some pretty good examples of my car. The dealer knew my car and, I suspect, had a buyer lined up for it before we had even settled - and not on their bulk used channel - heck it might have gone to one of the mechanics or manager's sons maybe.

Sounds like you have a great mechanic. I would love to have one that taught me about my car like yours does for you, but instead the dealer makes everything seem to be a critical issue and then I go an independednt guy who does honest work and gets everything done at 1/5th the price.

CalStateTempe wrote:Sounds like you have a great mechanic. I would love to have one that taught me about my car like yours does for you, but instead the dealer makes everything seem to be a critical issue and then I go an independednt guy who does honest work and gets everything done at 1/5th the price.

Not sure where to post this, but while we're on the subject of mechanics: For years I relied on Frank Pfeiffer at Desert Diesel on Fairview for work on my one-ton work rig. Salty dude ain't cheap but he's honest and has a ton of give-a-damn. Hope he's still alive.