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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Check your smoke detectors, people. So there's three kinds of commonly used smoke detectors. Ionizing, photoelectric, and dual (basically combining both of them). Most houses will have one or the other, dual tech hasn't been something common at the household level for THAT long. The age of the house and local code when it was built mostly determines what you have, if you haven't replaced them (and remember, they should be replaced every 10 years). An ionizing one doesn't usually go off JUST for visible smoke - they're good for slow, smoldering fires. They pick up the invisible combustion particles, but don't always go off for a fast-moving fire (which is what this looks to have been). The photoelectric ones go off as soon as there's a tiny wisp of smoke; you can set them off just by vaping or smoking by them (or hell, if they're too close to a bathroom, and you take a hot shower... soon as you open the door, it goes off from the steam). The dual tech ones are the best of both, but they'll also false the most. Then you have the combination smoke + CO detectors; the ones I've seen typically use a photoelectric smoke detector + CO detector (I'm hardly an expert though). Just gonna take a wild guess that they smelled/saw smoke before the detectors went off, I'm gonna guess they had ionizing detectors (and possibly quite old ones - that front photo makes it look like a mid 80s house?) I've been through an apartment fire where my smoke alarm never made a peep, even when the smoke was visible - I was lucky in that I came home and walked in to smoke in my apartment (before I opened the door, I was wondering why it smelled like fried chicken outside...); grabbed the cat and hauled rear end out of there while calling 911. My downstairs neighbor had been frying something on the stove, and forgot to turn it off before going to work - it was a very smoky fire that gutted his kitchen pretty well, but the ionizing detector I had never made a peep until the fire department was already there. And his constantly went off everytime he cooked (waking me up plenty), I can only guess he'd pulled the battery. Newer smoke detectors start giving an end of life chirp after 10 years. Older ones (... like the ones in my parents 25 year old house, that I can't convince them to replace, because "they still go off when we burn something on the stove, therefore they're fine!  ") just keep pretending to work. Sometimes they still work fine, sometimes they don't.Motronic would know a lot more, if he happens to see this. slidebite posted:Jesus christ man! Glad it worked out as well as it did. Good luck with the rebuilding process This, so much this. Hope you guys aren't displaced for too long.
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Jul 1, 2019 16:58
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Tremek, do you have Servpro in your neck of the woods? They did a great job at my old church. Or Rainbow International? My parents used to own a franchise with them, and the parent company had a high standard (though it's since changed hands since the founder died, so I have no idea about their work today). They're both big enough that they should know the ins and outs of working with your insurance. They'll both be able to handle the interior restoration. I figured the front of the Toyota would be a bit more charred. Guessing the clearcoat took the brunt of the damage? And take a week or two off of work. It'll be good for your mental health. meatpimp posted:But NONE in the garage, where all the burny stuff lives. Weird now that I think about it, and I've never thought about it before. They're sensitive to heat and cold (especially the ionization type), and can be set off by car exhaust. That's why you never see them out there. You're better off with a heat detector, but the bulk of those require an alarm system of some sort. Kidde makes one that looks like it can be wired in to the rest of the smoke detectors, if the existing ones are interconnected, but you'll need all of them to be the same brand to prevent falses. What I'm not liking is the Kidde goes off at 135 degrees, which a garage can reach easily if you park a car in there after a spirited drive in the summer (specified operating range is up to 100 degrees, I know drat well my garage regularly gets over that even before I put a car in there). Tremek, do you have a burglar alarm? If so, when the garage gets rebuilt, get in touch with your alarm company (if it's monitored) to get a quote to add a fire zone with heat detectors in the garage. Most alarms made in the past ~30 years will support that; if it's too old for that or for an alarm company to deal with, it's 30 minutes to change out the main panel and keypads to something more modern, then probably another hour to program if it's a complicated setup. If you don't have one, it may be worth adding one just to add heat detectors in the garage and attic (don't go with ADT no matter what, they're the most expensive and make their contacts drat near impossible to cancel if you want to switch monitoring companies).
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Jul 2, 2019 12:52
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Maintenance just left after installing a new dishwasher. They ran it through a quick rinse cycle to make sure it worked. I filled it with dishes, started it, and... it won't fill with water (yes, I checked the valve under the sink). And it was full of smoke when I opened it. Guessing it tries to fire up the heater at the bottom to heat the water; instead it melted some stuff.  Good job, Whirlpool. e: maint came back out, we brainstormed a bit (partly because the contract and pricing they have with Whirlpool means they don't get a warranty of any kind). I looked up the fill valve part number. It's plastic. Suggested maybe it was overtightened... guess what? Loosened the fill hose slightly and it works fine now.  randomidiot fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Jul 2, 2019 |
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Jul 2, 2019 17:28
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Tremek posted:We formally closed on the house April 30th, and it appears the title company hosed up sending the year’s prepayment to our homeowners insurance out of escrow. It was sent to the wrong address, so therefore the insurance company cancelled the policy without telling anyone, and of course as insurance and taxes are paid monthly by us as part of our payment, all this was completely out of our control, so that’s in limbo and we are exploring our potential legal options in the meantime while Safeco decides if they’re going to play ball or dig their heels in. What a week. loving hell. Yeah... lawyer time.. Safeco is generally one of the good companies, but why the gently caress would they drop the policy without letting anybody know? Your lender would certainly be named on the policy as an interested party too, so they should have known about this. Beach Bum posted:Get ahold of every piece of paperwork that you've got as part of your closing and guard it like it was your child. Maybe make a copy. Maybe scan everything and keep a digital copy on your Google Drive, Dropbox, whatever. This could go really bad really quick. It could also go just fine if the insurance company and the title company work something out, but I think it would be most wise to err on the side of caution. Would title insurance even touch something like this, since it sounds like the title company hosed up? Or would this be out of their court? randomidiot fucked around with this message at 08:30 on Jul 3, 2019 |
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Jul 3, 2019 08:25
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Remember me asking about decent gloves for work, at least one person suggested the Harbor Freight cold weather gloves, I ignored everyone and got cheaper ones? Yeah.... just got the cold weather work gloves today, after nearly getting frostbite several times. $14.99 - 20%. Would have been cheaper to just get them to begin with.  meatpimp posted:I'm considering buying a former rental vehicle. What the gently caress have you been smoking? We need to know so that the rest of AI can avoid it. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Jul 3, 2019 |
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Jul 3, 2019 22:52
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I'd rate an N/A VQ-powered Xterra as a bit more reliable than a turbo Jeep.
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Jul 3, 2019 22:59
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Goober Peas posted:I had a 2019 Jeep Cherokee Limited 2.0T with 5k miles as a rental for work last month. It had many, many, many electrical problems. I found the engine/transmission to be frustrating when it worked. I could do a 2-count between pressing the accelerator, and seeing the tachometer rise. I could do a 3-count between the tachometer rising and the transmission downshifting. It made gravelly mooing noises. About a week in, it left me on the side of the road near Georgetown, SC. The dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree, it started knocking, stalled. FWIW, I had a rental n/a 2.0 Jeep Patriot with the CVT, and it liked to bang the rev limiter when you went WOT on it (anything over about 3/4 was like I'd thrown it into neutral), and it could barely hit ~75. It also told some pretty decent knock knock jokes. It had <20k on it.
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Jul 4, 2019 01:10
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Powershift posted:$40/hour for strangers This applies to computer janitoring too. If it's my stepdad, I include the driving time (3.5 hours each way), because it's always something I explicitly told him not to touch. Like the patch panel he decided to monkey with the other day (thank gently caress mom knows how to do video calling on her phone... and that I had everything clearly labeled).
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Jul 4, 2019 04:42
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You made them buy a brother HP LaserJet? I guess it has a sister?  I left my parents my old Samsung laser printer (pre-HP Samsung) - the drat thing is 8 years old and just keeps going. Mom has a stand-alone Canon scanner; thankfully one with function buttons on the front, because she uses it so rarely that she forgets how it works. I finally got off my rear end and got a Brother laser MFP last year; the care and feeding of my old dumpster-find Canon inkjet MFP was stupid expensive, and GF's "you're supposed to take the ink out before storing it in a 120+ degree garage for a year?" Epson MFP is expensive to run... when it's not clogged. TeamViewer has made my life a lot easier. Until someone goes loving around with physical wiring (not pointing fingers [stepdad]). Whenever my old Samsung dies, I'll get them a Brother laser MFP. By far the most painless printer I've had, aside from the wifi on it (mine only does 2.4 GHz despite being a pretty recent model  )
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Jul 4, 2019 |
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Jul 4, 2019 05:01
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Tremek posted:I’d say too soon, but Why do I have Billy Joel stuck in my head now
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Jul 4, 2019 06:20
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Jonny Nox posted:Now it's backlit grills, and I'm not looking forward to a glowing Toyota grill in my rear-view What color should I light up my Saturn's tiny rear end grill? Black car, so red is a bit overdone (and also illegal AF on the front - so is blue).
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Jul 5, 2019 17:46
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Got borrowed from my regular dept (again) overnight. Cat litter is a pain in the rear end when you're just buying 1 or 2 containers. Stocking about 100 of them.... then having to run the excess to the top shelf on movable stairs (and check up there for anything to fill in gaps)... then dealing with 50+ pound bags of dog food (more of the same). I'm already starting to feel it. I'm down 10 pounds already, though. Jealous Cow posted:I recently moved to Austin ONE OF US Humphreys posted:Do you know of any Laserdisks that were made to be adverts instore for Holden in the 80-90s? My neighbour was drunkenly talking last night about it and says he will take them and give to me. US GM certainly did that in the 80s, FWIW.
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Jul 7, 2019 16:16
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I dunno, I've only been doing 10-12 hour days. Generally 3 meals now, instead of my usual 2, but I may have a snack here and there (beef jerky or something similar).
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Jul 7, 2019 16:22
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So some side effects from throwing groceries all night: I'm down almost 10 pounds; and according to the Higi machine at the store (you know, those fancier public kiosks that do blood pressure, weight, body fat, hydration, etc?), my muscle mass has gone up very slightly, my fat mass has gone down quite a bit, and it always says I'm borderline dehydrated (I drink between 1-2 gallons of water per shift, but sweat most of it out). What's concerning is my blood pressure has gone into the toilet - I can't get my systolic to break 100 easily, and I feel lethargic as gently caress. Everything just feels heavy, including lifting my arm, and I get lightheaded if I go from, say, stocking a lower shelf to standing up. BP has generally been around 90/55 when I check it at work lately, and the Omron I have at home shows similar numbers unless I drink (it shows 110/63 right now, which is a healthy BP, but that's after a few drinks - alcohol always brings my BP up a bit). I've been on two BP medications for several years... the highest dose of one (an ACE inhibitor) and a lowish (but not lowest) dose of another (beta blocker). I'm gonna try cutting the beta blocker in half to take half the dose (it's not extended release, you can stop freaking out) and see what happens, but I definitely need to talk to my doctor as well. I'm also running into low blood sugar issues if I stick to my regular Wilford Brimley meds - I've been able to get around it by eliminating one med for my first meal of the day (and when I check my sugar when we take our lunch break, it's still borderline low - generally in the 60s - and that's usually with a sugar free Red Bull thrown into the mix - but not in the 30s or 40s like it was if I took both meds before work). tl;dr turns out exercising throws blood pressure and diabetes meds out of whack, who'd think a fairly intense workout 3-5 days a week would do that?  (about an hour of cardio, the rest is weight lifting... like when I had to throw cat litter and dog food the other day, including to/from the risers, using one of those portable stair things) Need to hit up my doctor and see what he recommends. Now I see why most of my overnight coworkers are either rail-thin or built like the Hulk; the only ones overweight are the ones who either eat nothing but burgers and/or try to stick to the cereal, coffee, chips, etc aisles. I throw water, frozen, pet, and laundry pretty regularly.ExplodingSims posted:So I know printer-chat has come up a few times through these threads, but I need a recommendation for a newer one. Nthing Brother lasers. If you need a MFP, the monochrome ones still scan color just fine. If you really do need color, you can get a color Brother laser, but... it'll obviously cost quite a bit more than a color inkjet (their cheapest color laser/LED printer has an MSRP of $200, and it's strictly a printer). The care and feeding is practically nothing, and you don't have to worry about them leaking over time. This is what I have - I nabbed it for $99.99 on sale last year, you can still frequently catch it on sale if you watch Slickdeals (mine came from Office Depot, where you least expect a good deal). mariooncrack posted:I got sick of my dad complaining about buying ink for his inkjet and bought him a color laser printer by Brother. I don't think he ever hooked it up though. Also, this. I used to live 15 minutes away, so I'd just email him to see if he had what I needed in stock, then swing by. It's a father and son business (Xarthor being the son), they're both super nice and helpful. He's dropped into AI a handful of times too. I need to drop him a line and see what he can do for me on toner, actually. My printer thinks the starter cartridge is almost empty, though being a Brother, I'm sure there's some way to keep it going until it's actually empty. InitialDave posted:Window regulators on pretty much everything seem to be like heater cores. Nominally simple job that dicks you on access. Wasn't difficult at all on a 2nd gen Toyota Avalon... once you unbolt the window from it. But that's a full size land yacht. I think it took me about an hour total, but I had a helper (mother, since it's her car) holding a few things here and there. Like the window itself. Pisser: the motor on the new one is noisy as hell and pretty tired, but it works (the original one was brand-new silent until the cable got jammed up). The old one had the cables get tangled up on the spool, but had a good motor. Had, until I tried to figure out how to swap it over.  $35 on eBay vs $100 for a Dorman (which was out of stock everywhere I checked at the time; looks like they finally made another batch), or >$400 (IIRC) for the OEM.meatpimp posted:For over 15 years I've heard printer excuses from students. For over 15 years I've told them that printers are dangerous and unreliable and you should never count on them to work when you need them. Lately I've been advising that they should always have a spare laser printer brand new in a box ready to pull out if need be. There's usually pushback on that with them saying they can't afford it. I quickly call bullshit on that and point out that you can often find name-brand laser printers on sale for $25 or $30, and there's really no excuse to NOT have a spare. Not to mention every university library in the US has printers available, usually for either free or a few pennies per page. One of the libraries at UNT was 24/7 during regular semesters, including their computer lab (summer closed at midnight I think). Didn't cost me anything to print when my printer decided to go into "no, gently caress your final, you didn't feed me toner when I demanded it! " mode. My only gripe is the 24/7 lab was all Mac at the time (others had a mix, but it was 1am, it was the only lab open on the entire campus), so I had to figure out OSX on the fly.You could also check out Dell laptops from the front desk of the same library, and they were setup to print to several printers around the library, but that was a lot more hassle than just walking into the lab, swiping my ID, and throwing my flash drive at one of those pieces of silver fruit. If they're on financial aid, most universities (maybe even community colleges) will let them apply for a computer extension on their aid - either via their Pell grant or any scholarships, loans, etc. It's enough to buy a decent daily driver (definitely not gaming) laptop and printer, and UNT approved my request (and dispersed it) within a week. It's a once in a lifetime thing, but it's worth mentioning to your students if your school allows it. Barely related: Fry's had a refurbished w/90 day warranty and Windows 10 T420 Thinkpad with 8GB RAM and a Sandy Bridge i5 for $177 yesterday. Kicking myself for not jumping on that sooner, but by the time I found out the local store was sold out. I'm still running a Sandy Bridge desktop, and it's only now starting to show its age. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 16:36 on Jul 8, 2019 |
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Jul 8, 2019 16:30
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Geoj posted:Re: printer chat, if you print a lot of color photos get a high-end inkjet (something that uses tanks instead of disposable cartridges that are ink tanks and print heads in one package.) Oh, you mean like Epson? So funny story. GF left her Epson printer in a garage for over a year. No climate control. It easily hits 130F+ in there. She left it with the ink cartridges installed. I dropped more than the fucker is worth on new ink cartridges and several hours on trying to clean it out (only because (a) she insisted and (b) she paid for them - went OEM on them). I eventually got it to print black and yellow (yellow with a lot of streaks, black worked okay so long as you used the "high quality" mode). Never got magenta or cyan working outside of a few streaks. And black starts streaking again until you run a few "clean nozzle" cycles on it. Had she not left the ink in it, and run it dry with a few color test prints before storing it, it'd be working fine today. But it's literally a doorstop now. Yeah, it has a decent scanner, but the scanner on my Brother MFC works just as well (and handles legal/A4 size poo poo on top of that). I think the scanner on her Epson is a higher DPI, but it's not like I'm scanning photos on it. And the wifi on it is only 802.11b/g; at least my Brother MFC does b/g/n. Anytime you try to print to it or scan from it without remembering to turn it on first (since it had an auto power off thing) had a 50/50 chance of needing to reinstall the drivers to get it goinjg again. slidebite posted:My old Canon MP530 inkjet is still chugging along after about, oh, 12 years? I had an MX240 that I literally dragged out of a dumpster during dorm move-out week, in pouring rain, around... 2011? Let it dry out a few days, and it would print color fine, but not B&W. Found the seal still on the B&W cartridge. It worked mostly fine for the rest of the time I had it (it would streak a bit even with the one OEM cartridge I tried), but I didn't want to drag it to Austin with me - gave it to a friend with a few extra generic black cartridges.
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Jul 8, 2019 17:32
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If it makes you feel any better, I'm about to turn 41.... and get paid to work out.  I feel it every. loving. day. though.
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Jul 8, 2019 19:07
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Alarbus posted:The Samsung was next day prime, the Brother was another day or so out, same price, so we got the Samsung. That wasn't the case until (relatively) recently. I had a Samsung laser, and it's very much all-Samsung. I gave it to my parents several years ago. I think I got it in 2010 or 2011. Still going with just toner, but it's starting to jam a bit when trying to pick up paper from the tray. You can order a "service kit" that replaces all the rollers, but seeing as I paid $60 (shipped) for it... and the service kit costs more than another printer, well.... yeah. They're getting a Bro pretty soon. Their/my Samsung is really bad about randomly losing WiFi settings. I gave up and had them plug it into mom's PC (which is on 24/7) via USB. Dad's PC and laptop both see it fine, since it's shared. Good 'nuff.
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Jul 8, 2019 19:36
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trouser chili posted:Your meds are too strong. I ran into a brick wall losing weight cause suddenly my BP meds were too strong. Yup. When I moved down here last year, they were just right, but better eating has gotten me to where they were slightly strong. But 2 months ago I was almost 190 pounds. I just weighed myself, I'm at 178. I haven't seen a number on the bottom side of 185 in a loooong time. I'm off tonight, so I'm going to try cutting the beta blocker in half and see how my BP reacts. Nothing i'm on is extended release, so I doubt I'll see any negative effects. I haven't had them yet, but it looks like my baseline right now is 128/78, so I'm borderline high without anything. For reference, a coworker was 155 when he started (he's pretty short at about 5'1 or so), he's about 110 after a year of working there. I'm shooting for about 155. I'm not actively trying to lose weight, it's just a physically demanding job. I'm sure the pounds would roll off a lot quicker if I could put down the beer, but I've cut down a bit on that too. fake edit: never clicked submit. cut it in half, lethargy seems just as bad (been about an hour since I took it). BP is 100/65. Gonna talk to my doctor before I gently caress around with anything else. At least I'm off tonight... the spyder posted:My iPhone 6 has finally reached end of life, after surviving being dropped down 5 flights of stairs and dunked in a wash bucket. The screen is now bleeding, the mic port and external speaker are dead, and most troublesome the alarm no longer produces any auditory or vibrations. I missed a 1am emergency call from work and overslept through a meeting last week. I’ve started looking at replacements, but I can’t justify $750+ for another iPhone when I don’t use the Apple ecosystem. I’ve been looking at OnePlus and the Pixel 3a as alternatives. Any others I should check out? Moto G family was suggested; they're solid for what they are, and I've been using a G5 Plus for my work phone for a bit. But if you want a really, really nice phone, the OnePlus 6T or 7 are both drat nice phones. The Pixel 3a is also great, and a lot cheaper. OnePlus and Pixel will get updates LONG before Moto (Pixel usually within a few days of security updates being released, and one of the first to get major releases). The OnePlus 7 is big though. Phablet big. If you've never had a large phone, it takes some getting used to. Godzilla07 posted:Kia specifically will cover this issue for the lifetime of the vehicle, but I don’t think the Sportage is so good to deal with it in the first place. "The update involves the installation of Knock Sensor Detection System software which acts as an early detection system for engine failures." Wait. They put out a boosted engine without a knock sensor? They didn't have the knock sensor monitored before? Or they're tweaking the software to be sensitive enough to pick up spun bearings? randomidiot fucked around with this message at 06:41 on Jul 9, 2019 |
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Jul 9, 2019 06:39
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I would do naughty things that stepped far outside of my comfort zone for a legal diesel passenger vehicle in the US from someone other than VW. I don't want to refill blinker fluid.. or deal with VW electrical. And my budget rules out BMW or Mercedes. The only other diesel options I know of CURRENTLY sold in the US are trucks, though a random number of Jeeps and Chevy Cruzes could be had with diesels for a year or two. The diesel Cruze could only be had fully loaded (LTZ trim basically); I don't like leather, I don't like automatic. 
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 13:45 on Jul 9, 2019 |
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Jul 9, 2019 13:42
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They exist.Tremek posted:PS, good news today: Safeco is stepping up and has officially confirmed they're retroactively reinstating our policy back to closing so all this is covered. Now the process begins with our public adjusters doing their parallel process with the Safeco adjusters to advocate for us getting a fair settlement. This also means we can get a rental covered by insurance, and an advance for replacing necessities, etc. That's awesome news! fridge corn posted:Diesels in passenger vehicles are awful and they need to die But I like the fuel economy. Elviscat posted:This is a Pro Move, who the gently caress walks into a dark bathroom and goes "yes, I'd like to turn the fan on first!" My old apartment was like that. What bugs the poo poo out of me at my current apartment is the fan can only be turned on if the lights are already on. There's 6x40w incandescents above the vanity, I don't want to leave those on just to leave the fart sucker running. I tried to fix it once, but got in over my head with the 3 way switches. I need to get a non-contact tester and figure out what wires are what. Beach Bum posted:Aw, do I gotta? Here's one: I had to replace the lightbulb socket/switch on the fan. I wired the switch into the hot side [Hot -> Switch -> Socket -> Neutral], deducing that it would be better if the zappy bits were isolated from the socket by the switch. I can't think of any reason NOT to do this, but I ain't no electrician. You should never put a switch on the neutral on household stuff; hot is what should always be switched. The neutral should also be wired to the shell of the socket; the hot always gets wired to the center contact. That way if part of the screw-in part of the bulb is exposed and you brush your hand on it, you don't get a tickle.
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Jul 10, 2019 05:05
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May I introduce you to the Toyota 1MZ-FE?
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Jul 10, 2019 05:20
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Elviscat posted:You have to flip two switches to turn the fan on? They hosed up that wiring, if you take the switches out of the box and shoot me a labeled picture I can probably figure out how.  I'll try and get around to it. I did get the fan to come on separately at one point, but only if the hall switch was in one position. Decided I should put it all back the way it was. There's several sins in that box (like the ground wire from the switches to nowhere - they're about an inch long, i guess to pass visual).The Door Frame posted:Isn't that the uncharacteristically boring DOHC V6 that was in the Solara with the lazy slushbox It is, but it's overbuilt to the point that the block and crank can handle 600+ hp. Here's a 700+ HP 1MZ-FE Camry for your amusement. Here's the same Camry with a frankenstein 1MZ/3MZ and a ton of money thrown at it putting out 900 hp. But yeah, to get to the rear plugs, or valve cover, the upper intake has to come off.
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Jul 10, 2019 16:55
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Meanwhile I'm using a mismatched 22" pair - a 10 year old Samsung and a 7 year old Acer. At least both are 1920x1080, but still TFT.
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Jul 10, 2019 22:52
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SO MANY VACUUM LINESApplebees Appetizer posted:Thanks guys. Steering wheel airbag went off but not the side bags for some reason. Pretty much a textbook front overlap, the car did it's job and i was able to walk from it (tho i don't remember that lol) one of the reasons I got the car was because of the good crash ratings. drat man, glad you're okay. That "I ran a red light and someone hit me" line tho... that kinda seals the deal. Beach Bum posted:IPS was life changing for me. I had to upgrade because new mid-high GPUs are almost exclusively Dport and HDMI, and all my old poo poo was DVI. I figured "why not get something nice if you have to buy new?" Yeah, don't have the money to do that yet; some DP to DVI adapters were easier for now. I'd rather do a single wide 4k monitor at that point.I'll upgrade the monitors after I upgrade the main guts of the PC. Still rocking an overclocked Sandy Bridge i7, which is plenty functional, but showing its age a bit.
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Jul 11, 2019 03:49
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Why is it not in your driveway yet?
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Jul 11, 2019 08:05
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bolind posted:
Uhh... speaking of, how DO you take someone off your ignore list? I'm dumb. meatpimp posted:Sorry, let's try to keep the comedy down for a week or so and give AA's ribs time to heal. Having broken ribs isn't everything it's cracked up to be. Applebees Appetizer posted:Also, my wife caught a pic of the drunk's car that hit me, 2017 Nissan shitbox Holy poo poo, that thing is loving demolished. Given how the toaster looked, I wasn't expecting anything nearly that bad. Any idea how fast she was going? Powershift posted:The cops here police the popular drop-off and pick-up points for river tubing, and confiscate liquor. They also hand out tickets for drinking in public to people floating down the river drinking. I'm pretty sure you get a ticket here if you DON'T have at least 1 beer and/or weed in your hand when you're floating down a river here. Hell, I took a short hike up to an overlook the other day, and if I didn't have tolerance to  , I probably would have gotten a contact high. Nice view up there:
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Jul 12, 2019 05:27
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Eye exam: $60. Optometrist confirming what I already knew (my eyes have gotten slightly worse - "a quarter tick" - but I don't need bifocals...yet): well I knew they were worse, just wasn't sure how much worse. Finding out she's actually friends with my opthamologist, and discovering it's a very good thing I brought a copy of my results from my diabetic eye exam from said opthamologist: priceless (no dilation or eyeball touching or anything needed, the only annoyance was the eye puffer) Just threw $78 at Zenni (including "priority" shipping, which brings it down to only 2-3 weeks); one pair of sunglasses, one pair of super basic glasses for driving at night. I wear sunglasses anytime I'm outside if the sun is out, but otherwise only wear glasses when I'm driving. Opted NOT to get polarized lenses this time; they make it impossible to see the car stereo, I have to take them off to use my DSLR, a lot of LCDs (such as menu boards, and my phone if I turn it sideways) are totally blank with them on, and overall, I'm just kinda tired of them. I also couldn't get a kickin rad mirror finish if I got polarized. Considering I'm rocking 5 year old glasses, I'm kinda surprised they haven't gotten that much worse. I'll order some "nice" glasses when I have a bit more cash (Warby Parker or similar); frankly, I did this more because my current glasses are really beat up, and I don't want to spend the money on new ones with an old rX. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 09:36 on Jul 12, 2019 |
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Jul 12, 2019 09:31
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I had to play the medical card at work. I got a talking to about my speed in frozen by the night supe. He was polite about it, but mentioned everyone in frozen mentioned I was too slow, and there was definitely an unspoken message in there. The last time I worked in a grocery store, or any physical job, was before I was diagnosed with beetus. I thought the move to frozen was temporary, but I realized it was permanent a couple of weeks ago - I just couldn't get ahold of my boss long enough to communicate the issues to him. I played the neuropathy card with the overnight lead (which is very minor in my case, but cold definitely makes it a lot worse). Once bossman came in he found me, asked me why I didn't let him know sooner. Told him the truth, I hadn't worked retail since being diagnosed and thought I could hack the cold stuff. Next week's schedule is already out, but he said he's going to move me back to dry (which is what I was hired for to begin with anyway). Everyone I've worked with in dry tells me I fly, once I know the aisle anyway. I feel lovely playing that card, but the moment my hands get cold, they feel like they're on fire and I lose all sensation in them, and it slows me way down - I don't regain most feeling until the gloves have been off for a good bit. They tingle a little most of the time now even though the beetus is well controlled (probably from a few years of an A1c well into the double digits before being diagnosed), I'm just trying to keep it from getting worse. Beach Bum posted:Doctors knowing each other sounds like a sweet setup. I treated myself to my first eye exam in a decade for my 30th birthday last year, one eye was .25 out of whack. They offered to write a scrip but said it probably wasn't worth it. I really liked the place and planned to go back when I hit 35. I don't have vision insurance at all, but my medical insurance covers a diabetic eye exam every year (which I've done, uh, every 5 years). Previously I've been able to get them to do an rX out of it, but this time they wouldn't. So the $60 was the cash price. It was one of those optometrists renting space within a Walmart, and my opthamologist isn't exactly a low rent type, so I was surprised when the optometrist told me they knew each other. My visit to the opthamologist was a whopping $5 out of pocket, but I'm annoyed that they didn't give me anything except a CC receipt (and they tore it off coming out of the printer so that the office name didn't print, so no easy write off). Both eyes were 0.25 out of whack, which is about what I expected given how long it's been since I got an rx. Not enough to make a huge difference, but it's enough that I'm starting to have trouble reading street signs. I'm also just now starting to have issues seeing (extremely) close up, but I'm sure that's partly my age (41 in 5 weeks). I'm sure I'll get a bifocal rx at some point, probably on my next rx. Jealous Cow posted:Hello, fellow Austintonian! Howdy neighbor! in 2 1/2 weeks I'll have been here a year, and I loving love it here (well, Austin itself... I'm in a suburb in Wilco... needless to say, I only eat, sleep, and shitpost at home). August 1st marks my 1 year anniversary here. The first week of August 1997 also marked my anniversary in Dallas (I forget the exact day, but within a few days)... so 21 years in Dallas, almost to the day, and just shy of 19 years in my hometown, again, almost to the day (August bday). Darchangel posted:Someone forgot to paint that bridge. YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW PATINA WHEN YOU SEE IT Fermented Tinal posted:AA, what about a Kia Soul? It's boxy and quirky. IDK if he wants to do a clutch every 50-60k. At least, everyone I've known with a manual Kia has had that experience (hi Darchangel, plus several coworkers and friends). Plus 60k timing belt unless you get a brand new one. I wouldn't mind one myself, but you can only get the manual in the base model with the least powerful motor today. Up until a few years ago you could get them pretty well optioned with a manual. NitroSpazzz posted:This is how Carmax works and why it's so successful, they leave you the gently caress alone and they don't do the bullshit haggle pricing game. We spent 4 hours at a Toyota dealership only to walk out pissed off, Carmax after was a way better experience. This is why I wound up buying a car from Carmax, even though they were a bit more expensive. Zero stress, just "did you figure out what car you like? Oh, you want one from a dealer out of town? We'll have it here tomorrow for you to drive". Once it showed up, "hey, the car you requested is here... let us know when you'd like to drive it". Walked in, drove it, agreed to buy it, got financed on the spot. The most annoying part is the purchase prep took several hours even though (a) it had been traded in at that lot and (b) it had been shipped to a busier lot to be sold, then brought back... it really should have already had that done. The car was almost showroom clean to begin with. The only upsell attempts were a stereo and an extended warranty.. and the stereo upsell was the exact stereo I had kept from my old car anyway. I'm terrible at negotiating, I'll pay a bit more just to walk in, pay a fairly reasonable sticker price, and walk out. I BS'd with my sales rep a bit about commission. He admitted they do get paid per sale, but it's a flat rate per car - he can sell a Mirage or a Lambo, and he gets the same commission. It's not a percentage, it's just a per-sale, so he's not under any pressure to push you into something you can't afford. The nearest one has a BUNCH of stripper Mirages with <2k for basically MSRP. With no AC. I live a couple of miles from a Mitsubishi dealer that used to constantly advertise $9999 Mirages.... (they're all fleet white, no radio, no ac... no ac in central TX!) randomidiot fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Jul 13, 2019 |
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Jul 13, 2019 17:44
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MrOnBicycle posted:If it helps: Speaking as a doctor - don't feel lovely. It's not like you woke up one day and decided "hey let's get diabets so I can lose sensation and be slower at work!". The system should help people that can't do certain kinds of work to do the things they can without prejudice. At least that's how it works (or should work) here in socialist Sweden. Speaking of how different conditions are viewed in different countries (as a lovely random anecdote) - I was trying to translate the Swedish term for what english-speakers call "hitting the wall at work" or "burning out" at work to find research articles, and only found what I considered laymans terms. Odd. I then found that it's apparently considered a work environment problem in the US and not a medical problem like here in Sweden. Here we tell people to take medical leave and rehabilitate as best as they can, which often includes a slow reintroduction to the work as well as having the employer optimize the work for the patient. I have no idea what happens in the US. I guess people burn out and get fired or take unpaid leaves? Pretty much, yeah. The company I work for is pretty well known for taking good care of their employees though - it's a very old (over 100 years old), family & employee owned company, and it does seem like they want to work with me on this. Hopefully it doesn't mean moving to a daytime position with less physical activity (I'd lose the overnight pay differential - an extra $2.50/hr - and I need/like the exercise), but if I have to, I have to. One cool thing they do to combat burnout is they own cabins that any employee can rent for free (you put in a $50 refundable deposit to secure it) - one set on the Texas coast, another set in what's known as the Hill Country (the most scenic part of TX). You can take vacation pay or unpaid leave. They're basically small ~1950s houses. They're well maintained, just not modern (i.e. no microwave or TV). Fender Anarchist posted:The main mode selector knob on my mom's washer has been hosed up for eons now, on any setting other than "cottons - extended soak" it'll like fill halfway and then shut off. pulled the panel off in hopes of cleaning corrosion but the little potentiometer thing is sealed, don't think i can get at the guts non destructively. If it helps, when my mom's washer acted up, we had to drop $130 on a new timer. It would fill, then if you jiggled the timer juuuust right, you'd hear some arcing and it'd try to finish the cycle. Then the same on rinse. It got to where all cycles were like that. To be fair, hers is an old Maytag (pre-Whirlpool), 100% mechanical operation. And it was nearly 20 years old at the time. First issue it'd ever had, and it took about 30 minutes to swap everything. If a control board is only $50, I'd swap that in a heartbeat instead of loving around with trying to fix it.
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Jul 14, 2019 15:37
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nm posted:My internet when out, so I check comcast, which said no outages in area. I start diagnosing at home, which involves dragging my modem out of a really hard to access area (because I am dumb) to power cycle it and loon at the lights. After I spend 10 minutes moving poo poo around, comcast now tells me half my city, including me has no internet. Cool. Fun fact from someone who's worked for multiple ISP helldesks: it takes THOUSANDS, if not tens of thousands, of people calling in before a major ISP will declare an outage. I mean, their network people probably know about a major outage before the calls start rolling in (if they're watching poo poo like they're supposed to be), but at that point they're too busy trying to figure out WTF let the magic smoke out (or where an idiot found 
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Jul 15, 2019 |
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Jul 15, 2019 16:30
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So our scheduling system is weird. Normally, if you work overnights, it just shows, say, "Thursday: 10:00 PM - 6:30 AM, Grocery". Unless you're working Sunday night. Then it shows "Sunday: 10:00 PM - 12:00 AM, Frozen", and if you flip to the next week, it shows "Monday: 12:00 AM - 6:30 AM, Frozen". I took a quick glance at it before going to bed yesterday, saw Monday was filled in. So I went in at 10 last night. Walked into frozen, started working.. one coworker finally said "wait why are you here? Normally Mondays are only 2 people, but we definitely need the help since the truck was so late". I look at my employee app and get a sinking feeling in my stomach. Go into the manager office and look at the paper copy. YUP, I went in on my loving day off. Found the overnight manager, said "I'm a loving idiot" and told him to look at the paper schedule. He asked if I wanted hours or if I wanted to go home, I said I'm fine with working. He pulled aside the other frozen guys and basically said "hey, so he's not scheduled, but he's here - do you guys need him? I know your truck was late. He's willing to stay if you want him to". They had me stay, I got the boot a little before 5am to try and keep me out of overtime for the week (also because my boss comes in at 5am, and overnight lead didn't want to get an rear end chewing for me being there )Nebakenezzer posted:The Genie Game 2: Pretend like that Convertible Metro isn't there Man... that's a tough one. I like kicking myself in the balls, hate being able to go fast, don't like cars that can handle, and don't like reliability (why else would I keep buying Saturns?!). Toss up between the Olds Delta 88 or the Chevy Chevette. Seriously though... why not go slow and comfy? Fleetwood on the top right. Got Cadillac bling and GM build quality. slidebite posted:the big C 
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Jul 16, 2019 14:16
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Rhyno posted:Do I want a super cheap Buick Century wagon? That depends on what kind of engine swaps you have in mind. (yes you do)
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Jul 16, 2019 15:37
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Finally upgraded to a Roku 4k Ultra (Amazon had it for $69 vs the normal $99). Realized I'd have to redo all of the HDMI switching. See, the TV itself is 4k UHD, but the AV receiver has a 4 port HDMI switch built-in. Everything was running through it... and it only does 1080. Luckily everything we use often supports HDMI-CEC. Turn on the PS4, the stereo and TV both switch to the proper inputs. Fire up the TV's built-in apps, the stereo switches to the optical input. Throw something on the Chromecast, everything switches to the right inputs again. Touch a button on the Roku remote, and the TV switches to HDMI3 and the stereo switches to the optical audio again. I'm so used to needing multiple remotes, but no... the only thing I need the stereo remote for is to change sound modes (surround, etc) or adjust audio settings. TV remote is only used for the TV's built-in apps. Roku remote handles pretty much everything else, including powering everything on/off (turn the TV on or off and it turns the stereo on/off with it) and volume. The only exception is if I want to listen to the radio or a CD, then I have to blow the dust off of the stereo remote. I'm so used to having a bigass Harmony remote and having to deal with setting it up just right, but my last TV was 10+ years old. Kinda surprised the stereo itself supports CEC; it's a bottom of the line ~6 or 7 year old Onkyo; it was a system in a box. It's a proper standalone AV receiver, but included 5 lovely full range speakers (which found the trash quickly) and a subwoofer (I needed a cheap sub at the same time, and it was cheaper than buying a separate one...). I know this is common knowledge to the AV geeks, but my last TV purchase was 2008 or so. GF has a ~2015 Samsung 4k that's our primary TV. My old TV is now my mom's office TV, and my old bedroom TV (same age) is probably going to become our bedroom TV here (Samsung 32" 720p that has inverter issues, unless you unplug it when you're not using it  ). Just upgraded our Netflix account to 4k UHD, time to binge Stranger Things!You Am I posted:Sup July 17th (which is today for me) birthday dude. 41 here. 41 for me in a month and a day. I didn't realize I was older than my boss until I told my boss I wanted to take a couple of days off for my birthday (going to see Mogwai, and parents are gonna swing down for a day). He said he just turned 40 a couple of weeks ago... I had him pegged for 45. Although he freely admits he did enough drugs to wipe out a small country in his teens and 20s (like me). He's admitted to still smoking occasionally, but I'm not gonna engage in that conversation when i'm working at a place that reserves the right to perform random drug tests.NitroSpazzz posted:Crap missed it, I've been meaning to get AAA for a while but always forget and miss the sales. drat, I need to add AAA to my Slickdeals watchlist. My membership JUST renewed... and it's a Plus membership with an associate member (GF), so $12/mo. I'm on a monthly billing plan though, so it's easy enough to cancel. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Jul 17, 2019 |
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Jul 17, 2019 14:11
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Fermented Tinal posted:I thought it was Subaru. I thought Subaru's main issue was head gaskets, not the entire car falling apart before the ink is dry on the loan papers?
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Jul 18, 2019 03:55
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So I'm house/cat sitting for a friend. Gets me out of my place for a bit, and I have access to two beaters, and one penalty box in decent shape. 98 Maxima that runs like poo poo (definitely not on all cylinders; it's been parked for about a year anyway). 03 WRX that.... has seen far better days, and has out of state tags because it can't pass smog, but it's a daily (3 different colors; between that and the plates, it gets a lot of unwanted attention). Nissan Juke. CVT toaster, nuff said. If the WRX had Texas plates, I'd consider driving it, but (a) Florida plates in TX and (b) original timing belt with ~160k. Friend is the original owner, but the car is so beat that he doesn't want to spend a penny on it, he's just gonna replace it when it finally dies. I'll just stick with the POS Saturn. Also, getting to hang out in an actual house (well, duplex) while not getting nagged to death is nice. Plus one cool as gently caress, but blind, cat (he's an old man, I think he's pushing 20?). And one dickhead cat (~2 yrs old). And free left for watching the place. Just have to deal with my ancient POS laptop while I'm here.Applebees Appetizer posted:weiner mobile needs to be blown imo Technically it is. ... are those late 90s Cavalier headlights? 
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Jul 18, 2019 15:23
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Fix the Maxima. If it were stick, I would. I already asked about buying it last year when it poo poo the bed anyway, but it's apparently in his GF's grandmother's name (and she doesn't want to let it go). And it has (very expired) North Carolina plates... so if I did buy it, I'd have to get it through an out of state inspection (not that big of a deal). From how it runs/sounds, I'm almost positive it jumped a tooth somewhere and very likely had some piston/valve sexytime, so it'd be a lot of work to get back on the road for a car that's only really worth having with 3 pedals. It was apparently running poorly and smoking a bit before that happened, and has about 1/4M miles, so it's not a great example to begin with. The only reason they haven't junked it is her grandmother wants it back somehow (... in NC). Darchangel posted:Either that or Grand Am. Grand Am lights are a little wider, I think?
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Jul 18, 2019 19:18
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*grumble* So my apartment complex has been repainting - changing the entire color scheme. That's fine, I like the new scheme more than the old one. What I don't like is doors getting painted shut. I clicked the remote to get into my garage last night and the door jumped, then slammed back down. Huh? Click the remote again, same thing. Clicked again while lifting it by hand from the bottom, it made a loud POP and went up fine. It was too dark for me to see that they'd painted, and there's no other way into the garage. The way it jumped, I figured maybe the spring let go and I could probably help it up (it's the thinnest aluminum door in the world). I couldn't wait around for emergency maintenance to show up, and the way it was acting was classic broken spring.... not "superglued shut by paint".  Walking around today, it looks like at least 3/4 of the garage doors on the property are caved in at the top now, so at least I'm not alone. slidebite posted:Literally the first thing I was drawn to. Sometimes I try that little game with RVs and see what the donor vehicles were for things like that. The funny thing is... I got drawn to that on the current iteration of the UPS package cars. I recognized them immediately, thanks to my mother's brief ownership of an Oldsmobile Intrigue. It's amazing that you never see them yellowed at all on the trucks, but they do go straight into a garage when the route is done. I try to play that game on RVs too. Seems like a shitload used 92-96 Ford F-series headlights, despite them being pretty garbage. And yeah always support your local restaurants, if they're good. There's a really good pizza place here that's owned by a salty middle eastern (I'd guess Lebanese?) lady, and it's just her running the place. Discovered her place when doing deliveries for various platforms. Her main thing is wraps and gyros, but when she rented the place, it came with a double pizza oven (one broken, one working, and having worked with the same model at various places, I'm pretty sure I could get the broken one going if she wanted it to work), so she makes use of it. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Jul 18, 2019 |
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Jul 18, 2019 20:01
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slidebite posted:$5 says the opening arm pulled itself right out of the door bracket. Nah, the arm is firmly attached, and the door works fine now that it's unstuck. They used nuts and bolts instead of the typical sheet metal screws. Probably left the door openers at the default force settings when installed tho (I'd count on that being set up out of the box for an average weight 2 car door, not a paper thin apartment special). GnarlyCharlie4u posted:is it really that loving hard to tape down some plastic so the doors don't glue themselves shut? When you're knocking out 15 buildings over a couple of months (half of which have attached garages), plus 10 stand-alone garage buildings, and you're already way over schedule.... yes. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jul 18, 2019 |
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Jul 18, 2019 21:22
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Lol they already use cardboard to block off areas. Problem is there's vinyl trim that covers the edges of the doors, and that's what got glued. I assume to act as a weather/rain barrier (despite there being a code-required vent cut into each door - there's a tiny bit of paint on my car bumper from that ).jamal posted:That's great. In my quest to be a faster bike racer I've been drinking less beer, even being an already pretty thin guy it helped me drop a solid 10-15 lbs. That and less sugar/junk food makes a big difference quickly. I need to do that. Badly. I'm down 15 lbs, but that's from having a physically demanding job. My beer consumption has cut down considerably, but I'm still a daily drinker. Sugar has been gone for a long time (mostly... I made an apple cobbler the other day ). Junk food is a bit more limited these days, but still there.
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 21:28 on Jul 18, 2019 |
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Jul 18, 2019 21:26
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double post. I'm annoyed with Amazon. I returned 2 things over the past week. Both went out via UPS. For both I elected to get store credit. Both were 3rd party sellers fulfilled by Amazon (though one is a wholly owned Amazon subsidiary). The lovely headphones I bitched about in another thread? I dropped those off at the UPS store around 10am. I got an email an hour ago saying my refund was complete. Some shoes I ordered that didn't fit, and planned to re-order the next size up? I sent them almost week ago from the same UPS store. UPS shows they were delivered, still no refund. Those went back to Amazon, but were sold by Zappos, which is owned by Amazon, and I bought them via Amazon.com (fulfilled by Amazon, so shipped back to Amazon). I'd just re-order them in the right size now, but I'd rather do it with the store credit instead of burning cash. Maybe it's because I've returned 2 pairs of shoes this month?
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Jul 18, 2019 22:19
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