- Murder (and violence is general) is wrong.
- If you think that killing one person who is part of a corrupt or screwed up system will fix things or make anything better, you’re a fool.
- “It’s the Americans who complain the most about it, and it’s their bloody system!” – Keith Richards.
- All these complaints about denials of coverage and the suffering that causes, yet it’s apparently not enough to get Universal Health Care by voting for people who would implement it.
Hire a Contractor Instead of Doing It Yourself, It Will Be Easier!
back when we bought this house in 2021, we had the circuit breaker box replaced. in so doing, the electrician said that to do it, he needed to move the electrical drop to the back of the garage because CenterPoint Energy wouldn‘t approve of the way the wires hung over the garage. that meant moving the meter back there as well as putting another panel back there then running the power lines through the garage and to the panel at the house. the good part was, that the addition of the second (first, really) panel would allow us to easily add circuits in the garage itself such as for welding or more likely, EV charging. meanwhile the panel on the house was replaced. both are identical models, and we had to wait a bit for them to arrive because of pandemic delays.
fast forward to today, and we hadn’t done any of those things in the garage, yet. but, we’re having a standby generator installed by a generator company and while we were out of town, the electrician (and the plumber) arrived today to do the work. we talked to the electrician a couple of times during the day and he kept us updated on the work, made sure the a/c worked after he reconnected everything, etc. i mean, the miracles of modern tech i was able to lower the thermostat while we were driving back so they could see it come on properly. he seemed like a good guy and from what i can see, generally did good work. but…
when i arrived home, they were done for the day and i went to see what they had done so far. the electrician removed the first panel that was hooked to the meter completely and replaced it with the automatic transfer switch. as it is right now, i have no way to add circuits to the garage except to run wires back to it from the panel on the house. of course, if i want high voltage stuff like I previously mentioned, that would be a pain in the ass, if at all possible. my essentially new (first) panel is gone, and let’s not forget i paid for that work as part of the job three years ago. if i had been home there would be NO WAY i would have let him do it the way he did. i know why he did it the way he did, it makes sense if i never was going to add circuits to the garage. but he never asked me that.
i called the company and they’re supposed to call me back tomorrow and let me know. but they are going to reinstall my panel or replace it with a new one if they trashed it, or they can take their generator and everything else back while i cancel all payments. hopefully for everyone’s sake they will send the electrician back to reinstall or replace my panel. but it’s irritating to go through this kind of garbage and have to spend time dealing with it instead of, you know, my life and my plans. it drives my crazy that someone does some stupid thing i would have never have thought of and I have to deal with that. who would have thought he would remove an entire circuit breaker panel? when the guy came out to bid on the job he said the transfer switch would go on the wall near the existing panel. if he had to move stuff that would have been fine. but right now I wouldn’t mind seeing all this $#!^ gone, generator and all. 🤬
Internet access for everyone
It’s such a drag. It used to be there would be one crazy guy in your office or whatever who would insist on some nutty theory of why something was happening or some other conspiracy, and you’d just say, “okay, Ralph, I gotta get back to work” and walk away. But now, they’ve found their tribe (as early internet pundits used to say) and they share and amplify each other, and the people who used to say, “I don’t know, that seems a little weird” are just as swept up in it as the rest. Bored moms who used to just spread gossip now spread this stuff and are down algorithmically-fed rabbit-holes of insanity, as are others with too much time on their hands. It actually makes me worry when politicians promise internet access for everyone everywhere. I get why that’s good, but also why it can be very, very bad.
Dealer Service Lameness
I had stuck with the dealer because they gave me free oil changes for life, and I’ve used the same service manager the entire time. He even happened to show up at a gig I was doing once, and he’s been a big fan of a friend’s band.
But when a new company bought the dealership, I only found out that the new ownership ended my free oil changes for life after I brought my car there and when I went to pay, it wasn’t free. I think that’s cheap and lame. It doesn’t cost them that much and it kept me going there. I’ve also realized the service guy wasn’t as useful as he should have been. The last time I brought the car in for my annual visit (I don’t drive much), it was only after I was there and the tech looked at the car that the service guy came over and said I was due for two other services. I said okay, which had me there for hours longer than I initially planned. If I had known that beforehand, I would have dropped the car off and gotten them to give me a loaner or a ride home.
A couple of days later, I couldn’t start my car. There’s a switch on the clutch that prevents starting unless you have the clutch pedal pushed in. It had failed a couple of years ago, and it failed again. The first switch lasted 15 years, the replacement lasted two. When I brought it in to be fixed, I told him I wanted to know why. I understand it’s out of warranty from the two year old repair, but why didn’t the new part last another 15 years? Then the service guy tells me that the tech tells him I’m due for a couple of other regular services, neither of which they mentioned last time, two days/35 miles ago. And when they fixed the switch, they didn’t have any answer why the part failed. I was pretty pissed at that point.
All of the services they said I was due for, I looked up and they were right. But why didn’t the service guy catch all of those when I called initially? Why didn’t the first tech tell him about the second two the first time? I put all of those on the service guy. When I called him for my annual visits, I’d always ask him what I’m due for. Then he’s telling me he wants all tens or whatever when I get surveys about the visits, and even though I report that he’s good and I like him, anything less than a ten reflects on him anyway. Well, that’s not my problem that the company does it that way. And frankly, I’m tired of businesses begging for reviews. I might give them to small ones that need my help, but definitely not some conglomerate-owned one.
I had been a mostly happy customer for all these years. There was one time when I brought the car in and it needed more service that would take another but I had a loaner, then I had to chase the service guy on the phone to find out what was up and when it would be ready. IIRC, when I got him he told me it was ready. Why did I have to chase him for that? But, I chalked it up to him being busy or one of those things. Also, one of the last times I was there, a lady at the desk behind him seemed to be talking to an angry customer who was telling her they wouldn’t be dealing with that service guy anymore. The service guy was telling the lady “I explained to them this” and “I told them about that” but it seems like this service guy isn’t so great after all.
Today I had a small problem with my car where the brake lights were stuck on. I brought it to a local shop and the guy comes back and says, your brake lights are fine, they’re not on.” “Huh?” He was like, “I fixed it, I’m not charging you for that. It was just a little piece I had to put in there to make it work again.” Thanks!
I think I know where I’m getting my car serviced the next time.
A Social Media Diet
I’ve put myself on a social media diet lately. That means I haven’t completely gone cold turkey, but I’ve cut out a bit and trying to be mindful of the time spent on social media when I do visit. What happened was that with the downfall of X, I started using several other platforms that were similar, such as Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky (I was already on Facebook and Instagram and probably others). Combine that with me using social media to kill time like when I was waiting for my Watch to charge or the sun to come up before my run, and I realized that I was wasting *too* much time. I was spending some time on some of them just keeping up with the posts, and on others trying to find content of interest. It had gotten to the point where by the time I had worked out, had breakfast, and cleaned up, it was almost lunch time already.
I haven’t been totally successful with this new goal, but I’ve been shooting for being done with those morning activities by 10 am.
So if you’ve been wondering where I have been (I know you have!), that’s it. I’m still on Earth, just more IRL and less virtually.
It took me a while, but I just finished Day 10 of the #100DaysOfSwiftUI at https://www.hackingwithswift.com/100/swiftui/10 via @twostraws@mastodon.social . At this rate, “100 days” might take me a year, but it’s still progress…
I just went for my first bike ride in forever. After all these years of running, that was almost too easy. I’d have to ride a lot to get a similar workout. But it was fun and different.
I just finished Day 8 of the #100DaysOfSwiftUI at https://www.hackingwithswift.com/100/swiftui/8 via @twostraws@mastodon.social
The checkpoint was a bit tricky but I figured out a way to do it.
Apple Rumors
Like any rumormonger, I take *everything* Gurman says with a big grain of salt. In fact, I lean towards not believing anything he claims. I feel like most posts that report what he claims act like they are facts and he has a great track record or something. We already know that Apple puts out misinformation to find leakers and often, things that turn out to be true are only part of the story. Sometimes they were an idea that was tried and abandoned during development.
Besides, I think the announcements are much more interesting and fun when they’re a complete surprise.
When contestants on The Voice talk about songs like “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” like It was Lauryn Hill’s song and not just her version of it.