The General Chat Thread (2023)

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caseydog said:
Rock salt is devastating to cars.
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Sod the cars. It's even more devastating to the environment. The salinity is way too high even when diluted by the British climate. But it's a natural resource that they have loads of and use it liberally.

The UK has vast salt plains under Cheshire. We used to live not far from one of them. They make for excellent storage for archiving documents and similar (because they are naturally very low humidity). In fact I understand that the V&A or the British museum (? query which one) have their archives in one of those mines close to where we used to live.

Edited to add that I'll put the environment first every time. The car can be washed. It's a touch more difficult with the environment after it had poisoned the waterways.
 
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SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Sod the cars. It's even more devastating to the environment. The salinity is way too high even when diluted by the British climate. But it's a natural resource that they have loads of and use it liberally.

The UK has vast salt plains under Cheshire. We used to live not far from one of them. They make for excellent storage for archiving documents and similar (because they are naturally very low humidity). In fact I understand that the V&A or the British museum (? query which one) have their archives in one of those mines close to where we used to live.

Edited to add that I'll put the environment first every time. The car can be washed. It's a touch more difficult with the environment after it had poisoned the waterways.
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As a car enthusiast, I'll pretend you didn't say "sod the cars." :headshake:

But yes, road salt is very hard on the environment. The de-icer I bought on Monday is a safe alternative to salt. I don't know how many states here still use salt on roads, but probably not many.

CD
 
caseydog said:
I don't know how many states here still use salt on roads, but probably not many.
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Seen very little here these days. They spray some kind liquid treatment down ahead of time and that seems to do ok.

We can always tell when it’s supposed to snow, without watching the weather, because there will be off-white stripes of whatever they’re spraying all over the roads.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Talk about inconsiderate. I'd be saying something discretely to reception at that point. It annoys me at the best of times because of my sensitive hearing (it's one reason we have no neighbours).
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That actually works over there?

You'd get laughed at here for complaining about such a thing, really. Nurses and other hospital staff will succintly tell you that's not their job to take care of because 'hospitals are noisy' and that's that. I get temazepam to sleep in hospital and am usually still awake most of the night because of all the noise and people in the room talking etc. EVEN with earplugs or a noise cancelling headphone. If unlucky the lights will flash on at every hour of the night too.

(a few times I also woke up with someone jabbing a needle in my arm at 05.30 for testing because they started their shift).

I hate it, I'm happy for you if it works where you live. But you'd have no chance here. The only quiet places here are ICU, recovery and isolation rooms. Lucky me having Crohns means I am usually in isolation for at least a day or two due to protocols around issues with the digestive system & testing for bacteria.
 
Oh, I had the irritating pleasure of dealing with a state agency yesterday (actually, the fourth time for the same issue).

MrsT is finally moving her business to a limited liability company, which requires filing two simple forms with the Secretary of State (that was the first two calls).

“Oh no,” you’re thinking, “long government forms to fill out!”

Nope, the forms couldn’t be simpler. The first one is giving consent to use/change her existing business name (appending “LLC” to the end), and it’s three lines: current business name, her name as owner, and new business name.

The form to actually make the change is just as simple, with one additional line (re)naming her as the sole agent of the “new” company. That’s it, sign both forms, submit them, pay a filing fee, and 3-5 days later, you’ve got yourself an LLC.

Easy!

Well, that “easy” took nearly three hours! First, in order to file online, you have to create an account. That process didn’t work very well and ended up needing manual intervention.

One form, that was set up to be completed online, just filling out a web form. The other form…of course not! That had to be downloaded, completed, then uploaded and attached separately to the case, and that piece wasn’t working properly, either.

Finally, after two phone calls yesterday, with a whole lot of “I don’t know…that should work…” on the clerk’s part, we finally got things filed. Let’s hope the approval process isn’t as fraught with pitfalls as the application process.
 
kaneohegirlinaz said:
Geez!!!
Sitting in the waiting room at one DH’s doctor visits and one person is yacking on their cellphone, another is playing a game with the volume turned all the way up, and yet still another is watching something on their phone without any ear buds/ear phones.
Geez!!!
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I know I sound like the resident Grumpy Old Man, but what little public cellphone etiquette that ever existed is completely gone.

People chatting loudly on speakerphone while shopping, watching videos on speakerphone in public places…I’ve encountered both of those just this past weekend.

The one that gets me is using a cellphone in a public restroom (or even a private one, for that matter).

I remember back around 2006/7 or so, we had that one guy who carried on conversations on his cellphone in the office restroom (four sinks, four urinals, two stalls, to give you the idea of how many people could be in there at any given time).

He’d walk in on the phone, or you’d walking in and he’d be at the urinal, splishy-splashy noises and all, talking on the phone…or in a stall, loudly talking over…those noises. He wouldn’t even stop talking over flushing: “Yeah, and on that contract, they want invoicing…WHOOSH!…done on the 10th for that.”

🤦🏻‍♂️

Everyone talked about it behind his back: “Can you believe he does that? He was actually talking to his wife while he was peeing! I heard him! He farted while he was on the phone, and I heard it out by the sink, so you know they heard it!”

15 years later, I can’t step into a public restroom without half the people in there chatting away, phone in one hand, wiener in the other, or worse.
 
Same for the ladies room TastyReuben
I just don't get it.
As soon as we walk into an office, I put both of our cells on silent mode.
I do not take my phone with me into any restroom!
DH takes his in with him in our home bathrooms as he reads while - ahem - doing his business - cough cough - hate that!
I disinfect his phone regularly :)
 
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A sighting of the rare and elusive sweet potato finch. It is sometimes spotted in snowy regions in the state of Michigan, if you are quick enough to catch them.
 
Just lost elecriticty. No warning nothing.

Seems we will be without it all night minimum... which is a bugger because nothing is charged. I usually recharge at night. If we'd be warned I could have had things on charge this evening prior to the black out.

Seems they knew power would be going down because they've been waiting for 2 replacement poles for one damaged in a grass fire locally today so they can work through the night to replace them. They only had to tell 331 homes. Hardly a huge number to have contacted or bounced a signal off a local mobile phone mast.

So that's me for the night...bye
Hopefully I'll get some sleep.

Now playing the game, can we remember what lights were turned on so we can turn them off to stop us being woken up in the middle of the night!
 
People gathered Thursday at Gobbler’s Knob for Groundhog Day, as members of Punxsutawney Phil’s “inner circle” summoned him from his tree stump at dawn to learn if he has seen his shadow. According to folklore, if he sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t, spring comes early.

He came out around 7:30 AM EDT, and saw his shadow, so it looks like six more weeks of winter.

CD
 
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