Whine like a baby, now with 500% more drama!

Dave

Staff member
You know how I'm worried about my job and fear that I'll be let go at any time, right? Well yesterday I get a letter in the mail from my university. It's my name on a plain envelope. Inside was a smaller envelope that had nothing on it, just the return address of "Human Resources". My stomach fell but thought, "They wouldn't do that through the mail would they?"

It was a reimbursement check for when they took too much money out of my paycheck.

THEY COULDN'T TELL ME IT WAS COMING?!?
 
Mr. Z came home with some kind of virus last week. Since it was mostly affecting his throat, we were worried it might be strep. Quick doctor visit; no strep, no Covid, just old-fashioned virus. So he quarantined himself in the basement and wore a mask around the house for a few days to keep us from getting sick. By the time the weekend rolled around, he's feeling better, apart from a occasional lingering cough and sneeze, but it's also still allergy season here. The problem was he wouldn't always catch them with his elbow, which I kept yelling at him.

So as of this morning, both Li'l Z and I have it, too. My symptoms started sneaking up Sunday night, and I've been in bed ever since. I *think* Li'l Z's started Sunday morning because he seemed a little off, but it also could have been because of the heat. But by this morning, he's got it pretty bad, too. And now Mr. Z is stuck taking care of both of us, which he deserves for being Patient Zero and not being more careful.

But you know what really bugs me about this? I haven't had a cold in almost 2 years. By a strange coincedence, I hadn't caught a cold for a while before Covid started. During the quarantine, I realized one of the things I actually liked about it was that the great unwashed masses weren't sharing every little plague that came their way. I knew once things opened up this was going to happen, and it sucks.
 
I commented to my wife that it's been ages since either of us have caught a cold (due to all the COVID measures) and she smacked me upside the head for jinxing it.
 
We have an urgent water advisory. Not a boil water advisory, but a don’t drink, don’t boil, don’t bathe, don’t swim, don’t boat, don’t put your feet in it and don’t anything until further notice. (Yes all of these things are mentioned). Animals have died and someone is hospitalized.

The same night our big fridge dies and we have to run out and buy a baby fridge to hold my meds.

I have a bunch of meetings tomorrow and I’m going to look ragged.
 
We have an urgent water advisory. Not a boil water advisory, but a don’t drink, don’t boil, don’t bathe, don’t swim, don’t boat, don’t put your feet in it and don’t anything until further notice. (Yes all of these things are mentioned). Animals have died and someone is hospitalized.

The same night our big fridge dies and we have to run out and buy a baby fridge to hold my meds.

I have a bunch of meetings tomorrow and I’m going to look ragged.
My beef is that I can't tell where we get our water from, so don't know if I can brush my teeth or not. Or if I should be worried or not.

Stupid crappy lack of information.
 
Current update on the news. No one on Halifax water is impacted. It’s the water supply out here and specifically those who have wells drawing from Grand Lake.
 
Current update on the news. No one on Halifax water is impacted. It’s the water supply out here and specifically those who have wells drawing from Grand Lake.
I read a couple of articles that they are saying if you draw water directly from Grand Lake you are under the notice. Halifax has Wells that draw from the Grand Lake watershed (ground/well water directly connected to the lake) and those wells are unaffected. But my info is only from reading articles that could be misunderstanding what they’ve been told.
 
I read a couple of articles that they are saying if you draw water directly from Grand Lake you are under the notice. Halifax has Wells that draw from the Grand Lake watershed (ground/well water directly connected to the lake) and those wells are unaffected. But my info is only from reading articles that could be misunderstanding what they’ve been told.
They haven’t identified what it is yet so I am hesitant to try until we know more.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
It has been a very challenging day.

First of all, I was on site all day at a client location that had no A/C. In Texas. In June. So that put me more and more progressively on edge all day long, and as a result I became more short with coworkers and impatient with obstacles as the day progressed.

Before we do on site commissioning, there's several steps that have to happen. The gear gets ordered, we write the programs that control it, the gear arrives, we hook it all up in the shop, push code, configure equipment, build a whole mockup of the final product for testing and debugging, so that when the installers take it to the site, in theory, they should be able to hook it up and it just works, barring one or two oversights. And normally, the same Project Engineer (my title) is involved from start to finish. PE designs it, PE programs it, PE configures it, and after the installers install it, the PE commissions it.

None of that happened this time. We're so super slammed and busy that one PE designed it (and ordered some of the wrong gear), another programmed it (and didn't understand the intent behind the design so it got programmed to the wrong scope, plus was full of bugs because it was the most junior PE doing the programming and he's still learning), a THIRD configured it (and he's the FNG so he did it 25% correct, 50% wrong, and 25% didn't even bother trying), and then finally me on site to commission a project to which I have had no previous exposure until today, and no context on 3 other people's layers of conflicting intent and errors.

So yeah, I pulled a 10 hour day today, and it's 90% working (and the remaining 10% required opening a support ticket with the manufacturer because the thing isn't doing the thing it is advertised that it does, and they said they're going to go over the device's logs and get back to me next week). The client, at least, seems happy. But this should have been SO much simpler than it was. My boss likes to put it this way: We succeeded despite ourselves.

And then I got home and found Nibbles has puked on my bed.
 
The words "no AC in June" are approximately translated here in Arizona as "we want to you die and have your heirs sue the pants off us for workplace abuse violations, but LOL no you're not gettin' anything from us coz we got the legislature in our back pocket and have you SEEN how cray-cray they are?"
 
As you may be aware, we've been volunteering as a foster family for dogs for our local shelter. Right now, we've got Lucien here with us, who's a size larger than what we usually have - still somewhere around small-medium, but at least this is clearly "dog sized". Anyway, he's young, he's enthusiastic, he's energetic, and probably a bit bored here - there's a reason we usually stick to small doggies. No yard and having to be quiet the whole day isn't great for big active dogs.
This one was just found wandering the streets, no chip and nobody claims to know him...but he's clearly had some basic training and he wasn't abused or especially neglected when we got him.
Only downside is that he's very much one of those dogs who likes to bite towards bikers, and he can get a bit aggressive with other young male dogs - he hasn't been neutered.
So yesterday I was walking him, on the sidewalk, with parked cars between us and the street. A biker comes past, Lucien barks a bit and jumps up but I have him on a short leash so he's yards away from the biker. I stop, crouch next to him, calm him, say he's a good boy for not jumping or pulling too hard, you know, as one does.
In the mean time, the biker turned 'round on a driveway a few meters further, and bikes down the sidewalk - coming within 5 inches or so of us. Now, I still have Lucien on a short leash, but the guy comes so close that Lucien nips his ankle.
To be clear, Lucien shouldn't have bitten him, and I should've noticed the bike turning and coming onto the sidewalk and done even more to avoid him.
Having said that, I saw the wound, it didn't even break the skin. I'm sure it'll be a nice big bruise and that it hurt, but it's not something major.
Anyway, the biker insisted on the police and an ambulance, 5 people melted out of the surroundings all of whom saw the dangerous attack by the ferocious dog on the poor man, and they ganged up on me and were shouting at me.
So I called the cops, asked people to calm down, since I didn't deny anything, and just wanted to wait for the police in calm. Which, well, we spectacularly failed, because I also raised my voice - if people start threatening and insulting me and lying I have a hard time staying calm. You know, "you'll be counting your teeth on the street when I'm through with you", "it's always the same with you filthy people",....
Anyway. Of course they've filmed me screaming back at them, and the people who made physical threats all magically disappeared when the police arrived.
Lucien luckily gave a good show of being a very scared and good boy, cuddling up to the police officer, and I got to give my side of the story in peace. Police refused to make a PV out of anything, since there was no serious injury it can only be a civil case etc etc which quite pissed the other guy off, but eh. When the ambulance arrived, they told him to his face "you want to come with us for this? Why? You don't need a hospital. Any first aid post or GP could've checked this for you, you don't even need a bandaid. Just clean it a bit." which, err, also did nothing to make the other guy any happier. Anyway, since he insisted he was eventually taken away in the ambulance. Good luck for him, I'm pretty sure he was the lowest possible priority they could give someone in the ER, I hope he spent a nice couple of hours waiting.

Ambulance and whatever other costs will be on my insurance, though I doubt it'll go about our waiver so I may be out of pocket a couple of hundred euros...That's not my biggest problem though. I still have to walk Lucien every day, and I pass this guy's house every day, since he's just a few doors down from where I live, in the same street. And now when i'm out, instead of a mostly-relaxed walk where I have to pay some attention to anticipate dogs/cats/bikes/birds, I'm in a constant state of anxiety, afraid I'll miss a bike, drawing him close even when there's a bike 5 meters away, constantly looking over my shoulder to see if there isn't someone doing an illegal maneuver and coming closer to me than they should,....I had five or six fear attacks on a one hour walk, that just isn't healthy.

And you know what, of course it's my responsibility and Lucien shouldn't have nipped? But he was biking on the sidewalk, came within a foot me without a mask on, he had seen my dog and still chose to suddenly make a u-turn and not take any precautions, he escalated things by insisting on the police, not accepting my apologies or wanting my insurance info (which I all volunteered right away!), his friends were the ones yelling racist shit at me,... I feel that while he's the initial victim, he's not without blame, and it's definitely on him to have let things escalate to where they were.
It was just a very stressful instance, and I honestly think this could and should have been handled better by everyone involved. This could've been just 'accepting apologies, exchanging phone numbers, sending me a bill for the doctor the day after", but instead it was so much more. Ugh.
 
I'm sorry you went through all that. It sounds like a bad situation all around.

Would it help if you got Lucien a muzzle for his walks? I know that some people around here use them for similar reasons (nervous dogs who might nip if startled). It might help your piece of mind.
 
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You know, I'm surprisingly enjoying Erie, but I've been having...issues.

Namely this:

20210612_104013.jpg

Been laying down sticky traps and sprayed outside with Ortho Home defense, but I dont know if its enough. Suggestions appreciated >_<
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Been laying down sticky traps and sprayed outside with Ortho Home defense, but I dont know if its enough. Suggestions appreciated >_<
Would you rather put up with them, or with what they have found to eat in enough quantity to try to live with you?


Well, anyway, I usually have a live-and-let-live policy with any spider that doesn't build a web across a thoroughfare, but my cat sees things differently.
 
Well I wouldn't be complaining if it were just a couple. Whole reason I sprayed in the first place was that I couldnt go out on my little back deck or out my front door without a couple dozen spiders and their webs flying everywhere each night. The final straw was when I went to pump some soap to wash my hands and a fat spider crawled out from under the dispenser. I usually leave spiders alone too, but three separate times in the last week I had to dodge spiders like that one sitting on the basement steps. At this point I'm willing to kill them AND their food.
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Considering the size of those things? I'd probably just leave them alone aside from breaking up webs in your living areas. Spiders are population control for a lot of more... annoying things in the Great Lakes region, like Earwigs.
I did see a silverfish or two. I already have cedar strategically placed around the house.
 
To be clear, Lucien shouldn't have bitten him, and I should've noticed the bike turning and coming onto the sidewalk and done even more to avoid him.
To be frank, around here, riding a bicycle on a sidewalk is actually illegal. So...good boy?
Also, a person who rides a bicycle within lunging distance of any dog is already showing that they are not thinking clearly nor operating their vehicle safely.
Try to keep these in mind the next time the two of you are out for a walk.

--Patrick
 
To be frank, around here, riding a bicycle on a sidewalk is actually illegal. So...good boy?
Also, a person who rides a bicycle within lunging distance of any dog is already showing that they are not thinking clearly nor operating their vehicle safely.
Try to keep these in mind the next time the two of you are out for a walk.

--Patrick
Oh, it is illegal... But he made that u-turn because apparently I was just in front of his house and he was about to get off, so just riding 5 meters or so. He clearly wasn't considering safety etc, but, without meaning this in any way discriminatory, the man was of Moroccan descent (nearly half the people around here are), and most of them are afraid/disgusted/very ill at ease around dogs. Most consider them haram, and never interact with them, this not gaining any familiarity with or knowledge of dog behavior and handling.
 
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