fenomas wrote:Peoj Snamreh wrote:Trains.. literally the worst means of transport ever.
I agree with this but only when I'm visiting another country
I went to Japan twice, and both times the highlight of my trip was the same: Trains (in Japan) are amazing!
In my own country... not so much. Especially not here in Ottawa, where the LRT has earned a reputation for its unreliability.
People outside of Ottawa don't really realize how bad the LRT is. It's only a couple of years old, and there are huge issues with it. Setting aside the numerous construction issues that delayed it by a couple years, they bought trains that have issues in :High heat/humidity, heavy rain, freezing rain, and heavy snow. Ottawa is guaranteed to get all of them. Then, in the construction, they didn't match the wheels (specifically the bearings in the wheels and their supports) they used with the corners the trains have to take . (Note the people who built the line and supplied the trains are the same company.)
To make matters worse, the new rail line from the airport does not go downtown!! If you want to go downtown from the airport by train, you need to change lines.
Can't you burn off the cottonwood fluff? I keep seeing videos of that...
I'd love to do that but I think my neighbors would be unhappy if anything started on fire. It would spread well past my yard as everyone's yard around this tree is covered.
Make it a neighborhood event?
Today only 1 train didn't show up... 30 mins late 
Two days of committee meetings to determine the future of my workplace and how to pivot from a "service with fees for optional add-ons" to full on "pay me or you get nothing!" mode, as mandated by our Governor.
So I'll be out of town for my child's birthday.
It's tough with kiddos, I am sure, but the key to ants is starvation. If there is no food accessible anywhere, the ants leave you alone.
I like Terro ant-killing liquid, iff you can keep the kids out of it for a day or so. It's kind of fun to watch the number of ants ramp up then drop back to zero as enough has been brought back to the nest to kill them all. There are time-lapse videos on youtube of this.
My loathe is also insurance-based. The whole story's kind of boring (it's insurance, of course it is) but I just love getting my policy canceled out of the blue and being told "if you appease us we'll consider reinstatement".
My loathe is also insurance-based. The whole story's kind of boring (it's insurance, of course it is) but I just love getting my policy canceled out of the blue and being told "if you appease us we'll consider reinstatement".
Oh, this has been in the news lately: drones and planes flying over houses to cancel policies! Was it tree coverage?
Paleocon wrote:WellAdjusted wrote:Ant invasion. Not fun with 22 and 2 month old, especially with a lot of them concentrated in kiddos playroom/bedroom.
It's tough with kiddos, I am sure, but the key to ants is starvation. If there is no food accessible anywhere, the ants leave you alone.
Yes and.
Good luck getting and keeping your kitchen entirely crumb-free. And forget about it if you have kids, they leave a trail of crumbs and food behind them everywhere they go.
Greeks use vinegar. Clean all the kitchen surfaces in vinegar. Leave a line around stuff with vinegar. Works with Greek ants. 
My loathe is also insurance-based. The whole story's kind of boring (it's insurance, of course it is) but I just love getting my policy canceled out of the blue and being told "if you appease us we'll consider reinstatement".
Our auto insurance company (of 20+ years!) declined to renew our policy earlier this year, and our insurance agent (of 20+ years!) said that they couldn't find any companies willing to cover us, so we'd have to get some extra-expensive MA state insurance. I called good old Farmers Insurance though, and they took us on - at an even better rate than we had before; the agents/reps I've had to speak with (a few times, for Reasons) were all super friendly and easy to get things straightened out, too.
I hate that this reads as an ad, but I do like to promote good experiences when I have them (especially since we're both in MA). Happy to privately send a referral to you, if you're interested.
Started out as tree coverage from a drone survey, yes, along with some moss that my Spray-and-Forget wasn't killing well enough. I had the tree cut back, and got a letter from the arborist that it was now safe and he refused to trim it any more because that would kill the tree. Apparently that wasn't good enough for Mapfre (why not name names) even after a hell of a lot of documentation. They also pissed me off by being very untrusting about the paperwork- they didn't like that it wasn't manually signed and that I hadn't paid a deposit (the tree company didn't want one), like I was going to forge a work order.
So my agent (from Salem Five) got me a new policy with Openly, who I'd never heard of before. They didn't like the roof condition so they canceled too after a month. I could have maybe had it cleaned but that would have cost several thousand dollars with no guarantee of appeasing the underwriters, so now I'm just having the whole thing replaced. At least that ought to knock the premiums down a bit. The agent tells me that Mapfre is shedding clients left and right and being real jerks about it; I suppose every underwriter is losing enough money down south and along the coasts that they're tightening up everywhere else too.
This was just in the news yesterday: https://www.boston25news.com/news/lo...
Mapfre is still the cheapest car insurance for me by a long shot (for now anyway) so I'm staying even though they annoy me. Maybe I could have found something better on my own but this agent's been really helpful and straight with me so I'm willing to eat some notional cost to avoid having to spend more of my own time dealing with this crap.
Insurances are criminal here in Sweden... Earlier I decided end the insurances on our dogs.
Two times we needed medical assistance. First the vet has to research for a standard fee of 2499 SEK (self-risk is 2500 SEK) - and after that the surgery didn't get covered because of the breed, age, sex or whatever. Same with the dentist - he checks (self risk), than he says you need an operation, but first they have to up your insurance due to the new check. Bah.
Last week my new e-bike/scooter was stolen, insurance doesn't cover it because the motor was 200 Watt stronger than what they consider an e-bike/scooter (450 W instead of 200 W). I will phone them and cancel ALL posible insurances.
FFS, you have to be a criminal being able to get money from the insurance.
So, my ants are carpenter ants. We end up having a problem every year in the spring cause we’re in the woods and everything wakes up and starts looking for a nice place to move into. We’ve had very good luck in years past treating outside with Advion Ant—I’d walk around the house for an hour, figure out where they were coming in from, apply the gel, and the issue would be resolved. This year there wasn’t a clear point of entry, so I applied inside, ants came and grabbed the gel and presumably brought it back to their colony, and then they went away.
A few days later we started seeing an ant here or there, so I thought maybe I’d have to reapply once I had a sense of where they were concentrated. Then about four days ago, we woke up to dozens and dozens of ants all over a corner of the kitchen just marching from one corner to another. They didn’t seem particularly interested in any food. I put more gel down which they largely appeared to ignore, and over the course of the day they spread into my daughter’s playroom/bedroom. When I went outside to see if I could find where they were coming in from, I found a solid line of ants stretching a good 150 feet back into the woods. Probably longer, but I hit the hill that leads up to a neighbors property and the sun was setting by this point so I called it.
This is the point at which I resolved to call in the exterminators, which I’ve never had to do before and felt kind of icky about. They came yesterday, and although the gel I had put down must have done something because the ants inside the house were reduced by like 90-95%, I still had them treat with a dust puffer thing on the exterior of the house. Turns out we must have had a colony in one of the walls on the second floor, because when he puffed the stuff in on the northeast corner of the house about 20’ feet up, it started raining hundreds of ants.
Hopefully this is the end of it. I’m extremely ambivalent about any kind of insecticide on the exterior (cause I don’t want to just indiscriminately kill all the bugs) or interior (cause kiddos), but we may have to be a little more proactive to keep things from getting out of hand like this.
Paleocon wrote:WellAdjusted wrote:Ant invasion. Not fun with 22 and 2 month old, especially with a lot of them concentrated in kiddos playroom/bedroom.
It's tough with kiddos, I am sure, but the key to ants is starvation. If there is no food accessible anywhere, the ants leave you alone.
Yes and.
Good luck getting and keeping your kitchen entirely crumb-free. And forget about it if you have kids, they leave a trail of crumbs and food behind them everywhere they go.
We have little difficulty keeping our house crumb-free but that is because we have no kids. Like I said, tough with kiddos, but should be relatively easy if your household has no kids in it. Even our dog doesn't leave food lying around.
I live in an old house. It is hard to keep things out of here but I'm slowly plugging the holes. That said, I have had good luck keeping ants at bay by applying diatomaceous earth on and around any mounds I find near-ish the house.
Best part is its non-toxic, so safe for kids, animals, etc...
Have you tried luring them out of the house with a trail of tiny little uncles?
I live in an old house. It is hard to keep things out of here but I'm slowly plugging the holes. That said, I have had good luck keeping ants at bay by applying diatomaceous earth on and around any mounds I find near-ish the house.
Best part is its non-toxic, so safe for kids, animals, etc...
That's the good stuff. We used some to get rid of earwigs, which aren't super harmful but creepy AF and we had way too many of them sneaking into our bathrooms.
We were looking for something that wouldn't harm our cats if they got into a bit, as they tend to do.
Am I showing my age if I complain that nothing comes with plugs any more? Everything I get that's rechargeable just comes with a USB cord like I'm expected to plug everything into my computer. I've got an outlet in my kitchen taken up with two adapters (one USB A and one USB C) and a bunch random cords to charge 5 or 6 different things. Always fun trying to remember what cord I need when my flashlight or speaker needs charging.
I just purchased a rechargeable beard trimmer and now it looks like I need to add a USB adapter in my bathroom now - or else I just start piling all my rechargeable items on top of my PC.
Am I showing my age if I complain that nothing comes with plugs any more? Everything I get that's rechargeable just comes with a USB cord like I'm expected to plug everything into my computer. I've got an outlet in my kitchen taken up with two adapters (one USB A and one USB C) and a bunch random cords to charge 5 or 6 different things. Always fun trying to remember what cord I need when my flashlight or speaker needs charging.
I just purchased a rechargeable beard trimmer and now it looks like I need to add a USB adapter in my bathroom now - or else I just start piling all my rechargeable items on top of my PC.
I feel this. The rechargeable razor I have is especially annoying because it's usb-a on one end and a two-prong female connector on the other. So I can't even use a generic USB cord if I forget it lose this one.
We gave up and bought about 4 plug bars with surge protectors. Kitchen, dining room and living room each have at least one.
Come to think of it, that's... Ah... Six total...
Thought I was lucky and missed the back to office trend, but that just changed. Was hired full-time remote but they now want anyone within 50 miles of an office to commute for two days. I'm about 40... Both my actual bosses think it's dumb but they don't get to decide. Probable trying to get people to quit. Now debating, to try it, tell them I won't, or immediately start looking for new work. Bah was pretty happy before this.
Thought I was lucky and missed the back to office trend, but that just changed. Was hired full-time remote but they now want anyone within 50 miles of an office to commute for two days. I'm about 40... Both my actual bosses think it's dumb but they don't get to decide. Probable trying to get people to quit. Now debating, to try it, tell them I won't, or immediately start looking for new work. Bah was pretty happy before this.
Bummer.
I've been working from home ever since covid, can't really see myself going back to an office, luckily everyone where I work do so from home as me, considering we are all spread out around the world there's no office to go to anyway.
Thanks, little less annoyed now. Looked into the drive and while not good not as bad as I thought. Was also told I can come and go whenever I feel like. Still a downgrade overall though. No one I work is even at that office, even my bosses think it's pointless. But there's probable some excel spreadsheet somewhere that says do this to lower costs half a percent. Or other non-sense. And is probable wrong in that too.
Amazon did the same thing, Master0, the same way. Anyone within 50 miles must go in to an office, preferably 'their' office, regardless of where your teammates are, how you were hired, whether you worked through 3 years of pandemic perfectly well.
They exposed that there's a boys club of ~60ish CEO-bros who have been talking about this and came to the agreement some time a year or so ago, which explains all these companies doing similar things. Its not about your effectiveness. Its about getting control back over you, and a complete lack of trust for their employees. This is why reasoning about your performance and effectiveness or whether your team is even in your office doesn't matter.
Shut up monkey and work, spend your company money in the company cafe and the businesses in the area.
When your work treats you this way the best thing to do is unionize, the second best thing to do is find a more respectable company, cuz you won't be reasoning with this one as an individual.
Our policy is a less than 60 minute drive time to one of our hub locations. Fortunately for me since 85 into Charlotte is an absolute shit-show at all times day or night, my commute clocks in at 80-90 mins if everything goes my way. So for the time being I am not required to come into the office. Not sure how long that's going to last.
I'm fortunate to be at a place that does things right - we're "encouraged" to come in, but it's optional and it's carrots rather than sticks. Most of my team comes in 1-2 days per week, because there's a club or meetup that they want to join (partly for a free lunch or dinner).
But even with that cushy system, I try to hold to the policy that commuting time is working time - so when I do go to the office I work a shorter day.
Amazon went super hardcore. Being out of compliance puts you on a disciplinary track that ends in termination. If you're inconsistent you're highly likely to be blocked for promotions. They're all in on "we're your parents now"
Amazon went super hardcore. Being out of compliance puts you on a disciplinary track that ends in termination. If you're inconsistent you're highly likely to be blocked for promotions. They're all in on "we're your parents now"
there are a few exceptions here and there (my wife works remotely) but yeah the overall attitude and approach is trash.
I have the opposite experience. Company I'm working for opened a new office that's a 12 minute drive from my front door. Is there a desk there for me? Nope.
Some random things I loathed recently...
Amazon truck hit my mailbox and damaged it the other day..yay
Obnoxious youth soccer parents
End of year school activities that are all bunched up and could be avoided by spreading it out earlier.
S
End of year school activities that are all bunched up and could be avoided by spreading it out earlier.
Same, how many "graduations" and performances and brunches and going away parties do we need for 3 and 6 year olds? *sigh*
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