Useless Conversation

[MrHat]

It's true.  No car payment is a warm and fuzzy feeling.  It's probably the reason we still have this Mustang I hate so much.

Absolutely.  I have my car, I hate it, I have the means to buy a new one.  But no car payment is pure <3

[Strazos]

I like owning the title to my car, but for fuck's sake, I just tossed my car back into the shop. They supposedly put a new fuel pump in, and I get it back with a terrible idle, poor mileage, and a check engine light.

Fuck that noise. If I don't get a FSO spot this spring, I'm trading it in for a fucking Fit.

[Yegolev]

Get a Japanese car.  It only hurts the first time.

[Strazos]

Get a Japanese car.  It only hurts the first time.

Fuck that noise. If I don't get a FSO spot this spring, I'm trading it in for a fucking [HONDA] Fit.

 

[Selby]

They supposedly put a new fuel pump in, and I get it back with a terrible idle, poor mileage, and a check engine light.

They probably didn't flush the fuel lines and change the fuel filter.  Usually when one of these pumps die all sorts of gunk or junk is in the lines and can get sucked up and sent straight to the injectors, plugging them or the fuel pump.

[Merusk]

3" of snow in Northern Kentucky/ Cincinnati means I now have to dig my car out to go in for 1/2 a day.  Then at noon I have to come back and watch the kids since school and daycare are both closed and the wife has to go to work.   Considering the highway is moving at 25-35mph I'll be better off just calling in than doing the 15min drive = 1hour commute thing, but nobody's at the office to reach yet.   It's days like this I really resent bosses that don't close offices.

[MrHat]

3" of snow in Northern Kentucky/ Cincinnati means I now have to dig my car out to go in for 1/2 a day.  Then at noon I have to come back and watch the kids since school and daycare are both closed and the wife has to go to work.   Considering the highway is moving at 25-35mph I'll be better off just calling in than doing the 15min drive = 1hour commute thing, but nobody's at the office to reach yet.   It's days like this I really resent bosses that don't close offices.

Can you email?  We're in much the same situation in Alexandria, VA.  Already a bunch of accidents, the highways are snail paced, but work is fully open and no one is here.

[Merusk]

I hadn't even thought of e-mail, damn my old man's ways.   I got a hold of someone in the office at about 8:15 who lives about 2 miles from me and said I wasn't going to be in today.  She said it took her an hour to get in, so I was pretty spot-on with that assessment.  Whee white stuff.

[Signe]

It's snowing now but it's supposed to get really nasty tonight and into tomorrow morning.  Luckily, I have both a grocery order and a cat food order being delivered this morning and we have no place to go for as long as we don't want to go there.  Righ misses having an outside office to go to sometimes, I think, but not during these sorts of days.  It's also one of the few nice things about living in a rented townhouse with a garage - short driveway, snow removal (well, most of it), and a warm, dry car if we do want to go somewhere.  Having said that, I'd probably hire out for snow removal anyway and wouldn't buy a house without a garage FOR THE CAR - not storage.  It's actually something we've talked about.

[Sky]

It's true.  No car payment is a warm and fuzzy feeling.  It's probably the reason we still have this Mustang I hate so much.

The FJ is the first car payment I've ever had to make. It's painful! Having a new truck is amazing, being broke, not so much. But I was so tired of trucks breaking down, and apparently nobody in a 50-mile radius can fix the brakes on my old pickup. After having them go three times in one year...I'm just damned lucky I'm a good driver and can drive without brakes, more or less. Or I'd be, you know, dead. So...fuck old cars!

Did Merusk just call 3" of snow "digging out"? So cute. I'm still amazed people don't know how to drive in a little snow (especially in upstate NY), but then again, in CA people don't know how to drive in RAIN.

The older I get, the more Carlinesque my worldview becomes. I hear about some big multi-car pileup and all I can think is "Man, I hope no /good/ drivers got caught up in that!"

I've already been cheering for the sharks and bear and stingrays of the world. We kill millions of them, but they chomp on one fucking papoose and 'ZOMG NATURE ATTACKS". Speaking of that, fuck Animal Planet and all those cable companies for fucking up good nature programming and replacing it with dangerous animals programming. Hell, there's probably some program on the menace of the three-toed sloth.

[Righ]

I like owning the title to my car, but for fuck's sake, I just tossed my car back into the shop. They supposedly put a new fuel pump in, and I get it back with a terrible idle, poor mileage, and a check engine light.

Fuck that noise. If I don't get a FSO spot this spring, I'm trading it in for a fucking Fit.

FSO? The Polish car company? Who the hell imports those to America? Just get a Chevy Aveo if that's what you want.

Did Merusk just call 3" of snow "digging out"? So cute. I'm still amazed people don't know how to drive in a little snow (especially in upstate NY), but then again, in CA people don't know how to drive in RAIN.

He's in Northern Kentucky. I guess you'd laugh at Columbians' inability to cope with snow too. I'm hoping you get dengue fever and mud slides in upstate NY this year.

[Sky]

Was that a cocaine reference?

[Merusk]

Did Merusk just call 3" of snow "digging out"? So cute. I'm still amazed people don't know how to drive in a little snow (especially in upstate NY), but then again, in CA people don't know how to drive in RAIN.

I did, but only because I have to use the shovel when it hits that level.  I'm from NE Ohio originally, so I'm well used to this weather and wish for more of it so the kids can have memories of snow days and forts like I do. We barely get one good snowfall a year.

 Now think about this; You're amazed at how many can't drive in it and you live in an area that gets 3" on a light day.  Imagine what it's like here, with drivers all around you that PANIC at 1/4" to 1/2" of snow NONE of whom know how to drive in it at all.  Yeah, that's winter in Cincinnati.

[Nerf]

DFW got hit with an Ice Storm last night, or this morning, or something, but everything is shut down.  Well, almost everything, Fort Worth ISD (who moki works for) decided to be the only district who didn't close.  My campus is shut down though, so I'm hiding inside, warm and cozy.  Maybe I'll play through Portal again.

[Sky]

You're amazed at how many can't drive in it and you live in an area that gets 3" on a light day.  Imagine what it's like here, with drivers all around you that PANIC at 1/4" to 1/2" of snow NONE of whom know how to drive in it at all.  Yeah, that's winter in Cincinnati.

That's more what I meant, and why I mentioned Upstate NY, but I like Righ's take on it better. I demand heavy snow instruction for everyone!

And yeah, my bad, you used a shovel :P

[Signe]

I have to agree.  Most of the people around here seem absolutely terrified to be out in the weather.   Watching them makes me terrified to be on the same road.  Either that or they're so smug and confident that their huge SUV will keep them safe no matter what happens that they drive like they're in a 911 GT3 on a sunny day.  They are obviously trying to drive between the snowflakes to keep the car dry.  What a good plan.

[Sky]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg173VXc2Kk

[Viin]

We got 7 inches of snow here in Denver yesterday morning. And yes people suck at driving in weather, but we all still came in to work .. and only a little late!

The worst part is shoveling the snow so that when it hits 50 degrees tomorrow it all melts away on the driveway rather than hang around for another 2 weeks.

[rattran]

My driveway is currently an uneven sheet of ice about 6" thick. It's narrow, at a slight slope, with concrete walls on either side. Takes 4wd to get up it, and nerves of steel to get down.

Still, better than having to shovel it.

[Signe]

Luge!   

[Selby]

Or I'd be, you know, dead. So...fuck old cars!

Your truck wasn't old, it was just a victim of poor design and that can't always be fixed ;-)

Regarding snow, my boss and I had to drive 30 miles in a blizzard when we got stuck in Boston during a whiteout a few years ago.  I'd never seen anyone who has lived their entire life in SoCal drive so well and controlled on the highways and navigate through zero visibility conditions get to Logan with all of the hell that is the big dig and no directions.  It was 60 here today and I'm freezingly cold - but then strangely I've been seriously cold for the last 2 years now and it never goes away even in summer.

[Yegolev]

It's about 60 degrees here.

[Merusk]

Yes, but your government just collapsed and nobody wants to touch your banks with other government's money.   So, there's tradeoffs.

[Sky]

The storm that hit you guys is rolling onto us now, woohoo! I hope the upper end estimates are true and we get over a foot. They're calling for 8-12" today and another 3-5" tonight. So it should be a foot anyway.

Funny thing is, I live next to two schools. They closed last year for a wind day. Over a foot of snow? Fuck 'em, make em bus all those kids in. We're sure they'll close early, so they can get the credit for being open that day. Never mind the dozens of buses on poorly-plowed roads. I find it hilarious when greediness and concern for TEH CHILLEN collide.

Life is so much easier without children. "Oh, we can't bail out and stimulate, it'll pass the debt onto TEH CHILLEN!" "Oh, we can't have the demon weed loose on the street, it will gateway TEH CHILLEN into injecting bleach into their dicks!" So much bullshit we adults have to put up with goes away if you get rid of TEH CHILLEN. Please, will you breeders stop it already. The whole kid fad is so over.

 

[Yegolev]

Yes, but your government just collapsed and nobody wants to touch your banks with other government's money.   So, there's tradeoffs.

Where do you think I live?

[WayAbvPar]

He isn't far off if you still live in the US, unfortunately.

[Merusk]

Goddamnit wrong green name with a Y.

I'll take Way's explanation, though.

[Yegolev]

Is it 60F in Iceland?  Today isn't the day to try to confuse me, I am already angry/frustrated over the mysterious failure of my new powerline network, so much so I had nightmares about it, plus I could not sleep because I could not breathe, and I'm doing too many things at once, and my upcoming vacation is too far off and includes inlaws, and it's TAX TIME, and I'm getting nervous-balls over building my wife's computer, and the bullshit in BSG isn't helping.  Maybe I can duck out and get a nap this afternoon.  That, and some key lime bars, should fix shit up pert quick.

[MrHat]

Is it 60F in Iceland?  Today isn't the day to try to confuse me, I am already angry/frustrated over the mysterious failure of my new powerline network, so much so I had nightmares about it, plus I could not sleep because I could not breathe, and I'm doing too many things at once, and my upcoming vacation is too far off and includes inlaws, and it's TAX TIME, and I'm getting nervous-balls over building my wife's computer, and the bullshit in BSG isn't helping.  Maybe I can duck out and get a nap this afternoon.  That, and some key lime bars, should fix shit up pert quick.

Damn.

Relax man.  It's only life.

[JWIV]

Is it 60F in Iceland?  Today isn't the day to try to confuse me, I am already angry/frustrated over the mysterious failure of my new powerline network, so much so I had nightmares about it, plus I could not sleep because I could not breathe, and I'm doing too many things at once, and my upcoming vacation is too far off and includes inlaws, and it's TAX TIME, and I'm getting nervous-balls over building my wife's computer, and the bullshit in BSG isn't helping.  Maybe I can duck out and get a nap this afternoon.  That, and some key lime bars, should fix shit up pert quick.

Let me know how that inlaw vacation thing works for you.  I like my inlaws and all, but I've got a week in a house full of my wife's parents and her siblings in the summer that I'm more than a little apprehensive about.

[Yegolev]

I have done this particular vacation before and I believe I can accurately predict how it will work out, despite the fact that my mental state is completely different now.  We are going to WDW and for the time that the in-laws are with us, my son will spend most of the time with grandpa while my wife is irritated by something they are doing.  My wife's mother will complain about anything in her field of vision and look unpleasant in all of the pictures.  My son will refuse to make a good face for a picture, further annoying my wife.  We plan to banish the young and old back to the hotel for a nap while we do fun things like ride Everest, however circumstances such as wife-fatigue will in fact send us all back to the hotel where we may or may not nap, further annoying my wife.  She will also be annoyed that we are wasting time in the hotel.

I, however, will have a great time.  Anyone calling on my services will have to be actually in the process of losing a limb to get significant non-fun action out of me.  I'm going to be all about a Nathan's hot dog, a Dole pineapple smoothie, a turkey leg, Teacups, Small World, the Raceway, Spaaaaaace Mooountaaaaaiiin, Haunted Mansion (recently revamped!), and also not worrying about shit.

Relax man.  It's only life.

Yeah, don't worry, I got this.  I'm serious about slipping out for a nap and some key lime bars, that should fix everything.  Maybe some Fallout 3 or Persona 4.  It's all hunky dory.  I'm much better these days.

[IainC]

A couple of years ago, our work's Christmas party was held at Eurodisney. It was of the awesome, especially as we had the entire park to ourselves for the evening, all the plebeians were kicked out and so it was just a handful of FT employees left in the park. Being able to walk up to Space Mountain and just get on and ride was awesome. All the parades and events stayed running too.

[Draegan]

So it snowed about 4" last night.  Then I woke up to it raining. Now I think it's freezing.

[Yegolev]

Is your orange grove OK?

[Merusk]

Is it 60F in Iceland? 

How the fuck should I know? I saw a name I thought was from Iceland saying "it's 60 here today" so I gave a "screw you, too" comment.  It was 55 here a week and a half ago and now there's a foot of snow on the ground, so I imagine the same shit can happen anywhere.  Climatology and meteorology isn't one of my interests. 

Enjoy the Disney trip. The Haunted Mansion revamp is pretty minor but the new bit on the top floor was nifty.  If you're staying on site, don't bother with the bus system since you plan on going back to the hotel. They take up so much time you'll miss a lot of park time just in travel, particularly since some of the parks (MGM, Animal Kingdom) close fairly early. When we were there in September, AK closed at 5 or 6pm so they can rest and feed the animals. MGM closed at 6, with a light show happening an hour and a half later.   That's along fucking hour and a half sitting there but the show's pretty spectacular.