Trivial Irrelevant Aggravations

[AmLitHist]

ALHS's truck wouldn't start a couple of weeks ago. No rush to fix it--he doesn't work, and he can't do the work himself anymore (former mechanic, but has health problems), plus June is always a tight money month for us.

Monday afternoon, I asked him to take my Malibu to the store for some burger buns for supper.  No start.  After charging overnight, still nothing. Later, he charged up the Blazer's battery and rigged it into my car (different fit, but it worked).  Ta-da!

Except, when he went to shut the car hood, it won't latch.  It'll close and hold, but that final, closed-all-the-way latch, doesn't. It's OK for around town/slow speeds, but not on the highway (i.e., Murphy's Law:  it will be fine, until a gust of road wind pops the hood into the windshield).  Sigh.

Needing several prescriptions in the town 15 miles away, I woke up this morning, said, "Go to the local store and put a new battery in and be done with it." He agreed, did so, and it starts like a champ. 

Except. . . . the guy who put it in started to put it in backwards, and initially touched the cables wrong, jumping a spark as ALHS said, "DONT!"  All seemed well, except the radio wouldn't work.   After a couple of YouTubes to locate and replace the fuse (there are three fuse blocks in this stupid car--WHY???), the car runs and the radio works.  Victory!

Except for the hood latch.  ALHS, who has driven any number of beater cars and trucks in our 42 years together, has no pride, and put a rachet strap on the hood, hooked it to the bumper, and is currently picking up the Rx's and a few groceries at WalMart in the Beverly Hillbillies Malibu, as he called it.

Ye gods.  Mercury is DEFINITELY in Gatorade (as Kid #1 calls "retrograde"--and she's had a million and one little problems for the past couple of weeks, too).  At least I'm laughing and posting these here, instead of a major meltdown in the Venting thread. 

Did I mention we're headed to 104 degrees here, plus "dangerous" humidity, here today?  As long as the AC and electricity and iced tea hold out, it's all good.

[apl68]

ALHS's truck wouldn't start a couple of weeks ago. No rush to fix it--he doesn't work, and he can't do the work himself anymore (former mechanic, but has health problems), plus June is always a tight money month for us.

Monday afternoon, I asked him to take my Malibu to the store for some burger buns for supper.  No start.  After charging overnight, still nothing. Later, he charged up the Blazer's battery and rigged it into my car (different fit, but it worked).  Ta-da!

Except, when he went to shut the car hood, it won't latch.  It'll close and hold, but that final, closed-all-the-way latch, doesn't. It's OK for around town/slow speeds, but not on the highway (i.e., Murphy's Law:  it will be fine, until a gust of road wind pops the hood into the windshield).  Sigh.

Needing several prescriptions in the town 15 miles away, I woke up this morning, said, "Go to the local store and put a new battery in and be done with it." He agreed, did so, and it starts like a champ. 

Except. . . . the guy who put it in started to put it in backwards, and initially touched the cables wrong, jumping a spark as ALHS said, "DONT!"  All seemed well, except the radio wouldn't work.   After a couple of YouTubes to locate and replace the fuse (there are three fuse blocks in this stupid car--WHY???), the car runs and the radio works.  Victory!

Except for the hood latch.  ALHS, who has driven any number of beater cars and trucks in our 42 years together, has no pride, and put a rachet strap on the hood, hooked it to the bumper, and is currently picking up the Rx's and a few groceries at WalMart in the Beverly Hillbillies Malibu, as he called it.

Ye gods.  Mercury is DEFINITELY in Gatorade (as Kid #1 calls "retrograde"--and she's had a million and one little problems for the past couple of weeks, too).  At least I'm laughing and posting these here, instead of a major meltdown in the Venting thread. 

Did I mention we're headed to 104 degrees here, plus "dangerous" humidity, here today?  As long as the AC and electricity and iced tea hold out, it's all good.

But have you ever driven a car that had to be started with a screwdriver?  I did for a time in college, courtesy of my dad.  Having to hold the hood closed with a ratchet strap is a new one, though.

[AmLitHist]

LOL,apl68!  Yes, I have--a '75 Malibu that constantly jumped timing, so I'd have to take off the air cleaner, shove in a screwdriver to keep the carburetor open, jump in and start it and hope like hell it'd keep running til I could get in and give it the gas so it wouldn't die!  Ah, college days.....

[ciao_yall]

ALHS's truck wouldn't start a couple of weeks ago. No rush to fix it--he doesn't work, and he can't do the work himself anymore (former mechanic, but has health problems), plus June is always a tight money month for us.

Monday afternoon, I asked him to take my Malibu to the store for some burger buns for supper.  No start.  After charging overnight, still nothing. Later, he charged up the Blazer's battery and rigged it into my car (different fit, but it worked).  Ta-da!

Except, when he went to shut the car hood, it won't latch.  It'll close and hold, but that final, closed-all-the-way latch, doesn't. It's OK for around town/slow speeds, but not on the highway (i.e., Murphy's Law:  it will be fine, until a gust of road wind pops the hood into the windshield).  Sigh.

Needing several prescriptions in the town 15 miles away, I woke up this morning, said, "Go to the local store and put a new battery in and be done with it." He agreed, did so, and it starts like a champ. 

Except. . . . the guy who put it in started to put it in backwards, and initially touched the cables wrong, jumping a spark as ALHS said, "DONT!"  All seemed well, except the radio wouldn't work.   After a couple of YouTubes to locate and replace the fuse (there are three fuse blocks in this stupid car--WHY???), the car runs and the radio works.  Victory!

Except for the hood latch.  ALHS, who has driven any number of beater cars and trucks in our 42 years together, has no pride, and put a rachet strap on the hood, hooked it to the bumper, and is currently picking up the Rx's and a few groceries at WalMart in the Beverly Hillbillies Malibu, as he called it.

Ye gods.  Mercury is DEFINITELY in Gatorade (as Kid #1 calls "retrograde"--and she's had a million and one little problems for the past couple of weeks, too).  At least I'm laughing and posting these here, instead of a major meltdown in the Venting thread. 

Did I mention we're headed to 104 degrees here, plus "dangerous" humidity, here today?  As long as the AC and electricity and iced tea hold out, it's all good.

But have you ever driven a car that had to be started with a screwdriver?  I did for a time in college, courtesy of my dad.  Having to hold the hood closed with a ratchet strap is a new one, though.

My VW bug was held together with a coat hanger and a popsicle stick. Hey, whatever worked...

[jimbogumbo]

Autocorrect!! Turned sheisty into shiest and I didn't catch it.

BTW, it tried again in the above sentence. At least it is consistently aggressive.

[mamselle]

Autocorrect!! Turned sheisty into shiest and I didn't catch it.

BTW, it tried again in the above sentence. At least it is consistently aggressive.

A friend calls it "Auto-corrupt.," and I agree...

M.

[fishbrains]

Except for the hood latch.  ALHS, who has driven any number of beater cars and trucks in our 42 years together, has no pride, and put a rachet strap on the hood, hooked it to the bumper, and is currently picking up the Rx's and a few groceries at WalMart in the Beverly Hillbillies Malibu, as he called it.

I resent the appropriation of my adopted culture. Unless your car speakers are sitting on the rear deck and you have an "American by birth, Southern by the grace of God" bumper sticker next to your West Virginia license plate, please tell him not to use the h-word. Plus, everyone knows you park a car like that in front of a Dollar store. Who's got the kind of spending cash to be near a Walmart? 

[AmLitHist]

Except for the hood latch.  ALHS, who has driven any number of beater cars and trucks in our 42 years together, has no pride, and put a rachet strap on the hood, hooked it to the bumper, and is currently picking up the Rx's and a few groceries at WalMart in the Beverly Hillbillies Malibu, as he called it.

I resent the appropriation of my adopted culture. Unless your car speakers are sitting on the rear deck and you have an "American by birth, Southern by the grace of God" bumper sticker next to your West Virginia license plate, please tell him not to use the h-word. Plus, everyone knows you park a car like that in front of a Dollar store. Who's got the kind of spending cash to be near a Walmart?

LOL!  Apologies, Fishbrains!

I guess we have climbed the social/economic ladder somewhat in our 40 years together, at that.  (He did have the huge speakers in the back window of his '65 Fairlane when we met--loosened the window seal with too much Led Zeppelin, so that they got wet when it rained!--and then moved up to a mid-60s Chevy flatbed pickup with the speakers mounted to the bed.) 

I guess that's why I never get too fussed about gloom-and-doom predictions.  We lived "way poor" for a long time, and while I'd rather not go back to it, I know we can make it, if it comes to that.

Back to the regularly scheduled thread.....

[OneMoreYear]

Certainly not worthy of a vent, so putting it here:
I dislike the practice of students "liking" my emails rather than sending a response. I know, I know, this probably means I'm an old fuddyduddy. But, I dislike the mix of email and social media procedures, which only seems to perpetuate my students sending me emails as if they were texting me.
On the other hand, it does indicate that they've likely read the email, so, I guess that's a step in the right direction.

[sinenomine]

I bought a tub of cream cheese at the local co-op the other day and as I just went to use it, I saw that it's non-dairy. Silly me, 1) for assuming that an item that's named after two dairy products would have said products in it, and 2) for not looking more closely at the store!

[mamselle]

Send it to me.

Except for cheese, for some odd reason, I'm off dairy (and it's not the lactose).

:--}

M.

[Parasaurolophus]

Upon opening my computer this morning, Microsoft told me that North America's only temperate rainforest in in Olympic National Park, in Washington.

This is false. 25% of the world's temperate rainforest is in British Columbia. And last I checked, British Columbia is in North America.

[mamselle]

Now, had it been a Corel product, they'd have gotten it right!

M.

[apl68]

Upon opening my computer this morning, Microsoft told me that North America's only temperate rainforest in in Olympic National Park, in Washington.

This is false. 25% of the world's temperate rainforest is in British Columbia. And last I checked, British Columbia is in North America.

That's as annoying as a reference I saw once that put my Arkansas home town in Arizona. 

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

My skin is cracking, due to the weather, on my feet and my hands. Gardening without gloves doesn't help, but I can't stand gloves.