The Venting Thread

[Larimar]

Sorry to hear it, epw. My system decided about 5 years ago not to tolerate dairy, specifically milkfat, anymore too due to Crohn's disease. Nonfat cheese and non-dairy coffee creamer have been my friends. Maybe they can be your friends too. Vegan cheese and non-dairy ice cream made with almond or oat milk can be good too.

ALH, hope you and ALHS are healing well.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Sorry to hear it, epw. My system decided about 5 years ago not to tolerate dairy, specifically milkfat, anymore too due to Crohn's disease. Nonfat cheese and non-dairy coffee creamer have been my friends. Maybe they can be your friends too. Vegan cheese and non-dairy ice cream made with almond or oat milk can be good too.

ALH, hope you and ALHS are healing well.

Thanks Larimar. Happy healing to everyone.

[bio-nonymous]

I am very mad--vent coming: FedEx screwed up my shipment of precious cell lines. It was supposed to be here first this morning, but they said they cannot find the apartment/suite (apt #/suite # incorrect according to them)--the address was the correct university shipping address of my lab (no apt/suite involved), and have now rescheduled delivery for before 10:30 AM tomorrow. FedEx delivers to our building and floor everyday, and to my lab often. The cells are on dry ice and will be dead by later today.

Three calls to a call center and over an hour total on the phone has so far resulted in zero help. There is no way to contact a human from the area, or even in the country, to help me fix this problem--call center says, "we have made a note and someone will call you". I should have insured the cells for $50K (but of course they would find out a way to get out of paying anyway).

I feel like screaming obscenities! @@@#$$%%%^^#^&*()(_+@#$!

UGGGGGG! Now, I have a headache.

[clean]

Perhaps a call to the people you purchased them from? They may have better luck.

[mythbuster]

Bio-nonymous- my sympathies. Few things stress me more than shipping or receiving live specimens. I'm just hoping as you said they were a cell line and that more can be sent. Mr. Buster works in the world of patient derived primary culture- where the cells are NOT replaceable. It's a whole other level of nightmare.

For my vent- it's literally about HVAC. Both of our HVAC systems are in a rapid death spiral. Both are 20+ years old, so not a surprise but did they both have to go down at the same time? We have now had a parade of companies quoting us for replacement options. No two are even remotely alike in terms of set up. It feels very 80's used car dealer. And it all costs as much as a brand new car. Ugh.

[Puget]

Bio-nonymous- my sympathies. Few things stress me more than shipping or receiving live specimens. I'm just hoping as you said they were a cell line and that more can be sent. Mr. Buster works in the world of patient derived primary culture- where the cells are NOT replaceable. It's a whole other level of nightmare.

For my vent- it's literally about HVAC. Both of our HVAC systems are in a rapid death spiral. Both are 20+ years old, so not a surprise but did they both have to go down at the same time? We have now had a parade of companies quoting us for replacement options. No two are even remotely alike in terms of set up. It feels very 80's used car dealer. And it all costs as much as a brand new car. Ugh.

My sympathies to you both!
Mythbuster, your HVAC systems dying is the perfect opportunity to replace at least one of them with heat pumps. Heating and cooling both, at a fraction of the energy/fuel usage of any other HVAC system, and there are good tax incentives.

[mythbuster]

Puget, we currently have 2 heat pumps- those are what are dying. One 20 years+ and the other 30 years+.  I just use the HVAC term broadly, since I grew up in an area with only a furnace that Mom would insist we turn OFF at night! This issue is that replacing them both right may be $30,000! The efficiency savings will help, but not with the initial sticker shock.

As for the Federal tax incentives- we have discovered that we generally don't owe enough on our taxes for them to apply to us.  :-(

[Puget]

Puget, we currently have 2 heat pumps- those are what are dying. One 20 years+ and the other 30 years+.  I just use the HVAC term broadly, since I grew up in an area with only a furnace that Mom would insist we turn OFF at night! This issue is that replacing them both right may be $30,000! The efficiency savings will help, but not with the initial sticker shock.

As for the Federal tax incentives- we have discovered that we generally don't owe enough on our taxes for them to apply to us.  :-(

Ah, I see! The new ones will certainly be more efficient than the old ones, especially if you are in a colder climate, but they are indeed not cheap. Still, $30k seems really high! I paid half that for a 2-zone system.

The new federal tax credit is not a deduction for itemizing, but rather 30% of the project cost or $2000, whichever is smallest, which is is a credit against your tax liability, so as long as you owe at least $2000 in federal taxes (total, including what has already been withheld, not owe at the time you file), you can take the full deduction.

[bio-nonymous]

Bio-nonymous- my sympathies. Few things stress me more than shipping or receiving live specimens. I'm just hoping as you said they were a cell line and that more can be sent. Mr. Buster works in the world of patient derived primary culture- where the cells are NOT replaceable. It's a whole other level of nightmare.

For my vent- it's literally about HVAC. Both of our HVAC systems are in a rapid death spiral. Both are 20+ years old, so not a surprise but did they both have to go down at the same time? We have now had a parade of companies quoting us for replacement options. No two are even remotely alike in terms of set up. It feels very 80's used car dealer. And it all costs as much as a brand new car. Ugh.

These were human primary cells! So they were not replaceable (I was being shipped first and second passage vials, but there were others so my collaborator could have sent me more, maybe?).

However, UPDATE: FedEx finally brought the cells late in the afternoon and thank goodness they were still frozen with some dry ice left in the cooler. High blood pressure and irritation resolved--stress damage done though! At least now I know that the dry ice, packed as it was, lasted given the higher ambient temperature where we are and where they were being shipped from--less reason to flip out next time!!!

:)

[apl68]

For my vent- it's literally about HVAC. Both of our HVAC systems are in a rapid death spiral. Both are 20+ years old, so not a surprise but did they both have to go down at the same time? We have now had a parade of companies quoting us for replacement options. No two are even remotely alike in terms of set up. It feels very 80's used car dealer. And it all costs as much as a brand new car. Ugh.

Also venting about the HVAC.  We went well over a month with nothing more done on our suspended-in-the-middle HVAC repair project.  This has left us with air conditioning but not heat in the building.  Which means that much of the building is chronically over-cooled, with howling blasts of 55-degree air drafting through.  Having to have the heat on all summer long to fine-tune space temperatures is a terribly inefficient way to do things, but it's the system we have.  And it's not working!  Everybody at work spends much of the day shivering.

After I contacted them to jack somebody up about it--once again--we got a promise of action.  We now have technicians actually working on things here in the building.  They're about to invade my office!  Here's hoping all goes well.

[fishbrains]

Let me merge onto the interstate, you a$$holes. And when I'm driving my kid's rusted-out, beat-to-near-death 1997 minivan held together with zip ties and bubble gum, I'm not negotiating there.

[namazu]

I am very mad--vent coming: FedEx screwed up my shipment of precious cell lines. It was supposed to be here first this morning, but they said they cannot find the apartment/suite (apt #/suite # incorrect according to them)--the address was the correct university shipping address of my lab (no apt/suite involved), and have now rescheduled delivery for before 10:30 AM tomorrow. FedEx delivers to our building and floor everyday, and to my lab often. The cells are on dry ice and will be dead by later today.

Three calls to a call center and over an hour total on the phone has so far resulted in zero help. There is no way to contact a human from the area, or even in the country, to help me fix this problem--call center says, "we have made a note and someone will call you". I should have insured the cells for $50K (but of course they would find out a way to get out of paying anyway).

I feel like screaming obscenities! @@@#$$%%%^^#^&*()(_+@#$!

UGGGGGG! Now, I have a headache.

Oof.  I feel for you.

When I managed a small lab for my scattered advisor in my grad student days dealing with precious bio samples (unofficial title: Smuggler Baron -- though I tried valiantly and usually fruitlessly to get my colleagues in other countries to warn me in advance if they were planning to ship specimens requiring CITES or USDA or CDC paperwork, fancy customs handling, etc.), this was my greatest nightmare.  Well, that and the freezers failing, which they did with some regularity on the non-air-conditioned (!) 8th floor (!) of a building.

It's an act of faith releasing samples to a shipper (or having them shipped to you) and a nerve-wracking one when the specimens are irreplaceable. 

I'm sorry your cell lines were lost.  :( EDIT: Just saw update.  Glad they finally arrived and were still frozen.  Whew!!!

[apl68]

Fly-by-night online job advertising sites are apparently advertising non-existent openings at our library again.  We keep getting applications from (very, very poorly-qualified) candidates who say they've seen "us" advertising for help wanted.

We will be advertising a position at some point this summer, but not on those fly-by-night sites.  We have a staff member retiring in a couple of months.  Judging from the recent applicants' poor qualifications, she's going to be hard to replace.  Wish I could say that's unexpected.  Most good hires we've made over the years were the outcome of a trial-and-error process that had us cycling through two or three duds to get to one good worker.

[Langue_doc]

My latest car insurance policy comes with a note to the effect that "Pursuant to New York Insurance Circular Letter No 7, the following change to your policies is effective on your next renewal. The phrase "his or her" is changed to "their" wherever it may be found in the policy contract."

Is this why they raised my rates? Aaargh to the unexplained rate increase and determining that I am gender neutral.

[FishProf]

Aaargh to the unexplained rate increase and determining that I am gender neutral.

It's OK.  Today I had to use a non-gender bathroom at a public library.  I hope no one noticed me smuggling my gender in with me.