The Venting Thread

[Charlotte]

My eye doctor left the practice and I was assigned to a very new eye doctor. I figure they have to get experience somewhere so I've been patient with the many (minor) mistakes they have made.

After waiting weeks to get plugs in my tear ducts to hopefully alleviate my dry eyes, I took the morning off to get them put in. They left me in the waiting room for 45 minutes before bringing me back. The doctor seemed very nervous and uncertain but against my better judgement I stayed. He had to take one out and retry but finally seemed to think it was okay and assured me that the right one would "settle in" eventually but might be uncomfortable for awhile.

I check and clearly see the plug sticking out of the tear duct and rubbing against my eye. An hour later, the plug pops out. I can't return to the doctor today and even if I could they would probably have to order new ones which takes a couple weeks and even if I waited that long I don't really have confidence in them anymore.

Not only did I waste weeks suffering, the problem has still not been fixed, and now I have to start over with a whole new practice.

[mamselle]

If you can't fill out a form describing what you want to do, is that bad?

Just a little bit, yeah.

Forget the foxes, jump the fence, and clear the island while you're at it, I think...

M.

[apl68]

My eye doctor left the practice and I was assigned to a very new eye doctor. I figure they have to get experience somewhere so I've been patient with the many (minor) mistakes they have made.

After waiting weeks to get plugs in my tear ducts to hopefully alleviate my dry eyes, I took the morning off to get them put in. They left me in the waiting room for 45 minutes before bringing me back. The doctor seemed very nervous and uncertain but against my better judgement I stayed. He had to take one out and retry but finally seemed to think it was okay and assured me that the right one would "settle in" eventually but might be uncomfortable for awhile.

I check and clearly see the plug sticking out of the tear duct and rubbing against my eye. An hour later, the plug pops out. I can't return to the doctor today and even if I could they would probably have to order new ones which takes a couple weeks and even if I waited that long I don't really have confidence in them anymore.

Not only did I waste weeks suffering, the problem has still not been fixed, and now I have to start over with a whole new practice.

Sorry you've had such a bad experience with this procedure and practice, Charlotte.

I just got back from an eye checkup myself.  Our eye doctor is fine--and just a few minutes walk from work, which is handy.  I do wish, though, that there was some alternative to being either dilated and unable to see for a couple of hours, or paying extra to be tortured by an eye-photographing machine that works by repeatedly zapping your eyes.  I go with the expensive torture to save time.  At least usually.  I have been tortured before until they decided it wasn't going to work with me that day, and THEN dilated.

[clean]

Spent much of today dealing with a cheating student. 

On the way home from work got in a car wreck (hit from behind at a stop light). 

So it looks like I will be dealing with insurance and car repairs, in addition to the other things on my list of tasks! 

My back hurts, but hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.  I will skip exercises tonight. 

Looking forward to better days the rest of the week!

[mamselle]

If there's a silver lining, being rear-ended is usually an automatic insurance payout, because the other party is usually presumed guilty (per an officer who oversaw the ticket to the driver behind me who smashed in the back of my little sweet VW Beetle (whose engines, you may recall, were in the back...)

I'd also get X-rays done ASAP of your neck; whip-lash-like stuff doesn't always show up on film later, but the physical effects might be delayed enough that you'd wish you'd had the radiologist do their stuff while it might make a difference.

M.

[Parasaurolophus]

My laptop's touchpad has been turning itself off for unknown reasons for a while. Usually, I just plug in an external mouse, hibernate or restart, and we're good to go. Yesterday, it just died entirely (and I couldn't find it--or its drivers--anywhere). I tried all kinds of stuff, to no avail. Restarting didn't work either. I tried re-installing the drivers, but it couldn't detect the existence of the touchpad and so refused to install. And then my external mouse decided it didn't want to work, either.

I wrestled with it for a couple more hours this morning, and finally have the touchpad working (but who knows how, why, or for how long). Ugh. My previous laptop (or maybe it was the one before?) was the best evs, but this one has really struggled with stuff. A couple months ago it was totally unexplained slowdowns (no viruses, no malware, almost nothing running), which I seem to have mostly resolved. But this mouse thing is starting to drive me nuts.

It may or may not be connected to the fact that the grey cat makes all kinds of weird things happen when she jumps onto my keyboard, including turning off the touchpad.

[clean]

Back It UP!!

Learn from MY tragedy!  Owning a back up hard drive does not protect your data!  You must USE the hard drive!!

[clean]

Car problems again!
My car is 21 years old, but has only 67000 miles. 

Yesterday it would not start. I suspected the battery. (I am not certain that I know that the battery in it is the one I have a receipt for, but it probably is).  The batter was replaced 58 months ago.  That is important because it is supposed to be a 5 year battery.

Well, I thought I had a battery issue, I tried to charge it yesterday. Still the car would not start.. even the radio would not come on.  So I suspected that the battery had given up the ghost.  I was going to take it out this morning and drive it to the battery store and get a replacement.  However, I discovered that the battery connector (the wire that connects the car to the battery) had completely deteriorated.  That would explain the reason that there was no juice to start the car or run the radio.. the wire isnt connected! 

I purchased the new part, but in I would really need to cut the wires , strip them, and then crimp the wires to the connector.  I dont think that I have either the correct tools to do it for these sizes of wires OR the hand strength to make a binding crimp.  I was at the stage where it was clear that I was not going to UNCrimp the wires (meaning I would need to cut the wires) my bride came to supervise my efforts.  I explained what I needed to do, and It seems that my bride has REVOKED my Wire Cutting Authority!!  She decided that I needed to have AAA tow me to the shop and let THEM cut the wires and crimp the connections.

I am back home from the shop waiting for the repair place to call me and either tell me that it is done or that something else needs to be done. 

Hopefully this will be done today, but I m sure it will be done by Monday (hopefully inexpensively)!

The estimated damages to my other vehicle has come in at about $1500. SO I need the car working before I can take the truck to be repaired!

[apl68]

Car problems again!
My car is 21 years old, but has only 67000 miles. 

Yesterday it would not start. I suspected the battery. (I am not certain that I know that the battery in it is the one I have a receipt for, but it probably is).  The batter was replaced 58 months ago.  That is important because it is supposed to be a 5 year battery.

Well, I thought I had a battery issue, I tried to charge it yesterday. Still the car would not start.. even the radio would not come on.  So I suspected that the battery had given up the ghost.  I was going to take it out this morning and drive it to the battery store and get a replacement.  However, I discovered that the battery connector (the wire that connects the car to the battery) had completely deteriorated.  That would explain the reason that there was no juice to start the car or run the radio.. the wire isnt connected! 

I purchased the new part, but in I would really need to cut the wires , strip them, and then crimp the wires to the connector.  I dont think that I have either the correct tools to do it for these sizes of wires OR the hand strength to make a binding crimp.  I was at the stage where it was clear that I was not going to UNCrimp the wires (meaning I would need to cut the wires) my bride came to supervise my efforts.  I explained what I needed to do, and It seems that my bride has REVOKED my Wire Cutting Authority!!  She decided that I needed to have AAA tow me to the shop and let THEM cut the wires and crimp the connections.

I am back home from the shop waiting for the repair place to call me and either tell me that it is done or that something else needs to be done. 

Hopefully this will be done today, but I m sure it will be done by Monday (hopefully inexpensively)!

The estimated damages to my other vehicle has come in at about $1500. SO I need the car working before I can take the truck to be repaired!

You could probably have handled a job like that.  But in the circumstances it's probably just as well to let the pros do it, if they can get around to it quickly.  Sorry you've had both vehicles down at the same time.

[OneMoreYear]

It may or may not be connected to the fact that the grey cat makes all kinds of weird things happen when she jumps onto my keyboard, including turning off the touchpad.

Sorry to hear you are having laptop problems, Parasaurolophus.  My squirrelly tortie cat is a master of changing my laptop settings by bounding across the keyboard.  She has also turned off my touchpad (luckily, just needed to use the function key), turned off my microphone right before I was attempting to teach class, and turned my entire screen 90 degrees (why is that even a thing that anyone wants to have happen rather than just rotating a document?). Thank the goddess for the google, so I can figure out how to fix it. I learn so many things about laptops thank to her "help".

My [minor] vent for today: You are GRAD STUDENTS! GRAD STUDENTS! Why for the love of all that is holy do you not understand how to write a reference in [basketweaving] format?  Also, why do none of you know how to do basic formatting in Word documents?

[ab_grp]

My vent: for the love of all that is holy, why does Amazon ever have "rental" as a default for books? Is there a way to change that? I have now mistakenly rented two books.  I realize that it is my fault, but "buy new" is usually the default (unless there is a rental, I guess). 

Just ETA that I was able to cancel the order both times, though it seemed to require chatting to do so instead of just canceling the item on my orders page.

[the_geneticist]

Look, I know the extreme uptick in cheating means that the conduct office is swamped with cases to investigate.  But, if you want me to submit grades by the deadline I need to know the results BEFORE the deadline.  Otherwise, it's an official entry of "delayed grade" for a LOT of students.

Can I nominate someone else to fill out the paperwork when I finally get the results (after the deadline) & have to put in their earned grades? 

[Mobius]

Have GoFundMe and Cashapp changed the grad school experience? Used to have to work crappy jobs during the summer to pay for living expenses during that time.

There are a few that seem to have an allergy towards work.

[AmLitHist]

VPAA emailed us this week that the fall schedule is undergoing renovation.  (The one that's been in place since the Monday after spring break, and that students have been using to register--yes, that one, for the semester that begins in about 8 weeks.)

According to him, students are "clamoring" for F2F classes at our CC, so LVL sections with zero enrollment are being closed (as are those with "too-low" enrollment numbers) and will be replaced with on-campus sections to meet the demand.  Class caps are being returned to normal and room assignments for the originally-scheduled F2F sections will be changed to reflect the larger class sizes.  I have questions:

--In looking at the online sections in gen eds, most are already full, and those that aren't are solidly in at least the low teens in enrollment (25 is the cap).  No more online sections are being opened or even proposed.  Why not?

--Most of my department's LVLs (and several others', from a quick spot check) LVLs are at the "made" level (generally 15 students) or better.  Yet few of us have more than 5-6 students in our F2F sections.  So, where is this "clamoring" he speaks of?

--A friend in math was forced to teach an LVL last spring with ONE student in it.  (It was pre-algetbra, not some rare/high-level course.)  And I had 7 in my lit LVL.  What, exactly then, will be cancelled LVL and moved on campus for "low numbers"?

I've resigned myself to going back on campus, despite a message this week that masks are no longer required, news that the school is in one of the very anti-vax states that is among the 8 where cases are again on the rise, and the fact that I'm vaccinated but also immunocompromised. However, it'd be damned nice to know what and when and where I'll be teaching in a couple of months. 

I've taught everything in our entire sequence at least several times over, so I can be stuck into whatever classes they need.  But my idea of being prepped is to have the entire semester's schedule and assignments all set to go on Day 1.  I don't see how that happens if all of a sudden they start jiggering the damned schedule this late in the game.  (I also wonder how many of our students, who are overwhelmingly constrained by child care, job, and transportation concerns, will react when their schedules get yanked out from under them.)

[Mobius]

It's funny how they claim students are clamoring for this or that when we all know classrooms won't be full past the first day (if that). I don't suggest online is an option either, since students "clamor" for this or that, and don't follow through.