Random Thoughts

[Ceir]

Standard disclaimer, I'm in the USA. As an adult, there are few things that make me feel more stupid than doing my taxes.

[Seanette]

I've been in low-grade freakout for the last two days. Do we know if we have any posters in or near Ukraine, and if so, do we know if they're OK?

[Ironclad Alibi]

This is incorrect, if you have pets. If you have pets, they will go off about two minutes after you leave the house for the day. (I feel so bad. The cats were all terrified out of their minds and our poor puppy was HOWLING at the noise.)

Pets always make such things more complicated and expensive. But the joy they bring make up for it.

[Kittish]

To make sure you are at home to hear them. If you worked nights and slept days, they would go off between three and four in the afternoon.

This is incorrect, if you have pets. If you have pets, they will go off about two minutes after you leave the house for the day. (I feel so bad. The cats were all terrified out of their minds and our poor puppy was HOWLING at the noise.)

[Ironclad Alibi]

Whilst on the subject of household goods: why is it that smoke detectors invariably only decide to start shrieking about low batteries between three and four in the morning?

To make sure you are at home to hear them. If you worked nights and slept days, they would go off between three and four in the afternoon.

[dalesys]

...Whilst on the subject of household goods: why is it that smoke detectors invariably only decide to start shrieking about low batteries between three and four in the morning?

That's the TOD sensor in the multipurpose WT integrated circuit function.

*TOD = Time Of Day
*WT = Warranty Timer. Typically set to 100 or 400 days.

[Ceir]

Look at it my way. With the washer and dryer taking twice as long, I can kill and maim twice as many orcs in my computer game while waiting.

's a fair point! And Excalibur agrees with beating up Corpus goons. (Warframe player here)

Whilst on the subject of household goods: why is it that smoke detectors invariably only decide to start shrieking about low batteries between three and four in the morning?

[Ironclad Alibi]

I know it's energy-saving, low water usage, yadda yadda, but dangit. I miss having a dishwasher and washing machine that could power through a load in 45 minutes, instead of twice that...

Look at it my way. With the washer and dryer taking twice as long, I can kill and maim twice as many orcs in my computer game while waiting.

[Android Kaeli]

"Cable guy" appointment times suck, but I get it.

On the customer hand though, dangit, now that's a four-hour chunk that I can't go anywhere or start anything that shouldn't be interrupted. Because inevitably if I step out for more than two minutes, start making something in the kitchen, or even need to take a long privy break, guess -exactly- when that knock on the door is going to happen.

This happens constantly with anything I need to schedule for home. I do nothing but sit on my couch and twiddle my thumbs? They don't come until a second before the tail end of time window.

I get off the phone with whoever and decide to go jump into the shower, go get gas/something to eat/something quick, or otherwise do something productive? They're there literally five minutes later.

And this often is without a phone call saying they're on the way.

[Ceir]

I know it's energy-saving, low water usage, yadda yadda, but dangit. I miss having a dishwasher and washing machine that could power through a load in 45 minutes, instead of twice that...

[Food Lady]

I have never been so glad to not be trained in something. Our government account calls have to be answered by on-shore agents. The people who normally handle those are hampered; there are several off work this month. So we are being asked to help out around the middle of the day when it gets busy for those. I am not gov't. account trained so I don't have to. I don't mind calling clients but I hate taking inbound calls when I don't know what it will be about.

[drunkenwildmage]

"Cable guy" appointment times suck, but I get it.

On the business hand, in a service like cable/ISP, electric/plumbing/HVAC, or even deliveries, you have no way of knowing how long a given job is actually going to take. Having on the spot scheduling is entirely too big a risk to deal with when a job could take ten minutes or ten hours, never mind the time taken to actually go to a location.

We have started the practice of calling the subscriber when our tech is on their way to the sub's house. Basically something along the lines of, 'Hi, this is Randomcablecompanynoonehasheardof calling to let you know your technician is on the way to your house and will be there in the next 15 - 20 mins'

[Kittish]

Our Lady Lapis is so stinkin' cute. She does this thing where she stands up on her back legs and waves a paw at you when she wants treats. She started doing this on her own, about a year ago. It works. She's trained us well.

[Ceir]

"Cable guy" appointment times suck, but I get it.

On the business hand, in a service like cable/ISP, electric/plumbing/HVAC, or even deliveries, you have no way of knowing how long a given job is actually going to take. Having on the spot scheduling is entirely too big a risk to deal with when a job could take ten minutes or ten hours, never mind the time taken to actually go to a location.

On the customer hand though, dangit, now that's a four-hour chunk that I can't go anywhere or start anything that shouldn't be interrupted. Because inevitably if I step out for more than two minutes, start making something in the kitchen, or even need to take a long privy break, guess -exactly- when that knock on the door is going to happen.

[Food Lady]

I desperately want a plastic bag ban in my county and the neighboring one. I'm sick to death of the myriad shopping bags from the near daily trips to the store ending up in the drawers on top of things I have stored in specific places so I can find them. They're taking over the house and honestly, though they should be recycled, I'm going to end up tossing them in the garbage out of frustration. There doesn't need to be this much plastic involved in shopping and if there is a charge for them, maybe my family members will remember to bring their reuseable bags. Or they'll just waste money and continue to clutter up the house. I don't know. For now I'm using them for trash, then.