The grumpy thread

[Datsuncog]

Talc has a drying effect too - as a kid I was told to use it on my feet after getting showered to avoid athletes' foot.

I used to keep a container of it in my gym bag, as a puff or two after towelling myself off post-shower did make me feel a bit less clammy before wriggling into my clothes.

That said, I only finished the container (purchased in 1996) a few weeks ago, so I'm not overly concerned that I've exposed myself to lethal levels of asbestos over the past 27 years...

[cort1977]

On 6/7/2023 at 9:27 AM, calebaaront said:

Not an awful place to have a breakdown. Suspected dirt in the carb.

Were you at the RR Weekender?  Think we may have met briefly unless there's another Trabi with a DDR plate.  Which there could well be I suppose...

[cobblers]

Massive big order going out from my company, 53x control units. Months and months of work.

Sent them on a pallet, paid £100 extra to get it insured because the total value is £17k. Shitting myself about sending it out because we really can't afford to lose that!

Pallet was collected at about 1PM.

Two hours later, I get an email 

Quote

Unfortunately, LCD Screens, due to their fragile nature, fall under our restricted items list and are something we cannot insure. We can carry out the shipment, just not insure it I’m afraid. Alternatively, there are freight insurance companies that can cover this type of goods, however, ours cannot.

If you have further queries, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Have a lovely day!

Alexandra

Thanks for letting me know Alexandra! Have a lovely day too! It's only a few hours fucking late!

So now I've got seventeen flipping grands worth of stuff being ferried across the country without insurance and my arse will be going like a rabbits nose for 24-48 hours.

 

[artdjones]

2 hours ago, cobblers said:

Massive big order going out from my company, 53x control units. Months and months of work.

Sent them on a pallet, paid £100 extra to get it insured because the total value is £17k. Shitting myself about sending it out because we really can't afford to lose that!

Pallet was collected at about 1PM.

Two hours later, I get an email 

Thanks for letting me know Alexandra! Have a lovely day too! It's only a few hours fucking late!

So now I've got seventeen flipping grands worth of stuff being ferried across the country without insurance and my arse will be going like a rabbits nose for 24-48 hours.

 

It's almost impossible to believe that someone as stupid as Alexandra is allowed out. The initial foul up is bad enough, but to put "Have a lovely day"........

[RoverFolkUs]

Talc is useful for finding oil leaks and water ingress!

[calebaaront]

7 hours ago, cort1977 said:

Were you at the RR Weekender?  Think we may have met briefly unless there's another Trabi with a DDR plate.  Which there could well be I suppose...

Wasn't me unfortunately 

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, cobblers said:

Massive big order going out from my company, 53x control units. Months and months of work.

Sent them on a pallet, paid £100 extra to get it insured because the total value is £17k. Shitting myself about sending it out because we really can't afford to lose that!

Pallet was collected at about 1PM.

Two hours later, I get an email 

Thanks for letting me know Alexandra! Have a lovely day too! It's only a few hours fucking late!

So now I've got seventeen flipping grands worth of stuff being ferried across the country without insurance and my arse will be going like a rabbits nose for 24-48 hours.

 

I'd have driven it myself, after all that effort. Or used @Popsicle

[cobblers]

15 hours ago, High Jetter said:

I'd have driven it myself, after all that effort. Or used @Popsicle

I don't have good in transit cover myself (my van is a transporter not a transit, hohohoho😅) so I can't really deliver stuff. It was a bit last minute.

My fault for describing them as "LCD Control panels" rather than just "control panel" really!

[loserone]

I think given they won't insure them, but have already taken them, they should probably be offering to bring them back carefully and give you a full refund 

[Bren]

Attended the local two wheeled emporium to get oil for the bike.

I only ever get parts from here - myself and a few others I know have been on the receiving end of their hamfistedness - duplo would probably be out of their comfort zone.

I hadn't been for a few years. Only one person in at a time - rona restrictions still appear to be in place. Somebody already in there and no sign of staff. So I waited outside for a bit then left.

 

[TataBobu]

On 6/8/2023 at 12:55 PM, horriblemercedes said:

I know that, but for what purpose? Just to make skin feel soft?

Not sure you can relate, but here goes: you know how in summer, when it's 40 degrees in the shade and you wear shorts and t-shirts your thighs and upper arms develop a reddish rash from chaffing against each other/against the torso or against sweated clothes? Talcum powder takes care of that either by preventing it if you apply it before, or by soothing it and allowing to heal if you apply it after.

[horriblemercedes]

1 minute ago, TataBobu said:

Not sure you can relate, but here goes: you know how in summer, when it's 40 degrees in the shade and you wear shorts and t-shirts your thighs and upper arms develop a reddish rash from chaffing against each other/against the torso or against sweated clothes? Talcum powder takes care of that either by preventing it if you apply it before, or by soothing it and allowing to heal if you apply it after.

Ah ok, yes, I have had that.

 

Not sure I can relate? Do you think I'm the Duke of York or something?

[TataBobu]

I though you're in UK, not in a country where 40 degrees is felt at 10 PM in July almost each year.

[TataBobu]

I see I made it sound worse than it is: just in the city center (București), full of concrete and with high buildings blocking any breeze, and almost each year there is a day or two when you'll see the street thermometers displaying 40 degrees at 10 PM. Usually it's just around 30.

[PhilA]

Was on the road yesterday evening, just coming up to cross the intersection by the bridge. I've got the green (it had been on for a while at that point) and a guy in a modern Jeep runs the red light in front of me.

Needless to say, my brakes were tested and thankfully proved to be good.

Comedy nosedive, screeching tires and a cloud of smoke. Luckily I came to a halt before I got to his path. 

 

I think he made the assumption that the green on the other side of the bridge he had just gone through (fast) applied to the intersection on the other side, which it does not.

 

Narrow escape, glad I was paying attention.

[Remspoor]

2 hours ago, PhilA said:

Was on the road yesterday evening, just coming up to cross the intersection by the bridge. I've got the green (it had been on for a while at that point) and a guy in a modern Jeep runs the red light in front of me.

That sort of thing seems to be a running theame when you watch dash-cam footage from the USA. 

[PhilA]

16 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

That sort of thing seems to be a running theame when you watch dash-cam footage from the USA. 

Yeah, he just wasn't paying attention.

[Popsicle]

5 hours ago, cobblers said:

I don't have good in transit cover myself (my van is a transporter not a transit, hohohoho😅) so I can't really deliver stuff. It was a bit last minute.

My fault for describing them as "LCD Control panels" rather than just "control panel" really!

Insurance is a bit of a con in the transport industry, everything you try to claim on has an exemption, if you are fortunate to have a claim agreed standard haulage rates is around £1.30 per kilo, so unless you have tonnes of worthless shit being transported you will be out of pocket.

Ask for a refund of the insurance premium paid, they should give it back without any hassle.

My own £15k of goods in transit cover is fucking useless, but we have to have it to trade, everybody in the game knows you've very little chance of making a successful claim from it.

I presume you've wrapped the panels up well and protected them the best you can? If so it should be fine although from the 24/48 hour wait I assume you've used a delivery network rather than a dedicated same day van? The same day van will cost more but there is less chance of damage as there is only the lift on and lift off, no fucking about with hectic hubs and stressed fork lift drivers.

Drop me a PM if you ever need something like that shipping again, I'm always happy to help out a fellow shiter.

[vulgalour]

Attempted to use this thing.  Useless, uncomfortable, cannot recommend.

All I've ended up with is a tailgate surround with loads of bits of glass stuck to the flange I need to salvage to repair the tailgate on the car and a bucket full of redneck diamonds.

Any ideas on how to safely remove the broken glass from the tailgate?  Because short of grinding it off and doubling up on eye protection, I don't know what to do about this.

 

[somewhatfoolish]

On 6/8/2023 at 5:34 PM, cobblers said:

Massive big order going out from my company, 53x control units. Months and months of work.

Sent them on a pallet, paid £100 extra to get it insured because the total value is £17k. Shitting myself about sending it out because we really can't afford to lose that!

Pallet was collected at about 1PM.

Two hours later, I get an email 

Thanks for letting me know Alexandra! Have a lovely day too! It's only a few hours fucking late!

So now I've got seventeen flipping grands worth of stuff being ferried across the country without insurance and my arse will be going like a rabbits nose for 24-48 hours.

 

I'd say that as the email arrived well after dispatch they're on the hook for it regardless of their boilerplate, unless you've been subject to the boilerplate before and could be expected to know it.

6 hours ago, TataBobu said:

Not sure you can relate, but here goes: you know how in summer, when it's 40 degrees in the shade and you wear shorts and t-shirts your thighs and upper arms develop a reddish rash from chaffing against each other/against the torso or against sweated clothes? Talcum powder takes care of that either by preventing it if you apply it before, or by soothing it and allowing to heal if you apply it after.

I have had need of it in the past; when in the tropics or if the engine room fans have gone on the fritz and I'm sweating my arse off in proban slaving over a red hot diesel the size of a house chafe can be an issue and talc offers some relief.

[horriblemercedes]

8 hours ago, TataBobu said:

I though you're in UK, not in a country where 40 degrees is felt at 10 PM in July almost each year.

Fair enough. I just wanted to make a joke about the Duke of York as he famously doesn't sweat 

[Back_For_More]

15 hours ago, vulgalour said:

 of grinding it off and doubling up on eye protection, I don't know what to do about this.

 

I take it it is bonded in...... I ended up with welding gloves and a Stanley cutting inside edge as much as possible and then a screwdriver to get the chunks off. 

Still needed a clean up with a cup brush after that - but it was only residue..... 

Long laborious and exponentially annoying job. 

[vulgalour]

20 minutes ago, Back_For_More said:

I take it it is bonded in...... I ended up with welding gloves and a Stanley cutting inside edge as much as possible and then a screwdriver to get the chunks off. 

Still needed a clean up with a cup brush after that - but it was only residue..... 

Long laborious and exponentially annoying job. 

Well, boo.  Boo and a side order of bums.

[chaseracer]

As shit weeks go, that was PROPER SHIT.

But it's Saturday now, and the sun is shining... 😎

[GMcD]

I had a weekends worth of weldathon planned (my only fully free weekend in ages as my wife is away on holiday)....and I just ran out of gas. 🤣.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Got woken up at 5.26AM by a big helicopter hovering over the main road.  It stuck around for about an hour.  I've seen it before and it's used for search and rescue, based around Dungeness.  I saw it a few weeks ago but before that I last saw it when there had been a murder down the road and they were conducting searches.

Turns out a 10 year-old boy was reported missing last night.  Fortunately he was found this morning.

Shouldn't be grumpy about it really, at least there wit me up for a good reason.

[dozeydustman]

I thought I’d give the Saab its well overdue oil change.

Sump plug has other ideas. Gonna leave it 15 mins to cool down and retry, but even 6-point sockets are slipping on the drain plug. May have to invest in a Pela.

Thought I’d do the air filter anyway. Can I find my torx screwdriver set? Can I bollocks.

Hopefully I can go back after some fish in sauce on toast and it’s cooled enough to at least let me crack off the sump plug.

[CaptainBoom]

Incoming wall of text, sorry about that.  

My father-in-law is massively getting on my tits.  After neglecting his house for 15 or so years, he's finally decided that he needs to do some maintenance.  Except he doesn't want to pay for someone to come out and do the work, he'd rather get muggins here to do it.   The text messages referred to it as 'a couple of jobs', when I got there I realised it really wasn't.  Last Saturday I was there for six hours after just finishing a night shift and getting three hours rest.  It's the priority that pisses me off though.  He has a semi-glazed lean-to built on to the side of the property which leaks like a sieve, the glass has dropped as the frames are all rotten.  As he uses the lean-to for storage of generic house crap (he and my step-M-i-L are shocking hoarders, so was my wife for that matter).  Clearly that's a job that needs seeing to first?  Apparently no, putting up a 3x3" post in the garden he can secure trellis to is a far more important task.  He tries to tell me that a bag of pure cement that he buried in the garage in 1996 will do the job of securing a post.  I ask him where the sand and stone are to make a concrete mix (channelling my inner Sierraman).  'Don't be fucking ridiculous', he says.  So I tell him it's getting done half-properly or not at all. 

Mid his stroppy fit about having to buy something off we plod to B&Q on a Saturday afternoon, in a town I don't know that well, in my car with him whinging about it.  All the way there I'm on the receiving end of a long lecture about my shit job and how I'm not able to support his grandchildren (I hasten to add, I don't ask him to support me or the children at all, I'd rather bite my own arse than ask him for help, financial or otherwise), how much he earned before he retired, and how his retirement is well covered.  You hear me, I'm getting the full ego-trip.  He at least had the decency to shell out for the required materials, although he needed prompting at the check-out.

Old snapped post and original concrete lump out.  Hole cleaned up.  Temporary supporting posts fitted.  Concrete mixed and poured in.  That'll be reet in three days or so.  Just screw the trellis to the post, not nail said I.  Oh, I don't have a screwdriver he says.  Fucksake.  So I carefully fit the trellis with wood screws.  I'd be damned if I loaned him an electric screwdriver that I borrowed from work, he'd squirrel that away in milliseconds.  Just as I'm packing up after a couple of small jobs,  Step-M-i-L asks if I can prune one of their Leylandii.  Fair enough, I unpacked some steps from the car then realised there was a pile of scrap wood all around the tree.  I start moving it, step-M-i-l starts moving the stuff to, what I presume was another part of the garden.  Tree pruned (I fucking hate Leylandii, the dead bits go down my back and the sap makes my skin and eyes itch like crazy).  F-i-L then asks if I can take the bits of tree away,  I get a bit fed up at that point, he has a garden waste bin that the council gave him, I'll chop it up so that he can dispose of it in that spread over a few collections.  Finally free of the shackles I walk the ladder to the car and find that step-M-i-L has filled my SAAB with all of the scrap wood that was around the tree.  Fucking bastards!  I leave the stepladder in their garage, I was tempted to put it through the windscreen of their Civic.  So I drive home with their scrap wood which can go in Blasty McFurnaceFace, my homemade incinerator that I have in my garden.

When I got home, I get a text, 'can you skip off work and come tomorrow (Sunday)?'  I respond with, 'No, but can you perhaps at least pay for my diesel for today?'.  'Oh.  I'll pay you when all of the work is finished.'  Like fuck you will, you slippery spunktrumpet.  That list will just get longer and longer as he invents more shitty jobs that he wants bodged.  I'm generally very patient, but at that point I rang him and lost my shit, told him to fuck off like the parasite he is and fuck the horse he rode in on, and gave him specific directions on how to use Google to find another gullible mug.  I owe him nothing, after the debacle of him massively upping the price of the Civic he was going to sell me last year at the last minute.  I knew I should have walked away from them and communicated by the medium of Christmas and birthday cards (which is a one-way street as he won't buy stamps).

For context, he lives in Enfield, the other side of London from me.  With favourable traffic, it's a 1:15 journey.  At the weekend, especially a Saturday afternoon, it's more like 1:45.  So six hours there equates to 9 1/2 hours all told on my one rest day.  He is able-bodied as is step-M-i-L, they are just paranoid about getting COVID so they don't go out, even though they've both already had it twice and are travelling off to China later this year.  

TL:DR grown man has a rare strop and loses a stepladder.

[High Jetter]

Best keeping your distance then. Window of opportunity to reclaim ladder when they're in China?

[artdjones]

6 minutes ago, CaptainBoom said:

Incoming wall of text, sorry about that.  

My father-in-law is massively getting on my tits.  After neglecting his house for 15 or so years, he's finally decided that he needs to do some maintenance.  Except he doesn't want to pay for someone to come out and do the work, he'd rather get muggins here to do it.   The text messages referred to it as 'a couple of jobs', when I got there I realised it really wasn't.  Last Saturday I was there for six hours after just finishing a night shift and getting three hours rest.  It's the priority that pisses me off though.  He has a semi-glazed lean-to built on to the side of the property which leaks like a sieve, the glass has dropped as the frames are all rotten.  As he uses the lean-to for storage of generic house crap (he and my step-M-i-L are shocking hoarders, so was my wife for that matter).  Clearly that's a job that needs seeing to first?  Apparently no, putting up a 3x3" post in the garden he can secure trellis to is a far more important task.  He tries to tell me that a bag of pure cement that he buried in the garage in 1996 will do the job of securing a post.  I ask him where the sand and stone are to make a concrete mix (channelling my inner Sierraman).  'Don't be fucking ridiculous', he says.  So I tell him it's getting done half-properly or not at all. 

Mid-tantrum off we plod to B&Q on a Saturday afternoon, in a town I don't know that well, in my car with him whinging about it.  All the way there I'm on the receiving end of a long lecture about my shit job and how I'm not able to support his grandchildren (I hasten to add, I don't ask him to support me at all, I'd rather bite my own arse than ask him for help, financial or otherwise), how much he earned before he retired, and how his retirement is well covered.  You hear me, I'm getting the full ego-trip.  He at least had the decency to shell out for the required materials, although he needed prompting at the check-out.

Old snapped post and original concrete lump out.  Hole cleaned up.  Temporary supporting posts fitted.  Concrete mixed and poured in.  That'll be reet in three days or so.  Just screw the trellis to the post, not nail said I.  Oh, I don't have a screwdriver he says.  Fucksake.  So I carefully fit the trellis with wood screws.  I'd be damned if I loaned him an electric screwdriver that I borrowed from work, he'd squirrel that away in milliseconds.  Just as I'm packing up after a couple of small jobs,  Step-M-i-L asks if I can prune one of their Leylandii.  Fair enough, I unpacked some steps from the car then realised there was a pile of scrap wood all around the tree.  I start moving it, step-M-i-l starts moving the stuff to, what I presume was another part of the garden.  Tree pruned (I fucking hate Leylandii, the dead bits go down my back and the sap makes my skin and eyes itch like crazy).  F-i-L then asks if I can take the bits of tree away,  I get a bit fed up at that point, he has a garden waste bin that the council gave him, I'll chop it up so that he can dispose of it in that spread over a few collections.  Finally free of the shackles I walk the ladder to the car and find that step-M-i-L has filled my SAAB with all of the scrap wood that was around the tree.  Fucking bastards!  I leave the stepladder in their garage, I was tempted to put it through the windscreen of their Civic.  So I drive home with their scrap wood which can go in Blasty McFurnaceFace, my homemade incinerator that I have in my garden.

When I got home, I get a text, 'can you skip off work and come tomorrow (Sunday)?'  I respond with, 'No, but can you perhaps at least pay for my diesel for today?'.  'Oh.  I'll pay you when all of the work is finished.'  Like fuck you will, you slippery spunktrumpet.  That list will just get longer and longer as he invents more shitty jobs that he wants bodged.  I'm generally very patient, but at that point I rang him and lost my shit, told him to fuck off like the parasite he is and fuck the horse he rode in on, and gave him specific directions on how to use Google to find another gullible mug.  I owe him nothing, after the debacle of him massively upping the price of the Civic he was going to sell me last year at the last minute.  I knew I should have walked away from them and communicated by the medium of Christmas and birthday cards (which is a one-way street as he won't buy stamps).

For context, he lives in Enfield, the other side of London from me.  With favourable traffic, it's a 1:15 journey.  At the weekend, especially a Saturday afternoon, it's more like 1:45.  So six hours there equates to 9 1/2 hours all told on my one rest day.  He is able-bodied as is step-M-i-L, they are just paranoid about getting COVID so they don't go out, even though they've both already had it twice and are travelling off to China later this year.  

TL:DR grown man has a rare strop and loses a stepladder.

What does your wife think about it?