Shit that annoys you

[ötzi]

TIL that only most stainless steel is magnetic, not all, and my pans are in that unfortunate minority. Looks like my new range is coming with a new set of pans, fuck.

You can buy those adapter things, they're a bit of a pain in the ass but they work. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=induction..._ts-doa-p_1_17

[Boissal]

You haven't lived till you've experienced a house being demoed and rebuilt nextdoor. Caissons and everything. While working from home...

I might experience the joy you speak of.
The peeps who lived in that house were thrashers, and they were there for eons. The house is visibly falling apart, and the tree removal was not an attempt at give it curb appeal (it has none), more an effort to try to salvage a bit of value by not having a giant branch fall through the roof and having to declare the whole thing a loss. Owner was a sketchy drywall guy, always doing weird work himself or with one of his sketchy buddies. They built an addition that would fall off if you said the word "code" anywhere near it. When they replaced the swamp cooler a couple years ago they just unbolted it and let it roll down the roof. It shaved off a bunch of shingles and took out a section of flashing & fascia. They put down new shingles but left the rest as is. No fucks given.
I wouldn't be surprised if whoever buys it tears it down and puts something new in its place. It's happened to 2 houses in a 1/4 mile radius.

[Touring_Sedan]

My 6 months-old is going through a growth spurt at the moment, went from sleeping through most nights to waking up 3 or 4x to eat, and being royally pissed about it. Last night was particularly bad, Ms Boissal was at work and the babe was inconsolable. She finally settled for good around 6AM and I managed to pass out. I wake up at 7:45 AM to the sound of a chainsaw right outside my window. WTF? It's snowing, miserable shitfuck weather, who is getting after a tree so early? Massive operation directly across the street at a house that has been unoccupied for 3 months, 2 trucks, a crane, 2 dudes with chainsaw, 2 giant chippers. They're taking down a MASSIVE tree in the backyard. Fucking hell, today of all days. Baby is immediately awake and raging, her mom gets home after a heinous shift, everyone's worked, nobody can sleep. I poke my nose outside just in time to see the crane swinging a 40' section of tree over the house to lower it on the street. The fucker is swinging wildly and one of the big branches rams into one of the young maples that shade our yard, snapping a bunch of branches from it. Great...

The crew is at it until 11AM but leaves a very clean job site at least. The maple will grow back, not much to do about it anyway. The babe finally goes down for a nap and I start considering some rest myself when another tree company shows up and fires up their chipper at the next house up the street. Sure, why the fuck not... At least it didn't wake her up, but I didn't get any sleep.

An hour later and I kid you not, a giant truck shows up to pump the sewer or something of the sort directly in front of the house. There's the pump truck which is loud as fuck, and a cistern truck right behind it that's just idling there, contentedly piping decibels straight into my brain. They got done around 2PM. I must have filed a solid millimeter off my teeth from all the gnashing.
So glad I was "working from home" today.

Our midget was in a bassinet in our bedroom for the first few months. We stuck a sound bar on the wall and piped nature sounds through it. When he moved to his own room we set up a little shelf unit and did the same thing. YMMV but I think the sounds became a reliable constant for him and he wasn't as startled by sounds coming from outside.

[evdog]

You haven't lived till you've experienced a house being demoed and rebuilt nextdoor. Caissons and everything. While working from home...

I've had a few of those.... immediately after moving into a place one summer the renovations started. It was a classic Vancouver reno. Tear it down to the frame, lift the whole house up using jacks and excavate a basement so new owners have a rental suite to help pay for the million dollar, 700sqft house. I was full time school that summer so when I wasn't at early classes, I would have liked to sleep in.

More recently I lived in a place that had construction start on a massive apartment complex directly above the street I was on. That was a two year project, three 5-story wood frame buildings so it was constant hammering, machinery and beeping of trucks starting at 6-7am every day but Sunday. No heat or AC in this place so windows had to be wide open in summer....


I'm not a fan of work from home to begin with. Both internet and cell service are not great where I live which makes it a PITA for frequent zoom calls. But the noise is probably worse. Without fail, every time I was working on something and needed to concentrate, or was on a zoom call that was exactly when the landscape crew would show up with mowers, trimmers or leaf blowers. They seemed to do each of those on different days. Or there would be some loud repair project going on nearby. Tree trimming was the latest project, and they had to take down a number of trees due to disease.

[Boissal]

Our midget was in a bassinet in our bedroom for the first few months. We stuck a sound bar on the wall and piped nature sounds through it. When he moved to his own room we set up a little shelf unit and did the same thing. YMMV but I think the sounds became a reliable constant for him and he wasn't as startled by sounds coming from outside.

She's had a white noise machine forever, definitely helps her sleep. We cycle through sounds of waves, crickets, wind in leaves, rain, a creek. When she sleeps she's basically dead to the world, and she definitely sleeps much better with the white noise, but the chainsaw thing was just too loud to ignore even for the little log.
Incidentally I got a 2nd one of these little noise machines for our bedroom when we kicked her out. Those things are real nice for light sleepers.

[evdog]

The last month has been expensive... needed new tires, rear brakes, battery for the truck, new tires for one bike. Laptop died.

This afternoon I noticed that my cell phone wasn't charging when plugged in. Tried different cables and power sources, and charging other devices. Other devices all charged via each source/cable. Cell phone would not on any of them and it was getting down to 20%. Just what I wanted, spend $hundreds more on a new phone.

Only place open that had Pixels in stock was Best Buy. They had one Pixel 8 in stock. But they guy couldn't get the sim card activated. Apparently Verizon's system shuts down after 6pm on weekends? He says I can at least get the new one set up and data transferred over at home using Wi-fi. Get home, try plugging the old one in again and it charges just fine. Got a trip coming up to visit parents, do I trust the old phone to keep working and return the new one?

[gaijin]

You had a piece of lint blocking your charging port.

[old goat]

Don't do wood turning with your phone in a front pocket. I learned this.

[evdog]

You had a piece of lint blocking your charging port.

Don't think so. I checked the port and it looks clean.
I did blow some air in there. Plugging and unplugging the phone now it will charge on about 50% of attempts. I think the port is just worn out. I've had similar issues with a few other devices (Garmin etc) where it just stops accepting a charge or data connection. This phone is 4-5 yrs old.

[m2711c]

check the connection between the charging cable and the charger. I have several that I have to unplug and plug in again each time in order to get the phone to charge. Took me a while to realize it was the connection and not the phone itself.

[Flounder]

Don't think so. I checked the port and it looks clean.

Try a careful probing with a toothpick and then air. Had this happen a couple of months ago, same exact symptoms but in an iPhone. Air by itself didn’t work, the lint was packed pretty hard. Couple minutes with a toothpick and it charges great again.

[riser4]

Dust covers for the ports are a must for any electronics that I put in my pockets.

[Danno]

Searching for properties on VRBO, and some of them have an enticing nightly rate then charge you hundreds of dollars in a "host fee" with no explanation even of what that is (vrbo has a little "question mark" next to "service fee" to explain it, but nada for "host fee"). Fucking bait and switch scam.

[concretejungle]

Searching for properties on VRBO, and some of them have an enticing nightly rate then charge you hundreds of dollars in a "host fee" with no explanation even of what that is (vrbo has a little "question mark" next to "service fee" to explain it, but nada for "host fee"). Fucking bait and switch scam.

It's why a lot of people have just said fuck it and went back to hotels.

[californiagrown]

This phone is 4-5 yrs old.

I have a Pixel 4. It wont make it through a full day if it is used at all, but ive been putting off buying a new phone cause they are big bucks. Battery replacement sure would be a nice option to have.

[riser4]

Is there a better place to rent seasonal properties for increments of a week other than VRBO?
Seems to me that is the best way to rent in places where there are no hotels or motels.

[Danno]

I have a Pixel 4. It wont make it through a full day if it is used at all, but ive been putting off buying a new phone cause they are big bucks. Battery replacement sure would be a nice option to have.

I had the battery in my Pixel 3 replaced, is it not possible in a 4?

It cost me like $75 bucks at Batteries Plus and extended my phone for another year.

[mcski]

Is there a better place to rent seasonal properties for increments of a week other than VRBO?
Seems to me that is the best way to rent in places where there are no hotels or motels.

Airbnb has become a bit more transparent on the bs fees and there are plenty of good hosts that don’t pull that crap. Airbnb vs VRbO seems very location dependent on which is has better offers

[Buzzworthy]

It's why a lot of people have just said fuck it and went back to hotels.

I never even started with those or AirBnB, hotels are easy and price is set.

[Danno]

I never even started with those or AirBnB, hotels are easy and price is set.

except hotels rarely have kitchens, and IME I have found places that on balance are way better through airbnb/vrbo. I am fine with comparison shopping, but be transparent with this shit.

[evdog]

check the connection between the charging cable and the charger. I have several that I have to unplug and plug in again each time in order to get the phone to charge. Took me a while to realize it was the connection and not the phone itself.

Try a careful probing with a toothpick and then air. Had this happen a couple of months ago, same exact symptoms but in an iPhone. Air by itself didn’t work, the lint was packed pretty hard. Couple minutes with a toothpick and it charges great again.

Dust covers for the ports are a must for any electronics that I put in my pockets.

Thanks guys! I already tried different cables and sources...they had all worked fine plugging other devices in but not the phone. Phone was sorta working. I did probe with toothpick, didn't come out with anything. But the phone now charges most of the time plugging into different cables and sources. If I jiggle it a bit, it will lose and re-gain contact with a couple of the cables. So, seems to be working but not sure I can be confident with it. Leaving Friday to head home for xmas...am I feeling lucky???

Good call on dust covers though. I just have a cheapo case. Might need to look for something better.

[mcski]

You’d be surprised how much junk is in there but not visible. I’ve given up thinking the port is screwed and then my neighborhood phone guy cleans it and it’s good as new

[skaredshtles]

except hotels rarely have kitchens, and IME I have found places that on balance are way better through airbnb/vrbo. I am fine with comparison shopping, but be transparent with this shit.

Yep. There should be regulations in place so that if you put the dates of your travel in, you get an all-in number. Not some "before fees" or "before taxes and fees" bullshit.

[evdog]

I have a Pixel 4. It wont make it through a full day if it is used at all, but ive been putting off buying a new phone cause they are big bucks. Battery replacement sure would be a nice option to have.

Yeah this phone is showing its age as well. Battery life deteriorated noticeably earlier this year. I presume something included in a system update uses more power. Still get a day to day and a half depending how much I use it. Not a big deal if I can actually charge it.

The more annoying thing is the phone has also slowed down quite a bit and gotten glitchy. Once a week or so it will freeze completely and I have to shut it down and restart. Other times it will freeze for a few seconds or one of the apps will freeze for a minute or two.

Only has 64gb memory. After the operating system there is not a lot of room for music, podcasts and photos.

Agree on phones being big $$. Pixels are on sale right now...the one I got was $650 incl taxes. I can deal with the other issues it has if I know I can charge it. Would be nice to have that cash back. But on the other hand not sure how much longer I can reasonably expect this one to last.

[skaredshtles]

Thanks guys! I already tried different cables and sources...they had all worked fine plugging other devices in but not the phone. Phone was sorta working. I did probe with toothpick, didn't come out with anything. But the phone now charges most of the time plugging into different cables and sources. If I jiggle it a bit, it will lose and re-gain contact with a couple of the cables. So, seems to be working but not sure I can be confident with it. Leaving Friday to head home for xmas...am I feeling lucky???

Sounds like one of the solder joints between the port and the board is probably cracked loose - that's unlikely to get any better...