Get Your Grump on Thursdays - Was (What's chapping my @ss today?)

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Originally Posted by bigbill

When I'm out riding the BLE or Serotta, I sometimes think I'd like a really modern carbon bike. I've got the money but as far as production bikes, nothing appeals to me. As far as aesthetics, it's like they're not even trying. A bike needs to ride well but it also needs to appeal to the rider looking at it. Plus I ride Campy, it's hard to find a new bike under 10k that comes with Record or better Campy. Maybe I'll just put new parts on the BLE or buy a CAAD whatever is current and put a mechanical Record group on it.

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This makes me grumpy. Buy a frame, stick some Chorus 11 on there and ride happily. Record and Super Record are nice for the 1%ers among us. Chorus won't hold you back in the least.

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Originally Posted by roseyscot

This makes me grumpy. Buy a frame, stick some Chorus 11 on there and ride happily. Record and Super Record are nice for the 1%ers among us. Chorus won't hold you back in the least.

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Both bikes have Record shifters and cranksets. The derailleurs are Chorus, the first generation 11 with silver parts. The brakes are Mavic SSC on both. The cranksets wore out their USB bearings years ago and roll on steel bearings. The parts on the BLE are 8 years old and the Serotta are 6. I wanted Record on a CAAD frame because the frame would be cheap.

Jetta won't start.
TDI wagon with just shy of 50k miles. We are planning to sell it back late in the buyback window, not anytime soon.

If this gets expensive I am going to be one grumpy mofo.

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Originally Posted by robin3mj

Jetta won't start.
TDI wagon with just shy of 50k miles. We are planning to sell it back late in the buyback window, not anytime soon.

If this gets expensive I am going to be one grumpy mofo.

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There's a remote "do not start" signal being sent to your car from Wolfsburg...I can feel it.

My wife unit and I were going to escape for a well deserved week-long scuba trip. The only problem is that we are supposed to be on a 100 foot boat in the vicinity of the red x.

Signed Gilligan, first mate of the SS Minnow

Joined a club I never wanted to join ... drove (or attempted to) into the garage with a bike on top .... the bike is fine save for a few scratches ... the Volvo has a new dent on the roof and the rack sustained a hundred bucks in damage ... all in all, I feel very fortunate and like an idiot. Lesson learned ... garage remote goes in the wayback and the trash can goes at the front of the garage. Every time.

And .... I can't seem to get my frame builder to follow through on a new paint job ... I have a 3 year old steal frame that this builder built. I had it clear coated, which in retrospect was not such a great idea. I like the understated appearance and the visible welds but surface rust is proliferating. I've been trying to get a basic design and schedule nailed down for a month. Follow through is important ... a week and a half between responses to e-mail doesn't quite cut it.

The teeny little pins on the connector on the Campy EPS charger. I know that the di2 is a smarter idea protected by Shimano's patent, but really Campy...I shouldn't have to spend a hundred bucks every third time I use it because I smashed the flimsy pins on a blind/ not notched connection. Either replace under warranty or redesign the plug and port. Oh, and did I mention you should stock them in your distributors in the US...or maybe that's just because there are a lot of folks like me that is causing the no inventory issue.

Last week, my wife called the neighborhood store where we'd purchased our new appliances to arrange for our GC to get the pieces he needed to install the vent hood. They said they'd call me in a day or two - Thursday or Friday - to arrange pick up.

Four days later I hadn't been called. So I called them. Our salesman, after fumbling around a bit says, "Oh, yeah. We've got a question. The same part number is on the invoice twice." You've got a question? For me? And the last we've heard, you'll be calling me with a pickup time?

It got worse from there.

Once I answered his question (which, I want to point out for the permanent record, I could have done four days earlier) he tells me they can have the parts in about a week and a half. My response to that was, "No. We talked to you in July to determine when we needed to place this order so we'd have what we needed when we need it. You gave us a date, and we placed the order. Over a month ago on August 18. Now it's September 26 and you’re telling me the parts will be here in ten more days? That is, simply, not acceptable. Get them for me now."

It got worse from there.

He called me back a couple hours later to tell me he couldn't get them from his distributor but I could easily get them for myself at Home Depot. OK, that made me angry. By the time I was through, he had plans for a field trip on his day off to get the parts.

It got worse from there.

My GC said he'd pick up everything – the parts and the hood – today at the store. I called the store yesterday morning to make sure the other salesperson understood this (my guy was off, chasing down the missing parts.) About 2:30 my phone rings. It's the other guy, asking for my delivery address. "No. No delivery address. Tomorrow at the store. Where you are now."

Finally, when I called this morning, the parts and hood were at the store and they were expecting my GC. It’s about 3 now and my phone hasn't rung all day. I may have an installed hood tonight.

(...and all this is a simple grump. Everything else with the renovation is motoring right along. And when my biggest problem is a bit of incompetence as my lovely home gets even lovelier I'm just fine thanks.)

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Originally Posted by znfdl

My wife unit and I were going to escape for a well deserved week-long scuba trip. The only problem is that we are supposed to be on a 100 foot boat in the vicinity of the red x.

Signed Gilligan, first mate of the SS Minnow

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Does it rain underwater now with this climate change thing?

This is from last week:

Monday: 1 of 3 crates was delivered with a door literally ripped off. Annoying but no real problem because I can fix it easy enough. Dunno if it was warehouse, shipper or GES so no insurance claim.

Saturday: GES delivers 2 of 3 crates properly. Where's the other? Where's the floor supervisor? Oh, while we're on it, where's our custom skid? An hour later I find the crate (and then, finally) the supervisor. I dunno where he was but the crate was over by Kryptonite Locks. Great! 30 more minutes to get the crate delivered. Hey, where's our skid?

1 hour later: Where's our SKID?
2 hours later: Where's our SKID?
3 hours later: I've just cussed someone out (You ever see a chihuahua get all aggro at a rottweiler? That's probably what I looked like.) The fix? They bring us another booth's skid.

I finally get out of Mandalay Bay around 4pm. Back to LA around 9. Unload our truck. Back home by midnight.

#thehiddencostofinterbike
#facepalm

such frivolous complaints. hug the ones you love. and even the ones you don't.

local rider, 41 years old, out of town for a century, never came home to his wife and kid.

Brian Guerrero obituary

A dumbass playground accident. Nothing's broken except a lot of blood vessels.

Landscaping trailer backed into traffic from a parking lot straight into my wife's car this morning. Right by our house. Car is pretty messed up. So I've spent the morning waiting for tow truck. Because PD didn't see the incident he was not willing to award fault to the truck driver.

So now it's down to the insurance companies and I'm likely loooking at a $1000 deductible and without our car for a while. This after putting in a new battery two weeks ago in the same car- a TDI that we were planning on selling back to VW late in the buyback period. Might have to accelerate that timeline.

On the plus side, she was completely unhurt, none of the kids were in the car, and it was the car were getting rid of sooner rather than our new minivan.

My girlfriend is positive for a mutation on BRCA1.

Had to wait an entire month of the new school year before the first cold.

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Originally Posted by defspace

My girlfriend is positive for a mutation on BRCA1.

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Bummer. Best wishes to you both.

My trip to Boston to help my mom was a nightmare. She's in so much pain; sometimes she looks like she was shot in the stomach with a handgun. I've never seen a grimace like this on a person ever. Cancer is no fucking joke. To make things worse she turned into a clothing/stuff hoarder, and won't let me help, by touching any of it, so it would seem she'll wind up dying there buried under a pile of laundry and $500 boots, rather than coming to Portland for her remaining days.
Can you say stressful? My hair was falling out while I tried not to puke the whole time I was there.

bright side: in less than 24 hours, I found a room to stay in, and that in a town with an infinitesimal available housing supply.
less bright side: things at home are in such a way that I need to find housing for an indeterminate time.

It's the right thing to do, but it's still pretty crushing.

Monsoon coming in starting today and through the weekend. Some local areas are predicted to get up to 5" of rainfall. And then the winds will hit. Fun...

Really missing this guy.

http://sharethegravel.kevinnierman.c...5/06/huck2.jpg