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

[znfdl]

I have a frend who I classify as one tough MoFo. Nothing makes this guy complain and nothing is impossible in his mind. I spent a night in the hospital with him while he passed a kidney stone. Tears in his eyes, screaming in pain - the works. He said if had a gun, he would have ended it then.

I hope all goes well, Stu. Maybe mount one of them pieces into the top cap of your headset to remind you of how much pain you can REALLY handle.

Wayne: Thanks, I know when things are bad when I pass a small stone and I hardly notice the pain.

[echelon_john]

It's Wednesday evening. I'm starting early on the grumps after 4 hrs in the ER today after separating my AC joint by taking my biggest digger on skis in probably 20 years. Dual release, full on pile drive into the earth, 100ft slide...

Mostly pissed because we're supposed to get snow this weekend.

[Jonathan]

It's Wednesday evening. I'm starting early on the grumps after 4 hrs in the ER today after separating my AC joint by taking my biggest digger on skis in probably 20 years. Dual release, full on pile drive into the earth, 100ft slide...

Mostly pissed because we're supposed to get snow this weekend.

+1 for using the word "digger".
-1 for not mentioning the "yard sale".

[echelon_john]

"Yard sale" is the "Epic" of snowsports... ; )

+1 for using the word "digger".
-1 for not mentioning the "yard sale".

[MarkC]

So it's Thursday again already... I'm grumpy for a good friend who just lost his mom to breast cancer (mid-60s in age). As if the last year of pain wasn't enough, his dad (also mid-60s) was just Dx'd with inoperable lung cancer and is starting chemo. Given the prognosis the chemo is just going to make him sicker before the inevitable outcome. Pisses me off to come to work everyday trying to find cures for these diseases and while knowing that we've made progress feels good the fact is it's not nearly enough. Back to net...

[David Tollefson]

Too much going on. Not just the time of year.

* My mom is moving. Big deal? Yep! She's 84, doesn't get around well. So basically we (my sister and I and our families) have to do it all. She's known she needed to move for several months. She's had a move time frame (within a couple weeks) for quite a while. I got there on Saturday to help out... She had 12 boxes packed. Total. Okay, 4 minutes into loading them, and then it was all about packing crap into boxes. Add the fact that the place she's moving into is MUCH smaller, and she doesn't want to get rid of anything from the already-stuffed current space... Sink the entire weekend into packing/moving, and it's about 1/2 way there. I swore to my older daughter that I'd never do this to her...

* There's a local bike shop that's been closed for a while, since the owner was assaulted and rather severely injured. Word is that he's considering not re-opening. This is a thriving shop in a small town right along a multi-use trail that gets a lot of traffic, and just across the street from a park where a LOT of people stage up for their rides. Seems the ideal step-in bike shop business. I mention it to my wife. She says "Why not?" I start putting in feelers. Last night she yanks the rug out from under me and basically says "no way" before most of the questions are even answered. No point in pursuing it any further.

* End-of-the-year evaluation time at work. I love this shit. Maybe if I keep repeating that to myself I'll start to believe it.

[Matthew Strongin]

I'm on vacation from the end of next week until the first so I can ride all day every day. But thanks to this weekend's crash, I'll probably spend that time sitting on the couch or at the doctor's office instead. I know it's only been a few days, but everything still hurts and my collarbone is clicking, grinding, and shifting around if I do anything strenuous like pick up a piece of paper. Add to that a whole new set of insurance and legal issues so I can at least not lose a ton of money on this deal and the situation is just bringing me down.

[quickag]

"It doesn't work"

1)read the instructions
2)follow the instructions

If you're not capable of understanding the technical information I send you in an Email, please don't try to explain it to someone else. You make a fool of us both.

[Too Tall]

ZNFNDL owes 20 start pushing.

It is so effing cold and sheets of ice in my way to work so I'm stuck on a trainer. Take me now.

[Saab2000]

Not being able to secure an interview to advance my career, which has been spotless for nearly 20 years, while other, less qualified (less total time, less quality time) applicants get the interviews and jobs. And then gloat about it. The process in this business stinks.

And watching fellow aviators crawl over each other to take pay cuts to fly larger equipment makes me rage even more.

This doesn't make me grumpy. It makes me rage. If I thought I were qualified to do something else that paid reasonably well I'd quit flying tomorrow.

[Jonathan]

It's only going to be 70 here today. I'm not grumpy.

[roseyscot]

Not being able to secure an interview to advance my career, which has been spotless for nearly 20 years, while other, less qualified (less total time, less quality time) applicants get the interviews and jobs. And then gloat about it. The process in this business stinks.

And watching fellow aviators crawl over each other to take pay cuts to fly larger equipment makes me rage even more.

This doesn't make me grumpy. It makes me rage. If I thought I were qualified to do something else that paid reasonably well I'd quit flying tomorrow.

not surprising, it costs less to promote a 35 year old with 10 years experience than to promote a 45 year old with 20 years of experience. i fear getting old/experienced for that reason. the career and salary ceiling only gets closer with age.

me, i'm grumpy because the tea i made using our instant hot water at the office before sitting down for 2 straight hours of conference calls is cold already

Also, one of those meetings is to explain to a supervisor why our project is way over budget on hours. I tell you why supervisor. It's because we built software that is not even close to the quality that we sold them on. Instead of spending an hour explaining myself, how about if I use that hour to continue trying to convince the customer not to fire us? Oh, and Mr. Supervisor, while I'm doing that, how about if you do something to fix the problem instead of trying to relive it?

[mainemike]

"I'm honest to a fault" Whenever I hear this my blood boils and my bullshit meter spikes out my neck vein. No, yer not. In the same vein, this whole know thyself line of crap. "Oh, I know myself very well" or whatever. I seem to remember, between beer bongs and the regular kind, a Psych 101 College class, and the idea being: we are essentially blind to ourselves and how others see us. This, I believe. So you really know yerself huh? Well if that's the case, I'm guessing you know what you look, so how the hell did you leave the house dressed like that this morning, for starters. Enough.

[Dallas Tex]

The guy I order components from is a bit old school. I like the guy, he is the only reason that I order from this outfit. But he can't fathom the idea of why I would want a UPS tracking number on an order. I have to request it, and reluctantly he sends it, recently he sends it after only one request.

My last order was shipped in three different boxes, with three different tracking numbers. To add to the fun we had weather delays with UPS. Dude sends me one track#. I spend the next day talking with UPS, etc. Finally dude at UPS says, that there are two more track numbers associated with the shipment. UUUGGGHHHH!

[Tom]

Dunno if I grumped about this already, it has been going on a while.

- November, power company shows up at 11:45am and plants new pole on the line at the back of my property, gone before noon. It's the pole where a tee spur line heads down the side of my property across the street and into the neighborhood. My property, on that side, is notable for the stand of mature pine trees... and my neighbor's garage about 12 feet from mine. Which is attached to his house. Which is within strike distance if one of those pines, say, gets burned through about twenty feet up.

Anyway, I notice that they put a sleeve on the main transmission line because they set the pole at an offset so now the transmission line and the ground are touching the tree. I see the crew at the next pole down so I go over and tell them that's not a permanent solution, I know, when Hurricane Irene came through they did that and nearly burned all the way through one of the giant poplars in the next lot before anybody noticed. They told me they do that all the time and turned their back on me, literally. I call it in, first crew that comes out is the forestry group all hot to cut the tree down. I send them away. Next comes the line crew, looks at it and says the first crew used the wrong bracket. Next comes a supervisor, he sort of slumps when he sees it but doesn't offer any solutions.

Two weeks ago I had to call it in because the sleeve moved down the line like I expected it to and wasn't protecting the tree. The crew came out, moved it back, said that whoever hung the wires used the wrong bracket and said they'd call in a work order.

Last Friday I look out and guess what... it's on fire! I call it in, crew comes out, moves sleeve back, fire goes out, they say this is ridiculous and whoever hung the wires used the wrong bracket. They say they'll find out what is going on, but their computers are down for an upgrade...(I upgraded four mainframe computers doing a push-pull on the frames this summer and never had any interruption in service, they could do a better job) I speak to customer service and they say call back Monday but if anything happens in the meantime, call 911. They say that'll get real good response... I think they were on my side. I like their customer service.

Anyway, I call Monday... no order has been placed so I describe the whole thing and they place a work order.

So this morning... I get a call... the forestry department all hot to cut the tree down.

[Saab2000]

not surprising, it costs less to promote a 35 year old with 10 years experience than to promote a 45 year old with 20 years of experience. i fear getting old/experienced for that reason. the career and salary ceiling only gets closer with age.

Not true in my biz. I have 18 years to go until mandatory retirement. I start at the same pay scale as someone who is 20 years my junior (age wise, that is, not in real seniority - we use a seniority system in the airlines). But I will top out at the 18 year pay scale and then I'm gone. The 30 year old will be there up to 35 years. Most pay scales top out at 20 years. So he will be there for 15 years at the top pay scale.

It would actually cost them less to hire me over the long run. A lot less. Keeping turnover going is generally good in the airline business. Having 30-40 year people who fly twice a month is not very economical.

Anyway, the ONLY consolation I have is that the friends of mine getting hired in this hiring frenzy are in fact all highly qualified airmen and air women. I have flown with many of them and they are generally very high quality aviators and people to boot. Still, it's like a game of musical chairs and I seem to always be the one left standing. It's extremely frustrating.

The other consolation is that I have high seniority at my current carrier and am able to take advantage of some perks there. I enjoy going to work. But I think I'd enjoy it more at some of the other carriers.

[summilux]

I go to a box-store pharmacy to get a prescription filled (it's for a tube of cream). The technician at the counter looks at the prescription and says: "Hmmm, we may not have that size in stock." She then goes into the stock area, brings a tube back and checks it against the prescription. All of this is happening in front of me. "We do have that size." she tells me. I reach for my wallet expecting to pay, but she walks back to the stock area and puts the tube AWAY. When she comes back, she says: "It'll be ready in an hour." WTF! And what really pisses me is that I was too polite to say anything.

[Too Tall]

Lots of pushups I could name names.

[GrantM]

The guy I order components from is a bit old school. I like the guy, he is the only reason that I order from this outfit. But he can't fathom the idea of why I would want a UPS tracking number on an order. I have to request it, and reluctantly he sends it, recently he sends it after only one request.

My last order was shipped in three different boxes, with three different tracking numbers. To add to the fun we had weather delays with UPS. Dude sends me one track#. I spend the next day talking with UPS, etc. Finally dude at UPS says, that there are two more track numbers associated with the shipment. UUUGGGHHHH!

sounds like EA to me. nice guys, but yeah. ugh sometimes.

-g

[Mike Marley]

SHSHSHSHSHSHingles - runs the gamut of pain - aching muscles, stinging,stabbing nerve attacks, a burning skin rash that blisters and scabs, even a little upset stomach. After many nights with sleep interruptions I am thoroughly grumpy.