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

[Todd Amunrud]

Tree removal guys who took down my neighbors cottonwood busted up my redwood siding I had lying in my yard. This is old siding I reclaimed from another part of the house. It's 12" clear, pristine stuff and almost 50 linear feet. They did right by replacing it but haven't dropped it off at my house yet. I could have picked it up from the local lumber yard on my own and be done with this project. I've given them a week and they are hard to get a hold of. Oh and it's raining...

[Tom]

So I'm at a tech conference. Three sessions now with some hammerhead that dominates the session and we don't get to the good information because they won't shut up. Totally tone deaf and the presenter just about has to say "Sit down and shut up" in as many words. Demographic is some older portly gentleman with a drawl that repeats himself over and over again - but hell, we all are so that maybe isn't so significant - except for the guy that asks totally moronic questions and then chats with his buddy like old f-ing home day. I guess when you get older getting oxygen to your brain is kind of tough. And I'm the guy in Las Vegas that sits in his hotel room working because idiots can't phrase their request in any way that can be understood until you ask them three times for clarity but you need to get their information to them by tomorrow instead of telling them to go get stuffed because there's talent in this town that can't be properly appreciated by anybody without a certain level of depravity that has been cultivated over years of viewing the world through an eye that truly understands poor choices.

[MarkC]

That I can not join the Theranos discussion. Damn rules.

[savine]

Had a heavy cold all week n been in bed most so far.........wanna finish a build off but can't though hope in morning I feel fit enough. Moan, moan, moan.

[Brandon White]

I've stayed up past midnight working on a side project the last two nights and have been unable to wake at 5AM for my ride. Not riding makes me grumpy.

[Artie]

Finally getting that pesky AC separation taken care of in two weeks. Previous procedure failed and I'm completely out of pocket on this procedure. ; /
8 weeks minimum off the bike -
I'm the fittest I've been in awhile, say goodbye to that. I have a new frame coming in the upcoming month, can't ride it. It's cool enough to start riding in the Everglades again... I will be on the sofa. Grump On.

[defspace]

Spending money on car repairs.

[j44ke]

I am riding up the west side bike way along the Hudson in Manhattan. This is a bike & roller blade-only path, and pedestrians and runners have their own lane. I get to a stoplight (the bike lane is perforated at regular intervals by all sorts of car traffic, resulting in several fatalities over the years) near this giant aircraft carrier and as usual there are 15-20 Chinese tourists standing in the middle of the bike lane. Even though the light is green for me, I stop and alert the tourists to the presence of bikes coming in both directions, whereupon they penguin in all directions and finally clear the way. As I am starting back up, a cop on a horse ambles into my lane so I move over to go around him. He starts yelling "Stop!" and moves his horse to block my way. So I stop. He says, "You are going too fast. The speed limit here is 15mph." There is no posted speed limit on the bike lane, plus I might have been going 17mph at most. So obviously realizing that I know he is lying, he says, "They are going to start putting up signs next week. A lot of pedestrians use this area so you have to go slow." This is the bike lane. Pedestrians are supposed to stay in their lane, which admittedly they never do BUT I also know that from riding here almost every day so I proceed with caution. "Where's your speedometer?" he says, eyeing my bike. "You need to get a speedometer. We're going to start looking at those to figure out if you are going too fast, so you need to get one." Great, thanks for the heads up. I didn't have my Garmin on the bike, but I was thinking of using one for longer rides. Now that I know NYPD is planning to use them to harass cyclists, I definitely won't use mine (I also know they have been using Strava to investigate accidents to determine if the cyclist was at fault when they get run over by a car, as have insurance companies.) Then he let me go with a warning, but I could tell he was 1.) baiting me and 2.) slightly inebriated so just smiled and went on my way. I don't need to spend the night in jail and have my bike disappear into the labyrinth of impound because I was "interfering with police business," NYPD's favorite method for intimidation these days.

Meanwhile, behind him was 12th Ave where cars come off the Henry Hudson. The speed limit there is 35mph, but cars routinely do 55mph or more in an attempt to clear the stoplights, when they aren't jammed up bumper to bumper. I have never seen a cop pull anyone over for speeding there, but I've seen plenty of accidents.

[David Tollefson]

Finished a rattle-can paint job on a build, only to find out that black makes the graphics essentially disappear (sorry Kris, I can't paint my bikes black for the time being). Oh well, time for another coat of silver instead.

Riding buddy's dad died yesterday. He needs a long ride to clear his head. About a month should do it.

[Shinomaster]

Living 3000 miles from my mom and nephew is serious bummer... not sure I could ever move back to Boston after having lived in Portland for 15 years.

[lbarber]

Work stuff. Shouldn't post details on a public forum, but it's making me plenty grumpy.

I am riding up the west side bike way along the Hudson in Manhattan. This is a bike & roller blade-only path, and pedestrians and runners have their own lane. I get to a stoplight (the bike lane is perforated at regular intervals by all sorts of car traffic, resulting in several fatalities over the years) near this giant aircraft carrier and as usual there are 15-20 Chinese tourists standing in the middle of the bike lane. Even though the light is green for me, I stop and alert the tourists to the presence of bikes coming in both directions, whereupon they penguin in all directions and finally clear the way. As I am starting back up, a cop on a horse ambles into my lane so I move over to go around him. He starts yelling "Stop!" and moves his horse to block my way. So I stop. He says, "You are going too fast. The speed limit here is 15mph." There is no posted speed limit on the bike lane, plus I might have been going 17mph at most. So obviously realizing that I know he is lying, he says, "They are going to start putting up signs next week. A lot of pedestrians use this area so you have to go slow." This is the bike lane. Pedestrians are supposed to stay in their lane, which admittedly they never do BUT I also know that from riding here almost every day so I proceed with caution. "Where's your speedometer?" he says, eyeing my bike. "You need to get a speedometer. We're going to start looking at those to figure out if you are going too fast, so you need to get one." Great, thanks for the heads up. I didn't have my Garmin on the bike, but I was thinking of using one for longer rides. Now that I know NYPD is planning to use them to harass cyclists, I definitely won't use mine (I also know they have been using Strava to investigate accidents to determine if the cyclist was at fault when they get run over by a car, as have insurance companies.) Then he let me go with a warning, but I could tell he was 1.) baiting me and 2.) slightly inebriated so just smiled and went on my way. I don't need to spend the night in jail and have my bike disappear into the labyrinth of impound because I was "interfering with police business," NYPD's favorite method for intimidation these days.

Meanwhile, behind him was 12th Ave where cars come off the Henry Hudson. The speed limit there is 35mph, but cars routinely do 55mph or more in an attempt to clear the stoplights, when they aren't jammed up bumper to bumper. I have never seen a cop pull anyone over for speeding there, but I've seen plenty of accidents.

That's...insane. It sounds like things just get worse for the #1 bicycling city in America.

[dashDustin]

Just learned that a kid who is in the same grade as my youngest has had a fever for 8 days as well as some respiratory issues. He's attended school all of those 8 days except 1. Child's mother is concerned that it might be that enterovirus. Apparently not concerned enough to get her kid looked at or to keep him home.

Learned yesterday that our youngest (1st grade) scored as "high" as possible for ADHD. "High" isn't the correct term...I don't know how else to say it, though. Basically he couldn't have faked being more ADHD had he tried.

Learned yesterday that our oldest (3rd grade) is failing 2 classes out of 4. We split custody 50/50. Graded work goes home on Fridays and because of how the schedule has worked out this year so far, we've only had them a couple Fridays. We haven't seen any work come home until last Friday. Everything was Ds and Fs. The school has no grades online yet, so we were clueless. Teacher sent us an email for the first time yesterday telling us what was going on (not completing homework, not correcting tests). We apologized and take some of the responsibility. Problem is the school the boys were at did not send homework. Ever. Everything was optional and online (aka apps. Seriously.) So when we ask the oldest if he has homework, he says he did it already. We would look at everything, and everything was completed. Except, you know...the homework that wasn't coming home. Which was pretty much all of it. The school is new. First year. We have some things to work on.

[NFazzio]

Why do non charity cycling events cost so much? $48 bucks for a single day registration? What for some gatoraid and pp&j that i won't even use? Won't even stop. Roads i ride for free all the time. But god forbid i go and not register to ride. Wouldn't it be better to charge $10-20 and get everyone to register? Not as many people would pirate the ride.

[j44ke]

Work stuff. Shouldn't post details on a public forum, but it's making me plenty grumpy.



That's...insane. It sounds like things just get worse for the #1 bicycling city in America.

It is, and the new mayor who promised changes isn't delivering. I don't think I will vote for him again. I just have to keep reminding myself, some people get it worse on a daily basis.

[monadnocky]

some people get it worse on a daily basis.

Good lord.

[Matthew Strongin]

This jet lag is brutal. And I'm back at work. The jet lag will clear up on it's own. I need an intervention to fix the work issue, though.

[davids]

Stepfather-in-law is having a recurrence of internal bleeding, a problem he thought he dealt with via three months of hyperbaric treatments. I hate seeing this from afar, especially as it looks like (at best) the new normal.

[quickag]

I work in the ME often. I have lots of military friends and I'm always fascinated how so many intelligent people can be so myopic. There's a video floating around on all of the right-wing idiot sites that is supposedly of "stupid muslims too dumb to take suicide belt off dead terrorist...bomb blows up at funeral." This video has been sent to me at least 4x today with various idiotic subjects.

It goes a long way to reinforce their racist view of the rest of the world. In reality, it's a video of a FSA funeral wherein the Assad regime (or someone connected) detonated an IED to kill mourners. Children died, but you know, fuck dark people.

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[OtherDarren]

That thing people do when they stand in front of a crosswalk looking like they want to cross but then just stare down at their phone.

You stop for them wait, then they don't walk into the crosswalk. You start riding (who am I kidding, I mean driving) again and then they walk out next to your car as you pass like "what the hell?!?".

This happens to me at least once a week. These people should have their walking privileges taken away... and then they should be beaten.

[DCT]

When I go for a ride with someone thinking
it's going to be 40 miles and it ends up being 90.

Mostly uphill.