What Irked You Today?

[johnyrotten]

5 minutes ago, stitchdup said:

i bet that jeep crossed the border more than once

 I'm sure it did. Albany NY area, so probably runs down to NYC. Same idea. 

[Calb56]

19 hours ago, Tim W. SoCal said:

 

Texted this to my son and he said that was him today and sent this photo back 🤣

[Engine 51]

Updates. Phone, tablet, apps, PC, dash-cam and on and on. Every. Single. Day. No idea how there can be so many updates all the time.

[A modeler named mike]

This is actually Saturday's irk. When I went to retrieve the mail, other than the cool Show Rod model kit book I received was this months BGE electric bill. Last months bill was $84.43 and this one..$232.13 

No way did I use that much more electricity. The AC is set the on the same temp. as usual, and nothing else has been running that shouldn't be. Tomorrow I'll be calling to dispute the reading and demanding an explanation. The jerks double billed me last year, ripping me off $64.?? and never responded to my inquiry on that one. We need  competition with our electricity supplied here in Maryland. BGE has a Monopoly.

[johnyrotten]

22 minutes ago, A modeler named mike said:

Last months bill was $84.43 and this one..$232.13 

Did they take an estimated reading of the meter and bill you according to that? National grid here in NY has done that to me in the past. If so, dispute it.

[slusher]

the new metters are read from the office . No meter readers. That’s how it’s done here"….

[johnyrotten]

6 hours ago, slusher said:

the new metters are read from the office . No meter readers. That’s how it’s done here"….

Yeah, National grid just had a huge "campaign" about their new smart meter. They touted it would save you money, a ton of people saw their bill jump in price. I opted out and that's an eleven dollar fee a month. They should change their name to National greed.

[peteski]

You should be able to read kWh the display on the meter itself to see if it is close to what is shown on the bill.  You could start keep tracking those readings yourself.

[Ace-Garageguy]

2 hours ago, johnyrotten said:

Yeah, National grid just had a huge "campaign" about their new smart meter. They touted it would save you money, a ton of people saw their bill jump in price. I opted out and that's an eleven dollar fee a month. They should change their name to National greed.

My local electric co-op has been using "smart" meters for years, and our rates are the lowest in the state and some of the lowest in the country.

Our service in the event of weather-related outages is also exemplary, and their interactive website is one of the best I've ever seen anywhere for anything.

They don't generate their own power, have to purchase it and mark it up, all the employees make decent money, their vehicles are plentiful and look to be newish or very well maintained, and I can't understand why so many electric utility companies nationwide can't match our prices.

Can you say "poor management and greed", boys and girls?

[johnyrotten]

40 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

My local electric co-op has been using "smart" meters for years, and our rates are the lowest in the state and some of the lowest in the country.

Our service in the event of weather-related outages is also exemplary, and their interactive website is one of the best I've ever seen anywhere for anything.

They don't generate their own power, have to purchase it and mark it up, all the employees make decent money, their vehicles are plentiful and look to be newish or very well maintained, and I can't understand why so many electric utility companies nationwide can't match our prices.

Can you say "poor management and greed", boys and girls?

I can't really complain service wise, we've had some serious weather related issues that slammed the whole area, at that point you do what you can do. We do have the  random black out when a sub station or transformer gives up, i chalk that up to maintenance schedule and age of equipment. What gets me is it cost me twice as much in service and delivery fees than actual kw/h used. To me that's just another name for a tax.

[johnyrotten]

Chinesium grade thread taps. These things couldn't cut a thread in a stick of butter. 

[stitchdup]

Lay off the political stuff guys, nobody enjoys being moderated

[TonyK]

The mother-in-law died last week. That's not the irk as she was 95 and it was time.

Cleaning out her place and we have gathered a 5 gallon bucket and a box full of prescription pills and some other expired supplements. I like to do things the proper way and found a place that accepts unwanted pills. Went there today and the "blue box" was locked. A guy walks up to me and says it must be full. Can I come back on Thursday? Really?!

Now I know why people don't bother with things like this and just throw stuff in the garbage. I won't do that but sure hope I can dispose of this on Thursday.

[A modeler named mike]

4 minutes ago, TonyK said:

The mother-in-law died last week. That's not the irk as she was 95 and it was time.

Cleaning out her place and we have gathered a 5 gallon bucket and a box full of prescription pills and some other expired supplements. I like to do things the proper way and found a place that accepts unwanted pills. Went there today and the "blue box" was locked. A guy walks up to me and says it must be full. Can I come back on Thursday? Really?!

Now I know why people don't bother with things like this and just throw stuff in the garbage. I won't do that but sure hope I can dispose of this on Thursday.

Our local police department has a collection box in the station. You could check to see if yours has that option. The good thing is the police station is open 24/7

[TonyK]

Ours used to but it wasn't on the current list. I thought of calling them. I've also heard some store pharmacy's take unwanted pills. We'll see.

In addition to this, we have some morphine too. You'd think that would be strictly regulated and kept track of but here we are and nobody seems to care about it. Will have to find out how we can take that back.

[A modeler named mike]

1 hour ago, TonyK said:

Ours used to but it wasn't on the current list. I thought of calling them. I've also heard some store pharmacy's take unwanted pills. We'll see.

In addition to this, we have some morphine too. You'd think that would be strictly regulated and kept track of but here we are and nobody seems to care about it. Will have to find out how we can take that back.

When my Dad passed away, one of the Hospice staff came by and collected all dad's old medicine. One of those was morphine. She had a small bag of coffee grinds and poured the liquid morphine in the grinds, then tossed it in the trash. That's something you can do with it. 

[TonyK]

Thanks for the morphine tip. Interesting thing about Hospice is they didn't want to take the morphine. That just amazes me that we can be so lax with such a dangerous drug like that.

A side note and irk........My wife is the executor for her mom so is trying to do a lot of things right now. Informing and canceling all ties and business stuff, etc. Some people/companies/banks are very nice and helpful and some are dicks. You get put on hold for a half hour and then it hangs up or they want info that has nothing to do with closing accounts, etc. The worst one so far is Triple A. They want her to come to the office with a death certificate to cancel! She was pissed. I told her to tell them "you know what".

[Ace-Garageguy]

Not really an irk, more just life with old cars...and a little personal disappointment.

Blazer water pump was weeping when I got her, about a pint a month, no biggie as long as I kept her topped up, and not anything I couldn't let slide for a while.

So now she's losing about a pint a day, and it's not coming from the pump.

Found the leak on the radiator, and there's a stalactite of old cooling system sealer right there that's been oozing out and hardening.

Previous owner, who I thought was a 100% upright guy never mentioned it, and when I cornered him today he kinda gave the shady-eye shuffle like he knew dammmmed well it had been leaking.

No real big deal, as the rad has to come out to do the water pump anyway, and as it has crimped plastic tanks and over 200,000 miles on the clock, it's the right time to do it, 'cause I really like it and intend to keep it forever.

Still...full disclosure woulda been nice.

NEVER TRUST ANYBODY. EVER. ABOUT ANYTHING.

 

Edited Tuesday at 09:59 PM by Ace-Garageguy

[Mark]

People get rid of things for a reason.  The challenge is to determine what that reason is, and if it's something you are better equipped to handle than the seller.

[Ace-Garageguy]

4 hours ago, Mark said:

People get rid of things for a reason. 

And will lie for no reason.

[slusher]

Yesterday a city water department worker drove in front the water department and parked fell forward on the steering wheel and died horn blowing and died from heat stroke. Not irked but sad left 2 underage children…

Edited Wednesday at 01:10 PM by slusher
Mistakes fixed

[89AKurt]

It's a continuing saga of not getting parts for a 56 year old car.  But the mechanic tells me of stories about modern cars, with a ridiculous amount of computers.  Appointment at 9:00, out about 3:30.  His computer said one brake line was in one store, but they couldn't find it, so just the front pair got replaced.  It's been like this for everything on this car.  I'm still undecided on keeping that car, so just wanted to spend only what I had to (like everyone).   So another appointment to make...... but on to the positive thread.

[Ace-Garageguy]

8 hours ago, 89AKurt said:

It's a continuing saga of not getting parts for a 56 year old car.  But the mechanic tells me of stories about modern cars, with a ridiculous amount of computers...

Welcome to my world.

[Mark]

On 7/20/2025 at 9:23 PM, johnyrotten said:

Did they take an estimated reading of the meter and bill you according to that? National grid here in NY has done that to me in the past. If so, dispute it.

Same here, only National Fuel.

I got the phone prompt to call in a meter reading for gas.  Called it in yesterday, it was rejected.  Turns out they misread the meter last month, and I nearly caught up to that number this month.  They always bug me to submit a meter reading...I do just that, then they estimate the bill anyway.  I offered to send them a picture of the meter so they can see the reading; at that point they backed down.  Someone either ain't doing their job, or ain't paying attention...

[Volzfan59]

After seeing my wife off this morning, I sat down to read my bible and devotional while enjoying a second cup of coffee. Our neighbors dog stays over here a lot, she started barking like crazy. Went to investigate and found a copperhead in the carport! It was approximately 20” to 24”, but still a copperhead. I’m no tree hugger, but I do hate killing one of God’s creatures. However, my granddaughter loves to play in the carport and I didn’t want the dog to be bitten. Problem solved, but I still feel a little crunchy.

Edited 20 hours ago by Volzfan59