What Irked You Today?

[Ace-Garageguy]

19 hours ago, TonyK said:

Decorated the front yard on Friday after Thanksgiving with all the assorted lights and such. Was surprised how well it looked the first night and didn't need to make any adjustments.

My irk is 2 different string of lights have some flashing going on but it works every other night and then only for an hour or so. Then they stay on steady. Goofy. Guess I should be happy they're on at all but doesn't make any sense.

 

It makes perfect sense. The circuitry responsible for the flashing function is meticulously crafted from the highest quality Chinesium.

[Trainwreck]

7 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Try taping your week old bananas to a wall behind your model.

Week-old bananas taped to walls are deemed to be Greate Arte in some circles, selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I can't guarantee that this will increase your viewer engagement, but ChatGPT thinks it's a good idea.

 

Thanks Bill, almost want to tape a banana to my foot and bring it all home in one pic. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

7 minutes ago, Trainwreck said:

Thanks Bill, almost want to tape a banana to my foot and bring it all home in one pic. 

Sounds like a winner.

I'm sure some critical writer on Greate Arte could wax poetically for paragraphs on end as to how the addition of the foot in proximity to the banana is a visual  commentary by juxtaposition on the tragically transient nature of both feet and bananas and what they represent to the cognoscenti, how the playful allusion of combining fruit parts into physical activities is a veiled reference to a society in decline, and how the model being built in the foreground is symbolic of the desperate need of some to cling to reminders of a no-longer-relevant world full of physical possessions that had quaint functions like transportation of the non-spiritual aspects of our beings.

Should be worth at least a million.

[TonyK]

52 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

It makes perfect sense. The circuitry responsible for the flashing function is meticulously crafted from the highest quality Chinesium.

That thought came to me.

[bobthehobbyguy]

On 12/3/2025 at 5:54 AM, bobss396 said:

Monday I get a letter from my Medicare prescription provider, they are dropping me for 2026. Open enrollment ends on 12/7, glad they didn't wait until the last minute to notify me.

They gave a number to call and apparently Cigna is rolled over to Health Spring. I finally gave up waiting on hold/being run around and found their web site. Which wasn't easy. The initial Google search took me everywhere but where I needed to be.

Anyway, I applied and am waiting for approval.

I had Cigna and got the notice they were changing names. They wanted to raise the plan cost from $20 to $70 with no benefit to me. I used the medicare site to find another plan. I found a plan for $5.70 a  month that suited my needs.

[Ace-Garageguy]

PayPal is pushing a subscription for an AI-powered "Christmas shopping assistant".

Really? I mean R E A L L Y ???

Nothing says "I care about you deeply and understand you well enough to know what you'd like" as much as getting some numbnutz AI to select your gifts.

I've never understood people who have "trouble" shopping for somebody else.

Oh wait...the totally self-absorbed and generally clueless about anything but their own one-dimensional little existences.

[bobss396]

18 hours ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

I had Cigna and got the notice they were changing names. They wanted to raise the plan cost from $20 to $70 with no benefit to me. I used the medicare site to find another plan. I found a plan for $5.70 a  month that suited my needs.

I'm going to look around more next year when I have more time. I was paying $168 a month. Started in 2020 at $69/month.

This "new" plan, in my zip code, offers 2 plans at $35 and $90/month.

For the more expensive plan, tier 1-3 drugs are free, tier 4-5 are $650 for a 3 month supply. I use 2 of these, no generics are available.

This past July I hit my limit, everything from there on was "free".

[Ace-Garageguy]

No irks yet so far, but the day is young...

[Ace-Garageguy]

Bought a couple of Train Miniatures "NOS" freight car kits, only to get them home and find they'd been cherry-picked for parts. Not little stuff, but the main car underframes.

OK, they were cheap. Really cheap. I can scratch-build frames easily enough, and I enjoy doing that kind of benchwork. And they were CHEAP.

SO...I stop by Hobby Town on the way home to get some Plastruct or Evergreen.

Not a single thing I can use, stock not replenished recently.

Pretty sad state of affairs when one old geek-geezer modeler has a VASTLY better stock of styrene than a major "hobby retailer".

 

[Rodent]

Focus has a dead battery (again) today. This one isn't even two years old. Any of y'all ever changed a battery in a 2012-2018 Focus? It's not the most pleasant task....

 

[Rodent]

2 hours ago, Rodent said:

Focus has a dead battery (again) today. This one isn't even two years old. Any of y'all ever changed a battery in a 2012-2018 Focus? It's not the most pleasant task....

 

Finally done it enough times to beat flat rate, and there is an easier way to do it than the Ford S.I. says, with less chance of breaking things (other than fingers). Cleared all the low voltage DTCs and reset the battery life with my handy-dandy Innova bi-directional scan tool 🙂

Tomorrow is the spousal unit's birthday. Happy Birthday Dear, I got you a battery for your present this year!

[89AKurt]

This is a crazy Irk.... I'm in the middle of nowhere rock hounding, haven't seen anyone so far today.   I got this PV recharger for camping, and keep with the old pickup because there in not a cig lighter.  I propped it up in the sun near the pickup (after taking this picture).

I see a Ford pickup coming.  Since this was the first time I ever set that down away from the truck, I didn't even think about it.  They go by.  I came back with some rocks, and see they drove over it.  🤬  I don't think they saw it, who would think "oh there's a PV charger and the phone is under that end of it."  I was like an R-rated Jim Carey.

This one has a bad design with the grommets anyway.

[A modeler named mike]

11 minutes ago, 89AKurt said:

This is a crazy Irk.... I'm in the middle of nowhere rock hounding, haven't seen anyone so far today.   I got this PV recharger for camping, and keep with the old pickup because there in not a cig lighter.  I propped it up in the sun near the pickup (after taking this picture).

I see a Ford pickup coming.  Since this was the first time I ever set that down away from the truck, I didn't even think about it.  They go by.  I came back with some rocks, and see they drove over it.  🤬  I don't think they saw it, who would think "oh there's a PV charger and the phone is under that end of it."  I was like an R-rated Jim Carey.

That stinks! So was your phone destroyed?

[89AKurt]

4 minutes ago, A modeler named mike said:

That stinks! So was your phone destroyed?

It's on SOS, I have no clue what that is, and saw a window message about "Sim".  I downloaded the pictures okay.

[TarheelRick]

On 7/5/2025 at 7:44 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

There's one on yootoob now that states the heads and block of the classic smallblock Chevy 265 were "cast in one unit".

Just browsing and came across this comment.  I seem to remember a kit I had many years ago that had the heads and block molded together, maybe that is what they had in mind.

[A modeler named mike]

19 minutes ago, 89AKurt said:

It's on SOS, I have no clue what that is, and saw a window message about "Sim".  I downloaded the pictures okay.

I'm not tech savvy myself, but if you look up "What does a SOS and SIM message on my phone mean?" here's what popped up. 🤷‍♂️

[stavanzer]

1 hour ago, peteski said:

 

When I visit the forum looking at unread posts I look at the posts with subject lines that interest me. That means I rarely even look at the top posts.

This is how read the Forum, as well.

I scan the subject lines. If I'm not interested, I don't even look.

[rattle can man]

Common sense isn't very common.

[Ace-Garageguy]

3 hours ago, rattle can man said:

Common sense isn't very common.

Common courtesy and what used to be called "common knowledge" are going the way of the dodo too.

                                         

[bobthehobbyguy]

Friday got a water bill that was well beyond my normal usage and called the water company.  It was late enough on Friday they couldn’t send somebody to check the meter to see that there hadn't been a misread. They sent somebody to verify the readin and I definitely have a leak. I had to call someone to help dig to find the leak. The Grinch gave me an unwelcome present for Xmas. Definitely not what I wanted for Christmas.

[A modeler named mike]

Pettiness...  

Over baked cookies...

UPS not delivering and delaying a package because the last name didn't match the name on the mailbox.

 

[89AKurt]

On 12/7/2025 at 8:29 PM, A modeler named mike said:

I'm not tech savvy myself, but if you look up "What does a SOS and SIM message on my phone mean?" here's what popped up. 🤷‍♂️

That looks scary!  I went to the Verizon store, all it needed was turning off/on, which I can't remember the last time I did that.

[Xingu]

I had to go and hide a few posts. If you guys can’t play nice, I will have to give you some time for inner reflection. The only reason it didn’t happen now is because I am in the holiday spirit. As a reminder to everyone, making things personal is a sure fire way to get placed on moderation or banned from the site.

[89AKurt]

12 hours ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

Friday got a water bill that was well beyond my normal usage and called the water company.  It was late enough on Friday they couldn’t send somebody to check the meter to see that there hadn't been a misread. They sent somebody to verify the readin and I definitely have a leak. I had to call someone to help dig to find the leak. The Grinch gave me an unwelcome present for Xmas. Definitely not what I wanted for Christmas.

Been there done that recently!  I have four holes in the wall inside the base cabinets to fix still, but the plumber found it and I was able to run new Pex lines.  Always happens at the wrong time.  My water district just hired a million dollar Ditch Witch job to replace a 400,000+ gallon a month leak.

[Ace-Garageguy]

13 hours ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

Friday got a water bill that was well beyond my normal usage and called the water company...

 

48 minutes ago, 89AKurt said:

Been there done that recently! 

While back I got an astronomical water bill. Like $300 for one month. Didn't remember building a pool and filling it. Made sure no taps were on, took the cover off the meter pit, no leaks (for those who don't do their own plumbing, the meter would be visibly running if there were). Compared all the meter readings on the previous bills, etc.

Called the water folks, got the standard runaround, finally went down and raised Hades in person. Got it all squared away, even with a verbal apology for the oopsie related to an apparently "new employee" the contractor the city uses to read the meters.

Whatever. Numbers are hard, even harder if they're a previously unknown concept.