The 2016 Summer Anti-Chuff Thread

[HaRuMaN]

Yep.  Time to start this one again.

1) Got notice yesterday that we're getting an unpaid furlough in June.   

2) Also got notice, no raises this year...

3) Someone jacked my PayPal debit card number and was using it to buy stuff at Sams Club in Las Vegas.  Granted, I get the money back, but it's a hassle.   

[Slippyblade]

2) Also got notice, no raises this year...

My wife works for the city and the past several years has been like this...

1) Get annual raise which was usually less than inflation
2) 1 month later, get notice that "due to budget issues" all raises were retroactively rescinded.

So yeah, several years of no raise.

[dkersten]

Wicked hailstorm blew through town last weekend, golfball+ sized hail... but the worst part was the hail was pushed by 80mph wind, so it was blowing out windows and totaling cars left and right.  My windows all held but my car has 74 dents on the hood alone, the roof has to be well over 200 dents and another few hundred on the side.  Probably be totaled out.  House fared OK but my 3 year old roof went from a 30 year roof to a 10 year roof.. nearly every shingle has a dent, ding, or chip in it.  Waiting on the insurance adjuster to give the OK for a complete replacement.

Other than that, my mom was in the hospital the same weekend, her heart rate dropped as low as 26, so they put a pacemaker in.  She's had 2 open hearts already and other issues, so it was a scare but I can't complain because she is already feeling better and she is alive...

And the icing is that my son seemed to regress back to his old habits... the ones that led him to drug use and much much worse.  My efforts to help get him back on track lead to him deciding all his problems stemmed from me so he moved out while I was at work, and cut off contact.  After two years of helping him get back on his feet and being the only person in the world to have his back through all this, I am now the bad guy.

Oh well though, you can't control the weather, you can't control other people, and you can't control anyone's health.  So as difficult of a time as it has been these last few weeks, I smile and think about the chuffage in my life, not all this bad stuff.. It could be FAR worse...

[harveybirdman]

No traffic on this site due to server issues = Naff

How's Vwall coming on that Fugly Kong?
Malenko get any more of his projects going?  Wideshot of his game room now?
Ond get any more work in on Retro Futuristic Mame Cabinet
Heck I'd even settle for ill conceived piece of arcade playin' furniture Google Sketchup to comment on.
Will Newbs ever ask questions that will require a PL1 graph again?

[pbj]

And the icing is that my son seemed to regress back to his old habits... the ones that led him to drug use and much much worse.  My efforts to help get him back on track lead to him deciding all his problems stemmed from me so he moved out while I was at work, and cut off contact.  After two years of helping him get back on his feet and being the only person in the world to have his back through all this, I am now the bad guy.

Been there, done that.  It won't stop until he's in prison or dead.

[Malenko]

Malenko get any more of his projects going?  Wideshot of his game room now?

Lets see, Alpha-Too vshump cab traded for a fully working Daytona USA2 dedicated sit down cab + Naomi mobo + Royal Rumble Cart + other stuff
Alpha Tree (fiddy) aka More PewPew less QQ is pretty much done; might piece together a SFF PC and marry it to a JPAC to play vshmups I cant afford.

My gameroom is still pretty much the same on 1 side (NeoGeo,Multi-CPS2, Mspac,etc)  but this is the other side:

I traded Cruisn USA to my uncle for his 1985 William's comet, then ended up buying SFII pin 3 weeks later. My wallet/bank account hate pinball but I love it.

[dkersten]

And the icing is that my son seemed to regress back to his old habits... the ones that led him to drug use and much much worse.  My efforts to help get him back on track lead to him deciding all his problems stemmed from me so he moved out while I was at work, and cut off contact.  After two years of helping him get back on his feet and being the only person in the world to have his back through all this, I am now the bad guy.

Been there, done that.  It won't stop until he's in prison or dead.

Thanks for that reassurance that my only son is ---fouled up beyond all recognition---..

[drventure]

My ex has me back in court. She didn't wait even a month after the divorce was finalized to go back and demand more money 

Then, she had the gall to refuse to let my daughter go out to see my father before he died.

She claimed she "Needed more information" at the time. I'd told her my dad had been in the hospital, was in hospice care at home and that the hospice worker had told us "if you have anyone that would like to see me, it'd be better to get them here sooner than later"

In the deposition, my atty asked her what "more information" she needed. She replied "well, knowing when he was going to die would have helped".  WTF?!

[vwalbridge]

No traffic on this site due to server issues = Naff

How's Vwall coming on that Fugly Kong?
Malenko get any more of his projects going?  Wideshot of his game room now?
Ond get any more work in on Retro Futuristic Mame Cabinet
Heck I'd even settle for ill conceived piece of arcade playin' furniture Google Sketchup to comment on.
Will Newbs ever ask questions that will require a PL1 graph again?

LOL. I love HBM. I'll have some fugly kong updates this summer I promise.

And yea, I ain't gonna lie...the forum's speed and reliability as of late has been a real drag for me personally. I have not been visiting as much because of it.

[yotsuya]

No traffic on this site due to server issues = Naff

How's Vwall coming on that Fugly Kong?
Malenko get any more of his projects going?  Wideshot of his game room now?
Ond get any more work in on Retro Futuristic Mame Cabinet
Heck I'd even settle for ill conceived piece of arcade playin' furniture Google Sketchup to comment on.
Will Newbs ever ask questions that will require a PL1 graph again?

LOL. I love HBM. I'll have some fugly kong updates this summer I promise.

And yea, I ain't gonna lie...the forum's speed and reliability as of late has been a real drag for me personally. I have not been visiting as much because of it.

Same here. I've got some cool stuff in the works that I just haven't made public because quite frankly, it's  disheartening to check the website at 10:30 at night, and it's down. At least it's consistent.

Sent from my SM-G386T using Tapatalk

[pbj]

I've owned SF2 and Comet.  Enjoyed the hell out of both of them. 

[dkersten]

3 year old roof is totaled from hail, along with some fascia and gutters..
Car is NOT totaled, which sucks because it is a company car and if it were totaled I would get a new one...
Still haven't heard from my son, which doesn't surprise me, at least I know through my other kids that he is alive.

And my facet nerves have started to heal so I have a hard time sleeping at night due to lower back pain.. go back to the doc in 2 weeks to have them burned out again.. Last procedure gave me relief for nearly a year, so it isn't all bad...

[pbj]

Scarcely 24 hours of server up time and my posts are already being deleted.  Summer 2016 is off to a predictable start.

[Malenko]

I've owned SF2 and Comet.  Enjoyed the hell out of both of them.

Im liking Comet more. The voices and art of SFII are distractedly different from the game :/
Cleaning the playfield and replacing all the rubbers makes a difference though for sure. I want more pins until I see the price tags.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Been hoping to finish up some projects this summer but I need to be extremely creative on how I go about it.  Money is tight this summer!

Baby is due on this Friday and once she delivers the wife's crappy benefits (if you can call them that) kick in with unpaid maternity leave.  She works for a non-profit company.  The law says they can hold her job, but the folks there say, "no-one's ever had a baby here before" so there were never any real maternity benefits created.  So she kind of gets shafted.  Three month of zero maternity pay.  We've found a workaround with short term disability pay, but it only lasts 3 weeks with 2/3 pay.  So no wiggle room for any fun stuff on our part.  The mortgage still needs to get paid and other expenses.  Throw the ex in there who is asking for more money all the time with child support (she's wealthy by the way) to try to rain on our happiness:  You get the picture.

Every cloud has a silver lining though:  1)  The wifey is hoping to search during her time off for a new "dream job".  2)  I've been cleaning out arcade related stuff I never use and selling them to make money for the hobby.  So I've spent zero so far on new stuff.  That's always good.  Less clutter, just slower to get the new stuff done.  3)  Concerning the ex:  ---fudgesicle---.  That. ---smurfette---.  Let her sulk in her own misery and selfishness.  If she takes me back to court I'll end up paying way less anyway, since I'm already overpaying as it is.

This time next year, I'm hoping my family and I will be in a better place financially, so we can enjoy life together!

DeL

[Slippyblade]

This time next year, I'm hoping my family and I will be in a better place financially, so we can enjoy life together!

Good luck, Del!  Nothing can screw up a relationship faster than finances but it sounds like you are weathering the storm well. 

[DeLuSioNal29]

Speaking of weather, this happened yesterday evening. FML.



DeL

[Slippyblade]

YIKES!!  Any damage to the house or is it just a blown fence?

[DeLuSioNal29]

Damage to roof. Fence slowed it down slightly though. Fence was shattered.

[pbj]

You live in a condo or something?

[Slippyblade]

Holy crap!  Nobody was hurt, I hope?

[DeLuSioNal29]

Holy crap!  Nobody was hurt, I hope?

Nah, everyone was downstairs.  I was out and rushed home once I heard.  Didn't make her go into labor either (one could only hope since she's overdue).  LOL.

PBJ, yeah, I bought a condo 5 minutes from my job.  Got tired of mowing the lawn and commuting 1 hour.  Now I have 2,048 square feet of goodness and a game room in the finished basement.  Life is good.    (except for the tree).

But again, just roof damage.  So far, no leaks and ceiling in bedroom is intact.  It missed the deck by a foot!

DeL

[Malenko]

My naff is having kidney stones, spending all day in the hospital Saturday and in a hazy stupor taking a shut ton of percocet to deal with the pain. Still hasn't passed but I have a urologist appointment tomorrow

[pbj]

Best compliment I've gotten in years was "penis looks good" from a urologist.

Friend dated one for awhile, she deemed him "average" which we all concurred was decent praise from someone that handles ---Deutsche Frankfurters--- all day.

[BadMouth]

My chuff is naffed because I decided to put myself in a financial pinch in order to furnish the rooms I've finished and have a decent front door installed.
My thinking was "I can deal with not going out or doing anything for the next two months in order to get this done and over with."
I kinda forgot it was the beginning of summer. 

[ChadTower]

$2700 of work on my truck in the last ten days.  Starter died, steering rack bound up, rear bearings on both sides in the back had to be replaced.  Had the dealer do it all with a bit of a break on their usual labor rate.  Included some scheduled maintenance stuff too.


On the bright side it drives almost like new again.  I was going 50 on a long straight with the windows up this morning and couldn't even hear the motor nevermind the wheels.   Not bad at all at 110k.

[BadMouth]

Not bad at all at 110k.

What model truck is it.  I want to make sure and avoid it.

[ChadTower]

Not bad at all at 110k.

What model truck is it.  I want to make sure and avoid it.

Tacoma.  Every truck has wear issues at various segments of 100k+.  You either start replacing wear parts and get another 100k or you sell the truck like you would a car and someone else does it.

[Howard_Casto]

In case you guys have been following the news, yes, we were one of the areas affected by the floods/storms.  I didn't have power for 24hrs, but more importantly my 82 year old grandma didn't have power for 24hrs. 

Everything is back on finally and we didn't really get any flood damage. 

[thomas_surles]

I have slow wifi at my in-laws, and often get poor cell reception near my house....

[ChadTower]

Everything is back on finally and we didn't really get any flood damage.

That's good.  I've been through both and the flood is worse.  Around here they insist on trying to save the house and pray it doesn't end up full of black mold.  It always ends up full of black mold but you have to live in it though multiple rounds of mold remediation before they finally raze it and start over.  At least with a fire they usually rip down immediately.  And the fire doesn't mess up your whole area.

[dkersten]

Living in a relatively dry climate, mold isn't much of an issue for us even after a flood, as long as we dry it out fast.  But I would agree that any kind of flood is the worst.  I have nightmares all the time about water damage to my house. 

Although I would never go back to renting, home ownership can be horrible for your health...  Water is the enemy, it causes stress.  So far this year it's been: pipe burst in the ceiling in the basement bathroom, toilet upstairs came unsealed again and leaked into the basement bathroom, the temporary patch to the burst pipe started leaking again, and then frozen water pummeled my house to the tune of $15k in damage to my brand new roof, siding, gutters, fence, and windows.  I have two big holes in my ceiling in the bathroom and need to do extensive drywall repair after I figure out how to permanently fix the pipe that burst, and I just finished my upstairs bathroom remodel so I shouldn't have toilet leaking issues any more.  My next 3 months will be spent completely renovating the exterior of my house.

My next door neighbor just had his pressure tested.  I always knew we had hella high water pressure in our neighborhood, but it turns out we are around 130psi !!  Most plumbing fixtures are designed for 80 or less...

[deadmoney5]

I suddenly realize that I do not have it so bad!  Thanks guys!

Seriously..not trying to be a dick.  But you DO realize how good you have it when you see other people with REAL problems they are dealing with.

 

[BadMouth]

Living in a relatively dry climate, mold isn't much of an issue for us even after a flood, as long as we dry it out fast.  But I would agree that any kind of flood is the worst.  I have nightmares all the time about water damage to my house. 

Although I would never go back to renting, home ownership can be horrible for your health...  Water is the enemy, it causes stress.  So far this year it's been: pipe burst in the ceiling in the basement bathroom, toilet upstairs came unsealed again and leaked into the basement bathroom, the temporary patch to the burst pipe started leaking again, and then frozen water pummeled my house to the tune of $15k in damage to my brand new roof, siding, gutters, fence, and windows.  I have two big holes in my ceiling in the bathroom and need to do extensive drywall repair after I figure out how to permanently fix the pipe that burst, and I just finished my upstairs bathroom remodel so I shouldn't have toilet leaking issues any more.  My next 3 months will be spent completely renovating the exterior of my house.

My next door neighbor just had his pressure tested.  I always knew we had hella high water pressure in our neighborhood, but it turns out we are around 130psi !!  Most plumbing fixtures are designed for 80 or less...

My water pressure is somewhere around 115 IIRC, but has a good quality reduction valve installed.
You're making me satisfied with my decision to have the be$t plumber in town replumb the entire house before doing any renovations. 

[ChadTower]

Heh, this time of year the water pressure to our neighborhood is barely a trickle.  So many people watering their lawns and 100+ year old water mains.

[BadMouth]

Heh, this time of year the water pressure to our neighborhood is barely a trickle.  So many people watering their lawns and 100+ year old water mains.

[dkersten]

I lived in a trailer court for about 8 years and we had a watering schedule.. mine was set to 8am-7 pm every other day on weekdays.. I worked, so I had to try to water from 5pm to 7pm, at which time I got between 1 and 5psi and upwards of a gallon per hour, as long as you held the hose lower than ground level. 

My lawn caught fire every 4th of July until I started using house water to water my lawn.  I got yelled at by the trailer court owners but they never did anything more about it.

Now I'm in the water business, my company sells water well supplies (and irrigation products), so for a bottle of whiskey and the cost of the steel casing, I got one of our customers to drill a nice 6" well in my back yard. My sprinkler system has a 30gpm submersible pump that kicks out about 80psi.  Costs me about 10 dollars a year in electricity to keep my grass green and plush. 

A couple years after coming to work here I quoted out a new pump station for that trailer court.. turns out they had a 100gpm system to cover around 600 homes...  No wonder I could never get water out of that spigot..

[HaRuMaN]

Annnnnnd we have a slab leak.  Hot water pipe is leaking somewhere under the slab in the master bedroom area. 

Being on the hot side, we can turn off the hot water when we don't need it, and stop the leak.  So that's good at least.

Oh, and homeowner's insurance isn't going to help because it "hasn't damaged anything".   

[yotsuya]

Homeowners is the worst when it comes to water.  We had a break in our main line in the kitchen.  Called the home warranty, they sent out a guy who ripped the cabinets and counters out to jackhammer down to the leak. I call the insurance company, who tell me that they won't cover it because that specific type of plumbing damage isn't covered in my policy. ---smurfs---.

I call the plumber, who was going to change my insurance company $2000 for his work. We agree on $1100 cash to cover it. I had to pay out of pocket for all new cabinets, but the plus side is our family has a cabinet guy, and so we got a good deal and really upgraded what we had.

[ChadTower]

I have strep throat.   

[CCM]

We put one of our dogs to sleep yesterday... sucks...   She was a great little chihuahua named Coco, very friendly and gentle.   She was 16, blind, had dementia and severe arthritis.   It wasn't fair to keep her in so much pain and confusion.  She will be missed.

[yotsuya]

We put one of our dogs to sleep yesterday... sucks...   She was a great little chihuahua named Coco, very friendly and gentle.   She was 16, blind, had dementia and severe arthritis.   It wasn't fair to keep her in so much pain and confusion.  She will be missed.

Sorry to hear that. We rescued a Chihuahua almost two years ago, and she's been the best dog I've ever had. My condolences.

[CCM]

We put one of our dogs to sleep yesterday... sucks...   She was a great little chihuahua named Coco, very friendly and gentle.   She was 16, blind, had dementia and severe arthritis.   It wasn't fair to keep her in so much pain and confusion.  She will be missed.

Sorry to hear that. We rescued a Chihuahua almost two years ago, and she's been the best dog I've ever had. My condolences.

Thanks.   All of our dogs have been rescues and all have been great dogs!    We've rescued 2 chihuahua's, 1 boston terrier and a beagle mix.    Over the last year and a half we lost the 2 chihuahua's and the boston.   All 3 lived long spoiled lives with us!    We just got the beagle mix last summer, she is only 3 and full of energy.   The humane society said she was turned in because she didn't get along with the previous owners kids, which is complete bullsh!t....   We have friends with kids and our dog has been nothing but friendly and gentle with them.    She was turned into the humane society with ear mites, fleas and worms, so my guess is the previous owners were just scumbags...

[thomas_surles]

We put one of our dogs to sleep yesterday... sucks...   She was a great little chihuahua named Coco, very friendly and gentle.   She was 16, blind, had dementia and severe arthritis.   It wasn't fair to keep her in so much pain and confusion.  She will be missed.

Sorry to hear that. We rescued a Chihuahua almost two years ago, and she's been the best dog I've ever had. My condolences.

Thanks.   All of our dogs have been rescues and all have been great dogs!    We've rescued 2 chihuahua's, 1 boston terrier and a beagle mix.    Over the last year and a half we lost the 2 chihuahua's and the boston.   All 3 lived long spoiled lives with us!    We just got the beagle mix last summer, she is only 3 and full of energy.   The humane society said she was turned in because she didn't get along with the previous owners kids, which is complete bullsh!t....   We have friends with kids and our dog has been nothing but friendly and gentle with them.    She was turned into the humane society with ear mites, fleas and worms, so my guess is the previous owners were just scumbags...

I have court tomorrow for the neighbors dog killing our chihuahua. Vet bills are about 5k.

[ppv]

Learned this week that one of the poster in my old forum (we were a small community, not unlike this one, but still having contact) has had brain cancer for the last year and a half and is now on his last miles.

He was a great guy, still quite young.

[pbj]

Scrounged around trash cans in a Walmart parking lot seeking receipts to scan them for their "savings catcher" app.

I got an email informing me they had awarded me four cents.

Four cents.


 

[05SRT4]

Speaking of cash money, my wife just switched jobs and cashed out her PTO hours (was over 400 hours) Will make up for the 6.00$ hr cut she took.

[Howard_Casto]

I ordered one of those little obdii dongles for the cars.  I've wasted half a day on the stupid thing and I still haven't managed to get any data.  It came with one of those panda mini discs but it's so scratched that it won't read.  Looked for the software online and came up short.  So I download torque.  I tried to set it up and it's asking questions about the car that even a mechanic might scratch their head at for a second.  Still no data at all even though it sees the dongle. 

[leapinlew]

Daughter had to get her tonsils removed in February. Still dealing with the medical bills. We have insurance, and a flex spending account which will cover our deductibles, but the number of bills is crazy. Separate bills for the doctor, anesthesia, hospital, and half a dozen other service providers. Crazy. Some bills we just got, 4 months after service and they are demanding payment as if we are the slow ones. 

[Howard_Casto]

You should be aware that in some states there is a timely billing clause.  If a bill isn't presented to you before a certain elapse of time (usually a year) you don't have to pay it. 

[ChadTower]

In some of those states medical bills are excluded from timely billing laws.  Of course, there are also places where medical debt is not allowed to be put into your credit report.  So it's good to know the exact laws where one happens to be.