Really trivial stuff that bugs you

[Swift]

Is Poulsbo, WA close enough?

https://ddelectrical.com/generators/

They seem to mostly do Generac, but they also list Kohler.

[schlaugh]

Worked for me (I just used the zip code). Here are the first three that came up:

Frederickson Electric Inc.
360-385-1395
Sales Installation and Service up to 20kW
402 Glen Cove RoadPort Townsend, WA 98368 2.90 mi.
Email | Directions
B

Double D Electrical
360-385-1130
Sales Installation and Service up to 20kW
Portable Power Options
191 Chimacum RoadPort Hadlock, WA 98339 6.71 mi.
Email | Directions
C

CK Electric Services Inc.
360-678-6813
Sales Installation and Service up to 20kW
107 South Main Street B102Coupeville, WA 98239 7.30 mi.
Email | Directions

[schlaugh]

Maybe clear your cache and try again? Reboot? Make sure JavaScript is enabled?

[ozduck]

We had a new house built last year. That made me happy.
We had a propane-powered generator added to it for backup power. That made me more secure.
Winter is coming, so I'd like to get it serviced and checked out. That made me frustrated yesterday.

The company that installed it specializes in new construction and doesn't do service.
The Generator is from Kohler. There's a tag right on it saying go to kohlersmartpower.com. When I do that I get a page about toilets, showers, and sinks. Try it.
Ok, kohlerpower.com gets you generators. Just leave out the "smart", because what comes next is dumb.
Click on "Find a Dealer". It takes you to this page. Which doesn't work. At all. No matter what you put in the search box it just reloads the page.

Here's a challenge for you: Find me an authorized Kohler dealer to service my generator. Location is Port Townsend, WA, 98368.

Your challenge intrigued me so I had to have a go. Initially I got the non- functioning search page that you found. However coming in from the Kohler homepage I got this result - which may or may not be of any use.

http://www.kohlerpower.com/home/sale...filter=Service

Edit: Oops, looks like Schlaugh and I got the same result.

[Jim]

Is Poulsbo, WA close enough?

Worked for me (I just used the zip code). Here are the first three that came up:

You realize you guys are acting out a Home Advisor commercial, right?

Next he'll ask you to call them and set up an appointment.

[schlaugh]

Only if Treb finds me a bathroom remodel firm in north Atlanta.

[ozduck]

And I could do with a good fencing contractor in Perth W.A. (Western Australia not Washington)

[Trebuchet]

Thanks folks. Maybe it's the javascript thing that blocked me. Except Ozduck's link DID work. Oh well, now I've got some names. I had actually contacted Double D electrical yesterday through their web page. I knew they existed because they are next door to my wife's former hairdresser!

ETA: In the stuff that amuses me department, they show CK electrical in Coupeville at 7.4 miles. That's actually 7.4 miles and a ferry ride!

[Solfe]

I have two students that fight over a bicycle in gym. Today, I made them toss a coin. The child that lost burst into tears. I said: "Hey, don't cry. You won a quarter." He stopped crying and the child on the bike started crying. Hmmmm.

[Gillianren]

My morning to sleep in: Irene awakens before my alarm would go off; at least once, she has literally said, "Time wake up, Mama!" and turned on the light by my bed.

Graham's morning to sleep in: Simon is on his bus and gone; Irene is making waking up noises fifteen minutes after I got back inside but still not all the way awake.

[Trebuchet]

Instead of "Time wake up Mama", I get "Meow. Meow! MEOW!" directly in my ear.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

This morning the cat did that by getting up on the laptop and knocking it to the floor.

[Solfe]

I saw the movie Joker with some friends who were really enthusiastic about the whole concept an origin story about a comic book villain. I really don't like Batman and as a consequence, The Joker. Oh, there was so much going on in that movie, most of which flew over the heads of my co-viewers. They really wanted this to be a story related to Batman and I just couldn't see it like that. It was hardly about comic books.

Joaquin Phoenix was terrifying, so I'd give that aspect 2 thumbs up. Everything else could be pitched in the trash, in my opinion. I'll probably watch more Joaquin Phoenix films in the future. I didn't know he was that good, probably due to a lack of exposure on my part. Too many fine actors and actresses to really know a lot about all of them.

My wife was equally nonplussed by the film. We didn't get why everyone else was so excited about it. As the other people we were with kept extolling this or that bit, I kept circling back to how disturbing it was. At least I have something to talk to my wife about.

Now on to the really funny and distressing part. The people who invited us have teenage kids. They invited us to see "a movie" as a family, so we showed up with our teenagers in tow. Then they hit us with the "Let's see the Joker." Oh, that's a complication that I didn't expect. I told my kids they could watch, but if I saw anything too objectionable, we were out of there. Yeah, that is totally bad parenting.

Apparently, my kids took that as permission to leave 5 minutes in. They took the other couple's kids out with them and went to see a different movie. My oldest has a job and was willing to pay for a different, age appropriate movie. I was really caught off guard by this sort of mature self-regulation on my kid's part and was going to pay him back. It turns out my oldest explained the situation to the theater staff and they swapped out the Joker tickets for other tickets for free.

Back to the annoying part. My children spent the car ride home lecturing me and my wife about how they could have handled seeing a R-rated film, but those other kids couldn't and they will be picking the next movie. Nothing stinks more than having your own unvoiced opinion rammed down your throat. Everything they said was correct.

[Solfe]

The last post reminds me of another bad parenting choice. When The Martian came out my daughter wanted to see it. Apparently The Martian got rushed into theaters without getting the usually rating from the get-go. When they handed us the tickets, the ticket person said: "Ok, 5 tickets for The Martian showing at 8 pm, rated NC-17."

I said, "WHAT!?!"

The ticket person took me aside and explained that their system assumes that an unrated movie should be marked NC-17 by their system, and it really isn't NC-17. She also walked me through the whole film, to reassure me that I wasn't taking my kids to see garbage they shouldn't see. There were some disturbing points, like when Mark too off his suit, revealing the toll of being trapped on Mars took on his body. That was my kids only complaint, but they understood that it was realistic.

[Trebuchet]

Silly strange computer issues.

I arose at the usual time this morning, donned robe and slippers, and made my way into the office to check my morning comics. No internet. I looked on my phone and yup, it was connected. Clicking on the little icon eventually got me to something that said "Hardware WiFi Switch Off". WHAT Hardware Wifi Switch? I've been using this computer for at least 10 years and never seen one.

Ok, turn on some lights. Try a reboot. Still off. Examine the laptop all round for a switch. Nothing, but there's a little antenna symbol on the F2 key. Press it. It turns on bluetooth, but not WiFi. More head scratching. Try another reboot. Nothing. Eventually it occurs to me to try Ctrl-F2. That works. But how did it get off in the first place.

Ok, look at some comics. One of them led me to look up something on Wikipedia. And suddenly, all it would do was scroll to the bottom of the page. Bringing up favorites selections caused them to just scroll down over and over.

More troubleshooting. Pound on arrow keys. No good. Batteries out of mouse. No good. Batteries out of separate keyboard. No good. Or was it, not sure. Probe around the down arrow on both keyboards, maybe there's a crumb. (I really should stop eating at the computer.) Plug the separate keyboard back in. More scrolling, then suddenly, no scrolling.

Sheesh. I've been up an hour and done nothing but get frustrated. And now the cat is telling me it's time for morning grooming. Maybe that will relax me a little bit!

[Gillianren]

Yesterday, I got a call shortly before the bus arrived from one of the other moms at our stop, asking if I could pick her daughter up off the bus. No big deal; it's happened before, and this is the girl Simon has already proposed to, so I know he's willing to play with her. But what with one thing and another, her mom didn't get here to pick her up until about 9:30. And the kids were loud and full of energy all night long, and then when it was time for Jasmine to leave, Simon was so overtired that he had a meltdown.

[grant hutchison]

I tried to join ApolloHoax several weeks ago but still seem to be awaiting admin approval. Today, I had a half-hour during which I couldn't actually remember the question I was planning on asking.

Grant Hutchison

[pzkpfw]

With two different courier companies recently, I've gone through the process to allow unsigned drop-off (I work, I'm never home for parcels); filled in the web form to say "By the back door, on the shelves, thanks".

Both times I come home to find the parcel in my letter box.

The couriers don't give a hoot.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

For the last couple days I have had headache for most of the day, between the eyes and just behind the nose, probably just the sinuses action up but slightly annoying.

[Trebuchet]

I went down to the fitness room this morning for my exercise bike ride. There's a regular crowd that goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; but today is Tuesday and there was nobody there. I hate that; what if I have a heart attack or something. I always let my wife know to check on me if I'm not back in an hour. Some people did come in after about 15 minutes so that was ok.
When I got back there was a BSOD on the computer. I haven't seen one of those in a long time!

[Swift]

I went down to the fitness room this morning for my exercise bike ride. There's a regular crowd that goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; but today is Tuesday and there was nobody there. I hate that; what if I have a heart attack or something. I always let my wife know to check on me if I'm not back in an hour. Some people did come in after about 15 minutes so that was ok.

Why not bring your cell phone with you?

[21st Century Schizoid Man]

I tried to join ApolloHoax several weeks ago but still seem to be awaiting admin approval. Today, I had a half-hour during which I couldn't actually remember the question I was planning on asking.

Grant Hutchison

I tried several times, and ultimately just gave up. I cannot remember what I wanted to say or ask.

[KaiYeves]

I went down to the fitness room this morning for my exercise bike ride. There's a regular crowd that goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; but today is Tuesday and there was nobody there. I hate that; what if I have a heart attack or something. I always let my wife know to check on me if I'm not back in an hour. Some people did come in after about 15 minutes so that was ok.
When I got back there was a BSOD on the computer. I haven't seen one of those in a long time!

On the plus side, no waiting to use the machines...?

[Trebuchet]

I went down to the fitness room this morning for my exercise bike ride. There's a regular crowd that goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; but today is Tuesday and there was nobody there. I hate that; what if I have a heart attack or something. I always let my wife know to check on me if I'm not back in an hour. Some people did come in after about 15 minutes so that was ok.

Why not bring your cell phone with you?

I absolutely DO bring my phone. In fact, half way there this morning I realized I didn't have it and went back for it. I also use it to play music and read a book while I ride.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Right now my head feels like it stretched and twisted in all kinds of directions.

[SeanF]

I went down to the fitness room this morning for my exercise bike ride. There's a regular crowd that goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; but today is Tuesday and there was nobody there. I hate that; what if I have a heart attack or something. I always let my wife know to check on me if I'm not back in an hour. Some people did come in after about 15 minutes so that was ok.
When I got back there was a BSOD on the computer. I haven't seen one of those in a long time!

So, you left your computer alone, and it had a heart attack.

[Solfe]

I don't know if this is funny, alarming, embarrassing, frustrating or all of them.

We are getting some heavy winds. I pull one of the cars partially on the lawn so the dog has a wind break for when she goes potty. I did this then brought the dog out.

For some reason, she decided she would just trot right into the middle of the lawn, nose in to the wind and poop. As I bagged it up, I got hit with a strong gust of wind. My glasses went one way, the dog the other* and the bag???? I can only say it went up. I had a sense that it was still going up three houses away. Since I hadn't tied it yet, it was like a parachute.

I'm laughing as I write this, but I'm actually horrified. Our street ends in a T and I have searched at all the neighbors front lawns to make sure it didn't splatter on their property. I can see nothing in the dark. I know this should end with a very angry neighbor, and I can totally understand that. But seriously, I think it went over all the houses and into the tree line behind them. I can only hope I get lucky and the bag went into orbit.

*Oh, and on top of it, the dog thinks I spanked her or something. She doesn't understand wind gusts.

[Noclevername]

I don't know if this is funny, alarming, embarrassing, frustrating or all of them.

We are getting some heavy winds. I pull one of the cars partially on the lawn so the dog has a wind break for when she goes potty. I did this then brought the dog out.

For some reason, she decided she would just trot right into the middle of the lawn, nose in to the wind and poop. As I bagged it up, I got hit with a strong gust of wind. My glasses went one way, the dog the other* and the bag???? I can only say it went up. I had a sense that it was still going up three houses away. Since I hadn't tied it yet, it was like a parachute.

I'm laughing as I write this, but I'm actually horrified. Our street ends in a T and I have searched at all the neighbors front lawns to make sure it didn't splatter on their property. I can see nothing in the dark. I know this should end with a very angry neighbor, and I can totally understand that. But seriously, I think it went over all the houses and into the tree line behind them. I can only hope I get lucky and the bag went into orbit.

*Oh, and on top of it, the dog thinks I spanked her or something. She doesn't understand wind gusts.

Gives new meaning to "crappy weather"

[Trebuchet]

I was amused last week about wondering where the spare tire on my RAV4 was. Now I'm bugged because the low tire light is on again, meaning I've probably actually got a leak and will have to get it fixed.

[grant hutchison]

Setting up a new computer, with all the usual woes that entails. But particularly bugged at present by the following the fact that fitting a new hard drive briefly turned the newly delivered PC into a simple stone.
Opening the case and taking a look revealed two problems, one more easily fixed than the other:
1) The SATA data connectors provided by the factory are such a poor friction fit that one had popped off the primary hard drive while I was adding the new one. So I replaced that.
2) The hard drive cages press hard against the edge of the motherboard, necessitating a degree of involuntary pressure on that edge and its associated structures while removing and reinserting the cages. When I removed the case I'd just fitted, I found a little jumper block lying loose behind it, next to the five different sets of jumper pins it might have come off. Oops. I didn't fancy the experiment of jumping each set of pins in turn to see what happened, but fortunately found a nice person on eBay who was selling the same motherboard and had included a high-res photo, which let me see where my little jumper block should go. Phew.

Grant Hutchison