What pissed you off today?

[El Barto]

Seems I brought some COVID back with me from California. What a bummer. Thankfully I got a booster not so terribly long ago, along with a flu shot, so hopefully this won't be so terrible. Oh, and I burned through the end of my PTO on that trip, so this will cost me some pay. Lastly, I'll probably wind up eating the ticket for the local Haken show tomorrow night.

Like I said, what a bummer.

[Stadler]

Seems I brought some COVID back with me from California. What a bummer. Thankfully I got a booster not so terribly long ago, along with a flu shot, so hopefully this won't be so terrible. Oh, and I burned through the end of my PTO on that trip, so this will cost me some pay. Lastly, I'll probably wind up eating the ticket for the local Haken show tomorrow night.

Like I said, what a bummer.

Sorry to hear that, brother.  Any symptoms? 

The CDC is supposed updating their guidelines for return to work (effective on April 1) so that maybe something to look into.

[cramx3]

Seems I brought some COVID back with me from California. What a bummer. Thankfully I got a booster not so terribly long ago, along with a flu shot, so hopefully this won't be so terrible. Oh, and I burned through the end of my PTO on that trip, so this will cost me some pay. Lastly, I'll probably wind up eating the ticket for the local Haken show tomorrow night.

Like I said, what a bummer.

Feel better, that blows.  But it's also only february and you used up your PTO?  Maybe your company does it differently, but that sucks maybe worse than just being sick in that it's going to hurt the wallet beyond eating a concert ticket.  Sorry.

[King Postwhore]

Feel better good sir. 

[El Barto]

Seems I brought some COVID back with me from California. What a bummer. Thankfully I got a booster not so terribly long ago, along with a flu shot, so hopefully this won't be so terrible. Oh, and I burned through the end of my PTO on that trip, so this will cost me some pay. Lastly, I'll probably wind up eating the ticket for the local Haken show tomorrow night.

Like I said, what a bummer.

Sorry to hear that, brother.  Any symptoms? 

The CDC is supposed updating their guidelines for return to work (effective on April 1) so that maybe something to look into.

Cold symptoms and fever, so far.

[El Barto]

Seems I brought some COVID back with me from California. What a bummer. Thankfully I got a booster not so terribly long ago, along with a flu shot, so hopefully this won't be so terrible. Oh, and I burned through the end of my PTO on that trip, so this will cost me some pay. Lastly, I'll probably wind up eating the ticket for the local Haken show tomorrow night.

Like I said, what a bummer.

Feel better, that blows.  But it's also only february and you used up your PTO?  Maybe your company does it differently, but that sucks maybe worse than just being sick in that it's going to hurt the wallet beyond eating a concert ticket.  Sorry.

Date of hire. Mine actually renews in 10 days, and they'd likely let me dip into it early. For personal reasons I might prefer to just eat a couple of days, though. This is actually the first time I've been without in many years. I've had a huge stockpile, but 10 day trips the last two years, plus smaller trips and "shit happens" has burned through it.

As for the ticket, a funny thing happened. My concert buddy designated ticket purchasing responsibility to a friend of his, who did a peculiar thing. He bought insurance for all the tickets, which is something nobody ever does. We actually laughed about it at the time. There's a good chance I get reimbursed. Probably a good chance I don't, too. Those policies have a lot of loopholes and red tape.

[cramx3]

Interesting, never bought the ticket insurance.  Hopefully it works out.

[gmillerdrake]

Small 'first world problem' rant......that ends up being not that big a deal it's just a PITA

So my company (Siemens Healthineers) has decided that in an effort to reduce 'our' carbon footprint.....they will be moving company provided vehicles to all EV's. As one of their Project Managers that oversees the installs of MRIs, CTs, Rad. Equipment....etc etc.....I can and have driven upwards of 500-700 miles a day when making site visits so you can imagine the push back and disappointment us Project Managers made do to an already long day of driving that can and will get longer in order to charge the EV's.

Our company provided cars now are largely Hybrid engine, I currently drive a Toyota RAV 4 Hybrid, so we all were just like.... can't we continue to drive the Hybrids? But that was shut down. What they did offer is that if we don't want to stick with the company provided option, they would reimburse us if we were to use a personal vehicle. It would be an averaged reimbursement for taxes, insurance and car payment plus a small .15 cent a mile reimbursement for business miles driven. The vehicle would also have to stay in compliance by always being a model year within the current 'window'...with the window now going from 24'-28'. So, I'd have to get a 2023- or 2024-year vehicle which is something I really don't want to spend the $$$ to do. Right now, with them paying for the gas, insurance and vehicle it's saving me literally close to $1k a month between all that plus having no car payment... with this reimbursement offer for personal vehicles, I'd probably end up taking a couple hundred dollar a month hit which makes it less appealing to enter into.

For me, my largest issue with the whole switch is my furthest and most frequent long-range drive is to Kansas City....from my house it's about 4 hours....275 miles-ish to then visit my project locations. I do a lot of out and back in a day trips to KC because I coach and have crap to do outside of work. So I get up at 4:00am....drive to KC.....do my site visits....then come home. Long ass day but I'd get home by 5-6pm and still be able to run a hockey practice, go coach a game or get to one of the boys school concerts or whatever is on the slate for that night.

Adding charging time to that trip just makes it a massive pain in the ass and all but eliminates my 'out and back' regiment and I lamented this to my boss. To which he said, if and when I need to do that to just rent a car on the company dime. Him telling me that ended my whining about the whole thing because that solved my largest issue. Now, if it's not necessary for an out and back I just stay the night and charge the EV as needed.

So, I went to test drive the two Tesla models they are letting us choose from 2024 Long Range Model Y's and Model 3's. Drove the Model Y first because it has a bit more space and I was thinking of needing to load crap in and what not I'd probably prefer the space....but then I drove the Model 3 and that pretty much sealed the deal. So smooth, cabin was freaking quiet.....those 14 speakers were amazing....I was blasting 'Voices' and it was unreal....freaking concert in the car.

 All the technology was just 'neat' but that regenerative braking was weird to get used to but really cool. I didn't mind the bare look of the dashboard and all in all it was a relief to drive them and experience them. Very easy drive. So, I ended up choosing the 2024 Long Range Model 3. Really liked the way that the navigation charts your path for you that shows where and when you'd need to charge as well. I thought that was going to be a pain in the ass trying to figure all that out but it's all done for you...so...another worry eliminated.

They're paying for the Tier Two Home Charger, electrician to install it, reimbursed Kw hours when you charge at home, charge card for all the Tesla charging stations....and, it's a company vehicle so all the insurance and what not is through them. Should be getting the vehicle sometime mid-summer. I went from holding a pitchfork and ready to storm the castle when this was announced to now refreshing the order status on our company site to see when the hell this car is going to get here! It can't be soon enough!

Anyone drive a Tesla and have any advice, warnings, good/bad stories or experiences?

[Glasser]

Seems I brought some COVID back with me from California. What a bummer. Thankfully I got a booster not so terribly long ago, along with a flu shot, so hopefully this won't be so terrible. Oh, and I burned through the end of my PTO on that trip, so this will cost me some pay. Lastly, I'll probably wind up eating the ticket for the local Haken show tomorrow night.

Like I said, what a bummer.

Damn man! I hope you have a quick recovery!!!

[cramx3]

Hard to relate Gary, the moment you said company provided car the complaints just don't seem so bad.  Sure though, the change sucks, the why might suck even more since I question how great for the earth the batteries are, and charging will also suck for those long ass drives.  But getting a free tesla and free home installation?  Mostly sounds like a huge positive. One of my big "car guy" friends just got a tesla too, he's loving it.  I think they are great cars.  I question the batteries, but I don't doubt them being good vehicles.

[gmillerdrake]

Hard to relate Gary, the moment you said company provided car the complaints just don't seem so bad.  Sure though, the change sucks, the why might suck even more since I question how great for the earth the batteries are, and charging will also suck for those long ass drives.  But getting a free tesla and free home installation?  Mostly sounds like a huge positive. One of my big "car guy" friends just got a tesla too, he's loving it.  I think they are great cars.  I question the batteries, but I don't doubt them being good vehicles.

I know....it truly isn't a 'problem' to the degree of it being something that is a massive issue. It's the inconvenience of now some of these longer days I spend driving from site to site being longer due to needing to charge or just having to spend the night at a hotel when before I could get home. Again, as I said....first world "problem" for sure but it's just the change of the way I'll now have to approach planning these site visits that 'sucks'.

[Podaar]

I don't know. It sounds to me like Gary is prioritizing the correct things, being home, coaching the youth, etc.. I'm glad his employer accommodated him.

[Indiscipline]

My wife and I own and live in a four buildings compound: one of those is a flat building (garage downstairs, rehearsals room upstairs) whose large roof we have covered with solar panels ten years ago; these panels feed the whole compound's energy system (our house, mother-in-law's house, daughter's house) for a considerable deal, and in the past (when the daughter was in uni) we've even been able to sell a bit of surplus back. Everything is sorrounded by a bit of land hosting nice trees, which my wife adores; she hugs them and talks with them sometimes. Call her crazy (she married me, after all), but it's a thing I definitely love in her, one of the 100 reasons for she is an infinitely better person than I am.

We've had some problems with both the wireless system monitoring control and the feeding system itself lately, and today it turned out our young oak is not so young anymore and it's blocking a big area of the panel structure with its branches. The technician bluntly said: "you either cut the tree (pruning the excessive lenght and branches would equal death for the plant, another specialist said) or move (and rebuild) the entire system on top of another building. To sum it up, in order to protect an investment made for exquisite enviromental concerns, we have to cut a tree.

My wife is literally crying (and tomorrow is her focking birthday) at the thought of killing a "friend", I am figuratively crying at the thought of paying for the humongous work the alternative involves, both are pissed at what will probably happen: save the tree, sell the panels.

Apologies for the long rant, but I feel mocked by the irony of it all.   

[El Barto]

Doesn't sound like it'd address the issue, but you might consider a two for one deal. Chop the tree down and replace it with two saplings (which would take decades to become a nuisance to you).

[cramx3]

I'd take down the tree, plant a few more if it makes you feel better.  Hopefully the cut tree gets put to good use with the wood.  You are trying to make use of solar panels.  I don't know if one negative towards the environment makes the positive of the solar panels OK or not, but it doesn't sound like you want to kill the tree for the sake of it.  Of course maybe the tree adds some benefit in its look that you really want to conserve.  Or maybe the cost of moving the panels isn't too bad compared to taking down a tree, but it sounds like the tree going may be the better option.

[Indiscipline]

I am partial to cutting the tree as well, just feeling awful for my wife. I also thought planting a new one was a given if not a consolation, but after some tactful dinner talk, it turns out a sapling would be actually her daughter's call, since she will be the one eventually facing the same problem once again decades from now.   

[TAC]

After you cut the tree down, you could have a nice table built with the trunk or something like that. Maybe try and do it on the down low and then amaze her with a wonderful gift,.

[Indiscipline]

That's pretty thoughtful, and it would certainly amaze her since I seldom are*. She seems on the verge of resigning to the inevitable, in fact she's actually more pissed she's getting a year older at the moment.

*That tree is so gonna feed the fireplace.

[TAC]

That's pretty thoughtful, and it would certainly amaze her since I seldom are*. She seems on the verge of resigning to the inevitable, in fact she's actually more pissed she's getting a year older at the moment.

So probably not a good time to point out that the tree is not. 

[Indiscipline]

You almost tempted me, then I thought I want to get a year older myself.

[wolfking]

Shitty situation mate either way.  Unfortunately, it seems you have no real choice.  Tim's idea is very nice, or with it meaning that much to her, what about keeping a big chunk of the trunk or a thick branch and putting a little plaque or something on it and putting it on the mantle.  That way she'll aways have a piece of it around.

[King Postwhore]

Leave the stump. Lacquer it.  Build a garden around it and it's a centerpiece where you can put anything on it, depending on the season. 

[Indiscipline]

Knowing her, a stump for the cats to whet their their claws could make her happy; knowing me, a piece of wood in the living room could absent-mindedly end right into the big wood stove.
Tomorrow I'm taking her to lunch and we'll take a decision. She's a bit emotional, still she's 59 and has seen worse.

I really appreciate everybody who's taken the time to throw me a word. 

[wolfking]

Knowing her, a stump for the cats to whet their their claws could make her happy; knowing me, a piece of wood in the living room could absent-mindedly end right into the big wood stove.
Tomorrow I'm taking her to lunch and we'll take a decision. She's a bit emotional, still she's 59 and has seen worse.

I really appreciate everybody who's taken the time to throw me a word.

   Or even in a fancy glass box with a nice plaque and certificate or authenticity and shit like that.  Females like that kind of fancy shit.

[TAC]

Me, I'd throw the cat in the wood stove..

[King Postwhore]

Me, I'd throw the cat in the wood stove..

I would snap your neck over this.

[wolfking]

Me, I'd throw the cat in the wood stove..

 

[Indiscipline]

What's with the cats, Tim?

[TAC]

They're fucking beasts that would surely kill you if they thought they could, and still eat.

[King Postwhore]

They're fucking beasts that would surely kill you if they thought they could, and still eat.

Only pussies die by a cats, paw. 

[TAC]

[King Postwhore]

You are definitely a zebra pussy.

[TAC]

You're a bully. Just like a cat.

[King Postwhore]

Cats are not bullies. Owners who don't like cats are. They feed off the dislike. 

[cramx3]

They're fucking beasts that would surely kill you if they thought they could, and still eat.

As much as I want to give you some shit, you may be right here    apparently if you die in your home with your cat and no one notices, the cat likely will eat you. A dog likely won't.

But cats are awesome, having to earn affection is not the worst thing in the world especially once its earned.