start a victory garden and ration your IRRATIONALLY ANGRY feelings, part 3

people on slack who don't ask if I have a moment or come right out and say what they want, but just say "hi ledge how are you" and wait for me to respond. this isn't a social call, get on with it.

"i'm really shitty, how are you doing?"

yes, this is a pet peeve of mine

yeah its polite and all and i appreciate the gesture as a general rule .,, but for me its almost always deployed by a salesperson trying to butter me up for some annoying ask

Do you have a moment to chat about your car's extended warranty?

I've been seriously considering buying this T-shirt, which (in case the image doesn't post) says "We've Been Trying To Reach You About Your Car's Extended Warranty" in death metal band logo font:

https://res.cloudinary.com/teepublic/image/private/s--Zyjpup0k--/t_Resized%20Artwork/c_crop,x_10,y_10/c_fit,w_461/c_crop,g_north_west,h_626,w_470,x_-5,y_-4/g_north_west,u_upload:v1462829015:production:blanks:mtl53ofohwq5goqjo9ke,x_-400,y_-329/b_rgb:eeeeee/c_limit,f_auto,h_630,q_90,w_630/v1648744056/production/designs/20898916_1.jpg

this isn't a social call, get on with it.

the thing is, the other half of the population interpret diving straight in without any preamble to be rude. you can't win man

Yeah I get the impulse for it, and I'd never launch straight into an email or call or face to face meeting without the politeness preamble so it's definitely acquired behaviour. However I can and do win when I'm the asker by putting the preamble and request in the same message, without waiting for a response.

^^^^

yeah I prefer that so if I get hit with three messages like this at once, I know the scope of what's being asked of all three and how much time it might take to answer them. if I have three messages that just say "hi Neanderthal, how are you?" waiting, and they won't tell me what they're asking until I reply, i have no idea.

I think "Neanderthal, hope you are well. I need . . . " lands much better than "I need . . ."

yeah. and that's fine! that's what I usually do too.

just do it in one message, like others have said above. or send the greeting and then send what you need shortly after ,even if I don't reply.

i hope this chat finds you lying down on your couch

building on that, I love when you have an Out of Office message on in MS Teams/Outlook, and have sent people an email a few days in advance of that saying you're going to be out, and they still private message you anyway for stuff that needs immediate attention, and keep trying to ping you when you don't reply.

I had one person REPLY to my out of office email once and get mad at me, saying "I KNOW YOU'RE OUT, Neanderthal, I'm just telling you for when you get back, GEEZ", and I had to explain to them how out of office messages work. they thought i'd manually sent it from my vacation.

I accidentally sent email to my wife's old university address where she hasn't worked in 5 and half years and I got her outlook out of office response which kind of cracked me up. It's basically "I don't work here anymore, good luck"

lately I feel like software in general is making me IA - or maybe rationally I

My Powerpoint has taken to changing whatever quantity of prints I enter to 1 before printing.

then it chuckles to itself

substack recipe for tomato soup: “put a large can of tomatoes, butter & dried herbs in a vitamix. if you blend it for 5 minutes it’ll get hot! voila! soup!“

seriously what the fuck are we doing here.
gtfoh with yr “recipe”

i’ll order a pizza

I know it's hardly novel to once again point out the complete failure that is the American healthcare system, but I'm beyond infuriated today.

Was dealing with some ongoing health stuff and my previous doctor moved, so I had to transition to a new one. That has been a pain in and of itself, but whatever. So now I'm trying to schedule an appointment to see the new doctor. Tried to do it online, but somehow it was showing that the only available openings were in January. Of 2026. Maybe real, but certainly seems to be an error. So I sent a message through the app (which is how they encourage you to reach out, btw). Two days later I finally get a phone call back, but I was in a meeting and missed it. The message gave me a number to call back to schedule an appointment.

I am currently on minute 78 of waiting on hold. Just a fucking awful system.

I mean, not only do I have to plan my sicknesses six months in advance, but I now have to block off an afternoon of work just to call to set the appointment.

just got off the phone, good lord.

couriers that don't read instructions. I hate gated communities but unfortunately I live in one. I put the gate code on the instructions, and 99% of everyone reads it, puts in the code, which rings my phone, and they get in with no problem.

there's always one moron that goes to the wrong gate or who can't figure out how to enter a series of four numbers and then want me to come out and meet them. well, if I'm ordering Uber Eats (which isn't often nowadays), it's because I'm teaching a class and need my lunch to arrive fairly close to lunch time, and physically can't drive out to the front of the gate. otherwise I wouldn't have ordered Uber Eats.

c'monnnn.

also fuck gated communities, the only people who wind up being kept out are residents who have to wait in queue behind a bunch of other people that can't work the box (or the box stops working). esp ours, which has no separate lane for residents and guests, like most do. and the gate breaks all th time anyway. just get rid of it.

When people use "ground" and "floor" interchangeably...

was really frustrating when Al Michaels informed us that Baker Mayfield was guilty of intentional flooring

"Do you need to stay home from school?"
"I don't want to."

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, March 5, 2020 9:02 AM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

What are your children???

When people use "ground" and "floor" interchangeably...

― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Friday, December 9, 2022 12:47 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol yes this is confusing at best

I had a doctor send my BP medication to a local CVS, and they were out of stock, because they're a location that's closing/moving in a month or so. They're probably not replenishing their stock for that reason - that's fine, I can get it elsewhere.

but they set it to "drug is out of stock and we can't get it" on the website, which is the setting they usually use when there's like a severe national drug shortage and don't expect to have it for months, and the site is suggesting having my prescriber prescribe me something else instead.

I figured I'd just transfer it to another CVS, but no, because of the status they set, it's marked as ineligible to transfer, and they're telling me to seek an alternative prescription.

Nobody at this location has answered any time I've called, which is understandable because this location usually only has 1-2 pharmacists on shift and they're almost always slammed, so wound up just transferring it to Walgreens.

minor annoyance long term but it's like....c'mon yo.

extremely rational imo that's bullshit

ya I'm really getting close to moving everything to Publix, cos I can walk to it, and I already get groceries there, and my dad's Rxs are all there with no issues.

That is supper annoying, and very rational for sure.

The CVS nearest me, which is super convenient and walkable, has turned into an absolute shitshow in recent months. Even when they aren't visibly slammed, the pharmacists are surly, rude and confrontational. At first I was wiling to give them some benefit of the doubt, I'm sure getting yelled at by frustrated sick people all the time wears on you, but it's just so... constant with the surly attitude that I kinda dread going in there. They've also managed to somehow fuck up refills about 40% of the time, most recently leading my wife to being without anxiety medication during a very trying time for her.

Neanderthal, I feel you. My CVS cut their pharmacy hours from 8-8 to 8-2. Of course, I couldn't get anyone on the phone even when they were there. Ended up going Saturday morning and the drive-thru line was bonkers. Sat there for 30 minutes. Still better than Walgreens though who take your prescription but don't fill it for WEEKS, if you're lucky enough to get it filled at all. I've also sat in a Walgreens line for well over an hour. They also refuse to transfer. I've had to call back my doc and ask them to send it elsewhere multiple times.

fortunately Walgreens filled mine yesterday after I sent transfer (which is frankly amazing, as they routinely ignore online transfer requests - I usually have to submit 3 times)

Amazing

I remember one time, my insurance only took Walgreens and other standalone pharmacies, no other majors, so I was kind of stuck with the devil I knew, and unfortunately, they didn't fill my anxiety prescription until the day before an out of town trip, and the pharmacy closed at a time I couldn't get to them by due to work. I tried multiple times to transfer it to another Walgreens that was open later, and finally they called me and said .

next morning arrives, I'm going out of town for the weekend for my best friend's wedding, and frantically trying to send it to a Walgreens on our route. that didn't work, so I just resigned myself that I'd be without for one day, and found one within 5 miles of our AirBNB, and they finally called me and responded that they'd take care of it the next morning.

i do mail order/delivery now for that one now, lol

If the pharmacy's closed, just get the cashier staff to grab your prescription. They don't mind.

wait is that a thing?

I believe that was sarcasm.

Dudes in flak jackets will descend out of the ceiling panels if you try that.

Neanderthal's experience was very similar to mine yesterday, when the first two McDonald's I went to were out of shamrock shakes, and I had to go to a third.

Let's do a national marketing campaign for a drink where the machines that make the product don't work in 99% of our stores. Also, the drink is green.

I don't even think we have those down here.

irking me today is people who get vocally angry about the scalping of concert tickets, video games, or sneakers, but somehow fail to see any meaningful parallels with healthcare, housing, or food.

most of all, though, i feel i've let myself and others down by being yet another poster who puts something rationally angry in the IA. although i suppose that's something we can all get IA about.

in the IA thread*

you are otm though

Package "delivered" to my development group mailbox 2.5 hrs ago. Checked my mailbox and no package. Online tracking form says give it 24 hrs before reporting (assuming a trust in people walking wrongly delivered mail to the right house? which I've done in the past here, so logical, I guess)

Not that this Zebra cd is a critical delivery (although ... Zebra!), but tired of being defensive for the USPS under DeJoy, and yet having intermittent delivery failure and delivery dread on anything ordered. Almost a Seinfeldian reservations rant, re: the implicit trust in having a package smoothly delivered, watching the delivery status daily, and being disappointed at the end.

My parents, living on an island in the Pac NW, talk about FedEx drivers seemingly randomizing their deliveries (packages left on ferry terminal, in the island-side ferry shelter, at the top of lanes for the houses at end, etc.). And personally, Amazon deliveries are hit or miss re: leaving items leaning against my back garage or making an effort to put it out of general sight on the front porch. Easier just to specify Amazon dropbox delivering to the local Walgreens pharmacy.

Maybe this is rational annoyance, but feels irrational in that I'll probably get the disc in a few days and really, immediate gratification isn't an issue.

I suspect that, in addition to some legitimate cases of human/machine error, that some mail carriers are intentionally marking items delivered before they're delivered, to try and meet whatever draconian mail delivery metrics are in place, that they can't realistically meet due to DeJoy's kneecapping of the USPS. if that's the case, I can't say I blame em, but depending on the package, can be fairly stressful.

my brother's engagement ring was marked 'delivered' AND marked as signed for when I was housesitting for him, but nobody had left anything or come to the door. i eventually found the mailman who produced the package minutes later when I asked about it, ending my brother's brief panic attack.

Yep, agreed - setting unrealistic metrics does drive error. I'd rather wait a day for a package, than stress over an incorrect delivered status.

Locally, USPS has notified our various HOAs that thieves have duplicated group mailbox passkeys, which adds an additional layer of stress.