I get phone calls of “What is wrong, what will it cost, and how long will it take?” without me even seeing the device. I refuse to provide an estimate over the phone at this point. I get them wrong almost every time because I do not know what is wrong and the owner gets all pissed when you tell them what is really wrong and how much it costs. I had one want me to replace the power button on a laptop once because it wouldn’t turn on. Well, I come to find out that it wouldn’t turn on because the motherboard was fried and that isn’t cheap. This would be like telling the mechanic to replace your ignition switch because the engine won’t start, only to have them find out the engine is locked up!
Mechanics get the people who tell them to replace X part because they diagnosed that as the problem using the code reader at Autozone. They tell them to do nothing else such as diagnosing the real problem because it isn’t needed and don’t want to pay extra. They are then all mad and threaten when this doesn’t fix the problem.
@oldtimer_1 Reminds me of a story I heard many years ago in idaho i don’t know if it true or not, Trucker cruising down interstate minding his own business when crop duster plane misjudged & comes in to low & landing gear takes out top of trailer, If true I would like to see that accident report,
On the “we’re trying to be like Starbucks” stuff yes, but the pot of plain black coffee is still nuclear. At least around here.
It’s an epidemic where I live. I almost never get a green where I don’t have to wait for the 2, 3, or sometimes 5 cars to fly through the red before I can safely go. And the cops don’t do much of anything about it either.
Many of the cop shops around here conned their city into installing these blue lights on the stoplights. A cop can watch the blue light so that he can tell what color the traffic signal that’s facing away from him is, which makes it easier to catch red light runners. So they spent all that money installing these things and… I never see a cop using them.
Watched some old lady in a Buick almost get creamed by a scrap yard truck running a red light and doing at least 20 over the limit the other day. Something’s gonna have to be done to address this issue, but cops seem more interested in targeting people doing 10mph over on the interstate.
One of the benefits of having jury duty is to know which lawyers you would not hire. The worst one I ever saw happened to be the son of a judge.
I do think though that most small businesses have their unofficial list of chiselers and for those people, the job is just too complicated, just can’t work it into the schedule this year, and so on. Best to not show anger but just fail to meet their needs for the job. Eventually they end up in a wider mileage circle finding someone unsuspecting to do work for them.
A few days ago, I observed a NJ State Trooper purposely tailgating one of the typically oblivious NY drivers who had decided that the left lane of I-78 was a dandy place to hang out, driving the exact same speed as the car in the center lane. It took almost 10 minutes before the typically oblivious NY driver noticed the Chevy Tahoe with police ID in his mirror, and pulled over. I assumed that the cop would pull him over to ticket him for this moving offense (failure to keep right), but the cop just blasted past him and kept going–until he spotted somebody speeding.
So, it does appear than the truly dangerous drivers are often being ignored, but the guys who drive a bit over the speed limit are being ticketed.
I have driven all over–in various parts of The US–and I have never encountered as many overly aggressive, hostile, drivers as I find in the Boston area, every time that I go there.
I had an incident pulling onto the highway once. A Porsche 911 was behind my and tried to pull onto the highway before me and cut me off. I kept moving to the left and made him brake to prevent hitting me. Why he didn’t pull into the left lane is a mystery. Anyway, he did pull around and then infornt of me where he immediately hit the brakes trying to force me to hit him. That didn’t work. He tried again and it didn’t work. They he just drove off. If I had hit him and there were witnesses, I imagine he would not only have been at fault but would have lost his license.
To slightly veer off topic, 17 inches of snow for you folks out east is a lot of snow-even for Minnesota. So take it easy out there the next couple of days, and good luck.
Here in the rolling hills of rural Central NJ, we only got ~6-7 inches. By contrast, NYC and coastal Long Island to the East got 13-18 inches.
I was able to clear my driveway fairly easily, even though the extreme “wetness” of the snow impeded my efforts to some extent.
My only fear at this point is the re-freeze of cleared areas, as the temp tonight will drop to about 15.
Yesterday, it was in the '60s, and as late as 1:00 this morning, it was still 45 degrees in this area!
You can thank Climate Change for these radical temperature changes and for the new phenomenon of coastal areas getting significantly more snow than inland areas.
I don’t know about that one but there was a guy driving down I-5 by the Miramar Naval Air Station that was T-boned by an F-14. He lived but the aircrew of the Tomcat died.
…and, their “T” system is pretty good. Once I get to my hotel, my car stays put until I am ready to leave the city, and I use the “T” for all of my travel in and around Boston.
Haha too weird and lawyers try to get out of anything, even with their kids backs into a parked car, other side of the road … because it was parked facing the wrong direction! He settled …
In Texas, no one rear ended is at fault that’s why the windshields are so big for visability going forward … although my wife was not selected for that jury b/c she couldn’t think of a single reason why the rear ender-er could be innocent + her excellent HS training - that no longer exisits these days.
Another Texas excuse was “obstructing the road” (they were stopped) as if they needed to explain WHY stopped
New Law:
I suggest that anyone wishing a jury trial disturbing so many people - some self employed, so total loss of income - shoud have to pay each juror their normal wages, including travel and time spent on top of everything else they are wasting in taxes & court time. Anyone with me on that?
