Category: Annoyances

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Finally Back!

Got back to my mountain late yesterday.

I am beat. I’ve got laundry running, the car is filthy and there’s rain and snow predicted for this week. Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch up on chores around the house before Winter really sets in.

On the plus side, since I was traveling across time zones during the few days leading up to DST. That doesn’t seem to have hit me as hard as usual. I don’t know what time it is and haven’t known the time for at least the past two weeks.

Election Day is tomorrow, I specifically told the family that I needed to be back to vote, (A little white lie…). I’ll be voting in person and producing my ID even though it is not required. I want to make a statement. My statement will be ignored, but at least I’ll sleep secure in the knowledge that I made it.

Driving across country is always enlightening. When I left California, I made sure that I bought only enough gas to get me across the border to Arizona. 50 miles over the border, I filled my tank with 93 Octane for 4.50 a gallon. An immediate savings of about 2.00 and my car gave me a range of over 550 miles with that fuel blend. When the computer in the car said that was my estimated range I thought something was wrong. In California with their 91 Octane blend, I’m lucky to get 380 miles per tank. As it turns out, the computer was correct. 500 miles later I stopped to refuel.

Tell me again, how shitty gas saves the environment? It seems to me if you go further using less fuel and that fuel is burning efficiently that you’re doing more for the environment. Less drilling, less emissions, lower costs. But I’m just one of the unwashed morons what do I know?

When I got to Florida the Octane was still 93 and the cost per gallon was 3.80 The Floridians were complaining about the cost of fuel and I just smiled. There was one guy who saw my smile, I pointed at the California Plates on my car and shrugged. The man laughed and said, “I guess it’s a matter of perspective.”

I’ve also decided that TX is not for me as a possible place to escape the insanity of California. Every single time I’ve driven through TX, they seem to have more roads torn up than actually in good repair. Houston, Dallas/FtWorth, San Antonio, even Amarillo are terrible. 

Coming back to California, the last 30 miles of the I-10 in Louisiana all the way through Houston was a solid mess of construction, and traffic jams that were worse than Los Angeles at rush hour. San Antonio was a shit show and by the time I got there all I wanted was to find a straight country road to take me off I-10. I easily lost a day of travel just because of poor traffic management due to construction.

New Mexico, I blew through both directions. Last year they were still doing all the bullshit covid masking kabuki theater when I went through, and this year there was still some evidence of that. Plus their gas prices were noticeably higher than either Arizona or Texas which leads me to believe they’ve got some dumbass state taxes on the books that, like California aren’t being used to keep their roads in good repair. Fortunately, the gas range on the car meant that I only had to stop once. 

Texas may always have roads torn up, but at least there aren’t potholes that you could lose a city bus in. New Mexico on the other hand…

Most of Arizona is also out of the running for me personally as a retirement location. There are some very pretty places in Arizona. I’m fond of Flagstaff and the surrounding area. Coming through Tuscon and Phoenix felt like I was already back in California, just further from the beach. Flagstaff is a maybe, the rest of AZ not so much.

The sad part of the trip for me was that I’ve been driving across country for years. I can remember when the I-10 was a smooth ribbon of concrete. You’d often notice you were in another state because the road surface itself was a slightly different color. In Arizona for example, the I-10 had a reddish color I always thought that color was because of the color of the sand from the state. Now all the roads are gray and nondescript. What variations there are now, are from tar patches filling in the potholes. 

Approaching the California border there seemed to be a lot of U-Hauls heading East. Doing 70 behind a long line of 18 wheelers I wondered if those people apparently leaving would remember to leave their California attitudes behind or would they recreate the same conditions that led them to leave California at their destinations. 

I suppose only time will tell.

When I finally get to leave California for the last time, I’ll be sad. But I will do my best to leave all the California bullshit politics, bad ideas, and baggage at the border.

Bad ideas aren’t a crime, not recognizing a bad idea and continuing to double down on something that isn’t working is a crime. California seems to have done a lot of doubling down and not a lot of introspection.

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Okay here’s a little timesaver. Consider it a PSA.

Paypalflames

The other half has a PayPal account, they also had a PayPal credit account.

On both accounts, the balances are zero, and have been for quite some time.

Based on the now retracted misinformation that PayPal sent out over the weekend, the other half decided to close the PayPal account(s) totally.

The logic here is that PayPal sent out an updated AUP which had all the language in full legalese. The other half looks at this as clear intent. This was not a mistake, as PayPal wants to frame it. This updated policy went through PayPal’s legal folks, it went through innumerable reviews and revisions and was then sent out.

No-one who has ever worked in corporate America, specifically in the software industry is ever going to believe that the changes to PayPal’s policy were a mistake, or a typo, or whatever.

Based on that knowledge, the other half decided to cut all ties with PayPal because this “misinformation” that PayPal sent out demonstrates clearly malicious intent.

The other half spent 3+ hours being bounced around PayPal trying to close the accounts. They were successful in closing the credit account. But were then transferred back to the actual PayPal people who said that the credit card was still open.

The other half gave the folks at PayPal the confirmation number indicating that the credit account was closed but the PayPal girl couldn’t confirm that even with a confirmation number. So what good is the confirmation number?

Back to the PayPal credit folks the other half is transferred. Once again a happy people personality phone system must be navigated. 

Once again there are endless recordings about working with the account online. Once again back at the credit part of PayPal it’s confirmed that the credit account is closed.

Then back to the PayPal idiots and this time the other half cuts through all the bullshit about how the updated policy was misinformation, gives the confirmation number again proving that the credit account is closed and is finally told, “Oh, you have to wait two days after closing the credit account before we can close your PayPal account.

At this point, the other half is quite heated, and points out that had someone told them that an hour and a half ago it would have been nice.

Then the other half goes for the kill.

“Since your updated policy is now classified as misinformation when can I expect my $2500? And since the person from your company I spoke with who transferred me back to the credit folks also gave me misinformation shouldn’t I be getting $5000?

The silence on the other end of the phone was deafening. The poor lady probably had heard the line about paying the customer for PayPal’s misinformation endlessly over the past few days, but I’m not sure she’d heard the additional $2500 being asked for, because their call center gave out misinformation about closing the account.

So for those of you who are rightfully trying to close PayPal accounts.

Step One, Close the credit account. 

Step Two, wait two full banking days.

Step Three, go online or call these people up and close the PayPal part of the account.

When I closed my PayPal account several years ago, I was told that the account would take 30 days to actually close. Since there was no money in the account I didn’t care, but I’d bet that you’re going to be waiting a month for your money if you have a balance in your PayPal account.

If you call, be prepared for them to tell you it was all a mistake over and over again. At one point the person the other half was talking to offered $15.00 cash to keep the account open. 

Yes folks, PayPal values you that much… A whole $15.00!

The other half told the call center person that was insulting and suggested instead adding a couple of zeros to the amount.

I think we should send PayPal an invoice for $5015.00 or perhaps for $6500.00 to be fair.

Get out of PayPal folks. It’s going to take patience and perseverance and these people will run you in little circles but in the long run seeing them go down in flames will probably be a beautiful sight.

I guess if you’ve got stock in PayPal you might want to sell it quick.

Just a little update 11/7/2022:

It turns out that PayPal has in fact instituted their 2500.00 fine for misinformation. Apparently they slid it in with stealth, like a bastard who lets their date see them put a condom on, then stealthily pulls the condom off before penetration.

This comes after PayPal Customer Service repeatedly told the other half that PayPal wasn’t going to charge anyone 2500.00.

So PayPal LIED! Isn’t that misinformation? Does that mean I could legitimately send PayPal an invoice for 5000.00? They spread misinformation TWICE! Once when they said they weren’t going to impose this ridiculous fine and now they have. By my calculation, that’s two incidents of misinformation.

PayPal caused me grievous harm lying like they have. I’ve been triggered! My little heard hurts! I’m so offended!

Yeah, I know…

I’m going to be whistling for that money.

It does highlight the hypocrisy of the left. This is one of those glaring examples of “Our Betters” getting away with exactly what they tell us is an offense.

We live in bizzaro world. Everything the left tells us is true, turns out to be almost exactly 180 degrees from the truth.

It’s time to call these asshole out, every time, on every thing, they say.

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Oh Boy, Third Strike and I’m out!

I’ve written and discarded three blog posts today.

RonDeSantis

Im settling on this one come hell or high water!

I’ve been keeping a close eye on hurricane Ian. I have family throughout Florida including in the Ft Meyers area.

My family has said that for the past week or more Governor DeSantis has been on the local news stations providing instructions, detailing plans, and telling folks not to panic but to do commonsense things that anyone who’s ever been through a hurricane knows should be done.

Politico, Jackasses on The View, CNN, and morons in Washington D.C have totally pissed me off with their bullshit trying to say a hurricane is caused by global warming and that somehow DeSantis is at fault.

Uh NO! If you subscribe to the theory that Climate Change over the past 100 years is responsible for major storms then DeSantis sucking the cock of the Climate Change folks over the past few years wouldn’t have stopped hurricane Ian.

It’s a slow cumulative process that’s taken 100 years to create. If you were to somehow magically be able to undo all the effects of Climate Change instantly… You’d create devastating storms and more Climate Change because you instantly changed the planetary climate conditions.

What do you think happened with the extinction of the dinosaurs? Big rock from space hits the planet. The impact and heat transferred to the ocean caused tons of debris and vaporized the ocean in or near what is now the Gulf of Mexico. Rain, darkness, debris, and ash blocked out the sun. After that it was only a matter of time before the planet’s atmosphere cooled possibly triggering a kind of extended winter, followed by an ice age and poof dinosaurs died off.

That’s what happens when you radically alter an environmental system.

When the volcano on Krakatoa blew, there was enough dust thrown into the atmosphere that it apparently caused shorter growing seasons in Europe and the Thames in London froze in Winter for several years.

Tell me again how DeSantis kowtowing to Climate Change activists would have prevented a hurricane…

AmyKlobuchar

Then there’s that moron from MN Amy Klobuchar who suggests that voting Democrat would have had effect on hurricane Ian.

Either the Democrats. Have weather control technology and have been using it to destroy those who disagree with them, or Klobuchar is admitting she and the Democrat party are the single largest coven of evil witches ever seen.

The more likely explanation is that she’s just a moron. Although it might be fun to take all the democrat party in Washington and give them the Witch test. Tying them up and tossing them in the Potomac to see who floated might be good for a laugh. Nah, I wouldn’t want to pollute the Potomac with that much festering human refuse.

The shrews on The View are no better, and Joy Reid is quite possibly the dumbest person on TV.

She’s such a well informed climatologist she can make the statement, “There’s no doubt climate change is responsible for Ian”. Wow Joy! I didn’t know you could read much less that you were a climatologist.

JoyReid

Don Lemon on CNN morning (No longer a prime time Anchor) Had the audacity to try to back a real meteorologist Jamie Rhome into a corner about climate change during an interview while Ian was making landfall in Florida.

Even after Dumbass Don got politely shutdown by Rhome, Lemon tried again to have Rhome connect Ian to climate change, forcing Rhome into a more strenuous shutdown, Lemon had to have the last word saying, “I grew up there and the storms are getting stronger.”

Well Don Florida is much better off without you living there. It wouldn’t surprise me to discover that you were one of the people who created the “Hanging Chad” voting debacle.

This was almost as funny as Dumbass Don being roasted by royal commentator Hilary Fordwich over reparations when he pushed that issue during his coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.

Ms. Fordwich was properly British and smoked Lemon without raising her voice. It was epic, the link is here and funny to watch.

CNN Royal Correspondent Tells Don Lemon Reparations Should Be Paid for Slavery By Africans 640x335 2828689854

The thing is, this season in Florida is called Hurricane Season for a reason. It’s a yearly event, it’s been happening forever and most folks throughout the Caribbean are familiar with it.

Some years you get a lot of little storms, some years you get a couple of major storms. It’s the luck of the draw.

Old timers in Florida try not to look a gift horse in the mouth if the hurricane season passes with one or two minor storms, but they’ll tell you if you ask, they worry about “paying the piper” the next year with a major storm.

Anyway, every time I started to write something I’d get distracted by the stupidity of some other moron.

But the one that really pissed me off was President Biden.

Grandstanding as he was in the D.C. FEMA office was obscene. Although I did enjoy the look the guy behind Sleepy Joe’s left shoulder had.

BidenatFEMA

There was absolutely nothing Joe could offer being in the FEMA office. The odds are that his presence significantly disrupted those folks working day.

In other words, Dementia Joe slowed down their progress at getting needed resources out of warehouses and moving toward the area they are needed.

Sort of like him bloviating at a major airport during one of the recent air traffic snarls and because of him being there to run his mouth, he added to the problem by having that part of the airport shut down.

We got another dose of angry Joe, when he said that he was going to be watching the gas prices in Florida very closely and threatened the gas stations not to gouge the consumers.

I found this particularly annoying since in California, 3000 miles away from the hurricane. The gas prices rose .16 cents overnight. If that’s not gouging sleepy Joe, I don’t know what is.

Mayorkis running his mouth wasn’t adding anything either.

I think DeSantis has probably done everything pretty darn close to right. I think that when Florida does the “After Action Review” they’ll find some things that could have been done better and then implement what they learn so that the next hurricane they’ll handle better. That’s a marked contrast to the Biden Administration and the Democrat party who never learns anything new except how to fuck over the American people.

Lemon, Reid, Klobuchar, Biden, Mayorkis, and the vicious harpies on The View, are a bunch of jackasses and they cannot be removed from their positions too fucking soon!