Randomness XVIII: Ex-Vee-Triple-Eye

[Chaoswolf]

[kristof65]

Last week, I spent 12 hours driving to KY for a one day install that turned into a two day install, then drove 12 hours back. Spent the weekend with family, AND got a 45 minute call from my boy in boot camp. Dreaded going back to work this morning. There surprisingly weren't any huge fires to put out today, despite being out of the office all last week. 

But somewhere in all that, I lost my hobbying mojo. I've sat down at my painting desk several times since getting back, and have only managed to fill some gaps with putty. 

[Green Eyed Monsty]

I'm baaack!

Oy what a long day.

895 miles between midnight last and shortly after 8PM our time.

Running around Victorville/Apple Valley area all morning.

I could definitely have done without the encounter with the guy who claims he pwns the storage place where we still have some stuff stashed.  He says he's an ex-marine, extremely confrontational [as in ticking PTSD Time Bomb ready to go off] and hee makes every derogatory use of the term "Jarhead" seem much to mild.

The nice lady who has been incredibly stressed out for several months seems to have disappeared, to be replaced by a circa 19 year old snowflake who turned into a quivering mass of protoplasm when I demanded answers for ~why~ I couldn't pay my storage bill today.  They've torn the office completely apart to "remodel", including removing all the office equipment and computer, so basically a bomb has gone off and destroyed the ability of the business to actually conduct business.

What's wrong with this picture?

Tomorrow I need to find a local lawyer to write at lest one letter explaining to the jarhead that my favorite weapon when challenged to a fight is a Lawyer, the money he is expecting is going to go into an escrow account until he can demonstrate that the technology he insists is working perfectly is fixed so that it actually functions [it can't find the account so I can make a payment over the phone, probably because the local computer with all the information has been unplugged and stashed in a box somewhere]  And he's going to find out that getting hit over the head with a lawyer can be ever so much more painful than a punch in the snoot.

Other than this little contretemps, the trip went pretty smooth.

Among other goodies I have a small boulder in the bed of my truck that is a very dense rock matrix, riddled with small nuggets of  turquoise.  It's going to be rock garden material for now.

GEM

Addendum:  A few minutes to tidy up my Forge of Empires game and then I'm going to do a face plant on the bed for about 12 hours or so.

-

Another Addendum:  Almost forgot.  I got a call for the latest phone scam about 20 minutes out from home.

"Your Electric Company" was calling stating that my electricity was going to be turned off in a few minutes, as they had made "numerous attempts" to contact me.  -  -  -  at which point I hung up, knowing I paid that bill in full just last week and won't have another bill due until sometime in October and "Your Electric Company" has a distinctive and recognizable name know to both them and me, but evidently not to the scammers.

Edited September 14, 2021 by Green Eyed Monsty
Tentacles, so many Tentacles

[ManvsMini]

9 hours ago, ManvsMini said:

10 hours ago, Kuroneko said:

Did I ever use the word "drookit" here on the forums?

 

Yes, yes you have, it's on my list! 🙂 As are the following, which I shall now use to describe that food you posted:

 

That looks like some gie braw scran, and if I had it in front of me I'd be gutsing until it was all gone... or until I boaked.

 

Tsk tsk, those of you using the confused face emoji. Clearly you haven't been paying attention for the past year+ when @Kuroneko gives Scottish vocab/slang lessons (mostly in the previous Randomness thread).

 

A refresher, so that it will make sense to you:

gie braw scran = good food

gutsing = gorging, or pigging out

boak = to vomit

drookit = drenched or soaked

5 hours ago, Chaoswolf said:

I must've gotten lucky then. It rained (not quite that bad ^^^) the first morning we there, but it was nice for the other 3 days.

 

Stop looking for them. Forget about them. Look for something else, instead. 

You should come across them in 5-10 minutes.

 

I started in the hobby/storage room after feeding Molly and Dixie, found them in an nondescript box.

[Chaoswolf]

6 hours ago, ManvsMini said:

11 hours ago, Chaoswolf said:

I must've gotten lucky then. It rained (not quite that bad ^^^) the first morning we there, but it was nice for the other 3 days.

 

Stop looking for them. Forget about them. Look for something else, instead. 

You should come across them in 5-10 minutes.

 

I started in the hobby/storage room after feeding Molly and Dixie, found them in an nondescript box.

I'm helping!!

[ManvsMini]

Tuesday Timeline Trivia for September 14th:

• 1752 – The British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days (the previous day was September 2).

• 1984 – Joe Kittinger became the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

• 2015 – The first observation of gravitational waves was made by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations.

[Kangaroorex]

@Green Eyed Monsty  sorry to hear you have had so much fun.  You have a first for me though.  I never heard of a storage place that wouldnt take money.  Lose it later perhaps, but never one that wouldnt take it ...

 

@Kuroneko  The gods of Scottish weather also have a soft spot for me:  I have been to Scotland on business about 5 times in the last 10 years and every time I have had at most 1 or 2 rainy days, the rest were sun and stunning beauty.

 

 

And if anyone cares to wish me luck, I have a CT scan evaluation today.  Probably going to be bothersome but not critical news but I could use some good vibes...

[Cygnwulf]

15 hours ago, PaganMegan said:

Eberron Air Skiff Races?

 

Ran across some 3D printable "Racing Skiffs" and realized that might be a sport in Eberron, among the monied class.

 

Snooty yacht racing jerks, taking to the skies!

 

And maybe a Flywayman, living the life, on other peoples wealth.

 

Well... you just gave me another story arc idea for the Eberron game I'm brewing.  I have this idea to have the party be kind of a BPRD division of the King's Citidel, they're the guys sent out to remove with that weird magical whatnot that escaped from the Mournland, or secure the cursed artifact brought back from Xen'Drik that's turned the mousy professor into Mr. Hyde, and stamp out the infestation of brain slugs in Towerfall that are plotting a government takeover.  And now, we have gremlins that keep causing racing skiffs to fly out of control and crash into towers.

[kristof65]

<sigh>  So about 30 minutes after I left work on Friday, Sep 3rd, one of my local customers with a 23 year old teller emails us saying that someone attempted to break into his teller and asked for parts.  Here's a look at the majority of the damage:

 

Basically, they tried to pry their way in through the change return cup. As you can see, they did considerable damage to the surrounding sheet metal.  The tech who was covering for me at the time told them that while we could probably source a new change return cup because it was an off the shelf item that is still manufactured, we can't do anything about the sheet metal for the door, as that model was discontinued in 2000, and we haven't had any replacement doors for it since 2005 or so. 

Apparently unsatisfied with that answer, he called in to talk to me sometime the next week, and was told by the receptionist that I was out of the office until today. 

So an email was in my inbox this morning from him asking for parts to repair his teller, and that "Calgary wasn't helpful." 

I've been telling this same customer for at least 5 years now that replacing his teller was going to be a matter of when not if this day comes.

I did give him the part number of the off the shelf item as I had it handy, my guess is that he'll find a source for it, and kluge together a repair, then complain about something else not working right that I'll trace back to the kluged repair.  
 

[Green Eyed Monsty]

6 minutes ago, kristof65 said:

<sigh>  So about 30 minutes after I left work on Friday, Sep 3rd, one of my local customers with a 23 year old teller emails us saying that someone attempted to break into his teller and asked for parts.  Here's a look at the majority of the damage:

 

Basically, they tried to pry their way in through the change return cup. As you can see, they did considerable damage to the surrounding sheet metal.  The tech who was covering for me at the time told them that while we could probably source a new change return cup because it was an off the shelf item that is still manufactured, we can't do anything about the sheet metal for the door, as that model was discontinued in 2000, and we haven't had any replacement doors for it since 2005 or so. 

Apparently unsatisfied with that answer, he called in to talk to me sometime the next week, and was told by the receptionist that I was out of the office until today. 

So an email was in my inbox this morning from him asking for parts to repair his teller, and that "Calgary wasn't helpful." 

I've been telling this same customer for at least 5 years now that replacing his teller was going to be a matter of when not if this day comes.

I did give him the part number of the off the shelf item as I had it handy, my guess is that he'll find a source for it, and kluge together a repair, then complain about something else not working right that I'll trace back to the kluged repair.  
 

As long as the sheet metal damage doesn't affect the door hinge or locking mechanism he can probably have a local sheet metal shop fabricate a plate to bolt over the damaged area, after cutting out all the damaged/deformed metal.  It will be pricey and the equipment is going to be out of commission for however long it takes for the local shop to do the work.

It will take considerable time with a tech looking over their shoulder for the sheet metal people to remove the damaged area, the tech being needed so the "hammer slammers" don't damage/destroy any of the internal workings while they are doing their work.

Factoring in the down time while the fabrication work is done it may actually be cheaper to remove the obsolete equipment and just replace it with all new kit.

Used to see this kind of destruction on occasion when I was in vending/coin-op equipment.  One of the reasons why I finally got out of the business, as it was becoming increasingly stressful dealing with the ever escalating levels of damage to [my] equipment.

You might want to suggest to the guy that a vibration alarm would be a prudent investment to keep the damage down next time.  And in my experience, there is almost always a next time once a location has this level of destruction occur one time.

GEM

[Inarah]

12 hours ago, kristof65 said:

But somewhere in all that, I lost my hobbying mojo. I've sat down at my painting desk several times since getting back, and have only managed to fill some gaps with putty. 

 

That's progress!  Next time you sit down to paint you won't have to waste time with putty. 

 

10 hours ago, Green Eyed Monsty said:

Another Addendum:  Almost forgot.  I got a call for the latest phone scam about 20 minutes out from home.

 

 

My best technique (aside from hanging up laughing) is to not answer until the phone has rung 5 times.  At that point auto-dialers and scammers mostly hang up.  A real person will wait that long to talk to you.  Anyone who can't wait ten seconds is probably not anyone you wanted to talk to anyway. 

 

1 hour ago, Kangaroorex said:

And if anyone cares to wish me luck, I have a CT scan evaluation today.  Probably going to be bothersome but not critical news but I could use some good vibes...

 

Hope it goes quickly and the results are promising. 

 

[Kangaroorex]

23 minutes ago, Inarah said:

Hope it goes quickly and the results are promising. 

 

Me too! . Have my doubts though.  I will call it a win if the thing hasn't spread.

[Kuroneko]

10 hours ago, ManvsMini said:

 

Tsk tsk, those of you using the confused face emoji. Clearly you haven't been paying attention for the past year+ when @Kuroneko gives Scottish vocab/slang lessons (mostly in the previous Randomness thread).

 

A refresher, so that it will make sense to you:

gie braw scran = good food

gutsing = gorging, or pigging out

boak = to vomit

drookit = drenched or soaked

 

At least someone is paying attention!

 

This was sunny Scotland today, it was absolutely bucketin' doon, I can only assume that @Chaoswolf and @Kangaroorex are obviously stealing all our good weather!

 

 

Best of luck @Kangaroorex! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you. I've got a bunch of scans at the end of the month and I just want them to be done already.

[Green Eyed Monsty]

2 hours ago, Kangaroorex said:

@Green Eyed Monsty  sorry to hear you have had so much fun.  You have a first for me though.  I never heard of a storage place that wouldnt take money.  Lose it later perhaps, but never one that wouldnt take it ...

 

@Kuroneko  The gods of Scottish weather also have a soft spot for me:  I have been to Scotland on business about 5 times in the last 10 years and every time I have had at most 1 or 2 rainy days, the rest were sun and stunning beauty.

 

 

And if anyone cares to wish me luck, I have a CT scan evaluation today.  Probably going to be bothersome but not critical news but I could use some good vibes...

Starting in January when the neighbors idiot daughter backed into my truck, this year has been "interesting".

As for the storage place, the guy is flat out unhinged mentally.

Hoping and praying for the best possible outcome from your scans.

GEM

[kristof65]

53 minutes ago, Green Eyed Monsty said:

As long as the sheet metal damage doesn't affect the door hinge or locking mechanism he can probably have a local sheet metal shop fabricate a plate to bolt over the damaged area, after cutting out all the damaged/deformed metal.  It will be pricey and the equipment is going to be out of commission for however long it takes for the local shop to do the work.

It will take considerable time with a tech looking over their shoulder for the sheet metal people to remove the damaged area, the tech being needed so the "hammer slammers" don't damage/destroy any of the internal workings while they are doing their work.

Factoring in the down time while the fabrication work is done it may actually be cheaper to remove the obsolete equipment and just replace it with all new kit.

Used to see this kind of destruction on occasion when I was in vending/coin-op equipment.  One of the reasons why I finally got out of the business, as it was becoming increasingly stressful dealing with the ever escalating levels of damage to [my] equipment.

You might want to suggest to the guy that a vibration alarm would be a prudent investment to keep the damage down next time.  And in my experience, there is almost always a next time once a location has this level of destruction occur one time.

GEM

Said tech would be me - minimum charge for travel time and labor necessary just to get it ready for someone to bang and weld on would be $500, then another $500 to put it all back together. 
And given how old the teller is, there is a good chance that it might not work again after all of that is done - there are dozens of wires that would have to be disconnected - with their age, it's a good possibility that some of them are brittle enough to break from the stress of unwiring/rewiring them.

And you're absolutely right about it happening again. This site suffered multiple break ins on their self serve equipment until they finally removed the bill validators from the bay boxes.  The guy that did that was caught earlier this year - he hit their site and several more.  Things have been quiet for the last 6-7 months, and then this. My guess is that the guy did 6 months in jail for the previous crimes and is back out again. 

 

 

To further add to my frustrations today, I had a training appointment booked this morning with a site owner and his manager.  Three weeks ago, when the appointment was booked, the sales guy made a huge deal about it needing to happen by this week.  Today was (at the time) the only day I could do it.   Called the customer for the training, and got the site manager. She knew nothing about the training, and couldn't get ahold of the owner.   And this is after several other issues with getting this site's training scheduled. Last time, the sales guy scheduled it without consulting with me at all, then called me up on the day of the training asking why I hadn't called them yet.  Which was because a) he never asked me, he just set it up two days earleir, therefore I didn't know about it and b) because I was on another customer's site doing an installation. 

I know exactly what is going to happen now, too - the next time this owner talks to our sales guy, he's going to complain about the lack of training.