TICTH the Royal Mail driver who "didn't see" my daughter's car in virtually stationary traffic on the M4 last night. He was, unsurprisingly, trying to squeeze in where two lanes become one. The car behind flashed him to move in and the (expletive deleted) driver moved in without looking ahead. No damage to her, beyond shock, but her car take a bit of a smack.
I could have posted this on the "Share the road" thread but tbh 40 tonners shouldn't be on the road anyway.
Hmm. I'm not entirely happy with this widespread habit of 'flashing'.
By all means, hold back to give room to let someone in, but, if you 'flash' him, you may be partly responsible for the accident that ensues. If you don't 'flash, it's entirely down to the other bloke...
I am losing the will to live. I had to ring 3 government departments in one day.
The third, Inland Revenue (tax) merely said they weren't taking calls as they were too busy and referred me to The.Worst. Website. in the know universe!
The National Broadband Nightmare. I've spoken to my ISP's support staff more times in the 6 months since converting than I had in the previous 8 and a half years.
Due here a year ago, still nine months off. Probably more. Suburbs around son on Central Coast were all connected while his little village all had hardware fitted waiting for 17 months..An IT professional, he hates it, slow, drops out and more.
I am not looking forward to it. My ISP has been wonderful for the seven years I have been here.
I don't get migraines as such, but I get the (mercifully) occasional cluster of headaches and would agree that they should be condemned to one of the deepest parts of Hell.
TICTH the driver who ran down my cousin, and drove away without stopping.
As we waited and watched and pounced on news from London, I wonder what was happening with you? Did you go home? Did you go to work? Did someone ask you how your day was? Did you say, I knocked down a pedestrian? Did you say, she went flying? Did you say, she was unconscious and bleeding from her head?
I hope you feel the pain she's feeling from the blood clot in her skull, you coward.
Colleagues who take it upon themselves to change your PowerPoint* presentation. Happy to get feedback. Happy to take suggestions. But don't go in and double its length and add in all this guff, and change my slides. Grrrrrr.
ISTM that the vital difference between Mr. Izard and the person who knocked down Mad Cat's cousin is that Mr. Izard faced the consequencws of his accident.
I feel terribly sorry for drivers in such situations (it happened to a friend of ours, and the pedestrian who ran out in front of her was a teenager). As Mr. Izard said in the linked article, if he'd left home a minute earlier or a minute later, it wouldn't have happened.
Colleagues who take it upon themselves to change your PowerPoint* presentation. Happy to get feedback. Happy to take suggestions. But don't go in and double its length and add in all this guff, and change my slides. Grrrrrr.
I must retract the above.
And instead consign people to hell who forget which presentation they are giving and prepare for the wrong one.
It's a strange thing, but with the new data protection laws, I am getting emails from various organisations I have contacted in the past asking permission to continue to contact me, but I haven't had one from the outfits wanting to introduce me to glamorous foreign women, or any number of other things which I definitely HAVEN'T requested, so today, I'll condemn spam to the place it belongs, along with those who sell email addresses to these companies.
Telemarketers who call before 7 AM so half asleep you pick up the phone. I thought they were not allowed to call before 8. No I do not care to go on that free cruise that I have just won.
TICTH cyclists who ride on sidewalks. It's not just illegal; it's dangerous - and I can't dodge them the way I once did.
And that goes double for the idiots who ride on the footpath, right beside the brand new cycleway constructed for them.
This is not a matter of an old track covered with glass or rubbish, but a sealed path smoother than a baby's bum. It's really scary when you can't hear them coming. I was tempted to put my Nordic Walking poles through their spokes.
I'd agree about cyclists. I'm deaf so can't hear them coming up behind me on the very narrow pavements where I live. Our drive is at right angles to this road and I nearly got flattened by one coming along at speed as I stepped out.
Our local transport idiots who managed to produce a cycle track that (a) added 50% to the length of a route; (b) has no drainage so is covered by water for at least 4 months of the year; (c) has no safe "apron" at either end so cyclists who brave the track have nowhere safe to see if they can move back onto the road; and (d) even if properly maintained has a surface wholly unsuitable for road bikes.
It is a law here that all bikes have bells on them, so about 1% actually do. When I am walking my dog and have a bike go zooming by me, I try to scream as loudly as I possibly can and bend at the waist. It does freak them out a bit. Every now and again I miss my chance and swear and shout at them instead. The screaming is much more satisfying. They have no idea how quickly my dog could be caught up in their wheels. I purposely do not listen to the radio or play songs just because of this problem of cyclists not warning pedestrians that they are overtaking.
When I am cycling, I do use my bell and often shock people who are not used to hearing one. I am towing a trailer behind so I prefer not to surprise anyone. The worst are the people with music blasting in their ears. They can't hear the bell or my voice and often are on the cycling part of the cycling/boardwalk path. I may need to get an air horn this year. Yes, now that is a good plan. Thank you, TICTH for preventing me from needing to show up again in the next month or so complaining about this topic.
It is a law here that all bikes have bells on them, so about 1% actually do.
Your local police should do for bells what Hull police did for lights a few years back. Anyone caught riding without lights at night was given a fine, but the fine was waived if the suicyclist turned up at the police station within 7 days. As a result nearly all cycles ended up with lights.
It is also a law that people wear helmets. The police were enforcing it well until about three years ago. Now, almost no one wears them. Most children still do but not their parents. I'm always wanting to ask the parents, "What would happen if you got a concussion that stopped you from working for six months? Would your child's life change?" Everyone is invincible!
So there you are, parked in a quiet, safe residential street and yet you leave the car alarm set. It is a gusty day, so off it goes. And goes. And goes. And presumably will continue to do so until you return home many hours hence. I wish somebody would steal it.
The cyclist that almost took me out this evening because he was (clearly) much too cool and in the zone to stop for anything as banal as a red light. Or even slow down and try to avoid me.
Not that many cyclists do stop for red lights - 5 out of the 6 I saw on a quiet road (after that near miss experience, I was watching carefully) didn't bother to stop.
Oh, MMM, you and some of the others here should check out the "Share the Road" thread in Hell. I now walk with a cane, and I'm too slow to dodge them, but the anti-car contingent there (whose views I will CTH to keep this on-topic) dismiss such problems as speeding cyclists and ignored stop signs and red lights. Stopping isn't practical, I'm told.
Bike riders here are not required to have bells, but on the hiking-biking trail they are required to call, "On your left!" before they pass you. I actually prefer this to bells.
TICTH television. No not the stupid, gross and offensive content, because some shows are still quite good. I would like to watch said shows and even actually hear them, but it's getting harder and more complicated every day.
We can't hear about 90% of the dialogue on our latest expensive purchase, because, apparently, we also need a "sound bar," and we aren't sure how or where to hook that up. We did try.
We pay for a cable package of over a thousand stations but the things I've most wanted to watch lately are on channels that are not included. We can stream a few things on the computer but that has draw backs. We don't get Netflix or HBO or the Starz channel that is currently showing the "Howards End," series I desperately wanted to watch.
We seem to be paying so much for all this that I hate to pay more for something like Hulu. When I look up consumer discussions about how to get things like TV's one can both see and hear, I only understand every tenth word. It's certainly not like the old days when you could simply bring a TV home, plug it in, and watch it. It's all too new and improved for that.
[I feel bad putting this here, I'm way too cranky for "All Saints."]
[I also consign to Hell the black block of words saying "draft saved" that I had to stop and get out of my way about ten times while typing this.]
The screen on my new car's dashboard, which posts an official warning about the dangers of looking at the screen while driving and then requires one to use the screen for a number of regular driving functions.
The screen on my new car's dashboard, which posts an official warning about the dangers of looking at the screen while driving and then requires one to use the screen for a number of regular driving functions.
The state of Tennessee has electric signs high above its highways, so that you have to take your eyes off the road to read them. When they warn of traffic problems ahead, they are very useful. However, when there are no problems, they post safety slogans. They don't seem to realize that causing a driver to take his eyes off the road is slightly dangerous. My favorite slogan is the one that warns about distracted driving.
TICTH a particular credit card that my parents use. They stopped sending paper bills to my folks' mailbox in December. Therefore, Dad, who pays his bills as soon as they come in, received a late notice (which did manage to come in the mail) with fees attached to his bill. The bill he never received.
I called them, had the interest and late fee removed, and was assured that Mom and Dad were not signed up for paperless billing.
Guess what.
March, Dad received another nasty-gram from the credit card folks. I called again (these phone calls lasted about two and a half hours each time), was told the late fee and interest payment could not be removed because we had just done that in February. When I asked for the manager, and got a payment specialist instead (who still wouldn't fix the problem) I asked if they were committing fraud on the elderly, and were they doing the same thing to ALL the elderly folks they were supposed to service. Suddenly I got a manager, who said that everything was entirely their fault, and removed the interest and late fees, and removed my parents from paperless billing, which had not been done when it had been promised.
Guess what. This month, Dad still did not receive a paper bill. He had the foresight to call them on the phone to find out the balance due. He sent a check with a request for a receipt. I think I will faint dead away if a receipt comes in the mail.
When I have a few hours to burn, I am going to call them again and threaten to call the law on them for elder abuse. What do the elderly folks without an advocate do? This really, truly burns me up. Dad is 88 years old.
jedijudy, do you have a local television or newspaper reporter who likes to take on this sort of scam? That's sometimes an effective way to put a stop to it and protect others.
I agree that you should call someone or at least call the company and tell them you have discussed it with your daughter, the lawyer, and are considering a class action suit!
TICTH, forgetting that I have a burn on my foot and taking my sock off normally. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. All bandaged up now.
Comments
People who graffiti walls...specifically the walls in front of the home of friends.
Again.
IJ
I could have posted this on the "Share the road" thread but tbh 40 tonners shouldn't be on the road anyway.
Hmm. I'm not entirely happy with this widespread habit of 'flashing'.
By all means, hold back to give room to let someone in, but, if you 'flash' him, you may be partly responsible for the accident that ensues. If you don't 'flash, it's entirely down to the other bloke...
IJ
Indeed, 'flashing' might just mean 'I can't stop!!!!
Best not to do it unless it's absolutely necessary to draw attention to the fact that you're there.
The dash-cams that are (rightly) so common now in Russia (!) perhaps should now be compulsory here on all new cars, at least.
Note to drivers: Always bear in mind that all other drivers are either Idiots, or Maniacs, or both.
IJ
The third, Inland Revenue (tax) merely said they weren't taking calls as they were too busy and referred me to The.Worst. Website. in the know universe!
Huia =technopeasant.
I am not looking forward to it. My ISP has been wonderful for the seven years I have been here.
Associated with the foregoing, deep cuts on fingertips.
I've had two (several years apart, thanks be to God) that each lasted over a week......, and now and then get 2-3 days' worth.
IJ
IJ
As we waited and watched and pounced on news from London, I wonder what was happening with you? Did you go home? Did you go to work? Did someone ask you how your day was? Did you say, I knocked down a pedestrian? Did you say, she went flying? Did you say, she was unconscious and bleeding from her head?
I hope you feel the pain she's feeling from the blood clot in her skull, you coward.
Colleagues who take it upon themselves to change your PowerPoint* presentation. Happy to get feedback. Happy to take suggestions. But don't go in and double its length and add in all this guff, and change my slides. Grrrrrr.
* I know...; but I have to have one.
I feel terribly sorry for drivers in such situations (it happened to a friend of ours, and the pedestrian who ran out in front of her was a teenager). As Mr. Izard said in the linked article, if he'd left home a minute earlier or a minute later, it wouldn't have happened.
And instead consign people to hell who forget which presentation they are giving and prepare for the wrong one.
i.e. me
Church meetings
And that goes double for the idiots who ride on the footpath, right beside the brand new cycleway constructed for them.
This is not a matter of an old track covered with glass or rubbish, but a sealed path smoother than a baby's bum. It's really scary when you can't hear them coming. I was tempted to put my Nordic Walking poles through their spokes.
It takes rare genius to come up with that.
When I am cycling, I do use my bell and often shock people who are not used to hearing one. I am towing a trailer behind so I prefer not to surprise anyone. The worst are the people with music blasting in their ears. They can't hear the bell or my voice and often are on the cycling part of the cycling/boardwalk path. I may need to get an air horn this year. Yes, now that is a good plan. Thank you, TICTH for preventing me from needing to show up again in the next month or so complaining about this topic.
Not that many cyclists do stop for red lights - 5 out of the 6 I saw on a quiet road (after that near miss experience, I was watching carefully) didn't bother to stop.
MMM
Hmmm...maybe "Passing on your right"?
And Rossweisse, I did begin reading that thread when it started but got fed up with it and had forgotten about it by yesterday.
MMM
We can't hear about 90% of the dialogue on our latest expensive purchase, because, apparently, we also need a "sound bar," and we aren't sure how or where to hook that up. We did try.
We pay for a cable package of over a thousand stations but the things I've most wanted to watch lately are on channels that are not included. We can stream a few things on the computer but that has draw backs. We don't get Netflix or HBO or the Starz channel that is currently showing the "Howards End," series I desperately wanted to watch.
We seem to be paying so much for all this that I hate to pay more for something like Hulu. When I look up consumer discussions about how to get things like TV's one can both see and hear, I only understand every tenth word. It's certainly not like the old days when you could simply bring a TV home, plug it in, and watch it. It's all too new and improved for that.
[I feel bad putting this here, I'm way too cranky for "All Saints."]
[I also consign to Hell the black block of words saying "draft saved" that I had to stop and get out of my way about ten times while typing this.]
The state of Tennessee has electric signs high above its highways, so that you have to take your eyes off the road to read them. When they warn of traffic problems ahead, they are very useful. However, when there are no problems, they post safety slogans. They don't seem to realize that causing a driver to take his eyes off the road is slightly dangerous. My favorite slogan is the one that warns about distracted driving.
Agreed re that blasted Draft Saved message...
IJ
I called them, had the interest and late fee removed, and was assured that Mom and Dad were not signed up for paperless billing.
Guess what.
March, Dad received another nasty-gram from the credit card folks. I called again (these phone calls lasted about two and a half hours each time), was told the late fee and interest payment could not be removed because we had just done that in February. When I asked for the manager, and got a payment specialist instead (who still wouldn't fix the problem) I asked if they were committing fraud on the elderly, and were they doing the same thing to ALL the elderly folks they were supposed to service. Suddenly I got a manager, who said that everything was entirely their fault, and removed the interest and late fees, and removed my parents from paperless billing, which had not been done when it had been promised.
Guess what. This month, Dad still did not receive a paper bill. He had the foresight to call them on the phone to find out the balance due. He sent a check with a request for a receipt. I think I will faint dead away if a receipt comes in the mail.
When I have a few hours to burn, I am going to call them again and threaten to call the law on them for elder abuse. What do the elderly folks without an advocate do? This really, truly burns me up. Dad is 88 years old.
TICTH, forgetting that I have a burn on my foot and taking my sock off normally. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. All bandaged up now.