WTF

That’s Kind of Backwards

Last month when we got home from Santa Fe the desktop PC was dead, so we bought a new Dell and that was delivered 2 days later by our friendly FedEx man. I was kind of surprised that a signature wasn’t required, maybe it was under a certain price point because I really didn’t spend that much on it.

When it arrived I did the usual hard drive dance of removing the old ones, plugging in the old main drive to copy stuff that I wanted, removing it and then adding the old second drive that holds all our documents to the new machine.

Because we were in a hurry to get it, I picked one that was in stock, so it wasn’t customized in any way. While swapping around hard drives I noticed that there was a spot for an optical drive. It even had what looked like a precut punch out hole in the front if you wanted to add a drive. Although I can’t remember the last time I actually used an optical drive, there is still a stack of writeable DVDs in a desk draw somewhere around here. I did have the drive that was in the non functional desktop, so I thought why don’t I put it in the new Dell.

I went online and found the right part number for the optical drive cover and found out it was a mere $3.99 and that included the FedEx shipping. While searching I found a couple of Dell community forum posts that lamented the Dell didn’t actually sell optical drives for this model desktop. Which is funny because not only is there the cut out on the front panel there is an obvious spot to slide a drive in the case and the cabling to plug it in right there.

I ordered the optical drive face plate and three days later there was the FedEx guy on my porch again. But if I wanted him to hand me the small box containing my order I had to sign for it! Seems kind of backwards doesn’t it? I didn’t have to sign for the $800 dollar computer, but I did have to sign for the $4 bit of plastic…

Cheeky Kid – Part Two

If you haven’t already, go read Part One, I’ll wait…

Donna is inclined to go ahead and write the cheeky kid the check. So am I, so we will, but I have some questions. Like, how come whoever did it last year didn’t ask for money? Is this just a let’s throw this out there and see how much money I can rake in? And how many people besides us are going to fall for it? If we don’t pay, and everyone else does, will he mow every where except for between our property lines and our half side of the median?

I also question why, in this day and age, are we even growing grass. It is time to xeriscape this thing. We are in a perpetual drought here in the west and last year year it was so bad that to keep the lake healthy enough to sustain the fish population they did not release any of the usual water that is used by farmers to irrigate their crops. It is time to plant some native plants, water them this year to get them set and move on. Or do what Lady Bird Johnson kind of did as First Lady in Texas, plant wildflowers.

Cheeky Kid – Part One

First some background. We live on a street that has 2 one way lanes separated by a 30 foot section of grass. In New Orleans where Donna grew up this grassy section between the pavement was called a Neutral Ground. In downtown Aiken, SC where we lived for 30 years, when this style road happened we just called it a median. Here in Klamath Falls we don’t know what they call it because it is the only street in town constructed in this manner.

In the other two places mentioned above the city took care of these grassy areas between the streets, here who knows. There is a sprinkler system in place up and down the street and the grass gets plenty of water, so in the summer it needs mowing once every couple weeks and somebody does do it. We have lived here for two years and the first year I don’t remember who did it, I think somebody from the next block up. This last summer the kid who lives across mowed it. Yesterday we got a letter in the mail from him:

December 30, 2021

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Bogardus,

My name is John Doe and I mow the center divide for all residents in the 1000 block of Pacific Terrace. The fee for 2021 is $49.50 per homeowner, which includes my fee of $400 and a Spray & Grow Fee for $95.00.

Please remit payment to me for the 2021 upkeep of the center divide in the amount of $49.50.

Thank you.

John Doe
1098 Pacific Terrace
Klamath Falls, OR 97601
541-555-9999

To be continued…

8 mile ice cream run.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 4

 

71% More Commercials

Last evening at 5:30, having already seen, and probably more than once, anything that was available on our go-to channels (HGTV, Food or Motortrend) we wandered over to TV Land to watch a couple of episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond. Troubling thing was we joined smack in the middle of a show. A quick peek at the electronic guide revealed that the episode started at 5:10 and would finish at 5:45. What the heck? The following show ran from 5:45 to 6:20. Next was 6:20 to 6:55, etc.

There was 35 minutes between episodes. I’m fairly sure there wasn’t an extra 5 minutes of unseen footage that could be added back to the original 23 minute prime time run. TV Land had found a way to add more commercial time to the syndicated shows, in addition to slightly speeding up the video of the show and running the credits at the bottom while the top is showing the beginning of the next episode. Five divided by seven equals 71% more commercial time they could sell.

Having exhausted all the British crime shows we could enjoy, I though maybe it was time to try a much heralded show from a decade ago, Sherlock. But it turns out we just couldn’t take Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance. He was like an over the top and unfunny, Sheldon Cooper. He spoke so fast (and quietly) at times we really couldn’t make out what he was saying. So we turned on the closed captioning to see if that would help. Nope, sometimes the dialog was even faster than it could be displayed on the screen.

With all the marathons of Law and Order running on WE and Sundance, we are now on the second viewing of their episodes. While we do enjoy revisiting this show every once in a while, we’d like the gap between re-watches to to be a lot longer than 30 days…

We are now on the home stretch of watching Cheers having started the 11th and final season on Monday. We are getting tired of the show and are ready to move on. The idea of canceling Netflix and moving to Hulu, so we can smoothly segue into Frasier after Cheers, is a good one. Not only would we save a buck a month, but we could also see another Thursday night NBC comedy of that era as well, Wings.

75,000 Reasons to Fill Out The Card

The beginnings of this post has been sitting in the drafts folder here at Life of Brian HQ for almost 4 months. Why am I finally getting around to turning it into an actual post? I’ll get to that at the end, but first the set up.

We were reading magazines at the local library back in April, me an auto rag and her a female-centric one, when a blow-in card landed in my lap.

Get a full year of Car and Driver and Road & Track for just $15.
2 Years of Road & Track and Car and Driver for just $25 – BEST DEAL!
1 Year of Road & Track and Car and Driver for just $15

Hmmm, I thought, I’ve tried reading Motor Trend via Amazon Prime on the Kindle and it was totally unsatisfactory, maybe going to an old-school paper magazine might be interesting. I told Donna of my plan and she approved it as long as she could do the same. So she hunted down a blow-in card in her magazine:

Get one year of Good Housekeeping and Woman’s Day for a total of just $14.97 — a combined savings of 81% Off the newsstand price.
2 Years of Woman’s Day and Good Housekeeping for just $16 – BEST DEAL!
1 Year of Woman’s Day and Good Housekeeping for just $11

When we got back home I sat down in front of the PC and headed to hearstmag.com, or some such thing, to sign up. I filled out all the name, address, email, credit card info and got to the point where I pick between 1 or 2 years. At first I selected 2, then thought, just one year for now and if I like it there’ll be another good deal for renewing sometime later. I clicked OK and got a confirmation page – Congratulations on your 2 year subscription to Road & Track and Car and Driver, your card has been charged $27.02!

What the heck, I did change my selection to one year, didn’t I? So when it came time to subscribe to Donna’s magazines I asked her to stand behind me to make sure I click on one year. So I go through the whole process, filling out the form and selecting one year. I confirm with my auditor wife that in fact I have selected the one year option. She says yes and I click the OK button – Congratulations on your 2 year subscription to Good Housekeeping and Woman’s Day, your card has been charged $16.84!

WTF! What a scam. Seems like that if you subscribe on the web, no matter what you pick, you’re gonna get 2 years worth of magazines

I get why there is a little extra money on top of the quoted price though, tax, but why did they charge 8% on my magazines and only 7% on hers. Oh well, it really is a good deal and it is cool to get something in the mail besides bills and charge card applications.

So why am I finally writing about this, in my email inbox yesterday, what did I get but an offer to renew my Road and Track subscription just four months into a 24 month run. The deal? I would get another year for just the low price of $14.97 and with it I can give a subscription to two of my friends.

Wow, I’m saving 3¢ and they are getting two new subscribers to their magazine, upping their monetary ask from the folks who want to place ads in the magazine. And they are probably hoping that in a year I’ll have forgotten about those gifts and the subscriptions will automatically renew on my charge card for the full price, $60, for a total of $120!

Sometime yesterday the CTBNL ran past 75,000 miles.

Name of Thrones

Disclaimer – I have not watched a single episode of the show, nor have I ever read any of George R Martin’s books. We have HBO in our cable package, so I have glimpsed drips and drabs of the show, including one brief scene that showed some sort of woman warrior, in a weird armored outfit that left one breast exposed, so that a 10 or 12-year old male child could suckle, but it is just not my cup of tea.

But seeing as I am a sucker for a well crafted name (or stripe or book title & plot or advertising slogan or movie genre) generator, how could I resist trying the Game of Thrones Name Generator.

Brian Bogardus = Brlian Arryn