The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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Today marks my 15 year anniversary with my current (and hopefully, final) employer. I know that because my congratulatory email came in at 4AM, while I was up working. 😒

In addition to well-wishes from my coworkers posted on an internal website and a nifty desk piece with my name and years of service (which I declined...no desk anymore 🤷🏻‍♂️), I got my choice of about a dozen or so gifts of a value commensurate with my tenure.

Even though they had a couple of kitchen-related items I could have used, I went practical and chose a Dyson vacuum cleaner, as our current cleaner is... 🤔 ...27 years old (!) and makes the most terrific noise nowadays, and I'm down to only one place that still carries bags for it.
And now you'll learn the true meaning of "dust devils "! lol
I have never known a fairy quite so active as the one that came with any of our 3 dyson vacuum cleaners. (none have ever stopped working beyond repair though the cable on our upright one (our original dyson) did break and needed cutting and rewiring twice but that's some 20 years ago now. The 2nd one came out to Australia with us but we ended up buying another because we needed something whilst we waited for the shipping container to arrive from the UK. )
 
And now you'll learn the true meaning of "dust devils "! lol
I have never known a fairy quite so active as the one that came with any of our 3 dyson vacuum cleaners. (none have ever stopped working beyond repair though the cable on our upright one (our original dyson) did break and needed cutting and rewiring twice but that's some 20 years ago now. The 2nd one came out to Australia with us but we ended up buying another because we needed something whilst we waited for the shipping container to arrive from the UK. )

I like my Dysons, but the best performing vacuum I ever had was a Kirby. I am convinced that thing would suck dirt out of the ground through the concrete foundation of the house. Downside -- they weigh as much as a car engine block.

CD
 
I like my Dysons, but the best performing vacuum I ever had was a Kirby. I am convinced that thing would suck dirt out of the ground through the concrete foundation of the house. Downside -- they weigh as much as a car engine block.

CD
We've often felt the same.
 
Gordon Ramsey decided to give his twist on the traditional portuguese "bifana".

Bifana is a statement of simplicity. It's just fried pork inside bread. There's no secret to it, though some say the secret is in the way the pork is fried - the most worn out the oil, the tastier the bifana!

I'm not picky about naming foods, or sticking to traditional recipes, but I'd never call Ramsey's dish a "bifana"...and I'm sure it doesn't cost the usual 2€ a typical bifana does :laugh:
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I like my Dysons, but the best performing vacuum I ever had was a Kirby. I am convinced that thing would suck dirt out of the ground through the concrete foundation of the house. Downside -- they weigh as much as a car engine block.

CD
My brother had a Kirby with all the attachments, and you're right on both accounts, plus, you could do all kinds of crazy things with it, like wash the car, cut your hair, paint the house, plow the back 40, etc. :laugh:
 
I received the money but never did get the apology.
It is a stress for you. Receiving the money is both sad and good though. I wonder what kind of mental state the sloppy worker was in. Not that it justifies.

It reminds me of my battle with the abnormal electricity bill few months ago. They had a software swap or upgrade and a part of the company had not received data from the other part of the company.

What am I to do? Deliver it on foot?

I did. I called, emailed and eventually went there.

They corrected the mistake, i was content.

But it did cause quite a bit of stress.
 
Typical IT department. Those people mess everything up. :wink:

CD :D
Totally totally.😂
Where are the good old paper and pencil days? And then loosing the paper?🙈😂

On the other hand, during my time working at a large bank branch and a lawyer's office, IT guys were THE most called coworkers ever ever. And in 98% cases, they did fix problems.🖐️👍😄

Edited to add, I believe the root mistake in my el bill was a paper and pencil mistake of the guy who came to read the count numbers. He sooo missread them. And then of course the correction which fell into the software black hole...

The count device is old and numbers can be unclear. It is high up at 2,30m and in a dark spot. What I did was climbed ,took a pic and magnified.
 
It is a stress for you. Receiving the money is both sad and good though. I wonder what kind of mental state the sloppy worker was in. Not that it justifies.

It reminds me of my battle with the abnormal electricity bill few months ago. They had a software swap or upgrade and a part of the company had not received data from the other part of the company.

What am I to do? Deliver it on foot?

I did. I called, emailed and eventually went there.

They corrected the mistake, i was content.

But it did cause quite a bit of stress.

After we moved house in '85, our first telephone bill arrived a couple of weeks before Christmas. It was in excess of £400.00. My wife rang to complain but was told it was what it was. She didn't tell me until after Christmas. "OK, I'll ring them - this isn't right". She told me that she'd already rung and been fobbed off. So I wrote to them enclosing copies of the last five year's bills (four per year) all of which were no more than £35.00. A few days later they rang my wife and asked if a bill of £35.00 would be acceptable.

At least my wife stopped nagging me because I kept copies of all household bills.
 
Totally totally.😂
Where are the good old paper and pencil days? And then loosing the paper?🙈😂

On the other hand, during my time working at a large bank branch and a lawyer's office, IT guys were THE most called coworkers ever ever. And in 98% cases, they did fix problems.🖐️👍😄

Edited to add, I believe the root mistake in my el bill was a paper and pencil mistake of the guy who came to read the count numbers. He sooo missread them. And then of course the correction which fell into the software black hole...

The count device is old and numbers can be unclear. It is high up at 2,30m and in a dark spot. What I did was climbed ,took a pic and magnified.

We have "smart meters" in Frisco, that send digital readings to our electric coop -- somehow. If they receive a reading that is considerably out of line with our consumption history, they send someone out to take a visual reading, and correct any problems, if needed. I can also go online to the Coop's website, and look at readings, charts and graphs that show me how much I am consuming, when my peak consumption is, how my consumption compares to last year, the year before, etc. Being a Coop, I am not a customer, I am a partial owner. It makes a difference.

Our water meters transmit a weak signal. A truck drives down the street, and picks up the signal. Water is a City utility here. If my consumption goes way up one month, they will contact me, and if needed, come to my house and look for a leak that may be underground. When you live on a drought-prone prairie, water waste is taken seriously, so the city looks for anomalies in water usage.

Only our natural gas meters have to be read by a person, and I predict that will change in the near future.

CD
 
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Only our natural gas meters have to be read by a person, and I predict that will change in the near future.

CD

Our electric and water meters and read by people. However, 4 or 5 years ago they started carrying handheld devices that transmit the readings to a mainstream server. The readers are part time employees (1 or 2 days/month). The remainder of the month, they usually have full time employment elsewhere.
 
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